I would’t call squatting barely over your body weight, and benching way less than your body weight “amazing things”. My workout programs have never had me squat any more than twice per week, and that has worked great for me. But “Starting Strength” has a great rep, and it does indeed prescribe a workout similar to what you are doing.
My only advice is to change up your lifts ever couple of weeks. Lunges, dumbell bench, and straight leg deadlifts are great lifts you may want to incorporate if you don’t already.
And I wouldn’t call being an arsehole on the internet helpful advice…
You don’t know where he started at for one thing, plus squatting over body weight is pretty damn impressive, when you consider that the vast majority of the populous cant do it.
[quote=ken20008;2067793]thats bodybuilding dude, anyone who’s on starting strength or any basic 5x5 program will tell you, squatting 3x a week is very much doable. plus it hasnt affected much in recovery. i only do back squats, no problems at all. if i havent recovered well enough, my lifts would not have increased, while it actually did.
frankly speaking, try squatting 3x a week. hard for the first week maybe, but you’ll find that the human body is capable of amazing things.[/quote]
My formal education is in this area. I know what I’m talking about.
I’m not talking about squatting 3x a week feeling hard, I’m talking about the effect it has on your body. Muscles like recovery, and you could be over-training whether you realize it or not. You mention your lifts increasing, yeah, but how long have you been training? How far were you along in your program before the 6-week hiatus?
The fast strength gains seen early on in a strength training program are almost completely attributable to neuromuscular adaptation (i.e.- your nervous system is just getting better at coordinating the movements, and can thus work more efficiently). Hypertrophy gains aren’t seen until a bit farther in, once the nervous system has settled down.
But I agree with what you say about it getting easier as you go along. Once your body gets more used to the lift, you won’t get the high levels of DOMS from those frequent sessions.
But one thing you may find is that your overall strength improvements might slow down prematurely through a combination of over-training and adaptation factors. Once your neuromuscular system becomes too accustomed to a particular lift, you’ll need to throw some switch-ups in there to stimulate it properly.
It also depends on your goals though: are you training to have strength in martial arts? Or are you training to squat 500lbs? If your interest is purely in squatting, then squat away, because you want your body to be skilled at it. But if your interest is in martial arts performance, then you’re going to have to give your routine some variety to see proper functional gains.
(Sorry if that reply was all over the place. I kept skipping back to earlier paragraphs to add details).
[QUOTE=Moonlit Tiger;2067857]My formal education is in this area. I know what I’m talking about.
I’m not talking about squatting 3x a week feeling hard, I’m talking about the effect it has on your body. Muscles like recovery, and you could be over-training whether you realize it or not. You mention your lifts increasing, yeah, but how long have you been training? How far were you along in your program before the 6-week hiatus?
The fast strength gains seen early on in a strength training program are almost completely attributable to neuromuscular adaptation (i.e.- your nervous system is just getting better at coordinating the movements, and can thus work more efficiently). Hypertrophy gains aren’t seen until a bit farther in, once the nervous system has settled down.
But I agree with what you say about it getting easier as you go along. Once your body gets more used to the lift, you won’t get the high levels of DOMS from those frequent sessions.
But one thing you may find is that your overall strength improvements might slow down prematurely through a combination of over-training and adaptation factors. Once your neuromuscular system becomes too accustomed to a particular lift, you’ll need to throw some switch-ups in there to stimulate it properly.
It also depends on your goals though: are you training to have strength in martial arts? Or are you training to squat 500lbs? If your interest is purely in squatting, then squat away, because you want your body to be skilled at it. But if your interest is in martial arts performance, then you’re going to have to give your routine some variety to see proper functional gains.
(Sorry if that reply was all over the place. I kept skipping back to earlier paragraphs to add details).[/QUOTE]
You kind of sound like those dime-a-dozen trainers at those crappy gyms.
I’ve been doing strong lifts for about 6 months in addition to my normal bjj training and I have seen phenomenal improvements over the training you’re advocating. I know it’s anecdotal evidence but the overall opinion/testimonials of strong lifts is that it’s the tits and pretty much everyone should do it
I will have to do some research to dig it back out, but I thought the whole switching it up argument was pretty much discredited and bollocks.
Waiting for TheRuss or TEM to input, they are much better at remembering that stuff than me!
[quote=partyboy;2067879]You kind of sound like those dime-a-dozen trainers at those crappy gyms.
I’ve been doing strong lifts for about 6 months in addition to my normal bjj training and I have seen phenomenal improvements over the training you’re advocating. I know it’s anecdotal evidence but the overall opinion/testimonials of strong lifts is that it’s the tits and pretty much everyone should do it[/quote]
That’s cool man. Anecdotal evidence is certainly not without merit. My experience is still limited, and the advice I have to give is based on what the research, textbooks, and my professors say. Peoples’ personal experience and results can hold just as much sway in a lot of cases.
I’m not saying “holishitz u shudn’t squat moar than 1ce a month!”. Just saying that 3 times a week year round could get a little taxing for the body on a fine physiological level. It would even help to split the strength training program into cycles of heavy lifting, and light recovery once in a while, just to help avoid that. For example, lift heavy for three weeks, then lift a bit lighter on the fourth week to allow for some active recovery.
As for the switching it up bit, I stand by that. Especially in an athletic context, its important to train your body with a variety of sport-relevant exercises.
I wouldn’t do front squats on the same day as back squats. Whichever one is done second is going to suffer. Best to just back squat the hell out of your legs one workout, then front squat the hell out of them the next.
[QUOTE=Moonlit Tiger;2067910]That’s cool man. Anecdotal evidence is certainly not without merit. My experience is still limited, and the advice I have to give is based on what the research, textbooks, and my professors say. Peoples’ personal experience and results can hold just as much sway in a lot of cases.
I’m not saying “holishitz u shudn’t squat moar than 1ce a month!”. Just saying that 3 times a week year round could get a little taxing for the body on a fine physiological level. It would even help to split the strength training program into cycles of heavy lifting, and light recovery once in a while, just to help avoid that. For example, lift heavy for three weeks, then lift a bit lighter on the fourth week to allow for some active recovery.
As for the switching it up bit, I stand by that. Especially in an athletic context, its important to train your body with a variety of sport-relevant exercises.
I wouldn’t do front squats on the same day as back squats. Whichever one is done second is going to suffer. Best to just back squat the hell out of your legs one workout, then front squat the hell out of them the next.[/QUOTE]
you should take a look at the stronglifts website. the program I’m currently on has about 4 weeks of 5x5 lifting (w/ squats 3x a week) followed up by 4 weeks of 3x3 lifts (and only squatting 2x a week). I’ve been tired as hell a lot between lifting 2-3 days a week and training another 3-4, but if I start to feel burned out I can take one day off and feel 100% the next day. I’ve actually never felt better and my training partners have complained about how strong I’m getting. I’m just glad it works for me.
[quote=fightclubfreak7;2067838]I would’t call squatting barely over your body weight, and benching way less than your body weight “amazing things”. My workout programs have never had me squat any more than twice per week, and that has worked great for me. But “Starting Strength” has a great rep, and it does indeed prescribe a workout similar to what you are doing.
My only advice is to change up your lifts ever couple of weeks. Lunges, dumbell bench, and straight leg deadlifts are great lifts you may want to incorporate if you don’t already.[/quote]
i dont think i ever said i had amazing strength. look how i criticised my stats. i have nothing to be proud of. Except for being stronger than over 95% of my school population with a barbell.
My formal education is in this area. I know what I’m talking about.
I’m not talking about squatting 3x a week feeling hard, I’m talking about the effect it has on your body. Muscles like recovery, and you could be over-training whether you realize it or not. You mention your lifts increasing, yeah, but how long have you been training? How far were you along in your program before the 6-week hiatus?
The fast strength gains seen early on in a strength training program are almost completely attributable to neuromuscular adaptation (i.e.- your nervous system is just getting better at coordinating the movements, and can thus work more efficiently). Hypertrophy gains aren’t seen until a bit farther in, once the nervous system has settled down.
But I agree with what you say about it getting easier as you go along. Once your body gets more used to the lift, you won’t get the high levels of DOMS from those frequent sessions.
But one thing you may find is that your overall strength improvements might slow down prematurely through a combination of over-training and adaptation factors. Once your neuromuscular system becomes too accustomed to a particular lift, you’ll need to throw some switch-ups in there to stimulate it properly.
It also depends on your goals though: are you training to have strength in martial arts? Or are you training to squat 500lbs? If your interest is purely in squatting, then squat away, because you want your body to be skilled at it. But if your interest is in martial arts performance, then you’re going to have to give your routine some variety to see proper functional gains.
(Sorry if that reply was all over the place. I kept skipping back to earlier paragraphs to add details).
no, it does not matter even if you have a PhD in sports or whatever, because education is one thing and applying it is another thing.
The body is given additional challenge each workout, because weight is added the next workout.
Fast strength gains? What if tell you i was stuck at squatting 60kg for two weeks before my muscles grew and my squat shot up to 80kg?
So many people at stronglifts and ss squat 3x a week and have no problems, recovery wise and strength wise.
generally speaking i do agree with the general opinion that squatting 3x a week year round would be difficult…duh training in the gym all year round would tax the body like no other too.
if i were training martial arts (i only do informal sparring with my friends for now) i would of course do more and mix here and there, but generally for strength, 5x5 programs like these are pretty efficient.
plus, if it gets hard, i cant just take a week off and when i return, everything feels lighter and i can lift more.
for the record, im 16 going on 17 this year. started training in november 08.
[quote=ken20008;2068257]i dont think i ever said i had amazing strength. look how i criticised my stats. i have nothing to be proud of. Except for being stronger than over 95% of my school population with a barbell.
no, it does not matter even if you have a PhD in sports or whatever, because education is one thing and applying it is another thing.
The body is given additional challenge each workout, because weight is added the next workout.
Fast strength gains? What if tell you i was stuck at squatting 60kg for two weeks before my muscles grew and my squat shot up to 80kg?
So many people at stronglifts and ss squat 3x a week and have no problems, recovery wise and strength wise.
generally speaking i do agree with the general opinion that squatting 3x a week year round would be difficult…duh training in the gym all year round would tax the body like no other too.
if i were training martial arts (i only do informal sparring with my friends for now) i would of course do more and mix here and there, but generally for strength, 5x5 programs like these are pretty efficient.
plus, if it gets hard, i cant just take a week off and when i return, everything feels lighter and i can lift more.
for the record, im 16 going on 17 this year. started training in november 08.[/quote]
Well, even if my experience is limitted, the people who write the shit I study have been around the block. But whatever.
As for weight being added each workout, you’ll eventually find that this is not possible. At the beginning of a strength training program, you see huge gains because of CNS adaptation. Your gains start to level off further on into a program. In the early stages, you may find that you are progressing fast enough that you can add 5lbs each time or something; but once you are past the major nervous system adaptation you probably won’t be able to do this all the time.
If it were possible to add weight EVERY SESSION, you’d see men eating trains and juggling walruses.
And I believe you that your squat shot up that fast in a short period. When I started strength training last year, my squat shot up from 245-310 lbs really quick. But I’m saying that those early gains are not really caused by major muscle gains, but nervous system adaptation.
I might take a look at that. Might not be able to work it into my current routine. As of now I’m doing strength training twice a week, cardio (aerobic/anaerobic alternately) two days a week, and martial arts 6 days a week. That and being a student makes for one busy ass week.
[quote=fightclubfreak7;2067838]I would’t call squatting barely over your body weight, and benching way less than your body weight “amazing things”. My workout programs have never had me squat any more than twice per week, and that has worked great for me. But “Starting Strength” has a great rep, and it does indeed prescribe a workout similar to what you are doing.
My only advice is to change up your lifts ever couple of weeks. Lunges, dumbell bench, and straight leg deadlifts are great lifts you may want to incorporate if you don’t already.[/quote]
Culled from my training regime and current stats - No BS Martial Arts
fightclubfreak7, you started on the wrong foot on the PT forums. There was no reason for that kind of comment. I don’t give a fuck what you think you know or what kind of stupid rationalization you can come up with to justify that kind of shit.
Nowhere did the OP claimed anything he was doing was amazing. He simply stated what he was doing and asked for informative opinions. Yours wasn’t.
Had he been arrogantly claiming that his stats were amazing, then you might have had a point, and I’d be right behind you clapping like a horny cheerleader. But he didn’t. And thus, you were a disruptive, nonconstructive arrogant asshole.
I won’t have that kind of shit in the PT forums.
And though there might be informative value in the remaining posts you made, I’m not going to go through them. You start on the wrong foot, and you’ll get your posts yanked out of the PT forums.
Read the rules of posting, which are visible in the PT sticky threads. They explain exactly and precisely why your posts were moved out of the PT forums. If you don’t get them, I don’t care. Follow the rules or don’t post at all.