Reduced squat on the bridge

[PlutonB]

Have been doing the madcow/Bill Starr program for 5 months now and think it's time for a more sofisticated approach like RPE-based training, and will try the bridge. Thanks a lot for creating and sharing it for free!

When I begun madcow that have you squat 3/3 sessions per week, my right adductors started complaining a lot after a short while. First tried ignoring and continue the program as written, but eventually couldn't hold the weights on the way down. After adjusting to only one back squat session per week with a pretty narrow stance, complemented by front squats one day (because it was mostly painfree for some reason), and one day lighter "machine-training" of legs and hips, especially adductors and hip flexors, I now more or less have gotten rid of the pain issues after 3 months. Paused squats are still pretty pain-producing though.

I'm therefore a bit weary of back squatting 3 times per week again, but at the same time want to do the program as close to the intended as possible. Do you have any suggestion for how to best reduce squat volume/frequency slightly for the first run-throught, or other suggestions?

[Austin Baraki]

You are welcome to do whatever you'd like, though we would not recommend reducing the training stress in the program. I do not know what, exactly, you were doing on Madcow - but I would caution you against long-term expectations that you "cannot tolerate" 3x/wk squatting.

We would mainly recommend avoiding overshooting the intensity/RPE targets.

[thejosef]

Have been doing the madcow/Bill Starr program for 5 months now and think it's time for a more sofisticated approach like RPE-based training, and will try the bridge. Thanks a lot for creating and sharing it for free!

When I begun madcow that have you squat 3/3 sessions per week, my right adductors started complaining a lot after a short while. First tried ignoring and continue the program as written, but eventually couldn't hold the weights on the way down. After adjusting to only one back squat session per week with a pretty narrow stance, complemented by front squats one day (because it was mostly painfree for some reason), and one day lighter "machine-training" of legs and hips, especially adductors and hip flexors, I now more or less have gotten rid of the pain issues after 3 months. Paused squats are still pretty pain-producing though.

I'm therefore a bit weary of back squatting 3 times per week again, but at the same time want to do the program as close to the intended as possible. Do you have any suggestion for how to best reduce squat volume/frequency slightly for the first run-throught, or other suggestions?

Have you video'd your squats or had anyone else check you form?

[PlutonB]

I'll go for doing the paused squats as front squats then I think. Maybe not optimal for squat strength development, but hopefully a reasonable compromise. Your closing remarks are probably key, will try to hammer them in before every session. Thanks for your input and time!