12 week strength focusing on pause squats?

[CheesyMiyagi]

Hey all,

How would you go about running the 12 week strength if you wanted to focus on pause squats as your main squatting movement for whatever reason? Swapping normal squats for pause squats straight up doesn't quite work here, since pause squats are also programmed as an accessory.

Thanks!

[llaffin]

How about a 2ct Pause in place of Comp Squat and a 4ct for Pause Squats?

[CheesyMiyagi]

That's what I was kinda leaning towards as well

[llaffin]

Any particular reason you want to make pause squats your main lift?

[CheesyMiyagi]

For a couple of years now, my comp squat has gone through phases of subtle form issues that drops my strength a decent amount and kinda ruins a training cycle. I haven't been able to consistently correct whatever the problem is without it eventually coming back, and so it really makes it impossible to progress. Pause squats, however, stay consistent (at least they seem to). So since I don't compete, I'm thinking of just exclusively doing pause squats as my main lift so that I can at least progress

[t_angeiras]

Interesting line of thought! I would be curious to see how it goes, and if eventually puts your "normal" squat on track.

[PWard]

Food for thought... when training with RPE, is there a such thing as a "ruined training cycle"? I'm not so sure. In a percentage based system, sure. But with RPE, you can simply auto-regulate down and carry on. So can you really ruin a training cycle??? A cycle may not go as you want it to, but that's another bridge to cross. I'm not so sure that giving up and swapping to paused squats as a comp movement is going to change that.

That being said, have you ever tried high bar? It's a much less technical movement than low bar, so that might be a better fit if you're looking for a movement to substitute low bar with that will yield long term training development in a non-competitor. Then you can still low bar as a supplemental movement and work on your form issues slowly over time, but since it's not your comp movement you will be less emotionally attached to what the movement is doing on a week to week basis.

[CheesyMiyagi]

Yes and no; it makes E1RM tracking kinda useless since it varies so much due to the lack of consistency, and because the strength is actually present (since form is the issue causing the downswing in weight). And with the big swings down for months on end, it also affects the mental aspect of training. But nevertheless... I haven't tried high bar in a few years. Would you recommend that?

[PWard]

Yes. That is what I personally would do in your case, is set high bar as my comp movement and do high bar for all supplemental variations except "squat no belt", I would do those with low bar to practice form. Also, do you routinely video your low bar sets? If not, I would recommend doing that and getting some form feedback on the FB page.

[cmoney]

I think for any non-competitor (or even a competitor in an extended "offseason"), it's perfectly fine and probably advantageous to swap in different "main" movements than just the comp version. So sure, give it a go.