Jordan and Austin,
I’m struggling to make any long-term progress on the squat. In fact, I haven’t made any progress in 3 years; I may even have become weaker.
I had written a little bit about myself in this thread: Next program (late novice / early intermediate)? - Training Q/A with Drs. Feigenbaum & Baraki - Barbell Medicine Forum
Short recap:
My best squats were back in 2016 when I was able to squat one humble set of 135kg x5.
Since that, I’ve been doing some 5/3/1 variations, Candito’s linear program, and this year even tried to get back to basics by running SSLP for a few weeks (quickly stalled again at around 130kg x5)
Then, as per your recommendation, I started running the Beginner Template.
During Phase 1, I stalled on the squat around week 4/4.2, and never really got beyond 130kg x4 @8 on the top set.
After week 4.4, I went on a one week vacation and subsequently started Phase 2.
Now I’m in week 8, and my squat numbers are even worse; stuck at 127.5kg x4 @9.
I’m not on a significant caloric deficit and even gained a little bit of weight (74kg back in 2016 when my squat was stronger than now, to 78kg now) without putting on much fat.
My other lifts aren’t anything to brag about either, but at least I’m not getting weaker on the other lifts.
Any idea why I’m struggling so much with the squats, and what could help me to finally make some progress?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated…
Best regards
Toby
Toby,
Thanks for the post and right off the bar- I’d first try and put this in perspective:
3 years ago you squatted 135 x 5 as an all-time best. Recently, you’ve squatted 130 x 4 @ 8 and 127.5 x 4 @ 9. All of these numbers are close enough to through a blanket over in the grand scheme of things.
I think the bigger issue here is probably a lack of consistent training, environmental factors, and unrealistic expectations about what results you should be expecting.
My advise going forward:
- Try to not take any weeks off training in the next year.
- Keep doing the Beginner Template as written. Plan on adding weight each week (or every other week) to your sets.
- Aim for 1.6-3.1g/kg bw per day of protein. Sleep well, and try not to worry about your squat in isolation. You’re doing a beginner program and no one is paying you to be a competitive lifter. You’ve got to think long term, i.e. 5 years, 10 years, etc. The # on the bar doesn’t really matter that much right now, though we’d want it to go up in periodic intervals.
-Jordan
Thanks a lot for your advice!
I’m trying my best not to take any weeks off, but you know how that goes - occasional sickness, business trips and holiday trips without gym access etc. But indeed, even one or two weeks off always throw me back significantly (not so much on the upper body lifts and on the Deadlifts, but particularly on the Squat). Is it normal that even one week off has such a debilitating impact?
Also, stress and lack of quality sleep may also be factors contributing to my situation.
I will continue with the Beginner Template as consistently and long as possible and will report again 