Squat frequency
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paulbsr
Posts: 20 Member
(W:122kg/270lb. H:6'. A:42. S:M. BMI:37.5)
Hi,
In context of muscle recovery, is it DETRIMENTAL to squat 4 days a week?
I exercise 4 days a week for 2.5 hours per session. Cardio / Resistance hybrid. Rest days are Wed, Sat, Sun. I'm thinking of increasing my Squat routine (4 x 12) from two to four of those days. The intention being that the three Rest Days are sufficient for micro damage recovery?
Opinion?
Hi,
In context of muscle recovery, is it DETRIMENTAL to squat 4 days a week?
I exercise 4 days a week for 2.5 hours per session. Cardio / Resistance hybrid. Rest days are Wed, Sat, Sun. I'm thinking of increasing my Squat routine (4 x 12) from two to four of those days. The intention being that the three Rest Days are sufficient for micro damage recovery?
Opinion?
0
Replies
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My training days are exactly the same as yours. I squat once a week and would not entertain doing it more. It is a huge muscle group and therfore needs adequate rest. Twice a week is to much...4 times a week..no way. If you feel like you could do it this much, then you need to be lifting heavier and more controlled. You shouldn't be able to walk after a proper leg session. That many times a week will do more harm than good
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My training days are exactly the same as yours. I squat once a week and would not entertain doing it more. It is a huge muscle group and therfore needs adequate rest. Twice a week is to much...4 times a week..no way. If you feel like you could do it this much, then you need to be lifting heavier and more controlled. You shouldn't be able to walk after a proper leg session. That many times a week will do more harm than good
Disagree. Most beginning programs have you squat 3 times a week. Now, this is contingent on your training level and where you are starting from, thus these beginning programs I reference, have you start very light and make 10lbs increases each workout in the beginning (30lbs a week) as newbie trainees can, for many weeks before the weight and fatigue from recovery cause fails. Thus fatigue is handled via the program through retries and de-loads accordingly. I do agree with your statement that 'legs are a huge muscle group', but since they are, they can actually can be trained harder and with more frequency.
For a more trained person and especially older, frequency is actually key. Older trainees (not speaking to those that have trained for many many years and are now older) typically need the frequency to upkeep motor pattern for the movement. So typically, movement and/or training variables are manipulated in programming to offset fatigue. For for example, a phase of a week where maybe Monday you are hitting for volume, Wednesday where you are lighten it up and do a few sets for speed and or changing the movement like to front squats where the load is less due to the movement, and then Friday where you do an intensity session of a few heavy triples.
OP, figure out your goals and pick a program aligned to those goals. Can you squat 4x a week, absolutely. But realize that fatigue has to be properly offset throughout the week in some form or fashion to be able to make progress and recover. How that happens is normally mitigated through programming as explained earlier.0 -
@Pelamblue, I disagree with both of your assertions. First, ALOT of people squat more than once a week. There are a lot of people on these forums that either do Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5, including myself, and we squat 3 times a week. Second, not being able to walk is not an indicator of how "good" your leg session was.
I do agree that the heavier you get the harder it is to recover, but I was squatting 275+ 3x5, 3 days a week and could always walk and got myself up to a 405 1 rep max squat at a weight of 190. So @paulbsr, If you think you can handle 4 days a week go for it. If you see your results dropping, then back it off or do 1-2 light days and 2-3 heavy days for the squats.
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I squat 4 days a week. From what I've read, women do well with a higher frequency but I also have read a couple of articles by men who have done 4 day (maybe even 5 day?) squat programs. I'm doing a heavy day, medium day, and two lighter days right now.0
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If you are in tune enough with your body to autoregulate it, you can squat 5-6 times a week.
Matt Perryman's "Squat Everyday" and Pavel and Dan John's "Easy Strength" are two examples.
For beginners 3x a week is pretty standard on most recommended programmes. Many intermediate routines have you squatting in some fashion 2x a week. Following a HLM approach like Madcow's can see an intermediate squat 3x a week.
The possibilities are endless and are informed by your current ability, volume, frequency, etc. For example, if you currently squat 1x per week and jumped on a 5x week programme, you'll die. If you add in days slowly and modulate intensity/volume, you'll adapt.
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I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.0
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Seems okay to me. Im currently doing 3 days of squats and my body is tolerating it well enough.0
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I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
Well the thing here is "repeat that up to four times a week". No one squatting 4-6 times a week is repeating the same intensity/volume everyday.0 -
Well I suppose it depends on you. How often do YOU want to squat? I do legs every other day so my squat day is typically 1 day a week since the other days I do other exercises that work the legs.0
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I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?0 -
If you are in tune enough with your body to autoregulate it, you can squat 5-6 times a week.
Matt Perryman's "Squat Everyday" and Pavel and Dan John's "Easy Strength" are two examples.
For beginners 3x a week is pretty standard on most recommended programmes. Many intermediate routines have you squatting in some fashion 2x a week. Following a HLM approach like Madcow's can see an intermediate squat 3x a week.
The possibilities are endless and are informed by your current ability, volume, frequency, etc. For example, if you currently squat 1x per week and jumped on a 5x week programme, you'll die. If you add in days slowly and modulate intensity/volume, you'll adapt.
All of this.
It is certainly possible to squat 3, 4, 5+ times a week. However, you'll need to manipulate volume and intensity and make sure recovery is on point.
I currently Squat 4x a week.0 -
[qju uote="Pelamblue;31809238"]I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
Well the thing here is "repeat that up to four times a week". No one squatting 4-6 times a week is repeating the same intensity/volume everyday.[/quote]
I refer you to mcloud33's statement.
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_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?0 -
_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?
If I read mcloud's comment correctly, he squats 65-70% of his 1RM 3x5, 3x/week. I would be hard pressed to call that overtraining.0 -
I use the Stronglifts 5x5 program and squat 3x a week. I started with the bar 8 months ago and am now squatting 220#. I think if I were to drop the weight back even to 200#, I could squat more than just the 3x a week.0
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Check out Stonglifts 5x5, you squat heavy 3x a week. No problem.0
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This was my spreadsheet when I was doing Stronglifts at the end of last year. I was adding 5 lbs every squat until I got up close to 300 lbs. Then I started varying the weight a little and doing a light/med/heavy day every week. Definitely possible to do 3 days a week AND recover. It's all about listening to your body and knowing when it's time to back off a little bit and then start scheduling those lighter days in there.0 -
_dracarys_ wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?
If I read mcloud's comment correctly, he squats 65-70% of his 1RM 3x5, 3x/week. I would be hard pressed to call that overtraining.
If so, that's about 45 reps total as a 65%-70% and not all that much (especially broken out over multiple sessions per week).
Much different than if one were to try a 5x5 at 85% multiple sessions per week.0 -
_dracarys_ wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?
If I read mcloud's comment correctly, he squats 65-70% of his 1RM 3x5, 3x/week. I would be hard pressed to call that overtraining.
How often do you do a 1rm workout?? Every 6 weeks or so, as a bench mark??LolBroScience wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?
If I read mcloud's comment correctly, he squats 65-70% of his 1RM 3x5, 3x/week. I would be hard pressed to call that overtraining.
If so, that's about 45 reps total as a 65%-70% and not all that much (especially broken out over multiple sessions per week).
Much different than if one were to try a 5x5 at 85% multiple sessions per week.
How often do you train 1rm??? Once every 6 weeks??, as a bench mark.
My 1rm is around 485, if I were doing 5x5 I would be training at around 450-430 mark. Come back and tell me you can do that 3 times a week. And to echo lolbroscience...That aint that much. He should be in the 14-16 rep range at those sorst of percentages0 -
LolBroScience wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »_dracarys_ wrote: »I'm sorry guys but you sound like classic overtrainers. I agree to a certain extent with @cajuntank, ie going lighter to aid recovery, however 3x5 3 days a week???. No way, there is no way after a proper and quality squat session you could repeat that up to four times a week, if you can..ask yourself how! The simple science is you need quality rest time in order for protein synthesis to take place effectively, if you don't your training will be a waste of time as the body will not have time to recover properly. I have trained with body builders to army PTI'S and have never gone more than once a week...... Unless you break the leg down..hamstrings and quads on one day then say calves a couple of days later.
DYEL?
do you?? Please feel free to add something to the the debate?
If I read mcloud's comment correctly, he squats 65-70% of his 1RM 3x5, 3x/week. I would be hard pressed to call that overtraining.
If so, that's about 45 reps total as a 65%-70% and not all that much (especially broken out over multiple sessions per week).
Much different than if one were to try a 5x5 at 85% multiple sessions per week.
I think I'd be hard pressed to do 1x5 at 85%. I know theoretically I should be able to based on the formulas, but at least for me 5 reps at 75% is about as many as I can do.0
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