If you wanna get jacked, then start squatting. A LOT.
Squat 3 x week. Ass to Grass.
- Squats will expose your weak areas.
- Squats will tell you if you ARE weak or not.
- Squats will tell you if you have mobility through the hips and ankles.
[youtube width="640" height="360"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrkvYsxbEIA[/youtube]
- Don't Squat on a smith machine
- Don't Squat on ANY machine
It doesn't count unless you throw a barbell on your body. Argue as you wish but I've done them all. There is a BIG difference when using a Barbell for squats. I've used Kettlebells, Sandbags, Tree Logs, etc
The Squats that have the most profound effect on the body are back squats, front squats and zercher squats, ALL with a barbell.
If you're weak, start squatting on the regular, 3 x week, back squats only. Don't sweat the weight from the get go, you'll get stronger every week. If all you did was add 5 lbs to the bar every week, that's 20 lbs a month and 240 lbs in a year!
[youtube width="640" height="360"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzT1lY-q-hg[/youtube]
The BIG mistake people make is not being consistent. They squat one week, the next week they leg press, the next week they hack squat and the next week they are on the smith machine.
I'm using the conjugate method they tell me, after reading an article from a newsstand magazine.
The only method you need to learn is hard f**ing work.
[youtube width="640" height="360"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDVNM9Yto7E[/youtube]
Drop a comment and let me know your thoughts on Squats and how often you hit them. Be honest. Don't leave a comment telling me you squat 3 x week when you squat 3 x month.
Live The Code,
--Z--
23 Responses
I asked about you about this once before. I’m 53 years old with limited, fixed ankle mobility and my torso pitches forward when I squat. I do not look like your pictures with a vertical torso. I’m pitched forward. If I back squat with that kind of movement dysfunction am I setting myself up for injury. I’ve been bodyweight squatting and goblet squatting with kettlebell. I feel good, of course would like to feel better/stronger, but don’t want to set myself up for injury. What do you think.
Doug
Focus on mobility for the areas that need to help you move better, the answer to your question, YES, you can get hurt and are reinforcing bad movement
Focus on mobility and KB goblet squats as U do, slowly progress to light bar squats
Hi Zach,
You are bang on about the benefits of squatting but I use pistol squats instead as I can do them anywhere. I squat every time I am at the gym which is normally five days a week. Usually 3×10 sets on each leg. Sometimes hold a small kettle bell for extra resistance.
Love your no bullshit approach.
From Steve in England.
That is awesome, a regular squat approach, nothing crazy to over do it!
I squat 2x per week. Once heavy for 1’s,2’s, or 3’s and once for higher reps of 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps.
I have been keeping with the front squat the past few months as I rarely trained them in the past, and back squatting was aggravating some tendonosis in my left knee.
It has felt tremendous and my knee has felt better. Going ATG with abs held TIGHT, is a great feeling in the front squat.
YES! YES! YES! I agree 100% have have taken your advice from Freak Strength and started lifting full body workouts 3 times a week with 1 leg exercise 1 push 1 pull and 1 carry. After only a few short weeks of doing endless sets of squats I have packed on both mass and strength. I truly believe that any beginners questions can be answered with this article.
Keep up the good work Zach!
I think 3x per week is too frequent. Every 4th day is ideal for me based on my experience.
Very smart listening to your body.
I have a heavy squat day and then I add them 1 – 2 x more per week lighter and it feels great!
Way to put it Zach!! Although I can’t do back squats (2 ruptured discs from powerlifting) I can still do front squats and zercher squats with amazing resultsts. It just goes to show you that the basics are where it’s at!! Everyone at the gym asks me “Is that a new squat technique your trying” I tell them hell no! It’s an old school lost art form and getting back to the basics!! True hard work and mental toughness!! Keep up the great work bro!!
how did you rupture the discs in your back? curious because ive just started powerlifting
Squats in the traditional sense three days per week. On the off days I will perform stone lifts which is a deadlift to lap and squat up. Drop stone at top and repeat. Even tire flipping I drop the backside down because I use the tire to train exploding for the power and Olympic lifts. Since I am not training for a competition at this time I will keep reps low on the tire and focus on the drive throughout the flip. No pause for knee, actually both feet stay on ground and do not move until tires hits with a flip.
If someone doesn’t like to squat, or feels they get injured every time they lift my advice would be to train the overhead squat. This will keep you honest with weight progression. Place in rack, grab with snatch grip on back, step out and set feet in “catch” position. Push Press weight up (behind the neck push press).Squat all the way down and back up. You won’t be able to jump in weight as fast so your chances of injury are less.
“Quadzilla” I have a VHS (yep I’m old) of Tom Platz training legs. It is crazy!
Did the dreaded breathing squats. 20 reps 3 times per week each time adding 5lb until I hit 20 reps with my previous 5 rep max. It was the most mentally challenging thing I’ve done under a bar in the 20+ years I’ve been lifting.
Love the commitment to basics and hard work, brothas! LOVE it!!!
I squat 4x a week, 2 hard sessions (75 – 85% range) , and 2 days for more volume work( 50 – 60 %), I do front and back squats(2 days each)so: Hard back squat day, next day is “easy” front squat day and vice versa – I don’t do any assistance work other than lats and abs. I try to jump at least 2X a week + I use the prilepins table to work out the weights.
Ever since attending your cert. In Ft. Lauderdale in 2011,
I totally revamped my own training.
I had a string of injuries and something had to change.
I cut my number of training days back to 3 times a week.
No injuries since 2011, thank GOD!
Your focus on recovery has been extremely helpful.
Usually I alternate between a squat day one week, then deadlifts the next.
I do a fairly long sled pull (30 to 45 minutes ) must about every weak, with a lot of lateral work mixed in.
Both my squat and deadlift are better now than when I trained 4 or 5 days a week.
I’ll turn 63 years young tomorrow and I am blessed to be able to train, and still see improvements in strength.
My legs suck so I Front Squat every day.
Mo/We/Fr in the 85%+ 1RM range followed up by a set of Back Squats with the same weight for higher reps.
On all the other days I Squat in the 50-60% 1RM range for like 5-10 singles and long rest periods. This doesn’t burn me out but helps me to get the form right.
Love the blog post Zach, but next time you Squat…
Make sure your dog does not try to fucking kill you !!! LOL
I just started squating heavy. I do love that powerful feeling. I found that if I go ass to grass on back squats, low back gets a little tweaky. I don’t have any problems with it but I also don’t want to creat any. I just did a sesh of box squats and didn’t have the back issue. Are they a worthy subsitute? Thanks for keeping me fired up Z!
Zach,
I back squat 1x per week after some power cleans, and I front squat 1x per week after I deadlift. The back squat day’s the one I use heavier weights. I tend to work at lower weights for higher reps on the front squat. I used to only use KBs and pistols for my squatting movements – big mistake. When I started seriously barbell squatting, everything has gotten BETTER – strength, endurance, run time’s faster, sprinting faster, physique’s bigger/leaner. I still do love the KB double front squat and pistol sometimes though – they have their place.
Hunter
I squat twice a week a heavy day and a work day,i also do partial deadlifts ,1 day also reverse hypers, glute hamstrings,and heavy sleds pulls for sprinting
I squat twice a week with a barbell. 1st session is a heavy back squat, 5×5 (with several warm up sets). The 2nd “squat” day later in the week will either be high rep back squat, high rep front squat, or overhead squats (high rep=12-20 rep range).
I am serious when I say that I did not see any – ANY – gains in the gym until I started squatting, and squatting correctly! Then I became addicted to training my legs because I always wanted a strong foundation. Plus, some highly respected coaches I trained under told me how heavy squatting releases more testosterone and promotes more muscle growth in the entire body than any other exercise – including deadlift. So I squatted.
There were periods where I could only get into the gym once a week for sometimes months at a time – those days were ALWAYS squat sessions and amazingly my strength in all of my other lifts stayed relatively the same. Of course getting back in the groove on some things left me sore as shyt, but within a week or two I would be repping the same weight I left off at = stayed strong.
Squatting separates the men from the boys. And you don’t have to lift massive amounts of weight to reap the benefits from this amazing total-body exercise.
Keep crushin it, Zach!
Ryan
I have to be honest here, I do my Deads regularly, but I often miss squat days these days- that is something I must work on
Coach, this is a timely article for me. I’ve struggled the past 3 years with shoulder issues (mobility/pain). Whenever I would squat some decent weight, my shoulder would start to really hurt. I would try to “catch up” in helping my shoulder by trying to do a lot of stretching and mobility work, but my shoulder would never recover… I’d eventually have to drop squats from my routine, which would derail everything.
It was a vicious cycle.
This week, I just bought a Safety Squat Bar, so that I would have no excuses to not squat… and I could take my time with shoulder rehab.
All hail the squat.
Zach,
In a reply you mentioned you squat a heavy day and 1-2 lighter days.. I’m just curious of the rep/set range you use…
Many thanks.