I read somewhere you can train squats 5 days a week and be ok

[kindred]

I read in Starting Strength that some Olympic weight lifters train with squats as many as 5 times a week. Does anyone know much about that? Is it true you can do squats more than most other exercises?

I know popular theory is you need to give muscle at least 24 hours rest but if it olympic weight lifters do it can it really be that bad?

I wouldnt want to lift 5 days a week but sometimes i feel like doing squats but i just did them the day before or i have doms or something so i decide against it. Should i just do it anyway?

 

[Kyle Aaron]

I'm sure Fadi or Nick will be along shortly to tell us how it works. However, as I understand it, they do low reps and high sets, and never go to failure.

My own experience is that when I've gone to failure on a compound exercise, that's when I get the DOMS; if I go to failure on three or more compound exercises, in my next workout my max lifts will have dropped - that is, 48 hours wasn't enough rest!

I think whether you're going to or close to failure is the key issue in how fast you recover. That experience matches what I know of the physiology of it, too.

 

[CaT_SPeW]

olympic lifters lead slightly different lives to the average person too. they can rest and eat better as they probably dont work and have coaches, trainers and nutritionists to guide them. the average joe can squat 5 times a week if he wants he just needs to make sure the other aspects of his training are up to scratch as well.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

That's true. I mean, apparently Max trains about 10 times a week but he has all his meals prepared for him and has a coach on hand at all times...

 

[Morgan]

Who's Max? My internet is disconnected for 2 weeks and I come back and don't have a clue whats going on!

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Max is Markos' son, he writes about him a lot in his newsletters with both fatherly and coachly pride, and I think justified pride, too.

Relevant to the thread, Max trains more than the "2-3 one hour sessions a week" that's traditional, and he gets outstanding results from it.

 

[-LJ-]

I'm finding doing squats every session with Starting Strength is taking a big toll on my tendons around the top of my knees. Sometimes I think 48hrs rest is not enough for them to recover. I don't care about muscle pain, but tendon pain is worrying for me.

 

[Fadi]

I read in Starting Strength that some Olympic weight lifters train with squats as many as 5 times a week. Does anyone know much about that? Is it true you can do squats more than most other exercises?

I know popular theory is you need to give muscle at least 24 hours rest but if it olympic weight lifters do it can it really be that bad?

I wouldnt want to lift 5 days a week but sometimes i feel like doing squats but i just did them the day before or i have doms or something so i decide against it. Should i just do it anyway?

Yes, I was squatting 5 times a week whilst training 8 times a week. Other weightlifters do more. The reason it can be done is due to basing the poundages on percentages of a lifter's 1RM. The only reason bodybuilders find the above facts strange and hard to swallow, is due to their "no pain no gain" mentality. When the weightlifter's percentage goes up, his workout volume comes down (generally speaking).

You've got to look at the big picture and not just one training session. One week you may be performing 700 reps with an average % rate of 80%. The week after that may be 550 reps with 85% etc. There are times (rarely though), when a week would call for high volume and high percentages. This type of training forces your body to adapt and get accustomed to some real hard work.

Whenever a lifter fails to meet his weights and repetitions, a very serious look by the coach would need to be taken to see why and to quickly rectify the situation.

As I have stated before on this forum; failure is not an option during training unless one is going beyond his previous 1RM.

Muscle soreness is nearly never experienced (joints and tendons yes). But then again, we’re not pushing 10, 15, and 20 reps, but mainly 3s.

Edit: I read somewhere you can train squats 5 days a week and be ok

The question now becomes, OK for what? A weightlifter's aim is not muscle size but rather strength and power. I've talked about the size gained by a weightlifter and how it significantly differs from that of a bodybuilder. One has the muscles that look like they are about to explode due to their water content, whilst the other (the weightlifter) looks dense with no puffiness.

Please check page #50 here for more on this: Science and practice of strength ... - Google Books


Fadi.

 

[PowerBuilder]

there have been times when i've squatted 4 days a week (of course based on my 1RM) and never to failure. I suppose it could've been 5 days if i had done slipped a speed squat day in there (50-60% of my 1RM

Thanks Fadi. ive got lots to think about

 

[JaseFit]

I'm finding doing squats every session with Starting Strength is taking a big toll on my tendons around the top of my knees. Sometimes I think 48hrs rest is not enough for them to recover. I don't care about muscle pain, but tendon pain is worrying for me.

When I started SS I was squatting 3 times a week as prescribed, but as the weight got heavier my 35yo legs just werent recovering in time for the next session. Same as you describe.

I changed to just doing my warm up set for squats on deadlift days. After a few weeks of that I then changed to doing 2 sets of 20rep squats using reduced weight on the Deadlift days and I'm finding this to work really well, my squat recovery is much better now and my squat weight is going up again!