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How do you guys workout what no. of sets to use when doing this. I mean, if you're doing 5 reps... generally the go is to do 5 sets, right? 5 by 5. What about 2s, 3s, 10s, etc? I've seen 'prelepins table' but it doesnt look totally right to me.

There's no set rule man. Just keep on going until you are fkd.

Tonight i did 5 sets of 3 reps for front squats. A couple of weeks ago i did 10 sets of 3 reps.

Just get under the bar and squat!
 
I wonder when to stop sometimes. On bench my best 10rm is around 90kg. So I did 5 sets of 8. Last one I only got 6. I did a 6th set and got 3 (from memory). I was f'd allright. Chest is still sore 2 days later, not sure if I went overboard.

Do you guys ever go so hard that you can only get like 3 reps on your 10rm weight? When picking up the bar gets heavy?

When do you know when to stop?
 
I wonder when to stop sometimes. On bench my best 10rm is around 90kg. So I did 5 sets of 8. Last one I only got 6. I did a 6th set and got 3 (from memory). I was f'd allright. Chest is still sore 2 days later, not sure if I went overboard.

Do you guys ever go so hard that you can only get like 3 reps on your 10rm weight? When picking up the bar gets heavy?

When do you know when to stop?

I would guess that set where you only managed 6 would be the point to stop flogging it.

Sometimes I get zero reps on my 10 rep weight.
 
It all depends on your ability to recover, in 2010 lifting was my life, i was taking in 5-6000 calories per day and sleeping 8-10 hours per night. I could squat every day, heavy, light, low reps, high reps.

Now, trying to stay under 80kg puts me at 3000ish calories per day, interrupted sleep blah blah. Takes me atleast 2-3 days to recover at the moment.
 
With squats you generally have to grab it by the throat and face fuck it into submission

I laughed...

Though I'm stuck in traffic at 652 on a Saturday morning so my comedy judgement could be off..

As for the op, squat more and track it better, going 80, 90, then back to 80 won't get you anywhere in my opinion
 
knowing when to stop is a very trial and error thing and sometimes it can benefit to do "too much". You just have to realise that you will pay the price after, but this isn't always a bad thing
 
Fantastic replies and thanks for them.

From reading through that I've got some things to try over the summer - Fadi I'm keen to run that 3 week programme in January when I can commit to it. I'll let you know how I go.

Someone asked my body weight, it's currently 101kg. I got down to that about a year ago and haven't really changed however I am slowly swapping fat weight for muscle weight (no scientific tracking, just going down clothing sizes).
 
oh a tip that I learned this week when squatting
when you wear a belt, people normally give advice to push out against the belt right? But they never say where to push out... I was always pushing out with my abs to the front but never all the way around the sides and back really filling the whole lot out with my diaphram.

I also started doing breathing exercises, I figured out that my erectors were taking a lot of the load from my stabilisers when I was doing shit like walking or whatever, so my erectors had been working all day before they go to the gym. So now I strengthened my diaphram, intercostals and so on so now my lower back is very recovered by the time I go to the gym. This helped put a fair bit on my squat pretty fast

And it may have taken me 7x longer to figure that out if I wasn't squatting every day but just once a week. Practice the lifts
 
For what it's worth (I'm only squatting between the 130kg and 140kg mark so far, depending on squat style, and hence would generally - and rightly - be considered a rank novice, so yeah, take my advice with as much damn salt as you like :D) ...

I've found that the best way to get squats (and other big lifts) heavier - with acceptable form - is to just stick with a basic linear progression squat-push-pull-the-fuck-out-of-it program, squatting heavy at least twice a week, or more likely three times. Keep adding weight to the bar - little bits, is best. And if you stall? Deload by around 10% or so, as of the next session you do that lift, and just resume the small increments as normal. Soon enough, you'll be back up to where you were, and probably over that mark.

If that doesn't work, when you're squatting less than, at a guess, 120-150kg (maybe depends on body weight and stuff), then it has to be either form, diet, recovery (e.g., sleep) or attitude (i.e., deciding to be weak).

No expert, like I said, but that's what I've found to be true.

Then, once the linear progression became really taxing (couldn't go any further, it seemed), I added in some high rep work for all the major lifts, as well as only squatting heavy twice a week. For me, this has worked. Can't guarantee it would for you, at that stage.


edit: I don't use a belt, so I wouldn't be able to "help" you there, if I can help you at all, lol.
 
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two suggestions:
1) vary the loading and reps- if you keep doing the same thing week in and week out you'll get stuck. I have got my best improvements by varying loading and reps. For eg- try a week where you work up to triples, another week 5s, another week doubles. Let the rep range determine the loading.
2) on the matter of how much and when to stop- it depends on your goals. If you keep banging out sets of 5 and you get to 5 sets without drop off- then you are either a robot or its too light. If you are training for endurance then cool train all night. If you train for strength I would say 5 sets at a top weight is enough- possibly too much. The rule of thumb I usually use with my coach is a 5% drop off- which generally equates to around 1 rep for me. I start of feeling like a 5 rep set has two reps in the tank- I'd continue untill it feels like one rep in the tank. Of course thats just me- but hopefully these ideas will offer some guidance.
 
Steve was the best squatter on this forum by miles,did i read that right?when training for strength no more than 5 sets at top weight is neccessary. If u breeze thru it its too light.
 
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