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Squat strength Lag

Rambodian

Rambodian

No I'm not cambodian
Is it normal to have your squats lag a bit, I am slowing down on my strength gains form squats as opposed to bench press. I been doing a variation of Fadi's 3 day a week beginner program now for 6 weeks and at the start my squats were 15kg heavier than my bench press, now I'm at 70kg squats and my bench press has rocketed to 62.5kg, the gap is closing quite quick. I will adjust the squats to 72.5 on Monday, but could go up to 65kg on bench by then as well, is this normal?, Im worried about my bench surpassing my squats. My deadlifts are rocketing, I'm at 90kg on those now, but my squat is slowing down a bit.
 
Squats are one of those things where sometimes you can do more than you think you can. It's also harder for your CNS to learn squat technique vs bench for most people.

Is there a part of the squat that you find the hardest?

Try doing 80kgs for reps and see how you go.
 
The problem is you most likely putting a lot more effort into bench than squats.

Squats are hard work and most don't put anywhere near enough effort in.
 
It's funny how everyone is different, I find the squats easy, but dead lifts are a struggle for me.
 
Rambodian said:
Is it normal to have your squats lag a bit, I am slowing down on my strength gains form squats as opposed to bench press. I been doing a variation of Fadi's 3 day a week beginner program now for 6 weeks and at the start my squats were 15kg heavier than my bench press, now I'm at 70kg squats and my bench press has rocketed to 62.5kg, the gap is closing quite quick. I will adjust the squats to 72.5 on Monday, but could go up to 65kg on bench by then as well, is this normal?, Im worried about my bench surpassing my squats. My deadlifts are rocketing, I'm at 90kg on those now, but my squat is slowing down a bit.
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Keep at it mate but essentially most people after training for a few months will be squatting much more than they can bench. That's a massive generalisation but generally benching body weight is a much bigger milestone than squatting body weight.

If you have a look at peoples signatures you will find the more experienced lifters squat WAY mre than they bench.

Essentially the answer to your question is no. If you aren't failing your squats then you should be increasing them a bit each time. As someone else mentioned squats are mentally harder to approach and are a bit freaky but you'll be surprised what you are capable of.

Unfortunately you might find that you hit the wall soon with your bench too but your squat should go up for a while yet.
 
Hirdy said:
Keep at it mate but essentially most people after training for a few months will be squatting much more than they can bench. That's a massive generalisation but generally benching body weight is a much bigger milestone than squatting body weight.

If you have a look at peoples signatures you will find the more experienced lifters squat WAY mre than they bench.

Essentially the answer to your question is no. If you aren't failing your squats then you should be increasing them a bit each time. As someone else mentioned squats are mentally harder to approach and are a bit freaky but you'll be surprised what you are capable of.

Unfortunately you might find that you hit the wall soon with your bench too but your squat should go up for a while yet.
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great post
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys, yeh the hardest bit is coming up out of the hole. I generally feel like I could go heavier but once I get below parallel and start to come up it's the initial part that kills and holds me back from going heavier, and than I'm pretty good from there. I have really tried to go as deep and hard as I can with my squats, but I will for sure keep at it. One other question: Should I do more volume with squats to other lifts, say 5x8 as opposed to 3x8 as I do with chest? or just stick to the plan and it will work itself out?
 
Just sick with the plan. You have only been going for 6 weeks. Keep working hard at the squats and they will take off way above your bench.
 
Well I kept at it, I have been doing a few more sets of warm-ups before I hit it, thats helped heaps. I'm now shocked at how much harder I can squat with just 2 weeks of dedication. Today I hit 110kg for 5 reps, was so stoked. I now know what you guys were saying about putting more effort into it, I think I was scared to go heavier, but i just kept adding more weight each workout and now I am shocked to squat that much. Thanks for putting things into perspective guys, sometimes it helps to just see what others have to say.
 
Rambodian said:
Well I kept at it, I have been doing a few more sets of warm-ups before I hit it, thats helped heaps. I'm now shocked at how much harder I can squat with just 2 weeks of dedication. Today I hit 110kg for 5 reps, was so stoked. I now know what you guys were saying about putting more effort into it, I think I was scared to go heavier, but i just kept adding more weight each workout and now I am shocked to squat that much. Thanks for putting things into perspective guys, sometimes it helps to just see what others have to say.
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Good work.
 
What do people mean by putting in more effort on the squats?

I too am on the same program and lifting about the same weight. I guess where I'm not putting in as much effort on the squat is with the bench press I will have a spot who will help me on the last few reps in the later sets when I've just added another 2.5kg. With squats I don't, so if I feel like I wont be getting back up, I'll stop at that rep.
 
greenfuji said:
What do people mean by putting in more effort on the squats?

I too am on the same program and lifting about the same weight. I guess where I'm not putting in as much effort on the squat is with the bench press I will have a spot who will help me on the last few reps in the later sets when I've just added another 2.5kg. With squats I don't, so if I feel like I wont be getting back up, I'll stop at that rep.
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I think the best way to conceptualise it is as such:

Squats are harder than benching.

You will squat and think "this is hard" and then stop. Much like with benching. However, your scale of hard is out of whack for squatting because squats are on a different scale to other exercises. What is hard to squat, feels like it takes a lot more effort than what is hard to bench.

Another way of putting it is that when your benching and it is hard, you can put only a bit more effort in before failure.

Conversely, for squatting when it gets hard you can (probably) put in a lot more effort before failure.

*Note: Always squat in a power rack and use a spotter where you can.
**Note2: Similar principles apply to masterbation (squatting) and sex (benching).
 
greenfuji said:
What do people mean by putting in more effort on the squats?

I too am on the same program and lifting about the same weight. I guess where I'm not putting in as much effort on the squat is with the bench press I will have a spot who will help me on the last few reps in the later sets when I've just added another 2.5kg. With squats I don't, so if I feel like I wont be getting back up, I'll stop at that rep.
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First don't let the spotter help you on bench. Once the spotter touches the bar the set is over.

With squats usually the person gives up on the set rather than the person not actually being strong enough to lift it.
 
Bazza20 said:
First don't let the spotter help you on bench. Once the spotter touches the bar the set is over.

With squats usually the person gives up on the set rather than the person not actually being strong enough to lift it.
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This is the number 1 thing that pisses me off when I ask someone to spot for me. I just bench in the cage now and drag a bench over

"It's all you bro"
 
So with the bench I should stop when I cannot complete a rep and with the squat I should continue and just collapse to my knees letting the bar hit the power rack if I cannot lift it.
 
No, you should just learn to better judge when you're done rather than being a whiny little bitch and pulling out at rep 5 when you could probably do 20

ps not having a dig at you
 
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