Barbell Squats Full-Range (Work Sets) 340x5, 385x3, 430x8(PR)
No accessory work, will Flip Tire & Sledgehammer hit tomorrow
As you can tell by the post title above I now perform my squats to full depth (i.e I can't physically go any lower...) some people refer to these as Ass to Grass Squats but that sounds fruity so I call them Full Squats, but I digress...How I Got Here from There...
Authors Rant/Recent History/Philosophy
In my previous powerlifting life I was a full on Westside Barbell follower and used those methods to get pretty strong. But I still felt like something was lacking. With all the variations, percentages, box heights, board heights, bands, chains, etc...not to mention I was not ever really into using gear. I felt I was complicating a very simple concept.
"Lift Heavy Shit, Get Stronger..."
I personally feel that RAW strength trumps geared strength all day.
Disclaimer: Now dont get me wrong, I could really give a rats ass what anybody else feels, and I'm not about to try and convince you otherwise...if you agree fine, if you dont fine...do what makes you happy.
With that said, I made some adjustments to my lifting style. Here they are in bullet form:
* Deadlift every week (varying percentages)
* Deadlift with no Belt
* No More Boxes, Bands, Chains, etc...Just me and the weights
* Full Squats only (No more Ego-Strokin' Parallel or Above)
* Overhead Pressing Weekly (Thank God I Did, it fixed my left shoulder)
* No More 'Weekly' templates (I now use a 'rolling' template, works great!)
Basically I got sick of saying "Dude I Squatted 625 for a triple to the High Box..." then having to throw in the disclaimer that there was no friggin way I could do it in the traditional 'Ass to Grass' fashion...
-or-
"Yeah, I can benched 550lbs...", but thats with a totally geeked up single ply Inzer Rage X...RAW, I wasn't even close...
These disclaimers just ate at my pride I guess. I knew I was strong, but there was always a disclaimer.
Some of you jive turkeys will say, well then just get on the platform and show what you got. Well, I dont really feel compelled to drop a chunk of change to compete in one of the hundreds of federations out there and bring home some crappy battle axe or mace anymore.
I lift for my piece of mind.
To boot, I don't feel a meets results are a great indicator of your strength anyway. With all the variables involved in a meet from nutrition, to timing, to gear adjustments, to yadda yadda yadda...I know from personal experience that my meet weights aren't really me, and I got the training logs and a "well checked ego" to prove it.
My personal philosophy is to be strong all the time, not just one or two times a year...
End Part I - Tune into Part II for how I got to where I am now...
