Adding in Light Squat Day

[phillipsta3]

I still think I have awhile before I need this but want to make sure I do it right. I’ve read Practical Programming but just looking for personal experiences with adding the middle light squat day.

[Maybach]

It's the first change to make, and it's relatively low impact. It's a very low cost one, if only because when you DO introduce it it presages the end of your NLP, and so it's unlikely you're going to need to "run" with it very olong. If you introduce it "too early", in the worst case you might have lost four, maybe five increases? Which is orders of magnitude less costly than introducing it "too late" and running yourself into the ground prematurely. Mostly members of the demographic (healthy, adult males of average ability) don't need to introduce it until around the 300 pound mark. Ideally you introduce it just before you start missing reps, but definitely the first time you miss reps (provided your form is correct)

[BareSteel]

Hi Phillip,

Changing the middle day to a light squat makes sense as the squats gets heavier and approaches the lifter’s recovery ability. He or she still gets to keep displaying improvements on the other two workouts. This programming change is usually one of the first as the novice linear progression gradually becomes less sustainable over time.

[Eric Schexnayder]

In the past I’ve added a light squat day in at a point that I would now consider way too early. The light day is meant to allow neuromuscular pathways to stay well intact (to “grease the groove”), especially since novices are often new to training altogether and need squat practice and more active recovery.

For a novice though I don’t believe it really provides much stress, and as such might lead to some detraining. Personally, I feel like it’s lead me to more of what I’d call “deconditioning” - inadequate practice pushing against heavy things. I think I read something by Baker one time saying that a light squat day shouldn’t feel like you’re just going through the motions.

So like with all programming changes, just be sure you’ve really looked at everything before modifying. How is your technique? Did you fail reps because you were pushing as hard as possible but it wasn’t enough? Or did it “just not go” on rep 1? Have you been eating and sleeping and managing other life stressors? All the usual stuff.

[Corey Laxton]

Just added in my first light squat day this past week. I did 275x5x3 on Wednesday then did 220x5x3 on Friday. I was trying to wait one more week before implementing it but I'm glad I did it on Friday. I don't know if this is everyone's experience but my quads just felt like they took a beating last week. I think it actually started before last week but last week it just didn't go away. It hurt to squat and my quads were still sore pretty much all week whenever I had to squat down at all. Not a DOMS soreness, it's kind of hard to explain but it was immediate when squatting. It was still there during my workout when I was walking around or sitting. It eventually subsided after my workout but like I said, I still felt it whenever I had to do any kind of squatting throughout the day. Friday was much better, the soreness was there as I was warming up but was gone by the time I got to my bench workset and I haven't felt it this weekend at all.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Just added in my first light squat day this past week. I did 275x5x3 on Wednesday then did 220x5x3 on Friday. I was trying to wait one more week before implementing it but I'm glad I did it on Friday. I don't know if this is everyone's experience but my quads just felt like they took a beating last week. I think it actually started before last week but last week it just didn't go away. It hurt to squat and my quads were still sore pretty much all week whenever I had to squat down at all. Not a DOMS soreness, it's kind of hard to explain but it was immediate when squatting.

Post a video.

[phillipsta3]

It's the first change to make, and it's relatively low impact. It's a very low cost one, if only because when you DO introduce it it presages the end of your NLP, and so it's unlikely you're going to need to "run" with it very olong. If you introduce it "too early", in the worst case you might have lost four, maybe five increases? Which is orders of magnitude less costly than introducing it "too late" and running yourself into the ground prematurely. Mostly members of the demographic (healthy, adult males of average ability) don't need to introduce it until around the 300 pound mark. Ideally you introduce it just before you start missing reps, but definitely the first time you miss reps (provided your form is correct)

Hi Phillip,

Changing the middle day to a light squat makes sense as the squats gets heavier and approaches the lifter’s recovery ability. He or she still gets to keep displaying improvements on the other two workouts. This programming change is usually one of the first as the novice linear progression gradually becomes less sustainable over time.

In the past I’ve added a light squat day in at a point that I would now consider way too early. The light day is meant to allow neuromuscular pathways to stay well intact (to “grease the groove”), especially since novices are often new to training altogether and need squat practice and more active recovery.

For a novice though I don’t believe it really provides much stress, and as such might lead to some detraining. Personally, I feel like it’s lead me to more of what I’d call “deconditioning” - inadequate practice pushing against heavy things. I think I read something by Baker one time saying that a light squat day shouldn’t feel like you’re just going through the motions.

So like with all programming changes, just be sure you’ve really looked at everything before modifying. How is your technique? Did you fail reps because you were pushing as hard as possible but it wasn’t enough? Or did it “just not go” on rep 1? Have you been eating and sleeping and managing other life stressors? All the usual stuff.

I personally believe this is coming quicker due to football starting back up. I am an official and a back judge at that. I will have 1-2 high school games a week that have me running around 3-5 miles (all sprinting).

I’ve thought about adding in the light squat day to keep up with my recovery taking such a hit with the extra work running.

[BareSteel]

I personally believe this is coming quicker due to football starting back up. I am an official and a back judge at that. I will have 1-2 high school games a week that have me running around 3-5 miles (all sprinting).

I’ve thought about adding in the light squat day to keep up with my recovery taking such a hit with the extra work running.

This makes a lot of sense and I think it’s a pragmatic decision considering your job requirements and recovery capacity.