Squats: first set is always the hardest

[Tiburon]

Shit, wait until you graduate to TM and have to grind out 5x5 squats. Fuck

[veryhrm]

Same for me. The second set is almost a joyous thing.

For a while, to help with the first set, I was adding a final warm-up set that was one rep at the work-sets weight + 5 lbs. The work sets then felt a little like back-off sets. Then, one day I just kept going with that last warm-up set and did 5 reps. That made me think: fuck it, no extra warm-up set at a higher weight. The sooner I get started on the work sets, the sooner they're done. And, man, does my mood change for the better when they're done.

Nice. i didn't do the +5, but i did try doing a single at workset weight as the last warmup set for a few weeks exactly for the same reason. My eventual conclusion was also exactly this:

The sooner I get started on the work sets, the sooner they're done. And, man, does my mood change for the better when they're done.

[Edge]

You guys are all fucked... oh wait, I'm the abnormal one.....

Second set is the only set I've ever failed on squating... If I make my second, I breeze through my third.... First set is always by far the easiest.

You guys warm up a hell of a lot more than me too....

40x10x1
135x5x1
225x3x1
275x1x1
315x5x3

[Henry Krinkle]

Always just depends on how i set myself up really, can tell how its gunna go after ive done the first rep. Although to be fair i'm working up to my previous 5RM at the moment so cruising by.

Usually the more warming up i do the better it goes so been squatting with the bar around 20-30 times before i even start to put weight on the bar.

[Hollis]

1x2 155
3x5 195 work sets

40 lbs is quite a jump. Do a 175x1 and you won't be in for such a surprise.

I'd skip 75 too. Try 45, 95, 135, 155, 175x1 or something like that.