Flipping this around: Let's say you're doing a two-day workout, lifting on Tuesday and Friday. What would be the best days to add a martial arts workout or two so as not to interfere with recovery too much?
Flipping this around: Let's say you're doing a two-day workout, lifting on Tuesday and Friday. What would be the best days to add a martial arts workout or two so as not to interfere with recovery too much?
Which is your first priority, the martial art or getting stronger?
Because whichever activity done soon after the other is going to suffer at least a little and perhaps a good deal. Depending on the particular martial art, it will suffer a little less than the lifting if done second. Striking arts like Karate are affected less with a fatigued and/or recovering lower back. Throwing arts like Judo and stand up styles of Jujitsu will be affected more in my own experiences of both.
This fallacy is so common it has a name...i forget it at the moment. Pointing out what the best do is not good advice for what the rest of us should do. I have pondered the front squat question long and hard and all it does is take out most of the quad, lower back and glute movement, which is why you need to use less weight; its not that front squats use MORE QUAD!!!! its that they use LESS ASS/HAMMY/BACK, which is why the loads need to get reduced appropriately. Fuck front squats. Gay and waste of time for just about all normies. Ronnie, Dan and Duffin can get stronger doing anything they choose. The rest of us - mere mortals, that is - have to be super smart in our selection.
Let's recap what was said.
Rip said, "And why in the hell would anybody except a competitive Olympic lifter waste time doing front squats?".
I responded with, "As a general rule that's probably correct."
In other words, I was agreeing with Rip.
However, I felt it was necessary to point out that 3 extraordinarily accomplished and successful people who lift weights--indeed, these 3 individuals are some of the most accomplished of all time in their respective sports--did (do) front squats, and did (do) them regularly. One of them even attributes a great part of his success to front squats.
In conclusion, I also said, "in certain circumstances, front squats have their place beyond Olympic weightlifting."
Is that incorrect? You really believe so?
Now, I realize that anecdotal evidence or beliefs of some of the best lifters of all time is laughed at on here, but I don't laugh at it. "Bro science" has its benefits, and only fools think they know everything or can explain everything.
While I have learned a lot from Starting Strength and Practical Programming, I've also learned a hell of a lot from incredibly accomplished lifters who have "been in the trenches" and done things that 99.9% of the people on this forum can only dream of doing.
Andy, I see no application for a front squat outside of the need to train it for a squat clean. And that pretty much leaves out everybody except Olympic lifters. Correct me if I'm wrong. And "bro science" can be defined a couple of different ways, including the science I do since I don't either have or desire a PhD. I have never front squatted over 352, but I'd like you to explain to me why front squats are valuable for anybody other for the clean.
I am in a small DM group on Twitter with a guy who posts videos of his front squats all the time. I tell him they look nice. I asked him once why he did them and he said something about his back making it difficult to get depth on back squats. He also occasionally does something I had to look up, Zercher squats.