Recovery problem from squats

[Josselin]

Dear Andy, Robert,

I'm a 30yo french guy, 6ft2 - 240lbs, started NLP in October (I had previous exposure to barbells) and attended the seminar at Brussels Barbell last year.
I've read the blue and grey books and read the first 3 questions article. Eating 3500-4000kcal/day with 220-250g of proteins, sleep is good.

Numbers :
Squat 5x167.5kg - 370lbs
Deadlift 5x172.5kg - 380lbs
Bench 5x130kg - 286lbs
Press 5x100kg - 220lbs
Power clean 3x110kg - 242lbs
Power Snatch 1x87.5kg - 192lbs
Bw chins 10reps

Due to travelling for business almost every week in Europe, I'm usually able to train 2 times per week between Friday and Monday (with at least one day off between 2 workouts).

Programming now is :
Friday or Saturday :
Squats 1x5 + 2x5 back off with 5 to 10% reduction (like described in the grey book)
Bench 1x5 + 2x5 back off with 5% reduction
Power snatch up to 1RM than 5x3 power cleans

Sunday or Monday :
Squats 1x5 + 2x5 back off with 5 to 10% reduction
Press 1x5 + 2x5 back off with 5% reduction
Power snatch and cleans for warmup than Deadlift 1x5
chins 2-3 sets

I switched from 3x5 to 1x5 + back off sets to continue to add weight on the bar almost every week.
Problem is that I have a hard time to recover from squats. My quads are sore for 3-5 days after squats, adding weight on the bar is really hard and going heavy on each workout is sometime not possible. I'm sometime forced to have a light day for squat the second workout...

For a novice like me this sounds strange and when I was in Brussels Barbell Steve told me that I should be able to squat at least 450lbs for 5 at the end of my NLP... I then should be able to squat heavy 2 times per week...

Video of squats : 20231021 Squat 140kg set3 BrusselsBarbell - YouTube

[Griffin727]

I'd say you are an advanced novice. Try doing a squat day with a 10 precent off set for 3x5 and see if that helps. The stronger a lifter gets the bigger the offset will be. At some point volume and intensity have to start to inversely represent each other. The more advanced you get, the more this will take place.

[Robert Santana]

Looks like my comment didn't post, sorry for the delay.

So your squat looks like you have bad knee slide. You need to set the back angle sooner and exaggerate it. The vertical back angle is causing the knee slide. Film directly from behind so we can see the foot placement.

How much are you eating? Have you tracked your diet intake. You are doing what I refer to as "blowing your load on the squat" meaning that you are likely underfed, using up all of your energy on the squat, and having little left to pull as evidenced by the soreness and artificially weak deadlift.