What are light squats to a woman?

[sbhikes]

While I was on a diet I continued my regular attempts to make 2.5lb gains on squats. In reality I only made 2.5lb jumps after 3 tries (3 workouts). In a way, not being able to make the 2.5lb jump sort of by default made it a light squat day so I think maybe I will just plan a light squat day on purpose. I think I will continue my diet, too. Not sure if that matters or not to my main question: What constitutes a light squat day for a woman? 80% of the heavy day? 95%?

[amsgator]

If you are referring to a light Wednesday and a heavy Monday and Friday, 60-80% of your last work weight. This isn't specifically for women, it's for everyone adding a light Wednesday.

[Adam Skillin]

If you are referring to a light Wednesday and a heavy Monday and Friday, 60-80% of your last work weight. This isn't specifically for women, it's for everyone adding a light Wednesday.

She means because women are typically far less adept at recruiting motor units than men (can rep out very high percentages of 1RM), and therefore are often advised to do things like using 3's instead of 5's to approximate the same intensity stimulus.

If you want to experiment with making changes to the relative intensity of the light day based on your sex, I'd probably be cautious and start at about 5% above the general (for men) recommendations. But the typical intensity might work just fine. I sure don't know, and I'm not sure anybody does.

[sbhikes]

She means because women are typically far less adept at recruiting motor units than men (can rep out very high percentages of 1RM), and therefore are often advised to do things like using 3's instead of 5's to approximate the same intensity stimulus.

That's exactly what I mean. Being a women, 95% sometimes seems equivalent to 80% for men on some things. But I was curious if there was any experience out there. Since I squat twice a week I figure maybe I'd try heavy on Monday, light on Friday. Or vice-versa. I have to look at my logs and see which days were the ones I usually finally hit my goal. The days right after a weekend or the days after sitting on my ass at work all week.

[Adam Skillin]

That's exactly what I mean. Being a women, 95% sometimes seems equivalent to 80% for men on some things. But I was curious if there was any experience out there. Since I squat twice a week I figure maybe I'd try heavy on Monday, light on Friday. Or vice-versa. I have to look at my logs and see which days were the ones I usually finally hit my goal. The days right after a weekend or the days after sitting on my ass at work all week.

You think 1 heavy squat day is enough for you to make progress?

[Kyle Schuant]

If you want to experiment with making changes to the relative intensity of the light day based on your sex, I'd probably be cautious and start at about 5% above the general (for men) recommendations. But the typical intensity might work just fine. I sure don't know, and I'm not sure anybody does.

I just have them do 10kg less if their heavy squat days are their bodyweight or so, and 20kg if their heavy squats are 100+kg. This has worked fine for women 21-66yo.

Yes, this means their light day is higher than the 60-80% in many cases. Women, especially those 40+yo, tend to detrain a bit quicker than younger men, I find. Really it's a difficult balance, between (mild) overtraining and detraining, between pushing hard enough to get progress but not so hard they get ground down, and easy enough to give them a rest without being so easy they actually lose it.

You think 1 heavy squat day is enough for you to make progress?

It is for most, especially if they're 40+yo.

[Kyle Schuant]

That's exactly what I mean. Being a women, 95% sometimes seems equivalent to 80% for men on some things. But I was curious if there was any experience out there. Since I squat twice a week I figure maybe I'd try heavy on Monday, light on Friday. Or vice-versa. I have to look at my logs and see which days were the ones I usually finally hit my goal. The days right after a weekend or the days after sitting on my ass at work all week.

Good that you have your logs to do this. I usually have people go heavy on Sat or Sun, since those are the days when they've had the best sleep, woken naturally, and had the best food that morning and the night before. But everyone's different.

[Adam Skillin]

I just have them do 10kg less if their heavy squat days are their bodyweight or so, and 20kg if their heavy squats are 100+kg. This has worked fine for women 21-66yo.

That doesn't work out too far from my guess. Good to know what's worked in your experience, Kyle.

It is for most, especially if they're 40+yo.

Yeah, I worded that badly. Disregard.

[sbhikes]

Three times a week is way too much. I stopped making progress at 2x a week probably because I was on a diet. Or possibly because the weight's just too heavy. I weigh 135 and I got to my first try squatting at 180lbs. I couldn't make all the reps. This was becoming typical to take a week and a half to go up 2.5lbs. Perhaps one heavy and one light day will allow me to shorten it to 2.5lbs every week. Or maybe it will fail horribly. I can only give it a try.

I get good sleep and eat well every day, even on my diet I was eating well, at least I was eating a lot of chicken. I tend to go to bed at about 8:30pm. Usually what ruins Monday as a good day are strenuous hikes on the weekend. But sometimes I don't do anything on the weekend.

I think taking 20lbs (approx 10kg) off will make the easy day feel really easy. 44lbs would make it laughably easy, so I'll start with the 20lbs off. I guess this is basically Texas method in a way? I was doing 4 sets of 3 prior to this so not really anything that is in any of the Starting Strength books. The reasoning Paul gave for 4 sets of 3 was my age and gender made 4 sets of 3 hit closer to the ballpark of enough stress to generate the adaptation and not so much I couldn't recover from. I usually live life in a state of being slightly overtrained, if my vacations are any indication. That first week off I pretty much fall apart in a puddle of pain and then after that I feel like a fucking Amazon woman.

[amsgator]

She means because women are typically far less adept at recruiting motor units than men (can rep out very high percentages of 1RM), and therefore are often advised to do things like using 3's instead of 5's to approximate the same intensity stimulus.

Gotcha. Sorry for my ignorance. I'm going to go finish PPST3 now before I reply again.

Congrats on your SSC by the way. I've only been around a year and I thought you should have been one the whole time.