Squatting 3 times per week, and when should I do deload mid week

[Weaver]

I recently seem to have aggravated my upper right quadriceps. It seemed a bit achy after a workout over a week ago on Friday, and not in a muscle soreness way, but like someone had kicked me (lightly) right after I finished my second work set. I of course, like a fool, did a 3rd set and iced the leg all weekend. Monday rolled around and I was able to increase 5 pounds and no real evidence of the achy quad. Wed though, I felt a bit "off" and I was still able to do my scheduled weight (355) for the first two sets of 5 pretty easily, but on the 5th rep, that quad felt a touch achy, so I left the third set off.

This past friday, I felt a bit leg tired, but as I started warming up my legs were good to go, and even 315 did not induce any feelings of pain in that suspect leg. But, as soon as I broke parallel with 355 (I decided to repeat the weight since I didnt do a third set on Wed) it hurt. Not horrible hurt, but light a very slight pull that I did not want to chance by doing another squat at that weight, so I moved on to press.

It feels to me, as if as the week wears on, I am "finding" the parts of my legs that are still not up to speed with me returning to my old strength. Should I deload on the Wed workout to recover more (once my quad is ready to be really pushed again, I am dropping weight way down to keep form practice, but no real load till that is 100 percent) as advised in PP? I have only been doing SS's program for 3 weeks, BUT all summer I was back to lifting and I was squatting all summer (once a week on fridays) and that lift has "returned" a good deal more to where I was before I quit lifting 13 years ago past where my bench, press, clean, and deadlift were when I started 3 weeks ago.

I am considering the advanced novice program for the squat, where I take the work sets down to about 80 percent of monday's efforts on wed, while keeping the standard linear progression for everything else (which is going smashingly). Any of you older guys with some advice here would be appreciated.

[Red Finn]

Others can comment on your programming, but I will say that your physical complaint sounds somewhat like a common squat form error called "knee slide" which can cause an ache in the upper thigh or front hip area. I'd suggest that you take a good look at your technique if you haven't already, and perhaps post a form check.

[Weaver]

Yeah, I have a feeling that could have been what caused the initial pull, as I was doing a grip experiment under load on that first Friday. That is less my issue though, than it feels like I am worn way down as the week progresses and Friday seems to be the day I "tweak" things. Generally I have no knee slide though, not at that weight, as its not that challenging for me at this point. But I will video a few loaded sets and be sure (sometimes when you are focusing on going down and coming back up, little things escape us).

[Red Finn]

If you feel like the pace of squatting heavy three times a week is too much, don't feel afraid to tailor your programming to better suit you. Sometimes older folks are advised to work out every third day, so they get two days off instead of one in between workouts. You could try the standard advanced novice, with 80% weight on Wednesday, but again, if you feel that might not be optimal, you can tweak the percentage up or down, or even leave out squatting entirely on Wednesday. A more extreme solution might be to squat heavy on Monday, not squat on Wednesday and then squat at 80% on Friday. There's no need to strictly adhere to a program as it's written in the book, if your modifications sensibly reflect your situation.

Others may have more suggestions.

[Weaver]

Yeah, I was reading that, I just entered SS with my squat a good deal ahead (3 months) of the other core lifts in development towards getting back where I was in the bygone days. I wish I would have started with SS back in June and I would have certainly avoided some shoulder and leg tweaks (I used incline instead of bench, but I was doing ALOT of dumbell and assistance BS that I think overtrained me) and then my squat and the other lifts would be on a similar track. I could just be whiney, but I have other physical interests competing for recovery, and in my 40's I was curious as to the experience of others.