How far should I reset my squat?

[RealityBreak]

So, some background info first. I've been on SS for 2 and a half weeks now. I am 15 years old. Started squatting at 75lb. Last Wednesday (5/18/2011) I failed my squats at 115lb. It was because I was not eating enough, so I upped my caloric intake to 5k/day from 3.5k/day and it helped a lot. The next workout I squatted 115 again, no prob. Monday I squatted 125, no problem. Today (Wednesday, 5/25/2011) I tried 135lb and I could not go down deep enough. I did 5 reps at 135lb but they were not deep enough (my butt was not parallel with my knee joint when going down). So the next two sets I went down to 130lb, but I could still just not go down deep enough. It is not a flexibility issue. I was squatting just fine at 125lb. I'm pretty sure this means I have stalled. So should I reset and start going up in 5lb increments? If so, how far should I reset?

[MikeC1]

Just go back to 115 and work back up with 5 lb jumps. What's your bodyweight and height?

[RealityBreak]

I just measured myself. I got 70 inches, so I guess that means I'm 5'10". As far as bodyweight goes.... I don't have a scale in my house. The last time I measured my weight was about a month ago and I weighed 130lb. I imagine I'm in the 140 range now. I will request that my mother go purchase a scale when convenient.

[veryhrm]

good job keeping an eye on your form. v important. not sure i agree w/ you that this is a "stall"

how is the heavy weight preventing you from going deep enough? i can see that maybe you wouldn't be able to stand up, or you might start leaning over too much or various other things but how's a heavy weight preventing you from getting depth?

are you doing warmup sets? to work your form do a set ot two at 45 to warm up the motion then maybe a few reps at 95. if the form is good with those, just do 135 again and keep going up from there.

[dkggpeters]

I wouldn't call missing weights on one workout a stall. Usually you can see a stall coming as you will start grinding out reps workout after workout just to make the numbers and they seem harder each week.

[Sutor]

Probably a form issue. You said you wern't hitting depth meaning you have some way of knowing if you are visably hitting depth (video? friend?). Whatever the case I say get a video of your form up and im sure we can help.

As whoever above said if the weight is heavy you should not have trouble getting depth but trouble getting out of the squat. Like I said likely form issue.

[RealityBreak]

Thanks guys. I will go down to 115 and work back up in 5lb increments.

Sutor, there is a mirror right in front of my gym's squat rack, so I can watch how far down my butt goes. I will record myself doing squats tomorrow if I can find an adequate place to position my camera.

[the dio]

Mirrors lie, fwiw.

[Sutor]

Agreed about the mirror its hard to judge in front of a mirror and you are only putting yourself in a bad neck position to be able to see your position. Avoid mirrors when you can. I say this from experience as I sometimes have to use a squat rack with a mirror and I find that I am trying to see form and shit when I am supposed to just move some fucking weight. Its distracting but unavoidable sometimes.

Would love to see the vid too I will be waiting

[veryhrm]

Thanks guys. I will go down to 115 and work back up in 5lb increments.

You are, of course, free to do whatever you think is best, but i'm still curious why you think your depth issue is related to your going from 125 to 135. More likely something else changed about your form and backing off to 115 won't do anything for you. (hence my advice that you should pay attention to what's going on during your warmup sets and fix the form there and then just go on w/ your 135 sets).

Backing off when this isn't actually the cause of the problem will just set you back by 2 weeks for no good reason (which isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but if Rip saw it he might say YNDTP :-) )

Read Rip's clarification when you get a chance just to set your expectations correctly.

Edit: oh, but going to 5lbs increases is prob. good. 15lbs a week for you is still 10% a week which is huge. (and, of course, drink your milk)