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Performance Area => Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion => Topic started by: arnoud on January 25, 2012, 06:57:49 am
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a gem I got from the power & bulk forum, not your typical squat routine!
Pause Squat Routine
by Rex Hubbard
History of the Program
In the fall of 2008, I hurt my right knee doing back squats. But when the weight was reduced to 405 or less, the pain subsided enough for training to continue. I needed to figure out a way to improve strength in the back squat without using heavy weight and thereby aggravating my knee. I decided to try pause squats within the power rack, using the safety pins to stop me at parallel. When the bar came to a dead stop, I exploded upwards, making sure to maintain good form throughout the movement. I did 3 sets of 5, training just once per week, and each week increasing my work weight by ten pounds. To my surprise, after six weeks of using the program, I improved my back squat from 560 to 585. I cannot recall the weight I used for the last week of the cycle, but I know it was around 405. In other words, the weight used for the last week of the cycle was approximately 70 percent of my new max (585). For someone like me who spit at the idea of ‘dynamic training’, my strength increase carried with it a hard lesson.
The program evolved over the next year. I changed the set-rep scheme to 5 sets of 3, reasoning that this was more in keeping with the dynamic nature of the program. Furthermore, I reduced the length of the program from 6 weeks to 5 weeks. I kept the week-to-week increase at 10 pounds, permitting myself occasional increases of 15 pounds if I felt that bar speed would not suffer.
I never did any accessory work during this program, but I see no reason why they could not be added. Adapt the program to your needs. A purist version looks like this
Week 1
5x3
Week 2
5x3, 10-15 pounds more than week 1
Week 3
5x3, 10-15 pounds more than week 2
Etc.
Week 6
Work up to a one rep max.
Some Additional Notes on the Program
In picking weights for the program, a good guideline is this: At the beginning of the program, bar speed should be about as fast as it is in a traditional Westside “dynamic day” of training, while at the end of the program, the speed should be a little slower than what a traditional Westside practitioner would consider acceptable. I know that this heuristic is not precise, but at the same time, I think it is better than suggesting exact percentages, which are too rigid a guideline. If pushed for a number, I would say that the first week should feel “60ish” while the last week should feel “75ish”. Ultimately, this criterion of bar speed is the most important thing, so if your increments from week to week need to be bigger or smaller than 10 pounds, by all means use a different increment to ensure that bar speed conforms to these standards.
The biggest tendency to resist, in my experience, is placing the bar too far forward on the pins, which takes stress off the hamstrings and hips and shifts it to the lower back. Some lifters are lower-back squatters, and that is fine. Just make sure that whatever form is normal for you, you do not deviate from that form by putting the bar too far forward, ending up in a position that you would never be in were you doing a normal back squat. Also, do not rest the bar too far back on the pins, which will make getting out of the hole very difficult or impossible. In short, just squat the way you normally squat. And remember to explode out of the hole.
Ideally, this program is most effective when used in between training cycles that emphasize other things. For example, alternating this program with a program that uses heavy weights provides good variety. I have benefited from alternating this program with heavy 3x5 programs, as well as 20 rep squats. Whatever you choose to do, understand that the special features of this program are accentuated, and their benefits intensified, when they offer a change from what the lifter was doing beforehand.
Advantages of the Program
This program has multiple advantages.
First, it enables lifters with some types of injuries to continue training. Pains that appear when the weights get heavy can be avoided with this program. Twice I’ve used it for this reason and both times it has yielded big gains, first in taking me from 560 to 585, and again in taking me from 600 to 635.
Second, it is gentle on the CNS. For lifters who feel that they need a break from heavy weights but do not want to lose strength, this program is very good. It is a good program for restoring “snap” to the squat, which is often lost from going too heavy too often. It also relieves the mental stress that comes with constantly squatting heavy weights.
Third, and related to the second advantage, it gives the lifter flexibility in when he wants to deadlift. One need not worry about timing issues or overtraining due to heavy deadlifts and heavy squats being scheduled too close together. This is because you’re never squatting heavy, so heavy deadlifts can be done whenever. I made sure to do my deadlifts 3 days after the last workout and 4 days before the next one. So if I was squatting on Thursdays, I would choose to deadlift on a Sunday. With this schedule I never encountered any problems with the squat hurting the deadlift or vice versa.
Some Possible Disadvantages of the Program
First, this program is designed for unequipped squatters. If you are an equipped powerlifter who trains with suits and wraps, this program offers very limited value. The weights used in the program are so light that it is unlikely you would be able to hit parallel if using full gear.
Second, there is a worry that for some lifters, the program will cause his body to partially “forget” what heavy weight feels like. I never experienced this myself, being able to comfortably jump in a recent training cycle from 465 pounds during the last week of the cycle to a 660 pound max the next week. But not all lifters are like this and I appreciate their situation. For these lifters, I recommend supplementing the program with heavy walk-outs or heavy yoke holds done at the end of the workout. The supplemented version of the program can address the needs of this type of lifter in a way that the bare-bones program cannot.
Last, and perhaps most significant, is the inevitable anxiety that the lifter feels in wondering if he is getting stronger. When the weights you are using are so far below your projected max, there is a tendency to think that no matter how explosively you move the weights, the information you’re getting is of very limited value in telling you how much your one rep max is increasing. Let’s face it: nothing tells you whether you’re ready to squat a certain weight like squatting with weights that are 90 percent or more of that weight.
I get this feeling every time I use the program, and every time, my gut feeling is proven wrong. I’ve used it 4 times now and it has never failed to give me great gains. Thus, I can only urge the reader to have faith in the program and not stray from the path.
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Good advice! I don't think most people on this forum would need to go on this program for preventing pains and injuries from having a 600+ squat, but i your story does show that if you squat a shitload of weight, going lighter isn't necessarily going ot reduce strength.
In fact it's been known for a while that lifting very heavy is not necessarily better for strength gains. 60% even works just as well, and certainly takes less toll on the CNS. Here is an article on that but I don't feel like finding the exact studies right now:
http://www.cbass.com/Carpinelli.htm