Stella's Adventures in Squatting Journal

Form and DOMS

In this "episode" Bill dispenses some of pointers on form and Stella responds back to some of his concerns with some of the things she's been doing to prepare for this journey. A mutual respect for the squat begins to emerge in the relationship between two friends.

October 7, 2001

Bill: Now that you are feeling more confident with the load, work on
getting that 40# spread rather than working faster BUT what you've got to guard against is your muscular strength overpowering the ligaments and tendons.

As much as I love bench presses, the most satisfying feeling I've ever had in lifting is coming out of the hole with a PR squat. Fool around with 135 on your back to find that 'point'to focus on that will maintain your form.

Stella: Bill, All hail to the King of Squats! Crouch down before the master! The quads and glutes are feeling the love today, let me tell ya.

I don't know if I am aware of your background with all of this. Is it just years of training & experience? You have a knack of being able to calculate lower rep range poundage based on current routines.

I'm gonna have to control the behavior pattern of feeling like I need to hurry back up there right after I've re-racked the bar and stay focused on what I am doing. On the tendons & ligaments issue, I was thinking about this when you mentioned it on the phone. I think some of the other leg work I do has actually prepared me for this endeavor. For example, over the last year, I've been varying the spacing, placement on platforms, and angle of my feet & toes- whether it's been squatting, leg pressing, or leg extensions. That is
kind of the way I've given my leg workouts variety and challenge other than just through poundage increase. You mentioned the adductor/abductor machines and how that can help with some of this. I haven't done those in forever but do often do Sumo squats or even wider stance leg presses with my feet higher or lower on the platform depending on if I am trying to get more hammy in
there or not. I see a lot of people do the same exact leg routine over and over—even more than their upper body routines. It will actually be nice though to specialize for a little while. I promise to be careful. ;-)

I love squatting or any leg training too. Part of it may be because it just always makes me feel like I'm so in my own little universe. It may have something to do with the fact that you see so many folks chicken out on their leg training if they even do it at all. I like to feel seperate from all of that. I'll be honest, it will be a great feeling to earn the sight of a couple of 45s & a quarter on each side of my bar.

Got the focal point. There is a smudge mark on the gym mirror and I just try to focus on that. When I don't, I can feel my lower back break away from its proper placement.

Something else I meant to say... was just this new sense of respect for people that train to lift very enormous amounts of weights. As I go through this, I think I will gain an even greater sense of appreciation for squats.

I'm already visualizing Weds night.

Stella
(stuck sitting on the floor right now, LOL)

Bill responds:

<<I don't know if I am aware of your backround with all of this. Is it just years of training & experience?>>

Largely just years of experience and experimentation on myself and folks I've trained. Over time, I've discovered that 2.5% per rep can take a trainee from a multi-rep set to a pretty good approximation of a single rep max. I also add 2.5% for each add'l set.

Example: You said you had gotten 175 x 10 in the squat and felt there were a couple of more reps there. For the program I outlined, I assumed 12 reps would have been close to your max with 175. So here's the drill:

12 reps - 1 rep = 11 reps

11 reps x 2.5% = 27.5%

...then I assumed an add'l 12 rep set would have been possible for you if you had rested 3 - 4 minutes. This wasn't a blind assumption, but based on what I've read of your training.

27.5% + 2.5% for the add'l set = 30%

100% - 30% = 70%

175#/70% = 250#

Then I adjusted the rep weight recommendations based on this.

I've since seen on the web charts that work things up similarly based on all kinds of studies. So on the one hand, it's nice to have validation, my method seems to work most of the time and I wouldn't change it even if the 'scientific' guys said otherwise. Just call me "Vince Gironda Junior."

<<You mentioned the adductor/abductor machines and how that can help with some of this. I haven't done those in forever but do often do Sumo squats or even wider stance leg presses..>>

The Sumo squats are great for those muscles ditto for the wide placement leg presses. If you feel confident and strong in that area of the leg, no need for the machine work right now. Keep careful track of how you are coming up. If you find the knee beginning to come in more than just a little, time to back off on the weight a bit and work those adductors.

Also work the thigh curls hard for the few sets that are there. One of the leading cause of hamstring pulls are quads being disproportionately strong vis a vis the hamstrings. I tore the right hamstring years ago ('82) running the bases and still have a 'hole' near the lower attachment.

<<Got the focal point. There is a smudge mark on the gym mirror and I just try to focus on that. When I don't, I can feel my lower back break away from its proper placement.>>

Good. You're learning all this stuff on your own, just like some of us old guys did. Trial, error, observation, adjust, listen, try again. You're a throwback, kiddo.

<<Ahh, so you *are* the master then, huh? ;-)>>

I always did like Keye Luke (who played one of the masters after gaining notoriety as Charlie Chan's Number One son).

Bill

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