From yesterday’s comments:

Justin, do you have any leanings one way or another in squatting two times a week vs. three times a week on a novice program?

–RD

With most of my answers: it depends. The trainee’s goals should be assessed first. If they only care about strength — and don’t have a tangent athletic goal like football, highland games, etc. — then three days a week will allow them to progress faster. A novice just starting out will benefit from three squatting days to A) establish the motor pattern and B) have another local and systemic stress that will C) increase strength and D) increase muscle. However, that same novice may progress to a point where three days of squatting nears the limit of what they can handle in week’s worth of time. When I was squatting above 450 for three sets of five in three workouts a week during my linear progression, I was miserable. Toeing the line of what is possible isn’t optimal in this case, and squatting two times a week will continue that progression, albeit slightly slower. I’d recommend it for someone in the later stages of their progression.

As for the trainee that has ulterior motives for competition; I may have this trainee squat twice a week and deadlift once so that they retain some recovery capabilities for the practice of their sport. However, this would depend on what phase of training we were in with respect to the competition date or season. Strength gaining would have more of an emphasis the farther away from competition while strength maintenance may be important leading into competition. It would still be dependent on the training advancement of the person; if they were a rank novice (i.e. just starting), they could improve their strength while in the competitive phase. If they are farther along in the progression, maintaining their gains will be the minimum goal.

Answers regarding programming are neither simple nor straightforward. It will always depends on things like goals, current state of adaptation, and recent training history.

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PR Friday
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