Are you for or against squats twice a week?

[highiso]

Ive been doing so for about 3 months, on Mondays & Fridays, Saturdays if im not fully recovered. This past week i missed doing legs on Friday for the first time. On Monday i could tell a big difference, my strength wasnt there like it usually is on Mondays. Fridays workouts are not as intense as Monday's, usually lighter on squats, higher reps.

Just amazed at the strength loss by just missing one workout, legs just didnt seem as powerful. I feel much stronger all around doing legs twice a week.

[OTH51]

Nothing wrong with squatting twice a week. I ran Sheiko for more than a year straight squatting twice a week.

I found that I am much less sore squatting 2x a week than just once. Currently I squat once a week and do hi-rep Leg presses for conditioning on the other.

[heatwave13]

I am for it!! In fact, I usually do squats 3x to 4x per week. My volume isn't very high. I just do a few sets of low reps with heavy weights, but I believe that doing a little, with high frequency, over time gives me gains in strength. Like my body just gets in the habit of lifting heavy (heavy for me at least) weights. Keeping the overall volume low seems to keep me fresher with no soreness or burned out feeling. In my experiences, this works well for bench, deadlift, and the olympic lifts as well. The more often you do a task, you get better at it, right?

[GnomusMaximus]

I am for it! Unfortunately my recovery abilities are against it so it don't happen.

[ironwill2008]

Are you for or against squats twice a week?

Yes.

[boathead]

i am for it if the alternative is once per week.

i am against it if the alternative is 3x per week.

[tmonkey]

I think squatting twice a week would kill me

i have seen others do great with it but usually they do a heavy day and more of a volume day.

i think you may be better off squatting heavy once a week and doing all other things legs a second day of the week. If you are doing deads then three days a week on legs seems like a **** ton to me.

[GymIsLikeHeroin]

Perhaps you can alternate it between squat and deadlift to recruit different muscle groups?

[NuclearArms]

Depends on two items

1. Age
2. Intensity

Age effects recovery, the higher the age the less you can recover.
Intensity is how much damage you do and how much you have to recover, and see item number 1.


Based on the above, do what you need to do.

[hardball]

I would love to squats 5 days a week as it feels good when I am doing them. The real story is twice a week is my max because I fell like a cripple the day after. Gotta let your body tell you what you can do. At 52 I thought like a fool I could do what I did 30 years ago knowing my legs were always my strong point as I played Ice hockey when I was young. The squats were the one exercise I enjoyed and felt good straight after. Now I do it twice a week as I can feel the burn but just to the point where I know I will not be able to wlak the next day without taking babysteps. As said earlier, let your body tell you how many times a week. Good luck.

[socket]

For it.
I Just finished a DL routine where squating took a back seat. Can't wait to start squating twice a week again

[Marius_Ursus]

I'm for whatever works, and you can make anything work as long as you put the right amount of thought into it.

[John Prophet]

right now I am doing this

M-squat, bench

W-dead, bench

Fr-squat, bench

with a very few other things thrown in.


As has been stated numerous times, frequency is just ONE variable. There is also intensity and volume. They cant all be high, or low at the same time.

for instance:

Sheiko = high volume, high frequency, low intensity

typical bodybuilding = high volume, low frequency, medium to high intensity (kill it once a week etc)

HIT = low volume, low frequency, high intensity


I am peaking for a powerlifting meet so I am in week 5 of 8 weeks of the above split. I wouldnt personally do it all year round because id want more variety. That being said I have benched 2x/week since January. chest/arms are smaller and recover more quickly.


on the big 3 I vary the intensity and volume day by day and week by week. for instance if I do any squats above 90%, I wont do any deads above 90% of my max that week. Same for bench, if I go above 90% I wont go above 90% the next week etc

If I go with the higher intensity, the volume wont be as high as if I use lower intensity




---


another thing. I dont go by "I wasnt recovered so I took another day off." I go 3 hard weeks then I take a deload week.I am not a scientist with a lab full of test equipment so I have no idea if I am "recovered" or not.




Also for the OP, I totally disagree with the notion that you got weaker by missing one workout. IMO it would actually be the opposite. You should have been stronger due to being fresher and more recovered. If you were weaker it was in your mind.

Almost all powerlifters take the last week off before a meet....do you think they do that to become weaker?

[2nd_chance]

Are your legs growing?

[Karl_Hungus]

I'm for whatever works, and you can make anything work as long as you put the right amount of thought into it.

^^ This. If it is working for you, keep doing it. There will be a lot of individual variation on this, so squatting twice per week may be excellent for one person, and detrimental to another. Personally, I could not squat twice per week without ending up a cripple, so I squat once per week. Many people squat twice per week just fine though.

[jayluk4600]

Im for whatever works best for the individual.

[goranothos]

I do squats three times a week.

[Dr.Griefo]

Currently I am doing squats 1Xweek. I play hockey (goalie) and I learned this winter that if I do squats (or legs for that matter) more than 1xweek I'm toast at the rink.

In the summer I did a 5x5 starting strenght so did squats 3X every two weeks. I liked that volume.

[OutOfStep]

Ive been doing so for about 3 months, on Mondays & Fridays, Saturdays if im not fully recovered. This past week i missed doing legs on Friday for the first time. On Monday i could tell a big difference, my strength wasnt there like it usually is on Mondays. Fridays workouts are not as intense as Monday's, usually lighter on squats, higher reps.

Just amazed at the strength loss by just missing one workout, legs just didnt seem as powerful. I feel much stronger all around doing legs twice a week.

I'm for results. If doing them twice a week is giving you superior results to training them once a week, then that's what you should do. I do them once a week and take every third week off because that is what is giving me the best results at this time.

[ExCompetitor]

Alternate...Once one week,twice the next.

[bigtallox]

Are you for or against squats twice a week?

For it as long as it's consistent with goals.

[LisaSkinnoble]

Are you for or against squats twice a week?

I only squat once per week, but Mr FLexy in his youth always did squats twice a week, and when he first started training again nearly 2 years ago he did squats twice a week, but soon found the recovery wasn't there. He switched to squats one day and leg press the other day.

He has recently tried squatting twice a week again, but it's too soon to make a conclusion.

His opinion is: if you can squat twice a week, do it.

[geer_matt]

Well my routine is on a 6 day schedule. So I squat once every 6 days and I find this to be best for me because I do all the bigger types of compound movements and it gives me time to recover more fully. I keep the dead lifts and squats 72 hours apart. I also do stiff legged deads and leg presses, so ya I like the recovery time on my schedule and have figured it out to suit me perfectly over the last couple of years I have been lifting.

[CrunkTimes]

3 times a week crew for now.

[John Prophet]

side note: olympic weightlifters typically squat 6 days per week. That is on top of all of the cleans and snatches. Are they on drugs? most are, most of the time. Then again a lot of teens etc squat multiple times per week and probably arent on drugs yet

in my mind, for STRENGTH, doing a lift multiple times per week is ideal because the central nervous sytem becomes incredibly "strong"

but for SIZE its probably not necessary. The typical huge bber today does a bodypart once per week. of course, Arnold got big doing each bodypart with high volume 3x per week.

a lot of the olympic weightlifters become incredibly strong but not really big. There is a point where if you do a lift multiple times per week you are simply getting good at the lift and therefore stronger but not necessarily tearing down fibers to stimulate mass growth etc

[muaythaikingben]

Just watch your knees! If you dont have a history in squats then its easy to get an injury. BE CAREFUL and use PERFECT form.

[BrotherWolf]

Ive been doing so for about 3 months, on Mondays & Fridays, Saturdays if im not fully recovered. This past week i missed doing legs on Friday for the first time. On Monday i could tell a big difference, my strength wasnt there like it usually is on Mondays. Fridays workouts are not as intense as Monday's, usually lighter on squats, higher reps.

Just amazed at the strength loss by just missing one workout, legs just didnt seem as powerful. I feel much stronger all around doing legs twice a week.

been doing 3x a week for about 3 years with a few missed days here and there but that's been mostly my routine...2x a week is the least I will do , anything less and it feels like I am not doing ****

mon 5x5 Squat 70-80% of my max
rack pulls heavy

wed 5x10 lighter Squats 50-60%
heavy DL

friday max or near max 3x3 1x3 1x1
light DL

[geer_matt]

I'm for results. If doing them twice a week is giving you superior results to training them once a week, then that's what you should do. I do them once a week and take every third week off because that is what is giving me the best results at this time.

Hmm and here I thought I was just being lazy sometimes. I take a break from the really big lifts about every 3 to 4 weeks too, mostly to give my joints a break. This is a time when I just go into the gym and do a bunch of random exercises that aren't part of my regular routine.

[highiso]

Nothing wrong with squatting twice a week. I ran Sheiko for more than a year straight squatting twice a week.

I found that I am much less sore squatting 2x a week than just once. Currently I squat once a week and do hi-rep Leg presses for conditioning on the other.

Yep exactly, much less sore doing it twice a week.

[highiso]

I am for it!! In fact, I usually do squats 3x to 4x per week. My volume isn't very high. I just do a few sets of low reps with heavy weights, but I believe that doing a little, with high frequency, over time gives me gains in strength. Like my body just gets in the habit of lifting heavy (heavy for me at least) weights. Keeping the overall volume low seems to keep me fresher with no soreness or burned out feeling. In my experiences, this works well for bench, deadlift, and the olympic lifts as well. The more often you do a task, you get better at it, right?

Not sure if I could do any other body part twice a week, sometimes my chest is sore for almost 4 days.