Squats, Technique, and Ladders

I received a good training question over the weekend from UK-based strength coach Cedric Unholz related to the recent Squat Ladder post and the training of a beginner weightlifter. 

“If you had a beginner weightlifter that is looking to bring the technical lifts up to match their strength levels, would you still tend to squat every workout?
Also, in the same scenario, do you think the ladders would be appropriate or would you stick to a more Texas style programming?”

In my experience, most new lifters with good strength levels and raw technique in the competition lifts have strength in the wrong places. For example, a lifter with a 160kg back squat and a sub-100kg clean…they are strong enough to clean more, but lack the technique to do so.  Obviously, this lifter would need to spend more time performing the clean, but it would be a disservice to their long term development to altogether stop performing the squat.  Rather than eliminate the squat, I would change the way they perform the squat to make it more conducive to learning the Olympic lifts.  First, all squatting would take place after the competition lifts so the most attention can be placed on performing those lifts.  Front squats would take precedence and the back squat would only be used sparingly, maybe a 3:1 ratio of front to back.  Front squats force you to maintain a solid upright posture, and put you in a better position to receive the clean and then stand-up with it.  It can be a humbling experience lowering the weight to perform the front squat effectively, but it is only an accessory lift, and the end result, a bigger clean, will be worth it.  I would stick with the “Texas” style of programming the vast majority of the time, but a new lifter will benefit from the Ladder style of programming.  The ladder forces you to perform multiple sets (sometimes twice as many than in the traditional Texas format) in a given workout.  That means the lifter has more opportunities to squat using correct form and good technique; walking out the weight, setting up, and then performing the lift.  It also gives you as a coach more chances to reinforce good technique. The lower number of reps per set eliminates the drop off in technique that occurs later in the set when they are just trying to finish that 5th rep.  I have not tried it yet, but I presume the ladder will work great with the front squat where I typically keep sets in the 2-3 rep range.  

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Squat Ladders

After a few questionable months after moving back to Texas, and then a very brief obsession with 20-rep squats, my own training has been going very well of late. I have been squatting 3/days per week, usually 2 days front and 1 day back (M: Front, W: Back, F: Front), with some occasional variation just to keep it interesting. The past 2-months I have been experimenting with ladders in the back squat on Wednesday.  I am sure the idea of ladders has been around forever, but I first read about them 5+ years ago on the old P&B forum where the idea and routine were written up by Steve Shafley.  In his original post, and with my recent training, they are used to allow heavy training with decent volume while breaking up some of the monotony of a standard 5x5.A ladder is basically performing repetitions in ascending order for multiple sets – a set of 1 / a set of 2 / and a set of 3 is one ladder.  I have capped my number of ladders at 3, so a typical ladder on Wednesday would be 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3; 9 sets and 18 total reps.  With the increased number of sets, and lower max reps per set, you are able to train at a heavier load than you could with a similar volume but different configuration (6x3, 4x4, etc.)Working off a solid 3-rep max of 150 kg I performed a few weeks earlier, I started my ladder adventure using 120 kg and was able to complete the entire 3 ladders fairly easily. Each week, I added 5kg and tried to complete the entire 3 ladders.  Twice (at 140 and 145 kg), I stopped after 2 ladders and used the same weight the following week and completed all 3 ladders.  

My progression was as follows: 120kg – 3 ladders, 130 – 3, 135 – 3, 140 – 2, 140 – 3, 145 – 2, 145 – 3, and this week 150kg – 3 ladders.  

So, in 8-weeks I was able to move my squat up a decent amount.  Next Wednesday I will work up to a new 3-rep max and report back, but I am something in the 170-175 kg range will fall.  Looking back the 150 kg 3-RM was a pretty low estimate, and 120 kg was far too low a starting point.  If I decide to do it over again, and work up over another 6-8 week period my 1st week will be in the 85% of 3-RM range and go from there.  Post a comment and let me know if you have ever done anything similar, and end result.  If nothing else, I enjoyed trying something new and managed to bump up my squat weights.

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