Straight from the horses mouth...

[Greg Crook]

I decided my raw squat needed to be brought up to increase my equipped squat but by doing that I was a little unsure when and how to train with my suit (exercises etc). So when I'm confused I did what I've always done and called Louie Simmons. I've called him on numerous things and he has never steered me wrong, he actually gave me the squat cycle to do that led to my 775. To my surprise I was on the wrong track all together. He said, (and use as you may) that out of all the training groups at westside the ones that were squatting the most in competion were wearing the most in training! The reason he said was the squat is trained by most on a parallel box or below which is a full range movement not a partial, unlike the bench press where the boards are used and partials are done commonly. He said they always squat in what there going to squat in at the meet with straps down. Another reason behind all this is timing. When training with bands & chains the descending portion of the lift is speed-ed up considerably. At the meet when you got all your gear on you can't go down that fast, and that can throw you off alot if your not expecting it. He did say to use my head, if I feel beat up then thats when I should incorporate some raw training. I could go on for longer than I care to type on the pro's and con's of this advice. What do you guy's think I'm curious. I just wanted to pass this along, now I'm going trick or treating!!

[gopostal42]

interesting stuff, get lots and lots of candy!

[jonathan]

How cool is it that my training partner has Louie's cell number on speed dial!!!

[bigbyrd]

can see both sides of this. i personally dont use my gear at all, no suit, briefs or belt. but i dont use bands and chains either, just straight weight. i know about what i can do before i get in my gear. i throw it on, and hit a max or near max, then im done till the meet.

for some perspective, big donnie thompson says that he does all his ME days with full gear, but does his speed squats raw to maintian his raw strength. he squatted 870 at the nerb.
he said the only thing he changed in his traing for the nerb raw meet was he did all his ME work raw, and his speed squats in briefs to protect his hips.

i think donnie has the right idea about maxamizing both, and i will be using a similar approach this coming year to get the most on raw and suited squats.

hope that helps some.

[Greg Crook]

Sam, when I called Louie I used you as my example. My squat had stalled and I thought about watching you squat 700+ with a belt and knee wraps, I know my raw squat was way behind, so I started training it but I wasn't sure how to incorporate gear training in with it. Louie just told me what was going on in his gym. The problem I've noticed is if I squat with alot of gear on I can't recover quickly enough to train hard again the following week. Both ideas have there good and bad points, I think its up to the lifter to find the right combo of both(gear & raw) work to maximize your training as you said. Thanks for the help and incite.