Post by Greg Crook on Dec 23, 2006 19:15:00 GMT -5
Me and Jonathan were talking about training the squat today and it got me to thinking about how I've trained in the passed and I picked up on this observation. I lifted in single ply gear to start with and then graduated to double ply. When I made the jump to 2-ply my squat went from 525 to 600 then 700 plus all within a year and a half tops. Thats a pretty big jump in such a short time. In the single ply days for me I was getting little to no carryover, in hindsight it made me very strong. That being said when I got good fitting 2-ply gear the strength was already there and it was just a matter of learning the gear. This is when I made the biggest jump. Now my squat has stalled but I know why now, and this is what I want to share with you. I've got a double throw down squat suit and know how to use it. My problem is very simple, I need to get stronger. Now looking back when I used single ply gear (equal to tight shorts) my raw strength was very good, take that and add 2-ply gear = BIG SQUAT. What I'm getting at is your squat is going to go in cycles. When you first start training in gear your going to make huge jumps due to learning the suit and your body reacting to muscles being used more than they normally would when training raw. At a certain point though your progress will stall. Don't get bent out of shape and start questioning your squat suit, your exercise choices and every other thing your doing. Instead take some gear off and train raw for a while and if you have some sort of injury and need the support then do what I read Wade and Tadpole do, roll your briefs down below your belt so it don't lock them in. You'll get support without a lot of carryover. Our bodies are made to adapt and they will adapt to training in gear to much as well, theres only so many different things you can do. Here's an idea, if you have the time between meets do a 6-8 week raw squat cycle then run back through it with gear. Keep everything the same. For my next meet I'm training 90% of the time raw, it's just not right to squat over 700 close to 800 in competition but can't box squat 500 raw with a belt. I'm going to fix it though. Long story short if your squat has stalled like mine take a look back and be honest with yourself, and if you need to, swallow your pride and take off some gear and go at it. You'll be happy you did!!
