300 lb squat

[blackbelt2k]

Dammnit! I want to break a 300lb squat so bad, and rep it. Currently I deloaded, and am on week 2 of texas method; did 5x5 of 280lb this monday. For those of you who have broken this barrier, where were your sticking points?
Did you stall at a certain weight before you broke it?
What did you do when you stalled?
Any and all input welcomed.

 

[kickureface]

im sure you will get it if you do a 1rm.
i was doing SS when i broke it, but i constantly stalled at 275-280ish being a ***** and having the wrong form. i got to 305 3x5 and 310x3 with pretty bad form so i gave it up and switched to texas
if you're increasing 5lbs each time, gl. it's so ****ing slow!

 

[MrS]

you do 280x5x5 and can't do 300 lbs once?
It's mental.

 

[insidious]

you do 280x5x5 and can't do 300 lbs once?
It's mental.

Precisely!

 

[Smack]

I think this barrier is more psychological than physical. Here, we use KGs rather than lbs, and my sticking points are 100KG, 125KG, etc.

 

[blackbelt2k]

well 3 weeks ago, i was could only do 1 set of 5 at 280. I was surprised myself when i banged out 5 sets on monday. For a while, 300lbs seems so elusive, i guess im just really excited to break it finally.

 

[mrRuckus]

My 5x5 max and 1RM are 75 lbs apart. 5x5 at 280 lbs and unable to do 300 just sounds weird. Do you have good form on the 5x5?!

If you are only on week 2 of the texas method just keep increasing that 5x5. It WILL increase the 1rm. The whole point of the texas method is for the volume/intensity of Monday to drive the progress of Friday's lifts with wednesday being used to actively rest from monday and get you ready for Friday's intensity.

I'm +15 lbs on my 1rm and +30 lbs on my 5x5 in a month of using the texas method.


If the 5x5 squats stall and you can't get it going again, try box squats 5x5 on monday instead and keep heavy squatting on friday. Rippetoe himself says he uses that programming for his trainees sometimes.

 

[MrS]

You can do 25 reps with 280 lbs and not ONE with 300lbs?
sounds a bit strange.

 

[kickureface]

he wants to rep it. surely he can 1rm it

 

[Quiksilver]

I was repping 315 on a cutting diet last year, and hope to blow past that number this year..

My sticking point in the 300+ range was unracking the bar, believe it or not. If I unracked it and it felt heavy, then I couldn't get one rep out. If I unracked it and it felt light, I had to hold myself back from doing more than the workout specified.

Confidence and on-the-spot energy played a part for me at that point.

Accessory exercises helped immensely for me.. lunges, romanian deads, 20 rep squats... even back exercises helped.

The thing that really helped my squat improve was learning to tense your entire body and really throw your entire body into the bar rather than just your quads.

 

[kickureface]

you aren't supposed to be using your quads that much

 

[Prod]

You can try doing heavy walkout on a different workout. Powerlifters use this, and even though I don't like the sport myself, some of their training methods are interesting.

What this basically is, you set the safety pins high and do a walkout with the weight (has to be around your 1 rep max or higher), holding it on your traps/shoulders, to get used to it. Then you rack it, and rinse and repeat.