2/24/09 - Day 1 of 30 Day Squat Challenge

I read a paper titles "The Gable Method" by Dan John the other day. It outlines Dan's "secrets" of training. One of Gable's philosophies is

"If it is important, do it every day. If it's not important, don't do it at all."

Dan talks about his weak front squat and how he strengthened the movement by working on it every day. His prescription is to perform 3 sets of 8 reps of the movement daily to master it.

Why not? My back squat has always been weak and if I have read it once, I have read it a million times, the back squat is the most important exercise for total body strength.

After reading the back squat chapter in "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore and Dan John's article, I have decided on a 30 day challenge, 3 sets of 8 reps of 135lb back squats in perfect form to depth.

I began with 3 sets of overhead squats using only the Oly bar, then preceded to perform 2 sets 8 reps of 135lb back squats. Even though the challenge called for 3 sets, I stopped at 2 since I had already performed the overhead squats.