Squat Plateau
 

So I'm starting to plateau on my squats in my Starting Strength routine. I've got a few thoughts on why this may be, so I figured I'd throw them out there and hopefully get some advice.

I'm 5'8" 170 lbs right now. Since I've been in a fat loss prop bet (ends Oct. 8th), losing fat has been priority over gaining muscle mass. My squat seems to have peaked at around 160 lbs. (3x5) and it has been stuck for about 4 workouts now. 160lbs is a heavy squat to me. I'm completely gassed after I finish the work sets and this is the max weight that I feel I can do w/o a complete breakdown in form. I'm doing this 3x per week along with deadlifts once or twice a week. Because my priority is losing fat, I've been eating very clean and at a caloric deficit. I'm not one to log my diet but I'm very certain that my diet right now is in the 1800 to 2000 cal/day range. My sleep habits aren't perfect, but I do the best I can, usually getting 7 hours of sleep a night.

My questions are this:
So, is it possible that b/c I'm at a caloric deficit, I'm not putting on enough muscle to be able to overcome the 160lb. squat?
Is it possible that b/c this is a heavy squat 3x a week that I'm not recovering fast enough? An interesting thing that happened this week was that my squat felt good on Monday and weak on Friday. Am I going too hard?
Have I peaked on the Starting Strength routine? If so, should I move over to a 5x5 routine where I won't be lifting heavy squats every workout?
Or should I just reset back a little bit, say drop my squat down to 145 or so and try to slowly work back up and continue my same routine?
An interesting note is I don't have any microplates at my gym, so 5lbs. is the smallest increment I can jump up. Could this be a part of the problem?

Re: Squat Plateau
 

How many times have you reset the squat? After one reset, I recommend moving to "the gym" variation of Starting Strength once you've worked back up to your old max.

You can read about it on the bb forums. Basically its doing deadlifts only once a week and doing front squats (or light back squats) on that day instead of heavy back squats. On non-deadlifting days you do either pullups or pendlay rows, or you can alternate.

Once you plateau on that, do another reset. I don't think microplates are an issue, and I doubt that you've milked SS for all it's worth yet. Two squat resets, or three plateaus, is the formula.

Re: Squat Plateau
 

[ QUOTE ]
How many times have you reset the squat? After one reset, I recommend moving to "the gym" variation of Starting Strength once you've worked back up to your old max.

You can read about it on the bb forums. Basically its doing deadlifts only once a week and doing front squats (or light back squats) on that day instead of heavy back squats. On non-deadlifting days you do either pullups or pendlay rows, or you can alternate.

Once you plateau on that, do another reset. I don't think microplates are an issue, and I doubt that you've milked SS for all it's worth yet. Two squat resets, or three plateaus, is the formula.

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I'll look for that on the bb forum, thanks. What weight do I need to reset to?

Re: Squat Plateau
 

It's very hard to increase your squat while you are losing weight.

Re: Squat Plateau
 

I had the same problem. Basically after two months I was no longer able to keep adding more weight even though I was getting 4 days rest between workouts. What solved the problem for me was incorporating suitcase deadlifts immediately after doing squats. I think suitcase deadlifts help because they build a lot of strength at the bottom which is where most people are weakest, and they hammer the stabilizing muscles.

Re: Squat Plateau
 

Doug, you may be on to something. When I'm deep in the hole on my squats and the weight is heavy, I have a problem with my knees coming together. Could this be due to flexibility issues or weak stabilizing muscles? Or both?

Expert MS Paint diagram for illustration:
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0205/squat.jpg

Re: Squat Plateau
 

check out the dan john video for squats...practice doing goblet and preacher (i think) squats, that will help keep your keeps out...also, when you are rising focus on the spreading the floor with your feet, this helps with keeping your knees out (at least for me)...also check out t-nation archives for old squat articles, there are tons...

Re: Squat Plateau
 

I think there are some band exercises to work that out. Don't know them off the top of my head.

Re: Squat Plateau
 

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I think there are some band exercises to work that out. Don't know them off the top of my head.

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Well, I do have bands...

Re: Squat Plateau
 

try side walks w/ thew band around your knees...strngthens the glutes and will help you keep your knees out...