Preparing for 935: Day 1

Squat training should be simple; good warmup, proper technique, move heavy stuff fast. Juggernaut owner and American Record holding squatter Chad Wesley Smith takes you through his entire squat training session from warmup to the completion of his last assistance exercise. This was Chad’s 1st intensive training session in preparation for the IPL World Championships in Las Vegas on December 2nd. Chad hopes to move into the top 5 in the WORLD all time by squatting 935.

Today’s session, as all of Chad’s training is, was very simple and straightforward. After a thorough warmup (excuse the chipmunk sound, things were sped up so you didn’t have to spend 7 minutes watching various joint circles) to improve joint mobility and activate the necessary musculature for squatting, Chad does some box jumps (not shown, sorry) to activate his central nervous system for an explosive effort.

Next, Chad works up to 745×2 in the squat. It is important during your warmup sets to focus on your technique on everything from an empty bar to your heaviest weight. Then he backs down for sets of 3 at 545, with only 1 minute rest between sets, this type of work helps Chad ingrain his technique and gives him an opportunity to move submaximal weights as explosively as possible. Then Chad does 6 singles in the dead squat. Chad’s only problem area in his squat is 2-3″ above parallel and dead squats are a great way to address this issue. Chad finishes the training session with some hanging leg raises, strong abs and hips are key to squatting big.