Variation and "finishing" exercises.

[CyniQ]

I am a compound movements kind of guy. The vast majority of my time in the gym is spent performing multi-joint movements. Presses, squats, deadlifts that sort of thing.

My brother-in-law started lifting with this guy he works with and is now constantly gushing about all these great exercises he's learning. Example: They are now doing "overhead squats". This is squating with the bar over your head like you just completed a power snatch or military press. So I asked him, "How much weight can you normally squat?". He says about 135# (hes very new). Okay. Then I said, "How much weight can you 'overhead squat'?" To which he replies "Just the bar." Then how is it possible that this is a good exercise for building mass in your legs? They also do leg curls with their shoes off and dumbells cupped with their feet. lol.

I totally understand that you have to keep the workouts interesting. Almost anything you've got to do to keep you going. This just seems ridiculous to me. Anyone else??

[Grizzly]

I think at some point, you could become proficient enough to where you could OH squat with a respectable amount of weight and make it a pretty good exercise for legs.

I tossed around using OH squats before. I have a severly limited schedule which precluded "real" workouts. I'm still pretty much on that schedule, but whatever. Anyhow, I was going to do:

Day 1- Squat, chins

Day 2- OH Squat, bench

Day 3- Squat press, chins

Personally, if I don't squat several times a week, my squat sucks because I get out of the groove and constantly need to reaclimate myself to the motion. (ok, my squat sucks either way, but...) So, in the interest of keeping my joints/muscle flexible/in the groove, I thought up that plan. It also, by reason of OH squats and SP forcing you to use less weight, came out to be a varied intensity program; similar to the loading scheme of the 5X5.

By choosing said exercises, I woudl have accomplished the above plus have gotten great core work(oh squats) and hit the old delts/core(Squat press). Of course, I never did end up doing this workout, but it was a plan I came up with.

So, that's my ideas on the matter.

[CyniQ]

I just can't wrap my head around the concept of not going all out. I realize that you must vary your training. for example. For the next 8 wks I squat 5sets of 5, trying to increase by 5lbs every wk. The following 8wks I squat 3 of 12. Either way I'm going all out. But if I OH squat I'm limited by the strength of my arms, shoulders, core. As I see it those are the only muscles getting a real workout.

[Madcow2]

Anybody squating 135 needs to spend more time on the basics and not worry so much about the exotics. Learn and have fun but the overwhelming majority of their emphasis should be on improving the core compound movements. You crawl before you walk.