Raw Squatting
By Matt Rhodes
For www.EliteFTS.com

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It seems that the “in” thing to do is to lift raw or RAW. The RAW brigade has their own thoughts on lifting, the use of gear, and other things. Honestly, I could care less what they think. Wear a belt and knee wraps if you want. Raw, to me, is sans the suit and briefs. To everyone who just wants to lift to get bigger and/or stronger—and not necessarily powerlifters—here is some raw training that has helped me improve my squat over the past year.

Before I get into the plan, let me explain a few things. I think training for raw squatting and geared squatting is basically the same. I believe there is a HUGE carryover from raw squatting to geared squatting unlike in the bench press. I incorporate raw squatting into my meet training cycles. If you’ve watched the videos on Matt Kroczaleski’s and Donnie Thompson’s sites, you’ve seen them do some awesome raw work. The weights they move without gear is incredible, and obviously, has a huge carryover to their contest squats.

So, without further rambling, here’s a sample plan that has worked very well for me.

Week 1: 5RM

Week 2: New 5RM

Week 3: 1RM

Week 4: Deload

Week 5: 3RM

Week 6: New 3RM

Week 7: New 1RM

Week 8: Deload

Meet

There are a few different things you can do if you want to continue the cycle a few more weeks. I'll get into that a little later. I imagine the biggest question (it should be at least) on everyone’s mind is, “What weight do I start with?” I have no idea. I don’t even remember how I came up with my starting weight, which was 500 lbs. However, with a little thought, you can all figure it out for yourselves. Hopefully, I can help in that process.

Training cycle goals

1. Never miss a weight.

2. Meet or exceed the rep goal each week.

3. Leave a little in the bag after each RM is reached.

4. Get bigger and/or stronger and build confidence in your squat.

So, how do you go about selecting your starting weight? Well, what weight do you absolutely know that you can squat for five reps? If you were sick, your girlfriend/boyfriend broke up with you that morning, and you just found out that you missed the sale at EFS, what weight could you get for five reps? That’s how I might go about selecting your starting weight.

So, here’s a sample training cycle for someone who can squat 315 lbs for five reps easily.

Warm up

Bar X (whatever it takes to loosen your hips, groin, and back up)

135 X 5

185 X 5

225 X 3

275 X 1

315 X 5

Done! Move on to the next exercise.

I use 50-lb jumps, but I recommend using 20-lb jumps until you really know how your body will react and what types of raw loads you can handle. It will take some time, but you’ll figure out what jumps to make for you.

Now, here’s the cycle:

Week 1: 315 X 5

Week 2: 335 X 5

Week 3: 405 X 1 (This is just a guess. If you have a 1RM, try to break that by 5–10 lbs for your first 1RM.)

Week 4: Deload/Dynamic effort work (In this particular scenario, I might use 4–8 X 2 at 275 lbs)

Week 5: 355 X 3

Week 6: 375 X 3

Week 7: 425 X 1

Week 8: Deload (same as above)

If you want to extend the cycle, you can do a few things:

#1. Start over at week 2 (335 X 5 and add 20 lbs to each week’s weights. So at the end of the second cycle, you’ll hit 395 X 3 and 445 X 1.)

#2. Do one more four-week cycle of triples. So in the example above, it would look like this:

Week 9: 395 X 3

Week 10: 415 X 3

Week 11: 445 X 1

Week 12: Deload

This should add some strength and size to your body. If you noticed, it’s a little bit of progressive overload mixed in with some traditional max effort and dynamic effort work. After the squat work, I usually move on to deadlift work. I use rack pulls, pulls from the floor, and good mornings for 1–5 reps (good mornings, 3–5 reps). Follow that up with some low back/hamstring work and abdominal work.

1. Squat

2. Deadlift variation

3. Back raises

4. Sit-ups

This is by no means the holy grail of raw training. It has worked well for me and has helped me increase my squat numbers as well as my confidence in my squatting ability. Give it a try and see how it works for you.