FAQ

This program runs once a week, and that is what I would tell most people to do. The lift is demanding enough that the recovery is where the progress actually happens. Twice a week is the ceiling, and only if you are sleeping and eating like you mean it. One session done properly beats two rushed ones.

A proper clean grip, fingers under the bar, in the front-rack position. If your wrists hurt it is usually poor shoulder mobility, and tight lats are just as often the culprit. Both pull you out of the rack position and dump the weight onto your wrists. Build the flexibility. Straps are a temporary tool while you do, never a permanent solution, and never go cross arm.

Because the bar is sitting on your wrists instead of your shoulders, and that is a mobility problem rather than a grip problem. Tight lats and tight shoulders are both common causes. Work the mobility until the bar sits where it should.

Usually you lost your brace, your core is not strong enough to hold the position, or your quads are not strong enough to reverse it. Brace harder and build the quads with back squats and hack squats. Controlling the descent helps you keep tension into the bottom.

That is usually your glutes. Coming out of the hole is quads, but driving through the middle is glutes, and a weak upper back or core will let you fold there too. Add hip thrusts and split squats, plus rows and direct core work.

Both are great lifts and there is room for both. But the front squat is the better one. It builds your quads and your core harder, it forces an upright torso so your back is not doing the work your legs should be doing, and it is far more honest. You cannot cheat a front squat. The moment anything gives out, the bar comes off the front and the set is over, so the weight on the bar is the weight you actually own.

Eight down to two, finishing on a heavy double. Anywhere in that range works, so do not get locked into one exact set of numbers. What matters is that the reps come down as the weight goes up, you end the session on something heavy, and you keep the same scheme long enough for the weight to move.

Yes. Barefoot is better and it is what I do. You get real ground feel, your foot can actually spread and grip the floor, and your ankles are free to move the way the lift needs them to. If you are going to wear something, wear a flat sole or a proper squat shoe. Never squat in running shoes or anything heavily cushioned. A soft sole under a heavy bar is a platform that moves while you are trying to push off it.

Pick up where you left off, do not try to make it up. If you miss two weeks or more, drop back 10 percent from where you were and build again. Missing time is normal. Panicking about it is what actually costs you.

No, and you should not use one. Squat inside a rack with the safety pins set just below your bottom position. If you miss, the bar rolls off the front of your shoulders and lands on the pins, and you step out of it. A spotter on a front squat is actually the more dangerous option, because there is no good way for them to catch a bar that is falling forward off your shoulders. The rack does that job better than a person can.