Drugs are not an option. I have no reason to add any type of anabolic drugs to my life at my age. I supplement with protein, fish oil, and BCAA's. Thinking about adding creatine..

I have heard a lot of different thoughts on this. My opinion would be for a natural lifter not in any competition, to squat with a stance about shoulder width and going slightly below parallel.
I have taken creatine on and off regularly for awhile now, the only thing I have noticed is when I take it everyday consistently I carry an extra 5 lbs. which I assume is from water retention. But, with that said it's piss cheap so it's worth giving a chance.

that's how I do my squats. :-)

Squatting twice a week. Hitting Paralell

1 heavy low volume day

1 light high volume day

I have always been a big believer that you cannot put on big muscles without moving big weights

Right now I'm squatting 3 days a week, heavy every day. I go below parallel on my warm-up sets and to parallel on my work sets.

On a side note, I tweaked my left wrist yesterday, doing over/under on deads. Been sore all day. I iced it a couple of times. Tomorrow is my off day anyway, but I'll have to see how it feels for Tuesday's lifting. Hopefully it's not a problem.

3 days a week all heavy? When do your legs recover?

I take it on and off because it seems to make me retain some water in my joints, and gives them (elbows and shoulders) a little relief on heavy cycles.

Wow...even when I was a big squatter before I played so much hockey, I never squatted more than twice a week, sometimes 3 times every 2 weeks. That is a lot of stress to recover from and make longterm gains.

I'm currently squatting twice a week. However, I do both squat workouts on the same day about 6-8 hours apart. Workout #1 would be heavy squats with double and triples (every now and then a single or two), not very much volume. Workout #2 would be light squats with 6-12 reps. About 12-15 sets, plus maybe some leg pressing and/or leg extensions if I have the energy. If I squat ass to the ass for the heavy first workout, I would hit parallel or do box squats for the lighter second workout as my hamstrings tend to get sore easily. If I squat to parallel for the heavy workout, I would do atg squats for the lighter second workout.

Right now I'm cutting down to reduce my body fat %. However I'm trying to maintain as much lean mass and strength as possible. I know it's good to mix things up to 'shock' my body, but I'm wondering if I'll better off if I only did parallel squats or atg squats given my goals.

Are you taking creatine monohydrate, creatine ethyl ester or another form of creatine? Some folks think that creatine ethyl ester is just a marketing gimmick, but I know a couple of guys that swears that it causes virtually no water retention when compared to creatine monohydrate.

I seem to be doing pretty well, actually. I go every other day, doing three work sets of 5 reps each at or around my target weight. My hamstrings are pretty much always sore, but I've recovered enough by the time my next workout rolls around that I am able to push it again. I think spin and jogging on my non-lifting days helps with recovery - I stretch after every workout. I think I am getting close to plateau on this split, though. I will be changing it up within the next few weeks.

I've been following a two-day split for about a month and a half now. Squat, Press and Dead one day, Squat, Bench and Power Clean the other. Lifting Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. I've put on about 10lbs doing this over the last couple of months, though I'm sure about half of that is fat, since my diet has not been exemplary.

Woke up late this morning and almost talked myself out of going to the gym. Went in anyway though and hit my legs to start the week. First time I've done squats in a while but felt great.

[quote=PeteSB75;423915]I seem to be doing pretty well, actually. I go every other day, doing three work sets of 5 reps each at or around my target weight. My hamstrings are pretty much always sore, but I've recovered enough by the time my next workout rolls around that I am able to push it again. I think spin and jogging on my non-lifting days helps with recovery - I stretch after every workout. I think I am getting close to plateau on this split, though. I will be changing it up within the next few weeks.

I've been following a two-day split for about a month and a half now. Squat, Press and Dead one day, Squat, Bench and Power Clean the other. Lifting Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. I've put on about 10lbs doing this over the last couple of months, though I'm sure about half of that is fat, since my diet has not been exemplary.[/QUOTE

Im not saying your wrong by any means if it works for you thats gravy.

3x5 isn't nearly enough work sets for me to make substantial gains and to feel a good workout. Even with a good warm up I feel like I am stronger on my 5th,6th,7th sets

Another idea would be to work in box squats..Especially if you are doing power clean and dead lifts...There are many correlations in gains of pulling strength from working box squats and safety squats.

The idea with box squats is that you have that relaxation and then the "clench" or gathering to get off the box.

The idea with safety squats is that you can do such extreme overloading that you get a heavier workout on the legs

Again, you know your body better than anyone these are just some things that worked for me and that I have learned/heard over the years

I am moving enough weight at my current strength that 3 sets at 5 reps is enough that I am tired after. I have only been lifting for about 18mo. For quite a bit of that time, I was tooling around, doing various splits but without a real goal.

I've been following the Starting Strength workout, and I'm really just learning how my body responds to this stuff. Prior to this workout cycle, I'd not followed a single workout plan for long enough to really see it's effects. Right now, I'm feeling good and am starting to look for some more things to add in.

Doing some research on what I want to do from here, but I think it will be expanding my current workout a bit and incorporating a few more exercises. I've been reading Practical Programming for Strength Training, (Rippetoe and Kilgore, same authors as Starting Strength) and I think I'm going to be looking at their intermediate splits by the end of the month. I don't recall exactly what that incorporates, but I'll post it up after I get home and re-read that section. I am feeling the need for a change, however, as my progress has definitely slowed.

Mu current supplement contains creatine monohydrate, creatine malate and creatine taurinate.

I haven't tried the creatine ethyl ester, as the manufacturers who are marketing it aren't any of the names I necessarily trust. I am not sure if I would even be interested though, as for my purposes, the water retention in my joints is actually a desired effect.

What brands to your guys use, do you know?

Good upper back day today.

Triplex pulls from the ground -- from 135 to 315 (the 3 wide-grip sets were from the hang).

Barbell bent-over rows -- 135 x 10, 185 x 8, 225 x 6, 245 x 6, 275 x 5

Close-grip t-bar rows -- 3 pies x 8,6,5

Pull-down abs as part of warmup and cool down -- 4 x 10-12 @ 200

I felt real good today. My right ham is bothering me from racquetball; so I'm gonna take it easy on leg stuff for a while; but my lats, traps, and shoulders are feeling pretty good.

Heavy shoulder day for me, strength keeps increasing on every lift every workout. Knock on wood. :-)

After the weekend away with the family, I am drained and talked myself out of the gym today. Will have to double up and hit both legs, chest, and triceps tomorrow.

Bench-445x1, first press was smoked, second one came down and back way too far I bailed on it.
That is all.

Sorry for the delay Pete, been a real ***** to get to the post office this week. And I also realized I am out of PM Boxes...

I bought a new gym bag, Sports Authority had a nice sale this weekend. UnderArmour bag retail at 55$ picked that and a pair of shorts up for 40 beans.

No worries man. After I tweaked my wrist on Saturday, I popped over to sports authority and picked up some basic straps. I'll use them when I dead again on Thursday.

Good bench 190x4,4,2 (new PR) and good squat 315x5,5,5 this morning. My Power Clean was off, so I spent those sets working on my form - Talking to a guy there, and I'm apparently not exploding enough, using my arms too much. Still not sure that I've really got it down, tbh, so I'll work the form again next time I lift it.

Managed to stumble out the door at 5:30 this morning. Had a great workout, hit chest and abs then did a short run on the treadmill. Great way to start the day.