I'm taking out squats from madcow 5x5

[gunit]

I've got left knee osgood schlatters, and have finally decided to omit squats. I'm going to do everything else though

 

[rao740]

I would ahve to say the squat is kind of the basis for the whole 5x5 i mean 3 x EW it is made to gain size and strength and it shows that squats and deads are prob the 2 best exercises for putting on mass. just my piece.


rao740

 

[Raptorel]

Absolutely! And actually, in terms of osgood rehab, you need to pay attention to your vastus medialis muscles. If you have an under-developed vastus medialis in your left leg, then you need to train it and get him growing! Squats do train it, however if you feel like you aren't that sure it's the right time to use squats, you can work it out with leg extensions for a short period of time (say like 4 weeks) then lunges or Peterson Step-Ups.

Next, move on a half-squat routine then finally go over to full squats.

 

[ScottK345]

just wondering how old you are? cause I also have osgood schlatters and I remember in junior high how bad it was to do do anything that involved knees. but now im 21 and i can squat fine but my knees are still pretty week, im sure once I get into bigger weights I will start having more problems.

 

[blut wump]

If you remove the squats from the madcow 5x5 you've broken it. The program has squats as the basic driving force and without them it's a non-program as far as dual-factor loading and deloading is concerned.

Get yourself a decent rehab routine for your legs while you continue to push yourself on upper body. Does the problem not also make you unable to perform heavy deads?

 

[gunit]

I do rack pulls instead...

 

[blut wump]

What you could do is substitute rack-pulls for squats and find another meaty exercise to substitute for the deads, maybe good mornings or pull-throughs to work lower down your posterior chain.

You might find it worthwhile to take a read through Guinness5.0's log since he was doing a workout to strengthen his deadlift. It might have some worthwhile tips.

 

[gunit]

I know it sounds kinda stupid but our gym doesn't have a squat rack... ...... i Know its really gay

 

[blut wump]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I meant that since you're dropping the squats what you might be able to do is run a routine similar to the 5x5 but using the rack-pulls instead of squats. Also, since you're not doing deads, either, you'll need a suitable alternative for them to drop into the Wednesday slot.

I guess, without a squat rack, GM aren't an option. Maybe pullthroughs would be ok but you'd need a meaty stack to make them your only sub. Basically, you're either going to have to put a lot of thought into designing a sufficiently challenging routine to emulate the madcow 5x5 or come up with a simpler approach to work your body piecemeal.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Also, Rippetoe recommends sumo deads as a temporary workaround for squats if you have a bad wheel.

But then you might need a sub for deads on Wed, something beefy like what B-dubya suggests. I think the the original Starr 5 x 5 has powerclean or high pull or suchlike.