How to increase work capacity

[justgettingstarted]

How can I increase my work capacity on Squats? My legs feel fine, but my lungs and mid back and done after only a few heavy sets and my legs feel like they just got started.

[MRmichael.hooker]

How can I increase my work capacity on Squats? My legs feel fine, but my lungs and mid back and done after only a few heavy sets and my legs feel like they just got started.

I feel your struggle. I took off a lot of time from squats due to an injury. When I finally got back under the bar, it was killing me. I'm good now and the biggest changes I personally made were higher reps leading up to my main sets and cardio. For example, if my working set was 450; everything up until 315 would be sets of 10. Then after I completed my 450 for w/e, I'd drop back down to 225 and do another set or 2 of 10.
Cardio, I started doing more HIIT than before and started really focusing on miles instead of time. Instead of "30mins of cardio today", it'd be "I'm going to do 3 miles on the elliptical and 2 on the bike" or w/e. And would set a pace that I had to beat for each mile.
In a nut shell, more reps & faster cardio to build up lung strength were what really helped me just overcome exactly what you're going through.

[justgettingstarted]

Thanks brother I will try it this weekend.

[Jay Nera]

I like using CAT squats to build my work capacity.

60% for the whole thing.
Focus on descending fast
No bouncing at the bottom
Accelerate accelerate accelerate. Maximal Effort.
take 2-2:30 minutes rest between sets.

Start w 5x5 (should take 15 minutes)
every week add a set so long as the sets are good quality
build your way up to 8 sets in 25 minutes.

Always followed by 5x5 box jumps and 3x 15 Bulgarian Split squats.

I've gone months of just doing 8x5 @ 60 to build my squat and then tested and still hit 80%x8 reps and within 20 lbs of my PR. Without lifting heavy at all!!

[justgettingstarted]

Will definitely try that then. Thanks Jay

[Rex]

How can I increase my work capacity on Squats? My legs feel fine, but my lungs and mid back and done after only a few heavy sets and my legs feel like they just got started.

Sounds like your execution is focused to the wrong muscle groups. Squatting should definitely be most taxing to your legs (Lungs of course, too. But that´s a given).
You should look into changing your form so your legs do most of the lift instead of your lower back.

[justgettingstarted]

I will try and setup a camera where i can get a better look at my form, thanks.

[Rex]

I will try and setup a camera where i can get a better look at my form, thanks.

That´s the best way to do that. Good idea

[justgettingstarted]

Rex after recording the film i realized i was not bracing on work reps instead i was leaning forward putting more of the work on my back almost like good mornings coming out of the hole. Paid better attention to my bracing and killed my legs on Sunday.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[StanMajors]

I will try and setup a camera where i can get a better look at my form, thanks.

I may have to begin doing this as well, just to keep my form in check.

[Nmowery]

I watched a video a while back with Stan efferding lifting with Chad Wesley smith, where Stan was putting them both through 20 rep squat sets and farmers carries for distance. Stan mentioned that for both, he builds work capacity by timing how long he needs between sets the first time around with a given weight, then will slowly reduce rest times in subsequent workouts. You could obviously apply this general approach to any other lift or rep scheme to achieve the same.

[justgettingstarted]

That sounds like it would also work.

Thanks

[Jay Nera]

There are many many ways.

But to really simplify it...and hopefully not overly... all one needs to do to build work capacity is to progressively increase the amount of work you do in a trianing session.
We can also not only apply this to the training session, but also over a period of time. Whether we are discussing a short period of time, say 25 minutes, OR a week.

short example:
25 minutes. squats...volume in period of time....wk1 5x5@60...wk2 5x6@60...wk3 5x7@60....wk4 5x8@60
THEN, one could try to shorten that 5x8 intoless time.....(escalating density) 24 minutes....23 minutes.....20 minutes....then add weight and start all over.
This is how i progress my CAT squats sometimes.

[justgettingstarted]

Thanks Jay i will definitely try that, thanks