Squat subs

[stinkynathan]

I've been doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program for a few weeks now and am liking how things are going. I'll be heading out of town for the next 11 days. I'll have access to Olympic bars and enough plates/freeweights to do everything but my squats. I'm at about 200# 5x5 now; I definitely can't clean that much weight. Any ideas on subs?

I don't remember if there are bar stands but I know they don't have a cage there. Depending on how things are set up, I might be able to pick up a bar in the down position and start once I'm up and get through the workouts that way.

The only other thing I could think of is to sub tabata squats...but how many sets would be equivalent to 5x5?

Any ideas?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Front squats. Your body can generally clean a fair amount. Since you only wanna do 70-75% of the weight you're doing now on your back squat for front squat, it should only be about 140-150 that you'd need to clean. That's pretty manageable.

EDIT: Was speaking engrish 'cause I was sleepy. Had to fix it.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Front squats. You can clean a fair amount and you only wanna do 70-75% of the weight you're doing now on your back squat. That would only be 140-150 to be cleans which is totally manageable.

This. Clean whatever you can and front squat that for a 5x5. If it's too easy (because your clean is weak), do some extra reps. At the very least, it's a great opportunity to work on your cleans, which are a fantastic exercise themselves (and include a squat if you do them properly).

 

[katank]

Front squats like SC and brikis mentioned is probably the best sub.

Another option might be heavy DB DLs (say 100# ones) which can be squat-like in nature and doesn't require any cleaning off the floor. That said, working your cleans will be great for explosive posterior chain development.

Also, tabata squats like you were considering is also a decent thing to do, especially the bottom to bottom variety ("resting" in squat stance). This will work more power/endurance than strength and thus can't be subbed rep for rep. However, it should still help provide good stimuli. 11 days isn't long enough to cause significant regression, particularly if you work with any of these subs. A bit of rest may even do you some good as 5x5 can be stressful on the CNS.