Variations FTW!
When you first start weight training the progression is pretty straightforward as you're adding weight to the bar almost every session. This honeymoon period can last several months, but eventually other strategies have to be employed to keep progressing.
The answer is normally found in increasing the volume. The more you do that lift, the stronger you'll get at it. Unfortunately, just repeating a workout, especially a heavy one can also lead to fatigue and even regression. To combat this, variations of a lift can be used with lighter loads, and depending on the variation chosen, it could have the added benefit of targeting a weak point.
Right now, I'm squatting 3 times a week (and doing similar to this with the bench press too) in a Heavy/Medium/Light pattern:
| Workout | Lift | Load | Set Reps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Main Squat | Heavy | 5 |
| Wednesday | Squat with Chains | Medium | 5 |
| Friday | Tempo Squat | Light | 8 |
Squatting with chains gives you a varying load in each rep. At the top of the rep, you have the weight of the barbell and the plates + the weight of the chains. At the bottom of the rep, a fair portion of the weight of the chains is now only being felt by the floor. In the video, I've 90kg on the bar with 40kg of chains, for ~130kg at the top and maybe ~110kg at the bottom. This top weight is similar to the weight I'd use on my main squat, but because it's lighter at the bottom, it's not producing the same overall fatigue. Also, the lighter weight at the bottom, allows me to focus on getting faster out of the hole, to get the benefit of that initial velocity for the remainder of the rep, which is something I need to work at.
The tempo squat means taking 3 seconds to do both the descent and ascent. Because each rep is in slow motion, you can really focus on your body position - I've struggled with my mobility in just getting into a decent squat position, and had issues with balance and the bar drifting away from mid-foot, but these helped cure a lot of my problems and now serve to police my form and keep it in check. Time under tension is significantly increased here too, so the weight feels heavier that it would normally, but again without inflicting too much fatigue.
Although the 2 variations are really just there to help progress the main lift all 3 will typically get stronger together.
So, variety is not just the spice of life, it's also the key to getting stronger!