Build Muscle Up with Super Squats - AKA 20-rep squats

20 rep squat RESULTS: Workout logs, and 30 pounds gained.

2010-07-14T14:10:00.001-07:00

This is a copy of what I wrote in my workout log as I underwent the full 20-rep squat routine. When doing this routine, I gained 29 pounds (from 197 to 226), and my 20-rep squat went from 135 lbs to 235 lbs.

Dec 28, 2009: After a long layoff from lifting I decided to do a headfirst dive back into lifting and try this out. So far I'm up from 197 to 212 pounds and my 20 repper is up from 135 to 185. This is from Dec 1 to 19 as I've been off base for the holidays. My goal is to twenty rep 300 pounds eventually, then cut off whatever fat I happen to gain in the process of doing so. I'll keep posting progress here for accountability purposes. Lifting resumes on the third of January. Anyone else doing or wanna do this with me?

So far my best gains, aside from legs, have been in my back and shoulders.

Jan 02, 2010: Just back from the 2 week break, and my better judgment told me to ease my way back in.

So I did an upside down cannonball instead.

195 x 21

Hardest set yet of course. I do nothing on break, then dive in with ten pounds more, of course I'm gonna struggle. After rep thirteen I stood there with the bar on my shoulders for almost a minute before fourteen. I closed the workout with some pulldowns and machinated chest presses to failure. Next workout: the big 200!

Jan 06 2010: Delayed my workout a day due to excessive doms from doing the first squat day in 2 weeks. So today...

200 x 22

Finally hit the big dual century mark. Some situational depression and earlier moving of very heavy furniture hindered me, and rep 5 almost pinned me. How I gutted out 22, I have NO idea. Finished off with some failure sets of dips and machine rows.

Jan 08 2010: Crap, another avoidance of disaster.

205 x 20

I nearly got pinned on reps 6 and 8 due to rolling forward onto my toes. Obviously I'm losing some concentration somewhere in that rep range because I kicked out the last 12 reps with fine form. If I have the same issue next time though I may need to drop weight in order to work on form and concentration.

Normally I top 20 but today after getting pinned twice and somehow recovering twice, 20 was all I could muster.

My weight is getting closer to 220 and I just keep getting bigger and more muscular. I notice carryover elsewhere too - my one minute pushup test came up on tuesday and I've gone from 52 to 63 since beginning this. Run time is still in the 11:30-40 range for 1.8 miles, but all my runs seem to fall on the day after squatting, so who knows what they would be otherwise.

Jan 10 2010: Hooah!!!

210 x 21

This went up easier than any of the ones I've done after the new year, easier than any since I did 185. I didn't get pinned once, the first ten reps flew, and I kept my heels on the ground the whole time.

Warmed up with overhead squats, sots presses, snatches and cleans, all bar-only. Used to warm up with only OH squats so maybe that helped. Either way, this was 'the motivator'. Finished with three sets of dips and three sets of machine rows.

20 rep squat RESULTS: Workout logs, and 30 pounds gained.

2010-07-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Jan 13 2010: Dear diary; mood, apathetic.

215 x 22

Just kidding about the apathetic part, as today was a VERY good day! I lifted my toes up during my squats, forcing me farther back onto my heels. As a result, my back took way less of a beating than usual today. Rest pauses between reps were significantly shorter, and the set seemed to fly by.

Crazy stuff. In early december 215 would have pinned me on the first rep. Now I'm 22-repping it.

Finished with 2 sets pulldowns and 2 sets DB bench presses, and a nice DC style extreme chest stretch

Jan 16 2010:

220 x 20

Didn't feel so hot today, due to missing dinner last night, as well as playing a bit too much Dance Dance Revolution last night. Hadn't played in years, couldn't resist the opportunity.

The workout is getting more and more physically taxing, even though the reps aren't really getting any tougher overall to put up. Rep 5 to 10 sucked again, rep 15 to 20 went up the easiest. Yes I am weird. I was so done after 20 though, I had no more energy for rep 21.

It's been such a strange journey. I'm seeing stacks of plates pile up sideways on the barbell that would have been difficult if not impossible to max out on a month ago. Even as I post it here I still have to take a second glance. Like did I really just do 220? I remember when 155 nearly nailed me. Now it would seem light as hell. The more bend I notice in the barbell as I progress, the more awesome I feel.

Phew. Just 5 pounds away from two plates. 2 plates here I come!!!

Jan 19 2010: 225 x 21

It was great fun loading up those two plates per side. It just looks like such a substantial weight compared to my old training weights. Reps kicked my ass but form felt very solid today and I didn't have any 'doubter' reps. Solid day, finished with dips and pulldowns.

Jan 21 2010: 230 x 20

It was rough going today, thank you Air Force PT. Had a mandatory 3.5 mile 'run' a few hours earlier, really more of a jog, and I jogged as slowly as possible knowing that this was coming, but it still messed me up. Oh well, at least I made it to twenty. Form was a little rough on the last five reps, and a couple times I almost got stopped by muscle failure mid rep, but I pulled it off.

Pt included a crapload of pushups already, so I closed it with a set of situps and called it a night.

Jan 23 2010: 235 x 20

Ha. 100 pounds more than when I started the routine. hard to believe that three weeks ago when I started up again, and started the thread, that I would almost be pinned by 200 lbs. I had nothing left after rep 20. After I racked the weight and began taking the plates off, I had to squeeze the collars with two hands to remove them, cuz my grip was so exhausted from white-knuckling the barbell.

Reps were difficult but manageable, til reps 18-20 when I almost got stuck halfway up. I still made it though! Finished with 3 sets pulldowns, 3 sets machine chest presses, and 2 sets dumbbell curls.

seeing my training weight up here weirds me out even as I type it. Not so long ago 235 would have flattened me before I even got off one rep. I just knocked off 20 reps of this weight. And in less than 2 months, I've completely reversed almost 4 years of not doing any serious lifting, and then some. I've never even been close to strong enough for a 235 lb twenty repper. Heck, not even for a 195 pound twenty repper. In almost every auxiliary lift I do, I'm lifting my all time highest.

Jan 26 2010: I am 226 now and was 197 when I began the routine 6 1/2 weeks ago.

Super Squats/Milk Squats - what are they?

2009-08-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

It's the simplest weight-gainer routine ever. It's also possibly the most physically grueling. It's influenced a multitude of modern-day routines, such as Doggcrapp/DC training and High Intensity Training/HIT.

What is it? 20-rep squats.

First introduced in America in the book Super Squats, by Randall Strossen, 20-rep squats are the king of weight-gaining routines. What's the premise? As Strossen said in his book, you do 20-reps of a weight you can normally do for ten reps.

You can mix a few reps of other things in (10 reps of bench here, 10 reps of pulldowns etc), but personally, I recommend you DON'T do that. After grinding out 20 squats in a row, you will be spent.

So, if you can fairly reliably squat a weight for 10-reps, here's what you do: Take the weight off the rack, on your back. Squat it. Keep squatting. When you start to gas out, stop in the stand-up position between reps and breathe deeply, as many times as you need to. Squat again. Breathe again. Squat again.

Yes, 20 reps of squatting, completed by guts and guts alone, will seem like an eternity. After you finish that 20th rep, you will want to die. Strossen recommends following this up by laying back flat on a bench-press bench, and doing 20 light dumbbell pullovers - the key is light. They are meant to stretch the ribcage, but just as important, they are an excellent cooldown after your squat-a-thon.

Anyways, that is your workout. 20 breathing squats, 20 pullovers. How often do you do this? MWF. 3 times per week max. 2 times a week is good too. Add 5 pounds every workout. You might start this with 100 pounds, do this routine for 6 weeks, doing a total of 15 workouts (an average of 2.5 workouts per week). If you begin this routine squatting 100 lbs for 20 reps, you will end it squatting 175 lbs for 20 reps.

Do this routine for 6 weeks, MAXIMUM. You WILL burn out if you try to extend it. Switch to something else for 6 weeks, then come back to this one. Or rest for a week, do something else for 4 weeks, rest another week, and then come back.

What do you eat on this routine? EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. Randall Strossen again, recommends drinking a gallon of milk per day. I share this recommendation. If you're really hardcore, guzzle half a gallon as a post-workout meal. If you're vegan or lactose intolerant, there are certainly workarounds, E.G. loads of rice and beans, nuts, corn, etc, or soymilk. Either way, get a ton of protein, and EAT EAT EAT. Eat everything in sight. Eat constantly, right up until the point that you go to bed. And by the way, sleep 8-hour nights.

Will you gain weight? I did. I made the mistake of adding olympic lifts to my version of this routine, rendering me capable of doing just 3-4 workouts every 2 weeks. Nevertheless, I gained 18 pounds in 5 weeks. Dragondoor.com's Marty Singer has done the purist's version of this routine - and gained 30 pounds in 6 weeks. Give it a shot.