I tried this once and squated for 2 mins did about 60 Reps with some little breaks to catch my breath. I’m afraid of leg extensions because it once snapped in my knee doing them BUT the squats alone left me breathless to be honest.
Before & after pictures would be nice if you really go through. Keep us updated please.
Stefan did you do half squats or full squats?
I’m doing full squats (not ATG but beyond full bent). I’ve had a few others who have tried this routine and they were talking about 60 reps in 2-2:30 minutes but watching them they did what I call 1/2 squats which is just slightly bent then up.
Going at the rate I go at, I get 20 in the first min, about 18 in the 2nd min and it starts dropping from there.
If your pumping out 60 in 2 minutes i’d say slow down just a tad (one every 3 seconds vs 2 seconds) and see how it goes from there.
I just began this program as well and I did 57 in 2:40. My legs are killing me! 60 in 2:00 seems very fast but that depends on how low you go as per Oldfart. I got as low as I possibly can and it is a great workout!
I have tried this program and it was painful, but felt good. I’ve only tried this for 2:00 and 2:20. The 2:20 seemed like much more than just a 20 second difference. During the rest of your workout it seemed hard to perform the other exercises but I still did it. I think its good to do this at least every other leg workout, unless you are doing it every leg workout. Definitely good for the endurance and development.
I usually do leg press the same day. Might be to much, but I personally feel the need to go heavy after. Thats just me though.
I’d think going heavy would be good also but then again I’ll finish the program to the best of my ability. Might as well do it the way it was designed. I could skip the ‘steps’ and go straight to say 4 minutes but then i’m not getting the full workout of the program by jumping up. I can tell a difference from Day 1 vs where i’m at now.
I took some pictures of my junky looking legs and will post them after I resize them probably next week.
I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks, I have a noticable difference in quad size, might be because I didn’t do extensions before though, those f’n cook my legs.
I stopped doing time and started adding 5 reps each time 2x week. Up to 55 today at 135. This is an excellent way to keep lean, I hope I don’t have any problems with it and continue to do it when I dial back my cals, the fat should strip off. When I get to 100 I’ll time myself again.
I have to say the first couple times my back failed before my legs but it quickly caught up to speed in maybe 4 sessions. So for those of you who quit due to back strain and pain, you should adapt quickly. I have a fractured L5 and can do it.
I do not do the curls though, I do 2 heavy sets of walking lunges (225 ish on the bar, 5 reps each leg) on days opposite the squats. Walking lunges are key due to the deceleration, try it and you don’t have to worry about neglecting your hams and glutes.
I might try and give those heavy lunges a try. ATM i’m doing Plyo’s 1-2 times a week and I put a little extra work on the legs/calves doing them.
Pictures of my Thighs and Calves at the 3:00 minute mark of the program.
Tomorrows 4 minutes should be fun… chopped alot of wood today (sunday) with the old axe and forgot how much of a back workout that can be.
Left Thigh First
Right Thigh
Left Calf
Right Calf
I tried this workout and got up to 5:00. I stopped for two reasons. One, I would get back cramps when I got further into my set. Two, I was not seeing any results.
03/03/08 Monday Morning
Squat 135x4:00 mins (76 reps)
Leg Ext 40x30 50x30 12 sec rest
Leg Curls 70x8 80x8 90x10 12 sec rest
Was a fun day. Did some wood chopping yesterday so my back was a little bit sore. This morning was tuff mainly endurance wise. I was surprised to put up 76 reps in 4 mins, but I was breathing really hard. By the time I finished the leg curls I was wore out. Stretched some then benched a little.
I got a question about the leg curls. I understand that it is 3 sets of 8 and then each set to failure but am confused as to how that actually looks on paper.
Set 1 70x8 rest 10 secs then failure
Set 2 80x8 rest 10 secs then failure
Set 3 90x10 rest 10 secs then failure
I don´t get how you can keep the weight so high after going to failure after each set so I think I´m misunderstanding something. Could you help explain it some? Great work so far!
First 2 sets are just sets of 8. Last set is failure
So I do
Set 1 70x8 Rest 12 seconds
Set 2 80x8 Rest 12 Seconds
Set 3 90x10 (was Fatigued).
I really couldn’t get a ‘full’ rep past 10. I tried 2x’s and both were ‘ehhhhh’ little reps. I was seriously fatigued where after I finished I could barely walk to another bench to sit down and stretch a little.
The entire workout including squats takes maybe 10 minutes (at a 4 minutes of squating straight). Its non-stop all the way.
03/06/07 Thursday Lunch
Squats 135x 4:20 minutes 83 reps
Leg Ext 4x30 5x30 12 second rest
Leg Curls 8x8 9x8 9x8 12 second rest
Let me say wow… Today was a TUFF day when it came to the program. Took some serious mental work to help keep pushing and finishing out the time. I think I came out of the gate a little fast on my reps and as such really had winded myself by the end. Then moving straight to the extensions I was really getting kicked in the teeth with how tired my muscles were. I was hoping to up the weight some but they were almost giving out and it took again alot of mental will power to finish off the last of the 5 on my 2nd extension set. For the curls my legs stopped working at about 5-6 on my 3rd set but I forced out a few more 1/2 - 3/4 curls then was finished. Great workout, HUGE pump, couldnt walk but stretched some and then went back to work and drank my protein shake… almost ready to do another set now…
Are you planning on taking a bit of time off, then repeating this whole thing with higher weight?
I might. ATM i’m actually using 20lbs more than i’m supposed to based on the % of ones max. I’m really interested in seeing how much of an impact it makes to my max. I’ll be honest its really starting to get brutal. I can ‘slow’ down and do less reps and survive a bit more but then again i’m not really pushing myself…
Whats the difference between doing 83 reps in 4:20 and 83 reps in 5 minutes? Sure I could slow my up/down but thats not really going to happen… its just the pause inbetween each rep that I can add too.
I’ll keep feeling it out and see how it goes. I’ll measure my legs on saturday when I do my weigh ins.
Hello everyone, (I have not read the entire thread so I hope my post is appropriate)
My Hungarian Squats are up to 5 min. now whoohoo…
I skipped a day of squatting due to hamstring soreness from an interval training session…but now I am back at it tomorrow. The one thing I might change however is that I will likely do Smith Machine Squats instead of traditional free squatting because now I am getting near 200 reps with 60kg or 135 lbs…and I find that near the end of the session I have a tendency to close my eyes or lose form. I figure by doing it with the Smith Machine it might offer a bit of safety? What do you think?
Wow… 200 reps in 5 minutes? How far are you going down? That works out to 1.5 squats a second. Short of dropping 2 inches i’d be hard press to imagine that many squats for that length of time.
Smith machines are fine. You’ll probably find it easier on you as you get tired but try to remember not to press the weight against the bar for support. It can help as the time increases, but being able use those stabilizers will help alot more in the end.
Either way let us know how it goes. 8 Minutes seemed impossible, but as I wittle away 20 seconds each week its becoming more of a reality now.