Anyone read the book Super Squats by Dr. Strossen? What do you think of the one set of 20 idea? Has this worked for anyone? I sometimes do one set of 20 for my squat workout but I have never tried this out exclusively. For any one that has not tried this, do so it is a killer. All you have to do is put a weight on the bar that you could do for 10 reps. and do it 20 reps. It really kicks ass or I should say, it will really kick your ass.
PS try not to vomit.
For those who do this workout it will actually be more effective and you’ll be able to use more weight for more reps if you first slowly build up to a heavier weight for lower reps (no more than 5 per set) and then drop back down to your normal 10rm weight and attempt to knock out 20 reps. Ian King has some of his limping workouts written like this if I recall.
man i can agree with you on the 20 rep squat. heres a crazy one i did a few months ago. 20 rep squat, heavy set of 8, then, if you can imagine this, a freaking drop set of 6-6-6. it doesnt take that long, but if you dont puke i crown you king of the world.
did this type of training for quads while on mag 10. One set of 20 reps. Pavel T. advocated this type of squat workout for mass, and alls i can say is that it works…i put on about an inch and a 1/2 in the two week period.
I first encountered the “breathing(or lack thereof) squats” while doing ian king’s leg program. I had to be picked up off the floor basically. Always use a spotter.
They’re fuckin great. 
Put it this way. If you don’t get results YOU’VE been doing it wrong. That routine has been around for about 75 years & has been worked for countless #'s of lifters. John Grimek gained 12lbs in a week, John Davis used it to gain from 180lbs to more than 220, Peary Rader gained 75lbs over 2yrs, others have gained 100lbs in a year, etc. I’m going to do it starting in May & hopefully I’ll get up to 240 fairly quickly (up from ~205). I like this quote by Rader:‘Right here I’ll say that if you’re afraid of work please don’t try the squat program. Be satisfied with your present skinny condition & try to geet as much fun from likfe as your skinny ccondition allows.’ Other good books on this routine are The Rader Master Method Bodybuilding & Weight Gaining System by Peary Rader, The Mark Berry Courses by Mark Berry & The Production of Muscular Bulk by Michael Salvati, all available from Bill Hinbern.
Doug Hepburn did 500 for 38 on a program like that btw.
i’m having trouble understanding how someone is going to knock off 20 reps with their 10RM…obvious their 10RM weight wasn’t really their 10RM if they can do 20 with it. Thats is not how you calculate your starting weight for the breathing squat.
hey man funny you should mention this
i got the book and am on my 6th week
i modified my eating to try to lose BF instead of the traditional ‘bulking’
scale wise my weight stayed the same(255-260)
i’m not sure how much my BF went down because i changed gyms and the new one had no type of BF measurement (so i guess i need to buy one)
but the mirror tells me BF is defeinatly down
my lifts have all gone up and even gained size on things such as arms …etc
i will be changing my routine for a few weeks…maybe 5x5 or something…i’m not sure yet
but i am definatly gonna go back to supersquats
as soon as i think i am able to(dont want my body to get too used to it)
jasen
I think you need pretty good cardiovascular fitness for this one too… it definetly got my blood pumping, had to take it carefully so i didnt pass out.
For me, I think I still found more sets of lower reps, with greater weight did more for both size and strength. Might be a different story if you are on Mag10 or something though.
I’ve tried the 20 rep squats and they seemed more like hellish cardio. An interesting change of pace, though. Like others who have already pointed this out, I got better results from using heavier weight and multiple sets of 5 reps with limited rest (60 seconds). My heart rate went almost as high, but with the rest (60 seconds ain’t all that much), I wasn’t heaving during the set and I maintained much better control of my form during reps.
The idea behind it is that you basically do whatever you have to do to get the 20 reps. Normally, when you do a set you have a pretty steady rhythm, say a 3-1-2-2 cadence. Well, with the 20 reppers, you pause as much as you need to, gasp like a beached whale, grunt, yell, cuss, anything, but don’t break form. You just put it in your mind you’re doing 20 reps, and you’re not putting the weight on the pins until you’re done. It’s a real mental game as well as physical. Peary Rader’s quote is dead on. Relish the pain, it tells you you’re alive.
The 10 rep weight is just a guideline. Once you start the set, you take at least 3 huge breaths , ‘puff & pant’ style. The oldtimers thought that helped increase the size of the chest cavity, but Ian King sort of doubts that. What it does for sure is create a sort of rest period between reps, so it’s like doing 20 singles with ~10sec between reps. That lets you work higher threshold fibres than if you did 20 reps continuously.
I read the book and used this program a couple of years ago. It’s pretty cool and works. Funny, but the squat routine he describes would fall under the category HIT :-))). I love it because it brings me back to the basics (do one or two sets and give everything you have) when I get twisted in the 5x5, 6x4 strip sets or is it 4x6, 3x10 with (311)…
thanks for the clarification. That’s not really how i calculated my starting weight, but it makes sense now.