Sunday, March 18, 2018

ODE TO SUPER SQUATS



On many occasions through this blog, I have spoken to the value of the “Super Squats” program and eluded to its difficulty and insanity, but never taken the time to fully explain what it is and why I am such a fan of it.  This program represented a big turning point in my training, and is a fantastic paradigm breaker, which is why I am to this day a staunch supporter of the idea that ALL trainees, regardless of goals, should run it for 6 weeks.  No matter what reason you train, following this program will teach you some invaluable lessons that you can get purely through academics.  Without further ado…

WHAT IS SUPER SQUATS

Image result for Super Squats book
18 of those pounds are balls

“Super Squats” the book, is a publication by Randall Strossen of Ironmind renown.  In itself it is a fantastic read that goes over some of the history of the iron game, big names, where the squat came from and, of course, the infamous “Super Squats” program and diet.  I first read the book over Christmas of 2006, purely as a curiosity, as I had heard the program and the book whispered about in lifting circles and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  Strossen is a fantastic author, because once I was done with the book I was already chomping at the bit to run my 6 week Super Squats program.  To understand the significance of that, you have to keep in mind that, at this point in time, I was totally drinking the Pavel Tsastouline kool-aid and firmly believed I only needed to ever do 5 reps to get bigger and stronger.  The sheer idea of a 20 rep set was totally anathema to everything I “believed” at that point, but this book sunk its hooks into me.

So you’ll notice I said “20 rep squats”, and yeah; that’s what this program is based around.  But right away people screw that up.  It’s not a leisurely set of 20, so all those people saying “reps that high don’t build muscle!” have to keep in mind that we’re not talking about  20 rep warm-up set.  In fact, the book suggests you start with your 10rm for the set of 20.

Image result for squatting on a bosu ball
Don't base it off of this set

“If it’s a 10rm, how do you squat it for 20 reps you idiot?!” Hey shut up for a second.  That’s the SECOND part of the program people screw up; these aren’t squats, they’re BREATHING squats.  What’s the difference?  On a normal high rep set of squats, you’ll probably knock out the first 3/4s of the reps without stopping, and once you get to the end you’ll take a few breaths between reps to “rest”.  With Super Squats, you’re taking those breaths in from rep ONE, and these are supposed to be the deepest breaths of your life.  It’s a minimum required 3 breaths per rep, but you are free to do more if you like.

Are breathing squats an old-timey gimmick?  No; it’s primitive rest pausing!  Now sure, the old timers told you that those deep breaths would give you a deep chest, and maybe there was something to that, but even if that’s not true, what they DO manage to do is force you to take a break between reps to rest and recover.  This gives you the chance to do your 10rm for 20 reps.  HOWEVER, it also forces you to stand with your 10rm on your back for about 2-3 minutes.  Even WITHOUT the squats, that is going to suck, but throw those in and you have the recipe for a TON of tension all across the body for a LOOONG time.  Throwing in some other lifting on top of all that just becomes madness.

WHY SUPER SQUATS

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Can't I just cycle for legs?

As I mentioned before, Super Squats is a major paradigm breaker in a lot of ways.  For one, if you think you train hard, once you run this program you’ll realize how run you were. And, in turn, once you’re done with this program, pretty much nothing else out there will phase you, because you can say “*Psh*, whatever, I ran Super Squats”.  I thought I was a complete Billy Badass before this, and about midway through the 6 weeks I realized I was actually dreading training because it was so awful. 

However, that dread is another reason why everyone needs to run this program; you gain a valuable lesson in obsessiveness.  I realize that word has a negative connotation and yes, being obsessed ALL the time is not a great thing, but if you ever have hopes of being competitive or even simply great at something, you’re going to need to get obsessed sometimes.  Super Squats teaches you to be obsessed about getting those 20 reps.  Each time you succeed, you are “rewarded” by adding another 5lbs to the bar for the next workout.  Whenever you fail, you will spend the next 47 hours thinking about how you absolutely COULD have gotten that last rep if only you weren’t such a wimp.  You’ll kick yourself, beat yourself up, and flat out hate yourself because you’ll be convinced that ALL the growth on the program happens on that 20th rep and, if you don’t hit it, you wasted a training session.  When you run this program, you will live, eat and breathe 20 rep squats.  All time not spent squatting will be spent either dreading the next workout or kicking yourself for failing the previous one.  Once the 20 reps are done, you will feel exactly 1 second of relief before realizing that, next workout, you have to do it again with 5 more pounds.

Image result for sisyphus
Yeah pretty much this

You’ll noted I say “live, eat and breathe” 20 rep squats, because what you’ll be drinking is a ton of milk.  And yeah yeah, everyone is going to say “You don’t need to follow the diet; I know an app that TOTALLY calculates your macros and calories and there’s no reason to eat any more than what the computer tells me to eat!”, again, shut up for a second.  This is once again a lesson in obsessiveness.  So many underweight kids out there are like that because they’re adamantly CONVINCED that they totally eat a TON and they must just have a fast metabolism.  Cool story bro; tell it after you drank a gallon of milk on TOP of a diet rich in solid foods as well.  When you buy in completely to the program, to include the food intake, you suddenly learn how much you WEREN’T eating in your quest to get big previously.  And you’ll find that all those calories are necessary to keep pushing the weight up on those squats every single session.  But if you don’t want to eat that way, well…good luck.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RIB CAGE EXPANSION?!
Image result for Big rib cage

Hey maybe it works...

Everyone gets so freaked out over this, and I don’t see it as any different than the “extreme stretching” from DoggCrapp.  Which is to say; just do it.  It’s 20 reps of pull overs; what’ the worst that could happen?  You accidentally develop a little chest muscle?  Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but you may as well run it just to completely take part in the program.

MY OWN EXPERIENCE/LESSONS LEARNED

Image result for life is hard it's harder if you're stupid

I ran this program back in January of 2007 weighing 190 at the start, and finishing in 6 weeks at 202lbs.  Yeah, the book says “30lbs in 6 weeks”, grain of salt here fellows. At 5’9, I was pretty stocky there.  I was in my senior year of college and had access to a meal hall, so I was able to eat a lot of food that was already prepared for me and had very few demands on my time, which made it pretty awesome.  I’d say, if I had to do it all over again, I’d use a little more training volume.  I was running the super abbreviated program in the book, which boiled down to 2x12 of a press (bench or overhead), 2x15 of pulls (rows or chins), the squats and the pullovers.  There were other programs in there with more volume, along with programs in “The Complete Keys to Progress” and “Brawn” that do the same, and I think I would have been able to recover well, but I was trying to prove something by training less and still growing.

Good luck for those of you that decide to take this on.  Feel free to ask any questions you have, and please buy and read the book. 

53 comments:

  1. I very briefly tried running the 20 rep squat program. And very quickly realised why I had no business running it.

    But I'll defend the pullovers. Even if the ribcage expansion is full of shit, it's about the only movement I was in any shape to do right after the death set. Lay down on this bench and take deep breaths? That sounded like the greatest idea ever at that point. Beats sitting around sucking wind.

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    1. Too true! I looked forward to those pull-overs every time, because it gave me a chance to go lay down and die somewhere, haha.

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  2. I ran this in the Fall of 2012. I'd been away for work for about 6 months and had been doing bodyweight and kettlebell stuff during that time. My plan was to use it to shock myself back into barbell work because I'd read a lot about the mental anguish side of things. And that appealed to me. I hated running it. I can attest to the dread. The moments before I'd start the set after the halfway point were horrible.

    I don't know how much weight I put on. But I haven't felt so miserable lifting weights since then. Probably should run it again. Top up that well of anguished memories.

    Also, I like the typo here:

    "For one, if you think you train hard, once you run this program you’ll realize how run you were."

    Rather I like the ambiguity because I could see you using run as a synonym for wrong, weak, or just as a generic negative term to describe someone.

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    1. Doh! But sometimes, as you noted, those typos can be profound, haha.

      That dread before the set is ridiculous, and it just builds with every rep. The worse is when you're at rep 3 and already think it's starting to feel heavy, haha.

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  3. Rest pauses (among a few other things, like taking as long to recover as I needed) is how I ended up adding a total of 50 pushups every bodyweight session until I hit 400, and switched to EMOM training. It's definitely a great tool.

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    1. For sure. EMOMs are just another form of rest pause really, and incredibly beneficial. As much as people want to believe you always have to be fully recovered to get a great performance, the truth is that there is a lot of value in training while faituged.

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  4. Hi Punisher. You're scaring me because you've made me want to run this programme! Fortunatelly,I've got my programming mapped out until October when I have a comp but maybe after that.....
    I've been reading Alpha's early logs on T-nation for the first time and I'm struck by how similar your views are (even though they're expressed differently). Has he influenced your thinking/training at all? Jen

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    1. This program is a mindworm; it gets in your head, and the only way to get it out is to run it, haha. My wife gave it a run a while back as well and had a blast with it, but she consumed significantly less food than I did.

      I've definitely stolen ideas from Alpha in recent years, but realistically I imagine we just have similar mindsets from similar experiences. I'll find myself watching one of his videos or reading his thoughts and just adamantly agreeing and reflecting through it. The combat sports background we shared might have played a part too.

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    2. What benefits did your wife get from it? Did she notice any strength/physique changes or was it more the mental challenge? Also, what weight did she start and end with and did she increase by 5lbs each workout or use smaller increments? I definitely won't drink a gallon of milk a day!

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    3. Oh boy, this was about 10 years ago, so I'd be hard pressed to find out what her weights were. She DID have a log, but it was on Xanga and has since been deleted. She primarily did it for the mental challenge, but was still able to do the 5lb jumps each training session and did increase her strength that way. After that program she managed to work up to a 225lb high bar ATG squat, which she was pretty proud of.

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    4. 225lb/100k is impressive. I'll be nowhere near that and would be happy to end with 60k. It's good to hear of another woman completing it though.

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    5. I was super proud of her when she pulled it off. Her interest since switched to long distance running, but we just got a facebook reminder of it the other day and it was cool to look back on. Let me know how it goes if you end up running it!

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  5. Winter 2011. Had just started dating my girlfriend and she didn't understand why I didn't want her to come to the gym with me. It was winter break at the university and a friend of mine had a key to the closed-over-break varsity weightroom, so he'd let a friend and me in and we'd just lock the door, keep the lights off, and squat.

    Didn't finish it. 7-year itch might strike me here.

    Ugh.

    WR

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    1. That sounds like the perfect environment. I was managing to pull it off in the same weightroom that Jon Anderson apparently used, as I found out we went to the same college, haha. That said, it wasn't very awesome, and there was only 1 squat rack, but still.

      Get it done dude! Might be time to be super stupid again.

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    2. Maybe I'll ruin my summer after the July show.

      Think you and JA are meant to be soulmates, so you'd better go to ND now to make it happen.

      WR

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    3. If nothing else, it gave me a chuckle when he talked about "playing Rugby in college". At least while I was there, it was a club, not a team, and it was really more a drinking team with a rugby problem.

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    4. That's every rugby team, right up to the professional level. You have to fight to get them to put Gatorade in the coolers.

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    5. In fairness its a very painful game and drinking heavily makes it easier.

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  6. I tried this routine a couple months ago for many of the reasons you cite. I wanted to try to push beyond comfort and get a sense of intense training.
    I made it through the first workout with a slight headache and didn't think much of it. After completing the 20th rep in the second workout, I dropped to the floor for half and hour with the worst headache ever. After that day, even walking at a brisk pace could bring on the pain. I've since (mostly?) recovered.
    I had was seemed like an exersion headache several months before, but had recovered before trying this. I do recall that I felt a slight headache forming after rep 10 of the second workout, but I pushed through. Perhaps I shouldn't ignore a sign like this in the future. I'm hesitant to try this routine again for fear of my training being stopped dead again for weeks.
    You've mentioned exertion headaches before, but not your experience with them, to my knowledge. Thoughts?

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    1. I've heard of this happening to people, and I'll get post workout exertion headaches, but never occurred during the squats. What I hear as the culprit tends to be neck tension maintained through the squat that contributes to the headache, but that's pretty far outside my realm.

      I'd get looked at honestly.

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    2. I had the exact same problems with higher rep squat sets. I went to the doctor and he predictably didn't really know what it was. When I gave him my own theory that my body wasn't getting enough oxygen (and therefore neither was my brain), he said that sounded very plausible as oxygen-deprivation can be a cause of migraines. I started taking more breaths between reps (more than I felt I needed) and it hasn't happened since. I will be taking at least 10 breaths between reps by the time I get to the end of a set. It's important that you prioritise finding a comfortable bar position because you don't want discomfort to end your set early. Other than that, just remember to take your time.

      I hope this helps!

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  7. Is there a way to run this program for the mental challenge and not gain a whole lot of weight? I want to run this after my competition to gain some mental fortitude. It's been on my mind. My weight fluctuates from 174-178. If I lose 10-12 lbs I could drop a weight class. I'm ok competing in either class but if I'm carrying around a lot of extra fat like I currently am , I don't want to be putting on extra weight.

    Is it a matter of just eating less than recommended?

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    1. Not eating enough to gain weight would be underrecovering from the program. You won't get through it.

      Maybe look into some crossfit classes. Should be a solid challenge that still supports some weight loss.

      Brian Alsrhue has some good stuff here as well

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS_d83dr_ao

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    2. Thanks. I will definitely wait then until my body fat percentage is lower.

      After I cut, then decide to run this, do you have any tips for keeping the midsection small? My MEPSs physical is good until June 2020 and I know all branches basically want a 39" waist or lower.

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    3. Wait until after your physical. 1 goal at a time. You've been chasing the service for a long time, and that window will close soon. Get in, get situated, then pursue these goals. You can still get plenty strong without adding size at this point.

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    4. Thanks. I'm sure I have a lot of potential for strength at my current weight.

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  9. Yep. I did this in 2000, if I recall correctly. Using McCallum's Get Big Drink. The dread and anxiety are very real, as are the physical/mind gains!

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    1. Oh man, that drink looked like it was no joke! Good on you for putting that away. Amazing how the old timers figured out it was all hard work and eating a lot so early. We seem to have to keep rediscovering it.

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  10. I have a question i want to run this program so bad, but im at 20% bf maybe more and i need to cut, but should i run it with 300 cal surplus to minimize fat gain and then cut, or first cut and then do super squats? THanks for reply

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    1. Hey man,

      I've never counted a calorie or macro in my life. I couldn't speak to that. The author of the book recommends 2 liters of milk a day minimum on top of a diet VERY heavy in foods, with 4 liters of milk being ideal. If I really wanted to run the program, I'd run it irrespective of my bodyfat.

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    2. Thanks a lot, ill go for it even if im kinda heavy on bodyfat now, i can always cut down after that. It really made me crazy, ill try to eat little more and drink milk as suggested, will share results after im done. Thanks a lot for reply and good advice, if i want it, ill just do it.

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    3. Hell yeah dude. Get after it. If you haven't already, make sure to read the book. It answers everything, and is a great read.

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    4. So im back with a review, it has been damn long time. When i started my 1rmax was 75kg not even kidding!! I was neglecting legs like forever. So i started from 45kg x 20 and so forth. My friend was laughing that im always squatting in the gym, but i went after it and i have to tell u, when he was spotting me for 115kg 1rmax and i got it up all by myself while he could only squat 85kg 1rmax he wasnt laughing then haha ! So my legs got big so much i still cant believe it. My 1 rep max increased in 40 kg in a FUC*ING MONTH MAN ! I tried lot of programs but this one was the most enjoyable for me. Will be doing it once a year. Thanks for encouraging me to do it. God Bless

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    5. Hell yeah dude! That's so excellent to hear. You earned that strength for sure. Great work!

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  11. How much did it increase your squat if you can remember?

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    1. I only failed 2 workouts during it, so that should mean I added 50lbs to my 20 rep set during the process.

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    2. I'm sure I misinterpreted somewhere - how many workouts a week would you do? If it's 3 per week that's 18 sessions in 6 weeks, or 90lb right?

      I just failed my first session about two weeks in. Damn

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    3. You're right: I miscalculated. I was doing 3 a week and failed twice.

      You shouldn't be failing 2 weeks in. Are you drinking the gallon of milk a day?

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  12. MythicalStrength I've been reading nearly every single article and I love all your blogposts-especially the picture of the guy squatting on a yoga ball-I am in the middle of a abbreviated LP (Phraks GSLP) and when I read your experience with super squats I was blasted away. Should I run Super Squats at the end of my LP days or just start it soon because I have some concerns that my strength levels aren't too concrete yet and I can put weight on the bar everyday on my LP up to this point.

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    1. Hey man, appreciate having you as a reader. Given I'm not a coach and have zero hands on experience with you as an athlete, I can't really say what you should or should not do. I'll say that, since this is a hobby for me, if there is a program I want to run, I don't wait for some sort of marker to run it: I just run it. I figure life is too short to wait.

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    2. Wow man this is almost surreal, I lurked for a long time yesterday even dipping into your youtube videos and your rants from quite a number of years ago (lol). I find weight training almost to be my favorite hobby, I'm in my early teens and even though I'm not that strong, I come into sessions with ferocity and fire to attack the weights like ramming a car into a wall - then leave feeling happy and proud, even when I leave sore. I will definitely keep reading thanks dude. Maybe I'll run super squats soon but I do have my reserved concerns with GOMAD, maybe I will just run it on a +1lbs a week bulk. Hell maybe I'll do GOMAD just for the hell of it - I just thank god everyday that I did not fall for the SS+GOMAD meme that I was about to fall into.

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    3. Hope it works well dude. Remember: you're not training so you can eat: you're eating so you can train. Trying to set the rate that you gain scale weight at on the program is setting yourself up for failure. The program will beat the hell out of you unless you eat to recover from it. When I ran it, I didn't care how fast the scale weight went up: I just wanted to make sure I was ready to crush 20 reps for the next workout. That's why the gallon of milk comes into play. I'd do it just for the experience of it.

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    4. Well, I mean, the crux of the problem is I did the math and GOMAD for the prescribed 6 weeks would cost me around 300 dollars USD. People here do not really drink milk and milk at most comes in half gallons.

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    5. With a gallon of whole milk a day over 6 weeks being 96,768 calories, 300 dollars honestly seems like a steal. That's like $7 a day yeah? It's gonna be tough to find a cheaper way to eat and get in so much protein and recover between workouts. If you can manage it, awesome, but if not, I wouldn't run the program. Be a waste of the program and your time, and you could train better over 6 weeks. You always wanna make sure your recovery matches your training.

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    6. Yeah I mean when you put it like that it does sound still pretty damn good be sure to look for my review in the upcoming months on weightroom - Thanks Emevas.

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  13. Hi mythical, hope all is good with you and yours. Thank you for the writeup, it's been helpful for me identifying and getting ready for this program. Just finished day 1 yesterday; the quads are still sore as hell :) . When you ran super squats, did you incorporate any conditioning? I'm planning to try some easy conditioning (5/3/1 style) on my off days to see how I do. Thanks!

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    1. Hey dude,

      When I ran the program, I was the president and founder of my University's MMA club, so I kept active with that, and got in a run/some light bodyweight work twice a week. Nothing too serious.

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  14. After hearing about Super Squats from you and reading the book i got really hyped to start the program. A few days before I did 175 for 10 (lb), so thats what i started with today to get 20. However, i only got to 13 before failing and feel super demoralized. I did 8 reps and then 5 after that to try and make up for it but I know its not the same. I feel i definitely could have done it if my mind wasnt so weak going into it, but I also did the squats after the bench and military press like it lays out the workout in the book which may have contributed to physical exhaustion, since when I tested my 10rm i squatted before doing anything else (sorry if im confusing). I am travelling for 3 days so wont be able to do this workout again until 4 days from now, and was just wondering if when I attempt this again (this time with the right mindset) I should do the squats first to try and increase my chances of actually getting to 20 reps? Or should i keep it in the order said in the book, as thats supposed to be part of the challenge? Thank you for your help

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    1. Hey man,

      Doing the squats in the middle isn't part of the challenge: it's done that way so that you don't blow out all your energy on the squats and have nothing left for the other work. The book actually explains that to you.

      Were you taking the 3 deep breaths between every rep, start with between reps 1 and 2?

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    2. I was taking at least breaths between the reps, but after rep 10 I think i mentally panicked and almost started hyperventilating. I'm definitely gonna do the mental exercises said in the book next time to make sure I succeed. Thanks for explaining the placement of the squats!

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    3. Any time dude! No shame in lowering the weight either.

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    4. As a result of todays workout, I have another question about what you did when you failed, as you said you did twice. After my original failure at 175, i lowered the weight to 170 and successfully squatted it for 20. The next session i did 175 for 20 aswell, but on this workout i failed at rep 17 (likely from once again not taking enough breaths). I was wondering if when you failed you still increased the weight by 5 lb the next session, or if you remained at the previous workouts weight in order to get 20 on that. Im just a little worried that if i stay at the weights that i failed at, ill end up taking way longer on the program to reach the improvement im supposed to get but i also dont want to increase the weight when my body isnt prepared and fare worse. Im probably overcomplicating this, but thank you for the help.

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