I’ve written on this exact topic before, but I’m going to try to be a bit more prescriptive this time, primarily based on my current experience on my third run of Super Squats. A lot of people, upon hearing that I’m running the program again, have been shocked that I’m doing it “so soon”, but in truth I’m doing exactly what was laid out in the book (which is one of the reasons I encourage people to read the damn thing so much). Strossen talks about how Super Squats typically cannot be sustained for longer than 6 consecutive weeks, but, by rotating in a 5x5 bulk and power program for 6 weeks, one can get back to Super Squatting. 6 weeks on/6 weeks off/6 weeks on again. Hey, look at that: training blocks. Periodization. And this is why, along with reading books, I am big on RE-reading books. I read “Powerlifting Basics Texas Style” at least once a year and always pick up something from it when I do, and after a few re-reads of Super Squats, I REALLY read this section and suddenly realized the sheer brilliance of it. It was hiding there in plain sight for over 15 years (for me, even longer based on publication), but I finally learned a great trick on how to simplify periodization: with duality.
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| Too perfect |
I’ve written on duality before, but for a quick sum of today, it refers to the concept of opposing forces existing HARMONIOUSLY vs in contention. This is very much an eastern thought process. Western thought tends to operate off the premise of maximizing virtues and minimizing vices. All chastity and no lust, all charity and no greed, all peace and no wrath, all love and no hate, etc. Duality, instead, supports the idea that we NEED these opposing forces to provide balance. The sin against duality is imbalance, whereas fire needs the water so that we are not consumed in flame, and restraint requires gluttony so we do not starve.
Many trainees, in turn, are western in their thought. They have no appreciation for periodization and, by extension, duality. If hypertrophy is the goal, they are ONLY going to train for hypertrophy. They will ONLY do the Push/Pull/Legs split 6x a week, they will ONLY use 3 exercises per muscle group for 8-12 reps, they will NOT doing any cardio or conditioning because it will interfere with recovery, they will NOT do any sort of jumps, throws or low rep work, etc etc. Maximize virtue, minimize vice…until we are greeted with imbalance and can no longer progress. The Tao had it figured out: we need duality. We need balance.
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| Some more than others |
And Strossen makes this so stupidly simple that I completely missed it: the program he offers to counter Super Squats IS duality. What is Super Squats? A program built around 1 set of squats for 20 reps. The rest of it is also few sets and many reps. What is his proposed counter program? 5x5. What is 5x5? Many sets of few reps. We went from few sets of many reps to many sets of few reps…Christ, it’s so simple. It’s so obvious. It just makes so much sense. What do we do after Super Squats? We UNDO Super Squats! We do the opposite of what we did for the same duration of time: we achieve balance!
I didn’t follow the 5x5 plan laid out in the book during my 6 weeks between Super Squats, but I DID set out to achieve balance. I’m going to share my thought process, because, honestly, I’m proud of it.
Super Squats is the same movements for each workout for 6 weeks. So I set out to make sure my next 6 weeks featured rotating movements. I wanted to avoid adaptation. I picked 3 different squats, horizontal presses, deadlifts and presses to rotate between. Super Squats is 3x a week, so I trained 4x a week. I DID stay full body, which if I wanted to I could have gone more 5/3/1 style instead to keep up with being opposite, but with my fully body training I paired a squat with a press and a deadlift with a horizontal press. Where possible, I’d include a chin or row as well to round out the back work. Then, to REALLY make it different, whereas Super Squats had me doing traditional sets with rest between, I set up my workout to be a continuous 30 minute circuit, with a goal to complete as many rounds as possible. I would end up resting 40-50 seconds between rounds, but would end up doing something like squat-chin-press or deadlift-incline bench for 30 minutes. And where Super Squats had fixed reps, my reps waved, similar to 5/3/1. I rotated between triples, doubles, and eithers 5s or 8s.
I know that’s a lot of words, but to give it a summary: train 4x a week. Full body. 2 days will be a squat and press combo, 2 days will be a deadlift and horizontal press. 30 minute workouts, heavy weights, low reps, as many rounds as possible. I’d set an 8 minute timer afterwards and use it to do whatever assistance work I felt needed doing, and then typically tack on a conditioning session there. On the days of the week I didn’t do the lifting program, I’d do a 40 minute conditioning workout.
This absolutely primed me for another run of Super Squats AND helped me “undo” the previous run of Super Squats. In the previous run, I had to let my conditioning slide, and my top end strength wasn’t getting touched for 6 weeks. I got to now spend 6 weeks training very low reps with heavy weight AND bring my conditioning back up to snuff, so that, when I began my next run of Super Squats, the weights would feel light and my heart and lungs would be dialed in and ready for whatever I threw at them. Meanwhile, Super Squats also primed me for this program: my body had grown immensely, and with all this new muscle to play with, I was hitting some crazy weight PRs in training…so much so that I ended up tearing my tricep on the eccentric of some trap bar deadlifts of all things…oops. But if you get so strong that you’re tearing your muscles off the bone, I’d say that’s a sign of something too. And most of you are far less stupid than I am, which means you run a reduced risk of such an outcome.
So there it is: periodization via duality. Periodization doesn’t NEED to be complicated. In fact, making it the opposite is VERY effective: make it so stupidly simple it’s easy to overlook. What do I do after this current training phase? Do the opposite of what you just did! And after that? The opposite of that. Keep the balance, and in doing so continue growing in all directions.
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