SUPER SQUATS 3: THE REVENGE

Folks, as of my writing of this, I am one workout away from finishing my third run of Super Squats.  What makes this one unique is that this run of Super Squats comes on the tail of a prior run, with a 6 week break in between: an idea proposed by the very author of Super Squats, Randall Strossen.  I wrote in a previous blog entry regarding Duality via Periodization on how I trained in between the two runs of Super Squats, effectively trying to UNDO Super Squats and prep for another run, and found that to be ultimately beneficial.   What was also unique about this run compared to the previous run is that I did NOT contract RSV at the start of it, nor did I tear my hamstring in the 2nd week, so I got to have my revenge and really give Super Squats the full “Mythical Strength” treatment.

There is that side of the equation too

I wanted to document how this run went and what lessons I learned from it, because that’s why we do these things.

 

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HOW I SET UP THE TRAINING

You knew this was coming

I stuck with my 2 different training day approach, alternated in an A-B-A, B-A-B style approach.  Day A was a superset of axle clean once and strict press away with pull aparts, weighted dips w/axle rows, squats with pull overs, axle SLDLs, and poundstone curls, day B was a superset of incline DB bench and weighted chins, behind the neck press and pull aparts, squats and pull overs, and then an unbroken circuit of single set work of kroc rows into axle shrugs against bands into reverse hypers.  Each day also included standing ab wheel, glute ham raises, pushdowns, and some form of short conditioning work to end the training day.

 

Around the 5 week mark, I started cutting stuff out of the training days.  Biggest issue was my forearms/elbows from the frequent squatting.  They were in a significant degree of pain, and started limiting movement.  I removed weighted dips entirely, replacing them with a burnout set of flat benching with 20lb DBs (worked up to a max of 160 unbroken reps), and I’d play the Day A workout by ear on if I’d do the SLDLs or not. 

 

Week 5 was also unique in that it’s when I broke from the standard “Single set of 20, add weight next time” approach to one where I rotated between reps and different movements, once again in an attempt to spare my forearms.  I adopted an approach that had me do my heavy squat day on the first day of the week, then a lighter squat with 30+ reps for the middle workout, and then a Safety Squat Bar squat for 20 rep workout on Friday.  I’ll speak more to that later.

 

On the days between Super Squats workouts, I’d do 30 minute fasted conditioning workouts.  I almost never did the same one twice, and usually based it around what hurt the least to train and what could promote recovery for workouts.  On weekends, I found myself doing the Grace WOD from Crossfit with an axle pretty frequently, and would do some wild variations of it, like hitting it 3 times in a row with some burpee chins and swings in between or doing one every 10 minutes.  Pretty much just winging it.  I also practiced Tang Soo Do twice a week and had various other stints of physical activity.

Some examples

HOW IT WENT

 

About this good

If you care to watch the full run of the program, here is the playlist

With me starting at 335 for 23 reps, lighter weight allowing for higher reps as I broke into the program.

Without question, this was my most successful run of Super Squats, and one of my most successful runs of any program in general.  I hit some amazing lifts.  I feel the crowning achievement was 20x400lbs

 

 

Yes, I did in fact manage 20x405 later in the program

 

 

And it had quite a dramatic finish, but I absolutely dominated the set of 400 and felt the rep quality was high, whereas 405 was barely there, and I know I went short on the final rep just for the sake of getting the 20 in. Will I still count it?  F- -k yeah I will, but I also intend to come back sometime and get it clean.

 

Also got 35x315, which was gnarly

 

 

And in an attempt to top it, I did 33x315, then, after feeling sorry for myself for 20 seconds, got back up and got in 7 more reps for a total of 40

 

 

On top of all that, my incline dumbbell benching went from 3x12x95 to 110lbs, Behind the neck press from 3x10x120 to 145 and weighted dips capped out from 3x12x90 to 115 before I had to tap out from elbow pain.

 

My chins, rows and SLDLs also progressed incredibly well, but in that regard I entered the program recovering from a torn lat/tricep which had it so that I couldn’t do a single unweighted chin to start the program, and rows and SLDLs were stupidly light.  By the end of the program, I could do 2x15x25lb weighted chins, axle rows with 230lbs and axle SLDLs with 301lbs.

 

Oh yeah, and I didn’t weigh myself at the start of the program, but the day before the final workout I stepped on the scale after my post-workout shower and saw 201.0.  I still have ab veins.  I’ve never been this heavy and lean before, so that’s cool.

 

HOW IT WENT AWRY

Story of my life

 

As I’ve mentioned a few times now: elbow pain became the variable.  And I write “elbow”, but really, it’s more like forearm flexor/extenders.  It’s a byproduct of the stupidly low bar style of squat I employ, and I know it’s playing with fire whenever I do prolonged frequent squat workouts like this.  I experienced a similar issue on a run of Building the Monolith a while back.  It’s most likely why I tend to gravitate toward programs where I squat only once a week.

 

But I was also stupid in my conditioning exercise selection at the start.  I was doing a LOT of kettlebell cleans and snatches, and those TOO tend to jack up my elbows pretty badly.  Pairing them together on such an intense training program was a recipe for disaster, and once I crossed the point of no return on pain there was no course correction available aside from “drastic measures”.  Pain was beginning to influence training decisions, I was cutting movements out of the program or re-arranging things so that I wouldn’t go into the squat with so much pain that it distracted me from the set, and my conditioning became based around “what will hurt the least”.  I had to stop my daily ABCs or TABEARTAs for similar reasons. 

 

Eventually, after failing my first attempt at 405lbs, I had to make a change.  Now, that failure happened on an off-day as it was, since it was the president’s day holiday, so I trained in the afternoon rather than the morning, after a morning of “Top Golf” and different food than I normally have, but it was also the first workout of the program where I approached the bar with trepidation rather than an assurance that I was going to succeed, and it was due to the sheer pain I’d endure in simply UNRACKING the bar.

 

So I took a lesson learned from my previous run of Super Squats and decided to go for a set of 30+ reps.  That’s where the set of 35x315 happened, which was awesome, and I walked away feeling BETTER but not fully healed.  The next course of action was to use the Safety Squat Bar and completely remove the elbows from the equation.  That worked, and it was a challenging workout, but much like I wrote previously: the SSB just doesn’t create the same effect.  When you breathe at the top of the squat with the SSB, you can really rest.  You aren’t being crushed, you’re in a peaceful state, you can regather and recompose.  With a bar on your back, that time is murder.  I can’t see running a full cycle of Super Squats with a SSB being successful, but I can definitely see benefits of rotating it in as part of the program.  And in that regard…

 

LESSONS LEARNED AND FUTURE IDEAS

Don't listen to this heretic!

 

* Running a cycle of Super Squats where I worked up to 30 reps prior to this one was brilliant and totally unintended.  It legit made 20 reps feel mundane.  I was so used to the work STARTING at the 20 rep mark that I’d often not realize I was “done” with my set until around rep 18 or 19.  And they were STILL hard sets of 20, no question, but, mentally, there was no battle whatsoever.  I was conditioned to not even think about those first 15 reps, since they were “halfway” to the end and I didn’t want to get into my own head before that time.

 

* There’s nothing wrong with some short conditioning sessions between Super Squats workouts to keep appetite high and recover from training, but movement selection is crucial.  Death by a thousand cuts can happen, and once you’re on the wrong side of it, it’s too late to fix.

 

* I didn’t write about nutrition, because mine is so stupidly nuanced and insane that it’s cumbersome to do so, but I once again did not do the gallon of milk a day, and I once again say that, if you CAN, you should.  I was pretty much eating non-stop through the program.  If I had to work late, my whole evening got compromised and I would end up literally spending the time I got home to the time I went to sleep eating (I say without hyperbole, I’d eat my last meal, go upstairs, brush my teeth and go to bed.  All the people worried about eating before bed messing with their sleep can f- -k right off.)  I had a lunchbox full of food that I’d bring to work and eat something at least once an hour out of it, to say nothing of the snacks I kept in my desk, to say nothing of the gigantic breakfast I had BEFORE work.  And after I ate breakfast, I would do the dishes, have a snack, get my kid in the car, drop them off at school and then eat my CAR SNACK on my way to work, where I’d eat my “I got to work snack” as soon as I sat down.  People: a gallon of milk a day is so much simpler.  Also, I need to get sponsored by Nuts ‘n More, because I was going through a container a week, easily.

 

* At one point, squatting around 400lbs every other day for 20 reps just takes a toll on the body that cannot be recovered from if one is not drinking a gallon of milk a day (still gonna keep plugging that).  Next time I run Super Squats, I want to try an approach where I have 3 distinct approaches to the squat.  The first day of the week will be a traditional 20 reps.  The next day will be a lighter weight for 30+ reps.  The final day will be the Safety Squat Bar for 20 reps.  This is the layout I used for the last 2 weeks of this run of Super Squats, and I think it has a TON of merit.  Primarily, that heavy set is the first one of the week, so I effectively have 6 days to recover from it before I have to do it again.  Yeah, the middle workout is still a barbell squat workout, but the lighter weight is far less taxing on my elbows, and the SSB is completely forgiving of it, so I get to spend a lot of time healing/recovering.  As far as progression goes, I’m thinking 10lb jumps each week for the sets of 20, and going up a rep or so a week for the high rep work.  I’ve considered making the workout 1 and 2 weight the same at the start of the program and going from there as well: hitting 20 reps with it on workout 1, 21 on workout 2, and then when workout 4 rolls around go up 10lbs, then going up 1 rep on workout 5.  Lots of ways to succeed.  There’s also the possibility of swapping out the SSB day with a trap bar day too.    

 

* Randall Strossen’s idea of “6 weeks of Super Squats, then 6 weeks of a 5x5 bulk and power program, then 6 weeks of Super Squats” is right on the money.  I really overlooked that gem the first time I read the book, and even the second time, but after enough re-reads it really clicked, and this was a fantastic experiment in that regard.  You don’t need to run the exact 5x5 bulk and power program, but take the lesson it’s presenting: do a program with 1 set of a lot of reps, then do a program of a lot of sets of few reps.  It was stupid simple periodization and it was there all along.  And keep reading the rest of the book, where Randall talks about doing 2x15 or 3x10 or 1x30 and you see all the ways you can keep making Super Squats “work”.  That book, no joke, should be the first book any serious trainee reads regarding training.  It gives you a plan you can follow for life and imparts SO much knowledge.