This type of training is nothing new.
Big strong guys were unapologetically doing this shit 40 years ago;
back when I was running around the house shitting in diapers. Hell,
Paula Anderson was hitting golf balls and squatting for 4 hours a day
over a decade before I was born and that guy definitely knew a thing
or two about getting strong.
There is one caveat here though. You
need to squat frequently to get away with this shit. So on your other
gym days, it's a good idea to throw in a few sets to keep your body
used to it. On those days, I just squat for my general warm up and
move on. If you never get sore, that’s fine. But for me, the all
squat workout will fuck up my whole week if I’m not already
squatting frequently.
My squat was shit for a long time. I’m
not saying that my squat technique anywhere near perfect now and I’m
sure that a good coach could probably put 10% on my squat in one
hour. But I will say that at this point in my life, my squat is
automatic and consistent. I attribute this to a shit fuck ton of
reps. There is no magic here. The more you do something, the better
you’ll get at it, period.
My programming is pretty strange right
now because I’m in the year of the “bulk”. So, although I’m
trying to get stronger in general, the real focus is adding 20 pounds
to my frame. So reps, reps, reps, eat, eat, eat is my current mind
set. I got a wild hair up my ass a couple of months ago, that I’d
work on hitting a 240x50 squat. This is Dan John’s fault by the
way, because of something he wrote about a BWX50 challenge. 240 is
not my current BW, but that’s the goal, so I’m using that number.
I figure that it’ll get easier as my BW increases, so I’m
starting there. Here’s how I have shit programmed now.
1. Hit a heavy double or triple for
the day (not a max, but pretty hard, pausing some warm up sets)
2. (240xmax reps) trying to beat last
week’s reps
3. Cut reps in half and do straight
sets of 240 till I’m “done”
4. Hit some front squats if I feel
“done” but not really “done”
5. Resume eating
There are a bazillion ways to go about this, but I guarantee that if you’ve never laser focused on your squats like this before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your body’s response. Plus it’s kinda cool to roll in and just get down with the squat for a solid hour or two. People will think you’re crazy and the hacks in the gym will start referring to you as “squat guy” behind you back after a while, but fuck them. You know what’s up!
