20 rep set and 10 commandments?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Does anyone remember the articles from the old MM2000 magazines regarding the 20 rep set squats and the 10 commandments of building muscle? This would have been in 1996.

I would still do the 20 rep set squats if Golds had a proper rack. Basically, the premise was that if you can do 10, you can do 20. So you take your 10 rep maximum and force out 20 reps. I tried it and lo and behold it worked! Very painful, but built some strong legs back then. The point was that working legs is as mental as it is physical.

The 10 commandments included things such as:
-Thou shalt seek pain
-Thou shalt sleep 8 hours a day

I don’t remember them all, but if anyone has em, can you list them?

2

I hate to admit that I still have this lying around but here they are:

  1. Thou shalt lift weights
  2. Thou shalt not work out too often
  3. Thou shalt eat frequently
  4. Thou shalt eat a High-Protein diet
  5. Thou shalt seek pain
  6. Thou shalt use creatine monohydrate
  7. Thou shalt gorge your body with protein and carbohydrates after a workout
  8. Thou shalt be consistent and take a methodical approach to training
  9. Thou shalt change your training routine often
  10. Thou shalt concentrate on eccentric movements
3

Yeah…as much as we like to bash the new MM…the old one had some EXTREMELY valuable information in it…especially at a time when there was a black hole of useful information providers. I saved alot of that old stuff…it still has merit…

Don

4

I remember reading the book Super Squats by Randall Strossen. The 20 rep set of squats with lots of rest in between workouts was his cornerstone for developing mass and strength. He also recommended doing breathing pull-overs right after the 20 rep set (while gasping for breath) to expand the rib cage. Tried it for a while. Very demanding! I did make some progress but these days I’ll stick with lower reps.