After reading someone suggest 20 rep deadlifts in the 20 rep squat thread, I began thinking about how you could apply this. After all people have had crazy thigh gains from the program, so why not apply it to other muscles [compounds of course] - Push Press, rack pulls, pulldowns, maybe even pec flies and barbell curls.
Any thoughts? Has anyone tried this / considered it? You could potentially [with the right diet] do a bunch of single set exercises, not for long of course…
Sounds a LOT like HIT one set all out etc.
The only thing I see is with something BIG like the squat its very (in relation) easy to take a few breaths and get ONE more rep at a time where as bench OH press while compound has a lot less musculature and much harder to get that ONE more rep at a HIGH load.
But if you rested enough and did a ton of singles to close out sure it could work. You’ll need a TON of rest/down time and diet to heal up.
I switch up my routine about every 3 months or so. Right now I am on a 5 - 10 - 20 routine.
2 sets X 5
2 sets X 10
2 sets X 20
for every body part. It is a 3 day split with each of the days focusing on squat, deadlift, or bench press. I have been making some gains on this program where other programs stalled. The final sets of 20 are real screamers but, as I said, I have been making gains. Just make sure you are focusing on progressive overload about every 2 weeks or so.
[quote]Phill wrote:
Sounds a LOT like HIT one set all out etc.
The only thing I see is with something BIG like the squat its very (in relation) easy to take a few breaths and get ONE more rep at a time where as bench OH press while compound has a lot less musculature and much harder to get that ONE more rep at a HIGH load.
But if you rested enough and did a ton of singles to close out sure it could work. You’ll need a TON of rest/down time and diet to heal up.
[/quote]
I agree on all points [except HIT, which is slow tempo and if u want to slow tempo 20 reps at 10 rep max you’d be kinda crazy], while thinking about it I couldn’t think of anything quite as full body as squat, except deadlift. Push press uses alot of ballistic movement so you could probably eek out the last reps.
I’ve done similiar in the past with clean and jerk, using my 5 rep max and resetting / taking 2 deep breaths between each lifts, working up to 15 reps, and got lots stronger, fast. Thats where I got the idea from actually.
As for rest I’d probably go M/T/S:
Monday: 20 Reps
Thursday: Light, high reps, speed work
Saturday: 4x8
Thursday would have the same excercise selection as monday [of course on monday not all exercises are going to be 20 rep protocol, i’ll use very heavy singles for dangerous exercises] and saturday will address gaps / weaknesses.