An Ironmind book claims
“gain 30 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks”
I’m sure that is exaggeration, but i would be happy with even 6-10 pounds in 6 weeks. With proper diet etc. I don’t want to give my life’s story right here, but my metabolism is freakishly high.
anywho; has anyone tried this/bought this book?
Miller Williams
I’m assuming that you mean this book. There are 62 testimonials on this. Read through them and decide if its worth it to you or not.
I never believe testimonials as they would not be in the book or associated with it’s advertising unless they were saying it was good.
You can’t believe them.
I’ve been doing 20 rep squats for a while and yes, I have grown, however just the otherday my cousin reminded me that low reps (under 10) are best for hypertrophy so why would the legs be any different?
I didn’t have an answer for him. And have switched back to low rep training.
[quote]Sxio wrote:
I never believe testimonials as they would not be in the book or associated with it’s advertising unless they were saying it was good.
You can’t believe them.
I’ve been doing 20 rep squats for a while and yes, I have grown, however just the otherday my cousin reminded me that low reps (under 10) are best for hypertrophy so why would the legs be any different?
I didn’t have an answer for him. And have switched back to low rep training. [/quote]
He is talking about the reviews at Amazon, which though misleading in some cases are a pretty good guide as to how good a book is .
I have not actually read this book ( or tried the program) but as far as i know its a mixture of high rep squats and practically drinking milk all day long. And this program was in place long before Ironmind published it .
I account most of my leg size now to 20 rep squats. I worked up to 315x20 when I was young and thought for sure i could squat 500 easy, BOY was i wrong. But, when I finally worked up to 500, I could easily squat 315x20.
In short I think 20 rep squats will put size on your legs, but will only make you good at 20 rep squats and will not greatly imptove maximal strength. Tom Platz was famous for sets with reps of 20 or 30 in the squat and u see what happened to his legs. High reps works for the lower body better than the upper for size
[quote]Viking69 wrote:
I account most of my leg size now to 20 rep squats. I worked up to 315x20 when I was young and thought for sure i could squat 500 easy, BOY was i wrong. But, when I finally worked up to 500, I could easily squat 315x20.
In short I think 20 rep squats will put size on your legs, but will only make you good at 20 rep squats and will not greatly imptove maximal strength. Tom Platz was famous for sets with reps of 20 or 30 in the squat and u see what happened to his legs. High reps works for the lower body better than the upper for size [/quote]
there’s a vid here of platz doing 500x23 . you gotta right click it. that is nuts !
Expect to gain some lower body mass, and plenty of “mental stamina” - that’s for sure!
however, such gains as described above, could be only posible with an under-nourish novice!
All in all, worth having a go!
regards,
These are a great addition to a regular leg program. I have found that they have been very helpful to me in both terms or grwoth and strength. They are also taxing on the ticker. I actually use them as an etra workout but just doing one set. That is pretty much all I can do at a time. So if you are currently squatting heavy. Try squeezing this in to your program on a non heavy or even non leg day. I have a home gym so I am able to get extra workouts in between my main days. What I have found is that as I can increase my pound on the 20 rep squat my ME hedges up as well.
I gained 20 lbs of lean body mass in 6 weeks the first time I used this program, and I was far from an undernourished novice. This is by far the most effective size/strength program I have ever used; it is also the hardest and most demanding. Success on this program depends on how hard you are willing to work, and how much you are willing to eat, nothing more. Don’t fall victim to people downplaying a program they have never used, try it for yourself and see what happens.
I gained 32lbs on the plan, but I was also @ newb to weightlifting @ the time. Also to mention I was pretty broke, all I had was the gallon of Milk a day an 3 cans of beans.The diet they mention is very old school, milk an sandwiches an cheese an eggs, just eat in other words an not count cals.
I did basics with the squats.
Bench, row, delt press, deadlifts
and the pullovers. Roughly 3 times a week. Once inawhile I had to miss one of the workouts in the week; but not often.
I went from 131lbs to 163lbs. Not sure of the bodyfat percentage but it didn’t go up much, I was still vascular by the end.
Since then I suggested the program to a few newbs an some made progress and gained weight. The onces that didn’t were the also the ones that complained the most. It’s basic hard work.
I gained 30lbs in 3 months on the program.50 in 6 months.(180-230)Most of it muscle. I was by no means a newbie,since I had been lifting for six years prior to this plan. However,I had mainly utilized isolation exercises. I did not start incorporating mostly basic exercises until I read “Super Squats”.
I will say though know matter what your stage of development the two most important things needed for this program are attitude and food.
I did this as outlined by Stuart McRobert - I gained roughly 20lbs in about 6weeks, with ~16lb lean body mass. My appetite went through the roof! Unfortunatley my lower body ending up a bit out of proportion with my upper. Your ass WILL get huge (esp. if you do ATG like I did). Having said that my arms did get gain 1" in this 6 week period whilst having done nothing other than the 20rep squats, deadlifts, and bench. Basics like the 20RS work very for mass - but if I had’t have stopped then I’d be looking more like an unshaped lump than a bodybuilder.
Actually, I did this program twice in the past.
Each time I did it, I was quite pleased with results.
although it’s NOT really maximum strenth builder per se, at my top I was able to squat 19 reps with 150 kg [330 lb] @ 82 kg [180lb], and at least equalise my PR max.
However, I never really made such weight gains on it! Maybe because I wanted prefered to stay lean at the same time and a idea of gulping 2 pints of milk and eating half of a bakery’s supply did not appeal to me.
To be perfectly honest, I envy you guys who managed to make 20-30 or even 35 lbs withing a few weeks only! REALLY!!!
to Klimpelmet
Never burned out on it! I used it quite often when training others. NOBODY ever suffered from overtraining either!
And if you doubt in “mental stamina” as a result of it, try 20 RAW squats with at least 1,5 x of your body weight . . . and then you’ll tell me how you’ve got on
Regards,
I’d say, you can expect something similar after that! 
http://www.sfd.pl/1/images2004/20040116130650.JPG
me @ 180 lb
Can anyone give me a link to it. i might ry it. Sounds like some good gains.
[quote]R.BushUSC5 wrote:
Can anyone give me a link to it. i might ry it. Sounds like some good gains.[/quote]
dont have a link but the program is basically: take a weight that you would squat for a relatively hard set of 10 reps, and do 20 reps.
along with the whole gallon of milk a day thing
[quote]R.BushUSC5 wrote:
Can anyone give me a link to it. i might ry it. Sounds like some good gains.[/quote]
It’s not exactly as the above has said.
You should start with your normal 10-RM max and do 20 reps, taking as many breaths as you need to after the first 10 without putting the bar back on the rack until you’ve finished the set. Normally 2-3 breaths is enough.
You can try different breathing patterns such as 2 breathes in between every rep, etc. There’s an article by Jeremy Likness (attach his name to your searches in Google) that describes a bunch of different breathing patterns if you’re interested in common approaches. I’m not sure if Super Squats actually outlines a pattern or what it would be.
The basic plan is to cause yourself to hyperventilate, increasing your oxygen consumption, etc. and allowing you to get out more reps. For this reason, never do breathing squats with a light weight as the oxygen debt won’t be great enough to compensate for the oxygen you’re taking in, which can cause you to pass out. Many people have never reached true failure on squats anyways. Since it incorporates so many large muscles, there’s already almost always another rep if you want it bad enough. Love the pain.
You should increase your working weight by 5 lbs or so each session. By the end of the cycle, unless you start with a decent squat (mid-300’s or higher perhaps), you should be using about your old 5-RM.
This is a HYPERTROPHY program, not a strength program as others have noted. While your max will naturally increase a bit, it’s more your work capacity and endurance, along with physical mass, that actually increases rather than strength. It would be good to follow this program up with a strength cycle (or, even better, something conjugated so you can retain your mass gains).
Keep in mind that there is absolutely no reason to terminate a set short of losing consciousness. Just breathe, but don’t wait around excessively. It’s not uncommon for the set to last 4-5 or even more minutes. Hope you have a nice trap cushion on the upper back.
Search around the internet for “breathing squats” or “20-rep breathing squats” or “20-rep squats” and you’ll find a few outlines on variations and full programs. There’s a good article on BB.com. Or just purchase the book – it’s cheap.
I’m not to clear on the berathing. do you get the weight on your back, berathe in, breathe out, hold it then go down and up, breathe in breathe out, hold it, down then up and so on.
That would be correct. My only question is do you do the twenty-reps once a week, or more than that? I suspect once a week but I would love a confirmation. Also, do you do any other leg exercises along with the program.
You do a set of twenty on lying BB pull overs… You also do a circuit to failure dips erst a min chinups rest a min then decline situps.