[quote]Fitnessdiva wrote:
mr popular wrote:
How many people with incredible physiques have you seen that tout the incredible effectivenss of “20 rep squats”?
I’m just asking, because I am genuinely curious.
Now days, probably no one. But in the old days they were one of the staples. That was pre-wide spread steroids use.[/quote]
I don’t think anyone needs to tout the effectiveness of 20-rep squats. They just do it and get results. That’s enough more many people.
I can’t believe no one said just shut and squat and drink the damn milk…
[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
You’re a negative person, USNS.
And as far as “get a pro football player’s lifting routine and follow it for 6 months”
Pure bullshit.
They workout ways that work for them, what works for them doesn’t necessarily work for me.
Genetics are a crutch that weak-minded people use.
While I’ll agree that not everyone’s gonna be a pro bb, you can still get some jacked legs and one way to do that well is with 20 rep squats.
I’m shooting for 405X20 by the end of the school year.[/quote]
405x20? Damn you will be strong as hell.
Glad somebody finally called him out.
Pro-Football players are not be all end all of physiques. Many of them have different kinds of physiques and can still perform. Football performance doesn’t dictate physique, Everybody doesn’t want the body of “the bus” or “refrigerator”.
Pro-Football players also do WAAAAYYYYYY more than their weight lifting routine. Training camp is ALL DAY. They give you an hour workout that they do, and you think that they got that body from that? Not going out in 100 degree weather with equipment on doing drills all day? On top of that you figure since pop warner age they’ve trained intensely a minimum of 8 months out there year.
You think your cousines atlanta falcon workout is the same one he did since high school? you have a lot to learn.
Far as 20 rep squat routine, I’ve never done the complete workout program. I have tried 20 reps with my 10 rep max i didn’t breathe a whole lot between each rep and did it as fast as I could. I can say that might have been one of the hardest workouts I ever did. It had a great effect on my body throughout the entire week but F’ that I’ll just do some curls.
[quote]O.T.S.S. wrote:
Thanks for all the replies and discussion.
I don’t have the genetics to be a physique competitor. But I want to be big and strong, even if I’ll never be a Ronnie Coleman or Ed Coan.
I want to know if 20-rep squats are a good tool to get big and strong. And I think they will be, based on all the ancedotes there are about them.
I’ve got to admit, after doing the squats, I’m too wobbly to do anything else… maybe I should split it up and do squats one time, and upper body work another time.
Anyone ever tried 20-rep squats by themselves without any other exercises?
And has anyone ever squatted double bodyweight for 20??[/quote]
Tom Platz
20 rep squats are a tool. They will build your whole body in as much as squating in general will, but it is primarily a leg routine. If you want a single exercise for all around body mass try wide-grip deadlifts on a platform.
[quote]USNS physique wrote:
My best friend’s brother played for the atlanta falcons …[/quote]
Well I guess your just a special motherfucker then, huh? The Falcons suck…Take your egotisitcal crap else where…
For leg size, a heavy set of 5 reps followed by a backoff set of 15 reps with 86% of the weight of the heavy set is very effective. That’s what I do and I’ve found it to be more balanced that just the single set of 20 reps (which Brooks Kubik says won’t do much until you go over 300lbx20).
I don’t think anyone who can’t squat 400lb for 1 rep should be bothering with 20 rep squats. As Jason Ferrugia says, high reps are best avoided until people are really strong.
[quote]wsk wrote:
For leg size, a heavy set of 5 reps followed by a backoff set of 15 reps with 86% of the weight of the heavy set is very effective.[/quote]
This is similar to what I do, a heavy set of 4-8 with a 20 rep set done after. But 86%? Not or 85 or 87 ha? I just strip off just enough weight from my last set to get me a little antsy in my pantsy about whether or not I’ll get those 20(but I will get it or die trying).
It’s funny. The harder I train, the better my genetics seem to become.
[quote]Pamparius wrote:
It’s funny. The harder I train, the better my genetics seem to become.[/quote]
Zomgz! me too! Besides, the magical bovine juice plus argueably the most anabolic exercise seem to make my genetics better as the training sessions go by.
[quote]pat36 wrote:
O.T.S.S. wrote:
Thanks for all the replies and discussion.
I don’t have the genetics to be a physique competitor. But I want to be big and strong, even if I’ll never be a Ronnie Coleman or Ed Coan.
I want to know if 20-rep squats are a good tool to get big and strong. And I think they will be, based on all the ancedotes there are about them.
I’ve got to admit, after doing the squats, I’m too wobbly to do anything else… maybe I should split it up and do squats one time, and upper body work another time.
Anyone ever tried 20-rep squats by themselves without any other exercises?
And has anyone ever squatted double bodyweight for 20??
Tom Platz[/quote]
And that’s his 23 RM.
[quote]wsk wrote:
For leg size, a heavy set of 5 reps followed by a backoff set of 15 reps with 86% of the weight of the heavy set is very effective. That’s what I do and I’ve found it to be more balanced that just the single set of 20 reps (which Brooks Kubik says won’t do much until you go over 300lbx20).
I don’t think anyone who can’t squat 400lb for 1 rep should be bothering with 20 rep squats. As Jason Ferrugia says, high reps are best avoided until people are really strong.[/quote]
Even if you use a 10 RM?
[quote]Pamparius wrote:
It’s funny. The harder I train, the better my genetics seem to become.[/quote]
T-Mag should have poster quote of the day week and year. My vote is yours for the decade.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
pat36 wrote:
O.T.S.S. wrote:
Thanks for all the replies and discussion.
I don’t have the genetics to be a physique competitor. But I want to be big and strong, even if I’ll never be a Ronnie Coleman or Ed Coan.
I want to know if 20-rep squats are a good tool to get big and strong. And I think they will be, based on all the ancedotes there are about them.
I’ve got to admit, after doing the squats, I’m too wobbly to do anything else… maybe I should split it up and do squats one time, and upper body work another time.
Anyone ever tried 20-rep squats by themselves without any other exercises?
And has anyone ever squatted double bodyweight for 20??
Tom Platz
And that’s his 23 RM.[/quote]
I’m assuming you are talking about the squat competition between him and Dr. Hatfield. He made that weight look like an absolute JOKE for what it is. 23 is an understatement as he looked like he could have done 30+.
SQUATS AND MILK
That aside, yes; the program works exceptionally well, particularly for beginners. I gained around 13 pounds of muscle mass in three weeks.
My advice would be to do the routine in six week cycles, switch exercises (other than the squats and deadlifts) often and spend a few weeks working on a low-volume strength routine to get your 1RM up.
Thanks for everything.
It seems that squats are good, and 20-rep squats are great.
I’m going to do a set of 20 reps every three days (my legs still feel heavy two days after), and I’ll slap on 5 or 10 pounds each time.
Because I used to squat a year and half ago (nothing above 5’s then), I’ve got perfect form with them (they’re the only exercise I’ve got perfect form with). I went all the day down (hamstrings rested on calves at the bottom), and I would pause for a few seconds and stand up again. I wasn’t that strong, but I could squat 1.5+ bodyweight, which was very good in our (weak) uni gym.
So my one advantage is that I know how to squat, so I don’t have to learn form or anything. I can concentrate on making a slow return to my former size/strength while progressing on the 20-rep squats. (As I said, i haven’t done high reps for them before, but I’m going to focus on that now).
I’m really looking forwards to the challenge!
And about the pro football comment - they’re good, no one doubts that, but some of them take performance-enhacing drugs (some of us do too, though), and, most importantly, in addition to their genetics, they don’t all train in the same way.
Different positions train in very different ways (eg. offensive lineman vs. cornerback), and even players in the same position don’t always train in the same way (Walter Jones of Seattle doesn’t do squats, for example, he does car pushes).
Most of us aren’t pro players, so we can’t always do what they do.
I would like to see the great physiques of the people in this thread stating the amazing effectiveness of “20 rep squats”.
Anyone care to share their actual results with us?
I squat for 5 reps for 6 months, then 20 reps with 6 months. I’m 5’9", 185lb @ ~10% BF. Not great, but not shit.
This guy, however, is great - http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1685177&pageNo=1
If you look he says ‘periodically train “outside your comfort zone”, i.e. 20 rep breathing squats’ and goes on to say that he managed 405x23 ATG squats. Look at his thighs.
Your profile says you weigh 165lb and your last squat workout was 235lbx5 for 4 sets…I bet that if you worked up to 300x20 in the squat you’d be pushing 200lb bodyweight.
I do not doubt that increasing my squat and increasing my bodyweight would earn me a lot of progress in muscle mass.
I don’t know why you think increasing your strength is the key factor in weight gain, but anyway…
The question is, why bother with “20 rep squats” when normal methods of training can increase my strength in squats, and also in everything else?
What the is ACTUAL benefit of 20 rep squats over any normal training method?