“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
- Mary Shelley
I just completed a 6-week run of Super Squats, which began shortly after Thanksgiving and finished up this morning. This run comes after almost 30 near-continuous cycles of 5/3/1 in various forms, with which I have had some decent success.
In fact, I was in my second of two back-to-back runs 5/3/1 BaBY when I woke up one morning and just didn’t feel like lifting.
So I didn’t.
And that snowballed into two weeks of nothing. I did not lift, I did not eat right, and I did not feel very good at all—mentally or physically. I was pretty much fed up with everything, but mostly me, myself, and I.
Now if you read my log, then you know I try to be an Action-Before-Motivation kind of guy—I almost never FEEL like lifting or eating properly or whatever, but I do those things anyway, exactly because they’re the right thing to do.
This time, though, that wasn’t enough.
I needed something different to shock me back to being me.
Enter Super Squats.
My experience with this program is very similar to @simo74’s, so go read his write-up if you haven’t already—he called it, “Simo Survives Super Squats,” but don’t let the title fool you: He totally Smashed it.
Results
I was fat and weak when I started:
Starting weight: 205.9 lbs
But now I am fat and strong:
Ending weight: 204.8 lbs
My starting weight is perhaps a bit misleading, because that’s coming off of two weeks of inactivity and poor nutrition, so it includes a ton of bloat and water weight. I weighed myself each Monday morning throughout the program, though, and here’s how things went:
- Start of Week 1, 27 November: 205.9 lbs
- Start of Week 2, 04 December: 199.8 lbs
- Start of Week 3, 11 December: 204.0 lbs
- Start of Week 4, 18 December: 204.6 lbs
- Start of Week 5, 25 December: 205.9 lbs
- Start of Week 6, 01 January: 209.3 lbs
- End of Week 6, 05 January: 204.8 lbs
I think the 04 December weigh-in is probably more representative of my fighting weight before Super Squats: I ate properly that first week, but I didn’t yet need to eat and eat and eat just to be ready for the next workout—my diet was much more typical of my pre-Super Squats groove at that point in time.
I’m much less sure of what to think about post-Super Squats weight this afternoon: It wasn’t first thing in the morning, I’ve been drinking a ton and have been eating throughout the day, and I feel like I’m still carrying a lot of water weight and bloat from 6 weeks of intense eating, but I’m way down from Monday morning’s weight…
In the end, I’m thinking maybe around 5 pounds of weight gain, which isn’t bad for a 45 year old rusty diesel over a relatively short 6-week period.
Outside of this program, I don’t actually weigh myself that often anymore: I spent way too long worrying about the scale, and I’ve learned to trust the mirror and—more importantly—to trust to what my body itself is saying. My head is in a much better place these days and I was genuinely curious about how I would respond to this program, so I tracked the weight gain. I’ll probably go back to the infrequent weigh-ins soon, but I am planning to track my weight for another week or two, just to see where it settles once my diet tapers back to normal.
Caveats
I did not do GOMAD. I ate like a monster, consuming reasonably good food to the point of becoming really tired of eating by the end, but I did not do GOMAD, even though I love milk. So much, in fact, that in college I drank something close to a gallon a day without even trying (and definitely while not running Super Squats). But I’m not 20-something anymore: That’s a lot of sugar for this 45 year old body. I did come close to a half-gallon a day, though, so I guess that’s not too bad in the end.
I did not start with my 10-rep max. I’ve done more than my fair share of Widowmakers, having been able to get as much as 255 lbs for 23 way back in December 2022, but breathing squats are different. I completed 27 proper breathing squat reps at 185 lbs back in April 2023, just to see how bad they are, and let me tell you: They’re terrible. Horrible. No Good. Very Bad.
I totally survived that set, though, so really I knew I could handle more weight for 20 breathing squat reps. But I was coming off that two week layoff, I was fat, I was weak, and after almost 30 cycles of 5/3/1, JW’s “start too light” was absolutely ringing in my head.
So I started way below what I knew I could handle: I started with a measly 155 lbs.
But—man, oh man!—I was glad I did!
Would I have progressed further if I had started heavier? Maybe.
Would I have stalled sooner if I had started heavier? Maybe.
Would I have actually done more total volume (even with stalls) if I had started heavier? Maybe.
But, honestly, I don’t care: I picked a weight and just got to work—no looking back!
In retrospect, the extra runway let me rebuild some strength at a reasonable pace, it let me learn—and I mean really learn—to breath through the work properly, and it let me build a deep-seated confidence in my ability to hit 20 reps while jumping 10 lbs from workout to workout. And that confidence carried me way past 255x20, past 265, 275, and 285x20, all the way into 295x15, when I finally failed to hit 20 reps in one shot during Workout 15.
Super Squats is as much a mental endeavor as it is a physical one—and maybe even more so—so starting too light was absolutely the right call.
For me.
I adjusted the schedule once. My lifting schedule was M/W/F, with easy conditioning on T/R/S, and Sundays quickly became off days. I adjusted that schedule once, lifting M/W/F and the following Sunday with easy conditioning on the following Monday and Tuesday becoming the off day, just to avoid squatting on Christmas Day. Because as I said then:
In retrospect, that was definitely the right call.
Lifts
Here’s how my lifts progressed:
- Seated BTN press: 3x10 at 55 lbs → 3x10 at 105 lbs (Workout 17); 2x10, 1x(7+2+1) at 110 lbs (Workout 18)
- Bench: 3x12 at 135 lbs → 3x12 at 185 lbs (Workout 14); 2x12, 1x(11 + 1) at 190 lbs (Workout 18)
- BB row: 2x15 at 95 lbs → 2x15 at 150 lbs (Workout 18); 2x15 at 150 lbs (Workout 18)
- BB curl: 2x10 at 45 lbs → 2x10 at 80 lbs (Workout 14); 1x10, 1x(8 + 2) at 85 lbs (Workout 18)
- Squat: 1x20 at 155 lbs → 1x20 at 295 lbs (Workout 16); 1x(15 + 7) at 305 lbs (Workout 18)
- SLDL: 1x15 at 155 lbs → 1x15 at 230 lbs (Workout 18); 1x15 at 230 lbs (Workout 18)
And because breathing squats are a thing of the devil, here’s my first 20-rep set from Workout 1:
my last 20-rep set from Workout 16:
and my last set, period, from Workout 18:
Except as noted above, I ran the basic program as written. Once I hit the Rx reps and sets at a given weight, I added 10 lbs on squats and 5 lbs on the other lifts. When I missed, I always finished out the set to get the required reps, using an actual rest period with squats (roughly 2 minutes) and using rest-pause with the others (usually about 15-25 seconds of rest).
In the beginning, I was super-strict about 1-minute rest periods between sets of any particular movement, completing the entire workout in about 45 minutes or so, but that fell off rapidly, so that by the end I was taking as much as 3 minutes between sets and well over an hour to finish. (The time between movements was highly variable, depending mostly on how much setup there was in going from one move to another. I never really paid attention to that.)
I first stalled on squats in Workout 15 (295x15), but managed to complete 295x20 in the next workout. I stalled again in Workout 17 (305x14), but wasn’t able to get 305x20 in the end. I did manage a rep PR with 305x15 in Workout 18, though, so that’s cool. I stalled on upper body lifts earlier, sometimes for several workouts, but ended up making decent progress across the 18 workouts, so I’ve got no real complaints there.
I have an old road bike on an indoor training wheel, and I rode that for 15 minutes every afternoon as active recovery—it wasn’t about conditioning, really, but it did get my HR up a bit and it definitely got blood flowing to my legs: They always started out feeling pretty tired and stiff from about Workout 3 or 4 forward, but they also felt uniformly better once I was done on the bike—that 15 minutes was time well spent.
I also did “easy conditioning” on T/R/S mornings: That was 2 sets of 25 burpees immediately into 25 kettlebell swings (32 kg), with a short 25-second rest between sets. The burpees and swings combo was followed by a 30-minute weighted vest walk (30 kg). Once again, the easy conditioning work wasn’t really about conditioning, but just about keeping loose on my off days. Oh, and I did a 15-minute active recovery ride in the afternoon of these easy conditioning days, too.
Turns out I did an active recovery ride the very first Sunday, but after that, I took “Sundays” off: No training at all. (I quoted Sundays here because of the one schedule modification I noted above: one off day was a Tuesday.)
I typically lift early in the morning in semi-fasted state. That was mostly true during Super Squats, but I took advantage of our more relaxed work/school schedule during the holidays and pushed a few workouts into the late morning. Anyway, when I train semi-fasted, I drink black coffee upon waking, then I take Indigo-3G about a half-hour before starting to drink a serving Surge, which I consume over the next 45 minutes or so during the actual workout.
I also supplement with Alpha Male (because it’s awesome), fish oil (to combat inflammation), creatine (because… Why not, bruh?), and psyllium fiber (for digestion). I actually ran out of fiber for a few days during Week 5, I think, and—oh, man!—did I pay the price: My digestion was absolutely horrible and I was running to the bathroom even more than usual. Things settled down and returned to “Super Squats normal” pretty much as soon as I replenished my supply and started taking it again, so that made things more tolerable somehow.
Finally, I hit the hot tub for at least 15 minutes (sometimes much longer) pretty much immediately after every morning workout, and then again in the evening. I would often just soak, but the jets also helped keep my upper back, lower back, hips, and eventually my hamstrings from getting too tight. If you’ve got access to one, I highly recommend using it: I’m not sure that it actually made a difference, but it certainly didn’t hurt.
Food
After my two-week I-don’t-want-to-lift-or-eat-right tantrum, I started by returning to my normal diet in the first week of Super Squats:
- 2 scrambled eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon at breakfast;
- Some kind of sliced deli meat (typically ham or turkey) or canned tuna or chicken, some celery or carrots, and maybe some Greek yogurt at lunch;
- Meat (chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, …) and steamed veggies at dinner.
The post-squat flu was starting to linger for longer and longer periods of time after about Workout 4 or 5, so I increased my food intake a bit at some point during the second week:
- 3 scrambled eggs and 3 slices of turkey bacon at breakfast;
- Sliced deli meat, some celery—now with peanut butter!—and Greek yogurt at lunch;
- Meat, and then more meat, and steamed veggies at dinner; and,
- A pre-bed snack of leftover dinner meat or Greek yogurt.
Eventually that wasn’t even enough, and by the fourth or fifth week, a typical day was:
- 4 scrambled eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, AND oatmeal at breakfast;
- Sliced deli meat, more sliced deli meat, celery with peanut butter, Greek yogurt, AND a few handfuls of almonds or cashews at lunch;
- Meat, more meat, steamed veggies, AND potatoes or pasta—yes! pasta—at dinner; and,
- A pre-bed snack of leftover dinner meat, Greek yogurt, AND a Metabolic Drive shake.
Oatmeal, potatoes, and pasta were a major departure from my typical pre-Super Squats nutrition: I hadn’t eaten oatmeal for years; I would very rarely have some potatoes at dinner, but I definitely wasn’t eating them with every dinner-time meal; and I usually considered any form of pasta—which my family absolutes loves, BTW—a cheat meal.
But this is Super Squats. We eat to survive. We eat to Thrive. We eat to GROW.
It’s a similar story with the Metabolic Drive shakes: I stopped drinking my calories years ago, preferring instead the satiation that comes from whole foods, but I added these shakes to get more protein when I just couldn’t stomach any more food, even if I needed more food—and toward the end, I definitely needed more food. The shakes were a great source of additional calories while minimizing the feeling that I was going to choke or vomit or explode or whatever.
I really only drink black coffee, water, or milk, and milk typically goes with dinner. I didn’t do GOMAD, but between dinner and the pre-bed snack (including the Metabolic Drive shakes), I ended up downing nearly a half-gallon of milk a day, so… Once again, I’m not sure how much that helped, but it definitely didn’t hurt.
Finally, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays brought some meals that didn’t follow the rough menu above, but they still featured lots of protein with some decent carbs and fats (and some not so decent ones, too: Christmas cookies FTW!). In that respect, the overlap of the last few weeks of Super Squats and my family’s holiday festivities was both a blessing (lots of amazing food!) and a curse (lots of amazing food!).
So that was how I ate.
Could I have done it with less food? Maybe.
Could I have done it with fewer carbs? Maybe.
But I’m exceedingly happy with how I performed day after day, week after week, so I’m glad that shortchanging myself on fuel in an attempt to avoid fat gain wasn’t a path I felt compelled to take.
Thoughts
There is not an ideal time to run Super Squats. My daughter actually bought me the book for Christmas back in 2021, and I read it cover-to-cover almost immediately. But it took nearly two years for me to bite the bullet and actually run the program because… Well, because I was waiting for the “right time.”
But there is no right time.
Or, rather, NOW is the right time.
Yeah, but work is busy right now.
Yeah, but the kids’ schedules are crazy right now.
Yeah, but I’m not sleeping enough right now.
Yeah, but…
Blah, blah, blah.
If you’re a responsible adult, that stuff’s always true.
So I just did it: I decided Super Squats was next, I put my head down, I did the work, and I didn’t look back.
I’m not sure there’s any other way…
Don’t underestimate the upper body work. The natural focus of Super Squats is, of course, the squats. And yes, they’re awful. But so is the other work!
Relative to the 5/3/1 accessory work I had been doing for eons, it felt like a ton of different movements and maybe even a fair amount of volume, particularly compared to the squats themselves. So that was different.
And even with only 5 lbs jumps, the upper body work caught up to me quickly: I stalled on those lifts earlier and longer than the squats themselves, but I would eventually breakthrough and continue progressing again. In the end, I appreciated the variety—it felt a bit like my run of 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding or the Frankenbuilding mash-up I did awhile back, and I definitely built some size with those.
Oh, and the pumps! We can’t forget the pumps: They were incredible! There were a few times I felt like my delts and pecs were tearing through my skin it was so bad, and I definitely looked the part after every workout. (It’s just too bad I don’t look like that all the time!)
So yes: Super Squats promises size, and it’s not just about your quads.
Breathing is key. Everything about the squats totally sucks. I cannot think of one pleasant feeling before, during, or after 20 breathing squats. Not even the fleeting feeling of success that comes from completing a set. My mind and my body did almost anything to prevent me from starting—never mind, finishing—those sets, and I found that panting was the cheap and dirty trick my body tried to use most quickly and most frequently.
But short, shallow breathing not only violates the entire concept of “breathing squats,” it’s a sure-fire way to fail.
So I had to learn to control my breathing, to inhale big and deep and forcefully, and to exhale big and deep and forcefully, to really focus on what should otherwise be a totally involuntary behavior, and to do so 3 and only 3 times between reps. That was absolutely the most critical thing I did to give myself a fighting chance with those squats.
I wasn’t always successful, mind you. There were a few times when my breathing started to get away from me—in fact, the miss at 295 was because my mind was focusing on pretty much everything except breathing properly—but when I was on, I was on: Breathing properly somehow made the sets easier. (I am, of course, using the term “easier” very, very loosely here, but hopefully you get the idea.)
So learn to control your breathing.
Failure is freeing. I started out knowing I could hit 20 reps with 10 lbs increments for several workouts, maybe even several weeks’ worth of workouts, but the pressure of actually completing those sets—day after day, week after week—was immense.
Oh man, yes! The anxiety was real.
I purposefully avoided looking at my PR log book in an attempt to ease the pressure, but it didn’t really help.
As it turns out, every set from 205x20 in Workout 6 forward was a breathing squats PR, and every set from 265x20 in Workout 12 forward was just a straight-up squat rep PR. In retrospect, I think 275x20 was some kind of unspoken benchmark achievement for me, and I was also expecting to fail much closer to the 255x20 mark than that 295x15 set in Workout 15.
That set was super-disappointing because it was a mental failure—nothing more, nothing less—and I knew it. I came back and hit it in the next workout (albeit with two days’ rest), but still: That one left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Maybe it was exactly what I needed, though.
My streak was broken.
My ego was broken.
My body was broken.
But… My mind was free.
I failed to hit 295x20, so now—NOW—there was nothing left to do but to push.
To push hard.
To push absolutely balls-out hard.
For 3 more workouts.
No looking back!
So that’s what I did.
No, I didn’t make it to 325x20, which was the program’s goal based on my starting weight.
No, I didn’t even make it to 315x20, which I confess I allowed myself to think about at some point along the way.
And no, I didn’t complete 305x20, which I actually earned the right to attempt according to the program’s plan.
But I did hit 305x14 in Workout 17.
And I did hit 305x15 in Workout 18, just 48 hours later.
And I did give it everything I had: I pushed absolutely balls-out hard. And there was no looking back!
So, yeah: Failure is freeing.
What’s Next?
I’m deloading next week, but I’m not sure exactly what that looks like yet—hopefully something more than just sitting around. Then I’ve got a week of business travel, which means a lot of walking and some hotel gym workouts (at best) or basically nothing (at worst). After that, it’ll probably be 8 weeks of Dan John’s Easy Strength for Fat Loss so I can uncover my hard-earned Super Squats muscle.
And after that?
Who knows?
I’ve heard 5/3/1 is pretty cool.
) and I may just run it myself at some point this year. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed following your journey, absolute warrior!
