"Breathing Squats" on Other Exercises?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Since all gyms are closed in my country i have some time to replan my training.

So i was thinking about 20 rep squats, or breathing squats, and was thinking how it would work on other exercises. It’s essentaly a brutal version of rest pause so could you do it on less neuraly taxing exercises like cable and dumbbell exerxises?

Like Db incline presses, lateral raises, arms, lat pulldowns?

Could you build a whole program around this? These exercises obviusly won’t stress the nervous system as much as barbell squats

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Can you do 20 reps on other movements?

Yes.

Are you perhaps thinking something like this? You mentioned rest-pause, so:

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Have you ever done 20 rep breathing squats?

If not, try them and then tell me if you think doing that on lat pulldowns would have a similar effect.

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Yeah i have. I get what you’re saying, but if you go to failiure in 10 reps, and don’t rack it til you’ve completed 20 reps it would surly be more challenging then doing a regular set no matter the exercise

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It’s just not the same though. If I do 10 heavy curls, then force myself to do 10 more, my biceps will be tired for a few minutes. I won’t be laying on the ground gasping for air, you know?

It’s 20 rep squats* for a reason. Squats are one of the hardest movements. You could do high reps on leg presses, walking lunges, and deadlifts, and find yourself gasping at the end of a set (maybe not leg presses…) but it’s hard to really load up weight for lunges, and deadlifts can be dropped, while squats force you to finish, due to you know, the fact that it’ll crush you if you don’t.

If you want to do high reps on stuff, you can. That’s very common, and you are allowed to do it on ANY movement you want. But there’s 1 Super Squats program and it’s stuck around for a reason. Other movements simply don’t compare, so while you can do 20 presses, lat pull downs, and leg curls, no one designs programs around them.

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Trying to breathe your way to 20 reps with your 10 rep max on dumbbell presses sounds like a great way to bust up your face.

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Aight guys, might not be a good idea after all.

What do you think of Sergio Olivas training method where he only does high reps in a rest pause fashion? Like 10 reps, rest pause, 5 reps, rest pause, another 5 reps, or 20 reps and doing 5 reps and then another 5?

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I don’t know man, for once I think you’re on the right track.

I think Rest/Pause is a good way to do what you’re trying to do. It’s what I immediately thought of seeing your Topic heading. Sergio did pretty well.

Rather than doing 3 sets of a bunch of reps each, you Rest/Pause and do less resting and less “throw away” reps.

If you’re looking for inspiration, Thibadeau uses lots of set/rep structures like Strip Sets, myo reps, 5 count eccentrics, 1.5 reps or multiple pauses during each rep to make “easy” or “light” work more intense and effective.

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And there’s that program I linked.

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You also don’t have enough muscle mass used in most of those other movements to get the same effect. With the squats, that “10RM” is usually the mark at which breathing prevents further reps. The same thing with say, curls, won’t allow you to keep going. The biceps just won’t be able to move the weight.

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I have a challenge thread to introduce you to

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Haha I thought of that after posting it. I still kinda stand by it - maybe up to 300lbs, but I’ve never seen lunges done with more than that.

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Honestly, I love the rest pause method which can be done on any exercise.

It’s not breathing squats, but there are plenty of set-extending methods that will give you some bang for your buck such as mechanical drop sets, same body part super sets, and pre or post exhaust.

I’ll be doing a lot of that these next few weeks.

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