A 34 year old 6’2 lurker of this forum who has been in and out of lifting for a few years. Seen results, just not enough because I didn’t stick with it for long enough and after an abdominal hernia last winter, that was a good excuse to get weak again. I’m a fan of and have had success with Rippetoe’s Starting Strength routine, but wanted to run a program that an 18 year old me would’ve thrived off, so I bring you Super Squats…(I’m also a sucker for old school lifting stories).
Results to me is progress on the bar and filling out my t-shirt, bit of a cliché I know but we will roll with it. I won’t be drinking a gallon of milk, we have a bigger source of food than lifters before my time available to us. Dan John recommends PBJ’s in Mass Made Simple, coupled with Jim Wendler’s dozen eggs a day in Building the Monolith, this should suffice.
I will be doing some form of conditioning on the Erg (rower) between lifting days. I train in my garage with access to a bench, barbell, swiss bar, squat rack and dip station. UK based so all in kg’s, will be squatting high bar:
Ha, yes, after calling it a day at 8 eggs yesterday, this part rung true for me. Still, it gives me room to grow in to, I’ll push for the extra 4 when the time comes…!
Loved the write up. Your starting weight was the same as mine give or take (granted there’s a height difference!), but your workout one squatting weight would take me progressing in every session just to get there. I note you went down the dozen eggs a day route, the addition of sauce might make them more palatable when the time comes. 7+ kg weight gain is huuuuge, but you can see the progress in your upper back and chest, inspiring work. I’m not shy of gaining if it means progress on the bar.
adjusted my bench by one hole, just a few degrees. More like a very steep incline,whilst still pressing vertically. Felt better on my lower back and I made light work of these.
Now I was putting down those extra reps to the adjustment in bench set up, but my bench press flew up relative to the first two sessions where I had to rest pause the last set on both days. Rest period remained the same, circa 1:15-1:30.
Squats were just a grind after 11 reps, by rep 15 I just took as many breaths and as long as needed to finish the set. Took a little over three minutes, timed courtesy of a Spotify playlist. Interestingly, my legs aren’t taking the strain until that descend out the hole, it’s all in my trunk and shoulders. Stiff leg deadlifts however…my hamstrings are still shaking now an hour later.
Pullovers are easy work, shall dig out the 16kg kettlebell next week.
This was my experience, too, especially in the early weeks—just standing there with the loaded bar on your back for 3+ minutes is going to make you grow!
Unless I’m hard boiling a batch, I’ll only ever cook them in butter… Hadn’t considered sour cream, but anyway meal where this is coupled with for guac and salsa, is generally a good one in this house…
Noted, thanks. The stretch I get out of it post squats suggests I’m meeting the inteht behind it, so will stick with.
A job done kind of day. More reps benched than Sunday, more weight pressed, extra reps rowing… And of course the squats.
Just got to trust the process and keep doing what I’m doing, there is room to push the food and reign in the conditioning. I have a record of self sabotaging in the pursuit of more, if there is one thing I’m determined to not do the next 4 and a half weeks it’s exactly that!
Night shift tonight, so an afternoon of food prep awaits…
I’m genuinely starting to think you and I may be brothers separated at birth. I’m also on the same quest right now. We’ll try to be good examples to each other.
Dude if I’m half way to your journey I’m in for a heck of a ride! I noted you add cottage cheese to your omelette and as I got sick of eating it from the tub I gave it a whirl, went down a treat. I mean, it’s ‘not normal’ to pull out a pre cooked omelette at 4am during a night shift, but it’s not normal putting a barbell on your back for 20 reps and repeating it 48 hours later… Sometimes got to do something a little unordinary to be unordinary and I’ll be damned if I miss a rep because I couldn’t be bothered to prep some food when I’m out the house for 13 hours.
Bench didn’t feel brilliant, may alternate with swiss bar next week for a little variety
Real emphasis on the squuueeezzzeee in my curls, will keep weight as is and who knows, I might just see some bicep growth by Christmas…
First time I came close to calling it on the squats. At 12 reps I thought ‘this is still a good set of work’. This feeling was magnified at 15 reps. At 16 reps, I kind of knew I was on the home stretch.
Slight twinge in my right shoulder on first set of pullovers, I put it down to my whole body being under so much tension squatting. A bunch of band pull parts did the trick.
I don’t want to eat right now, for the first tine in the two weeks ran this program I’ve a couple pints of whole milk lined up. Night shift again tonight, plenty of food prepped before I succumb to whatever rubbish is on offer there.