I need my thighs to grow. They’ve always been embarrassingly small, even now that I can squat over 400 pounds. Any idea about a % to use for sets of 25?
No idea really. I was gonna suggest a % or weight but when I saw your numbers 50% is still like 2 plates. I’m not familiar enough with those super rep sets to make any kind of informed suggestion.
Here is what informed people suggest
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It is a plan I want to say I’ve completed…I love high rep sets. The feeling of I’m about to die, lightheaded, burning, being able to feel the bone flex is an experience I enjoy…
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Me too. The highest amount of reps I’ve ever done in a set of squats is 17 and it’s an out-of-body experience in a way. Pretty sweet, and I’ll check out the article you linked. Thanks man
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6 March 2018 - Deadlift
Sumo 335x? (5+)
RDLs 3x10 275
Hammer Curls 1x8, 1x7, 1x6 50lbs, 2x10 40lbs, 2x10 35lbs
Notes
I didn’t even attempt to count my deadlifts today. Not sure why, I just didn’t feel like it. The good thing is that I know I got at least 5 LOL. They were all dead stop with straps and a belt. If I had to guess, I would say I got 12-13 reps which is pretty good for me while resetting after every rep. My goal for 2018 for deadlift reps is 385x10, so that’s not gonna happen any time soon.
RDLs felt good. Heaviest weight I’ve ever done for a set of 10 for RDLs by a long shot. I figure it’s probably a good thing for me to be doing a lot of work with 275 (clean pulls, RDLs, etc) to prepare for the olympic weightlifting meet.
I did some curls because I want my arms to grow. My arms have overshadowed every other part of my body for a long time, but now that the rest of me is getting thicker, they aren’t that impressive anymore. Gotta allocate some volume to the guns for sure.
I’ve also decided that starting next bench day, I’ll be doing a 6x2 cycle for my bench, just like what I’m doing for my front squat. The weight I’ll use is gonna be 250. The cycle will last around 7 weeks and will look something like this:
Week 1: 6x2 250, 6x3 250 (two separate days)
Week 2: 6x2 250, 6x4 250
Week 3: 6x2 250, 6x5 250
Week 4: 6x2 250, 6x6 250
Now this is where it gets weird. Instead of doing a 6x2, I’m going to give myself an extra rest day to recover a little more. So these sessions aren’t necessarily going to be a full week apart, but they’ll probably be 4-5 days apart instead of 2-3 days apart like my normal bench is.
5x5 265
4x4 280
3x3 295
2x2 315
1x1 325-335
I figure that if I can do a 6x6 with 250 and get all my reps, an amrap with 250 would put me around 10 reps. The infamous Symmetric Strength rep calculator puts that bench max at 335, which is my goal for 2018. There’s really no telling if this system is going to help me produce the strength gains that I’m looking for, but either way it’s a nice change of pace. Benching 225 for 12+ reps every session was fun for a while, but it’s been months if not years since I’ve worked strictly in the 1-6 rep range and I’m looking forward to doing that for bench again. My current rep max with 250 is 8, so even just being able to do a 6x6 with 250 is some sort of PR for me. I’ve also never benched 280+ for reps before, so getting 1-4 reps with any of those respective weights would also be a PR.
Overall, not too disappointed with today but I’m also not impressed. I’m still at the point where I expect to get ~15 reps with my 5+, so all I did today is what I was supposed to do. I’m very curious to see how the rest of the year plays out, because I’m already getting close to my goals with ~9 months left before I need to get the weights that I laid out a few months ago. Just because I’m a nerd about this, that means I need to:
Gain 2.2lbs/month on my bench max and 4.4lbs/month on my squat and deadlift maxes.
Out of the ~270 days left in the year, I plan on training on about 155-190 of them. That’s 4-5 days per week. That gives me 62-76 SBD sessions if I continue to hit every lift twice a week. I like the combo days, doing deadlifts right after my top set of bench or squat.
If I follow 5/3/1 protocol (which I intend to do for most of this year), that gives me about 10 more cycles for squat and bench, which means +100lbs and +50lbs for my respective training maxes, and around +100lbs for my deadlift. THAT would put me at a training max of 480lbs for squat, 485lbs for deadlift, and 330lbs for bench. Those are training maxes, not estimated maxes. Estimated maxes would be around 535/365/540, which doesn’t seem humanly possible for me to achieve this year; this is all just best-case-scenario math, and doesn’t take into account any injuries (knock on wood), plateaus, vacations, experimenting with other programs, etc. It does account for deloads, but that’s all. It’s cool to set my goals that high, and it’s fine for me because I won’t be crushed if I don’t achieve them. For me, it’s all about what I managed to accomplish, even if my best efforts don’t include meeting my goals.
As always… very very excited to see what I can accomplish this year. I hope everybody made some gainz today
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7 March 2018 - Active Rest/Recovery
2 sets of band walks
Scap Ups 3x5
3 sets of band pull aparts (15 reps/set)
DB Lateral Raises 1x10 15s, 1x10 20s, 1x10 30s
Stretched glutes, hamstrings, shoulders (this felt orgasmic), chest
Foam rolled my quads
Face Pulls 1x50 35lbs, 1x30 35lbs
Notes
Pretty boring, felt good to get the blood moving. I took a 45min nap after school and woke up with a sore back and quads, even though they weren’t sore all day before that. That happens to me a lot…weird. I definitely needed to rest today. I probably should’ve rested Monday and Tuesday, but I didn’t. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, because I can always go hard on Friday and Saturday. No need to rush things.
I’ve been eating a ton today, I’m currently on a mission to drink a half gallon of water in the next 4-5 hours, and I plan on grabbing a big ass burrito with double steak on my way home from studying. I don’t have to leave the house until about 10:45am tomorrow, so I’ll get a lot of sleep tonight. Now that I’m single, I don’t feel any pressure to stay up late and talk to a girl 
I really want to be at 100% tomorrow so I can have a good front squat session, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll front squat and deadlift on Friday and bench on Saturday. 6x4 270 for front squats and 6x2 250 for bench, and 340x3+ for sumo. I plan on doing a set or two of 25 for front squats after my working sets because I want my legs to grow like, now. Right now. Time to go do chemistry… RIP to me
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8 March 2018 - Front Squats
Front Squats 6x4 270
Back Squats 1x30, 1x20 135
Sumo Back Squat 135x15
Leg Press 3x10 5 45s, 25, 10 on each side
DB Lunges 45lbs til I couldn’t walk anymore
Single Leg RDLs 1x5 135lb
Behind the back Deadlift 315x1
Notes
Front squats are hard, nothing else to say about those. The sets of 15-30 are a pain but I got my first quad pump in at least a year. The sumo back squats are something I’d never thought of to do before, but they work my glutes better than hip thrusts and band walks combined. Wow. Hit the leg press for extra volume and tried to superset it with DB lunges, and now my quads and glutes are absolutely fried. I’m super excited to start my 6x2 bench tomorrow, 250lbs!! I can’t wait to hit that for a 6x6 and then work up to a new max. Oh boy
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Big sets for big legs! Big legs=big muscles. Big muscles = big weight!
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9 March 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 6x2 255lbs
DB Bench 4x12 80lbs (60-90sec rests)
DB Flyes 3x10 30lbs (90 sec rests)
Cable Tricep Extensions 2x25, 1x15 42.5lbs, 2x15 35lbs
Standing Single Arm Machine Rows 1x25, 2x20 2 plates
Notes
Awesome push day today. 255x2 felt super easy so I’m pretty happy about that, but it’ll be a different animal when I’m up to 6x5 and 6x6! I’ll try 270 5x5, 285 4x4, 300 3x3, and 315 2x2 once I start working down in reps. Hitting 285 for 4x4 would be SO cool!! I decided to not do 250 and just go to 255. 5lbs doesn’t make that much of a difference, plus my rep record for 255 is 7 reps, and that was months ago, so I think I’m stronger now (lol). If I can get it for a 6x6, I’m thinking that’d put my rep record at 255x9-11 which would be pretty wild.
The DB bench was pretty fun too. The 80s felt very light today which is a good sign, and my first two sets were cake. For this microcycle, I’m going to focus a lot on my rest intervals and see if that conditions me better than just trying to do the 90s for 50 reps. So I’m focusing more on a pump with a good amount of weight instead of focusing on doing the heaviest DBs for a few sets of 10. We’ll see how it plays out in a couple of weeks.
The DB Flyes were also easy money and I probably should’ve gone heavier than 30s but I can always up it next time. They felt super light because 1) today was a good day 2) I had just been pushing 255 and the 80s.
The tricep extensions were fun as always. I loveee getting a good pump. Nuff said.
One thing that I’ve been wondering about for the last few months is this: why is my bench so high compared to my other lifts? I have several friends who can deadlift 500+ and squat 450+, but their benches are like 240-260. It doesn’t make sense to me how bench comes so naturally to me, but I’m not complaining, just confused. One of my buddies pulled 315x18, squatted 405x5, but his bench is 255. When I told him I hit 225x15, his jaw dropped, because he can do 225x3. Oh well. One of life’s great mysteries I guess. My theory (mostly a joke) is that the umbilical cord got wrapped around my waist while I was in the womb, so I got more blood flow to my upper body and my lower body is forever cursed, size-wise and strength-wise. If that hadn’t happened, and my squat and deadlift was proportional to my bench, I’d be squatting near 600 right now. Damn shame. Maybe next life I can resist the urge to twist around in the womb
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You’re lifts, much heavier than mine, are similar. Once I get a weight over 3 times I own it and quickly progress to 5,8,10…unlimited reps. Getting to 225 took me 6-7 months. I figure I can get it when ever I want. Now my estimated 1rm for bench is 260…hahahahaha. I haven’t even tried 230 yet. Which is part of why I tried to push my OHP tonight.
I’ve got around 3 weeks left on the hammy protection. And I will unleash the squat again. I am clearly an endurance lifter not a twitchy guy.
One of the guys I lift with can explode weight for 3 reps. He grinds 4,5. And over five he just runs out of gas. I smash him with lower weights for 8,10+ reps. He can’t hang…
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Yeah, I’ve noticed that we’re pretty similar in that regard. I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing or a biological thing, but we’re definitely in the same boat. Progressing to higher weight (i.e a weight I’ve never done before) is scary, and even though I know that I can physically handle it safely, I still worry and panic on the inside when I’m about to try it. Not in a major way but you know what I mean.
I love this hahaha. In my opinion, it’s more impressive to watch someone squat 405x10 than it is to see someone squat 500x1, and more impressive to see someone bench 275x12 than it is to see a 365x1. Maybe I’m biased because I’m more of an endurance guy, too. Who knows.
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10 March 2018 - Deadlift (and squats???)
Sumo 6x2 365
Good Mornings 1x20 95lbs, 3x10 135lbs
Back Squat 2x20 135lbs, 1x8 225, 1x5 275, 1x4 315, 1x3 335, 1x2 365, 1x1 385, 1x1 405
Rack Pulls 315x6
Bicep Curls 1x5 50s, 1x10 35s
Edit: OHP 125x16 (3+)
Notes
The deadlifts got difficult with the last two sets. I woke up still sore from Thursday’s brutal front squat session; tight hips, quads, glutes, but my lower back was fine so I went to town with the deadlifts. I decided that I needed to work my hammies to balance out all the quad work I’ve been doing, so I did a shit ton of good mornings with a pause at the bottom so my hamstrings could feel the burn. I like quad pumps so I unracked it and banged out 2 sets of 20 back squats with a constant tension style (I usually pause between reps). I got my desired quad pump, then decided to work up. I wanted to see how much I could do in a fatigued state, and the weight was just moving very well today until I got to 405. That was a 5 second squat because I got stuck coming out of the hole, but I grinded through it and got the rep.
I haven’t been this impressed with my body in a long time. I squatted 415 last weekend after not touching back squats in about 2 weeks because I didn’t want to irritate my hip flexor, but that problem seems to be gone now. The front squats + sumo + band walks are strengthening my glutes to a point where my hips are now pretty balanced in terms of anterior/posterior strength, or so it seems.
Overall I’m super happy with how I responded mentally and physically to the volume I’ve thrown at myself for squats in these last couple days. I think I’m addicted to squatting, but that’s okay. It could be worse. I could be addicted to heroin or anime
Edit: I did my 3+ OHP today and got 16 reps. My upper body felt really good today even though I benched a decent amount yesterday. It’s only 125lbs but it’s just about building the foundation right now. Pressing weight over your head is alpha as hell once you get to a certain point, and if you can OHP your bodyweight you’re unfuckwithable. I hope that this OH stuff will build my shoulders a little bit. They aren’t small, but they aren’t big. My 1+ is 135 which I’ll probably do on Tuesday. I’ve got 6x3 255lbs for bench on Monday, and I think I’ll go for 4x13 with the 80lb DBs for DB bench with 90sec rest intervals + 3x10 with the 35lb DBs for db flyes with short rest intervals (60-90sec). I recovered really well from that bench session yesterday, so Monday should go pretty well. I’m still playing around with my bench grip width but we’ll figure it out eventually, no rush. The most comfortable width for me seems to vary every time I bench. I hit 225x15 with a slightly wider grip than I hit 315x1 with, but they both felt good. It’s easier to tuck my elbows on the eccentric and flare them on the concentric with a narrower grip so I’ll probably train like that for the rest of the 6x2 cycle, but like I said, we’ll see. I’ll play around with it on Monday
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12 March 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 6x3 255lbs
DB Bench 4x13 80lbs
DB Flyes 1x10 35lbs
Cable Flyes 4x10 25lbs w/ 2 second squeeze at the top (60 sec rest)
Face Pulls 1x50, 2x40 35lbs
Single Arm Standing Machine Rows 7x10 3 plates, 2x15 2 plates
Cable Tricep Extensions 5x20 35lbs (45-60 sec rest)
BTN DB Tricep Extensions 1x10 35lbs, 2x10 30lbs (60 sec rest)
Notes
255 feels like relatively light weight now, it’s weird. I feel like I could’ve hit my first set for 8-10 reps if it was an AMRAP. I didn’t need a spotter today so that’s a good sign. Depending how I feel on Thursday, I may skip my 6x2 and just do a 6x4 instead. It’ll be a game time decision; when I unrack 255, if it’s light, I’ll do my 4s, but if it feels heavy, I’ll stick with 2s.
I had the strength today, but not the endurance. I took about 2 minutes between each set of DB bench, but I got the 4x13 that I was planning on getting. I did one set of DB flyes and then saw that the giant machine with two cables on it was free, and I was alone in the weight room, so I did that instead. I get a much better pump that way, and my shoulders feel a lot safer.
I LOVE the huge sets of face pulls. Constant tension on the traps/rear delts/rhomoids feels absolutely amazing and it balances out my pressing volume pretty well. I decided to do some standing horizontal rows on a machine with an appropriate amount of body English (not too much, but a bit). I was chasing a lat pump to balance out my chest pump, and I got it. I isolated the triceps for 130 reps today which is always a good time. My triceps are never sore, so I figured I should up the volume a little bit and see what’s up. Overall, a very good session today.
My hamstrings are incredibly sore after my good mornings on Saturday. Since today is the 2nd day, I’m hoping this is as bad as they’ll get. My glutes and quads are appropriately sore, so they’ll be good to go for 6x2 front squats and sumo squats tomorrow. I’ll take Wednesday off, then do a deadlift/bench combo on Thursday with my 6x5 front squats (RIP to me) on Saturday. I think my front squats are already carrying over to my back squats which is fantastic. I also did my back squats in my Chucks (I usually do them in my Oly shoes) and now I see why powerlifters use flat soles. Low bar with Oly shoes causes my hips to rise much too quickly when I get tired.
Used a narrower grip on bench today and it felt very good. Gonna stick with it for the time being. I’m getting fantastic pec activation with my Flyes and DB bench so I’m not worried about that. Hope you boys made some gains today!
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Flys on cables are great for chest. I love them too…
Today the moon must have been in the antigravity position my bench felt super light today too!
Super strong work today @lava2007
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Lemme call up NASA real quick and check. There is definitely something going on here!
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solid plan
You just started the program, now you’re straying away.
Nice lifting btw.
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Like I said, it’ll depend on how I feel. 6x3 was pretty easy but I may opt for a speed session instead of jumping straight to a 6x4. It’s an incredibly simple program and I just want to experiment and see if switching things up on my lighter day will work better. I’ve run this plenty of times so it’ll be interesting to see how it affects me as the reps increase on the higher volume days.
Thanks mate
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13 March 2018 - Squat
Front Squat 6x2 275lbs
OHP 135x13 (1+)
Sumo Squat 135x10, 225x10
Back Squat 145x25, 145x20, 225x10
Leg Press 4x10 6 plates each side
DB Lunge Walk 3 sets of steps each leg 45lb DBs
Hammer Curls 4x8 50lb DBs, 1xamrap 35lb DBs (~25)
Notes
I was not feeling these front squats today. They were tough and my form was sloppy regardless of what I tried to do about it. I moved on to my OHP for the day which I’m pretty happy with; I’m a little sore from benching yesterday, but I don’t think it affected my OHP that much. Maybe I would’ve gotten 14 reps instead of 13 if I was fresh, but it doesn’t matter to me that much.
I hit some sumo squats which didn’t feel as good as they did the first time I did them last Saturday so I was kinda disappointed. The back squats weren’t as bad as I remembered them being even though I moved up 10lbs this time. That is my form of cardio. Nonstop squatting is brutal lol.
The leg press was good for some extra volume, not much else to say about it. I went heavier than usual and I could feel the pressure in my eyes like I do when I’m squatting or deadlifting heavy, so I think 6 plates was the right weight. I’ll try 7 next time, but that’s not until Saturday. The DB lunges got me good, I’m a fan of those. The hammer curls felt good today. They weren’t quite on a bicep-pump level, but my veins were bulging while I was doing them and that’s good enough for me.
Next training session is a deadlift/bench combo. If my bench feels super strong, I’ll do my 6x4 255. My deadlift will be 6x3 365 which shouldn’t be too bad. The thing that makes this program fun is working with 80% for all your reps. Doing 6x2 at 80% is super easy. 6x4 is a challenging workout. 6x6 is a death sentence (especially for squats), and if you don’t feel like it is, then you aren’t actually using 80% of your 1rm. My deadlifts will be 5x5 385, 4x4 410, 3x3 435, 2x2 455, and then a new max. It’s super cool to see your strength increase in such a short amount of time. I’m off to do a little research on how speed work can impact strength gains and I’ll report back any notable findings tomorrow. Hope y’all got a little stronger today
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Just an update kind of post. After doing a little research on speed work, I’ve determined that it’s pretty pointless. Doing speed work with 50% (which seems to be the recommended % by people who support it) of your 1rm has one main problem. By using 50%, sure, you’re able to move the bar faster and recruit more muscle fibers which is the whole point; make your body get used to using every fiber possible. However, using such a low percentage causes any incurred benefits to only apply to low percentages.
For example, my bench max is 315. 50% is 157.5 which I would likely round up to 160. I could probably do 160lbs for 30-40 reps if I was fresh, which would give me an insane pump. But doing it for 9 sets of 3 reps wouldn’t do much. An alternative proposed by one of the articles I read (fairly anti-dynamic effort) is to take 75-90% of 1rm for a few sets of 2-3 reps while focusing on force production and bar speed. One thing that the JTS article suggested was a few reasons that could explain why people who do speed work claim to see results: first, they were weak and slow to begin with. Being at the slow and weak end of the spectrum means that almost anything will help you get stronger. Second, doing a dynamic effort session with 50% keeps the load light and volume moderate, which acts as a second training day. So someone who normally benched once a week and is now benching twice, or someone who benched twice a week but is now benching three times a week, will now have a more “optimal” frequency of bench pressing compared to what they were doing before.
I’ve decided that I will not be dropping to 50% to do speed work. I will continue doing my 6x2 80% and alternate it with 6x3,4,5,6, as the program prescribes. I’ll aim to make each rep explosive; it can’t hurt to try. I think the most important thing about alternating the 6x2 and 3,4,5,6s is that the 6x2 acts as a mini deload. Low volume, moderatley high intensity, just like a regular deload.
One interesting thing that I heard, which kind of makes sense although I can’t explain why, is that it’s important to balance out horizontal presses with vertical presses. It makes sense to balance out pressing with pulling, but vertical pressing is something that hadn’t really crossed my mind until I read it somewhere last week.
Just today’s thoughts. 6x2 255 bench and 6x3 365 deads tomorrow. Gonna chase a bi/tri pump, do some shenanigans with DB bench, and then go for 10x10 with some row variation in addition to face pulls. It’s gonna be a good day
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