Dan John Mass Made Simple Write Up:
This was such an interesting program… At the end of the day there’s really only 1 set training workout you are doing and tracking, which you will repeat nearly verbatim 14 times over the 6 week. Consider the differences in even something “simple” like Wendlers 5/3/1 which typically has you rotating 4 different workouts a week (which is fine, but I just wanted to highlight the nature of this program). Yes, there is the “recharge” workout but that is more of a lose ends, fill in the gaps, just do some work type thing. The meat and potatoes is the tracked workout with the squat set
And the goal of that single, simple workout is simple as well… Squat a lot. Way more than youre probably used, with the goal at the end to do something very close to your body weight for a single set of 50 reps.
I dont know how many of you are squatting 185-225x50 in a single set, but I sure as hell wasnt at the start of this.
Dan John has a sneaky way of ratcheting things up. What starts as “hard effort but doable” quickly becomes “hard, but maybe I can do it” do “Oh shit I have to do WHAT in 4 days…?”
And with that ratcheting up, for me, came a looming sense of “dread” on my workout days towards the end (the final 4 workouts are all trying to get the 50 reps of 185-225 in a single set depending on your body weight). I would literally wake up thinking about having to do it, and just the mental weight of the squat set at the end of the workout was always there.
As for the actual work … It was really good. If you are a person who enjoys sucking wind at the end of the workout and really feeling like you gave it your all, this is a good program for you. The Bench and the single arm press kept the upper body in line, the complexes got “the work” in, and the squat sets were always a tough challenge to end the workout.
Overall Id rate this as my favorite Dan John program, and maybe even the quintessential one. While 10,000 swings was interesting - and useful in the right context - and Easy Strength is a nice “add on” to an already active persons training… Mass Made Simple represents something you can do by itself, and it has all the hallmarks of Dan Johns philosophy in it (“getting the work in”, slowly moving things up over time, stacking work on top of work to create a great effect… and hard effort when its needed)
Pros: Good workouts, unquestionably effective, hits basically everything.
Cons: Done without the box squats could potentially give you sore legs for nearly 6 weeks straight if you are prone to DOMS
Anyone on the fence, or noticing you are kinda spinning your wheels looking for something to challenge yourself with, give this program a go. I do recommend the book, as the T-Nation article I initially posted at the start of this log is quite a bit different, and looking back at it Im not real sure you could piece the porgram in the book together with it (and it has a completely different layout with a recommended 5/3/1 strength portion … something I might try if I give this a go again, which I might)