This is the 2nd part of my new series on Adventures in Muscle-Building. Part One covered arm training, so read that if you haven’t yet and are interested in growing big, massive, and massively strong arms. Unlike other series that I have, this one doesn’t require that you read the previous articles in it. That’s one thing that I like about this series. Even if I end up writing something like 50 separate essays, you will be able to read any of them without having knowledge of the others. The only thing that “holds” this series together is that each one will be about the methods, techniques, and various training programs and workout routines that lifters have used throughout the history of lifting for that particular lift, muscle group, or even competitive sport. For instance, I might do an “adventures in track and field training” or something even more specific such as “adventures in throwing” where I discuss the workouts of various discus, hammer, shot put, and javelin competitors, or even just an “adventures in powerlifting.” By the way, while I’m thinking about it, more bodybuilders and casual gym trainees need to learn about the workout routines of various throwing sports—historically, they’ve been some of the most jacked and strongest dudes walking the planet.
With that brief intro over and done, let’s get into the subject for this essay…
I’ve often argued—and I’m not alone; it’s been the viewpoint of a great many strength coaches and lifters for almost the last century—that the most important factor for gaining a lot of size and strength is the squat. If you don’t squat, then you might as well hang up any idea you might have of growing large, strong muscles. This doesn’t necessarily mean the barbell back squat. It just means that you need to do some kind of squat in order to induce gains in size, strength, or both. Even someone who just wants to get lean and “look good” needs to do some kind of squatting.
Even when a lifter gets good results from a “squat free” program, they are usually doing a variation of the squat. In my article No Squats, No Problem, for example, I outline ways that you can get good gains without the squat. However, even there, I replace squatting movements with de facto squatting lifts such as the sumo deficit deadlift, which requires one to get into a deep squatting position to begin the lift.
The modern squat rack didn’t come along until the 1940s, when Bob Hoffman and his York Barbell Company began selling them for gyms, both home and commercial. Before that, however, Mark Berry’s Strongman magazine published early rack concepts that lifters could build themselves. This continued in Peary Rader’s Iron Man magazine throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s, which published DIY designs that home gym lifters could build out of 2x4s.
It was perhaps Bob Peoples who first popularized the idea of squatting out of a homemade rack—whether his ideas came before or after Berry’s, I’m not entirely sure. Peoples used 4x4 or 6x6 posts with holes bored in them every 4 inches to allow racking and unracking of the barbell. He initially used these racks for his deadlift training—Peoples is, to this day, one of the greatest deadlifters of all time—but later realized that they were great for squat training.
It was Mark Berry and his pupil J.C. Hise who really popularized the barbell back squat for quick mass gains when Hise gained 30 pounds of mass in only one month—it was such great progress that most lifters at the time didn’t believe it. Keep in mind that this was in the ‘30s. It wasn’t as if Hise could post his progress on the internet or even in the magazines with verifiable before and after pictures. Eventually, however, after other lifters started using programs a la Hise and they too made phenomenal gains, it could no longer be denied that heavy, high-rep squats, combined with a lot of food (not to mention milk), produced gains that had never before been seen in the history of lifting. The iron historian Charles A. Smith once wrote that, “Hise is entitled to be named ‘Father of American weight training’.”
Hise and Berry became household names again among bodybuilders in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when Randall Strossen’s book Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks became a bestseller in the bodybuilding book-publishing world. Lifters who tried the methods in Super Squats at that time also got great results. If they didn’t get good results, it was only because they didn’t actually do the workouts as written in the book. It had a great influence on me and several of my training partners and even acquaintances at the gym. It’s just that some of the lifters I knew thought it was too hard, so they didn’t give it a try.
Before the ‘30s, lifters still used squat variations as cornerstones of their training. It’s just that, without the squat rack, they didn’t have the capability to squat with really heavy weights. In some ways, however, the bronze era, pre-squat rack lifters got better results. Why? Because they had to pick everything they lifted off of the ground. In fact, most of their workouts centered around what I call the Big 4. In a nutshell, to get the best results, a lifter must:
Squat heavy stuff.
Pick heavy stuff off the ground.
Press heavy stuff off the ground.
Drag or carry heavy stuff for time or distance.
Old-school lifters pre-1930s trained with lifts that almost always involved squatting, pulling, or pressing, and since they didn’t have racks, they had to naturally pick everything off the ground to start it. So, if they were going to do back squats, they had to clean it from the ground to their shoulders, press it over their head and onto their backs, and then squat with it. This is also the reason that a lot of them used the front squat more than the back squat, as all it required was cleaning it to their shoulders. For moving really heavy weights, they did a lot of different pull lifts, such as deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, or power cleans. (For more on that kind of training, read my essay Nothing but the Barbell.)
Henry “Milo” Steinborn, during that era, also popularized the “Steinborn lift” which involved upending a heavy, loaded barbell on one end. The lifter would then position the barbell on his back, tilt it over, and stand upright with it. It was a lift unto itself before you actually got around to doing the back squat with it. Of course, it’s obvious to see what a huge benefit it was to finally have a rack that didn’t involve either cleaning it or getting it onto your shoulders via Steinborn’s method. But the squat rack also eliminated a lot of the benefits that came from getting those weights to your shoulders or back to begin with.
If you’re looking to gain a lot of muscle size, then you simply can’t go wrong with Mark Berry’s (and Hise’s) formula of heavy, high-rep squats—so-called 20 rep “breathing” squats. If you’re not familiar with the method (or the workout), it works like this:
Squats: 1 set of 20 reps. The general “consensus” when using the traditional 20-rep program is to pick a weight (after warm-ups, of course) that you would typically use for a set of 10 reps. Now do 20! Here is what Randall Strossen wrote in Super Squats: “The first approach to 20 reps squats is simple. First, load the bar with what you normally use for 10 reps. Now, do 20 reps—no kidding. Second, every single workout, add 5 pounds to the bar. These two elements are what separates the men from the boys and produces results, by simultaneously embracing the two cardinal principles in weight training: overload and progressive resistance.”
“Light” Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 20 reps. Do these immediately after your squats—or as soon as you’ve recovered enough to handle them. Don’t use a weight that is too heavy. Simply get a deep stretch on every repetition, and take a deep breath as you lower the weight on each rep.
Dips: 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps. Warm up with either another exercise or, if you’re strong on dips, do a warm up set or two with your bodyweight, then add poundage for your “work” sets. Start off with only 2 sets, then increase to 3 after a few weeks on the program. Stop each set about a rep shy of failure, always leaving a little something “in the tank” so to speak.
Chins: 2 to 3 sets of max or “near max” reps. If you can do at least 8 reps on each set, then use a weight belt to add additional weight for the exercise. Perform this exercise in an “underhand” fashion so that you get a total workout of the back, lats, and the biceps.
One-Arm Dumbbell Overhead Presses: 2 to 3 sets (each arm) of 5 to 8 reps.
Farmer’s Walks: For this exercise, mix it up by sometimes performing farmer’s walks with both hands, and sometimes by just using one hand, and then switching hands midway through your “set.” A good distance is about 20 to 30 yards. Use a weight that makes this one tough!
This program also takes care of the Big 4, since you have to pick up the dumbbells from the ground to do one-arm dumbbell overhead presses. Train 2 to 3 days per week, such as Monday and Thursday or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every week, at the first workout, add 10 pounds to your squat weight. Stick with the program for 6 to 8 weeks and then move on to something else.
In one of my early articles for the blog well over a decade ago, I wrote “squat and do what you will.” If it sounds like an odd little phrase at first sight, here’s what I penned back then:
Saint Augustine once uttered the phrase “love, and do what you will.” The blessed Augustine was basically saying that as long as you do everything out of love—love for others, love for God—then whatever else you do will be correct.
I happen to think the same thing about squatting. As long as you are squatting—if not at every workout, then at least on a very regular basis—then you can do what you will with the rest of your workout. In fact, I think squatting is the foundation of all successful training. For instance, if you do the following five things, I can guarantee you will get great results:
1.Squat a lot.
2.Train with volume.
3.Train frequently.
4.Get plenty of rest when not training.
5.Eat a lot of food.
If you don’t believe me, then try any of the following squatting and training options, depending on your goals:
If you want to have the most massive muscles possible (for your genetics) and you don’t care that much about whether your muscles are actually functional, then I suggest you train 3 to 4 days per week. Squat at the beginning of each session, then pick a bodypart to train. Day one could be squats, chest, and shoulders. Day two could be squats, biceps, and triceps. Day three could be squats and back. And day four could be squats, hamstrings, calves, and abdominals. You don’t have to go “crazy” on the squats; just use about 60-70% of your one-rep maximum on each day.
If you are interested in being massive and being strong, then train 3 to 5 days per week. On one day, squat and do some overhead pressing work. On another day, squat and carry or drag heavy stuff (farmer’s walks, sled drags, etc.). On another day, squat and then do some heavy bench pressing (barbell or dumbbell) followed by chins. And on another day, squat and then do various pulls (deadlifts, snatches, cleans, etc.). Train every other day, or train for a couple days in a row before taking a day off.
And if you are interested in being a massively strong (and massive) powerlifter, then train 3 days per week, say, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Squat at every session. Bench press on M/F. Deadlift on just one of the days, whatever day you want. I’d deadlift on Mondays, just to start the week “right” by doing the hardest and heaviest session at the beginning of the week. Some lifters might prefer to deadlift on Friday, allowing them to rest for a couple days after the hardest session. That’d work well, too. You could also deadlift on Wednesday, since you won’t be doing any bench presses on that day—yep, that works as well.
Getting massive and/or strong isn’t that complicated. It just requires plenty of hard work—and lots of squatting. What follows are some more workout ideas and training plans that are fantastic for building that squat. Pick one of them to train at a time. There’s going to be a lot of information here and a plethora of different training programs. The key, however, is to stick with one program for at least 6 weeks. 8 weeks might be even better. Don’t have workout ADD and just jump around from one program to the next every couple weeks. Occasionally, I’ll get an email from a reader asking for a detailed program based on his goals. I always take my time to answer these emails and ensure that I try my very best to give them a good workout program. For the most part, the emailer will message me again in another couple of months with some follow-up questions. But on occasion, and here’s the problem with a lot of trainees, I’ll get a follow-up email a couple weeks after the first one, asking about a completely different training program and if I could write something new for them. These are the only emails I get that annoy me. The lifter can’t possibly, in only a couple of weeks, have discovered whether or not a program will have worked for them. Or not. That’s what I mean by workout ADD. Stick with a program for 6 weeks before deciding whether it works or not.
When it comes to building the squat, you can’t go wrong by following the “Russian rules” of training. Russian training hinges on HFT, and high-frequency works great for the squat. So, here’s the 7 Russian rules for building the almighty squat:
1. You must squat heavy.
2. You must limit your reps to no more than 5 (usually).
3. You must avoid muscular failure.
4. You must cycle your loads.
5. You must stay tight. Tension is power.
6. You must treat your squatting as a skill and "practice" rather than a “workout” that exhausts or fatigues you.
7. You must squat and only squat for multiple sets.
For the 7th rule, you can do variations of the back squat, but make sure they are a squat that carries over directly to the barbell back squat. You don’t really need anything more than back squats, front squats, bottom-position squats (or various heights of rack squats), and (possibly) box squats. Box squats are a good option but only if you are a wide-stance, low-bar squatter that relies more on hip, hamstring, and lower back strength than quadriceps.
If you’re new to squat training, a good way to abide by the “rules” is to simply follow a Bill Starr-style heavy-light-medium program. Here are a few of them from my book The Strongest Shall Always Survive: Lifting Lessons from an Iron Legend:
Program One
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps. The last set should be all-out.
Wednesday – Light Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. Work up over 3 progressively heavier sets to the weight used on the 3rd set from Monday. Stick with that weight on your 3rd, 4th, and 5th set.
Friday – Medium Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. Work up over 4 progressively heavier sets to the weight used on your 4th set from Monday. Stick with that weight for your final 2 sets.
Program Two
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. Same as Program One
Wednesday – Light Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. Same as Program One
Friday – Medium Day
Squats: 4 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps. 1 heavy set of 3 reps. Work up to a triple heavier than your last set of 5 from Monday. On the following Monday, attempt a set of 5 reps with what you did for a triple here.
Program Three
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps
Wednesday – Light Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps, no back-off sets for the light day
Friday – Medium Day
Squats: 4 sets of 5 reps. 1 heavy set of 3 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps
Program Four
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps
High-bar, narrow-stance pause squats: 4 sets of 6-8 reps. These are straight sets. Stop each set a rep or two shy of muscular failure. For technique, imagine how an Olympic lifter squats compared to a powerlifter, and you understand the form I intend. For the pause, commit to either a 2-second or 3-second pause at the bottom of each repetition. For pause squats, I find it good to have a training partner, or partners, who can call out the seconds of the pause. If you do it by yourself, you tend to begin to count faster on the pause as the set progresses.
Wednesday – Light Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps, no back-off sets for the light day
Friday – Medium Day
Squats: 4 sets of 5 reps. 1 heavy set of 3 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps.
Overhead squats: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. As with the assistance work from Monday, stop each set a rep or two shy of muscular failure.
Program Five
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps
High-bar, narrow-stance pause squats: 4 sets of 6-8 reps.
Wednesday – Light Day
Lunges: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps. Do the 5 sets of 5 in progressively heavier fashion; the 5th set can be all-out. No matter how “heavy” you train, you will never approach 80% of the weight utilized on the Monday session.
Friday – Medium Day
Squats: 4 sets of 5 reps. 1 heavy set of 3 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps.
Barbell hack squats: 3 sets of 8-10 reps.
Program Six
Monday – Heavy Day
Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps
Partial squats in the rack: 4 sets of 6-8 reps. This is a good exercise if you know you have a particular sticking point. Set the pins in the rack so that you are starting just below where your sticking point is located.
Wednesday – Light Day
Lunges: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps.
Friday – Medium Day
Front squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 back-off sets of 8 reps. As with the lunges, you can go all-out on front squats, and you still won’t get more than 90% of your poundages used on Monday’s workout.
Barbell hack squats: 3 sets of 8-10 reps.
Squats also respond well to even higher training frequency. A lot of East European strength athletes, influenced as they are by Olympic weightlifting programs, trained their squats 4 to 6 days per week. If you’re new to such HFT, a good program to start with is any kind of “easy strength” routine. And if you’re unfamiliar with it, here are the 7 “rules” of easy strength training programs:
Train with full-body workouts using a limited number of basic barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell lifts such as squats, bench presses, overhead presses, chins, dips, curls, cleans, snatches, or deadlifts.
Lift 5 to 6 days per week.
On average, keep your reps per set in the 1-5 range. Doubles and triples are probably the perfect “sweet spot.” Occasionally, you can do higher rep sets in the 8-10 range but only for 1 set.
You should also average around 10 reps per lift per workout. Pavel, in his and Dan John’s book Easy Strength, recommends these set/rep combos: 5x2; 2x5; 3x5,3,2; 3x3; 3x3,4,3; 3x4,2,4; 4x1,2,3,4; 4x4,3,2,1; 5x1,2,3,2,1. When training with only singles, drop your total reps down to 6.
Train between 80% to 95% of your one-rep max. Always leave a couple reps “in the tank.”
Go for a PR on either singles or reps on days when you feel particularly strong but don’t go “all-out.” Instead, go for a “near max.”
Vary the intensity throughout a training cycle. Here is Dan John’s recommendation for varying your training loads over the course of several sessions: 3x3 (heavy), 5x2 (heavier), 2x5 (light to moderate), 6x1 (working up to a “near max”), 1x10 (very light for “tonic” recovery set), 3x5,3,2 (moderate).
For squat training, you can do squats and nothing but squats at every single workout or one of the variations that I mentioned earlier. So, a couple weeks of squat training, doing nothing other than the barbell back squat, might look like this:
Week One:
Monday: 3 progressively heavier sets of 3 reps
Tuesday: 5 progressively heavier sets of 2 reps
Wednesday: 2 sets of 5 reps, one light and the 2nd “heavy”
Friday: 6 progressively heavier singles, working up to a “near max” single, perhaps 95% of your true max single
Saturday: 1 set of 10 reps for active recovery
Week Two:
Monday: 3 progressively heavier sets of 5, 3, and 2 reps
Tuesday: 3 progressively heavier sets of 3 reps
Wednesday: 1x10 for another light session
Friday: 5 progressively heavier sets of 2 reps
Saturday: 2 sets of 5 reps
On the following Monday, do 6 progressively heavier singles again. Don’t get “psyched up” for your workouts, take pre-workouts, or “eat chalk” and bang your head on the squat rack before every heavy attempt. It’s called “easy strength” for a reason—train easy and repeat often.
If you can’t make it to the gym as often, but you can make it 3 days per week, try my “moderate strength” version that uses the same “approach” to lifting. The rules for that look like this:
Train with full-body workouts using big, compound lifts. You know the drill. Squats, deadlifts, power cleans, power snatches, high pulls, chins, an assortment of rowing movements, bench presses of different types, overhead presses of all sorts, shrugs, and barbell curls fit the bill.
Lift 3 non-consecutive days each week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for instance. When you feel as if you need a break, or if you find yourself too busy to make it to the gym 3 days in a week, I think this methodology would work well on just 2 days of training, Monday and Thursday, for example.
On average, keep the reps in the 1-5 range. Sets of doubles and triples are probably the “sweet spot.” Occasionally, you can do light, higher-rep sets, especially when your body needs a more “tonic” session after several workouts of heavy training.
Average a total of 15 reps on each lift, give or take one or two. Some good set/rep combos would be 3 sets of 5, 4 sets of 4, 5 sets of 3, 7 sets of 2, 5 sets of 5,4,3,2,1, 5 sets of 1,2,3,4,5, 7 sets of 4,3,2,1,3,2,1, and, when you need some lighter work, 2 sets of 7 or just 1 set of 15 reps. When you use singles for your heaviest session, reduce the total number of reps to around 10. One of the things that I like about “moderate strength” over “easy strength” is that you have a bit more flexibility and variety. With easy strength, due to the higher frequency, you need to limit your total reps per lift to around 10, which won’t give you quite as much variance. The above set/rep suggestions are just that, suggestions, meaning that, as long as it fits in the 15-rep frame, you can use it.
Train, on average, with between 80%-95% of your 1-rep maximum. Always leave some reps “in the tank.”
Go for a PR on singles or reps when you feel strong, but don’t go “all-out.” Instead, go for a “near max.”
Vary the intensity throughout the week and over the course of the program from workout to workout. Something such as this: 4 sets of 4 (moderate), 7 sets of 2 (heavy), 2 sets of 7 (light), 5 sets of 3 (moderate), 5 sets of 5,3,2,3,2 (moderate), 10 sets of singles (heavy), 1 set of 15 (light, “tonic” session).
In other words, follow the same train easy, repeat often methodology but just increase your reps to 15 at each session instead of limiting it to 10.
Okay, now let’s look at some “oldies but goodies.” They’ve been around for a long time because they’ve worked for a long time. The first are a couple of “Hepburn methods” since they were used by the great Canadian strongman and weightlifter Doug Hepburn.
We’ll start with the less “intense” of Hepburn’s methods. For this one, you’ll do 8 sets of either 2 or 3 reps. It works like this:
On barbell squats (or front squats or bottom-position squats), use a weight (after warmups) that you would use for one all-out set of 8 reps.
At the first session, do 8 sets of 2 reps with that weight. It should be easy. That’s the point.
At the 2nd session, do 1 set of 3 reps followed by 7 sets of 2. At the 3rd, do 2x3 and 6x2. At the 4th, it’s 3x3 and 5x2. Continue in this manner, adding a triple and dropping a double until you are doing 8x3 with your chosen poundage. At that point, add 10 pounds to your squat at the next workout and repeat the process all over.
Train your squat 2 to 3 days per week, whichever you can handle.
This is a “slow and steady” method for lifters that, to be honest, don’t get bored and like doing the same workout at each session. But it undeniably works.
The 2nd of Hepburn’s more popular methods is for less frequent training. This one involves multiple singles followed with some sets of 5 reps. It works like this:
On your squatting movement, after warmups, use a weight where you know you can get about 5 singles with the weight, but not less. When in doubt, at least to begin with, use less weight and not more. Now, attempt 8 singles with that weight.
If you get all 8 singles, add weight at the next session—5 to 10 pounds. If you only get, say 5 or 6 singles, stick with that weight at each session until you do get 8 singles.
When you are finished with the singles, drop down in weight and do between 3 and 5 sets of 5 reps.
This is a great method for building both strength and size.
Train once every 5 days. So, if you do your first workout on Monday, you would do your next one on Saturday, then Thursday, and so on.
The 1st time that I squatted over 500 pounds raw, in the 165-pound class, I used this Hepburn method of multiple singles on the bottom-position squat. I squatted 510 pounds at the powerlifting meet and I was capable of doing multiple singles on the bottom-position squat with, I believe, 420 pounds, so I had about a 90-pound carryover from multiple singles on BP squats to my max weight on the regular back squat.
Another old-school method that I’m fond of—it’s particularly good if you like HFT—is the 21-rep method of “Big” Jim Williams. If you don’t know anything about Jim Williams, here’s a short bio on him:
Big Jim Williams—born James Talbot Williams in 1940 in Scranton Pennsylvania—was known by several other nicknames throughout his illustrious powerlifting career. These included the King of the Bench Press, the Scranton Superman, and the Big Black Bear of Scranton, because, yes, the man looked like a colossal black bear.
According to Charles Poliquin, in an article entitled "A Perspective on the Bench Press" at charlespoliquin.com: Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Williams was exceptional in size and strength from a young age. By the time he was 12 years old, he weighed 200 pounds and excelled in both football and track and field. Williams reached the state finals in the shot put four times, ultimately winning once. Even when he weighed 340 pounds, he was capable of dunking a basketball.
If that's true, well, that's more than just a little impressive, and it gives you an understanding of what this man was not just capable of, but eventually achieved.
In his youth, apparently Williams became involved with criminal activity, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison when he was 21 years old for assault, battery, and "strong-arm" robbery. But prison proved to actually be a life-saver for him, as it was in prison that he took up serious weight training.
Released from prison, it wasn't too long before he became a phenom in the world of powerlifting, along with, it must be said, his training partner Jon Kuc. His initial goal was to break the bench press record of Pat Casey, the first man to bench press over 600 pounds—Casey's world record stood at 615. In 1969, Williams became the 2nd man to ever bench press 600. And in 1971, at the Eastern US Open, he benched 635 lbs for a new world record. Then, in the same year, he benched 660 at the AAU. Eventually, he would bench 675 lbs in competition. But here's the thing: there was no "equipped" lifting back then, and absolutely nothing "state-of-the-art" to help a bench presser. Williams wore only a t-shirt and a singlet, with light ACE bandages (that were not long). The bandages were more to help prevent injury, and did nothing to actually increase a lifter's number in the bench press. Although it wasn't an "official lift," he eventually bench pressed 720 in the gym, which was witnessed by Kuc and three international judges. Another thing that must be noted is that all of his competition lifts were done with a 2-second pause on the chest, a requirement in competition at the time.
Williams was more than just a bench presser, as he also squatted 900 pounds, and deadlifted over 800, even though he was not at a "mechanical advantage" for the deadlift. As impressive as his feats of strength were—and they were, and still are, damn impressive—it's his strength training methodology that I want to focus on here, and his particular method of training that he called "21s." (And just so there's no confusion, this method of 21s has nothing to do with the bodybuilding method of 21s where you do 7 half reps from the top of the lift, 7 from the bottom, and then 7 full reps. This is completely different.)
Here's how real 21s work: On your squats, perform no more than 21 total reps for that lift in the workout. Using this technique, you then train the lift rather frequently. Anywhere between 3 to 5 days per lift, for instance. For bench presses, you might want to limit it to 3—maybe just 2 if you chose it for deadlifts—but for squats, I think you can push it to 4 or 5 days weekly.
Let's say that you have a max squat that hovers somewhere in the 400 pound range. Using 21s your workout might go like this: 135 for 5 reps, 225 for 5 reps, 275 for 5 reps, 315 for 3 reps, 375 for 2 reps, 400 for 1 single. You then repeat this workout another 2 to 3 days (train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) during the week. Because the volume is so low on the lift—in comparison to your strength level—your body can handle the frequent training. Slowly increase the weight over the course of a few weeks, and before you know it your squat is better than ever.
I could have made this article two or even three times longer, but as it’s already well over 5K words, it’s probably long enough. If I think of anything else that I really wish I would have added, I’ll write it in the “comments” section below at a later date. In the meantime, there’s plenty of information to get started on your own squatting adventure. See where your squatting journey can take you. No matter what you’re hoping to achieve out of your training, just remember: you MUST squat.
If you have any comments or questions, leave them in the “comments” section below or send me an email if you prefer private correspondence. I typically get around to answering my emails every couple of days. If you’re looking for even more information on squats, search through the blog. I have squat articles galore.
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