One of the fastest ways to gain size and strength in the entire body is by following the 20 rep squat program. This is a simple routine that is as old as dirt, but it works awesome for fast gains, even if you are a hard gainer.
There are a several ways to implement this into your workouts. But one variation that you can use to help make all your workouts more effective is to simply add in a set of 20 rep squats before your regular workouts.
So for example, if you were going to do a chest workout just get to the gym 10 minutes early, warm up, and then start off with a couple progressively heavier sets of squats. Then take a working weight and bang out a set of 20 rep squats, after which you would just go about your regular chest workout as normal.
The reason this works so well is because you are working the big power house muscles of the legs, core, back, as well as numerous stabilizer muscles throughout your entire body. This will stimulate your central nervous system, stimulate the release of more anabolic hormones, and increase your metabolism more than you would with a straight forward bodypart isolation type of workout.
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Hey Lee. Do you do a standard 20 rep set where there is no rest between reps or breathing squats where you take a couple deep breaths between reps?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't that be extremely overtraining though? Squatting 3, 4, maybe even 5 days a week sounds like you be setting yourself up for an injury.
ReplyDeleteRay,
ReplyDeleteI started to do 20-rep squats a few weeks back. Although I only do them once a week, I can see tremendous gains in whole-body strength.
It makes you feel like an animal.
Don
http://pmswellbeing.blogspot.com/
Great routine Lee. I'll add it to my 2 day a week leg routine. Lee I just heard on the 11 PM NBC news health report that the latest research on white tea is that it prevents fat cells from forming, plus speeds up your metabolism. They also said its way better then green tea for losing weight. 4 cups a day is enough to lose 4 lbs a year. I can just imagine how much more fat you'll burn with weight training & cardio. They also found out some other stuff about the tea that has to do with cancer, but I didn't quite catch tthat part. I'll have to go to the web site and check it out. I take 1 green tea extract tab with 16 ounces of filtered water half Hour before my morning 45 minute cardio, Then another cup with breakfast & lunch. This is a sure fire way of keeping your metabolism super charge for 6 hours before you start wiending down. Looks like I'll be switching to white tea to speed up my fat burning. Thanks for that cool routine you posted.
ReplyDeleteRobert Valdes
You can do "breathing squats". The quick clip shown here is of a warm up set where I usually just pump out the reps quicker. But with heavier weights you'll have to pace yourself more.
ReplyDeleteYou can usually do 20 rep squats for about 6 weeks before overtraining sets in. After all you are only doing 1 work set of squats. So if you workout 3 days per week then you are doing 3 work sets of squats per week. Even though it is frequent, the volume is still quite low.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great routine. It added a lot of depth for me. I doing this 2-3 times a week with great strength gains. It makes your workout super intense.
ReplyDelete