Squats And Milk

[airdevil]

I decided to start a variation of the 20-Rep squat program. Going to do an eight week cycle, after a bunch of reading decided to do it 2 times a week instead of three to give me more time to recover. I'm going to start with 135lbs and add 5 lbs each workout ending me at 210lbs. I will probably modify the leftover exercises as I get a feel for recovery. I already eat pretty healthy but are going to drink a half gallon of milk a day to get the true experience. I will record my weight at the beginning of each week. The set of 20 Squats was HARD. Took 1 breath b/w reps 6-10, 2-3 breaths b/w reps 10-15 and 4-5 breaths between the last five reps. Legs felt very weak at the end. Minimal vomit feeling... Loved it!

Workout One (of 16....) 5.19.2009

Milk:

0.5 Gallons drank.

Lower:

45lb x 12 Full Squats (bar only, warmup)

135lb x 20 Full Squats

25lb x 20 Pullovers

(2 x 50lb) x 15 Dumbbell Deadlifts

90lb x 12 Seated Calf Raises

Upper:

Bench Press 135 x 10, 165 x 10, 175 x 7

BW Chins 10, 7, 4

Bench Leg Lifts 20, 20, 20 each followed by 10 shoulder dislocates

Anyone else try this Super-Squats-Esque program?.....

[Adam Moyers]

I started at 110lbs and finished at 180lbs, and my thighs grew over an inch. I'm about to start it over again, I loved it.

[hamil1km]

Ive been doing this program except I'm using deads instead of squats for a few weeks. Started at 185lbs and am doing 3 times a week MWF. Am up to 230 today.

Best workout routine i've done. Gives me a huge energy rush and power for the few other exercises I do.

Love it

[judoboy]

20 rep squats rule - everybody i know, me included has reported rapid increase in size & strength. about 3 years ago i started squatting 50kg x20 with a bw of 72kg.

approx 5 weeks and 10 sessions later in was doing 80kg x20 with a bw of 80kg. i added 8kg of muscle in just over a month!

milk is cool too

i'll watch your progress!

[hamil1km]

20 rep squats rule - everybody i know, me included has reported rapid increase in size & strength. about 3 years ago i started squatting 50kg x20 with a bw of 72kg.

approx 5 weeks and 10 sessions later in was doing 80kg x20 with a bw of 80kg. i added 8kg of muscle in just over a month!

milk is cool too

i'll watch your progress!

I've been making fast strength gains on the Deads N Milk program and was gaining a good amount of weight also. I actually cut out the huge milk intake because it was making my face breakout like a teenager

[luuc]

Good luck!!! Tough programm, I've tried it for a while long time ago, but chickened out...

[dubthewonderscot]

I did it before a strongman contest to get as much weight on as I could.

Started it at 198lb body weight, got up to 223 or so about 8 weeks later.

I went from 275 for 20 to 320 for 18. I admit as I got to the end I was not squating at full depth as my fatigue was really challenging my mental abilities. You may notice this as well. lol

I've since lost all that weight and strength after long layoffs. lol

good luck

[airdevil]

Milk:

1.0 Gallons Down...

Glad to know it worked out so well for you guys... I'm excited about the results for someone with beginner's leg strength...

I hope I don't grow to hate the taste of milk...

[dubthewonderscot]

you won't, but your farts will be legendary.

married? lol

[rico300zx]

I did it 2 years ago and I started at 315 for 20 deep squats and edned up at 370 for 20 deep squats (raw) the whole time. Drank 1/2 gallon skim a day. And lots of food. The last night I quit it, (I did it because I couldn't do 405, was a puss I guess) any way the night I quit I did 490 and failed at 500. I guess it works

Rico

[mwhities]

I was considering something like this or GOMAD with Rips Starting Strength. My legs are pretty big and strong as is, but I want to gain more strength.

Michael

[arande2]

Started the program weighting 243 and 8 weeks later weighed 265 with the same waist measurement, so I added that in just as another good report on the program. The 8-week cycle before I started the program I had gone from squat max 230 to 290, then during the program went from 290 to 340. I think 110lbs of increase in 4 months is OKAY; That's about 7 pounds a week.

And - I agree with mwhities about leg size vs. strength, as I also have large strong LOOKING legs, but I'd like the strength to back it up.

Good luck with the program.

[jomcgui]

Maybe try chocolate milk? I've read some articles about drinking C-milk right after a workout being better than a gatorade type drink. Also Whole milk only has 3.7% milk fat.

[nockowt1]

Good luck with the program Braden.

[airdevil]

First weigh in today.., 191lbs... thanks for all the responses... 2nd workout is tomorrow... Im psyched to make it through it....

[knyaz]

I gotta say that I started at about 125 for a 20 rep squat

and finished 195 x 20 , and that 195 felt very very easy, I remember my friend came over and I did a rock bottom squat with 255 , the 20 repper and MILK program works great

youll see great results with all around strength gains

[airdevil]

Workout 2... 5.22.2009

Milk:

2.0 Gallons drank. 4 Days In. Still like the taste.

Lower:

45lb x 12 Full Squats

95lb x 6 Full Squats

140lb x 20 Full

25lb x 20 Pullovers

(2 x 50lb) x 15 Dumbbell Deadlifts

Upper:

Bench Press 135 x 10, 165 x 10, 185 x 7

BW Chins 10, 6

Bench Leg Lifts 20, 20, 20

I definitely needed two Full Days to recover from the first workout. I might be able to up the frequency of these once my legs adjust. This set was just as

hard as the first one. Same breathing pattern. There was no pad for the bar at this Y either so hurt my delts a little more. Legs were also wobbly again all night. Feels like I am working muscles I havn't used before. Still Love it.

[rico300zx]

Workout 2... 5.22.2009

Milk:

2.0 Gallons drank. 4 Days In. Still like the taste.

Lower:

45lb x 12 Full Squats

95lb x 6 Full Squats

140lb x 20 Full

25lb x 20 Pullovers

(2 x 50lb) x 15 Dumbbell Deadlifts

Upper:

Bench Press 135 x 10, 165 x 10, 185 x 7

BW Chins 10, 6

Bench Leg Lifts 20, 20, 20

I definitely needed two Full Days to recover from the first workout. I might be able to up the frequency of these once my legs adjust. This set was just as

hard as the first one. Same breathing pattern. There was no pad for the bar at this Y either so hurt my delts a little more. Legs were also wobbly again all night. Feels like I am working muscles I havn't used before. Still Love it.

air devil

you seem to have alot of extra energy for all this other stuff your doing, id just do the squats every other day or whenever and do the pullovers after each set. if you got energy to bench that means you not squatting heavy enough, next time add more weight on the squat and skip the benching and chins and what aver else your doing. do it later when your done with the 20 rep program. beside 20years from now your rotator cuff will wish you hadnt benched so much.

rico

[airdevil]

Workout 3... 5.26.2009

Milk:

4.0 Gallons drank. 8 Days In. Went from 1% to Skim.

Lower:

45lb x 6 Full Squats

95lb x 6 Full Squats

145lb x 20 Full

25lb x 20 Pullovers

(2 x 55lb) x 15 Dumbbell Deadlifts

25lb x 20 Pullovers

Upper:

BW Dips 2 x 12

BW Chins 10, 4

Felt extremely strong today. Perfect Breathing Pattern. Actually excited about finishing and didn't think about quitting. Debating switching to 3 times a week as this was too much recovery time. Maybe every 3 days... Excited about where this will take me.

On a grip note... brought all my CoCs to the office and are within 1mm of closing the 2.5....

[airdevil]

air devil

you seem to have alot of extra energy for all this other stuff your doing, id just do the squats every other day or whenever and do the pullovers after each set. if you got energy to bench that means you not squatting heavy enough, next time add more weight on the squat and skip the benching and chins and what aver else your doing. do it later when your done with the 20 rep program. beside 20years from now your rotator cuff will wish you hadnt benched so much.

rico

I decided to switch to some bodyweight dips and chins... Im not going to bump the weight up yet as I'm upping the frequency shortly... thanks for the advice though... If the frequency doesn't make them unbearable then I will go up in weight...

[hamil1km]

Airdevil. I would tell you i've been doing the Deads N Milk routine and doing bench immediately after deads and pullovers almost every time. (3 times a week MWF).

I find that I feel as strong if not stronger on bench after doing grueling 20 rep set of deads than i do fresh. I wouldn't stop doing other exercises after your squats. One of the huge benefits of the program is that you are supposed to have an energy/hormone surge after your big set of squats/deads. This allows you to really get a good few work sets in of Bench/dips/pullups/rows/etc. Whatever you choose.

Good Luck

[Guest Bullitt]

Airdevil. I would tell you i've been doing the Deads N Milk routine and doing bench immediately after deads and pullovers almost every time. (3 times a week MWF).

I find that I feel as strong if not stronger on bench after doing grueling 20 rep set of deads than i do fresh. I wouldn't stop doing other exercises after your squats. One of the huge benefits of the program is that you are supposed to have an energy/hormone surge after your big set of squats/deads. This allows you to really get a good few work sets in of Bench/dips/pullups/rows/etc. Whatever you choose.

Good Luck

I completely agree. I was amazed by how much energy i had after the 20 rep working set. My bench and really all my lifts made huge gains. 5lbs a week if not more. It really seems counterintuitive, but I had more energy and strength after the high rep set than if I hadn't done them.

That being said, you really need to use enough weight on the squats to make them extremely hard to get the 20 reps of breathing squats done. And I wouldn't go work out for an hour and a half every time you do them. But a couple sets each of 2 - 4 basic, compound exercises (ie. bench, rows, pullups, overhead presses, dips) is exactly what the program suggests and worked well for me.

[JAU1985]

I decided on starting the 20 rep squat routine; though I've never really done barbell squats a whole lot. I have done a lot of wall squats to work on my flexibility and on Monday I did four sets of 20 reps with 100lbs total making sure to keep my form good, weight on my heels, knees not going past my toes, basically "sitting on that invisible chair" my friend Jay told me about. I want to see how far I can go adding 10lbs to my squat each workout, going 2x per week. Do you guys think 4 sets is too much? Should I lower my sets from 4 or is that a good number? My legs are still a bit sore today though I've been taking in a lot of protein and getting good sleep, going to give it a go with 110lbs tomorrow.

Edited May 27, 2009 by JAU85

[hamil1km]

I decided on starting the 20 rep squat routine; though I've never really done barbell squats a whole lot. I have done a lot of wall squats to work on my flexibility and on Monday I did four sets of 20 reps with 100lbs total making sure to keep my form good, weight on my heels, knees not going past my toes, basically "sitting on that invisible chair" my friend Jay told me about. I want to see how far I can go adding 10lbs to my squat each workout, going 2x per week. Do you guys think 4 sets is too much? Should I lower my sets from 4 or is that a good number? My legs are still a bit sore today though I've been taking in a lot of protein and getting good sleep, going to give it a go with 110lbs tomorrow.

JAU--- What are you hoping to gain? Are you doing breathing squats on your 20 rep sets or wall squats? The original 20 rep squat routine only calls for 1 set of the squats but you take anywhere from 3-7 deep breaths between each rep. I would say if you're trying to put on muscle and gain strength I would add weight and do 1 set. It all depends on what you're trying to get from it though

[JAU1985]

I'm just looking to get my endurance in my legs and lose fat through my body, after one set of squats after warming up I felt good so I did three more along with some box squats with my thighs at parallel for 3 sets of 10 reps with 145lbs. Maybe I overworked myself, like I said I've never really done squats before but have spent some weeks working on stretching and the proper form of the BB Squat. My goal right now is to lose fat without going on any extreme diet, just eating healthier and getting endurance in my body.

I do take a few deep breaths and hold the bar standing every five reps along with a "regular breath" between each single rep to keep oxygen in my body.