Super Squats

The ‘Super Squats Program’ is an old-school bodybuilding program designed to help hard gainers build muscle. It goes to extreme lengths to help stimulate stubborn muscles and rewards lifters willing to tolerate the brutal program. It is designed around a highly effective exercise we all know and love — the squat. Squats are an excellent lower body strength and muscle builder. They also tax the upper body as you must stabilize the barbell. The Super Squats Program involves performing 20 reps of squats with your 10-rep max weight. This forces you to push harder than you typically would. It is absolutely brutal and triggers a high amount of mechanical tension and metabolic stress. The key to achieving this is 'breathing squats', by performing one rep and then taking three deep belly breathes you prepare yourself for the next rep. Repeat this until you get your 20 reps, this will be a mental test as much as a physical one, don't be surprised to spend 3-4 minutes under the bar. The Super Squats Program also includes other compound exercises that train several muscle groups, ensuring balanced physique development. Key steps to success. *Super Squats is a three day full body program with one rest day in-between sessions and two after the last session. *Start the program with your 10rm for squats and perform one set of twenty using the 'breathing squats' technique. Take three deep, slow breaths before taking the next rep. *Don't try to bang out 10 reps and grind your way through the last 10, slow and steady wins the race. *Immediately after finishing your squats go straight into the dumbbell pullover. *Be honest with yourself if you fail. Your mind will scream to rerack the weight. Could you have done those last two reps if you really wanted it. Come back with a stronger mind set. *Each and every session you will add 5lbs/2.5kg to the bar for squats. By the end of the 6 weeks if you are resilient you will have added 85lbs/42.5kg to the bar. *If you truly fail, struggle badly and fall well short of the 20 reps. Mark it up as a bad day, eat a ton of food and come back better prepared and reattempt the previous weight. *For the rest of the movements don't chase PRs, don't push to failure. You'll likely get stronger, but fatigue management is important. *Hugely important. You MUST eat. If you're not recovering, eat MORE. The original author recommended drinking a gallon of milk every day on top of a healthy diet. Expect to put lbs of weight on. *The original book made claims of 30lbs of muscle in 6 weeks. Whilst this is unattainable, you WILL grow if you put the work in. I recommend reading the Super Squats book by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D if you want to learn more about the methodology around Super Squats. Good Luck!