20-rep squat anyone?

[S4lm9vvMn]

I've run across this training strategy online several times. Apparently a relic of old-school bodybuilding/strength training, you squat 20 reps with a weight which is roughly your 10 RM, with pauses in between for breathing. It's supposed to be nothing less than absolute torture but results in significant mass gains. Curious to hear from anyone who's done it regarding the extent of mass and strength gains following the 6-week program.

To be clear, I don't actually have any immediate intentions of pursuing this. It's mostly academic.

[Farley1324]

I've run across this training strategy online several times. Apparently a relic of old-school bodybuilding/strength training, you squat 20 reps with a weight which is roughly your 10 RM, with pauses in between for breathing. It's supposed to be nothing less than absolute torture but results in significant mass gains. Curious to hear from anyone who's done it regarding the extent of mass and strength gains following the 6-week program.

I'm too much of a wuss to sign up for that.

Have at it, eat and sleep plenty, and let us know how it goes, eh?

I squat 225x20 once, just because...enough to decide I'm not interested in 20 reps of squats

[Orlando1234977]

Here's a good thread on it. I did it 10~ years ago. If you go to a gym, try to go when it's not crowded.. at all. Even if you're not a puker, you'll need your space.

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...#post209074981

[ECGordyn]

Alan Thrall has a good review of it. Seems like a solid rite of passage.

[S4lm9vvMn]

Here's a good thread on it. I did it 10~ years ago. If you go to a gym, try to go when it's not crowded.. at all. Even if you're not a puker, you'll need your space.

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...#post209074981

Orlando, I'm curious as to your personal results. Did you experience any kind of accelerated mass and/or strength gains?
If I ever consider doing something like this, I'd probably come prepared with two buckets, one filled with ice water and an empty one to puke in.

[sammywatkins]

I train at the gym that has produced the most ifbb pros of any gym. 20 rep squats are literally a staple in leg training for everyone. Anything under 8 reps is almost unacceptable.

Narrow stance is mostly used though. As to try and reduce hip, glute, and lower back involvement. And maximum quad recruitment.

[ZoranM]

Did it a few times. My legs always needed a lot of volume and all rep ranges to keep growing. I practically did everything there is in the past. Smolov several times too.

The thing with rep squats is you do NOT cheat. You REALLY choose your true 10rm(I sometimes took on a little more weight even, and had a spotter). On ~rep 12 you will think wtf, why the hell am I doing this. On rep ~15 you're gonna want your mommy. On ~ rep 18 your lungs are gonna burn with hell fire and after rep 20 you'll feel you are ready to die and are probably gonna stay on the floor for several minutes. The whole set took sometimes almost 10 minutes.

That was a lot of torture in a small time frame. Always recovered very fast, wasn't ever impressed with the results. Eventually came up with my own version. Instead 1 x 20 with 10rm used to do 3 x 15-16 with 10rm. Now that hurt even more, hated every second of it but my legs liked it much better.

Now I am too busy, old and lazy for stuff like that and my legs are just fine with sort of a conventional leg day.

[Garage Rat]

Yes they are tough and will build you mentally as well as physically.
I was going to mention super squats which ECGgordyn already did above which is a 20 rep squat routine.
One routine I've done years ago that i got from an Ironman magazine was to do 10 sets of 20 reps squatting.
This was one of the most brutal mentally and physically challenging protocols i'd ever done.
The legs pumped up like crazy and were like spaghetti noodle when i finished.
Here's how i went about it.
I chose a weight,in this case 225 pounds,did 10 sets of what ever i could get.
It may have looked something like this at the start 14,14,13,12,11,10,10,10 10,10.
A progressive type protocol.
Every week i tried adding reps to those sets so the total number was more than the previous week.
I kept doing this until i achieved 10 sets of 20 reps with 225.
These took well over an hour and would be the only quad work done.
DOMS lasted five days or more.
I stretched and massaged the quads every day.
This may have been over kill and i was just following a program out of a bodybuilding magazine.
Yes my quads reaped good results.
More of a pump feel type workout than heavy max reps.
It might be something to try for a couple of months to shock the quads.
Maybe only five sets though would work as well.

[sowilson]

My son ran GVT for 5 weeks last winter for a change of pace (he wanted a concentrated upper body hypertrophy workout) and it sure was that. He got bigger and although it didn't increase his 1RM's he did find that when he started lifting heavy again he was able to increase his 1RM's in the bench, OHP, and squat easier (i.e. less sticking points). Good luck if you try and run something like that

[Orlando1234977]

Orlando, I'm curious as to your personal results. Did you experience any kind of accelerated mass and/or strength gains?
If I ever consider doing something like this, I'd probably come prepared with two buckets, one filled with ice water and an empty one to puke in.

It was quite a while ago but I did get from a plate and change to 2 plates and change. The book says 30 pounds in 6 weeks and of course that's exaggerated, but you'll probably surprise yourself. I'm sure people doing 3 plates it's a whole other animal, but like I said, haven't done it since. Also, make sure you have a lot of squatting with good form in place before you start. With a one set pass/fail type system, and adding weight every session, it's pretty easy to lose form or even know how long to stretch the 20 rep set. As Zoran said, it's not done in 2 mins.