September Challenge: High Rep Back Squats

As we are about to enter a new month, a new challenge will begin. Last month, it was the deadlift every day program. This month, I decided to go with High Rep Back Squats! 

A quick history on where this came from...
A few years ago I read the book Mass Made Simple by Dan John. In this book, he outlines a very basic program designed to put on muscle mass. Each of these workouts ended with High Rep Back Squats. Looking through the progression for these squat sessions had me a little scared and I never tried them myself. I also never put an athlete through this program...until this summer. I had to put together a 6 week training program for Princeton's heavyweight for wrestling. He needed strength and he needed mass. Enter the high rep back squat!

These high rep squats put on mass for two reasons: time under tension (TUT) and volume. TUT refers to how long the muscle is under strain during a set. When you perform high rep squats (10-50 rep range) the muscles could be under tension for 25 to 115 seconds! By putting the muscle through bouts of strain for that period of time, the muscle experiences "damage" by breaking down. The same could be said for volume. Volume is multiplying the # of sets by pounds by # of reps (ie, 1 set x 135 pounds x 50 reps = 6750. Compare that to performing 1 set x 250 pounds x 5 reps = 1,250). The higher the number for training volume, the more work the body performs. When the muscle repairs, it will come back bigger! 

​So here is how I set it up: Every Monday and Thursday I would perform high rep back squats. These legs of mine haven't experienced training like this in awhile so I was looking forward to the challenge...and then the first workout happened. I felt like the chump in the photo after performing 30 reps with 95 pounds. It was tougher then I expected and my legs were a little beat up afterward. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the rest of this program! There was soreness. There was leg fatigue. There was muscular growth. The body is incredible and has the ability to adapt to serious bouts of strain. After a few sessions, I was able to do 135 pounds for 30 reps quite comfortably. As Denzel Washington's character says in Remember the Titans, "It's like Novocaine. Just give it time, it always works".

Want a Squat challenge of your own? Try the "To Fifty" workouts at the end of your training session.
Here is how it works:

1. Pick a weight that you can do comfortably with good form
2. You will perform fifty reps with that weight in the least amount of sets possible. So, If you can do 1 set for 50 reps, congratulations, you are done for the day.
3. Next "To Fifty" session, increase the weight by 10-40 pounds and do it again!
4. If the previous session took you 5-6 sets to get to fifty, I would only add 10 pounds. If it took 3-4 sets, I would add 20-30 pounds. If it took 1-2 sets, I would add 30-40 pounds. This depends on strength level and please choose wisely!  

Chris Fluck

Want a copy of the progressions? Contact Chris today!