100-days of squats: challenge and experiments

[Phil5011993]

On 10/16/2018 at 7:52 AM, Cam Ogle said:

@Kit_L I was near but not quite at the end of the 40 days. I remember the fatigue quite acutely but never followed this program up with anything beneficial and I cannot for the life of me remember why. The program has you doing 5 lifts for sub max sets with no more than 10 reps total per day. For full disclosure I was doing deadlifts, overhead press, chins, front squats and curls. Interesting article from Anthony Mychal who used a similar method (with much better results) to deadlift 550 pounds. 

https://anthonymychal.com/how-i-deadlifted-550-pounds/

I am interested in trying some of his stuff out. I need to check his zero to barbell stuff or knee program. I am not confident about starting to do barbell quarts until I sought out my knee issues. 

It is just still bodyweight leg work for me at the minute. Although these posts are inspiring me to do some barbell squat after finishing the current phase of my training. 

[Cam Ogle]

17 hours ago, Phil5011993 said:

I am interested in trying some of his stuff out. I need to check his zero to barbell stuff or knee program. I am not confident about starting to do barbell quarts until I sought out my knee issues. 

It is just still bodyweight leg work for me at the minute. Although these posts are inspiring me to do some barbell squat after finishing the current phase of my training. 

I have a couple of his programs. I used his B3W program for quite a few years and always found it great. It's a mix of barbell and bodyweight and has a multitude of progressions in there. I also have the chronic knee pain book as well and used that a couple of years ago. It's good content and basically what he used to get past some knee issues of his own. Lots of glute work, hinging, foot awareness, etc. Pretty solid material. I am actually revisiting some of it now as well given the current state of my knees. 

[Kit_L]

Day 30

10 x empty bar

5 x 40

5 x 50

3 x 55

(2 x 60) x 3

Three doubles on 60; could have done five sets, and comfortably, but we hit the road today for three days of family obligations.

[Kit_L]

Day 31, on the road

Three sets of chins, while walking around the lake in Canberra.

1 x 5 single-leg squats, done on step-up station, with hand support. Really felt the accumulated fatigue in the quads, in particular, doing these. Quite different to barbell FS in that regard.

3 minutes (30" alternating sets, horizontal body, fingertip depth) speed skater squats. 

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

Three sets of chins, while walking around the lake in Canberra.

Sounds like a perfect day! 

[Kit_L]

Day 32

Walked an hour and a half through the Canberra bush with @oliviaa and her family, barefoot.

Sets of bodyweight squats

10 flat heel

20 Bathaks, or Hindu squats (ball of feet) x 2

alternated with

20 heel-flat squats x 2

20 bethaks to finish

As my shoulders have been getting sore (think it might be short head of biceps, actually) from the volume of FS, I might try to work up some numbers in the bodyweight squat, too, for a kind of rest some days a week. I worked up to 500 reps continuously on a retreat I was on once in Taos; the retreat centre was over 7,000 feet... The 500 took about 17 or 18 minutes, from memory.

[Kit_L]

Day 33, still on the road.

A note of explanation first: I tried looking on YT for a video to explain the exercise I am doing, and could not find a clip that showed this. So, one leg folded back (half seiza, if you know what this means) under you; the other in the SLS position, foot flat. Then stand up, and repeat. The leg you are sitting on does some work.

(10 on each leg, one leg at a time. Change legs, repeat.) x 2

20 Bhataks x 2, later in the day.

[Nathan]

7 hours ago, Kit_L said:

So, one leg folded back (half seiza, if you know what this means) under you; the other in the SLS position, foot flat. Then stand up, and repeat. The leg you are sitting on does some work.

Do you keep the folded leg folded tightly in seiza position, or does the tip of the foot rest on the ground throughout the movement? Perhaps we can call them SLSS: single-legged seiza squats 

[Kit_L]

Day 34,

"Single-leg seiza squats", or "SLSS" it shall be. These are @oliviaa's invention, too, IIRC. The folded leg does some quad and balancing work, but the time both legs are buggered both legs are working very hard! I start with the R leg on the first set, and do the numbers for the R leg, then rest, and change over. Call that one set pair. Next set pair start with the L leg.

Today's brutal combination:

SLSS

10 each leg

8 x 6Kg. How can 6Kg be SO heavy?

Then super-set: Speed skater squat (horizontal body, fingertip depth) 30" each leg, then a new combo: down on both legs, on balls of feet, then fold one leg into half seiza, go onto flat foot on second leg, and and rise on that leg, as in SLSS. Repeat for other side, in a continuous flow. 20 reps in total, but the supersetting with the SSS was ... excellent. I will film this; it's lovely.

25 x Bhetaks to finish. 

I had forgotten how aerobically taxing this kind of thing can be. Legs definitely pumped, and I can feel that the on-the-floor work in the transitions is really good for my lower back, too.
 

[Kit_L]

Day 35

I can definitely feel the legs today (as in they feel 'heavier'), but no DOMS.

30 Bhataks

SLSS x 8 x 8Kg

8 x 6Kg

30 ordinary bodyweight squats (feet flat)

There's no doubt the old legs are growing; I can actually see this.

[SwissDanny]

7 hours ago, Kit_L said:

There's no doubt the old legs are growing; I can actually see this.

Leaving aside aesthetic/bodybuilding considerations, do you pay attention to the relative development of the muscles? Question prompted by my own return to lifting and fact that vastus med is definitely "lagging" vs rectus fem (always has but more markedly now).

[Kit_L]

@SwissDanny: no; the way I do all these things is to try to have the weight evenly over the front of the foot (and balanced between front and heel) and zero lateral knee movement; this way, I figure, whatever needs to develop to support the action will—whether that's aesthetically pleasing or fits someone's idea of what the thigh should look like! Maybe you don't need a pronounced VM?

Day 36

15 SLSS on each leg only. Some DOMS today (on a scale of 0–10, a three, perhaps) but that set of 15 blew both legs up. SLS work, in any form, is amazingly powerful, I find.

[Kit_L]

Day 37

SLSS x 5, starting L leg

SLSS x 5 x 6Kg, R. leg

SLSS  x 5 x 8Kg, L leg

SLSS x 5 x 12Kg. R. leg. Anaerobically taxing, for sure. Walking around, the legs and glutes feel pumped. As I get tireder, the folding leg does more work, but I am hoping that alternating the start leg will balance this out over time.

SLSS x 10 on each leg, alternating legs. I might try this for the weighted ones tomorrow, too. My only reservation is that it takes longer to fail two legs than one.

[SwissDanny]

16 hours ago, Kit_L said:

tireder

is one of those words that suddenly stops looking like its a real word.

SLSS tried these just now just BW. Interesting and assuming I was doing them right really made the glutes work, whereas I find a lot of squatting and lunging exercises tire my quads more.

[Kit_L]

On 11/3/2018 at 2:51 AM, SwissDanny said:

is one of those words that suddenly stops looking like its a real word.

Hahahaha! 

Day 38

On 11/3/2018 at 2:51 AM, SwissDanny said:

whereas I find a lot of squatting and lunging exercises tire my quads more.

I find the same, so these new ones are good'uns.

SLSS (or we could just call then @oliviaa squats; will ask for her input here) are glute killers; I am sure it's because you momentarily sit and relax, even if only for a split second in the bottom position. 

Yesterday I slightly pulled vastus medialis on my R leg (it was being used negatively at the time, third-last set, so not the heaviest, and I felt it pull) and it's a bit too sore today to do SLSSs, but bhatacks ("B") and squats ("S") feel fine though legs are very tired today!

B x 30

S x 30

B x 30

S x 30

B x 30; legs are pumped.

[Kit_L]

Day 39 (feeling like 100 days is going to pass slowly...)

S x 40

B x 40

S x 40

Enough for today.  

[Kit_L]

Day 40

Retrying real single leg squat after a long time away from them.  I am working on the negative part of the movement today, with multiple attempts of trying to lift out of the bottom position while staying balanced.  Not too bad for first day back. Then:

SLSS x 5

SLSS x 5, Alternating leg style, x 6 Kg

SLSS x 5, Alternating leg style, x 8 Kg

Interesting: the pulled muscle in the thigh of my stronger leg is making me use my weaker leg much more! Every cloud has a silver lining. 

Some bhaitaks/bhataks/bheteks (I have seen so many spellings of this word!) to finish. 

B x 30

S x 30 Legs most definitely pumped.

[Kit_L]

Day 41, some mild whole-leg/hip DOMS, only to the extent of knowing I used my legs yesterday!

S x 30

SLSS x bodyweight x 5, alternating legs (I think this is the best way to make sure legs are getting evenly worked; most definitely some DOMS today)

SLSS x 5 x 8Kg, alternating

A need to practise GPS and radar techniques intervened (in preparation for bringing Sea Biscuit back from Queensland, once Liv is back from Vancouver) and I judged this the more important use of my time!

[Kit_L]

Day 42

Some real DOMS today (probably from two days ago). Only a maintenance workout today.

S x 30

B x 30

S x 30 

The legs are really tired today. Still, even 90 BW squats gets the blood moving.

[Kit_L]

Day 43

Some DOMS today but more the 'I've worked my legs' type than 'I hope I don't have to walk down any stairs today'

S x 20

SLSS x 10 x bodyweight, alternating each leg; many advantages to this approach, I find. I will elaborate below.

SLSS x 5 x 6Kg

SLSS x 5 x 8kg

SLSS x 5 x 12Kg

SLSS x 5 x 16Kg, a PB in this exercise, immediately followed by 20 x bodyweight squats. Legs definitely worked today. I am really getting into the SLSSs. 

Doing, say, the R leg, and immediately following this with the L leg means that both legs get pretty much the same work in any set. It does not seem to matter which leg I start with, either. And alternating legs really makes me focus on duplicating sensation and activation on each leg (reason this is important is that I have a 18–20mm leg-bone-length difference; the longer leg is less coordinated and weaker). So, all around, even though it takes longer to fatigue the legs in any set working like this, the effect is definitely evening up both coordination and strength. And not needing a gym will be a blessing, too, when on the road.

[nick_kuchedav]

On 10/28/2018 at 3:29 AM, Kit_L said:

20 Bathaks, or Hindu squats (ball of feet) x 2

There is a new trend recently among my Instagram friends: sisi squats. Which are similar to Hindu squats but the goal is to push the knees (and the whole BW) as far forward as you can. I'm kinda good at this, but apparently, it is very hard for my students. 

 

On 10/30/2018 at 1:31 AM, Kit_L said:

Then super-set: Speed skater squat (horizontal body, fingertip depth) 30" each leg, then a new combo: down on both legs, on balls of feet, then fold one leg into half seiza, go onto flat foot on second leg, and and rise on that leg, as in SLSS. Repeat for other side, in a continuous flow. 20 reps in total, but the supersetting with the SSS was ... excellent. I will film this; it's lovely.

Sounds interesting.

On 11/2/2018 at 5:51 PM, SwissDanny said:

SLSS tried these just now just BW. Interesting and assuming I was doing them right really made the glutes work, whereas I find a lot of squatting and lunging exercises tire my quads more.

 

Have you noticed a difference in the ROM you do those and regular barbell squats?

[Emmet Louis]

Just going to throw this out here for the brave.

This is the program I used to take my squat from 140kg to 180kg and FS from 100kg to 137.5kg in about 7-8 weeks. I also pulled 190kg sumo completely cold

@Frederik used a variant of it too lately to take his into the 170kg from 120kg iirc but he might give the right numbers.

The goal is to squat everyday but allow for autoregulation in this frame work.

The plan is to alternate days of back squat and front squats, to a daily max. The max is a gym max so no grinding and all concentric should be done in 2s or less. You'll generally hit a new PR once a week on each lift and will then fluctuate based on day to days. 

Fred had an addition of having a daily minimum target to lift then base the next attempts on how that felt.

Simple, now we apply the auto regulations. 

On days when you feel slow or weaker, you switch to paused squats of either type and work to a max which will be reduced due to the pause so have two tally lists running.

On days you feel fresh and want to do more, you drop the weight to either 80, 85, 90% and perform 3-10 sets of singles or doubles as a back off.

Once a week you'll do 4 sets of romanians or back extensions in the 10-12 rep range, and some leg curls or leg curl variant of the lighter type. and some calves and abs as you feel fit.

Warm up sets as needed. 

 

[Nathan]

7 hours ago, Emmet Louis said:

Just going to throw this out here for the brave.

Was wondering when you were going to pop in after I heard you mention Kit's squat challenge on that recent podcast 

7 hours ago, Emmet Louis said:

The goal is to squat everyday but allow for autoregulation in this frame work.

This wouldn't work for me since I can't do heavy weighted squats at home, but what are your thoughts about doing pretty much the same thing with deadlifts? Could alternate sumo and conventional. Could use pauses on slow days, but might be more realistic to use a snatch grip instead to naturally limit intensity. Thoughts?

[Kit_L]

Day 44

Internet is shit here today, so will wait to comment on the interesting posts above. Sissy squats are a Vince Gironda staple: nothing new under this Sun, anyway! His way of doing them is completely different to the clip @nick_kuchedav linked to above (watch the whole clip; excellent). The young man demonstrating is clearly/obviously a dancer (see the demi plié at one point?); male dancers are phenomenally strong and mobile in the lower body.

Tried a few the way he was demoing; 100% lower quads, so not so interesting to me, but will throw in some from time to time. Right now I am preferring all movements that use the glutes as well.

SLSS x bodyweight x 10

S x 40

SLSS x bodyweight x 5 (I really felt how to use the glutes to slow the descent, for the first time)

B x 30

SLSS x bodyweight x 5

S x 20

Most definitely done for today.

[Emmet Louis]

10 hours ago, Nathan said:

Was wondering when you were going to pop in after I heard you mention Kit's squat challenge on that recent podcast 

This wouldn't work for me since I can't do heavy weighted squats at home, but what are your thoughts about doing pretty much the same thing with deadlifts? Could alternate sumo and conventional. Could use pauses on slow days, but might be more realistic to use a snatch grip instead to naturally limit intensity. Thoughts?

Deadlifts have been attempted numerous times over the years in various schools of High frequency training and the conclusion is you just end up getting fried. 

Interesting article on this
https://www.t-nation.com/training/max-out-on-squats-every-day