I started off at 100KG x 20 and moved up to 125KG x 20
And that was it. I never could do it again. Never dared to. It....is by far the most difficult thing you can do in the gym

I'll break it down

1-5=EASY
6-10=Manageable
11-13=Doubt comes
14-15=Feels like stopping
16-18=There's no way I can finish this
19-20=ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

In short.....brutal beyond words.

No way...it's not a strength orientated program at all!
It's closer to size+endurance than strength if you ask me. Well basically after 6 weeks of that, the results were like this;

My waist is 30", my weight remained at 77KG yet I leaned out. Good thing! But my jeans, the legs...were tighter. Fat burns, but leg grows.

After 3 weeks of 20 rep squats, it becomes easier. A lot easier, so much so that you just feel like finishing it quickly. The set drops from 2 minutes to about 1 minute 10 seconds for all 20 repetitions. But on week 5, (breaks out old journal...) I did 120KG x 20 and suddenly it became that much harder. 122.5KG was insane. 125KG was easy again. It seems that at certain weeks/weights, the body has a hard time handling it, but readapts again.

Your food intake, that definitely will go up. You'll just eat anything and everything.

I would've continued with the 20 reppers till I hit 140KG, but I started Olympic weightlifting again, so there was no time to waste doing 20 rep squats. The best part was really, the melting away of fat.

NOOOO!!! I'm saying it melts fat away like a furnace yet maintains your bodyweight.
Whether or not its less effective for bulking, I cannot answer that as I didn't gain any weight during the 20 rep squat process. Yet I know of many people who only do squats and drink like Angrydog said, SQUATS AND MILK, and gained slabs of solid muscle. So I think it's perfectly fine for gaining mass as well. In fact, I know a soldier who only did this high rep squats and deadlifts, and grew in size and dropped major amounts of fat.

According to my journal, I did 20 reps on Mondays and Fridays. My routine at that time was 1-2-4-5.

1- 20 rep squats, bench press [5x5] overhead press [4 x 10] and abs [2 x max repetitions]

2- Deadlift [5x5], chest supported rows [4 x max repetitions] , pull-ups [4 x 10] and shrugs [2 x max repetitions]

4- Dumbbell swings, dumbbell snatch, dumbbell clean and push press, renegade rows with dumbbells and clap push ups. Circuit of 5 rounds. Dumbbell work is 5x per hand and clap push-ups was 10 repetitions.

Looks like I made a dumbbell day.

5- 20 rep squats, push press and overhead lockouts.

I love journals, going through what you did when you were younger. So nice.

I can't answer this because it's not my body.

Personally if you're asking me if pulling 15x for a single set is smart, I'll say no as your back will surely fatigue and your form will suffer. I'd much rather pull 5 sets of 3 reps instead, if I'm working on strength or 3x5 if I'm working on both strength and muscle. This depends highly on what you want to achieve.

IF you're going to do stiff legged deadlifts or Romanians, I guess it's more plausible yet still not something that I would do. Chances are if you were to deadlift 3x a week, 15x for a single set, the weights would have to be relatively light. Perhaps 60% of your 1RM on the first day, 55% on the second day and 50% on the last day of your deadlifting for that week. You could then reset it to 65% for the first day on the next week and decrease by 5% per day of the week.

Honestly, I don't really see a purpose of doing a single set of 15 repetitions. I would rather break it down to a few sets because of numerous reasons;

-Muscular fatigue
-Bad form
-Injury potential
-Slow performance as it fatigue hits.
-Reduced range of motion as pain kicks in

Remember, you're doing this AFTER the 20 rep squats. It's no joke especially on the first few weeks. Chances are you'll feel like you're meeting the devil on the last day of living.

And lastly, you have to learn to use fullstops and not commas exclusively.

Check this out. Coach squats agaiN!

I didn't get the 140KG x 20 one but I got the 160KG x 10 which he did after the 20 rep squats.
He's a lil gassed by now. I'm guaranteeing he'll come to the gym tomorrow, sore.
hehehe

Maybe you should video your own videos instead. Don't need to ask mine, cuz I don't do 20 reppers anymore.


I'll say, almost a definite no way in hell.

His current max is about 230KGs (about 500LBS) for a double only. The 140KG is about his 60% 1RM.
Even at his ultimate peak, he only managed 270KG'S. To hit 20 reps at 230KG, my coach would probably have to have a max squat of about 375KG's which puts 230KG at his 60% 1RM. Either that, my coach would have to take 230KG'S and keep working at repping it.
If he works daily at only repping the 230KG, he'd gain at least 7-8KG'S, which is unsuitable for his frame size. Also if he managed to rep 230KG'S for 20, he'll have a max squat [estimated] of about 370KG. Let's say, he weighs 70+7=77KG and has a max squat of 370KG'S, which is about 4.8x bodyweight.

That....is completely impossible for him. I know who can probably rep 500LBS for 20 though. Mark Huster in his prime. Hossain Rezazedeh, Leonid Taranenko, Antonio Krastev. Maybe Evgeny Chigishev too.

I know it's a retarded calculation. Could've used more sense when I wrote that but I can't be bothered to. Still, I strongly doubt my coach'll be interested in hitting 500LBS x 20 though. What's the point? He ain't gonna clean and jerk 20x. This aint' Crossfit. This is olympic weightlifting.

And i thought Fred Hatfield's max squat was past 1000LBS? High rep squats are fun for a while, then they become extremely painful. At one point, you start to ask yourself "Is there a point of chasing this madness?"

That's not the 20 rep squat anymore. IT doesn't work that way.

Exactly.

Not exactly true.
When you doing a 20 repper, you're actually taking a 10RM and pushing it out for 20. Sure many would say that if you can do 20 reps with a 10 repper, that 10 repper isn't actually your 10 rep max. It's the amount of mental focus and intensity that makes a 20 repper a strength+size workout.

Personally I gained 3KG's while doing this. So I guess it does work your size and strength. yet I'm aware what you're saying that this isn't the BEST one way to do it. That's true. In fact, there isn't really a "BEST" one method of training thanks to your body's adaptive system.

20 reppers, just work great to shake things up a little bit and push your strength up a little more as well as mental strength. i look at it more as a mental workout that physical

So I assume you've gone through the gut wrenching tear in your muscles, till the point your legs feel so pumped and torn that you feel almost numb? Before you push a lil more for the final 4 reps and lay dead on the floor.

Don't worry, I've been there too. Now what if I told you a man's done 180KG x 20 at a BW of 112kg?

Take my word for it, don't do it.
The only benefit I can imagine it offering, is sick mental strength and increased ligament strength. Muscular endurance perhaps, but who needs 100 rep squats. Even wrestlers squat up to 20x only.