Q&A: 21-Day Squat Challenge Explained
I’m really bad at predicting which of my articles are going to become popular. I could have sworn that the recent post I did for Breaking Muscle called, “The 21-Day Squat Challenge” would have just flown right under the radar.
This would have been fine, as the point of putting it up wasn’t to have a “hit”. (Not the I mind.) Rather it was to kick off a series of articles that are designed to explain difference aspects of how I approach a “Bulgarian-ish” style of coaching (heavy emphasis on the “ish”), how I define that term VERY differently than almost everyone else on earth, and the lessons you can take away from it all.
I figured it would be cool to kick that series off with a (very) simple program that pushes just one aspect of training that I find important: frequency.
However, I totally expected it to dud. I mean, while training daily (or near daily, or even twice daily) is rather old-hat to my lifters and other serious competitors in the sport … it isn’t something I would expect anyone else to want to do!
I was wrong. Very very wrong … as usual!
Why I’m Bothering To Write This
The 21-Day Squat Challenge article has become one of my most popular posts on Breaking Muscle as of late. It helped drive over 21,000 views from StumbleUpon to the Sunday Seven top list (it was #1).
Most importantly, I’ve gotten tons of emails, private Facebook messages, tweets, and other communication from people who are trying it out.
Rather than spend a bunch of time answering the same questions over and over, I figured I’d create a little resource where all of these questions can get answers. And if you have more, just put them in the comments section, and I’ll answer those, too!
There are a number of them, so I’m just gonna dive in.
Question: Can you explain the program in more detail … I’m confused?
I love writing for Breaking Muscle, but I’m on a word limit over there of about 1,000 per article. Most bloggers would consider this perfectly normal and have a hard time writing ENOUGH to fill the space. Not me!
I’m a blabber mouth. And sometimes I find myself writing on a topic that I have far too much to say about in the space allotted. I then have to cut out a lot of the details in order to make sure the key points are presented.
That’s totally cool, though, ’cause I’ve got this blog where I can blab on as long as is needed to fill in the gaps!
The main point of the 21-Day Squat Challenge
The idea of the challenge isn’t to have you “max out” or anything silly like that. It’s to get you to break the habit of not squatting on a regular basis.
If you go to the gym every single day for 21 days and squat – something, anything – then you win! That’s the ONLY goal. All the rest is just add-on stuff that can be left out.
It’s best to have a beach-bum attitude about it all. If it ain’t fun, what’s the point?
What’s with the “maxing out” business?
I happen to like for beginners – and other people who are new to serious strength training and Olympic lifting – to get used to the idea of hitting a max weight. Not because I think it is a magic way of making you stronger … but because it teaches your BRAIN something important that it won’t learn in any other way: That you’re not gonna die.
I know that might sound funny – and false if we’re being literal! – but one of the main hurtles that will face you in your Olympic lifting training is the fear of going up to a heavy weight on the snatch, clean, and jerk.
That fear is RATIONAL. It’s a rather strange thing to dive under a heavy snatch or jerk. But, that’s what the sport IS.
Most people are quite fearful of this, and no matter how pretty their technique is with light weights, they choke and lose their form when the bar gets even remotely heavy.
One of my favorite ways to start training a persons brain to handle this situation is to get them maxing out (to the point where you miss your last rep) on Front Squats as soon as possible.
The front squat is a rather safe exercise to max out on.
- You can dump it easily.
- It isn’t as heavy as a back squat.
- And it is FAR less scary than a back squat, snatch, jerk, or clean.
It is also POSSIBLE to max out on it. Honestly, there are few exercises available to us that are safe to do this on – and almost all of them are the ones weightlifters use. That last fact is not an accident.
If you are new to heavy squatting, I advise you stick with front squats for a while. The goal isn’t just strength, here. You’re learning skills. Strength is only ONE of the skills I want you to learn from this.
So … squat up to a max daily, but don’t worry if it’s a REAL max. It just needs to be heavy, with good form. No biggie.
While I prefer that you go until you have to dump the bar – miss – that isn’t the only way to miss. Anything that isne with horrible form, or where you have to “Grind” it out is also considered a miss.
Maxing out in this way is EASY to do everyday. Don’t believe the hype in your mind.
If all you did was exactly what I explained above, it would be a VERY low volume program. Think about it: you only did about 4 reps that were at all heavy each day. 4 reps … it’s harder to walk for half an hour.
Question: Can/Should I also do your “Squat Nemesis” workouts along with this?
Yes … but only if you’re a bit crazy and really love squatting.
The Squat Nemesis Program isn’t really a program, it’s a workout that we use IN our programs. (It was named this by my friend, Cliff Dyer, who used it to help him hit a new snatch PR – along with some kick-ass coaching from Caleb Ward.)
I’m going to be doing a whole video explaining it, why we’re using it now, and why I believe it to work so well. We’re getting near our 12th week doing some variation of it 5 days per week. And it’s been a HUGE reason behind our current rash of PR’s.
Until then …
The workout is very simple on paper, and very hard in practice. It can be done with either back or front squats. But like I said above, if you’re relatively new, stick with front squats for a while.
The Squat Nemesis Workout
- Work up to a max single (that is, a miss)
- Drop 30% off the bar and work up slowly to a heavy 3 reps (not a miss, just heavy). Don’t take more than 5 to 10k jumps! You WANT the volume in that mid-range.
- Drop to something lightish and do 2 sets of 5 reps. Your only goal is speed out of the hole. These should be rather light for you, like 40% to 65% of max. FAST!
This could easily take between 30 and 60 minutes. If you’re as lazy as we are, it could take longer. I’ve had guys take up to 2 hours!
Clearly if you are in a time-crunch, this workout won’t work for you. However, if you are adventurous, you can do this workout in place of simply maxing out that day on 2 to 5 days in the week.
So far at PDX we’ve done this in two ways:
- Front squat every time
- Alternate back and front squats with a max of 3 back squat sessions per week.
I’m not saying you couldn’t try this on back squats exclusively, we just haven’t done it that way.
Also, we have not done more than 5 Squat Nemesis Workouts in a week.
3 Sample Versions of the 21-Day Squat Challenge
Given the above, you’ve got 3 primary options:
- Squat daily, not caring particularly what you do. Just do it and have some fun.
- Squat to a max/heavy 1 rep daily (preferably on the front squat). Don’t be a maniac, here. Good form still matters!
OR … do one of the following:
3A – Whole Squat Nemesis Meal Deal:
Monday through Friday: Squat Nemesis
Weekends: Front squat to max single
3B – Less insane but still fun
Front Squat to max every day. At least 2 times per week, do the whole Squat Nemesis workout.
Done.
Question: Can I do more exercises, or should I just squat? If so, which ones?
Yes. Now is as good a time as any to tell you something that may come as a shock if you’re new to all this crazy stuff – brace yourself:
In my club, we do all of the above as only about 30% of our total workload.
We often snatch and clean and jerk for a full one to two hours before we even get to the squatting. The shear amount of total work my lifters are used to would blow the minds off of most recreational lifters. (What’s amazing is that most of them ARE recreational lifters! They just really love this stuff!)
You can do just about any exercise you want on top of the squatting. The easiest would be an upper body focussed routine. That would leave the legs totally fresh for the squatting.
Another option is to pair it up with some lower body work like Hip Thrusts and pulls or RDL’s. (See my article on my favorite 3 exercises for the lower body.)
Or …
QUESTION: Can I do this program along with learning/doing the Olympic lifts? Or is it too much?
As I said above, we do exactly that. But HOW is the question that was begged.
While you know I take seriously the principles of Chaos Theory, don’t let that fool you into thinking that I don’t strongly believe in well planned programs. The way we do our Oly lifting is intimately connected to the kind of strength training we are doing and vice versa.
But, the 21-Day Squat Challenge isn’t a program. It’s just a challenge, mostly for fun.
Given that, I’d say your best bet is to simply work on technique with the Oly lifts going up to a heavy enough weight to be considered “work” but not so heavy as to kick your ass. And do this as often as you have time for.
Sets of 2 reps per set for many sets are classic – going for great lifts each time.
Example
- Squats
- Snatch 10 x 2
- Clean and Jerk 6 x 2
That’s a simple, but highly effective method of improving your squats and Olympic lifts at the same time. Do the squats daily, and if you have time, do the Oly lifts. If not, screw it. Doesn’t matter. Ebb and flow, my friend.
QUESTION: Can I combine the Challenge with CrossFit?
Maybe. Depends how you do it.
Unlike the Olympic lifts done the way I explained above, or lazy-bodybuilding work, CrossFit is a very CNS intensive way to train. If you are at all serious about your CF workouts, you likely kick your own bootay at every workout. That’s fine, but it leaves little recovery room on the table for much else.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that if you ONLY max out daily on the squat, you aren’t adding much fuel to the fire. Again, you’ve only done about 4 or 5 total heavy reps that day. That’s easy.
Squat BEFORE your CrossFit workouts – almost like a warm up. Don’t bother with the Squat Nemesis unless you are willing to dial back the CrossFit stuff while you’re at it.
In my experience in training a lot of people who also do CrossFit, you can’t do both with any level of seriousness at the same time. You are either going to focus on your strength training (and/or Oly lifting) OR you are going to kill it on the CrossFit WOD’s.
You can do both, just don’t do both with ultra-intensity.
QUESTION: Is it normal for my squat to go DOWN?!
The short answer is: Yes. The long answer is two-fold:
- We’re trying to “game the system” of your body.
- Progress does not look linear, nor is it a simple step function.
I’ll be getting very detailed about the second part of that in an upcoming article. But let me explain it in simple terms really quick:
The graph of progress doesn’t look the way you want it to!
Most people think of progress like a line that is pointing upward. You push hard and you move up. Done.
That view is naive at best. And it is the reason most people find themselves frustrated in the gym so often. Their expectations are totally out of sync with reality. They need a reality check.
In the real world, two facts come to play that make the graph of your progress look far different than expected.
First, some days you will be strong, some days you won’t. The graph will be jagged.
Second, the human body, like (nearly) all natural systems is best described by the exponential function, “e”. That is, you will go through long periods where not much change is occurring, then BOOM, big gains. Then, you start all over again.
So from a birds eye view, progress is like a series of exponentials, one after another. If you zoom in really close, it looks like a super jagged (sine-like) wave function that is up and down everyday seemingly without reason.
Accept this.
Frustration is easily avoided in training by a simple acceptance of reality.
A frustrated lifter is a shitty lifter.
Gaming the body
The second reason for your squat numbers dropping has to do with us intentionally over-doing it for a while.
I tend to write programs based upon something called, “The Hormone Fluctuation” model which utilizes something called, “2-Factor Training.” I’ll go into more detail in future articles in this series, but let’s see if I can summarize it for you.
Most of the programs you are used to – especially those in Bodybuilding magazines – are based on a Linear Model of progress. You create stress to the body via a workout, you rest until your body has adapted, then you go back to the gym and do it again.
This type of training works great with rank beginners, but it breaks down rather quickly as you progress further. The reason is that it takes more and more stress to force adaptation the more advanced you are. That is, your workouts get rather intense.
Similarly, the time it takes to recover fully from such an insane bout of work will increase until you’re at the point of having to take a full week or more off of training in between each session!
THAT, by the way, is the underlying justification of the old HIT routines.
Quicky explanation of the 2-Factor Model
It turns out that the body can respond faster if you stop thinking about your Stress/Adaptation cycle so acutely: workout, rest, workout, rest …
Our new goal is to increase the stress on your body through a process that is very much like the “compounding interest” on your credit card. You workout, then you come back and workout again – before you are recovered – and then do it again, and then do it again, pushing your body further and further down.
You can do this in little mini cycles of only a few workouts/days, or go for a few weeks, or even a few months!
Eventually, you pull yourself back and slowly allow the body to recover, or “peak”. What happens is rather amazing. Over the same length of time, this 2-Factor approach out performs the 1-Factor approach for intermediate and advanced athletes. (This conclusion is based on some science, and a lot of experience by coaches like myself and many others around the world and in many sports.)
Why does the 2-factor approach seem to outperform the 1-factor model? (At least once you are no longer a beginner.)
Well … I’m not sure we have enough accurate data to answer that conclusively. But we do know a few things. One of which has to do with your hormones.
When you push your body down, your hormones (like Testosterone) are suppressed. Eegads! Who wants that?
You do. Because when you then go into a Taper or Peaking phase, your body will respond by raising Testosterone up to levels higher than they were to start with.
The Key Bit: The deeper into the red you push yourself, the greater the response at the end.
A single workout, no matter how hard you make it, can only push you down so far. But if you stack workout on top of workout on top of workout way before you have recovered at all, then your body gets pushed deeper and deeper into the hole.
The downside is that you’ll feel kinda crummy when you are at the lowest low.
The upside is that the gains will be that much greater.
Interesting Side Note #1: There is some evidence – and I’ve seen in many times in my gym – that athletes can make remarkably great gains even when they are still in the depressed state! They are deep down in the hole and yet gains keep coming … weird. I don’t have all the answers on this, and I’d love to see more research on it. But, I CAN say that it works.
Interesting Side Note #2: I’m reviewing Matt Perryman’s excellent upcoming book on the subject of high-frequency training right now, and it goes into some of this and MUCH more. Once it’s released, I’ll post a formal review and link so that you can check it out if this stuff interests you.
The point …
For some of you, even the simplest squat program like this can cause you to start “dipping down” a bit into your recovery capacity. That’s OK. This is only three weeks, for heavens sake. You ain’t gonna die.
Ride it out, then taper down for two weeks and reap the rewards.
Combining the 21-Day Squat Challenge with a two week taper at the end brings this closer to being a real “program” and not just a “challenge”.
I’ll be adding some tapering programs to Samurai Strength Nation this month, by the way. 
But suffice it to say that a taper is just a phase where you take it easier on your training.
QUESTION: How heavy should the back off sets be? (Assuming you do them.)
Something most people miss about Bulgarian-inspired training programs is just how important the back-off sets are.
In my discussion with Michael Hartman on Bulgarian Training Basics, we brought up the idea that the “max” was just a gauge for us to see where the athlete is that day.
- Are you fatigued?
- Are you really technical today, but not very strong?
- Are you really strong, but not technical?
In other words, the number you hit for your max isn’t really important. It is simply part of the “data set” that I’m going to look at and use as the basis for what I’ll have you do for the rest of the workout.
Just as important as the number that you hit for your max, is HOW you hit that number. Sometimes, you miss a front squat simply because you got it out of position. Other times, it was a massive grind out of the bottom.
Those details matter.
If you are super grindy on the way up with a number you normally are not grindy with …then I know you are fatigued, and I’ll have your drop pretty low for your back off sets.
If you take a big lift, but barely miss it for technical reasons, then you may end up hitting some very heavy back off sets.
All of this implies that doing things the way we are is VERY coaching intensive. But that doesn’t mean I have to be there.
You are your first coach.
Only you can say for sure what you are capable of. Unfortunately, you also have to know yourself very well to accurately tell if what you are feeling is at all true! (See my article, How You Feel Is A Lie, for more on this.)
Much of what I’m trying to teach you – in my articles, videos, and in this challenge – is how to auto-regulate.
Auto-regulation is simply the act of adjusting what you are doing based on how capable you feel in that moment.
No easy task!
It takes practice to learn that connection between how you feel and what you are actually capable of.
The back-off set variations don’t really matter as much as your ability to decide what to do based on what you CAN do that day.
So … when you go down in weight after your “max” just do what seems reasonable! Don’t have some preconceived notion in your mind about what you SHOULD be able to do. Who cares. Just do something. If you feel good, go for it. No? Don’t.
Got More Questions? Put Them In The Comments Section Below
Don’t be shy …
For the record, the specific Squat Nemesis program I was doing was four days a week, Back Squat, Front Squat, Rest, Back Squat, Front Squat, Rest, Rest. Also, my phone’s Swype keyboard deserves at least as much credit as me for the name. I was trying to call it “squat madness,” but it came out “squat nemesis.” Even better!
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You heard it from the horses mouth, people. Get to work!
Also, sorry for implying that you are a horse, Cliff
Another great article, Nick. I’m going to apply it to my powerlifting alternating my sumo’s with the front squat. I think I will put the dips, presses and chins into the accessory work as in optional through auto-regulation and keeping volume low. Don’t let anyone tell you that your routines and programs only work for O-lifting – us meatheads get a lot out of them too. =)
HAHA! Thanks Eric,
I’ll be really interested to hear how it goes for you
Damn good article! If it wasn´t for the lack of time I would have done this.
The article goes along with the RTS system I think. It´s so true that “How you feel is a lie”.
I went to the gym the other day after my girlfriend gave life to my son 3 days before. With lack of sleep and all the input of being a father I set a PR in the Deadlift!!
Congrats, Tommy! That’s awesome
And the deadlift is cool, too, LOL
Great article Nick. Can you please share the raw data in the squat improvements? For example lifter x had a 10kg squat improvement. Keep the articles and podcast coming I really enjoy them.
Sure … however, 10k is a bit steep for only 3 weeks, lol. Even for a beginner on “meds” that would be pushing it. (Though Erik IS doing that, see below …)
A 2.5 to 5k isn’t too crazy if you are pushing really hard and are in your 30′s or 40′s.
My lifter Chris set a 5k pr on the Front Squat after 21 days of this, which is interesting because he is FAR from a beginner. He did the full program with the Squat Nemesis 5 days per week, often doing front squats in the mornings as well in addition to that. So he was doing a LOT of squatting!!
My new lifter Erik is doing the same thing and has hit a 10k PR on his back squat in just under 3 weeks. His front squat has gone up even more. But he’s only 19, so those big numbers shouldn’t be focused on too much.
I personally went from a 140k front squat to a 155k in about 2 months while squatting daily the entire time, often twice daily. Not much volume other than periodic triples. But I maxed at every workout.
Brandon does a routine similar to Erik, and has been hitting PR’s almost constantly for the last 2 months. He recently did 7 reps with double body weight on the Front Squat … just ’cause he’s a show off, lol
It’s honestly getting harder and harder for me to keep pace, because my lifters who follow the programs the most strictly hit PR’s all the damned time.
Seriously, even I’m shocked by it and I wrote the damned things!
The point is this:
Within reason, the more you do, the bigger the gains. BUT you need to build up to that.
Start out with simple daily squatting just for fun.
Then start maxing.
Then add the volume.
That said, doing just 4 or 5 days a week, with lots of volume (Nemesis is great) is also working wonders in our gym. Arron, Melody, Jade, and others have seen their squats soar since implementing variants of this.
Total weekly load is key. Keep it as high as you can for as long as you can … pull back a bit to recover … then repeat.
It’s not magic, but Lord it works like it is.
I’m really looking forward to trying this-last year I started squatting three times a week and to my surprise, it wasn’t “overtraining” like a lot of people warn about.
One thing I am curious on; when front squatting, is it ok to use the “cross arm” method, or does it have to be the “clean grip”? My flexibility isn’t great right now, and I have a hard time keeping proper position trying to use the clean grip.
Thanks!
Cross arm is fine for a while. And if you have no interest in ever catching cleans, then you could keep it up forever. But, honestly, it’s less stable.
PLus, if you are not flexible enough to rack a front squat … you’re not flexible enough and that needs to be fixed.
It took me a full MONTH before I was able to rack a front squat without pain. LOL
Good News! I’ve been working on it, and can finally rack a front squat with proper form! Still going slow and working my weight back up just to make sure everything feels right, but this makes me really happy
SWeeeeeeet!!
What did you do to help your ROM for racking the bar on the front?
There is a lot of information in here, so I might have to do some sifting to come up with exactly what I want. Essentially, I’m a CrossFitter, but certainly not a Puritan. I just love the variety. I experimented with Oly lifting some time ago, but never really committed to it until I came across your article about combining Oly with CrossFit. It has done well so far; Snatch work and Front Squat Sunday, C&J and Fronts again on Wed. Additionally, i alternate back squats and deadlifts on Friday. The front squats are already showing huge progress, going from bodyweight up to 235 in just a few weeks. But I’m not seeing much on the Oly lifts. What can I do to get better there?
Thanks for all of your help and insights.
Josh F.
It is almost always the case that a person will struggle for quite some time on the Oly lifts until two things are taken DEAD seriously:
1. Your technique must be very good and very very consistent. Start the bar the same way everytime, move it across you the same way, explode the same way, catch … etc
2. The FEAR of heavy lifts will cause you to stop using that good technique that you worked so hard on when you add weight to the bar. I is nice to be able to snatch the bar with perfect form … but what matters is that you can snatch a heavy weight that scares the shit out of you with perfect form.
The ONLY way to get over any fear in life is to face it.
My programs are built around this idea.
Again, step one is to dial in your technique. If you can’t lift well with light weights, you won’t with heavy weights.
Step two, learn how to apply that technique to weights that are heavy and scary.
Hi!
This is day two for me with the squat nemesis program. I front squatted until I failed and then dropped the weight 30% and did 9 sets of 3, increasing the weight by 2.5 pounds each time. Is this enough volume or too much? Also, I have that fear you talked about with regard to heavy weights. Until yesterday, I had never dumped a weight before. I have been doing crossfit for two years, but I never add enough weight to really fail with any of my lifts and I think this has slowed my progress. So, I am proud to have dumped a barbell for two days in a row.
Mary, that’s fantastic!!
Congrats on facing some of the fear. While it’s never good to go “bro” and risk hurting yourself, you should be able to miss a front squat very safely. So great job!!
The 9 sets could be too much, or just right depending upon how often you are squatting in the week, and what the rest of your weekly workouts look like.
I’ve been accumulating about 20 to 60 total back off reps 5 days a week on the squat … but I’m not doing a whole lot else, so it’s not that crazy. I squat for about 2 or even 3 hours a day, LOL …
That kind of crazy stuff only makes sense when you have time, and do almost no other exercise.
I’d say what you should think about is the total number of back off reps you are getting by the end of the week.
If you do a lot of other exercise, then doing about 30 to 100 total back off reps is more than enough.
For instance many of my lifters are doing a lot of work on snatches, CJ’s, and pulls in addition to squats, so doing only about 3 sets of 3, or maybe 5 sets is plenty.
The other extreme is like myself where you don’t really do much else, so what the heck. Might as well push the squat.
I’d say, shoot for 3 to 7 sets of 3 per squat day most of the time. If you feel great, do more, if you feel crappy, do less.
And after about 3 to 4 weeks of this, take a light week to recover before you attempt to do it again.
Hope that helps, I know I was rambling … haven’t had my coffee yet (gasp!!)
Nick
hey Nick – thanks for all the awesome articles, podcasts, interviews, etc! question on the squat nemesis/squat challenge stuff: i am trying out the squat nemesis meal deal (m-f: nemesis, s-s: just to a max) but sometimes i am a bit strapped for time m-f as i lift in the morning before work. if i’m unable to do the whole thing, would you say it’s better to do the heavy sets of 3 (side question: approx how many of these should be happening? 2-3? 3-4? 57?) or do the lighter sets of 5?
i just realized you already answered my side question in the above response. i have only been getting in 3-4 back off sets of 3 but it’s mostly b/c of time constraints so i will keep rolling with that.
when i am pressed for time (but can still do a bit more than just squatting up to a max), should i make sure to get the heavier 3 rep sets in or the lighter 5 rep sets? i’m going to guess heavy is more important…
also, i would just like to say, i LOVE squatting up to a max. so much less emotionally taxing than squatting heavy for reps/sets. thanks for the awesome program ideas!!
Shayne,
I feel the same way about hitting the max. It’s sooooo much more psychologically EASY than hitting heavy 5′s or seomthing like that.
We all feel like the 3′s are what get us most – brutal! They are also the basis of the gains, as you might expect.
If you are pressed for time, hit the 3′s not the 5′s. The 5′s are great, but are more about speed and extra volume. Icing on the cake and all of that.
Nick,
Thank you for your great advice. It has been so helpful I have decreased my back off reps to 5 sets of 3. I have a couple more questions, though. Does the 2 sets of 5 at 40-65% of 1 RM count when I am adding up my total number is back off reps per week? Also, what does it mean to go “bro”?
Haha … I think of “going bro” as going heavy at all costs without regard to safety, form, or longterm improvement. Shortterm gains can’t outweigh longterm gains. But that’s exactly what the meat-head bro types do in an effort to make themselves feel awesome in the moment.
As for whether you should count the 5′s, I’d say YES and NO.
I’m writing up an article on this idea, but the gist is that there are different “intensity zones” that are good at different things. So the 5′s count toward the total volume in a certain zone, but not in another. They have a different purpose than the 3′s so it’s good to count them seperately.
Hope that helps!
This is a pretty much spot on post and though it is quite lengthy, the information here is really powerful. Not I am off to the gym to break some sweat, thanks for inspiring me with this squat challenge
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Awesome article.
What do you think of a program (if it matters, I’m 45) that had you lifting heavy for three consecutive days (accummulating fatigue) and then you took four days off? Kind of a melding of the two theories.
What matters more than anything is your total weekly volume … and whether you are adjusting your loading/unloading mini-cycles right.
The first part is just the idea that you need to make sure you are doing enough work … most people don’t and that is a big reason for their lack of progress.
The second is the worry that if you take too much time off, you start to detrain. So to make sure you don’t detrain during those 4 days, you need to kill yourself on the 3 days you are working out.
My general feeling is that you should not ever meld theories. Once in a long while two theories will work well together, but most of the time they are taking different approaches for a reason. Many systems work … but ONLY because they are a total system … when you cherry pick from two different systems … you have no system … and you are almost guaranteed to suffer from the “swiss cheese” problem … looks solid from far away … but it’s full of holes.
OK …I’m just rambling, lol .. but hopefully some of that will help!
Update on my squat challenge: I did the squat nemesis workout 15 times over a 5 week period and brought my one rep max up from 135 pounds to 150 pounds. Now, I am trying to figure out a way to improve my deadlift. I realize that you can’t train deadlifts in the same way. I won’t be deadlifting to failure several times a week that’s for sure. However, if I did a deadlift nemesis once every week or two where I dropped the weight to 30% of my one rep max and did 5 sets of 3 in increasing weight, would that work?
Hey Mary!!
Did you ever try that with the deadlifts? I’d be curious to know how it worked for you.
Wow, good timing with your reply! Actually, I was just getting ready to do some deadlifts and I was procrastinating by checking my email and got your reply. I started deadlifting last weekend. My original plan was to do the deadlift workout recommended by Pavel Tsousaline which involves 5 sets of 5 with 5 minutes rest. Did this last weekend with 70% of my 1RM and I used the same weight for all the reps. Today, I did the deadlift nemesis with sets of 3 and increasing weight with each set. I went about 10 pounds heavier than I would have with the Pavel workout, but did fewer total reps. As you have said before, there is such a huge difference between sets of 5 and sets of 3. The nemesis was less draining, but it may be the way to go if I want to increase my 1RM deadlift. I feel less wiped out by this than I did with sets of 5 and since I do crossfit too, that is probably a good thing. I will now stick with the deadlift nemesis and let you know how it goes.
Hi Nick!
Great article by the way!
Can you go longer then 21 days?? I just love squatting heavy everyday and don’t feel like stopping anytime soon. Could i taper down after like 6 weeks? or is that pushing it?
You can go nearlyi forever … and that is exactly how a number of my lifters train most of the year
Just wanna say fantastic article, only come across your site today via google!
Thanks!!
hey nick
I have always pain in my lower when i am sqauting.
do you have an y tips for me.
great article by the way
greetings
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If you have pain the low back, then I would first make sure you get it checked out to be sure you ain’t causing more damage.
But, other than that, wearing a belt is not shameful, most of us do. And spend a lot of time rolling out your glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings, etc. The more mobile you are, the better.
My favorite power lift is the dead lift, but I never see people recommend dead lifting three times a week, never mind a 21-day dead lift challenge. So I have two questions. Why is this? And how would I do the squat challenge without slacking off on my dead lifts?
If it helps, my typical work out is mornings: Monday dead lift and upper back, Wednesday Olympic lifting, Friday squats and chest. On those evenings I’m at a jujitsu class. But I change the details every month.
Pavel has recommended deadlifting 5 days a week before. Check out power to the people. If you leave a little in the tank everyday, it closely resembles grease the groove training. I gave it a shot this past winter to break things up and it worked like a charm.
Sorry Paul, it took me a while to get back to you!
The deadlift is simply the heaviest thing you can do in the gym. So you need to be wary of what you do with it.
Now, if you use the term deadlift really loosely to just mean pulling heavy stuff off the floor, then my lifters do them daily. But … we call them Snatch and Clean pulls, or Snatch and Clean deadlifts because we stop once we can nolonger start the bar off of the floor in the same positions as a snatch or clean.
This means the clean pulls are heavy, sometimes very heavy, but not deadlift max heavy.
LIke Andrew said, if you leave some in the tank, you can do more more often.
You can honestly max on squats and Oly lifts every day. Full on max, go till you miss kind of thing … but you can’t do that with deadlifts without risking serious injury … and massive CNS fatigue that is beyond the pale.
My recommendtion is to not do true deadlifts very often, but stick with heavy snatch and clean pulls/deads instead because you can do them often, they are still heavy, they help you with fear of the weight on the Oly lifts, etc. They are great without alll the drawbacks of heavy single maxing on the deads.
I love that I found this right now.
I have loved the c&j and snactch from the first time they were introduced to me in junior high. However after knee injuries from football and my time in the service its been since my senior year of high school since I have been invovled in the sport.
Still I have been a avid spectator. Now 31 years old, and my health less of a concern I am looking to start out again.
I was looking for some info on training tips….but what I have gotten from your site has been eye opening.
Its late however and I am starting to see doubles. I cannot wait to wake up tomorrow and get me some of this education I desperately need.
Thank you.
From a guy looking to reclaim his glory days in a bigger,faster stronger, SMARTER way.
Hahaha … I hope you got some sleep, my brother!
Thank you for the positive feedback. That means a lot to me!
Day 13. Felt wasted yesterday. No sleep last night. Front squats today anyway. 10# PR! That’s makes for a 25# total increase in less than two weeks. Back Squat has gone up 20# as well. Lovin’ it! Can’t wait to see where I’m at next week. Thanks!
can you do this with back squat 6 days a week?
i was thinking of 2 templates
template 1
back squat nemesis monday to saturday(sunday off)
template 2
back squat nemesis (mon wed fri)
front squat nemesis (tues thurs sat)
on the sundays id probably go in and do like just the bar or maybe like 40kg very light, this was the way i was thinking of running it
opions on what one you think is better if any?
Hi Ashley!!
I have had MANY lifters do both almost exactly as you wrote them.
Version 2 is the most common, and the one i prefer if possible – because I coach Oly lifters mostly, and they really need to be good at Front Squats, not just back squats.
But if you are doing this purely to get strong, and could care less about Oly lifting… just the back squat is fine.
HOWEVER, burnout is going to happen faster with a BS only version, simply because the back squat is harder on the old CNS than the front squat is.
So that’s something to think about.
Hope that helps!!
Oh, and PLEASE, let me know how it goes for you. I take feedback on all of my programs to heart. It’s how I keep tweaking and improving them.
Yay for squats!
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Hey Nick,
Looks like a badass program! I was wondering what’re your thoughts on doing the challenge with powersquats? Although oly lifting is an end goal for me, I’m all about getting my numbers up via powerlifting right now.
Cheers
Aakash
Yes!
You know, I was really hesitant with that at first. I was worried about how the extra spinal loading would affect recovery. But i was wrong.
After running 2 different online challenges, with multiple members using “low bar” powerlifting squats and getting GREAT results… I no longer care what type of squat you do. Just squat hard
Also, make sure you’re on the email list (above) because my partner Tamara and I are going to be releasing a ton of kick-butt info on the Challenge, as well as some great “how to” vids on squatting in the next month!
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