10x10 Squats

[Sheta]

I know Peter Hunt has been doing 10x10 work a lot this year...and not just for squats.

He's looking pretty sharp & is of to the Worlds next week.

[mung]

Sounds good, ill give it a crack next week on my leg day and report back

[ThePman]

My question is: is it appropriate to be doing a 10x10 set every week or is it better to only use it now and again to shock the body?

Your mileage will vary on this, because you'll find big strong folks that will swear by any and every training method out there.

But to answer the question from my experience:

- It's probably a good way to take a break from heavier weights every so often.

- I hate (HATE) high-volume squatting. I hate sets of >10 reps, I hate doing more than 4-5 sets. Which means I'd probably psych myself out and end up skipping sessions or otherwise fagging out if this was a regular thing.

- You'll get a good pump and if you're not accustomed to high-volume training, you're gonna hurt the first few workouts. If pain/DOMS and pump correlated to long-term gains, this would be awesome. Unfortunately, they don't.

- Almost by definition you'll have to cut your working weights way, way back, if you've been working with say hard sets of 3-10 reps. This can be a good thing on occasion, but I doubt I'd consider it to be a mainstay training method; heavy weights and progressive overload are more important to gains (size OR strength) than getting a pump.

In the scheme of things, I don't see it'll hurt you to play around with it for a few weeks or whatever, and if you're completely unaccustomed to that kind of workload it'll probably do you some good.

I doubt I'd stick with it for more than occasional cycles, maybe once or twice a year, though.

[musclenz]

I think just variation is key, rep range doesn't really matter as long as your getting some volume in and 10x10 is a good way to do this as well as building conditioning an mental strength. One of Dave Smith's favourites was to do 10 sets of squats, starting on a weight you can just get 10 of, then do another set maybe failing at 7-8, drop the weight and do a couple of 10's until you fail again and follow this for 10 sets. He said he started of on 5 plates and on his last set he was struggling to grind out 100kgs.

I haven't had the balls to try this myself yet

Yeah he does them more now on leg press. You would recall the 10x10x10 plates a side - Doc? The rest is only long enough for your partner to do his set so maybe around 1 - 1.5 min . Probably every 3-4 weeks would be more than often enough. I think the record was about 12-13 plates a side. My partner did 10x15x10 plates side 2 weeks ago. Couldnt train quads the next week.

[Gym rat]

I think just variation is key, rep range doesn't really matter as long as your getting some volume in and 10x10 is a good way to do this as well as building conditioning an mental strength. One of Dave Smith's favourites was to do 10 sets of squats, starting on a weight you can just get 10 of, then do another set maybe failing at 7-8, drop the weight and do a couple of 10's until you fail again and follow this for 10 sets. He said he started of on 5 plates and on his last set he was struggling to grind out 100kgs.

I haven't had the balls to try this myself yet

Yeah he does them more now on leg press. You would recall the 10x10x10 plates a side - Doc? The rest is only long enough for your partner to do his set so maybe around 1 - 1.5 min . Probably every 3-4 weeks would be more than often enough. I think the record was about 12-13 plates a side. My partner did 10x15x10 plates side 2 weeks ago. Couldnt train quads the next week.

:pale:

[michaelk]

I think just variation is key, rep range doesn't really matter as long as your getting some volume in and 10x10 is a good way to do this as well as building conditioning an mental strength. One of Dave Smith's favourites was to do 10 sets of squats, starting on a weight you can just get 10 of, then do another set maybe failing at 7-8, drop the weight and do a couple of 10's until you fail again and follow this for 10 sets. He said he started of on 5 plates and on his last set he was struggling to grind out 100kgs.

I haven't had the balls to try this myself yet

Yeah he does them more now on leg press. You would recall the 10x10x10 plates a side - Doc? The rest is only long enough for your partner to do his set so maybe around 1 - 1.5 min . Probably every 3-4 weeks would be more than often enough. I think the record was about 12-13 plates a side. My partner did 10x15x10 plates side 2 weeks ago. Couldnt train quads the next week.

Are there warm up sets first to get to the top weight and not counted or are they included in the 10?

[Dr Squat]

I think just variation is key, rep range doesn't really matter as long as your getting some volume in and 10x10 is a good way to do this as well as building conditioning an mental strength. One of Dave Smith's favourites was to do 10 sets of squats, starting on a weight you can just get 10 of, then do another set maybe failing at 7-8, drop the weight and do a couple of 10's until you fail again and follow this for 10 sets. He said he started of on 5 plates and on his last set he was struggling to grind out 100kgs.

I haven't had the balls to try this myself yet

Yeah he does them more now on leg press. You would recall the 10x10x10 plates a side - Doc? The rest is only long enough for your partner to do his set so maybe around 1 - 1.5 min . Probably every 3-4 weeks would be more than often enough. I think the record was about 12-13 plates a side. My partner did 10x15x10 plates side 2 weeks ago. Couldnt train quads the next week.

Are there warm up sets first to get to the top weight and not counted or are they included in the 10?

Hey Mike. Warm ups not counted. Start counting when you get to the top weight.

[steak]

start counting when it starts hurting

[Gym rat]

Also think could someone please get me a zimmer frame :pfft: :pfft: :pfft:

[musclenz]

Yeah he does them more now on leg press. You would recall the 10x10x10 plates a side - Doc? The rest is only long enough for your partner to do his set so maybe around 1 - 1.5 min . Probably every 3-4 weeks would be more than often enough. I think the record was about 12-13 plates a side. My partner did 10x15x10 plates side 2 weeks ago. Couldnt train quads the next week.

Are there warm up sets first to get to the top weight and not counted or are they included in the 10?

Hey Mike. Warm ups not counted. Start counting when you get to the top weight.

Yep it can amount to about 15 sets total & can take up to 50mins to complete for two guys, so you have to pick a time when the gym is not too busy as you hold up the leg press for a while. Funny thing is, no one ever seems to ask if it is your last set!

[michaelk]

Are there warm up sets first to get to the top weight and not counted or are they included in the 10?

Hey Mike. Warm ups not counted. Start counting when you get to the top weight.

Yep it can amount to about 15 sets total & can take up to 50mins to complete for two guys, so you have to pick a time when the gym is not too busy as you hold up the leg press for a while. Funny thing is, no one ever seems to ask if it is your last set!

I'll try it on the squats, I do 10x 20 on the Leg Press.....during the day of course. Have to show consideration.

[Foundation]

10 x 10 squats every 2nd or 3rd week as part of a twice a week squat routine has helped.

I use to be one of those typical gym goers, all upper body, maybe some heavy leg press and half ar$e squat effort, uno, not all the way down and not trying to go heavier. Well, now that the upper body makes the twigs more like twigs I decided in March to start squating twice a week.

Monday 10 x 10 - Volumn and Endurance - reduced rest times

Friday 12 x 4 Sets - Strength Training

This is ATG, ar$e almost hitting the ankles.

In the 10 x 10 session I started with just 10kg plate on each side and would increase after 2 - 3 iterations. Last night completed a 10 x 10 session with 30kg on each side, that was hard from the 5th set onwards.

My 12 x 4 session is now up to 50kg on each side, some people may say that I should be able to do more but remember I only started squating correctly this year, left the ego at the door and am no concentrating on pure form and let the weight take care of its self.

What I've noticed since finally manning up and just tell myself that I love to squat is the difference in how the side sweep sticks out, the hardness of the legs now and feeling of controlled balance when just walking around.

The biggest improvement is I no longer suffer from lower back issues, I use to but ever since I started squating properly and retrained the way I squat, floor stretches etc, I must admit, I can never stop squating again.

I'm about 5'7, 88kgs, 34 yrs.

[Grover]

Good stuff,

Great that its working out for you.

Don't know that I will ever like doing squats though, do them out of necessity!

[Gasp]

Don't know that I will ever like doing squats though, do them out of necessity!

arrrgggghhhhh!!!!! wash your mouth out with soap Grover!!!! that deserves a two week suspension!!! :naughty: :naughty:

[teamfatboy]

Why are you letting him off so easy - that Grover's talking crazy talk, he is :smackbottom:

Four week ban - easy! That's nearly as bad as curling in the squat rack :grin:

[Grover]

:shock:

always BB curl in squat rack - try picking up 140 off floor and then curl them!

Have front box squats today but won't be heavy (8 reps x 5 sets) as supersetted with

4 point spring and then farmers walk

all to be done within 1 min then go again!

feel the burn

Finished off with another superset

Rope wood chop

Biceps curls (not in squat rack this time as using light weight DB's)

4 Point crawl

[M.T]

I watched Liam from the House do his last 4 sets of 10x10 and remember thinking who te fek would do that? :shock:

Now reading this sounds like a few of ya have, i'd give it a go sounds like fun but cardio aint what it used to be should be a good challenege.

[Phedder]

I watched Liam from the House do his last 4 sets of 10x10 and remember thinking who te fek would do that? :shock:

Now reading this sounds like a few of ya have, i'd give it a go sounds like fun but cardio aint what it used to be should be a good challenege.

You know it's intimidating when someone who has just been through Smolov wonders why someone would put themselves through it

[M.T]

I watched Liam from the House do his last 4 sets of 10x10 and remember thinking who te fek would do that? :shock:

Now reading this sounds like a few of ya have, i'd give it a go sounds like fun but cardio aint what it used to be should be a good challenege.

You know it's intimidating when someone who has just been through Smolov wonders why someone would put themselves through it

haha yeah good point, the worse days for me were 10x3 and I HAAAATED that so doing 10x10 just boggles me

[Foundation]

Sunday ended up being leg day.

10 x 10 with 80kgs, 2 people, 40 minutes.

The last 3 Sets were the hardest, I think 2 or 3 more iterations and time to bump it up to 90kg.

Goal is to do 10 x 10 with 100kg.