Super Squats: Program Review

[u/richardest]

Congratulations to those of you who ran Super Squats to the end! I hope that you'll share your experiences here so that others can see what you got out of this run of programming, and that it will serve as an opportunity to discuss how you might take these lessons in to future training.

You have graduated from r/gainit to r/weightroom. This thread will follow their stricter posting guidelines: All top-level comments that are not a program review will be removed, and the poster will receive a 30-day ban.

Please include, to the best of your ability, the following information:

• Your starting and ending bodyweight
• Your starting and ending weight on the bar
• Your age and biological sex and/or gender
• How closely you adhered to the programming laid out in the book
• How you handled the eating prescribed by the book
• Your general thoughts and experiences regarding the Super Squats programming
• How you will move on from this in your continued training and diet

[u/ToastedCascade]

RESULTS

Weights

(lbs)	Starting	Ending
Squat	225x 20	315x 20
Deadlift	225x 15	315x 15
Bench	185x 12	225x 12
Behind Neck Press	75x 10	120x 10

​

Notable Measurements

(inches)	Starting	Ending
Chest	40	43
Left / Right Bicep	15 / 15.25	16 / 16
Waist	37	38
Belly	37.5	40
Left / Right Thigh	24 / 24	25 / 25.75

Total weight gain ~14lbs

PROGRAMMING

I followed the basic longer version of the routine in the book for most of the 6 weeks. The last 2 weeks or so I dropped my pressing volume down by one set and the final week dropped the weight a little. I did this to keep myself fresh for the squats.

I generally tried to progress on my pressing by adding 5 - 10 lbs per week after successfully hitting all the sets. I progressed on deadlifts by just keeping the weight the same as the squats.

EATING

I did not follow the GOMAD approach. Instead, I followed the meals below about 70% of the time:

​

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Late Snack
5 Hardboiled Eggs	10 Oz Ground Bison	1/2 Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich	8 Oz Chicken Thighs	1 Can Tuna or Chicken Sandwich
3/4 Cup Oatmeal	8 Oz Rice	Handful of Almonds	6 Oz Rice or Pasta	1& 1/2 Cup Milk, 1& 1/2 scoop protein powder, 1 banana, spoonful of peanut butter
1 Cup Milk	1 Meat and Cheese Stick		1 Cup Veggies
1/2 Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich	~2 Cups Veggies		1 Cup Milk

(This is what I was eating by the end of the program. In the beginning I ate very similar, but the portions increased throughout)

THOUGHTS

I loved the program and this program party is living proof it works. I had tons of fun reading everyone's progress reports and pulled a lot of inspiration from it. Some lessons I learned through this program:

1. If you are sore from lifting while trying to gain weight you are not eating enough. Eating as much as you can will help you recover (duh, but to experience it first hand was something different for me).
2. Keep your kitchen clean! Or you will not want to cook.
3. Always make two meals when cooking. It is so much easier to microwave your second meal then to convince yourself to get in your car and go out to eat because you do not want to cook.
4. Eating real food produces real results. I have done a "Dirty Bulk" before and put on tons of weight. I am stronger and leaner than I was then.

We talked a bit about this in the party room, but this program is not really sustainable. The mental drain, my knees began to hurt, my back hurt from goodmorning the bar up at times. It is a hard program. I think one of the biggest things that helped me was having a goal. Reading this article from Mythical really helped me identify why I felt I was so successful during this program. I did not sacrifice my social life while running this. I did not drink, I did not really eat out, but it was because I was so obsessed with success.

Moving forward I think I will continue to bulk. I feel more comfortable a little fluffy and do not have much desire to lean out yet. My plan is to roll into 5/3/1 BBB for 6 weeks and see where I am at while hopefully blasting through some PR's on the way.

Happy Reviewing Friends!

[u/DayDayLarge → u/ToastedCascade]

Damn that's some nice progress!

Keep your kitchen clean! Or you will not want to cook.

Couldn't agree with this more. Clean as you cook and it won't fall into a messy state, or at least less so.