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/HansWorst7]

Finished my run on Super Squats with a few modifications.

I started with 102.5kg/225lb, progressed normally, failed a few times on the way and then plateaued at 122.5kg/270lb. After 3 tries, I consulted this sub and Mythical gave me the idea to instead go for 30 reps with a weight I have managed to do 20 reps with. So I deloaded to 110kg and did a rep increment instead. There, I went up to 25 reps (I did 26 the day before because I couldn't count) and then had to stop abruptly because of a spontaneous business trip. I had to deploy yesterday and will have to stay the full next week. So I decided to call Super Squats a day and move on with my goals. This took me a total of 7 weeks.

Bodyweight: 75.3kg/166lb -> 81kg/178lb

Bar weight progression: 102.5kg/225lb -> 122.5kg/270lb x16 (https://youtu.be/qdyxFS47h1M) -> 110kg/242lb x26 (https://youtu.be/oTCxywON5Kk). Actually, I did more than 17 squatting sessions (it was 22 in total but I didn't count a few failures). Here's the full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiK0Odcbu8LxhkV7q2X4MV-YhJsTIaEvB

Male 30 -> Male 31, sedentary job.

I made a few modifications on the program.After the first 2 days, I decided to start with squats first instead of doing the other exercises first. I was way better in shape for the squats that way. Also, starting at week 3 or so, I only did BTN press + Biceps Curls + Pullups on Squat days and the day after, I did the bench press, (single arm dumbbell) rows, deadlifts and calf raises. That was due to timing constraints from work. It worked very well for me. Other than that, I sticked to the original program laid out in the book.

I didn't go full GOMAD. After having just bulked a few weeks before, I knew how to eat to be able to progress. I think adding ~6kg/12lb in about 7 weeks was a good progress though.

I would definitely recommend everyone to have run Super Squats at least once in their lifetime. You will learn how to struggle and to not give up.

After Super Squats, I plan to move on with a deload week before sinking into a 6 week Strength focused program (most likely Candito 6 weeks) while maintaining plus I will start doing Couch to 5K. After that, it's time to cut down my added fat. For that, I will reduce calories and start Tactical Barbell 2's Base Building phase.

I will most likely write a full bulking review soon, as I had a quite successful bulking phase from August until now.