Here's an email update from one of the very first purchasers of my new book, CHALK AND SWEAT. I think you'll enjoy this one:
"Brooks!
Seven weeks ago, I was standing alone in my garage staring down my barbell as it hung in my shiny new power rack, thinking to myself, just what was I getting myself into? I was just laid off, feeling blue, but I at the same time I knew there was one way to cheer myself up, and that was success at some monstrous program, something that would take a lot of guts and grit to get even halfway through. Plus I wanted something that would use the new rack I got for Christmas, cuz well, new rack, c'mon.
Being a young, red blooded Dinosaur, I pre-ordered Chalk and Sweat without hesitation because I knew it was going to be just the sort of book I've been waiting for, and it was an immediate favorite of mine. I read every program, and was quite impressed with all of them, but then I found the John Gimek Leg Specialization routine and my jaw dropped at the notion of all those squats. Like any Dinosaur, I respect John Grimek and so I decided that THAT was what I wanted to do to kick the year off. It was just crazy enough, just hard enough, and yet, just attainable enough.
So I figured I'd start easy, since I hadn't done barbell squats in a while, and loaded it up to 155 for 20, because hell, 155 for 20? I've done WAY more than that. However I remembered the last time I did sets of 20 and I knew how bad they could get. And sure enough, the first day nearly destroyed me, even with me trying to be conservative.
However, I kept at it (in part because I was amazed it kicked my ass so readily). It ended up being a good thing I started so moderately, as it gave me time to get back into my good squatting habits, and my second session went noticeably better, almost easy, and I decided that despite the conventional wisdom for sets of 20 is to add 5 pounds per workout, I was going to add 10 as often as I could so I could get all of my squats over 200 pounds as quickly as possible. So I put most of my energy towards getting the total weight of all those squats up 10 pounds a workout, though the additional weight I piled on to every set was pretty small (sometimes 10 pounds, but more often 5, as the sheer volume was the killer in this program). Considering my max squat was a shaky 315, I think this narrow progression on a set by set basis was fitting. If my max was 700 or something it probably would have been much wider, like Grimek starting at 300 for 20 and going to 500 for 6.
As the weeks went on, I found I was able to keep adding 10 pounds longer than I expected. I ended up getting to about 230 for 20 or so before really having to consistently go to just adding 5 pounds per work out. A short ways into the program, my former strength with the squat seemed to be returning, and there was a brief period in the early stages that the program was just tiring, rather than legitimitely difficult. However, when everything started to get squarely in the 200s, it started to get pretty damn serious. Around that time though, I was really focusing on the mental side of training. I would try to focus on just the next two reps, rather than thinking about all 20 (or 15, or 12, or whatever, the first few sets were always daunting due to their sheer length), and taking it apart into smaller pieces in my head helped a LOT with this program.
But also, despite the ridiculous difficulty of this program, I never once missed a single rep, and eventually all that continuous success really started sinking in and I stopped feeling sorry for myself for being laid off, and all the other negative thoughts that slip in behind something like that were also shut out. The later workouts I had were amazing. I was calm and focused, yet electrified, and despite the bar always being heavier from workout to workout, set to set, it felt it was getting easier since my attitude was changing.
So through it all, on my last day I squatted 250 x 20, 260 x 15, 265 x 12, 270 x 10, 275 x 8, 280 x 6, which I'm pretty sure marked PRs on about every set (it sure was a hard as hell day). I remember 280 used to be a challenging triple last year, but yesterday I took it to 6. I probably could have gone heavier on the later sets, but the fatigue from the earlier sets is pretty extreme and at this point in my training I figured it was smarter to succeed at the reps and do them in good form than push the envelope past what I could reasonably do. When I'm more of a super man like Grimek, I can have a wider gap between sets, but until then, I'm still squatting 71 times, and that's quite a monstrous task.
I put up 95 more pounds on the sets of 20 from where I started, and all the other sets were 100 pounds heavier from when I started. I gained about 10 pounds of muscle, which probably should have been more, but having been laid off, I didn't have the spare cash for extra food to grow really big. Towards the middle of the program, I got a crummy part time job that at least let me get more food for myself, and that was when I really started to grow. As it is, I feel a LOT more powerful, and my other lifts are also progressing quite well due to all the extra power I have, which is pretty damn good in my book.
As much as I loved this program, I am eager to move on to one of your back specialization routines, since I got a beer keg to go along with my heavy sandbag, and I'm eager to see what I can do with the two of them and my barbell. I'm thinking your Program No. 43 will be a great change that still involves the back squat so I can continue advancing that lift, hopefully to entirely new heights!
So in the end, I ended up having quite an amazing journey with this program. It was one of the hardest I've ever done, but it was among the more rewarding, particularly in terms of getting my head straight. Hopefully I'll have another report to you soon about how well the back routine went. As always, thanks for everything you do Brooks, you've been a huge source of inspiration and your books are just amazing.
Sincerely,
Kevin Dillon"
Kevin -- Thanks for the great report. It's only February, and already you're in the running for Dino of the Year! Keep me posted on your training and your progress, and let's work together to make 2011 the very best training year ever!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Are you tough enough for John Grimek's Leg Specialization Program -- or for any of the 49 other programs in CHALK AND SWEAT. Grab a copy and see if you can match Kevin's remarkable gains!
http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html
