(04-13-2012 09:51 AM)winslow Wrote: if I were a recreational lifter, would this leave me any recovery to work the rest of my body, or do I only focus on squats for 3 weeks?
Winslow, I should have figured you chime in ;-)
It all depends upon your particular situation. If you are busy person in their 40's or older, who doesn't get enough sleep because of your hectic schedule, and isn't eating all that well ... then this might be it. Maybe you could do some light bodybuilding on the side. But, the squatting will take it out of you.
On the other hand, if you are able to focus on recovery a bit more, then you can do a TON of extra work on top of this. And I advise it. As much as you can handle is almost always good.
In fact ... this program represents no more than about 25% of the total weekly load my more serious athletes are doing. Some of these folk are in their 30's or 40's with busy schedules, too. It ain't just the youngin whipper-snappers - though they do even more.
The reason they can do so much, though, is based on a few key points:
1. Maxing out everyday just isn't that hard. You have - at the most - done about 4 reps at a heavy weight.
2. The back off sets are totally "autoregulated" meaning you go up to something "heavy" (totally subjective) and leave it at that. Good days you push it, bad days you be more mellow.
I'm a big believer that to see great progress you need to give the body an ultimatum. And you need to keep giving it ultimatums! LOL
Your CNS needs to adapt to greater and greater workloads.
We used to think that high volume squat phases like this were a big deal. We would do them for a few weeks and feel like we were going to die. Now we do them perpetually with higher volume and higher intensities and almost never taper them down except before a large meet.
The body adapts if you do it right. Yes ... you CAN go into serious overtraining if you're nuts. But that is so rare that it's nearly not worth talking about.
To sum up, I'll go back to my old line: More is not always better, but it usually is.
More clearly:
1. Add in whatever work you want, and you'll probably see faster progress.
2. If you start to feel drained, that's normal and part of the process.
3. You can make things better by sleeping more soundly, and eating more good food.
4. Try doing things in phases: 3 weeks hard, 1 week light. Intentionally push yourself into a state of over-reaching, then pull back, repeat. It's like magic.
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