Squats And Milk

This is really only about four hours of a day, but I would not be honest if I didn’t include it. I’m so anxious to try this experiment that I won’t let anything get in my way. My son is in town from Michigan, and I want him to get a good workout in, so we both do a one-hour kickboxing class taught by my beautiful fiancee. Not the smartest thing to do right before one of the most intense workouts known to man, but like I said…I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way. The workout (which I altered slightly from the original) calls for one set of 20 reps of squats as it’s primary focus. And to use the words of Mark Rippetoe: “Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.” Yeah, sounds intense to me.

To figure out the math, you start with your five-rep max. Why? Because at the end of six weeks you are supposed to be able to do that amount 20 times. So my five-rep max is 225 lbs. Next you figure out how many workouts you will do in six weeks. I plan to do three per week for a total of 18. Now, each workout day you are supposed to add five lbs to what you used the last time. So multiply 18 x 5lbs and you get 90 lbs. Subtract that from your five-rep max and you have your starting point. So my starting point is 135.

I don’t know if I can do 135 lbs for 20 reps. I don’t think I’ve ever squated 20 reps in my life so this is a bit intimidating. But NOTHING is going to stop me. I’m motivated! I’m ready! Let’s hit it.

The weight is set up in the cage, and now the only thing that is stopping me…is me. I spend about ten minutes procrastinating, trying to talk to everyone that walks buy. Finally, I climb under the bar. I take a semi-wide stance with my toes pointed slightly out. I lift the weight and it feels pretty freaking light. I knock out 10 reps going to parallel, and coming up slowly and focused. I know by reading an online article that by the ninth rep I should have been doubting myself so this worries me a bit. I get to 15 and it is starting to hurt. I finish the 20 out strong and feel like I could have easily got four or five more. Damn! I was hoping that my legs would be screaming after todays workout…but it’s not going to happen today.

Despite my disappointment, this is a good thing because I will throw more weight on it next time and that means that by the end of the program I shoud be adding more than 90 lbs to my squats.

After finishing the squats I did a set of 15 pull-overs with 25 lbs. Next I did three sets of deadlifts with 225 lbs. for 10 reps each. (My workout called for one set of 20 reps but I overshot the amount of weight and could only do 10 reps, so I figured I would just do three sets). I followed that up with three sets of weighted dips (45 lbs.) for 10 reps each and then three grueling sets of bent over rows for 10 reps each and 115 lbs on the bar.
Now…for the hard part of the workout. I stopped at the store and bought a couple gallons of milk on the way home. I crushed a pint and went to bed. Bad things happing in my stomach until about 4am. Unfortunately for me I had to wake up for work at 5am. I packed a 1/2 gal of milk into my backpack to take with me to work, and I am proud to say that I crushed it!!! WOW…was that difficult. I didn’t go to the bathroom any more than usual…it is, however, very interesting that 100% of my bathroom visits were for #2. I’m hoping that this is just my body getting used to it since prior to this I drank about zero oz. of milk per day. I do feel like my body is a bit fuller today though.

Now, for some baselines: I did weight and measurements yesterday prior to working out. They are as follows:
weight: 170.3
height: 5′ 10.5″
age: 36
chest: 38″
right bi: 13.5″
left bi: 13.75″
waist: 33
left quad: 20.25″
right quad: 21.5″
left calf: 15.5″
right calf: 15″
neck: 15.25″
back: 20″
hips: 36″

Note: I am taking creatine, but I have been for awhile, adn I am not loading with it, but I do plan to keep maintaining with it. The only other supplements that I’m taking is vitamines and whey protein in one to two shakes per day.

A gallon a day. Think you can hang?

Ever hear of the “Squats and Milk” workout? Yeah, either did I until a couple of days ago (even though it has been around since 1968). This is supposed to be THE workout to add mass and strength, and since it seemed to work for the old school bodybuilders (back before “an amazing new supplement” came on the market every 24 hours), there’s probably something to this.

For the past few months or so I have been so busy with life that I have only been making it into the gym 2 times per week at most. I don’t know how you “gifted” people are but for extremely-hard-gainers like myself, if I don’t workout I don’t have an apatite…or worse, I only crave crap. It’s a downward spiral. I stop working out, so I don’t eat…which makes me drop size…which depresses me…which makes it hard to workout…and so on. This continues until I finally jump on the scale and see a number like 168 lbs, which jerks me back to reality causing me to go on a supplement buying spree, and hunt down a new workout that I will bust my butt on to try to get back to where I was.

I decide that I will start 2009 off right…I will find a new workout and Jan 1st I will start my journey towards my goal of gaining 15 pounds. That will put me around 185, the most I’ve ever weighed. All I need now is a good workout to follow, and a nutrition plan that will fit into my busy lifestyle. Of course, my first stop is Bodybuilding.com. After running a quick search I start going down the list looking for something that interests me. Nope; Nope; Not this one; I’ve tried that one already; WHAT THE HELL…Squats n Milk?!? This brought a vision of filling my bathtub with milk and doing squats in it…which just made me have to open it. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. The foundation of the program is doing squats 3 times per week and drinking a gallon of milk per day. It actually makes sense to me. After all, milk is used to turn a little baby calf into a 1400 pound cow. And squats are known to produce the most HGH in your body over any other exercise. But not everything is as it seems. Just ask Eddie Murphy. This one I will have to try for myself. It’s only six weeks long, and I only need to workout 3 times per week. Aside from my normal diet, I pretty much only need to add a little milk every day. Seems easy enough. <famous last words>

After thinking about this for only a few hours, I decided that I would blog about it so that everyone who is interested in the Squats And Milk workout can follow along and see my progress…or regress and decide for themselves if they want to add this workout to their kit-bag. Whoo hooo…I’m so excited that I will be starting this in 2009.

Yeah, like most things…I couldn’t wait. My 2009 New Years Resolution to add 15 pounds of mass and ultimately a minimum of 90 pounds to my squats will begin in 2008…err…more accurately last night at 6:30pm on 12/29/2008.  I will be adding daily updates including measurements, workout journal entries, diet, and more.  So be sure to subscribe to this blog and stop back regularly.