Trying to Put on Some Lean Muscle? Use Breath
Squats to Help you Grow and Lose Body Fat - Optimum Weight Training
Technique
March 13th
2006
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It was about a year ago and I was going through my regimen as usual at
the gym. I was trying to gain some muscle mass before I started
training for my upcoming fight (I compete in mixed martial arts). I
ended up getting in a conversation with an old school professional
bodybuilder and I told him my goals for training. To gain muscle mass
he suggested that I try doing "breath squats". He said that this lift
(along with shoe string deadlifts) were the only resistance exercises
that would release growth hormones.
Being young and open minded I decided to try it out. It was by far one
of the toughest leg workouts I've ever done, but it gave me huge gains
in leg strength. I was also pleased to notice additional muscle gains
in the rest of body which pleasantly surprising given the fact I’m a
hard-gainer.
Here's how you do it.
Go to the gym on your leg workout day and warm up as usual (including a
light set of squats). When you are ready go ahead and rack up the squat
rack with a weight that you could normally complete 10 reps of (except
this time you are doing 20 reps).
Squat until you are parallel and pause for a moment at the bottom and
then ascend to standing position. Take 3 deep breaths and repeat. Make
sure you inhale on your descent and exhale on the ascent. Your goal
should be to complete 20 repetitions. If you are doing this correctly
you should be completely struggling in the last couple reps. Make sure
that when you are the top of your squats your knees are still slightly
bent. When you finish (you may need to catch your breath) rack the
weights and move on to another leg exercise of your preference
(hamstring/quad cable machines, etc). Do not do anymore squat workouts.
If you are looking to put on muscle mass you should only do this workout
once a week. Some old school bodybuilders say you should do this
workout 2-3 times a week. However you must remember that a broken down
muscle fiber takes 5-10 days to completely recover. If you also do
deadlifts I would suggest doing them on separate days then squats (keep
them 3-4 days apart). I also don’t recommend doing any strenuous cardio
before or after your breath squat day. Also make sure you are getting
plenty of rest to recover from this workout.
You should notice results from this workout after about 3 weeks of
training. Try adding an additional 5lbs to your total squat weight
every time you do this. I would recommend doing an entire phase of 4-6
weeks and then switch up your training regimen.
You can also expedite your muscle gains by taking a proper combination
of protein and supplements. A half an hour before you workout take
10-20 grams of whey protein with creatine. I suggest consuming a small
amount of protein in liquid form (you definitely don’t want a full
stomach before squats). I also highly recommend taking creatine before
and after your resistance workouts. Creatine stacked with whey protein
is also more effective than taking each product alone. The best
creatine I’ve noticed so far is creatine ethyl ester by Axis Labs. You
can check out their website at
www.axislabs.net. They also have some other very effective
bodybuilding supplements.
By Chad Klingensmith
Chad
Klingensmith is an American Council on Exercise certified Personal
Trainer. He has helped many clients, friends and family realize the
benefits of exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Do you have any fitness
questions for Chad? Email him at fitnesschad@gmail.com
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