This squat workout is going to DEMOLISH every single muscle fiber in your thighs...
Ok, I'm kind of sugarcoating it.
It's actually worse than that.
It's going to also test your mental fortitude and willingness to endure discomfort for long periods of time as well.
This entire workout consists of nothing but barbell squats, done in an "up-and-down-the-rack" pattern.
And I promise you are going to be swearing at me the whole time you're doing it (if you're crazy enough to try it) and wanting to murder me for the next 3-4 days after that. I think every single muscle fiber in my quads was deeply sore for at least 4 days.
Just FYI, this is an ADVANCED workout...you will need to have good, solid, stable squatting form to perform this one correctly. You will also need to be a little bit of a glutton for punishment.
Now, just to be clear, the goal here is NOT punishment or soreness...it's working every single muscle fiber type (slow twitch, fast twitch type A and fast twitch type B) in one extended set to cause massive muscle damage, which then leads to muscle growth in muscle fibers that might be dormant or that might only rarely get hit with normal training patterns.
It's also not a strength workout...this method won't build strength...it's all about mechanical damage to the muscle fibers for stimulating growth.
This method will demand EVERY single muscle fiber contributes by the time you're done.
How to Do Up-And-Down-The-Rack Squats
Step 1
Start with a very light weight for high reps. This should be something you can get at least 20-30 reps with, so definitely not heavy...that'll come later.
To give you an idea of weight, I started with 135 pounds and my max squat is probably about 350 pounds right now (so using around 40% of your 1 RM is a good rule of thumb).
Get as many reps as you can, however, don't push to absolute failure here. Push yourself hard, but not to the maximum... yet. The "up" phase of this workout can almost be considered an extended warm-up...albeit one that is kind of brutal.
Step 2
When you've done that set, immediately add 10 pounds to the bar.
The only rest you get is the time it takes to add weight to the bar.
(Side note: you could potentially also add 5 lbs to the bar each time, with 2 1/2 pounds plates, if your squat is in a lower range that would result in only a few adds and drops. To give you an idea, I went from 135 lbs up to 265 lbs done in 14 adds then 14 drops for 28 total sets. If you went from a 45 lb bar to a 95 lb bar, that would only be 6 adds and drops. By 5's, that would be 12 adds and drops, which would give you more overall volume and would be more effective.)
Then go again for as many reps as you can get. Again, push fairly hard but not to the max.
Step 3
Repeat. Over and over again...
Literally.
You're going to just keep doing this...doing a set, adding 10 pounds, etc. until you get to the point where you can only get ONE rep and you feel that's your limit (I ended up having a couple of one-rep sets towards that top-end).
I ended up at 265 lbs for my final "up" set.
Step 5
Come back down.
Repeat the process, stripping 10 pounds off the bar after each set.
*** THIS is where you want to really dig in and push yourself. Your legs are going to be shaking and it is going to be miserably hard.
Grind out as many reps as you can, while keeping GOOD FORM and consistent depth.
Step 6
Come all the way back down to your starting weight. This last set is where you really want to push to the limit. It's a very light weight but fatigue will be catching up to you big time by this point.
It will seem like you can actually FEEL every single muscle fiber firing in your quads as you grind through this set.
Step 7
Get acquainted with the floor...
When you're done with this squat workout, you will be DONE. That's the whole workout and it's not necessary to do anything else. It will take you about 20-25 minutes or so to get through it.
Done properly, this will take everything you've got.
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