Do Your Damn Squat 10s

Anyone who has worked with me knows that at some point you are going to have to do some kind of squat variation for sets of 10 reps, usually prescribing competition squat back off sets of 10 right out of the gate.  I know that unless you are masochistic, no one truly loves doing squat 10s.  The weight is crushing you, you can’t breathe, your lungs are gasping for air, muscles on fire, blood pressure through the roof, dripping with sweat, all this creating more squatxiety, you just want the bar off you, and there are still 4 reps to go.  Trying to brace as hard as possible while exerting as much force into the ground as you can for up to a minute is no walk in the park.  I feel as though using sets of 10 for SBD variations has fallen out of favour during my time in powerlifting, and I am not sure that I have ever fully understood why.   The arguments in favour of including sets of 10 in your SBD programming outweigh the ones against using 10s. 

As far as I know the two main arguments against prescribing sets of 10 are that physiological and neuromuscular specificity is too low, and that the end of a hard set of 10 does not simulate powerlifting enough, or that technical breakdown will be too high. 

Specificity

While I will submit that a set of 10 is significantly less physiologically specific than a classic 5 or a set of 1, the movement pattern similarities allow us to use the stimulus of a set of 10 to build GPP, muscle, bracing habits, technique, while creating a very difficult, novel, and mentally challenging stimulus that will either be entirely novel for some people, or novel if used appropriately within a larger long term plan.  No, you won’t get the same neuromuscular adaptations as doing sets of 1-5, but it will set you up for success when the time comes to train strength more specifically. I would argue that a lot of people will still get strength and power adaptations from training their squat in the 10-rep range.  There are too many studies trying to study hypertrophy rep schemes where participants see improvements in things like vertical jump height or increases in strength.  Treat your sets of 10 like 10 sets of 1, practice 10 singles.  Treat light weights like they are heavy so that treating heavy weights appropriately is automatic when the time comes. 

Technical Breakdown

The end of set argument doesn’t really worry me too much.  At some point you will have to learn to strain.  You can simulate strain by approaching failure using more reps and lighter weights.  I would argue that this is safer and probably less anxiety inducing that squatting a 1RM.  If practicing too much technical breakdown as fatigue builds through out a long set does bother you, or does not fit into your plan, then this is a load selection problem, not a rep prescription problem.  You will simply have to adjust load based on %1RM or use more of a technical RPE rating, rating RPE based on perfect technical reps in reserve.  You will still reap all the physiological and neuromuscular benefits listed above. Some might argue that you might sacrifice some hypertrophy by staying further away from volitional failure, but probably not if workload is adequate and effort is sufficient.  There are studies that support the idea that if number of sets are matched comparing individuals who train to failure, and those who train shy of failure (but above 7ish RPE), that hypertrophy outcomes will be the same.  Plus, after practicing a bunch of high-quality reps, you have probably potentiated hypertrophy and could simply fill in the blanks with some machine work taken to failure. 

General Physical Preparedness

I think GPP is undervalued by a lot of people that are participating in powerlifting.  For simplicity I usually try to describe GPP as being in “good enough shape”.  While being in good enough shape for a 3-hour powerlifting meet where the actual sporting event has you completing 9 total reps near or at failure does not seem terribly daunting, I would argue that powerlifting meets probably move faster than you think, and that being in Good Enough Shape to train hard for your competition matters too.  Being in better shape, however you might quantify “shape” (resting HR? Vo2 max? rest times? Repeated Effort recoverability?), will allow you complete more reps in a given set, creating a great stimulus, rest less time in between hard sets, increasing training density (more work in less time), facilitating more rest and recovery throughout the day/week (22 hours of rest instead of 21.5 hours), and also allow for better recovery from session to session, and therefore week to week, block to block, and so on. 

Muscle Growth

                  The contraction of muscle tissue is what moves the weight at the end of the day.  If you are gifted enough that training the powerlifts in what are generally considered to be hypertrophy rep ranges (6-12) facilitates muscle growth over the long term, this should put muscle in the right places, leading to greater loads on the bar.  Greater loads across all rep ranges will lead to greater growth, and this process will feed forward on itself.  Gotta grow somehow. 

Practice

Starting with lighter weight and practicing lots of high-quality reps is always a recommendation of mine.  Don’t let the assumption that your technique will breakdown by the end of a set stop you from utilizing higher rep sets.  The reps early on in a high rep set are great technical practice.  If you are pushing sufficiently hard, they will also improve power output.  The reps at the end of the set will force you to stay calm and keep your technique locked in as you strain through the harder, higher stress, reps. 

Bracing

                  In order to lift heavy ass weights, we need to make sure, we are bracing our trunk effectively.  We create force down into the ground and transfer that force up through our trunk and up into the bar.  To transfer as much force as possible our trunk must be completely rigid.  Not only are sets of 10 a great time to get a lot of technical movement practice in with lighter weights, but it also allows us to practice breathing bracing effectively with a load on our back, preparing those muscles for when the weights are extremely heavy, feeling as if they are suffocating us. 

Do Hard Things

The catharsis of sitting down and standing up against something trying to crush you. It is going to suck. Step into the threat.  Working up to a 1RM Squat, Bench, and Deadlift on competition day is hard.  It is hard to lift in front of people. If you have been through an all-out RPE 11 Grind of a squat on meet day, having enough mental and physical energy to express the same level of effort for bench and deadlift will not come as easily as you might think.  Recovering between bouts of 90+% singles so that you can go out when you are called, executing 1RM attempts on command is going to be hard.  Doing sets of 10 is going to be hard.  It is hard to step back under the bar whether it is a 96% single, or 66% sets of 10.  10s are hard during the set, after the set, going into the next set, surviving the rest of the training session, and then recovering from the delayed onset muscle soreness for the next day or two.  You will adapt.  “Adapt or die.”  Lean into hard things.  When you are threatened in the wild you have two options, fight or flight, both will cause a dopamine response to motivate you to survive.  Take a step towards the threat.  Taking a step towards the threat initiates our fight response.  That dopamine kick feels good.  It will feel better after every rep, set, and workout.  Lean into the stuff you don’t want to do.  Take a step towards the threat. 

Focus

                  Anyone who has been to a competition knows that the focus requirements are much higher than when training in the gym.  Warm up rooms are crazy, bustling, loud, stinky, wild, unsafe, and stressful.  In the gym most people are just going about their business, trying to stay out of each other’s way, and get their training in.  Crowded warmup rooms will have people walking right in front of you while you squat, or it will feel like other lifters and coaches are right on top of you.  If you normally tune the world out using headphones, you will not be able to do this on meet day. The deafening hush of anticipation waiting for a squat or start call can make it feel like the whole room is watching you, which they will be when you are on the platform. Practicing mental calm with load on your back while executing high rep sets will give you the mental endurance to stay focused during what feels like an eternity waiting for a command ,or flat out just trying to stand up from a lift. Being in shape will also allow you to stay focused when meets are moving quickly due to smaller flights, single flight comps, or lifters dropping out as the meet goes on.  

Novelty

I started by observing that it seemed like less and less people were using traditional hypertrophy rep ranges in the powerlifts to drive along future training.  If you feel like you fall into this boat, I challenge you to prescribe a block or two of 10s and see how you adapt to training further down the road.  If nothing else this stimulus will be novel.  If your training has been similarly planned, or you have been running the same program style for extended periods of time, you have probably run into issues surrounding the repeated bouts effect.  The more that a behaviour or stressor is repeated, the less it will impact you.  In practice we experience this when we have decreased soreness up repetition of a training stress.  At some point, your training must change.  We’ve all experienced the novel gainz of starting a new/different program put out by our new favourite lifter.  The gainz experienced during these periods are probably a product of excitement, buy-in, but mostly novelty.  If training is planned correctly, you can build this novelty right into your own training.  Not only using novel rep ranges that you haven’t used as often before, but also by taking breaks from the training that you know works best for you.  When you come back to your old style of training it will be novel again, and you will continue building momentum, getting jacked and swole forever.   Don’t leave any gainz on the table by avoiding traditional hypertrophy in the squat, benchpress, and deadlift.  Eat everything on the table.  Eat more.