its a little out of my comfort zone to pen a training related blog, im not really sure why really, and i wasnt even aware that id never written one till i started thinking about this one. now as you know im not super science guy thats going to post vector pics or studies i want you to know ive read, im just a dude who has had the opportunity to train hard and compete at fairly high level in a few different sports. icing on the cake is everything i learn as a result of my drive to improve as an athlete, applies directly or indirectly to my job, pretty cool eh?
if theres one body part that people know me for its my legs, and thats pretty cool i think. the type of respect i receive from other athletes that understand what went into the assembly of a solid set of wheels is like no other and the respect is the same going back. funny thing happened when i stopped silently hating everyone that had better legs than me and started admiring and being inspired by them instead, i also started appreciating my own on another level. so here it is, funbobbys play book to a sick set of wheels….but first a little back story….
whether you are a physique athlete who wants to mix up their leg training or a mixed modal athlete who wants to do a leg focused leg block that will also probably put some size and build density to your legs, ive got something for you, but where did this program come from? in my late teens, while everyone was doing chest and arms at the old canadian health and fitness in the basement of the inntowner hotel, me and scott vass were doing squats, and more squats. lots of back, some front, and power cleans. yes we did the other stuff, bench, deads, and all the other traditional bodybuilding upper body stuff, but we were torching our legs twice a week, which was really not the norm but i just liked it better. that was the theme through my early 20s until, for some reason im still trying to figure out, i went head first into triathlon (later blog).
so training 15-25 hours a week, 40-45 weeks a year, for 10 full time seasons and yeah the majority of it was leg based. even though it was against the grain, i always squatted while i was racing (even at 153lbs) in-spite of the opinion of all the sport’s “know it alls” (and theres no shortage of them in triathlon) who said my legs were slowing me down. twice i backed off my leg training in all the years of racing and my legs just didnt feel right underneath me, and as my friend christian bragnalo says “theres no better feeling for an athlete than when your legs are strong underneath you”.
after a quick transition to put some size back on and train for aesthetics, in comes the sport of fitness and the change of stimulus it will bring any athlete. when crossfit shows started showing up i was super motivated to be a competitive athlete again but i needed to get better at olympic lifting and my deadlift was terrible. i was squatting ok, moving weight with not the best technique, but my squat was around 400 and my deadlift was 335, and id never been coached in the olympic lifts before so i joined Peak Power in calgary and started working with head coach and owner Mike Souster. first day i sit down with mike and he passes me my first program and attached is a program called the Armenian Squat Program. the weightlifting and auxiliary stuff was super cool and turned out to be very effective for me but this squat program? squatting is the one thing im doing well currently and now im going to squat 3 times a week? there was a reason i went to peak and it was to work with mike and he had earned my respect so i listened. 6 weeks later, back squat didnt change much, shaky 405 to prettier 410 but without doing a single deadlfit for 6 weeks, my deadlift went from 335 to 415lbs. maybe they do fix everything?
my time at peak power opened my eyes to the fact that you can rock your legs way more than you think, so i did. my legs at this point were pretty solid already, years of training, the pic with tuffy (the white dog) was the summer before we moved back to thunder bay, 2009. this is also when i started using the system thats become known as the subzero way, as it was on that trip we decided to move and to open a crossfit affiliate when we got here. after vacation was over and i got back to calgary, i was still at world health club’s 5th ave club, bringing this thing called CrossFit to the intensity starved people of downtown, and began mapping out my own training. squatting for weight 2 or 3 times a week and throwing in conditioning wods that were always leg based, this is the same system we used for the entire 7 years at subzero and will always influence the programming at sled dog strength and conditioning.
the subzero squat program is a program that proved itself to be extremely effective for our gym. we ran every year from october to the middle of november, and i was constantly blown away by its depth of effecting our athletes (including me and coach andrea). our athletes bought in such energy and attacked the programming with an consistent intensity for 6 weeks. am i going to say that after 6 weeks of the subzero squat program your legs are going to look like the after 5 years of the subzero way pic? no, but you will have an understanding of what it took for me to build my legs.
there is 3 working sets on each day but there are build up sets before, ie if i am doing day 1
“slow squat 3X5 at 80%” my loading would look like this:
warm ups sets using regular tempo
135X3
225X3
these are primer sets done using the movement and reps of the day
1 275
2 315
working sets
3 335
4 350
5 365
now if i am feeling good ill try to get to 365 faster but the goal is to do at least 1 set at the target number but 2 would be better so my working sets would be
3 345
4 365
5 365
subzero squat program:
week 1
day 1 slow squat 3X5 80%
day 2 100 body weight back squats for time
day 3 box squats 3X3 75% (box just below parallel unload weight on your butt bones before lifting)
week 2
day 1 front squat with 1 second pause at bottom 3X3 80% of 1 rep max squat clean
day 2 3 point back squat 3X6 80% (1st rep reg stance, 2nd wide, 3rd narrow then repeat and rack)
day 3 amrap4 275lbs back squats rest 4 minutes amrap4 185lbs hang squat cleans for total reps combined
day 4 fuct by pistols ( 1 minute max rep pistols 1 minute rest X 10 for total reps
week 3
day 1 back squat 3X10 70%
day 2 back squat 3X max reps@225lbs
day 3 fast back squat 3X3
week 4
day 1 slow back squat 3×5 85%
day 2 100 body weight back squats for time
day 3 box squat 3X3 80%
day 4 front squat with 1 second pause at the bottom 3×3 85% of 1 rep max squat clean
week 5
day 1 amrap4 275lbs back squats rest 4 minutes amrap4 185lbs hang squat cleans for total reps combined
day 2 “upside down logan” 8-1 225lbs front/225lbs back squats for time
day 3 back squat 3×10 75%
week 6
day 1 box squat 3X5 80%
day 2 back squat 3Xmax reps@225lbs
day 3 3 point back squat 3X6 85%
day 4 fuct (1 minute max rep air squat 1 minute rest X 10 for total reps)
there you go, moral of the story, whether you train them heavy or light, train them hard. be smart with your technique and if you are thinking about tackling this monster, please make sure you are ready for this kind of volume and intensity AND make sure your recovery protocols are dialed in. thanks for letting me share FBK xo