Squats Are Absolutely Brutal (But So Worth It)

There is no other exercise that offers as high a level of muscular recruitment as squats.

I also personally feel that there is no other exercise that brings as much “good pain” in weightlifting than the squat. I can pump out heavy weighted pullups or bench press 1.5 times my weight all day, but when it comes to squats, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t approach the rack with sense of dreading for the next hour.

Today was squat day. Last week, I squatted 210 pounds for 4 sets, and it felt relatively easy and manageable. So instead of increasing the weight my usual 5 lbs/week, I chose to take the harder route and increase it 10 pounds to 220.

Here’s what my workout looked like:

• 45 x 8 (warmup)
• 135 x 6 (yawn)
• 185 x 3 (heavy warmup)
• 220 x 8 (wow this is tougher than I thought)
• 220 x 7 (do I honestly have 2 sets left of this?!)
• 220 x 7 (I can’t feel my legs anymore, and I want to vomit)
• 220 x 8 (My feeling of relief is overshadowed by the fact that I can barely walk back to my room)

Squats are a necessary evil - if I was limited to just one exercise, it would be the parallel squat. I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I finish them, and my reward is a nice can of tuna + Club crackers (have to get a 1 gram protein per 1 lb bodyweight :))