THE FORCE OUT REP SQUAT SYSTEM

Back when I was competing and training, between the years 1960 – 1972, there were the 3 Olympic Lifts, Press, Snatch and Clean & Jerk. Now there is just the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk in Olympic Weightlifting Competition. During those times with the three lifts it required a great deal of stamina in the legs to be able to go through competition, not only in the competition lifts but going through all my warm-ups on those lifts as well. By the time I got to the Clean & Jerks, I started noticing that I didn’t have very much left in me to finish the competition and had to rely on pure guts and determination to be able to finish. I did have plenty of leg power back then and sometimes I felt it may not be enough to pull me through to finish.

I started thinking of what I could do in my training that would help me to be able to get through my competitions with the necessary stamina I needed in my legs.

So I thought of doing high repetition squats. All of the Olympic Lifts require squatting and in my case, I was squat cleaning for my presses as a lot of lifters did back in those days.

I started experimented with the “Force Out” rep System in my training and stuck with it for a long period of time. It proved to be just what I needed, not only for increasing my endurance, but build that additional leg power that is so important to the Olympic Lifter.


Here are some of the things that I kept in mind while doing this System:

I would do these without bouncing at the bottom position as not to possibly injure my knees. Do them with plenty of speed while coming out of the bottom position. Do them with feet about the same distance or shoulder width apart as I would catch my cleans and Keep the body straight and upright and not leaning forward.

I would do my regular Squats and Front Squats on the in-between days while doing these “Force Out” reps but would do them with fewer reps (1-3 reps). I would also do some of these squats with closer foot spacing and with a pause at the bottom.

Cut down on reps in the other power assistance movements such as Hi-Pulls, Power Cleans, Olympic Style Dead Lifts, etc. Do nothing but singles in the Olympic Lifts in training, but I would do more sets with them. As much as 3-5 sets more. Get plenty of rest and eat good wholesome foods that are high in Protein and Vitamins. I did that some additional protein supplements but did not over do it.

I would do these “Force Out” reps every (12) days. Every other workout I would increase the weight some 10-15 lbs. The first workout doing these I would work up doing doubles and singles, mostly singles, to a projected weight that I would have great difficulty doing 15 reps with. I would take that projected weight and try to force out that 15 reps. if I did 1or more with that weight that was fine. I would wait a while, 6-7 minutes and if I felt up to it I would take a second set with that weight and try for another 15 reps. Most of the time I would fall short of making the 15 reps. Sometimes I would maybe get 10-13 reps and a few times I did get the 15 reps I was trying to do.

The next workout doing these “Force Out” reps, (12) days later, I would work up to that same projected weight and try to get somewhere between 3-5 reps more than I did the first time using the same weight (12) days earlier. I would also try for a second set with that weight. Sometimes I might not feel up to doing the second set with that weight and would pass on doing it that workout. But that didn’t happen to many times.

The next training session working on these “Force Out” reps, (12) days later, I would increase the weight another 10-15 pounds and try for the 15 reps. I would try for that second set as I did in previous training sessions. The next training session doing these, again (12) days, I would take the same weight and do the same as mentioned above in my workouts and try to hit 3-5 reps more.

I would continue on this system for 5-6 months and take a break from it for about a month. Then I would continue back on it because the benefits were paying off and I didn’t want to hold back my progress.

This system takes up a lot of energy and can be really be bruttle to you when you first start doing them, but after doing them for a awhile, you will get used to them and it won’t be as bad. The first workout I did on this system, I could hardly walk for a few days. My legs and hips were very sore.
So give it a try. The rewards can be worth it as you will develop much more stamina and power in those legs and hips. You have to stick it out if you expect to make it worthwhile.

I have seen many lifters miss attempts because of the lack of leg power and some of these meant winning a National or World Championships.

If you want to be a World Class Lifter you will have to develop a good solid foundation and that being your leg power.

Good luck and train hard,

Joe Dube

*taken from Unknown