How is it that lifters, from Bob Peoples to Abadjiev’s team to Taranenko, can squat to a max every day of the week and keep getting stronger? Right now I want to take a look at these daily-maxing methods with a brief overview of the Squat To A Max Every Day method that inspired me. As a program, this is right on the edges of what I’d call extreme. There’s enough workload to scare most people away, but it’s really quite tame as these things go. I’ll lay out my thoughts here, and in the next chapter we’ll go over more options and details.
When you think “max squat”, the default image is a tomato-faced powerlifter straining under a bar and about one heartbeat from an aneurysm. How can you do that every day? You don’t. You can’t. That’s not what daily max means.
Get away from that image. It’s centered on aggression and intensity, which we don’t need. We need to move into a calmer, more tranquil mindset.
Think of a weight you can walk into the gym, right now, and lift for one rep with no question in your mind. No warmup, no psych-up, don’t even change clothes. What could you walk in there and hit right now?
That number will be a no-brainer lift, a weight you’d hit any day of the week no questions asked (scratching those days you’re injured or seriously sick, of course). The number is probably heavier than you’d expect ― probably well off your best performance, but not anything to sneeze at.
Let’s call this your daily minimum. If you walked into the gym every afternoon, seven days a week, and lifted your daily minimum, how hard would that be? Do nothing else; hit this weight and go home. Are you going to feel sore and beat up? Maybe a little, at first, but if you kept this up for a few weeks or longer, you’d never notice it.
That’s the central idea that makes this work. If the weight you’re lifting on the regular isn’t treated as a threat by your body’s coping systems, then you are avoiding most of the problems of ‘recovery’.
Hitting a daily minimum won’t do that. All the daily max does, then, is give you the option to tinker with the heaviest weight on the day. Specifically, the daily max method tests the maximum weight we can handle without getting mentally wound up.
These folks doing the insane Bulgarian-style programs aren’t grinding out absolute contest maxes every day. What they’re doing is better thought of as figuring out their best training weights through the process of training (as contrasted to writing them down beforehand, based on a best-guess in a spreadsheet). This combination of RPE feedback and a coach’s eye, adjusting the workout set by set, is known as autoregulatory training, or just
autoregulation.
Autoregulation is an old idea, but the word has its origins in the Daily Adjustable Progressive Resistance Exercise (DAPRE) system developed by Ken Knight. DAPRE begins with three sets based off a predicted 6RM: 10 reps at 50% of the 6RM for set one, 6 reps at 75% for set two, and set three is max reps at the 6RM weight.
The weight used on the fourth set depends on the reps you get in the third set. Hitting 8 reps or more means adding 5kg. Hitting 4 reps or less means dropping 5kg, while anything
from 5-7 leaves you at the same weight for that fourth set. The reps you complete on set four determine your 6RM for the next workout.
I n Supertraining, Siff suggests a modification called Autoregulating Progressive Resistance Exercise (APRE), building on Knight’s original concept by adding both 3RM and 10RM versions. In all cases, the fourth adjusted-weight set determines the starting weight for the next workout.
That’s all autoregulation is: adjusting the next set based on the set you just did. You plan on the day, not in advance.
When John Broz has his lifters squat to a max, he’s there the whole time watching each set, getting a feel for the energy and motivation, how much is left in the tank. On a bad day, that lifter can take it easy. On a great day, he can knock out a PR.
What do you do if you don’t have coach there watching all your lifts? That’s where the RPE scale shines. Going by the RTS scale, you’ll want most of your reps to fall in the 8-9 range, leaving you with a reserve of 1-4 reps. A daily training max wouldn’t allow for second rep, but might still be 20-30 lbs shy of a genuine psyched-up max.
If you like percentages, then you’re looking at the 85-90% range, plus or minus a few percent depending on the lift and the person. The actual percentage will shift upwards as you get used to handling heavy things on the regular. Avoiding psyched-up grinders makes it really hard to get above 92-95% of a true context max ― and that’s exactly what we want.
It should go without saying that this is no kind of “max” you’re used to thinking about ― which is why I’d rather you think of this more in terms of a daily minimum. Once you have to start rolling dice and putting odds on the weight, it’s too heavy. The daily maximum is what you can do right now. Ask yourself “what’s the lightest heavy set I can hit today?” That’s where your head needs to be.
This is not to suggest that these workouts are “easy”. This is still good old fashioned hard work, and that’s how the magic of daily training happens. Work hard, and keep your eyes open for opportunities ― whether that means a PR or an opportunity for a light day.
So there’s your plan: go hit a daily minimum and come home. After you’ve done that for a month, start tinkering with a daily max. This should translate to an RPE of no more than 8 or 9. When RPEs stay low and all your reps have snap, you can keep working up. When difficulty takes a jump, you’re done. It’s that simple.
What can you hit today, right now, without getting too excited? Some days that will be a weight that shocks you. Other days you’ll leave it at the baseline and call it done.