20-Rep Squat
Also known as: 20 rep squat · super squats · breathing squats · 20-rep · squats and milk
The old-school mass builder — one gut-check set of twenty breathing squats, adding 2.5 kg every single session. Take a weight you could squat for ten, then grind out twenty with deep breaths between reps. A dumbbell pullover and a handful of basic barbell lifts round out the body. Eat big, sleep, and run it about six weeks — nothing packs on size and grit faster.
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What is 20-Rep Squat?
The 20 rep squat program is the oldest mass-building method still worth running. Popularised by Joseph Hise in the 1930s and codified in Randall Strossen's book Super Squats, the premise fits on an index card: load a bar with a weight you would normally squat for ten, then take three enormous breaths between reps and refuse to rack it until you have twenty. Add 2.5 kg and do it again next session, three times a week, for about six weeks. Old-timers paired it with a gallon of milk a day — hence the "squats and milk" nickname — and reported bodyweight gains that still sound made up.
Around the one gut-check set, the routine stays deliberately plain: a light set of twenty dumbbell pullovers straight after the squats (the traditional rib-cage stretch), then two sets each of bench press, Pendlay rows and overhead press, a set of Romanian deadlifts, and calves. The breathing squats are the program; everything else just keeps the rest of you ticking over.
Is 20-Rep Squat right for you?
Run it if you want size fast and already squat competently — the set only works if your technique holds up while your lungs and will are failing. It rewards lifters stuck at a bodyweight plateau who are prepared to eat in a real surplus and sleep like it is their job. Do not run breathing squats as a beginner still learning the movement, during a cut, or alongside other hard leg training; the recovery bill for eighteen consecutive PR sets is the entire budget.
How progression works
The squat adds 2.5 kg every single session you complete all twenty reps — no weekly waves, no percentages, just 7.5 kg a week onto a set of twenty. Over six weeks that compounds to roughly 45 kg more than you started with, which is why the starting weight matters so much. Fail to reach twenty twice and the weight drops 10% so you can rebuild through the sticking point. The supporting lifts use double progression, adding weight when you top their rep ranges. Durata handles the per-session increments and tracks every rep of the twenty, which you will be in no state to remember.
Durata runs this progression for you — every session's weights are computed automatically from your training maxes and logged AMRAP sets.
20-Rep Squat — every set, every session
Percentages are of your training max (TM). AMRAP = as many reps as possible on the final set.
Full Body
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Squat (Barbell) | 1×20 | 4:00 |
| Pullover (Dumbbell) | 1×20 | 1:00 |
| Bench Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Pendlay Row (Barbell) | 2×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Overhead Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) | 1×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 2×12–20 | 2:30 |
Full Body
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Squat (Barbell) | 1×20 | 4:00 |
| Pullover (Dumbbell) | 1×20 | 1:00 |
| Bench Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Pendlay Row (Barbell) | 2×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Overhead Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) | 1×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 2×12–20 | 2:30 |
Full Body
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Squat (Barbell) | 1×20 | 4:00 |
| Pullover (Dumbbell) | 1×20 | 1:00 |
| Bench Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Pendlay Row (Barbell) | 2×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Overhead Press (Barbell) | 2×10–12 | 2:30 |
| Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) | 1×12–15 | 2:30 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 2×12–20 | 2:30 |
20-Rep Squat — common questions
What weight do I start 20-rep squats with?
Your honest 10-rep max — the classic prescription. It feels insultingly light for the first ten reps of session one; by week three the same protocol has you fighting for reps at a weight you once tripled. Starting heavier than a true 10RM just means stalling before the six weeks pay off.
How do breathing squats actually work?
The first ten reps are near-continuous. From there you pause standing, bar on your back, and take three big deliberate breaths before each rep. The set becomes twenty rest-paused singles — that pause is what lets a 10-rep weight become a 20-rep set, and it is where the growth stimulus comes from.
What is the pullover for?
Tradition says expanding the rib cage; physiology says a stretch and a breather. Either way it is done light — around 10 kg for twenty reps immediately after the squats while you are still gasping. Do not load it heavy; it is a stretch, not a lift.
How long should I run it, and do I need the milk?
About six weeks, then return to conventional training — the session-to-session jumps are not sustainable longer, and that is by design. The gallon of milk is optional; a consistent calorie surplus of some kind is not. Under-eat and the program is just cardio with a barbell.
Source: The 20-rep breathing-squat method — Hise / Strossen ("Super Squats" lineage), public domain.
Durata is not affiliated with or endorsed by the program's author. The program structure (sets, reps, exercise selection) is presented as published methodology.
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