One of my fitness-related goals for 2017 is to focus on my legs more: this means more muscle development and time devoted to these suckers. So, to start the year and the goal off in the right direction, I started a program called Squat Every Day by Cory Gregory. Hungry talked me into it and although I’m not a big fan of doing an exercise every day, I decided to give it a try. To give a bit of an overview, this guy has you squatting every day for 30 days, but not every day is “leg day” if that makes sense. You’ll do 10 sets of squats and then do back exercises, 10 sets of squats then you’ll do chest exercises, and so on and so forth. There are a lot of squat variations in this program and Gregory especially loves front squats (did a lot of those!) as well as lots and lots of lunges.
What was the ultimate result? My legs and glutes got stronger, firmer, and bigger which is great! I’m happy with the results it brought. However, there were some downsides to it as well. Below I’ve listed the good and the bad of this program:
Pros:
- Gained strength
- Gained size and firmness
- Felt more comfortable doing traditional bar squats
- Felt more comfortable doing a variety of squats such as close-stance and front squats
- Mental toughness
- Significant increase in squat technique
Cons:
- My legs got tired of doing the same exercise every day, sometimes to the point of straining a muscle
- My knees did not like this program and I had to be extra careful
- There weren’t enough traditional squats where I felt I could really improve my basic squat to the level I wanted
- It’s absolutely tailored to men. Example: for a warm-up chest set, do a 30 incline bench press reps. With a 45lb bar, this ain’t an easy task
- Uneven days: some days were ridiculously hard while others I could coast by
- Body boredom: my body started getting used to the 10 sets of squat every day and my mind did too
This program was good for me. My left quad might disagree as it was strained to the point of almost being injured, buuut it was good to make myself squat and squat heavy weight at that. Although I wouldn’t do this program again, it did help me with strength and technique which are going to be vital in continuing my leg journey of 2017. My next step on this journey is to create my own leg/glute program using my training and programming skills! Really looking forward to making this and also sharing it with you all! And as always, stay hungry and fit!
