The No Barbell Experiment on Squat and Deadlift and Hip Thrust Strength

I’ve decided to conduct a little experiment on myself. For no good reason aside from curiosity and pure passion for strength training science, I am going to perform zero barbell squats or deadlifts or hip thrusts (also no barbell good mornings or hex bar deads) for the next eight weeks (this will be torture for me) and just do machines, single leg exercises, and posterior chain exercises and see how it impacts my barbell strength.

My all-time best ass-to-grass back squat is 445 lbs, my all-time best sumo deadlift is 620 lbs, and my all-time best hip thrust is 815 lbs.

In the past couple of months, I’ve been training beltless and my bests are a 405 ass-to-grass high bar back squat, a 585 lb beltless sumo deadlift, and a 675 x 3 hip thrust. So I’ll compare my strength to these lifts since they’re my baseline.

So these things are okay for now:

– smith machine back and front, lever machine, belt, hack, and goblet squats
– leg presses, leg extensions
– lunges, Bulgarian split squats, step ups, skater squats, pistols
– lever, smith machine, db, db stiff-leg, db Romanian, and single leg Romanian deadlifts
– straddle lifts, smith machine good mornings
– smith machine hip thrusts, band hip thrusts, single leg hip thrusts
– 45 degree hypers, reverse hypers, kettlebell swings, sled pushes
– glute ham raise variations, leg curl variations, Nordic ham curls

And these things aren’t allowable for the time being:

– barbell back, front, box, and Zercher squats
– barbell conventional, sumo, Romanian, and stiff-leg deadlifts
– barbell good mornings, barbell hip thrusts, barbell glute bridges, hex bar deadlifts

I’m excited to see how it turns out. I’m going to put my weekly workouts on Instagram with the #gluteguyexperiment hashtag, so follow the journey if you’d like.

Last night, I did this workout (numero uno):

I've decided to conduct a little experiment on myself. I am going to perform zero barbell squats or deadlifts (also no good mornings or hex bar deads) for the next six or eight weeks (this will be torture for me) and just do machines, single leg exercises, and posterior chain exercises and see how it impacts my barbell strength. So these things are okay: – smith machine back and front, lever machine, belt, hack, and goblet squats – leg presses, leg extensions – lunges, Bulgarian split squats, step ups, skater squats, pistols – lever, smith machine, db, db stiff-leg, db Romanian, and single leg Romanian deadlifts – straddle lifts, smith machine good mornings – hip thrust variations – 45 degree hypers, reverse hypers, kettlebell swings – glute ham raise variations, leg curl variations, Nordic ham curls And these things aren't allowable for the time being: – barbell back, front, box, and Zercher squats – barbell conventional, sumo, Romanian, and stiff-leg deadlifts – barbell good mornings, hex bar deadlifts I'm excited to see how it turns out. Tonight, I did: Smith machine full squat 365 x 1, 385 x 1 Lever half squat 540 x 5, 540 x 5 Hack squat 410 x 3, 410 x 3 Bench press 275 x 6, 315 x 1 Incline press 245 x 4, 245 x 4 Machine shoulder press stack x 15, stack x 10 Lying leg curl 160 x 12, 180 x 8 Chest supported row 160 x 5, 160 x 5 I trained at Independence Gym for 6 years back in the day when I taught high school math and lived nearby. But I haven't been there in 10 years. They still have much of the same equipment but they expanded. Badass gym in Scottsdale, I may join there (they're open until midnight M-Th too!) and make it an honorary Glute Lab since my garage is too damn hot to train in. #gluteguy #independencegym #gluteguyexperiment

A post shared by Bret "Glute Guy" Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1) on Jul 7, 2017 at 12:48am PDT

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