Seeing a gym has this equipment, just buy a card, basically don't hesitate

Key points:

●The ring muscle bar squat perfectly fuses the advantages of both squats and deadlifts, and almost eliminates the defects unique to squat-pull movements.

●This 10-week training plan requires you to start with 6 sets x 8 reps of ring muscle bar squats, gradually increasing the number of sets, reps, and weight until you can complete 10 sets x 10 reps.

●This plan looks like it's primarily for lower body training, but after execution, it will be found that the back, trapezoid muscles, and forearms also grow significantly.

One movement to train the whole body

If I were forced to choose only one movement to spend my entire life on, it could satisfy both muscle gain and strength development—my choice would definitely be the ring muscle bar squat.

This is a perfect 'squat/deadlift' hybrid: it's more friendly to the knees compared to squats, and less stressful on the lower back compared to traditional deadlifts. Considering all these advantages, it's a great choice for developing overall strength and muscle mass.

I've always been a big fan of the ring muscle bar squat as a training mainstay. I usually start my week with it, and I believe it's wise to place high-yield movements in the early part of the week to maximize energy.

And, as this training pattern progresses, other seemingly unrelated muscle groups, such as my back, trapezoid muscles, and forearms, also show significant improvement—these improvements were almost entirely coincidental, but they gave me a lot of inspiration.

My knees were injured, especially when performing heavy squats or heavy single-leg movements, causing pain. I foolishly persisted in training for a while before, and then I learned to stop training all squats and heavy single-leg movements.

To continue training the quadriceps without knee pain, I changed the ring muscle bar deadlift movement form: lower the hips and maintain a neutral trunk, making it look a bit like a squat rather than a traditional deadlift.

When I first used the low-hip position squat-deadlift, I had to reduce the weight on the original high-hip ring muscle bar deadlift to begin with. But I found that not only was it better for leg stimulation, but it also felt better on the lower back—this coordination was great. And once I adapted to this new way, the training weight would gradually return.

Progress isn't limited to adding weight

I once deadlifted 600 pounds, but I felt completely drained for three weeks afterward. Some people are lucky enough to continue making progress throughout their entire training life without decreasing weight. Others, like me, reach a strength threshold, and their bodies are unable to withstand the repeated weekly high-volume training, even if the movement form is perfectly correct.

This strength threshold varies from person to person. Once you notice your training weights starting to decrease, you should cautiously seek other ways to gradually increase the load, rather than just adding weight on the bar.

If your lower body training has fallen into a bottleneck and you are exploring new muscle gain methods, you can first try the plan below. Don't think this plan looks simple—when your weight increases to a certain extent, you'll find that it's one of the most challenging plans you've ever used. In fact, it may be the most challenging plan you've ever used.

Progressive Overload Training Plan

When you first use the ring muscle bar squat as the main training focus, strictly follow the parameters below.

Each training session, perform 3-4 leg extensions or reverse-leg curls as a warm-up. Then start with the ring muscle bar squat:

Week 1: 6 sets x 8 reps

Week 2: 6 sets x 10 reps (same weight as week 1)

Week 3: 7 sets x 8 reps (increase by 10-20 lbs on week 2's basis)

Week 4: 7 sets x 10 reps (same weight as week 3)

Week 5: 8 sets x 8 reps (increase by 10-20 lbs on week 4's basis)

Week 6: 8 sets x 10 reps (same weight as week 5)

Week 7: 9 sets x 8 reps (increase by 10-20 lbs on week 6's basis)

Week 8: 9 sets x 10 reps (same weight as week 7)

Week 9: 10 sets x 8 reps (increase by 10-20 lbs on week 8's basis)

Week 10: 10 sets x 10 reps (same weight as week 9)

Notes

● Strictly adhere to the plan. I made a mistake and started with 10 sets x 10 reps at the beginning, almost collapsing me. Drawing lessons from my mistake, don't do that.

● The data above doesn't include warm-up sets. If your strength is large, you need to perform 3-4 ring muscle bar warm-up sets—gradually increase the weight until you reach the official training weight, then start the official training.

● All official sets use the same weight. Therefore, choose lighter weights to start with; your first few official sets shouldn't be performed to failure, and the last few sets should be difficult and reached to failure.

If you start with too much weight and perform to failure from the beginning, you won't be able to complete the entire plan later.

● Imagine this movement as a squat, not a deadlift. Lower the hips and lift the chest. The movement trajectory is straight up and down.

● If needed, use assistance straps. I usually start with 3-4 sets without straps, then use straps for the remaining sets.

● Each time you drop the weight, stabilize it on the ground, then stand up, don't bounce the weight up with momentum. Imagine the touch-down action as a gentle kiss with the ground.

● Don't spend too much time on set intervals. Rest for 2 minutes in the first 3-5 sets, and increase the interval rest to 3-4 minutes for the last few sets. Don't rest too long, or the training time will be too long.

Try to keep the same set interval rest each week. Don't noticeably lengthen the interval as the difficulty increases.

● During the execution of this plan, don't do any heavy deadlifts or squats. To get more leg muscle stimulation, you must choose single-leg movements or reverse-leg resistance pikes. To train more posterior chain muscles, you must choose leg extensions, reverse-leg curls, and hip thrusts.

● If you don't have a ring muscle bar or six-head bar, don't use traditional straight bar deadlifts, or your lower back will collapse.

Summary

---Although this plan is primarily for lower body training, it can also significantly increase the muscle mass of the back, trapezoid muscles, and forearms.

--- Interestingly, after I started implementing this plan, I received a lot of feedback from others, pointing out that my upper body looked bigger, even though I rarely trained my upper body.

--- After the 10-week plan ends, you can switch to a different lower body training method or continue this plan.

--- Once you reach 10 sets x 10 reps, maintain 10 x 10 repetitions with increasing weight, instead of increasing reps. In the next 100 repetitions, the weight increase should only be small. Don't increase it excessively.