Grimek Pullover Technique

Grimek used a technique that was similar to supersetting. The principle of supersetting is that you’ll pair two exercises with each other, and perform them back to back. Exercise B is your rest from exercise A. Sometimes this means doing a leg exercises followed by an arm exercise, sometimes it means two moves that hit the same area in different ways, so you might superset bench presses and pushups.

Grimek used leg exercises and pullovers. He claimed that using leg exercises supersetted with pullovers let him use breathing to expand his chest ‘from the inside out.’ Granted, that sounds pretty unusual, to say the least. But John Grimek had the goods to back it up.

Grimek’s method called for ‘exercises… which cause a rapid, deepened, and sustained state of breathing. Additional exercises,’ Grimek added, ‘should also be performed which stretch the ribs up and out when the trainee is breathing rigorously.’

Grimek used to perform a set of high rep squats, and then spend a minute or so taking short but rapid breaths. Next he would begin to breathe more slowly but deeper, and as he did, he’d do his pullovers then. His theory was that the deep breathing caused by doing the squats was what made the pullovers so effective.

The workout:

Session 1:

Front Squat: 20

1 minute fast shallow breaths, then begin deep breaths and move on to

Pullovers: 12-15

Rest for five minutes or so and repeat, up to 3 times.

Session 2:

Back Squat: 20

Use a weight you can do about 15 reps with, and use rest-pause to get to 20.

1 minute fast shallow breaths, then move on to deep breaths and move on to

Pullovers: 12-15

Rest for about 5 minutes and repeat up to 3 times

Session 3:

Bulgarian Split Squat: 10 each side

Breathe rapidly and shallowly, then move on to deep breathing and

Pullovers: 12-15

Rest up to 5 minutes, and repeat up to 3 times.

Read More: Serious Gains With Serious Squats

I’ve included squat variations so that you can have the best of all worlds – the thoracic extension work that comes with front squats, the strength challenge of the back squats and of course the proven increase in testosterone production over other squats that comes with the Bulgarian split squat. If you have a favourite squat, just use that. The key is to make the squat part of the training challenging enough that you’re seriously out of breath, without letting it turn into cardio.

If you do heavy 20-rep squats, you’ll find that this session will replace your normal workout. You can’t do 20-rep squats 3 times a week as an afterthought. You probably don’t want to replace your current workout with something you just heard about, so an alternative is to make the squats relatively light and throw them in at the part of your training session where you normally do your conditioning. That way you can road-test Grimek’s idea without having to bet the farm on it. Give it six weeks and let me know in the comments below what it does for you!