Back on the gains this week. Technically week two because last session like on Friday counts apparently. The injury (now that I think of it may have just been some weird DOMS) is even better now only a little bit on bench.
Squat 6x3 @ 140kg Pause Squat 3x4 @ 120kg
Pretty easy if lengthy squats. Easier than I expected honestly. No vids cos was distracted talking to mates.
Good gains on squat last training cycle on Sheiko and looking forward to more this time around. Early goings though so just need to put in the work. Pause squats as always feeling hard but giving me a lot on squats. Assistance exercises are the same across the board like last training cycle so like all pauses of some kind.
Bench 5x4 @ 90kg Machine Flyes whatever reps for the pump
After big PRs on bench last Sheiko cycle I’m keen for more. Hopefully 120kg next and beyond to three biscuits. 5x4 feeling breezy. Probably gonna get to benching with wrist wraps again. My wrists do look bent back but the weight is sitting in the base of my palm so I don’t there’s much injury risk there. Just the most comfy this way.
Low DL day on mondays with 15 total reps on the menu. 3 reps hook grip and then strapping up for a rep PR of 12 at 170kg.
Maybe not full Sheiko style but it’s worked well for me in the past so why not do it again with new numbers and a bit of Sheiko flair. Gonna keep using the belt but honestly I don’t really “feel” a difference like on squats with a belt.
Leg Press Barbell Curls
Let’s make this cycle the first time I’ve ever been consistent with curls lol
Nothing much to mention here except more work being done. Just trusting the process and quietly confident in future gains. For long pause bench I do a 6-8 count because I count fast in my head.
I’m just looking over things, here are some of my thoughts:
Do heavy squat walkouts when you are close to a meet or test day. Don’t start with anything insane, maybe 10-15% over your top set for the day, but you can add weight each week until you are at 110-120% of your goal 1rm.
Also, one of the drawbacks to Sheiko’s standard method of training is that you don’t get used to working with maximal weights, you basically never touch them. It works for some people but not everyone.
Deadlift:
It could be that submaximal volume work (as in multiple low rep sets with a moderate weight) doesn’t work for you on deadlift. I have come to the same conclusion myself. In the last year I did a lot of that sort of training, even doing 10-15 singles with 80-85% and stuff like that, and progress was minimal while my squat and bench made progress using similar methods. The times that I made the best progress on deadlift I was doing a few hard sets mostly in the range of 3-5 reps. By hard sets I mean 1-3 reps short of failure. Bench is another story, but with squat it seems like technique was my main deficiency as well as accelerating the weight. With a sumo deadlift the hardest part is going to be breaking the floor and with less challenging sets you aren’t really developing the ability to break the floor since it is easy. For myself, I can see some value in doing relatively lighter singles and doubles during a peaking phase because you don’t want to accumulate too much fatigue and it will help sharpen your technique, but outside of that it just doesn’t work for me.
Volume:
Did you feel well recovered the whole time? If so then obviously you could handle more volume, but seeing as your squat went up it couldn’t have been that bad overall. It is better to train less and make small gains than to do too much and go nowhere or get injured. Based on what I have seen to work for myself and other, the ratio of squat:deadlift volume should generally be in the range of 2:1-1.5:1.
What’s the deal with the current training cycle? Is someone else writing your program or are you doing this yourself? If I was you I would start pushing the volume now and try to build some muscle, after peaking you will be more responsive to training volume and it will be easier to build muscle. That’s what they call “phase potentiation”.
Thanks for all the ideas. I’ve gone back to my mate who did my program last year. Pretty much told him Sheiko worked well for bench and squat not so much for deadlift and like what seems to work and not work for me.
For squats I know what you mean. To be working around three plates give or take 10kg the whole training cycle then jumping to having 160-190kg on my back doesn’t sound that smart. This training cycle it wasn’t too bad because 180kg felt light on the back but 190kg still felt a bit heavy.
It’s too bad Sheiko doesn’t like doing heavy singles in his training like a lot of lifters do like a single @RPE 8 or something.
It’s a while until I max again but I’ll talk to coachbrah about getting used to heavier weight.
From my past training it seems like submarine intensity and volume works for my squat. If we can address the not being used to heavy weights which is like the weakness of this approach there’ll be big gains.
My best gains in the past was from doing like 3 or 4 Sets x 8@ like 70-85% (I think I don’t remember the exact numbers) twice a week kinda of like bodybuilding rep ranges lol. Just like doing a lot of work. I was bulking at the time though.
Something to consider is that I can rep a lot on sumo. Maybe it’s because shorter range of motion, more efficient pulls or pretty much skipping the eccentric but I can hit 80% 1RM for 15 reps like in one set. So maybe my 8 Rep set is more like a 4 Rep set in terms of work if you know what I mean.
This Sheiko cycle has at best like if I was an optimistic pig been a style of training that has got me technique gains not so much strength.
Anyways I’ve told coachbrah and to give me more of the same stuff and am going for a slow bulk of a few kilos. So he put more volume but also kept Pause Deadlift in and also some of the volume is meant to be done with like doubles or triples where it’s easier to focus on technique compared to sets where you just bang out reps and rush.
I’ve noticed, only quite recently, that I used to need a lot of volume to drive my gains. But recently I was getting run into the dirt. Someone suggested my volume was too high so I cut back on the volume and my lifts are progressing again and I’m recovering faster.
I assume that I will need to press the volume with these new weights at some point and then realize a new strength level and cut volume and drive intensity.
For now 531 is working. I’m learning to auto regulate based on feel of the day. I was pushing intensity and volume and getting trashed.
I’m gonna do some conjugate ME work for a bit and rotate back at some point to 531. I’ve learned a lot since Jan 1 on 531 and probably should just stick with it until I exhaust the gains from it. But I’ll take what I learned and apply it to this new program. Alphas darkhorse.
I’ve never pushed some of the variation lifts and rarely have used them. This new program relies on them to drive the main lifts and you don’t lift the main lifts but on speed work days…could be good or bad
We will see…I’ll give it a 12 week run
I’ll post a program overview this weekend and pre program numbers and follow up numbers for comparison post program.
Volume wise I never really felt beat up on Sheiko. I guess the program does a good job of managing fatigue and it was all within my capacity to recover anyways.
For squat and bench the volume isn’t much higher this training cycle it’s like literally 5-10 more reps per week or so I’ve been told. Like you said there’s no pink doing more if you can’t recover from it
Like I mentioned before deadlift wasn’t really challenging enough I think. So there’s quite a bit more volume there.
There is a copy of a training block he wrote for Yuri Fedorenko floating around online, gaelic posted a link before. It has some singles with 90%, but not higher than that. That’s not Sheiko’s standard method of training but apparently he does use it for some advanced lifters.
It’s simple, just add a heavier top set once a week when you are 6-8 weeks out.
