MDM Sheiko

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I’ve decided to post a log for my training, I hope its all good to post it in the strength sports section.

As you can tell from the title I’ll be doing sheiko, I’ve done 2 cycle before and this will be my 3rd. Some stats

Before the Sheiko(s)
max bench 175 x 1
max squat 185 x 3
max deadlift 235 x 2

After the first Sheiko
max bench 200 x 1
max squat 245 x 1
max deadlift 275 x 1

After the second Sheiko (tested this past week)
max bench 215 x 1
max squat 275 x 1*
max deadlift 325 x 1

So it’s helped me out alot and this is the first time I’ve really found something that helped me get stronger… which is my number 1 goal.

The star by my max squat is because I that was my goal for the day and I convinced myself to try 300 and the first attempt I failed at the bottom the second attempt I had a spotter who helped me a little, although 275 went up like butter and I might have been able to go higher say 285 I’m going to base that as my 90% because I’ve seen people like Hanley have great success with doing 90% max.

My Goals:
To post a picture every week to see if someone can tell me my bodyfat.
and look like brad pitt in fight club

In all Reality:
Get as strong as possible
Build a solid amazing core
and get all around better at everything

So here is the deal:

I am a little unsure as to how I’m going to do this next entire cycle…

Why:
I need to add in some core movements that strengthen my both of my obliques and lower back…

I need to put some lat work in this program somewhere also because I feel like I might get to a point where my lat strength will not be a helping factor on my lifts…

Finally I want to put some 400 sprint work in there to get faster running wise, i’ve never been a great runner and would love to start I’m just afraid that doing it during a sheiko might be the worst timing possible…

As for the core movements I’ve read up on some of Cressey’s articles and found some good movements that I think I will train a different muscle of the core each day…

I am having a problem with the lat and running part though… any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated…

I start the program tommorow so the lat and running will most likely be implimented as I progress.

I’m a little on the scared side that sooner or later Sheiko is going to stop working becuase my muscles will adapt to the trype of training, but so far so good. Any opinions on that either?

Thanks again and I look forward to posting my first workout tommorow.

2

[quote]MidDistanceMac wrote:

My Goals:
To post a picture every week to see if someone can tell me my bodyfat.
and look like brad pitt in fight club
[/quote]

Make sure you are holding a shoe…

Good to see the progress. Be careful adding too much at one time. It sounds good now, but as you may find out, doing it is another thing entirely.

3

[quote]MidDistanceMac wrote:

I am having a problem with the lat and running part though… any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated…

[/quote]

For a lat movement you could do chinups/pullups alternating with bent over rows on the bench-squat days.

As for running additional to a full Sheiko routine, that ain’t a good idea.
You could do a bench only Sheiko routine and do the running though.

4

[quote]eisenaffe wrote:
MidDistanceMac wrote:

I am having a problem with the lat and running part though… any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated…

For a lat movement you could do chinups/pullups alternating with bent over rows on the bench-squat days.

As for running additional to a full Sheiko routine, that ain’t a good idea.
You could do a bench only Sheiko routine and do the running though.

[/quote]

thats what I was discussing with a buddy of mine, running and sheiko probably just isnt a good idea
as for the lat movements I am going to have to try that out maybe like a 5x5 of the superset every bench squat day?
thanks man

5

[quote]threewhitelights wrote:
MidDistanceMac wrote:

My Goals:
To post a picture every week to see if someone can tell me my bodyfat.
and look like brad pitt in fight club

Make sure you are holding a shoe…

Good to see the progress. Be careful adding too much at one time. It sounds good now, but as you may find out, doing it is another thing entirely.[/quote]

My bad man I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about… fat or muscle? i’m assuming fat…

On my first sheiko i was eating a cleaner diet where as on this last sheiko I ate… everything (not stupid stuff like Fast food or anything) but if there was another steak left on the table at dinner… it was gone I’ve been getting a reputation…

I started a new job during the 2nd sheiko and when i eat lunch I eat whatever it is I can… and supposively I’m entered in a 2lb hamburger eating contest
I’m just hoping its normal to want to eat and eat when doing a sheiko program.
Oh and I try to get as much sleep, but alot of the time it requires naps throughout the day hope that also normal…

and if not who likes being normal anyway

but really should I be worried?

Thanks

6

You might look at the beginner Sheiko routine at EliteFTS. The one Hanley did was for Master of Sport which is around a master total in powerlifting, I think.

There is a 3 day “beginner” version that I ahve been thinking of doing with the addition of some back work/or day. You could do some lower back and side bends on the same day.

How long have you been lifting? By the looks of your lifts, I would guess not real long. In reality you could probably just do progressive overload and save the complicated stuff till later when increasing your lifts becomes more difficult. That is not an insult, please don’t take it as such.

Either way, have fun. Stay strong.

7

[quote]MidDistanceMac wrote:

as for the lat movements I am going to have to try that out maybe like a 5x5 of the superset every bench squat day?
thanks man[/quote]

You want to superset bench ad lat movement? Did I understand you right? You don’t need to, but you can if you keep it light on the lat movement. Also you don’t necessarily need to do something like 5x5 with lets say 85% of your max.

Keep it light enough to not get fatigued or impede your recovery capacity, but make it heavy enough to have an prehabilitation effect on the little muscles of the uper back and rotator cuff.

8

[quote]mattwray wrote:
You might look at the beginner Sheiko routine at EliteFTS. The one Hanley did was for Master of Sport which is around a master total in powerlifting, I think.

There is a 3 day “beginner” version that I ahve been thinking of doing with the addition of some back work/or day. You could do some lower back and side bends on the same day.

How long have you been lifting? By the looks of your lifts, I would guess not real long. In reality you could probably just do progressive overload and save the complicated stuff till later when increasing your lifts becomes more difficult. That is not an insult, please don’t take it as such.

Either way, have fun. Stay strong.

[/quote]

The First Sheiko I did was the 3 day beginner, the second was 4 day a week beginner… I liked the latter better… Uhhh I have been lifting and eating SMART since Sepetember but haven’t been making amazing gains till February… before that I lifted for about a 1 year but it was stupid and rediculous lifting.

I take no offense I realize that there are a great deal of people more experienced and stronger than I am and I think its cool. I’m just looking to get as strong as possible. I appreciate the advice and will look into the progessive overload training.

Thanks MDM

9

[quote]eisenaffe wrote:
MidDistanceMac wrote:

as for the lat movements I am going to have to try that out maybe like a 5x5 of the superset every bench squat day?
thanks man

You want to superset bench ad lat movement? Did I understand you right? You don’t need to, but you can if you keep it light on the lat movement. Also you don’t necessarily need to do something like 5x5 with lets say 85% of your max.

Keep it light enough to not get fatigued or impede your recovery capacity, but make it heavy enough to have an prehabilitation effect on the little muscles of the uper back and rotator cuff.

[/quote]

My bad man, I meant to superset the rows and pulldowns at the end of my workout. I think I would be overdoing it supersetting the bench and pulldowns I just don’t see myself doing it. I meant superset the two excercises and do 5x5 in each excercise but its all good. Yea the reason why I even brought it up as a possible problem was the recovery… I’m at work right now and will post my workout when I get done later tonight.

Thanks again

10

FYI I did mine off 100% of my maxes. I was considering Smolov off 90%!!

I’m a bit pushed for time right now but I’ll try to post later. Good luck with it til then tho!

11

[quote]Hanley wrote:
FYI I did mine off 100% of my maxes. I was considering Smolov off 90%!!

I’m a bit pushed for time right now but I’ll try to post later. Good luck with it til then tho![/quote]

My bad man for some reason I thought you were using 90%. I appreciate you taking a look at my thread yours helped me in figuring out what I was really lifting for. If you have any advice as to where/when to add some lat excercises in I would have open ears to that.

Thanks again man

12

Week 1: Day 1
Squat
137.5 1x5
165.0 2x4
192.5 3x2
220.0 5x2

Bench press (Normal middle finger wide grip)
107.5 1x5
129.0 1x4
150.5 2x3
172.0 6x3

Db Flies
5x10
(I did them incline this time to switch them up 25lbs)

Squat
137.5 1x5
165.0 1x5
192.5 5x4

Russian Twists
3x8
Medicine Ball Rotations from (Russian Chair Position)
3x8

I decided to do a 4 day a week Sheiko again, because I liked Deadlifting twice a week instead of once.
As for how the workout felt. I was very surprised that 220 went up as easy as it did because I always used to think it would take me years and years to get there. Not to mention I’m very OCD about the height of my ass when I’m at the bottom of the rep below parallel or bust. The one thing I am waiting for is the ability to fire my ham’s and glute’s I feel like that just isn’t there yet. As stated before I tried 300 twice and did not get either of them by myself… I was thinking about being stupid and maybe bumping up my 275max because it went up so easy, but I’m very ahppy that I didn’t. The 2nd time I was squatting I felt like my legs were on fireeeeeeeeee. It was nice

I did not add in Lat work today because I was trying to figure out the best place to put it and just didn’t find the opportunity to sit down adn look at my program because I went to the gym right after work.

Yes I ramble alot.

Thanks for listening

13

Are your weights in pounds or kilos?

14

Unfortunately Pounds…

but I guess you have to start somewhere

15

I usually put some extra lat work on Deadlift day and do light cardio on off days. i wouldnt push the cardio too hard

16

[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
I usually put some extra lat work on Deadlift day and do light cardio on off days. i wouldnt push the cardio too hard[/quote]

Thats sounds like a pretty solid idea, I had been thinking to do it at the end of the deadlift day. Thanks alot for the advice

as for the cardio… I’m not sure if you’d consider it cardio…

But not 15 mintues ago I was drivng through my neighborhood when I saw a old man about 85 years old and 5’2 trying to push his car from the end of the street… I drove by before I realized… thats messed up to just drive by and let him do that. So I went over there and offered to push it… he didnt’ seem to think I could push it.

“My car down street 2 houses” (broken english) and i was like oh nooooo problem so i start pushing and pushing and we get to two houses down… (“i meant other street…”) pointing to the street over. I would push 50 yards before the old man would press the break or slowly ease off the break… I was killer man.

I remember a guy at the gym telling me he used to do that for leg workouts. Note: I offered to just drive him to his house and leave thec ar on the side of the street it took 15 minutes before I realized he didnt’ understand what I was saying so I would just push it for a decent workout…

It was fun till he started pressing the breaks

I’m beat thanks for the advice redsox I have been watching your journal for a decent amount of time

MDM

17

[quote]MidDistanceMac wrote:
Unfortunately Pounds…

but I guess you have to start somewhere[/quote]

Sorry, I just asked because of the weird weights, 137.5 etc… Kinda threw me off.

18

[quote]mattwray wrote:
MidDistanceMac wrote:
Unfortunately Pounds…

but I guess you have to start somewhere

Sorry, I just asked because of the weird weights, 137.5 etc… Kinda threw me off.[/quote]

Yea, those damn percentages… I end up rounding up unless its like 161.1 then I might consider rounding down.

Don’t think i forgot about your advice to start doing progressive overload… I appreciate any advice I can be given and actually had a discussion with my buddy about it. The problems I am running into with creating a program (because i really need to have it planned out) is I would like the program based around the 3 compound lifts and maybe 1 assistance excercise. I am not sure however where to begin when it comes to making it work for me.

The reason I am doing the sheiko is because its the first time I’ve really gained solid strength. It made me realize I like the low reps and trying to get high weight. I’m not sure if you were takling about a certian type of progressive overload (high reps or a certain weight till you can do it a certain amoutn of times or what) .If you have any suggestions or wouldn’t mind helping me out a little again I’d apprecaite it.

MDM

19

I know 700lb single ply squatters that stil to this day use progressive overload. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking it doesn’t work, because it does. In fact the next 4-5 weeks of my training are looking like they’re gonna be progressive overload.

RE: Lat work. I don’t remember specifically what I did but I think I supersetted things like face pulls and band pull aparts with dumbbell flies (I wouldn’t dream of attempting to superset them with the working bench sets). I did one all out high rep set of dumbbell rows on one of the days too and I think I either did chins/pulldowns/cable rows on the 4th day. It worked a treat for me.

Just do a little, but often.

20

[quote]Hanley wrote:
I know 700lb single ply squatters that stil to this day use progressive overload. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking it doesn’t work, because it does. In fact the next 4-5 weeks of my training are looking like they’re gonna be progressive overload.

RE: Lat work. I don’t remember specifically what I did but I think I supersetted things like face pulls and band pull aparts with dumbbell flies (I wouldn’t dream of attempting to superset them with the working bench sets). I did one all out high rep set of dumbbell rows on one of the days too and I think I either did chins/pulldowns/cable rows on the 4th day. It worked a treat for me.

Just do a little, but often.

[/quote]

Thanks alot man, I’m going to try to make up a progressive plan for after this sheiko. I had another question to ask I remember in your log… that you chose to do flies. Whiel talking to that same buddy he suggested maybe doing the db presses (he said I would obviously need to eat a and recover very well to do it) but that it might help out on the bench… on the last two sheikos I was just doing flies no pressing… whats your opinion on that?

Thanks again man