A) Bench Press
185x5x1 (50%)
220x4x2 (60%)
255x3x3 (70%)
B) DB Flyes
35x10x3
C) Squat
265x5x1 (50%)
315x4x2 (60%)
370x3x3 (70%)
D) Rope Pushdowns
60x8x3
E) GM’s
210x5x3 (40%)
Everything felt light and fast again. This was the last day of the conditioning week. Next week the fun starts. I was supposed to do dips today, but they are too tough on my right shoulder, and they are just in there for some blood flow, so I will be doing pushdowns instead.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
So are you going full on into Sheiko for a while now?[/quote]
That’s the plan. This first cycle is 13 weeks long. I’m going to use Sheiko up until my next meet and see what the results are. I know a few guys that have had great success with it, so I’m going to give it a try.
If I get the results I want, then I’ll run another cycle. If not, I know what worked from my last Westside cycle, so I can keep those components, and tweak the rest. I’m actually looking forward to the change.
A) Bench
200x4x1 (55%)
220x3x1 (60%)
255x3x1 (70%)
275x3x4 (75%)
B) Squat
265x5x1 (50%)
315x5x1 (60%)
370x5x4 (70%)
C) Bench
200x4x1 (55%)
235x4x2 (65%)
255x4x4 (70%)
D) Flat DB Flyes
30x10x5
E) GM’s
210x5x5 (40%)
1h15min
Today was the first day of the real cycle. A lot more volume than I’m used to, but it felt good today. I can tell that I’ll need to ice my elbows after these sessions. It’s a little tough to go from Bench to Squat, and back to Bench. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but I’ll definitely take the precautions with icing and active recovery.
I’ve been working on taking shorter rest breaks between sets, and I can already feel my conditioning improving.
I’m very eager to see how you do with this plan. I’ve done Korte’s plan in the past twice, the first time went better than the second. But I was beat up from that and the intensity rarely got much over 60%.
I’m keeping the GPP/Active Recovery stuff light on my off days just to get some blood flow to the joints. I’ll be icing every day, and I’m not trying to drop any weight, so hopefully there will be plenty of calories for recovery.
This was harder than I expected. My back was still a little fatigued from Squatting without a belt on Monday, and there doesn’t look like that much volume on paper, but it certainly more than I’ve been doing.
My hands were starting to get chewed up with all of the pulling. Kind of reminds me of the Coan/Philippi cycle.
I was going to go up in weight on the Lunges today, but I slipped on the ice yesterday morning and landed on my patella tendon. No damage, but it’s not a great spot for a bruise. So lunges were more painful than difficult on one side. I’ll up the weight next time.
I just finished up my first four weeks of sheiko (#29 off the EFS website) and your two issues are dead on with what I experienced.
My low back always carried a low level of fatigue into the second and third workouts of the week and my hands got trashed on deadlift day. Neither got bad enough to cause missed lifts, but the pain got really ‘interesting’ sometimes.
I’m taking this week off to deload and retest my maxes. I’ll be sure to post my results.
[quote]_lb wrote:
I just finished up my first four weeks of sheiko (#29 off the EFS website) and your two issues are dead on with what I experienced.
My low back always carried a low level of fatigue into the second and third workouts of the week and my hands got trashed on deadlift day. Neither got bad enough to cause missed lifts, but the pain got really ‘interesting’ sometimes.
I’m taking this week off to deload and retest my maxes. I’ll be sure to post my results.[/quote]
I’ll be interested to see what your results are. What were your maxes when you started the program?
My back is a little sore from all of the pulling yesterday. I tried to just enough to get some blood flow without overdoing it for Squats tomorrow.
It’s funny, my right glute is sore today but not my left one, and I think it’s because I had to alter my form on lunges on one side due to banging up my left knee on the ice. Either that or the left glute is just dysfunctional.
Tomorrow looks like a marathon bench day…tough to judge on paper.
[quote]Modi wrote:
I’ll be interested to see what your results are. What were your maxes when you started the program?[/quote]
Squat-380
Bench-310
Deadlift-455
My legs were stronger than my grip before I started, so I dont know what kind of gains I’ll make on deads, but judging by how the weights feel, I’m hoping for 20-30 pounds on each.
C) Squat
265x5x1 (60%)
315x3x2 (60%)
370x3x2 (70%)
395x3x4 (75%)
D) Rope Pushdowns
60x8x5
E) GM’s
210x5x5 (40%)
1hr25min
The Benching wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I actually haven’t found the Bench sessions to be too difficult yet. I moved my grip out to index finger on the rings at the start of last week, so I think it will be beneficial getting all these reps in to get used to the new position.
My back was still tired from DL day, so I belted up on the 75% sets on Squats.
For some reason, carrying firewood is the hardest thing on my low back. I can DL 600+, but load me up with 20lbs of firewood, and my back is screaming. Go figure.
I think I’m starting to get used to the volume and conditioning is improving. I’ve been keeping the rest to a minimum and haven’t had any trouble with recovery between sets (i.e. breathing hard).
However, I’m starting to think that I’ll just live in a constant state of low/mid back fatigue for the duration of Sheiko. Nothing really to complain about, but that’s where I feel it the most.
Today was the first time Squatting twice in the same session, and the second round wasn’t as hard as I had imagined it would be. Good stuff, survived another day.
First time doing Deadlift to Knees (Halting Deadlifts). These felt fine. I really tried to keep my hips from shooting up first, but that didn’t really happen.
My hands are chewed up as usual from Deadlift day. I almost strapped up for the last two sets, but decided to suck it up.
Lunges are improving. I’m still working on getting my glutes to fire better. My right side seems to do a better job than my left. Insert half-assed workout joke here.
