I was thinking about doing this Russian squat program
http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/russian.htm?weight=275
I put 125kg in and it seems pretty rough, esp week 5.
What do you guys think? Would I be able to even do any additional leg work after this? RDL’s, single leg work, etc. Would I even want to?
I’ve done that program, I think it is from the Soviet Weightlifting Yearbook, either 1974 or 1976. Pretty rough, and probably a week or two too long. I did not throw in a lot of extra work, if you do I would definitely drop it last three weeks. You’ll see what I mean.
this look fun I might try it out during my winter intermission.
[quote]Wordwreckin wrote:
I was thinking about doing this Russian squat program
http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/russian.htm?weight=275
I put 125kg in and it seems pretty rough, esp week 5.
What do you guys think? Would I be able to even do any additional leg work after this? RDL’s, single leg work, etc. Would I even want to? [/quote]
As with most of the Russian programs, you are better off starting conservatively so if you think it looks like too much you are probably right. Back it off to something you are comfortable with.
The reality of things is your body will probably have to adapt a little anyway so spending 6 weeks on a moderately challenging routine won’t make or break you and will give you a better idea of how to structure it next time around. One of the biggest things a routine like this can provide for a novice lifter is structure so I would plan on repeating it 3-4 times to give it a chance to work.
IRT accesory work, I would probably do some RDL’s or pull throughs. The volume really isn’t that crazy so I think you will be fine. Just take it easy at first. You are almost always better off doing just enough or a little less than overdoing it on accesory work.
As a point of clarification, you really shouldn’t plan on running this back to back. I would run it 2-3 times in a year.
This looks easier than the 5x5 squats I’m doing right now (2x a week). I sometimes throw in 5x5 walking lunges as well. So far, my 5RM gained around 30 pounds in 6 weeks.
The program listed in the first post looks easier than smolov. I’ve done smolov 3 times, and must say it totally rocks. Hardest thing there is tough.
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
Wordwreckin wrote:
I was thinking about doing this Russian squat program
http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/russian.htm?weight=275
I put 125kg in and it seems pretty rough, esp week 5.
What do you guys think? Would I be able to even do any additional leg work after this? RDL’s, single leg work, etc. Would I even want to?
As with most of the Russian programs, you are better off starting conservatively so if you think it looks like too much you are probably right. Back it off to something you are comfortable with.
The reality of things is your body will probably have to adapt a little anyway so spending 6 weeks on a moderately challenging routine won’t make or break you and will give you a better idea of how to structure it next time around. One of the biggest things a routine like this can provide for a novice lifter is structure so I would plan on repeating it 3-4 times to give it a chance to work.
IRT accesory work, I would probably do some RDL’s or pull throughs. The volume really isn’t that crazy so I think you will be fine. Just take it easy at first. You are almost always better off doing just enough or a little less than overdoing it on accesory work.[/quote]
Thanks for the advice, I was thinking that since this program has the “hard” and “easy” days that I would just throw in a little accessory work on the easier days maybe with some clean pulls and some other oly stuff.
Maybe the easy days were meant for you to reduce the volume so that you can recover from the hard days.
Doesn’t look too bad at all but, the rep vs set variation intrigues me. I will give this a try.
Hey, I’m on this program now.
A guy that is in the gym put me on it, I’ve got my week 3 (6x6 on wed) this week, apparently the 6x6 is so much tougher than it sounds. I’m around a 125kg max, so it will be interesting to see where I come out.
I need to catch up with my 180kg dead!
Got my 6x6 in today, was tough but not overly hard, program is going well.
I decided to do this with my front squat. 245 pounds last time I tested it. I finished
the first day and today I have the 6x3 at 196. The 6x2 wasn’t too hard, we’ll see how this one goes.
Joe Skopec has the extended version on his website. I did that one and added 40 lbs on my oly back squat, 35 lbs on my DL and 30 lbs on my bench in 9 weeks.
It’s funny, but when Bud interviews these lifters from the Spartakiade era, they always say that that workout was neither performed, nor did they even know anything about it.
My personal opinion on this topic is that it’s probably one of those things that these guys came up with that probably looked great on paper that was way too much volume to ever be a part of a regular routine for an elite level lifter. It’s possible that they used such a routine with some of the very junior lifters, but that’s probably it.
If people are going to attempt this program, I’d recommend keeping the training max somewhere between 90%-95% of the 1RM. These workouts are designed to increase strength through volume, so if your max increases from this workout, it just means that your work capacity isn’t high enough or where it needs to be.
Eric Cressey told me that it’s a great way to decrease your T levels as well probably mhurting yourslef along the line somewhere if your “unassisted”
I’ve done this program, and it is definately not as bad as Smolov. Just keep the extra work down to a minimum, and you don’t really need any pull or dead work, otherwise you won’t recover. I did pretty well, until the 3x3 and 2x2 days, very tough.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Maybe the easy days were meant for you to reduce the volume so that you can recover from the hard days.[/quote]
i agree