Russian Squat Routine Variation

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hey guys. I want to get my legs stronger, so I was looking at the RSR. the only thing is that i dont really want to go almost 2 months with out front squatting.

Sooo… i was thinking that instead of doing the RSR in 6 weeks, do instead take 9 weeks and only back squat on monday and friday, and have a wednesday session that has front squats for moderate triples. This would be kinda a recovery workout and would let me practice my front squat form

so basically 2 heavy back squat and 1 medium front squat/week (i also usually do some LIGHT split squats for high reps on Saturday to keep my knee healthy)

Sound like a good plan to you guys?

2

The Russian Masters Squat Routine has you only squatting 2x weekly so I think your idea is fine

3

The problem with not doing a routine properly/ fully is that you are diluting the quality and complete structure of it.

It’s your basic 80% x 2reps x 6sets then the increase 1rep per set for all 6sets.

What is your recent 1RM BS and your 1RM FS?

You are an experienced lifter and you won’t miss anything not doing your FS. I added 187 to 201 on to my BS (videos in my youtube from 187 x2reps x 2sets). I added 160 to 170 on to my FS as well.

Lifting took a huge back seat in the 6 weeks when I did the RSR. Looking back I’d probably just hammer triples without all of the work. Have a go and see what you get out of it :slight_smile:

I really didn’t like the 5x6 or the 6x6! They were horrible…

Koing

4

i really dont know what my RECENT best are, me bests ever are 190/157.5 right now im a little lighter so maybe 180/152.5?

5

[quote]Koing wrote:
The problem with not doing a routine properly/ fully is that you are diluting the quality and complete structure of it.

[/quote]

This. Why not just take six weeks to do the whole routine as it’s written and see what you get out of it. Experience is a pretty good teacher in this case…IMO

6

Thanks for the input everyone

but i have decided to simply run the same program that gave me the most results in the classic lifts (probably the program that involves the lease squatting i have ever done). the only difference is that usually we base our squat weights off of our best clean and jerk, but this time i will base my squat weights off of my best back and front squats. In order to make sure i can still recover well, I will only train 5/week instead of 7 so the 4 week program will take 5.

I think that will work well for me and still allow me to focus most of my effort on the classic lifts while keeping the squatting fairly lowish volume/week, but with much more intensity. and bringing the frequency down to 5/week will help me avoid too much stress as im in school and have 2 part-time jobs.

7

your plan sounds like it would work but it would take away the spirit of the RSR. if you really don’t want to give up the front squat you can always add it in for a couple of sets during your warm up before you get to the work sets

8

Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing

9

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.

10

Just do the RSR. If you want, on the light days in the beginning go for some front squats after back squatting. Thats what I did. By the end I was able to test my Oly lifts too.

11

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.
[/quote]

Has your FS improved in the last 1.5yrs? What do you put your lack of gains to? How has your bw changed?

I’d personally train less and hammer up the FS 2x a week. If you’ve been doing 5-6x a week for 1.5yrs and not made gains you have to identify what you were doing and why you haven’t made gains. If you have legimate issues like an injury that is different and eats in to your training time. I was also really bad and made zero gains from 2007 to 2009 as well due to weight cut and not pushing my FS up…sick :frowning:

Now I take a more proactive approach in seeing the past 4-6 weeks and see why I haven’t increased my lifts.

Koing

12

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.
[/quote]

Has your FS improved in the last 1.5yrs? What do you put your lack of gains to? How has your bw changed?

I’d personally train less and hammer up the FS 2x a week. If you’ve been doing 5-6x a week for 1.5yrs and not made gains you have to identify what you were doing and why you haven’t made gains. If you have legimate issues like an injury that is different and eats in to your training time. I was also really bad and made zero gains from 2007 to 2009 as well due to weight cut and not pushing my FS up…sick :frowning:

Now I take a more proactive approach in seeing the past 4-6 weeks and see why I haven’t increased my lifts.

Koing[/quote]

there are a few reasons imo why i have not improved very much, first off was training un-intellegently and letting the classic lifts take a back seat to the squatting.

Injuries to the knees have also slowed my progress where as the first 3 years that i lifted i was almost pain/injury free. (as you all know, constant pain wears on the mind after a while)

the third is outside stress, such as school, work, family troubles (but nearly EVERYONE has that).

and finally, and probably the deepest reason imo, is that my coach simply put WAY too much pressure on me way too early in my lifting. He would say things like, “you can total 370-400 in the 105s” or “you can be a 2 time olympian”. I believed him because I knew absolutely nothing about weightlifting at the time. But honestly, i have long legs, my bone structure is average in size at best and even though im very fast i just don’t think i was one of those guys who was born to be VERY strong. So basically that’s why i would train 6-8 times/week and give up on having fun with my friends etc… because it was drilled in to my head that i could do something that NO ONE in the history of my country have ever done despite having only slightly above genetics starting relatively late in lift (17) and a relatively poor training situation (no steady training partners etc…).

In reality, I kinda want to quit because I know Its impossible to reach the goals that I had set, and im the kind of person that’s all or none. I don’t think I could do Weightlifting just for fun.

Sorry for the long response, but its nice to get that off my chest, even if its to a bunch of strangers.

13

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.
[/quote]

Has your FS improved in the last 1.5yrs? What do you put your lack of gains to? How has your bw changed?

I’d personally train less and hammer up the FS 2x a week. If you’ve been doing 5-6x a week for 1.5yrs and not made gains you have to identify what you were doing and why you haven’t made gains. If you have legimate issues like an injury that is different and eats in to your training time. I was also really bad and made zero gains from 2007 to 2009 as well due to weight cut and not pushing my FS up…sick :frowning:

Now I take a more proactive approach in seeing the past 4-6 weeks and see why I haven’t increased my lifts.

Koing[/quote]

there are a few reasons imo why i have not improved very much, first off was training un-intellegently and letting the classic lifts take a back seat to the squatting.

Injuries to the knees have also slowed my progress where as the first 3 years that i lifted i was almost pain/injury free. (as you all know, constant pain wears on the mind after a while)

the third is outside stress, such as school, work, family troubles (but nearly EVERYONE has that).

and finally, and probably the deepest reason imo, is that my coach simply put WAY too much pressure on me way too early in my lifting. He would say things like, “you can total 370-400 in the 105s” or “you can be a 2 time olympian”. I believed him because I knew absolutely nothing about weightlifting at the time. But honestly, i have long legs, my bone structure is average in size at best and even though im very fast i just don’t think i was one of those guys who was born to be VERY strong. So basically that’s why i would train 6-8 times/week and give up on having fun with my friends etc… because it was drilled in to my head that i could do something that NO ONE in the history of my country have ever done despite having only slightly above genetics starting relatively late in lift (17) and a relatively poor training situation (no steady training partners etc…).

In reality, I kinda want to quit because I know Its impossible to reach the goals that I had set, and im the kind of person that’s all or none. I don’t think I could do Weightlifting just for fun.

Sorry for the long response, but its nice to get that off my chest, even if its to a bunch of strangers.[/quote]

It’s cool to read man. Better then most of the BS fluff on the weightlifting arounds about mindless people on random BS stuff mate.

Your post was an interesting read.

I say reach for the stars and get to the moon. Do you think you would have trained so hard if he didn’t push you? How many guys can do what you can do? It takes years to do.

You don’t have any training partners? I thought you lifted at a club?

Don’t give up mate. You may not be an 2x Olympic Gold Medalist but I bet you can get to Pan Ams :slight_smile: and be a Canadian Champ :slight_smile:

Koing

14

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.
[/quote]

Has your FS improved in the last 1.5yrs? What do you put your lack of gains to? How has your bw changed?

I’d personally train less and hammer up the FS 2x a week. If you’ve been doing 5-6x a week for 1.5yrs and not made gains you have to identify what you were doing and why you haven’t made gains. If you have legimate issues like an injury that is different and eats in to your training time. I was also really bad and made zero gains from 2007 to 2009 as well due to weight cut and not pushing my FS up…sick :frowning:

Now I take a more proactive approach in seeing the past 4-6 weeks and see why I haven’t increased my lifts.

Koing[/quote]

there are a few reasons imo why i have not improved very much, first off was training un-intellegently and letting the classic lifts take a back seat to the squatting.

Injuries to the knees have also slowed my progress where as the first 3 years that i lifted i was almost pain/injury free. (as you all know, constant pain wears on the mind after a while)

the third is outside stress, such as school, work, family troubles (but nearly EVERYONE has that).

and finally, and probably the deepest reason imo, is that my coach simply put WAY too much pressure on me way too early in my lifting. He would say things like, “you can total 370-400 in the 105s” or “you can be a 2 time olympian”. I believed him because I knew absolutely nothing about weightlifting at the time. But honestly, i have long legs, my bone structure is average in size at best and even though im very fast i just don’t think i was one of those guys who was born to be VERY strong. So basically that’s why i would train 6-8 times/week and give up on having fun with my friends etc… because it was drilled in to my head that i could do something that NO ONE in the history of my country have ever done despite having only slightly above genetics starting relatively late in lift (17) and a relatively poor training situation (no steady training partners etc…).

In reality, I kinda want to quit because I know Its impossible to reach the goals that I had set, and im the kind of person that’s all or none. I don’t think I could do Weightlifting just for fun.

Sorry for the long response, but its nice to get that off my chest, even if its to a bunch of strangers.[/quote]

It’s cool to read man. Better then most of the BS fluff on the weightlifting arounds about mindless people on random BS stuff mate.

Your post was an interesting read.

I say reach for the stars and get to the moon. Do you think you would have trained so hard if he didn’t push you? How many guys can do what you can do? It takes years to do.

You don’t have any training partners? I thought you lifted at a club?

Don’t give up mate. You may not be an 2x Olympic Gold Medalist but I bet you can get to Pan Ams :slight_smile: and be a Canadian Champ :slight_smile:

Koing[/quote]

hard to say if i would have trained as hard, but i know that same pressure was put on 3-4 other lifters over the years, and 3 of them are out of weightlifting completely and the other has moved to the usa to peruse his education and train at LSU. He says he is much happier then he ever was under my coach because the pressure is so much less.

ill have to think, but honestly, I would need to put some where between 60-70kgs on my total to be national champion and go to pan-ams, and that’s without going up a weight-class, and im pushing 23 and have done fuck all with me life besides weightlifting and get a degree. I just dont think its meant to be, but at least i can look back and say, for 5 straight years i did nothing but weightlifting and give it everything i had 5-9 times/week.

who knows, maybe in a month, or a year or something ill come back to it, but i just cant lift to only be above average. Maybe that makes me weak…

15

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:

[quote]tork94 wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:
Still only train 5x a week?

Do you intend to squat or after the lifts?

Where do you feel you fail your lifts? Lack of leg strength or?

I think I remember seeing you lift and remember you putting in some solid numbers overall.

Koing[/quote]

i have trained anywhere from 5-7 times/week usually, 6 has probably been my average over the last several years.

i could work on my positions, but my legs are almost always weaker then almost all of my immediate competition and i have had MANY people tell me that my technique is very good, but i need to get my legs stronger.

my best lifts in competition are 120/142.

i have snatched 122.5 from the blocks (with straps) and have cleaned 145 and jerked 145 from the rack before.

i have made almost zero progress over the last 1.5 years.
[/quote]

Has your FS improved in the last 1.5yrs? What do you put your lack of gains to? How has your bw changed?

I’d personally train less and hammer up the FS 2x a week. If you’ve been doing 5-6x a week for 1.5yrs and not made gains you have to identify what you were doing and why you haven’t made gains. If you have legimate issues like an injury that is different and eats in to your training time. I was also really bad and made zero gains from 2007 to 2009 as well due to weight cut and not pushing my FS up…sick :frowning:

Now I take a more proactive approach in seeing the past 4-6 weeks and see why I haven’t increased my lifts.

Koing[/quote]

there are a few reasons imo why i have not improved very much, first off was training un-intellegently and letting the classic lifts take a back seat to the squatting.

Injuries to the knees have also slowed my progress where as the first 3 years that i lifted i was almost pain/injury free. (as you all know, constant pain wears on the mind after a while)

the third is outside stress, such as school, work, family troubles (but nearly EVERYONE has that).

and finally, and probably the deepest reason imo, is that my coach simply put WAY too much pressure on me way too early in my lifting. He would say things like, “you can total 370-400 in the 105s” or “you can be a 2 time olympian”. I believed him because I knew absolutely nothing about weightlifting at the time. But honestly, i have long legs, my bone structure is average in size at best and even though im very fast i just don’t think i was one of those guys who was born to be VERY strong. So basically that’s why i would train 6-8 times/week and give up on having fun with my friends etc… because it was drilled in to my head that i could do something that NO ONE in the history of my country have ever done despite having only slightly above genetics starting relatively late in lift (17) and a relatively poor training situation (no steady training partners etc…).

In reality, I kinda want to quit because I know Its impossible to reach the goals that I had set, and im the kind of person that’s all or none. I don’t think I could do Weightlifting just for fun.

Sorry for the long response, but its nice to get that off my chest, even if its to a bunch of strangers.[/quote]

It’s cool to read man. Better then most of the BS fluff on the weightlifting arounds about mindless people on random BS stuff mate.

Your post was an interesting read.

I say reach for the stars and get to the moon. Do you think you would have trained so hard if he didn’t push you? How many guys can do what you can do? It takes years to do.

You don’t have any training partners? I thought you lifted at a club?

Don’t give up mate. You may not be an 2x Olympic Gold Medalist but I bet you can get to Pan Ams :slight_smile: and be a Canadian Champ :slight_smile:

Koing[/quote]

hard to say if i would have trained as hard, but i know that same pressure was put on 3-4 other lifters over the years, and 3 of them are out of weightlifting completely and the other has moved to the usa to peruse his education and train at LSU. He says he is much happier then he ever was under my coach because the pressure is so much less.

ill have to think, but honestly, I would need to put some where between 60-70kgs on my total to be national champion and go to pan-ams, and that’s without going up a weight-class, and im pushing 23 and have done fuck all with me life besides weightlifting and get a degree. I just dont think its meant to be, but at least i can look back and say, for 5 straight years i did nothing but weightlifting and give it everything i had 5-9 times/week.

who knows, maybe in a month, or a year or something ill come back to it, but i just cant lift to only be above average. Maybe that makes me weak… [/quote]

Tork buddy dont give it up. i am 23 and started weightlifting. i am currently 70kg and totals dont even add upto 200kg. but i still train everyday. Atleast u r lucky u got a coach at some point in your life. there is only five lifters in this newfoundland. no coach or whatsover

16

tork, why did you start lifting in the first place? Surely your coach didn’t pass you in a mall or something, stop you and say ‘you can be an olympic champ’ lol.

take it back to the fundamentals, the roots of why you started. that’s my advice.

17

[quote]1llusion wrote:
tork, why did you start lifting in the first place? Surely your coach didn’t pass you in a mall or something, stop you and say ‘you can be an olympic champ’ lol.

take it back to the fundamentals, the roots of why you started. that’s my advice.[/quote]

I came from being a football player.

I honestly think he lied to me (and others) because he was new to the country and he wanted to get some talented young lifters. I don’t for a second think he would be arrogant enough to believe that myself (and the others he lied to) could total 400. the closest any of his lifters (in Canada ever got was 320, and he was truly gifted genetically (THICK bones/joints, short levers, naturally VERY lean, explosive etc…)

18

[quote]tork94 wrote:
hard to say if i would have trained as hard, but i know that same pressure was put on 3-4 other lifters over the years, and 3 of them are out of weightlifting completely and the other has moved to the usa to peruse his education and train at LSU. He says he is much happier then he ever was under my coach because the pressure is so much less.

ill have to think, but honestly, I would need to put some where between 60-70kgs on my total to be national champion and go to pan-ams, and that’s without going up a weight-class, and im pushing 23 and have done fuck all with me life besides weightlifting and get a degree. I just dont think its meant to be, but at least i can look back and say, for 5 straight years i did nothing but weightlifting and give it everything i had 5-9 times/week.

who knows, maybe in a month, or a year or something ill come back to it, but i just cant lift to only be above average. Maybe that makes me weak… [/quote]

I see mate. My lifted as it was fun and my coach just coached. No real pressures, just training. It was only after about 4yrs training I had a goal to make Nationals.

You are still young and you can do whatever you want to do with your life. I’m 29 at the end of the year. I have about 3-6yrs tops at the best of my training left, that is scary man!

Aim for 300 and take it from there.

But hey, at least you know how to lift :slight_smile:

I remember reading a post from some guy a few years back. He said he had good technique etc, but his issue was he was just WEAK. He had good technique but he wasn’t very strong. I don’t think he could FS more than 160? Being strong is such a huge function of being a very good lifter. At the upper levels your technique is set and it won’t change much. If you aren’t freak show Hysen fast after 2000hrs (8hrs a week for 5yrs) you won’t be much faster after another 3-5yrs training.

Koing

19

I did the RSR with front instead of back squats. Couldn’t complete the 3x3 but do think I profited from the program in other ways. It is hard, though. Serves me right for plugging in my true training max I learned in hindsight.