I would like to know what questions anyone would like outlined in a FAQ concerning Sheiko.
Ask away, but please read what others ask first. I want to keep this as concise as possible…
how long do your workouts last? does it vary by day? mine are 1.5 to 2.5 hours
This sounds stupid, and is an embarrassing question, but is fully serious. How do you pronounce “Sheiko” is it like Shakeoh or ShEEkoh, or something else I am not thinking of? I don’t like not being able to tell people out loud the name of my training cycle.
What SPP exercises for which “problems” in the lift…
Keep the questions coming.
I’ll assemble everything with answers and you guys can look it over and let me know what you think b
On pronunciation: Pavel Tsatsouline has spelled it “Sheyko,” so I suppose the first syllable is “shake.”
EDIT: I apologize, I failed to comprehend that the thread is questions only. But I cannot delete the post.
Sch-I-ko, I like when you say I…
When to choose which routine and how to put them together.
Since the thread hasn’t move in any direction in a bit…
Workout Length:
Most workouts, from what I’ve read, as well as having experienced myself, takes about 2h to 2.5h. Depending on the amount of gear you’re working with, it can be extended to 3h, especially if you’re benching w/ gear and squatting with gear in the same workout.
Sheiko is pronounced “SHAY-KOH”
SPP = Specific something something? lol, I’m assuming some sort of specific exercise you mean?
I’d say for this part of the routine, do not, I cannot stress this enough, think that because Boris Sheiko or Eric @ EFS says something, it’s law. If you are going to progress, you have to make the routine work for you. This means a few things:
- Take the routine, figure out how much time you actually have to train and see what you need and what you want to do. These are two different things. This lends itself to two different subcategories:
a. You might not have time for 2.5h workouts. I know most people don’t. You can split up the routine to do part of it this day, part the next. Its difficult, but can be done. BE CREATIVE.
b. I’ll take a key point from Louie Simmons. Work on what you hate to do, what you need to work on strength or technique wise. Doing things you enjoy will not get you stronger. If you hate GMs and are weak on them, do them and you’ll probably see some increase in your lifts. DON’T BE LAZY.
- Figuring out what types of exercises to choose lends itself to point b I just made. Do what you need to do, not what you want. Its obvious that if you only bench and don’t do heavy rows b/c you suck at them or don’t focus on correct set up on the bench, etc b/c you hate it, you are NOT going to excel past a certain point.
I’ll take a page from Ed Coan and comment more so on what exercises you “need.”
If you are looking for specific exercises that’ll help your squat bench or deadlift, look at what exercises hit the muscles you’re working and do a lot of reading. Some people are quad squatters like Capt Kirk and can have a more “knees forward” quad dominant squat with a higher bar position where as a lot of people have been told to sit the bar low, squat wide, etc. This technique might not work for your body type. If you can utilize your hips & back in the squat, excellent. If you’re more quad dominant, focus on lifts that help THAT squat form. While you should still do hamstring work if you’re quad dominant, there’s things that’ll simply work for some that won’t work for others. Being lazy and trying to read about what will help and simply applying things you read that won’t work. While you have to add things to your routine, you have to experiment and actually figure out on your own what stimulates your strength to increase in the best way. This can range from the type of exercise and variation of it, to amount of weight used, the loading scheme and focus on volume or max weight, just to name a few things.
In terms of choosing a routine:
I picked on routine and simply altered it over time, working with the original for 3 or 4 cycles to ensure had I enough experience to know what needed to be changed to improve my lifts. I have never been a fan of jumping from routine to routine.
As for EFS’s routines, I’ve only glanced them over. I do not know how different most of them are. I would assume that if there’s 5 or 6 versions, they can’t be that different, just lifting on different days and variations of exercises, right? This is necessary no matter what routine you are using.
As for how to string them together, that is determined by how long you’ve been lifting. By that, I mean, for myself, I used to be able to string routines together to where each cycle followed the last. Now I take off an entire week before each cycle which is only 4 weeks. If you can run sheiko cycle after cycle with no breaks, you’re a monster, but at least do some deload when you need it. Listen to your body, you know it better than anyone else. People push too hard and are too hard headed, and end up injured, burned out or both. Half of the training revolves around recovery, so plan accordingly.
I honestly believe that this routine can be altered to such a degree that is doesn’t entirely look like sheiko, as long as the loading principles are retained. While I agree that doing two meet lifts in a workout is excellent meet prep, not everyone can do this, and if you look at other routines, its not the ONLY way to train, but its a nice addition to the training itself.
Synthetic, you are missing my question.
The second round of for example squat is meant to be a SPP exercise. Lets say your knees cave in - you have weak glutes, then you will be doing low box sauats to bring up glute strength. Maybe military press for bench id bottom is weak, all these things, then if you could adress exercises for special “problems”.
is there a specific problem you’relooking to address?
Jonatan… i already did answer your question. Read what I said.
You have to figure out what works for you. You can read about exercise to use to fix whatever problem you have, and then incorporate it.
I don’t really understand the point of your question since that’s not sheiko specific. That applies to all routines…
Actually, there should be a sticky discussing what exercises to use to help with which problems, but then again, they don’t apply to everyone, lol.
(taken from a post on BMF):
Boris Sheiko’s List of SPP:
SQUAT
SUPPLEMENTAL
Pause Sq
Box Sq
Fr Box Sq
DE Sq
Slow Sq
Front Sq
Wide Front Sq
DEVELOPMENTAL
Zercher Lunge
Front Lunge
Hack Lunge
Duck Foot Sq
Negative Sq
Belt Sq
Sq Lockouts
Crouch Sq ?
Sq with Chains
Smith Machine Sq
Leg Press
Leg Extension
Ham Curls
Sq Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Jumps
Calf Raises
Snatch Grip High Pulls
Snatch Grip High Pulls from Boxes
Seated High Pulls ?
Hyperextensions/Weighted in various ways
Seated GM
BENCH
SUPPLEMENTAL
Wide Grip High-touch Bench
Medium Grip Bench
Close Grip Bench
Bench over Foam (arch)
Flat Back Bench
Slow Bench
3-5 sec Pause Bench
Rvs Grip Bench
DE Bench
Negatives
Lockouts
Bench with Chains
DEVELOPMENTAL
Incline Bench (high touch)
Decline Bench (low touch)
Incline OHP
OHP
Behind-the-neck Press
Push Press
Seated OHP
Seated Behind-the-neck Press
Alternate DB OHP Standing
Alternate DB OHP Seated
DB Bench
Nosebreakers
Pec Deck
Flyes
Incline Flyes
Weighted Dips
Weighted Pushups
Wide Grip Weighted Pushups
Bench Dips
Pushdowns
Curls
DEADLIFT
SUPPLEMENTAL
Defecit DL
Pulls to Knees
Pause Pulls to Knees
Pulls to Knees + finish
Pulls to Knees + Mid Thigh (2 Stops)
Pulls from Boxes + Slow Eccentric
Pulls from Boxes (BTK)
DL Lockouts
Pulls from High Boxes (ATK)
Snatch Grip Pulls from Boxes
DEVELOPMENTAL
Snatch Grip Pulls
Pulls with Chains
High Pulls
Shrugs
Belt Sqs
Seated Pulls ?
GMâ??s
Stiff Leg GMâ??s
Seated GMâ??s
Hyperextensions/Weighted Hypers
Roman Chair Situp
Decline Situp
Leg Raises
Synthetic, I know a lot of people dont experience gains in strength on bench early on with sheiko, but do for squat and deadlift.
Do you think this is because most people go into the program being already overtrained in bench?
Or do you think maybe the first few cycles will set up future gains as the volume decreases?
What have you changed as far as the bench aspect that has given you the best progress?
What do you think about basing your percentages off goals, instead of current maxes? So if you your current max bench is 315 and your goal is to do 335 at a meet in 16 weeks, you’d start with training around 60-75% of 335, and progress up to 90-95% near meet time?
Lastly, are the basic routines like 29 and 37 designed for RAW lifters or geared lifters or both? And should changes be made for RAW lifters?
I like where you are taking things with sheiko, it would be nice if there were a program sticky in the PL’ing section. It seems like a pretty adaptable routine, and its nice to see some programs that use some old school periodization.
Where and how are you guys adding SPP lifts to the routine? as supplemental exercises? Are you replacing other accessory lifts? on regular training days or off days with maybe gpp training? in a rotation with the main lifts?
If you are using them in place of main lifts, how are you working percentages?
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
Where and how are you guys adding SPP lifts to the routine? as supplemental exercises? Are you replacing other accessory lifts? on regular training days or off days with maybe gpp training? in a rotation with the main lifts?
If you are using them in place of main lifts, how are you working percentages?[/quote]
Doesn’t SPP stand for specific physical preparedness? This is the entire routine.
I think you mean supplemental and accessory, or assistance exercises. I let synthetic answer this, because I dont have any experience with customizing sheiko and adding exercises.
[quote]dankid wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
Where and how are you guys adding SPP lifts to the routine? as supplemental exercises? Are you replacing other accessory lifts? on regular training days or off days with maybe gpp training? in a rotation with the main lifts?
If you are using them in place of main lifts, how are you working percentages?
Doesn’t SPP stand for specific physical preparedness? This is the entire routine.
I think you mean supplemental and accessory, or assistance exercises. I let synthetic answer this, because I dont have any experience with customizing sheiko and adding exercises.[/quote]
I was taking what they were talking about to mean specific lifts to bring up weak points essentially. Which is why you have to customize them to yourself. Notice that the standard lifts are left off that SPP list.
But to avoid semantics, Iâ??m basically asking where and how people are adding in lift variations.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
dankid wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
Where and how are you guys adding SPP lifts to the routine? as supplemental exercises? Are you replacing other accessory lifts? on regular training days or off days with maybe gpp training? in a rotation with the main lifts?
If you are using them in place of main lifts, how are you working percentages?
Doesn’t SPP stand for specific physical preparedness? This is the entire routine.
I think you mean supplemental and accessory, or assistance exercises. I let synthetic answer this, because I dont have any experience with customizing sheiko and adding exercises.
I was taking what they were talking about to mean specific lifts to bring up weak points essentially. Which is why you have to customize them to yourself. Notice that the standard lifts are left off that SPP list.
But to avoid semantics, Iâ??m basically asking where and how people are adding in lift variations.
[/quote]
Let’s say the bottom of your bench sucks, and you’ve experienced, that militarypress help the bottom power of your bench, then you would do the second round of benchpress as military. Were you to do bench press with vhains or something much like bench I’d say, that you could do it for the first round.
Synthetic, as it is a meant to be part of sheiko I’d say. that it is sheiko specific.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
But to avoid semantics, Iâ??m basically asking where and how people are adding in lift variations.
[/quote]
I felt I was weak in the hole on the SQ so each session where it calls for squatting twice on the second time I use pause squats. At the bottom I count one…two and then go back up. I figure it’s slightly over 1 second full pause. I take about 10% off of what’s called for weight. It has made me a lot more comfortable and solid in the hole.
[quote]Seattle_Lifter wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
But to avoid semantics, I�¢??m basically asking where and how people are adding in lift variations.
I felt I was weak in the hole on the SQ so each session where it calls for squatting twice on the second time I use pause squats. At the bottom I count one…two and then go back up. I figure it’s slightly over 1 second full pause. I take about 10% off of what’s called for weight. It has made me a lot more comfortable and solid in the hole.
[/quote]
That is exactly what im doing