Off-season? Volume and Frequency are your friends!

I am a middle level lifter. I am coming back from some nasty patella tendon partial tear a year ago. That means I have many months of off-season ahead.

Therefore volume and frequency are my friends. I strongly believe offseason intensities should be 60% - 85% (thank you Boris Sheiko for figuring this out decades ago so that I don't have to today :-)

If you are strong with 5x2 @ 85% and you are pushing the weight, then, as well, your 1RM is way up without killing your CNS with 1RM testing.


Today I did:

squat: 5x5 with 65%
bench press: 6x5 with 60%
Romanian DL: 6x5 with 60%


Try it, it's a pretty cool training. Lots of volume, great for muscle mass building as well and great for motor learning skills. Repeat two days later. Or modify. Or whatever.

Below is a picture perfect sumo setup by Malanichev. How he got so perfect? Hypers and glute ham raises? Nope. Tens of thousands of sumo reps. Yep, it's that simple.

Fuck assistance work ... it's only assistance

Again and again, I am amazed when I read training logs with sentences like: "... I felt not alright today so only did some light assistance work for deadlift".

Or: "I had a terrible week, so I decided to skip squats and did some light leg press, ham curls and leg extensions to get the blood flowing".

I can understand the reasoning. We do not live in an ideal world where you have perfect nutrition, zero stress and sleep 8 hours every single day. There are days/weeks with lots of stress, lack of sleep, tons of family or work responsibilities, blah, blah. You get mad, tired, stressed.


I just had such a week. But instead of cutting out the powerlifts and doing the fluff stuff, what I usually do is I lower the planned % by 5-10% and do ONLY the main lifts cutting out the fluff stuff altogether.

I had a pretty shitty week and yesterdays training called for 5x5 sumo, 6x8 floor press, high-rep heavy KB swings and then high volume ab work. I got to the gym late and had only 50 mins to train, so I did the 5x5 sumo and 6x8 floor press and left. That's it. I still hit the powerlifts, entire body got worked (legs, hams, lower back, upper back, pecs, delts, triceps) and I practiced the powelifts.

Powerlifts improve your competition technique. Assistance exercises don't.
Powerlifts improve your motor learning skills. Assistance exercises don't.
Powerlifts work your body as one coordinated unit. Assistance exercises don't.

I think people really overrate the fluff stuff. Assistance exercises like ham curls, ab work, lat work, shoulder raises, face pulls, etc should: A/ work neglected body muscles for better balance, B/ help with rehab around big joints, C/ flush some blood. That's it.

Just finished heavy 5x5 on sumos? Don't know if afterwards you should do 4x12 leg curls or 3x20 KB swing or 5x10 hypers? Guess what, it does not matter because you just did your 90% work, the 5x5 on sumos. Got to the gym late and have only 35 mins? Good. Do 6x5 heavy front squat and go home. Are you a gym rat and got 3 full hours on Saturday afternoon? Good, do 5x5 back squat, 6x8 bench press, 4x4 back squat again and 4x5 Romanian deadlift. If you are not dead after this, finish with 3x20 ab work. No need for 6 assistance exercises.

Do the right stuff, not the fluff stuff ;-)

I have a friend who is around 45 and is a former competitive Oly lifter. He told me once: "There are days when I come to the gym and feel like not doing anything. So I squat and go home".

Eastern Bloc powerlifting for a busy guy ...

You are anywhere between 25-45 years old.
You work 50-60 hours a week. Possibly you have 2 jobs.
You study or take extra classes after work.
You have kids.
You have shitload of responsibilities and errands you have to do each week.
You love lifting and you love to be strong and huge.


Hmmm, but you cannot make it to the gym 4 times a week ... What to do now? How can you have a productive powerlifting program and fit everything in one week with so little time for training?




There is a good news. You can get ridiculously strong and big on training only twice a week. Yep, only twice a week. However, you must follow some rules:

1/ Frequency is still your friend. Yes, you still can hit each powerlift twice a week.
2/ Prioritize. Missing a squat session is bad. Missing face pulls is not. It does not matter.
3/ No TV. No bullshitting in the gym. No excuses. Seriously. In and out, tough session.
4/ Your training will be 90% powerlifts and their variations. No fluffy shit. Fuck you, if you find time to do 3 sets of 12 reps of concentration curls, then you can find time to lift 3-4 times a week.
5/ Compound exercises are your friend. leg press+leg extensions? No, front squats. pressdowns for triceps+cable flys for pecs? No, close-grip bench press.




You can go the Sheiko type "sandwich" sessions where you hit the powelift twice during one session. No, it's not too much because you lift only twice a week.


Your template (around mid-cycle) could look like this:

Monday:
- squat: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- squat: 4 sets of 4 with 70%
- assistance

Thursday:
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- deadlift: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 5 sets of 5 with 65%
- assistance


You just had 2 squat sessions, 3 bench press sessions, 1 deadlift session.


Or, if you like little more variations of the powerlifts, you could do:

Monday:
- squat: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- Romanian deadlift: 6 sets of 5 with 60%
- assistance

Thursday:
- deadlift: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 5 sets of 5 with 65%
- front squat: 4 sets of 4 with 70%
- assistance


Now you hit during your week: squat twice, bench press twice, pull twice.


For your assitance do 1-4 exercises but adjust the volume. Do not do too much otwerwise it might take away from the powerlifts. Remember, the powelifts sets is 90% of your work. The assitance is just for local muscle hypertrophy and rehab. 4 heavy sets of front squats give you bigger quads than million sets of leg extensions. If you do one exercise, do bigger volume, like 6 sets of 8 of 5 sets of 10. If you do 2-4 exercises, do only 1-2 sets per exercise. Do exercises which add the powelifts, such as: DB flat press, overhead press, barbell rows, DB rows, KB swing, heavy ab work, hypers, low cable rows, dips, chins, hammer curls. No, you can't do concentration curls and kickbacks.

Assistance work might look like this:

heavy barbell rows: 6 sets of 8

Or like this:

medium-heavy low cable rows: 2 sets of 15
KB swing: 2 sets of 20
seated DB press: 2 set of 8
hanging leg raises: 2 sets of 20


Twice a week is enough if you focus on frequency, proper programming and compound lifts.

Go heavy.

My programming ...

To prove that I don't preach water and drink wine, here is my current routine. More or less, with some minor modifications, I've been running such program for past few years with very good results.

Here we go ...



Day 1 (usually Tuesday):

sumo deadlift: programming
floor press: 6 sets of 8
KB swing: 2 sets of 30
leg raises: 4 sets of 20



Day 2 (usually Thursday):

squat: programming
bench press: 6 sets of 5 with 60%
barbell rows: 6 sets of 8 OR dumbell rows: 2 sets of 20 OR Romanian deadlift: 6 sets of 5 with 60%



Day 3 (usually Saturday or Sunday):

bench press: programming
standing overhead press: 6 sets of 8
front squat: 4 sets of 4
shrugs: 5 sets of 5 heavy OR low cable rows: 2 sets of 20



... some notes to the structure and why I choose such lifts: You can notice that the whole program is built around the powerlifts and other heavy compound assistance lifts like overhead pressing, front squat, heavy rows and such. I really think you don't need lots of fluffy exercises for isolation. This way I squat twice a week, bench three times a week (floor press is very similar to flat bench) and pull once or twice a week. This gives me enough practice and form check. Frequency builds confidence, muscle mass and improves motor learning skills.

On the first day I start with heavy sumo. I work the same weight for multiple sets to get in some serious work volume. Typical cycle for all powerlifts looks like this: 6x5@60%, 5x5@65%, 5x4@70%, 4x4@75%, 6x3@80%, 5x2@85%. Then I repeat the cycle with increased maxes or I max out to test my strength and adjust. I might do a deload week after 3-4 weeks. But mostly I don't. After the sumo pulls, I do high volume floor pressing for front delts, pecs and triceps. I think medium grip floor press is one of the best lifts you can do for triceps mass and strength and I highly recommend it. Then some high volume high reps of KB swings with the 24k (53lbs) KB, the best assistance move for the hip hinge and glute and hams mass. Finally some ab work and I am done.

The second day starts with heavy squats. This day has only three lifts because I am pretty fucked up after squats. Personally, the worst week for me is the 6 sets of 3 with 80%. After squatting, I am on to some high volume benching with 60%. I strongly believe, at least for me, high volume benching with high frequency (3 times a week and maybe more) is the key to big bench and upper body mass. I focus on perfect form here and try to improve my groove all the time. I finish the session with some pretty heavy back work, either 6 sets of 8 of some heavy barbell rows or 2 sets of 20 with a heavy dumbbell. Typically, I use 50k-60k (110lbs-132lbs) dumbbell, depending on how I feel that day. Every other week or so I do 6 sets of 5 of Romanian deadlift which is one of the best assitance lifts you can do because it hits everything from upper back, lats to lower back, glutes and hams. Do them heavy and often and watch your regular pull skyrocket. Probably the No.1 exercise for the whole posterior chain.

The last training session of the week starts with heavy benching according to my programming so every week is different. I follow with some medium weight high volume overhead pressing. I focus on strong lockout and scapular movement. I believe strong shoulder pressing gives a strong bench. Period. At this point my upper body is pretty much destroyed and I move to front squats. Front squats should be obligatory in any gym. They hit the quads like nothing else, improve back squat form, improve knee traction and hit glutes, abs and upper back. Hardly you can find a better lower body assistance lift. Go low reps and go heavy. I typically do 4 sets of 4 with the same weight. I am usually fucked up at this point. Yet, I often do heavy shrugs 5 sets of 5 for some serious trap mass or I might do low cable rows with high reps for scapular retraction and shoulder balance.

On off days I might do some light shoulder raises and light biceps or I just rest. Frequently I do some mobility drills on off days.

Sometimes I replace some of the assitance exercise with something else but never the main lifts. I believe one can play with frequency, number of training days per week, sets, reps but the bread and butter lifts should stay the same: back squat, front squat, heavy pulls, Romanian deadlifts, benching, some floor pressing or inclines or heavy dumbbells, then some overhead pressing and lots of back work and abs. That's pretty much it. No need for anything else. Really.


Train hard and good luck!

Mobility and Injuries Prevention

I read the following post on one of the lifting forums and I think it's fucking awesome. As always Dan Green nails it:

Q: Champ, how do u manage aches, pains and injuries?

Dan Green: The biggest thing is proper technique to get results while minimizing the mileage you put on your body. Proper mechanics require certain body parts to be very strong and stable while others need to be very mobile. The body works such that every other joint should be mobile and has a neighboring joint that should be stable, but if one breaks that law then the neighbor joint can become badly abused. Starting at the feet, your ankles should be mobile and your knees stable. If your ankle is stiff your knees will overload when squatting. Your hips should be mobile and your lumbar spine should be stabilized. If your tight hamstrings restrict hip mobility then you overload your spine. Your upper spine should be very mobile, and if it isn't then your scaps--which work in sync with your upper spine and should also be highly mobile--will be restricted and cause your shoulder sockets to be hypermobile where they need lots of stability. Your elbows should be stable and wrists mobile... Any one of these being off will cause massive limitations.

If you address these things your problems will be very manageable. Even when you do hurt yourself, you'll still have the mechanics to lift properly so you can train through most injuries... It is simple and complicated at the same time... just like weight lifting!

Source: animalpak.com/forum with Dan Green posts