Skip to main content

New article: "From Russia with Strength and Power"

     I have a new article out.  It was posted yesterday on Mike Mahler's website.  (Mahler, by the way, is a heck of a strength coach.  If you haven't checked out his website, you need to.  If you like the stuff you see here, you'll definitely like what he has to offer.)
     The article focuses on the training methods—powerlifting, mostly—employed by a lot of Russian lifters, and lifters from other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet empire.
     Here is how the article begins:

     For years, the countries of Russia and others from the former Soviet Republic have dominated international powerlifting and Olympic lifting competitions.  And for years, there has also been an aura of mystique surrounding the methods they use to produce such phenomenal athletes, not to mention a lot of misconceptions about those methods.

     In this article, I’m going to clear up those misconceptions by laying out the methods they utilize, plus I’m going to outline a couple of routines based on these methods.  In fact, I think many lifters (including bodybuilders) in the Western world would achieve better results by incorporating these routines at least part of the year.  (These routines are also excellent for any MMA fighters that might reading this, as these workouts build a lot of strength and power—functional muscle mass, not just bulk.)

      I hope that whets your appetite.  To read the rest of the article, just go to www.mikemahler.com.

Comments

  1. I've read the article and I am wondering what the progression over the weeks should be in rep ranges and loads? Should it be conjugated like Sheiko does? Or linear? Do you have a sample 5 week program?

    ReplyDelete
  2. CS, do you still think this is a viable program? IF so, any changes to be made?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Short answer: Yes
      Long Answer: I do think this is still a viable program - in fact, ANY program worth its weight should still be good no matter when it was written! Keep in mind, however, that the program that I included in this article is just an example, and it WOULD need to be modified as the weeks progressed. But the 6 "methods" that I list are not only still "viable" but their viability may be even greater these days with more and more "regular lifters" doing "functional" strength training.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave us some feedback on the article or any topics you would like us to cover in the future! Much Appreciated!

Popular posts from this blog

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

My Son’s High-Volume, High-Frequency Training

High-Volume, High-Frequency Training and Realistic Muscle-Building for the Natural Bodybuilder      This article, I will admit, is in many ways nothing more than an excuse to show off my youngest son Garrett’s physique as seen above.  But since I have a good feeling that he has exactly the kind of body that most men would love to acquire, I also want to discuss his training philosophy and some lessons that you can learn from it.      First, however, let’s discuss the 3 training variables of volume, frequency, and intensity.  If you’re familiar with my point-of-view, you can skip ahead to the next paragraph.  If you’re not, then pay attention!  In order to get results out of resistance training, no matter your goals, you must properly balance and manipulate the 3 training variables of volume, frequency, and intensity.  Two of the variables need to be high (or one high and the other moderate) and the remaining v...

Singles

Some Thoughts on Single-Rep Training for Strength, Power, and Muscle Size       “Many dinosaurs do heavy singles.  Why?  Because they have discovered that for many men, singles build more muscle and strength than sets of multiple repetitions.  Yeah, I KNOW that singles are contrary to modern wisdom and conventional training protocols.  I KNOW that all of the modern experts say that single reps are dangerous and non-productive.  I KNOW that all of the modern ‘champs’ say to train with light weights and concentrate on ‘feeling’ the muscles.  I KNOW that everyone at the House of Chrome and Ferns never does a single rep on anything.  And I KNOW that we have all kinds of wonderful ‘scientific’ training systems that regard heavy singles as worthless, dangerous, insane, and ridiculously old fashioned.      “The experts are WRONG when they say singles don’t work.  For many men, singles build muscle and st...