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

Basic Training Advice for Full-Body Workouts

Some Thoughts on Programming Design and Proper Technique for Learning the Major Lifts Advice for Beginners or Those New to Full-Body Workouts or Serious Strength Training       Although I have covered the material below in various articles and essays, I wrote the following based on a couple of emails from new lifters that I have received the last few weeks.  If you’re new to full-body workouts or need to get “back to the basics” then pay attention!      When it comes to utilizing full-body workouts, I generally suggest using around 5 “big” compound lifts.  If you’re trying to pack on a lot of muscle—yes, this goes for any aspiring young bodybuilders who might actually be reading this instead of scrolling through mindlessly stupid Tik Tok shorts or YouTube videos that spit out the same information ad nauseam—then this is the route you want to take.  Whole body training isn’t just for strength training or for athletes, tho...

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 ...

Grease-the-Groove Workouts and High-Frequency Training for Mass and Power, Losing Bodyfat, or Just Getting BIG!

An “Easy” High-Frequency Training Program for Plenty of Size and Strength + Some Other Tips and Workouts for Transforming Your Physique      I began training in martial arts more than 40 years ago, when I was around 10 years old.  By the time I was a teenager, it was my life.  (In many ways, it still is.)  I was at the dojo just about every day of the week but I also trained at my home every day.  However, when I was around 16 or 17—I’m not really sure of the exact age; I just remember that I could drive by that point—I only started going to the dojo about once per week.  Sometimes just once every two weeks.  I’m pretty sure that a lot of my fellow karatekas—especially those who had known me for many years—thought I had become lazy or that something was “wrong” with me or that I no longer took my martial training very seriously or even cared about it anymore, for that matter.  But I had a reason for it, though I didn’t really c...