The Three-Day Russian Power Volume Program

 

Gain Size and Strength Using a Modified Russian Powerlifting Program

Question: After reading some of your articles, I’m interested in using a “Russian style” powerlifting program—high volume with sub-maximal effort training—for increasing my powerlifts but also gaining muscle mass.  You wrote that the “problem” with Sheiko training was that you had to stop because you were gaining too much muscle without trying to.  That’s a “problem” I would like to have.  But my question is this: Because of work and other obligations, I have trouble making it to the gym more than 3 days a week.  Can I make significant progress in both size and strength by training just 3 days weekly?  I noticed that there is a 3-day Sheiko program, for example, and I wondered if you would recommend it or if you have another 3-day program that you think would be good instead?

     I received the above question a few days ago from a reader.  After sending him my reply, I realized that it would make for a good article/program all its own.  You see, I don’t believe in chance, randomness, or coincidences.  I believe there is a pattern (Tao/Logos) to reality that binds us together and reflects a profound “Indra’s Net” of interconnectedness.  Whether that all-patterning Reality is impersonal or Personal, I’m not entirely sure, mind you, but to paraphrase Einstein—God doesn’t play dice with the universe.  What does that have to do with the reader’s question, you ask?  Well, here’s the thing.  Just the day before I received it, I was already thinking about writing an article on how to use high-volume, sub-maximal effort training a la the Russian way but with a 3-days-per-week regimen.  So, random question?  Not a chance.  What follows is the kind of program I suggested to him, along with some more “fleshed out” thoughts about how to use this style of training and the reasons that it works.

     The reader is correct in that my “problem” with Sheiko, and similar Russian systems, when I was powerlifting was that it caused me to gain too much muscle.  Despite hardly eating much—I was attempting an early form of intermittent fasting at the time; this was over 20 years ago—I just couldn’t not gain weight.  At the time, I was competing in the 181-pound weight class in various powerlifting organizations.  Before trying my hand at high-volume, high-frequency powerlifting workouts, I never had a problem staying in that weight class.  In fact, most of the time, I didn’t bother dieting or watching what I ate.  As long as I didn’t try to gain weight, then I usually stepped on the scales in the low 170s—never more than 175.  In fact, the only times that I even bothered paying attention to my diet was the couple instances that I competed in the 165-pound class.  But around 2003, I knew I needed to make some changes to my training.  By that point, I had a max squat and deadlift in the mid 500s, but I wanted to get my squat and deadlift over 600.  I tried to continue with Bill Starr-style workouts, but to no avail—or, at least, it didn’t work to the extent I needed because I had reached my “limits” in what the system could provide.  I then tried a few training cycles of Westside Barbell.  With Westside, the lifts I trained went up—box squats, board presses, good mornings, et al—but not so much on my actual three powerlifts; this had something to do, I believe, with the fact that I was a drug-free, raw powerlifter, the opposite of the steroid using, equipped with multiple-ply Westside lifters.  It was at that point that I decided to give Sheiko a go.  And it worked!  Too damn well, in fact.  Before long, I was weighing in the mid 190s.  But it taught me a lot about training.  Before long, I did squat and deadlift over 600 pounds by using some of my own “modified” routines that combined the “best of” Starr, Westside, and the Russians.  But our reader is also correct about another factor.  When I had the “problem” of gaining weight, I wasn’t training just 3 days per week.  I was training on an “advanced” Sheiko program with 4 days per week of training—bench pressing at every session, squatting at two of the workouts and deadlifting at the other two, which meant that I was still training my lower body 4 days a week!  To keep it simple, the regimen looked something like this:

Monday: squats, bench presses, more squats

Tuesday: deadlifts, bench presses, more deadlifts

Thursday: bench presses, squats, more bench presses, (sometime more squats again)

Saturday: bench presses, deadlifts, more bench presses

     Yep, that’s a lot of volume and frequency.  On Monday, for instance, I’d often do 8 to 10 sets of squats, followed by the same for bench presses, and then returned for another 5 sets or so of squats.  Same thing for the other days.

     A few years later, when I hung up my wrist wraps, knee wraps, and powerlifting singlet, I decided to see just how big I could get using high-volume, sub-maximal effort training.  But, again, I didn’t use a 3-day program.  Far from it.  I trained at least 4 days a week.  Sometimes as many as 6.  Most weeks, I settled on a 5-day program.  (For more on what that looked like, check out my last article on Anthony Ditillo, a bodybuilding writer that was hugely influenced by Russian and other East European lifters, particularly his one-time training partner, the Hungarian weightlifter Dezso Ban.)

     So, that leaves us with a few questions that need to be answered based on our reader’s initial question.  Can you make the same, or similar, size gains with just 3 days per week of training?  If so, just what should that program look like?  Should you just follow the 3-day Sheiko plan?  Or would I recommend something else?

     First off, you can most certainly make strength gains with 3 days per week of training.  For many lifters, it really is all that they need.  Also, it could be that any more training than that and the lifter would start to lose strength.  However, I think you can also make plenty of size gains with it, as well, assuming that the volume is high enough at each workout and, therefore, throughout the training week and then over the course of an entire training cycle.

     Even for gaining muscle size alone, there are a lot of lifters that will thrive off of 3 days and any more than that is too much.  The answer as to what is going to work for you is, well, it depends.  I know lifters, or a lot of lifters, don’t like that answer, but it’s the truth.  You will have to experiment to find whether 3, 4, 5, or even 6 days is best for your particular genetics.  However, having written that, there’s no reason that most lifters can’t make considerable size gains on a 3 days a week regimen.

     Which then leaves us with: What should the program look like?  After many years of training not just myself but plenty of other lifters, particularly powerlifters, I don’t think that the 3 day Sheiko program is the answer.  For the most part, it is what the routine should look like but with some minor modifications.  Sheiko, and other Russian powerlifting coaches, influenced as they are/were by Olympic weightlifting programs, often believed in bench pressing the most, as in a lot.  This comes from the idea in weightlifting that you can do overhead work, basically, every single training day, as much as 6 days weekly.  So, in Sheiko’s 3 day program, you bench press at each session.  You then squat at 2 of the sessions—using, largely, the same format as his 4-day routine—and deadlift at only one.  My modification is this.  You should squat at all 3 workouts, bench press at 2 of them, and then deadlift at only one.  The squat—as with the quick lifts and overhead work—can easily handle 3 days of training.  The Bulgarian weightlifters have even shown us that you can max out on squats as many as 6 days a week.

     Bench presses are not overhead presses.  The shoulders, triceps, and (perhaps) even the lats can handle 3 days of training, but the chest not so much.  Some lifters can bench press 3 days if they have a chest that is capable of it, but even then it often leads to injuries down the road.  2 days of direct bench press is plenty for most lifters, even competitive bench press specialists.

     Finally, the deadlift is best trained just once per week.  This even goes for deadlifters who are built for the lift.  I was, for example, always a natural deadlifter.  Standing upright, I can touch the tips of my finger to the top of my knees, but I found that once weekly is plenty, and I would often train my competitive style of deadlift just once every 2 or even 3 weeks.

     What follows is a program that still uses all of the Russian principles—high-volume, high-frequency, submaximal effort, wave training (2 separate “bouts” in the same session), and skill refinement—but also has influences from the American systems (such as Bill Starr) by not utilizing specific, pre-determined weights based on current maxes on your lifts and instead replaces it with rotating between heavy, light, and medium workouts, and uses weekly “rep cycles.”  It also has the volume required in order to produce hypertrophy.  Keep in mind that this is a powerlifting program, however.  After outlining it, I’ll give you some tips if you’re not a powerlifter and just want to use something similar for overall mass and power gains.

Week One: 5-Rep Week

Monday:

• Squats: 8-10x5

• Bench presses: 8-10x5

• Squats: 3-5x5

• Bench presses: 3-5x5

• On the 8 to 10 sets of 5 reps, these are total sets.  Do 3 to 5 progressively heavier ramp sets of 5 reps, followed by 3 to 5 straight sets of 5 reps.  So, if you have a near max on your squats of 315 pounds, you might do a set of 5 with the 95, 135, 185, 225, and 275 pounds, and then 3 to 5 sets with 315 pounds.  The number of “top end” sets you do will depend upon how you feel on that day.  If you feel strong, you might do 5; if not, just stop at 3 sets.  None of the sets should be to complete failure.  So, if you think after 3 sets you might fail the 5th rep on the 4th set, stop at 3.

• For the 2nd wave of squats and bench presses, drop down to a weight you used on your last set before your top-end weight.  So, for our example squatter above, he would do these sets with 275 pounds for 3 to 5 sets of 5 reps.

Wednesday:

• Deadlifts: 8-10x5

• Squats: 3-5x5

• Deadlifts: 3-5x5

• Do the two waves of deadlifts the same as the squats and bench presses on Monday.

• For the squats, use a weight that is between 80 and 90% of the weight used for 3 to 5 sets of 5 reps on Monday.  So, our hypothetical squatter who used 275 on Monday, would use between 225 and 250 pounds here.  When in doubt, use less not more, especially when you first begin the program.

Friday:

• Squats: 8-10x5

• Bench presses: 8-10x5

• Squats: 3-5x5

• Optional: bench presses: 3-5x5

• Do the same workout as Monday, but drop down to around 95% of the top weights used on that day.  So, our squatter did 315 for his final sets on Monday, he would use 300 here.

• Some lifters will do well with the 2nd wave of bench presses, and some will be better off without them.  This is where it helps to know thyself.  If you’re unsure, start the program without them, and then add them after a few weeks of training and see how it goes.

Week Two: 3-Rep Week

Monday:

• Squats: 5x5, 5x3

• Bench presses: 5x5, 5x3

• Squats: 3-5x3

• Bench presses: 3-5x3

• For the first wave on both lifts, do 5 progressively heavier sets, followed by 2 to 3 progressively heavier triples and 2 to 3 straight sets of triples.  So, our hypothetical squatter from week one might begin by doing 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps with 95, 135, 185, 225, and 275 pounds, and then do 2 progressively heavier triples with 315, 325, and then 3 triples with 335 pounds.

• On the 2nd wave of squats and benches, use the weight that you used on your first set of triples for 3 to 5 straight triples.  So, our squatter again would use 315 here for his triples, the same weight that he used for his top-end set of 5s in week one.

Wednesday:

• Deadlifts: 5x5, 5x3

• Squats: 3-5x5

• Deadlifts: 3-5x3

• Your deadlifts waves are the same as the lifts from Monday.

• On the squats, use the same method as week one’s Wednesday session.

Friday:

• Squats: 5x5, 5x3

• Bench presses: 5x5, 5x3

• Squats: 3-5x3

• Optional: bench presses: 3-5x3

• As with week one, repeat Monday’s workout, but drop down to 95% of the poundages used from Monday on all of your top-end triples.

• Again, you can do the 2nd wave of benches or not.

Week Three - 5-Rep Dynamic Effort Week

Monday:

• Squats: 8-10x5

• Bench presses: 8-10x5

• For this week, you will do progressively heavier sets of 5 reps the same as week one, but only work up to approximately 80% of the top-end weights used the 1st week.  So, our squatter who worked up to 315 pounds in week one, might do sets here with 95, 135, 185, 225, and 250 pounds.  Once he reached 250, he would stick with that weight for another 3 to 5 sets, working on speed and power.  Think compensatory acceleration and move the weight as fast as possible, even if it doesn’t seem to move fast.  This week prepares you for what will be coming in week four.

Wednesday:

• Deadlifts: 8-10x5

• Use the same 80% compensatory acceleration method here as the squats and bench presses from Monday.  You will take off from Squatting on this day, as well.

Friday:

• Squats: 8-10x5

• Bench presses: 8-10x5

• Use the exact same weights as what was used on Monday, again focusing on explosive speed and power.

Week Four: 1-Rep Near Max Week

Monday:

• Squats: progressively heavier sets of 5s, triples, and singles.

• Bench presses: 5s, triples, and singles.

• Squats: 5x1

• Bench presses: 5x1

• For the 1st wave of squats and bench presses, do ramps, progressively heavier sets.  Do sets of 5 until you reach a near-max set of 5, then switch over to progressively heavier triples, and then singles.  Work up to a near max single that is around 95% of your absolute max.

• For the 2nd wave, drop down to the weight you used on your next to last single, or a weight that is close to it, and do 5 straight sets of singles.  If you miss any single, stop the session.

Wednesday:

• Deadlifts: 5s, triples, and singles

• Squats: 3-5x5

• Deadlifts: 5x1

• For both waves of deadlifts, follow the same method as Monday.

• For the squats, use the same model as weeks one and two.

Friday:

• Squats: progressively heavier sets of 5s, triples, and singles.

• Bench presses: 5s, triples, and singles.

• Squats: 5x1

• Bench presses: 5x1

• Do the same workout as Monday.  As with weeks one and two, work up to about 95% of the weights used for your top-end sets on Monday.

     Stick with this program for 12 weeks for three 4-week blocks.  Each week, try your best to beat the numbers from the previous corresponding week but don’t worry if you don’t.  A more advanced lifter, for instance, might struggle to do that on all of his lifts.  Someone new to this kind of training might find, however, that they easily beat their numbers from the previous corresponding week.  Most lifters will be somewhere in between the two.

     If you’re not interested in increasing your powerlifts, you can also substitute some same but different lifts.  You might do front squats or bottom-position squats instead of back squats, incline presses, military presses, or some sort of dumbbell press instead of bench presses, and power cleans, power snatches, or high pulls for deadlifts.  You could also add in some extra lifts, such as weighted chins, rows, or barbell curls if you want a more total body workout.  Whatever movement you add, use the same format for each training week.

     Also, if you’re only interested in building muscle while using this routine, you can stick with it basically as written but make a few minor adjustments.  First, don’t worry about training as heavy, and, second, simply add more sets to the program.  So, in the first week, you would on Monday, for example, do the 8 to 10 sets of 5 reps in the first wave and then, in the 2nd wave, do another 8 to 10 sets of 5 reps, but with lighter weights.  At any point in a workout, if you feel as if the weights are too heavy to complete all of the planned sets, just drop down a little in weights and continue.  This means that you would potentially do as many as 50 sets of squats in a training week, 40 sets of bench presses, and “just” 20 sets of deadlifts.  And, yes, in case you’re wondering, this would work really well for gaining mass despite “only” training 3 days a week.

     Well, there you have it.  It may not be perfect, but it’s probably about as good as it gets when it comes to a 3-day program for getting both incredibly strong and insanely jacked using some Russian-style training methods—well, with a little help from the American system.  It would probably also get approval from both your average vodka-swigging Russian lifter and Bill Starr and Tommy Kono.  I can’t think of much better.  Now, all you have to do is head to the gym and put it to good use.

     If you enjoyed this article, then you’d enjoy the articles and training programs in my books.  Click on the link for information on all of my books currently available for purchase.  Buying them helps to support my work and keeps me writing this blog.

     And, of course, as always, if you have any questions or comments, leave them in the “comments” section below.

     I have several projects that I’m currently working on, which means that I might not post quite as frequently as I had been doing before this month.  But you never know, since I always write something when I get an idea or when I get a question such as the one that precipitated this article.  Until next time, good luck and good lifting to you!