Routines you have followed and how they worked out.

[baldy]

Following on from the Where do the other people in the gym get their routines ? thread.
What routines have you done before, how long did you follow it for and how did it work?


I followed a Mens Health Program for about 2 months, probably 4 years ago. Did not do very much.

When I started training properly about 2 years ago I followed the stonglifts 5x5 routine. Did this on and off for over a year. Got myself up to 2xbw deadlift, nearly 1.5xbw squat and 1xbw bench.

About 6 months ago I started the 5/3/1 (and moved to the cult/started training at the Unit20). Made good gains on my deadlift, squat and bodyweight.

[JP]

no one dared to reply

i used to do tons of routines, 5x5, ones from dinosaur training book, russians, westside...

So my common sense reply:

the most effective routine is the one which keeps you motivated and pushing yourself.

No single right answer or a trick (despite what routine writers try to say) and fashions come and go, used to be 5x5, then westside, and now that 5/3/1 thing, next one is just around the corner.

But thats ok, if it keeps people driving themselves and hitting the basic moves hard.

I like my current one the best, which is no routine at all i guess. Damn hard to have any other approach when there are comps every now and again with different strongman events.

[sosso]

I started off with some stupid Mens Health dumbbell thing.. didn't do much.

I then discovered Starting Strength; It's good & I'd recommend it.

I did the Bill Starr Madcow routine for a while and had some really good results from it.

For the past 8 weeks or so I've been doing some Sheiko routines and feel that I've had some good gains in strength even in this short time.

[The Duke]

Think the best gains always came from heavy singles for me.

A whole bunch of clean and presses at followed by some heavy squats or deads.

K.I.S.S.

[ninearms]

Did basic linear periodization for a few years, first with 8-10 reps then with sets of 5. Never followed a Flex routine, but did gain an understanding of periodization from there. Unless you're a beast or old it always works.

A few different things for squats - a 12 week one written by Jim Hooper which was great and which I ran multiple times for front squats and once for back, Smolov base meso (brutal but very effective - 10kg gain in 3 weeks on training, 2xBW), and another one of my own that I ran for back squat for a fair bit alongside the Jim Hooper one for front, plus John Bott's rehab program which I used for overhead squats.

Joe Mills 20/20 for a change of pace once in a while - always good for drilling technical stuff. Only ever do this one for a couple of sessions though, a week at most.

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 obviously. An excellent, productive and motivating approach to training. No good if you're in a rush to get somewhere for no apparent reason (if you do have a reason do Smolov). Apart from when I was doing linear periodization the only time I've run the same program for everything (bar OL stuff).

And after 9 months of 5/3/1 I'm now doing a modified version of Dan John's 40 Day Workout, so we'll see how that pans out. Will probably go back to 5/3/1 at some point, even if it's not for all lifts.

[baldy]

Smolov base meso (brutal but very effective - 10kg gain in 3 weeks on training, 2xBW),

[baldy]

Smolov base meso (brutal but very effective - 10kg gain in 3 weeks on training, 2xBW),

ninearms like this? -> http://www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html

[ninearms]

Smolov base meso (brutal but very effective - 10kg gain in 3 weeks on training, 2xBW),

ninearms like this? -> http://www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html

That's the one. The week before I started I squatted 152.5, so I based my numbers off a 145 max as per the suggestions of Smolov veterans.

Had 3 weeks away and without anywhere to snatch or C&J, so decided I might as well do some daft program dreamt up by insane Russians rather than waste time trying to improve my crappy bench and getting bigger guns. Tested my back squat this morning and hit 162.5kg at 81kg BW, still jet-lagged and on 4 hours sleep. Previous max was 152.5kg done a week before I started Smolov, and at the start of the year I was at 145kg which was the number I used to base the cycle on. The only other stuff I did during the cycle was a few rack jerks before squatting.

A few notes on my experiences:

- Sets of 9 will always be horrible. How most people do this sort of thing every week is beyond me. How I ever used to do that sort of thing is beyond me. Ugh.
- DOMS gradually subsided over the course of the first week. By the second week soreness was absolutely non-existent, and stayed that way throughout the third week. It was the same with tiredness - first week I just wanted to sleep and eat, second and third I just wanted to eat. Recovery is ridiculous.
- My elbows felt a little beat up, even with elbow sleeves, but they're fine now.
- Despite my initial fears, my knees were absolutely fine. It turns out it's jerks that aggravate my right knee (my back leg), so cutting the jerk volume down solved that problem. I wore knee sleeves anyway just to keep them happy.
- The worst session was the 7 sets of 5 in the second week. I was seeing stars, nauseous, gasping like I was being strangled, my shoulders and lats were cramping, and my hands turned white and numb. Yet it was kind of enjoyable...The same set/reps during week 3 was a piece of cake.
- Once you get past the middle set of each day it's pretty easy. The first 2 sets are always the hardest, the last set is always the easiest.
- The only time the weight felt heavy was during the first half of the final session of week 3. When I loaded up 160kg this morning it felt no heavier than 100kg, just harder to move, if that makes any sense.
- My squats got faster, not slower.
- I ate like a maniac, including a ton of ice cream, and gained about 2kg of carb bloat, of which 1kg has already gone now I'm back on the broccoli.
- My upper back felt it the most, so it was subjected to some painful myofascial release with a couple of lacrosse balls after every session. I didn't have my foam roller so I couldn't do the sort of thoracic spine work I normally do. Ended up doing some work with the ball on my left glute at the end of week 3 because it was knotted to hell and pulling my hip out of alignment so I walked like someone with a bad prosthetic leg.
- Where the bar had been sitting I had a permanent red line across my traps for the entire three weeks.

Would I do it again? Probably. The 3 weeks off the lifts didn't have the detrimental effect I thought it might - I came back faster and stronger both off the floor and overhead - plus it is kind of cool to just turn up, squat, then go home. Oh yeah, and gaining 10kg on your squat in 3 weeks isn't too shabby either. I just have an even more embarassing snatch/C&J to squat ratio now, but we won't talk about that.

[JP]

adam (on the strength table) built his squat from 220 to 250 in about 8 weeks on smolov. The bastard was squatting 4 times a week!

specialisation works!

[baldy]

adam (on the strength table) built his squat from 220 to 250 in about 8 weeks on smolov. The bastard was squatting 4 times a week!

specialisation works!

ninearms suggested and JP approved! Too good to be true, will have to ask buzz and see if its allowed at the unit.

[KaliBaby]

since going to the OLY gym my routine has changed twice (on week 6 now). the exercises have mostly been 3X8. I followed the 5X5 strong lifts ish for a few months before. have to read more about this 5/3/1 business if people really recommend it.

[Andrewc]

Initially I went to the local gym and followed a program one of the trainers there put together for me, at the time I was about 65kgs and thought this guy was huge and didn't doubt what he was saying. looking back he's no bigger than I am now and has actually asked me about powerlifting since. It was a 3 day split with about 30 different exercises on it! I wondered why I made very few gains.

Then came MVS! I followed 5x5 for squat, bench and deadlift for quite a while. At some point I then began the Smolov squat routine which was both brutal and beneficial.

Now I follow what my coach gives me. To start with I had a basic periodisation program for squat, bench and deadlift. Then I did a 6-8 week hypertrophy program for the upperbody alongside periodisation for the squat and deadlift, which I've done 3 times now. Currently I'm doing a short periodisation program for all 3 lifts. I'm planning on doing one of my coach's bench intensity program as the bench is my lagging lift.

[FAQ]

Does the Smolov Program work with other lifts? Can someone explain the Smolov Program to me. Do a 3 week cycle, take 3 weeks off, test your new 1RM, then do a 4 week cycle?

How long can you do this routine for, months, a year?

What do you do during the 3 weeks off?

I need a high volume routine that also builds strength so I can loss fat at the same time.

EDIT: Does the Smolov Program work with other lifts? Could someone explain the Smolov Program. Do a 3 week cycle, take 3 weeks off, test your new 1RM, then do a 4 week cycle?

How long can you do this routine for, months, a year?

What do you do during the 3 weeks off?

I am looking for a high volume routine to loss fat and build strength at the same time.

[ninearms]

Does the Smolov Program work with other lifts? Can someone explain the Smolov Program to me. Do a 3 week cycle, take 3 weeks off, test your new 1RM, then do a 4 week cycle?

How long can you do this routine for, months, a year?

What do you do during the 3 weeks off?

I need a high volume routine that also builds strength so I can loss fat at the same time.

http://www.ontariostrongman.ca/Resource ... tcycle.htm should cover everything.

Note, do not do this if you're trying to lose weight - you need to eat a lot in order to recover properly. Also, running the full Smolov for multiple lifts at the same time is not recommended - just far too much work to recover from and it'd take you about 6 hours a day. Smolov Jr is designed for multiple lifts though.

[Mellos]

Total went up by 130 Kg in 2009.
During the Fitness Gym Time using some stupid routine I gained like nothing.
gained about 30 kg (total) from april to june using a simple 2 split with sets of 10 reps.
until august then i tried wsb and failed due to training motivation^^ but put like 50 or so onto my total though i was injured.
til the end of the year my total went up to 400 kg using bill stars 5x5 system.

looking at this i guess WSB worked really good though i didn´t work out half the time...wouldn´t have guessed it.

this year, up to date, i only improved my bench press by 5 kg... squat pb try was close tho..
dunno, will try to go on with 5x5 after recovering from this stupid flu and then (if gains won´t come) switch to wsb or 5/3/1