Make the timeless weekly template used by Soviet strength athletes work for you.
Train a lift—be it the kettlebell military press, the barbell deadlift, the weighted pullup, or any other strength exercise—three times a week.
If you go with the usual Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule, make Wednesday your heavy day. Contrary to the popular belief, you are not at your strongest on Monday, when you got the most rest after the weekend. Half a century ago Soviet experiments determined that you may be rested, but rusty. Make Monday your light day, and on Wednesday your weights will fly. Then Friday is the perfect day to crank up the volume and build muscle.
There you have it:
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| Monday—low to medium volume, low to medium intensity
Wednesday—low to medium volume, medium to high intensity
Friday—high volume, low to medium intensity
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| To make sure we are on the same page, in the Russian nomenclature, the “intensity” refers to the percentage of your 1RM, not to the proximity to muscle failure or the accompanying drama.
To give you an example, an athlete is training double kettlebell front squats. He can do a strong double with a pair of 40kg kettlebells and twelve reps with a pair of 32s: 2*40kg x 2RM and 2*32kg x 12RM. He does not know and does not want to find out how many reps he can do with the 24s.
His week of squats might look like this:
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| Monday—2*24kg x 5, 2*32kg x 4, 5, 6 (NL 20)
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| “NL” means the “number of lifts” and refers to the total volume.
20 reps qualifies as “medium” volume, according to the Plan Strong™ guidelines, which are based on the best Soviet practices. |
| Wednesday—2*24kg x 3/2, 2*32kg x 3/2, 32+40kg x 2/5, 2*32kg x 4/2 (NL 30)
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| “x 3/2” means the weight was lifted for two sets of three reps. In the Russian system the reps are listed first.
“32+40kg” is exactly what it looks like, an asymmetric load. Harder than 2*32kg but easier than 2*40kg. There are at least two good reasons to train with two kettlebells of different weights. First, you get an additional poundage choice without having to buy more bells. Second, by insisting on moving symmetrically, you get the benefits of unilateral training.
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| Friday—2*24kg x 4, 5, 6; (2*32kg x 4, 5, 6) x 2; 2*24kg x 10 (NL 55)
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| 55 reps are considered to be “high” volume.
Ladders like “4, 5, 6” are a common tactic in Russian programming.
Sets of ten with very light weights—nowhere near the 10RM—is a classic Soviet weightlifting tactic for putting on muscle without getting sore.
The entire week totals 105 reps.
The next week might look like this:
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| Monday—2*24kg x 3/2, 2*32kg x 3/3 (NL 15)
Wednesday—2*24kg x 3/2, (2*32kg x 2, 2*40kg x 1) x 5 (NL 21)
Friday—2*24kg x 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 10 (NL 40)
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| The second week totals 76 reps, a 28% drop from the first. This complies with the Plan Strong™ “Delta 20 Principle,” according to which the volume must go up or down by at least 20% from the previous month, week, day, etc. |
| Don’t miss the Plan Strong™ online seminar on October 23-24.
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