Russian Squat Routine

As any good gym rat, I was eager to get back into the gym during the COVID Shutdown, A little over 3-weeks ago that finally happened in my area. My younger son, Luke, and I jumped into things with both feet and all gusto. An approach that has historically landed me in injuries. Not this time, I am happy to say.

I went back to the gym with a solid plan from years past. I cycled several times over the years since I learned it at a YMCA in Ambler, PA. It was the Russian Squat routine. As Luke is 15, I was hesitant to put him on that. All four of my kids are hesitant to follow directly in my footsteps while training, so he stuck with the tried and true 3x10. I did the 1x20 and adding 5 to 10 pounds each session.

It occurs that some of you may not know the Russian Squat protocol. It is a very rough routine, both mentally and physically. If you have never tried it, I suggest that you do at least one 6-week cycle of it in your lifting career. It will add pounds to your lift in super-fast time as well as show you that you are more than you thought you were.

First, you take the weight which you are squatting for 3x10 reps. A good solid, hard 10 reps. This is the weight you will use for your starting squat weight for one set of 20. The breathing pattern is unique. It’s called breathing squats for a distinctly good reason. Your body will need O2.

For the first five reps, just breathe and squat normally. Squats six through 10 take one breath at the top of each squat. For squats 11 through 15 your breathing between squats should now be three to five breaths. For 15 to 20 just breathe as much as you need to. Take the time you need between squats for these last repetitions.

Here is the kick. You do NOT put that bar on the rack until you complete the 20^th squat. I don’t care if your foot is curling up into a ball due to cramps, you keep squatting until you hit 20 repetitions.

You got your 20. You racked the weight. You even put a checkmark in your logbook. Fantastic! Next workout, you add 5 to 10 pounds on that squat and do it again.

Say you squat on Monday and you do 265 for 20 reps. Wednesday will be 270, at least.

This is what the routine looks like, overall:

Shoulder Press       3x12

Bench Press           3X10

Squat                      1x20

Pullover                 1x20

The pullover is done with a lightweight, I use a 50-pound curl bar. Lie down on a bench, hold the weight at arm’s length, and lower it as far as you comfortably can behind your head. Then, pull it back to its starting point above you. You will feel this stretching your chest cavity out. I don’t know what it does physically other than feel real good after the squats. The lifting coach who introduced me to this program back in the early 1990s said that, by expanding the chest cavity this way, you are forcing the body to grow. I do not know enough to say yes or no, but it sounds kind of strange. I will say it again, it feels good and I still do it.

After the main portion is done, I continue with shrugs, triceps extensions, and curls. You know, the ego-boosting exercises. I also train abs and those muscles along the spine every workout. Those muscles, the erector spinae, are vital in this routine. If you mess those up you are done. I do bodyweight back extensions as the last exercise. Doing this last allows me to hit them directly when already exhausted and warmed up. I can also focus on every repetition while doing them to keep my form perfect.

That’s the Russian Squat routine in a nutshell. I highly recommend that you give it a go once you’ve checked in with your doctor. Be forewarned, though, you will notice that your appetite increases while doing this. Your body size is going to grow, even if you are older, like me. I am 50 as of this writing. Three weeks in and I am seeing growth in my legs and arms.

While this is a 6-week cycle, I am stopping early. Luke, mentioned above, is getting ready for high school football and wrestling. He has the same slender build I did when I was his age. He wants to bulk up some. So, we are switching gears to a 5x5 routine for powerlifting.

I will keep you all updated on what that looks like and how it’s going for us.

Thank you.

Live well!

Live Strong!

12-Week Cycle Finale

12-Week Size Cycle Wrap Up

It is the end of the 12 weeks. Time to wrap things up.

When I began this cycle my primary lifts were the following:

Squat               245

Deadlift           245

Bench              155

Bodyweight    235

Age                 49

I did have a birthday in there, so that number went up, too. The numbers at the end of the 12-weeks look like this

Squat               350

Deadlift           355

Bench              205

Bodyweight    245

As you can see, I added 105 pounds to my squat, 110 to deadlift, and 50 to my bench press. At the same time, I only added 10 pounds to my overall bodyweight. Not too shabby for 49, 50 years old.

I need to clarify that I am not one to over use supplements. I have a protein mix that I use. There are no bottles of extra pills, creatine mixes, added boosters. I have never used steroids. Never even tried pot, so … I get most of my nutrition through a good diet now. Supplements are just that, supplementing where I fall short.

This routine was originally billed to me, 20-some odd years ago, as a mass building routine. I am a little larger, but massively huge, no. The routine has made it so pants fit tighter and shirts are definitely tighter, yes, but have no misunderstanding. I did not go from that little kid from the Bronx to some hulking mass-monster.  

I do have stronger, thicker thighs, notably bigger arms, broader and thicker back, and am losing my neck to traps.

Overall, this is a cycle worth doing a couple of times a year. I ill certainly keep it in my log books, and I recommend that you do this, too. The way this routine breaks out it can be done on a four day or three-day split. This makes it flexible enough to fit most any schedule.

Here is what it looks like:

PUSH DAY

Squat

Leg Extension

Shoulder Press

Triceps Exercise of Your Choice

Plank for time

Bicycle Crunch

PULL DAY

Deadlift

Leg Curl

Bent Row

Upright Row

Biceps Exercise of your choice

Plank

Bicycle Crunch

The four day split  looks like Monday-Tuesday/Thursday-Friday. Monday and Thursday are push days while Tuesdays and Fridays are pull days. 

The three day splits look different, of course. Monday and Friday of Week 1 may be pull days with Wednesday as a push day. Them Week 2 Monday and Friday are pull days and Wednesday is a push day.

One modification that I made at Week 7 was to add a more exhaustive arm routine. This looks like

Incline Curls

Preacher Curls

Standing Curls

Overhead Triceps Extension

Skull Crushers

Triceps Press Down

The beauty of this arm routine is that both muscle groups get worked through three different positions. These are the extended, contracted, and midrange positions. By working these muscles, or any muscle, throughout these positions you are getting the fullest and most effective workout possible.

Why not do a workout routine based on these three ranges?

That is possible, but requires a five-day split, at minimum, to be done safely. This is not possible for a four or three-day split. Adding this into the 12-week routine makes for awesome arms.

You have noticed that there is leg extension immediately after squats and leg curls also immediately after deadlifts. The specific reason for this is clear. Squats hit quads heavily. You will also feel them deeply in other parts of your glutes and legs when you do them deeply enough. What you may not be fully aware of is that deadlifts hit the hamstrings at least as much as the quads.

This may seem counterintuitive but work with me here. By dropping the weight below and in front of your center of balance the muscles used and in what proportion they are used shifts dramatically. Keeping you hips low and back creates the need for muscles that will pull the weight up. You will also find that the muscles along your spine, from your trapezius down to your coccyx, will be fully engaged. This is part of the pulling machine used to get that bar off the ground. The hamstrings are necessary in that machine.

Doing leg extensions after squats and leg curls after deadlifts allows you to focus on the primary movers for these exercises. It makes it so you can hit those muscles in their contracted states. In this way, you get to two of the three angles straight off.

The crux of ho this mass and strength routine works is by basing the entire thing on compound movements. Compound movements are those that include more than one joint to execute. Think about the squat. To squat, you need to flex your ankle, knee, and hip joints as well as have spinal flexibility. For bench press, you are using shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints.

Using multiple joints requires that several different muscles are engaged in the movement. These muscles are involved for completing the movement. There are, of course, other muscles used to support and stabilize the body during the movement. All of this works together for a combined result of far more muscles engaged in one lift than when doing isolation exercises.

Now you know what and how and why. You make the when happen.

Scoliosis and Strength Training

Scoliosis, the unnatural curving of the spine.  What images does this bring to mind?  Some sort of a Quasi Modo?  A character like Igor?  Perhaps, a young child with a severely twisted back?  I have known two of these examples.  One was a woman with whom I had worked.  She could not get the surgery necessary as a youth to straighten her spine.  The other, was a vibrant, bright, active young gal whose mother was able to get her into the Shriner’s Hospital for life-changing surgery.  Surgery that straightened her spine and implanted rods in her back to hold her spine straight.  This left her with a somewhat limited list of activities for the rest of her life.

About a month ago, I was asked about lifting weights with scoliosis.  Particularly, if it is safe to lift if one has scoliosis.  The first thing I can say is to ask your doctor.  Talk to your physician about what would be recommended.

The next thing that I can say is that there have been more than a few professional strength and physique competitors who have made a name for themselves with scoliosis.   

Among those athletes we will find Usain Bolt, tennis star James Blake, Olympian Jante Evans, Olympic gymnast Alexandra Marinescu, and Hockey Player Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins.   These are some highly functional sports athletes.   You would not know, by looking at them, that there was anything off.   With the exception of the swimmers, most athletes are wearing enough to cover their back.   Physique competitors are another story.   Here is a group of competitors who make their bread and butter on how they look.

The blog, kbrocking.com, is written from the perspective of an athlete in the strength, power, and physique perspective.  This gent appears to have scoliosis.  In one piece, he mentions having his back x-rayed to ensure that he did not bend the rod in his back.  When learning that he did not damage the implant.  His confidence in what he was doing increased.   

Lamar Gant is one professional strength athlete who has scoliosis.  He set world records in powerlifting with scoliosis.

Clearly, conditions like scoliosis are limiting, but not dead ends when it comes to strength, physique, and power training.  Any limitations you may have are set by yourself.  Surpassing those limitations must be done carefully, slowly, and with consideration to your physical issues.

It may seem counterintuitive at first blush, but strength and power training actually makes sense for those with scoliosis.  Weightlifting is listed among the top five sports for those with scoliosis.  I have added powerlifting on my own bias as I love the sport and due to the extreme strengthening of the muscles along the spine, the erector spinae.

At no other time than when you are under the weights should you be more aware of your posture.  That is to say, when squatting and deadlifting, focus very closely on the details of your posture.  Mental imaging, keeping a picture in your mind, is going to be paramount.  There is a plethora of case studies on how much good mental imaging can do for you and your body, so begin here. Also, you can read about these positive effects in this piece here.  Focusing on strict posture while lifting is going to help train your mind, your conscious and subconscious awareness, and your body to better maintain its proper posture.

Nothing is going to undo the curvature of scoliosis.  That, sadly, is yours to bare.  A stronger core, which includes the below list, will help keep your body straighter and feeling stronger.  These are the muscle groups to work on for a balanced and stronger core:

Abdominal Core

Abdominal Obliques

Transverse Abdominal

Latissimus Dorsi

Trapezius

To a lesser degree, the muscles around your shoulder blades have an impact on your posture as well. Those muscles are shown in the picture presented here.

A building cannot stand without a strong foundation.  Nor can it stand if the middle floors are poorly constructed.

Aside from cautioning you to talk to your physician first I would also say that you should likely not perform any exercises that twist the core.  Movements like Trunk Twist or Russian Twists, for instance, should be avoided.  Do not twist your spine under tension, pressure, or move it laterally with speed.

Otherwise, there is not any reason why you should not lift weights.  Just be a little cautious, perhaps a touch more so than your slightly less-bent compadres.

Stay safe. Lift strong!