View All Posts: Ben_Tricky_Burgess

Tom_Martin said:
As soon as the bar left the floor I started shaking really badly.

I've learnt my lesson though, and if I can't start my warmup as soon as I'd like next time, I'll probably just skip my last set, if I'd done this it would've made a big difference to my day.

IainKendrick said:
Dosn't mean he knows anything about supps. BA will not make your stronger. It's effect is to limit H+ accumilation during exercise. This will mean in practise prolonged sprinting style events eg 800 or repeated sprints with little rest.

nico said:Ben, I know you've been sheikoing for a while now. You gave me a fair bit of info a while ago. I was wondering if you could go through your personal experience with Sheiko with the benefit of a couple of years of doing it.

How have your lifts progressed?
I think I ran my 1st Sheiko cycle mid way through 2008, i was probably good for 580ish at the time. Now I am probably good for 720ish on a good day with a following wind (i.e. after a run of unijured training).

I think the gains would have been a LOT more if:
a) I had understood or at least trusted the principles behind the programming from the start. Like everyone else i thought i knew better than one of the most sucessful powerlifting coaches of all time, and f**ked around with it to 'customise' it

b) Id had way more uninterrupted training...ive had a s**t year for injuries and havent gained much since Nov 09

What has been the big plus/minus of Sheiko for you?
Well the big plus is that it meks me stronger. Sounds right daft but I am not a natural born athlete and even for me to be average, like what i am now, has been a fair old slog. Now gains come even slower, but i KNOW without doubt that if i put a run of 12 wks solid training together (i.e. 2 prep cycles and 1 comp cycle) i will gain something on my total.

It also suits my wierdo OCD brain - I like understanding the maths/science behind the method and I work better if i have everything planned out before i get to gym and complete the planned workload even if it is rediculously brutal.

Cons are that the sessions take f**king ages, you are out of sync with your training partners who do 'normal' methods, you dont gain much muscle and that it kills you to death in terms of recovery and hormones balance and s**t. Quite often you make your best gains after you have been really beat up with bad sleep, no libido, pissed off all't time etc. - part of the principle is still training super high volume when you are very fatigued and forcing your body to adapt & get stronger I suppose. Probly part of the reason the ruskis do so well off it is that the whole team is on the special breakfast and recovers amazing.

What advice would you give to new Sheikoists?

1. Dont f**k about with it too much. The glorius comrades of the Soviet Union did tests on thousands of athletes and a lot of their best PLers have followed routines written by Boris and most people gain great off a stock cycle.

2. Be prepared to feel weaker from training, not stronger. The high volume & s**t means that weights that felt easy on wk 1 & look light on paper feel like a s**t-ton on wk 9 or whatever. A lot of people give up then cos they feel beat up and like their lifts are going down. Its not until you have peaked/deloaded that you see the gains


There is a lot of info about Sheiko, but the personal experience over a long period would be very interesting.

Joni said:
but then you look at where he trains and who he trains with - and thats one f**king top notch camp world known for their conditioning and strength work.

mental issues play a big part i think, he just got carried away and banged everything in in one go.

ranathari said:I've stopped doing back and front squats for the time being because I can't stop my pelvis from tucking under once I get a few inches above parallel.

tonyjb72 said:I think the GBPF stipulates that you shouldn't lift with any banned lifter. How you are supposed to check that, I'm not sure, but there you go!

Icepick said:
Neither do I. But I don't feel the self importance to offer my opinion. Life is too short to care for silly people glorifying silly things on the internet

Tom_Martin said:
This thread has been very reassuring!
My main focus at the moment is driving my squat up, and that's going really well. I did a really easy 230kg for 5 yesterday, plenty of reps in the tank so I'm hoping to hit around 280 for the British if everything goes well. Please don't hold me to that though! Bench and deadlift are just ticking over at the moment, I need to start approaching them the same way I am with squats.
How are YOU looking for the British?