The Sheiko block is coming to an end, but the high volume muscle pumping sets are only just beginning. Welcome to the modified Rogozhnikov training block. Konstantin Rogozhnikov, Head Coach WPC Team Russia, has produced many champions, world, Eurasian, European, Russian. He admits having suffered his methodology out of years of trial and error. On himself—Rogozhnikov is a masters' world championship silver medalist—and his athletes.
The system, a smart blend of Westside, power bodybuilding, and cybernetic periodisation, calls for only two to three workouts a week and is easy to implement.
Rogozhnikov Strength (DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 4):
Over the next seven weeks, the Team Sustain competitive functional fitness program will include three-days of Rogozhnikov strength training. Pavel Tsatsouline wrote about Rogozhnikov in his book Power To The People. You may notice that the body of strength is going to occur in the first four days of each week, this is done to allow the CNS to recover from the heavy lifting before the following week.
The standard Rogozhnikov template is not suitable for the sport of competitive fitness. Why? Because you probably ain’t on “vitamins.” On some forums, Rogozhnikov makes a clear definition for “clean lifters” to change the template. He thinks medium days get more important the rawer (no lifting equipment) or drug-free you are. The Team Sustain “drug-free” Rogozhnikov template will follow Light-Heavy (testing)-Light-Medium-Medium-Light-Heavy (PB).
The modification from the standard Rogozhnikov template is to add an extra medium block to help increase the hypertrophy between the testing week and the final heavy weeks. Why is that important?
It will lower the chance of injury by strengthening the muscles and conditioning the joints to handle the load of the heavy week.
Because you aren’t on the juice, you’ll have to dedicate more training time to building muscle strength and size
Week_1_L1 (low-intensity REP 7-8.5, high volume 48-60reps) - 4 x [12-15] hypertrophy block to build size and muscle endurance
Week_2_H1 (high-intensity RPE 10, medium volume 27reps) - set 5RM, testing week
Week_3_L2 (low-intensity REP 7-8.5, high volume 48-60reps) - 4 x [12-15] hypertrophy block to build size and muscle endurance
Week_4_M1 (high-intensity RPE 8-9, medium volume 24-32reos) - 4 x [6-8] building functional strength, “pump the muscles up with blood”, as you work on setting a new 5RM in 3 weeks
Week_5_M2 (high-intensity RPE 8-9, medium volume 24reps) - 8 x [3] increase the CNS drive and priming the body for setting a new 5RM in 2 weeks
Week_5_L3 (low intensity, high volume 40-48reps) - 4 x [10-12] high volume hypertrophy block to build size and muscle while lowering the CNS activation in preparation for 5RM PB next week
Week_6_H2 (high-intensity RPE 10, medium volume 20-25reps) - set 5RM, testing week
You should already be getting the idea that Rogozhnikov is opposite of those hyper-specific Eastern Bloc percentage plans. When he's super-specific (by his standards), he’ll suggest pulling 70% on a heavy day (with or without bands or chains), 60% on a medium day (maybe with bands/chains if you’re feeling spunky?), and 50% on a light day. But, underneath all of that, he thinks regarding something like RPEs and percentages are ignored. The athlete should go by RPE on the day. Another reason for you to try to think of it regarding RPE is that any percentages he gives aren’t just somewhat arbitrary, they’re also based on a multi-ply personal best. That’s probably not all that useful for those who have not tested a 1RM in each of the specific movements.
Olympic Lifting (DAY 1, Day 2)
The past blocks have been very focused on traditional Olympic lifting methods, and this block will see a mix of conventional and competitive functional fitness lifting. There will be heavy days, technique-specific days, and a blend of both high-intensity workouts and high-volume touch-and-go workouts.
Gymnastics (DAY 5, DAY 6)
Handstand and core compression work will be the dedicated skill focus work on Day 5. There is not conditioning on this day, the focus in skill development for the handstand.
Day 6 will dedicate time to straight arm gymnastic strength (SAS). SAS is often overlooked in the competitive functional fitness environment, and yet it is critical to gymnastics movements. Handstands, muscle-ups, pull-ups, overhead pressing, and even Olympic lifting contain elements of SAS. Dedicated SAS work will build strength and awareness of the scapular and reduce the chance of shoulder injury.
Conditioning (DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 4, DAY 6)
The aerobic work continues in this block with a range of energy system mix-modal principles being applied. The variety of time domains and modalities will test the athletes ability to understand pacing andincrease work capacity. This new block is 8-week in total and contain a mix of short, long, high-intensity, and moderate-intensity workouts to train and test functional fitiness.
DAY 1: Aerobic Conditioning
Specific Olympic lifting for competitive functional fitness, a mix of high-intensity repetitions with increasing loads and high volume repetitions for touch and go barbell cycling.
DAY 2: Dynamic Energy Control
wk1-4: 30:30 work:rest ratio - leaning to pace the intervals that are short, explosive, and require high levels of metabolic fitness
wk5-8: 60:60 work:rest ratio - leaning to pace the intervals that are short, explosive, and require high levels of metabolic fitness
DAY 4: Aerobic Intervals:
wk:1-4 5min:5min work:rest intervals - aerobic capacity building and pacing over longer time domains under mixed modal formats
wk:5-8 3min:2min work:rest intervals - aerobic capacity building and pacing over longer time domains under mixed modal formats.
DAY 6: Aerobic Intervals
wk1-8: 4min work, 2min Rest - aerobic capacity building and pacing over longer time domains under mixed modal formats
wk7-8: Pacing longer workouts 5-10rounds - aerobic capacity building and pacing over longer time domains under mixed modal formats
Good luch with the next 8-week of training.