Boris Sheiko
Boris Sheiko is a renowned powerlifting coach and athlete from Russia. He is considered one of the most successful coaches in the sport and has trained numerous world champions and record holders.
Sheiko's training methodology focuses on high volume and frequency, with an emphasis on technique and specificity. He has written several books and articles on powerlifting training, and his programs are widely followed by athletes around the world.
Many powerlifters have trained under Boris Sheiko, including some of the top athletes in the sport. Some notable lifters who have trained under Sheiko include Sergey Fedosienko, Sergey Seryi, Konstantin Pozdeev, Yulia Chistyakova, and Andrey Belyaev.
But its important to state that you aren’t truly training Sheiko unless you’ve been picked to be coached by him. In addition, Boris Sheiko never intended for any of the current Sheiko online ‘cookie cutter’ programs to be used widely on the Internet. They were written for individuals, not a general audience unlike other programs such as; Jim Wendler or Jonnie Candito programs.
Which is why I have created my own variant of this program, I see the original program as a framework that can be expanded upon and tailored.
The Beginner Program
Although it is called a Beginner program, I would say this program could be used by Novice new lifters (0-12 months) to early staged intermediate lifters (12-36 months). The program consists of:
- Three training sessions per week
- Four-week Preparation Period
- Four Week Competition Period
The lifter Bench Presses 2-3 times per week, squats twice a week and deadlifts one time per week. However, you perform two deadlift variations during the one training session. Therefore, making this session both high volume, high difficulty and high intensity. Other programs would normally split them over two training sessions.
You have three options on how you could run the program:
- Run the ‘Prep Period’ then go straight into the ‘Comp Period’ in preparation for a competition/meet.
- If you are not competing run the ‘Prep Period’ continuously until you feel ready to chase new gym PR’s. I wouldn’t recommend running the ‘Prep Period’ more than three times.
- Run the ‘Prep Period’ and ‘Comp Period’ back to back and instead of it being for a competition, it’s for a gym PR for the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift.
You have two weekly training schedule options:
- Monday/Wednesday/Friday
- Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday
You must follow the one-on-one off schedule then two days off after the final training session of the week. PLEASE use all other days for rest and recovery, NO TRAINING!