My Journey on Pavel’s Russian Bear Routine

How I gained 5kg of mass and put on 15kg on my deadlift in less than one month

Acknowledgements
- My dad, for working hard in order for me to be able to afford a gym membership and pay for the gigantic amount of food I consumed.
- My mom, for tirelessly preparing my meals for me and not once complaining.
- Ken86, for the excellent nutrition information he provided us all with, I am particularly grateful for the protein shake recipes.
- Pizzaboy, for sharing his knowledge and expertise with the forum.
- Members of this forum, from whom I have learned from and have helped me to become more knowledgeable.

Background

What I write here will be 99% based on my own experience on this program. Some things might not make sense, or seem unbelievable, but this is about what happened to me. The primary reason I wrote this is to share my experience, and perhaps those of you reading this will have learned something that will help you in your own weight training program. I have a few unanswered questions which I will list at the end, and I hope that those of you reading this will have the answers to them.

Just a quick background on myself. I was a skinny kid, weighing 56kg at 183cm at 16, and until today I am surprised that the wind never blew me over. I got into weight training and managed to put on some weight especially after doing Rippetoes. But after that my progress was relatively poor. I was hovering between 74-76kg at 188cm, and nothing seemed to change much.

I knew I was going to have 3 months of holiday, and was looking for a program to do. A forum member here (I believe it was kotmj) mentioned about Pavel Tsatsouline and his ‘Power to the People’ book. Inside was a chapter titled “How to become a Bear: A Soviet Commando’s Muscle Building Secret”. After reading through the chapter and the book, I decided that this was the program I will be doing over the holidays.


Russian Bear Program

Introduction

The program sounds deceptively simple:

1) Reduce the reps to 4-6 per set to allow for heavy weights;
2) Perform many, 10-20 on average, sets;
3) Terminate all the sets a couple of reps before failure to avoid premature
fatigue which would force the reduction in weights or/and sets.
Using those parameters, what you do is pick a weight you can do 5 times. For example 100kg, do 5 reps. Then take 90% of that number, 90kg, and do another 5 reps, then take 80% of 100, 80kg and do 5 reps. Keep doing 5 reps with 80kg until condition number 3 is fulfilled. Rest has to be short, 30-90 seconds between each set.

You’re supposed to do only 2 exercises. Pavel recommended the Deadlift and the Side Press. The number of days to train was up to you, and I decided to train 3 times a week. The book promised phenomenal results within just 2 months. I was skeptical, but I had nothing to lose.

Part 1

I changed the exercises. Instead of deadlifts, I did Snatch Grip Deadlifts From Deficit (Standing on 15kg Plates). Instead of Side Press (which I could not do at all), I did Barbell Overhead Press.

On Monday I start with SGDL, on Wednesday I start with Overhead Press, then Friday back to SGDL as first exercise etc. The toughest part was the short rest period, doing sets of 5 with just 1 minute rest was such a killer. I tried to increase the weights every 2 or 3 workouts, but the focus was more on increasing the number of SETS. I averaged between 12-14 total sets of deadlifts, and around 6-10 total sets of Overhead Presses.

Some days I felt incredibly strong, and managed 20 sets of Overhead Presses. Other days I felt so-so, even matching the number of sets done the previous workout seemed almost impossible, but I fought through it.

Part 2

After 7 workouts, I decided to get rid of SGDL and used normal Deadlifts instead. This was because my lower back was starting to feel ‘funny’. One week later, I was stupidly trying to push myself too hard on the military press and felt a sharp pain in my right elbow. This spelled the end of the Russian Bear program for me for now.

Nutrition

My nutrition was very simple. Eat like a monster. On workout days:

Breakfast – 2 eggs, 1 cup of oats, bread with meat
After workout (I go to gym right after breakfast) – ON Whey 1 Scoop with Low Fat Milk
Lunch – Rice or Spaghetti with lots of meat
Snack – Ken86 inspired Protein Shake (Mine was made of Whey, Low Fat Milk, 7 table spoon of oats, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, and 2 teaspoons of flaxseed oil)
Second Snack – Yoghurt and Dutch Lady Milk
Dinner – Pretty much the same as Lunch
Before bed – One scoop of Whey with Low fat milk

My meal plan on non-workout days looked pretty much the same, except that I reduced the amount of carbohydrates I was taking. I ate every 2.5-3 hours.

As for supplements, ON Whey Protein, Universal Nutrition Creatine, Multivitamin and Fish Oil. That’s all.

Results

One week after my injury, while still not yet 100% fit, and having only slept 5 hours the previous night, I decided to do a 1 Rep Max test on my Deadlift and found that I had shattered my previous personal best by 15kg. I’ve also put on 5kg of mass. I weigh myself every morning after I take a sh!t. When I started the program on November 13th I weighed 75kg, on December 13th I weighed 80kg in the morning. My shoulders were broader, traps were larger, chests slightly bigger, shirts fitted tighter. I didn’t put on much fat at all, as my pants still fitted the same around the waist. My program only lasted 3 weeks due to my injury, but still, I’d say that’s pretty good progress in 3 weeks.

But not all was good. My lower back constantly felt ‘funny’, but that is expected when you’re doing 200+ deadlifts every week, and I haven’t even counted the Overhead Presses in yet. I also hated the time I spent at the gym, because the program is incredibly boring (doing the same thing over and over again). The short rest periods left me very breathless on the deadlifts, which I hated. Every morning when I got up, I had to drag myself to the gym, rather than going happily, the gym became a chore.

I also had to make sacrifices. While everyone is out partying and going out since it was the holidays, I had to stay home the whole time. I didn’t want to go out because that would mean missing a meal, or not eating enough outside. I didn’t go out partying because that would mean I’d come back late and I wouldn’t get enough sleep for the muscles to grow. My whole life revolved around this. I’d wake up, eat, train, sleep, eat, sleep. I guess you could say I was obsessed. But I guess it was all worth it, I’m very happy with the results.

Observations and Questions

Now that you’ve seen my results on the program, you’re probably thinking of doing it yourself. But before you jump into this program, here are some things to think about:

- If you have not been deadlifting for more than one year, and if your technique is not solid, chances are you will mess up pretty badly on this program. You will be deadlifting when you’re tired and breathless, the likelihood if injury is very high. This is NOT a beginner’s program for sure.
- I’ve noticed that quite a few forum members here have lower back problems. Again, deadlifting more than 200 times a week probably isn’t the best thing to do
- You have to be mentally tough to will yourself through the program. It is a tough program, no doubt about that. This program doesn’t say do 10 sets, you’re supposed to do as many as you’re capable of. It is very easy to sell yourself short and not work as hard as you should.

I now have some questions that I hope you guys have the answers to, because I sure as hell don’t:

1) I did not feel sore AT ALL on this program. Not even on the first day. This is despite the relatively high volume. How is this possible?

2) Not so much a question but an observation: My arms, especially biceps hardly grew on this program. Yeah I know I didn’t do any direct arm work, but with the heavy lifting and pressing I expected to put on at least some size in my arms. My biceps still look small when my arms are straight.

3) If you were me, what would you do differently from what I have done? What would you have changed or tweaked? Perhaps you have some way of making this program not as boring as I make it to be. Do share.

4) Is there such a thing as tasty flaxseed oil? Because the one I’ve bought taste horrible.

5) Ever since I started this program, I have not been able to sleep well at night. I take more than an hour to fall asleep, I wake up 2-3 times in the middle of the night to urinate. I thought I would fall asleep faster considering the fact that the weight training would tire me out. But no, instead the opposite happened.

Conclusion

This program brought me very good results. 5kg of mass, 15kg on my deadlift in one month. However, unlike Rippetoe’s, I will hesistate to recommend it to anyone else. I suggest you evaluate the program (PM me your email address if you want the ebook), and make your own decisions. If you have any questions, ask away.

Thank you everyone for your input. And I'm sorry it took me so long to reply here.

I think I need to clarify some things here. My weight training goals might be different from some of you here. My goals are to get as strong as I possibly can, and let the physique take care of itself. I need my gains in the gym to transfer into real life. I'm a big advocate of 'lifting heavy stuff off the ground and over your head'.

Currently, my main concern is football. I'm aiming to play at a very high level at the end of 2010 or in 2011. I cannot afford to have big chests from bench press if all it does is slow me down. Therefore I focus on the strength I gain from the bench press, transferring the strength into actions where I have to bump opponents off the ball. I need the strength I gain from from squats and deadlifts to allow me to run faster amongst other things. So to put it in a simple way, the time I spend in the gym needs to be focused on getting strong.

Why didn't I squat? Firstly, I cannot risk doing a back squat. I've had a torn rotator cuff (as a result of playing too much tennis) since 3 years ago, it needed surgery but I didn't do it because it was expensive and not worth it. When I do back squats, my shoulders hurt like a b!tch the next day, and it's not the good type of hurt. Instead, I do front squats. The reason I didn't front squat on this program was because I am currently having too much 'quad dominance'. So right now the focus is on building as much strength in the posterior chain as possible.

I also forgot to mention that prior to and during this program, I was working very hard on mobility and flexibility issues particularly during my exam period. I continued my mobility and flexibility workouts in the evenings while on The Beast, but let's be honest, doing mobility work makes me just want to fall asleep.

Some of you are thinking that I want to feel soreness, the fact is I do not. I am very happy that I am not sore at all, but I was just curious as to why.

On the subject of overtraining, I personally do not think this actually fits the whole 'overtraining' definition. Yes it was very high volume in each session, constantly deadlifting and overhead pressing. But I did not feel any of the common symptoms of overtraining aside from the fact that I found it very tough to sleep. I never felt weak, mood swings, there was no sustained drop in performance. The human body can actually take a lot of stress before shutting down, as evident in those Special Forces selections such as the Navy Seals, where they go through 7 days of intense training, and they only get 3 hours of sleep THE WHOLE WEEK. The rest of the time they're doing physical activity after physical activity.

Weib, I am in that age bracket, but I'm a classic hardgainer. It is very rare that something works this good for me. And I cannot agree with you more about technique.

Ken86, I'm afraid I do not understand what you mean by "why flaxseed oil ? much to play with like macadamia nut oil , organic coconut oil (MCTs) , etc." and would appreciate if you could school me on this, because the only reason I chose flaxseed oil was because I've heard it mentioned before and it has omega-3.

Pizzaboy, due to my ecto genetics, my forearms are rather thin. Are you saying you built your forearms which are thicker than your biceps mainly from C&Js and Snatches?

Kotmj, how did the other programs you mentioned work out for you? Good results? Anyone see your stiffy in the office?

Florian, when you say your form is wrong when you go heavy, could it be because you do not have a solid technique base to agree with? And according to Pavel and others, you are more prone to injury if you go for higher reps because the last few reps are going to be forced and you'll be pushing through the pain barrier. But I will agree with you, going heavy might not allow you to contract the muscles as you want them, which is why most bodybuilders will train at lower weights and trying to feel the mind-muscle connection. But despite all that, I did put on 5kg (most of it muscle) with 3 weeks of training, and my shirts fit tighter. The only other program that gave me excellent results was Rippetoes, also a low rep program. I think it's safe to say that you can put on significant amount of muscle too by using low repetitions as well. I'm not saying you're wrong, what I'm saying is don't be too quick to categorise low reps for powerlifters, high rep for bodybuilders. You need to teach me YOUR secret to those huge arms

Noel, thank you for the breakfast suggestion. I usually eat my breakfast pretty close to my training time (1 hour+ before) so I cannot eat too much. I should probably wake up earlier to eat. Any suggestion on specific foods to add?

Iamyuanwu, I initially thought it was because of the 'violent' tv shows I was watching before bed, things like Burn Notice, Criminal Minds etc. Then I decided to watch comedy (Two and a Half Men) right before I went to bed, and that didn't help. I tried watching porn and fapping before bed, that unfortunately did not help either.

Many of you have stated that you will not follow the program ever. Well to be honest, I don't know what to say. I've had the best results I've ever had in my entire life. This is the first time I've ever weighed 80kg. I expected to achieve at least 80kg by middle of January next year, definitely not within 3 weeks. The results shocked me to be honest, in a good way. This program definitely has it flaws though, I'll be the first to admit., thought that's been discussed already.

What I'm not so sure now is about my future. I'll be gym-less until next year. But I need the break anyway after a program like this. I will be focusing on mobility work and bodyweight exercises. I have not decided what to do after that. I would like to be on a more hypertrophy focused program, hoping to put on as much muscle as possibly before CNY, and then focusing on strength after that. Hopefully by then I could reach around 85kg. I do not know what program I will be following. My current thoughts are on 5/3/1, but I do not know if it will satisfy my hypertrophy needs.

If any of you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate. Once again, thank you all for your input.

This post has been edited by Desvaro: Dec 18 2009, 07:10 PM