Barbell Is there a way to do Alexander Faleev's Method without deadlifting (only Squat and bench)? Curious if Pavel could comment as well.

[jd59]

Here is an article written by Pavel (or at least part of it was):

Pavel: 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Mullet power: John Inzer deadlifts 780 lbs. at 165 lbs. bodyweight. (Photo: Powerlifting USA) Pavel Tsatsouline, former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor, has made a name for himself in the world of strength. He wrote the below article, outlining the simple routine of Russian...

tim.blog

Basically, the routine seems simple enough to follow.

One issue I have though is I simply can not deadlift where I workout. I don't want to argue about this or go into details why. It just can not occur due to rules. However, I can bench and squat (and do pull ups and other stuff).

Given this, could I follow the above routine with just Bench and Squat? If so, how should I structure it? Or is there something I could replace dead lifting with or would just replacing it with an extra day of heavy squatting be sufficient?

Also, what about cardio with this workout? How could one fit that in? Or something equivalent?

Thanks for any information.

 

[Steve Freides]

@jd59, welcome to the StrongFirst forum.

-S-

 

[Antti]

You could just leave the deadlift out. It's hard to say what the alternative could be since we don't know why exactly you can't deadlift. However, for example, if you can't deadlift because of the floor or such, you could do Romanian deadlifts, rows or good mornings.

 

[CraigW]

Good Mornings and Pendlay Rows.

 

[Steve Freides]

Or is there something I could replace dead lifting with or would just replacing it with an extra day of heavy squatting be sufficient?

If only two lifts, consider adding a medium day to the heavy and light days for the two lifts you'll be doing - that should work out just fine. Or do the light day twice, but don't do a second heavy day. There are many successful lifting programs that go heavy once a week and do nothing else but that - adding another day of lighter lifting would be fine. You could also use the additional day for accessory work, although at this point you are straying from the program as written in the article. One heavy and two light days per week on BP and SQ, or heavy, medium and light on each would be what I'd recommend.

-S-

 

[Steve A]

Actually in Faleev's original, he has the lifter do SQ, BP, and PU until the lifter is ready for DLing. Why not do PUs with a heavy day and a light day?

 

[marcelotine]

The deadlifting is the best part of the program.. I love them.

Sorry, totally unproductive comment..

 

[jd59]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

If only two lifts, consider adding a medium day to the heavy and light days for the two lifts you'll be doing - that should work out just fine. Or do the light day twice, but don't do a second heavy day. There are many successful lifting programs that go heavy once a week and do nothing else but that - adding another day of lighter lifting would be fine. You could also use the additional day for accessory work, although at this point you are straying from the program as written in the article. One heavy and two light days per week on BP and SQ, or heavy, medium and light on each would be what I'd recommend.

-S-

@Steve Freides , I guess I'm not fully following what you are recommending. So are you saying to do something like this?:

Monday: Heavy Squat
Tuesday: Heavy Bench
Wednesday:
Thursday: Light Squat
Friday: Light Bench

Also, since both of these movements are a push, I would think a pull would need to be incorporated into the program, no? Hence the deadlift in the original program, but not sure a better way to counter that. Maybe pull ups?

 

[jd59]

Actually in Faleev's original, he has the lifter do SQ, BP, and PU until the lifter is ready for DLing. Why not do PUs with a heavy day and a light day?

Thanks Steve for this information. Do you have a link to the original Faleev plan? I would love to take a look as that sounds perfect for my situation if there is a program like that.

 

[Steve Freides]

Thanks for all the replies so far.



@Steve Freides , I guess I'm not fully following what you are recommending. So are you saying to do something like this?:

Monday: Heavy Squat
Tuesday: Heavy Bench
Wednesday:
Thursday: Light Squat
Friday: Light Bench

in his three day version, heavy SQ + light bench is your “A” day, and heavy BP + light SQ is your “B” day. One week will be ABA on MWF, the next week will be BAB.

In your place I’d consider 5 days:
Mon = heavy bench
tue = heavy SQ
wed = light bench
Thu = light SQ
Fri = medium bench

-S-

 

[Steve A]

Thanks Steve for this information. Do you have a link to the original Faleev plan? I would love to take a look as that sounds perfect for my situation if there is a program like that.

I do not. I have a translation of his book, apparently it has been on my computer for many years. My memory failed me and so my above post is inaccurate, but here is the relevant text.

Ie all the exercises in your weekly training cycle should not be more than 3 (rarely 4). I recommend you the following "golden three": squats, bench press, deadlift. (At first, while you are working with small weights, and thus is quickly restored, the program can add pull-ups.) But if you can not squat, it is possible to do squats instead of leg press. If you can not reap lying, then you can do dips with a weight belt. Instead postural thrust can be done or slopes with a bar on their shoulders, or pull-ups with a weight belt. But the principle remains the same - once you have chosen your 3 basic exercises, then just do them, build up the result only in them, do not spray, and progress will surprise you and others.

There are plenty of ways you can put SQ-BP-PU together, depending on how many days you want to lift. You define the program perfect for your situation.

 

[jd59]

Ok thanks for that. So, sounds like really he just wants you to do 3 exercises, and can be any. So maybe a program like this might work?

M: HEAVY BP
T: HEAVY SQ
W: Heavy Pull Ups (Weighted)
Thursday: off
Friday: light SQ, Light BP.

Does that sound reasonable or does something seem off about that?

 

[Steve A]

Yes, that would work. You could probably do light pullups on Friday as well if you wanted, since they usually aren't as draining as DLs.