Old Forum Surovetsky DL Cycle / Program questions

[David Williams]

I some some DL program questions for the party.

PTTP:  I've had alot of success with PTTP over the years.   As I improve though, I'm finding my back is fatiguing more with a 5 days a week cycle as the weights increase.   I do take back-off weeks, but I'm wondering if I should drop to fewer days a week or another approach?

The Srovetsky DL cycle in PTTP Pro is new to me, but looks attractive as a possible option to use in alternating with PTTP.   Some questions:

1. With PTTP I've been taking a back off week every 3 - 4 weeks depending on back fatigue.  With a 9 week Suro/DL cycle the frequency is less given its only two days a week.  So how should one look at back off weeks - only every 9-10 weeks?

2. Does one stay with Suro/DL for several cycles or should I rotate back and forth with PTTP?

3. What is a good pairing with the Suro/DL program in terms of training MP and/or Pullups?

Thank you for any insights!

David

 

 

[Samuel]

I'm sure Pavel will answer too, but from my experience:

1. The cycle is laid out as it is. The first time I ran it, the intensity in the last few weeks hit hard and I couldn't get the double in week 8, but then I deloaded and hit a good max in week 9. Since then I've done it a few times and just follow it exactly as laid out to good success.

2. I've done it as a single cycle a few times, and most recently ran two cycles consecutively (without the max after the first, and running the second one off a predicted max of what I thought I could confidently do). Both work, but I don't think I would do more than two consecutively, and I would generally stick with one.

3. I liked pairing it with the shorter 8 week Butenko bench press cycle also from PttP Pro, but I don't see why you couldn't do pretty much anything you wanted. I think military press would be a better fit than pullups though (although you can certainly do some pullups - but if you were doing weighted, I wouldn't push intensity and volume too hard). Just pick something and run with it.

 

[Pavel]

David, follow the Surovetsky cycle as laid out—but calculated with a lower 1RM.

Then take a week off and do something else, e.g. a linear cycle similar to the one I have written to my father.