Competitive Program Overview

Welcome to the Sheiko 26 Week Program

This program is designed for intermediate lifters who compete. The program is built of a 14-week block that leads to a singles test and then another 12-week block that ends with a 4-week competition cycle.

There are many ways to think about the allocation of volume in this program as each microcycle takes into consideration the ones that come before and after it. However, for the purposes of knowing where you are at in the program, we have broken the program into 4-week chunks and will describe those generally here, so you can track your progress and fatigue more closely.



Block 1 (Weeks 1-4) is one of the higher volume blocks in the cycle. During weeks 1-3 the volume will increase and there will be a slight dip in week 4 (although week 4 will still be higher than weeks 1 and 2 in terms of volume). Week 3 will be one of your hardest weeks of the entire cycle. During this block, you will start to feel tired but know that easier weeks are coming.

Block 2 (Weeks 5-8) starts with an easier week; the number of reps will be down below that of even week 1. However, week 6 and week 8 will of this block will be higher volume weeks with week 8 being the highest number of working reps in this block. Your fatigue should start to even out in this block of the program if it continues to grow you may need to pull back on the volume some.

Block 3 (Weeks 9-12) will follow the same down-up-down-up structure of block 2. Week 10 has the most reps of any week of the program but week 11 is the lowest number of reps of the first 12 weeks so this will allow for you to recover.

To step back and look at blocks 1-3 (the first 12 weeks) the volume and working reps will be the highest in block 1 and blocks 2 and 3 will have almost identical levels of working reps. These 12 weeks are your main accumulation blocks and are not meant to push you into peak form but to help you build a foundation from which you will peak later.

Block 4 (Weeks 13 and 14) is only 2 weeks long and is designed to release some fatigue and allow for a demonstration of strength, even though it is not a full peak. Week 13 has fewer reps than any week before it and functions as a deload before the test of singles on week 14.

Block 5 (Weeks 15-18) follows the stairstep pattern of down-up-down-up with week 16 being one of the hardest weeks in the cycle as it has the second most reps and higher percentages than week 10.

Block 6 (Weeks 19-22) follow a reverse stairstep pattern of up-down-up-down. Week 3 will have the highest number of working reps in the block but should be easier than week 10 of 16. From this point on the reps will decline.

Block 7 – Competition Block (Weeks 23-26) will follow a traditional peaking strategy and is meant to put you in the best possible situation to demonstrate the strength you have built. This block will have a lower number of working reps as the four weeks with the lowest number of working reps are all in this block.

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