‘Unrealistic’ Athletic Goals: Why and How to Pursue Them

Human flight in the form of judo. (Photo: Fabiogis50)

Pavel Tsatsouline was punching me in the ass.

It’s not every day that you have a former Soviet Special Forces instructor punch you in the butt cheeks. But it was the second day of Russian Kettlebell Certification (RKC), and we were practicing constant tension, one of several techniques intended to increase strength output. In this case, we spot-checked each other with punches. Pavel, now a U.S. citizen and subject matter expert to the U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault Team, wandered the ranks, contributing jabs where needed.

Two hours earlier, Pavel had asked the attendees for someone stuck at a 1-rep maximum (1RM) in the one-arm overhead press. He then proceeded to take the volunteer from 53 lbs. to 72 lbs. in less than five minutes: a 26% strength increase. Translated into more familiar terms, this would represent a jump in one-repetition max from 106 pounds to 144 pounds in the barbell military press.

There were dozens of such demonstrations throughout the weekend, and each was intended to reinforce a point: strength is a skill.

Not only is strength a skill, but it can be learned quickly.

The following article, authored by Pavel, describes how he helped his father become an American record holder in powerlifting with just one hour of training per week…

Enjoy.

Enter Pavel

“Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic,” Tim wrote in The 4-Hour Workweek:

“It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming… The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.”

Running is the most democratic of all sports. Because it seems so unthreatening—“anyone can do it”—every local race is packed, and your chances of placing are slim to none.

In contrast, sports like powerlifting, grip sport, or arm wrestling have a remarkably small number of competitors. Showing up already means that you have defeated 99% of the contenders. They were too intimidated to even try.

A couple of years ago, I brought my 70-year old father to a power meet to keep me company. But he was not content to watch; I caught him in the warm-up area deadlifting 225 pounds with bad form. So, you want to compete, Dad? Affirmative.

My father, Vladimir, is a lifetime athlete—swimmer, boxer, judoka, skier, fencer, you name it. But he had not been bitten by the iron bug until then. He started training. A year later, he stood up with 374 pounds—without a belt!—at a body weight of 181 pounds and broke the American record (USPF single lift DL, 70-74 years old). Even if he took to running with the same zeal, he would still be finishing in the second wave of a local 5K race.

Vladimir Tsatsulin deadlifting on Muscle Beach Venice in one of his first meets. (Photo courtesy of www.venicepaparazzi.com)

Tim was right: “Unreasonable and unrealistic goals are easier to achieve for yet another reason. Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you will throw in the towel.”

My father’s training is very 4HWW. It is driven by Pareto’s Law and Parkinson’s Law. The former states that the lion’s share of the output is produced by a small fraction of the input. My old man wants to excel in the deadlift, so he deadlifts. He does no assistance exercises.

The other law, Parkinson’s, decrees that, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Deadlines imposed by regular powerlifting competitions keep my father focused on what strength coach Dan John calls “keeping the goal the goal.” This is why Vladimir competes, typically twice a year.

Would you like to follow my old man and become a successful lifter?

You have a choice of competing in all three powerlifting events (squat, bench press, and deadlift) or becoming a BP or DL specialist.

If doing all three appeals to you, review the article I wrote for Tim’s blog, 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts.

If you want to take the bench press route, you cannot do better than former Coach Powerlifting Team USA Marty Gallagher’s plan on pages 425-430 of The 4-Hour Body.

If you choose to be a deadlift specialist, follow my father’s tested plan.

Vladimir’s Deadlift Regimen

Vladimir competes only in the deadlift for three reasons. First, he has an old shoulder injury that prevents him from serious squatting and benching. Second, competing in only one event allows the athlete to have an ultra-narrow, highly focused goal. Third, the other two lifts demand that one adds a lot of muscle in order to be competitive. The deadlift is an exception, a pure “mind lift” that allows one to get very strong without adding much weight. Consider this video of one of our RKC kettlebell instructors, Melissa Klundby, pulling a record 314.5 pounds at a bodyweight of 128:

(Video courtesy of Melissa Klundby, RKC)

Dad deadlifts twice a week, once heavy and once light.

The light Monday workout never changes: 225 x 5/5. It serves several functions. First, technique pactice. Second, maintaining muscle mass close to a meet, when training volume on the heavy day has been reduced. To give you an idea how well this has been working, Prof. Stuart McGill commented that he had never seen such a muscular back on a seventy year old. And McGill, the world’s leading spine biomechanist and consultant to Olympic teams of several countries, has seen a great many impressive backs. Third, because the load remains the same, the perceived rate of exertion allows Vladimir to monitor his strength gains by paying attention to the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE).

Traditionally RPE is logged on a 1 to 10 scale, but I like my father’s method better: percentage of an all-out effort. Throughout the training cycle — before the meet in which he pulled his personal record 380 — his RPE readings for the light day read:

60%, 50%, 49%, 48%, 47%, 46%, 44%, 43%, 42%

You might say, “You have got to be kidding! 42%?! No one can define their perceived effort with such accuracy.”

True. In my father’s system, such increments simply mean that the weight felt a hair lighter than the last time. And I was very pleased to see the pattern as the light workout stayed the same for the duration of the cycle, and apples could be compared to apples. He was obviously getting stronger.

My father’s heavy day is Friday. Saturday would be better, as powerlifting meets are almost always held on this day, but Friday works too.

Following is the plan I had designed for his last competition (warm-ups are performed first):

Vladimir Tsatsulin’s 380-pound deadlift. The 73-year old athlete has been powerlifting for only a couple of years. (Video courtesy Steve Belanger, RKC)

Let us take the plan apart piece by piece.

First, the ‘warm-up’. It is a skill rehearsal more than anything. Note the low reps; one of the mistakes inexperienced lifters make is wasting their energy in their warm-ups—very un-4HWW.

Second, reps. Fives rule. Proven by decades of powerlifting experience, it is the most productive rep count for building lasting strength. Higher reps do not work as well and lower reps tend to burn the athlete out quickly. Which is why we switch to triples and doubles only for a couple of weeks before the meet to bring the strength to a short term peak.

Third, sets. The given numbers are not writ in stone but the pattern of reducing the total number of reps—in our example from 25 (5/5) in the first workout to 4 (2/2) in the last—as the cycle progresses towards the big day is almost universal. The volume is reduced because the weights have gotten a lot heavier and because the athlete needs extra recovery before competing.

Fourth, progression. Everything in nature is cyclical. It is impossible to add weight or reps indefinitely; you have to back off after achieving a personal best. It is not a matter of choice but of natural law. Whether you like it or not, thou shalt cycle. Master RKC Mark Reifkind, former Coach Powerlifting Team USA, jokes about the “tough guy cycle”: Heavy, heavier, even heavier, injury, light… Since your body will force you to downshift no matter what, you might as well plan for it. “The next step off a peak is always down,” warns Rif, “One should step down rather than fall off.” Which is why powerlifters developed a procedure called ‘cycling,’ which requires that one starts with weights and reps well below one’s ability, gradually goes heavier, posts a PR in competition, and starts over with light weights. He who denies the cyclical nature of adaptation is always punished.

Fifth, the length of the cycle. Eight to twelve week cycles are the norm among competitive powerlifters. The exact length is determined by the competition calendar, nine weeks in my father’s example. To map out a cycle, work back from the date of the competition. Here is a foolproof way of doing it:

Start with setting a goal for two sets of two reps on your last heavy workout before competition. For a beginner to intermediate lifter, the current 1RM is a realistic goal, but feel free to be more conservative as I am with my father.

Work back in increments of 2-5% of your one-rep max to arrive at your starting training weight. Vladimir jumps 10 pounds a week, which is a little under 3%. For reasons which are outside the scope of this article, I urge you not to take steps smaller than 2% (except when learning technique).

Let us design a sample cycle for a deadlifter with a 275-lb. 1RM. 2% of that weight is 5.5 pounds and 5% is 13.75. 10-pound jumps are what the doctor ordered. If our hypothetical puller has twelve weeks to go before competition, his poundages will be:

Week 1: 165

Week 2: 175

Week 3: 185

Week 4: 195

Week 5: 205

Week 6: 215

Week 7: 225

Week 8: 235

Week 9: 245

Week 10: 255

Week 11: 265

Week 12: 275 (2 x 2) < — start with this number and work backward

Week 13: Meet

Do five sets of five every week. It will feel very easy in the beginning. Don’t fret, it is supposed to be, as you are building ‘momentum’. Do NOT do more reps or sets than prescribed and do not reduce the prescribed rest periods! You will walk out of the gym wanting to do more and this is the way it is supposed to be.

At some point, the weights will get heavy. When you have barely made your 5/5 with good form, next workout switch to 3/3. Note that this sudden drop in sets and reps allows one to have a relatively easy workout in order to unload before the peak. It is one of the secrets behind the given cycle’s effectiveness.

Week 1: 165 x 5/5

Week 2: 175 x 5/5

………………

Week 10: 255 x 3/3

Week 11: 265 x 2/2

Week 12: 275 x 2/2

Week 13: Meet

The last two workouts before the meet are 2/2. And the number of 3/3 sessions will vary depending on how long you will keep on making 5/5 gains. This is the beauty of this cycle: it adjusts to you. In my father’s case, I had no doubt he would put up 305×5/5, was convinced that 325 was too much, and was not sure about 315. Hence the plan read, “315 x 5/5 or 3/3.”

This is how things might work out for our 275-pound puller:

Week 1: 165 x 5/5

Week 2: 175 x 5/5

Week 3: 185 x 5/5

Week 4: 195 x 5/5

Week 5: 205 x 5/5

Week 6: 215 x 5/5

Week 7: 225 x 5/5

Week 8: 235 x 5/5 (PR)

Week 9: 245 x 5/5 (PR)

Week 10: 255 x 3/3 (did not try sets of five because the last workout was very hard)

Week 11: 265 x 2/2

Week 12: 275 x 2/2

Week 13: Meet 300 PR

It is also possible that you will have to switch to triples on week nine or even earlier for stronger lifters. No problem, the flexible cycle accommodates any strength growth dynamics.

To sum up your plan of action:

– Start a cycle eight to twelve weeks before the meet.

– Plan on doing 2/2 with your current max on the week before the meet.

– Work back in 2-5% 1RM weekly increments to arrive at your starting poundage.

– Do 5/5 on your heavy day, preferably Saturday.

– Optional: a light workout of 40-60% 1RM x 5/5 and 5min of rest between sets three days after the heavy one.

– When it appears that you have reached your 5/5 limit, next workout switch to 3/3.

– The last two workouts before the meet are 2/2. The number of 3/3 workouts will vary depending on how long you will keep on making 5/5 gains.

Learn and perfect your technique first.

Find a powerlifter—not a bodybuilder and not a typical personal trainer—to teach you. Then subscribe to Powerlifting USA magazine and find a competition near you that’s three months away. Look for ‘raw’ meets that require you to compete without special squat suits, bench shirts, etc. AAU is one of the federations that hosts raw competitions.

An ‘unrealistic’ goal accomplished: my father becomes an American record holder—training only one hour per week. (Photo courtesy of www.venicepaparazzi.com)

I shall wrap up with another quote from The 4-Hour Workweek: “For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks… The universe doesn’t conspire against you but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct the course along the way.”

Do it now. What do you have to lose, except your weakness?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Pavel Tsatsouline is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor, currently a subject matter expert to US special operations units. Pavel’s bestselling book Beyond Bodybuilding has been endorsed by Larry Scott, Dave Draper, Marty Gallagher, and Louie Simmons. Subscribe to Pavel’s free e-newsletter and get a free course on building strong abs the Russian way at www.PowerbyPavel.com

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.