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by greg nuckols & omar isuf

simplified
strength
Option 1

T he Slavic Swole is written to people who want to use HIHF training while
not sacrificing their physique goals.
This is written to people just trying to get brutally strong, but who have issues
with applying the style of HIHF training laid out in The Bulgarian Manual di-
rectly.
To make HIHF training work the way it’s laid out in the Manual, you have
to be pretty good at autoregulating – being able to pick the right weights (not
pushing your daily max to the point of grinding too much or failing) during
the training session, and being able to know when you should really push your
training for the day, or when you should just hit your daily minimum and live
to fight another day.
This guide is designed to give you two options that will feel more like a set
program, taking some of the guesswork out of HIHF training.
Both are designed in such a way as to take advantage of two core features of

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programming: overreaching and supercompensation. If you properly autoreg-
ulate your HIHF training, you’ll wind up applying these principles organically
(and, in fact, all successful programs are built around these two factors), but
many people fail to do so because they’re simply unsure of when they should
push their training harder, and when they should pull back.

Option 1:
This first option reflects the pattern many people see naturally when they ap-
ply HIHF training principles, especially after the initial round of frequent PRs
slows down. They’ll churn away at their workouts, hitting pretty similar daily
maxes and pretty high training volume. Eventually they’ll have a day that’s just
“bad.” They feel stiff and slow, and their max dips. They take a short break to
recover, and hit a new 5-10lb (2.5-5kg) PR their first day back.
This is often the pattern people experience when they frequently take Saturday
and/or Sunday off of training as well. They may need to shake off some rust
on Monday, Tuesday they usually PR, and the rest of the week they just put the
work in, accumulating some fatigue before taking another day or two off on the
weekends, with the cycle repeating the next week.
Here’s what’s going on.
Every training session has two effects. Each session increases fitness, while
causing fatigue. Your performance is roughly the interaction between those two
variables: fitness minus fatigue.
As you have several hard training days back-to-back-to-back, you’re continu-
ing to build fitness, but fatigue is increasing at a slightly faster rate, eventually

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leading to a rough day when performance noticeably dips.
However, with a short break (short because your body gets so accustomed to
recovering quickly when you’re training almost daily), fatigue decreases much
faster than fitness does. So after one or two easier days, that fatigue is no longer
masking the fitness you’ve recently built, so you’re ready for a PR. Then the
cycle repeats itself.

Banister I-R Model

Fitness
Training
Fatigue

This figure illustrates the effects of fitness and fatigue on performance.


Their interplay is discussed in much greater depth in our book,
“The Science of Lifting.”

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As I said, this is the pattern that many people stumble upon naturally, without
knowing that it’s what is “supposed” to happen. However, that usually takes
some time and experimentation, so I want to help you fast-track that learning
experience.
Using this overreaching (fatigue increases faster than fitness, masking perfor-
mance) and super compensation (fatigue drops faster than fitness, increasing
performance) pattern for yourself is very straightforward.

Step 1:
For your workouts, work up to your daily max for squat and bench, followed
by 2-6 dropback sets of 2-4 reps with 80-90% of your daily max. This was the
“standard” workout laid out in The Bulgarian Manual, with the daily volume
near the high end of what most people could comfortably handle.

Step 2:
Repeat Step 1 until one day your daily max for one of your lifts drops more
than 5-7% under your recent best (within the past 2-3 weeks). The day this
happens, don’t do any dropback sets for that lift, but continue training the other
one as you normally would.
So if your best daily max squat is 200kg, if your daily max drops to or below
185-190, that would tell you to not do any dropback sets for squat on that day.
185-190 would be the gray zone. If you feel good but the weights just aren’t
moving fast, you can probably keep training as you normally would; if you feel
pretty rough, then call it for the day with that lift. If your daily max was only

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180, though, you should know for sure that it’s time for a short break.

DAILY MAX DROPS


MORE THAN 7%
BELOW YOUR BEST.

DAILY MAX DROPS


5-7% BELOW YOUR
BEST. STOP IF YOU
FEEL WORN DOWN;
KEEP GOING IF YOU
FEEL GOOD BUT
WEIGHTS ARE
MOVING SLOWLY.

DAILY MAX WITHIN


5% OF YOUR BEST.

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Step 3:
The next day, don’t train that lift at all, or just hit 3-4 explosive sets of 2-3 reps
at 50-60% of your max. Continue training your other lift as you normally would.

Step 4:
The day after that, just work up to your daily minimum. This gives your body
one more day of effective rest (minimally fatiguing workout), while making
sure the groove is fresh.

Step 5:
The day after that (3 days after the dip in your daily max), you should be good
to either tie your best daily max, or hit a 5-10lb (2.5-5kg) PR. Do your dropback
sets this day as your normally would.

Then start back at step 1.


Just to make it clear, you would train your squat and bench independent of
each other. If your squat is still doing well, but your daily max dips for bench
press, you’d only take the easy day, daily min day, then PR attempt for bench
press, not both lifts.
If you never have fluctuations like these in your daily maxes and they’re still
trending upward, that’s great! Stick with what you’re doing until it no longer
works.
If you never have fluctuations like these in your daily maxes and you’ve been
stalled for a while, that’s a good indicator that you’re not pushing your training

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volume quite hard enough. In the process, you’re not accumulating much fatigue,
but you’re also not building much fitness either, so performance is unchanged.

GUIDE Squat PR

NORMAL Fitness
DAILY MAX DROP
OFF/EASY Fatigue
DAILY MIN
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Fitness

Fatigue

Bench PR

This figure illustrates how this style of regulation


may look over a 12-day period.

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If this process still relies too much on autoregulation for you, that’s fine! You
can program it as a 4, 5, or 6 day weekly cycle if you want something even
more black-and-white.

Four day:
Day 1: PR attempt (maybe allow for *slightly* more grinding and a slightly
slower lift than normal, but no form breakdown at all) followed by dropback
sets. The volume you get from your dropback sets should be around what you
could maintain long-term without deloads.

Day 2: Work up to a daily max, being a bit more conservative, followed by


dropback sets on the high end of what you can handle. This should be a pret-
ty taxing workout. The amount of dropback sets will vary person to person,
but as a general rule of thumb, it should be 2-3 more sets than what you could
maintain long-term. This is also when you’d do your deadlift training (utilizing
submaximal singles, as discussed in The Bulgarian Manual).
If that still leaves too much ambiguity, then sticking with 2-4 dropback sets
on Day 1, and 4-6 on Day 2 will work for most people, most of the time.

Day 3: Easy workout. 3-4 explosive sets of 2-3 reps at 50-60% of your max
for both lifts.

Day 4: Work up to your daily minimum for both lifts, with no dropback sets.

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Start back over at day 1.

Five day:
Day 1: PR attempt (maybe allow for *slightly* more grinding and a slightly
slower lift than normal, but no form breakdown at all) followed by dropback
sets. The volume you get from your dropback sets should be around what you
could maintain long-term without deloads.

Day 2: A repeat of day 1, except a little more conservative with your daily
max. If another small PR is there, take it, but don’t push your top set quite as
hard. Number of dropback sets should be similar to Day 1.

Day 3: Work up to a daily max, being a bit more conservative than Day 1,
followed by dropback sets on the high end of what you can handle. This should
be a pretty taxing workout. The amount of dropback sets will vary person to
person, but as a general rule of thumb, it should be 2-3 more sets than what you
could maintain long-term. This is also when you’d do your deadlift training
(utilizing submaximal singles, as discussed in The Bulgarian Manual).
If that still leaves too much ambiguity, then sticking with 2-4 dropback sets
on Day 1 and 2, and 4-6 on Day 3 will work for most people, most of the time.

Day 4: Easy workout. 3-4 explosive sets of 2-3 reps at 50-60% of your max
for both lifts.

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Day 5: Work up to your daily minimum for both lifts, with no dropback sets.

Start back over at day 1.

Six day:
Day 1: PR attempt (maybe allow for *slightly* more grinding and a slightly
slower lift than normal, but no form breakdown at all) followed by dropback
sets. The volume you get from your dropback sets should be around what you
could maintain long-term without deloads.

Day 2: A repeat of day 1, except a little more conservative with your daily
max. If another small PR is there, take it, but don’t push your top set quite as
hard. Number of dropback sets should be similar to Day.

Day 3: A repeat of days 1 and 2.

Day 4: Work up to a daily max, being a bit more conservative than Day 1,
followed by dropback sets on the high end of what you can handle. This should
be a pretty taxing workout. The amount of dropback sets will vary person to
person, but as a general rule of thumb, it should be 2-3 more sets than what you
could maintain long-term. This is also when you’d do your deadlift training
(utilizing submaximal singles, as discussed in The Bulgarian Manual).
If that still leaves too much ambiguity, then sticking with 2-4 dropback sets
on Day 1 and 2, and 4-6 on Day 3 will work for most people, most of the time.

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Day 5: Easy workout. 3-4 explosive sets of 2-3 reps at 50-60% of your max
for both lifts.

Day 6: Work up to your daily minimum for both lifts, with no dropback sets.

(based off 5-day cycle)

Fitness

Fatigue

1 2 3 4 5

This figure illustrates how a 5-day cycle would look. The size of
the block represents the total training stress from the session.

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How you choose which cycle to do:
1. Let it happen organically if you’re somewhat comfortable with autoregu-
lation, but still want a more black-and-white approach than what was presented
in The Bulgarian Manual.
2. If you want even more clarity, simply start with the cycle that matches the
number of days you can train per week, and do it for both lifts. If you usually
train five days per week, start with the five-day cycle.
3. If you can train seven days per week, start with the four-day cycle. Once
you go for more than three cycles without a small PR, move to the five-day
cycle. Once you go for more than three cycles without a small PR, move to the
six-day cycle.
4. As you start feeling more comfortable with this setup, try to transition
toward the more autoregulated version over time if you started with one of the
cycles written up for a specific number of training days.

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Option 2

T he second option uses the same principles as the first (overreaching and
supercompensation) and puts a different twist on them.
Instead of manipulating fitness and fatigue simply by altering the training vol-
ume of the main lifts, you do it by rotating exercises that are inherently more or
less stressful due to the amount of weight you can handle.
For squat, here’s a continuum of exercises ranging from less stressful to more
stressful:

LOW STRESS
Paused, beltless front squats
Beltless front squats
Paused, beltless high bar squats

MEDIUM STRESS

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Front squats with a belt
Beltless high bar squats
Paused, beltless low bar squats
Beltless low bar squats

HIGH STRESS
High bar squats with a belt
Low bar squats with a belt
Low bar squats with a belt and wraps.

OVERLOAD
Any form of squat with accommodating resistance (bands or chains)

For bench, a similar continuum would be:

LOW STRESS
Close grip bench, paused, feet up
Close grip bench, paused
Extra wide (1-2 inches wider than normal - nothing crazy) bench paused, feet up

MEDIUM STRESS
Extra wide grip bench, paused
Close grip bench touch and go
Competition width bench paused, feet up

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HIGH STRESS
Extra wide grip bench, touch and go
Competition width bench, paused
Competition width bench, touch and go

OVERLOAD
Any form of bench with accommodating resistance (bands, chains, or slingshot)
The goal is the same as in option 1: build fitness and fatigue across a training
week, pull back for a couple days to let fatigue diminish so your performance
rises sharply, and repeat the process.
Don’t make a point of pushing the volume extra hard on any of your training
days. Start by working up to your daily max for each lift, then do 2-4 drop-
back sets of 2-4 reps with 80-90% of your daily max. That’ll get the job done
for most people. The increases and decreases in training stress are primarily
accomplished by simply doing more or less challenging variations of each lift.
Don’t cycle lifts too often simply for the sake of cycling them. Pick one vari-
ation in each category, and stick with it until it’s no longer increasing. Let’s say
you start with beltless high bar squats for your medium stress squat workouts.
Stay with beltless high bar squats for all medium stress squat workouts until you
haven’t hit a PR on your daily max for 3 weeks or more. Once that happens,
you can sub it out for one of the other medium stress squat options.
Do your deadlift work (submaximal singles, as presented in The Bulgarian
Manual) 1-2 times per week on days preceding low stress days or off days.

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There are a multitude of ways to structure your training week. I’ll provide
three options for people who train 4, 5, 6, or 7 days per week, but feel free to
structure it another way, as long as your structure meets these rules:
Don’t do more than two high stress days in a row
Don’t string more than 5 medium or high stress days together consecutively
with no off days or low stress days in between
Don’t use an overload day more than once every 2 weeks, and always follow
it with either a day off or two low stress days
Regardless of how you structure it, any day where your daily max dips by 10%
or more for a particular lift, take the next day off for that lift
This isn’t necessarily a rule, but if you’re training fewer than seven days per
week, try to ensure that your days off follow high stress days whenever possible.

4 Days Per Week:


Option 1:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: Low Stress
Day 3: High Stress
Day 4: Medium Stress

Option 2:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: Medium Stress
Day 3: Low Stress

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Day 4: High Stress

Option 3:
Day 1: High Stress
Day 2: Low Stress
Day 3: Medium Stress
Day 4: High Stress

5 Days Per Week:


Option 1:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: Medium Stress
Day 3: High Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: High Stress

Option 2:
Day 1: High Stress
Day 2: High Stress
Day 3: Low Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: Medium Stress

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Option 3:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: Low Stress
Day 3: High Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: High Stress

6 Days Per Week:


Option 1:
Day 1: High Stress
Day 2: Low Stress
Day 3: Medium Stress
Day 4: High Stress
Day 5: Low Stress
Day 6: Medium Stress

Option 2:
Day 1: Low Stress
Day 2: High Stress
Day 3: Medium Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: Medium Stress
Day 6: High Stress

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Option 3:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: High Stress
Day 3: Medium Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: Low Stress
Day 6: High Stress

7 Days Per Week:


Option 1:
Day 1: Medium Stress
Day 2: High Stress
Day 3: Low Stress
Day 4: High Stress
Day 5: Medium Stress
Day 6: Low Stress
Day 7: Low Stress

Option 2:
Day 1: Low Stress
Day 2: Medium Stress
Day 3: High Stress
Day 4: Low Stress
Day 5: High Stress

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Day 6: Medium Stress
Day 7: Medium Stress

Option 3:
Day 1: Low Stress
Day 2: Low Stress
Day 3: High Stress
Day 4: Medium Stress
Day 5: Low Stress
Day 6: Medium Stress
Day 7: Alternate High Stress and Overload

Just to reiterate, these are all options that will work well, but you can structure
it however you want (even changing the structure week to week if you’d like)
as long as you follow the five rules above.
So there you have it: two ways to add more structure to your HIHF training.
The first is perfect for people who like sticking with their competition-variety
squat and bench press for most of their training, and the second is for people
who like more variety, but who don’t like the ambiguity of the style of training
presented in The Superman Effect chapter of The Bulgarian Manual.
Chose whichever one appeals most to your personal preferences and schedule,
dive in, and crush some PRs!

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