Inspired by the thread "Early RTS success", I'm curious to hear more from people who have tried this system and how their progress has been so far. Anybody who has trained RTS for 1 mesocycle or more, feel free to post thoughts about the system and your progress here.
I have only trained RTS for one week so I will come back with my own response to this after the first mesocycle.
Excellent progress for months. I guess the most important thing I got out of Mike's book was this: think for yourself and do what you need to do to make progress.
I think people get way too hung up on following a program, worrying obsessively about minor details(like doing 3 reps instead of 4, etc.), instead of monitoring their progress and experimenting.
I still follow the basic 4 day template but its still totally individualized. I trained using Sheiko templates for quite awhile and even had a coach following my training partner and I(Eric Talmant's coach, Dave Bates) but I still found the need to add in different movements like 2 boards to address weaknesses and I didn't do all the accessory work like flyes because I didn't think it would help(based on experience).
Becoming a good(or great) athlete is a slow-burn process and at some point people need to think for themselves. Taking a year to improve a given lift may happen at a point in a powerlifters career. Frustrating yes, but still progress.
Sorry about the rant...in a nutshell, RTS manual is a superb little collection and I continue to make steady, consistent progress.
I'm about 6 or 7 weeks in, have Mike doing the programming for me, and have already seen marked improvement in a couple key lifts where I was stuck before. Farmer's Pickups, for example, I was at 275/hand, and hit a 1RM of 315/hand last week. I'm feeling way stronger overall.
I was previously doing a modified Westside routine (Lower ME, Upper ME, Full body DE). I was getting some progress from that, but nothing like what I'm seeing now.
Yeah this is a good thread for sure. Let Mike see his students brag! I am just finishing up three mesocycles and here are the gains:
Squat with B+W Start- 455-475ish Now 585 with more in the tank.
Beltless squats:+200B Bands Start 315x4@9 Now 405x5@9 and 500x1@9.5 So huge gains
Deadlift Start 560x2@9 Now 725x1 and just missed 751.
Bench press Start 330x3@10 Now Probably at 385x3-4
Closegrip bench paused Start 315x1-2 Now 385x1 with some left.
Dumbbell shoulder press Start 100's x 4 Now 100's x 15 full out. That is in a seat with a backrest.
Basically those are the main gains. No need to get into smaller excercises but you get the point. I am asked by EVERYONE at the gym what I am doing. Just like everyother lifter that lifts decent weights I get steroid accusations as well. I take those as a compliment. I have sent about 50+ people to the website to get Mikes book, but am unsure how many have actually bought yet.
This progress that I have made is simply on the BASIC template, so when I plateau then I have many options I can take to get the lifts moving again. That is what I like so much about RTS training. Without it i would stall, and I would be lost. I thought the only other way was weight gain. Very untrue. You the man Mike.
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The way to Jordan's heart, is through his left ventricle.
Not even three mesocycles yet. I have one week left in my intensity cycle, then I will be through 3 full. I train 4 out of 8 days because of my work schedule.So 12 workouts in the volume= 24 days so the intensity is the same. 48 per mesocycle. I am exactly 136 days in to be exact since I just figured it out. Deadlift has basically moved a pound per day for everyday I have been doing this.
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The way to Jordan's heart, is through his left ventricle.
That's awesome, guys! You all deserve congratulations for taking ownership of your programming and putting in tons (literally) of hard work and getting what you put in. Intelligent, consistent, hard work is clearly paying off for you guys! Again, congrats on the progress!
6 weeks later after doing RTS I did a test week where I worked up to about 95-97%.
455/315/550 - 1320 Total
Since then I've hit a 470 squat, and a 335 bench (touch and go, not paused). I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll hit close to a 100lb PR total at my next meet in 6 weeks, after only 12 weeks of RTS style training.
Raw Squat - 585 actual lift (estimations put me at 575 without a belt now) Raw Bench - 465 @9 (500lbs 1 board) Raw Deadlift - 635 (approaching this without a belt as well) Raw Total - 1680 (could be more if I trained for a contest and wore a belt)
EQ Squat - 675 @8.5 (back in May 2007, should be wayyy beyond this now) EQ Bench - 611 at usapl nationals with 5k left in the tank EQ Deadlift - 635 raw EQ Total - 1910, but it is more likely to be closer to 2025
I would say that my results have been very consistent.