Bear Routine: A training method for iron lovers

From the first moment I opened the gym door, I wanted to have the chiseled abs of Simeon Panda or other popular athletes. Unfortunately, fate willed it otherwise and my love for food was always a little stronger than the desire for a strict diet and the subsequent admiration of friends who have long since given up exercising.

However, I humbly dare to say that I have acquired certain predispositions in terms of strength. And that's why I took a liking to the Bear Routine a long time ago, which is one of the most challenging training methods I've done so far. I would like to share my findings and the right approach to training with you in today's article.

What you absolutely need to know before you start

Like any methodology, the Bear Routine has its strict guidelines that you must follow. And it is from these principles that you can deduce some information that you need to know whenbefore you start the training, which was created by the popular Russian trainer Pavel Tsatsouline. Let's introduce the most important things:

Knowing the correct exercise technique

As you will learn in the following lines, the Bear Routine is a workout based primarily onm on complex exercises, the technique of which is much more demanding than, say, pulling down a pulley. Therefore, this training concept is intended primarily for more advanced exercisers who have no doubts in knowing the correct technique of the basic exercises.

Strong mid-body

Hand in hand with frequent use of complex exercises goes the strength of the middle of the body and the deep abdominal muscles. Why? Because a strong abdomen, although some of you may not realize it, is essential for proper spinal stabilization, which is essential for injury prevention. If you want to try the Bear Routine, definitely start doing regular core strengthening in preparation for this program.

Exercise sensibly and avoid failure

The vast majority of beginners tend to push their workouts to the limit, thinking that this will also maximize their results. Any more advanced athlete already knows that the body simply doesn't work that way, and this workout is clear proof of that. If you try to ride the Bear Routine to the last vestiges of your strength, you will find yourself overtraining after just a few workouts. So you have to think about the concept of the workout yourself and modify it yourself if you feel excessive fatigue.

You need the right mental setup and a lot of time

The last two points are quite possibly the most important. The key aspect to completing this workout is actually having enough time, because it's definitely not a matter of 30 minutes. The workout has extreme volume in terms of the number of sets, so be prepared to spend a lot of time in the gym.

And why do you need the right mental setup? Well, primarily because of the deliberate regression that the cycle itself begins with. You'll need to lift significantly lower weights than you're used to. But it's so that you have the opportunity to continually progress and the training accomplishes its purpose.

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Only three training units a week?!

Although I have raised the possible risk of overtraining in the previous paragraphs, in reality an athlete only completes three training units per week. Well, add to that the fact that the backbone of the whole concept will be three exercises and three exercises only, and most of you will probably raise your eyebrows in wonder. So where's the problem? The number of sets. For each exercise, you'll have to "do" 12-17 sets. No, I really didn't get that number wrong, and I'm serious. The first two sets of each exercise will be slightly harder and the remaining 10-15 should beshould ideally be about 8-12% lighter (so that the weight always counts well).

The second observation that is important to disclose before the actual training schedule table is the choice of exercises to include in the workout plan. This is because the two exercises performed are mutual antagonists- they are opposite movements involving opposite muscle groups. And to make matters worse, they are performed in superseries. You can imagine the situation very well on a bench press, for example, which loads (primarily) the pectoral muscles, the front delts and triceps, and front squats, which involve the broad back, biceps and rear delts.

How should the workout itself be structured?

To make the idea of the workout as simple as possible for you, you can see the recommended structure of the workout clearly in the table below. For clarity, we choose Monday, Wednesday and Friday as the training days, but you can of course modify them according to your preferences:

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What modification do we recommend?

If you're a really advanced exerciser and wouldn't mind putting in this (already very challengingdifficult workout) to add one more workout, I definitely recommend doing so. In it I would myself prefer various additional exercises, for example for arms or calves. It is sufficient to choose three to four exercises and "pump up" the muscles during 5 sets. "Bear Routine is a rather stereotypical workout, so I think that the 4th workout will spice it up well. But there are definitely some limits to what you can do in it. However, there should be exercises represented that you don't do in the previous three workout days.

Personal experience is invaluable

Let's move away from the theoretical lessons to how I myself managed the Bear Routine training. I have to admit that I found the beginning of this methodology quite challengingbecause I am used to longer breaks between sets and suddenly I was forced to spend over two hours in the gym. However, once I got used to it, I enjoyed the training very much and I must say that the results were noticeable not only on ourmuscle growth, but especially on the strength for higher repetitions. So I'm sure that even though this workout won't suit everyone, almost everyone can benefit from it. I was able to stick with this workout for about three months and that's a perfectly adequate amount of time in my opinion.

What weights to choose?

You will have noticed that up until now, no specific weights have been mentioned in the article. This is because there is no universal advice in this case, so I would rather describe my personal experience. For the exercises in the superseries, I followed a rather feeling-based approach and tried to choose a weight with which it would not be a problem to complete even the last set of a given exercise. For the third exercise I started with 70% of the max for one repetition, which was very easy. However, each subsequent week I added 2.5%, which ensured steady progress.

What supplements to take?

With this training plan I didn't use any special supplements, just what I'm used to. These weremagnesium and zinctwo indispensable supplements in everyone's diet, a good multivitamin and last but not least a tasty proteinwhich was indispensable after the workout.

A stereotype, but one that will yield results

Just like, for example, the popular Korte, the Bear Routine is a fairly stereotypical training method. But that doesn't mean it isn't functional. On the contrary, from my own experience, I have to say that it was one of the methods I was inspired by inand I can definitely recommend it to all advanced exercisers.

Well that's all for today's article from us, if you have any questions, definitely ask in the comments and we'll always be happy to answer.

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