Buckeye Routine....Awesome!!

[jp]

OK, so I started using the Buckeye routine for all three lifts and can report that it seems to be just the right amount of volume for this 46 year old Master's lifter....especially the bench. Felt strong and solid on all the reps. Nothing magical about the program but it is a solid routine.

Kudos to the author of the routine....!

JP

[George]

JP...glad its working. It came from an Ohio State strength coach while we were visiting a football camp there, hence the name.

When we were there we got to watch Eddie George, Vrabel, Orlando Pace and Peppy Pearson workout. I specifically remeber Eddie doing jump squats with 365, Vrabel repping 315 for multiple reps and Pearson doing sets of twelve dips with a 50lb dumbbell hanging from a chain belt. Some very good pro athletes there (Heisman winner included)...and they still didn't beat Michigan that year.

[IronMan]

Where can I see the routine, please?

[rickhussey]

half way down this thread....

rawpowerlifting.proboards62.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=logs&thread=1180500908&page=1

[jp]

gravisferrum said:

JP...glad its working. It came from an Ohio State strength coach while we were visiting a football camp there, hence the name.

When we were there we got to watch Eddie George, Vrabel, Orlando Pace and Peppy Pearson workout. I specifically remeber Eddie doing jump squats with 365, Vrabel repping 315 for multiple reps and Pearson doing sets of twelve dips with a 50lb dumbbell hanging from a chain belt. Some very good pro athletes there (Heisman winner included)...and they still didn't beat Michigan that year.

That's cool that you got to watch them.

So, what was the rest of their routine like?

[IronMan]

Thanks, all, for the routine itself and the comments. I'm not clear on a few things though:

Bench frequency on the Buckeye routine is at least once, possibly twice per week? If not twice, but one is accustomed to benching twice per week, what might the second workout look like?

What frequency on Buckeye routine for the squats and deads?

I do appreciate that one has to adjust for personal needs, so I'm after general guidleines.

Assume an intermediate 50+ lifter...

Thanks.

[toolpod]

OG, I'm 37 and the Buckeye is just over the line for twice a week. Maybe every 4-5 days would work, but I hate rolling schedules.

Normally I do the Buckeye as the heavy day (Wed) and do a DE/mix day on saturdays; Speed bench and heavy rack-lockouts along with some triceps work. That seems to be a good balance of heavy chest one day, heavy tris another.

[George]

I agree with Toolpod. The buckeye takes you to near max loads. Some say that going above 90% is what spurs the overtrain...the Buckeye takes you to this point. The only times I used it more than once a week were when I was making steady jumps and was greedy. (And I was 16-18yrs old).

[George]

JP: I'm sure they all had their own things going on from the look of it. If I'm not mistaken there were several routines posted on the walls for various exercises. My guess would be a few of them were copied if not personally suggested by the coaches and passed out. All of the OSU staff was there for the camp, including Cooper. All of them were very personable and would answer everything they could. It seemed to me that they had their own lifting groups and everyone did their own bread and butter, at least during the week we were there.

As a joke I asked their strength/line coach Mike Jacobs if my calves were as big a Eddie's. He laughed, so I took it as a no...lol

[jp]

oldguy said:

Thanks, all, for the routine itself and the comments. I'm not clear on a few things though:

Bench frequency on the Buckeye routine is at least once, possibly twice per week? If not twice, but one is accustomed to benching twice per week, what might the second workout look like?

What frequency on Buckeye routine for the squats and deads?

I do appreciate that one has to adjust for personal needs, so I'm after general guidleines.

Assume an intermediate 50+ lifter...

Thanks.

HI...I'm 46 and an advanced lifter. I train my deadlift once in 8-10 days during the off season. If I compete, where I know I'll be in PR territory, I space the deadlift out 10-14 days. I squat once in 8-9 days and bench twice a week. I just started the Buckeye routine, and since my bench tends to peak and get overtrained very fast, I use the Buckeye once in 7-8 days with either a DB bench or weighted dip routine in between.

[jp]

gravisferrum said:

JP: I'm sure they all had their own things going on from the look of it. If I'm not mistaken there were several routines posted on the walls for various exercises. My guess would be a few of them were copied if not personally suggested by the coaches and passed out. All of the OSU staff was there for the camp, including Cooper. All of them were very personable and would answer everything they could. It seemed to me that they had their own lifting groups and everyone did their own bread and butter, at least during the week we were there.

As a joke I asked their strength/line coach Mike Jacobs if my calves were as big a Eddie's. He laughed, so I took it as a no...lol

LOL!! Copy that...thanks...

[IronMan]

Thanks, JP

Again, appreciating that one has to judge by one's own results, is the Buckeye routine generally considered to be a 10-12 week progam, before needing to change it up?

[jp]

oldguy said:

Thanks, JP

Again, appreciating that one has to judge by one's own results, is the Buckeye routine generally considered to be a 10-12 week progam, before needing to change it up?

You know, that I'm not sure about....I was just going to work on it until it stopped working. No exact science to it. For me, my bench peaks and gets over trained very fast...usually about 6-8 weeks. So, I suppose that's about how long it'll last before I need to change things up. My squat and dead lift take a little longer to peak because I train them once in 9-10 days roughly....sometimes the dead lift is trained once every 10-14 days depending on if there's a meet planned. I was thinking of cycling back on the bench and training it once every 8 days with a DB bench or weighted dip routine in the middle of that.

[IronMan]

JP

My bench, too, tends to peak fairly quickly, sometimes requiring as short as a 3 week-cycle.

But ,what the heck; I'll give it it run as see what happens. As Bobby Jones said, "Just knock Hades out of it, it has to come down somewhere..."

[3speed]

My bench had gone up exactly -5 pounds over the last 2 years. I started the buckeye at 20 pounds below my max. Considering the recent stellar peformance of my bench, I figured I needed as much of a head start as I could get. With the exception of interrupting it for 2 meets and backing off a little to restart after those meets, I have run the buckeye and have made steady, WEEKLY, progress on my bench. After making absolutely no progress for 2 years, I have added 30 pounds to my bench in 6 months.

It is, indeed, a stretch but I might actually start to like the bench.

[fatcat]

Wow glad to read all of the promising posts. I started this routine this week did it for bench and squat, Both where tough. I might have started to heavy, I try to progress for a few weeks and go back down in weight if need be. The squat was especially tough.
I did the bench like George stated.
buckeye, 2nd push move overhead press, 2 tricep moves CG, dips, + 1 set pushups

[jp]

fatcat said:

Wow glad to read all of the promising posts. I started this routine this week did it for bench and squat, Both where tough. I might have started to heavy, I try to progress for a few weeks and go back down in weight if need be. The squat was especially tough.
I did the bench like George stated.
buckeye, 2nd push move overhead press, 2 tricep moves CG, dips, + 1 set pushups

Looks like a good routine. Are you doing lat/back work and bicep work as well?

I tend to work my whole upper body along with the bench press. My work schedule is such that splitting everything up much more than an upper body day and a lower body day would have everything spaced out too far.

So, I use the buckeye routine first followed by close grip bench press;

I hit handstand pressing for shoulders next (I got some bum discs in my neck that prevent me from pressing overhead - too painful);

flat bench flys (these actually seemed to have helped my bench)

I hit abs next to give my chest and shoulders a break, then move onto

Pullups, upright rows with a bench grip/leaning forward slightly and only pulling to the lower chest and ez bar curls. Sounds like a lot, but the assistance work is only 3 sets each and I move quickly on it.

The second bench day is a DB bench day instead of the buckeye routine. Everything else is the same.

JP

[fatcat]

Jp I only Bench shoulders tricep, but will probably need to do back/bicep work like that also.
What do you do on DB bench day?

[fatcat]

Remember reading about a big time powerlifter talking about doing direct pec work. Flys or peckdeck stuff, talked about not forgetting some direct chest work.

[jp]

Fatcat,

Hi Happy New Year!!

The DB bench day is simply replacing the barbell BP with a DB routine. I do 3-5 sets of 8 reps or so with heavy DB's....not too heavy though. I use like 65 pounders right now. I do the same assistance work. Nothing is different there. I make sure I do back work, whether I do it on my bench day or a dead lift or squat day. I work my back pretty hard. I do flys because they do seem to help me with launching the bar off the chest. I do 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps on these in quick succession. Flys have always seemed to help my bench. Not sure why either except they seem to hit the pec/delt tie in area. When I do flys on a regular basis that area thickens up and my bench is easier. Seems to work....not an exact science, huh? LOL!!

JP

[IronMan]

re DB flyes for upping bench

JP,

What hand position have you found most effective-- facing inward, 45 deg, other...?

OG

[jp]

oldguy said:

re DB flyes for upping bench

JP,

What hand position have you found most effective-- facing inward, 45 deg, other...?

OG

Hi,

You know I've tried lots of different hand positions and the two that seem to help me are the standard palms facing each other version and the other version is simply a palms facing version too, but as I'm moving the DB's up to completion from the bottom position, I lead with the pinky fingers, so that the plates that are facing my legs touch before the plates that are facing my face....if that makes sense.

Essentially, the palms facing version has me touching all the plates at the same time at the top of the movement where with the other version just the plates facing your legs touch....its subtle but seems to work.

J

[IronMan]

Did my first Buckeye routine on the bench today. Don't know where it'll lead me, of course, but it sure looks and feels promising. Nice mix of strength and endurance elements and enough reps to work on technique. Felt like I'd had an intense w/o, but not too intense.

I tend to lack patience between sets-- used 45-90 sec rest intervals.

[jp]

I'm finding it a bit much I think....I like the routine....don't get me wrong...I just worry it may be a bit too much in terms of percentage. You do go up to 90% at every workout. I would think that would wear on you a bit after a few weeks. It certainly seems to be with me. I found using it for the bench press that I can't do much more than the routine. And, I know that simply doing the bench routine isn't enough to get a decent bench press. If I add other work into the routine it just puts me over the edge.

That said, I still think the Buckeye is an awesome routine. I found that I increased my bench by about 20 pounds with it in a very short period of time. I'm not sure if I can keep up the routine indefinitely though or at least for a few more weeks. I seemed to have topped out on it within a month.

I will probably back off of it for awhile and do something a little more manageable like 4x4 reps or 5x2 reps with 80% and go back to it at some point.

[IronMan]

I believe you may be on to something, as I think I spoke a bit to soon; I felt good on the day of the workout, but was draggy for the next 72 hours. Said differently, it is intense. I'm scheduled for w/o #2 on Sat or Sun-- I'll be watching my recovery rate with interest...