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Sheiko Prep Cycle
A four-week preparatory cycle built to Boris Sheiko's method, and the highest-volume program in the library by a distance. It is built into Ægir Iron and free to load.
What makes it Sheiko
Four things, and they are all unusual. The competition lifts are almost the only lifts: squat and bench are trained on nearly every day, and bench is usually trained twice in the same session at two different intensities. Everything lives between fifty and eighty five percent in sets of two to five, so there is no rep-out, no top single and no grinding in any week. Every working block is walked up to rather than jumped to, a set of five at fifty and two sets of four at sixty before the work, every single time. And the assistance is small and is the work Sheiko actually programs, good mornings, flyes, triceps, rows and abs, rather than whatever is fashionable.
What this is, and what it is not
Sheiko published numbered routines, #29, #30, #31, #37 and the rest, each a specific table of sets written against a specific preparation. This is not a transcription of one of them. It is a preparatory cycle built to his published method and loading conventions, which is what makes it useful as a built-in that anyone can load against their own maxes. If you are running a numbered routine out of the book, use New Program and then Upload Program instead, and Ægir Iron will follow it exactly.
At a glance
| Discipline | Powerlifting |
| Experience level | Advanced, and with the time to train three long days a week |
| Length | 4 weeks |
| Training days | 3 per week |
| Equipment | Full power gym |
| Loading | Percentage of a competition best. Sheiko is explicit that his tables should not be run off an inflated max. |
| Price | Free for individual lifters and rostered athletes |
Free for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster. Coaches pay only for roster tools.
How it works in Ægir Iron
Every set is priced off your squat, bench and deadlift, and the bench variations, close-grip and paused, price off your bench rather than asking for maxes of their own, so the whole cycle needs only three numbers. Nothing is flagged all out, because nothing in a Sheiko cycle has open reps: it ends by testing, not by inferring. If the full volume is more than you can absorb, the reduced option trims a working set from the two build-up weeks, which is the usual first concession for anyone who is not a full-time lifter. It never trims the ramp, because cutting the ramp would make a reduced cycle harder than a full one.
Start Sheiko Prep Cycle
Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Powerlifting, then choose Sheiko Prep Cycle from the cards under WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RUN? It is free on iOS, Android, and the web, with your data synced across all three.