Russian Squat Program: The Full 6-Week Routine in % and kg

The Russian squat program is a 6-week cycle of 18 squat sessions, three a week, built entirely on percentages of your one-rep max. Weeks 1 to 3 keep the bar at 80% and pile on volume until you're doing 6 sets of 6. Weeks 4 to 6 strip the reps away and push the weight through 85%, 90%, 95% and 100%, and the last session is one single at 105%. Between every hard day sits an easier 6 sets of 2 at 80%.

It's short, it needs no spreadsheet beyond the table below, and it suits one kind of lifter well: someone with a year or more of consistent squatting who wants a new max by a specific date. Beginners will progress faster on something simpler, and I'll explain why further down.

Where the routine comes from

You'll see it called the Russian squat routine, the Russian squat cycle, or just RSR. The template is usually traced to a 1976 Soviet weightlifting yearbook article on building leg strength, credited to a coach named Zeinalov, and it was written for Olympic weightlifters whose squat was holding back their clean and jerk. It reached Western powerlifting through Fred Hatfield (the "Dr Squat" behind the Hatfield squat), who described it in a 1985 article as a six-week quick strength gain programme used by the Russians.

I couldn't get hold of the original Soviet text, so treat the precise authorship as probable. What isn't in doubt is the scheme itself, which matches across the published versions I checked, with one exception: some copies list session 7 at 85% or session 14 at 90%, and those look like transcription slips. The version below is the one that's internally consistent.

The full 18-session table

Train three non-consecutive days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday being the obvious choice. Percentages are of your starting one-rep max and they don't change during the six weeks. Sets and reps are written sets x reps.

Week	Session	Sets x reps	% of 1RM	100kg max
1	1	6 x 2	80%	80kg
1	2	6 x 3	80%	80kg
1	3	6 x 2	80%	80kg
2	4	6 x 4	80%	80kg
2	5	6 x 2	80%	80kg
2	6	6 x 5	80%	80kg
3	7	6 x 2	80%	80kg
3	8	6 x 6	80%	80kg
3	9	6 x 2	80%	80kg
4	10	5 x 5	85%	85kg
4	11	6 x 2	80%	80kg
4	12	4 x 4	90%	90kg
5	13	6 x 2	80%	80kg
5	14	3 x 3	95%	95kg
5	15	6 x 2	80%	80kg
6	16	2 x 2	100%	100kg
6	17	6 x 2	80%	80kg
6	18	1 x 1	105%	105kg

Hatfield's write-up adds two warm-up doubles before every session, one at 70% and one at 75%, on top of whatever lighter warm-up you normally do.

Add it up and the shape is obvious. The first nine sessions contain 168 working reps, all at 80%. The last nine contain 103, and only 14 of those are heavier than 90kg in the 100kg example. Half of all 18 sessions are the same 6 x 2 at 80%, which is 12 reps with a weight most trained lifters could manage for seven or eight. Those days are recovery and practice, and they're the reason the programme is survivable.

A worked example: 100kg squat

A 100kg max makes the arithmetic easy, which is why the last column of the table uses it. Here's how the six weeks feel in practice.

Weeks 1 and 2 are 80kg every session. Session 2 (6 x 3) is comfortable and session 6 (6 x 5) is not, mostly because 30 reps at 80% takes a long time. Rest three to four minutes between sets and budget 45 minutes for squats alone.

Week 3, session 8 is the hardest workout in the volume phase: 6 x 6 at 80kg, 36 reps and 2,880kg of total load. Sets five and six will be close to failure. If you miss reps here, your starting max was too high.

Week 4 changes character. Session 10 is 5 x 5 at 85kg and session 12 is 4 x 4 at 90kg, and many lifters rate 4 x 4 at 90% as the worst day of the whole cycle, because four reps at 90% is close to a true four-rep max and you have to do it four times.

Week 5 has one hard day, 3 x 3 at 95kg. Week 6 opens with two doubles at 100kg (yes, your old max for two), then a final easy 6 x 2, then the 105kg single.

For maxes that don't divide neatly, round to the nearest 2.5kg and round down when it's a coin toss. A 137.5kg squatter gets 110kg for the 80% work, 117.5kg at 85%, 122.5kg at 90%, 130kg at 95% and a 145kg attempt at the end. A pair of fractional plates lets you hit those numbers more exactly, though 2.5kg jumps are fine for most people.

Picking your starting max

This is where the routine goes wrong for most people who fail it. Every session keys off one number, and the 105% target assumes that number is real.

Use a single you've squatted to legal depth within the last month or so, without a spotter touching the bar. A max from last year doesn't count, and neither does a calculated max from a set of five, which can overestimate a true single by several kilos. If you're unsure, test it: work up to a heavy single the week before you start, then take a couple of easy days.

When in doubt, take 5% off. Starting at 95kg instead of 100kg still has you squatting your old max for a double in week 6 and finishing on 100kg for a clean single, and you're far more likely to complete every session on the way.

What to do with the rest of your training

Squatting 271 working reps in six weeks leaves little recovery for other leg work, so cut it. Drop lunges, leg press and extra quad accessories entirely. Keep one hamstring movement if you like, and keep deadlifts to a single lighter session a week after a 6 x 2 day.

Upper body training can carry on as normal. Bench, press, rows and pull-ups fit after squats on the same three days, or on two separate days if you'd rather keep sessions short. Hard conditioning is the other thing to trim: a long run the day before 4 x 4 at 90% is a bad trade.

Run the cycle with the squat you want to improve. It was designed around the high-bar back squat used by weightlifters, and it works the same for low-bar. Some lifters run it for the front squat instead; the percentages hold, but base them on your front squat max.

What results to expect

The honest answer is that the routine promises 5% and nobody has measured what it delivers on average. There's no controlled trial of this specific programme, so every "typical gain" figure online is a collection of forum posts.

The principles behind it do have support. A meta-analysis of weekly set volume found that higher weekly set counts produced greater strength gains than low ones on multi-joint lifts, which is the logic of the first three weeks. Squatting three times a week is less special than it sounds: a meta-analysis of training frequency found no significant strength difference between high and low frequencies once total volume was matched. Frequency here is mainly a way to fit the volume in and practise the lift.

The peaking half is thinner on evidence. A 2020 review of tapering for powerlifting concluded that research on peaking maximal strength is lacking and that coaches still rely largely on trial and error. So the weeks 4 to 6 design is tradition and coaching experience, and it happens to follow the usual pattern of dropping volume while intensity rises.

Part of any new max is also skill. Eighteen sessions of heavy squatting make you better at squatting heavy, and some of the 5% is that practice showing up on test day.

Who it suits, and who should skip it

It suits an intermediate lifter who has stalled on a slower programme, squats with consistent depth, and has six uninterrupted weeks. It fits well before a competition or a planned test day, since the final session is the test.

Beginners get the worst deal from it. Someone in their first months can add 2.5kg a week to a simple three-day routine, which beats 5% in six weeks, and they haven't yet built the technique that keeps a 100% double safe. Lifters in a calorie deficit should think twice too, because the volume phase is hard to recover from when you're eating less than you burn.

Common mistakes

Starting from a fantasy max. Covered above, and still the main reason people quit in week 4.

Turning the 6 x 2 days into hard days. Adding weight or extra sets because 80% for doubles feels easy defeats the design. Those sessions exist so you arrive fresh for the next heavy one.

Changing the percentages mid-cycle. If week 3 goes well, the temptation is to bump the numbers. Don't. The 95% triples and 100% doubles are hard enough as written.

Keeping all your other leg training. The programme replaces your leg work for six weeks. Stacking it on top of an existing plan is how knees start to complain.

Grinding through missed reps. One missed rep on a heavy day can be a bad day. Missing reps in two sessions running means the max was wrong: drop your working max by 5%, recalculate, and carry on from where you are.

Cutting depth as the weight climbs. A high 105kg isn't a personal best. Filming a set from the side each week keeps you honest.

What to run afterwards

Take a proper deload week first. You've just peaked, and peaks don't last.

Then go back to a slower programme built on your new max, squatting twice a week with more variety than the RSR allows. This is the time to bring accessories back and work on whatever the heavy sessions exposed. If you got stuck in the hole on the 100% doubles, pin squats from the bottom position address that directly; if depth or sitting back was inconsistent, a block of box squats helps.

Repeating the cycle immediately is the classic error. Leave three or four months, and when you do come back, base it on what you can squat that week.

Equipment you need

A rack with safeties is non-negotiable. Sessions 14, 16 and 18 put 95% to 105% of your max on your back, and a failed rep with nothing to catch the bar is how people get hurt training alone. A full power cage with pins or straps set just below your bottom position is the safest option, and a squat rack with spotter arms does the job if space is tight. Set the safeties and test them with an empty bar before every heavy session.

Beyond that you need a barbell rated well above your max and enough weight plates, including 1.25kg plates so 2.5kg jumps are possible. Everything else is optional. A weightlifting belt helps most people brace on the sets above 90%, knee sleeves keep the joint warm through long 80% sessions, and weightlifting shoes give a stable, raised heel if ankle mobility limits your depth. None of them will rescue a cycle started from the wrong number.

Recommended reads

• Back squat: how to do it, muscles worked and benefits
• Deload week: when you need one and how to do it
• The best power cages in the UK
• The best squat racks in the UK
• Pin squat: how to do it, benefits and programming