Smolov

I want to do this over the summer. It seems like an insane combination of volume/intensity though. Anybody know anything about it?

Frank (9/10): Smolov Base Mesocycle, Week 2

I felt pretty terrible going to the gym today. I'm sure that I'm getting sick, and that it's completely unrelated to Smolov, Nate. There's been a bug going around my office (currently two people in my room are out sick), so it's probably that. Still, the plan says to go, so I went.

Back Squat: 5x7@295
By god, these were hard. Gordon said that the fifth rep on the fifth set was not at or past parallel, but I think that was my only one of the 35. I could tell that that particular rep was bad. I'm happy that I was able to get all of the reps done, though.

At this point, I decided to call it quits. I put the important stuff first in the workout because of times like these, when I'll need to quit early. I feel like shit. I'll get a lot of sleep today and tomorrow, and hopefully this should be cleared up by Saturday.

In other news:
Time it took to walk to the Z-center: 25 minutes
Time it took to walk back home: 45 minutes
And I was trying to walk quickly too...

Frank (9/8): Smolov Base Mesocycle, Week 2

Back Squat: 4x9@275
These were really tough. I think I may be able to hit 4x9@285 next week, but that will be pushing it very close to my limit. After the last two sets, my hamstrings and glutes were fried, and my legs were so fried that I was walking around, well, very strangely (Shanker knows).

Bench Press: 5@135, 3@185, 225, 260
I was only able to get 3 at 260 even though I planned for more. It just occurred to me that I was able to get 3 at 275 only a few weeks back. Alas. I blame this on a few things. (1) I was fatigued from squats. (2) My elbows, especially my left one, are still bothering me. I think I have some tendonitis from squats, of all things. (3) My foot slipped a little on the plates I used to elevate my feet properly. I think I'm going to go back to using the standard benches.

Dumbbell Bench: 10, 7, 5 @ 100
Nothing too surprising here. I probably shouldn't have pushed for the 10 on the first set. If I hadn't, I probably could have gotten 3x8. Oh well.

Ab Pulldowns: 3x15@190
I rested a little between reps sometimes, so these weren't true sets of 15.

I'm not feeling too bad this morning. We'll see how the next few weeks go, since I still haven't even gotten to the "hard" part of this program yet...

Frank (9/5 and 9/6): Smolov Base Mesocycle, Week 1

Saturday (9/5)

I felt pretty good coming into this. Sleeping in Saturday morning probably helped.

Back Squat: 7x5@292
I always felt like I had a few more left in me, but these were still hard.

Speed Bench: 8x3@155
Military Press: 9@157
The last one was a real grinder. I'm usually able to get 8 at 155, so I was a little surprised at how heavy this one felt, but I'll chalk it up to fatigue from squats like the previous workouts.

Close-Grip Bench: 6, 6, 5 @225
There was no way I was going to get all 8, but I did manage a respectable number.

I actually felt pretty good after this session; I really think it is the higher reps that kills me. Of course, I felt so good that I went and did something stupid...I saw a free couch on the side of the road a little over half a mile from my apartment and thought it would be a good idea to move it back, by myself. The couch itself wasn't too heavy (100-150lbs, I would guess), but it was extremely unwieldy. I got it about half way home before I gave up, but by the end, my legs, back, and traps were fried.

Sunday (9/6)

I felt pretty crappy from yesterday's couch-moving session, but my plan said to go, so I went.

Back Squat: 10x3@310
This took me more than an hour to do because I rested so long between sets. There are no designated rest periods in Smolov, thankfully. Oddly enough, the later sets felt stronger than the first few.

Pullup: 4x6@65
Dumbbell Row: 5@120, 2x10@80
I swear I used to be able to do 120, but I couldn't do them this time without a significant amount of body English, so I went down to 80, which was stupidly light, but at least I was able to maintain proper form.

Frank (9/3): Smolov Base Mesocycle, Week 1

I felt pretty crappy at work at while going to the gym, but once I started and got properly warmed up, it was OK.

Back Squat: 5x7@275
These felt surprisingly OK. I felt better after squatting than I did after Tuesday's workout. Part of it is probably because I'm not used to high reps.

Cable Row: 10, 10, 8, 8 @ 190
Accumulated fatigue made these harder than normal, just like benching on Tuesday.

Barbell Curl: 8, 6, 4 @ 95
Weak. Oh well. I did these as a superset with the cable rows.

Barbell Rollouts: 3x5

Frank (9/1): Smolov Base Mesocycle, Week 1

I think I'm going to go back to going to the Z-Center earlier, since by the end of this session, I was actually sleepy. I guess I'm growing too old...

Back Squat: 4x9@255
The plates only go up in increments of 5, +2 if you include the heavy collars, so I wasn't able to use exactly 256 for the prescribed weight. For this cycle, when this happens, I will round down because (1) I am a wimp and (2) the volume is so high. The high reps were pretty brutal, and I took brief pauses in each set after the first 5 or 6, but the weight was light enough that this was doable. 275 is going to be pushing it next week...

Bench Press: 5@135, 185, 225, 6@245
I thought I had 7, but either I ran into muscle failure for the first time in years or I just didn't have the energy to finish the last rep.

Dumbbell Bench: 6@110, 7, 6 @ 100
First modification to my plan: I'm going to go lighter on dumbbell benching, especially after regular benching and squats. I just don't have the energy. For now, I'll stick to higher reps at a slightly lower weight.

Ab Pulldowns: 3x15@190

Frank: Planning

It's been a week since the meet, which means that I have to start training seriously again, which means that I have to make plans. So here is my plan.

Despite the misgivings of those more experienced than I, I intend to try the Smolov squat routine. My understanding is that it was originally developed for Olympic lifters whose squat strength lagged behind their strength in the classical lifts and who felt that this was holding back their classical lifts (otherwise, they wouldn't care). The overall structure is as follows:

1. Introductory microcycle (2 weeks) for those who have had a long layoff from squatting. Since I just squatted my max a week ago, I'm skipping this.
2. Base mesocycle (4 weeks)
3. "Switching" (2 weeks)
4. Intense mesocycle (4 weeks)
5. Taper and Competition (1 week)

More details can be found here (ignore the pseudo-Russian-tough-guy routine...). There is a calculator for the base and intense cycles here.

Because this is such a high volume routine, I will not be doing any deadlifts for this period of time. So much raw squatting show help my deadlift regardless. I will continue traiing my upper body more or less as usual, though I will split some of my sessions since half of each session will be taken up by squatting. I will be using the 5-3-1 rep routine for my bench press and military press.

My current max back squat is 365. I am using 290 and 185 as my estimated bench press and military press maxes, respectively. Here is my base mesocycle plan for the next four weeks:

Week 1
Tuesday: Back Squat 4x9@256, Bench Press 5+@246, Dumbbell Bench: 3x8@110
Thursday: Back Squat 5x7@274, Cable Row 3x10@190, Barbell Curl 3x8@95
Saturday: Back Squat 7x5@292, Speed Bench 8x3@155, Military Press 5+@157, Close-Grip Bench 3x8@225
Sunday: Back Squat 10x3@311, Pullup 4x8@65, Dumbbell Row 3x10@120, Facepulls/Rear Delt Flys@Whatever

Week 2
Tuesday: Back Squat 4x9@276, Bench Press 3+@261, Dumbbell Bench: 3x8@?
Thursday: Back Squat 5x7@294, Cable Row 3x10@?, Barbell Curl 3x8@?
Saturday: Back Squat 7x5@312, Speed Bench 8x3@155, Military Press 3+@167, Close-Grip Bench 3x8@?
Sunday: Back Squat 10x3@331, Pullup 4x8@?, Dumbbell Row 3x10@?, Facepulls/Rear Delt Flys@Whatever

Week 3
Tuesday: Back Squat 4x9@286, Bench Press 1+@275, Dumbbell Bench 3x8@?
Thursday: Back Squat 5x7@304, Cable Row 3x10@?, Barbell Curl 3x8@?
Saturday: Back Squat 7x5@322, Speed Bench 8x3@155, Military Press 3+@176, Close-Grip Bench 3x8@?
Sunday: Back Squat 10x3@341, Pullup 4x8@?, Dumbbell Row 3x10@?, Facepulls/Rear Delt Flys@Whatever

Week 4
Tuesday: Bench Press 6@205, Dumbbell Bench 3x4@?
Thursday: Cable Row 3x5@?, Barbell Curl 3x4@?
Saturday: Back Squat: Test new max, Speed Bench 8x3@155, Military Press 6@130, Close-Grip Bench 3x8@225
Sunday: Pullup 4x4@?, Dumbbell Row 3x5@?, Facepulls/Rear Delt Flys@Whatever

The ? are for the exercises where I'll just play by ear. I will try a weight. If I can hit the prescribed reps, I will increase the weight. If not, I will try to better my previous rep max at the next relevant training session.

I would appreciate any suggestions that people have. My main concerns are (1) too much volume and (2) too little upper back work (to maintain my deadlift). Any other concerns are certainly welcome! See you all (hopefully) tomorrow. I will probably be arriving a little late, for me, maybe around 7:30 or so.