[quote]EthanETE wrote:
WOW, one year training and already a 315 bench and 425 squat?!?
I have trained 1 year and 9+ months and it took me that long to get to a 3plate/4 plate on those.
May I ask what you did exactly? Because I also ran 5x5 for about a year of that time but didn’t go up that crazy fast like you did. I also see you started at a 185 bench,lol how did you manage to pull that off? I worked for probably 4-5 months to get there
How many times did you do the Smolov Jr/base and was it just for squat,bench,or both?[/quote]
When I first started I basically just did 5x5 for bench and squat. I wanted to try to build just some basic strength and work on my form. After I felt comfortable with my squat form, I started smolov jr and added a fourth week to it. I believed if I could get my legs under me, the rest would come.
So I just concentrated on that. Most gym sessions I only did smolov. I didn’t want to make things more complicated than they needed to be and I didn’t want to hinder any work towards my squat. I did that in like December I think. I did the base in April going into May I believe. That’s all I’ve done them. And I probably won’t do it again until next year.
A lot of people are against smolov for new lifters because for one it is a really hard routine and it could be discouraging and I guess possibly cause someone to hurt themselves pushing too hard. Also, it’s hard to set a max while doing something like that when you’re so weak anyways that something simple like 5x5 can add a lot to your max in a short amount of time
But I went against all that and did it anyways because it just makes the most sense to me to get your legs strong first, so that’s what I did.
With my bench, I guess you’re asking how it was so high to start. I didn’t really think it was that good. I did nothing for most of 2011 except for eating unhealthy, not working or working out. And my family for sure doesn’t have any good genetics they passed down. So I don’t really know. It was touching the chest, no bouncing or butt off the bench.
I’ve added a lot of things to my work outs. 5x5 work. I also enjoyed doing things like 5x3 with dead lifts. I usually would use 5x3 a lot for two second pauses on squats.
I also stay pretty heavy, low reps for weeks. Then when I start feeling rough, I would drop the weight down and do rep work.
I put over training out of my head at the start. I think that’s a problem with people. People want to rest too much. There’s been many back to back heavy squat days, many days I’ll deadlift and squat in the same day.
I just try to eat a lot and clean and get rest. I basically eat every two hours, almost every day, for the past year. Though that does get messed up on the weekends sometimes.