15 lbs is nothing to scoff at, better than nothing.
I will agree that Sheiko or some form of linear progression would have been better, particularly the former
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]krummdiddy wrote:
Had a 800 700 and a few 600 LB squatters all in HIGH SCHOOL!! Just squat 3 days a week… If you want to put a hurting on your legs do 5 sets of 10, that is a pain!![/quote]
Really?? That’s some world class numbers for HS kids.[/quote]
Yeah right those guys should compete and shatter world records.
[quote]Reed wrote:
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]krummdiddy wrote:
Had a 800 700 and a few 600 LB squatters all in HIGH SCHOOL!! Just squat 3 days a week… If you want to put a hurting on your legs do 5 sets of 10, that is a pain!![/quote]
Really?? That’s some world class numbers for HS kids.[/quote]
Yeah right those guys should compete and shatter world records.[/quote]
I knew I wasn’t the only person that saw this. This is clearly just a blatant lie.
youngest person to squat 800 lbs w/o knee wraps @ 19 years old
As others have said, you will struggle to make huge progress unless you increase your bodyweight (eat more). Not to say it is impossible to progress and be incredibly strong at a low weight, but it will limit you, especially if you are a reasonable height.
To be honest, I don’t really see why you would not eat to gain lean weight given your training age and lifting stats - track your diet and adjust based on results, then if you want to compete a few lbs lighter, cut down a bit (not that it’s likely you are of the right build to remain at 160lbs and not be very thin).
As a side note, remember that many respond better to one mesocycle than the other, you might thrive on the heavier intense phase of the program.
How much weight did you put on in that year of training? And if you’ve been training seriously for a year and stagnated 8 months ago, do you mean you only made progress for 4 months out of that year? And you ran 3 different programs in that year?
[/quote]
I put on 40 pounds. I said I stagnated 8 months ago on linear periodization, so then I switched to 5/3/1 for about 6 months and got some improvement, then did a more intuitive, Bulgarian style program for a month before my first meet, and then did Smolov Jr.
Going from 120lbs to 160lbs in a year is pretty good work.
That said, 6 months on 5/3/1 is barely scratching the surface. I usually have to run the program that long just to get to my old PRs. Stick with it for the long haul, do BBB and do your squats on your deadlift day rather than your squat day and I think you’ll see some improvements.
try to max again. I’ve run the smolov mesocycle a few times (i haven’t tried the full cycle because i like to train my bench and DL) and sometimes the strength gained is too much for you to see the first time you try a true ME squat. Twice this has been the case for me. Once I only got a 15lb PR, took two days off to pig out and rest and was able to put 25 more lb on the bar for a 40lb total PR. Also, squat at least twice a week for a while so you are sure to keep your gains. It doesn’t have to be heavy; I did 5/3/1 BBB but doing squats on both squat and deadlift day for assistance.
[quote]Reed wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]Curls4Girls wrote:
Base cycle has you squatting 12 days out of 21. That is 9 more squat sessions more than the avg person. Even a higher level squatter (upper 500’s) will get past a 6 squat with it but then regress if they do not keep up the volume. So yes I would consider it a peaking cycle. As would the literature available on the program.
[/quote]
You’re telling me the average trainee only has one squat day a week? Maybe a bodybuilder. Or a weekend warrior. But a weekend warrior isn’t somebody who should even consider Smolov, and this is the powerlifting forum. I don’t know any strength athlete, be it powerlifter, strongman, or olympic lifter that squats once a week. If they DO…then they have a second leg day that 95% of the time also includes a squat variation as a supplemental lift, because it’s deadlift day. Hell, collegiate athlets squat more than once a week. 1x per week squatting is sissy shit for a strength athlete unless you are a) injured or b) you are focusing very hard on the deadlift, which is of course understandable as you want to focus on that one lift. You can’t define “peaking program” based on amount of days squatted in a given period of time, as Doh has said.
I’ve spent months on end in the past squatting heavy 3-4 times a week, in addition to doing explosive pulls of some kind. My brother squats 5 days a week and has for about a year. Those aren’t peaking programs…that’s normal. It is a specialization program but unless you are equating “peaking” with “specialization” I’m not seeing it.
[/quote]
Sam Byrd ( 1013 Squat at 198 equipped, 800+ RAW no wraps) world record holder in more than a few weight classes with or with out wraps equipped or not only Squats once a week… and I know this because I squat with him every Sunday. Every other week we MAY do a speed Squat or Front Squat session but not in the past month.[/quote]
Alright, you got me. I forgot about Sam Byrd, who is a superbeast. I should have reworded the comment to leave it not as a complete generalization, however I felt the primary point would strike home anyways–the majority of strength athletes I know of follow multiple weekly squat sessions.
Ed Coan as well.
For a couple of quarters in college, I worked out with a PL team that used a 3 day squat, bench, deadlift split so there was only one day devoted to squatting. There were some strong guys there in all the lifts and they had a good reputation.
Ok ok, I get it!
I’m well aware of those people out there as well. I was trying to make a point via controlled hyperbole. It seems it was a poor attempt, my apologies
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
6 months on 5/3/1 is barely scratching the surface. Stick with it for the long haul, do BBB and do your squats on your deadlift day rather than your squat day and I think you’ll see some improvements.[/quote]
This! No program ADD, kid ;)!
Also, check your form: if you don’t have a knowledgeable training partner (or a coach watching you), film all of your sets, from different angles, trying to spot any flaw. Do your best to make every rep a perfect one (especially when fatigue kicks in), and you’ll improve your max even training with submaximal weights.
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Ok ok, I get it!
I’m well aware of those people out there as well. I was trying to make a point via controlled hyperbole. It seems it was a poor attempt, my apologies[/quote]
lol, even the Liliebridges talk about only squatting once a week at certain points in their training cycles. Eric has even said that sometimes he will just squat once every other week but go full out that session.
Point is, what works for me might not work for you, what works for hamilton might not work for nera, ect.
Regardless, I do not think the op had any business running Smolov.
[quote]Silyak wrote:
You didn’t gain any weight and yet you added 15lbs to your squat in 1 month. I don’t know what you were expecting, but if you can hold onto those gains, it won’t have been a bad month.[/quote]
This. 15 lbs in one month is damn solid progress.
Totally unrelated, but I did some DB curls and dips after squatting today and got the best pump of my life. I’m pretty sure my 14 inch arms got up to 14.75 inches.
The sad part is I’m being serious.
I think you need to go back to the basics. I got to 265x5x3 3 months into starting strength and that was at 6’1" 165lbs. You still have a lot of noob gains to be made. Maybe once you can do at least 315x3, give Sheiko a try.
I ran smolov last year and you can find my log here if you are interested. I improved quite a bit more but that is not the point. The POINT is you are a new lifter and you got through smolov. The best part about smolov is getting lifters used to high volume squatting. For me, no other lift responds as well to high volume as squats. You should look at setting up a program with one heavy day a week and two light/medium days of squats. You are obviously eating well if you gained 40 pounds in a year.
In my opinion, it takes five years to become a decent lifter and ten to be a real vet. You hardly see anyone stick it out that long though. You have just scratched the surface.
A tip, if you find your back can only handle so much then finish off with some high volume leg presses. Every few weeks I will 15x5 at 500 pounds on the leg press. I always walk a bit awkward the next few days but I have never had my legs be the weak spot on squats.
[quote]Curls4Girls wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Ok ok, I get it!
I’m well aware of those people out there as well. I was trying to make a point via controlled hyperbole. It seems it was a poor attempt, my apologies[/quote]
lol, even the Liliebridges talk about only squatting once a week at certain points in their training cycles. Eric has even said that sometimes he will just squat once every other week but go full out that session.
Point is, what works for me might not work for you, what works for hamilton might not work for nera, ect.
Regardless, I do not think the op had any business running Smolov.[/quote]
Ok, fair enough on both counts I suppose.