Smolov Experience Thread For All

I’ll get my partner to use that cue about jamming my glutes (that didn’t sound quite right). I’ve been having him yelling at me “knees out” and “chest up” because when I lose focus my knees will get a little shakey and/or my chest will cave.

Only thing that sucks is he’s out of town for the last day. I just finished the 7x5 this morning - took me a full hour from start to finish. I ended up grabbing a guy 1/4 squatting on the smith machine and instructing him on the cues and to check depth - I felt like it was also a bit of social service showing him what proper depth is.

On a side note - yesterday morning I weighed in at 216 (pre crap), last night I ate myself up to 224. Back down to 220 this morning.

One more day to go.

And I want to see Undesired break 210 KG.

[quote]Avocado wrote:
bt_impaler wrote:
Undesired, Avocado - I’ve taken your advice.

I just finished the final 5x7 day and I was spent. Same with Monday’s 4x9 - just squatted, stretched a bit, and then headed home. I also had a flag football double header Sunday Night that compounded Monday’s 4x9 I think and made me feel sore for the first time since week 1 of the Smolov.

One thing I need to do is I don’t feel like I’m engaging my hams and glutes enough. I without a doubt get a couple inches past parallel and I have a toes out wide stance, but when I leave the gym it’s my quads that feel like they’re about to burst (in a good way).

I’m looking forward to the getting through the rest of this week and testing the following Saturday.

Only two more workouts to go until the Base is complete.

I’d say that this soreness means that you have a good upright posture.

Hams and glutes are hard to create soreness in with low-med rep schemes [1-12]. there are often large concentrations of type IIa/b/c fibers and they dont give a shit about reps under 8.

Your quads get a bit more tired because they are of way less mass than your ass and hams and can typically have less concentration of type II’s. It obviously changes over time with training.

So expect your hams and glutes to feel less than your quads. If you want to make sure you are engaging your ass/hams then stick the hips as soon as you can [as in drive them forward].

Get your partner to cue you when you get 20’[ish] above parallel and jam them fuckers and squeeze your ass. It’s good top form I’d say. Gives you a big dick 2nd pull in O-lifts.

-chris[/quote]

I feel the squats more in my hams than my quads. I’m about done with the first week of the base mesocycle. I was a little conservative in estimating my max for the base mesocycle but will be realistic once I start the next phase. My pr is 375 but I have not been squatting regularly for a while so I estimated my max to be 325. I’m hoping to be up to 405 by the end of the program. I will also be playing australian rules football 2-3 times a week starting in 10 days so I will be foam rolling, eating, and sleeping a lot along with working 2 jobs and taking 2 classes.

[quote]biggun7997 wrote:
I feel the squats more in my hams than my quads. I’m about done with the first week of the base mesocycle. I was a little conservative in estimating my max for the base mesocycle but will be realistic once I start the next phase. My pr is 375 but I have not been squatting regularly for a while so I estimated my max to be 325. I’m hoping to be up to 405 by the end of the program. I will also be playing australian rules football 2-3 times a week starting in 10 days so I will be foam rolling, eating, and sleeping a lot along with working 2 jobs and taking 2 classes.[/quote]

Your form is like mine used to be, very forward leaning with some good morning action in there. Your quads will pipe up when your form becomes more upright. Its all in the mechanics of your lift and body type. really short legged dudes usually get the front soreness/fatigue and long legged fellas get more back leg soreness. as a tendency that is.

-chris

Hi everyone

I just completed week 1 of the base mesocycle, I plan on going through the whole thing. Im doing alot of recovery work in between workouts and its going well so far and im also not getting sore at all between workouts, legs just feel abit stiff.

I hope I can make some gains on my vertical jump from it as well as improve my squat(obviously). Ill check in again after week 2, hopefully i can make it through, it seems like the toughest because of the big weight jump.

[quote]believedat wrote:
Hi everyone

I just completed week 1 of the base mesocycle, I plan on going through the whole thing. Im doing alot of recovery work in between workouts and its going well so far and im also not getting sore at all between workouts, legs just feel abit stiff.

I hope I can make some gains on my vertical jump from it as well as improve my squat(obviously). Ill check in again after week 2, hopefully i can make it through, it seems like the toughest because of the big weight jump.[/quote]

So, what is your starting squat? And since you are a ball player, I take it you are utilizing a high-bar squat?

What helped me a LOT for the jump between week1 and 2 is playing the numbers game. The 4x9 week2 matches the week1 7x5, 7x5 week2 matches week1 5x7, and 10x3 week2 matches week1 5x7. So, I just kept telling myself “it’s just two more reps and one less set, so it’s easier”. I felt better mentally during week2 than I did week3, but that was due to work and lack of sleep during that period as well as looking forward to the end of the Base cycle.

Chin up, chest out!

undesired08: That was a good tactic. I use to say that if you can do week two of the base meso cycle, then there is no doubt you can also complete week three. There should be no doubt in your mind. Rep by rep, set by set, workout by workout.

Has anyone here done Smolov Jr. for squats, if so how does it compare to the first cycle of Smolov? Are there things that can be added to Jr.? I’m starting my 3 weeks of Smolov Jr. now so I am curious to see what recommendations people would make and how others felt while doing it. Thanks.

[quote]hammer_man wrote:
Has anyone here done Smolov Jr. for squats, if so how does it compare to the first cycle of Smolov? Are there things that can be added to Jr.?

I’m starting my 3 weeks of Smolov Jr. now so I am curious to see what recommendations people would make and how others felt while doing it. Thanks.
[/quote]

Smolov Jr is a shetland pony, compared to the clydesdale Smolov Base cycle. If you are not used to squatting 4 times a week for serious reps, Smolov Jr is the way to go. I was able to do full body workouts after my squats on Jr. And after the first week, I had virtually no muscle fatigue.

On Smolov Base, all I did was squat, because the rest of the time I was kneeling in front of a trash can with the dry-heaves.

The Jr version is not bad, but for me it didn’t come close to the daily gut-check of the Base Meso.

I am nearing the end of my current program so in a few weeks I will be starting a new one, I have looked all over and decided that Smolov is most likely what i will do.

Did you guys have a downloaded spread sheet you used or where did you get the layout for your programs?

I saw the stronglifts.com spreadsheet, it looked decent but i read some people saying there were mistakes on some of the weights. Any help would be appreciated.

[quote]VikingsAD28 wrote:
I am nearing the end of my current program so in a few weeks I will be starting a new one, I have looked all over and decided that Smolov is most likely what i will do.

Did you guys have a downloaded spread sheet you used or where did you get the layout for your programs?

I saw the stronglifts.com spreadsheet, it looked decent but i read some people saying there were mistakes on some of the weights. Any help would be appreciated.[/quote]

I use the stronglifts. I think the error was that the sheet was only computing in kilos, so the increases were wrong. It is more than fine. Here are a couple more:

http://www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html
http://www.kraftsport.no/programs/Smolov.xls

Good luck!

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
VikingsAD28 wrote:
I am nearing the end of my current program so in a few weeks I will be starting a new one, I have looked all over and decided that Smolov is most likely what i will do.

Did you guys have a downloaded spread sheet you used or where did you get the layout for your programs?

I saw the stronglifts.com spreadsheet, it looked decent but i read some people saying there were mistakes on some of the weights. Any help would be appreciated.

I use the stronglifts. I think the error was that the sheet was only computing in kilos, so the increases were wrong. It is more than fine. Here are a couple more:

http://www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html
http://www.kraftsport.no/programs/Smolov.xls

Good luck!

[/quote]

Thanks a lot! I will just stick to the stronglifts one.

I just started the Jr. yesterday. Planning to run through it with 160kg as my max.

I mentioned this the other day in conversation [smolov in general] and met a dude who did the program but with FRONT SQUATS!

Yeah I heard that and i said “No shit, how were the high rep days?” then he explained how he used this convenient device:

http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/accessories.php

[The front squat harness, not the reaction balls]

to make sure his rhombs didnt fail after 4 on the high rep days. It looks like an ok setup. He showed me where in his lower quad area, directly above the knee, It literally ballooned on him. For keeping knees healthy that looks like some nice shit.

He pushed in FrSq total from 205lbs to 250. I dont think a stronger guy would get those kind of gains but it surely worked.

-chris

Well, I failed on my second day of Smolov. I was warming up and pulled my hamstring. Im not to bummed about it tho.

I was thinking out trying it again in the summer. I was actually thinking ice baths would be great. I saw some O-lineman from the Dallas cowboys do it, and wanderlei silva after his training. Any thoughts?

Don’t feel bad about failing. My first two attempts at smolov resulted in failing in the first week. This last time I was ready and made it all the way through. Now only 3 more days til testing to find out the results.

[quote]BlackLabel wrote:
Well, I failed on my second day of Smolov. I was warming up and pulled my hamstring. Im not to bummed about it tho.

I was thinking out trying it again in the summer. I was actually thinking ice baths would be great. I saw some O-lineman from the Dallas cowboys do it, and wanderlei silva after his training. Any thoughts?[/quote]

Hamstring injuries suck. I still can’t run full speed without cramping up.

Ice baths are too hardcore for me. My weiner can’t take it…

[quote]Avocado wrote:
I mentioned this the other day in conversation [smolov in general] and met a dude who did the program but with FRONT SQUATS!

Yeah I heard that and i said “No shit, how were the high rep days?” then he explained how he used this convenient device:

http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/accessories.php

[The front squat harness, not the reaction balls]

to make sure his rhombs didnt fail after 4 on the high rep days. It looks like an ok setup. He showed me where in his lower quad area, directly above the knee, It literally ballooned on him. For keeping knees healthy that looks like some nice shit.

He pushed in FrSq total from 205lbs to 250. I dont think a stronger guy would get those kind of gains but it surely worked.

-chris[/quote]

You can do high reps with front squats without any equipment. I did Smolov for front squats a few times. First time I gained 66lbs on the fsq on entire Smolov. Just suck it up and do it. No belt and no fancy gear! :slight_smile:

Here’s a video of one of my best front squat workouts ever:

Today was my 5 sets of 7 with 265 pounds. I warmed up with 20 body weight squats, some jumping up and down like jump rope, then 135-5 205-7 and then the 5 sets.

After my 5 sets were done my stiletto 10 sirrius radio started to work again so I did 295 once, then tried 345 terrible placement on my bony part of my neck rather than on my traps in conjunction with a terrible walkout I did it but I did not go down anywhere close to being able to call it a squat more than a quarter but no where close to 90. Maybe someday I will be front squatting like stallion.

[quote]biggun7997 wrote:
Today was my 5 sets of 7 with 265 pounds. I warmed up with 20 body weight squats, some jumping up and down like jump rope, then 135-5 205-7 and then the 5 sets.

After my 5 sets were done my stiletto 10 sirrius radio started to work again so I did 295 once, then tried 345 terrible placement on my bony part of my neck rather than on my traps in conjunction with a terrible walkout I did it but I did not go down anywhere close to being able to call it a squat more than a quarter but no where close to 90. Maybe someday I will be front squatting like stallion. [/quote]

Don’t add extra sets to the smolov workouts, except for maybe the very last workout in the base meso cycle. It will most likely make you suffer in later workouts. The tiredness will build up, and trust me you do not want to add to it intentionally.

You WILL frontsquat tripples of 160kg one day, provided you never give up, have a big heart, eat steak and sleep well. Just do it over and over, and you will get there! in fact, you can reach a lot further than that too! Keep lifting!

  1. Cycle: Intro, Base, Switching

  2. Status: Complete (about to start Intense)

  3. Gain thus far: 303 lb to 340 lb = 37 lb gain

  4. Bodyweight has crept up as I have been trying to bulk and add some weight. Began at 191, currently 196.

I ran Smolov Jr for DB Bench and Chin-ups during the Base Mesocycle, it was friggin’ hard but I made it through. Not sure what type of upperbody stuff I will do during the Intense Mesocycle.

I did Negative/Box Squat/Power Clean during the Switching cycle. I really enjoyed it but I am looking foward to squatting again soon.

I think the 4x9 was hardest for me because of the cardiovascular demand of doing 9 heavy reps. 10x3 was hard weight-wise, but each set was manageable because I could tell myself it was only 3 reps.