So I am doing the Smolov cycle again. I tore the labrum in my Right shoulder in April, so I haven’t been able to do any overhead work. Just got cleared to start again, but in the meantime, lots of squats!
Beginning Max was 320 Lbs.
I hit 350 here, no belt. Form breaks down a bit, but that will happen. Got two weeks of speed and negatives now.
I also did a 48 inch box jump in warming up today. Thought that was pretty cool.
Video didn’t work. . .
yes, very cool box jump 
impressive jump man
It looks like you’re taller than me but from the box jump vid, 48" for me is also slightly below chest level and I’m 5’9"…
@ paperclip:
I’m between 5’8" and 5’9" and with my shoes on definitely 5-9.
Its at a funny angle as the camera was lower than the box and angled slightly down so it looks funny.
Both the boxes are 24". If I take a run-up, I can hit 52-54 depending on the day. I’ll video that next time I try. I’ll run a tape measure next time, just for the record
Everyone else, thanks for the compliments!
Wow. Nice jump.
I found a Smolov calculator by a guy named Skopec. The page doesnt really talk much about negatives or speed or force or anything. It just gives weights, sets, reps, days, weeks ect. Anything i should know to do aside from just completing the reps, sets, and weights prescribed by the calculator? Other than the fact that i will probably hate my life for a while
@ens:
http://ontariostrongman.ca/resources/training/smolovsquatcycle.htm
If the mods don’t let the link through, do a Google search for “smolov squat cycle” and about 5 down (right below the link to T-Nation!) is one for a site called “Ontario Strongman”
That has a reprint of the original aricle by Pavel from awhile back and its a good read. The calculator is helpful, but if you can do math, the article is all you need. After the lay-out for the first phase, it kind of touches on the “so-called switching phase.” Which is 2 weeks of speed/jumps/heavy negatives.
Its really not too bad, just don’t try to do too much else besides squat. I pretty much cut everything else out. Stretch a lot.
[quote]The Monarch wrote:
@ens:
If the mods don’t let the link through, do a Google search for “smolov squat cycle” and about 5 down (right below the link to T-Nation!) is one for a site called “Ontario Strongman”
That has a reprint of the original aricle by Pavel from awhile back and its a good read. The calculator is helpful, but if you can do math, the article is all you need. After the lay-out for the first phase, it kind of touches on the “so-called switching phase.” Which is 2 weeks of speed/jumps/heavy negative
Its really not too bad, just don’t try to do too much else besides squat. I pretty much cut everything else out. Stretch a lot.[/quote]
Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.
Jump looks good!
Koing
@ ens - No prob! Let us know how it goes.
@ koing, thanks, that means a lot, you contribute a lot around here, and I appreciate the compliment. I’m mostly a lurker
I noticed you really dip down low before you jump. Do you get maximum height that way or are you intentionally going down that low?
Seems strange, as I barely flex my knees when I do box jumps, just a sharp shallow dip and jump. Jump way lower if I go down too low. I feel you could go higher if you didn’t dip so low.
Can’t remember where, but I’ve read that people who are naturally more slow twitch dominant tend to dip deeper when jumping and people who are naturally more fast twitch dominant tend to have a shallower dip when jumping. Doesn’t mean that slower twitch people can’t jump high, this guy obviously has a good jump. Anyway, I have no idea if that’s the case here, just speculation.
[quote]supa power wrote:
I noticed you really dip down low before you jump. Do you get maximum height that way or are you intentionally going down that low?
Seems strange, as I barely flex my knees when I do box jumps, just a sharp shallow dip and jump. Jump way lower if I go down too low. I feel you could go higher if you didn’t dip so low.[/quote]
Was actually thinking about asking the same thing. Some years ago I read a study where they tested flexion depth relative to jump height and found that they gave the same results. The authors hypothesized that the deeper squat would probably be less coordinated because it´s a less common movement than a shallow bend. With coordination training they thought that, with more training, there was more potential for high jumps with deeper knee bends because it allowed for more power development.
[quote]supa power wrote:
I noticed you really dip down low before you jump. Do you get maximum height that way or are you intentionally going down that low?
Seems strange, as I barely flex my knees when I do box jumps, just a sharp shallow dip and jump. Jump way lower if I go down too low. I feel you could go higher if you didn’t dip so low.[/quote]
Was actually thinking about asking the same thing. Some years ago I read a study where they tested flexion depth relative to jump height and found that they gave the same results. The authors hypothesized that the deeper squat would probably be less coordinated because it´s a less common movement than a shallow bend. With coordination training they thought that, with more training, there was more potential for high jumps with deeper knee bends because it allowed for more power development.
[quote]Marabou wrote:
[quote]supa power wrote:
I noticed you really dip down low before you jump. Do you get maximum height that way or are you intentionally going down that low?
Seems strange, as I barely flex my knees when I do box jumps, just a sharp shallow dip and jump. Jump way lower if I go down too low. I feel you could go higher if you didn’t dip so low.[/quote]
Was actually thinking about asking the same thing. Some years ago I read a study where they tested flexion depth relative to jump height and found that they gave the same results. The authors hypothesized that the deeper squat would probably be less coordinated because it�´s a less common movement than a shallow bend. With coordination training they thought that, with more training, there was more potential for high jumps with deeper knee bends because it allowed for more power development.[/quote]
So the reason I do that is two fold. Since I am working on my squat max, I want to work the acceleration aspect of the jump through the entire range of motion of my squat. So kind of like a squat jump, but I land on a box. And since I was using it as a warm up for my squat work that day, I again was trying to focus on the range of motion I would be using later. Second, I once saw Shane Hammon (sp?) do them that way, and up until then I had always done them with just a quick counter-move. I thought “if this guy, who is an elite weightlifter, doesn them with a full squat, maybe I should try that.”
I don’t exclusively do them that way. I do three variations of box jump: Full squat, counter move, and with a run-up.
Full squat gives me more carry-over into my squat work. The counter-move has helped me get primed for Jerk work (I squat-jerk so there is some similarity), and I use ther run-up when I just want to go for max height, when doing “feeder workouts” where I am not doing anything for max weight, just going for CNS activation and speed.
I am probably somewhere in between fast and slow twitch dominant. Nature probably wanted me to be slow, but I have only trained to be fast, so its a bit hard to say if that is a factor. I am one of those people who has to jump off two feet, I don’t get any height if I leap off one foot. I was a pretty good sprinter, but horrible at long and high jump (go figure on that one!).
Hope that clears up my thought process somewhat, let me know if you have any other questions.
Just read this thread, I also do some box jumps as a warmup and now I want to measure them and see how high they are . . .
Final test day. Went 350, 365, 385. (159, 166, 175 KG)
Went from 320 to 385 in 11 weeks.
I also was dealing with a strain in my left scapula. That’s whats going on with my setup. I’d like to have been able to get under and stay tight, but it just wasn’t happening. I had to readjust to get my arms and shoulders into a comfortable, or at least less painful position.
But I am happy with the results. Form wasn’t the best, but I’ll take the gains. No belt, body weight 175 lbs (80 KG).
Might switch to front squats only for about a week, then get back into it. I can finally do overhead work after re-habing a torn labrum in my shoulder, so I am excited to lift again!
320 to 385, nice!
How have your OLifts increased in this time or your jumping?
When I box jump I take a fairly deep squat as well. This just happens naturally. I don’t really intend on doing it, I just happen to do it that way.
Koing