[quote]JMAX wrote:
Wow people really get unnecessarily harsh on these boards…oftentimes it’s coming from people who give shitty advice themselves yet are quick to judge others. Too much ego too little constructive thought. Oh well 'tis the world we live in.
Your ideas are neither stupid nor crazy. When I look over your idea for your A-B split, however, I find it hard to manage. If you DC (pardon you, rest-pause that is…don’t want to piss off the die hard DC fanatics…oh wait, too late!) chest, shoulders and tris in the same day before your squats I would think you’d have difficulty maintaining intensity for your squats…but if you feel that won’t be an issue for you give it a try. With squatting every session however you may burn out quickly on this kind of schedule.
I would try a 5-day cycle instead for more recovery and allow you to keep your intensity up as the program rolls on. Maybe A, off, B, off, off just like your wrote it but with another day off at the end. Obviously this compromises your squatting frequency as well as DC frequency but as Mr. Polite pointed out - albeit less eloquently - when you try to combine two different programs you end up with a less efficient compromise between the two.
It should be noted that I do NOT know everything unlike so many people on here and I haven’t even tried smolov. The only person who can tell you for sure if it will work for you, however, is yourself…after you try it. Anything else is just someone’s educated guess. If it was me I would probably just run a 6-8 week cycle of DC before returning to Smolov fresh and ready to make new gains since 80-pound squat increases in 13 weeks won’t last for long anyway.
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Thanks for the constructive response.
[quote]Invictica wrote:
timmcbride00 wrote:
As I memtioned previously, I did 1 push and 1 pull compound for upper body. Here is exactly what I did during Smolov:
Smolov Jr. for DB Bench and Chin-ups first and then the Russian Volume for Flat Bench and Pull-ups during. At the end of those programs I achieved PR’s in DB Bench, Chin-ups and Pull-ups. I admit, I did bomb out on the the Russian Volume for Flat Bench. It was too much for me, but hey, you live and learn.
What are your numbers? And what body weight?
It is possible, but the heavier your maxes are, the harder it will be to do upper body work with Smolov[/quote]
this is exactly what i was thinking. If you gain 87# on your squat from one smolov 13 week cycle then I would think that your total weight volume over the course of the 13 weeks was low. I would agree that if you had a low squat to start off with then you could easily fit in extra upperbody work. But if you have a fairly high squat then you are looking at tons more overall lbs/week and you will not have the recovery capacity to reap optimally from the program.
Also DC is fairly specific as to how its structured. I think what you think you want to do is just upper body rest-pause training with cycling lift selection.
-chris
[quote]Invictica wrote:
What are your numbers? And what body weight?
It is possible, but the heavier your maxes are, the harder it will be to do upper body work with Smolov[/quote]
Squat 390x1
Squat 330x4
Deadlift 466x1
Bodyweight: roughly 198-200
Height: 5’10.5"
I definitely understand your statement. My workload will be much higher now that my max has gone up 87 pounds. This is the kind of constructive criticism I was hoping for. Thank you.
[quote]Avocado wrote:
this is exactly what i was thinking. If you gain 87# on your squat from one smolov 13 week cycle then I would think that your total weight volume over the course of the 13 weeks was low. I would agree that if you had a low squat to start off with then you could easily fit in extra upperbody work. But if you have a fairly high squat then you are looking at tons more overall lbs/week and you will not have the recovery capacity to reap optimally from the program.
Also DC is fairly specific as to how its structured. I think what you think you want to do is just upper body rest-pause training with cycling lift selection.
-chris[/quote]
You are right, my overall pounds/week will be much higher the second time around. I’ll admit, I wasn’t considering that when I first posted this thread. This is what I was hoping to get, constructive criticism.
Thanks.
I understand DC is specific. It was my mistake to even use the term DC. Yes, I was considering cycling lifts for upperbody and using rest-pause.
Yeah if i were you i would try only the smolov work load with your new numbers and then see how you feel after the third week of 13. If you are all good then add in a small amount of upper body, non-maximal lifting.
Even then I would keep the volume low too. It’s not that it isnt POSSIBLE to do other work on smolov but it is that if you do it you are shortchanging the amount of recovery and therefore gains that can be put toward the squats. The idea is that the overload puts all your bodies recovery ability into your ass and legs to get maximum over- adaptation effect.
It’s not an incomplete program, It’s a FOCUSED program.
-chris
[quote]Avocado wrote:
Yeah if i were you i would try only the smolov work load with your new numbers and then see how you feel after the third week of 13. If you are all good then add in a small amount of upper body, non-maximal lifting.
Even then I would keep the volume low too. It’s not that it isnt POSSIBLE to do other work on smolov but it is that if you do it you are shortchanging the amount of recovery and therefore gains that can be put toward the squats. The idea is that the overload puts all your bodies recovery ability into your ass and legs to get maximum over- adaptation effect.
It’s not an incomplete program, It’s a FOCUSED program.
-chris[/quote]
The 3 week trial of just smolov before jumping into upperbody work is a great idea.
Thanks, as always, I appreciate those types of responses.
Really, only you can prevent forest fires…Wait, wrong forum. I meant, only you can decide what is feasible. You could always try it for a couple of weeks (as mentioned before), or you could do the extra work on days you do have the energy, because you will have days that you feel like you can move mountains.
Personally, once I hit the Intense Cycle, the days that I could do anything other than re-rack my weights were far and few between. But, I was also completely focused on increasing my squat and letting my other lifts go until after I finished. Just be aware when you are pushing too much so that you don’t end up with an injury.
Just my $.01
try it! Only you can decide what’s best, and what you think you can handle. Experiment, figure out what works and what doesn’t, adjust, get stronger! Don’t wait for permission, if you’ve finished a full smolov, I think you know what you can handle and are smart enough to deal with it…
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Really, only you can prevent forest fires…Wait, wrong forum. I meant, only you can decide what is feasible. You could always try it for a couple of weeks (as mentioned before), or you could do the extra work on days you do have the energy, because you will have days that you feel like you can move mountains.
Personally, once I hit the Intense Cycle, the days that I could do anything other than re-rack my weights were far and few between. But, I was also completely focused on increasing my squat and letting my other lifts go until after I finished. Just be aware when you are pushing too much so that you don’t end up with an injury.
Just my $.01
[/quote]
Thanks undesired, you were very helpful on a previous thread of mine. I appreciate your input.
[quote]arnoud verschoor wrote:
try it! Only you can decide what’s best, and what you think you can handle. Experiment, figure out what works and what doesn’t, adjust, get stronger! Don’t wait for permission, if you’ve finished a full smolov, I think you know what you can handle and are smart enough to deal with it…[/quote]
Thanks arnoud. Very upbeat.
