Cool that’s what I figured, thanks man.
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PL2W2
Incline press
105x5
120x5
135x5
5x10 at 105
SS
BW pullups 5x8
Pushup 5x12
HLR 5x10
90 seconds rest for main stuff. Threw in some pauses on a few sets of the 5x10 to make it a little bit more challenging.
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PL2W2
Squat
215x5
245x5
275x5
5x10 at 215
SS
Band curls
BPA/dislocates
1.5 BW squat 2x15
2 mins rest on all squat sets
Quads are on fire. I’m in limbo between hole 2 and 3 on my lifting belt, which is a good thing (I guess?) but there isn’t a comfortable medium. It’s either too loose or too tight. Might drill a new hole soon once I know what my body is doing, or start force feeding again to get back to the second hole. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do that again though.
Edit: 210 again after dinner/before bed.
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I started looking through programs tonight, just seeing what else is out there that isn’t 531. Not saying I’m going to change anything up, but to see how other people program.
I made the mistake of plugging my squat into a Smolov spreadsheet, which is ridiculous. And then looking at a theoretical 1RM at the end of the peak and I was blown away. Its making me want to run it.
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I tried to do smolov when I first started squatting, about a decade ago, I think I made it through the first 3 workouts. I’ve got about 12 weeks left on my current program but may give it another shot now that i’m a decade dumber and/or wiser.
Its a peaking program: not a gaining one. No one holds onto the gains, and most get burnt out or injured.
There was never a coach Smolov. No records of such coach ever existing or producing athletes. Not worth following a program from Paul Bunyan when there are so many real coaches out there putting out quality.
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God damn, well if you do end up doing it I’ll definitely be following along. What kind of weights were you squatting when you tried it last, and what programs had you run prior?
This was my main concern when reading through the program. I know myself well enough that my commitment to recovery leaves quite a bit to be desired. I know that if I started the program, I’d do my best to finish it, but I’d totally burn myself out in the process.
The internet lied to me! Haha. Unbelievable. Does anyone know who came up with it?
The internet says Sergey Smolov, but there seems to be no info about him. Pavel Tsatsouline allegedly popularized it and he seems pretty legit. If any of it is true, the lifters it was designed for were probably not natty, so that is worth taking into consideration.
I was squatting ~300 with mediocre form at the time. As I recall hadn’t done any real programming, a friend of mine was training oly lifts with John Broz (again the lifters are enhanced) and talked about how they were running a russian and/or bulgarian style of training. So I decided to hop off my bro split and do something arguably less intelligent.
If I were to run it now I’d be a) eating my ass off b) doing minimal other lower body work. Not sure it’s what I need but the idea of going after something that defeated me earlier has some allure.
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And on top of being not natural, they were also awful lifters, because there’s not a single lifter under the instruction of Sergey Smolov that ever accomplished anything. It’s why I think it’s so silly: either Smolov never existed (and given that the Soviets documented EVERTYHING with sports science, the idea of some mystery coach producing successful athletes and having no record of it is silly), OR he was so bad at what he did that there’s not a single Soviet athlete under his instruction that ever made it to any high level competition. In either case, it’s a sign that employing his programming is a poor choice.
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I thought Smolov was just a weeder programme used by Eastern European countries to identify lifters with promise. If you survive it you have potential to be coached because you have near superhuman recovery.
Yea, the more I look into the more it seems like Smolov is an entire myth, likely created by Tsatsouline. Smolov is constantly referred to as the “Master of Sports” but having 0 record of him rings too many alarms. It was likely a way for him to sell more programs because he was using a master’s knowledge. Pretty dumb, makes me much less apt to do it especially since there are other high frequency styles that have some proof behind the pudding.
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Yeah I was looking for something to do once I finish up pervertor. I may do another cycle of it after I finish the anchor next month though, so I have time to think about it, but it sounds like Smolov is for sure a no-go for me then. Plus…
Might not be in my best interest. I’ve essentially been gaining for over 2 years straight now. I’m not sure if I want to continue doing that. I went from 165 in 2017 to sitting consistently at 208+ now. It may be time to strip some fat off and start it all over again but I’m not sure. I still REALLY want to get stronger, and at my bodyweight I think I SHOULD be stronger. I’m certain I’d bury myself if I tried pushing too hard in a defecit.
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I was watching a JTS video and Max was saying very similar things about the bulgarian method too. Lots of people dropped like flies… I can’t imagine training 8+ hrs a day 7 days a week, maxing out the entire time.
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Westside for Skinny Bastards always looked pretty cool. I was looking at that program for a minute. Seems that it could fit your goals.
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Yea, it’s 100% not what I need to do body composition wise but I don’t see a way to do that volume/frequency/intensity without drugs or tons of food, sleep and recovery work.
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Thanks @zeptrey I will check it out tonight
Oh absolutely, which is why I’m probably never going to have the balls to run it haha.
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PL2W2
OHP
85x5
100x5
110x5
5x10 at 85
SS
Vbar row at 110 5x10
Side raise 5x10 at 12.5 ea arm
BW squat 1x53 RP 1x15
OHP moved well, onto deads tomorrow and then hell week starts Monday.
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Yea, I got kinda pumped on the idea when you posted it then @T3hPwnisher came in and knocked me (us) back a notch. The lack of balls/abundance of reason is probably a good thing, frankly.
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Don’t get me wrong: I love challenge programs. I just think the Smolov myth is silly, haha. Go Deep Water if you want something absurd but with some credentials.
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Yeah I typically have these grandiose plans and forget to take a step back and actually process what it is I’m planning on doing. TBH going on a heavy bulk right now is sort of out of the question for me, especially.on a squat heavy program.
Got fitted for a suit last January for my wedding in May of this year, wedding was postponed, due to covid, to this coming may… I haven’t been in to be re-fitted yet. I’m going to guess that my suit pants are going to be like tights right now and as far as I know, they can’t “bring out” pants, so they’re going to have to reorder a larger size… not sure if that’ll be out of my pocket or not.
Edit: I guess if I have to reorder new pants anyway I could still eat like an asshole, idk. Not sure what to do.
1 Like