Building Up To High Frequency

Training Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Let’s say I wanted to bring up 1-2 specific lifts but I’ve always been used to train each lift only once or twice a week. The goal would be to run something like Smolov Jr for squat and/or bench, for example.
How to build up gradually towards a high frequency?
I was thinking about 3 weeks blocks (during the volume/accumulation phase) with increasing frequency and decreasing volume, like this:

-weeks 1-3, 3 days a week PPL, target lift(s) 1x week
-weeks 4-6, 4 days a week U/L, target lift(s) 2x week
-weeks 7-9, 3 days a week full body, target lift(s) 3x week

intensity would go up after each cycle, volume would progressively drop on accessories and the bigger lifts other than the target lift(s) would be put on maintenance towards weeks 7-9.
On week 10 I’d take a deload, then begin Smolov Jr for the 1-2 target lifts on week 11, maybe if the target lifts are 2 running it with 3 days a week instead of 4 would be wiser.

Would something like this make sense as a progression from LFT to HFT?

2

Split up your volume between more sessions, if that is easy to recover from then you can add more volume. It might not necessarily be better though, higher frequency mostly seems to pay off when your technique sucks but not so much beyond that.

Bad idea. Anything related to Smolov is almost always a bad idea.

3

You don’t need to work up to it. Just control the intensity.

4

Always heard, especially for upper body stuff, that increasing frequency tends to help a lot - i.e. people moving from 2/week to 3/week for the bench and getting good results, going past plateaus.
Just to see if we’re on the same page - for “higher frequency” you mean 3+ times a week for a specific lift, right?
Right now I’m thinking 2/week as average frequency and 1/week as low frequency, except for deadlifts for whom 1/week I’d say is average and 2/week high.

Heard that the Jr version is not as crazy as the base program and much easier to survive. Looking at the numbers, I’d run it a bit differently than it is, at least the first time. 3 days a week (so that a training week ends up being 9 days), and I’d base the %s on the 90-95% of my 1RM… or something like that, more conservative.

I was thinking about HFT for my next training cycle, for some kind of peaking after the volume phase, to pull back on deads and really push the squat and the press for a short amount of time (3-4 weeks).
Especially the press (I know it’s not a powerlift), I feel I’m about to stall, gonna see in the next few weeks if that’s actually true tho

5

I like Smolov Jr, but I personally wouldn’t do both lifts concurrently because the sessions would just take forever and I’d run out of gas after I’m done with one exercise. I’ve done Front Squat and OHP Smolov Jr in the past which was fun tho.

Recently, I did bulgarian training where I’d work up to a heavy but conservative single, then some back off sets of doubles or triples. The volume was low, so I’d just start with 2x Squat/Bench and 1x deadlift, to 3-4x Squat/Bench and 1x deadlift

6

Don’t have a specific idea in mind yet (I’m just starting the last part of the current training cycle, so I’m thinking weeks ahead), Smolov Jr came to mind because it’s fairly known and there are lots of reviews about it.
Ideally, what I’d want to do would be Smolov Jr for press AND squat, 6 days a week alternating each day betwen press and squats. Assistance would be minimal (a pull after the press, a posterior chain movement after squats, some ab work, tons of prehab).

Something like:
Cycle 1
Mon - press, pulldowns, face pulls
Tue - squat, back extensions, abs
Wed - press, chins, face pulls
Thu - squat, RDLs, abs
Fri - press, rows, face pulls
Sat - squat, good mornings, abs
Sun - rest
Mon - press, pulldowns, face pulls
Tue - squat, back extensions, abs

  • about 100-150 pull aparts and about 50 dislocators each day, which I already do every day.

Just to give the generic idea, this would be the first Smolov week, diluted into 9 days and a 3/week setup for each target lift. Feels somewhat more bearable to split them up instead of running Smolov for both on the same days.

But I would NOT do something like this the first time, I’d try high frequency for a lift on the next training cycle, then for another lift on the following cycle, and if I see that both responded well and I felt good doing it, I’d try to run both in yet another training cycle.

How did it work out for OHP?
I did front squats 3/week once for a full body 5/3/1 program, I went straight doing them from a 1/week program to a 3/week program… made very good and quick progress, but also felt miserable. To be honest, front squats always made me feel miserable, even 1/week.

7

Honestly, it didn’t do shit. My OHP was already weak at the time, and my last 10x3 had me doing 125. My plan was to do OHP for bench, and didnt change a thing on bench.

I was stuck at 305 for squat all that summer and fall, and doing front squat smolov jr got me to 325 after I tried testing.

Bulgarian had me feeling rough, especially forearms and elbows. So I did SSB Squats or Duffalo bench, but sometimes I’d use a squat bar or power bar 1x a week or so.

8

Well, that’s… encouraging, lol :smiley:

My press is, give or take, around that number, using a conservative 90% of 1RM for Smolov, I’d do the last 10x3 at 120-125lbs. I always seem to stall before I can reach 1xbw (170lbs), I’m also getting back from a minor wrist surgery and results so far have been positive.
If high frequency isn’t very effective, I might consider doing variations during the volume block, i.e. push pressing for low reps one day, strict pressing for higher reps on the other day, so that I’m putting stuff overhead 2/week.

While for squats, I’ve been playing with the kink to push the AMRAP 5/3/1 set every week to 20 reps lately, with success, but the weights are fairly light - latest and heaviest week was 207x20, and I’m just not used to push heavy %s in the squat, so I’d be surprised if I managed to move anything above 300lbs.