Finished Smolov Base Cycle

That was a tough 3 weeks. Finished the last 10x3 today. Although it was a great few weeks, I am glad today was the last day as 4x a week squatting was starting to wear me down.

Max before the cycle was 260bls. 250 10x3 felt pretty light today, I’ll be testing my max next week, shooting for 310lbs or more. The switching period should be more explosive based and not heavy weights, correct? How would playing basketball a few days a week fit into those two weeks?

I plan on starting smolov jr for bench tommorow, that way I will be finished with it as I start the intense phase for squats, does that sound like a good idea?

Thanks.

That’s exactly what I’m doing. I just tested max front squat yesterday got a 30lb pr went for 40 but missed since paused at the bottom for a sec. Didn’t bother trying again since I had smolov jr for bench also. You should get at least 25-30lbs, my training partner got 40lb pr but was only parallel and 35lb pr normal squat in the back.

I felt I peaked in the third week more though, so you might not get that big of a jump but since your back squat was not huge weight you should go up quite a bit. Make sure to take it easy on off week, I felt great after few days and did some track and field throwing-did some prs but tired me out and was little sore for max-

I think basketball be fine in the switching but I tried doing basketball during base meso and it didn’t work hah. So I would avoid it during intense for sure.

Basketball would be ok in switching phase, but not in base or intense meso cycle. Don’t overdo it!

Congratulations on making it through. You are set for a new PR now! That’s awesome! Doing the smolov jr. for bench is a great idea. It is also possible to do smolov jr. for bench and smolov for squat at the same time. Very hard, but doable, I’ve done it a few times. You’re going to feel burnt out, but after it is all completed, you will recuperate and get stronger. Remember to eat well.

I’ve been itching to test out my max since I finished, so I went for it today , about 3 or 4 days earlier than I had planned. Warm up felt good, 280 went up easy after that. Decided to throw on 310 instead of the 300 i had written down, missed that lift. Took it down to 305, and missed that as well. Ended up hitting 295 after that however. So a 35lbs gain for the base cycle, at least. I had planned on video taping the lifts but after recording missing 310 I put aside that distraction.

35lbs is a nice gain for 3 weeks!! Well done!!