I’m current 313lbs and at 6’ 6", a lot of people think I weight more like 260-270lbs. I wish. I started strength training 5 years ago and eventually went into powerlifting. I’ve lifted in three meets since then:
My current 1RM is 405lbs which will be what I use to start Smolov. After being off more more than 2 years, I’m glad to have that as my 1RM.
In between each, I ran everything from the Cube Method to Smolov Base and a few others in between. Obviously, I like squats and it’s my strongest lift. So the reason for this thread, I decided I’m going to do the full Smolov program.
Feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter too as @FullSmolov. I’ll start the introduction phase this coming Monday. This Friday I finish up this program I’m currently on, otherwise, I’d start sooner.
Started this off pretty rough. Forgot my water yesterday and my wallet at home. So I didn’t drink anything from about 7AM until 5PM. I’m not drinking this local city water…
My lower back and hamstrings were tight and cramping all day. Really didn’t feel like starting, but I made the commitment, so I did it.
Funny that you said to get lots of sleep… after that workout, I went home and was WIRED… I guess 250mg caffeine for pre workout was a bad idea. I ended up going to bed around 1AM and was up at 5AM. I was going to try and go to the gym, but I couldn’t do it. Plus, at those weights, I didn’t want to chance injury.
So I’m going to the gym at lunch today to knock out last night’s workout and possibly go back tonight to get today’s out.
Yea I understand. While I never used caffeieme or anything like that, the days I had enough sleep were the best days. If I underslept, I either had to skip the day or it was extremely difficult. The days I got sleep, I was like Goku himself.
I went to the gym at lunch yesterday and was able to knock out somewhat of a work out.
Went in and warmed up to my work set of 265lbs. I did my 3X8 with no issue, I added weights to get to 285lbs. Here is where it gets blurry, I can’t remember if I did the 285X5… but I remember putting on the 305lbs for the 2X2 work. On the first set of 305lbs, I did 5 reps, thinking it was 285, after that set, I sat down and figured out I was supposed to do 2X2. So I did my last set of 2, then my 325X1.
I went in to the gym feeling tired still and since it was my first time at this new gym, maybe I was stressing. I know in the past I’ve stressed a little and messed my weights up, but fixed them before I squatted. This time, I remember putting the 285lbs on, but don’t remember squatting it. So maybe after I sat down to rest, I lost track of what I was doing and didn’t squat the 285lbs and just went up to the 305lbs.
Very strange.
I’m going to go in tonight and finish my third day for this week that was supposed to be completed yesterday. Thankfully I’m only a day behind and the 3 days of lunges won’t hinder my second week of the intro. This will also get get me back on schedule.
I’m hoping to get a good 40+ pounds of gains on this. Since I’m “advanced” (I use that loosely since I’ve been over 500lbs before.), I may not gain as much as a novice might. But at this point and time any gains will be great.
The introductory phase is nice. It’s almost like a warmup; I took concepts from Smolov on how I do my current warmup, except that I end my warmup always with heavy set (relative to try to boost my CNS) and make the work sets lighter. You might want to try that out for the coming days.
For example, this is my warmup
45lbsx2x10 with pulses and pauses
135lbsx6 paused
185lbsx4
225lbsx3 with a pause on the last rep
275lbsx1 paused
320lbsx3
I’m currently on the Russian Squat Routine at like week 5. Today I got done with 325lbs for 4 sets of 4.
Also you might want to skip the switching phase or put in some sort of heavy squatting, even just 80% for 6-8 reps should prevent detraining
It’s been a PITA. Switching gyms and now I feel like I’m getting sick. Maybe I should’ve started off lighter or better yet, worked out earlier the first day. That 4 hours of sleep screwed me up and I still feel worn down and tired.
I kinda do the same thing. I started strength training with Starting Strength years ago and I’ve always used the SS warmup for my squats. Deads and bench differently, but always with my squats. I use it to warm up to my first working set then from there, I go up to each work weight.
I will, depending on how I feel, do pauses and maybe add a few extra reps or so, but with Smolov, I just warmup per SS warmup and got from there. I’ll definitely add in squats through switching. I’m not much of a power cleaner and negatives don’t really appeal to me. So squats at 80% as you suggest most likely.
Felt incredibly light tonight. I’m sure I could’ve hit an easy 10 reps with 345lbs. I think the two bowls of cereal a few hours before helped out with energy levels. I might try it again tonight.
Smolov Week 3 Day 3: I’m currently a day behind with the squats. So this means I’ll be squatting three days straight. Today was yesterday’s squats, tomorrow will be today’s squats, and Monday’s, will put me back on track. These felt really strong, minus the last set. Felt a little heavy and felt like I moved slow on all lifts. Had a great post workout meal and I hope it prepares me for tomorrow’s squats, 345X10X3 Someone on my live steam asked me how long I was resting between sets. It was about 1.5/2 minutes for the first few sets. The last few sets were a little longer as I was getting more winded and I was rotating with a guy on the other side of the rack. Can’t wait to end this three week base cycle. Testing that new 1RM will be fun.
Smolov Week 4 Day 1: 305X4X9. What a day. Had to take off the first half of the day to run a few errands and then go to my baby boy’s Valentines party at school.
I adjusted my feet out some more today. My right knee has been popping or cracking the last few squat sessions. I brought them out just past shoulder width, turned my toes out a little more, and perfect. No crunching sounds at all.
I notice it opened my hips up more and I can get lower with my squats. Minus a few throughout the video, all of them were well below parallel. Felt really good and I’ll definitely be switching back to the wider stance. I’ll get someone to record me closer to the front to see how my foot and knee alignment is.
So, this week will be fun. 325lbs tomorrow, 345lbs the 17th and 365lbs the 18th. The 365lbs will be 90% of my current 1RM.
I decided that I want to test my 20RM after I complete #Smolov. I did 185lbs for 20 and I also did 225lbs for 20. The 305lbs felt light on the first two sets and I feel as though I could hit it for 20 reps if rested and fueled. I want to eventually do 405lbs for reps, which will be quite a long time from now.
Tonight was another great night. Minus the two mess ups on racking the bar. No worries though, everything felt great and the widened is feeling damn good.
I had a guy ask me some advice with squats. He might be having rotator cuff surgery soon. So I told him to ask me whenever I’m in the gym. Then another guy chatted me up and asked for me to critique his squats. He was going just below half way and when I finished helping him, he knows what it feels like to go parallel.
So a wonderful night at the gym tonight. Feeling great and (so far) ready for tomorrow night’s squats. That’ll be 345X7x5 and that will be fun. Can’t wait!
