I am starting the smolov squat routine this week. As most of you are probably aware its a 13 week programme. My current PB for squat is 140kg.
My question is - in the base mesocycle you are required to squat for times a week. Squatting 3 times a week (like in the intro cycle) seems easy to fit into a week (mon,wed,fri). How would I get 4 sessions into a week with ample rest days. If I did Mon,Wed,Fri and 4th session on Saturday , I would imagine I would be very tired for the 4th session.
If on the other hand I did the 4th session on Sunday - I guess I would struggle on Monday for the first session in the following week!
Any help in mapping out a good plan would be well appreciated!
You’re better off doing it as written, as in On-Off-On-Off-On-On-Off. You’re building training stress that you’ll recover from before retesting your 1RM; its designed that way intentionally. Yes, you will be tired on the 3x10 day, but you’ll be fine.
Also, if you think you’re going to struggle with the 4 sessions/week in the base cycle, the intense cycle might kill you. The base cycle is more sessions per week, but at lower intensities, especially for the first two days of the week. If you start trying to add in extra days off in the intense cycle, as well, you’re going to be pushing the length of the program to 15-16 weeks, which isn’t a good idea. I’ve run full Smolov twice in the past 18 months, both times as written. It sucks every time, but its worth doing it the right way.
It’s not really smolov if you aren’t squatting 4x/week. it sucks, but you are trying to build work capacity and keep the volume up pretty high for a reason. These are submaxal numbers you are hittin 4x/week, they are set in such a way that you can recover from them (hence the reason why the base meso adds weight every week). The goal is to stay on the edge of recovery.
I guess if you are unsure how to program you could split it on-off-on-off over and over and add another day of training somewhere in there.
If you want to build the squat, and you have good form, are eating enough, sleeping enough and foam rolling/stretching then stick w the plan. it’s hard, but its setup to be that way
Any guessing on what improvements I will / should make?
My current 1 rep max is 140kg - bodyweight is 95kg!
Not exactly a great squat but hey im on here to improve it.
What other exercises could I add along with smolov - some bench press or bent over rowing etc?[/quote]
I either stop deadlifting entirely or cut back on the intensity a lot when I do Smolov. Your normal bench routine should be fine, unless you’re also usually doing high volume bench (Sheiko, etc.), in which case I’d drop some volume there during the intense phase, at the very least. Any upper body assistance work you normally do is also fine, but keep it fairly light. I never really touched any lower body assistance work for the duration; all the squatting you’ll do covers what you need.