Don’t run Smolov. It’s a pretty worthless program unless you’re a weightlifter who needs to rapidly increase his squatting strength for a short period of time.
I massively respect your work ethic and willingness to push yourself but my two cents worth is that if you really want to fulfil the potential you have (which is considerable) you would do well to move away from constantly looking to push the boundaries in the gym. Right now, you can get away with it because you’re not moving anything your body considers significantly stressful but it is very likely that you’ll turn cross that bridge very quickly at some point and that will change.
I would strongly urge you to consider either competing in something like PL OR strongman and pick meets around six month apart and structure your training around accumulation and peaking phases; or reserve two six week periods a year around six months apart where you peak to test and in between them accumulate fatigue. Same difference, really.
I doubt it would be that different to what you’re doing now, apart from really locking down your self restraint and not going for maxes or PRs simply because you feel good; and deloading properly and regularly (think every four to six weeks where all you do are a few sets of your main lift at 50 per cent or so).
This is none of my business, obviously, but I would hate to see you burn out or squander your potential when I honestly can see you squatting and deadlifting well north of 600 lbs and benching 400 lbs or more in a relatively short time if you get things right.
I guess it’s a matter of whether you want to have fun in the gym or do some properly awesome shit down the track.
If you do decide to go down the path of restraint in pursuit of awesomeness, I’d highly recommend either Paul Carter’s Base Building or Swede Burns’ 5th Set.
@mortdk. Thanks buddy! Always so nice to have you on the log.
@I_Luc dude I am impressed by your log often it’s a mutual thing man.
@MarkKO thanks for the input. After last nights workout I’m thinking about how beat up I am and questioning my decision to push this next three weeks so hard. You have added to that thinking process.
Strength gains are made by accumulating volume in the 80-87% range. I’ve said it multiple times but I really like how I ran SGSS the first time. I was coming off surgery so I was very conservative. It turns out that I never missed a rep and matched or beat all of my PRs.
Think about that. Conservative. Never missed a rep. Crushed my goals.
Doesn’t that sound better than getting beat into the ground every week? Don’t get me wrong - - I had tough workouts but they were always manageable.
@MarkKO’s training with Greg is easy different than anything I’ve ever done. I think it’s different than anything he’d done. I was watching him crush big weights every workout. Now he’s training differently (much lighter) but his strength is better when it’s time to peak.
To make this approach work, you need a schedule and a plan. If you don’t have a plan then you’ll lose sight of the goal and probably want to change gears to satisfy your ego.
Well correct me Hog but you have done two cycles of 531 standard leader, one week deload and now you’re on 3 weeks anchor cycle.
Your leaders were a bit on and of, but as far as I remember you didn’t do any PR sets or joker sets. You did probably a bit to high intense deload last week.
The leader is accumulating fatigue normally with 5’s pro followed by 5x5 FSL, lots of volume and not digging into CNS except maybe on the 531 week were you’re supposed to do 5 reps.
The anchor is the realisation period were you set some awesome rep pr’s followed by a week of testing either the TM or a 1 RM.
Yeah I’m still a Wendler fan boy.
But when you decide to try something else try the SGSS by coach thib.
Yeah I’d just like to echo Mark and say that Smolov is mainly for people on steroids. I don’t know if you looked at a Smolov template, but it’s ridiculous. I considered doing it once, but in all honesty I don’t think I could physically handle squatting more than 2x/week, even if I put every other goal and lift on the back burner for 2-3 months.
Most of the things I’ve read about Smolov pretty much just say “I got injured doing this,” or “my buddy got injured doing this.” Squatting 4x/week makes you tired and sore and sluggish. Putting 85% of 1rm on your back for 30 reps in one workout when you’re feeling tired or sore or sluggish is a recipe for disaster. I’ve never done it, but that’s common sense.
So not only would you be forced to put every other lift on hold (that means 2-3 months off from benching, and then another 1-3 months to regain what you lost), but you would likely get injured. Which sucks. You’ve been injured before, you know exactly what that’s like.
You’re killing PRs every time I look at your log. What you’re doing is great for you. If it ain’t broke…
I saw your 365 x 5 lb Instagram. I fear I’ll never catch you so I’ll just focus on deads. My best set of five was 285 and it was the set that sounded the alarm on my hip. It was the first time the pain was bad and it felt like I got stabbed. Not a good memory.
You look happier in the first one, but you have a lot more muscle in the second pic. That’s a fair trade, in my opinion. I’ll sacrifice happiness for muscle mass at this point!! Looking great my man
The first one was on an off day just chilling at the house. The second was mid workout and exhausted…I’m crushing it until Jan 1 or 300 which ever comes first then I’ll cut some. Just to check up on the body fat.
12 has of sleep in the last three days caught up with me today. Had a terrible session. Need sleep… I would have slept in today but my son woke me up at 6:30 hey dad… can we workout early I’ve got to work later.
Bench
45x10
95x5
115x5
135x5
155x5
186x5
225x5
245x3 (should have been 5) I was just tired never felt warmed up or primed to explode
Crushing it Hog. Heed Markko’s advice above. He’s spot on. I bet you want to be doing this in your 60s. You have a real shot at making some noise in the PL community with the trajectory you’re on. Gotta stay healthy.
Keep up the great work. Your log is like crack! Cant get enough. Ha
