Results, Smolov Base Meso Cycle

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1

Hello guys!

This is the third time i do the smolov squat program, however this time I only did the smolov base meso cycle, because the nationals are upcoming in one month, and i do not have the time to do the entire program.

I decided to try the base meso cycle with front squats. It was brutal! And i had some extremely good and hard workouts!

Sunday i checked to see if i would reach my goal at 180kg/396lbs frontsquat.

Video:

The previous 1RM was 170kg/374lbs.

So a 10kg/22lbs increase in my 1RM frontsquat in 3 weeks time. Not bad!

I belive I also had a few more kilos left, but I decided to call it a day when I made 180kg/396lbs.

Have a look at the video, and say what you think!

oh. and my bodyweight is approx 100kg/220lbs

– stallion

2

thats a fuckin strong FS there man… impressive!! deep too. (you could use the clean grip, but whatever you prefer)

i also gain ~10kg on my BS when i did the base meso.

Anyway, wish you the best on your upcoming meet

3

I am natural/drug free how is the Smolov cycle for us, natural lifters did you recover ok? and did you do less for your upper body since you did so much for your legs? did you take supplements like beta 7/creatine to help you recover?

4

Congrats, you lucky bastard!

I am/was in the middle of my Smolov base mesocyle and I fear I have to give it up.
I strained the lower part of my traps and can’t put heavy loads on my back without risking further injury. It’s a real pitty because I like the Smolov squat cycle.

@ecorr

If you sleep and eat enough you don’t need any suplements. I’d suggest that you get some thermosleeves for your knees and some massages from time to time. Your body addapts pretty fast to the increased volume, at least mine did.

I trained 6 times a week (4 w/o were for squats) and did all the upper body exercises I used to before the squat cycle (b/p, rows, pullups, presses) I didn’t deadlift though.

5

[quote]ecorr wrote:
I am natural/drug free how is the Smolov cycle for us, natural lifters did you recover ok? and did you do less for your upper body since you did so much for your legs? did you take supplements like beta 7/creatine to help you recover?[/quote]

I am natural/drug free as well. Although I never mention it unless it is necessary like in replies like this. For me drugfree is the norm. And those that always toss the word drugfree and natural around, for me that is often a source of suspicion.

I never smoke, and i never drink alcohol, and i never take drugs.

Why should i? Why should i poison the beautiful gift that we have been given? Our body and our health!

I am now doing lifting full time, i do not have a day job. Therefore I can sleep a lot, as many hours as i like, and recovery benefited ofcourse from this.

I only did upper body work the high rep days, (the 4x9 and 5x7 day) and then i did pushpresses as main exercise, and put in rows and other exercises were i felt like it.

I feel the low rep days (5 and 3) are so taxing that squatting alone is enough on these days.

I went to the gym four days a week for lifting, and some other weeks i also did 1 additional day of stretching only.

I did not deadlift or bench during this program. No benchpress is because of a shoulder injury.

I believe the squatting should be your main thing on this program. and everything else should only be done if you have the energy for it.

I am a lifter hardened by high volume training. and this time (3rd) i felt better than ever doing the smolov base meso cycle.

the first time i was about to die, the second time was a little bit better, but still gruesome.

you have to be headstrong, have a good foundation and be mad to do this program.

it is not for the faint of heart.

at least two years of hard training should be the required foundation for this program.

you have to be used to at least 2-3 times squatting a week with a high volume. i have based my programs around boris sheiko programs which i like a lot. i have adjusted them a bit for my weaknesses.

i did the program with front squats, and i guess that it is less taxing for the body than backsquats, because backsquats let you use more weight.

I was never as destroyed doing the program with frontsquats as with the backsquats, which really destroyed me sometimes.

i always use creatine or combined creatine and ribose product while on this cycle to aid recovery and help with energy.

— stallion

  • stay strong!
6

[quote]eisenaffe wrote:
Congrats, you lucky bastard!

I am/was in the middle of my Smolov base mesocyle and I fear I have to give it up.
I strained the lower part of my traps and can’t put heavy loads on my back without risking further injury. It’s a real pitty because I like the Smolov squat cycle.

@ecorr

If you sleep and eat enough you don’t need any suplements. I’d suggest that you get some thermosleeves for your knees and some massages from time to time. Your body addapts pretty fast to the increased volume, at least mine did.

I trained 6 times a week (4 w/o were for squats) and did all the upper body exercises I used to before the squat cycle (b/p, rows, pullups, presses) I didn’t deadlift though.[/quote]

I would just like to mention that my results has nothing to do with luck. It was all bloody hard work. Harder work than most people are willing to do in the gym. Many people fail on smolov, because they get injuried, scared, lack the foundation or whatever. But for those who can do it, it is the holy grail of squat programs.

The first time I did the smolov base meso cycle, I had pains everywhere. But was determined to fight on no matter what. The only thing that could stop me would be if I was in such pain that I could not continue. And I can tolerate a good deal of pain.

You say you went six days a week to the gym. I think this might have added to your injury. I feel it is too much. When doing smolov, smolov is what you do, and especially if it is the first time. then you do not have the required experience to judge what extra work to do.

if you have an injury, you should abort the program. and heal, and then come back more grusome than ever later. i know it is a bitch to give up, but your long term strength will not suffer from it.

I think you can do smolov with proper food and rest, but I’d never do it without creatine and ribose. It is nice to have that extra…

7

Nice squat, man. No doubt about it.

8

[quote]stallion wrote:
ecorr wrote:
I am natural/drug free how is the Smolov cycle for us, natural lifters did you recover ok? and did you do less for your upper body since you did so much for your legs? did you take supplements like beta 7/creatine to help you recover?

I am natural/drug free as well. Although I never mention it unless it is necessary like in replies like this. For me drugfree is the norm. And those that always toss the word drugfree and natural around, for me that is often a source of suspicion.

I never smoke, and i never drink alcohol, and i never take drugs.

Why should i? Why should i poison the beautiful gift that we have been given? Our body and our health!

I am now doing lifting full time, i do not have a day job. Therefore I can sleep a lot, as many hours as i like, and recovery benefited ofcourse from this.

I only did upper body work the high rep days, (the 4x9 and 5x7 day) and then i did pushpresses as main exercise, and put in rows and other exercises were i felt like it.

I feel the low rep days (5 and 3) are so taxing that squatting alone is enough on these days.

I went to the gym four days a week for lifting, and some other weeks i also did 1 additional day of stretching only.

I did not deadlift or bench during this program. No benchpress is because of a shoulder injury.

I believe the squatting should be your main thing on this program. and everything else should only be done if you have the energy for it.

I am a lifter hardened by high volume training. and this time (3rd) i felt better than ever doing the smolov base meso cycle.

the first time i was about to die, the second time was a little bit better, but still gruesome.

you have to be headstrong, have a good foundation and be mad to do this program.

it is not for the faint of heart.

at least two years of hard training should be the required foundation for this program.

you have to be used to at least 2-3 times squatting a week with a high volume. i have based my programs around boris sheiko programs which i like a lot. i have adjusted them a bit for my weaknesses.

i did the program with front squats, and i guess that it is less taxing for the body than backsquats, because backsquats let you use more weight.

I was never as destroyed doing the program with frontsquats as with the backsquats, which really destroyed me sometimes.

i always use creatine or combined creatine and ribose product while on this cycle to aid recovery and help with energy.

— stallion

  • stay strong![/quote]

Good words and excellent lift!

9

I might try this, i do have one question though.
http://www.ontariostrongman.ca/Resources/training/smolovsquatcycle.htm
scroll down to the program in the read box,and it says to do 85% for 3x10, above however it says to do 10 sets of 3, so my question is, is it the wrong way round on all of the boxes? on monday should I do 70%x9x4 or really 4x9?

10

[quote]Charged wrote:
I might try this, i do have one question though.
http://www.ontariostrongman.ca/Resources/training/smolovsquatcycle.htm
scroll down to the program in the read box,and it says to do 85% for 3x10, above however it says to do 10 sets of 3, so my question is, is it the wrong way round on all of the boxes? on monday should I do 70%x9x4 or really 4x9?[/quote]

The following is how you do it:

monday:

4 sets of 9 reps

wednesday:

5 sets of 7 reps

friday:

7 sets of 5 reps

saturday:

10 sets of 3 reps

folow the loading scheme in the program.

the second week all weights increase by 10kg, by the 3rd week another 5kg.

The program is hard and cruel. Be sure to eat like a bear in hunting season!

If you can survive week two, you will survive week 3 as well.

Make sure you have the required foundation, or you might burn out or get injuried.

Good luck!

11

[quote]Charged wrote:
I might try this, i do have one question though.
http://www.ontariostrongman.ca/Resources/training/smolovsquatcycle.htm
scroll down to the program in the read box,and it says to do 85% for 3x10, above however it says to do 10 sets of 3, so my question is, is it the wrong way round on all of the boxes? on monday should I do 70%x9x4 or really 4x9?[/quote]

Read on the top of the page, it starts with:

NOTE: Set and rep instructions in this article are the reverse of the way they are written in the U.S. In Russia, the number of reps is given first, followed by the number of sets. Thus “3x10” in this article indicates that the trainee would perform 10 sets of 3 reps each.

12

on the microcycle are those 3 days 1 after each other or spread over a week?

13

To anyone with experience programming the Smolov:

How do you integrate the other aspects (upper body, lower body assistance, OLs) of ones training with this program? I always see the smolov (both 3 (Staley) and 4 (pavel) day versions) part cut out and displayed apart from a complete program. I would be very interested to see what Smolov or other masters of sport deemed necessary to ‘round out’ the squatting cycle to garner complete development while leaving the body with enough resources to recover from the squatting.

To the original poster: Very strong front squat in your video, what did the rest of your training week look like?
-k

14

[quote]Charged wrote:
on the microcycle are those 3 days 1 after each other or spread over a week?[/quote]

You squat four days a week on the base meso cycle, and three times a week on the intense meso cycle.

You have to explain better if this was not answer to your questions.

15

[quote]kane101nod wrote:
To anyone with experience programming the Smolov:

How do you integrate the other aspects (upper body, lower body assistance, OLs) of ones training with this program? I always see the smolov (both 3 (Staley) and 4 (pavel) day versions) part cut out and displayed apart from a complete program. I would be very interested to see what Smolov or other masters of sport deemed necessary to ‘round out’ the squatting cycle to garner complete development while leaving the body with enough resources to recover from the squatting.

To the original poster: Very strong front squat in your video, what did the rest of your training week look like?
-k[/quote]

I have a log at

treningsforum.no/forum/index.php?topic=29125.0

Go to the last page and browse through the pages backwards to read. Use babelfish to translate to english.

Basically I did what i felt my body could cope with.

First week i did upper body 3 times, 2nd and 3rd week only on the 9 and 7 rep days.

16

well it says Day1
Day2
Day3

are these days one after each other or spread through the week, also stallion did u get my pm?

17

[quote]kane101nod wrote:
To anyone with experience programming the Smolov:

How do you integrate the other aspects (upper body, lower body assistance, OLs) of ones training with this program? I always see the smolov (both 3 (Staley) and 4 (pavel) day versions) part cut out and displayed apart from a complete program. I would be very interested to see what Smolov or other masters of sport deemed necessary to ‘round out’ the squatting cycle to garner complete development while leaving the body with enough resources to recover from the squatting.

To the original poster: Very strong front squat in your video, what did the rest of your training week look like?
-k[/quote]

The Smolov routine prescribes as a warmup the “protyazhka” which basicaly will work a part of your pulling and part of the pressing muscles.

I think it is intended not to do any asistance training for the lower body or work for the upper body, since it is a realy intense routine. I asume it was intended for olympic lifters to bring up their squat but keep “the groove” with the protyazhka warmup.

I did the Smolov squat basecycle along with this bench routine joeskopec.com - joeskopec Resources and Information.

I basicaly trained 6 times a week (Mo-Sat).

Day 1: squat + regular bench

Day 2: incline bench, b/o row, lateral and posterior delt work, rotator cuff work

Day 3: squat

Day 4: stretching, light squats to increase blod flow in the sore lower body

Day 5: squat + regular bench

Day 6: squat

Honestly if you sleep and eat well enaough you can live trough it. I was kind of “beaten up” all the time but I got so used to it that in fact I got hooked uppon it like a drug adict. I could barely wait to wake up in the morning the day I had to squat on.

I got injured in the middle of the cycle so I had to abandon all workout.
I think the injury occured due to some technique mistakes I made and not due to working out 6 times a week or the cycle beeing to heavy.

My advice would be:

  • allways concentrate on propper technique
  • do not deadlift, at least not heavy, during this squat cycle
  • eat and sleep as much as you can
  • hot baths, sauna, light massages, thermo kneesleeves help with the recovery
18

[quote]Charged wrote:
well it says Day1
Day2
Day3

are these days one after each other or spread through the week, also stallion did u get my pm?[/quote]

If you are starting Smolov’s super cycle after a major layoff perform the following two-week introductory microcycle. The Russian lifter and author shows how you can reach 90% of your peak condition in just three days:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

In the introductory microcycle, you shall squat three days in a row.

19

6’4" 240lb

I just tested my new 1rm after completing the base mesocycle 2 weeks ago.

Start: ATG squat 295lb
Finish: nailed 325lb today (I’m 6’4" so don’t laugh)

I tried for a max last week and got buried by 315. My legs hadn’t recovered yet.

30lb increase in 6 weeks. Not bad. The program was intense. My knees and back were complaining during the 3rd week. I felt totally drained by the end of the cycle and, coincidentally or not, caught the flu for a few days. During the 2 weeks of rest I did some vert jumps, but that’s it.

I was only sore during the first week and then my legs got used to it. The 4x9 days were the hardest for me. I needed 10-15min of rest between sets when doing 4x9. The workouts took ~1hr each. I didn’t do any other lifting except for some sets of dips/pullups a couple times per week.

I ate ~4kcal per day during all this and my weight went from 242(start) to 247 (3rd week) and then today it was 240. I’m not sure what to make of that. Maybe my gains would’ve been better if I’d eaten more, but I’m already fat enough.

This concludes my first bulk. Started at 210, went to 255, now at 240. I’m going to drop to 220 and then do it again.

20

Great job stallion!