I have been running smolov, and have just tested my new max after the base mesocycle ready for the intense mesocycle - have to say I’m pretty impressed with the results. I started with a 140kg max, but calculated with 145kg as I am not that advanced and felt I had a lot more to come; well, testing today, I hit a raw - belt and wraps only - 170kg!(Sorry for the exclaimation mark but I was thrilled with that).
I am around 79kg body weight and 15 years old, my other lifts are as follows:
Start of Base:
Squat-140kg
Bench-105kg
Deadlift-150kg
Now:
Squat-170kg
Bench-107.5kg (I did Sm. Jr. for bench at the same time, put small gains down to fatigue)
Deadlift-152.5kg(tested today after squats, so maybe more in me)
Anyway, what have other people done in terms of deadlifting during the switching phase? I would like to do some, as I did only speed pulls in the base and my deadlift could do with a bit of extra work. Thoughts? Any experience would be appreciated.
Edit: Here’s a link to the 170kg Squat - I know knees buckle slightly, but it is a 30kg PB and not the norm. - YouTube
I’m about a week behind you. Testing new max next week. I came in with 193kg max. I hope to be at 205kg by now.
I really haven’t been doing anything other than squats. Probably not good, but whatever.
I’ll probably just go back to my regular stuff next week. I think I can do that going forward now that I am passed the base and squatting 3 times a week.
It must be motivating having the Red Queen from Resident Evil rooting you on. (just teasing–I love that accent.)
I’d stick with speed pulls, light, during the switching phase. The switching phase is all about active recovery. Your DL shouldn’t suffer any, that’s what I did and my DL max went up almost as much as my squat did by the end of the program. I didn’t do any DL–at all–during the base and intense phase.
[quote]Larry10 wrote:
Keep squatting twice a week, light light but very fast man.
ps, are you wearing knee wraps?[/quote]
Yes, I’ve been using them each time I max, but not on the Smolov sets. Not sure if I should wear them for the intense or not - it did seem to make it slightly harder on the base (using wrapped max but lifting without wraps).
Just a quick update, I tested my bench 3 days later and hit an easy 110kg, so it seems that Smolov Jr. did work better than I thought - I just needed more rest. Also tested my deadlift after bench (was disappointed with first test number) and got 160kg. All in all not bad, I think I need to remember to rest an extra day next time.