[quote]bonerjams98 wrote:
Just finished the intense a couple days ago, on the final day i went for my max instead of doing the workout and i added roughly 18lbs to my max. Ill retest squat again in a couple of days, besides that I added about 10 lbs of bw in the 9 weeks and about 1 1/2 inches to each thigh.
[/quote]
great work sir bonerjams
[quote]Sharp4850 wrote:
Iāll be starting the intense cycle in two weeks or so, and hopefully Iāll be squatting 405 by the end of that.
[/quote]
I just got home from testing my final 1RM after having finished the Intense meso last week.
Squatted 405! Thatās a +70lbs total from the entire cycle (and +180lbs from a year ago).
I think as far as BW goes Iāve added 10 or 15lbs (up to 200 now).
Also, a couple days ago I found some stretch marks over my hamstrings. Legs are finally coming along.
Throughout the entire cycle I stuck with my normal BP split for upper body: Arms, Back, Chest, Shoulders, and just run them consecutively on my non-squat days.
Base cycle only
Front Squats
starting weight 265
last workout 260lbs 10x3
I havenāt tested my max yet
I have to say I got WAAAAYYYY stronger during this program and my recovery has gone through the roof. This program sucked though, My hips always hurt, I thought my quads were going to tear and I was just not happy throughout. I did very little other stuff around the squats. Iām going to re-test my 1rm on Friday. I have to say, without my training partners I would not have finished the program at all. Check out my log if you want to see videos. I also actually leaned out and lost a few pounds during the cycle though, so that was kind of weird. After this I am jumping into 5/3/1.
Post smolov front squat retest: Terrible form, but my butt went to my heels, then back up again, so that is all that counts! end result: +40 lbs. Jumping into 5/3/1 now.
[quote]fedaykin wrote:
Post smolov front squat retest: Terrible form, but my butt went to my heels, then back up again, so that is all that counts! end result: +40 lbs. Jumping into 5/3/1 now.
Very nice gains on the base cycle only.
And Iāve gotta say, you have some very passionate cheerleadersā¦
haha, thanks! They actually did it with meā¦ Everybody added 30+ pounds. I also noticed that I am now squatting waaaayyyy deeper in my back squat now that I finished this cycle. Like top of hips below parallel in a fairly wide stance.
Yea I noticed something very similar, and it was only from the base meso.
Iāve never been good at squatting, but by the end of the base meso I was hitting depth very easily, and every time I dropped into the hole, no matter how much weight I was using, I felt completely confident in my technique and ability.
During the switching phase that kind of went away, and throughout the entire intense meso I never seemed to get that feeling back again. I think if I do Smolov again in the future Iāll only use 1 week of switching rather than 2.
Just tested the Base Cycle today. Went from 507 to 545, so a 38 pound PR. 507 wasnāt a balls out max, though. Used 487 for my weights, I figured that was about the best single I could hit on any given day.
Iām very interested in trying Smolov and will probably give it a shot after my next meet. My questions is this: what did folks do to maintain their bench while doing Smolov and how successful was it? I wonāt be looking to make any gains on the bench, but keeping it from totally plummeting would be nice.
[quote]burt128 wrote:
Iām very interested in trying Smolov and will probably give it a shot after my next meet. My questions is this: what did folks do to maintain their bench while doing Smolov and how successful was it? I wonāt be looking to make any gains on the bench, but keeping it from totally plummeting would be nice.[/quote]
3x5 1x per week. I lost about 5-10 pounds on my bench, but gained about 40lbs on my squatā¦ I think it was worth it.
p.s. it took some time for me to readjust to back squatting, but now that I have my back squat is really taking off and my form improved. I think my quads were kind of weak before the front squat cycle.
[quote]fedaykin wrote:
[quote]burt128 wrote:
Iām very interested in trying Smolov and will probably give it a shot after my next meet. My questions is this: what did folks do to maintain their bench while doing Smolov and how successful was it? I wonāt be looking to make any gains on the bench, but keeping it from totally plummeting would be nice.[/quote]
3x5 1x per week. I lost about 5-10 pounds on my bench, but gained about 40lbs on my squatā¦ I think it was worth it.
p.s. it took some time for me to readjust to back squatting, but now that I have my back squat is really taking off and my form improved. I think my quads were kind of weak before the front squat cycle.[/quote]
Iād take that kind of a loss on my bench for a 40lb gain on my squat any day, especially since the bench is likely to come back.
I did just maintenance benching during the intense phase and my bench stayed about the same, but then I hit bench and OH press hard during the switching and intense phase. I took my bench from 275 to over 305 (spotter touched the bar at 315 when I tested, but no help he claims), and I took OHPress from 185 to 205 during the switching and intense phase. Your work capacity goes through the roof during the switching and intense phase, you might as well take advantage of it. I was fucking done when it was over, however, and took two weeks off to recover.
Ok a quick question:
A brief history on me: I have been lifting for one year and up till the end of last year, I got my squat up to 4X125kg. However, due to not back squatting for a few weeks, my squatting strength has dropped significantly this year and Iām down to 1X120kg as of last week.
This week I started on week 1 of the introductory cycle for smolov. For my 1RM, I entered in 140kg (calculated from 4X125kg as 90% of 1RM).
I had just finished the 3 days of back to back squatting as outlined in week 1 of the introductory cycle. (Which I assume is a cakewalk compared to the base cycle).
I completed the sets of the first 2 days relatively ok.
However, on the 3rd day, which calls for 8 sets of squats, I failed in both the 7th and 8th set.
My last rep on the 6th set was a grinding rep.
My question is do any of you guys experience failing in the introductory cycle? If its uncommon, then I would lower my 1RM to make the base cycle much more realistic.
Also, do you guys experience grinding out reps in the base and intense cycles? If so, did you make any changes early? Because I take it that if you start grinding out reps halfway through the workout, itās a good signal that performance will drop for the rest of the sets.
You should estimate a very conservative max if you go for an estimated max. I would also suggest that the first time you do the program that you lower your 1RM with about 10-15kg. If you start to miss reps in the program, you should adjust the 1RM you base the percentages on to reflect this. Lower it. Better set it too low than too high.
This way you will gain experience. Wanting too much too soon always ends in tears.
ā Stallion
Noted. I will put my ego aside and drop my 1RM for this run and report back after the first cycle.
Awesome, I just finished the first 3 weeks of the base cycle for smolov today, whilst training shoulders/back/chest once per week each.
I will be testing my 1rm next week as planned in the program.
It was awesome because my inital 1rm for the calculation was 120kg, and by the last workout today for the base mesocycle, I was doing 10X3 of 120kg!!(took an hour though) The extensive time under the bar was worth it.
Question:
What do you guys normally do for the switching cycle? I intend to do intervals on the track 2-3X a week, along with explosive squats 2X a week.
Also, do you guys normally do deads in the switching cycle? Or wait till the entire program is finished before working on Deads?
During the switching phase, I did some speed deads for triples with light weight, jump squats for triples with light weight, standing broad jumps in sets of 5, and very heavy negatives to pins, and went balls out on bench and back. I thought this worked pretty well.
Cycle: Base Mesocycle
Status: Completed
Gain: 45lb
Recovery is key. I went into the program with no injuries, however came out with a few minor nagging ones. Just enough to make you not want to squat, however not enough to stop you. I found Smolov to be more mental then physical. I used my actual 1rm on this cycle ( I have done 345 @ 196, however I dropped weight and with that so did my max to 320). I gained around 4lbs. The 7x5 days were the hardest. Donāt worry about the 20lb/10lb increases in Week2/3, you will be physically prepared, mentally is another issue. I plan on running the Intense cycle next week or the week after to get a 405 BS.
[quote]ALKoHoLiK wrote:
Cycle: Base Mesocycle
Status: Completed
Gain: 45lb
Recovery is key. I went into the program with no injuries, however came out with a few minor nagging ones. Just enough to make you not want to squat, however not enough to stop you. I found Smolov to be more mental then physical. I used my actual 1rm on this cycle ( I have done 345 @ 196, however I dropped weight and with that so did my max to 320). I gained around 4lbs. The 7x5 days were the hardest. Donāt worry about the 20lb/10lb increases in Week2/3, you will be physically prepared, mentally is another issue. I plan on running the Intense cycle next week or the week after to get a 405 BS. [/quote]
Great work. If you are going to run the intense phase, I would take the two weeks and run the switching phase. I think it helped get me prepared for the intense phase. Also, if you are using the skopec calculator, make sure to double check the numbers against the dragon door formula, there is an error in week three or week four of the intense phase, if I recall correctly.
Just got back from the last workout of the base mesocycle. I fucking destroyed the cycle. That is all.