Today is my last day of Smolov Base Week 4, running both Smolov base for squats and Smolov Junior for bench concurrently. Week 4 just means I added 10 pounds to both after Week 3. Until now, missed reps have been pretty rare, likely because I am still getting some beginner gains. I started at:
BW: 150 lbs
Bench: 225 lbs
Squat: 225 lbs
Also, I am dead set on a Week 5 (add 10 pounds to all work sets again). I figure even if I start missing, the additional stress will still be valuable during supercompensation. Some questions I had:
1: Would there be any value to taking an extra day off before starting week 5, and/or spacing out week 5 a bit more (normally would go Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday)?
2: I am planning to continue Smolov, doing the switching and intense phases. After a deload week for upper body (will have been benching smolov jr 4 days a week for 5 weeks), would re-running smolov junior, but for OVERHEAD PRESS, work okay? I prioritize squats and figure if my secondary smolov jr program fails, so be it. So far so good though.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Congrats on not being a wuss!..although you may be clinically insane. I say do whatever you feel like, but I dunno about all that overhead pressing. However, if you like all that squatting I would recommend Starting Strength or Texas Method.
And I think one should try to avoid missing reps as much as possible.
Smolov is a fine program for you. Drop the bench. Concentrate on the squat. It would probably be good for you to post videos of your squat form. It probably needs work.
As always eat a lot, eat clean and get plenty of rest. And don’t cheat yourself short. No matter how tired or sore you are. Not one missed rep, not one high squat. Get some strength on your squat from the smolov. Then balance yourself out in your other lifts.
[quote]amayakyrol wrote:
You don’t need to be doing Smolov at your current strength level unless you’re under 100lbs. A linear program would be better for you right now.[/quote]
+1
I always believed if the people I trained made progress, … then what they were doing worked.
I always tried to get that progress with as little work as possible.
When you stall you can then always add more.
when you stall, you may need to grow an additional adrenal gland
^ lol… In all honesty don’t run Smolov with a 2 plate squat. your bench is decent, but until you have at least a 3 plate squat I don’t think you should be running smolov squat. SS, Madcows, or Texas Method will be more in your favor.
[quote]mbv8 wrote:
Assuming I re-test with reasonable gains →
BW: 155
Squat: 260
Bench: 245
What would be a good program for me? Am I at the point that I can consider Madcows/Texas Method?
And any suggestions for how to structure a deload week? Do I even need one, or could I start Madcows/TM?
Thanks for the help so far and any additional advice/guidance! [/quote]
Dude I got my squat up to 365+ just by running RegParks 5x5,and I still to this day am wondering why I didn’t just stick with it because I went to do different programs and probably would have still gotten just as good gains doing it.
You seriously have a long way to go before running special programs.
If you literally just did 5x5 on Monday,Wednesday,Friday and bumped 5 pounds every time you felt ‘comfortable’ and ready to do it, you would get fast gains.