Smolov was brutal on my knees, but I did notice an increase in my poundages a few weeks later after full recuperation.
I completed just the base meso at the beginning of the year and my squat went from 305 to 365, body weight only went up 5 lbs, to 195. It definitely reinforced technique and grew my love for squatting over deadlifting, which I excel at. I now squat 420 with just a belt and will be doing the full smolov cycle this time around, starting after thanksgiving. I can see 500 in my near future. Cant wait!
[quote]UpChucker wrote:
anybody tried it for bench? Have to do a lot of rowing to offset all the pushing though…[/quote]
Can you do it for bench? or would smolov jr be a better option? Could you also do it for deadlift? It would be pretty hard on your back tho
smolov Jr is much better for pressing stuff. As for deadlifts, no
Ok, I really do not mean to be a dick here but does anyone actually get strong off of this? I mean in a competition, not a pr in training because that doesn’t count. I see tons of threads and forums about how awesome and hardcore this is but, I do not know of ANY strong people that use this nor have I ever heard of anyone squatting over 600lbs or even improving after the first couple cycles. Again, not to be a dick, just wondering.
I started a thread a couple months ago called “Smolov Sr”. I did the meso cycle twice and my “Sr” adjustment was to add an extra day or two a week. I did pretty good although I had to go from ATG to parallel b/c of knee pain. I’m back to ATG and my gain was 30 lbs on all working sets.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Ok, I really do not mean to be a dick here but does anyone actually get strong off of this? I mean in a competition, not a pr in training because that doesn’t count. I see tons of threads and forums about how awesome and hardcore this is but, I do not know of ANY strong people that use this nor have I ever heard of anyone squatting over 600lbs or even improving after the first couple cycles. Again, not to be a dick, just wondering.[/quote]
Well, here’s Andy Ruse who did the base mesocycle and ended up with a 672lbs raw squat
Also a T Nation user called T Modi who did the full cycle
David Bracken, winner of the IPF Masters Worlds, squatted 606 lbs at 165 lbs bodyweight using Smolov.
Andy was deep, strong as hell and showed his fatigue on some sets with his body twitching around. Hatebreed was a nice choice.
Andy was deep, strong as hell and showed his fatigue on some sets with his body twitching around. Hatebreed was a nice choice.
My powerlifting coach (he has hit is elite total, mind you), has now finished the base meso cycle twice and has paired it with the Smolov jr. bench program both times. So it is possible to pair it with mor than just light bar work. Very difficult but possible nonetheless.
And no, he is not “on”
Crom laughs at those who say you cant do this without assistance.
All you need, is balls.
My Smolov experience put my squat up by 20kg/45lb, but ruined the crap out of my knees so I lost a bit in the following months. Also put 10kg on my pull without having done it for a month.
Definitely worth it, but worth getting used to squatting more than once a week first if you don’t already.
[quote]MegaDavo891 wrote:
My Smolov experience put my squat up by 20kg/45lb, but ruined the crap out of my knees so I lost a bit in the following months. Also put 10kg on my pull without having done it for a month.
Definitely worth it, but worth getting used to squatting more than once a week first if you don’t already. [/quote]
Yeah my knees are starting to feel it, I ran smolov base and finish smolov Intense tomorrow. I’d definitely use knee sleeves if I ran it again.
Smolov for squat, Ed Coan deadlift program for deadlift, westside for bench press is the optimal training program imo
Yes it does work for the bench although most of the gains I made came from the base cycle.
I used the Smolov Jr to try and improve my puny High incline log press. When I started my max was 190(don’t laugh) and I had been training it a while. After the base cycle I got 200x3. I did the intense cycle and maxed out at 215. I did get very fatigued during the intense cycle and missed a few reps but actually very few. So yes it works. Right now I’m using the regular Smolov to improve my close grip bench. Started with a 250-255 max. Just finished the base cycle(which I dragged out to 4 weeks because I kind of low balled my max) and yesterday I maxed at 280 and had maybe 5 lbs left in me. I’m going to start the intense cycle in 2 weeks and will let you know how it works out. I have read blogs on it that suggest dropping all sets in the intense phase 5% from the start rather than waiting until the 3rd week if necessary. That is what I’m debating right now.