I feel like doing something stupid, like Smolov Jr

G

Goldfish

0
Anyone here done Smolov Jr before? Below is the basic template for the program. It's traditionally used for either squat or bench press. I plan on being an idiot and using it for both at the same. It's traditionally used while in a calorie surplus, so as to survive the combined volume, intensity and frequency. I plan on doing it to finish up my cut before Christmas. Like I said, I feel like doing something stupid.

So, Smolov Jr is run 4 days a week, traditionally Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, over a 3 week period. That's 4 days of the focus lift. None if this 4-day split stuff. If you're doing it for squats, you're going to squat 4 days a week. If you're doing it for bench press, you're going to bench 4 days a week. If you're doing it for both whilst cutting, you're an idiot, and deserve the pointing and laughing that will come your way right around the 6th session.

It's generally recommended that you minimise any direct assistance work...instead, somewhere between most and all of your assistance work should be p/rehab, restorative, or recovery-driven. Here are the loads for the first week of the program:

Week 1
Mon 6x6x70% 1RM
Wed 7x5x75% 1RM
Fri 8x4x80% 1RM
Sat 10x3x85% 1RM

In the second week, on squats you'd aim to add 10kg to the working sets on all 4 days. On bench press, you'd add 5kg onto the working sets.

On the third week, you'll add another 5-10kg onto your squats, or another 2.5-5kg onto your bench press.

I intend on beginning this next week. For assistance work, I'll probably do a couple sets of RDLs, calf raises, pull ups, rows, curls and some band work on Mon and Wed, but there probably won't be anything (or just some light band work) on Fri and Sat. Actually, I might add in some ab-work at the end of Saturday's session (not Friday's, because I actually want to lift on Saturday). This will all make for some long, hard sessions, but if it pays off I might get a 100kg bench press for Christmas.
 
Keep us posted on this. I hope you succeed obviously.
Never got 100kg bench. My PB is literally 97.5, and there is a large part of me that says it must be a mental block that stopped me, but I could never get the 100k to move.
My PB was power lift style so down, pause, lift with no stops or disallowable movement on lift or lower.
My long limbs so useful for running and climbing are a liability for heavy lifting, so I appreciate them when running and hate them in the gym.
I am trying to decide what to do next change over. Part of me thinks 555s but there is another that want's to know what my 1RM is again. Got until after Christmas to decide, and apparently Santa is bringing me a Rip60 suspension trainer, and 555s won't really give me an opportunity to use that.
 
Thanks, Oldie. That sucks, missing out by 2.5kg. I'm all too familiar with mental blocks, especially when it comes to moving up to the next big plate. I've been training for 8 years, and almost got nowhere over the first 4 years (I think in that time I made about 4 months worth of progress...maybe a year's worth at best), and I feel fair in attributing a great deal of my non-progress to mental barriers (the rest of it was mostly due to being brainwashed by pop culture ideas that food is bad and that you need to change programs every time you lift and don't get sore the next day). I think even now I probably still have mental barriers limiting my progress, although I have made more progress over the last 2 years than I had in 6 years prior. I suspect that my levers might be better suited to squats and deadlifts than to bench pressing based on results, but it could just be my mind blocking progress.

I wish I could say that my levers benefit me while running, but no, I'm a shorty who has a pretty good mental grasp of what good running looks like, but still appears to be having a mild seizure whenever moving around.
 
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Your welcome Goldie.
There is definitely a certain arrogance to my training, which I nurture as much as possible. I would rather try with everything I have and fail than fail before I start.
Deadlift is a classic for that, and really annoying when you give everything your body has and the bar doesn't move a millimetre.
Most of my power is legs and back so deadlift is my movement, then squats and bench press is pathetic.
I am likely at least 90% as strong as my body is likely to get at my size while I refuse to let go of cycling, running etc. My PBs were when I was lighter, officially, but that was fudging water to weigh less for the scales, my real weight was the same as I am now. But I wasn't doing a lot of the other stuff, deliberately to take part in a competition, I didn't win by some way, but I wasn't last either which as the tallest in my weight class I took as a good sign. Winner was about 5 inches, 27cm shorter than me and beat me by a good margin. I like things of that sort as a reminder that I am nothing special, makes me work harder.
I run well naturally, which as a scrawny little kid was good for survival. When 5 are charging at you and the smallest is twice your size, only an idiot stands there, I ran, crazy not stupid. The irony of course is that most of the people who would have chased then have either apologised with respect and reason or been insultingly afraid of me when met again.

Knowledge is a big thing, and a little of it is dangerous. I have trained long enough to have made many mistakes and learned from them as well as those I have seen in others. My training is far from moderate, although I know this would be better for my health, and my diet is not perfect, but balanced enough for what I do and not causing me harm.
We all suffer mental barriers on occasion, hence my signature. The difference between those who do best and those who don't is often that those who do aren't afraid to fail, this means they will try new things and accept that not everything will work for them.
 
If you go into it with the mentality that it's 'stupid' then obviously you're setting yourself up for failure, or at the very least, sub-par effort in your workouts.
 
fazahcrahn said:
If you go into it with the mentality that it's 'stupid' then obviously you're setting yourself up for failure, or at the very least, sub-par effort in your workouts.
Click to expand...
Ryan and I seem to use the term stupid to describe our workouts in the same way.
Most people regard any form of fitness obsession as a bit mental, and finding new ways of pushing the limits further as downright stupid. After a while you get used to using the same terminology.
One of my old training partners used to often ask me to remind him why we did the training we did, my response was 'because we can, and becuases it's fun.' He would usually respond with 'fun! Riiight?!?' There was never any doubt we enjoyed our training but the sense of humour meant we would tend to give ourselves, each other and our collective sanity a lot of grief.
 
Yeah I wasn't being serious. =]
 
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