Almost at the end of this journey, friends.
Yesterday was 5 sets of 5 reps in the back squat with 300 pounds. Intense, yes!
But at the end I felt like I really hit my groove in the movement pattern. The final set of squats were easier than the first set!
Two more days this week, one light day next week, and then a couple of days off before the big re-test!
Yesterday was week 2 day 1 of the intense mesocycle in the Smolov program.
After the Exuberant Animal seminar all weekend, I was pretty damn sore, and a little worried about how things were going to go.
But I dug deep, and pulled off the 5 sets of 5 reps with 300 pounds on my schedule.
There were primal screams. No question.
One thing I’ve begun doing is some light percussion on my legs between sets. Kind of like what this guy is doing in the “pummeling” section of this video:
It’s actually helped quite a bit.
That and Doug Heel’s Muscle Activation techniques.
Today was day 1 of the Smolov Squat Routine Intense Mesocycle.
This cycle comes after a two week ramp-up, four weeks of four-day-per-week squatting, and then two weeks of speed/power lifting.
Today was a workup to a 5-rep set with 285. Not super difficult, but it was definitely challenging to do that many continuous reps at that weight, having mostly focused on doubles with that sort of weight for the past six weeks.
I also realized that I have to start giving significantly greater rest periods during this portion of the program. 1 or 2 minute rests didn’t cut it today to be able to move FAST.
Friday was the last day of the Smolov Switching Microcycle.
The workout was slated for 12 sets of 2 reps of box squats with 270 pounds on the bar. I was feeling good, so I bumped it up to 275, and hit all of the lifts with good speed, with only a minute of rest between sets.
The only side comment I have about the program at this point is that I can feel my aerobic capacity dwindling. I’ve thought about adding one or two days of aerobic work, but am concerned about overloading my self to the point of no return.
I’m pretty sure the final mesocycle (which starts Monday) is about six weeks long, so I’ll hold off on aerobic conditioning for another six weeks!
Today was another 8 sets of 3 reps of power cleans with 115 pounds. That weight feels really light. But I didn’t test my 1RM in the clean before this microcycle. Maybe a mistake, but I’m not super-interested in clean strength. It’s enough to elicit a response, which is all I care about right now.
Today was Smolov’s switching microcycle, week 2 day 1. It consisted of one negative rep with 355 on the back squat. It was surprisingly easy! My legs felt really strong! Form was great and I was in the groove.
For readers who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, check out my intro post on the Smolov Program.
In short, it’s a Russian back-squat program that uses a percentage of your 1-rep maximum in the back squat to determine which weights to use on which days.
It starts out as an easy three-day-per-week program, then goes to four weeks of four days of squatting per week.
That’s high-volume back-squatting for most people.
But the results of all of that volume are (potentially)
+ huge gains in your back squat 1RM
+ improvement in form/technique
+ overall strength improvement
The caveat is, you have to do it with good form!
Practice back squatting that much with crappy form, and guess what, you get crappy results.
Duh.
Overall strength improvement comes from the general hormonal increase from heavy back-squatting.
As I mention in my first post I really underestimated my total 1RM.
Why? A couple of reasons:
1. My baby boy was just born (YEA!), which makes sleep an uncertain quantity. I knew posting a true 1RM would probably tax me beyond my ability to recover when getting sub-optimal sleep.
2. I hadn’t done any heavy back-squats in about five months. I really wanted to focus on form, “tightness,” and speed.
So far so good!
Yesterday was day 3 of the 2-week Smolov switching microcycle. 12 sets of 2 repetitions of box squats with 250 pounds on the bar. My goal was to keep form perfect, and move as quickly as possible, exploding up from the box.
Felt pretty good! I only took about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes of rest between sets, which seemed adequate.
As usual in this program, I noticed that my speed/performance peaked around the middle set (set 6). So I took slightly longer rest periods as the sets went on.
Monday starts week 2 of the microcycle!
Yesterday was Day 2 of the Smolov Squat Program switching microcycle.
As I mentioned in the last Joshtraining post, the switching microcycle is intended to develop speed/power between heavy squat mesocycles.
Yesterday was Power Cleans with 115. Eight sets of 3 was relatively easy, and I wonder if I’ve really underestimated my Clean & Jerk max. Whatever the case, I was able to generate a lot of speed and focus on form.
Tomorrow is heavy box squats! Twelve sets of 2!!!
Today started the 2-week “switching mesocycle” in the Smolov Squat routine. It’s a 3-day-per-week program with a 1-rep squat negative (the eccentric or lowering portion only) on Monday, 8 sets of 3 reps of power-cleans on Wednesday, and a 12 sets of 2 reps in the box squat on Friday.
After last week’s re-test in the squat, I took the rest of the week off, which was a much-needed rest from the volume of the Smolov program prior to that. My knees had become a little sore, which completely disappeared by Friday of last week.
With my “new” 1-rep max in the squat set at 335 I had a 1-rep negative with 345 on the schedule for today’s workout. Again, taking things back a few notches to work on proper form and technique has really helped me a lot, and the 1 rep negative felt really good!
So today was the re-test. The results are in. Was Smolov effective?!
Well, my initial (underestimated) 1RM was 285. Today’s test put me at an “easy” 335.
Am I pleased? YES. Here’s why…
Last winter I was squatting 385 in a box-squat. My hips were not breaking 90 degrees of flexion, and even then it was all I could do to get that weight up.
Trying to go heavier was out of the question, as was trying to go deeper with that same weight.
Moving up to Seattle, getting established, and celebrating the birth of my son, I wasn’t focused on heavy lifting. I did conditioning workouts – circuits and the like – but nothing like heavy back squats.
It gave me some time to think.
I realized I’d been breaking one of my cardinal rules – I was sacrificing structure (or “form”) for position (or “execution”).
By going really heavy in a “powerlifting” style squat, I was sacrificing mobility and good spine-position in my back squat for being able to get a lot of weight up.
Speed was out of the question, since the whole system was straining just to keep itself together.
Taking a step back and treating Smolov as a form/speed training program, I did it the way I should have been doing it all along – focusing on good form, good speed, and building from there.
Doing squats this way takes any of the guesswork out of the equation – set up correctly, focus on structure, form, and proper execution, and the back squat is no more (or less) dangerous than getting out of bed in the morning.
Skip any of those things, and you’re asking for injury.
I’ve got the rest of this week “off” (which means light workouts with a TON of recovery work) and then I start up the “bridge” program in Smolov.
I’m really looking forward to the rest of the program, and will keep you updated as it goes by!