Smolov Jr for Bench

[Briks42]

Would anyone be able to give me a layout of how this works?

I (almost definitely) tore my patellar tendon playing football Saturday so with any lower body work out of the picture for a while, I was thinking about trying to get a big 1 rep max bench in before the end of the year.

I searched google and found some forum talk about it, but with no clearly laid out plan and no detailed mention of assistance work.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Carlos Daniel]

Would anyone be able to give me a layout of how this works?

I (almost definitely) tore my patellar tendon playing football Saturday so with any lower body work out of the picture for a while, I was thinking about trying to get a big 1 rep max bench in before the end of the year.

I searched google and found some forum talk about it, but with no clearly laid out plan and no detailed mention of assistance work.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Not to be an asshole, but you didn't look well enough.

[Briks42]

I found the calculator, but nothing with reasonable thoughts about what weekly jumps to make or assistance work to do.

[Patrick Stroup]

Hahaha you do kind of suck at google man.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...5451021&page=1

Week 1 (SETSxREPSxWEIGHT)

Mon - 6x6x70%
Wed - 7x5x75%
Fri - 8x4x80%
Sat - 10x3x85%

Week 2

Mon - 6x6x70% + 10
Wed - 7x5x75% + 10
Fri - 8x4x80% + 10
Sat - 10x3x85% + 10

Week 3

Mon - 6x6x70% + 15 lbs
Wed - 7x5x75% + 15 lbs
Fri - 8x4x80% + 15 lbs
Sat - 10x3x85% + 15 lbs


Week 1 you just do the percentages.
Week 2 add 10 lbs to the percentages.
Week 3 add an additional 5 lbs to week 2's weight (or 15 lbs to weeks 1 weight)

that bb.com also includes a link to a spreadsheet as well.

[Briks42]

Ok, thanks a lot. You have any experience with it?

[Patrick Stroup]

Nope. Hahaha. For some reason I just keep heaps of spreadsheets and pdfs and bookmarks to websites to programs I will probably never use.

Good luck though!

EDIT: i edited out my little 2 sentences of opinion. Because I have not done anything like that. But again have fun.

[Briks42]

Ok, yeah, I am going to test my 1-rep max this Friday then start the program next Monday for 3 weeks. I will probably just do some low volume weighted chins and curls as assistance, and possibly drop the chins if they are interfering.

Thanks for your help. I am hoping for a 315 max when I test this Friday and 325-330 when I test after the program. I will report back and let you know if I get there.

[Michael Loucas]

I'm actually on it right now. I'm in the process of doing regular Smolov for Squats. In the base mesocycle I got a 60lb PR (365x1 to 425x1). I'm currently in the switching phase. Seeing the great results I got from the base, when I began the switching phase I started jr. for bench.

During the base I kept up with 3x5 of press and bench once a week each. Tested my bench max during my week off before testing my squat max from the base and I hit a dissappointing 260 and used that for my max on Jr. (stilla 10 lb PR, but I gained a lot of weight too. Probably all went to my legs)

I just started day 1 of week 2 for Jr. Switching is 3 days a week, and smolov Jr. for bench is 4 days, and works out to be bench on all my off days from switching so I'm pretty much working out every day (squat and bench) until I begin the intense phase for squat.

[Briks42]

Couple questions for you?

1- Did you use your true 1-rep max of 260 when figuring out the percentages to use? I have read some people recommend you take off 5-10 pounds from your true max or you might miss reps in the 3rd week.

2- Are you doing a +10 in Week 2 and then another +5 in week 3? That is the format I saw in the BB.com link, but I've seen different formats elsewhere.

3- Are you doing anything else besides the squatting and benching? Any curls, chins, rows etc? I wont be doing the squatting, so my recovery capabilities will be better than yours I'd imagine.

4- How are you feeling in general in week 2? Is the Saturday session after Friday tough? Has it been easy to make all the reps so far? Any joint pain or inflammation?

[Michael Loucas]

1. Yes, I used my true 1 rep of 260.

2. I actually planned on doing +10 then +10 but after further review, I think I'm going to do +10 then +5 and if I'm still feeling good, I'm going to try to do a 4th week with +5 again (or 2.5 depending)

3. All I'm doing now is squat and bench. Nothing else, don't want to go too crazy. Switching is not taxing on the body at all (except maybe the negative days, I'm using the stronglifts excel template), so I figured that would be a good time to introduce smolov jr for bench.

4. My first 10x3 day was pretty tough. First 6-7 sets were doable, but the last 3-4 were tough to get through, but it was definitely doable. The only issues I'm experiencing was some shoulder stability at the heavier weights (10x3) but as I have been progressing things have gotten better. Only stretching I'm doing really is shoulder dislocators for recovery, they help immensely.

I must say though, after doing the 10x3 at 220 then resting 2 days and doing my second 6x6 at 192.5, it felt ridiculously easy. Even easier than my 182.5 the week before (my first 6x6 workout.)

As far as joint/tendonitis, the only issues I'm getting is some forearm pain in my left from gripping the bar. I think its due in part to a wider grip. I'm putting my ring fingers on the power lifting rings on my Texas Power Bar. I think I should be able to work through it, if it gets worse I'll take some ibuprofin. I don't want to switch my grip halfway through the program so I'll just get through it for now.