Any Smolov survivor in here?

[Khephnes]

I quitted RSR a week ago cause it seems it does not work for me. I'll give Smolov squat routine a try. I want to hear what you guys think about it and especially for upper body exercises. Smolov is one of the hardest routine ever and recovering while doing it is pretty tough I know that but just thinking of 3x5 heavy bench and and 3xamrap chins x2 a week to my Smolov routine. Or any other idea on this one? I could throw dips instead of heavy bp but I'm not fan of dips so heavy bp (also chest is my weak and "small" area in terms of size) so BP and chins x2 a week won't tax so much if I'm not wrong. I just don't want to lose my upper body strenght and size while doing this. This is why I ask for it.

Any recommendation?

[John Hanley]

I want to hear what you guys think about it and especially for upper body exercises.

Both times I tried it, I came to the conclusion that the routine is as deeply stupid in practice as it seems to be on paper.

[Christopher Anderson]

Its a crap ton of volume, if you eat enough and rest enough and actually use the proper weight starting out then you can see some gains, but from the times I have ran the Jr routine and from what I have heard around the net from others is that you lose a lot of those gains after the program ends. What are your main training goals?

[Sean Stangl]

I followed the "Junior" template for Squat a few years ago. I got a ~20lb PR at 535 or so, but I couldn't train effectively for a long time after that because I was still recovering from the Smolov volume, so my 1RM dropped back to where it was originally and I got nothing out of it long-term.

So it seemed to just produce a peak, but it's way overkill as a peaking program.

[Khephnes]

Thanks for fast responds.

My main goal is 400-420 lbs squat in the end of 13 weeks of Smolov. But as I mentioned above, while I'm doing Smolov, I don't want to lose my strenght and size. TM increased my all lifts very well.

And now, I want to focus my squat.
I'm eating a lot and I sleep 8-9 hours almost interrupted.

So what about upper body exercises? I want to add some pull and press exercises but main focus will must squat for sure. I won't do deadlifts as Smolov suggested. Just thinking of bench press could tax and prevent my recovery process or not.

[Eric Larousse]

Smolov defintely works as does the RSR. THe idea that you lose your strength is wrong. Kyle Keough runs dual smolovs quite frequently and he actually had the world record total at 148. If you cant handle 4 days then reduce the amount of days to 3 or even 2. FYI im doing it for my press right now since I cannot train lower body at the moment.

[Khephnes]

You mean I don't lose strenght and size while doing only Smolov without any upper body additions such as chins and bench press/dips?

[Eric Larousse]

No...you dont. And you can continue to do bench and chins and bodybuilding fluff. My schedule right now is

Wednesday
Press smolov
Pullups

Friday
Press smolov
Close grip bench 3x5-8 reps
Shrugs
Rows
Bb curls

Sunday
Press smolov
chins
Db curls

Monday
Bench
Sets across 531

[idlehands]

I had a buddy run it 4 times back to back. Cause the first time he pr his squat. Every time after that didn't even get to his squat. He also ran it back squat to front squat to back squat

I ran a modified version for bench and press and got a tiny pr on both. It's meh. You crash after it like everyone says

[FatButWeak]

I ran Smolov for Press twice.

Long term results: It greatly helped improve my press form, which made me a more effective presser eventually, which has made me a stronger presser, no doubt. In that respect, its good. It really locks down your form.

Short term results. Meh. I achieved a small pr, each time, but Im not sure it was more than what I would have gotten anyway, if I had run TM or another good intermediate program during that time. Not really impressed.

Overall: there's better programs out there, but you wont hate yourself for doing it.