Smolov and Smolov Jr. Questions

[Forthright]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask but I have some questions about Smolov and Smolov Jr.

1) I am doing 5 x 5 right now and I am working with 285# for my squat. Don't know what my 1RM is. Am I ready for Smolov yet? My squat is low because I have not put as much work into it. My dead-lift for example is in the low 400's.

2) What kind of upper-body work can I do while on Smolov? I usually do alot of weighted dips, over-head pressing, pull-ups, and rows.

I also wanted to ask about smolov jr. I wanted to use it with weighted dips at some point. What kind of program can you do for your squat and upper-body pulling while doing smolov Jr. ?

[blandrick]

I seem to recall reading about Smolov on a certain Belgian's website. I would check there.

[hamburgerfan]

1) I am doing 5 x 5 right now and I am working with 285# for my squat. Don't know what my 1RM is. Am I ready for Smolov yet? My squat is low because I have not put as much work into it. My dead-lift for example is in the low 400's.

I would say you're not ready. You should put more work into it though.

2) What kind of upper-body work can I do while on Smolov? I usually do alot of weighted dips, over-head pressing, pull-ups, and rows.

I did a cycle of Pavel's PTTP for my bench while on smolov. That was the only upper body work I did. Actually ended up setting a bench PR at the end of it though.

[Forthright]

I seem to recall reading about Smolov on a certain Belgian's website. I would check there.

I have no idea what your talking about.

[Jonathan Vechet]

Even without knowing your height/weight (which would be helpful) there's a good chance that you are not ready for Smolov.

Pretty much every I've spoken to about Smolov agrees that it's a stand alone program. Your squat will excel, but your other lifts will most likely suffer as a result of the squat volume.

Is there a reason you're interested in Smolov/jr over other programs such as the Texas Method, Madcow, or 5/3/1?

[hamburgerfan]

Your squat will excel, but your other lifts will most likely suffer as a result of the squat volume.

I didn't find that to be the case.

[Carlos Daniel]

I think it's silly to do smolov with a sub 400 squat. There are easier ways to increase your squat until then.

[blandrick]

I have no idea what your talking about.

Google Smolov.

[Jonathan Vechet]

I didn't find that to be the case.

That's good then. I have no experience with Smolov, just hearsay. But a lot of it has common ground.

I think it's silly to do smolov with a sub 400 squat. There are easier ways to increase your squat until then.

Wasn't there some guy on the CrossFit boards trying to do Smolov with a sub 300lbs squat? I think that was brought up here some months ago.

Here's the article that started it all: http://ontariostrongman.ca/resources...squatcycle.htm

[Carlos Daniel]

Yes, the crossfit dude wanted to do that (his max was some 275 or 245) and also train his 5k run or something equally dumb