Smolov Jr. Bench Results

[Paul Sousa]

As promised, here is a a write up about my friend's experience running a Smolov Jr. cycle for bench.

My buddy is an ex-college football player (O-lineman) who is 24 years old, 6'2", and 270 lbs. (at the end of the cycle). He was diagnosed with a strained ACL recently, and is also still burnt out from the training he has done over the past 10 or so years of his life for football, and he told me he wanted to just get his bench up. I told him about the Smolov Jr. program and he said it sounded good. His 1rm going into the cycle was 365.

As for the Smolov Jr. cycle there are two ways to go about it; either a 3 week/4 days per week cycle, or a 4 week/3 days per week cycle. He opted for the 4 week version as I lift 3 days per week and he wanted to go at the same time as me. His cycle broke down like this:

Week 1:

Day 1 - 255x6x6 (weight x sets x reps)
Day 2 - 275x7x5
Day 3 - 290x8x4

Week 2:

Day 1 - 310x10x3
Day 2 - 265x6x6
Day 3 - 285x7x5

Week 3:

Day 1 - 300x8x4
Day 2 - 320x10x3
Day 3 - 275x6x6

Week 4:

Day 1 - 295x7x5
Day 2 - 310x8x4
Day 3 - 330x10x3


As for additional work he just did chins, curls, situps, and shoulder work (various DB raises). He also did some jump rope work at the end of some sessions.

His last session was last Friday, then this Monday he did some overhead work (nothing too crazy), and today he tested. His sets went like this:

135x5x2
185x5
225x3
275x3
315x1
335x1
355x1
375x1

The single with 375 was a real grinder and he called it his max. That's a 10lb. increase over his starting max. He was a bit disappointed, but then he told me he's actually been trying to lose weight and has dropped 5 lbs. since he started the cycle. Given the nature of Smolov I wouldn't suggest trying it while also dropping weight, but even with the drop he improved his max. Had he even just maintained weight I am sure he would have seen an even larger increase. All things considered I would say it was a success for only taking 4 weeks.

Feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

Edit - One thing to add, he said he didn't feel fully recovered during his warmups and is going to test one more time next week after an increased recovery period. He'll do a one or two lighter bench sessions between now and then.

[squatyourface]

looks good. 2.5lb a week is nothing to be unhappy about especially with a 5lb bodyweight loss. that is excellent progress at that level. i might try this and see how my 315~ bench responds and post the results. cheers sousa

[Carlos Daniel]

I would be disappointed as well, but if you take into consideration that his bench is quite strong and that he lost weight, it looks better. I am very curious as to what would happen if he gained 5-10 pounds. I am planning to do this in the near future, does your buddy have any tips he might want to share?

[Carlos Daniel]

By the way, doesn't the 3x/week differ significantly from the 4x/week? I mean, doing next Monday's workout on Saturday, right after Friday's workout surely is harder than doing it on next Monday. Maybe the concentrated loading helps the gains? who knows.

[Paul Sousa]

Just figured out how to multi-quote!

looks good. 2.5lb a week is nothing to be unhappy about especially with a 5lb bodyweight loss. that is excellent progress at that level. i might try this and see how my 315~ bench responds and post the results. cheers sousa

Yeah, he was hoping for 385, but 375 was definitely his max. It was a hard rep and I give him credit for fighting it.

I would be disappointed as well, but if you take into consideration that his bench is quite strong and that he lost weight, it looks better. I am very curious as to what would happen if he gained 5-10 pounds. I am planning to do this in the near future, does your buddy have any tips he might want to share?

I was thinking the same thing. I thought he was going to gain a couple pounds at least over the 4 weeks, so when he mentioned he lost 5 lbs. it made sense to me that his gain was a bit lower than what I've seen others report.

By the way, doesn't the 3x/week differ significantly from the 4x/week? I mean, doing next Monday's workout on Saturday, right after Friday's workout surely is harder than doing it on next Monday. Maybe the concentrated loading helps the gains? who know.

I definitely think the 3 week cycle would be much harder, and if he did that while dropping weight I don't think he would have been able to finish it. His first 10x3 session was a struggle, and if he were to have to do it the day after the 8x4 I don't think he would have pulled it off. If you go the 3 week route I would definitely suggest a caloric surplus and be cautious of any other work you add on.

One thing i forgot to mention, which may or may not have been another factor with his results, is that he benches with a very narrow grip. So narrow I bet some would actually consider it a close grip bench. He said he was coached this way for football and has been doing it over 10 years, plus he likes that he has never had any shoulder issues, so I see no reason to mess with it.

[squatyourface]

interesting. what is his squat and deadlift and overhead press? Any carry over to OHP from the cycle? I also bench with close grip. Maybe 1.5-2 inches from the start of the rough i'll wrap the leftmost of my hand.

[Paul Sousa]

interesting. what is his squat and deadlift and overhead press? Any carry over to OHP from the cycle? I also bench with close grip. Maybe 1.5-2 inches from the start of the rough i'll wrap the leftmost of my hand.

Not sure on his squat and DL, and with his knee issues he won't be working them any time soon. He's looking at getting his knee scoped in August so maybe once he recovers from that he'll work them. His OHP is strong, not sure what his max is though. I've seen him do 5 reps with 205 like it was nothing though. If I had to take a wild guess I would say at least 245-250 for a single.

Oh, and his grip on a bar without center knurling is maybe an inch into the knurling on either side of the bare center section. Very close.

[Carlos Daniel]

I definitely think the 3 week cycle would be much harder, and if he did that while dropping weight I don't think he would have been able to finish it. His first 10x3 session was a struggle, and if he were to have to do it the day after the 8x4 I don't think he would have pulled it off. If you go the 3 week route I would definitely suggest a caloric surplus and be cautious of any other work you add on.

I would try the 3x/week just because going to the gym on saturdays would be a pain in the ass. I would consider doing the Coan/Philippi deadlift routine concomitantly. They don't share a lot of muscles in common, it just might work.

[squatyourface]

I think i'll do an advanced novice or TM setup for squats and smolov jr at same time if i did it. shouldnt be too bad except for 5x5 and whatever coincides with that day lol. might make it a dub sesh

[snyderman3000]

Just finished my first run at Smolov Jr. for bench and thought I'd share my results. My bench max has been stuck around 275-290 for years. I used 280 for my starting max and used the 4 day/week program. I didn't do much else besides a set of 5 pull-ups between each bench set. Did a little running on off days too. After the 3 week program I took a week off and maxed yesterday. I got 300 easily, then 310 without too much trouble. I've probably got 315 in me. I don't know if it will work that well for everyone, but I couldn't be happier with my results. I'll probably run it again in a month or two.

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