The Smolov Base Mesocycle: My experience

[collegiateLifter]

I've already completed the introductory phase (after a long layoff) and one workout of the base mesocycle. I'm gonna post workouts shortly, and I'm looking for comments/help especially from ccj or anyone else that has done part of the smolov routine.

I know I am at nowhere near as good of fitness/preparation level as the russians that this routine was made for, so I am gonna have to tweak the volume a little bit.

Currently I'm thinking of cutting down the 5 sets of 7 to 4 sets of 7 as well as the 7 sets of 5 to 5 x 5 and/or doing this program over an 8 day week instead of the 7 as the program outlines.

Upperbody work will be minimal, but at such a level that I hope it will be able to allow me to gain some/ maintain what I currently have.

My goals for the next 4 weeks are to add a good 5-10lbs of lbm and add some serrious poundage to my full oly squat.

 

[coolcolj]

check out my original post about it

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=191505&perpage=20&

it will show the changes I made to make it more sane
I know 2 guys who did the full thing exactly, one lost a bit of the squat gains, due to the lower volume fo work when going abck to a normal routine. Both were pretty fried out though, but made huge gains.
One from memory jumped his squat from 315 to 425 after the full 12 week cycle.

 

[collegiateLifter]

As I mentioned before, I was comin off a layoff; then did the intro phase to get my legs back in shape, but i had some kind of freak, but shortlived tendonitis from a day of basketball, so I only recently started with upper body work.

I am trying to keep all upper body work submaximal i.e. not to failure, to minimize how taxing it is on recovery. I borrowed some of the minimalistic concepts from DC training as well.


This is last saturday's workout
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standing BB curl
65lbs 9,4,3 RP

Standing DB press
50's x 7, rest 2:30
50s x 4

oly SQUATS
4sets x 9 x 210lbs

rested 4:30, then 5 min and then 9min between 3rd and 4th sets.... legs were pumped up.

Noticed some pain in the outer part of the underside of my left knee-- basically a hamstring tendon I'm guessing. I think i let up and 'rested' at the bottom position a little bit and that pressure is what caused the discomfort. Doesn't neccessarily hurt when squating though.


btw my starting bodyweight is ~232, was fluctuating a bit. we'll see if it goes up significantly like it did for CCJ; my currently OLY squat is ~300lbs.

 

[collegiateLifter]

workout 2

this was monday's workout
---------------------------------
Bent over BB rows*
140lbs 8,3

rope tricep pushdowns
40lbsx 11

CG chinups
3 x BW rest 2 min
2 x BW

SQUATS
4sets x 7x 225

rested 4:15 then 7:00 then 9min on squats. For some reason my legs became extremely pumped up, more so than with the 9's and i couldnt get that to go away. On one reps i heard an uncomfortable 'pop' in my left knee but then i completed that rep and the following reps pain free and they felt fine.

I was havin a bit of trouble finding my groove while squatting on monday though; it didn't quite feel right.

Also that hamstring tendon was really bothering me later on monday nite, but felt better after some icy hot. I then put in an order for some Jack's Blue Heat late monday nite.

*A note on the BB rows.... I was trying to do them in the manner mentioned on animalmass's thread, but was having some definate difficulties. Although i could feel my lats helping straighten my upper back, i felt like my hip extensors were involved a bit too which is not a good thing at all.

------------------
on tuesday my hamstring tendon felt largely better and i also did some high rep, very light weight leg curls to get the blood flowing.

Over the past several days I've noticed that I am alot more hungry than normal and I have been poundin down the protein and food.

Also i've been gettin 9+ hours of sleep and i can tell that i need it.

 

[Zander1983]

That is intense stuff. I think CCJ had some similar experiences with his legs pumping up?

 

[collegiateLifter]

That is intense stuff. I think CCJ had some similar experiences with his legs pumping up?

yea i recall that too. Avoid the pump at all costs is the directions.

Here's tonights workout.
-----------------------------------------------------
Hammer curls w/ flexed wrists
30's x 10

Squats
5x250lbs
4setsx5x240lbs
-------------------------------------------

I was supposed to do 5x5 with 80% tonight so that'd come out to 240lbs but i accidentally put on 225 then two 10s and 2 1/2's instead of a two 5s and 2 1/2s on the first set.

Rest period was 4:30 after the first set; would have been shorter but right when i was about to go squat again i realized there was too much weight on the bar so i had to go fix it. Then 5min between 2nd and 3rd; 6mins rest between sets 3 & 4 and 4 & 5.

Left hamstring tendon was ok but still a bit achy after the squats. I should be video tapin these sessions as I think have pretty good form, but it doesn't feel quite right when squatting, like I am out of my groove.

I really like 5's and 3's a lot better. Anything over 6 reps on squats and I really start huffin and puffin.

Other changes that I am goin to make on the program.... I decided that it is gonna be an 8day week as opposed to 7 and on 'day 4' I am going to do 8 sets of 3 as opposed to 10 sets.

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I am now already 1/4 done with the program.

 

[collegiateLifter]

tonight's workout.

------------------------
Mild incline bench
4x165lbs rest 3min
4x155lbs
*my shoulders need some rest and just feel shot. Benching as a whole felt pretty shitty

Squats
8setsx3x255lbs
-------------------
three 3min rests, two 3 1/2 mins and two 4min rests.

Finished with a little bit of rotator work at the end.

I noticed that on my 3rd rep of latter sets at the very bottom my hips would rise faster than my shoulders, and i would try to correct this later in the movement.

Left hamstring is still a bit aggravated but overall better than a few nights ago.

 

[collegiateLifter]

tonight's workout, day 1 of Week 2
------------------------------------------
1 arm arc D-bel rows
11x30's

Squats
3setsx9x230

Flat elbows out etensions
10x 30's
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between squat sets i had a 5 and 8min rest period... was huffin and puffin pretty hard, and real nauseous after set 2.

the 9reps at 230 was pretty tough. Before the workout i decided that in suit with the rest of the week, i should go for ~25 reps total reps today as i do 25, 28 and 24 on the other days, so i only did 3x9 instead of 4 sets.

However, after my 3rd set of squats, I almost went for a 4th just to prove to myself that I could do it. I gave it some thought and decided it would be smarter to just do 3 sets.
-----------------

another side note: I have been stretching my quads and hams pretty hard after squats, after every workout.

 

[Zander1983]

Before the workout i decided that in suit with the rest of the week, i should go for ~25 reps total reps today as i do 25, 28 and 24 on the other days, so i only did 3x9 instead of 4 sets.

Did you reduce total volume for a set percentage across the entire program? That would've been the way to go.

 

[collegiateLifter]

Did you reduce total volume for a set percentage across the entire program? That would've been the way to go.

essentially yes; although, like CCJ i did the four 9's on the very first day.