beananimalSo you just smashed out 3 weeks of Smolov Jr. bench (or squat) and said “wow that wasn’t so bad, why do people say this is so hard?” It wasn’t hard because the nitwit that wrote your “Smolov Jr.” calculator copied it from another nitwit, who copied it from another…
Sergey Smolov was a Russian “Master of Sport” who built olympic weight lifting programs. As you know Russia uses the metric system, as does do the Olympic games. It follows that the Smolov lifting routines were built using kilograms.
Somewhere along the line people who write training sites and calculators forgot that 5 kilograms is a little over 11 pounds. The Smolov progressions were at minimum 5 kilograms. However, most of the calculators use a 5 pound progression not 5 kilos (~11 pounds)! There you have it, a huge difference! You flew through Smolov Jr. without too much trouble because you were not lifting anywhere near the percentages that Sergey Smolov prescribed in Smolov Jr.
Week 3, Day 4 was at least 12 pound lighter and the overall 3 week loading was significantly lighter if you used 5 pounds increments instead of 11 pounds! At 300 1RM that is over 2,261 pounds difference in volume and week 4 10×3 at 91% of 1RM instead of 95% of 1RM. Night and day difference in difficulty using the same 1RM.
Smolov Jr. Program
No explanations here, Smolov Jr. is what it is. If you don’t understand it or what follows, then you frankly have no business running the program. It looks insanely “hard” because it is suppose to be.
| BENCH | SQUAT | WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | |
| DAY 1 | 6 x 6 | 4 x 9 | 70% of 1RM | 70% of 1RM + 5kg | 70% of 1RM + 10kg |
| DAY 2 | 7 x 5 | 5 x 7 | 75% of 1RM | 75% of 1RM + 5kg | 75% of 1RM + 10kg |
| DAY 3 | 8 x 4 | 7 x 5 | 80% of 1RM | 80% of 1RM + 5kg | 80% of 1RM + 10kg |
| DAY 4 | 10 x 3 | 10 x 3 | 85% of 1 RM | 85% of 1RM + 5kg | 85% of 1RM + 10kg |
Smolov Jr. Calculator
Don’t forget your protein! Check out my DIY applewood smoked bacon recipe!
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