Real Smolov Jr. Calculator

So 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?” Maybe it wasn’t hard because the person that wrote your “Smolov Jr.” calculator copied it from another person, who copied it from another…

My take: Sergey Smolov was a Russian “Master of Sport” who built Russian weight lifting program [see notes]. In any case, Russia uses the metric system, as does do Olympic lifters. It follows that the Smolov lifting routines were likely built using kilograms and not pounds.

It looks like that somewhere along the line people who write training sites and calculators forgot that 5 kilograms is a little over 11 pounds. From as far as I can tell, the original 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. That is assuming that any of us really know what was prescribed.

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 [see notes].

Smolov Jr. Calculator

Notes

• Published lifting or written records attributed to Sergey Smolov or a “Master of Sports” or a coach of that name are hard to find.
  
  Given the lack of easy to find information there is some conjecture among the weight lifting community that Mr. Smolov was possibly the invention of Author Pavel Tsatsouline for the purpose of Russian humor or to give the routines in Pavel’s writings credibility, or maybe a bit of both. Given this lack of information and Pavel’s flair for creative wording, I too was apt to believe this.
  
  However and to my great surprise, since publishing this calculator I haven been contacted by Sergey Smolov who has pointed out that he is indeed real. He was kind enough to provide actual references to some of his published works.
  
  1. Smolov, S.Yu. (1989). How to increase your results in squats? Athleticism, (2), 11. Moscow: Insport, MOGIFK.
  2. Smolov, S.Yu. (1989). Features of training athletes in squats with a barbell on their shoulders at different periods of preparation. Athleticism, (5), 11-14. Moscow: Insport, MOGIFK.
  
  MOGIFK stands for the Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture, a prominent institution in Russia dedicated to physical education and sports science. Established in 1931, it has historically been a key institution in training elite Russian athletes, including Olympic weightlifters. Many renowned Russian weightlifters and their coaches have studied or collaborated with MOGIFK.
  
  After Mr. Smolov contacted me, I was able to use that contact information to also find Russian forum
  http://www.mir-ta.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1037&mode=linear which is a 2012 forum post
  
  At this point, I am waiting to hear back from Mr. Smolov, as I want to make sure that the calculator is in fact, correct.
  
• I assume that most natural lifters are going to have a hard time running Smolov Jr. and training accessories at the same time, let alone other body parts. There is just no way to recover daily at these volumes for most natural lifters. So while you spend 3 weeks on bench or squat in Smolov Jr., everything else may regress. This may not be the best program for somebody competing in more than one lift.