this is the Russian Squat Routine thread and as I read throught it CoolColJ wrote out some info on the Smolov Squat Routine and I was wonderign that could you use this routine with other exercises like Deadlifts and Bench Presses to increase your max? Would thisb e usedf or hypertrophy or Max Strength? How would this routine benefit a sprinter?
I haven’t done the cycle, but it is used to increase your max squat. It looks very hard, and would not be something you’d do if you were a track athlete. I don’t know if you can use the exact same protocol for other lifts, but the ideas of concentrated loading and unloading could be.
Hop on over to Dragondoor.com’s forum There is oodles of info on Smolov there. Check out Pavel Tsatsouline’s “Another Russian Super Cycle” in the Articles/Strength training sidebar, as well as Ken “Exrecondoc”'s “My Smolov Squat Experiment” at the same location. PLers would say that trying to duplicate Smolov volume with the DL would be absolute suicide - instant overtraining. Exrecondoc and a lifter named Garm did a high-volume Deadlift program together with Smolov some time ago; you can find Garm’s DL routine in the Strength archives, and if you dig using the Search engine you might be able to find some old posts. Smolov Bench has been done by someone there; couldn’t find any links for it. There’s also a program called Smolov Junior there that’s slightly less intensive; CoolColJ has a link to it in his post on the link you provided.
I completed the second week of the Smolov Base Cycle yesterday. There are better hypertrophy programs; the purpose is squat-specific strength. I’m not a sprinter so I’ll let somebody else answer that last bit.
I figured it would be hypertrophy. I’m a pretty skinny guy andI need to gain some weight and up my weight room PB’s a little more for better strength and I felt that this program did what I wanted…
Fabio - check out this week’s T-mag… read Joe Defranco’s article. I’m not exactly a fan of his, but I’m in the same boat as you are, so I’m going to try this (Defranco’s template) over the summer.
Andrey Butenko, who runs worldpowerlifting has commented many times that Smolov would work for the bench. IMO it would wreak havok on the elbows/shoulders esp if you are a 400lb+ bencher.
some of the smolov stuffs seems insane, im squatting around the 630lbs mark nad theres no way in hell id wanting to be squatting the %s that routine asks for 3 to 4 times per week, id be in a wheelchair in no time.
if you you want to try some high volume Russian style work try the Sheiko programmes. I cycle one or two months of them every year to take a ‘break’ from westside.
I found his %'s are spot on and i have never missed a rep on his programme, he works in deload periodsbut benching/squatting up to twice per day 3 days a week takes its toll eventually. so be warned. be prepared for up to 2 hour workouts as well, not for the faint of heart but worth a try.
Brain, I’m not a real big fan of westside, So I may have to furtherl ook into it sincei only glanced at it. The reason wh yI am debating on powerlifting programs is because they can add me the lean muscle I want and also give me the power they I need.
Joe’s stuff is a mix of westside and Kenn’s tier system. It is pretty sound, and if you look for his ideas for beginners, you will seee he employs the repetition method on MaxS days for most newbies.