7 February 2016

I'm going to post my write-up that I did on the /r/bb Daily Discussion:

Sup guys! About 4 weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to do a Smolov Jr. cycle for my bench. Today, I just finished the last workout of the cycle, so here’s a small write-up of my experience.

Smolov Jr. works off percentages of ones 1RM, so I decided to reduce my max by about 10 lbs. and work off that, since the program is quite a bit of volume -- relatively speaking.

Each weak I increased the weight by 10 lbs. for a total of +20 lbs. on my work sets by week 3. By no point in my training did I grind my lifts. Furthermore, I didn’t use any hype up or anything before lifts, I’ve kept rather calm throughout. The sessions have only got a little bit harder, though I suspect that might just be fatigue starting to set in. Prior to starting the program, I’ve done 225 for an ok-ish triple, and today I did 10 sets of rather easy triples. I’d say that is a pretty good increase. I’m going to rest for a few days and then possibly test my 1RM.

In order to avoid injury etc., I’d rotate between Pull Ups/Chin Ups and Supinated Dumbbell Curls/Hammer Curls each session, and on top of that I’d do Yates Rows and Face Pulls every bench session. I have yet to experience any injuries, pains or the like. Overall I feel pretty good!

Through this Smolov Jr. cycle I’ve been doing Candito’s 6 Week for Squats and Gnuckol’s 1x/week Intermediate DL program. On top of my Bench increase, I’ve seen a 20 lb. increase in both the squat and the deadlift. Furthermore, my Yates Row has increased by about 15 lbs.

I, myself, have gained about 2½ lbs. through the last 4 weeks. Overall I’m pretty happy about the experience. As I suspected I’d react pretty well to the higher frequency benching, and luckily I didn’t sustain any injuries as a bunch of others have reported.

Hope this might have been of any help to any of you. Have a good one everybody!

/r/powerlifting Thread Parent