Smolov Intense Cycle Progress

Week two is complete and I am now half way through the intense mesocycle. Even though, the base cycle sees a lot more volume, the intense cycle requires you to push much heavier and therefore give a lot more each session. The base cycle sees if you can last the week whereas the intense cycle sees if you can last the set! 

The warm up sets are easy enough low reps and lighter weight, however, I feel like they start off too heavy to get your legs warmed up and your joints used to the lift. So no matter what session I'll always start off with the bar to get my shoulders and hips loosen up and then rep 60kg until a sweat breaks. When it comes to work sets, it seems most involve more reps than the warm up sets! So weight and workload both increase, which has been hard! The advice I can give at this stage is treat every rep like a 1-rep set.

This really tests your ability to recover, so remember to get enough sleep and eat, eat, eat. I assumed recovery would be better after the earlier stages of the cycle, however, I find myself playing pain roulette every night - going to bed wandering what part will hurt most in the morning!
I think with less volume, your muscles (and joints) don't get used to the workload as much and so the ability to recover diminishes. At current I think the backs of my knees and my groin muscles are causing me grief! 

 

Nutrition Pt. II

Following on from my last post, I've decided to share a fairly accurate representation of a days eating.

BREAKFAST:
3 or 4 Wheat Bisks with semi-skimmed milk
Protein Shake 50g with L-glutamine

SNACK:

Banana

LUNCH:
3 Scrambled eggs
1/2 tin baked beans

SNACK:
Protein shake 50g
Toast or Crumpets
Chocolate bar

Usually would have my workout around here.

SNACK:
Banana or Apple
Protein Shake 50g with L-glutamine

DINNER:
Salmon Fillet or Chicken Breast or Turkey Steak or battered frozen fish fillet
Handful of frozen vegetables (usually broccoli, cauliflower and carrots)
~120g Oats

SNACK:
Large Yoghurt
Anything around.

BEFORE BED sometimes:
Protein shake 50g with L-glutamine


Ok, I don't keep strictly to this, I tend to eat anything available around these meals. Will always buy something good from the reduced section at my local grocery, cured meat, cheesecake, cake etc. My meals do vary as I can't always cook at home, so I may buy a sandwich for lunch or go out for a 3 course meal (rarely) for example. I might also not have defrosted any meat in which case I may buy a takeaway or something oven/microwaveable.

I take L-glutamine to aid recovery particularly useful for forming glucosamine which is great for the joints - knees need some tlc after squats. I eat chocolate to give me energy and make sure to get plenty of fibre due to the high protein content of my diet. As far as protein goes, always buy the best for value, Nutrisport 90+ 5.5kg tub, they all do the same thing so why not go for the cheapest.

Smolov: Nutrition

Most of you looking into a programme such as Smolov will be aware of how important nutrition is to achieving your goals.

So just what do you eat during the programme?
Ans: EVERYTHING YOU SEE!

Smolov is a bulking routine. You are going to be doing so much work in the gym that you will that you'll need a large amount of calories for energy and to recover. Being a person who eats a lot anyways, this is ideal for me to get strong and enjoy doing it. I would recommend 4-5000 calories a day everyday, including rest days. Your days of feeling guilty stuffing your face with carbs and fats without going to the gym will not exist anymore! Yay!

To be honest from my experience so far, even eating so many calories and "bad foods" has not stopped me burning fat, my entire body has become more defined and a lot leaner. Eating all the time, so you're always full, increases your metabolism, as does exercise. You will be doing a huge amount of exercise increasing your metabolism and burning fat. Smolov is not only a strength builder but also a fat burner!

When it comes to food, get plenty of carbs, protein and fibre. Eat fats as well but no where near as much, although you'll need the calories you still need to watch your health so this goes for salty food to.

 

Smolov Intense Cycle

Supposedly the hardest part of the programme, squatting high volume, at 80-90%. Good old Smolov prescribes this in smaller doses compared with the base cycle. You only have to squat 3 times a week, but for good reason, for your back, hips, legs, core and mentality to recover!

The hardest session will be the 2nd of the week so it's advised to take 2 days off to eat, sleep and stretch. I have just completed this myself not long ago and yes, it was extremely hard, even with my percentages calculated from a lowered 1RM (Just as well considering illness!!). Although I feel like I could squeeze the next session in without 2 days rest, I'm going to stick with Smolov and use the complete time. Besides, in the coming weeks, as the weights get heavier, I'm sure I'll begin to understand why such time has been allocated for rest.

During this cycle I intend to bench and include some push presses, and possibly some pull-ups. Nothing More. Its this cycle where a lot of people tend to fail and quit the programme, but i'm not going to let that be an option, I've started it and I'll finish it.

Impressive!

Always have massive respect for weightlifters, especially guys like this, totally unknown to the world just documenting his training on YouTube. Excellent strength display, 2.8x bodyweight squat.

The Devil of Training: Food Poisoning/Stomach flu

No matter what kind of weight training goals you have, be it powerlifter, weightlifter, bodybuilder or strongman or enthusiast, illness will always become a setback to your routine. You can train through most illnesses, and I advise you do, as its days like those when you might surprise yourself at what your body is capable of even when you feel like crap. However, the HUGE killer to your dreams and ambitions is physical sickness, particularly food poisoning/stomach bugs.

At the end of the switching cycle I caught such a bug that it had me over a toilet for hours. You lose sleep and lose your appetite and cannot absorb any nutrients you do take in, let alone most water you take in, as it all makes its way back out in some way. Strength comes from rest and nutrition, and if you can't get these your training will be to no avail. In this case rest up, stop throwing up force bland food down, drink water and Powerade - recover asap!

Luckily, somewhat, I felt better the next day, but nowhere near 100% the thought of lifting on Monday made me want to die. However, I got my ass to the gym on Monday to start the Smolov Intense cycle. Did I want to lift? Not really, I still wasn't eating properly, and hadn't for 2 days previous. Did I lift? YES. I smashed out every set. It was hard but I got through it, over such a short time I immediately noticed the loss of mass on my legs and also the loss in strength, particularly during the warm up. Previously I was more than comfortable with my 1RM weight across my shoulders and more (see overloading post) but it hurt to have 80% of that.

You can never predict these things, and it will crop up on you at the most inconvenient of times. Just don't give up, do what it takes to recover, eat, drink, sleep then get back in the gym ASAP.

Smolov Switching Complete!

Focusing purely on speed and power in 6 workouts over 2 weeks. This period, if anything, was very enjoyable and added some variety into the program. Three sessions per week, mine went as follows:

MON:
-Squat to heavy singles and eventually a squat negative (Just the negative motion, lower down to -the pins and leave the bar there).

-Jump squats, very light weight  (20-30kg).

WED:

-Power Cleans, medium weight, very tiring, lots of fun!
-Power Snatches, light weight.

-Push Press, heavy weight, work from triples to singles.

-Farmers walk, increasing weight, quick as possible for 30m.

FRI:

-Box squats, heavy doubles, pause on box to release lower body tension completely, before positive motion.

-Vertical bodyweight Jumps.
-Horizontal Bodyweight Jumps.
(Although, you do look a bit special jumping all over the gym, be prepared to receive odd looks)



Power, speed and more power.. and some more speed! This is aimed to prepare you for the intense mesocycle. You can sculpt your own workouts here as there are no strict guidelines, just remember to focus on power and speed!