u4m1r: Smolov Jr. Bench

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07/01/2010

Bench

Gym was empty when I arrived so had a nice set of plates to myself, hence the full warm up

40kg x 5
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
100kg x 3

120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3

Tough ****! Last rep I had my glutes atleast a foot over the bench so technically it was a fail, but all other reps were good.

Lots of random stuff.

160kg squat/165kg fail

I just cant seem to stay on my heels, I straight away start to fall onto the balls of my feet. How do I fix this?

Reply 61

Khanage

Jesus christ that is a lot of benching! How are you finding it?

Reply 62

SMed

Original post by u4m1r

160kg squat/165kg fail

I just cant seem to stay on my heels, I straight away start to fall onto the balls of my feet. How do I fix this?

Sit back more and concentrate I guess.

Reply 63

Michael XYZ

10 reps of 120kg. z0mfg.

Reply 64

u4m1r

Original post by Khanage

Jesus christ that is a lot of benching! How are you finding it?

Not too bad, I quite enjoy it. That was the last workout anyway, gonna test my max in a few days.

Reply 65

u4m1r

Deadlift

70kg x 5
120kg x 3
150kg x 2
170kg x 2
190kg x 1
205kg x 1
220kg x 0 - couldn't even get it off the groudn wtf

Really pissed off about that!

Reply 66

The Blind Monk

Dude, I don't know what your deadlifting has been like recently but if you can't hit stuff you used to hit, back off a few weeks worth of progress (10-15kg on your 5RM?) and get a decent running start again. That kind of bastardised linear periodisation has allowed me to finally break my deadlift plateau.

Reply 67

u4m1r

Original post by The Blind Monk

I'm starting 5/3/1 though, I'm just going to start with a low max. (Probably 200)

Reply 68

u4m1r

Or do you think its better to do some linear progression?

Reply 69

The Blind Monk

5/3/1 and linear progressions are pretty similar. 5/3/1 is just more structured. I think the reason 5/3/1 works well for most people is that you're forced to back off (which most people don't really do enough.) Sometimes you've got to take steps back to make progress.

Reply 70

u4m1r

Original post by The Blind Monk

The thing with 5/3/1 is you have to start at 90%. So for my deadlift, it will be about 5 months before my theoretical max is at my true max. And for bench it will be 6 months. So with 30kg a year, it will actually only be a 15kg gain.

Reply 71

The Blind Monk

I know. I would run a linear progression but I also have some ego issues about dropping the weight too much (as I am sure pretty much everyone else in the universe does.) I think you can get a 10kg gain in 12 weeks with a straightforward linear progression of 8s, 5s, 3s and 1s. I think you'll get something out of just not really maxing for a bit to be honest. There's a Dave Tate article I'll try and find for you on T-nation which describes his linear periodisation phase and I think there's quite a lot to it. I'm not saying it's some kind of panacea but it seems to work.

I could also just be completely wrong and just like a few weeks without any maximal strain/only 1-3 work sets a week for the deadlift with no maxing for a month+. I don't know.

Reply 72

u4m1r

Original post by The Blind Monk

I'm always scared that if I don't always lift at maximal intensity I'll get weaker. Hopefully 5/3/1 will prove me wrong.

Also, have you seen the altered version of 5/3/1 called 5/3/1 for powerlifting? Its week 1 and 2 swapped, with heavy singles in week 1 and 3.

Reply 73

The Blind Monk

Original post by u4m1r

Personally (and this may not extrapolate to you because I'm a better repper at higher % of 1RM than you) I had no problems not doing anything heavier than 2-3 reps of a 5RM and still gained 10-15kg on my deadlift max in a month which had plateaued for months on end. There is quite a lot of specificity to max lifting but a lot of the Russian programs I've seen seldom go over 90% for extended periods of time. So I don't think it's entirely necessary in the short term. Give it a go: it's only a month or two of your lifting life and it's probably easier than 5/3/1 anyways (no 10+ reps on the deadlift for you here :tongue:

)

I've seen 5/3/1 for powerlifting and see the logic behind it. I'd just be curious to have n=2 on my linear periodisation experiment.

Reply 74

u4m1r

14/01/2011

Bench

Bar x 12
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
120kg x 1
135kg x 1

145kg x 0
142.5kg x 0
130kg x 2

Whatthe****man.jpg smolov didn't do **** for me.

OHP

40kg x 10
70kg x 3
90kg x 0

Deadlift

70kg x 5
90kg x 5
120kg x 5
160kg x 10 - easy, would've had 10 more if I brought my chalk

Reply 75

The Blind Monk

Dude, **** happens. Different things work for different people. You may get nothing out of smolov or indeed high(er) reps. Take it as a learning experience. I am confident that you'll be benching 150kg very soon.

Reply 76

username369234

That's why I've never ran smolov for bench , there are too many mixed experiences. Bench is a tricky one . In my opinion you need to hammer the weak parts of your bench to get it up , the smolov doesn't really translate from squat to bench so I wouldn't trust it. Smolov was made for squatting remember, the Russians didn't make ' smolov junior '

Don't worry bout it anyway, it was only a few weeks so you havnt exactly missed out on anything .

I'm sure you'll do a lot better on 531