Over on my training blog, a poster asked me to explain the sets and reps in my favorite protocol, the Smolov. Here's my response...

You could pick up the late Dr. Siff's "Supertraining" and slog through that. Or you could get "Beyond Bodybuilding" and read Pavel Tsatsouline's extremely lucid dissection of periodization as it was originally meant in the world of Eastern white people. I reviewed BB years ago on Dragon Door's testimonial page and I stand by what I said then; the chapter on periodization alone is worth the price of the book. In short Smolov is an extremely condensed powerlifting cycle with "shock" amounts of volume and frequency. The total rep volume is mostly the same (36, 35, 35 and 30) and the arrangement of sets and reps shifts to reflect the increasing intensity (70%, 75%, 80% and 85%). Higher reps and lower sets with 70 and 75% (sets of 9 and 7 respectively) are outside of the usual strength/size zone of 4-6 reps, but those days are skewed toward muscle growth. The fact that Smolov is done by people who normally keep the reps under 5 makes the 9 and 7-rep days that much more effective because they're very different from business as usual. Lower reps and higher sets are skewed toward strength.

Smolov repeats the pattern with a fairly huge jump in week two and then a smaller jump in week three followed by a backoff. And guess what! Three weeks of escalating intensity and a backoff are standard operating procedure in a productive cycle. Jack Reape asserts this repeatedly in his discussion of the aforementioned "Supertraining." You can stretch this out to four or six weeks, especially if you distribute the load so you have built in easy days (hint: the Russian Squat Routine where every other training day waves down to the baseline 80%x2x6 through both the volume accumulation phase and the increasing intensity phase). But by and large, escalate in 3 and back off for 1 is a pretty reliable formula when using concentrated loading. In "Beyond Bodybuilding" Pavel explains why concentrated loading works so well, but also that doing lighter days (medium-light-heavy or RSR protocol) makes you stronger faster than distributed loading without lighter days. Hope this helps shed some light.

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BP (45x6, 135x3) 195x5, 175x5
SQ (45x6, 135x3, 225x2, 315x1) (belt, knee sleeves, wrist wraps) 335x3x10

Good lord! 85%x3x10 was surprisingly hard. Yet things got easier about halfway through. Then they got hard again on the last couple of sets. 

Spent most of my time driving my traps into the bar to keep from losing back angle too much. Form degraded slightly toward the end, but this sort of volume and intensity (and frequency! I'm still not recovered from yesterday!) means that perfect form will not be maintained. If I wanted perfect, I'd do 60% for sets of five. The point of Smolov is to make my squat bigger, not make every rep textbook. 

Of course I took rests of 10-15 minutes. Power needs rest! The gym was fairly empty because it was Sunday. Very few people bother me for the squat rack anyway. In fact, just about no one does anymore. I think all the curl-in-the-rack folks started to feel really silly after I started getting stronger on the squat by actually using the rack for, ya' know, squats. All the curlers and quarter squatters seem to have vanished...except for this one guy...

I had my head down and my arms were propping me against the rack and the bar. I saw him coming over out of the corner of my eye. This guy is an extraordinary quarter squatter: 5-lb plates under the heels, pussy pad on the bar and as much as 65 lbs on his back at a time, he will descend an inch or two for several reps. And he has the stones to get annoyed when I tie up the rack for high volume work! 

"Yo, how many sets you got left?!"

"Just one. But that rack over there does the same job as this one." I pointed over to the power rack a few feet away. I prefer to use the squat rack because the cheap power rack at the gym is too enclosing and surprisingly flimsy. But for inch-squatter's purposes, it was perfect. But he likes the squat rack. 

"Nah, this one is good for me. I'll just wait."

And wait he did. 

I know he pays to use the gym equipment just like I do. I get that. Doesn't make his behavior okay. There are other guys who straddle the dedicated bench with attached uprights, put the bar on their backs and do "broomstick" twists. That sort of thing is just as annoying and unacceptable. 

The squat and the bench racks are there to allow people to barbell squat and barbell bench. These movements require racks if they are to be done properly and productively and with a modicum of safety. 

I would happily let someone work in, but I admit this is only if they're going to use the equipment properly. I do some very high volume, heavy work (like Smolov) and I know that I tie up the squat rack for over an hour. If you plan to do some frippery that could be done elsewhere, however, then I'm going to be annoyed at having to unload a bunch of 45-lb plates. Heck, I wouldn't mind if I had to unload those 45's so you could do your squats...but to be harassed to clear out so someone can quarter squat just the bar?! Especially when there's another effin rack just a few feet away?!

Of course, it would be nice if instead of 1/3 the gym space being devoted to treadmills and another 1/3 being devoted to selectorized isolation machines, there were a half dozen squat racks and a half dozen benches. But that's a complaint for another time. 

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First, the numbers...

BP (45x6, 135x3) 185x5, 165x5
SQ (45x5, 135x3, 225x1, 295x1) (belt, knee sleeves, wrist wraps) 315x5x7

I worked really hard today on maintaining back angle. I brought my hand-me-down camera to record the session, but the stupid memory card refused to cooperate. I couldn't get more than a few seconds of footage each time. And I even brought my laptop to make instant downloads so I could keep the camera's card clear!

Anyway, here is a link to the very first rep of today's Smolov 80%x5x7 with 315. I was honestly able to keep a good back angle for more the vast majority of the reps. On the last two sets, however, there was some degradation on the last reps and I had to focus on driving the traps into the bar instead of just staying tight. (The upper back muscles forget what "tight" is on the last sets with 80%!)

Now about those liars and their squats...

You've all seen it. You go roaming around the interwebs for discussions on squatting and you come across some geek poster who claims he squats 500 lbs raw, but only deadlifts 300. (Just look at Mike's "About Me" tab.)

I actually used to create accounts on forums wherever I found this nonsense, just so I could berate the idiots who make these idiot claims. These idiots are those guys you see doing 1/8 reps--sometimes in the smith machine!--with 5 plates who swear up and down that they have a max squat over 500 lbs. 

I know, I know: I shouldn't care about what some Bally's geek says he can squat. Still it irks me. I have a fetish for things like truth and justice. It annoys me when people lie like this...or just don't know what a proper squat is...and essentially denigrate the efforts of those who bust their humps to put up good numbers.

Maybe I'm just particularly sensitive just now. I only started competing this year, but my raw squat and deadlift were nothing to be ashamed of and I'm improving consistently. Yet when word gets around the office that I compete (I may have had something to do with that), I have to put up with the occasional comment like this: "I heard you squat X. Well I squatted X+200 lbs. So I don't see what the big deal is." 

Argh!

If I thought it was just empty braying, I honestly wouldn't mind. Like when someone tells you they used to bench 750 in high school. Because we can all agree that a bench press requires a touch to the chest and locked arms at the end. Even with use of a trampoline/rib cage we all know when someone is likely lying about their past, present or future benching ability.

And you just can't cheat the deadlift...

But the squat is another animal. No one outside the powerlifting or weightlifting world has any clue what legal depth is. Even when you tell and/or show them, they are convinced that going down that far would only take "a little" off their 800-lb quarter squat. What drives me mad is that they have no idea that what they're doing is the equivalent of claiming a sub-4-second 40. 

Some would say not to worry about the occasional internet dummy; just worry about getting stronger. But then why compete? Why put up numbers if I don't care what they mean? If I squat 550 lbs raw at 165, but half the gym-going world thinks that they're 600-lb smith machine quarter squat is just as good, it's simply not okay. 

This is why I wish powerlifting were more popular. I wish a decent segment of the population had a clue about squat depth and knew what an acceptable raw squat was.

And I wish I could publicly humiliate those who lie about their outrageous squats by putting them under the weights they claim and forcing them to get to depth. 

Maybe a little sick, a little obsessive...I know. But the squat is as unto a religion for me. The properly performed barbell back squat has the same power to change lives that belief in Jesus does. I take the squat very seriously and develop a zealot's rage when I see people take the squat's name in vain. 

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Oy. I drained almost exactly 30 cc of synovial fluid from my right knee last night. The good news is that it was all extremely clear. No bits of cartilage or evidence of blood. Also, the knee wasn't particularly puffy. In fact, the uninjured left knee is seeming fuller these days! 

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"You ok? You were getting awfully bent over on those squats."

I've heard this at least three times this past year in my commercial gym. Granted, these were on maximal efforts when my form was breaking down a bit...but I've recorded my squats and I know that my back tends to go quite near horizontal all the time.

Mark Rippetoe has enabled my good morning-like squat and as I write this I still think that's a good thing. If you want to muscles of the hip--the prime movers in a power squat--to work, you have to have them open the hip angle (hip extension). The hip angle can't open if it's already open. And it tends to stay open in the knees-far-forward-of-the-toes, upright back, high bar squat so beloved of Olympic lifters...and of gym rats used to doing squats "for their quads." 

When the back stays upright, the hams have a lot less to do. But the glutes get more to do. It's their job to maintain that upright torso. The job of actually getting the weight of the barbell moving with a vertical back goes to the quads. A high bar back squat has a little more in common with a front squat than it does with a low bar squat. A good low bar squat by its nature will have more elements of a good morning. It will look an awful lot like a good morning with enough knee rotation for the hips to break powerlifting parallel (top of the thigh at the hips below the top of the kneecap). 

High bar squats look more like what Oly coaches love and what Weider-influenced gym rats expect...but the low bar is more powerful. It allows you to use the muscles of the posterior chain--the hip-extensors: the glutes, hamstrings and adductors--to great advantage. In short, a high bar squat tends to favor the quadriceps a bit too much at the expense of the real big movers of the posterior chain; the power squat tends to do the opposite. 

Rippetoe coaches Hip Drive (notice the capitalization), but I've found that the general powerlifting advice to drive the traps into the bar needs to be kept in mind. Bouncing off the stretch of the hammies and the addies is essential for a strong squat, but if all you do is drive with the butt after that, then the back angle will deteriorate till your torso is parallel with the ground. Then you'll have to good morning the weight up and your quads will have gotten very little stimulation or chance to contribute to the movement. And you absolutely want the quads to contribute to the squat. 

So what to do? Rip again focuses on novices and wants to ingrain Hip Drive in them. A more advanced lifter (ranks I like to think I've joined) would do well to drive his traps along with his hips. The more delayed the trap drive after the hip drive, the more the squat degrades into a good morning. You want that powerful bounce from the stretch reflex and hip drive...but you also want to drive those traps into the bar. Or else you shoot your butt up in the air and have to good morning the whole mess up.

I'll be working on this tomorrow. I've committed myself to another Smolov. The high intensity and high volume normally means a degradation of form, but fighting this tendency will be great practice and will force the necessary muscles to get stronger where they need to be stronger. My hip muscles need to get stronger to hold my back angle while my quads need to get stronger to contribute to the movement when they normally drop out with the changing back angle. 

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It's amazing how enthusiastic I always am just minutes before I actually start my first set of a Smolov base phase. 

BP (45x6, 135x3) 185x5, 165x5
SQ (45x6, 135x3, 225x1) 275x9x4

Just did the ol' maintenance Power To The People (PTTP) 2 of 5 for the bench. Really light. Touched a bit higher up than I have been lately, around the bottom of the pecs instead of the bottom of the sternum. Liked it better and felt a little stronger. I'm thinking more elbow tuck and lower touch really isn't as appropriate for raw benching. 

Did first work set of squats without belt or knee sleeves. Pretty stupid, considering. Sure it's only 70%, but it's 70% done to near failure with higher reps. That calls for a belt. The second set was so much less painful and tiring with the belt. And the knee sleeves made a huge difference in terms of that tricky right MCL squirming around. 

It took me several minutes to recover from the last set. Got very deep on every single rep and maintained a good back angle on most reps. Tended to lean over a bit after the sixth rep, but form is expected to deteriorate a bit with heavy weight and high reps (which is why some lifters never go over 5 reps per set). 

I worked very hard to keep the weaker right leg in the movement and I mostly succeeded. The left was a little bit more pumped at the end of the session, but nothing like what used to happen when the right leg was a few inches narrower than the left. 

Drinking 1/2 gallon of whole milk before and immediately after for fuel and recovery. Probably won't consume so many extra calories on the off days. 

Weighed 174 in squat shoes, sleeves, compression shorts and gym clothes: estimate 169 naked. 

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Okay, just wrapped up my first Russian Squat Routine. It delivered exactly as promised: a 5% gain in 6 weeks of distributed loading with a wave down to a base intensity and volume every other session. I started with a max of 375 and six weeks later I tested a fairly good 395 and missed 405 at the sticking point. I did NOT take weekends off; I just lifted every other day and I skipped the last wave down. Just rested an extra day before attempting my new max.

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Hello. No one ever guesses I lift, much less lift competitively. But I do. I was a scrawny kid and I'm a scrawny adult. I've always squatted and pulled, but it's only recently that I started getting it right because I caught the powerlifting bug a couple of years ago. I started competing in the USAPL this year as a 165-lb lifter in the raw division. I'm addicted to the Russian volume stuff and it's actually working. I hope to give everyone something to remember as I make my way to the 198 class. And I hope the journey makes interesting reading. 

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