Smolov jr for bench - selecting exercises

Archon · Jul 25, 2008

Hi everyone,

I've done a bit of searching here on the forum and I've found a few threads about the Smolov Jr routine for benching. What I haven't been able to find, though, is what the rest of the routine should look like. The benching is crystal clear obviously since I have the spreadsheet, but what other kinds of exercises should I do? Split, full-body etc?

El Freako · Jul 26, 2008

I think its best to choose a routine around smolov that won't use up all your energy. I'd suggest leaving shoudler and tri work to a minimum too.

I'm doing smolov at the moment for deads and bench staggered 3 days behind. I add in chins every second day and do arms and light front squats on friday (I'm running it mon/tues/thu/fri/). With only one exercise I'm sure you could quite easily get away with a much fuller routine as you aren't doing 4 sets of incredibly taxing deads per week.

bambam55 · Jul 26, 2008

You could check out my log I did the smolov jr on bench and gained pretty well

Archon · Jul 26, 2008

Thanks for the replies guys!

Due to a leg injury, I am currently unable to do squats and deadlifts so here's what my idea for a program looks like:

Mon
Bench
Military press
Hyperextensions
(Dips) <-- might be too much considering the benching and military press

Wed
Bench
Chins
Lat pulldown (narrow grip)
Biceps curl

Fri
Bench
Military press
Hyperextension
(Dips)

Sat
Bench
Chins
Lat pulldown (narrow grip)
Biceps curl

bambam55, I looked at your log and it doesn't look as if my program above is too far off from what you did, right?

bambam55 · Jul 26, 2008

What type of leg injury did you have?

yeah I'll have to review over my stuff again to help you more, but that looks about right because you really dont want to add too much chest or tri's. Remember once you finish the program to do a deloading week before maxing. For de-loading its just like a 3x3 two days out of the week and the following week you max. Its a great program it should work out good for you. I actually think you could add a little more for shoulders or back in there if you wanted to.

Archon · Jul 26, 2008

bambam55 said:
What type of leg injury did you have?

Well actually, it's not really an injury, more of a case of exhaustion. I went to a massage therapist who said I just needed to rest my legs for a couple of weeks - she didn't really say what it was just that there was no injury. Besides, I'd like to focus on the bench at the moment so I won't really miss doing squats and deadlifts

yeah I'll have to review over my stuff again to help you more, but that looks about right because you really dont want to add too much chest or tri's. Remember once you finish the program to do a deloading week before maxing. For de-loading its just like a 3x3 two days out of the week and the following week you max. Its a great program it should work out good for you. I actually think you could add a little more for shoulders or back in there if you wanted to.

You sure about that? I was kinda worried that doing military presses and dips would kill my shoulders after all that benching... Also, for the back I'm doing chins, lat pulldowns and hyperextensions so I feel that area has been covered as well. But hey, as long as I don't get burned out I'd like to do as many exercises as possible so bring it on :xyxthumbs:

bambam55 · Jul 26, 2008

Yeah to be honest just go by how your body feels. Pay attention to your body and it will pay attention to what your doing to it by responding. If you were to overtrain you'd def feel it. Make sure you get in your protein on this because it will def help you grow.

I dont know how much I'd read into what a massage therapist tells you. It wouldnt hurt to take a few weeks off from legs though. If you dont want to completely forget them you could just do some leg presses.

Archon · Jul 26, 2008

bambam55 said:
Yeah to be honest just go by how your body feels. Pay attention to your body and it will pay attention to what your doing to it by responding. If you were to overtrain you'd def feel it. Make sure you get in your protein on this because it will def help you grow.

I dont know how much I'd read into what a massage therapist tells you. It wouldnt hurt to take a few weeks off from legs though. If you dont want to completely forget them you could just do some leg presses.

Yeah i know, I'll thrown in some leg presses, extensions and curls I think.

Btw, the deloading phase - you said to work the bench 3x3 but at what intensity? Something 70% of your 1RM maybe? Also, does the 3x3 apply to the bench only or to the other upper body exercises as well?

bambam55 · Jul 27, 2008

i used the 3x3 at the last weight that I did on the smolov. Now you may want to get Tunen in on this, he is the smolov guru. I just used the 3x3 on bench. I noticed when I did the smolov the thrid week my chest was extremely tight and then the deloading phase helped with that a lot.

Also when I did it I felt like my back really grew well, since the lats are important in the bench as well, I trained them hard and they responded well.

Archon · Jul 27, 2008

bambam55 said:
i used the 3x3 at the last weight that I did on the smolov. Now you may want to get Tunen in on this, he is the smolov guru. I just used the 3x3 on bench. I noticed when I did the smolov the thrid week my chest was extremely tight and then the deloading phase helped with that a lot.

Also when I did it I felt like my back really grew well, since the lats are important in the bench as well, I trained them hard and they responded well.

Ok, thanks for your help, really appreciate it :tiphat:

I've PM'ed Tunen but I think he's on vacation or something so it might take a while before he replies. I'll post his answer here for people who are interested.

MuscleMecca Crew

bambam55 · Jul 27, 2008

sounds good, and be sure to let us know how much you gain on your bench at the end of this. What is your max going into this?

Archon · Jul 27, 2008

bambam55 said:
sounds good, and be sure to let us know how much you gain on your bench at the end of this. What is your max going into this?

90 kg (200 lbs) and I've been stuck at that for quite some time now. Not really a bench monster, eh? Anyway, I'm hoping this program will add 10-15 lbs to my max, we'll see. Btw, I'm currently on the MM2K bench program (half way through) so I won't be able to start the Smolov routine until maybe the beginning of september.

Smolov jr for bench - selecting exercises

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