Smolov Results

Finished Smolov- the hardest 3 weeks of my life. My legs were crushed, my back was crushed, my mind was crushed. And then I reloaded, and an amazing thing happened. You know that supercompensation idea.... yeah, well, it works. Here's a little video evidence:

Now remember, exactly one month ago I tested at 309#. 385-309= 76#. Yes, you read that right. A 76 pound PR in just one month. No steroids. No PEDs. Just good ol' blood, sweat, and tears. In all honesty, here is why I got the results I did.

My good buddy, training partner, and mentor of sorts Steve is the one who encouraged me to do Smolov in the first place. He gave me some very strict parameters though, and I followed them to a T.

1) You can only serve one master: if you want to get the most out of this program, you have to be singularly focused. That means squatting only. No olympic lifts. No lower body accessory work. Honestly, outside of a few pull ups and dumbbell bench sets, I didn't even do any upper body.

2) Use a conservative working max: if you don't, you will get crushed. Trust me

3) No belt, no wraps: I tested raw, I did every rep of every set of every day for the three week cycle raw. As a result, my back is the strongest it has ever been. So is everything else, really.

4) Eating: eat A LOT. "A LOT" really doesn't describe it. Eat like you are a grizzly bear who just got out of hibernation. Eat until you are about to throw up, then give it the shimmy shakedown and eat some more. What this looked like for me is about 6-7,000 calories a day. Shake (1,300 cals) in the morning, bars every couple of hours, big lunch, two big dinners. Then sometimes another shake. You gotta understand that your body will grow if you give it a reason to. Feed the wolf.

5) Recovery: I took this very seriously. Sleep at least 8 hours. Your body will thank you. Take naps. I did 25 minutes worth of contrast bath after every squat session. SMR like your life depends on it (which it might, honestly). I also had access to some stem, courtesy of Steve, and maybe it was mental but I felt like it helped.

The crazy thing about squatting is that it doesn't just make your squat stronger. The legs feed the wolf. What do I mean? Well, if you'll remember, I didn't snatch or clean & jerk for a whole month. After testing my squat, I was feeling good and decided to work up to some heavy singles. Here are the results:

 Thats a 13 pound PR on my snatch, and a 24 pound PR on my clean and jerk. If you go watch the video from "stuck in the hole" you'll see me get under 250 and not be able to stand it back up. I caught 265, paused, stood up, then put up 24 pounds more than has ever been over my head. What that shows me is that the legs drive everything. If the legs get stronger, the body gets stronger.

The legs feed the wolf, so feed the wolf. And get under the bar.