When my squat is at a reasonable level I'll do another one. Hopefully I can get my 5rm to 345-355 with linear progression. I want to learn a bit more about block periodization before then though, since in it's entirety Smolov is essentially a block periodization program. I'm also wondering what it would be like doing SmolovJr for squats, but running it as long as possible with a deload week thrown in every 5-6 weeks.

Define "crap." Sore and tired is probably not a big deal. Just take an extra rest day or two. If it feels like you're building towards an injury though then you might want to stop. It sounds like you may have started too heavy. Form is more important than intensity. If you find your arms becoming untucked and the bar drifting horizontally upwards towards your face on the more difficult reps then it sounds like too much weight.

I think it's all about finding a volume/intensity that you can handle. Personally I don't have a problem with a lot of volume, but even a few reps over 90% of my max can take a week to recover from.

I can't fathom doing it for press. I'm not sure I could finish the first week.

9-15

Front Squat- 45x5x2, 135x4, 185x3, 205x2, 225x1, 245x3x2
Paused High Bar Squat- 225x2, 245x2, 255x2, 265x2
Bench- 45x10x2, 135x5, 165x3, 185x2, 195x1, 205x4, 195x4
Snatch Grip Deadlifts- 154x4, 220x4, 230x4, 240x4

My elbow/triceps were bothering me a little on the bench. I think I'm going to switch to a somewhat westside inspired routine. Every week I'll do 2 of the following workouts:

1. Paused Bench 8x4x85%
2. Dynamic Bench 10x2 against bands, light 5x10 Press after
3. Bench 3 heavy doubles

crap = the shoulders are really sore after I have benched and hurt when someone thouches them. I dont think I feel any injuries coming so far and icing seems to help pretty good. While benching it isnt to bad

I've never really been a shoulder dominant bencher, but it seems to me that if your bench form is solid and your elbows are tucked with a good arch, from the shoulder joint's perspective you are essentially doing a decline bench, which should recruit a lot of chest, triceps, lats, serratus anterior, and relatively minimal anterior deltoid. If yours are that sore then I would assume you're losing your tuck and the bar is drifting upwards towards your head during the rep, which uses more anterior deltoid as the primary lifter. Get some videos up of your bench.

9-18

Squat- 45x5x2, 154x5, 198x4, 242x3, 286x2, 316x1, 331x5x2
Dynamic Bench- 45x5x2, 95x3, 95+MMsx3, 115+MMsx3x8
Press- 65x10, 75x10, 80x10, 85x10x2
Shrugs- 225x8, 315x8x3
Abs/Wrist Work

Feel like I pulled a good workout of nowhere. Sleep and diet has been really bad recently. Also I totally do not believe the short band tensions listed on the Elite FTS site. Bar speed was just about right on the dynamic effort bench, and there's no way I can move 180 to 195 that fast. I suppose it doesn't matter, but just a heads up to anyone that buys them.

Also I really like this workout for a non-max effort bench day.

9-20

Front Squat- 45x5x3, 135x3, 185x3, 215x2, 235x1, 250x3, 255x3
Kroc Rows- 100x18 each arm
Light Behind Head Pulldowns- 3 sets
Deadlifts- 154x5, 242x3, 286x5, 306x5, 326x7
Curls- 4 sets

Eh. Front squats are getting stronger that's for sure. Was wiped for deadlifts so took it a pretty easy. I probably wasn't fully recovered from Sunday's squat rapefest.

9-22

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 235x3, 285x2, 315x1, 335x4, 325x5, 315x5
Bench- 45x10x2, 135x5, 165x3, 195x2, 215x1, 225x1x2, 215x1, 205x2
Snatch Grip Deadlifts- 154x4, 220x4, 264x4, 274x4, 284x4

Squat felt off. Came up on my toes on a couple of reps. Could've forced 335x5 but I would've been wiped and had to quit there, so I cut it short and did some backoff volume. Not sure what my problem was on bench, the weight didn't feel heavy I just couldn't move it. Might be time to switch to a TM style template for a few weeks and hopefully set some PRs before I gain 25 lbs this fall/winter.

Gonna split lower and upper days from now on. Workouts have been taking too long and I don't like doing any upperbody stuff after squatting.

9-24

Paused Bench- 45x10x3, 135x5, 165x3, 185x4x2, 190x4x2, 195x4, 185x4x3
Pendlay Row- 110x5, 155x5, 175x5, 195x5, 205x5, 155x15
Skullcrushers- 1 set of 8
Ab/Grip Work

Elbow didn't like the skullcrushers. Took a lacrosse ball to my biceps after the workout.

Are your skulls the ones to the forehead, or the behind the head ones? My elbows like the behind the head ones more for whatever reason.

skullcrushers go to the forehead, you're thinking of generic tricep extensions which include both skullcrushers and the ones that go behind your dome.

A long time ago I used to love doing lots of skull crushers. One time my elbow must have popped a bursa sac, because my whole right arm swelled up to almost double its normal size for a few days - I looked like Popeye, lol. Those can be pretty hard on the elbows. Roll your triceps too imo.

Yeah I do them light just as GPP work, but it's not worth the extra wear so long as they're bugging me.

9-26

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1, 345x3, 355x3
Deadlift- 135x3, 225x3, 275x3, 305x3, 325x3, 345x7
DB Rows- 100x10x3 each arm

Ship it.

what's a good clean and jerk for someone our weight? is it normal for the jerk part to be the limiting factor? i had no idea how to do the jerk. the catch also hurt my clavicle. i went heavy on this for the first time today. was a lot of fun

Well we've both had pretty squat heavy (so good) programming for the last couple years so that makes complete sense to me. My jerk is my weak point too; I think I can clean 235-245 but probably only jerk 210 or so.

1.5x bodyweight would probably be somewhat respectable for a jerk.

How about a good hang power clean number? I never have learned how to drop my body down to catch the squat or clean.

Trying to get HUUUGEE???? Or are you just saying your going to get fat b/c its holiday season? You guys can't be anorexic one day and trying to get big the next.

Why does it matter what I think is good? IMO if you can do the exercise safely and can make progress at it and it makes sense in the grand scheme of your goals/programming then you should be doing it until you can't make progress at it anymore. I would be impressed at a 1.5x bodyweight hang power clean.

I know I'll gain at least 10 lbs without even trying, so I figure I'll train as hard as I can manage and eat accordingly and hopefully wind up at ~ 185-190. Then in March I'll start the cut and hopefully wind up a relatively lean 165 with some actually decent numbers.

Hey, thanks for the response. I would say my training has been lower body focused but I have done little squatting. IMO how I can clean and jerk without having clean and jerked for a while is a test of my athleticism, strength, and power since I have no skills. It's kind of like a check up to see how my programming has been working.

You can't really separate the speed and athleticism from the technique in the olympic lifts. The technique IS speed and athleticism.

Yeah I'm not sure that's the best yardstick. If you have no skills then it stands to reason that your performance would be extremely variable on any given day.

I'm not sure I understand your point here. I think the tests most people use to test people on is bench press, deadlift, broad jump, vertical jump. These are good cause they test important things like strength and power over the full body. I read that Dan John prefers testing a person's deadlift as opposed to their squat because there is less technique involved. So if the technique "IS speed and athleticism" then it is a great measuring stick.

There is a ton of technique involved in Cleans. I am significantly stronger than numerous people who cleaned more than me at the last meet. Its not a good benchmark.

Most people are going to be physically incapable of going from maximum explosion/pull with a heavy weight to changing direction and getting under the bar super fast without a lot of physical adaptation of muscle and nerve. It is about more than just 'learning technique'.

Speed and athleticism in the context you're talking about is GPP. The type of speed and athleticism required in a max clean and jerk is in a very narrow band of acceptable ranges of motion, ie if you're an inch too far in either direction then you miss the lift. This fits the criteria of SPP.

In order to be an effective measuring stick, your test needs to be both accurate and precise. I agree that in the grand scheme of things, the clean and jerk is an accurate measurement of explosiveness, speed, athleticism, etc. However it is very imprecise. On any given day my max jerk could be anywhere from 80 to 100 kg. There is too much noise for the measurement to be meaningful over a small sample size.

The fact that Dan John favors the deadlift over the squat should tell you something about how important it is to have a low SPP metric for gauging progress. The squat and the deadlift are both pretty simple movements compared with the clean and jerk. On the SPP scale it's probably something like deadlift=1, squat=2, clean and jerk=8.

9-28

Dynamic Bench- 45x10x2, 95x5x3, 95+MMx3, 115+MMx3x10 on the minute
Press- 45x10x2, 75x8, 95x8x4
Rickshaw Shrugs- 5 sets of 12
Curls- 3 sets
Farmer's Walks- 3 laps with 100 lb fat grip plates
Close Grip Pushups- 3 sets of 25

Gotta remember that I put the bands on the "20" holes on the racks at the gym. Not sure how important progression is on dynamic effort bench, but I'm guessing it's not too important.

9-30

Squat- 45x5x3, 154x5, 220x4, 264x3, (belt on) 286x2, 309x1, 319x5, 324x5, 329x4, 309x5
Snatch Grip Deadlift- 220x5, 264x3, 284x5, 220x8x2
Plank Variations / Swiss Ball Crunches

Couldn't summon much intensity today. Oh well, good thing it was just a volume day.