I have never been big and never will be. My genetics have dictated that I will have a slight frame, quick when I was young and good at endurance when I got older. But this has never stopped me training to be strong. Pound for pound I consider myself above average when I am in good shape. But I have always had a rubbish back squat. Never really analysed it just never paid them any attention. I can plead guilty to benching hard and heavy then running 5 miles in 30 minutes. That will affect the make up of the leg muscles. Crossfit introduced me to real strength training. Heavy, really heavy, with an intensity that makes you feel dizzy and not wanting to do another set. With this I saw my numbers creep up to new PB's but when trying the Crossfit Total my back squat was always the weakest. I could bench more than I could back squat!
Lately I have eased off the intensity in the metcons and have been experimenting with intervals and training cycles. More of that in a future post. My latest trial was the Smolov back squat routine. Having recognised there was plenty of room for improvement it seemed a natural decision to commit to this and I do not use the word commit lightly. Its 13 weeks of lifting heavy and perfecting your technique. The web is swimming in sites, forums and blogs about this routine. Keywords linked to this are intensity, blood, guts, vomit and big results. It sounds almost cartoon like. So you have to keep a balanced mind about this. One of the most consistent quotes is that big lifters can add 20-30kg to their 1RM while smaller lifters can add 5-15kg.
The routine is spread over 13 weeks. You start by establishing your current 1RM. Then you are taken through the introductory microcycle. This includes certain stretches aimed at improving your squat. Improving your squat is so very important. Lets face it any lift can be improved with perfect technique. So get it right at the start then you can maximise your results. You then progress to 4 weeks base mesocycle. You are taken on an ever progressive heavier squat. The sets are high and the reps low, but you can end up doing up to 35 reps in a session. At the end of this you revisit your 1 rep max. I started with 90kg (told you I was rubbish) and PBed with 98.5kg. I was hoping for more and on reflection I was too cautious and took too long to start hitting heavy singles and did not take enough rest between attempts. I took five attempts but really three would have suited me better. Lifting heavy on your limits is exhausting.
After this you enter your new 1RM into your spreadsheet and the next two phases are calculated. The next phase is called the switching microcyle. This I found really odd. It is a mixture of 1 rep squat negatives, light power cleans and heavy box squats. Lets look at each one and try to understand their relevance. The heavy negatives, in my case were up to 10kg over my new 1RM. Its really odd loading up a bar on your back that feels heavier than anything you have ever lifted and knowing you will not be able to get back up. You ideally need a good squat cage for this I did not at the time and practised bailing out at the bottom by throwing the bar back and me rocking forward. It actually was not too difficult and made a spectacular noise as I was using iron plates! The eccentric phase of the muscle is twice as strong as the concentric, we see negatives used a lot in teaching strict pull ups and press ups with great results. The strange thing with the squat is that the rear posterior chain contract both in flexion and extension, Lombards paradox. But just having that amount of weight on your back soon became not a problem. The power cleans, to me, these just seemed like light relief from all that squatting! You move through a dead lift and snap the hips open with a little dip landing cleaning the bar. Speed seemed to be the important element here. Box squats, these are all over training cycles these days but they were new to me. It seemed to be about a momentary relaxing of the rear posterior chain then explosively engaging them to get up off the box. This phase to me was all about training muscles to be used under super loads and coaching your nervous system to recruit those muscle groups, which is a massive part of lifting heavy.
The final phase is the intense mesocylce. This looks like a hotchpotch collection of single sets of 3 and 4 reps with multiple sets of 3, 4 and 5 reps. But basically its a structured warm up towards lifting heavy. The numbers can be intimidating towards the end you are lifting for multiple reps and sets just under your new 1RM. You are lifting 3 days a week. I always took 2 days off between day 2 and 3. I found the sessions exhausting. I had been resting 3-5 minutes between sets in earlier sessions but now I was happy to rest up to 10 minutes! Andrew Stemler said to me the secret to good strength training is doing nothing! He is so right. It was common to finish a set and immediately have to sit down, dizzy. I could feel my heart pounding like I had just run 800meters flat out and this could take up to 3 minutes to calm down. Intense! Towards the end I started contemplating what my new 1RM could be. You can doubt whether you could add another 10kg. I got an early indication when rushing through a session and instead of squatting 80kg for 3 reps I loaded the bar with 100kg. At the time I thought I must be really tired and then recounted the discs. This was a massive boost for me and clear sign of good things to come.
You finish with an easy week and then a weeks rest then it is time to revisit the 1RM. I was wrongly training in a gym without a squat cage and had to rely on a friend spotting me. This did affect my confidence but I failed at 112.5kg and ended with a new PB of 110kg, a massive 20kg increase.
Lessons learnt. It is well established if you want to get good at something do more of it. This routine ticks that box by the bucket load. Do not take too long before hitting your 1RM lifts, they are massively depleting. Rest, rest, and rest some more between sets. Train in a cage, feeling safe is essential when lifting heavy, you do not want to be distracted. I was asked did this effect my other training. Well I stopped all metcon and only practised bodyweight stuff as part of my warms ups. I did not lose any size improved my lower body flexibility and getting back into the WODS did not prove too difficult. Heavy squats hit every muscle in the body, especially the facial muscles, they hit the nervous system and create an oxygen debt that takes time to recover from, while working your core stability like nothing else.
If you have the time and facilities this routine requires then I can only recommend it. There are alternatives out there and most strength routines are based around cycles of increasing intensity combined with recovery periods. Is it the best strength routine? I simply cannot answer that. Are squats the best strength movement? Yes.
You can find the spreadsheet here. CLICK
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