Reflections of the Smolov Squat cycle or how to get the most out of the most demanding squatting routine of our times
have you ever heard of the distribution of Q ratios? what they stand for and how you can use your individual Q ratio distribution as per your advantage?
No, you haven’t? You have no idea what I am talking about, do you?
Of course you know these ratios, but under a different name, that is all. They are the multipliers you find in the common max rep calculators! So for example if your rep max set of ten is 180 kg you multiply that with 1.33 and get an estimate of your 1 repetition max. 1.33 is the Q ratio Q10, that is all. The calculation is very simple: Q10 = 1RM/10RM.
now looking at this Q10 we can state a few things with certainty:
it must have a physiological limit, for example Q10 = 3 is highly unlikely, the limit must certainly be lower than say 1.8; it is not constant but changes with training, this is a very important fact; you want Q10 as high as possible when you enter the platform in competition
so what have these observations to do with the Smolov squat routine, you may ask. Simple stuff, lets look at the original Smolov routine, which you find following the link below
The base mesocycle is actually a cycle which lowers Q10 while increasing the repetition maxes over a broad range, from 9 reps to singles. Lifters who have a high Q10, say 1.5 or 1.6 will benefit from that cycle the most.
The intense phase is a cycle which increases Q10, you may enter it with a Q10 of 1.26 and find that you have 1.4 or 1.5 after it.
what this means is, that a lifter coming rom the 20 rep super squat routine would benefit the most from Smolov if they reverse the squence of the two mesocycles, while lifters used to a training regime of fives, triples, doubles and singles should do the Smolov squat routine as written.
Those of you who are way older than the typical Smolov participant can use my Smolov squat routine variations, the brothers smolov, which consists of three variations, Mark I, II and III, which are tailor suited to the weekend warrior. Unlike the original Smolov routine you can use these routines for two excercises simultanously, say squat and military press.
Also there a cool t-shirts and underwear and excel sheets available to those willing to spend a few bucks! Just drop me a line or two.
A typical Mark II result is a 12.5 kg increase on the squat and adding 5-6 kg on the press in just six weeks and one of the dozens guinea pigs even made a lifetime PR a 600 pounds deadlift with a former best of 570 pounds again after six weeks of leisure in the gym.
“Everything works for a while” says Dan John, no wonder I would add, and I hope you now understand why it only works for a while before it stops working.
The bottom line is this, your stuck made no major increases, and that for the last years, change your training regime to lift the entire Q ratio profile and add momentum to your training, just like so.
Reflections of the Smolov Squat cycle or
how to get the most out of the most demanding squatting routine of our times
have you ever heard of the distribution of Q ratios? what they stand for and how you can use your individual Q ratio distribution as per your advantage?
No, you haven’t? You have no idea what I am talking about, do you?
Of course you know these ratios, but under a different name, that is all. They are the multipliers you find in the common max rep calculators! So for example if your rep max set of ten is 180 kg you multiply that with 1.33 and get an estimate of your 1 repetition max. 1.33 is the Q ratio Q10, that is all. The calculation is very simple: Q10 = 1RM/10RM.
now looking at this Q10 we can state a few things with certainty:
it must have a physiological limit, for example Q10 = 3 is highly unlikely, the limit
must certainly be lower than say 1.8;
it is not constant but changes with training, this is a very important fact;
you want Q10 as high as possible when you enter the platform in competition
so what have these observations to do with the Smolov squat routine, you may ask. Simple stuff, lets look at the original Smolov routine, which you find following the link below
http://joeskopec.com/smolov.html
The base mesocycle is actually a cycle which lowers Q10 while increasing the repetition maxes over a broad range, from 9 reps to singles. Lifters who have a high Q10, say 1.5 or 1.6 will benefit from that cycle the most.
The intense phase is a cycle which increases Q10, you may enter it with a Q10 of 1.26 and find that you have 1.4 or 1.5 after it.
what this means is, that a lifter coming rom the 20 rep super squat routine would benefit the most from Smolov if they reverse the squence of the two mesocycles, while lifters used to a training regime of fives, triples, doubles and singles should do the Smolov squat routine as written.
Those of you who are way older than the typical Smolov participant can use my Smolov squat routine variations, the brothers smolov, which consists of three variations, Mark I, II and III, which are tailor suited to the weekend warrior. Unlike the original Smolov routine you can use these routines for two excercises simultanously, say squat and military press.
Also there a cool t-shirts and underwear and excel sheets available to those willing to spend a few bucks! Just drop me a line or two.
http://puetz.spreadshirt.de/
A typical Mark II result is a 12.5 kg increase on the squat and adding 5-6 kg on the press in just six weeks and one of the dozens guinea pigs even made a lifetime PR a 600 pounds deadlift with a former best of 570 pounds again after six weeks of leisure in the gym.
“Everything works for a while” says Dan John, no wonder I would add, and I hope you now understand why it only works for a while before it stops working.
The bottom line is this, your stuck made no major increases, and that for the last years, change your training regime to lift the entire Q ratio profile and add momentum to your training, just like so.