Smolov Jr. Review

It’s been a few days since I finished with my max testing after my double Smolov Jr. cycle. I run Smolov Jr. for both the bench and the squat at the same time. So here’s my review:

Smolov Jr. for bench:
It was the third time I run it for the bench, with positive results each time. I went from 140 to 150kg during my first run, 150 to 160 during my second and I added another 10 kilos to my max this time. All of this happened in a span of around 1 year. I didn’t have any injuries beforehand and I didn’t acquire any new ones during the cycles. Sometimes one of my elbows was bothering me but it wasn’t anything special. Overall I’d say Smolov Jr. for bench is one of my favorite programs for my bench press strength. You get to drill your form and find every small detail that might help you because of the increased frequency. I will definitely run it again.

Smolov Jr. for squats:
I hadn’t run Smolov Jr. again for squats so this was a new experience. Even though I put an everyday max at the calculator it seems that I should have put an even lower number because the 10×3 days were especially hard. I faced serious knee pain while running the program but that has largely to do with the fact that I have had serious surgery on my right knee because of a traffic accident. So someone with healthy knees might not face such a problem. For me it was a limiting factor and I doubt that I will run the program again for squats because of this. I did increase my squat numbers but I didn’t hit a new personal best. Also for someone who has problems with his walkouts like me, the program isn’t optimal because you get to train with sub-maximal weights and when the time comes to test your max your walkout still sucks.

My workouts:
Smolov Jr W1D1
Smolov Jr W1D2
Smolov Jr W1D3
Smolov Jr W1D4

Smolov Jr W2D1
Smolov Jr W2D2
Smolov Jr W2D3
Smolov Jr W2D4

Smolov Jr W3D1
Smolov Jr W3D2
Smolov Jr W3D3
Smolov Jr W3D4 (Bench)
Smolov Jr W3D4 (Squats)

More info on Smolov Jr.

Smolov Jr. calculator