Phil - New PR on the Bench Press...Smolov Worked!!

Here's the latest from my training.  At the beginning of last week I was unsure as to whether to do a retest or simply to just have a decent heavy training session on the bench and see what happened.  I benched on wednesday and ended up hitting a new PR of 167.5kg which was a 6.7kg increase in my previous best.
My bench sets during this session were as follows

20 x 10, 30 x 3, 40 x 3, 40 x 3, 60 x 3, 80 x 3, 100 x 3, 120 x 2, 130 x 1, 140 x 1, 150 x 1, 155 x 1,
162.5 x 1, 165 x 1, 167.5 x 1

A new PR and also hit a current target by also getting 3 sets of 10 on the 50kg dumbbells afterwards.
Nothing majorly impressive, but i'd missed a rep or two the last time I did this workout.

So moving forward I have decided to do the following split with my upper body pressing.

Tuesday - Max Effort Close Grip Floor Press (1-2 reps per set, with 5-6 reps at 90%+)
                 Floor Press with 2 second pause at bottom of movement 5-6 sets of 5 reps
                 JM Press - 3 sets of 10-15 (close grip, thumbs round the bar)
                 Weighted Dips - 3-4 sets of 8-10
                 Dumbbell Bench Press - 3 sets of 10
                 Incline DB Press + Rolling DB Extensions Superset (3 rounds of 20/20 reps)

Saturday - Speed Bench - 3 sets of 3 close grip, 3 sets of 3 mid grip, 3 sets of 3 wide grip
                 (this was done with 100kg (60% max approx) and black 20" bands)
                 High Incline Close Grip Bench Press - 4 sets of 3-5 reps
                 Overhead Barbell Press (strict or push press) - 4 x 5-8 reps
                 Dumbbell Shrugs - 4 x 20 reps
                 Rear Delt Flys - 4 x 15 reps
                 Band Pull Aparts - 4 x 30 reps
                 BB Bicep Curls - 4 x 10-12 reps

I am going to work in 3 week cycles with max effort movements and so after 2 weeks of floor press I will retest my bench (or at least have a heavy session) to note any improvement and see if there has been a carryover.

I am going to fit 3 back sessions in across the week, but make them fairly short and sweet.  30-40mins max.  I will include a lot of volume and keep things fairly simple, so rather than millions of different exercises, I am going to narrow it down to 2, maybe 3 exercises.  2 horizontal plane workouts and 1 vertical plane workout.

With my Lower Body work, this has probably suffered a little bit as I have put such an emphasis on the bench for the last few weeks.  Therefore I need to attack this hard and rebuild some consistency.  I have come across a 3 x per week template for back squats which appeals a lot and does not involve using maximal weights for at least 6 weeks.  My squat needs some work and so I am going to use a conservative max (90% actual 1RM approx) for this and train raw for a while (no knee wraps) to build a good foundation for a while before adding knee wraps in when I feel my general strength in the squat is up to a better level.

This template (which I will call a Snowden Squat Cycle) is as follows

Weeks 1-3

Monday - Warm up, then 10 sets of 3 @ 80%
Wednesday - Warm up then 5 sets of 5 @ 80%
Friday - Warm up then 10 sets of 3 @ 80%

Then add 2.5kg and repeat

Weeks 4-6

Monday - Warm up, then 10 sets of 1 @ 95%
Wednesday - Warm up, then 10 sets of 1 @ 80% with a pause
Friday - Warm up, then 10 sets of 3 @ 80%

Then add 2.5kg and repeat.


I also feel I need some work with my deadlift training.  From previous experience I have found that continually performing the same form of deadlift week in week out leads to stagnation and a burn-out.  Therefore seeing as my bench and squat are working in 3 week mini waves, I decided it was appropriate to do the same with my deadlift.  I am going to perform the following routine on a monday night for my deadlifts.

Week 1 - Conventional Deadlifts - Heavy double or single (not necessarily maximal)
Week 2 - Sumo Deadlifts - Heavy Double (not necessarily maximal) (my preferred lift)
Week 3 - Trap Bar Deadlifts - Heavy double or treble (circa max)


I am fortunate enough to be able to train more than once a day and 6 days per week, so a multiple session programme works for me.  Understandably not everyone has this opportunity, so if you are keen to try a similar, perhaps scaled down version of this template using the same principles then contact me and I will help you structure something that suits your availability.

My training schedule therefore looks like this.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
AM	AM	AM	AM	AM	AM
Snowden Squats Abs	Max Effort Press (floor press in cycle 1)	Snowden Squats Abs  Sled work	Vertical Row / Pull	Snowden Squats	Speed Bench
PM	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM
Deadlifts	Horizontal Row	Optional... Light Strongman Event Training	Dynamic Pulls Jumps / Plyos KBs Sled Sprints	Horizontal Row	Rest

Currently on day 2 of week 1, and just hit a new PR on Floor Press (close grip) of 165kg without much of a struggle, so hoping to get some carryover to the bench press in a couple of weeks.

More updates to come, thanks for taking the time to read it.

Phil