SMOLOV BENCH PRESS TEMPLATE

Training Update

Have decided to spend a month concentrating on the Bench Press and putting a greater emphasis on this in my training.  I will balance things out again following this month, but it is the lift I feel has been stuck on a plateau for a while and needs some focus to kick start some progress.

I will be using a template for my Bench Press taken from some Soviet influences. Here is my 'SMOLOV Bench Progression'

I will be benching 4 times a week in this programme.  Once you pick your jaws up from off the floor, just before you bring up a whole host of reasons why this might be a bad idea, please understand this is not a long standing programme but a '3 week plateau buster' designed to shock the system.  I will do my best to maintain strength on my lowerbody lifts and will be Box Squatting heavy on mondays and doing dynamic box squats on thursday.  The reason I have switched to Box squats, from deep free squats, for this cycle is four fold...

1. Personally I find that I do not get anywhere near the same kind of DOMS (delayed onset of muscle fatigue) from Box Squatting as i do free squatting.  I believe this is the case for most people. This is advantageous as I need to be as fresh as possible for my bench sessions.
2. I am able to handle a greater load in the parallel box squat (moderate to wide stance) and therefore should maintain maximal strength more easily.
3. I will not be doing any heavy deadlifting in this cycle, and so the box squat will enable me to train my posterior chain more effectively keeping me strong and I should not lose any strength on my deadlift at all.
4. I just plain and simple love box squats.


I will be training every day. My Lower Body training will be on Monday evening and Thursday afternoon. I will also perform Back,Bicep,Light shoulder, and Trap work on Tuesday and thursday.


Here is a basic table of the 3 week (4 week including my final 1 rep max re test week) bench press template.  This just details the sets, reps, intensity and progression for each session.

CURRENT 1RM 160KG	Monday		Wednesday		Friday		Saturday
Sets x Reps	6 x 6		7 x 5		8 x 4		10 x 3
Week 1	70% 1RM	112kg	75% 1RM	120kg	80% 1RM	128kg	85% 1RM	136kg
Week 2	70% +5kg	117kg	75% +5kg	125kg	80% +5kg	133kg	85% +5kg	141kg
Week 3	70% +10kg	122kg	75% +10kg	130kg	80% +10kg	138kg	85% +10kg	146kg
Week 4	Rest		Rest		Rest		Test 1RM

Here is my training programme then:

Monday Morning - SMOLOV 6x6 on the Bench Press
                               Straight Bar Tricep Extensions - 4 x12-15 reps
                               Rope Grip Face Pulls - 6 x 15-20 reps

Monday Evening -  Box Squat (work up to heavy single of double)
                                Box Set up low with foam taking   me 1" below parallel
                                Free Squat for reps (3 x 5 reps @ 120kg)
                                Glute Ham Raises 4 x 10 reps
                                Reverse Hypers 4 x 20 reps

Tuesday Afternoon - Neutral Grip Chins (20 wide, 20 mid, 20 narrow)
                                  Seated Row Machine - Twin wide handles 4 x 12 reps
                                   Seated Row Machine - Single Arm Neutral Grip 3 x 12 reps
                                  Twin DB Prone Bench Rows - 3 x 10 reps
                                  Inverted Bodyweight Rows (feet elevated) - 4 x 10 reps

Wednesday Afternoon - SMOLOV 7x5 on the Bench Press
                                       DB Flat Bench Press - 4 x 6-10
                                       Tricep Dips - 4 x 6-10 reps
                                       Lateral, Prone and Frontal Raises plus Ext Rotation work for shoulders.
                                       Band Pull Aparts

Thursday Afternoon - Dynamic Effort Box Squats 10 sets of 2 @ 60% 1RM + Green bands
                                    Timed Speed Deadlifts (conventional) 10 mins 40-60% 1RM
                                    Some kind of jump training (to be decided on the day)
                                    -   Either Box Jumps, broad jumps, kneeling jumps, counter movement jumps etc

Friday Evening  - SMOLOV 8 x 4 on the Bench Press
                             Kneeling DB Rows 4 x 10-15 reps
                             Bicep work (undecided) will choose this on the day

Saturday Lunch Time - SMOLOV 10 x 3 on the Bench Press
                                      Rope Climbs (either vertical or 45º out of power rack) 4 x max reps
                                      High Rep push Ups (variation on push up style) 40-100 per set.
                                      Some single leg lowerbody work, either Split squats, lunges or sled work.

I may well include recovery work outs here, and as this SMOLOV method is new to me, I may have over/under estimated how much assistance work I can get done around the Benching, but we shall see and I will to my best to stick to this template.  Lets see if I make it through the 3 weeks of hell.

Phil