My Smolov jr benchpress program || Day 3 summary

Hello

Today I didn’t have a lot of time to train (job+kids) so I only focused on raw power. To increase strength I rely on a very simple Smolov jr scheme which in its ‚pure’ form looks like this:

Week 1:

Day 1: 70%x6x6

Day 2: 75%x5x7

Day 3: 80%x4x8

Day 4: 85%x3x10

Week 2:

Day 1: 70%+2,5-5kg x6x6

Day 2: 75%+2,5-5kg x5x7

Day 3: 80%+2,5-5kg x4x8

Day 4: 85%+2,5-5kg x3x10

Week 3:

Day 1: 70%+5-10kg x6x6

Day 2: 75%+5-10kg x5x7

Day 3: 80%+5-10kg x4x8

Day 4: 85%+5-10kg x3x10

For example, in week 1 on day 1 you do 6 sets of 6 repetitions with 70% of your max bp, then on day 2 7 sets of 5 repetitions with 75% of your max bp etc.
I’ve modified this program a bit: my program extends over 16 weeks, but I only add 1kg per week. I started with 84kg and i’m in week 8 now at 91kg on day 1. This means that tomorrow i’ll do 7x5x96kg, followed by a rest day, then 8x4x101kg and finally 10x3x106kg. Eventually I want to be able to lift 1x150kg, so in theory I should need 14 more weeks (because 70% x 150kg = 105kg), but in reality this should take another year or so because Smolov doesn’t scale long term too well. It puts too much strain on the whole system so you can’t extend this forever. And it’s boring.

Now, the whole training is quite demanding, especially the last 2 days of the week. I’m fortunate to have a garage so I put on some heavy metal and off I go. I make 4-5 minute pauses between sets, which gives me a bit of time to rest (and tidy up the garage because it’s still messy). I use an alarm clock (the round black box on the bench) to let me know when it’s time for the next set.

An obvious question is: how does this help me with hiking? I’m not sure it does when I hike alone, but when I started hiking with my son, I would sometimes carry him from time to time and I found that as he was getting heavier and heavier, it became more difficult for me and it took more time for me to recover even after 10-15 minutes of this ‚ride’. Of course it also helps a bit with backpacks, especially because I tend to take too much stuff with me.