Smolov Squat cycle

I have hear of this before. but I am thinking I am gonna give it a shot:
Smolov

Here is the spreadsheet:
Spreadsheet

Here are some good thoughts to go with that:

How To Use

• Enter your 1RM in the green cell in the top left corner. Be conservative here (after starting with my actual max, I reduced it by 5kg in Base week 3)
• Notation is  Weight xReps xSets
• You can edit the Increase 1 & 2. For kg the original program calls for a 10kg increase on Base Week 2 and a 5kg increase for the week after (Base 3). If you think in pounds then you obviously need to change these values to 20 and 10 respectively
• In Base Week 4 you test your 1RM and then then plug in your new number in the other green cell labeled “New 1RM”
• Caution: since the increases in Base 1&2 are not based on your 1RM, i.e. constants, you might want to adjust those to account for your strength levels. Or else the program will call for ten sets of triples very close to your 1RM 

How Smolov Works. The Russian Smolov Squat routine is split into 3 phases for a total of 13 weeks. As always, start with a weight you're 100% sure you can Squat instead of starting too heavy and hitting plateaus. The 4 Smolov cycles...

• Weeks 1-2 - introduction cycle to prepare your legs. Week 1 you Squat3 day in a row working up towards heavy singles, rest of the week is stretching to speed up leg recovery. Week 2 you Squat every other day.
• Week 3-6 - the base cycle where you'll Squat 4x/week for 3 weeks. 4 sets of 9 reps Monday, 5x7 Wednesday, 7x5 Friday, and 10x3 reps Saturday. The weight increases each workout, each week. Week 4 is a rest week where you'll only Squat once and attempt to break your PR.
• Week 7-8 - the switching cycle is a 2 week deload to give you a well deserved physical and mental break before the next cycle.
• Week 9-13 - the intensity cycle where you'll only Squat 3x/week, but 44% of the time it will be using weights between 81 and 90% of your maximum... and for 4 weeks on. Most guys agree this is the hardest part of Smolov. Week 5 you attempt to break your previous Squat PR.

Olympic Lifting and the snatch

This is an article I found online dealing with Olympic lifting.  It is a pretty good article but like anything else, don't take my word or the authors, research yourself and see if you agree.

Top 7 Reasons Women Should Perform Olympic Weightlifting

by Sean Garner

0 Comment

Written by: Courtney Garner, BSN, MSN, ARNP
Some of you may be asking, “What in the world is Olympic weightlifting?” Olympic weightlifting (aka Oly lifting) is comprised of two lifts: the snatch and the clean & jerk. In summation these are two ways to get a load of weight from the ground to the overhead position.

7. Improved bone health

Decreased incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis: the two categories of decreased bone density / health. The less muscle you have, the less work your bones have to work. You will loose what is not used thus shedding osseous material. In the medical field there is no denial of the benefits of weightlifting for both prevention of bone loss and perhaps, the rebuilding of new bone. Do not mistake what I am saying as treatment for osteoporosis or for saying that I would tell woman with osteoporosis to load a heavy bar and do an Oly lift. However, lifting weights for the prevention of osteoporosis is a no brainer as is proper weight-bearing exercise for those already diagnosed with osteoporosis along with a treatment plan agreed upon between a patient and health care provider.

6. Injury prevention

Many of you may be thinking that Olympic weightlifting seems dangerous and perhaps too difficult. However, the truth is that when one master’s flexibility, coordination, balance, etc. it only makes sense that future injuries could be prevented. Every one of us ‘clean’ objects on a daily basis whether that’s picking up a bag of dog food or a kid. Subsequently, one of the top complaints health care providers get is back pain and/ or injury. Some of this stems from weak core, which is certainly improved with Oly lifting. Other components of injury include poor body mechanics or lifting technique, lack of coordination, flexibility, etc.  As people age, there is an increase in injuries often occurring from falls. What if there was something you could do today that developed the skills to prevent injury and harm in the future? As a health care provider, I see that this is completely probable and makes sound sense.  Just take a look at some of our CrossFit masters’ division athletes. We have women in their 60’s strong, healthy, and completing these moves while you hear about untrained women of the same age having fall incidences or other various injuries.

5. Self-confidence and empowerment

These lifts can often be a mentally challenging task and I have seen many get frustrated trying to perform them. However, when a woman sets a new PR (personal record) lift or even has the technique suddenly click there is a vast amount of empowerment in that moment.  Presenting Case 1: I was recently doing a personal training session working on the clean. After an hour of drilling it over and over something suddenly clicked and voila a 25lb PR occurred. This woman who came in nervous and perhaps even a little frustrated at what was on the training agenda walked away from our session with her head held high and posted the video of her PR to FaceBook!

4. Increased physical strength

Oly lifting forces the development of general physical strength. A person will neither out clean their greatest front squat not out snatch their greatest overhead squat. In fact, I would argue that one cannot clean & jerk or snatch greater than approximately 95% of their best associated lift.

3. You won’t need no stinkin’ man

I have got to be completely honest… it feels incredibly good to not need help loading dog food, sand bags, concrete bags, furniture, etc. And yes… I have actually done all of these things utilizing the strength and proper lifting technique I acquired by practicing the Oly lifts. Even if you didn’t need to use these skills because you always have someone else who is at your beacon call to assist you it is still reassuring to know that if you didn’t… it wouldn’t matter! In the age of the independent woman the strength and technique to lift anything is a necessity!

2. Improvement in overall physical fitness

In CrossFit we have 10 skills we measure fitness by: cardiovascular/ respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Although all 10 are related in some capacity, for the sake of time I will just highlight a few that are either difficult to obtain without Oly lifting and/or greatly improved upon with Oly lifting. Speed and power go hand-in-hand as you work to move the barbell quickly with great force. The Oly lifter has to learn to contract more muscle fibers more quickly than the untrained person. Coordination: the validity of this skill needs no explanation if you have ever tried either Oly lifts or even watched them be performed. Balance, defined as being able to maintain the center of gravity over its base, is an obvious necessity in both the clean and jerk and the snatch.Accuracy is important as the movement of the barbell is not completed with the mere hope that you can fling the weight and it land in the right spot. It takes precision and accuracy to be aware of the path of the traveling bar in relation to the path or motion of the body.

1. Less fat= more muscle

A study by the American College of Sports Medicine compared the rate of energy expenditure during and after slow contraction exercise versus explosive exercises where more muscle fibers are used. Results consistently revealed that explosive exercises demanded more energy thus more calories burned during and after exercise and therefore enhanced weight loss.  Beyond this specific study, we know that the greater the muscle mass results in greater metabolism, and less body fat. Thus Oly lifting is a win-win. By more muscle mass, NO I don’t mean you are going to look like a female body builder!  I am talking about being firm and smokin’ hot! There is no better core builder than Oly lifting. Those women that you envy in the CrossFit photos did not get those abs by doing 1000 sit-ups a day… they got them from lifting heavy weights utilizing the core. Furthermore, skinny-fat (the person who is thin but has a high amount of body fat instead of muscle mass) is not only unattractive but also detrimental to one’s health. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that nearly 25% of skinny people have pre-diabetes and are “metabolically obese.”

The author does make some great points of why it is important to lift weights.  

This is a great video of a full squat snatch:

Chad Vaughan Snatch

Here is the same thing with analysis:

Analysis

This last one gives really good examples on good pulls and bad pulls

Tips

A few more pics

Kaitlin, thanks for taking them

Monster Bash Competition

We had a really fun competition over the weekend.  I thought everyone who participated did an awesome job and gave it their best effort.  I definitely learned a lot about how to prepare athletes better for something like that.  But thanks for all those who represented us well and gave all they had for a long day.  Here is a bunch of pics of poor quality from my iphone:

Aaron kicking butt on the all ball workout

Alexis and Shauna making quick work of the clean and jerks

Josh on wall balls

Josh swinging the kettlbell

Shauna and Alexis during wall balls

Box Jumps

Aaron on his c&j

Cal flying through the burpees

Call after the wall balls

Aaron in good rhythm 

Ron killing box jumps (he took third in his division!)

Cal getting ready for speed

Aaron doing his clean and jerks...He would later pr on his dead lift by 60#!

Shauna took third in her division

All in all it was a fun day.  At times a few of us got frustrated with judges ( no names cough cough), it is just a tad frustrating when one of our athletes is doing wall balls with their butt on the ground in the squat and the girl next to them is in a 1/4 squat but that is just how it goes sometimes. Crossfit BTH did a really good job of organizing and putting on a fun event.  

Good Article off of eat to perform

Can You Lose Fat and Perform Well on Two Meals A Day?

by James Barnum on October 21, 2013 in autoregulation, dieting, fat loss, hunger

Do you eat small meals throughout the day?  You might be surprised to find that there’s more than one way to crack an egg.  ”Metabolic Flexibility for Fat Loss” is an easy, effective approach towards fat loss that champions gradual, lasting progress.  This method teaches you to look at your activity levels, your goals, and your food preferences in order to formulate a plan that you can follow for the rest of your life.  Click the link below to learn more about Met Flex!

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I have no “beef” with breakfast – in fact I eat it most days.  I just have it for lunch!  I discovered the concept of eating fewer meals with somewhat misguided intentions. like most people I was focused solely on the “burning fat” part.  Through my experiments, I think I’ve developed a strong argument for eating fewer meals each day, but make no mistake about it, quantity still matters.  Skipping breakfast isn’t a magical fat loss solution!

If your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is (say) 2815 calories and you eat say 3600 calories each evening, you will put on weight.   Still, research has debunked over and over again the purported value of breakfast.  It’s not “the most important meal of the day”.  Any evidence to the contrary is typically anecdotal and since I am not selling you on a concept as much as a strategy, I think you should hear me out.

Breakfast – (NOT) The Most Important Meal of The Day

As the word “breakfast” implies, this meal marks the “breaking” of  your “fast”.   Your body is primed to take in nutrients that you depleted during sleep.  Most people that suggest that breakfast is the most important meal of the day do so because the people that avoid breakfast tend to make poor choices in their first meals.   If your first choice is a convenient doughnut at 10 a.m., it shouldn’t surprise you that your body may actually want some real food instead of the dessert you just ate to “satisfy your hunger”.

I talk a bit more about it below but your first meal should be a hearty meal full of protein and fat (meats and veggies).  Your body doesn’t really WANT the doughnut – its wants nutrition.  Your breakfast should be comprised of high quality sources of food, but the time at which you eat it is pretty irrelevant.

The Argument for Two Large Meals

As I mentioned earlier, when I first started eating two meals a day, the goal was simply to lose body fat.  What I learned was pretty enlightening.

Two good-sized meals  around 1,500 calories each) really fill you up and stretch your stomach so you are satiated most of the time.  Unlike many of the people using this method to get smaller, I found it helpful as it relates to performing better and, ultimately, geting bigger as well.  There is one caveat I should mention however; if I’m going to work out and I have time to eat and digest a small meal (give or take an hour), I EAT.  I find that I perform better and recover better as a result.  So if I work out in the early morning, I’ll probably go in fasted and rely on my food stores from the night before to fuel my activity.  Once I am done training and as soon as I feel comfortable, I eat.

I have learned to not put an artificial time limit on when I eat breakfast (like noon as an example) because it’s frankly not that much of a benefit to wait.  If I am hungry I eat – if I don’t feel like I can put down a bigger meal, well, I am not really all that hungry.  So I wait.  This is where all of that “anabolic window” claptrap deters people from doing what’s best.  I’m not saying there is no advantage at all to it, but if I had to choose between eating a decent sized meal or optimizing for fat loss I choose the meal.

One note of caution is that if your first meal of the day is loaded with carbs, you might drag a bit.  I tend to work out in the evening and so I rely on mostly fats and proteins with just enough carbs so I feel full.

Snacking

It really depends upon what my first meal is, but sometimes around 3 p.m. I will have a kombucha tea and sunflower seeds or summer sausage.  Nothing too big – just enough to tide me over.  On workout days I tend to have a carb drink beforehand (like Tropical flavored Vitargo, available in our store) but I really consider that part of my evening meal.

Planning and Eating Less Occasionally

One of the primary reasons I like to eat fewer meals is that it’s an easy strategy for someone who doesn’t like to plan meals.  Planning can be a pitfall for most people and distract them form more important nutritional considerations.

You should practically always eat for performance, but every now and again you’ll decide to tackle some aesthetic goals.  This strategy is great for controlling food intake – by simply removing some of the snack foods or desserts that I normally, I typically see immediate results in my physique.

Let me end this by saying that this is a strategy article, it’s what I do most of the time but it isn’t what I do ALL of the time.  You could even make an argument for one meal on occasion where your first meal is the 3pm snack (probably best to do a nutrient dense salad) and then have a bigger meal at night.  This is particularly useful during the holiday’s and special occasions where you know you will be having a lot of food all at once.

The point of all of this is to show that altering your mindset can make a big difference.  Delaying breakfast a little bit and varying the composition, as well as the size of your meals, can be a useful tool.

Think about your food

	Calories (kcals)	burpees for 130lb individual	burpees for 180lb individual
1 large French Fries	500	524	349
1 IPA beer	195	204	136
1 Slice of Dominos Peperoni Pizza	260	272	182
1 8 ounce Ted’s Bison Cheesburger	730	765	510
1 scoop of Ben Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream	270	283	189
1 12” Roast beef sub from Subway	970	1016	677
1 Cola soft drink	200	210	140
1 Fried Calamari Appetizer	700	733	489
1 Plain Bagel	320	335	223
1 Slice of Cheescake	1000	1048	698
1 Egg McMuffin Sandwich	300	314	210
1 Cadbury Creme Egg	59	62	41

I know how much everyone loves this motion:

Interesting chart on what it takes to burn off different types of food.  Do you think about what you eat or do you just eat?

Food

This is disgusting:
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27165067&nid=968&title=innards-of-chicken-nuggets-revealed-by-scientists&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-5

And if you're wondering what they look like pre cooked: