THE SMOLOV EXPERIMENT
I've always wanted to go through the entire Smolov squat cycle, but have only ever done the base cycle. I finally found a reason to do it, though at 42 years old, probably not the smartest thing to do. Some of you may have heard about the squat competition between myself and a 71kg female weightlifter, Aria Bremner. On the surface it may sound trivial, but there were several moving parts going on through this process. Over the next 3 newsletters, I will go into detail and shed some light on the contest itself, as well as the physical and mental sides of it all.
The contest itself:
Important background information includes the fact that Aria has a 1RM Back Squat of 173kg. She did this at a bodyweight of 70kg as part of normal weightlifting training. Not as part of a special squat cycle. Her training has always included the Olympic lifts and variations, pulls, squats, and presses. Also important to note is that I had not done any real training since Feb of 2018. No real squatting, no real lifting, just the occasional workout or challenge with our gym's athletes. My all time best squat of 205kg was done in my mid-20s at a bodyweight of 64kg. I am now 42, and have had 2 right knee surgeries(injuries not related to weightlifting).
The buildup to this competition could date to January of 2018 when I set a goal to out squat Aria's then 168kg squat, and did absolutely nothing to achieve it. Lazy bum, I know. This January, I said I would do it by Feb 16, after the Smolov Base Cycle. Started the cycle with an estimated 130kg squat, and only worked up to 155kg after the Base. Much hoopla was made about the fact that I failed, so a new competition was arranged with a ton of crap talk and signing of wagers and contracts by our team here.
The bets were:
If I failed to squat 174kg, I would have to do conditioning workouts for a week, designed by our lifters; do a conditioning circuit with UFC fighter, Jordan Rinaldi; never again program reps to failure; say something positive about every athlete, every day; throw an athlete appreciation party with everyone's specified requested foods/drinks; post a video of the failed squat to all social media; compete in every local meet where one of our lifters was registered.
If I succeeded in squatting 174kg, everyone who bet against me would have to recite a daily phrase apologizing for doubting me; if they failed to recite the phrase verbatim, they would have to clean a section of the gym; they would all be called on a day to clean and cut our running hill outside the gym; every Friday for a month, they would each have to bring me delicious chocolate treats.
So, we all had a lot to lose, and the next 6 weeks was full of nothing but crap talk from all parties, culminating in a gym decorated in negative reinforcement posters on the final max day.
The stage is set, many of you already know the outcome, but the next two newsletters will describe the physical and mental aspects that went into the training and brought about the final result. There will be a lot of interesting information for the programming and cognitive application geeks out there. Stay tuned.