How to Add 100 Pounds to Your Squat in 13 Weeks
Jan 22nd, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Squat, Strength Training
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In 2001, Power Lifting USA published How to Add up to 100 Pounds to your Squat in 13 Weeks. Author of the article was Russian coach Pavel Tsatsouline. Method described in his article: Smolov.
Smolov is a Russian strength training routine designed by Master of Sports S.Y. Smolov. Smolov is guaranteed to increase your Squat. Increases of up to 100lbs in 13 weeks are possible. Here’s the full routine.
Is Smolov for You? Do Smolov if your Squat is weak compared to your other lifts or if you want a quick way to increase your Squat. Prerequisites:
- 1.5x BW Squat. If you can’t Squat 1.5x your body-weight for 1 rep, you aren’t ready for Smolov. Increase your Squat using StrongLifts 5×5 first.
- Good Technique. You must be able to Squat 1.5x your body-weight with proper technique. If you can’t: StrongLifts 5×5 first.
- Injury Free. Smolov lasts 13 weeks. You don’t want to quit during the cycle because of injuries. If you got any, fix them before doing Smolov.
- Attitude. “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits”. Getting through the 13 weeks is tough, both physically & mentally.
How Smolov Works. The Smolov routine takes 13 weeks. Sets & reps vary each workout. Work weight is a percentage of your one repetition max (1RM). Smolov consists of 4 cycles:
- Introductory Microcycle. 2 week Squat cycle to prepare you for what’s to come. You’ll lift weights up to 90% of your 1RM.
- Base Mesocyle. 4 Squat sessions/week. 125 Squat reps/week. 3 weeks in a row. In the 4th week you’ll test your 1RM after deloading.
- Switching. 2 weeks of power & speed exercises instead of Squats. This gives you a physical & mental break, and prepares you for the last cycle.
- Intense Mesocyle. 3 Squat sessions/week at higher intensities during 4 weeks. In the 5th week you deload & test your 1RM.
Gains depend on your body-weight & experience. Heavier trainees can increase their Squat by 100lbs. Lighter might only get a 50lbs Squat increase. A 2.5xBW Squatter will also gain less than a 1.5xBW Squatter.
Download Smolov Program. Download the Smolov excel file before reading the rest of the article. File is 9kb & take less than 1min to download. Unzip the file using WinRAR & view it using Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.
- Click here to download Smolov Excel file (right click - save as)
Enter your 1RM & starting date in the Introductory Microcycle tab. If you don’t know your 1RM, test it beforehand or use this 1RM calculator. Many thanks to Eric for helping out with this file.
Succeeding at Smolov. “If they can do it, I can do it”. When it gets tough, always remember that others have done this before you. More tips:
- Plan. Free 13 weeks to do Smolov. If you’re busy with work, studies, family, holidays, … this is not the best timing. Prepare yourself.
- Eat. The high Squat volume will get you hungry. Eat your calories. Your body fat will decrease because of all the Squatting.
- Sleep. Lack of sleep kills motivation. Avoid making the workouts harder because of lack of sleep. Try napping before working out.
- Prehab. Spinal decompressions for your lower back. Perform glute activation & hip flexibility exercises to avoid injuries.
- Training Partner. Helps a lot if you can find someone to motivate you during workouts. Tell them to yell at you.
Other Exercises. The high Squat volume will work your abs, legs & lower back hard. Don’t do any Deadlifts, Power Cleans, Barbell Rows or Overhead Presses. Stick with the Bench Press, Seated Press, Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Dips.
Don’t worry about strength loss. The Squats will maintain – or even increase – your Deadlift strength. You can still Bench Press, and the Seated Press works as alternative for the Overhead Press.
Examples. Victor, Forum member, finished Smolov twice. I did Smolov for Front Squats. We’ll both share our experiences on Smolov in upcoming posts. Click here to subscribe & automatically receive updates.
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Reminds me of summer football conditioning in high school. We would cry at the end of the day.
If I wasn’t training for some running races, I’d be in to do this since my squat is lacking for my size. Perhaps this summer!
Damn this is intense!
The formula that calculates the weight in excel doesn’t work for me. It gives a #NAME? error. When i tried editing it, it worked fine. As an example, the formula for the very first weight in the first training says ‘=VRUNDEN(0,65*C3;2,5)’. I edited it to simply ‘=(0,65*C3)’ and now it works fine. Is the stuff I deleted necessary?
Does anybody else have this or is it me?
I did a search and apparently the VRUNDEN-thing is the german command for MROUND. This function is only available if you have the Analysis ToolPak add-in installed, which I haven’t, so it doesn’t work here.
@Krol
I used a round function indeed. That way you don’t get weird weights like 83kg or 222lbs. I made the files using OpenOffice.
This article & this one might help if you’re using Excel. I’d appreciate if you keep me updated about this Krol. Thanks for helping out.
You can use do a find and replace VRUNDEN for ROUND to fix the formula errors.
I spoke too soon. It doesn’t perform the function the same way.
I appreciate that you have a LBS version, very convenient. I have never used your 5×5 routine, but I am going to do this one. If you think that most people who use the LBS version of this file are in the U.S., you may want to switch the date format over to month/day/year as well.
I look forward to see posts about actual results with this program. I have tentatively scheduled myself to start this in 6 weeks. And if I actually did get 100lbs out of it, that will pretty much cover my 2008 squat goal
Lets see, in about 19 weeks I’m going to need you to post about adding 100lbs to your bench :0
@Papa Rage
Good idea on the month/day/year. Fixed it. Redownload to get new version.
You’ll get a squat version & a front squat version. There’s a mini smolov for the bench press/overhead press. For Bench Press you can search for “boris sheiko” routines. Keep a log in the forum when you try either of the two.
How would i go about finding this overhead press mini smolov? Googled it but cant seem to find anything
@Ro
Here’s a link with info about the smolov jr. Make sure you’re ready for this.
hey, i tryed to download the Smolov Program. but when i tryed to open the file, it came up with coding. could it be that i use a mac? your ebook downloaded perfectly though.
thanks
Smolov! One of my goals for this year is to increase my Squat to double bodyweight. I’d been thinking that the best way to do that would be to get to a bit above 1.5x bodyweight (I’m at about 1.3x bodyweight right now) and then do the Smolov. So the spreadsheet and this post will be invaluable. Thanks, Mehdi!
@Bob
You’re the first one to report this. Files were made with openoffice, should work I suppose. Can you try with another program?
@Lucas
Look forward to you trying that out Lucas.
i tryed acrobat. it would open in microsoft exel. i tryed downloading it a few times. when i download it, the file on my desktop is a .txt file.
@Bob
Acrobat only works with pdf files. Try openoffice, don’t know if there is a mac version, but that should do it. Don’t have a mac myself, so can’t test this for you.
i downloaded openoffice for mac, but i need to get hold of my backup disc, need to instal some software that’ll allow me to run it. cheers
i cant get the file to work. i tried in excel and downloaded open office. when i download the file in both programs it opens in code. why is this? i really want to improve my squat.
@Nicholas
Unzip the file using WinRAR first.
thank you!