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I benched 4 times a week, for 3 weeks. This is called SMOLOV JR, and it is a brutal regimen for busting plateaus.

Its big brother, SMOLOV, is a 13 week squat program famous for breaking plateaus, or people trying it.

The philosophy of the SMOLOV programs is that you probably don't push your compounds as hard as you could in general, and that you will get good at something if you do it alot.

To clarify, benching 4 times a week for 3 weeks was all I did. No accessories, no other compounds. You might be wondering how that can stimulate progress, anabolically or strength-wise. The answer is volume. A hideous, nauseating amount of volume. SMOLOV JR. will have you doing 6 sets of 6, 7 sets of 5, 8 sets of 4, then 10 sets of 3. IN THE SAME WEEK

Lets delve into what these numbers look like, and to help you put it into perspective, check out this calculator to see what your numbers would have looked like.

My max was 300 pounds when I started the program. Based on that, and a 5 pound per week increment, here's the numbers I ended up hitting over the 3 weeks (in weight/sets/reps format).

Week 1

  1. 210 x 6 x 6
  2. 225 x 7 x 5
  3. 240 x 8 x 4
  4. 255 x 10 x 3

Week 2

  1. 215 x 6 x 6
  2. 230 x 7 x 5
  3. 245 x 8 x 4
  4. 260 x 10 x 3

Week 3

  1. 220 x 6 x 6
  2. 235 x 7 x 5
  3. 250 x 8 x 4
  4. 265 x 10 x 3

Less than a year prior to running this program, my 3 rep max was 265. By the end of this program I did that 3 rep max 10 times. Pretty wild.

Where I messed up was pacing my 1rm test after running the program. If you make it through, you will undoubtedly be stronger. But, you shouldn't test your 1rm right away, for 2 reasons.

  1. You are neurologically nuked by the end of this. For some, this will be more significant factor, so you should deload.
  2. You are out of practice with heavy singles. The stress of this program is in its volume. Despite being 'stronger', you aren't ready to do 105% of you max after doing no more than 85% - 90% of your max for the past 3-4 weeks.

I would recomend this program to almost no one, yet I will rave about it to anyone who will listen. There's value in this program as a means of shaking up the monotony of training and facing a really difficult challenge. This probably isn't the smartest, nor is it the safest, or most effective even. But if you're keen on putting your body through the gauntlet, give it a whirl.