The Value of Smolov

The Smolov training program only contains instructions for squatting. No other exercises are prescribed. The routine was originally devised for Olympic weightlifters whose clean & jerk and snatch are limited by a weak squat. The Westside guys frequently comment that if your squat goes up, so will your Olympic lifts, but that the reverse is not necessarily true. While many strength gurus peg the squat as THE definitive strength exercise, I did stumble across an interesting article by an Olympic weightlifter arguing that one's snatch and clean & jerk are not simply a function of one's squat, and there have been many successful Olympic weightlifters with a relatively weak squat and many strong squatters with less than remarkable Olympic lifts. See link here: http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sportivny/library/farticles004.html. This article doesn't mention Smolov by name and might be discussing a different, albeit similar,Russian squat program. The article importantly notes that a squat routine by itself is not adequate training for a powerlifter: it is only one-third of the sport he competes in. For this reason, the individual athlete has to come up with a program for the other two lifts that will not interfere with the rigorous squatting. For benchpress this is easy since there is little crossover between the two lifts, but the deadlift uses many of the same muscle groups (quads, hams, glutes, lumbars) that you need to squat, and trying to deadlift while doing the Smolov programs sounds like a good way to get injured or to simply not be able to complete the program. I avoided this problem by doing a moderate good morning workout (up to 10@70%), which seemed like just enough to prevent losing pulling strength in my lower back. I made other aspects of my workout abbreviated as well, given my time constraints.

Cutting back on assistance exercises is always useful to help the athlete rethink the exercises he incorporates into his training regimen. Most athletes discover in the course of training that not all exercises are created equal, and every once in a while athletes come across one that just seems perfect for developing a specific muscle or practicing a specific motion. That exercise is then performed once or twice a week for possibly YEARS--despite the fact that it only really provided strength gains for the first five or six weeks--simply because the athlete is unable to find another exercise that fills the same purpose and works as well. So, having to streamline your workouts during a particularly gruelling program gives you a chance to reevaluate the exercises you do regularly with fresh eyes.