The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Mini-Program Review: Squatoberfest Jr.
About a month ago, I posted complaining about the official Sorinex SQUATOBER™ and proposed doing a squat-focused Smolov Jr. as an alternative. Here is a mini-review of that.
Baseline: Probably slightly over the hump, kind of fit, kind of fat, remarkably average-sized male. Training for more than a decade at this point. Typical programming is homebrew based off of GZCL, but I have not had a squat-focused period outside of my birthday month for the better part of a year now. I took a full month off of squatting last year after being disgusted with the official SQUATOBER™ program. I was only squatting twice a week, as a T2, for a total of three sets of triples, three sets of five, and two sets of eight per week for most of the last year. All roughly 8–9 RPE. Estimating based off of those triples, I was about 5–10% below my lifetime one-rep max squat strength at less than 5% higher body weight. I have done Smolov Jr. for bench before, but never for squats. My squat was marginally "advanced" by Symmetric Strength standards.
Program:
Percentages based on training 1RM.
Added 10 lb to working weights each cycle (
+≡ +10 lb;++≡ +20 lb).(Sets × reps)
Basically standard Smolov Jr., with a training max estimated from my previous working triples. The main modification is that I spread the program over four weeks, three times a week (MWF), rather than three weeks (MTRS). No other lower-body work. Upper-body work on T&R. No structured cardio, but 7–8k steps a day and 2–4 hours of walking on the beach or light XC mountain biking with the wife on the weekends. My complaint about percentages in SQUATOBER™ was that they were bad and poorly regulated, not that a program can't be specified in percentage terms.
Results: Tried to roughly maintain weight for the month; not tracking macros right now. Still kind of fit, kind of fat. Spreading the prescribed volume over four weeks instead of three made recovery seem pretty feasible. Subjectively, it felt like about the same systemic fatigue as regular Smolov Jr. for bench, and way less joint creakiness. With this structure, there were no back-to-back training days and two consecutive days off every week. The only real drawbacks were a less sharp peak and the periodicity of the program not lining up with the week. The workouts took me from about an hour for the six sets to 1.5 hours for the ten sets. I do use timed (5-minute) rest, but mostly because otherwise I'd spend my whole gym session bullshitting with the bros. I probably should have at least been doing conventional heavy 5×5 or picked a lower starting training max. I used 10-pound-per-cycle progression and the standard percentages. I'm pretty sure I gave myself the squat flu after the first 6×6 and was not recovered by the first 7×5. By the time I got to the first 10×3, I was feeling decent, though. The second cycle was sort of normally challenging, and the third cycle was easier than expected. If I had to do it over, I would probably start about 5 lb lighter and go up in 15 lb increments.
For the taper, I partied too hard and ate a bunch of candy and other garbage on Halloween Saturday. I worked up to a 3 RIR single on Sunday, based off of perceived exertion and my wife's subjective evaluation of bar velocity on the second set of the last day of triples. I then did walkouts at 95% and 103% of my expected one-rep max, just so my one-rep max attempt would not be the first time I had that much weight on my back in a year and a half. After taking another day off, I felt fully tapered on Tuesday. I took three attempts at singles after warming up: 91%, 99%, and 101% of my lifetime gym PR. Even the last attempt seemed to move fine, though I think I was too fatigued for it to be smart to take another jump. I was at a slightly higher body weight, probably about five pounds heavier than the last time I took a 1RM attempt. I would say that this is pretty satisfactory, considering age and training age. Slightly less-marginally advanced according to Symmetric Strength.
Overall: I personally far preferred Squatoberfest Jr. over SQUATOBER™ and saw much better results. I still have not been able to find any meaningful progression in the official SQUATOBER™, not in tonnage, effective 1RM conversion, repeated workout load, effective working sets, etc. Breaking up Smolov Jr. the way I did meant that the majority of sessions each week were only squatting, making for a real "month" of squatting. Progress was about what you'd expect from a peaking program like Smolov Jr. Easier to arrange around life; you could probably cut it down to three total 90-minute sessions a week with some light upper-body work instead of spending time bullshitting between sets if you were crunched for time. There was something refreshing about having only one exercise to do most days, but I'll probably move back squats to T2 for a while now.
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