Smolov and Smolov Jr
Smolov is four days a week on a single lift, and it is the hardest thing in the library. Junior is the three-week compression most people actually run, usually on the bench. Both are built into Ægir Iron and free to load.
What this program is
Smolov trains one lift, four days a week, starting between seventy and eighty five percent and stepping up each week, with the volume front-loaded and the intensity climbing across the week rather than within a session. The base mesocycle is the central phase of Smolov's original squat cycle, which also has an introductory week, a switching phase and an intense phase. Smolov Jr compresses the same idea into three weeks with even set volume, and is far more commonly run, very often on the bench.
Percentages of a real max, deliberately
Smolov predates the training max as a convention, and its numbers assume your genuine best. Ægir Iron therefore offers no training-max reduction on it. That is deliberate: running eighty five percent of ninety percent would turn the hardest program in the library into a moderate one, and it would not look broken while it did. Nothing in the program is flagged as an all-out set either, because Smolov is prescribed work to be completed and the cycle ends by testing a new max rather than inferring one.
At a glance
| Discipline | Powerlifting, also listed under Olympic Weightlifting for building the squat (no snatch or clean and jerk) |
| Experience level | Advanced, and well recovered before you start |
| Length | Junior 3 weeks, base 4 weeks including the unload and max attempt |
| Training days | 4 per week, all on the same lift |
| Equipment | Barbell and a rack |
| Loading | Percentage of a true one-rep max. No training-max reduction, on purpose. |
| Price | Free for individual lifters and rostered athletes |
Free for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster. Coaches pay only for roster tools.
How it works in Ægir Iron
Smolov writes its weekly jump in pounds, and guides give it as a range. Ægir Iron uses, for Junior, ten in week two and five more in week three, and for base, twenty and then a further ten to fifteen. A template cannot know what is on your bar, so Ægir Iron carries those as the equivalent percentage step for a lifter in the range each variant is aimed at, and says so when you load it. That puts week three's ten sets of three at about ninety one percent on Junior and ninety three on base. Pick the variant and the lift, squat, bench, front squat or deadlift, set that lift's max on the PR page, and every set in the cycle is priced and rounded to the plate. The base cycle's fourth week is written out in full: two unload days, an openers day, and a single at your own best.
Original source
Ægir Iron's template is built from this source. Under it is what the template takes from it.
- Smolov S (n.d.). Smolov squat routine (base mesocycle), and the Smolov Jr compression. Soviet coaching method; popularised in English in Powerlifting USA (2001).The base mesocycle (4x9, 5x7, 7x5, 10x3 at 70 to 85 percent of a true 1RM) and Smolov Jr (6x6, 7x5, 8x4, 10x3), with the published pound jumps turned into percentage steps
Start Smolov
Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Powerlifting or Olympic Weightlifting, then choose Smolov from the cards under WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RUN? It is free on iOS, Android, and the web, with your data synced across all three.