About this workout
Smolov Jr is three weeks of benching four days a week and it will beat you up. That is the point. This is the bench press version of a Russian squat cycle: four sessions a week at 70, 75, 80 and 85 percent, six to ten sets a session, then you test. It is a peaking block for a lifter who already has a real bench and a real base of work capacity. It is not a mass program, it is not a beginner program, and it is not something you run twice in a row. Run it once, test, then get out.
Who This Program Is For
- Advanced lifters who have already run linear progression to the end and need a short, aggressive push to break a stuck bench.
- Anyone with a competition or a max attempt three to four weeks out who wants a peaking block instead of another hypertrophy phase.
- Lifters whose elbows and shoulders are currently healthy, with no nagging pain that shows up under a heavy bar.
- People who can actually train four days a week, sleep seven or more hours, and eat at maintenance or above for the whole block.
Who this is NOT for: Beginners and early intermediates. If you are still adding weight to the bar every week on a normal program, this will not make you stronger faster, it will just make you sore. It is also wrong for anyone with cranky elbows or shoulders, anyone in a hard fat loss deficit, and anyone who wants to build chest size. This block adds pounds to a number. It does not add much muscle, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
What You'll Need
- A barbell, a bench, a full rack of plates and ideally a set of spotter arms or a training partner. Sets of three at 85 percent get ugly by set eight.
- Dumbbells for the pulling and shoulder work that keeps your upper back and rear delts from falling behind your press.
- An honest one rep max. Not a gym max, not a number you hit in 2019. Test it or use a recent, clean single before you calculate anything.
The Program
Every percentage in this program comes off your current one rep max. If you are not sure what it is, spend a day finding it before week one starts, then subtract five to ten pounds from whatever you hit and use that as your working max. Overestimating here is the single most common way people blow up this program in week two.
The week runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. Four bench sessions, in this order every week: 6 sets of 6 at 70 percent, 7 sets of 5 at 75 percent, 8 sets of 4 at 80 percent, 10 sets of 3 at 85 percent. That is 133 hard reps a week on one lift. Rest three minutes between bench sets and do not cut it short to save time, because the last two or three sets are where the adaptation lives and you cannot get there gassed.
Accessory work is deliberately thin. Three movements a day, pulling heavy on the rows and chins, everything else at a moderate load. You are not here to chase a pump. Your job outside of the bar is to keep your upper back strong, keep your rear delts working, and get out of the gym. Sessions should run 45 to 60 minutes. Train legs on your off days if you want, but keep it easy, because recovery is the limiting factor for the next 21 days.
| Day 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday: Volume Bench | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Barbell Bench Press | 6 | 6 at 70% | 3 min |
| Bent Over Row | 4 | 8 | 90 sec |
| Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
| Reverse Flyes | 3 | 15-20 | 60 sec |
| Day 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday: Bench and Triceps | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Barbell Bench Press | 7 | 5 at 75% | 3 min |
| One Arm Dumbbell Row | 4 | 10 each side | 90 sec |
| JM Press | 3 | 8-10 | 90 sec |
| Hammer Curls | 3 | 10-12 | 60 sec |
| Day 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday: Heavy Bench | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Barbell Bench Press | 8 | 4 at 80% | 3 min |
| Pull Up | 4 | 8-10 | 90 sec |
| Dumbbell Rear Delt Row | 3 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
| Hanging Leg Raise | 3 | 12 | 60 sec |
| Day 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday: Top Intensity Bench | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Barbell Bench Press | 10 | 3 at 85% | 3 min |
| Chin Up | 4 | 8 | 90 sec |
| Overhead Barbell Tricep Extensions | 3 | 10-12 | 90 sec |
| Plank | 3 | 45-60 sec | 45 sec |
How to Progress
The progression is not complicated, and that is exactly why people ruin it by adding their own ideas to it.
Week 1. Run the four days exactly as written off your working max. It will feel easy on Monday and it will not feel easy on Saturday. Do not add weight because day one felt light. Every rep is a competition style rep: pause is optional, but touch the chest, control the descent, keep your feet planted. If the bar speed dies before the last set on any day, your working max is too high and you should drop it now rather than in week three.
Week 2. Add 5 to 10 pounds to every working weight and repeat the same four days. Ten pounds if week one moved fast, five if it did not. This is the week the fatigue shows up, usually in the elbows and the front of the shoulder. Some soreness and stiffness is expected. Sharp joint pain is not, and it means you stop, not that you push through.
Week 3. Add another 5 to 10 pounds over week two. This is the hardest week of the block and it is supposed to be. The 10 sets of 3 session at the end of week three is the single worst workout in the program. Grind it out, use a spotter, and accept that the last few sets will be slow. You are overreaching on purpose here, which is a different thing from overtraining, and it only works because there is a hard stop coming.
Week 4, test. Take three full days off after the last session, then work up to a single. Warm up in progressively smaller jumps, take one opener you know you will get, then one attempt at 5 to 15 pounds over your old max. Take a third only if the second flew. Then you are done. Because this is a three week block there is no mid-program deload built in, but the week after your test IS the deload and it is not optional.
After the block. That deload week is light bench at 50 to 60 percent, easy pulling, and no maxing on anything. Then go run something with variety for at least eight weeks: incline work, dumbbell pressing, real back volume, some hypertrophy for the muscles that actually move the bar. Do not run Smolov Jr back to back. You will feel invincible for about ten days after the test and then you will feel it in your shoulders. Twice a year is plenty for most people.
Warm-Up and Recovery Notes
Warm up like the sets matter, because they do. Five minutes of easy movement, then Banded Pull Apart and Band Shoulder Dislocate for two sets of 15 to open the shoulders, then Push Ups for one set of 10 to 15 to get blood into the pecs and triceps. On the bar, work up in jumps of 40, 55 and 70 percent of your working max for three to five reps each, and take the last warm up single close enough to your work weight that the first real set does not surprise you. On the 80 and 85 percent days add one more warm up step. Skipping warm up ramps on a four day a week bench block is how elbows go bad.
Recovery is the entire program. Sleep seven to nine hours, and if you can only pick one thing to fix during these three weeks, pick sleep. Keep off day training light: walking, easy legs, some sled or bike work, nothing that leaves you sore. Ice or heat the elbows if they get angry, and use a comfortable grip width rather than the widest one you can find. If you have to choose between hitting every prescribed rep and protecting your shoulders, protect your shoulders. Missing two sets in week three costs you nothing. A torn pec costs you a year.
Nutrition and Supplementation
Eat at maintenance or slightly above for all three weeks. This is not the block to diet. Set protein around one gram per pound of bodyweight, keep carbohydrates high enough that you have something in the tank for 10 sets of 3, and do not let fat drop so low that your joints and hormones suffer. If you are 200 pounds, that is roughly 200 grams of protein, 250 to 300 grams of carbs and 65 to 80 grams of fat as a starting point, adjusted from there by what the scale and the bar tell you. If your bench is stalling and your bodyweight has not moved in six months, the program was never the problem.
Get most of it from food, then fill the gaps: a scoop of protein when you are short at the end of the day, five grams of creatine daily because it is the most proven strength supplement there is, a pre workout on the 80 and 85 percent days if you need it, and a basic multivitamin to cover what your diet misses.
FAQ
Can I squat and deadlift while running this? Yes, but keep it minimal. One light to moderate squat day and one light pull day per week, nothing near a max, nothing to failure. Your recovery budget is spent on bench. If you try to run a full powerlifting program alongside this, you will stall out in week two and blame the wrong thing.
How much will my bench go up? Realistically 10 to 25 pounds if you come in fresh, eat enough and your starting max was honest. Some people get more, but the guys posting 50 pound jumps usually started from a sandbagged max. Also understand what that number is: it is a peak, not a permanent gain. Some of it comes back down unless you follow the block with real training.
My elbows are killing me by week three. What do I do? Drop the tricep accessory work first, then narrow or widen your grip slightly to change the stress, then cut sets rather than weight on the last bench day. If it is still sharp pain, stop the program. Three weeks of bench is not worth six months of tendon rehab, and there is no version of this where pushing through joint pain is the smart call.
Questions and results
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