Hi guys,

Here's the plan for the next while. I'm going to load over 6 weeks and peak over three, making a 9 week cycle. The Squat and Bench will be trained twice a week, and the Deadlift once.

Training will be based on the base meso of the Smolov Squat cycle, which works out like this:

MON 70% 4x9
WED 75% 5x7
FRI 80% 7x5
SAT 85% 10x3

There's a Senior and a Junior version. The SR adds 10KG to those numbers in week 2, and another 5KG in week 3, while the JR version adds half those numbers. There are a few good write ups on the net if you take a look around. There's a calculator for the entire SR here:

http://www.joeskopec.com/smolov.html

I'll be doing a "tame" version of the base meso cycle that Pavel Tsatsuline made popular a while ago. The original 3 week cycle is streched out to 6 weeks. It looks like this:

MON 70% 4x9
THURS 75% 5x7
MON 80% 7x5
THURS 85% 10x3

This is meant to be a little less insane than the original. It also allows me to train the Squat and Bench at the same time. I'll also add some BBing junk as I see fit. The deadlift will be trained mid-week with a load-peak cycle I ripped out of here:

http://www.joeskopec.com/ruspeak.html

It starts off with 80% of a 1RM and ends up doing 105% for a single at the end. It's a nine week cycle, so it works out well with the 6 week load and 3 week peak.

So, the week will basically look like this:

MON/THURS
Bench (Smolov JR)
Shoulders
Triceps

TUES/FRI
Squat (Smolov SR)
Back
Biceps

WED
Deadlift
Core
Bike

I'll be using the maxes I set a week ago. I'll also be eating enough to gain about 5-10lbs over the 6 week period. I'd like to get my arms back up over 17" again, for purely narcissistic reasons I'm about 201 lbs right now and I'll be starting around 4000 cals a day. I'll adjust upwards if/when I need to.

This is a relatively agressive cycle, especially when the intensity of the later weeks is factored in. It's not as much volume on the big three as the Sheiko program, but the average intensity is much higher. We'll see how it goes. I'll stop in and update if anything significant happens in the meantime.

Cheers,
Jeff