Recovery is the name of the game. Smolov is essentially high
frequency training and this only works if you’re recovered enough for the next
session. Perhaps one of the goals of smolov is accumulative fatigue followed by
super compensation but I believe that if I didn’t take care of my recovery, I
wouldn’t even be able to finish the cycle much less reap any of its benefits. This
is an important takeaway for me because I love training. And to be able to
train frequently and intensely, I need to recover fully between training
sessions. Now, I look at my training program by first determining how much resources
I have for recovery then working out how many training sessions I should have. The
resources include diet and sleep. Diet meaning how often can I eat and what
foods are available to me? Knowing this helps me to make adjustments and this
is something that can be easily accounted for. Sleep is trickier because we all
only have 24 hours a day and ideally I would require 9 hours of sleep at night
and an hour for my afternoon nap. Obviously, this has little workaround and so
once sleep is compromised, the training program needs to account for this.
Visualization is important when approaching work sets. Going
through the verbal cues in my head, visualizing the lift beforehand, looking
out for parts of the lift where I might run into problems and reinforcing the
solutions. All these build technique, which makes me a better, stronger and
safer lifter. On the other hand, this does not apply to accessory work. For example
with curls, raises, rows, etc, I prefer to actively engage the target muscle
and feel it working. Actually, if you need to visualize your accessory work,
something is very wrong with your training program.
Stretching, foam rolling, prehab and rehab. This ties in
with recovery and ensures that I am able to perform at my best at each training
session. Stretching and foam rolling makes a positive difference for me and so
I’ll continue to do them diligently. Prehab and rehab are slightly trickier. As
a lifter, injuries are bound to occur and I have to troubleshoot them as they
come. Most of the time, it’s just a strain and these are easy to rehab. Also,
if I start to feel some pain in an area, before another major happens, I’d kick
in prehab for that area. This was the case for my delts and forearms. For my
delts, the shoulder savers warm up was a boon. For my forearms, change in form
and exercises helped alleviate the pain somewhat.
Looking ahead, I probably won’t be revisiting smolov anytime
soon. Rather, it’s back to 531 but now I’m all the wiser for it.
