The truth is, it’s the first 3 weeks of Smolov that are the important part. I’d dump the rest and go back to your more Oly focused routine after that. Those first 3 weeks are where you’re overloading your body with massive volume and intensity and that’s what shocks your body into improving. The rest is not any better than a ton of other squatting programs. And you wouldn’t want to back seat your oly lifting for 12 to 13 weeks. But, for 3 that’s totally fine.

So, I’d have you do the first 3 weeks hard as hell, almost ignoring your Oly lifts. Take a full week off. Then go right down to a normal (singles heavy) Oly routine, with lots of singles in the front squat.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

It’s great to hear that things are going well for you. I know the Dan John article you are referring to. Dan John’s methods have greatly influenced my own over the years and I’d say going with his routine for a while longer ain’t a bad thing.

One thing I find that happens a lot with masters lifters who weren’t lifters when they were younger, is that they nearly always power snatch and power clean the weight up and have a hard time diving under heavy weights.

This can be a flexibility issue, or a simply a psychological issue (diving under a snatch into a full overhead squat IS insane, no doubt about it).

I would incorporate two things. The first is simply to do a full overhead squat at the end of every snatch. So, if you power (or muscle) it up, then ride it down. Same for cleans.

The second thing is to do “tall cleans” and “tall snatches”. This is how they work:

Stand straight up with a bar in your hands (start with just the bar), flat footed. Now using only a shrug and your calves to get height on the bar, pull yourself down to a full position with your arms. That is, you’re doing the very last part of the triple extension (shrug and up on toes) but with NO leg drive, and then you’re forced to use your arms to pull down under the bar.

DO NOT use your thighs to drive the weight up. If you do, you’re missing the point.

It’s all about shrug and dive, shrug and dive. Add weight as you’re able to.

I’m actually writing an article that specifically relates to the main things that matter to a masters level weightlifting athlete. So stay tuned for that.

I have commented before about how I found your site to be very encouraging for those of us who have started olympic lifting later (36 years old, soon to be 37). I am making progress and hope to compete in October. If you don’t mind, can you expound on how you think a beginning masters lifter should attack learning the lifts technically and creating a good strength base. Currently, I have focused on learning the snatch, so 2x a week a snatch 7 to 10 doubles or triples( mostly muscle snatch and power snatches), followed by squat (usually front squats for 4 reps 5x), followed by press (usually 3reps 5x).

I do not have a “coach” but a couple of the more experienced olympic lifters have been extremely helpful in critiquing my technique and pushing my development. I got my initial program that I have been using for about a month and a half from a Dan John article. His article included 8 singles of clean and jerk which I plan to add soon since I think I am progressing in the snatch.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.