Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Out of Town. Be back soon.

Did Smolov day 4 week 1 today without much food or sleep. Was hardest workout I've ever completed. Video when I return (may have a preview up soon). Rawr.

Final set below for now (god damn that rack sucks ass - banged the weights every time I walked out):



Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Smolov Jr. Day 4 Week 1.

I match my outfits to the difficulty of my workouts. I call this one 'summer breeze.' 

Today was easy. Some elbow pain and general tricep fatigue, but it didn't really affect my power. Each set today was slightly easier than the last. About two minutes rest between sets.

Today: close grip bench 265x3 for 10 sets. 

As for how I'm feeling, it's my experience that being successful with a routine like Smolov is mainly about how good you are at pain management. The first time I ran Smolov I had incredible pain in my shoulder and elbow whenever I squatted. I would lie down between sets and just sort of writhe around until I felt normal enough to complete the next set. This went away after a week. The second time I ran Smolov the middle of my back would sieze up so badly when I unracked or reracked the barbell that I would lose vision from the pain. This went away after two weeks after I figured out that flexing my abs hard before unracking would prevent the pain. This time, it's my ankle. If I can complete the sets, I'm not going to stop. I'm not advocating working out while injured or until you snap your shit up, but there's a difference between being in pain and being crippled. Maybe. Probably. The point is, I've come out stronger and injury free each time.

Video of workout below. I put the wrong song in the video. lulz.




Monday, May 28, 2012

Smolov Day 3 Week 1.

Before every final set I always think of what Kirk Karwoski once said in an interview: You just have to not fuck up for 30 seconds. 


Today: 410x5 for 7 sets.

Today was okay. Speed was not really there, but stamina was and I completed most of my sets with only a pause before the final rep. Depth was very good too, save for one or two reps. Between sets I was hurting like a mo-fo on my right ankle (the result of wearing shoes with no ankle support, I believe), my left knee, and both hips. Here's a diagram to help pinpoint the sources of my pain:

Let me show you where it hurts. 

Video of workout below:




Sunday, May 27, 2012

Smolov Jr. Day 3 Week 1.

Curling in the squat rack is for noobs. Try the OLY platform, bitches. Crimes against humanity committed today: 1.

My body was feeling good entering the gym today despite yesterday's beating. Though my right ankle is stiff/tender and my hips are a little sore, but that's it for now. Anyway, today was was easy peasy and sort of just felt like active rest, which is fine with me. My bench set up was feeling tight, too. About 3 minutes rest between sets.

Today: close grip bench. 250x4 for 8 sets. 

After bench I did some curls and chins for elbow prehab. The last few sets of bench made my elbows feel real, real stiff so I called it an early day with only 3 sets of curls and chins. *emo sigh*


Bench video below. I managed to hide my belly this time. 


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Smolov Day 2 Week 1.


Pre-set ritual. Chalk up and visualize the next set. 

Christ almighty, today's workout knocked me the fuck out and my body is little banged up (left elbow and tricep are tender, both calves are tight as hell and right leg feels like I have shin splints, but on the side -- I never feel 100% during this routine though). And even though during the sets I felt strong, and even felt stronger as the sets went on, after I racked that fucker for the last set I was absolutely spent; I had trouble riding my bike home and had to walk a good portion of the way. Regardless, I was rockin' my Notre Dame t-shirt and so this workout goes out to Rudy. If you're a little guy like me and can't find motivation from that movie, you're probably real boring at parties. But yes, it becomes easy to have a shitty attitude between sets, and if it helps to think of cheesy motivational stuff to stay positive, it makes a world of difference. I was looking forward to each set today. RUDDDDDYYY!!!!!!!

Today called for 385x7 for 5 sets

Assistance work today was lying down between sets with a 15 minute nap after the last set. I rested about 5 minutes between sets 1 and 2 and ten minutes between all other sets. If I'm feeling good, I tend to do chin-ups or ab-wheel for assistance.

Rudified video below. Last rep of set 3 I almost lost it because I saw a young lady mirin'. 


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Friday, May 25, 2012

Smolov Jr. Day 2 Week 1.

Not much soreness in legs today. I will be, and have been, stretching and foam rolling every day to help my legs stay fresh. Here's what I do nightly (Note: I really don't know what I'm doing, but it seems to work):


Also, cold water therapy makes you feel brand new. I recommend it:



On to today's workout: today was day 2, week 1 of Smolov Jr. which I'm running for close grip bench press. I switched to close grip grip after realizing I'm much stronger with the narrower grip. For one, It's obviously easier to keep your elbows tucked with a close grip, which keep my lats very tight. My lats feel like springs when I push the bar off my chest. And two, I think I have stronger triceps than shoulders. Oh and my elbows and wrists seem to line up better with the narrower grip. Anyway, I don't have any specific goal with bench press at the moment, only that it I can comfortably bench 3 plates or more at all times. At the moment I can comfortably knock out singles in the low 300's. Just for the lulz you can see how far my bench has come in a year: 220x2, max out or black out, baby! Oh, and I've run Smolov Jr. previously for overhead press with very good results, so I am as confident in this program as I am confident in it with squats.

My benching schedule for the next three weeks. 
As you can see, I'll be lifting every day. Squat one day, bench the next. Today's video shows I still have a crap bench set up, but I'm trying to be more conscious of how tight my legs, glutes, and back are when I'm benching. I find it difficult to maintain tightness over multiple reps, though. I'm also pausing every final rep to mimic the lift in competition.

Boring-as-shit bench video below, but it has a pretty sweet song in it:


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Smolov Day 1 Week 1. Road to 600.

I'm back! I previously blogged about my 'year' on 5/3/1 (with some Smolov thrown in at the end) on 531year.blogspot.com. I had great success, moving from a 330x4 squat to a 515lbs single, a 220x2 bench to a being able to rep 300lbs, and, finally, nearly locking out a 585lb deadlift after not being able to budge 460lbs off of the floor a little over a year ago.

On this blog I plan to keep track of and show you the training I do in an attempt to reach 600lbs on both the squat and the deadlift. I will be using various training methods and won't be locked into just 5/3/1 as I was for most of the past year (I am finding that a two month run of 5/3/1 followed by a month of Smolov is very effective, but I may change this up in the future, I don't know).

My squat schedule for the next month. 

Anyway, I'm beginning my run at 600 with a round of Smolov's base mesocycle. I've run Smolov twice before, each time adding 40lbs to my 1-rep squat max and I'm hoping this cycle brings me near 545lbs. On the days I'm not squatting, I'll be doing Smolov Jr. for close grip bench -- I'll talk about that tomorrow. As for my deadlift, I've always been able to pull more weight just as long as my squat strength increases. So, for the time being, I won't be training the deadlift.

My face when I finished the last rep of the last set.
On to the workout: Today was day 1 which called for four sets of 365lbs x 9 reps (I know the spreadsheet actually called for 360, but I like to increase the day-1 weight just as a psychological booster of 'yeah, I can do this'). I also do very little warm up during Smolov, treating the first working set of the day as my final warm up. So for today, I did some front squats with the bar (to open up the hips), then back squatted a few reps at 135 and 185. Then a rep at 225, a rep at 275, a rep at 315, then, bam, 365x9. This also helps psychologically, because invariably the 2nd set is always easier since you're actually warmed up for it. Today was only made slightly difficult by the fact that my back is still sore from my 585 deadlift two days ago, plus the 9 and 7 rep days always blow and make me want to cry because I am a little girl.







Video of today's workout. 365 was my 10RM in November!























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