Post: #126

1/5/18

Weighed in today at 162.2 lbs...going to get to 160 and decide to cut all the way through March, or more likely bulk a bit, then cut for spring/summer

Edit: The more I repeat that to myself in my head, the more like hell that sounds (january-july = cut? lol)...VERY LIKELY going to clean bulk once I hit 160.

Bench
170 lbs 5 x 5
These were easier than the last time around

Hammer Curls
20 lbs 15/11/12/12/11
Just as I performed the lat raises yesterday, here I didn't go all the way down on these curls and the sustained tension was a lot more.

Deads
Double Overhand
155 lbs 1 x 10 too easy
165 lbs 2 x 10 a little better. Doing deads for reps in order to train hook grip and my grip in general

Mixed Grip
225 lbs 2 x 5
Man I find that mixed grip helps me lift heavier with deads. These were more fluid than with double overhands.

Weighted Pushups
25 lbs 2 x 12
35 lbs 2 x 12 This was a little harder, but probably a good weight for me to stick at

Post: #127

Happy New Year y'all. Great to see you worked out thru Christmas and New Year, and making progress. I am back, and today I did a small workout to break-in the legs and be able to get to my routine hopefully next week. Just three sets of squats, 115x10; 135x10; 155x10. It is good to be back.

Post: #128

1/6/18
This was a "just get your gym time in today" workout:
Lat Raises
10 lbs
12/14/14/12/12/10/10

1/7/18

Deads
Dbl Overhand
185 lbs 3 x 10
Mixed grip
225 lbs 2 x 5

Weighted Pushups
35 lbs
12/12/12/12/12/12

Bench
170 lbs
5/5/4

1/8/2018
Squats
275 lbs 5 x 5

Weighted Pushups
12/12/12/12/12

OHP
115 5 x 5

Joined an ice hockey league that runs 2 hours a week. Practice was okay, but the scrim was hard for cardio.

1/10/18
Lat Pulldowns
75 lbs 3 x 20, 1 x 15
90 lbs 1 x 11

Hammer Curls
20 lbs 14/13/12/11/11

1/11/18
Gave blood today-rest

Post: #129

Since I am a little low on the squats, before resuming with the 5/3/1 program I will run a Smolov Jr cycle. If you are not familiar with this, I will explain it below:

Brief Background
All quoted text is from http://www.powerliftingtowin.com/smolov/

Quote:This program is intended to be run strictly as a shock cycle. In other words, this is not a program that you run multiple times a year. This is not a program that you do for any reason other than completely overloading the body for a given, specific time. In fact, when you run Smolov, you are not to do any deadlifting whatsoever. You are not to do Smolov while in a caloric deficit. If you ignore any of the above warnings and disclaimers, your chances of injury, which are already well above zero, only increase.

This is honestly not a program you decide to “give a shot”. Unless you have a very specific reason to NEED massive squat improvements in a short time, you shouldn’t even consider using this program. It isn’t appropriate for any other purpose. It is not intended for any other purpose. Smolov was designed to produce massive short term gains on the squat. That is the whole point.

Introduction to the cycle - Weeks 1 and 2

Week 1:
Day 1: 3x8 65%; 1x5 70%, 2x2 75%; 1x1 80%
Day 2: 3x8 65%; 1x5 70%, 2x2 75%; 1x1 80%
Day 3: 3x8 65%; 1x5 70%, 2x2 75%; 1x1 90%

Week 2:
Day 1: 1x5 80%
Day 2: 1x5 83%
Day 3: 1X5 85%

Quote:As you can see, the introductory phase features thrice weekly squatting for two weeks. You’re going to be working up to a single at 90% of your best squat in Week One. In Week Two, you’ll be working up to a set of 5 at ~85% of your best squat. These two weeks are simply in place to allow your body to adapt to the frequency and workloads that you’ll experience in the “Base” Phase. Many people skip the introductory microcycle, but, if you’re a first time Smolov user, I highly recommend against this approach. Do the introductory Cycle.

Base MesoCycle - Weeks 3 to 6

Week 3
Day 1: 4x9 70%
Day 2: 5x7 75%
Day 3: 7x5 80%
Day 4: 10x3 85%

Week 4
Day 1: 4x9 70%+20lbs
Day 2: 5x7 75%+20lbs
Day 3: 7x5 80%+20lbs
Day 4: 10x3 85%+20lbs

Week 5
Day 1: 4x9 70%+30lbs
Day 2: 5x7 75%+30lbs
Day 3: 7x5 80%+30lbs
Day 4: 10x3 85%+30lbs

Week 6
Build to new 1RM twice this week.


(2x8 reads 2 sets of 8 reps)

Quote:On the Base Phase, you’re going to be squatting four times per week. That’s right: four times per week. Not only are you going to be squatting four times per week, but each session is going to be more than 30 working reps as well. Hell, at the end of each week, you’re going to do ten triples at 85%!

And it just gets harder and harder. In Week Two, you’re expected to add 20lbs to the work sets you did in Week One. In Week Three, you add ANOTHER 10lbs on top of what you added in Week Two. So, by the last workout of the last week, you’re doing 10 triples at 85% + 30lbs. Is it any wonder that this program results in amazing progression for those who can survive it?

Post: #130

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 1
Day: 1
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/15/2018

3x8 155
1x5 165
2x2 175
1x1 190

Post: #131

I am sore as hell .... can't wait until Thursday my legs will feel stiff as rocks ... the release after Th workout will be heavenly

Post: #132

Quote:Smolov was designed to produce massive short term gains on the squat. That is the whole point.

Interesting. My first glance over tells me: submaximal load for initial mid to eventual low rep range = gainz. I buy, since I've been taking 5x5 to my bench with some strength increase.

Here are my workouts:
1/13/18 is a Saturday = Squats + OHP
275 lbs 5x5

Weighted Pushups
35 lbs 6 x 12. I'll try a plate for my next go

OHP
115 lbs 5 x 5 These went up easier than usual IIRC

Shrugs
25 lbs 6 x 40

1/15/18 is a Monday = Squats + OHP
Running out of time and I did two sets of squats and lat raises:
275 lbs 2 x 5

Lat raises
10 lbs 12/10

Hockey practice went alright. I'm not as good as stopping on my left foot as I am on my right and this matters when you have a change of pace in the game and have to back check.

Many times in the scrim last week I'd wheel around to switch direction, but that's energy expensive and I got winded quickly. Stop and go is the way to go.

Good stuff is that I'm passing better, so small steps.

Post: #133

1/17/18
Deads
185 lbs 3 x 10
225 lbs 2 x 5

Weighted Pushups
45 lbs 4 x 12
can handle

Bench
175 lbs3 x 5, could have easily done 5 x 5 but strapped for time

Hammer Curls
20 lbs 3 x 12

Post: #134

1/18/18

Bench
175 lbs 5 x 5
Happy with my bench. 5x5 going up, looking to push that up more until I can hit a higher 1rm

Narrow Grip Pullups
Bodyweight 1 x 14
15 lbs extra 8/10/10/7

Deads
185 lbs 3 x 10
Man, hook grip really bites away at your hands. part of the process

Neck Curls front + back
35 lbs 3 x 20

Post: #135

How do those deads at 225 feel? Seems like your deads are trailing behind your squat by a good margin which is a little odd (at least this early in the game).

Post: #136

Oh, I can DL heavier...with a mixed grip. For a long time I had been doing it with double overhand hooks and that brought down my DL to 225. But I can take care of 275 lbs with mixed grip hook.

To improve my grip I'm doing lower weight DLs with hook grip for reps

Post: #137

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 1
Day: 2
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/18/2018

3x8 155
1x5 165
2x2 180
1x1 190

Post: #138

I have no doubt in my mind you can easily do at least 345

Post: #139

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 1
Day: 3
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/21/2018

3x8 155
1x5 165
2x2 180
1x1 215

Post: #140

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 2
Day: 1
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/22/2018

1x5 190

Post: #141

1/21/18
Deads
185 lbs 3 x 10
275 lbs 2 x 5

Weighted Pushups
45 lbs 3 x 12

Bench
175 lbs 3 x 5

1/22/18
275 lbs 4 x 5

Hockey today was good! 2 goals and 2 assists! My cardio is improving and I've become a lot more patient with the puck. There are still some times I think I'm in a tight spot and ricochet a shot hoping a teammate will be there, so vision is something I want to improve. I see my passing game improving over the last two weeks and I'd like to take that further.

Still looking to improve my cardio because I'd like to take longer shifts on the ice and let my teammates rest more and get more icetime. I just saw Stipe Miocic shut down Francis Ngannou live on Saturday at the Garden...one thing about Stipe is that the man. doesn't. tire. ever. Looks like the UFC Heavyweight champ does a lot of Heart Rate Training (HRT):





Obvious product plug is obvious but basically it seems that the point is to quantify exertion for cardio. Imagine this is useful for HIIT.

They have four general categories of exertion, from this article on HRT:

Quote: Zone 1: 60 to 70 %; very comfortable effort; use this for warmup and cooldown
Zone 2: 70 to 80 %; comfortable enough to hold a conversation; most training is done here
Zone 3: 81 to 93%; “comfortably hard” effort; you may be able to say short, broken sentences.
Zone 4: 94 to 100%; hard effort; the pace is sustainable, but conversation is a few words at a time. For most people this is around 5-K pace.

Based upon the amount of conversation you can muster, that seems a good qualitative measure of effort. At least it's a step above just thinking to yourself, "yeah, I gave that my best effort."

Post: #142

As per my previous posts -in this and other threads- it is well know that I dislike running. In a previous life I was a mid-distance runner with an under 2 minute half mile in high school. I had the lucky opportunity in my life to train in a daily basis with world class runners and to share coaches with them for a couple of years. The background is to give some authority to what I am going to recommend. I know what works in practice.

Even though I hate running, I am going to recommend the single best, in my personal opinion, exercise that works to increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacity; it will increase your capacity to extend a hard effort for a prolonged period of time, it will give you an edge over the other players. enough blah blah. I recommend Farklet in the following manner. 100 meter sprint, 100 meter run, 200 meter sprint, 200 meter run, 300 meter sprint, 300 meter run; continuous, non stop, no rest, no idle second, always moving forward. Start with 20 minutes, work up to 45 minutes. You can regulate the sprint speed and the run speed, obviously. Ideally, you sprint fast, and you run fast ... in practice if you are just starting, just make it with a noticeable change of speeds, and try to work up to the edge.

Post: #143

My main tool was a the track, it helps keep the correct distance and the eye in the target. During pre-season, we used to do the farklet on a long 300 meter road with an uphill, going up the road fast and returning running slowly. Every one in the team had to show up for this work out in the morning three times a week, from the sprinters to the hammer throwers.

Also, always better doing it with partner who is at least at your level to keep the motivation up; racing each other in each sprint, or seeing who can rest the least.

Post: #144

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 2
Day: 2
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/23/2018

1x5 195

This week with one one set per day feels strange ..... two warm up sets; and, right on, pim pam pum one set and done. You are left wanting more, but it reminds me that this week is here for a reason and it is part of the overall program; it reminds me to never lose the sight on the main objective.

Post: #145

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 2
Day: 3
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/25/2018

1x5 200

Well, the introduction stage is over; and, from next workout on, it will be time to put some balls into the work outs. All for the gains.

Post: #146

1/24/18
Bench
180 lbs 1 x 5
185 lbs 2 x 5

Hammer Curls
20 lbs 3 x 15

1/25/18
OHP
115 lbs 5 x 5

Shrugs
25 lbs 4 x 40, 1 x 45

Squat
225 lbs 3 x 12

Lat Raises
10 lbs 3 x 10

1 mile run, timed in at 8:20, Vo2max around 45.8 according to this equation on Livestrong (https://www.livestrong.com/article/34302...m-running/)

Post: #147

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 3
Day: 1
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/28/2018

4x9 165 (70%)

Post: #148

I can feel last night's workout in my buttocks, a little sore not too much. I am debating if to do day 2 tonight, or tomorrow's night and give the muscles 24 more hours rest. I know day 3 will be on Thursday, so the normal thing to do would be to do day 2 tomorrow, but I normally don't workout when I want but when time permits, so we will see.

Post: #149

Routine: Smolov Jr
Week: 3
Day: 2
Exercise: Squat
1RM: 235
Date: 01/28/2018

5x7 175 (75%)

Post: #150

1/25/2018
OHP
115 lbs 5 x 5

Shrugs
25 lbs 3 x 12

Lat Raises
10 lbs 3 x 10

Whoah, I've been behind! Update to come later today as I get back in the saddle