Keep the blood in your head and your feet on the ground

Parsley

ME Lower

Warmups

Power Cleans
30kg x a bunch
60kg x3

Deadlift
60kg x10
80kg x8
100kg x8
120kg x4
140kg x3
160kg x5 equals PB

Walking Lunges
20kg x1 walk out & back
60kg x2
50kg x1

Rev Hypers
BW, 3x15

Ab circuity-yoke

Head wasn't really in the game today... meh. Deadlifts didn't really feel right and couldn't get my belt comfy, might've had it a notch too tight. chalk it down to a bad day where i still managed to match and old pb and move on.

Have vids of the cleans, will put em up.

Parsley

Cleans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt-p0v--Xaw

Parsley

ME Upper

Warmups

CGBP
20kg x20
40kg x15
60kg x8
70kg x5
80kg x3
90kg x3
100kg x1
110kg x1
120kg x1 PB by 5kg over conv.
122.5 x0, no spotter :P

Incline DB Press
22kg bells, 2x15

DB Rows
42kg x8
42kg x8
42kg x8

EZ bar curls
bar +40kg x6
bar +40kg x6
bar +40kg x6
bar +40kg x6
bar +20kg x10-15+ ish...

Happy out to finally hit 120kg. Nearly had the 122.5kg but stuck. ah well. will deload upper body soonish, go back to regular bench maybe. I'll see.

brianthebard

How many weeks have you gone without deloading? You should probably just switch ME lifts, unless you're feeling bet up. Personally I always look forward to cycling in the incline bench.

Parsley

brianthebard wrote: »

How many weeks have you gone without deloading? You should probably just switch ME lifts, unless you're feeling bet up. Personally I always look forward to cycling in the incline bench.

deloaded only a couple weeks ago so it may not be necessary, but i was thinking it might help the changeover back to regular bench, having not done anything but CG for a good while. in answer to your question a few weeks back, CGBPing both upper days seemed to work fairly well. I don't have a decent incline bench setup here in limerick, though i might hit up some incline work when i get back to cork in september.

brianthebard

yeah it did seem to work, good stuff! You could try pin presses or floor presses either, I'm just thinking that a regular bench and cg may be very similar to just alternate between the two, but sure you'll find out yourself, and if that's all you have access to you can't change that.

Parsley

RE Upper

Warmups

Bench (medium-ish grip)
20kg x20
40kg x15
65kg x20
65kg x20
100kg x6

Lat Pulldown/Cable Rows
plate 145, 4x8 for each

Machine Shoulder Press
plate 70, 3x12

Could've gone for more on shoulder press definitely, but didn't have time to waste warming them up for ages like usual.

Dunno what i was doing on the bench with the 100kg really, just seemed like something to do. PB by 1 rep there, after tiring my tri's...

Inspector Coptoor

Your 110kg x 3 bench set:
Your bum comes up off the bench and it looks like you're using your legs to drive the bar up.

The second set of cleans at 60kg are more power cleans than cleans.

You're still having trouble getting the full triple extension, as you're not coming up fully onto the balls of your feet.

Instead of moving your feet a couple of inches out to the side when you when you're going for the catch, you are actually moving your feet backwards.

When the bar comes past your knee, the speed of the bar should increase.
the first pull to just above the knee is fast, the second pull from above the knee into the triple extension and then into the catch should be faster.

Remember that it;s an accelerated pull.

The olympic lifts are extremely humbling lifts and it takes a long time to master them.
(not that I;m anywhere near good at them yet myself.)

My advice would be to drop the weight down further to 40kg and drill the technique in sets of 3.

hope this helps

Parsley

Liam Henners257 wrote: »

Your 110kg x 3 bench set:
Your bum comes up off the bench and it looks like you're using your legs to drive the bar up.

I know that, i was aware of it as i was doing it. I didn't have a spotter so I wanted to make absolutely sure I'd manage the reps. Call it retarded, but feck it.

Liam Henners257 wrote: »

The second set of cleans at 60kg are more power cleans than cleans.

You're still having trouble getting the full triple extension, as you're not coming up fully onto the balls of your feet.

Instead of moving your feet a couple of inches out to the side when you when you're going for the catch, you are actually moving your feet backwards.

When the bar comes past your knee, the speed of the bar should increase.
the first pull to just above the knee is fast, the second pull from above the knee into the triple extension and then into the catch should be faster.

Remember that it;s an accelerated pull.

The olympic lifts are extremely humbling lifts and it takes a long time to master them.
(not that I;m anywhere near good at them yet myself.)

My advice would be to drop the weight down further to 40kg and drill the technique in sets of 3.

hope this helps

I was doing power cleans, not full cleans anyway. I know i've a long way to go on my cleans, i do warm up and do sets at 30-40kg to work technique too but I find it too light, and the heavier weights show up where i'm going wrong a bit better. Thanks for the advice though, gonna keep working on them and videoing.

Parsley

Also, bodyweight was 86kg this a.m.

Parsley

ME Lower

Warmups

Deadlift - all beltless
warmups etc, worked up to a failed single at 180kg... grrrr
then:
130kg x8
130kg x8
130kg x8

Walking Lunges
35kg x50 steps x2 sets

Ab Circuit & stretching

Head wasn't really in it today, had slept in, wasn't very hydrated... blah blah blah.

Parsley

also my deadlift has gone nowhere since.... the singe lifts at january :O i'm probably using some awful technique... gonna do smolov soon, then come back to that after

Parsley

Bout 3pm today i was overcome with an irresistible craving for squats....

worked up to a single at 120kg, twice. once in ironworks and once in cons. the one in the cons went up much better, so i'll stick with them through smolov, with a wide stance and mid-high bar position.

Did a few sets of 6 at plate 220 on the leg extension machine, followed by dips on my new improvised station consisting of two benches bridges across two tables.... all of which are different heights :pac:

smcclaw

I had a similar urge for squats earlier but as I added an extra plate to the bar my new improvised stands began to lean... more and more.. so then I had to stop the bar from falling while I unloaded plates. Time to get 2 old wheels and some scaffold polls and make proper stands.

Glad your session ended up a more useful one than mine.

Do you do snatches as well as cleans?

Parsley

smcclaw wrote: »

I had a similar urge for squats earlier but as I added an extra plate to the bar my new improvised stands began to lean... more and more.. so then I had to stop the bar from falling while I unloaded plates. Time to get 2 old wheels and some scaffold polls and make proper stands.

Glad your session ended up a more useful one than mine.

Do you do snatches as well as cleans?

i don't. i'd like to learn them but there's noone to teach me and if i tried em myself i'd end up with a case of hanley shoulder i'd say! tho L was saying there's a guy in the mardyke in cork that'd be willing to do a g'em style yoke and take a group for instruction in the oly lifts, tho that'll have to wait till september when i'm back in cork!

smcclaw

Was just wondering as I find it easier to keep better form and timing in snatches than cleans and therefore find them very helpful in the learning process (especially when there's no one around to make sure I'm not slipping into bad habits).

I also find overhead/snatch squats a great exercise to keep me honest on squat form and to maintain flexibility, particularly around the achilles.

I can see why you wouldn't want to take up snatches without appropriate coaching but even overhead squats with a naked bar as part of a warm up will give you a bit of a head start if you do decide to try snatches down the line. Would be a great opportunity to learn if you can get access to a knowledgeable OL coach.

Parsley

smcclaw wrote: »

I also find overhead/snatch squats a great exercise to keep me honest on squat form and to maintain flexibility, particularly around the achilles.

I can see why you wouldn't want to take up snatches without appropriate coaching but even overhead squats with a naked bar as part of a warm up will give you a bit of a head start if you do decide to try snatches down the line. Would be a great opportunity to learn if you can get access to a knowledgeable OL coach.

I do OH squats almost every lower body session I do, i just don't type it out and lump the under "warmups". I find they're great for warming up.

I'd considered doing Oly lifting instead of PL'ing g'em suggested it to me a good few months back at the club championships. Thing is i've free membership of the mardyke being a UCC student, and that's perfectly fine for PL'ing, which can be done with a greater degree of autonomy. If i was to take up Oly lifting, which I would love to, i'd have to fork out to join a club, or to get a coach etc. and i'm a poor aul student!

smcclaw

lol, I understand that. Just have two sheets of plywood, a bar and bumper plates at the minute til I make/get cash for squat stands. Not gonna pay gym fees though!

With your current training you'll be in a good position to learn more olympic lifting in the future if you choose anyway. I think Shane Hamman was about 25 when he took up OL after years of powerlifting and he made a few olympics.

Parsley

smcclaw wrote: »

lol, I understand that. Just have two sheets of plywood, a bar and bumper plates at the minute til I make/get cash for squat stands. Not gonna pay gym fees though!

With your current training you'll be in a good position to learn more olympic lifting in the future if you choose anyway. I think Shane Hamman was about 25 when he took up OL after years of powerlifting and he made a few olympics.

Yeah, i was thinking when I finish college, get a job, etc I might give it a go.

Parsley

Lower Body warmups

Squats (low bar)
20kg x20
60kg x10
80kg x5
100kg x3
115kg x2
130kg x1
130kg x1
130kg x1
100kg x6
100kg x6 (high bar)

Some arsing around with leg extension and leg presses...

Machine Chest Press
Worked up to plate 230 x5 and the full stack x2

Some pullups, rows and shrugs

Lots of stretching

Working my squat back up to my max before starting smolov. Found a low bar position that was comfortable and doable, the near-max singles at 130kg were solid, very deep. Happy enough, nothing too hard in there.

Parsley

Since I'm finishing WS4SB now and starting smolov monday, i've a few thoughts on WS:

-Was good for upper body. Got through a sticking point in the bench by switching to CGBP.

-Not great for lower body, I don't think. One squat or deadlift day a week can be doable, but not when there's only one work set. The DE day was alright i suppose, not much more then the walking lunges etc that felt good and tough but i don't think they did very much for me.

brianthebard

There shouldn't be one work set tbh. I dunno I managed to use wsfsb to break through a serious squat stagnation (even without a DE or RE lower day), but obviously not everything works for everyone.

Parsley

brianthebard wrote: »

There shouldn't be one work set tbh. I dunno I managed to use wsfsb to break through a serious squat stagnation (even without a DE or RE lower day), but obviously not everything works for everyone.

the ME day says work up to one max set, so pretty much. one thing i've learned over my first year is that my squat seems to need volume to progress. i've been low on volume since the single lifts and it's gone nowhere (except for GVT, that got me up to 10 reps at 100kg and bumped up my max a bit). So, volume it is from here on out. Hopefully smolov will confirm this postulation...

brianthebard

Well there are 3 different variations of wsfsb and in at least one DeFranco states that his guys (and by extension, those of us using his programme) need more volume and suggests doing two or three work sets with the top weight. In addition, I would consider the two sets before the top weight work sets too, but that's me being pedantic. Also you can do a couple of drop off sets after the top weight to get more volume. Also you could drop the DE day in favour of a repetitive effort (RE) day, I think this would be a big boost as well. I think there's a lot of things you could do with the ws template before binning it completely tbh, but if you're done with it you're done.

Parsley

I did substitute the DE day for RE, but i didn't squat on it. I did add in some drop sets on squats as well, but probably not regularly enough to notice a benefit. I want to try smolov anyway, see if it can get my squat out of a rut for now, may come back to WS-style at some point in the future, and tweak it according to what i've learned from it this time round.

Parsley

Today

Warmups

Squats
20kg x15
60kg x8
70kg x5
80kg x3
90kg x5
100kg x1
120kg x1
130kg x1
140kg x1
100kg x12 pb by 2 reps methinks

Shoulder Activation

OH Press
20kg x15
30kg x12
40kg x10
50kg x10
55kg x7
60kg x5
60kg x5
60kg x4... failed the 5th

Overload Reps
75kg x3 - too heavy
70kg x3
70kg x3

Loads of lower body stretching, some shoulder stretches. Need to get a f*cking foam roller for my back though, jesus.

Squats were all low bar. They were good, happy with the speed, form and depth of the 140kg single and the 12 reps at 100kg. Only thing is my wrists were killing me, spose I'll get used to it and i'll use my wrist wraps. The rack in the rowing club is an absolute CUNT though, especially since i've switched to low bar.

Parsley

coupla vids-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRgk5_euPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCNebmH8ak0

Parsley

Some Runnin'

warmup jog, dynamic stretches etc.

clanmorris avenue hill, bout 60ish metres, 2x10. Break of 10-15 deep breaths between each run.

Parsley

Squats
60kg x5
80kg x5
100kg x3
120kg x1
120kg x10

front squat 100kg x2

stretching.

chemical shower, booze time.

Parsley

Smolov BMS W1 D1

Warmups, etc...

Squats
60kg x10
70kg x8
80kg x6
95kg x9
95kg x9
95kg x9
95kg x9

Bench
60kg x15
70kg x10
80kg x8
90kg x11 - some class of PB

Creeper set at 60kg, stopped at the 6th or 7th rep of the 9th set cos my shoulders felt like someone was sticking a screwdriver into them and my elbows were about to pop off...

Loads of stretching

First session of smolov so. twas grand, squats were handy enough, some slow-ish reps at the end of the sets but all good. using 135kg as my max.