Getting stronger getting older

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 2 day 2

125kg x 7 x 5

Set 1 was a little rough. Struggled to find balance until the last rep.

Set 2 was a more stable set of reps. Better balance. No issue with the weight

Set 3 felt heavier than I like. No explosiveness. Time to correct.

Set 4. I try to remind myself to explode out of the hole, and when I do it really helps. Jeez, there really is no nice way to phrase that at 6.40 am.

Set 5. RPE 8. Fo sho. Had another 2 good ones. Starting to slow, but the strength is there.

Set 6. A shjt show. Well, not that bad. The first 4 reps were off balance, rep 3 in particular, so I spent the set fighting to recover.

Set 7. Tougher. The last one was tough but I prob had another in the tank.

Some light leg curls to keep my hamstrings alive.

Mobility

Dtp1979

Deadlifts
110kg x 2
130kg x 1
140kg x 1
150kg x 1
170kg x 1
180kg x 1

All deadlifts suppersetted with incline bench
Bar x 20
30kg x 2 x 12
40kg x 3 x 10

Behind the back BB shrugs paused
120kg x 10
130kg x 3 x 10

Skull crushers 25kg 12, 15, 18
Db rev flys 10kg x 3 x15

Hammer curls
20kg x 3 x 10
Single hand tricep pushdowns x 3 x 10

Bless me father for I have sinned. I deadlifted during a smolov squat cycle.

My deadlift took a while to recover after my first smolov cycle so I’m doing a few this time just because of that. Worked up to a comfortable 180. No stress on the body.
First time benching with a barbell. Shoulder still not right. Slight twinge ffs.
Skull crushers are coming along well. A good frying of the triceps was had today.
The transition from 18 to 20kg hammer curls was smooth enough

Alf Veedersane

Dtp1979 wrote: »

My deadlift took a while to recover after my first smolov cycle so I’m doing a few this time just because of that.

If you're not doing a competition, it doesn't matter if your deadlift takes a few weeks to recover. You're going to mess with the principle of Smolov Jr by adding in lower body fatigue. Juat because you felt the 180 was comfortable doesn't mean it doesn't add to the accumulation of fatigue.

Lay off the deadlifts and maximise your efforts at Smolov Jr.

And take a longer break from barbell benching

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 2 day 3

132.5kg x 8 x 4

Set 1. That was good. Not as slow or stiff as I was expecting it to be.

Set 2. Ok ok. Not too bad.

Set 3. This felt heavy on the last rep. RPE 9

Set 4 felt heavier again but nothing I couldn’t handle

Set 5 was much, much better. Far better balance. The weight moved easier

Set 6 was a tad untidy. Nearly every rep had different technique and all probably wrong. Weight was fine except for the last.

Set 7. Motherfck. Leaned too far forward for rep 2, hadn’t the energy to pull it back so had to dump the bar. It’s amazibg how quick the set went when I was pissed off after re racking. Might as well have been 100kg.

Set 8 was great. Strange, but good. I Felt 100% of the work was done in my quads. RPE 8

Mobility.

Some extra rolling on the side of the hip. Torture

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 2 day 4

140kg x 10 x 3

Instead of spending yesterday resting I had to work all day after the gym. Didn’t finish until 9.30 last night, and the full day I was on my feet. Wrecked.

Set 1 felt heavy. I’m also using a different bar today, no knurling in the centre and rings are different so not sure if my hand spacing is the same

Set 2 was a looser. Felt better and a bit lighter.

Set 3. The width of the plate stoppers on this bar are narrower so it’s hitting off the rack when I walk out. A little distracting. Bar is also a smidgen narrower and eating into my back. The 3 reps felt heavy but doable. RPE 8.5/9

Set 4. To much good morning and not enough squat

Set 5 pretty much the same as 4. Changing bar after this set.

Set 6. Better. All reps are heavy as, but there’s more of a spring out of the hole. Just sticking slightly on the way up. Feels good having my old bar digging its old groove into my back.

Set 7 much better. Best set so far, by a country mile

Set 8 meh. Legs getting tired. Technique felt brutal

Set 9 fatigue setting in big time. Feels really heavy but at the same time nothing was gonna fail

Set 10 was tough. Can’t complain considering the day I had yesterday.

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 3 day 1

122.5kg x 6 x 6

All assistance work getting the chop this week. Except for ches, shoulders, back, triceps and biceps, brah

Set 1 was a good wake up. Still feel tired. Weird little sharp pain going down the left quad.

Set 2 was today enough and easy enough. Heart rate is fairly up. Breathing heavier than normal. #cardio

Set 3 was grand. Quad pain gone. I feel like I’m going a little lower down on my right side. Weird. Will check

Set 4. More balanced. Best set so far.

Set 5. I feel tired in the legs but the weight is moving reasonably well. Pain in my right hip now.

Set 6. Glad that’s over. Rep 2 I went so far forward that I was up on my toes. How I recovered I’ll never know. It wrecked the rest of the set and I was all over the place. Still though, I just did 122.5 x 6 x 6 and this is the light day.

Now, off to roll on a ball for 30 mins.

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 3 day 2

130kg x 7 x 5

Set 1. Because of the ease I had pitting on my medium SBD knee sleeves, I decided to buy a size smaller. Most definatley tighter but still get it on pretty easy. The set was ok. Heavyish, but that’s what week 3 is. A pig.

Set 2 was a lot easier. A little forward lean on the last, which I need to correct

Set 3. That set was realll Perdy. Real perdy. Tough but as good as I could’ve done

Set 4. Pretty good too. No complaints

Set 5. 3 in a row all good.

Set 6. A tad harder. Probably had another 3 in me. Would that make it RPE 7?

Set 7. That was good too. Jesus id say I had another 4 in me. Wtf! 130kg x 5 shouldn’t be RPE 6 surely??

Can’t say I felt any different with the tighter knee sleeves. It’s hard to tell

Mobility

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 3 day 3

137.5kg x 8 x 4

Set 1 was pretty good. Stick a little on the 4th rep.

Set 2. That was pretty much the same except the 4th was a bit easier

Set 3 balance a little off but they moved up quicker

Set 4 was much better. All reps the same and no trouble

Set 5 was a beauty, for me anyway. In reality it was probably all over the place. But it felt good.

Set 6 getting easier. Rep 3 was technically as good as I’ve ever done, and the weight moved easily. If I could replicate that every time I’d be happy. That’s the goal I suppose

Set 7. Tougher than the last 2 but easier than the first 3

Set 8. As easy as set 7. Not too bad

Can’t ask for much better than this at week 3. The New smaller sleeves are easy to get on. Either I discovered the holy grail on putting them on, or, I’ve skinny calves. I’ll go with the latter.

Dtp1979

Smolov jr week 3 Final day

145kg x 10 x 3

Set 1. Dang, that was heavy. I couldn’t do 2 reps at this weight a few weeks back so I’ll take the positive

Set 2 muccchhh better. I’m feeling the weight, as I should, but it’s moving well...enough.

Set 3 so far so good. All ok.

Set 4 a few sticking points that I wasn’t happy with

Set 5 a lot faster, no sticking. Good.

Set 6 felt a lot more grindery than the last

Set 7 first 2 reps ok. 3rd Rep definatley wasn’t deep enough

Set 8 was hard as. Second rep decent. Third nearly killed me. Getting close to breaking point I feel.

Set 9 ok that was a pig but not as bad as I had imagined.

Set 10. Was prob the best set of the lot. How, I have no idea. I did not enjoy today but overall I loved the program. It gave me great confidence. I’ll prob test sat/sun

Dtp1979

Smolov jr Test day

Toe squats to 85kg x 3

105kg x 1

120kg x 1 went up like it was 80kg

135kg x 1 went up handy.

147.5kg x 1 The heaviest single in a couple of months. Stuck for a millisecond on the way up. Not explosive enough.

157.5kg x 1. Jaysus. That went up much easier that I ever would have guessed.

170kg x 1 PB. YES. End of year goal achieved. Can’t believe I just squatted 170kg. Wtf. Shaking with glee . I have to go for 180, just to see.

180kg not a Hope. I knew the second the bar came off the holders. Lost faith straight away. Next year.

Still a great day at the office.

Thank you smolov

Dtp1979

Db Bench

14kg x 15
14kg x 10
16kg x 10
20kg x 3 x 10

All supersetted DB rev flys 10kg x 5 x 12

Deadlifts
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 2
120kg x 2
140kg x 1
160kg x 1
170kg x 2

Ab wheel

Benching, although light, was pain free. Threw in the rev flies to balance out things.

A re introduction to deadlifting. Trying to concentrate on keeping my chin tucked down a little more. The weight was fine and it was all beltless. I’ll add a little each session and test before the new year

A re introduction to ab Doms too me thinks

Dtp1979

Deadlift

60kg x 5
90kg x 3
110kg x 3
130kg x 3
145kg x 2
160kg x 2
170kg x 1
180kg x 1
180kg x 1
180kg x 1

DB Press 45 degrees
12.5kg x 15
14kg x 10
18kg x 8
22.5kg x 3 x 8

Side raises 9kg x 4 x 10
Rear felt flys cable machine 7 x 4 x 12

Deadlifts moved pretty good today. I wanted to go heavier but I’m trying to spare my body. Concentrated on keeping lats tight and neutral spine. It helped.

Db Press was the heaviest in a while. No pain or discomfort. Yippee.

Dtp1979

DB Press 45degree

14kg x 2 x 10
22.5kg x 3 x 10

Deadlift
100kg x 3
125kg x 3
140kg x 2
155kg x 1
167.5kg x 1
180kg x 1
190kg x 1
200kg fail

Ab wheel x 5.
Tricep pushdowns x 4 x 12

180kg was a bit off, didn’t stay tight enough I’m my upper back.
190kg was heavy. Seeing stars when I sat down
200 didn’t budge. Jesus, deadlifts are frustrating at the best of times.

Turns out my lower abs are in bits. Is there such a thing as sleeping doms cause my abs nearly fell apart from a few rollouts but the feel fine walking around.

Alf Veedersane

You've had your Smolov Jr peak and you've done little deadlifting training towards testing in a few weeks so it's to be expected.

Dtp1979

Deadlift

100kg x 2
120kg x 2
130kg x 1
140kg x 1
160kg x 1
175kg x 1

185kg x 1. A lot comes down to how you are feeling on the day. I feel good...I said I’d try this, see how I feel and decide on heavier then. It felt good do I will continue.

200kg AAARRRRGGGHHH. Caveman growl and beat my chest. Up she went.

210kg .YES, YES!! I just deadlifted 210kg. All time Pb. But my Fcuk was it hard. Yes, of course I’m going for 220.

220kg. God bolted it to the ground. The reality, looking at 5, 20kg plates each side intimidated the fcuk outa me. It was never going up.

Thrilled at 210kg though. Seeing as 200 wouldn’t budge yesterday. There will be a break of 4-5 days now. I’ll prob re test if the weight moves well before year end.
But if not, it’s still a 20kg gain this year.

coffee_cake

Yay congrats!

Alf Veedersane

Well done.

Imagine what you might do if you had anything vaguely related to structure in your deadlift training:)

Dtp1979

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Well done.

Imagine what you might do if you had anything vaguely related to structure in your deadlift training:)

I know yea. 5/3/1 when it suits me haha. Since the summer when I was doing smolov Bench x 2 is when I pulled 205, straight after week 3 day 6 of Bench!!
But since then, I did smolov jr Squat twice so my deadlift was always in recovery stage. New year new program coming up. And I’m strongly thinking of doing a full smolov squat cycle too

Alf Veedersane

Would you not think of signing up for a meet and do a well-rounded couple of blocks of training rather than 13 weeks of Smolov for your squat just to hit a squat PR?

Dtp1979

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Would you not think of signing up for a meet and do a well-rounded couple of blocks of training rather than 13 weeks of Smolov for your squat just to hit a squat PR?

Smolov jr started as a means to hit big numbers on test days, and still is obviously, but what I really took from it was confidence to take on big numbers and big sets that I’d never have imagined before I started. That confidence is priceless. And I feel that the gains from it don’t go away for the most part. Squat is the one lift I loved progressing on the most.
As for a competition, god I dunno. I suppose I’d have the same fears as anybody competing first time. I should look into it.
This new program I’m starting looks good and has structure to it so who knows

Alf Veedersane

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Smolov jr started as a means to hit big numbers on test days, and still is obviously, but what I really took from it was confidence to take on big numbers and big sets that I’d never have imagined before I started. That confidence is priceless.

You can get that with pretty much with most programs. Progress on volume at increasing numbers.

Nothing wrong with Smolov Jr...but use it as a peaking block at the end of a cycle of training where you've given yourself something to build on rather than trying to use it to train.

Dtp1979 wrote: »

As for a competition, god I dunno. I suppose I’d have the same fears as anybody competing first time. I should look into it.

Do it.

coffee_cake

Join us! Join usssss

Dtp1979

3k run.

Time, not important

Happy Christmas everyone.

Alf Veedersane

Just gonna leave this here....

http://www.irishpowerliftingfederation.com/calendar/

Happy Christmas!

Mr. CooL ICE

What's that? April open still on sale? That's 16 weeks prep starting Monday. Plenty of time!

Alf Veedersane

Mark Rippetoe wrote: »

What's that? April open still on sale? That's 16 weeks prep starting Monday. Plenty of time!

It's almost like it's perfect timing to make the jump.

Dtp1979

Oh lads, the pressure!!

Alf Veedersane

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Oh lads, the pressure!!

Elasticated pants will fix that today.

Dtp1979

Deadlifts.

Very last minute decision to go in today. Hadn’t a huge amount of time

100kg x 5
130kg x 2
140kg x 1
160kg x 1
180kg x 1
190kg x 1

Had a pretty quick run up to 180. Flew threw them. 190 felt lighter than 180.

200kg emmm, comfortable enough. Heavy, but not troubling at all.

Dtp1979

Deadlift official test

100kg x 3
130kg x 1
150kg x 1

170kg went up with little or no difficulty. The next lift will tell me all I need to know

190kg hmmm. back rounded too much making it far harder than it needed to be.

205kg nope. Failed twice. Bollocks to that anyway. Oh well.

20kg increase this year so I’ll take it with both hands. Today felt great until it got really heavy. I was caffeined up to the eyeballs but made no difference.

Bring on 2019, new program, the introduction of RPEs, and who knows, maybe even compete. Didn’t think I’d be saying that this time last year