13/5/15
Squat 60kgs x5
Squat 80kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x3
Squat 107.5kgs x4x5
Squat 117.5kgs x3
Squat 125kgs x2x2
Squat 140kgs x1
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 60kgs 7x5
Played around with a bunch of strongman stuff
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Squats felt pretty brutal, mainly feeling it in my quads, knees constantly caving in and such. Bench felt great though, even possibly easy, if I may say so.
14/5/15
Lunges with 20kgs weighted vest
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Uh, what thoughts. My legs do feel pretty stretched out so that’s good.
15/5/15
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 50kgs x5
Bench 65kgs x8x4
Lunges with 2x 20kg dumbbells
Paused Squat at bottom for around 2-3 minutes.
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Bench felt pretty ok but damn, keeping track of which set I’m at is pretty damn annoying.
[quote]Benanything wrote:
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Bench felt pretty ok but damn, keeping track of which set I’m at is pretty damn annoying.[/quote]
Use tally marks in your notebook for each set. It’s hard to remember sets when all you’re thinking about is getting through the next one.
16/5/15
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 60kgs x3
Bench 65kgs x8x4
Paused Squats with 60kgs
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Bench felt pretty easy.
16/5/15
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 60kgs x3
Bench 67.5kgs x10x3
Paused Squats with 60kgs
Lunges with 2x 20kg dumbbells
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Bench felt reasonably easy though the waiting time is annoying as fuck, people asking how many sets you have left every single set. God damn.
18/5/15
Squat 60kgs x5
Squat 80kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x3
Squat 120kgs x3
Squat 132.5kgs x3x1
Squat 120kgs x1 (failed)
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 60kgs x4x9
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Was supposed to get 132.5kgs for 2 sets of 2. What the hell happened? Squats felt heavy as shit though I’ve done the same weight for 7 reps a month or two back. Could it be the stretching? Bench felt good. A month ago I had difficulty getting 10 reps of 60kgs.
20/5/15
Squat 60kgs x5
Squat 80kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x3
Squat 120kgs x3
Squat 132.5kgs x2
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 65kgs x7x5
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Was supposed to hit 132.5kgs for 3 but I ended up getting 2. Legs feel hella weak. Bench still going strong though.
23/5/15
Squat 60kgs x5
Squat 80kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x3
Squat 120kgs x3
Squat 132.5kgs x3
Bench 20kgs x5
Bench 40kgs x5
Bench 60kgs x3
Bench 70kgs x4x4
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Was supposed to get 132.5kgs x6 and 70kgs x8x4. Taking 2 weeks off from the gym, I don’t think its so much Smolov taking a toll on me but rather, its school, mid semester examinations and life being a pain in the ass. That and training with a downed immune system ain’t really gonna work. Gonna take 2 weeks off, run 1 cycle of 5/3/1 and get back on that there smolov train.
Hopefully this advice helps because I’ve gone through the same thing. It’s frustrating to miss reps in training but sometimes it helps to look past the specific numbers. In the past I planned set/rep/intensity schemes and always stuck to it no matter if my form broke down. Training that way didn’t produce very good results for me.
Nowadays I stick to set/rep schemes while auto-regulating intensity during my volume phase and stick to intensity schemes while auto-regulating set/reps during my intensity phase. This helps me to prioritize technique over programming while still helping me to achieve the intended training effect for each training phase and taking into account life stresses. Consistency in technique removes it as a training variable.
Even now I auto-regulate on Smolov. If I can’t hit all the reps at a certain weight and have to drop the weight slightly, I still know I made progress because the overall workload and average intensity increased from the previous week. Progress is progress. Try not to get too caught up in the specific training numbers because you’ll be disappointed if you aren’t a full-time athlete. Little progress during rough times is better than none.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
Hopefully this advice helps because I’ve gone through the same thing. It’s frustrating to miss reps in training but sometimes it helps to look past the specific numbers. In the past I planned set/rep/intensity schemes and always stuck to it no matter if my form broke down. Training that way didn’t produce very good results for me.
Nowadays I stick to set/rep schemes while auto-regulating intensity during my volume phase and stick to intensity schemes while auto-regulating set/reps during my intensity phase. This helps me to prioritize technique over programming while still helping me to achieve the intended training effect for each training phase and taking into account life stresses. Consistency in technique removes it as a training variable.
Even now I auto-regulate on Smolov. If I can’t hit all the reps at a certain weight and have to drop the weight slightly, I still know I made progress because the overall workload and average intensity increased from the previous week. Progress is progress. Try not to get too caught up in the specific training numbers because you’ll be disappointed if you aren’t a full-time athlete. Little progress during rough times is better than none.[/quote]
Thanks for the kind words and advice. It’s just life tends to get in the ways of training with exams, work, etc. That and the fact that I’m pretty darn greedy, if I may say so myself. I want more and I want it fast. With my meet coming up in 20-ish weeks, I really don’t have much of a choice. I’m gonna take this 2 weeks off and prep for the meet. Break some national records(they’re ridiculously low) and go back to training normally.
[quote]Benanything wrote:
Thanks for the kind words and advice. It’s just life tends to get in the ways of training with exams, work, etc. That and the fact that I’m pretty darn greedy, if I may say so myself. I want more and I want it fast. With my meet coming up in 20-ish weeks, I really don’t have much of a choice. I’m gonna take this 2 weeks off and prep for the meet. Break some national records(they’re ridiculously low) and go back to training normally.
[/quote]
I don’t doubt you’ll reach that goal if it’s realistic and you put in the work for it. The main thing to keep in mind is that quality of work is just as important as quantity of work.
IMO, quality and quantity combined will determine training efficiency which shows how much carryover all that work has to your one rep max. The stronger you get, the more important both matters. I’ve had training cycles where I didn’t get stronger at all because the quality wasn’t there. Quality is how closely your mechanics and load distribution among muscle groups match between working weights and max attempts, as well as consistency for every rep. Auto-regulation helps to optimize both quality and quantity. Sometimes form breakdown can occur to hit a PR but that shouldn’t be often. Just keep them both in mind.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
[quote]Benanything wrote:
Thanks for the kind words and advice. It’s just life tends to get in the ways of training with exams, work, etc. That and the fact that I’m pretty darn greedy, if I may say so myself. I want more and I want it fast. With my meet coming up in 20-ish weeks, I really don’t have much of a choice. I’m gonna take this 2 weeks off and prep for the meet. Break some national records(they’re ridiculously low) and go back to training normally.
[/quote]
I don’t doubt you’ll reach that goal if it’s realistic and you put in the work for it. The main thing to keep in mind is that quality of work is just as important as quantity of work.
IMO, quality and quantity combined will determine training efficiency which shows how much carryover all that work has to your one rep max. The stronger you get, the more important both matters. I’ve had training cycles where I didn’t get stronger at all because the quality wasn’t there. Quality is how closely your mechanics and load distribution among muscle groups match between working weights and max attempts, as well as consistency for every rep. Auto-regulation helps to optimize both quality and quantity. Sometimes form breakdown can occur to hit a PR but that shouldn’t be often. Just keep them both in mind.[/quote]
Thanks lift206! Thanks for constantly leaving helpful advice and words of encouragements for me.
You sure do put in some volume! Definitely following this log.
Best of luck for your meet, all that volume is going to have paid off. Don’t worry about the occasional failure in training. I’m a bit greedy, like you, and the occasional failure is part of that. You soon learn how hard to push and when and fail less and less often.
The other thing I’d note is failing safely is a skill worth learning, especially for squats and bench. I’m pretty happy getting under a heavy bar now because I know I can fail quite safely within reasonable stretches of my max.
[quote]MarkKO wrote:
You sure do put in some volume! Definitely following this log.
Best of luck for your meet, all that volume is going to have paid off. Don’t worry about the occasional failure in training. I’m a bit greedy, like you, and the occasional failure is part of that. You soon learn how hard to push and when and fail less and less often.
The other thing I’d note is failing safely is a skill worth learning, especially for squats and bench. I’m pretty happy getting under a heavy bar now because I know I can fail quite safely within reasonable stretches of my max. [/quote]
Thanks! Failing at squats, I’m totally cool with. Hell, I might even say that I’m pretty good at failing at squats, it looks graceful even. Bench however… Bench still scares me a little, that and rolling the bar down to your hips hurt a shit ton since my gym doesn’t have any safety bars at the side.
DAMNNN. My blue reactive slingshot and gansta wraps finally arrived. Can’t wait to try them out and incorporate them into my training.
4/6/15
Squats 60kgs x5
Squat 65kgs x5
Squat 75kgs x3
Squat 90kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x5
Squat 100kgs x5
Press 20kgs x5
Press 37.5kgs x5
Press 45kgs x5
Deadlift 60kgs x5
Deadlift 100kgs x3
Deadlift 140kgs x5x1
Paused Bench 20kgs x5
Paused Bench 40kgs x5
Paused Bench 60kgs x5
Paused Bench 70kgs x3
Paused Bench 80kgs x2 (wanted to get 3)
Did some 60kgs squat to try to re-familiarize myself with the motion
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Finally back in the gym after 11 days off. Everything felt hella heavy and all the movements were off groove. My 115kgs squat felt hella heavy even though I’ve done 10 reps with it before. Is detraining an actual thing? I might make a forum post about it. Stats before my break were a 150kgs squat, 92.5kgs bench, 152.5kgs deadlift. 18 weeks to my meet. Going to use 6 weeks-ish to get my groove back on. Gonna run smolov for squat to peak it for the meet. National records for u74 sub-junior at 165kgs squat, 100.5kgs bench, 225kgs deadlift. Records for u83 junior be at 170kgs squat, 115kgs bench, 212.5kgs deadlift. As y’all can tell, powerlifting ain’t too popular here in Singapore.
5/6/15
Paused Bench 20kgs x5
Paused Bench 37.5kgs x5
Paused Bench 40kgs x3
Paused Bench 50kgs x5
Paused Bench 60kgs x5
Paused Bench 70kgs x5
Slingshot Paused Bench 70kgs x3
Slingshot Paused Bench 80kgs x5
Slingshot Paused Bench 90kgs x2
2 Pause Deadlifts 60kgs x5
Deadlift 100kgs x3
Deadlift 140kgs x2x1
Deadlift 142.5kgs x2x1
Seated Cable Rows some random weight 3x10
Paused Bench 60kgs 10x1 (Practising Bench set up)
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Slingshot feels pretty good. Deadlifts didn’t actually drop as much as I expected them to. Its just squats I suppose. I wonder how much carry over gear(knee sleeves/belt/etc) have on my lifts. Maybe I suddenly feel weaker cause I haven’t been using my knee sleeves/belt as often on my squats.
6/6/15
Paused Bench 20kgs x5
Paused Bench 40kgs x5
Paused Bench 60kgs x3
Paused Bench 70kgs x5
Paused Bench 75kgs x3
Bench 80kgs x2
Deadlift 60kgs x5
Deadlift 100kgs x3
Deadlift 140kgs x2x1
Deadlift 150kgs x1
Deadlift 152.5kgs x1 (failed)
Seated Cable Rows x a bunch of sets x a bunch of reps
Barbell Row x a bunch of sets x a bunch of reps
Practiced some set ups/walk outs with 100kgs squats and 60kgs bench presses
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Wow, I got pretty close to my 1rm deadlift and I wasn’t even prepping for it. Maybe the time off actually helped more than I thought. Starting to feel pretty good in the gym. Granted, personal life ain’t exactly fine, girls and shit. Shit will come and shit will go but 200lbs will always be 200lbs. Ok, that made completely no sense. Speaking of which, ran into some bodybuilder type guy and had a lil chat with him. How is it that he looks like he’s almost 90kgs and yet he’s only 78kgs (only 2kgs heavier than me). I read something about sarcoplasmic muscle and myrofibrillar muscles. Turns out, sarcoplasmic muscle generally takes up more space or something like that, fluids etc etc. Anyone knows anything bout this?
[quote]Benanything wrote:
6/6/15
Paused Bench 20kgs x5
Paused Bench 40kgs x5
Paused Bench 60kgs x3
Paused Bench 70kgs x5
Paused Bench 75kgs x3
Bench 80kgs x2
Deadlift 60kgs x5
Deadlift 100kgs x3
Deadlift 140kgs x2x1
Deadlift 150kgs x1
Deadlift 152.5kgs x1 (failed)
Seated Cable Rows x a bunch of sets x a bunch of reps
Barbell Row x a bunch of sets x a bunch of reps
Practiced some set ups/walk outs with 100kgs squats and 60kgs bench presses
My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Wow, I got pretty close to my 1rm deadlift and I wasn’t even prepping for it. Maybe the time off actually helped more than I thought. Starting to feel pretty good in the gym. Granted, personal life ain’t exactly fine, girls and shit. Shit will come and shit will go but 200lbs will always be 200lbs. Ok, that made completely no sense. Speaking of which, ran into some bodybuilder type guy and had a lil chat with him. How is it that he looks like he’s almost 90kgs and yet he’s only 78kgs (only 2kgs heavier than me). I read something about sarcoplasmic muscle and myrofibrillar muscles. Turns out, sarcoplasmic muscle generally takes up more space or something like that, fluids etc etc. Anyone knows anything bout this?[/quote]
I think you’re referring to sarcoplasmic vs myofibrillar hypertrophy. BB sees more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which included a fair degree of plasma (ie liquid) in the muscle whereas myofibrillar hypertrophy is seen in strength athletes and relates to the myofibrils themselves (which combine to make muscle fibres), which are the one of the main contractile elements of the muscle.
The combination increases the muscle’s cross-section, which increased the area it contracts over so BOTH contribute to strength gains as far as I understand it, but the difference between the two is that (I think) myofibrillar hypertrophy will have greater effects on strength as opposed to muscle size increases while sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will do more to enlarge the muscle but less to increase its strength.
The of course you can go into adaptations at the neuromuscular junction, which have a huge effect on strength as that relates to how well the nervous system recruits muscle fibres in the muscle - the more muscle fibres recruited by the nervous system, the stronger the contraction.