I thought I would introduce myself and give my take after completing the first week of Smolov meso cycle. I am 49, 6â??1â??, 105 kilos/231 pounds, a transplanted Yank in the land of Oz. In my youth, I raced bicycles on the road and track. Later in life, I got into middle distance ocean swimming, did Alcatraz and the Waikiki Roughwater several times. Last year I was ranked in the top two percent of 45,000 open water swimmers in Oz.
I decided to do some lifting to get a bit stronger over the Australian winter. I looked around, found this site, and was impressed with the 5/3/1 program which I have followed closely for six cycles now. I have generally followed either the triumvirate and/or the BBB. I did the BBB challenge 60%/70% for two months. The squat wasnâ??t too bad, but the 5x10 70% deadlift portion is hurlarrific. I wouldnâ??t do the deads again for that high of volume as I think there is a high chance of injury, better with a 5x5.
Because of the BBB challenge I thought I might be able to do the Smolov meso protocol. I used 140kilos/308 pounds for my calculations as that was the weight I could complete three reps with a push but not a strain. I have never gone for a PR with squats only deads where it is 165 kilos, so I just tried to use what I thought would be reasonable based what many have posted here.
After the first week completed yesterday, I am feeling surprisingly good. I had a few aches this morning, but after some moving and stretching I feel good. I am surprised how much I am looking forward to starting the second week tomorrow.
I concentrated on each rep, figuring if I was going to fail at some point I wanted every step to failure to be well executed. Then I would truly know my limit. The joy is not the medal, the joy is the job well done.
The first day was doable and very similar to the BBB challenge. I would say easy, but it was work. Jerking off to porn is easy. 36 reps at 70% is work. Felt the same about the second day.
The third day I really felt the weight for the first unracking and, even though I had squatted heavier, it really felt heavy thinking I had to do it 34 more times. Doing five rep heavy sets gets the lungs to working too, I think here is where I was helped a lot by swimming background.
The fourth day I was just plain nervous. I knew that this was the day I would either fail or be able to make it close to the end. I did a good warm up and stretched. I decided I was just going to look at each set on itâ??s one. I wasnâ??t going up for thirty reps, all I had to do was three. After the first set, I was a little in shock that I had nine more to go. It was never easy, but the last three were â??easierâ?? because I knew I was close to the end. I wasnâ??t worried about failure anymore, I just had to deal with the discomfort. I didnâ??t need too much rest between sets, it varied between 3-5 minutes, just how I felt from set to set.
For every day on the last set, I added in one extra rep that I really worked on executing slowly and perfectly. It was my mental extra credit. I like pushing myself, but I like feeling like I won when I walk out of the gym. To stick with any physical activity it becomes far more mental than physical. The mind drives, the body responds.
I did a few calculations and at my set weight, the second week is an 8% increase over the first week with the third week another 4% jump. The 9s day on the second week is a repeat in volume of the 5s day of the first week, so just a repeat, not an increase. On the third week, the 9s and 7s day are both repeats from the second week, so only the 5s and 3s on the last week are really new. Something to focus on when the going gets hard. The real work comes on the very last two days and even for those I have shouldered that weight, it is just the volume that is new.
I think one thing that has helped is three weeks ago my wife got me to start going to yoga. I believe the stretching helps. Not a huge fan of yoga as it is really boring but I can check out the cute girls which helps pass the time. I donâ??t quite â??getâ?? yoga. We were talking to some young girl and she was nattering on about how the slow meditation brings up a lot of emotion in her. For me, I just try not to fall asleep. I got in trouble for snoring in one class. I think the few â??emotionsâ?? I have get purged under the barâ?¦
Overall, I like the gym and get far less flak at home versus ocean swimming. The wife doesn’t annoy me worrying that I might get eaten at the gym.
