Today was a pretty good day. After the third set on squat, I started having small form issues. But, nothing to get too excited about. I think I need to take better rest periods. I have a tendency to stand a lot between sets. My legs felt like jelly on the last two sets and next week I will be doing 30reps. This feels a lot like Smolov, minus two days. I would add a third squat day, but I have to stay focused on the goal of upping the total not upping one lift.
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Today was a pretty good day. After the third set on squat, I started having small form issues. But, nothing to get too excited about. I think I need to take better rest periods. I have a tendency to stand a lot between sets. My legs felt like jelly on the last two sets and next week I will be doing 30reps. This feels a lot like Smolov, minus two days. I would add a third squat day, but I have to stay focused on the goal of upping the total not upping one lift.
Squat
…6x4 195kg/430lbs
Bench
…6x2 136kg/300lbs
Bent Over Rows
…5x1 84kg/185lbs
…5x4 102kg/225lbs
Lateral Raises
…5x3 14kg/30lbs
DB Tri Extensions
… 8x3 18kg/40lbs
High-Pulley Crunches
…20x1 36kg/80lbs
…15x2 45kg/100lbs
Seated Calf Raises
…15x3 4plates
[quote]novaeer wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
6x4 with 430 on squats is pretty damn good. Nice work and will be interesting to see how this program plays out for you.[/quote]
Thanks, novaeer. Hopefully, I will be able to get a little smoother and get my squat to the next level.
Dead’s didn’t feel too good, so I cut the session short by 6 sets. The next few weeks of squats will be very testing, so I am doing everything I need to do to keep moving forward. The most important thing is that I am working on getting my hips down a little more. Added in a little grip work today. Let’s see how severe the DOMS is soon
I wanted to work without my belt today, to hit my core from the most important angle to me. It was only 6 sets of 2, but it was outside my comfort zone. I’m not becoming a “raw purist”, but I think it is important to work from as many different angles as possible for maximal results. ANYWAY, the squats were ok, but I was cutting them a little high. Since there were a number of people in the gym, I didn’t record my bench (that’s the only lift at which I feel technically sound, anyway). All sets are reps were comfortable, but I did get a lift-off on the last set.
I liked the weights chosen for my accessory work. Everything just felt solid, so I added some chest presses to give me some more pushing work. I think I will do some close-grip benching sometime next week to hit my tri’s a little more.
[quote]undesired08 wrote:
I wanted to work without my belt today, to hit my core from the most important angle to me. It was only 6 sets of 2, but it was outside my comfort zone. I’m not becoming a “raw purist”, but I think it is important to work from as many different angles as possible for maximal results. ANYWAY, the squats were ok, but I was cutting them a little high. Since there were a number of people in the gym, I didn’t record my bench (that’s the only lift at which I feel technically sound, anyway). All sets are reps were comfortable, but I did get a lift-off on the last set.
I liked the weights chosen for my accessory work. Everything just felt solid, so I added some chest presses to give me some more pushing work. I think I will do some close-grip benching sometime next week to hit my tri’s a little more.
[/quote]
Going RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!! Haha. Good weights on the beltless squats.
On another note, I watched your DL videos and I noticed you said things felt off. Have you tried adjusting your setup at all? You’re a lot taller than I am and that changes leverages and everything. However, I think that if you ditched the bar roll and instead focus on pulling yourself down into position that you would get a better start off the floor and have a smoother transition at knee level. Just a thought.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
Going RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!! Haha. Good weights on the beltless squats.
On another note, I watched your DL videos and I noticed you said things felt off. Have you tried adjusting your setup at all? You’re a lot taller than I am and that changes leverages and everything. However, I think that if you ditched the bar roll and instead focus on pulling yourself down into position that you would get a better start off the floor and have a smoother transition at knee level. Just a thought.
Brian[/quote]
Brian,
The “off” feeling was in my glute, something didn’t feel right and I was right. I have a fairly severe knot that has built up there. It happens when I squat frequently and don’t get any deep tissue work (nothing my wife’s elbows digging in for 15-30min for 2 days can’t work out).
As for the bar roll, or dropping the roll should I say, I tend to get on my toes when I am forced to not have the bar in motion. Even when I focus on my heels, i have trouble right below the knees due to getting my shoulders slightly forward and with my long legs it strains the POS. When the bar is in motion, I have a significant rocking motion onto my heels, which forces my shoulders back at the initial pull. When I get to my to my knees at this point, my shoulders are even with my knees, not in front of them. This is where the work needs to be done, so that my shoulders stay a little farther back. Now, if I make the roll less dramatic, a shorter stroke(3inches instead of 3 feet), it could have the same effect. I think, in addition, it would help keep my hips a little lower at the initial 6inches of the pull.
Just to let you know, I have been writing and reading what I wrote and re-writing for almost 60minutes just because I am thinking about the logic of performing the deads from different angles. So, I am going to give it more thought and see what I come up with over the weekend. Thanks for the input, that’s what makes this site such a good resource on the quest to getting better.
Anyway, the deadlift is my most inconsistent lift and it annoys the crap out of me. Some days I feel like I can hit 500 for reps, then other days 405 feels like a ton. Also, my lockout can be so frustratingly bad and I know a lot of it is form-related and I’m doing my best to improve it.
The deep tissue massages worked for my glute, but my right erectus tightened up on my. I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming. It made it almost impossible for me to hold my position and breathe. It also didn’t help that I at a bowl of cereal before I went to the gym and that was all. My legs felt like they could have handled the weight all day long, it was my EVERYTHING ELSE that couldn’t keep up. I had to recover for about 30minutes before I could start thinking about benching. Warming up with just the bar was difficult. After two warmup sets, I felt better and worked thru the bench fairly quickly.
I switched up on the accessory work, I did close-grip bench instead of pushdowns and lat pulldowns instead of rows. No ab work today.
Today was just ordinary. My back was tight, I forgot the power supply for my laptop (i had to hurry to get the vids I could get), and somehow my top workset vid disappeared. I was supposed to do double with 212kg/270lbs, but I bumped it up to 215kg/475lbs so that i didn’t have to search for numerous plates. The bars in my gym are crap, so I was struggling with my hold on the bar on the second one.
Both went up pretty well, but I wish I had the vids to actually see the effort that went into them. After that, I could only manage 3sets of triples with 175kg/385lbs before I felt the familiar twinge in my back. That was my notification that it had enough. My callouses were inflamed, so shrugs didn’t go well.
I just couldn’t find a spot where the bar didn’t make me wince today. Oh well, it was a solid day nonetheless AND that was my first double with 215kg. Next week, it will be 225kg/495lbs, so I will have multiple cameras running on that day
I just was not feeling squats yesterday. Usually, my hips start to loosen up after the second work set. But, they stayed tight throughout. Combining that with the amount of yard work i have to do this weekend helped me decided to cut it short today. Benching was a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be, but my back and tri’s were still tight from previous workouts. So, i will be moving CG bench to Thursday’s sessions and pushdowns to Sunday. Overall, good workout. Let’s see if I can pull of Sunday’s workout. That’s going to be fun!
Started today with a backache. Moving a few tons of dirt will do that to a man, from what I hear. I seriously thought about not going to the gym today, but there is no way I can be kept away from the other woman in my life (my squat rack).
After the first set, I messaged my wife and told her that I didn’t think I would make it thru today. I have no motivation and the first set hurt like hell. This is what she sent me:
“[10/4/2009 4:30:30 PM] 1 Noni says: YOU ARE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SLIME!
[10/4/2009 4:30:45 PM] 1 Noni says: YOU PIECE OF SHIT GOOD FORNOTHING LAZY ASS!
[10/4/2009 4:31:02 PM] 1 Noni says: GET YOUR FAT ASS UP AND SQUAT SOME NUMBERS!”.
I was laughing so hard that it made my side hurt. Anyway, I started laying on the floor with my feet up, until my back felt better and started again. It was a long squat session, but I hit all of my reps. I cut the accessory work a little short, because I was feeling a little ill. I still have a LOT of dirt to move tomorrow, so I am not sure how the dead’s will go on Wednesday. Sometimes it sucks being a home owner.
Thanks a lot, E. It was funny. When I watched the video, it looked SO much better than I thought it was. I felt like all of the weights were moving super slow. But, I don’t think I could have done much better than that.
I think Smolov really helped me get thru the session. No guts, no glory.
My wife is probably my harshest critic, but she supports me 100% in my goals. She watches all of my bigger lifts and bitches when I do something wrong or if the bar speed is too low. She makes sure my diet is a clean as a fatty wants to get it, even if she has to go to 4 different stores to find just the right protein bar.
Anyway, I knew I wanted to keep today’s session short, because of the aches I have been having in the lower body region. The squats are keeping my legs fried, so I want to ease up just a little before the real peaking for squat begins. I didn’t really feel like dead’s today, but that’s what was put on my plate. Once I got up to my working sets, I was ready to pull. The double with 227kg/500lbs was a little crappy. The first one, I didn’t get my hips low enough and my grip started to give on my right hand, so I cut it just short of lockout. On the second, I got deep into it and I broke from the floor a LOT easier than on the first. It felt solid and I made sure to get a good deep grip on the bar. I need to work hard to get every pull as good as the second one. I think I could have squeezed out one more rep, but who knows.
Thursday’s session will be upper body work only, maybe. I may do some light front squats, but I have to see how I feel.
Congrats on the deadlift PR. That bar really has a long way to go from the floor to lockout. It’s almost cheating how short of ROM I have compared to yours.
My wife supports me, but she thinks I’m a complete lunatic with all the training I do.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Congrats on the deadlift PR. That bar really has a long way to go from the floor to lockout. It’s almost cheating how short of ROM I have compared to yours.
My wife supports me, but she thinks I’m a complete lunatic with all the training I do. ;-)[/quote]
Yeah, mine just looks at me some days and says “obsess much?”. Which I do, but I still have a few more hundred lbs to gain on my total…before I change the total I want again
I dropped all lower body work for the day, so that I can heal and start REALLY finding out what I have inside of me on Sunday. The 6x6 on bench sucked by set 4. Everything started getting tight and the lactic acid started building up (I may need to start taking some creatine to get past that). I went a little lighter on the single arm rows, so that I could get some higher rep work going, plus my hands are still worn from the dead’s Tuesday.
I don’t think I am going to need a miracle to hit 181kg/400lbs in my next meet, but I think I will need a better effort than I had today. All in all, I am happy to see my bench dropping to my second best lift. Somewhere in the early part of next year, I may put in some specialized training to get my dl closer to where it needs to be (something like Frequent Pulling by EC).
I moved railroad ties Saturday and dropped on on my ankle, which stung just a little. So, I took a handful of Tylenol and went to the gym. My wife pointed out that on most of the sets, I would lean to the right to take pressure off of it and I didn’t even realize I was doing it. No matter, all sets and reps were completed. I am a little worried about deads on Tuesday, but it is a slight “back-off” week before I start peaking.
Anyway, I warmed up with a few minutes on the elliptical to get my ankle and knee loose and did some single leg extensions. I cut a LOT of the squats an 1" or 2 high, because I have been suffering from pain at my glute/ham tie-in and my usual “take 'em deep” has been causing quite a bit of pain. Since I was feeling minimal irritation, I took all reps (except the first one) deep on the last set. The last rep, I took too deep and hit the pin on the cage. Surprisingly, it didn’t effect me too much. I will definitely have 265kg/585lbs by the end of the year, so that means that in my first meet next year, I should be good for 272kg/600lbs
