#drizzt

[Big john]

seems to be just about survival :pfft:

Survival everytime i get under that bar to squat hahaha :pfft: :pfft:

How are you finding those knee sleeves with your knee joints bro?

[drizzt]

Real good man, keep the knees nice and warm, and they actually feel safe :nod:

I do notice when they come off, the knees feel like they've lost a bit of strength. Probably not surprising, but noticeable anyway.

[Big john]

Real good man, keep the knees nice and warm, and they actually feel safe :nod:

I do notice when they come off, the knees feel like they've lost a bit of strength. Probably not surprising, but noticeable anyway.

i may have to invest in a pair for my creeky long knees :pfft:

[Old Bull]

Cheers OB1, yeah I wasn't too disappointed with the Squats, just happy to have completed the reps really. A lot of this program seems to be just about survival :pfft:

I am annoyed at my bench performance, but that's probably moreso at myself for not being mentally there for it, than anything else..

Could be a couple of issues there, as you said, but the Squats would have taxed you quite a bit.

Survival is the key word which most Cold Countrys (Eastern Bloc) programmes are based on, gives the lifter that mental edge.

[drizzt]

Cheers OB, as you saw today, didn't quite survive

23.06.11 - Smolov Intense Cycle, Week 1, Day 2

100.4kg. Started creatine + DAA today, expecting weight to rise a bit.

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  Warmups
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 6 @ 80kg
  1 x 4 @ 100kg
  1 x 2 @ 120kg
  Working
  1 x 3 @ 132.5kg
  1 x 3 @ 155kg
  
• Bench
  Warmups
  bar stuff
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  Working
  8 x 2 @ 85kg
  
• Chins
  1 x 10 @ bw/10sec rest
  1 x 5 @ bw/10sec rest
  1 x 3 @ bw

Comments

• Turned out to be a bit of a failure of a day (again) for me. Have had fairly bad DOMS the past couple of days (worst today), particularly adductors, vast.med, low back, hips, hams... well, lets just say the hips down were pretty rough. Reminiscent of Day 2 of the Intro cycle.
  Still, I thought back and remembered that despite the DOMS, the weights went up really easily, so that gave me confidence to smash it.
  Warmups were feeling fantastic, was finally "using" my feet properly, getting a really fast pop out of the bottom. But where soreness in my legs usually lessens as the sets get on, my adductors started to flare up on both sides.
  Things were going so well, that in my exuberance, I think I may have dropped too quickly once or twice before they had properly warmed up. After the set at 132 (which felt great!) I could feel them screaming out, but tried to ignore it. Started 155 pretty well as well, but once it was racked my legs had completely stiffened, and the pain had intensified a lot. Sprayed them with the ice spray, stretched them out, but despite my best efforts the pain got worse and worse, to the point where it was hard to sit. I tried to squat with the empty safety squat bar, but physically couldn't force myself further down than a few inches into the squat.
  With the next set being 4 reps at 175 (followed by 4 @ 197 and 2 x 5 @ 187 :-s), I just didn't feel that the legs were up to it. So I asked OB for advice who suggested throwing the towel in for today and chatting to the Doc tomorrow about it.
  Fully gutted.
  

My thoughts on it are that the rest week following the 1RM test day should've included a few days of light-moderate squatting instead of what ended up being two rest weeks with just one day of squatting to a max in the middle of it all.

To go from 4 days a week of tough squatting, have 2 weeks break, and then straight back into tough squatting - at much higher weights than the first cycle - the body seemingly hasn't agreed with it.

We'll see what the Doc says, hopefully I can continue on, but I'm not entirely confident.

We'll see what happens.

[Phedder]

Sorry to hear mate, not good at all. From what I've heard though the Doc has some kind of voodoo healing powers, hopefully he can set you right :pray:

[poos_n_wees]

We'll see what the Doc says, hopefully I can continue on, but I'm not entirely confident.

We'll see what happens.

:pray:

Found myself cringing while reading through your read up! Damn adductors. All the best with the doc, hopefully it won't keep you out of the squat rack for long.

[drizzt]

Sorry to hear mate, not good at all. From what I've heard though the Doc has some kind of voodoo healing powers, hopefully he can set you right :pray:

Cheers Phed. Doc is a Magician, and has helped me come back from (what seems like) worse before.

But tbh, if squatting is only going to exacerbate it, I'm not sure how much he can do to help.

Still, holding a sliver of hope that ice and recovery over the next couple of days will see me back in the saddle on Sunday :pray:

[drizzt]

:pray:

Found myself cringing while reading through your read up! Damn adductors. All the best with the doc, hopefully it won't keep you out of the squat rack for long.

Thanks PnW, hate to throw in the towel in the gym, was bad enough doing it for bench on Tuesday, let alone squats today :doh:

Here's hoping they fix up in time for Sunday. Sunday is a slightly lighter workload (although I didn't even get to the heavy stuff today, so not sure whether it's going to matter).

[ThePman]

Try 800-1000mg of ibuprofen about a half hour before heading to the gym on days you feel like that.

[drizzt]

Sweet, will do :nod:

[Big john]

Try 800-1000mg of ibuprofen about a half hour before heading to the gym on days you feel like that.

never leave home without it :pfft:

[drizzt]

26.06.11 - Smolov Intense Cycle, Week 1, Day 3

99.9 today - MT weighed in at 100.5ish I think, first day he's overtaken me :shock: (and first time he's in triple digs I think?) Awesome.

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  Warmups
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 6 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 120kg
  Working Sets
  1 x 4 @ 142.5kg
  1 x 4 @ 155kg
  2 x 4 @ 175kg (+b)
  3 x 4 @ 175kg (+b/kw)
  
• Sleds
  1 x 5forward/5reverse @ 25kg
  
• Face Pulls
  4 x 15 @ 20
  
• Standing Calf Raises
  4 x 15 @ 60kg
  
• Standing SSB GMs
  3 x 10 @ 60kg

Comments

• Finally, felt great under the bar today. Managed to get the first two sets of the top weight out without resorting to knee wraps which was pleasing. But the last rep or two were grinders, so decided to wrap up for the final 3 sets.
  Reviewing the footage, depth was a wee bit shady but not terrible (I'm aiming to hit parallel, as opposed to sinking it deep and bouncing every time, which half-explains depth not quite being there). However overall, I'm really pleased with how the squat tech is starting to look, I'm getting very little knee travel at the moment, which means I don't feel as though I'm getting deep, but it's pretty much parallel.
  Despite the good session today - it was a pretty "light" day anyway - I'm thinking I'm going to drop the 1RM I'm using for this program by 5% (about 10kg), as I read Pavel Tsatsouline's write up which says if you're finding it tough "Merciful coach Feduleyev wil allow you to". I'll use this week as a trial week at the lower weights, and if it is too easy I may shift it back up for the remaining two weeks. I just find as the weights currently are, they feel out of reach to me, and it's messing with my head a bit. See how it goes anyway.
  
• Took the chance with the light session and quick workout to bang out some assistance, but thinking from this week we'll go back into making Saturday our assistance day to take the pressure off the other workouts.
  Good mornings felt great, may become a regular feature in our assistance workouts.

Will chuck a vid up later on, will be a short one as obviously 1 day less than the base cycle, and I missed most of Thursday's session :shifty:

[drizzt]

Not the cleanest work this week, hope it gets better in week 2 :nod:

[Big john]

Not the cleanest work this week, hope it gets better in week 2 :nod:

cool vid bro...what editing programe ya using?

[drizzt]

Cheers bro. And just the basic-ass one incl with Windows 7 (Windows Live movie maker) :grin:

Would love to be more fancy but a) my work laptop doesn't have the guts for it, and b) not sure I can be arsed :pfft:

Really just adding music, title, captions, and trim the clips is all I need :nod:

[Big john]

Cheers bro. And just the basic-ass one incl with Windows 7 (Windows Live movie maker) :grin:

Would love to be more fancy but a) my work laptop doesn't have the guts for it, and b) not sure I can be arsed :pfft:

Really just adding music, title, captions, and trim the clips is all I need :nod:

i got the old skool Vista one, mewh does the trick, but im a geek and always looking for a better version of something, tried looking for Open source programmes to no avail,

i must say the windows live move maker looks snazzy with the lense flair effects :nod:

[drizzt]

Yeah it's a pretty good basic one, must admit. Only trouble is it's pretty templated, not a lot of options to customise stuff, but I don't need that for now.

Have you tried to do some on the PS3? Basic but kinda good one on that too.

My Mrs Mac Pro has a decent one on there too, although she doesn't use it much.

[Big john]

Have you tried to do some on the PS3? Basic but kinda good one on that too.

yea was looking at i, but figured it would be alil more time Consuming with the lack of the use of a mouse. will wait and see if ipad2 will come equiped with some decent Aps for media editing..but ill give Vistas Live movie maker a shot

anyway back on to the topic, sorry for the Hi jack bro! :pfft:

[ThePman]

i got the old skool Vista one, mewh does the trick, but im a geek and always looking for a better version of something, tried looking for Open source programmes to no avail,

i must say the windows live move maker looks snazzy with the lense flair effects :nod:

This is the only open-source video editor worth a damn: http://www.openshot.org/

It's not great, about on par with the Windows MovieMaker, but at least it saves me from having to run Wine.

EDIT: You know now that I look at it it's Linux only. My bad.

[tomsammce]

who is KP? and whats with the bar rolling up his neck each time he hit his depth the pushes up... looks like bar gonna roll over top of his head... looks like an injury waiting to happen?

[drizzt]

who is KP? and whats with the bar rolling up his neck each time he hit his depth the pushes up... looks like bar gonna roll over top of his head... looks like an injury waiting to happen?

That's me bro (my initials so friends that see it don't get confused with my forum name :pfft:)

The problem I've got is shoulder flexibility and getting the elbows under the bar, they keep wanting to pop out the back which forces my upper back down and the bar to roll up. Part laziness + core strength (keeping the back tight, chest up), and flexibility is the rest of the problem :nod:

Definitely something I'm working on, playing with grips at the moment to try and overcome the shoulder part in particular (as well as shoulder flexibility exercises before every workout). Believe it or not, it has improved a little bit from when I started the program, still a decent bit to go though.

[drizzt]

28.06.11 - Smolov Intense Cycle, Week 2, Day 1

99.6kg today. Beginning to tighten the screws a bit on the diet. Still a lot of "whatever" on training days, but I'm being a lot more strict with low-calories and low-carb on my days off. Also getting a lot more greens in, with decent Ka Pai salads featuring at least 3x per week (from 0-1ish weekly before this :shifty:), and have started back on fish oil + multi vits. This is all on top of DAA and Creatine.

Also getting one or two 1-2hour walks in each week (did a 1.5hour walk yesterday) to help with weight control.

All in all feeling ok with how things are "outside" of the gym at the moment :nod:

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  Warmups
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 8 @ 80kg
  1 x 6 @ 100kg
  Working Sets
  1 x 4 @ 125kg
  1 x 4 @ 147.5kg (b)
  1 x 4 @ 167.5kg (b)
  2 x 4 @ 190kg (b/kw)
  1 x 3 @ 190kg (b/kw)
  
• Bench
  Warmup Sets
  1 x 6 @ 60kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg
  1 x 1 @ 125kg (paused)(was meant to be 115, my bad)
  Working Sets
  1 x 1 @ 132.5kg (paused)
  2 x 5 @ 115kg
  1 x 4 @ 115kg (missed 5th)
  
• Landmines
  3 x 10/ps @ bar

Comments

• Squats felt great tonight, leading into the session the DOMS were fairly bad again, particularly in the adductors... slightly worryingly (although not quite as bad as last week). So I took Pman's advice and knocked back 1000mg of Ibuprofen on the walk to the gym which seemed to settle things down nicely. The sets at 190 were actually meant to go 1 x 3, and then 2 x 4, but I figured I'd rather finish the evening with the easier set, so knocked my sets of 4 out first :shifty:
  Everything went up nicely, not a lot to say, depth looked ok on the footage... but I did have a bit of a eureka moment when looking back on the last set of my squats, re: elbows flaring out.
  I noticed that on the first rep of each set (that I recorded), the elbows looked great. In line with the bar, sort of what I'm hoping they'll look like all of the time. However, just as I was completing my first rep, the bar bounces on my upper back at the top of the rep, and my elbows/arms shoot back to stabilise it (whether involuntarily, or habitually, I'm not quite sure).
  This complicates things slightly, as I'm not sure I want to slow down the ascent - and possibly consequently, the power - of my rep to stop the bar bouncing. But at the same time, the reps after the 1st are chronic for the bar rolling up my back, and as Tom points out, is probably an accident waiting to happen. Not to mention that fixing it will likely make for a more comfortable, and stronger squat.
  If anyone has any ideas on this I'm keen to hear from you
  
• Bench wasn't too bad, in the warmups I intended to go 100-115-132(working set), but accidentally loaded the 10s instead of the 5s. M.T knocked out a slightly tough paused rep, and I had a bit of trouble with mine also... and then saw I had loaded it wrong :doh: My bad, as I passed the plates to him for the other side.
  132 went up really easily with a decent pause, so I was pleased with that. As for the 115 sets, they were ok, first set was easy, second was a bit tough, 3rd was tough as, and I just lost the line of the bar as I was descending for the 5th rep which threw me off and I could barely get it off the chest.
  I really think my bench has completely stalled at this point - at best! And at worst, I think it has gone backwards slightly. I'll be happy with a paused 140 once the squatting is done with, but tbh I can't see much more than that for the time being.
  And M.T has pretty much flown by me, as he made all of the benching today look easy - remembering that 115 was his 1RM when he started at the House a few months back, now he's getting easy sets of 5 out on it! Again though, I'm not terribly fussed on how bench is at this stage, I'll get the reps if I can, but am not going to lose sleep over it if I miss some here and there.
  Landmines were thrown in for a bit of core work, we will be doing this every session. They were also pretty basic weight-wise as we hadn't done 'em for a while, and the bar was tough enough for now :shifty: Forgot to do our intended recovery sled drags after squats though, oops.

[Big john]

theres alot of pill poppers popping up on the PL/Strength journals :pfft: :pfft: myself included

[steak]

Solid bit of mahi bro 8)