Do you have any pics of the inside of your gym?
I’ve taken lots of pics, the last couple months of my garage gym, of different exercises I do, and of the hanging squat rack I welded up out of a bed frame 
as well as a vid of my TRX ab and tricept killer set up. Problem I’m having is I can’t get them to upload. The computer at home is old, still runs Vista, and my wife and I are on different shifts, she some how gets things to upload. I’ll try to bug her tonight to do a couple.
If your talking about my comercial gym, there’s a web site and a virtual tour on line, but i think your talking about my garage gym. It will be atleast Jan. before I’ll be allowed back at my commercial gym do to legal reasons, so I’m going to have to figure out how to get some heat out to my garage, it’s just starting to get cold now, up here in Canada. On an up note finaly got another 100lbs delivered from my gym, so that puts me at 500lbs at home. I’ve been waiting a few weeks for someone to bring it over, my guys are slow, but now I can push my dead a little harder. Latter
your commercial gym that you have, what’s it called?
I can’t say much about the franchise here, but someone with a brain could figure out from my name and province on my avatar, plus my city Port Hope, and put it all togeather to take the tour. The outside pic of the building is my new location, the inside pics are my first location, it’s now yellow inside, and much bigger. All my recent legal problems stem from moving the gym. We opened in a strip mall, and the roof leaked, the landlord wouldn’t do anything about it. I had 250 thousand dollars of equipment getting ruined every time it rained, so I mover across the road.
The landloard sued me for breaking the lease. I sued him for trying to sieze my equipment. In the process he dug up my crimminal past, and claimed I threatened him, and claimed he found a molitof fire bomb on the roof that didn’t go off, so i got charged with arson, and extorsion. While I wait for my day in court, I can’t go 250ft from his property. My new gym sits across the street, within 250ft, so I can’t enter my own gym untill the court bullshit is over. I have been waiting a year and a half, without being found guilty of anything. hard to take some days, but I’m getting through it. Figured this was a good as time as ever to explain why I can’t enter my own gym Also in the virtual tour is a pic of me when I first opened the gym, just gotten clean and sober, put alot of weight on since then. Cocain is a good way to maintain a 6pack. Latter
I will definitely take the tour! Keep your head up big guy, the better man wins eventually.
I’m struggling to get all my calories in lately, since I added the pound of burg, plus 4 cups of cooked rice, my egg consumtion has gone down. I’m having a hard time getting it all in, Thurs. and Frri last week I was to full to eat my big bowl of bran flakes before bed, and this plugs me up. I’m not to worried about it, I make sure i get the burg and rice, and then slowly bring my egg total back up.
I loosen up my diet on the weekend, and on Sat after my workout I went old school, and had a whole box of original KD with a can of tuna mixed in. Nice, I used to live on this stuff, there’s somthing so satisfying eatting a whole box of KD to your self, no other food seems to give you that same feeling. On a side note I also switched from salmon oil to flax seed oil, got a bunch cheap. I know a spoon full tastes alot better, but I hope it works just as well. I try to get 2 gams a day 4 table spoons, and I think this plays a big part in keeping my joints pain free. Interesting to see if flack seed does the same job./ Latter
above is me trying to paste a pic, not much of a nerd, lol
It’s funny, I’m up fininshing my roof today, nice sunny day, couple hours of odds and ends. i’m thinking about fridays squat session comming up. It’s been along time since I’ve been so worked up about a workout. Tomorrow i squat 315x5x5, then on fri. i squat 350x6x3 last Smolov workout, and I added 30lbs in 3 weeks. I’m working as hard right now to gain strength back, as i ever worked the first time around.
There might be such a thing as muscle memory, but I’m thinking once you go over a decade your back to square one. Once apon a time in a galaxy far far away, i remember working up to 5 plates for doubles and trpples, but it feels the sxact same to my body right now having 3 plates, kinda strange. In all fairness I’ve been back training heavy for 6 months at the end of Nov, thats when i’ll up date my pics.
It falls squarely on my shoulders, in all reality after my fall in 99, I had a bunch of operations, but I think I could have been back traing squats in under 2 years. I just used it as an excuse, for a while I chased a double body weight bench, and then I put my effort into building my clientel.
transfering my desire to get strong to my kids, it’s hard to explain unless you’ve been a trainer, but you can start focusing on getting your kids strong, and kind of put your own training on the back burnner. For the better part of 5 years I was doing small cycles of gear, and focusing on my upper body, only doing leg press, and rack pulls for my legs.
Lots of excuses going on then. I knew my leg was better, but i told my kids I couldn’t squat heavy because of my left leg. Sorry excuse for a coach. Anyway excuses are over, here I am working my ass off to get to 4 plates, with an upper body that looks like it should be able to squat 6 plates 
I always made fun of those guys, big guys walking on stilts.
Here I am, owning up. What ever your weights are, you have to own them. I see alot of kids imbarassed by they’re weights, telling lies, about they’re number’s, doing half reps, or turning to juice. At the end of the day you only compete with your self, and when you cheat, you only cheat yourself. I know my squats are legit, I’m squatting to a 14 inch bucket, and touch it on every rep, no wraps no belt, and so far no juice. It’s hard knowing it’s only a phone call away, owning the gym that shit comes free to me, but I want to do it my way, the hard way. I’ve done it both ways, but for me it feels better when you earn it. People can acuse me of alot of things, but I’ve been putting the work in on this, starting back at the bottom. Oh well Fridays only one step on the journey, and then on to bigger things. Latter
Oct 30 Wed—Got a quick workout in today before work
squats and curls
315x5x4 plus some curls
deads and latterals
365x3x3 plus some front latterals
Quick workout because it was early, starting to get cold up here in the north. The whole point of this smolov routine is to get ready for a meet, and I can’t help but get caught up in how i’m building to a last workout, thats how it feels anyway, that every thing over the last 3 weeks has been a build up to this last workout. Plus I’m taking a full week off from lifting after next workout, so thats my excuse for not pushing real hard on deads today, save a little lower back for Fri squat finaly, Latter
I have my last workout of this cycle tomorrow, I’m going to take a whole week off no lifting at all. I haven’t deloaded my 531 workouts in a couple months and I spent the last 3 weeks doing my version of this smolov. i’m having a hard time picturing a workout now where i didn’t squat first, and thats big for me, seeing as squats have always been an exercise I didn’t much enjoy (loved bench, and deads)
There’s alot of pluses, and negatives, but I’m sure that I’m going to carry on squatting every workout, I think I’m going to change things up a little more during my deload week though. As much as I’m getting stronger, my knees are getting beat up, so I need to tinker to fit my body, mabey a speed day or somthing, just to lesson the load. I’ll figure it out while I’m off. The nice part is only 3 week cycle, so I can make an adjustment, and at the end of 3 weeks know if it worked or not, if I’m stronger or not.
Anyway finish up tomorrow, and take a week off, but when I come back I’m going to stop calling this squat routine smolov, I’v already changed it once, and if i start adding rep days, or speed days, it will just start being my own program. The point is I learned I love to squat 4x a week, and it makes me stronger. Latter
It’s good to hear you’re holding up well in what sounds like a very difficult situation with a lot of temptation.
How do you like owning/managing from afar?
LoRez, ya life’s like a farris wheel, round and round, and you have to try and learn your lessons hopefully the first or second time around. I quit drinking and screwing around in my early 20s, after I lost my first wife. Then settled down with my second, sober, with a house a buisness (16 employes) bikes, boats. Then when I fell and hurt myself, I fell off the wagon, ands started back drinking plus drugs, and lost everything all my toys, and another wife, and seven years of my life. This time, the third time, when I got sober, and remaried, I learned my lesson, and put things in place so it wouldn’t happen again. I started a NA group, I work with young kids with drug and achohol problems, and alot from abusive homes. This time when things got rough, cops tried to run me out of town, and kept me away from my gym for a year, and a half. I had things in place, so I wouldn’t go off the tracks. This time I’m not buiring my head in the sand. it’s been rough, I have a good kid managing the gym, I handed most of my clients off to other trainers, my wife’s at the gym every day, doing books and stuff. It’s not ideal but were managing, and it pays the bills.
It’s all comming to a head in Jan, finaly have trial, first time in my life I’m looking forward to trial, because it’s all make believe. I understand the cops not wanting me here, thats there job. I opened a buisness in this small town, the cops got wind of my past, and they think I’m up to somthing, but the funny thing is I’m really not. For the first time ever I’m playing it straight. A couple of them have gone way out of bounds trying to close me down. It’s going to come full circle and bite them in the ass. I’ll be back in my gym by Feb. mar. by the latest. Anyway on to my workout.
Nov 1 Fri Squat, last workout of smolov, and i don’t feel that bad, like everyone told me. Im begining to think people say theyve done smolov, and say how horible it is, but they really havent, because its not that bad, as long as you set the % right, like 531 don`t start to heavy, because you have to add weight every week.
Squats, and curls
350x6x3 I`v been dreading this workout, turned out not so bad, could have got 5 on any set
bench, and rev bench (face pulls) did these between every set-mex20
135x10
225x5
275x5
275x5
275x5
250x5
250x5
250x5
225x5 moved grip in, and made them pause, and explode reps
225x5
225x5
See you guys in a week ! Latter
Off week ramblings, So usually I like to only change or add one thing at a time to my program, wheather it be sups, food, or exercises, that way i know if they worked or not. I track my progress closely so when somthing changes i know why. I have been following my version of 531 since i came back (5mths), and my squat had been stuck at 315x5ish for a few cycles, I added smolov, and my squat jumped by atleast 30lbs in 3 weeks.
Here’s the delema, obviously my body responded to increased squatting, but I jumped from 1 session a week to 4 sessions a week. I’m wondering if I could get the same gains with 2, or 3 sessions a week, or it has to be 4, or should I go back to squatting regular 531 now that I broke through the plateau. This is the fun of weight liffting, and figuring out your body, what I do know is I enjoy squatting every workout, and my body seems to respond, but my knees were sore during the whole 3 weeks.
I’v decided to make some adjustments, i’m going to still squat evey workout, but lighten up two of the workouts, and see if I can still get same type of gains with less strain, and wear and tear on my knees, also by having one really light speed day, it will allow me to have a deadlift workout, somthing I couldn’t do with the regular smolov. The beauty of this is it’s only a 3 week program, so wheather it works, or dosen’t work i’ll know in 3 weeks time.
i’ll post my proposed workout below, and i’m going to start back probably Wed.-Fri some where around there depending on schedual and feel. That gives me 5-7 days off with absolutly no liftting, it’s been hard to stay out of the weight room, but i needed the break. I’v always thought it was a good sign when you have to fight with your self to stay out of the gym, I think a sign of over training is not wanting to workout, so when your dying to get to the gym and can’t stand being off for a day, good sign. Anyway new proposed workout below, and I’m open to coments/sugestions between now and Wed. Latter
Jake’s Russian squat program+531
Day#1 Squat 70% - 3x8, military 531 pyramid down to BBB, assistance
Day#2 Squat 50% - 8x3 (speed work) Deads 531 required reps only, assistance optional
Day#3 Squat 80% - 5x4, bench 531 pyramid down to BBB, assitance
Day#4 Squat 85% - 6x3, cleans, and asstance, optional by feel
One day on / one day off, same as always
Thats it thats all, I’ve been wanting to try advanced 531 on bench, and military, but I think it’s best for a cycle to leave everything the exact same as it’s been, while I tinker with my squat. If the squat layout works, or not I’ll know in 3 weeks, and then I can worry about other stuff, if I change to much at once I won’t know for sure whats causing what. I’v basicaly taken the smolov program I was following and dropped two heavy days in favour of a rep day, and a speed day, everythings at the lower end of prilepin’s chart, the same as before, but I have alot less weight on my back two of the days, to make it more agreeable to my knee’s. My focus is 100% on my squat right now, getting it back where it was, for me, I feel the squat is key to getting all my other lifts back. I want to squat 500, and everthing else can take a back seat till I get there. Latter
Ya did a workout today, I wanted to stay off till tomorow, but couldn`t do it. Anyway did this
Squats, and no curls
305x3x10, i was suposed to do sets of 8, but 10 felt right today
Suported Military ----- pullups
135x10 ------ mex8
155x5 ---------mex7
215x5 ---------mex6
205x8 --------mex6
185x10 ------mex6
185x10 ------ 90x15 switched to DB rows, back flat, knee on bench
185x10 ------90x15
185x10 ------ 90x15 wasn`t feeling it, so I stopped
side latterals — dips BW - did the rest of the workout at fast pace
30sx20 ------ mex20
20sx20 ------ mex20
10sx35 ------ mex20 the form ao the last 5 dips was bad, pretty beat.
Great workout, the squat felt light, mabey because I had four full days off, I don`t know, good times. Latter
Taking this off of that thread… I actually did squats and milk almost every other day for over three months. Sometimes I’d only get to 17 or so, rack the bar, and then do the last 3. Sometimes I’d just stop, and repeat the weight next time. However, once I got a solid 20 at a weight, I’d add 10 and continue.
I think I just went form 145 to 210 or something (for 20). Nothing too special, but definitely helped my mental game.
Actually, when I first started out doing 20 rep squats – and I’ve done it twice – I didn’t have a rack, so I was Steinborning the bar from the floor with a few layers of vice-style collars. Fun times.
But now I’m giving CT’s layer system a shot. It’s… very different. I’m going to run this for at least the next 5 months. Based on that, I may end up jumping to a very basic 3x a week, alternating “squat + overhead press” with “deadlift + bench” or something.
However, I really seem to be getting a lot out of the layer system methodology, so we’ll see.
My wife and daughter wanted spagetti tonight, and I’m cooking right now, but I’m becoming so sick of ground beef, I can’t even look at it. Oh the joys of getting stronger. Latter
Are you asking my advice Lorez, or were just continuing our conversation from the other thread. Anyway love high rep squats, part of me would like to get 315x20, but I’ll come back for that at another time. I had a brief look at the layer system, it looks like a way to get a bunch of reps at a high weight %, and focusing on a handfull of basic exercises. Seems like a solid formula.
I believe in training that if a programs worth doing it’s worth doing for 3mths atleast. 3mths is where I stop and look at progress, and see what i think, so your on the right track that way. Anyway, I think doing this smolov routine has really hepled me get back mentaly where I needed to be. Being able to climb under a bar you don’t think you can get a rep out of, and then getting 3reps, and then doing that for 6 sets.
I’ve been pissing around, and doing BBing routines for so long I’d forgotten how to push past barriers, and grit it out. I honestly believe I can get 500 on my back in under a year of training. I started back in April, and until just recently didn’t think things were going to work out for me, but since running smolov I’v broken through a mental barrier, and dropping my other lifts, and putting all my focus on the squat has changed everything for me lately.
I think the same thing would have happened if I’d run a 20 rep squat program, I needed somthing to get me back to the place, where it’s lift or die, kind of mentality. Get the rep, or have it kill you, LOL. Latter
Nah just continuing the conversation. Figured here was a better place than in that thread.
The layer system is pretty simple once I understood it. Basically, you ramp up to whatever your body can handle in that day, while keeping the reps explosive… basically figuring out how much force you can generate in your current state. This keeps the workout regulated to how you’re feeling that day.
Then try to get in a few sets with as many reps as possible at 90%.
Then try to get in a lot of volume at 70-85%.
And then just periodize those over time, increasing the 90% work, decreasing the volume work, then laying off the 90% work for a week and just doing some lighter volume, and then repeating.
I like the change of focus to force production, not just the mass moved. And I like how it adapts to how you’re feeling, so the actual workout is pretty consistent, physiologically. So, I like all of that.
But I do feel like my shoulders are missing out with the exercise selection of snatch-grip high pulls, snatch-grip deadlift, and bench variations.
–
There’s an old overhead pressing routine I found by Charles A Smith, the guy who coached Hepburn to his record. I’ve been thinking about doing this in addition to the above.
Take a weight you can comfortably do 5x3 with, then do 5x3, 6x3, 7x3 … all the way up to 10x3; start over with 5x4… to 10x4; then 5x5 to 8x5. Then add 10 lbs and start over with 5x3.
What do you think of that? Or do you think I might be better suited with something else? Last I checked, my press 1RM is 130.