Strict press Smolov and Front squat Smolov: 125 8x4 and 165 8x4
The strict presses went well, at the last few sets I had to break them up to 3 reps and a single. I believe because its not a rotating bar there is backwards motion. So when I clean the bar turns backwards and sometimes I have sweaty hands which exacerbates this backwards rotation. That challanges my stability in the movement, sometimes when I press it over my head I have crazy backwards rotation almost making me drop the barbell.
Front squat smolov, I think I got a hold of the cleans. I just needed a wider stance and the hang cleans were fairly easy. The squats were also easy, but exhausting which is what I want.
Overhead band extensions: 3x30
I had more energy today, so I decided to invest more in overhead strength. Same band tension but more sets, therefore more volume.
I genuinely thought I was not going to be able to do the front squat smolov when I failed to clean the weight yesterday. I just had to adjust my form a little bit and I got it in hand. Canāt wait to put some immense weight over my head.
I got hella sick for the last 2 days and didnāt eat too much food. Leading to weighing like 160 pounds. Also stopped taking creatine because i was so fucking sick.
I got at most 2 reps from the strict press, and then finished the smolov by adding a push press. I personally donāt think its 130 pounds but I donāt have enough patience to weigh out all of the weight plates. It is also better to be happily surprised rather than sadly surprised. But on the other hand it might also be because the bar type is different from the one I use in school.
Rows: I donāt know but they are 5 pounds heavier than last time, 3x10 with normal reps, paused at top, and power reps
I can really feel my upper back right now, thats a good sign they are working.
My plan is to just do W2D1 tomorrow, and since the lighter weight I should be fine. And continue the rows, since only 12 sets from smolov.
smolov strict press: 115x6x6, front squat: 150x6x6
Dang the front squats are exhausting. The strict press on the other hand were surprisingly easy. I feel as though front squats with more than 5 reps is very difficult.
I did say that I would do rows but I feel something is off with my bracing today. I think from all the coughing I did the past couple days, its all messed up. I had crazy headaches due to that. Imma save them for tomorrow. Overall I do feel like my form for strict press is improving, like I remember in one of the sets I did a really nice straight leg drive and it shot up the barbell. For the front squat, I didnāt even know how to front squat before hand so anything is an improvement. Overall very happy.
Wow when I said the sets were easy before I was lying, the sets I did today were so easy that I rank them easy and rank the āeasyā ones before as mild. No thing after bc W2D3 is tomorrow.
Some of the strict presses were push presses, and I couldnāt make the clean for after 4th set on the front squat. It was an effort, and from what I remember from smolov if you show the effort it will grant you the benefits.
Strict Press: 110x3x8
did some rpe 2 work, felt nice I could tell I was filling in the gaps of the pressing strength.
Really tough day but we continue. on a good idea I could do the sets tomorrow, since I will row and clean those weights anyway.
60 percent normal, 40 percent pause at the top. These were good trying to build the upper back to hold the presses.
one arm pullup 90 degree arm hold:
Cool I discovered I can do these, so I did a couple sets of doing these. Got a huge lat pump, but also asymetry because I canāt do this on the left side.
strict press only today because I could not clean 180. For the first 5 sets it was clean strict press, which is very nice. After I started adding push presses to to finnish off the sets. I ended with 1 strict and 2 push presses.
One arm strict press: 45x2x8
Getting some one arm work, decently light
Volume strict press: 115x8, 115x2x6
Add some volume on top, since I could not do the squats I can go all in on the strict presses.
These were easy, felt like my traps were sore from yesterday. Strict presses were perfect because they became difficult on the last two reps of the 6th set. Every set with front squats were good but difficult.
Volume Strict press 110x8, 110x10, 110x8
First set was difficult, second set I think I couldāve done 11 reps, and the last set was all out.
I mostly hit my lower chest, which is not good. The good thing is I only have 5 more pounds I can add to this barbell until its filled to the brim. The bar seems to have bended, and the break is going to end in about a week. My hope for these were to build some grip, and some back strength and explosiveness. I definitely felt them yesterday on my mid back.
Rows: 185x5x10
Now I do think my reps were kinda shit for the last 2 reps but I think thats alright given that, my grip is wider than normal rows and I donāt have my straps. If this weight is actually 185 hell yeah my back is getting stronger, and I am developing my base of strength for deadlifting. Wider base higher peak.
I am imagining a 500 pound deadlifter rowing around 225-275 pounds so I do think my horizontal rows do need a work, which this is great time for me to develop them given that I am have not deadlifted in a month.
Couldnāt do the clean for the last set, I tried about 5 times but couldnāt get under it. I also donāt know how to power clean so all of these clean is from a hang.
Ok so the second set was all strict press. Every other set had a push press to complete the rep, then on the last rep I did a long negative. On the last set it was all push press which kinda sucked but still some good work. The bar it so bent it pushed my wrist back and hurts them a little. All good I feel like I maxed this home gym.
No Front squat I couldnāt clean one rep, difficult since the bar is both bent and fixed. I tried about 5 times before I said this might be enough.
Volume Strict press: 120x6,8,5ish
Since I couldnāt do the front squats put more of effort into the strict press. No push presses here, and the last set was so difficult.
100 pull-ups throughout the day. EZPZ volume and pump. The idea is that if I am gonna get 250-300 pullups in an hour I have to condition to do pullups on command.
I maxed out the bar no more weight can be held from the bar. 3 attempts sticked on the third one.
High pulls: 190x10x5
I noticed that the higher weight did make me pull lower obviously, so I added that I intentionally pull myself down as well to get better at hang cleans without hang cleans. Since the change mostly around nipple height sometimes higher like upper chest and collarbone sometime lower like top of ribs.
rows: 190x5x8
really heavy
On the second set since the bar is bent it rolled in my hands which was a shitty experience. After the sets it was normal rows.
Pullups: 100 reps before the session
If I had to guess it was under 30 minutes. My hands really hurt but after a threshold it hurts less during the pull-ups. I did all the pull-ups before the session since it was gonna be a back day.
About a week of not logging my work. Main reason was I thought the workouts were not very fun workouts. From what I remember I did 100 total reps with 120 strict press, same with rows with a higher weight, 200 pound high pulls with 10x5, achieving 200 hang clean, and 10 hang cleans with 190 singles. I found a way to fit 200 pounds on the bar, which was fun but it bent the bar to no return. I donāt think I can use this bar any more. A cool thing is that I had this bar since junior year of high school, so a little sad having my last workout with this bar. I am going back to university tomorrow, and I will start the workouts on Saturday.
I started my warmup with strict presses which I got 135 for a pretty easy and speedy 3. Since I focused on strict press for such a long time I think I have very good mental cues for the strict press but I forgot some of the push press ones. For example for the strict press its not good to be as violant as possible because you might accidentally use your calfs or press out. But I am getting back into the groove of things for the push press.
185 felt pretty easy. 4th rep with 175 I the bar completely stalled out mid rep and I had to push it up but still I got it. Last rep was the speediest 175 I have done from what I remembered.
Strict press: 115x3x6, 95x3x6
I was planning on doing 115x6x6, but my shoulders were burnt. I even felt as if 95 with the last set was a difficult one.
Lat pull down: 180x2x8
going back into these.
Tricep Extension with spread out: 30x12, 35x10, 35x8
Holy wow these are hard. I heard I have to do a couple weeks of unspecific work to expand my base to have a higher week. These are fairly unspecific but I have also heard they bring the triceps up.
Dumbbell tricep extension on the shoulders: 25x3x15
these put a lot of blood in my long head, hoping to get to use the 50s one day. At least getting 45s for a set of 8 seems reasonable given my last touching this exercise.
On a side note I think I have the norovirus, which is the reason why I donāt wanna do deadlifts today. I have gotten the symptoms stage out of the way but still I donāt want to have an accident in the gym lol.
I will do my deadlifts tomorrow. 275x5, 315x5, and 365x5 is planned but I will see what I can doā¦ maybe there is 6 on the table for 365.
Now I had one hour to workout so I initially thought it was gonna be shit. But to the contrary this was the best deadlift workout in a while. 365x5 was very easy, I guarantee you I had one more rep in the tank maybe 2. Which is a nice statement especially coming from a month of not touching the deadlift. I just made one adjustment I put the belt a touch higher than normal. I felt like the belt was making me bend my back more which made my start position uncomfortable.
RDL: 225x8, 275x2x6
I made sure that the descent was slow and I did not ābounce from the bottom.ā Something I definitely did in all my rdl sets, I can tell you these fried me to a huge extent. At least they did not feel slow or heavy coming up from the bottom of the rep.
Back extensions: bw+4kg for 30, 15, 15 reps
I initially tried to do 2x30 but that was just out of the availability window. There is so much hammy and glute pump its hard bending over to sit down to the chair.
One arm hangs: did not check
I just felt it out. Very good it boosted my confidence. But also if the grip is good then the system is healthy so I that can explain my deadlift.
Put a lot in one small workout because of life situation but damn was that a nice workout
Ok So I am deciding that if I push the weight on these then automatically my legs cannot be the limiting factor for the deadlift. So I am guessing my max is 225(pitiful) and I am doing 5/3/1
Pause Deadlifts: 225x3x3 with 5 second pause right above ground
Deadlift felt super good, my hammies were still shot from Monday. Inspiration from Martins Licis deadlift pause with 715 pause at 7 seconds. Its cool when experiencing something new and interesting, for example I didnāt use straps for this. It would be a good goal to do these while needing the strap or else it would be a limiting factor. So about 300 pounds ish
Leg Press: 3 plates 2x10
I hate leg press, so we started small to gain all the small mental wins without me bailing on this exercise.
Leg extension: 40x2x10
My quads were destroyed but I look back and I say I did sandbag these and I am ashamed of it. Next week we will not be
Abductor Machine: 100x20, 130x15-20
130x20 if you count the inch of motion on some of these reps. I never train these but having big legs is cool and productive. I wonder if I will get the same sensation that I got from the adductors. At first they are seemingly difficult, and second to third week the weights increase to a huge extent. We need strong and healthy hips if we wish to pull 500.
A pure leg day which is something I lack doing because my legs suck. And my legs suck because I donāt do leg days. So I will begin this and mentally accept all the small victories, get moving with these goals.