Current Cycles:
[Squat - Smolov Full Cycle], [Overhead Press - Smolov Jr 3-6 Week Cycle]
Progress:
[Squat - Base Mesocycle: Week 3(/3); Day 3(/4)]
[Overhead Press - Full Cycle: Week 1(/3-6); Day 3(/4)]
(Note: All of the following sets were supersetted with the Overhead Press sets which follow.)
Squat
Warm Up
6x 95
6x 135
6x 185
5x 225
3x 245
Work
5x 255
5x 255
5x 255
5x 255
2x 255(failure)
5x 255
4x 255(failure), Zercher’d it up from the pins to the racked position, rested about 30 secs, 1x 255
Overhead Press
Warm Up
5x 65
5x 85
5x 95
Work
Smolov JR. formula called for 108 pounds, so I started with 110 and switched to 105 halfway through the sets.
4x 110
4x 110
4x 110
4x 110
4x 105
4x 105
3.5x 105, rest about 30secs-1 min, 1x 105
4x 105
I think I forgot to write down one of my SOHP sets so I may have ended up doing an extra set of 4x 110 around my 3rd or 4th set of this lift.
Reflections,
Let’s start with the positives:
±- A young lifter came up to me and asked me if,“Excuse me sir. but when you’re done could I get a spot?” Heh, he was probably seventeen, but I guess my facial hair is coming in thick enough and I grunt butch-ly enough that he assumed I needed to be called “sir” as opposed to “dude” or “man.”
±- I got to Zercher (partial) deadlift 255 pounds from the safety pins to the racked position and look cool for the new lifters.
±- I showed myself a little more determination than I expected to upon, sadly, reaching failure on two work sets of squats. I racked it and hit the last rep to show myself I could.
±- I have only one intense day left of this shockingly brutal base mesocycle before I get to take a 3 week hiatus and work on explosiveness, sans actual squat work. Och’Allah!
However, it was a less than satisfactory workout today. I’m attributing it to a number of things. Namely:
O-- I overslept because my wake up alarm didn’t function due to a power outage.
O-- I ate breakfast at 12:00pm, after waking up at about 11:30am, and didn’t start lifting until shortly before 4:00 pm.
O-- I recently ran out of ON Whey and had to switch to an accidentally borrowed jug of a Disembowelement’s hydrolyzed whey from TrueProtein(I’m assuming that’s what it is, correct me if I’m wrong, D.) I don’t believe it contains the same amount/ratios of BCAAs as does ON Gold Standard 100% Whey, so I’m trying to use up the practically useless BCAA 1800 capsules from GNC that I got in like 5th grade (not literally). Ordering a powdered form of BCAAs from TP.com is in order.
O-- Delays between consuming my PreWO shake and actually getting to the gym lead me to believe that I was experiencing a sugar crash by the time I got to my work sets.
(I also think I’m gonna scrap the thick black coffee PreWO. It just doesn’t help with the shakes that I already get before big lifts. I have a very specific 2-3 minute long “psyche up” [as opposed to “psyche out”] routine I go through just before a work set, specifically to overcome this.
The shakiness, in my opinion, outweighs any potential focus and alertness that the coffee may contribute. I think I’ll stick to my two green tea extract capsules about 45 minutes PreWO. Just enough caffeine, plus the B vitamins from my multi, plus some BCAAs should do the trick.)