13.07.2010
Day 29 of 31
Today it was a heavy day. It would be a day that would be one of the best since a long time. I looked forward to it, and I was sure it was going to go well. I could probably have had even one more meal yesterday to really build up the power, but I ate well, and had some good power anyway. Because it was a heavy day today, I did not go for a walk first. I wanted to preserve the power! I had my creatine drink prior to the training, and went down in the basement. The warmup went like this:
50x10,90x5,110x2,130x2,150x2,170x1
Then it was the work sets:
190kg x 7 x 5
The first set was as always a shock for the body, and even though it was pretty strong it did not feel so good. The first set usually never feel very good. The second set was as I anticipated feeling much better than the first, and it was also powerful. The third set felt pretty good, and was probably the best set of the day. When I came to set 4, strength started to decrease. But I still made a good set. When set 5 came I started to lose strength for sure, and set 6 and 7 were both pretty hard, but I guess there was reps left on both of these If I had really wanted it. My best this year is a 190kg x 9 paused squat. I think I could have beat that today if I wanted to. I was considereing doing 3 more sets to get a total of 10 sets, because that is what Holmis,
a norwegian powerlifter does every monday on his current program. So I tought I might do this in honour of him. However, when I did set 6 and 7, I felt there was no more need to put myself down in a ditch. It was enough for today. I could probably have done 3 more sets, but they would have been real grinders, and as you know, I have a light workout scheduled for tomorrow, and a hard workout for the day after that (200kg x 10 x 3), so I decided there was no point in doing 10 sets today, I stuck to the program. When the workout started today I felt rather powerful, and I tought: "Hey, I am in 250kg shape now! And I was almost tempted to skip the workout and go for heavy singles, but that would be really really stupid, it would probably not be successful, and I could have fucked up my training. So I am proud to say: I’ve stuck to the squat program for every day througout the entire month, except for the heaviest workout last week when I tried for some singles and a set of 6 reps instead of 3 at 195kg. I often like to go for some heavy singles after doing 10 sets of tripples. I’ve also increased the weight with a few kilos a few days on the plan, but never more than 2 or 3kg. So I am pretty proud of my dicipline of sticking with the plan. Even when I have had more energy I call it a day, because I know there are many more days to come, so no need to use all the fuel at once. With heavy weights like these, I can feel it in my lower back. No injury, but I can feel the pressure when the discs are compressed and I also feel it after the workout. I do not feel it this way with lighter reps. I would rate the heavy workout before this one as better than the workout today. But the workout today was still pretty good. I know now what I have to do tomorrow, I have to squat early in the day with light weights, and then eat a lot during the day and before bedtime, so I can really crush 200kg x 10 x 3 the day after tomorrow.
At the moment I feel okay, and it do seem like the body is more accustomed to the wolume now. I do not get as destroyed the day after a heavy squat session as I used to in the beginning of the program, but squats are still certainly not as easy as walking! The success of a program like this is very dependent on nutrition. Enough food is really really important. Many people that squat a lot often fail, either because they use too much intensity for their work capasity, or because they eat too little, or both. You also need to be mental strong, sometimes things just do not feel right, but you still have to squat. You can do whatever you set your mind to do, and what myself is concerned, I am willing to push it till it is no longer physically possible to move the weight anymore, but I have not needed to go into those reserves on this program. But still, a lot of workouts have been really brutal and hard, and sometimes the light days have been like heaven for me. I just feel lucky I do not have to do heavy weights that particular day! Motivation is at the moment good, and I am nowhere close to a burnout. Actually I think I have been really good at picking just the right intensities for myself on this program. I was not sure it would work before I started the program, but I made a guess as to what I was capable of doing.
To sum it up, here is the plan I followed in the beginning with 23 days.
W1 4x9@150 8x3@140 5x7@160 10x2@150 7x5@170 8x3@120 10x3@180
W2 7x4@150 4x9@160 8x3@150 5x7@170 10x2@160 7x5@180 8x3@130
W3 10x3@190 7x4@160 4x9@165 8x3@140 5x7@175 10x2@170 7x5@185
W4 8x3@140 10x3@195
And here is the extended week (8 days):
7x2@130
4x9@167.5
8x2@160
5x7@180
8x3@140
7x5@190
8x3@140
10x3@200
So this is a total of 31 days, the two last days I have not done yet.
As you can see, the program started low, and there has been variation in reps and sets, but the weeks, esp. for heavy days look pretty much the same. I will make a website where you can input your 1RM and see for yourself how this would be for you, but until then, you could calculate the percentages if you wanted for yourself. I did not really try a 1RM before this program, but the latest 1RM i did a feew weeks before this program was a non-paused 240kg squat. So I estimate the paused squat should be roughly around 230kg (10kg less than the non-paused squat). However, that is only an estimate. Frankly I believe my 1RM was a bit less than 240kg when I started this program, as the program I did before this one was due to various reasons not a very successful program. I tried for a single at 242.5kg just before this program, and I missed it. I am not sure what kind of weight I could have done that day. I did not feel very well either.
I just realized now that I have done a heavier 7x5 session before. It was with 193kg in last summer. Due to the fact that I found out my weights were too heavy, I have this year adjusted every set with putting 7.5kg more on the bar then what it is supposed to be, so this fixes the sportsmaster 2.5% deviation just nicely. From what I can see, and from what I can tell, the squats today was a lot faster than the squats last summer with 3kg more. However last summer I did not have such a good stop at the bottom, and I did not go as deep as I do now, so it is hard to say, but if I am at the moment not at my strongest ever, it is not far off. And this is what I have been working for all the time, to reach a new all time best in the squat. Injuries and real life complications aside, I am never giving up, never! So it will really be a huge victory for me when I finally get that 250kg squat! Frankly, last summer even if I squatted only 4 times a week on the smolov base meso cycle, which was based at that time of a max that I in retrospect am pretty sure was much too high, I was really trained into the ground, and I was not sure if I was going to get through that shit, but I really did. In the last workout you are supposed to lift at approx 91% of your max in the smolov base meso cycle, but I think it perhaps was a bit more than that for me at that time. I did 243kg right before I went for vacation, and during vacation I had one full week with no training, stomach illness and a lot of weight loss. So I guess I lost a lot of 1RM strength right there. But foolish as I was, I was determined to do another smolov base meso cycle when I got home from vacation, without testing for a new max. If I had tested for a new max, I would probably have to lower the training weights substantinally so I would not kill myself. I really lost energy duing that program and got progressively more and more tired. I had almost no energy left. And I remember walking in the woods very slowy because I was unable to walk fast and thinking for myself: Oh the horrors I have to go through just to become strong, every living moment was like a nightmare, I kind of did not know what to do, or where to put myself, I was just so exhausted, and I started being uninterested in everything, and I was also easily angered. I guess it is just the response one get to that kind of stress. Usually by the end of a program I know, no the right thing to say is: I always know how I feel, and if I have become stronger or not, and if I am going to make some new PRs or not. When I have a good feeling, I am almost always right, and when I have a bad feeling I know that everything is going to be horse shit. At the moment there are many indications that my squat have been stronger. The workouts have been good lately, I feel full of energy, the sets and reps I have done is very good, and very close to my all time bests, and I have also gained about 4kg of bodyweight during this month. I have not bothered to find out how much of this is muscle mass, and how much is water and how much is fat, I guess there is both water and fat added, but also some muscles I would think (since I have became stronger). When I eventually go off creatine, I will probably drop a couple of kilos or something like that.
I always get the question: What kind of supplements do you use? This I think is kind of a funny question, it is a bit like you compete in forumula 1 and a dude comes to you and ask: What kind of material do you use in your doors? The point is that supplements is not the most important issue to get strong. The most importand thing is to have a strong mind, and then to eat, sleep and then train. Training is the trigger, and the other variables is needed to complete the system. But to answer the question: I do use a product called Createch from Dalblads, it is a creatine product. I usually use this before training, sometimes after, and sometimes two times a day, but that is very seldom. It gives a little extra boost, for what ingredients are in this, please google "Createch +Da… somehow I suddenly tought I would double check the name of the box, as they sometimes switch names of their products. So the name really is “Creact”. For more information google “Dalblads +Creact”.
Here is a linkg btw, and if you cannot read it, use google translation. Yeah, google “google translation” to find it and instructions about how to use it. It is very easy.
http://www.dalblads-nutrition.se/eshop/category12/article34.aspx
So the ingredients are:
Kreatinpyruvat
Glutamin
Taurin
CARBEX (som fancy name for a mixture of maltodextrin, dextros, trehalos/Ascend, erytritol och isomaltos (Palanitosâ?¢).
Ornitin
Beta-alanin
Arginin AKG
Magnesium
Celadrin
Vitamin C
There are even some scientific references in there:
-
Jager R, Metzger J, Lautmann K, Shushakov V, Purpura M, Geiss KR, Maassen N. The effects of creatine pyruvate and creatine citrate on performance during high intensity exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008 Feb 13;5(1):4
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J�¤ger R, Harris RC, Purpura M, Francaux M. Comparison of new forms of creatine in raising plasma creatine levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007 Nov 12;4:17.
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Zhang M, Izumi I, Kagamimori S, Sokejima S, Yamagami T, Liu Z, Qi B. Role of taurine
7.J Nutr Biochem. 2006 Sep; 17(9):571-88. Epub 2006 Jan 9. Regulatory role for the arginine-nitric oxide pathway in metabolism of energy substrates. Jobgen Ws, Fried SK, Fu WJ, Meninger CJ, Wu G
Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA, Maresh CM, Anderson JA, Volek JS, Tiberio DP, Joyce ME, Messinger BN, French DN, Sharman MJ, Rubin MR, G�³mez AL, Silvestre R, Hesslink RL Jr. A cetylated fatty acid topical cream with menthol reduces pain and improves functional performance in individuals with arthritis. J Strength Cond Res. 2005 May;19(2):475-80.
And then the typical question will read: Does it really work? Well, if you need to ask that question, you have not really tried a really demanding squat program with and without a supplement like this. Yes, it is expensive and yes it works. But I have also done very though programs with no such supplements, and that works too. The most important thing is food. Once you start buying supplements and are more concerned about having the latest supplement that some roided up bodybuilder advertise, then you have already started the journey of losing. Supplements are just that, supplements. Most beginners probably would have more success with squats and milk than any supplement in the entire world!
Apart from this I have a few buckets of protein powder stacked up, and sometimes I have a scoop and put it in a glass of water, or a glass of milk. Nice if you just need some proteins quickly, but not recommended before bed time. Before bed time I recommend solid foods, like a real beef or two, and some vegetables if you fancy it. It is healthy you know.. I also bought a glass of fish oil, since I worried I might get too little of that, but frankly I forget to take those pills all the time.
The diet is rather boring, but it works, it is mostly just a lot of meat, in all kinds and shapes, beans, eggs, tuna, chicken, turkey, cheese, pizza etc. etc.. I also eat some “unhealthy” foods such as chocklate, ice cream. I try to always stack some nuts by the computer so that I always have something to eat. Chocklate is great for extra calories. How healthy it is for the body and the teeth is another matter altogether.
There are a few rules I try to adhere to:
- Get enough proteins
- Get enough calories
- Try always to eat some solid proteinsource before bed time.
I never force myself to get up during the night to eat more food, but if it happens that I wake up and feel hungry (which is really a bad thing), I go and eat some food. I am not pefect, and sometimes I am just too tired or too lazy to eat properly before bedtime, and I just have something fast. I find that the motivation to eat properly increased when I have some demanding challenges in front of me. For instance, when I know I have a hard squat workout the next day, I am very careful to eat enough, so that I will have enough power. There is nothing so hellish as doing a really heavy squat workout when you have low energy levels. When that happens, every rep and every set is pure agony, and your body fights you all the way, it says: No, no, no,no,no,no.. And it feels horrible too. The only thing that keeps you going is your mind.. Some people would probably have gone home and waited till the next day with the squats, there is not often I do that, I squat no matter what. If that is not the smartest thing to do, so be it, but that is what I got to do. Especially when I am running a program, there is no doubt I am going to complete that workout, I just have to, even if it means nosebleeds, shitting the pants, throwing up, feeling lightheaded and having to get down on the floor for 20 minutes after the training. No matter what, as long as the body can do it, it is what I do. Small pains here and there, some spasms or cramps, I work around it or through it. There has been times where I have pushed myself so hard that I cannot even turn my head in the bed. It is a little like John Broz explained as “floating pain”, there is always pain somewhere, and the interesting thing is to see where it is in the morning. But that was his words. My body is not in constant pain like that, but sometimes it is hard and painful, and that is just what you need to do to get where you want to go. If you are afraid of pain, then squatting is not for you!
Essz!!!
