Bench and press

Today was the first day I touched the bench after a long time. Did reverse bench press with Twain. Worked up to 155kg for 2 reps. Had 2 sets of 5s with 140kg. Meant to hit 3 reps but wasn't too successful. Then dropped to 120x10, 120x6, 120x4.

After bench, did some pressing. 40kgx10,40x8 for 3sets and then 40x6 for 2 sets. Had 1-2 sets of 50kg, cannot remember how many reps. Did laterals with 10kg for 12 reps x 3 sets.

Anyway Twain is going to do a smolov jr on bench starting next week, but I feel the need to work on my press, which might be affected by my squats due to CNS and lower back. So the smart thing to do is bench. Which would be optimum as it is good to have a partner.

Intense is intense

Today is day2 of intense phase. Figured out that I can't use my real max but instead taper down to 0.95 of it. Which makes it somewhat manageable. First set was 100x3, then 112.5x3, followed by 4x127.5. All these were doable. Then came 145kg. Tried to do but only managed 2 singles. So lowered max to 150, and finished off the rest of the sets with 3 sets of 3 with 135kg and 2 sets of 5 with 127.5.

Day one of intense phase

No wonder it is called intense phase. The weights used are no joke. First two sets of 3 reps with 104 and 4 reps with 120kg were nth but then came the 136kg. Well... It did escalated quickly. Difficulty was exponential. 3 sets of 4 reps followed by 1 set of 5 reps. Was tough. Not too happy with my depth for the first set of 136kg but felt that it improved over the sets. Shall film on wed. Did a mini cycle of presses afterwards. 60kgx3,70kgx3 reps. For a total of 5 sets. Felt lightheaded at the third set but finished it. Okay end of my break, back to studies.

Max Effort with Max

Dear Diary, today I managed to blast my old PR of 140kg into the unknown. Did 3 singles with 160kg. Really need work on that depth. And then decided to attempt 170kg. By then, even though my mind says I am ready but my body decided to take a break. 170kg was as good negative as Twain puts it. Looking at the video, it was like an elevator descending to ground floor. The video is hilarious. Then did 2 singles with 165kg, again was cuz of the depth. Just parallel. Ain't gonna settle for that if I am gonna compete next year. Smolov intense shall start with 160kg and slowly work my way up. Hopefully by the end of it, 180kg should be as easy as pie :)

                                          

                                                                     Me and my 150kg

                                                                  160kg. Depth is required.

                                                               165kg. Depth is required.

Like i mentioned, i will fix that depth issue. Flexibility issue. No worries. After smolov and my china trip, my focus will be on my pressing and deadlifting so plenty of time to fix it.

Presses and musings

I spent the last couple of days asking myself what I really want in life. Do I want to live with passion or live for the sake of walking the well threaded path? Do I have the guts to pursue what I want in life? Is it all too late to make a change? It was a bad session as I went about the exercises with a heavy heart. All the presses suffered as a result of a smolov. Hope to get them back to norm soon. 

Shoulder press with 60Kg: 8,5,5,5,5

Bench press: 80Kg x 5, 90Kg x 5, 100Kg x 3 x 3sets

Push press with 70Kg: 4 sets of 5. 

No structure and lost. just like my mind now.

  

The end of a journey marks the start of another

Today we finished smolov base. 135kg x 3 for 10 sets. Ytd was 127.5kg x 5 for 7 sets. Real proud of myself that I managed to survive this base cycle. All i did now in the gym is squats and eating anything, well almost anything. Got scammed by the bloody Turkish stall ytd, no way in hell am I going back. Stingy mofos with cheap ass paper thin chicken fillets. Fuck, I don't even like the food. That chicken look NOTHING like the photo. Ate a Wendy's twisted frostie with M&Ms just now, had a shake, shall stay up to finish my project due tmr. Can't wait to test my max next week.  

Twain and his 160kg

The Grizzly Champ and his 135kg

Smolov Wednesday

Today was 5 sets of 7 with 120kg. Weight felt light but lower back became pretty fried still. Missed doing other exercises. Been a long while since I do bench, press etc. Now all I do is squat and get out. Not even pullups today. A lot of negative thoughts in my head. Not cuz of gym but school. Before I turn suicidal, let me just conclude that sometimes it really gets lonely, but you got to keep moving forward. Don't look back. You only live once so make the most out of it. And a quote from my friend, sometimes you got to be your own hero. Suck it up.

Smolov Monday

Had kept quite a bit of rage kept inside me but did not even have to summon it today. Bar was light today. 4 sets of 9 reps with 112.5kg. Depth was a bit inconsistent though but no worries, all parallel or more. Did 4 sets of 8 pullups, tried to pull as high as possible, until around sternum area. Then did a bit of hammers, work up to 2 sets of 6 reps of 25kg. Felt quite sluggish, perhaps from the lack of sleep the past few days and food since i slept like 12 hours and with only one meal in (180g beef + 120g chicken, one bowl of rice and a slice of cake) Today i had 2 shakes (50g protein) and 3 pieces of salmon with vege, 2 bowl of oats (60g carbs) and 1 medium frosty (70g carbs). Shall have some milk or what not later. Volume is really low for my liking but it felt really nice seeing my numbers go up for my squats. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK TO TEST MY NEW MAX!

Smolov Sat

Finally realized how shallow I squat... sigh. Shall really focus on depth and leaning forward. 10 sets of 3 reps with 130kg. After that tested bench max. Was a foolish attempt due to the lack of sleep (5 hours) and the fact that I did it after my squats. Did till 130kg but failed at 135kg. Oh well, not too shabby still but yeah aiming dat 3 plates

Smolov Friday

Not enough rest. But you gotta do what you gotta do. 7 sets of 5 reps with 122.5kg. Lower back fried like crispy chicken. Did 1 set of 10 pullups. Really no mood to do more. Bracing myself for tmr's 10 sets of 3 reps. Hang in there quads.

Meanwhile bored with work so I shall post what i eat today to keep track:
Two shakes 50/5
1 litre magonlia chocolate milk 30/100
1 beef rice set 50/60
1 chicken rice + 5 eggs w yolks 60/60

Smolov Wednesday

Busy with all the project and what nots. Resorts to only two exercises per session, but since primary focus is squats if all else fails, just squat. 

115kg x 7 reps x 5 sets

Feels easier than monday but by no means an easy feat. If its easy i wont be doing this shit. Followed by pressing to evaluate how much my strength has dropped/ how much smolov saps my strength. 

Pause pressing

60kg x 5 reps x 2 sets 

70kg x 3 reps x 2 sets 

80kg x 1 rep x 1 set. first set actually failed so count it as one set. Shall set pullups on mondays/fris

, pressing on wed, sat

Smolov Monday (4x9)

Squats 4 x 9 x 107.5

Assisted Pull ups 4 x 10

Now aching. Nth much to say. Stay strong and keep squatting.

Updating my log to show what junk I ate.

400g of smoked duck breast with skin and fats
1 litre of Chocolate milk
Broccoli and carrots
5 Cookies
Half a bar of Chocolate

Smolov Session 3

Boy, now I know how tough it is to do smolov. 4th day squatting. Luckily my toilet at home has a bowl, if not sucks to be me. 10 sets of 3 with 120kg. Good depth. After that tried my max pullps again. I know most of the time these days ppl see me struggling with 10 reps on the assisted pullups and goes "Big man, struggling with pullups." So here is me doing 29.5 reps. Aimed for 30 reps but so close..  

After which I did 5 more sets of 10 on the assisted pullups. Some sets only managed to squeeze out 8, but oh well. Did 3 sets of cable crunches. Bulking on mee pok with pork liver. 

Smolov session 2

Squats. Pretty much sums up today. 7 sets of 5 with 112.5kg. Can be deeper. Again. But completed it. Feel easy now as I look back but when I was doing some sets at the 3rd, 4th rep I ask myself if I can do this shit but I did. After that tested my pullups' new max, to see if my bigger and wider lats helped me pull easier.Aimed for 30, but squeezed out 28 and a half. Not good enough but felt that was due to me taking it too easy on the first 15 reps. Never mind. After that did 6 sets of 8-10 reps on assisted pullups. Big man struggling on pullup machine. Shame. HAHAHA. Now feeling the effects of the squats. Not being a pussy but man, the lower back is pretty fried currently. Can't even sit in my chair properly.  

Press on for Boulders

Pressing day 2. No one around to push me but myself. Still did okay I think. Only one chest exercise, incline bench, rep scheme as follows:

65kg x 5
75kg x 5
85kg x 12

Next is military press, rep scheme as follows:

60kg x 5 x 7 sets

Laterals:

10kg x 12,15,15,15

Rear delt with cable:

20,25,20

Hammer curls with 30kg: 8,6,6

Quite shag when it comes to rear delts, so didn't push as much. No videos today nor pics. Ain't nobody got time for that.