Smolov session 1

Virgin session with smolov. Was scared cuz of DOMS from legs day on Monday. However once I started squatting, it felt so right. 5 sets of 7 with 105kg. Good depth i feel. Can go deeper but we ll take it slow. Did 8 sets of assisted pullups, 80 in total. Squeezing my back like a lemon. Delts tmr and some chest.

Boulders Boulders Boulders

Today we decided to start smolov from tmr onwards. Been looking forward to smolov since Abel finished it and since I am to go overseas, we decided to push forward it. This means no more rest day tmr. Anyway today we did shoulders. Reps as followed.

Shoulder press:
50kg x 5
60kg x 5
67.5kg x 7

Here is me struggling with the 8th and before I make it into a push press.

Incline bench press:
60kg x 10 x 3sets (60% for training max)

Pause bench:
80kg x 3 x 5 sets

Shit loads of laterals after 3 sets of 15 with 12.5kg. Dropped down to 10kg and did 25 + at least 50 reps with 7.5kg. (lots of pauses in btw so need to work on it)

And ended off with some pictures, posting up my back shots since it improved the most.

This is me about 3 weeks back.

This is me today. Pretty happy with the wider back

I m bringing sexy back

More Squats for More Quads

Legs Day. Squats. Enuf said. Reps as below:

85x5, 100x5, 110x14.

Should have pushed myself for 15th. Nvm, looking forward to next session.

Pause Squats:

3 sets of 5 with 80

Step ups:
3 sets: 8,10,10 with 50kg

Superset hamstring curl and lying hamstring curl.

Abs and lower back 3 sets

Note to self: never lose focus after doing legs. Get into the fuarking zone and make the most out of it. Had Wendy's Twisted Frosty with M&M. Deserve every bite.

                                         110kg for 14 reps. I know I got more in me. Watch me         

The Day before Cycle 2 of 5-3-1

Just had a no carbs day. Maybe trace amount from that teaspoon of honey I had, but i am freaking sure it is lower than 30g. Shall just jot down the weights I will be using for the next week. All reps of 5 for the main lifts with the last set being 5++.

Squats
85kg, 97.5kg, 110kg

Press
50kg, 60kg, 67.5kg

Incline Bench
65kg, 75kg, 85kg

Deadlift
85kg, 97.5kg, 110kg

Hope to drill the deadlift form nicely into my thick skull before moving onto some decent weight. That's all for today. LEGS DAY TMR!

Bench and Press

Today was Chest and Shoulders. Favorite day of all. And just nice to redeem myself before the Gods of Iron for the cheesecake, chips and sips of beer last night. Considered myself to perform okay with only 5 hour plus of sleep. Prime mover of the day was incline bench, reps as followed: 75x5, 85x3,  95x6. After which we did 3 sets of inclined pause benching with 60kg: 8,7,5. Moved onto flat pause bench. Worked up to one set of 100x3 and then did 3 sets of 90x3. Twain went to do more chest while I moved onto shoulder pressing. Did pause pressing. 50x3,60x3,70x3, want to mentally kick myself so did a 80x1 and went on to do 5 sets of 60x3. Joined twain to do laterals. 3 sets of 12.5x12-15 and then surfed the rack. 20 reps from 7.5kg, went up to 15kg and down to 5kg. Total reps for the last set is 160reps. Burned like crazy. Went to eat Minced pork noodles. Uncle gave fuckloads of chilli which burned my lips like crazy too. Went to Wendy's and got us both a medium Frosty, now back home, had oats and salmon. Time to K.O soon.

Incline benching 95kg x 6. Love my current form, so much controlled than before. Next week we are back to week 1 of the 2nd cycle.

Oh, btw here is me pulling sleds. I like to pretend I am a buffalo at times.

Gun show

On the journey to 17". To get big guns, you need to go heavy. Rep scheme as below:
Cable pull down warm-up
Close grip flat bench with 100kg : 6,6,4,3,3
Db extension: 4 sets of 12-15 with 12.5kg, last set drop set
Max out dips
Close grip incline bench with 60kg : 8,8,10
Db hammer curl with 30kg : 8,8,8
Preacher curl with 10kg : 12,12,12+drop set
Rear delt to failure

Thanks to Tim and Twain managed to get my arms to be pumped. 100 x 6 is a PR for me btw.  

Back for more back

Started off with deadlifts. Followed according to plan for the sets.
Rep scheme:
5 reps with 100
3 reps with 110
3 reps with 120

Moved onto singles with 140kg. Felt good. Form was decent. Did 6 singles and dropped down to 130kg due to grip and did 2. 

After that 5 reps of 10 with assisted pullups (close enough. 10,10,10,8,10)

2 sets of unlimited rows

Feel not enough vertical pulling: 2 sets of 10

Finished off some shrugs, abs and went for Wendy's frosty.

Delt redemption

Continue from just now. Did laterals. Started off as planned. 3 sets of 10 with 15 reps. 1 set of 15 with 10kg. So I asked twain to spot the last set. Plan is to surf the rack. In the end we really hit the big wave. 15 reps with 15, 20 reps with 12.5, 30 reps with 10, 30 reps with 7.5, and endless reps with 5. After which I hit the rear cable flyes, 20,25,30,25. Ended off the day with shrugs, went up to 170x5. End of boulder building.

Boulders. You need to strive for boulders

Just had delts day. U need boulders, not shoulders. Remember that. Had a short workout first due to rushing off to a meeting. Aim to continue after class to finish up with laterals and rear delts. We want that popping delts. Anyway genetcally not primed to have good delts due to sloping shoulders but we work with what we have right? Phil Heath is known to have sloping shoulders too and look at where he is now.

Anyways rep scheme for military press is shown as below:

5 reps of 60kg
3 reps of 67.5kg
3 reps of 75kg

Felt good. And did 8 sets of 3 reps of 60kg for pause press (lower for 2-3 secs, pause for 2-3 secs, explode, repeat).

                                                             Here is a vid of me pressing.

Personally I always like pressing and benching (yeah i am more of a press guy than a pull guy), nothing is more manly than lifting a heavy ass weight over your head and locking out. Looking forward to the latter part of laterals and rear delt work.

One last point to share in case there are any random viewers ( hi there!), shoulders grow best under Time Under Tension (total volume and intensity). The reps may not go high but pausing really help to develop. Also, do not focus too much on the front delts (too much work from bench and presses), bring up the rear which is lagging by doing face pulls and rear delt work.

Legs Day

Just finished legs day and writing this as I eat my oats and whey along with my roast chicken with veges. Okay let's review what I just did. After warming up a few sets with the bar and 60kg, I moved on to my first working set.

Rep scheme as below:

1. 5 reps with 95kg
2. 3 reps with 107.5kg 
3. 1+ rep with 120kg 

Actual work done: 5,3,4. Not too bad. Should have been a 5 but i pussied out and did not go low enough. Next week will do better. Moving on to the assistance work. Today Twain tried to be fancy and wanted a change, so we did step ups with 40kg with the medium box instead of the usual superset of heavy leg press/ lunges with 30kg.

3 sets of 10 for each leg with 40kg 

Moving on to leg presses with really strict ass form, rep by rep.

3 sets of 15 with 120kg 

and we focus on the eccentric. speaking of eccentric, some mofo tried to be funny and used the same weights as us and almost killed himself. Not saying we use heavy weights since the main focus is the slow negatives but this dude just come up and did 2 inch presses.

Afterwards some hamstring work to bring up my lack of hammies, hamstring curl

4 sets of 10 with 57.5 

followed by stiff leg dl

4 sets with 60kg, 8,8,10,6 (really need work on grip and mental focus)

lastly, some calves press with 120kg where the focus is the squeeze and stretch and last set we drop it down to 80 but more stretch, (8sec instead of the previous 5sec).

4 sets of 15 press

 

Squats

And abs, just 4 sets of 8 of hanging leg raises. That's all. Legs feel good.  Looking forward to tmr's delts.

Diet and Supps

Diet

Basically I still cannot decide whether to bulk or to cut for the past one year. It is disappointing to see the lack of abs. Yeah, fuck me right but it is tough to get abs when you are weighing 80 plus kg. K rants aside, Twain has asked me to list my goals and since the mid term goal is to compete in 2014, I shall bulk/ bring up my lagging parts such as my lack of delts, legs and back and rear delts and arms and pretty much everything. Following the Carb Backloading diet now which means no or minimum carbs before workouts then carbs after trainings. Amount of carbs varies based on muscle groups bring big or small. Yeah, your arms are considered small so less carbs on Sat which is arms day. Main carb source are from oats now. Protein source varies from chicken to lean pork to salmon to eggs.

Supplements
A typical day's worth of supplements I am on now.
Morning:
2 scoops of Dymatize Whey
2 Gaspari Anavite

Lunch:
1 NOW green tea extract
1 Anavite
1 NOW Ultra Omega 3

Pre-Workout:
1 scoop ON Creatine Monohydrate (5g)
2 scoops ON Amino Energy

Post-Workout:
2 scoops of whey

Dinner:
1 NOW Ultra Omega 3

So we have creatine, BCAAs, Omega 3, Green Tea extract, Multi-vitamins and whey. Pretty basic stack. Current weight is around 82-83kg with more fats than I like but fuck me right?

5-3-1

Today marks the Sunday before the third week of 5-3-1. By right we are suppose to go on to 1reps with training max weights, however, due to my trip, we are hitting the first week of the second cycle of 5-3-1 on Monday. Due to messing up of travel dates, we will be hitting the third week of cycle 1 tmr. I will be only listing down the big lifts for now.

Weights used next week for 5 reps, 3 reps and finally 1 rep + is listed below:

Squat: 94.5kg, 107.1kg, 119.7kg
Press: 57.3kg, 65kg, 72.6kg
Bench: 74.2kg, 84.1kg, 94kg
Deadlift: 94.5kg, 107.1kg, 119.7kg




Might go up heavier for deadlift if the form is solid. It is all about the form.


Training split as below for the week after:

Monday:
Squats:

85kg, 100kg, 110kg

Tuesday
Military Press:

50kg, 60kg, 65kg

Thursday
Incline Bench:

65kg, 75kg, 85kg

Friday
Deadlifts:

85kg, 100kg, 110kg

Main things to focus on are to brush up the deadlift form and bring up the delts.