Setting Vomit PR's with Smolov! [Archive]

Knowles

08-21-2007, 12:47 PM

I figured I'd post my Smolov stuff over here, too. Here's Week 1 - Day 1.

Adam's Workout - 8/20/07

Squats:
277 x 9
277 x 9
277 x 9
277 x 9

Bent-Over Toilet Pukes:
Puke x 1
Puke x 1
Puke x 1
Puke x 1 (Rep PR)

Thoughts: What have I gotten myself into? This was so freaking hard. I finished up my squats and was resting to do some face pulls. After about 3 minutes of sitting down I had to run to the bathroom where I threw up 4 times. I'll be using the Smolov Jr. moving forward. It's basically the same program, but the reps are broken up a little on the Mon/Wed/Fri workouts. Same number of total reps, though.

r_graz

08-21-2007, 01:11 PM

Wow. Don't push the vomit volume too high or you'll overtrain.

TheStender

08-21-2007, 01:15 PM

A real man would have continued training.

Just saying.

:p

VikingMan

08-21-2007, 02:16 PM

Bent-Over Toilet Pukes:
Puke x 1
Puke x 1
Puke x 1
Puke x 1 (Rep PR)
Just remember, strength = size. ;)

Knowles

08-22-2007, 10:35 PM

Adam's Workout - 8/22/07

Squats:
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5

Face Pulls:
57.5 x 8
57.5 x 8
57.5 x 8

Reverse Flyes on Pec Deck:
100 (lol) x 8
100 x 8
100 x 8

Thoughts: Today wasn't nearly as hard as Monday was. I didn't even feel like throwing up. :D I'm not sure if this was because I'm doing the Smolov Jr, but in all honesty, 7x5 doesn't seem that much different from 5x7. We'll see how I feel next week +20lbs. Since I didn't feel too bad, I went ahead and did some light accessory work. I think it's hilarious that I was doing reverse flyes with "100lbs". Silly machine weights. If I feel okay after Friday's workout I may do some light benching.

Lifting N Tx

08-23-2007, 01:01 AM

All I can say is it doesn't look quite as bad as the GVT that Il Leone was doing for a while. Kind of like saying "sorry that you lost a leg, but isn't it great that it didn't kill you". :D

Lencho

08-23-2007, 08:37 AM

Nice squatting! :)

r_graz

08-23-2007, 09:03 AM

Squats:
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5
296 x 5

Yowza. Is this a new form of assisted suicide? :)

TheStender

08-23-2007, 09:12 AM

Yowza. Is this a new form of assisted suicide? :)

I think my legs would give out about 1/4th of the way through that. Gotta love the puking though, that's hardcore.

abarlament

08-23-2007, 10:36 AM

Your squatting looks strong. May the force be with you.

Knowles

08-24-2007, 11:54 PM

Adam's Workout - 8/24/07

Squats:
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4
316 x 4

Bench Press:
Warmup
185 x 4

Thoughts: I decided to go ahead and do my workout after I got off of work today. It went really, really well. Bar speed was good even on the very last rep. It still felt like murder though. Unfortunately, I have to do yet another workout in about 12 hours. :( Heaven help me...

I see now why they say it's best to do your benching in a separate session. 185lbs felt way heavier than it should. I was planning on either doing 3x5 at 185 or doing a few singles at 225, but I called it quits after I almost got stapled with the 185.

r_graz

08-25-2007, 08:02 AM

I see now why they say it's best to do your benching in a separate session. 185lbs felt way heavier than it should. I was planning on either doing 3x5 at 185 or doing a few singles at 225, but I called it quits after I almost got stapled with the 185.
Well, yeah....I can see why you'd want to bench separately too. I would think after the squats, you'd be lucky to crawl to the gym door.

What's your normal bench strength, 5RM?

Lifting N Tx

08-25-2007, 11:59 AM

Guess you must be working out again about now. If this is Smolov Jr. I don't think I'd want to tackle the regular one.

If I work really hard on things like squats or deads early in a workout I pretty much need a short break or really easy exercise before I'm ready to hit something else hard. I can why what all those squats would be hard to follow with some hard bench sets.

Knowles

08-25-2007, 12:12 PM

Well, yeah....I can see why you'd want to bench separately too. I would think after the squats, you'd be lucky to crawl to the gym door.

What's your normal bench strength, 5RM?

225x5 touch and go. I was gonna do some paused singles at that, but there's no way I could've done it last night.

Guess you must be working out again about now. If this is Smolov Jr. I don't think I'd want to tackle the regular one.

If I work really hard on things like squats or deads early in a workout I pretty much need a short break or really easy exercise before I'm ready to hit something else hard. I can why what all those squats would be hard to follow with some hard bench sets.

Honestly, if you look at the two next to each other, there's really not much of a difference between the Smolov and the Jr version. I think if I had come from a different program I may have been able to do the regular version, but as it is, I think I came off of the worst possible program to go straight into Smolov. The intermediate 5x5 is probably the most low volume program I can think of. The only time I ever went over 5 reps is on the back-off sets on Friday. I'm totally unconditioned for high rep work. (Which is why I puked so much on Monday).

Knowles

08-25-2007, 02:53 PM

Adam's Workout - 8/25/07

Squats:
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3
336 x 3

Thoughts: This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've never spent a full hour squatting though, so my thighs were burning by the 7th set or so. I feel pretty good after this session. I did some deep stretching for my hams, quads, glutes, and hips, and I really liked it. I'll start doing this after every session I think.

I got a lot of weird looks from people when they realized how many sets I was doing. There was one dude that would look at me with astonishment every time I stepped into the rack after my 5th set.

Lifting N Tx

08-25-2007, 03:20 PM

Wow!

I got a lot of weird looks from people when they realized how many sets I was doing. There was one dude that would look at me with astonishment every time I stepped into the rack after my 5th set.

Next time I'll try not to stare. ;)

Seriously, I'd have probably stared too.

Knowles

08-27-2007, 07:27 AM

Adam's Workout - 8/27/07

Squats:
297 x 6
297 x 6
297 x 6
297 x 6
297 x 6
297 x 6

Pushups/Pullups Supersets:
Pushups x 12
Pullups x 6
Pushups x 12
Pullups x 6
Pushups x 12
Pullups x 6

Thoughts: Good workout today. Good bar speed throughout all my sets on squats. I've started placing the bar about an inch lower than I normally do, and I'm liking it so far.

I decided to do some extra stuff today, but didn't want to over-exert myself so I did some bodyweight exercises. I read that article a while ago about doing pushups for shoulder health, so I'll be incorporating them into my workouts in some fashion from now on.

r_graz

08-27-2007, 08:03 AM

Adam, you have any videos of these Smolov adventures?

Knowles

08-27-2007, 09:26 AM

Adam, you have any videos of these Smolov adventures?

Unfortunately not. I do have a video of me doing 366x5 while on the intermediate 5x5. Next time I throw up during a workout, I'll try to get it on tape. :eek:

Edit: Here's the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpjJqMivbHw

r_graz

08-27-2007, 10:43 AM

Unfortunately not. I do have a video of me doing 366x5 while on the intermediate 5x5.

Wow, impressive. You didn't appear to be really even working till the last rep.

Next time I throw up during a workout, I'll try to get it on tape. :eek:

No need. Imagination serves just fine for that ;)

TheStender

08-27-2007, 10:45 AM

Knowles scares me. At nighttime, I think he's in my closet, just waiting to burst out and start squatting an obscene amount of weight for obscene amounts of sets and reps.

gs1206

08-27-2007, 12:50 PM

some good hard work here, keep it up

just out of interest, what weight are you looking to lift at the end of the cycle? and whats your previous best squat? sorry if I missed it somewhere before.

Knowles

08-27-2007, 01:05 PM

Knowles scares me. At nighttime, I think he's in my closet, just waiting to burst out and start squatting an obscene amount of weight for obscene amounts of sets and reps.

LOLOLOLOL

some good hard work here, keep it up

just out of interest, what weight are you looking to lift at the end of the cycle? and whats your previous best squat? sorry if I missed it somewhere before.

I'm doing the program with 395lbs as the max I'm deriving my percentages from. The week before I started the program I tried to max so I'd have an idea. I failed 405 twice (form problem on the first one) and 395 once (fatigue). 395 didn't really feel that heavy though.

I'd like to be around ~430lbs after I finish the program, but I have no experience with this type of program, so I have no idea what to expect. In the future I'd like to run the full 13 weeks. I can't do it now though, because I have a meet coming up in October.

Knowles

08-29-2007, 07:36 AM

Adam's Workout - 8/29/07

Squats:
316 x 5
316 x 5
316 x 5
316 x 5
316 x 5
316 x 5
316 x 5

Face Pulls:
65 x 8
65 x 8
65 x 8

Thoughts: Not much to say about this one. It was a tough workout. My right knee is starting to bother me, but it doesn't really hurt while I'm squatting. Mostly when I kneel down to pick something up. I think that's because most of the weight is on my toes when I do that. I'll keep an eye on it.

Knowles

08-31-2007, 07:58 AM

Adam's Workout - 8/31/07

Squats:
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4
336 x 4

CGBP:
135 x 5
185 x 3
135 x 5
135 x 5

Thoughts: Workout today went really well. My squats took me about an hour to complete. Lencho took a video of my very last set. You guys will have to let me know what you think about it. ;)

I decided to do some light CGBP because I wanted to do some sort of flat press, but didn't want to do bench press. Since I haven't benched heavy in a while my shoulder is feeling soooo much better. I'm gonna keep stretching it and hope that it heals completely. Never done CGBP before, but I really like the way the exercise felt.

Lencho and I talked to this really nice guy in the gym today. He said he's from Russia and his dad used to be an olympic coach. We shot the shit about powerlifting and oly lifting in general. He had even heard of the Smolov program and said he figured that's what I was doing when he saw me do eight sets of squats. :)

Knowles

08-31-2007, 08:36 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTf183ow9wU

Knowles

09-02-2007, 06:52 PM

Adam's Workout - 9/2/07

Squats:
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3
356 x 3

Thoughts: F*ck yeah! This workout was absolutely brutal. I destroyed myself today. Those last two reps felt like murder, and my vision turned red on the very last one. I couldn't have asked for a better workout.

I used my new belt on the very first set, but it made my head feel like it was about to pop, so I didn't use it on the rest of the sets. I'm gonna need to break it in and break myself into it, and 10x3 on Smolov is not the time to do that.

Lifting N Tx

09-03-2007, 12:08 AM

Squat tonnage ... sets x reps x weight ... calculating..............

% error: register overflow, cannot continue %

All I can say is that's really moving some weight, Adam. Nice job!

Knowles

09-03-2007, 01:00 PM

Thanks, LNT. I appreciate it. :)

Knowles

09-03-2007, 01:00 PM

Adam's Workout - 9/3/07

Squats:
307 x 6
307 x 6
307 x 6
307 x 6
307 x 6
307 x 6

Thoughts: I'll tell you what, guys. If you want to find out what you're made of, I highly recommend the Smolov program. I've discovered all kinds of self-respect while running this thing.

It turns out that I didn't need to open today, so I decided to go ahead and hit the gym before I go into work at 2. I did like DL recommended and did some light, high-rep leg extensions before my squats. By the time I got to my working weight on my squats I couldn't feel any pain in my knee anymore. Just about everything hurts right now except for my knee. I got all of my reps and I'm proud of myself for that.

Lencho

09-17-2007, 03:02 PM

Nice squatting, knowles! :)

Misanthrope

09-17-2007, 03:17 PM

Nice squatting, knowles! :)
Oh, hai Lencho.

If the BB.com mods continue with these bullshit bannings they're going to end up losing a few of their better members.

Knowles

09-18-2007, 01:34 PM

Nice squatting, knowles! :)

Hey, I just noticed that you posted in here. I'll resume posting my workouts in here tomorrow.

Dredge

09-18-2007, 01:36 PM

Poop!

Knowles

09-21-2007, 07:25 AM

Adam's Workout - 9/21/07

Squats:
315 x 1
315 x 1
315 x 1

Bench:
215 x 1 Paused
225 x 1 Paused (PR, I guess :confused:)
235 x 0

Face Pulls:
some

Thoughts: I did squats to get more comfortable with taking commands. The belt feels pretty natural at this point. I'm thinking of getting some knee wraps this weekend and squatting with them during my meet prep. They're allowed in the raw division, so I figure I should use em.

I hit my goal on bench press. I've never done a 1RM max on it before, especially not a paused one. My upper strength went down while I was on Smolov, but I think it's about back to where it was before. I hit 225x4 touch and go before Smolov, so I figure a 225 paused single is about equivalent. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more at the meet. I did face pulls for some rehab/prehab afterwards.

Knowles

09-24-2007, 08:21 AM

Adam's Workout - 9/24/07

Squats:
238 x 5
285 x 5
323 x 3
353 x 3
387 x 3

Bench Press:
126 x 5
151 x 5
171 x 3
187 x 3
205 x 3 (Paused)

Deadlift:
255 x 3
305 x 2
346 x 1
378 x 1
414 x 3 (Rep PR)

RC External Rotation:
10lbs 3x10 each arm

Thoughts: First day of my two week meet prep. Everything went pretty well. Two months ago I couldn't squat 376 for 3 reps, so I've made some progress since then. I'm very proud of myself for the deadlift. I've never lifted over 388 for reps, so 414x3 was a pretty big rep PR.

Misanthrope

09-24-2007, 12:30 PM

That's a pretty impressive squat improvement over two months at your level. Nice work.

Think you would have missed 415? :p

Knowles

09-24-2007, 12:40 PM

That's a pretty impressive squat improvement over two months at your level. Nice work.

Think you would have missed 415? :p

I'm doing the percentages that this program lists exactly as they are. I'm just rounding to the nearest pound. Every time I work with percentages I like to be as precise as possible. No point in letting my fractional plates go to waste. :)

Misanthrope

09-24-2007, 01:06 PM

I'm doing the percentages that this program lists exactly as they are. I'm just rounding to the nearest pound. Every time I work with percentages I like to be as precise as possible. No point in letting my fractional plates go to waste. :)
Yeah, I figured as much. I bet you would have totally failed at 415, though. Arms torn from their sockets. :)

Knowles

09-24-2007, 01:37 PM

Yeah, I figured as much. I bet you would have totally failed at 415, though. Arms torn from their sockets. :)

More than likely.

Knowles

09-26-2007, 08:13 AM

Adam's Workout - 9/26/07

Squats:
255 x 5
298 x 5
332 x 3
374 x 3
395 x 3 (Rep PR)

Bench Press:
135 x 5
158 x 5
175 x 3
198 x 3
209 x 3 (Paused)

Deadlift:
275 x 3
320 x 2
355 x 1
400 x 1
423 x 1

Thoughts: I was dragging ass this morning. I felt really tired and the gym felt about 20 degrees too hot. I got some knee wraps the other day and used them for the first time on my last set of squats. While I felt like they helped me some, those things were sooo awkward to squat in. It's hard to bend your knees with them on, so I had some trouble walking the weight out. It's difficult to walk backwards with 400lbs on your back when you can't bend your knees. There's definitely a learning curve with these things, but I think I'll get it figured out since they didn't hurt my performance any today.

Bench press went well. I didn't really struggle on any of the reps. All had a lengthy pause except for maybe the second rep, which was pretty close to touch and go.

Deadlift was damn hard today. After I got the single at 400 I didn't think there was any way I was going to be able to do even one at 423. I managed to crank one out on my last set. I was going for a second, but gave up before the bar even left the ground because I didn't think I'd be able to get it above mid shin.

Depending on how I feel on Friday I may alter things up a bit. I'm supposed to deadlift again with even higher intensity for a double. I really doubt this is going to happen, so I may go ahead and sub in the power cleans. And then if I'm totally beat up by Monday, I might bump the Thursday cruise workout up to Monday and take the rest of the week off. We'll see how things go.

Knowles

09-28-2007, 07:55 AM

Adam's Workout - 9/28/07

Squats:
255 x 3
306 x 3
340 x 2
374 x 2
408 x 2 (Rep PR)

Bench Press:
135 x 3
162 x 3
180 x 2
198 x 2
216 x 2 (Paused)

Deadlift:
273 x 2
328 x 1
364 x 1
400 x 1
437 x 1
437 x 1 (Rep PR)

Thoughts: Really good workout today. I felt so much more energetic than I did on Wednesday. Nothing was too difficult. I was pretty shocked at how easy the 408x2 felt on squats. I hit proper depth, speed was good, and I didn't get stuck anywhere. The wraps felt a lot more comfortable as well. I think I might be good for 445 in the competition. :D

Bench press went well too. I tried to do an extra long pause on both of the reps. Bar speed was good on these too.

I split the double on deadlift into two singles so I could get all of my reps. I didn't think there was any way I could do the double without possibly injuring myself. Oddly enough, the second rep felt a lot better than the first and went up just as fast. All in all a good workout. I'm proud of myself and looking forward to the 408x3 for squats on Monday.

Misanthrope

09-28-2007, 09:26 AM

Good stuff, Knowles. Glad everything felt good today. It's probably a good sign. :)

Knowles

09-28-2007, 09:39 AM

Good stuff, Knowles. Glad everything felt good today. It's probably a good sign. :)

Yeah, who would've thought that Bill Starr knew what he was talking about. :rolleyes:

Knowles

10-01-2007, 07:57 AM

Adam's Workout - 10/1/07

Squats:
255 x 3
306 x 3
340 x 3
374 x 3
408 x 3 (Rep PR)

Bench Press:
135 x 3
162 x 3
180 x 3
198 x 3
216 x 3 (Paused)

Power Cleans: (otherwise known as Jumping Upright Rows from the Floor with a Rack):
110 x 5
130 x 5
148 x 5
163 x 5
172 x 5

Thoughts: I would call this a good workout. Squats felt like they were absolutely going to kill me. I really thought I was going to die during that last set, but according to Lencho it looked easy (:confused:) and bar speed was good. I'm very pleased that I was able to get all of my reps. I definitely think 445 is possible at the meet on Saturday.

Bench went pretty well. On my last couple of sets I felt like my groove was off a little. I still managed to get all of my reps, but the very last rep took about 10 seconds to get up. Hopefully things are more solid at the meet. I felt kinda wobbly on the last handoff.

Power cleans were very, very ugly. I haven't done these in a while so my form was way off. That's really all I have to say about them. :)

Misanthrope

10-01-2007, 08:43 AM

Nice job on those squats again. Are you getting psyched about the meet yet?

Knowles

10-01-2007, 10:01 AM

Nice job on those squats again. Are you getting psyched about the meet yet?

Absolutely! I was watching some of my deadlift videos the other day and I was chomping at the bit to do this competition. I can't wait to lift in a setting like this. I just want to rip some f*cking weight off the floor. :)

Knowles

10-04-2007, 09:22 AM

Adam's Workout - 10/4/07

Everything done in a circuit. Squats, Bench, Cleans, Squats, Bench, Cleans, etc...

Squats:
135 x 5
255 x 5
298 x 5

Bench Press:
135 x 5
135 x 5
158 x 5

Power Cleans:
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Thoughts: I finished up this workout in 10 minutes. I did some light warmup stuff and then moved on to the circuit. It was light weight, but I didn't have any rest, so by the last set of cleans I was breathing pretty heavily. I'd say the vom factor would have been pretty high if I'd had to do another couple of circuits. :)

This was my last workout before the competition, which will be this Saturday. I'm looking forward to resting up these last couple of days and then making some jaws drop this weekend. Yeaaaaaaah buddayyyyyyy!! :D

Here will be my definite openers and possible second and third attempts (I'm assuming they do their weight in kilos?):

Squat:
402
430
446

Bench:
209
231
243

Deadlift:
435
468
491

If they actually use standard plates and not metric, then everything will be rounded to the nearest 5lbs.

Knowles

10-07-2007, 07:59 PM

Here are the my final results for the PL competition. I weighed in at a whopping 182lbs. WTF?? :confused: I'm a wee bit upset about this, because if I had known I was going to be so close to 181, I would've taken the time to drop the 1lb of water weight before the competition. Kik, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think being in the 198 as opposed to 181 messed up my total coefficient. I was in the unequipped Juniors 198. I was one of only two people competing raw in the entire meet, and the only person in my division, so naturally I got 1st place. :D

My lifts...

Total: 1161

Squat:
408 x 1
430 x 1
446 x 1 Yeah bitches!!

Bench Press:
209 x 1
231 x 1
248 (lol) x MISS

Deadlift:
408 x 1
463 x 1
485 x 1 Woot!

I'm very, very pleased with my performance yesterday. All of my squat lifts felt very good. In fact, my 446 attempt on squat felt easy and I thought I had more in the tank. Pretty sure I could've hit about 460 or so.

Bench press went well. First two attempts were really easy. I got a bit greedy on my last attempt, though. The main problem with it was that I lowered the bar too fast. This caused it to bounce a bit at my chest, so the judge waited longer to call the press command because the bar wasn't completely motionless. This really killed all of my power. I could've got about 240 I think.

Not much to say about deadlift. I ripped it up each time. Not sure whether I could've done any more on my last lift. I originally had my first attempt written as 435, but I got my card back and changed it lower because I was positive I could nail 463 and didn't want to use up too much energy beforehand.

Overall it was a great experience. I met a lot of nice people and got some pointers on just about everything. I'll be taking next week off, maxing my touch and go bench on Friday and then starting Smolov Jr. for bench next Monday. I've really gotta bring those bench numbers up some. I'd like to be hitting well over 300 this time next year.