icecold's training log

Training 13/11/13

Entered the final "week" of the smolovs, which because of being busy will end next Wednesday. Will I feel like increasing the weights?

Squats
bar
60
100
140
167.5x9x4
Yes, yes I did increase the weight. Was still pretty comfortable, although my cardio was lacking. I can definitely confirm general suppression and fatigue though. All of these sets would be easier if I wasn't in the middle of smolov.

Bench
bar
60
80
97.5x6x6
~90 second rests. Never planned to increase this, but I could have done. First set wasn't great, but I hit my groove on the rest and the reps flew. Last reps paused, and I wouldn't expect them to be faster if I'd been doing singles. Scap/lower trap/serratus anterior/triceps pushing mechanics are making great gains. It almost feels like some benching potential is being realised here, so I need to make sure I learn exactly what I'm doing right here and make it stronger.
 
Steedie said:
Nearly err day is squats and bench day
Click to expand...
This is my life now...

RIP deadlift

Training 15/11/13

Squats ~3 min rests
bar
60
100
140
177.5x7x5
Ankles were tight today and I didn't have time to loosen them. The first couple of sets didn't feel great but moved well enough, then the smolov "I don't know what happened in those sets" effect kicked in. I somehow became more cognisant during the last set and noticed that a few reps weren't dipping below parallel like I would have liked (ankles :(). Before I really noticed myself doing it, I found myself pausing the last rep at parallel :confused: If you'd have asked me to do this even on the first set, I would have told you to **** off out of fear of being folded in half. Smolov seems to be confusing my legs.

Bench
bar
60
80
105x5x7
Easy, but short rests kicked my arse by the last few sets. Upper back pump!
 
Training 18/11/13

Squats
bar
60
100
140
160
187.5x5x7
First set was lovely and felt like I was good for more than 10, second set was terrible. The rest were good, but this kicked my arse. Bar was still moving well all way through, and depth was smashed.

Bench
bar
60
80
110x4x8
Aim here was to maximally contract the mid back bits that seem to be turning on at the moment. Results: first set was ridiculously easy, and then fatigue/pump/cramp struck me down and the sets were slower. Never in any doubt though, and in a way it's a good thing because it shows that I massively stimulated the right bits.

The end is near!!!
 
Training 19/11/13

fffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu legs aching so badly from yesterday. Didn't have much time, but decided to nut up and finish off my squats.

Squats
bar
60
100
140
180
200x3x10

HAHAHA YES! EFFF YEW SMOLOV!

That was really only meant to be 192.5, but I increased all of this weeks weights by 5kg and then it seemed silly not to do 200kg. I paid for the increase in pain on every rep. No snaps, just tendons/muscles completely worn out. The other consistent casualty of smolov has been my shoulders where the bar rests, no bleeding this time but I basically have calluses there.

Depth was sometimes higher than I'd like by an inch, but not frequently enough to be a problem (mostly because I'd bury the rep after noticing a high one).

In hindsight I kind of regret increasing the weight in the final week, but I don't really know what difference it would have made.

Tomorrow I'll finish off my bench, and probably do some very light leg press for active recovery for my legs.

But yes, thank god that's over.
 
215-220 is my best triple (I think).

You are never going to hit rep PBs on smolov, it wouldn't be possible to complete the programme. It's three weeks of very high volume sub max rep work (4x a week).

The gains come after the routine, which is the essence of every strength programme.

I wasn't snapped up going into this! It's just a case following the programme with sensible weights.
 
Freefaller said:
Ah I thought you were having snapping issues a month or so ago! My bad!
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I'm so frequently snapped I'm not at all offended by the assumption!
LiE said:
One does not Smolov with snaps

Good work Ice, now rinse and repeat xD
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Indeed. Smolov seems to break more men than it makes.

I will be doing smolov again, but not for a while!
gazareth said:
Very nice Smoloving there dude
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Thank you sir!
 
Smolov is a whole different level of torture, trust me :D

Thinking about where to go next... I'll be testing next week sometime. I wonder where my deadlift will be.
 
It's fun as long as you kind of enjoy beating your body up with iron, which I suspect you do :D

Also, I'm feeling more DOMS now that I've stopped squatting than in the middle of the programme.
 
:D

Oh yeah

Bench
bar
60
80
100
117.5x3x10
Not great, the floor was literally greasy so RIP stable base (grr).

BOR
60x12
90x8x3

OHP
40x12
50x8x3

Cable row
stack x15x3

Cable tricep push down
something x15x3

BB row
40x10
20x15x3

Band face pulls
15x3
 
I will be as of Friday :)


So, Smolov testing time. Finished last Tuesday, and really haven't done much since apart from a bit of back work and a brief speed work squat/bench/dead session on Monday. Weirdly, I've had worse DOMS and general feeling of grossness after finishing Smolov. Monday felt terrible, and my hamstrings have felt horrendous for the past week.

Today I'd planned to do a full mock meet, but because my hammies were a little ropey I decided to skip deads.


Squat and bench test 27/11/13

Squat
bar
60
100
140
160
180 feeling not so great!
200 a bit better
220 not bad, but moved kind of ok
232.5 PB!
Well that was pretty comfortable.

Not even really slow :confused: Decided to leave it there, as that is a nice "good form" weight to work some kind of percentages off.

But yeah, PB :D First one since most recent adductor snaps.


Paused no lift off bench
bar
60
80
100
110
120
130
135 PB. Almost messed it up as I got stuck on the catchers when unracking and had to fight with it for a second
140 f, but very close. Missed it at lockout somehow.
Pretty good. Obviously not an overall PB, but to have my no lift off bench now be so close behind my regular paused bench is definite progress. Time to move back to normal benching I think.

A good day :)
 
Thanks guys :) Once again, I paid for this PB in blood (smolov induced leg hypertrophy cause chaffing so bad I had an open wound on my adductor area).

I'm still surprised by how good that rep was, I wasn't at all convinced I even had a messy rep in me after the 220kg. Dat smolov confusion. It will be very interesting to see what happens when I peak just after the new year.
 
Yes it is! Great little gym. Well, it's massive compared to Iffley...

Training 02/12/13

New programme starts today. Very sore from my game yesterday. Core is broken, legs in tatters, shoulder slightly tweaked but not seriously.

Squats
bar
60
100
140
180x5
170x5
170x5
Enough for today. Short rests

Paused bench
bar
60
80x5
90x5
95x5
100x5
92.5x5
92.5x5
92.5x5
Approached this with caution, but although my shoulder was a little uncomfortable it was fine.

DB row
42.5x12x3

CGBP
80x5
90x5
92.5x5
90x5
90x5
Nice tricep activation for a change \o/

OHP
forgot :(

Facepulls
15x3
 
Cheers bru :)

Training 04/12/13

Not off to a good start today, massively tired and some kind of mild gut issues (dat bloat). Core has recovered apart from QL, but that's fairly important for deads... Ended up getting to the gym late too.

Deadlifts
bar
60
100
140 not bad
180 bad
200 good!
220x2 FFFUUUUUU chalk somehow rubbed off and my hands were slipping. Not enough to actually lose the bar, but enough to be annoying so I cut the set
220x5 wtf?! This was REALLY hard. Today I needed some volume :(
190x5
190x5
Annoying. No correlation in difficulty between sets. Body is phaggot.

Board press
bar
60
90
100
120x5
112.5x5
112.5x5
These were fine, but I didn't have time to warm up my shoulder as much as I'd like so it was hard to set my shoulders properly and thus uncomfortable.

DS Good mornings
60
100x6
100x6
100x8
Gym was closing so just squeezed a few light sets in. Almost a waste of time at that weight though.

Terrible session.
 
Something like that! I think it was just an off day, although I'm adjusting my plan very slightly just in case. I think my body forgot what deadlifting is too.

Edit: Can already feel DOMS in my left external oblique. I guess my lateral core is generally pretty fried.

More sleep needed.
 
Last edited:
Training 06/12/13

Squats
bar
60
100
140
160
185x5
175x5
175x5
175x5
175x5
Still full of fatigue, but these were better. Some reps were a little messy, but the weight was the right amount of comfortable. Nice amount of volume happened.

Paused bench
bar
60
80x5
100x5
110x5 much better
102.5x5
102.5x5
102.5x5
102.5x5

Paused deadlifts
60
100
140
180
190x3
180x3
So groce with my core and lower erectors ruined. Two sets were enough.

RDL - forgot my lifting straps :(
100x6
140x5
120x6
120x6
120x6
Made up for lack of load 60s rests. Groce.

Body is responding. Das pump, das smooth, das it mane. Hnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg
 
Pretty terrible! I don't really like doing paused deads after squats, so I guess these weren't that bad considering. I don't think there is too much carry over between my squats and deads, which makes sense because my squats almost overtook my deads a few years ago.

I will know what's going on better next week, the combination of a massively pre-fatigued core and (potentially) slightly de-conditioned lower erectors/lats has left me feeling pretty weak.
 
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