Still Flailing as I approach 50

[irongeek]

Third week of the Smolov base mesocycle:

Safety Squat bar w/belt - 310 x 9r x 4s
Bench - 225 x 9r x 4s

This is cardio + pain.

Surprisingly, as painful as it was, it was doable. This program pushes you to the edge of what you can do every single session.
Not sustainable, but that's ok, as this is the third and final week. Three more workouts, then deload and test.

[irongeek]

Pullups - BW x 15 + 5 + 2
20 minutes uphill treadmill = 10 degrees @ 3.2mph
Pullups - BW x 12

Done

[irongeek]

Smolov Base Mesocycle
Week 3, Day 2
Safety Squat Bar w/belt - 330 x 7r x 5s
Bench - 240 x 7r x 5s

Tough workout, but again, doable. My last rep on bench was grindy because I was shorting my inter-set rest time and it caught up to me. I need to give myself more time than I think I need to recover on bench.
Conditioning seems to be very good. 9s Monday were tough and 7s also tough, but I recovered between sets pretty well. Squat rest times were 4-5 minutes.

[irongeek]

Today:

• Pullups - 14 + 5 +2
• 20 minutes uphill treadmill - 10 deg @ 3.2 - 4.0 mph - 1.23 miles total
• Dips - 25
• Pullups - 10

[irongeek]

Smolov Base Mesocycle - Week 3, day 3
SSB + belt = 350 x 5r x 7s

Didn't do bench today. Got a late start. Plus, after squats, I was pretty much done.
This program pushes you to your absolute limits. It is designed so that you can do the volume - but only barely. My last set today felt really slow and heavy. My legs were exhausted.
One more day, then a glorious deload.

I think I'll take tomorrow off from squats and just do my bench workout, then finish the ten triples for squat on Sunday.

[irongeek]

Smolov Base Mesocycle - Week 3, Day 4 (for squat)
SSB squat w/belt = 370 x 3r x 10s

Smolov Base Mesocycle - Week 3, Day 3 (aka Smolov Jr. for bench)
255 x 5r x 7s

Finally finished the squat portion of this cycle. Will finish the bench portion tomorrow. Everything felt strong today, which is surprising since I squatted yesterday. Probably due to being able to workouit at 10 am instead of 6 am. Had to skip benching yesterday due to lack of time (that work thing gets in the way), so I did yesterday's bench today. This gave me an extra day of bench recovery, which I really needed. Will finish the bench portion of the program tomorrow.

What is funny is that my son, a freshman in HS, benched 255 for a set of 5 last night. It was a new PR set of 5 for him. It's good to know I'm as strong as a high school freshman.

Anyway, here are a couple of vids of my 2nd bench set and last squat triple.

Second bench set:


Last squat set:

[irongeek]

Last day of smolov jr for bench

Bench - 270 x 3 x 9

Bagged the last set. Just ran out of time and energy. 9 sets will have to do.

[irongeek]

Sweet deload week!

Today: Light cardio and pullups

Pullups - 14 + 5 + 3 + 2
21 minutes treadmill @ 10 deg, 3.2 mph ramping to 4.0 mph. 1.25 miles total
Parallel pullups - 13

I had zero sciatic pain on the treadmill, which was really nice.

[irongeek]

Sweet Deload Day

SSB w/belt - 320 x 3 x 3
Bench - 235 x 3r x 4s

I love deloads. Plan to test squat and bench Friday.

[irongeek]

Deload week (cont'd):

Pullup/Dip super-sets:
Pullups: 10, 10, 10, 10
Dips: 15, 15, 15, 15

Between sets do 5 minutes uphill treadmill - 3.4 mph @ 10deg. 22 minutes total.
Last day of deload is tomorrow, then test Friday.