New Blog

I'm starting a new blog here detailing my road to 600: 600lbs.blogspot.com

Final goal for the year completed. 300lb bench.

So today was week 3 day 2 of smolov and normally I wouldn't have mentioned anything about this workout (385x7 for 5 sets on squats and 240x5 for 7 sets on bench), but I was feeling pretty strong and decided to try some singles at the end of my bench sets (done after squats). 275 and 295 both went up fast so I figured I'd try for 300. It was slow, but I got it! Can't wait to see what I can do when Smolov is over and I'm fresh.

Anyway, I have officially reached all three of my goals for the year and it feels great. Also, I got an email letting me know I am fully funded for graduate school!  I'll be back with more content when I test my maxes for my final blog post. It's almost over, damn.

Video of 300 below.

1 more week left...

Today was tough, but at least my back is almost back to 100%. One more week to go and then time to test some new maxes. Holla.

Hi...

So there is a meet at the end of March and I thought I'd run a cycle of smolov squats and smolov jr. for bench to peak for it. Unfortunately, my right lat is pretty hurt so I dunno if I'll make it through and be ready in time. We'll see... Be back with some updates/vids soon.

Gabe

Squats. Week 2 Cycle 11.

That double chin progress.

Seeing as I deloaded and hit 385x10 for squats in week 1 of this cycle, I knew that 405 should yield 8 reps (again, for every +10lbs on the bar it usually means -1 rep). That's exactly what happened. I've hit 405x8 and 410x8 (questionable depth) in previous cycles, but that was coming off of the Smolov squat cycle which is a peaking program (meaning the strength doesn't last but for that final week of the program, essentially). So I suppose I should be pretty content with the 8 reps. I may have been able to do 9 reps on the final set if I hadn't forgot that today was 3 day and not 5 day during my warm ups and final working sets. Oh well!

After the working sets I did some paused squats -- these are much improved over last time since I'm getting a bit braver and holding 405 at the bottom for longer. I tried 425, did a slight pause, and came up pretty slowly so I dropped it down to 405 again for the final sets. I ended with a front squat pyramid: 225x3, 275x3, 295x1, 225x5x3. The end.





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Week 2 Progress over last 11 cycles:

Cycle 1: 330x4

Cycle 2: 335x5

Cycle 3: 345x7

Cycle 4: 350x8

Cycle 5: 360x8

Cycle 6: 370x8

Cycle 7: 375x8

Cycle8: N/A (smolov)

Cycle9: 425x6 

Cycle 10: 430x3 (time to deload)

Cycle 11: 405x8 (exactly where I should be had I not changed my numbers after Smolov)

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Goals for today:

315x3
355x3
405x3+

Lifted:

315x5
355x5
405x8

Video below: