Smolov Jr, Day 4 -- Friday 07/12/2012

And so my first week on the program comes to a close. My quads are much happier, and I was able to get through all 10 sets. On the 8th set, my knee caved in on one rep, and it didn't cause reinjury, but I immediately realised how I hurt myself in the first place. Take home story: always drive your knees out as you squat.

Squat

10 pull ups
10xBW
10 pull ups
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
10x3x102.5kg -- I found today that the hardest thing wasn't the volume combined with intensity, it was being able to psyche myself up properly. When you've got 10 sets ahead of you, it's kinda hard to care so much about that first set. If this were dynamic effort work, it'd be a different story, but this isn't, so it isn't. However, after the 6th set, I started to get excited. "I'm about to do my 7th set. Only 3 to go after that!"

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x32.5kg
3x45kg
1x57.5kg
10x3x67.5kg -- Triceps weren't entirely happy with me today, and I was finding it hard to keep as tight as I ought to. I did about 5 sets of 20 band pull aparts between my first warm up set and last work set. I also did some foam rolling for my legs between warm up sets on the bench.

Assistance Work

RDL/DB Curl/Lying Shoulder Extension/Calf Raise/Side Bridge
2x10x70kg/20x7.5kg/20sec x1.25kg/10x280lb/10

I put blood on the bar doing RDL's. First time I've ever made my shins bleed from pulling, and it wasn't even a heavy or fast load, or over the knurling. Odd. The lying shoulder extensions are performed statically, and used to work the lower trapezius. I've been finding my right lower trapezius is doing its job, and lefty isn't, so it's time to isolate. The calf raise machine had something shoddy with the 240 and 260lb plates stopping me from inserting the pin there, so I went straight up to 280lb. Didn't feel anywhere near as heavy as I thought it would.