Here's my Korte

[Jim Ouini]

Yeah, it's shoulder. In the olden days my middle finger used to be on that line on the bar, pretty wide. I've moved it in so my hand is about a thumb length from the smooth middle part. If that makes sense.

I think strength-wise, wider is my best grip but I'm trying to be careful with my shoulder.

Now that you got me thinking, I did a quick check and if 295 is my 1RM (well it's not today, so I guess it's moot, but still...) I should've been able to get 240 for 7-8 reps. Hmm.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Week 5 Day 3

Felt pretty good going into the gym today. My knees are really feeling great, I think they were aching during prep phase due to all the volume...now that I've backed off I can really feel the difference.

Squat
Bar x 2 x 5
135 x 2 x 3
185 x 2
225 x 1
255 x 2 x 1

Had to wait for some guy doing curls in the power rack Luckily he was only doing 3 sets and I hovered around warming up. His last set was a strip set so that took a bit longer. Anyway, I was anxious to see how my first heavy squat session would feel. 80% was 252 so I rounded up again...it was money. Pretty easy and gives me some confidence that I'll hit my goal.

Bench
Bar x 3 x 5 (W-S-N)
135 x 3 x 3 (W-S-N)
185 x 3 x 3

Nothing to report.

Dead
Bar x 10 (RDL)
135 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
315 x 3 x 3

Easier than Wednesday, bar moved a lot faster. I did a semi-sumo rep at 225 for old times sake, thinking I might have to pull it out of the bag at some point

Overall impression of Week 5: A holiday, what a contrast from last Friday. I even had time to do some planks afterwards just for fun. I hope Week 6 starts the real pupation, though.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Aw man BW just reminded me I screwed up my bench...3 x 3 instead of 5 x 4. Shoot.

Ah well, at least I won't forget it from now on (I hope).

Thanks BW.

 

[blut wump]

I wouldn't worry about it as a one-off. Congrats on getting the deload week out of the way. I hope next week goes better for you than mine did.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Thanks ya. I was actually driving home thinking 'now when the hell did blut wump get hurt, I think it was Week 6....'

BTW, what are you doing now workout wise, if I may ask?

 

[blut wump]

I made a stab at the Smolov but gave up in session one. I did two sets of 9 and caved on the sixth rep of the 3rd set. I'm feeling loaded again after this week so I might do some higher-rep gubbins next week and then run a loading phase on something to see the year out.

Other than that I've been just running a general mix of 3x3 and 3x5 type work on squats, bench, GMs, rows, OHP in a kind of single-factor fashion.

 

[Jim Ouini]

I'd like to try Smolov sometime. Not soon, mind you. Just something on my list of things to accomplish before I die.

 

[anotherbutters]

So long as you don't die trying.

Congrats on the deload. Friday sounded like cake.

 

[blut wump]

I might try again in the new year after a solid deload. I didn't really take any time out and I've been squatting 3x per week. When I failed the third set I had no reason to believe I could complete the rest of the week. Pretty tragic really.

 

[anotherbutters]

You should keep a journal too - none of this sneaking in a Smolov whilst we're not looking Were you serious about it or just seeing what a week of volume would be like?