Here's my Korte

[Jim Ouini]

I'm sure I'm jinxing myself, but lets assume I get my bench and squat (280 and 300, respectively).

He typically goes up 25lbs squat, 10lbs bench and 15lbs deadlift.

So my new targets would be:

Squat: 340
Bench: 305
Dead: 515

Prep phase (60%)

Squat: 205
Bench: 185
Dead: 309

(except I'll probably ramp these again? Since I ended higher than all of these at 71%...)

Week 8 in the gym (95%)

Squat: 325
Bench: 290 (probably 295)
Dead: 490 (probably 495)

Just thinking out loud here, pretty doable unless I go crazy. I have to think about his because I wasn't mentally prepared for another prep phase

 

[anotherbutters]

Well I'll just say I did 500, based on my 95% lift

You know we're not going to let you get away with that C'mon, with 500 on the cards, I wouldn't be able to resist myself. I just worked it out - isn't that a round 5 plates with a few coins on each end?

 

[Jim Ouini]

Aw man I'm good for it

Yeah it's 5 plates and 2.5's. 475 was 4 plates and 35's which I tried not to look at as I attempted it since it looked really heavy and was kind of psyching me out

I almost thought to do 25's and 10's, just to make it look lighter.

 

[blut wump]

You know we're not going to let you get away with that C'mon, with 500 on the cards, I wouldn't be able to resist myself. I just worked it out - isn't that a round 5 plates with a few coins on each end?

This from the man who was the epitome of patience.

500 is just another weight, 5 plates is the biggie, however much that might weigh, and his next cycle will take him there as part of the program. That'd be awesome.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Ever since you guys mentioned 300-400-500, that's now my goal. I'm almost there with bench and dead. Actually, it's more like 3 plates, 4 plates, 5 plates + 2.5

I really need to bring my squat up, I figure I'll have to do this with a belt, though. I'm trying to decide if 5 x 5, Korte or anything not named Smolov is better for squat.

And then I have to bring up my arms, they're getting absolutely puny. I'll have to see if there's a Smolov Smoking Gunz program

 

[Jim Ouini]

Week 8 Day 2

Squat
Bar x 2 x 5
135 x 2 x 3
195 x 3 x 3

Good sets. Paused and looked around at the bottom

Bench
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 1
225 x 1
255 x 1
285 x 1

95% is 280, but I did 270 last week and wanted to go up a bit. I wouldn't call it a grind but by no means did it fly up. Regardless, if my memory serves it was easier than my 280 PR back when I did 5 x 5, so I guess I'm happy.


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

Like last week, these felt hard.

One more 'official' workout Friday, then I'll decide how I want to proceed.

 

[blut wump]

This week is looking prettty solid. Hard work but definitely not all-out 100% maxes. Not wanting to jinx the coming squat, would you call the Korte a success? I recall your squat was almost being lifted at the 95% figure last week.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Yeah I think it's been a success. Like you said, I had some (not a lot) left in the tank on my lifts this week, maybe more on dead and less on bench.

Squat is hard to say, I already did my 95%...I'll shoot for 315 on Friday I think, with a belt.

Love the practice on the big 3, though, it's fun

The thing is, I'm wondering if I'd get the same gains on a 5 x 5, and be able to OHP and row, powershrug or clean pull, I miss those.

Also, if I run Korte again I'm unsure of where to start my 60%'s since I didn't plan to run back to back and pushed it to 71%. Should I start at 71% again? or back down to 60% of new target and ramp up again?

 

[blut wump]

That's hard to say. I reckoned from the start of mine that 58% was too light, even though it felt hard on the first day. If I did it again, I'd certainly add four or five percent to the figures and maybe try to ramp a little towards the end.

Other than the injury, I was very pleased with mine. I feel generally a lot stronger than I did two or three months ago and I added 45 pounds to my squat and finally broke 3 plates on bench on the Korte. My lower back feels stronger too but I'm still wary of deadlifting despite being repeatedly tempted.

You should definitely start somewhere down rather than anywhere near the 71% figure. Of course, you'll be working off of new maxes rather than those old ones. I know you can't have forgotten all that volume

 

[Jim Ouini]

Ugh. I'm sure you think I don't read Korte, really I did. Yeah I meant 58%-62% of new targets. EDIT: Err 58-64%. LOL. I have to do the calcs and see where it puts me.

45lbs on squat is impressive, I don't think I'll see near that. Must be newbie gains j/k

And yes I remember the volume phase. Easy stuff in retrospect, this time around I'm thinking to add some bb curls and tricep pushdowns 'for fun'.