March 12, 2015 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 255*1 225*3
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 135*5 160*3 170*2
• Seated Press: 135*3 155*3 175*2 185*1
• Sternum Pullups: 6, 5, 4
• Waiter Walks: 30*100 35*100

Good session

February 27, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 255*1 265*1
• Neutral Grip Pullups: 10, 6, 7
• Landmine Laterals: 45*10 55*5
• Hexbar Farmers: 315*65 335* 25 335*10
• Push-Up Position Plank: 1:00 1:00

Good times.  Brought landmine laterals back in. I just have a hard time figuring out where to fit them in during the week, or remembering to do them at the end of workouts.  Great movement though. 

February 20, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 255*1 265*1
• Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 135*3 155*3 175*3 (no wraps on first two sets)
• Seated Press: 135*3 165*2 185*1 195*X womp womp
• Sternum Pullups: 8, 7, 4
• Hex Farmers: 275*105 275*82 275*62

nothing spectacular here, just the usual; seated press should go back up now that I'm doing it more again.  I had to rest my shoulder a bit since it was sore for a couple months there.  Everything is back to normal at this juncture. 

February 13, 2015 Upper / Lower

• Deadlifts: 315*1,1,1,1,1 deload week
• Hanging Power Snatches: 95*4 115*4 135*3 145*2
• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 265*1 - left tri felt weird
• Unilateral BB T-Bar Rows: 160*3 170*2
• Suitcase Carries: 30*100 30*100
• DB Reverse Laterals: 25*8 25*6

I fell way behind updating this....I'm entering this on March 12.  Suitcase carries were kept light, trying to really keep form better on these instead of listing over to one side. 

January 30, 2015 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 250*1 270*1 225*2
• Sternum Pullups: 25*3 25*2 25*2
• Seated Press: 180*1 190*1 200*1 TIES PR
• T-Bar Rows: 170*2 170*2 170*2
• Hex Farmers: 315*55 315*37 275*57

Really strong on the bench, the 270 went up nice and smooth.  Rest of session went well too.  Good times. 

January 22, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 265*1 275*1
• BB Rows: 225*3 250*2 275*3
• Seated Press: 175*1 185*1 195*1 205*X
• 1.5 Pullups: 6, 4

Not bad, rowing went well with good form still.  Missed 205 here by a bit. 

January 19, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 245*1 255*1 265*1 275*1
• Sternum Pullups: 6, 5, 4
• T-Bar Rows: 135*7 160*4
• Landmine Laterals: 45*10
• Hex-Bar Farmers: 315*51 315*45

Retested max here, good times, still hitting 275, much easier this time.  Rest of session went well, threw in some more landmine laterals, and kept up with the hex farmers.  I really love the farmers, I feel my grip strength improving, my forearms are growing, my traps are thicker, and I love the way these things tax my CNS.  I sleep like a baby after these things. 

January 16, 2015 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 240*2,2,2,1,2,2,2,2,2,2
• Hanging Power Snatch: 95*4 115*2 135*3-exhausted

woooooooooo I am absolutely exhausted, my musculature along my upper areas of my chest and anterior delts was exhausted here, just absolutely toast.  I'll write my thoughts on smolov jr. soon.  

January 15, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 3, 4
• Pendlay Rows: 185*3 195*2 
• Sternum Pullups: 6, 5

Really feeling flat here, missed several reps. Honestly I'm ready for this smolov jr cycle to be over, my anterior delts are just toast right now

January 13, 2015 Upper (A.M. Workout)

• Incline Bench Press: 215*5,5,5,5,5,5,5

Delts are definitely getting exhausted, I'm getting no help from them at this point on the movement.  Almost done though! I'm curious to see the results. 

January 11, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 205*6,6,6,6,6,6
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*5 245*4 255*4
• BB Unilateral T-Bar Rows: 160*3 170*3
• Hexbar Farmers Walks: 315*41 315*21

Not gonna lie, my anterior delts are exhausted.  We'll see how the rest of the week plays out.  Did some good farmers walks here, I really love these things

January 9, 2015 Upper / Lower

• Incline Bench Press: 230*3,3,3,3,3,2,3,3,2,3
• Hexbar Deadlifts: 405*1 455*1 495*1 520*1 535*1 TIES PR 545*1 NEW PR!! 555*1 NEW PR!!

On the incline benching my left pec actually started to cramp on those two sets where I only got 2.  Then I decided to do some hexbar deadlifting just for fun.  Probably not the best idea as I was getting fatigued after 10 sets of benching.  But I figured what the hey.  I was surprised at how easily I got 520, so tried 535 which was pretty easy too.  So I got a video of an attempt at 545 (I'll post it later), and then figured I'd go for 555, see the video below.  Before any of you bosu ball single-leg pink dumbbell curling motherfuckers start commenting on my form: 

1) This was an absolute max attempt, my back isn't rounded on any other reps I do over the course of a year, aside from when I go all out. This was also my 17th set of the day. But yes, you should NOT mimic the form I use here for everyday lifting. 

2) With a rounded back you run into trouble if you sheer your spine back and forth to sort of 'shimmy' the weight up. If you're rounded at the start and rounded at the end of the lift there's not nearly as much sheering. Watch most of the guys deadlifting 800+ on here, and all of them are rounding somewhat. Having said that, again, this was ONLY for this attempt, if your back is constantly rounded like that on every pull you do, you almost certainly will run into trouble.

Having said all that, I was exhausted, I didn't even attempt to get into neutral spine alignment before the pull, I didn't really on the 545 either. NOT going to let that happen again, mainly because I can't imagine going for a PR on a compound lift as a 16th and 17th set of a workout ever again.  

January 8, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 220*4,4,4,4,4,4,3,4 (leg cramp on set I got 3)
• Sternum Pullups: 5, 4, 5
• T-Bar Rows: 160*4 170*2 185*1
• Suitcase Carries: 25*50 25*50

Carrying on here.  I feel like my anterior delts are starting to get fatigued after all these sessions, we'll see what happens. Good session overall!

January 6, 2015 Upper / Lower

• Incline Bench Press: 205*5,5,5,5,5,5,5
• Squats: 315*1 350*1 370*1
• Front Squats: 275*1 295*1 315*1 NEW PR? NEW PR!!
• Dead Bugs: 10, 10

Well then....I thought my PR was 320, but as I'm writing this up  (on the 17th of January) I just saw my record was 310. I would have recorded if I had noticed this. Of course the week after this I got 320 and didn't record either since I wasn't aware.  Good session all around, again.  Feeling happy with the workouts lately!

January 4, 2015 Upper / Conditioning

• Incline Bench: 195*6,6,6,6,6,6
• Broad Jumps: 8' 3", 8' 7.5", 9' 0.5", 8' 8", 9' 1.5", 9' 0", 9' 0", 9' 2" Tied PR?, 9' 1.5", 9' 1", 9' 2.5" NEW PR?? YUP! NEW PR!!

Alright, week 2 of smolov begins, we'll see how it goes.  More importantly though, I for some reason got away from doing broad jumps, I think because I was so gassed after sprinting when I was setting my records in sep/oct that I never had the energy, and then they just faded from my repertoire. Kind of like landmine laterals (note to self: do these again).  So today after inclining I decided to try some more. First few didn't feel that good, and I gave myself some shin splints from landing too heavy.  I actually had no idea what my PR was, but as I entered them here I just realized I tied, and then broke it.  Not too bad for a couple months off from them, and being about 203 lbs.  I guess all the squatting has been paying off. 

January 2, 2015 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 220*3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3
• Deadlifts: 430*5
• Hanging Power Snatches: 95*5 115*5 135*2
• Hex Farmers Walks: 225*50 275*50 300*40 300*20

Good session, really good actually.  If I ever go to full body routines in the future I could see a day like this occurring, just with deadlifts leading off, and higher weight/fewer sets on incline benching. This actually may have been one of my favorite sessions in recent memory.

January 1, 2015 Upper Body

• Incline Bench Press: 210*4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4
• Cable Rows: 210*3 230*1 240*1
• Sternum Pullups: 6, 5, 4
• Suitcase Carries: 25*50 25*50
• Farmers Walks: 105*57 115*35 115*14

Happy New Year! My goal is the same as every year; get into disgustingly good shape, the best of my life, continue to be athletic, only more so than ever. More smolov jr.  So far so good.  Heeeavy cable rows.  On suitcase carries again focusing on making sure my form is perfect.  Farmers walks went well. I think next time I'm using the hex bar. I love weighted carries

December 30, 2014 Upper Body (Morning Session)

• Incline Bench: 195*5 195*5 195*5 195*5 195*5 195*5 195*5

December 28, 2014 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 185*6 185*6 185*6 185*6 185*6 185*6
• T-Bar Rows: 160*4 160*4 160*4
• 1.5 Sternum Pullups: 2, 2
• DB Farmer's Walk: 95*52 105*54
• Wide-Stance Anti-Rotational Chops: 70*10

Good first session. the smolov jr. stuff only covers incline benching, everything else is just me throwing in my regular workouts after.  Not too hard at all so far, hopefully it gets more challenging. 

December 26, 2014 Upper

• Incline Bench Press: 225*1 250*1 265*1 270*1
• BB Underhand Rows: 225*3 245*3 255*2
• Push Press: 225*1 235*1
• Rope Pullups: 4, 4, 4
• Ring Pullups: 9

Good times, Got 265 pretty easy here.  Still I want to add more strength to my incline bench. May try a program of some sort, need to figure out what.