Smolov Intense Cycle Progress

Week two is complete and I am now half way through the intense mesocycle. Even though, the base cycle sees a lot more volume, the intense cycle requires you to push much heavier and therefore give a lot more each session. The base cycle sees if you can last the week whereas the intense cycle sees if you can last the set! 

The warm up sets are easy enough low reps and lighter weight, however, I feel like they start off too heavy to get your legs warmed up and your joints used to the lift. So no matter what session I'll always start off with the bar to get my shoulders and hips loosen up and then rep 60kg until a sweat breaks. When it comes to work sets, it seems most involve more reps than the warm up sets! So weight and workload both increase, which has been hard! The advice I can give at this stage is treat every rep like a 1-rep set.

This really tests your ability to recover, so remember to get enough sleep and eat, eat, eat. I assumed recovery would be better after the earlier stages of the cycle, however, I find myself playing pain roulette every night - going to bed wandering what part will hurt most in the morning!
I think with less volume, your muscles (and joints) don't get used to the workload as much and so the ability to recover diminishes. At current I think the backs of my knees and my groin muscles are causing me grief!