So, I'm half way through the second week of the base cycle again, and I am struggling! The 10kg increase is substantial enough to make me hate squatting. Still, I am pushing through every set and hitting 'n' rep PR's every session! I have so many pains right now, but only from undertraining. Not going to give up though, once this week is complete, I feel I will have gotten through the hardest part.
I actually had a nightmare of a session on Monday, just before I started to warm up I had a heart palpitation which scared the crap out of me as it had never happened before, not least in the gym. I made my way through the warmup hoping it would decrease with my normal rest after raising my heart rate from lifting. It didn't. So I started on my work sets, which were incredibly hard! I wouldn't advise this, to be honest, but I decided to see what my body could handle - I set a 9-rep PR! But did not enjoy it in the slightest, racking the bar after every set saw me quickly lying on a bench trying to get my heart rate down.
Smolov Jr. for bench has been going great, but like the base cycle of the full program, the larger (5kg) increase on sets this week has been hard to cope with. I seem to have developed a pain in my left arm similar to mild tendinitis, again possibly a sign of undertraining, so I will continue to train my way past it. I've found that the hardest session is the 7x5 (7sets5reps) which is strange as this seems at first, to be the least likely difficult session. Here's a reminder of the Smolov Jr. routine (percentages based off of 1 rep max):
Week 1
Mon: 6x6x70%
Wed: 7x5x75%
Fri: 8x4x80%
Sat: 10x3x85%
Week 2
+5kg on week 1
Week 3
+2.5kg on week 2
Week 4
Sat: TEST DAY
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