Wednesday 15.10: Squats

Wednesday. Strength, Smolov, back squat 10x3 (137.5kg).

At times it felt like this day would never come. The end of Smolov's squat program. I knew this wouldn't be a walk tin the park. I filled in my one rep max at 145kg - even though I wasn't sure if I would have got that up before the program - and the excel showed me what to do on each training day. I had taken my PR long time ago and it felt like I wasn't quite on that same pace in the late summer. Today it was time to take another hard core set of 10x3 at heavy weights. Now I'll pass these squats for a while and test my one rep max in a couple of days.

Getting work done

Strength.

• Smolov, back squat
• Sets at 10x3
• 1st-8th sets 3x137.5kg, 9th set 2x137.5kg, 10th set 4x135kg

I looked at the excel and it said the load should be 137.5kg. For 10 sets of triples. I was about to lose my mind at this scenario. Then again, the only option was to dig deep in the back of my head and talk myself up to be a strongman. You can do this shit. Don't think about it too much, do what you can do best, don't over think it, just do the work. I kept telling myself I can do these heavy sets. I left the door a little bit open to nail them as 135kg sets if 137.5kg would be too much.

Took warm-up properly and couple of sets with barbell at 70, 105, 125kg before jumping to 137.5kg. First set was a fair game, I got it without problems even though I felt it heavy on my back rack. It was a good boost on confidence level as it felt a ton on my back but once I went down and started pushing back up, it felt fine. I understood my legs and entire body is ready for today. Second set felt the same. On third it started feeling heavier.

For fourth set I asked a pal to spot me just in case. It was better to have a friend to secure the lifts and somehow it makes it easier to finish strong on the reps. All sets between 4th and 8th were similar, weighed enormously but from somewhere I was able to gather extra strength to get the required reps down. On 8th set my spotter laid his hands on my ribcage to guide me back up on the right tracks. That was much needed help and simultaneously it might have gone under my skin.

On 9th set I probably didn't get mentally strong enough and the possibility of not making it through got to my head. And that's pretty much a definite thing it happens once you let it slip in your head. So I took a double of which the second one needed some guidance from my spotter too. At that moment I decided to go down with 2.5kg to 135kg sharp. That's a small drop but mentally it was huge. The last set was a piece of cake. That probably indicates this squat business is largely a psychological issue too.

As it was such an easy piece it came to my mind right after racking it that I should finish strong and make up the one rep that was lost on the 9th set. I waited for half a minute and completed the last one like it weighed 120kg. This made me smile and it was an awesome finish to the training session. Had no time for a metcon today but tomorrow's another day of crossfit.

This Smolov squat program definitely was hard but it was also worth walking through it. Positive side effects. My mobility in hip lower body has improved tremendously. It's beyond words how good my hips feel currently. Being constantly under this kind of pressure and tension has brought miracles to my hips. Squat form has also taken steps. I feel like my reps look the same, no matter the weights. There's been so much repetitions, about 130-140 heavy reps per week that it has to make good. Naturally my strength must have gone up as well. At this point I can say these set weights have definitely gone up. Gotta test that one rep max too soon.

Toni jerked 110kg today for a 10kg PR, huge man, congrats!

On the negative side I'll say in the beginning I was a bit hesitant to do tough metcons because I thought it would make harm to this program. Later in the program I started doing regular workouts too. Not maybe at same level but at some point this has hindered my traditional crossfit training methods. I've tried to let my legs rest a bit more. Some of these squat days have taken a lot of time at the gym so I haven't had time to go after metcons.

All in all, it was a good call to finally try it out as I had been thinking about it for months. What happens from this point on, I don't know. Time will tell =)