you are on the first day of smolov... does your job let you take naps? i think you'll need to do that during lunch or right when you get home.

Well, I looked into it some more...starting Smolov tonight. Thanks for pushing me toward it and good luck on your workouts

GL Doug!! If you need to get a lift in while you're in SF, you're welcome to come lift at my place.

Also, is this the Somlov Jr Bench you went with?

http://iron.forum0.net/t19-official-...nformation-amp

Maybe a little because I've been like 161-163 since the meet. I don't think I'll get over 170 though.

Yes. I work as a kindergarten teacher.

GL. My only advice is don't do it if you still have appreciable form issues. The strength gains aren't worth it if it's just going to further ingrain errors that will hold you back in the future.

Yeah that's the one. And I may take you up on the offer. Are you near Nobb Hill/Chinatown? Also any reviews of Fleur de Lys?

Summer vacation!!!

I'd say my form now is the best its ever been...I hit 425 to depth a couple weeks ago but that was a fluke I think. I'm basing my cycle off of 405 since i know its going to be rough enough without starting out overzealous on my 1rm

I'm actually only doing the intro and the base cycles, not the full routine...giving up on benching to let my shoulder heal and dedicating almost all of my time to getting stronger on squats since it seems like doing anything else while on Smolov is suicide

I went to Fleur de Lys maybe 8 months back with my gf at the time. She loved it, but personally I thought it was overpriced for what it was. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was good, however for the $150 - $200 per person without wine that I ended up dropping, I felt that I'd be better off going elsewhere. I personally prefer Boulevard, and while I haven't been yet, I've heard nothing but great things about Gary Danko. Michael Minna and Spruce are supposed to be really good as well.

Btw - I need to take just a little off my Wayfare Tavern recommendation as I was there last weekend and was underwhelmed by both the service and the food. The steak tartare are incredible, however the fried chicken was meh (a bit rosemary heavy) and the steak and frites, while perfectly done, was a bit cold. This may have had something to do with our retarded waiter who not only mixed up our order with the table next to us (who ordered the same thing after us yet got theirs first), but also asked how we wanted our leftovers packed before piling plates on them and consequently throwing them away.

Anywho - bit of a rant, but yeah - gotta deduct a few points for that one.

As far as proximity goes, SF is a really small city. Close here means like - 5 minutes whereas far is 20. I'm not close to Nob Hill or China Town as I live in West Portal (thus the ability to have a garage) - but it's pretty easy to get here.

I would not expect to get stronger during the course of the program. It is after you've finished and rested for about a week that people seem to start to see the benefits. So if you can't easily triple 375 right now (405 * .85 + 20 + 10) then I'd say you will definitely miss a lot of reps during the program, which will limit your gains. I chose 345 as my max to work off of, and that is actually around my 5 rep max. The weight that I will be doing 10 triples with on the last day is probably my current 7-8 rep max.

Ok cool. Thanks for all the recommendations. There are just so many quality restaurants in SF it's kind of daunting just to pick a few. I think I've got the Napa leg of the trip pretty well planned out, but that was pretty simple in comparison to SF.

6-22

KB Swings- 1.5px10x3
Foam Folling- hip flexors, IT bands, upper quads
Weighted Pullups- 5 singles at 1p

Hip flexors were a little tight so I got in a quick warmup and rolled them. Also I made a weighted pullup belt over the weekend using 5 feet of chain, some flexible rubber tubing, and a couple of carabiner clips, so I wanted to test it out. Seems to work well, I'm gonna GTG with pullups over the coming weeks and would like to get up to a 2.5p pullup.

Also made a ham, fried egg, and cheese sandwich for dinner. But instead of bread I used chicken breast. It was awesome.

6-23

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 225x2, 260x7x5
Close Grip Bench- 45x10x2, 135x5, 155x3, 175x2, 185x5x2

4th set of squats were the easiest. Elbow felt bad during bench so I quit it, I need to SMR it at work tomorrow. Will do some ab work tonight too. Looking forward to getting back to my normal rep range over the weekend.

6-24

1p Pullups- 1,1,1,2,2,2,2

6-25

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 255x1, 275x5x7
Bench- 45x10x2, 135x5, 155x3, 175x2, 185x5, 190x5, 195x5

Ugh. 9 am Saturday morning workouts without caffeine suck. Took until the 5th or 6th set of squats for me to feel normal. I'm interested to see how tomorrow is gonna go at 290x3x10.

You suck at pullups imo

You suck at squatting.

True

Too mean? I feel like I didn't used to suck at pullups. Those weren't max effort fwiw. New goal is a 3p pullup.

6-26

Squat- 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 265x2, 290x3x10
Wide Neutral Grip Cable Row- 10x4, 6x2
Chest Supported RD Flyes- 12x3
EZ Bar Curls- 92.5x5x3, 67.5x12

Squats weren't too bad. Knees feel pretty good but my hip flexors/glutes are definitely getting worn out. Time to microload the curls.

So week 1 is in the books. I'm going to try to add 20 lbs to my worksets for week 2 and try to get a little more sleep. I'll probably start pounding food on Saturday for the next 8 days until I'm finished with the cycle. My knees feel good, but my glutes and hip flexors are definitely starting to get worn out. Going to increase the amount of active recovery work that I've been doing.

What do the 1p, 2p, 3p, etc in pullups stand for? Sorry

See you later this week Doug?