Sunday, January 12, 2014

Friday, January 10, 2014

Training - 7th & 9th January 2014: 5th & 6th day of Smolov Jr.


7th Jan:

Back Squat: 195x6x6
Behind the Neck Snatch Grip Press: 65x5x5
Rows: 130x5x7-10
Ab Wheel 3x

9th Jan:

Back Squat: 205x7x5
Ab Wheel 3x

I guess saying that I've been too busy to update would be inaccurate, I just sort of forgot!
Having fun (sort of?) with school, but its great hanging out with the friends again!

Monday, January 6, 2014

The Saga of Zammar the Great #4: Candahar pt.1

Note: This is part four of a story. If you are seeing this for the first time, you may benefit from reading the previous parts as can be found here: http://zammarahmer.blogspot.ca/search/label/The%20Saga%20of%20Zammar%20the%20Great
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"We need to go, right now!" Ren pleaded with the immensely muscular back in front of her. Zammar did not reply, still lost in his thoughts. He was facing the long ramp that led down from the Kampallan ring. Directly in front was a giant fissure that had appeared when he punched the stone in unbridled fury. Tristan was afraid the entire mountain would crumble and crush them because of it. But so far it had held. On the other hand, he was grateful that the tall mountains, in whose shadow they stood, obscured view of the absolute ruin contained within. They did not, however prevent the smell of rotting, burned flesh from permeating through the thin evening air.

"Please Zammar..."

The man turned around, revealing his gorgeous face with an eccentric swirl of beautiful black hair. He looked at the young queen with deep, empty brown eyes.

"Not yet, Ren." He whispered finally.

"But they're going to reach more villages...we can warn people..." She, like Tristan had been stunned silent by his solemn mannerism.

"No, we will never catch up on foot." He unsheathed the immense greatsword across his back. It rippled mesmerizingly along the lethal edge with an azure glow. With a loud heave, the immense man thrust the sword deep in to the ground directly in front of him. There, it began to pulsate softly with a stronger, more visible blue that banished the shadows immediately around in periodic intervals.

"What are you doing...?" Ren managed to utter before Zammar's hands landed softly on her shoulders. Tristan felt a dagger of envy at the way her entire body went limp and she stared up at him with large and completely unguarded, but beautiful green eyes. He could almost hear the rapid increase in her heartbeat.

"Listen Ren, this was not your fault."

She was silent for a long while before whispering "We should have arrived sooner, we should have warned them."

"No, think of what happened at Torst...Kampalla never stood a chance."

"I don't care...I should have done better...so many...so many people..." Her small voice died instantly as the giant arms pulled her in to an embrace, effectively hiding her behind the bare muscles.

"Ren, I will not let this happen again." The conviction in the mans voice was penetrating.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Training - 4th January 2014: 4th day of Smolov Jr.


Back Squat: 215x10x3

Pretty tired again today...10 sets is a lot! Even if the weight isn't all that much :P I'm excited (not) for when this program has me doing 10x3 with 240 :'(

Also, left leg has been bugging me. Lots of clicking and clacking near the knee join, caused (I think) by tight quads and possibly calves. Pretty annoying, hopefully it gets better with more myofascial release!!


I am writing this from my new home next to my cool friends who are sharing it with me! 2A awaits, and with it, I am sure many hardships and good times!!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Training - 3rd January 2014: 3rd day of Smolov Jr.


Back Squat: 205x8x4

Feeling pretty shot today. The squats went well, but even though the weight is relatively light, I was pretty drained by the end. Part of the reason for that is that 8 sets...is a lot of sets. Another reason is that I was being very strict with form, minimizing the amount that my hips kicked back and staying as upright as possible. It's a good thing to do, because it ends up emphasizing more on the Quads, which is of course a weakness of mine.

Another reason is probably that my appetite sort of (contradictorally) disappeared since the beginning of the winter break and I have been eating less because of that.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Training - 1st January 2014: 2nd day of Smolov Jr.


Back Squat: 190x7x5
Ab Wheel 3x

Yay! Happy New Year everybody! Too bad my new year post is slightly late, and a boring one about an ordinary training day. woohoo!

As far as training goals are concerned, I haven't really thought about it much beyond accomplishing what I had aimed to accomplish last term. (315lb Back Squat for reps, 185lb Snatch, 225lb Clean and Jerk) I don't think these should be too hard to reach now, it mainly depends on where my co op placement ends up being for the Spring term. Other than that, I hope to compete, or be ready to compete at some point. I guess I'll have to look in to that.

On another note, Left hamstring has been bugging me a lot lately. There isn't much in the way of pain, it just feels really weird, and is causing my knee to click funnily at the bottom of the squat. I am taking a hard, spiky ball to it...so hopefully it stops being weird :D

Training - 30th December 2013: 1st day of Smolov Jr.


Back Squat: 180 x 6 x 6
Behind the Neck Sn. Grip Press: 75x6x6
Ab Wheel 3x

Hello all! I am back from what turned out to be a short hiatus during the holiday season.

I intended to start Smolov Jr. last week, but the combination of a power out and bad flu influenced me to postpone it.

So, as detailed before, I will be doing the three week strength program called Smolov Jr. as can be seen here: (http://www.seriouspowerlifting.com/2362/articles/smolov-jr)

Sort of unusual, since I'm not a powerlifter. However, it suits the current emphasis for strength wickedly. As such, I will be running the program for my Back Squats. I did do it before with good success for Front Squats (and then I got injured right at the end! :( ). But, hopefully it helps bring the squatting strength up.

I will be using 255 as a max. Very conservative, but I think it usually is best to be conservative with your max when running a program like this. Especially when you are expected to add weight that isn't based on the max later on.


So today's training was the first time squatting for two weeks, and after recovering from a cold. That being said, it was relatively easy. 180 for 6x6 is a good 35lbs less than I would have been doing before. Oh well, just going to take it easy working in to it, the program will get a lot tougher.