No Week 12; 100 rep sets; Week 13, Day 1

Week 12 was an off week.

Weeks 13-18 of this year long program center around conditioning and ultra high rep sets. Due to playing basketball, I am not going to do the conditioning part of this phase. So, for those following this workout log along with Paul Carter's 365, please see the book for the conditioning portion.

Over the next 6 weeks, I will use my Strong 15, Weeks 1-6 weights on the squat, pause squat, deadlift, and bench press (no back off sets). There are four different workouts, and I will do three of them per week. Therefore, workout 4 will be done on the first day of Week 2 of this portion (Week 14 overall).

Week 13, Day 1

Squat

134/5, 154/4, 182/3, 202/2, 209/1, 223/1, 235/1

Lat Pulldown Machine (Standard Grip)

70/100 (did the 100 reps straight through; not too difficult; probably started too low)

Bulgarian Split Squats (Smith Machine- bar only)

* Performed 100 reps on each leg (first set on each leg was 15-20, followed by sets of 6-10 until I reached 100 reps, took as little rest as possible in between each set)

The goal here is to do 1 set of 100. There is no way in hell that I can do 100 straight reps of Bulgarian split squats. Not even close. In fact, the most I did in a single stretch was 20, and that was on the very first set. From the second set on, I would do anywhere from 6-10 before I needed to stop.

I pretty much wanted to end my life during this exercise. I could barely walk from the gym to my car, and from my car to my apartment afterward. My sides were burning during the exercise, in addition to my legs.  I will try these again next week and hopefully I can add a few more reps per set.

Strong 15, Week 11: Testing Week

Testing Week

Squat

Programmed for 315.

Tonight: 133/3, 183/1, 223/1, 273/1, 293/1, 313/1, 323/1, 328/1

Content with 328 based on my programmed weight.

Bench Press

Programmed for 265.

Tonight: 132/3, 182/1, 222/1, 242/1, 262/1

262 was a grinder so I stopped there. My all time PR of 272 was accomplished after a 3 week Smolov Jr. program at the end of last year. So, for bench press only, I have had more success with Smolov Jr. than this program. I'm not too disappointed, though, because tonight was the second time in my life that I benched as much as 262.

Deadlift

Programmed for 400.

Tonight: 132/3, 223/1, 313/1, 363/1, 403/1, 413/1

Happy with 413. A grinder of a rep, but I did it!

Running & Pull Ups

I decided to run again and do some pull ups.

1.5 mile run: 10:46.. new PR! (I was dead afterward.)

Pull Ups

4 (very slow w/hanging pause at bottom)
8 (continuous motion)
5 (continuous motion)
5, short rest, 4 (continuous motion)

Strong 15, Week 10: ~50% Week

Week 10 is simply 1 set of 5 reps in each of the testing exercises at ~50% of your 1RM

Squat

183/5

Deadlift

223/5

Bench Press

142/5

Obviously, everything was really easy.  Next week will be testing week. Have I made any gains? Tune in to find out.

I also decided to run 1.5 miles again.  Tonight, I did it in 11:04!! That is 54 seconds better than last week.

Strong 15, Week 9: Back & Biceps

Pull Ups

8.5, 7.5 (pretty sure that 8.5 is a pull up PR)

DB Rows

95/10,10

Barbell Shrugs

132/5, 222/5
317/10

Concentration Curls

30/20,20

* Strong session, despite yet another night of poor sleep.

Strong 15, Week 9: Squat & Deadlift

It's amazing what one day off can do.. back felt fine this morning, I felt refreshed, so I decided to do my squat & deadlift session.

Squat

Regular: 158/5, 183/4, 214/3, 236/2, 277/1, 284/1, 293/1
Pause: 236/3

Deadlift

200/5, 240/4, 280/3, 320/2, 352/1, 360/1, 372/1, 320/3


Very good session....solid with the heavier weights.

Next week is a very light week- 1 set of 5 at 50% of my 1RM for the squat, bench press, and deadlift. After that will be the testing week on all three of those exercises. Hopefully, I will hit some new PRs!

Strong 15, Week 9: Bench Press

Tonight was supposed to be squat & deadlift night, but ended up turning into bench press night due to lower back pain that has been bothering me all week. Last weekend, I drove my very low to the ground sports car for the first time since November. (I don't drive it in the Winter.) When I finished the drive, I emerged from the car with pain in my lower back. This pain has persisted all week. I was hoping to be able to battle through the squat & deadlift session as scheduled, but that quickly dissipated when I couldn't even do a full squat rep with only the barbell.

In addition to the back pain, I haven't slept well for the past two nights: 4 hours on Tuesday and 6 hours yesterday. The result is that my body just feels beat up and worn down: back pain, lack of sleep, and general fatigue from all of the basketball & running I've been doing despite the aforementioned ailments. Tonight, I knew that I would have zero ability to battle through a tough rep. If it couldn't be done smoothly, it wouldn't be done.

Bench Press

133/5, 153/4, 180/3, 199/2, 233/1, 239/1, 246/1, 212/9

246/1 felt heavy. If this week was testing week, there would have been no way that I would have been able to get 272+.

Incline Press

For the past two weeks, I have done an incline DB press at 90/8. My plan was to do the same this week. However, I couldn't even manage 1 rep when I first picked up the 90s off the ground. I tried a second time and managed 3 brutally tough reps. How can I go from doing 90/8 to 90/barely 3 in one week? Realizing that 90/8 was not going to happen in my wildest dreams tonight, I decided to do a set of barbell incline presses at 162/8. This set was easy.

Flat DB Fly

40/20 (easiest set I've done at this weight- figure that one out!)

What I take from this workout is the following question: When will I be able to do the squat & deadlift session? I'm not going to bother to try tomorrow, as I know my body needs a day off. My back has been bothering me for 5 days now and it hasn't improved. I am concerned that this injury is going to screw up this program and my testing days. As is almost always the case, time will tell.