Squat day

I'm due for a 5/3/1 rep day for squats, but decided to make a change for a few reasons.

First, as I noted a week or so ago, more volume in my legs makes the scarred left quad feel better. I can't explain that, but I have much, much fewer spasms in the scar area when I am spending more quad time under tension. Much less triggering, which means much less stabbing pain -- I'm all for that. Less pain means less paranoia, less feeling as though the big, fat scar is gonna tear loose sometime soon and open up a canyon in that muscle. And I'm a wide squatter, so I think about it a lot.

Second, hitting heavy maxes just sticks a cattle prod in my paranoia. Hitting lots of 70% squats doesn't. Some, if not most, of this game has to be handled between the ears. So I enter a one-rep max day with trepidation. Maybe if I can get a few hundred fairly heavy reps under my belt per week or two, I'll start to trust the leg. Plus, it might help raise my leg mass, which would be some nice red-eye gravy on that hambone.

So I decided to fold a Smolov or Smolov Jr. cycle into my 5/3/1 routine. Who says I have to stick to convention. Screw that.

Today was day 1. Since it was a 5/3/1 squat day, I did the Smolov work and assistance work. For future days, I'll do the Smolov work as one assistance set (if I can stand it). I'll probably do several cycles with conservative max assumptions before I do another max test.

Gorgeous day. Wife's been out of town for several days, so I'm lonely. I like the rhythm with her around much better. Warm today, but I started with sweat shirt and beanie on to get a sweat on. Heater was pumping too. I was soaked pretty quickly.

Started with the Results, Shelby mix, and MGs Powdered Muscle. Wore knee sleeves, EFS belt for heavier sets, and loose briefs.

I rolled, rolled the crap out of it with the knobby stick , and did a lot of dynamic work. A lot. I did very little bar warmup, but rather took big leaps in weight to get to workout weight quickly.

Squat:

220kg x 4 sets of 9 reps

Really pretty smooth. Felt good in the leg. A little funkiness in my left knee, but not enough to lead me to change anything. Depth was below parallel -- I dropped slowly until I hit the pins, which were set at two inches below parallel. Came up as quickly as I could.

Afterward, I loaded up the SSB with 100kg and did a superset of step-ups (sets of 10) and lunges (sets of 10). I think I did three sets before I decided breathing was a good option.

I must admit that my time between the squat sets had to be at least 3 minutes each set because I kept running inside to check on the Bama game. Sue me.

Last time I did a Smolov or Sheiko cycle, I was obliterated by the volume (particularly Sheiko). Not this time. Felt pretty normal. We'll see how I feel after a week of this, though.

Great day. We'll see how it goes.