My training log and thoughts

Last night my new drumset got delivered. Pretty great, turned out to be much bigger than I expected. Had to spend a lot of time assembling it while watching tutorials. The plastic seems to be nice, too. It has the company's logo on it, so I assumed it had to be at least somewhat decent. Today I had my first lesson. I decided to go with the MusicCollege channel again for the start. Also I received my new picks yesterday, maybe I should post some photos. I'll post a pic from a store, maybe later I'll ever record myself specifically for this blog. One day I might come back to these old post and get nostalgic, just the way I love it. You know what gives me one of the biggest nostalgic rushes? Roiboos tea. Back in 2008, when I was a young carefree teenager I'd spend a serious portion of my days playing Oblivion and drinking roiboos, so now it just strikes me right in the head every time I smell it. I wish not to lose the feeling, so perhaps I should play Oblivion again to ge...

Nice day in general. Tuesday was a bit exhausing - did some cardio under the sun for 5 hours, burned the skin on my forearms. All the one-arm hanging on monday made my shoulder joint really sore. At least I figured out why they're sore. Teres major is staying ok, but I think I still can't do pullups, it hurts from time to time. Been really sleepy, but in a strange way - heavy head, but eyes aren't shutting as easily. Must be the heat getting to my head. Perhaps I should wear a hat. 29 july 2020 General warmup Axe pushpress 60*5 Clean and pushpress 60*5 60*5 60*5 60*10 nice cardio Had to pull the barbell from the ground. I think it might have been a bit more than 60, I'll measure the axle later. Axle press 60*21 cheesy but nice 60*12 kept it stricter, but made it too easy BW = 107 kgs, slightly on the lower side, I guess, possibly mostly due to dehydration. I think I'll do accumulation squats later at night.

Well, my question about phaeosaces has been answered - as expected, not by an entomologist, but by a greek speaker. It's here - https://www.quora.com/What-does-phaeosaces-mean-I-e-in-Phaeosaces-lindsayae-which-is-a-type-of-a-moth-Not-sure-if-it-refers-to-the-shape-or-the-color-of-its-wings-or-anything-else/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5 Basically, "phaeosaces" means "gray shields". Makes sense. Now I'm about to have my coffee, which is 60 or 70 light roasted beans over three cups. I'm rate my recovery for today at about 57/100, maybe more. Had the biggest thunderstorm this year today. Loud lightning, water everywhere. Helped me calmed down, because I was trying to take a nap while heat and sunlight were getting to me. I think I sort of let the stress get to me and admitted to myself that my energy got drained. Just because of some thoughts. But right now I'm way better. Hoping that I can do some nice and simple bodyweight chinups without tearing my teres maj...

25 july 2020 I thought of giving my post titles some more original names, so I considered putting random stuff there. Went to wikipedia, clicked on "random article", first it came up with Carnlough, then Scott Crichton (American football), then Light Opera of Manhattan, then  Phaeosaces compsotypa . Then I had to look up the etymology of the word "phaeosaces". Wasn't easy. It's a moth, so I assumed it had something to do with the descripiton of its wings. It's clearly made of two words - "phaeo" and "saces", obviously greek. I'm supposed to be at least acquainted with greek. So I went to google translate. Didn't bother with straight googling anymore, since it was taking me to long to find the origin in the first search result (which, funny enough, was also wikipedia, so, basically, I made a circle in my search). After coming across "phaeodactylum tricornitum" I changed my opinion and came to a conclusion that it migh...

22 july 2020 Pretty nice day. Recovery was about 64/100. Had 83 beans of dark roast coffee over four cups. Told myself to not boil it again for an extra cup and succeded. One arm axle press 40 kgs for 10 reps - right arm 40*6 left 40*18 right + 1 bad rep and one failed rep (tbh they all weren't very good in terms of lockout☺) 40*9 left 40*10 left 40*18 right 40*4 left 40*3 left 40*10 left Took me some time. The hardest thing was obviously balancing. Really whacked my triceps. Was much easier to do with my right, because my right shoulder is lower. I suspect that I overtightened (i.e. flexed too hard for too long) my teres major muscle - the one right above the lat, so later I, once again, pulled it when I tried to do pullup. I guess I could switch to doing bicep curls instead of pullups for a while. Overhead press with extended range - basically, you take a wide grip and lower the bar right to your chest. You do need to bend for it, but it's a great exercise for middle delts. 5...

20 july 2020 Tried to do some chinups, my my right lat is still tweaked. It was hot and humid, raining a little bit. Felt too lazy to do anything at all, so I came up with something imaginative Squat - singles Basically, I did very quick singles in quadruples - 150, 160, 170 and 180 And I did four quadruples like that. First 15 singles were done in 21 minutes, as I kept unloading the plates and trying to find water. On the 15th rep I cramped my knee a bit, and on the 16th rep (180) I accidentally relaxed too much and had to drop it. Then I did 180 normally. One advantage of such and invantive workout (besides fun) is that it makes all the weights feel easy, as long as you prepare yourself metally, if you can fix your mind on exactly what you are lifting. In general, it was sort of a stresstul day, mostly because of bad memories and dark fantasies that keep overwhelming my mind sometimes. I call this condition "the twilight zone", for obvious reasons (twilight zone was an old ...

18 july 2020 "Tiny bench" press 130 - 2 sets of 1 130*5 - mini PB :D 135 - 3 of 1 JM press 60 - 3 sets of 17 Pinched 20 kg plate by the hub for the first time in a while, it's 117 mms in diameter and 25 mms in depth, pretty slippery too Did ok with the right, small lift by the left Pinch block 97 mms (not 100 apparently) 66*0 fail 61*1 63,5 *1 65*1 on a second attempt - another small personal record :D Did three sets of vocal recordings. So many mistakes, at leasdt I managed to hype myself up for the third set. Should learn more about crossfading etc. different clips into each other. Watched Creative Sauce's tutorial on basic mastering in Cakewalk, joined the Cakewalk discord. Wondering if I should start asking for feedback. Also I've been watching his tutorial on midi drums, now I'm changing velocity on them to create more diverse beats. Perhaps I'll do some grippers today as well, then I'll P.S. them under here. P.S. Accumulation squat 60*5 80*5 100 ...

16 july 2020 Nice day. Started late. Had 70 beans of coffe over 3 small cups. Stiff legged deadlift 200 - one long set, first I pulled overhand just over my knees, then "hook" grip below the knees, put on straps and did 6 reps somewhat consecultively + 2 with mixed grip. I thought the homonymous song by Manowar was shorter. Wanted to do romanian deadlifts with 210, but instead automatically just lowered it to the floor from the racks, funny. Paused deadlift - 2 pauses below the knee, on the way up and down 150 - 5 reps Muscle high pulls from the floor - something between bent over rows and shrugs, made sure to touch my belly every time, to kind of simulate a continental clean 100*14 long set though Powercleaned 100 on a third attempt (cause I was holding it with my fingertips first two times) and put it on the rack Accumulation squat - 100 - 2 sets of 10 Power flies with a pinch grip 2 plates of 20 kgs - 8 reps, then 16 reps - feels like kind of a pr. Good effort. Plus stiff ...

15 july 2020      I decided that I should start doing squats way more regularly - just like I do with the pullups. Besides, squatting 100 kgs is way easier than doing a pullup, or at least it's supposed to be. I think I could just add 2 sets of 100 kgs on most of the non-squat sessions. After a couple weeks I can increase it to 2 sets of 12, then to 14, etc. And I feel like that's really going to amp up my general functionality. Just do a warmup with 60*5 and do 2 of 10 right away. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. And that way your legs will always be ready for squat. Except mentally squats looks much harder than pullups, of course. And, after I'd have gotten up to something like 2 sets of 16 I can increase the weight, to 110 for example. I'll write more tomorrow (right now it's actually midnight on tuesday).     The next day Had 70 beans over three cups. Then I couldn't help myselft and boiled them with one more cup. Pehaps I should just add four cups a...

13 july 2020      To be honest, my last lyrics weren't good. They were, in fact, worse that my previous option, albeit more extreme. I shouldn't be talking about the music without showing any of it, right? Today I fogured out that mastering tracks is different from producing them. Mastering is the next stage after producing, and that when the track is supposed to be actually made loud. Turns out, I have one important addon already - Loudmax, basically, that's what I'll be using in the final version. Today's plan in chinups - something like 3 sets of 10 with appropriate weight - and moderate squats, something like sets of 5 from 130 to 150 kgs. I'm keeping them lower because I want to preserve energy for deadlift on thursday. I'm probably not goin to go too heavy. Figired out an important thing - I have to not let stress get to me, else it ruins my growth. But it has to be done primarily in my mind. That's the number 1 thing I have to remember. if I don...

11 july 2020      Well, kind of an exciting day - at least that's how it feels right now. Had minor issues at the start of my training session, didn't have problems with coffee. Took rhodiola this morning as well (yesterday I skipped it). Got to exercising a bit later that I expected. "Tiny bench" press 120 kgs - 5 sets of 6 - pretty sure that's a volume PR. My old result with 120 was in the prone floor press and it was 10 reps with my elbows tucked pretty much right into my ribs. "Tiny bench" press is kind of harder that normal bench press, although it allows you more bridging possibility. I bridged on some final reps today, but it was more due to me losing my shoulder position. I need stricter setup.      Then my metal training basically withered, all I managed to do was two sets of "straight bar dips" - it's a lot like normal dips, but on a straight bar. It's a harder version, it requires you to curl up your torso if you want to go l...

07 july 2020 The weather is getting to me. I feel like thunderstorms make people fall asleep with force. Awfully humid. Possibly getting re-addicted to caffeine again. Had 70 beans over three cups, once again got distracted for a dozen minutes and then I just forgot about my session for a while. Re-boiled the beans, again. Warmed up as it started raining heavily. Wanted to do side presses with a 60 kg barbell, like in the old days. Proceeded to our living room instead of the street. Could've been dangerous. One arm barbell side press (more like a cheating one arm press tbh) 50 kgs - I think I did 4 singles with the right and 3 with the left, and tried doing 60 once. This kind of presses is all about being able to hold the barbell right. Back in the day I did it with normal olympic barbells, not chinese thicker bars. Olympic is so much easier to lift, with all the flexibility. Considered doing something lower body-oriented, but decided I had to give my knees some more rest. I think ...

06 july 2020 Recovery has been something like 45/100, lack of sleep, knees hurting possibly from standing at night. By getting a standing desk I basically traded back pain for knee pain 😁 However, I'm not completely sure, they don't hurt right now. It's the kinda pain you get from doing olympic lifts with poor stretching, because of the super sharp knee angle. And I have been doing all sorts of stretching last thursday, so it's a possile culprit as well. Parallel bar chinups - got out of shape slightly, maybe it's because of recovery, but I enjoyed them 14 13 +5 kgs *12 +1 reps +5 * 10 +1 (I normally write +1 etc. if I did an extra rep after a short break) Had some pretty great pump. Gotta remind myself to do more "energetic" workouts (i.e. doing some light volume in between heavier days) - In my case it would be doing 2 sets of 14 on wed and saturday, hopefully. Squats - kept them easy 20*10 40 - 3 sets of 10 - made some of them sort of "breathing...

02 july 2020 Accesory work Romanian deadlifts (technically not deadlifts) 50 - 4 set of 10 One legged deadlifts 50*10 for each leg was quite awkward, I had to keep my other foot on the floor 20 - 2 sets of 10 - better 30 - 2 sets of 10 - even better Felt good, I need to incorporate this exercize more. 04 july 2020 Felt like a long day. Had 50 something beans, once again boiled them for a second time for a third cup. I should stop doing that and instead brew my coffee differently (i.e. not hold it on the stove after I poured hot water in it). "Tiny bench" press Some warmup 112 - 5 sets of 8 - it's a volume PR. In june I was doing 100 - 5*8, so, you could say, I increased my result by 12 kilos. But it's obvisouly just my pecs catching up to my arms after a year of not benching. Tried doing some JM presses with 60 kgs, but my time ran out and my right elbow didn't feel completely right on them. I remembered watching his recent interview with Dave Tate where he discus...

01 july 2020 Keeping myself laid back today. In fact, I started writing this post during a session. Time to do another set. Yesterday was kind of tough, cns took some damage. Don't want this happening on a recovery day. Nor on a training day, frankly. Wanted to do some super light squats, decided to limit myself to a slight amout of bodyweight squat, because my left hamstring is cramping hard. Standing barbell press Some warmup, some L-flies 80 kgs*4 - loved it, very easy 90*1 100 for 3 reps and a half - not my best ressult for reps, but i really enjoyed for multiple reasons. Taking a break from working out with nothing but a barbell bore a lot of fruit. Among them is the fact that my right elbow, wrist & forearm don't hurt during overhead press anymore. I didn't need an elbow wrap, and my pressing was really even, even strict somewhat. I loved it so much I just might post it right here. then 50*10 tiny pump One arm press 32 kg kettlebell *20 each arm 32*25 left - turni...