Saturday, July 15th - Decent pushpress late at night, some mental struggles soothed by a lovely workout, insane cramp

 15.07.2023

Nice day. Yesterday I slept very little at night, but a lot in the evening. Same today, except less during the day. Sleep is okay. Nutrition is above average - have been having enough. Been feeling strangely gloomy.

Now I'm having my first coffee. My strained back after Wendesday's unreasonable deadlift has gotten better.

Received the cables and strings I've purchased. Including the big pink Ernie Ball instrument cable. I like pink color, what can I say. I always see that Saint Vitus' album cover. Provocative color.

I'm having a coffee and I'm feeling sleepy. How weird. That always happens. Well, often.

Played guitar a little bit. Grooving pretty nicely. I got that something in head now. Ideally, I'd wanna write some music now. My back got a little cramped on one side (from the guitar). Oh well. The only way to overcome it is to play every day. Hmm.

Time for a second coffee.

Made one. Boiled my index finger again as I was carrying it upstairs. I oughta throw away this piece of garbage.

I've been under some small stress. Small things, piling together. Very negative view of life. Chased by thoughts of suicide. Small things. Sad. Almost feeling like I wanna cry. But, you know, it's a wave. More of a biochemistry thing. Gather stones, throw stones. It all changes, it goes up and down. Also, I feel very strong right now, and my back pain went away.

What are we doing today? Hmm... Pushpress. I think, for my own sake, I'll use my minimax today, even though last week I was pretty good.

Week 10, Session 2 altered - 4 sets of 2 with 87,5% and some additional warmup sets. If we use our minimax - I reckon it's gotta be 140 - our working weight will be just 122. And we'll make sure to do something like 100 and 110 for 5 reps as warmup. Should be very easy, oriented towards power generation rather than pure effort. Not as much effort = more opportunity to generate additional power to sort of "cement" the movement into your nervous system.

***

Now it's 11 PM again. Oh well. I don't even know what's up.

Workout

Warmup - long, thorough. Squats, stretches, front rack and overhead holds

Clean

20

50 - 3 sets - squat clean, front rack hold, OHP, overhead hold, and front rack hold again

70 - 1 sets - clean, hold and pushpress (pushjerk in the first set)

70 - 1 clean and 5 pushpresses

100 - 1 clean after second attempt and one pushpress

Today the gym was cramped up, and the car was parked unnecessarily close. Serves me well for not moving the rack back in place after last time. And I have no idea where the key is. Upsetting. Anyway, I am glad that even despite this I managed to do a small PR in clean, very unevenly and strenous for my forearms, but I did it and I am glad. I shall put additional effort into mkaing sure the car is no longer parked unnecessarily close - because if I don't, that'll cause me more futile psychological anger. If there's one lesson I've been learning the hard way throughout my life is that if you have an issue with someone - no matter what kind, honestly - you absolutely do need to evaluate it, cut off the emotions and then bring it up in a polite manner. Of course, there is still no guarantee that your issue is valid, but if you put effort into it then you are more likely to be treated with consideration. ("psychology" tag added, hehe).

Pushpress

100 for 5 nice, a little uneven

110 for 3 painful

123 for 2 very good, very easy push, as if I don't have to use my arms

123 for 2 strained the right side of my back a little bit - forcing the correct front rack

123 for 2 okay

123 for 1, failed the second one cause I pushed forward too much. I felt like I was pushing wrong. After a short break I did a second rep, which turned out to be more of a press-push as I did not use my calves. That's why volume is important - in these moments you really need to solidify your technique, else it'll be counterproductive.

123 for 2 very nice, fixed

It's late.

Overhead press

27 kg ez bar - 3 set of 30 reps, very long range and pauses - a lot of pumping, last 10 reps very difficult. I managed to make the third set the most powerful by overutilizing my traps in the lockout - that was cheating in the 50s Olympics, hehe. Very curious fact about human physiology that a lot of people oversee.

All three sets supersetted with front rack holds - around 10-20 seconds

A few sets of full range calf raises

So, tonight it's been three weeks since my last major "distraction" in an "unofficial" way. What do I even mean by that? Nobody knows, unless I specifically tell them.

That day I got ill. I neglected myself a little too much and laid on the cold floor with my back and my lungs. Not very good! Then, a week later, I finally kicked myself down and had a real illness. So fewerish.

I wish somebody would give me a medal if I can make to four weeks, he he. It has not been too difficult, thank God. I wish I could just forget about all that like I forgot about recreational alcohol. In less than a month it'll be five years since I quit drinking. I mean, alcohol is a literal depressant - it'll be like throwing mud into the dirt, lol.

Insane cramp of the day: my left serratus anterior. It is so hilarious, the way I look with my shoulder way in front of me, and I cannot pull it back.

Arizona, Bartlett Dam