August 31st, Thursday - Light workout, calves, squat, curls, pullups, BG3 screenshot

 31.08.2023

Feeling pretty beat up after yesterday. Sleep 5/10, nutrition is decent, but appetite low. Managed to wake up earlier after getting annoyed at how I've been waking up. A prayer helped. Now much else beside that.

I think I might have to move my OHP to tomorrow, and today we can work on lats and bicep again. I find it reasonable.

I wish my mind wasn't as random. I really put myself into chaos yesterday when I read that disturbing article.

I think I might have overtightened my belt by just one hole yesterday. A good rule of thumb - a belt is supposed to feel tight only when you brace. You reaqlly want your stomach to pop out in the front and sides, not be squeezed by the belt.

In 2017-2018 I had a mental fixation, cause I think I partially forgot how to brace right after the army, and for a while I experimented with tighter and tighter belts, even drilling an extra set of hole in my belt. That was just a mistake. A belt is not a replacement for your back and abs. It's there to just be an extra layer on the wall. If I knew physics better I'd be able to explain it. It's the same as pushing against a wall - when you push against the wall, you can apply a lot of pressure, but you push against air you can only really be static. And beltless... I might have to experiment to see how my stomach behaves on beltless deadlifts.

Also, might be a good idea to introduce a bit of stiff-legged goodmornings, the ones where you don't move all the weight to your heels, although they both work for that intended purpose.

***

Later, I succumbed to additional sleep after all.

Workout

Calf raises - gentle and careful, nice way to start a light session.

2 sets of 30, both feet on slight elevation, doing a standing pause on my toes, no support with my hands.

1 sets of 30 with the 27 kg ez bar in my hands. Calves and feet burning, nice stuff!

Why do I do calf raises, I wonder? My little brother asked me yesterday why they're so big. And they are big, like the ones on a fat man, except my ankles seem even thicker. I used to be quite the jumper, enjoyig the act of bouncing around like a boxer, all the time, thousands of reps of jumping throughout the day - when I was a teenager. Might be genetic, some could say. Also might be cause I stand for over 12 hours per day. Standing is really not much more taxing than sitting down. Just stack your bodyparts evenly and it'll be as easy as it is for a pile of bricks to stand.

Do I wanted to start with calves cause it's a lower body movement that doesn't involve my back and forces blood downstairs. Back is very fatigued 😁 I promise I'll pay better attention next Wednesday.

Squat - using small plates for heel support, torso vertical

10 testing

20 not fully extending legs

30 same, quads burning

30 full range, even making short pauses. But evenwith pauses I was bouncing a lot more cause I was getting severely pumped (and awfully thirsty). And it was super easy too.

30 reps, 16 kg kettlebell goblet squat - nice, roughly as easy, but breathing harder.

A small break, slowly cooling down the sweat and getting some tea.

Curls

6+6 kg dummbells - 1 sets of 30 reps

27 kg ez bar for 20 reps, butt touching the wall (but not my back as it is too sweaty) - the most painful pump tonight so far xD I was making sure to relax and extend my arms fully on every rep.

16 kg kettlebell, one arm, seated and concentrated - 15 reps each. Even more painful, wow! I sure did forget what it's like to pump yo meat well.

Another small break, letting my horribly inflated arms cool down some.

Ring pullups (floor supported, light)

4 sets of 10 - a little strenuous at first, but easy overall. Not pushing on this one, cause this one is sort of much more serious, CNS-involvement wise (that means I am more likely to tire myself if I push on this exercise).

On the last two sets I was moving with extra power.

And we managed to finish a while before midnight. Hooray!

And I'm enjoying writing the book as I work out as well. Very pleasurable.

***

Well, I couldn't help myself as I simply wanted to do more -

Curls 6+6 dumbbells - 4 sets of 20 with different wrist and forearm positions.

Mosquitos bother me horribly. I must be one juicy meal to them!

***

I wanted to post a nice acreenshot I managed to take in BG3. My character's features look similar to mine, but of course more Hollywood-y and, perhaps, French? I imagine Athos from Dumas' books looked like this (my favorite of the three musketeers).

Random pic of the day

House Hharyding - Game of Thrones Flag

Also, a two-sided die, hehe