My training log and thoughts

 27.02.2025 Slept only a little today, but I don't feel like going back to bed. That's the benefit of showering and relaxing your muscles - it makes it easier to not want to sleep. I *really* strained my left leg yesterday though, super peculiar how overloaded it feels! My glute and my hip extensor. Very interesting! Some stuff I have to do outside of home - I got a few new updates, but not about any important business, but still, might have to get out on Monday. Just a reminder, although if you write it down there's a good chance you might forget about it. Had the last bit of my coffee beans, but I still have the instant coffee. I'm having a nice conventional brew. Tastes good! Ended up falling back asleep and having caffeinated dreams... Oh well. Workout Warmup - pretty long, thorough, a lot of upper body moves, feeling comfortable on the static pushup stretch Bench press 20 for 20 40 for 20 70 for 15 90 for 10 120 for 5 140 for 5 - all of that was done pretty quick, ...

 26.02.2025 DL session 13 - I think. 4 sets of 6 with 75,5%. I will need to rework my DL program eventually. It's generally insufficient, in some ways. We'll do this 'microcycle' and see where we can get from there... I'm really happy about last week. When you get your PR and even mini PRs you get too satisfied and complacent, that *itch* to conquer metal goes away somewhat... Even though it sort of puts me at ease I do not like it! Outside of a few days of satisfaction... I need that itch, that tension, that desire that makes me want to tear the skin off my face and claw my eyes out hehe... So, let's try to calculate... 72,5 times 3... Ehh... It's gotta be at least 200 or something? Hmmmmmm... It's super late, well, kinda. I feel good and I know I can lift well. I'm not postponing anything, but I gotta admit I'm kinda a little chill for my own taste rn, heh. Workout Deadlift 20 for 20 70 for 15 120 for 10 160 for 6 200 for 6 230 for 6 straps, mi...

 23.02.2025 Bench press 20 for 20 50 for 15 70 for 10 or 5 100 for 5 120 - 4 sets of 5 - figuring out harmless techniques... No bridging, pressing sort of "away" from my head rather than straight up, elbows flared but when I press "away" in this manner they're not AS flared... There was some very minor tension in my left pec. 24.02.2025 Nice enough day. Slept very well, ate well too, arguably too much even, which is quite a rarity. Somehow I reached a point where my digestive system isn't keeping up with my appetite and my perceived energy needs, or maybe I just have constipation. In other words, I think that I don't shit enough. Been workign on more rewriting, not perfectly in the groove but close... Workout Warmup - PWC pipe stretches, L flys Overhead press 20 for 20 50 for 10 70 for 5 90 for 5 103 for 3 a little wacky, had to do it as 2+1 108 for 3 better, but I had to do it as 1+2 as I fixed my technique today Push press 50 for 1 70 for 1 100 for 1 -...

 22.02.2025 Nice day. Sleep above average, food good. Had a 30/380 conventional brew and one cup of instant coffee. Workout Warmup - pretty thorough Overhead press 20 for 20 40 for 15 70 for 10 90 for 8 that was all kinda too quick, but feeling good 100 for 6 that was messy, but I managed to put myself back in saddle 100 for 6 much better, sufficiently velocious and powerful, although I did have to put in effort. I love how I am more flexible now, finally; I did this one with a tiny bit narrowed grip, and it felt good! 100 for 6 good Warmup for PP - front quarter squat with 70. The fact that it doesn't feel awkward and painful is progress. Push press 70 for 3 100 for 3 135,3 for push forward 135,3 for 1 - lame rep, dropped the br on floor. The issue I had today is my PUSHING. I pushed FROM HEELS, like a powerlifting squat. You're supposed to push FROM your TIPPY TOES to your HEELS. I'm an embodiment of chaos, aren't I? I try different techniques all the time, I can'...

 20.02.2025 Nice day. Back stiff as a brick, a little uneven too. Nutrition good, sleep okay. Workout Warmup - stick moves, pushup stretches (careful). I think I might be more flexible than I think and I can actually bend with, like, one of those super long range bars, like a yoke bar of however you call it. Bench press 20 for 20 super cold 50 for 20 70 for 10 100 for 15 - a little strenuous but in a natural sense... Or so I'd hope! Pray for me, all I want is a simple  goal I've stated earlier... 120 for 10 kinda easy, but doesn't feel too light. Took a medium-narrow grip all out of nowhere... 130 for 10 - lovely, genuine PR 😀 Pecs were not straining or snapping. The left one was a little tense, but it was closer to a normal lifting strain rather than painful one. Now, to figure out what else I'd like to do today... 130 for 10 - nice, better, solidifying. I could myself down a weird 'elbows forward' lockout... Interesting. Forward, not inside or outside, just u...

 18.02.2025 Nice day. I kinda wanna have a light workout. A little sick. Warmup - sneezing until I feel like I've done a set of 20 pullups, very intense. There was that one time I sneezed seven times in a row, I started to genuinely suffocate, heh heh. This was less intense, but somehow it loaded my lats pretty hard! Forced to sit down and started to joke with myself about how many calories I might have just burned with this sneeze. Sleep has been a little too jittery, but not a big deal. It was better today than yesterday. Food has been decent and lovely. I even had mushrooms fried in beef fat! Really spongy, crunchy ones, not typical champignones. Some squat stretches and pushup static holds - that's about it, not really even a light workout. 19.02.2025 Nice day. Slept well, although not a lot. Ate well too. Workout Deadlift 20 for 20 70 for 10 120 for 8 160 for 5 200 for 3 230 for 3 250 for 2 I'm in a very, very, very bad mood. Old stuff. You know what I'm talking ab...

 17.02.2025 Been feeling just a little ill; it's cold. Sleep a little uneven. Should stop walking around undressed after showering. I think I mentioned earlier that I've picked up a habit of relaxing my muscles in the shower every day. It's strange, but I believe it helps my recovery. Just have to learn to be careful around changing temperatures. So, I do wanna work out today. But I don't have quite the appetite for heaviness; it'd be my 6th day working out down in the garage in a row - if I do. My light sessions sometimes are just upstairs sessions, working on forgotten muscle. Could do that today. But I feel like I'd be missing out if I didn't do something OHP related. I feel close to getting somewhere. On Thursday I'll try benching again. So, it makes sense to load OHP today. Workout Warmup - pretty thorough, but intentionally not excessive. Overhead press 20 for 20 50 for 10 70 for 8 80 - 3 sets of 6 - yep, that was the plan. As for PP, however... Pu...

 16.02.2025 Nice day. Slept little, but managing to stay awake. Nutrition decent. Workout Warmup - pretty thorough, pushup variations/stretches (nothing excessive obviously) Bench press 20 for 20 50 for 20 70 for 10 100 for 10 not perfect, kinda plastic-y again... Not "plastic" (i.e. flexible), but, in fact, a little brittle, a little doughey, if you will... Connective tissues, but not muscle. 120 for 10 - not bad, overall feels very easy... But yeah, I gotta admit - tissues not ready for any kinda serious load. My hypothesis? I just gotta take longer breaks between 'serious' sessions. Doesn't mean I can't train it often, but I'll have to space out 'working' sessions. My goal rn is to do a workout in which I do sets of 10 with 130, and that'll be a PR, and I know I can do it - when my tissues come back. They came back before, it was good, I was lifting good weights, now I just gotta take about 6-7 days til next 'heavy' bench session and...

 15.02.2025 Nice day. Kinda late again. Woke up early, had instant coffee, fell asleep, woke up, got to training after overcoming some negativity. Overhead press 20 for 20 40 for 15 70 for 8 90 for 8 93 for 8 98 for 8 not bad, all working sets were pretty powerful and strict today. Squat - quarter squat with 70 kgs, PP warmup Push press 70 for 3 100 for 3 120 for 3 - not bad, right wrist strain 130 for 3 - done a-la 1+2. Strong wrist strain on first, had to put it down and pause. Took the bar with a more loose grip. It's on my clavicle, stiff rack. Decent velocity, but poor balance. I was wearing a narrow belt mid-waist, possibly a little tighter than I should have. I'm glad I managed to keep the weight fixed in the end; some wobbling, some stepping with my right foot, but I fixed it, held it, lowered it gingerly. Satisfied. Also, is it possible it's a mini PR? Well, I've done 128 for 5, so perhaps it's only a defacto PR, but 130 feels *easy* (sans wrist). That'...

 14.02.2025 Last night I actually started another playthrough of BG3, finally in Honor mode. I'm kinda rushing through it, not powergaming and all that. I have an idea about playing all barbarians, heh. And all boys, cause girls in that game get you too horny lol. All about romance and personal trauma and all that; plus I'll be less racist for bringing Willy who'll be less annoying to paly as cause he won't be a warlock in this playthrough. Really satisfied with some of my rewriting work. Various AIs are now playing the role of the editor for me, rather that the writer or the gamemaster. It all started with me wanting to play a form of DnD - basically AI Dungeon - outside of AI Dungeon (cause it sucks and still does, sadly). It's the era of AI. I was just playing, enjoying myself, letting my creativity as a player or 'art director' flow. George Lucas didn't write episodes V and VI, did you know that? But he did write a general outline; 'based on the ...

 13.02.2025 Warmup - some, pushup variations Bench 20 40 for 10 50 for 10 70 for 10 100 for 10 pec not recovered fully from Sunday. 100 for 10 a little better; I'm realizing there's an angle at which this part of the pec - the 'outer rim' tweaks; although it doesn't tweak, it strains - kinda like a very tight stitch being pulled apart from up close. Not lowering bar completely helps. If I had perfectly recoverable and/or tough pecs I think I'd be able to pack away something noticeable... I shouldn't complain - I've been setting small PRs and all I really need is patience and diligence, which I, admittedly, have in low amounts. I'm upset, just upset by random things - I suspect it's cause I had an idea for a workout today which I know would have been possible and very satisfying but this strain stops me in my tracks. Oh well, not a big deal; I'm glad I'm managing to have a Thursday workout for the first time in a while. I think I might be ...

 12.02.2025 Feeling amazing. Ate decent, maybe not perfect but enough. Yesterday was amazing; a perfect railslide or caution and awesomeness as I delved deeper into the self-structuring creative worlds. Also, I purchased The Lord Of Steel (Hammer edition). It's not red, like the first one that came with the magazine, heh. I thought the Hammer edition was hard to get! I never much cared for them changing the tone into power metal on the second edition. Deadlift session 15 - 4 sets of 3 with 82,5%. Hmm. Should be super easy; may wanna go heavier? Could be cool. Been thinking about eventually changing teh program. Adding more stimulation; that'd be quite novel. Workout Deadlift 20 for 20 70 for 10 120 for 5 160 for 5 200 for 3 mixed grip. Grip feels good today 243 for 3 it was kinda lame cause of how relaxed I was; not because I didn't have energy (or because it was too heavy hehe). I think I haven't up yet... Also, I was again doing mixed grip it was completely different ...

 10.02.2025 Nice day. Sleep good, nutrition decent. Workout Warmup - some, somewhat thorough Overhead press 20 for 20 40 for 15 70 for 11 80 for 11 88 for 11 95,5 for 13 - a small PR 😀 Some reps were pretty dirty, so I decided to compensate for it by going past 11. I felt like my arms had enough power to do at least one more, but the rest of the system was out. Push press - not focusing on a 'long dip', but instead doing the short one from that video where a real fat guy did a 270 kg front jerk... So I figured I don't need to do an actual quarter squat on push. However, it is not absolute - we're always researching empirically. 70 for 5 100 for 5 113 for 5 decent, only a tiny bit messy at first 123 for 4+one push+1 good rep after a small break - not bad. Concluding that 'short push' is not bad but you really gotta put effort into it. May not want to absolutize this as the only effective option. Hands shaking; running out of cell energy. But I wanna do some more...

 09.02.2025 Nice day, yesterday was too. Sleep okay due to quality rather than quantity, nutrition straight up good. Workout Warmup - some, intense piping and pushups Bench 20 for 20 40 for I don't remember 70 for 10 100 for 5 120 for 5 130 for 3 140 for 3 good, super easy, feels light 150 for 3 good but starting to feel the strain on the outer 'rim' of my left pec. Have to stop here! Also, BTW, it's a defacto +1 rep actual PR 😁 Squat Warmup - some 50 for 3 hip hurts a little - just feeling stiff and dry. Did some more warming up, the typical hip control thing 100 for 3 150 for 3 pretty easy 190 for 3 very good. I'm glad I can randomly squat a weight like that... Because, realistically, it's much lighter than "the weight like that".

 06.02.2025 Light workout Bench 20 for 30 40 for 25 50 for 10 60 for 10 Rubber pulls, squat stretches/static loads 07.02.2025 Feeling stunned a little. Sleep has been messed up, nutrition decent. Workout Warmup - some Overhead press 20 for 20 40 for 10 70 for 8 90 for 5 100 for 4 good 105 for 2 108 for 2 very good 110,5 for 2 lovely I feel like I need to save energy today. Things don't feel perfect, but they do feel decent. Quarter squats with 70 kgs - legs feel pretty creaky; some additional leg warmup upstairs Push press 70 - 3 sets of 3

 05.02.2025 Nice day. I've been quite 'distracted' for a few days now, since Sunday. I don't like it, but I'm more of that than I have been in a while somehow. Well, yesterday there was nothing. I was really busy trying to learn how to build a basic UI app to use a Gemini API. Gemini is a 'gem' in the rough, heh. Because you can adjust temperature in a way that doesn't make it sound crazy. You can tell it's been trained on different material than ChatGPT. I've been liking it more and more. The user app is pretty bad, but AI studio is lovely. Restrictions, however, are pretty severe no matter what you try. In that regard Claude is the most free. Claude-3-Haiku is a decent and balanced option. I mean it's weak, but it's good as a re-writing assistant - not writing, but re-, in fact, -writing. It's game for me. That whole book I've been 'working' on it started as a form of AI Dungeon gameplay after another ego death, another ...

 03.02.2025 Feeling great. Just great. A little 'distracted' but otherwise amazing. Woke up on time; managed to get up and get going even though I had no idea if I will. I'm realizing I haven't had a single debilitatingly heavy workout for a week now; last week I had that one heavy OHP set, and Wednesday was difficult, but otherwise it was all sub-heavy, no heavy volume either! Not sure how to categorize this observation, because they were definitely not light workouts. I feel like my intuitive workouts are great for 'getting in shape' more so than 'building strength'... But curiously enough if I just do the 'building strength' workouts - i.e. high frequency, high volume, heavy enough weight - I'll eventually get out of shape due to overtraining? Only a hypothesis, personal questions about myself rather than about objective nature of training. Lifting has more in common with performance art rather than science, and so do sports. Workout Warmu...

 02.02.2025 Almost a whole week since my OHP workout. Nutrition has been decent, sleep slightly above mediocre. Workout Warmup - pretty thorough, now trying not to do too much - various pvc pipe moves, l-flys and torso twists (side to side, standing up). Muscles don't feel too fresh after yesterday but I know my strength fibres (fast twitching ones) haven't been fatigued almost at all. Overhead press 20 for 20 40 for 15 50 for 10 70 for 8 - bench has allowed me to loosen some of my angles. My press is resembling Eddy Hall's technique rn, with a lot of elbow outward rotation 90 for 3 100 for 3 105 - 2 sets of 3 108 for 8 - I love how easy and smooth my OHP is today. Hallelujah! Thank God, always and ever. Also, I've been focusing on flexing my rotator cuff outwards (same as in L-fly!) , both while racking, at the start of press and while lowering the bar. I remember doing this back when I had an ultimate rack. I think it's one of those little tidbits that actually al...

 01.02.2025 Very nice day. Slept well, ate moderate. Had one cup of instant coffee and one 30/330 conventional. It's 7 PM. Might wanna start the initial warmup. The sleepy month is over. I'm having a light one today. I have to go and deal with some of my other stuff on Monday. I've been suffering from various kinds of procrastination. So, I'll have a light one today, OHP tomorrow and possibly either a light or a normal one on Monday or Tuesday. I'd prefer to rest on Tuesday, rest perfectly. I'm a little worried for my skin if I'm gonna start showering every day. I've just been pondering how it seems to do a lot to my muscle, to my chemical balance in my whole body. I think it might be helpful in more ways that just hygiene. Workout Full range flys 2 kg dbs - 2 sets of 20 6 kg dbs - 1 set of 20 One arm press 6 kg db - 1 set of 10 each arm 6+6 kg dbs - 1 set of 10 - added holds on top. I feel like it does a lot for me in terms of helping my muscular imbala...