June 31st and July 1st - Light session, Deadlift 6 sets of 4

 31.06.2025

Some shoulder flys, one arm press focusing on obliques - all light, up to 16 kg kettlebell.

01.07.2025

So, it's Tuesday. An unusual day for DL! Feeling decent. Slept well, ate okay.

Deadlift

20 - 70

123 for 5 - got a lubed up bar, it's all slipping, gotta wear collars

163 for 5

203 for 4 (done as 2+2 admittedly) - first rep semi-decent overhand, then mixed grip. The fact that I could do the overhand rep is extra nice because my skin was warm and soft and wet at that moment. But I figured if you flex the muscle hard enough the texture shouldn't matter as much. This is not axle or a pinch grip after all!

233 for 4 - done easy enough, I have that good groove today, but not really warmed up yet on this one

253 for 4 not great, not bad. This feels like the last "warmup" set, which might be a good indication. Hmm.

255,5 for 4 a little better, forcing my CNS to work

255,5 for 4 good, better than previous ones. We are heading somewhere! This is some oldschool wrestling with volume I haven't experienced in a while. Since 2022 I think. Pushed the plates in deeper after this set. Lube is a good idea after all.

255,5 for 4 - done as 1+2+1, short breaks. First rep was a mess cause I wanted to do mixed grip. It's usually better overall, but the skin pain was too much. Two messy reps - pushing the plates in caused imbalance, first there was too much weight on the left, then on the right. 4th one was more balanced, but still not great. Hmm.

255,5 for 4 the best set today so far. Like a machine, one after another. Isn't it amazing that I've done 4 sets of 4 with a weight that is technically 90% of my max and here I go doing the 5th set easier than all of them?
There are some caveats, however. I was wearing straps, and not very tight. Managed to keep it all even. And I put the belt on the upper-middle - not above belly, but right above the belly button. Not very tight. The bar was not close to body, I used my hams. Food for thought...

255,5 for 4 lovely, even easier (very slightly). Racking the bar though, that was a toughie lol, since I barely had any air in my guts by that point. But I walked back and put in on the racks. Then I noticed all of the plates on the right side have slid off a couple inches 😁 Which is possibly another explanation as to why sets 5 and 6 felt so much easier than set 4. Well, I lifted the bar. I'm pretty sure if I made a few adjustments it'd be easier for me to lift an even bar... Hm. Gotta work on that.

The program prescribes I do heavy acc work today, hehe. Well, I think I will do something! Just what exactly, let me think...

On a minor tangent. I've been reading all sorts of books to "prime" my brain for writing. I bought a bunch of really expensive books at some point in Spring. House Of Leaves, Blood Meridian. It's perfect when I enter that mood when my reading comprehension is very high. Today I read one of the appendices in the end of House Of Leaves. SPOILER from here, hehe. It's a series of letters to the main character from his institutionalized mother. Really heartbreaking! And I was forced to struggle through a cypher in one of the letter. I got sad in the end. All the while having a large cup - my war cup, a whole pint - of expensive instant coffee. Then I had a conventional, 37 x 407 with sugar. Been adding sugar. One of the reasons to prefer medium roast is that it's more caramelized, it's sweeter. This light roast, the red package, it's pretty bitter. And heavy roasts are usually just an abomination. Didn't write today so far, just some re-reading and overanalyzing stuff, enjoying a few laughs as I feed it to Gemini and ask it silly questions. I still love playing with various AIs. But only playing, in case I haven't made it obvious enough. I've switched from using them to just playing with them. It's still fun to me. Writing, on the other hand, it's hard. I wrote a scene before yesterday, a bad one. The repetitions, they were constant. I primed it up, edited it, but concluded I can't have it this way. Deleted it. But kept some ideas in my head. A whole scene, over a thousand words, written, edited and deleted. That rarely happens all at once, this quickly. Because I strayed from the process. I had low energy on Sunday, really low. The weather hasn't been quite merciful to me. Sleep has been bad. But yesterday, after some flys and "sitbacks" which helped me loosen my gastrocnemius or however you call the tissues aligning hamstings from ass to heel - I played some FO76 quite meditatively, giving myself a lot of time to think, to process things. Playing games like that feels like sleeping, it's rejuvenating. It doesn't drain my energy very much. But it's definitely a waste of time, if you do it wrong. Then I had a long shower. I shouldn't be having dandruff, but I do. Hair addicted to shampoo. Maybe I need vitamins? I wrote about how my dadruff got healed last August. It just went away. What was right back then? More sun, more vitamins, fish oil?

Goodmornings, stiff legs, weight on heels

Stick for 5 sets of around 10-15 reps - it's all feeling pretty stiff, the aforementioned gastrocnemius, since last Wednesday.

RABBIT