November 20th, Thursday - Bench sets of 3, PR :D

 20.11.2025

Technically 21st, lol! I fiddled around too much. Coffee's hitting just right. I have half a cup left over and I don't wanna drink it now. And I woke up *not* too late. Just spent some time reading!

Writing some, just a bit. Sharp stuff. 4th of July chapter. It doesn't have much to do with 4th of July itself, but it's fun. Maybe I should put more stuff about Independence Day - but I have before, on my previous rewrites which have now ended up chronologically AHEAD of what I'm writing. All my mini-stories back in 2021 and 2022 I had in my head, they started on Summer; same as this one but on the first three variats the summer just got skipped after an intro! What I'm writing now is more like a prequel. And yeah, I'm a darnable graphomanical. Hundreds of pages of things very similar to a diary. Not to be confused with dairy.

Workout

Warmup - a lot of wall pushups and variations

Bench press

20 - 40 - 70 - 90

120 for 8

143 for 8 kinda hard, enjoying music. Wide grip! Testing some of the camo clothes I bought this Fall. I look real good, save for the silly hair. It didn't use to look so silly! I was a brownhaired Nathan Explosion with my face, build and beard - he doesn't have a beard, but it gave me the necessary angularity. Now I look like some huge forest horror, a green gorilla. If only can maintain it all, the demeanor and such.

153 for 3 - I overprotected myself and ended up bumping one side of the barbell against the supports 😁 Good enough though, despite the imbalance a did a decent third rep.

Peculiar fact - I think my chep player only charges well when it's plugged into a PC! As opposed to an outlet. Silly stuff. It ran out of charge and I kept it in just a few minutes and it shows as full now. Only been a couple songs though...

153 for 3 good

163 for 2 lame, really uneven - but doesn't feel TOO heavy...

163 for 1+2 - a little better on the second half; I just got bad technique, simple as that. BUT on the second half I done it better!

163 for 3 with a small caveat - I didn't lock out very well and only racked the right side of the bar 😁 I have to fight my wrists on the lockout so much... I got a couple ideas.

163 for 3 - alright, I'm gonna go ahead and count it. I can't lock out onto straight elbows, no sir, not with arms and all tense like they are. But I should work on it. The last rep was a grind, I ended up doing it paused rather than bouncing. It fell on supports and rolled off of them, onto my face lol. But it is a bar-bell, not a bar - so there was plenty of space. Benefits of a tiny bench.

I reckon I would have been able to lower it well if the racks weren't really far from my shoulders. I unloaded the bar down to 120 and I'll do some gentle pressing with the rack above my top pecs. And also it does keep sliding back after every set, not good!

A twist; I found myself loading a pair of 20s! It's 163 again, not 120. I pushed the bench up, and pulled the racks down.

163 for 3 - PR 😃 Volume and weight. I've done a really scuffed 5x3 today. THIS set was GOOD. Technique and POWER were good. The movement, the grove, DE-celeration and acceleration were GOOD, controlled! Thank God, Hallelujah, thank God for this inspiration! 😀

123 for 5 - nice, powerful!

Pinch grip - an attempt at 25+25 plates right hand, some hand-to-hand passes, some pinching of it with two hands and lowering it with one hand; very short breaks here.

15+15 kg plates - about 5 lifts, variations; pinching it with curled vs flat fingers, and I enjoyed lifting and shaking it in the air - your grip will be like a dog's jaws then, heh! Pumped forearms, great feeling 😁

***

RPotD - two images, one from 2008 and other from 2023. In both the church is just a building; they've killed and driven out Christians from there in the 50s.

Saint George's church in Al Bassa