January 9th - Front Rack stretching, OHP, Clean

 08.01.2025

Reminder from Jan 3rd - try pressing in the rack itself, as well as doing the front rack stretch. Could also try lockouts - from chin (probably not), top of the head, overhead holds (most tempting, possibly most beneficial to me currently cause I wanna be able to hold big weight overhead and I feel like I lost my former ability to do that)

09.01.2025

I remember that. I was pretty hyped that night. Tonight it's January 9th, and it would have been 8th but it's already 9th and I figure I already crossed into a "very early morning" workout territory. I think I should be able to wake up tomorrow around 2 AM and have a DL that exact day. That'll be hard though, I likely admit.

Today we won't be loading very much. Today - including 8th - was a weird day, cause I genuinely forgot to eat well and woke up and ordered groceries, a whole fuckton including coffee. It's January! Also, thank you for your prayers. The fucking clerical thing, well I got another response and a promise to look into it on December 30th but that's not here nor there. I'm thinking of finally visiting a "place" I tried to visit in early December, such a strange memory.

Also, my ankle has been very good. I think it recovered to a point of me being able to walk normally outside! Thank you for your prayers, and thank God too, so much 😃

Anyway, here it is, as I'm trying to write -

Workout

Warmup - started with variations of high pull/L flys/overhand curl/front rack with a 17 kg ez bar. I'm cramping my forearms pretty hard, cause I didn't get enough water. I could totally suck up a couple liters and now have to pee rn. Let's see...

Second set - a little less cramping.

I gotta note, I've been hurting an awful lot, my whole upper back, my forearms and rotator cuffs. That stretching I did last time was really excessive, aggressive even. I really should be wary today.

When I woke up I had half a big cup of a scammy instant coffee with grounds in it, but then I had my blood thicken and I also ended up falling asleep. I force drank water and milk, but that didn't make me feel much better. Woke up around 11 PM as expected and I had one conventional 35/420 - the last full portion of the previous coffee I had. Then I had a small cup of Bushido instant coffee I purchased and then finally a slightly bigger cup. Now I'm drinking water.

Did a third set of that warmup - cramps are almost gone. Doing the front rack, I walked up to the windowsill and put my elbows on it - very interesting stretch. Done it on 3 our of 5 warmups with the ez bar.

Inner rotators, leaning onto the bed in a half squat, a-la armwrestling move but more for mobility. It's the opposite of L-fly muscles, you see, but they help with them as well.

No significant pain so far. Some trap and arm pump. I think I'm finally figuring out the "hip bump" in clean - it's the same movement as when you get on your toes! I think I've only ever been doing an actual "clean" all this time. I'm actually quite hyped to get downstairs and try it with the big bar!

Front rack in power rack

50 - 100 - 150 - 150

150 - 3 sets with a full hand rack, slowly improving. You need a tight grip and focus more on your index and middle finger.

Also I've been doing very gentle dynamic lat and middle back stretches between sets.

100 - 50

Overhead press - sets of 5

50 - 70

90 - 3 sets

I was doing some one arm L-flys in between OHP sets. It helped, because that front rack stretch really loosens the rotator cuff. On the final set here I just focused on pressing up and down, no extra gimmicks. I'm satisfied with how strict and easy it is - considering all the front rack strain and stretch.

Power clean

50 - three reps - I think I'm close to doing the hip bump. I think I've done it on one rep very well. Need bigger weight.

93 - 2 cleans. First one I tried doing with a more vertical back. Somehow I strained my forearms. Second one - more conventional, the habitual clean, the one where I just push against gravity, the best I can explain it - it was okay.

50 - 2 more cleans, feels good.

I'm heading somewhere with all these stretches. Let's hope it's not somewhere bad! Please pray for me.

You know, I'm pretty satisfied with today. I lifted up 150 and held it on my chest oldschool style, real good bend, real stiff. Pain's been going down. But I do have to be wary. I must be careful. I will be. Just a careful tread - but I'll keep going, walking ahead.

So, it's almost 7 AM. It's an extremely rare nighttime-into-morning workout lol. Even more rare than a morning workout! But not as rare as daytime workout. Top spaces are night and evening though lol.

I'm thinking I could try and wake up after midnight tomorrow and have another daytime flip. I was living a normal daytime schedule on the 31st lol!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sankt-Joseps-Hospital-efter-Trap-3-RES.jpg