Saturday, January 31st 2026 - The rarest and most voluminous workout - DL, Bench and Clean on top

 31.01.2026

There's so much stuff I wanted to write about. Again accidentally turning three days into two. Been feeling kinda like shit most of this week. Slept very unevenly, but woke up at 2 AM today and I simply felt good. My mind was worming with ideas so I knew I had to write. Already wrote something. I wanna finish that humongous chapter 18 and start the new one at this point. I have so many ideas.

I've been feeling like shit and assuming it's got something to do with my inner world. Now I think it definitely has more to do with my body. I have not been getting good, calm sleep. Yesterday I did finally get some, so I feel great today. Food has been okay, not good or bad. Just chicken and some carbs. I don't like chicken too much but I don't dislike it. A proper wannabe Odysseus over here. Become a hero and eat only canned meat, that's my idea.

The whole leaving thing has definitely been taking too long. The ankle has been a problem, so that's something that needed to solved. Now it's more or less okay. I was worried I might have cut some connective tissues down there but in all likelihood it's not what happened. No, I did overstretch them though, especially with the subsequent multiple ankle rolls. That's some comedy. Not a big deal. Gotta live through it. My knee injury used to bother me so much but it doesn't now.

Writing. Same old giga-volume-slopasaurus spilling all on out, making me feel good. When you're a painter you don't allow some fucking editor to cut out details from your painting, do you? No, you do not. Sure, books are different. Yes, they are. You can co-author them. You can do paintings. You can allow people to piss on your art. Isn't that amazing, commercial, safely packaged art?

Workout

Deadlift

20 - 70 - 120 did not wear a belt here, just forgot it - rare occasion!

160 for 6 OHG decently

200 for 5 - one OHG rep semi-stable, 4 mixed grip

230 for 4

250 for 4 - two reps mixed grip, two straps. The mixed grip was bad cause my fingers were oily from cooking and stretching during the movement, possibly from the wrong grip angle.

253 for 4 - one mixed kinda bad, then three straps surprised me pleasantly; I'm lifting with jaws shut a little better so I don't click my teeth and the speed was really good. And I, of course, was forcing the speed.

255,5 for 4 nice

258 for 4 very good, starting to warm up lol!

260 for 4 very nice. However, I discovered there's a chance this and the previous set might have not had one 2.5 kg plate on the side. Memory blank. It's just that I noticed one moment how one of the 2.5 kg plates is sitting where it usually is. I have have done a weird 255,5 and a 257,5. It's not guaranteed though. Memory!

You know, I think I should remove singles/doubles (a heavy-light weight) from the first workout of the new microcycle (that being the one with 8 rep sets, ideally 4x8) and move it to the second workout - cause that sort of makes more sense. Yes, on the first workout day you have a lot of residual max effort strength from the end of the previous microcycle. I'm not sure, but I think I had problems with 6es for at least two training cycles now. I think it makes more sense to make the second one medium-heavy-light (that being a light variation (weight) or a heavy variation (intensity - 6 reps) of a medium weight (something you're supposed to be able to do for 5 reps without squeezing yourself too hard)). But that's just brushstrokes, I gotta admit. Hm.

Also, I think I can bench today. It won't be easy but it definitely won't be too hard, I surmise. Given that, let's proceed to the final working set.

263 for 4 - very nice, feels good.

Bench - isn't that surprising? I was supposed to DL yesterday so I think I can bench today. Should be nice.

Wall pushups for warmup - 2 sets, region around right shoulder blade feels a little strained. I gotta tell you, those wall pushups, they're a pretty good accessory exercise on their own, just gotta keep muscle flexing, blood moving.

Ate a couple small things. This morning workout will end up growing into the raremost daytime workout - it's about to be 1PM.

Bench press

20 - 70

100 for 8 pecs are pretty tight, almost painful I gotta admit - i.e. lacking ATP or what have you to let them stretch easily. Consumed a couple nutrition items (ate)

110 for 8 better

115 for 8 let's consider this the first working set

120 for 8 nice, sort of doing a pause and then really accelerating it - as opposed to reversing speed, although I am rather certain that the "reversing speed" is simply better for strength. Minutia but nuance

120 for 8 nice, pauses more pronounced, all very easy, good control

125 for 8 very nice, great control

100 for 8 narrow grip, explosive, some reps not lowering fully cause all the muscle is too tight with the giga brace I've been developing 😁 Straight up hurts my lats and rear delts, like sombody's squeezing me with a rope!

100 for 16 narrow grip for the finished, most reps in the midrange - gotta push myself just a tiny bit sometimes. Make no mistake though, DL today was really heavy, close to squeezing myself. In layman terms that would be 70-90$ RPE or however you say it.

I loved the Cleans last time I did them. Feel sorry I didn't do them on my last OHP day.

Clean

Did some "straight arm bent over rows" with 17 kg ez bar - you know, only with upper back (rhomboids, delts, upper lats and also traps) - the thing that makes the (big) difference between powerlifting and weightlifting DL

50 for 3 interesting, feels surprisingly powerful; all reps shot up super fast! I feel way younger now.

70 for 3 - all three reps are power clean from the FLOOR. Now that's a big difference for me, I straight up DARED myself to do them from the floor - because that used to mess up my technique way more. However, doing them from the hang, I believe, helps maintain focus on the specific high pull muscles (traps upper back). I wanna try it from hang as well now.

70 for 3 - first rep from the floor, two from hang - really nice!

70 for 3 - same, but I ended up switching from hook to OHG and that gave me my usual hand/wrists strain 😁 Not a big deal, it wasn't as strong as before. And, ultimately, we are done. THIS - today - might be the most voluminous workout I've had in YEARS. Something to think about! In 2020 and before I used to do crazy stuff like this all the time, yes, but I trained two times a week. These days I can confidently say I've switched to 3 days out of 5. I often wish to have specific days of the week for my training - most notable Wednesday and, blessedly, Saturday - like today. But I am doing a 5 day training week. I'd like to bring back Squat into it. It should be doable.

RPotD - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EggetalimWinter.JPG