April 26th - OHP and PP struggles, rehab, stretching, finding nuance

 26.04.2026

Man, for AGES in this blog my OHP was SHIT! IT WAS SHIT! It was not ATHLETIC, it was some kind of giga retard lean back with no lockout!!

I am working on fixing it. Before I got my garage gym I was more athletic, my lifts looked better. I am working on it! That's what physical culture is.

Today... Today we have an OHP day. Lowkey yesterday was amazing - it was a day somehow not spoiled by anything!

I got "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun and "Curious Case of Dog" by Mark Haddon. I read a part of the preface to "Hunger" and found a lot of myself being described. Heh. If I was... better, for the lack of better word.

Somebody compared Michigander Marco to "Curious case of Dog" - I can see why! Marco sort of has fragmented consciousness, he has some "symptoms of autism" - well, it's because he's basically me, slightly exaggerated.

Today I'm OH-Peeing. Pressing. And PPing. And I wanna do dumbbells too.

My body is so well optimized - I'm not sore at all from yesterday's DLs; no, in fact, I am very limber.

Reading my blog... I AM SO MUCH STRONGER than I was! How and why? Is it because I never stopped working out, trying new things, failing and failing and failing again? Is it because I am happier now? Is it because I returned to intuitive training but also cycling ranges / intensities?

So, I read the "Curious Case Of Dog" for a while, had some coffee. 33/420 - rather thin.

I will write today. I have one scene on ch4rw4 left. I have a couple ideas. AND I'm going to use my little trick and "pre-write" things that the reader won't actually get to read.

It's 11 PM. I wanna have a workout. I wrote an "exercise" scene - not bad for me! Some staging, framing that isn't meant to be a part of the actual story.

I kinda wish for a big, heavy OHP workout - I know my energy isn't low. But can I have it on a day like today? The answer is a decisive NO. But I CAN escalate it, stimulate myself, make it almost heavy. Or perhaps heavy-light.

Workout

Warmup - kinda short today

Cleans and overhead press

20 - 40

63 - 3 sets of 5; on first set I first did cleans then press, second mixed, third - each rep clean & press; mostly in straps, but some reps with a hook grip.

I think in order to have the shoulders "above the bar" I need to feel the weight somewhere close to my heel. Satisfied with cleans today.

Overhead press from racks

73 for 5

93 for 5

103 for 5 - kinda ugly but looked nice on the video. Narrow grip on all sets here!

I've been mentally engaging with the Starting Strength / Testify method for beginners. I think I rather don't like it. It's okay in general, but it's also a substitution to an athletic form of press. HOWEVER - I was eager to try and figure out if MAYBE the narrow grip press is the way to go. I was bothered by my right side tightness today and I kept wondering if it's because I slowly switched to wide grip press.

I think I should not bother myself over the fact that I can't place the bar on my chest. I should just not worry about it.

I think it makes the most sense to make it so that your forearms are in a stable position IN THE RACK, rather than overhead.

Kinda overthinking! Must come back to it all and think on it again.

Push press

73 for 5

83 for 5 - I liked this one

90 for 5 really mediocre

On 83 I tried unracking it from the other side, so I walk forward. On 90 I went back to normal.

I lack energy today. Had too much fun yesterday! It's okay. Recover and we'll work on everything soon enough.

I wrote a lot. I wrote an "experiment", the one I mentioned before. I realize my style sounds super clipped but still sort of mine, my little tics. But it looks more like a screenplay when Marco isn't the focus, when I know it won't go into the book. I think I'm semi-consciously trying to save "brain effort", which is a little weird but okay for this.

You know, I think I should eat salt and salty stuff only if I really feel like I want it. That has to help with the sodium / potassium balance.

I should have spent more time warming up today, lower body too. I didn't even do my olympic overhead rubber stretches!

Now I'm doing sort of a very gentle and rhythmic abs/obliques/lower body warmup, listening to Candlemass - The Well Of Souls. It's got just the right tempo! I wanna do some squats, just a little, but I wanna feel perfect.

Squat - BW

6 sets of 15 - feels really nice! I love that I now can just squat without pain. In case you forgot I've been in a pretty crippled state most of April so far, due to that PP side/back of the knee injury (tissues sprung and strained).

One arm pullup bar holds, standing up

5 sets - focus on the right hand. Just holding on to the bar standing under it. Very easy with the left but not with the right (due to unevenness which is also exacerbated by DL)

The potassium I bought is really doing the work - no cramps today so far! Well, I think I got close to something when I was doing the pre-squat warmup but nothing happened, very interesting!

I don't want to overstretch anything. It's so disappointing, isn't it, how you can't stretch out a body part in one session? But that's how it goes. I'll focus on that. I'll have a good OHP and PP form before June. TBH it's not particularly bad now, I'm just a little disappointed today.

I ended up doing squats and stretches for a while longer than planned. Then I did some playing with 16 kg kettlebell - one arm presses, side presses; passed it from hand to hand by the body - close to cramp but none!

Eventually I managed to give myself a nice cramp - I flex-stretched my upper lats by staying in the bottom position of the full-range pushup - lying on the floor like a perfectly straight bar, letting the floor do the stretching for me. It's a powerful position!

I believe I might have increased my unevenness by progressing in the Bench press. We'll work on that too - it should help with the bench itself. Don't want to be too tight!

I think I SHOULD occasionally practice narrow grip OHP. Why? For the sake of versatility. I think it can open up more weak spots I have - as well as help me have slightly better mobility.

The cramp wasn't intense. It was long lasting but it was slowly going away, and so it did. I took my 7 kg ez bar and checked my evenness - it was good! Provided I wasn't doing it from an "upright" stance but leaning back a little, a la 50s weightlifting - I could rest this bar on my upper pecs and it was even.

I am looking forward to when I can gather myself properly for a nice OHP / PP workout and then deliver a decent performance, finally. Not to complain - days like today contribute a plenty.

P.S. And I think I finally finished ch4rw4. Ch5rw4 is next! Should be really complex. Combined with the "experiment" I wrote 1600+ words. Interesting that I managed to pull two very distinct styles.

RPotD - really beautiful!

Cinque Torri - the Five rock Towers - Fünf Türme in den Dolomiten, Dolomiti (Dolomites), Italy.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tofana_de_Rozes_Cinque_Torri.jpg - you can find a HUGE definition there, here it's a small one