If you do a PR alone in the woods, does it still count?

Training Logs
1

Hi,

I am a 36 year old lifter, who has a 10 years of history with a barbell. I’ve kept a training log when I was young, eager and stupid. I’m still the latter two, but just more busy with all the family and work stuff around.

I’ve loved lifting since I did my first couple workouts. And since I’m a huge nerd, I’ve read a lot about the subject. Part of the hobby has been the studying process: how things work and why? Often my training has been inefficient, odd, or just plain stupid, but that’s part of the game.

Lifting is part of my life, but not everything I have, so there has been times my progress have stalled, or even regressed, but that’s part of the game too. I’ve done some local PL meets, where my best total has been around 600kg/1330lbs. I’ve also done one WL meet, and now I’m considering trying strongman.

To give a starting point, below are some my most recent PRs from last month, all RPE 9:

  • Squat 3x200kg.
  • TnG Close grip bench 3x115kg.
  • DL 3x235kg.
  • Push press 1x102,5kg.
  • OHP 3x77,5kg.
    (Started doing OH work seriously last year).

Okay, why the log? For selfish reasons of course. I’ve gained strength and muscle, but none of my numbers are actually impressive. I’m upping my game a bit, since I will achieve more in this field before I’m too old and beat up. This log gives more space to analyse my training. I’ve used free RTS app for years, but I just plug numbers there. I also need to give room for some notes and thoughts.

The other, and perhaps more significant, reason for this log is to force me to write english. I’m not a native speaker (there will be typos and errors), but I have used it during my studies and work. But I’ve noticed not needing to write as much, and I’ve became rusty.

Third reason is to clear out my thoughts. I get excited about politics, history, science, philosophy - you name it, and I need to get this stuff organized. So if you happen to read this log, expect some random rants/thoughts regularly.

Since I have a ton of other shit in my life, I will try update once a week. Every update should consist:

  • Weeks workouts
  • Some notions about them.
  • A short text about something what’s in my mind currently.

So, let’s start.

6 Likes
2

Hypertrophy block
Eating 4000kcals per day and getting those gainzzzz.

W1

A)

Deficit deadlift, straps: 8x170kg (RPE 7,5)

SSB squat: 8x145kg (RPE 8)
Back off: 3x10x132,5kg (RPE 7-8)

Stone carry 3x80kg @ 30 m
45 sek rest in between.

Terrible workout. 8 days of no lifting and shitty holiday food (and drinking quality wines) felt. Also I had a flu or something just day before starting this block. There was zero oomph in the legs and I felt like puking whole workout.

B)

Push press: 10x75kg (RPE 8)

TnG CGBP 7x100kg (RPE 8,5)
Feet up: 3x10x75kg (RPE 7-8)

DB incline bench 5x12x22,5kg (7-8 RPE)
Ss with
DB rows 4x15x30kg (7-8,5 RPE)

Tricep extensions 4x12-15 to RPE 9
Ss with
Cable rows 3x12-15 to RPE 9

Still feeling weak. A ton of reps, light weights.

C)
Squat 10x165kg (RPE 8)
Back off: 10x155kg (RPE 7)

RDL, straps: 2x8x140kg (RPE 8)

Bulgarian split squats: 3x10x60-75kg (RPE 7-8,5)

Back raises 2x20x25kg (RPE 8)

After a rest day. Felt sore as hell, but slightly stronger. The 10x165kg was a good set.

D)

OHP: 9x62,5kg (RPE 8)
Back off: 10x55kg (RPE 7,5)
Not great, not terrible.

Seated ohp 4x8-10x50kg (RPE 7-8)
Ss with
Weighted chins 5x4-5x7,5kg (RPE 8-9, I suck at chins)

Lat pulldowns 3x10-15x75kg (to RPE 9)
Ss with
Upright rows 3x10-15x30kg (to RPE 9)

Cable laterals 4x10-15x10-15kg (to RPE 9)

Band Tricep pushdowns 1x20+ (RPE 7)

Still sore as hell. Started to feel better at the end of the workout.

Weeks conditioning: More lazy than usual. 1x20 min airdyne bike and 2x1,5 hour brisk walks with extra weight.

Not a great start, but got some work in.

Misc:

Socrates, Jesus and history

I’ve been comparing two figures and their historicality today.

Socrates. The classic of the classics. One of the cornerstones of western philosophy. Socratic dilemma is beaten to death by more intelligent people than me. Still it is an interesting topic.

The who don’t know: we have stories and thoughts of Socrates, but he personally did not leave any traces. We mostly know about him from other sources, and he is most commonly known as a character from Platos dialogues.

There are ton of theories about Socrates and I’m not writing them down here, since that would take too much time.

But there is hogh probability that philosopher names Socrates had lived, but the character might be sewed together from many real figures and their actions, some of the stories might have been made up by Plato itself and so on… BUT the important point is not the historicality of the figure, rather we should focus on the ideas he represented.

Jesus. Probably most known figure of western history. Talking about Jesus is difficult, since he is also the messiah in Christianity, and thus will sprout strong feelings amongst atheists and believers. I need to clarify that I won’t make any statement conserning religion in this text.

Jesus was most likely a historical person. There are several sources which indicate that.

Jesus never left any primary sources either. So it is hard to say do all the sources speak about the same person. Majority of the New Testament is also written way later than he lived, and many of the writers never met him.

So, historically, Jesus is like Socrates. No primary sources, most likely was a person, but it is impossible to say presicely what is made up, is there several figures behind these names and so on.

Jesus and Socrates are similar, since these two characters define a base for western philosophy and values. And in historical sense it does not matter wether they lived or not. The ideas they represent do. Critical thinking, logic and finding irregulaties from the world is what Socrates means. Love, compassion and understanding value of an individual human is what Jesus means (or should mean).

I’m not the first one who discovers these parallels between the two antique thinkers; Socrates and Jesus, and I only scratched the surface. I recommend to look deeper in to these subjects if interested, and can give book recommendations anyone who asks.

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Hypertrophy block W2

A)

Deficit DL 10x170kg, RPE 7,5

SSB squat 10x145kg, RPE 8
Back off: 3x10x137,5kg, RPE 7-7,5

Farmers walk 3x30m @ 170kg, RPE 7-8
1 min rest between sets.

Getting back to the groove.

B)

Push press 8x80kg, RPE 9

Tng CGBP 7x100kg, RPE 8,5
Back off 10x90kg, RPE 8, 12x85kg, RPE 8

DB incline 5x10-12x25kg, RPE 7,5-8
Ss with
DB rows 4x15x36kg, RPE 8-9

Tricep extensions 4x12-15x55kg, RPE 8-9
Ss with
Cable rows 3x12x80kg, RPE 8-8,5

Insane pump.

C)

Squat 10x170kg, RPE 8
Back off: 10x160kg

RDL 3x8x120kg
Looked Hoopers video, where Israetel adviced him with RDL. The guy did RDLs just with 125kg(!), so I dropped the weights and focused more on the execution. Have to say it worked, my hams are still sore when writing this post.

Bulgarians 3x10x75-85kg, RPE 7,5-8
I hate these.

Back raises 2x20x30kg, RPE 8-8,5kg
I hate these even more, back pump is obnoxious.

Reverse nordic curl 1x15, RPE 9

D)

OHP 9x65kg, RPE 9
Back off 9x60kg, RPE 8,5

Seated OHP 4x50-51kg, RPE 8-8,5
Ss with
Weighted chins 5x4-5x7,5kg, RPE 8-9

Bw chins 1x10, RPE 9

Lat pulldowns 3x10x75kg, RPE 8-8,5
Ss with
Upright rows 3x9-10, RPE 8-9
Not getting this movement.

Lateral raises 4x10-15x10-15kg, RPE 8-9

DB flyes 20x15kg, pause at the bottom. RPE 10.

Much better week. Squats and deads are feeling awesome, pressing ok. Weights are still relatively light, but I do feel that my muscles do get a lot of quality work.

Conditioning: Total of cycling: 26km, one longer (1,5h) walk. Still lacking with the conditioning, but it’s quite snowy and cold here, that’s my excuse.

Got the local gyms competition schedule, I will not compete anywhere else this year, I’m not going to focus too much to competing. I will focus on building muscle and general strength.

There is no strongman event this year at the gym, but there are some PL meets, to which I might attend. We’ll see.

Specificity vs transference

I’ve been going throught strength literarute (again), and a topic of specificity vs transference got in to my mind (again). Shortly: Specificity means how close the exercise you’re doing resembles the thing you’re going to improve. Transference means how much the exersice improves the thing you’re trying to improve.

Specificity is a good thing, and most programs and coaches do recommend fairly specific training (and we have all seen the bosu-ball memes). Some coaches go pretty far with it (Rippetoe), some less (Westside).

It’s easy to have too much specificity, if you dwell in to the details, it’s easy to see high specificity training should be reserved to hogh level competitive strength athletes. Novice benefits from everything, and should spend a lot of time to practice the badic movenent patterns, but for the rest of us there might not be so clear cut answer.

Human body is not a math equation. Like CWS and Israetel did put it: SRA asaptation cycle might be getting weaker and weaker if you do the same thing months and months on end.
At the same time too much variation might be a problem too, since it does not give possibilities for adaptations to occur.

So at the end you’ll need both. And actually, you most likely should not worry about specificity too much (unless you’re doing bosu ball squats to improve your DL, or something silly). I’ve personally noticed that I seem to benefit from more non specific training done at times (not all the time!).

Mike tuchscherer said it best - focus on transference! If the training you’ll do works, keep doing it. Often most specific things do have the best transference, but not always and not all the time.

Ps. Busy day, I’ll correct the typos later.

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Titular response - it counts, but only for you.

And, no one else matters.

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Definitely, but I was also thinking more generally.

It’s clear that people should generally start training relatively specifically according their goals, but one should not be too dogmatic about it when the training and years go by.

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Hypertrophy block W3

A)

Deficit DL 10x185kg, RPE 8,5
Technically a PR

SSB squat 10x152,5kg, RPE 8,5, technically a PR
Back off: 3x10x142,5kg, RPE 8-9

Sled 3x30m @ 70kg, RPE 7-9
1 min rest between sets.

Legs were exhausted after this.

B)

Push press 8x82,5kg, RPE 9,5
PR

Tng CGBP 8x100, RPE 8,5
Back off: 2x10x90kg, RPE 8

DB incline 5x10-12x30kg, RPE 8-8,5
Ss with
DB rows 4x12-13x44kg, RPE 8-9

Tricep extensions 4x12x60kg, RPE 8,5-10
Ss with
Cable rows 3x15x75-80, RPE 8-9

Chest machine press 50kg amrap to failure (15-20ish reps)

Rough workout. Insane pump.

C)
Squat 9x180kg, RPE 9,5. A nice PR
Back off: 9x170kg, RPE 8,5

RDL 3x10x120kg, RPE 8

Bulgarians 4x10x75-85kg, RPE 7,5-8,5

Back raises 2x20x30kg, RPE 8,5

Reverse nordic curls 1x15

This was hard.

D)
OHP 2x7x67,5kg, RPE 9-10
Feeling the fatigue.

Seated ohp 4x8x55kg, RPE 8,5
Ss with
Weighted chins 4x4x10kg, RPE 8-9,5
BW 1x10, RPE 9

Lat pulldowns 3x10x75kg, RPE 8
Ss with
Cable lateral raises 4x10-15x10-15kg, RPE 8-10

DB flys 2x15x15kg, RPE 8-8,5

Weeks conditioning: total 26km of cycling and 1,5 h weighted walk.

I’m upping the RPEs, since next week is going to be a light week. My blocks are usually 3-4 weeks long, and is seems to be good length for me. I actually could maybe have pulled one more week, next week super busy, so it is better to have less stress in the gym.

I’m making some small changes. Rep ranges will drop to 5-8, I’ll drop strongman stuff, since I don’t seem to have energy, time or reason to do it currently. Also going tp increase benching a bit, since it has not really moved in this block.

RPE and the need of theory in training

Again a text about training, but it has been on my mind, so…

RPE is a great tool. It is often misunderstood also. It is not how you feel, but rather how do you perform. It is not a progression model, or a permit to take it easy. It need practice, but I feel it really helps my training. It is just more
precise way of saying ”that moved fast” or ”that was way too grindy” after a set.

Other things I’ve been thinking is the classic question: How much you really need to understand science and theory of training?

Answer is of course not at all. If you push training harder than you want, eat and sleep properly and do it consistently enough, you will get pretty fucking strong. The big ”but” here is, that very few can do hard training and hard recovering consistently for years and years (I certainly haven’t)

But I like the pondering, and the ”nitty gritty”. Part of this hobby (for me) is to figure out how and why things are done as they are done. It’s just plain stupid to get heated up about these things, are you a science lifter or a 100% meathead. Lifting should be fun and not too serious bussiness. There is war, politics and more important things to focus on if you want to get upset.

Shorter text today (these aren’t long anyway, I’ll just do a rant and post it), but it is what it is.

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8

Hypertrophy block w4 (deload)

A) Squat 1x5x170kg, RPE 6

Bench 1x5x100kg, RPE 6

OHP 1x4x65kg, RPE 7

BW bulgarians 3x15
ss with
Band triceps extension 3x20

B) Push press 1x85kg, RPE 6

Deadlift 1x200kg, RPE 5,5

Single leg RDL 3x15x45kg
ss with
Bw chin ups 3x8-10

C) Power Snatch 4x2-3x50kg

Power clean singles to 100kg

TnG CGBP 3x5x80kg, RPE 5

Rear raises 2x20x8kg

Was just having fun with this workout. My aim was to do some SSB too, but my right knee is bothering me at times, and it has not been too happy for the past 2 weeks. I want it to be 100% when the next week starts. Traps got really sore afterwards though.

There is supertotal competition coming late may. I’m thinking of incorporating more benching and slightly more O-lifts to my training as the spring gets closer. I’ll drop the strongman stuff now, I’ve been training the suff for 6-8 months now and really liking it. But I can’t do everything at the same time.

History does not repeat itself

We live unstable times. I’m a 80’s child, and do remember how optimistic the general consensus was in the 90s and early 2000s. It all started to go south pretty fast thought.

China did not evolve do democracy when it got richer, quite contrary. Russia did not come closer to the west, and the economical interdependence was just a fancy word. EU did not got stronger and bigger, but got stuck with it’s internal problems. US had terrible time in Middle East, and the economy has not been thriving properly after 2008.

It’s pretty hard to be optimistic currently. Stability is what we (almost) all want, but we get war and uncertainty about the future. I live in Europe and expert after another declares imminent 3ww, since the “signs are all there”, often using 1930s as a baseline for their arguments.

Well, I know a thing or two about history, and history does not have any direction. There is not actually any meaningfull entity named “history” it is just our way to explain things that have been. Of course we can learn from history, since some situations often may lead to another (hunger = revolts etc…). BUT it does not mean things are determined, or that some things always do lead to another.

You can see a lot of similarities from 1930 to 2020: UN is getting weaker, economic recessions leave huge political and social problems, Here In Europe we have a dictatorship, which tries to expand its sphere of incluenfe by force, etc. But that’s just a surface. World is not the same. Peoples motivations aren’t same. Technology is not the same. It is not determined that we are headed towards large scale conflict.

This does not mean that we should have careless attitude towards the current situation. This all may go to shitter sooner than we thought (specially when you add rapidly increasing enviromental problems), but nothing is determined, and nothing repeats. This is a new situation, and might need new solutions.

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Ps. Weeks conditioning: just couple walks and one light jog. Weather has been pretty bad now.

10

Hypertrophy/base strength block W1

A)
Power snatch 5x2-3x50kg, light technique work

Squat 5x185kg, RPE 7,5
back off work 2x8x170kg

SLDL 3x8x125kg

Weighted back raises 2x12x50kg

B)
Bench press 5x105kg, RPE 7,5
TnG bench 7x105kg, RPE 8

OHP 4x8x55-60kg
ss with weighted chins 4x4x10kg

Bw chins 2x9
ss with LTEs 3x10x35kg (long ROM and a pause)

DB lateral raises 10kg, myo rep set 15,5,5,5

C)
Power clean and jerk 5x1-2x70kg, light work

Deadlift, hook grip 1x205kg, RPE 6, trying the hook grip after a long pause. Mixed grip causes me some problems in the long run, so I would like to avoid it if possible. Hooking just sucks thought.
Deadlift, straps 5x200kg, RPE 7,5
Deficit deadlit, straps 5x180kg

SSB squat 5x155kg, RPE 8
3x8x142,5kg

Bulgarians 2x10x60kg

D)
OHP 2x5x67,5kg, RPE 8

Close grip bench 5x95, RPE 7
TnG CGBP 3x8x92,5kg

BB rows, straps 4x8x100kg

DB bench 4x12x30kg
ss with cable rows 2x12x80kg

Weeks conditioning: 3 light jogs

Start of the block. Feeling fluish/shitty. My upper back had recovery probelms, heavy DLs after the weighted chins were a bad call, I think I pulled something in my right lat. Going to ease up upper back work so, that the workout B has only some lighter back work and workout D has the heavy stuff in it. So the weighted pull ups will go for now.

Strength with a flavour

As is thought back my 10 year lifting “career”, I noticed a trend. For the first years I was stupid as novices usually are. I did 5/3/1 and tried all kind of stupid bullshit as people tend to do.

After some years I moved to another town and did found a PL club. That’s where my training really started as as serious endeavour. I did some PL meets and got my total around 600kg. Then I got bored to PL (I actually don’t enjoy competing, and the training is relatively monotonous), and did some time more general strength training with more conditioning work (mostly running). I did very little training with the big three during this period.

After that I’ve returned to more strength focused training, but I’m not a powerlifter. I’ve done PL training, WL training, strongman training and even some bodybuilding stuff. I seem to need to something else besides the basic strength work, and get excited from certain stuff and focus on it for some months.

I’ve decided that’s 100% okay. I did strongman from last august to january (did not compete thought), now I’m considering participating a supertotal meet later in spring (which is a WL + PL). I suck at weightlifting, but I like the explosiveness. For now, I just do some light work with the O-lifts, while going hard with strength and mass building.

What I’m trying to say is that, I’m doing strength training with a flavour. Bulk of my training will focus on getting stronger in squatting, deadlifting, benching and in overhead pressing. Then I have 1-3 “slots” in my training week for “flavour”, which might be something I’m focusing currently. This spring it will be O-lifts. I might get back to the strongman stuff later on.

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11

Hypertrophy/base strength block W2

A)

Power snatch 5x3x50kg,

keeping the O-lifts still light

Squat 1x200kg, RPE 6,5
5x190kg, RPE 8
Back off 2x8x175kg

RDL 3x8x125-130kg

Weighted back raises 2x12x60kg

B) Bench 1x115kg, RPE 7,5
5x107,5kg, RPE 8

TnG 7x107,5, RPE 8,5

OHP 4x8x60kg

Cable rows 3x12x80kg

Rear delts 2x20x10kg

C)

Power clean and jerk 5x1-2x70kg

Deadlift 1x220kg, RPE 7,5
5x205kg, RPE 8

Deficit 5x190kg

SSB squat 5x162,5kg, RPE 7,5
Back off 3x8x152,5kg

Bulgarians 2x15x65kg

C)

OHP 5x67,5kg, RPE 8
5x72,5kg, RPE 9

Close grip bench 1x110kg, RPE 7
5x100kg, RPE 8

TnG 3x8x95kg
Ss with
Barbell rows 4x8x105kg

Bw chins 2x9

Weeks conditioning: 2 light jogs and one long walk.

I was talked into a gym PL meet. It’s in two weeks. I dont have time or interest to do any peaking, that’s against how I like to train anyway. The change I made was that I did pur in some submaximal singles, since it’s good to handle heavier weights before meet just for safety reasons. I also might reduce the volume slightly, since I’m starting to feel more beat up/hurt as the intensity raises. I don’t have any goals about the meet, I’ll open light and see how I feel. Point is to have fun, PRs or not.

I feel tired also, since younger of my kids is sick, so I might put some text here later today.

PS. It’s late evening now. Had a busy few days, so writing has to go this time. BUT - I will note to my self to write a a ”ode to mediocrity” some day (I’m serious).

2 Likes
12

”Hypertrophy”/base strength block w3

This week was not hypertrophy training anymore, but after over 2 months (three blocks) of somewhat high volume stuff change was welcomed. Also, like I said, raising intensity has beaten me up.

Good week overall. A ton of fatigue, but feeling strong.

A) Power snatch 5x2-3x50kg

Squat 1x210kg, RPE 8
4x200kg, RPE 9, PR
3x5-6x180kg

Was busy and low back was cramping (even that my squat is High barish), so ditched RDLs and back raises.

B) Bench
1x117,5kg, RPE 7, 1x117,5kg, RPE 7,5
4x110kg, PR(?)
TnG bench 7x107,5kg

Ohp 4x5-6x65kg

LTE 4x8x45kg

Cable rows 3x10x80kg

C) Power clean and jerk, couple sets, was short on time.

DL 1x235kg, RPE 7
This was super fast. Nice.
5x210kg
Deficit DL 5x200kg

SSB squat 4x5x160-170kg

D) OHP 2x80kg, PR, RPE 9,5

CGBP 1x112,5kg, RPE 7,5
5x102,5kg, RPE 9 (feeling the fatigue)

TnG CGBP 2x5x102,5kg

Bw chins 3x9

Weeks conditioning: ergs for 30 min, 20 min stair walk and one light run.

Next week will be short taper (openers, rest and the meet).

I’ve been rambling politics and stuff in the forums past 2 days. Tomorrow I’ll update text here. Topic will be something completely different thought.

The one thought that frightens me

Fermi’s paradox has always been a mystery that has intrigued me. It’s the classic question: is there anybody else there.

Before anyone thinks about any possible approach, I need to bring you down - it’s most likely thought out already. One interesting book about the topic is Stephen Webbs If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens … WHERE IS EVERYBODY?. It’s a question which has inspired mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, astrobiologists and even conspiracy theorists.

I’ve found one theory which I feels quite plausible. The Bottleneck Theory. It implies that there are two (or maybe three) “bottlenecks” for life. These are situations which are so hard to overcome that most possible “competitors” will fail.

1st is life itself. It seems that conditions for life aren’t super common. And even if there are conditions, we can’t surely say that life would emerge.

2nd is intelligent life. And with intelligence I mean at least human intelligence. A cognition that can build culture, civilization, science etc.

3rd bottleneck is the scary one. If intelligent life appears, it’s not sustainable long enough for interstellar travel, or even communications, to happen.

If you have delved into Fermi’s paradox, this explanation seems actually quite solid, and you know where I’m heading.

We’re obviously trough the first two, and now we’re heading towards the third bottleneck. Nuclear war, environmental problems, collapse of global economy and food production, new resistent bacteria, AI(?), or just bad luck with asteroid or gamma burst - there are many possible scenarios which might have catastrophic consequences. They might set up back hundreds of years, or even cause our extinction. It’s hard to stay optimistic when I look the world. It might be that next 100 years will be decisive in humanity’s history.

Life is rare, intelligent life even rarer, we should value it more. If we exterminate ourselves, there might be very, very long time before someone else looks at the stars wondering what’s out there.

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If my crude understanding of what physicists are uncovering is somewhat correct, your PR would still count, as you are there to observe it and thus bring it into our shared reality.

I am still unclear about whether or not a bear lifting the largest log of his life would still be observed in a way that will bring it into our reality. Does a plant “observing” the soil beneath it also have this effect? I am confused by the world of physics that goes beyond the basic algebra-based concepts I understand.

I don’t often poke around logs these days, as I came for the lifting and stayed for the off-topic discussions with lifters, but yours is looking quite strong.

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Thanks man, I appreciate the notion about my logs name. Hahah.

I would also say that me observing it is enough for it to count, and yeah, maybe we can count other living beings too (at least they would observe me to be smelly and noisy).

If we go wild and dive to quantum physics (which I can understand only shallowly), we could argue that all material interact to each other at the quantum level, and everything I’ll do will be observed constantly in the surrounding environment.

I would count myself strong for people who aren’t in a strength sport. I’m “one of the strong guys” at my gym, but after participating to couple PL meets I’ve gained realistic perspective about my level. But that’s okay, my goal is not get to the national PL podium, but just be relatively strong and relatively healthy.

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Ha ha, that is me too. I’m still pretty strong for knocking on 45, but not as strong as I was at your age. I love lifting weights, but never enough to give up a whole day off to lift weights 9 times in a competition I wouldn’t come close to winning.

I did lift in a powerlifting gym for a while, which was an all-around great environment, but I’ll always get a kick out of being told I was squatting all wrong after repping 190KG for 8. I was told I was squatting too deeply, and in the wrong footwear, by a man with a fused spine achieved under barbell load.

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave explains it for me.

We are watching shadows and think they are real.

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Yeah. Sounds way too optimistic to think we’re fully out of the cave yet.

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Pivot week

Worked up to solid 210kg in the squat and good 120kg in the bench. Then did some explosive singles with 180kg in DL.

Next 5-6 days are mainly rest and some super light lifting. I’ll do a meet next weekend. I’ll open light and have fun, if I’m feeling awesome I’ll do a meet PR of two.

19

Gym meet

Had some stomach flu yesterday, but felt alright so decided to compete. Like I said, this was mostly for having fun and was a small (20 people) gym meet. I had a fun day and the atmosphere was chill and supporting.

Squat
1x205kg,
easy opener. Wanted to start light.

1x215kg,
folded a bit forward, so it was harder than I hoped. Took a conservative jump to the final squat.

1x220kg, meet PR, and a PR with high bar.
nailed it. Strong rep, maybe a RPE 9-9,5, so had a little more in me.

Bench
1x115kg,
way too light opener. Hahah.

1x120kg,
solid.

1x125kg
a bit slower, but solid. Tied to my previous meet PR from ages ago. I remember it was HARD and slow then. Now it was not that bad. Felt like RPE 9, looked like RPE 8.

Deadlift:
1x235kg,
solid.

1x250kg
A bit harder, but no grind yet. Meet PR, not a all time PR thought. Maybe a 9 RPE.

1x260kg.
Failed. Got it from floor, but it’s the mid chin that gets me. This is 2nd time I’ve failed 260kg, so I would call that a plateau.

Overall a good day, like I said I had a great time and relatively low stress. I think going to this meet with minimal prep was a good call. I don’t know should one even peak, unless he/she is a high level strength athlete. The cost/benefit just is not there, at least for me.

So:
Squat 220kg/485lbs
Bench 125kg/276lbs
DL 250kg/551lbs

Total 595kg/1312lbs

No crazy PRs, but small improvements here and there. Was happy how it went. I won my class (which was not to too hard, there were two guys who were about as strong as I)

I’m not gonna rest several days, but get back to training. Going to keep things relative easy next week thought.

After the meet my wife’s sister and her partner came to a visit. I cooked some garlic snails with sourdough bread (I baked the bread this morning). As for a main course I did some elk steaks seared in rosemary butter, french fries and a salad with a mix of almost every veggie I could find from our fridge. Finished the meal with a huge amount of ice cream. We also emptied a bottle of nice Amarone. Definitely not a clean meal by any standards, but it was deserved.

I’m not going to write a text today, since I’m really tired, and this post is relatively long already. I’ve been quite active in the Trump thread this week (spending the energy of not training to somewhere), so that’ll pass as this weeks text.

Next week I’ll do a short text about Russia. Shortly, what there is I love and hate about the country.

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Strength block W1

Did not feel great (surprise!), but went roughly with the plan. I was going to do a specific strength block with heavy triples and fives. But decided that triples would be too much after the meet. So very classical strength stuff with lot of fahves.

Started this week with submax weights and the RPEs show that it was a good call. So relatively easy week.

A) Power Snatch
Singles
55kg
60kg
65kg
70kg, RPE 9
3x60kg

Power Clean and jerk
Singles
60kg
70kg
80kg
85kg, RPE 8,5
3x70kg

Squat 5x180kg, RPE 8
4x5x165kg

B) Bench 5x102,5kg, RPE 8,5
4x5x95kg

Incline bench 3x6x65-70kg

LTE 2x8x50kg (too heavy)
Ss with bw chins 4x8

C) DL 1x205kg
5x200kg, RPE 7

DL (paused mid chin) 3x4x180kg

Pause squat 4x160kg, RPE 8
3x4x150kg

D) OHP 5x70kg, RPE 8,5
4x5x65kg

2 count pause bench 4x95kg, RPE 7,5
3x4x85kg

Pendlay row 4x6x100-110kg

Week’s conditioning: 2 light jogs and one long walk (1,5h).

Not going to write text now, since I’ve been wayyy too much at phone. Two things I’ll need to change:

  • I’m going to stop writing to the Trump thread. Not that there’s nothing wrong in writing there. I’ve actually understood the US perspective more through it. But it takes too much of my time, I’ve definitely wrote enough english for this week.

  • I’m not going to say what I might write here next week, since I’d rather just go with a topic which happens to be in my mind currently. I’ve promised to write about Russia and about mediocrity, but neither of these subjects are just right now bothering me. Not that my ramblings are even in that level of text or thoughts that I should plan them ahead.

So let’s see what weights and thoughts next week brings.

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Strength block w2

A)
Power snatch, singles
55kg
60kg
65kg (2x1)
70kg
72,5kg, RPE 9
3x62,5kg

Power clean and jerk
60kg
70kg (2x1)
80kg
87,5kg RPE 9
3x70kg

Squat 5x190kg, RPE 8,5
5x5x175kg

B) Bench (comp. pause) 4x107,5kg, RPE 9 meh, not a good set.
3x5x97,5kg
1x5x95kg

Incline bench
6x65kg
6x70kg
6x75kg, RPE 8,5

LTE 3x10-12x40kg
ss with
BW chins 4x8

C) Deadlift 5x215kg, RPE 8. Kinda a PR, never done this before, but I knew I had it.

Deadlift, paused mid chin 2x4x195kg, 1x4x185kg. These were rough.

2s pause squats 4x165kg, RPE 7,5
3x4x155kg

D) OHP 3x75kg, RPE 8,5. Not a great set either.
2x5x67,5kg
2x5x62,5kg
Not too happy with this session.

Long pause bench 4x100kg, RPE 7,5
4x4x85-90kg

Pendlay row 3x8x105kg

Weeks conditioning: total 43km of cycling to work and back. One long (1,5h) walk on weekend.

Cycling sounds easy. And it would be on a flat surface and during summer. But I live in a hilly area, and there’s still snow, ice and gravel on the roads. So it’s not a total breeze for my quads and lungs. It’s worse on the way home, since it’s almost all uphill, and I’m all sweaty when I’m at my front door.

Strange week. Lower body was great, upper body pretty shit.

I was not feeling fatigued, and squats and deads went really well. I also had energy even though I lowered my kcals to 3500 (not doing enough volume currently to support 4000kcal diet). But my traps and pecs were fried, so the pressing workouts were not great.

I had a talk with one of the guys at the gym, and he thought it might be the intensity in weightlifting what hurts my pressing currently. I’m not a mobile guy and those snatches and jerks do put strain on my shoulders/pecs. We’ll see if the next week is any better.

Importance of empathy

Now, firstly, I don’t consider empathy as soft or kind feeling, where you always turn the other cheek. Empathy means simply understanding other people.

Empathy can be understood better if we look it as it’s used in human sciences, such as history. Understanding history it’s not just to understand what has happened and when, but why it has happened too. Latter needs us (at least try) to understand what people thought and how they saw the world in different times. It’s just wrong to think Aztecs or Ancient Greeks we’re thinking and valuing the things and their lives like we are doing now. So we need to have empathy. We need to understand how they thought and felt, and why. It’s not easy task to do, and I’m not delving in to historical methodology here. Just pointing out what I mean when speaking about empathy. A skill to understand others.

There are always extreme cases, but most people aren’t evil. They actually believe they are doing the right thing or see the cause justifies the methods. Islamic terrorist or a neonazi warrior often really do seem to believe they’re making the world a better place.

If we forget zealots or extreme examples, this applies to societies in general and heated political debates too. Your political opponents aren’t (generally) evil, they just see the world differently. The reasons of why they do is in the middle of it all. Only accepting the human value and seeing opposite side as same as you makes the dialogue possible. Then you can measure the arguments and decide which one has better ones. Sometimes you just need to agree to disagree, and that’s okay.

I have religious friends, atheist friends, leftist friends and right wing friends. I have had heated discussions with liberals and conservatives alike. Often these discussion have been fruitful. And even if they haven’t, we’d still have gone to fish, lift or have a pint afterwards. Since there are also things which we agree on, or have similar interests in certain topics. And we understand each others.

Empathy makes us human, since it makes us capable of understanding the world. And if you don’t get possibility to develop it as a skill, you are more prone to do terrible things. I suspect being a drug cartel torturer in Mexico or a paid Wagner soldier in Ukraine, you can’t have much empathy. I don’t know if they can turn it off as a self preservation, or have these people grown up without ever learning to use this vital skill. But genocides, torture, and all those things which we see evil, are often derived from a lack of empathy. If you don’t see your enemy as a human with similarities to yourself, it’s easier to do terrible things to him/her.

Maybe this sounds like some freaking Christian moral sermon after all, but we need empathy, for ourselves and for others. Without it this all would come grumbling down.

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