Tip Toeing in my Vibrams

[SnakePlissken]

On the other hand, I'm of the opinion that a lot of "conditions" are over-diagnosed, and everyone's got a place somewhere on any given spectrum. I think the strictures of modern society haven't yet caught up to the modern human brain.

I agree with this. My dad, brother and myself are all ADHD diagnosed. My brother had it the worst and was on valium for several years in middle and high school and he was a different person in a bad way. Much more of a boring person, but it did calm him down like it was supposed to just too much. From the way a pretty sane doctor described it to me once was that there's suspicion that ADHD is just a different way your brain works where you learn much more by observation and experimenting at the cost of being able to sit down for extended periods of time and doing anything in a regimented setting (like public school). A trait that would've been pretty beneficial in times before modern society existed.

On another note though, it's way over-diagnosed. A lot of kids in school are just not interested in sitting for 7 hours a day in a classroom and that's just part of being a kid.

[Culican]

I probably have ADHD. All of my half-started projects are monuments to that. It doesn't disturb me; it is just a natural variation, which I am sure was an adaptive trait in our evolutionary past.

It will be interesting to see what the fallout is from drugging a whole generation of kids because they allegedly have this "disorder."

[Renascent]

It's got to be harder where stupid little conventions like that are held in such high regard. There really is no purpose to them beyond giving certain individuals arbitrary superiority based on nothing they have actually achieved or do but simply because of where they happen to be sitting or standing.

Makes it difficult to navigate social situations at times, especially when I'm expected to adhere to -- and uphold -- seemingly arbitrary norms that keep the fabric of daily life (in my environment) intact. I have to keep my mouth shut a lot (which is hard to do sometimes), even in situations where I'm expected to socialize and have a lot in common, belief-wise, with those around me (same God(s), same material desires, same appearances).

Though my kid is quite gregarious, I do not envy his youth. There's experiences I'm glad I only had to endure just once.

From the way a pretty sane doctor described it to me once was that there's suspicion that ADHD is just a different way your brain works where you learn much more by observation and experimenting at the cost of being able to sit down for extended periods of time and doing anything in a regimented setting (like public school).

Pretty much how I look at it.

As much as I hear people go on about the ills of screen time and social media, I think the root of attention "deficiencies" preceded all of that and lies elsewhere. Sometimes I wonder if many of us were understimulated before the so-called excess of entertainment.

On another note though, it's way over-diagnosed. A lot of kids in school are just not interested in sitting for 7 hours a day in a classroom and that's just part of being a kid.

Sadly, I've come to suspect the same goes for adults. I've a few employees over the years who could hardly sit still long enough to look productive to sets of eyes that cared about appearances in such a way. I get outed as a poor disciplinarian because I can empathize with these folks; it was a hard transition for me when I left a manual labor job for another office job. Apparently I get up to refill my water bottle with such frequency that it warrants snide comments, from time to time.

I probably have ADHD. All of my half-started projects are monuments to that. It doesn't disturb me; it is just a natural variation, which I am sure was an adaptive trait in our evolutionary past.

It will be interesting to see what the fallout is from drugging a whole generation of kids because they allegedly have this "disorder."

Ditto, to all of this. As much as living with the boy and his quirks can frustrate me at times, it's also led to some realizations. I suppose that, as long as I'm still capable of earning income, I'm not inclined to seek a legitimate diagnosis for myself (or medicate to appear "normal"). The kid seems to dislike his own medication as it is.

[Renascent]

(8.22.2022)
Overhead Press
155 x 10
175 x 6 x 3
185 x 4 x 3
205 x 1 x 2
210 x 1 x 2
215 x 1
185 x 3 x 2



Yazmin Press
185 x 7 x 5
195 x 5 x 3

Rope Pushdowns
65 x 16 x 2
75 x 12 x 2
80 x 8 x 2

Barbell Hang Shrugs
225 x 20 x 2
315 x 10 x 3

Overhead RTEs
80 x 12 x 6

Dumbbell Silverback Shrugs
75 x 20 x 4

Overhead Cable Front Raise
30 x 10 x 3

Seated Dumbbell Reverse Flyes
25 x 12 x 3

Completed one of those medical checkup things at work today to lower next year's insurance premium. I greatly dislike the lazy-ass wording for some of the questions they ask on the depression pre-screening.

Stupid-ass online questionnaire: "Do you sometimes feel like not doing anything?"
Attendant, noticing me sitting there like a dopey gargoyle: "Oh, you're finished?"
Me, staring at the screen, befuddled: "Uh, no. Just overthinking this question."
Attendant, softening her voice: "Oh, are you stuck? You need help, darlin'?"
Me: "Who the fuck would answer 'No' to this question? I don't like doing stuff I don't wanna do."
Attendant, laughing: "Oh, don't I know, darlin'!"

Then she slaps a sticker on my shirt (because apparently I voted today or accomplished something equally insurmountable) and takes way too long rubbing it in an exaggerated circle to make it stick. My wife, upon hearing this story later, was amused; my nipple, at the time, was not.

Then the video conference with the nurse...

Nurse: "So, you noted that work sometimes stresses you out. Something going on at work? Can you tell me about it?"
Me, confused: "Oh, uh... I mean, it's work. I don't own the capital. It's s'posed to be stressful."

She also said that whey protein powder can contain an excess of triglycerides, and that I should look into it. We were both ready for the shit to be over with at that point, most likely, but remained cordial and such.

...

Also, I changed my clothes after finishing up tonight's session, and saw what looked like a rear delt on the back of my shoulder. I sheepishly giggled at it ("Ah-hyuck!"), and waved at it too, but it did not wave back.

I wonder if it'll be there tomorrow.

[MarkKO]

The more of your log I read the more I think I would do very badly in your neck of the woods. I don't envy you.

I also agree with your sentiment that screens are far from the root of all these perceived ills plaguing the younger generation. I suspect that every generation has looked on their successors, found them wanting for some reason and blamed some convenient recent innovation.

[Hardartery]

It's got to be harder where stupid little conventions like that are held in such high regard. There really is no purpose to them beyond giving certain individuals arbitrary superiority based on nothing they have actually achieved or do but simply because of where they happen to be sitting or standing.

Makes it difficult to navigate social situations at times, especially when I'm expected to adhere to -- and uphold -- seemingly arbitrary norms that keep the fabric of daily life (in my environment) intact. I have to keep my mouth shut a lot (which is hard to do sometimes), even in situations where I'm expected to socialize and have a lot in common, belief-wise, with those around me (same God(s), same material desires, same appearances).

Though my kid is quite gregarious, I do not envy his youth. There's experiences I'm glad I only had to endure just once.

From the way a pretty sane doctor described it to me once was that there's suspicion that ADHD is just a different way your brain works where you learn much more by observation and experimenting at the cost of being able to sit down for extended periods of time and doing anything in a regimented setting (like public school).

Pretty much how I look at it.

As much as I hear people go on about the ills of screen time and social media, I think the root of attention "deficiencies" preceded all of that and lies elsewhere. Sometimes I wonder if many of us were understimulated before the so-called excess of entertainment.

On another note though, it's way over-diagnosed. A lot of kids in school are just not interested in sitting for 7 hours a day in a classroom and that's just part of being a kid.

Sadly, I've come to suspect the same goes for adults. I've a few employees over the years who could hardly sit still long enough to look productive to sets of eyes that cared about appearances in such a way. I get outed as a poor disciplinarian because I can empathize with these folks; it was a hard transition for me when I left a manual labor job for another office job. Apparently I get up to refill my water bottle with such frequency that it warrants snide comments, from time to time.

I probably have ADHD. All of my half-started projects are monuments to that. It doesn't disturb me; it is just a natural variation, which I am sure was an adaptive trait in our evolutionary past.

It will be interesting to see what the fallout is from drugging a whole generation of kids because they allegedly have this "disorder."

Ditto, to all of this. As much as living with the boy and his quirks can frustrate me at times, it's also led to some realizations. I suppose that, as long as I'm still capable of earning income, I'm not inclined to seek a legitimate diagnosis for myself (or medicate to appear "normal"). The kid seems to dislike his own medication as it is.

I did not suffer from the evils of screens in my youth. We were working class out in the sticks, the only screen was the TV that got 4 or 5 channels by means of an antenna. They have highspeed internet now, but I don't think cable ever became available where my parent's house is. we could see the substation where the cable came from and got sent into the town, but they were on the wrong wide of it to get connected and the cable company wanted them to pay to run the cable their direction to get it. I ran around outside or read books. I also had ADD, but it was undiagnosed - probably because U was never hyper-active. The meds suck, and largely never worked for me. I don't know what they prescribed your boy, but I'm on his side about meds.
I have in recent years part of my issues with the meds. It took a VERY substantial dose of Adderall (which is just amphetamine if you buy the generic) to do anything at all to me, well over 100mg a day. That isn't because of body mass, it's because of a genetic polymorphism that prevents me from processing it correctly along with about 40% of all medicines. I don't get wired, I get really tired from stimulants. I am also immune to any of the tranquilizers that they use for psych patients, so if I go berzerk at some point it's gonna get ugly. Nobody considers that stuff when prescribing, it may not be doing to your son what they intend for it to do at all. Just saying. They also know next to nothing about this stuff. The gene testing was a prescription thing through a psychiatrist, they don't test without a referral but it was a pretty cool set of results. The short of this ramble is, the doctors are not well educated on this stuff and they realy don't know what these types of meds actually do to everyone, they are relying on some fairly limited datasets with giant holes in the information and the screen thing is just bullshit.

[Renascent]

I have in recent years part of my issues with the meds. It took a VERY substantial dose of Adderall (which is just amphetamine if you buy the generic) to do anything at all to me, well over 100mg a day. That isn't because of body mass, it's because of a genetic polymorphism that prevents me from processing it correctly along with about 40% of all medicines. I don't get wired, I get really tired from stimulants. I am also immune to any of the tranquilizers that they use for psych patients, so if I go berzerk at some point it's gonna get ugly. Nobody considers that stuff when prescribing, it may not be doing to your son what they intend for it to do at all. Just saying. They also know next to nothing about this stuff. The gene testing was a prescription thing through a psychiatrist, they don't test without a referral but it was a pretty cool set of results. The short of this ramble is, the doctors are not well educated on this stuff and they realy don't know what these types of meds actually do to everyone, they are relying on some fairly limited datasets with giant holes in the information and the screen thing is just bullshit.

Everything the kid's been prescribed over the years has indeed been some variation of amphetamine, and all of the results have been far from ideal.

[Renascent]

(8.23.2022)
Low-Bar Squat
135 x 10
225 x 10
275 x 6 x 5



Standing Cable Leg Extensions
40 x 15 x 4
50 x 12 x 3

Kneeling Cable Crunch
60 x 20 x 2
70 x 15 x 2

Kneeling Face Pulls
60 x 10 x 4

Not happy with how any of this played out. Schedule was way off, had to cut the work sets short on squats, and after two and a half weeks away from them, I'll have to work my way up again.

[Renascent]

(8.24.2022)
Snatch-Grip Deadlift
225 x 10
275 x 10
325 x 8
345 x 6
365 x 4
385 x 3
405 x 2



Good Mornings
175 x 10 x 5
185 x 7 x 3

Seated Reverse Calf Raises
60 x 35 x 5
50 x 40 x 2

Seated Cable Leg Curls
40 x 15
45 x 15
50 x 12 x 5

Standing Barbell Calf Raises
195 x 30 x 2
205 x 25 x 2

Nordic Curls
8 x 4

[MarkKO]

I don't know how interesting it would be to you, but I have never even considered pulling 400 lbs snatch grip, much less from a deficit and much, much less beltless.

I think you seriously underestimate just how much you can squat and deadlift.

[Hardartery]

I concur with @MarkKO , you are muscling that lift up. I mean, the part about underestimating yourself, I can't say I haven't at least considered everything esle you have going on. You are flat muscling up that weight though. You don't drive the hips through or finesse it at all, that's just a long pull with only posterior chain. I don't see hips kicking in or much quad either. I think if you find the right groove for Squat that number goes up like a rocket.

[Renascent]

I don't know how interesting it would be to you, but I have never even considered pulling 400 lbs snatch grip, much less from a deficit and much, much less beltless.

I think you seriously underestimate just how much you can squat and deadlift.

Technically, it's not a deficit. I'm putting the bar down on the safeties to avoid messing up the floor and the foundation. Last I measured, the deficit is about a quarter of an inch.

I'm anxious to take another attempt at -- or above -- the current PR weight soon, but I need to rebuild a little momentum first. And that nurse's scale said I was down to about 188 lbs, with clothes included. I need to chow up a smidgen.

I concur with @MarkKO , you are muscling that lift up. I mean, the part about underestimating yourself, I can't say I haven't at least considered everything esle you have going on. You are flat muscling up that weight though. You don't drive the hips through or finesse it at all, that's just a long pull with only posterior chain. I don't see hips kicking in or much quad either. I think if you find the right groove for Squat that number goes up like a rocket.

Yeah, I noticed that I was staying out of my quads a bit more than I'd have liked, probably because of the DOMS from the day before (and the long period of time away from lower body stuff preceding it). Was gonna finish with sissy squats last night, but it was late, and it seemed like a bad idea at the time.

I need to do some isolated glute medius/external rotator(s) work real soon, but I keep putting it off. Even outside of lifting, I've noticed a sudden lack in ranges of motion over the past few weeks, most likely from an uptick in uninterrupted sitting; all the usual telltale signs are amplified. I don't expect to fix any longstanding issues immediately, but I think my low-bar depth will improve if I can get enough passable rotation at the acetabulum.

As it is, I seem to barely break parallel on most reps with low-bar unless I prepare the night before with banded work. I suspect I can stand up just fine with 400, but my main concern is controlling the descent and hitting proper depth.

I'm also hoping for fewer training interruptions in the near future, but don't wanna hold my breath yet.

[Renascent]

(8.25.2022)
Cable Side Bends
45 x 12 x 4

Cable Pull-Aparts
30 x 10 x 3

Cable Hip Abductions
35 x 12 x 3

No time to bench. Aiming for tomorrow.

[Renascent]

(8.26.2022)
Bench Press
135 x 10
225 x 10
245 x 10
275 x 6 x 2
305 x 3 x 4
315 x 1 x 2
275 x 4
225 x 8



Low Pulley Single-Arm Cable Flyes
20 x 12 x 4

Standing Cable Leg Extensions
45 x 15 x 5

I keep forgetting to shop around for another cheap-ass ankle strap until I do these (or the hip abductor stuff), and the velcro comes undone mid-rep.

Lateral Plate Raises
20 x 15 x 2
25 x 10 x 2

Weighted Sissy Squats
25 x 12 x 4

Lying Cable Knee Raises
75 x 12 x 3
50 x 15 x 2

Couldn't get much leg drive on bench, except for brief flashes when instinct would finally kick in during a few reps that were starting to go south. Hams and calves are still fried, and I've spent the last few days plodding and shuffling about like Gumby at work. Wasn't much discernible difference between myself and many of my non-lifting co-workers who have some very pronounced skeletal pathologies.

Still holding out for a slant board at some point before the end of the year, but in the meantime I may get some kind of wedge to play around with reverse step-ups.

Rows and back work tomorrow (I hope).

[Renascent]

(8.28.2022)
Barbell Hang Rows
225 x 11 x 2 (Pronated)
225 x 11 x 2 (Supinated)
255 x 7 x 2 (Pronated)
255 x 7 x 2 (Supinated)

Weighted Neck Curls
35 x 30 x 2
40 x 20 x 2

Landmine T-Bar Rows
200 x 10 x 8

Dumbbell Pullovers
65 x 12 x 4

Overhead Cable Front Raise
30 x 12 x 4

Lying Cable Knee Raises
70 x 15 x 2
50 x 18 x 2

[hector]

(1) your Overhead presses on IG are looking nice!!

(2) what are your plans with the slant board, if you get one? Do you think elevated heel squats will be good for leg anesthetics? Or knee health? Or something else altogether?

[Renascent]

(1) your Overhead presses on IG are looking nice!!

Thanks!

(2) what are your plans with the slant board, if you get one? Do you think elevated heel squats will be good for leg anesthetics? Or knee health? Or something else altogether?

Originally, I wanted it to practice a slower eccentric during calf raises. I use the edge of my stall mat for those, which is less than ideal. The tibia machine, while fun (especially with high reps), probably isn't giving the same stimulus that a slow stretch on calf raise eccentrics probably would.

The most brutal set(s) of calf raises I've ever done were on the edge of my back step outside, unweighted. They just take too long to do in the damn dark.

Also, I'd like to try some other experiments for the hell of it. Reverse step-ups, reverse lunges split squats variations, and maybe sissy squats as well. I've noticed that, while sissy squats won't "isolate" the VMO, I feel them most in the VMO and rectus femoris. Might even fuck around with some light Platz squats.

So, knee health, I guess?

Half of me is preoccupied with the arbitrary numbers goals that I set for the sake of novelty and motivation, and the other half is interested in maintaining (or regaining) a passable degree of mobility over the next ten or twenty years of life.

I get a little worried sometimes when I take a peek around me at the non-lifting populace and see potential futures I don't like. I like lifting heavy, but I don't think it'll cover all my bases all at once.

Brick by brick, as they say. Even the little bricks matter, I guess.

[Renascent]

(8.29.2022)
Overhead Press
155 x 10
175 x 6 x 2
185 x 5 x 4
205 x 2 x 2
210 x 1 x 2
185 x 3



Yazmin Press
185 x 7 x 4
195 x 5 x 4

Rope Pushdowns
65 x 15 x 2
75 x 12 x 2
80 x 8 x 2

Barbell Hang Shrugs
225 x 20 x 2
315 x 10 x 3

Single-Arm Overhead RTEs
25 x 10, 6, 9, 8, 8

Hadn't used this variation in a long while, so I figured I'd fuck around with it. I don't remember them being so hard the last time, but maybe it was fatigue kicking in.

Ab Wheel Rollouts
10 x 4

[Renascent]

(8.30.2022)
High-Bar Squat
135 x 10
225 x 10
275 x 6 x 2
295 x 4 x 3
315 x 3 x 4
335 x 1
345 x 1
275 x 4 x 3



Deadlift
225 x 7
315 x 7
405 x 7
455 x 4
475 x 2 x 3
405 x 4



Romanian Deadlifts
275 x 12 x 4

Seated Cable Leg Curls
45 x 15 x 2
50 x 12 x 5

Nordic Curls
8 x 4

Seated Reverse Calf Raises
60 x 35 x 8

Standing Barbell Calf Raises
205 x 25 x 4

[Renascent]

(8.31.2022)
Bench Press
135 x 10
225 x 10
255 x 7 x 2
275 x 5 x 2
295 x 3 x 2
315 x 1 x 2
320 x 1 x 2
225 x 7 x 2



Barbell Hang Rows
225 x 11 x 2 (Pronated)
225 x 11 x 2 (Supinated)
255 x 7 x 2 (Pronated)
255 x 7 x 2 (Supinated)

Finally figured out how to strap an underhand grip. Ha!

Kneeling Single-Arm Iliac Pulldowns
50 x 12 x 4

Overhead Cable Front Raise
30 x 12 x 3

Kneeling Face Pulls
55 x 12 x 4

Ab Wheel Rollouts
10 x 4