Contentious C

So you're the one?!?!?

Next week I'm taking at least Monday & Tuesday off due to moving, so no Upper/Lower split for me, maybe just the PPL section - though if my move kicks my ass, I'll probably skip that, too. So, this week has been a lot more playing around to find things that work. Today was Push and I went a lot more shoulder-centric than usual. Opened up with some rotator cuff warmups just to make sure my joints didn't want to break in half after 20 minutes, then went to barbell OHPs, which I don't do that often anymore. But I did 75 for I dunno, 3x6-8 the last time I did them and went up to 85 this time, so that's good. Then I did Arnold presses, and other than my shoulders being a bit crunchy, I really like these. I don't mind at all having my upper pec jump in on them, because I need the development there anyway. They're staying. Should've done them sooner (along with other unilateral shoulder pressing). Most of my other presses were there to take pressure off my elbows and wrists, and that went pretty well: barrel presses, coffin presses, decline BB bench (went up in weight by a good bit on this). Did a bunch of flys, but the only new twist was using the pec deck for a few sets and just squeezing one arm at a time to really focus the contraction. Problem is I can move 60+ lbs with either pec, but my arm doesn't want to play along, as the isometric hold feels like it's breaking down faster than my pecs. My other tricep work was pretty sloppy by comparison, but I was trying to go up in weight on all of them, so some form breakdown is to be expected. Plus, when I saw how shitty my 21s looked in the mirror, I stopped and did an extra proper set of them as punishment. Started doing lateral raises with the cables instead of DBs on Monday, and I think I'm probably going to stick with that, although my range of motion is crap and I don't know if that's because I'm weak or because my joints are so bad. I may have to do some butterfly raises to work on that. Finished off with some more DB lateral raises while leaning forward to get the last little bit of effort out of them, and then bus drivers to just toast the front delt.

I don't know why I keep doing it to myself, but I keep watching The Handmaid's Tale. There used to be a YouTube channel called "Every Frame a Painting" (it's still there, just unused), and this show is "Every Episode a Red Wedding". But hell, it's still just expertly done. Such a contrast between this, which went so far beyond its source material, and Westworld, which couldn't even squirt out a second good season.

Hey, more movies; I'm moving next week and it was time to start punching through at least some of the discs I just never got around to watching. Day 62 and counting of...whatever this is that you probably don't care about, Blu-Ray Backlog Edition... Hot Garbage Romy & Michele's High School Reunion - I like the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but getting there is such a fucking chore with this. It's just...eh, it's amateur hour everywhere except the cast. It looks bad, the script is not funny, it feels more like a TV movie than an actual release. Another strong case of "Soundtrack is better than the film". Chaos Walking - This is something new on Hulu with a bunch of familiar, famous faces. And hey, look, it's a "futuristic action-adventure". Hm, that's odd, because it sure seems like the past - when it comes to women, anyway - was often rapey, grim, and hopeless, and we're currently dealing with a present where those in power would like to make it more rapey, grim, and hopeless, and so what we really need right now is a "futuristic" movie where the future is rapey, grim, and hopeless, right? Barf. Totally leans on its one gimmick to get anywhere, completely stale otherwise. Pocahontas - Wow. Leave it to Disney to normalize pedophilia. Let's just take that 11-year-old girl from the story and pretend she's a woman and make it OK for her to get romanced by Mel Gibson (excellent casting choice, in retrospect). The story is ridiculous (most of these are, but this is like Secret-of-NIMH level of pulling stupid things out of their asses), the art style is poor, the songs aren't any good, and of course there's really nothing to celebrate about colonizing the New World. Oh, and I feel bad for anyone who went to this high and then saw Grandmother Willow; that's gotta be some Nightmare Fuel. Acceptable Moonrise - I can't stand Dane Clark as the protagonist for this movie, but man there is some really interesting stuff here. The director was the first guy to win the Academy Award for directing, and you can see why with some of the scenes: the Ferris Wheel bit is a real highlight, for example. It's mostly the smaller characters who steal the show, though, and make this worth seeing in addition to the direction. Otherwise, this still screams "studio" in a lot of ways, like having the cliche of the old deaf guy, among other things, and yeah, Dane Clark is, uh, not good. But I feel like there's more here that redeems it than condemns it. Night on Earth - if this had been more consistent, I think it'd go in the Awesome pile. It's well-crafted, but the problem is that the first few stories don't *quite* grab you, and then Roberto Benigni completely takes over the movie with the "Rome" section, and everything else just feels so lifeless in comparison to that segment that it's hard to feel like the other sections work. Each of the other 4 feel like the beginning or end of a separate movie that Jarmusch couldn't quite decide how to make into a full feature on its own, so he just went with this structure instead. The Rome section, on the other hand, would have made an incredible short film except for the baffling ending. Winona Ryder is pretty great in this, and I'd never seen Gena Rowlands in anything before, but it seems like Joan Allen has been doing the same act as her for years. The Age of Adaline - Ugh, goddamn narration. This would still be fairly maudlin and sappy at times even without the narration, but it would still also be *better* without the narration. So little of what gets said there helps understand anything in the film at all, and yet, here we are, another dumb voice telling us shit that we could figure out by watching, because that's what a motion PICTURE is for... anyway. Blake Lively has certainly come a long way since the Green Lantern days, and she does a pretty decent job with this. I usually like Michael Huisman, but he's probably the least compelling part of the whole movie. Even Harrison Ford, he of the 5 Facial Expressions of Doom, is better. This had to be one of Ellen Burstyn's last roles, too, if not her last, and she's just great in it. It's also weird this came out the same year as 45 Years, and this very very very briefly mines the same territory as that film, though obviously not very well. But hey, not terrible. Luca - This got me in the feels once or twice by the end, but it takes a long while in setting up effectively. The real turn of the movie is once Luca starts making some choices for himself; after that, it goes from so-so Disney fare to actually bringing the goods on some stuff. It's pretty honest and believable about how fragile friendships are at that age, and how little it takes to hurt the people you care about. The one-armed dad is kind of the best part of the movie, though, which is weird. But hey, at least it wasn't yet another fucking animal stealing the show like every other Disney movie ever. Wouldn't watch it again, but it wasn't a waste of time, either. Awesome Eyes Without a Face - This is not a movie I love. Christianne's character doesn't make a lot of sense to me, mostly from the perspective of when she does - or doesn't - go along with the mad plans of her father. From that standpoint, she's as much a victimizer as a victim for much of the film, and so there's very little catharsis in the ending (or, at least her part). But this is a movie I respect. There is some massively creepy shit here, and it's so well-executed, from the surgery bits, to the montage of rotting faces, to the totally chilling performance by Pierre Brasseur and the equally otherworldly presence of Edith Scob, who embody both ends of a somewhat ridiculous premise and make it terrifying. Someone really should have pulled Almodovar aside and told him to pull his head out of his ass rather than try to reimagine this. First Man - Maybe I'm just a rube for Damien Chazelle. I think I like this better than La La Land, though not by a lot. Ryan Gosling is pretty great in this; it's almost the polar opposite of his Blade Runner 2049 role, and he pulls this off at least as well, if not better. This will probably remind you of a few other space movies, but the film I found it drew from the most was The Tree of Life, as the portrayal of Neil Armstrong is very much like that of Father in Malick's movie. It's weird, too, that Chazelle's first two movies leaned so heavily on music and yet this has so little, but does it ever have sound: there's no shortage of tension from hearing the early NASA vehicles nearly rattle themselves to pieces on each and every launch or re-entry, both big and small. Claire Foy is also pretty great in this. Probably could have made the very bottom end of my 2010s list had I seen it in time. Three Outlaw Samurai - I really didn't care for the first 20 or so minutes of this, as it felt like a straight rip-off of Yojimbo with 60s Japan's answer to David Duchovny starring in it, but give it time, because does it ever turn in on itself hard. I feel like the attempted romance/secret bit involving Sakura and the widow is a bit forced and not handled well, but the rest of this is just...whew. It's grim and bitter and cold and unjust, and it just gets bloodier and bloodier. Initially I thought you could almost draw a through line from Kurosawa to something like Lady Snowblood with a movie like this, but even this is harder-edged than Lady Snowblood, which at least tries to be mythical and grandiose in its vision. This is just gritty and uncompromising about how little choices matter in the face of societal apathy and cowardice, and how the only sense of honor that matters is the one you hold for yourself. Pretty fucking great. Winner Winner, Food Repo Man - Ho-lee shit. What a perfect shrimp fork right in the fucking eye of the 80s this is. Great performances, crazy and fun and weird from the first scene, a masterclass in what you can do with a low budget, and something sharp to say in every scene, even if it's just a white label with blue letters that says "CORN". If you grew up in the 80s and looking back on that era still makes you want to puke, well, you weren't alone. Alex Cox held the bucket for all of us and then splashed our collective vomit on the screen. Not as good as Videodrome, but then again, what is? This would still be an easy Top 10 of the 80s pick for me.

Raiders. Doing. Raider. Things. What in the actual shit. And then THAT happens.

Nah, this is Starrcade 97.

Man, that Leatherwood draft pick is just as bad as advertised. 3rd, 4th penalty tonight? Raiders doing Raider things.

I don't think this Al Davis memorial fire at the LV stadium is really representative. It should be shaped like a Dumpster, full of tires.

I thought I might have given myself a backiotomy after that workout, but I think I just have a really shitty mattress and/or box springs. I wake up with sore ribs probably half the time, and this morning was a bad case, but went through Upper stuff today with no issues at all. Just need to get a new bed, I guess. Anyone have any recommendations on that front? I've been something of a side sleeper for a long, long time, and this bed is marginally better than my old one because I can fall asleep on my back once in a while, but I'd rather find something where I primarily (or always) fall asleep that way to avoid throwing my shitty shoulders any more out of whack.

I'm already sick of the extra Drew Brees presence as well.

Pull day yesterday was pretty good. I started with back and rear delts instead of biceps, and I can tell the difference. My biceps feel like little pathetic peas that got too little attention, and my back has the usual one-day-out twinge when I put it through the right motions. I'll probably have to amp up the bicep work on the more back-centric days, which is easy enough in concept. Today was probably the most brutal Leg day I've done in years, as I almost literally kicked my ass with a lot of glute-heavy stuff after going a bit light on that Tuesday. In honor of my comment in the NFL thread, I should call this the Shocker Tom workout. Leg curls (usually start off with these just to warm up) Landmine single-leg sprinter lunges (my balance continues to be the fucking worst) Squats (went up in weight) RDLs (went up in weight) Weighted hip thrusts Sumo deads (went up in weight) Barbell hack squats (hadn't done these in 18+ months, oh how I missed them) Nordic curls like I've been doing Calf raises (hey, remember working calves?) Leg extension I had nothing left for abs, but it didn't matter, because all the pulling & squatting lit my pathetic abs up something fierce anyway. By the time I finished hack squats, I was basically crawling around on the gym floor like an asshole, and people were looking at me like I broke something. If I could have formed a complete sentence, I would have told them, "Nah, I'll be fine in 5 minutes, and besides, it's not my fault my workouts make yours look like shit." Taking my clothes off in the locker room was an adventure, too: my shirt had to weight about 3x what it normally does from how much sweat it absorbed. I need to do this to myself more often, because I am a sick, sick bastard.

Given how his opponents feel about it, "Shocker Tom" might be a highly apt nickname.

That's what the Applebee's food is for.

Push day continues to be my favorite. I basically did this workout in something close to entirety, with a few additional things thrown in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtmffaT4wc I tossed in seated landmine presses between the cable fly and the rest-pause incline DB, and I compunded the incline DBs with coffin presses. Shoulders were even crazier, as I put the front raises towards the end and did some single-arm DB OHPs to start off that Set of Misery and an extra light-weight lateral raise in there after the heavy DB partial to just nuke the muscle. My right shoulder was just fucking shot at the end of doing 5(!) exercises in a row, but they feel pretty good now (roughly 75-90 minutes later). For triceps, I compounded French presses and lying extensions like I had in the past, then I did 3 sets of 21s at 40 lbs (these were disgusting and I will keep doing them), and then I decided to be a real dick to myself and just finish the whole thing off with 3 sets of close-grip bench (only 65 lbs, but at that point, that's all I had in me anyway). Abs were just as masochistic. Decided to do decline situps for once, which I typically don't like since your hip flexors jump in so easily. So, I just cut the ROM and curled my torso up, forcing all of it into one disgusting contraction for my abs. Went back and forth between those and the leg raise station until my abs just said, "Nah, we're good". Something like 15/11/7/1 for the declines and 10/8/7/5 on the leg raises. Only big annoyance was Incline DB presses, which went STRAIGHT down my left radius and into my elbow. It was like I had 5x as much weight on that arm because it was so focused right in that spot. I have a family history of carpal tunnel syndrome, and I'm definitely suspecting that this is how mine may be manifesting itself, what with all my other grip-related issues. I think I'm going to have to switch to the barbell, or I'm going to see if I can use the Jammer press machine instead at an incline.

Turned into almost *four and a half hours* of wait time. So much for going to work yesterday (not that I needed to). The real PITA of it was once I spoke to someone, she had such a nice old-lady voice I couldn't even be mean to her. Hell, when she said, "Sorry for any inconvenience the delay may have caused," I said, "No problem." NO PROBLEM! Yes it was a fucking problem, what is wrong with meaghghdkdgndhghgdhg.

Oh, this is definitely a "bad stuff" post. I think Washington Gas is in the running with Comcast for Worst Corporation in the U.S. I've been on hold with their CSR line for over 2 hours today, closing in on 3. There are reports online of FIVE-hour waits or more. But I'm trying to stop my service, since I'm moving somewhere where I no longer need my own account. And since I can't do that through the website, due to some meter problem it claims I have, I have no choice but to sit on hold. These sorts of things have apparently been going on since before the pandemic, too. I know a few of you are in the general area; any tips on how to get them to actually do their fucking jobs? Call a TV reporter, BBB, Chamber of Commerce, anything?

Last couple of workouts have been a mixed bag. I think I'll have to structure Upper day the way I did Lower day today: pick a muscle and shred that before moving on to something that targets another muscle. The only exception there would be biceps/triceps, which superset well together. It's probably the only way to feel like I pushed something as far as it will go in that workout. Didn't do deadlifts either day, though I did glute-focused sumo deads today. Those went into my lower back a little, but not a lot; I probably needed the work regardless, and I count lower back as lower-body work anyhow. Will have to put the regular deads on Pull day just so they get done this week. Can't do the hangs for working my grip, either, as my shoulders fucking hate me for it. My right one is usually worse, but after doing 30+ seconds of a hang yesterday, my left arm felt like Chewbacca was pissed at me. Farmer carry is going to have to get the job done on Upper/Pull days, too. Also can't do single-leg hip thrusts, as I'd forgotten what my attempts at those during the Home Workout Days were like: for whatever reason, the muscles in my hip contract so hard that, for the next few days, my hips will randomly lock up and cramp so severely that it threatens to throw me to the ground. Some of the worst pain I've ever felt, too. Don't get that with barbell hip thrusts, but damn if it isn't annoying as fuck to get into position for those - maybe the only drawback there is to being tall. I wonder if I can just do them on the Smith machine to make the set-up easier.

What exactly did you do to your back, anyway?

Feel free to explain why I'm an idiot.

Hey, I watch movies! Lots of movies are sort of trash. Day 51 (and counting) of this crap I'm doing, Evil F#%$ing Mouse Edition... Hot Garbage Runaway && - This is something I never sat down to watch before, but I'm counting it as a rewatch instead of a new one because it was one of my father's favorite movies when I was growing up. When I saw who directed it, I found myself shouting, "Another DAMN MICHAEL CHRICHTON MOVIE!" like Mr. Szasz telling the story about Penguin's straight flush in Arkham City. There is literally one really good scene in this, which is the bomb removal bit, which actually seems believable and Selleck and Rhodes are both great. Annnnnnd, the rest is stupid bullshit. The one other thing it gets right, though, is how robots & technology affect the world: nothing actually changes, we're just annoyed, frustrated, and bored - but with robots. Green Lantern && - I (ugh) paid money to see this in the theaters and kind of liked it at the time, but soured on it the more I thought about it. So, I rewatched to see if it were as bad as I remembered. ... Yup, this is a big piece of shit. I feel bad for Reynolds & Mark Strong, who are both really, really good and would have made for an interesting set of films once Sinestro turns, had this one not been so godawful. But damn, just nothing else about this works. Maybe Hector Hammond a little, but they fuck up Amanda Waller (though I guess she's "Dr. Waller" so maybe it's a sister or cousin?), they fuck up Parallax, and Blake Lively probably should have won a Razzie for this. Did she? I don't have the energy to find out. The CGI is mostly terrible, the script is awful, but hey, Taika Waititi! He'll save i---no, it's a huge pile of shit. Bad Teacher - Bad Santa is one of those utterly crass movies you think is going to just be dumb and offensive and then ends up winning you over. This...is not that. Other than Justin Timberlake acting like the biggest dipshit in the history of film, it's more annoying and unlikable than anything else. There are a few good jokes, but they're so sparse that it's a waste of even a 90-minute runtime. But hey, Muppet Baby appearances by Kathryn Newton and Kaitlyn Dever, and they had to start somewhere... Acceptable The Courier - This is based on the story of a British spy who allegedly helped the Cuban Missile Crisis from becoming the first film in the Mad Max saga. Cumberbatch is pretty solid in it, and Rachel Brosnahan has one scene in it where she just RIPS him something fierce that I absolutely loved, but even though this is good, it's stuff you've seen before by and large. Still, if you go in for Cold War stuff, it's worth a look. Pickpocket - Maybe not my best choice for a first Robert Bresson film, but it's less than 80 minutes, so I gave it a shot. I didn't care much for it, but it's certainly as "economical" as Criterion claimed his films would be. Almost too much so, really, as you don't even get a chance to hear character's names more than 2 or 3 times for the whole film, not that there are many of them. Plus, it's got the whole "telling instead of showing" thing that I find tedious, but, hey, it was the 50s. There are some fairly fun bits where you're playing 'chase the stolen goods' with the camera, and those are well-done, but the thrust of the film left me cold, and its structure did no favors, either. I could see this as a big influence on others, though: it made me think I was watching a more spiritual version of Following, sometimes. The Vast of Night - There's some fun period work in this that keeps it moving, but once it has to actually get to the point of following through on what it has set up, I don't think this works well at all, and then it's just over. There are some genuine moments of creepy tension in the middle third, but a part of me thinks it might have been better to end on a less certain note, where no one is really sure what's actually happened, including the audience. It's also a little weird that the opening sequences attempt so much hotshot camera work when so much of the film afterwards is two people sitting and listening to something. Pick a tone and stick with it, people. The Burning Plain - This was awfully, awfully close to the Hot Garbage pile, except this has some really solid acting from Kim Basinger, Charlize Theron, and Jennifer Lawrence in what was one of her earliest roles. Theron is the central focus of the movie, but the others are typically better than she is, which is a letdown. What's also a letdown is the script, the directing, and the overwrought self-seriousness of this mediocre movie. The climax of the movie is easy to spot a mile away, and the resolution of everything doesn't genuinely feel earned, so really the only reason to watch this is for the performances. Frozen - Why did people make such a big deal about this movie? This is as dead-average as average gets. The music is more annoying than anything else, none of the characters besides Anna have a brain in their heads, and the most likable character is the fucking reindeer. I feel bad for Kristen Bell's back after she had to carry this to watchability. Maybe the worst Pixar movie I've seen. Wreck-It Ralph - now THIS is more like it. Granted, the middle of the movie is pretty boring, as the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes do all the heavy lifting, but this at least has an interesting premise and followed through on it pretty well. For whatever stupid reason, I didn't see the big reveal coming, so I let out a hearty, "YOU SONOFABITCH!" when that happened, but I guess that just means I was invested. Probably needed more Jane Lynch, though, because she was great (big surprise there). Awesome Attack the Block - I was going to put this into the Acceptable category for probably the first hour, because it really bugged the shit out of me that these asshole kids who mugged someone were going to come out as some kind of heroes, but it was just too funny at too many of the right moments to put it anywhere else. I pretty much flipped it to Awesome once Probs said, "No one's gonna call you Mayhem if you keep acting like such a fucking pussy!" Wouldn't have made my Top 100 list, but it's definitely something I'd show to people if they hadn't seen it before. And I'd just set it up as, "Finn, Firestorm, and Doctor Who Kill Some Big Gorilla-Wolf Motherfuckers". Mulan (1998) - This is also a significantly fucking better movie than Frozen, aside from it being vaguely racist and having a lot of unfortunate dialogue about Mulan pretending to be a man. But the songs work, the characters work, the story works, and it pays off well. I'm not the biggest fan of Coked-Out Robin Williams roles, so this is probably the last "great" non-Pixar Disney movie, and their best since The Little Mermaid. Don't know that I'd go to all that much trouble to rewatch it, but I'm definitely ready to hate-watch the live-action one, now. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - I said a bit on it in the Spoiler thread and won't say too much else here, except the fights are really, really good, and this felt like an easy Top 10 MCU entry to me. But it's probably one of those movies that's either going to hit you right or leave you cold, and you'll think it's mediocre. I guess it hit me right. Pretty much the opposite of Black Widow, where I had expectations and they weren't really met; went into this with none and was very pleasantly surprised.

Pull day is one step - or maybe two - closer to being less like garbage. I skipped deadlifts altogether, and that's probably a good thing - it would have wrecked me to the point of non-functionality. This was more of a back-centric workout, so naturally I started it with biceps. I think I ascribe to the notion that it's actually better to do isolation first when that isolation muscle has a chance of jumping in when it's not supposed to, so pre-exhausting my biceps kept back things in my back as intended. I was able to feel a lot more "squeezing my shoulder blades" to initiate Pendlays, for example. I committed biceps murder - biceppuku? - by compounding incline DB curls with iso alternating DB curls, then 3 sets of single-arm cable curls with my arm starting behind my body, then 3 sets of curls with the rope (effectively starting as a hammer then trying to pull it apart at the top), then a tri-fucta set of reverse grip curls/narrow grip curls/wide drag curls with the EZ bar. Biceps = toast. Then I went to Pendlays, then I did Meadows rows, which are basically just single-arm landmine rows with your elbow as far back in your stance as it needs to be to light up your lats and mid-back (both during the rep and on the stretch). These were a lot more intense than I expected, and I'm definitely keeping them in the rotation from now on. Pull-ups remain garbage. The assisted pull-up is probably getting in the way now, if anything, as I'm hunching forward too much too early. I think I'm going to either do inverted rows in a squat rack, or I'm going to do them with the gymnastics rings set-up. It should be a lot easier to keep my chest more open with those until I get some real vertical pulling strength. Pullovers were also still a mix of good and garbage, as my shoulders still hate it, and doing 2 DBs instead of 1 didn't improve things. I think what I'm going to have to do is drag a bench over to the cable machine and do these with the cable EZ bar - probably the only good way I can get my arms to travel back safely and consistently on each rep without doing more damage to my joints.

I don't know, I fucking loved this. The most *fun* I've had since Ragnarok - because Infinity War was better but a massive downer. I suppose if Awkwafina isn't your cup of tea - and she isn't always mine - this might strike you wrong, because she's clearly just a character named "Katy" doing Awkwafina things, but I thought she was good. Also a breath of fresh air not to force a romantic subplot and to see a woman who plays an important role in one of these movies who keeps her butt the same size. Fight choreography and set pieces were generally great. Tony Leung was great, especially in the first hour. The two big callback cameos were both on point. I think I'd have to see it a few more times to see if it cracks my top 5 (IW/Ragnarok/Cap2/GOTG/Cap1), but it *could*. BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG FUCK YOU VIBES to the goddamn Mouse for putting the Eagles on the soundtrack, though. Seriously, fuck those guys, they don't need anyone else's money. Also, the two big memes from these are *definitely* going to be 1) "Or..." or... 2) it'll be Tony Leung looking back over his shoulder in the armbar at things that are not his future wife or son.

Another good Push day for me. Thursdays are quickly becoming my favorite day - good dead-hamster feeling in the shoulders, tris, and chest. Could barely lift the weights to re-rack them after my shoulder giant sets. Went up in weight on nearly everything from last week. Still really struggling with DB presses, mostly due to my wrists and my grip. Can't really go up in weight there at all, so I've been stuck doing 30-35 and more reps, or heaving up 40-45 and fighting through 6-8 reps. I have ganglion cysts in both wrists, so any kind of backwards pressure for any length of time becomes rather un-fun (one reason I don't do push-ups if I can avoid them), but I also just don't feel strong enough to hold the DBs in a neutral enough position for long enough, either. Something will have to improve, or I may need to do more forearm strengthening things on Pull day - probably some hangs at the end tomorrow. Otherwise I'm finding my biggest issue is joint stability overall. I'm trying to find ways to get some pressure out of my elbows and shoulders - using more assistance and more careful reps on dips, for example - so they don't feel like garbage. Maybe I should double up my glucosamine supplement, for that matter. I should probably shorten ROM on some of the triceps stuff, too, since there's no need whatsoever to lock out on a triceps exercise.

I...didn't care much for this? Enjoyed most of the acting, enjoyed Sylvie, enjoyed the other variant Lokis, but...ehhhhhhh, I can just do without the goalpost-moving of what this is supposed to set up. I wish it had been more self-contained, ultimately. I think one could argue a good reason we didn't see - shouldn't have seen - Mephisto in that situation is *because* it would be exactly the same thing. This was my big problem. If he were always this much of a goof, how did he end up winning? And if he were once significantly more dangerous, but then spent all this time alone and went this nuts, to the point of being feeble, why wouldn't every other Kang end up the same way? Either way, it didn't work for me. I get the whole "If the crazy one is this bad, the other variants are truly dangerous" idea, but this didn't execute well.

I just turned 42, so, like I said, big baby. But I'm also a type 1 diabetic, and that complicates a lot of what I do. I think it was mostly the lack of good sleep the prior two nights. I'm not feeling particularly leg-sore from yesterday, and I usually use that as a gauge of how things went. But I also know I only went at about 60-70% yesterday due to being tired, and leg/lower days are ones where I have to absolutely commit self-murder to feel like it goes somewhere. I've also only been back in the gym for 5-6 weeks now; I'm probably still firmly in the neurological adaptation phase and likely will be for about another month.