Lemur Journal!

[NewBlood]

Likely strength and endurance but mobility is very important. I think by getting my hips mobilized, it allowed something in that area to get "unstuck" and for my lower back to finally relax...which enabled it to get back to strength training without pain.

Interesting! ever since i started climbing, I haven't had a single occurrence of the mysterious undiagnosed hip pain that had been bothering me for years. I attribute it to the shear variety of movements at all angles that I do while climbing. At some point something got loosened and/or strengthened that hadn't before when I was doing more repetitive stuff and generally moving a lot less. At least that's my theory.

[macg]

For me the calves are another source of trouble. When they get tight, the ankle restriction goes all the way up my chain, even into the shoulders.

Have any advice to fix problems with calves? I've tried various stretches, ice, heat, resting, not resting, seems like I've tried everything, yet still they seem to hurt every day.

[Scott 2]

Have any advice to fix problems with calves?

Low or zero rise shoes
Rolling the feet on a lacrosse ball
Calf raises on a rounded block, that allows full contraction
Stretching both in the bent knee and straight leg positions
Single leg deadlifts, with a little height under the toe
Box step ups with opposite leg knee lift
Yoga class


That's all the stuff I'm doing, in order of what I think helps. It's a problem area for me and gets a lot of attention. I spent months in physical therapy for my feet and ankles.

[delay]

Have any advice to fix problems with calves?

Perhaps my experience is useful. Changing shoes solved my calf problems. I had shoes that compensate for over or under pronation (don't remember which) and switched to flat shoes. Sometimes called "barefoot shoes" although do they have a sole.

[macg]

Low or zero rise shoes
Rolling the feet on a lacrosse ball
Calf raises on a rounded block, that allows full contraction
Stretching both in the bent knee and straight leg positions
Single leg deadlifts, with a little height under the toe
Box step ups with opposite leg knee lift
Yoga class


That's all the stuff I'm doing, in order of what I think helps. It's a problem area for me and gets a lot of attention. I spent months in physical therapy for my feet and ankles.

Great thanks. I have Xero shoes and do the stretching, but will have to try the rest.

Perhaps my experience is useful. Changing shoes solved my calf problems. I had shoes that compensate for over or under pronation (don't remember which) and switched to flat shoes. Sometimes called "barefoot shoes" although do they have a sole.

I switched to "barefoot" shoes maybe 6 months ago, and it did help a lot. But I still have lagging pain. It doesn't stop me from doing anything, it's just almost always there.

Thanks all, I will keep working on it! Perhaps break down and go to a physical therapist about it...

[Lemur]

April 1, 2025

Net-worth:
$1.112m

Finances: Wealth up again despite markets generally being down. Mostly because we contributed to investments in the 5 figure range last month.

Spending/SWR: Last month spending was $2468.02. 2.66% SWR when annualized.

Health/Fitness: All-around doing great. I am up to 230lbs for 8 reps on the trap-bar. Mobility and flexibility continues to improve. I can almost bend down and touch my toes from a standing position. I can't remember the last time in my life I was able to do that. That is a goal of mine. I'm slowly getting there. Flexibility takes quite a while to rebuild. I can now almost do the full cobra prose. I've come a long way from being injured and hunched over.

Learning / Reading: Didn't really get a chance to dig into some material I've wanted to. Life has gotten so busy lately between my job / family. I did re-learn how to play the Yugioh card game only because my son is absolutely obsessed with it right now. My OG zombie deck from 1996 wrecked whatever he had lol.

Job: You've seen the news I'm sure. U.S. Federal employees are being let go left and right (both legally and illegally). Most agencies that are not being targeted directly have to meet reduction in force requirements at some point this year. So every week is a new email or new policy that is created merely to provide incentives for people to retire/quit or make conditions miserable for people to quit. For example, I can no longer work from home full-time. I had a good run and that is over...I did get something of a compromise to work from home 2x a week. A temporary exemption for a "special project" but still this blows hard as my commute is ~60 miles one way in the DMV. Bossman believes if we hang out long enough, get through the initial chaos, we can slowly start getting some benefits back end of year. idk why or how he believes that but I think that is too optimisic. Likely he just doesn't wanna cause panic and have a flood of his team leaving.

In any case, I'm not leaving yet despite having the financial ability to. For several reasons. Reason 1 - I get paid really well to do what I do. And I enjoy my job actually. Come to think of it...I think this might be peak earnings for me. I'm too specialized and niche. Reason 2 - In some weird twist of identity connection, I want them to fire me. As the protagonist of the Wolf on Wall Street said - "I'm not fucking leaving!" Reason 3 - I still like the structure that my job gives me especially with what is going on family wise.

I'm simply not ready to venture into the world of early retirement just yet. Maybe I will be one day. I don't suffer from any sort of existential crises - mostly because I've purposes at this time.

Other: La familia...oh boy where do I start here (ignoring my younger brothers crap for a change). I don't think I've mentioned my Father much in my journal before. Mostly because our relationship is pretty neutral. Nothing good nor too bad to share. My father is an interesting character...he grew up in a catholic boarding home for troubled kids. That is where the "bad" kids got put back in those days like Babe Ruth. I do not think the silent generation had much patience for people with mental disabilities I suppose. My Dad has some learning disabilities (can barely read? or at least pretends to read...math is a no go) and likely has some form of autism that he had never gotten diagnosed with. My grandfather really only recognized these issues later in life. My parents are long divorced because my mother could only put up with so much of that. My father is barely functional by himself as he was simply never good, nor cared, about managing his health. He has lost toes for instance due to uncontrolled diabetes. Eyesight is poor too. He has both escalating heart and kidney issues as I type.

When my parents divorced, my Dad moved in with my grandfather so my grandfather could help manage my Dad. With my grandfather now passed away, the burden has now been transferred to my aunts (short-term) and my sister and I (long-term). He has had 2 ER visits in the past month due to uncontrolled blood sugar. My Dad is now facing homelessness due to 560 credit, no savings whatsoever, no financial sense. Also doesn't help that he can't drive and just broke his left arm after passing out.

We did not realize how much my grandfather was subsidizing him financially (and actively watching his health)...he paid no rent at all and while my grandfather lived extremely frugally, he just gave my Dad money for whatever. Food, gas, pills, you name it. My Dad asked and got whatever he wanted.

In any case, he obviously isn't going to go homeless due to filial duty but we won't be subsidizing him like my grandfather. My sister and I are dividing up responsibilities ...my sister being a nurse will manage health needs and I will manage the financial ones. My other siblings have no responsibilities here because they're pretty much useless anyway and can barely adult themselves due to immaturity. My Sister and I were always the "responsible" ones out of the 5. When my grandfather's house is sold, supposedly my Dad will have around $80-$100k in a trust fund that I will be managing. My dad can't manage the money himself because he has no financial sense whatsoever and he might be showing some signs of dementia already. So I just have to figure out how to make social security plus this trust fund last the rest of his life...which morbidly I feel like he doesn't have much longer. Maybe 5 years tops with 10 years being super generous. I should plan as if he could linger though.

Also learning how to navigate social services, suddenly, is a different beast. But I work for the government. Dealing with bureaucracy is my specialty.

[delay]

Thanks for your journal update!

Bossman believes if we hang out long enough, get through the initial chaos, we can slowly start getting some benefits back end of year.

That would be very usual. When a reduction target is achieved the animating force behind the restrictions goes away. People will learn which parts of the rules are really enforced and why, and relax about the other rules.

My dad can't manage the money himself because he has no financial sense whatsoever and he might be showing some signs of dementia already.

That sounds like a difficult situation. Good luck!

[Lemur]

@Delay

Yeah my situation is pretty unique given my Dad's unique characteristics but I also wouldn't be the first EREmite to detail out aging, bad health, or financially inept parental situations and how they navigate those. Over the years, I've noticed common themes of exhaustion and regret so...treading carefully I suppose.

Right now we're drafting up documments so that I can officially become my Dads financial power of attorney while my Sister becomes the health power of attorney. Basically my Dad's sisters want to get the trust fund setup and let us takeover from there. They've been a great help. I basically already manage most of his bills now but getting the POA officially grants me a little bit more authority. Especially in cases where he will eventually be unable to handle anything at all.

There has already been a lot of crazy stories just in the past few weeks. On one occassion I was taking my Dad to an appointment and he nearly passed out on the way there...I had to get him to quickly eat some candy because his blood sugar got too low. On another occasion, he became disoriented and had an accident and had to cancel an appointment due to that. Other days he seems mostly fine. He got extremely angry when we tried to switch his phone carrier to something cheaper to lower his bills. So we had to temporarily retreat from that conversation. Stuff like that.

Growing up my relationship with my Father was quite volatile. With my other siblings, the same. I probably had one conversation with my Dad in my 20s. So on one hand...despite the lack of a normal Father/Son relationship, you tend to care deeply for someone who you're actively caring for and who clearly needs the help. On the other hand, it feels like a giant burden and there is some feelings of guilt when you start thinking about the fact that everything would just be easier if nature took its course. Its pretty messed up. My Grandfather dealt with similiar feelings while caring for my Grandmother who eventually passed away from Parkinson's disease. He cared for her in that state for 3 years or so.

My Dad is only 66. He should've had another 20 years maybe but he obviously did not play his cards right. He has a history of bad health outcomes but just recently the decline is rapid.

[Lemur]

May 2, 2025

Net-worth:
$1.110m

Finances: Made a lot of contributions as always. Some recovery since the last time the markets went down.

Spending/SWR: April was a high spending month of $2,882.45. 3.11% SWR when annualized. Increased costs included food & gas (mostly with my Dad) but also a dental bill at $89.

Health/Fitness: I am giving another shot at a bodybuilding style bulk which I started on April 16. It has been fun and its going a bit more smoother this time around . Going to run this for a total of 16 weeks. So 14 more weeks to go with aim of gaining 0.5-1lb a week. I'm a little over that mark right now (up 2.8lbs) but that is probably due to increased water/glycogen/food weight from the change in calories. I'm getting real strong in the gym (well at least comparing current me to past me, I don't think I lift anything impressive whatsoever) and I'm almost back to where I was (sans squats because I quit those) prior to lower back injury last November. Eating around 3000 calories a day.

Learning / Reading: Too work and fitness focused last month to really do anything else. The only thing I did learn was gardening wise...I transplanted all my peppers too early and every one of them died. Note to self - wait until roots grow nice and thick as to really create a dense soil seedling...

Job: Have been ridiculously busy.

Other: Not much else of interest to post. I'm juggling quite a productive and busy life between work, exercise, and juggling new responsibilities with my Dad now that I am a POA. Son is wrapping up 3rd grade. Keeping my eye on burnout because I am feeling it. Spouse and I are thinking of a vacation in summer. We haven't done a trip together in a long time. Thinking of going to Nova Scotia for 10 days or so. No particular reason other then my Sister mentioned it as somewhere she always wants to go so maybe we will all go together. I don't know yet.

[Scott 2]

I'm getting real strong in the gym

Glad to hear the back is doing better. Have you played with the RP Strength style hypertrophy training at all?

From what I can tell, the entire strategy is built around minimizing the load required. Slow negatives, deep stretch, pause at the bottom, minimizing resting in lockouts, etc.

He also takes an eye towards systemic drain. IE let's use a leg press instead of back squat, to avoid the axial loading. Reps up to 30 can work, so maybe use a set of 20 rather than stack the plates.

I'm exploring it now. I find my working weights are often 2/3 or less than prior. I'm definitely getting sore and finding a pump. I assume my peak strength will be lower, but maybe that's a feature.

[Lemur]

@Scott

This has been my deep dive lately. I've watched a lot of videos from Mike Isratel. I haven't tried any of his programs but that sounds like it makes a lot of sense.

It used to be belived that muscular growth was built through mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage. But lately what we're seeing is that metabolic stress doesn't have sufficient evidence and muscle damage is debatable (and if taken too far, one doesn't recover enough either). Good read here if interested: https://bodyrecomposition.com/training/ ... cle-growth

Intensity (weight on the bar) is an excellent proxy for mechanical tension and that appears to be the most important: progressive overload of increasing weight or reps, over-time, which causes the adaptations needed for hypertrophy.

Another really excellent paper here with recommendations at the bottom:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9302196/

This is all to say that one can find ranges of hypertrophy between 5-30 reps as long as an exercise is taken to failure or very close to failure (1 RIR-2 RIR aka 1 or 2 reps in reserve).

c) Intensity: the choice of light or heavy loads can be made depending on the characteristics of the subject, although always reaching or close to failure. It is appropriate to prescribe variations in the magnitude of the load (<60% 1RM and >60% 1RM), however higher load seem to offer greater adaptations.

From a pratical standpoint, high reps like 15 or more are really grindy and most people (if a hypothetical gun was pointed to their head) can probably push out a lot more! That is why it is much easier to target a heavier load in a 5-10 rep range. This is more efficient, imo, to target the necessary mechanical tension.

One will feel it much easier as well. The tension is felt on those really hard reps that you can barely complete. Take a heavy weight that is something like 80-85% of your max. First 4 reps no problems, and a sudden slowdown (which is literally what I deem feeling the tension) begins at rep 5...push hard for 6-7, and by rep 8 the bar is moving reallll slow and fail around 9-10.

So basically I follow Dante Trudel's mantra to "beat the logbook." For example, for the chest press I do 3 working sets of 8 (not counting warm-ups). According to my logbook, I am at 180 lbs for 8 reps on the first set, 7 reps on the second set, and 4 reps on the last set. So on my next workout, I expect to get 8 reps on the first set. On the second set, I wish to beat 7 reps and get 8. The last set is taken to failure and if I accomplish 8 or more, then I go up 5lbs the next workout. I do something like this for every muscle switching between exercises. Depending on the muscle (like shoulders and legs) I prefer higher reps with lower load as to avoid injury. For my chest, back, and arms, I like to go heavier. On any given exercise, if I stop progressing then I either de-load or just swap out the exercise for something else.

This is a long-winded way of me saying that yes, I think Mike gives good advice here:

From what I can tell, the entire strategy is built around minimizing the load required. Slow negatives, deep stretch, pause at the bottom, minimizing resting in lockouts, etc.

Because if one focuses on form, taking it slow and controlled, getting a good stretch through full ROM - then you don't have to use as much load and you can reach failure and get the mechanical tension needed for adaptations with a lighter load. Also much lower chance of injury.

I also follow the volume recommendations in the above article - I try to hit each muscle with 10-20 working sets a week through 2 or 3 full-body workouts a week.

[Scott 2]

I bought into progressive overload early on, but missed the nuance around comparing like with like. So maybe I'd add weight to my dumbbell press, then rest more in the lockout, or speed up the eccentric.

I spent a long time infatuated with Wendler's 5/3/1, which is a powerlifting style program. It encouraged the mindset. But after an inguinal hernia repair a couple years ago, I no longer want those loads. Aging joints too.

I'm finding Israetel's model corrects some of my misunderstandings. While chasing the pump and soreness might be "mistaken", they're an effective heuristic. Absence suggests something missing, either in my technique or effort. Exploring it has changed much of what I do.

It's interesting that Lyle's article starts by dismissing the pump and soreness as markers. But then he acknowledges fixing problems around technique and exercise selection, tends to correlate with a pump and soreness. IE - the factors may not be enough, but if they are silent, something's probably wrong.

Anyway, I asked sinced you're navigating joint limitations as well. Sounds like these factors are implicit in your work beating the logbook.



I find RIR tricky. I recently started logging it with every set. Trying to hit 0-1. Asking myself "could I do one more?" then going harder. It uncovered much in the tank. Predictably, I got sick. Can't take everything to 10/10. Oops.

So now I'm waving the RIR, from 3-1, over roughly six weeks. Only I'm not a good judge. So I'm using the last set on each exercise as a tracer, attempting 0 RIR. It often reveals what I thought was 3, is more like 6.

I'm hoping my calibration improves with time. Since I'm learning to increase tension independent of load, my log isn't a useful baseline. Performance is all over the place. Even my sets per week is invalidated, since the "effective rep" count varies wildly.

I also suspect the RIR waving needs to vary by exercise. Like a triceps pushdown could start at 2 and progress to 0 RIR. But maybe squats should never go beyond 2 RIR. The systemic withdrawal is too demanding.

Time will tell if these ideas pay off. I'm having fun doing something new. Which is kinda the best part.

[Lemur]

Wendler's 5/3/1 was the program I was on last year. I ran that one for several months. It's a great program.

Regarding RIR waving - agreed. There are certain lifts, like machines & isolations, where its easy to find where the limit is - you simply can't push it anymore. And they won't drive a large CNS / system fatigue. But the big compound movers, I'm almost certain I have more in the tank but I usually stop just short of failure (maybe 1-2 RIR) as to avoid injury. I think that tradeoff and potentially "leaving gains on the table" is worth it in the long-run.

My recent foray into bodybuilding style bulk has made things fun again I'm hitting PRs every week but this week I am taking a deload. Little aches and pains are starting to creep up again and then it has dawned on me I haven't taken a real break off lifting in quite a few weeks. Maybe more than 8 at this point. Regardless, I learned the hard way last time to not push through this. Time to rest.

Side note on investments:

VTI is up 0.10% YTD
VXUS is up 11.84% YTD.

For once, looks like my international etf has had some use. I've gotten used to see barely any gains on that one over the years. VGK (Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF) is up 17.61% ytd. I suppose Germany has taken some of the gains with all the tariff chaos.

I've also just recently started using AI at work. Last time I used ChatGpt was several months ago and I did not get much out of it. This time around...man its basically building my scripts for me. I just describe the problem I am having with the chat, paste the code, ask ChatGpt to "fix it", and most of the time it is able to hand me back code that works. Sometimes I don't even give it code, I just describe the problem in detail, give it some sample observations and give the chat also a sample output I'm looking for and this AI will build out a whole script. It is crazy good.

I've also used ChatGPT to practice Tagalog and also just generally have back and forth conversations. I'm seen Redditors use it for emotional therapy - they describe it has being particularly useful because the AI is non-judgemental.

[ertyu]

Rip, soon insurance will stop paying for shrinks, to the chatbot with you peon

[Lemur]

June 1, 2025

Net-worth:
$1.15m (up since last month)

Spending/SWR: $2,353.99 or 2.46% SWR when annualized. This is one of our lower spending months and also net-worth is at all time high . If you're wondering why I track based on a $2,500 spend cap here is why: Rent (including utilities) is $1,200 a month / $14,400 a year. I put $600 in our collective expense budget account every paycheck so that comes out to $15,600 a year. Sometimes that account is in a surplus (maybe a few hundred that hasn't been spent yet) but that is fine because I get the random bill that I pay off for 6 months or a year ahead like car registrations, cell phone, car insurance, etc or enough savings can even cover short-trips and pricey food. With that arithmetic that means our spending is capped annually at $30,000 a year or $10,000 a person. That is a 2.61% SWR based on a current investments. Theoretically if the cap stayed, and was never raised, we would slowly get more efficient with these funds due to inflation (or at least until a point was reached where we would have to make really creative decisions to stay under).

Health/Fitness: 7 weeks is good enough for a bulk. I added 5 pounds and it appears to be successful. I definitely grew a little and didn't put on too much fat. I was gonna go 16 weeks but decided to shift gears and get lean again for a planned vacation at the end of July.

Learning / Reading: Am reading "The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy" by Stephanie Kelton. I read a bunch of books from the Austrian School of Economics from Hayek and Mises some 5+ years ago so this will be a school of economics that is on the opposite end of the spectrum of what I've read before. By that I mean a quick Google search shows that these are opposing schools that debate one another. Should be interesting as the subject is quite new to me and I'm not at all fresh on economics. It has been a while since I've read anything related to the subject.

I am on a Star Wars binge ...finished up Andor, watched Rogue One, all Stars Wars movies, and picked up some fiction: "Thrawn" is a canon novel written by Timothy Zahn as the first installment of Star Wars: The Imperial Trilogy. It has been a while since I've also read any fiction either so going to dip my toes and see where it goes.

Lastly, I watched an interesting YouTube video where the creator speculates why people today have trouble focusing. https://youtu.be/6QltxZ-vPMc?si=EJ8gMfB_mpTVOI-n . It motivated me enough to once again drop my Reddit account which sucks up a lot of my time because I get trapped in the scroll scroll scroll algorithm. It was interesting to learn in that video that audiences back in the 1800s for instance would listen to these hour longs debates (for instance: https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyc ... ebates.htm). I think a lot of people would struggle to hold there attention for those lengths (including myself)...but that used to be commonplace? So I've had my own personal crusade of trying to get back to long-term formats including writing, reading, watching, etc. I too struggle sometimes to read a book for longer than 15 minutes without getting distracted and bouncing off to something else. So I'm trying* to build my endurance back up again. I used to read books for hours on end with only small breaks.

Job: Not as busy as last month but was nice to wrap up another project I've been working on for a while. Got assigned some projects again. The work never ends and my work is stil complex enough to where AI can't take it yet. I appear to have survived the DOGE purge.

Other: My Grandfather's house sold which is good news for us because my Dad will get his money set up in the trust in the next month or 2 so we can manage him. His health is still not great though. My son is finishing up 3rd grade and my Nephew is finishing up 1st grade so the summer fun and chaos is coming. But it is also means beach days are ahead of us.

* https://youtu.be/BQ4yd2W50No?si=9Sx_gUawl5k6rd3m