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Log: Getting As Strong As When I Was 25 By The Time I'm 40


Royz

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SOME PICS OF MY VERY MODEST GRIPPER COLLECTION AND SOME HOME MADE GRIP RELATED STUFF:

My grippers In order of difficulty:

IM T, Im#1, IM#1 filed, IM#2, IM2 filed, IM#2.5, RB240, GM(148rgc), Silvis Dino hunter adjustable T-Rex, IM#3(153rgc), GHP7(155rgc), Silvis Dino hunter adjustable Megalodon.

Home made stuff:

Levering block, made of mdc and wood, mostly used for curls and wrist curls

Levering stick, made of wood

Wrist roller, made of pvc, sport tape and boat rope

Loading pin, made of wood and metal bolts, has held up to 85kg so far. i think it's good for at least 100kg.

attachicon.gif_DSC1063.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1064.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1066.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1067.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1068.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1069.jpgattachicon.gif_DSC1061.jpg

Nice!

Roy, for a loading pin I use a standard universal table stand (tafelpoot) which you can find at store here in Holland, Gamma, Praxis, etc.

They consist of a pipe (the paw) which can be screwed under the table. If you turn the pipe upside down, That part nicely prevents the weights from sliding off.

You only need to drill a hole through the pipe for a nut and bolt on which you can click a caribiner. Presto, a very sturdy loading pin. I use one for 30mm plates, there are also thicker ones for 50mm.

How far are you off from the Ghp7? and how do you compare it with the IM#3 you have? Easier? Harder? And 'sweepwise'?

Thanks for the tip on the loading pin Geralt!

To be honest I haven't really tried closing my ghp7 yet. Mostly use it for bullit holds. But setting it feels harder than the IM#3 even though the difference is only 2 lbs.

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Nice reading!

Good write up of training, thoughts and experience.

Will check in here more often!

:)

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Pffff... I'm supposed to be training tonight but I'm have beeling feeling a bit under the weather since yesterday. It would probably be a big waste of energy to go to the gym tonight. So this will be a very rare occasion of skipping a workout.

Unfortunately that will mean a very big gap between gripper sessions. We will see how grippers will go this saturday.

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PINCH PLATES

Received my pinchplates from David Horne this week!

Now I will just have to build them into a proper europinch device.

Since I'm not doing any pinching currently as it hurts my tendonitis the most I will have plenty of time to do so.

These brand new plates feel pretty slippery. Can't imagine myself pulling 80kg on them. Let alone 122.9kg!!

Hopefully they will gain a bit more texture when seasoned or this could be very bad for my ego. :-)

post-22763-0-20312800-1392197170_thumb.j

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I bet the gap in between sessions does you very well. I always notice a handsome boost in strength after stepping away from the grippers for a.bit

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I bet the gap in between sessions does you very well. I always notice a handsome boost in strength after stepping away from the grippers for a.bit

I really hope this will be the case Anthony!

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This week is turning out to be a unvoluntary deload week. I'm still not feeling well so I'm skipping another training. This absolutely sucks!

Also my left wrist started hurting yesterday out of the blue. I've had this a couple of times before. First time it took me about six weeks to figure out how to get rid of it. Couldn't even close the trainer with my left hand during that time. Nowadays it mostly just takes a couple of days of specific stretching (nerve flossing) to get rid of it. I can't do much with my lefty right now. It is some king of nerve impingement but I don't know what triggers it. Haven't been training for 6 days now so that can't be it.

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That sucks man. Hey, maybe exchange phonenumbers sometimes. Easier to talk. Had/having also issues sometimes although right now everything's ok. Had handtherapy in the past and that worked great. Not to be confused with physiotherapy.

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OK I'm back in the saddle again. Feeling well. So another loooong post.

Training mondag 20:45-23:15

GRIPPERS

My gripper strenght seems to be in a free fall. Almost seem to be getting weaker every session. Checked my paper log and in september 2013 I could do (right hand) 8x mms #2.5 and missed the #3 by a whisker. Back then I did 2-3 gripper workout each week. But because of my tennis elbow and because a lot of people on the board seem to be thriving on an once a week frequency I changed to once a week about two months ago. Doesn't seems to be working at all or it could be the tendonitis kicking in hard. Currently I can do maybe 3xmms #2.5 and can hardly budge the #3. Really frustrating. I will go back to doing grippers twice a week for a couple of weeks to see if it does anything.

TENNIS ELBOW

I'm completely fed up with this sh*t! Doing stuff like; stretching, eccentric movements, icing, contrast bathing, massaging doesn't seem to be doing anything at all. The only thing that really helped me in the past is dry needling. But I feel this is kind of a harsh method and don't want to use it unless absolutely necessary. I've been doing griptraining for about three years now and in that time I have been completely injury free for maybe three months. I think i will start seeing my therapist and do dry needling next week...

Or does anyone have any other brilliant ideas?

TRAINING

Yep I also trained a bit. Was supposed to be doing heavy singles last week and maxing out this week. Because I missed last week and energy isn't 100% back yet I decided to skip maxing out and just start all over with a new cycle.

Light triples for key movements today. 10x3 (70-80% of 1RM - 60sec. breaks)

Focus on explosion and technique.

Overhead press strict 8x3x50kg/ 3x55kg/ 3x60kg

Dips 10x3xBW+35kg

Grippers Right hand mms 20xT/ 10x#1/ 5x#1.5/ 2x#2/ 1x#2.5/ 0x#3 (huge miss 1cm?)/ T-rex 4x1xLevel8

Left hand mms 20xT/ 10x#1/ 5x#1.5/ 1x#2/ 0x#2.5 (huge miss 1cm?)/ T-rex 4x1xLevel2

DO Deadlift No belt, no straps.10x3x140kg Happy with this, Starting to get a bit of feel back for this movement.

Key pinch holds - one handed On really thin pinchblock (3mm) approx. 4x10sec.x17,5kg These are fun! And hardly hurt my arm (just a bit).

Seated calf press one legged 20x60kg/ 15x70kg/ 4x12x75kg

Plate curl 10x5kg/ 10x10kg(small plate)/ 8x10kg(big plate)/ 5x15kg(medium plate)/ 5x15kg(medium plate)

Plate wrist curl 15x10kg(small plate)/ 3x10kg(big plate) The big 10kg plate felt very hard.

Levering stick left/right 4x20x3.75kg

Ab wheel 4x15reps I think my core has never been this strong before! I still don't get how some people can do these standing up, that's just crazy.

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I have an idea Roy. I bought Armaid and while it was a little pricey, it is helping me with my wrist and forearm issues. I bought it with the extreme roller attachment. Also, a friend of mine had great results with accupuncture treatments.

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I have an idea Roy. I bought Armaid and while it was a little pricey, it is helping me with my wrist and forearm issues. I bought it with the extreme roller attachment. Also, a friend of mine had great results with accupuncture treatments.

Thanks man! I've looked at the armaid before but have been put of by the price so far. But i might just buy one in the future, instead of another silly grip gadget. ;-)

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I have an idea Roy. I bought Armaid and while it was a little pricey, it is helping me with my wrist and forearm issues. I bought it with the extreme roller attachment. Also, a friend of mine had great results with accupuncture treatments.

Thanks man! I've looked at the armaid before but have been put of by the price so far. But i might just buy one in the future, instead of another silly grip gadget. ;-)

I hear you...it took me a while to justify spending the money for it. It's a great tool. Much more effective then foam rolling or self massage. You can really dig in andhit all the tight spots.

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Roy, maybe this can be an idea. I have had a lot of trouble with a biceptendon (that is what it felt like) and had Physiotherapy, echo's, MRI scan
(because I kept on coming back to my doctor and kept nagging on that I wasn't diagnosed right - yes - tendinitis). Via a plastic surgeon I wasn't diagnosed

tendinitis but more on the carpal tunnel syndrome direction. Anyway, got directed to Handtherapy and the woman who treated me there really listened to me.

She showed me all kinds of pressure point, insights in how the lower arm works, really listened to me what I do, how I trained, and massaged and stretched my lower arm in a way that really worked and opened up my eyes. After a few sessions my pain went away after more than a year of nagging pain.

Even if it's tennis elbow, you never know what else can be messed up in that area. Anyway, maybe this is an idea, since I went to the Zwolle area, Isala klinieken, but this is perhaps the same kind of institute who can help you? They seem to be in Rotterdam also. Don't know if your healthinsurance pays up for it, but even when they don't do that, I'd reckon it's worth maybe going there once and pay for a consult just once or twice.

http://www.handencentrum.nl/welkom

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Saturday 22-02-2014 13:15-16:00

Light triples 10x3 (60 second breaks) for main movements, focus on explosive motion.

GRIPPERS

Decided to take a few steps back with grippers and start over doing loads of fast and solid closes with a little overcrush each rep with lighter grippers. Over the next couple of weeks I will built up to bigger (for me) grippers. Following the same routine I will use for bench and deadlift. Hopefully this will get me out of the hole with my crush strenght.

Close grip bench 10x3x100kg

Floor press 10x3x90kg

Grippers mms Right hand 10x3x#2 / Left hand 10x3x#1.5

Barbell row 10x80kg/10x90kg/ 5x 10x100kg

KB swings one hand 20x16kg/ 20x 20kg / We don't have kettlebells heavier than 20kg so from here on I grasp TWO kettlebell in one hand. 10x32kg / 10x36kg/ 10x36kg Form a little ragged, tweaked my shoulder a little bit.

Romanian deadlift 10x100kg/ 10x110kg/ 10x120kg

Legpress plate loaded 20x150kg/ 10x200kg/ 3x 10x250kg Easy reps, knee felt ok. Shouldn't go any heavier for a while though.

Wrist barbell curl with roll to fingertips 12x26kg/ 10x36kg/ 4x 10x41kg

Wrist roller Arms straight hands at shoulder height 4x5kg/ 2x 2x7,5kg

Ab wheel 4x15kg

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Tuesday 25-02-2014 20:45-23:15

Heavy triples 5x3 (80-90% of 1RM) 120seconds rest between sets for main movements.

Overhead press strict 3x60kg/3x 3x65kg/3x67,5kg Not too bad, shoulder didn't hurt, looong way to go before I can do 100kg again.

Dipping 5x 3xBW+45kg Needed a lot of warmup sets for this, felt very awkward after overhead. Even then the last two work sets were actually the easiest.

Grippers mms Right hand 5x 3x#2.5 Really struggled with the last two sets, took a little bit of extra rest.

Left hand 5x 3x#2. All in all not too bad, feel I might be on my way back up again. But right arm hurt pretty bad doing this.

DO Deadlift 3x140kg/ 3x155kg/ 3x160kg/ 3x160kg All easy reps, but felt a tiny twitch in my right knee on the last set and decided to skip the last two sets.

Lying leg curl 12x60kg/ 12x65kg/ 12x70kg/ 12x75kg/ 10x80kg/ 6x85kg Hadn't done this one in weeks, but felt easy.

One hand key pinch holds On 3mm pinchplate. Right hand 4, 2, 9 and 6 seconds on 20kg / Left hand 6, 8, 10 and 10 seconds on 20kg

Plate curl 10x10kg (small plate) / 6x10kg (big plate)/ 4x15kg (small but fat plate)/ 3x15kg (big plate) ugly reps/ 3x10kg (big plate, back AND head against wall, very tough reps)

Ab wheel 6x10 rollouts

Pretty happy with this session. But I am going to see a therapist next week for my tennis elbow.

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Tuesday 25-02-2014 20:45-23:15

Heavy triples 5x3 (80-90% of 1RM) 120seconds rest between sets for main movements.

Overhead press strict 3x60kg/3x 3x65kg/3x67,5kg Not too bad, shoulder didn't hurt, looong way to go before I can do 100kg again.

Dipping 5x 3xBW+45kg Needed a lot of warmup sets for this, felt very awkward after overhead. Even then the last two work sets were actually the easiest.

Grippers mms Right hand 5x 3x#2.5 Really struggled with the last two sets, took a little bit of extra rest.

Left hand 5x 3x#2. All in all not too bad, feel I might be on my way back up again. But right arm hurt pretty bad doing this.

DO Deadlift 3x140kg/ 3x155kg/ 3x160kg/ 3x160kg All easy reps, but felt a tiny twitch in my right knee on the last set and decided to skip the last two sets.

Lying leg curl 12x60kg/ 12x65kg/ 12x70kg/ 12x75kg/ 10x80kg/ 6x85kg Hadn't done this one in weeks, but felt easy.

One hand key pinch holds On 3mm pinchplate. Right hand 4, 2, 9 and 6 seconds on 20kg / Left hand 6, 8, 10 and 10 seconds on 20kg

Plate curl 10x10kg (small plate) / 6x10kg (big plate)/ 4x15kg (small but fat plate)/ 3x15kg (big plate) ugly reps/ 3x10kg (big plate, back AND head against wall, very tough reps)

Ab wheel 6x10 rollouts

Pretty happy with this session. But I am going to see a therapist next week for my tennis elbow.

Good stuff, if it weren't for your tenniselbow I'd suggest maybe putting effort for a while in thickbarwork, and than come back at the grippers.

Still, good shoulderwork, I have never pressed so heavy like 100kg, I am very weak in the shoulders. 65kg is around my max, strict that is. People pressing 100kg sounds amazing for me at this point.

I am now paying the price for starting from the absolute beginning since I never before invested in big shoulderpresses, DL, squat and such. Now getting some structure in this but it takes a lot of dedication to

gain 40 pounds per lift to get to decent standards (for me).

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Tuesday 25-02-2014 20:45-23:15

Heavy triples 5x3 (80-90% of 1RM) 120seconds rest between sets for main movements.

Overhead press strict 3x60kg/3x 3x65kg/3x67,5kg Not too bad, shoulder didn't hurt, looong way to go before I can do 100kg again.

Dipping 5x 3xBW+45kg Needed a lot of warmup sets for this, felt very awkward after overhead. Even then the last two work sets were actually the easiest.

Grippers mms Right hand 5x 3x#2.5 Really struggled with the last two sets, took a little bit of extra rest.

Left hand 5x 3x#2. All in all not too bad, feel I might be on my way back up again. But right arm hurt pretty bad doing this.

DO Deadlift 3x140kg/ 3x155kg/ 3x160kg/ 3x160kg All easy reps, but felt a tiny twitch in my right knee on the last set and decided to skip the last two sets.

Lying leg curl 12x60kg/ 12x65kg/ 12x70kg/ 12x75kg/ 10x80kg/ 6x85kg Hadn't done this one in weeks, but felt easy.

One hand key pinch holds On 3mm pinchplate. Right hand 4, 2, 9 and 6 seconds on 20kg / Left hand 6, 8, 10 and 10 seconds on 20kg

Plate curl 10x10kg (small plate) / 6x10kg (big plate)/ 4x15kg (small but fat plate)/ 3x15kg (big plate) ugly reps/ 3x10kg (big plate, back AND head against wall, very tough reps)

Ab wheel 6x10 rollouts

Pretty happy with this session. But I am going to see a therapist next week for my tennis elbow.

Good stuff, if it weren't for your tenniselbow I'd suggest maybe putting effort for a while in thickbarwork, and than come back at the grippers.

Still, good shoulderwork, I have never pressed so heavy like 100kg, I am very weak in the shoulders. 65kg is around my max, strict that is. People pressing 100kg sounds amazing for me at this point.

I am now paying the price for starting from the absolute beginning since I never before invested in big shoulderpresses, DL, squat and such. Now getting some structure in this but it takes a lot of dedication to

gain 40 pounds per lift to get to decent standards (for me).

Used to do a lot of thickbar work, mostly with fatgripz or fatgripz extreme. Stuff like Do deadlifts, farmers walk, rows and Rolling thunder. Hopefully I can ease those back in in a couple of weeks/months.

I think you have a pretty good strenght base now. You haven't been at it that long. 100kg overhead seems amazing to me right now to. But if my shoulder stays in one piece I''m confident I will get there in time. Just keep putting in the work and have an proper attack plan (like the 531 you're using with deadlifts). Maybe find out what your weaknesses are. Is it really shoulderpower that is keeping you back or do you (also) lack triceps power?

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It's a combination of both I think. Maybe that I am going to incorporate direct tricepwork somewhere. When I do triceps after shoulderpress, I am not hitting them as hard as I should, because they are already fatigued a little. Dips work really nice but when already doing those shoulderpresses, heavy dips also put a lot of stress on my delts. So I think more skullcrushers / tricep extensions / close grip bench will be my best shot for that.

I need to keep my work a bit limited, recoverywise and such, but I have decided to throw my DL back to once per two weeks. So I am rewriting my approach.

Ok, back to your log again Roy :grin:

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Training saturday 1-3-2014

Heavy triples 5x3 (80-90% of 1RM) For main movements.

Didn't feel very well walking to my gym. Even felt a bit light headed. Don't know why, thursday and friday I had a lot of energy. Anyway the first half of my workout really sucked. Benching felt really wobbly and heavy and so did overhead. Grippers felt like bricks and my tennis elbow seems to be getting worse. This friday I have an appointment at the 'handencentrum'(hand centre). I hope they can make it go away!

Bench press shoulderwidth grip

3x100kg/ 3x 3x110kg/ 2x 3x115kg

Too slooow

Overhead strict

3x60kg/ 3x65kg/ 3x 3x67,5kg

Not too bad, but reps were way too slow.

Grippers mms

Right hand 4x 3x#2.5/ TNS 20x #1

Left hand 4x 3x#2/ TNS 18x#1

Dumbbell row With one knee and one hand on flat bench.

10x43kg/ 6x53kg/ 3x 6x58kg/ 6x60kg/ 6x63kg/ 5x65,5kg PR!

Out of the blue this one went extraordinarily well! I just kept on pumping out sets and upping the weight because I wasn't getting tired at all. Weird.

Lying leg press stack

20x93kg/ 10x117kg/ 10x133kg/ 3x 10x149kg

Much heavier than the incline plate loaded leg press. Knee still feeling good apart from a tiny twitch.

Finger curls behind back In between leg press sets

4x 8x75kg

Seated calf press one legged

15x60kg/ 15x70kg/ 15x75kg/ 10x80kg/ 8x85kg/ 8x85kg/ 6x90kg/ 30x60kg

Another exercise were I just didn't get tired

One hand key pinch holds On 3mm pinch plate

Right hand 30sec. x15kg/ 6-8-8sec. x20kg Tore some skin on last set.

left hand 30sec. x15kg/ 10-10-13sec. x20kg

Ab wheel

Didn't do it.

Even though I'm having really sore abs right now. Don't now what caused it. Perhaps the heavy dumbbell rows?

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the body definitely not ready for a trainingsession....those days happen. Story of my life. Hey dude I hope they can be of some help in the handencentrum.

Let me know how it went!

I also have to be careful with my lefty, since my off hand gripperstrength is slowly getting better, so is the pressure on the tendons rising again. I can notice that. Arm's a bit more tender around the elbow area. I am afraid tennis elbow will never heal completely when training weights for most people. As long as it's manageable.

Edited by Geralt
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Training wednesday 5-3-2014

Light doubles 10x2 (60-90 seconds rest) for main movements. Explosive

Still feeling a bit low in energy, but getting better. Thought it wise to skip a few compound exercises I wanted to do.

Floor press 2x80kg/ 2x90kg/ 8x 2x100kg

Ok, but sluggish.

Grippers mms

Right hand T-rex level 4 8x2/ tns #1 22x

Left hand T-rex level 1 8x2/ tns #1 19x

T-rex level 4 is about the same as my #2.5, a tiny bit harder. Level 1 is a little bit harder than my 'hard' #2.

Strength in right hand is definitely suffering from elbow pain, left hand seems to be coming up a bit.

DO deadlift no straps, no belt

10x 2x150kg

Funny thing is I think I could do 2x180kg if I went balls out, but 150kg still doesn't feel light.

Triceps push downs (on light stack machine)

20x85kg/ 15x100kg/ 10x110kg/ 10x110kg

Did these instead of dips. Didn't feel I had the energy for those.

Light stack. I think I can do about 10x60kg? on heavy stack.

+

Rim lift holds

2x 30sec. x 30kg/ 2x 30sec. x35kg

Looong time since I did these. Suck at it. Two years ago I partially tore a tendon pulley in my middel finger doing these with 50kg? Took about 3-4 months to completely heal. Really can't fathom how people can do these with 100kg+ without tearing something.

Seated calf press one legged

20x60kg/ 20x70kg/ 15x80kg/ 10x85kg/ 10x85kg

+

Key pinch holds on 3mm pinch plate

right hand aprox. 3x 15sec. x15kg

left hand aprox. 3x 25sec. x15kg

Plate wrist curl

3x 15x10kg (small plate)/ 2x 4x10kg (full size olympic plate)

Fixed wrist roller

1x15kg/ 1x25kg/ 1x40kg

First time I ever tried these. Stuck a barbell through my wristroller and put it on a stand.

I like these! I think just holding the wristroller at arms lenght is actually tougher on the wrists even though you can use much less weight, but this was much tougher on the grip. Didn't have much time to do them because the gym was closing. Next time I will do a more serious attempt, but I don't think I could go any heavier than 50kg at the moment.

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Good work man. Shame your injury is holding you back. Let me know how it went today at the fysio.

Regarding your DL work, I experience about the same. Everything above 150 kg starts to feel heavy, although the max is slowly rising.

I am switching to the same setup in DL work, but now once every two weeks. With the 531 approach, even maxing out in reps at 'lower'

weigths (= around 160 kg now and up) is much too taxing to do every week.

Edited by Geralt
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Training saturday 8-4

light doubles 10x2 (80-90% 1RM)

I went to the 'handencentrum' for my tennis elbow last friday. They obviously really knew what they were talking about but unfortunately didn't have any miracle short term solutions for me. The main problem is that the tendons just don't get enough time to heal, because of my (computer) work. I'm doing some some friction massage every day now. See if that speeds up the proces.

Bench press close grip

10x 2x110kg

Funny thing is the 10th set feels just about as heavy as the first when the first set should actually feel kind of light.

Dips

4xBW+35kg/ 2xBW+45kg/ 7x 2xBW+50kg/ 2xBW+55kg

Last set was a bit too heavy

Grippers

Sucked big time

Barbell row

3x 10x100kg

Felt heavy, probably still a bit tired from all the dumbbell rows last time.

Dumbbell lunges with Fatgripz

10x(each leg) x16kg/ x20kg/ x24kg/ 28kg/ x30kg

Knees feeling good, last set was bit too ragged.

Great endurance test for support grip too using Fatgripz especially on the last two sets.

Still feeling tired. It might be the change in weather here in Holland. I think I will skip next training, which is supposed to be today.

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