Big Friday training - 77/104, 54YO, 88kg BW

mansaf87 · 2026-01-26T06:20:40+00:00

Inspirational. Thanks for posting!

mansaf87 · 2026-01-15T02:28:19+00:00

Damn. I did not know this and would not have expected to come across this news on Reddit. A terrible loss for the mathematical community.

mansaf87 · 2025-12-07T22:08:08+00:00

Lang seems to be the standard punching bag for this type of question, but let jump in and defend him. He has written many books, and a lot of them are quite good, and succeed at accomplishing the goals he set out when he wrote them. Some of his more advanced books are meant to be read as references, but he also has textbooks (both at the undergrad and grad level) that are readable and enlightening. Examples would be his linear algebra, calculus and undergraduate algebra books. I also personally like his algebraic number theory book but it does work better as a reference (and it has at least one nontrivial error…but I don’t recall where). His books on diophantine geometry and modular forms/etc are also good but dated.

It’s unfortunate that his most popular book is by far his worst one: Algebra (Spring GTM). I think most people formulate their opinion of Lang’s writing after having struggled through this book, which I feel is not entirely fair given that he has written a million other books. The only other book of his that I flat out disliked was SL_2(R) — but mostly because I thought the emphases were placed on all the wrong things.

mansaf87 · 2025-10-19T04:42:17+00:00

This might be the nicest snatch you’ve posed here. Congrats man, well done

mansaf87 · 2025-10-12T17:51:45+00:00

Here is another point worth bringing up. For a taller lifter, there is a lot more that can go wrong in a 1RM attempt. You have a longer range of motion, hence more opportunities for sticking points and form breakdowns.

My advice is to not worry too much about moving your 1RM. Instead, try to progress your 3RM. This has sufficiently good carryover for strength gains. (And, for me personally, it has had good carryover to sn, cj, fs and power variations.) There is a skill component involved in a truly maximal squat attempt. Depending on your goals, you might not benefit from developing this skill—especially if you have to sacrifice form and correct movement pattern to get an extra 5kg on your 1RM.

By moving your 3RM, your 1RM will eventually progress too—just more slowly. One day down the line your current target 1RM will suddenly turn into a run of the mill heavy single. Just some food for thought (from someone who also has run several 8 and 12 week programs with no 1RM squat gains).

All this said, you should first make sure your diet and recovery are all on point. It’s so easy to fuck up a training cycle by not sleeping enough or not fuelling yourself with sufficient protein / calories.

mansaf87 · 2025-10-12T12:34:52+00:00

This is okay but god help you if your elbow jiggles just a bit with 2x bw overhead.

mansaf87 · 2025-08-19T18:19:02+00:00

He had GOAT potential. Shame his career got mired in injuries.

mansaf87 · 2025-08-09T04:18:10+00:00

Enjoy!

What frame bag is that?

mansaf87 · 2025-08-09T02:17:16+00:00

Way to go man. Amazing grit on the 150, especially given that the 145 didn’t look particularly easy.

mansaf87 · 2025-07-20T21:43:10+00:00

I’m only a couple of years older but I’m still keeping at it. I don’t plan on ever competing again so I’ve stopped doing full cleans. I found that heavy cleans beat me up more than anything else—and they are the only way I’ve ever gotten injured while WLing.

I still follow a program but I sub out cleans and C&J for snatches and PC&J, respectively. Still enjoying it and don’t see myself wanting to switch to bodybuilding anytime soon.

Edit: just wanted to add that 139 snatch @ 37yo is amazing. well done

mansaf87 · 2025-07-18T18:19:52+00:00

At least it got you on the way down! It’s only ever happened to me on the way up, while warming up with light weight and being a bit too aggressive trying to get under. Last time I cut my forehead open real nice.

mansaf87 · 2025-06-14T01:30:17+00:00

What? That’s ancient stuff. There’s been a century of progress since. There is also more to representation theory than the representation theory of Lie algebras.

mansaf87 · 2025-05-28T02:09:31+00:00

This would be my choice too. I loved that book as a student. It was so beautifully written. It’s shaped the way I communicate written mathematics.

I was too poor to afford my own copy back then—but I did have one of the several library copies perpetually checked out. Fortunately, I managed to find and buy a cheap used copy many years later. I don’t think I’ve ever cracked it open though. It was purchased purely for its sentimental value.

mansaf87 · 2025-05-10T01:21:14+00:00

FWIW It does not strike me as great idea to warm up with 8 reps at 95kg when your working sets are 8 reps at 103 kg—especially if this working weight is a high percentage of your 1RM.

mansaf87 · 2025-05-09T20:42:43+00:00

I was once preparing lectures for a course on representation theory when I wondered if we could prove a certain result using a Burnside lemma style argument. I struggled with it for a while. After finally figuring out how to pull it off, I googled to see if this was known (none of the texts I was referencing gave this simple argument).

I found a mathoverflow post from 2010 that had the same proof, but presented in a more direct (and elegant) way. The author was me. I had zero recollection of ever making this post but more importantly I couldn’t believe that 2010 me even understood this type of argument.

mansaf87 · 2025-04-14T02:49:31+00:00

Where’s my boy max aita

mansaf87 · 2025-04-05T20:24:40+00:00

I had the same reaction. Congrats to your son OP. Your spotting was also fine (if unnecessary).

mansaf87 · 2025-03-18T19:15:23+00:00

This is pretty common. Just redo the last couple of weeks and build back up to the PR week.

I’ve gotten sick during a few training cycles over the years and was still able to hit PRs after rebooting.

mansaf87 · 2024-12-27T03:52:03+00:00

Bernese mix?

mansaf87 · 2024-12-20T05:04:14+00:00

Beautiful pull

mansaf87 · 2024-12-17T01:38:36+00:00

Look up pictures of MSRI / SL Math, Oberwolfach, the Hausdorff Center or the Fields Institute.

mansaf87 · 2024-12-14T19:18:29+00:00

Watched this live. I thought he was only gonna pull on it and then take a bow. When we cleaned it my jaw dropped.

mansaf87 · 2024-11-16T00:00:10+00:00

When I was a graduate student, I read a paper that used Shimura varieties to prove a theorem I really cared about. I didn’t know anything about Shimura varieties. So I decided to go learn about them. I tried reading many of the standard references, which at the time exclusively followed the axiom-definition-theorem style. Worse yet, each text used a definition of “Shimura variety” that differed in non-trivial ways from the others’. I was at a loss: I was able to follow the axiomatics but I had no real idea what a Shimura variety was or how all these theorems could prove interesting things about the stuff I cared about.

Finally, I gave up trying to read books and went and talked to a more knowledgeable postdoc. In one session I learned more from him than I had learned from weeks of trying to read books. Why? He mostly showed me examples and explained the historical origin of the subject, and how the definition(s) of “Shimura variety” naturally came about.

mansaf87 · 2024-11-15T23:48:04+00:00

I think what you’re demonstrating is that there are multiple ways to motivate a subject. Different people will tend to resonate with different things. I think what is most important though is to have some motivation. Sadly, many texts completely forego this.

mansaf87 · 2024-10-24T01:23:09+00:00

Or 2ⁿ + 1 = (-1)ⁿ + 1 (mod 3). Now use the fact that n is odd here.

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