Workout Recap - Week of November 12, 2017
This was somewhat of a roller coaster week, albeit for different reasons than what had been causing my ups and downs lately. Well, to say it more succinctly, I got knocked on my ass by an ailment on Wednesday, so I had to make do around that. I still managed to get in five workouts despite that, though, so there's really nothing for me to complain about. Everyone has to deal with shit happening from time to time, after all.
Sunday
Type: Pass/Fail
Shoulder-width Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 5 (pass)
Stand-to-Stand Bridges (with one touch of a wall on the way up) - 2 sets of 8 (pass)
Shrimp Squats, Both Hands Behind Me - 2 sets of 10, each side (pass)
Bonus: 4 sets of 3 Superman push ups, 5 shoulder-width handstand push ups
I feel like I've been adjusting very well to the closer hand spacing for my handstand push ups. As an added bonus, that also seems to be giving me a more stable handstand in general. I mean, I still can't maintain a freestanding handstand for more than brief moment, but this closer hand spacing is helping me extend that moment for maybe another second or so longer. It's interesting, since in general, a wider spacing for a structure's anchor points should be more stable. My guess is that having my hands straight underneath my shoulders eliminates the effect of my hands being pushed further out by my weight (a significant consideration, perhaps, given that I work out on a smooth carpet and thus have little friction between my skin and the ground) and so reduces the distractions from just focusing on keeping myself vertical. I realize that I'm overthinking this, of course, but the technical part of my mind can't help it.
Tuesday
Type: As Fast As Possible
4 sets of:
10 Pull Ups
15 Burpees
20 High Knees
Time = 9:30
Bonus: none
I don't have anything special to say about this workout. I mean, I did it, and I dare say that it was a decent performance (it tied my previous result with this routine, at the very least), but nothing about it really stood out in my mind. I'll take it as a good sign that doing forty pull ups and sixty burpees can be so unremarkable to me.
Thursday
4 sets of:
10 Pull Ups
15 Bridges
20 Straight Leg Raises
Time = 8:30
Bonus: 5 shrimp squats on each side
I'm not sure why I haven't done straight leg raises in such a long time. They're a fantastic exercise, not only for building strength in the midsection and hip flexors, but they're also great for improving flexibility in the hamstrings and likely other elements of the posterior chain as well. In fact, until I worked through Convict Conditioning and got to the point of doing straight leg raises, I couldn't actually touch my toes without bending my knees. I was mixing them in fairly often with my 30 second work/10 second rest HIIT routines, but now that I'm looking over my workout log, I haven't done one of those since August. Damn, I didn't realize I was in such a rut.
Friday
Type: Pass/Fail
1-Armed Push Ups, Feet Together - 1 set of 10 (pass)
Uneven Pull Ups - 1 set of 12 (pass)
Straight Leg Raises - 1 set of 20 (pass)
Bonus: 4 sets of 3 two-way suicide jumps, 10 bridges
Speaking of doing more straight leg raises, I did them here. I know I'd said that I wanted to work on doing more hanging leg raises after pull ups in light of how difficult I found that to be last week, but on this particular day, my hands were a bit sore even before the workout, so I didn't want to push them too hard and risk an injury.
Saturday
Type: As Fast As Possible
6 sets of:
6 Pull Ups
6 Burpees
6 Bridges
Time = 7:00
Bonus: 10 fingertip push ups
Missed my personal best by a single time interval, sadly. Oh well. As I've probably said before, there's not much to be done about that now other than to use it as motivation to do better next time.
