Workout Recap - Week of December 17, 2017
Truth be told, I'm coming up blank on ideas for the preamble to this week's recap. Well, I guess that I can wax philosophical for a moment on the reason behind why I've stuck with my fitness routine. I'm not sure if it's an aspect of my competitiveness or something else entirely, but I've always tried to hold myself to a high standard in most of my pursuits. That's not to say that I always expect perfection from myself, but I do expect to constantly learn and grow better. Exercising has been an interesting challenge for both the mind and the body, and even when I have struggles or set-backs, I can often feel the potential to do better. I guess it's an ingrained aversion to letting that potential be wasted that keeps me coming back. I mean, yeah, there are objective benefits for both physical health and mental well-being from getting regular exercise, but that's such a dry and impersonal motivation. It wouldn't explain the drive that I have to keep doing more, nor the satisfaction from my successes. The real motivating factor has to be something deeper, and I think that simply wanting to do better for its own sake sounds more likely to be the case.
Monday
Type: Pass/Fail
Shoulder-width Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 9 (pass)
Uneven Pull Ups - 2 sets of 10, each side (pass)
Pistol Squats, Both Hands Behind Me - 2 sets of 4, each side (pass)
Bonus: 4 sets of 3 Superman push ups, 5 pistol squats
I'd been focusing so much on the squats in this routine lately that I'd allowed myself to stagnate on the handstand push ups. It's a little funny to say that, since it wasn't so long ago that I wouldn't have been able to do even a single one of those, and now I'm beating myself up over not doing enough of a more difficult variant. Such is the path of progress.
Tuesday
Type: As Fast As Possible
4 sets of:
10 Burpees
15 Diamond Push Ups
20 Tuck Jumps
Time = 8:15
Bonus: 5 T&A pull ups
Getting a better time for the base routine here is great and all, of course, but I want to take a moment to talk about the bonus instead, because it's something that I've named for myself. As a step towards one-armed pull ups, I grabbed the pull up bar far off to the side with one hand and grabbed a towel draped over the other end of the bar with the other hand (T&A being a provocative shorthand for "towel assisted"). The vast majority of the work for the pull up is done with the arm holding the bar, while the off-hand takes a little bit of weight, helps with avoiding rotation, and provides a slight assist in the bottom part of the motion. It's a little easier than "real" towel-assisted one-armed pull ups (which would involve releasing the towel around the midpoint of the positive movement and grabbing it again near the end of the negative), so I'm trying to use it as a stepping stone towards those.
Wednesday
Type: Pass/Fail
1-Armed Push Ups, Feet Together - 1 set of 10, each side (pass)
Stand-to-Stand Bridges (with one touch of a wall on the way up) - 1 set of 12 (pass)
Hanging V-Raises - 1 set of 14 (pass)
Bonus: 4 sets of 3 Superman push ups
Not too much to say about this workout, since it's a strict repeat from last week.
Friday
Type: As Fast As Possible
4 sets of:
20 Plyometric Lunges
10 Bridges
5 Skin-the-Cats
Time = 10:45
Bonus: 20 push ups
I don't often do skin-the-cats in timed workouts, since the motion doesn't lend itself to being done quickly. However, they're pretty fucking fun to do, so I felt like throwing them in for this routine, rather than just doing something more standard.
Saturday
Type: As Fast As Possible
7 sets of:
7 Pull Ups
7 Bridges
Time = 6:30
Bonus: 1 pull up, 1 bridge
Well, this was a disappointing time, coming up half a minute short of my personal record. Alas, but I kind of expected it, since I just wasn't feeling into things today, for whatever reason. Oh well, I'll just have to try harder next month.
