Workout Recap - Week of October 21, 2018
I chose to skip a Thursday workout in favor of dedicating my free time on that day to helping out a friend in sudden need, so I only got four in this week. I have no second thoughts about that choice.
Also, there will be no more referencing where I was with my fitness in the past. They sound too much like regrets and excuses, and regardless of not meaning them in that way, it's too much of a crutch. From now on, this column exists only from October 21 onward.
Sunday
Type: Pass/Fail
Shoulder-width Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 10 (pass)
Uneven Pull Ups - 2 sets of 7, each side (pass)
Pistol Squats, both hands behind me - 2 sets of 4, each side (pass)
Bonus: 10 breath isometric towel dead hang
I liked where I was with this one. I need some focus on my grip endurance to increase my numbers for uneven pull ups (hence the additional dead hanging from a towel), but let's be fair here; uneven pull ups are fucking hard.
Tuesday
Type: As Many Sets As Possible
12 minutes of:
5 Pull Ups
10 breath Dead Hang
10 Push Ups
10 breath Plank
15 Prisoner Squats
20 High Knees
Total = 6 sets
Bonus: 10 straight leg raises
Mixing in isometric holds with a timed workout is always tricky business, given how they necessarily cap the potential result. They're even trickier to judge in the way that I time them, since I don't have a clock handy to measure my holds in an independently metered way. Nevertheless, I like to drop them in on occasion. They add a meditative quality.
Friday
Type: As Many Sets As Possible
12 minutes of:
5 Burpees
10 Push Ups
5 Plank Builds (each way)
10 Lunges
10 Sit Ups
Total = 4 sets + up to 1 plank build
Bonus: 4 plank builds (each way), 5 pull ups
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about plank builds. They soak up a lot of time, especially when I go both clockwise and counterclockwise for each rep, and I'm not sure if they really add a notable benefit over filling the same time with push ups. On the other hand, they're a common component in enough top tier calisthenic routines (particularly those based on MMA) that there must be something to them. At the very least, they force my forearms to support my weight in different ways.
Saturday
Type: As Fast As Possible
7 sets of:
7 Pull Ups
7 Burpees
Time =9:15
Bonus: none
I was tearing it up early on, getting through the first three sets in right about three minutes. After that, I fell off a cliff, and that last set in particular was a rough one to get through. In keeping with wiping the past clean, I won't compare this to what I've done in the past with this routine. What I will say, though, is that doing fifty pull ups (well, forty-nine, but close enough) in such a small block of time is nothing to sneeze at.
