Workout Recap - Week of July 28, 2019
Unrelated to my exercising, this weekend is a holiday weekend in Canada. Now, admittedly, the holiday isn't technically a statutory holiday across the country (in fact, my particular workplace doesn't recognize it), but it still serves as an excuse to do something a little different. With that, I cooked up a duck today. I'd done duck breast before (following this Gordon Ramsay recipe, sans sauce), but I decided to do a whole duck this time (taking inspiration from this Gordon Ramsay recipe, with my own custom peach sauce). In retrospect, so much of the duck is wasted on bones and the internal cavity that I would've been better off just getting breasts, but it turned out pretty damn good, and the sauce was a brilliant complement. I take some pride in the fact that two other people who always complain about duck tasting muddy tried it and had nothing negative to say about the taste.
Related to my exercising, this week felt like it featured a number of strong performances. It was probably my best week in some time.
Sunday
Type: As Fast As Possible
7 sets of:
7 Pull Ups
7 Burpees
Time = 8:00
Bonus: 1 pull up, 1 burpee
On the surface, this was not a particularly strong performance. However, it was an improvement over my last attempt at this workout, and it helped set the stage for some better results to follow it up.
Tuesday
Type: As Fast As Possible
12 minutes of 30 second intervals with 10 seconds rest of:
Pull Ups (total = 38)
High Knees (total = 119, each side)
Lunges (total = 24, each side)
Side Lunges (total = 42, each side)
Bridges (total = 39)
Mountain Climbers (total = 108, each side)
Bonus: 5 chin ups
Wow, this was solid. As seems to happen from time to time, I felt like I was going slow while I was doing the actual workout, but then I reviewed the totals and saw that I actually did quite well. If I have to be picky, the high knee total is a little on the low side, but considering that five of the six movements were focused on my lower body (which I somehow had not realized when I put the routine together), I can accept that.
Wednesday
Type: Pass/Fail
Close Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 7 (pass)
Stand-to-stand Bridges, one wall touch on the way up - 2 sets of 8 (pass)
Skin-the-cats - 2 sets of 6 (pass)
Bonus: 2 sets of 6 Superman push ups
Getting back on track with this set of movements went well. I didn't push into new grounds, but I held my own and felt good doing so.
Friday
Type: As Fast As Possible
3 sets of:
21/15/9 Burpees
21/15/9 Push Ups
21/15/9 Mountain Climbers
Time = 8:30
Bonus: none
In a flip from the situation with my Tuesday workout, I didn't realize that every exercise in this routine would have some arm extensor emphasis until I got underway with it. That made it more of a grind than anticipated, but that's alright. Doing some high volume burpee work and featuring some killer combos along the way should be good preparation for my upcoming hundred burpee challenge.
Saturday
Type: Pass/Fail
Fingertip Push Ups - 2 sets of 10 (pass)
One-arm Dead Hangs - 2 sets of 11 breaths, each side (pass)
Cossack Squats - 2 sets of 7, each side (pass)
Bonus: none
This was a quickie squeezed into a busy day. It more than fit the bill for that and included progress with my fingertip push ups. I couldn't ask for anything more reasonably.
