Workout Recap - Week of February 3, 2019

My objective for this week's workouts was to have a soft focus on pull ups. As I've said many times, I do have a long term target of being able to do one-armed pull ups, so even if I wasn't actively working towards that with every workout, I wanted to at least be doing something on the bar to help put some progress towards that goal.

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Sunday

Type: Pass/Fail

One-armed Push Ups, feet together - 2 sets of 7, each side (pass)

T&A Pull Ups - 2 sets of 5, each side (pass) Pistol Squats, both hands behind me - 2 sets of 6, each side (pass)

Bonus: 2 sets of 6 half-Aztec push ups, 10 breath isometric dead hang

This was a basic step up from last week's version of this workout. I'm still a bit too shaky on the final couple of push ups for each arm to feel comfortable about advancing on those, but it might get to the point where I just have to go for it eventually. That said, I'm in no rush to overextend myself.

Tuesday

Type: As Fast As Possible

4 sets of:

20 Jump Squats

15 Push Ups

8 Close Pull Ups

Time = 8:30

Bonus: 10 sit ups

Wow, was this ever a calf burner. It was worth it, though, because I did start to get into a solid groove with the jump squats after a while. I'd mentioned before that I felt an odd hitch in my burpee motion, and so I thought it'd be beneficial to break it down into simpler steps and build up the muscle memory piecemeal instead of forcing myself to take on the full motion.

Wednesday

Type: Pass/Fail

Close Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 4 (pass)

Stand-to-stand Bridges, one wall touch on the way up - 2 sets of 8 (pass)

Hanging V-raises - 2 sets of 10 (pass)

Bonus: 2 sets of 6 Superman push ups, 7 handstand push ups

Speaking of working on getting comfortable with an awkward motion, I'd thought that I'd built some familiarity with close handstand push ups last week, but I was teetering with them again this time. Some degree of patience is necessary, sure, since it's a posture that's naturally disadvantaged at balancing itself, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't feel a mote of frustration over that.

Friday

Type: As Fast As Possible

8 sets of:

5 Pull Ups

5 Handstand Push Ups

10 Lunges, each side

Time = 10:30

Bonus: 11 pull ups

For most of this day, my plan was do to my typical 5 pull up/10 push up/15 prisoner squat routine, but I ended up changing that at the last moment to this. I'm not entirely sure why, to be honest, but it did end up being a pretty enjoyable change of pace.

Saturday

Type: As Fast As Possible

100 Burpees

Time = 12:00

Bonus: 10 bridges

I'm very happy with how this went, especially compared to the performance I had on my last go at 100 burpees. Not only was the completion time much better, but just the act of doing the burpees themselves felt a lot more smooth and natural than it had been lately. It was almost meditative, really. This was a fantastic way to cap off the week. I even got so caught up in how good it felt that I forgot to do any pull ups in the bonus.

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