Workout Recap - Week of June 9, 2019

Having recovered from last week, I tried to really attack my workouts this time. Perhaps I attacked a little too hard, because I was only able to do four. On the whole, though, I'm okay with that. Let this be the calm before the storm for the rest of this month.

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Monday

Type: As Fast As Possible

100 Burpees

Time = 11:30

Bonus: none

The gold standard, with no frills and no excuses. Coming at it before my triceps were 100% recovered hurt my time, I'm sure, but I'm fine with how it went. Backsliding on my completion time compared to my previous attempt is a bit disappointing, but I can always aim to beat it next month. For now, the important thing is that I did it, period.

Tuesday

Type: As Many Reps As Possible

12 minutes of 30 second intervals with 10 seconds rest of:

Pull Ups (total = 38)

High Knees (total = 127)

Push Ups (total = 58)

Prisoner Squats (total = 60)

Lunges (total = 25, each side)

Side Lunges (total = 43, each side)

Bonus: 5 Hindu push ups

I wanted to put some emphasis on my endurance. I wanted to go easy on my triceps to let them finish the last bit of recovery they needed. I think this workout did both. The pull up total was simply phenomenal, too. I'm a far cry from Jessie Graff-levels of arm flexor stamina, but it wasn't so long ago that I couldn't do even a single chin up. That's been the part of my athletic development that's given me the most satisfaction (free-standing handstand push ups or stand-to-stand bridges would surpass it, admittedly, at least until I manage to do one-armed pull ups).

Thursday

Type: As Fast As Possible

10 sets of:

5 Pull Ups

10 Push Ups

15 Prisoner Squats

Time = 11:30

Bonus: 40 mountain climbers

My poor time on this workout a few weeks ago had been hanging over me, so I'm glad to have made up for it now. I feel like I should've done better, but the last couple of sets were a struggle. Nevertheless, it felt good to get an average of 69 seconds per set after having ballooned to 74 seconds per set the last time around.

Saturday

Type: Pass/Fail

Cross Plank - 2 sets of 20 breath isometric holds, each side (pass)

One-armed Dead Hangs - 2 sets of 10 breath isometric holds, each side (pass)

Pistol Squats - 2 sets of 10 breath isometric holds, each side (pass)

Bonus: 10 fingertip push ups

Due to a quirk of how my day went, it was late into the afternoon when I had time to do this, and I was starving. As such, I pushed the usual challenge workout back to Sunday (which I completed a short while ago, although you'll have to wait for the next one of these posts to see how I did, oh theoretical recap-reader) and tried something different here. I've got tentative plans for a yoga session at some indefinite point in the future, so I thought doing a little isometric focus on myself would help me prepare for that (...at least I imagine there's a lot of isometric posing in yoga classes, though I've never actually been to one before). Anyway, I do plan to make the one-armed dead hangs more of a regular fixture (either as an actual element in pass/fail-style workouts or as a more frequent bonus) since I could use the grip strength/endurance development. I'm less enamored with the cross planks after having done them for a few weeks now, so I think I'd rather start on a fingertip pushup progression instead. As for the isometric pistol squats, I probably won't do them again in the near future, but they did inspire me to mix up my pistol squatting with some stereotypical Cossack squat-dancing (I tried to find a video reference, but I got sucked into watching this instead).