Workout Recap - Week of January 26, 2020
After a couple of lighter weeks to get other parts of my life under control, it was good to get back into the full swing of a five workout week. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like I suffered too much for that slacking. Since most performance is driven by a solid base to work from, I decided to put a soft focus on my lower body this week, hence the high amount of pistol squatting compared to normal.
Monday
Type: Pass/Fail
One-arm Pull Up Negatives - 2 sets of 4, each side (pass)
Fingertip Push Ups - 2 sets of 18 (pass)
Pistol Squats, both hands behind me - 2 sets of 9, each side (pass)
Bonus: 2 sets of 3 two-way suicide jumps, 1 3-limb bridge cycle (each combination)
It may have just been one more pistol squat than I was doing previously for double sets, but adding on that ninth rep was no joke. I'll need to hold it there for a little longer before I can feel safe about pushing up to a full ten. Even so, it's only a matter of time before I get comfortable with that, and I'm not sure what the next step should be from there. I suppose doing pistol squats with my hands on my head (similar to bilateral prisoner squats) would be reasonable, although whether it'd actually be harder will need to be seen if/when I actually try them.
Tuesday
Type: As Fast As Possible
4 sets of:
5 Towel Pull Ups
3 One-arm Push Ups (each side)
5 Pistol Squats (each side)
Time = 12:15
Bonus: 8 pull ups
I had debated just doing my standard 5 pull up/10 push up/15 prisoner squat routine here, but I decided to see how it'd go if I pushed each movement to a more extreme level. It was hard, but at the same time, it felt good. I might consider swapping out the towel pull ups for either archer pull ups or uneven pull ups, but otherwise, I can definitely see myself doing this routine again.
Wednesday
Type: Pass/Fail
Close Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 12 (pass)
3-limb Bridges - 2 sets of 1, each combination (pass)
L-Hang - 2 sets of 25 breath isometric hold (pass)
Bonus: 8 bridge kips, 5 handstand push ups
Ah, finally moving from isometric three-limb bridges to actually doing the full motion. I'm not going to lie; it was shaky on the way up for each combination aside from no right leg, and going down was closer to a controlled fall than is ideal. However, I got through it, and I look forward to doing better with them next time.
Friday
Type: As Fast As Possible
3 sets of:
11/8/5 Pistol Squats (each side)
21/15/9 Diamond Push Ups
21/15/9 Mountain Climbers (each side)
Time = 9:30
Bonus: 3 one-armed push ups with feet together (each side)
Another beefy pile of pistol squats against a timer here, though with simpler movements to compliment them because my obliques were still a bit sore from Wednesday. It's always a bit hard to judge my performance when I'm doing a workout that I haven't done before, but I felt alright about how this one went. Not great, but better than just scraping by.
Saturday
Type: As Fast As Possible
7 sets of:
7 Pull Ups
7 Bridges
Time = 6:15
Bonus: 1 pull up, 1 bridge
This wasn't the best time I've ever put up for this challenge, but it was better than my most recent performance, which is always good to see. I could try making some excuses about what I was consuming earlier in the day, but ultimately, I have to own the results. And really, it was still good, considering it was within 10% of my personal best. That's within what I'd consider as a reasonable margin of deviation, so no excuses are needed.
