Friday, February 8

Do what you can, not what you can't

Seems simple, but bears repeating.

I meant to do the four tabatas (pullups, lunges, pushups and squats) last night, but I ended up doing three:

pullups (7/4/4/2/2/1/.5/0),
squats (with a band around my knees-- 20/17/19/19/19/20/19/22),
pushups (20/18/15/12/8/8/5+5/4+8).

The pushups started as fingertip pushups, then regular, and then the +x at the end are pushups from the knees. I figure I can do more work that way than just holding myself there. I think I can add to those numbers in the future as I slow down in regular pushups which will help me totally tax myself during each set. I think I can set a goal of hitting 20 each time (with the +x telling me how much further I've got to push for that set to reach 20 real pushups).

If I'm gonna reach the stars, I must first admit that I'm not yet there.

Anyway, I was then so wiped that the prospect of doing a fourth was pure death. The addition of the band around my knees for the squats and the weak-man pushups really took it to me after the pushups were very obviously hard. So I stretched/foam rolled for like 25 minutes. That's 40 minutes of hard, honest work.

"I'ma blu-cola worker."

(We'll pretend that "cola" reads like "colla" and not like a fizzy sugary beverage.)

2 comments:

Smellis said...

I'm glad i remembered your tabata sets before commencing my lunch hour workout.
However, since i am a somewhat long way from doing pushups/pullups, I'd like to re-introduce another, more ultimate-relevant exercise.
How about marking, aka side-to-side shuffling?
Yes, it may require more space than a pushup, but not much more.

dusty.rhodes said...

Already part of the regimen!

I use a bunch of different variations of shuffling and marking and changing directions in small spaces as tabata sets. I find them very useful/beneficial/difficult.

I fyou really want to get into it, you can do things like "shuffle to a spot and do pushups" or shuffle, burpee, pullup or something. Or shuffle, catch, throw. Shuffle, Catch, Throw.