04 October 2011

Of Maxes, Circuits, Plyos, Planks and Push-ups

Yesterday was the start of an increase in a lot of things.  My white-board states a goal of increasing stress by increasing mileage and work done during my circuit training.  3 weeks ago I maxed out on push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups.  3 days a week I would perform the circuit and yesterday I maxed out again to measure improvement.  Here are my gains, needless to say I am very happy:

Area                                              3 weeks ago             Yesterday
Push-ups                                             32                             44
Sit-ups                                                 40                             70
Pull-ups (front "harder" way)              8                              14
Pull-ups (back, "easier" way)        didn't do it                     12

I was also doing a combination of plyometrics/callistenics, about 10 of them, 30 seconds for each one, 2 sets.  I have increased that to 40 seconds for each one and 3 full sets.  I do that 3 times per week as part of my circuit.

In addition to that I do trunks (as we called them in high school), I think others call them planks.  I was doing each position (7 of them) for 23 seconds each and 2 sets per circuit.  Starting yesterday I did each position for 30 seconds and I did 3 sets.  I will be doing 3 sets per circuit.  Man, they are difficult.  By the end my whole body is shaking.  I didn't know if I was going to be able to do 3 full sets, but I kept telling myself that even if I didn't complete the set, I was going to at least start it, and I did, and I completed it.  It was a small victory for me.  The video below shows what trunks are, and also how I do my push-ups and sit-ups:



So I take my maxes, divide them in half, and then each time I do a circuit I do that half-max 3 times like this:

On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, before I run I would do a set of plyos, a set of trunks, another set of plyos and another set of trunks, then the final set of plyos and the final set of trunks.  Run.  Then come back and do 7 pull-ups (front-"hard"), 22 push-ups, 6 pull-ups (back-"easy"), 35 sit-ups and do that 3 times in a row.

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