Build Muscle

First mission objective accomplished! I completed today’s challenge in 19 minutes 46 seconds. Oh my gosh the last set of pullups were hard. I was a gasping mess with 5 pullups to go, looked at my watch and saw 19:30. With my arms screaming at me to stop, I managed to fight through the pain and got there just in time.

Every day has been strange, and today was no different. I don’t understand this, but for some reason I had extreme difficulty pushing through the pain barrier (except on the last 5 pullups and that was different). I wasn’t even hitting total positive failure and still just couldn’t keep going. If I were a beginner, it would make sense, but I’ve been lifting for years and never had a problem going to positive failure. Perhaps it was because the temperature was around 30 degrees celsius…

Yesterday’s time was really good, and I knew that to beat it I’d have to get quicker on the floor wipers. The hardest part about the floor wipers is that it’s hard to breathe when you’re doing them. The way the exercise works, both your ribcage and diaphragm are constricted. Sure the exercise is difficult, but being oxygen deprived makes it a lot more so.

I struggled to string a decent set of pushups together, only managing 5-7 after the first 10. On other days, I’ve gotten to 20 or 30 before the first rest. I caned it on the box jumps, though, racing to 30, taking a few seconds to catch my breath, then finishing off the rest. I picked up a minute there, I think.

Now that I’m getting stronger, this challenge is turning more into a fitness challenge, rather than a muscle challenge. Interesting…

Wow, I didn’t think I’d be able to beat yesterday’s time, but I finished the workout in 22 minutes 20 seconds! The time to beat is 20 minutes and I’m almost there. Very happy with the progress.

The floor wipers were slightly easier today. They are still the hardest part by far, but I’m needing less rest in between. The first set of pullups are also getting easier. It’s so strange.

I don’t know whether I need worry about this yet, but my elbow and shoulder joints are starting to get pretty sore right where the muscle attaches to the bone, particularly on the left side. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. It may be that the challenge is starting to take its toll The last set of pullups were really painful and I lost a lot of the time I’d gained.

Other than the joint pain, my body feels like when you worked out really hard and heavy three days ago and the DOMS are just starting to fade. Only 2 more days and I’m done. Really hope my body can stay together long enough to complete the challenge and break through the 20 minute mark.

Seeya tomorrow for hopefully the good news that I’ve broken through 20 minutes

Today’s challenge completed in 25 minutes 1 second, beating yesterday’s time by almost 4 minutes! In 4 days, I’ve decreased my time by 37%, cutting 14 minutes 23 off a time I originally thought was pretty good.

The slowest exercise for me is still the floor wipers, but they weren’t as difficult today as yesterday. I also got through pushups a lot quicker today than before, but the big change was in the initial pullups. I got through them much faster, even though my shoulders were aching. I almost managed to get through all the deadlifts without a break. Got to 40 reps, but failure set in big time and I had to stop. It’s a good feeling to be getting stronger & faster at this challenge.

The strangest thing seems to be happening. I thought by today, half way through the challenge, that I’d be so sore that I’d go slower. But the opposite is happening. Four days in and I only have mild DOMS. It’s fantastic. Each day is slightly easier than the day before (as you can see by the times), even though I’m hitting the exercise just as hard. I’ve also noticed I’m getting fitter, recovering quicker from being out of breath.

The muscle pump you get from doing this workout is amazing. Sure you could do other, less intense exercises to get a pump, but it’s just such a great feeling seeing yourself grow in such a short time.

I’ll take a break over Easter, but I’m already looking for my next one week challenge