Fourth (and final) day this week doing bodyweight exercises. This time it was similar to Day 2, Legs and Core.

Side Lunges

7.5 minutes

I was confused by these quite a bit and kept wanting to just shift my weight back and forth. I’ll do better next week.

• one ladder of 8
• Total: 64 lunges

Alternating 1-Legged Romanian Dead Lifts

7.5 minutes

Got into a good rhythm with these and did a lot better than last time.

• one ladder of 10
• 15 extra reps
• Total: 115 lifts for each side (30 more than Tuesday)

Squats with 1 second pause at the bottom

7.5 minutes

The pause really threw off my pacing. Ended up doing a few less reps but not by much.

• one ladder of 11
• Total: 121 squats (-5 from Tuesday)

Side Crunches

7.5 minutes

These were almost bicycle crunches, just without the leg movement (legs are fixed at 90°). Afterwards I noticed I was pulling on my neck too much and had some neck pain for about an hour later.

• one ladder of 9
• 18 extra reps
• Total: 99 crunches

Overall

Was a pretty good workout. I need to practice my side lunges some more but I was happy with how hard I pushed on the other exercises. 7/10

The plan only calls for 4 days this week so I get to take a few days off until next Monday. I might try to get in a run on Saturday if the weather stays nice, I found a route that is just over a 5K and I’d like to see how I can do.

Third day doing bodyweight exercises. I’m really surprised at how sore I’m getting, my arms still hurt from Monday and today I got to work them out again.

Push ups

7.5 minutes

Still using the couch.

• one ladder of 9
• one ladder of 3
• Total: 90 push ups (1 less than Monday)

Let me ins

7.5 minutes

Used the garage door for this but wrapped it in my shirt this time, which helped out a lot.

• one ladder of 10
• 4 extra reps
• Total: 104 let me ins (24 more than Monday)

Seated dips

7.5 minutes

OMG someone chop off my arms please!

• one ladder of 9
• 25 extra reps
• Total: 106 dips (36 more than Monday)

Let me ups

7.5 minutes

Really pushed myself on this one once I got my grip figured out. It still killed me after the dips…

• one ladder of 6
• one ladder of 4
• 3 extra reps
• Total: 55 let me ups (19 more than Monday)

Overall

Other than the push ups, I was able to do more reps of everything today. The key factor was to keep going, even after I felt like I was dead tired. A 9/10 effort, judging by how sweaty the mat ended up 🙂

Did the second workout from You Are Your Own Gym‘s beginner exercise program. It was mostly legs and my quads are killing me now.

Alternating Back Lunges

7.5 minutes

• one ladder of 9
• one half ladder of 4
• Total: 91 lunges for each leg

Alternating 1-Legged Romanian Dead Lifts

7.5 minutes

Surprised at how unbalanced I was on my left leg when compared to my right.

• one ladder of 8
• one half ladder of 6
• Total: 85 lifts for each side

Squats

7.5 minutes

Here is where my quads were burning.

• one ladder of 10
• one ladder of 5
• Total: 125 squats

Swimmers

7.5 minutes

These started off easy but they got hard really fast. I think it was the “hold for 3 seconds per side” part that really burned. I can see how this builds endurance.

• one ladder of 5
• 6 extra reps
• Total: 31 swims, both sides

Overall

Really good workout with a good focus on legs. The swimmers even brought in some arm usage and finished me off. Definitely a 8/10 workout, next time I need to go higher in the first ladder.

After researching kettlebell workouts, I decided to wait until I’m fully healed before I start using them. I feel there is too much risk to them without having my hands 100%.

Instead I got You Are Your Own Gym and started it’s beginner exercise programs. You Are Your Own Gym is all about bodyweight exercises so it will be easier to get started with (no equipment) and I can limit my hand usage as needed.

Today during lunch I started with the Muscular Endurance block (week 1-2) using Ladders (I hate ladders. See the end for a description of a Ladder). The point of this week is to get my muscles so they can last longer (endurance) which has been a problem of mine, especially with my triceps. This would be considered a High Volume, Low Intensity workout (HVLT).

Push ups

7.5 minutes

Put my hands on the arm rest of the couch, a little more than 2.5 feet tall. The wide padded armrest also helped my hand, since my pinky didn’t have to grip.

• one ladder of 9
• one half ladder of 4
• Total: 91 push ups

Let me ins

7.5 minutes

Used the garage door for this. Left hand started hurting before I got tired so I couldn’t give 100%.

• one ladder of 8
• one ladder of 4
• Total: 80 let me ins

Seated dips

7.5 minutes

Used the armrest of the couch again for this.

• one ladder of 7
• one half ladder of 6
• Total: 70 dips

Let me ups

7.5 minutes

This was the hardest of them all. I used the overhang of our kitchen counter for this but I had to use an underhand grip on it. This put a lot of stress on my finger and as a result I could only grab with 2 fingers and my thumb on my left hand.

• one ladder of 6
• Total: 36 let me ups

Overall

It was a good workout to get started. I’d say I put in a 7/10 effort on it with finger pain keeping me from really pushing myself. It did take over an hour to perform everything though, including warm ups and cool downs. The biggest problem was I had to look the exercises up and then find the best place in the house to perform each one. Next time it should get easier.

Ladder

For those who don’t know, ladders are a way to progressively increase the number of times (reps) you do an exercise. For example a 4 ladder would have you do an exercise like so:

• 1 rep
• rest
• 2 rep
• rest
• 3 rep
• rest
• 4 rep (top of the ladder)
• rest
• 3 rep
• rest
• 2 rep
• rest
• 1 rep (done)