3 JAN: Ego has left the building

Sad days friends! I've been putting this off for long enough and I finally did it. And I know exactly why I put it off. There is nothing more humbling and at the same time motivating as testing yourself. Test yourself honestly, in a measured repeatable way, and you strip out the ability to fudge numbers or approximate.

I tested my anaerobic endurance and was smashed by my own protocol.

Here's the basic setup:
  • 4 movement patterns designed to test basic level of anaerobic endurance, and cover 90% of your body's musculature
  • 3 minute time limit for each 'event'
  • 3 minute rest between each event

And the events are:

  1. Ab wheel
  2. Pushup
  3. Sumo grip high pull
  4. Hindu squat

Keep in mind that fighters get 3 minute work intervals and 1 minute rest. I was giving myself 3 minutes rest, and often times it was a bit longer because I wasn't able to do but one event for the full three minutes.

My paltry results:

  1. Ab wheel: 35 (not bad, but could be much better)
  2. Pushup: 25 (TERRIBLE!!!!)
  3. Sumo grip high pull: 95 lbs x 30 (TERRIBLE!!!!)
  4. Hindu squats: 106 (Not bad. This is the only event where time ran out before my body gave out)

After the baseline, I did some chinup and pullup ladders with my wife. Nothing too hard.

  1. Medium grip pullups: 1,2,3,1,2,3
  2. Close grip chinups: 1,2,3,1,2,3
  3. Negative-only chin up: 27 seconds, 29 seconds

This is my new baseline. In a word, it is shitty. I'm coming back to this in 4 weeks and shooting for:
Ab wheel: 45
Pushup: 45
SGHP: 45
Hindu squats: 125

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