20/09/2009 – Eid mubarak

Sleep:
6 hours total (6 hours at night, 0 hours during the day)

Workout:
Rest day

It’s Eid! I stayed home so I didn’t do many Eid-like things, but it’s Eid nonetheless. 🙂 I hope everyone had a great day and a beneficial Ramadan, and best wishes for the year to come inshaAllah.

I tried to do a pull-up today around 11am and got slightly less than eyes-to-bar. I tried to do another one around 9pm and the bar fell on my head. Tip of the day: if you have a doorway pull-up bar that rests on the trim at the top of the door, make sure it’s actually resting on the trim before you put your weight on it! Mine was about halfway off, but when I tugged at it to check if it was stable, it didn’t move, so I assumed it was all the way on. Putting my whole bodyweight on it didn’t have the same result. I have a bump on my head now. But I put it right back up and tried my pull-up anyway, and got the top of my head up to the bar. It seems that my first pull-up of the day is always the strongest one, no matter how long I wait in between attempts. (By the way, my head is fine. I’m not dizzy and don’t have a headache. It’s just a small dime-sized bump, nothing to worry about inshaAllah).

Day 29

Sleep:
3 hours total (3 hours at night, 0 hours during the day)

Workout:
Rest day

The ECF Challenge was AWESOME!! Can’t wait for next year! I tried two pull-ups three hours apart. The first was almost a full pull-up! My chin was just under the bar! The second was to eye-level, but I guess my arms were still tired. Once I get one pull-up, hopefully my recovery time between pull-ups will decrease… Looking forward to trying again tomorrow night! I might just meet my goal inshaAllah!

Day 28

Sleep:
5 hours total (5 hours at night, 0 hours during the day)

Workout:
10 kettlebell swings @ 1.5 pood (men), 1 pood (women)
5 burpees
5 rounds
[5:09. Kettlebell swings with 3/4 pood (26 lbs). We had a shorter workout today because of the Element CrossFit Challenge tomorrow (!). Next time I think I might try the 1 pood (35 lb) kettlebell, depending on how many reps there are in the workout.]

Ahh pull-ups. Yesterday I tried using the lightest band with my knee in it instead of my foot and I couldn’t do one proper pull-up. Today, on my first attempt at a strict unassisted pull-up, I got the top of my head just barely over the bar (but I wasn’t yet at eye-level). Huge improvement. I could only do it once though; the next few attempts I managed to get my elbows just up to 90 degrees. I did 10 sets of 1 with my knee in the lightest band (failed one at the beginning but got the next ten without too much difficulty). The fact that I failed at the beginning but managed to get all the rest makes me think it’s more psychological than physical. Anyway, I’m volunteering at the Challenge tomorrow, so I’ll try to sneak onto a pull-up bar when no one’s looking and see if I can do it yet. It’s really amazing the difference one day can make…

Day 27

Sleep:
6 hours total (6 hours at night, 0 hours during the day)

Workout:
“The Chief”:
3 power cleans @ 135 lbs (men), 95 lbs (women)
6 push-ups
9 squats
AMRAP in 3 minutes
1 minute rest
5 cycles of all of the above
[2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 8 rounds. Power cleans with 53 lbs. Push-ups to 35 lb plate. The push-ups used up all of my time; the power cleans were hard as well but got better as the workout progressed. My arms are still sore from yesterday so that made it harder.]

Worked on pull-ups again. Did 5 sets of 3 with the lightest band, and found it much easier than yesterday. So I tried to make it a little harder: Usually I put one foot in the band and wrap the other foot in front so that the band doesn’t snap up into my face. I tried putting my knee in the band instead, so that the band wouldn’t be stretched as much (thus less resistance) and it made a huge difference. The first time I tried, I got just a little bit higher than I do without any band. On the next two attempts, my chin almost went over. Almost. I’ll work on it a bit more tomorrow and see how things go. It doesn’t look like I’m going to meet my goal of Sunday but I’m still trying!

Day 26

Sleep:
6 hours total (6 hours at night, 0 hours during the day)

Workout:
I worked on pull-ups for a bit before starting my workout. I can do 5 pull-ups using the thin purple band (the lightest resistance band), but I’m still stuck at halfway on unassisted pull-ups. I did 3 sets of 5 using the thin purple band, did a few negatives and worked on swinging a bit. Hopefully I’ll be able to get over halfway when I try again tomorrow. Only a few days left. 😦

Deadlift 7-7-7-7-7
[85-105-115-120-125]

Overhead squat 7-7-7-7-7
[22-27-32-37-37]

21 sumo deadlift high-pulls
12 pull-ups
200m run
AMRAP in 20 minutes
[3 rounds (plus 21 SDHP and 6 pull-ups). SDHP with 42 lbs, pull-ups with thick purple and thin purple resistance bands. My shoulders were tired from all the other stuff.]