Welcome to my fourth week following the workout in Steve Speirs's book 7 Weeks to 100 Pushups. As with last week's report, I've listed the workout schedule for each day, followed by what I actually did. (The "R" stands for Ruthless Golf.)
You may remember that I decided to repeat Week 3 after all the problems I had last week. Well, it was still a struggle, but I came close:
M: 11 - 14 - 11 - 11 - 16+
R: 11 - 14 - 11 - 11 - 13
My right shoulder is definitely a weak spot here, as I actually felt it give out on me this time. After three weeks on the program, the difference in size between my right and left shoulder muscles has become obvious enough that I can feel it with my fingers. I guess I've been letting my left side "shoulder" more of the burden. (That's too good a pun to pass up!) After a little rest, I did a set of 25 one-armed standing pushups, as described in last Sunday's post, as part of my effort to help the right side catch up.
Wednesday turned out to be a busy day, and I ended up doing my workout very late again. It's hard for me to be too disappointed, though:
W: 12 - 15 - 12 - 12 - 18+
R: 12 - 15 - 12 - 12 - 14
That's a total of 65 pushups, a record so far. No, I didn't scream as much as Lindsey Vonn when she won the downhill, but I was pretty psyched up! I might could have squeezed out one more pushup, maybe two... but I remember how much it took out of me last time I had to work out so late, so I didn't push it. Also, no extra one-arm work for my right shoulder tonight. I'm just going to rest on my laurels and see what happens Friday.
I felt ok Thursday and Friday, but it was late again when I got to work out.
F: 13 - 16 - 14 - 14 - 20+
R: 13 - 16 - 14 - 13 - 13
That's a total of 69 pushups, by far my best showing yet. Obviously I'm still struggling at the end of the workout, but I'm improving. Both of my arms gave out in the last set; I got about halfway up on the 14th pushup and simply couldn't go any farther. After a couple of seconds of pushing but going nowhere, I dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Oh well, at least I improved this week.
Saturday I woke up a bit tired, but nothing worth writing home about. And now, Saturday night, I feel pretty much like normal. We'll see what happens next week, but I feel like I'm close to putting it all together.
Stay tuned for further details... ;-)
2 comments: