Report Card time again... 3 Quarters of 2023 just lapsed. Just a quick glance basing on the overall and average numbers now.
PULLUP Surprisingly, monthly pullup average has remained very consistent with a +/- of just around 7, despite my best efforts to reduce quantities this year due to various reasons. While numbers stay the same-- weighted pullups were also added since ~ May 2023.
2022 had more fluctuations in the months which ranged as wide as 483 at the start in Jul to 1091 in Dec when going ballistic after Covid to reach a total of 5000 before the year end.
2023 Jan-Sep has been more consistent in month to month figures and vary between 727 - 976... averaging ~830.
"What! 12.5K pullups but less than 15.5K pushups?..."
PUSHUPS Overall, pushups has never seemed to be in a greater quantity as justified by the difficulty level comparing to pullups.
While there has always been a greater emphasis and my mind to gravitate towards pulling each day, another reason is because 85-90% of my pushups are diamond push ups. Another 5 to 7% are rings, pike and more challenging variations. Normal pushups makes up very little in the overall quantity. I see pushup as really the filler workhorse even with the UpperBod Trinity
DIPS would be the most "inconsistent" of the trio... In part there were a couple of months I dis-assembled the dip bar and was kinda lack luster on those dip extension attached on the pullup stand as it wasn't optimally space or at a good height. Dipping count partly increased later when "daily" Straight Bar Dips done near the carpark on the way home before evening workouts was added.
----------------------------------
More days this month with overall lower energy level. 8-9 days of traveling and another 5-6 days nursing a cold.
Ok, not much epiphany or new mind-body connection discovery to talk about this month. Just having a good feeling that the recent running improvement on my regular 6k route has translated into more during the Race Against Cancer event with my sub 1hr for 10km.
Of Injuries and Recovery...
At least things are positive here.... shoulder on the road to recovery. Almost there as evidenced by this month's tryout with all those weird pushup variations like this here and another here that really get to test shoulder strength and stability.
Time to put some thoughts with starting on the Human Flag now.
Although shoulder mobility has improved but getting into a simple asana during yoga last week made me realize that to have true mobility, a lot more work still has to be done. Then again thinking back to earlier this year, I'm certainly not complaining now. Thankfully I have decided to take the steps and correct the issues.
Daily "shoulder-dislocation" exercise is a default these days. A must to keep everything "oiled" and moving. Even more so than what I had already written months earlier.
Other areas of mobility weakness that starts to surface are hips and ankles. But one thing at a time...
The battling against things aging is not just a one dimensional war. Its a whole bloody campaign as I am finding out by the day. In gaining or re-gaining some ground, we lose some. Like battles, one need resources. Time is one very important resource for which most of us are often short of. We may have to give up one front to pour in more focus to save another as the battles ensue.
This comes down to prioritizing and planning. As eluded earlier... these few months I'm gradually backing off from the crazy chase towards all the different pullup goals set earlier. There simply isn't enough time to continue like last year's intensity (even if potential of injuries are ignored) because doing all of that would exhaust too much energy and time now required to cover other areas of the body and components of overall fitness.
I have decided to reduce the amount of training on pullups but have a baseline to know if its getting too far off by having a few quick test per month to see if I can maintain 15 or more. Yet more abbreviations and this one I called it MPUG - Monthly Pull Up Gauge explained along with a detail of all my IGPs - Intermediate Goals for PullUps written here a few days back.