rantOgram

December Reflections each year as usual are always the longest of these write-ups. But first, the Reps and Miles... No "red" unfinished business this year. All completed by Christmas Day. Exactly 2.5 years of daily logging that debut with only 3 exercises, Pull, Push, Dips + Runs.  Dragonflags, Squats and LsitChinUps added in Oct-Nov 2022. Everything stayed as is until this year, where one final column was added in September. MuscleUps. Rep-goals remained similar to 2023 but with increase in weighted reps and more of harder variations (eg unilateral vs normal squats) in 2024. In short its the same (quantity) but "more" in a way.  As usual, December is always about watching out what's lagging behind and playing catch-up. In the last 2 weeks of the year it was pushup (just like last year) and squats. Pushups were easier to finish but squats was a strain as it affects running which also had some mileage left. Everyday in Dec became a fine balance between these two....

The month kicked off for the first few days being sick right after a trip to Jakarta at the end of October. While down with the cold, did the occasional weighted Dragon Flag test with my 2 x 2.25kg ankle weights. Finally, a passable 8 rep set after 2 plus years Followed by another trip to China on the 7th-9th Nov next and  surprisingly-- that's where I hit a running PR, Not my usual running distance but a 10km. I attribute it to the nice 15C weather there that day Had a few more weighted dip sessions after coming back from China... but nothing to shout about. Had been re-assessing how I should approach and attack weighted dips. It's something I'll probably work on in 2025.  Looking at the "Daily Salad Menu" -- there's quite a fair bit of PushUp and Dips to catch up this time for the "Year Quota". While dreading to put in more for squats-- the running part was also beckoning. Squats plus runs, now that's quite a bit to juggle. Anyway, still manag...

 As usual, things keep changing, the Chest and Myorepping article was a spinoff from the Creatine series... Today is the second writeup on Chest program at the gym. It turns out to be more difficult than first thought. As such, I added another table that removes any warmup and machine exercises data out of the equation. Overall the raw data table... Orange = last rep close to failure. Red = ...to failure point   Chest Day Main Course Progressive overload on BenchPress myorepping is via increasing reps and sets rather than weight now.   For DumbellPress its all three :- weight, sets and load but it won't be happening all at the same time with each successive session. Yesterday just happened to be a good day to nail all three.   PullOvers aren't exactly a main exercise but has been inserted to open up the various muscle and help re-set the shoulders and scapula after all the pressing motion.    The Round the World ( RTW ) is really more of an endurance-...