Back in July I was intrigued by an article of a person squatting for a 100 days in a row , and thought that maybe I could pull something like this off.
Being curious I thought about it for a few days and thought about possible scenarios - due to meniscus damage in my left knee squatting and deadlifting for a hundred days was out of the question.
And I knew that descpite my bike riding and my press and swing routines I was not really in as good a shape as could have been.
So on July 26 I started to train for a hundred days in a row, and today has been the last day.
I focused mainly on movements that were not really hard and taxing on the body, since I was scared that with surgery looming on the horizon I did not want to further damage the knee.
On some days all I could manage were multiple sets of push-ups, on others I was doing a little more.
Goal was to not drive my body into a wall, so that I could handle the challenge.
Remembering that strength might be a skill, and that while upping the volume there should be enough left to come back the next day I took it easy and left my ego literally at the door. Some days I did not feel like finishing that last set of military presses, on others I had to restrain myself from wanting to do more thanw as planned.
After surgery I focused on push-ups and pull-ups and chin-ups, and after that I did a classic beginner's split routine for the upper body.
Today I took out my calculator and took stock - some numbers really impress me, while I thought that other figures might be higher.
Push-ups 1,141
Goblet Squat with a controlled curl at the bottom
32 kb - 38
24 kb - 372
16 kb - 593
Clean and press
24 kb - 201
16 kb - 124
bottoms-up press
8 kb - 218 (left and right)
16 kb - 179 (left and right)
pull-ups
171 (a few sets were done with extra weight, either 2.5 or 5 kg)
chin-ups
128 (same as above, some with extra weight)
swings
24 kb - 945
16 kb - 745 (a few sets were one-arm swings)
Various other work sets of one-arm dumbbell rows, power cleans from hang, kb snatches with both 16 and 24 kb, db bench presses and Arnold presses, as well as various curls, french presses and pullovers.
What I found out was that along with focusing on clea technique the worst enemy is the mind, not the body. Some days I really had to force myself out into the garage.
I am pretty happy about it, since in the beginning I thought I might not be tough enough.
Question is, can I stop now, or continue to train very single day? At present I am on a daily diet of pull-ups/chin-ups and one-arm presses, five sets of either max reps, three reps or five reps, depending on the day, the plan and my mood.
There is no emotional buy-in to do it, just as heavy as my technique allows. And sometimes just light.
Has anyone of you guys done something similar? Feel free to share your thoughts, insights and stories.
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer