Exercise Analysis – Midterm Edition

In accordance with my nutritional goals, I weighed myself this morning and came in at 355 pounds. This is actually better than I expected because of the long weekend in Boston and the awesome Valentines Day dinner on Saturday. I mean, we waited so long the restaurant comp'd us a free appetizer of the best mac 'n cheese you've ever tasted! This leaves me at 11 pounds under my weight at the start of January, and I hope to shave off a few more pounds this week as the beer bloat exits stage left.

I slacked off about posting the results of the January Post-test/February Pre-test. In the chart below, I posted my baseline from the beginning of January, the results of the testing at the start of February, and my goals for the end of February test coming up in just under two weeks.

Exercise	January 3	January 31 (Goal)	% Change	Goal for Feb. 25
Fifty-Fives (55s)	10	11.5 (12)	+15%	13
Regular Pushups	24	35 (30)	+45.83%	40
Assisted Pushups	10	10 (--)	0.0%	10
Regular Dips	18	23 (20)	+27.78%	30
Assisted Dips	6	10 (--)	+66.67%	10
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	18	17 (30)	-5.55%	20
Planks to failure	55 sec	1:04 (1:15)	+16.36%	1:15

For the uninitiated, Fifty-Fives refer to the width of a basketball court from sideline to sideline (in feet). The test is a cardio replacement for the mile run when it's cold. The number listed is the highest number of sprinted, one-way trips across the court completed in one minute. Across is one, back is two, etc. For a frame of reference, Ryan says a prospective high school basketball player must complete 16 trips under a minute to be eligible for the varsity squad.

I must have eaten my Wheaties on January 30^th! I made substantial improvement in every category except sit-ups, even if I didn't quite make my goals. I am still getting used to how much improvement to expect on a month to month basis, so the targets are more art than science. I think I'm still in the finger painting era.

Anyways, January was a weird month, coming on the heels of the Holidays and then Snowpocolypse barricading us in our homes for a full week. All in all, I feel good about where I'm at and the workouts we've had the last 2 weeks. I suppose we'll find out if my optimism is warranted on the 25^th!