Dufisthenics

Al Kavadlo, one of my favorite people in the body weight/bar/calisthenics community posted an article about the “Century Test”.   The physical test is part of a greater certification to become a PCC, a Progressive Calisthenics Certification.

The test has male and female variations.

For men it includes:

40 Squats (body weight)
30 Push ups
20 Hanging Knee Raises
10 Pull ups

For women:

40 Squats (body weight)
30 Knee Push ups
20 Hanging Knee Raises
10 Australian Pull ups

Each exercise has to be done with proper form and range of motion.  Each exercise set has to be unbroken although you can rest between the different exercise varieties.

I did the work out as a warm up at the gym yesterday.  It was made more challenging by two sore legs and sore forearms.  The circuit took me 3:45 to complete, a little slower than I would expect.  I am hoping to do it again when feeling 100%.  I’d hope to get closer to three minutes.  It was tougher than you would expect.

Last night on the way home from work I got it in my head I wanted to make one last attempt at the push up set from this months BB forum challenge.  I had tried it twice so far this month, the first time netting 58 reps, the second time bailing out at 50 reps.  I wanted to get to 60 reps.

This goal was not well timed since the sore legs and forearms (tendons) I dealt with in the Century challenge actually had clicked up a few notches in discomfort.  I also had a pair of sore triceps from pretty intensive tri work on Tuesday.

Well despite these issues my head wanted 60 reps and once again, as I have experienced many times, the head is ultimately the muscle that matters the most.  I squeezed out rep 60 with a second or two to spare.  As far as I can recall this is the first time I have ever done 60 chest to floor push ups in one set.

My forearms feel awful today, more specifically the tendons.  I need to be careful.  I have been plowing through some tendon pain doing things like planche lean holds, back lever progressions and pull ups that all work those same tendons in a major way.  The last thing I need to do is cross the line where I fall back into the chronic tendinitis trap.  Trying to straighten my right arm currently is a painful act.

I bought some accessories for my pull up bar that I hope to install this weekend.  It hopefully will allow me to add a new twist to my pull ups in the future.  I’ll document it all here of course.

Hoping to run 10 miles this weekend.