The Failure Workout

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Since our son was born I’m pretty pressed for time. Hell, I have been pressed for time since I started a new job on the other end of the city which requires an 80 minute commute via public transit. On top of that, when we bought our house last year–and I elected to keep the condo as a rental property–my personal budget was pretty much stretched to the max, e.g. no more gym membership.

But it’s October 2017, and throughout the past month somehow my body has been slowly losing weight. I’m not sure if its fat (yay!) or muscle mass (boo!); but I haven’t really done anything different except to only eat what’s in front of me.. I guess that’s a good thing! My oh-so-better-half makes me super healthy food, so I am eating better without any effort.

I wanted to try a new workout. Prerequisites in order of most to least important:

  • Must be able to do at home (i.e. no equpiment which would normally only be at a gym)
  • Must minimize time commitment
  • Mustn’t be boring

To that end, I’ve created the “failure workout”:

  • Monday: Push-ups to failure
  • Tuesday: Sit-ups to failure
  • Wednesday: 30# kettle-bell swings to failure
  • Thursday: Push-ups to failure
  • Friday: Sit-ups to failure
  • Saturday: 30# kettle-bell swings to failure
  • Sunday: rest

I should be able to do any one workout in less than 5 minutes, in street clothes. The shake-up (e.g. three exercises spread over a week) gives me some variety, and except for the kettle-bell, no equipment is needed. The 30# kettle-bell weight was selected arbitrarily becaues I have a kettle-bell exactly with that exact weight. My thinking is that the push-ups will work chest, sit-ups core, and kettle-bell swings the posterior chain, which should give a good full body workout. There are no back exercises, but depending on how this works I can work those in in another month. The key I think is to have three exercises, which allows for a nice twice-a-week-per-exercise regime, and opens things up for variety.

I’ve also been obsessesed with hitting the 100 push-up mark, and if I keep going to failure, I’m wondering if this will get me there. With two days off between sets, that should give my body enough time to recover.

I’ll post my progress as the days go by!