I ate ground beef chili with carrots and beet greens at 5:30 AM when I woke up before my alarm hungry today. I went back to bed and snoozed until 7 AM and began work at my desk 15 minutes later. It was a busy day and I did not stand up until 3 PM, so I never got to the gym and didn’t eat lunch. Rather than delay my home workout any longer, I drank a glass of water and went outside to train. The weather was mild enough that I was comfortable in a tee shirt and long pants.

I suffered pain in my arms/elbows when I was doing goblet squat curls yesterday. My wife brought her cold laser home from the animal clinic last night and I got 9 minutes of treatment on each arm. Today I had no pain when I completed my normal start-up routine of goblet squats, goblet curls, and halos. The cold laser is magical.

My plan with pull-ups was to complete 5 sets of 4 reps to start and then shift to 5 sets of 3. I followed each set of pull-ups with 10 one-handed swings with the 24-kg kettlebell. I struggled to get the third rep on the 7th set, so I shifted to sets of 2 and kept going until I completed 40 pull-ups. I have never counted my body weight in total weight before, but decided to start today. With my body weight of 190 pounds, 40 reps means I pulled 7600 pounds. I would not have started counting my body weight if I had made it to the gym and completed deadlifts today, but now that I see the weight involved, I will probably keep counting it.

40 dead-hang pull-ups in a day is a new personal record, beating my old record of 35 pull-ups that I achieved on 26 November in two ways. My earlier record was achieved across two workouts – 20 pull-ups during my mid-morning workout at home and 15 at my early afternoon workout at the gym. These 40 pull-ups were completed within one 30-35 minute period. And honestly, I think pull-ups are easier at the gym.

I began doing get-ups when I completed 100 one-handed swings. I completed 2 sets of 2 followed by 2 pull-ups and then finished with 1 set of 6 followed by 2 pull-ups. Then I fooled around with trying to bent press with an 18 pound kettlebell. I can press a 44 pound kettlebell with either hand, but get wobbly when I try to bent press. There is something about the position that makes me feel unstable. I gave up after about 6 tries, completed 2 more pull-ups and called it a day.

Between various sets, I spent about 10 minutes doing Original Strength resets – standing cross-crawls, rocking, and neck nods.

After my workout, I ate my second meal of the day – more ground beef chili with carrots, beet greens, and some sliced Yukon gold potatoes. Not exactly a low-fat post-workout meal, but it hit the spot.

Quick summary:

Prying goblet squats
20 kg kettlebell – 3 x 5 = 15 reps, 660 pounds

Goblet squat curls
20 kg kettlebell –3 x 5 = 15 reps, 660 pounds

Halos: 12 kg kettlebell – 3 x 10 = 30 reps, 780 pounds

One-handed swings
24 kg kettlebell – 10 x 10 = 100 reps, 5300 pounds

Get-ups
20 kg kettlebell – 5 x 1 L/R = 10 reps, 440 pounds

Pull-ups – 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 = 40 reps
Body weight 190 x 40 = 7600 pounds

Total weight: 15,440 pounds