Weight Lifting at Home: a Pull-Up PR

I shared a photo like this early on in this COVID-19 mess, but here's a shot of our living room transformed into "weights" mode on Saturday morning:

(Nevermind the Legos by the fireplace and robot parts on the bench in the background...)

That's a 25 year old decline sit-up board propped up to nearly level with a dining room chair, some 30 lb weights for bicep curls, a single 40 lb weight for dumbbell rows (I got out the 2nd 40 lb weight a bit later for a set of 40s for my biceps), and another chair in the distance for doing tricep dips (I put my hands on that chair and my heels on the bench, and then I dip my butt to the floor).

I did circuits for 70 minutes on Saturday:

- PUSHUPS (27-32, averaging 30/set)
- DUMBBELL ROWS (20 each side/set)
- PULL-UPS (7-9/set)
- BICEP HAMMER CURLS (30-38/set)
- TRICEP DIPS (25-30/set)

Repeat 7x

(After the 4th round, I did 8 minutes of my physical therapy shoulder exercises before doing the last 3 rounds.)

I averaged 30 pushups/round, so I did 210 push ups, which might be a daily PR. And I'm also pretty sure that my pull-ups were a daily PR: I did 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, and 7 for a total of 56 pull-ups. I noted that I did 52 pull ups in a similar 7x circuit workout on March 1st. And back in December, I noted that I did 52 pull-ups in a circuit workout and that was a daily PR.

The downside is that my "pull-up bar" at home is very close to a wall (it's a pipe to hang clothes on), so they are just a bit awkward to do. Ever since I've been lifting at home (since COVID-19 closed my gym and my college's gym), my pull-up count/set has went down a bit. That December PR of 52 pull-ups was only SIX rounds (doing 8 or 9 each time). This past weekend of doing 56 pull ups was SEVEN rounds (average 8 each time). And in this post from December, I noted doing 45 pull-ups in 5 sets (so averaging 9/set).

But for the most part, "at home lifting" has been going quite well! Never thought I'd be in this spot a few months ago! Thanks to Charlie R and Rachel B for letting me borrow their dumbbells!