Monitor Your Progress

Chances are that if you just started following this blog, you are looking to start a new stage in your training.  I recently relocated to Bloomington, IL, where I'm working for GE this summer, and although I've been working out daily since then, I'm just now feeling settled in, and I'm looking to step things up a bit now that I have all of the moving details out of the way.

Before you start, I suggest establishing a baseline of your current fitness and conditioning.  This could include stats such as your weight or resting heart rate, as well as simple fitness tests.  This morning I chose to do the Marine Corps fitness test, which consists of as many pull-ups as you can do (start each one from a DEAD HANG -- I can't stand it when people don't go all the way up and all the way down), a three mile run, and as many sit-ups as you can in two minutes.  My numbers were: 13 pull-ups, 3 miles in 20:17, and 139 sit-ups.  I wasn't pleased with my pull-ups or my run time, but that's not the point.  The reason for doing this is to see how you improve and to make sure you stay on track for your goals.

I plan on repeating this test about a month from now and then once more at the end of summer.  Those are the ones that matter more.  I'm planning on performing better each time.  If I don't, then that means I'll need to adjust my training.  You can choose whatever time intervals you want for testing yourself; a good idea might be to evaluate yourself before your wrestling season, midway through it, and near the end of the season.  I'll post my results the next two times, and if anyone else wants to post theirs in a comment, we can follow our progress throughout the summer.

Start training,
Jeff