Alright. It’s time. My goal was to test my strength quarterly, using a specific test that I’ve done a half-dozen times since 2013. So on Sunday, I got down to business, and here are the results. (Spoiler – I improved slightly in all measurable areas but not as much as I would have liked.)

Pull-ups: In January, I was able to hang from the pull-up bar for 12 seconds (forget doing an actual pull-up!). Three months later, that time went up to 16 seconds. Honestly, I expect this would be longer if not for the factors in the note below.

Push-ups: Another small improvement, from 8 to 12.  I’m still a far way from my pre-gain numbers, but I’m getting there slowly. (Note: These are full push-ups, rather than the on-the-knees kind.)

Toe touch: This one surprised me. I was already seven inches past my toes in January, a huge improvement from before I started doing yoga. I was not expecting to be nine inches past them now. !!!

V-crunches (no hands): I had another slight improvement, from 16 to 19.

Wall squat: This is another place that, like pull-ups, I imagine I’d do better on if not for the factors noted below. With my thighs already shaky from the previous day’s workout, it wasn’t the best time for wall squats, but I still managed to improve my time by a measly six seconds, from 1:09 to 1:15. (Morrigan, who did the strength test as well, was two seconds short of five minutes on his wall squat!!!)

Arm curls to failure: I can’t really say if I had any improvement on this. Last time, I messed up the test the first time and had to do a second round, and I used a lighter poundage (10 lbs in each hand, for 23 reps). I used 16 lbs in each hand this time for a greater challenge, and completed 10 reps. So I don’t know if that’s an improvement, but I like the new baseline better.

Note: Sunday was probably the worst day possible for doing this particular test. The night before, we had a celebratory dinner (Morrigan made State in Solo & Ensemble!) of pizza, wine, and ice cream. I didn’t sleep well, woke up early, and was sore/swollen from a super-tough lunges-based yoga workout on Saturday. None of that makes for particularly good strength-testing conditions, heh. But hey, it is what it is. Maybe in early July, my results will be stellar compared to these, haha!