December by the Numbers

Welcome to this month’s by the numbers, where I look back at the data that my watch collects over the month. I look back to spot trends and make adjustments for the next month. It’s been a useful exercise for me, and I encourage you to do the same. Let’s get into it.

Steps: 281,202 total steps for a daily average of 9,071.

I feel like I say this every month: higher than I expected. Something I learned last month, while doing a lot of kettlebell swings, is that my watch would count the swings as steps. At first I was annoyed at this revelation - only steps should count as steps! Then I realized if I do a 600 kettlebell swing workout, and get 600 steps from it, that’s nothing if trying to get into the tens of thousands.  This discussions has evolved into what activities should count towards your step goal? Only steps? Or should movements like kb swings be okay, because you’re moving anyway?

Sleep: Average sleep 7 hours 2 minutes, average sleep score 79

December was a tough sleep month. Lowest average of the year, and not too surprising too. I was off my routine a lot, stayed up late more that usual, spent a few days sick. Instead of getting caught up I wasn’t getting 8 hours, I’m reminding myself that a couple years ago, a month like that probably would have been a 6 hour average.

Workouts: 25

24 of those sessions were kettlebell swings. I wrote my recap of the 10k swing challenge here, if you want to check that out. All in all, it was a fun challenge but all I did was swing a kettlebell. I mixed some push ups and pull ups in when I could and I got one trail run in as well.  Lately I’ve been enjoying more variety and spending time working on my conditioning on the various gym machines.

Thanks for reading, as always, I hope this inspires you to look back at your previous month and spot any trends and set some realistic marks for the next month.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain