Genji

I went to my first circuit class at the new gym this morning and got absolutely pummelled. They don't mess around. It was worth it though, because there were only three people in the class and I got quite a lot of supervision from the trainer (being the newbie and all...). I told him that I was worried about my deadlift form but he said there were no problems with it (thanks, Internet!), except that maybe I should keep my chest a bit higher. It went like this, with all exercises as many reps as possible in a minute: 1. Drop lunges with 2x 8kg dumbbells, 30s each leg Ball slams with a 12kg medicine ball Repeat both exercises By this time I thought, "This is easy! I'll get through this no worries." 2. Tyre flips Front squat to push press, 20kg Repeat I was quickly revising my original thought by this point. 3. Squat jumps with a 12kg kettlebell - these are just awful, aren't they? Some sort of dumbbell bench press laying down on the floor, with 8kg dumbbells. Good because it involved laying down on the floor. Repeat This was the point I started to feel a bit like vomiting... 4. Some sort of scrum thing, where you lean down and push a trolley with your shoulders, with 2x20kg plates Bent-over rows, 30kg Repeat 4.5 Drip lots of sweat on the floor 5. Deadlifts 40kg Overhead press 20kg - I had to put the bar down a few times Repeat 6. One more time through set 1 We didn't know this was coming. I would have tried to protest but that would have required extra physical exertion and that just didn't seem worth it by that point 7. Go home and take a nap Holy cow I was exhausted by the end. I was also hating myself for having already booked into another class tomorrow morning

I haven't done any working out this week because I had my last exam on Thursday and then moved house on Friday, but I've achieved one of my goals at least: I signed up for a gym close to my new house. It's a small gym that focuses on strength training, and they have small group training (usually 5-7 people apparently) with three types of classes: one for squats, one for deadlifts and one general circuit class. I'm not sure on my form for the lifts, so I hope I can get some feedback in the group sessions. I've signed up for my first two classes, tomorrow morning and Tuesday morning! With that good news comes a bit of bad news: I totally failed my challenge to drink alcohol on no more than 3 days. I think it must be up to 5 already. It was a pretty stupid time to plan this, considering a lot of my friends wanted to celebrate me finishing my masters. It really made me realise how little I enjoy alcohol though, and I feel like I was drinking more out of politeness than from wanting to do so myself. I need to get better at saying no, or hang out less often with the friends who are particularly pushy with alcohol. I think I'll set myself an alcohol-related challenge next time as well. --- PROGRESS: --- Training: 1. Visit the gym 6 times - 2/6 2. Choose a new gym - COMPLETED Diet: 1. Cook 10 times - 5/10 2. Eat out max 5 times - 4/5 3. Drink alcohol on max 3 days - FAILED Culture: 1. Japanese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3 2. Chinese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3

Serious DOMS for the last couple of days! But to be honest, I've missed that feeling. It's a reminder that I've been training, and good motivation to stick with it because I know that eventually the DOMS will disappear. Yesterday I did: Squats: 3x5x45kg Bench press: 3x5x35kg Deadlift: 1x5x65kg I also bought lunch out yesterday and had two nice Belgian beers to celebrate the fact one of my friends finished his last exam. A good occasion to allow myself a drinking day, I'd say. --- PROGRESS: --- Training: 1. Visit the gym 6 times - 2/6 2. Choose a new gym - not completed Diet: 1. Cook 10 times - 1/10 2. Eat out max 5 times - 1/5 3. Drink alcohol on max 3 days - 1/3 Culture: 1. Japanese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3 2. Chinese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3

Congratulations! You should be really proud of your achievement!

Today I went back to the gym for the first time in quite a while. My work sets were: Squats: 3x5x40kg Overhead press: 3x5x25kg (OHPs always make me feel so weak!) Deadlift: 1x5x60kg I could have done more for squats and deadlifts but I took it easy, since this challenge is as much about habit formation as it is getting strong. Starting Strength is built on increasing the weight with every session, so it's better to start with lower weight anyway. I think my PBs for work set weight in my last six-week block of training were squat 65kg, OHP 30kg, bench 42.5kg, DL 80kg. Starting Strength says to do power cleans, but I could never really get the hang of them. Those will be my first milestones. --- PROGRESS: --- Training: 1. Visit the gym 6 times - 1/6 2. Choose a new gym - not completed Diet: 1. Cook 10 times - 0/10 2. Eat out max 5 times - 0/5 3. Drink alcohol on max 3 days - 0/3 Culture: 1. Japanese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3 2. Chinese listening and reading on 3 days - 0/3

Thanks tonbaldin! Great to hear from you.

--- GOALS FOR THIS CHALLENGE --- I'm joining the challenge a bit late. Tomorrow is November 11th and the challenge runs until the 26th. In that time, my goals are to: Training 1. Visit the gym 6 times and do Starting Strength. I'll be starting tomorrow with some pretty low weights because I haven't been to the gym in a couple of months, but that's fine. 2. Choose a new gym. I'm moving next week, and there are several gyms walking distance from my new place. I currently go to the gym at my uni, which is packed and a bus ride from my house, both of which sap my motivation to go there. Diet 1. Cook at least 10 meals. Eat out (lunch and dinner combined) a maximum of 5 times, except when I have a social reason to do so. I haven't counted how often I eat out, so tracking this will be helpful. 2. Drink alcohol on no more than 3 days. Culture (language learning) 1. Listen and read to Japanese and Chinese on at least 3 different days. (I'm being generous to myself on this goal because of my exam. I won't be so easy on myself next challenge!) Sounds simple, huh? We'll see.

Hi all, Copying my post from the intro thread, and I'll post my goals in another post. I'm finally joining the Rebellion after reading NF on and off for several years. There are some seriously inspirational people here! Class: Ranger for now. Most of my goals will be strength-related, which would suggest Warrior, but in RPGs I would always choose a Wizard or Monk, so I went for something in between. Maybe Samurai is better? Nerd cred: - I work as a data scientist. I can think of few nerdier jobs, so I feel like I'm in the right place. - I've always loved RPGs. I currently play bits and pieces of Discworld MUD (text adventures ftw), but basically any game in which you create and level up characters sucks me in. Background: - I've always been skinny. 183cm, 66kg. Up from my normal ~63kg due to eating badly and not exercising for the past several months. - I've been an occasional runner in the past. I ran a marathon last year in a bit under 4 hours, but my running has *really* tailed off since then, and I feel much less healthy. - I tried Starting Strength earlier this year for about six weeks, loved it and saw good results, but then got sick in May and lost my gym habit. I've maybe been to the gym 5 times since then... - Not NF-related, but learning foreign languages used to be my main passion. For the last two years I've been busy with my masters so have unfortunately let this slide. I studied in Japan and worked as a Japanese translator for a while, and also spent some time learning Chinese. I'll be travelling to Japan somewhat regularly for work and my girlfriend's family mostly only speaks Chinese, so I now have reasons to revive both of these. Catalysts for change: A couple of things: - I'm in a relatively new relationship, and that brings with it a bit of extra self-consciousness. But the optimistic way of spinning that is that self-consciousness -> extra motivation to work out! - I submitted my masters thesis on Monday and have my last exam ever next week, so my schedule will change completely. Now (well, next week, but I'm procrastinating!) is the perfect time to start building fitness and language learning habits. So: Goals: - Strength training. Build a habit of going to the gym at least 3x a week. Gotta be strong enough to wield that katana. - Weight gain. My first goal is to reach 70kg. - Cook more. I love cooking (vego for 10+ years) but I'm eating out far more than I should, and less healthily. Cooking at home will make my fitness goals much easier to achieve. - Language learning. Regularly practise my Japanese and Chinese. Battle plan: - Stick with strength training and eat better. The rest will come.

Hi all, I'm finally joining the Rebellion after reading NF on and off for several years. There are some seriously inspirational people here! Class: Ranger for now. Most of my goals will be strength-related, which would suggest Warrior, but in RPGs I would always choose a Wizard or Monk, so I went for something in between. Maybe Samurai? Nerd cred: - I work as a data scientist. I can think of few nerdier jobs, so I feel like I'm in the right place. - I've always loved RPGs. I currently play bits and pieces of Discworld MUD (text adventures ftw), but basically any game in which you create and level up characters sucks me in. Background: - I've always been skinny. 183cm, 66kg. Up from my normal ~63kg due to eating badly and not exercising for the past several months. - I've been an occasional runner in the past. I ran a marathon last year in a bit under 4 hours, but my running has *really* tailed off since then, and I feel much less healthy. - I tried Starting Strength earlier this year for about six weeks, loved it and saw good results, but then got sick in May and lost my gym habit. I've maybe been to the gym 5 times since then... - Not NF-related, but learning foreign languages used to be my main passion. For the last two years I've been busy with my masters so have unfortunately let this slide. I studied in Japan and worked as a Japanese translator for a while, and also spent some time learning Chinese. I'll be travelling to Japan somewhat regularly for work and my girlfriend's family mostly only speaks Chinese, so I now have reasons to revive both of these. Catalysts for change: A couple of things: - I'm in a relatively new relationship, and that brings with it a bit of extra self-consciousness. But the optimistic way of spinning that is that self-consciousness -> extra motivation to work out! - I submitted my masters thesis on Monday and have my last exam ever next week, so my schedule will change completely. Now (well, next week, but I'm procrastinating!) is the perfect time to start building fitness and language learning habits. So: Goals: - Strength training. Build a habit of going to the gym at least 3x a week. Gotta be strong enough to wield that katana. - Weight gain. My first goal is to reach 70kg. - Cook more. I love cooking (vego for 10+ years) but I'm eating out far more than I should, and less healthily. Cooking at home will make my fitness goals much easier to achieve. - Language learning. Regularly practise my Japanese and Chinese. Battle plan: - Stick with strength training and eat better. The rest will come.