ItsDaniel - From The Ashes

[Balthazar]

Hey all

 

I've been around NF for over a year now although I have been pretty quiet the last few months.

Anti-fragility has kept me away and there isn't really any excuse other than that, stuff happened and even though I had the time to work out and come on here I didn't.

 

Since I have been here I have learned an awful lot of things but haven't really made any physical progress worth speaking off. 

 

I have been debating coming back at all, because I have achieved so little in the last year, especially compared to others who started the same time as me, I have felt ashamed to come back, as though I have failed over the past year,

 

I considered coming back afresh under a new username and start from ground zero but didn't like the idea of denying everything that has already happened.

 

So I have got over myself and swallowed my pride and come back, on paper I'm level whatever but in reality I feel closer to level 1.

 

* * * * *

 

I intend on joining the 6wk challenges next time around but will hang on my daily battle log until then - I didn't want to waste the time between now and then doing nothing.

 

I intend to use the time until the next 6 week challenge to try a few different things out, find what works for me so that I am in a strong position to get started week one

 

And this is where you come in

 

Anyone who would be kind enough to provide me with advice or call me out on my bullshit would be most welcome.

 

I'm a direct guy so don't worry about being rude in saying 'Daniel that's bullshit get your act together' - I won't be offended I will be thankful.

 

* * * * *

 

So my aim is to become fit and healthy. I'm not looking for a long distance cardio endurance and I'm not looking for body building (although will happily take elements out of either).

 

What I am looking for is an athletic frame and level of health, I am very much interested in Rugby Union and American Football so that kind of athleticism is what I want - strong, powerful, tough, agile and fast (don't want much do I).

 

At the moment I'm 5ft11, about 295lbs and built like a brick shit house being strong has always been what I'm best at running has always been what I'm worst at.

 

I am guessing that the first step will be to drop some weight which should make me faster and have more endurance by dent of me not lugging as much weight round with me.

 

* * * * *

 

So whether you are new to NF or an old hat, have seen me around here before or not please stop on by call me on my BS and if you would be so kind feed me your advice.

[DarK_RaideR]

Dan the man is back with a plan! Welcome back mate, good to see you again. I understand how you feel, back in late 2015-early 2016 when I fell off the face of the earth I had similar doubts about a return, so congratulations on pushing through and coming back to the Rebellion! Wishing you luck in your new journey, I'll be watching closely and supporting. It's no good if you disappear again however, so if you need me to bug you via other channels like e-mail, skype, facebook or whatever, let me know.

[Charlie_Quinn]

Welcome back Daniel! I left for a while too and recent came back - I decided to change my name though, I needed a new alter-ego! 

 

I don't have any advice I'm afraid, but I'll call you out on any bullshit if I see any! 

 

Looking forward to seeing you around the boards again!

[starsapart]

Oh hi, old friend.

 

I'm really happy to see you here again.

[Raxie]

Great to see you back!

[Balthazar]

hey guys, thank you for stopping by, it's great to see you here.

 

So since when last we spoke earlier in the week I went for a walk on the 14th and yesterday had a go at a weight routine, not sure how this sounds all advice welcome

   Superset One

      60kg Lat Pull Down 5/5/5
      60kg Close Reverse Grip Lat Pull Down 5/5/5

   Superset Two

      22kg Dumb Bells Chest Press 5/5/8

      22kg Dumb Bells Bent Over Row 5/5/8

   Superset Three

      Dumb Bell Shoulder Press 12kg for 5, 14kg for 5, 16kg for 5

      Romanian Dead lift with barbell, 20kg each side 3/3/3

 

After that I did some supportive work around my shoulders - side raises, front raises that kind of thing with a light DB, and that was that.

 

Now I know the first thing you will likely say is

      "BUT DANIEL WTF ABOUT LEGS, WHERE ARE THE LEG EXERCISES YOU HANDSOME FOOL?!?!?!?!"

and you would be correct, I do intend on getting to legs in about a month when I change gym, currently

      1) there is only a smith machine at the current gym and doing squats on there seems to do me a mischief and I end up hurting myself

      2) the only barbell is like an EZ bar rather than a proper bar, also no squat rack, means I can't do proper squats or deadlifts

      3) hurt my back so doing deadlifts in general is a bit touch and go at the minute.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome back Brother! I'm very excited to see you here.

Since you asked for it, let me be the first to call you on your bullshit about no leg days you handsome fool. Grab the heaviest dumbbell they have and do some goblet squats. Sitting in the squat will help your mobility, high reps will groove the pattern and can be done as a met-con finisher.

[Balthazar]

would you go heavy and low reps or lighter and more reps?

[Raxie]

You can also always go totally crazy and do body weight stuff for legs.

[Sloth the Enduring]

You can't go really heavy with a goblet squat. When I do them I use a 24kg KB, but I don't do a ton of reps, usually 3x5, but I'm using them mostly for mobility.

I think they're also great for a met-con finisher if you do them in ladders or pyramids. Do 1, do 2, do 3, etc. and work your way back down. Doing that in a no rest superset with chin ups or ball slams or whatever is kind of fun too.

[Balthazar]

You can also always go totally crazy and do body weight stuff for legs.

 

You can't go really heavy with a goblet squat. When I do them I use a 24kg KB, but I don't do a ton of reps, usually 3x5, but I'm using them mostly for mobility.

I think they're also great for a met-con finisher if you do them in ladders or pyramids. Do 1, do 2, do 3, etc. and work your way back down. Doing that in a no rest superset with chin ups or ball slams or whatever is kind of fun too.

 

good work on calling me out on it. I shall add some squats to tomorrows endeavour.

[Emma]

Daniel's back!

Don't know much about weights but I do know football players sprint like nobody's business. Don't worry about marathons, just run like the other team is chasing you down because they will be

How much weight you lose depends on the position you want. Receivers and quarterbacks need to be nimble and light on their fight, linemen are tanks so they keep the weight up.

(Referencing American football here.)

Get out there and play!

[DarK_RaideR]

What if I told you

that leg exercise earns you Nerdhammer troops?

[Balthazar]

What if I told you

that leg exercise earns you Nerdhammer troops?

 

Then I would have been doing them constantly since my last post six hours ago,

 

I would have all of the troops and people would be calling me Quadzilla.

[Balthazar]

Daniel's back!

Don't know much about weights but I do know football players sprint like nobody's business. Don't worry about marathons, just run like the other team is chasing you down because they will be

How much weight you lose depends on the position you want. Receivers and quarterbacks need to be nimble and light on their fight, linemen are tanks so they keep the weight up.

(Referencing American football here.)

Get out there and play!

 

Heya, I am looking to lose enough weight to be what I would consider fit and healthy. I know O Line Men etc are extremely good at what they do but they are too big for me. I'm thinking Tight End, Line Backer kind of size

 

Whilst we are on sprinting in fact is there a good or bad way to try and work on sprints on a treadmill?

[starsapart]

Legs options if no squat rack - I know this difficulty well.

 

Split squats with a lighter weight will be effective.

 

Assisted pistol squats will be effective.

 

Goblet squats are indeed also effective!

 

Walking lunges with lighter weight are another option!

 

Doing some QM will work your whole body, including legs.

 

Not as good as barbell squats, sure, but still, work your legs, sir.

 

 

 

 

I would steer clear of deadlifts until your back is well, but once you're solid you could try single leg Romanian deadlifts as a way to vary it up.  I find they're nice because you can go lighter (you're only doing one leg at a time) and work balance in the process.

[Balthazar]

 

I would steer clear of deadlifts until your back is well, but once you're solid you could try single leg Romanian deadlifts as a way to vary it up.  I find they're nice because you can go lighter (you're only doing one leg at a time) and work balance in the process.

 

that's a great idea! thank you very much

 

Also I do need to put some lunges in starting off light, because traditionally I have had problems with hip mobility and they improve it, Good Call!

[Balthazar]

So I set off from work to go to the gym yesterday with all good intentions, couldn't park at the gym because it was busy so parked as close as I could and walked the rest

 

Got to the gym and was told they "were at full capacity" it makes sense and everything it's just I have never heard of such a thing happening, a gym being at their fire safety limit.

 

So shot down I went home and faced the pile of mess that is 'been too busy to clean in four days' and spent the next hour or two cleaning up and cooking tea, followed by working on a quest for NF and checking out halloween costume ideas

 

Oh and drink this marvellous beer from Wychwood Brewery that I hadn't had before called 'Drunkel Fester', it was in a word - magical

[Balthazar]

oh also found out my boss is getting divorced, which made me feel better about handing my notice in earlier this week because who knows what will happen to the company now

[Balthazar]

oh also, also (yesterday was clearly a big day) yesterday I had for the first time - candy corn!

 

You can't get it in the shops over here so I had to get robbed by amazon for some.

 

Other than just eating it by the bucketful do any of my transatlantic chums have any halloween recipes including them, I have a kilo's worth?

[Charlie_Quinn]

So I set off from work to go to the gym yesterday with all good intentions, couldn't park at the gym because it was busy so parked as close as I could and walked the rest

 

Got to the gym and was told they "were at full capacity" it makes sense and everything it's just I have never heard of such a thing happening, a gym being at their fire safety limit.

 

So shot down I went home and faced the pile of mess that is 'been too busy to clean in four days' and spent the next hour or two cleaning up and cooking tea, followed by working on a quest for NF and checking out halloween costume ideas

 

Oh and drink this marvellous beer from Wychwood Brewery that I hadn't had before called 'Drunkel Fester', it was in a word - magical

 

I've never heard of a gym turning people away for being too busy, but I guess it must reach a point where it is unsafe. This is one of the reasons I ended up making my own "gym" at home. I got pissed off driving to the gym, struggling to park, then not being able actually do anything when I finally got there.

 

At least your evening was productive in the end. Where did you get the beer from? One of the big supermarkets? My friend recently got me into drinking proper beers and ales and I've found most of the "special editions" they release for Halloween / Christmas are usually horrid. Would be nice to try a decent one for a change! Got excited when I found pumpkin ale in Morrisions the other day but it was a huge disappointment!

[Balthazar]

The beer came from the hallowed halls that is Aldi, so it was cheap as anything. Although I don't know if you Southerners have such sensibly price outlets, I am led to believe they are just a scummy Northern thing 

 

It is a dark ruby red in colour, has a depth of taste without being bitter with hints of coffee.

[Balthazar]

righting after stalking reading up on some of my favorite nerds I have gone ahead and joined MFP and Fitocracy to enable me to best collect data on wtf I do so I can see what is and isn't working with me

 

Quickie question because I seem to remember some debate on this a while back on MFP what do folk enter for Weight Lifting exercise, because from what I remember the MFP Weight Lifting exercise judges your calories spent as being way off?

[DarK_RaideR]

I never noticed MFP doing anything with the strength training I'd log, but when I log cardio, it raises my macros for the day which is completely confusing if I want to stick to a plan. Therefore, I use MFP only to plan my meals for the day and log any extras. Workouts are logged onto Fitocracy.

[Charlie_Quinn]

The beer came from the hallowed halls that is Aldi, so it was cheap as anything. Although I don't know if you Southerners have such sensibly price outlets, I am led to believe they are just a scummy Northern thing 

 

It is a dark ruby red in colour, has a depth of taste without being bitter with hints of coffee.

 

You've obviously never been to Watford. Or as I like to call it, Poundland town.

 

Quickie question because I seem to remember some debate on this a while back on MFP what do folk enter for Weight Lifting exercise, because from what I remember the MFP Weight Lifting exercise judges your calories spent as being way off?

 

I'm pretty sure when I used MPF it didn't give me any calories burnt for Weight-lighting at all. It only did for cardio.