RobinStarling

I've noticed my upper chest hasn't really developed at all, and did a bit of looking around online for BW exercises to target the upper chest. The only thing I could find was a few mentions the decline push ups might help target the upper chest- But then found others saying that even these were more working the middle chest, not upper. I'm going to add decline push ups to my workouts as I should have progressed to them anyway, But was wondering if anyone had any advice on any other BW exercises that target the upper pecs/chest area?

Hey! That is a really awesome link! So far I've really only played around with the roll a little bit- but if I can get that mostly down this challenge i'll be pretty happy! So far, my exercise is good! I've done 7 workouts, and only missed off day stretching once. Calories are a bit high at 1800, and 1700 averages per week. How ever I can have lower weeks in future weeks, and i do seem to be seeing pro-abs as it were, so I'm fairly happy! Pull ups I'm up to about 20 per a five set session, haven't tested my max reps in a row number yet. Meditation is good, all day except one, though the hour long hasn't happened yet. Writing was probably and A in the first week with brain storming, and fail in week two with doing nothing! I have however set up the blog and have two a "post" and an about page up already.

Hey! awesome first challenge! I'm starting to finally get into parkour this challenge as well! Which moves for beginners are you planning to focus on? I'm probably going to focus mostly on getting the roll down. though I'll probably experiment with a handful of vaults as well.

Whoo! Started off strong with a good first two days! Now I just need to keep the momentum going!

You'll be doing well if you manage to get down to 10-12% in only six weeks! By all means go hard for your goal, but just keep in mind it may turn out harder than you think! Those last couple of percentage points tend to get extra stubborn! Have you seen/read Anthony Mychals blog? http://anthonymychal.com/blog/ He comes from a back ground of being skinny fat, and has gotten well lean and built a pretty impressive physique! Might be worth checking out? Good luck with the challenge!

Great goals! Getting stronger is such a great goal! It's just such a great feeling walking around and feeling like your body is strong, and capable enough that you can actually do things with it! good luck with that chimera!

You're right, it wouldn't quite work for this project as nano needs to be fictional prose. But funny that you mention nanowrimo, as I was actually planning on life questing nano in the next challenge since it (almost) lines up! I'm quite excited to give it a go! I've known about it for a few years, but never gotten around to actually taking part!

Ah, corgis! I see there is much wisdom here indeed!

I've fluttered over from the Druids for this challenge. I'm not sure if I'm over here for good or if it I'll start dual classing it back and forth, but I expect to be here for at least a few consecutive challenges. I'm pushing my self rather hard this challenge. It will be the last time I have buckets of free time for a while and I really want to stuff done/started! Main Quest: Get leaner, stronger, fitter, more able. By the end of this challenge I will get my abs visible, I will be stronger, I will be more flexible, and more able at moving my body. Not the most focused main quest, but I'm trying to chock a lot into this challenge! -Increase number of consecutive pull-ups by one a week. Thus be able to do at least 11 in a row by the end of the challenge. 1STR for every increase of two up to 3STR -Average caloric intake of 1500. Last challenge I ended up around 1800, so will need to keep a close eye on this one! Eating more on strength training days, and less on others. 1400-1600 A, 1600-1700 B, 1700-1800 C, 1800-1900 D. Worth 3CON -Exercise every day. Strength training at least three times a week. Basic parkour and stretching on other days. Must be for at least twenty minutes. (This is me just starting parkour, so I will be focusing on mostly the roll and simple vaults). 2STR for strength training three times a week, 1DEX for parkour or stretching on every other day. Life Side Quest: I have an idea for a nonfiction book I want to write. So for this challenge I'm going to kick my ass in gear. -For the first two weeks I will research and brain storm a chapter a day, and for the final month I will write for an average of an hour or 1000 words a day. 1WIS for the first two weeks, 2WIS for the last month. Fitness Side Quest: Pushing the definition slightly, I'm going to make this about mental fitness and continue my meditation goal that I did very well in last challenge. -Last challenge I meditated for thirty minutes every day. I will continue that this challenge but with a whole hour at least once a week. 3WIS Bonus Quests: These don't fit into the challenge outline, and so won't gain stat points, but are things I want to accomplish this challenge anyway. -The first is to take photos of my friends to use as models for painting the major arcana tarot cards. At least 15 photos of different friends. -The other is to get a blog set up with at least three posts published. This will be a general blog from which to launch my online presence, and will eventually have tabs splitting it into a number of "mini blogs", but for now one blog with three posts will do. Posts can be modified versions for stuff I write for my book goal. Motivation: To be stronger, sexier, more able, and to have achieved (started) some projects I have been considering for quite awhile.

Wow, awesome! Sounds like things went rather well this challenge for you! 7pounds is awesome! We're there any other factors in that, or was it just from cutting out the sugar?

Challenge summary: Main Quest Strength training twice a week. A++ I did quite well on this one, though possibly due to doi less well on the low calories goal- therefore I had more hi calorie days allowing me to workout more! Technically it averages out to 2.666 workouts a week And I got my push ups back up to four sets of 25 (I actually do four slight variations on the push up) so I'm very happy with that. Restricted caloric intake to average at 1500 a day. Not so great on this one. Maybe a C? Averaged out around 1800, so should have lost a little weight, but not grand amounts, but it's a start, and next time I can aim to beat 1800, maybe 1600? Wheat (and starchy carbs) restriction to workout days. Lol not even. I kinda did it but not really so I'll give a D. A bit more effort clearly needs to be out into lining my starchy carbs up with workouts. Life Quest Meditation 30 minutes a day. And other A++! At 40 days there are only two days I've missed! That's 20 hours of meditation! Holy balls! I'm super happy with this goal! Now I just need to keep this habit going! I don't know if I actually got much better at meditating yet, but I am definitely finding it easier to lay/sit in meditation for a half hour. I guess my over all grade would be a low B I skipped the mini challenges this time. With traveling around a fair few of them seemed impractical or irrelevant, but mostly I just wanted to focus on my main challenge and actually finish all the way through. I've figured after this challenge that I really need to focus on my food habits! They aren't really that bad, but the challenges I'm not doing amazing in are my food challenges!

A bit premature maybe, but unless I accidentally eat thousands of calories this evening, then I think I'll be ok. Challenge summary: Main Quest Strength training twice a week. A++ I did quite well on this one, though possibly due to doi less well on the low calories goal- therefore I had more hi calorie days allowing me to workout more! Technically it averages out to 2.666 workouts a week And I got my push ups back up to four sets of 25 (I actually do four slight variations on the push up) so I'm very happy with that. 4 to STR Restricted caloric intake. Not so great on this one. Maybe a C? Averaged out around 1800, so should have lost a little weight, but not grand amounts, but it's a start, and next time I can aim to beat 1800, maybe 1600? 2 to CON Wheat (and starchy carbs) restriction). Lol not even. I kinda did it but not really so I'll give a D. .75 to CON Life Quest Meditation 30 minutes a day. And other A++! At 40 days there are only two days I've missed! That's 20 hours of meditation! Holy balls! I'm super happy with this goal! Now I just need to keep this habit going! 3 to WIS and 1 to CHA

Still beating those pesky sugar sprites? Last week, so a great chance to really punch them in there sticky sweet little faces!

This sounds like it's been an exciting challenge! Headed into phase three now for the final week?

Week five: So the calories were a bit heavy at 1900 average, so I'm going to bleed these last two weeks together and make it 1500 or lower average over the two weeks (ie this week should be averaged at1000 a day) might throw in a fast day or two to make this more achievable. Want to go out on a strong note! Two and a half or three work outs, so that was good. Starchy veggies was ignored. So did poorly I imagine. And meditation was six days. I figured out last night that by the end of the challenge I will have spent nearly TWENTY HOURS meditating! That's crazy! And probably more than I've done in the rest of my life put together! Excited to finish the last week on a strong note for all goals! Especially the wheat/starchy goal which I have all but ignored since week one! And plan to go out in a blaze of exercise and dietary glory!

Yup! Getting back on it is far more important than never falling off! And yea, I think I'm starting to get better at noticing when I've stopped focusing on breathing, thus allowing me to refocus more often! I've kind of slipped from reading anyone else's threads, so next week I will try and find three threads to follow and support (preferably people with fewer comments!)

Fourth week was a bit of a mixed bag. A day of over eating and not calorie counting became a week. I don't feel too bad about it though, as I hadn't missed a day up till that point. I also did two extra work outs of at least four push up sets, totalling four workouts for the week- and got each set of push-ups to 25 by the fourth work out.( I do a slightly different variation in the push up each set) Wheat and starchy veggies I didn't track at all, so probably did fairly poorly, and meditations were five days out of the week.

My exercises are currently basically just planks and push ups. As far as the meditation goes, I've really only started being consistent with it the past three weeks now. I do think there are some subtle effects going in that I can't quite place yet. A slight stillness or stability perhaps? This could equally be a feeling created by the use of discipline to actually get myself doing it everyday! Week three: Well I worked out three times this week. Up till Friday my calories were ok. Yesterday I ate roughly all the food! So today am fasting for the day to counter balance that. So in general caloric intake was ok. Wheat and stachy carbs were pretty much fine. Still a bit high, but also still a good step down from where I was. And meditation has been everyday. So going storing! The third week and after is where I've traditionally stopped the challenge or started putting in less effort though, so I will have to stay on guard to make sure I don't slip, since if I keep on track then I have a good chance of coming out all A's!

Thanks! Yea I'm quite happy with how I'm going! Week two ended up being only two workouts, but that's still on target. Slightly high calories with about 1600 again. Wheat and starchy carbs was average, but I've cut it down a lot more that I used to. And I did manage full length meditation every day.

I totally agree Evenewbie! Though I think that wisdom is usually applied for people that feel too stressed or busy to meditate. I resonate with it on more of a "if I meditate longer and more often then I should get past this part where I just spend half an hour either being super bored or having my mind wander all over the place! So far this week so good though! Las t Sunday night I was pretty tired and so only ended up doing 15 minutes of meditation. But I did two 30minute sessions on the Monday, and have done one every day since. My wheat and sugar intake has been very low this week, though I've been going a bit heavy on the salt to compensate! My caloric intake is going fine, and I've already done two workouts- likely I will do three this week! I'm currently staying with friends, and have had my own room the past week, which has made daily meditations easier, I will however not have my own room for most of the rest of this challenge, so will have to put in extra effort to find the time and/or place to meditate. (Potentially going to the park, or meditating while in "bed" on the sofa)

I'm curious as to which foods you've found to interfere with you meditation?

Week one: I averaged a bit over 1500, probably around 1600, but for such a low caloric intake and due to the inaccurate estimation method of tracking my intake I think this is acceptable. I did two workouts this week, so that's right on track. Wheat I was a bit off with, having one rather larg accidental cheat day, as well as a little cake today, but since caloric intake is on track I'm not too bothered. And I meditated everyday, which I'm very pleased with since I find it a challenge to put aside the time every day, especially when it's a full thirty minutes of meditating. There was once or twice when I nearly didn't as it was already very late, but I did them anyway and am glad. I'm seeming to have even more trouble getti my mind to still down and not wander with these longer sessions, I think likely due to boredom. But I trust that my skill will increase. Overall I think I'm so far on track for all or mostly A's.

Or now I'm just keeping the meditation really simple. Setting a timer for thirty minutes (über helpful for not needing to check how long it's been every five minutes!) and then focus on breathing in and out.

@Kishi Oh man, your galifreyan avatar pic is awesome! I had to go to source material to translate it, and even then it took me a while- I'm not very good at it, but am kinda tempted to learn it properly!

Hey! Awesome goals! And sounds like you've started fairly strong, and almost a new client already! Awesome!