Chimeric

Week One check-in! Feeling pretty good about this week. =) I kicked off Monday with NF's beginner strength training routine (I changed the walking lunges into pulses because those are a bit more difficult for me; youch do they burn). When I was reading through it I figured I'd probably need to tweak it to make it a bit harder, but it's been so long since I've asked my body to do anything but sit that by the second set I was wondering if I could even get through it all, heh. But I did. =) On Tuesday I managed to make it out to Johns Hopkins to shadow one of their pathology residents, which has been a long time sitting on my to-do list. It was a great way to kick off the week! Did strength training on MWF, I'll probably need to up the number of reps. I'm thinking +3 body squats, +2 pushups, +3 pulses, +3 rows, +5 seconds to the plank, +5 jumping jacks per set. Diet could have been better - we celebrated my husband and my mother-in-law's birthday with dinner and cake yesterday, and my newly wed sister-in-law and her husband took us out for brunch this afternoon. Other than that I've been pretty good about following my diet, which is a version of paleo I've modified based on my own (minimal) training in nutrition. =) Anyway, so far a success! Here's to week 2. Hope your challenge is going well!

My first challenge on Nerd Fitness, so I guess I'm technically still in the newbie zone. I'm not entirely sure how to organize this post (this is its second iteration, haha), but I figured something is better than nothing, so here we go~ Main Goal: Begin Strength Training Complete routines 3x a week every week for the duration of the challengeWork in a powerlifting routine at some point in the challenge (ideally mid-way through!)Continue following paleo dietSide Quest: Get Organized Organize Semester 1, 2, and 3 notes by subject to prepare for NAVLEsAttempt cooking ahead for a week... There. Distinctly less cluttered than my first post. Classes start on the 21st so we'll see how this goes!

Ooh, this is a lot for six weeks - but best of luck to you! =)

Thanks much! Filled out the sign-up sheet, getting ready to start a thread. I've noticed many people have listed races/stats in their signatures - is there a template for this somewhere? I'd love to put one together!

So as you can probably surmise from my post count (which at time of typing is exactly 3), this is my first ever challenge. I have a decently good handle on diet, but I'm really interested in getting into strength training - particularly into powerlifting. Buuuut I've got no idea where to start. I've done some really, really quick research into what a powerlifting cycle might look like, etc, but there's nothing on the 'net that I can find that explains powerlifting to a 5 year old. Not that I'm 5 years old, but that's about where my understanding of powerlifting is, and it'd be awesome if someone could lay it out like that. I've seen things that call for x% of a maximum rep but I don't even know where to begin to estimate what my maximum rep is, and I'm not really to keen on jumping in and injuring myself. Not to mention I'd love to find some good, easy, reputable resources for form, because see above - I'm really not keen on injuring myself. Any suggestions for where I can start? Edit: Just found the Lifting forum. Sorry guys! Guess I don't have any questions for you after all~

I'm really diggin' your points system, friend! Good luck with all of your goals. =)

Hey everyone! I'm still getting my feet wet and taking a look around the boards, but I wanted to post a quick introduction in the meantime. My name is Vanessa, though I'm usually found under the pseudonym Chimeric (or some derivative thereof) online. I'm 25 as of today (happy birthday to me~!), and I'm currently pursuing my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine down at Virginia Tech (Let's go Hokies!), with an interest in anatomic and/or comparative pathology. I typed up a whole long sob story but deleted it in favor of the short version-- we are just meeting each other, after all. My relationship with fitness has been good historically, but now that I spend 90% of my time sitting (in class, in lab, or studying), sleeping, or caring for my husband/dogs, it's been very difficult for me to care for myself or get rid of the 20 lbs I've gained since graduating college. I have to admit I was greatly inspired by Staci's post. I'm hugely interested in building basic body strength, and besides, cardio and I are not the best of friends - unless there's a basket or a goal at the other end of the court/field and an opponent for me to smoke, count me out. I'm not a hamster! So I've enlisted my husband's help and as soon as I'm back down in Blacksburg (in just a week or two) we'll be starting a lifting regiment together. Outside interests include video gaming (PC and PS3, we don't have it in our budget for a PS4 for quite some time; MMORPGs preferentially, though I haven't had a lot of free time to really enjoy them lately; my current love is Flight Rising, a browser-based dragon breeding/training/battling sim), dog sports (both of our pups are certified in basic obedience, and one of them is beginning an agility class later this month), cooking, gardening, and drawing (I used to be a fine hand at photoshop, but it's been a while =( ). Anyway, pleasure to meet you guys! I'm looking forward to my time here. =)