musasabi

Thanks guise. =D Yeah, I gave it everything I could reasonably be expected to give, in my opinion. So, I'm not heartbroken. A little frustrated, but managed to not internalize any of that due to the aforementioned positive self talk. Woo therapy! Haha. And yeah, tonight is for Arrow and productivity. =) So, woot!

No worries sir. I've got a 401k that's getting my company match (6.5%) and roughly 11% of my monthly net going into regular old savings. Paying down debt with the rest, then I'll be closer to your advising. =) 21 is a big set! At least, in my opinion. =D Haha. I haaaaate pushups. Way to go. =)

Teeeheeee. Such true. Very glad for your week. =) Hopefully your feet are safe for running Sunday!

K. Just got back from the customer's site. Not doing a workout. Gonna sleep. *punchedinthefacetired* On an up-note, in 12 hours I'll be on a plane back home and a pretty girl will be waiting on me to come pick her up from a hotel. =) Oh! And I totally paid dem billz today. Haha. Discovered unaccounted for points on my credit card (haven't been using it, but still have a long way to go on the balance) so I scored an extra $100 off the top of that, which will help to improve my blue finance numbers in the OP. Those are technically scheduled to be recalculated on Saturday, but I might wait until Monday or Tuesday to let the financial institutions do what they do. That feel. I'm not even that tired, but I feel like I should be. K. Night. <3

Nicely done on the Spanish. =D Tucking uses your whole core, for sure, but it's your lowermost abdominal muscles along with hip/groin stuff that really make it happen. =D

So... guess where I am now guys? Right at this very moment (3:18am Eastern US) I am sat in a parking lot waiting for service dudes to finish their rounds so I can go tinker with the electronics on their vehicles. I knocked out a 3 hour nap or so before I came in at midnight... but I am so damn grateful to NF right now for something to do for the past two hours. <3 Now then! I get to award myself +6XP DEX for foam rolling and stretching after the microwaveworkout and last night. I haven't yet done a workout today (yesterday? Fuck. The 27th) but I am planning on getting one in when I get back to the hotel because fuck it. =D However, I realized I'd left a bit out of my Tuesday story. Monday night, I'd said I was going to PVC roll and stretch... but I didn't. D= So, I tried to pack my PVC pipe in my luggage to bring down to Florida... but it didn't fit in my bags. I was determined to not disappoint Master Kishi, however, so I got on ye olde Google and discovered that there was a Sports Authority not but a few minutes from my hotel! Hooray! Before the workout Tuesday, I made my way there and grabbed a 12" foam roller and a lacrosse ball. Generally, I prefer PVC for rolling because it really makes me cry. However, this foam roller does the job with the right weight distribution and is far more compact/appropriate for travel. And I've never used a lacrosse ball before, but that definitely makes me cry. Haha. Regarding work... blah. Just blah. The trip is technically a failure as of this moment (and we're going home tomorrow afternoon, so I don't see that changing) and while I'd been doing well keeping myself positive for the last couple of days, today the gravity of the situation began to overtake me. Part of my challenge is that, in the simplest terms, I have some deeply rooted, child-like belief that failure will literally equal my demise. I'm not sure where exactly it comes from (early developmental psychology is a trip, even for healthy folks) but it's potent. So when things start going awry, even when there was absolutely nothing I could've done to prevent it, if it's "my" responsibility, I begin to feel quite anxious and it just goes down hill from there. Again, as deep as the anxiety feels, it's clearly related to my sense of safety, for whatever reason. So I spent this afternoon thinking to myself, "All failures are recoverable. You will not die." As whacked as the vocabulary sounds in the context of a bad day at work, it helped a lot. Instead of getting down on myself (as I am want to do far too often) I felt very brief blips of anger toward this project that were quickly replaced by feelings of, "I did what I could. FUck 'em. I'm going to go get a pizza." And I did. =D So... yeah. In the psychological health realm, today was actually pretty damn good. A PR, even. ;D Work... well, we'll see how this pans out on Monday. Ha. And now! Off to check whether they're done with that last vehicle I need. <3@everyone!

I knew I couldn't do just bodyweight reps if I ever wanted to finish, haha. Thank you dear. =) Kettlebell luggage must suck! Haha. Gotta make do, y'know? ;D Hahaha! *poses* *detonates* When you work out with a bodybuilder, shit gets real. Thanks! Haha. Glad it made you laugh, since I was definitely chuckling while typing it. And I hadn't thought of the strongman applications... Hmm! And thanks for the acknowledgement on repeating the exercises, haha. I was definitely proud of myself for that. <3! MAAAAATTTTT. I was super rage faced on the second round of legs, haha. Maybe rageagony? But whenever I'm in a hotel, I've always got the "do not disturb" tag hung so they'll stay out of my room, haha. =D Danke!

I'm on the UnlikelyHeroine fanbandwagon, hahaha. You're a stunner. =D And Raev - That smile plus that hawk. <3 Hahaha. Simon - You're in a very nice place corewise. I need to join~ you~... but I have a feeling the only thing holding me back is diet. >.< I don't have a mirror big enough for a proper body shot. Humm...

I'd say 24 seconds is a pretty meaningful gain. =) Nicely done sir.

Hahaha. "Fit version of a shower beer" made me chuckle. And yeeeaaah for proselytizing good squat form! We've gotta lift together very soonly. =D

Bahahaha. Stole the Leg Day lulz to share with swole friends. Here's to forward progress in spite of weird days and weird numbers, friend. <3!

Working out in spite of the flu is supremely challenging. Way to go! =)

Oh man... retirement accounts... I should start paying attention to those in the next couple of years. Whew. Saying that will make you feel old in a hurry. =D

Very well done sir. =)

What a day. I feel like a champ when I get one girl's number in a random public setting; not even sure I've ever been approached by two in the same day ever. Haha. Role norms blah blah, sure fine, but still. And yeah... it's hard to turn down challenges once you're actually in the gym. I can't count the number of times I've hurt myself deadlifting past fatigue (and lumbar scoliosis). Alas. The rest day should do you some good. <3

Ooo inspire. I don't know for sure, but I feel like next challenge I should work on pullups, rope climbing, and rock climbing. Oo. Oo. =D

Oh man... the functional upper body strength inspiration is strong now. =D <3!

You make me lol. And inspires. =D I'm glad for your continued flow of work opportunities, even if they're widely varied levels of desirable. <3 And I'm jacking that counting down thing. I wonder how it'd feel... =D

Sounds like a pleasant day yesterday. =) Next time you're super sore from a previous workout, give the day's exercise a shot with a long warmup. You biked your ass off (and early!) so you were probably still right for choosing to leave it where it was, but I find sore workouts to be the most gratifying once the blood gets flowing. =) It's always a fun experiment to see how much more you can take for active recovery, haha.

Sounds like the 26th went well. =) And I bet the dinner was awesome. =D

Sounds delightful. Hopefully by the time I've got the time and a bike, we'll still be in contact. =D And yup. Furniture is good, but I've followed your pattern myself until just recently. Every year since 19 has seen me move at least once. 2008-2010 was particularly insane, as that was NC->WI->NJ->WI->NY->WI->IL->WI->IL. Haha. But! Coming up in June here, I'll have been in the same apartment for the last three years. <3

Good progress. For the back tuck, don't forget to be vicious with everything. A snappy tuck is necessary, but swinging your arms straight up at the apex of your jump to maximize your vertical leap is just as important. In fact, those two elements are somewhat interchangeable. The lower you jump, the faster you have to spin (speed and size of tuck) and the slower you spin the higher you have to jump. Of course, the ideal situation is to have huge vert and a mind bendingly fast flip... but ya know. =D

Oh I recall the sentiment analysis. That's super cool. I'm a systems programmer, so I know why I'm working in C/C++... but I wonder why you are? It seems like this would be a web app at its most native?

That's super badass. Thank you for the research so cleanly presented. =D And yeah~. If I miss anything (from the Army) it's shiny doohickies that mean I'm smart/fast/strong/etc. Come to think of it, medals and ribbons are a huge component of an IRL RPG. No wonder I miss it! =D

It took me forever to start working out tonight. I moped and malaised about the hotel room due to how tired I am from not getting enough sleep last night (staying up late because I forgot to do laundry before an inter-state, multi-day business trip!). However, I finally snapped out of it and... True to my Ranger nature, I'll steal other classes' methods when I need to adapt. Today marks my first successful hotel workout. I pulled a microwave out of the wall and used that for my weighted exercises. I split the routine between upper and lower body and super setted everything in the order it appears here because that motivates me. So first, I did lower body: Stationary, Alternating Lunges: 1x100@bodyweight (50 each leg) The tiresome warmup could've gone on longer... but it just took too long. =D Glute Bridges: 3x15@microwave Going for maximum squeeze at the apex of each rep helped compensate for the very low weight. But on the second set, I figured out I'd done the first set wrong. Per the inclination of my malformed lower back, I was using lumbar muscles to extend my hips beyond a flat plane. I think with higher weight, I'm unable to do this for some reason. Also, if I pivoted the microwave so it was lying flat on my quads at the top of each rep, it made it feel heavier. Whee! I held the last rep till I felt the squeeze begin to travel into my lower back. Owie isometrics. Haha. Front Squat: 3x15@microwave Holding my arms out in front of me, completely supinated, I held the microwave by its heavy half. By the last set I had figured out my technique well enough that it went too fast! Not enough struggle. =O Back Squat: 3x20@microwave A folded shower towel made a pad so I could slot one edge of the microwave's heavy half in where the bar would've gone. =) Having to hold something that far behind my head put a lot of the weight on my toes, though. The last set here was compromised by my last set of front squats, so it was surprisingly difficult. =) Then I switched to upper body. Inverted Decline Rows: 3x10 I was pleased with my form off the bat. Hooray! Pushup: 3x20 My old yet still familiar nemesis. *side-eye at the Army* Inverted Decline Chins: 3x10 The fascinating thing about this exercise is just how dramatically my right bicep's strength advantage of my left shows itself. My the tenth rep of the last set, I realized I was coming up uneven! Haha. Tricep Pushup: 3x15 Oy. These are even more fatiguing than I remember them being. Seated Shoulder Press: 3x15@microwave The return of the trusty microwave! I had to do these seated because pressing the microwave into the ceiling didn't permit full range of motion. =P Between the second and third sets of upper body, several bosses of mine called me all together and we discussed politics and business shit for an hour. Then I did my final set of upper body and decided I'd fatigued my arms more than my legs. I then took a vanity selfie in the mirror and, indeed, it appears as though my upper body as somehow grown in the past six months despite me weighing mostly the same. So I did the whole legs routine again, including another hundred lunges. I also filled before and after each set of legs with a set of core: V-Up: 5x20 The shitty, bent-knee, inflexible version. =D And that took about three hours total, including the hour of phone interruption. Now I have to hope to god some pub is open who has a big enough cheeseburger or something to deal with what I just did to myself. Oh lawdy. Oh, and I should shower. Florida is warmer than Chicago, y'know? =P And here's the type of stuff I was listening to while doing this workout: *dies* I'm going to give myself +15XP STR for this one because it was innovative and I went back and put more effort in where I felt like I could get more out of myself. That and I may not be able to walk by Thursday, so I've gotta make up some of that XP lost due to DOMS! Hahaha.