musasabi

Hey now, rest between sets can be several minutes if you feel like it. =) It just lets you push harder for the next set. ;D

Haha! Sehr kühl. ;D

Don't forget - lipases mobilize triglycerides in the first place, and they're inhibited by higher blood serum levels of insulin. So, rock those activities, but drop your dietary carbohydrates as low as you're willing to take them to encourage fat metabolism. =)

Yeah, my vote is for caution here. Going for broke in the short term rarely pays off for athletics in my experience. <3 Good luck!

Don't lose heart! Haha. Listen to your body and do all the research. You've got this shit handled already, now you're just dealing with the spicier unexpected things. ;D

That's right! No brief illness can undo your gains, physical or otherwise. ;D

Thanks guys. =D

Grats on the front handspring; I've never quite figured that one out. And I'm curious - when you say cheater splits, do you mean with your back leg's knee out-turned?

Hahaha. Trickster/tricker (both are used) confidence is actually a very highly refined lack of a sense of self preservation. ;D

Now, I know the "correct" layout for your back is thoracic flexibility and lumbar stability. However, I've got a bit of an interesting setup. One: I severely pulling my left hamstring in 2008. Like, nearly puked in the instant the pull took place and couldn't get out of bed for several days severe. In attempting to recover that in the latter phases, I stretched it like a motherfucker to the point where for years now, cold, my left hamstring has had significantly better flexibility than my right. If I'm doing a really slow front kick I can hardly bring the ball of my right foot to 90', but I can bring the ball of my left foot to about 3" above 90'. Fast kicks show a 6" or more difference in height. Two: I've got mild rotational scoliosis in my lower back. This was unknown to me for years, but I'm pretty sure it's a source of much angst in my lumbar. So then my questions are: What flexibility is required to achieve lumbar extension/what weaknesses prevent it/how do you work toward improvements?What strength is required to hold lumbar extension solidly in place/how do you work toward improvements?For reference, I've hurt myself by moderately straining my lower back more times than I can count. Always, though, it's a 4" band of muscle right up against my lumbar spine on the right side. That's the side that gets sore and that's the side that makes me unable to bend at the waist for a few days when I hurt myself badly. I've accomplished varying degrees of this injury with low-bar squats, bent over rows, deadlifts, and freakin' bird dogs (much to my shame, haha). For reference, then, I was got a little cocky and tried deadlift again yesterday after saying I was going to leave it out of this challenge. I pulled 225lbs for single reps maybe six times. This was the last one, and the only one I filmed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-6_fnPuZWs If you look carefully, my neutral lumbar position is the first thing to give, and that's what I notice as deficient. Some years back, I had a very smart chiropractor let me know that my lumbar musculature was doing much work that my glutes should be doing. I assume that's playing a role in this continual injury I'm battling, but I'm not entirely sure how to address that. Today, I definitely notice imbalanced fatigue with (what I assume to be) my right erector spinae much more fatigued than my left. So... what's to be done about holding lumbar extension through the pull of a deadlift? And/or any form tips in general?

That's really astonishing dude. Relish in all that you've worked to achieve! =D

Holy wow; that's a noteworthy change! My parents gave me the immeasurable gift of good genetics, so I have a metric ton of respect for people who make meaningful body composition changes because not only have I never felt pressure to do so, I've never stuck with any plan long enough to achieve such a thing! Congratulations. =)

Interesting... Friday was a great day at work. Lots of productivity. 10XP WIS. So, Sunday night, a dear friend of mine coaxed me into going to his gym with him. Given that I've got weights in my basement, I'm not usually one to leave my house to lift, but this guy is a pleasure and a half to spend time around, so I took it and ran. It just so happens that I also dropped my programming chapter right then and there. But god damn did we lift hard. Haha. Definitely 10XP STR. Kinda went like this: Squat: 10@185lbs(atg), 5@225lbs (not full depth), 3@275lbs (he spotted the fuck out of me this set, so I can't even really count those reps as mine) Bench: 10@135lbs, 5@155lbs, 3@185lbs (he helped for every rep on the last set, but not nearly as much as the squats, so those were great for fatigue) Row: 2x10@135lbs (just playing with form, decided not to up the weight) Deadlift: 5(?)@225lbs I shouldn't have deadlifted, really... but I love that exercise. And I don't think I hurt myself on it, to be honest. I know my fatigue isn't exactly right (I can feel an imbalance of tension on the right side of my lumbar spine, where my low back injuries always happen) but it certainly isn't an injury either. I tried to research the biomechanics of lumbar extension today... but my Google-fu failed me on that one. I don't know what limits that movement in particular, aside from the fact that my spine is twisted, haha. Gotta say, though, I'm pissed that I'm missing 90XP STR just because... I don't even know why. I'm going to blame the bandwagon; I didn't fall off of it, it fell out from under me. =P Today was another good day at work, though. I got done what needed doing and had time to spare. 10 XP WIS. And tonight, I picked up where I left off with my book, but went a little overboard on the first exercise, so now it's 12:05AM and I didn't get the second one done. Alas! I shall have to pick it up tomorrow and suffer the -1XP for missing the deadline. But I sure did learn a lot with the embellishments of the first exercise. =) I do love my hobby/career. So uh... woot. =D Only problem is, I'm setting myself up for not enough sleep. Hummm. There's got to be a solution for this. Nerds can sleep decent amounts each night, right?

The letter grade scale is great if you're guaranteed to hit 50% or so, haha. Elsewise... you know the difference between success and failure, so t'hell with the connotations of those letters if they don't match up. =)

2.3% bodyfat drop! That's seeeeeeeerious business. Rock it. =D

Ahhh I'm jealous of your handstands. Well, I'm jealous of all gymnastics skills, since mine are all backyard as fok, haha Good workout. =D

Hahaha. I love leg fatigue, so much. =D Nothing better than standing up and immediately hobbling while proclaiming, "My ass!"

Good start for the last haul, sir. =) Sounds like I should read the article... >.> Haha.

Hahahaha, ok, this guy has me beat. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=277119539111074

Welcome to the forums! May I ask where you're from? I have a fascination with other languages (for an American) but I've only ever studied German long enough to learn anything useful. =) Motivation is the hardest thing about any new habit, especially ones with social implications like working out and eating right. Amazing how judgemental we can be about being healthy, isn't it? But, as you've seen (and heard) this community is about the most positive and endlessly supportive place there is, haha. My advice would be to start a program. Any program. If you're feeling alright with the Beginner's Bodyweight routine, then keep that. As long as you've decided you like it, it'll accomplish the goal of getting into the habit of working out. =) But, come here and post your goals. Make a battle thread. Set goals, create deadlines, track your progress. The whole deal! And be sure to come back to this thread to link us to anything you do so anyone here doesn't miss your progress. Good luck!

Just catching up with this thread now. I know it's going to sound childishly optimistic, but I'd say you succeeded by default. You put in the time, energy, and work for a successful meet. Not every single ounce of everything that you had ever planned... but seriously, who ever meets that standard? The only ones who appear to have met it are the ones who happen to have not shared their failings while focusing on their successes. Now, March will come and your ankle will be better (oh ankle woes... brace that thing!). You'll be able to check yourself for the meet, but you know your training was hard. There's always something to improve upon, but I can't fully get behind pass/failing yourself with an event judged by those not in competition, ya know? =) Best of luck moving forward. Injuries only stop some of the training for some of the time; there's more to this challenge!

I'd argue the key to any goal is metrics. If you're on weighted machine, move up in weight every week. Some weeks will invariably be harder than others, so if you simply cannot lift it, drop back to last week's weight and try again next week. But, know the difference between, "My body really, really doesn't want to do this," and, "My body cannot do this." The vast majority of your ability to grow stronger lies in the last few struggling repetitions. If you find yourself plateauing, switch up your routine. Effective exercise stimulates an adaptive response in the body, so don't fail to give it something new to adapt to when what's been generating measurable increases fails to do so for a period of time. Then just eat cleanly (read what you like of the mountains of peer-reviewed literature out there and choose what clean means for you) and you won't lose weight. If anything, you'll gain a little as you get stronger, because muscle tissue is quite dense. =) As to body fat and/or "toning up" - find a routine that works for you and focus on that later. There's a ton of complex chemistry involved in tuning your body to burn fat preferentially, but you'll never be able to reduce body fat in a certain area by exercising that part of your body. As a matter of course, if you're eating enough to support your strength gains, you may see some change in body fat percentage, but let that fall far behind your other motivators for working out for now. Later, you'll have some comfort in your newly active lifestyle to research what dietary changes might influence your unique biochemistry to burn some more stored fat rather than the other nutrients you're feeding it. So yeah. Make up your own routine. =) Some general guidelines might be: include a push and a pull for every major joint in the body at least once a week. Leg press, overhead press, pulldown, chest press, and row will round you out pretty nicely in terms of major muscle groups. But, no matter what you do, make sure you're measuring an increase in the metric that matters to you. If you keep up with that well beyond the comfort of the new-and-shiny phase of your relationship with the gym, you'll see results. Your genetics will determine what those results will ultimately look like, but strength is often very apparent. Oh and PS, keep us posted on your progress! Haha. Community support is a very useful tool.

Ahhh, Airborne! I didn't expect to watch the whole thing, but I did. I miss getting paid to jump out of planes, but I've never been in shape like you. =) Also, that song. First time I got to love it was from Umar Khan, who had a diverse mix back in 2005.

I've seen fights prevented by flips. Haha. Completely serious. But uhh... I dunno. What real world application does any physical pursuit outside of running, swimming, or strongman have? Powerlifting is my favorite thing to do outside of trick, but that's because it's fun. =) I don't know about you, but I move for fun before anything. Being an overall better human machine is definitely a close second, but I'm in it for the euphoria of close friends accomplishing big goals, etc. =) For example, Scott Skelton. <3 One of the best trickster in the universe, in both skills and heart.

Back home. In with my original reply: Well, this is just a general thing, but how much do you squat/dead/etc? I only ask because you want to see yourself getting decidedly _stronger_. A body that can deadlift 315lbs safely is going to look different than a body that can deadlift 135 safely, ya know? So... if you're training strength, I hope your trainer is having you up your weight every week on every lift for at least the first attempt. Obviously gains are never linear, but strength training should produce strength gains, period. =) More specifically, have you ever studied body builder diets? I'm not advocating that you do that, but I just wonder if it's something you're familiar with. The way body builders get their body fat percentages down below what their genetics are inclined to support is just ludicrous. They work so hard for that size and then, arguably, harder for the paper thin skin and competition amounts of body fat. My point is this: general clean eating and a generally active lifestyle will get you results in healthfulness, to be sure. I'm certain that if you ran a blood panel right now, your numbers would be stellar. However, how much body fat you store, where you store it, and how much muscle mass you pack on is a product of genetics first. That's why body builders work so hard - even as genetically inclined to be big and strong as they are, they're still pushing far past their genetic default by mandate of remaining competitive. So, this is just a stab in the dark and one possible contributing factor for a thing (body composition) that is plainly complex beyond human understanding. Perhaps you're not of another species, but that your body feels it's necessary to keep things as they are. Mind you, that's not a bad thing. =) If you're where your body wants you to be and you're not bound to lifelong medication or something, I'd argue your body is making pretty good choices, ya know? =) Even if that's the case, all is not lost for your ambitions, however, haha. You could (with a qualified person's guidance, I hope) explore the world of unsustainable diet changes (along the lines of competition preparation for figure competitors) just to see what your body might respond to. It might be risky and not ultimately healthful, but if you want it, it might be worth checking out anyway. tl;dr - You're already doing it right. I hope that's satisfactory all on its own. <3