nm_the_niceguy

Try wifi carrier pigeons, they're sneaky enough to get past them Templars

Just dropping in to wish you good luck! I'm not doing this challenge on account of I will be away and not updating, but I'm going to stay active and come back energized for the next one!

So for anyone still following me, I know there is a new challenge going, but I am still gonna b away for a while. Don't fear! I am still working towards being a proper Assassin! I have proof that I am improving my body, despite my absence! Photographic proof! Before: After: Apologies for the hugeness of the photos, I am new to posting images.

Arr! I was away a heck of a lot longer than planned! I'm actually still away, but I've got some internet connectivity. I guess I missed the whole challenge! It didn't really go well anyway, I kept up with the food portion, I barely snacked at all and I ate mostly fruit if I did. The rest of the challenges were a bomb, tho. I was WAY busier than I expected, and the group I planned to use as motivation were working a different shift from me, so I fell off the wagon really quickly. This one is gonna have to be an EPIC FAIL. I'm going to be at this for a few more weeks at least, so I think I'll probably sit the next challenge out, and try and make a new challenge for the one after that. The good news is that I definitely lost some weight, even with only keeping to my food promises! This is encouraging!

Morning update: I am sore in places that I did not know it was possible to be sore. I'm actually 80% sure some of my fat is being sore in a show of solidarity for my poor muscles. This is wonderful. I'm totally lifting again on Friday.

Mine was really awesome. He explained the lifts and watched me and explained how to progress through sets and reps and weight progression. He also made a case for solid body weight workouts and other stuff. It was really awesome and informative.

"Wake up" The disembodied voice commanded to the sleeping initiate. "Welcome to day three of your training." "I'm up! I'm up!" nm_the_niceguy replied, fighting through the haze his dreams had woven around his wits. "Hey, where's the bike?" "There will be no biking today, today you will learn the art of lifting from the master trainer" "OOh!" nm_the_niceguy exclaimed. "Is he awesome? What's his name? no wait let me guess! Bone....Smasher." "His name is Matt." "That's not that cool of a name for a 'master trainer.'" "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT HIS NAME IS!" The disembodied voice shrieked. No trainee had ever made the voice lose its cool in the first week. This initiate was a special kind of irritating. "Just go and learn to strengthen your body from him." As he left the sleeping chambers, nm_the_niceguy thought he heard the disembodied voice mumble something about how he always gets the stupid ones. "It's a shame the voice always gets stupid trainees." he thought to himself, sauntering to the bus stop "Oh well, at least he has me to make up for it!" Today I met with a personal trainer and we went over "The big three" lifts: The deadlift, squat, and bench press. I had already read starting strength, so I was familiar with the concept of the lifts, but I have very little practice with them. After about 40 minutes of instruction and lifting, the trainer declared that I showed strong form and we sat down to work out a simple training progression that should suit me as I take my first steps into lifting. if anyone is interested, my work sets for the three lifts (3 sets of 5 reps) were as follows (these are all from memory, as I didn't record them and my trainer didn't e-mail me the results): Deadlift: 185 lbs Squat: 205 lbs Bench Press: I wanna say it was 135 lbs, but I don't remember. Bear in mind these were my first lifts basically ever, and these were also learning weights and sets. My trainer said I should expect to see quick gains for the first little while, so we'll see where I end up in a few months.

Thanks Nuala! I have updated my thread, filled in the form, and sub'd the announcement thread. I won't be able to maintain the weekly update schedule, unfortunately. I don't know what my posting frequency will be, but it will be as frequently as I possibly can. I'll try to post daily until I disappear and I'll definitely maintain my program so I can update you all when I get back!

Thanks Igi! I'll let you know how it goes!

I'll have to check out the Pacific Rim soundtrack!

It is a long plank, I'm actually worried I won't be able to complete it, but I'm going to be restricted in my training this challenge, so I had to go with a tough challenge that didn't need much space. Also for the record, I weighted in at 222 lbs (yikes!) this morning and 39" around the waist.

"Your training starts now" Said the voice, a soft baritone, barely speaking above a whisper. nm_the_niceguy could not see the owner of the voice. "Sweet shadow voice trick!" nm_the_niceguy exclaimed "And I know! I'm pumped for my push ups and pull ups! Gonna do them after work!" "No, it starts right now. You will bike to this....day job.....and bike home after." "But that isn't part of the challenge!" "You must continue to train above and beyond your specific challenge requirements if you wish to meet your weight goal. Also, it's nice out and riding the bus is no way for an assassin, even an initiate such as yourself, to get around." The voice seemed to float around the room, never resting in any one place. nm_the_niceguy would have remarked on how cool the overall effect was if he wasn't so busy whining about having to bike. "Fine!" He eventually exclaimed "I'll do it, but call me an Assassinitiate!" "No, that's dumb" said the voice "You're just mad that I thought of that sweet name first!" nm_the_niceguy crowed. "GO!" demanded the voice. nm_the_niceguy set off, wheezing his way up the hill on his bike. He took solace from his pain knowing that he was probably right and the voice was, in fact, jealous. Pressing off from a stop light, his foot, which had been pulled from the basket to steady himself, caught the pedal and slipped back into the basket without even having to look down. "That was pretty awesome!" Though nm_the_niceguy "I hope those cars were watching! I'll have to practice doing that!"

Whoop whoop! Lets do this!

Wow, this challenge makes mine look lame! I may have to take some time to expand mine for more flavour! Good luck! I'll check in to see more of your challenge when I can!

Hey good luck Hazard! I'll be checking in when I'm online! Your challenges look pretty cool, and definitely don't look like anything I could do anytime soon! I'll be subbing you as soon as I figure out how!

Hi there Assassins and fellow Assassinitiates! For those of you that don't know me, I am nm_the_niceguy and I am out of shape. I just completed my first 6 week challenge with moderate success and I am ready to take some steps into the larger world of guild challenges. My challenge will be weird this time, though, as it looks like I will be away from the internet for probably most of the challenge. On top of that, the space I will be living in will not be suitable for any but the most rudimentary exercises. As a result, this challenge will focus on some basic body-mastery skills. nm_the_niceguy's Ultimate Long Term Goal: Achieve and maintain a 35' waist. This was my goal for the first challenge, and it was ambitions and I didn't get anywhere close. As a result, this is my long term project goal. Challenge Goals: Obtain Mastery of my body and drop below 200lbs. Mastery of my body will entail learning how to ignore those impulses that led me to be larger than I wanted, and learning to perform basic feats of strength. Goal A: No more junk food snacks: I will eat 3 meals a day. Most of these meals will be cooked by someone else and I will have no control over them. Beyond that, I will not eat any snack that is not a fruit or a vegetable. This is in part to encourage increased fruit and veg intake, and in part to decrease overall calorie consumption. This challenge will be scored weekly, with any day I follow the rules being worth 1 point. A week is successful if I obtain at least a 5/7. This goal will be successful at the end of 6 weeks if all 6 weeks were successful. Drinking will not be factored into this challenge, but I will endeavor to keep my calorie consumption by beverages low. Goal B: Pull up challenge. For this challenge, I must complete a number of pull ups equal to the day number of the challenge, in any number of sets and reps. That is, one pull up the first day, two the second, etc all the way to 42. These must be clean pull ups with no kicking or assistance. This will be judged a success if I miss 7 or fewer days. Goal C: Push up challenge. See above, but push ups, and starting at 20 reps. Goal D: Plank Challenge. Like the others, only a plank challenge. This one will start at a 30 second plank, and add three seconds per day. this will have me finish at a 2:36 plank. This goal will be successful if I can plank for that long at the end and missed fewer than 7 days. Additional Goals: On top of these goals, I will be trying to bike to work whenever I am home and the weather is good, as well as introducing a weight routine (just made the appointment with a personal trainer, to get a little coaching!) and trying to improve my overall cardio fitness. The overall success of my mission will be determined by my weight at the end of 6 weeks and my completion of the four challenges. I may not post here frequently, but know that I have not given up! I am just practicing being invisible, like any good assassinitiate should! Oh yes, and for the record, I weigh about 215 (it varies between that and 220), I think 15 pounds in 6 weeks is entirely achievable. I posted my last challenge before and after shots, should I do that again? I think yes. Stay tuned tomorrow for one slightly flabby glamour shot!

Well done, dude! You got through it!

You finished and passed! Congrats!

I'm still here! I guess it's time to grade myself eh? It isn't gonna be awesome Goal 1: 3x (Monday/Wednesday/Friday)Strength workouts per week. Number of weeks completed: 5/6. Goal 2: Cardio on off days, 3x a week (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday). Number of weeks completed: 4/6 Goal 3: Reduce calorie consumption through beverages: Number of weeks completed: I didn't track this well, but I think it wasn't great, ima go with 0. LIFE SIDE QUEST: Im trying to write a book. My life side quest is to write for at least 15 minutes every day. Number of weeks completed: Nope. So with the three main quests at 6 weeks each, gives a total of 18. That means I scored 9/18 for a solid D. So where do I go from here? I want to add weight to my thrice weekly weight workout, and I want to start cardio training seriously, maybe with the goal of doing another half marathon soon. I'll be building a routine as soon as I finish reading Starting Strength. I haven't decided what guild I want to join, but the Assassins have been really supportive and seem to be in line with my goals. I'll have to figure it out. I'm not sure I want to progress past beginner, with only a D on my quest, hah.

Nice work on your challenge man! Couple more days to go!

So despite the lackluster performance in the whole 'shredded bod' area, today I ran a full 3 miles at 6.5 mile an hour pace the whole time, which is half a mile an hour faster than my old normal pace. Nice!

So my progress hasn't been impressive....yet. But I feel better and I crave gym time and it's time to start ramping up the difficulty! I just finished reading the squat section of SS, and what a difference it made to my squats! It's a whole different burn and I'm excited to start really pushing myself. Before: After:

Great Results! Last week, keep at it! Thanks for the encouragement in my thread!

Haha, thanks! I always preferred positive energy to being mopey. Even when I'm not proud of how I look, I prefer to say "Imagine how good you could look" to "look how bad you look"

I just checked out the mini challenge, I really aught to be checking in here every day instead of every few days. I'm not sure what a pistol squat is, but I should check it out, if only to spice up my regular workout! I got Starting Strength today! Or rather, my library finally got the copy I had on hold. I'll be working through it over the next few days with an eye to adding weight to my regular workouts! If I am level one now, I should definitely have a pic. That's the next goal! That and adding a fancy signature!