Dirt Diver

Day 1 consisted of a weird super-abbreviated workout, prepping one meal for work, and having to miss out on a lot of sleep before the start of my night shift (all good though...it was so I could drive across town and do the pre-employment drug screening for my super-awesome new dayshift job - only two more weeks before it starts!). Workout (warm-up weights not written): Inclined Leg Press 3x5 x 360lbs Bench Press 3x5 x 175lbs 10-minute run: 1.15 miles (8:41 pace) Meal Prep: Baked a garlic and lemon-marinated chicken breast, diced it up, threw it over a salad of mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar dressing.

After a brief foray with the Rangers, I'm back. Let's keep this simple so I can rest up tonight and kick this challenge off strong in the morning! Nutrition/Fitness Quests: 1. Get back to doing 10 dead-hang pull-ups. Right now I'm at 5, so this one should almost be a "gimme" over 4 weeks. 10 pull-ups = A 9 pull-ups = B 8 pull-ups = C 7 pull-ups = D 6 pull-ups = F 2. Three lifting sessions of with each lift done 3x5-style each week. 11-12 sessions = A 9-10 sessions = B 7-8 sessions = C 5-6 sessions = D <5 sessions = F 3. Run 2.5 miles in 20 minutes (8 min/mile pace). I'm hitting about 2.37-2.39 miles in 20 minutes right now. 2.50 miles in 20 minutes = A 2.48-2.49 miles in 20 minutes = B 2.46-2.47 miles in 20 minutes = C 2.44-2.45 miles in 20 minutes = D <2.45 miles in 20 minutes = F LUYL Quest Start using your nice kitchen like an adult and prepare at least three meals each week. If I can conquer getting over the hump to actually start preparing my own meals more regularly, I can move this from a LUYL Quest to a more robust nutritional goal where I'm cooking almost every meal almost every day during a later challenge. 11-12 meals = A 9-10 meals = B 7-8 meals = C 5-6 meals = D < meals = F Let's do this, Warriors!

Over the last 9.5 years, I've worked nightshift for a major health system. Despite being the best-educated and credentialed member of my team, there has been no way for me to move up the ladder, as no leadership positions have become available (and aren't likely to anytime soon). Heck, I couldn't even make the switch to dayshift once I had the requisite seniority, since that move would have placed me awkwardly under the direct management of a family member! Several years ago, when I discovered that I was significantly underpaid compared to co-workers with similar credentials and time-in-service, I realized that something had to change. I worked with my boss, who agreed there was a problem, and he recommended a huge salary increase. This was turned down by our system's CEO and head of HR for reasons not specified. At this point, most of you are probably thinking "LEAVE, YOU FOOL!" Trust me, if my field weren't a bit saturated in this area, and if my girlfriend didn't have a wonderful career here, I would have. I was feeling underpaid, hopeless about the prospect of advancement, and chronically severely sleep-deprived from the rigors of extraordinarily long night-shifts. That's when I heard about a new opportunity..... My alma mater has a major research hospital and its own health system about 20 minutes north of where I live. Earlier this month, I submitted an application for a low-level leadership position there in my field. A dayshift position. I interviewed a couple days before Christmas, and this afternoon, I formally accepted the job! Not only that, but they offered me an 11% raise above my current salary! I honestly couldn't be happier. In just a few short weeks, I'll make the transition to a job where I'll make more money, have normal hours for sleep, exercise, and meal-planning, actually get to see my girlfriend, friends, and family on a regular basis (without looking and feeling like I just pulled an all-nighter), have the opportunity to pursue further education (I've already ordered a study guide for another board exam), and interact daily with professionals who can open doors to even higher levels of achievement. BOOM! ::drops woot mic for next rebel::

Day 15 As Week 3 of the challenge begins, I weighed in 1.4 lbs lighter than this time last week, for a total weight loss of 3.4 lbs so far during this challenge. Work has been CRAZY tonight, so I only managed to consume 1580/2122 kcal. No exercise to report today, but I could sure use some for stress relief purposes!

Day 14 1985/2122 kcal consumed on this rainy Sunday. Recovering from Saturday's awesome workout and lounging were top priorities. Also, "adulting" activities for this weekend: both my girlfriend and I got our car's oil changes taken care of (plus new spark plugs and a new valve-cover gasket for her - that simple oil change got expensive pretty quickly!), both of us got our flu shots, we booked flights and a car rental for holiday travel, and ran a couple of errands. I'm still not really 'with' the program I've outlined yet, but I'm more committed to getting things done right during Week 3.

Day 13 2500/2122 kcal consumed. My girlfriend and I had a great workout this evening. Started out with heavy leg presses on the hip sled at weights higher than I'd even consider attempting with a barbell. I liked this enough to stick with it for a while and build up some baseline strength again before switching back to barbell back squats and starting around 135lbs. Worked on the bench a bit, then did some rows, triceps push-downs, biceps curls, and knocked out one of my 20-minute runs on the treadmill (2.22 miles at an average pace of 6.6 mph - pretty slow, but my legs were kind of toast from the hip sled). Breakdown of the strength training: Leg Press 180lbs x 12 reps 180lbs x 12 reps 270lbs x 8 reps 270lbs x 8 reps 360lbs x 3 reps Bench Press 45lbs x 10 reps 135lbs x 5 reps 155lbs x 5 reps 155lbs x 5 reps 155lbs x 5 reps Mid-back Isolated Row 164lbs x 8 reps 164lbs x 8 reps 164lbs x 8 reps Preacher Curls (leveraged) 55lbs x 10 reps 45lbs x 8 reps 35lbs x 15 reps 25lbs x 10 reps Triceps Pushdown with Rope Attachment 40lbs x 10 reps 40lbs x 8 reps 55lbs x 2 reps All-in-all, this was the most fun I've had with a strength workout in months. I still plan on focusing on barbell work in the future for the majority of my strength training (plus my favorite: pull-ups), but I wouldn't mind substituting this hip-sled thing just long enough that 135lb squats feel easy again.

Okay, haven't been great at updating this, but here goes a late post and brief summary for the last days I didn't document: Day 8 2225/2122 kcal consumed. Lifted briefly for the first time in months. Worked up to 3x5 of 135lbs for squats and 3x5 of 155lbs for bench. These numbers were pretty shockingly low to me (okay, maybe not the squats), but I know the bench will come up quickly. Also, did 2,000m on the rowing machine just for the heck of it. Finished with only moderate effort in 9min20sec, so it'll be fun to see if I can improve on this as well. Crappy day at work, really shocked that I didn't obliterate my calorie goal through stress eating. Day 9 2330/2122 kcal consumed. Another crappy day at work, just really really stressful. Day 10 1840/2122 kcal consumed. Worst day at work yet, absolutely at my stress limit. I'll admit, I also didn't plan my work meals like I did last week, so my nutrition has been abysmal. Day 11 3077/2122 kcal consumed. Pretty much woke up just to stuff myself with comfort food, and then go back to bed for my first full night's sleep all week. Day 12 2790/2122 kcal consumed. I definitely overdid the calories today, and the overage was purely due to mindless snacking once my girlfriend and I had finished dinner. We just lounged around catching up from the week, and I ate cookies :-/ Cycled for 53 minutes at 13.4mph average for a total distance of 11.9 miles. It was getting pretty dark by the time I finished, so I didn't push my speed like I normally would, out of fear that I wouldn't see something or someone else on the trail in time to avoid a collision. All-in-all, I'm happy to have knocked out one of my scheduled rides because now I should be able to complete all of this week's activities!

Yeah, the 2 lbs per week rule is great as an average, but when you're jumping in to something new, most people can expect a bit more weight loss in the beginning. That's what's so interesting about the USDA's Body Weight Planner: it models weight changes over time with lots of real peoples' data instead of just making predictions based on averages. I've found when I hit my calorie and exercise goals, the estimates are scary accurate - like down to one-fifth of a pound!

Week 1 Recap I only managed 1 out of 2 scheduled 20-minute runs and 1 out of 3 scheduled 50-minute bike rides. I didn't do my bonus swim, either. It's pretty obvious that eating out is a major problem for me when I'm trying to watch my caloric intake. The good news is, all of these outings were way outside the norm, so I don't expect similar troubles again anytime soon. Now that I've seen the numbers, I'll make sure to plan ahead for any special outings, and make sure to choose healthier options. I weighed in 2.2 lbs lighter after the first week of this challenge, but the USDA's Body Weight Planner predicts that I would have weighed in 4.7 lbs lighter had I stuck to my nutrition and exercise plan! That's some food for thought going forward. I hope everyone else is having a great start to their Challenge, and I'll look forward to trying to support some others as we all start Week 2!

Day 7 (late post) Another day filled with eating out. Met up with my mom for lunch, then grabbed fast food (it was too late for a decent restaurant :-/ ) with a buddy after catching a movie at an international film fest that he was volunteering at. I may be over-estimating calories consumed here, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 3155/2122 for a grand total of 1033 extra kcal today. Not ideal. Managed a 50+ minute bike ride, but only made it 10.9 miles as the paths were full of people out for leisurely strolls in the beautiful weather (and I didn't want to scare anyone by flying by at my normal pace).

Day 6 (late post) Another day of going out to eat with friends. Had a special dinner with two other couples to celebrate a birthday at a really fancy restaurant downtown, and ended up over my calorie budget (2560/2122) by 438. Again, this is under my required calories for weight maintenance, but days like today will mean slower weight loss in the long run and getting to my goal weight later than planned. I'll have to watch this, but it's really hard to turn down these get-togethers, and part of the fun is trying fancy new foods. I did finally manage to squeeze in 20 minutes of running today (made it 2.25 miles on an outdoor path with rolling hills), so that's a plus.

Day 5 (late post) Today didn't go quite as planned, but I'm not terribly upset by that. My girlfriend and I were seeing two of our best friends off to Italy, so we brought them dinner while they were packing. They always have great dessert and since I only had one meal during my waking hours, I ended up eating some fast food really late at night. In total, I consumed 2815/2122 kcal (693 over my budgeted number, but still nearly 200 under the calories needed to maintain my current weight).

Day 4 Another solid effort at eating, this time snacking at the end of the day to bring my intake right up to the specified limit with 2122/2122 kcal consumed. Days 5, 6, and 7 will HAVE to involve some of my scheduled exercise for the week, or it just isn't gonna get done.

Thanks for the support, I'll appreciate the company!

Day 3 Managed to stick to my intake goals again, with 2085/2122 kcal consumed. Considering I'm doing this while sleep-deprived and working hectic night-shifts, I'm satisfied with the consistency. After I catch some sleep tomorrow, the exercise-heavy interval of Week 1 will start, as I'll finally be off work and able to knock out some of these workouts. I've got a spreadsheet to track intake, daily body weight, exercise performed, etc. If I can figure out how to post anything more elaborate than simple text to this thread, I'll have to post a running graph with my numbers.

Day 2 Another successful day with regard to eating: 2025/2122 kcal consumed. As predicted, I still didn't manage to squeeze in any of this week's exercise just yet, but then I only had enough time to sleep, keep an appointment, and then head straight back to work for another 12-14 hours. Hoping to get either a run or a ride in tomorrow, depending on how I feel.

Day 1 Success on the eating front with 2115/2122 kcal consumed. No exercise as I was starting my hectic 3 nights of looong night-shifts. Day 2 will see me even more crunched for time, thanks to a pre-work appointment.

It's been a while since I've tracked any progress on Nerd Fitness, and I've really missed the support of the community. I've decided to jump back in and switch from the Warrior guild to the Rangers for this challenge. Basically, I've been cycling and running a lot more in order to lean down, but don't plan to give up on strength training completely. Seems like these activities should help me fit in well with you Rangers. In order to keep leaning down and improving my stamina, I've got three main goals, and one bonus: 1. Stick to a total daily intake of 2,122 kcal. This number comes from entering current and goal information into the USDA's Supertracker Body Weight Planner. It's a data-driven way to plan weight loss. Perfect for nerds :-). 2. Run at a moderate pace for 20 minutes, twice a week. This will be a bit of a challenge, since I've been dealing with a lower-extremity injury that I don't want to further aggravate. 3. Cycle at a moderate pace for 50 minutes, three times a week. This will be my favorite part of the challenge, because I've got beautiful paths to ride on. The one thing I'll need to pay a little extra attention to is grabbing some cold-weather cycling gear. Bonus goal: swim at an easy-to-moderate pace for 20 minutes, once a week. Also, it's worth noting that I've never managed to stick with a challenge for the full six weeks. Time to change that. Dirt Diver is ready to Ranger on!

Day 1 finished, and this challenge is off to a good start. Lifting: (only working weights are listed) 5x5 with 195lbs on bench 5x5 with 175lbs for squats 5x5 with 95lbs for barbell rows Eating: almost all paleo. Veggies and eggs or veggies and chicken all day, with the exception of a small amount of rice. Running: did a 2-miler around 01:00 this morning on a course with moderate hills. Goal time is anything less than 17 minutes, I came in at 16:51. Pull-ups: 2 sets of 6, just for fun. Posting from work, so I'll be up for another 8.5 hours, then I'll put some effort into that whole sleeping thingy.

This will be my first 6-week challenge in a guild (outside of the Level 1 Rebels), so I'll try not to make this too long. 1.) Continue powerlifting 3X each week, with a modified progression of the SL5x5 plan. Goal working weights by end of challenge: 205lbs for bench 200lbs for squats 250lbs for deadlifts My progress stalled repeatedly on bench (5x5 at 195lbs was always hit-or-miss fucking scary without a spotter) and squats (5x5 at 175lbs required so much rest time between sets that I'm pretty sure I should have logged five different workouts instead of one) so I spent about a month building up my confidence at lower weights. When I decided to move up, I did so by adding just 5lbs per week to my big three. While less exciting than increasing every lift by 5lbs after every successful session, hitting 5x5 at a given weight for multiple workouts has really boosted my confidence to push through some barriers. 2. Eat like an adult and lose 10lbs. (Okay, better than most adults). I've needed to fix my nutrition for such a long time, but my girlfriend and I finally started cooking more frequently. We both actually enjoy eating paleo, so as long as we plan to have food ready to cook, this really shouldn't be that hard. I don't want to have to count calories or weigh my foods. Just eat almost exclusively paleo and hope to reap the rewards. 3. Slowly build a running base. All. Over. Again. The TL;DR version of my fitness life is this: extensive background in martial arts, trained to get a Navy SEAL contract, aged-out of the candidate pool in February of this year, got pneumonia almost immediately after that and was completely shut down for a month, then tried to run at my previous level (40+ miles weekly) in a friendly competition with a special operations buddy, resulting in a painful overuse injury to one foot...that still hasn't really healed completely. (With my cardio capacity trashed by the double-whammy of pneumonia and the subsequent inactivity, I stumbled upon powerlifting. That's how I got into SL5x5). I've finally come to terms with the fact that I currently can't run 4 miles in less than 28 minutes any more. I also can't run 3 miles in 18 minutes. Maybe if I say these things publicly, I'll stop trying to do them and re-injuring myself. Instead, I'll be using an old running plan (Google "BUD/S Warning Order" and check out the running in Category I) that I used back in college to start training for a SEAL contract. The mileage progression is great, and getting back on an actual plan will be a very good thing for me in a lot of ways. Because of my training background, I'll probably start swimming pretty seriously again, but I didn't want to make that an added goal just yet. My top-end weekly swimming had me doing one day at >2 miles, one day of 10x100yd super-fast repeats, and one day of two continuous high-intensity swims for 20 minutes each. So if I end up posting about swims instead of runs, this is why. Other stuff: throw in some pull-ups here and there (I have fond memories from earlier this year of weeks spent doing nearly 500 strict form pull-ups), and be more conscientious about getting enough sleep. I work 12-hour nightshifts three times a week, and I like to switch back over to a normal schedule on my days off, so this is a constant struggle.

Whew, that whole 'move and change jobs' in the same week thing was brutal. I don't believe I stuck to ANY of my fitness goals that week, but I also didn't get to sleep more than a couple of hours TOTAL from Sunday til about Wednesday. Good news though: I got back on track yesterday with my brother available to spot, and we did a SL workout with a slight variation (we did deadlifts at the end of the A routine instead of barbell rows since he really wanted to test out his back following a period of rehab from an injury). Squats: 5x5x135lbs (just working on perfect form, feeling out where I'm at strengthwise after a full week off from lifting) Bench: 5x5x175lbs (after multiple failures attempting sets at 195, I realized I'd have to drop and work back up) Deadlift: warm-up sets, then randomly did a set of 5 with 185lbs! It felt good, so I threw 225lbs on there, just so I could finally try moving two big plates on each side. I completed the lift with good form, but it was pretty tough. I'm assuming this is awfully close to my 1RM on deadlift right now. Bench Bro-nus! Since I had the rare luxury of a spotter, I thought I'd see if I could bench 205 again. Not only did I do it, I put up 210 for one solid rep! At a bodyweight of 203.8! Pretty happy about that.

I actually don't, but that's such a perfect goofy-celebratory GIF, it would be hard to top!

Congrats on hitting 200! You and I are really close 1RM-wise on bench. We're gonna be putting up two plates soon! (and when I do, I'm stealing that GIF you used for deadlift day )

Though my training has been much more warrior-oriented since January or February of this year, I thought I'd weigh in, since I used to do over 200 strict form push-ups and 60 strict form pull-ups 4-5 days each week. You likely got some "noob" gains on your push-ups with a >100% increase in such a short time, meaning that instead of doubling in strength or muscular endurance, what likely happened is that your body's neuromuscular system basically figured out how and when to recruit different muscles more effectively to allow you to keep doing push-ups. This is great, and it's part of the process of improving your numbers, but don't let it fool you into thinking that the gains keep coming so fast. It's much easier for a guy who starts out only being able to do 10 push-ups to double his numbers, versus a guy who can perform 50 push-ups to do the same. Once you hit a certain point, you'll find that your max may only go up by one or two reps each week...if at all! With an exercise like pull-ups, where you're essentially lifting your entire body weight over and over, you've got to understand that there will be plateaus in your max number. Possibly long plateaus. Since you're currently stuck at 6, I wouldn't recommend starting anything crazy like weighted pull-ups yet. Instead, I'd recommend doing some sub-maximal sets, as advised by the Naval Special Warfare Physical Training Guide (written for candidates trying to earn contracts with the US Navy for a chance to become Navy SEALs). Here's what they would recommend for increasing your pull-up numbers: If your max is 6-9, perform 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps for a total of 16-25 pull-ups on whatever days you want to do pull-ups. The entire NSW PTG is available here and you'll want to scroll down to page 5 for the full chart. Once you start hitting some really strong pull-up numbers, like 12 and above with proper form, you can stick with their plan, or start mixing things up by doing Stew Smith's "Pull-up push" routine for two weeks straight. It's exhausting, but it works for some people. As with any strength training, recovery is necessary, so make sure you're sleeping and eating well. Hope this helps!

I'm really sorry to see that you're still having trouble with SI joint pain. After you sent me that big response that included your PT routine, I started doing two things that seem to have completely fixed my issue. The first, is laying down flat on my back and bringing one knee up towards my chest and stopping when the thigh is roughly 90-degress to my supine body. After that, I bring my hands together and interlace my fingers to create a sling for the leg that's raised off the ground. Place the hand-sling just below the raised knee (on the upper part of the front of your lower leg) as if you were going to pull your knee to your chest - but don't. Instead, keep the rest of your body flat against the floor, and push this knee against your hand-sling for about 5 seconds. I had relief from my SI pain after only 2 or 3 repetitions of this (do it about ten times with each leg for 5 seconds at a time). The second thing I tried, was just repeatedly getting down all the way into the low position of the squat and trying to relax there, with my hamstrings touching my calves and my palms pressed together, using my elbows to flare my knees outward. I realize you're probably not going to low-bar squat all the way down like this, but I think some of my screwed up form (that caused my SI inflammation) resulted from unequal tension/tightness in my lower body. This seems to get everything stretched out enough that I'm able to drop down more fluidly, without unwanted tension cropping up on one side or the other. In Starting Strength, Rippetoe suggests something similar to this before any squat session, but he just has you dropping down into the bottom position of your squat instead of trying to touch your hammies to your calves. I also played around with some of the "glute activation" exercises found here and I couldn't believe how lop-sided my strength or flexibility was for some of these.