Doaheem

I'm not a Druid, at least not yet, I was on the fence between this group and... well I'll just say one or two others, but your mixture of exercise, meditation, martial arts in a way that all seems to speak of personal developments with an inward focus. That all resonates heavily with me. I think I'll dwell in this forest for a little while with you :). I noticed that all your posts were generally positive with "Despite feeling sick, today I balled out" and yet this weekend both of your posts were brief and more apprehensive. Did you take time for yourself? I'm curious as to how you recentered following the work and energy expenditures.

So I was gone for a while. I came back and renamed myself to... that.. and then decided to bugger off again for several more months. I got caught up in a demanding long term substitute position and school work and a girlfriend, now fiance, and now I am in another period of rediscovery, growth, and a change in lifestyle that feels all too similar to the volatile rebirth of the Phoenix. I know the challenges are supposed to be mostly fitness but I've personally found that in reality it doesn't have to be the case and so I'll be rejoining the ranks of crusading souls to follow my own self-centered pursuits and wooting for others. Douglas

Hiya guys, Been a long while. I'd fallen off the wagon after having the best stretch of uninterrupted exercising and weight loss with being a substitute teacher and going to school to be a teacher. I just never had that 'why' there was no reason for me, sure it was nice to have more energy, to look better, to feel better, but none of that seemed very concrete to me. One of my students convinced me to try airsofting again after having not gone in a literal decade (I'm 28 now) and I got my butt kicked hard. I was sucking wind and water all day trying not to die and it pissed me off to no end. I used to be pretty active because of my job but now as a teacher there isn't much lifting or fast moving. I immediately fell back in love with airsoft in a way that I can't describe and I found my why. I've been building and piecing together a workout program (first time I've ever done this) based on guidelines, and workouts from others whether it's milsim groups fitness requirements, the Navy SEALS training guide, and general tips. I figured I'd come back to the one place I found was helpful in the past as I work towards my goal of joining an Eastern Bloc themed milsim group. Fenix

This is that I like the community, I like posting and reading and communicating with others. I'll definitely be journaling about this next experience to find out how this goes. I appreciate the tip and the relating comment Why are we so blargh!? Curse introversion. It's very nice to know I'm not alone in that regard and I'm sorry you go through the same thing.

Been a bit hasn't it? 2017 hasn't been off to a great start. I jumped in with three feet and decided I'd try the Warriors and everything was going great until it wasn't and it crashed and burned. I still worked out, I still did stuff, I just wasn't as zealous and stopped posting on the forum and then I got sick a few times and just... blah. Something weird about me and how I interact with the forum. It doesn't feel good to admit this but I really want to be done with it. It's a real irrational thing but when I see others getting a lot of posts it sort of makes me feel guilty/sad or something I'm not sure. I'll post on other people's threads and feel good about it but when others do too it gets me down for some reason. And then as some stupid kicker on top of that, if/when they come and post on my stuff it makes me feel down too and I don't freaking get it. So eventually like a sulky kid at a party I just pull out all together. Anyone else feel that? Anyone else beat that? Halp pls! Also with regards to working out sick. Anyone have a tip of advice for how to work out when sick? I go to a local gym and even if they're not considerate about it I don't want to go to the gym while sick and spread it around so I'll just lazily do some halfarsed body weight exercises. Is that what others do? Or do you just workout sick and damn the illness this is war and everyone needs to live dangerously? Lighthouse out.

For Saber League It's a freaking blast. I loved watching the different techniques fight one another. Blocky that makes sense actually I definitely noticed more soreness in my chest following the dumbbell work. EDIT So I should have noted what happened yesterday. I did not work out. My knees were in agony from an older injury and from something that happened during the saber fighting. Instead I committed yesterday to doing stretching and mobility work to prep for Wednesday. I feel like I've hit something of a plateau with the third world stretch. I can't get all the way down into the bottom. I think it's tightness in my... achilles/calves? I really work on trying to stretch out the bottom of the squat.

Saturday weigh-in 0800 221 lbs estimated 28% body fat Okay. Well that aside. Despite not talking on here for a bit I've been good, Thursday I stretched out. Not a lot but I've never had a session of dedicated mobility so that was weird for me. Felt nice though in that 'Oh God this is agony!' while my poor tendons fight against me. Felt good and Friday I got a very solid lift in. Made sure I had a lunch while at work so that I'd still have some energy to work off of come 1630. Couldn't touch a bench for love or money at that time so did dumbbell bench presses for the first time. I actually really enjoyed it and felt like it worked more in my chest. DBBP 20 (each) x 1 x 5 30 x 1 x 5 50 x 3 x 5 I felt like I could have pushed more but not that I'd be able to keep it stable enough... Dead Lift 135x1x5 185x1x5 275x1x5 offset hand unfortunately, lost some hand strength Assisted Dip (slow) 55x3x5 Squat barx1x5 95x1x5 135x1x5 195x3x5 Hyperextension 25x3x8 Weighted decline situp 25x3x8 Then I spent the weekend with my girlfriend and we attended a Saber League meet which, from what I understand, is a full contact dueling club using star wars and lightsabers as the main roots work from. There's a lot of intermingling of various styles including (my knowledge is limited here) Kendo, European sword fighting, fencing, etc. Those are just the ones I remember them mentioning. It was a blast and I can kind of mark off that list of trying martial arts although it wasn't structured or regimented like actual martial arts. Unfortunately with the weekend spent with her I didn't do either my morning or evening routines when with her and didn't practice the third world squat on Sunday but I'm back on the saddle now.

Aw crap I just realized that I put my individual weights... I don't know if anyone else does that or if that's the norm but when I write in my journal I write how much weight per side so 3x70x5 is 70*2+45. Ohhhhhh yeah I miss going at 0500 already lol I was beyond blessed that the only power rack in the gym was empty when I walked in so I freakin Usain Bolted my ass to it without a moments notice and after I finished my set two high school kids immediately go to it and put it on the floor so they can dead lift... with the only... powerrack... in the gym... But wait! They don't actually lift! They load a 45 on each side and just sit there jerking it through two different workouts. I couldn't help but notice that when I left they were STILL on the power rack... an hour later... still deadlifting 1 plate a side... I'd have lost my damn mind waiting for it.

Busy man! Look you've hit a few speed bumps but don't seem to have let you get down. Glad to see you're still chugging.

Sorry Darth! They're not yet in though so there's that lol. Today was good, a bit rough in that I got a job. For those of you unfamiliar with substitute teaching you basically hope you get a job but usually never know until the last second. So I wake up at 0545 and go through my morning routine and hop in the shower to get ready despite not having a job this morning. About 0645-0650 rolls around and I get a job offer. Now these things vanish just as quick as they show up but BOOM I I hit accept and it gets on my calendar. "Oh shit I get to work today... OH SHIT I GOTTA GET READY!" Cue me frantically getting ready and out the door... WITH my gym bag! School lets out and I got one task in mind... Iron... I need heavy things in my life but apparently I fasted a little too long. I lifted around 1500-1530 on nothing more than a grapefruit and tea. My lifts were weaker than I would've hoped but I did it! Squats bar 25 45 70x3x5 Overhead Press 20 40 60 80x3x5 Assisted Pull Up (God that same machine as the dips... it's an ego destroyer) The weight is the counterweight to compensate for my lardy butt 60x1x5 55x2x5 Bent over Row 40 100x3x5 decline weighted situps 25x3x7 hyperextensions 25x3x7 I should note that this lifting period was HELL like ultimate hell, teenagers and asshats everywhere, I sold myself short on the rows but I just couldn't freaking get to any of the benches to steal their bars... dudes everywhere.... got home and was starving and obliterated some leftover cabbage soup and meatloaf Anyway, did more squat practice.

Yuuuuup trying to get to the damn squat rack in January is akin to trying to make your way through a mosh pit. Get em!

Simple straight forward and plenty of ass to kick. Get to it!

And last night I got my Warrior chef on, I'd put it over in the mini challenge but it was all dinner stuff, slow cooker pulled pork, sauteed red cabbage, and parboiled rice with sauteed onions and mushrooms. It was a rousing success. Picture of said food on my itty bitty plate for reference. Also, I'm going to make an amendment to my challenge. I follow Teros over in the Adventurers board. Don't even know if he remembers me since the name change but when he mentioned his four letter acronym personality I remembered the test I took back in college and was really curious to remember what I was but couldn't so I resigned myself to retake the test and got INFP. Now I don't remember getting this before but it's unfortunately kind of accurate. I have a tendency of retreating into my hobbit hole when social interactions get going... I'm not sure why but apparently that's a big part of what INFPs do so that's something I gotta fight. I was really enjoying commenting on other people's threads and then all of a sudden there were two pages of threads in the Warriors and each one of them has like 30 responses and I'm over here like "AAAAHHHHHHH" Equally excited and almost overwhelmed. I'd been trying to make it a habit of posting on threads that have the least responses thinking that if a thread already has like 72 responses while another has 15 that maybe I could support them and not be reclusive. Even then struggling to not be a hermit... idk. So for the remaining challenge I'm going to post in at least two threads a day excluding my own.

Go man go! With trying new stuff there's always a flexibility period when you're trying to find the sweet spot. You got this!

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear about your back and I'm glad that it isn't as painful as yesterday it sucks when you feel a twinge and just try to work through it only to get banged up... seems like you're doing good with the rest of the challenge. Well as good as you can be with outstanding circumstances I swear though reading some of your posts it reminds me of the Oatmeals American vs British English lol.

I love that snapped moment of defiance. Hell of a journey but that moment stood out from the others. Bravo sir I'm sorry you're running into such... interesting people.

That comic is awesome hahaha. You got this! I'm excited to hear about your competition

omgomgomgomgomgomgomg SO! I'm posting this riding a sweet workout high. Let me start off by saying that I cannot physically recommend the third world squat enough. I'd been practicing it all of last week a little throughout the day and today was the first practical application. My squat was fantastic, I got nice and deep and didn't feel an ounce of buttwink it felt sooooo good and in control. I'm going to master that freaking squat and emulate my spiritual Slav to the best of my abilities. I didn't lift as much as I would have liked but I don't give a crap I'm back in the game and a very rare time does my squat feel 'good.' -Squat barx1x5 95 x1x5 135 x1x5 185 x2x5 195 x1x5 Form faltered slightly here on the final reps and I got some of that 'good morning' action going but overall good form -Assisted Dips 55 x 2 x 5 60 x 1 x 5 This is my first time doing strictly dips. I had been doing decline bench press to work that out of fear for my poor ego because I suck at dips but.... yeah the iron doesn't recognize ego, it recognizes strength and honors commitment -Bench Press barx1x5 95x1x5 135x3x5 -Deadlift -kinda weak... mostly was stuck in my own head of worry and not wanting to pull/strain something on my first day back 135x1x5 185x1x5 235x1x5 -Decline situps with dumb bell overhead and 3 second pause at bottom 25x3x6 -Hyperextension 25x3x6 But wait... what are those new stations over in the corner? Could it be? They look kinda like.... kinda like power racks but open faced! What could this be!? I saunter my sweaty ass over to the counter and ask the girl what the deal is with them and she says the most beautiful words I could hear her lips say, (I remind you I have a girl friend) "Oh I'm not sure, they're not ready yet we're waiting on the BUMPER PLATES. BUMPER PLATES!!! POWER CLEANS AND WORRY FREE DEAD LIFTS! I HAVE COME FOR THEE!!! I am positively stoked for this I was always freaking terrified of doing these for fear that I drop the bar and destroy the plate. The other bastards in the gym are wrecking plates left and right (which is dumb because eventually they'll pay for it) but I was a good boy.

Oh Richard Dean Anderson is a prince among men too let us not doddle here

Pepperidge Farm remembers when kids that went and double posted would fix their zealous clicking with a good old fashioned moving picture.

I've borrowed bits of it from a bunch of places. Tim Ferriss, Miracle Morning were the primary ones, I can't remember who I learned it from but I read somewhere about reading non-fiction in the morning when your brain is engaged and you're looking to be awakened and to read fiction at night so you don't have something heavy lingering on your mind while you're trying to sleep... but when Sirius dies... I mean... it still lingers a little lol. That's a very good point though and it makes sense! Never really thought about it that way, but the idea of the filter with which you look at the world is more important than the world itself and all that jazz... it applies here too. I guess it comes back to the thought of asking yourself productive questions in what you're subliminally looking for. If you ask "Why I can't be successful?" even if the question is well meaning your brain will look for an answer to give it... "Because you're stupid" "Because you're a failure." Got something else to think about now haha thank you.

That's very true. I mean I never would have expected to go to Kentucky for college and if in 2008 you'd told me that in two years that's where I'd be I would've laughed heartily! That's sort the thing and I guess something of a natural problem for most nerds... just too many things that are interesting. My girlfriends younger brother is only 23 but the guy is basically a movie character... Stupidly fit, already an engineer, and a homeowner. He just KNEW exactly what he wanted to do and did it... I kinda jealously hate him for it XD. Oh you're very much not alone there... VERY MUCH so, I think my beef is more so that I'm just perpetually terrified that I'll screw up... On the bright side it pushes me to try hard ONCE I'm in a situation but it's a bitch getting there. I struggled with applying for freaking cashier's jobs just because I didn't think I could do it. It seems ridiculous but.... yeah bit of cowardice... I'd been trying those stretches too and oh dear god it hurts lol good pain but definitely some solid stretch, thank you so much! Still working on the third world squat can ALMOST get my heels to touch at the bottom of the squat stretch. Just need to get to where I don't need a brace to do it. I've been rolling my morning and evening routines this week, trying to get myself back to a consistent wake up / sleep hour. Right now I'm waking up at 0545 and am TRYING to be in bed by 2145. These times allow me to do my morning routine before getting ready to go teach and still get plenty of sleep. The beautiful part is I'm back to reading again, for my morning I: -Wake up -Slug some water -brush my teeth -Make tea in the Keurig ==Black tea / Oolong with turmeric, ginger, and a little honey -meditate for two minutes to allow it to steep -go over affirmations -visualize goals, future, whatever -do some very light exercising, I personally just do 10 pushups 10 bodyweight squats and a 30 second plank -do a 5 minute journal -go over my quests for the day -Read a chapter of a developmental book. Right now I'm rereading Level Up Your Life. Evening it's 2030-2045 -make evening tea ==chamomile / evening blend with apple cider vinegar and a little honey at 2100 I go to bedroom -brush teeth - 5 minute journal -review what I did that day / set goals for tomorrow -read a chapter of a fiction book (I just finished Order of the Phoenix and am getting ready to start Half Blood Prince, Girl friend got me reading them for the first time hahaha) sleep - usually about 2135-2145 I've found it to be very effective for me especially since I can't really work out in the morning anymore and it puts me in a productive mindset for the rest of the day. So many topics getting so many posts in this subforum it's hard to keep up lol

YUP You get used to that. I did the exact same thing when I went to college. I think most, if not all, people are so absorbed in themselves and their day that if you're not already on their 'list' it shocks them out of their routine when you say talk to them. Some respond, some look weird. I applaud you for doing that exercise and can vouch for it as a means to break out of your shell a bit.

Yeah I won't lie I'd probably be somewhere around the 'death glare of jealousy.' I got my girlfriend on a freaking Nat 20 and am damn happy for it. Must admit though, excited to hear the stories

... You know if there were any life-threatening situations I'd swear this would be one of the most outlandish things I've ever read. Could just printscreen the whole page and use paint to crop to the image, it's not the prettiest but it works.