Darth Thorn

AS you guys have obviously noticed, I've been busy as hell lately, and I haven't been doing a good job of updating this. That's the bad news. The good news is that, for the most part, I"m keeping up with my goals for the challenge. M/W/F Workouts are happening consistently, and I've gotten my SO involved, which helps with accountability and scheduling. I'm still not in a place where I can do the entire thing in one sitting, but I am doing it all in one day (I'm basically doing the body weight a few hours before or after the weight strength training, and I'm periodically reducing the amount of time between the two.) I'm moving back to 100 lbs with my workout this afternoon, which is going to be a good way to transition into spring break this coming week, where I won't have access to weights.

Transferred to Ziost for training, and the climate shift is making it hard to keep my schedule. Doubling up the body weight to compensate given that it doesn't appear that it's ever going to thaw out here. (Aka, I got snowed in which made using my weights, which I only have room for outside, kind of impossible. I'll be doubling my bodyweight routine during my work delay tomorrow as compensation, and hopefully Friday will be thawed enough to do things properly. IF nothing else, this first week has been an excellent crash course in how to deal with obstacles.)

I have a really basic question, but when you're doing an exercise circuit, do you do all of the sets of a particular exercise before moving on to the next, or do you do one set of each and then go back and do it again? Is this just an issue of preference, or are there actual benefits to doing it one way?

So there's good news and bad news coming off day 1 of the challenge. The bad news is that I definitely underestimated how much this was going to take out of me. The good news is that I have a plan to change things up and make my goals more fitting to where I'm starting. I don't know if it's the weather and my general feeling of being drained thanks to suffering through an internship I hate, or if I backslid further than I expected in the last couple of months, but it doesn't really matter. To make this doable going forward, I'm going to spend the first few workouts of the challenge adding exercises one at the time. I got through the warm up bag circuit, big 3 lifts for strength training, cool down bag circuit, and stretches this time. Tomorrow I'm going to do my bag circuits, and Wednesday I'm going to roll the other two lifts into my strength circuit. With some motivation, and a little bit of luck, I should be up to doing the full circuit by next Wednesday. Two steps forward, one step back.

Another Star Wars themed challenge? Subbed.

At the risk of echoing what other people have already said:Free standing bags move around a lot, and if you push with any real force they're going to wobble/fall over, but I figure half of the exercise is chasing the damn bag around and picking it up when you get too enthusiastic. Plus, if you're throwing your non-push techniques right, the bag might get a little bit of motion to it, but it shouldn't ever fall over, which makes it a decent indicator for when you're pushing too much instead of actually hitting. The only major down side is that unless you get one of the XL bags where the padding goes almost to the floor, you're cutting out a pretty significant contact area, which makes it difficult to practice any knee-level kicks.

I know Nerd Fitness is down on the Dark Side, but we're not talking about the unhealthy fad dieting dark side here! We're talking about the "No-holds barred, Channel your passions, Smash all obstacles, Defeat all challengers, Free yourself from the bounds of your own doubts" Dark Side! For my first Nerd Fitness challenge, I'm drawing inspiration from the SWTOR Character that I've drawn my name from, and the unique blend of Mandalorian and Sith Traits that make him an unstoppable monolith of morally questionable Power Main Quest: "The Making of a Sith Lord." Establish a significantly more intense, maintainable baseline of activity and Strength Total Level 1 Stat Rewards STR:3|DEX:2|STA:2|CON:1|WIS:2|CHA:0 Total Level 2 Stat Totals: STR:3|Dex3|STA:3|CON:2|WIS:3|CHA:0 Sub Quest: "The Discipline of the Mando'ade," Strict Adherence to a Workout Routine (STR:2|DEX:2|STA:2) Sub Quest 2: "The Power of the Dark side," Strength Training to lift 165 pounds in 3 major lifts (Deadlift, Bench press, squat) (STR:1) I'm currently training around 100. I stepped back from 110 to 85 because I started doing 3 sets instead of 1, but I want to recover the ground I've lost and make more progress. Sub Quest 3: "Imperial Rations," (CON:1|WIS:1) I eat out way too much. I used to be a lot better about this, but I spent a lot of time traveling and in hospital waiting rooms last semester, and that's really mucked things up for me. My job now has zero physical activity, which is an even bigger reason to stop putting crap in. I want to reduce the number of times I eat out to 3 per month. Because February is almost over, and I can't think of a good way to metric out the last week, this quest will begin on March 1st. Side Quest: "Mysteries of the Force," (WIS:1) Spend 1 hour each day reading something intellectually stimulating/professionally relevant. I'm going to be bouncing back and forth between History, Information Security, and Philosophy Books include Countdown to Zero DayAugustusImagining the InternetDeus In MachinaGeorge Washington's Secret SixGeneral Topics Include: Studying for Security+ CertificationGeneric Sources include: MSN and Pulse News AggregatesISC Diaries and News posts

Thanks for the tips! I'm more in the second category (I'm kind of leaning on 14 years of martial arts for the form and working more around exhaustion and endurance), so I'll definitely try to keep the cadence varied. I know from previous experience that if I just try to throw myself at the bag for a set amount of time, I end up kind of listless and unfocused, so I'm not really keeping a routine there to strictly follow so much as a guide so I have something to fall back on when I get three punches in and go "Okay, what next?"

Okay. I took a couple of days, prodded around the limits of my current physical comfort zone, and read over some of the resources recommended, and I've come up with a revised workout. The goal is to build an overall sense of physical activity and competence. I still can't think of a really specific goal or set of goals, other than that I want to keep incrementing towards being able to lift my body weight + Strength Training (3 sets, M/W/F) Bench Pressx10Squatx10Deadliftx10Overhead Pressx10Barbell Rowx10Body Weight (3 sets, M/W/F) Pull-upx10Chin-upx10Squatx20Knee-to-elbow crunch x10Side Lungesx20Bag/Endurance circuit (2 set split before and after Strength and Body Weight on M/W/F, taken consecutively on T/TH in the AM and PM for a total of 4) 20 Combo (Jab, jab, cross, hook, body shot, elbow strike)40 round kick (20 per leg)Jump-up burpeex22 minutes stretching for cool down

I've done the Jedi before and felt pretty well worn for my efforts. I hadn't ever seen the Winter Soldier or the Riddick, but they look promising. Gonna fold those in next week probably.

Nah man, you don't sound like a jerk. If I didn't want advice, I wouldn't have asked. I'm sure I'm not doing enough--I don't really hang out with anyone who makes a big deal out of being active, so I was flying blind when I put this together. I suppose I"m probably just hypersensitive being the new guy and an intern about looking like I'm not doing enough, which probably has a lot to do with my hesitation to get up and walk around. So I probably just need to get over that. Okay, problem solved. I figure out a way to move around more while I'm at work. In terms of a workout routine, though, it looks like I need a lot of help. The major issues I'm seeing are variation, intensity, and frequency, and frankly I don't know where to start on any of them. Like I said, I'm flying blind here and doing more than anyone else I know, which might be a big part of my problem. Since my compitence is clearly a lot lower than I expected, can you recommend a good weekly setup for a complete novice? If not, can you point me towards a good resouce with a few good rules of thumb I could use to put my own plan together? I can preface this by saying I don't have access to a gym. It's not out of the question in the future, but for the moment I have my own personal weight bench, a pull up bar, and a punching bag. So anything I do is going to need to be either doable with a bar or body weight.