Robzilla1983

Back story: it's the first shirt sold by NF. I picked it up as soon as it was available. I think this was 6 years ago? At the time I was an avid reader and avid poster here in the forums. I've been feeling reflective lately. I wore my NF shirt for my workout last night and started thinking about how much my life has changed since I got the shirt. In no particular order this is what I've gone through since buying this shirt: - starting the Stronglifts 5x5 program and realizing I love lifting weights (something I always assumed I would hate) - starting Crossfit (still going strong 5 years later) - changing my workout plan/schedule multiple times. Pretty much 2x a year. A big deal for me. I like routine - worn out 3 pairs of Vibrams (though 2 were cheap ebay knockoffs and they started to fall apart quickly) - ran a 5k race - ran 8k in training - ran 10k as a fun race. All distances at that time were in my Vibrams - suffered through 3 bouts of plantar fasciitis. Left foot one year. Right foot the next. Left foot the year after - when I started Crossfit, which is when my weight training really kicked in, I could squat 225 for 1 rep, deadlift 225 for 1 rep. I remember Spezzy posting here something like a 350 deadlift and it blew my mind. My squat is now at 375, and really it could be higher; back issues have plagued me so I haven't been able to push that as far as I'd like. Deadlift is 500 - at a bachelor party once: my friend, the bachelor, was always a fitness nut. All of his friends were. Except me. At one point someone asked me if I played sports or worked out. I proudly displayed my beer belly and asked: "does it look like I work out?" He made some excuse that I could be in rugby or something. I laughed it off. I've gone from bragging about my beer belly to being the go-to healthy lifestyle person for family and a few friends. I'm far from perfect, still working on getting rid of the beer belly, but I know a lot, have done a lot, and it's affected how people view me in a positive way - found out I was going to be a father - a few months later I found out I was going to be a father of twins - got a dog - had to give up the dog, and 2 cats, when my girls were 5 months old because they had allergies. It’s heartbreaking when your little baby can’t stop coughing. At the time, giving up the dog was the hardest thing I’ve ever done - had a vasectomy (2 kids are enough – never out number yourself, parents!) - had eye surgery. 2 years later I still have odd habits from wearing glasses my whole life. I swear one morning this week I reached for my glasses when I woke up - changed jobs 3 times - got diagnosed with depression - missed 3 weeks of work when I was first diagnosed - missed 2 months of work - asthma medication has remained consistent, but I started medication for depression, then changed it twice - Started medication or allergies, and take monthly shots. For the first 6 months, I had to get weekly shots. It helped get over my fear of needles - Donated blood twice, and will be putting in a third donation next week - held a marriage together despite more than I want to get into today. TLDR version: it’s a god damn miracle - saw 2 counselors, 1 marriage counselor, and am still working with a psychologist - gave up video games for a while - picked up a PS4 in the Fall and fell in love with gaming again. - read some great books (Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archives, Kingkiller Chronicles) - turned 30 - dealt with kids’ changing daycare needs. Started them in a daycare, switched to a nanny, fired nanny after 6 weeks and hired a better one, put them in better-nanny’s new home based daycare, moved into a different daycare, and am now prepping for kindergarten - overhauled my diet multiple times until I found a happy medium. Generally, I consider paleo as good eating, so I stick close to it, and try not to stress too much when I eat chocolate (which admittedly is daily lately and I need to cut back) - when my wife decided to lose weight she went paleo. Well, what she really did was cut out sugar. In her head it was more cutting out sugar than about eating paleo, but that’s what she ended up eating. She lost 40 pounds in a year on diet changes alone. I’m listing this for myself since she often asked me for food advice. - talked myself out of quitting crossfit twice, because it was getting hard to make time for it - lots of changes to the house. Completely finished the basement (I’ve now got a “man cave” that’s overrun with princess toys). Lots of painting. New furniture. Etc. We’re prepping to sell now so there’s been a lot of small upgrades lately - there's probably other milestones I'm missing Not a lot has remained consistent. But wearing my NF shirt for workouts has. I tried to think of how many workouts it’s been through, and my rough guess is hundreds. I’ve worn it more or less once a week for a workout since I picked it up. Hundreds of times sweating my ass off. Working my ass off. Being pissed off when I missed a PR. Being blown away at hitting a PR. Being annoyed at my lungs (because of allergies and asthma I only have 65% lung capacity). Accepting that my lungs are shit and doing the best I can with what I’ve got. What’s the woot? Just general ass kicking over the last 6 years. I’ve gone through a lot. A lot. Since I first picked up that shirt. Even though I’m not as active in the NF community, I still hold it in high regards. Obviously, I can’t trace all of my life changes back to NF, but this is where I got my start on a healthy lifestyle. I wouldn’t have tried weight training if I didn’t hear about it hear first. I would’ve have worn Vibrams. My diet would be shit(tier). I owe a lot to NF PS: I can’t believe that shirt is still in one piece. I’ve gone through a few crossfit shirts now that have been ripped apart. I don’t know what it’s made out of but it’s held together amazingly well!

That's awesome to find someone else who crochets. And is in basically the exact same boat I've been doing Star Wars puzzles lately. It helps lol

Any games in particular? I've thought of that, but I feel like there's not a lot of great board games for just 2 people

Hey folks, to make a long story short we're stuck in a bit of a rut. Kids go to bed at 8 usually, and after that the wife and I sit on our asses in the basement watching TV. She'll crochet, I'll colour or do Star Wars puzzles. I'd like like to do more, but I don't know what. With the kids, we're limited to staying in the house (yes we could get babysitters occasionally, but not nightly). So, for the other couples out there, what do you two do for fun?

Guess I wrote my results too soon. Couldn't resist tire flips this morning Power cleans build to 135x3 God damn that got heavy 5 rounds 1 min dbl unders 1 min 3 person tire flips 1 min ring rows Double unders FINALLY felt good again. It's been two months since I could do them well

I'ma go ahead and write this up now. Disclaimer: This weekend is going to be a bust. Wife and kids are heading out of town for a week, leaving on Saturday. Rob is going to get his drink on 1) Eat better. Ummm, this... did not happen. And has in fact got worse. I had good intentions, but really just kind of fell off the bandwagon. I could make up excuses (and after reading It Starts With Food, I think some of the excuses would be valid), but it won't change the outcome. I will probably explore this one again in the future. Once the kids are sleeping through the night better, and I'm not as dead tired, and once we're through the busy time at work, it might be time to look at it again. As it is, I think there was just too much going on and I stress ate like crazy 2) WODs - bring it. This one, this I killed. I'm really happy with how every single workout went since the challenge started. Even on days when my wrists were sore, and I've had to modify, I didn't scale down as much as what I could have. Example: last week called for handstand pushups. I practiced one, since normally I can do it, but my wrist hurt too bad and it wasn't happening. The coaches had people doing pushups instead, but I went for ring dips since pushups were too easy (it only called for like 5 per round or something). That coach hadn't seen me do a dip at that point, so she was a bit apprehensive, but in the middle of the WOD I hear "Now that's a dip Rob!" One workout had 4 rounds of sandbag runs, and I actually kept my (slow) jog speed up the entire time. Usually with sandbags I take walking breaks. Life goal: 3) Stop being lazy at home. well it's hilarious to think I had free time at home at one point. This was something I started in day 1 and never looked back. We have a nice routine now where I do all the dog stuff, all the cooking, and all the bottles (which sounds like nothing, but it's an hour process). Usually wind up doing dishes. The routine, more or less, is I come home and have about an hour where I don't really need to do much. But from 5 o'clock on I'm moving until I go to bed. So, big old fail on goal 1, and killed goals 2 and 3. So 66% - winds up being a B- I guess? Whatevs. I'm still pretty thrilled with killing it in goal 2 and 3. Tootin' my own horn here, but I managed to continue getting up for the 6am workout throughout the whole challenge (except last week, where I thought I died because I was so tired). With infant twins at home, that's pretty impressive. I am a bit of a perfectionist sometimes, so I have a tendency to focus just on the negatives. I have to force myself to recognize how awesome it is that I've managed the 6am workouts consistently. I never, ever, ever thought I'd workout at this hour of the day, letalone do it while I have 2 month old twins at home. So go Rob! Now, time to drink all the beers

Deadlifts build to 335x5. Tied for PR. Felt stronger than last week, but still rounding my back on the last couple of reps so repeating this weight next week. 12 min AMRAP 200m run 6 power snatch 70# 6 rounds even Tied to hold pace with Kevin, but couldn't get my legs to move fast enough after about the third round. Got nicknamed The Walking Deadlift by Coach Jane because of last week's attempt. I like it. Oddly appropriate considering how I feel after deadlifts

OH Press build to 130x5 for a PR. Only had 3 reps at this weight the last time I tried. As usual, things felt heavy in sets 4 and 5, but came together nicely in 6. 9 min AMPRAP 9 OH squat 60# 9 burpees 4+17 and a half (my chest hit the ground, just didn't get the jump up) SO close to 5 full rounds. Another half second on the clock would've probably done it. That was a sneaky little WOD. Rounds 1 and 2 felt great, then I hit a brick wall and really struggled with the rest of it. The squats are starting to not suck as much. It took a few reps to figure out where/how to lock my shoulders in, but things felt great once I hit the sweet spot.

I've definitely been guilty of http://amrapjokes.tumblr.com/post/26999579477/getting-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-check-the-wod when I'm feeding the girls in the middle of the night. Also, this: http://amrapjokes.tumblr.com/post/26998712792/realizing-it-says-squat-clean-and-not-power-clean Only squat and power snatch instead of squat and power clean

For your viewing pleasure, pages and pages of glorious GIFs http://amrapjokes.tumblr.com/ It's so good. Seriously. I think my favourite is the GHD situp kitty.

Squats build to 260x5. Tied for PR. They felt stronger than the last time I tried this weight. 8 min AMRAP 200m sandbag run 5 ring dips 5 cleans 105 for PR 2 + 1 Sandbag runs still suck, but they're starting to suck slightly less than before. First round was a slow jog the whole time. Second round had a bit of a walking break, and third round was a very slow jog with logs of walking breaks (i.e. what every round used to be) Loved making it back in after a week off.

I remember reading that before, on the internet somewhere so you know it's true I will take that as an excuse to have a guilt-free week off. No joke, when my friend was younger and people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said he wanted to be "they"

Tire flips are a ton of fun. I can't get it solo yet, but with a group it's awesome. On Saturdays our box breaks out the toys: tire, atlas stones, sled. The workouts are usually brutal but super fun Having a burnout week. I was super super tired yesterday and today and cancelled my crossfit times. Kind of have up on trying to eat well for the past couple of days, but I've somehow snacked less than usual. I don't understand. Gonna try crossfit tomorrow, but I suspect I'll end up takin the week off

Yoga Power cleans build to 130x3 Been forever since I did these. Getting heavy towards the end but felt good nonetheless 15 min AMRAP 200m sandbag run Tire flips Ring dips 3 full rounds plus a run This was a lot of fun. Tire flips are a blast. Sandbag run wasn't as painful as it usually is. This was the first time I've kept the run pace up for the whole thing. Usually intake lots of walking breaks. Great Saturday morning!

Deadlifts build to 335x5 for a PR That one's for you Miss Laura! A little wobbly on the last couple, so repeating this weight next week. Felt great to hit all 5 reps though. Took 3 weeks to get'em. 8 min AMRAP 6 power snatch 65 pounds 6 chinups 5 rounds + 5 Back in the Games Open WOD I managed to build up to 115 on the power snatch, so I thought I might be able to pull it off RX'd, but decided to play it safe at 85. In between deadlifts I gave 85 a try and it was too heavy. Before the WOD started I tried 75, and it might've been OK if my wrist wasn't bothering me, so all the way down to 65. A bit humbling, but I'm happy using an appropriate weight. For all three lifts this week I have to repeat the same weight next week. I think I'm starting to find my limit on everything. It only took 7 months

Couldn't they just call it deadlift knee instead of runners knee? Hope being on the mend does you well. You'll come back stronger than ever

this should cheer you up while your deadlifting is on hold : http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2012/07/internet-cat-video-film-festival/

oh noes!

I don't think you're ready for this jelly If I was awesome at finding gifs like you are I would throw one in here. For now you'll have to use your imagination

Holy lordy am I ever tired this week. So the plan for working out 4 times has been scaled back to 3 if I'm lucky. Not as tired today (thank god) so we'll see what's in the cards for tomorrow. Rob needs to be wide awake for a deadlift PR attempt

Nice work on the run! And nice work getting mentally stronger! That's the tough one. That's what I've been finding lately too. Even with today's workout, I had full intentions on half assing it, but once I started I just pushed through and came out with a respectable time. Angie sounds nasty. We had that come up once, but it was during the Open, so I did whatever the open workout was that night. Which I think was the AMRAP 15 box jumps, 12 push press, toes to bar one. Absolutely brutal workout, but still one of my favourites.

When I was rocking Eva to sleep at 4am I thought of the most hilarious and witty reply to this. Now I forget what it was *sad face* OH Press build to 130x3 for a PR I'm happy with 3 reps since it was the first time at that weight. First 5 sets felt stronger than they usually do 4 rounds 5 cleans 100 pounds 10 burpees 20 double unders 9:58 I've been up since 4, and was starting to feel it towards the end of the strength work, so I was all set to half ass this one, but I ended up pushing pretty hard in it. Things were mostly unbroken, and minimal rest in between sets. No attempt at double unders. Just wasn't in the mood to get frustrated with that again.

Well week 3 saw the same struggles that week 2 did. I cannot stop pigging out. Seriously. This week, more than the rest, was real bad for just caving in and stuffing my face with sugar. I've been getting less sleep, so it's probably related, but it's pissing me off. Started today off on the right foot (again) so I'll have to keep trying. What did go well though was the workouts. Since I have to get up for the overnight feedings now I had full intentions of taking the week off. Monday though was a holiday for us Canadians, but crossfit held an open gym in the afternoon so I got my squats in. Then Wednesday evening I was wired for some reason, and it was a relaxing evening at home so I made it in for deadlifts. Then on Friday, after a couple of days of realizing the sleep deprivation wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, I made it in for the 6am class. on the subject of sleep: I'm amazed how quickly I'm adjusting. Before the girls were born, I couldn't imagine getting up for a 6am workout. Typically I went to bed at 10:30-11:00, and getting up at 6:30 was brutal. As soon as I started back to work I started going to bed at around 10:00-10:30, and getting up at 5:30 for the 6am workout, and it wasn't too bad. I was definitely groggy, and a felt weaker than usual, but I never ever ever ever thought I'd get up to workout at 6am so I didn't mind half assing it (and, as mentioned above, that groggy-ness, and weakness, is finally starting to go away). Last week when I had to start getting up for the 3am feedings I thought I would die. And really, Tuesday was hell. I felt like a zombie all day. Came home from work and crashed hard. I don't think I talked to anyone the whole night. All of the sudden Wednesday and Thursday went great though. I wasn't tired at all in the day, and was even cutting back on my coffee intake. At this point my sleeping was usually 10:00-3:00, then up for at least half an hour, usually a full hour, then awake again at 6:30. Even with the next to nothing sleep I got on Thursday night, getting into the gym on Friday wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, and surviving the day wasn't bad. I got an afternoon headache, but that was it. Thursday and Friday were long as nights thanks to the girls, and the grandparents did all the feedings on Saturday (thank god), so I got a good night sleep. Then last night the girls were good again and didn't wake up until 3. I never thought that I'd feel that good with only 5 hours total sleep in the night; first for were consecutive, then up for an hour, then back to bed for an hour. I'd like to think that my body realized I don't plan to stop doing things just because I'm tired, so it's adjusting. That, or I'm delirious with lack of sleep; which I haven't completely ruled out. Gonna put things to the test this week and try to get back into a 4 workouts per week schedule. Really hoping it goes well.

Two coaches called me out on it. Technically it's next week I'm re-doing. Usually I go up by 5. Not too worried though. I'd rather do them right then increase the weight.

That is by far my fave meme BTW. Not the first time I've gotten it I might add Thanks for that Squats build to 260x5 for a PR Got called out on not getting enough depth on the last set, so repeating the weight next week. It did feel strong, but that could be because of the depth thing Kelly 5 rounds 400m run 30 24" box jumps 30 wall balls with 20 pound ball 2 rounds + run + 20 jumps I may or may not have missed 5 wall balls on round two. Lost count half way through. Had to share the box on the box jumps, which was nice. We would take turns getting a rep in. Made me push a little harder since I didn't want to hold my partner up. After a few weeks of the 6am thing I'm finally starting to feel a bit stronger. My chinups, which were brutal the first few times, are right back to where they should be. I should be hitting 2 sets of 10 unbroken within a few weeks; something I never thought I'd get to. Even wall balls with the 20 pound ball is getting easier. Getting in sets of 5 isn't as hard as it used to be, and I'm more consistently hitting the 10' mark