mChex

Good luck everybody! Let's do this!

Simple goals are still goals. Complicated goals are usually too hard to follow. You'll have plenty of time to work on them during the next challenge! It's only a few days away. It should be a blast =) Glad to have you!

Thanks for the advice! I'll experiment with what was said here. Namely, I'm going to lower my sets of deadlifts and see if I can start rotating them at some point in the near future. I formed a routine based off mostly functional movements and I'm still tinkering with it. Here's an example of what I did on Sunday: Dumbbell Shoulder Presses 6x17.5 6x17.5 4x17.5 5x12.5 Chinups 7, 15 second breaks inbetween each. Dumbbell chest press (The racks were all occupied at the time) 8x20 6x25 8x20 Deadlift 5x105 Squat 5x45 5x65 5x75 5x80 5x85 Barbell rows 5x80 5x90 5x80 Various pushups

Haha, you can keep the poptart, but thank you for the offer! Great to have you here. Your story is really touching, and I can't wait to see you find even greater success. =)

Hi Shutterpillar! Glad to have you here =)

Hi everyone! I have a few questions on deadlifting and squat progression, and was hoping for some advice. Is it appropriate to do squats and deadlifts in the same workout? I have noticed on days I do squats first, my deadlift suffers by a good 5-10lb reduction. And on days I do deadlifts before sqauts, I feel as though my squat suffers. Also, what kind of progression strategy would you guys recommend for deadlifts? I was thinking of starting with three sets of 8 one week, then the next week increase weight. If I can't meet the three sets of 8 on the higher weight, then I will repeat at that same weight next session until I can hit three sets of 8. On the other hand, I've heard of people preferring the 5x5 approach. I'm not entirely sure which approach to take, or if there is a better one altogether. I do know that my superlong-term goal is to deadlift 200lbs, but that's a long way off. Thoughts?

Thanks ebm! Glad to be here!

Hey Monk! Good to hear you're joining the rebellion! We'll be here for ya =)

Thanks MirGSS! I like the way you set up your workout logs in googleDocs. I think I'll follow suit.

Thanks Deansy and Kirst! Hope to see you guys around. =)

Hi everyone! Amanda here, and I'd like to throw my lot in with the rebellion! I can't remember how exactly I came to discover NerdFitness, but I'm here and that's all that matters now. I'm tired of haphazardly trying to re-tool my health, and I would like to take steps to realize my full potential. To achieve that end, I'd love to be a part of this community and learn more about others in pursuit of the same. I'm a 19 year old college sophomore in electrical engineering, and am in the process of commissioning into the US Air Force as a developmental engineer. Due to interesting family dynamics, I live my life as somewhat of a gypsy. When I'm not subleasing at a frat house or hopping between friend's apartments, I live in a double dorm room at my university. At aforementioned frat house in the summer of 2011, I stumbled across the paleo/primal lifestyle when my father sent me a link to Sean Croxton's Underground Wellness blog. This led to oodles of research on the matter and becoming an avid follower of the famous Marks Daily Apple. I was an immediate convert to the paleo life, and experienced all the positive increases in strength, mood, energy and overall happiness. The best part was I felt powerful and attractive to boot! I then shared an apartment with a friend for the rest of the summer, living the life and feeling great. Then the Fall semester began, and things started to fall apart. I was suddenly confronted with managing an "eccentrically" healthy lifestyle in the context of the typical college environment. And it was HARDER than anything I had yet encountered. Not only that, but my personal life became unimaginably ridiculous. My father eloped with a 20 year old and moved to Texas last November. This has been really difficult because my Dad and I are really close, but this has put somewhat of a divide between this. And as if that weren't weird enough, I received a call from my Mother just a few days ago saying she is in the process of wedding a guy she met on Match .com 4 weeks ago and is moving to Vegas. I'm meeting him this weekend... I really couldn't make this up if I tried. And this stuff is only the tip of the ice berg, but I'd rather not pour out every oddity of my life. A sudden lack of control over my food and living quarters, incredibly difficult engineering courses (Data Structures and Algorithms nearly drove me to tears) combined with other extreme family problems dashed apart everything I had worked so hard for. On top of this, I found myself in a seriously unhealthy relationship, and had been forced to give up martial arts (a huge part of my life) because I simply did not have the time or energy. I have since oscillated in this gray zone. My fitness has deteriorated and I am disappointed in myself. I let my self esteem be trod on as I searched for other relationships that were ultimately fruitless, and used my misfortunes on all fronts as excuses for caving in to leading a destructive, unhealthy lifestyle. I would like to ask you all for support, because I am struggling to find faith in myself. If you are willing to have me, I'd like to throw myself headfirst into putting my life back together. I would like to prove that it is possible to put yourself back together, no matter the circumstances, so I can help other people who are struggling. But before I can help others, I need to be able to help myself. So here it goes! I'm ready to start taking steps to put my life back on track. Wish me luck, and I hope to do you all proud. (And apologies for the exceedingly long intro post.)