Mike Wazowski

I feel your pain, EmD - occasionally I'll have a coworker comment something along the lines of "that's so healthy" or "you always eat so healthy" - I rationally understand they mean it in a positive light, but I still feel singled out as weird, different, or "other" (and this is despite going HAM almost every Friday when the office donuts arrive - it's like people go completely blind that day). Best of luck with figuring out a good intermediate program - I suspect I'll be there soon enough even if I'd love to stay in happy novice lifter land forever.

Hi all! Attempting to answer the riddle- I'm gonna go with blink, unless he contorts his face (body?) really obviously to signal he's winking. And in other news, I've now been enlightened to a corner of the internet I never knew existed from searching for a picture of Mike W winking. Update on the goals - zero week tracker excerpt is below - not terrible but not amazing either. Happy that I got the sleep one, but it's entirely possible that the food tracking will fall by the wayside. I could benefit from the data, but I hate the process of getting it. On track to hit all goals for week 1 except the sleep average - but last night was a party with friends so I'm expecting I'll make up for the sleep I didn't get over the course of this week. And on the lifting front, I DID IT!!! I squatted 225 lbs without injuring myself (for 5 sets of 5 reps) so I can retire that mental block when it comes to lifting weights. Still need to build my core strength - tried out JDanger's phase 1 of "Do Your Damn Abs" and it highlighted that my core isn't as strong as I think it is (silly ego). This morning's stronglifts weights (all for 5x5) - 225 squat, 140 bench, 135 row.

Good to know! I'm pretty sure I've seen one of the PT's use fractionals with a client, hopefully they're always there and I don't need to deal with the hassle of carting them to and fro.

Hi all! I'm looking for advice for picking accessory lifts to do as a complement to a 5x5 program. I'm a competitive ballroom and latin dancer, so my goals with strength training are a mix between physique - achieving a leaner, more muscular one - and strength, especially in my back, legs, glutes, and abs. Upper body strength / muscle definition is good for my ego, even if it doesn't directly help with my sport. I've been following the stronglifts 5x5 program for about a month, switching over from sporadic use of the first google result from men's fitness when I looked for a basic strength training program (not a great choice, past me). I've made decent gains on back squats and bench press (last set for each was 220 / 135 and felt good on both), though I'm starting to stall on deadlifts and press (did not succeed at today's 220 / 115, respectively). I weigh 170-175 lbs, for context on these weights. I hadn't thought about it until recently, but I'd like to add some accessory work onto the end of my 5x5 sessions. I saw a post on an earlier thread suggesting the base program is relatively light on work for the back, biceps, and abs. I'm tackling abs via Pilates - the emphasis on control and body awareness helps with my dancing, and the program I'm currently following for it allows me to pretty easily see progress week to week which reduces the odds of me getting discouraged and quitting. I have a couple questions on the remainder: For the back and biceps portion, would I run into any issues pairing chin-ups with one day and pull-ups with another? Similarly, would I run into any issues doing the same with dips and push-ups/push-up variations? Finally, is there any accessory work I should be doing to help with the stall I'm starting to see on press and deadlift?

Thanks! Not at all useless, good to know I'm not the only dancer who's also a nerd! Indeed! I try not to take for granted just how good I have it at the work-subsidized gym - the only (small) downside is it's not open on weekends or banking holidays. And today, I booked a personal training session with him to start working on my form (apparently, he requires 3-4 sessions 1-on-1 before doing the group stuff - no biggie since it's included in my fitness center membership). It's prep week, but I'm on track for most of the goals since I started tracking. I'll fall short on going to mass (skipped this past Sunday while home with my parents) and practicing dance 3x this week (partner comes into town Friday - Sunday, and I'm only counting my solo practices since they're the ones that have been slipping). 5x5 workout this morning was a mixed bag - my squats felt good at 220, 5 lbs short of my freshman year injury weight - feeling very confident about lifting that mental block weight on Monday. Failed to get 5x5 in press at 115, but did get the first 3 sets and still got 4 reps each on the remaining 2. Pilates and cardio intervals were also better than last time I did each, so still plenty of wins to celebrate. I panicked mildly about not hitting the programmed sets on 2 of my 3 exercises, but I've calmed down my kneejerk reaction to change my program and re-committed to staying the course and keeping the novice gains going (and maybe looking into fractional plates in the not-too-distant future - either finding where they're hidden in the gym or buying my own and just bringing them to every workout).

Love the point system and rewards, I'll need to shamelessly steal that in the future! Probably the best way to justify replacing my current workout shoes to myself too, since mine are ~3 years old now.

Hey y'all! Brand new on NF, been reading through the blog archive for the past month or two and decided these challenges would be a good way to structure my progress for the year without boring my real-life friends who don't talk about fitness and health constantly. The goals I'll be striving for in the next four weeks are below (and realistically, I'm starting most of them this week). Some basics about me: I'm a competitive ballroom dancer (with a day job) and my main health / fitness goal is to get leaner and stronger for my sport-art. I also have been an overachiever throughout my life and excelled when it took short bursts of willpower, but anything that required sustained, consistent effort has been a struggle for me, so my overarching goal for the next year or ten will be to take a slow, steady approach to adjusting my habits until my lifestyle is much healthier in a more sustainable fashion (hence the title of not sprinting a marathon). This looks like a really long list, but it's mostly committing to maintain and solidify habits that have been reasonably consistent before the holidays (ex. I was lifting 2-3x per week for the 3 weeks leading up to the holidays, so committing to 3x per week is not that much of a stretch). Reading NF got me to try weightlifting in earnest again (and following a clear program for stepping up the weight), but I do have a hangup from my freshman year of college, when I squatted too much weight with poor technique and without a proper warmup and threw out my back for a week or two. I'm a little shy of the weight I was squatting when it happened, but it's going to be a mental hurdle to conquer in the not too distant future. Mentally, I know that I'm prepared for it - my form is better, I've been progressing, and I know how to warmup - but that won't stop my palms from getting sweaty on that first set of 5. Currently I'm classing myself as a warrior because when push comes to shove, my weightlifting is the part of my training regimen that gets me out of bed before dawn 2-3 days a week right now (and the place where I can see concrete progress most easily). Fitness: Lift weights 3x per week and keep following stronglifts 5x5 (I'm still many weeks off from needing to worry about a more advanced program, I hope) Do Pilates 3x per week, adding one additional exercise per week (I'm working through "Pilates for Men" by Daniel Lyons, if anyone's curious) - same day as lifting, usually Do cardio intervals (elliptical or rowing) 1x per week - again, usually on a lifting day Do yoga 2x per week - either 2+ mini-sessions or one regular session from the NF yoga site Bike to work once during the challenge (it's ~10-11 mi each way) - just as a fun adventure and maybe future lifestyle change Learn more about the olympic weightlifting group at my company's gym and try it once in the four weeks - I'm lucky enough to have a company with a USA Weightlifting certified coach as a personal trainer on staff, and I'm curious about learning O-lifting since it seems like it would build up my ability to be explosive in my dancing Other health: Sleep an average of 6.5 hours per night - eventual goal is 7.5+, but starting small since this is still a bit more than I averaged this past month Bring a salad to work at least 3x per week (part of a broader "eat more veggies" goal - I've let my total veggie consumption slowly decline the past year or two Track what I'm eating - no specific calorie or other goals here, just want to ensure I'm collecting the data Levelling up my life: Make my bed every morning, tidy up my apartment every evening - putting things away, basically (I'm decently tidy, but I want to solidify these habits before working on actually cleaning my apartment more regularly) Practice dance 3x per week (not counting practices with my partner, which happen most weekends) Go to mass every week (my faith is important to me, but I let this habit slip the past 2-3 months) Take stock of my finances every thursday - it's a convenient time of the week for me and lets me get a view of how well I'm holding to a budget I made at the start of the year Probably will be adding a post every couple days with updates on how I did, plus a weekly retrospective on whether I hit my goals. Sorry this is just a wall of text, I'll get better at adding funny gifs...someday. Looking forward to joining in on the challenge! -Mike Wazowski