Kingmuzza

Hey. Good Luck with the non-smoking. I'm in the same boat. I got to say the patches work really well, except that my pharmacy was out of the 15mg ones, so I have to use the 10mg ones, which aren't strong enough for me. So bummed - I just managed an entire weekend without a cigarette, and then bought 3 loose smokes for the drive to work Monday morning. Back to square one. Anyway - no more from now! You too! And good luck again, I feel your pain.

Smoking fail. Bought 3 cig's for the drive to work, after an entire weekend of not smoking. F*@k. Idiot. Back to square 1.

Hi K-Swiss. Thanks, and yeah, I know. I might not take your advice though - 1. Lifting is good nicotine therapy - which probably trumps lifting progress for the moment. 2. Right now I'm lifting a fair bit below my previous bests (although getting less so), so I'm kind of just getting my muscles to remember where they were, rather than growing stronger. Maybe. 3. Is there any actual science that says you need to take at least a day's rest between lifting? Or is it all just widespread (granted, very, very widespread) broscience? 4. OK, I'm not actually arguing. So what I think is that I'll try to give myself a vastly different nicotine therapy exercise each day. Today was bench, maybe tomorrow will be planks, or squats. This doesn't quite work out, because tomorrow's supposed to be a proper Starting Strength workout day. hmmm... Also, I really do have a stuffed up leg, so I'm trying to give obvious cardio options a full rest for a while - technically I'm a runner, I'm just on a self-enforced break - but I want to carry on enforcing the break (also for elliptical, cycling, etc) until my leg really feels a whole lot better, so I want to concentrate on lifting. Maybe yoga though ... Anyway, thanks for the advice.

Day 3 - Not supposed to be a workout day - Need a de-stress Benchpress - 2 warmup sets, 5 sets 55.2kg x 5 About 48 hours since my last cigarette. I'm suffering. Family (+ extended family at lunch) were driving me completely insane, so I retired to my weight-bench. Feeling better now. + I'm closer to my benchpress goal, so all is good really.

Day 2 - (Afternoon workout snuck in because my family's driving me mad and I want a smoke) - Starting Strength Workout A Squat - 3 warmup sets; 3 sets 5 x 53.2kg Bench - 3 warmup sets; 3 sets 5 x 53.2kg Deadlift - 1 set 10 x 63.2kg Stoked with myself. All exercises went well. And for some strange reason I've been avoiding deadlifts for a long time - I got up to 90kgx5 a few months ago, so this is a major reset, but I feel I need that reset.

Day 2 - Starting Strength Workout B Elliptical 2min30s warmup Squats - aborted - squat rack soaking wet from the rain, will slip if I try lift weights there. OHP - 1 warmup set; 3 sets 5 x 32.6kg Bent over Rows - 1 warmup set; 3 sets 5 x 32.6kg Setting my benchmarks pretty light, but at least I'm pretty sure I'll be able to improve on them each workout.

Thanks kenny. So to keep track properly I should add the following: Day 1 - Starting Strength (Restart) Elliptical - 2min easy warmup Squats - 3 warm-up sets; 3 sets 5 x 50kg Bench - 3 warm-up sets; 3 sets 5 x 50kg Deadlift - hmmm, maybe next time. According to Starting Strength I'm only allowed to do barbell workouts once every 2 days, so I'm going to have to sneak other things in on my off days - probably bodyweight stuff - to keep the momentum going. Or maybe I'll actually just rest on my rest days.

Thanks for the encouragement folks. Got my first workout in last night - easy going, but starting nevertheless. Carrying on with Starting Strength that I was following a few months back.

The company found him sitting in the corner of a dark, grimy pub - puffing away on too many cigarettes, nursing a pint of lager. This wasn't the hero they'd been told about - the one who finished his first half-marathon in just under 2 hours only last year, who'd gone hiking and climbing regularly, and who played sport every chance he got. The last story they had heard was that he was training now for a full marathon to be run this June. Surely this wasn't the same man. "My leg's all stuffed up now..." the aging ranger told them, "Not sure what happened, but my achilles hurts constantly, and the pain is spreading to under my heel and into my calf. Can't run with a leg like this. So I'm gonna drink beer instead." "I don't care about your excuses!" the company leader shouting back, "Winter is coming! We need you. You're coming with us back to Rebellion HQ and we'll sort you out!" KingMuzza had never been involved with NerdFitness before, but he'd been watching from the shadows, and thought this could be an outfit that could get him back in the game. There was some negotiating - a few punches were thrown, but in the end, Muzza was with the company as they left the pub and made their way through the wilderness, back to the camp that was about to become his new home. There was going to be a lot of training to be done before KingMuzza could once more proudly call himself a Ranger. KingMuzza's characther sheet: Race: Human (not that fast, not that graceful, not that strong, but as a whole package, not doing too badly) Class: Ranger (Probably more a Warrior-Scout. Not thinking Crossfit. Rather thinking weightlifting and distance training.) Age: 31 (I don't want to talk about it.) Lvl: 2 (I've done this before, even ran a half-marathon once, but I'm coming back from a bout of laziness) Attributes: STR: 3 DEX: 2 STA: 3 CON: 2 WIS: 3 CHA: 2 The next six weeks was going to be tough. The camp commander decided to start with strength, to give the new recruit's leg some time to heal up, and maybe so he could buy himself some new running shoes. But the time had to be used wisely, so Muzza would have to spend it at the weight bench. Life Goal: Stop Smoking! [CON +2] [WIS +3] The seargent laid down the law - "You're not going to get anywhere if you can't even stop smoking you fool!". Muzza knew it was the truth. June 11th deadline. Not a single cigarette for 3 weeks before that to prove that you've done it. Not even nicotene patches for those last 3 weeks. (Muzza had a patch on his arm now, but that wasn't stopping him sneaking in a smoke where he could.) So you I can smoke today and tomorrow, then for the next 2 weeks patches only. Fitness & Diet Goals: 1. Achieve Fitocracy Quest - 135lb x 10 reps of squats, deadlifts and bench. [sTR +3] Muzza was working towards this when he stopped exercising a few months ago. Squats and Deadlifts where achieved, but bench was still about 5kg's off. "If you can do this, then you can prove to yourself that you're back on track exercise wise." 2. Workout Consistently - At least 2 strength workouts per week [sTR + 2] Any additional workouts can be Strength, running, or elliptical. And maybe see if the chance for a swim or two pops up. [up to 5 points total for 5 workouts per week for the next 6 weeks - spread out in STR, DEX, or STA] 3. Log Everything - Fitocracy and MyPlate [WIS +2] Getting back on track is all about education, and metrics. So get at it, Fool!