CowboyMisterIndependent

I got the gist of what you were saying, and I just helped my dad do the same thing at his house recently. Say what you want for finished basements, having unfinished ceilings has its perks...

You go down into the basement, drill a hole up into the space in between the walls. Drill a hole through the wall for a wall jack, drop something down into that hole (like a coat hanger, piece of string, wire, etc), and drop it down the hole in the basement ceiling into the basement. Attach the speaker wire to whatever you dropped through the hole, go back upstairs and pull the speaker wire back through into the living room. Attach to a wall jack, mount the wall jack in the wall. Rinse and repeat for anywhere you need wire coming out of the walls. Then all of your cabling is hidden underneath the floor, and you have easy access to it at any point via the unfinished ceiling in the basement.

Turns out I'll be unable to make it. I forget that I signed up on the backup list a few months ago for a church event this Saturday.

I'm going to go out on a completely unresearched limb and guess that it could be a result of the inevitable increase in testosterone pumping from lifting. Informed NFers: yea or nay?

Uhh...participant's discretion? I'm not sure I want to go there with you guys.

Manscapeuary?

Decembre One? Yup.

Hooray! You have an opportunity to grow outside your comfort zone!

I'm also about three hours from Chicago, and my sister is in med school at Northwestern downtown, so I could use it as an excuse to force her to hang out with me, too...

Lansing area MitteNerdFest for sure.

I don't really have strong feelings on foam rollers, but my puppy is TERRIFIED of them.

I don't know really much of anything about personal training, but I do know this: if you want to work in a field where your income depends on your interactions with people, make sure that you've intentionally studied books like "How to Win Friends and Influence People", "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling", "Personality Plus", and "How to Have Power and Confidence in Dealing with People." Even if you're an effective communicator, those books will help you understand other people and how they see you and what they want. Understanding how to get your clients what they want in a way that's challenging but not off-putting to them is probably going to be key to you establishing a successful personal training career, and a lot of it will hinge on your soft skills with people.

Apply everywhere you're even halfway qualified if you're really looking to get out. I started putting in 5-7 apps a week a few months before I graduated from college, was unemployed a month a half after graduation, and then finally got a job unloading semi-trucks in a warehouse (with my college degree). It paid the bills (barely), but I kept putting in 3-5 apps a week for three and a half months until I got the job I'm in now in business account sales at a local telecom company. Overall, I probably put in 70-100 apps between March and September. Full disclosure- both of those jobs (the warehouse and the telecom company) I got in the door because I knew people there who could recommend me to the hiring teams. Utilize your connections and references, even if you don't feel like you have any (you do).

For me that activity is either volleyball or soccer. I love both but I'm not great at either. Also longboarding. I'm the noobest of noobs after having ridden for four years.

Big thanks! And I agree about this new challenge...the first week of work was definitely tough...lots of morning hot chocolate/donuts and going out to lunch. I'm starting to settle back into bringing my lunch with me daily and my increased income should allow me to be more selective when shopping for groceries. It should be fun!

Rock on. Well. I do dig that power tower...it's not super expensive, all things considered, and it has so much room for activities... (<- Yes: Step Brothers reference). I fired off the link to my roommate to see what he thought, and if he's willing to ignore his unemployment and shell out some cash toward it, that's probably what we'll end up going with. And even if he doesn't shell out any cash toward it...

Will do! I'm thinking next week I may start solidifying a regular routine for my mornings. I've only been at my new job a week, so I'm still getting used to a lot, and my week is much busier toward the end than at the beginning. But, maybe I'll start this week/end. Who knows? I'll be sure to swing by to get some tips for what I should be starting with, though!

That's good to know, Tin Man! Thanks for the heads up! Cianalas, do you find that those back legs are long enough? I feel like if I put myself on the back of that tower to do a pull up, it would tip over (which is likely irrational). How's the stability on a 1-10 scale?

I just wanted to drop in and chime in here in appreciation of all of you. I'll be sure to check back in here once I have some more time at home and not at work.

Also yes. I always tell people that who you are is determined primarily by your association and the information you take in (books, tv, movies, music, advice). Occasionally I'll add "your attitude", but more often than not, attitude is determined in part by your association and the information you take in, so it can go either way.

Gotcha. Rock on. I'll have to check with my roommate on what he's going to prefer, since he'll be sharing whatever setup we go with (and his girlfriend owns the house, so he'll have more sway in convincing her on modifications ), but this is a solid slate of options moving forward. Thanks for your help!

That wall mounted option might just be the "unnnhhh nana nana" that I'm looking for. Could still mount it on either side of the doorway for some extra space and remove the bar if we ever needed the full doorway to "the murder room" which is where it would be going. So you hung the 2x6 down vertically, then? That makes more sense. I think I can picture what you're talking about now. How many screws did you use?

Excellent tip on that first one. I've never seen anything like that before. As for the doorway style, that's the sort I was thinking, but I know there are about a million out there and wasn't sure if there were any to steer toward or away from depending on quality of construction, etc. The DIY option is definitely attractive...I'm actually not 100% sure if the area I want to put it has anything to hang the doorway mounted one from, so it may be a better option to just rig up an iron bar across the doorway... So you basically reinforced the floor joists in your basement with the 2x6s and then drilled across a couple of them to put the pipe in?

Most definitely! I've actually been giving that a bit more thought, and the only things stopping me from forgoing the gym idea entirely are access to free weights and a way to do pull ups. Before the school year started, I went over to the elementary school down the street and monkeyed around on their monkey bars, but it's fall now here in MI and it'll be winter soon (either in a couple months or tomorrow. Never can be sure). I know I can buy free weights cheaper than a gym membership on a long enough timeline, so if I can just find the right pull up bar for regular use, I imagine that I should be fine without the gym. Which, actually, is another woot. I discovered after a few months at the warehouse while playing on the playground that I can do a pull up. One. Which is one more pull up than I've done ever in my life before. I can't believe I forgot that in my woot post... But heck yeah, I'll be sure to comb through the Assassins section for some bodyweight tips! Thanks muchly!

For starters, I'm sorry that I suck at search. I've been looking around for a little under 45 minutes and couldn't find a thread that I'm almost positive exists about this already. So. What pull up bars are y'all using for home use? The only thing drawing me toward getting a gym membership right now is the ability to do pull ups and having free weights. Everything else I want to do I know I can do body weight at home for now. And I know that I can buy free weights cheaper than a gym membership would be over the lifetime of said free weights. So if I could get a solid pull up bar, I'd pretty much be in business at home. Thanks in advance for your help!