littlewings

Man. I botched this to the max. 

Started a new full time job which has turned out amazing but it took priority over everything else... then I got real sick for 3 weeks, got a minor concussion and haven't climbed in over a month.

But, I have also realized that NF challenges really just don't cut it for me anymore. I have the motivation and have been picking myself back up over the past week, sorting things out physically in a notebook, but even though I miss yall, my desire to come here and post is null. 

23 hours ago, Kishi said:

Well, hey there! Welcome back! It's been a minute, as the children say.

 

I'll be very interested in hearing about your journey toward vegetarianism, as I may need to undertake that journey myself for some health-related reasons. I've heard that, the harder you go there, the more likely it is you'll need certain supplements to make up for nutritional deficiencies like vitamin B and creatine. Don't know if that's necessarily true, but will be very interested to hear about it.

 

What kind of training are you going to do for muscle imbalances?

Yeah! It's definitely true, but for some, eating lots of legumes, tofu, etc. is enough. My stomach is quite sensitive with legumes so for me it doesn't work out that way. I've been off of red meat for about 3 months now (with the exception of one mishap last night and a couple times of eating steak in my dreams) and I plan on still eating chicken/fish/turkey for a while until I can maintain my weight. Yall know I struggle to eat enough in general so... I've realized I lost about 5lbs, most of which is probably muscle, so hopefully along with getting back to climbing after an injury, I can gain some of it back! 

As for muscle imbalances, I'm working on a bodyweight program for myself. My pecs are the worst right now so it will mainly be chest stretches and push ups (For context, I can crank out 2-3 pull ups in one go, but ask me to do push ups, and I can only do a single one...). I also need to work on extensor muscles for my wrists. Also squats. Doing nothing but climbing for the past 2 years has made me a bit of a mess. 
 

22 hours ago, raptron said:

HI. HIYA. HELLO.

HI I MISS YOU

On 11/27/2018 at 6:58 PM, sarakingdom said:

Welcome back! Good to see you.

. Thanks, sara!  

1 hour ago, bigm141414 said:

 

Ugh, who let the Canadian in here?

As if you have ever been able to stop me, [insert insulting nickname here that I definitely used to call you but can't remember anymore]

On 11/25/2018 at 1:50 PM, EmCee said:

 

OH HELLO!

 

I asked Chammy, Littlewings, and BigM to join the challenge too!

Yeah, yeah...

It’s been so long since I’ve last logged in here or even since I’ve last used this username anywhere. If I’m being honest, I’m mostly here because emcee got me to join this month’s challenge. I’m going through some changes with a new job, plus freelancing, and building my own brand so this is as good a time as any.

Goals:

1.       Fix Muscle Imbalances: Supplement 3x/week climbing with accessory exercises (need to strengthen and loosen push muscles)

2.       Eat more vegetarian proteins and protein supplements (goal is 90g protein daily), as of right now I do not eat red meat as I’m sloooowly transitioning to vegetarian

3.       Stick to a budget using Daily Budget phone app

Keeping it simple. This week life is sort of on pause because I’m out in Arizona until next Monday (which is when I start work) so for me, the first week will be a pre-challenge prep and organizing time while I’m semi on vacation!

On 3/17/2017 at 11:23 PM, Teirin said:

 

I am considering a climbing wall membership.  After the OCR, everything started looking like an obstacle to climb *shifty eyes*  Do you have any advice  you'd like to offer?

That depends! I am biased so I totally recommend getting a membership and climbing ... it gets addicting. 

On 3/1/2017 at 0:08 PM, Kishi said:

Well, I imagine between us and RH, you probably won't have much more opportunity to collect underpants. Too much encouragement to pull the trigger on something somewhere.

 

And you know, you wouldn't be the only monk with the climbing bug, although @littlewings appears to have vanished again. It does look like fun, though.

 

I hope your stomach evens out soon!

... Oops. D:

Did I hear climbing??

7 hours ago, Kishi said:

So... you're saying that we don't have to send you donuts?

As if you were going to anyway.

Last week was absolutely terrible, right upper trap was bad. It's still not good, but I was able to get in a mostly lower body workout today. Jump squats, squats, lunges, burpees, glute bridges and then about an hour of mobility work.

I've also decided to start 21 days of no sugar because of how badly I had been eating last week. I haven't completely started, but I'm easing into it. Today my meals were pretty much paleo, with 4 servings of greens, so it's a start! (The only reason today wasn't perfect was because I had a piece of banana bread as well)

My motivation to read is nada. Think I prefer to do work or write instead.

No climbing, still worried about my traps. Going to try to get in contact with chiro. 

Smoked Paprika and Honey BBQ chicken!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

Ooh, do tell about that microwave! I'm always on the lookout for new ways to cook. I could see doing bags of frozen veggies and things like that, but were you able to cook entrée type things, or did you have to dine out for that?

Since I was only there for a week, I did fresh veggies. If you microwave them with a little water and cover with paper towel, they'll steam. Also was able to make pasta and rice. Protein sucked. I got frozen chicken strips since that seemed to be the only option... also canned beans. Oh, and canned vegetable soup!

Okay, so for last week, I was away interning at a Bat rehabilitation centre. I was staying in a small guest room with a coffee machine and microwave, and worked everyday. There was some hiking and walks, that was about the only workout I did. I just couldn't bring myself to do work on my back. Rested it a lot though, which I think was also beneficial. I got creative with just a microwave and coffee brewer - lots of canned veggies, fresh veggies for salad, with some frozen food. So that goal didn't go too far out the window. I also read everyday about bat rehabilitation as my reading goal. No climbing. Itching to get back to it.  


This week so far: 

- 1/3 back workouts done. Feels great actually. I haven't had any pain but my glutes are still pretty bad... so I'm not ready to try any forward fold movements quite yet. After my little physio routine that I made in the previous post, I added in some negative pull ups + holds which felt pretty good. Even though I may have pulled my right upper trap a little bit... I've added some lower trap work back into my routine too, since it's needed. Upper traps still keep overcompensating. I'm excited that I'm so close to a pull up, either way.

- Veggies today is down to 2 servings. I'm hoping to get 5 in tomorrow.

- Depending on upper trap, I'll be climbing tomorrow or the next day (most likely next day). So climbing this week will have to be down to 2x, probably.

- Reading tonight... continue reading a little bit of childhood favourite Dreamwalker's Child. 

 

7 hours ago, Kishi said:

Oi! Don't tell me you fell off the wagon!

No, just returned from Texas last night and been at work all day! Update to come later tonight.

Hooray for gym, boo for school. What about veggies?

Veggie servings since my last update have been averaging at 2 servings daily, with zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I almost hit 3 cups of broccoli and carrots today when eating at a buffet... the rest of my stomach was full of seafood and cake though. So I think this will be my main focus for next week.
 

Reading also! I'll be on a plane for 3 hours tomorrow though so that will definitely make up for the week.
 

Lower back is still bad with forward movements, or any hip flexion that lasts longer than it wants. However, with climbing and teaching kickboxing (holding Thai pads), I can feel some improvement! Core strengthening and stretching is my priority now. Since I won't be able to climb or go to the gym all of next week, I'll be doing the back routine 3x over this week instead.
 

Best for last: climbing goal was met today... although I forgot weeks start on Sundays now. I did climb 3x over the past week and it feels amazeballs. I will be in Texas all of next week - so I won't be climbing at all Soon as I get back though, I'll get right back to bouldering... here is a snippet of the route I'm working on now: https://vimeo.com/199597957  (Even though I cheated with my left foot near the end before finally giving up)

I was gonna update. But so so tired.

Been covering clients for other trainers at our gym, on top of my own, and preparing for leaving for Texas this Monday. But I will say that I climbed for a few hours on Thursday and it was glorious. Every muscle hurts. It especially hurts to laugh. Veggies were okay for a couple days. Today they were replaced with sushi ... but I ate it with Sevenfootgeek, who is a monk, so that makes up for it right?

Better update tomorrow!

8 hours ago, Kishi said:

Sorry to hear that you're in pain!  That's not how it should be. So is it all folding movements, or just the backward ones like cobra?

The forward folding movement is what triggers it, and I can feel that my upper glutes are extremely tight. Right now cobra irritates it but I think it's because it's already sore and spasming. Throughout last night it was also spasming.

I got my kickboxing certification back in November for Personal Training, and after doing all the workouts with the course for almost 6 hours, I think the instructor got really excited and started showing us extra exercises. The last one that we tried had us leaning forward from kneeling position and punching downwards onto a pad. Pretty sure my glutes got overworked and core got tired, so my lower back took over. Had lower back spasms throughout the next day and couldn't do any forward folding movements until I went and saw my massage therapist in December.

Clearly I didn't fix it well enough... so after trying to sort it out last night, I'm going to aim to stretch out hip flexors, roll out all my stupid leg muscles, strengthen glutes and stabilize my lumbar.   

So instead of the yoga routines, I came up with this sort of back rehab routine: 

Frontal Leg Swings 10 each side
Side Leg Swings 10 each side
Deep Lunges 3x12 each leg
Pelvic Tilt (Lying supine on the floor) 10 second hold, 10 times
Glute Bridges 3x12
Bird-Dog 3x12 each side
Hip Openers 10 each side
Cat Cow stretch 10 times
Hamstring Stretch 30 seconds x2 each side
Glute Stretch 30 seconds x2 each side

Day 3

K. So.

I went and climbed for about an hour and a half today, and it was awful. Between injuring my back, taking a month off, climbing again, then being sick for 2 weeks and now back to climbing ...  My bouldering has faltered a lot and I have been feeling extremely weak. I sent a new route that was set up on the first try and then after that I could barely climb at all. And now it's not even 10PM and I am ready for bed.

Eating also was shot down today... did not really eat much at all and veggie servings would have been at zero had I not mixed a protein smoothie with almost 3 cups of spinach when I got home this evening. Not ideal but better than nothing! 

Lower back pains have returned. I hurt my back in November and really need to ease back into strengthening it. Climbing today was alright with it, but I think yoga yesterday might have done more bad than good. So I need to rethink that routine... (maybe just eliminate all folding movements and cobra)

I played video games instead of read today when I got home. Will start re-reading one of the books I read when I was littler (Dreamwalker's Child, anyone?) since I was much older when the sequel came out and never got to read it ... and now I can't remember much of the story at all to read the sequel! I really just wanna increase my reading list for 2017. 

7 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

 

FTFY.

Wrong! 



Day 2

Yoga session one complete!

Veggies:
Serving 1 - spinach
Serving 2 - sweet peppers and carrots

Well, shit. Didn't do so well today.

Workout tomorrow!

30 minutes of reading ... will probably not be completed today. Work sucks this week. Need to prepare better tomorrow. All I care about right now is sleep.

 

Day 1

So, no exercise for today. I'm on day 13 of a bad cold - down to just annoying congestion now. I think I am well enough to do some yoga tomorrow, though. Even if I may not be able to fully breathe in through my nose.  Then Tuesday climbing!!!

Veggies
Serving 1.5 - red pepper, yelllow pepper, broccoli
Serving 1.5 - spinach
Serving 0.5 - veggie dumpling from Indian food order

I meant to make zucchini noodles with dinner tonight but a friend came by and we ended up ordering Indian food... and I prioritized meat more than veggies in the order. Worth it. 3.5/4 servings for the first day isn't too shabby.

And before bed will be 30 minutes of reading my comic book Wilde Life that sirearl bought me for Christmas.  

On 1/6/2017 at 3:37 PM, Kishi said:

 

Do it first and then we'll talk.

 

(I don't actually mean to call you a bitch but this was the most accurate gif response to you! :P)

6 hours ago, Br0din said:

 

Whaaaaatttt!!?!?!

 

 

We would never do that here.

 

You might not, but fellow monks would!

Love the challenge and the variety in trying new things. Have fun with it all this month!

On 1/3/2017 at 2:48 PM, raptron said:

I'll film myself eating a donut for you if you finish.

I like you and I like donuts, but I don't know if I would like that video.  

 

On 1/3/2017 at 3:07 PM, Laghail said:

I will eat a donut while wearing a mouth opener device and post it on your wall if you don't.

I ... might be amused? Or horrified. Not sure which!

The last time I posted a challenge in Warriors as a monk, I was called a traitor. And the title of my challenge was vandalized.

Better watch your back, Shogun.