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銀公雞的光輝長廊 (Beware of Chicken) 貪得無厭的班卓人無情的教導 (Banjo Practice) Work ligaments every day for at least 3 sessions - Working to get better in the "window", or holding frets 8 and 9 while switching among 10, 11, 12 on the banjo. Means my poor left pinky needs to learn new ROM's and lots of small physical therapy-style sessions every day are best. Reward - an Earl Skrugg's songbook!! Practice on fucking Thursdays and Saturdays - those days are the most often skipped. Reward - fancy new picks!! 沉睡惡魔的隱密法庭和他的許多仁慈 (Sleep Hygiene) 7 hours per day in a week Reward - Punjabi curry bowl on takeout Friday!! 支撐世界的烏龜必須自己更換無價的外殼 (Moving Prep) Empty both garage bays - before and after pics included. Reward - AYCE sushi!! Organize craft area - before and after pics included. Reward - $25 order credit on Pandahall!! Put away Christmas shit. Reward - $25 order credit on Pandahall!! 短暫的鑿子賦予了看不見的奇蹟以形式 (Sculpture Production) Print & paint Brigid v1.0 - pics before and after painting. Print & paint Persephone v.20 - pics before and after painting. Print & paint Oski-Otsi v2.0 - pics before and after painting. Print & paint Frō-Ingvi v2.0 - pics before and after painting. Print & paint Ylgr v2.0 - pics before and after painting. Print & paint Lucy-Asherah v1.0 - pics before and after painting. Reward - re-order lion's tail petals. 光榮但笨重的泰坦研究卑微但不知疲倦的螞蟻 (Barbell Volume) 3x8 sets at 65% 4x a week. Whining before and after is not mandatory but will be included. In copious amounts. Reward - replace the old crumbling gym bag!!

So since I am in a much better mental state these past couple months and have moved back into my house after the ex left I figure I can now focus on the next 5 months. I have a lot of cleaning/purging to do in my house of junk as well as clothes and kitchen things. I need to buy some more furniture and set some things up here and there. My back yard is an overgrown mess and the garden is a nightmare. The garage is ummm, did a hurricane already come? So I am going to set some 5 month goals in here and refer back to them over the next couple challenges as well as challenge goals and weekly goals moving forward.

Hey, as my gym membership comes to an end in little more than a month I'm becoming more positive that it would be best to get some stuff and start lifting heavy, at home. Now, are there any specifics I have to pay attention to? I've been looking around on internet shops and found some nice gear but I'm not really sure what to look out for. The bench of my desire is adjustable in 3 different heights, 4 different positions (making it suitable for flat bench press, incline and even decline! ) with a max loadabilty of 250kg (conside my bw at roughly 80kg and that's more than enough for some time). The pricing should be fine with 80€ The squat rack is 87x120cm and 7x adjustable in the height between 100 and 170cm, weight 25kg itself and has a loadability of 350kg. There are also 3 holder on lower positions and you can put keep your weights on a mounting. Price 140€ and gummi feet. A 187cm barbell with 30mm. I don't have a lot of space but I was told that a long bar is important if you want to rack up weight. 30€ A neck pad 14€ a chair mat that covers the space where I'd lower the weight ~20€ regular weights 130kg; 170€ I already have some dumbbells with up to 15kg weight that would fit. The overall price would be little more than an other year in the gym and probably more worthwile. Are there things I have to consider purchasing these articles that I'm not aware of? It might be wort mentioning that my max bench press is roughly 85kg, with the deadlift at 80kg and the squat at 100 (although I have to go lower again to get better form). There's probably some imbalance between my lifts, I started squatting and dl-ing quite late. Thanks for any input, I can't provide links to these articles right now so I made the description. And sorry if there will be some inconvenience with the kg/ cm data

Hi Rebels, Restarting after a few years off forums, I've changed my username etc for a true respawn. A bit late to the party thanks to the bushfires. The smoke haze that has settled over my town has brought home how much I need and appreciate exercise for my health and wellbeing. There really is nothing like being able to do nothing fitness related to make you appreciate it. The gym has been closed and it is too hazardous outside. The gym finally reopened and I have been getting back into my fitness routine but I thought some accountability after about a month off (and being basically sedentary during that time, and breathing a lot of smoke!) would be a great way to respawn. My endocrinologist encourages me to try to exercise for an hour a day (I'm a type 1 diabetic) and I'm keen to get back to it! Goal 1: 30 minutes of yoga every day - Post run OR - Pre strength OR - Sunday on it's own - I'm doing YWA's latest new year 30 day challenge. I also meditate with Sam Harris' Waking Up app. Goal 2: 30+ minutes of jogging 3 times a week - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday - Currently doing this on the treadmill because of the air quality - I can't stand treadmills without a distraction so I am using Zombies, Run! - I can comfortably run 5-10 km but have decided to go back to basics to prevent injury and am doing their 5k program. The 10 minute free run at the end makes for a good balance between drills and a jog. Goal 3: Barbell training 3 times a week - I've been lifting for about 6 months after a break of a few years - I've recently changed from Stronglifts to Wendler's Beginner Prep School from the book Forever 5/3/1 - I've deloaded by 10 kg. Possibly unnecessary but I am treating this as though I'm recovering from injury. Life Goal: Prepare my mind and body to tackle my last year of grad school head on I have between 12-15 months left before I submit my thesis. This year is going to be awesome and difficult. I'm keen to stay on top of my health which can quickly go haywire when I'm stressed. This week, my laboratory was still closed because of the smoke in the building, I am taking advantage of that time to prepare for the year ahead and will continue to do so this challenge. There are a couple of fellowships I want to apply for, some papers to draft out and experiments to plan. One thing I want to be strict about this year is my waking and sleeping times. So I'm planning to experiment a bit with timing of things, and alarm placement to improve my chances of this. Let's do this!!!

So I signed up for a GORUCK Heavy in January. I need to get rucking, miles on my feet as well as build muscle while losing fat. For those that do not know what this is, here is the description from the website: So with a pack loaded with a 30lb weight plus water and food/gear we will travel around 40 miles in 24 hours. All lead by a special forces Cadre. Sounds fun right. Leading up to it I have a back to back regular Challenge and Light in October, as well as two sprint triathlons in September and October. Goals for this challenge: Get working out - mornings of weights and cardio(long or sprints), afternoons swimming for fun. Get my diet and food choices down. When selecting dinner think about the fact I will be working out in the morning. This includes drinking. Keep up my Duolingo(I try to finish two modules or crowns in French and Spanish during weekdays. On weekends just hit my 20 minute goal) Reading, podcasting, audible as usual.

At long, long last, my squat form looks decent, so my primary goal for this challenge will be to build it back up. Technically, I started that last week, but I had friends in town last weekend, and I knew that would have gotten in the way of getting my goals done, had I set them. I'll leave my other goals the same, but I might swap out bedtime or mobility for something more interesting if I can get my thoughts together. Goals Retain good squat form while working through a linear progression. I'll be doing this pretty aggressively, but I don't want to get sloppy. I got up to 175 lbs. last week but didn't do it for sets across. I don't have a starting number from tonight, because I was super tired from staying up late this weekend and decided to make this a rare Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday week. Do mobility work every day. This will still be the squat-focused exercises I got from PT in most cases. Get to bed by 11:30 pm 5 days each week. Work on SICP for at least an hour and a half each week. One day has to be a weekday. I've been thinking that I should try to inject a little more novelty into my life, and I'd kind of like to make one of these related to that, but I haven't formulated a useful goal yet.

Recently, I've been trying to build habits of things I want to do, and I've gotten pretty good at getting to bed at time, programming multiple times a week, and doing yoga multiple times a week. I've been getting to the gym when I mean to lately, but I've been kind of stagnating. I still feel stiff sometimes, but I don't seem to be getting much better at the yoga positions I've been trying. Getting to bed on time and working on programming multiple times a week seem to be good ideas, and I'd like to keep doing those, but I think my lifting and mobility programs could use some work. Goals Lifting: I have stopped making regular progress in all of my lifts at this point. I still make progress intermittently, but it doesn't feel like programming, in that my progress is basically independent of my plans. If I'm being honest, I have not made much progress overall since I finished my linear progression, like 2 years ago, at which point I started a heavy-light-medium split. During that time, none of my lifts have increased more than 55 lbs., and I know I should be able to grow faster than that at this point. I don't think heavy-light-medium is working well for me, and I want to figure out what will work better. My goal for this challenge is to select/design a new program and start trying it. That seems kind of underwhelming, but I don't think that 4 weeks are a long enough time to evaluate whether a program is working well. That's probably what has dissuaded me from experimenting up until now. I'm good at following routines, but committing to a programming change for months when I don't know what the results will be feels very risky. Flexibility: I've been doing the Nerd Fitness Yoga videos for awhile, and for most of that time, I've been able to do the hard ones. I also stretch briefly after lifting on Mondays. Admittedly, I don't always do either of those things exactly the way I intend, but it's been awhile since my flexibility seemed to improve. I still can't sit comfortably on the ground for extended periods of time, and I occasionally feel too tight to get into position properly for squats and deadlifts. My goal for this challenge is to figure out whether I need to change up my flexibility routine. I will still keep doing the routines twice a week, but I want to do some research and figure out whether I could be making more efficient use of my time. A significant part of the routines is warmup or strength work, which I arguably don't need. If I could just stretch quickly after lifting and get the same benefits, that would be preferable to me. Sleep: Same goal as before. Get in bed by 11:30 pm on five nights each week. SICP: Work on SICP for at least 30 minutes at a time, at least twice a week. Not having specific days seemed to work as well as having specific days, so I'll give myself the flexibility to use different days.

Foundation Re-reinforcement Building up from my previous challenge, I continue my mission to get my shit together. Life feels out of hand, and if you're balancing this much crap on your rickshaw, you better first make sure that (1) your bike works, and (2) you can ride a bike. And so onward with life maintenance--a continuation of my previous challenge and the one before that. SLEEP - I've noticed that it's pretty hard to make a dent on one end of the sleep equation, so I'm looking to make adjustments to the other end--the wake-up. Dr. Jeffrey Durmer from The Doc & Jock Podcast emphasized the importance of a wake-up routine. I'm looking to first establish a consistent wake-up time (possibly 0900) and something physical to do (perhaps a wall handstand or a Turkish Getup). I seem to have been oversleeping a little lately. AIR - Headspace has a bunch of packs. I finished Foundation previously and now am looking into finishing 3 of the Sport packs. I'm thinking at hitting one either first thing in the morning, or right as I come back from work. I'm still not expecting much out of it; just building the habit and the skill. FOOD - Family needs food as well. I got a whiteboard and will experiment with writing down the week's menu to eliminate decision-making. Side Quest: Quadruple Bs BJJ - 2-3 days Barbell - Muscle Clean, Bench Press, Muscle Snatch, Squat Bodyweight - Handstand, Straddle Planche, Manna, Front Lever, Arch Rocks, Tumbling Bells - Armor Building, Long Cycles

Foundation Reinforcement In fitness, where people seem to have trouble with starting out the most is staying the course. Building a foundation is slow, boring, and unrewarding, but to achieve long-term success one must stay the course. So continuing with my previous challenge, I shall be monitoring pretty much the same goals, but with a little more intensity and virtuosity. AIR - breathe and meditate. I'm coughing-up the $13 for a month of Headspace (mostly because I like the structure). Maybe throw a nauli practice in once a week, because if Rickson does it, why not? I think the biggest thing that's blocking my motivation to meditate is the fact that I only do it because I've been told I should. I haven't really read compelling papers and articles on what exactly it does and why I should be doing it. I guess I can use this to reflect upon how a lot of people view exercising. FOOD - track calories. I'm trying to climb up a bit in weight, and if I don't eat mindfully I tend to forget altogether. Goal is to log a minimum of 2500 calories daily because #MassIsInSession. Sunday meal prepping does seem to make everything easier, particularly preparing breakfast shakes for the week, because in the morning that one extra step could be the deciding factor between staying on track and just having Oreos. SLEEP - get to bed earlier. Might be tough, since I'm working and training nights (which means I'll have to go to more BJJ morning classes), so I'll have to take some notes. Week 0 goal is 2300, then slowly move that back as the month progresses. The 56 weekly hours seem to take care of themselves. Side Quest: The Trifecta Barbells, Kettlebells, and Bodyweight--the StrongFirst trifecta. I will be utilizing each for my extracurricular S&C. BJJ - 3 sessions a week or more Barbell - Dan John's Minimalist Training Bodyweight - Planche, Manna, Handstand, and the One-Arm Chinup work. Kettlebell - Andrew Read's mass-building program. Also, Getups. *seems like a lot, but I'm calculating my S&C will consist of 2, maybe 3 days.

This is going to be mostly the same as last time. I'm getting a late start, but on Monday, I was shopping for fitness-related stuff, so I'll allow it. Tuesday was just drinking. Don't worry about it. Goals Lifting: Last time, I had lifting goals that, while perfectly plausible, were sufficiently optimistic to be thwarted the first time my program was slightly disrupted, which happened almost immediately. I will be more conservative this time. I intend to accomplish at least 2 of the following: Squat 300x5x5 with good bar path. Long-time readers will note that I was already squatting 300 lbs. at the beginning of last challenge. I discovered a form issue, and I have deloaded a bit to correct it. I did 285x5x5 with acceptable form on Monday. Bench 200x5x5. On Monday, I did 190x5x5. Overhead press 125x5x5. I did 122.5x5,5,4 today. I just got other micro plates that will allow me to make 1-lb. jumps, and I may start using them during this challenge, but this will still be in reach if everything goes to plan. Deadlift 345x5. This was my goal for last time, and I was able to do 340x5 a few weeks ago, but I've been on 345 for 2 workouts now. The first one, I couldn't even budge it, and this Monday, I got 2 reps. Power clean 135x3x5. I haven't had a power clean goal for awhile, because my wrist has been sore, and I've been taking it easy, but my wrist seems pretty well behaved these days. I've gotten up to 135 before, but that makes the plates touch the ground at the bottom, and that throws off my whole movement. Obviously, this is going to be a problem going forward, so I need to figure out how to power clean from the ground. I did 125x3x5 today. This is worth 3 STR. Yoga: Do 2 full-length yoga session per week. This is worth 2 DEX. Running: Run at least once a week in weeks 2, 3, and 4. I just got a heart rate monitor, and I'm going to try to train at my ventilatory threshold. That's supposed to be pretty easy, if boring, so hopefully this won't interfere with my lifting. This is worth 3 STA. SICP: I almost got in a groove last time, so I want to keep up the momentum. 3 hours of reading and doing programming exercises per week. This is worth 2 WIS. I've set the point values for this challenge based on 10 points per level, because 15 felt like grade inflation for a lot of my goals, and they're totally made up.

I've got my girlfriend into lifting, and she loves the basic approach of Bench Press, Barbell Squat, and Deadlift. She wants to lose weight and get stronger. The problem we are seeing is that even with rigidly proper form, she experiences severe knee pain after only a few reps of her Squats. Even without weight, her knees start to give her problems. My question is what kind of alternative exercises or possibly rehabilitative movements I can suggest to her to still work similar muscle groups and hopefully get her squatting properly. Fitness Goals Exercise Preference Body weight 220 Power lifts Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift Olympic lifts Current Physical Stats Gender Female Age 26 Height 5 foot 4 Weight 220 Previous Training History Past Programs Kettebell presses and Swings How long 6 months to a year Current Training Present Program Monday: Bench Press 5 sets of 5 reps Wednesday: Squat 5 sets of 5 reps(currently limited or even canceled per this issue) Friday: Deadlift 5 sets of 5 reps Every Day: Handstand training (currently able to hold a 45 second full push-up position plank, working toward 60 seconds before starting wall walks) How long 2 weeks Current working weights Bench Press: 65 (working toward 5x5) Squat: 45 (sets/reps in question per this issue) Deadlift: 45 (working toward 5x5) Current Diet Mostly Paleo (80/20 with the occasional soda or grain based food) Daily Calories Not counting Daily Macros Not using Current Resources/Limitations Gym Access Bench Press and Squat Rack in apartment Pull Up Bar/Dip Station/Leg Lift Station "Power Tower" in apartment Adjustable Dumbell Pair up to 50 punds each Kettlebells of 25, 35, and 50 pounds. Work/School Schedule Mon-Fri 7-3:30 Time Allowed Approximately 3 hours on weeknights and all day on weekends.

My third kid is due this week... another girl! I've been reading Nerd Fitness for a couple years. I'm still in my twenties, and as a dad I know that if I don't battle for my fitness now, it'll be a much more difficult uphill battle if I start later on in my 30s or 40s. I've got a pair of dumbbells, a barbell, and a swimming pool. Anybody else out there been in a similar situation and has seen success? I'm looking for like a group of fitness pin pals. I'm new to the boards, so you should know the nerdiest thing about me is probably my ocarina. I bought it earlier this year at a street market. After looking at if for a while I asked the guy if he could play something on it. You guessed it. He played Sarai's song from Zelda, the Ocarina of Time. Classic! Instant buy! Haven't regretted it once. Alright, so who wants to help me get started with some dad lifts? I'll try not to disappoint. Post with your tips or join the adventure with a pledge that you want to not just be a nerdy mom or dad, but a fit one! For the Rebellion! Sandy_Romans12.2

Happy New Year!

Epic Quest :- Run a Marathon. This has been a goal of mine for a while now, a couple of years ago I was on track for this after completing 5 half marathons during the year, so I signed up for a full marathon, then suffered a stress fracture to my shin and have had injuries/niggles ever since. I will run a marathon though, and all of my challenges will contribute towards that goal in some way. 1. Get Strong:- I've never had much strength, always had a weak grip, never done any lifting at the gym. I've started the Stronglifts 5x5 program this week. So 3 times per week follow the program. Except 29th Aug - 5th Sept I'll be away camping with the family, so on my usual lifting days I will instead do a bodyweight workout. 2. Travel to Mordor:- Log distance walked/cycled/rowed or run each day. Minimum of 5 minutes per day. 3. Stretch:- I've always been lax stretching. i know not stretching is bad. Minimum of 5 minutes stretching Calfs & Hamstrings evryday. None lifting days this will be upped to minimum 20 min full body stretching / yoga

By the end of last challenge, I had started not to slack off so much on my job search and interview prep, but I really want to light a fire under this thing, so I need to stop getting distracted. To that end, I don't have a running goal this challenge, and my other goals are pretty tame. Goals Lift 3 times a week; keep going with 5x5 on heavy days. My higher-volume workouts take a while, but I am hoping they will show results. This basically takes up all of my Monday evening, so I will have to be diligent about making good use of the rest of my time. I will also have to be diligent about eating enough to support it, but I'm not doing a diet goal, because I don't feel like spending a bunch of time obsessing over a diet change right now. This is worth 3 STR. Do mobility work twice a week. I don't want to lose too much flexibility, but an important side benefit is that this gives me something to get up for on Saturday morning so that I don't waste half the day in bed. This is worth 3 DEX. Do not watch season 4 of Silicon Valley or season 3 of Bojack Horseman or start any new TV shows during the challenge. I just finished season 3 of OITNB, primarily last Saturday, and that was like a day of interview prep time down the drain. This is worth 2 WIS. Perform job seeking activities 8 hours a week. I know that my previous challenges were for 6 hours, and that didn't always go so well. But my habits have gotten a little better lately, and if I want to get ready in a short amount of time, this needs to become the main thing I do besides working and lifting. I hopefully won't become more of a hermit than I already am, so I intend the main casualties of this effort to be TV watching, web browsing, and possibly personal projects. This is worth a whopping 4 WIS and 3 CHA. See you on the other side.

This is a photo of a small barbell I took at my school's (teeny and basic) gym today, but it doesn't have its weight marked on it so I was wondering if anyone could maybe guess how much it weighs from the photo or tell me what kind of barbell it is from looking at it and how much that kind of barbell weighs? If anyone can help that would be so helpful!

My theme for this challenge is to scale mountains in my area. I will be ramping up all my goals into bigger, weekly quests. 1. The Fortress (Strength) Lift 3-4 times a week Ideally I would be aiming for 4, but I am leaving some flexibility as I am just starting with a new fitness coach. He probably will want me lifting at least 3 times a week. 2. Mount Baker (Nutrition) Record everything I eat Have at least 1 ideal meal a day Nutrition is staying a daily as my exception to weekly quests, so I am doubling up the steps to increase the challenge. Nutrition continues to be my Achilles heel so I am keeping it daily as I try to figure out a better way to tackle this particular mountain. 'Ideal meal' for me means healthy/unprocessed with half veggies, a good source of protein, and a little complex carbs. 3. The Three Sisters (Communication) Have a 30 minute conversation in Spanish once a week This is a scary step up from memorising flashcards! I will be using iTalki to have a conversation with people in Spain once a week. This should really step up my Spanish rapidly (or depress me horribly ha!), and it will give me extra motivation to buckle down on learning my grammar through the week. 4. Mount Yamnuska (Courage) Book one appointment with a professional a week I have an unreasonable fear of mechanics, dental hygienists, gynaecologists, etc. My sub-conscience is convinced that anyone who is an expert in a field will disdain anyone who is ignorant in it, and will therefor try to either take advantage of me or cause me pain. This is the time to tackle that fear head on! I will make those appointments that I have been putting off! My body (and my car) is relying on me and I won't let it down.

New Challenge! So I skipped the last challenge due to busyness and laziness. Since the IRONMAN New Orleans 70.3 I have been eating like Kirby from Nintendo and just inhaling everything. I need to get back on track starting this week, especially since Eagleman 70.3 is Sunday. I did PR my 5k last Monday with a 7:21 mile pace which as very nice since I had not PR'd for 6 years, and I beat it by about 1:30. The training is paying off! I have finally managed some good time management with training and life and I would like to invest some time into my hobbies. So I will be posting lots of image updates of me working on my new reef aquarium, cars, magic cards, building a deck, and gardening. Hopefully I can continue and really get some time in on these instead of watching TV in the evenings.

I just joined NF at the start of the previous 4 week challenge. Now that my renegade initiation is complete I'm going to try things out over here in the Warriors guild. I have a preference for barbell training and you people own the most barbells. I don't have a vast amount of experience with self-improvement so I'll be taking all the free advice that's offered. So far the one I've enjoyed the most was from SpecialSundae; ice cream for breakfast. I have very much enjoyed that tip. Being new to the world of picking things up I am trying to settle on a program that is both fun and efficient/useful. I just finished a month and change on Ice Cream Fitness but the duration of the actual sessions is way over what I can sustain when I get back home. I need something that is easier to run in the 75-90 minute range. This month I'll try Greyskull LP, this will cut out a ton of accessory work that I don't believe was appropriate for my experience level. The plan for this challenge? Since I am not going to have unlimited access to food and gym time in the very near future I will be scaling back the demands on my time required by the challenge. Ice Cream Fitness is OUT, Greyskull LP is IN! Food will be a balanced goal as opposed to a volume goal. Reading was a good goal while away from my family, but I read to my kid every night so that'd be a freebie this time, instead I will PLAY with my kid everyday. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but I need to be honest with myself, watching cartoons with her isn't quite the same as building something out of lego. Any day she isn't on board with dad-time that's fine, I still have to try. Since I've been away a while I think my wife needs to know I missed her too. Romance isn't really something I do well but I'd like to make my family a priority over the next challenge. Diet: (1) In all things balance / 10 EXP: 3 balanced meals a day. I'll figure out what counts as balanced later but certainly no breakfasts made entirely of frosted cocoa bombs and no lunches made of blocks of cheese. Fitness: (2) Still on the horse part one / 10 EXP: New program, Greyskull LP is 3x per week. I'll be throwing in some frequency stuff too which means I'll have to do push ups, chin ups and pull ups everyday instead of just gym days. Full plan in my Battle Log. LUYL: (3) These are the days / 10 EXP: Play with kid every day. No min or max, just have to sit down and have some fun (or chase her until one of the two of us can't run anymore) with a great little kid without a tv to distract. BONUS: (4) Well ain't that nice / 1 EXP each - MAX 5: I gotta do something nice for my wife. Either a letter in the mail or a dad/daughter day just to give mom a break. I'm open to suggestions. At least one a week seems like a good start. --------------------- As before, any comments be it encouragement, tips, book recommendations or anything else is all welcome. I'll be asking for program help in other threads but I'm wide open to feedback here as well. Good luck and happy hunting.

This is a neat section. It looks like a nice parrallel to the 4-week challenge areas. Today is a week shy of a full month on Ice Cream Fitness (with mods because I don't listen so well). Initially this was a 5x5 program, about 2 weeks ago after browsing a Greyskull subreddit I started using AMRAP for final worksets. I also added Chin Ups and Pull Ups later on because I'll be damned if a workout doesn't feel complete unless I do one or the other. Note: Warm up sets not listed. For the newbs in the crowd (like me): EVERY PROGRAM ASSUMES YOU ARE DOING WARM UP SETS, I wish that was something clearly stated in all "Beginner" programs but that is rarely the case. Having used Starting Strength a few years ago, I had some idea of how to determine my baseline already as well as how to do warmup sets. Starting point: Dec 19 - Ice Cream A (baseline day, lbs) Squat- 65 x5 Bench- 55 x5 Bent Over Row- 45 x5 Shrugs- 45 x5 Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 30 x8 EZ Curl- 45 x8 Hyperextension- 10 x10 Cable Crunch- 40 x10 Dec 21 - Ice Cream B (baseline pt2) Squat- 70 5x5 DL- 155 1x5 Press- 55 x5 BO Row- 45 5x5 Close-Grip Bench- 50 x8 EZ Curl- 45 8/7/8 (failed) Cable Crunch- 45 2x10 Estimated Starting weight is 178lbs, may have been slightly lower but since I'm trying to gain weight I'll err on the side of chocolate.

This time the focus will be on building good habits as it is the foundation for my change. I will keep this simple, but not to easy. Goals Cleaned up eating / LCHF, paleo - minimize intake of sugar and starches (every day during this challenge)Drink water - drink recommended amount of water (every day during this challenge)Exercise - outdoors or at the gym (3x week during this challenge)Why? This is to (1) get back on track (weight, BF% etc) and (2) build habits for more challenging goals (e.g. strength goals etc). Good luck to all Rangers out there!

I made an effort to start tracking my progress at my gym for the weights I lift, but I have a problem: How much to the dang bars weigh? One odd-ball is labelled as 20Kg, but the 3 other (apparently unlabelled) barbells are different. Barbell type 1: I assume most of the barbells are the same weight (around maybe slightly heavier than the 20Kg?)Most of the barbells have round stoppers (whatever holds the weights out from the center of the bar) and seem to be about the same weight.Seems to live on the bench press (no one moves that bar around like the others)Barbell type 2: hexagonal stoppersNoticeablyheavier than the round ones. Barbell type 3: chrome barsshorter weight holding area (grip area is the same size)significantly lighter than the others.I'm trying to use the same type of bar, and I'm just tracking the added weight instead of total weight. To be honest saying "I benched 40 lb this morning" isn't very satisfying.

Hi.... silly question..... When you're adding up the weight you're lifting (say, in a deadlift), do you count the bar? For example, does the below photo equal 20lbs, or approximately 65lbs (depending on the weight of the bar)? I'm trying to figure out how much to start with and aim for, but I need to know how to count first! I slapped a couple 25lb "thingers" on the bar last week and deadlifted that NP....

So the Bye Weeks Challenge have made me realise something. Six weeks is too big a period of time for me to deal with in one go. It's like when I used to be at uni and would be given a huge assignment months in advance, I would do sod all for months and then live in the library for the last couple of weeks up until the deadline. Two weeks however is a much more manageable chunk. I feel like I can 'make a special effort for two weeks' in a way that sounds mentally exhausting to commit to for six weeks. Also with the usual six week format if I fuck up in the first couple of weeks I then feel like I have ruined the whole challenge so there is no point anyway. SO this time around I am breaking my challenge down in to 2 weeks blocks, starting unofficially over in the Bye Weeks Challenge. I will set my goals for the following two weeks. based on what I have learned on the proceeding two weeks. I might end up doing the same thing for another two weeks or I might make a few little tweaks.

Here is 225. https://youtu.be/QB-a-PIKqFc