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Hi all! I'm Stronkey Kong. Umm... yeah... still here. If you don't know by now, just ask... I just did a long, rough draft outline of this challenge at the end of the last one hidden in the spoiler because of its length: tl;dr -- I'm kicking off a year long (or at least multi-month) challenge aimed at losing weight by training like a boxer... really tho, it's all about calisthenics and cardio with boxing training mixed in for fun and because hitting a heavy bag for 10x3 min intervals is an awesome workout. I have it themed and organized after "Mike Tyson's Punch Out!" on the NES. Here's how this will work... I have 3 Major goals: FIGHTING WEIGHT (FW): Hit 199 lbs in the next 1-2 years BOXING SHAPE (BS): I want to be in the kind of shape that boxers and other fighters are in so I'm going to train like them... lot's of cardio and calisthenics for foundational strength and conditioning, and bag work and boxing/martial arts drills for developing speed, coordination, balance, power etc. METABOLIC HEALTH (MH): Be able to burn whatever I put into my body: carbs, fat -- metabolic flexibility, learn to maintain the balance of calories in vs. calories out, and develop good eating habits. I'll be using LUMEN for metabolic feedback... might start tracking body temp too... smh, and tracking diet with MFP. OTHER minor GOALS (OmG): I will also be doing some writing, meditating, and home improvement projects throughout the year. Right now I'm in a warmup phase where I assess a few baselines and set goals for the first 'fight.' Each fight will be 3 weeks (rounds) in length. The morning on the day before the fight, I will 'weigh-in' and this will be my official weight for tracking weight loss in the fight. For each fight I will identify 3 KO techniques -- one for each of the first three goals. These are impressive and worthy enough to constitute a KO singularly. Then, I will have 3 TKO criteria -- again one for each of the three major goals that together (all three) constitute a TKO. Finally, even if I fail to KO or TKO, if I go the distance and do more good effort than bad, I can WIN by DECISION -- wherein I track good habits on the FIGHT SCORECARD for each round. There's a lot on the scorecard, and it includes things from my OmGs. Throughout the course of the year and 13 total fights, I will track my W-L-KO stats. For the first Minor Circuit Bouts, I'm just diving from one into the next. After that I might decide to take breaks between fights and title bouts. And I won't be sticking completely to the NF Challenge Schedule. Some Fights will straddle Challenge breaks, I may decide to take week long breaks to sync them up, or just as I need a break here and there. We'll see. I'll keep the current fight, future fight schedule, and fight record on the second or first post of each of these challenges so you (and I) can find it and figure out what the hell I'm currently doing at any time. Stay tuned.

During the war between elves and dragons, the matriarch of House Vol sought to make peace between the two races by combining the blood of both. The result was her daughter Erandis Vol, whose father was a green dragon. House Vol achieved its objective of peace though at their own bloodline's expense as the dragons and elves allied with one another under the goal of killing Erandis Vol, the entire Vol bloodline, and the mark of death. Eventually every member of the House of Vol was destroyed along with Erandis, but the other Elven houses that had aligned themselves with House Vol were spared the same fate and were instead cast out of Aerenal. These banished elves kept their faith and spread the religion to Khorvaire. Week 1 of this challenge begins immediately after my push/pull meet and, as is fairly typical when peaking for PL, I'm dying for more volume and conditioning. Once the meet is out of the way, I'll go back to 531, but with the following volume-happy tweaks: Including BBB again - For time's sake and to ensure I keep the weight at a higher 75-85%, I'll be sticking with the 5x5 version, and starting back at 75% this month with DL and squat BBB sets performed on the opposite day so as to work heavy DL and squat twice a week. Bench days just be benchy. Including deload weeks again - My work capacity at +80% suffered without these over the past few months so the four weeks working sets will look like 1) none (just BBB); 2) 3x5 85%; 3) 3x3 90% 4) 1xAMRAP 95% Circuit Conditioning as last priority - between the high volume/light weight bodyweight work and front squats, I like these and my hips like these and my erector spinea like these and my shoulders like these and my heart like these. I'm not dropping them, not for love or money, but I'm moving them to last place in the priority list. They've been supplanting heavier volume work and that's not been good for my <10 rep endurance. A good training session will have time for 2-3 cycles of high rep work, but as the finishing touch, not so much the main focus. I'm not a xfit whoreface like @Br0din. Outside of the gym, I'm going to spend August focusing on puppy training, smoking, meditating, and writing.

(First post, so thats sweet!) So I had my first run in with the Bear Complex, although for me it might be better to call it the Cub Complex. I made it through all five rounds starting at 65# and ending at 85#. I had to rest the weight down 5 times (once each round) and used burpees at the end for a cruel punishment. Hopefully it gets better!