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Hi All So I’ve been on NF since August 2013 and refrained from creating a Battle Log. Had the mindset that no one would want to hear me gloat, bitch, whine, have highs and lows. So I just kept track of all my info on my work computer…we update the operating system and I lose all my info and tracking. Not only will this be great to keep track of everything, but it’s less about who will read it and more about having something else to stay accountable to. Quick back story; I am a 25 (soon to be 26) year old male who just moved out to Chicago from Philadelphia/NY with my girlfriend. I started on my quest almost immediately when I moved, thinking new job, new place, new lifestyle. I was doing a version of the NF Barbell Battalion and SL5x5. Then I got hurt dum…dum…dum. And felt sorry for myself and completely stopped for almost 2 months. But now I’m back! Current stats: Weight - 174lbs Squat - 180lbs (5x5) Bench - 150lbs (5x5) OHP - 95lbs (5x5) Deadlift - 185lbs (1x5) Enough with this and onto the Daily Battle Log part.

So after a fairly successful return with my last challenge, I am moving on and planning to add a little bit more to this challenge. Goal My goal for this challenge is to lose 12 lbs. Quests More Lifting: I am switching up to the Jonnie Candito's Linear Program with this challenge. I liked following Greyskull, but I want to move to a 4 days a week lifting scheme. Over the course of the challenge there will be 20 lifting sessions. More Veggies: I will have at least 1 vegetable and 1 fruit every day. I would like to transition over to a paleo-type diet, and the first step for me is getting used to daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Over the course of the challenge there will be 35 days where I will eat fruits and vegetables. More Sleep: I have been staying up far too late, and with increasing my lifting from 3 to 4 days per week, I will need the extra rest to maintain my recovery. To insure that I maximize my sleep, I will be turning off the tv, phone, and computer every work night at 8:30. Over the course of this challenge, there will be 25 work nights for me to insure turning everything off. More Cleaning: Everyday I need to do one chore around the house - dishes, pickup a room, vacuum - anything really, I just need to do at least one thing every day to keep the house under control for the next 35 day. Reward At the end of this challenge I would like to purchase a foam roller to aid my recovery. In order to justify my purchase I need to have at least 80% completion on my quests. That means of the 115 daily tasks between my quests, I must complete at least 92 of them.

Hey guys! First meet report (and first meet) here, had a total blast and wanted to share and hopefully get some advice on further training and progress. TL;DR: Went 7/9 (failed 3rd squat attempt (complete fail) and 2nd bench (technical)), left some pounds on the platform but still set some PRs. Amazing experience for my first meet and reinforced my stance that everyone who ever thinks about doing a meet, competition or race should just do it. PLAN YOUR WORK. WORK YOUR PLAN! TRAINING: Going into this meet I ran Candito's 6 Week Strength Program, which has been amazing. However for various reasons the cycle was awful: lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and just awful posture...all due to a new, non English speaking U.S. citizen arriving in my house (and sharing a bed with my wife) a few months ago. So safe to say this meet was a bit last minute and the training was bit rushed. I was able to make just about every training session, but hip issues made my squat pretty disappointing leading up until the Monday before the meet where I hit my PR pretty smoothly. Bench was feeling amazing and deadlifts felt strong. MEET: Got into the gym around 8, thankfully the gym is only a 5 minute walk from my house, so there wasn't much planning needed for travel. If any of you know me or follow my challenges/battle log, I'm a fatty with no will power when it comes to burgers, beer, and cookies. So I was very worried about making weight, but after some water manipulation I came in at a pretty light 81.9kg/180.5lbs and easily made weight. Brought a bunch of food and a decent amount of candy and didn't really eat much of it to be honest. After weigh in I was able to run home, eat a sandwich, make breakfast for the family and change into the above. The meet started at 10:30, but was delayed by about 45 minutes or so due to difficulties with the computer. There were a total of four flights and about 10 lifters in my weight class. SQUAT: The only thing I was really worried about coming into the day was how to time warmups. My gym is awesome and there are about 7-8 places to squat, so we didn't have any issues of 5+ guys per rack, so warmups went pretty well and everything was feeling good. I just warmed up during the 2nd attempts of the first flight and that gave me more than enough time to warm up properly, but not have to run to the platform after my last single. Opener was super easy (as an opener should be) at 160kg/352lb. I was supposed to go for 172.5 (a PR) if I felt good and 170 (current PR) if things felt bad. I did not follow this plan. Second attempt was a pretty easy 170kg/374.8lb. I then jumped up to 177.5kg/391.3lb and completely failed it right out of the hole. So unfortunately there was no squat PR on this day. Had I worked my plan I should have taken 172.5 for my second and just 175 for my third and gotten a 10lb PR. A lot of lifters were getting red lighted for depth or weak/soft lockouts, not an issue for me as I often waste depth and never worry myself about it. BENCH: Warmups for bench was fast...because I'm weak and use light weights. I was 6th or 7th in my flight with squats, but maybe 4th for bench. Opener again was super easy at 92.5kg/203.9lb. Commands were super easy to follow and I ended up using a hand off though I didn't expect to being that I never get a hand off in training. Followed the plan here for choosing my second attempt and went up to 100kg/220.5lb for my second attempt and FAILED it. My butt and heels came up off the bench and I didn't have to sit up to see the red lights and know I failed. The actual lift felt good, so I took a conservative jump to 102.5kg/226lb despite the miss. Came back and nailed it, small grinder, but the butt and heels stayed in contact though it was CLOSE. DEADLIFT: And the embarrassment begins. My deadlift is by far my worst lift. So I went from 6/7th on squat, 4th on bench and then like 2nd/3rd on deads. My third attempt for deads I went second, only after a 70 year old lifter. Anyway, opener was super fast. 2nd attempt was a very modest (1.8lb) PR which was easy. So at this point I had to figure out if I wanted to go for over 405lbs or if I wanted to play it safe and break 1000lb total. If I missed my 3rd attempt I would end up at around 997lb total and I just couldn't let that happen, so I played it safe and went with 182.5kg/402.3lb, despite a fellow lifter telling me my 2nd attempt looked super easy and I should go higher. I stepped up to the bar and easily pulled 182.5kg and right about at my knee I got pissed that I didn't go higher. RESULTS/WRAP UP: Went 7 for 9 with one complete miss and one technical lift. Ended up getting 2-3 PRs and finally broke 1,000lbs. A good number of lifters bombed out for various reasons (not listening to commands, not knowing the rules (they needed @SpecialSundae to tell them to RTFM), or just poor attempt selections). The one guy I hung out with most of the very long 10 hour day went 2/9 and missed all squat and bench attempts. I, surprisingly, had absolute no issues or nerves going into this meet besides making weight. Also, I thought I would have had a bit more nerves dealing with the commands and just having 150+ pairs of eyeballs watching me lift, but the commands were easy enough and I honestly didn't see the crowd whatsoever on any of the lifts. The meet was absolutely amazing and it really helped that my first meet was at my own gym. I mean it made EVERYTHING easier - "travel", food, knowing the equipment, et cetera, but the best part was that I spoke to about 10 lifters that I see in the gym regularly that I never talk to and everyone from my gym was super loud with cheering when I was stepping up to the bar. This was my first powerlifting meet, but not first competition and every time I'm still shocked at how nice and supportive EVERYONE is at these things. Unfortunately I got no footage at all of any of my lifts as we couldn't get a babysitter and the room where the lifting was, was just WAY too stuffy and packed for my wife to have the baby in. Though I did get to have the kid on my shoulders to watch a few lifters squat and he absolutely loved it and apparently when he left he was telling strangers about his dad lifting weights, so that was great to hear. RANDOM THINGS: Masters lifters are the coolest lifters at any meet. 70 year old lifter bombed out on squats due to depth, but he went thru and finished the meet. Just really cool watching him and he likely got some of the loudest cheers.Two spotters got hurt. The first was an issue with the bar loading, one loader went to raise the rack height while the loader on the other side was changing plates at a lower height. All the weights slide off making the bar drop, and then once the plates were off, that side came flying back up into his groin/crotch reason. Had that been me, the meet would have been postponed/suspended cause I would have been rolling on the floor in a puddle of vomit, so he is a much better man than I. The other one was more serious (if that's possible). Lifter squatting 585lb dumped the bar over head and said bar landed on the spotter's foot and apparently there was a lot of blood and a good chance of several broken toes/broken foot.MOVING FORWARD: Again I was really happy with this first meet experience. Going into it I was looking forward to getting it over with and being able to relax for a bit. However, as I walked out of the gym I was just thinking about finding my next meet and was up at 3am or 4am that night looking up deadlift programs to fix my baby deadlift. I'm looking to increase my deadlift about 90lbs and my bench about 40lbs by the end of the year. Sounds very aggressive in my head, but I feel like both lifts need to be drastically increased to make me a bit less pathetic. I'm thinking about paying $40 for George Leeman's P.R.O.M. deadlifting program. For bench I might run Candito's Advanced Bench Program at some point this year. I don't know and I don't really have a plan as of yet. All I know is that bench and deads are holding me back.

I usually only pop up round these here parts when I'm going to compete (and likely fail) in something. And this time is no different. March 6th I will be (finally) competing in my first powerlifting meet. This is just a placeholder for when I actually think of goals and all the bullshit, which will likely beon Wednesday, but for now... ====================================================================================================================================== So despite bringing a strange, crying, needy alien being into my house I've decided to do my first...long awaited powerlifting meet. So in efforts to not completely embarrass myself I need to focus on the three things that lead to gains...three things that I do not get enough. Lift the weights...consistently. Since the end of December I've been in the gym less then 5 times, previous to that I was in the gym 4-5 times a week. There's no way I'll come anywhere close to hitting the numbers I want without consistent workouts, The missus has been supportive of me finding ways to get training in which has been very helpful in letting me feel considerably less guilty.I'm running Candito's 6 Week Strength Program in preparation for the meet. This calls for me to be in the gym 5 times the first 2 weeks and then 4 the next 2. Find time to recover...any time. Babies are the killers of sleep (as shown by the fact that I'm typing this up at 5am). Lack of sleep is the killer of gains, Between work, a newborn, a toddler, and the gym I've been pulling 1-3 hours a day. I need to get back to consistently hitting at least 5 hours. In addition to sleep, BCAAs and creatine (SUPP LIFE BITCHES) need to be consumed consistently. Lastly, contrast showers after EVERY squat/deads session. I've found that these almost completely reduce my DOMS. Eat ALL the foods...ALL. THE. FOODS. Lack of sleep and just generally being preoccupied, I forget to eat. I've generally been eating one meal a day...da fuq!? I need to start getting back to eating like a normal person and eating at least 3 meals a day with 2-3 protein shakes (SUPP LIFE BITCHES) mixed in there. Level Up Yo Life, Fool. I need to declutter my life and mind, but we'll just start with my life. Each week I will try to do something to declutter my office, apartment, inbox, et cetera.****Hopefully I'll come back to this and add the appropriate GIFs, memes and pictures.

Another challenge similar goals. This time around things will be a little different due to trying out new programming. Previously Stronglifts worked great but work and life would interfere terribly with workouts so will be trying Jonnie Candito's Linear strength program to continue to squeeze out those noob gains and continually work on form. Main goal To get bigger and stronger. Finally at 170+ weight now so will continue to slow bulk up to 175-180 and then do a recomp. Goal 1 Lift at least 3x weekly (Tracking this in excell or printed excel sheets) Goal 2 Sleep at least 7.5hrs each night.( Tracked using sleebot app) Goal 3 Eat at least 3000 calories each day. (Tracked by MFP) Will try to start adding some cardio to my program on an off day. Will try to learn jump roping and progressing to HIT jump roping later on. Goal weights this challenge 1RM Squat 300lb Bench 200lbs and Deadlift 315+ lbs OHP 135lbs