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This challenge I am mostly aiming for just keeping up the momentum. Last challenge was not perfect, but a really good start back into training, so now it's time to keep going. Goals are therefore pretty similar: GOAL 1: workout 2x / week GOAL 2: no food for min of 14h over night, few carbs, 2 Liters of water per day GOAL 3: edit and upload all meditation recordings (morning meditations and retreat meditations) GOAL 4: finish reading "Atomic Habits" and reflect with a little journaling on it daily (4TW streak) Goal 1 and 2 are basically the same as last challenge. I do want to build up to 3 training units per week, but at the moment I have still a lot of appointments for the kids with the orthodontist and youngest checkups after her operation, for my parents with their regular doctor and my dad for his eye operations plus helping with their shopping while he can't drive, so between that and work and helping the kids with their school stuff (it's a busy exam time of the year) I don't think 3 are realistic just yet. I am glad and proud if I get those 2 in every week. The 14 hours food break over night are slightly more than the 12 I had scheduled last, but considering I regularly had days with 16 hours it should be doable to increase the daily goal here. I don't want to set myself to 16 hours every day because if I don't manage, I'll feel like a failure and might drop the whole idea. Rather smaller steps and go for long term improvement. Goal 3 is a work goal that is easily procrastinated on, so here is my continuation of the monster battle and I am determined to do better this time round!! ROAR Goal 4 is aiming at improving my daily routines in general. I started this book and find it very inspiring and helpful, but then I end up listening to interviews with the author on youtube while playing puzzle games, in my recreational times and never put anything into action to actually make it work for me collecting underpants ... well, it's not entirely true. I do observe my day differently already and have noticed some of the decisive moments during my days already, that come up routinely. I'll put the ramblings on that behind a spoiler, so that it doesn't clog up too much of this intro My current training takes place at the gym and looks like this: 10 minutes on the rowing machine (equals 2km) followed by 3 rounds of 40 sec exercise each with 50 sec break in between - kettlebell swings (2 handed) - quick step ups on a big tire (more like a mixture of running and hopping in place) - bodyweight rows on rings (12 reps) at about 45 degree angle - weighted lunges (bulgarian bag weighing 10kg) - running in place and punching the punching bag - pushing a power sledge (light jog and on 2nd and 3rd round walking) - swinging the big ropes - push ups on gravity trainer (set at medium height and comes to about 9 reps per 40 sec) - knee tucks while hanging from pull up bar (I do 10 lifts at the moment, disregarding the time here) then I do some stretches, which is my favorite part only that I noticed today my shoulder mobility is shocking, but otherwise I feel really good about this part So that's it! If this goes well, it will be time to bring the pole back in, squeeeeeeeee

folx, we're getting dirty for this one i probably should be doing this challenge with the assassins but i'm a warrior at heart and like it here so deal with it. this challenge i'll be training for my first tough mudder - i have done short spartan races but these obstacles look crazyyyyy sooooooo goals! 5 workouts per week go outside once per week – a deliberate outdoor walk or activity don’t buy a drink at a bar unless out for a meal; keep restaurant food to less than 3x per week roll over goals: track fiber track yoga Other things. 5/25: dinner and bowling 5/27: light hike? 6/5: mom’s birthday 6/9: dress fitting, boston pride 6/10: meet with photog., book club 6/15: friends bday party 6/17: Spartan workout class 6/23: tough mudder buy wedding shoes, moar décor, and gift for brothers practice handfasting let's do this

Hi, I'm Seraphina. Backstory below... I'm new to NF and I just finished my first challenge. I was so pumped to start the next one, and I just found out it doesn't start tomorrow like I thought. What is this BREAK business? I'm not taking a break from smashing my goals, so I'm here for accountability, commiseration, and camaraderie.

I'm so happy I get to join the Rangers guild for this challenge! I did my first challenge in the nub section last month. Main Quest: No more I have a sugar demon that needs slaying. No more sweets at home or at work. This is going to be really, really tough for me compared to my last main quest. I'm fully resolved to conquer this by the end of the challenge, though. Secondary Quest: I create myself Schedule and complete 2 planned workouts per week (continuing this from my last challenge because an injury had me batting 50%) At least 1 of these workouts needs to be circuit training each week (I like to dance too much and I hate weightlifting -- I'll never lift a single weight or do any bodyweight exercises if I don't do this) Go on an intentional walk every day (expanding on this habit, as I walk at work every day) Secondary Quest: Keep calm and beware the bad wolf Take 5 minutes to meditate each morning

For those of you who are also fans of Mark's Daily Apple you might already know what I mean about sleeping low. Essentially, avoid conventional wisdom to replace used glycogen be eating carbs right after intense exercise at night, combining that with intermittent fasting and only consuming carbs during the IF feeding window. That's the shortest explanation I can come up with, but feel free to follow the link and get more details. For the last 11 weeks I have been following a program that has me feeling pretty good after having dropped from 220 to 212 pounds on the scale and dropping 4.2% in bodyfat percentage. The downside is that the first 6 pounds on the scale happened in the first 6 weeks, so it's kind of plateaued since then. I've got 1 more week of that program which corresponds to zero week and then it's time to either start it over again or try something new. With the success I've had, I kinda want to keep going with it but I feel like I could've done better with a better diet. I did break a few bad habits and perhaps I should be content to move along at that pace. So, I've decided to split the difference and do something different...for 1 month and then go back to the original plan. Consider it a 1 month de-load phase, but not quite. I'm still going to be running sprints and doing interval weight training circuits. However, I'm going to attempt to switch up my schedule so I'm doing those at night, sleeping more in the morning and drastically changing when I eat. Hopefully that kick starts some more serious fat burning. So here goes... Week zero goals: Finish what I started: Yesterday was upper body training, today was sprints, tomorrow is a leg day and Thursday is upper body again. Friday is sprints, Saturday is legs and Sunday is rest. At that time, I will take all new measurements to see what the final tally is. Week 1 - 4 Goals for days 1 - 6 in the week: Goal #1: Intermittent fasting to eat only between noon and 8 PM. This is setup well by my previous challenges of eliminating the morning drive thru and the night time snacking. So, it's really a continuation of the path I've been on. Goal #2: No carbs at all after training sessions. Protein is okay, but no carbs or the glycogen depletion experiment is out the window. Goal #3: Moving training to the evening hours will be a switch for me, and probably the hardest part of this challenge as well as the most important. If this doesn't happen everything else falls apart. Without the training there is no glycogen depletion. I've always worked out in the morning as I can get it in before the day gets in the way and I end up not doing something at night. But, honestly, once the kids are done with homework and in bed, I'm either watching TV or playing video games. There's no good reason why I couldn't workout at night and just get more sleep in the morning. Even if it's just 5 sets of 20 burpees (just, ha!), that's not that time consuming, extremely tiring and can be done in any weather. Day 7 is a rest day to do whatever I feel like. Week 1 - 4 Goals for everyday in the week: Goal #4: Sleep. Gots to get me some ZZZ's or once again this will fall apart. So, at least 7 hours of sleep a night. The ol' FitBit has me averaging only 6 1/2 over the last 3 months so I definitely have a lot of work to do. This is something I need to do regardless of training or nutrition. It could be a big reason why I've plateaued in the first place. This is a rather unusual challenge for me. I don't generally create goals that are dependent on other goals as it seems like a setup for failure. But, I've promised myself that this is just for this month. Then it's back to dancing with the date that brought me this far in 2016 for the May challenge.

I guess I'm used to having a week between challenges and am behind on setting this challenge up. So, let's get to it. A cold derailed my last week of the last challenge, but I have found the path I plan on following back to fitness. Doing what I felt like doing helped me (re)discover what type of training fits me. That includes circuits with lots of volume for my lifts and sprint intervals. I like running, but for me its more of an enjoyment of being outside and communing with nature. Using it as a form of exercise doesn't work. I'll still go for some runs, but they are not going to count towards any kind of training. GOAL #1 - Diet Zero late night snacking. Last challenge I limited myself to 2 nights a week with eating after 9 PM. This challenge there will be no exceptions. GOAL #2 - Diet No soda at all. Lent starts during this challenge so I might as well start a little early with what I was planning on removing for Lent. Last challenge I allowed myself to have diet soda, but this time no soda at all. GOAL#3 - Training Following Back to Fit program that involves 4 days of weightlifting circuits, 2 days of sprint intervals and 1 rest day. I will maintain compliance with the program for the course of this challenge (and hopefully more challenges to come) GOAL #4 - Level up 1 post a week in the blog. I respawned my blog last challenge. Now I need to get consistent with it. So, 1 new post each week.

I used the same name as my last challenge, because this time it’s a pun. I’m hilarious. Hi, I’m NeverThatBored and this is my fourth challenge. I’m trying to get fit for a lot of reasons - to make shopping for clothes and looking nice easier, to be able to keep up with people when they do something athletic, so that I don’t feel limited by my body, to get rid of annoying aches and pains, to hopefully lower my genetically high cholesterol, etc. After a blip in my second challenge, my third challenge went very well! I was able to meet my goals, but I didn’t see the same (any) weight loss that I saw with almost the same goals for my first challenge. I think that even though I was still staying away from grains/sugar, I started consuming more carbs because I started thinking of more things I could eat. Or the 5 days throughout the challenge where I was traveling really threw me off… Anywho, it’s a new dawn and it’s time to move forward. Even though I do a bunch of different things, I limit my challenge goals to my basic building blocks of fitness. Everything else is extra, but I won’t beat myself up if it doesn’t happen. I’m making the building blocks a little more advanced each time. Main Quest: Lose the rest of the 30 pounds to get back to my happy weight (15 lbs to go) Goal 1: Strength+ I’ve been doing a modified BBWW and I think I’m just going to keep modifying it for now until I figure out a better way to strength train. I also participate in a bootcamp class that uses a lot of bodyweight movements, so I count that towards strength as well. For this challenge, I need to do at least 3 of either modified BBWWs or bootcamp workouts per week, even while traveling. For the BBWW, I’m doing: 20 squats 15 push ups 20 lunges 15 dumbbell rows 15 dips 2 30 second one-legged planks and 1 30 second regular plank 30 jumping jacks Possible modifications I can make include: Increasing reps Adding mountain climbers Replacing some jumping jacks with burpees Decline push ups Adding weight for squats, lunges, or rows Buy a pullup bar and make use of it Add more core - flutter kicks, roman twists, side planks, bicycles, or vertical leg crunches Goal 2: Walking+ Last challenge I walked 104/100 miles. I’d say I could just walk more miles, but there’s only so much time in a day. During Week 4, I started rucking on some of my walks - that just means carrying a heavy backpack while walking. This challenge, I’m going to walk 102 miles for the easy divisibility, and go rucking for at least 51 of those miles. That means 8.5 miles per week of rucking and 17 miles per week of walking. Goal 3: Primalish Eating+ Last challenge I aimed to be grain/refined sugar free 100% of the time on normal days and 50% of the time while travelling or having my boyfriend staying with me. This is the critical area for weight loss, so this time I’m upping my game and trying to figure out how to make this more successful. I am going to: Avoid grains Avoid refined sugar Reduce dairy (a little cheese on my eggs and yogurt 1-2 times a week is fine, for example, but I’ll avoid snacking on cheese or making cheese-heavy dishes) Avoid sweet potato chips and vegetable chips Avoid eating after 8pm (exceptions for getting home late and not having a chance to eat sooner on evening class days) I have a TON of traveling planned during this challenge, so it will be hard. I'm going to stick to this plan 100% of the time that I'm not traveling, and then follow a custom plan for each little trip to try to minimize the food damage. I'm going to do some over-planning in a second post below this one, if you're curious about the details. Life Quest: Reading+ Last challenge I read for pleasure almost every day, except for unusually busy or traveling days. This time I’m going to incorporate reading for self-development too. I’m still thinking about how this will work, but for now I’m going to say I should still read every day, but this time try to complete 1 book about something career-related over the course of the challenge. Possible Weekly Schedule Sunday: BBWW Monday: Aikido Tuesday: Bootcamp Wednesday: Rest/yoga Thursday: Aikido Friday: Bootcamp/BBWW Saturday: Rest/yoga EDIT: Mini #1 answers I am in fact fantastic at creating random parody songs. I'm also fantastic at bop-it. For some reason they stopped producing them and for a while were only selling them for like $70 on amazon. I recently saw a price drop and got one, and now I've been playing it a lot. I'm terrible with directions - so terrible that once when I was in college (a senior, no less) someone asked me for directions to the gym, and I could not tell them how to get there, even though I'd been there a million times before.

I crashed and burned in the January challenge and I've been licking my wounds ever since. I know what my problem is. I have this all or nothing attitude. When I try to change habits I go all in... FIX ALL THE THINGS AT ONCE! Time for a new approach. For the rest of the year, I am going to focus on one primary quest at a time in one of three focus areas: Eat. Move. Sleep. In addition to the primary quest, I've added some ongoing quests to support good habits that were established in previous primary quests. My only goal for the remainder of the year is to end 2015 in better health. 2015 Ongoing Quests: Move: From June - December I will hit the gym at least 9 times per month with the goal of reaching 100 workouts by the end of the year. Training at my gym is 50 minute circuit style strength + endurance workouts. June: 5/9 Grand Total: 43 Eat: I joined a $$ challenge to lose 20% in 2015. Whether or not I hit that target, my goal is to start each month a little better off % wise than the month before. May: 6.57% Current Main Quest (June 15 - June 30): Eat (Paleo 80/20): Ok, so there are 16 days left in June and I will be taking a main quest break from July 1 - July 6 because of a trip. My goal is pretty simple: to eat Paleo 80% of the days left between now and my trip, which means eating Paleo 13/16 days. However, there is more to it than this. I want my non-Paleo days to remain mindful... meaning if I choose to have a non-Paleo meal for whatever reason that doesn't necessarily give me license to stuff my face just because it's a non-Paleo day. This will be essential to my main quest goal of weighing less at the start of June than I weighed at the start of May. Grading: Pass/Fail (13/16 days full Paleo) Past Quests: Move Baby Steps: A+ Workout at least 6x between May 12 & June 11. Sleep Baby Steps: F Go to bed with no screens on weeknights by 11pm between May 12 & June 11. Only managed 1 time. Whole 30: F Complete a Whole30 between May 12 & June 11. Made it 24/30 days.

My wife has been getting into running pretty seriously for the last year or so, so I joined her gym and started running. Not bad, but it doesn't really trip my trigger. After reading more on NF and Mark's Daily Apple, I get the impression that the primary benefit of running is a good cardio workout, and if that can be obtained through another exercise, running/walking isn't really necessary. I've just started with Steve's Dynamic Warmup and Beginner Bodyweight Workout (switching from the lifting routine I was provided by a trainer at the gym, not that it was bad, but the bodyweight stuff seems to push me better and be a little more complete), and these really get my heart going. If I do the warmup, then three circuits of the workout, I am more out of breath and "worked out" than the equivalent time running (this routine takes about 40-50 minutes). So, with all that, if I get my cardio from other sources of activity (such as a well-paced lifting circuit), is running providing me with a health benefit that another activity isn't? Or to put it another way, does running do anything more than provide a cardio workout and burn calories? I'm not opposed to running, and still will on occasion, but it'd be nice to focus my efforts on things that I am more interested in, while making sure that I am still fulfilling a well-rounded health routine (diet and exercise).

I almost didn't post a challenge thread this go 'round. Some other folks have created battle logs instead of the challenges while others have gone to lurking as that's what they have time for. Honestly the battle log probably makes the most sense for me. But, I opted for a challenge thread simply because it has a definite end point to use as a convenient comparison/evaluation marker. See, last challenge went well but I ran into a few overuse injuries (forearm, knee, ankle) and the week between has been a good healing time. I used that time to come up with a plan and move forward. I've tried to turn the plan into quests for the challenge, but the ultimate goal is to finish this 6 weeks stronger and pain free. Quest #1: Get things moving again Then plan here is 3 training sessions a week for the first 2 weeks. Those training sessions are 3 circuits and or supersets (depending on the day) of either BW or DB exercises followed by a finisher circuit. The goal is to get stuff moving again and used to moving weight while shortening the rest interval and becoming metabolic conditioning on top of resistance training. Meanwhile, running will drop to one session per week. It will either be sprints or a slow 5k. The sprints will be better for fat loss, the 5k will be better to measure where my knee and ankle are at. Quest #2: Torch some fat...pain free The last 4 weeks will be MRT circuits 3x/week. Should give me plenty of cardio and some strength building as well. This won't happen unless those first two weeks finish up pain free. If they do, then I'm going to open things up to include barbell and kettlebell exercises. The plan for the running will remain the same. Quest #3: The continuing story of me vs. carbs I made good progress during the last challenge in reducing my carb intake slowly. So, this one is to simply continue that progress. Simple, no? That's it. Like I said, a battle log probably makes the most sense except that I want to re-evaluate where I'm at in 6 weeks, so the challenge forces that discussion.

So, I usually post @ the bodyweight section of this forum. Mostly, because I'm focusing much more on my bodyweight techniques than on cross training (used to do that, but want to get my strength up in a hurry). But I thought it be nice to share this small circuit challenge with you guys. BTW, the link is to my blog so, yes, this has some blalant self promotion in it. The circuit consists on burpees, pull-ups, hanging leg raises and animal movements done in ladder format. People with a crossfit background will be kind of used to something like this. So, for the details: the link: An Evil Easter Challeng @ Motus Virtute Enjoy!

Hello fellow adventurers! This is my second challenge and I am raring to go after Christmas and New year. Main quest: Reduce body fat percentage to 15 or lower. As 15% is generally considered the optimal training body fat for men; this is my target. I will post my starting statistics tomorrow morning once the challenge has officially started. I will also post my statistics at the end of every week. Goals: Workout a minimum of 5 days every week. (3 STA, 1 STR and 1 DEX) I will be doing the beginner bodyweight workout and interval running on alternating days as well as the occasional Dodgeball session. Grading: A- 5+. B- 4+. C- 3+. 2+ . F- Less than 2 days. Eat Paleo. (3 CON and 2 WIS) Good goal if I want to lose fat. Also, nutrition was my weakest point on the last challenge so I'll be gunning for an A grade this time. Grading: A- 80%. B- 70%. C- 60%. D- 50%. F- Lower than 50% Join a health/fitness related club that I have no previous experience in. (2 CHA) I want to try something new and be adventurous! As this goal will involve more exercise, it will aid me in my main quest. Grading: A- Joined a club. B- Tried a new club but no commitment made. C- Found out about a good club in my area. D- Did a little research on clubs in my area. F- Did nothing. Life quest: Dedicate a minimum of 15 hours a week to finding work. (2 WIS and 1 CHA) The contract at my last job ended two weeks ago. I'm unemployed and I don't like it. I have gotten lazy in the past while looking for work and I was very lucky to get my last job. I will earn it this time. Grading: A- 15+. B- 12.5+. C- 10+. D- 7.5+. F- Less than 7.5. I look forward to taking this quest on with my new (first ever) guild-mates. Adventure!

I remember that in one of my workout classes at the gym that I go to, the instructor told me that pretty much every exercise they do includes these basics: a push, a pull, a lunge, a press, a squat, and a swing. For instance, a workout could consist of pushups (push), TRX rope rows (pull), walking lunges (lunge), overhead press with a kettlebell (press), jump squats (squat), and kettlebell swings (swing). I'm just delving into developing my own circuit training routines, since I like the results I got when I was in this circuit training class at the gym. Does this sound about right to you guys? Also, I haven't ever done much more than circuit training. Do you guys think that implementing cardio such as running or swimming into my workout would aid in making a total body fitness regimen? And what are your thoughts on circuit training versus pure strength training?