Search the Community

In my challenges so far the focus has been on trying to master a narrow choice of skills - handstands, backflips and Spanish. I've had some good progress, but there seem to be a few dangers with focusing too narrowly: even the most well-intentioned training can fail to produce success on a specific skillthere's a risk of overtraining (haha maybe not with Spanish, but seriously I can feel I've stressed out my sternum with excessive handstands this year)adding more variety to a narrow choice of hobbies makes it all extra funTherefore, the theme for this challenge will be variety! My motivation will remain to become proficient at gymnastics/tricking and related interesting Assassin skills. You know how in some video games they have those bonus levels, where you just run around like some beserk Supermarket Sweep contestent collecting extra point or lives within a short time limit? Well this challenge for me is going to be like that. I have 43 days and a checklist of items to collect. I'll never get them all, but the challenge is to get lots of them I'm going to have to take it easy with the handstand-type skills, so the minor injury in my sternum disappears rather than becomes a major problem. for that reason, I'm taking a three-week break from anything of the sort. Challenge #1: Make as much progress as possible with a variety of acrobatic skills! Rules: each item selected is worth 0.25 stat pointsthere are 4.00xSTR, 6.00xDEX and 3.00xCHA availablemaximum possible loot: +3 STR, +4 DEX and +2 CHA (and I'll be astonished if I get anywhere near this!)I'll mark each one with an 'X' if/when I achieve the goal __slackline: a friend bought one and so I have an opportunity to learn this! So far I can only balance for a few seconds and taking a step makes me fall off DEX (X) : walk a full 10 metres without falling off CHA (X) : + bonus points for doing this DEX (X) : consistently change direction without falling off __frontflips: currently doing them from a springboard to a crashmat but they look more like a forward roll that somehow avoids the ground, so I need to work on actually jumping before the flip DEX (X) : get some height so these are landed consistently on crashmats DEX (X) : no longer need springboard for this move DEX ( ) ; can consistently land onto the thinner mats CHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above DEX ( ) : can safely land on thinner mats without needing prep beforehand (only counts if it's safe) CHA ( ) : can safely land on grass CHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above __hopak: there's this crazy move some Ukrainian dancers do that requires some insane leg strength and I want to learn it: STR ( ) : learn to do this half-decently STR ( ) : able to keep this going for 20 seconds __cartwheel: embarassingly, I never learned to do these, and when I try them my feet only go to shoulder height. Time to learn them! DEX ( ) : some definite progress DEX ( ) : can sometimes do proper straight cartwheels CHA ( ) : can consistently do proper straight cartwheels DEX ( ) : can do these properly on both my left- and right-hand side __round-offs: cartwheels with extra movement! DEX ( ) : decent examples on the tumble track STR ( ) : can do these well on hard surfaces DEX ( ) : can do these properly on both my left- and right-hand side __backflips: I've been practising these for ages and still need a spotter to make it around safelyDEX (X) : any definite progressDEX (X) : no longer need spotters on the tumble track!CHA (_) : + bonus points for the item aboveDEX ( ) : safely unassisted on a hard surface (only counts if it's safe!)DEX ( ) : + bonus points for the item aboveCHA ( ) : safely unassisted on a hard surface without needing any prep beforehandCHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above __handstands: had myself balancing for 4-5 seconds before taking a break to avoid over-trainingSTR (X) : 5-second holds again after taking a breakDEX (X) : 6-second holdsCHA ( ) : 7-second holdsDEX ( ) : 8-second holdsSTR ( ) :10-second holdsCHA ( ) : + bonus points for achieving 10-second handstandDEX ( ) : comfortably handstand into a forward roll (I only pirouette or bridge flop out of handstands so far...) __front handsprings: I can do poor handsprings on the tumble track. I should learn to do good onesDEX ( ) : considerably improve at doing theseSTR ( ) : have good form and powerful front handsprings on the tumble trackDEX ( ) : become able to do these without the tumble track for supportCHA ( ) : become sufficiently consistent at these that they can be done on grass __backwards walkover: going from a bridge to a handstand and going over the other side... I've never tried this!DEX ( ) : some useful practice of kicking up in a bridgeDEX ( ) : some useful practice of backwards walkovers from a raised position (to make it easier)CHA ( ) : able to do this moveSTR ( ) : + bonus points for doing a backwards walkover __muscle-up: I can do 5-10 pull-ups with good form. Next step is to learn a muscle up:STR (X) : some decent practice of the different componentsDEX ( ) : learn to do a "kipping" muscle-upSTR ( ) : able to muscle-up with less leg swingingSTR ( ) : able to muscle-up with good form __L-sit: tried this for the first time last week and it's haaard to even do a cheat version... This will be awesome for training my core:STR (X) : 10-second tuck holdDEX ( ) : split-second L-sitSTR ( ) : 5-second L-sit __plyometric pike jumps: jump up and touch your toes with straight legs on every consecutive jump. Excellent leg, core, and active flexibility exercise.STR ( ) : able to do 20 consecutively __powerlifting: in my first challenge I wanted to get to a combined strict press + bench press weight of 100kg, but abandoned this because of an injury. I'm now at 41kg (90lb) strict press and 56kg (123lb) bench press and have a small plateau to fight through in order to accomplish this:STR ( ) : improve at all (98kg total)STR ( ) : succeed (100kg total)STR ( ) : + bonus points for achieving 100kg Challenge #2: consistently do conditioning exercises 5 times per week. I must do 3 conditioning exercises each day for this to count. Suitable examples include:gymnastics, weightlifting, capoeira class etc,pull-ups or variations in the parkcore exercises such as V-sit sit-upsplyometricsanything else suitable (grip trainer doesn't count as I found it to be ineffective)+3 STA: A: 30 times in 6 weeks B: 28 times in 6 weeks C: 24 times in 6 weeks D: 18 times in 6 weeks __Progress: week 1: ___+_++ (3) week 2: +_+++++ (6) week 3: +_+++++ (6) week 4: +_+++_+ (5) week 5: __+_++_ (3) week 6: +_+++_+ (5) (B) Challenge #3: explore food! I eat pretty healthily, and also in huge amounts. Especially vegetables and porridge. However, I don't know how much I actually eat in terms of macronutrients, so I'm going to find out, by tracking everything I eat for a week and calculating the following macronutrients: carbs (all)carbs (sugar)fatsproteintotal caloriesI'm also going to experiment with Intermittent Fasting to see how that works. There are several ways of doing it, so I'm going to briefly try two contrasting ones, and report back with my experiences. +1 CON, +1 WIS: track macros A: accurate track for a week C: something less that is still useful to me tracked macros on 01 May - 07 Mayanalysed it for conclusions and posted results to this thread (A) +1 CON: try IF A: try two ways C: try one way tried "skipping dinner" fast on 30 Apr - 01 May (19 hours, successful)tried "skipping brunch" fast on 9 May - 10 May (14 hours, didn't work so well)tried "skipping brunch" fast on 16 May - 18 May (16 hours, felt lame afterwards) (C+)