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My oh my. Feels like a whirlwind this time. Like, we just finished the last one and the next one is already here. Weird. I know we usually can't wait for them to come, so I'm glad, but at the same time, just, wow. Oh well. Let's get it on. Goal 1: Mobility Work on Off Days Pretty much what it sounds like. I've found all of the things that I need to do for my body so far. I've found yoga for my shoulders and knees, and the HFS for my hips and lower back, and SMR for the other pains in my body that I have to deal with. It's all good. But it's not enough to know that these things work. They also have to be applied. The general rule I've heard before goes that you need to spend at least as much time on your mobility work as you do on your strength work. So, if I'm doing strength/power stuff three days per week, then I need to be doing mobility stuff three days per week as well. Graded out of 18. +2 STA, +2 CON. Goal 2: Integrated Martial Arts Training Just like before. This started strong and finished weak, but I really think that I was onto something there, given myself. Unfortunately, there's no hack to get around getting things done. I can't make the training happen if I don't show up to do it. So. Here we go again. Combination work, uchikomi work, and newaza work at the end of the training session. No matter what. Graded out of 42. +2 DEX, +2 STA, +1 STR And now to be a loose cannon... Life Goal 1: Walker University What? Have I somehow tricked a university into giving me more moniez so that I can earn more useless papers? Pshaw. Naw, y'all. One of the ways that personal trainers are encouraged to get ahead is to go for a walk and plug in an audio book of some kind. I spend so much time reading fiction on my own as it is that I don't need to plug in fiction books. So, it's time to start listening more to podcasts and the like relating to fitness business and writing stuff. Any time it's nice enough near me to go for a walk, I'mma do it. Graded out of a possible 30, with adjustments as needed depending on the weather. +3 WIS Life Goal 2: Write Our Story Well. Y'all asked for it. My mom's asking for it. My friends are asking for it. So, now I've got no choice. I have to buckle down and get to work. Every day, I need to be either writing some on the story, or working on characters, or plotting scenes, or something. Each day has to have a concrete step taken toward the completion of this bloody novel. RisenPhoenix already has an expy in it, though it's not really him so much as a character who shares a couple traits with him. I feel like I'mma have to make this disclaimer repeatedly: these characters are not y'all. So please, please, no freaking out if you end up reading this and you spot someone whom you can clearly tell was based on you and they do some decidedly not-you things. Graded out of 42. +3 CHA Also, unofficial savings goal: gotta start working on saving up for the Spartan. First step: registration fees.

A Koan that's been on my mind lately. You probably know it: * A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! * I first learned this one when I was in high school, but I didn't really know what it meant until I was in college, working door to door selling books. I was never very good at it, and the temptation to despair was always very close. I ended up repeating this story to myself a lot, and I found it really helped me. The circumstances, as usual, have changed. I have a job now. The writing gig finally came though, and it came through in a big way. Which is great. But there are problems. I am... aware of how tenuous things are now for the company that I work with. I feel like this job could leave any day, and the money with it. Meanwhile, I have rent and car payments and property taxes and insurance jumping through the roof, and I'll be selling plasma before the week's out to make ends meet. And also, I'm writing a novel. You'd think I was completely overwhelmed, and to be honest, it kinda does feel that way. But honestly? On a day to day basis? I actually feel happy. I joke with people and say that I've lost my emotional capacity for things going right, but the fact is, moment by moment, I'm excited. I feel like I've got more and better in me than I have in a long time, and I feel like I'm stepping into the ring. There's so freaking much I want to do in this challenge, that it's hard to figure out what four I want to do. But in the end, I remember that it's about starting small and going larger. Goal 1: BREAK MY CHAINS - THREE BODYWEIGHT WORKOUTS PER WEEK BASED ON CONVICT CONDITIONING'S "GOOD BEHAVIOR" SCHEDULE I have scoffed at Convict Conditioning before. I don't really dig the glorification of prison life. I think Wade's advice is suspect in a lot of different ways, particularly in how he does progressions and what he considers to be reasonable. And don't get me started on his diet advice. But at the same time, I'm imprisoned by my circumstances. I feel the weight of my disadvantages, and he is one of the few trainers to acknowledge such things. There is a certain purity in that, I think. What I am going to do is attempt to engage some of what he talks about utilizing some of what I've learned. I'll be keeping what he says about time under tension - the 2-1-2 cadence - and I'll be keeping the schedule in broad terms. Monday is for pushing and core work; Thursday is for pulling and leg work; Saturday is all about inversions. These will be customized, however: I'm going to be exploring as many different two-arm variants as I can before progressing to one-arm. And I'll be working many different angles with these moves. I'm setting the progression standards at ten reps per set, with a variable amount of sets: as many as I can do in twenty minutes. Afterward, ten minutes will be dedicated to a finisher of some kind. We'll call this +1 STA, +2 STR. GOAL 2: RE-INTEGRATE SHADOW COMBOS AND UCHIKOMI If the MMA work last challenge taught me anything, it's that you don't need a lot of time to get a quality workout with martial arts moves. The thing is, I'm responsible for knowing moves in a couple arts already. If I'm going to go back to the dojo, I need to practice those moves. Six days per week, I'm going to practice ten striking combos and ten uchikomi. The striking combos must all end in gyaku zuki, and the throw will be uchi mata. Each week progressing, I will add ten combinations and uchikomi to the mix. +5 DEX GOAL 3: THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP IS NO PAIN So, something I've grappled with for years is waking up in the morning and dealing with pain in my lower back. Learning SMR helped a great deal with that, and learning how to traction joints helped a great deal as well. Coming back to a standing desk has helped a ton as well. I want to go one step further and start every morning off with a couple minutes of flow work. It loosens up the joints, gets blood flowing, and even has some metabolic benefits attached to it as well. +4 CON LIFE GOAL: MEDITATE This was a mini-challenge we posted last challenge, and I don't know how it went for everyone else, but I got a lot of benefit out of it. I was passed an audio from OmHarmonics and it made a huge difference to my practice. I was on my way to developing it as a habit when the tumult of getting a job swept in and nearly killed it. I want to get that back. +3 WIS And there we have it. A longer, rambling intro, but I haven't done one of those in a while. Last challenge of the year, folks. If ever there was gonna be a time to finish strong, this would be it. Let's go to work.