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Goal 1. Chains are the best accessories Do your accessory work! Do not skip the accessory work! Should be at least 11 lifting workouts to accessorize with. Goal 2. Defy the laws of man and nature Continue participating in the yoga PVP with 2 sessions per week Goal 3. Krampus Rumpus Dance 30 minutes per week Goal 4. Eat Children Don't actually do this I am realizing that this would be a perfect challenge for ruck training -- carrying around all the bad children! But that time passed us.

Second verse same as the first! Well, almost the same at least. My GORUCK event is on November 11. I would like to not feel like dying during most of the event, so that is what my training plan is geared toward in the next few weeks. Goal 1. Condition 8 conditioning sessions prior to the GORUCK Goal 2. Ruck 4 stadium runs, hikes, or weighted walks that are at least 3 miles prior to the GORUCK Goal 3. Diaphragmatic Breathing 20 diaphragmatic breathing sessions, try to create a habit around bedtime. Goal 4. Clean 20 sessions of 20 minutes of cleaning or tidying related activities While Goals 1 and 2 will be finished by the time the challenge is half over, that is ok! I am looking forward to the event being over before it has even begun... hahah! Once this training chunk is over, I think I want to focus on lifting and yoga balances/movement control. So by the end of the challenge, I hope to be on track with a new lifting program. For the cleaning, I may try to follow some kind of online step-by-step thing like Flylady or take parts of different things to try to get on track. If I work to spend more time making my home into a place I actually want to be, maybe I can actually feel a bit more relaxed when I am home instead of feeling kind of stressed by all the mess. PLAN October 24-October 30: 2-3 conditioning sessions, 2 ruck, 1 gymnastics practice October 31-November 6: 2-3 conditioning sessions, 2 ruck, 1 gymnastics practice November 7-November 13: 2 lighter cardio/conditioning sessions, 1 light ruck or long walk, no gymnastics November 14-November 20: consider starting a lifting program! lift 2x and yoga 2x, gymnastics 1x November 21-November 27: lift 3x, gymnastics 2x, yoga if there is time

(WHOOPS, posted this in the main Challenge forum instead of the Assassin one. Here it is in the correct place!) Oh hi forum! In the time since I saw you last I moved, started 2 new jobs (one of which is coaching gymnastics!), started using myfitnesspal, joined a climbing gym, and switched from kinda Stronglifts to doing 5/3/1. November is also a ridiculously busy month for me... also, I'm gonna try to do nanowrimo. Seems like a great time to do a Challenge! 1. Food Goal is 6/7 days "winning," aka coming in at or under calories and hitting protein. 2. Gymnastics My new motto is EVERY EVENT, EVERY PRACTICE! I have a tendency to hang around working on the same stuff long after it's ceased to be productive, both preventing my progress on the skill I'm working on and stealing time from other events, which is significant since most of my practices are only either 1 1/2 or 2 hours, once or twice a week. Beam and vault are vastly underrepresented in my training at the moment. So, every practice I have to spend at least 15 min on every event. Beyond that the time can be distributed however I want. 3. Sleep My sleep patterns have actually been getting better! I think this is largely due to now living with my partner, who while is definitely not going to tell me go to bed (and usually goes to sleep later than I do), is another human in the house who notices if I am awake or asleep so provides some accountability in my mind not to do the "oh whoops, I was just going to check my email before bed and now it's 3 AM and I've been on reddit for five hours" thing. My goal is to get 8 hours of sleep 6/7 days/week! I will need it 4. Writing Okay, maybe this one is cheating because it's for another challenge-type thing-- but yeah, NaNoWriMo, write 1667 words a day! I would also like to go to at least one meetup a week, although that might get tricky with travelling. ALSO I am gonna try to not drop off the face of the earth here and keep reading and commenting on all of your awesome challenges! Off to subscribe to some rad Assassin challenge threads

...who wanted to rank among the best. These are my some of favorite characters. I have read their story, played their game, watched their show. They are who I strive to be and turn to for motivation. And thus, begins my story. :o) Main Story Quests: Achieve the Splits, Go Down to 18% Body Fat, Eat Healthier This Year: Horizon 2017 Dawn ~ Trophy Guide and Roadmap 2016 Challenges: Team RWBY Training, Overwatch Team Training 2017 Challenges: X-men

I'm Raptron. I do stuff. I have pretty good workout habits, but there are always new things to fix or tweak, so I keep my head in the challenge game. My general objectives will still be trying to get under the iron 3x per week while also doing gymnastics 1-2x per week, but those are not fun or interesting goals, those are just life stuff. In addition to that, I've created some things I'd like to make sure to work on during the next four weeks. Tracked {Challenge Objectives} Boulder 5x over the challenge Walking with disadvantage (ruck) 3+ miles 4x over the challenge PT or glute work 12x over the challenge Write out tentative meal plans per half-week, so 8x over the challenge These are the goals I'll actually grade the challenge on. I've been working out in the bouldering gym to lift but have only used my new climbing shoes just the once (terrible!), so I will make explicit the need to actually get on the walls. I'm also signed up for a GORUCK in November, which I guess I should actually do at least a few things to prep for... It's far enough away that I'm not going to focus too much on it, but just get used to time under weight again. My back and hips continue to be an area of concern, not because they are acting up, but because they could so I want to nip those issues in the bud and keep them from recurring. My final goal is because summer is hectic and crazy and fun -- while I love that about my life and my schedule, I've let it get in the way of planning out dinners and lunches, which has led to wayyyyy more spending on food and less nutritious meal choices. I can fix it! Bonus {Life Objectives} Make dentist appointment Make gyn appointment Make dermatologist appointment Re-dye hair Get my bangs trimmed Just stuff I've been neglecting. The start and end of this challenge will be tricky for me -- I'm flying back from TN from our gymnastics retreat late night this Sunday and then Sept. 7 - 11, I'll be in North Carolina for my friend's wedding festivities. The weeks in between are mostly free of other travel obligations, so I should be able to buckle down and nail my goals.

Hi! I'm Raptron. I practice gymnastics, lift things, hike, climb, and generally love all things active. The summer is here in force and hot hot hot. My main goals this summer are to keep working on some of my weaknesses in gymnastics as well as lifting. My big goal is to rebuild up to near my lifting sets were at (sq: 225, bench: 135, deadlift: 235 [why so weak deadlift?!]) before a series of injuries and and other activities set me back. Now that those injuries are mostly recovered or in remission with lots of PT, I can really get going again. The 2016 women's team for Rio has been selected and this challenge overlaps with the start of the Olympics so I think you know where this is going. If you aren't excited about Rio, the door is that way --> Goal 1: Get air like Simone *Plyometrics or the stadium 4x over challenge with a focus on watching for valgus collapse in my knees Goal 2: Booty like Aly *Glute accessories with every lifting workout, especially to strength that glute medius Goal 3: Stretch like Laurie *Hyperstretching for splits and straddles 4x over challenge Goal 4: Bars like Madison *Work on uneven bars 6x over challenge -- can sub in rock climbing or pull-ups/chin-ups if something prevents gymnastics practice Goal 5: Get back up again like Gabby *Eat mostly home prepared meals -- aim for a limit of 5-6x eating out this challenge GIFspiration spam

Is anyone else working on GMB's ring 1 program? I just started and was hoping to found someone else working on it too so we can encourage one another.

Hi all! I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself! I'm 33 and Australian (Queenslander!). I actually grew up in gymnastics, from age 4 to age 22 when I dislocated my knee and partially tore 14 ligaments in and around my knee, which put a rather abrupt end to my competitive/training career. It's all fine now, but I never got back into the gym as an athlete. I did however spend around 16 years coaching, and coached kids from 2 years to 35 year old adults through to international competitions and World Championships. Unfortunately, I had a pretty severe bout of chronic fatigue syndrome, which left me bedridden for close to a year, and ended my coaching career (I battled and tried to stay in the game for a few years, before realising I wouldn't be able to do enough coaching to maintain a lifestyle). And so I started on a new path. I followed my long time interest in psychology, and am now finishing my honours dissertation year, before moving into PhD next year. I absolutely love it, and despite the pain of starting over and the annoyance of being a student again, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to pursue this. I'm also working as a Research Assistant and a Disability Support worker. Thankfully I am quite well recovered now from CFS (I would say probably 80-85% of my 'old self' most of the time), but I'm substantially heavier and a whole lot less fit. I still have to be careful, and I do have relapses occasionally, but for the most part I think I've learnt how to manage it and have been able to go back to a relatively normal life. For the last year I've been working on getting back into fitness. Naturally, I used to be VERY fit, but I've lost all of that. I need to lose a good dash of weight, and I want to stop being limited more than necessary because of fitness. I am doing A LOT now (uni, work, etc), but I feel I could do better and enjoy it more with better health. I'd also love to be more adventurous, be energetic enough to power through my work/study, and then do things like go for mountain climbs and bush walks on weekends, etc. I'd love to feel comfortable to get into swim gear again. I've chosen to try to be a Ranger, because I feel like this is what I really want from my life now. I don't want to be a gymnast again. But I want to live an energetic, vibrant and healthy life where I'm not limited by my health or fitness level and can jump at opportunities! I currently workout twice a week - once with a personal trainer (this is a temporary arrangement that I committed to in order to keep me accountable, but while I'm still a student, it's not financially viable for long term), and once by myself. Both sessions are currently weight-training. In a 'past life' I was heavily involved in body shaping (from around age 19-22), and I do enjoy doing weights. I'm currently also trying to incorporate a walk in as well - which I'd eventually like to turn into an interval run/run. I'd love to find support and encouragement here, to work towards my goals, and I'd especially love to hear from anyone who has CFS or another chronic illness! I'd also be happy to offer whatever advice I can in relation to gymnastics related elements or training. I know what I SHOULD do to reach my goals, but I lack the actual physical ability and energy to keep up with it since I had CFS. Especially when that energy is spread across so many life areas. It's not just a case of 'push through the hard and you'll get there', which is definitely the mode that I learnt as a gymnast and coach. Doing that can have disastrous results with CFS, and finding the balance is difficult sometimes. But balance is a crucial lesson I need to master, so that I can start winning on all levels of life! I hope this is the beginning of something awesome!!

After 18 consecutive challenges here, I've made lots of progress but the challenge format is no longer motivating me, so I've decided to make a shiny battle log to track the projects and habits that I'm working on As an introduction, I'm a 25-year-old software engineer from Cambridge, UK and I like to do: gymnastics & handstands trapeze, gymnastics rings & slacklining weightlifting & bodyweight bouldering football healthy eating & living spanish salsa dancing piano composition travelling competing for Britain at mental calculation The colours are used to distinguish topics so my posts are easy to read. So my format for this battle log is to have a few projects going on at any time, which I'll start/stop whenever needed, and set specific goals/challenges when I want. When I need accountability, or have something cool to share or something to ask, it will go here There's also potentially a new cool thing that I'll mention later on if I think about it more seriously... ~~~ Current projects (updated May 12th) ~~~ Climbing / bouldering: I'm going on a mountain-climbing trip in Italy in June, so I want to get my skill back to make the trip as enjoyable as possible. There's going to be via ferrata, a glacier, and probably rock climbing involved so I want to be prepared! Healthy eating: although I like eating healthy foods, in practice I have too much unnecessary foods - that make me over-full, have energy spikes or bad skin quality. When I ate super well in 2013 these things were never a problem. not impulse-eat desserts eat bigger portions of healthy food if needed find a greater variety of foods to eat at home (otherwise I default to 4 bowls of cereal, which cant be good). Training outside regularly: in 2014-2015 I was training regularly at the various things in green and red above - and the zenith of my training was probably last Summer when I made the compilation video (in my signature). Since then I moved place and we had a long cold season and I'm out of the habit. I want to be doing handstands/rings several times per week, and getting stronger again!

Hi, I'm Raptron. I'm around the challenge boards a lot. I do gymnastics, lift things, climb things, jump over things, and occasionally make myself run around for the greater good of jumping over/under obstacles. I am not doing the best job getting this ~28ish day challenge thing to work for me, so I am just going to take a step back here and do a classic, resetting "unchallenge" that we all seem to enjoy, especially around these Assassin parts. These are super loosy goosy... priorities I'm putting out there just as a reason to have something to talk about in my challenge and not shunt myself over to the dark land of logs. Track 1: Going Through the Motions -Do workouts I like doing and talk about them with you guys Track 2: Walk Through the Fire -Do one workout per week I don't enjoy doing Track 3: Where Do We Go From Here? -Find some other random things I want to accomplish or start working on during the challenge -Maybe do another 2-week "only eat homemade things" goal again because that was pretty fun the first time and I've gotten lazy Track 4: The Parking Ticket -Check off some bigger adulting tasks such as scheduling a dentist appointment, transferring files between doctor's offices, getting new glasses, etc.

MY 20TH NERDFITNESS CHALLENGE?!?! WHAAAT?! I guess it's time to bring it back to the basics! I'm Raptron and I usually work pretty hard to be Sonic the Hedgehog IRL: But competition season ended a few weeks ago and it's time to shift gears. I am doing a Bone Frog race on May 21, so I am working on some cardio work this challenge. I've also recently joined a bouldering gym with a great fitness room for lifting so I want to climb more. I've stopped cooking as much because I've been busy and just got lazy about it, so a lot of our meals have just been leftovers or strange mish-mashes of partially prepared food. I want to get back into the habit of cooking more often and also enjoying my food to the fullest when I do eat it. Goal 1. Something about Cardio Do at least 2 of these per week: sprint intervals, rowing, jump roping, jogging, running stairs, etc. Goal 2. Something about Conditioning Do a conditioning circuit 2x per week Goal 3. Something about Climbing Get on the wall every workout at the climbing gym Work on flex hang holds 2-3x per week Buy climbing shoes Goal 4. Something about Cooking Cook dinner 3x per week Eat a meal without any screens 3x per week If you feel like you've seen me use these goals before, you probably have. CHALLENGES ARE A FLAT CIRCLE.

Last Challenge, I didn't have many concrete goals because I was living a bit vagabond-ish. This Challenge is going to be about going back to the basics of my life: sleep, practicing, food, and foundational gymnastics skills! The format will be a @maegs-style checklist of things to do every day. And the theme is going to be Tenth Doctor gifs, because, idk, that's the kinda mood I'm in. Sleep I am totally in the swing of using my sleep cycle app! My sleep goal for this Challenge is to get 8 hours or more of "time in bed." (i.e. since the app can tell when you physically fell asleep, it tells you how long you spent between putting the app on and the alarm.) Ideally, this would always mean getting to bed early, but realistically it might sometimes mean sleeping late. Right now my average time in bed is 7:07. i hope to have it approaching the 8 hr mark by the end of the Challenge! Checklist item: Was I in bed for 8 hrs or more the previous night, yes or no. Practicing This is something I haven't talked about much on here, but I am a freelance classical musician and finding the time/motivation to not only retain your skills but hopefully actually improve while not having a fixed schedule and travelling a lot is hard. Most musician my age/position basically go back to school for multiple post-undergrad degrees (masters' of music! Artist Diploma! Performance diploma! Chamber music diploma! So many options!) just to have the institutional support of a school or conservatory while they practice and hope they win a job some time soon, and I chose not to do that because I just really don't like being in school all that much and, well, didn't want to. (Also I won a one-year full-time orchestral position for last year, so partly I didn't have to.) So I have more professional orchestral experience than a lot of my peers my age, but I don't have an official teacher or a nice practice room or the motivation of regular placement auditions in school ensembles to keep me going. Basically my career right now is an exercise in being hella self-motivated. Checklist item: 2 hrs of practice and 1/2 hr of reed work, every day. Food One of the houses I stayed at in Thunder Bay was a friend who has a bunch of roommates and they are all very into fermentation! They eat lots of rad food and I am inspired to try to make friends with some bacteria this Challenge. For now, the two foods I want to try are yogurt and sourdough. Yogurt because I eat a ton of it so why not make it healthier and super cheap. Sourdough-- I had actually never tried non-commercially-yeasted bread before two weeks ago? And it was ind of a revelation, in that I always thought I just didn't like bread, and that bread was a tasteless substance that went down like sandpaper and made me feel heavy and lethargic and I was just not into it. TURNS OUT bread is actually a magical food that has actual taste and texture and nutrition and is filling and awesome. I dunno how to turn this into a checklist... once I get the sourdough started, "feed sourdough" will probably be the item! Making yogurt will be more of a once-a-week thing, but I aim to always have homemade yogurt on hand. Handstands For someone who's been going to gymnastics multiple times a week, I sure can't hold a handstand for very long. It's actually pretty pathetic... I can't hold it at all, basically HANDSTANDS ARE KIND OF IMPORTANT IN GYMNASTICS. Checklist item: Every day, a 1 min wall handstand and 5 attempts at holding a freestanding handstand for as long as I can. And that's it! I'm going to keep lifting 3x/week and going to gymnastics when I can, of course, but those aren't really things I ned to Challenge myself to do any more Oh, and I am visiting a friend in Montreal this week, so I am probably going to keep week 0 as week 0 and post a bit but only technically start counting stuff at week 1.

Are you interested in getting some gymnastic skills? Does this look familiar? We call it a "melting cartwheel" (term originally coined by @Elastigirl and/or @elsfaire), and we're working on making them less melty... together. Join us for support and all sorts of fun play time!

Hey everyone, familiar and new I'm a 25-year-old guy living in Cambridge UK, and I like doing: gymnastics (floor and rings) bodyweight work football (soccer) weightlifting bouldering salsa dancing ...and because that isn't enough, I've signed up for a trapeze course, which starts next Tuesday I'm also training to represent the UK at mental calculation at two events in September and November this year. I did a lot of work on this in the Jan/Feb challenges and there will be a small amount during April in order to qualify. I also compose music - here's something I created during the previous two challenges - a piano arrangement of a metal song . Bad news is I need to care good care of myself in order to keep up with my job and these hobbies, so I'll have some goals to that effect. Also I've been lazy recently with workouts so I'm trying to fix that! Goal #1: move every day: my job requires me to spend lots of time sitting motionless on a chair, but I feel much better when I'm moving around. Therefore this challenge, every day I should warm up as if I were about to work out - so elevated heart rate and dynamic stretches, for example. For each of the 5 weeks this challenge, +0.25 STA if I do this on 5+ days and +0.25 CON extra if I do 7 days Goal #2: the list: once again, I have a glorified to-do list, with +0.25 stat points available for each. bar muscle-up: something I've been working towards for some time cartwheels: learn decent cartwheels on each side round-off: learn this gymnastics move front handspring: do this consistently on floor front flip: land this safely on floor front flip: bonus points for landing it on floor handstand walk: do a full 360-degree rotation in a handstand without immediately falling over handstand: 10 second static handstand change phone contract: I should be able to move to a cheaper one and I've procrastinated this for 3 months... cold showers: I've heard lots about the health benefits of these but it sounds ridiculous. Time to try it cold showers: extra motivation points for finding a system to stick to in the medium term. I'll need all the motivation points I can get because I love long hot showers... division calculation: I learned to divide 10-digit numbers by 5-digit numbers last challenge. Now I want to get super good at solving these. Want to get 10 correct in 9 minutes. division calculation: bonus points for getting 10/10 in 7 minutes calendar calculation: get back to 43 dates in a minute (previous PR was 44) calendar calculation: 45 dates in a minute square roots calculation: score of 330 again (previous PR was 330) square roots calculation: score of 360 mental calculation: get some scores verified in order to qualify mental calculation: get 40+ on calendar, 300+ on square roots and 10+ on division when getting verified Goal #3: auxiliary training: last challenge I made lots of progress with pull-ups, but not with other skills because I wasn't working on them. So I'm expanding this challenge so that each week I should be doing: 2 x handstand practice 2 x bar muscle-up training 2 x push-up training 2 x core training 1 x jumping training Each week I should do 6+ of these to get +0.25 and 8+ of these to get +0.50 stat points. Goal #4: rest properly: same as last challenge - sleep before 01:00 every day from Tuesday night until the last Saturday of the challenge (33 days). +0.25 CON for each week. 2 "cheat" days are allowed without penalty. Goal #5: eat clean: last time I ignored this completely. This challenge I'll just do a vague goal, graded subjectively. +1.00 CON available. Good luck everyone!

Nationals is April 13-15. BRING IT ON. So, yes, this challenge is awkwardly cut in half by the only competition that matters, but I think I have found some goals I can work on in both the playoffs and post-season. To get pumped, I am going to look to our bitter rivals: cheerleaders. And what do you know, there happens to be the perfect film about cheerleaders and THEIR OWN BITTER RIVALRIES. It's like it was meant to be. Goal 1. Talk the Talk, Now... Roll The Roll? Mobilize with a foam roller, lacrosse balls, wine bottle, baseball, etc. at least 4x per week I talk about mobility and the importance of doing this all of the time, but do I do it? Naaaaaaht really. Goal 2. Spirit Fingers Work on hand balancing, preferably handstands but other things are acceptable as well, for 60 minutes a week Good for the core, good for the joints, good for the mindspace. Pretty much EVERYONE should be working on handbalancing all the time. Goal 3. Rise Above Actually boulder 4x over the challenge You have the membership and while the gym is beautifullll, you could probably actually take a bold move and use the walls to get into that bouldering groove! You know it's fun after all! These may happen entirely after Nationals, and that is okay! Goal 4. Get Yo Learn On Duolingo German 20 lessons a week Everyone else is doing it and the app makes it easy to. Why not?

I'm going to continue to post my workouts in my BATTLE LOG but might x-post here. I might also post gymnastics fun here, because who doesn’t want to learn about cool shit that I’m doing in gymnastics. 1) HEAL / Do less I have an owie somewhere in the general region of my left hip flexor. It’s been bothering me, I have some stretches and things to do. My friend is massage therapist who is going to try to help me diagnose it. If not, I’m going to see a doctor. To prevent other injuries from happening and to help this one heal, I’m going to · Do my prescribed stretches/therapy 5x/week. · Foam roll 5x/week · Rest if I need to · Heat/ice if I need to This is conveniently timed (I guess?) with my program. As my workout starting tomorrow eliminates all assistance work and is solely big 3! (As I’m running up a peaking program, aka do less) 2) GET BIG This again a rollover goal from last challenge, modified slightly. I've started taking creatine, it’s pretty much habit now. But I’m having issues with it, mainly digestion and headaches. This leads me to believe I’m not drinking as much water as I should be. I’ve ordered a half gallon water bottle that should arrive at some point soon. The goal is to drink at MINIMUM the half gallon of straight up water a day, in addition to any teas, coffees, diet sodas, etc I have throughout the day. Take creatine daily. At least half a scoop, more if I can tolerate it. Drink half gallon of water daily to ensure maximum swoleness. 3) GET FAT My nutrition is still all over the place. If you’ve been following me, you know that this is a thing I've been struggling with. My challenge is finding BALANCE between tracking compulsively, yet still eating enough to fuel my body and my workouts. If I don't track, I don't eat enough or eat in proper ratios. Especially fat, I am ALWAYS low on fat, it's just so much easier to eat proteins and carbs! I also binge eat, so my calories will vary from 1400- 3100 over the course of a week; which is unhealthy, inconsistent and unsustainable! Last challenge the goal was to focus on the weekend, and I didn’t find any real improvement by focusing on that. This challenge the focus will be meal prep and trying to get back to a carb cycling type of diet. Meal prep: Ensure I always have protein sources prepped and available for lunches and dinners (aka meat). 1-2x/week prepping should be sufficient. Do that carb cycling thing again: Track my macros. Aim for P/F/C = >135/~70/[<100/~180/~250] based on that day’s activity level (rest=low, gymnastics or cardio=medium, lifting=high). Doesn’t have to be perfect, just try. The part I will score is on the low carb days: all carbs should be coming from fruits, veggies, beans, etc aka all NATURAL sources. No breads, cookies, ice cream, pop tarts, cereal or other junk on low days! I’m still going to allow them on medium and high days, as I suck at going cold turkey and think that I still need some leeway there. Life Goals for this year will be COMPOUNDING as appropriate. The idea is to produce HABITS! 1) Don't be a hoodrat (challenge 1) Look fabulous. Take selfies. Post here for everyone's pleasure. 2) Don't get too fat (challenge 2) Crushed this goal last time at 1x/week so I’m going to up it! Walk or bike to work. 2x/week minimum. Note: This goal is highly dependant on the progress of my hip. If I am having hip issues, I will nix it. 3) Read (challenge 3) Last challenge I did really well with reading more. I didn’t finish the books like I intended to, but I read more than I was. This is good. Continue reading at least 3x/week. 4) Don’t be a hermit (challenge 4) Weekends I have a terrible habit of laying on the couch watching Netflix and doing housework all weekend. It’s rare if I see sunshine. I need to do SOMETHING that involves leaving my apartment on non-work days. Go to the store, go on a date with Mr. J, go to the gym, nerd meetup for tea, or just go for a walk or bike ride. Just something so I don’t fall into that deep red glow of Netflix that is so comforting. Leave my apartment on non-work days. Other things I’d like to accomplish, but aren’t necessarily goals Finish my cosplay by this weekend Buy presents for my cousins for next weekend. Sell things that need to go Set the April budget (sooner than later)

Am I an assassin? I dunno! *quietly has identity crisis in corner* Okay, that was fun! So, I live, or at least pay rent regularly, in Toronto, but for pretty much all of April I will be working in Thunder Bay, staying with three different friends at different times for the month except when I have to go back to Toronto for a few days in the middle, aurrggh. So this challenge is not going to be particularly strict. Basically I'm posting this so that I have somewhere to write about stuff and/or link to in my sig. Things I would like to do in April: -Continue using 750words.com! Neverthatbored inspired me to re-start with this journaling site, and although I only managed a total of six days on it last Challenge... that's six days I wouldn't have written there otherwise? Hahaha. -Go to gymnastics whenever I can. Yep, "whenever I can" is a lame goal, but seeing as I really WANT to go to gymnastics, it's not like procrastination or laziness is the reason that I haven't been for a while. With my traveling schedule, work schedule and the combination of adult open gym sessions I have found in Thunder Bay and Toronto, it looks like I will be able to attend 6 times in April if nothing else comes up. Which is pretty good! Also, I invited a friend from work in Thunder Bay to come with me, who was talking a while ago about how he used to do gymnastics and wants to start again now that his kids are in it, so I may have a gym buddy! -Figure out my summer employment. I'm a freelance musician and stuff tends to slow down in the summer, so I plan on using the handy-dandy gymnastics coaching certification which I just got last weekend to plug the gaps. I still haven't decided which city I even want to work in, but there are a few options of gyms doing summer camps that I could apply to. One actually already casually offered me a job before I even did the course, so. -Continue lifting. I put my membership at my tiny oddball gym in Toronto on hold for April, and bought a membership for the month for the local tiny oddball gym here. I had been going 3x a week, but I might replace one of my lifting days with a bodyweight day in which I work on: -Pistol squats (my legs are uneven! I can do on unassisted with my left but not my right!) -Handstand push-ups -Chinups/pullups -Leg raises -Pike-ups -HIKING! Purely in terms of driving time from downtown metropolis to world-class hiking spots, Thunder Bay is probably one of the greatest cities in North America. I went hiking today with some friends despite there having been a resurgence of winter this week and it is now hovering consistently between -5 and -15c. By the end of the month enough snow should have melted to do some more challenging hikes. I've never been to Mount McKay, which is one of the more common hiking spots, so I want to go there. Also, last year around this time I did the "head trail" of the Sleeping Giant, which is 17 km the last km of which is really steep. If the trails are good enough I want to do the knees this year. Aaaaaand those are all the things I think I can reasonably do this month!

Hey! I need some help with my muscle ups!! I finally nailed them on the rings, but I am seriously struggling to get proper form on the bar. I can get one arm up and then I have to fight the second one up! My coaches call it the "chicken wing".. It's weird because this doesn't happen to me on the rings, just the bar, and I really can't and don't know how to fix it! Anyone have any suggestions or workouts that I can try to improve my MU? I would super appreciate it! Here's a video of my ugly bar muscle ups: THANK YOU!!! Meg

No, not that weird stuff! I'll dress this up later, but here's the basics for March: 1) Need more running. Find more running. Do more running. It's starting to warm up, the trees are turning red (which means the spring buds are coming already!) 2) Use the NerdFitness Yoga program like, at least 2x/week. More if possible. It's really quite manageable. I just need to do it. My flexibility is really lacking and I need to loosen up. 3) Lift more heavy things, at least 1x/week. 4) Write more than twice in the month. BONUS: I met up with my brother last night, who has been doing circus training (particularly strong man stuff, for him) with my little sister (an aerialist and all-around performer). I was talking about my need to get off the ground and loosen up and learn what I'm capable of, and he suggested that I come with them to their circus gym and learn some tumbling from one of the trainers. This was such a fantastic idea that I'm going to do so, probably at least every weekend in March, and start to get comfortable with what I'm capable of now that I'm approaching a normal weight. BONUS THE SECOND: I was going through my music folder the other day (not my music library, but my personal music folder) and realized that I have very few actual recordings of myself, despite having all the tools to do so. There are a couple from 2010, one from 2012, etc. I've decided to start a project where I'm going to record myself and my guitar for five songs every couple of years, just to start getting an idea of how I'm changing over the years, musically speaking. I'd like to complete this project by the end of April, so I'm going to work on this and try to get at least two of the tracks completed and the third one started. My song list for this project is: Vertical Horizon - The Man Who Would Be Santa Parabelle - No One Looks As Good As You In That Trapt - Only One in Color 10 Years - So Long Goodbye [unheilig - Als wär's das erste Mal] - still subject to change, but I think I can do a pretty rockin' acoustic version of this So that's going to be my March. More endurance, more strength, more Kung Fu, more flexibility, and... tumbling. Maybe somewhere in there will be some time to breathe? Yeah, probably not. :/

Whew, third challenge of the year, already! Time moves extra fast in 26-day chunks. This challenge will take us through March, which means one more gymnastics competition (this Saturday!) and then I get a break from meets until Nationals in April. Maybe it's the spring air or maybe it's because I don't want to commit to too many bonus physical pursuits, but this challenge is a bit more domestic-focused than previous ones. Track 1. Ain't No Mountain High Enough Conditioning workout or strength training workout 13x over challengeI have a sneaking feeling that I am going to want to chill out for a bit after the meet this Saturday, so to combat that, I am going to bonus incentivize conditioning and strength training workouts in this challenge. Conditioning can be any drillsandskillsWOD, the office gym's conditioning class, NP Stadium, or any 10+ minutes at practice. Strength training will be low rep, difficult progression bodyweight skills or WEIGHTS. Track 2. Come and Get Your Love Core-focused exercises or PT 20x this challenge.CORE work continues with this challenge's edition. If it's part of a conditioning circuit, it will count for both goals. Track 3. O-oh Child Dance/clean sessions around the house totaling 180 minutesDance battle against the mess of my house. 1v1 me, bro! No requirements for the % of dancing versus cleaning for these minutes, but as long as I am doing one or the other and rocking out around the house, I am racking up minutes. Going OUT to dance will not count except for morale boosting. Track 4. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) Cook 4 recipes out of my cookbooksI've got some wonderful cookbooks that I adore and am very glad to have but haven't actually managed to cook anything out of just yet! This will change over this challenge. These will likely be more baked goods than other options, but as long as I am working from a recipe from one of these books, we count it!

Hello, Assassins! This challenge is starting a bit late, given that I was "off the grid" for spring break to live for a few days in a rural farmhouse... long story... Since this is my first challenge with the Assassins' Guild, here's a little about me: - My previous challenge - My backstory TL, DR version: 24-year-old former (soon-to-be-current?) parkour enthusiast, Washington, DC inhabitant, with slightly insane long-term endurance running goals. I hope to get involved quickly and get to know more of you soon! Now, without further ado... Talos Builds His Arsenal This challenge will probably be a step down in intensity from my last, since I'll be kicking it off by finishing the big goal that most of the prior month was building toward - my first half marathon! With that out of the way, though, I'm hoping to build up my "arsenal" of bodyweight skills, now that I'm joining the Guild. For starters, I'm going to shoot for improving some basics that I've tried at in the past, but failed due to not having a dependable practice schedule. Reliability is something I improved on a lot with my last challenge, so I'm going to use this month as an opportunity to take another stab at these. Ideally, I'd like to post a video as proof of each of these! Skills: - Complete a round-off. A couple years ago I picked up a slight hip injury that really killed my ability to do some basic skills I used to enjoy, e.g., cartwheeling and round-offs. Previously I was working on aerials, which I would love (LOVE) to actually achieve in the future - but first I need this foundation. Thus, re-learning the round-off. - Five handstand wall push-ups. This is just basic strength improvement. My shoulder strength is one of my weak spots, so this will help with the next goal... - 15-second freestanding hand stands! 'Nuff said. Something I've tried in the past, improved on, but just never practiced enough to get good at. No reason I can't pull this off if I stick with it. Life: - Build 20 'mind palace' rooms. This one probably sounds weird, but I'm serious. Remember those scenes in Sherlock where he goes into a trance to pull up some random bit of information? That's actually a real thing; it's a memory training technique called the "Method of Loci", and it's been used to win memory championships and memorize huge amounts of texts. Anyway, it's a skill I've picked up and want to develop to a fuller potential - because let's face it . . . an Assassin's best weapon is his mind. Each "room" holds a handful of pieces of information, usually related. I have maybe seven or eight set at the moment, and am a bit rusty, so this will be a fun return to form. Oh, and I'll still be running and stuff, because long-term goals. But this will be a fun challenge.

Welcome everyone If you followed my previous challenges, this is going to be familiar, but for everyone else here's a brief introduction: I'm 25 from the UK, and I specialize in gymnastics, weightlifting and bodyweight skills of various styles (video: summer training sampler). I'm also a software engineer, mental calculation competitor and amateur composer. I put way too much chili sauce on everything. Mmm Because my topic titles are clearly now just calendar-related puns, here's an infographic depicting a variation of the March of Progress that I do not want in my life, and I'll get right on with my challenge: Goal #1: the list: yep, I'm having another list of goals and workouts, because this format seems to work well for me . I'm hoping the weather will soon improve so I can so more outside as I was slacking during February. +0.25 for each, maximum of +6.00: weightlifting (double points!) bodyweight (10 exercises) jumping training (6 exercises) <-- something I need to focus on for gymnastics bouldering 1-arm push-up, handstand or bar muscle-up training session <-- summer 2016 goals! gymnastics class And bonus items - mostly stolen from my previous challenges - are: cartwheels: learn decent cartwheels on each side round-off: learn this gymnastics move front handspring: do this consistently on floor front flip: land this safely on floor front flip: bonus points for landing it on floor handstand walk: do a full 360-degree rotation in a handstand without immediately falling over handstand: 10 second static handstand bar muscle-up: I'm working towards it! back squat: 105kg (PR) change phone contract: I should be able to move to a cheaper one and I've procrastinated this for 2 months... create piano cover: of the death metal piece "Lost Reality" by Mercenary. It's the heaviest song that I actually like, even though it starts with some aggressive vocals. In fact, that's one of my reasons for wanting to make this piano cover - I wanted to find a way to provide an equivalent effect with a piano (whilst hopefully making it pleasant to listen to). I've finished working out roughly how to play this on the piano, but I need to tidy a lot of details and create the sheet music. create piano cover: bonus point for making a piano recording of this. Done - here's the video new sport: try some new activity - yep, did roller-blading new sport: try another new activity No goals this time for mental calculation since I'm taking a short break from that - last challenge I got to where I wanted to be for now Goal #2: pull-ups: I've neglected these over recent months, and while last Summer I could do them weighted with 30kg, now I find sets of 5 bodyweight ones a struggle... So for this challenge, I want to do 3 sessions of pull-ups each week. Minimum is: 20 pull-ups each set must be 5 or more reps These can be parts of workouts I'm already doing - just extra motivation to get out and train +0.25 STR per week Goal #3: rest properly: Laptop off by 01:00 every day. I did this last 2 challenges, and I had much more energy and was happier and more successful as a result. It means I'll get about 8 hours of sleep but won't have rush around brush teeth etc. just before sleeping! Scoring: for each week: 7 days with laptop off by 0100: +0.25 CON two "cheat" days are allowed anytime during the 4 weeks I'll start this at 2015-02-29 01:00:00 for 28 nights. Goal #4: eat clean: recently I've been eating like a moron, and now my body expects 50g of sugar during the afternoon Furthermore, lots of my energy is coming from poor-quality sources like chocolate bars. It's not good for my body... I get sugar dips now and my face feels fatter because that's where I carry extra fat, and my skin quality has deteriorated. Anyway, in March I shall have a cleaner diet and I'll get back to how I've been for most of the past 3 years I shall use the following rules: no soda or chocolate bars from the vending machine at work at most one dessert or pastry per day (usually I have 2-3) drink before eating if dehydrated Every week I get the following points: broke rules 2 times or fewer: +0.50 CON broke rules 4 times or fewer: +0.25 CON Good luck everyone!

This challenge is what it says on the tin. I just really like gymnastics, lifting, eating, and sleeping. And want to do lots of them. 1. Lift moar! So, I have been... kind of doing stronglifts for seven months. Except for, um, a BUNCH of exceptions... like, I decided on day three that barbell rows are just Not For Me and I wasn't going to do them. I also started adding weight to my deadlift way before I could actually do a solid set of 5 on the previous weight. (Which I had good reason to do since I was training for a lift test at work, but still.) I also have some stuff that I do like and want to add in: pull-ups/chin-ups and cleans, in particular. I'm not really sure what to do about this: I like the simplicity of SL, and I would even be willing to give rows another try! But I also want to progress on the pull-ups and cleans and also keep my workout short enough that I also have time to stretch thoroughly after each workout and not be spending more than an hour and a half at the gym at the very most. (Stretching takes 15 min, my warmup takes 10 min or so.) So, for this Challenge, I will be doing 3 workouts a week, on the following schedule: Day 1: Squats 5x5 OHP 5x5 Deadlift 1x5 Day 2: Squats 5x5 Bench 5x5 Cleans 5x5 Day 3: Squats 5x5 PUx10, CUx10, working towards being able to do all 10 in a row for both Deadlift 1x5 However, because I can already hear the hordes of r/fitness shouting "DON'T MAKE YOUR OWN PROGRAM, N00B! DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SMARTER THAN [iNSERT FITNESS ICON HERE]???" I guess in the market for an expert-created program that I can force myself to stick to for the next 6 months or so at least w/r/t lifting, and includes all or most of the movements that I'm interested in. So I will also be doing some research this Challenge. ALSO part of this section because I can't think where else to put it: I would like to start running again. I stopped for a while so it didn't ~steal mah gainz~, but I am going to add in 1 day a week of running. Possibly on Saturdays with the running group I used to go to, if I end up being in Toronto on any Saturdays. XP up for grabs: 1 XP for every week of 3 lifting days, 1 XP for each run. 2. Flip moar! Okay, well, I can't actually go to gymnastics any more than I am already, because one class a week is expensive enough. However, there are two things I can do to assassin better: - Stretch every day! particularly splits and bridge, my comfort with which seems to vanish if I miss even a day of it. 2 XP for each week stretched every day. -I have 9 classes left on a pass I bought ages ago, before I signed up for gymnastics, when I was filling the gymnastics-sized hole in my soul with pole dancing. So I would like to use those up, 1 XP for every week I take a class and 1 additional XP for the following classes which are, um, outside my comfort zone: -Erotic Pole -Fake it to Make it -Heartthrob dance -Erotic Chair dance I mean... might as well use the opportunity to gain some skills I won't learn elsewhere 3. Eat moar! My goals for this are pretty much the same as last challenge: I want to not buy any food outside the house except at grocery stores on approved grocery days. This means cooking, eating and bringing with me enough nutritious food that I don't get hungry while oot and aboot. I get 3 XP for every week I succeed. The slow cooker is my friend, as is the freezer-- a secondary goal is to build up a stockpile of homemade microwaveable freezer meals. I will probably have to buy more tupperware for that, like so: 4. Sleep moar! ...pretty self-explanatory. Last challenge my goal was 5/7 days a week of going to bed at 10:30, reading for 1/2 an hour, and waking up at 6. I didn't get a full week at any point, but I definitely was closer to that schedule on more days than I would have been otherwise. So I am going to continue with that goal, and include a provision for 1 additional XP any time I get in bed at 10 instead of 10:30. 8 hours of sleep, im comin 4 u. 5. Bonus: Write moar! Stealing shamelessly from NeverThatBored: I am gonna go back to 750words.com this challenge. I tried having a writing portion to my very first Challenge, which was to write in my paper journal every night, and it went abysmally, so I am trying a different tack. I have signed up for the March challenge on the site and 10 XP are waiting for me if I win it. Also, my personal first day of this challenge is March 1st, because Feb 29th I got an IUD inserted so I arbitrarily decided to receive All The Exemptions that day

Hey guys, Just a few weeks ago, I conducted an interview with former gymnast Jake Dalton (another one with Brandon Wynn is in the pipeline) Now, as you're all into bodyweight fitness, this might be interesting for you: During the interview, he stated that he recently has enjoyed working out for aesthetic reasons. This honestly suprised me! Also, he gave me an overview on his diet, which is similar to a bodybuilder's diet: Breakfast: 4 egg whites, strawberries and ½ cup of oatmealSnack: 2 hard boiled egg whites on a small wheat toastLunch: 4-6 oz chicken or ground turkey, brown riceSnack: protein shakeDinner: salmon/chicke/steak, salad and sweet potatoSnack: beef jerky Let me know if you want to know something else Have a good day all. Martin Blättler

My head is just swimming with options this time of year and the fitness ADD is kicking in something fierce. However, I am scheduled to compete on February 20, February 27, and March 5 which means I need to make sure I keep focused on my gymnastics priorities even while I am slowly starting to resume other activities. Goal 1. Equal Opportunity Eventing -Vault at 5 practices -Beam routines every practice, including flight elements -Flyways at 5 practices It is easy to just focus on the skills I really want to focus on and not put finishing touches on the things that do need a lot more work. The return to vaulting means I should really fix my approach/pre-flight. I also have pauses before my flyaway in my bar routine which is a SIGNIFICANT deduction and one I shouldn't really be giving up. More practice/repetition should help me feel more comfortable going right into the flyaway without a pause so I won't lose those precious tenths. Goal 2. HAIL, SWOLESISTER. -6 workouts that include weighted back squats and deadlifts My PT said I can so damn it, I will! I don't have a lot of free space in my schedule this month to make it out to the climbing gym and get on the weights train, so 6x before Feb. 26 may be the best I can manage. Going six times is six times better than I've been able to in ages. Goal 3. Core for the Core God -20 core workouts, with core-focused PT exercises also counting towards this goal. Increasing my lower core strength and overall core control will do so much for making sure I continue to progress with my lower back and prevent it from troubling me again in the future. These are clutch to keep my body on my side. Goal 4. Shiny Metal -Reach empty, clean sink status 8x My kitchen is messy. Maybe that is preventing me from getting my food prep groove on. This may seem like a very low number for the number of days we have, but a totally empty sink is such a rare thing in my life right now.