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So this challenge will be more or less identical from last time, but with some small changes and improvements. Again is the goal to eventually eat pancakes with my feet, and then celebrate it in a pancake stretch. More info will maybe come not sure yet Lifestyle: G:1 Practice contact juggling 3 times pr week. for at least 10 minutes pr time. Fitness: G1: Daily handstand (at least 5 attempts pr day G2: Head2toe 5 times pr week G3: Pancake or hip opening (I found out that on the last challenge if I didn’t go to the gym I couldn’t do my pancake progression, so this time I will allow for hip opening poses as well at least 5 out of 7 days. G4: Rings 3 times pr week. W1: 3/3 Contact jugling: 7/7 Handstand 5/5 Pancake // Hip opening 3/3 Ring training W2: 3/3 Contact jugling: 6/7 Handstand 5/5 Pancake // Hip opening 3/3 Ring training W3 0/3 Contact jugling: 0/7 Handstand 0/5 Pancake // Hip opening 0/3 Ring training W4 0/3 Contact jugling: 0/7 Handstand 0/5 Pancake // Hip opening 0/3 Ring training Total: 3/12 Contact jugling: 7/28 Handstand 5/20 Pancake // Hip opening 3/12 Ring training

I usually wander around with other guilds from time to time, but we all know where I truly belong... Lately I've been wondering. I'm not much for survivalism and the zombie apocalypse preppers, but I did start thinking about if society were to collapse, where would I fit in? What am I useful for? I couldn't find a good answer. So I decided to start building myself up into what would be a useful, antifragile character in the future. I wrote down what will be a constantly-evolving character spreadsheet that I will be working on for the next 5 or so years. Since I have 4 more days before the challenge starts, I'm looking for suggestions for skill progressions that I could plug into my stats, before I start setting-up my missions. All input is welcome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PIP ATTRIBUTE: GymnasticBodies. The goal is to hit up Front Lever, Rope Climb, Handstand, and Shoulder Roll at least twice a week. Ideally I'll finish F1 this month, but there's no rush. Front Lever Rope Climb Free Handstand Shoulder Roll SKILL: I just got called on again to assist at the kids class once a week, so I'll have to brush up on some techniques. Goal is to watch our coach's DVD series, 1 a week, and to take notes. Week 1: Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: PERK: My time management is garbage. I signed up for Mind Tools and have a 12-unit Time Management Learning Plan. 1. Managing Interruptions 2. Activity Logs 3. To-Do-Lists 4. Prioritization 5. The Action Priority Matrix 6. Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle 7. The Pickle Jar Theory 8. Effective Scheduling 9. Personal Goal Setting 10. Golden Rules of Goal Setting 11. Treasure Mapping 12. Overcoming Procrastination SIDE QUEST is to actively put up content for the Facebook Page. 8-12 links with commentary and 1 blog post this challenge period.

Placeholder, because I have a marathon [I did not train enough for] in three days. Goal is to finish my GymnasticBodies Foundation One course (because I've been slacking on my Hollows) while working on those elusive Handstands and some Tumbling (both modules I also purchased). My gym membership just ended and I'm going full-Assassin this challenge. BUILDING THE ASSASSIN BODY Log GB exercises (foundation core and upper body, handstand, and movement) once a week, kettlebells once a week. SKILLS BJJ twice a week, 21-day Dry Fire Practice modules. CHARM I joined the 30-day Art Of Charm challenge, and I have 10 modules to complete in it. LIFESTYLE Slowly working on becoming antifragile, and I'm starting with getting rid of trash around the apartment.

so havnt been here for a while I figured im so bad to update things like this so now we try again. So the goal this time is about pancakes - because who doesn't love pancakes? Lifestyle goal: Check nerdfitness at least 4/7 days pr week. Fitness Goals: 1: Do 3 ring sessions pr week at least (following coaching+rings 1 (GMB)) 2: At least 5 minute handstandwork every day 3: At least 5 minute Pancake stretch or progressions each day 4: Head2Toe protocol 6days pr week at least

Wow, the last four-week challenge flew by. That's probably a good thing, since I got back into the Nerd Fitness groove. I successfully finished a challenge, which was always a struggle. I got some good reading done. I got back into regular workouts. I ate out less. I did a lot of walking. It wasn't a perfect 100 percent, but it was a good improvement. The one thing I didn't do enough of was spend time on the forums and enjoy my fellow Rangers' good work. I'm hoping to change that this time. Enter: SEA LEVEL XIII: Back in the Saddle Most of my goals are the same this time around, since I want to keep consistent with last challenge. Here's what's up: 1. Do the Work. Bodyweight Workout 3x weekly. Last challenge the goal was 2x weekly, but I did 3x weekly on the last week, so I'm going to up the numbers. I can do it. 2. Get Inverted. Handstand practice 5 minutes 5x weekly. I saw the Beginner Guide to Handstands article recently. I tried handstand work in past challenges, but it was never consistent. I can spare 5 minutes 5x a week. Get to it. 3. Moar Vegetables. Eat a serving of vegetables at dinner 5x weekly. The veg is the toughest for me to keep with. 4. Get to Work. Walk to work 2x weekly. I really enjoyed my walks last challenge. 5. Brain Workout. Read for 20 minutes 4x weekly. Keeping with reading and learning new things. 6. Community. Post on my own NF thread and follow up on Rangers' threads 3x weekly. Gotta keep with the team. Let's punch it.

Myrik decided to spend the next month preparing for his return to the ruins. Not sure what to expect he chose to improve his climbing ability, know that his shoulders need the most attention for his climbing he also decided that working on handstands would help with the climb. Know that the Evil inside the temple is capable of inflicting harm on one's soul, He decided to continue meditating and start reading to help with his mental focus. Goal I Climbing This month I will focus on Pull ups and Chin Ups. My plan to achieve this is to do 10 pull ups or chin ups (at a progress stage I can safely do) a day. 5 points a day where this is accomplished. Goal II Inversion Work on my handstand times. Currently I am stuck at the 30-45 second mark. My goal by the end of this is to double those times. So 60-75 second holds. To accomplish this goal I will do handstands every day for AMSAP. Every day I do this is 5 points. Completing overarching goal is 80 points. Goal III Ready for the Ruins Get my weight down. I want to drop 5 lbs this month, and get my body fat down as well. I don't know what my BF goal is but anything below the weekly average of 15% will be a win for me. 10 points a week for tracking 100 points if this is accomplished by the 26th of November. To achieve this I will continue to use my body tracking spreadsheet and start using MFP again. Goal IV Mental Fortitude Continue meditating twice a week for 10 plus minutes each time. I will maintain the same scoring as last month 10 points for each mediation session that exceeds 10 minute. Also would like to finish reading Ready Player One and start and finish The Father You've always wanted. If I can finish both by the end of the challenging I'll give myself 20 points 10 points a book, but only get the points if i finish both. If my calculations are correct this should be a total of 600 points. My rewards with be on the 100 point mark starting at 300 with a special reward for hitting 650 points through extra meditation(5) throughout the challenge. 300 points earns one nerdy reward 400 points earns one nerdy reward plus one fitness reward 500 points earns two nerdy rewards plus one fitness reward 600 points earns two nerdy rewards plus two fitness rewards 650 points Special reward of my choice. Points earned during zero week do not count towards overall points zero week is a category all its own if i can reach the 110 points in Zero week I will earn one small reward of my choice

Multi-classing Monk works on handstands. 1. Get Inverted Work on shoulder flexion and putting the time in handstand work, building up to 5 sets of 30 shoulder taps and some weighted dislocates. Three days a week. 2. Get Running Run two days a week. Nothing too crazy. 3. Get Studying Still slacking in school. Finish schoolwork by Saturday and finish reading Lit Review textbook. Side Quest Food tracking. I quit after my 180-day streak was broken.

EG was a rather ordinary hobbit. She was short, with rather large hairy feet, and spent a good deal of time with her nose pressed into a book. Her favorite books were fantasies and adventures. She loved to read about heroes on dangerous quests, finding treasure and slaying dragons. Sometimes, she would even imagine that she was one of the heroes in the story. Of course, she knew that she never really would go on a quest. After all, she was a hobbit. Hobbits stayed home. Why else would they have such cozy homes? Let others do the adventuring, hobbits weren’t that sort. At least that was what she thought; until the day that changed everything. The day was rainy, and gray. The perfect sort of day to sit beside your fire, drink a cup of tea, and read a good book. Which was exactly what she was doing, when she heard a knock on the door. Not expecting company, and right in the middle of the most exciting part of the story, she ignored the knock. “Rap, rap , rap” the knocking continued. Frowning, she turned her chair away from the door, burrowed her head into her book and continued reading. “THUMP,THUMP’ the knocking grew louder and more insistent. EG sighed, whoever was at her door was obviously not going to leave. “I suppose I have to answer it” Opening the door to reluctantly greet the persistent visitor, she saw in front of her a tall man, with a large pointed hat, and a long flowing gray beard. He had a cart, on his cart were various kitchen utensils, pans, pots, spoons, and some odd objects she couldn’t identify. Rather peculiar looking for a tinkerer she thought, and definitely not the normal tinkerer that usually came through the Shire. The tinkerer smiled at her, “would you like to buy a new spoon, or perhaps a bowl to replace your broken one?” EG wondered how he knew she had broken her bowl the other day. Ah well, strange looking he may be, she did need a new bowl. Looking over the bowls he had, she chose a good, sturdy, practical bowl. “Just a moment, she told him, let me go get your money and I will pay you” Turning toward the kitchen, she walked over to her coin jar, dumped out the coins and then went back to the door to pay the tinkerer. But he was gone. There was just the open door, and no sign of the tinkerer. Stepping outside, she peered down the road. That was odd, she didn’t see him anywhere. “You’d think he’d want his money” she muttered to herself. With a shrug of her shoulders, she closed the door, and headed back to her cozy fire. It was then that she noticed something laying on her table. EG was a very tidy hobbit, and did not just leave stuff lying about on her table. And yet there was something on her table. Some sort of paper. Looking down at it, she saw that it was some sort of document, and by the looks of it, it was very ancient. Curious, she grabbed her glasses to get a better look. Its worn edges were all curled up on the ends, and the writing on it was very hard to read, as if faded by time. Studying it closer, she realized it was some sort of map. Yes, there were the mountains that were to the North, and beyond that the swamplands, and in the South, the giant cedar forests. But what was that past the mountains? Now thoroughly intrigued, she slid the light over to the lamp to get a better look. Yes, there was a trail marked on the map, and at the end of the trail was a large X. “No doubt about it,” she thought, this was a treasure map. Sitting back in her chair, she pondered it for a moment. Where did the map come from? Did the strange tinkerer man leave it? And more importantly, should she follow it? She let her mind wander off in a daydream about her going on an actual quest in search of treasure. Just as she was beginning to think how fun the adventure sounded, her tea kettle whistled. Shaking her shoulders, and nodding a bit sadly to herself she thought , “ Adventures are for others, hobbits are the type who stay in their comfy homes and drink tea, not go off on crazy adventures searching for buried treasure” With a regretful gesture, she rolled up the map and placed it by the door. “There”, she thought “, I will give it back to the tinkerer when he returns, and perhaps he can give it to one of the heroes in the stories I read about.” I decided I felt my hobbitish this challenge, than superhero. My hobbit on an adventure goals: Follow the map Track Water- 64oz a day Food- map is a little fuzzier here, more room for wandering, eat Paleo-ish, track some of the times on MFP, and big important one; remember right now I am trying to gain muscle so if I am hungry listen to my body and eat more! Remind myself that it is fine if I gain a bit of weight, just keep the waist measurements about the same. Climb the mountain Morning routine: wake up at 7:30 drink 12 oz of water read Bible/pray kitchen clean start workout no later than 9:30- most of the ones in the list are habit by now, I just need the accountability to keep it going. But, I still tend to spend too long on the computer or reading before starting my workout. I tried to get the 9:30 habit going last month, but it was a busy month, and I have little motivation. Thought about giving myself a reward, but wasn't really jazzed about anything. So- drastic measures- punishment. I HATE burpees. Give myself 5 minutes grace, and then for every minute after 9:30 that I start my workout I owe 2x that amount of burpees. Burpees must be completed before playing on the computer. Explore We are taking our big vacation in October, but Mr Incredible and I would like to get away for a couple of days, and Dash has some vacation time and so we would also like to go somewhere with him. Plan some trips, and put them on the books Bonus- For a long time I was doing handstands. Then I got stuck on trying to kick up into a handstand and got frustrated. Now, I am stronger, and more flexible. I would like to play around with them again. 3x a week of trying whatever method I want of getting into a handstand( GMB has some other ways besides kicking) This is a bonus because my ring work is first priority, so if my shoulders are too whumped from that, then this goal gets bumped.

so again I will (hopefully) update the challenge text before we start on monday This challenge is all about sticking to things, and the things I will be covering is Daily handstands - at least 1 freestanding, 1chest2wall and 1 back2wall pr day is required, more is of cause wellcome Daily Head2toe protocol, the session throughout the day +2x foam roll sessions are required, morning routines are a bonus. at least 3 ring sessions pr week in the following challenge, (12 in total) daily study for my upcoming human physiology and for my training & rehability exams. examns will be done 1. of july so the last 6 days will either be enjoyed in glory, or grief'd in sorrow will either make a spreadsheet or will make a schedule here in the first post for updates.

...like no one ever was!!! That's right, this challenge is pokémon themed. And spreadsheet fueled. And all kinds of awesome. Of course I'm doing all the things again, so I thought I'd hop back in with the Rangers to see what you guys've been up to but I've really been focusing on balance practice lately and I want to get more bodyweight stuff and gymnastics going on, so I've decided to move to the Assassins at long last. I've been slipping into their minis for the last few challenges anways I'll start a new job this month (and will also celebrate my 1 year nerdversary this saturday!) so this challenge is designed in a way that lets me adjust the difficulty easily and take a rest if I feel like I need it. I'm using week 0 to figure out the details, so expect some things to change around here (we're currently on version 2.0). But let's get started... I used to play a lot of pokémon in my teens. A lot. I started with blue, then yellow, then silver and then I kinda grew out of it... (yes, I was around when all of these came out first, I'm that old). I was never really one for trying to catch them all, nor did I have a specific type that I liked and would collect... I just tried to get the most balanced, versatile, powerful team I could. So this challenge, I will put together a team of Pokémon and train them by fighting other pokémon I come across. Each member of my team will represent a certain area that I want to improve on and each of their attacks will correspond to a certain task or activity that I want to do. These are mostly things I've done before or am currently doing, this challenge is just designed to keep me motivated and accountable. Because if I don't do these things straight away, my Pokémon will pay the price! A new wild pokémon will appear each day and will attack a member of my team (these will be scheduled, I just have to make made a plan). Fights last until one opponent is defeated, so there can be several fights going on at once. In order to not over-complicate things, the game mechanics will be fairly simple: I chose which attack my pokémon is going to use and also the level of the wild pokémon, which determines how much time it will take to defeat it: each level equals one tomato/brick (25 minutes). So if a wild Lvl 3 Pidgey appears and Charmander uses Ember, I will have to do 75 minutes of bodyweight workouts to defeat it. If I manage to do that on the same day, my Charmander defeats Pidgey and possibly gains a level (getting to lvl 2 takes one successfull fight, lvl 3 takes two fights, lvl 4 takes three fights and so on). If I don't defeat the pokémon and for example only get 60 minutes in, Pidgey attacks and damages my Charmander for the number of minutes that still remain, so 15 HP in our example. If this finishes my Charmander off, it loses a level, the Pidgey scurries off back into the tall grass where it came from and I get to try again the next day. As we all now, the number of fights in Pokémon is largely determined by your willingness to walk around in tall grass for hours on end. So whenever my daily opponent is defeated and I feel like doing a little bit extra, I will walk through tall grass and find some more pokémon to fight. Which means that this option is only available if I have completed my "enjoy the outsides" habit for the day. That suffered a bit last challenge and maybe this will motivate me to do this more often (you know, if I don't go outside, the yoga I've done in the evening might not count as a fight and I'll miss the opportunity to gain a level *gasp*). In theory, I can fight as many pokémon as I have team members at the same time, but once I decide to fight extra, I need to defeat them and they'll behave just like the regular ones. I can't change my mind if I realize I've put too much on my plate In addition to these fights, I will have other options to support my pokémon: Every day where I show perfect eating habits (no white grain, no refined sugar, three meals, one of them warm, 2 of them with veggies, more than 2l of water) I will gain a health potion that heals 50% of the chosen pokémon's health. Every day where I have a perfect habit tracker score I will gain a health potion that heals all my pokémon for 5% of their health. Every week with a perfect housekeeping score will reduce half of the remaining HP of any enemy still in fight. For everyone who hasn't followed my old challenges and who's confused about what a housekeeping or habit tracker is: lengthy explanation in the spoiler Here's a list of all attacks/ things I want to do, sorted by type. For now I've chosen one attack for each pokémon on my team. As pokémon level up and gain new attacks, I will have more options to choose from on how to beat a wild pokémon. Fire: Feel the burn. HIIT or any other type of bodyweigh training. Water: The river goes on and on and on. I'll either swim with my pokémon or cheer them on from the (dry) shore. Swimming, running, biking, skating and anything else endurance goes here. Bug: Lie on your bag and flail your legs. This will either be a leg workout I got from a friend or something along the line of Deftona's P:BA Electric: Focus your energy! Work related adulting, mainly reading for work (and taking notes!), office work for my dad's company and any other paper work that comes along. Flying: See the world from a different perspective, even if this just means being upside down Balancing work or other gymnastics. Normal: Sing, sing, sing. Singing practice for choir or lessons. There are some types missing because I couldn't match them to things I want to do or because I things I came up with weren't really important enough to me to include them here. But one type is missing because I won't use it in my team at all. It will still make an appearance, though: Poison: Whenever I eat something bad, a poisonous wild pokémon will appear and attack me. Level depends on how bad I misbehaved All my pokémon are allowed to help out and defeat it. If unsuccessfull, it will poison my team and drain 10% of their health per level each day. And of course there's badges to be won!! As my pokémon grow stronger and stronger each day, they will need a little bit of an extra challenge. So whenever I feel like it, I can attempt to take down a gym leader and own a badge. Here's what I need to do to defeat them Boulder Badge (Rock): Go bouldering (duh). Friends of mine go and I've always wanted to go along. I'll have to trim my nails for this, but I think it'll be worth it Cascade Badge (Water): Follow the river. Run 5k in under 30 minutes along the riverside. Thunder Badge (Electric): Resist the magnetic pull of my computer. Stay off the internet until noon for 10 days in a row. Rainbow Badge (Grass): Go for a hike in the nearby mountains/woods that are really famous but that I've never been to for some reason. Soul Badge (Poison): Stay away from the bad stuff. Follow my eating habits for 10 days in a row. (The normal kind, not the special one that gains me health potions.) Marsh Badge (Psychic): Let the Sky fall! Hit that high e in a concert. Volcano Badge (Fire): Get sweating. Find a HIIT workout that I can do 1 round of. Come back to it later and do 3 rounds. Earth Badge (Ground): Get close to the ground. Then get away from the ground. Do 10 push-ups in a row. I intend to keep the pokémon theme around for a while so these won't all happen this challenge. These are not set in stone yet, so if you guys have any other ideas for these, feel free to let me know. Here's where the spreadsheet magic happen. This is and old version though, I'm currently figuring out the best way to set things up and calculate most of the things automatically. I don't think I'll stick to the attacks they have at lvl 1 as I originally intended, because I'f like to have special type-corresponding attacks from the start. Way too much office work otherwise So, I think I've covered everything you need to know to understand what's happening. If you have any questions, drop me a note. For now, route 1 awaits Charmander, I choose you! Charmander attacks Pidgey with Scratch (1 hour of office work today). Charmander is defeated! Geodude gains 1 lvl! Tadaaaaa And I see a Rattata lurking around the corner, so I'll be ready for it tomorrow! (Don't be confused, I changed some things around, so this doesn't really make sense anymore )

I come and go like the tides when I'm on my challenges, and this time around it's time to suit up as an assassin again. Not that you guys need more assassins, or anything. (I'd comment on how crowded this guild is compared to the others but I actually can't tell how crowded it is because everybody's wearing black.) Still, here I am. My running is stabilizing at 3-4 outings a week with a 5-miler on the weekends. I want to keep that where it is for now -- not push it, not try to improve it, just maintain it -- so I want to focus on more ninja-ey things this time around. In particular, I have had the really awful idea of trying out parkour. Now, I own that I'm a little bit on the older side to be picking up such a habit, but when it comes to bad ideas, I just can't help myself. Besides, a little bit of functional strength and agility can't hurt in the least when the zombies come for us all (and you know they will). So the order of the day is functional strength, precision and control practice, and whenever possible, a bit of natural movement. Strength: at least two workouts per week, especially push-ups, pull-ups and box-jumps. Arbitrarily I'm gonna say I want two hundred push-ups per week, fifty pull-ups per week, and ... man, I dunno... maybe eighty box jumps? Let's see how that goes for a week and maybe I can revisit. Precision and control: The box-jumps count here too, with a focus on a balanced and controlled landing. But here especially I want to make some progress on my handstand -- I've been stagnant there for quite some time. I need to learn a somersault bail so that I can start working on separating myself from the wall. I also want to work on my support hold and my dead-hang. Is all that specific enough? Only four different sub-goals for this one. Movement: I don't know that there are any great parkour spots near me, but there are some railings crying out to be vaulted and some big metal boxes just waiting to be scaled on some of my regular running routes. Hard to say if I can hit them with much regularity, but I'd like to get in some jumping and climbing and swinging and just generally monkeying around once a week. And that's it. I'll be back to add some pictures and maybe figure out how to score all this (though I still haven't scored my last challenge, lol).

Sea Level back again, with my May challenge. My April challenge kinda fell apart mid-way through thanks to lots of travel, visiting friends and family, and primarily a lack of schedule discipline. Even despite a lack of stability in the routine, I've been very pleased with the progress on my pull-ups and chin-ups. They will be a big part of the challenge this go-round. This is a copy-and-paste from last challenge. I am eager to get back to work. But for now.... I: Step over to the Abdominator, and I will shout slogans at you! (Workouts) "Push! Harder! Go past the max! Reach over the top!" Simple: Do 3 strength-related workouts a week. Mostly this will be (has been) bodyweight work. Push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, and all that jazz. Last challenge everything got better, and I'm particularly pleased with pull-ups. So there will be a focus on pulling exercises with pushing exercises thrown in. A longer-range goal would be to get into weight training. Maybe this will be a mini-goal to read up and get some weight programming, without collecting too many underpants. II: Come on, boy, think of a plan! (Handstands) "Come on, boy, think of a plan" "I'm tryin' Dad!" At least four times a week, I will practice handstands for at least five minutes. A mini-goal for the challenge would be to get comfortable with a pirouette bail. III: Isometric Exercise--Care to Join Me? (Yoga/Stretching) "I was just...uh, just stretching my calves on the window sill. Isometric exercise. Care to join me?" I do a lot of sitting at home and at work. I will do 30 minutes of stretching and/or yoga three times a week. IV: You don't win friends with salad! ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ You do win friends with salad, if there's meat involved . But in my case, I eat enough meat. The goal here will be to eat green vegetables three times a week. Let's punch it!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Episode IV BALANCE Stronger, yet exhausted from their battle with the Sith, Starstuff and the other Jedi Initiates return to the Jedi temple on CORUSCANT to continue their training. Starstuff has learned much, but the call of the Dark Side - old habits, cutting corners, and a tendency to try to do too much at once - can be hard to resist... Main Quest: Prepare for the Initiate Trials I have passed one of the Trials: a full push-up! Four more to go. You can see the goals I'm working toward on my Epic Quests list under The Initiate Trials. I've got a half marathon coming up on 5/7, and I'm hoping to have that Trial knocked off by the time the next challenge starts, but I want to make sure I'm keeping on top of my other goals, too. Goal 1: A mind and body at peace My sleeping habits are kind of terrible. "Kind of" in the sense that Jabba the Hutt is "kind of" awful. I usually get a full 7-8 hours in any given 24 hour period, but usually only through sleeping in and taking afternoon naps. My mornings are generally pretty tired and cranky, which isn't good for me physically or mentally. So, I'm setting myself a sleep goal for this challenge: in bed by midnight every night, with lights out by 12:30. Goal 2: Harmony in movement It's important for a Jedi to keep in good physical condition, because you never know when you're going to find yourself running from blaster fire or needing to pull yourself up from hanging off a ledge. My goal here is to keep up with the last few weeks of my half marathon training and keep working on my strength training, which means running five times a week and strength training two times a week. Goal 3: Find balance in the Force More handstand practice! For this goal, I'm going to work on inversion and hand-balancing three times a week, with five minutes one day a week spent on each of the following: freestanding headstands, wall handstands, and crow pose progression. Life Goal: Roughing it, NaNoWriMo-style Camp NaNoWriMo runs throughout the month of April, and I've set myself a goal of 15 hours of editing my novel during that time. Things have been pretty crazy on the personal front the last few days, so I'm starting this challenge with a grand total of zero minutes editing so far, so that means I need to do 15 hours of editing before the end of the challenge.

Sea Level reporting for duty again for April challenge, my fourth of the year, and my third with the Rangers! Woot! I went a long time last year without any activity or any challenge. I hit up the challenges at the end of the year again with the Assassins, and it got me back into the groove. Then I made a move to the Rangers with Wolfie's encouragement, and here I am: not going anywhere. Y'all are awesome. This time I'm straying from my Megaman theme, but I'll probably bring him back in the future. But for now.... I: Step over to the Abdominator, and I will shout slogans at you! (Workouts) "Push! Harder! Go past the max! Reach over the top!" Simple: Do 3 strength-related workouts a week. Mostly this will be (has been) bodyweight work. Push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, and all that jazz. Last challenge everything got better, and I'm particularly pleased with pull-ups. So there will be a focus on pulling exercises with pushing exercises thrown in. A longer-range goal would be to get into weight training. Maybe this will be a mini-goal to read up and get some weight programming, without collecting too many underpants. II: Come on, boy, think of a plan! (Handstands) "Come on, boy, think of a plan" "I'm tryin' Dad!" At least four times a week, I will practice handstands for at least five minutes. A mini-goal for the challenge would be to get comfortable with a pirouette bail. III: Isometric Exercise--Care to Join Me? (Yoga/Stretching) "I was just...uh, just stretching my calves on the window sill. Isometric exercise. Care to join me?" I do a lot of sitting at home and at work. I will do 30 minutes of stretching and/or yoga three times a week. IV: You don't win friends with salad! ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ ♪ You do(n't) win friends with salad! ♪ You do win friends with salad, if there's meat involved . But in my case, I eat enough meat. The goal here will be to eat green vegetables three times a week. Let's punch it!

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!

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.

This is the direct continuation of my previous challenge: same quests, same tracker. I had a hard time writing here in the past weeks. All boils down to choosing between doing things or writing about them. I tired to post from my phone when on a break, but I really don't like to write there. I am not sure it will change much, but I'll show up at least once per week Walking is my strongest point by far. Getting a step counter was really a good choice to keep me motivated. If I think about it is is weird to get pleasure from seeing a bar on a display getting filled, but as long as it work... at least is healthier than other pleasurable things... well not all of them, of course... The push/pull+karate routines need some adjustment: after two hours of capoeira I don't really manage to add another 20-30 minutes of exercises. So, I give myself 2 days off. The handstand and the stretches stay as daily practice. Food is on track but I still have the feeling (well, my stomach&intestines have) that some adjustment is needed. The big change of the past 2 weeks have been capoeira. It is the perfect mix for a monk assassin like me, and something completely different from what I have done so far. The unexpected (but not unwelcome) side of the training is that learn to sing solo and to speak Portuguese is integral part of the training. The casual sentence while fighting is something I am used to, but carry a tune in a language I don't speak while dodging kicks is a completely different story Long story short: I have plenty of inspiration for next challenge but for now I need to stay on my previous quests and strengthen those habits

Sooooo.. I realise I'm always late to these things. But better late than never, right? So last challenge didn't go great, but also not as bad as it could have. I focused on drinking, eating, working out and meditating. And I'll continue to work on some of those things during this challenge also. So I'll jump right in. Quests: 1. Eat all the protein and nothing of the sugar. Last challenge I wanted to eat at least 80 g of protein each day, which actually isn't as much as I need, but much more than I usually eat. So I think I'll up the game a little and eat at least 90 g of protein. I will really have to work on this, but I believe that it can work. During my first challenge (that I completed) one of my quests were to keep off sugar, and it went really well. But as soon as that challenge ended, I got right back to my old habits. That it not good for me. I have to go back to my first plan again. Pass: Eating >90 g of protein on 75 % of the days and no sugary stuff (with the exception of fruit and pure juice). 2. Drink all the water. Okay, maybe not all the water. But drink at least 1 l a day can't be bad. I need water. I drink way to little, but has finally been able to get more hydrated since the last challenge. I have to keep it up. Pass: Drinking >1 l on 75 % of the days. 3. Look at life from a different angle. Today was the fourth class in a hand stand workshop I've been going to once every week. There are two classes left, and until then I will be able to at least kick into a wall handstand. To do that, I have to work on my hand stands at least 3x/week, doing strengthening exercises, alignment exercises, "wall climb hand stand" and kick ups. Oh, and of course wrist preps prior to all the workouts. My biggest problem with handstands is that I'm scared. I'm not sure of what, but It keeps me from kicking up properly. I really have to learn to trust my body to do this. I know it can! Pass: 12 handstand workouts. 4. Keep your head clear. I will keep on doing daily meditations. It relaxes me and I've already started to implement some of the things I learn about myself there in my daily life. It just can't be bad for me. Pass: meditate for 10 min a day on 75 % of the days.

Once again I hate to be boring buuut I am still working towards the exact same things! Plus one extra! And my life goal is new! Wheeeeeeee! My theme will be me posting ridiculous things that make me laugh.... so pretty much my usual! !! GOALS !!! 1. Handstand push up progressions - I would like to work this at least 3x per week. I joined a gym and days I do bench press will count towards this as well! 2. Straight leg straddle and other adv core progressions - I plan to do core work at least 5x per week. This round I want to do tons of toe to bar since it's something I can work at home whereas I don't have enough room with my pull up bar to work on straight legged straddle! 3. Pull up progressions - I want to work pull progression work 3x per week. If I could get to where I could do two dead hang chin ups in a row I would be SO HAPPY! 4. Continue pistol squat progression - Continue to work squats 3x per week. At least one of these should be assisted pistols or shrimp squat variations! 5. Handstand work! - In addition to required strength, I will need to have a solid handstand to do handstand push up! I will aim to work this at least once per week. Current difficulty I can do for this is a wall handstand. Life Goal --Getting Fancy! I own a relative hoard of lipstick, eyeshadow, and fashion accessories that I pretty much never wear. Last challenge I got in the habit of using my massive perfume stash, so this time I will aim to use these! At least three times a week I need to either wear lipstick or eyeshadow or wear an accessory.

I start here, but for me this challenge will cover until the end of March. I will be visiting my family in the coming two weeks, and some adjustment is needed while there. The idea of this challenge is to put back in my life some basics skills and routines to keep me healthy and happy on the long run. No big things, just small changes. The execution started Monday, but writing it down requires always too much time Food basics: cut the starch (and make french fries?) I'm getting a beer belly, without even drinking beer! I know that most of it comes from too grains in my diet. I know that they are my weak spot. So, time to clean up my diet a bit, doing the simplest adjustment I can do max one meal per week based on cereals or potatoes, two while with my familymax 2 slices of cake while with my familyConsidering how I eat, with the above my diet will be again somewhere around 90% paleo Monk basics: art polishing My karate, as every complex skill, needs constant practice, so I redo the 10-minutes skill work: kata, kicks, drills... Ok, not basics in the general sense, but once you scale for the experience calling this "basics" makes sense 10 minutes of skill work. Pick one theme and stay on it for 10 minutes: one kata or max 2 drills/combinationsEvery day, with the exclusions of the time with family Strength basics: Tiramisù The literal translation is "pull me up". So, basic body-weight strength training 5 minutes handstandalternate pushups / pull-ups, following any 100 program (just to get some progression and motivation)stretch my chest and shoulder (soften those scars)The above happens every day. When with family only the stretches will happen. Stamina basics: Athlete's feet (I can smell it!) The step counter I gave myself is a great motivator and I want to keep it flashing happily do the daily "magic" 10000 stepsEvery other day when with family, daily otherwise. Since the weather is particularity wet, the challenge is to do most of it at work: walking meetings, take proper breaks from the screen, use the coffee machine or toilet on a different floor (no elevator, of course!). Small things to stay active and distribute the movement throughout the day Tracker and old style points later on Edit : tracker available (still incomplete)

This may be giffed up later, or not. Maintenance goals: Judo twice per week as much as possible Stick to budget, track expenditures Walk 70k + steps per week Talk a day/evening off per week to spend at home Incremental goals: Stop being late to bed, and therefore late to work - in bed by midnight at latest every work night. Hand stand practice - every day, however brief Pullup practice - every day, even if only one Guitar practice - 3x per week? Minimum 15 minutes. Bonus: Get out more. Judo tournament this Saturday - if others are going. Plus another thing this month. Will expand later, but that's the core of it.

more text will soon come I have been sick since the 31st of last year so I will start my challenge next week instead. my life goal will be to get the habit back, so I will make 4 small fitness goals instead goal 1: Hang for at least 7 minutes a day goal 2: play in squat for at least 30 minutes pr day goal 3: daily head2toe stretch goal4: daily inversions. get the habit back of at least once a day being inverted

Well, I wanted to try to continue story stuff, but the moratorium on spoilers at this point means that I can't risk it. Yet. I'll hold it until 1/18. Maybe in the meantime that'll help me figure out how to integrate storytelling with the epic quest. Basically, the epic quest this time is to spend the year more fully integrating martial arts into my life. I already do a lot of different training on a day by day basis, but I get a lot of different things from my sensei to do. And I want to take each of these challenges and just add one more piece to the puzzle to complete my training. Why? Reasons. I like the training that I do now and its ability to prepare me in general for a lot of different things. And I hate the feeling of being behind where I want to be in my training. I want to move farther along, and instead of flipping out and feeling like I'm stalled out, I'd rather be able to further. Since the best I know to do is to keep touching base, the most realistic way to improve is to give myself more things to practice daily. Yeah, it'll never get me a six pack or in the octagon, but the events of the past year have made such ideas seem small and unimportant. I have bigger fish to fry. So, starting point. While I was away, I managed to get to the point where I hit the Simple part of Simple and Sinister - full routine at 53 pounds. And I managed to lose 13 pounds of excess tissue last year by letting my training be my training and letting my diet be my diet and work in conjunction with it. The folks did their best to make me gain it back (Kishi, we don't think you have the weight to lose!) and they made a pretty valiant effort at it... but I still finished 7 pounds down. Measurements indicate it's a net loss of excess tissue, and not the lean stuff that makes me stronger and better. Very good. So, let's keep this simple. Continue GPP Training I don't do well training for fat loss or flashy, look-good-naked type goals. I do well looking to develop skills and attributes. GPP for me means continuing to work with the kettlebell I have until I can get a heavier one - crazy expensive, unfortunately, but that's what you get when you have to ship 70 pounds of metal. The other two parts of it are greasing the groove with pull ups and push ups, and working toward freestanding handstands and pistol squats. This isn't necessarily easy, but as a matter of practice it is pretty easy to do and keep up with day by day. Non-Write One Page Per Day Defined as 250 words per day. Pretty self-explanatory. But at the same time, I can't always write. I want to still do at least one thing per day to keep in contact with the manuscript and keep that thing going. Work Shadowboxing Back In to Rotation So when I was practicing with the kettlebell, it was easy for me to work shadowboxing into the routine. I kept myself fresh and if I got tired, I shadowboxed as a means to refresh myself. That's no longer necessary from a GPP perspective, though - I go from lift to lift super-easily. So the real trick is to figure out how to work this in elsewhere, which I mean to have figured out and running by the end of the challenge. 64 Fluid Ounces of Water Per Day Pretty self-explanatory. This is on top of everything else I drink in a day. Just to keep it simple. Okay guys. Let's get to work.

Many heroes have a history or family legacy that they must overcome. The Skywalker family seems destined to flirt with the Dark Side. Spiderman had to live with the guilt he felt after his uncle died. Natasha Romanov was taken from her family and raised to be an assassin. Few heroes seem born from easy circumstances. They all - we all - have things we need to overcome before we can be the heroes we dream of being. Me??? At my daughter's wedding, I was reminded of my family's destiny. As my last living aunt looked at the unfortunately overweight bride, she commented that every woman in our family ends up being fat. With a knowing look and resigned sigh, she looked at me and said, "Just wait." And I shook my head and replied, "Not happening." But it is a fact that my family of origin had terrible health habits, and I sometimes slide into them. This year's goal really is to continue with the progress I've made so far here at Nerd Fitness and accelerate it .... hitting some milestones and enjoying a lighter, stronger body by doing some of those fun runs and obstacle races. Frankly, committing to doing a race where I have to climb over things is scary. I hate heights. I am not very strong in my upper body. And I'm not very graceful. This is going to take some work over a year or two. Goals for THIS CHALLENGE 1) Tame the Sweet Tooth I generally know how to eat well, but I have a hard time stopping once I start eating refined sugars, refined carbs, or wine. For this challenge, I will be intentional and enjoy (in moderation) one evening when I can have dessert and a glass of wine or two. But 6 days out of 7 will be focused on whole grains, proteins, vegetables, some fruit, and avoiding sugar in all kinds of things (like so-called energy bars). 2) Get Over That Wall I'm still working on regaining the ability to do a pull-up. At the moment, I'm doing lat pull-downs and want to get strong enough to do 10x70, 10x75, 10x70 by the end of the challenge. I can currently do 65 pounds for most of three sets, but I'll need to work on my hand strength as well as arms and shoulders. How to get there .... by strength training 3 times each week and trying to increase weights each week. 3) Find Balance Last year, I was literally dreaming of doing a crow pose. Why? No clue. But I also want to be able to do a handstand. So, I'll be working on these two progressions through the year. For now - I need to work on wrist flexibility!!! How? Working it daily with the GMB folks. 4) Keep Moving Finish Season 2 of Zombies Run 5) Push Boundaries In college, I very much wanted to go to Greece during a January interim. But I didn't have the money. 34 years later, I have saved up enough to go on an alumni trip (organized by the same professor!!) - probably in January or June 2017. But I like to be able to understand the local language and read road signs. So .... my goal this year is to learn modern Greek!!! I had studied ancient Greek in college; so the alphabet isn't completely foreign, but I have a lot of learning to do. I got a book and audio set for Christmas and will do a lesson per week for each challenge. At 46 lessons, that should work out about right with the challenge schedule. Theme??? I'm kinda waiting to find out more about the new epic quests and such. I'm tempted to go back to a Star Wars theme. That's where I stared with Nerd Fitness, and I have a lot of history in Star Wars RPGs as Chris-Tien Jinn, the Jedi Master. Stay tuned.

GREETINGS, FELLOW REBELS. Is everyone else as excited to get this challenge going as I am?! LET'S PAR-TAAAY. Background I'm Zho. 26, female, 4'11", 136 pounds as of this morning -- my lowest weight in 10+ years. Torn between classes -- perhaps assassin, or ranger? My fitness goals can be summed up as something between "functional strength and movement for everyday life or emergencies" and "do cool stuff." (Oh, I forgot "look freakin' amazing." That's in there too.) I want to be able to lift heavy things for my day job, flee from an attacker if I have to, do a pull-up, hold handstands, etc. I really like parkour and Ninja Warrior stuff, but I won't be getting into that until later this year, probably. I also challenged my sister to a virtual 5k in April, but I have no idea why because I have zero openings to actually train right now. I'd probably never progress beyond a 5k; I'd rather get faster than go farther (further?). So, yeah. I'm all over the place. Anyway... let's move along, shall we? I was going to save the Zelda theme for another challenge, but I just can't help myself. It's my thing. Zho Tests Her Courage 1. FIND A SWORD & SHIELD. Strength training, at least three times a week. This challenge will cover weeks 2-5 of the beginner strong curves program. A = 3x/week | B = 2x/week | C = 1x/week 2. BE BRAVE. TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND. Practice handstands at least three times a week. 20 minutes of training each; this includes rest time. A = 12 sessions | B = 9 sessions | C = 6 sessions 3. LISTEN TO YOUR FAIRY. Maintain and follow my weekly meal plans. This one comes with a LOT of variables and mistakes (I've only just started weekly meal planning), so success hinges on if we pick up fast food for dinner (unplanned), or if I clearly overeat that day. A = 4 (or less) bad days | B = 7 bad days | C = 8+ bad days 4. REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. Fun life goal! Post a daily drawing in this thread. It doesn't have to be on time or drawn that same day, it just needs to be one fairly clean or finished drawing for every day of the challenge. A = 22+ days | B = 18+ days | C = 13+ days Rewards My 4-week reward is one shirt based off the theme of my next challenge. Here's what I'm currently considering: One, two, three, four. I might do a two-week reward of $10 towards more equipment, like ankle weights and socks. ;)