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I want to get back into strength training. I have been out now for about a month and a half. I want to do this by training 3* week before work. This would be on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and would be give me 15 training sessions by the end of the challenge. My routine is a modified 5*5 routine and includes stretching before and afterwards. A training session is 45min. To do this I would have to be in bed by 21:30, up by 04:15 🥺, start training by 05:15.

Hey everyone! So this is my second challenge and I hope that I am in the right place. If not, I suppose everything is a journey to enjoy until we are where we need to be. So I am going to be keeping this one rather simple. Still focusing on lifting heavy weights and healthy eating choices because I am on the road to a good looking lean ass body! I have come kind of far, but still have a long way to go and many obstacles to overcome. I have 2 Quests to concentrate on and 4 goals in total which I intend to hit each and every week of this 4 week challenge! QUEST: HEALTHY MUNCHIES GOALS: - Plan dinners at least one day ahead. - Meal prep lunches for the week every Sunday. QUEST: LOSE THE WEIGHT - Weight Train/Lift 4 - 5 times per week. - Add 2 - 4kg onto barbell within the next 4 weeks. I think that these goals and quests are more than attainable and I have full courage in myself that I will be crushing these goals every week! I am super excited and amped! Let's go, let's go!

I got a full size basement in May, but right now my Batcave is basic. I already had a small dumbbell set, some home made weights, and a macebell, but no space to use them in. My in-laws have some stuff I can get at Christmas: a bench, some floor padding, some loose weights which may or may not fit my dumbell bar. So I need to pick up some stuff and I want to minimize what I buy and how much I spend. Even Batman is picking stuff out of Wayne Enterprise's basement before he goes and just BUYS stuff. I want to scavenge, craft, or find for free, or quest for what I can. I'm going to see what I can do to make some spare cash to buy what I can't junk. I've already spied some scrap metal I can turn in for a few bucks behind my building. The wish list: Olympic Barbell - Picked one up as a Black Friday deal. 300# total weight for $180. That's about half of what I would normally have to spend. Barbell Rack - buying this. Pull Up Bar - I can do pull ups of the I-beam in the basement, but it's uncomfortable. I'd rather have a proper pullup bar. Floor padding - I want to muffle sound as much as possible. Deadlift Riser - The 45# plates for my barbell are a bit small so deadlifting is awkward. I want to get something to rest the plates on to raise them about an inch. Scrap lumber, basically. Parallel bars - For dips, basically. Super low on my list. Weight rack The goals: Find ways to quest for items Build the Bat Cave Get back into heavier weightlifting. Maintain running (30km per week)

When I hear CLEANSE, my immediate thoughts go to: Miserable and back to your old habits (and size) once you stop drinking carrot juice and start eating real food again. So when one of my best friends asked if I wanted to do a cleanse with her I was not interested at all until she sent me the info. This isn't a cleanse, it's a supplement enhanced jumpstart to a lifestyle change! And isn't that what I'm here for? I'm going to spare you the details (which sounds like a sales pitch) and I am in no way affiliated with the company. But I did a bunch of research about the supplements & vitamins, the ingredients, took it to a friend who's 100% organic and he even gave me the green light, blah blah blah... Basically, I'm going to take the magic mushroom and use it to defeat Bowser. This leads me to this month's challenge: Follow my Challenge Meal Plan. I generally followed the guidelines for the "24 Day Challenge" including the recommended times for the supplements and generally followed paleo throughout. I tried to plan varied meals and am going to cook for leftovers because the amount of cooking that I'll be doing is crazy and the amount of food consumed total will be much more than I'm used to (in frequency, not in portions). Water will be my friend. I'm going to be drinking over a gallon a day so I've started preparing for that early. I scheduled my meals and snacks around my work hours and my classes, that will be starting, so I will be setting myself up for success. Workout 5 days a week. Workout Spreadsheet Walk for 30 minutes twice a week. Bodyweight circuits three times a week with mixed cardio. Read 30+ minutes a day Textbooks (since I'm starting school again) Fun books (currently the Atlantis Plague, next Dresden Files book 4) Any of the other books I have lying around

Hello again, wonderful rebellion. Gosh, it's been a while since I was here! My name is Stoney and I need help. Mostly, a kick up the pants so I don't fall into a mental abyss of doing-nothingness. I left the rebellion last year after I finally felt comfortable in the real world, keeping up a healthy lifestyle and balancing being on the local Roller Derby team, going to the gym a few days a week, and working 40 hours a week on my feet in one of the local cafes. I was meal prepping, being awesome at my job, finally getting better as a derby player, getting enough sleep and generally kicking butt. So why am I back? Well, I broke my ankle. 11 days into January this year I stacked it at the skate park rolling backwards up a slight incline and snapped it in two places. Talk about ticking things off the bucket list! First skate park visit, first bone break, first hospital visit, first surgery... It was a fun week in hospital. Being forced to keep weight off one of my legs for 6 weeks basically took away all of the things that made me, well, me. No more working, no more derby, no more gym. Can't even drive a car (right ankle broken) so unless someone takes pity on me I am housebound. Going from that amount of activity to doing sweet FA has really thrown me for a loop. Coupled with the inability to sleep properly thanks to a moonboot strapped to my leg and I have completely lost my carefully crafted routine. I was really starting to enjoy my routine! For the first week at home I moped. To be fair I was also in a bit of pain and on some hard drugs for the pain of having 8 screws and a metal plate inserted into my leg so there's that... Plenty of napping and not a lot else. Week 2 and I gained a knee scooter so I am now a bit more mobile, but it doesn't help my wanting to go do things, like food shopping or drive my car or go to the gym. And I still can't weight bear so most exercises are out of the question. Doing basic household tasks are 12x harder then they should be. I ended up with a gym membership originally because being at the gym motivated me to do exercise more then being at home, knowing I could do stuff but choosing not to. But now I have no choice. After my 2-week post-op appointment and I got to see my leg for the first time since the break I knew I had to do something. My calf was deflated, bruised, and swollen all at once. I've already lost an inch off my immobile right calf and as a roller derby player who loves her legs it scares the crap out of me. I can't let the rest of my body deflate like that so it's exercise at home or turn into custard. This is where you guys come in. Because I have a bad track record of motivating myself and keeping up new habits like this I'm back on the forums to set some goals and hopefully stop the rest of my mind and body turning to jelly while I'm stuck at home twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my ankle to heal. My plan for now is to start right back at the beginning and work up. I've picked 5 basic bodyweight exercises I can do without the use of my right leg, and I'm going to do them every day. I started yesterday, on the 1st of February, with 1 rep of 1-leg pushups, tricep dips, and clamshells. I'm also throwing in a few core holds in 5 second increments - supermans and v-ups. Every day I'm gonna add a rep / time. It won't take very long for the first week or so, and it will get me back into the habit. I hope. If I fail a number of reps I'll take a rest day the next day and continue after that. My other plan is to generally look after myself while I'm here at home doing nothing. Might as well enjoy the break (haha) from everything while it lasts. I'm not doing much else but play video games and be on the computer, so I need to do so responsibly. 10 minutes break for every hour of technologising. And stretching / warming up before every exercise routine. My long-term goals right now are to walk like a normal person again, get back on skates and skate a full training session, get back into the gym, get back on my derby team and play a full bout. If I can do those things then I'll be as close to back-to-normal as I can possibly be. My surgeon said I might never get 100% movement back in my ankle so it's going to be a long road back to the derby track, but I reckon I can do it. I just need a kick up the pants occasionally. TL;DR; Roller Derby player, broke ankle, went from very physically active to non-weight-bearing and housebound. Hate it. Gonna do exercise. Help me.

I realized when I moved into my new apartment that the standard "ok, new place, I have to get a couch/chairs/ottoman/TV stand/coat rack/display case for the souls of my vanquished foes/etc." style of decorating wasn't something I wanted. It started with buying a pull up bar/dip station that took up a good chunk of the front room instead of a couch. Then it became a bench press/squat rack...and I realized the idea that I HAVE to get traditional furniture for my place just because was silly. I'm adding a heavy bag hanging station and full weight heavy bag next. My living room looks like a fitness center. I live in a gym, and I love it.

Hey ya'll! Does anyone have any recommendations for some floor tiles for a movement space? I'm looking at some foam jobs on Amazon, wondering if anyone has specific experience with a particular material or brand. This is a pretty raw room in a mostly unfinished basement - dry wall and insulation, but no heat, (I use a space heater), and - UGH - concrete floors. I want to find some affordable floor tiles that will make it more comfortable and safe to do bodyweight work, including very light tumbling like back extension rolls and stuff like that. Also (in case you know my jam) this is a secondary space, so I don't need anything super heavy duty to hold up under a power rack or whatever, just durable, comfortable and safe to put under a space heater since that's how this will get me through the winter. Thanks in advance!

Here I go again on my own. Going down the only road I've ever known... Every time I start from the beginning, I pick up more than before. Just a bit more sinks in and stays. I have the opportunity to start over and to have no obstacles except myself, for 7 weeks! I know that I am my own biggest challenge, but having nothing to add to it will help out a whole lot. Here's the plan: I have reset all my academy quests. I will actively be working on one quest (at least) a day. I'm going to hop right in and go for 6 workouts and 1 rest day each week. I still need to review the new workout paths, but I'm looking for barbell work to go with my new squat rack in the basement. I'm dreading my new starting pictures, but I need to acknowledged where I am now. So, here we go!

i had the same dilemma many people probably face, my gym had one power rack and 8000 pieces of isolation or cardio equipment. i hated having to go late at night just to ensure that i would be able to workout without waiting forever just to do squats and not being able to take a break between sets. i started looking around at home gym setups and what kind of workout i could do to make it worth investing in minimal equipment, since i would have to purchase all of it. i found (like most people) the Stronglifts 5x5 workout. it even has a handy app and a good amount of info about each lift and what equipment you need to buy. i started with the dick's special (against many recommendations online). i got a bench/stand combo, 300lbs of metal plates, and an olympic bar. i figured it would be a long time before i would have to invest in new things or more weight (even though i had squatted 315 recently, i didn't see me banging out 25 in a workout). i flipped the cups around and squatted off the back of it, even though it was a little short me. anywho, i didn't know what any of my max's were so here's where i started: Squat 95lbs Bench 75lbs Row 75lbs OH Press 45lbs Deadlift 135lbs now i did have to take a week off because i was traveling overseas and couldn't workout. i don't recommend it, i was completely free of DOMS, feeling great, and motivated. coming back i ignored the 10% deload recommendation (recommend following it) and was whipped. i was sore and didn't feel like doing it after the first night back. ridiculous turn for only a week off, but that's why i would do it on a schedule where you will not miss. either way, here's where i'm at currently: Squat 240lbs Bench 185lbs Row 185lbs OH Press 100lbs Deadlift 275lbs if you're familiar with the program you can guess that i skipped up a bunch of weight. i think i undersold how much i could lift and the exercises were not taxing. i recommend the program. the loading schedule, exercises, and app are all great. i don't know about the guy who runs it, i've read some stuff saying he's a little out there, but i've read most of his articles about the lifts and recommendations and they're not bad. i do not subscribe to emails, and i think that's where the issue some people had were. i do the pay version of the app and i feel it's worth the $10. which of course is peanuts compared to what i'm going to say next: spend the damn money on nice equipment. here's the truth of what i spent: $500 for my whole setup from dicks. this lasted me 5 weeks and i just had to replace almost every piece of it. the only thing i kept were the actual weights. i injured my hip/lower back unracking the weight (i have to unload off of the spotter bars to make it work and it's too short), and the next day when i pulled weights off the collar slid with it. the cheap bar had come unscrewed and i was lucky it did while i was unracking 25lbs instead of repping 250lbs. so i had to buy a new stand/rack, bar, and i went ahead and got some more 45s because i was tired of using so many change plates. this cost me $1000. i'm trying to sell the old bench/rack setup now, and it would be good for someone a little shorter or who wanted to do adjustable bench work. for me though, it wasn't optimal and i put price ahead of functionality and basically burned some money. you live and you learn, but if you have any questions about my setup, my experiences with 5x5, or anything else let me know. it's been fun.

Hi, Im Bill. A bit more than a year ago I started on this crazy little boat ride we call fitness. After a few missteps and false starts I found Nerd Fitness and CrossFit. I became a devout Ranger and fell in love with the functional fitness community. Everything was roses untill about a month ago. Two of my closest friends and training partners quit our gym for personal reasons. I tried to keep going regularly but I just wasnt having the same kind of fun I had thrived on. Then out of the blue my work schedule changed and I could only go maybe twice a week. I was no longer getting my monies worth out of my membership. Lame. This prompted me to quit and try something new. After some soul searching (and some Google searching), a few at home workouts, and some financial balancing, I decided to build my own garage gym. At first I wanted to make a space that I could do CrossFit on my own. low celings and a limited budget made that impossible. Calisthenics seemed like the way to go. Ive built a rig in the back yard for pullups and dips. Ive boarded up one wall for handstand practice. Ive built a plyo box because why not. Ive even been practicing parkour vaults and rolls. Its so much fun and the heaviest thing I have is a kettlebell. I guess this means Im not a Ranger anymore. Thats cool. I can be just as proud to be an Assassin. Or maybe a hybrid class? What would you call someone who does bodyweight work, dabbles in parkour, runs mud runs, rock climbs and backpacks, and still competes in CrossFit when work allows? For now Ill just call him Me.

Intro: I depend on exercise for good mental health. I learned this a couple of years ago and developed quite a healthy lifestyle, in which I've been thriving. I made exercise an absolute priority for some time, but life changes, and I'm facing a bigger challenge now -- graduating form Law school (last year!) -- and I had to channel time & money resources into that goal. So I had to give up my gym membership and my instructor, and with it went my gym routine, which guaranteed the discipline to attend workouts. I have a gym at home, in the apartment building I live in, which I share with other residents. It's good enough and I can work out there, I have. But doing it on your own... it's so damn hard, isn't it? So I struggled with the planning a little but now I found a plan which I'm confident I can follow. I found three spots in my schedule in which I can hit the gym: Tuesday evening, Friday afternoon and Sunday whichever time (I'm yet to find to right moment to workout then, but I will set one). Twice for strength and once for conditioning. Goal: Workout three times a week, at the previously set times. Reward: For each week I get the goal right, I get to post a gif of someone doing a victory dance . No more goals? No. I have too much going on to make goals out of everything. Each week, something has to give and usually does. The whole point here is making sure it's not my workout, lest I can't keep the sanity to carry on this madness of a life which is graduating Law school away from home.

Crunching the crimson leaves scattered underfoot, the Tinkerer carried his pack from the foothills around the village. Though his face showed signs of a summer's worth of sun and his boots barely surpassed tatters, his gait was confident and quick. The stout rope slung over his pack was obviously well used and the staff in his hand was polished smooth from wear. While I'd love to spend hours on the back story of the Tinkerer and his return to the village after a year's adventures in the mountains my real life adventures and work demand brevity. I hope that someday I'll be able to sit down and write - merely for the fun of it - the tale I have in mind of an Elven Blacksmith/Mountaineer. Today's tale however is about a busy 30 year old with a desire to improve his fitness. Introduction: My wife and I moved 400 miles this spring to be closer to family. We found an amazing house in need of a lot of work and I have a new job which also requires a lot of work. While we've stayed active over the summer, I want to improve myself over the winter. We both love rock climbing and I have discovered mountaineering is my sport of choice. As the weather in the mountains this time of year is terrible it's the perfect time to focus on training. I was more or less burned out on NF after my last unsuccessful challenge with the Rangers when I got a message from KylieWyotie. I figured, if he can come back after a big break, I may as well try! Thanks for reaching out, man. My focus is to improve my cardio abilities and my climbing abilites so that I can feel confident venturing into the mountains when the season is right. I hope to climb Mt. Rainier this summer and have some other more technical peaks in mind as well. Challenge: 1 - Run a 6:00 mile (+2 dex) and a 20:30 5k (+2 sta) 2 - Climb two 5.11a routes at the gym w/o falling (+3 str) 3 - Success on Weekday Morning Routine (+2 con, +2 str) 4 - Home gym (+2 cha, +2 wis) Fix lights Install pull-up bar and rings. Paint Floor covering Bonus - Run with Roy-the-Dog 2x per week on average How and why will I accomplish these tasks? Glad you asked! 1 - I will be moving the first week of the challenge. This week I'll run at least once. Following weeks, I'll run 3-5 miles at least twice. I will also, once per week, run a "time trial" for a 1-mile time. My fastest mile was 6:22 so I have my work cut out for me. I believe this is doable in six weeks if I actually try for it. +1 dex and +1 sta for each successful goal. 2 - Again, the first week will be a planned "skip". Following that, I'll be headed to the gym 1-2 times per week. The first time there, I will climb some 5-10 level routes and try some 5.11s. This should give me an idea of where I stand. I have the strength to climb 5.11 routes but need to work on skills. Practicing on routes for 5 weeks should result in success. +2 str for 1st successful climb, +1 for second. 3 - My morning routine will consist of 5-minutes ab/core work and eating breakfast (which I currently succeed at about 15% of the time). I'll start with planks but may venture into some L-lever work in the future. This is just designed to get me to think about fitness first thing in the morning. 1 Con - 24 Breakfast Points2 Con - 27 Breakfast Points1 Str - 24 Ab Points2 Str - 27 Ab Points 4 - THIS IS MY FAVORITE GOAL! Our new place has a room which we'll be turning into a workout room. Long term, it may have some rock-climbing holds to practice on but it needs a few other items first, like lights. We've already added a sweet new french door which will be great for morning light. I'll figure out how to post progres pics of this as it progresses. +1 point for each element. Attributes to be assigned based on project results. Bonus - My dog, Roy, needs a workout buddy. He loves to run but gets tired easily. I'll go on runs with him consisting of a mile at a reasonable pace. As his fitness improves this distance may increase. This goal will be delayed until he is out of his (ridiculous looking) cone-of-shame. Wrap Up: I think that's the challenge. I'm looking forward to trying this again and to catching up with the assassins. I'd love to get to know some others with climbing related goals, too!

So I have been gone for a while. I no longer had access to the gym I was training in during my last challenge and due to pure life exhaustion I did not bother finding a replacement. I spent a couple months letting my physical conditioning deteriorate while I recuperated mentally and emotionally, all the while knowing I needed to do something to get back on track. I still love weight training, and I want to get back into that at some point, but for now the main goal is to be practical and incorporate fitness training into my life in a way that makes sense and is attainable for me. Chapter 2: I took a leap and invested in a piece of fitness equipment I felt would be useful to me so that I could meet some goals I've been really wanting to work towards in terms of cardio and endurance training. The goal here is not necessarily calorie defecits or weight loss (but those would be nice), but instead it is to improve my cardiovascular endurance and my general metabolism. Although I just started this thready today, I have been training on my new Assault AirBike (look them up, they're intense) since the start of November, doing almost daily HIIT workouts before I go to work in the morning. Before I got the bike, I lost 3 lbs of muscle mass, and since I have been training, I've gained one lb back. I can feel the strength returning in my legs and I am very happy about that. I set informal missions for myself over the past month that go something like this 1) HIIT workout on airbike 3-5 times per week (20 minutes/day) 2) Eat clean, wholesome food (follow some basic paleo principals, but I do incorporate quinoa and some other basic ancient graines occassionally) 3) Get adequate sleep every night (no less than 6 hours, ideally 8 hours) I have also informally set a life quest for myself as I have started knitting again, with the goal of creating small pieces for friends and family during the holiday season. I have completed 4-5 projects so far and currently have one on the go. I have been feeling guilty about slipping away from the NF community so I wanted to put the work I have been doing for the last month into a formal challenge thread to help keep me motivated to continue. My current HIIT workout regime is adapted from one that I found on a web page called 4 Brutal Fan Bike Workouts where they give a beginner HIIT workout that spans over 6 weeks. I have decided to convert the 6 weeks into 6 levels since cardio has never been my strong suit and I feel that I need more time to adapt to the difficulty levels before moving on to the next. This is how my training has progressed: Week 1/Level 0.5 - Had to build my way up to being able to sustain maximum output for 10 intervals of 10 seconds each. I started with 5 high intensity intervals, and used week 1 to build my way up to being able to do the full 10 intervals with 5 minutes warm up and 5 minutes cool down.Week 2/ Level 1 - 3 workouts were performed at level 1 with 10 full intervals of 10 seconds at high intensity, with 5 mins each of warm up and cool down. 2 other workouts were performed that week with less high intensity intervals.Week 3/ Level 2 - performed 5 workouts with 10 x 15 second high intensity intervals. These were at the maximum of my ability and left me ready to fall off the bike by the time I was done. I decided to repeat Level 2 into week 4Week 4/ Level 2 - performed 5 workouts with 10 x 15 second high intensity intervals. I am now currently on Week 5 of my training and I will be attempting to move up to level 3, where each of the 10 high intensity intervals will last for 20 seconds. Wish me luck!

I was that nerdy kid in high school that stayed 110lbs for no reason, regardless of how much he ate. And apparently thought his teenage metabolism would follow him wherever he went. Three years later, I've gained 60 lbs and am looking pretty worse for wear. I stumbled upon nerd fitness a week ago, grokked paleo, and something inside me snapped. What am I doing? Am I okay with how I look and feel right now? 24 hours later I had thrown out my pantry and picked up the staples for a paleo diet. I'm a computer programmer for a large company who sits around all day, and am too broke supporting myself to get a xfit subscription. Being a naturally solitary person, I've been collecting home gym ideas -- PVC dip rigs, parallettes, and am in the process of buying a weight set (in the meantime I use the "robber bar" for my apartment for overhead squats). Onto accountability... I've been logging most everything I do on http://www.fitocracy.com/profile/Dwaylu3/?feed . You'll see it's very recently I went from the mentality of "If I do enough pushups and situps..." to "I need to get my ass in shape." Goals: Stop looking like a stereotype of a computer programmer Drop at least 20 lbs in 6 months Get into a routine and mindset of a healthy person -- No more all night gaming sessions fueled by Monster and Doritos.