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Welcome friends and visitors! My name is annyshay (Shannon IRL for new Camp Nerd Fitness - CNF - friends). I'm a thirty-something single physician currently subspecializing in Infectious Disease (aka germs and how to kill them) for children and adults in Minneapolis. I joined the Rebellion in 2012 and have been leveling up in various ways since then. Work and depression recently conspired to undo much of my progress related to body composition, but these forces of darkness could not undo my Fellowship of Rebels or the mental and emotional progress that I made over the last 4 years. I respawned in June 2016 and have continued to struggle with stress, cookies, and staying active. Luckily, I'm returning from the MAGIC of CAMP NF with renewed Character, Ability, Mind, and Purpose. I have many celebrations, stories, and lessons to share along with boatloads of gratitude for this amazing community, but the specifics will have to wait until I catch up more on sleep. Never the less, out of these experiences I've chosen to rebuild my foundational habits in line with my quests and eventual Level 50. Also, I plan to process and repackage my CNF experience in order to share as much as possible with all y'all. Plus, it's not annyshay's thread without bonus rambles! Main Quest (see Battle Log link in signature for more details) - Visit the Southern Water Tribe Joint Movements I was able to attend "Moving with Longevity" with Jonathan Mead on 2 of 3 mornings at CNF. This meditative movement through the full rang of motion of my joints was revealing and liberating. Basic mobility is a foundation I want to lay for decades of future healthy movement. I plan to complete this series every morning immediately after my morning bathroom visit and before my shower and breakfast. Journal Amy Clover is an amazing Jedi that I plan to add to my Jedi Counsel after attending two classes with her - "Rising Above Emotional Eating" and "Create Your Hero Toolkit". She reminded me of the power of journaling and encouraged me to use it as a tool for approaching those times when I am no longer hungry but want to eat. It's a way to identify the real, raw needs that I am trying to palliate with food. No screens One CNF quest (there were MANY) was to remove one obstacle that doesn't support my journey. This is a clear choice for me, since screens in the bedroom only lead to disordered sleep. Busy, stressed, badass Shannon needs excellent sleep. Simple and hard. I'll be aiming to post every day even if things get nuts at work. I know you've all got my back, and I can't wait to jump back into the challenges together!

God. At this point, I am literally asking both the NFR community and God, am I doing something wrong? Because it seems like every time I try to do something to prepare my body and help it, it just hurts me more, instead. I do warm-up sets with squats. I get to the actual set, and I end up finding myself not having enough strength and balance to push up from the bottom of the squat, and I go tumbling back. I do warm-up sets with squats the next time, and I hurt my left knee on the warm-up set with nothing but the bar. I try to do calf and leg stretches to help my sore left knee and shin, and my shin ends up feeling stiff and sore for the remainder of the night, AND my left knee still hurts a little. Now it's been about two weeks since I've been to the gym, and I'm still feeling soreness in the left side in the center of my left shin, and the left side of my left knee. I would put ice on it, but then that means I would have to empty out all of the ice trays and hold a bag of ice to my leg and knee all day, which I can't do. I would take medication to help whatever's going on get fixed, but I can't do that, either. I would lay down all day and just rest my legs, but I can't do that at home because of all the chores and housework I find myself doing for two hours, and when I'm back in school, I've got to carry a backpack full of books to and across campus all day. Also, I feel like shit when I do nothing physical all day. I did try elevating my feet or knees last night, though. I think it helped some.

I've been doing StrongLifts for a little while now and making decent progress. I'm at the point where I'm squatting my body weight (140#) and have realized that the difficulty comes not from my muscles not being strong enough, but because at the bottom of my squat, all I can feel is the strain on my hip joints. I've tried widening my stance, narrowing my stance, moving where my toes point, checking my form otherwise, and nothing seems to make a whole lot of difference. Is it simply too heavy? I mean, I can manage to do 4-5 reps in a set, but I feel like my form does suffer a bit -- like I'm leaning forward as I push up. I guess the bottom line is: has anyone else had this happen, and do you have any tips? If I back down on the weight and, say, do more reps per set, would that be likely to help? I'm getting a little frustrated over here -- I want to up my weight but it doesn't seem like I'll be able to anytime soon.

Okay, I've done a cursory search and can't find anything on this specifically. Apolgoies if I missed something obvious. I was doing some heavy bag cardio a week ago and suddenly my right shoulder began to hurt. I've continued my work outs as it doesn't seem to impeded any of the pushups, situps et al I'm doing. However, I inadvertently did a forward shoulder roll after finishing some stretching and now it seems to be worse. I explored it a little and it seems okay, though aches, when I do pushups but if I try to ease my self to the floor wtih just my right arm, the shoulder hurts and gives out. Is this indicitive of a muscle injury or something more like a meniscal or ligament injury? To complicate things I don't have any money or insurance to trott off to the doctor and investigate. Any suggestions are helpful but if the bottom line is 'go to the doctor' that will have to wait for now. Thanks in advance.

Hey all, I am noticing that the tendon in my wrists are hurting. I am worried that this is a early sign of either carpal tunnel or tendonitus. I want to start Steve's Nerd Fitness Rebellion Level 1 workout, but I'm wary with this new pain... Any suggestions with types of exercises that do not put too much strain on wrists, elbows, and knees?