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The time has come to throw the Harkonnen dogs off Arrakis, along with their pompous Corrino masters! The indigenous Fremen, ancestors of the wandering Zensunni, shall see to this reality, employing the newly learned Weirding Way to not only match, but to overcome the Empire's very best. Long live the fighters of Muad'Dib! For those not familiar, the Weirding Way refers to the fighting style learned by the Fremen in the sci-fi novel Dune by Frank Herbert. I have recently begun reading Dune once again. It has perhaps been about 7-8 years since I last picked the book up. Each time I read it, I realize something I had missed before. Seems it is always worth revisiting. And this time I plan to finally venture into the rest of the Dune series. The challenge itself is not terribly different from the last one. I am simply going with a Dune theme to give it more flavor. And it's just plain fun! The Weirding Way seems an appropriate name for my training, as it is a culmination of mental and physical training that results in extreme ability. My results probably won't be quite so extreme (such as moving so fast it appears as teleportation), but it's the same idea. It means extreme mental focus, and extreme control over all the muscles in one's body (the Bene Gesserit could supposedly move the very last joint in their toe precisely, without moving anything else). Such ability can only come from discipline and consistent effort. ***UPDATE AS OF 09/19/2015 - I will be posting a reboot of my goals in a new post within a day or two. Rehashing the same stuff from the last two challenges isn't working. It's uninspiring. I think I had the right idea, but I need something new and interesting to spice things up (hehe, spice...the spice must flow ). Also, I need to make it as simple as possible. Simple is good. It creates less anxiety, and enables me to better roll with the punches life throws at me. More to come.*** Here's the breakdown of the goals: Goal 1: Daily Routine - These are the same daily practices I employed in the last challenge. +4 Wis, +1 Con Sleep - Get to bed no later than midnight, every night.Meditation - Every day, for at least 8 minutes or more.Priorities - Every day, make a list of priority tasks I intend to accomplish that day. Writing it makes it more relevant, and I am more likely to do it.Goal 2: Body Weight Exercises - This is the same exercise routine I employed in the last challenge. It is more or less designed to enhance my ability to train in parkour/ freerunning, as well as improve overall strength and muscle endurance. This routine is to be done 4 times per week, as before. +3 Str, +2 Dex Air squats - 3 sets of 15 reps.Pull-ups - 3 sets of 4 reps.Decline push-ups - 3 sets of 15 reps.Decline bridges - 3 sets of 15 reps.Short stretching routine at the end of workout.Parkour training can be done as a substitute for this routine.As before, more reps or sets can be added, depending upon how my body is adapting. Currently, the above numbers are still challenging if I'm doing everything at a fairly rapid pace, circuit-style. Goal 3: Weekly Routine - This is the new stuff. Well, not really new. I was often doing this on the side, intermittently. Now it is to be a consistent, weekly effort. +2 Dex, +2 Wis, +1 Sta Parkour/Karate - 1x/week, dedicated training of parkour and/or karate skills. This can take place at home, but preferably in a park or anywhere else outdoors, where there are obstacles that can be utilized. Weather permitting of course. I will also often include my 4 year old in the training, as I often do. She enjoys seeing daddy jump around, as I enjoy coaching her through basic jumps, rolls, and other movements (she has been amazing me with her cat grab/hang lately). She is also going to start in a kids karate class as this challenge kicks off, which will very likely rekindle my own interest in karate. It's good for both of us, incentive to stay active for the rest of our lives.Yoga - 1x/week, attend a class at the YMCA. I've established a pretty good habit of meeting my sister at the Y on a weekly basis for this. It's been good for both of us to get out of the house, and as always, yoga does a world of good for my back. Solo Walk/Run - 1x/week, take a walk by myself, somewhere. Or a run, if I'm feeling it. Doesn't really matter where. At least cover one mile. I tend to go for several walks throughout the week as it is, with my daughter, but the point here is to get at least one walk in where it's just me and my own thoughts. A time to reflect, as well as move. Also always, these goals are simply bare minimums. I am always free to do more reps, more sets, longer practices, etc. I just want to make sure I am at least hitting the minimums consistently. Even if I don't feel like it that day. Even if it doesn't make me into a remarkable athlete. The point is to be a little bit better each day. Thanks for reading...and long live the fighters of Muad'Dib!

What? Another turncloak assassin? Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I'm always looking for excuses to head outdoors for hiking, exploration, and other fun stuff. Plus, all of the parkour people seem to be here these days, so I'm going to Ranger it up for this challenge. A little about me: For each area, the goal is to reach 100 points over the course of the challenge. I'm expecting to do my usual parkour classes and climbing sessions during the challenge. But, I don't specifically get any points for any of them. Goal 1: Explore the area around the vault -hike on a trail that I've never done before (+20) (I love hiking, but I tend to go back to old favorites rather than try new things) -go climbing outdoors (+20) -attend an outdoor parkour meet up (+20) -go on parkour jogs of 2+ miles (+5 pts/jog) -go on a 2+ mile nature walk (+2 pts/walk) -go camping (+20) -go canoeing and fishing (+20) -collect new videos of doing parkour outdoors. (+5 pts/video) -do misc. outdoorsy stuff that seems to fit here (+? pts.) (new) -learn about the flora and fauna native to Shenandoah. Be respectful of the wildlife while camping. Try to identify plants and such while hiking (+5 pts) -learn to identify the local snakes, and learn about their behaviors (+5 pts) -learn about the native wildlife in Shenandoah 2. Avoid Rad Poisoning -only 1 alcoholic drink/week (mmm.. football booze) during the challenge (+5 pts/week with 0 or 1 drinks) -no soda at all (+5 pts/week) -try new recipes (+10 pts/recipe) (mmmm.. iguana on a stick) -do batch cooked meals in the crock pot (+5 pts/meal) -5 times/week, eat a serving of veggies first for evening snack (+5 pts/week) 3. Level up my game -be able to do Kong vaults with no hesitation (+20 pts) -learn a new yoga pose from the yogajournal.com Advanced Challenge poses (+20 pts) -30+ second rail balance or completely walk across the rails at the parkour school (maybe 25 feet long with turns). (+20 pts) -successfully land a lache that is far enough that I couldn't just reach and grab the next bar (+20 pts). -Climb a new route that is at least a 5.10+ (+20 pts) -Do something that absolutely terrifies me (probably from the parkour obstacle class). (+20 pts) -Weapon practice (+1 pts for each 15 minutes) -Progress through Age of Pandora. (+2 pts for every chapter finished) 4. Study the Big Book of Science: -swift or Xcode tutorials (+10 pts per non-trivial tutorial) -work through swift manual (+1 pt/10 pages) -complete non-trivial project Euler programs (+5 pts/program) (new) +1 point for project Euler program, but coding must be in Swift -resume Duolingo practice (+ 1 pts for every 50 XP on Duolingo). -make some sort of math education app for my kids to play with (+25 pts/finished app) -read (+5 pts/book) -do science experiments with the kids (+5 pts/experiment) 5. Keep the camp clean and comfortable: -Keep the house close enough to guest-ready that I never have to decline my kids' request to have friends over. (+5/week) -learn a new piano song (+20) -paint Russian doll minions (+5 pts/doll) - morning adulting before play - after getting kids on the bus, must take care of adulting tasks before hopping on the computer or relaxing (+5 pts/week) -uploading vacation photos and creating a vacation photo album for the kids (+10 pts). + ??? points for any other significant adulting, cleaning, or crafting related task. I'm sure things will come up during the course of the challenge, and I'll assign appropriate points to them.

http://youtu.be/yPq_NVi-TC4 -What will it take to save what remains? Hello Everyone! Wolfie here! It’s time for another challenge and I couldn’t be more excited for my 2nd take over here with the Rangers. Bred as an Assassin, I have become the Ultimate Hybrid now after having defeated the Indomnius Rex and all her glory! I have taken my skills with bodyweight and parkour and decided to finally work towards being good at ALL THE THINGS and Ranger Up for good. I want to extend a HUGE thanks to everyone whom supported me last challenge, it was one helluva “welcome party†to the guild! A little bio about me- I joined NF back in September of 2012 and have loved every minute of being here. The people here are amazing and it’s become a second home for me-something you couldn’t ask more from a community of likeminded nerdtastic badasses. I left NF and came back two separate times. The first time was rough because my wife and I had separated for a year and was on the verge of divorce. Thankfully we were able to work things out and become a better couple for it all. Plus, we ended up having a reunion baby-my 3rd son, Orin (named after Aquaman). I have 3 handsome boys whom I have dubbed “the wolf pupsâ€. They are the loves of my life and I’m thankful every day for them! Then there’s my beautiful wife-where I would be without her, I would NEVER want to find out again. She is a terrific support and wonderful wife/mother. After Heather and I got back together I joined NF again-but this was short lived because we had a new baby on the way and just tons of stuff to work on in order to get our lives back on track. I left again..then came back, with more fire, more knowledge and more NF rebel in me than ever before. And then I joined you guys-the Rangers. What a move I made. I love it over here. Back when I first joined NF, I REALLY contemplated Ranger or Assassin…and ended up going with the latter, but realized mid-way through the last challenge that this is where I was supposed to be! I want to be an OCR athlete. I want to get sponsored one day and be able to provide for my family doing what I love. This will happen soon, very soon. This may seem crazy considering I haven’t even ran my 1st OCR race, but it’s coming up...on ALL HALLOW’S EVE! October 31st I’ll pit my will and grit against the Spartan Beast! I’ve been training extensively for it since the beginning of June and have turned myself into quite the trail running monster. I’ve even dropped a little weight in that time frame. I’m just as strong-but now I’m faster. I still have a lot of work to do, but the challenge is there for the taking! Being this is the last leg of my training before I take on the Beast, I will also be entering the world of The Division. The Division is a next gen game coming out sometime in the middle of next year. It looks absolutely AMAZING. In the game, you will play as an agent of the Security Homeland Division aka “The Divisionâ€, when a deadly outbreak hits on Black Friday, shutting the government down within 5-days! It is up to you and the other SHD agents to save New York City and stop this deadly pandemic. Here’s a little description I pulled from the source: We live in a complex world. The more complex it gets the more vulnerable it becomes. We’ve created a house of cards: remove just one, and everything falls apart. Black Friday-a devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City, and one by one, basic services fail in only days. Without food or water, society collapses into chaos. The Division, an autonomous unit of sleeper agents, is activated. Leading seemingly ordinary lives among us, these agents are trained to operate independently in order to save society. When society falls, we rise. As a solo operative able to work off the grid, I will need to be prepared for the unknown. My mind and body must be stronger than steel. I need to be as flexible and nimble as a cat and my endurance will need to match that of my namesake, the Wolf. A SHD agent does not fear what is ahead, but instead, runs towards the danger. They are willing to risk their lives to save someone at a moment’s notice. However, they do not throw their lives away recklessly-they are intelligent, cunning, and relentless. I will start out as a Recruit and will work my way through the grinder, ultimately preparing me for my first mission-taking on the Glen Rose Beast. A ruthless, 13+ mile course with over 30 obstacles. I have prepared multiple trophies I can earn during this challenge and reaching each milestone will bring me closer and closer to the Beast. With a steady aim and unbreakable spirit, I KNOW I CAN DO THIS. Wolf "Let the Boomstick do the talking."

"Hunters once prowled the wilderness and wastelands, taking big risks for even bigger rewards. You're no outlaw — at least, not anymore — but making your own luck has always meant bending the rules." "If you learn nothing else, learn this: when a Hunter takes up the cloak of a dead comrade, this is a vow." - Hardcase Cloak, Destiny. If the last challenge was intended to be "new, more fun and dynamic," this one will be the most epic, life-altering, and most dynamic yet. Featuring all sorts of side missions, bounties, and achievements, my goal is to allow myself to choose my own adventure as I go, picking up activities as I have the time and motivation. My Main Quest is to be the most Bad-Ranger-Ass version of myself possible and to keep moving forward with an aim to gamify and nerdify daily life, injecting a measure of excitement and adventure to break up the drudgery of mortal reality. I have more or less made a routine of good nutrition, regular attendance to CrossFit, tracking all of my meals on MyFitnessPal, and have attempted some small life hacks with a positive overall effect on my day to day. Now it is crunch time though, and the Hunter is never satisfied with "good enough." Starting weight: 194 lbs. Maximum pullups: 8 strict. Goal: 10. Requires reevaluation. Mission 0-1: Path of the Hunter (+3 CON) Follow meal & nutrition model as prescribed, primarily relying on whole foods and breaking the junk food trend.Adhere to Control Day protocols on days that I do not workout.Bonus Quest: Before & After pictures.Mission 0-2: Path of the Drifter (+2 STR, +4 DEX) Practice double-unders once per week. Follow The 20 Pull-up Challenge program twice per week.Attempt a Survival Parkour™ technique once every two weeks minimum.Mission 0-3: Path of the Nomad (+3 STA) Conduct three (3) Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol missions (minimum of 3km) with a weighed rucksack during the challenge.Bonus Sub Quest: Build a GoRuck style brick for rucking.Return to the Rock Climb two (2) times before challenge ends.Life Mission: Life-Hacking v1.0 for Growth and Profit (+2 WIS, +1 CHA) Adhere to debt repayment ($500 per month minimum), savings (automated through e-banking), and budget (no frivolity or major gear purchases). Drink a Bulletproof Chai tea three (3) times weekly.F.lux may only be disabled after hours for two (2) nights per week.Skill Mission 0-1: Surviving the Frontier [Wilderness Lore, level 2.5] Adhere to Wilderness Lore level 2.5 & 3 curriculum.Study one survival subject twice weekly as per outline. Spend minimum of 30 minutes per two weeks engaging in a practicum on this subject.Skill Mission 0-2: Multi-Tasking All The Things Three (3) DuoLingo lessons per week.Practice photography techniques weekly.[Rise of the Vanguard] Achievement: Press [X] to hack the Lock Box... Completing this challenge will award the epic drop... something yet to be determined. Challenge Inspiration: Destiny's Hunter, Star Wars: The Old Republic's Bounty Hunter, and all of those wasteland-walking, outpost-raiding, bounty-chasing hunters who make it their business of thriving among the shady vestiges of society where anything can happen and they must constantly be on the top of their game. It isn't enough to merely survive; one must thrive in even the most adverse of conditions. That means we're going to continue building upon the foundation of functional fitness and skills I've started, constantly adapting, improvising, and improving my abilities to become the most resilient, capable, and adaptable version of myself possible.

There he was, standing on top of the hill. It was icy cold outside. "Winter came early", he said out loud, while his breath formed small steamy clouds in front of his face. He tightened his cloak around his shoulders so that only the the fur on his chest and face was visible. His ears were pointing straight ahead, focussing on some sound in the distance. Even though the blanket of snow muffled the sound of the nature, life in the surrounding villages had yet to die down. The last traders were packing their waggons to leave in the direction of the city, he knew that this was the last chance to leave this place before the passes were closed. He followed an old trail to the largest village in the area and the only sound that could be heard was the crackling snow under his bare paws. Around noon, he reached the village and the smell of animals and goods surrounded him. Most traders have already left and there was only a single large waggon left. He sneaked to it and hid himself inside under a plane in between sacks of wool, the main export product of this area. "At least, I won't be freezing" he thought and shortly thereafter fell asleep, only awoken by the feeling of the moving waggon before he drifted back into sleep again. "Falling asleep is not always a good thing" was his second thought. His first thought was: "This is a very sharp knife at my throat". "What are you doing here?" the trader shouted, with a voice that is not really expecting an answer. "Where do you think, you are going?". Not really sure about the answer, he replied "The city". "And why should I carry you all the way over there? For free? I could just throw you out in the cold!". "Well...", he thought about it as much as the knife allowed it, "This is a long lonely trip...and I have my own food". The old man seemed to think about the answer, before he replied: "Yes, the trip is long. And I think I can not blame you for leaving this godforsaken place. I agree. But do not even think about stealing my stuff" and with these words, the knife vanished in between his clothes. "I am Brian, what do you want in the city?" "I am Ulfgard. I don't really know, I think i will join the assassins guild". "The assassins?", Brian burst out in laughter and his arm touched him, not too gently, at his belly. "Then travelling to the city is only the smallest part of your journey". to be continued

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGE CONTAINS SUPERNATURAL SPOILERS FOR SEASON 8. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. ALSO I HAVEN'T SEEN SEASON 9 OR 10 YET SO NO SPOILERS PLEASE! Welcome to the bunker bitches. I’m once again using this challenge to see what I can do and how far I can come. Last challenge I learned how to dolphin kick, and how to hold my breath. This challenge will be all fun and games….at least until someone gets shots in the chest with rock salt. My main focus will be to build up endurance, flexibility, and to have fun. (also Supernatural themed because I can) Main Quest: SEAL THE GATES OF HELL I get a lot of questionable doubt, both from myself and others around me. These are my demons. And they need to get back to hell. I want to build up my stamina and endurance, improve flexibility, and to gain strength. I want gain knowledge and use it as the lock and key to seal these demons away in hell. First Mission: ACQUIRE & SAFEKEEP THE DEMON TABLET I'll have to work hard to not only acquire the demon tablet, but make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands (*cough*Crowley*cough*) Mermaid training M & FParkour workout M-W-FO2 and/or CO2 training on Weds.This will work on my endurance, stamina, and strength. Things needed if I’m going up against demons. Second Mission: ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES When your trying to outsmart the King of Hell and run from Angels, while hunting down the things that go bump in the night…you gotta be kinda flexible. I will work on flexibility for at least 5 min or do yoga on my “off†days. Su-Te-Th-Sa Third Mission: DECIPHER THE DEMON TABLET It’s going to take a lot of work to decipher a tablet written in a language even Angels can’t understand. 5 min review vocab5 min grammar5 min reading5 min Kanji reviewI’ll have to do this every four hours (8,12,4,8). This will be on a point system. Each item is worth 1 “wordâ€, for a total of 16 “words†a day. Listening and reading podcast notes can substitute for 15 min of vocab, grammar, and reading. Fourth Mission: COMPLETE THE DEMON TRIALS There are three trials that need to be completed in order to seal the gates of hell. But I won’t know what these trials are until I decipher the demon tablet. Motivation: Always Keep Fighting I admire both Jared and Jensen as actors and as crazy human beings. Their characters in the show motivate me, but so does their campaign, Always Keep Fighting. That’s all the motivation I’ll need.

Second post today, woops. Anyway I have been relearning the parkour roll and discovered that I am not very good at it. Meaning it turns into a barrel roll consistently every. single. time. I have leaned my head inward, needled my arm through the shoulder area. And it does not seem to work. I think I have a hard time bringing my legs in and getting into a ball. It's getting a tad frustrating, so if anybody has any tips on what to do it would be appreciated

"A famous explorer once said that the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are. I'd finally set out to make my mark, to find adventure, but instead adventure found me. In our darkest moments, when life flashes before us, we find something. Something that keeps us going. Something that pushes us. When all seemed lost, I found a truth... and I knew what I must become."­ ~ Tomb Raider, 2013. Presenting a new, more fun and dynamic challenge... My Main Quest is, as always, to bring in an element of adventure and fantasy to the drudgery of everyday life, and through those elements create a more exciting and capable lifestyle that echoes my nerdy interests. I will become an adventurer, a survivor, a bad-ass. This challenge represents my best real-world interpretation of what the traditional Ranger archetype would embody in modern times. Starting weight: 194 lbs. Maximum pullups: 8 strict. Goal: 10. Mission/Goal 1: Who's the Top of the Food Chain Now? (+3 CON) Follow the Eat To Perform nutrition model as prescribed, using whole foods as much as possible.Adhere to Control Day protocols on days that I do not workout.Mission/Goal 2: Keep Moving Forward to Survive (+2 STR, +4 DEX) Practice double-unders once per week. Follow The 20 Pull-up Challenge program.Attend two Olympic Weightlifting classes before Challenge end.Attempt a Survival Parkour™ skill once every two weeks minimum.Mission/Goal 3: The Road Less Traveled (+3 STA) Bicycle rather than drive minimum of two shifts per work set (weather permitting). Bonus points awarded if whole set biked.Complete one day hike. Minimum of 5 kilometers.Life Quest: A Golden Opportunity (+2 WIS, +1 CHA) Maintain debt repayment/savings budget. Put aside $20 per week for Achievement reward.Retain apartment cleaning habits. One dedicated cleaning day per 8-day work week.Put the 'Nerd' back in 'Nerd Fitness' by beginning one new video game. In Progress.Skill Quest 1: Rurik Versus Wild [Wilderness Lore, level 2] Adhere to Wilderness Lore level 2 curriculum.Study one bushcraft subject twice weekly as per outline. Spend minimum of 30 minutes per two weeks engaging in a practicum on this subject.Skill Quest 2: It All Comes Together When You Speak the Language [Linguistics (French), level 1] One thirty minute session of language study per two weeks.Complete three sets of daily Duolingo lessons per week.[Rise of the Adventurer] Achievement: Press [X] to open the Treasure Chest... More gear upgrades! Completing this challenge will award the epic drop Adventure Pants™ (http://store.tripleaughtdesign.com/Legionnaire-RS-Pant), a new leg slot upgrade to celebrate a stabilized waist size and embrace my new found sense of adventure and love of the outdoors. Challenge Motivation: Tomb Raider, Uncharted, Mission Impossible, Bourne Identity, survival, and adventure! Summer continues and I'm going to be outdoors killin' it. Might as well try on some new skills to test my mettle going forward. We humans are adaptable and I want to push the envelope of making myself 'harder to kill' by building a foundation of functional real world skills that are practical, useful, and enjoyable. For further motivation, I will be beginning to assess myself against the CrossFit Beginner metrics as prescribed by CrossFit Thames: http://crossfitthames.com/Docs/SkillLevels3.pdf. This will create a real world level of proficiency to measure myself against, and a new standard to aim for in the coming months. Let's do this!

To my fellow Assassins, If you are reading this, well...you're probably stuck in this little room with an excessive amount of walkers against all four walls. You see that window up above you? Use a wall run, grab the sill, do a climb up, jump across to the fire escape. Sounds dangerous? Think I'd rather let parkour kill me on a supply run than walkers. If I made it, you'll see a crude drawing of an Assassins Creed jacket on the wall. Maybe'll you see it on the way down. Maybe you'll be the one to scratch out my masterpiece. But whatever you do, don't be scared. You're pretty screwed either way you go in this world. Just keep moving forward. Oh. And hope you learned something from all those parkour videos I'm assuming you watched before the world went to shit. Ciao. ------- Welcome to my...not sure what number challenge this is actually but it's a challenge nonetheless and I'm back with the Assassins squad! Due to my current obsession (and serious withdrawal) with the Walking Dead, that's the theme for this here 6-week challenge of mine! Hope you enjoyed my survivors' note, now onto my quests and the like! Main Quest: Prepared for the Apocalypse We don't know when the zombie apocalypse is actually going to descend upon us. So I'd like to take this challenge (and perfect timing of the Walking Dead spinoff starting) to try and make sure I'm well prepared. Quest 1: Queen of Supply Runs Thanks to the sudden uprising of ravenous dead people, supplies are pretty scarce. You had a lot of people trying to stock up or do supply runs just like me. However, supply runs don't always go very neatly nor leave the runner with much life in them. (Haha, get it, I made a funny. Life undead, you get the joke, right? ...moving on.) The thing about being good about supply runs is getting from point A to B quickly, foraging what you can carry and then getting back from point B to A. The e best way to do this? Some good ol' fashioned parkour. It also comes in handy for making quick exits. A = Training sessions 2-3x a week B = Training session 1x a week C = Training session every other week. Quest 2: Don't Stop Running Do we call them walkers? Yes. Does that mean they walk slow? No. A crowd walking will slow down a runner no problem. The solution to this problem? Be faster than the crowd so as to not get caught up. Or the group of Hunters that want to use you as a decoy. Oh, and of course, be able to run for a while - you're gonna need to put as much distance as possible between you lot. A = Complete 6 weeks of Zombies Run! 5k Training App B = Complete 5 weeks of ZR!5k C = Complete 3 weeks of ZR!5k Quest 3: Advanced Melee Fighter Guns make quite a bit noise, no matter how effective they are. Noise attracts walkers. Translation: use weapons that don't make a lot of noise, like crowbars and bats. Or a katana. Katanas are nice too. And to be able to swing them repeatedly for extended periods of time, I'd better be comfortable throwing my weight around! THE FORCE WILL BE WITH MY BAT. A = Complete NF bodyweight circuit 3x a week. B = Complete NF bodyweight circuit 2x a week. C = Complete NF bodyweight circuit 1x a week. Side Quest: Scenic Route Won't Kill You. Just because the world's overrun with ravenous decomposing bodies doesn't mean it's not a beautiful sight to be found. There are pretty scenic routes one can take here and there. A = Take one picture of beautiful scenery 3x a week B = Pictures 2x a week C = Picture 1x a week Motivation: The zombie apocalypse is going to come as a surprise...I will be ready!!

This challenge - elemhh – Slays the slayers. When I set up my profile I decided that my race would be vampire. I have loved vampire stories since I was a kid and when left to my own devices my sleep routine levels eventually has me going to bed around 7am and getting up around noon. Even though there are lots of fandoms I would like to play in, it seemed appropriate that my first two themed challenges be vampire related. So this challenge is me slaying the would-be vampire slayers before they can come for me. Each slayer will represent an area that I am working on. I set my previous challenge up to be a pass or fail, I had to work on it every day or fail the whole challenge. I will be doing a slightly less strict version of it this time too. Rather than missing one session making me fail the whole challenge, this time it would only make me fail the quest relating to the activity that I've missed. It may seem like I have a lot of quests, but 3 of them are just continuing on from my last one. Each quest will be represented by a vampire slayer that will need to be defeated in order for me to be successful. Quest 1 – Strength For this quest I will be continuing to work on my push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and squats. I will be alternating days. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be Sit-up & Squat days. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will be Push-up and Pull-ups days. During my last quest I set a number of reps that I had to achieve in order to pass the quest. This time I am not setting a number, just working on improving. As long as my number of reps at the end is better than when I started, I'll consider it a win. Strength represented by Blade. Quest 2 – Dexterity I will be continuing my flexibility work. During the first challenge I worked on Elements from GMB. During this quest I will be redoing some of the Elements sessions or using Gravity yoga to continue getting more flexible. Dexterity represented by Buffy Quest 3 – Stamina For this one I will be working on a general fitness course Tapp Brothers: In-home parkour fitness. It is a 6 week course, five days a week. Stamina represented by Werewolves (The vampires natural enemy). Quest 4 – Constitution Daily calorie limit of 1,800 (max). I will be carrying on with my Lose it app, following the calorie limit given (but can go up to 1,800 without failing). If my weight loss continues to slow or freeze, I will up my calorie allowance to see if I am eating too little and putting my body into calorie efficiency mode. Represented by Raziel Quest 5 – Intelligence (I don't have an INT stat, so the points for this quest will be split between CHA & WIS) Learning a new skill will be my intelligence quest. I recently got a cheap keyboard and plan on teaching myself to play. I only need to practice for 5 minutes a day (although any day that I feel like doing more than that is a plus) to be successful at this quest. It would be nice if I could play a recognizable tune by the end of the challenge. Represented by Van Helsing Quest 6 – Charisma My charisma quest will be writing. Like my intelligence quest, I don’t need to do much work to pass this one. The emphasis on these two quests is building the habit of doing them daily. I need to write 100 words per day to pass. The last time I started writing 100 words a day, I quickly started building up my word count more each day, the more I got into what I was writing. Within a couple of months I was writing 1,700 words per day. I'm not expecting that to happen again now, but if I do start writing something that I have fun wuth, I do think my word count will end up increasing. Represented by The Frog Brothers (Ok, not the epitome of charisma, but how can I have a vampire themed challenge and leave out The Lost Boys?) Quests completed - Wisdom At the end of the quest I will be facing Harry Keogh from The Necroscope. I chose him because he had to exercise strong control over himself by book 5 of the series. If I manage to complete this challenge successfully, I will have exercised control over my own worse side. Current Stats To be filled in day one of the quest Ongoing tasks Additional to my increased reps for my strength goal, I will also be using some of the progressions in Convict Conditioning to further increase my strength. Running 3 mornings per week. Walking (+ running) to Mordor. Trying to improve my sleep habits.

I'm chronically overbooked with my fitness stuff, and this challenge is going to be more about scaling back a little bit and addressing the non-glamorous, not-so-fun foundational work that I'm always neglecting. I'll still be doing 2-3 parkour classes/week, 2 or so climbing sessions/week, and filling in around that with yoga, hand balancing, swimming, hiking, playground workouts, and a little extra strength training, because that's what I always do. And I'll still log all of that, post videos, etc. in this thread, because that's also how things run around here. This challenge is also coinciding with a 10+ day vacation, as well as the start of the school year for the kids, so it's especially important for me to keep things kind of simple and unchallenge-like. Goal 1: Foundational work. Between the parkour, climbing, being 1.5 years out of major knee surgery, and being kind of middle-age-ish, I need to take better care of my body if I want it to continue functioning at optimal levels. 1a) Do a mobilityWOD video, one of GMB's unbreakable series videos, or any other similar mobility work at least 4 times/week. If I find any particularly good or useful videos, I'll be sure to post the link. 1b) Prehab - stick with 5-10 minutes of prehab work at least 5 times/week. This includes rolling my IT Band, shoulder stretches, quad stretches, soleus stretching, and some of my other leg PT stuff. 1c) Be a good leader - My husband also does the parkour and climbing, but he can never self motivate to do the stretching and mobility work. So, at least once/week, I have to nag him into joining me for a quick stretching session. Goal 2: Clear the mind. The goal is to meditate, do meditation focused yoga, or do some directed breathing for at least 5 minutes every day. I'm hoping that this improves my mental well-being quite a bit. Goal 3: Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is. Yeah, the house is chronically cluttered and messy, largely because the children are underfoot all of the time. I've had success in the past with following Flylady, so I'm going to start it again. Goal is to do all of the Flylady weekly tasks + the weekly cleaning, with substitutions if there's something in Flylady that isn't particularly relevant or useful for my house. Edit: Goal is to get maximum points in the cleaning/adulting PVP for my non-vacation days. Goal 4: Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. I made a lot of progress in the last challenge with just enjoying what I'm doing without letting jealousy over people who are better than I am or general frustration get in the way of my enjoyment. I really do believe that constantly comparing myself to others, letting myself become insecure, or letting myself become so frustrated that I'm flat out angry are poisonous attitudes to have. After all, I'll always find people who are much better than I am, and I'll always have off days here and there. The goal is to just have fun with everything. Goal 5 - Let the wookie win. While I love the Assassin minis, I think they've become a little too epic for me to handle with everything else that I have going on. Last challenge, I got a little carried away, to a point where the minis were adversely affecting my parkour, climbing, and actual challenge goals. While I hate sitting out and feeling excluded from what I feel is a major part of the guild, I really either need to make the choice to do exactly that, or to establish very clear boundaries for myself as to what I'm willing to do for the mini, and then learn to stick with that. If I go that route, I need to learn not to be swayed by the feelings of letting down my team, and I need to learn to just say NO if the mini isn't going to be conducive to meeting my actual goals. The vacation grading will be: Goal 1 - Just stretch a little every day. Goal 2 - Still meditate. If that's not possible, then take a moment to catch my breath and re-center myself each day. Goal 3 - Not really relevant on vacation Goal 4 - Let's face it, people in large crowds are pretty obnoxious and rude, which in turn tends to make me angry. Since I'm going to be at the "happiest place on earth", I need to take a lesson from Elsa and just Let it Go. Goal 5 - Not really relevant.

As always, I'll be logging all of my parkour classes, rock climbing sessions, hand balancing, yoga, swimming, and all of the stuff I normally do. But, the main focus of this challenge is actually controlling my headspace, not being too much of a perfectionist, and just taking joy in all of the fun stuff that I'm doing. 1. Be mighty like Thor and the Hulk - If I ever want to be able to do large sets of pull ups or even reach a muscle up one day, I need to give my pull ups a little more care and attention. For the most part, I've been just getting my pull exercise through climbing, parkour class, and messing around at the playground. Goal: Pull ups after every climbing session using the rock holds. A total of 3 pull up sessions/week, with a full session filling out any remaining ones after the post-climbing pulls. 2. Be agile like Black Widow: To be agile, I need to be more flexible. Goal is to do splits progression stretches (low lunge, half monkey sequence) + pancake 3x /week. 3. Take aim like Hawkeye Goal: archer stretches and shoulder dislocates 3x/week to keep my shoulders nice and healthy. 4. Be industrious like Iron Man I waste too much time on my phone. This will only get worse when the kids are out of school and underfoot all day. I don't want myself or the kids to be lazy lumps. So, the goal is to spend more time reading, drawing, playing the piano, practicing German, cooking, cleaning, or other productive tasks rather than being lazy. If possible, I need to turn these into family activities. 5. Be virtuous like Captain America. The Cap wants me to watch my language. Goal is to do 20 burpees as punishment (or if my leg isn't up to it, do V-ups) every time I use a "naughty word" in front of my kids. Since I hate burpees, this will hopefully encourage me to clean up the language a bit. 6. Defeat Quicksilver To defeat Quicksilver, I need to be fast. To be fast, I need my knee and leg to function properly once again (had ACL reconstruction 16 months ago. Still dealing with IT Band syndrome by throwing myself into too much parkour too soon). Goal is to do my leg prehab routine (hip opener stretches, calf stretches, quad stretch, IT band rolling) every day and my PT strengthening stuff (lateral band walks, one leg squats, clams) 3x/week. 7. Defeat the Scarlet Witch I've really been struggling with controlling my headspace lately, and at times, my anxiety has been out of control. To keep myself better balanced emotionally, I'm going to aim for these two rules: a. No office visits with Dr. Google. If I'm that concerned about something, I need to see an actual doctor rather than make myself paranoid after symptom searching on the internet. b. If I'm in a bad place mentally, I need to do one of my headspace balancing activities, like: yoga, walking outdoors, mindless household chores, or comfort reading, rather than sitting around, brooding, and making it all worse. 8. Defeat Ultron - In Ultron's view, if humanity can't be perfect, it should be destroyed. I often fall into the same trap of expecting too much perfection from myself and becoming too negative as a result. Rather than being down on myself because I couldn't execute whatever move in parkour class or couldn't send whatever route when climbing, I want to just stop comparing myself to others, stop letting myself get overly frustrated, and instead just take joy in what I'm doing. It doesn't need to be perfect. Instead, I just need to be having fun. Whew. 8 goals sounds like a lot, but basically I just need to do 5 minutes of PT every day, have a session 3x/week where I do splits stretches, shoulder stretches, and PT strength, do more pull ups, stop swearing, and adjust my thought process a bit. So really it's not so much. I don't have a set schedule, but generally it'll be: -parkour class and/or parent& child aerial silks - 2x/week (will probably be 2 hours of parkour one day and silks another day) -climbing + swimming 2-3x/week. In the summer, we like climbing for an hour, followed by swimming for an hour. -home yoga when I feel like it. I'm also going to be on a 1 week vacation right in the middle of the challenge. I haven't yet decided how I'm going to handle that with my goals.

Challenge Goals 1. Skill: Parkour training (20 minutes+ sessions) x2 weekly (M/Th). Start with rolls, precisions, and QM to crab (to help with safety vault pass-through); build from there (vaults next) as able. 2. Speed: Interval training x2 weekly (Tu/F) 3. Strength: Body-weight x2 weekly (W/Sat) replacing dumbbell rows with jack-knife pull-ups (reps TBD). Also, I will be away from home on strength days twice so the jack-knife pull-ups will be omitted those days. Keeping it simple and straight-forward right now but I need to think of a Nerdwarts School of Assassincraft & Ninjary tie-in!

Hi guys! I'm new here. I'm Aubrie. 25/F/San Francisco. I'm a professional writer. I kinda liked acrobatics and cheerleading, growing up, but when I was a youngun everyone would say "oh no Aubrie, you're too fragile and introverted for that, you'll probably hate it," so I stopped. Now I'm an "adult," and boy, have times changed. I've discovered the intense joys of poi spinning, parkour, and aerial silks. On the weekends I lift weights with my roommates. I love learning new things, improving my flexibility, breaking personal records. I desperately want to learn how to dance, but my personality sometimes gets in the way. My main goal is to be great at everything I enjoy. The hard part is pushing through that initial awkward noob phase. I hope some of you can relate. Glad to be here!

I need to flesh this out before the beginning of the challenge, so I'm jotting down some notes to figure out what I can handle. These goals are now official! I signed up for a 5k obstacle race on July 26. I'm not super worried about the actual running part, but I know my climbing/obstacle-clearing "skills" need much work. My main quest for this challenge will be to get some climbing/pulling/hurtling work in. Get thee over the wall! There's a parkour gym in my city that I've been to a few times. I'd like to hit this at least four times during the challenge and work on wall climbing. Maybe I won't actually get better, but I need to build my confidence...badly. Basically, I currently climb like this. Gotta fix that. As a supplement, I'm going to focus on increasing my pulling strength as well with chin ups and pull ups. Here's my current level of strength: I'll be working on chin ups as part of my mini-challenge with Slytherin! Cook, you fool! I recently found myself eating out a lot more than I ought to be. My goal will be to make/bring lunch to work 4x week, and make dinner at home 3x a week. I'll be on a mini-vacation for week 2, so I'll just try to be as well-behaved as possible. You're not a baby - put down the bottle. Oh, beer - my greatest weakness. Going to restrict myself to 10 drinks/week. Ideally, no day will have more than 2 drinks and two days I'll just skip it altogether. This shouldn't be that hard, but it already strikes fear into my poor, weak, booze-loving heart. BONUS! Work on press to headstand and straddle press to headstand. I love headstands. It's a great party trick and I actually find it pretty enjoyable. I'd really like to work on hip strength/flexibility so I don't need to "jump" into having my feet off the ground. Here's what my press looks like as of right now. Any and all goals subject to change before June 8. The goals stand as they are. Good luck, all!

Hey all, I'm brand spanking new to both the rebellion and parkour, but I want to get better at both. I'm taking parkour classes and training regularly, but what workouts can I do to help build muscle to get better at parkour? My current fitness level: I can't do: any pull ups, any pushups (but about 2 sets of 10 knee pushups) I can: run a lot, have pretty strong legs and a decent core (5 sets of 10-15 leg ups, minute long plank) I don't know how to work towards doing a push up, pull-ups I can always use the assisted pull-up machine, but push-ups are harder to progress towards. I also don't know what other areas I should work on making more muscular in order to get better at parkour. Thoughts? And thank you in advance!

Hi, I'm Nymeria, and I generally suffer from do-too-much-itis. I've been rock climbing for a few years, I do a lot of yoga hand balancing and animal flow stuff, I still fool around a lot with martial arts and martial arts weapons (I'm kind of an ex practitioner. It's complicated), and I recently started taking parkour classes twice/week. This has also led to a struggle not to keep my body healthy, functioning, and keep my life in balance. For this challenge, I'm going to turn to one of my favorite anime characters and a fellow hot-headed, nerdy, often physically busted, do-too-much-er, Edward Elric, for some inspiration. This time, my physical schedule is pretty set, with climbing/bouldering twice/week, parkour classes twice/week, and hot vinyasa yoga once/week. (Realistically, I'll make it to 4/5 of these on average, just because between kids, life obligations, and such, that's how it seems to work). I also expect to do some playground workouts, hiking trips, and other things like that. For this challenge, all of the physical goals will be accessories to help me get stronger and prevent me from falling apart. Goal 1. Proper maintenance (fitness) My shoulders are constantly tight from the climbing and yoga. My surgically repaired knee is also starting to become irritated by the jumpings and landings in parkour (ACL reconstruction in Jan 2014 - I didn't rehab things with the expectation of this much high impact work). If I don't want my leg and arms to get busted, the way Ed's auto mail often is, I need to focus on some prehab and ROM work. So... a.) Get cozy with the foam roller and stretches: 5x/week - roll out ITB, calves, and quads. Roll out shoulder blade area. Do shoulder dislocates. Do the following yoga stretches: Extended puppy (shoulders), cross legged forward fold (ITB), hands clasping behind the back pose, reclined cow face pose (ITB-gluteus). b.) Build better foundations for jumping: whenever my muscles permit, do weighted squats, deep squats, more jumps, and calf raises. Revisit some of the physical therapy knee exercises that I haven't touched in the last 6 months. Goal 2 - Decrease the numbers (diet) Edward Elric: "Water, 35 litres. Carbon, 20kg. Ammonia, 4 litres. Lime, 1.5kg. Phosperus, 800g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100g. Sulphur, 80g. Fluorine, 7.5g. Iron, 5g. Silicon 3g. And fifteen other elements. Those are the elements to make an average adult human body." This goal is simple.. I want to decrease my numbers, meaning lose a little weight. Realistically, I only could lose 5-ish lbs, but those 5 lbs can mean a lot when you're hanging on to rock holds by your fingertips or trying to jump even higher. I loathe actively cutting and tracking my diet, so I'm going to keep things small and simple. Goal is Only 3 drinks bearing any liquid calories at all per week. Otherwise, all other drinking is to just be water. I train a lot and I have a lot of muscle, so I really do need to eat. The juice/alcohol/soda stuff is purely empty calories and is the easiest to trim from the diet. Goal 3 - Become less lopsided (fitness) Like Edward, I feel pretty lopsided. In part it's due to the messed up knee. Some of it is simple right-handedness. Some of it is muscle imbalances. Still, the result is that in parkour, I have preferred sides for every vault or wall technique. In yoga, I have a lot of hand balances that I can only perform well on one side (like 8 angle, flying lizard, side crow extensions). I also have a lot of standing balances that have a strong side and a weak side. Yes, I know that's normal. Still, in parkour, the side I use is somewhat dictated by the nature of the obstacle, and I really need to be proficient at both sides. For the yoga stuff, I just enjoy the warm fuzzy glow of doing things well, so I tend to do my strong side first and more often than my weak one. For this challenge, I am changing my mindset and making sure I give my weak side more attention than my strong one. Goal is to have 90% of my exercise sessions address my weak side at least equally as much as my strong side. Goal 4 - Hit the books (life) I used to read all of the time. But then I became addicted to my phone and waste my time rather than doing productive things like reading or learning. It's time for this to change. a.) Read at least 15 minutes/day. Aim for also reading at night before going to bed. b.) Continue with my DuoLingo German studies. I'm currently at 2300 XP, so the goal is to reach 3800 by the end of the challenge. 5. Daily Reflection (life) Last challenge, I had a goal of coming up with something positive or something for which I am grateful every day. While that was rewarding, I'm broadening things, such that this challenge, I just need to spend a few minutes meditating and reflecting on the day. I may or may not post the reflections depending on how relevant I think they are. I will edit later with more specific grading criteria. Let's do this!

I made it back. So, funny story. This is kinda-sorta my first challenge (I gave it a shot about a year back, but it never went anywhere). I usually hang around updating my battle log, which has been around for a while now and documents my journey through bodyweight fitness, and a few bulks and cuts. I'm happy to say I've been pretty successful with fitness. HOWEVER. I have some other habits I need to change. My main quest involves a new job and successful finances, and no amount of fitness know-how will get me that. So it's time to change some other aspects of my life. Main Quest. My ultimate goals are simple: I’m a nerd who wants to be a ninja. Okay seriously can you spit it out please So I've been involved in the Seattle parkour community for a couple years, though I had to take some time away recently to focus on other aspects of life. My main quest involves getting back into it and focusing more on tumbling and acrobatics. I would love to compete in Ninja Warrior someday. And to get there, I plan to find a new job and move to Seattle full-time (right now I live outside it), explore some career options I let fall by the wayside since I graduated college, and train my happy little self into oblivion. And somewhere before oblivion, Ninja Warrior. And living in France for a year. I'd really like to do that. But goals that involve money -- like a big move or living in a foreign country -- mean I have to treat myself as a little one-man business, and optimize. I'm not much of a businessman. So this challenge will be quite tough for me. So! I've been doing a bunch of reading on habit formation and the science thereof. Most recently, I've finished up The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which is an excellent book on how habits are formed, changed, and broken. I plan to use that know-how to get me what I want: namely, a new job, new apartment, and a better-managed income. With that in mind, here are the habits I've decided to tweak... Goals Goal 1: Change my daily post-work routine. I've had a bad habit for a while now. When I get home, I always seem to jump on the laptop and put on some Netflix to unwind. But then I never get anything done after work, and lately there have been lots of bills piling up. So instead of getting home from work and starting dinner, videogames, or Netflix… Each afternoon I’ll take my laptop and mail into my home office and spend 10 minutes opening mail and taking care of personal business from my Reminders and calendar apps. Once the clock runs out, I can finish up, cross off the things in my to-do list, and choose a 5-minute reward. After the reward, I will spend 10 minutes writing cover letters. Altogether, it should take me about a half hour total each day. I'll grade this one based on a streak method where I reward the longest continuous streak of following through on the habit. I'm thinking of making a spreadsheet to print so I can mark off the days on my bathroom mirror. That's still in the works. In the meantime... Goal 2: Read "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" & Implement Every Feasible Recommendation. Despite the hammed-up title, I’ve read this book before on the recs of several smart friends, and it’s a great book on personal finance for young people. It has bite-sized actionable items for six weeks’ worth of personal finance improvements. Some of them I’ve already done, but there are at least a couple things that are either ongoing or unfinished. Here are some criteria that will be complete by the time the 6 weeks is over, if I’ve met this goal: Spend a few minutes maintaining my Mint.com account every Monday $600 saved for a new apartment$800 paid on my credit card debtMy retirement account switched out of Edward Jones and into a free/low-fee IRA, with the money invested in index fundsThis is all one goal because it should all happen pretty much automatically – the savings money is all marked to be auto-transferred from my paychecks, all I have to do is work on my retirement account and manage my budget briefly each week. (I've done some work on my finances already leading up to this challenge, so now my quest is to sustain my progress.) Goal 3: Fitness on autopilot: weigh every day. Most of my fitness stuff is pretty locked in at this point and I don’t need to worry about it much. But I do struggle with weighing daily, and it messes with my very pretty spreadsheet I use to track my weight, bodyfat percentage, and metabolism. If I had weigh-ins for every day, I could do a lot more with that spreadsheet – track my metabolism better, mainly, and have a better idea exactly how my lean mass is changing (which will be important soon, as I’m planning on beginning a bulk in the next couple weeks). So rather than set qualitative goals for gaining new skills, I’m going to keep working as planned and simply work on weighing every day. It shouldn’t be hard – both my place and my girlfriend’s place has a bathroom scale. I just need to remember to use it. Goal 4: Exercise with my girlfriend once per week. Since late January, my girlfriend has also gotten involved in fitness. It all started when she asked my advice to cut for a few weeks... so now we want to work on some exercises together. However, this is more about spending time with her than actually trying to accomplish something specific. She has a few skills, like handstands and back bridges, she wants to learn. To count toward this, we’ll spend some time together (at least 15 minutes) working on mobility and doing a little skillwork. Bonus: read a book on good communication in relationships. My girlfriend and I have both struggled with good communication in past relationships. Lately as we’ve talked more seriously about long-term commitments, like moving in together, we’re realized that approaching communication like any other skill, with planning and practice, will do us a lot of good down the line. Right now I don’t have a specific book, but I’m on the hunt for one. Rewards This is partially just for fun, but it could come in handy. It's important to follow up new habits with rewards when you first start: it gives you an important bit of pleasure right at the end of doing that thing you've been kicking yourself for not doing. So this will be a list of rewards: each time I complete a habit, I'll treat myself to a reward picked from this list. Here we go, here are the things that give me warm fuzzies: Chocolate Ice cream Activity: light handstand practice, a walk around the neighborhood, etc. Video games Crap TV Podcasts!I may add to this list as the challenge continues. And I'll update my goals with some notes on grading for each. In the meantime, signing off -- let me know what you think of these goals, I'd love to get your feedback.

For this challenge, I'm going to focus on fully living in the present, rather than dwelling on the past ("before my knee blowout, I could do whatever thing but now I can't") or punting things toward the future ("It would be really nice if I could do...") without taking the steps right now to have any realistic hope of achieving that. As always, I will be doing and logging my usual rock climbing/bouldering, playground parkour, yoga, hand balancing, weapons, hooping, etc. 1. (Fitness)Respect the progressions: There are several yoga moves I'd love to do, but I'm not quite flexible enough. There are also several parkour moves I'd love to be able to do, but I'm not strong or flexible enough. So, rather than just giving up and doing nothing at all to get there (which has kind of been what I've done over the last many challenges), I'll instead dial things backward and work through some easier progressions until I have a solid enough foundation for the full move. The moves I'd love to focus on are: (yoga) Firefly pose- currently need to improve flexibility to get my shoulders under my legs. I can either balance a few seconds with my legs really bent, or I pick up and fall right back onto my rear. So, I'm going to focus on the deep squat with my shoulders under my legs to improve the mobility. I'll also just try to get better about holding with my legs bent. There's no point yet in trying to pick up all of the way and getting frustrated with my repeated failures. (yoga) - wheel to standing or wheel kick over - My backbend/wheel is okay, but in order to stand from it or kick my legs up and over, I need my hands and feet to be closer together. So, I'm going to focus on pushing my torso closer over my shoulders and walking my feet in toward my hands. (parkour) Kong vault - I can't confidently even do a ground kong without having my knees flare out such that they're outside of my arms. I'm also horribly paranoid about clipping my legs, especially since my knee still isn't quite 100%. I'm going to work on good form ground kongs, the kong jump-ups, and just jumping over low-ish obstacles. (parkour) rail balance - While it's still cold, I have parallettes I can step upon. When it's warmer, there are plenty of playgrounds with rails. Rather than getting fancy and trying to move around a lot or do QM, I really just need to practice standing around or walking very slowly. I may come up with a few more things to add to the list. I'm not going to grade based on practicing a certain number of times/week. Instead, it's going to be whether I feel like I'm putting in the honest effort to follow the progressions, rather than giving up or hiding from the skills in question, and whether at the end of the challenge I'm seeing some progress. 2. (Fitness) Tons of Handstands: I've always wanted to have a solid handstand, but I've been stuck at 3-5 seconds freestanding for a long time and have never really put in the effort to improve with that. After some personal training with this, I learned that my shoulders aren't engaged properly when I do handstands. I've instead been doing lazy, loose handstands. Now that I've started practicing really pressing upward, engaging my shoulders, and keeping my core very tight, I feel like I have so much more control. I want to ride this success and finally make some progress with the handstands. Goal is to do 100 handstands/week, but to count, all of the handstands need to have solid form. 3. (Life) Positivity and Gratitude: I truly believe that being positive and grateful is a habit and mindset. Each day of the challenge, I must come up with and post something for which I'm grateful, something that made me happy, or something generally positive. Goal: 42 daily postings. 4. (Life) Learn a new language -For years, my husband and I have been saying that it would be nice if I could speak German, so we could have our own adult "secret language" that the kids can't understand. And for years, I've done nothing on that front. I recently downloaded Duolingo. My goal is to add 250 XP to my total each week. I'm at 659 right now, so assuming I'm around 700 at the start of the challenge, that means I should aim for 2200 XP by the end. Extras: There's no way to grade these, but they're just things I'd love to work on and be reminded of frequently through my challenge. (Fitness) Form comes first: I have a few yoga moves in which my form (shoulder alignment) is off. I also am guilty of taking some shortcuts, or squeezing out a few extra reps even after my form is starting to fall apart. I've spent the last year assuming that everything would eventually work its way out, but realistically, I'm just perfecting bad form. This goal is more about shelving the ego and dealing with not managing as many reps or as much hold time, or having to step back in some of my progressions. (Life) Control the clutter: No one in my house (including myself) puts things back where they belong after using something. So, we're always fighting clutter. Rather than just setting things down out of place and assuming I can put it away later, I'd rather stop generating the clutter in the first place. (Life) Get over it: I'm one of those people who gets upset or over-analyzes things long past the point where I should just accept that things are over and done. So, I want to reach a point where if I'm foolishly getting worked up about something, I can take steps to calm down (whether it's doing some cardio kickboxing, weapons, yoga, meditation, taking a walk, playing piano), and then learning to just let it go.

Well this sounds like a fun idea so I'm gonna join in on this. This list will probably be updated as time goes by and I'm going to apologize in advance because this probably won't look good. I'm not that good at making these things look pleasing which is partly because I can't spell. Part 1 Travel non-specific just in these general places UK France South Africa The Holy Land Mexico Around the USA Masyaf because I can The Caribbean Part 2 Living in certain places for a few years New York England Paris That is actually about it. Part 3 Adventure!! In a few years me and my wonderful girlfriend are going to take a bike ride around the United States and parts of mexico. Then I wish to go see the Mayan ruins in mexico and parts of Alaska and the Caribbean. Then we are going to fly to Europe ( no specific place at first ) then we are going to travel around to The Holy Land and other places on that hemisphere. Then we wish to settle in Paris and live there for a while if not for a few decades haha Part 4 Fitness I eventually want to be able to do Parkour fluently I wish to be able to run for 30 minutes straight I wish to clean up my diet entirely Part 5 Fixing up my life I wish to tailor my own custom Assassins creed robes I wish to Procrastinate a lot less I wish to be more responsible Like I said this will most likely be updated as time goes by but at the moment this is my epic quest. Hope you like it

I decided to focus on my assassin side and follow on my quest of being druid assassin. Because I'm the hero of my story. Fitness (Because every great hero needs to focus on their fitness): 1. Parkour practice on the basics because how is one suppose to get great without mastering the not as "cool" stuff. (Sorry that Team America Montage song was stuck in my head again) Practice 2 or 3 times a week (but don't do if it's ridiculously icy out...on second thought indoor training then if icy)Start picking up more cool places to practiceDon't kill myself, especially when poisons snakes decide 'hey this spot'. Please, don't pull that brave bs. It's fun way to the hospital if bitten.Look into a safe thing to store cellphone so it doesn't get smashedRun and lift on your off daysYoga on the lighter of days or if hurt 2. Contortion Be able to do the backward bendLet's see how much I can hypersplit by the end of this challenge (since I mastered straddle and both front splits)Work on getting closer to handstandWork more on shoulderstand (I really want to be her) Social (Because heroes need sidekicks partners): 1. Volunteering Go over to the animal shelter and volunteer 2 to 3 days a week (got to get over how cold it is...dogs don't walk themselves...well they kinda do)Get that form dealt with and finish the processor for volunteering at wildlife rehabilitation center (or the animals will be sad)Don't kill yourself (but cute animals overload is acceptable) 2. Groups Groups Groups Find a groupGo and have a fun timeMake friends (They like being poked right?) 3. Dating Fill out that profileTalk to girls (don't worry about being nervous and thinking every horrible scenery that could go wrong)Possibly go on a date Other (Because heroes always have other goals): 1. Pixie cut (since I still didn't get it) Work out exactly what I want and don't want in my haircutNow pick a damn place to get it done alreadyBe a bad ass and accept that people are secretly jealous of your hair (or just pretend that, which ever is easier) 2. Write for 30 mins (since it's been so long since I've written anything) 3. Plan out my coming out (since my hair and where I possibly am going is going to come into play...so better safe than sorry) (Cake should definably be involved in this matter...everyone loves cake. Can't be upset with cake.) 4. Make a new recipe each week since I've fallen into the lazy cook mode Reward for completing (too lazy to figure out unicorn peso system for self...maybe before Monday): ~Fitbit ~And these bad boys http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1ce8/?cpg=pi Yay Think Geek So I'm raising the bar again to watch myself suffer, but for good reasons. So let's make this a good one. And I'll become a hero (to myself atleast)

You down with O.P.P...P? Yeah, you know me. I'm looking for a small group of beginner Parkour members. You don't really have to be old, that part's just a joke. Basically, I want to start a training group where we're all pretty much training from the beginning and working our way up. So let me know if you're in. Let me know what you can do as far as fitness level and a little about yourself. For those of you doing the 6 week challenge, here is the spreadsheet in which to log your numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asc4kaQ_j6WndFM0b0I3aXBiY0FfOEZvc0JOU2NUWUE#gid=2

Note: This post will probably take me hours to write as my writing skills are very poor (definitely something to work on!) Dear fellow rebels, I'm your average nerd who is 5'9'' with an average build except for the scrawny arms and bulky legs (I do a fair amount of bicycling and running and very little upper-body work). While I don't hate my life, I don't necessarily like it either. My problem is that I have a hard time making decisions; once I've finally made up my mind, I have a hard time starting and sticking with it (at this point I usually begin to question whether it was the right choice and then proceed back to square one to question everything all over again). As such, I rarely ever get anything done and just resort back to browsing the internet (including Nerd Fitness of course) and playing video games. After going through a depression last year and doing a little psychology/Buddhism analysis, I came to realize a couple of things. Firstly, out of the blue, I started playing my piano again (which I don't think I touched much before then). I also started listening to a lot of instrumental music to help calm me down. So I took a leap of faith (darn assassin's creed) and with much indecision, dropped out of my Computer Sciences program and am now enrolled in an audio engineering program set for this September. I think I made the right choice. Secondly, it doesn't matter whether it's a computer game or some good old fashioned Dungeons & Dragons, I love Role-Playing games. The issue is that I can never concretely decide on a class. I love little bits and pieces of every class and most games place limitations that prevent class-diversification (or if they did it wouldn't be considered effective by game standards). So instead of getting angry at confined class decisions, I decided to step away from sitting endlessly at a computer monitor and try and be the culmination of classes that my fictional character couldn't be (magic and physics limitations aside). So my level 0 me decided to go out and try the one activity he'd always wanted to try. PARKOUR. In order to keep me motivated and stick with it, I decided to jump in with both feet first and buy a 3 month membership to the only indoor parkour gym I could find in Montreal (thespotmontreal.com). I went for the first time today and probably had the best time of my life. I also finally pushed myself to join the Nerd Fitness community (after initially discovering this site about a year ago). Although I currently have not set any specific goals that I want to accomplish, I at least feel like I've taken a step in the right direction. I will shortly head over to the NF guilds for some suggestions as I want to eventually dabble in a bit of every class. Thank you Nerd Fitness for inspiring me to change my life!

Main Quest: Be able to get a 300 on an Army PT Test SMART Quests: Do the Beginners Body Weight workout 3 Days a Week Run 2 Days a Week Stats: STR: CON: DEX: INT: WIS: CHA: (Will set points when I have a better idea of where I want them to go.) Greetings.

Introduction: Hello ! I'm SchrodingersMinion and this is technically my second challenge , but I hadn't posted anything online last time on account of being a scaredycat so I'm going to treat this one as first I'm almost 22 years of age. 5'5" . Found NerdFitness a year ago , slapped myself figuratively and literally and got my fat arse in a humanoid shape by going from 243lbs to 145lbs ( it's 138lbs today..but 2lbs are whizzing in and out of my weight at all times ) I'm a weapons engineer by profession . I design weapons and dream of one day being dressed in a soldier's uniform instead of an engineer's jumpsuit. I've lost 100bs of all the extra I had accumulated and I figure now is the time to go from 'making sure you still have a body underneath all that fat and laziness' to 'sculpting a fine body' . I've to loose 5-7 lbs more to be the perfect weight for my body and though I am now a funsized human being ,and my legs are toned-ish because of all the running I did in order to loose the weight... but the arms , the arms are just...pudgy , for the lack of a better word . So , I'm looking to tone that shiz . Main Quest: Go from being a non-combatant weapons expert to a combatant weapons expert. Kick some ass ! Quest 1: Upper Body workout at the gym 25 minutes a day, 4 days a week in addition to current routine. I don't do anything major except 1 kg dumbells at the moment because I wasn't done being an ignorant twit. So , I'm going to research and figure out exactly what I will do in my workout before Jan 5 , so I hit the ground running on this one too Note to Self : Do not forget leg day though . Measurement: A = 25 min for 25 days, B = 15 min, 20 days, C = 15 min, anything lesser than 20 days. Reward: A = +3 STA, +2 STR, B = +2 STA, +1 STR, C = +1 STA Quest 2: I've been eating completely paleo for the past year except for a pro-biotic drink that I take thrice a week. I want to make the meals more balanced .. eg, currently I eat 1 bowl Broccoli/ Zucchini salad+ 1 roasted tomato / some cabbage + 1 tiny tiiinnnyy slice of meat because I am scared of carbs. But , I know there are good carbs ! And I know that digestion is slowly becoming an issue because of the stupid amount of fibre I eat , so I want to include more of carbs and white meat in my diet . Have goggled recipes , bought ingredients . Ready to rumble . And I'm going to get over this lame ass paranoia. Eat actual balanced meals for the whole challenge. Instagram each meal for added accountability . I normally eat 3 times a day , don't really snack unless I have skipped a meal . Measurement: A = 40 balanced meals, B = 30+ balanced meals , C = 20+ balanced meals Reward: A = +3 CON, B = +2CON, C = +1 CON Quest 3: I've planned a training schedule of 6 days a week: hills, on-pace run, easy day..when it's leg day at the gym, and long-slow run/hike. It starts simple and extends the long run and on-pace run time through out the six weeks in order to build more endurance. Gotta stick to the plan ! Measurement: A = 36 days; B = 30 days, C = 20 days Reward: A = +3 WIS, +2 CON, B = +2WIS, +1 CON, C = +1WIS Life Quest: This one is a tad bit emtional , if you have come here to support me ( Thank you btw !! ) but aren't fond of reading " I'mma a hot mess " kind of posts , I would skip reading this quest Right , this is a little bit of TMI territory , my boyfriend ( of 1 year and 7 months now ) asked me to mary him 5 months ago , but I was going through a particularly difficult phase in the weightloss , had serious self esteem issues , was being a borderline controlfreak with what I ate ( the whole NO CARBS EVERRRR , thing ) , had still not gotten over being rejected for my dream job , was secretly a jealous diva ( probably because of the self esteem thing ) ...basically was the same shitty person , just in a 70lbs slimmer body . And he did not deserve that kind of negativity in his life , and I needed to learn to be a goddamn human being , and long story short I said NO , and he said , " Okay then . We're going to wait till you are comfortable with marriage as well . And you will ask me this time around, and I'll be waiting ." That was bloody saintly of him , and the stupidly gorgeous ring he got me sits there on his dresser and he hasn't ever EVER bought that up again and been a absolute peach and well... I am ready and I am going to ask him ! So , I have saved up for the perfect proposal . I have bought the ring , booked the telescope time etc. January 10 , 2015 ( my birthday btw ) is the date . And I have no idea why this dork has stuck around through the horror , but it's about damn time he gets rewarded for the shit he went through . Measurement: A = Did it ! , F = Damn Woman. Reward: A = +3.5 CHA, F = Yo , somebody needs to slap some sense into ya thick head. Just a tiny bit of extra background , in my culture a maximum of one month is allowed between getting engaged and getting married . Yay! for orthodox ideals , innit ? Added pressure for everyone! Motivation: I'm moving to Finland in April and I want to take along my geek of a husband with me then. ( Don't worry , he had already searched for his own lifestlye options there 5 months ago . I'm guessing we will reanimate those and find similar things provided I am not a freaking twit this time around as well . ) P.S : I apologize if the English is tad bit puerile , I know there cannot be a valid excuse , but all of these goals incite a gamut of emotions in me. It'll get better as the challenge goes along , pinky promise. P.S.S : Aeroplanes in the title refers to a 600 hour Flight School Certification Course I'm doing right now , as part of training before I move to my new job. I re-read the post and realized I hadn't referred to it at all. Going to Flight School is basically what I do during the day.