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The Great Push Up Dare @x Valkyrie x is trying to earn charisma and bravery points, and embrace the weird (https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/09/20/embrace-the-weird/) by boldly doing pushups at the airport. In a sedentary world, it can take superhuman feats of bravery to step forth and do exercise while the rest of the world sits. In order to encourage one another to show the world movement is good, we have challenged each other to the Great Push- Up Dare. Valkyrie will perform pushups at the airport , and I will choose another public place, such as my front yard to do push ups. Do you want to take the challenge with us? Simply choose a public place, where you are likely to be seen by others and do any progression of push-ups. Or choose another exercise if you want.The main point of the challenge is for us to step out of our comfort zone and exercise in a place other than a gym or our garage. To play : Do pushups (or other exercise) in a non traditional setting and then tell us about it. Video are fun, but not necessary. Bonus points if someone actually notices you

Quick intro! I'm karinajean, 38, live in NY state, commute to NJ about an hour each way (so lots of time in the car). I practice tae kwon do several times a week, take weapons and boxing classes in addition, and am trying super hard to do really good form push- and pull-ups this year. I have a crazy mean (yet super sweet) cat and live with my husband full time and my stepdudes 1/2 time. I motorcycle, knit and spin, and am endlessly ignoring how messy the house is. I'm an assassin because I like doing all the things, and because I want to be able to do push-ups and pull-ups -- if I can do those and run and do martial arts I will feel totally strong and fit and capable. I know I did it to myself, but I named my last challenge "karinajean over-commits," and I was right. I totally over-committed, and it was brutal by the end of the challenge because I didn't have any capacity for last minute changes or additions. * GOAL 1: food tracking. I'm reaching a funny place where I need to figure out how hard I want to work on my diet to get more results. um. I don't know how to answer that, but hopefully I will by the end of this challenge. So part of this goal is to think about how much I am willing to give up or add in, or generally otherwise change. ALSO, I've been getting interesting results from my charge hr, namely: I don't burn very many calories during a day where I don't exercise on purpose. that's super key to understand, and I guess I really do need to figure out how to do something every day. which leads me to: * GOAL 2: do something every day, but don't do EVERYTHING every day. I'm in a really good place with running right now, and I'd like to continue hitting some good mileage. I think that if I can maintain a 3x a week running schedule (though - I haven't been doing that over the last 2 weeks, so I need to work on it a little better I guess) that would be pretty good. this running thing will be a mix of, like, a 3 mile | 2 mile | 4 mile or maybe more run. BUT, I really am getting close to the wire for my "ups" in 2015. So, because Raptron is brilliant and amazing, I'm going to add in the pull-up challenge. And because it's good for me, I'm going to do really good form push-ups every morning - possibly in the bathroom next to the tub before i get into it, but I am going to DO THEM. * GOAL 3: show up for your own life. I was super over-committed last challenge and the end of that was a lot of being over-committed at things for other people. I need to work back in that stuff that I want to do for me. I'm great at fitting in the dojo stuff, but not so great at the crafting. so - I'm going to fit in stuff for my own life. I need to make sure I've got room in my schedule to breathe, and that I am working in my own fun as I go along. that fun includes knitting and spinning, making a clean room and keeping it, possibly konmari cleaning the house... there's lot of stuff I could be doing. it doesn't all have to be running around to get boys to events and to make sure there's dinner to be had for husbands. make sure I'm doing things for ME and to make sure that *I* have an easy and comfortable life instead of making everyone else comfortable all the time. To this end, well. I saw this really neat bullet journal idea. I'm going to steal it and use it. so far for columns; push-ups, pull-ups, running, filling in my new 5-year diary every night, and checking in with you all! .... I don't know what else, but I'll get that sorted too.

So recently I've been experimenting with different variations on push-ups, for different training effects, and ended up making a video summarizing the various things you can do to make push-ups easier or harder, or to train different muscles. I think I've included pretty much everything that's useful, except for weighted push-ups, because no-one should need to add weight to a push-up Hope you find something here that you can use for your own training, and apologies for the wind noise you can sometimes hear - the weather's usually quite breezy where I live! EDIT: here's another one I did for pull-ups (2017)

things I learned last challenge: * I need to refresh on the bodyweight stuff. running is an easy exercise for me but I *know* that I can't overcardio myself, I need strength. my body is great at building muscles, I need to help it to succeed. * I am not very diligent at doing my -UPs practice, and if I really want to get to a pull-up in 2015 I need to crack down. * apparently I really can exercise 2-3x a week and eat at 1800 calories (ish) and I will lose weight. that's good news for the future! I'm glad that maintenance is higher than 1800 calories. * that thing where I kept doing tae kwon do and boxing and weapons routinely because I love them - that thing worked. I super love them still. ONCE AGAIN I have an awkward challenge. I'm going away for 2 weeks on the motorcycles! yay! but happily bodyweight exercises are my friends when I'm traveling! Goal 1: ROMANCING THE BODYWEIGHT Girl, you need to practice your -ups. You clearly didn't do them at all last challenge, but yet you insist they're important? Girl, just. Girl. 3x a week bodyweight workouts. not just the -UPs, but also the BUTTS. [[<--laughing hilariously at myself over here.]] Weeks 1 and 2 - while traveling - things like push-ups and squats and jumping jacks and handstand practice. don't sweat the full 20 min. workout concept, but do the activities. Weeks 3 to 6 - do a full bodyweight workout, either beginning bodyweight progressions or the NF Academy bodyweight routines, 3x a week. I know it's not popular opinion around here but running counts as bodyweight too - I know it's cardio, but you're propelling your body with just your body. that counts, totally! 2x a week running. (weeks 1 and 2 1x a week is ok.) The thing about the running and bodyweight is that if I am structured about it, I can fit in 2-3 miles and follow it with bodyweight. it doesn't have to be 5x a week exercise. make sure you're smart about this, girl. Goal 2: BE A REASONABLE EATER I'm going to be on vacation for 2 weeks, and I'm traveling to The Land of Cheese and Beer. I'm not going to let the silly fact that I hit my totally arbitrary calculated goal weight freak me out. I'm going to track all the food I eat, and I'm going to be smart about meals and snacks and protein so I don't get hangry, but I'm also going to enjoy The Land of Cheese and Beer. BUT WHEN I'M BACK. Stick with regular deficit programming but I am permitted to eat back exercise. Instead of managing on a weekly basis to hit goal, do this daily. Goal 3: PARTICIPATE! every challenge I see these mini-challenges and I'm super excited by them. every challenge I get pretty close to participating, but I never do consistently. when I do jump in those crazy overzealous assassins have managed to hit all the points already and I'm like: um, oh, hi. I shouldn't let that stop me, I should be overzealous too! I don't do stat points, but I will count as one of my goals participation in the mini challenges (and I really hope they work out with my vacation for the first 2 weeks!) LIFE GOAL. HAVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE Honestly, I thought about taking a pass on this one. I can't even remember exactly how long the construction has gone on in my house but I'm pretty sure it's 10 weeks now. 6 weeks without a bathroom, a week of mess and quiet, and then 3 weeks (ROUGHLY? is there even any point to counting any more?) of total disarray and disruption in the kitchen and the dining room. the living room is unusable because all the things from the other rooms are in there. we have to move plastic sheeting when we want to use the stove. it's just RIDICULOUS. but in general, this is what I want: I want to read books and garden a little (just a little, mind you) and motorcycle and plan camping trips and cook delicious foods when my CSA starts. how about I just plain have a beautiful life, and tell you about it here? ************** I had secret big plans that weeks -2 and -1 would be good substitutes for weeks 1 and 2 in the challenge (when I'm traveling). BUT ACTUALLY I am too tired this week to do anything fancy, it turns out. fancy like exercise. I am actually at my wits end this week with the house. I am emotionally and mentally and physically exhausted. but week -1, though, that week I can start ramping up. I'm going to start tracking everything here, as per normal habits.

OUR HERO HAS VANQUISHED THE COLD HARSH WINTER. it's definitely spring. the garden needs gardening and the motorcycle is on the road. and with the changes in season comes a simultaneous CHANGE IN BUSINESS LEVEL. y'all, I'm so glad that the snow is gone but I am starting to feel very threatened by the spring. like, there is SO MUCH GARDENING TO DO. DOES OUR LAWNMOWER EVEN WORK? I am so busy! so I am setting up the most boring challenge ever and you will all just have to keep in mind: all the sparkles come from ME. I have no fancy pictures, I have no flashy gifs. I HAVE NO SHOWER RIGHT NOW IN MY HOUSE. all I have is my list of things that need doing. so what's that list? GOAL 1. KEEP BUSY. (as if there were ever any chance of me not being busy.) it's important to me to stay active and keep doing workouts. last challenge I figured out that I'm pretty comfortable doing 4 workouts a week, plus my tkd Saturday. So! I will keep it up. 5x a week activity. one of those days can be tkd. anything goes: running, bodyweight, stretching or yoga, weights. just. KEEP BUSY. a busy lifestyle is good for you. I really want to keep focusing on getting to my -UPs. I have been having a hard time this last challenge because my elbow got so super sore! (it's still sore! waaaah!) so I am going to dial this back to a more progression oriented approach. I'm going to start with the Start Bodyweight Training - I'll work on progressions #2 and 5, for pull-ups and push-ups. I want to do this 2x a week. maybe I should do it more, but for now 2x a week should give me plenty of time for my elbow to recover (HOPEFULLY). GOAL 2. EAT RIGHT. y'all know I'm a daily weigher and a calorie counter. I think I'm at the point in my weight loss journey where I need to stop eating back my exercise. Last challenge I did a good job of staying within budget INCLUDING eating back exercise. This time, no eating back. * with the exception! of my crazy dojo days, and I can eat back like, 3/4 of my calories from any exercise that is 600 calories or greater. I think that's fair. Honestly, I need so much more protein and fat when I work out a lot. I'm also hoping that spring will bring hiking, and that would be a 600+ calories day too. there is ONE WEEK that I will not worry about this goal -- this week. I will do my best, but my birthday is on wednesday and I'm traveling with friends to Portland OR on Thursday through Monday. I want to eat all the delicious food while I'm away. so, I'll do my best to be smart about my choices and portion sizes. GOAL 3. SELF-CARE = FOSTER SPARKLYNESS Clearly I am running on fumes. I don't have a shower. I have to go to the gym or the office early or my mother in laws every day that I want to get clean. I have work and family commitments. In order to keep myself sparkly and not feeling despondent I need to take care of myself. These are the self-care things I am going to do: * acupuncture - every 3 weeks. this is covered by flexible spending. it's good for me. it will likely really help my elbow, among other things. * chiropractic - at least every 1 1/2 weeks. maybe every week. again. good for me. I've got a sore hip and arm from driving a lot for work. this is my recovery. * massage - one of these during the challenge. again, covered by flexible spending, and good for me. my muscles are a disaster (especially hamstrings and calves) and this has been very helpful for me. * ride the motorcycle as much as possible to work - this is fun for me! I need to do it! I also need to figure out how to do this while also going to the gym. that's part of the challenge. * take a bath in my new bathroom as soon as it's done (I am hoping there's just 2 more weeks on the project!) - there has to be some reward! get some nice smelly bath bombs or something from lush so I can break the tub in properly. * hey read books. no requirement, but hey, read books. LIFE GOAL. KEEP CRAFTING. this went super well last time. I love making things! I need to keep it up. so, as I said last time: weekly crafting is required. I've got knitting and spinning in progress right now. I'll take pictures and share it with you. hopefully this will also lead to me finishing the closet. I made HUGE progress on the closet last time, and I would love to finish it up. so. I need to stay on track, but I also need some space to wrangle a little more peace and order into my life. I know this is a lot of stuff, but the routine of the exercising is important to me, and the eating, well, that's mostly dialed in right now. hopefully goal 3 will be easy and profitable. profitable in SPARKLES.

"It can only be called fate... That here, I would again gather the three with the crests... That I should lay my hand on that which grants the wishes of the beholder. That when power, wisdom, and courage come together, the gods would have no choice but to come down... The power of the gods... The Triforce! He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted!" — Ganondorf Hello again, lazy monks. I, The Shogun, am your new fitness overlord for this week. I have but one simple goal. To transform your flabby wimey body into a more efficient machine of doom. You will now thank me for selflessly taking on this impossible task. I'll make this simple. The following three exercises are considered the “triforce” of bodyweight exercises: the squat of wisdom, the pushup of power and the burpee of courage. These three exercises are used everywhere from Hyrule to Labrynna. The Triforce has the power to grant the wishes of whomever master these three exercises, and will mold that person's body to reflect his or her heart. However, if a person without an equal balance of power, wisdom, and courage makes a wish, the Triforce will split into its three separate parts and reassembly is then required for such a person's wish to be granted. How to do it Perform as many reps as you can for the squat in just 3 minutes. Rest for 90 seconds, and then move on to the next exercise. Perform every exercise for 3 minutes, and record the total number of correct reps you can complete. As a Monk, ensure you are focusing on form and technique as well as volume. What to aim for You can use this challenge to assess your progress. Try repeating this once per challenge and try to join the Heroes of Time! Here are some targets for each exercise. Level 1: Deku Scrub Squat 50 Pushup 25 Burpee 20 Level 2: Hylian Warrior Squat 90 Pushup 50 Burpee 40 Level 3: Hero of Time Squat 120+ Pushup 90+ Burpee 50+ That's it. An excuse-proof 10 minutes-ish workout you can do anywhere. Remember: this is something to aim for. don't feel discouraged if you don't reach a certain level. And of course, don't forget to properly warm up and stretch afterwards. My personal advice? start with the exercise that you find most difficu— the burpee, start with the burpee. IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO OUT THERE, TAKE THESE. If you need a reminder on how to do any of these exercises with proper form, you can watch any of these three videos.

OK. I would use this image in EVERY challenge if I could because I love it that much. but this time it's actually pretty applicable: It's winter. I am tired. I have a lot of things I want to do, but the last 4 challenges have been really gym or physical therapy based, which means traveling to exercise. I'm an ASSASSIN. a MERMAID VIKING NINJA ASSASSIN (no really I think that's my race/class). I need to be able to do stuff on my own, when I will, where I am. and with winter and shoveling my style is cramped, and I am chafing. I want to get my groove back this challenge. Last one was amazing! it helped me get my feet back under me (so to speak) and shake off the ACL recovery. HOWEVER, I fizzled a little at the end - in part because of snow, in part because of sore knee. Therefore this challenge, I need to tailor the workouts and expectations a little more to fit me and my lifestyle more exactly. I need to structure a lifestyle where I'm doing things every single day, at a gym or at home or outside, and I'm not fizzling and avoiding workouts. MAIN QUEST: 2015 is the year of the -UP. that means pull-ups and push-ups, peaches! GOAL 1 Train your body This means going to the gym or doing workouts at home. I absolutely have to do something 5x a week. The things that I am doing include: weights, because I need to keep my leg strong and I'm working on my chest/shoulders/back/arms for the pull-upping; cardio, because I like to run and want to run more, so running, like, 25 min. at least; bodyweight circuits ala the bodyweight workouts from the NF academy (bonus maybe my husband will do these with me). IDEALLY I'll get in 2x formal weight machines, 2x cardio, and a bonus bodyweight workout. but MOST IMPORTANTLY is to do something 5x a week. Note: I'm going to keep going to tae kwon do, weapons class, and boxing. that's a good routine I've got right now. I need to work on the additional stuff that will support my -UPs and will also support my ability to be a martial artist. GOAL 2 Feed your face Stay within calories! this worked awesomely last challenge, I need to keep it up. GOAL 3 Tweak your skills While the body stuff is supporting the -UPs, I also need to work on those movements specifically. keep up the pee-and-push-ups at work. add in pull-up practice/negative hangs/etc. at work as well, once the pull-up bar is installed. do these things frequently on 4 days during the week, and write down how many of the things I'm doing. Also, for bonus, remember that time you bought a hula hoop and how cool and sparkly it is? how about you practice on that too. LIFE GOAL. ugh, I'm tired of not accomplishing anything on my house. for several challenges I've been talking about repairing my walls and installing a new closet and I'm tired of setting myself up for failure. I'm going to change this. Instead, crafting. weekly crafting is required. I've got knitting and spinning in progress right now. I'll take pictures and share it with you. maybe miraculously we will find that when I no longer HAVE to do the closet I'll procrastinate on the crafting by actually moving forward with closet things. MAYBE. OK WINTER. LET'S DO THIS.

Sixth Challenge [ September 15th – October 26th ] In the land of the dritch Background story Cuckoo, cuckoo. A bird's call is waking me from my slumber. I'm surrounded by trees, some are violet, a few magenta but most are plain purple. Yawning I get up and look around, a strange feeling in my heart.... It takes a few moments, but then I realize what's wrong. I have no idea, where I am and even less how I got there. “Are you lost?â€, said a voice from the branch above me. A feline creature is hanging from there and looks at me with his inverted face. “Who are you?â€, I ask the strange being. “I'm a grinning cat, what else? But the more interesting question is, who are you?†“I'm........ I'm....... I'm.....â€, I stutter, realizing, that I don't have the slightest idea who I am. “You don't know who you are, neither where you are? Seems like you are in trouble!â€, the cat laughs, loosing its grip on the branch and floating through the air. “Can you help me?†Nervousness starts to surround my thinking. “That depends, what kind of help do you want?†The cat slowly rolling through the air. My mind is spinning speedily to decide which question is the right one toask: “Where am I?†“Why, in the land of the dritch, of course! She rules this forest and surrounding areas with her temptations, you see them hanging from the trees, don't you?†His paws pointing to the right, where cakes, candy and other sweets are attached to the trees, where normally fruits would bee. “Don't eat anything she offers you, or she will control your actions forever!†“What else can you tell me?†I'm still not sure, who I am, but it becomes clear to me, that I must be some kind of warrior. A fighting spirit is rising in me, awakened by the feline warning. “I don't know more than you do, really, although I possibly remember more than you! But here is someone, who may be able to help you...†And with this the grinning cats arms and legs disappeared, tail and body followed until only its head remained. Then that, too, became invisible, the shining teeth in the form of the waxing moon remaining only. At first I didn't understand, but then I see it. The moonshine is concentrating on a gigantic mushroom in the next clearing. Warily I come closer. An almost undescribable creature as big as the cat is sitting there. It's green, that's the only thing, that is sure. But apart from that, numerous hands and feet, pointy ears pointing at the side and a judging yet benevolent stare; all wrapped up in a brown-beige robe. “Who are you?â€, I want to know and get the answer I somehow expected: “Answer that question I will, after who you are you told me.†“I can't, I know my current limits.†“But break them, you will. If my counsel you remember, that is.†“I don't....†“Time I don't have to repeat everything, I thaught you. But two pieces of my advice you'll get from me, to fight the dritch!†“I'm listening!â€, I say and sit down in front of the mushroom. “First, don't remembering you are you say. But you do! It's in you: Mind what you have learned save you it can! Be consistent in the basic aspects of your training and you will have the power to fight the dritch!†“My memory is like a library full of foreign books. But I will work on understanding and following them!†“Paradox might seem the other thing: You must unlearn, what you have learned! The wrong way brought you into this forest, of all, that you have learned in this time you have to get rid. The fear, the inflexibility.†“I will do that, too. Is there more I need to look out for?†“The rest you already realized on your own: This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted...†Goal 1 – Continue bodyweight workout “Mind what you have learned. Save you it can!†3 STR / 1 STA / 1 CHA In general this means doing three workouts per week of each the following exercises: -Pull-Ups (Following 7 weeks to 50 pull-ups) [extra points if I make it to 10 unbroken pull- ups] -Push-Ups (Following a progression leading up to one-hand push-ups) -Pistols -Planks/Hollow Body Grading: Each workout is worth a point. 1 succesful workout equals 8% and 12 succesful workouts equal 100% Goal 2 – Don't eat anything the dritch made, lest you be forever trapped “This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted...†1 WIS / 2 CON / 2 CHA The dritch is the queen of temptation. To escape her claws, I must only eat real food: Veggies, meat/fish, fruit, nuts, eggs, dairy etc. Grading is easy: 1 successful day a week equals 15% and 7 successful days a week equal 100%. Goal 3 – Non-strength related basics “You must unlearn, what you've learned!†1 CON / 1 DEX Consinsting of stretching and/or working on hand-balancing/hand-stands before going to bed for at least five minutes. Grading is easy again: 1 successful evening a week equals 15% and 7 successful evenings a week equal 100%. Life Goal – Make your voice heard 2 WIS / 1 CHA This one only starts in week three and is a simple pass/fail: Create a blog and publish at least three texts.

Hello all! I am doing P90X3's "challenge" workout tomorrow for the first time, which is basically 30 minutes of alternating pull ups and push ups. I can't do any unassisted pull ups. I have an assist band, but can only get about 3/4 of the way up, and then maybe 1/2 way after that. Do you guys think it would be better to use a chair or to do their modifier (an assist band looped over the bar)? With the chair, I feel like I use my legs too much, but the motion is closer to what I'll be doing eventually. Similarly, I can do 1-2 regular push-ups, but for this exercise I think I should do a higher number of modified push-ups. I've read conflicting opinions on the best way to modify the push-up, either from the knees or by keeping the knees straight and pushing up against the wall or counter. Thoughts?

So I'm looking at tweaking the PLP60 to something I can actually do! I don't have upper body strength worth nothin', so I'm looking for something for the "pull" action of PLP. I'm starting with one push-up, one lunge (each leg) and one pull action, but I can't do an actual pull-up. I'm thinking inverted rows, but I don't have a bar and I'm gonna look around for a playground to creep on for the bars set. Do you have any suggestions for an alternative pull action? Thanks!

Captain America’s push-up challenge: Monday-Do as many push-ups as I physically can while keeping good form (n) Wednesday- do 3 sets of (n/3)+1 push-ups Friday- Do 1 set of five of each push-up: Feet elevated, regular, diamond (upped to 7, 10, etc., as needed), et. al Goal: 50 push-ups in a row Reward: +3 STR, +3 STA Technical mess: I receive 1 point for both attributes every two weeks I successfully complete all three days. As for divisibility, 19/3 will count for 6, while 20/3 will count for 7. Mini-quest, the prequel: Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? I believe it is both achievable and reasonable, since my lifetime high score is 46 in a row. Do your 3 main goals all build towards it in little ways, or are you taking on too much? I don't think I am taking on too much, but if anyone has a conflicting opinion, I'd happily take it into advisement. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? I have scaled it down to do the most I can every week and gain as my body can. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? My goals can be tracked using a blog, this thread, or even on a whiteboard or a notebook. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? I am grading on whether or not I actually do what it takes to meet my goals. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? If I become ill or injured, I can alter my form or do fewer push-ups, even miss a week and take the hit. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Passover, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? I should not need to build around those since this is a fitness challenge, but I do need to watch my alcohol consumption during holidays. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? Not at all. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I do have the time in my mornings to perform my quest quickly. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? I am trying to build one habit with my quest, but I will be performing personal mini-quests to tweak other areas of my life and possibly gain more stat points in other areas, but these are not my focus.

One of my goals for my first challenge is to do 25 consecutive push-ups. I hit 15 tonight, so WOOT!! Thats all...

I like push ups. I haven't been doing a whole bunch of them lately. I will do a bunch of them. - I want to start with knee push ups and and inclined ones, and work my way to do being able to do a set of 8-ish again. - I hoep to do stuf at least 3 times/week, maybe more. - I will report my activities on here. Yessss. extra: bathroom push ups. kitchen push ups. bed push ups. I'll get creative.

Today I completed 20 'man' push-ups with form!! In April I could not do 1 push-up on my knees! Now they are too easy and I am rocking full push-ups. WOOT!

Hi all! Can't believe it's a new challenge already. Just came back from my holidays and now trying to get back into my routine. Difficult, it is. I'm already late for this challenge so no theme this time. Although I'm still slaying the White Walkers in my head. Before: This is my third NF challenge and I'm switching to the Warriors guild as strength training is all I can think about. Last time I was with Rangers and completely ignored my endurance goal so thought I might actually belong here I started kettlebells in June and barbell training in August. By the end of the last challenge I deadlifted my bodyweight and was pretty proud. Hoping to increase the weight this time. I'm now back at uni so this will definitely make everything harder so I'm keeping it simple this time. Also, as I said, I'm back from holidays which means I didn't do much strength training for the past two weeks and I need to get back on track. Main Quest: Get stronger, obviously I want to increase my weights in deadlift, squat and press. How: 1. Barbell training twice a week. I won't manage to do more with my work, studies and life. Also, my gym gets too crowded sometimes. My stats: deadlift 90kg (although I'll start with 80kg now), BP 35kg, OHP 32kg, squat 52,5kg. I'm not sure how much progress I'll be able to make (any suggestions to what healthy goals to set?) as I'm still a big n00b. 2. Kettlebells twice a week. I just love the class, I'm not leaving it. I now use a 16kg kettlebell, I want to use a 18kg one by the end of this challenge. 3. Paleo. I'm on and off with Paleo since June but I always fall back to my stupid habits. I'd like to eat Paleo 6 days a week. Maybe being broke student will help a bit. Fitness side goal: I know it's stupid but I still can't comfortably do a press up. So I'd like to learn that finally. Life side goal: Be social. I love being alone but it doesn't really help to level up my life. I want to join a few societies in uni, try to get a volunteering place in my department and just be more social in general. I'm not going to repeat my mistake in setting up too many goals so I'm keeping this simple too. I'll just be happy if I make a few more friends by the end of this. Side notes: First week will be a little different as it's the Freshers Week at uni and all the smart people keep out of gym during the Freshers Week. I'm studying full-time, working two jobs and trying to get fit at the same time. It gets hard sometimes so bear with me. Also, anyone in similar situation? Would be nice to see I'm not alone with crazy schedule I have so many tiny little goals but I feel like I'm already taking up too much (as my year at uni will be reeeeally busy). Anyway, here they are, it's entirely for myself so I could remember: re-learn how to cross stitch and crochet, paint something, sign up for Russian language courses, clean my flat, plan my 2014 summer.

So I think I posted my new Challenge topic in the last Challenge page. Therefore, here it is again! Hey all! The last challenge was my first ever, and I think it went pretty well. Nonetheless, it was a crazy time and I wasn't able to keep close track of my goals for about half of it. Hopefully I'll do this one better! That said, here's my goals for this round - I'm going to try for very quantifiable but challenging milestones: Toes to the Road Several years back, I tried getting seriously into running, only to discover that undiagosed flat feet, of all things, had caused damage to my right hip over time. More recently, I've found that running in Vibram FiveFingers is something that doesn't seem to cause as much damage, but it's much more strenuous for my feet since I'm not used to them yet. Therefore, I'm going to try to work up to a 5k over this challenge - the distance in and of itself wouldn't have been a problem in the past, but it's in FiveFingers over rough terrain, so it'll be rough on my feet at first. I may cut the goal out if my leg injury starts acting up from the running, but I think I can do it... Rewards: STA +4 A = Full 5k, B = 3 miles, C = 2.5 miles, D = 2 miles, F = less than 2 miles. Pushing Through I've been enamored of the 100 push-up milestone for months now, but only recently have I started training enough that it looks achievable. I'm up to about 60, but I'll need to stay on top of my training to make it happen! Rewards: +2 STR, +2 STA Grading: Deduct one letter per 5 pushups missed. Different Perspectives I'm also working on my handstands! I've never set a good goal for them, though, so this will be a start. I want to have a 15-second freestanding handstand by the end! Rewards: +2 STR, +2 DEX Grading Mmmmm, Tasty I love cooking, and I want to try new things this summer! My goal is 15 new dishes by the end of the challenge! I'll post photos. Rewards: +1 WIS, +2 CON

This is my first foray into the ways of the ranger. (Stranger Ranger!) Having started off adventuring, I soon discovered that I truly was a master at none, and so began my life as a jack of all trades. That is why I have taken up the platypus as a symbol/mascot for this challenge. One, because we're both aussies! Two, they are fantastically diverse bits of everything creatures. Perfect for a bits of everything me. Speaking of which, I think diversity is healthy, and anything that gets put in front of me as a challenge is fair game. My challenges - personal, professional and otherwise have all made me who I am and I want to push myself further and take on new challenges. I think in the past I have always pushed my goals way too far ahead of my abilities, and this time I want to set more manageable and achievable goals. Walking Rangers need to do a lot of walking. Walking is definitely an achievable goal. I normally hit somewhere in the range of 6000 - 7000 steps a day. I count this using my fitbit (which has become an extension of my being). Day to day, I know I am not always going to hit my 10,000 steps - so my goal will be to hit 70,000 per week (so, a 10,000 average) over the course of the 6 weeks. Walking is man's best medicine. - Hippocrates Skills Ranger survive in the wild because they constantly learn new skills, improve upon their current ones and replace old ones with more effective ones. So in skilling up, I am proposing the following three goals: ...Learn a new skill - Chin up Platypi are not good climbers, but that's not going to stop me. However - first things first is to build some upper body strength, and to do that I want to do a chin up. Yep. Just one. If I can get a pull up out, all the better. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. - Einstein ...Improve upon an old one - Push Ups I have had a love/hate relationship with push ups. And I want to do 'proper' ones - and never look back. At the moment I have been doing 5 - 20 incline push ups against my bathroom counter before getting into the shower each morning. My first 'half' challenge is to get to the same number of push ups - at a lower incline. I want to move from the counter, to the bath, with the intention of then progressing fully into full push ups. The only pushup you won't be able to do is the one you never do. - Gwen Ro ...Replace old ones with new ones - Running/Sprints In my past, I have done a lot of running. But I've now found more and more, that the idea of even trying to get 30 minutes so 'go for run' involves a 30 minute run, oh and 10 minutes at the start getting ready/changed, 5 minute walk to get to the park, 10 minute cool down, 5 minute walk back, all while trying to fit in dinner and.... its just not working. I haven't run/jogged etc in months. I need to find a more effective way of getting in some activity - so while I'm actively looking for suggestions, my plan at the moment is to get into sprinting. Yeah it'll still take me half an hour to get all the walking prep etc out of the way - but if I can get 10 minutes of sprinting and have that be as effective as 30 minutes of running, I can see myself more likely to keep it up. By changing nothing, nothing changes. -Tony Robbins Recovery I must accept that I cannot go on forever. There have been to many times where I have pushed myself too much. I've let my health suffer, my relationships suffer, and my sanity suffer. There has been too many 12+ hour days at work, too many 3am I'm still up's, too many sorry I'm really busy at the moment's. I want to learn how to take a step back, calm myself, recover properly. So my first step towards that is getting more sleep. And better quality sleep. So for at least 5 days out of the week, I want to be in bed by midnight. I can't help it when I actually fall asleep, but if I can get into the habit of winding down when I need to rest, I'm hoping the rest will fall into place. The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more. - Wilson Mizener Can't wait to take this journey with you all, and succeed as we continue.

Hey everyone! I know I was JUST in here yesterday praising the amazing ability to fit into an XL, but I have another WOOT that I can't pass up. Last night I was doing my Angry Birds workout and got this crazy idea to try and actually do normal push-ups. Up to this point I have been doing all the easier variations, starting with wall, then counter top incline, to knee, but last night I tried regular push-ups. I expected to suck at this horribly, but to my surprise I managed to nail 20 of them in a total of three sets 10/8/2!! While with some of them I didn't quite make it down as far as I should, I kept perfect form the entire time I'm so excited because this is the first set of regular push-ups that I have done since high school (which is like over 15 years ago).