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So, last challenge, I got started late because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and went on vacation with my parents for a week and then didn't finish because of a short period of no internet and the fitness room at my new university not having barbell plates for a week and then stressing out about stupid assignments, so I'm trying this again. Main Quest (nerdy phrasing): Achieve my next form (the first one where people can comment on how much more in shape I am so that I can reply "This isn't even my final form.") Getting Focused Part 2 again Objective 1: Stick to my diet, and try to get 220g of protein a dayObjective 2: Continue lifting 3 times per week (SL 5x5)Objective 3: Get an average of 7 hours or more of sleep each nightLife Side Quest: Work on time management I'm hoping this helps me not get as stressed out and helps me do well in my classes while still having time to relax and do other things. I'm thinking pomodoro might work well for this purpose. My obstacle with it is that most things I would want to do take more than 5 minutes (30 minutes can seem quite short as well), so it can feel like just more wasted time instead of a break, so I need to work on how to make the 5 minutes seem worthwhile and refreshing.

"The time has come" the walrus said, "to talk of food and things; of peppercorn and mustard seed and other seasonings!" - Lewis Carrol I want to start this off by saying I have no experince deliberately bulking. To me that's the best reason to do this. I've been dropping weight consistently and steadily for 10 months. A couple of weeks ago I finally looked at myself in the mirror and didn't have to convince myself I'm not fat anymore. Instead I said: Jesus I'm small. This isn't the goal. I didn't want to be a waif or street urchin. I wanted to be He-Man. I could feel my abs through my skin even though I couldn't see them.. I could also play matchbox cars on my ribs with my nephew. In the world of underpants gnomes I made a plan: Step 1: Cut this excess body fat off Step 2: Step 3: He-Man Well having collected all the underpants I'm left with choices. Why did I want to become He-man in the first place? I was too weak to mow my lawn without getting winded. I was too weak to bath my 160lb great dane without assistance (For the record while I can do this now I still prefer not to... He is not a fan of the bathtub). Superficially that is my ideal body image though in my head so that will alwyas be my driving goal. However I've learned here at Nerd Fitness just how empty that shallow goal is. Sure it's always the end game, but strength is going to get me there. I need to pay attention to that and stop focusing on the painfully slow process of my body reconstituting itself. So that brings my babble to this challenge. Goal 1: Start bulking. Starting Saturday I'm setting my calories to 3250 and leaving them there until my waist hits 33inches again or I see Santa Claus whichever comes first. If I get to New year's I'll re asses if I should keep going or go back to a cut. I currently have a 30.5 inch waist so I think I'll be fine with this goal. Hit my calories with 100 every day. Simple Straight forward. Sta - 2 Con - 3 Goal 2: Expand my workout routine. I want to learn how to do more than SL 5x5. It's served me well, but there's a lot of world out there and I'm hungry to see some of it. I've started experimenting with bodyweight exercises. I want to keep up working on single leg squats (I use them to warm up for back squats right now). I've also switched to several dumbel exercises instead of the barbell for this challenge to try them out. Same exercise, slightly different execution. I'm also starting to do pullups and more pushups and am looking at installing rings in my gym. SL 5x5 routine with dumbells takes alot longer, but I want to see if this helps build my muscles a little when I go back to the barbell after the challenge. Dex- 3 Str - 2 Goal 3: Face my Fears: My biggest fears for right now are lifting to full failure and getting fat again. I need to conquer these two goals if I'm going to progress. So jumping right in the pool with a bulk and forcing myself to failure more frequently seem like the best way to get it over with! Wis - 3 Life Goal: Finish 1 Crochet project. I am working on a baby blanket for a freind. I need to get that shit done. I have a ton of crochet and cross stitch projects I keep backing up on doing. Well lets make it a goal and finish it! Wis - 2

I'm horrible and am just now making a post. For a while, I wasn't sure what my goals should be this challenge. I knew generally what I wanted to do, and have been working to keep up with it anyway but wasn't sure specifically. This week, I just got back from a vacation with my parents. The hotels that we stayed at had gyms, but neither of them had barbells, and one only had dumbbells up to, I believe, 45 lbs. This made me realize how much I love lifting with barbells, especially squats and deadlifts. There's something about the feeling of how a bar fits to one's back while squatting that I love especially, and I really missed that while I was away from my normal gym (though I did impress a random kid when I was doing deadlifts with the heaviest dumbbells, which were 75 lbs each at that hotel, which was kind of cool). Anyway, on to the challenge stuff. Main Quest (nerdy phrasing): Achieve my next form (the first one where people can comment on how much more in shape I am so that I can reply "This isn't even my final form.") Getting Focused Part 2: Adjusting Focus Objective 1: Continue sticking to my diet.Objective 2: Continue lifting 3 times per week (SL 5x5), but also work in more warm up. So far, I've only been in the starting segment of SL working up from the bar from scratch focusing on getting the technique down, so I have been a little lazy on warm up lifts, but OH Press is becoming exertive, so I have been thinking I should probably go ahead and get in good habits before the other lifts do too.Objective 3: Auxiliary work. This one is 2 parted.Objective 3.1: Biking 30 minutes 3 times per week to work on asthma. In my previous challenge, I put more focus on this goal and was more ambitious with it, but I wasn't really getting the results I wanted and was spending a ton of time at the gym, so, for this challenge, I'm going to take a step back and try to more closely replicate the progression before my first attempt at C25k.Objective 3.2: Do more work on flexibility. I have been doing some stretching before and after lifting and biking, but I should probably do more. I am naturally quite flexible, but it seems to be dipping down toward average flexibility. My plan is to continue stretching before working out, but, then stretch extensively after working out. I have thought yoga might be good too, but I would need to take the time to learn it too. Life Side Quest: Work on time management I'm transferring to a new school which is brand new, and classes start 8/25. I need to be really diligent about my studies while still finding time to go to the gym and hopefully being able to still find time to relax (I am prone to procrastination, especially when stressed). There are also leisure things which I would like to do that I normally don't because they feel time consuming such as reading. I'm thinking pomodoro might work well for that purpose. I have used it a little for reading so far this challenge period, and it worked pretty well, so I'm going to try applying it to other things. My obstacle with it is that most things I would want to do take more than 5 minutes (30 minutes can seem quite short as well), so it can feel like just more wasted time instead of a break, so I need to work on how to make the 5 minutes seem worthwhile and refreshing. Since I have known generally what I wanted to do for this challenge, I'm going to grade myself retroactively in a bit in another post (this post took around 5 pomodori x.x; ).

Hey all, this is my second challenge though I'm little late to start. I've been lifting SL 5x5 for the last few weeks (love it!) with some light back work on off days (I have scoliosis) and want to get stronger whilst keeping fat down. My main quest is to get damn strong, whilst keeping to a good bf %, with my main goals being Be able to squat my own body weight Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night Eat around 200 grams of protein a dayAlso do any of you guys who do (or had done) SL do any isolation work at the end of your workout? I was thinking of adding some stuff but I'm not all that sure. Ok then, let's lift the heavy things, put them down, so we can lift heavier things!

First challenge as a member of the Warrior Guild, having just completed the level 1 Rebel challenge I'm looking to maintain and continue to build some momentum towards completing my Main Quest (being in the best shape of my life by my 35th birthday – 25 June 2015). In the past, when I've abandoned fitness, it's usually been because working out changed from being fun to a chore. So, in the spirit of keeping things fun, I've devised a point based game for me to complete this challenge and “level up.†My reward for successfully leveling up? Increasing my badassity quotient. My penalty for failing to level up? I will shave my beloved beard. And what is a Warrior without a badass beard? So those are the stakes. Here's a rundown of the basic game rules I'll be following: Total points needed to Level Up: 300 Ways in which I gain points in this challenge: -Complete a StrongLifts weight session, +10 pts -Complete a dedicated conditioning session, +10 pts -Walk, +1 pt per mile -Bike, +1 pt per mile -Hike, +2 pts per mile -Pushups: +25 pts per 1,000 pushups completed during the challenge. My goal is 4,000 for the challenge, which would require me to average almost 100 every day. If I get all 4,000 pushups I will award myself an additional 50 bonus points (in addition to the 100 pts I would already have earned from the 4 – 1,000 pushups completed) -Yoga class, +25 pts (I've never done yoga. It's been something I've wanted to try for a long time, so if I motivate myself and actually take a class, I'll award myself a healthy bonus for kicking ass and getting out of my comfort zone). -Successfully reach 250lbsx5x5 barbell squat, +25 pts -Successfully reach 225lbsx5x5 bench press, +25 pts -Successfully reach 315x1x5 deadlift, +25 pts On this quest, I may encounter enemies who drain points thusly: -Any eating of the “Forbidden Foods†will deduct 50 points. My Forbidden Foods for this challenge are: pizza, chips (any kind: potato, tortilla, etc), hot dogs, and bread. -If I drink alcohol more than 2x per week during this challenge, I lose 50 pts for each additional day So that's it. Those are the parameters of this challenge. To be successful, I need to hit my StrongLifts sessions 3x a week for 6 weeks (180 points), and supplement this with conditioning sessions, low impact walking and biking, and working towards my pushup “vanity†goal of 4k pushups in 6 weeks. As long as I remember that I can't out-train a bad diet (avoid Forbidden Foods and moderate my drinking), I should be able to reach 300 points and retain my beard, and move onto the next challenge in my Quest to become one BAMF by age 35.

Goals: Eat Cleanly at a deficit Lift Heavy Rucking Train Several things are going to occur during this challenge though Nerdster - 4/195k - 4/26GRL - 5/10 At work we're spooling up all the construction for pending circuits and the completion dates will hit actually starting next week. It's going to be a lot of work, and a lot of long hours. As such I'm keeping this pretty straight forward and simple this go round. Strong Lifts5x5 3x/week. Eat clean macros150g P / <50gC / 100g F ~1500kcalRuck twice a weekLife wise, much more general: stay on top of everything and don't get bogged down in the office BS that's been going around. That's it.