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...but still with plenty of badassery to go with it. We'll call it brutal enlightenment. In past challenges, I have taken on rucking (metal!), skiing (metal!), sledgehammering (metal!), and most recently a little bit of slinging (metal!). All of it very metal. I've also taken on meditation. Yeah, not so metal, at least on the surface. But when one realizes the practice of mindfulness can instill razor sharp focus, or as I like to think of it, primal awareness, yes...it is very metal. In this challenge, I'm still doing all the metal stuff, but maybe with a little more focus on the softer side of badassery. How is this accomplished? By keeping the commitment to the meditation routine, and adding a little yoga to the mix. And then rucking and slinging like a mother-rucker. And slinger. Yeah. Goal 1 - Brutal Mobility: Rucking returns yet again, in its most extreme form. Monday through Friday, early morning rucking, as I did in the last challenge starting at week 2. That's rucking 5x per week. In the early AM. Before I go to work. In the cold and dark. Brutal. +5 to Sta Goal 2 - Primal Awareness: Daily meditation is back. I've now made this a morning routine. This is the first thing I do when I wake up, immediately after crawling out of bed and immediately before my morning ruck. Except on weekends (my only non-rucking days), where I am more lenient about when I do the meditation. Just so long as it gets done. 12 minutes of meditation, daily. +5 to Wis Goal 3 - Art of the Sling: My latest interest, that most ancient of projectile weapons, capable of felling giants and mad Roman statesmen. My goal is to practice slinging at least 3x per week (should be easy enough, considering that I often bring the sling along on rucks). Also, I intend to craft at least one new sling during the course of this challenge. Even if I don't need one, I intend to make a sling anyway, if for no other reason than to continue to develop my sling crafting skills. I am very much enjoying the acquisition of proficiency with a weapon I craft with my own hands. +3 to Dex Goal 4 - Predatory Suppleness: Taking a nod from some of nature's ultimate ambush predators, large cats, I aim to gain the flexibility and grace I once had when I was an avid practitioner of karate (without actually returning to karate). I will do this by completing a home yoga workout at least 2x per week. Quite simply, my body needs it. I ruck a lot, and I drive a desk for a day job (most of the time), and a need a little something to keep me limber. Yoga was something I once regularly did, but I have gotten out of the practice. Time to get back into it, one little bit at a time. My back will thank me for it. +2 to Dex And there we have it, brutality and enlightenment, in one efficient package!

Not the most applicable of challenge titles, as it only covers 2 of my goals, but it'll have to do Current (relatively) short term fitness goals(i don't necessarily expect to achieve these this challenge) Pistol squats. i can sort of do 1 sloppy one on my right leg..on a good day. let's say 10/leg(4x10 sound better, but 10 is closer) Kipping bar muscle up.(probably with false grip) I'm not certain where I'm at right now. Better grip strength. to quantify this, I suppose I'll say 10s 1-arm ledge and/or rope hang. This is a while off Consistently be able to touch my palms to the floor cold. I'm just about here now 20 pushups almost any time. I may have this one, I probably won't know for a bit, as I don't really care about it that much. all my pushups are knuckle/dumbell ones right now anyway, as my left wrist is kinda messed up 60s floor L-sit. can hold for a couple seconds Run 5k in an arbitrary length of time chosen to indicate that I can travel said distance with relative ease(25 minutes?) This one may be on hold for a bit, as I've got some kind of overuse strain/injury/other going on with my feet(sore in the mornings, achilles and sometimes a bone feeling fairly mild stress) There are others of course, but those (the first 2 anyway) are the big ones Where I'm at: Might take a progress photo; probably won't share I plan on testing maxes in the following exercises on Monday, will either add a post or fill in here Deadlift, Back Squat, Bench Press(mostly just curious about the latter) Pullups, PB Dips OHP possibly knuckle pushups Current Workout Schedule(recently revised): GTG pullups, ledge hanging leg raises Monday and Friday: box pistols, ring dips, back lever/elbow lever/superman Wednesday: Deadlifts, weighted pushups, inverted rows/front lever progression, pistols optional As I said above, I recently changed this(to replace barbell squats with pistol progressions), so it's not too solid atm Part of the trouble I've had with increasing pullups in the past is a lack of a plan, so I'm (tentatively) going to be using http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/how-to-double-your-pullups-in-6-weeks/'>this, but mon/tue/thur/fri instead, with mon/thur being high kipping pulls Challenge Goals: 1: Read the Bible for at least 5+week#+x minutes/day x may be increased by no more than 1/week as I see fit, starts at 0 This will be scored by the percent of days completed Reward: 3 wis 1 chr 2: Move other things up(then down..and mostly forward, but still..) I must spend at least an hour slinging every week(most of this will be walking to pick up bullets/rocks..) Scored as percent of weeks completed Reward: +3 dex +.5 wis 3: Move myself up: 1 point for each week I complete 2+ workouts containing pullups and pistol variants Reward: +3 str +1 sta 4: Move...my..protein intake up...?...no, that doesn't work well. Anyway, my goal here is to consume >110g of protein/day, excluding June 1-8. Scored as with goal 1 +3 con +.5 str A=86-100% B=75-85% C=56-75% D=36-55% E=16-35% F=0-15% Comments/questions/critiques are, of course, welcome...hopefully I didn't miss anything That's All, Folks! Edit: forgot goal rewards