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"You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute, and now a then stab, as occasion serves." - Christopher Marlowe Train the Body: First and foremost, training is important to me. There is an aesthetic I like, a vainness that I enjoy. But, I like being strong. Not just inside the gym, but outside the gym. I thought a lot about it this past weekend with moving and knowing how the strength I've garnished over the years of lifting really helped me out. I think about being weaker and not being able to lift as much weight and how much more difficult the move would have been. I'm thankful for the time I've put in and how it's translated to real world application. I started a new training program through the middle of the last challenge and love it. The programming is great. The structure and ability to complete within an hour is even better, given that 60-65min is basically the max time I have to train before I have to get ready for work. I'm excited to get back into the program called "Comanche" later this week. The program calls for sprints 2x a week but I think with my busy schedule and two jobs that I'll just go for 1x a week for now. Train the Mind: I know that I am mentally strong. The key to me being successful in my every day life is to be strong mentally. I work 2 jobs. Sometimes my day extends around the 17-18hr mark from the time I wake up to the time I get off from Costco and get home. I have a BRAND NEW routine now that I've moved and this week is going to be an adjustment. Finish 2 audible books during this challenge. Utilize my longer commute. Train my Creative Mind™ Empire of Silence (Sun Eater Book #1) (16hrs left) Howling Dark (Sun Eater Book #2) Recover the Body: Foam roll, yoga, massage gun: USE ALL OF THESE THINGS. Work hard. Play hard. Recover hard. Recover the Mind: Nap. Eat at your desk to save time and use part of your hour lunch to catch some Zzz's. Meditation goes a long ways, I think. I definitely don't take the time to relax my mind in that regard and train it up to be stronger and more palpable. 5min a day is not long. I can do this. Wolf

Main Wolverine’s goal: being The Wolverine. Fight. Train. Expose yourself to cold. Eat like a horse. Breath. New stuff Handstands!

in the spirit of SAY WHAT YOU WANT AND GET WHAT YOU NEED I took a hard look at my feelings right now and realized a few things: 1. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for - january, when my husband is not at school on tuesdays and thursdays and I can try to do bigger weights at the dojo? the holidays so I can figure out if I'm going to gain weight again like I did last time? 2. I'm bummed that I gained weight last year over the holidays and held onto it all year. I mean, I'm bummed that 2 years ago I gained weight after the holidays and got out of my "goal range" and haven't lost that weight either. 2a. I'm bummed that I feel like I'm in a holding pattern with this too? like, I know how to take action, why am I not taking action? so goals! 1. Be deliberate and careful as I walk through the holiday season yo don't get frustrated again this year, ok? which means... prioritize daily tracking of food again. get it all in, every day. prioritize daily weighs, too. 2. Be deliberate about moving. it turns out I don't like running right now (because I don't seem to be doing it). Ok, that's fine. do 3x bodyweight every week. do 2x yoga every week also. soooo this is a M-W-F schedule for BW, and a T-Th for yoga. I can do this. for bodyweight I'm looking at the academy... it's been ages since I've done anything there. I think I'm at level 3? according to the things? just, whatever. Just do those workouts this week (week 1). 3. Be deliberate about push-ups! dude, you say you want to do these all the time. so learn how to do them already! use the start bodyweight progression for push-ups. SELF, you can DO THIS. do it every day. 3 sets of 8, every day. 4. BE DELIBERATE ABOUT SLEEP. a lot of my issues with exercising is that I'm waaaaaay too tired. no screens in bed any more. don't read until the wee hours. get into bed at 9-9:15, and go to sleep. get up at 5AM. there, easy, right?

So I've been getting back into my 5km runs again, first after back issues and having now been away for three weeks. But I've got a little bored of them, and I don't seem to be progressing much. Tonight I tried something a little different. Instead of 5km steady, I would do one mile at a fast pace, take a short break, then do another mile. I had no idea that would be so brutal. First mile was HARD. Cut my time down from 8:15ish a mile to 7:16, then had to walk a while, and then had to quit the second mile a few minutes in with a rampant stitch. I am definitely trying this again next week!

Okay so my name is Hannah and I'm an assassin in training. My goals for this upcoming 4 week challenge is as follows: 1.) Complete the Advanced Bodyweight workout 3 times a week and on the same day complete the Begginer's Parkour workout and finish the day off with sprints with corners and straight aways at my old high school track. When I'm not working out I rest and I mean I rest a lot cause I'm going to be tired! 2.) Go to a Yoga class 3 times a week on my off days or at least try some at home yoga that isn't too crazy and will help the soreness and increase my flexibility. 3.) Go Vegan/ as close as I can be while meeting my 3,000 calories a day goal. That being said...why Vegan? Why not Paleo? This is nerd fitness! Well ya see my sister's Vegan and she has a lot on her plate with her job and going out with friends and I wanna make sure she, and the rest of my family are eating well. So I'm going vegan. Every meal I've planned out will include 30g of Protien and a vegetable or two and complex carbohydrates. (I'll post these recipes/ eating times (I guess if you could call it that) later if I want I probably will!) (hint: the post protien shake isn't vegan but I love it (ps: it's Steve's Post workout calorie bomb of a protein shake) (also I'll be intermediate fasting) (because I don't like breakfast) (and cause nobody has time for that when you have two jobs and your first year in college is way down the line, all ready for you to run straight into it and fall well not today Zurg! I'm gonna cat hang up it and pull myself up!) 4.) Meditate for a minute each day and increase the time by one minute each week. So week one it's for 1 minutes, next week 2 min, ect. Now I know this last one won't get reached in 4 weeks but I'm currently 95lbs, my doctor wants me to be at 115-120lbs and I want to be personally 175lbs with most of that being muscule! My Body fat percentage is at 17% right now and I'd like to keep it that way or even raise it a bit but I don't want to to go down past 15% because of the heath risks. -Hannah

My name is Wild Wolf and this is my Respawn challenge. With a new computer set-up, I’m able to get on the boards a little more often and wanted to get back to challenging myself physically and mentally. For the last 2 months it seems, I haven’t done much in the exercise/physical department. That includes going to Gaelic practice in over a month! Laziness? Maybe. Depression? Maybe. But either way, something needs to give. Depression you may ask? It’s a mild case, but I’ve let things get me down and throw off my normally positive mental state of mind. I attribute most of the way I feel towards my lack of physical training...so I know how to fix that part. But why is it so hard for me to find the time to train nowadays? I don’t need a solid 60 min to consider it a worthy WOD….15-min is enough time to blast myself and sweat out the bullshit...I’m just being lazy and prioritizing other things. I want to be more strict and disciplined...a stretch of things that is no stranger to me and all that starts NOW. Not next Monday or this weekend or whatever. Now. So who is Wild Wolf? Well, he’s a lot like your best friend. He’s got your back when times get sticky. He’s there to make you laugh when you’re feeling low. He’s even there to lend some worldly and Godly advice when wisdom is needed. But, he’s also: A closet pot head An anxious nail biter A hot-head A procrastinator Jealous Manipulative/Cheater a quitter I’m sharing this with you because my name is Ryan and I am Wild Wolf. No curtain. No mask or cowl. No secret identity. Just me. I feel like by being transparent with everyone that I can get back to being “myself” a lot sooner rather than later My inspiration changes all the time, so I’ve decided NOT to theme out my comeback challenge and just flood it with all the stuff I like. So expect music videos, obscene memes, inappropriate gifs and anything else I’m feeling at that point in time. It’ll be very Deadpool-esque if I can make a comparison haha. Goal #1: Train 3x a week. Nothing flashy-just get out and get some structured workouts in! Goal #2: Eat I want to put back on the muscle I’ve lost from being a lazy bastard. Protein, protein and PB&J! Track my protein intake daily. Goal #3: Recover Bum shoulder is feeling good these days but I’ve been slacking hardcore on my re/prehab. Time to bulletproof and get flexible! Re/Prehab daily with 1x a week for deep tissue work. Goal #4: Run Face my fears and daily struggles head on. Run TOWARDS my problems. Also, work 1-2x sprints a week. Bonus: Try for 1 day of speed drills/footwork Bonus: Try for a long trail run or ruck 1x a week Now, all I gotta do is keep up my end of the bargain and get back to my true form. Wolf

A lot of this is going to be the same ol', same ol', but I really want to focus on my running in this one. I've been too lax with it, between laziness and using the gym as an excuse not to run (as in, 'Oh, I'll go to the gym today, even though the plan was to run today, and just run tomorrow' *doesn't run tomorrow*), I really just need to focus on that right now. In terms of the police testing, other than pushups, I'm pretty well strong enough for it all, it's my endurance (or lack thereof) that kills me. So: Goal 1 ~ Run 4x/week Three treadmill runs of 5k, increasing the speed each week by 0.1 mph (with a starting speed of 6.5mph), which will put me at my short term goal of 7mph by the start of the next challenge (in theory). Might have to dial this back just a tad, I got fairly sick over the holidays (still am fairly sick, actually, but a bit less so), so I'll have to see how I recover from that during this zero week, but the only dialing back will be the speed I start/finish at, I'm sticking with the speed increase plan regardless. The fourth run will be Wednesday nights, sprints at the indoor track. This'll be a hard one to get up for through January, but once February rolls around, I'll be driving out there on Wednesdays for soccer anyway, so the plan is to go a hour or so early and do a sprint workout beforehand. Again, this might get dialed back a bit once soccer actually starts, I'm anticipating it not being very intense, but I could be wrong. Goal 2 ~ Pushups Need to get back on this train, so I'm going to try doing one more every day for the whole challenge, until I stall out or feel like I'm overdoing it. If I can keep it going the whole time, I'll start with 1 on day one, and finish with 28, which would be better than my PR for 1 set. No idea how this'll work, but *shrug* Goal 3 ~ Clean up the diet Just be mindful and prepared, basically. Less eating out, more homemade meals. Be aware of what supplies I'm running low on and replenish before I'm out of them. Batch cooking on the weekends, making a point of preparing overnight oats and a container of lunch the night before, so I can just throw them in a bag and go to work. Also, no more bedtime snacks, have some milk if I'm really that hungry. Goal 4 ~ Sleepy time TV off by 11pm on work nights, 12am on non-work nights, up with the alarm. I'm really sucking at the latter, and seem to bounce back and forth on the former. Just gotta buckle down and do it. Goal 5 ~ Stretch Daily. Pick a forward fold exercise from Focused Flexibility and work on that in particular, and the rest of my body in general. The key to this will be to find a way to remember to do it earlier in the evening, I usually think of it as a 'before bed' thing, and then it's almost 11 and I'm like, well, guess I better go to bed on time, shucks! General To-Do's Firstly, I want to figure out how to work lifting back into my schedule. Part of what got me away from it over the last little while is that I'm not feeling confident as the weights increase, and I don't have anyone to spot me. While I realize I could ask a random, that's way out of my comfort zone, and being in a gym is already out of my comfort zone, so it's not gonna happen. I'm really hoping my sister will join the same gym as me, as she's been talking about, and we can make 2 times per week work to go together. If not, I'll figure something out. Secondly, this list (to be added to as I think of things): ~ Paracord dog leash + bracelet ~ Birdhouse geocache ~ Other general geocache maintenance ~ Clean my room

My 2016 -- by all measures -- has been a very stressful year. The first half of the year was dominated by my mother's declining health and her passing in June. The second half of the year has been a process of putting the pieces back together again, only to have them fall apart in November with sickness and my son's learning difficulties. At one point, I had managed to handle all of that stress with consistent exercise and had dropped 12 pounds since January and was running my fastest 5K's in a very long time. Unfortunately, the last scale measurement showed 6 of those pounds had come back. But, the last week-ish of the last challenge proved to me that it's not over until it's over. I accomplished half of my challenge goals in those last 10 days. That and @mr_willes comment of have provided the theme for my last challenge of 2016. I'm going to do my best to bring that 2016 total weight loss number back to the 12 pounds it was previously. I'm going to finish out 2016 with such a kick ass challenge that come New Year's Eve, I might even look back on 2016 somewhat fondly. How? Goal #1: Lift heavy things. The biggest weight loss I experienced this last year was when I was lifting heavy things and running sprints. So, I'm going to lift heavy things, at least 3x per week. This shouldn't be that hard. That's not that much time. I know the holidays and everything, but those holidays are SUPER stressful to because...family. I be much less stressed by lifting heavy things. Goal #2: Sprint. This is partly because the weather around here is going to make it more difficult to run long distances and partly because it helped with fat loss in the past. Plus, long runs on a treadmill inside bore the hell out of me. So, sprints. Twice a week. Goal #3: Gratitude Journal. I started this last challenge and I think it has made me a more positive person. I certain have a lot to be grateful for when I stop and think about it. So, I'm prioritizing the stopping and thinking. I'm going to remain positive through these holidays and work on getting shit done. Every day. Goal #4: Paleo-ish. I really love training and feel like something is missing when I don't exercise. Unfortunately, I really love eating and feel like something is missing when I don't eat all kinds of crap. So, building on my diet hacking of the last challenge, I'm adding some guidelines on how I grade my meals. Instead of a gut reaction to what I ate, I'm going to grade it on whether or not it fits the Primal guidelines of eating. It's time to stop collecting underpants and be specific about diet. I can't out train my fork no matter how much I want or think I can. So, I'm going to start doing this for realz to finish 2016 with a bang and setup 2017 for some kickass success. I think that should do it. I will probably still go for a longer run on weekends because I like running. But, the distance running will take a backseat to lifting this winter starting now. If it doesn't have the success I'm looking for, I'll revisit and tweak in January. I also plan on taking some body measurements tonight to use those as part of the judging criteria for success rather than leaving it all up to the scale.

So I've been pretty obsessed with the Spideyfit YouTube channel lately... What's not to love about a Spider-Man cosplayer who does fitness videos? In the below video Spideyfit states there are 3 important skillsets needed to become your own superhero. Strength, flexibility, and endurance. So I'll be basing my fitness quests on these principles. The focus this time around will be on maintaining existing habits and building new ones. Quest 1: Strength I'm currently following a programme based on the Start Bodyweight basic program, but slightly modified to suit my needs. After about 3 weeks I'm already seeing/feeling more progress than I've had in the last 6-8 months. Clearly something is working! The goal here is simply to ensure I do my resistance workout at least 3 times a week. Depending on how the days fall, I may get in 4. But the idea is to never go below 3 session a week. Quest 2: Flexibility Every day I will spend at least 5 minutes working on stretching and/or mobility. **The amount may increase to 10 minutes if 5 proves too easy.** Quest 3: Endurance Perform two intense cardio sessions per week, lasting 15-20 minutes or more. I get a good amount of low impact cardio from walking, but I'm slowly moving over to a more speed focussed approach rather than the endurance stuff I've been doing the last couple of years. I will probably be rotating between interval sprints on an exercise bike, working on increasing my 5k trail run time, or doing hill sprints. Quest 4 (life quest): Adulting Spend 30 minutes a day doing some form of adulting. The time isn't super important, it's really just there to make sure I actually do some form of meaningful or useful adulting. Tasks will likely include job searching, cleaning, organizing financial stuff, and a myriad of all the other fun adulting tasks that everyone loves and enjoys! I will be on holiday from the 20th - 27th. These days the time will be reduced to 10 minutes. Bonus Quests Share the awesome - Weekly highlight reel edition! The last few quests I've been sharing a daily awesome, it's been super fun and uplifting, but doesn't really fit the main challenge this time around. Instead I will post a weekly highlight reel of various little bits of happiness and win that I have encountered that week. Assassin's Guild Minichallenge ..TBA..

The Dragon Reborn—the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him—is on the run from his destiny. Two guesses as to whether he succeeds or not. I sorta dropped off the face of the earth last challenge. I didn't mean to, but... yeah. The job isn't really brutal, but the hours are, and I haven't been good about getting around to you all like I wish I had. Still, things are being adjusted. I unfortunately find myself in a place between talking about the challenge and doing the challenge; unfortunately, that only ends one way. And so much has happened, just in the past week! I managed to hit the Simple requirements - 100 one-arm kettlebell swings and 10 TGUs at 70 pounds in 15:10. I swung the 53-pounder 200 times without dropping it. And then today, I managed to do clapping pull ups for the first time! What a week it's been. Makes me suspicious - like sickness is hiding somewhere in the facade of my health. And yet, here I stand on the other side of these things. I do not feel weak at all. In fact, despite the lack of sleep, it all feels mental. Put me under the bar or in the ring and the body functions just fine. I suspect it's because I've been eating a lot better lately - more food and higher quality. Good stuff. It's bearing me up. And also the fact that I spend all day sitting as opposed to intermittently lifting things. "Do you have dreams when you sleep?" Rand is having a hard time having just signed up for the whole Doomed Savior of the World bit. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. But he decides he needs to test the prophecies concerning the Dragon Reborn in one last desperate try to not be the person the Creator has decreed he must be. Like Rand, I have tests that I must pass. Passing means I did better than an 80 on both of them. DDS's idea, not mine. But to hell with it - I'll take the pass. Rand's goal is about getting to work, doing the assignments and making sure that the grades are good enough every day. "A bloody hero. Thom, if I ever look like acting the hero again, you kick me." "And what would you have done differently?" "Just kick me!" So yeah, the picture from last challenge actually takes place in this book. I forgot. Oops. Still, he's all about hard living, and he's even more about that now that he's had that pesky ailment dealt with. And me, I'm learning how to get my back unwhack and it's changing measurements and playing merry havoc with the data like I knew it would. But the goal here is about staying the course - eating well and fasting and staying in control. I got this. Really. "What is your name? If I have to share this ship with you for days yet, I can't keep calling you girl." "I call myself Mandarb. I will teach you something, farmboy. In the Old Tongue, Mandarb means 'blade'. It is a name worthy of a Hunter of the Horn." "You see that black stallion? His name is Mandarb." Oh, Perrin. You have no idea how much trouble you're about to get in. But it's cool, man. You lift. Training goals are here for this challenge. Til shade is gone, til water is gone Into the shadow with teeth bared Screaming defiance with the last breath To spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the Last Day. Yesssssss. And now we get to meet some of the badasses. They're good characters, yes, but these were the badasses who inspired me in the first place. The Aiel. The Aiel have come out of their desert homeland in search of a story - of He Who Comes With The Dawn (go on and guess who that is. Certainly not the guy who everyone swears looks like an Aiel, that's for sure). And believe it or not, they represent the reading and writing goal this time around. I have a writing challenge up in August - 40K words. With the new job forcing me into a cram session every day, my work is cut out for me. But it's going to be great, I think. I got a lot of world building done and managed to gloss over the cracks in a lot of what I was doing. Now I just need to make some scenes and everything should be good. And that does it I think. I don't know how well I'll do getting around to people this time. But I promise I'll do my best. And now let us commence the next step of the journey.

For those of you who are also fans of Mark's Daily Apple you might already know what I mean about sleeping low. Essentially, avoid conventional wisdom to replace used glycogen be eating carbs right after intense exercise at night, combining that with intermittent fasting and only consuming carbs during the IF feeding window. That's the shortest explanation I can come up with, but feel free to follow the link and get more details. For the last 11 weeks I have been following a program that has me feeling pretty good after having dropped from 220 to 212 pounds on the scale and dropping 4.2% in bodyfat percentage. The downside is that the first 6 pounds on the scale happened in the first 6 weeks, so it's kind of plateaued since then. I've got 1 more week of that program which corresponds to zero week and then it's time to either start it over again or try something new. With the success I've had, I kinda want to keep going with it but I feel like I could've done better with a better diet. I did break a few bad habits and perhaps I should be content to move along at that pace. So, I've decided to split the difference and do something different...for 1 month and then go back to the original plan. Consider it a 1 month de-load phase, but not quite. I'm still going to be running sprints and doing interval weight training circuits. However, I'm going to attempt to switch up my schedule so I'm doing those at night, sleeping more in the morning and drastically changing when I eat. Hopefully that kick starts some more serious fat burning. So here goes... Week zero goals: Finish what I started: Yesterday was upper body training, today was sprints, tomorrow is a leg day and Thursday is upper body again. Friday is sprints, Saturday is legs and Sunday is rest. At that time, I will take all new measurements to see what the final tally is. Week 1 - 4 Goals for days 1 - 6 in the week: Goal #1: Intermittent fasting to eat only between noon and 8 PM. This is setup well by my previous challenges of eliminating the morning drive thru and the night time snacking. So, it's really a continuation of the path I've been on. Goal #2: No carbs at all after training sessions. Protein is okay, but no carbs or the glycogen depletion experiment is out the window. Goal #3: Moving training to the evening hours will be a switch for me, and probably the hardest part of this challenge as well as the most important. If this doesn't happen everything else falls apart. Without the training there is no glycogen depletion. I've always worked out in the morning as I can get it in before the day gets in the way and I end up not doing something at night. But, honestly, once the kids are done with homework and in bed, I'm either watching TV or playing video games. There's no good reason why I couldn't workout at night and just get more sleep in the morning. Even if it's just 5 sets of 20 burpees (just, ha!), that's not that time consuming, extremely tiring and can be done in any weather. Day 7 is a rest day to do whatever I feel like. Week 1 - 4 Goals for everyday in the week: Goal #4: Sleep. Gots to get me some ZZZ's or once again this will fall apart. So, at least 7 hours of sleep a night. The ol' FitBit has me averaging only 6 1/2 over the last 3 months so I definitely have a lot of work to do. This is something I need to do regardless of training or nutrition. It could be a big reason why I've plateaued in the first place. This is a rather unusual challenge for me. I don't generally create goals that are dependent on other goals as it seems like a setup for failure. But, I've promised myself that this is just for this month. Then it's back to dancing with the date that brought me this far in 2016 for the May challenge.

As per my usual in 2016, its the third day of the challenge and I'm getting my thread started. Meh, I've been busy. But, let's get to it. Last challenge I mastered my late night snacking tendencies after limiting them in my first challenge. I'm not going to make that a goal, but intend to keep it going. I've also been soda free since the start of the last challenge, but I'm going to continue that goal. Those 2 things plus the training has my weight down 5.5 pounds in 2016 and has my 5K time down by about 30 seconds per mile. So, let's kick that up a notch. Goal #1 While continuing to limit the late night snacking I'm setting my sights on the other part of my day that is near sleepy times -- the morning. I have a tendency to hit the drive thru for some coffee on the way to work. That wouldn't be so bad, except while sitting in line I will usually decide that I need something to eat to go along with the coffee. I speak from lots of experience, there are no healthy foods available in any drive thru. So, my goal is to eliminate the drive thru food. My plan is to attack it the way I did with snacking after 9 PM. So, for this challenge, I'm limiting myself to once per week and the next challenge I'll eliminate them completely. Goal #2 Continuing the no soda goal. Goal #3 Continuing the plan. We're on to the second month of the plan, which means new exercises but the same overall program layout. I'm feeling stronger and faster on my runs. Additionally, I haven't had any of the injuries I typically get when jumping into a new routine. So, I'm just following the plan. Goal #4. I failed at this goal last time, but, I'm going to try to do it this month. 1 blog post per week for the length of the challenge. So, 4 posts this challenge.

I guess I'm used to having a week between challenges and am behind on setting this challenge up. So, let's get to it. A cold derailed my last week of the last challenge, but I have found the path I plan on following back to fitness. Doing what I felt like doing helped me (re)discover what type of training fits me. That includes circuits with lots of volume for my lifts and sprint intervals. I like running, but for me its more of an enjoyment of being outside and communing with nature. Using it as a form of exercise doesn't work. I'll still go for some runs, but they are not going to count towards any kind of training. GOAL #1 - Diet Zero late night snacking. Last challenge I limited myself to 2 nights a week with eating after 9 PM. This challenge there will be no exceptions. GOAL #2 - Diet No soda at all. Lent starts during this challenge so I might as well start a little early with what I was planning on removing for Lent. Last challenge I allowed myself to have diet soda, but this time no soda at all. GOAL#3 - Training Following Back to Fit program that involves 4 days of weightlifting circuits, 2 days of sprint intervals and 1 rest day. I will maintain compliance with the program for the course of this challenge (and hopefully more challenges to come) GOAL #4 - Level up 1 post a week in the blog. I respawned my blog last challenge. Now I need to get consistent with it. So, 1 new post each week.

Morning all, I know I'm a little late to the party but better late than never right? I've let things spiral downwards for the past few years. From leaving university and getting a sedentary job I have moved less and less and eaten more and more. I'm getting married in just over a year so it's time to redress the balance, to eat less and move more and to get in shape for the big day, for myself and for my future. My current aim is to lose fat, it's that simple. any and all advice is welcome I am 27 years old, 5ft11, 290lbs and built like a brick shit house. I've done the whole Nerd Fitness thing before and just kinda spun my wheels for a year, making gains and then losing them because I wasn't mentally dedicated enough to the process and wanted all the results immediately. So the plan is going to be simple because I have learned that simple works best, the more weird and wonderful things get the more likely they are to go wrong when one of lifes little curve balls comes along. Goal One - Move a little more Ok so it is a little more complicated than that, but I have devised a workout that I find fun and interesting and that I can complete in the morning in an hour before work. 5 minutes warm up on the bike 3 sets of 5 reps of leg press, leg curl leg extension 3 sets of 5 reps of DB shoulder press and chest press 3 sets of 5 reps wide grip lat pull and reverse narrow grip lat pull 15 minutes (work up to 15 minutes) of sprints 10 minutes or so of kettlebell work at the end to tire me out. The plan is to do this M, W, F. Grading things A-F doesn't work for me, it makes it too easy for me to bitch and make excuses so I will either be successful or I won't. Goal Two - Eat a little less A little less calorie wise that is. My group are big on occassions and getting together socially and food is invariably involved. Whether it's beer, dinner snacks and dessert for football on Sunday or it's snacks at d&d there is frequently something going on. Trying to make healthier versions when everyone is eating the full fat doesn't work for me and I crash out. So what will work better for me is eating as healthy as I can whilst I can. Realistically this ten meals a week (the breakfasts and lunches of my working week). Ten healthy meals a week is going to be a good start for me, if I can manage ten healthy meals a week for six weeks then I am on to a winner. I will put a quick daily food log on here so please do call me out on my bullshit if you think I am being too easy on myself, i work best when challenged. Goal Three - Kill Sugar Here in the UK we have a chef called Jamie Oliver, he went over stateside for a bit to try and spread a healthier eating message, but his produces picked some of the worst places for him to try and give that message so he pretty much got chased out of the country. That's by the by, a little while ago he did a special on sugar consumption and how it's killing us all and whilst I knew sugar was bad (as we all do) this was a real eye opener. I encourage you to go and watch it if you can find it. So I am killing the sugar. So I am only allowed one glass of fizzy pop (what we call soda in the UK, we use the word soda for fizzy/sparkling water) a week and no more than two hot drinks (tea, coffee etc) a day. This is down from seven hot drinks a day and one or two glasses of pop a day. Goal Four - Positive Influence I am super lucky to have an awesome partner, awesome family and awesome friends. I think the slow spiral of weight gain has made me a less nice person to be around, perhaps unwittingly because I was down I was trying to bring others down with me? Anyway the plan is to be more positive and to be a positive and supporting influence for those around me. There is no metric for this I will just know whether I have done it or not

Reading a few challenge threads, I have determined I am nowhere near as inventive and witty as most of you. So forgive me for not entertaining the same way you have me. For my whole life (it seems) I have struggled with weight. I've always been athletic, I've always been able to move well in spite of my size and/or density. (As an aside, I was told by my supervisor, the one reason I passed the required physical fitness test was because I was athletic. She said it like an insult and then proceeded to tell me I needed to lose weight. I left confused. Being athletic was a bad thing?) I know my performance improves when I have less weight and surface area to lug around. I'd like my performance to improve. 5 years ago, I was in the best shape of my life (including that far off time before children). I was almost 50 pounds lighter than I am now. What's so depressing about it, is that I didn't eat terribly or work out any less. Just enough small bad behaviors that slowly over 5 years I put on 45-50 pounds. I don't like having a goal to lose weight. I hate focusing on the scale. It's easily measurable so whether I admit it or not, I'd feel better if the scale would move in the opposite direction. I started in my first challenge as a recruit, my long term goal was to run a 5K in under 30 minutes. Yes, that's still a goal of mine, one I imagine more easily obtained than losing 50 pounds. I'd be thrilled if I could lose 50 pounds. I will lose 50 pounds. That 50 pounds would put me in a healthy weight range. Right now I'm not. I'd be happy, if a year from now, I was 10 pounds lighter because I'm 10 pounds heavier than last year, 20 pounds from 2 years- You see where I'm going. As for this six week challenge, I'm (continuing) to focus on running and diet. I do CrossFit 4-5 days a week. I've been doing it for over a year and a half, so I know CrossFit alone will not slim me down. I do like the weight training and conditioning, so I'd never give it up. I want one of my goals to gain speed in my running, to improve my mile time and then 3 mile time. Goal 1- Do some form a running (even if it's just as little as .5 mile) 2x's a week. (1 day/week speedwork) [STA/DEX] Working out has never been an issue for me, so clearly not my issue with weight. As we've seen one thousand times over, you can't out-train a bad diet. I always think to myself, I don't eat that badly. I don't eat perfectly either. Last challenge, I drank 100oz of water a day and ate a vegetable with every meal. I'd say with 80% success rate during the course of the challenge. That wasn't enough to make the scale move (both good and bad). So, it's time to find out just how I eat and be honest. I'll say this, I lie by omission when it comes to my diet. I did weight watchers for years with success. I've been using my fitness pal for the past year on and off. You see the problem there? On and off. I stop logging when I eat things I don't want to cop to. It's why I stopped paying for weight watchers. I wasn't logging. Goal 2- Log every single thing I consume, even coffee and pre-workout (0 calorie items), every. single. day. [WIS] Goal 2a- Follow the Paleo/Whole Foods Diet, one cheat 1/2 day per week. [CON] Flexibility/mobility is important for more than just working out. I have been a huge fan of yoga DVDs since college (fine, VHS). At one point, I was doing yoga on an almost daily basis. A few weeks ago, I did one of those DVDs and was sore for two days. Clearly using (and stretching) muscles that neither running or CrossFit did. I also love the mind-body connect of yoga. When I did said yoga a few weeks ago, I told myself that I will do this once a week. I haven't. Soooo.... Goal 3- Yoga once a week. [sTR/CHA] Stealing from my friend, jskuzmick... Side Quest- Clean counters every night. [WIS] I love this side quest. I have when my counters are cluttered and when they're clean I feel compelled to be more productive. I'm just, in general, happier to be home. Not sure how I'm going to assign points yet, so if anyone has suggestions, I'm open to it. This is my second challenge, so any and all criticism is welcome. As another aside, I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate role playing into my challenges. I like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Spartacus, if that helps anyone's ability to help me.

Hello Everyone, I fell off completely last time I did a 6WC-just got busy with the new job, the new addition to the family and everything else life has to offer, but as always, I miss being on NF and kickin ass in the Assassins forum. So, I'm back to support my fellow ninjas and hopefully gain some insight as well. - this was from Thanksgiving so Orin is a lot bigger now I've been motivated by a dude named Hunter McIntyre. He's currently considered #1 in Obstacle Course Racing and is a sponsored athlete for Reebok and Spartan. This guys a stud among studs. We actually kinda look alike (pics coming later) and have a very similar physique. Well, seeing his success and his training has made me want to push my own training... go figure huh? -I want to meet this dude in a Race someday. He goes by the nickname, The Sheriff. All I can see is headlines for "The Sheriff vs The Wolf". Gets me all excited and such! -This is my excited face I've wanted for the longest time to compete in American Ninja Warrior-but have sense turned my sights on running some OCR/Mud Runs. My goal for the remainder of the year is work my ass off with my training and immerse myself into the world of obstacle course racing. I have a Spartan Sprint that I'm volunteering for on June 20th. I'm doing this to see how these things/races look up close. I won't actually be running that particular race because I'll get a free pass to use later on-which I want to do for the Spartan Beast on Halloween weekend. That's the 13.5 mile race!! Now, by no means am I an endurance athlete. And in fact I really don't like running, but it's because of these things that drives me the most. I suck at running for the most part, so I'm researching EVERYTHING, since that's what I do, and watching video after video of how to correctly run and skill drills to do daily to help. Brian Mckenzie of Crossfit Endurance is a genius when it comes to running form and the likes so I have most of his videos on repeat...plus he is the same guy that helped train Hunter McIntyre. Am I an elite athlete? No, not at the moment. Can I become an elite athlete? Of course I can. And that's really the ultimate goal. Dreams can become realities so long as you speak into Faith and BELIEVE! I would love to eventually run the elite races at these mud runs and begin to take home some prize money, which would in turn get my name out there and then get sponsored. These may seem like long shots but I don't care. I'm going for it anyways! The next challenge begins on the 8th; I start my 15-week Spartan beast training that same day! I'm so freakin pumped about it and can't wait to break the cycle of saying I'll do something and not following through with it. I'm HIGHLY annoyed with myself. Goal #1: The Breakdown of the Body The new programs from Obstacle Dominator, Crossfit Endurance, and Train to Hunt will be taxing, I have no doubt, but I will fit it into my schedule. This means following the programs as Rx'd as I can. There will be a lot of running involved, and this is something I'm counting on and preparing for. I want SUPER lungs and heart by the end of this! I must follow the program for the prescribed days-adjusting sets/reps as needed. I'm pretty sure the program will call for 5 days a week, which is fine, I just need to time management like a pro. Embrace the hybrid workouts and maximize your potential! Another thing I want to add into this goal is stair running, daily [emoji106]ðŸ»[emoji123]ðŸ». I work on the 6th floor of my building and when I decided a month ago that I wanted to start running OCR's I also decided that I MUST take the stairs every day. And at least once a day I will sprint the stairs. I've videoed myself on two separate occasions, the first being 27 seconds and then a week or so later it was 23 seconds. I'm also in dress clothes lol so it does impede my speed, however, I'm breathing pretty good after and that's when I try to do some box breathing... And that's tough as crap! So I want to add in a combination of both stair running and box breathing into this aspect of the challenge. I must sprint one ascent of the 6 flights of stairs and immediately begin my practice of box breathing. But also practice box breathing when it's more of a meditation instead of a fight or flight type situation. Possible Points: +1 STR, +4 STA https://vimeo.com/129040737 Goal #2: Harden Yourself for Battle With lots of running can come lots of injury. Well, with any kind of elite training, my recovery days are just as IF NOT MORE important than my training days. I just bought a nice foam roller and plan to mobilize and foam roll till I become a pro. So the goal would be to foam roll EVERY day and make the most out of my recovery days. I must spend at least 30-45 min a day on foam rolling and mobility. Focus areas will be my low back, upper shoulders, hamstrings, hip mobility, ankles, and knees. Possible points: +3 CON Goal #3: Time to be Transparent I've seen tons of people log their day with what they ate and how the felt after eating and whatnot and think it's time to be transparent, even if that means letting you ALL know that I ate a whole bag of Brookshire's Dark Chocolate Covered Blueberries..and yes, that's happened before. No, not the big, industrial Costco sized bag, but still! One serving of those equals 28 g of sugar...YIKES. DAMN YOU SWEET TOOTH!! So the goal is to log my food intake throughout the day, every day. Ya dig? I'll do my best to add macros as well. Possible Points: +1 WIS, +1 CON Goal #4: Just kinda...you know? Right?? So I want to be more active on the forums and a couple weeks ago I started a Warhammer RP who is managed by the infamous DarK_Raider. I'm having a blast teaming up with all the other cats that are doing it with me; ItsDaniel, Shaarawy, kzacher, and cn3wton. So my 4th goal is kinda a "broad" goal. Part of the goal is keeping up with the RP. (I RP a pit fighter named Lanric...he's a total badass.) The other part of the goal is to manage my time better with this new training program. Everything for me is based off time. I workout in the early morning so it doesn't take away my TIME with Heather and the boys, I take a 30 min lunch instead of an hour to have more TIME on my check aka OVERTIME, BABY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE...and that's what this goal is about-managing it to the best of my abilities and still performing at a high lvl. This also means sacrificing playing The Witcher 3 or any games really and replacing that with sleep or more TIME with the wife and kids. Log time for important things-when you ate your meal, when you worked out, check to make sure you've posted in the RP, make notes for when you skip playing a game for sleep or quality time with the fam. LOG. IT. ALL. Possible Points: +2 CHA, +3 WIS Mentally and physically I will be drug through the mud, but I want to challenge myself unlike I've ever before! So, please, come join in on the insanity! Wolf

Hi fellow Assassins! I'm Godnattish. If you don’t know me, I’m the young, somewhat cocky guy with huge goals . Welcome! Here is a link to my previous challenge. I did some pretty awesome stuff, but nothing compared to what you’re about to witness! My Main Quest: "To Free My Body" Everything society and our environment tells us is making us less free, we are slaves, and it's getting worse every single second you're not actively doing something to prevent it. If you just go along like everyone else, work 9-5, get wife, achieve kids, buy what society tells you to buy, watch what you're told to watch, YOU ARE A SLAVE. You need to break free. This is my quest, and it's not something you ever reach, because the moment you think you achieved it and consider yourself "done" or "content", you are by definition a slave again. It's a process and the closest you can ever come towards the goal is to keep pursuing. Free your body. The practical application and pursuit of this is to improve myself every day, in every aspect. To do something that takes me towards my goal, and be done with it, wake up the next day without any worry about yesterday, do something that moves me towards my goal, and be done with it. A necessity for this is to be open-minded, there is NO progress or improvement if you're not open-minded. It's so easy to get stuck in comfort, in a routine, a lifestyle etc. If you ever find yourself doing the same thing every day, CHANGE IT COMPLETELY. There is nothing worse than being stagnant. I’m in a weird phase of my life. I worked as a (bloody) salesman for a couple of months last year, and earned way too much money (using skills, not lies, I might add). Luckily, I’m a clever young man, and I got out of the business before I got stuck. This has resulted in me not â€having†to work. I plan on studying (Sports Science) this fall. So for now, I train. That’s it. I invest all my time & energy into growing as a human being, physically & mentally. I’m happy to say that my previous challenge made me a full-on Assassin. I was the gym guy lifting weights, but somewhere during my last challenge I completely fell in love with training outdoors. I’ve been training outdoors 2x/day for weeks now, and I certainly won't stop! I also fell in love with using gymnastic rings, and I’ve seen great progress with them, so expect a lot of my challenges to be connected to the almighty rings ! I do, however, still fucking love lifting heavy shit. The more I fall in love with training outdoors, the more I love the feel of the barbell back at the gym. I believe I’ve found the perfect training recipe (for me). I use rings for upper body, and I use weight & plyometrics for lower body (for strength training, that is). As Ido Portal says: â€The upper body craves complexity, the lower body intensityâ€. I have found this to be very true. I will use weights for my lower body training, and I will have some goals for this, as-well! I’m following GMBs programs at the moment. Ring training, floor training (hand-balancing, tumbling etc), movement practice, stretching. All GMB. I love GMB:D. Well, I’ll stop ranting and get into my goals for this challenge. Brace yourselves. Yang:Goal 1 - 200kg (440lbs) Deadlift. (2 STR (+1 CHA if done beautifully, decided by you!))The deadlift is my favorite lift, which is convenient, since it’s also (by far) the most important. I’m a strong deadlifter. For a couple of months I’ve been working with sub-maximal weights to develop my deadlift speed (mostly because of my focus for the previous challenge). My all time PR for the deadlift is 190kg (418lbs), that was back in February when I weighted 86kg (190lbs). I weight around 78kg (172lbs) now. I don’t want to â€grind†a 200kg deadlift, I want it to look pretty, and FAST. That’s what I’ve been working on since February, and now it’s time to get back to lifting heavy & pushing my boundaries, while maintaining the explosiveness & speed. LET’S GET IT! Goal 2 - Rebalance myself using Front Squats. (2 CON, 1 STR, 1 CHA)I realized that I've been doing the low-bar squat exclusively for almost a year. The low-bar position works the posterior chain. This coupled with deadlifts (which also works the posterior chain mostly) has developed a pretty bad imbalance. I also realized that deadlifting & squatting very heavy each week is more detrimental than beneficial considering my other goals. My goal for this challenge will therefore be to work the Front Squat. The front squat is superior to the back squat for posture, flexibility and teaching proper form. It's impossible to do the Front Squat if you're imbalanced, it will highlight your weaknesses big-time! I want to become very good at front squats, because that will carry over greatly when I go back to heavy squats again, and will ensure I have proper form and no imbalances! The goal is not necessarily to increase the weight on Front Squats, but to learn absolutely perfect form, then increase the weight while maintaining that perfect form! Goal 3 - Bent Arm Stand. (2 STR, 1 DEX, 1 WIS)I’m a member of GMBs â€Alpha Posseâ€. They have monthly challenges with awesome prices. This months challenge was just released and I quickly decided that I’m going to win. The challenge is on the Bent Arm Stand. Most progress in 4 weeks wins. The challenge ends 30th June. Goal 4 - (Ring) Muscle-Up -> L-Sit -> Shoulder-Stand -> L-Sit. (2 STR, 1 DEX, 1 STA)This is the big one. I see little to no use in having a single skill if you can’t apply it probably. This is the basis of GMBs philosophy. The last phase of every GMB program they have a couple of weeks called â€flow masteryâ€. This means putting everything you learned from the program together into a â€flowâ€. This mini-flow starts at the bottom. You do a Muscle-Up to get above the rings, then go straight into a L-Sit, you immediately â€roll†back into a full shoulder stand, then back to the L-Sit. Very beautiful, very impressive, very hard. I look forward to being able to do this! Goal 5 - Improve overall conditioning & 60m time. (1-4 STA)I’ve been slacking on my conditioning lately. It’s still great, don’t get me wrong. 2 session daily with gymnastic style training goes a long way conditioning wise, but I want more. I’ll be combining sprints with longer distance running. I’ll measure my time before the challenge in a 60m (65yards) sprint. Stat points awarded depends on my progress! Sprint time. Before: 8.9s, After: Yin:Goal 6 - 30s Freestanding Handstand. (1 DEX, 1 STA, 2 WIS, 1 CHA)What’s strength if you can’t control your own body? I believe balance is the most underrated aspect in fitness. I follow GMBs â€Floor 1†which is all about motor control. Tumbling, jumps & hand-balancing to name a few aspects. I’ve seen great improvements in my handstands lately. I was very scared to do them a month ago, now I can kick-up against the wall with ease and â€float†of the wall for 5-10s. I’ve yet to nail the freestanding consistently, but with all the preparation work GMB focuses on (holding a perfect handstand 60s+ against the wall before progressing etc), I’m certain I will get good at a freestanding handstand once it's time for that progression, and all the drilling of the basic will pay off. Goal 7 - Pistol Squat. (1 DEX, 1 CON) My ankle flexibility sucks. It has improved lately, but it’s still my weakest link. Working towards the Pistol Squat forces me to get good ankle flexibility, hence, it's a great goal for me. Goal 8 - Front Split Progression. (1-3 CON)My previous flexibility oriented challenge was the Full Bridge, I nailed it. I feel like it's time to tackle them splits. It will be completely humiliating but I want to achieve both splits this year. For this challenge I'll start working on the Front Split. It's certainly nothing you achieve in 6 weeks, so I'll award stat points depending on my progress. Expect before & after photos! Goal 9 - Meditation. (2 WIS)I want to meditate more. For this challenge I'll meditate 2 times every day, preferably after each of my training sessions (as part of cool-down, after stretches). No set time, but aiming for above 10min per session! Side goals:Get & stay below 7% body-fatVery straight forward. I track my body-fat weekly & count my macros daily. I’m currently at 7.4% body-fat (not accurate numbers). My goal is to get below 7% (on my caliper) and stay below for the entire challenge. Find an apartment for this fallAs I mentioned above, I’m going to study this fall. I want to find my own apartment in the city where the school is located. I’ll know if I’m accepted to my program by June/July, and I’ll start looking for an apartment right away! Finish another round of ElementsElements was the first program I did from GMB. It's the foundation, the very basics that you then build upon. I've chose to restart this & really master & perfect the basics. The importance of having a bullet-proof foundation cannot be stressed enough! There it is friends! Same as last challenge, a video (of me) demonstrating every single goal must be uploaded on this thread prior to 19th July for me to pass this challenge. I'm honored if you choose to follow me for this challenge! I promise active updates with videos of me and my progress towards my goals. Let's smash this! Godnattish!

Human Movement Training In case anyone is curious, my training philosophy is greatly influenced by strength coach Dan John. The current focus of my training is on strengthening and improving the fundamental human movement patterns. These include: Pushes Pulls Hinges Squats Loaded Carries Ground Work Workout logs to follow!

Hello Fellow Recruits! I'm a long time reader of Nerd Fitness, but new to the forums. I originally posted this thread in the Warriors Guild, as that's where I'd like to eventually make my home, but I also wanted to join the conversation over hear in the Recruits Guild! I've been weight training fairly consistently for a while, but I can always use the support and motivation from a group of like minded people! I also have a bad habit of program hoping, and I wanted to use this challenge as a stepping stone to more consistent training. Main Quest Gain total body strength Specific Goals 1. Weight train 3 days per week. 2. Sprint and/or run 1 day per week. 3. Stick with the same lifting routine throughout the entire challenge! I'm currently following my own program. It's set up in two alternating workouts: Workout A and Workout B. It's a simple program focuses on basic movement patterns and heavy compound lifts. I'm looking forward to completing this challenge and being part of this great community! Good luck to everyone else!

Hi Assassins! So I'm new here. I completed my first challenge successfully, and I'm now ready to become an Assassin. Here is a link to my first (previous) challenge if you're interested what I did. My body stats at the moment (6/4-2015): 20 years old182cm (6") 78kg/172lbs (Morning weight)7.9% body-fat My Main Quest: "To Free My Body" Everything society and our environment tells us is making us less free, we are slaves, and it's getting worse every single second you're not actively doing something to prevent it. If you just go along like everyone else, work 9-5, get wife, achieve kids, buy what society tells you to buy, watch what you're told to watch, YOU ARE A SLAVE. You need to break free. This is my quest, and it's not something you ever reach, because the moment you think you achieved it and consider yourself "done" or "content", you are by definition a slave again. It's a process and the closest you can ever come towards the goal is to keep pursuing. Free your body. The practical application and pursuit of this is to improve myself every day, in every aspect. To do something that takes me towards my goal, and be done with it, then wake up the next day without any worry about yesterday, and do something that moves me towards my goal, and be done with it. A necessity for this is to be open-minded, there is NO progress or improvement if you're not open-minded. It's so easy to get stuck in comfort, in a routine, a lifestyle etc. If you ever find yourself doing the same thing every day, CHANGE IT COMPLETELY. There is nothing worse than being stagnant. Right now, I aim towards becoming an Assassin, and I do so whole heartedly, but the moment I find myself saying "I'm an Assassin" it's time for me to move onto another class, another goal. That's how you grow, that's how you prevent getting stuck. So why Assassin for this challenge? Easy. Because I'm starting to become stagnant as a Warrior. I love lifting weights, and I will never stop lifting, but a couple of months ago I found myself mindlessly waking up, going to the gym, pushing down 6-7 meals/day, going to sleep and repeating. I woke up and broke free from this, I started incorporating flexibility training, a more flexible diet and started researching on bodyweight/calisthenics and became truly inspired. Truth is, I'm not a natural warrior, there is nothing about my body-type that corresponds with lifting heavy weight, but I'm also truly happy that I did start lifting, since it was a real weakness and fear of mine. I was WEAK when I began, not the average person weak, but WEAK. Now I'm STRONG, last time I tested my strength (late January) my lifts were: Squat: 160kg (353lbs), Deadlift: 190kg (420lbs), and Bench: 102kg (225lbs), and I've progressed some since, even if I've focused on leaning out the previous months. My lifts are not super impressive, but I'm just barely one year into lifting. Anyway, It's time for me to transition more into bodyweight movements. I've always admired truly explosive power and speed, so this will be my main focus this challenge, explosiveness and speed. Goal 1 - Muscle-Up (2 dex, 2 str) Yep. It's a huge dream of mine. I never focused or trained for it, probably out of fear. I've been doing Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups weekly since I began exercising, and my back is one of my stronger body-parts, but this one is a mixture of insane strength, skill and explosiveness. I will achieve a strict Muscle-Up this challenge, I'm not gonna be flapping like a fish outa water (of course I'll have to start there), it will be strict, it will be beautiful, and it most likely won't be "Muscle-Up", but "Muscle-Ups". I have the base strength, but lack the skill, meaning that consistent training is required. Components I'll utilize to achieve the Muscle-Up: Baby Muscle-Ups: Muscle-Ups on a low bar, using my legs as needed to learn the proper movement. Clap/Explosive Pull-Ups: I can already do Clap Pull-Ups, so I'll be progressing towards more claps, Chest Pull-Ups, Hip Pull-Ups etc. False Grip Hangs: To get used to the false grip needed for a strict Muscle-Up. Goal 2 - Supermans (2 dex, 2 str, 1 cha) The true mastery of upper-body explosiveness. For those of you that don't know what it is, it's the closest a human will ever get to flying. You start in a Push-Up position, EXPLODE UP with both your legs and upper body (pushing thorough your arms and legs), giving you enough height to completely extend both arms forward (like Super-Man) before catching yourself in a Push-Up and repeating the motion. Why do I get 1 point cha for this? Are you kidding me, I'll literally be flying like superman, now that's sexy . This one required mad explosive power, which is exactly what I'm after. In the book "Explosive Calisthenics" by Paul Wade, this is one mastery of "The Explosive Six" (the Muscle-Up is another). Paul Wade gives 10 progression steps for every of the six explosive moves, so I'll be progression according to the steps in this book. I'm currently at step 4 (of 10), which is Clap Push-Ups. So the components I'll utilize to achieve this will be: Clap Push-ups Chest-Strike Push-Ups Hip-Strike Push-Ups Convict Push-Ups: Clap behind back Half Superman: Extending arms but not legs Full body Pop up: Superman but not extending both arms Goal 3 - Suicide Jumps (3 dex, 1 wis) Another mastery step of "The Explosive six". This one is all legs. You hold a stick in your hands, you jump HIGH, tuck your knees to your chest as you bring the stick under yourself, so the stick ends up behind you, then what? You guessed it, you immediately jump again, bringing the stick back. You need to be able to jump high enough, and be agile enough to bring the stick below you, it's not an easy task to say the least. Once again, I'll be utilizing Wade's ten progression steps, for this one I'm at Step 7, which is a Tuck Jump (jumping as high as possible while bringing your knees as high as possible). The next steps are: Catch Tuck Jump: Same as Tuck Jump, but you catch your legs and push them towards your chest before you land Thread Jump: You hold one leg infront of you while you jump over it using the other leg, to work on the agility and coordination needed for the Suicide Jump Goal 4 - Dragon-Flags (2 str, 2 cha) Yes, I love Bruce Lee. I'm pretty sure this is one of the coolest moves you can do, and it's also one of the best abdominal exercises, which is a nice bonus for them summer abs . Progressions to achieve the dragon-flag: Negative Dragon-Flags: Kicking myself up and lowering myself as slowly as possible Negative Dragon-Flags with static hold: Same, but with a pause at very bottom. Goal 5 - Sprints (2 sta, 2 dex, 1 con) Once again, I wanna be FAST, LIGHTENING FAST. My strong, long legs makes my top speed good, but my acceleration is not great. I will be sprinting 4 times/week for this challenge, focusing on different distances, but mostly on short distances like 30-50m (about 30-50 yards) to work on acceleration. Goal 6 - Staying below 8% body-fat (2 con, 2 cha) My previous challenge was to get below 9% body-fat, I ended up at 7.9%. I'm happy with this, and I want to maintain it. I'm currently carefully reversing out of my deficit by increasing my calories slowly each week. I will keep tracking my weight and body-fat to ensure I don't get above 8%. Also, please don't take the exact number to seriously, I measure on myself with a skin-fold caliper, so the accuracy is debatable, but since I measure the same way every time, it's an accurate way to measure progress. I'd guesstimate that I'm around 8-9% body-fat though. I'll probably drop down to around 7% for summer, but for this challenge I need more calories to reach my goals, so maintaining my percentage is the goal. Goal 7 - Full Bridge (3 con) Yep. The challenge would not be complete without a flexibility goal. I'll be able to do a Full Bridge after this challenge. I'm already stretching at least 30min daily, and I'll be utilizing stretches that directly target areas needed for the bridge. I'm very competitive and put extreme demands on myself, it's hard on the mind, sometimes unhealthy. I've learned to handle it though, much thanks to meditation. I said in my previous challenge that I'll be setting very high goals this challenge, and I believe I have. I do not want easy. If you aim low, you'll achieve low. In the past, I've always set high/extreme goals, and I have this weird tendency to completely SMASH that extreme goal There is no doubt in my mind I will achieve all 7 goals. To complete the challenge I will have to upload a video of myself demonstrating (all of) the moves before May 25th. I'll be active on here and give updates on my progress and training, I'd be very happy if you choose to follow my progress, and I'm very grateful for any help or tips I can get! See ya around, Assassins Godnattish.

So I've got two goals with my running. I wan't to be able to run a 5K, but I also know that I need to work on my intervals/sprints. My body "type" seems to be naturally inclined to long distance running. I'm not in shape yet, but I've managed to work up to a 5K in about 40 min. on the treadmill (outside is a totally different story, but I'm working on it). I've also got an alternate training workout of doing interval "sprints" on the treadmill for 20 minutes: 1 min. walk-1 min. run (which is actually a jog - but at least I'm doing it). I started with the Academy Body-weight routine, and the warm up calls for 30 seconds of knee highs. So here's my question: Why if I can run a 5K for 40 min do the knee highs kill me in about 15 seconds? - I'm totally out of breath and my quads are burning! Any info about what is going on? Any insights, suggestions, recommendations to improve my ability to do the knee highs?

Ok so some changes are going on for me. I am settling into my life here on the farm. My work as a Homecare Area Coordinator is taking off and doing well. The bus now picks my kids up from the front gate. I have a new phone so I can get reception at home. I am getting back on track with my healthy living. I have updated my profile, with a new picture and a new description. Part of the description are from my daily affirmations. I am going back to Thom from Tomas, the latter doesn't sit well with me for some reason. Over the past couple of challenges as I have been trying to get back into things I have been trying to workout ways to well, workout. This challenge I am going to try going 'primal'. I am using the basic exercise guide from Primal guru, Mark Sisson. I am using this article as the basis for my routine. So one day of sprinting, two days of heavy lifting and one day of Hiit. At this stage I am looking at Monday Sprints, Tuesday strength, Thursday Hiit, and Saturday strength. Sprints will be done up my driveway. Mark suggests 6 by 50 metre sprints with a few warm up jogs before hand. So that is the plan with these. The Hiit workout will be Burpees. I do actually enjoy burpees [yes I am a sick and twisted individual, and your point is?] so having a workout that focusses solely on them is a cool idea. Besides eight sets of burpees has to count as High intensity. I am looking at either doing a 30 second on and 30-60second off for eight sets. Or simply eight max rep sets with a minute in between. For my strength training I plan to do a combination of bodyweight, kettlebell and hammer exercises. I have missed the kettlebell and hammer work over the last challenge so I want to get back into them. Although my left elbow is still proving to be a nuisance and not liking pushing exercises. I am walking the kids to the front gate to catch the bus most mornings and afternoons. So I am still getting my driveway walks in, albeit at a slower pace keeping up with my Elaina who is six. With the new phone [iPhone 5S] I can get decent reception once again and can access MyFitnessPal without the much trouble. So I am tracking my food intake again. I am focussing more on my Macros rather than total caloric intake. I have been eating too many carbs over the past couple of months and need to cut them back. So MFP is back in. With weekly average Macros goals of Carbs 35%, Fats 35% and Protein 30%. I am also doing the Rangers mini challenges as always and the next installment of the RPG Fanatics Daemon Slaying adventure.

Meesa Gets a Clean and Clear Run Up To Christmas [Level 3] So my first two challenges have been pretty interrupted; by injury and by shitty life things. I’ve had a really bad run the last few months. Speaking of runs; I still have two left from my last challenge - although running; especially not distance won’t be a focus of this challenge/ 16th November City2Sea - 15km 23rd November Health.com.au Spring into Shape 3 - 10km Main Quest To have a pre pre-season before the soccer club pre-season starts and the Australian summer gets too hot. To be working on the power and abilities that my body will need as a GK; so that when the pre-season starts I can move onto skill work. Goal 1. Jumping - I need to be able to jump and dive for the ball. I want to work on my jump strength and height. During this challenge I will be building up my Body Weight Squats towards Jump Squats and where/if possible (I usually train inside in my kitchen/living room) box/bench jumps. Goal 2. Upper Body and Core - I need to be able to get up fast and strongly palm or punch the ball away. Keep working towards being able to do push ups that are not on my knees. Also once that is accomplished I would like to work in balance work by doing them with my hands on a soccer ball - which is a challenge set to me by my coach. I will be continuing doing an adapted version of the BBWW but working on these progressions. I will also do yoga 3-5 times a week focussing on upper body and back to improve my flexibility. Goal 3. Sprinting - I need to be able to come out hard at my opposition and when I have the ball I need to be able to sprint to the edge of the box. I will continue to be running in intervals but I would like to be working in some more serious sprints - and now that the weather is getting nicer I should be about so start doing a few beach runs. I have a specific exercise that I have in mind to bring all these together into a few keeper specific movements and programs which I would like to start working into the program but they require someone to be able to kick a ball at me. So not yet. Although I’m sure I’ll post some of them as I go. Life Quest Keep the diet clean. Part A - Sugar and Junk At the end of my second challenge I quit sugar and junk food as a stress/boredom option. I and not giving up the idea of having a piece of cake at Christmas. As well as full on cutting out soft drinks and fast food (I also don’t count things such as a handful of jelly beans after a super hard workout in 30 degree C heat because that is about blood sugar). But I have a reward program for the days I don’t partake in the bad sugars. $2 Everyday I don’t have it + $6 every time I make it 7 days; so basically $20 a week. I’ve made it 3 weeks now and I’m feeling a lot better. Part B - Nails I’m going try stop biting my nails. Exercise of willpower. Ideally I’d like to have nails by the time I turn 24 (January 2015). I’ll probably still wear them short but it will also be better for my teeth. I hate wearing makeup but nail polish I don’t mind so I’ll be looking forward to being able to paint them.

Ahem. "Yes, it's true. I may not be a Master Builder. I may not have a lot of experience fighting or leading or coming up with plans. Or having ideas in general. In fact, I'm not all that smart. And I'm not what you'd call a creative type. Plus, generally unskilled. Also, scared and cowardly. I know what you're thinking. he is the least qualified person in the world to lead us. And you are right." - Emmett, The LEGO Movie (also how I feel almost all the time) Alright, guys. I know I'm late. Like, really late. I get it. The realization that the Spartan was coming up immediately after this challenged may have kicked my ass. That, and nerd withdrawal from Chicago made this a bad week. Was I posting on all of the nerds' threads whom I missed from Chicago? Was I doing that to avoid dealing with my own training? Maaaaybeeee.... So let's fix that. Together. Because everything is awesome. I feel more awesome than an awesome possum When I lift weights, when I get under the barbell and crank out a full set, I feel amazing. I feel like a fucking monster. Like I could just tear down walls with my hands. When I was in Chicago, I got to lift with bigm141414 and emcee. These two radically sized people were just absurd. I got tips from biggums to help me with my lifts and things felt amazing. I watched Rob_ and Flex_Luthor benching me and a half like it was nothing. I got to watch and learn from these incredible, strong people. When I got back to the gym, despite my weights being way back down, I felt like I had levelled up a bunch of times. Things just felt better. And I want to keep feeling like that. I can be better than an awesome possum. Lift 3 times / week. Everything is cool when you're part of a team The summer threw off my schedule of hapkido classes. Though I've been focusing very heavily on my strength training, it all comes back to wanting to be a better martial artist. I stuck with my Mondays for my black belt class, but I need to get back to at least twice a week. My wife is no longer on call on Thursdays (which used to be my go-to day) so I can take the car and make that happen. I want to spend more time with my cool team. Go to hapkido 2x / week. Everything is better when we stick together Know what I hate more than anything? Running. Running sucks balls. It is the worst thing there ever was. But, there's this thing in Boston. It's called the Spartan Sprint. Stupid running. I hate you, RP. I really do. This is your fault. So, I guess I'm going to be running? But I won't have to do it alone. I blackmailed convinced my wife to do the Sprint with me, so we are going to run together. And we're going to do it on my terms. See, behind our house there's this great sodding hill with a walking path going right over it. We're going to get up early three times a week together and run up that bastard five times. Is that the equivalent of doing the November Project some unholy number of times? No, it's not. But from a not-running lifestyle to one where one can sprint up sharp inclines (or, I don't know, stadium stairs) this feels like good training. Run the hills 3x / week. A Nobel prize, a piece of string. You know what's awesome? EVERYTHING! And now, tacos! Wait, hold on. Food is always my nemesis. Too many times, I end up cobbling together a sort-of-meal from whatever I can scrounge in the house. Grocery shopping? Fah! Meal planning? A pox upon it! I can do better than that. Breakfast is covered. I've ground that into myself that I need a good meal to start the day. I don't do cereal, so I've got to prepare food that I can actually eat (yay, celiac!). But my lunches are usually a collection of snacks or, more usually, a tiny snack that just leaves me weary and cranky. And my dinners are what I pick up at the grocery store that night probably 5 days of the week. That's gotta stop. In light of leftovers being a thing, my goal is to plan 4 dinners and make sure I have a plan for my lunches during the work week. 4 planned dinners and 5 lunches / week And that's it, nerds. Super late, but trying to get myself back on track.

What once seemed like an endless trek through an inescapable umbral realm has ended. Dawn has broken. Rays of warming and reassuring light creep over the horizon, unfurling out onto the landscape and slowly engulf our protagonist. Twilight wanes, but he sits guarded in the shadow of the cavernous maw from which he has just escaped. Now what? The night lands of the Underdark may have been Hellish, but they were familiar to him now. Daybreak seemed threatening in its alien appearance. The illuminated countryside sprawled out before him in distances immeasurable by his senses. When shadows conceal one’s vision of paths beyond and imprisoning walls define one’s boundaries, one can become acclimatized to such comforting routine no matter how detestable. Here, on the outside, there were no paths. Yet, no direction was blocked. He could go anywhere, but without a defined path he'll go nowhere. *** In my first challenge I sought to break the habits I adopted while spending over a year working overnight shifts. I slipped into a disturbing routine. It felt like a half-life. Never sleeping well, waking every hour on the hour, never doing anything, drifting away from people, from trying. In some respects I succeeded, and in other respects I fell short. Meditation and yoga have been introduced into my life, and I have reintroduced running back into my routine. However, I wouldn’t call them habitual, at least not yet. Now I am focusing on really small details in my life, making small changes to my environment and routines to generate larger life changes. The week following my first challenge, and after having read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, I have had much better success. Now that I feel like I am slowly starting to get my life back, I must decide what I want to do with my life; and THAT seems far more daunting! The EPIC QUEST will be a five year goal. I am still working on this, with years three and four being very fuzzy. So far, here is what I have: Step 1 (3 months) – Make small changes to environment and routines to create a foundation for better systems for living. (e.g. environment changes, become aware of habit loops)Step 2 (6 months) – Develop and implement systems for better living. (e.g. learning to live with less)Step 3 (1 year) – Achieve 50% debt elimination and complete at least one “impossible taskâ€.Step 4 (2 years) – Visit Thailand.Step 5 (3 years) –???Step 6 (4 years) –???Step 7 (5 years) – Profit! Oh, and go hiking in the Himalayas. Maybe climb a mountain, but not Everest. Have the option to quit my job, or already be working somewhere else. So challenge two, this challenge, is about discovering and cultivating those keystone habits that I will need to develop my systems for better living. If challenge one was about discovering yoga and meditation, challenge two will be about putting them to proper use. My Quest – Chapter 1: Purpose & Direction As someone who self-identifies himself as having both nihilistic and narcissistic tendencies, and as a recovering misanthropist, I truly feel I don’t have a purpose in life. Or at least I sure as Hell don’t know what it is. I need to find my purpose. I want to add a little mysticism into my life. I need to be mindful. I have been reading, writing, and doing introspective exercises to help discover what my purpose might be, what might make me happy in life. Right now, life is “meh.†To me, everything is just... “meh.†It’s not bad, I am not sad or feeling depressed, but I definitely feel life should be something to get excited about and I am just not excited. I need to find a way to make my life great. As to what my purpose may be, I don’t know. I do feel like I have something inside me that I need to tell, but I don’t know what it is or to whom I need to tell it, or even how to tell it. I need to explore self-expression. I need to get to know me. Mind: Meditation, mindfulness, and self-expression I will deepen my meditation. I will aim to meditate every morning for at least 15 minutes and include at least one longer session per week. (That'd be an A grade.) Bonus points for pre-bed meditation. I will make a meditation space in my home. I will try to meditate outside in a variety of places such as forests, fields, and beaches. I will aspire to take one photograph a day, trying my best to avoid iPhone photos and instead focus on taking a quality photograph. (I will likely post these.) I will spend at least 30 minutes a day writing, even if I cannot think of anything, I will put pen to paper. I already journal on a regular basis but this writing will be with an audience in mind. (I’ll post snippets from time to time.) I will practice mindful eating. No more reading, writing, texting, email reading, web browsing, TV watching, game playing, or anything else while eating. When I eat, I eat and only eat. I will eat at the dining room table or outside. AP : +3 Wis, +1 Con, +1 Cha Body: Running, HIIT, and Swimming OK, my real goal here is to go at least one sprints run per week but will try for twice (that'd be an A). I will try to extend my running distance on a weekly average, as opposed to focusing on set run lengths. I like to swim but I don’t swim very much. Part of it is I dislike pools and chlorine. I like to swim in natural bodies of water and the Canadian winter precludes this for half the year. The primary reason I don’t swim is due to body issues. Somewhere along the line I got the idea in my head that since I am overweight I should not be allowed to go to the beach. I just don’t belong. So even though I am not attaching any of this goal’s success to swimming, I do want to go swimming more this year. AP: +1 Dex, +3 Sta (HIIT), +1 Cha (swimming) Soul: Yoga, Shinrin-yoku, and maybe T’ai Chi I want to deepen my yoga practice. I want to show up to the mat consistently and to begin embracing it as something more than just a series of stretches. (An A grade would constitute five yoga work outs a week with one of them being 30+ minutes.) I want to experiment with tai chi as well, maybe qi gong. We’ll see. I want to connect to something bigger. Being an atheist, this will be hard. I don’t know how I will be able to grade myself on this objectively. I think if, for now, I focus on deepening my yoga, experimenting with Taoist internal martial arts, and synergizing this with my Mind goals of meditation I should be able to begin to illuminate the edges of the path that’ll one day lead me to finding peace with the universe. I am not talking about enlightenment; I am talking about simply easing my existential anxiety. It’ll be a long hard road, I know. Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, is something I want to do more off. I spend a lot of time outdoors, but how mindful of the experience am I? AP: +2 Dex, +1 Con, +1 Sta, +1 Cha Life Goal: Spending Fast For my life goal, I want to diminish my consumerism and be happier with less. For the six weeks of the challenge I will buy nothing new*. I will also not spend any money on wants and indulgences, such as coffee shop coffees, eating out, and going to the movies and such. *OK, some caveats. Some stuff I may have to purchase. Now these may not be needs in the strictest sense, such as survival, but things like unexpected car maintenance would be one example. If I need a new tire or break pads or an oil filter, well, I need my car to get to work. It is, after all, a 250+km commute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Challenge Resources: 50 Ways to get a Job - Finding Your Purpose HE's article on Kit Anderson's 100 Possessions Joshua Becker's Helpful Guide to Living an Intentional Life Steve Pavlina's article Spirituality vs. Intelligence Five things you need to know today - Zenpresence.com