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Quick Introduction I'm Natalee, fun, funky, fabulous mother of 2 sweet little boys charting her course in waters rough and rugged. I've been struggling to get my fitness, specifically bodyweight fitness in order these last few months and it came to mind to visit this wonderful haven and lo and behold a challenge is about to start, so here I am. For the next four weeks my aim is to do all of four things Bodyweight train 6 days a week, actively rest on Sundays, a part of this bodyweight training will be a focus on improving flexibility. Improve my eating habits; I need to make healthier choices, increase protein intake and decrease the consumption of cookies. (Cookie monster Alert!!} Develop the program outline for my proposed physical education program. Listen to Bible and personal development audios daily. I'm short on time at the moment... working on work... but this is the outline and I will add an in depth breakdown of my goals, adding my workouts and diet plans when time permits. I feel really excited, NerdFitness has helped me before, and I have all confidence that sharing with you all will help me to LEVEL UP! Can't wait to meet you!

This winter has been pretty rough. I don't remember having seasonal depression like this in a good 7-8 years. Cold, darkness, pain (arthritis) and work-related anxiety have all been pretty hard to handle. Now, slowly but surely, I'm rising from my winter-long withdrawal. It's a bad place for me to be; I am an introvert, and I like my quiet time, but my mental health suffers when I isolate myself. I'm not staying here. I'm not Luke Skywalker and I didn't come here to die. It's time to find myself again. I'm still trying to find my consistency from a training standpoint, but I can't just force-project myself back into goal shape; it takes consistent work, and I need to continue to put in that work, consistently. Main Goal I'll be competing in the 2018 OCR World Championships for the second year in a row. In 2017, I qualified as an age group competitor twice during the season and raced in a group of similarly grey-bearded men. I'll be traveling to the United Kingdom this year to race again, regardless of whether I qualify, and will run as a journeyman if necessary. However, it's my goal to qualify to race against other 50-and-over men again this year, and this time, I don't want to just show up and be happy I'm there, I want to finish closer to the middle of the pack than the back, and I'd like to leave with something more than just a finisher medal and a tee shirt: I want to keep my band. I lost mine on Stairway to Heaven. It was humbling. Most obstacle race series (With the exception of my first OCR love, Spartan Race) expect pro and competitive racers to COMPLETE ALL THE OBSTACLES in order be podium-eligible. Everyone else is an official finisher, but those of me in the other category are not eligible for podiums - overall or age group. To make sure officials can tell who falls into which category, racers get a band, which is removed when one cannot complete an obstacle, usually after multiple attempts. Some race directors take pride in the bands they capture. Freaking Canadians. For the record, I completed this thing at OCRWC after 4-5 attempts. I'm pretty obstacle proficient, and have been for some time, but this year, I'm aiming for 100% completion at the World Championships, and that goal will take consistent work to achieve. Anyone who's been around an EricMN challenge over the last three years knows what they're about to see below: Goal: Speed I have gone from "I'm not a runner" to "I enjoy trail running." The problem is, our trails have been frozen for almost five months and the cold aggravates my psoriatic arthritis. Also I just plain hate the cold. We're having a good thaw right now, but I'm still running on the Dreadmill until I know I won't kill myself on the trails. Last year I hired a running coach to give me a running improvement plan. It works. I'm working back into this plan; right now I'm still building up my mileage from a winter of slacking. "Long" runs are relative. I know this works. Consistency will get me there. Plan: Run a minimum of 3x per week, including 3-mile VO2 max interval training, 3-4 mile lactate threshold training, and weekend long run. Goal: Strength Without consistent strength training, I turn into a limp dishrag. Besides, I enjoy weight training. I need to supplement this with training that includes pull-ups and other raise-my-bodyweight exercises. The group classes I attend don't incorporate pull-ups basically because the instructors and most of the other attendees can't do them and are intimidated by them. I need them because arms, shoulders and back will help with obstacle proficiency and efficiency. Plan: Strength training 3x per week: Weight training Tuesday, Boot Camp Thursday/Saturday, Grease the Groove pull-up work every day. Goal: Skill I've learned over the last four years of competing in Obstacle Course races that while one could probably power their way through many obstacles with sheer strength, there is a certain degree of skill necessary for things like rope climbing and rigs and Devil Steps and zip lines and whatnot. I bought a membership to Obstacle Academy, and they just finished a remodel. It's time to get on this. Plan: Weekly obstacle workout at Obstacle Academy. Have a specific training plan every time instead of just going in and goofing around on the toys. Goal: Sustenance I lost a bunch of weight five years ago by tracking my nutritional macros and I've kept it off by doing the same. I've occasionally dropped five to ten pounds in between that has not stayed off because when I'm not tracking macros, I eat junk. Right now I look more like Kung Fu Panda in my race jerseys than I want to admit. Plan: Log my food daily. Stick to my macros. Goal: Sanity This is even more important right now than it was last time around. Work is a hot mess and I'm along for the ride. This is not a quantifyable, SMART goal, but it's on the list to remind me to be mindful and spend some time in self-care daily. Starting Line I Race. I do it because I enjoy it. A bad day on an obstacle course is still the happiest day of my week. I've got two race weekends bookending this challenge cycle: Savage Race Florida, March 17 Wheel World, my nemesis. We meet again. I really like Savage Race. It's obstacle-dense at around 30 obstacles over 6-7 miles. Any course in Florida is by definition going be pretty flat. These are things that work in my favor in the Open Waves. Based on both Spring and Fall results from 2017, I have a legit shot at an OCRWC Age Group qualifying finish. Seattle Spartan Super and Sprint, April 14-15 Jesus, that jersey was too small for me. Also, I miss that bandana. I loved this venue when I did it back in 2015. The course is fairly flat and runs out along the Snohomish River, which is gorgeous. Also, I will be visiting my middle daughter, who moved to Seattle a year ago. Best of all, she and one of her friends will be on-course, volunteering during the weekend. I'm glad the jerseys stand out so she can see me as I shuffle on through. The Sprint race on Sunday is another legit shot at a qualifying time. It's been a long winter of self-imposed semi-isolation. I'm ready for it to be over.

I have been MIA on NerdFitness for quite some time. A few days ago I got a random bug to plan an introvert adventure. Some where nature like. Alone. As I've fleshed this idea out I'm leaning towards a rustic (hike in!) cabin, or maybe camping + hiking. This kind of trip would require some training and planning. I'm kind of out of shape and have never done anything like this before. A four week challenge is perfect for getting me started on prepping for my adventure. Move your feet I will go on a walk once a day. It can be long or short - just so long as I do it. Condition/Endurance Twice a week I will do some combination of: run/walk intervals, hiking, or rucking (bad weather sub: rowing machine) Strength Training Twice a week I will strength train: weights at gym, body weight at home, or rucking. I can't count the same rucking session for both Condition/Endurance and Strength Training. Life Goal: Plan the Adventure Pick a date and location, make a plan of what to do while I'm out adventuring, figure out what gear and supplies I'll need & make a packing and shopping list. Let the adventure prep begin! Edited to Add: I have some on going self improvement projects that I didn't include as part of this challenge, but still want to update on! 100 days of Fiddle/Violin Practice Any length practice so long as I do it, can be fiddle music or classical music. Sick and travel day contingency plan: listen to pieces currently working on, or use a music theory app to do some music theory study. Read 24 books in 2018 Pretty self explanatory! I'm going to at least partially work through Book Riot's Read Harder challenge to help expand my reading choices.

Hello! I've just started Muay Thai, a few weeks ago. I was wondering if I could have some tips on strength training, mainly bodyweight stuff? This would be for striking power, but I also would like to just be a stronger person, in general. Help me, Strength-trainers Kenobi, etc., and so forth.

January 1, 2018 Weight: 361 Bench Press: 95 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 11 --> 105 Barbell Rows: 95 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 8 --> 105 Squat: 135 x 10, 145 x 4, 155 x 3, 165 x 2, 175 x 1 --> 155 45 Degree Rows: 45 x 20, x 20, x 20 --> 50

Greetings from Arcelas the n00b! If you are reading this right now, it means I have successfully posted it. 2018 (The year we all become murlocs) Quests 4 Week Challenge Quests: Quest Line: Lose 59 lbs. Hit my daily step goal of 10000 steps. 5000 the first week, then add 1666.66 (repeating of course) steps each week until 10000 is reached Quest Line: Get Out of Debt Cook as many meals on Saturday and Sunday as possible to reduce dining out spending by 50% (dropping from $220/mo to $110/mo) Quest Line: Become Much Better At Magic Read Royal Road to Card Magic: Chapter One and watch the accompanying videos Quest Line: Become A Much Better Vocalist Complete KTVA Streaming Lessons Vol 1 and practice 30 minutes a day 3 days a week OK Rebels. Let's do this!

Emboldened by all the returning rebels, I'm putting myself in the game and coming back to play. I missed the structure and the accountability, but most of all, I've missed you lovely people. So hopefully, and slightly shamefacedly, I'm going to try - for the third time! - to finish my last challenge. A few tweaks for the new goings-on and priorities in my life, but mostly the same. I'll include the original challenge below in a spoiler, but here's the basics: Exercise: Muay Thai 3x/week. One of the changes that happened this year is that @Bighara and I switched from our school's Fitness Kickboxing class to their Muay Thai class. We've been going for four months now and I am completely blown away by how incompetent I feel at it. Physically, it's not much more challenging, but mentally....whoa. I need to practice practice practice because I am just sad out there, people. Strength Training 3x/week. On the days I don't go to class, I'm switching things up - normally I've been doing a bodyweight routine, but I got to a certain point with my progressions and just stalled. And I think the problem is that I'm simply not strong enough. So I've started lifting weights with Phrak's Greyskull LP variant, which is recommended for total beginners, which I am. Do a cartwheel. I could do these as a kid. But then I stopped, because...grownups don't do cartwheels, I guess? So now this grownup *can't* do a cartwheel. I plan to fix that this month. I'm going to go slow and do stupid-looking ones until I can do something that a person would look at and go, "I *think* she might be doing a cartwheel!" I'm not going for perfection, is what I'm saying. Extra bonus points if I manage to do cartwheels from either side (which I have never been able to do, I'm strictly a left-handed cartwheeler). Diet/Health: 75-100g protein per day. 35+ hours sleep/week. Life: Spanish. So, this past May I fulfilled a very long-awaited dream and took my kids to visit my family in Argentina. We were there for 4 weeks and it was everything I hoped it would be and I'm so very happy we did it. But now I need to solidify the gains in Spanish the kids have made by continuing to speak it. My eldest especially has gotten so much better and I want to encourage both her and her younger sister to keep it up. But it's on me, and I need to really push myself, because it's just So. Darn. Easy. to speak in English instead. FlyLady. Doing the Babysteps, oddly, was part of what made me fall apart last time. I just couldn't keep up. And so this time I'm going to be even more basic than that, and just commit to spending 15 minutes each day either decluttering or taking care of a Job Jar item that I've been putting off. Later I'll worry about systems, but right now I need to get out from all these 'shoulda-dones' staring at me all the time. Coding. One of the best things I got out of the challenges before was doing steady work on my freelance coding. And that's one of the things that has totally fallen apart. So this is a big one, I want to spend at least 25 minutes a day working on code. More is better! But that's my daily minimum. Wish me luck - I'm seeing this one to the end this time, come heck or high water! (this is some seriously high water, though, guys)

Hi all! I need some help finding a lifting plan that works with my half marathon (and soon marathon) training. Running is my sport and my primary focus. But I know strength training is crucial for injury prevention and just general health. I want to start doing big lifts because frankly, I don't want to waste hours at the gym when I can get a workout done in a few moves. But I can't find a lifting program that won't get in the way of my training. And everything online is long lists of exercises I don't know how to put into a workout. A couple notes. I'm in between training cycles right now. Next one picks up December 16th. So I'm just doing maintenance running, which seems like the perfect opportunity to start adding lifts. My run schedule once training starts is Tuesday (Speed work), Thursday (Easy Run), Saturday (Long Run). I would like to do two days of lifting. Should I just bite the bullet and hire a trainer? -M PS. Robin Wright as Antiope is my body goals!

Hey everybody! When I first created the battle log I had written a very extended intro that doesn't make sense anymore. To be honest I'm not sure it made much sense back then. I'm just replacing it with this... "This is just a training log!"

Well, my isnpiration for this challenge is the hunger games... Allthough the books where awfull, and the movies were kinda meh... I don't know, let's see where this goes. This month's challenge is all about getting hungry (Hunger Games... you know... )Well, not really starving-to-death-hungru, but kinda hungry... I decided I really need to know if I'm hungry, thirsty or just want to put my teeth in something tasty. That's why I will start intermittent fasting. So I will set a time I can start eating each week. If I feel good enough to keep fasting I can fast longer. Goal 1: Intermittent Fasting/Diet Week 1: Breakfast around 12:00 PM Week 2: Breakfast around 1:00 PM Week 3: Breakfast around 2:00 PM Week 4: Breakfast around 3:00 PM Coupled with this I want to try a low carb diet for this month. And then I just mean skipping as much as possible bad carbs: pasta, bread, white rice, candie, cookies, fruit juices, pudding, cakes,... (the list goes on)... you get the idea... Cheat day to give me some hope is on saturday. Goal 2: wake up every day around 5:00 AM Well, I have to get up every morning to keep up with my enemies! And, it makes me active, some alone time in the morning, I get to make a planning for the day. etc... It will probably be the hardest the first week. Goal 3: drinking 3l water/day Just staying hydrated, something I find very difficult! Goal 4: do something active every day So yes, this wouldn't be about fitness if I wouldn't do something about that, so I made a list with activities I can swap between. It's a ll about getting my body fit, mobile, more functional... Not necessary about getting more muscle. If I do a certain activity I will go more in depth describing what I did more in detail. For me it will be better that wayto see if I make any progress. Activity 1 Hill sprints Activity 2 Walking 1 hour Activity 3 Yoga Activity 4 Strength training Activity 5 Swimming The ideal routine would be like this: (but that is crazy, maybe I can get there in a few months) - Yoga and walking every day - Strength training 2-3 times a week - Hill sprints 2-3 times a week - Swimming 1-2 times a week

Hi everyone! It's been a while. Sorry. Things have been going great actually. I went from that weird low calorie whole foods diet, to counting calories and eating a ton, to finally just eat whatever I feel like which apparently has been low cal, low protein. Nevertheless I've lost a lot of weight, waist, hip and thigh size which was and still is my goal. Unfortunately that means muscle mass too. I've hit a wall on Starting Strength. Actually starting to probably go back a little. Most likely due to the low calorie, low protein thing. But at the moment I'm really happy with my diet. I'm seriously eating what I want. And losing weight. So I'm not changing that. And truth be told I've barely ever been able to lift more than what I'm doing right now anyways. Which is why I think it's time to move on to a different program. Is madcow 5x5 still the best progression from starting strength? Are there others? Are there any changes for females? (I ask this because SS app has me doing 5x3 reps instead of 3x5). Thank you very much in advance

I'll begin w/ the basic format that Hazard lays out in the "Start Here" thread: Here I Go: Pick a Main Quest: Begin the first 4 weeks of a advanced 5K plan (I have the endurance as I just completed my 5th Half Marathon) w/ a focus on building speed (Goal PR in a 5K I have the week after challenge concludes on Thanksgiving Day). Pick 2-3 SMART goals: Run all prescribe runs for plan formulated by Endomondo: "Experienced Going faster plan targeting 5-15KM race distances for runners that are already active" 1 day per week Strength Solutions Course at Applied Fitness Solutions 1 day per week Weight Loss Solutions (Circuit Training) Course at Applied Fitness Solutions Begin Physical Therapy for Lower Back Pain (First Week of November) Not let Deer Hunting opening week (Final week of challenge) derail my fitness plan (its happened... a couple of times...) Not eating out/carry-out more than twice in a week. (Mission: cook your own damn meals) (added 10/25/2017) Create your Challenge Thread: Introduce Myself: I do my fitness activities under the Social Media / Blog Identity I created (shortly after the premature birth of my first child), Miles4Milestones / @4milestones (I'm much more prolific on social media than with the blogging but I hope to change that soon). There are those that call me... ...Mike. I found Nerd Fitness kind of randomly, but probably because it has a similar bent of being part general nerdery with a side of fitness (or the reverse) a while back but only recently committed to being truly active. Hobbies: Digital Design, Aspiring Cosplayer (thus far limited to making costumes for my kids), Hunting (I'm far from the archetypal hunter/sportsman, but it is my preferred source for free-range meats), Trains, Cooking Favorite TV Shows: GoT, Westworld, Trek (most, if not all), West Wing, SW: Rebels Favorite Movies: Star Wars (even at least 1.5 of the prequels), Star Trek (we do not speak of 5), Godfather 1/2, The Manchurian Candidate (one of my all time favorites), The MCU Movies My challenge (See above)

HAHAHAHAHA. It was worth tendonitis just to get that challenge title. So, for those folks who’ve lost track at home, I’ve been having some tendonitis issues in my left knee for a few months, and mid-August I tweaked it really badly and I think it’s developed into ITB syndrome, so I’m spending this challenge doing rehab work and not inflicting any more damage. While I’m at the knee rehab, I have a couple of other nagging issues that need fixing, so I’m going to go for the three-pointer and include those in THE REHAB CHALLENGE. My twelve-step program: Rehab One: The Knee I have what I have self-diagnosed as an ITB injury, so I’m doing the following things to repair and rebuild the tendon: - I’ve pulled all the squat and squat-like movements out of my workout. This means no back squats, no wall balls, no thrusters, no box squats, no rower if I can avoid it. Sigh. So depressing. I can still deadlift, though, so I still have a reason to live. - eat soup once a day, for the collagen, to help rebuild. I’ll start making my own again (bone broth) and eat Mexican Chicken Soup and Pho at my favorite dives as often as possible. *nerd note: the homework I’ve been doing indicates that vitamin C improves collagen & protein uptake, which I found very interesting given that it’s traditional to squeeze a lime into Pho, which is my very favorite thing. Likewise for Tortilla soup, which is also my favorite thing. Actually I think we can all just agree that food is my favorite thing. I’ll be squeezing lemons and limes into all my food is the important bit. - Add abductor work to my workout. Leg lifts! So very, very Jane Fonda. Working abductor muscles should stabilize my knee joint and increase my hip strength, which in turn strengthens the joints below. I bought a resistance band in a particularly eye-searing shade of yellow to help with this. - exercise micro-bursts: This basically means that 3 times a day I grab the little 10-pound barbells I keep in my office and do some OH press, bicep curls, etc for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. There’s some studies that indicate this increases the body’s output of growth hormone, which in turn helps with healing. http://www.gnolls.org/191/walk-it-off-sally-why-exercise-helps-speed-injury-recovery/ Rehab TWO: Blood Pressure My blood pressure is high. I check it fairly regularly at that machine at the Publix, and it runs pretty steadily at 160 over 80. That’s officially hypertension, so unless I want to go on the medication merry-go-round, I need to get it down, stat. I also had a point this summer where it spiked to 190/80 for a few days and I nearly checked myself into the hospital because I was sure my brain was going to explode, but I may have just eaten an entire bag of teriaki beef jerky right before hand so I decided to wait and see if it normalized on its own (I cut all the salt out of my food too) and it did. But it’s not down enough. - Lower salt intake (obviously). Salt free seasoning, no bacon. I’ll have to make my own soups as much as possible because my GOD commercially available soup is salty. I checked a beef broth package in the store yesterday and it had 893 mg sodium PER SERVING. How does it even stay suspended in the liquid? Does it just precipitate out to the bottom and that’s why you have to shake the box? - Drink more water: I ashamed to admit that I drink almost no water. I mean it not like I'm doing shots of Early Times instead, I just tend to drink coffee all day and forget to drink water, and I drink soda with some of my meals. So I’ll switch to exclusively water and only one coffee a day. - Meditation: I had a really good run with meditation for a while but I stopped over the summer. It’s time for it to come back. Calming, lowers tension, blah blah blah. - Add potassium: There’s some studies* that show increasing your potassium is just as important as decreasing your sodium, so I’ve switched to a “Lite Salt” that’s higher in potassium and I’ll eat bananas and potatoes as my preferred carbs, as they’re high in potassium. Finally, an excuse to have baked potatoes every day! - Forest Bathing: okay, this is fucking weird, I admit, but APPARENTLY it’s a thing. You just go out and sit and look at nature, and it’s supposed to be very calming and can lower your blood pressure and tension. The Japanese are all about it. It’s probably effective just because you get away from your goddamn phone for twenty minutes but at this point I’ll try anything. https://www.outsideonline.com/1870381/take-two-hours-pine-forest-and-call-me-morning Rehab Three: Posture I have really bad upper-body posture (kyphosis) from too much time on the computer and phone. The bike probably aggravates this. I swear my head is about three inches in front of my shoulders, like a swaybacked horse. - Yoga, especially stuff that will work that posterior chain. The bike training program I use (Sufferfest) has a yoga program built into it that’s specifically for bikers, so I’ll use that. I already do yoga periodically so I just have to remember to do it. - Trap work and core work: I have a phobia of making my traps larger as they’re already big, but I’m going to work some trap/upper back exercises into my routine and see if I can strengthen/straighten that upper shoulder/lower neck region. I also almost never do core work, so that goes in too. It can take the place of squatting (sob) - I might not get this far, but I may make myself some sort of standing desk. Better for your back and all that. So that’s it! I actually started some of these things last week so I have a little bit of a head start, but I think you’re supposed to be in rehab for 45 days anyway so I don’t feel bad about it :-) I know it sounds like a lot of things, but some items overlap - like dropping squats and replacing with abductor work, or yoga and meditation - and some are just a matter of replacing things once, like buying the “lite” salt and some salt-free seasoning mixes. I’ve already weaned myself off soda (and had a headache for three days) so drinking more water is sort of automatic. (Although I may spend more time peeing.) Eating soup is easy, since I kind of live to eat anyway. The hardest things will be remembering the “micro-bursts” of exercise and the forest bathing. I’m glad mosquito season is over. So my knee has been bad, but when it comes back, you'll know, know, know... By the way, Amy Winehouse looks stoned to the cats in that video. How did we not know she was on drugs? * “God,” I hear you saying, “enough with the studies already!” Nerdbrain. Sorry.

Strength training challenge is HERE, brosciencers! I spent all summer doing conditioning work to prep for my annual Savannah Century bike event, so I'm ready for a change up both mentally ("wallballs? AGAIN?") and physically, as six conditioning workouts a week have put me in a state that I can most easily describe as cat-like: sleeping 18 hours a day, eating everything, and prone to biting. I was going to call this challenge The Crossover Episode and dedicate it to the greatest TV crossover of all time, Magnum P.I. meets Murder She Wrote, but then I rabbit-holed deep into the youtubes and was reminded of this movie: Oh, my god. This movie. This has to be - along with Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and The Beastmaster - one of the highlights of early 80's terrible cable movies. I cannot get enough of how terrible it is. So this challenge I am going to do primarily strength work, and let the Warrior side of my Rangering come out to play. I may or may not wear bad 80's gang colors. Since I can't figure out how to put photos up anymore, you'll never know. I am also for once going to use the S.M.A.R.T. goals guidelines for the most part, to keep me on one goal and not wander off into complete life-reinvention. I did tweak the guidelines a little... but as the Mantis likes to say, the day I use something completely "as directed" will be the day the earth slowly decays from orbit and plunges into the sun. (See also: Rangerbrain) SMART goals are usually Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-based. I give you: S.M.A.A.R.T Goals: SPECIFIC: I want to put 10% on my 1RM for three lifts: Back Squat, Deadlift, Sled Push. I will do this by focusing my gym work on lifting: 4 reps at 4 rep Max for almost all moves. This (according to someone I don't entirely trust on the internet) will give me the greatest strength gains with minimal added mass. Lower reps would give me greater absolute strength gains, but I have to remember I am not Kara Webb and I want to be smart about injury prevention. I have to figure out my 1RM for squat and deadlift, so I'll be doing that Sunday and Monday. The last time I was squatting for powerlifting I could do 175 for 3 reps but that was months ago. It's probably less now. But that was also as part of a pyramid set that started with 90 pounds for 20 reps and went up 10 pounds and down 2 reps with each set, so who knows what I can do as a stand-alone. I tested my max Sled yesterday. I can push 210 pounds for 200 feet three times. I'd already done DT right before it so I wasn't totally fresh, but it's a good baseline. MEASURABLE: Even my limited math faculties can determine what a 10% increase is. Better yet, there's a calculator in my phone. ACHIEVABLE: I think 10% is attainable. It's [whips out phone] 21 pounds for the sled, and I'll know the other two numbers by Monday after my second 1RM workout. ACCOMPANIED: This second "A" is where we begin to veer off the standard a little. I almost always train solo (even when I ride with the Mantis, we start together and then after 5 miles he goes off to set fire to the pavement while I slog along) and frankly that shit is getting old. You are all lovely humans and I adore you all, but there's no getting away from the fact that y'all are on the other side of a computer screen somewhere and I'd like to build some sort of a workout crew to hang out with. I actually have one good friend who, like me, does a bastardized form of crossfit, and another who has done one Spartan Race and is signed up for another, and a couple of other people I know who do various workout things, so I'm going to try and rope some of them into active activities (hiking, trail run, climb everest, whatever). I'm also going to force myself to join a couple of cycling groups to do group rides with people, and I may book a session with one of the trainers at the gym so I've got some extra support there. I should check out the "local nerd" board on here too. I know there's a couple of people in my area-ish. My boyfriend joined a gym and is working out again (he's by far the fitter of the two of us) so I'm going to wrangle one "couples" workout a week somehow. Although I'd like to take a moment to be a dick and point out that he joined Planet Fitness. REAL FOOD: I'm not going to talk about nutrition because dealing with it makes me want to gnaw off both my hands, but I'm going to go back on a paleo-real-food-eating track, which seems to keep me from eating like an unsupervised four-year-old. I guess this means giving up tacos for a few weeks. Gah. Just kill me now. TAUNTING: I am here to LIFT and I want to hear some smack talk to motivate me. I openly invite any and all Warriors including @Br0din, @Vincent Van Bro (nice new handle, dude), @Emerald_Dragonfly, @TiffanyD (fave warrior girl, yo!) @elvenengineer, and @Sam Ashen to come talk trash on my puny crossfit gains. Extra points given for humor. I wish @hermionegainser was still here. I miss that girl. Motivational smack trash also invited from Rangers, obviously. Best motivational takedown gets a mixtape of music I stole from @DarK_RaideR's various threads. I'm done with the carrot. I AM HERE TO EMBRACE THE STICK. Warriors... come out to plaaaaaaaayaaay....

My life is a literal interpretation of the chorus to Chumbawamba's hit song 'Tub Thumping'. It's true, I get knocked down. Over and over again, knocked down. And just like in the song, I get up again. Always get up. So this is me getting up again. I've been here before, looking at fitness and health again after getting knocked waaaayy down. I moved to another username to signify an even deeper reboot. I chose to do this because my life is very different than when I went on my 91 lb weight loss journey three years ago. The TL;DR of it is this: I found out that I am diabetic and have multiple sclerosis in late summer of 2016. That is enough to make even the strongest of rebels waver on their feet. Between doctor's visits, sometimes two or three in a week, I moved 200 miles into a city where I knew no one and started grad school. You've all heard of the Freshman 15? Well, this was the masters degree multiple sclerosis diabetes 36. My neurologist said to me "You've had a tough year, it's understandable that you've gained weight. It's time to get back on track." Yes ma'am, you're the specialist. I listen to you. So I am going to start simple. Keep it basic. work back into things. Step 1; Yoga. I will be doing Yoga Camp with Adriene. This will increase flexibility and balance, things that have decreased due to MS. Three times a week should be fine. Step 2; Nutrition. Log calories in one of the apps I've used before Step 3; Hit the pool. Hey man, I pay for a gym membership with my tuition. Let's go swimming twice a week, shall we? I can lose the grad weight, and possibly more, by sticking to this plan. Well, definitely more. Updates to come. Or follow my blog at johnnyshoesnews.wordpress.com Thanks for reading!

I'm back with a shiny new program! No barbells this time (well, they will make an appearance later in my program), but I am still focusing on strength. For those of you that followed my previous thread, you'll remember my disillusionment when I realized that a lot of the authorities on strength training are d00d-focused. And the self proclaimed father of them all is a sexist turd. (Not all male fitness gurus are sexist by any means, but there is a lack of representation of women in the sport, which had me feeling excluded at times.) With the help of some friends, I found some female lead and focused programs that I feel good about supporting and don't make me feel like an inferior piece of garbage. So... I have chosen the Girls Gone Strong 12 week strength training program! Since I just had a three week summer break, I am going to get right to it. Here are my goals for this challenge: Document workouts in my bujo and create a blog post for each block of training (4 blocks 4 weeks each = 4 total blog posts for this program) Meal plan with Mr. Z every weekend before grocery shopping Meal prep every week w/ Mr. Z (including snacks!) Reflect for 5 minutes in my journal every night before bed Now get to werk!

First challenge time! Yay! Can you feel the antici...pation? My Overall Goals: Lose at least 16kg to get back to my weight before I landed in the hospital Keep my platelets at a safe level consistently (between 80,000-150,000 per liter of blood) Get a job performing at Universal Studios Japan Look fantastic for upcoming weddings, including my own! An explanation behind these goals, for anyone who didn't see my forum introduction: I have Hashimoto's hypothyroid and polycystic ovaries, diagnosed as a teenager for both, and despite having a healthy diet and lifestyle I have struggled with my weight for most of my life (as in, I did competitive karate 3-5 times per week for 10 years, avoided soda, wasn't a big chocolate person, loved produce and seafood, and yet never got below a BMI of 24 or a size 8). in 2012 I hit my goal of getting back within my healthy weight range and feeling strong and fitjust in time to move to Japan, and I kept myself at that level for almost 2 years when I landed in the hospital with a serious case of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, or dangerously low platelets. A healthy person has around 150,000 platelets per liter of blood and I was down to less than 1,000 and was literally bleeding to death internally. I was bedridden for a month, under strict medical observation for another 9 months, and on a fairly high dose of prednisone during that time as well. By the time I was off of the prednisone and observation, I had gained 9kg and lost almost all of my strength; I couldn't exercise, I could barely stand to be out walking around to run errands like usual much less do yosakoi dance training or intensive exercise like before, and the withdrawal symptoms were so bad I could barely move some days. It took at least another year to get past that, and another year before I had a handle on what diet helped keep my platelets at a safe level and was approved by the doctors to exercise more than just daily activity levels and basic stretching. I'm still not allowed to exercise outside without someone there in case I injure myself and can't stop bleeding, and I get exhausted super easily. So I've gone up 16kg in total since hospitalization. The ITP is chronic and will never go away and it has taken a while to accept that, but now I think I'm finally at a point where I can start living with it instead of being held captive by it, and I want to get on that with a group of like-minded geeky types who support each other with our different challenges on our journeys! So...that's the why behind the goals! This Challenge's Goals Lose some weight, any amount Stick to my platelet boosting diet Prepare songs for Voice Kobe's competitive open mic night Which leads to my challenges... Challenge 1: Attend at least 2 aerials classes per week I usually make 1 class per week but May I have more free time so I'd like to try to increase that! A bit worried because April 29-May 3 I am out of town, which means I only can go once the week of April 23-30, and May 3-7 is Golden Week so I don't know if the classes will be cancelled or not. Challenge 2: Do body-weight strength training at least 3 times per week I never tried strength training outside of what we did in classes as warm-ups, so I'm starting very slow with a beginner body-weight workout, maybe 3 sets of 8-10 reps per exercise for about 20 minutes to start. Challenge 3: Eat at least 1 fruit or vegetable serving with every meal I already do this most meals, but not all, so I just have to push myself to get something in with every meal, not just 3/4 of them! Challenge 4: Practice my new music at least 4 days a week I used to practice a lot but the last 3 years I've only done voice work and sporadic practice while I recovered from being sick, so I need to get back into it.. I'm not really planning on doing week 0 since I spent a few days doing the planning worksheets, but I'm tracking it anyway just to get in the habit. Spreadsheet time! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qsXaDLCN-YDY37wFC1bKEJCbEEqGdmaZqcuk1mRt218/edit?usp=sharing Here's hoping this goes well!

Welp last challenge I was supposed to do some things and, in short, I did not do those things so this challenge I am simply going to do the things. These things include one thing that has been a long time coming which is my first OCR upcoming on the last day of the challenge! So things for this challenge must be related to getting ready for that thing. Without further suspense, here are all the things to do for this challenge: Thing 1: Track the Things I started out tracking solidly during a previous cut that lasted 2 challenges but then last challenge I got sick and other things happened where I got away from tracking all my foods. I find that tracking everything, even on bad days, helps me keep better accountability over the longer course of the week or month. Ive had a two week break from the cut and I was starting to see results that I want to get back to. Track 7 days per week regardless of intake. Thing 2: Eat Better Things Goal as explained by the meme above is to not eat all the crappy things that I have been eating. I set my calories and macros a few challenges back and looking to get back to eating at those levels. Aiming to be within those calories and macros during the week days and within 400cal of them on weekends(bonus points for macros on weekend) . That should still lead to a solid cut level while allowing a little bit of leniency on weekends and hopefully no burn out Thing 3: Lift Things Need to try and get back into the gym at some point soon. I am battling an injured wrist so I have been absent for a week and a half now. Likely going to experiment this week and work around the injury if needed. Maybe ease back in with some safety bar squats. Anyways once that heals up looking at getting back to the minimum 2 times per week strength work. Thing 4: Condition Things I assure you I do not look as pleasant and happy as those things when I run...but none the less, this whole wrist injury thing has gotten me back into a bit of a running routine. I ran twice last week and it was a good setup. New trail on the way to work that is pretty challenging with 1.5 mile laps. If I get up 10min earlier and go run there on way to work, I still get to work on time so there is really no excuse. Looking to run 4 times per week on the weeks that I am injured and 2-3 times once I start strength training again. Thing 5: Mobilize Things Knees have been pretty tight lately. Not quite to the level of pain but certainly uncomfortable at points. I have noticed that over past challenges, doing a good deal of mobility helps alleviate that tightness. It does not take too long to roll out the calves or floss my knees to release that tension. Need to do mobility 3 times per week especially on days I run. This should be enough things for now... Raise your hand if you are sick of me using the word "things" yet

I have been debating the pros and cons of each at their extreme ends vs a combination approach, but I can't seem to decide I was wondering if any of you had tried something similar. A full schedule of martial arts could be considered a strength training regimen on its own, but the flexibility aspect appeals to me (considering I am on the not flexible side of things yet). I'm not at a full schedule yet, but eventually I will be. For the mean time though I am considering adding yoga and strength training to my martial arts training. At my disposal for strength training: A weight bench, a treadmill, a few free weights in the lower range, and my own body for bodyweight exercises. Just if it helps you decide which parts I should add or drop. For yoga: I only have what is free online available currently. The only 2 yoga studios within a feasible distance were focused on advanced students and/or seemed very cult oriented. Thoughts?

Hello everyone! I feel like a lifetime member of the "Nerd" Community but am just recently a member of the "Nerd Fitness" Community. I recently retired from a career that began as a coal miner, truck driver, construction worker and morphed, somehow, into pcs, databases, healthcare, Information Systems and finally leadership within healthcare IS. What a ride! I chose the display name Old!=Slow (read the ! as 'does not') as an optimist. Currently, for me, Old does equal Slow. However, I am on an Epic Quest to change that. Over the past few years, I have had an up and down weight loss experience. I topped out at 255 a couple years ago and got to 225 where I was stuck in the mud for 18 months. Recently, through the "magic" (hard work) of a ketogenic diet, I am now 190 and want to get to 175 and 15% body fat. I am 63 years old and have run a number of 5K through Half Marathon races, but always with no hope of winning, even in the old man's age group. I want to change that. I am not very happy with the way I look and feel, even though it is much better than in the past. 25 years behind a desk has produced "Dilbert" arms! I have studied fitness a lot and been somewhat successful lately, but "What got you here will not get you there!" so the Quest is on. My BIG WHY!! Level 1: I want to look good, live long and be active and healthy. Level 2: At 63 and recently retired, my mortality has become much more real. I want to have a long, happy, active retirement. I want to compete for wins in my age group in 5K, 10K and maybe other races. I am tired of running to run and finishing in the middle of the pack when I believe I am capable of more. Level 3: When I was younger and my children were young, I did not know proper nutrition and fitness methods or information. They were active with sports which left me inactive, watching. I have the opportunity to “Model The Way” for my, now, grown, children and grandchildren in how to live a healthy, happy, active life well into my later years. My wife and I were successful getting them educated and out on their own, but you are never done being a role model for your children. Family truly is all that matters.

After a successful tracking chalenge last month, this time, I'm focusing on bigger, greater goals! This time with a reward (other than the happiness of seeing the scale tick back ^_^). So let's push our inspiration: This is Valkyrie. She comes from the Marvel Universe. She KICKS A**. Who would not want to become like her? GOALS - How it all starts 1- 4 weeks, 4 kilos lost. No excuses, just hard work () 2- Maintain exercise schedule: 3 weight sessions, 2 full dance sessions, 1-2 dance practices, 2-3 biking sessions 3- Continue nutrition tracking and good habits 4- Meditate or write in my journal daily POINTS - A necessary evil 1- 10 points per kilo - MAX 40 points per week (to stay healthy) 2- 3 points per weight lifting sessions, 1.5 for dance, 1 for biking, extra point for practices towards pistol squat (at least 10 on each leg) - MAX 20 points per week 3- 2 points per day (14 / week) + up to 6 points weekly for bonuses (for weeks with no desserts, no bread or other special things that are otherwise allowed) - MAX 20 points per week 4- 2 points per day when it is done (14 / week) + 6 points if done every day - MAX 20 points per week Total 100 points per week, 400 points for 4 weeks (I MULTIPLIED IT IN MY HEAD!!!) REWARDS!!!!!!! - What we look towards Out of a MAX of 400 points: - >360 points: the 5 tshirts I want to buy (probably in 1 size smaller!) - >280 points: 2 t-shirts -<= 280 points: a strong word of encouragement and the right to start again in 5 weeks I will try to post 2-3 times a week to talk about progress. Now let's go fight! "A day may come, when we lose. But it's not today. 'Cause today, we FIGHT!" Rap Monster

Last few challenges have been switching focus towards getting ready for first OCR that was supposed to be in June. But we are taking a bit of a detour on the route to Sparta(n) and making a pit stop in New York. Over the last challenge, it was determined that the Spartan will now be my second OCR as I registered for a Warrior Dash in NY at the end of May(Thanks @RedStone ) Road Trip upcoming! So goals are going to be similar to the last few challenges but adjusted and simplified a bit based off of prior lessons learned and accounting for a slightly shorter schedule before my first OCR. Also, seems like after finding the above GIF, I've been in a Wayne's World mood so at least this post turned into an impromptu Wayne's World gif party! Nutrition Goal 1 - Continue the cut Track food and eat within cutting calorie goal 6 days per week and last day within maintenance Seeing good success on new calorie intake. Cut from 330 to 319.7 during the last challenge. Hoping to keep up this pace (2lbs per week) which should still be possible at these weights. 6 days per week on macros and one within maintenance in order to keep a bit of sanity on weekends. Goal 2 - Hit protein macros Meet 225g of protein 5 days per week Readjusted macros using the new IIFYM calculator during the last challenge and it gave me much more manageable macros, namely 225g of protein instead of nearly 300g. Making sure I hit new macros 5 days a week as an addition to the above cut goal that has a focus primarily on calorie intake. Goal 3 - Waterrrrrr Drink 100oz of water per day Continuing this trend...this time more focus on the weekends which were the only times I was playing catch up or missed anytime with this challenge last month. Exercise Goal 5 - Conditioning Do two conditioning sessions per week Really liking the KB Fit classes on Saturdays so will continue doing those. Getting other cardio/conditioning sessions can be varied week by week though so need to get a little better grip on whats going on. I dont really want to restrict myself to a set schedule but I do want to make sure I map out my weekly plans and get two good conditioning workouts in. Goal 5 - Strength Do two strength workouts per week Favorite part of any challenge...not much of a stretch goal but just want a place to track workouts and make sure that I dont slack on the lifting front. Goal 6 - Mobility Do three mobility sessions per week Knees and shoulders have been feeling better with the little bit of mobility work I have been doing recently. But in general, since cancelling ROMWOD a few months ago, I've been failing with getting any mobility done. So adding in a couple of days of mobility to hopefully help recovery time and improve some of the issues that I have been having with knees specifically. CHECKBOXES!!! Goal 1 - Food ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Goal 2 - Protein ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐ Goal 3 - Water ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Goal 4 - Conditioning ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ Goal 5 - Strength ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ Goal 6 - Mobility ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐

Ta-da! I have shaken off my cold with copious amounts of Dayquil and hot baths, and I am here, with you my Ranger brethren, to take on a new challenge. Which will be not terribly unlike my last challenge, but hopefully more amusing, and with 37.9% more bicycles, since the weather is better. I had a very intense challenge laid out with a very serious VIKINGS ARE BADASS theme, but it's like 75 degrees and sunny and I'm down some weight and the Justice League trailer looks fucking great and I'm just kinda in a good mood this week, and it didn't feel like the right theme. So I changed it. And so I give you my new challenge: BECOMING BOHDI! Yes, I have designed my challenge around the greatest surf-riding savant of modern cinema. We have, after all, a ton in common: - passion for the nature and the sea - thirst for adventure and travel - perfect blonde highlights and slightly androgynous surfer-chick hair - urge to buck the system and travel light I mean, yeah, there's some sociopathic behavior and the whole bank-robbing thing, but I can't spell or resist cheese fries, so we've all got our problems, right? We'll just gloss over that for the moment and get to the challenge. 1: Get the spiritual side of it: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/45b03b32-d6e4-4c2f-a2d4-70fa90f4e922 I started meditating during my last challenge and doing Wim Hof breathing exercises, and holy cow does it make a difference. So goal number 1 is to continue meditating daily. 2: Get that Surf Body: Patrick Swayze had one of the all-time great physiques on this film and he apparently did almost all of his own stunts. I mean, he's not Jason Momoa or anything... ...but that's not the question at hand. Actually after looking at that picture I can't remember what the question was. I may need a moment. Okay, I'm back. I lost 1.9% body fat last challenge so my goal is to lose another 1% by challenge end. Which means no cheese fries. Sadness. I got a bike trainer - the Mantis has been on me about it for ages and I finally got a cheap one - so that I can do some indoor training, and I will continue to workout at the gym and post my workouts, if only because it's never not funny to say, "Today I worked on my snatch." I'm trying to do two workouts a day, but it's not like it's 40 miles on the bike in the morning and then heavy lifting in the evening. It's either a strength workout or the bike and then a walk or yoga or a spin on the trainer or whatever, something simple. Goal 3: Traveling on the money, going where the waves are: I had plans for an ambitious cross country road trip this spring, but I changed my mind, and now I think I am going to go to Belize to go snorkeling, because it will be cheaper and shorter (like a week instead of a month) and I found out that there's a chance to see whale sharks there, which I'm kind of obsessed with. So goal #3 is to save up the money for that trip, even if it means selling everything I own that's not bicycle-related or my cat. And that, actually, is it for now. Simple challenge for once. Bonus content if you're bored:

Hey everyone, complete newbie here hoping to have some fun with the assassins I've been a member of NF for about 6 months now, but never got round to checking out the forums. I very recently had to respawn so I thought 'why not'? After all, there's a lot of cool-lookin' stuff going on in here My personal challenge is a simple one of pure self-improvement; strength training, cardio, drinking more often, and eating more veggies (and potatoes, oddly enough - versatile things, spuds): At the moment I can do about 24 push-ups in a minute, I would very much like to increase that number - if I can do about 40 *consistently* after 4 weeks, then I'll be a very happy bunny. I've not really done much in the way of running or interval training, but it's been on my to-do list for ages now, so I'm putting that in there too, else I never will I'm hoping to go out at least twice a week, every week - that should be a good starter. I don't drink enough water - it's actually a little embarrasing that I'm even putting that on the list, but frankly I'm tired of not drinking properly. So there - it's on Finally I'm adding that quest to eat at least one vegetable a day, every day - my super veg. is the humble carrot - because I can cook that in just about any way I fancy After that long-winded post, I think I'll sign off with a "It's good to finally join you all, I'm looking forward to knocking this one out of the park", and maybe a "Dickie, reporting in" to try and sound cool. I might also join in on the Assassin-e street thing, that looks fun. Included is a picture of my personal trainer - he's not led me wrong yet