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Apropos of nothing... it's really hard to google "Crossfit Gif" and come up with something that isn't making fun of it. Just sayin'. So, an introduction, since I don't think I've been here before and you probably don't know or care who I am. My name's Thrillho. I've spent most of the last 3 years with the Monks, training for the Tigerbalm Internationals, training for West Coast Championships, training for two non-consecutive Ellismanias... I like to fight. I'm not particularly good at it, but I like it. I'm 36, 6'3", 272 lbs, father of three, and we've got a busy-as-feck life. My wife is in school full time and works full time, my kids are 9, 11 and 15 and have a crapton of activities, and we've all got our share of fun health quirks. My weight has yo-yo'd over the years between 240 and 270, though considering I started at 335, that's still not bad. Not great, but not bad. I've got my fifth Storm The Hill Mini Marathon this year in September, and I'd like to make this my best showing ever (after last year where my time slipped by two minutes, and my son's IMPROVED by TWELVE MINUTES.) I've taken the last month off of martial arts, due to mental health and stress issues, and it's already showing massively in my fitness level. SO... I moved all my weights and my punching bag into the garage, and I'm trying to get into a new routine with my dang dog. See, no-one else really walks the dog, so I spend about two hours a day doing that. The dog doesn't let me JOG... some herding instinct causes her to try and physically stop me if I start running. So... that's out. So I'll just use my time with her to walk and loosen myself up, and... well, I'll get to all that in the challenges down below. I've also got a whole dark pantry full of food issues, which I will be working on concurrently with this challenge, but by and large this challenge is just about the exertion side. So! ... ok, challenges will go here as I eventually start thinking of exactly what they'll be. Plus, I need to find some fun gifs to go with them. Probably Supernatural related.

I've decided to embrace the Tropes that rule my life, and in particular this one has been my guiding star for the last few months. I lost about ten pounds since Christmas, though it's still a little bit of an unpredictable roller coaster,and perhaps I've finally made some progress on leg strengthening, but I'm MOVING better at MMA than I ever have. Footwork, shifting, ducking and weaving, and the always-tricky forward switch-kick. I am not lighter, but I FEEL lighter. And a big part of that comes from figuring out exactly what's wrong with my legs and my core, and the specific deficiencies. My hamstrings are tight as steel, my hip flexors are almost non-existent, and my obliques are absent, presumed missing. As part of repairing my mobility, I will be concentrating on these three zones, and the techniques associated with them. Challenge #1 - Hammy I discovered that by doing high forward leg swings, inside and outside, there's a LOT of tugging and pulling in the hips, many of which cross that border from "wow, THAT'S a wierd feeling" to "WOW, that's NOT somewhere I should feel pain!" These are essential for me to perform leaping side squats, high front kicks, high back kicks, and virtually anything that involves LANDING after a jump. These are also important considering I'm trying to up my game from a 5k to a 10k at this year's Storm The Hill. So the routine will be: high forward leg swings, inside and outside, at least 5 sets in the morning and 5 sets at night forward high stomp kicks on the heavy bag (quantity to be determined?) standing floor touches, IE, bring forehead to ankles. Deep breathing, meditate, feel those darn things loosen. Challenge #2 - Hippy The hip flexors are huge for me. I hadn't realized that nearly all of my workout routines completely ignored this part of my body. There's only two real cures for this: stretching and direct manipulation. SO, the stretches will be key to start me off, mostly pigeon pose and... this one I was trained to do but don't know the name of, where I rest my foot on something behind me, between knee and hip height, and then to careful leg bends with the other leg. The deeper I go, the more the leg behind me is stretched. After that, there's two important direct manipulations for me to concentrate on, which directly apply to both MMA and running: knee raises (planning to do walking heel-turn knee raises, to simulate forward roundhouse kicks) and jumping squats (preferably jumping 180 squats, once I get a little better at the landings). I can only do a handful of these before I go from "Hey, this is pretty easy" to "OH GOD THERE'S NOTHING LEFT". These muscles burn out so, so fast. There's a lot of bending and a lot of jumping in this one. Challenge #3 - Belly The abs, especially the obliques, are tremendously important for any ground-fighting, and for head movement. I figured most of head movement was, you know, the head, but the head is attached to the spine, and the spine starts moving most easily at the bottom. Ducking and weaving? The whole point is basically to crunch your abs and tilt to the side, while keeping your eyes on your opponent, your chin down and your neck straight. Head movement is all belly. And that's going to be challenge number three. It's also very important for distance running, because just keeping my body upright and not slouching, my chest open and my lungs pumping, is a HARD ab workout when you're my size. Whew. Fortunately, this one is perfectly manageable, but I need to find somewhere in my house to set strings up. I can do this WITHOUT the sliplines, but it would be nice to be able to link this to what my eyes are seeing. Bonus Challenge - Upsy-Daisy I am bringing back my oldest NerdFitness challenge... doing a gosh-darned handstand. Starting with wall-stands, deep breathing, and... we'll see where we can go from there.