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Hey, everyone! I'm curious what people are doing for their workouts. I only go to Muay Thai twice a week. What can I do to improve my stamina and strength? One routine I saw is run 2+ miles, jump rope 3 rounds, shadow box 2 rounds, then heavy bag 3 rounds. Should I try to fit in things like pushups, squats, situps, etc? I do my workouts at home, where I have a heavy bag, but I don't have a gym membership where I can lift weights or anything. Thanks, ninjas!

I'm Lieutenant Dan. Fuck you 2016. Woo...it is a new year. A brand new spanking year that I desperately need. I have been out for the forums quite a bit last year for one main reason! Quick reminder for all of you folks who have yet to meet the Queen of Gifs; I am BlackTezca and I first joined the Rebellion back in 2014! I started out with my very first post in From Lurker to (Newb) Rebel! I also started a new battle log for the year titled BlackTezca's Daily Battle Towards A Much Better Year (We all need a much better year). I had a lovely challenge during my Golden age in BlackTezca's 14th Trial: An Artsy Geeky Amazon Goes Back to School!!! and the challenge ended up being a pretty damn good success! I was ready to kick the rest of Octobers' ass and really rock the rest of 2016 until...disaster struck. Monsters abounded... I know a lot of folks who have figurative (and literal) battle scars from 2016 and I have to say...I am one of them. Some of you may have know this already, but the hubs and I lost our clone, Ezekiel, better known to us as Zeke. Zeke was...too much for this small puny world to handle and went off to conquer far, far, far away celestial places. He will be miss, and his departure hit us really hard. That was the best, and the very worst, Halloween weekend I have ever experience. That was what I shall call, the Eclipse moment. If you are familiar with the anime Berserk, which was...fittingly, gonna be my October challenge theme, then you know the Eclipse moment. The moment where everything goes to literal hell in Berserk and the dark dirty world transforms into a Apocalyptic Fantasy horror landscape. I really truly believe that losing Zeke was that moment; sure I didn't lose an eye nor lost an arm, but things are definitely not the same anymore. I didn't go on a 2 year hunting down Apostles hiatus like Guts did, but I did have a hiatus so I can heal physically and start healing emotionally. Cause I'm back bitches!! Time to kickass and get back to my main quest! As we all may remember, I have one hero that I always admire, one hero that I aspire to be! Her movie is coming out soon (JUNE 02 2017) and as such I must prepare myself to follow in her awesome footsteps...!! My Main Quest to be as POWERFUL and BATTLE READY as Wonder Woman Without further ado, let's see my new awesome quests for January 2017! Note that most of these are familiar, but this is to get back into the habit and get back into the Rebellion! It's always good to revisit the basics and what made things so great the first time around :D. Guts will never stop, never yield. He is simply to simple minded, too stubborn, and too bad ass. Details: Still keeping things simple here. Just like Guts who will never stop to rest for his simple goals (vengeance against Griffith, protecting Casca, getting monsters to leave him alone), I too shall not stop! Time to get my ass back into gear and work out as hard as I usual do!...While taking rest days and doing some yoga (which I will count as well! WOO YOGA!) Contingencies: Sickness and travel pretty much. However considering the flexibility here, I should be able to do something! Walking, yoga, etc! Tracking: I'll be tracking the workouts using MyFitnessPal ( username BlackTezca ) and this lovely thread will be updated as well. Grading: A for workout (including yoga) 4 to 5 times a week - 25 pts ( 2 Sta 2 Dex 2 Str ) B for workout (including yoga) out 2 to 3 times a week - 20 pts ( 1 Sta 1 Dex 2 Str ) F for all else Casca is a strong independent woman who don't need no man to kick some ass! Details: A woman with pride, strength and an efficient fighting style, Casca is a soldier through and through. She fights with finesse and often using her opponents greater strength to her advantage. I haven't been doing much to keep up with my own fighting skills and would like to get back into kickboxing and Muay Thai! Contingencies: If I can't make the Easton classes, I'll simply do a kickboxing work out at home with focus on good technique from Easton! Huzzah!Tracking: I'll be tracking the Muay Thai and Kickboxing using MyFitnessPal ( username BlackTezca ) and this lovely thread will be updated as well.Grading: A for Kickboxing/Muay Thai 3 times a week - 20 pts ( 1 Sta 2 Dex 1 Str ) B for Kickboxing/Muay Thai out 2 times a week - 15 pts ( 2 Dex ) C for Kickboxing/Muay Thai out 2 times a week - 10 pts ( 1 Dex ) F for all else Ishidoro needs to bulk up and eat at least 100 gram of protein to catch up to Guts! Details: Lets' get back to focusing on eating all the protein (and watching my carbs and sugar and such). Ishidoro wants to steal all of Guts techniques and skills, but he needs to pump up for that! I mean the dragonslayer is about 400 pounds and Guts can swing that with one arm. For me to get back to the weight I use to lift, I need to eat more protein! Contingencies: None. I should be able to stuff my face with yogurt and protein bars if I need to and while I don't want to go over my calories too much, I'm NOT cutting. Thus the daily amount should not scare me. I need the protein, I need that fuel! Tracking: I'll be tracking the stretching sessions using MyFitnessPal ( username BlackTezca ) with extra accountability done here. Grading: A for 100 g of protein 6 to 7 times a week - 25 exp ( 2 Con 1 Wis) B for 100 g of protein 4 to 5 times a week - 20 exp ( 2 Con ) C for 100 g of protein 2 to 3 times a week - 15 exp ( 1 Con ) F for all else Griffith has dreams, ambitions...and let one year with a bad day lead to a pretty horrific decision... Details: Oh man...oh Griffith...you're a real piece of work. Turning from one of the coolest characters into one of the most shittiest assholes over the course of one ruthless, hateful decision. To be fair to him, he had a bad year. He was tortured for a year, left disabled and unable to fight or even speak and after being united with his friends and comrades, realized he had just become a burden. That sucks. Really, really sucks. I am not gonna be like Griffith and just hole up into myself, making horrible choices. I had a pretty shitty 2016. I have some healing to do. And while I have done a pretty good job so far, I need to stop putting off getting some grief counseling. Not sure what yet, nor when, but I need to get some grief counseling of some kind. Maybe to let it all out, maybe to hep make a plan, I'm not sure, but something could still help me get a handle on this loss a little more. Contingencies: None; I need to not put it off.Tracking: Tracking to be done here and I'll need to use this thread to do some research and let ya'll know how I'm doing so far.Grading: A for one group or individual grief counseling session this challenge - 15 exp ( 2 Wis 1 Cha ) F for all else Puck is real are so are demons, other elves, and magic in the Berserkverse! Details: Puck is the resident light in the darkness known as the Berserkverse. He provides the comedy relief and much needed lightness for the series as well as proof that there are supernatural happenings afoot. He is an elf that is visible to all but the blind and tries his best to support Guts and his crew. Due to his supernatural, magical nature, he best represents my art quest! Same old here; painting and art for 30 minutes a day, most days of the week! Contingencies: The usual! Friends being in town, going on possible trips else where, etc. Need to focus on painting! Tracking: I have an art Tumblr and I also have DeviantArt (WATCH ME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY). I shall use those and this thread to keep track. Grading: A for Arting (model painting mostly) at least 30 minutes 4 to 5 days a week - 20 exp ( 2 Wis 1 Cha )B for Arting (model painting mostly) at least 30 minutes 2 to 3 days a week - 15 exp ( 1 Wis 1 Cha) F for all else The quests are set! I should be honest and have some stats posted for the new year! They...ugh...won't be great, but here they are!! Starting Measurements: Date: 01/05/2017 @ 7:30 am Weight: 161 ***Body Fat***: 26 Waist: 26 Waist @ Navel: 28 Hips: 40 Neck: 12.5 Chest: 34 Left Bicep: 11 Right Thigh: 19.5 Wrist: 5.5 Forearm: 9 Ughhhh...I know these are looking great, but hey! Cut me some slack :P. I'm getting back into things and I'm already feeling more trim and also feeling better! Hurray! Let's get this challenge going! Time to fight against the Dark Ages and kick ass Berserk style! WOO!!

1) Keep a food journal and post for 30 days 2) Keep track of macros: proteins, carbs and fats in food for 30 days. 3) Do an established work out routine for 30 days. 4) Read a book for fun at night before bed.

I now have a fairly stable workout routine I do 3 times every week on average, and I'd love some criticism on it. I usually work out after a 15+ hour fast, which seems to have increased my performance compared to before. Here's the workout routine: I always do 5 repetitions per set. 1: 5 sets overhead press, 3 minutes rest, some form of squat between sets (split squat at the moment for example), since my gym has no rack. 2: 5 sets pullups, 3 minutes rest, dips between sets 3: 5 sets thigh abductor machine (I'm convinced they'll help my triangle choke in jujitsu!),2 minutes rest, 10 second planks (very high tension) between sets. 4: hangs on the pullup bar for 10-20 long breaths, sets and duration depend on how long I can hold on. Once a week I do deadlifts and on off-days I use a gripper with only my left, weaker hand whenever I feel like it. I just started doing the left-hand only thing because my left hand's grip is significantly weaker than my right, and I hurt myself a bit doing deadlifts and almost dropped the weight. Be ruthless with the criticism! I'm trying to make this as optimal as possible since I have plenty of time for once on vacation.

June 1, 7:39 am Today is the day that I woke up eager to start the reset and upgrade of my life. My Motivational playlist playing, my inspiring pictures flashing on my background, water bottle within my reach and my energy eager to go. 20 body weight squats 10 push ups 20 walking lunges 10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milkjug) 15 second plank 30 Jumping Jacks The beginners Workout. I only did one set, and that's O.K. I am getting my body ready for more sets in the very near future. After the workout. I like the idea of taking a set of photos on the 1st of the month and possibly the 3rd. Progress and what not. Current size- 260 ( But I have to start somewhere.) Pant size- 20/22 One of my short term goals is to see the other side of 240. Long term is to see how I look at 200. And it can be done! Allons-y!

I guess a little Intro is in Order: My Name is Beren,I am 23 years old and this is my second Challenge. For this challenge, and in the hope that I will start the new Year successfully, I have decided to kick it up a little. My last Challenge wasn’t easy to say the least, but It really kept me going and motivated, so I want to try it again, this time with a little more commitment. You can check out my last challenge here, and about my motivations here ! That should be enough Intro, lets get to it! Since this post is going to be long, I took the liberty of "spoiler-tagging" the boring stuff I have a few Goals I want to work on, not all fitness related. But all of them are linked and very important to me. Those goals are building on principles that I think every good Ranger should master, as I hope to do as soon as possible First Quest: “Power and Determination†(By the way: If anyone has good suggestions for tracks in a workout playlist, let me know! I’m always looking for some good ones…ok now back to topic) More specifically: My goal is to Work out 4 times a week. At least 2 of these Workouts have to be at the Gym. One of those Workouts has to be a preparation for my return on the Soccer pitch! After my ankle Injury, I’m really looking forward to play Soccer again. Since I’m still recovering, I’m going to start slowly and carefully, but my goal is to play soccer again in the next 4 weeks and NOT to get injured again. I’m also going to keep working on my Hand Balancing exercises, which I started last Year! 4 Workouts a week 0%0% Second Goal: “Strength of Mindâ€: During this challenge, I will try to meditate once a day for 5 minutes (for starters). After a week, if I notice that the meditation goal is going well, I will try to raise the duration of the meditation, I was thinking +1 Minute per week, but If any of you has any better idea and more experience in Meditation, please don’t hesitate to help me out and share your knowledge!! Meditate once a day for 5 minutes 0%0% Now, if you will excuse me, I’m off to kill some monsters.. Third Quest: “Health and Constitutionâ€: So for this Quest: No Soda, Beer only once a week (probably when I’m watching Soccer with my friends) and Healthy cooking at least 5 times a week. The time is not important, can be lunch And/or Dinner. No Soda, Beer only once a week, Healthy cooking 5 times a week 0%0% Level up your Life Quest: “Creativityâ€: So for this Challenge, I will try to play 15 minutes every day that I spend at home. Lets be honest: this sounds easy enough, but it will be hard not to forget it. As a proper motivation, I will try to finish the one song I have been trying to learn for quite some time. If I succeed, and only if anyone is interested, I will record it and post it here in the forum. Play the piano 15 minutes every day @ home 0%0% If you really read through until here, please receive an imaginary “High Five†and I promise, I won’t write as much on the updates Please don’t hesitate to share your Knowledge with me here, if its cooking advise, programming, work out ideas or just random stuff, I’m always happy to read reactions from you guys! Also, its an honor to be part of the Ranger community, I hope I am worthy Farewell fellow Nerds and good luck on your challenges!

I'm looking for a weekly routine to increase strength and running speed and toning my body and adding on pounds I'm a smaller guy but want to gain healthy weight used to be a sprinter in track I jus overall want to tone everything but am terrible at researching for routines apparently I've don't the body wait training but I want to do some dumbbell training as well anyone have any suggestions

Hello, everyone. I've been trying around with different approaches to training and so far nothing is working. I'm petite (four foot nine), ectomorphic, and in NO need of losing weight. I also do not want to bulk or create a boxy look for someone of my height and size. That said, I do want to increase muscle mass in my shoulders, calves, and bum. Some ab definition would be nice too. My Body Fat % is around 21%. I'm not doing this for the sake of looking good into a bikini- I have always appeared delicate and child-like all my life, and I want to make a change. I want to re-structure my body into an efficient, strong, yet feminine physique. An example would be Zuzka Light. My routine so far has been as follows: (Yoga EVERYDAY, as I'm training to become an instructor and it helps to manage stress and recover from exercise) Mon: Strength Tricep/Chest/Shoulder Tue: Yoga/Abs Wed: Strength Bicep/Back Thur: Cardio (1 Hour Group Exercise Class at gym called Body Combat) Fri: Strength Total Arms Sat: HIIT (15-25 Minutes) Sun: Yoga/Abs I have found very little results doing this. Weight accumulates in my stomach and thighs first. My arms hardly ever increase in size or tone. I compare them to matchsticks. With strength training, I lift heavy for my size- 20-30 pound barbell, 8-10-12-15 pound dumbbell (depending on exercise). I've been experimenting with reps/sets, and really, I am at a loss. I tried low reps for 3 sets (6-8 per set), and 2-3 exercises per body part. The problem was, I never felt 'pushed' during these workouts. They never left me sweaty or feeling as though I had really worked the muscle to exhaustion. Ironically, when I do this with my legs, I find better results (my legs are easier to train and strengthen than my arms). But with my arms, I've been told to avoid high reps. I've also tried Body Pump strength training classes at my gym. Really, though, by the 3rd day of strength training, I actually feel my muscles decrease. If days 1 and 2 of strength training were good, then the 3rd seems to wipe out any progress from them. The duration of those sessions has been 35-40 minutes, and really, I don't feel the intensity. And I try, I really do, but the routines I have crafted through my research on bodybuilding.com and across the net seem very short. Again, I don't feel like I got a good workout in, or even exhausted my muscles to failure in order to create growth. I'm not a beginner when it comes to challenge or exercise- when I ask for help, I've been given 'beginner's' routines that are like a stroll in the park. What would you guys advise? Nutritionally, I always take a protein shake post workout, and have altered between increasing carbs on strength days versus increasing protein on cardio/hiit days, and vice versa; my metabolism is a little indifferent when it comes to this. Should I invest in a good BCAA or L-Glutamine supplement to take before bed? Also, my final question would be, should I invest in a program such as Kayla Itsine' Body Guide or Zuzka Light's Power STRENGTH dvds? I've heard that HIIT might actually be good for increasing muscle strength/tone while increasing endurance. But I'm afraid that the cardio will work against me, as I don't need to lose weight. Hope this info helps, and can't wait to hear back from you!

I'll try to get this to the point where I'm posting daily, but this first post is almost overdue enough to call it a weekly retrospective. MONDAY Exercise Goal: StrongLifts workout A - my first! Squats - 5x5 @ 45lbs Bench Press - 2x5 @ 45lbs Barbell Row - 4x5 @45lbs Jog/Walk on treadmill - 15 minutes/1mi Food Goal: Total Intake: 1759cal - 96 over goal of 1663 Fats: 60g - 11g under goal of 71g Protein: 73g - 87g under goal of 160g Carbs: 140g - 42g over goal of 98g Fiber: 31g - 1g under goal of 32-40g Thoughts: Sooo I suck at the bench press. I'd like to blame it on my bum shoulder, but in reality I know it's just because I've probably never used my chest muscles for anything more than supporting my boobs. (Not that that's not a task in and of itself, right ladies?) Barbell row was almost a complete success, so I'm confident that when it comes time for the next set (Saturday!) I'll do the whole 5x5. Squats felt easy at the time, but my legs were sooooo stiff the next day! Food.... ouch. I won't be too harsh on myself because it's day one, but I REALLY need to get more protein - I hit less than half my macro today! TUESDAY Exercise Goal: Not met. Missed yoga because food shopping took longer than I thought it was going to and I would have been 25-30 mins late to class, which is not cool. Food Goal: Total Intake: 1149cal - 514cal under goal Fats: 29g - 42g under goal Protein: 69g - 91g under goal Carbs: 86g - 12g under goal Fiber: 11g - 21g under goal Thoughts: This was my day off, which means I spent half the day lounging in bed, sleeping late and catching up on paying bills, reading things, etc. Days like this I actually forget to eat, which is pretty much what happened. I didn't get up and do anything, so I didn't eat. Once I finally got up, I went food shopping and that was a success, because I got zero junk food, all healthy proteins and veggies, but it was hard to catch up on my eating - I can't force myself to eat if I'm just not hungry. I tried to have 2 pieces of chicken with dinner and everything, and I just could NOT manage to finish. I did have another small victory though, because Tuesday night is Bar Trivia night, and not only did I avoid the temptation of greasy pizza (my favorite), but I kept my alcohol intake down to 2 beers. We won, because all false modesty aside, I am a trivia savant. (No really, my family stopped agreeing to play Trivial Pursuit with me by the time I hit puberty) WEDNESDAY Exercise Goal: Stronglifts Workout B Squats: 3x5 @ 45lbs, 2x5 @ 50lbs OHP: 3x5 @ 45lbs Deadlift: 1x5 @ 70lbs Food Goal: Total Intake: 1709 cal - 46cal over goal Fats: 87g - 16g over goal Protein: 112g - 48g under goal Carbs: 137g - 39g over goal Fiber: 30g - 2g under goal Thoughts: Realized I was reading directions wrong initially, and that for deadlifts it's 1x5, not 5x5. So I adjusted the weight accordingly. Increased weight for my squats about halfway through, since my legs were still sore I didn't want to hurt myself. Barely sore at all today though, so I'll definitely up the lbs next workout! Food wise this is probably my best day so far, but I'm still struggling to get enough protein and reduce my carbs. Learned that the secret to hitting my Fats macro is to just eat nuts to make up the difference, haha. Bought almonds, macadamias and walnuts while I was food shopping, so I shouldn't run out for a while! Now that I've caught up a bit, it's a relief! I'll put today's entry in a separate post since this was a lot of info in one go. What I really could use some advice on is how to up my protein intake! I do have Muscle Milk shake powder that I have after workouts, and Met-Rx bars here and there, but my problem is that they're also a lot of carbs, so when I'm already going over for that macro I need alternatives. Also, I do like meat, but I can't eat a ton of it or I get a little sick. Ideas? Suggestions?

Hello everyone, first let me say that I love the site and community and thank you in advance for any help. I am 6'5 and weigh about 265 pounds, Im definitely overweight and am working to get healthy, but diet and exercise wise, but I want to get big, not lean. I ran cross country in highschool and hated being skinny, even though I was eating and healthy. I love cosplay and would love to build some bulky muscle so I could look like Conan or Thor. I have access to the gym and am fairly comfortable in there, but I dont really know what I need to do to build my muscle huge and get rid of my bit of a gut. Cheers!

So, it's been about a week now since I officially started a workout routine! I started with the Beginners Body Weight exercise that Steve had put up. From there, I increased what I could and added a couple of other things today! It's been an intense yet fun exercise, and I am definitely enjoying it. Here's what my progress looks like so far: Wednesday, February 20th, 2013: 50 Jumping Jacks warm up, 3 TIMES ROUTINE - 20 Body Weight Squats - 10 Push Ups - 20 Lunges - 10 Dumbbell Rows - 30 Second Plank - 30 Jumping Jacks Friday, February 22nd, 2013: 50 Jumping Jacks warm up, 3 TIMES ROUTINE - 20 Body Weight Squats - 15 Push Ups - 20 Lunges - 20 Dumbbell Rows - 30 Second Plank - 30 Jumping Jacks Monday, February 25th, 2013: 50 Jumping Jacks warm up, 3 TIMES ROUTINE - 25 Body Weight Squats - 15 Push Ups - 20 Lunges - 20 Dumbbell Rows - 40 Second Plank - 40 Jumping Jacks Wednesday, February 27th, 2013: 60 Jumping Jacks warm up, 3 TIMES ROUTINE - 25 Body Weight Squats - 15 Push Ups - 15 Toe Touch Crunches - 20 Dumbbell Rows - 20 Lunges - 40 Second Plank - 15 Calf Raises *each leg - 40 Jumping Jacks Now, on the off days I tend to fill them in by building up my pull ups, with some other exercises to do with the pull up bar, usually spending no more than 10 minutes on it. This has allowed me to improve on my resting days without overdoing it. I guess I wouldn't really consider them resting days, so much as the weekends are my resting days. Even on the weekends I keep myself busy with some sort of physical activity, be it cleaning, playing with my dogs, or some other thing. The extra workouts I added to my latest (today's) routine, I had taken from a video of different routines to do created by the Bar Brothers. This video lists some pretty challenging yet worth wile exercises to add into the body weight routine. As you can see, I'm slowly merging both Nerdfitness and Bar Brothers into my fitness regime, hoping for ultimate results and my path to becoming a Hero! Also to note, I have been making major changes to my diet. I have completely cut out caffeine, which I did due to being raised on the stuff for my asthma as a kid. I eat no more than two fruits a day. I eat vegetables mostly, when I am hungry, and throw in some protein at least twice a day. My protein consists of Eggs, Chicken, Tuna, and on occasion Bacon! I hope this all sounds like an awesome workout and diet change, and if anyone has any advice to throw in, please do so! (: