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Hey yall! I'm new to nerdfitness and I jus gotta say, this is amazing! Anyways... I just made myself an at home workout plan and I have no idea if it's any good or what I need to add/remove. ANY advice would be so helpful! Im doing resistance band and 5&10 pound dumbells for equipment. -4 workouts per week. -Plank& yoga challenge everyday. I have two different workouts and my plan is to alternate them. Circuit A: Tricrp extension Seated calf raises Reverse crunch Donkey kick Chest fly Standing abduction Kneeling crunch Lying hamstring curl Elevated glute bridge Pull apart Wall squat Russian twists Lying pullover Lying hip abduction Circuit B: Glute kickbacks Seated clam Bicycle Superman Tricep dips Pull-through Lying windshield wipers Bent over row Bent over reverse fly Sumo squat calf raise Lying oblique crunch Front/side raise Fire hydrants Bicep curl Is that too many exercises?? Should I split it into 3 separate circuits? Im planning to do repetition circuit and going to go off of my first workout to see where I am physically. Pleaseeeee if anyone has some advice I would so appreciate it. I can't wait to get this started and get back into shape.

So, I've had it my head for awhile that I want a fat bar. I want grip that could squeeze coal into a diamond. Plus seeing Jesse Norris pounding out sets of 10 at 585 with a fat bar, it sort of makes you realize just how weak you are. So, I decided to dust of the fabrication skills / tools I have, and whip one of these up (@El Exorcisto would be so proud if he was still around). I had seen that Rogue makes their's out of 1.5" Schedule 80 pipe, but when I tried using that, and I couldn't get my collars to clamp down on the pipe. So I decided to make this out 2" tube. Figured it'd be a simple hour long project. What could go wrong! Tools Needed: Welder (Optional) Angle Grinder with a flap disc for smoothing things out and a grinding wheel if you are stupid like me. (Optional) Some sort of device to cut metal. Chop saw, Band Saw, hell, I suppose even an Oxy Torch would work, but you'd just have a lot of cleanup. Metal Needed: 7' of 2" Tube of some type 2x 1" long sections of 3" outer diameter tube with 1/2" thick walls (i.e. a 2" inner diameter) So, I picked up a 7' chunk of 2" 10 gauge ERW tube as well as 6" chunk of 3" OD 1/2" wall DOM tube. The ERW was just under $40 and the DOM was just under $20. This is where I made mistake #1. I didn't actually measure the true outer diameter (OD) of the ERW before buying it. It was over 2" by about a 1/10". Not much, but enough where the weights and the DOM wouldn't actually fit over it. If I were do this again, I'd probably go up to 2" OD 1/4" wall DOM tube for a couple reason. First, I believe that is a true 2" OD so you wouldn't have to do any grinding (this should be verified before purchasing) and second, it would be stronger and heavier. It's basically double the price though. So, my process was going to be super simple. Cut 2 1" chunks of the DOM, slide over the ERW tube 16" on each side, weld on. Done. Well, I forgot how hard it is to cut metal. It took me 2 hours to get through the DOM cuts between me popping the breaker multiple times and then learning I needed to stop about every 60 seconds to let the saw cool to NOT pop the breaker. Plus the cuts were super ugly and not straight at all. One thing I've learned is that unless you have a cold saw, cutting metal is never even close to straight. So this was mistake #2. For $7 a pop ($5 of which is the cut cost), I could have gotten the steel yard to just cut me a 1" sections that probably would have been much higher quality. So sure I have 4" extra material to work with, but the ends are all diagonal now, and what am I going to do with this metal (besides making more fat bars)? So anyway, I got the collars cut, then came the work of narrowing the ERW tube down the proper 2" dimension. First, I tried a belt sander, but that failed miserably. The belts kept catching on something or other, and I destroyed 2 belts within 3 minutes. So that idea got thrown out. Only other thing I could think of was to use an angle grinder. 3 hours of grinding later, I was done. My ends had been narrowed just enough to get weights and the DOM on just fine. Then came the easy part. Measure out markers for 16", line up the straight edges of the tube on the outside with the markers, and weld them up. 6 hours after starting my 1 hour project, it was "done". I thought about putting end caps on, and trying to smooth the bar down a bit, but was ready for this to be done. Maybe at some later point, if I try this again, I'll do the fancy stuff. Either way, it works and I'm pretty pumped. No idea how much weight it'll hold. 10 gauge wall works out to just over an 1/8" inch so it's pretty beefy. It weighs in at right around 20lbs. Here she sits. As you can see, weights actually sit nice and flush against collars. Up close of my welds (note, I'm terrible at welding round things) plus you can see how far back and I had to grind. tl;dr If you want make your own fat bar, test fit your 2" bar before buying it. Go with 1/4 wall thick 2" bar as well. It'll be closer to 20kg / 45lbs. Finally, pay the steel yard to cut you 1" collars instead of thinking you can do yourself. Then just measure and weld.

Anyone else planning on making some/all of their holiday gifts? I've been doing this to an extent for a number of years, but never give myself enough time and always end up buying a few things at the last minute. I want to make as many as possible this year! Most of the people I exchange gifts with don't need anything, nor do they particularly want anything, and I feel like small, thoughtful handmade gifts are the way to go. Also I hate shopping. I thought it'd be fun to have a thread to share ideas and progress on handmade gifts. My mind tends to go towards sewing and knitting projects, but there are so many possibilities... small woodworking projects, mix tapes, chapbooks of poetry (yours or collected favorites), food gifts, soap or candles, pottery (if you have skillz), paintings, jewelry! Options, so many options.

Hey guys! Does anyone have good ideas for food that makes good leftovers? I'm a student and I work part time, so I'll often have either no time or large chunks of time in which to make food. I'm trying to make more food as it's easier to go paleo and it's cheaper that way, so what are your favourite meals to make that can be made in bulk and reheated? There's a microwave at work and at uni, so that's good, but I don't have one at home, so it makes reheating take more time at night. Things that are good cold work, too.

The past couple of weeks I've been adding jogging intervals to my morning walk to work and I'm very pleased with my progress - still a long way to go but I'm really enjoying it and wanting to put more time into it, at about 2.5k it'd be good to be jogging it. I'm currently finding success in my regular day to day shoes - some cheap £5 ones from Primark, Certainly not designed for running but when I got them I had no expendable income and as they lack support they are allowing me to run in a more barefoot style which I am actually finding easier (considering I'm starting from the couch I figure I might as well start with good habits rather than have to transition later and unlearn bad ones). But as I say, they are certainly not designed for running and they are starting to show wear, I would love to invest in some vibrams but cash is very tight at the moment and I would have to cross half the country to try some on unless I have missed something - they seem pretty rare over here in England. But as part of my Epic Quest I am looking to be more practical and I have seen a few sites recommending homemade sandles and the like as an alternative to vibrams - at least initially (I really DO want some but I may have to wait to treat myself for my birthday). I've seen a lot of options on instructables and the like; tire sandals, sock tabi and insole-less aquasocks. but I'm also aware there are patterns online for historic footware that might be suitable too. I will likely do some experimenting in the coming weeks but I was wondering if anyone had any experience in this area or perhaps just more knowledge of barefoot running with advise of what I should be looking for/avoiding. Thanks in advance!