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Over the last couple years my goals and challenges and whatnot have bounced around like crazy, focusing on speed and strength and flexibility and weight and diet and balance and all sorts of things (generally whatever’s pissing me off that week). I set lofty goals that I stick with for, like... a week? Sometimes two or three weeks. Four, tops. I might stick with one or two of the easier challenges for the entire six weeks, but I somehow declare that a victory while leaving the other ones behind. I think that, at the moment, a lot of those issues are now considered ‘good enough’. I hit fast. I hit hard. I’m pretty flexible. I like where my weight is going. I am mostly happy with my food intake. My balance isn’t perfect (it only really falls apart with the huge lunging straight rights and the switch-foot head kicks), but for the moment it’s good enough. In fact, all of that is ‘good enough’ right now. This isn’t a concession to failure... this is me acknowledging that, for the first time in at least a decade I’m not actively hating how I look, how I feel or how I move. I am reinforcing all of the successes that have gotten me here. I am taking a quick moment to pat myself on the back and tell myself that I did good. Not great... but good enough. There are a couple things that ARE NOT good enough, however, and that’s going to be the focus right now: core power, upper body strength, and endurance. Whenever anything happens at MMA involving pure core power (situps, full-guard stands, thai knee drills), I gas out before almost everyone. A great example: I pretty much quit jiu-jitsu entirely because I lacked enough core muscle to actually do ANYTHING. Whenever anything happens at MMA involving pure upper body strength (resistance calisthenics, clinch drills, cage flips), I not only gas out first, I’m sometimes not even capable of performing the activities. A great example: I can’t to a pull-up. No, not one. And not just MMA but many things in general that involve endurance (jogging anywhere faster than a brisk shuffle, bagwork elimination drills, 17 flights of steel stairs to the top of the Canfor digester building), I feel like I’m dying by the end of it, if I even make it to the end. A great example: Doing laps at the gym, I can do 1min 30sec laps easily, but 1min 20sec laps nearly make me barf. Just that slight increase in speed causes me to gas out after three laps, top (I can do between twelve and twenty of the slower ones). So rather than challenges that focus on specific ACTIVITIES, these challenges will focus on specific PROBLEMS... those parts of me that aren’t good enough. Yet. Challenge #1 - Rotten To The Core Abs and obliques. I need to do some abdominal exercises every single day. Situps, jackknives, crunches... and not just 'banging out ten' when I remember. I need escalating resistance, 'train to fail' style. For whatever reason, I show the best gains and improvements when I do that. Planks are also a good one... and I hate planks, so that's probably what I should use the most. Challenge #2 - Push, Pull, Drag Upper body time. For the Mudd Sweat and Tears I've changed up my whole workout regimen to upper body stuff, specifically escalating pull-downs. This works biceps, triceps, shoulders and back (and boy howdy hell, am I feeling it). Throwing into this mix will be wall stands, which was the FOCUS of my last challenge and I only did it two or three times. Now that it's warm we (me and the family) go to the park a lot more, and I want to be able to do a pullup on those various structures by the end of the summer. Once I can do one, just ONE real one, I know I'm going to want to do them as often as possible. And get up to two. And three. And four... Challenge #3 - You Can’t, You Won’t, and You Don’t Stop Endurance. Let's face it... I'm a big guy. 6'4", big shoulders, big hips, 250 pounds ± 10 at any given time. Tons of research into this, and discussions with many professionals I know (boxers, MMA fighters and coached) all tell me the same thing, which is the thing I really, really don't want to hear: the best way to build endurance is intermittent exertion. HIIT. Tabata. Tempo runs. Sprint chains. Power bursts, short rests. I hate that stuff... but there's not really any way around it. I'm doing sprint chains at the gym (well, slightly faster jogging chains right now... I still can't sprint a WHOLE lap), but I need to do more of that outside of the gym now that it's hot outside, so there will be some running in the evenings (non-MMA nights). Also, I can combine this with my other two challenges with tabata, and combining bear crawls, plank-to-push-up and broncos. I will start doing these in the mornings on NON-workout days, 15 to 20 minutes. Important Timing Reminder: Mudd, Sweat and Tears is Saturday, June 13th. For the first week of this challenge, I will actually be somewhat taking it EASY on these challenges, so I don't blow myself out before, well, I completely blow myself out. AFTER June 13th, I really want to go hard on these, and would really appreciate some help sticking to things. This is a no-frills challenge. I didn't go overboard on animated gifs, because I can't think of any way they'd really help this one out. Rather than get all excited with a carefully-crafted, entertaining and hilarious original post, I'm just putting up a bunch of words and some straightforward language.

Born in the Earth Kingdoms in a time of peace and prosperity, Avatar Kyellan never had a reason to awaken to his calling and master the four elements. The world seemed to have no need for the Avatar in his time, and the elite of the Earthbending masters did nothing to search for him. In fact, Avatar Kyellan only had the faintest idea that he was even a bender at all until he reached his twenty-ninth birthday. He awoke on that day, and with a strange sense of clarity, suddenly began to understand his role in the world. Still with no idea that he was in fact the Avatar, Kyellan realized--in what he would later understand to be a spiritual vision--that the earth itself was calling him. Now, in his life of peace, Kyellan had never even begun martial training. He was overweight, rather clumsy, and had little to no endurance in any physical task. He did, however, have an indomitable will and a mind bright enough to carry him to understanding of scholarly concepts in a very short amount of time. When he first felt the calling, Kyellan thought to ignore it. After all, most benders discovered their power at a very young age and began training early! Still, despite how much he tried to resist, the earth continued to call him. At last, as the weight of it grew to unbearable within him, Avatar Kyellan sought out his first Sifu. ---------------------------- This challenge marks the beginning of my new Epic Quest. After discovering precisely how perfect martial arts is for my mind, spirit and body, I am setting on the path to become the Avatar, and master the four elements. These are: Earth: Hung Gar Kung Fu Fire: Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Water: Tai Chi Air: Baguazhang My first long-term goal is to learn a traditional form from each of these four martial arts. This may well take years. ------------------------------ As many of you may already know, I have been studying Hung Gar for approximately three months. Sometimes it would be nice if real life were more like TV and I could just do a training montage, but as it turns out, things don't work that way. This is going to be a very long Epic Quest, not something that easily fits into six weeks. I will likely vary my challenge themes along the way for variety, even though my true goal is thematically based on the four elements of A:tLA. My original considerations for this challenge were going to be calisthenic exercises, but I realized after some thought that my Hung Gar fundamentals basically work as calisthenics, so I decided to focus on those fundamentals and build strength and endurance through them. Shaping the Stone Hung Gar--and by extension, earthbending--is all about stance and endurance. It was developed in Southern China, where the uneven ground and high-population cities required its fighters to be able to work their art in close quarters and with the utmost stability. For Goal 1, I will be working on my horse-riding stance twice-daily, five days a week, in addition to anything done in class. Since the time increase method worked so well for my meditation last challenge, I'll be applying a similar principle here. Week 1: 2 minutes Week 2: 2 minutes 30 seconds Week 3: 2 minutes 45 seconds Week 4: 3 minutes Week 5: 3 minutes 15 seconds Week 6: 3 minutes 30 seconds These are minimum times in order to count it for the challenge. If I can go longer, I will. A: (60 stance training) +4 STA, +2 CON B: (50 stance training) +3 STA, +1 CON C: (45 stance training) +2 STA For Goal 2, I will practice my forms. Right now I have one complete introductory Hung Gar form, and the beginning of a Shaolin Broadsword form (as lightsaber). In order to get any benefit out of this, I will need to do these at least a few times each in order to count them. Again, all of this should be outside of regular scheduled class in order to get benefits out of it. In order to count a success, I will need to do everything I know of a single chosen form three times: once slow, with a focus on perfect form; once fast, with a focus on speed to increase coordination and agility; and finally once with dynamic tension to build strength and power. A: (30 form practice) +3 STR, +3 DEX B: (25 form practice) +2 STR, +2 DEX C: (20 form practice) +1 STR, +1 DEX Lastly, my final goal is very simple. I need to wake up before 6AM. Over the past few weeks I have not been exercising my will enough, and have been resetting the alarm for 6:30 or even later sometimes, which needs to stop. This is going to get even harder once we Spring Forward in a couple of weeks, but it is absolutely crucial to my well-being. I need to wake up with my alarm set to anytime prior to 6AM (even 5:59 counts, but only if I put my feet on the floor before 6AM rolls around) seven days a week, and retrain my sleep schedule back to what it should be. A: 42 days up before 6AM (+3 WIS) B: 36 days up before 6AM (+2 WIS) C: 30 days up before 6AM (+1 WIS) ---------------------------- This is only the first chapter of what will be a long road, but I'm looking at it with an odd kind of serenity. This is something I want to do, and I don't care how long it takes!

Goals: 1) Stay healthy 2) Play more music 3) get fitter/faster/stronger So, goal 1 = food and handwashing. I've had this one for a few challenges - but I'm keeping it, cause if I eat any gluten, then that is pretty much me gone for 6 weeks. No gluten containing food, read labels, don't take food risks. Wash my hands whenever I'm in doubt about what I've recently touched. All of this is starting to feel more like routine behaviour, but I want to consolidate it. To make this more fun I'm also going to try new recipes - not as fixed this time as a compulsory recipe a week, but I still have a huge list of recipes I want to try pinned to the side of the fridge. Yum! Goal 2: Play more music. Yep, do what it says on the tin. My double bass playing lapsed in December - I'd been practising towards some gigs, and after the gigs I stopped. My bad. So, get going again. My sticker reward calendar system is on the go again. Everytime I practise = a sticker on the calendar = happiness. Play at least 5/7 days. That way, one day off is not a failure, simply a rest day. Again, build this back into a routine. Especially because it makes me feel like me. Goal 3: Exercise...... This is where my goals are a bit muddy. I've signed up for edinburgh 1/2 marathon in late may (sodding peer pressure). So, its time to build a running base - this is going to be a mixture of outdoors and treadmill. My current thinking is: saturday = 5k parkrun, sunday = long run, wed and friday treadmill work, one day intervals or hill intervals and the other a steady run. Looking at this, I don't like having runs friday, sat, sun, but my running workouts are slotted in around martial arts training and bass practise (tues and thurs are evening martial arts classes, so my only double bass playing is before work). I'll have to see how this goes. I'm currently planning monday as my rest day (day after long run and rehearsal in the evening). I also want to do some bodyweight strength work - based around the academy BW workouts, somewhere level 3/4 ish. This is looking like only being 2x a week (wed and friday) but maybe also on saturday after parkrun. But I'm here not because of running or strength training, I'm here because my favourite exercise sessions are all martial arts training! I have classes to go to: sunday night, tuesday and thursday. So yep, I'll go to them. But...... ideally I want to do at home work to build on my technique..... especially as I might be doing my 3rd Dan kickboxing (our club fits under a sports karate banner) grading later this year. Soooooo, make it to training and somehow, at currently unscheduled times of the week fit in 2 or more at home training sessions. Ahhhhh rubbish, this doesn't look like building a routine, it looks like Lou does all of the things............. But I like doing all of the things......... and I've not even mentioned lunchtime yoga! That doesn't need to be a goal cause I love it very much indeed.