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The Target: Muscle-Up Teh Skillz: Redevelop explosive high pullup Redevelop controlled dip Redevelop controlled tiger pushup & russian dip for transition Develop kip

The lions sing and the hills take flight. The moon by day, and the sun by night. Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool. Let the Lord of Chaos rule. Aiyaa. I must hate myself. There's 47 different POV characters in this book, and the prologue is 30K words. But, lots of cool things happen here. Can't deny that. Anyway, the month's work is cut out for me. NaNoWriMo is up in about a week, and I got a GoRuck to perform. We're coming down to the wire in terms of how prepared we're going to be for that (and by we, I mean me. I'm sure @RisenPhoenix has this in hand). So, let's set the pieces on the board. One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today. Rand is an appropriate training stand-in again. He winds up wanting to build a school for men who can Channel, which is a thing not seen for thousands of years since the men who can do magic in this setting wind up going wildly, destructively mad. Still, his rationale makes sense - if the world's going to end soon, nobody's gonna live long enough for that to happen, and he might as well face it with as many allies as he can make. Fortunately, my circumstances are far less severe. But training is training, so training I shall do. We are going to tickle some Aes Sedai under the chin, rescue a mule, and put a snip-nosed girl on the Lion Throne. Oh, yes. That’s Aviendha. Don’t look at her crosswise, or she’ll try to cut your throat and probably slit her own by mistake. Two quotes for this guy? I didn't mean to, but the picture's too good and the cropped version of it is through the Wiki just doesn't play nicely with the code here. But it's appropriate anyway. Mat is the Writing Goal for this challenge. Yes. This is because he is going to tell a big story that's going to be very important toward the end of everything. And he can't stop talking. I cannot tell you the weather will be what it should tomorrow. I can tell you that Perrin and I will do what needs to be done, whatever can be done. And I don’t need to tell you that you will take what each day brings, whatever it is, and be ready to face the next. That is the kind of people the Two Rivers breeds. That is who you are. So, I've been dillydallying about with my money, which I shouldn't have been on account of the fact that this money has purpose and reason. I need to fix that. I have the tools I need to set it all up so that everything comes out automatically, without me having to even think of it. I have my savings account set, and my car payment set. But I still need to arrange my student loans, which means I have a few different difficult phone calls to make, as well as getting my credit card set up to be paid for. It feels like a difficult thing to do because it feels like what I'm doing is signing away a lot of money... but it's not that bad. And that's the point of it anyway. Student loans and credit card. Three lines I need to set up. One per week. That should do it. And while I'm at it, let's see if I can get some of the extra things coming out to not come out anymore. What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie. Egwene Al'Vere is a young woman who once thought she would marry Rand. That didn't turn out to be true. There were much bigger things for her than that. Anyway, she's the reading goal. Which feels small - she's a real badass, actually - but then I remember what I'm reading, and suddenly I can live with it. 0 Week to warm up and we'll go from there.

Following on from my self-imposed exile from the Assassins after my last failed challenge, I'm siging up with the Adventurers (if they'll accept me) as this guilds feels like the most appropriate place for me whilst I rediscover who I am and what I'm doing. Also, there is no Templars guild. This time last year I did set out some long-term goals which I made some success with (although nothing worth mentioning) so, as part of my gritty re-boot, I'm going to set myself some new year-long targets and base my goals for this challenge around them. Goal 1: Lose the excess xmas weight! Last year, the goal I stuck with longest was reducing my percentage bodyfat down to 15% which I did finally achieve in November. However, since then the holiday season has sort of upset things and I'm back up to 17% again! My first goal for this challenge is to get back down to 15% again with my year aim to be 12% or lower. This I'll hopefully achieve by being strict with my eating so that means no sweet things, no alcohol, only water and green tea for drinks and by sticking to high fat meals on non-workout days and higher carb and lower fat meals on work out days. This has worked well for me in the past so really it's just a matter of me sticking to it. Goal 2: Lose the excess limb! My other year-long goal is to master at least one, but hopefully all of the following single-limbed exercises: one-armed push-ups, pistol squats, one-armed pull-ups. I've been using Convict Conditioning, as well as various other online resources, to venture down this path so for this challenge I shall be cocentrating my efforts on getting close to, if not actually achieveing the next progression level of those exercises: Uneven Push-ups 1/2 one-leg squats Uneven pull-ups Goal 3: London Bridge ain't falling down! I've worked on it in the past but never stuck with it to the point where I could properly hold one so for this challenge I'm going to try to 5 minutes work every day either on flexibility or strength exercises that'll get me moving down this path. A few challenges ago the Assassins did bridging as they're mini-challenge and then put it all together in a pdf at the end so I'm going to try to work through it again, week by week and see where this gets me. Goal 4: Get creative! I've been toying with the idea of doing something creative with myself for a while so I think, in the spirit of re-booting, I'm going to start a blog (I've been led to believe that the internet is currently lacking people writing down stuff and publishing online just any random crap that pops into their head, so I'm looking to take advantage of this apparently overlooked market!) The Minimalists just put up a new article about resolving to write more this year so I'm going to use that as my leaping off point and hopefully create an outlet for the noise inside my head. I'm not sure where this will lead me but anywhere is better than nowhere. I'll also try to update my profile description at some point so it'll actually say something about me rather than being a bunch of out of date links.

Last challenge was full of useful lessons, but not much running. This Challenge I’m gonna work on putting systems in place to make sure that doesn’t happen again. I'm Shukar, I'm a nerd in my 20s and run because I enjoy it. Nerd Fitness is my family and I’m glad to be able to share my journey toward a higher level me with all of you fine folks. My last challenge was full of Horribleness, didn’t manage to hit all my workouts in the period but made a lot of progress on lifting properly and also on body maintenance. The rest will come in time with more focus, so let’s do that shall we? Goal #1: Just Run. How: Consistency is always my trouble with running. I have a training plan but I’ve been terrible at following it, I have a bad history of that. So the goal here is to just get out and run, heck even walk, often. Hopefully I can get in a long run most weeks, sprints most weeks, and some mid-length runs a few times, but honestly my goal is just to get out and do some dedicated “I’m moving to move not because my day requires it” activity in 4 days a week at a minimum. Anything beyond that I’m gonna consider a bonus, I need to build the habit more than I need to do any specific training. Goal #2: Squat! How: Pistol squats have been something I’ve been working on for some time, without much to show for it. To help with that I’m making them my focus this challenge, though I’ll be continuing my Streak and my 5x5 Lifting plan throughout as well. I’m planning to attack the pistol from the other direction! That’s right, from the bottom up. My approach here is to be two-fold. First I need to work on ankle mobility, if I can’t get into the bottom position and be stable there then I won’t be able to do the pistol, so that need addressing. Secondly I’ve heard that getting up from the bottom is easier than getting down into it so I’m gonna try some rolling up onto my foot and pushing up from the bottom position and see if that helps. Goal #3: Mobilize! How: Last challenge I read through Supple Leopard, it was a good read from which I learned many things. This challenge, in conjunction with my Squat goal above, I’m going to try and work my way through the mobilizations in the book and see where that can get me. My plan is to work from start to finish through that section of the book at a rate of about 3-4 mobilizations per week. The name for this challenge comes from the fact I needed a name, and couldn’t come up with a good joke about squats and not knowing about them, so I went with a pirate themed joke instead.

Hello fellows I am a few days late with my thread, but I already started working on my goals earlier this week to get the full 6 week experience! Some brief facts about me: I am 24 year old and live in Germany. Since I am a student, I am usually on a tight budget and try to be as frugal as I can. As a consequence I will avoid a gym membership for now and try to get as healthy as possible by bodyweight exercises, running, biking etc. Of course I absolutely love the usual nerd entertainment like video games, tv-shows and movies and anime The main quest: Get stronger I am quite skinny and underweight, so ultimately my goal will be to get stronger and build muscle to increase my weight to a healthy level. Unfortunately I have severe issues with my diet which will make it difficult to gain weight. This challenge I will focus on getting stronger and getting my diet in order. To achieve this I present you my current three short term objects or habits which I will ingrain. 1) Exercise: Workout 3 times per week In my workouts I will focus on bodyweight weight exercises. I will increase my sets/rep and progress to more difficult variations. Push-ups: Will do decline push ups. I would love to do a handstand pushup, but my arms/shoulders are still too weak for that. Pull-ups: I can do about 5 due to my low bodyweight, would like add a few reps. Squats: Currently working on pistols by trying different progressions, still al long way to go. Core: Improve hanging knee raises and L-sit 2) Tracking: Track everything I eat and how it affects me As I said I have troubles with my diet in regards to digestion and energy levels. I will track everything I eat, remove certain food groups (like dairy, grains, ...), reintroduce them to my diet and see how it affects me. I have to listen closely to my body to see which food group I can eat without worries. For the next challenge I am hoping for a "> XXXX calories a day" goal to get my weight up to healthier levels. 3) Biking: Commute to university by bike On days without heavy rain/snow I will bike to university to keep me healthy and have some cardio. The alternative would be using public transit, but this takes more time, is crowded and the people on there will only giving me a cold by spreading their bacteria^^ Life Goal: Study at least one hour per day Of course I can't neglect my studies while working on the challenge. Every day I will study at least one hour or work on a due assignment. Motivation: The swamp in my thread title "... walks through the swamp" reflects my current state of mind and body. I am in a dark place and feel kinda lost and troubled. Overall I want this challenge to help me leave this swamp and feel better about myself!

Hello again nerds, Shukar here. Quick introduction for those of you who may be new around here. I'm a runner who used to be a big fat guy, and now is just a slightly overweight tall guy. I hit my heaviest in college and decided that I was done with being fat and not doing anything about it and started running. I've done a lot of things for my health and fitness journey since then but running has been the constant refrain in my efforts. I do a number of other things mainly to improve my running but also because I just want to be the most awesome I can be. My Mission is to finish my upcoming races and be a better healthier me for having done so. The whole package of how I aim to accomplish that can be broken down into a few parts. • Running: I've got a training plan that I put together to get me to and through this race and I'm most of the way through it already, just have to keep up with it and everything should go awesome. Since I'm already signed up for a couple more races after this one I'll also be putting the finishing touches on the training plan for my next races as well. • Energy: Running takes a lot of things and energy is one of them. For me that mostly means food and sleep. Last challenge I upped my average daily sleep from 6h to 7h and that was a good change, will more be better or have I found the sweet spot already? I'm gonna try and find out by having at least 1 week with averages at 7h30 and hopefully 8h (that one is gonna be the trickier one) and see if I feel better those weeks. Food is a little more complicated but I know from experience that cutting out gluten will give me a lot of bang for my buck in terms of my overall health and especially keeping down GI issues during my runs, so I'm shooting for trying to keep as many of my meals gluten free as possible (start with 50% and work up), and the 3 days leading up to my race weekend 100% gluten free. • Power: Power can mean many things, but here it means Strength. Strength is going to take 2 approaches this challenge. First a streak. For the last few challenges I've been doing some streaking with my resistance training and found that it's good for keeping me on track with things, but that I was just adding too many things and not putting enough focus on any of them. I'm correcting that by making my streak 4 things that I'll do every day; Pistol work, Pushup work, Handstand work, and Pullup work. I say "work" because none of them is really a completed movement with good form at this stage, but I'm learning to be better at all of them and that's the point. The other part of my power play is kettle bells. Twice a week I'm going to do 5 minutes of Turkish Get-Ups, and 5-10 minutes (starting lower and working higher of the course of the challenge) KB Swings; once a week I'm going to do some lunges, squats, and single leg deadlifts using the bell. The goal of both sides of my strength work is that by making myself stronger I will become a faster, less injury prone runner, and burn off some extra fat in the process when combined with some work on my diet. I'm not looking to get huge, and I probably couldn't if I tried while being a runner, I'm just looking to lean out a little and become a better version of me. Level Up Quest: I've spent a lot of time plotting and planning for various projects over the years to try and have fun adventures. This time it's time to settle down and make some happen. This may take the form of a few life enhancements over the course of the challenge, but it's going to start with me completing the costume I'm hoping to wear for the race, and helping the wife finish hers. It's honestly not that difficult, I just could use the push to make sure I actually do it instead of just letting time get away from me again. So there's my goals for the challenge, now to go out and complete them. I'm going to try and get some starting photos and measurements into place before the end of the first week, but we shall see how that goes.

Not the most applicable of challenge titles, as it only covers 2 of my goals, but it'll have to do Current (relatively) short term fitness goals(i don't necessarily expect to achieve these this challenge) Pistol squats. i can sort of do 1 sloppy one on my right leg..on a good day. let's say 10/leg(4x10 sound better, but 10 is closer) Kipping bar muscle up.(probably with false grip) I'm not certain where I'm at right now. Better grip strength. to quantify this, I suppose I'll say 10s 1-arm ledge and/or rope hang. This is a while off Consistently be able to touch my palms to the floor cold. I'm just about here now 20 pushups almost any time. I may have this one, I probably won't know for a bit, as I don't really care about it that much. all my pushups are knuckle/dumbell ones right now anyway, as my left wrist is kinda messed up 60s floor L-sit. can hold for a couple seconds Run 5k in an arbitrary length of time chosen to indicate that I can travel said distance with relative ease(25 minutes?) This one may be on hold for a bit, as I've got some kind of overuse strain/injury/other going on with my feet(sore in the mornings, achilles and sometimes a bone feeling fairly mild stress) There are others of course, but those (the first 2 anyway) are the big ones Where I'm at: Might take a progress photo; probably won't share I plan on testing maxes in the following exercises on Monday, will either add a post or fill in here Deadlift, Back Squat, Bench Press(mostly just curious about the latter) Pullups, PB Dips OHP possibly knuckle pushups Current Workout Schedule(recently revised): GTG pullups, ledge hanging leg raises Monday and Friday: box pistols, ring dips, back lever/elbow lever/superman Wednesday: Deadlifts, weighted pushups, inverted rows/front lever progression, pistols optional As I said above, I recently changed this(to replace barbell squats with pistol progressions), so it's not too solid atm Part of the trouble I've had with increasing pullups in the past is a lack of a plan, so I'm (tentatively) going to be using http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/how-to-double-your-pullups-in-6-weeks/'>this, but mon/tue/thur/fri instead, with mon/thur being high kipping pulls Challenge Goals: 1: Read the Bible for at least 5+week#+x minutes/day x may be increased by no more than 1/week as I see fit, starts at 0 This will be scored by the percent of days completed Reward: 3 wis 1 chr 2: Move other things up(then down..and mostly forward, but still..) I must spend at least an hour slinging every week(most of this will be walking to pick up bullets/rocks..) Scored as percent of weeks completed Reward: +3 dex +.5 wis 3: Move myself up: 1 point for each week I complete 2+ workouts containing pullups and pistol variants Reward: +3 str +1 sta 4: Move...my..protein intake up...?...no, that doesn't work well. Anyway, my goal here is to consume >110g of protein/day, excluding June 1-8. Scored as with goal 1 +3 con +.5 str A=86-100% B=75-85% C=56-75% D=36-55% E=16-35% F=0-15% Comments/questions/critiques are, of course, welcome...hopefully I didn't miss anything That's All, Folks! Edit: forgot goal rewards