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0. (Something happened with my numbering -__- this is the workaround) Feast at the hall of Valhalla - track food with Noom, stick to calorie budget for month of Jan, move to maintenance from Feb. Fearless in the face of the sea - drink moar water, 2 large bottles/day. Fighting fit - 2 fitness activities each week until the gym comes back. Running, riding, walking, swimming, yoga. Bonus points if I go for a run in LARP garb kitted out with sword and shield to build up that armour fitness. Fun for fun’s sake - make my very own LARP garb before the first game back (29th). Utilise this time off work between now and the 10th to plan and begin the sewing etc. Fantasy - build backstory for Eidinn, the half orc from Vylkland. For the strength of my sword arm - physio stretches. Eidinn awoke, a thundering pain between her pointed ears. Groaning, she rubbed a hand over a swollen shut eye. She felt like she had been run over by a cart. Come to think of it, she had. “Fend.” The ruckus of the previous night came back in flickers and flecks as she checked herself over for broken limbs. The group camping for the evening by the road. The merchants chest locked tightly over the funds to restock the (mercifully) empty cart when they arrived at the next town. The men in dark clothes and with darker words who descended and absconded with the lot. The merchant cursing her out for failure to serve her purpose as shield for hire before storming into the darkness. She shook the images away as she grumbled to her feet and assessed what was left. Her bedroll and boots, her own small coin pouch concealed in the folds of her garb, and by some will of the gods: her sword and shield, useless in that perfectly timed attack, but expensive to replace. She flexed her fists, green skin browning with bruises where she had done her best to defend the group unarmed, and picked up her gear. She had 10geld. 10geld and the direction of the nearest town.

I started back in the gym a few weeks ago now that I've gotten mostly moved back and settled into my new job on night shift. Last year I ran Strong Lifts and while I enjoyed it I decided to try Wendler 5/3/1 this time around. My work schedule is a 4 day on 2 day off work week which suits Wendler's 4 day lifting template. Prior to starting I did max testing using the Epley calculator. My 1 Rep Max was estimated as: Military press: 175 Deadlift: 330 Bench: 210 Back Squat: 325 Weeks 1 and 2 I used the "Big and Dumb" assistance template to get more reps under the bar for the main lifts. For week 3 I'm doing "Joker Sets" which takes the max training weight for the day and adds a 5% increase to the weight for singles. Week 4 is deload, I probably won't do any assistance work so I can rest up for the next cycle. Starting next cycle I will begin C25K on my non lower body days and once I get moved to my permanent residence will likely move that to the non lower body days and 1st day off. The score listed is the reps completed on the last set and the joker sets the number is the weight of the last set I completed. Here is my log for the last 3 weeks:

I decided to formally go ahead and do a battle thread since it seems like I am actually sticking with this fitness stuff. (Touch wood.) I've never been good at online introductions, but I'll do my best. I'm a nerd, obviously. My hobbies are medieval re-enactment (mainly through the SCA,) archaeological experimentation, woodworking, writing, Scottish country dancing and pipe smoking. I also run a podcast on Viking Age History called Norse by Northwest. I'd always been a fairly outdoorsy person with fair fitness, but I moved from Scotland to the US and gained a ton of weight. (A few images below to show the journey so far.) I struggled with it for a long, long time and just couldn't seem to shed a pound. Eventually I went to my Doctor who went through a lot of options with me and convinced me to try a month of Phentermine. That actually worked really well. I lost weight at a reasonable and healthy pace and was only on it for one month. But it led to a further diagnosis of Chronic depression related fatigue. Basically, I needed a stimulant of some kind added to my antidepressant to really get me feeling human. The antidepressant stopped me from being suicidal, but I was still just trapped in a fog and never able to really engage or get anything done. So I got put on a really low dose of Adderall and it has totally changed my life. I feel like myself again. I have a reasonable amount of energy. I'm actually happy. I get chores done during the day and I'm not completed incapacitated by having to make a decision on a thing. At any rate, I started hitting the gym every weekday on my lunch break. I would do two days of weight training and three days of the C25K. On weekends I'd attended fighter practice for the heavy armoured combat I do. I've now completed the C25K and I am running 35 minutes twice a week and doing weight training three days a week. My 'Big why' is twofold. First, my Daughter, Freya, was born in November of 2017 and is growing like a weed. I want to be fit enough to keep up with her and healthy enough to be around for her for many years to come. I also really want to look better in my medieval garb. I make clothes that I am really proud of and then I put them on and think about how much better they would look if I were a bit more trim. It's vain, but maybe not too bad of a thing. My goals are modest. I don't expect washboard abs or biceps as thick as my neck. I'd like to get rid of most if not all of the beer belly and have better strength and endurance. I'm making good progress so far and trying to just stay patient and continue to make healthy choices. So, on to the pictorial proof. Pictures of me from before I moved to the US where I was in really good shape. Then pictures of me after I moved to the US and was really fat. Finally, a chain of progress pictures showing my weight loss over the last few months.

The name is Aonghus and I do not have a 'Viking bod.' I don't expect to end up looking like something from a romance novel. I'm more likely to appear on the cover of The Very Voluble Viking than the Very Virile Viking. But I am working towards regaining my health and a level of fitness I am happy with. My hobbies are medieval re-enactment (mainly through the SCA,) archaeological experimentation, woodworking, writing, leatherworking, historical brewing, Scottish country dancing and pipe smoking. As part of the SCA I am just getting into heavy fighting and my arms are jelly three fights in. (Hard to defend yourself with a shield when you can keep the shield lifted up.) So it'd be really nice to be in better fighting shape as well as looking better. I'm really just getting back into fitness after a rough couple of years. I moved from Scotland to the US and gained a load of weight. I think I've finally found the Big Why I actually needed to push me forward. I'm just not happy when I look at myself in the mirror or pictures anymore. I just gained an amazing daughter, our first baby, and I want to be alive for a long time for her. Able to play with her and take care of her. The doctor told me I am on the verge of pre-diabetic and that was a big wake up call. But, honestly, the really big thing has been being so unhappy with how I look. And I am just... tired of it. So, I am going to go ahead and try a challenge. I'm working hard on the small changes so that I don't overwhelm myself. Big quest - Actually achieve the 3 smart goals consistently. Smart goal 1: Do my C25K run 3 times a week. No matter what. there are 7 days in the week for me to use for this. Smart goal 2: Work on reducing my sugar intake. Just try to make better choices and keep tracking my food so that I can learn what has more sugar than I realised. Smart Goal 3: START getting my gauntlets or helmet padded. I don't have to complete either of these by February 1st. I just have to actually get out to the armouring workshop and get started on them. It seems like I should be able to achieve these and measure them easily enough. They are also things that'll make me feel better about myself and help to build and maintain positive habits.

Good morning fellow Beginners, Rebooters and bewildered individuals. I am ValkyrieRising and have decided to dip my toe into the water and drink the Kool-Aid of Nerd Fitness. A little about me. I'm a history Nerd who had been working on being accepted to do her PhD overseas in Denmark when I got a rather unpleasant medical diagnosis. (No prizes for guessing my area of interest given my Nickname/BattleTag/Secret Identity/Hero Name etc) Im a 30 something years old and struggling with my health after that medical diagnosis and just the fact I'm not as young and sprightly as I used to be. I finally have the all clear from my doctor to begin the long road back to good health and good eating that was me 3-4 years ago before my diagnosis. Currently my focus is just on eating healthy again as during my fight with my body and the treatment I devolved into eating comfort foods when I was well enough to eat. I indulged in anything I wanted, telling myself I deserved it because I was going through tests/chemo/hospital stays/transfusion/whatever excuse I felt like using. So for my first challenge this is going to be my focus. Main Quest: To eat healthier and get my eating habits under better control by not gorging on whatever I feel like and sticking to a measurable goal of between 1650-1900 calories each day based on my activity. Smart Goals: 1. I will weigh and measure my food until I can re-orientate my brain as to what a proper serving size is. (A whole pan of brownies is not one serving.) 2. I will track my consumption and calories through an online Food Tracker. (I'm using My Fitness Pal since it seems easy enough.) 3. I will cut my sweet tea consumption out and focus on drinking water each day instead. I accept that this will be a struggle and I may slip but a small slip is no reason not to press forward in this challenge. 4. I will meal prep my food during the beginning of the week in order to ensure I do not eat mindlessly. I recognize this as a big pitfall of mine, sitting at home and being bored so grazing through the fridge for food. If I prep my snacks and food ahead of time I hope to graze on that and not overeat during the week. With all of this I am allowing myself 2 instances where I will divert from these plans. The first is on December 14th and the premiere of the next Star Wars movie. I've had tickets since October and intend to go and enjoy this occasion without worrying about myself and what I'm indulging in.The second is a Christmas party my friend throws that I am finally healthy enough to attend after missing it the last couple years. This is part of being mindful and accepting that constantly saying no to the things I enjoy will lead to me failing and binging. In my reading, here and other sources, I really grew to like the idea of the 80/20 approach. As long as I am doing well the larger majority of the time and don't let myself slip and keep on track then those small indulgences have less of an impact and value. I look forward to reading along and travelling with you all through this journey and hope to grow not only in my health, mind and body, but also in my challenges as I see how creative and all in many of you go. Its awing and inspiring! I leave you with the following words to consider in life.

Hello Rangers, I come to you( a week late) from an unintended hiatus. I started a warrior, with my training goals to become as strong as my favorite viking, Hafthor Bjornsson, aka The Mountain Now, my course has taken a drastic change, I have signed up to take on the Spartan Ultra Beast, for those who dont know its a 26 mile obstacle race, and I have chosen to do one in colorado, at a ski resort. So technically I am still training to fight the mountain. This will prove to be the most physically difficult thing I will have ever undertaken. And I am training hard to get ready for it, and it is the reason I have come to the rangers, as this seems more like a ranger style event than a warrior one. Naturally most of my goals for this challenge revolve around defeating the ultra beast (All bolded ones are the goals for this challenge) Training to fight the mountain and the ultra beast: 1) Strength train 3x a week 2) run 3+ miles 3x a week 3) walk 3 + miles a day (pretty easy seeing as how my walk to and from work is 1 mile each) 4) keep a thorough log of workouts/progress 5)WARM UP AND STRETCH PROPERLY TO PREVENT INJURY (I'm really bad at this, and I have definitely ached unnecessarily) obviously besides training right, I need to eat right, which also ties in well with my desire to budget better, and thus came this category Eating greens while saving green 1a) leave the card at home, only use the $20 cash pulled out at the beginning of each week (AKA stop buying food and coffee)* special dinners coming up are exception this is mainly for during working hours* 1b) bring snacks and a large thermos full of coffee or bring coffee grounds to make coffee at work ( i really like coffee) 2) plan trips to the grocery store only allow for 1 misc. item on the list, to avoid buying unhealthy and over spending( new ingredients are like shiny things to me) 3) review budget at least once a week Recently I traveled out of the country for the first time, to the Dominican Republic and caught the travel bug Exploring new worlds (kind of) 1) save 5% to 10% of pay check for travel( this kind of helps give motivation to stop eating out) 2)pick a country and start to plan a trip Lastly, I have been inspired recently to tap into my creative side, and I would like to try to launch a youtube series and an associated blog, the reason being, is that I have not found any very good series that explains aerospace engineering, and I get a lot of value from video tutorials. At the same time as making a video tutorial, it should help me review, reinforce, and maybe learn new things, by teaching it to an audience(even if it is only one person). At the same time I have ideas for other topics as well, but I figure one at a time. I have some ideas, but I really need a name for the channel if anyone has any suggestions Building and Online presence 1) pick a name for video series/blog 2) film one "episode" i know this seems like alot, but I feel they are very doable, many of which I have started doing already( been training for a while now), but the supporting quests are not there for example. I have been bad about logging my workouts, and have to rely on memory for reps/weights etc. Other quests here are simpler, and may only take a day if that, yet are quests all the same. I know i was late to the party(again), but hopefully not too late. Let me know what yall think of my goals. Sorry for wall of text.

Okay, I am going to keep this brief. Boring, I know. I just don't have time to flesh out the post right now. Q1: Lift 3x per week, sprint 1x per week Q2: Minimum 3500 cal with a minimum 250 g protein Q3: Drink 1-2 gal of water per day SQ: Doll house, work on it at least once per week and post pics.

This is going to be my most ambitious challenge yet. I am probably doomed to fail, but as long as we learn from our failures they aren't really failures are they? First, I am rolling my exercise quests from last challenge into one: Exercise 4x per week, ideally 3 lift, 1 sprint. But because I am going into my busy season at work I might have to sacrifice my normal workout time and will be forced to improvise. So any workout counts. Second, stepping up my diet goal again, 2500 cal max, 180g protein min, every day, with the exception of June 2-5, my birthday weekend. I am still going to try but I am not going to score it. Third, My Etsy shop, The Tower of Or and Sable has been stagnant for too long. I am going to attempt to breath new life into it. Mini goals in this quest include getting my books in order, promoting the shop on social media at least once a week (this doesn't count), reviewing/updating my existing listings, and creating 2 new listings or products. Fourth, I need to start getting my finances in order starting with a will and college funds for my kids. Side Quest: Yep, still the Doll House. This time I am going to include posting a picture in the quest. Maybe then I will actually do it.

It has been a while since i have been here. I will explain why below. First of all i want to appoligize to all people who were depending on me one way or another for dissapearing all of a sudden. And now what happend. I have hit a financial low. I hada huge stack of bills that had to be paid. This led to the point where i was working 3 jobs next to my internship, study and excercising. I had to cut something out and not posting on Nerdfitness sort of happened on its own. The good news is that i got almost everything paid off, tomorow i am working my last shift on one of the jobs. The second job stops in 3 weeks. After that no more morning paper round but Weekend and nights paintball, airsoft, quad and archery tag. All in all a good deal. My internship is almost over. I started at a new gym and i completed2 more strongman runs. i will not start a new challenge yet, first get back into the habit of checking this site.

Well spring is here and the sun is shining. Unfortunately, the sunshine isn't bringing me the energy it should. Long hours at work, restless nights, and stress at home (did I mention I have 3 kids under 4?) are taking their toll. Last week was crap for my goals. Ate too much junk, slept too little, and didn't exercise. This was also following a less than stellar challenge. So, now I am trying to get some momentum back and get back into things before summer comes and the shit really hits the fan. Willpower has always been an issue for me especially late in the challenges. I have been trying a few different tools to help me out on this front, but ultimately it comes down my will and my routine. Since I am low on willpower these days and my life is such that I need to be a little more flexible in my routine right now, I am going to build some flexibility into my goals. First is of course lifting followed by sprints. I did pretty well with these last challenge but with my schedule being as fluid as it is right now I need to be able to bend a little more so I am going to allow the option to bike into work as a replacement for any given workout but I still need to keep 4 workouts a week. Third is diet. I am going to be breaking from my previous challenges a bit for this one. On weekdays I am going to stick to the 180g protein minimum 2500 cal max, but on weekends I am not going to penalize breaking those goals as long as I keep track of all my food on MFP. I found last challenge that after weekends where I splurged my performance in workouts was better and I actually made progress cutting fat so we are going to see if I can keep that going or not. Finally, the doll house. I got nothing done on this last challenge and time is slipping by. I am going to shoot for working on it one day a week for an unspecified period of time. Hopefully I can make some progress this time. In Short: Q1: Lift 3 days a week (or bike) Q2: Consume at least 180 g protein per day while staying under 2500 calories (MFP only on weekends) Q3: Sprint 6x30 sec 1 day a week (or bike) SQ: Work on Doll House 1 night per week.

Last challenge was sort of a warm up as it was my first challenge in about a year. Now I am ready to dive in to the next one....well almost. I am going to be switching up my lifting routine a little, adding overhead press and switching to 4 sets of 5 with increasing weights instead of 3x6 with fixed weights. Lifting schedule remains the same M,T,TH. This time, though I am adding some sprints in on Wednesday. I am not formally restricting my diet any more than the last challenge, though, as I decided last challenge, I am going to try to stop eating for the day once I hit my protein goal. For my side quest: last challenge I biffed hard trying to make chainmail pot scrubbers. This time I am shifting focus to a different craft: BUILDING TINY HOUSES! Seriously, my wife and I have a doll house last year that my grandfather had been building when he was still around and able to do so. We got it last fall (summer?) and have done absolutely nothing with it since. Which is a problem since we plan to give it to my daughter for her birthday in October and I know next to nothing about doll houses. Fortunately, my grandpa did a lot of work and we can more or less see the direction in which it is headed but still I actually need to work on it. Last night my wife and I agreed that we needed to make more use of our evenings so I will be working on the doll house while she works out. My goal is to work on it for an hour at least 4 nights a week. In short: Q1: Lift 3 days a week Q2: Consume at least 180 g protein per day while staying under 2500 calories Q3: Sprint 6x30 sec 1 day a week SQ: Work on Doll House 4 nights a week.

I have been away from the rebellion for a while and, if I'm being honest, my time away hasn't done me much good. Over the past year, due mainly to stress at work and the birth and care of my twin sons, I have managed to put on about 20 lbs! Not the good kind either, I'm up to 28% body fat from 23% about a year ago. Mid spring last year I started relaxing a little and by summer I had completely lost the will to do anything for my body... and then the boys came along. Anyway, enough of the excuses. I have been back at it since the start of the year, with a few slip ups here and there, but I am working on a system to keep me on track. This challenge is only a small part of it though. I am doing this mainly to give me an excuse to keep fitness on my mind when I am on my lunch break and there are no new articles to peruse on the Blog. I am going to be relying heavily on my LifeRPG app to get me through this time. If you haven't heard of it, it is a "gamify your life" app available in the google play store. I have already set up my training schedule and set up reminders to keep an eye on my diet. I have also used the built in reward system to try to keep my diet cheeting under control. Anyway, Here are the nuts and bolts of this challenge: Q1: Lift 3 times a week. Time is a major issue for me now since I have 3 kids and only one sister in law to help when the wife is away (sanity wares thin) so I need to keep my workouts small. I am focusing on Bench, Deadlift and supersets of pullups and chin-ups 3 sets of 6 for everything increasing whenever I can get 8 on the last set. Not perfect by a long shot but it is what I can do for now. Q2: Stick to diet. I am working on cutting right now so I am shooting for 2500 cal per day with a minimum of 180 g protein. I am using My Fitness Pal to track everything. Q3: Grease the groove. With the weight I gained and muscle I lost over the past year my pullup ability has suffered greatly so I am going to work on attempting a set every time I let the dog out. I do my pullups in the rafters of my sun porch so this works out pretty naturally. SQ: In addition to getting my body back on track I am also trying to breathe some new life into my side business making and selling chainmail. My goal will be to complete 3 chainmail pot scrubbers by the end of the challenge. That's it for now. Honestly, I sorta just made this up on the fly. I decided to poke around the rebellion on a whim and notice the challenge was starting. Any notes or criticisms to my plan are welcome.

Grinding; Small Stones (Stones: a few KCAL a day / that extra microplate or rep / ingraining solid habits) Longterm goals / Main-quest / The Mountain What: Drop in BF% Why: Walk around comfortably without clothes What: Get “bodyweight-fit” Why: Be OCR-ready / Satisfy RangerBrain™ What: Drop below 74 kg (163 lbs) Why: Be ready for PL-beginners-meet Remember the past: track to be able to see progress. Plan for the future: Think up and work out solid long term and short term goals Live for today: Have fun, to keep going Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come: : (What will tomorrow-you say about this?) Challenge goals: DIET: (If i have to decide whether i should eat/drink it, than i shouldn't) Primary objectives Daily KCAL limit: 2000 made up of: 30% Carb / 35% Fat / 35% Prot Clean eating, which means, No: deepfried / candy / cookies / dessert Clean drinking, which means, No: beer / soda / diet soda But to “live for today” if the occasion requires it, adapt, but make it a conscious decision Secondary Objectives Tracking, by doing daily weigh-ins and plan with MFP before major meals For accountability, keep the spreadsheet and your challenge updated (If choice is needed think about the long-term-goal) EXERCISE: (Growth = Pain + Recovery) Primary objectives Juggernaut based training: 3 times a week according to *schedule Running: 3 times a week according to the *rules Secondary Objectives Tracking, on paper during workout and/or digital on the challenge For accountability, keep the spreadsheet and your challenge updated Organize all the previous lifting data in a new spreadsheet *Schedule Juggernaut Days Mo We Sa Mo We Sa Deadlifts/Lower Back LB DL LB DL LB DL Squats/Pull- or Chinups PU SQ SQ PU SQ SQ Benchpress/Overheadpress OHP BP BP OHP BP BP *Rules for Running Before DST (March 26) Run every Tuesday / Friday / Sunday Add ½ KM every week After DST (March 26) Run every Sunday / Thursday Add 1 KM every week Add bodyweight specific workout on Friday I know this means i will be running for the whole of this challenge, just putting it here for future reference, but as always will adjust as needed. (every (even small) step(s) gets you closer to your goal) I have laser-focus at the moment. So i’m taking this opportunity to engrave it in stone. All the quotes mentioned are something i need to be reminded of every once in a while to keep focus. The last week of the previous challenge and 0-week have been a beta, for this concept, and have gone extremely well. This major “fix RangerBrain™” has also awakened my “join Crossift-box feeling”. But the boxes are all far out, and i cannot prioritize to the extra money at this time. But i aim for a WOD on friday when i adhere to my running rules and go from 3 to 2 sessions a week after DST. Next to all this i have this creeping feeling, that doing the juggernaut workout and running 3 times a week just isn’t enough, i mean doing only 0.5-1 hour (running) or 1-1.5 hour (lifting) for a total of 6 days a week feels a bit like trying to become an olympic athlete without doing the work. Anyone relate? I know this is basically like asking if any of you Rangers has RangerBrain™. Still i’m curious if someone has the same issue. Everybody have a kickass challenge!!! !!! SHOWTIME !!!

This year is going to be all about losing weight for me. Last year i totally kicked ass by increasing my running performance. i went from being out of breath after 500meters to running a 19k with obstacles. I really proved my worth on that. This years focus will be all about losing weight and passing my second year at college. How am i planning to lose weight? The idea is to get my food straight and excercise. nothing special there. Everything will be monitored in a Kcal app from "Het voedingscentrum" My days will consist of something like this Breakfast A slice of bread with peanut butter and banana 2 slices of bread with cheese. For lunch i will bring veggies like tomatoes, carrots and cucumber paired with 2 slices of bread and some lean chicken cuts. The veggies can also be saved for a snack after lunch. For dinner i will make myself something like chicken with potoes (Or rice) with vegetables. The goal is to get around 1600-1800 kcal a day. This way my craving should be kept in check

How? How can I be Vikingr and an Assassin?! Follow the nine, honor the gods and dedicate yourself to the cause. Freedom of mind, freedom of body. Move swiftly, strike hard. No mercy. Gain discipline. Own your life. Goal: Review the Code Review the 9 every night and evaluate how I lived to these virtues. Goal: Train Everyday Random workout from the filtered Darebee following this: (L2-L3 means that I aim to do it at LvL 3 but I'm possible only on LvL2) Sunday: Strength Workout (L2-L3) Lower Body Monday: Ab Work (L2-L3) Tuesday: Strength Workout (L1) Full Body Wednesday: Ab Work / Stretching (L2-L3) Thursday: Strength Workout (L2-L3) Upper Body Friday: High Burn / HIIT Workout (L1) Saturday: Strength Workout (L1) Full body Goal: Track and adjust meal plan Main focus on tracking because apparently I suck at tracking my food. Goal: Parkour? Going to try and train more again. On the weekends, by the morning, I'm going to train. If I can extend the training to the whole day, it's bonus, but if I can't I'm going to be happy just by training Sunday and Saturday.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Yikes a Ranger amongst the Warrior! Now i've been snooping here and there, so i know there are and have been quite a few Rangers among you. My plan for the upcoming months might explain my presence here. My fitness subscription ends at the end of the year. Starting next year i am gonna give CrossFit a try. Now the last couple of years i was more endurance than strength and in order to prep the best way i know for going CrossFit is to work on my weakness. Getting stronger! Over the last 2 years i have been (on and off) doing some lifting on my own, but since my goal has always been to "look-good-naked" i neglected the eating part that comes with getting stronger. So i have become a bit stronger but not like one would expect in roughly 1,5 years time. Last challenges at the rangers i tried to focus more on lifting and eventually got myself to give up on the strict eating i had done for years (which was quite scary as i didn't want to look like fat-bastard after that challenge) and just eat some more. Which seems like to work in terms of being able to lift heavier. Here and there i had some questions which i think could be easily answered by the common knowledge in this guild, this made me decide to join you fine guys (and galls) for a double challenge. I really don't like the 4 week format, so i decided i'm just gonna merge 2 challenges together, hence my Pt.1. In terms of things i want to work on these 2 challenges: Lifting (using Starting Strength as a base) Clean Eating (Healthy stuff with lots of protein) NoBeer (which needs to be a goal, to be able to pull this off, apparently) SMART goals (to be able to track stuff and see what I've accomplished) A LifeQuest (cause i'm a procrastination machine on some stuff) During this 0 week i will try to shape up this challenge in the best way possible to kick off right next week. So i will write out my goals, and put a scoring system on it to be able to (sMart) measure progress. Lifting Been following Starting Strength for the last 6 weeks. Broke my 5RM PR's but got a bit over enthusiastic and twitched a muscle on my left lower back in week 4. Been trying some deloaded weights with SQ and DL but it kept aggravating my lower back. So last week i completely stopped SQ and DL. Will introduce them at 60% next week when the challenge starts. Next to that i haven't starting the PowerCleans as i don't feel comfortable in doing them and seeing i will be doing CrossFit starting next year i think i can better wait it out a bit and get someone to teach me how to do it properly. With the BP and OHP i have been upping it with 2.5 kg each workout. I know i can't keep on doing that, so today is the first day i went from 67.5 to 68.5 and got a 5/5/4. Retry next workout and i think all will be good, if not i will deload. Clean Eating I'm keeping a fooddiary here in my daily checkins and logging it to MFP for some numbers. KCAL RANGE: Most positive: 2586 - 2821 Least positive: 2479 - 2704 Setting KCAL range to: 2500 - 2750 PROTEIN RANGE: Setting range to: 130g - 160g NoBeer This could be very simple. Just.Don't.Drink.(Alcohol)! I'm gonna give myself some leeway here. Reserving one day a week for some social-beering. And i have got some holiday related events where i can really enjoy some fine quality beer. So for this double challenge i will give myself 9 days of allowed moderate drinking (a couple is 1-3). And i know the weekend i will be out with the boys there will be some more drinking, just gonna try to keep it to a minimum and not overindulge... LifeQuest Yeah, will come to this (eventually). Input is very much appreciated as i like to be as efficient as possible!

Hey everybody, I haven't been on here in a while. I went on vacation to Disney World in March when I got engaged. Since then, I've been eating like crap and actually put on 40lbs. I started at 347lbs 2 1/2 years ago, got down to 232lbs, then quit. I've tried a few times to get back into it, but haven't been successful yet. I suspect it's because I try to jump right back where I left off with the nutrition and exercise instead of approaching it like a new adventure. This time I want to make it stick. Goal 1: Workout at least 3x a week. Goal 2: Cut back eating out to once or twice a week. Goal3: Drop 5 lbs (265lbs) Bonus: Drop > 10 lbs I'm pretty tired of feeling too fat for my clothes. I'm tired of feeling exhausted all the time. I'm tired of feeling like I'm not as happy as I used to be. I think a lot of this has to do with my self image. Getting back to the gym, fitting into my clothes properly, and putting better food into my body should fix this. I just need to stick with it for more than a few days.

"Back to the Grind" Prologue: Vacation is over. Horizon is looking calm, except for some wee bumps. Last few weeks were hard on the part of me that wants to get fit(ter) and lean(er). Going on vacation with the bike was just a very bad combination in regards to maintaining strict about a lot of things. Being around a group of bikers that drinks heavily every evening, combine that with a person who loves to have a beer, and you get the picture. Not being able to workout due to a number of things (daily schedule and the heat over there being the most important factors). Back home i was still in vacation mode, not working out much (thank god for the StrongViking and the 12K at work). The wife returned last night from here short trip to Mallorca which closes this chapter of holidays. And i'm ready for the next step. I want to get back to the Challenge! Planning ahead i want to use the end of this year to prep myself for trading in Fitness for Crossfit starting next year. So i'm gonna make lifting my primary goal. Maximizing my strength to be able to handle heavy weights when it comes to the WOD from Crossfit. I've chosen Starting Strength (SS) as a base for this, i want to add some upper body work to this as this is the part i'm lacking... I need to (can) make the most progress in this part, and from the things i understand SS is not specifically meant (optimal) for this part. I'm still on the lookout for an answer to this question. For now i have made a start with a deload and restarting SS. Welcome To "THE GRIND" (sidequest: watch this video at the start of every lifting session, and preferably at the start of every day) The Challenge: This challenge will center around lifting and all goals will work towards maximizing progression.The goals will all be beneficiary to this cause. Except for the lifequest. There are a few things i'm postponing because i'm lacking courage of setting these gears in motion. I need to make a list about this and prioritize it. This will be first weeks goal and subsequent goals will be derived off of this. #1. "The Grind": Lifting 3 times a week. Monday Wednesday Friday. Start with a deload, work my way back up and beyond my PR's atm. No exceptions, make planning accordingly, work out possible schedule problems in advance. Allow for only one missed workout throughout the challenge (allowing for that one catastrophe to hit). Using Starting Strength as a base to get started. Looking for a good upper body plan to mix with SS. #2. "Sensible Fuelling": Eat to grow as a healthy Oak. Do.not.check.the.scale. I will get fatter, i will get heavier, i hopefully also will gain muscles in this process! The "sensible" part means two things. 1. Eat sensible in as healthy as possible. 2. Be sensible in the way that growing bigger will also mean gaining BF and become heavier. Last couple of challenges has shown it's impossible for me to gain strength without gaining weight/BF and keep this up for long time. Looking at the scales will make me give up for sure and go back to cutting, but i needz the muscles. Battleplan is to bulk till the end of the year, and when CrossFit is introduced (next year) revise the plan. #3. "Protein is Whey Cool": Keep up with the protein. Combining meat and whey as the primary sources of protein. Morning shake (combination of 6 types of protein) combined with Creatine at breakfast. Meat-leftovers for lunch A decent amount of meat (and make sure to leave some leftovers for the next day) Post-workout shake (Whey isolate) Protein shake before bedtime (Micellar Casein) #4. "Lose the booze": NO Drinking of beer, i have done this before, i can do this again. Stuff get's out of hand quickly when this is not a specific goal. Reporting back to you guys i have been acing this goal really gets me to stick to it! I allowed for 2 exceptions: one bottle of beer on my birthday-party (next saturday) and my actual birthday (sept. 28). Which makes a total of 2 bottles of beer throughout this 6WC. Next to this i try to drink as clean as possible, drinking mostly tea and water. When i really need a change-up it will probably be a diet-Lipton, but certainly not more than 2 glasses a day and certainly not every day (more like 2 times a week max). #5. "Sleep, i must": Last few weeks i have had seriously too little sleep. Going to bed later and later. Now going back to work (and having the alarm clock going at 06:00 am to drag my ass out of bed by 06:10 am) i have to make sure i get enough sleep. When i have to get to work the next day i need to be in bed before 11:00 p.m. The other days i have to be in bed before 12:00 a.m. Exceptions to these rules, when i'm away for the evening. This usually means being at a party or playing cards at a friends house. This doesn't happen all that much, and i generally don't make it very late, usually home between 01:00 am and 02:00 am. #### LifeQuest ###: There is some stuff that needs to get done which i'm constantly postponing. First week's part of this "lifequest" will be: make a list of 5 things that have to be done that keep getting postponed AND prioritize it. This quest will be changed in the weekend of week 1. DISCLAIMER: There is a small chance another OCR will be planned for somewhere in October, this challenge has to be seriously revised if this happens.

First off, the tactical bit in the titles refer to the Tactical Barbell books not and specific tactical training at this time. I’ve been doing some thinking over the past few weeks and decided that I’m not finished with the military. I finished my contract, deployed twice, and done what I needed to do; but I feel like there is more. I discharged 4 years ago and since that time I have put on around 70-80lbs and lost nearly all my endurance. Since April I’ve been back in the gym consistently doing Wendler’s 5/3/1 and then later a template out of Beyond 5/3/1. These 5 months have helped me build a solid base of strength but haven’t helped my endurance or strength endurance as I rarely did anything more than 10 reps at a go. Starting September 19th, I will have 19 months to reach my goal of being able to reenlist by the time I hit 30. To do so I will lower the intensity of my heavy lifting ( can’t drop this as right now it’s what I love most of training) and will start an 8 week endurance building cycle. The first 5 weeks will be primarily C25K and rucking on days off that the girlfriend works, weeks 6-8 I will work in some HIIT and sprints as well to increase my anaerobic system and some high rep body weight/light barbell work to build up my muscular endurance. I will take my starting height/weight/tape numbers NLT Monday and can use those to break down my overarching goals into smaller more manageable chunks.

Good Morning! So, since reviving my long dead account, I have not gotten to spend much time on here! I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about my past month in adventures and successes and failures, allow others to share with me theirs, as well as some general advice sharing for us all to join in on! During August I: Launched My Own Website/Blog Started organizing my website, putting the puzzle together FINALLY got my wife in to a healthier diet/lifestyle Started building my network for online marketing Sold a membership to the boat club I work for Started Reorganizing my life for the better! But I Also: Fell off my workout routine Got distracted with unimportant matters Struggle to keep my dying car running Have an expensive medical bill about to come out Struggle to stay focused when working on my site Almost bought in to an MLM scheme known as Primerica (Hoping to have caught the bank soon enough to prevent unwanted charges) While I obviously have some areas to work on and fix, I do not wish to linger too long on the shortcomings! The fact is, the good that has come out far out weighs the bad. My site is not generating income YET and I don't imagine it will for the next couple months. Everything is just slowly coming together and I have a TON to learn still! The writing is not the difficult part at all. The coding part is becoming much easier. Staying on top of social media on the other hand has been quite the struggle. I am learning to use auto-schedulers to keep fresh posts on each social site, BUT I need to have more of an online presence in each one and communicate with my followers and potential followers. All this has been a ton more work than I could imagine but as it starts to fall in to place things are not near as bad or daunting as they had seemed at the start! A little disorganization is all that is cluttering my mind, and writing about it here is helping me realize what steps I need to take next. How about you? What have you achieved this past month? What about some short comings you can correct? Any advice to offer? Let's chat! ^.^

Hello. My name is Kristinn. I am an icelandic 33 year old guy looking to get in shape. Right now I am close to the heaviest I've been in my life. But this will change now. My plan is to fix my diet. Kick in some more cardio along with olympic weightlifting (I started the weightlifting two months ago, it is awesome) and the goal is just to be better tomorrow than I am today! I want to weigh less, lift more and look great! So here are my starting stats: 33 years old 117kg My gym stats: Clean : 75kg Snatch : 60kg deadlift : 120kg (1 rep max) Squat : 120kg (1 rep max, was not pretty but I'll take it ) This is my starting point. The first couple of things to do is to fix my diet and get some cardio going on the off days from the gym. If anyone has pointers for cardio exercises I can do at home (preferably without equipment) that would be great! See ya guys tomorrow.

A little background first. Was formerly here as Doc Viking, I opted to come back with a new name since I've moved and am changing up some of my training. I am formerly an Army Medic who left the military and stopped training due to turmoil/death in my family and general laziness coupled with drinking too much beer and steadily moved up to 345-350lbs, now down to 330lbs. Last couple challenges I've done were mostly lifting via Strong lifts, and some rucking. Since April I have been hitting the gym 4x/week and making good progress with Wendler 5/3/1, but now that I'm finally in my new residence I'm going to start adding some new training to keep things fresh. I obtained a massive tire and a sledgehammer, rescued a furry Ranger companion, have space for my heavy bag and broke my bicycle out of storage. I may have been a little overenthusiastic about my choice of tire as it's nearly as tall as I am and maybe 2 feet wide, it certainly outweighs me and even though I have built my lifts up quite a bit recently I'm not certain I can flip it too many times without risking injuring myself, hence the sledgehammer. Goals for this challenge are simple Continue to lift 4x/week use my tire (i.e. hammer swings, jump/step ups, and eventually set up a rig to drag/pull it) ride my bike or take my furry companion for walks 5x/week and hopefully build up to short jogs with him. I have a coworker that lives near me that is trying to lose some weight to help manage some health issues and to improve his job as a volunteer firefighter, While I haven't pushed him to joining me at the gym he has expressed interest in joining me for my second and third goal and has been waiting patiently these last 3 months while my house was being repaired from a flood to move to town. Also my younger sister lives close and has been bugging me hurry up and get moved so she can join me on bike rides. I welcome suggestions for other uses with my sledgehammer beyond the usual two-handed diagonal swings, overhead swings, and one-handed swings.

I know I'm a few days late to the party, but I am excited to say that I have entered my first competition. Its called "Strongest Mountaineer" and is on August 28. Its a small thing held by my school and the events are as many GOOD reps at the following body weight percentages. Squat: 115% (280) Bench: 100% (245) Deadlift: 135% (330) Farmers walk(timed): 75% (185) I am hoping to drop some extra weight by then, so maybe those numbers will change. Now I know y'all are thinking, "WVUengineer, you never told us how you finished up the last challenge". Well let me tell you how. I did keep a record of every workout I did (+1 WIS +2 STR) and I did get outside every day(+2 CON +1 STA, I did not check my body fat once a week, I did take a month progress picture though Front View progress pic (right is before, left is progress) Side View progress pic I did not complete every academy module, I did do a few of them though I did not study for grad school, I did do relevant work though This challenge is going to focus on preparing for this competition, even though I am going on a vacation with my family and may not have access to a gym, as well as preparing for the start of grad school. The specific challenge goals will follow in the next post once I leave my office

Okay so my previous opening post is spoilered (for referral) About time to come up with a new challenge. As i have been dedicated to the prepping i now want to do stuff i feel like. And maybe this ain't the most efficient way (which in my book is blasphemy, being mister efficiency) i'm just gonna do the stuff i feel like at the start of this challenge. So here they are (they are not really that shocking). Following my beloved KISS principle: Eat right Lift Chin up Tadaa!!! That's it. "Behold my challenge for this month!". Okay maybe i need to address each goal a little better: EAT RIGHT: I'm gonna use a scoring system of 1 through 10 to evaluate each day of eating. A 10 would represent a super healthy, balanced macro day. And a 1 would mean a pig's fest complete with copious amounts of beer, fast food, candy, cookies etc. I will probably be noting my kcal and macro splits for record purposes if possible. I also want to switch up between carb heavy and carb light days. Lift days will be carb heavy days. Since most lifting will be done after dinner i will try to get a normal amount of carbs during breakfast and dinner, and try to avoid carbs at dinner. After lifting session i will immediately get some extra carbs in, making up for dinner and than some, ofcourse followed by some whey shake. Resting days will be the carb light days i will try to avoid the big bulk of carbs if possible (don't overthink / don't overdo, just be reasonable). Overall my average KCAL will be increased from the 1600-1800 range to about 1900 - 2100 a day. LIFT: I just changed up my lifting program from Madcow to Texas Method. So i really like to follow that, looking forward to the volume days, as i thought Madcow was a little low on volume. For the people not that into lifting i really really simplistic version of this program i will try to explain short and sweet. In the original program there are 5 basic movements: Squat / Bench Press / Overhead Press / Power Clean / Deadlift. Now i tried some Power cleans but i just wasn't feeling it, probably because i have no idea what i was doing, and as for now i'm not really searching to get someone to teach me, so i'm subbing them for barbell rows (as i am used to). So on to the actual program, every exercise needs the proper warmup: SQUAT: Monday: 5x5 @ 90% | Wednesday: 2x5 @ 70% | Friday: 1x5 @ 102% | Every Mon - Wed - Fri BENCHPRESS: Monday: 5x5 @ 90 % | Wednesday: (i will finish this later...) CHINUP: I want to build some better arms and StrongViking has shown me there is still much room for improvement for pullup related exercises. Basically put, this 4 week challenge i want to accumulate a total of 750+ Chin ups! Dude, you for real, yeah i'm afraid so, it looks kinda impressive, i'm all for that stuff. The number is not chosen randomly, it's diverted from this page: https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/chin-up-project Which says you will probably get about 800+ chin ups in the first month. But they are counting on sets of 10 at a time. BUT sets may not go to failure and seeing my amrap chinup is 8 i'm picking 6 as a number to do sets with. So i took it down a nodge to a nice number. 1 rest day a week for doing chinups leaves 4 weeks of 6 days = 24 days to do the 750 is an average of 32 a day. Seeing you have to improve each weeks total score i'm aiming for: Week 1: 165 (28 sets of 6 = 5/5/5/5/4/4 sets a day) Week 2: 180 (30 sets of 6 = 5 sets a day) Week 3: 195 (28 sets of 7 = 5/5/5/5/4/4 sets a day) Week 4: 210 (30 sets of 7 = 5 sets a day) Sunday i will check my 5 minute amrap chinups, next day has to be resting day which is volume day for my lifting program. See i actually thought about this. (Trivia: wanted to end with the "Thats all folks-GIF", and really fast found all of these other cool gifs. Swanky, i have a Looney Tunes theme!)

"I'm Coming For Ya, BEAST!" QUEST 1 Maintain deficit: This KCAL range is proving to be a struggle, so i'm gonna keep it here and hopefully find somebody who will do a form of PvP with me for the added accountability. My weight is stabilizing while i think i need to lower it and lose some extra BF. For added accountability i'm gonna do a written report of what i ate the day(s) before. ***** QUEST 2 Keep up protein: Of course i will try to do my best to keep as much muscle as possible. I'm still doing lots of stuff to enhance my body and it needs the right kind of fuel, so protein is gonna be a big part of my diet. ***** QUEST 3 Minimize beer input: I thought about removing this quest since i'm doing quite nice, except, seasons are changing. And well, next two seasons it's gonna be: "'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la. Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel," So just to keep grinding-in this habit i'm gonna stick with it at least for the upcoming challenge(s). And this grinding definitely needs work, as weather is turning up and the occasions i would normally indulge on beer are lining up! Though i will have my occasional reward because it's just too damn good! ***** QUEST 4 MIndfully choose a meal: Just to keep as clean as possible i'm forcing myself to think (in advance) about every meal i eat. Easier to keep in line with the KCAL and better to fuel my body with the "best" option available. I'm gonna update it with a plan a (couple of) day(s) ahead, to keep up with the good eating and according KCAL deficit. ***** QUEST 5 Act like a MadCow: Lifting, it's my main thing at this moment, i love doing it, it's good for me, so i'm not planning on not doing it. It's here to stay in the foreseeable future. Maybe i'm gonna put a little more emphasize on doing more number of reps NEXT TO the heavy reps i'm doing now (just add some sort of cooldown sets after every workset, pyramid style workouts. If somebody has some ideas, please shoot! ***** QUEST 6 Find my Inner-Ape: I will be focusing on upperbody-bodyweight-exercises. Probably a lot of chin ups (no pull ups yet because of sore tendon on the outside of my elbow). Pushups and burpees will also be part of the program. (I'm slowly dreaming about doing the 300 workout). Next to this i'm focussing on deadhanging, but i'm gonna throw around the workout a little because it was getting a grind and i wasn't looking forward to it anymore. ***** QUEST 7 Stamina: Running is totally back in the game. After the run i did at work i just feel rejuvenated. If schedule allows i will be aiming for 2 runs a week, next to one workout at the gym. The workout at the gym really shakes up my workouts with stuff i normally don't train. ***** QUEST 8 Accountability: I need all of you beautiful people to keep me in line. I'm growing discipline by the day but it's a slow process. Every extra nudge is very welcome. This is the main reason for the existence of this thread, my sheet and all other aids i use. This quest is about the M in sMart, and the (first) S in kiSs (i've already got the the second S covered ). The Final Chapter