[SymphonicDan] remembers how to Assassin [Level 23]

[SymphonicDan]

I've just come back from a 7-month amazing travelling adventure in Latin America [details in first spoiler]. But I fail at following my challenges while travelling, so I've been mostly out of the NF scene since 2017

 

Spoiler

September 2017: 13-day transatlantic cruise with Nomad Cruise to Panama, with talks and workshops on everything from marketing to acro-yoga, and from hypnotism to software development

October 2017: backpacking in Panama and Costa Rica... hitch-hiking, dolphins, uninhabited jungle islands and 2-kilometre ziplines...

Nov-Dec 2017: volunteering as tour guide at QuetzalTrekkers in Nicaragua, taking tourists camping and volcano boarding

Jan-April 2018: backpacking in Colombia... cycling in deserts, hiking on the altiplano, scuba diving and whitewater rafting...

February 2018: volunteering as a Spanish-English interpreter for a tour company in the Colombian Amazon

 

Now that I'm back at home (at my parents' house) it's time to set some fitness goals and start taking them seriously again I miss the gymnastics and calisthenics days of 2014-2015 but my goals have also changed a little since then! [details of my NF journey are in the second spoiler].

One problem is that I don't know what level I am at anymore with handstands, pull-ups etc., so it'll make me go crazy to chase achievement-based goals right now, so I'm just going to focus on getting out there and being active.

 

Spoiler

• Jan 2014: joined the forums and planned to learn backflips outdoors by February. Hahaha that did not happen, but gymnastics and weightlifting happened lots
• Jul 2014: reached 10 seconds for handstands and recorded my progress [video]
• Oct 2014: bought gymnastics rings and went through a phase of training lots with these
• Aug 2015: reached so far my peak in gymnastics and made a compilation [video] in the Summer
• Aug 2015: moved house and got lazy  Challenged with the Warriors and I don't think I even made it to a gym haha
• Jan 2016: decided that I needed more excitement and that in 2016 I was going to get it
• Aug 2016: quit my job and backpacked around Slovenia and Eastern Europe
• Sep 2016: competed in the Mental Calculation World Cup in Germany
• Oct 2016: studied Spanish in a language school in Valencia
• Nov 2016: competed at Memoriad in Las Vegas. Flew to Nicaragua to volunteer as a volcano tour guide for 3 months
• Feb 2017: backpacked around Nicaragua and Guatemala - both really nice destinations
• May 2017: spent a month in Barcelona learning more Latin dancing and learning to how to create websites - currently working on HyperBirthday
• Jul 2017: volunteered as an Engineering tutor in a Summer School in Oxford
• Aug 2017: competed in the Mind Sports Olympiad in London

 

Goal #1: Move and Train again:

 

I'm stealing this one from Mad Hatter. The aim in to collect as many Mad Hatter Points (MPs) as possible during the challenge by doing various movement and training.

1MP: short unstructured movement (short bike ride, couple sets of push-ups, etc.)
2MP: more substantial workout
3MP: proper serious training, high intensity or with specific drills

Hopefully I can do something with 2MP on average every day on average. Prepare to laugh at me as I massively miss this Maximum points available is 60. 

 

Goal #2: Assassin Training:

 

And so I can't cheat goal #1 by just doing a billion sit-ups, I want to do each of these types of training at least once:

• gymnastics rings
• handstands
• hurdling
• climbing / bouldering
• longer run
• hill sprints
• weightlifting

3 points available for each of these (Maximum 20)

 

Goal #3: Wim Hof Method:

 

Some people on the forum (zenLara, annyshay, ...) have been experimenting with the, and I now have a reasonably good understanding of the Science behind it. If you want me to explain a little then just ask, but Wim Hof's (inadequate and inaccurate) explanations are on his website. It basically involves a breathing technique that causes temporary hypoxia, and taking cold showers. Other features in the full course include ice baths, yoga exercises and some meditation guidance. I've just come back from several months in the tropics, so I'll need to get used to coldness again haha...

 

I'm not prepared yet to buy the full course (perhaps soon) but I want to get a regular schedule now of doing at least the breathing and the cold showers.

• 1 point for a cold shower
• 1 point for doing the breathing exercise (5 minute total retention as a minimum, so 2-3 rounds)
• 1 point for every new thing I try based on this method

(Maximum 40)

 

Goal #4: Bonus List:

 

I just couldn't do a challenge without a "bucket list" type of challenge, so here are some bonus things I want to achieve in the next month:

• (8 points) learn Stairway to Heaven on the guitar
• (8 points) compose a new piano cover
• (4 points) record this new piano cover
• (6 points) plan professional project for travel at the end of May
• (6 points) create and memorize a system for decimal digit memorization
• (6 points) write 5 new articles on the website I maintain: World Mental Calculation

(Maximum 30)

 

 

And yes, the total points available add up to 150. There's no way I'm getting such a high score, so I'll award 1 stat point for every 12 challenge points.

 

Also looking forward to seeing where the NFers are at after half a year not following you! Good luck everyone! 

[SymphonicDan]

Updated last: [end of challenge]

 

Goal #1: Move and Train again: 27 points

Goal #2: Assassin Training: 12 points

• weightlifting
• "long" run
• hurdling
• gymnastics rings

Goal #3: Wim Hof Method: 11 (breathing) + 22 (cold shower) + 3 (new things) points

Goal #4: Bonus List: 24 points

• composed piano version of Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah (8 points)
• recorded the piano version of Lordi (4 points)
• five articles on website (6)
• found project for Montenegro trip (6)

Total points: 99

[WhiteGhost]

Good to see you back, I'll be here following for this phase of your adventures

 

[@mu]

3 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Some people on the forum (zenLara, annyshay, ...) have been experimenting with the, and I now have a reasonably good understanding of the Science behind it. If you want me to explain a little then just ask, but Wim Hof's (inadequate and inaccurate) explanations are on his website.

 

This has also been intriguing me quite a bit.

 

A lot of travels indeed! Are you planning to stay in one place for a while now?

[lucky fire dragon]

YAY you really are back

 

Great to see you challenge again and what a naaaaice set of goals again!! Yay, I'm collecting Mad Hatter Points, too, we're MP buddies

Man, your travels

 

 

Curious to hear how you'll the Wim Hof stuff and excited to follow your gymnastics picking up again

 

GO FORTH AND ROCK IT  

[Mad Hatter]

LOL at Mad Hatter points.  

 

And welcome back!!! 

 

[annyshay]

On 4/20/2018 at 7:33 PM, SymphonicDan said:

Mad Hatter Points (MPs)

 

On 4/20/2018 at 11:45 PM, lucky fire dragon said:

Mad Hatter Points, too, we're MP buddies

 

On 4/21/2018 at 3:27 AM, Mad Hatter said:

LOL at Mad Hatter points.  

So does it get Mad Hatter Points TM yet?

Glad you're back. I took off from Wim Hof over the winter (juuuuuuust starting to think about ending in Minnesota), and I'm not sure I want to go full throttle again. But I'm curious to see how it goes with you. Welcome back, and I'm excited to see what you get up to!

[Mike Wazowski]

Welcome back! Following for people doing cooler assassin-y things than me.

 

Also curious, what's the cliffnotes on WH stuff's benefits?

[raptron]

YAAAAYAYAYYAAA! Welcome back. How's it feel to be back home?

[Chimichanga]

On 4/20/2018 at 5:33 PM, SymphonicDan said:

And so I can't cheat goal #1 by just doing a billion sit-ups...

 

What sort of crazy person cheats with sit-ups?????????

 

[SymphonicDan]

Ahh thanks for the welcome back guys

 

 

18 hours ago, Chimichanga said:

What sort of crazy person cheats with sit-ups?????????

 

Someone who lives in a cold rainy place where it's easier to train indoors but doesn't have much space... Seriously I feel much less inclined to leave the house outside of the 2 weeks of Summer we usually get here in England

 

 

21 hours ago, raptron said:

YAAAAYAYAYYAAA! Welcome back. How's it feel to be back home?

 

Strangely normal actually, as if I'd never left! It's amazing how much your surroundings affect you. Wherever I go back to somewhere I used to live, it's like nothing ever changed. Home is much less exciting though than travelling, but I think I need a break from adventure after so much these last 7 months.

 

 

On 4/22/2018 at 5:25 PM, MikeW said:

Also curious, what's the cliffnotes on WH stuff's benefits?

 

I'll maybe write something up later, but the basic idea seems to be:

• breathing puts body in temporary hypoxic state and causes it to adjust to low-O2 environments, improving cardiovascular health, altitude acclimatization, sports fitness, etc.
• breathing causes adrenaline spike then cortisol spike and thereafter moderates these stress hormones to make you more relaxed generally
• breathing improves immune system (blood alkalinity, white blood cell count) and possibly stem cell proliferation (for anti-aging and cellular repair)
• breathing reduces inflammatory proteins and therefore can treat (to some extent) any disease caused/aggravated by inflammation (Crohn's disease, depression, etc.)
• cold closes the pores, so it's good for the hair and the skin
• cold reduces inflammation too (remember standard procedure for treating injuries like twisted ankles)
• cold converts white fat to brown fat and then to energy, fighting obesity
• cold trains the smooth muscles that line the cardiovascular system

Then overall the body gets used to dealing with stressors in general, so you can probably withstand a sauna or an annoying inconvenience better.

 

I'm on the Facebook Group for the Wim Hof Method, and it's amazing how much ridiculous stuff people say. Some people are incapable of research ("ah amazing how do i learn this method?") and others are scared of details ("just breathe, stop thinking and just breathe man!") and then still more think the method can be used for everything from repairing dental cavities to seeing the future (!) But I've learned a lot from the other people on there. It still seems like the science hasn't been figured out fully. There are a whole load of effects (I didn't list all of them) and most of them are only partially understood.

 

 

On 4/21/2018 at 5:08 AM, @mu said:

This has also been intriguing me quite a bit.

 

A lot of travels indeed! Are you planning to stay in one place for a while now?

 

Are you trying anything from the Wim Hof Method? (Sorry I haven't been stalking you long enough to know )

 

I'm probably staying all of the Spring/Summer here in Europe, mostly the UK, but hopefully there are more big travels in my future! I'm always open to suggestions and opportunities haha. There's a good chance I'll go to Asia or Latin America over the next Winter.

 

 

So the challenge has gotten off to a slow start... It took me a couple of days to catch up on sleep, and it's still so cold here... I just feel like hibernating all the time. Anyway, I went on two fast 5.5km cycles on Saturday to see some schoolfriends, and I've done a bunch of useful admin. Exciting times.

 

But I did make the most of the cold weather to take an actual cold shower - I mean I've been having cold showers for the last few months, but in Nicaragua the cold showers are still probably 20-25'C / 70'F so it doesn't really count. At the end of my normal hot shower I put it as cold as possible (guessing 10'C / 50'F but no idea really) and then stood under that slowly rotating for 60 seconds, and breathing slowly and deeply. It was difficult for the first 45 seconds but thereafter not so bad! I could feel the rapid vasoconstriction happening in my legs, and almost like a sunburn feeling on my upper back. Afterwards I felt energetic and warm  but not super different.

 

I've done this Monday and Tuesday so far, and see no reason not to do it every day. I'll stay on hot shower + 1 minute cold until that feels comfortable and then progress.

[Mike Wazowski]

39 minutes ago, SymphonicDan said:

I'll maybe write something up later, but the basic idea seems to be:

• breathing puts body in temporary hypoxic state and causes it to adjust to low-O2 environments, improving cardiovascular health, altitude acclimatization, sports fitness, etc.
• breathing causes adrenaline spike then cortisol spike and thereafter moderates these stress hormones to make you more relaxed generally
• breathing improves immune system (blood alkalinity, white blood cell count) and possibly stem cell proliferation (for anti-aging and cellular repair)
• breathing reduces inflammatory proteins and therefore can treat (to some extent) any disease caused/aggravated by inflammation (Crohn's disease, depression, etc.)
• cold closes the pores, so it's good for the hair and the skin
• cold reduces inflammation too (remember standard procedure for treating injuries like twisted ankles)
• cold converts white fat to brown fat and then to energy, fighting obesity
• cold trains the smooth muscles that line the cardiovascular system

Then overall the body gets used to dealing with stressors in general, so you can probably withstand a sauna or an annoying inconvenience better.

 

I'm on the Facebook Group for the Wim Hof Method, and it's amazing how much ridiculous stuff people say. Some people are incapable of research ("ah amazing how do i learn this method?") and others are scared of details ("just breathe, stop thinking and just breathe man!") and then still more think the method can be used for everything from repairing dental cavities to seeing the future (!) But I've learned a lot from the other people on there. It still seems like the science hasn't been figured out fully. There are a whole load of effects (I didn't list all of them) and most of them are only partially understood.

Interesting! Now I'm definitely going to start experimenting with that from a sports angle.

[@mu]

15 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Are you trying anything from the Wim Hof Method? (

 

Not really. I do cold showers every so often (at the end of a warm shower...) but I'm not following any particular protocol. Then I read a bit more from the threads you mention and I thought it was very interesting. I haven't had time to do my research yet though. I'm an observer for the time being

[tei_]

Welcome baaaaack!

 

I love that everyone is getting Mad Hatter points.

[SymphonicDan]

Meh, it's always difficult to get an exercise routine going when I'm in Coventry... the weather's miserable and there aren't good places to do the things I like, so yet again I've been mostly motionless in the house. But there are still some good pieces of news for the challenge:

1. I've been doing the cold showers for one minute after the hot shower every day, and it's uncomfortable but good! I take deep breaths and slowly rotate so the water falls all over me. The first 45 seconds are always hard, but after that it's not difficult
2. A gym I used to go to 7 years ago is still running, so I'll go check it out tomorrow
3. I've decided which song I'm going to make a piano version of: remember that Finnish metal band (Lordi) that stormed Eurovision in 2006...? Not to everyone's taste, but I bet that would sound epic on piano if done right
4. My guitar has been patiently been waiting 7 months for me to get back, and today I tried playing some Stairway to Heaven on it from the old tab I started learning in 2003 (!) Somehow lots of the finger memory is still there, so this should be quite an easy challenge. I also memorized the lyrics, just in case I want to try singing it too at some point (I'm atrocious at singing but it would be cool to learn.....)

[Lara]

Welcome baaaaaack!

[SymphonicDan]

Today was gym workout day and I bought a week pass so I'll surely go again quite soon  It was my first time in aaages, so I came with the plan of just playing around and doing a few volume sets.

• running on the treadmill (1.2km warm-up) (much prefer running outside, it feels like I'm going somewhere rather than just kicking a machine)
• speed-walking on the treadmill (11.1kph / 6.9mph) just for one lap, to see how that felt
• pull-ups nice and high but only for sets of 5
• bench press did longer sets as I've lost all muscle memory for this, going up to 42.5kg (93#)
• overhead press with 2 x 10kg dumbbells, 3 sets of 10 reps
• barbell squat with up to 5 x 60kg (132#) so not very heavy, but I just wanted to remind my legs how to squat barbells
• leg press because I've always found this machine very effective for training jumping
• back extension machine this is a terrible machine taking up valuable floor space
• leg lifts for my core
• stretching yay

I also did my Wim Hof breathing in the gym and luckily nobody tried to find my medical assistance hahaha. Retention times with lungs empty, directly after exercise, were 1:10, 1:50 and 2:05 (so much lower than I'd get while relaxed, as expected).

 

Cold shower in the evening (a few hours after working out, because cold showers after strength workouts reduce gains). Must have been about 90 seconds, and this time I put my head under too for the last half, which felt fine

 

Still contemplating purchasing the entire Fundamentals course, now that I'm in a more stable routine.

[WhiteGhost]

7 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

back extension machine this is a terrible machine taking up valuable floor space

Whut??  I love the back extension thingy.  Not very useful doing it with both legs, but one leg at a time gets me a pretty decent posterior chain workout

[raptron]

Yeah, do you mean machine-machine or just like the thing with a spot for you to lean on and then put your ankles in. The second one can be really great for hamstring and glute work! You have to position it/your body right but it is my fave, especially holding a 45# KB or DB. Ours just broke.

 

[Mad Hatter]

On 4/26/2018 at 3:38 AM, SymphonicDan said:

1. My guitar has been patiently been waiting 7 months for me to get back, and today I tried playing some Stairway to Heaven on it from the old tab I started learning in 2003 (!) Somehow lots of the finger memory is still there, so this should be quite an easy challenge. I also memorized the lyrics, just in case I want to try singing it too at some point (I'm atrocious at singing but it would be cool to learn.....)

I can't hold a note to save my life, but one day I'd like to take singing lessons as an experiment to see whether it's possible to learn to sing even for someone like me. I'm 100% sure I'd still have a shit singing voice, but I'm really curious to see if I could learn to sing well enough to not torture myself. (Unfortunately I'm not tone deaf so I only sing if I can't hear myself singing. )

 

Btw if you happen to be around in mid June we should hang out.  I'm going to a wedding in Nottingham then but I'm planning on doing *something* before that.

[SymphonicDan]

Today I have DOMS for the first time in... a long time. Rejoice!

 

 

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Whut??  I love the back extension thingy.  Not very useful doing it with both legs, but one leg at a time gets me a pretty decent posterior chain workout

8 hours ago, raptron said:

Yeah, do you mean machine-machine or just like the thing with a spot for you to lean on and then put your ankles in. The second one can be really great for hamstring and glute work!

 

 

Ahh no, not one of these... it's a machine machine where you just lean back repeatedly. The apparatus you show looks much more useful!

 

 

8 hours ago, raptron said:

[...] but it is my fave, especially holding a 45# KB or DB. Ours just broke.

 

Anybody have any ideas about why it broke?

 

 

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I can't hold a note to save my life, but one day I'd like to take singing lessons as an experiment to see whether it's possible to learn to sing even for someone like me. I'm 100% sure I'd still have a shit singing voice, but I'm really curious to see if I could learn to sing well enough to not torture myself. (Unfortunately I'm not tone deaf so I only sing if I can't hear myself singing. )

 

Yeah, I'm in the same position as you. I think the main obstacle is that there aren't many situations where I'd practise/train singing where it's socially acceptable to make such terrible noises.

 

I went to a Chinese wedding where they randomly put on karaoke between the ceremony and the dinner, and I ended up coerced to sing some Queen, which I thought I managed pretty well! So clearly they have some pretty awesome voice-altering technology in the amplifier haha (I'm serious, they probably did).

 

 

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Btw if you happen to be around in mid June we should hang out.  I'm going to a wedding in Nottingham then but I'm planning on doing *something* before that.

 

Oooh that would be awesome! I live not-crazy-far from Nottingham, but... One of the items this challenge is:

On 4/21/2018 at 1:33 AM, SymphonicDan said:

• (6 points) plan professional project for travel at the end of May

The context is that I've got a vague plan of going somewhere nice for a month (like I did last year in Barcelona) and really focusing on healthy and professional development. This year I have a friend (maybe more than one?) who's thinking of joining too, but dates/location/activity are still quite uncertain because he's probably starting a job in June... so 50/50 whether it will work out but I'm excited by the possibility  When is the wedding? And will you still have a job by then? [Or maybe send me a PM so we can chat]

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

Ahh no, not one of these... it's a machine machine where you just lean back repeatedly. The apparatus you show looks much more useful!

Ah, ok. I was talking about something similar to what Raptron showed.  A lean-back machine is probably as useless as it sounds  

 

6 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I can't hold a note to save my life, but one day I'd like to take singing lessons as an experiment to see whether it's possible to learn to sing even for someone like me. I'm 100% sure I'd still have a shit singing voice, but I'm really curious to see if I could learn to sing well enough to not torture myself. (Unfortunately I'm not tone deaf so I only sing if I can't hear myself singing. )

 

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

Yeah, I'm in the same position as you. I think the main obstacle is that there aren't many situations where I'd practise/train singing where it's socially acceptable to make such terrible noises.

 

 

I enjoy singing and can do decently if it is a really slow and plodding (like most church hymns) but pop songs are beyond my capabilities.  Unfortunately, I often find myself in situation where I need to sing publicly (Karaoke is a serious thing here) and according to my initial research singing is good for reducing snoring (strengthening the throat muscles apparently reduces constriction when relaxed) so one of these days I am going to have learn singing as part of my challenge.

 

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

So clearly they have some pretty awesome voice-altering technology in the amplifier haha (I'm serious, they probably did).

If it was a Chinese system they very likely did, they are pretty standard here (but still not good enough to help me much ).

[annyshay]

18 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

to see whether it's possible to learn to sing even for someone like me

Totally possible.

[tei_]

18 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

but I'm really curious to see if I could learn to sing well enough to not torture myself.

 

YOU DEFINITELY CAN! I agree that the main challenge to learning music stuff lies in finding a space to practice where you feel comfortable enough to lean into the inevitable terrible sounds that are the hallmark of actual improvement.

[Mad Hatter]

23 hours ago, annyshay said:

Totally possible.

 

22 hours ago, tei_ said:

 

YOU DEFINITELY CAN! I agree that the main challenge to learning music stuff lies in finding a space to practice where you feel comfortable enough to lean into the inevitable terrible sounds that are the hallmark of actual improvement.

I guess that’s true but at my current baseline it feels impossible! And I’d have to endure the torment of listening to myself haha  If I were hypothetically to try, where would you recommend I start?