I Will Not Fail my City...

[Mike Wazowski]

On 12/13/2020 at 1:26 PM, PaulG said:

Hey man, hope things are going well despite the difficulties with finding a workout venue. If you need to move things inside, don't hesitate to hit us up for equipment/build ideas! Or you can set up a challenge and just make desserts, that seems to be popular this month.

+1 for everything Paul said, especially giving us a chance to ogle desserts!

[Vidd]

Thank you both for checking in.

 

Yeah it's been a rough month. I've been working on learning new things at my work, and I made the sort of mistake that happens only in your nightmares but it was real. We pay some of our service vendors based off a % provided by the government(based off inflation maybe?) and for two months there was essentially a switch I was supposed to flip that cause us to pull from current month %... I was not aware of this, and so for two months my entire team used data from October. When my boss brought this to my attention and said we'd have to let the team know that they'd need to redo all their work, I said I'd do it on my own and that I'd feel bad if the entire team took the hit. So yeah I worked on undoing and correct everyone's work and have been working insane hours and my workouts have been thrown by the wayside.

 

Thankfully my boss was extremely understanding and told me a story of her own where she accidentally flipped a switch that sent every single invoice across to be paid, even the ones we wanted to cancel, or hold onto and it was a huge mess. Anyway I'm nearly through all this. I'm pretty embarrassed but I am human and things like this happen. I'm just glad it didn't result in me becoming the most unpopular person in the office lol.

 

As for workouts, I've tried to maintain. My motivation has hit a low because I seem to find it difficult to get excited about maintenance. I want a stable bar I can continue to learn calisthenics on. Unfortunately since its an old house I cannot trust my doorframes as a pullup bar option, and since I live with so many people there is no room to setup a pull up station. I'm in a rut until either the weather changes, the gyms open, or I get promoted and can finally afford my own place.

 

Desserts is a good idea but given how late it is I may just catch the next challenge. I do need to work on some dairy free sweets for myself. But cooking is so foreign to me. I can work a microwave and that's it lol

[fitnessgurl]

11 hours ago, Vidd said:

But cooking is so foreign to me. I can work a microwave and that's it lol

Book recommendation: The I Never Cooked Before Cookbook. That's where my cooking journey began.

[Vidd]

Hey Rebels,

 

So the chaos of being an accountant at year end is nearly over. I plan to bounce back and get back into the swing of things. The forums have definitely changed a lot since my absence but I'm sure in time I will get used to it.

 

Overall I'm feeling optimistic about 2021. There is so much I want to do this year both in fitness and life. And I am thinking getting back involved in challenges will give me the focus I need so that I don't wake up one day and its 2022 and I never got the things I wanted to do done. I'll have something up this weekend I've missed everyone

[Vidd]

Hi everybody, I'm bringing this battle log back from the dead

 

A rather productive Monday, I got a dentist appointment scheduled, did some cleaning, and actually did a workout. The park was filled with parents and kids so I avoided the pull up bar I usually use to avoid disturbing their play. I remember during this time last year the park was completely isolated. I'm now experiencing what a normal spring is like as a bodyweight trainee. The good thing is I found a bar to do some inverted rows, and I decided to use that same bar to do some one arm pushups since I wasn't feeling strong enough today to do the real exercise. Once I finished those two exercises the park cleared some and I was able to do some arms as a finisher.

 

My bicep movement was interesting. The park I go to has some rings and so instead of invert rowing with them, I supinated my palms and basically 'curled' my body. The range of motion isn't huge, but it is a lot of tension so the number of reps was actually rather low. I like it, it's another new way to hit my biceps without needing any weights. Here is a quick write-up of what I did.

 

Inverted rows 5 sets to failure

Assisted one-arm pushups 4 sets to failure

Overhead tricep extensions 4 sets to failure

Bodycurls (We'll call it that til I figure out the real name ) 4 sets to failure

 

Tomorrow I'm going to either go for a long walk, a stretch, or a leg workout.

 

 

[Vidd]

Hey all,

 

I woke up this morning with my legs really stiff, especially my right. I think this relates to my herniated disc a couple years ago while deadlifting. I tried to stretch it throughout the day, but to be honest I don't know if I know how to correct it. I actually brought it up to my physical therapist but she thinks I should just proceed with our stretches and seems to think it will correct itself. I hope she is right. Work dragged on today and as I neared the end of my shift I was feeling that lack of motivation set in and the fatigue, that I've been fighting for what seems like months now. I turned on an old Greg Plitt video and by the time the video was done, my shift was over, and I had the motivation necessary to get my workout done.

 

Today was legs and was all about real high volume, and as pristine of form as possible. Here was the workout:

 

Lunges 4 sets to failure

Squats 4 sets to failure

Single-leg calf raises 4 sets to failure

Abdominal Circuit, rotated through six exercises til burn out

 

There wasn't anything fancy to this workout, and no exercise was really that hard but with each set to failure it was hard to walk downstairs afterwards Tomorrow I'm going to do something. I haven't decided yet, but my mood is way better when I feel like I've done something to get my fitness back. It gives me the energy to do other productive things in my life. Right now I'm working on helping my mom get a job. She hasn't had one for years and is not much of a self starter but once she gets in a role she is an amazing employee so I'm hoping I can do this before things get busy for me again. Work has slowed down with the busy season behind me, but the next big thing in my life is looming ahead. I've found a location I'd like to rent, and some 1 bedrooms are opening up around May-June. This is because these apartments are located near a community college and a lot of students stay there. I mostly want to rent there because the city is a little safer than the one I am in currently, and they are very spacious for a rent that I can afford alone.

[Vidd]

Hey everybody, sort of feels like I've been treading water so I'm going to be mixing up my training. For almost a year I've treated calisthenics almost like bodybuilding. I'll do hard compound movements with long rest periods, and diligently track my sets and reps. I want to shift gears into some higher intensity work and make use of higher reps and giant/supersets. This'll work my muscular endurance which has been neglected some, but most importantly I just need a new stimulus. Tonight was a lot of fun and despite this workout being 24 sets, I got through it in about 40 min.

 

Some of you may remember the hip to waist row that was a bit of a project of mine during a challenge awhile back. I still haven't done the proper movement, but I was watching videos on youtube for motivation, and I saw a variation that I actually could do:

 

This is obviously way easier but it's a starting point. I don't know what it is with me and the front lever but I am lacking something. My body is not working as a complete unit. But anyway before I go off on a tangent on that, I decided to take the first giant set of this workout and do my own variation. So first giant set was Pullups->Midback Row->High to low rows with my heaviest resistance band. I did 3 rounds of this all to failure.

 

Then next giant set was chest. Dips->Pushups->High to low single arm band flyes. 3 rounds to failure for this too. I finished off the workout with an arms superset. This was tricep extensions, and body curls,  3 rounds.

 

The pump was insane after this workout and I'm feeling a great sense of exhaustion

 

 

 

[Vidd]

Hey all, it's been over 2 years but I have finally reemerged. A lot has changed and I nearly setup a new battle log to reflect the change in goals, but I think remaining here allows people who may not have gotten to know me, to see the journey. I recently downloaded an app called Habitica that attempts to gameify your life, and it made me remember this forum and how much it helped me. I hope everyone has been well and I'm excited to get involved again. Without further ado, going to jump into my current mission.

 

Now full disclaimer, the path I'm on is not going to be the most exciting. It is more of a test of grit and determination to complete a task that is over a year in the making. My civilian job is an accountant, it helps me to blend in and stay inconspicuous while at night I perform my superhero training. There is a 4 part accounting exam called the CPA, with each exam requiring roughly 120-150 hours of study each, with just a 50% pass rate. I have passed 3 of the 4 and in the next 39 days I have my first shot at the final part of this exam. I'm going to give this my all to finish this off. So my goals with fitness are to try to support and offset this sedentary lifestyle, as I will be at my PC for 8-9 hours a day at work, and then add another 2-3 study hours on top of that.

 

What spurred this on is recently 80% of my department was outsourced overseas. This was announced last October, and we lost all staff accountants, and 50% of the seniors were also laid off. I remain as one of the seniors and have been helping to train the new team based in India. This was one of the most difficult scenarios I've been in. I felt sadness for the coworkers I've known for years, and also a feeling of guilt for being kept, even though I had no part in this occurring. But it also woke me up to the illusion of security and comfort I was living in. The CPA became a must for me instead of a want, because I have a feeling the moment I'm no longer needed as a trainer for the new team, then it only makes sense for me to be let go too. This CPA designation will help me in reliably finding new work as this economy becomes harder.

 

The app I am using has dailies that must be checked off or else my character loses HP points, and I can potentially die and lose all of my progress. Here is what I currently have setup each day:

 

Intellect - Study 2 hours. This is a minimum baseline goal for each day, I can reward myself more experience for additional hours.

Strength - Gym. I'm doing a five day bodypart split. More on the reasons why further down this post.

Visit the Inn - Sleep 7 hours. Bonus experience for additional hours up to 9 hours total sleep.

Nimbleness - Stretch 15 minutes. Crucial to offset all the sitting I do.

Agility/Endurance - Cardio 20 minutes. Bonus experience for additional 20 minutes.

Meal Prep - 2x a week. This occurs on Sundays and Thursdays where I cook up a large batch of stir fry for my lunches. Good way to get my vegetables and protein in.

 

Alright so the bodypart split is drastically different from my assassin-esque training I once did. I'm under a lot of stress, and so I've found that, while I may be too exhausted to learn new skills or full body training, I can successfully hammer one muscle group sufficiently and walk away feeling like I've achieved something. The unique part of this training however, is I'm going for high reps in the 12-20 range and implementing dropsets, and supersets too. I want to build the endurance of the muscle, not just the strength so that I have that superhero feel I am striving for. Thanks for reading this long update if you made it this far

[Vidd]

Quick check in for the day. I think I'll be doing daily, or semi daily updates to rebuild the habit at least for awhile. I noticed nearly the day I came back a new challenge started. It almost feels like a sign, so when I get some spare time I may write something up. I think I've got a solid plan already here in my battle log, but I can give it a cool theme for more motivation

 

Today felt like a race. The name of the game is finding more time to throw at this exam. So 15 minute break at work, I knocked out my 15 minutes of stretching goal(I'm hybrid so I was home today so no I didn't make everyone in the office feel awkward lol) and then during lunch I got gas, and some other necessities. I was able to eat quick given I'd prepped my meals last night. I tried to squeeze the most out of the day which ended up in me hitting every daily today even with me working an extra hour at work today.

 

No weights today I did double duty on cardio. 20 minutes on the bike, then 20 minutes on the treadmill. Any time I do an extra 20 minutes I alternate to another form of cardio so I don't get too bored. Anyway that's all for today here is hoping I keep up this momentum.

 

 

[Vidd]

Tough day today, I think I got close to my 2 hours of study time, but I'm not sure. My studies were fragmented due to multiple interruptions. Other than studying being a maybe, I hit every other goal but got stuck at the gym longer than I planned. Long story short my uncle talks a lot, and he tried to call me today. So I timed it to where I'd call him back as I was doing my nightly cardio. Let's just say I was stuck on that bike way longer than I planned but, more cardio is always good. I actually saw a study recently, right here, https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/07/25/getting-more-exercise-than-guidelines-suggest-may-further-lower-death-risk where basically even if you go beyond the 150 minutes recommended cardio you continue to gain benefits even if you 2-4x that amount. I don't have time to hit 300 minutes a week, not yet anyway, but the more the better.

 

I also hit an arm day today. Here was the workout:

 

4 sets overhead tricep extensions supersetted with closegrip presses.

4 sets incline curls

4 sets machine tricep extension

6 sets pinwheel curls

4 sets abdominal crunch machine

 

I've got an amazing tricep machine at my gym where it has a back rest that is adjustable so it locks you in. Hits my triceps extremely well. As for biceps, incline curls seem to be the best. I do them slow and controlled. I did a little more bicep than tricep since that is the area I need to build up a bit more. Most guys have overdeveloped biceps, I have the opposite problem. Triceps are just more fun haha.

[WhiteGhost]

Welcome back!

[Vidd]

@Whiteghost thank you!

 

Some new developments past few days. Originally my exam was to be taken on Sept 1st, but the state board did not get around to approving my application in time. The only time slot that wasn't super early in the morning was Aug 31st. So I'm missing a day I'd taken off of work to devote to studies, which may not seem like a lot but it's a bummer.  The second thing I found out was that my supervisor overheard my director discussing ways they're going to try to retain me. They are worried I'll leave after I obtain the certification. So apparently the plan is they may offer me a promotion to supervisor level. This would be huge, but also a lot to think about...

 

My philosophy for now is to not worry about external factors on what may or may not happen and just remain on my path. I've stayed consistent on the stretching, my workouts, and studies. The one loss is yesterday was supposed to be a meal prep day but it completely slipped my mind. Since this is something new I'm trying to still implement, it's easy for me to forget that Thursdays are supposed to be days for cooking. I figured out I can make the habitica app give me notifications at specific times for certain tasks. So now at 5PM when I get off work I'll automatically get notified on Thursday that I need to cook that night.

 

Here was my leg workout of the day:

 

5 Sets 45 Degree Leg Press. This exercise I like to do a slow 4-5 second negative, and then explode up on each rep. Crazy burn.

4 Sets Standing Calf Raises

3 Sets Back Extensions

3 Sets Leg Curls

3 Sets Leg Extensions

 

Very heavy on the machines as you all can see.  This will hopefully change in time as I regain my flexibility. What I am going to implement again soon are bulgarian split squats. Back in my pandemic era workouts I really liked how my lower body felt when I focused on doing those and working up to doing them with bands.

[Vidd]

Hey so, been a little lost since the end of last challenge. I'm still waiting on the results from my CPA exam which I should find out on the 14th. In the meantime, I've been trying to find the motivation to feel excited about some of my other goals. In an attempt to do so, I spent the afternoon designing a new workout routine. As summer comes to a close, I'm keeping it to gym workouts to prepare for the cold weathers. I'm also carrying an extra 10-15 lbs that I need to shed in order for me to get back to the types of bodyweight workouts that I used to really enjoy. The new routine is Upper Body -> Lower Body -> Full Body -> Arms. The 3 days off are mixed inbetween these sessions and are when I do extra cardio and ab workouts. This is going to give me a lot more frequency in hitting my muscle groups than the bodypart split that I was previously doing.

 

I also plugged in my diet to MyFitnessPal to figure out how things are going, and made some tweaks. I've been doing intermittent fasting for years now, and I think I want to add back in breakfast. My rationale for doing so is, I mentioned during my last challenge that one health issue of mine is that I'm noticing I may be having some new blood sugar issues. I'm experiencing major carb cravings and sometimes feel a little dizzy if I haven't eaten in awhile. So I think it's time to stop the fasting, and maybe revisit later on if I decide to. What I don't want to miss out on though, are the time saving benefits of intermittent fasting so it's important whatever I choose as my breakfast takes little to no prep time. This is why I'm planning on doing overnight oats each morning. This is what the macros are looking like:

 

This looks like a great start to the morning and getting those 52G of protein in first thing, will make it much easier for me to hit my protein goal the remainder of the day versus my previous 2 meal strategy.