Epsilonte's first Challenge

[Epsilonte]

Hey everyone!

 

Oh my, how exciting! 

I first found Nerd Fitness AGES ago (I think it might have been some time around 2011/12), but never did anything with it since I found myself too weak to work out and too shy to even click on the forum link... Since then a lot happened.  I got super into training all kinds of stuff, hurt myself, had to take a break and am since trying to get back to my former self. 

Since I have a bit more time than usual on my hands right now (I just quit my dayjob and plan to go back to school in September), I decided to check out that awesome workout site I remembered at the back of my head - apparently just in time for the new challenge to start! It's destiny!!  

 

So my goals for the next 5 weeks are: 

1. Do 1-2 training sessions a week. I'm a pole dancer and teacher. I couldn't do any pole dancing during lockdown. Now I want to build my pain tolerance up again (I really forgot how much it hurts to hang upside down on a chrome pole by your kneepit... who would have thought. ) and become strong enough again to do and teach the more advanced moves. So training in this case = hanging around on the pole, slowly working through the first 4-5 levels. This does not include my teaching (1-3 evenings a week), just the training I do for myself. This will be the biggest challenge of these.
2. Stretch 6 times a week. I did this for 3 months during lockdown, then the "normal life" started again and I fell off the bandwagon. I want to jump right to it again, build that habit again and get flexy. Big goal for the next months is the middlesplit for me. I want this since I started 2013, and finally made some really nice progress this year, I'm sooooo close! Plus: stretching is awesome during summertime when it's warm. 
3. Don't buy any "extra" sweets. A bit of honey here and there is fine, and I totally will bake a cake for my birthday in two weeks, but apart from that it's fruit and all the tons of stuff I already have at home. This is enough to easily last for 5 weeks. I might have a little sugar addiction problem...  It helps that it's really warm right now and I'm not craving sugar as much as I do when it's colder, so I want to try to roll with this "I don't need as many sweets right now" feeling as long as it lasts. 
4. Go to sleep by 23:30. This might seem late for a lot of people, but my normal sleeping time right now is more around midnight to 1 am and I only have to get up at 7:30 in the morning, so I think it might work out fine. Babysteps. And build up for September, where I will need to get up earlier... 
5. Bonus: Meditate 4 times a week. I have the headspace subscription, I just need to use it... Now that I can structure my days however I want for the next six weeks, I want to incorporate this. 

 

I don't think I will update daily, but I want to write about my training sessions when they happen, to keep myself accountable. 

I will also take progress pictures for my stretching (since I always do this and it's awesome to actually see and track the progress), I'm not sure yet if I want to post them here, maybe.

For sleeping and meditating I have a little tracking section in my (paper) calendar, and will include any progress there in my updates here. 

 

Thanks for reading my little novel. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome to the forums.

[cd667]

Welcome!

 

I am following this. Ready to cheer you on!

 

Incidentally, "kneepit" is my new word for the day. I have always wondered what that part of your body was called!

[Epsilonte]

Thanks for the nice welcome!

 

Haha, I just needed to check right now if "kneepit" is an actual word - english is not my first language. Phew, it is.  Always happy to provide new fun words.  

 

As for the challenge:

did my first stretching session today. Totally forgot to meditate in the morning (it is not yet a habit), but I will do it now. 

So far, so good.

[MezzotheLefty]

Welcome fellow first timer.

 

I did a pole class with a friend once. It's a crazy hard workout! I'm impressed by anyone who can do it, much less teach it!

 

Following along and rooting for you!

[DarK_RaideR]

Welcome. Or welcome back, I guess. Good luck on your challenge!

[fitnessgurl]

Welcome! Paper calendars rock! I've gone digital with food tracking; but the rest is in my Happy Planner.

 

[Epsilonte]

On 8/4/2020 at 10:22 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Welcome. Or welcome back, I guess. Good luck on your challenge!

 

Thank you!!

 

On 8/4/2020 at 4:04 PM, fitnessgurl said:

Welcome! Paper calendars rock! I've gone digital with food tracking; but the rest is in my Happy Planner.

 

 

Oh yes, they do!! I use the Passion Planner, totally in love with it. It hast a lot of similarities with the challenges here, like thinking in big goals and then breaking it down to managable things... 

And everything that is not written in this calender, doesn't happen!

 

On 8/4/2020 at 4:32 AM, MezzotheLefty said:

Welcome fellow first timer.

 

I did a pole class with a friend once. It's a crazy hard workout! I'm impressed by anyone who can do it, much less teach it!

 

Following along and rooting for you!

 

Thank you!!

Pole is sooooo much fun once you get over the first "omg I'm dying and I can't get my arms over my shoulders anymore"...  It is what got me into sports in the first place. 

 

Challengewise... Meditating, sleeping and streching are all going great, I've done each and every thing each day so far. Not buying any new sweets as well (my newest favourite snack is a handfull of frozen raspberries, sooooo good in the summerheat!). Pole... not so much. I simultaneously miss it and am afraid of starting again. xD 

I plan to do some easy polethings (a few spins and a bit of conditioning) tomorrow after stretching, wish me luck that I actually do it. Next week will be easier with this, because I can go to the studio for it. Right now the studio is closed for summerholidays, so I just have my pole at home, and that one is not very high and has not a lot of space around (first world pole problems ^^)... I use it mainly to choreograph new things, not so much for actual training. But I think a few conditioning exercises should go well enough.  I will report tomorrow evening.  

[Epsilonte]

I did it!  

And it went way better than expected. I had rather good grip today and after training the moves I need for my class on Monday (whew, everything still works. Not perfect, but solid enough. ) I even attempted one trick I haven't done in aaaages (elbow grip ayesha for everyone curious. I first got this sucker about 5 years ago and have since then a pretty intense on-off-relationship with it. xD). And succeded. 

 

I planned to go to the gym as well, but in the end I didn't... I went on Monday last time, so it really is time to go there again. So that is my big goal for tomorrow. 

[MezzotheLefty]

Woohoo for a strong start!

 

You have a pole at home? That's so cool! How does that work exactly? Like, how do you install it?

 

With the lockdown and everything, it must be convenient to have a pole at home, even if you can't do everything you'd like in the space.

[Epsilonte]

I have an x-pole, they are pressure mounted, super easy to install and take down, and they don't leave any marks on the floor or ceiling (well other than a ring of dust on the ceiling ).

Sadly I didn't really use it much during the lockdown (we don't have a lockdown here anymore), but I can use it now.

 

Btw I'm really feeling my arms today...  So I guess it's gonna be legday at the gym later.

[cd667]

Impressive stuff!

 

I am slightly in awe of anyone that can dangle from a pole.

[Epsilonte]

It's something everyone can learn, if you are willing...  (Same with everything, really. You don't start squatting 200 pounds but I guess eventually you can get there...^^)

 

Yesterday was pretty bad... Only thing of my list I managed to do was meditating (and not buying sweets - I even was grocery shopping and didn't buy anything not on the list, so that is a win!). Didn't even go to bed on time... But today is a new day, I started with some mobility exercises, stretching and choreographing (that counts as training pole ^^) and am feeling much better than yesterday. 

Still looking pretty good with all the x in my calendar.  

[cd667]

56 minutes ago, Epsilonte said:

It's something everyone can learn, if you are willing...

 

I suppose so. If I was being more honest maybe I would say I am impressed that people learn that stuff. It looks so impressive(park the fact that I am a big, stupid man).

 

Hey, I had a bad day too yesterday. But I smashed it again today, and so have you! If the general trend is still upwards, it's a win.

[Epsilonte]

It totally is a win, cd667!

 

Didn't go to bed on time yesterday again, but I got up on time anyway and that is all that matters. ^^

 

Today was a big win too, I started with my mobility exercises, followed by my stretching routine and a little meditation. After lunch I actually went to the studio to train pole with a few friends and it was awesome, just came home from that. I feel prepared for my classes tomorrow now and even managed to get a little snap for Instagram (perfect? No. But I consistently managed to do a few tricks I haven't done in a long time today, and that is a total win.). Went to eat some icecream with the girls afterwards - it's vegan icecream, so basically healthy, right?  

 

Now all that is on my to do list for the rest of the day is: playing Assassins Creed and going to bed on time. I think I might manage that.   

 

So stats for this week (Mo - Su): 

Sleepy time: 4/6 (7th is today)

Meditating: 7/7

Stretching: 6/6

Training: 3,5/2 (the 0,5 are because one time I went to the gym and also count that a little bit )

Mobility exercises: 6/7 (not part of the challenge, but something I should be doing anyway, so I'm tracking it in my calendar^^)

 

I'm excited for week 2 now!!

[fitnessgurl]

On 8/8/2020 at 7:58 AM, cd667 said:

park the fact that I am a big, stupid man).

Quit saying that stuff about yourself.

[MezzotheLefty]

Awesome Week 1 stats, @Epsilonte!

 

Saturday was my off day but we both got back to it and that's what matters. I saw this quote on Instagram today and it really resonated with me:

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

 

We're doing good.

[Epsilonte]

Thank you, Mezzo! 

Good is much better than perfect, imho. So: we are doing great!  

 

Yesterday was pretty good too. Did my stretches in the morning (today too), had classes in the evening - we had a full blown Sailor Moon Special yesterday, with full costume and all, so much fun! I love that there are enough nerdy polebabies for stuff like this.  It's one of my favourite classes to teach. 

And of course, another treat of icecream afterwards... Can't help myself, one of the best icecream places of the city is directly next to the polestudio...  Life is hard. (Nah, I think a little bit of vegan icecream after 3 hours of poledance is quite ok xD). 

[cd667]

Great day! You definitely earned your ice cream!

 

It's my birthday next week. My treat is going for an ice cream with my partner, then takeaway food and a couple of beers. I am almost pathetically excited!

[Epsilonte]

Hey there, birthday buddy, mine is on Sunday this week.  Your plan sounds awesome!! It's so much more of a treat if you have a few days to get excited and it's really something special, isn't it?  

 

For mine I plan to bake a cake (biscuit with fruit on top, it's too warm for anything else) and we will play pen and paper (Carbon 2185) with friends. That is the ultimate cheatday since there will definitely be lots great food, sweets, chips... xD I'm really looking forward to it! 

[juliebarkley]

On 8/1/2020 at 5:17 PM, Epsilonte said:

Stretch 6 times a week. I did this for 3 months during lockdown, then the "normal life" started again and I fell off the bandwagon. I want to jump right to it again, build that habit again and get flexy. Big goal for the next months is the middlesplit for me. I want this since I started 2013, and finally made some really nice progress this year, I'm sooooo close! Plus: stretching is awesome during summertime when it's warm. 

I would love to know what your stretching routine consists of. I'm playing around with stretching this challenge, but am quite a ways of being anywhere near a middle split.

[fitnessgurl]

@cd667 & @Epsilonte Happy almost birthdays!🎂🎂

[fitnessgurl]

On 8/11/2020 at 3:48 PM, Epsilonte said:

Carbon 2185

Just looked this up. It looks amazing!!!! 

[Epsilonte]

17 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I would love to know what your stretching routine consists of. I'm playing around with stretching this challenge, but am quite a ways of being anywhere near a middle split.

 

Hi Julie! My stretching routine is a bit different every day and consists of a healthy mix of active flexibility training (basically strength exercises at the current end range of motion, e.g. laying on the back and opening the legs, engaging the muscles without helping with the hands) and passive stretches (sitting in a stretchy pose and holding and breathing - still with active muscles, but also with some kind of resistance, e.g. splits on the floor). Mostly I do an online stretching program called sisers-stretching (I'm afraid, it's a purely german website, but I'm sure there are english sites like this as well and maybe youtube?), there I can do a different video every day. The videos are 20 to 90 minutes long, so I just choose one depending on how much time I have and how tired my legs are.  

It's basically a more dancer-focused version of this: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/the-3-best-flexibility-exercises-the-ultimate-guide-for-improving-flexibility-in-30-days/

 

Getting more flexible takes a LOT of time though. I've been training for my middlesplits for YEARS now and I'm still not quite there (though to be honest, before 2020 I only did a few classes here or there, so not so focused on middlesplits as I am right now. I want to get that sucker this year. Or maybe next year. xD). So don't get discouraged if it takes some time, this is normal. And take pictures every few weeks to check on that progress. Oh and some Restdays in between are important too, same as with training, it's also nice to switch things up and not stretch the same muscles every day. 

 

Maybe if you have some in your vicinity, try taking some dance stretching classes? That is where I started and it's always good to have a teacher there helping you for the first steps. If there are any right now where you live... 

 

I attached a few pics: one is from March, where I started to stretch daily, the two with the turquoise leggings are two months later, and represent my current status quite well (stopped stretching daily during June and July because I didn't have that much time anymore). So not much progress from May till today, but a ton of progress from March to May.

[Epsilonte]

9 hours ago, fitnessgurl said:

@cd667 & @Epsilonte Happy almost birthdays!🎂🎂

 

 Thank you!!

 

8 hours ago, fitnessgurl said:

Just looked this up. It looks amazing!!!! 

 

Yeah it's really fun!! Until now I always played fantasy settings, but this is really cool as well. 

 

 

Sooo yesterday was a fun day. I did a class as a student for a change, my very first twerking class. Oh my, it's a lot of fun but also very hardcore. xD Definitely counts as cardio... ^^ 

Stretchingwise was a restday, because I wanted to give my legs some rest (hint: twerking does not give the legs some rest... xD).

Today is poleday again, I'm really looking forward to it!