pandapanda: A New Challenger Appears!

[pandapanda]

(All lifts below are (sets)x(reps) so 3x5 is three sets of five reps each. I don't remember if that's the conventional notation or no!)

Hey there! I'm a severely de-powered ranger. I'm 5'10", 160lbs, 24yo. Used to have a perfect USMC PFT score, 1RM back squats at 150kg, parkour weekly, and train in Krav bi-weekly. Then law school happened.

So let's turn this around!

3 Diet and Fitness Goals:

1. Jump-start new routine: avg 30 minutes of work (lift, bike, swim, run, trace) at least 5 times a week. [+3 STR, +2 EDU]
   
2. Benchmark and track every metric: weight lifted, time ran, speed, distance of pk jump... [+2 WIS]
   
3. Reward self with no more than 2 tasty NYC pizza slices per week. [+3 CON]
   

1 Level Up Ur Life Goal:

1. Wellness: STOP for 5 min/day and meditate. [+1 DEX, +1 CON, +1 STA, +1 WIS, +1 CHA]
   

I'm thinking about how to implement effectively - I'll come back and post that tonight...think think think...

[pandapanda]

Ok. Planning in the back of my mind. In the meantime - ACTION! D:<

Today I went to do PK for the first time in about - well, a long time! I lost a lot of skill; my general confidence and ability to balance and move fluidly have all diminished. BUT WOAH - I did some feats of strength that I wasn't able to do when I stopped: (1) a pullup bar muscle-up with popping both elbows over the bar at once (though I did it only once), and (2) a flag (with my feet tucked)! Cool stuff!

It was excited to move again. I feel the achies. But also there were some incredibly strong guys there: one in particular did a number of flawless bar muscle-ups. Though he tried a back lever and it didn't go so well (teehee). I'm excited to get stronger! Get my planche back! Arg!

And parkour is so much better than the gym. Even better - it serves as a raison d'etre for ehem GOING TO THE GYM ALREADY. The USMC used to provide the impetious. It's hard to find it within. I think a timely return to PK will serve nicely.

However, I'm having my one pizza night this evening. Hallelujah - show me to your bacon leader!!

Hm, I should make an Evernote journal to track my workouts. Done and done!

Welps, that's it from me. Thanks for dropping a line if ya do!

[pandapanda]

Yesterday was weights. (Re-)Starting light because the parkour the day before shocked my legs a little!

Squats 3x5 135lbs

Dumbbell bench 3x9 90lbs (total)

Pullups 3x7

Dips 3x7

Deadlift 3x5 185lbs

Today was rest. Tomorrow is more! This is feeling great.

Also, sad story, my motorcycle was STOLEN! WTF. Yesterday! My heart! It aches! I kept it in mint condition and loved it so dearly. Alas, it is gone. But tomorrow I'm cleaning my bike up and that'll be my transportation! xD

[pandapanda]

Dumbbell Bench 3x9 100lbs (total)

Squat 3x5 165 lbs (I think in kilos so this is hard!) (Wait, the plates had kg...why didn't I just remember those? Fml.)

(Barbell) Press 3x5 (45+25*2) 95lbs

Dumbbell Row 3x7 45lbs (each arm) (I think...I forgot my notebok!)

Bicep Curls 2x7 35lbs (each arm) (Ouch, long day.)

(Forgot to do calf work blerp)

I'm about to start some manna progressions! Go fight win!

[jimmie65]

Sucks about the motorcycle.

But good work on your goals.

[pandapanda]

Thanks, Jimmie! How goes getting the processed food out of your diet? I'm trying to consume lots of whole foods and meals that I make myself. It's a challenge in my busy life. How do you get it in?

[jimmie65]

Thanks, Jimmie! How goes getting the processed food out of your diet? I'm trying to consume lots of whole foods and meals that I make myself. It's a challenge in my busy life. How do you get it in?

My wife's on board, and we don't have any kids so it's pretty easy to cut out the processed food. My problem right now is portion control. Plateaued out again this week, despite eating healthy.

[pandapanda]

Hm, I don't generally think that the connection between diet and workouts is immediately visible: the diet change will act in subtle ways to improve your athleticism and life quality, I think. The long haul!

[ManofKent]

Hey, just been checking out your log as you had posted on mine, bad news about the 'bike dude, nice work on continuing to train unphased though!

[Fenone]

You sound so positive, even with the bike stolen, I like that. Good job with everything so far!

[pandapanda]

Thanks, Ferone and ManofKent. I actually had a freakout last night because I realized that, in switching my insurance to NY, I took off comprehensive insurance which covers the bike if its stolen. I didn't mean to - I took it off because I thought it only covered extra stuff on the bike (like improvements, or if I was carrying my laptop and it fell out of my bag or something). So no recovery?! Super stressed me out. BUT I found out this morning (when I called quite panic'd) that, I was still covered by my comprehensive from Washington! Alhamdulilah! So it was like I had a little grace period xD Epic save get!

Of course...made me realize that christ, how horrible would it have been if it was HEALTH insurance which suddenly left me out in the cold. Christ, there's a good reason to get the big O back in the whitehauz...

Thanks for all the support!

I took a great, quick bike ride to class today. Tomorrow is more parkour epicness. Lifting Wednesday, PK Thurs, lifting Sat. Oh, it's gunna be a good week.

[jimmie65]

Good news on the motorcycle.

[pandapanda]

Tuesday parkour was strength-training murder. So yesterday was a rest! And...today is a rest because I had insomnia last night...and I'm going out tonight. I'll lift tomorrow, run Sat, lift Sun. I gotta plan meals. Humpf!

So far we are go-go green on all goals! I've been using the meditate goal as part of two 15 minute stretching sessions everyday. Good stuff~!

[jimmie65]

Nice work, pandapanda.

[pandapanda]

Ahh, steel speaks a truth most humbling:

Back squats 3x5 170lbs

DB bench press 3x7 110lbs

Pull-ups 3x7

Dips 3x7

Bicep curls (shameful, I know) 2x7 25lbs (hellish after all the upper body work)

[pandapanda]

Today:

Squats 3x1 225lbs

DB bench 3x7 55lbs (per hand)

Deadlift 3x1 245lbs

Bicep curls (no shame) 3x7 35lbs

(switch orig plan: biking tomorrow)

And I bought tons of chicken, tuna, whey, applesauce, fruits n veggies, and more to fuel me through the next week! Thanks for the inspiration, Staci (where ever you are)~!

[Titanium]

I love your energy! Keep up the good work!

[pandapanda]

Thanks, Titanium!! Today was another lifting day:

FS 3x5 @ 135lbs

DB BP 3x7 @ 60lbs (per hand)

OHP 3x7 @ 75lbs (I'm weak, what of it? Esp after the DB BP )

Seated Cable Rows 3x7 @ 100lbs, 1x7 @ 118lbs

DB BC 3x7 @ 25lbs (killer after all the bicep aux work in the DB BP and OHP)

TOTALLY conscious that I haven't gone for any good runs, bike rides, or swims. I'm trying to think how I'd like to factor them in. Maybe i should just be satisfied with parkour twice a week for endurance training. I'm trying to be cautious about continuing to increase my workout load: I went from 0-60 pretty quick, and it's looking to be sustainable in tandem with my school work (law school is evil - as is nursing school, so I've heard on these forums ). I just don't know how much more I can or am willing to increase. For example, I had plans to stretch ever morning and night for 15 minutes to improve my middle splits, but it was too much on top of what I'm doing already. I'll just keep this challenge simple. For the next 6 I'll reassess and see where I can work-work-work it. Maybe if I continue at this rate through the 6 weeks I'll begin to see my old 1RMs on the horizon. (Except the 150kg back squat. That seems a ways away).

Thanks again for all the support!

[pandapanda]

Oug, tweaked my back a little on the front squats. Maybe I should've gone lighter to re-start. My first set was a little messy on form because I let the weight go just a tad too far forward. I fixed it for most of set 2 and all of set 3 by lifting my elbows more to put the bar against my throat more. It looks like my flexibility has diminished a little. Welps, better that I figured it out in that one workout.

Thoughts on meditation coming soon! I'm not going to do parkour during the week because I'm a little pressured by schoolwork. I'll make it up with the runs I've been missing out on! And a swim?!

[Jaksavage]

Great work!! You're killin it!

[pandapanda]

Thanks, JS!

So this weekend was academic murder because I got assigned to represent a young man who was suspended from school. It took a lot of time to prep for meeting and interviewing him. The hearing is on Friday. NYC has an incredibly odd process of conducting suspensions: essentially to put the kid on trial!! o.o

I lifted on Friday and Sat - the best I could do with all this work. I figure that at the least I need to make sure I keep up with my lifting schedule.

Fri

BS 175lbs 3x5

DBBP 60lbs 3x7

DBBC 30lbs 3x7

DL 185lbs 3x5

Sat

BS 235lbs 3x1

DBBP 60 3x7

DL 255 3x1

DBBC 35 3x7

Go fight win!

[pandapanda]

I took the week to rest because the back twinge wasn't going away. But I reset my sleep schedule and I'm starting to get up around 5-6am. I hope it'll make it easier to fit a workout into my days without interference from homework. The break came about because school got very intense last week. Excited to start fresh on Monday!

[Jaksavage]

Killing it!! Keep at it!!

[pandapanda]

I kill nothing D': Cept da cows n chickens for my noms nodnod* This morning was jolly:

FS 3x5 170lbs

DBBP 3x7 65lbs

DBBC 2x5 25lbs, 1x8 25lbs

BBRW 3x7 90lbs

PU 3x7 (hell)

Parkour on the morrow!

[pandapanda]

It hewrts. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I did parkour for 2+ hours. On Saturday I killed it: three different parks with big stuff. Today I gotta go lift. Ewps!