The Belt of Adonis (Vengefulpear's Road to Asgard & Theft of Mjolnir Pt 2)

[vengefulpear]

When he reached the top of the mountain, the rainbow shimmered and made it seem like he was standing in an ocean of light. The road to Asgard stood before him, close enough to touch. But there was no way through. The mountain path had made him tougher and leaner but there was little skill in climbing a mountain, determination carried him this far but it could carry him no further. He fell to his knees in frustration and slowly made his way back down the mountain.

 

But the assassin was not ready to admit defeat. There are not many things that can stop an assassin who's put his mind to something, and this assassin's mind was definitely set to stealing Mjolnir. He had heard tales of a demi-god in a distant forest who's grueling training regime sent many would-be heroes scuttling for safety. This was his destination. He would train under the demi-god and become skilled and powerful enough to penetrate the Rainbow Road and make his secretive way to Asgard.

 

It took him several days by boat to reach the heavy forest the demi-god Adonis had taken as his home, feasting with generous merchants and sailors along the way. And then several more to find the marble temple at the its heart, where he would find the demi-god. The temple was beautiful, but barren, there was no one waiting for him. There was no mystic mythological figure awaiting him to turn dramatically. But this was what the assassin had been expecting. He left an offering on the temple altar and elected to come back the following day, to see if he and his offering had been accepted.

 

He did not need to wait that long; as he was setting up camp a figure burst from the trees and began attacking the assassin. In a desperate fight the assassin parried, leapt and lunged against his assailant. After a few minutes of brutal intensity the figure jumped backwards an astonishing distance, nodded to the assassin and walked in the direction of the temple. It looked like Adonis had started his training.

 

 

Hello fellow Rebels!

I hope you don't mind my fairly long story intro!

 

So this challenge I want to focus on high intensity exercise both with resistance training and sprints, and skill work. But I don't want to say just one kind of skill work, I think I would like to try out various poses and balancing work.

 

My overall quest is to be able to do a one armed, hand-stand push up (modeled here by Vegeta) and a 90 degree push up. But I know both of these are extremely far away, so for now I'm going to focus on fat-loss (less to move) and some skill work.

 

I've called this challenge the Belt of Adonis because I'd really like to be able to see mine (and of course abs!)  and I hope that if I meet my fat-loss goal for this challenge I will be able to. Anyway! Enough of this levity, let's talk goals!

Goal 1: To Be Carved From Marble (Fat Loss) +2 DEX +2 CON

Lose 3% Bodyfat

 

I want to be stricter with this goal than I was last time, I will be allowed to up my carb intake on workout days whilst trying my hardest to be paleo (but still under 100g). I might have a 3 or 4 cheat days spread across the whole challenge but I'm not sure about this yet. So we'll see!
 

I will put some stats for myself down so I can gauge progress but (a bit cheekily!) I'm going to give myself till Wednesday to let my body calm down from my holiday last week and hopefully not be ballooned with beer!

 

But the way I intend to lose the bodyfat is to do high intensity exercise, so lots of sprints and resistance circuits! And of course eat at a calorie deficit! The details of which I shall post up with my other stats when I do them. I'm looking into planning and preparing my meals over the weekends as well, if I can get a fair amount of meat from a butchers/supermarket for relatively cheap then that should be fine!

 

 

Goal 2: To Fight the Black Bear (Strength) +4 STR

Do 3 Strength Workouts per week

 

With the upcoming release of the new Thor movie, I want to try and couple some strength training with the bodyfat goal to make myself look as Thor like as possible by the time the movie comes out! For the last couple of weeks of the last challenge I was doing weights at the gym splitting 2 days into essentially Chest & Back/Legs & Shoulders split and trying to throw in some bodyweight circuits too. So I'll keep doing this with Legs at the beginning of the week and Chest on Thursday (I can't NOT workout on Thorsday!)

 

 

Taking inspiration from TiberiusNightrise I'll be tracking my workouts on here so I can see better where I'm improving/need to work on. And also carrying on from last time I'll be using the Bear/Cat infographics to playfully see how heavy I can lift! If I'm lucky I'll be able to Bench Press a Black Bear!

 

What Cat Can You Lift?: http://i.imgur.com/rpo7B6Y.jpg

What Bear Can You Lift? http://i.imgur.com/HYFCNQf.jpg

 

To Black Bear and beyond!

 

 

Goal 3: The Tricks of Immortals (Skill) +3 DEX +1 STR

Do 2 Skill Workouts a week

 

One of the reasons I love the Assassins guild is for all the crazy skills that we have going for us, so it's about time I started learning to do them too! Last time I planned to do skill workouts purely to focus on handstands/headstands, but this time I want to open it up a bit more, I'm looking into getting some gymnastics rings to put on my pull up bar so that should really open up the skills (and make it a lot easier to get the motivation!) But I'm not 100% sure what to do (I'm a total beginner skills wise) so any suggestions are welcome

 

 

Goal 4: For the Assassin Records (Writing) +3 WIS

Write at least 1 blog post a week

 

Bonus points if I can schedule the posts rather than frantically write them during my lunch hour. I've also let slip for the past couple of weeks so I really want to get back into it as it will not only help me but should also help me for jobs. I have been toying with the idea of starting a fitness blog, with the theme for saturday morning/90s TV and other general geekery (I really like classics and mythology so I'd try and chuck that in too). So if I do start that then it has to be one blog post for BOTH each week, I can't use that as an excuse to do one or the other.

 

 

I think that's more than enough for now! But I'll be on and about to post up any more coherent plans and my stats once I've done them.

Best of luck to you fellow Rebels (and especially Assassins ) I look forward to doing another awesome challenge with you all

[TiberiusNightrise]

Yes! I love your goals, man! Nice and challenging, and will definitely be moving you in a Thor-like direction. I'm really looking to following along again! To Black Bear and Beyond!

 

You inspired me, by the way. Because you're doing 3% body fat again, I may raise my goal back to 3% from 2.5. We shall see.

[vengefulpear]

Thanks!

 

I'm looking at doing some more ab exercises with this challenge to try and really get that bear-beating core!

 

Well it's always nice to be told you're an inspiration Well you did better than me for the body fat challenge last time so I'm sure you can get 3% this time! Especially as you were so close! You pushed me last time so I'm sure we can push each other this time!

 

At the moment I'm hoping to go up to the gym after work but that will probably mean not getting home until 9 aaand it's raining at the moment so I might just do some skill work and some bodyweight work instead. But we'll see.

[Warmachinez]

Nice story intro, I might start doing that for the second challenge... Once I have proven to myself that I have the motivation to go through with these 6 week challenges.

 

I was wondering, what means do you use to measure your Body Fat percentage with such precision?

[vengefulpear]

Nice story intro, I might start doing that for the second challenge... Once I have proven to myself that I have the motivation to go through with these 6 week challenges.

 

I was wondering, what means do you use to measure your Body Fat percentage with such precision?

 

Thank you! It's following on from my last challenge (hence part 2 in the title ) so I thought I'd make it a story for a while and see how far I can get with it! 

 

Well a couple of ways really, I think that I've been making a mental note of it for a while so I know where it should roughly be with regards to my weight. But how I did that at first is using calipers (http://www.powerbody.co.uk/product-sequoia-fitness_metacal-body-fat-caliper,2883.html) and the pictures on the bodyfat article; http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/ and I also use the various calculators online like this one http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/

 

So at first (a few months ago now) I thought I looked like I was just under the 20-22% male picture on the NF article, but with all the measurements it was at about 20%, so even with those pictures as a very rough guide, you need to remember everyone has a different make up and different amount of muscle so you'll all look different (for example this picture both at 10% http://www.leighpeele.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/10-percent-body-fat-male-pictures1.jpg) 

 

But then I had the weight of my lean body mass (so how much you weigh if you had NO fat on you) so I retake the measurements but use my lean bodymass as another guide to make sure it doesn't go too far out of sync. So I know that should stay around 130lbs (hopefully getting heavier as I build muscle ) but then I know that at the end of the last challenge I was 155lbs, so 25lbs of fat so that means around 16% of the 155lbs is fat. But then you can confirm that with the calipers, the charts and (at an extremely rough go) the pictures. 

 

I hope that helped and it wasn't just rambling on my part! Do say if that doesn't make sense do say and I'll try and make it clearer

[vengefulpear]

Quick fitness update: I thought as it's the hard hat challenge at the moment I would go up to the gym... I've been feeling a bit off for a couple of days (not illness, but a bit of cramp in the legs and itchy after my holiday) So I biked the couple of miles to the gym (pretty much all uphill!) and did a leg session, I figure that'll either solve my leg cramp or make it worse! Time will tell!

But here's a run down of what I did, it was slightly shorter than I would have liked but still a good workout: 

 

Superset: 
Deadlift (4x6) 65kg/143lbs (+5kg/11lbs)

Overhead Military Press (4x6) 30kg/66lbs

 

Leg Press (5x5) 200lbs

 

Superset: 

Squats (4x6) 60kg/132lbs

Lateral Side Raise (4x6) 8kg/17lbs

 

Barbell Bicep Curls (2x6) 30kg/66lbs

Shoulder Front Raises (2x6) 8kg/17lbs

 

So not terrible, and I obviously cycled back. And I felt slightly lightheaded during one squat so I figured that was probably a good effort Tomorrow morning I will do at least my weight measurements to get a proper handle on my starting point

[TiberiusNightrise]

Nice work on the workout! Looks intense!

 

Looking forward to seeing where your starting points end up! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at where you end up.

 

I likewise use the calculators at bmi-calculator.net. They give a great general idea of where you are and are really helpful as you track your progress. Best of luck in your challenge, WarMachinez!

[vengefulpear]

Thanks, it felt it a bit in the middle

 

I did weigh myself this morning but didn't have time to check all my bodyfat numbers so I'll try that later on, but my current weight is 157lbs,

 

So slightly up from the 155lbs at the end of the challenge but I'm not super worried about that as the 155lbs was also an average of me being 154lbs on the Friday and 157lbs on the Saturday. So I think a good place to start from again So I think I'll stick with the 16% assumption for my bodyfat for now but be sure to remeasure over the weekend (rather than in the morning before work, but we'll see).

 

I'm sticking with the 16% for the moment because that still leaves my lean body mass at around 130lbs (perhaps blindly hoping that I've gained some muscle over the challenge )

 

But we shall most definitely see and I'm thinking of going out for some quick sprints later on and hopefully coupling that with some skill training. I'll need to look into skills though at the moment I'm thinking frog pose and wall walk, but any suggestions are welcome!

[sueperstars]

Great introductory story!

 

I'm particularly interested in the skills portion of your challenge, and I look forward to seeing what you do! (And maybe trying a few of them on my own!)

[vengefulpear]

Thank you I'd like to write a book at some point so I figured I'd chuck in a story to my challenges as practice

 

My skills are I think what I'm most apprehensive about! I've done some headstands before so I might try some of those to get my confidence up a bit, but also try some frog stands and things, I'm slightly clueless with regards to skills

[vengefulpear]

Update: I did end up doing hill sprints last night. They were about 20 seconds of sprinting with about 60-70 seconds recovery, so I did 6 of those. But today is going to be a rest day because my legs still feel a bit cramped, I was hoping that the sprints and exercise would help them but apparently not yet, so I've also taken some fish oil tablets in the hope that'll also help

[Blaze]

Thanks for checking in with me!  I thought I'd do the same for you, and I just wanted to randomly say that I really like your intro story, and your avatar.  

[vengefulpear]

Why thank you and you are of course very welcome! I have no idea where I found my avatar I've cropped it from a wallpaper on my PC  but for the life of me I couldn't find it online again! Searching 'train insaiyan' brought up a load, but none with Goku!

 

I like to try and take some inspiration from Dragonball Z because they never take any shortcuts (okay, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and extra gravity are kind of a shortcuts ) they always train really hard to get where they need to be, so I try and remember that when I think of where I want to get to

[vengefulpear]

Okay a couple of updates, I will be heading to the gym today, but I did some measurements for boydyfat percentage and the range came up from about 15.7% aaall the way up to 21.86% but I'm definitely not that high. But I think that a good average was about 16 maybe 17% I'll go with 17%. 

 

And yesterday I did some brief skill work which was some frog stand, some wall planks and headstands. So that was quite good, I'm thinking of going on holiday to Norway next year so I want to be able to do a handstand by the time I go! That way I can do a handstand (hopefully one handed but there we are) on Jutenheimen mountain, the Land of the Giants. That would be pretty awesome!

[vengefulpear]

So I went to the gym this morning after I did the measurements so I'll just chuck those exercises up here: It was chest and back day today, so arguably very important for thor-ness!

But here's a quick run down: 

 

Superset;
Dumbbell Flies (4x6) 28kg (14kgx2)/61lbs

Bent Over Dumbbell Flies (4x6) 28kg (14kgx2)/61lbs

 

Pull ups: 2.5 / 1.5 / 1.5 / 2.5 / 1.5

Where it was a half, I pulled myself up as far as I could and then held myself there for a few seconds until I felt the strain, but I'll look into proper pull up training to try and get numbers for them tomorrow. 

 

Superset: 

Decline Dumbbell Press: (4x6) 32kg (16kgx2)/70lbs

Lat Pull Down Machine: (4 x6) 55kg / 121lbs

 

Bench Press: 3x5: 35kg / 77lbs

 

Superset:

Barbell Bicep Curl (4x6) - 30kg / 66lbs

Woodcutters: (4x6) 40kg / 88lbs

 

Superset

Back Row Machine (4x6) 60kg / 132lbs

Decline Push Ups (On a Swiss Ball) (4x8)

 

Captain's Chair Leg Raises (4x8)

Tricep Pull downs (4x6) 40kg / 88lbs

[vengefulpear]

So quite a good workout, and with the woodcutters and the swiss ball push ups I definitely felt some work going on in my core so I'm pleased with that, but we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow! 

[vengefulpear]

Well time for a first week summary!

As this is a challenge with goals I thought I would break it down into how well each one is going!

Goal 1: Bodyfat loss

I did one sprint workout and did well enough for my calories (a couple of days over but not by huge amounts) but I was very under for one day so that may even out. I feel like it went well and I've made my lunches for work for the whole week now so I know that they'll be nice and healthy (and suitably thor like! Venison sausages today, yum!)

 

Goal 2: Strength Workouts

I only did 2 proper strength workouts last week, so not 100% on track for this goal either, but they were heavy gym sessions so I'm not too miffed about missing out. Especially as I will definitely do all 3 this week now I've decided to do 2/1 chest/legs a week rather than just the 1/1. I also work out my back muscles then so I'm hoping that will really help with my pull ups as that's something i'd love to improve on.

 

Goal 3: Skill Workouts

 

I only did one of these this week, so not a total victory. But I'm already equal to how many i did last challenge! But I did feel a lot better with the headstand after I did a wall plank, so I think starting the skills off with that is a good idea. And I really tried to ease myself down out of the headstand rather than just fall down. So I think some good directions, and I look forward to the next one!

 

Goal 4: Blog posts

 

I did make a blog post this week, so a technical victory but it was a very short one so I feel like I could have done better with it. But I've changed up how/what I'm posting so that I'll hopefully be a lot better with it. Now it's going review/post one week and then a story the next week. So that'll help give me enough time to read books to review and get good ideas for other posts, and help me with my writing!

 

 

So overall I think a solid B for the first week of the challenge, certainly not too bad but I will definitely look to improve for the rest of the challenge!

[Tavore]

Way to go!  It looks like you are making good progress on your goals.  Keep going strong!

[Warmachinez]

 

Goal 3: Skill Workouts

 

I only did one of these this week, so not a total victory. But I'm already equal to how many i did last challenge! But I did feel a lot better with the headstand after I did a wall plank, so I think starting the skills off with that is a good idea. And I really tried to ease myself down out of the headstand rather than just fall down. So I think some good directions, and I look forward to the next one!

 

 

Dude! You are a machine! 

 

Headstands are the bomb.

 

You know what? You have inspired me to have a skill workout goal next challenge.

[vengefulpear]

Way to go!  It looks like you are making good progress on your goals.  Keep going strong!

 Thanks! I will definitely try and use this to snowball success for the rest of the challenge!

 

Dude! You are a machine! 

 

Headstands are the bomb.

 

You know what? You have inspired me to have a skill workout goal next challenge.

 

Thank you! It's always very nice to inspire people I think skills are one of the things that drew me to assassins so I'd like to be able to do at least some!

[vengefulpear]

Quick update for yesterday:

I was going to head out to the gym but there was a problem with the trains on my way home from work so I didn't get in until about an hour later than I usually would (and even if i'd have been on time I don't get back from the gym until about 9pm). So I decided that I wouldn't skip Monday, start as you mean to go on!

So I did some hill sprints. More specifically I did six 20 second sprints with about a 60-90 second rest in between them. It doesn't sound like too much when I put it like that but I was knackered by the end of it!

 

I'm hoping to get to the gym tonight and actually ended up coming to work early so hopefully I can get an earlier train and get to the gym straight away.

[sueperstars]

Great job on your first week!

 

Venison sausages... YUM!

 

And hill sprints... it actually DOES sound like a lot written down. Not a lot of time, but definitely a lot of effort! I've done tabatta runs some mornings, and its only 14 minutes, but I definitely feel it afterward, too. And that's on flat ground for me!

[vengefulpear]

Thanks I'm really trying to hit hard with this whole challenge, rather than last time I dipped in the middle and only really hit hard in the last couple of weeks. It helps that I wrote the story for the mini challenges so I feel like I need to keep up with them!

 

I did hit the gym last night, but I'm at work at the moment and left my write up of exercises at home, so later on I shall write those up properly and then I'll know how many pull ups I did to add to the mini challenge!

[vengefulpear]

Okay so another gym update then!

 

I also did some wall handstands last night as part of my skill workout, so I have now equaled the amount of skill workouts for the whole of last challenge!

But here's what I did at the gym on Tuesday:

 

Superset (One straight after the other with minimal rest):
Dumbbell Flies (4x6) 28kg (14kgx2)/61lbs

Bent Over Dumbbell Flies (4x6) 28kg (14kgx2)/61lbs

 

Pull Ups (One half means holding myself as high as I could for a few seconds)

3 / 4 / 2.5 / 2.5 / 1.5

 

Superset:

Back Row Machine (1x6) 60kg / 132lbs (3x6) 65kg / 143lbs

Decline Push Ups (On a Swiss Ball) (4x10)

 

Superset:
Captain's Chair Leg Raises (4x10)

Tricep Pull Downs (4x6) 45kg / 99lbs

 

Bench Press: (4x5) 1x4 1x3: 37.5kg / 82lbs

 

Superset:

Decline Dumbbell Press: (2x4) 16kg each hand / (1x3) 28kg (14kgx2)/61lbs

Woodcutters (2x6) 45kg

 

Superset:

Bicep Barbell Curls 30kg (1 x 5)&(1x4) [to failure]

Lat Pull Down 55kg (4x6)

 

 

So quite a good workout I thought overall, i would have preferred not to do the Decline Dumbbell Press to failure but there was someone using the bench I needed almost the whole time I was there. So I did more decline swiss ball press ups to make up for it which was tough! But I'm glad I did it.

[Lindsey_M]

Your workouts sounds so hardcore!