The Collections of Pyro's Journey Into Ninjahood

[Pyrorazor]

   This is a lot easier than writing in a journal and I like accountability that comes with it. I'm starting with the seventh day cause I'm late with everything. Here is what my workout looks like right about now: 

 

Angry Birds Workout w/ wall sits added every other day.

Level 1-Rookie running workout

 

Still trying to get into the habit of consistency. That's usually the downfall of my progress if I don't work at it, so I'm using this challenge to build on that.

 

Today was interesting. Had a family lunch where I tried really hard not to overeat. It was difficult. Chinese food is amazeballs. Got my sisters to workout with me cause I like company, and I was able to do more of each workout. I think my sisters' gave me inspiration cause they were able to do 45 inclined wall push ups when I was reaching for 30, and I ended up doing 15 more! So I count that as a success. After the workout I treated myself to my first Paleo smoothie and called it a day.

 

 

I added a mini goal for this challenge: lose two inches off my waist. Gonna start small and work my way up!

[Pyrorazor]

So yesterday was supposed to be my one week mark, but I took a break because I re-did my workout schedule to accommodate my school schedule. So the changes I made today were:

• Replace my usual warm-up with the Rebel warm-up

I did pretty good, I was able to level up to the 2nd level for everything but planks. Ahhh it sucks so much that I can't hold anything for more than a minute, but I'm getting there. I hit 30 seconds, so to me that's a pretty good accomplishment. However I thing I did something wrong and gave myself a charlie horse For now, I'm gonna re-watch the how-to videos, and try to prevent myself from injury. Also my arms hurt >.<

[Pyrorazor]

Day-9 1/15/14

 

If you guys are reading this (which I highly doubt, I only have two posts on here) bear with me on the days, I just figured out how to count (kidding). But no really, I'm still learning how to work this stuff. Okay on to the update!

 

 

Pretty much same old, same old. Still on the angry birds workout. Tried the core workout, but after my giant cramp in my thigh, I'm just gonna stick to the AB workout. However I made it to level 2! I was able to do all of level 1 with ease and now I moved on. Planks are still my worst enemy and still can't do a pull up but hey, 30 arm rows with 20 pound weights, I feel like i hit a mini accomplishment. Tomorrow is my add-on running day, but it depends on the weather cause it rains in weird intervals. Hoping I'm able to run a mile under ten minutes, cause I'm slow as a snail. Practice makes perfect I guess.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 10 and 11 1/15-1/16

 

 

Friday was good, I barely made it through my exercises, so I'm gonna have to go through it again till it gets easier, before I level up again. The great progress today was that I was able to hold a plank for 30 seconds. That's about twenty seconds more than I normally could hold. Lastly, I suck at running. I seriously need to work on my form.

 

Today was rest day! Although I did walking a half a mile with my dad. It was relaxing.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 12, 13, 14 1/17-1/19

 

 

Friday was rest day, so nothing special happened there.

 

Saturday, I had training and I did the AB workout again. I didn't get to level up cause the weights are a little heavy, but I'm hoping to move up by next week. Then right after that, I was whisked away to a spontaneous camping trip. I just got back today, and I didn't do anything due to me getting a workout by carrying everything out of the car and up three flights of stairs because the elevator was broken.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 15 and 16 1/20-1/21

 

 

I rested on Monday, which worked out since it was a holiday, and I needed to rest both my mind and body. Although, I did end up walking with my dad, only to find out that he walks super fast and I had a hard time keeping up with him. So much for cardio eh? I think I'll add two more laps to my run since my block is bigger than a track.

 

Today, I leveled up again! I made it to level 3 on both squats and pushups. still level one with back exercises, I think the weights I'm using are a bit too heavy, but I can't find the smaller ones, so I'm making due with what I have. I can still do 10 arm rows easy but once I push past ten, everything hurts and I slow down. Planks are still my worst enemy, but I'm able to hold it for forty seconds in the first set. Yay! ten seconds more! Tomorrow, I'm going to push myself so I can even out my levels.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 17 and 18 1/22-1/23

 

 

1/22: Wednesday was pretty good. I had to workout in my room since the carport was being used. I used 10 pound weights this time, so I did twice as much and then some. I think I ended up about doing 60 arm rows each arm. I switched to wall pushups and I did 100 squats. I was able to level up again! Planks on the other hand...still level one. I still can't hold it for one minute >.< 

 

1/23: Today, I think I pushed myself way too hard. I was able to do 130 squats in two sets, but now my thighs are killing me! I've been having doubts because I feel like my form is whack. But I was able to do 45 arm rows with the 20 pound weights today, along with 80 elevated pushups. I really should've cut out the running, but it was cool, so I figured I would run around my block a few times.

In other news, I think I'm going to change up my schedule for the rest of the challenge. Thanks to some awesome advice I've gotten from fellow nerds, I'm gonna switch to every other day, and try to workout in the morning. It would help out with my sore muscles and hopefully get me to be stronger. and then go running on the weekends. That's pretty much it. Once I get my formed checked out, I'll be able to make some real progress before the challenge ends.

[Omega v1.1]

Day 17 and 18 1/22-1/23

 

1/23: Today, I think I pushed myself way too hard. I was able to do 130 squats in two sets, but now my thighs are killing me! I've been having doubts because I feel like my form is whack. But I was able to do 45 arm rows with the 20 pound weights today, along with 80 elevated pushups.

Good form is really important. It's much better to do one squat properly than to do 10 badly. For a start you'll get a lot more out of them but also you run the risk of injuring yourself if you're doing them really wrong. I advise you film yourself if possible doing a set of 5 and watch it back to see how they look. Film yourself from the front and the side and if you're really feeling brave, you could post them in the bodyweight section on these boards for others to have a look too.

 

It's also worth having a look at some tutorials on Youtube too.

[Pyrorazor]

*note* this is gonna be short cause I'm about to fall asleep.

 

 

Wow it's been three days since I've did any body weight work out, but I did my running so I got cardio down! However, after trying to do each of my exercises I did them all in three sets. It was pretty intense, but at least once I get back into the regular routine, I'll be able to bring it down to two sets. In the meantime, I need to find better back exercises because those 20 pound weights are incredibly hard to do arm rows with. Especially since I'm a beginner. (I don't have anything that weighs less than that.) Hopefully before the challenge finishes, I'll be at level five for each exercise.

[Omega v1.1]

Have you considered doing inverted rows instead of with the weights? I know that they're the next level up on Angry Birds but you might find them easier to do if your 20 pounds weights are too heavy and you can make them easier to do by putting your feet flat on the floor and bending your knees.

[Pyrorazor]

Tuesday was rest day, and yesterday was pretty difficult. I moved up a level in all of the exercises (yes even the planks!), but it took me three sets to do each one except for squats. I did learn however, to take things slow and not rush anything. Hopefully either tonight or tomorrow I'll be able to do two sets of each and move up again. I'm really trying hard to finish the first round before doing another variation of the exercise. But those planks man..it's freaking hard.

[Pyrorazor]

Have you considered doing inverted rows instead of with the weights? I know that they're the next level up on Angry Birds but you might find them easier to do if your 20 pounds weights are too heavy and you can make them easier to do by putting your feet flat on the floor and bending your knees.

yeah I have considered it, but I gotta find a better table to use because the table I have slides a lot.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 24(?) 1/31

 

Oh man my body feels like it's going to fall apart. Okay bad things that happened today:

• Fell while squating cause I lost my balance. I need to still work on my form or squat on a flat surface instead of a hill. (heh heh)
• Was 20 seconds off of hitting 2 minutes of planks in two sets >.< (grrr)
• Nearly dropped a weight on my foot

Good things that happened today:

• Leveled up to 100 squats
• Leveled up to decline push-ups
• Leveled up to inverted rows.

 

So I'm pretty happy for what I've accomplished tonight. Incline push-ups have gotten easier to do, which I'm happy about because it used to take me forever to just do 10 of them. Also that fact that I did do 30 arm rows tonight, means that I can do inverted rows!! One step closer to doing one pull-up Thanks planks though, ugh it just killed me to find out I was off my 20 seconds Oh wells on the third set I was able to hold for a minute straight, so it helped me to prove that I'm getting strong enough to hold planks longer. Lastly, overhead squats are killer. My arms were about to fall off in the second set. The main thing is I hit 70 squats. Work in progress but I'm getting there.

[rocky555]

Good stuff there! If you keep at it, pull ups are just around the corner

[Pyrorazor]

Good stuff there! If you keep at it, pull ups are just around the corner

Thanks dude! I'm doing my best!

[Omega v1.1]

Well done on levelling up on three things in one day; that's great progress! Just as long as you are doing a tiny bit better than the last time, you know you are moving forward.

 

I'm sure you'll hit your planks target any day now. If you look back to the beginning of the challenge, you can see how far you've come in such a short time.

[Pyrorazor]

Day 28 2/4

 

Major achievements today! I'm so proud of myself despite messing up my workout a couple of days ago.

• Leveled up to jumpsquats
• Leveled up to three minutes of planks
• Leveled up to 40 inverted rows.

I was able to do 120 overhead squats which surprised me especially cause I was able to go super low. Also I was happy I was able to hold a plank for two minutes and 30 seconds My legs and arms were shaking afterward, but I after I hit the two minute mark, I definitely let out a sigh of breathe. Inverted rows though... They were super tough! But I was able to suck it up and complete it. Two more weeks and this challenge will be over, but I'm happy to see how far i've come

[Pyrorazor]

Day 30 2/6

 

Today was killer! Everything is sore. But I did two good things today

• Just barely hit the 3 minute mark. Gonna try this again so I'm not just trying to get by with the minimum.
• I did my first five pushups! (this is an achievement believe me.)

 

Jump squats... Hate them with a passion right now. It took me four sets to just get to 30. This has also shown me that I need new shoes because I also fell from my shoes losing grip. Sore on the thighs, they are hurting as I'm typing this. Pushups are hard. I don't think I've done a regular pushup since high school and trying to do one was tough. I did however, do five so I'm gonna start small then increase as my arms get stronger. Speaking of arms, I'm starting to look at arm exercises so they gain some strength. Still haven't found a sturdy table to do inverted rows so I just did two sets of arm rows to work out my back. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to work something out. I really want to be able to do a pull up within two months.

[Omega v1.1]

Day 30 2/6

 

Today was killer! Everything is sore. But I did two good things today

• Just barely hit the 3 minute mark. Gonna try this again so I'm not just trying to get by with the minimum.
• I did my first five pushups! (this is an achievement believe me.)

 

Jump squats... Hate them with a passion right now. It took me four sets to just get to 30. This has also shown me that I need new shoes because I also fell from my shoes losing grip. Sore on the thighs, they are hurting as I'm typing this. Pushups are hard. I don't think I've done a regular pushup since high school and trying to do one was tough. I did however, do five so I'm gonna start small then increase as my arms get stronger. Speaking of arms, I'm starting to look at arm exercises so they gain some strength. Still haven't found a sturdy table to do inverted rows so I just did two sets of arm rows to work out my back. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to work something out. I really want to be able to do a pull up within two months.

 

Congratulations on the 5 push-ups! Believe me, if you can do 5 push-ups with good form, you're stronger than a lot of people. Next time you need to do 6.

 

Pull-ups are a real beast to work towards. If you have a look at the bodyweight forum pages you'll find there are more discussions on progressing to doing them compared to anything else. If you haven't done so already, I'd advise you to at least look into getting some sort of bar for your home. Even if you can't use it straight away, it's something to focus on for in the future. Also, if you can't find anything to do rows on, you can also spend a bit more money and buy some gymnastics rings which you can hang from your pull-up bar and do rows from them instead.

 

Well done on all your levelling up, you've just got over a week until the end of the challenge so full steam ahead!

[Pyrorazor]

2/13 Day 37

 

I haven't updated in awhile! But I have a very good reason as to why I haven't been updating and that will come later but for now quick stuff about workout:

1. Made it to level two of jump squats. Frick I've been trying to do that since Monday and it finally happened yesterday.
2. staggering on 3 minutes of planks. Haven't made it to four minutes yet and it's being a struggle
3. Did a set of inverted rows. I made it to the second level, but haven't had time to do them the rest of the week so I just did 30 arm rows to make up the workout.
4. still on 5 pushups. arms are still not strong enough to hold up my body.

 

 

So I basically, I had work all week. there were back to back concerts for four days, and trying to find time to workout between school, an internship and my job, it gets pretty tight. Not to mention the fact that I come home at four in the morning so updating is out of the question. Anyway, I went on a grueling hike today and it was a huge workout for my legs. Thank god there was a rope hanging off the side of the mountain otherwise, I would have fell off from lack of upper body strength. However, for the last week of the challenge, I think I did pretty good. Still have two days left, so I'm gonna push myself just for the heck of it and evaluate afterwards.

[Pyrorazor]

After Challenge blog:

 

well It's like a couple of days after the challenge ended and I'm sitting here on this computer typing up a blog. What? Yeah I need to get out cause I haven't worked out since it ended, but I have a giant test to study for so bleh. Excited for the next challenge already, but my body is like "no, you are good, procrastinate with this bag of chips your sister bought today." Argh, the struggle is real Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to continue my workout and figure out what I'm doing for the next challenge. Any suggestions? I'm thinking for trying to finish up the angry bird work out, and use next challenge to get to a pull up. Haha I'm laughing as I type this because I'm seriously thinking of training for a pull up for the next challenge. Does that make sense? Just me? okay cools. Hopefully by the 23rd, I'll have an outline of my challenge stuff.

[Pyrorazor]

Today marks the first day of my FIRST GUILD CHALLENGE!! (Yes i'm a few days late, but I blame school)

 

         I chose Assassin because well, parkour and stuff. The place where I'll be putting up the challenge stuff (idk what to call it) is right here. Once I figure out how to make a signature and all that Jazz, I'll place the link there along with my intro page. Onward to the update!

 

         Today pretty much sucked. I had a chem quiz that i pretty much yelled NOPE once I looked at it. It didn't help that my professor was out because of a family emergency. Usually, he lectures for a bit then gives us a quiz. Perfect timing to look over my notes for some last minute studying, but alas, that didn't happen. So I did what I could, then left to lick my wounds in my room while watching old DailyGrace videos. That was the morning.

 

          Pretty much the rest of the day, I just cleaned my room and ate grapes because I'm healthy as shit and I love being clean. I did some homework and practiced a few Calc problems cause guarantee I'm gonna have a quiz tomorrow. Next thing I know, it's 8pm and I put on my shoes and go work out. 

 

          TBH, starting a new workout plan is hard for me. I need like a catalyst to get me moving, and today was not easy. I did it however, because I didn't want to start the challenge off horrible. Lemme tell yah, the body weight workout is hard. Okay not that hard, but doing four sets was intense! I did find a way to do inverted rows, but it took longer than I thought cause I was outside and constantly dodging cockroaches and other insects that tried to crawl on top of me. I made it through and had to put more songs on my playlist cause I ran out. Another thing I've learned is I need to be consistent in working out. All the progress I made in planks went out the window. I couldn't hold it for two minutes total bummer but that's what I get for not working out that week in between challenges. I can't do ten pushups, but that's okay in my book because I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to do one, but I made it to seven.

 

            Lastly, I squeezed some running in after my workout. Yeah HUGE MISTAKE. I got down to the end of my street and everything was super sore. So I probably have to alternate workout and running days because man sitting here in this chair while my thighs throb is killer!! Yeah not again.

 

             I'm happy with the results of today. I retained most of what I accomplished last challenge, so I have more room to grow. Hopefully this challenge, I'll be able to get out of my comfort zone and exercise at a park instead of makeshift equipment of whatever is lying in my house. Tomorrow is rest day so i'll probably update on Friday or something. We'll see.

[Pyrorazor]

Haha I should have been updating this last week but oh wells! Onto the update!

 

Update for Challenge #2 Day 5

 

Okay I'm gonna try to be more structured for these things, but I love spontaneity and chaos so my thoughts might be everywhere. 

 

Here is what I did today:

1. Body Weight Workout

Squats: So I leveled to 70 jumpsquats today. My thighs are still killing me, but it's not as painful as it was a couple of days ago. I know I posted this on the guild forum but when doing jump squats, are you supposed to land on your heels or toes? I'm doing my best to land on my heels without leaning too forward but I end up falling backwards. Any suggestions? In other news, squats are becoming easier to do, which I think is a good thing for me. I've realized I've gotten lower to the ground, and slightly more parallel. Going slow definitely puts a strain, but I'm happy I'm doing better.

 

Pushups: Still on 20 reps. I can only do five at a time, which is super discouraging, but at least I can do five. I almost did six, but then my arms gave out and I couldn't do it. I think my big thing is finding a bigger space to do it. The garage is a little cramped up so I can't get my hands set properly, but from where I'm doing them, it works out fine. Gah I'm hoping to be able to do ten pushups by the next two weeks, if not the end of the challenge.

 

Arm Rows: So as part of the Pull-up training, I'm starting with Arm Rows and making my way up the weight ladder. So far I'm starting with 10 pounds and doing about 60 reps in two sets. It gets a little wary especially when I hit the 15 mark, but I'm trying to work on my mental game so i can work through the pain. Hopefully by Wednesday, I'll be able to level up to 80 rows.

 

Planks: It took me three sets to get to 2 minutes. It goes to show that I lost all my progress during the one week break between challenges, but I learned to not slack off when I'm on break. My problem with planks is the same problem with pushups, not enough space to out-stretch my legs, but if I switch to doing them in my room, I should be able to get better results.

 

As for running, I didn't go today since it's pretty cold here and I have yet to get a jacket for running. Tomorrow though! I'm gonna run up a trail and depending how I do, I may or may not do a small workout.

 

Today was an overall really good day. I leveled up on jump squats, and progressed with my pull-up training. As for the rest of my quests, well school is kicking my butt. It's midterm week so I have a bunch of test to take and study for. Chemistry is my hardest class right now. I might have to withdraw from the class so I can keep my my GPA. Making a schedule that will benefit me is so foreign nature to me, it's really discouraging  and not worth staying in the class.  Idk I'm gonna take the test and see how I do. Hopefully, the time I'm using to study for pays off and i'll be able to stay. Bleh.

 

Alright till next time!

[Pyrorazor]

Haha so much for this being a DAILY blog. Eh, with school and work I tend to forget to take a few minutes to just update this. I'll probably be posting after my workout tonight, but since I have free time now, I'mma update.

 

 

How my weekend went:

 

Well there were three concerts I had to work out, which included but limited to intense mosh pits, crazy people who wanted to really talk to me, and rowdy crowds outside dying to get in. I had some time to enjoy the concert and I ended right in the middle of the beginnings of a mosh pit. I decided to go along because hey why not? Mosh pits are one of the best ways to get your frustrations out. Anyway, it was all good until some guy clocked me in the face and crushed my glasses. Yeah not fun at all. I later went to my eye doctor to check out why it was hurting so much and she said that a piece of glass scratched right outside of my cornea. So now I have a giant bandage over my eye. After I left the concert, I ended up having to run home because it was already like 2 am and my parents wanted me home by 2:30. Made it there in 15 minutes but not without wheezing and collapsing because that was the hardest i've ran in my life. Totally counted that as my running for that day.

 

Monday and Tuesday:

 

Monday was pretty tame, I just studied for chemistry and took a giant nap because the weekend totally killed me. Turns out my computer decided to stick it to the man (meaning me) and didn't want to do what I asked. I had to do a system restart cause yeah it got that bad and I started back up from scratch. It's kinda fixed, but once I get rid of unwanted programs it should work. Later that night I worked out and didn't get to level up although I was able to do my pushups in correct form. My arms were dying afterwards but all in the name of getting fit!

 

Yesterday was boring besides the fact that I had a midterm to study for( which I bombed by the way) and I got a email from my boss at the place I currently work at saying to come in to talk. Now I know I'm jumping to conclusions, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting fired, because a friend of mine got the same email a few months ago and she ended up quitting. (meaning she got fired, but on record she quit) so yeah I'm a little afraid going in today.

 

wow sorry that was all over the place. It's been crazy but later tonight I'll post my workout. Hopefully I level up in something.

[Pyrorazor]

Hahaha well I ended up having a bad day, and I didn't work out like I said, instead I went to see 300: Rise of an Empire with my Dad. It was retarded and super inaccurate but whatevers it's just a movie. But tomorrow I'm gonna get my butt kicked because I'm lifting a ton of stuff in the morning then gonna do a workout since I missed today. The rest of this week is gonna be grueling, but I just dropped my chem class since I bombed the test, so I'll have more free time for Calc and working out. xD Go figure, after watching that movie, it really made me inclined to workout more xD Heh maybe one day I'll do the Spartan workout just for fun.