Training with Nightwing: TiberiusNightrise Comes Back with a Vengeance

[TiberiusNightrise]

As you can see from my topic title, there will be more of a story element to this challenge. Story element coming soon!

 

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Hi everyone! I'm back! India was awesome and very challenging. I came back with a greater respect for issues of social justice, and desiring my negative social footprint to be smaller than it currently is. I also came back about 8 pounds heavier (from around 187 to around 195) and about 2.25" bigger (from about 38.5" to about 40.75") around my midsection. Needless to say the food was amazing. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks bringing those numbers back down closer to where they were before I left. While they're not quite back to where they were yet, I have made significant progress towards that end. As of today, I'm down to 191.4 lbs and back to 40" around the ol' belly. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

 

To that end, I want to keep that forward momentum going, with one or two tweaks. Here are my basic goals. I'll flesh them out more in a little while.

 

Goal 1: Lose 3% body fat

• Start: 29.2%
• Goal: 26.2%
• Points up for grabs: 2 DEX | 3 WIS

Goal 2: Lose 1.5" from midsection

• Start: 40"
• Goal: 38.5"
• Points up for grabs: 1 CON | 1 CHA

Goal 3: Complete graduated pull-up/chin-up training once and for all

• Points up for grabs: 4 STR | 3 STA

Life: Get rid of 50 lbs of stuff

• Points up for grabs: 1 WIS

Because I normally weigh in on Fridays, my challenge starts TODAY!

[Batwoman]

YAY! Can't wait to see your progress

[TiberiusNightrise]

Jumping right in, I went to work out yesterday. Here's my workout.

 

Warmup

Assisted Pull-ups

10 @ 80 lbs offset

5 @ 70 lbs

3 @ 60 lbs

2 @ 50 lbs

BW Squats

12 \ 12 \ 12 \ 8

Close-hand Pushups

12 \ 9 \ 6 \ 4

Planks

65 sec \ 50 \ 35

Bonus: Negative Pull-ups

6 \ 5 \ 3 \ 2

Cool down/Stretch

[TiberiusNightrise]

Today I did a bonus workout by trying out Crossfit for the first time! My friend had been inviting me to go with him, and so I finally took him up on it. At the gym he goes to, they do free intro/boot camp classes on Saturdays. It was a great workout and it definitely kicked my butt, but without going into the "I worked out so hard I vomited" territory. It was a series of Holds and Movements. Lemme see if I can remember the sequence.

 

HOLD: Plank

MOVE: Star jumps

H: V

M: Burpees

H: Superman

M: Sit ups

H: Squat position

M: Lunges

 

We did each exercise for 1 minute going down the list, and repeated the sequence 4 times, with no rests. By the end, of course, I was getting very tired, but I still got through the whole workout with minimal scaling due to fatigue. For my first time, I'd say that's pretty good!

[vengefulpear]

Yay! Good to have you  back!

 

Sounds like you had an awesome time in India! Huzzah!

And well done on losing that much already?! If that's anything to go by (as well as your general awesomeness) I'm sure you're going to kick this challenge in its dancing butt!
 

Glad you enjoyed crossfit and I'm sure we'll see you get a pull up before the challenge is out!

[Batwoman]

How is this week going?

[TiberiusNightrise]

Thanks, pear! It's good to be back! If anything, I feel more motivated than ever to slim down, so coming back from India with more weight than when I left I think ended up being a good thing overall.

 

So far things are going fairly well this week, Batwoman. I'm probably running a little high in the food area, but not so bad I don't think. If nothing else, I'm still doing my best to monitor things in that area.

 

Here are my last two workouts from Monday and yesterday.

 

Monday workout

Warmup

Assisted Chinups

12 @ 80lbs offset (+3 since last time, graduating from this level)

5 @ 70lbs

3 @ 60lbs

2 @ 50lbs (+0.5)

Lunges

12 / 10 (+2) / 8 (+1) / 6 (+2)

Pushups

12 / 11 (+2) / 8 (+1) / 6 (+1)

Side Planks

53sec (+1) / 36sec (+1) / 25sec (+3)

Bonus: Negative Chinups

6 / 4 / 3 / 2

 

Wednesday Workout

Assisted Pullups

12 @ 80lbs (+2, graduating)

5.5 @ 70lbs (+0.5)

3.5 @ 60lbs (+0.5)

2.5 @ 50lbs (+0.5)

Squats

12 / 12 / 12 / 10 (+2)

Close-hand Pushups

12 / 10 (+1) / 7 (+1) / 5 (+1)

Planks

66sec (+1) / 51sec (+1) / 36sec (+1)

Bonus: Negative Pullups

7 (+1) / 6 (+1) / 4 (+1) / 3 (+1)

 

Both workouts felt very challenging, especially yesterday's! It was a huge struggle in most of my moves yesterday to feel like I was making progress. All those +0.5s an +1s were all hard-earned! Hopefully tomorrow I'm able to make a little bit more progress, or at least feel like I am.

 

Also, I started writing out the story aspect of my challenge the other day in the editor, but I accidentally hit a series of keys that caused my browser to go back, so I lost what I wrote. Haven't had the heart to write it all out again, but I should. It will probably come out better the second time around.

[Batwoman]

Ulgh. Yeah that stinks. I wish they would have an auto save on the posts or some sort of save draft function.

[Elastigirl]

How is the challenge going?

[Elastigirl]

Popping in again to see how its going.

[TiberiusNightrise]

Hey thanks so much for checking in! Sorry I haven't been able to keep this thread as up-to-date as I would have liked. Life, as usual, seem to be getting in the way of that. Production work is starting to ramp up, and we should be starting building the set next week. Also, this semester, I've taken on teaching my first course, which I'm also revamping the curriculum to. So lesson planning has been dominating my life! But it's fun to be able to say I've taught/am teaching a college/university level course!

 

All that said, I have been keeping up with workouts, making steady progress on my pull up goal. Because so many workouts have passed, I'll only put down the last two of them.

 

Monday, 9/29

Warmups

Assisted Chin-ups

8 @ 60 lbs offset (last you all saw, I was starting at 80 lbs)

4.5 @ 50 lbs

2.5 @ 40 lbs

1 @ 30 lbs (new one this workout)

Lunges

12 / 12 / 12 / 10

Pushups

12 / 12 / 11 / 9

Side Planks

55sec / 38 / 28

Bonus: Negative Chin-ups

8 / 6 / 4 / 2

Cool down/stretching

 

Wednesday, 10/1

Warmups

Assisted Pull-ups

10 @ 60 lbs

5 @ 50 lbs

2 @ 40 lbs

1 @ 30 lbs (new this workout)

Squats

14 / 14 / 14 / 14

Closehand Pushups

12 / 12 / 10 / 8

Planks

72sec / 57 / 42

Bonus: Negative Pull-ups

9 / 7 / 5 / 3

Cool down/stretching

 

So good progress made there!

 

As far as my other 2 health-related goals, I've unfortunately gone in the wrong direction to start with. Hoping for some better results at weigh-in tomorrow morning.

 

Week 1 Progress Report

September 19, 2014

Body Fat: 28.66% (down 0.54%, down 0.54% overall)

Waist: 40†(no change)

Getting rid of stuff: went through and recycled about 12 lbs-worth of old papers/documents (12 lbs overall)

 

Week 2 Progress Report

September 26, 2014

Body Fat: 29.34% (up 0.68%, up 0.14% overall)

Waist: 40.5†(up 0.5", up 0.5" overall)

Getting rid of stuff: sold 2 items on eBay, each weighing in at 1 lb each (2 lbs, 14 lbs overall)

 

So the health-related goals...not so great. I'm not sure whether I can fully salvage them (note the word fully...aka I'm still going to make as much progress as possible). I think what happened is that I was letting the stress of the added responsibilities of teaching negatively impact my eating habits so I was eating more crap than not. Also, I haven't been consistent with tracking on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, so those are three black holes that need more accountability. So this week I've been better about tracking, and have tried to keep myself at a deeper deficit than normal, just for this week, to try to get back on track. We'll see how it works out tomorrow morning...I'm feeling pretty optimistic though.

 

I also had my yearly physical a few days ago, and without my even telling him I was trying to slim down, my doctor recommended adding in cardio to my workouts. So currently, I'm trying to figure out where that fits and what I want to do. Not sure yet whether I'll work it into this challenge or start that next challenge, but his recommendation definitely fits into wanting to try to add something of that nature.

 

So there you have it, a big ol' update from yours truly. Not sure I'm going to be able to work in the story element after all, but c'est la vie! Maybe next challenge. Or maybe not.

[Elastigirl]

Great that you are getting to teach! What are you making for the sets? 

Congrats on the chin up progress!

[Elastigirl]

[TiberiusNightrise]

Thanks, EG! It's been really fun so far, even though I often feel like I'm out of my depth. Today, I trained my students on how to safely operate a scissor lift, in preparation for our lighting hang next week. The show we are doing is called An Inspector Calls, it's set in England in 1912. The basic gist of the story is there's a family, middle to upper class, having a celebration. The celebration is interrupted when a mysterious inspector arrives and informs them that a young woman has just committed suicide and they've all in some way contributed to the situation. It sort of speaks about the people who serve us in our every day lives who we don't always necessarily see, but who are very important. The set is a living/dining room, very upper class feeling, with a huge fireplace. The cool part about it is that part of the audience seating (which is on all four sides of the set) is above the mantle of the fireplace, giving it somewhat of a jury feel. It's coming along nicely so far.

 

So, it's been awhile since my last update. Here's the status updates for the last 2 weeks.

 

Week 3 Progress Report

October 3, 2014

Body Fat: 28.32% (down 0.34%, down 0.88% overall)

Waist: 40†(no change)

Getting rid of stuff: sold some stuff on eBay (2 lbs for the week, 16 lbs overall)

 

Week 4 Progress Report

October 10, 2014

Body Fat: 28.4% (up 0.08%, down 0.8% overall)

Waist: 40†(no change)

Getting rid of stuff: sold some stuff on eBay and gave away a few others (5 lbs for the week, 21 lbs overall)

 

Pullup progress is going well. I'm at 50lbs max offset, and 20lbs min, so almost there! I've missed 1 workout this week, but other than that, that's the only workout I've missed all challenge.

[TiberiusNightrise]

Week 5 Progress Report

October 17, 2014

Body Fat: 28.36% (down 0.04%, down 0.84% overall)

Waist: 40†(no change)

Getting rid of stuff: no progress this week, but several things up for sale and getting a box of stuff ready for donation (0 lbs for the week, 21 lbs overall)

 

Okay, so more or less, I'm feeling like I'm in a holding  pattern on the waist measurement front, and somewhat with my BF%. Though with BF, I'm definitely happy that I'm down almost 1% overall. For the final week, my mini-goals are to maintain the holding patterns (middle case scenariro) OR make at least some strides where things haven't been moving as much as I'd like. A huge victory this week for waist would be half an inch. I plan to do this by making smarter eating choices (I've been getting a bit lazy of late, so I'm not surprised things aren't moving all that much) and to continue my successful stint at the gym. With 1 week and essentially 4 workouts left in the challenge, I feel confident I can make full pull-ups and chin-ups happen. I'm so close as it is! With getting rid of stuff, it's a matter of going around my room/house/basement to find things that can make their way into the donation box.

 

So not as much progress as I'd like, but I'm definitely not taking this as a total loss!

[TiberiusNightrise]

Just sold my old office chair (25 lbs) to a friend, as well as a book (1 lb). So that's 26 pounds to add to my getting rid of stuff running total, bringing me up to 47 pounds!

[Elastigirl]

Just sold my old office chair (25 lbs) to a friend, as well as a book (1 lb). So that's 26 pounds to add to my getting rid of stuff running total, bringing me up to 47 pounds!

Love that you are tracking your stuff in pounds gone. Like a fitness program for junk  

[TiberiusNightrise]

It helps to remind me that if/when I next move, I won't have to move that 50 (or however many) lbs again.

[TiberiusNightrise]

Well, here are my final results. Today was the final day of my challenge.

 

Wednesday Workout

Warmup

Chinups (the real deal )

4 / 2.5 / 2 / 1.5

Squat/Lunge Combo

8 / 6 / 5 / 4

Pushups

12 / 13 / 12 / 12

Side Planks (in seconds)

60 / 45 / 30

Bonus: Chinups (yup, the real deal again )

3 / 1.5 / 1.5 / 1.5

Cool down/stretch

 

Friday workout

Warmup

Pull-ups (once again, the real deal )

2.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 1.5

Squats

12 (bar) / 12 (10lbs) / 12 (20lbs) / 10 (30lbs)

Closehand Pushups

12 / 12 / 12 / 9

Planks (in seconds)

80 / 65 / 50

Bonus: Pull-ups (yup! )

2 / 2 / 1.5 / 1.5

Cool down/stretch

 

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Week 6 Progress Report

October 24, 2014

Body Fat: 29.08% (up 0.72%, down 0.12% overall)

Waist: 40†(no change)

Getting rid of stuff: sold 2 more things on ebay (4 lbs for the week, 51 lbs overall)

[TiberiusNightrise]

Final Challenge Report

 

Goal 1: Lose 3% body fat

• Start: 29.2%
• Goal: 26.2%
• Actual: 29.08% (down 0.12%)
• Points up for grabs: 2 DEX | 3 WIS
• Points awarded: 0

Goal 2: Lose 1.5" from midsection

• Start: 40"
• Goal: 38.5"
• Actual: 40"
• Points up for grabs: 1 CON | 1 CHA
• Points awarded: 0

Goal 3: Complete graduated pull-up/chin-up training once and for all

• Completed!!!
• Points up for grabs: 4 STR | 3 STA
• Points awarded: 4 STR | 3 STA

Life: Get rid of 50 lbs of stuff

• Load lightened by: 51 lbs
• Points up for grabs: 1 WIS
• Points awarded: 1 WIS

So, not so great on the first 2 goals, but I am satisfied that I was able to keep things fairly consistent, considering all my stress at work. And I have a plan that I'm already putting in place for next challenge (started this week). I'm gradually working my way back up to 80/20 paleo. Last week I was 10% paleo (kind of a joke, though...that translates to about 2 paleo meals out of 21 for a week...but I still got them in). This week, I'm 25% paleo (5 paleo meals this week). The following week will go up to 50% paleo. Then by the start of the next challenge I'll be up to 80%. As has happened in the past when I've been dedicated on paleo, I expect the numbers I was hoping for for this challenge will work themselves out.

 

I'm super happy with my exercise goal and life goal, having achieved both with flying colors! I was so happy (and a little surprised) on Wednesday when I started with chin ups and pumped out 4 right off the bat. Felt so good!

 

So, while I won't be leveling up this challenge, I did score a good number of new attribute points. So, not too shabby!

[Elastigirl]

Great job on the chin ups and getting rid of all that stuff!