tenaciousglee Punches The Clock

[tenaciousglee]

Going to be a busy couple of months at work, but I don't want to slide on my fitness, so this challenge will help me keep some focus.

Goals:

1. Exercise/fitness related goal

*Finish reading Body By Science (currently 50% done)

*One BBS Big Five workout a week

*One accessory workout a week

2. Performance/skill related goal

*Hanging Leg Raise/L-sit/V-sit

*Handstand Push-ups

*Freestanding handstand

3. Nutrition/body composition goal

*Work up to 3 liters (12 cups) of water a day

*Start with 2 cups/day, add 2 cups each week

*This will also force me to cut back on soda.

4. Family life oriented goal

*Make time for my wife & kids, even when I have to work early mornings or late nights.

[tenaciousglee]

[tenaciousglee]

First workout of the new challenge is in the books.  I'm tracking them over in my Battle Log.

 

2 cups of water a day should be pretty easy this week.  I usually drink more than that before/during/after my workout.

[Mikroftt]

Yeah I did notice the triple post yesterday.  Was kind of confused as to which one to reply to.  I am doing more water this challenge also.  I just didn't post it directly in my post.  I am aiming for 2 - 24 oz waterbottles at work per day.  The first is a bottle with a lemon slice, cucumber slices, and strawberries.  The second bottle will contain 2 tbsp of chia seeds.  There are a couple of other guys at work that do the chia seeds as well.  

[Xena]

I bet the Guild leaders could take down the ones you don't want...I would ask for you, but I don't want to make any assumptions without checking with you first. The easiest thing would be if you just PM'ed Hammi or DarkRaider and asked for a little help with this. I don't know if they can delete a thread, but probably...

 

But aside from that...GOOD LUCK with the challenge!

[tenaciousglee]

I bet the Guild leaders could take down the ones you don't want...I would ask for you, but I don't want to make any assumptions without checking with you first. The easiest thing would be if you just PM'ed Hammi or DarkRaider and asked for a little help with this. I don't know if they can delete a thread, but probably...

But aside from that...GOOD LUCK with the challenge!

Thanks, Xena! I'll look into it.

[tenaciousglee]

I'm currently at my 5-year-old daughter's gymnastics class. It's chaotic and entertaining. Haven't picked up any pointers for my handstands or L-sits yet...

[Mikroftt]

You mean you aren't one of those parents that just gets up, joins the class and rolls around on the mat with them?!  If it is anything like watching elementary football, it is entertaining to watch.

[tenaciousglee]

You mean you aren't one of those parents that just gets up, joins the class and rolls around on the mat with them?! If it is anything like watching elementary football, it is entertaining to watch.

I am TOTALLY one of those parents, but they actually have a sign that says parents can't come in to the gym for insurance reasons.

I still have plans to "help" my daughter work on her moves at home.

[QuirkyDM]

Hey! You're back in the challenges. I was lurking on your battle log as the Summer of Strong and September of Strong went on. Now I get to enjoy you twice as much!

[Mikroftt]

Darn insurance people...

[Phayze]

Darn insurance people...

So, it's okay if one of the kids breaks something, but if Dad pulls his groin muscle then stuff's gonna get REAL.

[tenaciousglee]

Water drinking update (cause that's why you're here): first 2 days were no problem, 5 cups on Monday, at least 2 on Tuesday. Not sure why today has been tougher. Was more tired, so I had more coffee and wasn't at my desk with my water bottle at hand as much. Staying up 10 minutes later to drink some H2O.

[tenaciousglee]

Hey! You're back in the challenges. I was lurking on your battle log as the Summer of Strong and September of Strong went on. Now I get to enjoy you twice as much!

 

Yeah, buddy!  I did participate in the last challenge (TG vs Homer Simpson), but I think the best part of that challenge was searching for pictures of Homer working out.  I didn't even end up grading myself.

 

And as for the Summer of Strong and September of Strong, I think I made good progress, definitely on the Start Bodyweight stuff, but I neglected to go back in and compare how I did from the start to the end.  And I never did master pistol squats or one-armed push-ups.

 

With the advent of October, I switched gears and started looking to build a 90-day program to get me to the end of the year.  After stumbling upon High Intensity Training (no intervals) and Body By Science, I've moved towards a less-is-more approach.  I may not be ripped by January 1, but it's a very maintainable exercise program.  I'm thinking if I can maintain my weight/midsection for the rest of November, I may bump up the calories for December to try and put on some muscle.  Will probably be a delicate balance.

[Xena]

Water drinking update (cause that's why you're here)

 

Obviously.

 

Hope your weekend is great!

[Maledictus]

subbed.

[tenaciousglee]

subbed.

Welcome, sir! Sorry the last thread you followed got removed. Now I can focus on this one...

[tenaciousglee]

Busy week in the office = quiet week on the thread

 

Goal recap thus far:

• Reading progress on Body By Science - behind schedule, only about 55% done.
• Hit my BBS workouts for Weeks 1 and 2.
• Hit my Week 1 accessory workout, missed my Week 2, but there's technically still time.
• Met or exceeded my 2 cups of water per day goal in Week 1, hanging in there with 4 cups/day for Week 2; still no reduction in soda (but the focus is on water).
• No real progress on my gymnastic skills
• Not much to report on the family side due to the early mornings and late nights with work, though we did have family movie night last night.  Of course, I fell asleep on the couch before the movie was over...

[Phayze]

I think "dad asleep on the couch" is kind of a requirement for family movie night, so I wouldn't feel to bad about it. ~^

Nice work on the rest of the goals! What kind of program are you thinking of using for your skill goals? "Less is more" is probably a good philosophy to take into that as well. Just a few minutes a day adds up pretty quickly.

[QuirkyDM]

What Phayze said on the skills. Use the 5 minutes per day rule that was recommended for learning handstands. Everyone can find 5 minutes in their day.

[Mikroftt]

Been there with the movie.  If I am tired enough, it doesn't matter how much I want to see the movie, I will still fall asleep.

[tenaciousglee]

I think "dad asleep on the couch" is kind of a requirement for family movie night, so I wouldn't feel to bad about it. ~^

Nice work on the rest of the goals! What kind of program are you thinking of using for your skill goals? "Less is more" is probably a good philosophy to take into that as well. Just a few minutes a day adds up pretty quickly.

 

 

What Phayze said on the skills. Use the 5 minutes per day rule that was recommended for learning handstands. Everyone can find 5 minutes in their day.

 

 

Been there with the movie.  If I am tired enough, it doesn't matter how much I want to see the movie, I will still fall asleep.

 

Thanks for checking in, fellas!  I hadn't considered the x minutes a day approach - I was just planning to dedicate one workout a week to skill work.  However, as I've experienced the last 2 weeks, it's easy to miss a scheduled workout.  But like QDM says, everyone can find 5 minutes in their day.  I may have to try a little "grease the groove" for L-sits and handstands.  The other night I practiced handstands for a few minutes while my son was enjoying his "my bath is over, but I'm not done playing" time.  I also went as far as to Google "L-sits Beast Skills", but I haven't actually read anything yet.

 

Speaking of reading, I made some good progress and an interesting discovery with Body By Science.  I finished chapter 9 and realized chapter 10 was geared towards athletes and chapter 11 was geared towards seniors.  Not sure I'm going to read either of those, so I'm now much closer to being finished with the book than I thought!

[Mikroftt]

L-sits and I are having a love/hate relationship right now.  I know I need to work on them and am trying to but doing them on the rings is really hard.  I think I am going to try inverted leg raises as a substitute for now.  GMB just did a new article on them.

[tenaciousglee]

L-sits and I are having a love/hate relationship right now.  I know I need to work on them and am trying to but doing them on the rings is really hard.  I think I am going to try inverted leg raises as a substitute for now.  GMB just did a new article on them.

 

I was like, "Inverted Leg Raises? So, what, you're upside down? Ha ha!"  Then I clicked on the link and sure enough, you're upside down...  Crazy gymnasts.

[tenaciousglee]

Week 3 wrap-up:

 

• About 65% through Body By Science, but as stated above, I'll probably skip a chapter or two that don't relate to me.
• Got one BBS workout in last week, missed the accessory skills workout (again).
• Did a few sets of handstands sprinkled throughout the week
• Hit 6 cups of water 6/7 days
• Family time - balanced work and family pretty well, though with it being Thanksgiving week, family time was sort of guaranteed.

Looking ahead:

 

A new month means a new phase of GLEE 90X.  I believe my original plan was to cut in October, maintain in November, and bulk in December.  I may have started the bulk a couple of days early, but can you blame me?  According to my daily weigh-ins, I'm up 2 pounds since November 1st, but that can (and does) fluctuate all over the place.  I'll take new pics & measurements tonight to see how much I "maintained".

 

As for the fitness side of things, I'm sticking with Body By Science and the High Intensity Training.  I'd like to give it a couple of months on a calorie surplus to see what kind of muscle I can build.  I also just ordered the New High Intensity Training book and want to see what secrets lie inside those pages.

 

Despite what I've read, I just can't limit myself to one workout a week, so I'm going to try and stick with my Monday/Friday pattern.  Apparently ectomorphs are notoriously bad at sitting and waiting for muscles to grow/recover because it happens at such a slow pace.  Anyway, I keep coming back to this ideal I have in my head for the type of physique I'd like to build.  It's an image I keep seeing over and over because it's on my kid's backpack and bookshelf:

 

I'm sure I'm not the first person who wanted to look like Spidey, but every time I look for a Spider Man workout on the internet, I get Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield.  I don't want to look like them.  I want to look like the fictional character.  So, how does this fictional character get into shape?  Or how would he if radioactive spiders didn't exist?  Digging a little further, I came across this site: http://www.bjgaddour.com/tag/spider-man, so I'm going to give these a try on my Friday workouts.  The one thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to mimic the swinging between buildings.  I've got suspension straps, but nowhere to realistically hang them. #nerdproblems