bbonzo works on weaknesses

[bbonzo]

Hi everyone!

 

My name is Becca and this is my first 6 week challenge. I joined the Academy a couple months ago and love it so far, I'm currently a level 5 assasin, but I've decided I need a little kick in the pants to stay committed and motivated with my goals and I think this challenge will really help! I've decided to work on my weaknesses for this challenge since they usually get overlooked since I hate feeling weak and don't particularly like doing things I'm not good at. That will all change soon! I'm very weak in my core, flexibility, and at resisting sweets so this challenge will revolve around that for me.

 

My main quest:

Be a stronger, healthier, leaner version of myself that can do cool gymnastic type stuff with my body and be a great climber too.

 

6 week challenge goals:

1. Be able to hold an L-sit with good form for 10 seconds.

A=10 seconds, B=7 seconds, C=5 seconds, D=3 seconds, Fail if I can't hold one with good form at all.

 

2. Do a little yoga everyday.

A=42 days, B=35 days, C=28 days, D=21 days, Fail if any less than 14 days

 

3. Limit myself to only having a small sweet treat once a week, replace all other cravings with fruit.

A=6 sweet days, B=8 sweet days, C=10 sweet days, D=12 sweet days, Fail if I have more than 14 sweet days.

 

I'm excited to start the challenge and see what happens at the end of these six weeks! Good luck everyone!

 

I forgot about rewards! If I do well with this challenge I'm gonna get a bunch of stuff to represent the people who helped me do it!

 

If I get an A I'll get all of the below.

If I get a B I get a NF sweatshirt

If I get a C I get a NF t-shirt

If I get a D I get a NF sticker pack

 

I also decided no matter how poorly I do If I actually stick with the challenge for all 6 weeks I'll get some new loose leaf tea just for the hell of it cuz I love tea

[LawTigress]

Great goals! Good luck to you!

[Akuyo]

You got this for sure!

[lucky fire dragon]

great goals! L-seat is that what I think it is?? How do you even lift your legs an inch???? All I can do is lift my butt off the floor and my feet just go "no-oh, lady, no way" haha

Super impressed by you rocking that!

 

Where are you on that right now? Sounds like you are on a solid track already

 

Great move on the sweets, too. I used to make my own chocolate for a while (am such a chocoholic   ) You just warm half a cup of coconut oil, mix half a cup of almond flour in, some chopped nuts of your choice, a whole cup of raw cocoa and add honey/chopped dates/cranberries or the like to your taste. It's super healthy, really nice and you don't need a lot to satisfy the sweet tooth 

 

Good luck with your awesome challenge!

[SymphonicDan]

Hey bbonzo, nice to see some gymnastics goals in here! (I'm a gymnast too, amongst other things) L-sits are pretty hard! How tall are you? L-sits are easier for smaller people (as with any skill that requires starting or preventing rotation)... they're super good for your lower core though, so keep practising What progressions are you using? I have a few suggestions if you're stuck, just ask!

 

I guess there's a good chance you'll come join lucky fire dragon and I (and everyone else) over in the Assassins' Guild once you've finished this challenge and earnt your loose leaf tea? There are lots of us working on the following, amongst other things:

• gymnastics
• yoga
• climbing
• nutrition

Feel free to come lurk at the cool stuff the Assassins are getting up to over in our forum, and there are a couple of other links I should share with you (I'm an Assassin Ambassador this challenge so I should probably do my job as well as just find Level 1 Rebels who are working on cool stuff )

 

The Assassin Guild Info & Announcements

The Assassins' Den guild chat thread

The Level 1 Assassin Initiates Q&A/Chat thread

 

Good luck with your first challenge

[bbonzo]

Thanks Akuyo!

 

lucky fire dragon and SymphonicDan I'm using these kick ass parallete bars my husband made me to do them! Right now I really cant hold an actual Lsit at all, I can kick my legs out and hold it for maybe a second then my legs just drop. So for now I'm doing them with tucked knees until I can build up the strength, then I plan to put one leg out from tucked alternating until I feel strong enough to do both legs and hold them.  I'd love any tips or other exercises to try too though!

 

Today I did my yoga (then dishes) then did 1 ten second tucked knee hold, then 2 fifteen second holds, then 2 ten second holds again.  After that I tried to do a pushup pyramid thing where you do 1, 2, 3, 4, then 5 pushups and hold for 10 seconds at the top then do 5 down to one and hold for 10 seconds at the bottom. Wellllll I got all the way up the pyramid but couldn't come back down... Something new to work on! Yay! After all that I did 3 thirty second planks (front and both sides). I didn't have any sweets today and don't plan to tonight but I'm gonna have to try and make some of that chocolate lucky fire dragon was talking about, that sounds amazing!

 

All in all it was a great first day of the challenge and I'm looking forward to the rest of em!

 

How do I post a video? I took video of me doing my Lsit work and I'd like to show you guys to get some pointers How's everyone else doing with their challenges?

[JusticeKnight]

Welcome to the Rebellion!

keep us posted on your progress.

[SymphonicDan]

For L-sits, other things I'd recommend - disclaimer: remember that I can't yet do them - are:

• hamstring stretches
• hanging leg raises
• floor L-sit with legs straight but feet can be on the floor... preferably a smooth floor... then drag your body back so that your arms are taking more and more of the weight (and are less vertical) and hold for a bunch of seconds in some position along this trajectory that feels possible but very difficult

I should get working on this skill too, maybe in the next challenge... I'll see

 

To post videos to here, usually I upload them to YouTube, and then either add a URL with the URL tag in the toolbar above, or if you want the video to appear as an embedded player inside your post, just paste the link there and it will magically work

 

You can add photos (and probably videos) to your gallery ("My Gallery") on NF, and then there are ways of getting media there to appear in your post too.

[bbonzo]

Awesome thank you! I'll definitely try some of that stuff!

[bbonzo]

Day 2-

 

Today was meh.  I did my workouts, ate healthy, avoided sweets and what not but I just felt tired and weak today.  Oh well I'm glad I did everything and tomorrow is a new day, hopefully a better one!

[bbonzo]

Day 3 was really good! I didn't really hit any goals or anything but I felt a lot stronger and things just seemed to go a lot better for me.  I decided to look up more stuff for Lsits and see what kind of other exercises I can do to help me build strength cuz I want to work on that since I feel like I have bad form for the tucked sits I've been doing.  Anyways good news is I found a video that gives me a plan to follow with different exercises that will help me get there! Bad news is it takes 4 months and it seems pretty intense already (like 200 reps of an exercise a day intense) so right now I'm kind of second guessing my Lsit goal and whether or not I'll be anywhere close to achieving it by the end of this challenge.  At this point it's hard to judge since I don't know how quickly I'll progress but pass or fail I'm just really excited to get stronger.  I did my yoga and didn't have any sweets today too so all in all a great day!

[bbonzo]

Day 4 was another great day, still working hard doing my yoga and core work for the Lsits.  I also noticed that I was shrugging my shoulders when I was doing the tucked knee sits so I decided to do 3 sets to failure of good form basically nose touching the floor push ups and 3 sets to failure of dips on my parallete bars.  The dips were way tougher than normal dips, not sure why, I'm guessing it was because my grip was different compared to how I normally do them but I felt like I was feeling whole new areas of my triceps getting worked on.  I didn't have any sweets today either so that's been good.  Oh and I went for a very short run today out in the snow, not part of my challenge but fun anyways.  I'm having a lot of fun with this challenge and I'm excited to continue on!

[0gravity]

Don't give up on the L-sit! Have patience. You don't have to follow any particular program to improve on it, just work on it regularly and it will improve. Dips will help you too, as will active flexibility exercises for the pike - such as at 1:23 in the video below. But the main thing is to not give up.

 

[SymphonicDan]

Day 2-

 

Today was meh.  I did my workouts, ate healthy, avoided sweets and what not but I just felt tired and weak today.  Oh well I'm glad I did everything and tomorrow is a new day, hopefully a better one!

 

Some days you're just weaker than on other days... days when your body is recovering from stuff (lack of sleep, physical exertion, emotional stress, illnesses - including those that your body fights off before you see any other symptoms). If you can't train in a hardcore way, recover in a hardcore way instead

 

The L-sit progression you found may take 4 months for a beginner, or longer from a more complete beginner... or less time for someone more advanced... I suggest that you either ignore it and use something else, or look at the progressions in it, and accellerate it so it takes as long as needed for you (which may be more or less than 4 months). The 200 reps thing sounds dubious though...

[bbonzo]

Great video 0gravity, You're the video king! I never even thought about doing seated leg lifts like that, thanks for sharing! And don't worry I definitely am not giving up on it, I was just worried that maybe I had set an unrealistic goal and that I wouldn't get close at all by the end of the challenge but even if I don't get it by the end of the challenge I'm still going to keep working on them and will eventually be able to do it!

 

SymphonicDan this is definitely true and I know I've been more tired and stressed this week because I got a department change for my job which I wanted and I've been enjoying so far but it's a lot more physically demanding and comes with more responsibility than my previous position. Also I've been learning to drive the forklifts and big platform lifts! Fun, but very stressful as well

 

Thanks for the encouragement and tips to get better guys! I really appreciate the support!

 

Today was a pretty good day, I was really tired from work and did not feel like doing anything, in fact it took me till 9:00 tonight before I finally decided I need to do my workouts.  I did them though and felt pretty good, the yoga felt amazing cuz it was all IT band stretches which I've had problems with my IT band in the past, physical therapy helped but it still gets really tight from time to time. I also did more core work and some pushups and dips tonight.  I didn't have any sweets either so yay for that! I hope you guys' challenges are going well too!

[erosan]

Inquisitive mind wants to know… what kind of tea? puh-er? wulong? those are my favs

[starsapart]

Inquisitive mind wants to know… what kind of tea? puh-er? wulong? those are my favs

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, tea!  I also share this weakness!  My faves are floral whites (complete opposite of erosan!!!!!), though I can really get behind a nice, strong Earl Grey as well.

 

You're doing awesome, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!  L-sits are tough!!!

[bbonzo]

Mmmmm I love a good tea earl grey hot.  But my favorite is probably rooibos, I love red teas! There are so many out there that I haven't tried yet though so I think I'll probably end up trying some new stuff for my reward

 

And I'm excited to get Lsits, I can already feel my core getting a lot stronger which is really encouraging! I know I'll get them eventually

[erosan]

My faves are floral whites

granted, puh-er can be funky flavoured, but try oolongs, they can be pretty floral tasting too (try a bao zhong)

[bbonzo]

Day six was pretty relaxed for me, I did some yoga and some core work but didn't go nearly as hard as I usually go, I was feeling like I needed a little break.  No sweets today either, and I haven't struggled too much with cravings surprisingly. I have however really been craving pancakes lately, anyone have any good healthy/paleo pancake recipes? Looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow!

[erosan]

mmm pancakes are never gonna be super healthy, even if you paleo-ify the recipe. that said, the one I use is (because I do not have access to weird ingredients like alternative flours) basically smush a couple of bananas, add an egg, pour into hot hot skillet with butter. top with moar butter, maybe some cream (if you tolerate lactose) and a drizzle of honey. good eats, just don't eat them daily.

its not that its bad for you, but it is a bit high on carbs with all the fruit and honey action going on.

here, I found a similar recipe on the net:

http://thepaleodiet.com/paleo-banana-pancakes/ '> http://thepaleodiet.com/paleo-banana-pancakes/

[bbonzo]

Awesome thanks erosan! It's definitely just a once in a while thing, but those sound yummy!

 

Update for everyone! I decided to try Lsits again with the parallete bars today since I was feeling stronger and I did them! I was able to lift my legs and hold for a few seconds! I'm so excited! I definitely need to work on my form and work on holding them longer still but I know that now I can do them! I'm having so much fun with this challenge! I still haven't done any yoga yet today but I'm planning on doing some after I go for a short run.

 

If you want to see the video and have instagram I've posted it on there, find/follow me @binghambecca

 

I hope everyone is having as great of day as I am, keep up the good work everyone!

[bbonzo]

Just wanted to do an update for the first week on my challenge.

 

Lsit goal

- Worked hard everyday this week on core stuff as well as shoulder/arm/tricep stuff and actually held my first ever Lsit today! It was only for a few seconds and my form wasn't the best but I'm so excited I can actually get my feet off the ground for a little bit now! I'd say I get an A for this week.

 

Yoga/Flexibility goal

-I did some yoga everyday this week, finishing off today with some specific yoga for runners after I went for a short run. A for this goal as well this week.

 

Limiting Sweets goal

-I didn't have any sweets this week even though I allow myself one sweet thing a week.  The closest thing I had was a little bit of my husband's root beer which I never drink pop so it wasn't something that I felt really triggered any sweet cravings. A+ for this one.

 

Overall I'd say this week gets an A+ I'm doing much better with the no sweets thing than I thought I would be and I'm ahead of schedule for my progress on Lsits! I'm not feeling a whole lot more flexible but I'm enjoying the yoga that I'm doing and I'm sure the flexibility will come with time.  Great week and great challenge so far.

[erosan]

did I mention I ended up cooking a batch? 1 banana + 1 egg = 4 small pancakes

I think they look similar enough. they taste like bananas though

[netzzolo]

Glad to see your challenge is going well, Congrats on the Lsits!

I know the pancake craving feeling ( I get it for waffles!), These are some good pancakes if you are going the paleo/grain free route.