Azotus accepts a contract

[azotus]

I will prove myself as an assassin!

Goals:

6 pounds of flesh

Lose 6 pounds. Starting weight 176.

After a week of excess between challenges, I'm ready to keep chiseling away at my excess fat. I've been liking the way I look, and the way I feel, and how I move now that I've been losing weight, and I want to keep progressing towards a lean, deadly body.

Pushing myself (literally)

Be able to perform 3X15 good form push ups.

My push up work took a backseat to pull ups last challenge, and I don't feel like I've been getting that much stronger in that area. I have also been researching form, and mine isn't that great. My hands are too far forward, which makes things easier, in a bad way. I also need to watch my elbow placement. I plan on incorporating some grease the groove training here, while trying to avoid tendinitis.

Core concepts

Achieve a 60 second plank and a set of 10 toes to bar.

The advanced assassin moves I'm working toward require serious core strength, and I haven't been training my core very seriously.

I almost didn't have these goals ready for the challenge, but a weekend of brainstorming got me motivated. I'll be on my way to advanced assassination in no time!

[azotus]

Grading wise,

Weight- 1 letter grade deducted for each pound above goal

Feats of fitness: pass/fail. I think this gives me more motivation to keep going after I get to a "C" level.

How will I get to these goals?

Weight- keep eating low carb, and be mindful of what I'm eating. Cheese and guacamole are two things that are very easy for me to go overboard with. If I start stalling, I'm going back to tracking calories. I strongly suspect that I will have to start measuring again the closer I get to my overall goal, but I'll ride out my intuitive eating as long as I can.

I'm going to continue doing full body circuits, but now I'll be taking 30 to 90 seconds between exercises so that general cardio fatigue isn't holding me back too much. I currently do:

Pull ups, neutral position, 3 reps per set (I've been needing to take a mini rest for that last rep on the last set)

Split squats, 10 reps per leg. Form is still shaky as this is a new exercise

Push ups, 10 reps. Now trying to focus on form for every rep.

Toes to bar, currently 5 per set. This is currently brutally hard and makes me super nauseous after working out.

Plank, to almost failure. Somewhere around 30 seconds now.

German hangs 10 second hold per set. I'm not all the way in position yet, but I'm slowly working towards the shoulder mobility for back levers. And it's quite fun.

Currently, I do 3 complete sets. With foam rolling and good sleep, I have been DOMS free after 48 hours. I might bump up the volume to 4 sets and see how much my body complains. I have problems where I go all out on Monday, and I'm so sore my strength suffers on Wednesday, and I think the cumulative effect even hinders Friday. 3 moderate workouts is better than one intense one and two mediocre ones. Managing my recovery will help me get in the total volume I need. Let me know if you have any tips!

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

 With foam rolling and good sleep, I have been DOMS free after 48 hours.

 

Glad to see that the foam rolling and sleep are helping.

 

I'm following your challenge A.) for the awesome and B.) to see if anyone has any recovery tips

 

Good luck, I know that you will C R U S H it!

[azotus]

Week 1 update:

Weight: 173 (-3) not surprising, as I was unusually full of carbohydrates and glycogen stores last week. Consequently, having lost those, my energy has been sagging this past week. The closer I get to my final goal, the faster I want to lose weight so I can eat at maintenance again. I know, I know, slow and steady wins the race. Thankfully, hunger itself is pretty much the least annoying consequence of eating at a deficit for me.

Strength work: as much as I wanted to have 3 steady workouts, again, Monday was great, Wednesday was a struggle, and Friday almost didn't happen. I was so tired by Friday, I just did grease the groove push and pull ups all through the weekend. I must have done 15 or so sets of 2 or 3 pulls and 5 to 10 push ups over the two days. Toes to bar... Well, I did a few. Core work isn't my favorite, which is why I focus too much on the arms when my motivation is low.

I also aggravated an old sprain strain or whatever in my back left shoulder. It hurts whenever I try to retract my scapula back and upwards. Oddly, it doesn't hurt to move my arm in any direction, and even my pull ups are pain free. I don't know what set it off this time, could be something as simple as sleeping on it wrong. I do know that skin the cats make it hurt instantly, so I'm laying off those for a while. I also almost pulled something trying to open a stubborn jar of sauerkraut. That would have been embarrassing.

I feel really good about losing so much weight, even if the effects of cutting calories for so long are starting to take their toll. I'm only 13 pounds overweight as per BMI. I have been overweight literally since I was a toddler, so that will be a great milestone. It's still weird to look in the mirror and not see a heavier person. It's good motivation, and I'll need it, as it is only going to get harder from here on out.

[Fireclaw]

 

Friday almost didn't happen.

But it happened, that's the important thing. (I'm an incurable optimist )

 

 

I'm only 13 pounds overweight as per BMI.

Congratulations!!! I myself am faaaar away from that milestone.

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

You are doing so well! And Friday? You showed up. That's half the battle right there.

You are so close - keep on keeping on... You will definitely get there.

[NeverThatBored]

Found you!  

 

Looks like we're both working on our core strength this time.

[azotus]

Week 2 update:

Only 2 workouts this week, but I worked to failure. I realized that all my sub maximal sets probably weren't doing enough to build strength. I was sore again all week, not a terrible thing. I was very close to 3x15 push ups.

On the weight loss front, currently 168... But let's take a step back and explain how I got there...

So, this entire week, I was holding steady at 172, with almost no daily fluctuations. I wasn't too concerned, but if I kept stalling, I'd eat less. This weekend, I ate very little, as I just wasn't hungry. So today, after consuming nothing but coffee, I thought it would be a capital idea to mow the lawn. With my manual push mower. In summer heat. I somehow got through it, but I could feel my body was running on absolute empty. I weighed myself, and surprisingly, I was down to 168, probably mostly due to water loss. I took my usual post-mow shower, and I started to feel pretty woozy. I stumbled out into the bedroom, and lied down. Nausea kicked in, and I went back to the bathroom, where tunnel vision started to set in and I found myself on the floor shouting for my wife to bring me some sugar (lol phrasing). A few tablespoons brought me back to full consciousness and avoided an embarrassing hospital visit.

So, long story short: there are limitations on what the body can do. I'm going to start keeping my routine even on the weekends to avoid the lack of food and activity that seems to hit me pretty hard. I also have to start listening to my body more. It can handle more intense exercise when there's enough food, and it needs food every day throughout the day.

[NeverThatBored]

We learn through experimenting I guess.  

 

Be careful though!

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

So, long story short: there are limitations on what the body can do. I'm going to start keeping my routine even on the weekends to avoid the lack of food and activity that seems to hit me pretty hard. I also have to start listening to my body more. It can handle more intense exercise when there's enough food, and it needs food every day throughout the day.

 

We live and learn.  I do my own version of IF, but my body seems to do okay (for now) with less food sometimes.  Water, though...that's another story.  

 

It's smart of you to listen to your body - if you need food, you need it.  I hope this week went well for you!

[NeverThatBored]

Hey there! It looks like you haven't been around in a while. I hope everything is going ok!