Newbie Navis

[navis]

Hello,

I’ve been lurking around this place ever since I found it back in January as I was looking for tips to switch up my workout routine.

First off, my friends would definitely call me a nerd, though I can be pretty selective in what I geek out on.  I grew up with Belgian / French comic books (Wake – or Sillage in French, for instance, which inspired my username).  I have an undergrad in Japanese for which practice was rooted in watching animes and reading mangas.  I did play Super Mario growing up (being the youngest of two, I was always Luigi) but I preferred watching/playing/impersonating/drawing Ninja Turtles.  My dad not being a fan of American comics (some sort of French chauvinism there I think), I never had the Marvel / DC Comics childhood experience.  As an adult I do have a penchant for Batman, though.  Oh and you might have gathered by now: I’m French.

Let’s dive right into it: I’ve always been kind of in and out of the gym, but it never really stuck until I struggled with depression.  I had to take a year off school, and when I went back I was so afraid of falling back into a dark place that I signed up to a gym (which was right across the road from me!) and went to classes any chance I got. As it turns out, exercise proved to be a far better way for me to balance my emotions than prescription drugs.  I was able to ween myself off the antidepressants and sleeping pills overtime and today, fitness is my only therapy.

I started out with RPM (Les Mills) three times a week and a few core classes.  Around 18 months ago I found out about Body Pump and have been doing it twice a week since (gosh did I have NO upper body strength!).  After reading Steve’s article on how to break a plateau, I stopped spinning (seriously, even with the best of instructors I still HATE spinning) and took up boxing instead. I also do a bit of yoga, where the most challenging poses for me are the ones requiring a lot of core strength.

I’m pretty good about not missing a workout, or making up for one I can’t make.  My cooking is fairly healthy, however during my years of depression I suffered from emotional eating and yo-yoed between being overweight and shockingly skinny, completely messing up my metabolism and leaving me with a larger-than-preferred lower body.

Lately though I’d been feeling stuck in a routine and perhaps a little too comfortable.  Then one day my absolute favorite BP teacher announced she was dropping our class due to conflicting schedules. To be honest, by then I was going more for the social aspect than the actual workout.  Sure, I kept upping my weights but I could tell the class was no longer enough of a challenge for me.  And after months of reading NerdFitness as well as other online resources, I’d grown convinced I was ready to move on to “serious” strength training.

So here I am.  Finally posting on this forum.  A few weeks ago I got an email from my gym about an offer on Personal Training packages.  This was the perfect opportunity for me as I was still lacking the confidence to enter the testosterone dominated sections of my gym.  After an initial assessment, I had my second session just this morning, and I’m really liking it!  My trainer is a woman with a background in yoga and dance, and she lifts weights, making her the perfect match and inspiration for me.  She pushes me, listens to me, and gives me advice I can use in my yoga classes too.  I started with 75lbs barbell squats last week and moved on to 85lbs this week as it was a tad too easy (I accidentally did more reps than I was supposed to!).

I’m very excited about my new program, and to meet people here who are as nerdy about fitness (and nerdy things) as I am   

 

[Steaky]

Welcome to the rebellion, good to have you here. 

 

Sounds like you've had a pretty eventful journey so far. Well done on getting of the medication too, that's super tough for a lt of people.   If you're into strength and weights, go swing by the Warriors pages, @SpecialSundae is a friendly enough lass always happy to geek out on lifting. 

[SpecialSundae]

Lifting, lifting, lalala!

 

Hey Navis and welcome to the Rebellion!

 

I actually started out in fitness to help with depression and was lucky enough that my first personal trainer had started exercising to get herself off antidepressants. I think that there are a lot of people around with a similar background.

 

Give me a shout if you'd like any help getting settled into the forums.

 

Sundae

[navis]

Thank you both  I'll definitely give the Warrior pages an eye.  I marked myself as a Ranger for now, but maybe I should stick with Rebel until I've figured it out?

 

@SpecialSundae: impressive transformation!  It's nice to hear others have gone into fitness for a similar reason ; I don't even mention it anymore.  Working out has become part of who I am.

[Steaky]

I'm staying as a rebel for now, at least until after I complete my first challenge. I'm torn between scout, ranger and assassin.  I used to be a full on scout, masses of stamina. I want to get that back, but want to improve my strength and become an all rounder (ranger).  I'm drawn to body weight work outs and characters like Ezio in assassins creed II and John Wick and Black Widow and many Vampire characters. 

So I'll probably end up flirting between different guilds for different challenges to become a mix of a couple of different ones. 

[navis]

Oh I need to create a challenge!

 

I'm like you: personality-wise, I definitely recognize myself in the ranger description ; however I really want to put the emphasis on strength in my workouts which is more in line with warriors.  Maybe I'll look at the warrior section for challenges and make my own mix, ranger style.

[Steaky]

Nothing wrong with that. There are more than a few, from what I understand, who move between them depending upon which goal(s) they are focusing on at any given time. So they might do 1 challenge with the Druids for meditation, then one with the assassins for agility. Then they might do a couple with the Rangers or scouts to train for an event. 

 

It all seems very fluid and relaxed. It's all about how you chose to align yourself.  The important part is you're making progress and enjoying yourself.