Big Show Turns Swift Hunter (WITH BONUS POVERTY!)

[Big_Show]

Hello nerds!

 

This is my first proper challenge back after the awesomeness that was Camp NF and my subsequent holiday.  However I am now settled back in to the sandpit and back into my daily routine, so it's time to attack my goals head-on.  And they all resolve around becoming a multi-class character between Ranger and Scout - a Swift Hunter (props to @Rurik Harrgath for finding the name and the awesome picture):

 

 

 

I really am trying to train all the things here; I need absolute strength (to lift heavy things), relative strength (to lift the heavy thing which is me), as well as speed & stamina (to hunt things without them getting away).

 

For the absolute strength, I am sticking with the three-way workout split I began towards the end of the summer - one day is Back & Biceps, the second is Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, and the third is Legs.

 

For the relative strength, I am specifically working on getting my first pull-up.  The Back & Biceps day includes specific pull-up work, but I'm also going to be doing a daily Grease the Groove to aid this further.  I have also just bought the new NF pack, so I'll be integrating that into these workouts too.

 

I have finally been able to start running again after months of calf injuries earlier on in the year (followed by the ridiculously hot summer).  I need to build the volume up very gradually while concentrating on not getting injured again - the eventual goal of this is to maintain a decent running volume with proper speedwork, including as much offroad/trail running as possible for dexterity.  Cross-training with sports where possible will also help with the latter.

 

The last part is diet.  A Swift Hunter needs to be a damn sight more agile than I currently am, and the first part of that is losing at least 20lbs and then reassessing things.

 

So my specific targets for this first challenge are:

 

1)  Work out six times per week

- 3 weights workouts

- 2-3 running workouts with cross-training substituted where necessary

- NO speedwork yet, apart from a few local 10k races entered as targets

- substitute workouts/exercises as necessary to avoid injury.  Pride is of little benefit when laid up injured.

 

2) Injury prevention

- foam roll calves daily looking for tough spots, then spend more time on them as necessary

- daily yoga - at least one of the NF mini-sessions, or a full session wherever possible

- do the Stretching Yin Yoga video weekly (preferably after the weekend's long run/race)

 

3) DO NOT EAT AND DRINK LIKE AN ARSEHOLE

- NO PIZZA.  Can't allow myself any kind of leeway on this one as it always leads to major slippage.  No pizzas at all under any circumstances.

- meal prep all five lunches for work

- meal prep breakfasts for work

- plan evening meals in advance (make sure there is plenty of vegetables involved)

- limit alcohol to once per week, and not in excessive quantities.  A few beers is ok, but no hangovers.

 

LQ) Begin decluttering

It's been a while since I had a Life Quest on one of these, but it's definitely necessary - I need to go through all the rooms in my flat and sort through all the crap I've accumulated over the last couple of years.  I have literally no idea why I bought some of the t-shirts I did when I slimmed down as they are hideous, and various other junk could probably do with getting thrown out/sold/donated now too.  It'll save time in the long run if I begin the process now.

 

So there you have it!  They all look deceptively simple, but I really need my arse kicking by you lot if I start to slack off on this.  I want to drop the last of this excess weight I gained in the sandpit and get back to around 100kg - when I weighed myself last week I was 110kg.  The plan is to weigh myself every Monday from now on and adjust things accordingly.

 

Wish me luck!

[shaar]

NO PIZZAS

 

;_________________;

 

Dude this quest is killer and well-rounded and daaang so much meal prep!!!!  YOU'RE GONNA KICK ITS ASS!!!!

 

 

[goodbye_farewell]

Came here for the rowing. Left disappointed

[shaar]

10 minutes ago, wovercast said:

Came here for the rowing. Left disappointed

I can't like this enough times

[miss_marissa]

Hi friend

 

edit: stupid gifs are stupid

[Charlie_Quinn]

If you like, I'll pick my friends brain for pizza alternatives recipes for you. She's a complete pizza-holic but is doing Slimming World and pizza is a "syn" on that plan. She has a few alternatives to pizza to keep her cravings in check, one of them is "meat-zza" which is as amazing as it sounds!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following again. What's the countdown for running away from the Sandpit?

[Rurik Harrgath]

2 hours ago, Big_Show said:

...becoming a multi-class character between Ranger and Scout - a Swift Hunter (props to @Rurik Harrgath for finding the name and the awesome picture):

 

My unique brand of motivation is... unique!

[Terra]

 Swift Hunter 

 

Great goals. Expecting great things here....  

[Matariel]

TRAIN ALL THE THINGS!

[Big_Show]

10 hours ago, shaar said:

NO PIZZAS

 

;_________________;

 

Dude this quest is killer and well-rounded and daaang so much meal prep!!!!  YOU'RE GONNA KICK ITS ASS!!!!

 

 

 

NO PIZZAS

 

10 hours ago, wovercast said:

Came here for the rowing. Left disappointed

 

ROWING POVERTY

 

10 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

Hi friend

 

edit: stupid gifs are stupid

 

Aw, I wanted to see the gif...

 

9 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

If you like, I'll pick my friends brain for pizza alternatives recipes for you. She's a complete pizza-holic but is doing Slimming World and pizza is a "syn" on that plan. She has a few alternatives to pizza to keep her cravings in check, one of them is "meat-zza" which is as amazing as it sounds!

 

I do have a couple of recipes for a cauliflower pizza base actually, I'm just really bad at making it so far!

 

9 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following again. What's the countdown for running away from the Sandpit?

 

Should be just over four months from now.

 

8 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

 

My unique brand of motivation is... unique!

 

You are definitely... memorable

 

8 hours ago, Terra said:

 Swift Hunter 

 

Great goals. Expecting great things here....  

 

Thanks!

 

6 hours ago, WJN325 said:

TRAIN ALL THE THINGS!

 

Is there any other way? #rangerbrain

[Big_Show]

So today was my first Leg Day since 31st August!  This was due to injury, Camp, holiday, then niggle.  So today was very much a rangefinder workout to figure out where I should be restarting from - every exercise was carefully deloaded from when I last lifted anything with my legs.

 

It was almost my first opportunity to try out my new squat form!  I took the Build A Better Squat class at Camp and it was so incredibly useful - I had basically stopped squatting before that due to fear of bad form and instead retreated to the leg press.  Turns out I was planting my feet too close together, and once I got my stance right it all felt a lot easier.

 

For the first time ever both squat racks were in use!  The bros at this gym are very upper-body focussed, so this has never been an issue before.  So I had to shift round my intended order instead of squatting first:

- w/u

- barbell deadlifts - 10,10,12: 110lbs for 10, then 176lbs for 10, then 198lbs for 10 - gonna start with 198lbs next time and see how that goes.

- seated leg curl - 10,10,12: 40lbs for 10, then 45lbs fo 10,14 - start with 50lbs next time

- barbell squats - 10,10,12: bar only for 10, then 88lbs for 10, then 132lbs for 10,10 - start with 132lbs next time and take it from there

- seated calf raise -10,10,12: 44lbs for 10,10,12

- standing calf raise - 10,10,12: 44lbs for 10,10,14 - increase to 55lbs next time for these two exercises

 

Due to the order confusion I completely forgot the leg extensions too.  No biggie though.

 

I did a Leg Day!  I could feel all kind of muscles working in the squat that weren't before though, so pretty sure there will be DOMS tomorrow even though I was only lifting poverty weights.  Felt good to be back in the squat rack though, and no longer scared of f*cking it up!  Well, no moreso than I am with life in general on a day-to-day basis

 

Let's see, what else is in this challenge that I need to report on:

- I foam-rolled my calves; nothing felt tight so no extra done

- I did the Squat Mobility mini-session for my daily yoga

- I did not eat any pizza

- I prepped lunches for the next two days to see me through to the end of the week, and I found a recipe recommended by a friend to try at the weekend.  Roasted chuck steak.with veggies.

- Not specifically in the challenge, but I went out for a walk to get my day's step total up over 10,000.  I did this yesterday too.

 

I think that covers everything.  I need to go read about Handstand stuff now.

[shaar]

I hate when the racks are all taken, it gives me a cranky.  I like to get barbell work out of the way first so I don't fatigue myself with pithy accessory work first, but sometimes.... grrrr.  GRRRR.  Go away, bros.  (Bro Away, that sounds like a big pest removal spray~)

 

YAY for good feeling squats though!!!!!!!!

[Rurik Harrgath]

I want to abuse my Mod powers to rename this challenge BIG SHOW'S POVERTY CHALLENGE with like a lot of funny script, extra symbols, and umlauts. 

[Xena]

Here for the pull-ups :-)

[Big_Show]

9 hours ago, shaar said:

I hate when the racks are all taken, it gives me a cranky.  I like to get barbell work out of the way first so I don't fatigue myself with pithy accessory work first, but sometimes.... grrrr.  GRRRR.  Go away, bros.  (Bro Away, that sounds like a big pest removal spray~)

 

YAY for good feeling squats though!!!!!!!!

 

YES!  Normally they're over hogging all the benches by the dumbbells or doing endless attempts at pull-ups.  How dare they decide to try a leg day for once!

 

9 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

I want to abuse my Mod powers to rename this challenge BIG SHOW'S POVERTY CHALLENGE with like a lot of funny script, extra symbols, and umlauts. 

 

...I would be ok with this.

 

1 hour ago, Xena said:

Here for the pull-ups :-)

 

Yes!  We are going to crack them!

[DarK_RaideR]

@Raxie's shout-out about D&d shenanigans brought me here and it was well worth it.

[Yasha92]

Lol-ing at bro away  there was a bro parked right in front of the wet wipes the other day and we'd been doing burpees in the carpark and were filthy. Everyone was just awkwardly hanging around waiting for dudebro to move so we could wipe all the grub and the sweat off the floor and ourselves. Finally I summoned the courage to go over and mumble "'scuse me, I'm sweaty!", a sentence I feel I should use more in my day-to-day life. Following along for the lack of pizza!

[Big_Show]

Another day done, another day closer to the weekend!  Although it's gonna be a very quiet one for me this week, it's been an expensive couple of months and I kinda feel like I could do with a break...

 

I woke up feeling quite knackered (been a bit low this week, and that stops me getting off to sleep easily) and so have kinda been over-caffeinating a bit today.  I can definitely feel a crash coming in the near future, so some quality sofa time is on its way after I have written this post.

 

I also accumulated some nice quad DOMS over the course of the day - my legs are definitely not used to doing even poverty squats, let alone ones using actual weight!  I'm planning on going back there on Friday for me fun, show them who's boss...

 

This week is containing lots more weights workouts than usual, but that's because I'm having the week off running to rest my calf.  Things will be back to normal for the real Week 1 of the challenge.  So, today was chest, shoulder & triceps:

- w/u

- DB bench press -10,10,12: 2x40lbs for 10,10,15 - increase to 2x45lbs next time

- DB flyes - 10,10,12: 2x30lbs for 10,10,10 - nearly there!

- side lateral raise - 10,10,12: 2x20lbs for 10,10,8,6

- seated DB press - 10,10,12: 2x25lbs for 10,10,7,6

- assisted dips - machine was broken, so I did extra sets of triceps pushdown instead

- triceps pushdown -10,10,12: 80lbs for 10,10,10,10,7,6 - move up to 90lbs next time

 

Bit annoying that the machine's broken, as this will likely scupper my assisted pull-ups too (I doubt they'll get it fixed any time soon), so I'm going to add extra sets of lat pulldowns for that one.  I need to work on the bottom of that movement anyway, so the extra sets should help.

 

Dinner was beef & egg cups with random veg (I need to cook some for breakfast tomorrow, so I made extra and saved on oven time).  Nicely full!  I don't think I've actually eaten any form of starchy carb since the weekend, and not suffering a massive lack of energy so far.  Although I haven't been doing any running, admittedly - that will definitely require more careful fuelling.

 

Let's see, what else:

- squat mobility mini-session done

- foam-rolled the calves, then moved on to the quads as well.  Which is utterly delightful, as I'm sure you can imagine.

- NO PIZZA

- 10k steps done (another walk after dinner)

 

Um, that's about it.  Tomorrow's the last day of the working week and I'm planning on swinging by the gym afterwards for a bit of a go on the static bike, then I shall mainly be catching up on TV from this week.  Nice quiet times ahead.

[Rurik Harrgath]

16 hours ago, Big_Show said:

...I would be ok with this.

 

[shaar]

10 minutes ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

 

 

AHAHAHAHA

 

SNORTED OUT LOUD AT THE OFFICE

 

HAPPY +100

[Rurik Harrgath]

Just makes me miss my poverty bunk on the floor in the cabin porch though... what a slumber party!

[Haikoo]

Oh hey! Back from my post camp hiatus, too!  I will have pizza in your honor at least once this challenge. 

 

[Big_Show]

ALL THE POVERTY.  ALL THE TIME.

[Big_Show]

Time for a weekend up date before the challenge starts tomorrow!

 

Thursday after work I headed to the gym, but not for weights - I spent an hour on the static bike doing hill intervals.  Which was nice.  Then a quiet evening in front of the TV with a curry.

 

Friday I went to the almost-empty gym in the morning for Legs:

- w/u

- barbell squat - 10,10,12: 143lbs for 10,10,12 - increase weight next time

- leg extensions - 10,10,12: 90lbs for 10,10,14 - increase weight next time

- barbell deadlift - 10,10,12: 110lb for 5, then 198lbs for 10,10,12 - increase weight next time

- seated leg curl - 90lbs for 10, then 100lbs for 10,15 - increase weight next time

- seated calf raise - 10,10,12: 55lbs for 10,10,15

- standing calf raise - 10,10,12: 55lbs for 10,10,15 - increase weight for both of these next time

 

I'm debating changing the reps to 5x5 for the squats and deadlifts next time.  I want to get stronger and get the weights up for these, so does that sound like a good idea?

 

The rest of Friday was spent doing very little; a bit of batch cooking, a lot of watching TV.

 

Today has been basically a complete rest day - been a while since I took one.  So I finally finished of S2 of Daredevil, properly tidied the living room & kitchen (which made a start on my decluttering goal), and finished off my batch cooking.  I now have breakfasts, lunches and dinners all sorted for the next few days.

 

Looking forward to this challenge starting -  I think I've been kinda half-assing it since I got back from holiday, so this will be good motivation to whole-ass it for the entire month.  See what kind of difference I can make to my health & my life again if I properly commit this time.