BitterOyster Returns for a Rematch with the Champion

[BitterOyster]

I can't believe my Pokemon journey began a year ago today. I never thought it would take this long, but after defeating the indigo league only to be knocked out by the champion, I had a grudge to settle. I recouperated in Pallet Town before embarking on another journey, seeking strength and wisdom across Kanto's coast, under the mountains, through cyberspace, into the deep dark forest and amongst the islands.

 

Now I'm ready to return to take out the Elite 4 and challenge the Champion again.

 

Personal story (skip if you want to):

• In 2014 I worked hard to move past depression and anxiety. I thought I had succeeded until...
• In early 2015 I had a mental breakdown and lost my job and vocational education.
• I decided to give my life a major shakeup by planning a year-long international travel adventure on a shoestring for 2017. (Travel is a major cause of anxiety for me, so this is extra daring.)
• This gave me the rest of 2015 and 2016 to save up and prepare. One of my goals was to go from overweight and completely sedentary, to being fit enough to do seasonal farm work to pay my way while traveling.
• Somewhere along the way I joined NerdFitness and was surprised to discover a love of weightlifting and other badrangerassery. Exercise was not a magic bullet for me, but resistance training did help my depression, alongside other changes.
• A major motivator was laying down a base level of fitness in order to start Krav Maga (a martial art).
• In early 2016 I finally felt ready to start Krav Maga.
• But on my first lesson I tore a tendon in my (good) knee, setting me back both physically and mentally. (In my challenges, this is where I lost to the Champion).
• I eased back into fitness very slowly, being busy and afraid of re-injury, but about 7 months later, I am fully recovered and approaching my PRs again, on-track with financial goals and about to book plane tickets.
• There's just one thing left to do: smash this challenge.

 

 Week 0 - Lorelei (Ice type)

Time to Unfreeze

I've been feeling frozen in place and overwhelmed by all the things I have to do and could be doing. It's time to sort them out and make a plan. I'll be updating soon with specific goals. Also drinking a lot of iced tea (that goes for every other week too).

 

Week 1 - Bruno (Fighting type)

I will make sure I go to kickboxing this week and put in a solid effort. This is also the week to fight the mess in my room.

 

Week 2 - Agatha (Ghost type)

I will do something that scares me. Also, I will work extra hard on mobility this week.

 

Week 3 - Lance (Dragon type)

I will do something that makes me feel badass. And I'll have my birthday this week!

 

Week 4 - Blue, the Champion

This week I will pull it all together for a 100% week to completely, unambiguously beat the everloving daylights out of that Champion.

[BitterOyster]

Goals

Essential

2 Stronglifts per week - ideally Wednesday and Friday, but can be any day other than Monday.

Gym leader goals - see above

So much gardening

At least one gym visit per week

 

Optional

Kickboxing Monday night (if at all possible)

Second gym visit, Tuesday morning or on the weekend, pull exercises and/or shoulder mobility

Yoga

Maybe some bushwalking, but not super intense

 

Letting go for now - pick up in January

Body Pump

Rucking :'(

Bike riding

 

Ideal week

Monday - early morning bushwalking, kickboxing

Tuesday - early morning gym/swim

Wednesday - Stronglifts

Thursday - /

Friday - Stronglifts

Saturday - gym

Sunday - something I haven't fit in during the week

 

 

A 100% week is all the essentials plus 2 optional. A good week is all the essentials.

[darkfoxx]

Those are some great goals and I'm excited to see where you go with the scoring! 

[BitterOyster]

^Thanks!

 

This weekend made it abundantly clear to me that I have way too much going on and have been running on determination for too long. Heading into the holiday season things will only get busier, so I need to choose what to cut loose. Weighing up the many benefits and costs of kickboxing, I made the hard decision to cancel my membership, but changed my mind at the last moment, so I'll play that by ear until it gets too hot.

 

I really want to pack so much into this challenge and make it even bigger than the last Champion challenge, but I have a lot more responsibilities than I did last time and I just can't afford to drive myself into a breakdown. So, back to basics - strength and cardio. I have two months before I move, and after that I can go all-out in terms of volume, but I might not have my home weights bench, so I want to break through my PRs now and then go for endurance later.

 

Goals: absolutely everything Stronglifts twice a week + whatever else I can manage

[Jarric]

Following along again; you're going to smash through Indigo Plateau this time round!

 

Also good job on combating the Rangerbrain and letting some things go, it will be worth it in helping you be the best you can be at what you have kept.

[BitterOyster]

Last Sunday I deadlifted, Monday I lifted heaps of boxes at work, and Monday night I went to kickboxing, so I was pretty stiff and sore by Tuesday. My workout buddy dragged me to the pool to do some stretches and gentle movement, which was ideal

 

Stronglifts on Thursday - I'm getting close to new PRs!

[BitterOyster]

Mon - Kickboxing

Tues - Swimming

Wed - /

Thurs - Stronglifts

Fri - Gardening

Sat - /

Sun - Stronglifts

 

Gym leader goals - clutter is defeated! I went to kickboxing! I'm keeping the kickboxing membership, but cancelling my Lynda.com membership and not going to Pump classes, though I still have the gym membership.

 

Next week is ghost type with Agatha.

[Wild Wolf]

Happy belated Birthday, birthday buddy! That Supermoon was kickass  I hope you had a wonderful day and even better week!

 

W0lf

[BitterOyster]

Week 2 - 3 stronglifts, no gym, some gardening

 

The challenge for Agatha was going to be booking my plane tickets! But I'm holding out for a lower price on the flight I want. So, I contacted a host instead.

For Lance (do something that makes you feel badass) I did 4 rounds of moving sandbags. I'm really enjoying it!

 

I missed kickboxing again. I'm ready to cancel it, or since it's cheap-ish, just not worry about going much. I don't usually want to go back and forth on a decision (it's not efficient) but it took me a while to understand that while the benefits DO outweigh the costs, right now my willpower is at a premium, so I need to stay focused on just the bare essentials. I've never before made these kind of sacrifices in my life to achieve what I want, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Things are more chaotic than usual around here, so even though my challenge is a much lower target than previous challenges, I'm proud of myself for hanging in there. Now I'm just trying to survive the pre-Christmas overtime to put some more money in the bank for my trip.

 

IT'S ALMOST WEEK FOUR, TIME TO KICK ASS!

I may be a paragon of rangerbrain, but this coming week, my only goals for 100% are to survive work, 3x stronglifts and one gym visit.

It's hard to wait, but it will pay off when I can really commit to my fitness in January.

[BitterOyster]

Something amazing happened today!

So, I never watch broadcast TV anymore (just Netflix) and I'm rarely in the cardio room of the gym, where there are TV screens.

 

But I was there today for just a short session and my dad appeared on the TV I was watching, talking about his work firefighting in national parks. It wasn't local news either, so of all the 20-million-odd people in this country, the rare moment I was actually looking at a TV, to see a family member, it was so bizarre. He hadn't told me he was going to be on TV, but the footage was from a while ago, so maybe he didn't know. I haven't talked to him yet as he's travelling.

 

I take this as a fortuitous and unexpected benefit of my fitness pursuits

[BitterOyster]

Rambling post - skip if you want. tl;dr I want to figure out a way to move that is natural and comfortable to me, rather than doing what others do.

 

I was watching Jessie Graf on American Ninja Warrior today. I've been thinking a bit about my fitness future, and what I really want to achieve.

 

The only thing that I deep down really and truly want is: to feel comfortable in my body and move through my environment with competence and enjoyment.

 

I have spent most of my life feeling clumsy and off-balance, bumping into things, often tripping and constantly being afraid of falling over when crossing a stream or climbing a slope. Going barefoot was a revelation - suddenly I leveled up agility. But there was more to be done.

 

I've been waiting to start Parkour until I've lost a lot of weight due to the jumping and balancing involved, and there's no way I can lift my bodyweight at this stage, so I can't do all of the MovNat stuff either. But I've just had a shift in perspective - rather than waiting until the mythical 'someday', or trying to fit into other people's styles of movement, I need to plan for who I am now. Because even if I did get new knees and drop 100 pounds overnight, I'd still rather go under than over any day. I saw this video a while ago and got really excited, but I haven't found much else about specifically low-line Parkour, and I'm not ready to join my local Parkour group at the moment (multiple reasons) so I put that in the 'impossible daydreams' basket.

 

But maybe I've been taking the wrong approach. Sure, I love to be good at what I do, and I love to follow a curriculum so I get a certificate and a warm glow at the end of it.

But I'm going to have to write my own curriculum to get exactly what I want.

I don't have a qualification in fitness, but no one else is stepping up, so I'll do it.

• I can do beginner-levels in many different practices, and pick just the things that work for me.
• I can look at parkour videos and isolate specific movements, and see if I can get people to teach them.
• I can go and play and experiment outside, and see what comes naturally, and then train those movements and other movements that support them.
• Maybe when I have a bit more time and money I can seek out one-on-ones with natural movement specialists, but until then it's my responsibility to figure out what I need to do.

 

Some moments in my life that got me thinking about movement:

 

- I was a fat kid. I needed to get something from the other side of a classroom. There were no teachers around, so I parked my butt on a table, leaned back, swung my legs over and used the momentum to fall on the other side, landing on my feet in a fluid motion. Not an impressive stunt, but my friend was completely surprised - she had never seen me move like that, and I usually avoided any kind of complex movement because I thought of myself as clumsy. But I'd done that same movement hundreds of times playfully to get past my bed in the middle of my bedroom. It's not about clumsiness - it's about practice.

 

- I took the wrong path and rolled my ankle while bushwalking, so I was already grumpy, dirty and not putting up with any nonsense. I came across a large fallen tree and knew most people would be able to vault it, but I didn't want to risk further injury, so I climbed onto it in a bear-hug and let myself slide off the other side, landing in the dirt in an undignified way, but with no injury. It's not pretty but I moved efficiently through my environment.

 

- Often I prefer to slide down an unstable slope on my butt than walk down it. When exploring rock pools, I often sit down to get to a lower level, because there is slippery algae and sharp rocks. Again, not pretty but it works.

 

Sorry for the butt-centric nature of this post, but it's important - I like to keep my centre of gravity low to the ground, because I'm top-heavy and I don't trust my legs or my balance. Strength and movement training gave me more trust in my legs. Injuring my knee set me back on that front. I can train strength and balance again (I'd love to be able to do pistol squats one day) and push myself outside my comfort zone, but I can also work from within it, prioritising low-line movements and finding creative alternatives to classic movements.

[darkfoxx]

Knowing your body, what your brain gravitates toward, and what types of movements work for you is huge!

That is a fantastic setup for success right there.

I can't wait to see how you start putting this knowledge into practice!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BitterOyster]

On 21/11/2016 at 1:58 AM, darkfoxx said:

Knowing your body, what your brain gravitates toward, and what types of movements work for you is huge!

That is a fantastic setup for success right there.

I can't wait to see how you start putting this knowledge into practice!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks!!

I'm keen to experiment with vaulting low objects but I'm a bit too embarrassed to start doing my weird version of Parkour in public, but maybe when I move to Melbourne it'll be more accessible. So will everything else I'm interested in, so Rangerbrain will intensify.

 

In the mean time I hope to be travelling for a year from February, which will force me to get into bodyweight training - I haven't found my groove in it yet, but it will be a good foundation for natural movement. Also there may be the odd place to do yoga, and hopefully the internet connection to do yoga videos.

[Jarric]

That's an excellent revelation you've had there, and I think you really can design your own plan to get exactly what you want out of your body. And I look forward to seeing it!

[BitterOyster]

Functional fitness training advice from my Pokemon game:

 

[BitterOyster]

Oh man, even MORE work shifts due to the pre-Christmas rush.... I'll go to either the gym or the community garden working bee this weekend, no time for both but either one will count towards the gym part of this week's goal.

[BitterOyster]

[BitterOyster]

I don't need to do this yet but I've been rewatching some videos and trying to pick out individual movements

In this video people are using the exact same movement I used to get over the log! And in this at 0:40 Brandee uses the same rotating movement I used as a kid. I'm on the right track! Since hands are used to control a lot of the movements, upper body strength will be important, which is fine by me.

 

eta: Quadrupedal movement seems to be important in lowline style and is something I can work towards. The basic form seems simple but I can't even hold it more than a few seconds in a stationary position - I can't do a full plank either, but it's challenging enough to do it from my knees. So those are some things I can add to my hotel room bodyweight routine!

[Jarric]

That lowline stuff looks cool. So what's in your hotel room routine now?

[BitterOyster]

14 hours ago, Jarric said:

That lowline stuff looks cool. So what's in your hotel room routine now?

 

I'm not exactly sure, but I have the next 2 months to figure it out! With what I'm interested in lately, it will probably be a mix of strength and movement skills.

 

I guess squats, wall sits and lunges for legs. Planks for core, plus there are plenty of floor exercises for core.

 

Arms - lots of pushups, but rows may be difficult since I'm moving so often. Possibly I could use my backpack. I just started suspended rows and I LOVE them, so I'd consider traveling with an over-the-door suspension system, but I'm mostly doing homestays so I'd have to ask permission each time and they might be a bit weirded out or worried about damage to the door. Maybe I should start becoming a resistance band guru. I don't love them so far but it seems like a HUGE increase in options for the amount of space they take up.

 

Movement skills - primal squat, floor work from MovNat, preparation for QM by holding the pose. Mobility work.

 

I'll probably have to make a bare bones version, so if I'm mentally exhausted I can do the simple version to avoid skipping too many days.

[BitterOyster]

PR on squats (43kg/95lb) and deadlift (58kg/128lb)! Smashing week 4!!

They are noob gains and I'm not lifting seriously but it's exciting because they're the first new PRs since I was injured.

Un-rounded numbers are because my bar weighs 8kg and I'm too thrifty to get a new one...

 

I tried, among other things, some resistance band pull-aparts and shoulder dislocations and they felt SO GOOD. They must have been exactly what my stiff and neglected shoulders needed after too much time in the office.

[Jarric]

Awesome job on the PRs! Woot!

 

For inverted rows, you can do them underneath a table. It's not an ideal solution but it is an option. Mr Kamb, our fearless leader, did a video on it:

 

 

Also dips are quite good as a bodyweight exercise; off a chair or a bed.

[BitterOyster]

^Thanks! I may not have a suitable table while traveling, but it is good to have another option. Dips off a bed or plyo box so far have hurt my shoulders because I'm too heavy, but at Pump I used to do them by sitting on the floor and leaning back so I'm supporting just my upper body weight, or very leg-assisted off a plyo box. I'd actually really like to try leg assisted pullups if I find the right equipment. I saw a video of someone using a squat rack to do them by hanging off the bar - I guess I'm not heavier than the weights the pros lift anyway!

 

eta: also I've seen some tricep moves with resistance bands, though anything bodyweight based is going to improve my balance and coordination.

[BitterOyster]

Ok, so I flagged a bit on the weekend due to more life stuff and the heat, but I'm calling this challenge a win!