Jarric

575kg bench press! Now that's impressive I've got max pullups session coming up soon though, so I'll see if I can give you something to aim for there! Great job on the weight loss man.

I'm glad you managed to make it to your game. I know I often find myself dreading social events, and I have to remind myself that I will enjoy them once they start, even if I don't want to go in the first place. I think it's a good thing to push yourself for the extra socialisation though, especially at the moment. What would you consider to be of value? I know that's a big, philosophical question, but if you don't feel you're doing it do you know what your measuring yourself against? I feel like talking to your therapist is immensely valuable, because that's how you grow. I feel like working hard is valuable, in and of itself, regardless of what you do. I think taking time to sleep and allowing your body the rest it needs is valuable too. Are there things that you think would be valuable that you'd like to do?

Ok, thanks. I'm going to have to try that one to get my head round it I think. I'll give it a go.

Thank you man, that's really nice to hear. I think we really have struck it lucky with both games.

Awesome, thank you, that's encouraging It feels tough, but fine. A few weeks ago I was getting a bit of pain in my lower back, which lead me down the rabbit hole of trying to find out what 'correct' form would be and adjusting my weight towards my hands/trying to get a more even arch. Thanks for the tips, I'll take them on board and keep practicing!

Hi all, I've been working on my bridges recently, and decided to film them to check on my form. I'm not liking what I'm seeing, so I was wondering if anyone could check out the video and give me any tips? I recorded two videos, and the first is definitely the worst as I managed to improve the arch slightly after watching it. I still feel in the second video though that I'm too far over my feet and my legs are too bent, so any suggestions would be much appreciated. Videos are here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKLYyC_AooN/

Monday - Week 3 Day 1 Yesterday was a good day. I got up and worked out - weighted pullups, single leg elevated ring rows, half bridges, hangboarding, and stretching. There should have also been some crow pose practice, but I started a bit late and procrastinated too much. I'm having some issues working out how to have better form on my bridges. Can anyone who knows about this stuff have a look at this video and help me out? The second video is better than the first, but I still feel like my legs are too bent and I'm too far over my feet: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKLYyC_AooN/ Work was pretty busy. At lunchtime I did a little drawing, so that's the first tick on creativity for the week. After work WW cooked lamb with couscous, apricots, tomato and chickpeas, which was very nice. I couldn't really be bothered to do my foam rolling, but eventually I dragged myself off of the sofa to do it. For reasons I can't quite explain I stayed up late after finishing my foam rolling, just procrastinating on my phone. I'm thinking of switching up my workout programme for Darebee's Strength Protocol just for a bit of a change - that programme looks brutal but I think I like the idea of some tough hypertrophy stuff for a few weeks. Up until now I've been trying to focus on consistently doing the same things, but I feel like I'm experiencing diminishing returns, and after a conversation with @jonfirestar and @Mr_Willes about linear progression programming I think a break might be just what the doctor ordered. Anyway, the point here is that I stayed up until 23:00 on my phone researching workout programmes, rather than going to bed at 22:00! * * * This morning I did not feel like getting up when my alarm went off at 06:00 (shocker after the later night than usual, I know!). Eventually dragged myself out of bed at 06:25, and after some more procrastinating went for my run very late at 06:45. I was debating what to wear as it was actually really warm before sunrise this morning, and eventually settled on wearing a buff on my head even if it might be a bit warm because it's nicer to have that between my head torch and my forehead. And after all that decision and 10 minutes into my run, I realised I'd left my headtorch at home! Apart from a bit of a detour as I couldn't run off-road in the dark, the run went ok. My left quad is tight AF at the moment, and my right calf is a bit tight too, so I didn't bother pushing too hard. Work has again been busy. I'm being asked to get involved in lots of things because they are things I specialise in, and that's good, but it's hard to find time to do my own work at the moment! At lunchtime I did get 15 minutes to do some foam rolling, so that's 2/3 already this week. To be fair it's easier to remember to do when my legs hurt! Tonight I'll be cooking halloumi and playing Pathfinder (our Rise of the Runelords game). * * * Icebreaker: What's the best thing you have going on in your life at the moment? I particularly like this question, because I feel like now is an excellent time for positivity. I am currently thankful for a great many things. I'm thankful that I can work from home. I'm thankful that I have WW here with me, and that we can both work and support each other. I'm thankful for my cat keeping me company all day. I'm very thankful that I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to buy a house. I'm thankful that my family and friends are safe, and that my grandma's had her first dose of the vaccine. But honestly, I think the best thing going on in my life right now is D&D. I love the Sunday game I run for an amazing group of players; I love seeing them all and it gives me a creative outlet that I can't let fall by the wayside. I also love my two mid-week games, which have become my social life for the last 10 months and give me a way to keep up with people. I love watching Questing Time, which became my Saturday night in for the better part of last year. And I love the play by post games that let me have brief moments of escape during the day, and in particular @DarK_RaideR's play by post with @Wild Wolf, @Starpuck and @Raxie which is really something special (and hopefully has a live session very soon!). Well, that was a longer reply than I was expecting. But yeah, the answer is D&D.

Thank you! Overall it was pretty good.

Wow, you don't get much at the start of the game, do you? I thought you'd linked a blank character sheet for a moment there! Love the look of this game, but I think I might find it too depressing to actually play. Or at least, to play more than one session of.

Well, where did that weekend go? Friday I had the day off work. In the morning I worked out - my normal push day. I did a little tidying round the house, which has made me feel surprisingly more positive just being in a slightly less messy space. I also did a household budget so that we know how much money we need to live once we move house. In the evening we are fish chowder and chilled out. Saturday I went for my long run - hit 12.97 miles. It was about 2*C (~39*F) out there, and the freezing water was shin deep in a lot of places, so my feet were frozen solid and entirely devoid of blood by the time I got home. It was a bit scary actually; I need to make sure to wear neoprene socks next time it's that cold. In the evening I had a couple of Zoom beers with Hopalong. Then I cooked what I am going to call bread pie - a mixture of leftover bread crusts, milk, eggs, and various vegetables, topped with cheese and breadcrumbs and baked in the oven for almost an hour. It was actually rather good, and more importantly a way to use up bread crusts which I have until recently been throwing away. After dinner (and during dinner really) I drank quite a lot more beer, and then I fell asleep on the sofa watching Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team. Sunday I decided to stay in bed late, and have a couple of ours with WW rather than going out for my run early. Then we had D&D from 12-3, an excellent game where I'm taking the players through a massive attack on a giant temple-farm, and then I played poker from 3.30 to 6.30. I had planned on finishing poker at 5 and then going for my run, but that didn't happen. Luckily I had just enough time to get in a short run - only 3 miles instead of the 5 I had planned but better than nothing. Then I ate roast lamb and went to bed. Stats after week 2 Running: 52.35/116 miles - 45% of my mileage done and only 40% of the way through the challenge. Foam rolling: 2/3 this week, 5/6 total - I thought that I'd done 3 this week, but I'd actually got confused by my long weekend. Which is annoying, because I had time to complete this goal if I'd paid attention. Protein: 7/7 this week, 14/14 total - I nearly missed Sunday, but I remembered late in the evening and had both protein shakes as late night snacks Create: 2/3 this week, 3/6 total - Better this week, but still need to make more time for this Teeth: 5.5/7 this week, 11.5/14 total - I missed Saturday and Sunday mornings, as in both cases I didn't finish running in the morning so didn't have a morning shower. Need to remember to do this in absence of the shower. I also missed Saturday night, because I fell asleep on the sofa and crawled up to bed at 1.30am.

Oh wow those both sound epic! And now I want to play an evil campaign...

Oh I need to look up how to make this too ? Yeah, I think you need to have a really clear common goal to play an evil party, or another big reason to stick together, otherwise it can do quickly descend into backstabbing and infighting.

Holy cow that's quick, how can you put something so good together so fast?

Well we sort of gave up on wrapping presents we couldn't deliver during lockdown (basically the stuff for WW's family), so we've just had a massive pile of unwrapped presents and paper/ribbon/tape piled up on a sofa for the last few weeks. Figured I should probably wrap everything and reclaim the sofa. It does actually Ah that's cool, I think I would have struggled!

Thursday - Week 2 Day 4 Yesterday was a good day. I cooked a big parsnip curry for dinner, made it far too hot for WW, and just about salvaged it by chucking a load of milk in at the end. D&D was fun. There was a fair bit of combat, but at the end we met an efreeti (a fire genie) trapped in a magic force field. The only ones of us to get close enough were my bloodrager Urah, and our sorcerer Safia. The efreeti promised each of us a wish for freeing him. Safia was a beautiful sylph, but a few sessions ago she died and was resurrected as a gnoll. So her wish was to be beautiful again. Urah is vain and prideful, so he wished to be famed for his physical prowess. Because the two most vain characters getting wishes was always going to be fun Safia immediately collapsed, starting to grow wings on her back and horns from her head. She became a gnoll succubus. Nothing happened to Urah, which I'm even more terrified/excited about. * * * Today I'm off work, so I laid in bed until 7am before getting up and working out. Had a nice session of handstand pressups, decline pressups, muscle ups to dips, hangboarding, and L-sits. The L-sits sucked, but everything else was fairly solid. Today I've done some budgeting, a little bit of tidying, wrapped some Christmas presents, and spent a lot of time watching D&D streams. I've also done my foam rolling for the day, and now I'm continuing to relax on the sofa before bed.

Yes! It's doing me the world of good already. Yeah, it would be amazing to be able to get together like that. Oh that's an awesome first purchase, and clearly you ended up in the right line of work! I remember having a computer without a sound card, and it only being able to make a single beep. Yes, I'm so glad to hear you're an Izzard fan (I'm obviously not surprised about the CDs and arcades - I've definitely got a picture of us player House of the Dead somewhere) I'd love to see a life-sized D_R statue made out of money I remember being extremely excited about buying my first video card, but that was a bit later. Seem to recall it was a GeForce II. I was going to try and respond in kind, and was horrified to find that I can barely recall any DOS commands. I do remember booting Pacman and Space Invaders from DOS prompt, and being incapable of playing Asteroids, but that's about it

Wednesday - Week 2 Day 2 Yesterday was a good day. And also a reminder; the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley. We ate a little later than I was expecting after my webinar, and then got out to Tesco. It was really weird walking around the shop, between it being lateish and the current lockdown it was like a ghost town; enough to make it feel like a zombie apocalypse movie. By the time we got back and unpacked the shopping it was 10pm, so I went to bed without foam rolling. Teeth and protein were ticked off though. * * * Last night I had a dream that the Nerd Fitness Discord was a big house/apartment block/thing. Though some comedy of errors we had pissed of an old lady, who proceeded to go round to each of the apartments cutting big cables outside of them, which then cut us off from the Discord and everyone lost a load of data and couldn't contact each other. People were annoyed. It was an odd dream. More to the point, I woke out of that dream at 05:30, wide awake. Then the heating started making noises, and in my half-asleep state I became convinced that the boiler was going to explode, so rather than going back to sleep I scrolled through my phone for a bit and then got up. I went out for my run - same as Tuesday it was 4.14 miles (~6.6km) with 3 * 0.6 mile (0.96km) tempo intervals. Because I'd got back early I had time for a very short workout; a 6 minute AMRAP of 3 ring dips, 5 plyo pushups, and 15 tuck jumps. I managed 4 rounds and 4 reps. Followed that with 10 minutes of handstand practice and some stretching. Today has been tough. I really struggled to get going, I've been struggling to form sentences in my mind at times; much less type them. I also had a headache for a bit early on which seems to have faded. The good news though is twofold. First, I have D&D this evening, where I fully intend to relax with some beer. And second, I have tomorrow off work, so I get to chill out with a 3 day weekend.

Never gets old It's well worth watching the full sketch as well. "Peas? You can't have peas with penne alla arrabbiata!"

I love that bit Thank you man! Yeah, I'll definitely give you a shout if I need some advice. Ah that's really nice.

Now this looks seriously cool, I'd love to give it a go at some point. Catching up with this thread, my mind has gone from "I wish I had more time to play TTRPGs" to "I will not live long enough to play all of the games and characters I want to play".

Tuesday - Week 2 Day 2 Yesterday was a good day. Radish and chicken stir fry was lush, and then we pretty much chilled in front of the TV. I did a bit more work on the D&D map, so I ended up with two creative sessions in one day, and that's now designed ready to do a big version. I didn't feel like doing much after that, so I didn't. No foam rolling on that basis, but that's in line with the usual MWF plan. Watched a load of Acquisitions Incorporated, brushed teeth, and went to bed. * * * This morning I got up not too late and worked out. I did 3 rounds of rollup pistol squats (4 each side), toes to bar (7 reps), and side star planks (20 seconds each side). Followed that with 3 sets of 10 each side handstand palm raises, and 10 minutes of split stretches. The pistol squats are getting better, it more a skill thing than a strength thing at this stage (as though they are separate...) and I'm really enjoying them. Handstand palm raises felt really solid too, so I'm going to try moving on to shoulder taps next time. Split stretches were hard but I'm seeing some massive improvement there, so overall it was a very good session. Work has been ok, though I feel like I'm fighting just to stand still at the moment. I managed to resolve one big problem that came up over Christmas where we got dropped in it, so that felt good. I worked a bit late and am now watching a webinar on e-contracts and AI, so in theory I'm now working very late. I've also spent the day with Eddie Izzard on the background. She's a UK comedian who is running 31 marathons in January for charity, and every evening after the marathon will be doing a stand-up show. It's amazing stuff, and all for charity as part of her 'make humanity great again' drive, which I love. I'm a huge Eddie Izzard fan, and it's really brightened my day. This evening WW is making chicken soup with a couple of leftover carcasses whilst I'm on this webinar. As soon as we've eaten we need to go to Tesco and get some food, and hopefully if we can do that quickly I'll have time for some foam rolling before bed.

Ah that's awesome. I always think it would be so useful to be more handy. It's actually something I want to try and work on when I get my new house - goodness knows there's enough stuff we'll need to do to it! Well, weird is definitely good too I feel like there were at least 10 years between every teenager making thumb holes in their clothes and hoodies with thumb holes actually being made, and I can imagine why clothing manufacturers didn't pick up the trend sooner.

Wow, you were a cool kid. Which I suppose isn't surprising given how cool you are now. How's the Nirvana hoody holding up? I don't think I've got any clothes that survived that long. Oh that sounds amazing. I got to do a bit of work with my Dad fitting things in people's houses - he was a carpenter - but I don't think I ever would have been unleashed to work on my own! Judging by your purchases you were clearly more grown up than me though Ah, the neverending financial drain that is car ownership - I can relate.

That's awesome, well done on getting it done!

I was going to do an icebreaker question at the start of each challenge week, and now somehow it's Wednesday? Oh well. Icebreaker: What did you spend the money from your first ever job on? My first job was a paper round, which earned me about £35-£40 per month. I'm fairly sure I spent a good chunk of that on computer games (usually second hand ones), buying CDs (remember CDs?) or putting it into arcade machines. The rest I wasted.