Hi from Nottingham!

[SuperUnison]

Hello there!

Long time lurker, first time poster! Finally decided to sign up for the forums, hopefully to get some advice, stay motivated and help others if I can!

So, I'm a 30 year old male currently living in Nottingham, a city known for having it's fair share of rebels. (Also, gun crime, pound shops, underperforming football teams and people with crap tattoos)

Joined the gym last year as my gf at the time was off travelling, and I needed something to do. I've always been fairly active, but since moving to a new city haven't really found anyone to play sport with. Or indeed the time to do it. Started off with mostly cardio and machines, but didn't really see too much progress beyond beginners gains, so lacked a bit of motivation to go. I quite enjoyed it.. but maybe lacked a game plan. (Pretty much my exact approaches to playing Minecraft, job interviews, and courting as well, strangely.)

Anyhow, I went through a pretty nasty split with a long term gf towards the end of the year and into New Year, so being single again spurred me on to get into better shape, and generally try and be a bit less "emo", this is when I discovered NerdFitness- a lot of the lessons there (Bodyweight routines! Machines suck! No one in the gym cares what you're doing!) spurred me on to doing that bit extra. Plucked up the guts to use the free weights room, which is usually full of guys twice my size with about half as much hair. (Most of them are actually alright to be fair!)

Since adding squats and deadlifts to my routine, getting a pull up bar at home and generally trying to eat loads I noticed a bit of a change in my body shape, put on about a stone, and gained back a bit of the confidence lost in the arse-end of a dying relationship. Friends started commenting on how much more confident I appeared, which was nice.

Started doing Stronglifts 5x5 a few weeks ago, went back to squatting/lifting just the bar and adding weight, felt a bit chumpy at first but concentrating on form has really helped I think, no more 'hamstrings of doom' or lower back pain for days. Plus actually having a program to follow has made me really look forward to my gym sessions, even if it is a bit tough trying to fit them around a full time job, 2 bands, a gf and whatever design work I'm doing!

I feel having a program/routine has helped with discipline as well, no more missed sessions, and this has carried over into the rest of my life. I like to think my positivity has rubbed off on friends too, there's a few of us on a fitness kick at the moment, I quite enjoy talking about exercise now. Also in the past couple of months I've managed to acquire an absurdly beautiful new girlfriend, so that's another motivator to stay in shape!

So, my goals:

Gain another stone in weight. I'm 6ft, about 144lbs, so still a bit more 'aerodynamic' than I'd like to be.

Get to 20 pull-ups (Currently on 15, from about 5 when I started)

Start/continue to motivate my friends! (There's a friend who really could use a kick up the arse at the moment, I think exercising would give him a bit of a boost)

Complete the first 12 weeks of Stronglifts.

Learn some new tasty/healthy recipes

p.s. Apologies if the above reads like a mangled Dan Brown novel. I've been dancing around to Fugazi whilst writing this.

[faerywethyr]

People with crap tattoos? Sounds like were I live! Except they also have gun racks in their pick ups and almost indecipherable accents. I think its awesome you are inspiring your friends too

[Ocelot]

Ahhh the lovely Nottingham rebels. I need to visit soon. Welcome to NF and nice goal in terms of motivating friends. You're onto a winner with that one imo. keep it up!

[SuperUnison]

Thanks! Think I may have made a start on the inspiring friends part, got a couple of them to think about looking for a gym (They're down in that there London though, where things are expensive and weird) and they're worried about them being full of 'dolly birds' and 'meatheads'. Told them to ignore everyone else in there, we're all too self conscious to care!

On another note, I managed to eat 6 weetabix this morning. Hopefully that'll aid weight gain..

[Gary Conway]

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[SuperUnison]

Pull-up bars are ace! I've got mine in the doorway to my 'study', so if I want to go and play computer games or muck about on the internets I have a rule of doing 10 chinups or pull-ups before I enter!

Whereabouts from down South are you? I'm originally from Hampshire/Surrey way! (This does mean it gets very confusing when talking to people about here about 'dinner' though- some people think that means lunchtime. MADNESS!)

[Gary Conway]

Haha! Yeah I know how can dinner possibly mean lunch? I'm from Fleet, just south of Reading.