Wanna Be Spartan Here!

[Spartan]

Hey everyone. I've been reading Nerd Fitness for months now and finally decided to join up and start posting on the forums. To start with a bit about me, where I'm at, and where I wanna go:

I'm a 30 year old IT manager who has spent the past decade sitting at a desk, eating junk, smoking cigarettes and generally not doing a thing for my health. So I finally got tired of it and decided that on my 30th birthday (earlier this month) that it was time to change.

Step One: QUIT SMOKING! This is done, and is going great thus far. Haven't had a single puff in over a week now.

Step Two: Start doing something besides sitting all day long, every day. I've started walking/jogging on my 9am break and my lunch break. My best so far is 3.2 miles in a day.

Step Three: Start strength training. I've been doing sets of pushups every other day, along with a kettle bell routine. I've already added ten pushups to my max.

Step Four: Keep it all up and keep getting better!

The 300 Spartans are a huge inspiration to me, and were a huge mental trick in helping me quit smoking. I just thought, "Would King Leonidas or his men wimp out over a CIGARETTE?" The answer, of course, being NO!

My future goals primarily include an overall drastic increase in my health and quality of life, and my first specific goal is that I want to be able to run a 5k race without slowing to a walking pace.

Anyway, looking forward to participating here! Can't wait!

[Razor]

Welcome! I'll never understand the fixation about greek spartans, but whatever gets you motivated. Anyways, for your pushups, that's more of an endurance exercise than a strength one, but if you DO want to improve strength through pushups look up convict conditioning or something similar. Basically a road from doing an on the knees pushup to an Upsidedownareyouwatchingthislookhow$#@&ingEpicIAm-Up.

[Thilde]

Welcome!! Your goals are awesome and I love that you've already taken a huge bite out of each of them! Way to go. The quitting smoking goal is epic and I give you mad props for your week+ without a cigarette. Love your plan to walk/jog during work breaks...what a great way to add fitness to your day, and also break up all the sitting. I sit at a desk all day too and I'm always looking for ways to break it up and move around. I'm working on my 5k distance also...I have a 5k road race in Sept and I'd really like to be able to jog/run the whole distance without walking. We'll see.

Love the Spartans, great inspiration! Look forward to seeing you around the forums.

[BlkIronEpee]

Great job, you are rounding the hump on the cigarettes. I would reccomend Mark Rippetoe's starting strength program as a baseline for any fitness program. That is what worked for me.

[Spartan]

Thanks everyone!

Razor: I think the whole thing with the Spartans, at least with me, is the whole "defying the odds for monumental change" thing. Plus, they're all just so hardcore. I'll definitely look into the convict conditioning. I'd really like to be able to do an Upsidedownareyouwatchingthislookhow$#@&ingEpicIAm-Up!

Sambie: Thanks for the encouragement. Sounds like we are focusing on a lot of similar stuff.

BlkIron: Thanks, yea it gets a little easier every day with the smokes. Although there are moments when I feel like I could just EAT a pack of them, all at once. I'll check out the program you mentioned.

Thanks everyone!

[Porkins77]

Spartan- Kudos on kicking the smokes to the curb. I know how tough it is. I have been smoke free for about 6 years now. Best decision I ever made.

Keep up the great work!

[Razor]

Razor: I think the whole thing with the Spartans, at least with me, is the whole "defying the odds for monumental change" thing. Plus, they're all just so hardcore.

They were hardcore. They killed babies, molested children, often didn't play by the rules when they participated in the olympics and killed other competitors, frowned upon the cultivation of art and scientific advance, and did their best to seperate themselves from their neighbors. They were absolutely INCREDIBLE warriors, perhaps the greatest mankind has ever seen. But at what cost?

Anyways, WELCOME. WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION, SPARTAN?