Story of Change; The Prologue

[senseiadams]

Would that I had a table of contents and a map of the realm to get started with!

 

My name is Michael.  I spent most of my life growing up in Martial Arts circles, had 3 black belts by the time I was 18, and was the youngest JKA instructor to reach 4th degree in the last decade.

 

Since that time, I joined the US Army as a combat medic.  Due to circumstances beyond my control, I wound up with a severe back injury, and became rather sedentary for about 2 years.  I was medically retired from the military due to my injuries.

 

I'm also a still fairly-new dad of a 16 month old and 6.5 week old, both girls.

 

Now, after successful physical therapy and healing time, I am cleared for any exercise I wish - so I pulled up my bootstraps and joined a local gym.  I met with a trainer for the "free" session in which he blasted my arms and back, trying to find threshholds and making sure my form was proper, etc.

 

5 days later, I still have no pain in my back - but I think the trainer overdid it, as I still can't straighten my left arm without pain in my elbow.  This may be due to misuse, or I may be a complete wimp - any advice on that front would be great.

 

I am currently 6'4, 210 pounds, at 34 years old.

 

My goal is to reacquire my flexibility and build upper body strength, as I'm still rather small-framed, and to lose the belly that I've gained over the past two years of unhealthy habits and sedentary living and a desk job in high-level IT.

 

We eat clean at the house, as my wife is a marathon runner, but I despise running and I want to get started with some heavy lifting, and use my martial arts training for my cardio and flexibility.

 

I was eating out just about every day during work lunch hours, but i"m using this for my gym time to kill two birds with one stone.  Willpower is not my strong point, though, as i've never had to control what I eat over the years.

 

Anyway, I'll post updates as I can, but I need to be kept accountable, and gaining a support system through the anonymous reaches of the Internet seems as good a place to start as any.

 

My name is Michael, and I'm an un-fit Nerd.

 

 

 

[senseiadams]

And I totally posted this in the wrong forum, if an awesome mod would move it...

[Nuala]

Moved from the FAQ thread! Welcome