A New Rebel Appears

[Neria]

Hello,

 

My name is Aaren, but you can call me Neria if you want. It's finally nice to have the guts to actually do my first introduction post. To be honest, I was kinda intimidated, so I'll admit it has taken me a bit to muster up this courage.

 

Just a little bit about me: I'm 21-years-old and I currently live in Canada. My lifetime goal (non-fitness related) is to become a doctor, or any job in the medical field for that matter, in any area of the world that needs medical attention. I believe that medicine may be my calling, so I want to pursue that and use these talents that I've been given to help others in need. Though I do love medicine and helping others feel better, I do have some geeky interests 

 

I have a strange fascination with Superman. Though I'm not as hardcore as I would like to be with the comics and the movies, I think I'm more into what he symbolizes. Superheroes just fascinate me in general, like the Hulk, Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Sif, Wonderwoman, Loki (yeah I know he isn't a hero but I'm a Loki fangirl mostly because I admire Tom Hiddleston), if only I had the time to read the comics, so most of my ideas of superheroes are based on movies and tv series (sorry, don't hate me  )

 

I also really enjoy Nickelodeon's Avatar series both the Last Airbender (not the movie by M. Night Shyamalan though) and Legend of Korra. I like the storytelling, the characters, and just the whole idea of humans being able to manipulate the traditional four elements. I also truly appreciate these shows because in some way they made me enjoy my own culture that I used to not be so fond of because it was mocked by some of my peers in middle to high school.

 

One of my hobbies is playing video games as I've always found it stress relieving. I have probably loved video games since I was a child. The first console I ever interacted with was a Sega Genesis, but my fondest childhood memories were spent with the N64, the Gameboy Colour and the PS2 (Kingdom Hearts anyone?  ), but I do believe that the main reason why I like video games so much is mostly because I loved the adventure that came with it, and I have found that I especially enjoyed open-world rpgs where there is a whole bunch of places that I can explore. At this moment, my favourite video games are LoZ: Ocarina of Time, TES V: Skyrim, Portal series, KH series, Assassin's Creed I and III, Mirror's Edge, Uncharted series, and the Last of Us.

 

Surprisingly, these video games have developed my desire to want to be more adventurous myself. I like the idea of hiking, swimming, and climbing to explore this beautiful world that we live in because let's be honest, despite the realism of the graphics in the PS4 or Xbox One, it can never beat the reality of the Amazonian rainforest or the Himalayas. 

 

My ultimate workout goals are to become a parkour traceur (sorry if I spelt that wrong); to become a Wushu martial artist (modelling after the martial arts forms that Nickelodeon's Avatar series bases their bending after, specifically Northern Shaolin, Baguazhang, Hung Gar, and Tai Chi), and to conquer this American Ninja Warrior course like Kacy did in this video: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=american+ninja+warrior+kacy+catanzaro. These seem like big, daunting goals, especially the last one, but it doesn't hurt to shoot for the stars (pardon the cliche). Anyway, for the parkour and wushu, I mostly want to be self-taught since classes do cost money, and I'm still a college student dealing with tuition (lol), but if it is better to do classes then I will consider it.

 

My only issue is that I struggle finding time with working out in general. I know that it's a lame excuse, but I've always found it to be hard especially when I have school assignments to deal with and I'm struggling with lack of sleep. Granted, this was probably due to my horrible time management, but either way, I do struggle with this issue, so I prefer shorter, quicker workouts. I've also struggled with the motivation to workout, but I feel like since I found this site, it hopefully may not be as much of a problem. 

 

Another excuse I've struggled with is that I suffer from DeQuervain's tendonitis in my thumbs and wrists, so whenever it acts up, I struggle to do pushups, inverted rows, and hold heavier weights. (Maybe I'm not doing them right?) But I'd like to hear suggestions in stretching to help lessen the inflammation, while also still strengthening my hands and increasing my dexterity, since I'm also very interested in practicing surgery.

 

Currently, I have the summer off, and I know I can start developing habits, right? So my first current quest is to develop the habit of working out consistently, and figuring out what kind of workouts I can do once I get back to school. (I know that that sounds vague, but I'll probably be more specific when I start my first log). As for the workouts, I'm very much open to suggestions.

 

Anyway, I apologize for the long winded introduction, but I am looking forward to starting out my first challenge and levelling up. Thanks for reading!

 

~Neria.

[Ironhead]

Welcome!

 

I really like your goals, they all sound great!  As for not having time to workout, you would be amazed at what 30 mins 3 days a week can accomplish (or shorter just depends on intensity of workout).  As for the parkour and wushu i think you will have to carve out a little more time for those, but start small.  I'm sorry to hear about your tendinitis, that seems like it could be a real pain.  I would look into yoga and maybe some specific hand stretches to counter this and maybe considering trying to strengthen your hands with different grip strength exercises.  I have an old shoulder injury, which was torn muscles and torn tendons.  It acts up but the more I strengthen and stretch the muscles around it the more use I can get out of it, so don't feel like it will hinder you.  There is always a way!

 

I also wish I could get more into the superhero comics, not enough time. Captain America is by far my favorite though, with the hulk and batman in a tie for second second.

 

July 28th (I think) is the next challenge! Join in and set some goals, if you like RPGs you might really enjoy the character building part, it's kind of fun.

 

Good luck!

[Neria]

Hey Ironhead,

 

Thanks for your reply and advice. I really appreciate it.

 

Good luck on your goals too.

 

~Neria

[Barfly]

The great white north, huh? Love it!

http://midtun.dyndns.org/humor/sound/take_off.mp3

Edit: the mp3s are not attaching >

[Laertes]

Hey Neria!  Your goals sound great!

 

Having taken tai chi and baguazhang, I'd definitely recommend finding a quality teacher at some point if you want to learn those, but some of the preliminaries (silk-reeling exercises from tai chi, etc.) can be self-taught.  I still use the silk-reeling exercises; they make a decent mobility warm-up for other stuff.

 

Sorry to hear about the tendonitis!  Do pushups done on fists aggravate it?  That's what I had to do for awhile due to some wrist tendonitis.

[Balthazar]

 and to conquer this American Ninja Warrior course like Kacy did in this video: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=american+ninja+warrior+kacy+catanzaro. These seem like big, daunting goals, especially the last one, but it doesn't hurt to shoot for the stars (pardon the cliche). 

I love big goals, and got really inspired by Bruce Lee, like so many of us, 'Don't fear failure . . . in great attempts it is glorious even to fail'

[NicTheRugger]

Those are some great goals! 

 

Fellow Tom Hiddleston fangirl, here :3 

 

Re the workouts. As a recent college grad, I can assure you that it's totally possible to find time to work out in school. The most important thing is time management. I would pick a time to workout every day, and stick with it. Whether it's early in the morning or late at night (I would always avoid the gym between 1 pm-7 pm, as that's when everyone would go), just pick a time and make it a "ritual" of sorts. Your body gets used to working out at that time, and it feels like you're missing something if you don't. You don't even need the gym! There are tons of workouts that you can do in your own dorm room, that don't take very much time. 

 

As for the time management stuff, if you need any help with that, feel free to shoot me a PM. It was something I really struggled with until my senior year of school. 

 

Good luck, and welcome to the Rebellion!

[Neria]

@Barfly

Haha I enjoyed that mp3. Yes, it does work, and thanks for the welcome! (:

 

@Laertes

Thanks for the input! I think it's super cool that you have taken tai chi and baguazhang. I'm honestly not that fit to do push-ups on my fists, but that's a cool goal to work toward if I could. Because of it, normal push-ups do make it hurt, and I'm nervous as I'm starting out working on doing pull-ups, that that would hurt them too, but we'll see. Do you also have any specific suggestions for where to find proper silk-reeling exercises? Thanks!

 

@ItsDaniel 

Thanks for the inspiring quote from Bruce Lee! I'll try to make sure I keep that in mind when I attempt this first challenge that's coming up really soon.

 

@NicTheRugger

Ah, that's great to hear from another fellow Hiddleston fangirl (: Thanks for the advice! I appreciate it. If you have any dorm room specific suggestions, let me know, please (: I may take you up on your offer for time management help too especially once I get back to school

[Ithiel Coal]

Hi Neria.  How'd the first week of the challenge go?

[StillWaters]

Hi Neria! Awesome hobbies. What's your favorite genre of video games?

[Neria]

@Ithiel Coal: Hey! Sorry I haven't replied in a while. In fact I haven't been on here in a while, but I just wanted to let you know that I wasn't able to participate in the challenge at that time, and to be honest, I'm not really sure when I'll be doing a challenge. Just taking it one step at a time. Hope your first two challenges went well, and that if you're working on one at the moment, that it's going well too! (:

 

@StillWaters Hey! I'm sorry that this is a late reply, but  I guess I can say RPGs, especially open-wolrd RPGs like Skyrim and apparently the new LoZ that is coming out sometime in the future (: I'm starting to check out strategy games too, like I'm interested in starting to play StarCraft.