New to NF and New Recruit

[The Tin Man]

'ello fellow Rebel Scum,

This could get a bit verbose, to warn you.

Fitness and I have an interesting history, though I suppose pretty typical. I did no sports until high school where I ran cross country and did track for four years. I did short sprints and threw shot and discus in track, not really typical of a cross country guy, but it was way more fun to me that way. By my senior year I was in pretty good shape for endurance, speed, and strength in a jack of all trades, master of none sort of way.

Then came college. I played Ultimate Frisbee the fall of my freshman year, but got too busy with schoolwork and the girlfriend to keep that up. The rest of college was me living at the top of a big hill so I never got too out of shape and I barely drank so I didn't gain calories that way. My senior year I was off campus and took the bus. This is when I started to become too sedentary.

Now I've worked a desk job for almost 3.5 years. I've played some Ultimate, I'm still not heavy, but I'm not where I want to be. I separated my shoulder a year ago and, while the flexibility returned, I never pushed myself to gain the strength back and I feel weaker than I can ever remember since I was 15. My problem has been that my health/fitness level have been "good enough" to not warrant changing my life. I no longer feel good enough. I want to be impressive.

The catalyst to start this recent perspective change was watching Drunken Master and Enter the Dragon a couple weeks ago. Definitely cheesy but seeing what the human body is capable of made me realize that even if I aimed for a small fraction of what Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee could do it would be a level of fitness and strength I never could have come close to approaching at my best.

tl;dr Was in very good shape in high school, 7 years later I'm only in "okay" shape. Bruce Lee made me want to change that.

Glad to be part of the alliance, and excited to learn more from here. And to maybe meet some other Boston/Somerville folks for winter exercise ideas.

Edit: Forgot to mention goals more specific than "get in shape":

-Increase strength relative to bodyweight (pushups, pullups, etc) with long term goal of one-handed versions of each.

-Increase running/jumping explosiveness for Ultimate Frisbee.

-Increase endurance to be able to play more points in Ultimate and because it's more fun if you aren't gasping for air.

[cremshoff]

Howdy and welcome to the Rebellion! You can only go up from here!

[TeaTree56]

Great goals! I hope you excel and become the Master of Ultimate!