EmbraCraig Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Hi folks, Just came across this site when looking for some advice on strength training, and it looks like the kind of fitness community I could enjoy My names Craig, and I'm from Edinburgh in Scotland. I'm 33, married, and I'm father to a 4 month old boy. I'm a tabletop gamer (RPGs, wargames, card games and boardgames, in roughly that order of preference), a computer gamer (MMOs, but far less of them in the last 4 months...) and a scifi/fantasy book, film and tv fan. I've been telling myself that I need to lose weight since about the time I moved up to 38" trousers and XL shirts... Shortly after our son was born I realised that I couldn't even get up from the sofa with him on my chest without needing to pull myself up with my arms, so I figured I needed to do some strength work too. About nine weeks ago I finally got around to doing something about it. I started logging calories on MyFitnessPal and ordered a Fitbit, and I've been tracking what I'm eating and added about an hour a day of walking to my schedule (I now do a fair bit of my journey to and from work by foot rather than getting the bus as close as possible). The first nine weeks have went pretty well - I've lost 4.5kg from my first weigh in, so averaging 0.5kg a week, which was my original goal. I started out at 100kg on the nose, and I'm my first goal is to get down to around 85kg - I'll see how I feel about how I look when I get there and decide what my next priorities are. The loss so far has got me onto the next hole on my belt, and I might be looking at 36" waists when I go out trouser shopping soon, so things are heading the right way A couple of weeks ago, the new gym opened in our office block. I didn't want to just pound on a treadmill as I used to do on my previous gym-going attempts, so figured I'd look into more strength training and came across the Stronglifts 5x5 program. I tried workout A for the first time last week, and it actually went ok... other than the fact that I couldn't walk up and down stairs for a couple of days afterwards. I've been assured that the pains will pass once I've done squats a few times, so I'm taking it a little easier and am now working my way back up to being able to do the full 5 sets of squats without feeling like I've crippled myself (3 sets of 5 of each excercise today with the 20kg empty bar). I'd rather do less per workout for a couple of weeks while I get used to it and be able to stick to my 3 workouts a week. Spurred on by the sucess stories on here, I've even taken a couple of pictures so that I can keep an eye on my progress, which I'd put off doing before. Weighed in at 95.5kg on Friday, and the bodyfat measure on my scale says 18.5% (yeah, I know they're not great, but it seems fairly consistent even if I reckon it's underestimating by a good few percent). Apologies to anyone who's not a fan of bodyhair... If anyone else is using MyFitnessPal or Fitbit, then feel free to add me over there too - it'd be good to have some encouragement/gentle nagging as and when needed http://www.myfitnesspal.com/embracraighttps://www.fitbit.com/user/39WC7P 2 Quote MyFitnessPal Profile || FitBit ProfileWeak Man Does StrongLifts - My Daily Log || Recruit Challenge Link to comment
Basement Cat Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Welcome to the rebellion! Glad to hear you want to level up your life! Good luck with the lifting! The soreness will diminish over time. No worries. 1 Quote Current form: Chubby House Cat (lvl4) Weight objective: 20% S. 4 P. 6 E. 4 C. 7 I. 8 A. 4 L. 5 Battle log Current Challenge Handy linky. Link to comment
SomeGuyFromScotland Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Another Scot! Welcome along, you'll love the place. 2 Quote ~~ VALHALLA, I AM COMING! ~~ Season 1 (2015): #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Season 2 (2016): #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 Season 3 (2017): #16 #17 #18 Link to comment
EmbraCraig Posted May 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Thanks for the welcome folks, having a look around the forums today it's great to see so many good, positive attitudes on display Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote MyFitnessPal Profile || FitBit ProfileWeak Man Does StrongLifts - My Daily Log || Recruit Challenge Link to comment
DarK_RaideR Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Welcome to the Rebellion, Craig. Good luck on your journey, I hear Claymores are pretty heavy to wield with ease Quote Lvl 65 Multitasker Link to comment
SpecialSundae Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Hi Craig!I'm another Edinburgh lifter. The Edinburgh Nerds are a pretty friendly, sociable and welcoming bunch, so give me a shout if you ever want to meet up.Which gym do you lift in? 1 Quote Link to comment
EmbraCraig Posted May 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Welcome to the Rebellion, Craig. Good luck on your journey, I hear Claymores are pretty heavy to wield with ease Ta very much - hmm... Weapons training, now there's a possible future fitness goal I hadn't thought of...Hi Craig!I'm another Edinburgh lifter. The Edinburgh Nerds are a pretty friendly, sociable and welcoming bunch, so give me a shout if you ever want to meet up.Which gym do you lift in?I'm at the new Any Time Fitness gym at Tanfield (just next door to the botanics). It's Pretty small, but all the gear they have seems good quality. Two heavy weight power racks with Olympic barbells, and I've never seen them both in use at the same time yet, so they have all I need for now anyway.Good to hear there are some other Edinburgh Rebels - alway nice to know there are some locals around 1 Quote MyFitnessPal Profile || FitBit ProfileWeak Man Does StrongLifts - My Daily Log || Recruit Challenge Link to comment
EmbraCraig Posted May 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 Quick double post to say I've started a daily log. I was going to wait until the next challenge started, but then figured why wait? http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/65442-Weak-Man-Does-Stronglifts---EmbraCraig%27s-Daily-Log 2 Quote MyFitnessPal Profile || FitBit ProfileWeak Man Does StrongLifts - My Daily Log || Recruit Challenge Link to comment
CrackerWatson Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 HI Craig Been away from the game for a few weeks and slowly catching up, glad to see another bloke from Edinburgh!!! 1 Quote Level 6 - Human - (North of the wall) Wyldling/Celt - Ranger/Assassin.Epic quest I Battle Log I Accountabilibuddies 3 5 I Challenge: 1 2 3 4 5(STR) - 4 (DEX) - 1 (STA) - 3 (CON) - 6 (WIS) - 4 (CHA) - 2"Spartans! Prepare for glory!" - King Leonidas Pinterest I instagram I Goodreads Link to comment
EmbraCraig Posted June 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Hey, glad to hear from Edinburgh peeps - good to know there are a few locals around Quote MyFitnessPal Profile || FitBit ProfileWeak Man Does StrongLifts - My Daily Log || Recruit Challenge Link to comment
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