Squat test passed -- finally!

[BopGun]

One of the things I need to do differently this year is to be around the forums more often to read up on many of your adventures and to also contribute from my end from time to time. This is as good a chance to start that off as I'm likely to have.

 

Early last year, maybe mid-January, I was told that doing Kelly Starrett's 10-minute squat test daily would greatly help me work through the novice stages of strength training. I was already familiar with Kelly Starrett and this test well before that, trying it for a few days several years ago before quitting out of frustration, soreness and pain.

 

So, I started accumulating 10 minutes per day in the bottom position, no matter how hard it was. I couldn't even come remotely close to 10 continuous minutes. The test took me an hour and 10 minutes -- it was all I could do to squat for 30 seconds at a time and then rest long enough to calm down my racing heart rate. For a while, I didn't think it would ever get better.

 

It did. It gradually became easier and easier, and I started to accumulate more and more time between rest breaks, which became shorter and shorter. By early November, it occurred to me that I might be able to complete the test by the end of the year...

 

...which I did last night. It was very hard, and I was a bit wobbly for a while afterward, but I got through it after not thinking I'd ever be able to do so at the start of the year. It's my intention to continue to do this 6 nights a week for as long as I possibly can -- yes, for life. (Lifelong foot, ankle and calf problems from a birth defect leave me unable to do anything more than a half-squat unless I'm wearing weightlifting shoes, so I technically can't do it exactly as prescribed, but damn it, I'm counting this.)

 

It was a NF member (a guild leader, actually) that told me I should do the test, no matter how hard. He, and several other members who were aware he'd asked me to tackle this, believed I could work my way up to this when I did not.

 

NF is enormously special to me. I can't even begin to describe what a positive effect on my life this place and those of you in it have had, even when I've gone many months at a time without poking my head up in here. One of my two New Year's resolutions this year is to do it more often. (The other is to get rid of the remaining squishiness of my gut...but I'm 100% sure I can do it.)

 

Happy New Year!

[House]

Yay! You're back!

 

(maybe we'll see each other in IRC more; cause it's my goal to be more active there)

 

Also, a Suggestion: start a challenge thread .:)

[BopGun]

House! Great to hear from you! <3 Yeah, it's my intention to be up in here more often this year.

 

Challenge thread remains to be seen, though.

[noxiousGnome]

-bops- Bopppy!

[BebopStampede]

Congrats!