Simple meal. Not in the pic is a protein shake.
Not gonna lie I’m still a little hungry, but nothing crazy.
I’ll plug MyFitnessPal again. I used to be able to guestamate calories and fly by the seat of my pants, but now MyFitnessPal keeps me dialed in on macros.
I am not one to use any special apps or anything. I used to keep track of my macros with an app but now I just kind of know what to eat.
Since Covid shut the gyms down I killed the whole lifting weights thing and have been doing body weight exercises.
Exercises I incorporate and rotate throughout the week:
1.5 mile run every day without question
Jumprope (get a cheap speed jump rope with adjustable length on
Pushups
Crunches
Burpees
Ring Pushups (hung from door)
Ring Pullups (works back and shoulder, also hung from door)
Kettlebell overhead tricep presses (35lb)
Kettlebell swings
Kettlebell goblet squats
I used to do clean presses with the kettlebell but it screwed up my shoulder so now I stick with less dangerous exercises.
I bought my gymnastic rings on Amazon for like 30 bucks, a really solid decision and can’t recommend them highly enough. You tie a knot in the end and they can hang over a door. You close the door and then set their height for your needs. You can also use them over a kids swing set or other tall straight bar to do other exercises.
Anyways, hope this gives you some ideas.
I don’t know if I have covid or something else. Before I caught what I have I was trying to ride my stationary bike to build endurance. Now for the last three days I’ve been extremely tired and have a constant headache.
I had a fever two nights ago and constant coughing at this last point. I got up just to get some tea and that took all the energy I had. So now I’m back in bed.
Not to turn this into a covid thread. I want to get back on my stationary but I worry I’ll pass out.
Otherwise known as Skullcrushers. 
I should add that back into my rotation also.
Both excellent choices. Swings are probably the best thing you can do to get started with general physical preparedness, and front loaded squats are probably the fastest way to build core strength.
These two are also good warmups using the kettlebell which I often use as part of my rotation as well.
Can confirm dropping a 36pound(16kg) kettlebell is bad.
I like the halos also as part of a warmup.
@jdfthetech that looks like an awesome plan. I need to increase my weekly running for sure, IronWolf beginner has me at just a few 1.5m sessions a week. Once I go intermediate I think there are a number of 3 mile runs a week.
I have a pullup and dip bar contraption but I’ve always wondered if Rings are that much better- do you have input on conventional pullup/dip bars vs. rings?
I’ve also been on the lookout for good adjustable barbells to start adding weight to lounges, squats, do some curls and tris (skull crushers). Could kettle bells take the place of this?
When I was keto my meals became so routine and the marcros for the items memorized, I stopped using the app for a whole year without issue. With a more varied diet and/or requiring a deficit vs. maintenance I seem to need the app.
Sounds very similar to what I had. I don’t recall having head-aches, and my coughing wasn’t very excessive, but I was super tired, didn’t get out of bed. Walking up stairs would leave me smoked.
I think the rings work more of the tiny muscles in the joints. I used to get elbow / shoulder pain from straight bar work but that went away once I started using rings. The most important thing about rings is to start slow. It’s hard at first to even balance and hold a position so you gotta practice holding positions before even doing movements.
The kettlebell is amazing. I do not do skull crushers with it, I hold the bell while standing up in both hands and do tricep extensions behind the head.
While I use a 35 lb kettlebell, it might be safer to start lower if you’re new to working out. Maybe a 15 or 25 pounder would be good. kettlebells are an easy way to get hurt if you do it wrong.
I think I’ll just stick to Iron Wolf for now for cutting reasons. In a few months I will be at a school where there is ready access to a gym, if I have reached a good composition I can flirt with progressive overloads again, see if the itch persists when returning home (to have weights into the mix). I keep gravitating towards bro splits cause that is what I know, but I need to explore outside of that.
For me I always kinda half-assed exercising until around 2017 when I decided to try and make a change. I always watched the Athlean-X channel but honestly was never able to use the information to build a workout routine. One day I just decided to pay for his AX1 program and it was the first workout program I ever paid for.
Within the first week I was able to see just how unfit I really was and already started getting thoughts of quitting. Struggled through the first two weeks and then something amazing happened. By the third week I was able to see improvements as I had to repeat some exercises from the first two weeks. This little thing is what motivated me to get through the program as every time I repeated a training challenge I could see the improvement compared to the last. After some months, I was able to drop from 180 to 163 pounds with some muscle definition though still no ABS…
Eventually training became part of my everyday routine where I would actually look forward to it and had since moved on to more weight training focused programs. Unfortunately since covid, I slipped a bit and had slowly crept back up to that 180 pound mark but currently working at it again this time with the intention to actually see some abs for the first time!
Glad you brought this up, was wanting to mention this yesterday. One of the things that helps me push through an un-motivated day is the knowledge from past experience it becomes an addiction.
For newbs I would think that is motivating to hear, that eventually it gets in your nature and it becomes fun, something you look forward to that day, it becomes an itch you have to scratch.
Everyone is probably different here so I can’t say how long it takes. And when I was having GI and malabsorption issues (gaining unknown food allergies as you age creeps up on you and makes you think you are just having a generalized decline in health) I think my body simply wouldn’t get into that mode, scarcity panic chemistry was going on. But now that I think I have my diet sorted + staying consistent, I’m getting little hints of the itch coming back.
As mentioned in my first post, I would try to do those random routines found in various fitness mags etc, to no real effect. Little did I know how hard one should push, and how many sets one should do for each muscle group, and how often a week to get results.
When I was taken under a coworker’s wing that was an ex college basketball player (I emphasize this as they get top tier fitness training- they become defacto great trainers from this experience), my results skyrocketed- and wholly crap was I the sorest in my life those first few weeks. Eventually I got jazzed from it. I remember it being hard just to scrub my hair in the shower, my upper body was so sore… but it became a good feeling sore. There is good sore, and injury sore, you get to know the two over time haha.
WIth gym access iffy still + I want to cut I’m trying something different - Iron Wolf - its free, almost no equipment required, can be done almost everywhere. I hope those on the fence can see there is no excuse with this.
Day 22 of Iron Wolf December (older year) Beginner challenge.
2 rounds:
30 pullups
30 drop squats
30 dips
30 jumping lunges
1.5 mile run
Obviously I will have to break up the 30 reps into do-able chunks of sets.
I’m looking forward to this, its a good sign, the addiction is returning.
Peeps on the fence, remember:
I hesitate to say some of the above because we are prone to take things too easy, to not push ourselves. Some are the opposite and will overtrain or injure themselves. Its a tight rope to walk. If you have the luxury of a heart rate monitor, you can try to stay within a range so that you are not taking it too easy, or too hard.
Always aim to improve. Track your results- its motivating to see improvement- and improvement will happen. If improvement doesn’t happen, you know your effort might be too little, or maybe you need to do a food elimination diet to see if something you are eating is causing minor allergy issues.
We’re all gonna make it.
I am fortunate enough to have equipment at home although it is basic equipment we obtained throughout the years, some we even made ourselves.
Usually after a break of more than a week, squats or any intense leg work does this to me…usually resulting in a type of duck walk for a couple days 
Yup, there really is no excuse just need to put in the work.
For those that go Reeeee at the mention of JRE, sorry, but here is a nice story
Simply lots of walking and, welp, MyFitnessPal for macros tracking.
Kettlebell figure-8’s did that to me the first time I did them. I spent an ackshual minute on them and was sore for like three days. All those little inbetween muscles which don’t usually get trained were in revolt. Eventually they got used to it.
I think there’s also a misconception that when people like Jocko talk about working out every day it means they’re working out as hard as they can to failure every single day. There’s plenty of good things about training to failure, but you shouldn’t do that every day, or at least not with the same muscle groups every day.
Day 23: Military style dueling pyramids:
More than I want to type out- but I see on my log the last two times I don’t think I’ve fully completed it, so today’s challenge is clear- full completion to earn leveling up to the next program.
Yep, after 20+ days the addiction seems to be returning (for one reason or another I’ve had to take sizable breaks between ‘cycles’ of the month challenge). Legit peeved that I have an assessment this Sunday that… behooves me to take Friday and Saturday off. When new to a program I think most anyone embraces a break- I’m pissed that there is an interruption to a routine that I can see physical change happening.
Call it a deload week(end), and make the break part of your schedule.
I feel that to be mental gymnastics haha. I might be giving the wolf too much credit but his program seems to be very well dialed in at near perfect timing to hit a muscle group a certain way after its been hit days earlier- kind of like a well tuned bro-split. So taking more than one unscheduled day off really erks me. It feels like it is pretty much throwing away earlier work as the gainz are really dependent on this 1-2 punch to a group within X timeframe.
But at least its not by choice- its awesome to feel some of that addiction again. Hmmm, a healthy addiction- you don’t hear much about those these days IMO.
It develops goals too- The thing I have to do Sunday is some pushups, core stuff and a run- all graded but nothing crazy. If I were at the high intermediate to expert challenge category, IMO I could go on with the routine and not worry about the assessment - its such small beans in comparison I wouldn’t be afraid of an adverse score due to being sore/not recovered enough in those muscle groups.
Or in other words, the super fit peeps I know that also have to take this test do not take a break from their routines, scoring really high on this test is more like a warm up for them than a challenge they need to be fresh for.
Baby steps though-- it wasn’t that long ago I’d be fretting if I even pass the run on the test, now its just a debate how much above passing I score, not IF I will pass. COVID really f’ed me here though, its added a good 2:30 to my run time that I had done so much to get down hahaha… damn…
I get it, and yeah it all depends on your goals really. The idea of the deload week isn’t really to take days off either, but to just kind of back it down a little bit on a regular schedule. Hypertrophy doesn’t happen during the workout, but afterwards, and so allowing a little more time for that to happen seems to help with progress more than if you went without it.
Bitter sweet, I did one more set than last time, but still short two sets to complete it in its prescribed form. I think I had it in me to do the rest but I want to avoid injury. I’ll take the win that I still progressed, and the shortcoming will feed the fire.
Two days break here I come whether I like it or not.
