Fitness thread - Post your objectives

[Mummelmann]

padib said:

@vivster, that was one of the best TED talks. Honestly though I was also surprised at how easy it was to change my diet the few times I did it. It's also surprising how similar your build seems to be to mummelman. I want to encourage you in your objectives because I have a similar thing with my abs and I finally see that it's possible with my new plan.

@Mummelmann. My approach to goals was always to use them as a springboard to increase my fitness, and I never let them discourage me, because then they work against me and I need them to work for me. I know that my mind works like almost everyone else, that it will tell me when I failed my goal, but I talk to it and tell it that the goals are there to help me, so I ignore that voice and listen to a new one that say "let's try again" or "let's change the goal!", because in the end I don't really want to reach my goals. In the end, I just want to get more in shape, and I use goals to help me do that. :) For example, in my card you'll see that I didn't achieve my running goal. That's okay because I also just added an abs workout goal, and I set it high for now (which I rarely do), but I'm ready to lower the frequency or intensity at any time. Because I really need the goals to propel me, and not hold me down. If you set a small goal, you never know it might help you build a good habit as you reach it. ;)

@Farsala, would you be able to obtain a scale to weight yourself, and do you have an approach to food? I did some pole-training in the past, it's very difficult. Do you use a high pole with a heavy base, or more of a pole between the floor and the ceiling?

I hear you, I always used to have goals and I reached most of them. But in later years, I find that I get annoyed when "life gets in the way", which it frequently does working the way I do. I rarely know if I'm going to get a good night's sleep nowadays. One thing I have learned though is to stop looking at what others are doing or succeeding in doing. When I was younger I tended to compare myself directly to others and their lifts and accomplishments. When I trained for strongman, I found myself agitated seeing other guys at the gym with what I deemed to be inferior genetics and lackluster focus both in training and diet achieve some pretty crazy results. Of course, I realized that most (if not all) of them were using chemical enhancement but that didn't help all that much and I sort of lost my will to push hard. This in conjunction with an unknown virus infection that sent me reeling for almost 9 months was the end of my all-out training many years ago. I was simply disillusioned when faced with the reality that I would never be able to compete with guys who were willing to inject or ingest pharmaceutical aid and I saw no purpose with my training. It didn't help that I got pulled into a massive PED roll-up on three separate fronts (fucked up luck), affecting both my workplace, gym and even my own apartment and living situation (PS: I didn't do anything illegal, just so that's clear).

Since then, I've been on and off for years, sometimes finding motivation only to lose it after a few months and revert to a less healthy lifestyle. Now, being older and wiser, I find that the health benefits and rewards of training alone are easily worth it once I get going, and it works wonders for my sleep cycles and overall mood. I do have a goal in mind, but no time-frame in which to place it since I can't know what's realistic for me now. It revolves around reaching my old strength peak (and beyond) at a much lower bodyweight. I know it will take time, but not how much. When I trained years ago my strength exploded when I found what worked for me (I added about 20-30 kilos to my Squat, Deadlift, and Bench in only 16 weeks at one point, despite being somewhat being at least intermediately trained at the beginning of the 16-week period). My genes seem to be good, and I have both the time and means, but my discipline always fails me. I guess my short-term goal should be maintaining discipline.