Today's CON day is made up of two of Coach Blair's favorite things... Rowing and Running, though coach Blair isn't coaching today.. instead we have coach Kimi. But before we did the workout we had this crazy mini-workout or as they like to call it "Warm Up"
We had to do two rounds of 10x Lemon Squeezers (more like ball squeezers.. I hate these), 5x Wall Squats, 10x Prisoner Squats (:30 second hold on final drop), 10x Leg Sweeps up and down and finally 10x Leg Sweets left and right.
We then moved on to the main workout. It was 6 rounds of :30 Row Sprints where we had to row as fast as possible. Rested for 4 minutes, then 6 rounds of :30 seconds of Running, we didn't sprint but they wanted us to run as quickly as possible. We then rested another 4 minutes before doing the final part of the workout.. a Team Relay Row, we had to row 3000 meters combined.
Since we have more people then rowers we rowed in waves. I was part of the first wave so I would do my first :30 second row sprint and then someone else would do their first sprint and we'd go back and fourth until the six rounds were done. It didn't really get bad until the fourth or fifth sprint, that's when your numbers start rising meaning your rowing slower... but I did my best to keep the same speed for all six rounds.
For the running part we all started with a nice brisk run and when you're running those thirty seconds feel like an hour but when the coach yelled rest we had to do an active rest which meant we either jogged or walked but they didn't want us to stop moving. And then those thirty seconds felt like 2 seconds. We then ran for another thirty seconds.. Again like with the rowing you really start feeling it on the fourth or firth run but I'm happy to say I kept my same pace for each run.
After a much needed rest we got into groups of three for the 3000 meter team relay row. My team agreed to row 500 meters each, two times to achieve the 3000 meters total. Rowing 500 meters isn't bad.. it only starts to burn at meter 300 but you just focus and force yourself to continue.. luckily I had a few minutes break between 500 meters rows.. that little rest helps a great deal.
Today Geekyfanboy Productions released a new episode of the MASH 4077 Podcast. This is episode 112, covering S5 Ep 15 "The Most Unforgettable Characters".
Radar gets accepted into the "Famous" Las Vegas Writers School, and begins to write his impressions of the camp. It happens to be Frank's birthday, so Hawkeye and B.J. stage a fight with each other to make Frank happy. However, it turns real when BJ says some things that Hawkeye takes personal.
Disney released the first trailer for their new live action Jungle Book movie. When I heard they were making a live action movie I really didn't care since I'm not a fan of the original cartoon. I remember watching it as a child and even seeing it in a drive in theater but it did resonate with me. But WOW... after watching this trailer it's on my must see list. It looks to be well done and the CG looks incredible. I can't wait to see more from this movie. Check out the trailer below.
Today started with a crazy warm up. We had to do each of these movements for an entire minute, which doesn't sound like much but it really is when you're in the middle of it. We had to do one minute of Lateral Neck Rolls, Shoulder Rolls, Wring the Towel, Seated Windshield Wipers (which are horrible), Bootstrappers and finally Squats to Walk-Out.
Now that we are exhausted from the warm up we move on to this crazy "Circuit" workout. This was broken down into pods and each pod had three movements we had to do. We started with pod A which consisted of a :30 second Plank, then moved on to :30 seconds of T Push-Ups and then 1 minute of Kettlebell AB Extensions. We got a minute rest before moving on to pod B and do :30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, then :30 seconds of Spiderman Push-Ups and then 1 minute of Straight Leg Raises. Another minute rest and then pod C, :30 seconds of Sparwls, then :30 seconds of Wide Grip Push-Ups and then 1 minute of Inch Worms. Minute rest then pod D, :30 seconds of Striders, :30 seconds of Diamond Push-Ups and then 1 minute of Kettlebell Sit-Ups. Next was pod E and :30 seconds of Air Squats, then :30 seconds of Wide to Narrow Push-Ups and then 1 minute of Bicycles.
Once we were done we had to do it all over again.. the entire circuit for a second time. This time around those minute rests started to feel like just a few seconds. And to top it all off we had a finisher. We had to do 8 rounds of :15 seconds of work, :15 seconds of rest of Burpees. Coach Andrew gave us a goal to do at least three within those :15 seconds. Though exhausted I'm happy to say that I did 5 the first 2 rounds, then I did 3 the next four and I pushed myself to do 5 for the final two rounds.
Though this workout was tough and exhausting, I really enjoyed it. I like these kinds of workouts as they look daunting at first when you start and in the middle you might want to die but when you finish and you look back at what you just did.. there's no better feeling.
I came across this Harry Potter inspired clock. If you've read or seen Harry Potter you know the Weasleys have this amazing clock that tells you where each family member location. Well some students at the University of Munich actually made a working version of this clock. It isn't actually enchanted, of course, and works by updating a special mobile app. You can update manually with one of the twelve locations provided, or let it track your position with GPS and choose a location based on that.
The students (Frederik Brudy, Fabius Steinberger, Felix Praschak and Claudius Böttcher) built it for a course in "Building Interactive Objects." They've documented the entire project on this webpage, where you can get all the information you need to replicate the clock, from circuit diagrams to server software. If was smarter I would love to make my own version of the clock.. maybe I can get a techy smart friend to do it for me.
I started to receive some birthday gifts. Thanks Ken Todd for Guardians of the Galaxy & thanks Joshua Kemmling
for Boys & Return of the King. I've been wanting Guardians of the Galaxy
since it came out and I loved the movie Boys and I can't wait to watch
the animated Return of the King as I haven't seen it since I was a kid..
Thanks guys for the awesome gifts.
Went to the 9am NerdStrong class today so I could get home in time to grab a bite to eat before sitting down with my buddy Meds (Al had to cancel) and record six new episodes for my MASH 4077 Podcast. Out of all my podcasts that I do this one is the most constant. I have released 2 episodes a month (1st and 15th) for four and a half years, never missed a single episode. We are almost done with season five and still have six more seasons to go meaning another five or six years of podcasting. I wanna thank my co-hosts Meds and Al for being awesome as this podcast wouldn't have succeeded or been as much fun without you to.
Liz hated when I played my Terra Stomper
After recording the podcast I headed back to NerdStrong as they were having a Magic The Gathering game day. I've only played a few times so I still consider myself a noob and my Magic nemesis Liz was there so we played a few rounds for a few hours. She killed me 4 games to 1 but it was a blast.
After Magic I headed back home, sorted my laundry and headed out to the laundromat. While there my buddy Dallas came over to hang and grab a bite next door at The Habit. It's always fun having some one on one times with friends. Dallas and I always have some amazing conversations. We also talked about my D&D character Dash as I have opted out of the next adventure but we wanted to keep my character up to date for if and when I return to the game.
Overall it was a good Sunday. I got some errands done, played some games and hung out with a friend.
I'm doing they 9am class this morning as I have to record a podcast at noon so my usual 10am class would be cutting it to close. So for today's workout it's a NerdStrong favorite "DeathStar" I've done this workout in the past and it's tough but super fun.
After a nice warm up we were broken into Rebels and Empire. Coaches use to just have us count off but to many people would complained about the side they were on so now they ask which side you prefer and those who don't care even out the teams.
I of course am always on the lightside. We are broken into teams of two.. I teamed up with someone I didn't know. Our goal was to do 200 Wallballs between the two of us. While one person is doing the wallballs the other person is doing Slamball Sit Ups, Slamball Push Ups, Slamball Twists and finally just plain ol' Slamball. Depending on where you were in the number of Wallballs would determine what Slamball workout you did. 0 to 50 you did Slamball Sit Ups, 51 to 100 you did Slamball Push Ups, 101 to 150 you did Slamball Twists and 151 to 200 you did Slamballs.
My partner and I tried various numbers of wallballs but in the end we did about 10 each going back and forth until we got all 200 of them done.
If a team from the Rebels sides finished first then everyone gets a go and try and blow up the Deathstar (by throwing a slamball into a large tire from 20 feet away). If the Empire wins they fend off the Rebels and the Deathstar survives to blow up another planet.
Well the Empire won this time but just for fun they allowed to to see if we could blow up the Deathstar. Out of the six people who tried I think only one succeeded.
Overall another fun workout, we had a good amount of "new" members trying out the gym today. Hopefully some of them will become regulars... May the Force Be With You!!
A few days ago I got a call from coach Kimi from NerdStrong Gym asking if I wanted to be on a NerdStrong Gym panel at Long Beach Comic Con. This was a last minute thing as Long Beach contacted the gym a few days prior and as asked if they wanted to slot that had just opened up. Coach Kimi said that she wanted me to be part of the panel because I'm the unofficial community leader, which I guess is true as I did started and run the "We Are NerdStrong" group on Facebook as well as blog, tweet, Facebook and Instagram the heck out of the gym.
My family is having a BBQ today but I figured I could arrive later and then stay longer then I had planned. So I said yes, I'd be honored be represent NerdStrong at the Long Beach Comic Con.
So this morning I opted to skip the gym because the earliest I could go would be 9am and the panel started at 11:30 and I didn't want to be late and thankfully I did as getting to the con was horrible. It took about 45 minutes or so to drive to Long Beach and traffic was fine but when I got to the convention center itself traffic was at a stand still. There were no police directing traffic and there were cars everywhere. I wanted in line for almost an hour to get into the convention center parking and when I finally got close where I could see entrance they announced that it was full... I couldn't believe it. I drove around for a few more minutes before finding parking at a mall across the street from the convention center. I didn't care what I had to pay.. I was so done with being in the car and traffic.
Once at the con I texted coach Andrew and he explained where I had to go to get my "Pro" badge, I got one for free because I was on the panel. Well since it was last minute my name wasn't on the list so they wouldn't give me a badge... at first. I quickly contacted Andrew and he and David came over and sorted things out so I finally had my badge and it was about 11am. The three of us headed over to the room where the panel was happening.
As we waited Shannon (another NerdStrong member) arrived, she was on the panel as well and we kind of stuck closely together as we were both kind of nervous being on the panel. When the panel before ours got out we headed inside and up to the main guest table. We weren't sure if Kimi was going to make it on time but luckily she arrived minutes before the panel was to begin. Kimi was the moderator, Andrew and David were the owners and Shannon and I were the members.
This panel was added last minute so all we had in the schedule book was our name NerdStrong. There was no description of what it was or guest names... nothing. But we still had a decent turn out. The room could hold about 100 people and we had about 25 or so through out the panel.
As I said I was nervous at the beginning as I have a fear of public speaking... but once the panel started and Kimi started asking her questions I kind of relaxed and just started talking like I would to a group of friends. Kimi had sent me a list of possible questions the night before so I had an idea of what we were going to talk about. I think all four of us (Andrew, David, Shannon and I) answered the same amount of questions. Of course the coached talked about the gym and how it all started while Shannon and I talked more about the experience and how it's changed our lives. About half way through the panel loud music could be heard coming from the panel next door, but we carried on the best we could. It was a fun time, we had lots of laughs and got the word out about NerdStrong.
Overall I think the panel was a huge success for being a last minute addition. I want to thank Kimi for asking me to join the panel. This was my very first con panel and it was a pretty good experience.
Afterwards Shannon and I headed to the con floor and walked around a bit until I ran into friends Jes and Brett and then walked around for an hour with them. I left the con around 3pm and then headed to my family's BBQ where I had a fantastic time and didn't get home until around 11pm... it was a pretty good day.
I so love Jimmy Fallons Lip Sync Battles and there is a new one out where he challenges Ellen DeGeneres. Check it out...
They released the preview of The Flash S2 and all I can say is WOW... season one was amazing but season took looks to be unbelievable... I can't wait!!!
And one more video to share with you guys.. it's a prologue to the upcoming season of Doctor Who. I wasn't thrilled with last season but I'm still looking forward to seeing the new season.
Well the video was removed because of copyright issues.. so I guess I can't share it with you. But we only have a few weeks before the new season starts.. whoo-hoo!!!
A new picture was released by the CW's Legends of Tomorrow showing us the costumes for Hawkgirl and Hawkman.
I like the look of both of these characters. Both outfits are very realistic and would fit into today's world as well as the world of DC that has been created with Arrow and The Flash. Really looking forward to this new series in January. And I heard that both of these character will be showing up on Arrow and Flash to kind of introduce them to the audience before they move on to Legends of Tomorrow.
I came across this "fan" made poster for the new movie Gambit. I think it looks pretty amazing and I really can't wait to hear more about this movie as Gambit has always been one of my favorite X-Men. It's still years away and I don't even know if Channing Tatum is going to play Gambit (rumors is he's pulled out of the project while other rumors say he's signed the deal) So I guess only time will tell.
And the final thing I wanted to share with you guys are these amazing Harry Potter books. Designed by Hungarian Design Student Kincso Nagy these books are one of a kind. Check out this LINK to see the full beauty of these books. I mean they light up and have pop up images.. how awesome is that.
I was disappointed to see that these books were fan made and one of a kind but my buddy John posted a link to new Harry Potter books. These ones are being massed produced and look more like old school literature books and they come in each house color. Here's more info about them...
The complete Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling in robes worthy of the wizard’s place in our hearts.
Each Harry Potter book set is wrapped in one of four custom book jacket styles—Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Hufflepuff—and packed in a Hogwarts traveling trunk. Books feature illustrations at the beginning of every chapter.
Included: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
All books are brand new from the publisher, Scholastic, with jackets designed and printed by Juniper Books on a special tear and water resistant paper. The publisher’s traveling trunk is made of durable cardboard. Note that we are not affiliated with the publisher or author and our custom designs have not been authorized or endorsed by them. They cost $275 for the set.. Not bad and though I'm a Hufflepuff I really like the Gryffindor and Slytherin colors. Click HERE for the website.
I just heard they are making a Firefly Fluxx game. I'm a huge fan of the card game fluxx and an even bigger fan of Firefly so this is Win Win for me.. but it gets even better as my buddy Adam Levermore did the artwork for the cards.. that's gonna make this game that much more special. Can't wait for it to be released. Here is what little info there is on the item.
Working in partnership with 20th Century Fox and Gale Force Nine, Looney Labs will release Firefly Fluxx in early 2016.
Illustrated by Adam Levermore, Firefly Fluxx combines the card game’s unpredictable and ever-changing rules with the futuristic Wild West characters and themes of Fox’s Firefly ‘Verse.
MSRP will be $20.... Can't wait!!!
When asked what "house" I would be sorted into in the Harry Potter world I have always say, very proudly, "Hufflepuff". And though Hufflepuff seems to get the short end of the stick in the movies I think in the real world people are embracing their Hufflepuff-ness and I think it's awesome.
When Hufflepuff won the final house cup on Pottermore J.K. Rowling tweeted "This is starting to feel like the dawn of the Age of Hufflepuff... #FantasticBeasts"
Looks like Hufflepuff is finally getting the respect they deserve... Also how cool does that sound "The Dawning of the Age of Hufflepuff"
Today coach Blair as teaching Strength class and brought us Marla and the Bear workout.
We are doing a Bear Complex I don't know why they are called a "Bear" complex but I'm sure there is a reason. For this bear complex we did 3 sets of 5 reps, 1 rep consisted of a Clean, Front Squat, Push Press, Back Squat and Behind the Neck Press. We had to increase weight with each set.
I'm fairly efficient at each one of these with exception of Cleans. I'm still having problems with these. But Front Squats, Push Press', Back Squats and Behind the Neck Press' are pretty easy. Of course doing this set five times is rough. I'd take a few minutes rest between sets and then do it all over again.
The "Marla" part of the workout was a 140 meter Kettlebell Farmer's Walk, which we had to do four times. I carried the yellow Kettlebells which are about 27 lbs each. Like with the Bear Complex the first few times were fine but the third and fourth time you're arms are alike jello but you continue to move forward.
For a Finisher Blair like to pull out his favorite TABATA Planking. High, low, left and right planking, 20 seconds of work 10 seconds of rest for eight rounds.
The Dubsmash war between Team Carter and Team Shield has begun. If you don't have a clue what Dubsmash or this battle is about then please go HERE and check out my previous blog post about this on going battle. If you're too lazy to do that then here's a quick explanation.. Hayley Atwell who plays Agent Carter in the Marvel universe got into a
DubSmash battle with Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Chloe Bennet
(Skye). It went crazy viral so they decided to do an official battle and raise money for their charities.
Well round one is up and though I'm a huge #TeamCarter fan #TeamShield definitely won round one. This is definitely a popularity contest as Team Shield was a few thousand dollars ahead of Team Carter and they hadn't even put up a video yet. Anyways both videos are now up for round one and you vote for your favorite while donating $1 to their charity... all the money will go to two very worthy charities and us fans get to watch these hilarious videos. Check out the battle videos, vote and make a donation HERE.
I came across this very cool Man of Steel Hoodie. The moment I saw it I thought to myself.. I must have this. But it's my birthday month so I have opted to not buy anything and wait and see what I get for my birthday as people always say it's so hard to buy for me. And I'm so happy that I didn't just make an impulse buy as the more I looked at the hoodie the more I didn't like the gold emblem (not a big gold person), I wish it was more yellow or even silver. Though I do still think it's a pretty awesome looking hoodie.
After work today I headed back to NerdStrong Gym for their very first Pilates class. One of the gym members, Corrin, is a Pilates instructor so they added an 8pm Pilates class on Wednesday night. I have never done Pilates but I figured I'd give it a try. Of course our gym doesn't have any of those large Pilates machines so we are doing this "old school". Pilates emphases alignment, breathing, developing a strong core, and improving coordination and balance.
It was a good turn out for the first class and Corrin (now calling her coach Corrin) was fantastic. I really didn't know what to expect. I was told Pilates was all about core work and breathing and they were right. Pilates breathing is very interesting and something I will need to work on.. and after an hour of work my core was not happy with me. For me Pilates felt like an hour long stretch and core workout. A few of the positions were difficult for me to get into but for the most part it wasn't bad and something I look forward to doing again. Thanks to NerdStrong Gym for adding this evening class and thanks to coach Corrin for teaching.
We started today's workout with a good banded warm up. Banded Pass Throughs, Banded Figure 8's, Banded Good Mornings, Banded Air Squats and then regular Air Squats to feel the deference between banded and not banded.
Before we got to the actual workout we re-did the Intro test. This is the test that you do when you come in for your intro class. Eight months ago on February 3rd at 11:15 after having a nice conversation with coach Andrew explain what I hoped to get out of this gym he texted me with this intro. 250 Meter Row then 3 Times 5x Push Ups, 10x Ring Rows, 15x Squats and finally a 230 Meter Run. I surprised myself and finished at exactly 7 minutes. But a few seconds after I wasn't feeling so hot and immediately went to the bathroom and laid on the cool floor going in and out of conciseness. Needing to throw up but not being able to. I was in there for about 45 minutes. Come to find out I had severely low blood sugar as I'm Hypoglycemic, but that didn't stop me from coming back two days later for my first class and loving it.
So I haven't done a retest of the intro since then, so I was really looking forward to seeing if I could improve upon my 7 minute mark. My goal was to just try and get a few seconds under 7 minutes.. I just wanted to make an improvement. Well as I crossed the finish line I looked up at the clock and it read 4:53. Yeah I knocked just over 2 minutes off my time (2 minutes and 7 seconds to be exact), I couldn't believe it. And the best part was I didn't feel sick at all and recouped in a matter of minutes as we still had the workout to do. I was extremely happy with my results.
Now for the actual workout, it was a 10 minute AMRAP (As Many Round As Possible). 20x Spiderman 15x Kettlebell Swings and a 230 Meter Run. I manged to do three full rounds and just had enough time to come back into the gym and do a few Spidermans for my fourth set before time ran out.
It was a good day.. I just want to thank all the coaches, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have been able to shave off over two minutes from my Intro.
Today's workout was all about being a Ninja. It was also one of the smallest class I've attended in a while.. only 4 of us today.
We started with a fun and different kind of warm up. We ran around the parking lot 230 meters and then had to get in touch with our spirit animals. We started with the Bear Walk, which isn't bad and I was able to channel my inner bear pretty easily. Next was the Crab Walk (forward), this was the hardest thing we did for the day. We had to keep our finder facing forward as we crab walked. That did a number on my wrists and I would take a few steps and have to stop a few seconds before continuing. Frog Hops were next and after the Crab Walks these were a piece of cake and we finally did the Monkey Walk (lateral). Once you got the rhythm down these weren't do bad. And when we were done we had to do them all over again for a second time.
Next we worked on a skill, Leg Scales. This consisted of 10x Front Scale Leg Lift (each side), 10x Back Scale Leg Lift (each side) and then 10x Frong to Back Scale (each side). I don't mind doing leg workouts as my legs are pretty beefy and mobile.
Now for the actual workout we had to do 3 rounds of :30 seconds of work and :30 seconds of rest for Box Jumps (Quiet like a Ninja), Dumbbell Push Press, Jump Rope and Lay to Stand Rope Climbing. I've always been good at box jumps and I've been practicing at quieting them so I had some extremely silent box jumps that folks who were right next to me couldn't believe I was actually jumping. Dumbbell push press' aren't so bad as long as you don't over do it with the weights which I did so coach Christy asked that I drop down which I was happy to do and it was much better. Jump rope is a hit and miss with me, sometimes I'm great at it and sometimes I can't last longer then 10 seconds. The rope climbing didn't look bad but man was it tough. You don't really think about the fact that you're pulling your entire body weight up this rope.. and for me that's a lot of weight.
Great DEX workout today.. thanks coach Christy and coach David for your continued support.
Today is labor day so no work for me and no workout (day off).. so I woke up and spent about three hours actually waking up and getting out of bed.. it was pretty fantastic.
My buddy Derek was hosting a Sportsball day at the park. We did this a few months ago for 4th of July and it was a huge success so we figured we do it again. We had it at the same park we did last year. It was a bit later in the day as it was a hot one so we figured if it was later in the day the cooler it would be.. yeah we were wrong. We also had it later in the day because folks who were doing the special Labor Day workout needed time to recoup before coming out. So we started Sportsball day around 3pm.
We had a great turn, not only a bunch of NerdStrongers but Derek's friends as well. The first game we played was Ultimate Frisbee. I played this for the first time at the last Sportsball and it's a ton of fun. It's lots and lots of running.. it kind of reminded me of when I use to play Qudditch. And the heat did take it's toll on us. We had to rest several times during the games and in between new games.
Next we played some Kickball but that one always seems to bring out the game nazis. For me I go out to play these games for fun. If we miss a rule or something it's no big deal.. I wouldn't even keep score if I had my way but some folks were really into it and like before it took some of the fun away.
We then moved on to Whiffle ball. Again like with kickball 99% of the folks were great and had fun trying to hit this little tiny ball with a giant blue bat (we upgraded to the kids bat as none of us were able to hit with the bat that came with the ball). I actually manged to get a few good hits in.
Overall we were there for about 3 1/2 hours, it did cooled down a bit as the day went on so it was nice temperatures for about half of the day. It was good times with a bunch of nerds trying to be sporty and doing a pretty good job. Though I didn't workout today I got a great cardio workout, especially with the ultimate Frisbee.
Thanks Derek for organizing this.. I think we doubled the attendance... can't wait for the next one.
Today at NerdStrong Gym we did another Harry Potter workout. This one is completely different then the one I did few months back.
We started with a nice Indian Run before doing 10x Perfect Stretch, 10x Air Squats, Should Stretches, Tricep Stretches and Shoulder Rolls.
First thing we had to do was be sorted into our houses (about 5 or 6 people per house). I was sorted into Gryffindor (though coach David had me in Hufflepuff, which is my house but I wore my Gryffindor robes and tie so he changed me to that house instead, which I'm cool with as I was sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore). We had the smallest house with only 4 members.
Now for the workout there were four classes (stations) we had to attend. Defense Against the Dark Arts (Spell Casters), Herbology (Squats), Potions (Steel Club Front Press) and then Transfiguration (Step Ups). We had to do 2 minutes of work with a :30 second transition to get to the other class. If a single person wasn't ready after those :30 seconds the entire class would have to do burpees, needless to say nobody lingered.
We had to do each class three times for a total of 24 minutes of workout. It was a tough workout especially the "Spell Casters" We had to take a dumbbell and hold it to the side of our body and then it up and out to the middle of our chest and then back down to the other side. And though it's only two minutes it feels like forever when you're just getting started. After that we had to do squats which are bad in themselves but we spiced things up and did weighted squats which meant we held a kettlebell while doing them. Step Ups were fine but again we spiced things up by holding weights and doing the step ups. The steel clubs were rough as you're holding this piece of metal about chest high and then extending your arms outward, like with the spell casters at first it's okay but a minute in you really start to feel the burn.
As always group workouts already one of my favorites and this one was no different. Loved the theme and the workout... Thanks to all the coaches for helping me get through it.
And just note besides wearing my robes I brought my eight wands to share with everyone for the photo.
I came across this pretty awesome short student film called NO-A. It's an Award winning graduation film completed at the Savannah College of Art and Design by a core team of 8 students.
The world is a desolate, unforgiving place in this action sci-fi with a surprising amount of heart. We follow NO-A (Noah), as he attempts to rescue Aixa, the young woman that created him. In his desperate attempt to save her, he must face an unknown enemy force and fight to keep them both alive.
The animation is pretty cool and the fact that there isn't a single piece of dialogue but still they are able to convey so much emotion is pretty amazing. I'd love to see more of this story.
Later in the evening fellow NerdStronger and Massage Therapist Patty came over to my place to give me a much needed massage. I can't remember the last time I had gotten one.. it's been over 10 years. I've been hearing her praise from other NerdStrongers so I was really looking forward to this and I have to say I was not disappointed. I asked her to work the full hour on my back and that's what she did. I was feeling pretty good when the hour was up, she had really gotten into my back muscles. I hope to make this a more regular thing. If anyone is looking for a good massage therapist I can't recommend her enough.. Thanks Patty.
Today coach Christy surprised us with an additional Handstand day. Since we've all been making great progress over the past few weeks they wanted to give us the opportunity to actually do a full handstand.
Of course we had to start with a nice warm up with a jog at the beginning and lots of wrist and shoulder stretches.
We then moved onto the dreaded Hollow Hold Progression. We have done these before but they are a great way to work your core. We did :30 seconds of workout then :30 seconds rest. We started with Knees Bent, Arms
Only, then Feet Off Ground at 90 degrees, then Feet Off Ground at 45
degrees, then Feet Off Ground, Arms at side before finally doing a full
Hollow Hold. These are always a killer and I think always will be, but I did them.
Next we worked on doing Handstands, there were different levels set up. I worked with coach Andrew and since I could already do a handstand we worked on doing a free stand
handstand. This meant I did a handstand against the wall but when pull
myself away from the way with no support. This was tough and trying to
find the right balance was difficult. Coach Andrew helped by slightly
pushing me back and forth to find my balance. My first attempted I was
up for about 5 seconds. My second attempted was a bit better and I
lasted about 8 to 10 seconds. My third didn't last very long and I knew
that I was done with handstands for the day.
For a finisher was had to do 3 rounds of 1 minute of Burpees, :30 seconds of rest and then 1 minute of Jumping Jacks. Again the times are deceiving as 1 minute of something doesn't sounds like a long time but when the coaches say.. "Okay we're halfway done" you can't believe it's only been 30 seconds and you still have 30 seconds to go.
Overall a great workout. I was very happy with my handstand progression. We won't be doing handstands again for a while but I'll continue trying to do free handstands on my own time.
Also more promotion for the gym.. this time on NPR.. it's pretty awesome. Take a listen HERE.
A few geeky things I want to share with you all today.. first off I want to share this awesome new Guinan bobblehead. I've always been a big fan of Whoopi Goldberg and Guinan is one of my all time favorite Star Trek characters. Though we've learned more about here over the years she is still relativity unknown. I've collected a few of the other Star Trek bobbleheads and still want to get the entire TNG line but this one will be a much buy as soon as it's released in November. You can pre-order yours from Entertainment Earth HERE. Cost is about $20 bucks.
The new TV season is about to begin so we are getting lots of sneak preview, the first one I want to share with you guys is for Agents of SHIELD season three. I've been a huge fan of Agents of SHIELD since the very beginning. The series has changed in the short two years but this next season is going to be pretty amazing. I can't wait to see what's next for Agent Coulson and his team.
The next one is for Arrow Season Four. I came to Arrow late but binge watched seasons 1 and 2. Season three was more of a miss then hit for me. I liked aspect of the season but over all I didn't like the main story but that hasn't dampened my anticipation of season four. From the preview it looks like it's going to be an action packed season four... I can't wait!!!
Came across this very cool meme today and I just had to share it.. all of these women (characters) are strong, independent and amazing.
This goes to show you that Science Fiction really knows how to create women characters that can be loving and caring without losing their toughness.
I've seen and loved everyone of these characters and the series they have been in (with exception to Daenerys from Game of Thrones).
And this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to strong female role models. I think of all the genres out there Sci fi and Fantasy have the most heroines.
Tomorrow a ton of new Star Wars Episode VII merchandise is going to hit he shelves. I collect Star Wars things here and there but because of lack of fund and mainly lack of room I've cut down buying action figures and such so I don't have any plans to purchase any of the new Force Awakens action figures but then I saw this and almost lost it. It's BB-8 and it's a remote control figure. It's going to be the hot item to get tomorrow and that's saying something since it's retail price is $150. When I first saw this video I had to have it.. I mean how could you not but luckily common sense took over and I realized that I can't afford to spend that much money on one item. But still I know my brother will be getting it so I'll get to play with his :)
It's all about the shoulders and push press for today Strength class.
We started with a pretty good warm up with a run and shoulder stretches at the same time. I'm sure we looked like a group of crazy people jogging while doing circle with our arms to stretch the shoulders. We then came in and did a bunch of calf stretches.
We spent a good amount of time working on our external shoulder rotation, found out that my right shoulder is less mobile then my left. We did lots of mobility movements. When we were done we did a retest and those stretches actually helped with my lack of mobility in my right shoulder.
We then moved on to our workout which was an 8 minutes EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) 3x Push Press. I chose a weight that was a bit heavier then my usual and I was feeling it and I may have struggled a bit I did finish it.
The final workout for the day was a Jump Rope Ladder. We had to jump rope for :30 seconds and then rest :30 seconds, then jump rope :45 seconds and then rest :45 seconds and then jump for a full minute and then rest a full minute before going back down the ladder with another :45 second and :30 seconds before finishing the ladder. I'm an okay jump roper but I was spent after going up the ladder that doing down was extremely tough.
I was excited to read that River Song will be appearing in the next Doctor Who Christmas Special.
The BBC has officially announced this morning that Alex Kingston is returning to Doctor Who for this year’s Christmas special. Show runner Steven Moffat hinted today: “Another Christmas, another special for Doctor Who – and what could be more special than the return of Alex Kingston as Professor River Song? The last time the Doctor saw her she was a ghost. The first time he met her, she died. So how can he be seeing her again? As ever, with the most complicated relationship in the universe, it’s a matter of time…”
The BBC’s synopsis for the episode reads: “It’s Christmas Day in the future and the TARDIS is parked on a snowy village street, covered in icicles, awaiting its next adventure. Time traveller River Song meets her husband’s new incarnation, in the form of Peter Capaldi, for the first time this Christmas.”
I have always loved River Song so I am thrilled to hear that she will be returning and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they accomplish this... can't wait for Christmas.
I came across this amazing story about Autism and Guardians of the Galaxy and wanted to share with you all. Just goes to show you that anyone can be a super hero!!!
CON Day at NerdStrong and that means Coach Blair and his crazy hard workouts and today he didn't disappoint. Today's workout was titled Crossing the Alps.
But before we got to the workout we had to do a "warm up" which felt and looked more like a workout. For this "warm up" we had to do 10x Air Squats, 10x Jumping Jacks and 5x Tempo Push Up. We then went out side and did a surprise skip.. yeah we skipped around the entire parking lot which is 230 meters. We then did a 10 yard side shuffle, up and back and both sides, a 10 yard Toy Soldiers up and back, a 10 yard High Knees and then a 10 yard Back Pedal. Once we were done with that we went back inside and the "warm up" continued with 10x Mountain Climbers and finally 10x Striders. Needless to say I was exhausted and that as just the "warm up".
Now the actual workout was a 25 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible) of Squats, Slamballs and Sit Ups. We had three mountain to choose from. The green mountain which was for beginners, the black mountain for your average Joe and the red mountain for advanced members. Since I was already dying from the warm up I chose to climb the black mountain. So I started doing 10x Squats, 10x Slamballs and 10x Sit Ups, then 15x Squats, 15x Slamballs and 15x Sit Ups and so on. I went up the mountain and down the mountain and then back up and almost made it back down before time ran out. In the end I did 120 Squats, 120 Slamballs and 120 Sit Ups in 25 minutes.
Needless to say if I wasn't already tired I was dying now and coach Blair had one more surprise for us... a Finisher. It was a TABATA Wall Sit with a Mace. A TABATA is 8 rounds of :20 seconds of work and :10 seconds of rest. So I grabbed a 10 pound Mace and somehow managed to complete the wall sit while holding the mace the entire time.
I was extremely happy with what I had accomplished with this workout. That's one thing I love about this gym is even though you are exhausted and tired and feel like you can't continue, then know you still have more in you and slightly push you forward and just when you think you have nothing more to give.. they ask for just a bit more and sure enough it's there.
After the workout it took me about 10 minutes to recover and I was ready to start my day.. I felt great. I know tomorrow I'll be sore but right now I'm feeling fine... Thanks coach Blair
And just a side note IGN did a piece on the Gym.. watch it below.
Today Geekyfanboy Productions released a new episode of the MASH 4077
Podcast. This is episode 111, covering S5 Ep 14 "Hawkeye's Nightmare".
After Hawkeye bemoans the young age of the wounded, he appears to develop problems. Sleepwalking and bad dreams, according to Sidney Freedman, are taking Hawkeye back to a simple time, but the horrors of war continue to intrude. After Sidney's assurances that he is as sane as can be, Hawkeye's life once again seems to settle down.
Don't forget new episodes are released on the 1st and 15th of every month.
One last thing I wanted to share was a trailer for a new movie that I had never heard about called the 5th Wave. I guess it's based on a young adult book trilogy Here's a synopsis of the first movie "Four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie teams up with a young man who may become her final hope - if she can only trust him.
Surprise Coach Blair was teaching today's DEX class and he always brings a tough but good workout and this one is no exception.
We started with one of our standard warm ups with the exception of a surprise run at the beginning which coach Blair enjoying springing on us every now and then.
For the workout itself it was broken down into four mini workouts. The first was a Pull Up Negative, since the majority of us at the gym can only do a few actual pull ups we work on negatives. This is when you jump up to the bar with your chin and then slowly lower yourself down. It's extremely tough on the shoulders and arms. We were doing a Negative Ladder which meant we did 1 Negative Pull Up, then 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 before going back down the ladder 5, 4, 3, 2 and finally 1. Needless to say after I got to six my arms were like noddles and I struggled to finish. Luckily we ran out of time around 3 so I was spared a few remaining negatives.
Next was 3 Rounds of 12x Lunges and 16x Kettlebell Deadlifts. Lunges weren't that tough but the kettlebell deadlifts were painful as your arms were already jello after the last workout.
We then did a 6 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of 5 Hand Release Push Ups and 10 Knees to Elbows. Now push ups are pretty easy for me now and I've been doing hand release push ups every once in a while because regular push ups aren't much of a challenge for me anymore. So doing 5 at a time wasn't bad. The Knees to Elbows were a bit tougher, especially since you are hanging from the bar and again your arms are dead. But I manged to do about five or six rounds before time ran out.
Our final workout was another 6 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in which we had to do 5x V-Ups and :20 Second Superman Holds. V-Ups are a major core workout and after all the work we had done today my core was hurting. Superman Holds weren't as bad though twenty seconds feels like forever. I couldn't even tell you how many rounds I did in those six minutes.. it felt like a million (but more like six or seven).
Of course we had a few minutes left in class so coach Blair had us do a TABATA Plank Hold as a finisher.
As I said it was a tough but good workout.. thanks coach Blair.
I'm about to turn 45 years old and my life has become pretty stagnant. I mean I have a job (until November), I have a nice apartment, I'm working out and getting healthy, my family is doing well and I have some amazing friends.. with the exception of not having a partner to share my life with things are going pretty good at the moment. But there is a part of me that's going unfulfilled and I finally figured out what it was... volunteering.
All through my 20's and early 30's I volunteered, APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles), Babies with AIDS, Big Brothers of America and various soup kitchens. Giving back to the community and helping those in need has always been a huge part of my life but somewhere along the way life got busy and I let that part of me fall to the waist side.
Over the past 15 years I've tried get back into it but I've always had an excuse, and that's the problem.. they are just excuses and they have to stop. There is no better feeling then giving back and helping those who need it. We all can spare a few hours a week of our lives to help others. So that is what I'm going to do.
Now I just have to figure out where I want to volunteer, do I want to volunteer with the elderly, maybe a hospice, the idea of being there to comfort someone during their final days is kind of nice. Or do I want to volunteer with children, I have done that in the past and I loved it. I love kids and kids always seem to love me. Maybe I can volunteer with young adults, especially gay teen or do I volunteer with the disabled. I've always wanted to volunteer with the Special Olympics. Lot's of options to choose from as so much help is needed. Time to do some research and see which path my heart takes.
Headed back to NerdStrong Gym around 2:30 for the clothes swap. When I got there I noticed that there was a lot more women clothing then men but I went over to the men's section and actually started finding stuff that I though would fit me. I grabbed several swim trunks, some jeans and about ten or so t-shrits. Since I had gone down two pant sizes and a shirt size I was looking for smaller sizes. In the end I did manged to find one pair of swimming trunks, two pairs of jeans and about ten shirts. I also grabbed a few t-shirts (which were to small for me) for my buddy Erik.
I hung out with Derek and Seely and played a few round of Cockroach poker. As 4:00 approached we had a ton of clothes still. The turn out wasn't that great. We had alot more people drop off clothes then come in to get clothes. Towards the end we had a women come in and take about six trash bag of clothes. She planned to try them on at home and then whatever she didn't want she would drop off at the same Out of the Closet that we were dropping off the leftovers to.
Once the event was over I helped bag up the extras and there were alot of them. I think we had 16 or so large trash bags full of unwanted clothes. I don't think they'll be doing this again any time soon. But thanks NerdStrong for all the awesome shirts and pants I manged to grab.
Got two videos I want to share with you guys. First one is the reason I am still scared to go into the ocean. This video is terrifying yet also extremely funny at the reaction of the news casters...
The next is a guy reciting his poem.. his name is Steven J. Boyle and for what I can tell he's a Vlogger and enjoys writing poetry. I really don't know much about him but when I saw this video I really enjoyed his poem as well as the presentation.
