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Monday 30 April 2012

Second Challenge: A lengthy video and more push ups? WTF!


To continue trying to balance fitness with gaming, I put out another video, and I wanted to display a longer "let's play" style session while I leveled Versace from 13 to 15.  The video is a little lengthier than I had originally wanted, at 30 minutes long, but I go into detail explaining push up form, why the push up, and what to do if you can't do a push up.

The video is split into three parts, since you have to have a verified account to upload anything longer than 15 minutes.   I feel like I was a bit too quiet, but it was 3 in the morning, and my family was sleeping, so I was unconsciously trying to be quiet I suppose.  I am still waiting for youtube's response for a verified account, so I don't have to do this in the future.  Click the "youtube" button in the video below, it will take you to my channel, and I will have annotations for the next video.




So to start, my max push up is now at 65!  I realize this is a little high for most people, but I have to admit I started working on my push ups about 2 months before even starting this blog, so I had a bit of a head start.  2 months ago I could only do about 25 or 30 push ups.  Make sure you right your max push ups down!  It's an important number, and we'll be doing some simple calculations to it during our next few physical challenges.

Pushup form:

Form is so important when doing any physical exercise.  It not only keeps you from getting injured, but also ensures you're working out the right muscles, and using your body to its fullest.  To ensure you have proper form do the following:
Get on your hands and knees.
Put your hands down flat, a bit more than shoulder width apart.
Straighten your arms.
Move your feet back, toes on the floor, legs straight
Keep your back straight!
Keep your head up.
This leads easily into one of the most important parts of a push up:  Core Strength!

Keeping your back straight is hard on your abdominal muscles, and this may very well be where you are lacking.  You're abdominals will probably be giving out while doing push ups, making your back sag, so watch out for that!

Other muscles used during a push up are the Chest (Pectoralis) muscles, the back of your arms (Triceps), and the front of your shoulders (Deltoids).

Along with form, make sure you keep breathing.  It's okay to hold your breath for short times during the hardest part, but make sure to keep breathing all the time.

Keeping a steady rhythm is a good way to keep yourself from tiring too quickly as well.

IF YOU CAN'T DO A SINGLE PUSHUP, DON'T WORRY!  You can work on your pushups by doing some modified stuff.  Even strong, large framed people sometimes can't do a push up.  You can do knee pushups, where you have your knees contacted on the ground instead of toes, or push up against a wall standing up.  You can use small weights and do a Chest press or Bench Press, or you can elevate your hands by a bench or some stairs.

The 2nd physical challenge is this:

Take your max pushup and find 80% of that.  Mine is 52.  Now do the following:

80% of your max pushups normal.
2 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups with arms elevated (by bench or stairs.  The further the elevation, the easier this part is going to be).
5 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups normal (if you fail before 80%, that's fine, move to next step)
2 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups with arms elevated
5 minute rest.
Normal pushups until fail.

This gives us 5 sets of pushups, and you should be really sore come tomorrow if you do these.  This is good!  This means your muscles broke down, and your body will have to rebuild them stronger.

That's it from me, I'm going to bed.  It's way too late for old men like me to be awake.

Keep fit.  Keep Gaming.

Versace

Sunday 29 April 2012

WoW Ironman Challenge: Level 10 Rogue

  We could call this the beginning.  Wowironman.com checks the armory, and the armory doesn't list any characters lower than 10.



  It is surprisingly difficult to get a rogue to 10 without dying.  Versace is so squishy.  Now that I have hit 10 though, it is getting easier.  I have some defensive abilities, and better weapons.

  I made a quick 3 minute video on her progress.  The video is a quality experiment as well, it can be watched in 1080p.  I'm not going to be releasing my videos at this quality often; my internet speed is crap, and there is a significant internet cap as well, so it costs me money to do that.

  Enjoy the video, more physical challenges coming very soon, hopefully you wrote down your maximum.  We're going to get that number up, and you'll be in personal record territory in no time, if you aren't already!

  Keep it real.  Keep fit.  Keep gaming.

  Versace.

Saturday 28 April 2012

World of Warcraft: Ironman + Pushups!

  Hello everyone!

  Welcome to Athletic Gamer!  So I started yet another Versace tonight in World of Warcraft.  What do I mean by another?  I'm playing an Ironman character.  Check out wowironman.com for the rules if you want to start one along with me.



Basically you level a character from 1 to 85 with the following restrictions:
- white and grey gear only
- no talents or specs
- no enchants or gems
- no professions
- no food buffs
- no potions or elixirs
- no groups
- AND NO DEATHS.

Let's look at our first physical challenge.  I wanted to choose something that did not require any weights, since not everyone will have access or want to run out and buy weights if you don't own them already.  So this gives us one of the most common and beneficial activities out there:  Pushups!

I forgot to mention in the video:  If you can't do a single pushup, don't sweat it, do them on your knees, or against a wall, and we'll work on getting you into a standard pushup over time.  Once you can do a couple, you'll improve fast!

So the first challenge:  Find out what your maximum is.  That means do pushups until you cannot do anymore.  WRITE THIS NUMBER DOWN!  On your calendar, on an agenda, or even just in a notepad document.  It's so important to keep stats.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be focusing on this, and watching Versace level up to 85 (yeah right...)

If you like the idea of this blog, or my youtube channel, do me a favor and subscribe, like, or favorite my video so this challenge gets to more people!

Until next time, goodbye!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Why Fitness. Why Gaming. Why this Blog

   To introduce this blog, I attempt to answer the reason why this blog exists:  I love gaming.  Ever since I was a child, delving into the shadows of an 80s arcade, there was something about the challenge, the excitement, and the satisfaction of gaming that grasped deep.

  We used to live in a world where children played video games, and as one grew old, they "matured" past jumping Mario onto the goombas.  As we experience the 21st century though, this seems to be changing.  There are mature games, and gamers are aging, and still playing games.

  This leads to challenges.  Time management challenges.  Relationship challenges.  Health challenges.  I don't think it's a stretch to say that sitting in a chair and playing a game for 8 hours a day has an effect on your health.  Gaming and fitness is a balance that needs to be maintained.

  Enough seriousness, and enough of me trying to answer something that only months of blogging will be able to answer.  It is my goal to keep steady content streaming in, and I have plans of adding audio and video to my blogs.  So keep watching, and if this topic interests you then follow me, tell your friends, and keep gaming my friends.