I have decided what I am going to do for my next set of challenges both in game and out.  For those of you that are new to the blog, this blog exists to help people balance their gaming with exercise and fitness.

My next physical goal is to lose weight without losing muscle mass, and to level a Guardian in Guild Wars 2 from 1-80 with the following restrictions:

• Only do World Vs. World combat
• No gathering
• No crafting
• No attacking mobs; only Player vs. Player
• No buying of items of the Trading Post
• No food or potion buffs
• No transferring items from other characters

I will keep tabs on my Kill vs. Death ratio and see if anyone wants to try the challenge with me.

As for the physical challenge of losing weight, it's going to start off easy and get harder as the time goes on.  Losing weight is not an easy thing to do for most people, and it will take months of work to achieve.

------------- Losing weight --------------

Alright, so let's start with the biggest, most time consuming, and most interesting topic for my return:  How to lose weight.

There are two things that you have to worry about when focusing on the topic of weight loss.  It is a very simple concept that many places will try to over-complicate.  It is a simple ratio of calories in vs. calories out.

Let's look at what a calorie is:

A "food calorie" or "dietary calorie" is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water to one degree Celsius.  This is an abstract concept when thinking about how it affects your body, but basically it is a unit of energy measurement that is fairly consistent when metabolized by the body.

So calories in is as basic as how much food you eat.  Diets that limit what you eat reduces the caloric intake. This sucks.  We will not be doing much of this.

The first thing we will be looking at is the Basal or Resting Metabolic Rate.  This is the amount of energy expended daily by your body just keeping yourself going through the run of the day.  This is usually a normal person's highest calorie consumption.  The best part about this is that this Basal Metabolic Rate is going whenever we are doing anything, including gaming!  As if that wasn't good enough, there are ways we can increase our Basal Metabolic Rate.

There are a number of things that affect your BMR that we cannot control, like age, gender, and heredity, but there are a number of things that we can control.

The three that we will be focusing on in the coming month:

1. Muscle burns more calories than fat does.  So if we can increase our muscle mass, more calories will be burned by just sitting around playing games for hours at a time.  
2. Aerobic and Anaerobic exercise.  These burn calories while you are doing them, but also increases your metabolic rate between exercise.  You've probably heard accounts of people claiming they feel like they have more energy when they are exercising a lot.  This is direct feedback from having a higher BMR.
3. Drink water!  This is probably the most important.  In order to burn calories by just sitting around, your body acts like a giant chemistry experiment.  Most chemical reactions inside your body uses water in some way or another.  If you dehydrate yourself, your body will limit these chemical reactions, and therefor you will burn less calories.

So in conclusion, we are doing 2 things:  We are creating a Guardian at level 1, and leveling him to 80 with the above restrictions, and we are learning about metabolism, and being aware of ways to increase our metabolism.

First physical challenge is easy:  Drink a 500mL of water right now.  Then weigh yourself, and take the following measurements with a tape measure:  Waist (belly button level), chest (nipple level), thighs (at widest), arms around biceps (at widest).  Add the measurements together.

I will post my results.

If you have 10 minutes and are interested in more Mesmer PVP guide videos, check out my latest:

 

Alright, time to get off my butt...  or get back on my butt... and get back to writing this blog.  Why did I stop?  I enjoy writing this too much to stop!  I moved to my new location and immediately got swamped with a bunch of work.  Before I knew it, 3 or 4 weeks had gone by and I hadn't published a single post.  I felt like I was letting down the community and I continued not posting.

One thing lead to another, and suddenly 5 months had gone by.

This has got to change!

SO NOW it's time for change.  What will be changing?  I no longer play World of Warcraft.  I have moved most of my gaming time to playing Guild Wars 2, and I have been playing PVP combat.  I was lucky enough to be accepted into a very good World Vs. World guild named Lords of Death.

I still want to provide physical challenges to do between my posts, and while I get this organized, I started making my videos again.

The first video is about playing the Mesmer in PVP and using the clones for the psychological factor they have against your opponent.

Enjoy.

Moving!

Me and Versace are in the process of packing up our old house, and moving 300 miles North of here.   We just thought we would let anyone know not to expect a video or update for a few days.

For a quick update, Versace has survived level 43, so is now the 6th (tied) highest Ironman Rogue in the world.

See you soon!

Physical Challenge 7

Hey all!

Last night while I was sleeping, a house fly flew down my gaping mouth, and rubbed the inside of my throat with sandpaper.   Then as he left, he flew out my nose, and left the booger generator on max power, breaking it so it can't turn off.  At least that's what I theorize happened.  Science...bah!

I looked for that bastard fly all morning, but he must have escaped into the night.  I'll put up some flyers around town, and hopefully track down that malicious insect if it's the last thing I do!

On a more normal note, I have released Physical Challenge 7, that being the Diamond Push Up!  Along with the challenge, is a video update for Versace.  Check it out!  Don't forget to subscribe, like, favorite, and tell your friends!

A Diamond Push-up is similar to a regular Pushup except it's more expensive, and ranges in carat, colour, and clarity.   It is also different in that you bring your hands closer together while in the standard push up position, they call it the "diamond push up" because if your hands are touching, you make a diamond shape with your fingers and thumb.

This variety of push up stresses on your triceps more than a regular push up.

Physical Challenge 7:

Adjust your push up into a diamond push up so you can only do between 10 and 20 push ups before failing.

You can adjust the diamond push up the following ways to make it easier:

• lengthen the distance between your hands
• go on your knees

By doing those adjustments, you should be able to get in the range.

Do 10-20 diamond pushups 4 times, with only 2 minute breaks between sets.

On the Ironman Challenge front, Versace has reached an all new high of level 41, and is now the 7th highest Rogue in the world for this challenge.  She is listed on page 3 of 51 now on the general listings, behind about 2 million hunters it seems.

That's it for now.  Cross your fingers that Versace continues her ascent.  In the meantime, keep fit and keep gaming.

Versace

Physical Challenge #6 and Versace the third

Impatience is going to be the death of me.  I was rushing too much to get the next Versace up to the same level that I rushed through the Hills of Stranglethorn quests and ended up making a pull that proved too much for an Ironman Rogue.

I pulled King Bangalash on top of a hill, and he ended up pulling 2 elder tigers with him, and then spawned his two guards.  I made an attempt to run away, but vanish was down, and I got dazed.  Pretty soon I had 4 bleed dots on me, and I knew the gig was up.  Versace the next generation lays to rest in Northern Stranglethorn.

I've succeeded in getting another Versace up to level 29 quickly, and I'm going to take my time, and avoid Stranglethorn altogether now.  I think that area was revamped too much in cataclysm, with the developers expecting people to have great gear.  I'll be sticking to the Arathi Highlands and Hinterlands for this attempt.

Check out my latest video, it's very simple, and non-climactic, but I felt I should put one out, since it had been a couple days, and I had promised another Physical Challenge.

Physical Challenge #6 provides us the opportunity to work our Triceps, another important muscle in the push up.

We are doing Tricep Dips, another body weight exercise.  You're going to need at least one chair or stool, or you can use the stairs if you have to.  Two chairs is ideal, but the higher your feet are, the harder the exercise will be.

Tricep Dip:

Sit on a chair, with your feet straight out in front of you, on another chair or the floor.
Place your hands beside your butt on the chair, palm down.
Lift your butt of the chair, and scoot forward, so if you lower your body, your butt will not hit the chair.
Lower your body until your elbow makes a 90 degree angle behind you.
Lift your body back up.

Physical Challenge #6:

3 sets of Tricep Dips until fail, with 2 to 3 minute rests in between.

We have another 4 physical challenges focusing on Push ups, and then I will be working on some weight loss techniques.  This will also in turn help our body weight exercises, because the lighter we get, the easier these exercises will be!

In a real life note, I am getting ready to move to another community, so I will try my best to keep everything updated, but if you don't hear from me for 4 or 5 days in a row, be aware that I am SUPER busy trying to organize everything for my transfer.  I only expect a 2 day period without internet, but things may go sour.

In the meantime guys, keep fit and keep gaming.

Versace

Ironman Rogue Guide

Hello and welcome to Athletic Gamer!

I have finally clipped together and narrated a guide for playing an ironman Rogue.  Check out the wowironman challenge rules if you're not familiar with what the restrictions are.

This video took me much more time to produce then my usual ones.  Usually my videos consist of just hitting the record button, and blabbing while playing.  For this one, I made 4 clips, and narrated clip 2 and 3, adding some freeze shots and such.

I also made the leap to dedicate myself to this project of making videos and such.  I purchased the software I use to clip and convert videos, instead of using the demo version.  If anyone is interested, I use NCH Videopad and NCH Prism for editing, narrating and converting video, and it works great so far.

I have been using music from the talented Daniel Yount who namely produces the music for the Shadow of Israphael series by the Yogscast, who I take a lot of inspiration from.  Daniel Yount has made his music available on iTunes, and it is royalty free, which means you don't have to worry about copyright issues when using them with your videos.

I have been working to try to improve the quality of my videos, and I feel that my quality is improving.  I still want to work on making the videos more entertaining, and keeping a better camera position while playing.  I think the only way to continue improving is to simply continue producing content:  Practice makes perfect!

It has been a couple days since the last challenge, and if I have time, I will release a quick video for Physical Challenge 6.  We're going to be working on our push ups for another week or so, and then we'll spend some time and challenges working on improving our %body fat at around Physical Challenge 11 or so.

I hope you all enjoy the videos so far.  If you like what you see, help get my videos some views by hitting the Like / Favorite button, share it on social media sites, and subscribe to my Youtube channel!

Until next time, keep fit.  Keep gaming.

Versace

Versace: The Next Generation

You saw the end of Versace, the heroic Ironman Rogue.  At level 35 she met an untimely end at the hands of an idiot.  Can this really be the end?  or shall she be reborn... IN FLAME!

The new Versace is well on her way to giving the name the respect it deserves.  She has stepped in the shoes of the last great ironman Rogue, and even threw down some new tricks of her own.

Never have I felt more confident of this challenge.  There is just something about this new Versace that gives me the perfect balance of confidence and wisdom.  She has yet to come close to death in her journey to 20, and leveled up with a smooth constitution.

Join me in my newest adventure, as I continue keeping updates as the new Versace reaches new heights on her way from level 1 to 85 in the World of Warcraft Ironman Challenge!

Don't forget to click like, and subscribe to my youtube channel if you like what you see!

An update to the Physical Challenge #5 that I issued yesterday.   I was able to do 72 push ups today, which is a 7 push up increase, or 10% increase!!  That's huge, and not what I expected.  My end goal is to get to 100 push ups, but 72 is a great number to be at now.  Again, don't worry, I have no expectations that most of you will be at the same number I am, if your number seems abysmally low, keep in mind that at one point, I was there with you!

Keep it real.  Keep fit.  Keep gaming.

Versace