After spending much of my early and mid 20's stuck in the morass that is 'Murican "academia" I've gradually managed to break myself out of many of the toxic lifestyle patterns that caught me during that unfortunate period of my life. These past few months I've taken on a project of renovating my body getting back into and exceeding that peak fitness I had when I left high school with visible abs which would switfly be concealed by part time work, a load of courses, and a meal plan that covered nothing but buffet meals.
In my renovation project so far I've mostly been doing endurance work and strength training with dumdbells and bodyweight. I never got absurdly overweight. I started my red pill mental rehab of the mind well before I started rehabing the body. Once I started rehabbing the body though I started feeling really good. After the first month I was still mostly hitting the same bars and enjoying substantially more unsolicited, positive attention from the womenfolk. I am feeling great and only feeling better. The abuse of thousands of cigarettes and untold tankers of hard liquor are melting to yield a better and harder me. Perhaps relevant is that so far this has been a solitary endeavor I have larely kept a secret. I visited a long time friend recently and they were confused when the found me doing crunches in between sets of push ups when my only answer for my behavior was boredom.
As I reclaim my body and its potential for myself though I find a hunger for something I can not do alone. I want to test myself. I want to hit and get hit, or at least risk getting hit. I want to throw my reclaimed motivation into a combat sport and finish this process of rising above the mangina sea. A decade late I have rediscovered that feeling of being alive I lost in academia and dammit now I want to live.
In my preliminary research I am leaning towards boxing. While boxing poses the highest risk, boxing conditioning most resembles my current program, but amped up to the next level. I also love the sheer amount of history attached to the sport. At 5'7" to compete I would have to likely condition myself into a light welterweight or welterweight, which I could maintain as a walking around weight. I'd like to get into competing as an amateur and seeing what happens from there.
On the downside I've got a missing decade I could have spent on cultivating physical prowess and learning how to move. On the upside I've got a thick neck.
How would other people approach this dilemma. Before I finish conditioning do I get some lessons with a coach to learn the jab so I can hang a bag and work that, checking in occasionally? Do I wait until I am nearly conditioned and join a gym? Or I do say fuck it and leap into a gym now? I lean towards the first option because I don't want to waste anyone's time yet, though I want to get enough knowledge to be able to practice the right thing.
In my renovation project so far I've mostly been doing endurance work and strength training with dumdbells and bodyweight. I never got absurdly overweight. I started my red pill mental rehab of the mind well before I started rehabing the body. Once I started rehabbing the body though I started feeling really good. After the first month I was still mostly hitting the same bars and enjoying substantially more unsolicited, positive attention from the womenfolk. I am feeling great and only feeling better. The abuse of thousands of cigarettes and untold tankers of hard liquor are melting to yield a better and harder me. Perhaps relevant is that so far this has been a solitary endeavor I have larely kept a secret. I visited a long time friend recently and they were confused when the found me doing crunches in between sets of push ups when my only answer for my behavior was boredom.
As I reclaim my body and its potential for myself though I find a hunger for something I can not do alone. I want to test myself. I want to hit and get hit, or at least risk getting hit. I want to throw my reclaimed motivation into a combat sport and finish this process of rising above the mangina sea. A decade late I have rediscovered that feeling of being alive I lost in academia and dammit now I want to live.
In my preliminary research I am leaning towards boxing. While boxing poses the highest risk, boxing conditioning most resembles my current program, but amped up to the next level. I also love the sheer amount of history attached to the sport. At 5'7" to compete I would have to likely condition myself into a light welterweight or welterweight, which I could maintain as a walking around weight. I'd like to get into competing as an amateur and seeing what happens from there.
On the downside I've got a missing decade I could have spent on cultivating physical prowess and learning how to move. On the upside I've got a thick neck.
How would other people approach this dilemma. Before I finish conditioning do I get some lessons with a coach to learn the jab so I can hang a bag and work that, checking in occasionally? Do I wait until I am nearly conditioned and join a gym? Or I do say fuck it and leap into a gym now? I lean towards the first option because I don't want to waste anyone's time yet, though I want to get enough knowledge to be able to practice the right thing.
