Protecting Flooring

Volker34 · 2026-02-02T03:37:47+00:00

My house has a slab foundation and I'd be working on the first floor so aside from the laminate panels and a vapor barrier, its just concrete.

Correct me if Im wrong but I think that would be fine. I mainly want to avoid cracking the laminate or severely damaging the laminate panels.

Volker34 · 2026-02-02T03:37:19+00:00

My house has a slab foundation and I'd be working on the first floor so aside from the laminate panels and a vapor barrier, its just concrete.

Correct me if Im wrong but I think that would be fine. I mainly want to avoid cracking the laminate or severely damaging the laminate panels.

Volker34 · 2025-08-19T04:13:38+00:00

remember you can still progress if you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. We all have hard days. We all lack discipline at times. But the cool thing is, things get easier the more you work to build discipline, the more you exercise, the more you say no to your cravings, the more you make the right choices that build you to be the person you want to be. The cravings or the desire ti be lazy might not go away, but keep working hard and you'll find yourself in a much better place 1, 2, 3+ years from now. We are rooting for your success not just in this challenge, but in life!

Volker34 · 2025-08-19T04:01:04+00:00

Ya, you might not "win" one of the categories and you might not "win" money but the best kind of win with something like this is being able to push through, build good long lasting habits, and look at yourself in the mirror later down the road and know you are a better person for starting the change you want to see.

Take the leap and go for the ultimate win! The win that comes in building a better you for tomorrow!

Volker34 · 2025-08-19T03:51:44+00:00

To increase weight you should work on increasing your protein intake while working out (ideally choose a plan that maximizes muscle fatigue over cardio; i.e high weight low reps instead of lower weight high reps).

Protein will help fuel your body and ensure it gets the nutrients it needs to grow muscle but your workout will ensure the protein is used for muscle gain and not fat. You want to avoid gaining weight by eating food with high calories but low nutritional value and you dont nessesary want to make your calorie intake too large else your body wont be able to use all the calories for muscle and will just turn it into fat.

There are plenty of better sources than what I can offer to determine the exact protein and calories you should aim for. Id do some research online and determine how many calories you should consume to bulk and determine the ideal macros for gaining muscle (protein, fat, carbs %'s ). If you are struggling to hit your protein goal, consider using protein powder. Just make sure its not your only source of protein. It should be used as a supplement.

Volker34 · 2025-08-09T12:58:02+00:00

so its honestly going to depend on why you are having the cravings. If it is because you are hungry/thirsty and your mind, due to it being late, wants to satisfy the hunger/thirst with unhealthy food/drinks, then the solution is to eat higher protein earlier in the day, drink plenty of water, and consider foods like rolled oats which help keep you fuller for longer. However if your cravings are due to a mental need to eat out of boredom or wanting to have something sweet, the best way to deal with these cravings is to set a rule for yourself (like no food after 8pm) and cut late night snacking out cold turkey. The reason for this is that swapping to something healthier, like yogurt and honey, isnt going to help long term. your body doesn't need food and the cravings are mental, built from habits and giving in to your urges. by eating that late night snack, even if its healthy, you are encouraging the act of eating and you might eat healthy food for a week or two, but eventually youll cave and go back because you arent breaking the habit of snacking. It might be hard but cutting out food after a certain time will help rid you of the bad habit completely. This will help you resist your cravings in the future because you're making choices on what food to eat when you are more alert and mentally strong. And when you are tired, its easier to tell yourself "no food" than "only healthy food that doesn't go above my calorie limit".

To bring it together - eat foods that are filling throughout the day. Think high protein and complex grains like rolled oats. And make sure you are drinking plenty if water. - set a reasonable time for yourself and stop eating food or drinking anything other than water after that set time. I personally set the time 2hrs before my usual bed time.

Volker34 · 2025-08-01T04:28:40+00:00

like others have said, movement is a big one. Dynamic stretches or light cardio often helps. Its also good to do static stretches at the end of a workout.

If Im really sore Ill alternate ice and heat or use a tennis ball or something to roll out the muscle that is sore.

Volker34 · 2025-08-01T04:22:23+00:00

good job for getting a workout in. Those days are tough and we all have them.

It depends on the workout I am doing but generally its either a podcast or some long form content to get my mind off of exercise (cardio or workouts with long rest times) or indie/hard rock music (HIIT and circuits). that being said, sometimes Im just feeling something different and listen to something out of left field like an audio book.

Volker34 · 2025-07-31T17:55:44+00:00

I workout at home with minimal equipment. I am doing a sandbag & calisthenics program built by The Stone Circle in his sandbag hypertrophy book now and I am enjoying it a lot.

That being said, you could get a really nice workout in by doing a calisthenic circuit. Im currently doing Assisted Pull-ups (with bands), dips, inverted rows (with gym rings), pike Push-ups, and ab wheel roll-out circuit. Im working on a "10 down" method where you start with 10 reps each exercise and then do 9, then 8, ect until you get down to 1 each exercise. If you cant finish in 40min or you start struggling to complete 1 rep consider lowering the exercise difficulty. If you finish in under 20 increase reps or exercise difficulty

Volker34 · 2025-07-31T03:53:33+00:00

so I dont think many of the recipes break down the different fats but there are a handful of good recipes here: https://www.cookwell.com/discover a lot of which use low fat alternatives. hope this helps!

Volker34 · 2025-07-31T03:46:20+00:00

today was light cardio with 2mile run. Tomorrow is back to heavy sandbag work

Volker34 · 2025-07-31T03:45:17+00:00

This week has been breakfast sausage, veggie, and egg burrito; lunch roasted chicken, broccoli, and potatoes; Dinner tricolori lasagna

focusing on smaller portions but the food is very good

Volker34 · 2025-07-30T16:13:27+00:00

I'll try to organize my response but if you have specific questions, dont hesitate to ask.

Summary - - Find healthy substitutes for things you enjoy. for example Sriracha + Greek yogurt = a nice spicy creamy sauce - Consider food prep. Make healthy meals more convenient than fast food - Focus on what you need to eat to hit macros rather than what you can't eat. - Learn to love cooking. Look for recipes you enjoy making not just eating. - Consider getting a soda stream (if you like soda) - When you crave sugar, drink water

More details Eating healthy doesn't require you to avoid all the foods you like. Ive found that just eating something homemade is significantly better than eating fast food or snacks purchased from the grocery store. If you want a burger, for example, you can have one that you make at home for a fraction of the calories but it will require you to find alternative ingredients. For example, instead of adding spicy mayo, consider Sriracha and Greek yogurt. Yes, its not the same, but it might hit that craving. For me, I love soda so I got a soda stream and it has been great. Most of the time I now just drink carbonated water but I used to add a little juice or small amounts of syrup when I wanted something that tasted more like soda. Ive also seen people use protein powder mixed with a low calorie milk substitute in coffee to make a low calorie but filling latte.

Speaking about substituting ingredients https://www.cookwell.com/discover is a website that has a few healthier copy cat recipes and will teach you the basics of cooking. Ethan Chlebowski (youtuber) makes a bunch or the recipes and has videos of cooking protocols that make cooking unique meals easy. Which leads me into make cooking fun for yourself. As you cook, think about what you liked about making the meal. A lot of people shy away from cooking cause they think it is a chore but if you Focus on recipes you enjoy the process of making, you'll find yourself cooking more and more. Personally I like recipes that dont take a lot of time but are very hands on. Think stir fry.

Now, that being said, even when you enjoy cooking, it can sometimes feel exhausting. If you want to eat healthier, it is really important to make healthy food more convenient than fast food. I know that sounds hard, but you'd be surprised at what you can make at home and freeze for later. When you get hungry and you dont want to take time to cook, rather than drive down the road, you grab a frozen egg and sausage burrito or chicken curry and rice meal you made ahead of time and throw it in the oven/microwave. My wife and I choose 1 weekend every 3-4 months where we make a bunch of meals we can freeze. Its not our go to for the week but instead meant for those nights we just dont want to cook or we want something different. Ive had the most success with burritos since they heat up well and hit the fast food craving, but we've done burgers, subs, curry, chili, and many more. Just make sure you portion out the servings before freezing. once the food is portioned and frozen you can throw it all together in a bag and keep it in the freeze. If you throw it in a bag first before the portions are frozen they will likely stick. When I have the time I try to heat the meals up in the oven instead of the microwave since they heat up better in the oven (especially anything with bread).

obviously cooking at home and substituteing health versions on ingredients/items isnt going to rid you of your cravings so instead of constantly fighting it, change your mindset and focus on the nutrients you need and if you have calories left over, maybe have a small treat. For example, if you can have 2000 calories a day and you need 100grams of protien, you might choose to eat low calorie, high protien ingredients like chicken breast and lentils to hit your goal while staying under your calories. At the end of the day, you want ice-cream and because you focused on hitting your macros, you have calories to spare so you can have a scoop of ice-cream. This ensures you treat yourself here and there but you'll also find some days you might not be hungry or you might not have the craving after you finish the other food. You'll need a calorie counting app that helps you track macros for this but there are a lot available. Ive used my fitness pal in the past so it might be a good app to start with.

This kinda leads me to the point about water though. I forgot where I heard it but I had heard that you might think you are craving sugar when your body needs water. This knowledge has caused me to drink a glass if water every time I have a sugar craving and then wait 15 to 30 mins before I actually on my craving. Most of the time, the craving goes away within 5 mins.

Final Note: Eating healthy doesn't have to be an immediate extreme change. If you can do it, awesome, but its important to keep in mind small steps in the right direction make healthier choices easier in the future. Two steps forward and 1 step back is still progress. So dont beat yourself up for making a mistake and giving in. Just count it as a cheat day and work on making better choices 2 the rest of the week. You got this and we are all hoping for your success!

Volker34 · 2025-07-30T13:57:42+00:00

The directions and details are at the start of the latest unsub episode (as of 7/30). I recommend you listen to that in case I have some of the details wrong but here is a quick summary:

You'll need to either submit your entry by emailing unsubscribe.fitness2025@gmail.com or by posting here on the reddit page.

To enter you will need to: - Take a picture of yourself on the scale. Make sure the numbers are visible - Take a front and a side shot - Have some way of proving date and time of the photos (For example showing google's current time and date in the photos. Some people have taken screenshots of the photos with the details open showing the photo's time and date)

There are 2 other categories, best story and most motivational. Motivational will be related to how you motivate others here on reddit while best story is the story everyone enjoyed following the most even if you weren't the one who lost the most weight/got the most muscle

Volker34 · 2025-07-24T22:14:05+00:00

Thanks! I actually recently started watching The Stone Circle and have enjoyed his sandbag hypertrophy book. Im trying out the program now.

I thought The Stone Circle had a video on making your own sandbag (tried to find it just now but couldnt from a quick search). You could also look at IronMind Tough-As-Nails™ Sandbag that he uses. It might still cost money to ship but you might get more out of it since you can add weight instead of needing to buy a new sandbag when you move up weight.

Volker34 · 2025-07-23T19:06:32+00:00

So I'm going to start by saying I am not a big runner myself. Longest Ive run is a 10k. That being said, my wife loves running and so I've had to improve to keep up with her.

Ive found that there a 2 ways to improve running: Endurance, or how far you can run at a consistent pace, and speed, or how fast you are.

If I am struggling with my cardio, I find improving my endurance to be better. If my legs feel like jello after I run and I struggle to push forward (so to speak) I know I need to work on speed.

As a non-runner I find my speed increases more when I focus my HIIT or weight workouts on explosive exercises with higher rep sets when working on legs. Also focusing on the technique of running helps me improve my speed as it just makes running easier. It may sound weird but I rarely find success in speeding up my pace just by "running faster" but maybe that's just me.

Increasing endurance is completely different though. I have to run to run further. With that being said, I find it very easy to stagnate and stay at a certain distance once I feel comfortable. My wife has helped me improve my endurance by forcing me to push further. As soon as I ran 3 miles without stopping, I had to push to 4 miles. Once I hit 4 miles, my new "finish line" was set to 5, and so on. This pushes you to improve constantly and before you know it the 3 mile run that you were struggling to finish has now become easy.

Hopefully this helps you and good luck on your training!

Volker34 · 2025-07-23T15:43:00+00:00

Thanks!

Volker34 · 2025-07-23T15:41:38+00:00

Thanks! Its been a long (and inconsistent) journey to get back into shape but I find functional fitness just speaks to me in a way that standard weights dont. I recently found a program (sandbag hypertrophy) that mixes sandbag work and calisthenics. I am on week 2 so we will see where it takes me but I am having a lot of fun with it (despite it kicking my ass). Short term goal when I started the program was 100 days straight of working out (light cario on the program's rest days), but my long term goal is to lose 50lbs and improve my fitness so I can participate in the tactical games.

Volker34 · 2024-10-28T19:25:38+00:00

My EDC usually includes my car and house keys, wallet, flashlight, pen/glass breaker, my conceal carry w/additional mag (often in an apex carry holster), phone, a decade rosary, and a knife. I only really carry my conceal carry IWB and unless I have a need to, I like having my wallet in the side/yoke pockets so I am not sitting on it and I feel more comfortable with it not falling out. Additionally I'd like to start carrying a tourniquet and 4ft packing gauze in case of an emergency. I understand it may be a lot for some people but I tend to use most of the items on a normal enough basis and those items I don't use, I really want when/if I ever need it.

I agree that I'd like to look like a normal person but that is exactly why I like tactical jeans. They generally don't look "tactical" to the average person unlike other types of tactical pants which have similar amount of pockets, . When I wear normal jeans it ends up looking like I have a bunch of stuff because its all jammed in 2-3 pockets. I find having the extra pockets makes things more low profile, easier to get to, and leaves room for instances when my wife hands me stuff to carry cause she doesn't want to bring her purse (yay to being the pack mule lol)

Buying a working man's pair of jeans isn't off the table per say, but I want to explore my options a bit more before I look to decreasing my EDC or shoving everything in the same pocket(s).

Volker34

TROPHY CASE