Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Mista » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:56 pm

I took a break from my program the last week of February, when we were miraculously allowed to go on domestic vacation here in Norway (though with all the outbreaks reported in various parts of the country the following week, I'm not so sure they should have allowed that ...), but started up again last weekend, with a four week program running up to Easter. I'm very happy with my Arabic numerals routine. I now use them almost automatically whenever I do strength or stretching exercises, and I know them a lot better than I did. It has been very useful to know them well as I proceeded in the coursebook and learned weekdays and telling time, both of which use alternative variants of the numerals.

I'm not losing weight as fast as I would like. Partly this is because a) I'm on an intensive grass pollen vaccine program and b) the pollen season has started, both of which make me tired and sleepy, which makes me drink more coffee, which in turn makes me eat more often. One of my new goals, then, is to watch my coffee consumption, so I don't drink more than two cups per day.

Finally, now that much of the snow is gone and walking less demanding, I'd like to include some light running in my daily walking routine. Unfortunately, my otherwise excellent sound-reducing earphones turn out to be not so suitable for this, as there's too much friction against my head, so I'm looking into getting some new ones (or rather, earbuds), which are recommended for running. So far, the best candidate seems to be a product called JBL Reflect Flow, but if anyone here has any recommendations or other input, I'd love to hear it. Audiobooks are different from music, so any advice from anyone who listens to audiobooks or podcasts would be invaluable.
3 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby tungemål » Sat Mar 13, 2021 1:52 pm

Mista wrote:...I'm looking into getting some new ones (or rather, earbuds), which are recommended for running. So far, the best candidate seems to be a product called JBL Reflect Flow, but if anyone here has any recommendations or other input, I'd love to hear it. Audiobooks are different from music, so any advice from anyone who listens to audiobooks or podcasts would be invaluable.


I use Sony WF-1000XM3 and they work fine for me while running. I mostly use them for listening to podcasts. They are not cheap but have good specs, good noise cancellation, and they don't seem to exaggerate bass like many other brands like to do.

I'm going out jogging now. I'm trying hard to battle some minor injuries (shin splints, achilles and so on) but I'm ok at the moment. Hope I'll be in shape for my half marathon in may!
2 x

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:02 pm

Mista, have you tried any of the bone conduction models out now? I like them because they leave your ears "clear" so that you can hear traffic and not get run over! I used to wear a pair in the pool and the sound quality was amazing. I'm sure the "landlubber" versions are just as good.
0 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:57 pm

Not part of my fitness challenge this year, but had fun today with wife and dog doing two short orienteering courses outside Boston. It was a blast. Got into orienteering years ago when my boys were young and haven't done any for about 12 or 13 years. It was a nice time outside, despite it having gotten cold here again. And as we were pulling out of the parking lot, the rain started. So perfect timing on our part!

In fitness challenge news, I'm well over 50 miles of swimming for the year, so that's going well. I've also got a couple, maybe three, marathons planned. As for weight-lifting, haven't done any yet. Going to wait till I go back to work at the end of May.

How's everyone else doing?
5 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

Ug_Caveman
Green Belt
Posts: 460
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:58 am
Location: England
Languages: English (N), Dutch (A2 - July 2021), working towards B1
x 1075

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:54 pm

IronMike wrote:Not part of my fitness challenge this year, but had fun today with wife and dog doing two short orienteering courses outside Boston. It was a blast. Got into orienteering years ago when my boys were young and haven't done any for about 12 or 13 years. It was a nice time outside, despite it having gotten cold here again. And as we were pulling out of the parking lot, the rain started. So perfect timing on our part!

In fitness challenge news, I'm well over 50 miles of swimming for the year, so that's going well. I've also got a couple, maybe three, marathons planned. As for weight-lifting, haven't done any yet. Going to wait till I go back to work at the end of May.

How's everyone else doing?


I don't think I'll make my 113kg target by April, but I have had very legitimate reasons for having to tone down my fitness training recently. I do think I'll make my goal weight by the end of the year without too much difficulty though (105kg). Whether I can hit my lifting targets in the same period of time is a different matter however...

Hitting a 180kg back squat would be a dream come true for me, and the 80kg split squats would also be very welcome (for bench I'll happily take anything about 120kg given it tends to suffer more than my other lifts when training has to stop.)
3 x
Languages: English (N), Dutch (passed A2 exam in May 2021, failed B1 in May 2023 - never sit an exam when you have food poisoning!)

Seeking: Linguaphone Polish and Linguaphone Afrikaans

jmar257
Green Belt
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2020 2:41 pm
Location: USA
Languages: English (N), español (Intermediate), français (Lower Intermediate), deutsch (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=15645
x 680

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby jmar257 » Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:50 pm

IronMike wrote:How's everyone else doing?

Great, I'm down 13lbs from the start and my cardio has definitely improved. I've decided since my goal is losing weight I'm going to focus on BJJ/muay thai classes more than lifting, although still lifting of course (probably going to skimp on hypertrophy days however). I'm going to keep my power days in hopes of maintaining strength, I was actually gaining strength for a bit despite the caloric deficit: My squat was 335x3x5 for work sets (all of these are lbs), and for bench I was able to do 275x3x5. I seldom do conventional deadlifts nowadays (although I'm thinking about working them back in), but I did them the other week and hit several doubles with 405 and one at 425 easier than I expected, although grip was the limiting factor so I had to use straps after a couple. I have not really done a heavy overhead barbell press lately, but PRed on that back in September and will try it again soon just to see where I'm at. I can pretty much not deadlift and it doesn't really fall off but if I stop squatting even for a bit it drops like a rock, very annoying.

In terms of cardio and martial arts, the classes are easier (i.e., I'm getting in better shape) and I feel like I'm improving, especially in muay thai (which is so much fun). As the weather gets better I'm going to get back to running a couple miles here and there, as energy and my schedule allow (i.e., I'd rather lift and do martial arts if I can).
3 x
Feel free to give me corrections in any of my target languages!

User avatar
coldrainwater
Blue Belt
Posts: 686
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:53 am
Location: Magnolia, TX
Languages: EN(N), ES(rusty), DE(), FR(studies)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7636
x 2381

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby coldrainwater » Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:32 pm

IronMike wrote:How's everyone else doing?

I tweaked my routine during March. I noticed that jogging stairs dominated in the cardio front so I stopped doing burpees completely and focused on making sure I was in vertical running shape. It took a couple of weeks to go from being comfortable walking and reading German up a 9.5-floor building for multiple sets to being able to jog and listen instead. I still love reading in motion, so as a compromise, I tend to run some, walk some at the moment.

The story of my pressing, I managed to stall out at a very weak level in bench, but at least did not regress during March (barely managing some reps with 185 lbs). To compensate, I replaced burpees, which amounted to doing pushups as singles (works with deadlifts but isn't so smart for pushups in my view) with straight sets and am now comfortable doing a set of 35 narrow-grip pushups @195 lbs bodyweight. That is mainly an experiment in endurance strength and cultivating an anywhere bodyweight workout. I can out of curiosity check periodically and see what impact it has on limit strength, but I am not expecting anything in particular since I know or at least believe that the wiser path to endurance strength is via increasing 1RM, not the other way around. With all my shenanigans pressing and playing, I do deadlifts maybe every week or 10 days and am now comfortable with 255x5 lbs. Deadlifts normally start feeling heavy for me somewhere around 295, so I won't pull the issue further since I don't have a current need for the extra power. From my younger years, baseline for me is being able to work with 225 cold for quite a few reps. I am very interested in adding some overhead pressing, but it seems a bit much at the moment and partially redundant against the pushups. From a completeness standpoint, I think I can do about five chin-ups and have made zero effort to improve there even though some extra pull-up strength would be practical (that is one case where you never know for sure when you may need it).

Edit: I should also mention that I re-added normally street jogging to my routine, mainly for language-learning purposes. I jog so slow, it does next to nothing for cardio, but it is great for language learning since I can read, do anki or listen to podcasts while jogging. There is a pattern in there in that a workout may last 30-45 minutes and the cool-down afterwards tends to be one of my best and most reliable times for German reading and/or more intense work. I also find it helpful acutely to include 2-3 short cardio sessions daily to boost language learning and help overall blood flow. Jogging is helpful there and is more or less the fitness analog to extensive reading/listening (can be done for long periods of time without tiring and can be easily added to other intensive training).
3 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby tungemål » Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:50 pm

My half marathon was cancelled. Just as well as I haven't been able to train lately because of injuries. I hope to get back to running soon.
I'm taking a break from languages, and go back to only occasionally using the languages that I know.

Maybe I should rather join the uniglot out-of-shape challenge.
5 x

Ug_Caveman
Green Belt
Posts: 460
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:58 am
Location: England
Languages: English (N), Dutch (A2 - July 2021), working towards B1
x 1075

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Ug_Caveman » Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:45 am

Ug_Caveman wrote:If gyms reopen, my goals are to bench press 140kg, overhead press 85kg, back squat 180kg and split squat 80kg for five reps on each leg (the latter two would be an all time best regardless of bodyweight) at a bodyweight lower than 110kg.


Got back inside a gym for the first time in months today, the results were... mixed.

On one hand - comfortable repped out 100kg x 4 x 5 on the bench (quite a bit stronger than I thought I would be coming back - my upper body strength tends to suffer more than lower in periods of no training...)

On the other hand - got destroyed attempting 120kg x 4 x 5 for back squats. Managed two sets of five, and a broken set of three-two with two minutes rest between. Didn't bother trying for the fourth set as I knew I didn't have it in me.

Somewhat surprised it's my upper body doing OK and my lower body doing terribly (the exact opposite of the effects of the last two lockdowns) :S

I could quite possibly hit my upper body target based off today's evidence, lower body might need to be re-evaluated (although it could just be a blip as squats are harder technically.)

On the language front, I go between: "I'm good enough to pass A2" and "what the hell was I thinking entering the exam!?!?!" on a pretty much hourly basis. Guess the moment of reckoning shall reveal the truth to me...
6 x
Languages: English (N), Dutch (passed A2 exam in May 2021, failed B1 in May 2023 - never sit an exam when you have food poisoning!)

Seeking: Linguaphone Polish and Linguaphone Afrikaans

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:30 am

tungemål wrote:Maybe I should rather join the uniglot out-of-shape challenge.

This was me for about 40-something years. No longer.
4 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.


Return to “Language Challenges”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests