I remember World of Warcraft

I remember World of Warcraft

There was a lot of stuff to think about, a lot of stuff to do... and then there was this game. I ended up spending all my time online in Azeroth. 

Honestly, this was back when I would spend a lot of time with the games instead of learning the games properly through guides. It was back when trying stuff was fun and I had all the time I needed.

I took a long time to get to level 60. Most of the time I just ran around exploring and killing monsters in the forest. Felwood was a place where I spent most of the last seven levels killing monsters. My druid was sneaking through the land in the shape of a panther. 

I spent a lot of time near the Irontree Woods.

Fighting near the caves where the "special" herbs grew. I believe it was Artha's Tears and maybe some mushrooms inside the caves. And in the pools of green water there were elementals to kill. Fantastic times!

The community was not crowded with goldfarmers who were spamming for selling their gold. I remember it as the perfect times. I am however aware that my mind might forget the bad stuff. (Like a mother giving birth to a second child is not likely to remember the pain she went through the first time. The happiness that follows just removes the bad stuff from their memory.)

I don´t know if there was many addons to get early in WoW, I did not use any however. That made questing tough. In the early days I don´t think there were much more help besides from the text itself on the quests. If I had not yet discovered a location on the map I could not know where I had to go. There could be a hint like to the north or something like that.

One of the things that defines my start in WoW is this. I went to Molten Core before I discovered that I HAD FORGOTTEN TO BUY THE LEVEL 60 SKILLS!

Just the skill alone improved my healing etc. That was something I did not tell too many people at the time, especially not the ones who wiped due to crappy healing at Ragnaros. 

Felwood would end up being the best memories I have from the game before the end game content started, with the instances and the raids. That is another story!

Wear gloves when at the gym

When you are at the gym using their dumbbells and barbells, I recommend that you use gloves. They are fairly cheap, no need to get expensive ones for protection.

I can´t say I have statistics etc but I do however believe this...

Firstly. Lots of people are using the same equipment that you do. And you have no idea when they last washed their hands.

Secondly. When lifting heavily, the bar you lift will try to rotate and when you fight against that you risk getting microskopical wounds in the hand and those are big enough to give you a bad infection which will keep you from the gym for quite some time.

Think about it, the grip surface is often quite rough.

I use gloves nowadays and when I don´t use the gloves it is because the surface is flat or I use my straps. The straps will not only help my grip, it protects my hands as well.


Train hard, stay safe!

My kind of reviews...!

Fun reviews!

I don´t remember when, probably a few years ago, I found the perfect comedy mixed with reviews of video games.

Zero Punctuation is a series of reviews that really use humor to explain his gaming experience. He is using a really simple video made with some program that reminds you of paint. The video is a perfect compliment to his stories. Some videos are epic. If you have ever played DayZ you will understand his story about trying the game.

Another one I enjoy is Fallout New Vegas. I think you will have to have played the games to enjoy the videos though. Since he makes fun of stuff that you encounter in the games.

You will find the videos on Youtube. There will be a lot of bad language though, you have been warned!

Chest day!

Chest day

During our latest podcast (episode 2) we spoke about chest work out. I figured it would be a good idea to write a bit about it as well. 

Chest is probably the most fun session for most people out there. It is the training session that you look forward to the most. Because of that the Internet is full of funny pictures with texts like "I'm not missing chest day" or "day after chest day". Just hit those words on google and you will find some good ones.

Some different exercises for your chest:

Behind each exercise there is a link to a site where you can see the actual exercise.

- Bench Press http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/BBBenchPress.html
- Incline Bench Press http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralClavicular/BBInclineBenchPress.html
- Dumbbell Press http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/DBBenchPress.html
- Dumbbell Incline Press http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralClavicular/DBInclineBenchPress.html
- Smith Incline Bench Press http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralClavicular/SMInclineBenchPress.html
- Cable Standing Fly http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/CBStandingFly.html
- Dumbbell Fly http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/DBFly.html
- Chest Dip http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/WtChestDip.html
- Pec Deck http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/LVPecDeckFly.html

How one of my own chest work outs might be

First of all, I don´t use treadmills or other cardio machines for a warm up. It is important to some people, and if you prefer to do just that then you should continue doing it. 

Just by entering the gym I go into "the zone". However I will use lighter weights at first. When I feel that the muscles are warm I gradually increase the weights.

I usually start at the cable cross. I do that simply because I can do many different exercises for a warm up without having to go between different places. 

Sometimes I will use light weight dumbbells to warm up my shoulders and biceps as well. I am usually already warm and pumped up when I enter the gym, after walking to the gym with some fucking awesome music that makes me want to instantly go and lift stuff caveman style.

When I am ready to begin for real I want to start out with some exercise that requires the most power. For example the Dumbbell Incline Press. To avoid getting injured during this exercise I want to do that one early, otherwise I am tired and I risk losing balance. 

As soon as you hold weights in the height of your shoulders you have to be careful with the form of the exercise to avoid injury. If you think of it, when you train your shoulders - they are not very strong. And when you do your chest exercises and those heavy weights go high near the shoulders and you lose control of the weight for even a split second. That might hurt your shoulders badly and force you to stay away from heavy lifting for quite some time.

So I go the Dumbbell Incline Press. It takes some tecnique to learn how to start the exercise, you will soon handle heavy weights and the toughest part might be getting into start position. The amount of weight will vary depending on how strong I feel on that particular day. I will start out with lighter weights and work my way towards the heavier ones. And I will go about 3 proper sets. 
The amount of repetitions on each set is different depending on what you want to achieve with your training. More on that subject later.

After that exercise I will usually go to the Pec Deck, either in machine or in the Cable cross. I will go both light weight sets and really heavy sets. The sets using lighter weights will make sure I really finish the muscles. And when doing Pec Deck in a machine you can go to the absolute limit without risking any injury like with the previous exercise.

Now I would probably go for the Bench Press. Since I am already tired I will not go heavy, especially not if I don´t have a spotter. I will go 3 proper sets at least on this exercise.

I think that Dumbbell Flyes are quite relaxing. A nice stretching motion to the sides and then feel the peccs squeeze nicely on the top. Since I have been hitting that chest for three exercises already I should have a great pump. I don´t always go very heavy, but I often do. By this time into the work out I am so damn pumped up and even though the peccs are totally done the devil in me has awakened. 
It makes me just want to go to fucking crazy and move on to another part of the body like legs or back. Since I have been focusing on the chest I think that I have lots of juice left in the rest of the body. When I go directly to a back exercise though, I quickly discover that I am not as filled with energy as I thought.
If I have been doing the chest exercises the way I meant to, there should not be any gas left. 

You will notice that I completely left out many of the exercises in this example. Since there are so many exercises, you have to choose which ones to do. You might want to change them from time to time which is a good idea. But there are however some things to consider. You should always have at least one exercise with the Incline position like Bas explained in the podcast. 

The concept of how to build your schedule and which body parts to combine will be on another post. And then you will discover that I rarely JUST go chest on one day.

Second episode of the podcast!

And we keep them coming! Here are the second episode of "The Fit Gamer Podcast"!

During the episode there are talk about "Chest day" at the gym. Just to make it all easier to understand there will be a post on the blog on the tecniques that we mention and probably links to videos on how to perform them correctly.

Anyway, enjoy the show guys! Thank you for reading/listening!

The first episode of the podcast is out!

The pilot episode of the podcast is out!

Lets hope that the video will work when I post it like this. If it does not, the link to the podcast on youtube is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLgAHor5vNg

Like I said, it is the pilot episode which means we are basically testing the software for the first time. I hope it is good enough quality to listen to and that it will improve on each episode. 

We are making some jokes and there are occasionally language that might sound rough. But honestly, in the online community today there are very bad language thrown around. I do not think that this will offend anyone. But just in case I wanted to let everyone know that we are just friendly guys making friendly conversation and our jokes are made with the best of intentions. 

I do not have time to exercise..

The issue of lacking time for exercise...

Before I write this text I would like to say that my mind function in the exact same way like the problem I am addressing in this text. I do not attack people I believe is lazy, I am just trying to put words to the thoughts most people have. And by reading this text they might think of it in times when they don´t feel like going to the gym.
And if this text serves its purpose, they will think rationally and get some exercise done. If that happens even once, the work of writing this text has been worth it!

You often hear people saying that they don´t have the time to go to the gym. I can´t speak for everyone, of course. But most people however, they DO have the time to get some exercise done. 
Lets say they would like to get to the gym for an hour, three times a week. Every day have 24 hours, with seven days that will give you (24 x 7) 168 hours to work with.

Of those 168 hours you should be able to spend 3 of them on working out. If life is really hectic, planning is one way to save a lot of time. Let´s say that you have to drive home from work, do some grocery shopping, some cleaning and you want to get that one hour of work out done. 
Is it a long drive from your home to your work and other activities? 
Try going to the gym after or before work. That way you don´t risk getting caught in the classic trap of getting home, sitting down in the couch and feeling drained of energy. The hardest part is often getting off that couch and get to the gym (or into the running tracks if that is what you are going to do). 

If you have less than 15 minutes of travel to the gym you should not blame the distance. Sure it will take you 30 minutes back and forth. And you have to take a shower afterwards. That will add a few extra minutes. 
So one hour at the gym equals 1 hour training, 30 minutes of commuting and a shower. If you do it twice a week instead of three times. You are just spending 3 hours in total on your gym activities (plus the showers) but two times is a hell of a lot more than zero.

And every damn minute spent on exercise is counting. You can spend 20 minutes every day at home doing situps, pushups  or any equipment you have. That way you won´t have to pay for the gym card and there would be no time spent on traveling back and forth. During some periods in life that will be the best way for many people to deal with the issue to find time for exercise.

If you have kids it is easier to decide to skip the exercise. You tell yourself that you don´t want to leave the kids. Well, try to exercise at home when the kids can participate or watch you work out. If they are not teenagers they will probably just think it is fun. You will get a few laughs out of it yourself as well. When young children tries to copy your moves, whether it is situps, pushups or kettlebells - the chance is pretty high you will laugh pretty hard!

And lets be honest. Kids today are not going to suffer from getting some exercise. And if everything else fails, get one of those video games consols that involves moving around in front of the TV. That will make your kids love you, and you will cry, sweat and look stupid as hell while trying to bowl or compete in the olympics in front of your TV!

Started to play Hearthstone

Hey! Play Hearthstone they said. It will be fun they said. If you click away the 40 gold quests you have you will get 60 gold quests they said.

One week later and still I had not seen a single quest that gave me more than 40 gold as a reward. And I have been dismissing a quest every single day in order to have a chance at a greater reward. All that has given me was tough challenges, making me build decks with classes I never intended on playing.

So I was convinced, my friends was playing me for a fool. There are no quest rewards above 40 gold. Then I visited a friends house. He logged onto Hearthstone and he dismisses a quest and THERE IT IS! A 60 gold quest reward! 
I was stunned. Why is life determined to repeatedly kick me in the nutsack?!

A sucker like me can´t just stop playing. Some say Hearthstone is Pay to win but I consider it possible to win by farming. Those games just kill my social life. Same with League of Legends, First win of the day is something I do not want to miss. I camp the computer every day hoping for a nice daily quest on Hearthstone.

Hopefully I get to see some nice quest rewards soon as well. Now when I know they actually exsist.

Epic Gaming Memories - FIFA 99

Nintendo 64 – FIFA 99

Even though I have spent an insane amount of time with Goldeneye 64 and Maricart 64 this game is probably the game that I have played the most on that consol.

If I would start the game today, the graphics would probably feel like Minecraft. But back then it was the most realistic football game I had ever seen. The game was easy to play to win in some ways. If you for example played a pass sideways and then shot directly it was a goal. But here is the beautiful thing about playing video games. I can play the game how I want to play it. Which meant that to make it more exciting, more fun I would perhaps not use the easiest way to win the games. And the challenge to score in new ways made the game last much longer. It was really the only FIFA-game I would purchase and play a lot.

When I started to play more on a PC I found games that allowed me to see the bigger picture and build the teams rather than playing them. The manager games. But there will be other posts that will go deeper into those games later on.

However I played this particular game over several years. That meant that the squads were outdated and many world class players were barely even talents in my FIFA -99. My imagination fixed all of that though in some weird way. And Roberto Baggio were still playing for Inter Milan. That was one of the best things about the game being a bit old.

I did not challenge the game for the hardest possible challenges when it comes to difficulty level in the game. Much due to the fact that I would not want to try and use the same ways to score and win games over and over again. I do not really remember if the UEFA CUP and the Champions League were put into the game or if I just simply created the cups myself.

That was however a great way to play the game. And the one big thing I knew was in the new FIFA that I missed in this one. The possibility to play a season with the league AND the cups with the same squad.

Afterwards, looking back on it, it may have been a waste of a good holiday in the sunny parts of Europe. I was literally passing through all of Europe in a caravan with the curtains covering the window so that I could see the monitor better when I played FIFA.

”Hey buddy, how was Europe?”

”It was great, scored a fantastic goal with Dennis Bergkamp from the right flank halfway through Spain.”

But hey, I had the time of my life. In between sessions of gaming I could enjoy the sunny weather and warm oceans.

Having a dream

Having a dream and going for it..

During the past thirteen years I have been visiting the local gym, on a quest to become satisfied. Which luckily, I am. I am aware that it is dangerous to say that you are satisfied. That implies that you do not want to improve any further. That is wrong.

Always.

ALWAYS be satisfied. But you should always have a dream. While fighting to achieve that dream you should set up a few goals that when you reach them, they give you a reciept that you are moving towards that big dream.

Reach for the stars and you will at least reach the moon. That is a saying that is very true. Let´s say that your big dream was to become Mr. Universe. Even if you never won that competition it is quite clear that you, compared to the rest of human kind, will be extremely good looking. Every year you will be the beast on the beach when the shirts are coming off.

Your hard work is never done in vain. You will get a lot of positives from them. To show commitment, to fight for a dream. That is something that will give you character.

When you have a big dream you can´t spend every hour of every day for the rest of you life trying to achieve it. There will be days or even weeks or months when you will lay that aside. However, that does not mean that you have to give it up.

Having a dream is what makes us keep going even when there are hard times. Hard work will seem fun and easy when you see that big dream at the horizon.

Like passing checkpoints in a race you will reach your goals that proves to yourself that you are getting closer to your dream.

Anyone gives you shit for pursuing a dream? Well, fuck em! They are just jealous because you have found your dream and are going for it while they can´t seem to find anything worth fighting for in their pitiful lives.

AND WE ARE LIVE! Here, from the cold northern part of Europe...

The blog is up and running! As my name suggests, there will be a podcast soon as well.

Surprised?
Making a face like this?

Be sure to visit this blog regurarly! This is the place to be!