The Armory

One of my favorite parts of role playing games is the actual character creation. There are some many options. What class do I choose? What race? Should my character be stronger than normal, or smarter? Short or tall? But once you get a lot of the basics figured out. then comes one of the most fun parts: choosing the gear. A Paladin can't go into battle naked after all! Iron Man can't fight Captain America without his suit! Gear is an important choice. Generally, as stated in my alluded to in a prior post, my characters were generally of the leather or cloth armor (t-shirt) clad type. But then the crucial decisions between short sword and long sword had to be made, between one or two daggers, or maybe even a crossbow. Well, fitness is no different. And walking into an armory (fitness supply store) can as intimidating as staring down Tiamat himself, though I can never say I have ever had the pleasure. So I'll give you a breakdown of what my equipment choices look like.

Armor:

Armor is everything. If your armor isn't suited for the task at hand, then your life is going to be a whole lot more difficult. Pictured here is my running shirt and shorts of both the compression and running type. The idea behind the running shirt is very simple: no nipple chaffing. Honestly, this is worth the investment. It prevents your nipples from feeling like fire ants are having a picnic on them. Also, they tend to be cut in a flattering matter. The compression shorts also have a very straightforward function: they keep your junk on lock. That's an idiom that I've managed to pick up from today's youth. Now that only applies if your a guy. Its more gender friendly benefits are that it also prevents chaffing and rashes as well as promoting circulation. Promoting circulation will in turn help prevent stiffness and muscles soreness which can help increase performance and help in recovery. The running shorts are just made of a light material that helps conceal my form fitting compression under-roos. 3

Tools:

No adventurer is complete without having some tools of the trade. Thieves have lock picks, clerics have religious symbols, and wizards have freaky imp familiars. Pictured above are my tools. Most prominently you'll see the kettlebell. Now, I primarily rely on body-weight exercises. Calisthenics are great for muscle growth, weight loss, body awareness, and just overall looking impressive. Most of all, they're free. You can do them anytime and just about anywhere, although I don't recommend doing burpees on an elevator. But a kettlebell is a great addition to your repertoire. Supplementing body-weight exercises with weighted ones is a great way to isolate particular muscles and overload them, thereby stimulating growth. And a lot of kettlebell exercises are compound movements that require a lot of body awareness that can only be obtained through body-weight exercises. For the best example of this, I recommend checking out the "Turkish get-up." You can pick up  a kettlebell on the cheap these days. The one in the picture is 20 lbs and cost about $19.95 on Amazon. You can find cooler, albeit pricier, ones at Onnit. And the internet is replete with workouts with a single or double kettlebells. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. A water-bottle is a must have. Running shoes, also a must have (see previous post). Now, if you're perceptive. You'll see my Fitbit Flex. Honestly, that is really not a necessity. But any kind of pedometer (I hear that the Nintendo DS has one) is a great way to just keep track of fitness goals. My phone and ear buds are for fitness apps and listening to sweet tunes during runs and workouts. 

Weapons:

Now, I don't actually own any weapons. But weapons can be great things to train with. Bokken, Bo staves, clubs, maces, etc. can have a transformative effect on your workouts. I've worked out with bokken before, and they are a lot of fun. They work pretty much the entire body. Any one of the pictured weapons will carry with it a different weight distribution that will force your body to adapt. So get out there, find a weapon that suits you/ Have fun with it. Just be careful. Don't put anyone's eye out. 

In summation, gear is very important. When I put on my Avengers running shirt and compression shorts, it transforms me. I'm bigger than myself, capable of achieving far more than I ever could in my regular life. With each explosive kettlebell swing, I am knocking hordes of monsters away. I am a super hero in my uniform, and adventurer properly equipped to take on any foe. I am so much more. 

New Shoes!

Running is a fairly straight forward process, All you need is your feet and some ground. Or so I thought. It turns out that shoes help a lot too. I found this out when, to my surprise, my big toe starting scraping against blistering hot asphalt through the sole of my running shoes.

Luckily, my toe came through alright. Not too much damage was done. But I felt that it then became paramount that I get new shoes. The problem is thus: not all shoes are created equal. Some shoes are better for dancing, some better climbing, and some better for putting in your enemies... keister. So I turned to my most trusted font of wisdom: the internet. And boy was there a durth of information available to me. To much information! Did I want a minimalist shoe, or something with a sole large enough to absorb the impact of a land mine? What exactly is a crossfit shoe? Or should I have no shoes at all (a la paleo)? The debate seems to rage on with people so dogmatic I swear running was the new religion! So I did what any sensible person would do: I went to target. 

There were a few different styles of shoes. Some were more mesh than anything else, some were clearly targeted towards basketball players, and there was one shoe the design of which I recognized from when my 90 year old grandfather used to wear to the YMCA. Ultimately, I settled on these:

The fit all of my metrics. They were in my size, they felt great on my feet, and primarily they were affordable. Only $35! So I brought them home, unboxed them, and started breaking them in. I haven't taken them running yet, that's tomorrow. But then I started getting a bit of a pain right under then tongue of the shoe. I once again turned to the internet, and apparently I have what's called a "steep instep." 

Using this lovely chart, I laced up my shoes all special-like as according to number 1. 

Then I thought that looked ugly. So I re-laced it up to make it look a little prettier. I know it's a silly thing to worry about. Aesthetics shouldn't matter when functionality that ultimately matters, right? Well, they looked much better after round 2.

Much better. Also, here's my cat trying to help me unbox these babies. She loves helping.

After that, they fit like a dream. I really can't wait to take them running tomorrow. I don't know if they'll shave time off of my runs, making jump higher, or what. After all, they are only $35 shoes. What I do know is that they will keep my feet from being ground into sausage against the pavement. And really, isn't that ultimately what matters?