Those who follow me on twitter have seen me post my progress on the One Hundred Pushup challenge. It’s been great; I can pump out over 45 pushups straight at this point!

However, the move to LA has not come without some cost. One of my favorite lines from Ender’s Game is “one type of stress puts on stress, another takes it off.” Apparently, moving cross country puts a lot on. I am guessing I am 185 lbs.

So here’s what I am going to do about it; take up another challenge!

Turbulence Training is a fitness system from Craig Ballantyne, whose basic premise is that crazy amount of abs and cardio is not the answer, but constantly surprising the body with different forms on a regular basis. You can purchase it online, though he provides a sample copy for people to try it out.

In addition to his books, Craig runs a forum around the fitness program, and runs regular “transformation” contests where participants use the system and track their progress through photos. The most dramatic transformations become the winners. This is an obvious but still great way for Craig to promote his creation. If people want an example of a business model that’s run on basic, ad-hoc web tools, Craig’s work is a fine example.

Anyway, his latest challenge is the Twitter Turbulence Training 4-Week Transformation Contest. The rules are on the other end of that last link, but it basically comes down to committing to using Turbulence Training and twittering my progress. Sounds great to me; I lost 35 lbs two years ago and a big part of that was logging my workout, meals, and weigh-ins on my old blog.

I am going to continue with the One Hundred Pushup challenge on the off-days of my Turbulence program. I won’t be following Craig’s body-weight sample program; I actually bought Craig’s book a few months ago, and have made use of it successfully, only stopping due to the move. Instead, I’ll be using his dumbell/bodyweight fusion program, which I won’t post here until/if I get Craig’s blessing.

Additionally, I’ll monitor my progress with photos, and the occasional videos. I know I don’t actually have that much weight to lose. Body-fat percentage is actually my bigger concern, but that doesn’t necessarily make for a visually dramatic change. But maybe I can make an entertaining video or two an go for the best video prize. And in any case the goal is not to win the damn thing, but to overcome a challenge and benefit from it.

All of this will be collected under a new section on this site and of course, as mandated on twitter. I would love to have your encouragement, and definitely any feedback. In any case, see you at the 4-week finish line.