Yet another BB Training Blog

[Pork Chop]

Picked up a Dan Gable book in Denver a couple weeks ago that had a huge affect on me. Dan Gable was the Wong Fei Hung of American wrestling. The words in his book really did a lot to help me find the focus & motivation that I've been looking for since my first injury back in June. The quote "Failure to plan is planning to fail" I'd probably heard before from someone else; but it really sank home reading it from Gable.

The grand effect of this change in mindset is a focused, organized effort to achieve the goals I want for myself. This specifically means logging a well-charted plan to an in-ring victory sometime in 2005. With this thread I'll be logging my progress in the gym, in my mindset, and at the dining table.


Monday Dec 20

Got to work about an hour ago.
Was supposed to hit the gym at 6 this morning for a cardio session and weights immediately after work.
Went to bed at 10 last night to be able, but my body's pretty beat up from the last 3 days- I wussed out and got the extra sleep.
Seems the sleep helped though because I felt 10 times better when i finally did wake up.
Planning on making up the cardio workout later tonite.
Gotta take my car to the shop & should probably stay late coz I came in late; but I'll hit the other gym if I can't finish my workout by the 7 o'clock closing time of the gym here at work.
Started off the morning right with vitamins/supplements and a glass of milk; and 10 started on my bowl of oatmeal at 10.
It's cold out so lots of green tea on the menu and planning for 2 protein shakes while I'm here at work (another tonite after my workout).
Have some apples today & a lean cuisine; gonna enjoy those with my normal assortment of dried fruits, nuts, and granola bars.

The workouts that have me hurting so bad are kickboxing on Friday and Saturday, with kung fu on Sunday.

Friday was 4 hours and covered a lot. Lots of calisthenics & fundamentals drills, as well as bag time. Finished up with 10 min of Interval, 10 min of medium-high paced cardio (that's all my weak azzz can handle atm).

Saturday hit kinda hard. It was relatively short for my saturdays at between 2 and 3 hours (usually do at least 3 to 4); but there were some brutal parts. Rahsaan's calisthenics routines are pretty killer. Overall, eventhough I felt like I ducked out earlier than normal; the workout had this nice ramping up in intensity- with a nice warmup and stretch to start off, then moving on to fundamentals, calisthenics, 2 person drills, and bag work. New guy at the gym, real cool, good size for me to work with. He, along with some of the other new guys that have joined lately give me hope that I won't have to spend all my time traveling around for bigger guys to work with.

By sunday I was achey and sore; but I still woke up early and trekked up to Philly. Bit disappointed in my stances- didn't show any improvement and looked more like I took 2 steps back. This workout wasn't as intense as previous trips up there; but it was a long workout. Started working out by 12 and don't think I'd completely stopped working out till 5 or so. The duration was very taxing in itself. My bones ached as I drove the 2 hours home.

Want to re-focus on stances; for the sheer fact that if I'm learning some kung fu, I'd like to be able to do it more than half-azzzed. As a result; I think my leg workouts from here on out may take a lot of focus off the squat & leg press- sticking more with stances, bodyweight drills, and kettlebells (if they ever get here) for legs. The kicking practise, plyos, kettlebells, and bodyweight stuff should keep my functional strength at least acceptable; while the added leg endurance might do me some good. With the new "space" in my freeweight routine, I'll probably add some calf raise sets, add some more focus on building my core, and going back to pull ups (if my shoulder can handle it).

Sporting some nice old-fashioned kung fu bruises this morning; sweet. :)

This weekend's diet was nothing short of atrocious; with long periods of not eating (before and during workouts) followed by feasts to try to take advantage of my last few days of "freedom" before the crackdown was to begin. You know you have a problem when you down 2 slices of Sbarro's at 6:30pm, a half plate of sushi at 8:30pm, and a french bread pizza at 10:30pm after not eating since you woke up at 7:30am.

[Oso]

good luck.

what's the title of the book?

my first pair of wrestling shoes were a pair of 1981 Dan Gable Superflex's. still have them somewhere.

[Pork Chop]

Coaching Wrestling Successfully.

If you are the 'controller of your own destiny' so to speak; it's really a good book to use as a resource for planning routines and understanding a good mindset.

[EDIT: oops, forgot to say "Thanks!"]

[Pork Chop]

I actually survived yesterday.

Warmed up with 10 min of high intensity interval work (aerobic cross training routine on 18) on the elliptical cross trainer.

Hit dumbell bench to start things off. Went real nice. 3 sets of 7; starting with the max I could handle (80 pounders); then 75 and 70.
I ended up failing at 7 each time.
By the final set I had a nice burn in my chest- something that's been somewhat infrequent the last few years.

Moved on to assisted pull ups after that on the hydraulic machine.
this time i pyramided up, going 10-8-5.
Seated rows definitely didn't help me keep up strength in this exercise; but my shoulder held up so i was happy.
Not quite ready for negatives- memories of the DOMS i used to get from 5 reps of 30 second negatives STILL scares me.
exercise killed me nicely.

From there it was on to calves.
Calf raises for me have always been a weird exercise.
I'm never happy with my form, even if i just do it with bodyweight.
So the first 2 sets were strict form as I could muster with 100lb.
The last set was kind of an overload set at 200.
Lots of room for improvement here.

Finished up with ab and back machines; in otherwords, one where you sit and lean forward, the other where you sit and lean backward.
Pyramided up with both exercises.
The ab machine put a hurting on my chest where it came in contact with the chest.
Back machine feels like a poor man's deadlift.

Went home, hit a shake, rested a bit.

Then it was to the other gym for cardio.

Upped my cardio this time around; 30 min altogether, all on the elliptical crosstrainer.
First 15 min was interval training:
manual setting; sprint for 2 min on level 18 (ie 60+ rpms); rest 1 min on a lower setting.
Second 15 min was like a large hill:
still manual setting; 50+ rpm the whole time; starting at a low setting (resting from last sprint session) & ramping up every minute to 17; stay on 17 for 3 min, stay on 18 till the last 2 min; start cooling down the last 2 minutes: lev 19 at a slower speed.


Diet was really respectable.
milk in the morning
Oatmeal for late breakfast.
protein shake (low carb grow!) and an apple around lunch
small lean cuisine for late lunch
4 oz beef jerky after that
A shake with 3 scoops of surge (post workout protein drink), a scoop of creatine and a scoop of power drive (pre workout gingko biloba kinda drink) after lifting
A protein shake (low carb grow!) with some flax seed oil after cardio (before bed)


Doin pretty much the same thing today with a different workout.
Woke up a bit too hungry though so might snack more throughout the day.
ZMA before bed was kinda nice- but then i slept way too much.
I noticed i can't wake up if I take ZMA and get too little sleep, but if I'm sleeping a lot I think it can help.

May have to go on another supplement shopping spree before Feb.

[Pork Chop]

Not gonna call yesterday a failure, because the majority of my day went pretty well.

At work, I stuck to my diet plan.
After work, had an argument with the gf, had more issues with the ex-roommate, and for my "workout" hit up a kung fu school I'd ****ed some people off at in order to catch my good friend MusicalKataChamp who'd just come back from overseas.

The diet was going pretty well till the evening; once I'd left the kung fu school.
Training wise, I had kind of a lazy day working skills- little more than an "active rest" type day; but it was nice seeing MKC again.
Between the school and some late night practise at home, I got a decent amount of kung fu footwork in; so I have a hard time whining about that.
After the workout, I made the mistake of deciding to eat.
Didn't gorge or nothing, just ate some bad microwave stuff outta my freezer.

Got a nice cherry on my foot working a couple shoots on the carpet floor of the kf school. Feeling good today in my big heavy shoes.

Weight only went up to 238 (from 235, still a net loss of 2 pounds so far) after my late night snack so no biggie.

Couldn't get to sleep last night for crap. Only got like 4 or 5 hours. About the only time training kung fu before bed actually kept me awake.

Today it's back to weights and cardio.

The roommate stuff is ticking me off. Getting my locks changed this morning so that should help some.

Suntzu hooked me up with some good info that I'll be pouring over today. My skills days need to be a lot better than yesterday was. I'll need to do better, but I recognize that I'm still in the early stages so I'll have to resist the urge to throw everything and the kitchen sink in.

Will probably end up hitting the gym hard Thursday to make up for what's going to be either a kung fu weekend, or just a lazy one.

I figure even if I only pull through today and have 2.5 good days this week, it's a start and it's something to build on.

[Pork Chop]

Awesome day on the weights and diet yesterday.
Ended up skipping the cardio; for which I could list a ton of reasons but in the end I made the choice not to get it done.
I did walk a good mile & still did my 10 min of hiit warmup; so it wasn't a total cardio no show.

On the weights I did:

3 sets of 10-10-8 assisted pullups & 1 10 second negative- it was pretty killer but not so much to make me useless

3 sets of 8-1-10 dumbell bench with 70s, 90s, and 60s respectively - was proud that the 90s were a 1rm. I might be able to shoot for 3 with the 90s next time.

3 sets of 10-10-10 calf raises with 10, 11, 12 plates- more weight than before, different brand of machine, went up easier, maybe my form wasn't perfect?

2 sets of 4 different neck exercises done as a superset on the neck machine; 10 reps each exercise and set.

4 sets of 20-15-10-5 on the twisting oblique machine. I do it like i'm throwing hooks. The last 5 were with the whole stack, which was surprisingly easy.

After that my foot was bothering me (the cherry from the day before bled through my sock), I had a headache, I was just plain sore & worn out, and I wanted to go home- so I opted not to force the 30 min of cardio on myself.

Diet wise:
oatmeal
grow! protein shake
boston market micro meal (turkey I think), with a lean pocket
a few breakfast bars (think nutrigrain with fewer sugars)
lots of green tea
surge protein shake w/creatine before bed

Broken sleep last night.
Laid down 12.5 hours before I got up but it felt like I was waking up a lot- mostly due to my gf who watched a movie & then played video games. Took ZMA though, so that explains my hard time waking up in the morning when it was time to go. Don't feel quite so sore, so I'll give ZMA benefit of the doubt.

Gonna try to hit the cardio and some skills tonite. Not sure what my gym options are this close to the holiday. Have a bandaid on my foot now so that should help.

Eating fruit this morning.
Don't see myself being too strict on diet over the holiday.

Weight was promising at 236 this morning.
Think the trick is to make the weight drop just enough to make progress, while dieting just enough to make progress but not become a starving nut case, and working out just enough to make progress but not become an aching & injured ball of hurt (this can be offset with sleep and supplements).

[Suntzu]

dude..... just enjoy the holidays.... looks like the new year is gonna be plenty busy.... we'll have all the work we can handle...

[Pork Chop]

Yah think I'll go ahead and do that.
Post back on here monday if i do anything significant over the holidays.
Not a lot of pressure of these 2 weeks so whatever I do's kind of a bonus and will help me later once January gets started.

had heart attack in a box last nite; in other words beer battered chicken strips and cheese fries from hungry man :D
ironfist's the one that got me to experiment...now i need a 12 step program...

[Pork Chop]

Nothing significant happening except that my rug burn cherry was a lot deeper than earlier percieved and ended up getting infected.
Hard to work out when even shifting your weight makes you wince and stuff's oozing through to your shoe.
Monday I didn't even go to work- between the foot and a killer headache that lasted all day I barely left my room.
I'm going to see how I'm feeling after work; but am planning to hit the gym.

Diet was pretty bad the time i was off; looking a lil better today.

[Pork Chop]

reasonable diet and good exercise on tuesday.
warmed up with my customary 10 minutes of interval.
put up 90 dumbells twice with a nice long negative at the end.
really hit the squat hard.
nice work on the assisted pull up too, with a best effort 10 second unassisted negative at the end (don't have enough strength at the top of the movement to really spend any sort of time there).
really burned my hamstrings on the squats. they felt pulled.
my cardio at the end was just 25 minutes of best effort- no high intensity; but with no break between the weights and the cardio, i'm not complaining.
The only part i really cheesed was skills work at the end. I was just too burnt to really do anything.
Made up for it at home with a good chunk of form work before bed.


today, wednesday i've been a big ball of pain.
probably ate too much for lunch.
passed out immediately after work.
woke up and ate some dumplings (decent protein probly not the best diet food).
Did a little bit of kung fu this evening on some burnt legs.
probly not going to get enough sleep tonite- guess that means more sore tomorrow.
Guess I didn't hit the protein and supplements well enough today.

Foot's healing slowly

[IronFist]

w00t @ your progress :)

[Pork Chop]

Thanks, appreciate it :)

Trying not to stress about the weight, as creatine's part of my supplementation- so kind of expecting some ballooning; but was 245 right after the christmas holiday which normally would scare the crud out of me.

Just a slight note about deep kung fu stances and weight lifting.
Doing both HURTS.
But i think doing both ensures that you get that good break-in period.
At the beginning of stance training, you should get that kinda DOMs so severe that touching your legs hurts.
The funny thing is that eventho it hurts, it's not necessarily getting worse.
Squatting on really sore legs usually means the weight goes down (in my experience); but for some reason my stances get lower when doing them through pain.
Actually I have a theory on this.
Squats really work the protagonist muscles well- the ones pushing the weight from the ground up.
In the squat, on the descent you have the added weight to keep you from using the antagonist muscles (pulling yourself down to the ground).
Ever try doing horse stance in a swimming pool?
It's almost all antagonist muscles keeping you in that stance, very little protagonist; as you're fighting your own natural buoyancy.
Burning out the protagonist muscles really lets the antagonist muscles work hard.
Aside from hanging leg lifts - which would burn out your abs and arms long before your legs, I don't know of too many other ways to hit the antagonist muscles.

Another thing about the stance training- I may hold a single position for as long as a minute or two, but as far as stances go, i'm generally focusing on moving through them. Got a stance set and sit in each stance for 10 to 30 seconds before moving onto the next. This ends up being a lot more taxing than static single stance; coupled with the fact that doing this for multiple stances will mean you're in stance a greater amount of time, it really lets you push past some limitations you can build for yourself in static horse.

Finally, I'm doing these stances so I can do the kung fu. I'm not expecting some drastic change in muscle size/body composition or really even much of a change in functional strength/endurance (outside of the scope of kung fu). I just want to develop this so i can develop the skill. I've been assured that after a certain point the DOMs isn't so bad and the stances don't make me limp so bad; from my memories of the first 3 times around of doing this, I think I can concur, though a lot of times I remember getting lax on the stance focus before I saw it through. I guess the body adapts, the antagonist muscles eventually build up, and the protagonist muscles get used to the work load.

In other words, I'm still a big ball of hurt. LOL

[EDIT: PS- still no kettlebells]

[Pork Chop]

lazy weekend.

thursday i got out of work late and i was still real achey, so i just chilled & got started on my new year's drinking a little early.

friday i was hung over but had the day off so still managed to hit the gym. weights went pretty well- though being hung over i could see the performance hit. Finished up in time for class, but like 1 guy showed up. My foot's still (even today) messed up so that was going to affect what I'd do- with it being a holiday and all, i just didn't want to deal with it. i was already ready to party. hehe

Saturday was hung over too; but didn't really leave the house.
At least I got all the drinking out of my system.

Sunday- no alkyhall, so no hangover; but woke up late.
Had to do a ton of laundary so didn't hit philly.
Got to bed late, which was amplified by a firetruck and an ambulance pulling up in my apartment parking lot, lights going, not once but twice: once at almost 4, once around 8.
The second time they had sirens going too.
When I tried to wake up from work, my body was just a bit too sleep deprived, so my throat was hurting- called out sick.

Going to boxing xtreme fitness http://www.bxfclub.com tonite.

In a nutshell, they're close to work, along roads that have a minimal amount of traffic, they have ridiculously cool hours, their BOXING facilities are better than any boxing gym in the immediate area (let alone everything else they have), and they have a pretty open attitude (no scheduling aerobic room time).

I may not have a trainer there, but the vast majority of my work at Gold's tends to be self paced and I won't be having the same problems with availability to the facilities (ie early closing times and vicious fitness directors who always schedule aerobics classes over our gym times).

Julio said he'll hook up with me around once a week; plus i think he wants to start sneaking people over to that gym anyway- Gold's has given us a pretty raw deal.

I'll post tomorrow with an update on how it goes.


[EDIT: PS, finally got confirmation that my kettlebells are at least 3 days out from January 28]

[Pork Chop]

Never thought I could fall in love with a gym.
Signed up as soon as I got there.
That is the coolest place in the world, part 2 (part 1 is the RexPlex in Elizabeth, NJ).

The workout

Still kinda draggin it from this vacation.
Warmed up 10 min on elliptical.
DBell Bench- 3 sets: 10 reps with 70, 5 reps with 80, 2 reps with 90
Assisted pull up: 10 reps with 85 (assist), 7 reps with 70, 3 reps with 55
Squat: 10 reps with 135, 6 reps with 185, 4 reps with 225.

Worked skills- boxin and kickboxing for at least an hour and a half to 2 hours.

Finished up with another 15 min of cardio- was totally dyin by this point.

[Pork Chop]

lovin this gym.
Worked skills for like 2.5 hours yesterday.
Warmed up, held mitts for some of the guys in the beginner class, then did bag work (including uppercut bag), shadowboxing, falling practise, some bridging & neck practise, and finished with some kung fu stuff.

Working out's fun again.

Tonite it's going to be weights, calisthenics, and cardio.

Trying to up my protein intake to make sure my body can keep up the pace.

[Suntzu]

glad u are having fun

[Pork Chop]

Come! Join the DARK SIDE!!! :D

I mean seriously....

I used 5 or 6 different heavybags last night...
JUST BECAUSE I COULD!

Spent like 15 min on the double ended speed bag....
JUST BECAUSE I COULD!

Watched James Toney fight Booker....
JUST BECAUSE I COULD!

I can walk from cardio warm up, to weights, out to do some skillz, then back to cardio WITHOUT WAITING IN LINE- for ANYTHING!

300 pound heavy bag!

This place makes me all misty eyed.... and when they get the sauna fixed, I may move into the locker room...

JOIN ME! :cool:

BTW- if u see Bill (Harris?); tell him there is a lot more boxing going on now.

[FngSaiYuk]

Sounds awesome, I can see why u're so stoked.

I'm trying to shmooze my way into a local private gym here that I just found out about. The guy who owns it only wants 'hard core' peeps in it... I don't have enough time to work out that often, but when I do get to work out I have a really high level of intensity. I'm hoping to get in by shmoozing w/the hard core muay thai guys that have access to the gym.

[Suntzu]

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo" - Luke Sywalker after Vader told him he was his pops.......

bad timing at the moment........

[Pork Chop]

yah i hear yah... understand if u gotta wait...

btw- the replacement for my old timer came last night.... it'll be going in at bxf tonite... *evil laughter*


Think I'm going to have to bust out my video collection to learn more about the uppercut bag... in order to get under it i have to drop ridiculously low- wanna see if it's hung too low, if i'm trying to drop too low, or if i'm not dropping low enough... it's kinda messed up my wrist even when i have dropped all the way down... hitting the bottom corner on the side of the bag is a lot more comfy tho...

[Pork Chop]

Thurs Jan 6


Alright, so yesterday afterwork I thought I was gonna drop out.
I could barely keep my eyes open and I was tired as I don't know what.
The allure of the gym kept me goin though; along with wanting to show off the new timer.
So i went down there, hooked up the new timer, and decided to take my time loosening up.
Did a nice, slow boxing/kickboxing warm up for like 10 or 15 min.
I started feeling a lot better.
So next it was on to weights.
Didn't break any records on the weights; but put in some time at the office:
Couple Hammer strength chest machines, 2 plates each side, 10 reps, 3 sets altogether
Assisted pull/chinups, 85 pound assist, 1 set of 10, 2 sets of 8
Squats 185, 3 sets of 5 reps

After that I was feeling pretty good; so I did a good skills workout:
3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow
3 rounds of heavybag
2 rounds of calisthenics death (20 jumping jacks - 10 pushups - 20 jumping jacks - 10 jumping squats - 20 jumping jacks - 5 squat thrusts *rinse & repeat*)
3 rounds of speed ball (2 rounds on the double ended peanut, 1 round on the normal double ended speed bag)

That burned me pretty good; but i wasn't finished yet.

Started out with cardio for about 5 min before I realized I had to take a little bio break.

Jumped back on the elliptical crosstrainer after I washed my hands and hit the "aerobic crosstrainer" (interval) setting for 30 minutes on 17 or 18; racking up a good 640 calories.

But wait! There's more...

So I did a few minutes of cool down walking.
Went through 20 minutes or so of stretching.
Ran through a form twice.
THEN I hobbled home.

Gotta love pulling out a 3 hour workout when you thought you weren't going to be able to hit the gym anyway.

diet went okay yesterday- big breakfast, sandwich for lunch, got ambushed as I got home about dinner- ended up eating some pan fried dumplings as I drank my post-workout protein shake.

Passed out once the bloat from the post-workout shake went down, at around 1 or 2 and was completely dead to the world till 10 this morning.
Glad it's hard to get fired at this job. LOL


Originally I'd planned to take Thursdays off, but I'm thinking about hitting up the gym for a kung fu workout for an hour or so.

eating some general tso's without the rice today. hey, at least I'm getting some broccolli.

[Chief Fox]

D@MN dude! You're putting in some serious gym time. NICE WORK!

[Pork Chop]

Waaaay too kind there Chief Fox, but thanx. :)

I will never be able to run what you run on a daily basis.
one thing i was good at was swimming.

If the ironman is a 5km swim; the only way I know to prepare for that is becoming comfortable with straight 1 and 2km swims.

One year I was working as a lifeguard, had been out of swimming shape for a while; but had to swim 2km per week where I was working.
This ended up being a really good thing when the semesterly 5k swim came along; coz even a out of shape, and a little sick, I finished top 5 in the 5k.

I'd swim 1k sets, planning for it taking 20 min, until you can do 2k intervals. You should try to work for 1k under 15 min and 2k under 30.
Working on long, gliding strokes will really help you keep up a good average time without tiring yourself out; like trying to make it the length of the pool in as few strokes as possible.

Hope u don't mind the input, thanks again.

[Chief Fox]

I don't mind the input at all. Thanks. Swimming is my worst event in the triathlon and by worst I mean terrible. 1k in 15 min is the short term goal for me. Right now I'm at 800 in 20min. so I've got a little ways to go. Probably another month or so and I'll see my time improving. I try to work on long gliding strokes and I always count my strokes. Most times I get 18 strokes per length (25 yrd. pool). A good count for me would be 16 or maybe even 14. I've read a bunch of article by Terry Laughlin, the Total Immersion guy and long gliding strokes is one thing that he mentions a lot.

Thanks again for the input, and keep up the good work.:)

[rubthebuddha]

happy b-day bb!

[Pork Chop]

rtb- errr tnx, but my birfday's not till June 19....

Okay so Thursday I took the day off- my throat was sore, it was my planned rest day anyway. Was gonna do some kung fu stances but the throat made me play it cautious.

Friday.

Strange day. at the gym, did my 10 min warm up then on to weights.

Started off on lat pull down, went 3 sets of 6, 85, 70, 55lb assist... at least i think, mighta been 15lb lower. Finished up with a respectable 10 second negative.
Did 3 sets of 6 squats at 205. going bootie to the floor on these. frustrating coz most of the set will be good form and then one rep i'll get all funky, for seemingly no reason (fatigue doesn't feel that serious). Taking it slow and working on it, could probably be doing 3 sets of 6 reps with over 225, but gonna play it safe.
I can press 90 pound dumbells 3 times now; so it's nice to see the improvement, the other 2 sets were 80 pounders for like 6 reps.

Then it was on to skills work out.
Set the timer to 3 min round with 30 seconds rest.
3 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow with weights
3 rounds 300lb bag w/weight vest
3 rounds various thai bags
3 rounds uppercut bag
Did some laps around the bag area doing some various drills as a sort of cool down.
ran through my form twice.

i was dead by the end of the uppercut bag; which i'd spend the last 30 seconds on throwing nonstop knees. So I ended up just heading out

Got home and drank my shake.
Felt like i had heart burn over my whole body.
Almost like my internal organs were fizucked up.
kinda scared me, hurt pretty good.
Slept from a lil after midnight till like 3 this afternoon.

Today (Saturday)

Mostly just chilled.
Headed to the gym for a skills workout.
Went back down to 2 min rounds coz I'm achin a bit, not only from yesterday, but from the whole week- achilles on my left ankle not feeling nice, tendonitis back in both knees.
Kept it simple:
laps around the gym doing various drills
3 painful rounds of jumprope
3 rounds of shadow with weights (really started feeling it in my shoulders)
3 rounds on the banana bags
3 sets of 10 reps each side for torso twists, holding a 45 pound weight.
3 sets of 10 reps of this plyometric type punching drill with the 45 pounder.
a lap back and forth across the heavybag area doing penetration stepping.
After that I was pretty much burnt. Kind of a lite day; at about an hour, but i was pretty warn out from everything else I'd done.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to philly to do some kung fu, so I guess this marks the end of my first week at the new gym.
Hit that place up 5 times this week; for between 2 and 3 hours per session until the last one. Decent start I'd say... just gotta try to make next week better.

Dietwise-
thursday leftover chinese and then a subway sandwich.

friday had a 6inch turkey sandwich for lunch and a chicken cheese steak with breaded mushrooms for dinner (yah, i know, bad).

saturday had some dim sum and sushi at this new buffet near my house (it r0x0rz). may eat a lil more before bed.

[Pork Chop]

Okay so sunday my kung fu training session fell through; so I stayed home and vegged. I think I needed it coz Saturday I felt hellaburnt.
Ate a DiGiorno sicillian pizza, a slice or two of thin crust - brick oven style, and a roast beef sandwich.... Throughout the day, not one meal.
I know I ate bad, it was kind of a cheat day... but I woke up this morning 5 freakin pounds heavier. wtf!?
I mean, I know I"m stronger, but this still stinks.
Worked out over 10 hours this past week and am actually heavier.
D@mn I hate my body.
Of course the only way i lost weight last time was to work out upwards of 3 hours a day, 6 days a week; and consume around 600 calories a day.


At least I feel pretty decent to hit it tonite.
Looking at 7 to at least 9, probably closer to 10.

Just gotta keep focusing on performance, eat for performance...
More fruit; less red meat, and (after seeing the nutritional content of the average breakfast sandwich) no more egg mcmuffins.

[Chief Fox]

Those DiGiorno pizzas are tastey but they have tons of sodium in them. So you're probably retaining some water. Do some cardio and drink a bunch of water and I bet you see your weight come down.

[Pork Chop]

Workin on it. :)
Got into a bag of apricots today.
Not necessarily as a crash diet, but just coz they taste pretty cool and change how i feel when i eat 'em.

My eating habits need a lot of work.

Finding out i'm much more comfortable not eating anything for a long time before bed- including post workout shakes; not only for putting on weight overnight, but I can't get to sleep if any food in my stomach, and when I wake up I've been feeling all yucky.

My goal is to figure out how to eat without getting any stomach aches throughout the day as well as having more energy. I am the master of indigestion. :D I don't take any heartburn meds tho and only have a vague idea what it's supposed to feel like; but seems like my stomach's always hurting unless i just don't eat.

[norther practitioner]

When i remember to bring, instead of making a sandwich for lunch, I'll snack on turkey through the day, and some wholegrain bread. Then around 3 (I usually leave work between 4 and 5:30) I'll try to have some fruit...

My diet needs to tighten up again too.. I've been a slacker.:(

[Pork Chop]

ooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

let's see.... last night:

cardio warm up- 10 min on the ellptical xtrainer

assisted pullup: 3 sets of 6 with 55lb assist; 1 negative
squat: 3 sets of 6 with 205 - pretty easy, but my upper back was a lil sore, so my form probably still needs some work
chest: 1 set of 6 with 165 barbell bench; 2 sets of 6 with 185 barbell; jumped on 90lb dumbells, got a rep out, then let it down real far on second rep and just pushed it up a lil, holding it there to make up for not going down enough on my second set at 185. Barbell is definitely a TON easier than dumbells; i could probably bench 205 barbell with a spot.

beginners boxing class was going on; so no access to round timer, or a ton of open space. Skipped to shadow with weights; which i did for at least 3 rounds of 3 minutes.

after 2nd round of shadow i was able to turn on the timer.

3 rounds of 3 min on 300lb bag, first one with weight vest.

3 more rounds of shadow, no weights.

wrists were hurting a bit so I did 2 rounds of kicking on a banana bag.
then I did a round of knees on the uppercut bag- which absolutely killed me.

then it was 3 rounds on the double ended speed bag/balls

finished with some kung fu stance work and a full lap of penetration stepping footwork (think walking bow and arrow stance, but lower).


Was pretty shot after that workout eventho on paper doesn't look that hard. The kicking took a lot out of me; the beginner's class kinda threw me off my rhythm; and I've got some leftover pain from abusing my body last week- not general soreness indicative of overtraining, but sore joints from the constant impact. Skipping jump rope mighta been a blessing in disguise.


Went home and didn't even drink postworkout shake, just a little gatorade to rehydrate and got to bed. Got to sleep quite a bit earlier than I had been so i think i"ve figured it out.


This morning I had my "postworkout shake". I'm kinda wondering if it's the flaxseed oil, or the cheapo creatine, but something in the shake's giving me the achy heartburn feeling. It's mostly gone now, but this morning it was kickin my bootie. Right now i'm a bit sore from the workout; but this morning it was bad- even kind of a tightness in the chest.

Planning on cardio and calisthenics tonite; to give myself more rest from impact training. Tendonitis in my knees is a little worse than I'd like it be- still getting back into jumping rope more than once a week.


Tenative focus schedule:
Monday - weights & skills - focus on kicking
Tuesday - cardio & calisthenics
Wednesday - weights & skills - footwork drills
Thursday - rest (or field trip)
Friday - weights & skills - focus on boxing
Saturday - cardio & skills - kicking & takedown drills
Sunday - rest (or field trip)

Field trips will either be traveling to work mostly kung fu with friends; or traveling to other gyms with a kickboing focus- sparring or some help with skills.

I'll see how that works, it may need to change: some things i'll have to do a bit of everyday, but other things need a lot more dedicated focus.
Saturday should be kind of a light day (depending on how i'm feeling); but skills oriented.

[Pork Chop]

Last night after work I was hungry, real hungry...
Knowing that I wasn't going to eat after work, I decided to head home for a quick dinner before working out.
This might've been a mistake.
Felt sluggish as HECK after getting home, and for a while after eating.
Was considering skipping the gym altogether.
Finally kicked my own bootie around 8 and was on the road a little after.
Got to the gym by 8:20, thinking I'd just do some cardio and then go home.

Busted out 30 min of cardio... first 10 min was trying to maintain a certain speed on the elliptical cross trainer.... second 10 min I did a few 1 and 2 min sprint sessions.... the third 10 min I was sprinting the last 20 seconds of any given minute....

Altogether I burned like 660 calories and my heart rate was over 180 a large portion of the time (that's gotta mean something to those guys that say the elliptical overestimates calorie expenditure).

After that I found myself interested in doing some supplementary weights for certain areas I don't spend a ton of time on- namely the shoulders and back.

Busted out with seated rows (3 sets); machine pullovers (3 sets); standing military press (3 sets); and seated shrugs (3 sets).

That work made me want to focus on other exercises that might supplement my weak areas.

So I did hip rotations holding a 45 pound weight, 3 sets of 10 each direction.

Did ab work, with the routine I got from owings mills boxing:
50 crunches, 50 left sideways crunches, 50 right sideways crunches, 50 leg lifts, 50 knees to chest kickouts

Did 10 pushups from a wrestler's bridge (with the hands).
Got into a wrestling bridge on my head & rocked back and forth 10 times to work my neck.
Flipped over and did a bridge on my forehead, holding my hands, and rocked back n forth by bending my knees 10 more times.

Busted out 10 squat thrusts just cause my love-hate relationship with that exercise has me wanting to make sure I always punish myself with them.

Finished up with 30 hindu squats- which weren't so bad on my legs, but i was just real tired by then, so doing them really wore me out.

All in all around an hour and a half... not bad considering i wasn't even gonna go.
Think I'm learning that the big challenge is in making it to the gym.

Man am I sore today.....Not enough sleep last night.
Quickly polishing off my supplements from the beginning of last summer. My empty wallet & maxed out credit cards tell me that I'll have to wait to finish all of it before I can thinka bout buying more.

[Pork Chop]

Had a meeting yesterday so had to get to work early; as a result i got to go home early.

Went to the gym right after work; still pretty sore.
10 min cardio warm up on elliptical crosstrainer.

squats: 3 sets of 6 with 205. Finding that at my "sticking point" in the squat, I lose form for a split sec, but am usually able to correct it before anything bad happens. I am not 100% sure that's ever going to go away. Think it's time to add more weight.

dumbell bench: 3 sets. 10 with 70s; 6 with 80s; 4 with 90s. I lose it with the 90s if i go down too far- tho it's not an immediate loss, it just gets stuck there; could probably find some way to push through it, but it usually happens after I'm already fatigued.

hammer strength pulldown: 3 sets. 10 with 100 on each side. 8 with 125 on each. 6 with 125 on each. machine's on like a 45 degree angle- noticed it hitting more of the whole upper back than just the lats. I think it's closer to freeweights than a pully, but I know i should be doing some form of pull/chinup instead- just wanted to kind of take it easy after a good amount of pull work on tuesday. Upper back is sore and achy today... lats cramp right away if i flex 'em. guess it was a good day.

Did my footwork drill work after that.
Then I did the beginner's boxing class for an hour: kinda easy, but i did a lot of shadow and was able to work on my footwork quite a bit.
It had a lot more ab focus than I'd been doing & a nice lil bit of plyo work with medicine ball.
Finished up with penetration stepping & some kung fu work.


Surge in the morning feels like I'm drinking rat poison.
Wonder if it's an allergy.
My chest starts cramping up sooner than half way through it.
Feel like i'm gonna ralph.

Today's rest day; but i may go in to work with the boxing coach and get him to take a serious look to see if i'm doing something wrong.

[Pork Chop]

Took Thursday off.
Ate 1 bad meal with dessert.
Couldn't sleep though- laid down before 1, didn't pass out till almost 3.
Woke up repeatedly, including a bad bloody nose bout an hour before I was to wake up.
Maybe it was my first diet pepsi in a while?
Maybe it was the history and tlc documentaries on exorcisms, satanic cults, serial killers, and ghost stories?
i dunno...
but i imagine my blood pressure's off the charts.
Someone said it might be the air- as pollution around here is terrible; gives a lot of people asthma like symptoms and chest pain.
whatever it is, it's got me spooked a lil.
back to the gym tonite.

[norther practitioner]

bad/ no sleep soxors.. have fun at the gym.. I'll be driving 4 1/2 hours to Taos..

[Pork Chop]

ok knew the no sleep was gonna come back to haunt me.
been regretting making this post since last night, but here goes.

after work i was STARVING and made the mistake of going home to pick up something to eat instead of just munching on an energy bar & heading straight to the gym.

Got home, gf was asleep, my old buddy Rob called.
Rob just finished sniper school and is going to Iraq soon (sorry if u don't want me posting your business bro, just trying to give a good description). Rob and i talked while my gf got outta bed. We're still talking when she grabs her coat and says "let's go".
I keep talking with rob til we get to this restaurant.
At the restaurant i had some pan fried dumplings & some sushi.
Afterwards I went home to rest a lil bit before going to the gym- to let my food digest.

Unfortunately I passed out for a couple hours instead of 1.
Instead of going back to the gym I called up rob just to talk with him some more. There's been a lot going on with both our families and our friends over the last year, so we had lots to talk about.

went back to bed around 2.
woke up at 12:45- too late to hit up work before the gym.
I fix myself some breakfast and while I'm figuring out why the toaster won't turn on, somehow i manage to pull a muscle in my upper back. I pulled the muscle that runs from the right shoulderblad to the spine. It hurts to sit up, it hurts to walk.
I finish my breakfast and pop some alieve.
As soon as i'm able I make my way out the door, holding back tears. hehe

I got to the gym and tried my warmup on the eliptical. I had to take it real easy and got 12 min by going very slow.
Somehow managed to break a little sweat, so i decided to do some high rep stuff to loosen up. Did sets of 20 reps on seated row with almost no weight. Survived it. Then went on to do 3 sets of 10 reps on bench with 135- wasn't used to that many reps i guess, so i got a nice little bit of a burn on the last set. Then I went to the hammer machine leg press (each leg moves independently). Again, 3 sets of 10 reps, not sure how much weight, decent burn by the end.
My back still hadn't loosened up so i called it a day.


Pathetic, I know, but i guess sometimes you gotta learn to make-do. Laying down as i write this coz it still hurts. hope it's gone by tomorrow.

[Oso]

take it easy man, if you did actually damage yourself you should let it heal.

good luck to your friend going to Iraq. I've had both of my best friends at different times of my life go over. One's back but the other is still there.

[Pork Chop]

appreciate it :)

hope yer other bud makes it back too.

the back's weird... the pain's going away sloooooowly over time.
just got back from "white noise" and as i was leaving the theater, the pain was a fraction of what it had been.

I'll try to take it easy and not push it too hard; but my tolerance for setbacks isn't too high right now. lol

[Chief Fox]

I have a heating pad. It works great on stuff like this.

[Pork Chop]

I'm terrible about being lazy on stuff like icing and heating...
As I get older, i may need to learn to change that habit...

Kung fu workout fell through again.

Monday will be the start of a new week at least. :)

[Pork Chop]

Monday was pretty awesome.
Got out the house by 6:15 and was working out by 6:30.

Normal interval training warm up on elliptical crosstrainer for 10 min.

Squats- 3 sets 5 reps 225 pounds. I can feel the difference in weight very clearly between this and 205, but still not impossible. I think I'll stay here at least the rest of the week and maybe one more week just to make sure I lock down my form best as possible.

It was getting close on 7, which is when the beginner boxing class starts; so i put the weights on hold for a bit.

Hit skills training hard....

4 - 2:30 rounds of jump rope (they were running 2 min rounds with 1 min rest, the extra 30 seconds came from cutting the rest in half)
4 - 2:30 rounds of shadow box; some with weights
3 - 2 min rounds of 300lb bag, with weight vest
3 - 2 min rounds of 300lb bag, without weight vest
3 - 2 min rounds of a smaller banana bag (still over 100lb)
3 - 2 min rounds of the uppercut bag
3 - 2 min rounds of double ended speed bag
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow

jumped back on weights

dumbell military press: 1 set of 10 with 40lbers. 2 sets of 6 with 50lbers
seated row: 1 set of 10 with 100; 1 set of 8 w/160; 1 set of 5 w/205

Then went for some cardio.
Could barely move at this point, so even doing cardio took a lot of effort.
Did 30 min of best effort; albeit somewhat slow cardio on the elliptical crosstrainer for around 550 calories. Heart rate stayed above 160 the whole time, with a lot of stretches over 170; was too tired to push it to my normal high intensity 180+ range.

Ate a bunch of chinese food over the weekend; still finishing the leftovers.

Sunday after the kung fu fell through, i spent the rest of the day chillin in bed. I really noticed my jerk neighbors downstairs and their chainsmoking. They smoke pot too sometimes. I kept getting tightness in the chest and mini asthma attacks that seemed to correspond with each time the nicotine smell started wafting up into my apartment (though not as serious as when I drink Surge). I know this sounds hypocritical coming from someone with the experiences I have with smoking - but there's a difference between a once a month/2 weeks type of habit, and putting up with the constant 2nd-hand smoke of a night and day chain smoker. Even when I do/did smoke, I go to great lengths to make sure that the smoking takes place in a deliniated area so I don't have to continually breathe it in & so all my stuff don't stink.

I have a feeling that a lot of my perceived problems with my health will improve in march when i move out of this dump.

My weight's still kinda scaring me, but I'll give this program another month or two before I reevaluate and decide whether or not to get concerned. Aside from the chest thing, which can be explained by other external factors; I feel like i'm performing well, with generally good strength, endurance, speed, and power. Performance is my priority, but i would really prefer it if my weight didn't balloon.

Tonite I'd like to work on kicks and/or takedown kinda practise.
May do some cardio as well; but it's not a huge priority after doing it yesterday.

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by BMore Banga
My weight's still kinda scaring me, but I'll give this program another month or two before I reevaluate and decide whether or not to get concerned.

Dude, you're doing a ton of work. Have you lost any weight in the past 4 weeks? Do you feel better/stronger/more energetic? Are you tired all the time?

What about your weight scares you?

[Pork Chop]

I haven't lost anything.
If anything, on a full stomach or after a sodium meal, i'm heavier.
I welcome my rest days when they come because I get pretty burnt, but I've suffered overtraining in the past and I think I've done a decent job of avoiding it.
I notice the times that i'm skirting overtraining & burnout are the times when my weight actually dips.
I don't get as sore as I used to and I feel more energetic in the gym than i did.
My lift to bodyweight ratio still isn't good yet, so i guess i got a ways to go before i'm close to what i'd consider "strong".
I think benching my bodyweight, squatting 1.5 times bodyweight, and pulling off 5 pullups would be a good start.
Maybe I just gotta pack on the muscle to get there before I can really worry about stripping the bodyfat.

That new government guideline for 90 min workout a day for weight loss is pretty motivational. Going to ride off of some of that.

[Chief Fox]

Last summer I dropped about 10 lbs of body fat. I did it by running a lot, lifting, and going to kung fu. But the most important factor was my diet. I recorded everything I ate. I planned a whole weeks worth of meals in advance. I used http://www.fitday.com to keep track of my protein, carbs and fat intake. I ate small meals all day long and the weight melted away.

A typical day was like this.
-protein shake with water
-bowl of raisin bran with 1% milk.
-1/2 a peanut butter sandwich or protein bar.
-2 servings of cottage cheese
-a salad or a 6 inch turkey sub a subway.
-some baby carrots a banana or an apple.
-some whole wheat saltines
-grilled chicken with rice and veggies.
-maybe a shake at night.
-about a gallon of water.

I'm certainly not an expert in this area. This is just what worked for me. But if you put a little more time into planning your diet, you'd probably see better results. I know you didn't ask for input like this so I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds. :)

[Pork Chop]

My biggest problem with my diet is that it's either famine or flood.

If I restrict what I eat, i usually feel like crud, have no energy, and have a hard time stayin on it: too many memories of the great famine of 2003; I also tend to get bored of food when I know I'm supposed to eat it.

If I don't restrict what I eat, I end up eating too much or eating bad stuff. Especially with how much my gf likes to eat out.

What I've been trying to do is eat normally but make a daily effort to clean it up- eat a little bit better and a little bit less.

I'll give that menu a shot. I have a real hard time planning what I'm going to eat; esecially when it makes me overly hungry.

No worries on overstepping. :) I appreciate the input.

[Pork Chop]

Had a craaaaappy day at work yesterday.
Thought about going home for a second, coz it was so darn cold out; and then the question of "well what would I do if i went home?" came up and I realized that the best way to stay in the habit of going to the gym is to actually enjoy being there. Instead of thinking about all the stuff I would have to suffer through if i went there, I started thinkig about all the training that I'd enjoy. Next thing I know I'm in the gym and warming up.

A bunch of laps around the training area doing warmup and footwork drills.
3 - 2 min rounds of jump rope
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow boxing
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on the banana bag
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on the 300lb bag
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on one of the softer banana bags, with the last 30 seconds of each round throwing continuous knees on the uppercut bag.
3 - 2 min rounds of some more shadow
A ton (around 20) of laps around the gym doing kicking drills (took at least 15 min).
a lap around the gym doing penetration stepping.

at that point the UMBC ice hockey team came in to do their training.

I grabbed a mat and decided to do calisthenics in a small corner:
20 pushups
20 jumping squats
10 squat thrusts
Then ab death: 50 crunches, 50 left crunches, 50 right crunches, 50 leg lifts, 50 knees to chest, 50 bicycles
10 iron bridge pushups
10 iron bridge neck pushups: rocking weight back and forth onto back of head
Farmer Burns neck drills: knees & forehead on ground, circle forward 10 times to each side.
10 forehead pushups: from farmer burns position, transfer weight from knees to toes, while straightening legs


Finished out at about an hour and a half to make my gov't mandated 90 min. Probably should've done some static stretching, but the UMBC guys were starting to spread out- sucking up my workout space.

[Pork Chop]

just dropping a quick note.
had to pick up my glasses today at the optometrist.
decided to go out to eat during the pickup and ate a lunch consisting mostly of yakitori sticks.
More importantly, i realized it's snowing real bad.
Almost had a few accidents just driving to the optometrist - which is close.
May skip the gym tonite, the last thing i need is a friggin accident.

[Pork Chop]

Played it safe yesterday after almost crashing a couple times on my 8 minute drive home. Let's hope drivig conditions are a little better today.

[Pork Chop]

Shoulda blogged last night when I got on after my workout.
My workout was ummmm "woah".

10 min elliptical interval warmup

3 sets of 6 assisted pull/chinups: 55lb assist, 40lb assist, 25lb assist
1 10 second negative (think I mighta done 10 on the first set)

3 sets of 6 dumbell bench: 80lbers, 2 sets with 85lbers (think I mighta done 10 on the first set)

3 sets of 6 squat: 225. they moved the squat rack in front of the window so i finally got to see my craaapppy form. 225's light enough that I can do crappy form and still reliably finish the rep. I'm really working on improving it- but my structural problems with my feet really affect my balance. Having the problem of doing a good morning on the way back up- i'll catch it pretty quick and readjust before I go up, but that sticking point hits almost every rep.

My skills workout was kind of a blur (this is kinda best guess).
Lots of laps around the gym for warmup and footwork drills.
3 - 2 min rounds of jump rope
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow w/weights
9 - 2 min rounds of 300lb heavybag; was doing reps of particular techniques, might've been as many as 12 rounds, not sure; but it really killed me.
3 - 2 min rounds of one of the smaller banana bags.
3 - 2 min rounds of uppers, hooks, and knees on the uppercut bag (30 seconds of knees at the end of each round - ouch)
3 - 2 min rounds of straight footwork (shadow boxing w/just footwork)
3 - 2 min rounds of more shadow boxing

Stuck around for another hour or 2 to watch the UMBC hockey team spar 1 min rounds with 1 min rest; while I drank a protein shake; and prayed for the pain to go away.

Woke up this morning with a headache. Had a little trouble getting to sleep last night. Overslept.

My supplements are all but gone.
On my last jug of Grow!
Bout to take my last CLA pill; and all that's left is chromium pic. and my jumbo bottle of multivitamins.
Need to knock over a liquor store to buy supplements....

[Pork Chop]

Friday I had a nice light day. I was sore as heck and got out of work late, so I was just happy I got to the gym.
Did 30 min of jogging (gotta get in my yearly quota of this gawdawful exercise) and 6 or 7 rounds, 3 min each, of shadowboxing.

Saturday I got snowed in.

Woke up too late today (sunday) to do too much. Might hit the gym around 7 or 8 for a lil bit.

[Pork Chop]

Didn't get back from the grocery store till 8:30 last night, so i didn't make it to the gym.

Haven't trained kung fu with the guy I been training with since before Christmas. I'm starting to think maybe the whole idea wasn't very sound- more because of my commitment than anything else.

[Pork Chop]

Forgot to mention that I didn't get to bed Sunday night till almost 4 and was workin on around 4 hours of sleep.

Still managed to hit the gym though.

10 min elliptical cross trainer warm up

squat - 3 sets; 10, 8, 6 with 135, 185, and 225; focused on my form. Form wasn't SO bad yesterday, even on the 225 set. I'm trying to follow the t-mag squat tips. "Chest out" actually seemed to help. I'm pretty sure my hips are shooting out at the bottom of the movement when I start pushing up.

dumbell bench - 4 sets: 2 with 90s, 4 with 90s, 8 with 85s, 4 with 85s. Failed right off the bat on the second rep with the 90s. Dunno if I let the dumbells fall too low or what. I was choking on something starting on my squats- think I accidentally inhaled a little chunk of towel- and it really affected me on the first set. Set it back up, took a few deep breaths and gave it another shot; went up easy this time- go figure.

assisted pull/chin up - 6 with 55lb assist, 6 with 40lb assist (failed on last one), 5 with 25lb assist (failed on last one), 10 second negative with no assist. I think I'm on the verge of actually being able to do a pull/chin up.

Skiowz....
3 rounds, 3 min jump rope
3 rounds, 3 min shadow with weights and vest
3 rounds, 3 min 300lb heavybag with vest
3 rounds, 3 min banana bag no vest
3 rounds, 3 min double ended speed bags (2 on the peanut, 1 on "regular" - the peanut's a little easier, but feels more realistic)
Finished with a set of 24 step taichi. Wow what a difference. Didn't slouch on the form (though I'm far from where I used to be on it); but afterwards I felt better than I did when finishing up with the southern stuff.

Solid day, not a great day; but on 4 hours sleep i was thinking about not showing up at all. The weight vest stuff took a lot outta me. The workout was hard, but I also figure going 80 or 90% means I'll have more left later in the week.

Diet yesterday was decent. Been drinking a bit of Arizona tea; but didn't even finish my lunch.
Cracked open my last bucket of Grow! protein; it's vanilla yuck, what was I thinking? Actually had a shake with some creatine and flax seed oil after the workout. Spiked it with a bit of holiday spice pepsi (i know, i know, but i love the stuff and i needed some post workout carbs).
Went to bed hungry, woke up hungry, but i'm doin alright today. Only got 6 hours of sleep though. Gonna end up crashing on thursday.

Tonight's agenda is cardio at the gym and skillz at diane's.

[Pork Chop]

I was still kinda hurtin tuesday from bad sleep.

Stopped by bxf first for 30 min of HIIT cardio on the elliptical crosstrainer.

Then I jumped in the car, raced home, switched out my sweaty shirt for a clean one, and then raced up to the kung fu school.

By the time i got to the kung fu school, it was almost an hour later.
Soreness was starting to set in, everything below the knees was beginning to ache.

At the kung fu school I had a hard time getting into my rhythm; dunno if it was from the earlier cardio, or from the sudden absence of a ring timer.
Even still, I did manage to get in some work over like a 2-hour period:

Jumped rope for about a round's worth.
Shadow boxed for like a round.
Did laps around the mat area doing various drills (some warm up, some punching, some footwork, some wrestling).
Jumped on the bag for like a round or 2.
Ran through a couple forms.
Learned 2 cool throws that combine for a nice combo (thanks Suntzu!)
Worked on a breakfall a good 10 times.
did a little stretching.

Eventhough it wasn't the most efficient workout, it was fun, and I picked up some valuable info.

Think I'll make tuesday (and possibly thursday) nights at the kung fu school a habit till someone tells me to stop comin. lol

Last night I was in bed by 11; but it didn't feel like I slept the whole night. I was SUPER SORE by the time I crashed. This morning, eventhough I didn't care what time I went into work, i couldn't sleep anymore by 8. I'm still a bit sore today, and a little run down overall; but I don't feel quite as zonked and sleep deprived(at least for now).

Plannin on hitting the weights tonite. The weigh-ins for Ballroom Boxing (at Michael's of Glen Burnie) are at my gym tonite so I'm just hoping I can still work out. At least I get free ticket to the event on Thursday, so I'm happy bout that.

[Suntzu]

be sure to sit in the back where the ring girls come out on their way to the ring..... :D

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday; by the end of work I was dog tired again- totally ready to pass out by the time I went to the gym.

Wednesday night the Ballroom boxing fighters were at my gym for the weigh ins. Didn't think I was gonna be able to do any skills training; so i made a deal with myself to at least do my warm up and weights.

10 min on the elliptical went nice, think i broke a personal best as far as distance and calories and such. These new machines go up to level 25, the old ones went to 20. Strange thing is 17 and 18 feel pretty consistant on both machines. Today's 10 min was on 19. It'll be awesome when I can go 10 min at 23.

Because I was so tired I didn't want to spend too much time with free weights; because I felt like i was in ripe conditions for screwing up my form and getting injured. I went ahead and did machines instead.

Seated row: 3 sets of 6 with 160, 190, 220
Seated military press: 3 sets of 6 with 90, 110 and 130. Not 100% sure on these weights; but this exercise sure does feel nicer on the machine vs dumbells- more stable.

Seated Leg press: 3 sets of 6 with 360, 450, and 540. This was on the hammerstrength machine- which is kinda like your normal leg press sled, but each leg moves independently. The range of motion seems a little shorter than with the sled too. Pretty sure I could've handled 720 on this thing too. Squats are definitely a better exercise, but I was feeling so burnt I didn't wanna risk it.

At this point I thought i was gonna go home but the proz cleared the cameras out of the training area and stayed back in the aerobics room; so I got my bag and started to work out. It's kinda amazing how much having some proz and pro trainers (not to mention a ring girl or 2) watching you can change your workout. Ended up going a lot harder than I thought I would at that state of exhaustion.

3 rounds 2 min of jump rope.
3 rounds 2 min of shadow (2 of the rounds with weights)
3 rounds 2 min on 300lb bag
3 rounds 2 min on uppercut bag (last 30 seconds knees)
3 rounds 2 min on regular banana bag
3 rounds 2 min on double ended peanut bag
3 rounds 2 min of shadow

By this time i was truly burnt.
I've been having aches and pains for a few weeks now.
My achilles on my left feels shot.
I've also come home pretty sore many a night.
But I kinda felt like I was going to die after that.
Doesn't look like much in retrospect, but it was a decent length workout at a higher intensity than I thought I was gonna go.
Tried to hit the hay by 930 after that workout to catch up on my sleep.
After trying to sleep unsuccessfully for an hour, around 10:45 I cheesed out and got some help.
Had a nice little ****tail of 1200mcg of Melatonin and a dose of NyQuil. Knocked me out quite nicely.
Actually woke up early for work too; but anytime there was a lull in the action, i was out without warning- but it was odd coz i didn't feel that tired.

Came home early from work (coz i was in a meeting all day) and took a nice 2~2.5 hour nap.

Went to the kung fu school to work out today too; almost like active rest. We worked on a lot of stuff: kick catches, boxing, a good amount of wrestling & takedown practise, some bag work, and put in some good work on breakfalls. Very productive day without killin myself (thanx again guys).


Friday's another tough day at bxf: warmup, weights, skillz.
Saturday's cardio.
Want to work on calisthenics & bridging one of those 2 days (was planning friday, but saturday's looking quite attractive).

PS- Finally got another job. I lucked out. Staying in the area; which is a mixed blessing; but I think I'm really gonna enjoy doing the new position.

[Pork Chop]

Friday.
Totally hurting day... shin splints, pulled hammy, pulled achilles, tendonitis in the knees.... and that's just my lower body...

Did my 10 min warm up...

Squats: 225 x 6; 275 x 3; 225 x 6 - the 275 set wasn't all that heavy, I just didn't like my form so much; 2 of the reps were okay, the 3rd was atrocious. Could probably put up over 315 and go all the way down; but on the way back up, there'd be a section that looked like a good morning- so i'm just playin it safe and makin sure my form takes the precedence.

Incline bench: 10 x 135; 6 x 185; 8 x 155. I didn't like the way the 185 felt, mighta done less than 6, can't remember. Found myself fudging on the descent coz i was getting that fear that i couldn't get it back up; though at the top it didn't feel super heavy. Weird day, guess I was just that burnt.

Assisted Pull/Chin up: 6 x 40lb assist, 6 x 25lb assist, 5 x 25lb assist, decent negative at the end.

Shin splints & knee tendonitis were killin me by skills time.
Stayed away from jump rope.
Just did an hour of laps around the training area; a lot of skills drills and threw hundreds of kicks.
Took the last 5~10 min to shadowbox in the ring.


Saturday I took the day off; figured I'd be working out sunday, so no need to shoot for 7 days straight.

Saturday night there was some bs at the boxing matches. Brooklyn Park Boxing is a very dirty dirty organization for promoting & competing.

Also on saturday night, I suffered the mental/emotional trauma of having to watch old Peruvian men dance to disco songs until the wee hours of the morning.....d@mn you Julioooooooooo!!!!! :eek:

Sunday I got snowed in; so no trip to Virginia. :(
One positive thing is that the rest really felt nice and my aches and pains are largely reduced, if not gone altogether.

Tonite I gotta drop off some stuff for Julio so I probably won't make it to the gym until late.

[Akhilleus]

Incline bench: 10 x 135; 6 x 185; 8 x 155. I didn't like the way the 185 felt, mighta done less than 6, can't remember.

Way to go E...I wish I could do 185 once...keep up the good work...

[Pork Chop]

appreciate it :)

forgot to mention 2 things....
first is that i found out a very dangerous thing yesterday:
Cluck U chicken delivers to my house..... :eek:

second is that I'm thinking of adding sumo style deads to my routine...

[Akhilleus]

Sounds good...the sumos I mean...I never really ate cluck u even though that's all anybody else at my college was eating...I'm thinking of adding in flat bench presses...

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by BMore Banga
Friday.
Totally hurting day... shin splints, pulled hammy, pulled achilles, tendonitis in the knees.... and that's just my lower body...


D@MN! What the hell did you do?

[Pork Chop]

That's actually just the sum-total of the little injuries and strains i pick up throughout a week of training; magnified by fatigue...

Like if i practise duck walks or screw up my form on squats and/or penetration stepping (walking the bow and arrow stance in a wrestling shot type manner); then my knees start achin.

The achilles (and shin splints) i think i picked up jumping rope; coz it sure does flare up when i'm jumpin.

Pulled my right hamstring throwing a left head kick. Rocked back too far on my supporting leg or something, made my hip feel tight and sore, while giving the hammy on my support leg a definite pulled feeling.

These type of aches usually get magnified if i jog. Jumping rope isn't as bad, but it definitely don't help. My right foot was club when I was born, so it's more a structural thing than anything else. I've gotten used to operating on a certain amount of that pain regularly; but the more tired i get, the more the aches scream.

[Chief Fox]

We are cut from the same cloth man. One of the reasons I do so many different things is to give my aches and pains a day or two to heal while I'm doing something else.

[Pork Chop]

Tanks :)


Monday had to do somethin for Julio, didn't make it back in time to go workout.

Monday nite old friend called while I was getting ready for bed; he was having problems, so 2 hours later I finally got off the phone. Didn't sleep till almost 2, took Tuesday off from work.

Tuesday:

Went to BXF first. wasn't sure how much to do, because I was planning on meeting everyone at the kung fu school later for what was going to be a hard workout.

Did 10 min warmup

Squats: 225 x 3; 135 x 20; 275 x 3 (not all the way down), 275 x 3 box. My hips were being difficult on the 225. Tried stretching out and my hammy started buggin me again. the 20 rep set was kinda easy- could probly do it with 185. the 2 sets with 275 were kinda rapid fire; didn't drop down as far as I could on the first one (reluctant to consider it), used a small stool for the second set. Days like this make me feel like all the work on fixing my form isn't doing much.... frustrating.

Sumo style deadlifts: 225 x 10; 315 x 5; 315 x 5. Tried to max at 405 twice, but it wasn't coming. At long last deadlifts make their way back to my routine. Sumos are the best I'm gonna do until I get a diamond bar: not doing stiff legged ones anymore. Kinda hoping it makes squats easier.

Assisted pull/chin ups: 40lb assist x 6; 25 x 6; 25 x 6; 10 count negative. This is getting easier and easier. I may be able to do a pullup (or multiple pullups) soon.

Dumbell bench: 8 x 80lbers; 4 x 90; 4 x 90. Not much of a burn, could probably handle another set or more reps or somethin.

Kinda bs'd for a bit; had some time left before I was to go to the kung fu school. Didn't feel like doing cardio. Drank a shake and bs'd with the guys that work at the gym.

Drove 30~45 min to kung fu school. Bad traffic. Glad I took the opportunity to cool down a bit before jumping in the car, cuz I usually get real stiff and cramped if i drive a lot right after a hard workout.

At the kung fu school, I got to working out by 7:15. It was just me at first; Jon was working with another guy, and other people hadn't shown up yet.

Started with laps around the mat, doing warmups & footwork drills. Achilles was still feeling a little inflammed/strained so i tried to work around how it felt best I could.

Did 4, 2 min rounds of shadow with vest.
7, 2 min rounds of heavybag
5, 2 min rounds of pad work. Julio was ignorin the round timer, so some of the rounds were upwards of 3 min & 10 seconds rest.
4, 2 min rounds of alternating shadow and pad work (2 rounds each).

Finished up with some neck work out of the bridge.
Cut some of the reps in half and while I have a sore neck, it's not the same level of whiplash; and i think that's good.

Started working out at 4; finished up after 9.

Bought some epsom salt last night.
Got to bed a little late, but somehow woke up real early.
Felt pretty good.
Felt even better after an epsom salt bath.

[Pork Chop]

Hate not getting enough sleep.
I wake up alright for work, but by the time work's done, I feel like i got hit by a truck.
Such was the case yesterday (wednesday).

I usually don't blog this, but about everyday I walk almost a mile to get to my car from work- overflow parking lot's real far away from the building; wearing real heavy shoes and carrying a heavy bag.
Felt like I got hit by the shuttle bus that usually takes workers up to the parking lot... wanted to give up less than a quarter of the way, but i didn't.

I got to the gym, feeling similarly drained. The plan was cardio and skillz.

Picked my cardio poison:
jogging on the treadmill
I've always been a terrible jogger. The exercise is my most hated.
Jogged for about 25 min (including warmup & cooldown), for a little over 2 miles.
O man do I hate jogging.
Was cramping up the whole time.
Hate to keep whining about my poor feet, but when you're flat footed and club footed (corrected), running's absolute murder.


Then it was time for SKIOWZ

Left the round timer on 3 min rounds, 1 min rest.
3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow box (2 with weights, dropped 'em to get loose)
4 rounds of 300lb bag
4 rounds of regular banana bag (last 30 seconds knees)
4 rounds of double ended peanut bag
4 rounds of shadow in the ring

Then I hobbled home.
Almost 3 hours of working out; not bad.

Tonite I get out of work at 5:30; probably can't get to the local gym till 6; need to lift & warm up for almost an hour; but i need to be at the kung fu school by 7, and it takes 30~45 min through traffic to get to the gym anyway. Not sure what to do. May disappear from work early LOL.

[Pork Chop]

Got outta work late so got to the gym late; so I was kinda in a rush.
Was hurting, but took the initiative with a couple cups of green tea a few hours before work was over to give me enough of a caffeine rush to carry me through late day doldrums.

Did my 10 min warm up on the elliptical crosstrainer.

Jumped on the overhead squats...
10 reps with just the bar - nice, i can go all the way down with good form and it's a little difficult
8 reps with 65 - I can work with this. getting a little difficult on the shoulders on the ascent: if I lose form the weight'll lean forward ever so slightly and burn my shoulders pulling it back.
4 reps with 95 - starting to get dang heavy
6 reps with 95 - the better my form, the more i can do. Shoulders are the limiting factor.
5 reps with 95 - i'm enjoying this
4 reps with 95 - i'm hurting

Jumped in my car and drove to the kung fu school.

It was snowing so the drive took longer than normal and I was real late.

Warmed up a little with laps.
Did a bit of shadowboxing.
did a round of clinch work with suntzu (short round)
Worked the bag for a good 4 rounds.
Sparred for 2 and a half rounds. To paraphrase: Suntzu lights up a guy who's got 100 pounds on him till the big guy bows out.

Turned/sprained my big toe at the end of the first round.
Was doing okay with it until the 3rd round: suntzu closed distance, I covered and went for a kick catch, after it failed, i went for a shot, forgetting that my bad leg was the one i was driving off of. Ended up stretching the big toe on the shot and it got worse when suntzu sprawled; I was like "ow", so he thought it'd be a good idea if i called it a day. I probably should've just kept my mouth shut. I'm just sick of injuries. I'm deciding I'm not going to let this one slow me down.

As if to reinforce my decision to keep on keepin on; I got home and....
TADAAAAA
MY KETTLEBELLS ARE HERE!!!

I can hardly move the 2 pooder and the 1 pooder is more difficult than I thought it'd be. kettlebell swings make my toe (which is almost 50% larger than normal) throb like nobody's business, but fuggit, it's fun. :D

Overslept this morning; which is kind of a good thing, coz except for my toe (and an achey shoulder from the overheads) i feel pretty d@mn good. Hitting up the gym tonite; though probly won't make it there till almost 7, bringin the 1 pood kettlebell.

Tonite I'm going to gauge what I can do with the kettlebell.
I may also mix in front squats with the rest of my weight routine.
Footwork and some kicking may be out the window for a day or 2.
Hoping sometime over the next week or so I'll be able to come up with a reliable routine for all my favorite exercises:

Overhead or Front Squats
Sumo Deadlift
Dumbell Bench (supplemented w/inclines & military press)
Assisted chin/pullups (supplemented w/seated rows)
Kettlebell work (thinking 1 armed versions of snatch, clean & press, and sidepress)

Dietwise, yesterday wasn't the greatest. In general though I don't think I've been doing so bad. I think I may finally really stress it in March~April when I re-evaluate where I'm at.

[Suntzu]

i have the KB video if you want to take another look at it........ and you didn't mention the throw you got on me........ awesome.... wish someone would have taken a picture or got video of it..... it was like wore work with know wires :D

[Pork Chop]

Definitely wanna check out dat video!

Thanks for the compliment.
Your leg kicks from the outside and head movement on the inside were ridiculous; a lot better than I remember- tho it's been a while.

[Pork Chop]

cr@p...
stuck at work and may not be able to get in much of a workout before closing.

we'll see what happens, but I don't know if i'll be outta here in under an hour.

thinking about just going and playing with one of my kettlebells in the parking lot... better than nothing.

[Pork Chop]

Okay i was all set to skip tonite, BUT I DIDN'T!
W00T!
Jacked to the gills on caffiene; plus I didn't quite burn myself the night before.
I almost prefer not completely killin myself; coz then I have more energy the next day.

Anyway, enough gloatin, onto my gimp workout.

Yah, my toe's still messed up; so i busted out my kettlebell and played for an hour.

1 pooder
20 swings with the left
20 swings with the right
10 presses with the left
10 presses with the right
40 swings with both arms
20 clean and presses with both arms
20 behind the head extensions with both arms
10 curls with the left
10 curls with the right

Finished up with 3 sets of 30 pushups.

Totalled a lil less than an hour.
It actually felt a little light; but i was breathin hard at certain points.
I'll see how sore I am tomorrow.
May play with the 2 pooder; do some pull ups, and do some deadlifts tomorrow.
Might even bust out some front squats.

Otherwise, with the toe, I'm kinda limited.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday I didn't feel too sore, but I didn't have a ton of energy either.
Just chilled saturday.

Sunday I woke up early and went to go train with the cool folks of Herndon, VA.

I'm still sporting a gimp toe and really have to adjust to compensate for essentially being one legged.
Learned a LOT down there; eventho I had to go like 50%.
Picked up a mighty nice combo.
Worked on my shielding a lot; with 14 ounce gloves, with a couple new guys. This ended up being really good for me- a huge difference in the amount of force you take when you're hiding behind 20 ouncers vs 14z; let alone the immediate difference in coverage area.
I'm committed to working on my neck muscles after feeling that force; I just wish the exercises didn't keep giving me whiplash.
Played around with the 2 pood kettlebell.
I can swing it 2 handed about 5 times; 2 handed clean and punch (upward at 45 degree angle) about 5 times.
I can swing it and clean&press it with my right arm; but I might not be able to do it with my left till my foot heals.
Hard to do heavy swings when you're worried about your base.

Somehow this weekend I dropped 5 pounds.
Don't ask me how or why.
If anything I dropped down the intensity of my workouts since thursday; I haven't been eating all that much better, heck I kinda wonder if i haven't even gotten enough protein.
O well, best not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Hoping to host everyone tonite at BXF, gotta ask around to see if everyone's still gonna make it. Sick of bein injured.

[Pork Chop]

Coach stood me up yesterday; think it may be the last time.
For around a year I've been looking into other training options; some as supplemental, others as possible fulltime replacement.
Tueday of last week was one of only like 2 times I've worked out with him in the past 3 months.
Think it may be time to move on.
Tried working with a buddy- doing my sanshou thing and trying to integrate it with his traditional approach, but it just really wasn't a good fit for me, and I had a hard time commiting.
May even change sports; but not planning on losing touch with the friends I've made in BSS.


Still manage to salvage a little bit of a workout yesterday.
I stuck mostly to machines- so I could take pressure off my foot, and take it a little easier on some joints that have been giving me problems.

10 minutes kinda easy on the elliptical crosstrainer

Seated chest press: 10 x 130; 10 x 160; 4 x 190, 4 x 190. The 190s were hard, but i guess they'd be considered a new pr; once I got 'em up they were easier tho.

Assisted pull/chin up: 6 x 40lb assist; 5 x 25lb assist, 5x25lb assist; 4 single attempts with no assist; a spent (and probably 2 fast) 10 second negative.

Leg extension (the one where you toekick forward): I ended up doing a ton of sets of 10 because it was so easy. Did like a set of 6 with the entire stack. I guess you could say this was a pr...

lying ham-glute curl (padded bar rests under your knees while you lay on yer back): set of 4 with 180; set of 10 with 135lbs; set of 10 with 135; set of 6 with 180.

held pads for this guy from Mi-Ki-Do who works out at the gym

shadowboxed for a good 10~15 min straight.

Shoulder's hurting, neck's hurting, toe's hurting; apparently i gained weight back (didn't eat much yesterday *shrug*). Toe's getting a little better at least.

[Pork Chop]

Just realized that I forgot to add all the ab work and bridge pushups I did yesterday... the routine was pretty consistant with the ab routine i posted earlier.... didn't do any of the neck stuff tho coz it's still buggin me...

Tonite was kettlebells kettlebells kettlebells....
Did tons of different lefts for over 2 hours...
Listing it all would be near impossible...
the real killer was 3 sets of 10, 2-handed swings with the 2-pooder

Also did 15 min of shadow, 15 min of bag work

Toe's slowly healing; but if i catch it wrong omygod.....ouch....

Waited too long to eat after class... couldn't help myself....
Cluck U chicken is a dangerous, dangerous place...
Ate like 10 chicken strips (no salad dressing).

[Pork Chop]

Today is my 1 week anniversary of ruining my toe... o how i love you my swollen, black and blue, pain bringer....not...

Last night was weights

couldn't warm up on the elliptical - my foot started cramping up real bad coz i've been putting pressure on it at an odd angle.

ended up walking 5 minutes best as i could on the treadmill instead.

then on to weights

overhead squats: 10 reps with the bar (45 lb); 8 reps w/10 pounds on each side (65lb). Failed on last rep of second set, shoulders were burnt, been doing a lot of shoulder work lately with the kettlebells and all. Switched to front squats.

front squats: 3 sets of 10 with 25 on each side (95 lb).

back squats: 2 sets of 10 with 45 on each side (135).

Tried to do sumo style deads but my foot started cramping up again as I was setting up.

dumbell press: 3 sets of 6 with 80 pounders.

assisted pull/chin: found out that I've been adding a half plate on everything (doesn't LOOK like a half plate, so i never noticed it).
3 x 40lb assist; 3 x 47(?)lb assist; 6 x 32(?)lb assist; 6 x 32(?)lb assist.
one really nice 10 second negative, really felt more in control than i have in a while.

Kicked the bag a few times with my good leg, weakly... almost like throwing a kicking version of an "arm punch" i wasn't able to get much behind it.

Kettlebells at the kung fu school tonite- probly hi rep stuff so i can actually sweat and breathe hard; while taking it a little easier on my shoulders.

[Pork Chop]

tried to help out the class last night.
walked around thai padding anybody that needed it.
i think maybe my thai pad skill has gone downhill, or maybe i was just unprepared for some of these guys to just spazz.
clocked myself a bunch of times, one time in the jaw put me in "someone needs to get hurt" mode.
they need some serious work.
not much motivation to work with these guys other than padding them; if i'm going to be putting myself at risk of being hurt by these spazzes, i'd at least like to be able to defend myself. think it'd be too hard to teach someone respect and control just standing there, letting them tee off on you, without firing something back.

toe feels almost 60%
it's made a lot of improvement
still trying ot take it easy so i don't reinjure it right away
don't know that i could actually push off of it for something like jump rope though.

did 2 sets of 40 (pretty close to max) 2 handed kettlebell swings with my 1 pooder. kinda killed me i was real tired (doing a lot of reaction drills with the thai pads will make you sweaty and tired).
did a little shadow too.

[Pork Chop]

Didn't work out on friday, had stuff to do.
Wrestling got cancelled this morning.
Bout to hit the gym here in a bit.
Throat's a little sore, so i've been tempted to take the day off, but i just got my new gloves and wanna play.
Probably should've gone to Virginia today to train if i wasn't gonna wrestle.

Tomorrow is double duty... virginia for some muay thai, then off to dc for 4 hours of lion dancing.

[Pork Chop]

just got home and want to jot this down before i forget.

went to the gym and was feeling pretty good.
jumped on the elliptical crosstrainer to see if my toe was going to allow me to do it, to my surprise I was actually able to crank out a good 10 minute interval session around my normal level.

Chatted with the guys that work at the gym while my heart rate came down. They gave me a hand held BF%age measuring device: 26.4 or something. Guess I'm obiece, o well at least it's better than the BF%age reader I got at home- but the BMI reading looked similar to the %ages I get at home. Guess I'm still a lardazz. Told 'em I hope my bodyfat protects my brain and keeps me from gettin KOed; then it was on to weights.

I love front squats.
I use a cradle grip, using my gym towel to reduce the bruising in the crooks of my arms.
I did:
95 x 10 reps
115 x 10 reps
135 x 8 reps
185 x 6 reps
225 x 2 reps failed on the second. I wanna say it was fatigue more than anything else. I think i'll be able to front squat my normal backsquat weight for workout weight in another week or two- after that, sky's the limit.

Next was on to sumo style deadlifts.
These suuuuck in shorts; my knees got a lil banged up.
225 x 6 reps
225 x 6 reps
315 x 4 reps
315 x 1 rep
315 x 1 rep stiff legged style; yes, my straight leg deadlifts are still better than my sumo, ugh.
315 x 1 rep (back to sumo).
My grip kept giving out; i think because as it banged my shins and knees it put extra stress on my grip. gotta figure out how to bring it up without smackin into stuff.

Next was bench.
90lb dumbells x 6 reps - holy crud, this used to be my 1rm
90lbers x 5 reps
90lbers x 5 reps (think I mighta failed at the bottom of the last one)
Sweet geebus, if I can do this with 90s, I might be ready to try 95s or 100s. I'm shooting for 110s or 120s; hoping I can hit that in the next year.

Last was assisted pull/chinup.
6 reps wide grip pullup with 25lb assist + 3lb half plate + 6lb half plate (these machines have funky half plates, one big one small, I'm assuming they total less than the total of 1 normal plate).
6 reps medium grip neutral with 25lb assist + 3lb half plate
6 reps closer grip chinup with 25lb assist.
1 nicely controlled 10-1-thousand negative with wide pullup grip

At this point I ran to my car to play with my new gloves.
I basically did between 5 and 10 minute rounds on a bunch of different bags; for a total of 30 minutes.
hit the 300lber, the soft banana bag, the hard banana bags, the lighter boxing bags, and the uppercut bag.

I really love the new gloves, they're a little hard, but definitely softer than the bag version of the same Ultimate Classic glove.
Sparrin with 'em's gonna be a trip.

Bout to go to Jillian's tonite (think Dave & Busters but less expensive and not as nice) for my gf's work party.

Tomorrow's gonna be a wicked day.

[Akhilleus]

Wow E...good lifts on the dumbell bench...Rick was giving me some advice the other day...so if you need any tips he's more than happy to help...

[Pork Chop]

left the house at 8am
got home at 9pm
in between i did 2 hours of some wicked sweet MT with the cool people of Herndon Virginia.
I also did about 4 or 5 hours of lion dance.
yah the body is hurtin.
sore throat still here


'k so sat and sun will be herndon time
wed will be dc time

not really ready to give up either half of the equation.
guess that means i'm going back to the balancing act, but i intend on using a lot more tact this time around.

[Pork Chop]

PS- thanx jon :)

[Pork Chop]

Got sick over the weekend so i been bedridden all day...
Think i'll be alright tomorra

[Pork Chop]

still sick, another day down... hoping for tomorrow...

[Pork Chop]

cold's still kickin my bootie... missed work today (wed)...
doubt I'll be feeling much better at 5...

[Pork Chop]

Nope didn't feel much better.

From the blog you can tell it was gettin serious by Sunday- I was asleep by 11 that night after being out and working out for 13 hours.

On monday the plan was originally to take the day off and spend the time with the gf for valentine's day. Well I kinda did that. Driving back after getting her a new passport in DC, I ran a redlight; but didn't even reaize i did it until my gf stopped screaming long enough to explain what happened.

That was a definite sign to get some rest.

Tuesday I had to give a presentation, so I woke up early and made the long trek to the meeting. I was passing out the entire time I was at the meeting, waiting to give my presentation. As soon as I gave it, I took off to get some food. Went home after that and almost passed out on the way. Was out like a light as soon as I hit the bed. Woke up for a few hours to eat and then it was back to bed.

Monday the cold was mostly in my throat, with some achiness and fuzzy-headedness. Tuesday the cold had gone to my lunks, still achy and fuzzy. Today the cold was in my head (killed a box of tissues already), still achy, still fuzzy headed, lil bit of a headache.

After monday i decided not to work out till i was feeling better.
I also figure with this much time off i should be amped to hit the gym again; so if the idea of working out isn't appealing, it's probably not time yet.

I keep hoping for "tomorrow"; but again, we'll have to see.

It's sad when the week's a total wash, but sometimes you have to listen to what your body tells you.

I've totalled it up, since sunday i've hit 1.5 gallons of Orange Juice, and 1 gallon of ruby red grapefruit juice. I also drank half a gallon of pomegranite juice. Taking a multivitamin, a separate 1000mg Vitamin C pill, and a 50mg Zinc pill every morning.

Let's see what thursday brings.

[Akhilleus]

Get well soon buddy...rest up...are you coming to Sun Tzu's? fight on saturday?

[Akhilleus]

Oh yeah...had a good workout with Sun Tzu today...also I was holding the pads for Brandon and he almost took my arm CLEAN OFF...we got it on tape...

[Pork Chop]

sorry, i'll be in new york feb 19th.

i've held pads for b before...
that was back when i was having elbow and shoulder problems from pad work... I wonder if there's a connection? lol

he's got power, but i'm not 100% sure if he's the hardest hitter i've ever held for (as far as pure power, not effective delivered power in the ring).

EDIT: forgot to thank yah for the get well wishes :)

[Pork Chop]

Went down to dc last night and did a decent warmup type workout- some jogging, some pushups, some stretches, and a form or 2.
Half way through I was sweating harder than I was breathing.
I feel a bit better today, though I slept like a bear in hibernation.
Throat's a lil scratchy but i'm hoping it's post nasal drip from sleeping on my back and not the whole thing starting over.

Tonight going to philly, saturday go to new york but be back in time for virginia Sunday morning.

My right toe's a little tender. Kicking with my right foot's not quite there yet.

[Pork Chop]

First time back at bxf since saturday... went pretty well i think
Had to reduce my workload of course, but i think i did alright.

started off with my 10 min high intensity warm up on the elliptical crosstrainer. went well, back up to my old intensity. K1 USA highlights playing on ESPN 2 sure did help... helped the whole night actually

then it was on to weights.

front squats with cradle grip:
135 x 10
185 x 8
185 x 3
my endurance isn't normal right now, was pretty winded after first set.

Sumo deadlifts.
Okay, I didn't feel like doing these off the floor, thought i could do them off the support beam of the power rack. The rack has these fold down platforms for each foot (to make up for the bar being slightly elevated); but i'll be darned if I ever figure out how to use 'em coz there was no way to do a deadlift while standing on them without catching on the rack pins. instead, i had to stand on a couple of 25lb plates to try to make up for at least part of the 4 or 5 inches of elevation the weights had by sitting on the bottom of the rack.
After that long explanation, it still didn't feel all that different from picking it up off the ground- except maybe that i banged my shins and knees a lot less.
185 x 10
225 x 6
315 x 3
315 x 3

I skipped bench coz I did upwards of 200 pushups yesterday and was still a bit sore.

assisted pull/chin ups
25++ x 5 (each + represents a partial plate) wide
25+ x 3 neutral
25 x 3 narrow
pretty bad 10 second negative- not much control in the top half.
My endurance was REALLY shot on this exercise and this pulled whateer in my neck was really making this exercise hard.
I also have a hard time actually pulling my chest up to the grip- i noticed that i usually stop around nose/mouth or chin level.

started my skills workout from here, again reduced load.
I did 2 minute rounds with 1 min rest each.
2 rounds of jump rope
2 rounds of shadow (1 round with weights)
2 rounds of 300lb bag
2 rounds of regular banana bag
2 rounds of uppercut bag (20 continuous knees at the end)
2 rounds of the double ended bags
2 rounds of shadow boxing in the ring.

As before, I was sweating harder than I was breathing; but I was still getting tired real quick.

At least it's a start.

In other news the first half of my 4 month supplement shipment came in. Trying to decide if I wanna start them up in stages beginning tuesday, or just wait till March to start them all at once.

[Pork Chop]

Thank goodness this forum's back!!!!

Saturday the 19th:

Went to New York, met up with Dixon Fung and the rest of the gang. Got to see a lot of guys who could actually make their stuff work. Instead of making me want to rush back to my kung fu school; it made me really appreciate my Thai trainers. Still going to the kung fu school once a week to hang out & will try to see if i have any options for getting the kind of skill i saw displayed in NYC.

Sunday the 20th:

Worked Thai with Khun Kao. TONS of partner drills. My partner was Jurgen of Boston San Shou- it was great to see him again. He's going to be a One-Spirit fixture from now on like me. Jurgen and I really banged each other up good during partner work- i swear his elbows have electro-magnets for my kicks & knees. Didn't spar, but after getting back from NYC late & catching a few too many elbows, i think it may have been for the best. O and Buakow's a pimp.

Went home and slept for like 6 hours, then got up and drove to my folks' place.

Monday the 21st:

Spent Sunday night at my folks' place. Drove home a lil later than i wanted to monday. With all the travel & still getting over the cold, I kinda just chilled Monday night.

Tuesday the 22nd:

Got out of work a little late. Got to BXF and saw Roger Leonard trainin the noobs; you may know his brother Sugar Ray. Dumb me decided to work out on other stuff and missed the opportunity to work much with him.

Elliptical crosstrainer, interval warmup - 10 min.
I would do more, but i heard more than 10 to 12 minutes has a pretty adverse reaction on lifting when done first.
Trying to find time to add in 2 or 3 longer cardio sessions; but on this day i closed down the gym.

Cradle grip front Squats:
10 x 135
5 x 185
2 x 225 - yes, i can now officially cradle grip front squat about the same as what i can back squat. Bye-bye back squat.

Deadlift (still off the bottom of the rack, so i can change weights faster. basically about a 4 inch cheat, but I stood on the adjustable spotter bars- lying flat on the ground - so it knocked it down to 3).
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1 got it up and my grip failed as i was locking it out, but i'm gonna count it anyway.

Assisted pull/chinup
25++ x 6
25+ x 6
25 x 5
really nice 10 second negative

At this point i skipped dumbell bench without realizing it. I'll make it up next time.

skillz was 3 minute rounds with 1 minute rest:
3 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow
5 rounds 300lb heavybag (i use this for pure power)
5 rounds regular bananabag (i use this more for combinations with decent power)
5 rounds uppercut bag (last 30 seconds knees)
3 rounds double ended speed ball

Worked out from 7:15 till just about 10 and closed the place down.

Hurt my wrist either failing the grip on the deadlift or throwing hooks on the 300lber; kinda tender.

[Pork Chop]

Went to kung fu last night- pretty easy workout.
some meditation, jumping jacks, a bunch of pushups (the wrist held up), stance, and form work.

Was pretty tired by the time i got home tho.

Having a hard time getting to bed before 1 these days.
kind of annoying, really gotta work on it.
last night i think i finally laid down at almost 1:30.
the big reason was because I couldn't finish my protein shake (sometimes seems like the shake is bottomless).

It's snowing right now, big time; due to peak at 4 this afternoon.
I'm gonna be really ticked if i can't make it to the gym tonite.

[Pork Chop]

got snowed in today... fugg it... o well...

[Pork Chop]

okay so thursday i got snowed out...
but today (friday) i got off from work, only to have the sun come out by noon.. W00T!

I woke up about noon and did laundary today.
Got to the gym a little after 6 and was working out around 6:15.

10 min on the elliptical crosstrainer, level 19, aerobic crosstraining (interval) setting... wrecked it... one of my best yet...

seated row: 175 x 6, 190 x 6, 220 x 3
dumbell bench: 90lbers x 3, 90lbers x 4, 80lbers x 8
cradle grip front squat: 225 x 1, 225 x 3, 225 x 3 (finished strong)
calf raises: 6 x 180 on hack squat sled; 6 x 270 on sled; 10 x each leg x bodyweight

realized how much i didn't wanna do additional cardio... hehe
the round timer was set at 2 min work, 1 min rest for the beginner class...
so i figured, "let's just do more"...

10 rounds of jump rope
6 rounds of shadow boxing (4 of which with weight vest and hand weights)
6 rounds of 300lb banana bag, mostly power shots (with weight vest)
6 rounds of regular bananabag, focus on combos (no weight vest)
6 rounds of uppercut bag (last 30 seconds continuous knees)
6 rounds on double ende bags (3 on small one, 3 on peanut)

finished with 10 1-armed clean and press with the kettlebell, each arm.

closed the place down again; total time just under 4 hours.
kinda hurting. LOL

[Pork Chop]

wrestling coach was busy taking his team ot regionals this morning.
got down with some thai boxing from 1 till 3- lots of jogging, shadow, & some light sparring; got my technique cleaned up a bit.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday was a bad day.

What I guess was a stomach virus, kicked in while i was driving down to virginia- only 15 min or so away from where I was goin. I, in my delirious and explosive state, decided to try to get there asap (for obvious reasons). Got pulled over and got another ticket.

Still went to work out anyway, eventho i spent most of my time in the restroom.

Against better judgement i still managed to limped home.

Had my gf drive me to the emergency room where i spent the rest of the day. I got hooked up to an iv and the whole 9. Kinda hoping the emergency room paperwork is enough to keep me from losing my license; but we'll see.
My gf was great about takin care of me the whole day.

Came home by 8 or 9.and went right to bed. Slept like 13 hours.
Feel a lot better today.

The doc said it was a stomach flu; but I still think it was some kind of interraction between fuze tea and the biotest supplements i take.

[Pork Chop]

Felt kinda bad about missing work on Monday and figured if the doc said to take some time off, the idea has some merit, even if i felt okay. Plus we were snowed in again yesterday so i ended up spending all of monday in bed.

Today I slept in real late, coz with the snow, work was opening late. Finally got into the townhouse complex I originally wanted to get into back in 2002; today i put down my security deposit and application fee- think i should probly get it if my credit isn't smelling too bad.

Think I'll go ahead and work out tonite.

Man, I'm gonna have to start a fundraising drive:
"Save the Pork Chop foundation"

I'm so broke and it's only gettin worse.
I gotta have some of the worst luck.

[Pork Chop]

I didn't eat enough yesterday after breakfast; so I kinda head a headache in the gym. I also was a bit tenative after having such a rough day sunday so I took it easy.

Last night I just worked with the boxing class.
4, 3 min rounds of jump rope
1, 3 min round of shadow
got in the ring and we worked some 1, 2, 3, and 4 step sparring- kinda like catch drills.
Worked maybe 2 rounds of heavybag afterward.

Okay I'm gonna give an honest impression here, so I'm sorry if anybody reading this gets offended (or thinks I'm an idiot for thinking like this), but that wasn't the greatest drill.

All the drills were geared to orthodox vs orthodox.
Every drill put me, as a southpaw, in very bad position.
All the drills were done "swinging for the fences".
It was very tough watching the other southpaw, a beginner, getting torn to shreds coz the drills were downright stupid as far as strategy for him.
After the first round or two i ended up switching orthodox myself.
The first round was kind of a nightmare.
I was told i had to do the exact drill, anytime i tried to improvise anything, i was told to stop and just do the drill.
Should I actually do the drill as told, i was going to get hit- not only because the drill stunk, but because my partner was continuing the drill after the "stopping point".
"no bobbing/weaving"...
"no same hand parry-jab"...
"no going to the body"...
"stay in one place, don't use footwork"...

People who know me know how i feel at being forced to get the tar kicked out of me while being prevented from defending myself.

I had to pop the guy in the face with the "wrong" hand after he kept "continuing the drill" (past the understood exchange) a few times- to let him know that I wouldn't just be standing there as an open target in real sparring.

I guess he was ticked coz my normal defense strategies that came out before I was told to stop, were making him look kinda stupid; I dunno.

Can't wait to spar him in particular- but I probably won't; I'd enjoy it too much.

The coach down at that gym's a nice guy; so i was doing everything i could to hold my tongue and try not to challenge what he was showing.

The coach is a southpaw himself so his approach (of doing orthodox-orthodox drills with no retooling for southpaws) made darn little sense to me.

Afterward, I talked with the coach and the other southpaw guy for a while. I brought up the point that for these standard catch drills it might be smarter for the southpaw guy to pick up the orthodox way of doing things first (in an orthodox stance); because the southpaw way of doing things is all about exploiting the natural tendencies of orthodox fighters.

I realize I'm not a certified boxing coach.
I also realize that eventhough I've sparred with a good number of guys with golden gloves experience, i haven't fought golden gloves myself.
So I encourage people to take my observations with a grain of salt- and I tried to relate that thought to those guys.
That being said, I have spent a lot of time evaluating southpaw strategy; so I do trust my observations when a drill seems "wrong" and puts me in a bad position.

[JadeMantis]

Sounds like a good equation for an ass kicking.

Im my experience (limited though it is) I belive if a drill doesnt work or a technique doesnt work after trying to make it work for some time theres no point in training it. just wasting time. My thought only but I think thats the conclusion you've come to.

On another note Im impressed by all the training your putting in. I only wish I had the time. Bows in respect

Cheers

JM :)

[Pork Chop]

Appreciate that. :)

Seriously tho, as far as training goes, just try to fit in what works for you; and soon you'll find yourself doing more and more.

If stance training makes your joints hurt, but you can work up a good sweat without much joint pain jumping rope, then add the jump rope to your routine and do the stance training as your body allows. If there's training that you enjoy doing; eventho it's "easier" than the training you feel you should be doing, do it (even if you're in the car)- the other stuff will work it's way in.

Hope that helps. Stick with it and I'm sure you'll be doing more than me in no time.



Went to kung fu class last night.
I like those guys a lot; though it feels a little weird sometimes to be back.
Since I'm no longer doing san shou, which is often held at kung fu events; I hope I'm better able to keep my ring & gym stuff seperate from the stuff i do in the kwoon.
Class itself was a couple hours; it didn't kill me, but I did work pretty hard, eventhough I was a few minutes late due to trafic.

[Pork Chop]

it's not every day you get to work with roger leonard....
though for me it looks like it's gonna be m,w,th... LOL

pulled a 12+ hour day today at work; was feelin pretty run down...
I wanted to just drop off this book, maybe jump some rope, and work on this footwork drill kru brooks showed me...

cranked out a real high intensity 10 min interval warmup on the elliptical cross trainer...

jumped rope for like 5 3min rounds with 30 seconds rest...
shadow boxed for 5 rounds
300lb heavy bag, droppin bombs for 5, 2.5min rounds with 1min rest
regular/soft banana bag, mixin up the combos for 5, 2.5min rounds with 1 min rest
uppercut bag for 3, 2.5 min rounds, 1 min rest - last 30 seconds knees
pad work with roger leonard for 3 long rounds, with lots of technique advice
uppercut bag for 2, 2.5 min rounds, 1 min rest - last 30 seconds knees
peanut double end bag for 5, 2.5 min rounds, 1 min rest
Finished up with 1 set of 20 neck crunches at all 4 angles, with 2 5-lb ankle weights strapped together.

i had fun.
first thing roger leonard asked me was if i could drop to 170...
funny enough, kru danny told me i should be 175 when i first met him too...
later he told me i hit hard (even after I told him my weight), so i was pretty stoked... eventhough I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm absolutely nuts once I explained to him all what was legal in the muay thai i'm looking to compete in, and my intentions to fight heavyweight if i can't get my weight down through normal dieting...
he wants me to do a lot more head movement than i'll probably be able to do in thai, but i'm not gonna argue with him if he's willing to help my boxing...
gonna try to work with him at least a couple times a week...

Tomorrow's my last day of my cruddy job...
Today I had my "going away luncheon"...
Monday's my first day of my new job...

Mar 17 i start movin, tho my gf's already started packin...
Gonna be broke this month as my current lease isn't up till the 31st...

April 1st i find out if i lose my license...
but i'm still feeling pretty up beat...

No weights so far this week, maybe some on friday, but after sunday's emergency room visit, i'm not stressing...

[JadeMantis]

Thanks for the advise & support BB, appreciated.

Trainings looking good, with all that cardio and a good diet them pounds should drop off of you.

Good luck in the new job

JM

[Pork Chop]

woohoo post number 100....

Friday was my last day of work at my old division.
I was cleaning out my cubicle till about 8 and didn't get home till 8:30.
I was a little sad to say goodbye to some of my friends; but i'll be in touch with most of 'em anyway.

today (saturday) i got down to kru danny's place around 1 (runnin late this mornin).
had a nice 2 hour workout.
kicked some dude's elbow so my foot's nice and swollen (the outstep as opposed to the instep).

[Suntzu]

good luck with the new job...... and don't forget to invite us to the house warming......... i gotta go out of town this weekend.... but i'm going to holla at Brooks the weekend after next....... and once again... we missed the Arnolds.....

[Pork Chop]

the streak still stands hehe sorry bout the arnold's...

Okay my new job doesn't allow me much internet access... like none...

Sunday
So I was half hour late to Kru Brooks' place, but still got in a good workout. Did 2 person drills with coach, sparred the up and coming slick southpaw, and finished up with some sparring against the other big guy, matt.

Monday
monday, i hit the gym for a while, but i sure was drained.
Started the new job and went early, so my pacing for the day was kinda off.
I got to the gym early, but was tired.
It was my first time back on the weights:

10 min elliptical warmup
235lb cradle grip front squat 1 set x 1 rep, 5 sets x 3 reps.
305lb sumo deadlift 5 sets of 2 or 3
3 attempts at sumo deadlift of 405- could barely get it off the ground
3 attempts at stiff leg deadlift of 405 - got it half way each time
3 sets of 5 assisted pull/chinups with 25lb assist.
90lb dumbell bench- 1 set of 3, 1 set of 2
barbell bench - 10 reps 135lbs, 2 reps of 185
calves 2 sets of 10 with 90lbs; 2 sets of 10 bodyweight

by this time i was burnt

jump rope - 3 rounds of 3 minutes, 1 min rest
shadow box with dumbells - 3 rounds 3 minutes
shadow box - 3 rounds 3 minutes

at this point i was falling asleep.
not getting dizzy from over exertion - more like overtraining without much rest.
so i jumped in the sauna for about 30 minutes and just relaxed.
felt good when i got out.

Tuesday
I was real tired and i had to be at work early wednesday so i just went home and slept from 6:30pm to 4am

Wednesday
Went to work early, got out late.
They were having weigh-ins for ballroom boxing tonite at my gym.
still managed a good workout

10 min elliptical warm up
235lb cradle grip front squat 2 sets of 3, 1 set of 5
305lb sumo deadlift 2 sets of 3, 1 set of 5
seated rows 5 x 175lbs, 5 x 200, 3 x 225
hammer strength incline press 90lbs each side x 8, 100lbs each side 2 sets of 5
2 sets of 10 calf raises with bodyweight.

then on to skillz
rounds were 2 min on and 1 min rest; coz of the class
5 rounds of jump rope
5 rounds of shadow with hand weights and weight vest
5 rounds of 300lb bag with weight vest
5 rounds of regular banana bags, no weight vest, focusing on combos
5 rounds of uppercut bag, last 30 seconds knees
5 rounds of speed bag
3 rounds of light shadow box

ripped a callous deep, it hurts.
hung out with roger leonard for a bit and he helped me with some stuff

[Pork Chop]

Thursday

THis was the marathon driving day.
Got outta work at 2:15, drove down to Fairfax, VA by 3; picked up my brother (who'd flown in from Missouri), and started leaving Fairfax by 3:30. Got to my gym around 6 after being stuck in traffic, picked up some stuff at the gym (left my gym bag there wednesday), and got to the mall around 6:30.

Ate at the mall with my bro, his fiancee, and 2 friends from work- one of which was having a b-day, until 8:15.

Jumped in the car and went to Ballroom boxing at Michael's by around 8:45.
Watched a few fights, including Andre "the Dog" Dirrell.

The guys that work at my gym ( http://www.bxfclub.com ) hooked me up with a VIP pass so I could sneak into the VIP balcony.

Up there I continued to watch fights- like watching Andre's bro Anthony "the Matrix" Dirrell throw 4 uppercuts with the same arm faster than I can probably throw a 1-2, got to hang out with the Dirrell brothers a bit, met Rid**** Bowe - a *B*I*G* mother****er, met a light heavyweight pro-fighter that looked a bit like a 5'8 Mike Tyson, decided I like my chances as a light heavyweight much better.

Got outta there at about midnight.

Drove my brother and his fiancee back to Fairfax so they could fly back to Missouri (misery) the next morning- got there around one.

Turned around and drove home, back up to Baltimore and got home about 2; got to bed by 2:30.

This may not be a workout with weights, but this was far more exhausting than a lot of my workouts have been. LOL

Friday

Still recovering from Thursday, was supposed to have a goodbye party for ShaolinTiger00 of this forum; but everyone cancelled, so I just stayed home and slept.

My 24-0 (24KO) fight night fighter tried to jump from Light Heavyweight title holder back to heavyweight to take on the champ and is getting stomped so bad I've been throwing the controller and hitting "reset" before the ref even starts to count. I'm almost 100% sure my stats reverted to what they were before I dropped down to light heavy- which is really not fair; and should be a bug. I will have both belts, oh yes, they will be mine...

gonna take my vitamins and jump in the car to work out with Master danny here in a few.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday

oooooohhhhh crud...
Sat around talking for an hour because we weren't sure if we were going to move the workout to the other gym.
Warmed up for a bit, but really broke the sweat on shadowboxing.
Moved on to belly pad sparring and we must've sparred for like an hour.
Lots of fun, but it was about the hardest I've worked down there in virginia, and I got a bit banged up again.
Just got outta an epsom salt bath and it felt niiiice. :)
ate a little too soon afterward and didn't really eat all that much- couldn't stomach food, but i was rehydrating like a fiend.
starting to get real hungry now but i'll stick to a protein shake.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday

Thigh didn't heal up like i wanted to today; so I decided not to spar.
Still managed to do everything else, but I had a bit of trouble with flow and explosiveness. I couldn't get my combos to flow because I was having to workaround the cramping in the quad of my main support leg. With the explosiveness; I'm not 100% of the cause- I could understand it being the thigh for the left kicks; but overall i had this feeling of not feeling particularly explosive. Got in some great work on the thai pads tho- it was my first time doing thai pads in a while, my pacing was all jacked, so I ended up gettin real burned real quick. Real glad I went. Learning a lot and like hangin out down there. Just need to figure out how to work out and stay healthy at the same time. LOL

[Suntzu]

i haven't seen the inside of a gym since Tuesday :( ... i'm trying to talk Jon into coming down next Sunday to help him get ready for his next fight...... looks like USH and China cleaned up at the Arnolds this year.....

[Pork Chop]

I got free passes if u ever wanna drop by BXF.
Jon coming sunday would be fun.
I'll try to drop by diane's if I can get out of work early enough to get a decent workout in by 7 or 8.

Got a lot of boxing sparring coming up on wednesday- just gonna have fun with it. I told Rodney (the trainer guy at www.bxfclub.com /shameless plug) that I'm just gonna approach it as trying to work on stuff, and that I'll go at whatever pace I'm given- I'll go easy if they just wanna work on stuff, I'll go hard if they start goin hard, & that being said, I'd probably rather work with a slick guy than a total banger.

Monday

Got there a lil late to do weights; decided to work hard on da skillz.

10 min warm up on the elliptical crosstrainer- it's interval training, and I must be getting in better shape, coz getting my pulse over 180 isn't an automatic thing, let alone pushing 200. That's not to say I ain't pushing it either, coz I really do push hard.

rounds were 3 min, 1 min rest

jump rope x 4 rounds (first round they reset the timer at the end of the round, i jumped at least 5 min straight)

shadow boxing with vest: 2 rounds with hand weights, 2 rounds without handweights

350lb heavybag x 4 rounds with weight vest, swinging for the fences. shins are pretty banged up from the training lately.

banana bag x 4 rounds no vest, working on combinations- almost lost my lunch on the first round thinking without the vest that i could fly. wasn't as fast with my 45 degree stepping as i'd like, i'm continually trying to get the flow of it though so later it comes out more smoothly.

uppercut bag x 4 rounds, last 30 seconds continuous knees. started adding in uppercut flurries to this drill to break from some of the monotony.

double ended peanut bag x 4 rounds. even started pushkicking on the thing.

relaxed shadowboxing in the ring x 4 rounds. this was kinda my cool down.

28 3 min rounds.... not half bad... over 90 min of active work; 2 hour total training time... no weights, but decent work.

Was 233lbs after the workout- so i've lost a lil weight.
Dunno if it was from only lifting twice last week and not at all the week before. Drank 2 protein shakes after the workout (with over an hour between each), so hopefully i'm not losing too much strength.
Tomorrow I think weights will be higher on the priority list.

[Pork Chop]

Felt kinda ill all day today.
I think Hot Rox have been working too well, I've barely been eating.
Didn't sleep enuff last night which might've contributed.
Took a nap after work, so I didn't make it to Diane's (sorry Suntzu).
Woke up around 8 and headed to the gym.

Did a light 12 minute, 1 mile jog (yeah, i'm not a runner) as a warmup.
Was sweating a surprising amount from this.

Switched things up and did lunges today
185 x 5 each leg - felt a little heavy
135 x 6 each leg
135 x 6 each leg - man my bootie was fried after this.

Incline bench
135 x 8
155 x 6
185 x 2 (bad form coz i was nervous about working with a barbell)
185 x 2 (better form, but had a sticking point on the second rep and worked with a spotter who took over a bit)

Assisted Pullup/Chinup
25lb assist
wide grip (pull) x 6
neutral grip x 6
close grip (chin) x 6

20 second negative- best negative I've ever done

was still able to crank out 2 chinups.... YES! I CAN DO A CHINUP!!!

Finished up with weighted crunch machine
95lbs x 20
110lbs x 10
140lbs x 10

After the workout I decided to eat.
Like I said, I'm not really hungry, but I think my body's tellin me it needs more fuel.
Ended up getting some double quarter pounders for some red meat, protein and fat- yah i know it's bad, but at least i ain't eatin the fries with it.
I was down to 232 tonite before I started eating.
The rate I'm shedding pounds is just a little alarming- I mean 232 with a light sweat at best is kind of ridiculous; so i doubt I'm gonna feel guilty about the Mickey D's.

Tomorrow's the big sparring day so I'm hoping the red meat helps. :)

[Pork Chop]

rough day at the office

did a respectable 10 minute sprinting interval workout on the elliptical crosstrainer.

Bootie and legs still sore from the lunges the night before.

was supposed to be a sparring day so i skipped the jump rope
just shadowboxed for a few rounds
then worked the heavybag with the Roger's class - continuous punching for like 4 (2 or 3 minute) rounds, each last 10 seconds all out - on 350lb bag.
worked the double ended bag for a round of just jabs
continued for a round or 2 just jabs on the 350lber
slick guy was there and wanted to work with me, i was real psyched coz he's good. Big Jake, the inside heavyweight fighter didn't make it- o well.

we worked 3 1-minute rounds of sparring... not trying to kill each other, but i managed to get a bloody nose pretty early on from eating a nice hook or upper with my guard down....
i landed a few shots but i really couldn't combo up on the guy, i'd try and then he'd disappear. I let him combo up on me shielded, looking for an opening, but as soon as he presented one, he'd be gone in a flash.
I think slick guy's been training for like 5 years- real good, taller than me, faster than me, enough power that i didn't wanna get hit.
i definitely think he looked better, but it was somewhat even, aside from the hook or upper that gave me the bloody nose.

sat around for like an hour afterwards thinking about where i went wrong.
he's a southie like me, but he did a better job of "orthodox boxing" (as our southpaw styles cancelled each other out) than I did.

Did 4 sets of calves, realizing that better footwork woulda given me a better showing.

Started shadowboxing in the ring for a round or 2 before a kawky young kid asked if i would spar him.
Thought it wasn't a great idea, so I asked him to talk to Rodney (the trainer) to ask if it'd be a better idea to wait till thursday to work with everyone else.
Rodney said kid wasn't ready for Thursday but told him if he wanted to spar me, he could.
I went to the bathroom, came back to find the kid all suited up.

We agreed to do 1 3-minute round.
I softly jabbed a few times so I could work on my defense.
The kid was southpaw and stayed out of range.
When he finally decided to throw, my defense was pretty much shielding.
I shielded to see what he'd do.
The kid swung for the fences, and didn't let up.
Realized I had to defend myself.
That resulted in the rest 2 and a half minutes spent sloppily beating the kid from ringpost to ringpost.
He caught me a few times more than i would've liked, but i covered pretty well.
He ate just about everything i threw.
By the end he was turning around and running.
Tried not to play dirty and did my best to catch him in the ribs and face with out taking advantage of the back he presented.
I was a lot sloppier than i woulda liked; but it was effective.
Felt like my footwork wasn't right with both opponents, shoes kept sticking to the ring canvas; then again, they were both fighting southpaw.
Towards the end of the round, the kid tried putting his left hand on my head, to hold and hit. Parried him down once and popped him in the face with same hand. After that I'd just slip under it, let him fire (sometimes letting it tag the top of my head), and then made him pay.
He clinched a few times, instinctually I controlled his balance, but withheld from total head control and throwing knees (though I was tempted).
At the end of the round the kid didn't wanna go anymore.
I felt like I'd worked hard, but woulda kept going if I had to.

The good: used my jab pretty well, following it up proved to be a problem. Got a few shots in on slick guy, and blasted the crud outta the kid. The kid caught me with some hard shots, but my nose didn't open back up & neither opponent rocked me whatsoever.
The bad: my footwork didn't feel "on", so i had a hard time being mobile with my combos. Really think my defense coulda been better overall; especially sparring slick guy. Some of it was dumb mistakes, some of it was just not having much experience against another southie.
The ugly: I shielded a bit too much instead of active defense and my comboing attempts got a little ugly- some bad misses.

Got a lot I wanna work on.
Roger Leonard took off after I sparred the first guy, before I could get some feedback, coz one of his fighters dislocated his shoulder.

Realize Rodney was right about the catch & counter drills; and will work more on them next week, preferrably with a southie. My gameplan is pretty much built around taking advantage of an orthodox fighter. Working those counter drills against a southie would've come in handy tonite- though I still think they weren't the best drills for a southie working with an orthodox fighter.

Definitely wanna work with slick guy again- think he can take my game to another level; really nice guy, lots of respect for him, working with him will totally make my boxing game better. Really appreciate him being controlled too.

Taking my saint paddy's day a lil early and reflecting on my performance.
Tomorrow it's down to DC for some fun with the kung fu family.

[Pork Chop]

Nice, easy hour or 2 of kung fu tonite.
Lots of ab work.
Really feeling sore from the week.

[Pork Chop]

hadn't taken a day off all week; so when i realized that I forgot my gym clothes at home, I went home and took the day off.

feeling kinda on a downward slide the last few days; it'll be good to get to danny's today.

Still in the process of moving but haven't gotten anything done.
Might have to take some time off to get my house in order.

================================================

EDIT: UPDATE:

Didn't hit up danny's today.
Had to take my gf on some errands this morning.
Plus, with moving i didn't wanna kill myself at the workout and be useless for actually moving.
Gonna try to hit the gym tonite between 6 and 8 for some weights and maybe some calisthenics or cardio- just so the day's not a waste.
Gonna work out twice on sunday.

[Pork Chop]

Didn't make it to the gym today- too busy moving.
Should probably just take time off next week and not try to be pulling double duty; moving's going to take a lot of work.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday

Two workouts this day.
First one was a 3 hour class, with some good sparring.
Very nice to see the old gang again (Suntzu and Akhilleus).
Did a lot to help Akhilleus get ready for his fight on Saturday, so we'll have to see if he puts it to use.
Second workout was lion dancing for about 30 min.
Wasn't too difficult a show, but after the hard class it was enough to completely sap me.
Got home and was almost dead.
Went to walmart to buy a watch and then was going to go to the movies; but almost passed out in the store and never made it to the flick.

Monday

Was pretty achey today. I don't know if it was the abuse I took on sunday, the fact that I worked out twice, or if it was jumping back into the thick of things after 2 days off.
I still made it to the gym however and put in some decent work.

10 min warmup on the elliptical- not my best, but it got a sweat going and made some of the achiness go away.

back squats - 135 x 10; 185 x 6; 225 x 3. Screwed up form on rep 2 of 225, but cleaned it up for rep 3. Could've done more reps and/or more weight; but wasn't out to kill myself today. Quads were BURNT after this, spasming by the 185 set.

dumbell bench - 70 x 10; 80s x 6; 90s x 2 - negative at the end of the second.

assisted pull/chin up - 25 pound assist - wide grip x 5, neutral grip x 5, close grip x 5. finished up with 10 second negative- wasn't as strong as last time, but still better than most of my other negatives.

At this point I wanted to work out some more, but was not really feeling killing myself like i usually do.

rounds were 3 min, with 1 min rest.

5 rounds of shadowbox. some rounds more "thai", some rounds with a lot of "slick boxing" type footwork.

2 rounds of focus mits with Roger.

5 rounds of banana bag. Wasn't the 350 pounder, but was one of the hanging bags, which tend to be a lot more "new" than the other bags coz they retract to the ceiling and arent' used everyday. Kicking it was pretty stiff.

Finished up with medicine ball - abs... 25 self tosses, and 20 places (each side).

Decent day; given the soreness.
The little punk from last week was ignorin me today; o well, it wasn't a case of me losing my temper like back in the day, i was seriously stepping it up just to survive with the kid throwin bombs.

Was back down to 233 post workout tonite; which is excellent considering I ain't been eating right and didn't have a sweat going. 15 more pounds without doing anything crazy and 198 should be do-able.

Gonna take Tuesday off and focus on moving.

[Pork Chop]

Took last night off.
Fell asleep resting up to get on the moving stuff.
Slept 12 hours.
Am officially behind on my moving.
Let's see what happens tonite.

[Pork Chop]

Still working on moving.
I think i've been sick or overtrained or something coz I've had some of the most painful doms I've ever had since Monday.
Can walk a bit today so I'm trying to make as many trips as I can handle.
Still need to find some victims to help me move the big stuff.

[Pork Chop]

Moved for like 11 hours straight on Thursday. I was sweating and breathing hard.

Saturday cornered Akhilleus in his fight and just did some padholding and light shadow for a bit. I don't care what the judges said, Akhilleus did not lose that fight; positional dominance in the clinch should not outweigh and overshadow that big a difference in the number of clean, effective shots.
Yes, when the guy curls up to protect his ribs from being hit anymore that means the shots are having effect.

Sunday i didn't even leave the apartment.

Monday it was back to the gym

Turned in one of my best 10 minute "warm up" interval sessions on the elliptical crosstrainer. Even got my heart rate back up in the 190s for decent stretches. Gave me that same burnt lung feeling I got from going all out with that kid the other week; so i know it was good.

squats: 10 x 135; 3 x 225; 5 x 225. 5 wasn't hard, eventho it's backsquats. Just realized that I have to rock back a bit on the way up so I don't do the goodmorning thing when I do back squats. Think it's time to move up in weight (i'll give 275 a try, but i wouldn't be surprised if i can handle 315). The goal is 1.5 to 2 times bodyweight; and with what i found out later on, it's nice to see i'm making headway towards that goal.

seated chest press: 145 x 10; 175 x 6; 205 x 2. I'll have to read back but this might be a pr here.

seated row: 185 x 6; 210 x 6; 230 x 5

Man I'm feelin strong today.

was about to warm up with jump rope, but then there was a request to spar boxing (lightly) with one of the old guys. I'm glad I did.
We went 4 one minute rounds. I spent most of the time working footwork, head movement, defensive angles, and parrying. Tried to get him used to chasing someone down, putting punches together, and defending against a tricky jab. Lots of fun, nice guy. Felt like I was starting to get slick again.

Jump rope: think it was 5 2-minute rounds.

Shadowboxing- with vest and handweights: 2 2-minute rounds, 2-3 minute rounds.

350lb heavybag with weight vest focusing on power shots: 5-3 minute rounds.

regular banana bag (no vest) focusing on combos: 5-3 minute rounds. Was hard to get my favorite combos slick & fast (I was trying to focus on speed and technique) with this banana bag- it swings a lot. I did my best and really tried to get the flow of some multi-shot combos. Roger came by and asked me how I'm feeling- my standard joking response is "tired" and he asked me why. I think I need to be more positive in my response. I wasn't all that burnt, it's just when u add kicks into the mix, your productivity rate is a little slower than someone firing endless machine gun punching combos.
I tried to explain that kicks take a bit more effort than just punches; firing off a rapid-fire hand combo to emphasize my point- following up with a nice high round kick at the end- which was a fraction of a second slower, but packed a decent whallop. I guess he'd never seen me throw high kicks before coz he was surprised.

5 rounds of 3 minutes on the uppercut bag. Lots of knees on this. Not as stoked about uppers as I was coz the angle of this upper bag is almost impossible to recreate in sparring- so definitely mixed in more knees.

5 rounds of 3 minutes on the 2 double ended bags. I was really starting to burn out by the last round or 2; which were on the peanut bag. still managed to put together some nice combos and a nice hit rate on the thing.

33 rounds or so, defnitely not a bad day at the office.
Got home and the scale says 230.
yup, i took a week off, didn't diet and lost 3 more pounds.
yeeeeaaahhhh baby. :-D

10 or 15 more pounds by june and I think 200 for July will be easy.

Tomorrow's probly gonna be my last big movin day. Gotta move all the heavy stuff. Taking the day off from work.

[Pork Chop]

Moved for a few hours yesterday (Tuesday) in the afternoon.
In the evening I visited Akhilleus and Suntzu and warmed up light for an hour or so- I'd just eaten so I couldn't do much.
Afterwards (from around 10), the 3 of us attacked the last of my furniture.
Poor guys, I don't think they left to drive home till around 1.
Then I returned the truck and didn't get home myself till about 2.
Taking at least a half day off today to get the last of the books out of there and to finish cleaning the place so I can return the keys.
Reminds me I gotta do some spackle work- my old room mate ruined some of the drywall.
Tonite it's back to the kung fu school.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday was rough...

Took a lot of trips up and down the stairs to finally get rid of all the trash- I mean at least an hour straight of trips up and down the stairs.
Ended up taking the whole day off from work so I could get out fo the apartment- finally checked out by 3.

In the evening I headed up to the kung fu school.

Practised lion and stuff, did TONS of stance work, and sparred for like a half hour or so light. Kinda got me worried about the drama I went through before with people getting after me for doing "double duty" with the ring sport stuff. *shrug* o well.


Thursday

Only the second time this week I went to work....me bad...
Thursday night I was so tired I took the wrong exit to go home- here that can mean ending up a whole state over before you can turn around.
Slept for a few hours and then woke up for 4 or 5 hours to set up the furniture in my room. Didn't get to bed till like 2.


Friday

Court day.
"Luckily" made it out of there with 80 dollar ticket, 57 dollar court fees, and a 600 dollar lawyer.
I didn't lose my license (or have it suspended) so *in my best texas accent* I'm happier than a dawg with 2 ******s.

Friday night did lion dance.

New guy got to play head coz they were worried about how I'd do.
If it were the old days, it probably should've bothered me.
But these days, I'm barely giving enough commitment to even warrent being able to perform period; let alone trying to be a major player.
The new guy's in class almost every night and makes almost all the performances; so I'm happy to see him gettin the opportunity to shine.

Did a lot of lifting this evening- they had me moving a big heavy podium all over the place, luggin around both a 19 and a 27 inch tv, as well as moving the normal lion equipment.

Got more worries about getting hasselled for 'double duty' tonite, apparently the guy I lightly sparred with the other night wanted to "show me off". I totally cheeseballed it and tried to squash any more ideas of putting me on display.


Saturday

Day's not over yet....

Raining this morning and was feeling kinda tired.
Left a little late to go work out with danny.
Unfortunately the traffic made the drive go from 1 hour to 2 hours.
I didn't get there till 1:30 or 1:40, as opposed to the 12 or 1 I set out for.
Still got a good workout, and yet it was so simple...
rounds were at LEAST 5 minutes (people who train with danny know what I'm talking about- it's like a julio round).

2 rounds of shadow
3 rounds of bag - the bag was light and swung a lot, which killed my pacing. The long rounds and megalong combos combined with the swinging to really kill me by the end of the 3rd round eventho I don't know I was necessarily droppin bombs the whole time.
3 rounds of partner work- doing light combos (up to 11 hits long).
2 rounds of clinch sparring (most of it 5 step back and forth with knees and lots of fighting for clinch superiority).
2 rounds of back and forth push kick combos.
finished up with 75 pushups, 200 "abs" (crunches, leg lifts, frog kicks).

caught a bad knee which has my hip hurtin.

rested for a few hours and have been toying with the idea of hitting bxf up later tonite for some more work. Took some supplements and a protein drink earlier, just waiting for it to settle.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday - PART 2

[EDIT: I guess I had wednesday up there.... yah i was tired hehe]

made it to bxf for part 2 of today's workout.

cardio "warm up" - 13 minutes on elliptical crosstrainer
lying hamstring curls (the ones where u lie on your back) 1 set of 10 with 50lb, 1 set of 10 with 145, 2 sets of 5 235
assisted pullups: 25lb assist x 6 wide, 25 x 6 neutral, 25 x 6 close; 2.5 unassisted pullups, 1 10 second negative.
dumbell chest press: 90lbs x 2.5 reps, 90lbs x 3 reps, 90lbs x failure on first rep; 80lbs x 5

threw knees on the bags focusing on power and form for 2 rounds; hip made it kinda difficult.

finished up with seated calf raises: 1 set of 10 with 70lbs, 2 sets of 10 with 160 - burned 'em bad.

Daylight savings tonite.
Lion dance tomorrow.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday

30 or 45 minutes worth of actual lion dance play.
I could barely move afterward.


Monday

Got out of work early, so i got to power nap this afternoon.
Headed to the gym around 6:30.

Busted my HUMP on the elliptical crosstrainer "warmup". My heartrate was 180 or higher the majority of the time.

I found out I can do pull ups now.
so I did 3 wide pullups, 3 medium width neutral grip chinups, 3 close width reverse grip chinups, 3 very close width neutral grip chins. 1, 10-second medium width neutral grip negative.

I decided to do dips today.
first dip was pretty much a negative
did 70 lb assist, wide grip dip for 6
55 lb assist close grip dip for 8
40 lb assist close grip dip for 6
25 lb assist wide grip dip for 3
The dips made me sore

Then it was on to legs
lunges: 135lbs, forward stepping lunge for 5 each leg
135lbs, backward stepping lunge for 5 each leg
135lbs, sideways stepping lunge for 5 each leg
sideways lunges (deeper this time), 10 times each leg, just the bar

The boxing clas was going 2 minute rounds.
Jump rope for 5 rounds- calisthenics between rounds
shadow with vest and handweights for 5 rounds
350lb bag with vest for 5 rounds
banana bag no vest for 5 rounds
small bag working on uppercuts and penetrating knees for 3 rounds
uppercut bag with rising knees for 2 rounds
double ended bags for 5 rounds

finished up with some more weights

"circles" (for lack of a better term) 3 sets, 10 reps each side, wearing weight vest and holding a 45lb weight to my chest

shrugs: 2 sets of 10 with 90lbs on the hammerstrength shoulder shrug; 1 set of 6 with 180lbs

Good day at the gym... i was pleased... might've figured out why my progress on my chest has stalled...
big lion show tomorrow

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday

Big lion dance gig, lots of practise beforehand.
Got home late.
Was starving when i got home and just went to sleep.


Wednesday

Body just kinda deflated today.
Never quite woke up at work.
Took a nap after work and felt even more drained after I woke up from that.
Just kinda burned.
Took the day off.
Gonna make sure I push it hard enough tomorrow to carry me through the weekend.
If I work out early, I can get in a workout on friday as well.
Probably get back to bed soon.
Been lookin at dogs most of the evening; really want one.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday

been in a class all week and been gettin out early.
I've managed to become addicted to power napping in the afternoon.
went to the gym today around 6:15 or so.
the temp's warmed up, it's muggy, and rainy out.
the gym was kinda like a sauna.

elliptical crosstrainer, interval setting, level 21 for a few minutes before going back to 20 (max is 25, but the resistance on these machines is much higher, so 20 is the same as 20 on other machines). I worked hard, but the humidity was bugging me, sapping my strength. Still managed to do alright for 10 min (13 including cooldown).

Wanted to do squats but some guy left what had to be a deadlift or a rack pull racked kinda high, and his weight belt hangin on the bar.
Dont think i ever saw the guy come back.

instead i did seated leg press on the hammer strength machine.
1 set of 10 with 90lbs each side
1 set of 10 with 135lbs each side
1 set of 10 with 180lbs each side
It was laughable, I shoulda done more. My knees were sore going into it, so i guess I'm not TOO disappointed.

Seated row
1 set of 5 with 190
1 set of 5 with 220
1 set of 5 with 250

dumbell bench press
1 set of 3 with 90s
1 set of 2 with 90s (failed on 3rd)
2 sets of 5 with 80s
I think I'm not comfortable doing these. I might need to drop down weight and re-work on my form to get confident in going all the way down.

quad kickouts
1 set of 5 with 190
1 set of 5 with 220
1 set of 5 with 250

seated calf extensions
3 sets of 10 with 110lbs

Rounds today were 3 minutes, 1 minute rest

jump rope: 5 rounds with calisthenics in between

shadowbox: 5 rounds: 1 round easy, 1 round vest, 3 rounds vest and handweights

heavybag with vest: 1 round 350, 4 rounds regular banana bag

heavybag without vest: 4 rounds regular banana bags (one just above head high attacks), 1 round 350lber

mini bag: 5 rounds on small bag. focused a lot on push kick, uppercut combos, clinching the bag while throwing good penetrating knees, and elbows- both closing with them and throwing them while on the inside.

double ended bags: 3 rounds on the regular (which has a new rope and is easier), 2 rounds on the peanut (which has always been pretty easy).

Watched some guys work no gi grappling and wrestling in the ring, will probably join them next time.

Jumped on the scale before I left: 228.5; by the time i got home it was 229.6 after drinking some water. First time I been under 230 in almost a year. So it was a good day, eventho the humidity did a lot to sap a good deal of my explosiveness.

[Pork Chop]

Yah, i know it's been a while...

Friday

Didn't work out friday, had to be up at Philly airport to pick up my mom; just ran out of time - and was kinda burnt.


Saturday

Okay lemme backstory this. My mom originally said "i need your help April 8th through the 10th. I need you to pick me up from the airport and come to your cousin's baby shower that sunday."

So I'm like "sure".

Then my dad calls Thursday and is like "thanks for helping your mom with that mulch, we appreciate it."

So I'm like "what mulch?"

My dad replies "o, mom just needs you to help her spread some mulch in the front yard".

So I'm like "sure".

Saturday comes, the mulch guy drops of a TON of mulch.... I'm talking like 6 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet (8 cubic yards).

We still had a lot left over after putting mulch out on the the front yard.

Turns out my mom wanted me to mulch the back too.
The only problem is that there's like a 30 foot deep ditch in the back between the mulch pile and the area to be mulched- complete with muddy slopes.

8 hours, 1 busted wheelbarrow, and 30 wheelbarrow loads later (about 50 total), I was almost dead, but I did it.

sunday

I could barely move after saturday; but just had the baby shower.
Went to a dog show.
Played with some Boston Terriers, but really liked this Scottish Terrier.
Got home and called up a local breeder of Scotties, I told 'im I'd call back the next day to set up an appointment.

Monday

I wasn't sore anymore but just felt burnt. Took the evening off from the gym. Went home to call the Scottie breeder guy. Ended up reserving a puppy that I'll pick up tomorrow (Wednesday). Rushed out ot the store to pick up puppy supplies.

Tuesday

Same story as monday. Not quite sore, but still feel burnt. No motivation to work out even after this many days off. Went back to the pet store to pick up some stuff I forgot. Probably try to hit the hay early tonite. Tomorrow I get my dog. Hope my energy's back tomorrow. Haven't really slept well in like a week.

[Pork Chop]

On wednesday I picked up my lil scottish terrier puppy:
http://www.foxcreekkennel.com

Didn't work out wednesday, thursday or friday.
I've just felt burnt.
Doesn't help that this puppy's determined not to let me sleep.

Finally made it back to the gym today (saturday).
I was moving a little late, possibly dreading the overnighter i was supposed to do this weekend.
I got to the gym and nobody was there.
Coach walked in a few minutes later.
Warmed up for like 15~20 minutes before coach needed to take off.
We decided it'd be a better idea to head on over to bxf and do 10 rounds of shadow, 3 or 4 rounds of bag.

Took me an hour and a half to get to bxf; yah DC/MD/VA traffic sux.

Got to bxf, did 3 minute rounds:
3 rounds of jump rope
10 rounds of shadow
2 rounds of shadow in the ring
3 rounds of 350lb heavy bag- focusing on blasting single techniques.

Short day, but I started getting a headache midway through the workout; so maybe there IS something to the burnout I've been feeling.

Starting bright and early tomorrow.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday
Pretty good day.
Lots of shadow
lots of pad work
decent amount of sparring.
my shin's achin (actually the muscles on the outside of it), but i think i made a decent showing for myself today.

[Pork Chop]

Monday

My energy's coming back.
The other weekend really must've killed me coz i had more energy to go work out today, 3rd consecutive workout day, than i did all of last week.

New PR on the elliptical crosstrainer. 325 calories in like 13 minutes; heart rate around 180 the majority of the time, peaked at over 190.

The gym was hot so cooling down took a long time.

Squats: 135 x 10, 225 x 3, 275 x 1, 275 x 1. Gotta figure out how to get 3 sets of 3 reps out of the 275. It's kind of a new pr. I'm doing it with good form.

Chin/Pullups: first set was like 6, then i did 3 more sets of 3 or 4, and finished with a good 10 second negative.

Dips: 2 sets of 8 (1 inside grip, 1 outside grip) with 40lb assist. 2 sets of 6 (1 in, 1 out) with 25lb assist. Finished with an insane 10 count negative.

Forgot my gear bag in my gf's car so today's workout was unusual.
Had to pass up a sparring session, which stunk.

10 straight minutes of padwork with Roger (kinda guessing on the time here, was 3 or 4 rounds pretty much straight through).

4 rounds of heavybag

3 rounds of shadow

3 rounds of 350lb bag

4 rounds of double ended bag

1 more round of pads

2 rounds of heavybag

(not sure that all this is exact).

I was pretty burnt. Roger's padwork wasn't easy coz i was going 100% on it. Especially after this weekend, I think my stamina's at a point where I'll start looking sloppy but won't have any problem pushing through it. Might just take me a while to overcome the week off.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday

Dog let me sleep till 7 which was nice, almost makes up for him wakin me up at 2.

was real sore today, my muscles are achin.

went to the gym coz i promised this older guy that i'd work with him. We spar light, focusing on technique, and it's a lot of fun.

I got to the gym by about 6:15 and just warmed up slow for about an hour, doing laps around the workout area, stretches, and shadowboxing.

we sparred for like 4 rounds of 2 minutes apiece.
felt good and relaxed in there... really got to work on some new strategy, which seemed to work well.

after that it was
3 rounds of 350lb bag
3 rounds of tiny bag for knees & clinch
3 rounds of double ended bag
3 more rounds of shadow

before the sparring it was almost purely boxing
after the sparring i focused on kickboxing
i realized that boxers have a really high work rate and very speedy combos
i worked on trying to speed up my kickboxing combos
i think they'd slowed down a bit lately; especially doing 10 strike combos continuously for 5 or 10 minute rounds- think i got lazy.
I was definitely sweating hard at the end of the workout.

Goot workout considering how sore i was (am); i'll get back to the weights once i'm not sore anymore. No jumproping again, but i did a lot of footwork drills during the laps around the gym.

Tomorrow the kung fu school.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday

Couldn't move, took the day off.


Thursday

Got to the gym around 5:30.
Good cardio session, still sore, so i didn't kill myself, but definitely didn't coast- solid showing.

Lunges: 3 sets of 5 each leg with 135

incline bench: 10 x 135, 6 x 155, 2 x 185 (not that I couldn't do anymore, but benching with no squats really is hard for me mentally, the weight went up kinda easy)

went over to the seated chest press- failed on a set with 230; dropped down to 215 and did 2 singles.

seated row: 205 x 6, 220 x 5, 235 x 5

Then it was on to skillz.

Took my time jogging laps to warm up; doing footwork and stretching drills.

For the most part I was doing 3 minute rounds, tho i think someone messed with the timer at one point and made them 2:30 rounds. *shrug*

3 rounds of jump rope

10 rounds of shadow

4 rounds of heavy bag

6 rounds of double ended bags

2 rounds of small bag for knees and elbows

3 more rounds of shadow

2 rounds of focus mitts with Roger

Wrapped up my workout at 9~9:30... 4 hours ain't too shabby considering how i was feeling earlier in the week.


Friday

lil sore this day but not as bad i woulda thought.

Went down to the kung fu school and worked out for bout an hour and a half. Was sweating real bad, and could not find my rhythm on the school's jump rope, but definitely wasn't tired. We did some pad work, some jump rope, and shadow. hate looking worse than i feel; gotta work on that.

[Pork Chop]

Rough day at the gym.
Lots of us smaller heavyweight guys today.
I swear I'm the heaviest, yet weakest of all of us.
2 of the guys are workout partners and real buff.
One i could hang with (the bigger one surprisingly).
The other one made my clinching life he||: he could crank my neck without even trying, he scored a couple takedowns on me- one of which he pulled mount...I don't like being mounted.
Part of my problem is that I play & try different stuff out.
If a guy whacks me hard, I may whack him back once, but I'm not goin for the "w"; at least not in the sparring we were doing.

As a result got my lower right leg pretty well screwed up.

I'd been kick-catching mini-Tua (a 3rd guy) and just tapping his bottom leg to let him know i had the take down; but as soon as I'd let his leg go he'd punch or kick me. So after the 4th or 5th time of doing this, i completed the takedown. A minute later, when I was throwing a slow motion, pulled head kick at him, he got his revenge and just hacked my bottom leg out from under me. He didn't catch my kick; mind you, just hacked at the bottom leg when my other foot was resting on his head. Thanks dude, I can barely walk now.

This no-head contact "light" sparring is rough when u got people that don't know the meaning of control.

After the workout I got stuck in traffic for over 2 hours driving home in the rain. The traffic made me miss my evening workout at BXF, which i might not've made anyway with the shape my leg's in.

All these factors have combined to put me in a really bad mood this evening if anyone can tell.

O yah, and I doubt I'm going to do any over-nighters at the gym until i find at least one workout partner to make it worthwhile. that's a lot of effort to go to just for some extra shadowboxing.

Tomorrow's gonna stink if i can't walk; and i'm in such a bad mood i am having a hard time getting to sleep.

[Pork Chop]

Overslept today and missed the gym.
When I did wake up, my leg felt like hamburger and my neck felt like i'd been in a car accident.
Stayed in bed the whole day and really don't feel too bad about that; barely even got out of bed to eat today.

[Pork Chop]

Monday

Did a straight through (no interval) on the elliptical crosstrainer and managed to break my old record.

Went to squats, hurtin coz of the heat and humidity, felt like I couldn't catch my breath.

did 135 x 10; took my time.
jumped up to 275; did like 1 or 2 reps that didn't come out all that well.
Tried it again and got like 3 half reps. Not sure what's up I did this last week.
Went back down to 225 for a decent (but not great) set of 3.

Roger was workin with the young guys by then so i went and got my gear.

I did 3 rounds of 2 minutes of jump rope.
I did 3 rounds of 2 min on the 350 pound bag before having to stop when this toolbox turned off the timer. I asked him twice to turn it back on. When he didn't do it, I said "it's my timer, I bought it, I'm turning it on" and did it myself. Apparently the guy got a lil pizzy.
I did 3 or 4 more rounds of heavybag.
Did 1 round on pads with roger. My endurance was stinking all day and it really showed on this round. I'm working on more than just jab now at least, which is pretty cool, and he's been building my confidence which is cooler.
Roger said I needed to do more jogging; my second coach in 3 days, and about the 4th or 5th time in the past week and a half, who's told me that.
I jumped back on the heavybag for a round.
Still wasn't feeling right, so I decided to jog.

I made 2 miles in around 22 min (i'm a slow runner and always will be, coz of my leg) before I had to stop (cramped up real bad with stitches in my sides).

In defeat I went back to the workout area to tell Roger that I didn't have much left. He asked me "did you punch yourself?". I was like "what?". He's like "you got blood on your face".

So I went to the bathroom to find that i had blood from my nose to my chin.
I washed it off and was curious, coz while I had blood on my nose, it wasn't really coming out of my nose. I coughed a couple of times and spit in the sink, not thinking much of it, till I saw that the spit was red. Coughed some more and more red spit.

I'd already decided to go home, but after that I wasn't so sad about it.

I went home and got some sleep.


Tuesday

Woke up late after last night's little horror show. Could barely freakin move.
I went to work kinda late.
Work went okay, feelin a bit sore and tired; but I've felt worse.
After work, i shot over to the gym, not just coz i'm a glutton for punishment but because I thought I was gonna spar. Monday, the young guy who studies Silat told me he was interested in sparring kickboxing (as long as we went kinda light); and i thought i was still on to work out with the older guy from last week- who I saw on Monday but didn't get much a chance to talk with. Neither guy showed up but i still worked out.

Did another "straight through" on the elliptical crosstrainer and did above average (eventho I had a bit of a hard time pickin up the bace).

Next I went to the dip/pullup assist machine and realize that my strength has taken a hit as well as my endurance.

Barely cranked out 3 pullups before I needed an assist- my arms felt week.
Second set was 5 neutral medium grip with 10lb assist.
Third set was 5 reverse (chin) grip with 25lb assist
fourth was 5 neutral close grip with 25lb assist.

Then I did 4 sets of dips with 25lb assist for 5 reps apiece, alternating close and wide grip each set. This was pretty hard at first; but seemed to get easier as it went along.

After the upper body frustration I jumped back on the treadmill.
I went another 22 minutes, this time finishing up 2 miles by around 21min.

Short workout; but I sweat a lot. Heck, Monday I soaked 2 shirts and today i was dripping through one. Dunno if it's the change in the weather, if I'm sick, or if I've just overdone it- but my body's not exactly having an easy time.

[Pork Chop]

Wow, it's been a while

Wednesday

Took the day off


Thursday

Straight through on the elliptical for 13 min.

4 sets of 3 pullups

4 sets of 3 dips

3 singles on deadlift with 315

1 3 min round on the jump rope; followed by 4 2 minute rounds.
10 2 min rounds of shadow.
6 3 min rounds on the heavy bags.
2 or 3 rounds of pad work

22 minutes of jogging; finished 2 miles in less than 21 min.


Friday

in house kung fu tourney
did well on my form
blew a couple of stance competitions
did okay on continuous sparring (it'd been a while since I'd sparred good ole' "spaz out medium contact continuous").


Saturday

danny cancelled class with no notice, so I ended up wasting like 3 or 4 hours in the car.
went to bxf to get an actual workout.

30 minutes of walking and jogging: 5 min was a slow, walking warm up, took me a couple min to get over 6mph. finished 2.75mi by 30 min. Still slow but not so bad.

4 3 min rounds of jump rope
10 3 min rounds of shadow
6 3 min rounds of heavybag
3 3 min rounds of double ended bag.


Sunday

Busy day of hurry up and wait today.
Got to gym early but was slow to get warmed up.
Jogged for a good 5 or 10 min.
did some shadow and asome stretching.
learned a chunk of the ram muay.
Then it was off to a lion dance in Takoma park.
played lion for all of 3 minutes at the end.
Easy day but it's been a long week.


Monday

Thought Suntzu was gonna meet me at the gym today. o well.

elliptical went bad, had a hard time sprinting when i needed to sprint; tho i did it; but when it came time to slow down the thing kept shutting off on me- which is kind of a sign of the level being too high. After 5 minutes it was freakin out on me too much, it kept shutting off when it told me to switch from backwards to forwards. I jumped off the elliptical, went to the bathroom to blow my nose, so i could breathe a lil better, and gave it another shot.

This time i went for 1 min sprint., 30 seconds rest on an even higher level for 7 minutes.

Total calories burned was pretty good.

Did squats: 135 x 10, 225 x 5, 225 x 3; not half bad

tried to do incline dumbells, got some 80s and got em up to my chest but once i got 'em there i had a hard time getting 'em off my chest coz it was so awkward. instead i jumped on incline bench: 135 x 10, 155 x 5, 185 x 2, 185 x .5 (forgot #3 on that first 185 set and tried to jump back under the bar real quick to go for it, but didn't achieve a lockout on the bar and slid it onto the 2nd peg instead of the 3rd).

Seated rows: 210 x 3; 225 x 3; 240 x 3; 255 x 3; 195 x 5 reps x 3 sets.

jump rope: 3 rounds of 3 min
shadow: 10 rounds of 3 min (a round or 2 in there was actually pad work)
bag: 6 rounds of 3 min (3 of hands n feet, 3 just hands)
waited around to work with roger on pads; but he worked with 3 new guys instead; guess I'll catch him wednesday.


whew... long entry...

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday

My light contact, tag sparring partner turned out to be somewhat of a flake.
He opted to spar this other cat who he'd apparently been talking trash too. I also found out that sparring with me is the only training this guy's been doing. He went with the other guy coz he thought he could "beat him".
The other guy caught him with a good shot and closed up his eye; forcing him to go to the hospital.

So instead of that...
rounds were 3 min.
10 rounds of shadow.
6 rounds on the bags.
jogged 2.5 miles in 24 min.
sat in the sauna for like half hour.

Wednesday

Magical day 7 straight without a break.
3 min rounds
3 rounds on the jump rope.
3 rounds of shadow with weights
3 rounds of shadow barehanded
4 rounds of shadow with gloves
3 rounds of medium heavybag
3 rounds of banana bag
3 rounds of 350lb bag
2 rounds of mitts with roger - had a hard time getting jab - lead upper - cross; but not sure if it's a timing issue, an issue with the way roger's padding, or a balance/technique issue; gonna work on it.

my right shin's still messed up.
leavin for my lil bro's wedding around 5 so maybe no workout today to make super 8 straight; I'll try, but i'm still packing.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday

Too much packin and prep to do, no gym
Lil bro's bachelor party consisted of a few beers at a local missouri bar, just the 2 of us.

Friday

saw the b2 bomber
wedding day
long day

saturday

went to worlds of fun
another long day

sunday

woke up early
dad's flight was at 3, our's was at 7; we ended up just waiting in the airport all 5 hours.
didn't get into BWI till almost 12:30
picked up my dog and didn't get home till 2.

monday

Finally just decided to take a day to rest.
takin the day off and am just chillin.
my trip was go-go-go and i really need a day to just kinda veg.

[Pork Chop]

tuesday

put in some overtime at work today.
found out that gold's has been chargin me the last 3 months eventho i submitted a rather detailed membership cancellation request.
kinda ticked... if they charged me for may, that's 3 months at 39 bux a pop; and I ain't exactly got an extra 120 bux to throw around.
real ticked.
tried to resolve it and skipped the gym.
I'll try to resolve it tomorrow afternoon.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday

cardio interval training - new pr.

squats - 10 x 135 x 3
bodyweight pullups/chinups - 4 sets of 3 or 4
bodyweight dips - 4 sets of 3 to 5

the following was 3 minute rounds
3 rounds of jumprope
1 round of "naked" shadow (kickboxing)
3 rounds of kickboxing shadow with the vest
3 rounds of boxing shadow with vest and handweights
2 rounds of boxing shadow with vest
1 round of "neked" kickboxing shadow

Someone messed with the timer when i was on the bags, 2 minutes.
3 rounds 350lb heavybag kickboxing
3 rounds of boxing on smaller heavybag

Sparred boxing for 2 rounds, not sure on the time.
Did pretty well; the guy was another southpaw and trained with the air force program when stationed in germany- so he has skills. Of course today (Thursday) I was told that I didn't show killer instinct in sparring him. After all the trouble i've gotten in for my temper and going too hard, it's kinda funny to see people who want me to go hard. Hope nobody thinks this is bragging, but lemme just go on record saying, if I can figure you out when i'm playin, I'm definitely going to take you out when i turn it on.

The sparring session was interrupted in the first round by my puking due to some gum in my mouthpiece going rancid while absorbing the rubbing alcohol of my mouthpiece spray.

Afterwards i signed up for the personal trainer to help me get my diet and workouts where i wanna be.


Thursday

Found out the personal trainer had to take off today, and i'm not gonna be able to get a routine and diet plan from him till Tuesday.

Went a lil lighter today on the elliptical, but still met my goal.

deadlift: 225 x 8, 315 x 4, 315 x 5 - sumo style. The 315 was real easy. I may give 405 another shot.

seated chest press: 150 x 10, 180 x 6, 200 x 3, think i failed trying 210. Yeah it's a machine, but without a spotter, i think this is the safest way to get teh most outta me.

seated row: 145 x 10, 175 x 6, 195 x 6, 205 x 6, 235 x 5, 250 x 1

Rounds were 3 minutes each
3 rounds jump rope
5 rounds kickboxing shadow
5 rounds boxing shadow (2 or 3 of which were mixed with padwork)
3 rounds of kickboxing on 350lb bag
3 rounds of boxing on lighter bag.
3 rounds on double ended bags (last round or 2 may have been 2 min)

ab work (50 crunches, 50 side crunches ea side, 50 leg lifts, 50 frog kicks)
10 bridge pushups

I was supposed to jog 2 miles, but i was pretty sore today and i'm just getting back in after a week off... yah i know i cheesed.

[Pork Chop]

found out today that i got passed over for promotion again.
kind of a bad day.
i can really tell the difference between taking supplements and not...
I haven't been taking anything all week and i been hurting all day.
no workout today.
man i feel like marvin the paranoid android.
o god i'm so depressed

[Pork Chop]

Took this weekend off to kinda get my head together.
It's nice to have a home life that lets me get my mind off of things.
A year and a half ago I didn't have this and I'd like to think i'm stronger now because of it.
So yeah, I had a lazy weekend, but my head's a bit more together for the long term.

[Pork Chop]

Met with my personal trainer today (finally) after last week and an additional hour and a half past our appointment coz he was busy with other clients.

My routine's gonna be nuts.
My diet's probably gonna be more than I've eaten in a while.
tomorro gonna have to try morning weights and evening skills so i can even pull this stuff off...

[Pork Chop]

wednesday morning i tried out the new leg day.
Gonna have to do weights in the morning and skills in the evening, coz the volume on the weights is just too high.

6 min of light cardio warmup

my squat form's been changed to high and narrow.
10 reps with 135
8 reps with 185
6 reps with 225

deadlift (standard, but grip a little closer than i'm used to)
10 reps with 185
8 reps with 225
6 reps with 275

seated leg press
360 x 10
410 x 1
360 x 8
380 x 8

hack squats
10 with 90
8 with 145
6 with 180

seated leg extensions
160 x 10
205 x 8
235 x 6

calf raises
3 sets of 15 each leg, no weight

swiss ball passes (v-ups passing ball hands to legs)
3 sets of 15

hanging knee raises
3 sets of 15

my mom came into town last night with a truckload of stuff so I I took her out to dinner (the outback for fillet mignot) instead of working out.
Otherwise, my diet the rest of the day was remarkably clean.

Today I was loading and unloading the truck with the old couch and a new one, plus an easy chair, a fridge, 2 stools, 3 endtables, and a tall bar-type table.
I also checked out the new star wars.... good flick...

doin bad about my workouts for the last week or two....
but o well...
just got off the phone with a debt collection agency about my old trip to the emergency room... so guess i'm still paying that thing... she said that it wasn't affecting my credit, but that it was due to affect my credit; which i assume means "will affect my credit if i don't pay today". So I paid the thing.

Tomorrow I gotta be in dc, been out too much.
This weekend will be back at the gym too.

[Pork Chop]

Forgot to mention on Tuesday I actually got in a decent workout going over each exercise and weight-range with my personal trainer.

Today (saturday) was my first time trying to get in a workout since wednesday morning. I found out that there's no more saturday workouts. This is kind of a good thing as i was feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of no planned day off. Saturday's also a good rest day coz it lets me get some stuff done, unlike takin a rest on a workday.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday

Overslept.
Bad idea after saturday turned out to be a bust, but saturday wasn't my fault, so i wasn't feeling exactly motivated after finding out that all that driving was for nothing.
got some rest. the theory is that i'm gonna kick some of this reluctance to train i've been hit with lately.

Monday

Hit the gym nice and hard.
I'd like to give a big thank you to lloyd irvin's guys in general.
2 more of lloyd's guys (well 1 actual, 1 just starting) showed up. I was so pumped at seeing other people wearing ankle supports and kicking the bags that i really kicked it up a notch.
It was the first time I felt amped about training in a while.

Kickboxing workout.
3 min rounds:

3 rounds of jumprope
10 rounds of shadow
5 rounds of 350lb heavybag, until i broke it... yup, I actually broke the clip holding up the bag. I'm framing it on my wall. This is more awesomely awesome motivation.
3 rounds of banana bag
3 rounds of double ended bag- the peanut was going fine but the other one was giving me headaches.

Awesome day, felt a lot more motivation.
Realized that the cherries on my forearms arent' ringworm, but are chaffing from wearing sweaty gloves.

Tuesday

Alright, hope this motivation stuff keeps up.
Weights for today, gonna wait until I'm a lil more comfy with my new weight workouts before I start stressing cardio.

Decline bench: 135 x 10, 155 x 8, 175 x 6. I love declines, even with the new focus on perfect form these felt real good. i can see my weight increasong on these.

Balance ball pushups: 3 x 15. Petered out on the last set around 10 and kinda had to stop for a sec, but pushed out the rest.

dumbell flat bench: 50s x 10, 60s x 8, 70s x 6. The 70s were surprisingly hard, not used to this much chest focus. Again, my form is different on these as well, and it's taking a lil getting used to.

cable flies: 12.5 x 10; screwed up on second set with 15- 1 side was 15 and one side was 20 but didn't realize it x 8; 20 x 6.

Assisted dips: 70lb assist x 10, 60lb x 8, 55lb x 6. Real hard. This exercise has undergone some of the biggest change as far as form; so I'm expecting it not to be easy. Regardless, I felt extra weak on this exercise; because of the sheer taxation on my endurance.

Rope grip cable tricep extensions: 25 x 10, 30 x 8, 32.5 x 6

balance ball pikes: 3 x 15. First set was messed up, but second 2 were good

v-ups on bench: 3 x 15: these were pretty ugly, especially at the end.


Wednesday

Feelin somewhat motivated this week. I'm surprised coz I've been feeling pretty down since the whole promotion thing went to heck.

Got out of work late, got to the gym late.

Assisted pullups: 70lb assist x 10; 60lb assist x 6; 65lb assist x 8. These killed me. The new, strict form really limits how much of the muscle group i can involve in the exercise. In the end I can't do the exercise with as much of my bodyweight and it really burns me out when i do it.

seated row: 135 x 10, 135 x 8, 135 x 6. Another big change in my form; more attention on being strict, less weight, more tired. Thinking back, if I'd gone lighter on first set, I mighta had more left over on the other sets.

Seated closegrip pulldown: 100 x 10, 120 x 8, 140 x 6. These felt good; especially when a good song kicked in midway through my sets.

Rope Grip Cable curls: 25 x 10, 30 x 8, 35 x 6. Last set was kinda rough. Exercise form is hard and i don't feel confident with it.

Incline Alternating curls: 25s x 10, 30s x 8, 35s x 6. Last set was tough on this one too.

Twisting leg raises 15 each side.

Because I'm sadistic, I decided to work on skills after this.

3 minute rounds:

3 rounds of jumprope

2 rounds of kickboxing shadow "normal"
2 rounds of kickboxing shadow with vest
1 round of kickboxing shadow with vest and dumbells
1 round of boxing shadow with vest and dumbells
2 rounds of boxing shadow with vest
2 rounds of kickboxing shadow "normal"

3 rounds on the banana bag: 1 round of kicking; 1 round of punching, 1 round of combos


Random thoughts

Okay I gotta keep bragging on this thread coz i'm finally interested in working out again. My weight lately finally hasn't been a source of frustration. The diet plan my trainer came up with has me doing the 6 meals a day thing with some general nutritional guidelines for each meal. This is probably the easiest time I've had formulating a diet and sticking with it. On monday I was down to 227; and i thought i just lost some muscle, but thought once i got some protein in my system that it'd go back up. Tuesday, after breakfast I was around 226 (which is better than any "dry" weight I've taken lately). Tonight after my workout, I was somewhere between 224 and 225. My lifts have gone down a little, but that's more due to strict adherence to an unfamiliar new form as well as sheer endurance issues from doing 6 times as much work on a specific bodypart, and near 3 times the load overall.

It's nice to have some good news for once, eventho I know it's only a matter of time before my old luck kicks in.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday

Took the day off coz i got out of work late and was real sore.
My body just told me it needed some rest. Unfortunately the baby next door had other ideas, waking me and (more importantly) my dog up around 2:30am with some short of death shriek that carried through the walls. My dog proceeded to to relieve himself on my leg.

Friday

My prediction for a downturn in my luck was right on point.

Get to class a little late and they're quick to throw me in to spar with one of the sihings. The sihing's been commenting on my kickboxing "extracirricular activities" and was kinda out to show me up. He starts bangin, eventho it's supposed to be extra light continuous - considering we're wearing shoes. I get caught off guard and get kicked out of our 5foot by 5 foot tape-on-the-floor-ring by some nasty stepping sidekicks. at one point I just closed distance and started comboing up on him. Had one nice flurry and i landed hard; but still respecting the no head contact rule (not that i could reach it) eventho the other guy didn't. I lost the little match. they stick me with the next guy. Next guy's the guy i sparred last time- no technique likes to run people over. Again I try stopping the guy's foreward momentum coz he's continually trying to walk through me. I do alright. Then in the second 30 second round I start throwing round kicks. He bumps me, causing my kick to shoot straight up, and i catch him in the face. His eye swells up real nice. I get a warning and get in an argument over who's fault it is that this guy bumped me midway through what was originally a pulled kick.
That starts a whole argument on the right attitude for this stuff.
Gawd I hate "medium" contact continuous sparring.
So much so that it is making me want to quit this school altogether.

If a guy outskills me in boxing, i'm pretty cool with it; coz at least I know if the guy tries bullying me, that I'm able to fire back a bit. When you've been injured by as many training partners as I have, not being able to fire back is a big deal. I know that the answer is that I just need better defense; but still....

ugh

gonna make up for my leg workout tomorrow.

[Pork Chop]

make that sunday, i'll just slap the leg workout onto my schedule after I get back from morning class.
had to run some errands today, just got back and it's 6:30; gym closes by 8.
Tomorrow will just be better.

[Pork Chop]

Having a hard time waking up for sunday morning class.
Khun Kao's probly gonna kill me next time he sees me.
I feel especially bad, coz that class is supposed to be like the cornerstone of everything I'm doing.
I gotta do better.

Managed to hit the weights today:

6 min medium warmup on elliptical

Squat: 135 x10, 185 x 8, 225x8. Last set was a little difficult; but in general the new form feels a lot more safe and controlled. I think I need to go up to 185x10, 225x8, 275x6 for my next workout.

Deadlift: 185x10, 225x10, 275x10. Yah I really need to go up in weight again here. The new form is almost like my stiff legged form; but with a bit of knee bend. I'm predicting 225x10, 275x8, 315x6 & I'm pretty confident that I'll not only be able to do that, but I'll outgrow it pretty quick.

Hack Squat: 140 (70 on each side) x 10, 180 (90ea) x 8, 190 (95ea) x 8 - last set could be a bit heavier.

seated leg press: 360 (180 ea) x 10; 400 (200 ea); 430 (215 ea). I think this was perfect.

Leg extensions: 160 x 10; 205 x 8, 235 x 6. First 2 sets were too easy; 235 was pretty difficult and was kind of a shock- thought my knee popped for a sec. Might start with 205 next time.

Calf raises: 3sets of 15 each leg. This is still difficult. the left leg felt much improved but the right leg was kinda not there on the last set.

At that point I had to go pick up my puppy.
Still had 3 sets of 15 hanging knee raises and 3 sets of 15 balanceball passes. Probably try to do 5 or 6 sets of the balance ball pass with a pillow or somethign.

[Pork Chop]

Got a lot to catch up on for this blog but i just wanted to stop in and give a quick update. Last nite I met a dude named Han at my gym.
He's been at the gym only a few weeks.
Turns out he's fought Duncan Duffin, Max Chen, and Santos.
So ummm... baltimore san shou people need to get their azzzes to BXF on wednesday night, coz this guy's hyped about becoming a core member (may not be able to fight for a bit, but loves training & working with people). He lives in Bowie so making it to Gold's or Diane's ain't an option. He goes MWF, but I told him I'd try to get people there Wednesday night between 6 and 9:30. We sparred last night, hurt my knee throwing against his elbow and took a capoeira spinning heel kick to the jaw; dunno that i've ever been so hyped about injuries that are so sore. lol
get at me guys.

[Pork Chop]

Just popping in to remind myself that I've got a lot to catch up on.
I had 5 good days last week after that 5/29 workout, including sparring mr han.
This week should be another 5 day week, barring anything crazy over the next 4 day.
Planning on updating this blog on saturday when i have more free time to run through all my workouts. Luckily i have them logged down on paper for the most part.
My work schedule mandates me comin early now, which is why I haven't had the time.

[Pork Chop]

awright; i know i've done a terrible job keepin up on this lately.
did a 5 day week on that last post- 3 lifting days, at least 2 running days, and a lot of skills workouts.

After that I had a 6 day week- think i only did 2 weight days, coz the 6th day i pulled something in my back. Ran about 8 miles that week as well.

I took off for a couple days and came back on a wednesday (the 15th). That wednesday I did 3 rounds jumprope, 10 rounds shadow, 2 rounds thai pads. I only showed up coz i was supposed to spar some guys; i kept my word eventho i was still injured. When the guys started showin up coach told me that the guy who showed changed his mind on sparring. I told the guy i was kinda glad we weren't gonna go, coz I was feeling sick and injured. Next thing I know he's tellin coach he's changed his mind again. We suit up, I tell coach I'm just gonna play and keep it relaxed- that works until his first punch connects. I started off with some light jabbing to kinda feel him out, he lands a deadly cross that almost splits my lip (nice cherry). I restarted and gave him the benefit of the doubt; but when he did it again right away, I realized I was going to have to do something. So I spent the next two rounds trying to kill him. Bunch of people at the gym were ****ed at me for being rough. He was holding and hitting a lot. At the end of the two rounds, coach called time, he grabbed my lead arm again and punched me in the face so i fired 2 or 3 back that landed clean. People were callin me the dirty fighter. O well.
After that I sparred 5 rounds of light kickboxin with Han just to prove to myself and everyone else i could go light.

I couldn't go to work Thursday afterward, coz i couldn't get out of bed- my back was crampin up worse than before.

Friday I barely worked a half day.

Saturday I was supposed to go to the beach, but was hurtin too much for the drive.

Sunday was my birthday, again I chilled bout the whole day.

In fact I took the rest of the next week off.

Went back down to virginia 9am sunday morning (the 26th).
Had a nice class, Danny wanted to play with me, he was tossin me all over the place, banged up my shin all black and blue, and dealt some serious punishment to my elbow- in otherwords, I think he took it easy on me.

Monday night I went back to BXF. Got some jump ropes for people to make sure there were no hard feelings. Jogged for 30~35 min, doin 3 miles. Did 3 rounds jump rope, 3 rounds shadow, 3 rounds heavy bag. The jump rope rounds were 2:15, I think; the rest were 3.

Today I was real sore, so I'm takin' it slow and took the day off.

Tomorrow back to bxf and then thur through sunday i'm workin the wong tourney.

[Pork Chop]

hit up bxf today.
again, i'm gettin back into the swing of things so not much stress on killin myself; though i think i did pretty well.

jogged about 1.5 miles in about 15 minutes. this seemed like a good distance for me at the moment, going over 2 miles usually wreaks havok on my joints.

rounds were back at 3 min
3 rounds of jumprope
2 rounds of boxing shadow
3 rounds straight through (total 11 minutes when u include the rests) of boxing focus mitt work. It was my first time really working with rodney and it felt real good (pretty gassed at the end); got a long way to go tho.
3 rounds of double ended speed bag.
3 rounds of heavybag.
3 sets of balance ball pushups
3 sets of 20 crunches (center, left right)
10 iron bridge pushups for my back.

total was about 2 hours with the talkin, but nothin to sneeze at for sure. back got a little sore, but nothing serious.

Tomorrow my bro and my mom are in town so i gotta entertain.

Friday saturday and sunday will be all wong tourney.