NPs log....

[norther practitioner]

well, seems like the in thing to do, and a motivating factor ta boot. I figure, with chaser here, and watching him somehow lose weight eating a burger that had to weigh over a pound last night..... I think this should put me over the top motivation wise..

1/6/05
6th day with no more bad habit, no cardio yet though....

100 crunches, various types.
20 x reaching for ceiling
20 x reaching for feet
20 x legs twisted right
20 x legs twisted left
20 x reaching for ceiling as fast as possible. I take varrying rests in between, I wait for the burn to leave.

I'm trying to pyramid up to 10 pushups.... I failed on # 4 or #5 in the set to 6 or 7 (I need to remember this stuff).

Thats it so far today, and since I'm going to my girls for dinner, I think I might not get anything else in. Oh, and I took a 25 minute fast paced walk in the snow today.

[norther practitioner]

A little info,
I'm just under 5'8" and prob. with holiday weight up near 185-190 right now. too much of that body fat. I'll be doing hindu and wieghted squats, Bench, upward row, curls to upward press (on every third curl) and the only tricept extention thing (where you knee and hand are on the bench, and you extend until it is fully extended, sort of the opposite of a curl. Sorry, I don't know the name of this crap. Any suggestions on things to add? I'm also going to try to work up to two full pullups in the next 2 months, as I have actually digressed in the last month. Then, once a week I'm going to do workout mod one from fish, obviously modified, as I can't do everything yet. Especially all the pushups and pullups.

My goal is somewhere in the 170 range....+/- say 6 lbs.

[Chief Fox]

The training log has been helping my motivation so I'm sure this will work for you too.

That tricep exercise you're talking about is called a "kickback".

Suggestions on things to add.
1. Add some cardio in there. If you have access to a gym you could cycle through all of the cardio equipment. Believe it or not the rower is actually kinda fun.
2. Go to the gym every day with a plan. So many people go into the gym and they just have no idea of what they're going to do. Take a notebook and go in with a plan.
3. My routine might not be the best but here's what I do to try to keep it fun.
Monday: swim (cardio and strength)
Tuesday: run (cardio)
Wednesday: Forms practice and full body work out
Thursday: run, kung fu at night (cardio)
Friday: Forms practice and full body workout
Saturday: Kung fu class
Sunday: rest or long run (cardio)

A simple plan could be:
Mon. full body weight workout
Tues. Cardio
Wed. Full body weight workout
Thur. Cardio
Friday. workout mod one from fish
rest on the weekends

Good luck

[norther practitioner]

Well, on the weekends I ski, and me skiing includes hiking with ski boots (usually) at over 10,000 ft. and often over 12,000 ft...

I have kung fu on Monday and Wednesday night, where I get some cardio in.

Thanks for the tips Chief....

[norther practitioner]

1/8
Skiing, took two warmup runs, just groomers, not pushing it too much, stetched, then proceded to own the mountain... god I love powder days.

1/9
Pyramid pushups, failed at #5 on the 7 rep set. I was sore from skiing my arse off the day before (and taking a fairly sizable bail). Same crunch plan plus 5 on each set.

I plan on starting to lift on Tuesday as I have class tonight, and I'm still a bit sore.

[Starchaser107]

Sounds like Drill Sargeant time.
the weathers been good these past few days too.

[norther practitioner]

You going to be yelling at me in class tonight?:D

lol, maybe I just won't pick you up...lol

[norther practitioner]

1/10/04
At the office, I practiced pistols on the stairs, being sore, it wasn't as good as the last time, where with very little assistance with the railing I could get up and down.. this time a little more assistance. Did some calf raises with just my body weight on the stairs too.

At class,
Continued working on our first form with a newbie.. guy is getting it fairly quickly. And also worked on the second form some, then continued to learn a form that star chaser is teaching me.. this one is going to be fun, as I can't do the ****ing opening.... I'll get it, need more hops and more explosiveness on the kicks. So, did forms just about all night, including a set of two, where we do our first form as fast as we can two times with no rest between... It is usually a 35 second form, I think I plugged it out twice in 50 seconds.

At Home,

Did one set of 10 of upward rows.

[norther practitioner]

1/11/04

I was wicked sore yesterday.. and I still feal sore today.

Got two sets of upward rows, then did I'm guessing what people call bent rows. Thats it, had to go quick to meet Chaser and his girl for her birthday dinner (mmmmmmmmm red lobsta).

Today I have forms and some bwe planned for tonight, we'll see what happens with the weather.

[Mighty Mungbean]

Here's a bit of unsolicited advice. I've been reading this book Performance Zone by Dr.s John Ivy and Robert Portman. They reccomend taking in carbs during excercise (sports drink) and then taking in carbs with protein in the 45 minutes post workout. The idea is to maintain and then restore the glycogen stores in your muscles. It's the depletion of glycogen that leads to muscle soreness. That 45 mintue window is seen as the optimal time to replenish those stores.

They also reccomend an anti-oxidant post workout. I like to use chinese wolfberries (gou qi zi).

[Oso]

NP - sounds like we are close to being the same size, proportionally that is, as I am about 6' and 235'ish and I should really be 200-210 or so.

keep it up man...I had a couple of slow weeks but will be cranking back up today.

[norther practitioner]

1/12
50 x bw calf raises on the stairs
20 x pushups

I try to get things in at the office.

Have class tonight.

[norther practitioner]

Thanks OSO

[norther practitioner]

I'm STILL a little sore, and I have a big ski day coming up on Sat. I'll be down in Taos, which will incorporate hiking at 10-prob. almost 12 thousand. The peek isn't open yet, so I won't get to hike up that high.... But between a couple of hikes, and a couple of runs around the mountain, I'm sure I'll get a good workout.

I was just realizing, a lot of people prob. don't realize that skiing, well, skiing the way I ski, is a full body workout, in fact, in ski racers (I still ski like I'm racing) they found they used almost the same amount of muscles as swimmers.


So either way, I'm going to take it easy on my legs tonight and tom. Rest up for Saturday.

Today:

Pushups (I'll get back to the pyramid)
Crunches
Pistols (I try to do one on the stairs every other day, that will be my only legs today)

Lift tonight:
rows
curl to overhead press

[Pork Chop]

Protein shakes (higher overall protein consumption), good fruit carbs, and chromium picolinate go a long way to make soreness bearable.

Keep it up! :)

[norther practitioner]

chromium picolinate :confused:

[norther practitioner]

that chromium stuff.. um, dude, have you read up on it at all?

[Pork Chop]

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/html/ds/dsChromium.php

Yah, i know cp has been out of vogue for a while now.
The only reason I still take it is personal experience.
I took it when I was younger and remembered it working okay.
Then I started taking TwinLab's Creatine Fuel- the fruit puch kind; which is a blend of creatine and cp.
It drastically improved my ability to handle soreness.
I bought some cheapo non-name brand pure creatine (no fruit punch flava); without the cp and noticed it didn't have near the effectiveness.
After that I hit up vitamin world and got some 800 mcg CP tabs and started getting that kick again.
Yeah, I know there's a lot of contradictory claims out there.
Yeah, I know that one study seems to imply it can cause cancer.
I've been takin it coz it helps.

I'll cycle off of it for a bit to see if there are any changes.

My apologies for recommending something pretty controversial.

[norther practitioner]

Yeah, I read a bunch of that stuff... and in all fairness, you'll find all sorts of contradictory in claims, even by the same people....lol

Either way, I'm just saying be careful, and I'm planning on finding a protien shake this week... to start with..

[norther practitioner]

1/13
3 x 10 upward row
3 x 8 curl to upward press

I hit the bag 2 x 3 min.

feel good... can't wait for tom. I'll ski my ass off, to make up for resting to get feelin' good to go down.. lol, **** circles.

1/14
Try some pistols on the stairs again
light workout while I wait for my girl to pack tonight:
Crunches, pushups, dips off of end of couch, bootstrappers.

[norther practitioner]

1/15

Skied at Taos.

3 hiked runs (hike is about a 10-15 minute hike at around 11,000') first one I pushed my pace hiking up, second one I tried slow and steady but still had to stop once, third time I stopped twice, but only for about a minute. Keep in mind this is with ski boots on, skis over the shoulder, and I'm trying to NOT kill my quads doing this, as I need a lot of energy and power to turn on the steeps.

1/16

Recovery

1/17

50 Squats
50 Crunches

still a little sore

1/18

Took a day off

1/19

120 seconds of jumping jacks
25 x crunch reaching toward ceiling
25 x crunch reaching in between legs
25 x left
25 x right
2 x 30 squats
1 x 20 skier tuck squat
2 x 45 second hill climbers about as fast as I could do them
pyramid to 6 pushups succesful

[norther practitioner]

Been almost a week....

Sat. I went skiing...

I'm in the process still of moving in with my girl.. so I workout when I can.

1/24

Forms, Forms, and watched chaser and my teacher wail on each other....

1/25

20 or 25 minutes on the cyclicle machine

2 x 12 x 60 pull downs
1 x 12 x 70 " "
1 x 10 x 80 " "
1 x 1 x 130 " "

3 Sets of inclined bench

2 sets on this crunch machine....

I have class again tonight.. :)

[norther practitioner]

Went to class, was a little fatigued. Worked on an eagle claw form Starchaser is teaching me, and another form that shirfu is teaching the class. Felt a bit fatigued, not sore, but the muscles in my legs weren't all there...

So we did forms, some crunches, then chaser and I messed around a bit, and he made me tap in about a minute and a half....

:mad: :D

[norther practitioner]

Oh, and I did pushups when I got home.

I only got to #4 on the 4 on the way up the pyramid.

[norther practitioner]

Pretty much took the weekend off.
IN the process of moving

[norther practitioner]

1/31
Did forms and a good warmup of light kicks and a walk through. My quads are toast today, I think I'm going to try to get on the cycle for 20 minutes this afternoon, then an upper body workout.


However, today is a sad day for NP....

I have to say my final fairwells to the one and only ONYX. The great dog that he is.:(

[norther practitioner]

Man, losing the pooch has soxored.

2/2

Went to class, worked yi lei mei fu for about an hour. I think this is the form I'll do now in competition. It can be pretty nice and flowy, but it still is very traditional. We did push hands for about 20 minutes. I then went to the gym at our condo complex (only a few machines, but it'll work) I did:
7 minutes on the cycle to rewarmup
1 warmup set of pulldowns
3 sets pulldowns at ~75 % max I'm guessing.
1 set 1 rep at what my max was last night.
2 sets 15 reps of leg extensions.
3 sets 12 reps of whatever it is called when you sit down on the floor and pull the bar toward you....

Then on the cycle again for about 10 or 15 minutes, I'd push it for about 1.5 minutes, then let my heart catch up to me, then do it again.... prob. about 4 or 5 sets.

[Pork Chop]

Sorry about your dog man... had to give away 2 over the last 5 years and it's heart wrenching....


I think the sitting on the floor thing is a seated row or a pull down; unless i'm just confused...

Interval training on the cycle sounds fun.

[norther practitioner]

Sorry about your dog man...

Thanks... I hadn't been hit like that in years.



seated row

Thats it, thanks.


Interval training on the cycle sounds fun.
tis true, tis true

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by norther practitioner
I have to say my final fairwells to the one and only ONYX. The great dog that he is.:(

Wow, man. Sorry to hear about your dog. Loosing a dog is like loosing a part of your sole. Me and my dog have put in many many miles together out trail running. He's getting old now and slowing down a lot. What kind of dog was ONYX? I got mine from the pound. He's all mutt but a great dog. Anyway, hang in there man.

[norther practitioner]

German Shepherd and maby some collie.... mutt, but looked just like a black GS. He was in a bad situation, and bit a few people, not attacking them, but just back off buddy type of ****. A bad situation. Either way, I had to put him in the pound, which euthanised him that same day....:(

It has sucked, truely ****ing sucked.

[norther practitioner]

Been a week, what a funk. I've completely moved out of the old place, now I just have to do a little painting, maybe replace a little rug. The only workouts I've done are lifting couches and tables and ****. After tonight it is all over with, I'll have gotten rid of all my old **** too. Now let the few minutes here and there role in with time to train.....lol.

[Ming Yue]

oh NP,

I remember seeing pics of Onyx on GDA's thread last year. I'm sorry you had to put him down. Really sad news...

:(

[norther practitioner]

thanks ming

[Starchaser107]

yeah bro. he's gone back to the essence, be strong. :)

incidentally, alot of my extra curricular bonding with classmates and sifu back in the day had to do with moving furniture and stuff for various people. hope you get some muscles lifting things . haha.
peace.

[norther practitioner]

June buddy, June... just wait, and maybe once, just once, I'll be able to tap you out.

[norther practitioner]

OK, so far today, did this duck walk thing around the apt. during lunch for a few minutes.

10 in calf raises
10 out calf raises
10 centered calf raises.


tonight I'll get on the bike for 20 before I go up to the old house to finish cleaning up.

[norther practitioner]

20 min level 3 on the stair master, I can easily go higher.

pulldowns

2 sets x 12 reps x 70 lbs
2 sets x 12 reps x 100 lbs
3 sets x 4 reps x 130 lbs
1 set x 1 rep x 150 lbs


I went to do the inlined press machine and it felt funny in my shoulder so I moved to the seated row.

seated row

2 sets x 12 reps x 70 lbs
2 sets x 10 reps x 80 lbs

I then did a 1:30 second sprint on 4 on the stationary bike, then a 1 minute rest, then a 1:00 minute sprint on 5 on the stationary bike.

I'm going to start noting diet too, I'm at about 198 right now with all my clothes on if the scale at work is right. This is the second heaviest I've been in the last 4 years. However, I am stronger, but not enough to warrent the weight.


Plan for tom.
breakfast:
2 eggs with tomato, on a bagel (I'm going to try to hold out on about 50 % of my cheese intake in the next month and a half).

I have a conference for the day, so not much in between... then and lunch, I'll try to walk as much as I can though.

lunch:
turkey on wheat bread with light mayo and tomato and some yogurt (maybe a banana if I remember to bring it).

after work snack I'm debating whether I should eat a whole meal because I have kung fu at about 7:15 and I'll be getting home at 5-5:30 or to wait until I get home.
Option one:
banana and water
Option two:
almost a full meal.

[red5angel]

after work snack I'm debating whether I should eat a whole meal because I have kung fu at about 7:15 and I'll be getting home at 5-5:30 or to wait

I usually have a snack around 4-4:30 on the days I have class just to keep up my energy. I hate getting hungry halfway through class!


Also, for breakfast, try half a bagel - open faced sandwhich basically, and only use one yolk.

[Chief Fox]

Just a couple ideas for meals or snacks.

Breakfast burrito: 1 egg or egg substitute, boca meatless breakfast patty, a couple tater tots, some cheese all on a 98% fat free tortillia. mmmmm

Cottage Cheese: I get the low fat kind. It's good stuff.

1/2 peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread: You can use the natural peanut butter but I just use Jif.

Baby carrots: These things are good, good for you and also very filling.

Fruit: bananas and apples are my personal favorites.

Hard boiled eggs.

Oatmeal with cinamon.

Most mornings I just eat raisin bran. The bran helps to keep the pipes clean and regular.

[red5angel]

one of the most underrated breakfast items: a bowl of goo dcereal. I eat wheaties, Life (A little high on sugar but it tastes good!) some other healthy brands. Some cereals give you a really good mix of proteins, fibers, vitamins and minerals, and it's easy to make!

I do the half peanut butter sandwich all the time! It's a great snack.

[Starchaser107]

I can truthfully say that it's very difficult for me to maintain a healthy diet in the united states. Especially in colorado. where the lifespan of fruits is not that long in my experiences. There's just alot of tempation and not that many healthy options. I can respect any one of you that manages to maintain a healthy diet in america.
Here in Jamaica it's much easier to eat well. That's one of the good things about being here.

[norther practitioner]

Produce does tend to go quick around here.

There can be healthy options, it's just Triesha and I don't offer them to you :eek: ;)


Breakfast:
1 piece low fat turkey bacon
2 eggs (I'll prob. cut out one of the yolks tom.)
slice of tomato on a bagel

Lunch:
half a turkey sammich and a cup of soup at Einsteins

Preworkout dinner:
6 inch corn tortilla with chicken sausage, peppers, mushrooms, and green chili

postworkout dinner:
salad with balsamic vinigrette dressing (need to get some lowfat stuff).

Workout:

Yi Lei Mei Fu
yang competition form
san duan chang chuan
once through on the broadsword.

about 60% tonight, I think I'm fighting off a bug. I'm planning on some bwe in the early am...
blech day.

[norther practitioner]

light day, it's late, and I just decided to go see my brother in law ski in an extreme skiing competition tom. I was going to work out more tonight, but I think I'll save my energy to climb around the mountain Sat. and Sunday.

120 crunches of various forms...
pyramid up to 4 pushups twice
about two minutes of squats.. lost count lol
thats about it.

[norther practitioner]

Holy ****!

That was one of the best ski trips ever. I hiked and skied on Sat. My quads were pretty burned up. I also watched the comp for about 2 hours. Wow, those dudes were amazing. Then today, skied for 3 or 4 hours, and watched the rest of the finals.... this one dude dropped a 70 footer, it was sick.

[norther practitioner]

So, it's been a while.

I let my body heel on Monday, V-day..
Tuesday I went light with a bwe day
pushup, lunges, squats, crunches, and good ol' jumping jacks to get the heart going.

Wednesday, went to class, worked forms and some push hands apps for about 2 hours.

Thursday, did forms walkthroughs and some bwe

Friday I rested

Sat. went skiing, hiked 1 run, took a few more runs around the mountain. Hit a kicker (a type of jump) that launches you over the cornice (a snow cliff of sorts). Worked on landing 180s on my skis.

Sunday I went back up skiing, hiked 4 runs, only pushed the pace on the first hike, up to the kicker from the day before. Skiing was good, so we stayed around until 4, making for over a 7 hour day skiing.

Rested Monday, as it was a holiday and I was sore and I strained a muscle in my leg.. somewhere on the back inside of the left leg.

Tuesday bwe same as before

Wednesday, worked kf and taiji forms in class, did more push hands stuff....

Today:
I'm going to try to get on the bike for 30 minutes, and do some lifting in the condo complex gym...

[norther practitioner]

Also, I think today is going to be my last day drinking soda for the next month.

[Starchaser107]

I've plunged back into the pepsi thing again, but not as bad as before.
I pretty much don't care about it anymore, I'm still trying to be more healthy with my food choices. Suppliment Shakes, Fruit Juices and Water more often than the occasional pepsi (the only soda i drink)
I think what set that off was one day when I went to my accountant and she offered me a cup of coffee, my body was just soaking up the caffeine like a plant absorbing water but..
anyway it's not my blog
train hard.
peace.

[norther practitioner]

I've cheated on the soda thing, well, mostly 'cause I don't drink coffee, and it's hard to remember tea when I have a class for work.

Sunday:

bwe:
crunch x 80 (fourty slow, fourty fast)
pushups (no idea how many, but not enough that I should have lost count)
squats x 50
calf raises x 35

[norther practitioner]

Monday...

class night

worked on butterfly kicks...
help teach the first staff form...
worked on san duan changchuan...
worked on yi lu mei fu for competition...

heres to cardio.... I'll be on the kick until the 19th.


Oh, and about the soda.. I'm down to like a can a day, from like a liter or 20 ozer.

[JadeMantis]

Well done on kicking the soda, the stuffs like paint stripper.

Over here in the UK you can use it to make an old penny turn nice and shiny so whats it doing to your insides.

Trainings Looking Good.

Cheers

JM

[norther practitioner]

I think it eats a pennie here... but anyway.


Did some BWE on Friday. I was feeling really ill earlier in the week, so rested up a bit.

Sat:
Hiked two runs at Breck, skied for about 3 or 4 hours.

Sun:
Hiked two runs at Keystone, skied for about 4 hours. My boy got hit by this dude who was out of control and broke his collar bone.

Worked on taiji at Shirfu's house.

Mon: Crunches, pushups, bootstrappers.
Class:

[norther practitioner]

Monday class:
taiji for 35 minutes
kung fu forms for 20 minutes
hit focus mitts for 10-20 minutes
forms again for 10 minutes

[norther practitioner]

Monday class:

taiji for 40 minutes
kung fu forms for 35 minutes
kicking line drills for 25 minutes

[norther practitioner]

Tuesday:
quicky
40 crunches
20 pushups
35 squats

[norther practitioner]

Wednesday:

50 squats
20 pushups
120 crunches
100 jumping jacks
50 jumps alternating legs
25 two legged jumps
60 knees
100 front kicks
50 jabs
50 crosses
30 lunges

[norther practitioner]

Thurs:
took off, did some heavy carrying at work

Fri:
3 sets of pull downs
2 sets of seated row
2 sets of hammy curls
2 sets of crunch machine
16 minutes on the seated bike




Sat:

I think I'm going to check out a wushu school at 5pm.. see if it is fun and worth the workout.

[norther practitioner]

Sat:

3 sets of pull downs
3 sets leg extension
3 sets of inclined press
2 sets crunch machine
20 minutes on the eliptical

I couldn't find the wushu school... I'll try again next week.