A New Era (of blogging)

[Pork Chop]

This is the artist formerly known as bmore banga (or, as I like to say: TAFKABB)
Alright so I ain't been so good on my old blog, but that don't mean I ain't been workin out.
On the contrary, I've been workin out like a maniac.

My first entry's all backwards; bear with me.


Today I ran 6.5 miles in an hour (made 6 miles in 56 min- only 4 min off my goal).
Afterwards I was fit to be tied.
Tonite's date night, so eating some chicken strips with my girl.

I was down to 216 after the workout; if you remember my last blog, I was around 246 in january.
Lately I've cleaned up my diet for the most part:
yogurt for breakfast;
a reasonable lunch around 11:
usually a chicken breast or two added to a lean cuisine, some home-made chicken dish, or home-cooked fish.
an afternoon meal some time between 2:30 and 3:30:
either a snickers marathon bar or a smaller version of the lunch meal.

Thursday night I was up at the Timonium school workin out with Akhilleus and Suntzu. Ate yogurt and some curry salmon.

Wednesday night was a rest day- was supposed to get my tires changed but the garage blew me off. I went home and took a nap; coz i was sluggish all day after tuesday. I could barely move after the nap and ended up having to eat some tortilla chips and chilli. lunch & snack were both salmon.

Tuesday was a killer day. Put in some good work on the elliptical before trying out my total body workout. Last Tuesday I did 8 exercises, 1 set apiece, 10 reps with medium weight. This time I did 7 of those 8 exercises, 2 sets apiece, 6 reps then 10 reps with heavy weight then medium weight- by the end I was totally burnt. Instead of going home I did almost 2 hours of BJJ. Nice guy showed up today- about my size (same weight but taller and more muscular). He had a lot more experience so he and the instructor took turns tying me up in pretzels. Had fun. We did like 45 min of rolling - 3 sets of 10 min on, 5 off (coz we were doing round-robin with the 3 people).

Monday was my normal day off.

Sunday I was down in Herndon at Khun Kao's class- did some good work on the thai pads, and learned a lot.

Saturday I worked with Julio. I was getting my car fixed and was running late to Danny's class before finding out he wasn't gonna be there. Saturday evening with Julio was fun. San shou and thai are pretty different from each other; so I'm kinda developing 2 styles. Thai's a bit more stationary, relying on power and counter striking. Sanshou's more like slick boxing- lots of movement, darting in and out, fast combos and fast feet. Thai seems to have a bit more of a spelled out strategy, especially in dealing with other thai fighters. San shou seems to work well on guys expecting a thai strategy. in the end I'll probably end up mixing them to some extent and relying on a hybrid; but for a while now, i switch between modes- Thai when I'm more stationary (and feel like I can counter whatever the opponent is throwing); san shou when I'm more mobile and trying not to get caught. He made me realize I need to work more on my flexibility.

Friday was a day off.

Thursday was the first workout with Julio in almost a year. He damm-near killed me: triple rounds, combos i wasn't used to, waiting till after I'd already been working out HARD for 2 hours before he started working with me; he pulled out all the stops.
Ran 2.5 miles.

Wednesday I worked with Roger a bit; kinda just did the boxing thing with some running at the end. Ran 3 miles total.

Tuesday I played around with the full body workout: 8 exercises, 1 set, 10 reps, medium~heavy weight. Then I did my first BJJ class.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday the schedule was sick but the body was weak.
Well, maybe that's not fair; coz I did get 1 great workout and did as much as I could on the other.
The plan was to work out from 1 to 3 down in chantilly, va with danny and then drive up to bxf for saturday night open sparring/workout at 7.
The workout at danny's place was pretty brutal, gym felt like thailand, sweat soaked through my shirt in like 45 min.
Did a couple 5 min rounds of play sparring with 2 of the guys down there, no padding whatsoever. Inadvertently turned my legs into hamburger- especially the left.
Picked up a lot of good skills and ideas as well.
Pretty good for barely being able to walk from my 7 mile run (the stiffness was bad saturday, but went away after some stretching).

After danny's I drove up to bxf, stopping off at a viet place for lunch. Destroyed a large pho, even drank all the soup. by the time I got to bxf i wasn't feeling too hot, unfortunately. I waited around till 7 for folks to show up, unfortunately they'd cancelled the open sparring so no boxers showed up and my kickboxing friends didn't make it- plus they were gonna close at 8 instead of 10. At 7 I gave it the old college try to do a little bag work. 30 power kicks on my right leg went well, but as soon as I tried to kick with my left, the pain was crazy. Felt like both bones in my shin were about to break. I still made like 30 kicks, but my workout kinda ended there.

This morning (Sunday), I drove back down to virginia for a workout. My hamburger legs still hurting, but I drank a lot of milk the evening before, which seemed to help.
Had a bit of a hard time really turning it on. Shadow boxing was pretty lazy for at least the first round. Got a lil better after that. We went on to thai pad work which went pretty well as I did my best Ramon Dekker impersonation. Then we worked on the type of leg kicks that make the whole crowd go "ooohhh dyayumn!"; incidently they make fighter Roderick Melvin go "tryin to imitate me with that weak stuff?" (inside joke). The rest of the class was spent messing around on various exercises and implements. A little bit of a lazy day, but with how banged up I am I don't know that I could've expected a lot more.

Afterward the workout I hit up chipotle coz I had this hyuge craving; yah I know it's a ton of calories. I got home and passed out for like 5 or 6 hours. Feel surprisingly good at the moment; though I'm really glad monday's my rest day. My wrist is still screwed up, my left leg (lower and upper) is a bruised mass of hamburger- with some pulled muscles in my hip to boot, and my right leg has a few bruises of it's own.

I know my weight probably ain't right, but I been workin hard and i'll be eating better monday. I'm just hoping to heal up and make sure my body has what it needs to heal up.

[Pork Chop]

ow... i can barely type...

tonite i modified the weight workout again, last week i was way too exhausted going into bjj practice, and having to take last wednesday off stunk too; so this week i tried something different.

my warmup today was less about the high setting and more about keeping the rpms up.

squat 135 x 20 - had to slow down a bit; but in general, not so hard, could probably go for 185

deadlift 225 x 20 - this hurt, but in that strange good way.

flat bench dumbell press 65s - went for 20, had to take a short break at 15, but still finished

seated row 130 x 20; kinda easy, though i could probably do a better job isolating any body english.

Afterwards i was tired, but not quite as bad as the week before.

Then I went and did almost 2 hours of bjj. omanomanoman. ouch.
I'm officially a member of the Magilla BJJ family. Hope any Yamasaki guys out there don't hate me already (thought I heard somewhere there was beef).
Getting a tiny bit better, step by step. I enjoy getting beat though, coz it gives me something to work for; especially considering one of the guys is actually bigger than me (in addition to having tons of skill over me), which is really rare for me and training partners. Only bad thing is I look like an abused spouse - bruises everywhere.

My weight's a lil off - diet could probably be better, though it might be a sodium/water retention thing.

[Chief Fox]

D@mn dude, sounds like you're doing great. And 30lbs of weight loss to boot. Nice Job.

[Pork Chop]

Tankya :D

Tonite's workout was surprisingly good; i thought with how beat up i am that I'd be dragging it, but that wasn't the case.

I started off with a run: 3 miles in 25:58 on a treadmill... yah I know it's not a real 3 miles under 26 min, but that was the goal I was given and it wasn't easy for me.

Had to take some rest time after that- took at least 5 min to get my wind back; though I think I could probably do better (could probably shave a minute off that at least). Took total like 30 min break, coz I called Suntzu.

Got back to workout by around 7 or so.
3 min rounds:
3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow with vest, 2 of em with hand weights- focusing on staying light on my feet and shoulder endurance.
3 rounds of shadow with just gloves- focused on speed and long combos
3 rounds of heavybag; blasting the living heck out of the monster bag.
3 rounds of double ended bag - focusing on quick combos, speed, and head movement.
2 rounds on slip bag - head movement all the way.
2 rounds of uppercut bag, throwing knees and uppers, last 30 seconds of each round continuous knees.
at least 3 rounds of light volley/response sparring. it was like counter drills but a little more free form. we just kept going and going, no breaks. roger'd quit pad work, so this guy n I kept ourselves busy

22 round workout wasn't bad, tho it seemed longer. I was going pretty intense. The heavy bag rounds were excruciating with all my bruises and rug burns. I didn't slough through the shadow rounds either.

Jumped on the scale before I left and I was down to 215.5; back up to 216 by the time I got home; but as long as I keep my eating straight the rest of the week, i'll probably be able to hit 215 or 214. 2 pounds a week would put me on a very nice pace for the october/november time frame.

[Pork Chop]

had blood comin outta funky areas today so i took the night off... will probly be taking some time off work to see the doc tomorrow. i need to trade in my body for a new one.

[Pork Chop]

took 2.5 hours of sick leave this morning and went in late; tried to get a doctor's appointment but couldn't get in.

did manage to go to the gym tho.

30 min low~medium intensity cardio on the elliptical crosstrainer.

then i did 11 3 min rounds:
4 rounds of shadow
4 rounds of bag work
2 rounds of double end bag
1 round of uppercut bag

[Pork Chop]

Long day, but a fun one.

Hit up Danny's place for a thai workout.
Danny wasn't there but my bros Brian and Ronald were there; those guys like to charge it real hard and did a good job keepin the workout goin.
Got in some boxing work, some thai pad work, some defense work and 3 good rounds of full sparring- definitely worth the drive down to virginia.

afterwards i dropped by bxf, where i did a ton of light shadow and double end ball work, 4~5 rounds of heavybag, and most importantly got some theory talk in: got some advice on different ways to throw my rear hand as well as some diet info.
Going to be working with a new personal trainer on tuesday.
My old one got fired a few weeks after i started with him.
This one seems to be a bit more open to the idea of accomodating my fighting schedule and giving me a diet that's a lot more feasible than the vast amount of seafood in my original program.

A big reason i decided to go back to the personal trainer route was the strangeness of this past week and my stomach thing. I haven't gotten back under 220 since my stomach issues started- I can't really trust weight loss that reverses like that from one meal.

[Pork Chop]

kay, so my sunday morning workout was cancelled this weekend; which leaves me with 2 options:
1. go to my main gym (bxf) and do my own workout
2. stay home and get some rest.

I opted to get some rest. This is the first total lounge day i've had in a while.
think the bedrest will do me some good.
food wise i'm not behavin but i'm going to be serious starting with the new guy on tuesday; meaning a total overhaul of ,u eating habits.
Sept 2 through 12 i'm outta town also, so honestly there's only a certain amount i'm going to get done befoer i leave, but i wanna have my whole plan set before i leave. Hopefully i won't take too many steps backward between now and the 12th.

[Pork Chop]

Monday

Had to do some shopping so I stuck with my rest day.
Watched TUF and did 100 hindu squats and 100 pushups.
Wasn't easy, but not a full workout i guess.

Tuesday

Was toasted after staying up late watching TUF.
Took a nap and woke up way too late: 8pm.
Got to the gym around 8:30 and found out that my BJJ teacher left shortly after 7 coz nobody showed up.
Did 30 minutes of medium-high paced cardio.

Wednesday

Julio missed today coz he's been inundated with jobs (he's an electrician).
I met with the personal trainer, who's dietary recommendations i've been following this week, and he gave me a run down of the new weight lifting schedule I'm bout to start.
Jogged almost 3 miles in 30 minutes at a 2.5 incline.
Then it was on to my workout:

4 rounds of jump rope
8 rounds of shadow: 2 rounds w/vest and gloves, 2 rounds w/vest & weights, 2 rounds w/vest & no gloves/weights, 2 rounds no vest.
4 rounds of heavybag: 2 big bag, 2 normal banana bag - shins still pretty sore
2 rounds of double ended speedbag
2 rounds of knees and punches on uppercut bag.
(coulda sworn it was 22 rounds and not 20, but o well).

Jumped in the sauna after the workout to help ease achin muscles.
Got out and was like 217- so apparently my stomach issues haven't totally killed my aspirations at dropping under 200. This diet feels a bit more healthy, not goin crazy from hunger, just gotta figure out how not to go hogwilde on the weekends.

[Pork Chop]

wow... killer day

woke up early this morning to hit the gym and do the new weight workout.
I did the weight workout which was 9 exercises of chest and back and some shoulders, no arm isolation, and finished up with some cardio.

went to work and had a decent day at work.

after work i went to the gym.
Julio's swamped with work and won't be around for a long time.
did 30 min of cardio.

rounds were 3 min.
first i sparred this pro boxer: 2 rounds no headgear, 1 round with headgear. he didn't wanna hit me in the head without headgear so he kinda took it easy on me and just went to the body. The last round he unloaded on me a bit. He landed some hard shots- he hits hard and has got soem serious counterpunching skills. I think I made a good showing of myself, regardless- probably in part due to the fact that he'd already sparred 8 to 10 rounds by that point. I wasn't tryin to go to war, just wanted to work on some stuff. Can't wait to work with him more.

3 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow
3 rounds big bag
3 rounds regular banana bag
2 rounds double end bag
2 rounds uppercut bag

Afterwards my weight was down to 214 - a new low, so i'm stoked.

[Pork Chop]

Took the day off from the gym; i'm pretty banged up, though I don't have a headache like i thought i would after taking some hard shots.
Did well on the diet, but cheated at dinner with some pizza.
gonna be a busy weekend.

[Pork Chop]

Just checking in.
Decided to take the whole week off.
My wrist feels like it's gotten worse.
My diet ain't been great; but i haven't totally given up.
Leaving tomorrow morning for Houston & Vegas.
I'll be back Sep 8th.

[Pork Chop]

back from vacation today.
was having an okay day given that i'm coming off a 2 week layoff and have a cold.
Worked out 2.5~3 hours this afternoon doing thai. My wind was off

this evening i went to bxf and did another hour, hour and a half.
sparred 6 rounds; things were going great till the end.
I was sparring a couple smaller guys and doing my best to take it easy.
One of 'em, a kid, decided to start overwhelming me with bombs- he'd counter me and then try to light me up.
i made the mistake of throwing a little pressure his way.
apparently that was too much and i came off like an *******.
i stopped punching for like 30 seconds.
i even dropped my hands the last minute of the round so i could work on slipping shots.
just frustrating.

bought some new bag gloves today at least- with handwraps they're nice.

[Pork Chop]

went to the trouble of setting the wake time on my alarm clock but i was stoopid and forgot to actually turn it so it would go off.
as a result, i got to class a good 45 min late.
still managed to get in a good hour and a half workout.
spent more time breakin in my new bag gloves- it really works my left hand clenching the fist, coz the pocket's not broken in yet; it was achin bad.
Watched a couple guys testing and picked up some good info.

[Pork Chop]

started my diet today, did rather well i think.
it's my old diet the one that saw me lose a ton of weight in 2003, i'm doing it for 2 months to get under 200 as per my doctor's recommendations- my cholesterol is kinda high.

went to go workout.
i was absolutely DREADING going to bjj today.
i been kinda sick lately and just wasn't feeling it- wanted to do some light~medium cardio and play around with some kickboxing stuff.
did 20 min of cardio at a medium~intense pace.
did 3, 3 min rounds of jump rope.
did 4 or 5, 2 min rounds of shadowboxing.
bjj teacher was pretty understanding and he proposed us doing some standup stuff.
we did a round of continuous punching on the bag.
later we did 50 continuous roundkicks each leg
then we did a round or so of double ended bag
we finished up with 25 alternating knees supersetted with 15 each side on the uppercut bag.
after that i did a round of standup sparring with one of his guys, a 190 pounder.

i told him i was gonna go light, but it was kinda outta my hands.
they included takedowns and the guy's tactic was to use boxing, slide in with a knee, and go for a tackle.
I didn't adjust to it all that well.
I got taken down quite a bit, went for a single to disastrous effects, caught my face on the rope as he tried to slam me, and he finished up the round with a full out football style shoulder hit. I think I may have caught him with a couple okay punches.
I went from patty cake to sloppy brawling.
If we ever spar again I'm going straight punch-kick combos, stiff side kicks and nasty flying knees.
I had a hard time stepping it up with my kicks, coulda sidekicked him in the face and couldn't pull the trigger. My combos went out the window. It's like, once I realized we weren't "playing", I wasn't sure what to do next- wish I'd just gone into it with the right mentality.
Whole experience was a little frustrating, but I'll do better next time.
At least it's somebody of decent size to play with.

[Pork Chop]

Feeling like azzz again after work today so i jumped in the sauna for a good 30 min or so once I got to the gym.
Then, I did 20 min of cardio: jogging for 2 miles.
The rounds were 3 min.
3 rounds of jump rope
6 rounds of shadow boxing: 2 with vest, 2 with vest and weights, 2 with no vest no weights
2 rounds of focus mitts
3 rounds of big bag
3 rounds of double ended bag

Then I sparred this light guy. Did okay in the first round. Second round I kinda gassed. I was trying my best to go light, he was dropping bombs. He couldn't hurt me, but it was annoying as heck. Especially with him flipping out anytime I landed. The stupid gloves made it worse- couldn't combo up or throw inside shots. Split my lip open a lil, less blood than a bloody nose. Couldn't catch my wind and my legs turned to lead. Real frustrating. Guess it's a learning experience. But hey, at least I got a partner to work kicks with.

[Pork Chop]

couldn't get outta bed this morning.
took the day off from work and the gym.
guess i overdid it yesterday.

[Pork Chop]

Friday i hit the gym. Did 20 min of pretty high intensity cardio. Then I worked with my personal trainer to go over my leg workout. after that, it was another 10 min or so of cardio. then I helped train this guy from my gym who wants to do kickboxing. Worked out for almost 4 hours total. Was down to 212.5

Saturday i went to dannys around 1. I was stuck in traffic so i didn't get down there till 1:30. Worked from 1:30 to 3:30. sparred a bit. I think my form and my explosiveness are off. Something ain't been clicking all week, even with all the sparring.
In the evening i went up to bxf and hung out for like 5 hours.
After tuesday's sparring session with the mma guy i was real reluctant to jump in there with the other guys from magilla's; especially since i was a bit banged up from the afternoon workout.
On one hand I felt bad about cheesin out, but on the other hand it was a nice opportunity to kinda spend more time around those guys and feel more comfortable with the situation.

[Pork Chop]

Woke up early sunday and made it down to virginia for thai class.
pretty good class with 2 good circuits.
first circuit was pad and bag work, got me sweating pretty good.
second circuit was all plyometrics- 2 laps around had me dyin.

might have a fight comin up.

around 7 i went back up to the gym and got some running in.
I ran 5 days this week.
I usually run somewhere between 2 and 3 miles a session.
Anymore than 3 miles (sometimes even 3 miles even) and I'm sore- usually joints, tendonitis, or pulled muscles.
Any less than 2 miles and it's just a warmup.
I may need to get more high intensity sprint work in, but i'm planning to do that as a "warm up" for mornings I lift.
More jumping rope and calisthenics couldn't hurt either.

got 8 weeks to prepare, give or take, so I'll be ramping up my program.

[Pork Chop]

Lifted this morning and did some light cardio.
Was pretty sore at work.
Need to be up early tomorrow so I gotta get to bed early.
Was gonna work out with julio but he never got back to me.
diet was okay, hit the chicken a bit hard after work, but it was all grilled, so shouldn't be bad.

[Pork Chop]

had to be at work early this mornin, really screwed up my sleep.
sukked it up and went to bjj eventho i been dreadin that class.
paced myself in bjj; got called a wuss by the coach.
I think he was referring to how i don't pummel much and am not super aggressive; but i also took it as him referring to my tolerance for pain too- i took a nasty spill on the hardwood floor and needed a slight break.
i look at it as one more hurdle in comin back.
ever since i've come back off of vacation there's been stuff just taking my confidence from me at every turn; this is just one more thing.
i was a bit sick and my endurance just wasn't cutting it last week; gassed against the boxer with dreds, was told i was gassin a bit against the mma guy, kinda gassed sparrin my buddy ronald.
Just feeling kinda useless.

I did do well on takedowns today- fell victim to 1 guillotine and kinda got choked by the guy's t-shirt another time, but had quite a few decent takedowns.
Otherwise, I didn't score a single submission as usual.

Tried to jog after my workout- my legs were real sore: ankle from falling on the floor, inner thighs from a lot of guard passing work, and my hamstrings from last weekend.
So it didn't really happen.

Instead I talked with my friends at the gym and let 'em know how I been feeling.
It was nice to get a little support from my friends.

[Pork Chop]

On Wednesday I got to the gym between 5:30 and 6.
I did a chest and back workout till about 5 after 7.
after that I started workin skills.
My rounds were 3 min each.
5 1/2 rounds of jump rope till someone messed with the clock, finished up with 14 minutes straight for a total of 30 min jumping.
2 rounds of shadow with vest
2 rounds of shadow with vest and hand weights
2 rounds of shadow with vest and gloves
3 rounds on the big bag with the vest
Jogged for just under 2 miles.

Was pretty burnt today, Thursday, haven't had a break in a week, aside from maybe monday when I did a medium weight workout really early in the morning.
My gloves came today so I was super hyped for that.
I showed off some fight clips for Roger, he was geekin over my Ramon Dekker and Sugar Ray Robinson clips.
I didn't start my workout till late.
3 minute rounds.
Jump rope for 3 rounds
shadow for 3 rounds
heavybag for 3 rounds
jumped in the ring and sparred with "Country" for 4 rounds. i love workin with him coz he's got sick power and ridiculous hand speed. We took turns, one would work defense while the other fired shots. first round I went real light on him, but i don't think it did him too much good. second round he scored some nice punches on me, but didn't pounce on me or anything (I like him, he's respectful)- got my nose bloody. Third round I decided to go 70 to 80% and landed a sick body shot. I think I really learned how to fire with good power on an opponent without breaking my structure to get a couple extra inches of reach- kinda like pad drills on a more live target. Normally I'm all off balance to reach just a lil bit further. Fourth round I got caught with some good shots. Some hit me good, i didn't really feel rocked, but I didn't react all that well to a couple of the shots, it stung more than anything, my nose bled again; got pretty good at tieing him up and minimizing the damage by the end.
I'd say my defense was better in the second one, at least that's what it felt like.
I really liked the work coz it really pointed out some big holes in my defense; holes I might notta seen in the typical "duel to the death" kinda sparring they usually do in my gym. Watching tapes to get more ideas for my defense at the moment.
Part of the problem is just how fast the guy's hands are.
Pretty pumped about working on this stuff.

[Pork Chop]

Friday

Got to the gym around 7
Did my old 10 minute sprint session on the elliptical.
I made it through and finished strong, but afterwards my lungs were BURNING.
Then I did a leg workout for about an hour.
I finished up with 30 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate pace.
My total distance for the day was over 4 miles.
Was tempted to hit the bags, but Monday's the closest thing I've had to a day off since last thursday, and saturday's gonna be a big day, so best to conserve my energy and make sure I stay healthy.

Turns out the fight Julio wants for me is a month earlier than I was planning for; giving me 3 weeks to train if i decide to go for it. Having second thoughts, this seems like another one of Julio's bad matchups. Not trying to be a wuss, but I got better things to do than go in there and lose after 2 years of busting my hump to get back on track.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday

Holy crud did I charge it today.
Worked out at danny's for about 3 hours- did a lot of running, bag work, pad work, and sparring.
Then I came back up to bxf for about 2 more hours working with Julio.
We did stretching, bag work, sparring, and shadow.

Sparred between 25 and 30 min today.
Didn't have much explosiveness in the evening sparring session.
Took some shots I probably shouldn't have; couldn't get my footwork to click.
Made some excuses when coach tried to get me to go more, but i did it anyway.
Hate being a wuss.

Think I'll take a cheat day tomorrow, but still gonna work out (probably twice).
Cant stop thinking about chipotle and fuddruckers.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday

woke up early and went down to vuhginia.

guess there are 2 types of gassing.

The first type, you can't breathe, your heart races a million miles an hour, and u think yer gonna die- this is the more common one that i'm kinda used to.

Lately, I been experiencing a lot of the second type- where your body powers down. You try to explode into a movement and nothing happens, your kicks take 5 minutes to reach the target and hit all soft when they get there, and basically nothing comes out.

I got hit with this kind of gassing last night (saturday night) sparring and I got it real bad today.

at the end of the workout, i just had to finish up with one measely round of padwork and i completely slopped it. I could only fire one shot at a time. I think I fired one combo on any sort of rhythm. I was barely even breathing hard; we were even having a conversation during the round.

Matt thinks i may have killed my glycogen stores, and after reading the link he gave me, I agree with him; so from now on I'll be toting along some gatorade for my workouts.

I owe Brooks and Matt at least one pad round and some sparring tacked on to my next workout.

[TangLangCh'uan]

just wanted to drop a reply and give credit where credit is due. you sound like you are putting yourself thru h***, and i really hope you get the results you are hoping for. i was in the same position that you started from about a year and a half ago, so i know where you're coming from. keep at it. i'm sure that you've found that it is amazing what one can put their body through when you want something bad enough.

[Pork Chop]

Appreciate it bro :) thanks!


Took today off. My body just said "uhhh no, not gonna happen".
Been sluggish all day, barely made it to work and was hurtin the whole way through.
Ate a bit more than usual to try to help refuel.
I noticed an improvement after eating some noodles.
At least I made it 10 days straight...
Not going to let this turn into a major stumbling block; just needed a little time to recouperate.

Tomorrow's jiujitsu. Think the coach wants me sparring with mma gloves. I don't think I'm gonna go through with it (already got a couple cuts & blurry vision in my left eye). Don't think I like his vibe and don't think bjj (at least the way they're doing it) is really my thing. I could just be overly sensitive, due in part to overtraining, and a rough sparring session; i dunno. I've also gotten injured before when not following my gut; so that's why i give my doubts any mind.

I don't have this much dread about any other aspect of my training, even hard sparring against hard hitting boxers using bag gloves, or hard sparring with other kickboxers who're bigger than me.

I also gotta do weights and cardio tomorrow. Gonna see if I can wake up early.

[Pork Chop]

Okay i quit bjj on tuesday.
i just wasn't feeling it.
i also feel like my skill in boxing and kickboxing has been on the slide, leading up to and especially after my 2 weeks off.
it's nice now to have extra time to refine my stuff, and to be able to focus in on the important stuff.

monday and tuesday, both days, did well on the diet during the day eating frequently, but in the evening carbed up a bit too much (tuesday worse than monday). I kinda needed it after the 10 days straight, but it still throws off my weight and my schedule.

today, Wednesday i did pretty good.
diet was good.
10 minutes on the elliptical doing sprints to warm up.
did a lift for shoulders and arms- there's a nice shoulder superset in it that really gives me some nice muscle endurance.

for skillz I did:
(all rounds 3 minutes)
3 rounds on focus mitts with Roger Leonard
5 rounds of jump rope
5 rounds of shadow boxing with weight vest
5 rounds of heavy bag with weight vest
2 rounds of tight double end bag with weight vest
2 rounds of slip bag with weight vest
2 rounds of loose double end bag with weight vest
2 rounds of uppercut bag, finishing out last 30 seconds of each round with continuous knees.

This is the kinda work I shoulda been doing coming off of vacation instead of all that sparring maybe. I need this kinda work to really refine my style and move more comfortably after time off, instead of just getting pounded on- but sparring's good too.

I finished up with 20 minutes of elliptical at a medium high pace.

[Pork Chop]

10 minute sprints on elliptical.
Tonite was legs; took me an hour or so.
I'm probably going to he!!, but we have a smith machine at an angle, it's part of my leg day as prescribed by the trainer, and I think I'm falling in love with it.
If you sit with your feet out in front of the machine and sink your bootie back, you can make sure your knees don't do the "over the toes" hack squat thing that usually destroys your knees long term.
I love it coz I don't have to worry about my balance anymore.
There's another superset in that workout that's real killer too.

After that little session of pain it was on to skillz.

I warmed up with like 7 or 8 2 minute rounds on the heavybag while i was waiting on roger.
3 rounds (i'm pretty sure 3 min each) of focus mitts. he's trying to get me quicker (on reaction as well as handspeed).
then it was on to jump rope for 15 minutes.
I went and fixed the timer at this point to go 3 min on, 1 min rest.
3 rounds of shadow with 5lb weights.
2 rounds of shadow with no weights, focusing on speed and continuous movement.
2 rounds of tight double ended speed ball
2 rounds of slip bag
2 rounds of loose double ended speed ball
2 rounds of big bag throwing just kicks, last 30 seconds of each round continuous knees on uppercut bag.

I finished up with 20 minutes of cardio.
My knees were bugging me a bit and my legs were pretty burnt so i put the treadmill on 15 incline and did 20 minutes at 2.7 to 3mph. That was actually pretty rough, really worked my hams and lower back, not to mention tiring me out pretty good.

Diet the last 2 days darn near perfect.
Broke just under 212 tonite as well.
I think I'm gonna be stuck in this weight range for a lil bit.
I'm doing what I can and I'll try not to get discouraged but i think it's a bit of a plateau.

[Pork Chop]

After 2 days of almost 4 hours apiece, it was wishful thinking to automatically assume a third.

Friday 9/30
Left work early today around 3, coz everyone was takin off to go to an office party.
I went home and slept a good 3 hours or so.
Woke up, ate some chicken and vegetables mixed in with some house special fried rice- shrimp, beef, egg, etc.
Rolled up to the gym by 8.
Lifted weights for almost an hour, doing chest and back.
Then I jumped on the treadmill and jogged for a good 25 minutes (last 5 min of which was kinda cooldown).
Was happy i got in the treadmill work, coz i thought i was gonna skate on it.
Was also interesting to find out that I can maintain a faster pace on the treadmill, without an excessive amount of suffering, than I had earlier thought.

O and gold's gym is officially on my death list. They sent a debt collection agency after me and ruined my credit. I told those thieves last january that i wanted ot end my membership- even signed paperwork to that effect, they kept charging me, i called up to tell them i wasn't going to pay anymore & to end my membership, they kept charging me, i put a stop payment on my bank account, they kept charging me.
Buyer beware with gold's gym, gonna see if i can get in on a class action lawsuit against them. This act of thievery will not be tolerated. :mad:

[Pork Chop]

Saturday 10/1

Did my 2-a-day today.
worked out from 12:45 till about 3:30 in the afternoon.
Then I worked out from 6 to 8 in the evening.
sparred at least 20 min straight in the afternoon.
sparred 12 rounds (36 min) pretty continuous in the evening.
the gatorade REALLY helped.
Made 209.8 pounds too.
Had some chicken strips while watching the fights tonite (opted to save 50 bux and watch the toney fight) so I hope I didn't ruin it.
Aside from the chicken strips, all day all I had was a double bowl of oatmeal, some lowfat chocolate milk, an apple, and the gatorade- so i'm hoping it won't be too bad.

[Nexus]

Keep it up. Your devotion and sharing of your practice will not only benefit you but inspire others. The key is the longterm commitment to practice and having your heart in the right place. Do what you love, just be.

[Pork Chop]

Nexus, much thanks for the support. :) Gonna try to keep doin my thing.

Sunday

Woke up early and went down to virginia.
After gassin last week, i had something to prove this week.
The gatorade really helped, coz I blazed through the class.
I completely sweat through my shirt and was doing work after class was over: with the heavybag and plyometrics.
Afterwards I drove up to Timonium to help Akhilleus with a seminar at his kung fu school.
The seminar went 3 hours- was mostly doing coaching but had some intermitent spurts of activity; on the whole it was really draining.
Afterwards I stopped by TGIFridays to make some arrangements.
I went home, showered up, came back (to tgif) with my gf and had dinner.
after dinner, they brought dessert with the ring i bought on a chocolate cake, and i popped the question. luckily she said "of course".
Diet was okay- ate yogurt for breakfast, lunch was some chinese fried chicken & veggies with the batter and fried stuff pulled off the chicken, and dinner was a steak with a couple spoonfuls of cheesy mashed potatoes and a forkful of cake.


Monday

After this weekend I was drained; heck i think i spent over 19 hours in the various gyms over this past week.
I had a hard time waking up and i was walking dead all day.
Julio told me he was planning to be at the gym tonite- wanted me to be there.
He owed some stuff to Roger and wanted to apologize to him for not being around.
I was just too tired today and have had egg on my face (waiting up at the gym for him) way too many times; so I just went home and figured he'd call me if he was looking for me.
He never called, so I guess I'll find out Wednesday if he was waiting on me.
At least I got a good hour of sleep instead.
Diet was okay, not great.
Had some beef and veggies for lunch, snacked on a few sourdough pretzels this afternoon instead of my normal stuff, and for dinner I had some leftover chicken strips with a few pieces of wheat bread.
Takin the day off from work tomorrow to take care of some stuff, gonna try to get to bed before 11, and get back out there tomorrow night.

[Pork Chop]

Took Tuesday and wednesday (today) off from work.

Didn't really leave the house on Tuesday, managed to take care of a lot of what I had to do from home. Spent a lot of time *trying* to sleep: my gf kept waking me up every 2 or 3 hours. I was dead Tuesday evening and I was dead this morning.

My eye doctor appointment was today. I was gonna just do a half day, but I didn't get enough sleep - think I need to start trying to sleep on the couch; so i just took the whole day off from work.

The eye doctor took the picture of my eye and it showed a bunch of hemorrhaging on the left eye that's been giving me all these problems. It's the type of bleeding that diabetics get on their way to goin blind. he told me to take a week off from any sort of contact sparring. If it doesn't start showing improvement I may have to get surgery.
Actually, the surgery's pretty likely regardless.

Tonite I took off from the gym again and didn't eat well again. Probably a bad move on my part, but I was still feeling sluggish. I did manage to clean up my house pretty well; had to throw out a bunch of expired food.

Need to get good sleep tonite and get back on track.

[Pork Chop]

Took a look at my finances today and realized that surgery would probably break me; so I got a part time job through work today. Made 60 bux for 3 hours worth of work.
Looking to make at least 800 a month.
Problem is, between the job and my eye, my training's pretty much in limbo.
Gonna see if I can workout an hour in the evenings and an hour in the mornings, but I really dunno now.
wish me luck.

[Pork Chop]

Another day in limbo.

Julio wants me to help out this weekend, so saturday I might help him out; holding pads and stuff.

Virginia's probly out, in part coz I don't wanna risk my eye, but also coz with gas prices as high as they are and my finances as bad as they are, i could use the extra 30 to 60 bux it'll save me not going down there.

Monday no work so i should be able to get in some gym time then.

Tuesday I'm going to try to hit the gym for an hour before work and an hour after work. With the part-time clean up job; I'll be pulling 12 hour days so the 2 hours might be hard to squeeze in.

At work, I've been trying to jump into a new project so I can get my boss off my back- i mean he's come close to firing me 4 or 5 times now, starting from my 3rd month there. The sad thing is that I haven't even broken any rules. He's just been giving me a hard time, coz for some reason he doesn't think I belong. Eventhough I don't want to fail & I think I can do my job given decent direction; I'd love to leave and get a better paying job- but it really only makes any sense if i can leave the state.

Still doin pretty poor on my diet. I'll do better next week. This week's just messing with my head.

Keeping my fingers cross for Friday.

[Pork Chop]

Worked out saturday evening with Julio and the guys.
Mostly held the mitts, but I got in some bag work- lots of high kicks.
Julio has a love of TKD style chambered kicks that are hard to read and can transform into any of a multitude of kicks at any angle. ie knee comes up front and turns into a sidekick, a round house, a hook kick, an axe kick, whatever, at any height. I worked on this a lot though i don't know that i like it. For sidekick it's okay. Having a snappy jab of a head high roundhouse could come in handy, but it's got almost no power, best case scenario is that it opens up a cut or causes a bloody nose. I think I'd rather cause some damage.

My diet's gotten absolutely hideous.
I'm gonna snap this downward slide on monday and tuesday.
Hoping to be somewhat back on track by the end of the week.

I've been really stressed out by the situation with my eye, my money, and my job(s).
My poor reactions to all of those 3 as well as the change in weather are what have sent me into this tailspin and I think I've come too far to cr@p out like this.

I think I'm done feeling sorry for myself, about my eye.
I think I realize that I'm not just going to give up training altogether, even if I got a part time job that leaves me almost no time.
I don't want to let my money problems get in the way either.
I've come to freakin far to just give up; even if my eye does prevent me from competing again- I'll find out friday.

[Pork Chop]

made it back into the gym tonite.
made it through a decent leg workout.

[Pork Chop]

wednesday i made it back to the gym again; this time it was arms and shoulders.
diet got a little better.

thurday i made it in for chest and back.
diet slowly getting better.

talked with Rodney (the other boxing trainer) again tonite. I think he'll start working with me on the evenings.
He's much better about helping guys develop an actual style.
Roger seems more to work on combos and that's about it.
Rodney's about defense and the whole game.
He's also willing to work with me about my eye and not being able to take much contact.
it's the most excited i've been in a while.

[Pork Chop]

Okay, went to the doc today.

Good news and bad news.

Bad news first, he took a cursory look at my eye and said "no more boxing".

After that, he used the expensive machine to take a picture of my retina. Almost all the hemmorrhaging was healed. What was left were these four fluid/drainage spots that showed up white. He said those spots were important, that they were what was still affecting my vision, and that they may never heal. Well, they were 2/3rds the size that they were a week earlier and my blurry spots have improved quite a bit.

After looking at the whole thing he said "no surgery, but we'll follow up in December".

So my plan now is to train my skills and drop my weight; no sparring, until after the appointment, probably until January.
By then my eye will be as healed as it'll probably get.
I'm not giving up kickboxing for a blurry spot or 2; especially if I don't need surgery.

I asked him how it coulda happened, coz I was having a hard time figuring out how, he said it didn't look like direct trauma to the eye, but a shot to the side. The thing is, I never get punched at that angle as a southpaw.

I'm pretty sure I actually hurt my eye back on September 20th, when I fell on that hardwood floor- i distinctly remember hitting my left eyebrow (at the angle and location that the eye doc said I got hit) and seeing stars bad enough that I had to take a break.

I think i was doing a lot of unsafe training over the last few months; stuff I won't do when I finally try to go back to sparring.

I won't be sparring with people who refuse to wear safe gloves & who look at the sparring as a competition instead of a partnership working for mutual improvement.

I've also already quit that jiujitsu class. Not only did i take a nasty fall on a hard wood floor my last workout with them, my eye (the injured one) was gauged multiple times - both standing (when I went for a takedown) and and on the ground (when I had the guy in guard).

In other news, tonite I had my first skills type workout in a while.
I was just trying to have fun with it and wasn't trying to kill myself.
rounds were 3 minutes.
2 rounds on small bag
3 rounds on tall bag
3 rounds on big bag
2 rounds on tight double ended bag
2 rounds on maize bag
2 rounds on loose double end bag
2 rounds on uppercut bag- really dropping my stance when punching; last 30 seconds each round was continuous knees.

I know I may sound crazy; but I honestly think the injury occured in abnormal circumstances that I won't be repeating when I make my way back. I also think that the doc was being overly conservative before he really saw the results of the retinal scanner. I'll be as safe as I can; but if Sugar Ray Leonard was able to come back after his retina was completely detached, then I feel a little bit of retinal bruising is way minor by comparison.

[Pork Chop]

hit the gym again today for about 45 min to an hour.
did 10 min of jump rope; 10 to 15 min of shadow, and about 10~15 min on the heavybag.
Short workout but i'm getting back on my rhythm and having fun with it again.

[Pork Chop]

sorry i ain't been checkin in on this.

sunday 10-17
had a good class at brooks

monday 10-18
worked my 3 hours of janitor work but didn't go to the gym.
the janitor work is tough.

tuesday 10-19
went back to diane's with jon and rahsaan.
did 10 min of jump rope and 20 minutes of footwork drills wearing the weighted vest, before my knees started buggin me.

wednesday 10-20
lifted today. did shoulders for like an hour.

thursday 10-21
got in my new knuckle guards so i did skillz work today.
10 min of jump rope.
10 min of shadow (5 with handweights, 5 without0
3 rounds (3 min) of big bag
2 rounds of reg banana bag
2 rounds of uppercut bag
1 round of loose double end bag
1 round of slip bag
a little bit of tight double ended bag before i smacked my arm on the buckle- wasn't wearin gloves.

I feel like I'm missing something coz I thought my workout was pushing 18 rounds; *shrug* maybe i miscounted.

took friday off.

working the janitor job and then going to the gym is exhausting.
i was down at 215 the other day so at least i'm not gaining too much weight from it.
really feeling worn down tho.

[Pork Chop]

had an okay day at danny's today. spent most of my time helpin other people instead of killin myself; though I did have a good hour-fifteen to myself.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday the 23rd

went to khun kao's place. was workin hard till the last 20 min or so, when i mostly held mitts.


Monday the 24th

took monday off, it was rainy and cold; plus i usually take mondays off.


Tuesday the 25th

was gonna walk my dog, but i woke up early and it was still raining.
in the evening i went to the gym and did a pretty killer chest/back workout.


wednesday the 26th

got to bed late tuesday night and didn't get up early to walk the dog, eventho the weather was better.
in the evening i hit the gym and pushed it hard as i could
11 min of jump rope
11 min of shadow (7 min of which with hand weights; all of it with weight vest)
5 rounds (3 min each) on the big bag
1 round on uppercut bag with last 30 seconds knees
1 round on loose double end bag
1 round on slip bag
1 round on tight double end bag

The everlast handwrap gloves with the ultimate classic bag gloves is a crazy combination- i was rockin those bags without any shoulder or wrist pain.
The big bag work was tough at points, kinda slowed down without realizing it.
Once I noticed, i did my best to step it up.

Diet took a turn for the worse eventho i was trying to swing it the other way.
Today wasn't bad, and i'm gonna use it as a stepping stone for further improvement.
Still under 220, so I can still make it under 200 I feel.
Just going to keep tryin & stay positive.

[Pork Chop]

Hit it again today (thursday)
went 12 min of jump rope
at least 12 min of shadow boxing- did a lot of stretch kicks and footwork drills with my shadowboxing time in addition to normal shadow
5 rounds (3 min ea) on the swinging banana bags
1 round on loose double end bag
1 round on slip bag
played around for a lil bit on tight double end bag

workout was a lil shorter today, but i think i made up for it in intensity
was feeling tired as i was driving to the gym but it went away once i finished the jump rope.
the everlast wrap gloves with the ringside ultimates are making my punching power ridiculous.

[Pork Chop]

friday the fight fell through.
the fighter i was bringing didn't show up and wouldn't return my calls.
i was waiting downtown for him for a while; even took off early from one job & totally called out for the other- only to have him not show up.
i let down my coach.
i felt like crud
i didn't even go to the event.
saturday i didn't leave my apartment
i was supposed to work the day shift for my janitor job on saturday; but couldn't wake up at 6:30 in the morning after staying up late playing video gammes.

sunday morning i tried to wake up for kickboxing but couldn't
when i finally woke up at 10 (thought it was 11) i realized i hadn't set my clock back, so i coulda slept an extra hour.

playin too many video games i guess.
i think i also needed to get some of the taste of friday out of my mouth.
i worked too hard making phone calls and trying to meet other peoples' schedules for what? just to end up just as bad as if i'd never done anything to begin with...

Slept 11 or 12 hours last night so i think i should be able to get on a good schedule this week.

[TenTigers]

Pork Choppa, could yo post a link for the gloves you were talking about, and how and why they work better?
Thanx,TT
Keep up the good work-you are an inspiration

[Pork Chop]

10Tigers
Here are the everlast glove wraps:
http://store.everlastboxing.com/everlast-evergel-glove-wraps.html
They're nice coz they offer knuckle padding and are a quicker alternative to handwraps.

My bag gloves are here:
http://www.ringside.com/DETAIL.ASPX?ID=25148
My bag gloves rock coz I finally realized I have kind of a small fist (with long, narrow fingers); so I ordered the 154 pound versions. The padding and support they offer, combined with the above wrap gloves feel like they'd keep my fist stable if it was fired out of a cannon.
I think ultimate classic sparring gloves have maybe too much padding for sparring, unless both partners are wearing them, then they're great coz they provide a lot of protection; you just gotta break 'em in a bit.

My training/sparring gloves are here:
http://www.ringside.com/DETAIL.ASPX?ID=25224
I ordered the 16s coz i'm a big guy; but the glove pocket's a bit big for my hand. There's not much difference between the 14s and 16s aside from the pocket size, they just made the glove longer to make up that 2 ounces. They're really well made gloves. Both these and the classics feel like wrecking balls when worn with the glove wraps. The big differences are:
1. the ultimate is a bag glove and the padding is hard and stiff, where as the padding on the reyes are better for sparring
2. the reyes only recently made a velcro version (available in the ringside winter sale catalog); so you'd have to buy a glovers assistant if you didn't wanna have someone lace you up each time.
3. the reyes have a better fist. The pocket was big, but even the 14s don't require the breaking in period that the classic does, coz it's shaped better.

Monday
Good workout day.
Hit the gym after work for some skills.
Warmed up with 20 minutes of shadow and drills.
Did 3 min rounds on heavybags:
3 on big bag
3 on boxing bag
3 on banana bags

2 - 1 minute rounds of knees on the upercut bag.

a 3 min round on the loose double end
a 3 min round on the slip bag

Tuesday

Wow, daylight savings helped me out.
Woke up early and went for a 20 minute jog with my dog.
In the evening i went to the gym to lift weights.
I really decided to mix things up on the weights, kinda go back to my old total body program mixing in some of the new stuff.

3 sets of 6 reps doing clean and presses with 100 pounds.
3 sets of 10 reps doing squats with 135pounds - did my best to keep up a 1-1 tempo. been a while since i'd done squats, so i kept it kinda medium-light. the smith machine squats hit my hams and glutes, but these really destroy my quads.
3 supersets of dips and pullups 10 reps each, using a 70 pound assist.
3 sets of 10 on the seated row: 130, 145, 160.
3 sets of 10 on dumbell chest press with 60 pounders.

All in all it was pretty light compared to weights i know i can throw up; but i hadn't gone super heavy in a while and was trying out a totally new workout.
The strategy worked perhaps too well though, i can barely walk today (wednesday).

Wednesday
took today off coz i need one day off at least a week; preferrably two.
Plus, as I said, I can barely walk.
Still did the janitor job and walked well over a mile today; so it wasn't a total wash.

Things are gettin better I just wish this soreness would go away hehe.

[Pork Chop]

the muscle soreness was so bad today i could barely stand. my legs kept giving out on me while i was doing my janitor job. i mean it was worse than yesterday; i've been in agony. so i decided it'd be best to take another day off. hate missin workouts but, i'm just going to learn my lesson and try not to overdo it next time.

[Pork Chop]

okay, last week my legs were so bad i took off wednesday thursday and friday.
i worked out saturday at dianne's with julio and the gang for an hour or 2; it was just an okay workout, but i put in like 20 minutes straight on the bag at the end to close out strong.

sunday i went down to brooks and absolutely died- very hard workout.

monday i took off.

tuesday i felt like running so i went to the gym after work and ran 6 miles in about 60 min.

tonite, wednesday my legs were real sore from all the jogging so i skipped the gym. I was fallin asleep all day at work; so i think i needed a break. My left knee's shot pretty bad, i'm gonna give it till tomorrow before i start worrying.

every morning this week i've been doing pushups, crunches and bodyweight squats. plus i've also been taking the stairs on my way in to work- 5 flights.

this schedule's just real rough to adjust to.

[Pork Chop]

the reason i ain't posted in a while is a case of disinterest.
I don't know if it's burn out.
it might be frustration over the futility of trying to workout around a 60 hour a week work schedule.
it could also be the eye.
lately i've been feeling my life's been completely engulfed by the boxing/muay thai.
i love fighting but i've got other hobbies.
i'm still peeved at the magilla guys for being such jerks; hurting my eye and messing up my chances to compete in november.
one of my only goals for fighting is to commit assault on the guy responsible- get him to spar me again and do what he's done to me twice: go full out and throw out the rules.
i don't like being in the gym on nights they're there.
i don't like the feeling of revenge and bitterness i get when i think about those guys and what happened.
with the 60 hour a week schedule, i've gotta basically kill myself to get a measely 1 hour in the gym and still not make any progress.
just kinda fed up with the whole thing.
i'm ready to move out of this state and get into a job that pays a respectable wage.
Working for the government has turned out to be a pathetic joke.
around my birthday time i should start seeing some major improvement on my debt situation; so i just gotta keep up the 2 jobs thing till then.

i've taken off last week and this week (the week of thanksgiving) from the gym.
i think i'm going to be on hiatus until my motivation comes back.
In december i have the follow up appointment with the eye doctor to see if my retinal damage has healed up to a reasonable level.
If i can get that off my mind then at least it's something.