yah, I still lost 3.2lbs over the previous week come saturday morning, so it looks like I was stressing over nothing.
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Tuesday 9/12/2011
Muay thai on Tuesday night.
As soon as I finished my 5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics during the breaks I had to rush off to spend the rest of the night training noobs.
First hour was my friend from work, it was his first day, we went over footwork & the 4 punches.
Second hour was defense drills with this kid who first came to the school over a decade ago and who really should know better by now.
Not to sound like a whiny b****, but I don't really like having to spend that much time training classmates. I mean, I wasn't even allowed to finish my warm up; haven't been able to get in any serious bag time, and I'm really not getting any workout to speak of from the defense drills.
I'm glad my technique is coming back.
Friday, I'm going to make a serious push to start using thai pads for these guys' defense drills.
It'll be the same techniques, but at least we can put some power into the counters.
Diet's still going okay.
Have to go to Houston again this weekend, so no weight watchers meeting or weigh in.
That means my weigh in a week from saturday should hopefully be that much more impressive.
Next Tuesday will be the end of my first month on the program, only 11 more to go to hit my goal.
Wednesday 9/14/2011
Just got out of Cross Fitness class at the krav maga gym.
Rocked the weightlifting portion; which was 20 minutes of a barbell circuit.
I burned out my abs in the first couple exercises in the 20 minute core workout; plus we had to do more pushups, which we'd just burned out during the barbell circuit - failed that miserably. Managed to recover enough to finish out the core portion strong.
The 20 minute bag session was kind of confusing. They started while half the class was in the room for the core workout, so when I walked in, I thought it was a separate workout class. Probably missed about 5 minutes of it, but did my best to catch up and work hard.
May have to stop putting jalepenos on my lunch - have the worst esophageal burn tonight.
Thursday 9/15/2011
Tonight was my first time doing the All-in-all-out class.
odeargawd
i puked
it was an hour and a half of punishment
battle ropes.... rings... ground & pound dummies... calisthenics... crab walk... sprinting
it was one of the hardest workouts I've ever done
i'm fried - mentally and physically.
don't know how i'm still awake.
Friday 9/16/2011
Muay thai tonight.
Not quite as bad as tuesday.
First partner couldn't kick above his knees.
Basically tried to tire him out.
Second partner was my friend from work.
Only his second class, but a bit of a surprise.
Did a lot better than I thought he would.
We were able to drill a lot more realistically than I have been.
Final drill he went a little bit "too" realistic; but I think it was more due to my terrible head movement.
Haven't trained pure boxing in a long time.
Caught me a lot more than i think he should have.
Afterwards, I was able to get some kicks in on the bag.
Finished up with some taiji.
Not my best workout, but not a bad one either.
Now I know I need to work on head movement.
Monday 9/19/2011
Yoga tonight
it was easier than it has been.
Either an easy work out or i'm getting better.
Diet's been kind of dicey last 3 days.
I think I was probably within my points, but I definitely didn't go about it the way I'd like.
Cheat meal was pretty bad.
Just gotta try harder the rest of the week.
Tuesday 9/20/2011
Tomorrow my wife's going to a concert so I went to bag class tonight at krav maga gym.
class was tough, but i made it through.
Might be getting easier.... was doing better at their jumping stuff till my knees started bugging me.
in order for not being able to work out tomorrow, I got my 100 kicks on the bags in the weight & bag room.
ran into my first 2 nongs at this gym.
they walked in during my 2nd set of 35 kicks (i do 3 each leg).
first thing they did was throw my gear so they could get at a weight bar.
I apologized and went to move my bag, then went back to my kicks.
During my 3rd set, the guy that threw my stuff stared at me, then ran at the bag, and went apesh!t for about half a minute before he gassed.
Technique looked like he's been there a while; but he didn't seem to know how to pace himself.
Between each set of weights he'd run and go apesh!t on the bag till he gassed, it got shorter and shorter.
Meanwhile, I just kept throwing round kicks in sets of 35, with short rest between sets.
Then, right before my last set, his buddy walks over and throws my sh!t again.
Again, I move it apologetically.
While I'm doing that, the first guy jumps on my bag and starts kicking it, trying to show off or something.
I stare at him for a sec, he throws some kicks and walks off.
I line up in front of it and he runs in and kicks again.
At that point, I walked over to the other bag he'd been working on earlier.
As soon as I'm about to start on the other bag, he says "you can work over here", so I walk over to my older bag and he throws one more kick as I'm about to start.
I say "you can use the bag if you want, just say the word."
Of course his headphones are in so he doesn't hear me and doesn't respond.
Whole thing made me mad, though I know it probably shouldn't have.
Gotta wonder if the posturing is due to a lack of sparring at this gym.
Tried to imagine that going down at the muay thai gym and can't.
Up till now, everyone's been really cool.
Gonna do my best to forget it happened; can't go around smashing every rude person out there or let it get to me.
Thursday 9/22/2011
All-in-all-out class tonight.
I was expecting more hiit; but it turned out to be kind of a strength day.
did a bunch of body weight stuff on the rings.
felt like jello afterwards.
worked out though, because tuesday was all high intensity intervals in the bag class and I had to miss crosstraining on wednesday.
not sure how much diet damage i did last weekend.
saturday's weigh in will be my first in 2 weeks.
the rest of this week I've done very well.
can tell that I've made progress, but still have a long, long way to go.
Friday 9/23/2011
Muay thai tonight.
Got in my 5 rounds of jump rope and a round of heavybag before coach called me over.
I was able to score a small victory.
Convinced my coach to let me work thai pads.
Mentioned it earlier, but he's just been having me do defense drills with everyone and I haven't been getting much out of it; it's not taxing enough to get me a workout, their technique is not realistic enough yet to help me improve.
So today, doing thai pads for 5 rounds a piece was awesome.
Mixed in the defense drills when it was my turn to hold, so my partner could work his defense. Wore shin guards and everything. Worked out very well, because he almost fell out after the first round of just doing offense, so mixing in defense helped him go the full 5. Burned him in the end of course. :D
When it was my turn, he's still a pad noob, so there are still a lot of growing pains there.
It did help me work my conditioning, my distancing, and my balance - coz I didn't know what he was going to call.
I'm really going to push to work thai pads every friday.
After my 5 rounds on thai pads, I finished up with another 3 or 4 rounds on heavybag.
Good workout, had a nice sweat going.
Had bad news today - found out that I dropped one of my new gloves out of my bag at some point. Looks like I'm going to need another pair. :(
Reading this workout log makes me feel like jelloQuote:
felt like jello afterwards.
Good job though!
Thanks man. :)
9/24/2011
Weight watchers meeting this morning.
Weighed in.
Took a sneak peak last night after dinner and it was discouraging because I was only down 2.5lbs for the last 2 weeks.
This morning's weigh in was much nicer:
Current weight: 234.2lbs
Change from last weigh in (2 weeks ago): -6lbs
Total change since start of weight watchers: -18lbs
12 more pounds till my short-term goal (the weight I hit last year on weight watchers).
35 more pounds till my mid-term goal.
60 more pounds till my long-term goal.
Finished my first month, 11 more to go for my overall goal.
Still a long way to go.
Monday 9/26/2011
Yoga tonight.
It was hard, but I didn't feel all spacey afterwards like I usually do.
In fact, I felt really good, albeit drenched in sweat.
So I grabbed my gloves, snuck into the bag & weight room, and worked power punches for reps (forgot my timer).
Did 100 power uppercuts each hand on the wrecking ball.
Did 100 power crosses & lead hooks on the regular banana bag.
Tried to throw each shot as powerfully as I could.
I imagine it probably took at least 5 to 10 minutes.
Pretty exhausting, but fun.
Found out what likely happened to my boxing glove.
Seems I'm missing my yoga mat out of the trunk as well.
I think on wednesday when I went to the pet store to get dog food and other stuff for my dog that had been skunked the night before; I probably took the mat and the glove out of the trunk to make space for the dog food and forgot to put them back in.
If it was thieves, it makes no sense that they'd only grab 1 glove and a 15 dollar yoga mat, leaving a $60 tool box, a stroller, and a bunch of other stuff.
Luckily i got a new yoga mat from target in time for class.
Diet wise, Saturday could've been a lot better. Sunday did a bit of a fruit & veggie fast.
Today I ate really clean. Any damage I did on Saturday should probably already be made up for, and definitely be made up for by the end of the week.
Tuesday 9/27/2011
Soy sauce with the sashimi must've been enough sodium to cause me some serious water retention issues. Weighed myself just for the heck of it this morning; it was another 6 pound jump. That had dropped 3 pounds by tonight before dinner. Another day or so and I should be back to normal. [EDIT: that 3lbs stayed consistent over night. Not quite sure what's going on with my weight, but I'm going to just stay on track and work hard. I'll be cutting back on my free saturdays]
Muay thai tonight.
Did my 5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics between rounds.
Got to get in a lot of pad work.
Held for 9 or 10 rounds, got to work for 4 or 5.
Got in 100 round kicks on my left leg on the hard bag.
Holding pads was a lot of fun and helps me out almost as much as the guy I'm working with.
Wednesday 9/28/2011
Crosstraining tonight.
Was kinda scared of it all day.
Didn't eat enough and was a bit tired by the end of work.
I think the nerves helped.
By the time we started the class, I was blowing through all the exercises.
Weight circuit went well.
Core went better than in the past.
We started off the core workout with a minute of leg lifts holding a swiss ball with our legs and then another 30s to 1min of 6inch hold, still with the swiss ball - didn't do so well on this part. Once we moved on to crunches and my hip flexors got a little rest, I was fine for the leg lifts we did later.
Bag workout felt like nothing.
Skimped out on the 100 kicks on my right leg yesterday at muay thai.
Thought about making them up on the softer bags at krav maga, but just felt like going home so I left.
When I got home, I jumped on the scale out of curiosity and I was back down to Saturday's weigh in weight.
Two more workout days this week.
Got my stuff from Title boxing in the mail today. I went to them for my Boon 14oz gloves. Big mistake. Title's selling knock off Boon's. It's like they got someone to try to make a copy using Title's cruddy padding and rubbery synthetic leather. Horrible. Not to mention, way huge. They're basically a 16oz glove with less padding - huge pocket, bulky. 14oz gloves usually have the same thickness of padding as 16s (or at least similar), but a smaller profile and a tighter pocket. Disappointing. But my legit gloves are already on their way and I'll be returning the Title garbage on Saturday.
Thursday 9/29/2011
All in all out class today.
1.5 hours of kettlebells, jogging, calisthenics, battle ropes, plyometrics, more calisthenics, and even some pad work.
I was dead by the 1 hour mark, but managed to hobble my way to the end.
I'm ready for bed.
Weight was down 4lbs from this morning after that workout.
My weight's all over the place this week though.
I may even be above last week's weight by saturday's weigh in.
Oh well.
I've got faith in my plan and I'm following it as perfectly as I can.
As long as I stick with it, results will come.
Still going to cut back on how much I eat on the cheat day and see if I can go a few weeks without one.
I know when I would lose weight in the past, I would lose a bunch of weight, then wobble up and down for a week or two, then lose a bunch more weight, then wobble up and down there.
It was never like a constant rate.
That may have been a sign of losing too much weight too quick, and it might also explain my current situation.
Don't mind though.
My plan is to stick with this a long time so I'm not so worried about yo-yoing.
Not doing anything I can't stick with for a while.
This weekend sukked.
Friday I blew out 2 tires and spent the day at the repair shop.
Saturday was a friend's wedding, which meant way too much food & wine.
Sunday was my wife's birthday, which again meant food and alcohol.
Saturday's weigh in showed no change from the previous week.
Think I just got discouraged this weekend.
School's starting to stress me out because I haven't really gotten anything done.
Need to get back on it this week.
Monday 10/3/2011
So far, the week's not looking good.
Was exhausted all day, almost passing out at my desk many times.
Got stuck in traffic for almost an hour coming out of work, so I had to miss yoga.
Came home and fell asleep for 2 hours.
The last few days I've realized that I'm going to have to work harder at school.
I hate to do this, because it sets a bad precedent, but no working out until I finish my Integration Paper.
It's my last class, my last solo paper, and it's keeping me from contributing on my group project - so I've really gotta knock it out asap.
If this thing's not looming over my head, I think I'll be able to concentrate better.
Already spent the last hour writing.
last night at 11, teacher sent out new grading rubric for the paper, less than a week before it's due.
had to scrap all of my content and start from scratch, if i work until late every night I *might* be able to finish.
man i hate school.
Tuesday 10/11/2011
After over a week off from the gym and a 4 day bender, I finally got back on the saddle tonight. Wrapped up my project at 10pm last night, but didnt' get to bed till late.
I stuck with the plan today and went to muay thai, even though i was a bit sleepy.
I'm glad I went, I got more energy when I was there.
Thankfully, it was a slow day, so I could work on my own stuff.
jump rope 5 rounds, 3 min each, pushups & abs during each 1 min rest
shadow 3 rounds, 3 min each
heavybag 5 rounds, 3 min each, 10 squat-kicks each leg during each 1 min rest
skip knees 1 round on heavybag
shadow 3 rounds, 3 min each, (5 jumping jacks - 1 burpee) x 5 during each 1 min rest
24 taiji for one set
shin conditioning on hard bag - somewhere between 50 and 100 kicks, wasn't really counting
stretching static & ballistic
got back on the diet horse today as well; ate very clean.
Wed 10/12/2011
kinda freaking out tonight
there are 2 deliverables for my final (capstone) class:
1. Exit portfolio - 5 old papers in modified APA format, 1 new paper that sums up our whole experience in the program
2. Group project - my team is 5 people who work in medical field and me. they decided to go for making an assisted living facility. i couldn't care less.
I finished the Exit portfolio monday night at 10pm
I've been putting off work on the group project till i finished the exit portfolio.
Last night I finally got around to the 70+ emails my group has sent out on the group project.
I think I'm realizing exactly how far behind I am.
Freaking out about it a bit.
My group's expecting deliverables from me on the project this saturday and I haven't even really started.
I have no interest in the project and don't feel like I have anything of value to contribute- it's just not my field of expertise.
I'm running into the same old situation I've had since I started this degree: focusing on anything more than school at the same time is very difficult.
The reality of the situation sunk in today at work around 3pm and I'm feeling overwhelmed.
Before last week, I basically just worked out; making exercise & diet my priorities, and getting around to school work on the weekends.
It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do that anymore.
Tonight, I skipped the gym.
I know it's because I wussed out.
I just can't afford to be too tired when I come home to work on the project.
It's an excuse, not a valid reason, but for some reason I can't bring myself to care.
After spending over an hour stuck in traffic tonight on my way home, I don't care much about my diet either.
I'm going to have to take baby steps to get back on track.
I may not even get back on track until 2 months from now when the class is over.
Bottom line, I know I'm falling off tonight and I'm writing about it as a method of keeping accountability for myself - so I can look at this later and not let it happen again.
I need to find a way to do something as far as diet and working out now that school is really taking over.
Need to get back on track with the diet and keep the working out to 2 or 3 times a week.
Will have to scale things back a bit.
More importantly, I need to find my motivation and learn how to balance everything.
Little summary of the last 3 months:
October
- Lots of school & trips to Houston
- Lots of booze
- few sporadic gym trips
- Quit weight watchers
November
- School got even crazier.
- Drinking came to a head at the start of the month. Quit around the first week.
- Probably hit the gym even less than October.
- My usual stomach flu over thanksgiving.
- Weight jumped to over 250
December
- Wrapped up school December 3rd.
- Got drunk as soon as I got home from my last class; through the following evening.
- Quit booze again.
- Slowly working my way back to the gym.
- Got sick around the 10th; finally got better around the 20th.
This week I've already hit the gym twice.
My weight's down to the low 240s, just from quitting drinking (even with holiday food).
The new workout plan is:
Monday - yoga & muay thai
Tuesday - cardio bag class
Wednesday - muay thai
Thursday - cardio bag class
Friday - muay thai
Still working up to the new workout plan; haven't done it yet.
This week, I'm hoping to complete Tuesday through Friday from the plan.
Haven't done a Monday yet.
Holday-permitting, next week will be better.
Once I've adjusted to that schedule, I'll probably step it up for All-in-all-out on Thursdays and maybe Cross-Fitness on Wednesdays, with muay thai on Tu, Wed, Fri.
But there's no rush on upping the schedule, until my body's ready.
Diet-wise, aside from cutting out alcohol & smokes; I've also been limiting going out to eat to once a week (not counting the occasional subway run).
Cooking a lot more.
About to cut out carbonated beverages altogether.
Hey man,
Sort of skimmed through your blog and noticed there's been lots of ups and downs, starting and stopping. Looks like you're having weight issues and that sort of thing. I give you credit for putting it all on here for people you know jack about to read, so take this with a grain of salt. Stick to something reasonable and do it. Don't put all these goals in your head because you'll eventually feel like nothings going right and end up giving up. Pick one thin you really need to change, ie: weight. and work on getting that in control. Don't get me wrong, i do the same thing with changing my workouts or not followiing through with a plan i've set up, but i find for me, if i just have one goal then i'm better at focusing on it and getting a good result. Don't look for quick fixes because they never work.
Anyway, you seem like a decent guy and i'm not trying to rag on ya, so take it for what it's worth.
Good luck.
Thanks for the encouragement and the feedback brule.
I appreciate you being gentle. :)
Don't really have a valid reason for my behavior the last couple years.
My excuse is that school was overwhelming.
The times you see me start up are the times when I would have a break from school or a lull in the workload.
The times I fell off coincided with when school picked up (aside from sickness and/or injury).
I didn't do a good job of juggling the two.
In retrospect it was probably a mistake to do a masters program 3.5 hours away in Houston.
All that driving, combined with the stress, the long hours, and the sheer amount of work, really took a lot out of me.
Now that I'm finally done with school, I'm trying to create some decent habits & build a routine.
Yes, my overall goal is to lose weight, but it's a marathon, not a sprint.
I totally agree with you that consistency is the key.
I am trying my best to create a lifestyle I can be consistent with for the long run.
I'm comfortable not doing the perfect diet or the perfect routine if what I am doing is an improvement and something I can continue for months on end.
I can always tweak as time goes on.
Right now I'm focusing on 3 things: stay away from drinking & smoking, don't go out to eat more than once a week, and get back into a consistent gym schedule.
I'm not ready to jump into a strict diet; just going to make some minor tweaks and just try to be consistent. Cutting out booze & not ordering anymore delivery are pretty much the extent of my willpower for food these days.
Working out five days a week is something I've been slowly working up to.
I'm not ready to go full-out 5 days a week yet and won't be for a while.
Currently, my only high-intensity days are Tuesday & Thursday.
The workouts at the muay thai gym haven't been very demanding.
At the muay thai gym, it's up to me how hard I want to push it.
Working out is usually very fun for me and if i dread going to the gym, then I know that something's wrong with my routine and/or I need some rest.
Going to see how my body reacts to the routine I listed.
If it's too much, I'll throw in a mid-week rest day.
If I end up adapting to it & feeling hungry for more, I'll step up the workouts.
I had a lot of success in 2009, when I stopped worrying about the weight so much and I just tried to get in the best shape I could. This time around, I'll probably spend less time at the gym each day, but my goal is to keep it going a lot longer than 5 or 6 months.
Thursday 12/29/2011
Cardio bag class at the krav maga gym.
Brutal workout.
I see the people that have been there a while going for more than one class a night.
Can't tell yet if they're really that in shape, or if they've learned how to pace themselves.
I'd prefer not to pace myself.
If this class becomes too easy, I'll probably just go for the harder classes.
I don't like being at the gym more than an hour, hour and a half; as I need at least some time for my family.
Can't see myself staying at the gym that long anymore.
Friday 12/30/2011
Earlier today i mentioned that muay thai class wasn't too strenuous.
I wonder if my coach is reading this blog.
He smoked me today.
Didn't help that I'd had some spicy food for a late lunch an hour before class.
2 hour workout from he||.
puked twice.
Lots of reps of just about every calisthenic I know and a lot I didn't know.
5 minutes of skip knees.
punches on the bag for reps.
bob & weave under the rope - we're doing a lot more boxing these days.
shadow boxing a number of specific defenses and counters for the last 20 min or so.
ouch.
Tuesday 1/3/2012
Went to muay thai.
Tried to do as much of the brutality workout as I could remember, with a few tweaks.
Left out the 5min round of skip knees; but got in 2 rounds of pad work.
solid workout, sore today (wed).
monthly meeting wednesday night so i'll be back in the gym on thursday.
[EDIT: Thought I should put a blurb in here about being one month sober as of Tuesday, 1/3/2012]
Friday 1/6/2012
Had a real late night on Wednesday, ruined me for Thursday.
Got back in the gym on Friday.
Lots of calisthenics.
Got up to 20 continuous burpee jacks (5 jumping jacks + 1 burpee).
5 min of skip knees is still tough.
Did a lot of boxing pad work, with defense.
Worked a lot on footwork.
Coach has definitely started incorporating a lot more boxing, so my style is kind of going back to what it was in Baltimore.
Monday 1/9/2012
Yoga night.
Sweat a bit, but wasn't a killer.
Nice to have a day where I don't kill myself.
Felt really good afterwards.
Suntzu's coming to town tonight.
Going to bag class before he gets here.
Tuesday 1/10/2012
Cardio bag class.
Was a little off-putting - instructor ran up to me in the middle of class and called me out for having "wrong side forward".
A little background - I am southpaw, most of the cardio bag instructors claim to drill both sides evenly, but few actually do. So I usually go southpaw when everyone else is orthodox and switch orthodox when everyone else goes southpaw.
It caught me off guard a bit; kinda made me mad.
Switched and kinda half-azzed it till we finished up that side, waiting to see if she'd follow through with drilling the other side.
Luckily she did, and everything was gravy.
Class itself was pretty easy.
Lots of new folks, so I wonder if she toned it down.
Maybe the break I gave myself was enough to recover; but it really wasn't that much.
Okay workout, but I finished wondering if I should stay for another class.
Wasn't due to pick up Suntzu from the airport for another hour and a half.
Ended up going home & changing clothes, which ended up working out well.
We got some Thai food and watched 13 Assassins; interesting flick.
He was watching Strikeforce when i went to bed a little after midnight.
Woke up earlier than normal today.
Had to get up early to get my kid his passport, but I woke up even earlier than that.
Feel pretty good.
Probably just excited to work out with my friend again.
Going to figure out which gym to go to tonight
Wednesday 1/11/2012
Muay Thai tonight.
Suntzu came too.
3 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics on the rests.
Calisthenics circuit from hades - burpee jacks not too bad, still not able to do the ab exercises without letting my shoulders/legs touch the floor, upper body stuff still killing me, but it seems to be going faster though.
5 minutes of skip knees (survived much better this time).
stretch kicks.
Held pads for about 7 rounds.
Hit pads for 3 rounds.
3 rounds of bag.
Feel pretty good.
Slowly making progress - but it will be a long time till i'm back to proper form.
Good on you dude.
I myself have just recently started to get back to working out from a 10 week hiatus.
Sucks to start at the bottom but such is life !
Last week I worked out all 5 days to get used to working out- less intense but progressing.
This week I am doing 3X a week but with more intensity but only next week will I add MA training ( doing ST for this week and last).
A long layoff really takes it out of you.
Right now I am doing only BW exercises - Chins, dips, handstand push-ups, one handed pushups, horizontal pull ups, squats.
The numbers suck, but they are on their way up, slowly but surely.
Thanks :)
I'm noticing that lower intensity with more frequent workouts is more rewarding to me.
Since we're just getting back into it, the need to push ourselves very hard to get any results really isn't there - anything we do at this point will pretty much help.
I'll push cardio intensity at various points in the week, but anything that makes me so sore that i require time to recuperate is pretty much off the table right now.
The intensity will come naturally as I feel better.
Like you, I'm also not lifting heavy.
Doing a ton of bodyweight stuff.
Still need to figure out how to insert pullups in there (requires a trip to a different gym).
Not sure if/when I'll go back to doing squats & deadlifts with heavy weight.
This is the first week I'll be adding a saturday class in years; planning to hit 6 workouts this week for the first time in years as well.
Goal is to not push it too much on Saturday & just have fun with it.
I want to stay consistent with what I'm doing for the next 8 months or so, reevaluate, and maybe shoot for an amateur bout in 10 months. Will make small tweaks to my diet, but not go "on a diet" until that time. Want to see how sticking with working out & small tweaks consistently affects me.
Cautious of burning out on the exercise & diet front, so I want to keep it fun & relaxed.
I think that when one is training with a goal and for competition that "moderate and consistent" is the way to go.
You can always rev it up 6 weeks prior to get the "intensity level" higher.
You seem to have a good blend of short term and long term goals, good on you.
As for the more intense ST:
Do it when you get to the point that you feel you HAVE to, ie: you are maxing out with your BW exercises at a level of endurance instead of strength.
Even then there are many tricks you can do to make the BW exercises more challenging.
Of course you will never get the pure raw strength and power like doing Squats, DL, Bench and overheads, but I you may not need it at this point and there is nothing wrong ( and many things right) about building a solid core/base with BW exercises.
Thursday 1/12/2012
Suntzu wanted to go to the Fit to Fight class at 7:30, so I jumped into Crossfitness Plus class.
They've switched up Crossfitness class.
Used to be: a brutal 20 min high rep weight circuit, a nasty 20 min core work out, and finish up with 20 min on the bag. We had to move to a different room for each section.
These days, everything's in the bag room. It's now 20 min of core, 20 min of rubber bands, and 20 min on the bag.
I would say that the bag section is better these days, but the other 2 sections are lacking the sheer suffering of the original. In all, it felt more like a slight variation on the cardio bag classes than the old crossfitness class.
Still a good workout though.
Sweat through my shirt.
Muay thai tonight and tomorrow.
Tonight's going to be hard work, but planning to take it easy tomorrow & just have fun.
Saturday 1/14/2012
Took Friday night off because I was sore and feeling run down.
It's easier to talk myself into working out when I'm tired when I can hit the gym on the way home, instead of driving all the way home to pick my friend up and then turn around to go back out.
Worked out Saturday.
Did a reasonable 2 hour workout and then sparred with Suntzu.
Team mate showed up when we were sparring and jumped in round robin.
First time working with the team mate, and it went well for the most part.
He's been looking to prove himself to the older generation of guys at my gym for a while, so he kind of took it seriously even though we tried to make it fun.
He is a bigger guy and is actually really good; but I think I'm going to have to spend more time keeping the mood light. He called "cheap shot" a few times when we were going light and used it as an excuse to "get revenge". He almost broke my nose with one really nice punch. He ended up quitting after accusing Suntzu of "thumbing" him in the eye.
I want to work with the guy more, because he's good and he can make me better.
I just gotta figure out how to keep it fun.
Monday 1/16/2012
Went to Gold's for yoga class.
Thought class was at 6, but it was actually at 5:30; strolled into the room around 5:55.
Class was okay, I like the krav yoga teacher much better.
Afterwards, I did some lat & rear delt work to offset imbalances in my training.
- t-bar row - 90lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets
- hammer strength close grip bilateral (separate weight for each arm) pull down - 60lbs each side x 10 reps x 5 sets
- wide cable pull down (separate cable for each arm) - together: 80lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 100lbs x 10 reps; alternating: 100lbs x 10 reps.
Not a killer workout, but enough to break a sweat.
Tuesday 1/17/2012
Visited the gym my work friends go to; where one of my buddies used to teach.
The boxing coach there is a great guy and I've wanted to train under him for a while.
I was surprised, the vibe at the gym was awesome.
Most of the guys that work out there come from the mma gym I used to work out at sometimes.
I really didn't like the vibe of the other mma gym; everyone used to try to stare you down whenever you walked in.
This gym was the exact opposite, everyone was friendly.
The workout itself was short but sweet.
I'm a fan of the boxing coach's technique and he gave me some useful correction for head movement.
Plus they have some really nice bags.
Probably go back again, though I'm not sure if I can make it a regular thing.
EDIT:
We got there an hour early, so we stretched, did some pad work, & lifted some weights while we waited.
Did a 5x5 clean & press with 95lbs.
Workout itself was 1 hour long.
Broke a nice sweat, but didn't kill myself.
Sore today though, mostly from the weights on monday.
Wednesday I learned that fighting 6 o'clock traffic to drive all the way home kills my motivation to do anything else.
Was sore & a bit tired because I haven't been sleeping enough.
Feeling better today, so going to shoot for 2 workouts to make up for it.
I think if I plan on driving home before working out again, I'm going to have to leave work early.
Thursday 1/19/2012
Suntzu and I hit up cardio bag class at the krav gym tonight.
Great workout, but rather tough on our shoulders.
We were both burnt afterwards.
Lots of burpees.
Tonight I gotta make up for wednesday.
Friday 1/20/2012
Muay thai class.
Showed up early, stayed at least 2 hours.
Lots & lots of defense drills today.
Worked with Suntzu and a mma guy; featherweight like 135.
Found out later the mma guy is close with my friend (Ray Ray) and is an accomplished fighter out of another gym (Rodrigo Pinheiro + Pete Spratt + Aaron Rosa).
This guy had come to my gym the week before and worked with the guy I sparred Saturday the 14th; Rich, the guy who almost busted my nose.
Rich almost killed the guy.
Tonight I learned why.
We did a lot of training and defense drills - over an hour's worth.
He didn't want to or didn't know how to slow it down.
I didn't mind it most of the time, because he's half my weight and really couldn't do much damage.
At one point I guess I embarrassed him, because he threw a full speed jumping round kick out of frustration. I called him on it, saying "do we really want to be blasting each other?" - I'm double his weight & his head is the height that I usually throw round kicks to the ribs; not exactly someone I'd feel good about "green-lighting."
Coach jumped in.
Apologies were made.
Got back to business & finished out the class.
Otherwise; he actually wasn't a bad workout partner.
I did switch up my style starting friday though.
I'm going back to parrying.
Since I've come back to the muay thai gym, the style has changed a bit- focusing more on boxing. The reason behind this is because our traditional style of muay thai is more geared towards elbows; which aren't usually legal in the US, so coach is trying to make it more "dutch" in order to better fit the local rules.
The newer style incorporates a lot of head movement in place of parries.
As a fighter; I don't have very fast feet or head movement, but I have pretty fast hands.
As a southpaw, using head movement is very awkward; I often find myself in very bad position - both off-balance & exposed to my opponent.
Parrying works out very well for me, because my balance isn't all over the place.
I stay centered and ready to deliver my offense.
Even when I have to shell up, it works out better, because I'm usually in better position to see what's coming and to fire back immediately.
I felt like the change was instantly better, but we'll give it time to see how it plays out in sparring.