I've been hearing good things about raspberry ketones for fat loss.
I haven't read the studies though but some people are having good results.
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I've been hearing good things about raspberry ketones for fat loss.
I haven't read the studies though but some people are having good results.
Friday 4/20/2012
Muay thai class
Haven't been feeling well this week - sore throat and cough.
Not super serious, but just enough to kill performance.
Took Thursday off to sleep.
As a side note, I'm finding it hard to fit in weightlifting sessions. I missed my lifting workouts the last two weeks. This is partly due to time constraints, partly due to worries that fatigue will cause my form to break down leading to injury, and partly due the feeling that it's so different from my other workouts, possibly counter-productive for weight loss. The last 2 weeks I haven't been feeling great, which is really the main reason. This week was illness, the week before from not eating enough. Hopefully when I feel normal, I'll be more consistent with lifting.
Friday night's class was exhausting...
I worked very hard, especially the first 30 min - 1hour.
By the time I got to the bag I was dragging & moving slow.
Did one round on pads with this new combo and it was pretty abysmal.
Saturday 4/21/2012
Saturday I felt even worse than friday.
I was initially just going to show up, drop off the key and go home.
I decided to stick out muay thai class anyway.
Glad I did.
After jump rope, i did some shadow and actually got in a lot of pad work with my coach.
I think it was 3 rounds hands and either 2 or 3 rounds of kicks.
Last 2 rounds I had to take a 5 second breather half way through.
Couldn't breathe through my nose because of the cold and it was coating my lungs.
It was pretty frustrating, but at least better than Friday's performance.
New combo's coming along a little better.
Coach said his grand vision for the fighters is pretty much what I mentioned before:
5 rounds mitts, 5 rounds thai pads, clinch sparring, and regular sparring.
He said when we work up to that we can fight anybody.
After class I had a bunch of green tea with ginger and honey.
At dinner I went for vietnamese pho soup & got jasmine tea.
Cold's starting to feel a lot better.
I may have cheated a little saturday night (pho with desert after); but in general, I feel like I'm doing okay. Normally when I get sick, I completely throw any diet out the window. This time, except for a little splurging on Saturday(s), I've done a lot better.
I was 210 on friday morning.
Monday 4/23/2012
Yoga class - 1 hour
worked on some new poses
pretty strenuous
good stretch
went to the muay thai gym for about an hour
worked on flexibility, stretch kicks, shadow, and med ball slams.
Tuesday 4/24/2012
cardio bag class at the krav maga gym.
wore my title weighted bag gloves.
old fashioned oven mitt style bag gloves with weights in the wrist.
2.5lbs each glove.
was pretty burnt afterwards.
had some nice crunch on the bag.
coulda sworn the spazz next to me was trying to compete.
we'd start off and his punches would get louder, until he blew his wad and would take a break in the middle of the drill (often quitting the drill outright) - this continued for the whole hour.
he did have some nice push kicks on the burnout rounds.
i still have a problem intentionally overdoing it on the burnout rounds - i keep up a good strong pace, and I finish the round strong. I'm usually hurting on the rests; but i can't help but think i should be going harder.
i also still have a problem with missing the bags. the sweat makes the bag real slick and the bags will bounce off the ground on the back swing, making the bag take off in weird, unexpected directions. Sometimes I'll catch the surface, the bag will take a weird swing, and my strike will slip off from the sweat. Other times I'll miss outright because the bag will bounce off the ground on the back swing and suddenly veer to the left.
Both scenarios mostly happen with hooks & elbows. Occasionally on the back swing, when the bottom hits the ground, the top will bounce backwards and I'll hyper extend a jab, but not as often.
I guess it's good to get practice recovering from misses & glancing blows...
I've been kicking around the idea of adding extra mini sessions to make up for Saturday's cheat.
This is kind of dangerous because I feel like I'm already on the verge of over-training (or already well over-trained). I had thought to do an extra cardio session after bag class, but I really didn't have anything left afterwards.
In the evening I ran through a kung fu form, did some yoga with my wife, and we did 50 body weight squats together. I also cleaned out my car (for my trip to Plano on Friday). It wasn't much, but at least it was something.
Wednesday 4/25/2012
Muay thai, 2 hours
killed it in anticipation of the seminar over the weekend.
lots of conditioning stuff like tire flips, tire jumps, etc.
Took Thursday off so I could be fresh for the seminar.
Friday 4/27/2012
Muay thai seminar in Plano.
Left town around 9 friday morning.
Got up to the seminar around 1:30 and jumped right in (was a bit late for the 1-3 session).
Afterwards, I got to participate in a semi-private that Nop was giving at Chris Brennan's gym.
Spent the evening driving all over DFW before ending up at a Laos New Year's festival.
I brought my food for the trip, but it spoiled from sitting in the car all day.
Due to a snafu with rides home, I ended up driving a lot of the Thai fighters to Saekson's house, including Samart who was riding shotgun - which was effing pretty cool.
Saturday 4/28/2012
Had trouble concentrating this whole weekend and Saturday it was the worst.
Friday night I only got 3 or 4 hours of sleep after all that driving & working out.
Hadn't heard from my wife, she didn't respond to her texts, so I was a bit distracted thinking about that.
Most of the seminar was clinch and it didn't seem I could do anything right.
My partner was convinced that I didn't know what I was doing.
One particular technique: over-under clinch into a shoulder lock, I couldn't seem to get even with Neungsiam helping us.
Had a smoker at the end of the event: 1min body boxing, 1 min kicks only, 1 min clinch only.
Body boxing, I should've won easy, dominated the first few exchanges, but I got hit, realized the guy was wearing cleto reyes fight gloves instead of sparring gloves, I got mad, and fought stup!d. I fell in love with the rear upper cut, because I saw it doing damage; so I'd wade in through his combos to land the big one. He tagged me as I was stepping back at one point and I stumbled, which looked bad. At one point I did go back to sticking & moving and tagging him at will; but it wasn't enough. They scored it draw.
Kicks... I gave the guy the first kick because he said I low-blowed at the end of the body boxing. I went for a leg kick in response & made the mistake of spinning through it lazily. He scooted back, making me miss and immediately fired a headkick. I finished my spin to see a head kick in the air. It connected, but didn't hurt at all. I was disappointed, because headkicks are usually a KO. Funny thing is, it finally helped me find my groove. After that, any time he kicked, I swept him. I had a hard time initiating offense with kicks without my hands; but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. They gave me the kicking round from all the throws.
Clinch... he immediately got double neck tie right off the bat. Rules were if they drag your head down, they get a point, 3 times in a round and you lose. I immediately countered and escaped. After that, I didn't want to get adventurous, I secured over-under clinch and tried to stay busy with side knees. I tried to throw him a bunch of times but couldn't pull it off - he had good base, and I was kind of forcing it. He did manage to throw me once, but i held on and reversed, sending him flying over me as i went down (might've been a faux pas for thai rules, but that's def a judo thing). They scored the clinch round a draw.
I felt horrible about my performance. I felt like I lost and maybe I should have, I don't know. In the end, I've never won anything on points before, so at least there's a small victory in that. I know I got a lot to work on. It's time to start sparring hard again.
After the gym we went back to the Laotian New Year festival for a few hours and then drove home. Finally got in touch with my wife on the ride home and started cheering up a bit after that. Fell off the wagon Saturday night to let off some steam (and besides, a "w" is a "w").
Sunday, I ate way too much barbecue and my body rejected it (puked a lot).
Time to get back on the wagon and step it up.
According to the Thais, running is the most important part of training.
Apparently, I need to start jogging again; but I really don't know when I have the time.
I stopped breathing on the body boxing round when it started becoming rock-em-sock-em robots and my coach thought I looked gassed before the kicking round. Crazy thing is i didn't feel gassed at all... oh well... I know a big part of it is just relaxing and doing what needs to be done - losing my temper and taking 2 to give 1 is not going to cut it.
Crazy weekend.
I really learned a lot.
Gotta figure out how to step it up even more (not sure how at the moment).
Monday 4/30/2012
1 hour yoga class
then headed over to muay thai gym
muay thai workout ran for over 2 hours
lots of clinch work
coach really took notes at the seminar; at the same time I prefer coach's style of clinch techniques - not as complicated, more usable & versatile.
Tuesday 5/1/2012
Krav maga cardio bag class for an hour.
Dude next to me hit me in the shoulder and didn't even bother to apologize.
Was tempted to start sh!t; but don't want to get kicked out.
Class was pretty good otherwise.
Went to btt to hold pads for my friend, but he couldn't.
Hung out for a bit and went home.
Could've gone to bed earlier last night, but it wasn't bad.
I'm really drained this week.
Feel weak and lethargic.
Tonight I have a work-related meeting, so no training.
Still going to run late, so I don't know that it'll help me recover any.
Thursday 5/3/2012
Took of Wednesday for my meeting. Luckily I was able to get to bed early, so Thursday was the best I've felt all week.
Hit the gym first:
Squats: 135 x 5, 185 x 5, 185 x 5, 185 x 5 - form held solid until the last set; which wasn't bad, just not perfect.
Deadlifts: 225 x 5, 275 x 5, 225 x 5 - My hands can't handle the heavier weight. On the second set, had to set the weight down after the 4th rep before I could crank out 5. 225's alright, but 275 feels like it's ripping my hands open.
135lb hanging clean was okay, not good, not bad.
Chinups: 40lb assist x 5, 10lb assist x 5, no assist x 4, 25lb assist x 4 - kept failing on rep 4 (last 2 sets)
Dips: 40lb assist x 5, 25lb assist x 5, 10lb assist x 5, no assist x 5 - pretty easy.
Chinups: no assist x 5 - number 3 was ugly, number 4 was a fail, and number 5 was a 10-second negative.
Afterwards, I went for a jog. Decided to try running on my toes like the barefoot crowd suggest. I was surprised at how easy it was. Jogged for over 30 min and it was EASY! Not hurting today, so I think the experiment was a success. I'll still probably only jog once or twice a week, but at least it's something.
I barely tap the ground between reps, if even that much.
I'm always at least within an inch of the ground.
I rarely set the weight all the way back down.
I could do that, i really don't see there being that much of a difference, it might save my hands some.
I just don't like the idea of being able to rest between reps.
As others here have pointed out to me, DL aren't meant to be done that way. Each rep should be started from the ground where the weight is dead.
Back issues in squats tend to be because of bar palcement and leaning too forward but back issues in the DL come in two forms ( more actually but for the purpose of this discussion):
Too heavy a weight and hips too high on the pull/start of the move.
Back fatigue due to not resting the bar.
Its called a DEADlift for a reason ;)
You can also DEAD Squat which is a real PAIN !
Friday 4/4/2012
Muay thai.
Starting to get real sore from the weight session.
hit it pretty hard for 1.5 to 2 hours.
everything was focused on conditioning: kbells, tire, calisthenics, med ball slams.
pretty intense workout.
finished with 2 rounds of low kick conditioning on the heavybag.
found out my right leg is ready to go again.
was so tired by the end that i could barely move.
we'll see how i do today, my thighs are still real sore.
Saturday 5/5/2012
muay thai
hard workout
finished out with 4 rounds of hard sparring
was working with 2 newer (less than 1 year) guys and coach wanted me to hit them hard to teach them.
not sure how i really feel about it, as they aren't on my level.
both seemed to appreciate the help, even though they took some really hard shots.
at least i was wearing 16s and they knew it was coming, so it was a bit more humane than other seniors teeing off on them with no notice, wearing 12oz gloves.
It was a good workout; I was pretty spent by the end.
I did actually get to learn a couple things I need improve as well.
204 after the workout.
Monday 5/7/2012
yoga class 1hr
Good class
Was having kind of a bad day, I've been feeling pretty burnt lately.
Was supposed to hit up muay thai afterwards, but I decided to just leave it at yoga.
At the moment, i have 1 actual rest day scheduled (sunday) - i usually end up taking off at least one more day whether i want to or not, but only one day scheduled.
i think i need monday to be relaxed in order to keep my schedule strong elsewhere.
In fact, I like my schedule the way it is and am not thrilled about having to add to it.
Coach is keeping the gym open late mon-thurs for fighter training and I should be there.
Thing is, that training goes till 9:30pm, which is WAY late for me.
I'm going to try to swing by tonight after cardio bag class.
I just want to work on technique tonight - maybe fix my footwork for combos.
When they see how exhausted i am after cardio bag, i think they'll take it easy on me.
Tuesday 5/8/2012
cardio bag at krav maga gym 1hr
was actually a little flat for this class.
didn't feel like i was really killing it.
only did one burnout round and i found myself doing the same combo over and over about half way through.
sweat real good at least.
went to muay thai gym after for 1.5 hrs.
worked mostly technique.
did a 5 min pad round.
focus has been on stepping into my punches to blast through the target.
think i'm getting better
Dude, where do you find to time? Especially with a wife and kid. I could barely spend 45 min working out at home in the evening. :(
Yeah, that's kind of my dilemma.
I'm supposed to be doing all this extra stuff: cardio every day, staying for fighter class every Mon, Tues, Wed until 9:30pm, more s&c, etc.
There just isn't any extra time.
Luckily, I have a very understanding wife who works late, works weekends, and also likes to do yoga.
She gives me a lot of leeway on working out because I have to give her so much leeway on weekends she works.
I drop off the kid at daycare in the morning and she picks him up.
If I drove straight home after work, I'd still be stuck in an extra 30 min to an hour's worth of traffic; so stopping at the gym isn't so bad.
If my wife does yoga, she won't get home until like 7:30pm.
Getting home between 7:30 and 8:30 isn't so bad, but getting home after 9pm really isn't working for me.
Last night, I got home just in time to read my kid a bedtime story, took a shower, ordered my mom a mother's day present, heated up dinner and ate in bed.
I'll probably have to wrap up my workouts before 9.
If I stay as long as coach wants, I won't get home until 10.
Honestly, I'd prefer to just hit it hard for an hour or two after work and leave it at that.
I don't think the marathon workouts are all that necessary.
I could never work out at home; I can barely get 30 minutes to myself at home.
As long as it works out for you and yours. Probably makes the time you spend with your kid and wife all the more gratifying. I couldn't do that.
It's a juggle that's for sure.
My wife works at home 2 days out of the week, but she WORKS at home, 7:30 she is already in meetings !
I drop the kids off on the way to work and pick them up.
Then I make sure they do their home work and help where it's needed.
sometimes I have a window of 1 hour between 5-6 and sometimes it is only 30-40 min.
I adjust accordingly.
I leave my IP and qigong till after the kids are in bed ( and every so often I get the, "that's too loud dad" from the eldest- but she's gotten better).
I used to wake up at 5:30 am to workout but I would be dead tired by the end of the week.
I have learned to take the time when it's there and have a fully stocked bar, er I mean gym in the basement !
:D
LMFAO!
Sometimes it gets tough, but we do try to find the time.
My wife does a lot of work at home like charting and calling patients to schedule visits for the next day (she's a home healthcare nurse who travels around town all day), so it's not like she's just sitting around waiting for me.
My kid usually just watches cartoons or takes a nap in the evenings when she does this.
Every night I make sure to read him a bed time story.
On the weekends that my wife works, I spend a lot of time alone with my kid.
Last weekend he and I went to see the Avengers together.
My wife and I try to have date night (usually on weekends she's not working) and we have a nightly ritual of watching netflix together after the kid goes to bed.
Maybe it's not ideal, but it seems to be working.
Lately, I've been feeling a little burned out and I think I'd like to slow it down for a week or two.
My coach is going to become a monk for the next week or two, so that might be my excuse.
Like i said, if it works for you, great. Such is life, meeting the repsonsibilities of a family life and also having you're own time to keep the sanity.
Wednesday 5/9/2012
Muay thai 2.5 hrs
first hour was brutal conditioning
second hour was clinch work
last 30 min was holding & hitting thai pads
Friday 5/11/2012
Weights first:
Assisted chin up 40lb assist x 5, 25lb assist x 5, 10lb assist x 5, no assist x 3 + 1 no assist 10 second negative.
Dip 40lb assist x 5, 25lb assist x 5, 10lb assist x 5, no assist x 5
Squat 185lb x 3reps x 2sets; 155lbs x 5 reps x 2sets; first 2 sets were sloppy and off balance, so i dropped the weight. I guess I'm losing strength. Cause is probably 50/50 between diet and burnout.
Deadlift 225lb x 5reps x 3sets; dropped weight here because I have a cut on my right hand at the base of the ring finger, above the callous. Weight wasn't bad, except for the pain in my hand.
Did a full clean at 135. It was easier than trying to work out the coordination for a hanging clean.
Next was jogging
I jogged the trail with a cool down lap in 30 min.
After that was muay thai
5 rounds jump rope with calisthenics
3 rounds shadow with weight vest
2 rounds shadow no vest
4 rounds on pads
lots of clinch work
little bit of heavy bag
Saturday 5/13/2012
Muay thai 1 to 3
5 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow with vest
2 rounds shadow no vest
9 rounds on heavybag
held pads for 6 rounds
only hit pads for 1 5-minute burnout round
I've been really hungry this whole weekend.
This next week's schedule is going to be weird - my coach will be in the temple for the next week or two.
Monday will probably be my only late night, after that i'm probably going to keep my workouts short so i can catch a breather.
so i've taken most of this week off from working out, but I have been in the gym.
Monday 5/14/2012
Taught and held pads for 4+ hours.
This was surprisingly exhausting, I don't how my coach does it.
Led the kids in a group workout of jump rope and calisthenics.
Held pads for an hour, helping my friend fix his rear round kick.
Spent an hour teaching some new guys how to throw basic punches, held mitts.
Finished up the last hour~hour and a half holding thai pads for this guy with good boxing but no kicks.
Tuesday I was completely burnt.
Wednesday 5/16/2012
Was still kind of hurting wednesday.
Helped out at the gym from 6 to 8.
Did a bunch of bag conditioning (shins & push kicks) at a pretty relaxed pace.
Helped another friend work on countering the cross to the body for the last part.
Thursday I started to feel a little better for the first time in a while.
Motivation started coming back a little.
So far today (Friday), I feel the best that I've felt, but I still feel like I've got a ways to go until I'm recovered from burnout. Going to coach tonight and maybe do a bit of heavybag (to break in some gloves). Nothing crazy. I need less sleep when I'm not working out, so even though I haven't changed my sleep schedule too much; I feel WAY less sleep-deprived. Body just decided to wake up an hour early this morning, forced myself to go back to bed.
I expect to be back on point next week.
Haven't decided if I'm going to work out Saturday or not.
I want a nice, relaxing weekend to get totally recharged.
Friday 5/18/2012
Hour and a half of bag work (mostly boxing) with new gloves.
I got them so some of the guys would have 16s to spar with and I wouldn't have to hear BS about how they had to use 12oz gloves for sparring.
The gloves showed up really small and hard, so I spent time to break them in and see if they could be used for sparring - my initial thought was "no way in heck."
The gloves performed admirably; was really impressed.
They softened up a bit by the end, but I'm still not sure that they are sparring gloves.
Going to give it a few more weeks.
Saturday 5/19/2012
Woke up at 201lbs.
My training buddy started texting me, saying he was driving down from austin, and asked me to hold pads.
Figured "what the heck" and went.
Did over an hour of a killer workout to work up a good sweat.
Held pads for 6 rounds or so for my friend.
Held pads another 3 rounds for this beginner guy.
3 rounds of shadow with weight vest (footwork drills on rest rounds)
3 rounds of skip knees (got over 300)
swept up the gym for another 45 min to an hour.
went home, jumped on the scale before my shower and was 195.6
Granted, I was a bit dry, but given that it's my first time being under 200 since 2003, I'm a bit stoked.
Traded in lunch & dinner for a bowl of Japanese ramen (with freshly made noodles).
Doubt it was even 600cal, but it sure was tasty.
Monday 5/21/2012
yoga.
pretty good yoga class, but I cut up my hand pretty good on Sunday then again Monday morning getting out of the shower.
not sure how the rest of the week's workouts are going to go.
went to the muay thai gym to welcome the coach back from his religious retreat and drop off some gifts.
Tuesday 5/22/2012
Went to cardio bag class with my busted up hand.
Did okay, but certain points I couldn't punch with my right.
Did a lot of ab work.
Noticed that straight punches hurt less than hooks - only lasted 1 or 2 hooks.
Afterwards I went to muay thai for about an hour.
Tried to hold pads.
One hard kick split my hand open, so I only used belly pad and left thai pad.
pretty frustrating overall.
Thursday 5/24/2012
Weights first
Squat 5reps x bar; 5reps x 95lbs; 5 reps x 135lbs; 5reps x 155lbs; 5reps x 185lbs (didn't like my form on this set going low); 5reps x 185lbs (narrow stance, shoot for parallel, not all the way); 5reps x 185lbs (wide stance); 15reps x bar (5 narrow, 5 regular, 5 wide).
Assisted chin 40lb assist x 5, 25lb assist x 5; 10lb assist x 5 (last one was iffy); no assist x 3 + 10sec flexed arm hang + 10sec slow negative.
After that, I went jogging.
Did 2 laps around the jogging trail, I'm guessing about 5 or 6 miles, took about an hour.
Amazing that jogging doesn't hurt now that I'm under 200lbs.
legs are pretty sore today (friday), but not really DOMS (that charlie horse feeling).
Oh, I know the arguments "people should do conditioning on their own time".
I've seen these type of complaints a lot in BJJ schools especially.
I've seen it in some other martial arts schools as well, but not so much in fighting gyms.
The only comparable thing I see in fighting gyms are the guys that say that all they want to do is spar (see boxer James Toney as the penultimate example of this).
Lumped into that "1 hour of conditioning" is stuff like jump rope, "floor work" (push ups, situps, burpees, jump squats), tire jumps, box jumps, tire flips, kettle bell swings, med ball slams, shadowboxing with the weight vest, and skip knees. In other words, it's all stuff that has direct carry over to what I'm doing: footwork/agility drills, anaerobic endurance, and stuff to build explosive power.
Bag work can be conditioning as well, especially if it's rounds focused on shin conditioning.
In a boxing gym or open workout scenario, this routine is actually pretty common. You're mostly there for conditioning - whether it's these exercises or on the bags, with a sprinkling of skill work on the mitts thrown in. I would question any boxing gym that didn't promote "floor work".
I don't know that I've ever even seen a class type environment that was bereft of this type of conditioning either. Certainly with muay thai, the root (ie camps in thailand) most definitely have in-class conditioning. Camps will usually have a 5km run built into the beginning of the class, plus a lot of the exercises I listed.
I don't have time to be doing 3-a-days anymore. Maybe if I didn't work on the opposite end of town, with a 40+ min commute each way, I'd have time to add that stuff back in. I dunno. I get my workouts in when I can.
Skill-wise, i could get everything I could ever need in about 15 to 20 rounds (an hour or less):
5 rounds shadow (optional/part of conditioning), 5 rounds pads, 5 rounds clinch sparring, and 5 rounds real sparring or defense drills.
I consider myself lucky if I can have access to a coach/trainer and partners to perform all that in a single workout, it's not often available. Most of the time I make-do with less; so I have to do everything else that I can do in the time I have.
Friday 5/25/2012
Muay thai for a couple hours.
Worked real hard on conditioning.
hit pads and survived with kru phet for a good 5 rounds or so.
did full speed defense drills with polish guy - kinda like sparring, but i was letting him get his work in.
he was wearing bag gloves and putting weight on his punches, it hurt.
when i actually tried to defend while he was doing his counter, he complained saying he wouldn't hit me hard - and then go right back to hitting me hard.
popped him in the face once to show him how open he was and remind him that I was letting him get his work in; didn't really work, he kept swinging and making comments if I got out of the way.
I made a comment about his bag gloves because i was tired of taking it; mostly just the fatigue talking, should've kept my mouth shut.
Held pads at the end - took a kick to the upper arm when partner didn't listen or even look.
felt burnt & sore after.
Saturday 5/26/2012
Muay thai for a couple hours.
Taught today, only 2 guys showed up.
Hard conditioning at the beginning.
Held pads at the end.
One guy has nice hands.
The other guy has a perfect build for fighting (135 and below), former mma/bjj guy, but no power on his kicks.
Monday 5/28/2012
Muay thai for a couple hours.
Wanted the day off.
Had to drop off key for coach because I had it for the weekend when he went out of town.
Didn't even bring my stuff, no gloves, nothing. Barely remembered my gym clothes.
Felt really lethargic & sore.
Barely made it through 3 rounds of jump rope.
Did lots of shadow and then light sparring/defense drills with another mma guy who I'd never met before.
Guy is good; will make a great partner.
I think coach wanted us to go free form; we were doing more like a drill.
I didn't quite trust him to go light with no gloves or shin guards and he seemed content to stick with more of a drill format.
Coach was showing us unorthodox ways to do inside leg kick and destroy the opponent's root for punching - my inner knee is still a dark color of purple.
After this workout I was officially burnt out.
I've decided to take some time off from working out and diet.
I just need a break.
I've got a bit of a chest cold and a bunch of nagging injuries.
I'll start back up next week.
I just need to recuperate and get my motivation back.
It's Friday now and I already feel the urge to go back; already starting back on the diet.
By Sunday I know I'm going to be ready to go.
Need to start sparring almost every workout from here on out.
Gonna hurt, but if I'm smart, I'll make it.
I think it tends to depend on WHAT conditioning we are talking about.
Most people have no problem with "MA specific" conditioning - sparring, bag work, pad work, etc, but they tend to not care to pay for 30 min of calisthenics and 30 min of actual MA.
I've always been of the view that class should be about 10 min of "warm ups" - calisthenics- and the bulk of class should be DOING the MA and that means doing it FOR conditioning.
Spending 30 min of drilling the HB full force gives you very good conditioning AND works your MA specific pathways and techniques.
Sure, I'll be more specific.
My hard routine is usually this:
3min rounds 1min rest
5 rounds: jump rope, 10 pushups, 10 crunches, 10 bicycle crunches, 10 leg lifts on rest
1 round: burpees (shoot for 45)
2 rounds: various calisthenics (jump squats, clap pushups, jump 180 twist squats, jump lunges, etc)
3 rounds: 20 kbell swings, 20 medball slams. Usually last 2 rounds, do a round each arm.
1 or 2 rounds: quick, low box jumps with tire (forward & sideways)
3 rounds: jumping on the tire
3 rounds: flipping the tire, last 2 rounds is 1 round each arm
3 rounds: skip knees, shoot for 300 total
3 rounds: shadow with weight vest, footwork drills on rest rounds
2 rounds: shadow no weight vest - work on speed
4 rounds: shin conditioning on heavybag, at least 2 rounds each leg
1 round: nothing but push kick
Sometimes, I can't get through it all in one workout, so I'll split it up to do throughout the week - like my weekly checklist of things I've gotta cover.
After that, I'll add stuff like pad work, defense drills, sparring, clinch, or free form heavybag, which I'll usually detail in my write ups.
Some of that, I could see people maybe not wanting to do.
Personally, I feel that any of the jumping stuff is really important and all contributes to footwork.
Other stuff is for full body connection, often with explosive movements (slams, etc) - which helps power.
As far as the rest, I do my best to re-create the fatigue of the fight; the burpees and calisthenics really get me to that exhaustion point quickly.
Heavybag's cool for conditioning & building power, but it does have its limitations.
I do 1 straight hour on the bag on Tuesdays (mostly power punching, with some calisthenics & abs); so my muay thai workouts are shaped to counterbalance those workouts.
I find pad work much more demanding than heavybag. Having to work on someone else's pace, with someone else's preferred techniques, & defending attacks at the same time is really exhausting. I find it even more exhausting than sparring (even hard sparring); because either I'm not throwing as hard on a person, or I'm more able to mix up my techniques to spread out the fatigue. Problem is, aside from the coach, there are only a few people that know how to hold. I'm doing my best to spread the knowledge, but a lot of people just don't want to learn it.
If you really want to put a "kick" into your HB routine:
DO a couple of rounds of 3 min with 1 min rest to warm up and then:
2 min rounds with 30 second rest at a moderate pace for 3 rounds.
1 min round with 20 second rest at full speed ( no stopping at all during the round) for 3 rounds
2 min rounds with 30 second rest at full force ( hit as hard as you can in combos but you can stop and move and so forth, but do not pace yourself)- 3 rounds.
2 rounds of a moderate pace to cool down.
One of the things that people do that really hinders their HB work is that they pace themselves, which is great when working on form but makes your conditoning suffer.
Did you see that MT pad clip I posted from youtube? with the pad holder "fighting" the pad striker?
I'll check the youtube clip later, I don't think I've seen your post.
I posted one on my facebook page recently that sounds about the same.
http://youtu.be/4dihIfIgaf8
EDIT: LOL we both shared the same vid!!! Same day too... not sure who came first... good clip tho.. i'll post more as i find them.
I agree with you that pacing yourself on the heavy bag is it's biggest weakness.
Of course, with the swing of the bag, you can't always help it.
As far as the rotating intervals - in the muay thai gym, I don't have much choice; there's a clock with a broken second hand and a timer that everyone else uses. Even if I could modify the timer, it would take a LONG time to adjust.
In the bag class we do alternating intervals.
Some are 30 seconds, some are 1 min, some are 3 minutes.
"Rest" is never really rest; we're always doing side-to-sides, jumping jacks, or ab work.
"Rest" will be anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute.
Very hard to pace yourself in that class.
Mon 6/4/2012
First workout back in a week.
Yoga first, for 1 hour. Worked out a good sweat. Had/have a lot of toxins to get out.
After that was Muay thai for 2 hours; focusing on shadow and defense/counter drills (dutch style), with a little heavybag mixed in.
Feel a lot more fresh now than before - feels like I can move 3 times faster.
Got back on the diet, which also feels much better.
Diet does have 1 tweak - i went back to large meals that they pick for me (large victory march); this is what I started with and had most of my success with. Calories may be slightly higher, but I don't mind.
Back is a bit tweaked and still have a little bit of a chest cold. My wife is going through the worst of the chest cold right now and I'm basically sleeping on the couch in order to get any sleep at all. Haven't slept much the last 2 nights, but don't feel too bad. Drinking hot green tea with local honey as a preventative.