Well, I made it this far - (New Blog Chapter)

[Pork Chop]

Got a good boxing workout in today.

10 min straight on jump rope.
3 rounds shadow- 2 with vest & 3lb handweights, 1 w/vest & 5lb handweights
8 rounds of heavybag (spread across various heavybags) - first 2 w/vest

By the end of the bag rounds I really didn't have much left. I figure tomorrow I'll work more on footwork and other drills if i can make it to the gym in time to work out (they close early).

I already like the idea of just focusing on boxing & the boxing gym. Got an ease of mind and interest in my training that I haven't really had lately.

[Pork Chop]

Friday I went down to the boxing gym lookin to show off my medicine ball w/rope and some clips I got on my computer but nobody was at the gym. There was an event in Houston this past weekend so the owner was at that and nobody covered for him.

Saturday and Sunday I just chilled; thinking about the new routine I want to get on.


Basically, the last 3 weeks i've worked out 5 times. I'm not proud of that. I had some good momentum going and flushed it down the toilet. Part of the problem was not digging the kickboxing gym, so i've dropped that (for the most part). Now it's a matter of "what would I rather be doing?".

Not that I'm a devoted follower of Periodization (or even know that much about it for that matter), but the nice thing about it- or at least my understanding of it - is that if you find you've been wasting your time for the last month, it's not such a big deal coz you just start a new period and switch things up.

Monday through Thursday I plan to hit the boxing gym.
Monday and Friday I think I'll plan to hit the fitness center w/weights and high intensity cardio.
Yes, that means Monday's a monster day, but my only other option is to spend Friday & saturday at the fitness center, which is hard coz weights on consecutive days is rough.
If I do anything on Saturday it'll be a light day, probably at the kickboxing gym for some thai pad & boxing work.
Saturday and Sunday will be "make up" days for any fitness center workouts I miss.


My plan for the fitness center includes high intensity cardio and weights:

*For the cardio I was thinking elliptical crosstrainer interval training on Mondays and Taku's intervals on the Versaclimber for Fridays.

*For the weights, i was thinking something a little more stripped down than the Bill Pearl workout.
Mondays being more olympic lifting & bodyweight based:
clean & jerk, squat press (and/or lunges, not sure which), dips, pullups, and extra ab work
Fridays being more "big lift" based, with a little bit of isolation to help with some deficiencies:
deadlift, squat, bench press, bent row, shrug, left arm tricep ext, left arm bicep curl

I'm not sure what rep scheme I want to use yet (if anybody's got any ideas, I'd appreciate the input).


At the boxing gym, on different days I plan on incorporating the medicine ball workouts, footwork drills, box jumps, side to sides, sledgehammer type stuff, ab work, neck work, planks, and bridges. The intensity of the boxing workout is why I'm looking to tone things down in the weight room a little from the Bill Pearl workout.


I still believe in adding some low intensity cardio to help with weight management.
I am serious about wanting to add in a 30 to 45 minute walk in the evenings to help out, eventhough I haven't had much luck yet.


I understand that this plan's a bit ambitious seeing the trouble i've had this year, but I'm ready and willing to take it slow. I want the workouts to be there, but just be less intense in the beginning, with lighter weight and maybe less overall work. When I'm motivated to work out & have momentum going, i do well; so the goal is to build that momentum & motivation with small successes.

[Pork Chop]

Kinda killed it last night....really killed it last night. haha

diet was good- yogurt for breakfast, some phillipino dish with squash, eggplant, a lil beef, and string beans for lunch, afternoon snack of some dorayaki, chocolate milk after first workout, creatine & muscle milk after second.

workout:

jump rope - 3 rounds. kept shortening my rests to 30 seconds or less.

shadow boxing - 4 rounds. 2 w/vest & weights, 1 w/vest & bare hands, 1 w/vest & gloves

Heavybag - 2 or 3 rounds (having a hard time remembering). First two were with a weight vest. I took off the vest and some time after that the coach asked me to work mitts.

Focus Mitts- 1 killer round. I swear I threw over 100 punches and he was having me do a lot of head movement. My feet eventually felt like they were stuck in mud- partly due to being tired, partly due to being out of shape, and partly due to a combination of nike shox and a soft ring.

Heavybag - barely struggled out another 2 or 3 rounds on bag. I was hurtin. It wasn't pretty.

Medicine Ball with rope - 40 sledgehammer swings, 30 back-against-wall side-to-side swings, 3 sets of v-up swings 5-15-20, neck curls w/ball around head 20 reps for each of 4 directions

20 second plank on the medicine ball

30 second side-to-side jumps over cones

1 round shadow w/dummy, working on throwing power shots that i pull back before the target; pretty tiring.

Spent almost an hour talkin shop with the owner and a trainer who was visiting.

After that I went home to get a quick glass of chocolate milk, got changed, and went out to the fitness center to try to get in some weights.

I was tiiiiiiiiiired by the time i hit the weight room.
Cleans - 8 @ bar + 20, 8 @ bar + 50, 8 @ bar + 50
clean & press - 8 @ bar
lunges - 8 @ bar x each leg x 4
squat press - 8 @ bar x 2

After the second set of squat press i was about to fall asleep.
If i hadn't just spent a good hour and a half boxing, I could've done a lot more. weight wasn't the issue coz it was my first time back, was trying to go slow. I barely finished half the work out. I was downright drowsy i was so tired.

Oddly enough, it took me a while to get to bed last night - one of those situations where I was too physically exhausted to sleep.
Got into work about an hour late this morning (2 or 3 hours later than I wanted).

I think I'm gonna have to do my lifting in the mornings before work.
There's no way I can finish a routine after killin it in the boxing gym.

[Pork Chop]

I was hurtin yesterday from monday's workout.
Waking up late stunk.
I ate well though, tried to eat a little more coz of how much i was hurting.
Yogurt, big bowl of beef tip calderetta (w/peas, greenbeans, potatoes, bell peppers, and carrots), a granola bar or 2, and some chocolate milk.

Workout was rough, eventhough I was trying to take it easier, it was 96 degrees again.

10 min of jump rope
4 rounds of shadow, just with gloves no vest - did calisthenics between rounds.
3.5 rounds of bag work before I had to take a break.
got up and finished 1 or 2 more rounds before i was just done.
1 min of bobbing & weaving under the rope.
1 round of slip bag
a round or two of walking a new guy through the jab and the cross.

My back was sore from Monday, still is a little- and that kinda worries me.
Think I'll take a break from wearing the vest the rest of the week so i can let it heal.

Went to bed early last night and still couldn't wake up before 7:30. Felt like ass this morning with a headache, felt like i didn't even sleep. I'm still hurting a bit: back's kinda sore, traps & hamstrings a bit sore too. I have a feeling I'll be feeling a lil better by the time work's over.

Wanna really focus on footwork drills today.

[Pork Chop]

Left work yesterday pretty sore, was debating whether or not to hit the gym.
I decided to go anyway, felt something drawin me to go, and I'm glad I did.
I really mixed it up coz I didn't wanna get caught in a rut of the same old workout.
Food wise, I was good: yogurt, chicken fried rice (more chicken than rice it was ridiculous), a granola bar, 2 glasses of 2% milk, and a squirt.

workout:

light shadow for a few rounds.
footwork drills- including side stepping, carryovers (karaokes), and high stepping
shadow boxing for a round
Box jumps for 2 rounds - doing side-to-side jumping last 30 seconds of each round
shadowboxing for a round
shadow sparring with unfilled BOB, working on control for 2 rounds
med ball w/rope:
sledgehammer swings - 2 sets of 20 swings, 2 sets of 10
back against wall swings - 2 sets of 30
seated v-up swings - 3 sets of 20
medicine ball over head situps - 1 set of 30
med ball self passes - 1 set of 30
seated med ball twists - 1 set of 30
bounces against the wall (jab) - 1 set of 50
power wall bounces (cross) - 2 sets of 20
Neck - 50 each direction (4)

I didn't feel like i was killing myself this workout, but it was hard work.
Felt pretty good afterwards.

[Pork Chop]

my girl left to go outta town today (friday) for 4 days.
i needed some rest on thursday coz i was hurtin and I wanted to spend some time with her before she went so i took off from the gym.

I ate healthy and frequently, my only slip being a little bit of ice cream and brownie in the evening- was too sweet so i only had a few bites.

Today, Friday, I had to go into work, mail off some stuff, and take my girl to the airport. There just wasn't any time in there for a workout. Had some nuts & raisins in the morning and a few pieces of pizza for lunch. The pizza got me real ill so i think i'll leave my eating at that, assuming that meal was under 1500 calories (it should've been) I think I'll be okay.

I'll get back in the gym saturday; but at least I've made some progress this week. Going from 2 weeks w/2 practises & 1 week w/1 practise to working out 3 consecutive days is a pretty big step.

Consecutive days REALLY wear me down, i would kinda prefer to work out every other day, I could heal up a lot better. I hear that Floyd Mayweather Jr only works out 3 days a week but really kills it when he does.

If I keep feeling like crud with consecutive workout days I'll consider switching it up.

[Pork Chop]

Sinned a lil friday night with a couple beers and some stouffer's pizza.

Today i knew I had to atone.

I made it down to the gym a lil after 10

3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow - 2 w/weights, calisthenics after every round.
3 rounds of heavybag
2 rounds of bobbin weavin rope, frog jumps last 30 secons 1st round, duck walk last 30 seconds 2nd round
1 hellish round on mitts. trainer was kinda beatin the tar out of me. He kept getting outside position on me so it was really hard to throw my left. My head movement and balance are coming along but still a ways to go.
went jogging for a mile or 2
a set of 30 knee lifts (i was sweating so it was hard to hold myself up)
Trainer told me my left was significantly weaker than my right so I did 3 more rounds of heavybag with just my left hand- mostly uppercuts coz i think that's what he was talkin about.

Since I got home I've been messing around with my 30lb dumbell & my pushup bars.

Guess the goal for a lil while is to get my left up to snuff w/weights and technique work. I also think i just need to work with that trainer more on pads.

[Pork Chop]

Sunday I wasn't feeling good all afternoon so i didn't get out of bed.
When I did finally start feelin better I had a ton of chores to do to get ready for the upcoming week.
Suprisingly I blew through the chores; most days I feel real sluggish but Sunday evening I was feeling good.
I missed my small window to make it to the fitness center for weights, so I went jogging in the evening.

I went to the trouble of setting my alarm for 5:45 so I could wake up and go lift Monday morning. Trouble was that i didn't set the thing to "alarm on" and like a dummy I overslept. Again it kinda turned out to be a good thing. I still had a lot to do to get a good start on the week- like shave, cut my hair, eat breakfast, and bottle up the crock pot food i'd started the night before.

I like easy jogging now I think i'm gonna do it every evening after the sun goes down. I like jogging when it's cooler and when there are fewer people around.

Tonite boxing gym for sure. Tomorrow may do the weights in the morning. Have to pick up my girl from the airport tomorrow night so probably no boxing then.

[Pork Chop]

Monday
102 in the boxing gym yesterday. What's worse is that they were out of fresh water at work so i had to try to get by on a diet soda and a root beer- no wonder folks around here are so fat.

I tried to take the workout slow but it was still taking a lot out of me. I ended up having to cut some stuff out just coz some of the hard stuff was just taking too long to recover from.

3 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow 2 w/weights
5 rounds heavybag
med ball sledgehammer 20-20-10-10 (last 2 sets 1 armed)
med ball sideways swings 20-20-10-10 (last 2 sets 1 armed)
a round or 2 of play sparring with this lil kid- worked on footwork, finding openings, and a lil defense.

My back is still a lil sore, so that made me reluctant to do a lot of head movement stuff & the weight vest stuff.

I'm starting to love road work. My legs are getting a little sore.
I ran again Monday night.
I think the run takes me about 40 to 45 min, could be 10 min off tho (listened to the first 8 tracks of Mike Ness' first solo album and 2 minutes of the 9th track).
I am pretty sure the run's at least 3 miles, but not 100% sure exactly how long it is. Not gonna stress it though, why fix it if it ain't broke.

Got to bed by around 12~12:30

Tuesday
This morning I managed to wake up before 6.
I went to the gym for some lifting.
Was a lil sleepy but in general felt pretty good aside from some sore knees.

power cleans: bar x 3, 65 x 3, 85 x 3, 95 x 30, 135 x 3, 155 x 3, 135 x 3. Could probably done mro than 155 but i was starting to lose form on 155 and didn't want to kill myself my first day.

lunges: bar x 6 ea leg, 95 x 6ea leg, 115 x 6 ea leg, 135 x 6 ea leg. felt real good. 6 is a much nicer number than 10 when you're doing both legs.

standing press: bar x 6, 65 x 6, 85 x 6, 95 x 6, 115 x 6. Felt pretty good. Was doing it more like a military press but would drive a lil if I felt a sticking point.

dips: bodyweight - 4, 6, 6, 6. Only cheated a little on the last rep of first set. Realized that I was probably going to need to assist with my foot a little until I'm strong enough. Would rather do it this way instead of using the dip machine coz I'm relatively close to being able to do bodyweight.

bent rows: bar x 6, 95 x 6, 135 x 6, 185 x 6, 135 x 4. Didn't like the 185 set. I have a thick torso and a big belly, which kinda makes it hard to get a full ROM on this exercise unless I pull it a lil high up, and even then I feel like I should do better. The 185 set was hitting too low on my gut. Should be able to do it next time tho- think i was tired.

[Pork Chop]

Diet's been okay in general.
Monday I had yogurt for breakfast, my own mad creation type soup for midmorning snack, and a small/medium sized tupperware of chicken lasagna (chicken, pasta, peas, carrots in a creamy sauce). A diet coke, a rootbeer, and a whey drink in the afternoon, Powerade & chocolate milk in the evening.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday

no workout, was sore as heck from the weights and had to pick up my woman from the airport. yogurt for breakfast, subway for lunch, a different subway for dinner, and a buffalo chicken sandwich from denny's after i picked her up from the airport @around 2am. Only got 3 hours of sleep.

Thursday

Tired from not sleeping enough. Work kinda dragged. My lunch had kinda gone bad so I picked up some brisket from the work cafeteria. Guess the diet was basically terrible during the day, just had a squirt for dinner time.

Hit the gym a lil after 6:30. The double end bag came in so i set it up with some help from my buddies there at the gym. It was another hundred degree day, so everything i did felt about 2 or 3 times harder.

3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow - 2 w/handweights
3 rounds of double end bag
3 rounds of slip bag 1 full round with weights, last 30 seconds of last round with 25lb dumbells (just working on keeping my hands up when tired).

All that took me right up till closing time. I would've liked 3 rounds of heavybag just to make a full workout, but I'd be lying if i said i wasn't exhausted from that workout.

I was still hurtin from the lack of sleep and I just idn't feel like running last night. Convenient excuse, I know.

Knees are sore today and I don't know that I'm going to eat all that healthy for lunch. Tonite the gym closes early so i'll have to come up with something to do in the evening, unless i'm out hanging with people in town for Taiji Legacy.

[Pork Chop]

My gf was in phoenix over the weekend.
I just got a call tonite from "marie's boyfriend" - a guy in phoenix.
Forgive me if the next week or 2 are a lil "out of sorts"

[Pork Chop]

No workout friday, saturday, or sunday. I think i slept 2 hours friday night, and just didn't have it to go hit the gym eventho i wanted to badly. Diet was terrible coz on top of everything else, I felt we needed to get out of the house to talk.

I'm a fighter and I'm not giving up on her or on my training.
She may be moving out of state very soon, or at the very least taking a vacation of sorts.

I'm finding it amazing how in earth shaking times of crisis finding God is at least as easy as it was when I was a child.

[Pork Chop]

Sorry i'm not back yet.

Just been taking long walks and deep breaths to clear my head and calm myself down.

One more day till she leaves for her uncle's place for a while. I'm still going to try to stick this out for a bit while she makes up her mind.

I'm starting to realize that my old remedy of self destruction isn't gonna cut it this time so I'm trying to take all this negative energy and make it something positive.

I gotta say though, I don't know that I'm gonna have the fire in my gut to go and fight or dedicate myself to training. I've been realizing that training's taken too big a priority in my life to the point of blocking out a lot of stuff- a lot of stuff that shouldn't have been on the backburner this long.

Ultimately, the training almost seems pointless at this point. I think I want to spend my time in the future doing things that I have something to show for. That includes stuff like buying a house, getting married so i can be a good husband, having a kid so i can be a good daddy, learning to dance, learning to cook, going back to school for my master's, and if she decides not to come back then maybe meeting the kind of person who is right for me.

Maybe I'm just getting old. I see my old college buddy that I now work with talking about his daughter and it seems so rewarding- spending time with her's the only thing he wants to do in life. I think I want to focus on something with more of that level of satisfaction.

Sick of losing my temper, sick of being depressed, sick of being stressed out, and just plain sick of being unhappy all the time. If I gotta drop training to kinda get my head together, then I'm gonna do it.

Been letting too much stuff slide for too long.
Been letting too much stuff build up and make me an a$$hole (well, more of one at least).
Been taking too much stuff for granted.

For the longest time since I got down here, i haven't known how to have fun unless I was at the gym, out smokin & drinkin, or at a strip club. The thing is, none of those things have really cheered me up any. Spending weekends with my girl goin to movies, goin to dinner, or goin shoppin has been pretty good but those days have been a little too few and far between.

Going to try to keep myself busy from here on out, but make sure I'm takin care of stuff at home. The reason I've been railing against training is not just for the time I spend in training, it's the utter exhaustion & run down feeling i get the rest of the time as well. I don't like being a couch potato at home.

This whole experience has made me feel like I'm losing control over my life, so I guess like that show Monk, I've got an extra helping of motivation to make sure I'm not letting things slip at home- with the dishes, the laundary, cleaning, etc.

I'll check back in on this thread periodically as a way of journaling what I'm going through. I understand if anybody else reading it feels like criticizing.

[WinterPalm]

Good luck man.

I think it is time to take more of a hobbyist approach and try something not so intense. Maybe a lesson in any one of lots of martial arts would help...go twice a week or something just to mix it up and have fun.