All Aboard the Pork Chop X-press!!

[Suntzu]

just checkin on ya.....

[Pork Chop]

Swam after work on Thursday.
The afternoon workout was long, but not killer.
I was swimming with some high school kids and they wanted to talk more than they wanted to swim - so every lap was some excuse for stopping & talking about it; and every new swim set was an excuse for taking a 2 minute break and asking a ton of questions.
I got frustrated and just started swimming.
My overall mileage may have been shorter than a normal afternoon workout, but i was doing my best to put some effort into it.
I'm faster than those competitive high school swimmers, so that's pretty cool.
The water was a lot warmer for afternoon practice.

Went to 8:30 swimming on Friday morning.
It was still cold - thought i was gonna die the first 5 min or so.
I imagine 6am practice was probably a lot worse.

So the plan is to work out through this weekend & swim one last time on monday so that come tuesday my body has no objections to sitting on the play for 15 hours.

[Pork Chop]

So, I'm not dead yet - just getting close.
I know I fell off the face of the blog planet but i actually did work out quite a bit - at least until about the last month.

I've joined another gym (Power Team) at $10 a month for open use of the facilities; which is nice because I couldn't afford my old muay thai gym anymore in addition to gold's & the swimming.

Lately, I've finally decided to get serious about getting healthy.
I've got a pretty strict diet going and am working my way back into the gym.
Since it's too cold out to do outdoor swimming, I've decided to substitute with an hour of cardio on a daily basis - doing the elliptical cross trainer.
I'm going to treat this hour like brushing my teeth; ie it's gotta be done even if I'm sore.
I've managed to put in this hour a day today and monday; averaging about 800 calories a shot.

Beyond that, I'll be lifting more for endurance & doing some basic muay thai workouts on my own (or with a coworker). Tonight I'm going to the gym after work.

Seeing my wedding pictures on facebook is a painful reminder of how bad I've let things get. Knowing that my cholesterol is bad, knowing what that means to my health, knowing that I've got a kid on the way who I want to see grow up, and not wanting him/her to see me at this level of obesity is providing me with a lot of motivation this time around.

Let's get it done.

[WinterPalm]

So, I'm not dead yet - just getting close.
I know I fell off the face of the blog planet but i actually did work out quite a bit - at least until about the last month.

I've joined another gym (Power Team) at $10 a month for open use of the facilities; which is nice because I couldn't afford my old muay thai gym anymore in addition to gold's & the swimming.

Lately, I've finally decided to get serious about getting healthy.
I've got a pretty strict diet going and am working my way back into the gym.
Since it's too cold out to do outdoor swimming, I've decided to substitute with an hour of cardio on a daily basis - doing the elliptical cross trainer.
I'm going to treat this hour like brushing my teeth; ie it's gotta be done even if I'm sore.
I've managed to put in this hour a day today and monday; averaging about 800 calories a shot.

Beyond that, I'll be lifting more for endurance & doing some basic muay thai workouts on my own (or with a coworker). Tonight I'm going to the gym after work.

Seeing my wedding pictures on facebook is a painful reminder of how bad I've let things get. Knowing that my cholesterol is bad, knowing what that means to my health, knowing that I've got a kid on the way who I want to see grow up, and not wanting him/her to see me at this level of obesity is providing me with a lot of motivation this time around.

Let's get it done.

Good luck man.

A friend taught me a great method for mental and physical toughness. It's called
F uck the B itch!
Don't let all the excuses and shortcomings distract you from your goal.

[Pork Chop]

Well that was short lived
Wednesday I got food poisoning.
i didn't go to the hospital until saturday morning
today's about the first day i can eat without getting sick
i've got my japanese test in dc this weekend
christmas comes in a couple weeks.
i'll do what i can, but i'm probably not going to be able to start my trek back until january - and i HATE having to avoid the New Year's Resolution folks at the gym.

[zhugeliang]

Japanese test? In DC? You're going into the Foreign Service or what?!

[Pork Chop]

Japanese test? In DC? You're going into the Foreign Service or what?!

nah just been studying japanese for 15 years and want a piece of paper to say i know what i know. the goal is, in the next few years, to take the 2 tests after this one and basically be certified to do stuff like translation or getting a job in japan.

my wife's kind of against living over there again unless she can get an american job on base at one of the hospitals/clinics. I'm kinda leaning the same way - wouldn't work over there unless it was on base.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday
I got in a light workout in Baltimore with Julio; it was about an hour long.
Slight taste of calisthenics, a smidgen of sparring, some shadow, and a bit of bag work.
gave me my motivation back.

Tuesday
My first day back at Power Team since being in the hospital for food poisoning.
I'm trying to take it slow & think long term, so I didn't kill it.

Did a pretty extensive circuit with light weight & med/high reps
3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow
5 rounds of heavybag

Probably coulda pushed it harder, but felt pretty tired at the end.
Today I feel sore.
Gonna work out again Thursday.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday 12/11
Worked out with my coworker in the afternoon.
We did a lot of upper body lifting.
Finished up with 2 sets of 1-minute bodyweight squats.
in the evening i went up to the gym
jogging & calisthenic warm up
3 rounds jump rope
3 rounds shadow
3 rounds heavybag
3 rounds teardrop bag

Sunday 12/14
Went on a 1.5 to 2 hour hike.
I think it was just under 5 miles.
A lot of it was straight up a hill that would've made some of those stairways in China nod their head in respect.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday Dec 16
Afternoon weight workout -
Superset of assisted dips and assisted chin/pullups 3 sets of 20 reps per exercise
Superset of abs and legs 2 times through, 20 reps each exercise first time, 10 reps each 2nd time.
Included: med ball twist passes, med ball situp passes, leg lifts, bodyweight step ups, bodyweight squats.

Evening workout:
good calisthenic warm up
shadow boxing for 3 rounds
5 or 6 rounds on heavy bag
held thai pads for 4 people, 10 ~ 15 min per person

Wednesday Dec 17
Afternoon weight workout:
20 rep deadlifts w/135, 185, 155, 95
overhead presses w/35lb dumbells x 20 reps x 11 reps x 10 reps x 15 reps
ab circuit 20 reps apiece of: crunches, leg lifts, bicycles, oblique crunches

Evening workout:
3 rounds shadow boxing
long stretching workout - covering dynamic, partner, and static stretches (30+min)
held pads for 10 or 15 minutes
hit thai pads for 6 rounds

Thursday Dec 18
Going to the gym after work today (afternoon workout partner left for the holidays already).
Really sore, really hungry.
Hopefully my motivation gets a little better once I get there.
Gotta go coz a few of my coworkers are going and i promised.
May end up spending most of my time teaching.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday Dec 18
So yesterday I did work out.
Warming up went pretty well.
The 3 rounds of jump rope wasn't bad.
A minute into the first of 3 rounds of shadow boxing, I realized I wasn't going to just be able to free shadow box on my own.
Those 3 rounds I tried to get my 3 little padawans to throw basic stuff properly & not go too crazy.
After that I had them work straight punches on the bag for 2 rounds apiece.
Next it was a round of teeps.
Gave 'em 10 to 20 low round kicks next, based on what their shins could handle (had to remind myself that not everyone wants to turn their leg to hamburger on the first day).
Finished up with 20 rounds before releasing them to either go home or do free work on the bag.
Did 3 rounds (mighta been 6) on the bag myself at the end.
One of the guys stuck it out with me, but aside from trying to show him a spinning backfist, he was mostly un-supervised.
I think all 3 made significant progress for their first or second time.
For myself; trying to get warmed up again on the heavybag after getting cold while coaching made me think I was more tired than I really was. (that sentence probably won't read well, but it makes sense to me).
I didn't eat enough yesterday, so I was starving at the end of the workout.
I picked up some chicken on the way home.
After eating, I was wide awake- a sign I didn't work hard enough.
Didn't get to bed till 3.
Currently working my way through a 52oz coffee....mmmmmm..... man i'm wired.

Going to the gym today after work to work on some pushups.
I need some more explosiveness in my upper body if I want to have good punches; my legs are strong enough but I'm losing the connection in my upper body (shoulder, chest, & tricep).
My shoulder still bugs me, which is why I usually skip the pushups; but I need them so I'm going to work slow- maybe 10 at a time.
Might do some heavybag and/or stretching too; we'll see what the situation is when I get there.

[Water Dragon]

Oh Boy! Playmates!

[Pork Chop]

Friday Dec 19
Went to the gym.
Warmed up with laps & stretches.
My legs were tight.
Did over 100 reps of pushups in increments of 10.
I did regular pushups, side-to-side pushups using the med ball (one hand on at a time), clapping pushups (clapping above the med ball), and hopping pushups onto a heavybag,
Took me a little while, but I got it done.
Afterwards I did some shadow boxing, double end bag, and heavy bag.

Saturday Dec 20
Went to the gym again.
Was supposed to work with the big-talking noob coworker (as opposed to my other coworkers who train) starting at 4pm but he was in the middle of a class so he just did his thing and I did mine.
Did laps for warm up.
Lots of leg stretching, though my legs were sore and tight.
Did shadow for 3 rounds - stuck mostly boxing to give my legs a rest.
Did 3 rounds of double end bag
3 rounds of tear drop bag.
finished with 3 rounds on banana bag.

Aforementioned coworker came by to have me check his technique before he left for 2 weeks in Mexico.
Hard trying to knock a guy down a few pegs from thinking he's got it already, while at the same time still be a caring, interested, and encouraging coach.
in any other gym I've ever trained at, this guy would be matched up against someone of reasonable skill to let him know exactly how low on the totem pole he still was.
One or two sessions and he "feels (he's) penetrating through the bag correctly".
Anyway, I gave him some pointers and got outta there.

The last two days I've still been pretty sore.
Didn't live healthy this weekend- drank a little and ate too much so i gotta work on that.
Mondays I don't go to the gym and tonight I'm going home for the holidays.
I'll be back on Friday for at least a couple workouts this week if I'm lucky.

[Pork Chop]

Oh Boy! Playmates!

Lots of people have told me they're coming out in January.
Suntzu should hopefully be coming sometime that month as well - you guys can have a Judo lovefest.
Most of the others are beginners, but if we're lucky at least a couple guys with experience will show up.

[Water Dragon]

Very cool. I'm always down to meet forum members. Is it to early for you to get a boys nite out? It would be nice if we could all go out and just kick it somewhere. I have a couple people who are interested as well. One of them is my 12 year old. He's a lil nervous, but I think he may have more combat experience than most of these guys