All Aboard the Pork Chop X-press!!

[Pork Chop]

Tues 2/16
first day back at the gym in a while
have to take it a little slow

10 min arc trainer warm up

squat - 105lb x 20, 135 x 15, 185 x 10
lunge - 45lb x 10ea leg, 65 x 10ea, 95 x 10ea

20 min arc trainer cardio

tried to take it slow, go light weight for high volume.
by the last set of squats, my legs were starting to cramp a little & i'd lost a lot of strength
the lunges were not fun
the second time through on the cardio was eye opening - eventhough it was on the same setting, it was much harder after lifting

legs are basically jello right now.

from leaving my desk to getting back to it was just over 90min.
still going to be at work till 9:30 tonight.

[Pork Chop]

Wed 2/17
second day back
legs real sore

10 min on arctrainer warm up

overhead press - 100lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets, last set was kinda slow & hard
assist dips - 100lb assist x 10 reps, 70 x 10, 50 x 9 (failed last rep)
dumbbell bench - 60lb dbells x 9 reps (fail), 60s x 8, 60s x 6 (fail)
knees to chest roman chair - 10 reps x 3 sets

20 min arctrainer cardio

my chest has gotten weak
i think it was more a case of a loss of endurance & not being used to doing that much concentrated chest work than a loss of strength; but i don't doubt that i've lost some maximal strength too.

[Pork Chop]

Mon 2/22
first day back after almost a week of debilitating DOMS

15 min warm up on arc trainer at 172 bpm (peak in 180s)

snatch grip dead lift: 135lbs x 10reps x 3 sets (went safe, but good form)
kbell swing: 35lbs x (10left + 10right + 10both) x 3 sets

15 min cardio on arc trainer at 185 bpm (peak in 190s)

yeah i played it safe today
i figure it's more important to establish a routine right now than to have impressive numbers
i just don't want to have another week of soreness so bad i can't do anything.
at least this workout got my heart rate up.

[Pork Chop]

Tues 2/23/2010

15 min arc trainer warm up, really booked it

assisted chin: 90lb assist x 10, 80 x 10, 70 x 10
t-bar row: 70lb on the bar x 10, 90 x 10, 115 x 10
leg & arm crunch: 60lb x 10 x 3sets

15 min arc trainer cardio, was draggin behind, heart rate mid 180s, but burn rate lower than first go around

there are a few different types of tired:
out of breath tired, muscular weakness, sleepiness, zero explosiveness
today, post workout, i feel out of breath tired and i feel like my heart rate's kinda high

[Oso]

Strength/Skill Work: Shoulder Press



5 x 45
5 x 65
5 x 95
5 x 115
5 x 135

basically ran out of time...135 took effort for sure but I think I could have gotten more...next time.



WOD

Complete 4 Rounds of the following:

In 1 minutes complete

8 Ring dips

Immediately followed by max rep dumbbell power snatches on the right arm

1 minute rest

In 1 minute complete

8 Ring dips

Immediately followed by max rep dumbbell power snatches on the left arm.

i've been doing ring dip's with the green band on wods and wanted to decrease the assistance...but a set of 8 for practice on the blue band changed my mind...looking at 64 total, i went back to the green...but, it was defiinitely really easy to do all 8 sets. part of my issue is the bottom of the dip, getting all the way down to fists in the armpit really stretches my shoulder out and i'm a bit scared of hurting something more.

so, green band on the ring dips and 45# dumbell for the snatches

118 reps total...pretty evenly distributed left and right...never more than 2 reps apart but had some crunchy action in the shoulders several times.



plus, i'm fighting something in my lungs...worked on a nasty spa yesterday, cutting foam insulation covered in mold and mice droppings/urine...pretty sure i inhaled a fleck of foam at one point...i know, disgusting...but, i'm usually good about keeping my mouth shut but the cutting tool had slipped and I banged my hand pretty effing good and had inhaled sharply at just the wrong time....

[Pork Chop]

umm thanks for the input Oso.
sux to hear about the lungs
the ammonia from the urine & droppings, the foam insulation, and the mold all can't be very healthy. may want to get that checked out.

Wed Feb 24, 2010
kinda having a cr@p week
good week workout wise
busting my hump at school & work too
bad eating & bad habits have become the order of the day though.

after working a 10 hour day i headed over to gold's
was feeling a bit run down going into the gym
so i decided to blatantly steal Frost's cardio recommendations.

15 min elliptical crosstrainer, target heart rate 125bpm, took me 3.5 min just to break 120

overhead press: 105lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets (wasn't too too bad)
assist dips: 70lb assist x 10, 60lb assist x 10, 60lb assist x 10 (60 was pretty tough)
dumbbell bench: 60lbers x 10 reps x 3 sets (kinda tough)

15 min arctrainer, target heart rate 135 bpm, took me a couple minutes to break under 140

---

afterwards i went home to spend a few more hours on my take home final for my first master's class and I ended up having twice as many beers as i'd originally planned (not that beer was a good idea to begin with); but it did kinda help with the frustration, tedium, and fatigue of trying to sit down & crank out more time at a computer.

this morning i woke up early, but didn't get out of bed till late. i usually don't need much sleep if i've gotten a little tipsy the night before; just as long as i don't overdo it to the point of entering hangover territory. it's a bad way to deal with my insomnia, which is why i try not to rely on it, but it does let me sleep better than i usually do otherwise.

was moving slow this morning & didn't get to work until real late. like i said, not so much hungover, just kinda worn out from everything going on. while i was lounging around the house, procrastinating from going to work for another 10 hour day (12 if u include the gym), i caught most of JCVD's the Quest. Realized I never saw the whole movie before. It was surprisingly not terrible. may check it out later.

It's a little frustrating that i'm not doing a great job juggling everything. At the moment work, study, and exercise are going fine but diet & bad habits have completely gone to heck. I'm going to keep trying to improve. Hoping that once i get back into the swing of working out & it doesn't hurt as much, then I'll have more patience for things like diet & not drinking.

Still got 4 more questions to go on my final exam, which is due sunday; but at least once i crank that out I'm done with school for about a month. Going to use that time to pick up another cert for work; but it should be relatively stress free because I can do that at work & don't have to worry about putting in time at home.

This weekend's going to be the first weekend spent with my wife in a long time. Looking forward to it.

[Oso]

holy crap...i didn't think i was that out of it...you wanna leave it for comedic value? give me a sec to copy and paste and you can delete it.

[Pork Chop]

holy crap...i didn't think i was that out of it...you wanna leave it for comedic value? give me a sec to copy and paste and you can delete it.

dude, it's really not that big a deal, leave it up there, it shows how weaksauce my stuff is compared to doing WoD & strength training on the same day.

[Oso]

your call

[Pork Chop]

first workout since Wednesday
yah i kinda slipped last week
but at least the 3 workouts i made was an improvement over the 2 from the previous week

mon 3/1/2010
15 min arctrainer warmup
*really killed it

squat: 135lbs x 10, 155 x 10, 185 x 10
*last set was nice and hard

lunge: 95lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets
*each set feels entirely too long, like double

leg lift: 3sets of 10 reps
*did it the perfect abs way - all the way up to the shoulders

15 min arctrainer cardio
*was dyin so i kinda took it easy, hr still over 170 for most of it

[KTS]

ahh, the quest!

did u enjoy the fight scenes? especially where the MT guy gets smashed by the xing yi guy? haha.
or was that all in my head?

ever see JCVD? if u have, is that any good?

speaking of MT though, were there moments in "kickboxer" where u just thought "WTF???"

[Pork Chop]

ahh, the quest!

did u enjoy the fight scenes? especially where the MT guy gets smashed by the xing yi guy? haha.
or was that all in my head?

ever see JCVD? if u have, is that any good?

speaking of MT though, were there moments in "kickboxer" where u just thought "WTF???"

i didn't finish the movie, i had to go to work early into the tournament scenes
i'll check it later
i did think it was kinda silly to try to build up muay thai at the beginning and then half of the guys out of europe (esp germany & scotland) look like some sort of savate, karate, muay thai hybrid.

don't remember if i've seen jcvd or not.
i know it's come on cable a bunch of times but i can't remember if i've ever caught it.

first time i saw kickboxer i was like in middle school & didn't know anything
i saw it again at various stages of my training later in life
when i was in kung fu i thought "hrm, not bad training but his taichi sux"
going back to it since starting muay thai, every time i see him take his hip and all the momentum out of his kick; making it a flicky little knee-extension kick, it's like "how is a b!tch slap with his foot doing any damage?"

feel like hitting something today so i brought some gloves & a rope
gonna start switching up my cardio day to day so i don't get sick of doing the same thing over and over

[Pork Chop]

Tue 3/2/2010
wanted to hit stuff today

3 rounds of jump rope

assist chin: 90lb assist x 10, 70 x 10 (failed last one), 60x5f->70x3f->70x2f
*so i don't know why i jumped up the 3rd set when i hit failure on the 2nd. i was able to get 5 with a 60lb assist, bumped up to 70 failed again, took a quick break and cranked out 2 more. in general i think i was rushing the sets a little.

t-bar row: 70lb on the bar x 10, 90 x 10, 115 x 10
*last one was a little iffy

3 rounds of heavybag
*both bags were hung low. the lowest one was heavy, the higher one only weighed like 20lbs. didn't matter too much coz i was exhausted by the end. my footwork & form were pretty ugly

v-ups: 3 sets of 10 reps

Don't know if i'll continue to use the heavybags as they're almost not worth the time.
I was shocked at how tired i was by the 3rd round of bag work, so maybe it wasn't so bad - that might've been frustration though.

[Pork Chop]

wed 3/3/2010
kid woke up every 2 or 3 hours last night
turns out he's got an ear infection

15 min arctrainer warm up
*didn't win any records, but turned in a pretty solid session, esp given that i'm still sore

overhead press
95lbs x 10, 105 x 10, 115 x 10
*last rep a little iffy, not sure i locked out at the top

assist dip
70lb assist x 10, 60lb assist x 10, 50lb assist x 10
*last set a little iffy, not 100% sure i went complete ROM

dumbbell bench
65lb dumbbells x 10, 10, 8, 3
*failed and cranked out the last one

cardio, 3 rounds of:
3 min jump rope
1.5 min shadow w/gloves
*non stop so it was pretty brutal. My boxing form is coming back little by little.

crunches
3 sets of 10

[Pork Chop]

been sick for the last 2 weeks
the cravings for beer, cigs, and unhealthy food really hasn't done me any favors either
when i finally come back, i'm going to have to start over...again.

this would be getting old, but watching that scott hamilton commercial reminds me of why you can't just give up and throw in the towel:
"yeah life's hard, but it's your's. you fall down and get back up"
there was a similar quote in batman begins:
"Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up."

so i've been thinking about my goals some more

1. I need to lose weight. I'm not entertaining dreams of the 185 range, but if i could at least get back to 220 i think i'd be a bit happier. Ultimately 200's probably what I should shoot for.
2 weeks - in the next two weeks I'd just like to be doing something again, both diet & exercise.
1 month - in the next month it'd be nice if my clothes stopped fitting quite so tight (i imagine that'd be getting down under 250).
3 months - in 3 months it'd be nice if my clothes started fighting more loosely. Probably the low 240s, high 230s.
6 months - in 6 months i'd like to at least be in the 220s.
1 year - in 1 year i'd like to be under 220lbs.

2. i want to get my diet back on track, but i'm having a little difficulty coming up with what that is, exactly. I'm not so sure I want to be counting calories & trying to stay @ or under 2000. On the other hand, I'd like some more guidance than just "eat healthy". I've gotten kinda burned out on sandwiches as well, and they're the major staple of my diet. Need to do some more research here. It's probably time I hired a nutritionist.
2 weeks - in the next 2 weeks I want to track down a nutritionist.
1 month - have to go back to the doctor in a month for more blood tests. I would like to at least show a little improvement on my cholesterol by then. Hope to have made some major progress with my diet by then.
3 months - depends on what the nutritionist tells me, but I hope i would be finding my dietary "groove" by this point.
6 months - by the 6 month stage, i would hopefully have the diet thing completely mastered.
1 year - after 1 year, i'd hope it'd be just maintenance.

3. i want to be able to do 10 unassisted chinups and dips. kind of an arbitrary goal, but I'm not obsessed with a bodyweight bench, a 300+lb squat, or a 500+lb dead.
2 weeks - in the next 2 weeks i would like to at least evaluate what i can currently do, whether that's 1 chinup and 3 dips or none.
1 month - at one month be able to do a chin and a dip
3 months - at 3 months i'd like to do 3 chins 3 dips
6 months - at 6 months i'd like to be at 6 chins 6 dips
1 year - at 1 year i'd like to be at 10 chins 10 dips

4. i'd like to get in shape. i think i need to focus on health. that means joint health, cardiovascular health, stretching, and doing exercises/cardio that don't lead to a lot of repetitive-use injuries.
So that, combined with goal 2 means I'm probably looking at a bodyweight-exercise-centered approach and I'm going back to the Better Body Blueprint.
2 weeks - i'd like to decide on a routine the next 2 weeks.
1 month - by 1 month i'd like to start getting into the swing of the routine & get back some cardiovascular.
3 month - by 3 months i should start to switch up my routine again and start getting stronger.
6 months - should be a seasoned pro by 6 months. consistency will be the key.
1 year - by 1 year i will need to be nearing/achieving some of my bigger goals and will re-evaluate my goals around that time.

constraints
mostly money and time.
have about 4 or 5 days a week to work out at gold's.
these workouts need to come in around an hour.
don't have a lot of extra money for diets or trainers, so i gotta hope the nutritionist & the new eating plan doesn't break my bank.

Will check back here with status in 2 weeks (Mar 29), 1 month (April 15), 3 months (June 15), 6 months (September 15), 1 year (Mar 15).