Pork Chop's latest workout blog

[Brule]

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.

[Pork Chop]

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.

[Brule]

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.

[sanjuro_ronin]

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 !

[Pork Chop]

I have learned to take the time when it's there and have a fully stocked bar, er I mean gym in the basement !

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.

[Brule]

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.

[Pork Chop]

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.

Oh i lost my sanity long ago.

[Pork Chop]

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

[Pork Chop]

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.

[Pork Chop]

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.

[Pork Chop]

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.

[Pork Chop]

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).

[IronFist]

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

An hour of conditioning in class?

I don't know how I feel about that.

Although I understand that some people don't have time to do it on their own.

[Pork Chop]

An hour of conditioning in class?
I don't know how I feel about that.
Although I understand that some people don't have time to do it on their own.

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.

[Pork Chop]

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.