Pork Chop's latest workout blog

[Pork Chop]

Monday 1/16/2012
Went to Gold's for yoga class.
Thought class was at 6, but it was actually at 5:30; strolled into the room around 5:55.
Class was okay, I like the krav yoga teacher much better.
Afterwards, I did some lat & rear delt work to offset imbalances in my training.

• t-bar row - 90lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets
• hammer strength close grip bilateral (separate weight for each arm) pull down - 60lbs each side x 10 reps x 5 sets
• wide cable pull down (separate cable for each arm) - together: 80lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 100lbs x 10 reps; alternating: 100lbs x 10 reps.

Not a killer workout, but enough to break a sweat.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday 1/17/2012
Visited the gym my work friends go to; where one of my buddies used to teach.
The boxing coach there is a great guy and I've wanted to train under him for a while.
I was surprised, the vibe at the gym was awesome.
Most of the guys that work out there come from the mma gym I used to work out at sometimes.
I really didn't like the vibe of the other mma gym; everyone used to try to stare you down whenever you walked in.
This gym was the exact opposite, everyone was friendly.
The workout itself was short but sweet.
I'm a fan of the boxing coach's technique and he gave me some useful correction for head movement.
Plus they have some really nice bags.
Probably go back again, though I'm not sure if I can make it a regular thing.

EDIT:
We got there an hour early, so we stretched, did some pad work, & lifted some weights while we waited.
Did a 5x5 clean & press with 95lbs.
Workout itself was 1 hour long.
Broke a nice sweat, but didn't kill myself.
Sore today though, mostly from the weights on monday.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday I learned that fighting 6 o'clock traffic to drive all the way home kills my motivation to do anything else.
Was sore & a bit tired because I haven't been sleeping enough.
Feeling better today, so going to shoot for 2 workouts to make up for it.
I think if I plan on driving home before working out again, I'm going to have to leave work early.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday 1/19/2012
Suntzu and I hit up cardio bag class at the krav gym tonight.
Great workout, but rather tough on our shoulders.
We were both burnt afterwards.
Lots of burpees.

Tonight I gotta make up for wednesday.

[Pork Chop]

Friday 1/20/2012
Muay thai class.
Showed up early, stayed at least 2 hours.
Lots & lots of defense drills today.
Worked with Suntzu and a mma guy; featherweight like 135.
Found out later the mma guy is close with my friend (Ray Ray) and is an accomplished fighter out of another gym (Rodrigo Pinheiro + Pete Spratt + Aaron Rosa).
This guy had come to my gym the week before and worked with the guy I sparred Saturday the 14th; Rich, the guy who almost busted my nose.
Rich almost killed the guy.
Tonight I learned why.

We did a lot of training and defense drills - over an hour's worth.
He didn't want to or didn't know how to slow it down.
I didn't mind it most of the time, because he's half my weight and really couldn't do much damage.
At one point I guess I embarrassed him, because he threw a full speed jumping round kick out of frustration. I called him on it, saying "do we really want to be blasting each other?" - I'm double his weight & his head is the height that I usually throw round kicks to the ribs; not exactly someone I'd feel good about "green-lighting."
Coach jumped in.
Apologies were made.
Got back to business & finished out the class.
Otherwise; he actually wasn't a bad workout partner.

I did switch up my style starting friday though.
I'm going back to parrying.
Since I've come back to the muay thai gym, the style has changed a bit- focusing more on boxing. The reason behind this is because our traditional style of muay thai is more geared towards elbows; which aren't usually legal in the US, so coach is trying to make it more "dutch" in order to better fit the local rules.
The newer style incorporates a lot of head movement in place of parries.
As a fighter; I don't have very fast feet or head movement, but I have pretty fast hands.
As a southpaw, using head movement is very awkward; I often find myself in very bad position - both off-balance & exposed to my opponent.
Parrying works out very well for me, because my balance isn't all over the place.
I stay centered and ready to deliver my offense.
Even when I have to shell up, it works out better, because I'm usually in better position to see what's coming and to fire back immediately.
I felt like the change was instantly better, but we'll give it time to see how it plays out in sparring.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday 1/21/2012
We were late to muay thai class Saturday morning, yet we were the first ones there.
I haven't been doing the calisthenics routine lately at the muay thai gym.
Friday's warm up was just 3 rounds of my jump rope + calisthenics routine.
Saturday's warm up was 5 rounds of jump rope + calisthenics, plus stretching, and a good amount of shadow.

I held pads for about 4 or 5 rounds; alternating between 2 of the newer guys.
One guy wanted to try the pad routine that I used to put Suntzu through.
He started strong, but didn't make it - blaming cigarettes.

Suntzu and I spent the last few rounds doing clinch sparring.
Rich showed up right before we started clinch (15~20 min before the end of class).
I was supposed to do clinch with him (because we're both bigger) but he was taking forever to get ready.
Meanwhile, suntzu & I were ready to go.
Rich ended up working with another guy.
When we finished up, the other 2 guys looked busy so I didn't feel like butting in.

Pretty good workout, but I would've liked to have gotten in some rounds of pad work for myself.

After class we headed over to the grand opening of the new krav maga spot on the north side of town and picked up some Mediterranean food on the way. There were seminars going on, we got there a little late for the 2:30 seminar. I finished off my food by 2:45 and jumped into the intro to bag seminar. It was only 30 min. It was high enough intensity to make me break a good sweat. The pace was such that any time I started getting nauseous from the food, we'd start doing something else - it was perfect.

I think the bag class more than made up for not getting in any pad or bag work.
All-in-all it was a great day.

[Pork Chop]

Monday 1/23/2012
Went to Gold's for some lifting & stretching.

• Warmed up with about 17 min of cardio (total) on a couple different machines.
• Seated Calf Raise, 90lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets
• Hyper-extension chair, 25lbs x 20 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps
• Face pulls, 40lbs x 10 reps, 60lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps
• Cable version of Hammer Strength pulldown, 90lbs x 10 reps, 110lbs x 10 reps
• Hammer Strength Pulldown- was all over the place on this one. Started off low weight with high reps, moved to higher & higher weight with low reps, finished with medium weight for high reps. Total about 6 to 8 sets.
• Cuban presses with 10 or 15lb kettlebell (wasn't marked), 3 x 10 reps each shoulder
• Finished up with a battery of static stretches for upper & lower body.

Enough of a workout to make me sweat, not really so much to kill me.
Not terribly sore today, but it might hit later.
Didn't sleep well last night (5 to 6 hours maybe).

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday 1/25/2012
My fears of getting sore later in the evening on Tuesday were well-founded.
By the time I got to the house to pick up Suntzu Tuesday night, I was completely burnt.
We debated for a while whether or not to go, but ultimately decided to listen to our bodies and get some rest.
Ended up sleeping 10 or 11 hours Tuesday night.

Wednesday, still sore, I left work early to pick up Suntzu and head to the muay thai gym.
My hamstrings were/are very sore and my lower back just plain hurt(s).
I realized that I really over-did it on Monday with the hyper-extensions.
I actually reached failure a couple of times on that exercise and did not pay it enough attention.
Paying for it now.

Wednesday's workout was pretty light.
5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics on the rest rounds.
Shadowbox for maybe a round or 2.
The rest of the class was spent learning clinching techniques.
Reviewed some nice clinch escapes/counters and even learned a really nice toss or two.

Got home last night and saw the ICMAC thread here on the General Forum.
Houston's Feb 18th seems really early to be fighting; but there's also an event in Dallas in April.
Reviewed a bunch of the ICMAC and Legends of Kung Fu sanshou/sanda clips on youtube.

Gotta say, ICMAC looks pretty nice:
headgear and 12 oz gloves provided,
no chest guards required,
sanda rules (knees + ring/no pushing out of bounds),
and a light heavyweight class for folks 206-225lbs.

There are various divisions broken up by experience: A , B, and C.
A = 5 or more amateur fights (no pro); 3, 3-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
B = 4 or fewer fights, no more than 2 wins; 3, 2-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
C = no fights, or no wins + 1 loss; 3, 1-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
My record is 0 wins, 1 loss; so I qualify for C group.

Not sure about insurance (but it seems likely) or cost. Also wasn't quite able to get a complete grasp of the level of competition at the Texas tourneys from the vids that are available.

I would love it if Houston was in April, Dallas was in May or June, and Legends of Kung Fu was in July - then I would think about making a run at all 3.

Going to discuss it with my coach on Friday & show him the vids I was able to find.
We'll see what he says.
If not this time around, I think Dallas in April is a serious possibility.

[Pork Chop]

Friday 1/27/2012
Thursday was a bit of a waste - I probably should've brought my gym clothes to work in anticipation of it.
Friday, I did bring my gym clothes to work.

Friday was a really rough day, personally.
Had some trouble on the road that I hope doesn't come back to haunt me.
Situation didn't feel safe, instinct took over, my actions may have some ramifications, but at least I'm alive.

In other news, my brother was in the hospital for some stroke-like symptoms.
He should have his test results Monday.
He's only 22, so it's pretty scary.

Workout-wise; I hit up the muay thai gym.
Workout was kind of short, with some interruptions.
5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics.
3 rounds of shadow.
5 or 6 rounds of bag - focused on my shins for 2 rounds each leg & did combo work the other rounds.
Shins look like hamburger.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday 1/28/2012
Muay thai gym.
Jump rope 3 rounds.
3 rounds of heavy bag.
5 rounds of sparring (3 of which with new guy who shows a lot of promise at 6'2, 210, lean & muscular).
held pads for 2 rounds.
finished up with another couple rounds on the bag (hands)
Mind was telling me I could do more, body - not so much.
Feel like it was almost an ideal workout.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday 1/31/2012

Monday was a waste.
Sunday night my kid had nightmares & was up til almost 2.
I didn't fall back to sleep until 4.
Didn't go to work Monday, slept almost the whole day.

Tuesday I hit the Krav gym for cardio bag.
Solid workout.

Tonight (wednesday) I have a work meeting, as I do every 1st wednesday of the month; so I'm going to try to hit "all in all out" on thursday to kinda make up for it. I hope I survive.

[Brule]

way to keep on keepin on chop. At least you're getting out to the gyms and getting fit. I've been on a regular schedule the last 4 weeks with doing weights, hopefully i can keep it up. Maybe i'll update my blog in a couple of weeks if i continue to stay on the path.

Not to take the thread off track but, i've heard others mention that their kids having nightmares and keeping them up during the night and i have to admit it that none of my kids have experienced that, which always made me wonder. I guess they just haven't had one as intense as others and i can't complain about their sleep habits, knock on wood.

[Pork Chop]

way to keep on keepin on chop.

Thanks!

Not to take the thread off track but, i've heard others mention that their kids having nightmares and keeping them up during the night and i have to admit it that none of my kids have experienced that, which always made me wonder. I guess they just haven't had one as intense as others and i can't complain about their sleep habits, knock on wood.

It doesn't happen to my kid that often.
Maybe every month or so.
He only sleeps in his own bed, but he likes it when my wife sleeps next to him.
That night she put him down at 7:30; which is hours earlier than normal - we shoot for 8:30, but rarely get him down by 9:30.
She laid down with him at the beginning and took off around the time he would've normally gone to bed.
The end result was that he ended up taking a nap and woke up disoriented when mommy wasn't there.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday 2/2/2012
Since wednesday was a bust, I kinda tried to make up for it tonight.
I did All-In-All-Out.
Oh God, why? What have I done?
Holy sh!t ballz that workout is hard.

90 minutes.
The workout was all over the place, and it was all hard.
One section of the workout, he said we were doing a bodyweight-only version of one of the crossfit days.
Another section was straight up tabatas: 8 sets 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off; doing stuff like burpees, thrusters with 2 25lb kettlebells, jumping pullups on the rings, and knees to chest.
Like I said, all over the place: agility drills, battle ropes, sprints carrying a heavybag.

Lots of fun, but really, really hard.
People were disappearing throughout.
Could never do this every day, but as a once-a-week thing, it's awesome.

[Pork Chop]

hurting really bad after thursday.
was a zombie at work all day friday.
after work, i missed the exit for the gym and missed my exit for home.
started taking a nap, but my wife didn't seem to understand me when i said "i don't care about dinner, i need to crash" and woke me up anyway.
right now, i'm hurting, it's late, and i can't fall back to sleep.
I don't know that i'll even be able to make it saturday.
i'm not quite ready for that all-in-all-out class yet.