Pork Chop's latest workout blog

[Pork Chop]

Monday 2/6/2012
Back to the gym after a long weekend off.
After last week's fiasco, i figured it was time to go back to the drawing board for some tweaks.

My schedule has been Yoga monday, cardio bag tues/thurs, muay thai wed/sat (sometimes fri).
Hitting the bag class twice a week with muay thai has put a lot of strain on my shoulders.
I was hoping that I could eventually transition into all-in-all-out on thursdays instead of the bag class. Last week showed me that all-in-all-out is a no-go. My body just can't handle it (maybe later).

I've decided to add some weights after yoga and do my yoga day twice a week (Tues & Thurs).
The official program is:
Mon- Yoga & Weights
Tues- Cardio Bag
Wed- Muay Thai
Thur- Yoga & Weights
Fri- Rest (optional Muay Thai)
Sat- Muay Thai (sparring day)
Sun- Rest
Doubling up on yoga and weights just feels like a good idea for injury prevention and a little bit of strength.

For weights, I'm following something similar to Starting Strength beginner's program - 3x5 for 3 bigger lifts. I'm going to keep the weight medium-low for now, until I feel ready to do more.

Did 1hr yoga class.
Followed up with weights.

Yoga class was a bit more strenuous than I remember - I sweat a lot.

Weights:
Deadlift - 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets
Squat - 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets
Assisted chinup (neutral grip) - 52lb assist x 5reps x 2sets; 70lb assist x 5reps x 1set - 70lbs felt like where i really should be.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday 2/7/2012
Cardio bag Tuesday night.
Same guy taught it that taught All-in-all-out on Thursday.
It may not be the A-I-A-O class that killed me so much as this guy.
This was one of the most brutal bag classes I've experienced.
Unless I somehow got out of shape by having 1 week of only 2 (hard) workouts; this class was unusually hard - was like a mini A-I-A-O with no breaks or even time for setting up different exercises.
The guy's a big fan of Tabatas and says as much in class.
Thing is, we don't stop at 10 rounds (5 min?) of Tabata intervals; it's an hour long workout.
Went through all the stages of a tough workout yesterday:
out of breath, pukey, hot, unable to catch my breath, "powering down", dizzy, faint...
Afterwards I was pretty much a vegetable for a good hour or two.
Good workout.

Today I feel okay so far.
I've just been really grumpy all morning.
A lot of times after a hard workout, I feel okay most of the day and around 4 I start getting achy, cramping, and sleepy. Shooting for muay thai tonight, so I hope that doesn't happen.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday 2/8/2012
Went to muay thai tonight.
Worked real hard.
Noticed myself getting tired at weird times again, but gutted it out.
Got my work in at least.

My coach says i'll fight this summer.
Told him my weight hasn't budged in the last month and that I might have to fight heavyweight.
He didn't seem too positive about it.
At the very least he wants me to hit up my teammate, the personal trainer for some serious strength training (probably just get him to sign off on my 3x5 stuff).
We'll see what happens by the summer time - either my metabolism will kick in, or at least I'll be stronger.

My wife's locked me into this routine of eating a big dinner with her.
She doesn't eat all day, so she's usually starving and she demands I eat with her.
In the past, I wouldn't bring enough food to work for lunch and I'd be starving too.
Lately, I've been feeling less and less hungry in the evenings; it might have something to do with me taking over the chore of giving my kid his night time bath.
Today it came to a head and we had a little bit of an argument over it.
I'm going to try to just make myself something light for dinner from now on.
It might help with the weight loss.

[Pork Chop]

Thursday 2/9/2012
Yoga & weights last night.

Yoga class was actually pilates + yoga for an hour.
A lot of that stuff is all bodyweight oriented, so it's pretty tough if you're big.
Sweat like crazy.
Given that I don't really have any dedicated cardio workouts, I'm hoping this and the cardio I do in my other workouts will suffice.
My biggest limitation is time; so if I can actually improve something & get some cardio in there instead of mindlessly grinding away on a cardio machine, then that's preferable.

Weights:
Squat: 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - was a little tired and clipped the rack on the way down. Holding the bar pretty low on my shoulders so I don't hurt my neck again, so it can get a little awkward. Don't think the weight is all that tough though. Will give 135 at least one more week before moving up to 185.

Deadlift: 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - bumped up weight and didn't really notice much of a difference. I can usually jump back into 225lbs x 10 within my first month of working out, so I'm playing it very conservative. Will try to give 185 at least 1 more week before moving up to 225.

Assisted chin up: 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - felt really strong on this one. One more time and I should think about reducing the assist; maybe I'll give it another week.

I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I should add some pushing (probably overhead press).
There's also the idea of having 2 different upper body portions: 1 with assisted chin + dip, the other with t-bar row + overhead press. Thing is, the yoga classes have so much supporting of the upper body with the hands, I do tons of pushups throughout the week between my other classes, and hitting the bag is very taxing on the shoulders. I think I'm going to wait until my body adapts to my schedule and things gets easier.

I got in touch with my personal trainer classmate at the request of my coach. He hasn't contacted me back yet, but I emailed him a pretty lengthy email only last night.

I was down another pound as of this morning (just under 238). Light dinner is helping, and I don't feel hungry. So maybe I just plateaued there for a bit & am starting to have movement again. I'm usually low 230s, upper 220s when I'm working out without any crazy dieting though; so that's why I'm not very confident about my weight. If I can get under 220 by June with a schedule I can easily maintain, I could probably get strict for a month and get under 200~205 by July.
Wish I could make 185 without killing myself.
Just gotta keep grinding away and thinking long term.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday 2/11/2012
Friday was my rest day, which was nice.
Saturday was sparring day.
Got in about 3 or 4 rounds of hands at the end.
Overall, the workout was close to 2.5 hours
Good workout.
Enjoyed working with the guy on hands.
Think I'm doing well about taking my ego out of the equation and learning to just enjoy it.
The guy I worked with was a good partner and that always helps.

[Pork Chop]

Monday 2/13/2012
Yoga tonight, then weights.

Yoga class was partner yoga.
Started off with a dude.
He didn't like the exercises (they were a bit... awkward) and took off after like the third one.
Teacher tried to get him to stay, he said "not a snowball's chance in he||"

My next partner was a cute girl, so it worked out.
Had to modify some of the exercises so I wouldn't crush her, but she put up with me and we got a good workout.

Afterwards, went to lift weights.

Squat 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - held the bar real low on my shoulders and went ATG (or at least as much as my joints will allow). Was a little out of breath between sets, but otherwise it felt pretty good. Some awkward moments balance wise, but most of that is because of the bar position I think. Next week I'll bump it up to 185 and see how it goes. Thursday will be my last time at 135.

Deadlift 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - really focused on strict form. It felt pretty easy. Like with the squat, I wasn't exactly throwing around the weight, and I did get a bit winded, but it wasn't much of a struggle. Next week I'll bump it up to 225, Thursday will be my last time at 185.

Usually do a 135lb power clean after my last set of legs and even that is starting to feel light.

Assisted Chin Up 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - I feel like I'm doing these with perfect form. I feel like I could step it up. Will use the 70lb assist one more time on Thursday and then drop down a plate (55lb assist?).

Went home and before dinner jumped on the scale - just under 238, basically another half pound or so. Just gotta keep it up and see how far I can go.

Feel pretty good tonight, just sleepy.

[Pork Chop]

Power blew at work so we got out at around 10:30am.
I'm in full couch potato mode.
Took a 2.5 hr nap and played some video games.
Gym tonight is not looking probable; would have to leave in an hour and feel more inclined to go back to bed.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday 2/15/2012
Fun night.
Felt compelled to "make up" for being a couch potato Tuesday.
Muay thai class.
5 rounds jump rope with calisthenics on the rests.
3 sets of 10 kbell swings
1 round of 5 jumping jacks + 1 burpee, continuous
held focus mitts for 3 rounds
held thai pads for 3 rounds
hit focus mitts for 3 rounds
hit thai pads for 3 rounds
finished up with 4 rounds of conditioning kicks: 1 kick, 1 leg, continuous for each round, so 2 rounds each leg, low round kicks & medium round kicks. Tried to break the bag.

[Pork Chop]

i just got majorly hosed tonight.
less than 5 minutes from the gym, was called away on an "emergency".
so angry right now that i'm nauseous.

[Pork Chop]

Friday 2/17/2012
Was able to kinda make up one of the days I missed.

12 min on treadmill, warm up, walking on an incline at 60% max heartrate.

Squat 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - mixed it up, held it low on the back first set, then used the sting ray plastic "holder", final set started as front squats but finished out with zercher squat when i couldn't get it to sit right (and my arms were hurting).

Deadlift 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - nothing special. Pretty easy.

135 power clean was automatic - it just went straight up.

Overhead press 95lbs x 5reps x 1set; 115lbs x 5reps x 2 sets. 115 was nice and heavy, but didn't feel like too much. I'll stick with it for the next month. If I can build up to 135, I may just end up doing power clean & press.

Assisted chinup 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets. Maintained perfect form, but I was tired, and it was a bit of a struggle. I think I can up the weight next week, but I'm going to have to get adjusted to the new workload.

[Pork Chop]

Saturday 2/18/2012
Muay thai.
Showed up on time but coach was in the middle of something, so I didn't get to workout till about 11:20. Still got in over 3 hours worth of work - was at the gym for a total of 4 hours.

5 rounds jump rope + calisthenics
Held pads for maybe 7 rounds (can't really remember).
Hit the bag for a round.
Learned the gym's ram muay.
Hit pads for 5 or 6 rounds, kind of lost track of time - it was brutal and I cramped up at the end.
Held pads for another 3 rounds.
Kicked the bag for 4 more rounds.
Worked on footwork and shadow for a good 30 minutes; focusing on basic stepping.

Second guy I held pads for (200 pounder) sparred the guy I sparred last week (maybe 145lbs). Small guy's a bit of a noob. They had a bit of a misunderstanding. Noob went a little crazy in the ring. Big guy checked him. Noob lost it. Drama.
Coach tried to explain things to the noob; he didn't get it. Left the gym in a huff.

Was actually kind of surprised the big guy sparred - he only went 3 rounds on pads because he was having trouble breathing. He's had "temper" issues in the past. He's good, he's strong, and he's fast but he takes things personally- so it can be a dangerous combination.

I can see both sides of the story and yet I kinda blame both of them.
At the same time, I really think sparring needs to be friendly, focused, purposeful, closely supervised, with lots of communication - even with advanced students in there.

I've got some strong ideas on how I would do things if I were running the show, but I'll keep those ideas in my back pocket if I ever open up my own place.

[Pork Chop]

Monday 2/20/2012
Yoga class tonight.
Got there more than 20 min early so got in some extra stretching.
Class went pretty well, but I noticed my ability to hold a deep bow stance (warrior pose) isn't what it used to be - kept cramping up.
I also had issues with the pike position (standing position, bent at waist, head by knees, legs straight, hands on floor); actually the variation where one of your legs is supposed to be sticking straight up behind you - could barely go past horizontal.
Broke a good sweat though and felt good.

Afterwards I lifted weights.
I upped the weight today.
Interestingly enough, I felt really strong.

Squat 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - was holding the bar a little higher. I had problems long ago because I was holding it in the notch at the base of the neck & screwing up my neck. Lately, I've been holding it low, pretty much across my shoulder blades. Tonight, I held it across my traps, along the top edge of my shoulder blades, a few inches below the notch at the base of the neck. Felt much better this time - much more balanced. Didn't really notice the increase in weight. Still went as low as I could go.

Deadlift 225lbs x 5reps x 3sets - Again, I didn't really notice the increase in weight. Kept good form with my back straight. Got a bit tired between sets, but nothing like friday.

Powerclean with 135lbs was ridiculously easy. Was tempted to try to press it.

Overhead Press 115lbs x 5reps x 3sets - Easier than last week. Feels nice and heavy, but not uncontrollable. No breakdown in form. Kept good control the whole time. Held it at the top for a few seconds after my last rep.

Assisted Chinup 60lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - Much easier than 70lb assist was on Friday. Kept good form even through the last rep.

[Pork Chop]

Tuesday 2/21/2012
Cardio bag last night.
Owner taught, which usually means an absolute killer class.
Honestly, I'm not sure he was any worse than when Rube taught (the guy that killed me first at all-in-all-out and then again a week later at cardio bag).
These guys like to double up on the lead a lot on their combos, which is almost impossible to do correctly on the pace that they do it - no time to reset or even throw properly.
They also demand left foot forward on a lot of drills and then forget to do right foot forward.
Both of those things kind of drive me nuts.

Finished up with 3, 1-minute punchout rounds at the end.
The last punchout was particularly effective; he did a nice visualization exercise and got a lot more out of me - hit a wall about 30seconds in but managed to keep it going till the end.

Afterwards, I went to go see my old team mate (Marcel) and my old coach (kru Vong).
Kru Vong's in town to prepare Marcel for a fight in Vegas.
I didn't realize how far away the gym is.
Left for the gym a little after 7, got there at almost 8, chatted til 8:30 and didn't get home until after 9.
By that point, I was starving, tired, and not thinking straight so I picked up some food.
My wife was ticked.
Didn't eat well - ate unhealthy food, but at least it wasn't a total pig out.
Drank caffeine with dinner and it kept me up late.
Working off of less than 5 hours of sleep; but I wasn't groggy when I woke up.
While I was up late, I managed to accomplish a lot of stuff that had been building up for a while.
Feeling a bit relieved today, like a weight had been lifted.

[Pork Chop]

Wednesday 2/22/2012
Coach wasn't there, so it was a free day.

4 rounds of jump rope, with calisthenics on the breaks - one round was a little interrupted.

1 round: kettlebell swings x 10, slam ball slams x 10, seated slam ball twists x 10 => repeat for the whole round (3 min)

1 round: same as above, but wearing 25lb weight vest.

1 round: 4 jumping jacks + 1 burpee => repeat for the whole round (3 min), wearing weight vest.

3 rounds of shadow wearing the weight vest: first round everything, second round just kicks, third round boxing with footwork.

2 rounds of shadow no vest

7 rounds heavybag: first round everything on softer bag, second round low rear roundkicks (with combo), third round low lead roundkick (with combo), fourth round mid/high rear roundkick (with combo), fifth round mid/high lead roundkick (with combo), sixth round fight finisher crosses (pure power on the cross the whole round), seventh round fight finisher hooks (pure power on the hook the whole round).

I was hurting through most of the bag work; the weight vest took a lot out of me.
was down another couple pounds after the workout (235.0).

[Pork Chop]

Friday 2/26/2012
Overdid it on Wednesday with the weight vest.
I was sore all day and my back was killing me on Thursday.
Got stuck in bad traffic leaving work on Thursday, so I was running 20 min late for a 1 hour yoga class.
In the end I decided to rest.

Friday, I had a good weight workout.
Deadlift 225lbs x 5reps x 3sets - Might have been because the "tread" on this olympic bar was still new and sharp, but it felt heavier. Didn't have any problems on the deadlift, it was still pretty easy, just not quite as easy.

Where the difference showed up was in the power clean with 135lbs. In retrospect, I think I took too much of the legs out of the movement & ended up doing a reverse grip bicep curl with 135. Kinda failed at the top and looked real awkward sneaking under the bar. If I had done a true power clean I doubt I would've had any problems.

Squat 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - Used the manta ray. Was really pretty easy. Form stayed perfect - better than the last time even.

Overhead press 115lbs x 5reps x 3sets - this actually felt pretty easy. I don't think I struggled even as bad as last time.

Assisted Chin up 60lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - again, pretty easy. Form was the best I've done yet.


I'm writing this Saturday morning and I'm almost dreading going to work out. Saturday's supposed to be "sparring day" for the fighters; but as I may have said earlier - I don't have any partners that I enjoy sparring with currently. What I dread is having to make excuses for not jumping in there, or getting pressured to jump in there and either being target practice for little guys to tee-off or risk it becoming a brawl any time I try to fire back. My goals for Saturdays is really to help out the guys who are going to fight. I'd rather do clinch work, hold & hit pads, or just get in a good solo workout. If none of these guys are more than beginners, are ready to fight, or appreciate what I bring to the table, then there's not a whole lot of point. Not even sure if the coach is going to be there, because he hadn't been there all week by Wednesday. Maybe I need to find a new gym.