Monday, January 10, 2005

Training Log: Entry 43


Was able to hit the bag today.  Triceps are only minorly sore.  Added in 2 rounds of rope skipping at the start of the program.  Good for warmup and footwork.


Lifted today.  Day 2 of routine. 


Upright rows: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Lat pulldown: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Cable deadlift: 35 reps (not allowed to deadlift in my gym, and the cable machine only goes up to 250)


Smith machine front shurgs: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Dumbbell shrugs: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Declined dumbbell shrugs: 5 sets of 1-5 reps


Standing E-Z bar curl: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Declined hammer curl: 5 sets of 1-5 reps
Preacher curl station: 5 sets of 1-5 reps


I have lost weight.  It's fluctuating.  I'll post when it stablizes.


Cardio has actually stuck.  I'm impressed.  Will not slack though.  Need to keep it up.  It used to be my strong point.


 


Saw vids of me sparring in September.  Was a total eye opener.  I've changed so much as a fighter in such a short time.  My kickgame was non-existant, I had no idea what I was doing on the ground, and I moved as though I was in slow motion.  However, at that time, I actually had alright punching combinations (even though I left my arms out), but I feel that is more because I was fighting people around my height/reach rather than a lack of experience.  It is difficult for me to stay in punch range against taller opponenets.  Especially against those that run away.

Sunday, January 9, 2005

Training Log: Entry 42


Am still way sore from the first days' bodyweight workout, and with travel time from my flight, I didn't get to do much in way of working out.  Only did some bench before I called it a night.  As it stands though, it looks like my routine is going to be something to the extent of:


Bench press: 1-5 reps, 10 sets
Dumbbell press: 1-5 reps, 5 sets


Dumbbell shoudler press: 1-5 reps, 5 sets
Front Laterial raise: 1-5 reps, 5 sets


French Press: 1-5 reps, 5 sets
Weighted dips: 1-5 reps, 5 sets
Machine skull crushers: 1-5 reps, 5 sets

Saturday, January 8, 2005

Training Log: Entry 41

Tricpes were too sore to shadowbox (had no power and bad form, and
would rather no enforce those habits).  These workouts are kicking
my ass.

Have not been mentioning that I have been doing cardio during this new
season of lifting as well.  I tend to my cardio day on my chest
day, bag and half cardio on my back day, and only bag work on my leg
day (legs would be too sore to do any other sort of cardio). 
During my rest day, I intend to do a bag/half cardio session in the
afternoon and a session of footwork and shadowboxing in the evening.

Edit: Goddamn this bodyweight stuff is tougher than I thought.  I
used to think I was in shape until I did this crap.  Here's how
leg and ab day worked out (once again taken from
www.trainforstrength.com)

SHOOTFIGHTER/BOOTSTRAPPERS*: 4 SETS OF 25.
*25 Shootfighter Squats followed immediately by 25 Bootstrappers. This is one set.

10 Lunges

HIGH KNEE JUMPS: 10
Place your hands behind your head and keep your feet shoulder width
apart. Bend your knees slightly and drive your knees to your chest. Try
to jump again as soon as the balls of your feet hit the ground.

4 sets of 25 flutterkicks

SIT AND TUCKS: 15 in each direction, front and then each cheek.

CRUNCHES: 30 in each direction.

SITTING FLUTTER KICKS:  4 sets of 10.

ATOMIC SITUPS: 10
Lie flat on your back with your arms and legs extended. Bring your
hands and feet up at the same time and try to touch them together over
the middle of your body. It's pretty comical to watch these in the
video too.

Those shootfighters/bootstrappers killed me.  My legs feel like jello, and my abs are like a brick.  I love this.

Friday, January 7, 2005

Training Log: Entry 40

Goddamn I'm sore.  Triceps are killing me, and my left shin is
dying (byproduct of not being able to condition it.  Right shin
still seems to be working well though).

Tested a new BWE in regards to chin-up/pull ups called
"laddering".  Initally, this is done with a partner, where one guy
does a pull-up, the other guy does one, first guy does two, second guy
does two, etc etc.  It can be accomplished solo (which I have
done) if you just estimate the time in between pull-ups. 
Apparently it's what the Spetznas (sp?  Russian Special Forces)
used to get the mandatory 18 deadhang pull-ups with a 10kg bulletproof
vest on.  Suffice to say, Russian Special Force I am not.  I
did feel some strain in my triceps, which at this point I'm going to
blame for my poor performance, but in reality, this is my weak point
that I hope to remmedy.

Program as of today went
Pull-ups
  Ladder up to 5 for 3 sets
Chin-up
    Ladder up to 3 for 3 sets
Commando Chin-ups
    Ladder up to 2 for 3 sets per side (total of six sets)

And at that point, I was done.  Man did I feel bad.  The
20-30 second rest time in between sets is so damn new to me.  I'm
loving this though.

Thursday, January 6, 2005

Training Log: Entry 39

I've started on day 5 of my new program (being that today is
Thursday).  To let you know what I have so far, here ya go. 
As a reference, I got most of my ideas from www.trainforstrength.com

Push-up Pyramids to 15 (means going from 1 to 15 back down to 1)
Reps 1-5 are Triceps
Push-ups, Reps 6-10 are Regular Grip Push-ups, and Reps
11-15 are Dive Bomber Push-ups.


GRAPPLING UNLIMITED PUSHUPS: 2 sets of 50 (originally 1 set of 100)




Lie down flat on your stomach
and place your hands right next to your chest while making
sure your elbows are tucked in tightly behind you. Raise
your entire body a few inches off the ground for your starting
point and then raise it another 6 inches for the mid-point.
The only thing touching the ground is your feet and hands.



DIPS:
4 sets of 8-10

Note: The pyramid looked like a joke at first, but by the time I was
donw with it, I was so thankful I could complete it.  I thought
it'd be a bad start to my new routine to not even be able to complete
my first exercise.

I was unable to do a full 100 reps in one set of the grappling
push-ups, thus I broke it up into 2 sets.  I hope to rectify that
soon.

I want to add one more exercise before the dips, because once I was
done with those, the workout was over...I couldn't move my arms.

So far, I am VERY happy with this workout.  Dips have become a new
favorite of mine.  I'm thinking I want to work more towards 15-30
reps though, to keep this as a muscular endurance exercise, but we'll
see.

I also want to add in a little bit more shoulder/chest work.  I'm
thinking of that the new exercise to add in will be Dands or Hindu
Push-ups until failure.

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Training Log: Entry 38

Training program is under process of totally being revamped from the beggining of this log.  Changes are as follows:

Am finally able to do several leg exercises that were unavailable due
to stress fracture on left ankle.  As a result, I am currently
training my kicks and able to do weighted leg exercises.

Having received video tape of my sparring "performance" has revealed to
me that I have been doing too much aimless bag training without aid of
a training partner with focus pads.  My punches do not snap back,
and instead are more of a slow push rather than a quick "pop".  As
such, my major focus whenever I do any sort of boxing training is to
pop my hands back as fast as possible when punching.  This results
in a less "satisfying" feeling, but I know I'll appreciate the results.

Punching speed is "faster than a speeding building".  As such, I
have encorperated more shadowboxing into my program, so that I can
develop punching speed independent of heavybag (which seems to
encourage bad habits).

Hands drop, once again a byproduct of having to train by myself. 
It's become a major focus when hitting the heavy bag.  I will
attempt to record my training for my own benefit.

Amazingly, kick game has not deteriorated in spite of it's lack of
training, but my hands are still dropping majorly with this.  Once
again, another focus.

Have gone from 5 minute rounds to 3 minute rounds on the bag.  I
decided that the increased stamina was not worth the decreased
techincal skills that comes with "slugging" on the bag once I'm
winded.  I'd rather practice with "perfect" form for 3 minutes
than less than perfect form for 5 minutes.  I'll get my stamina
from my cardio.

And speaking of which, I'm actually impressed with how well my cardio
has been doing during my matches.  The 2-3 weeks of HIIT
beforehand was definitely a help, but even when I had been slacking I
still managed to do alright for myself when it came to some 3 minute
rounds of sparring.  I don't want to give up though.  If
anything, I NEED more cardio, mainly because the techical skills are
still very poor, thus conditioning is going to need to be my advantage
until that improves.  With my new class schedule, I should be able
to get some cardio in during the morning.

I desperately need to attend my martial arts classes.  School got
complicated, but there's really no excuse beyond this.  Hopefully
I can work some rides out.  Not only am I missing instruction, but
I'm gathering a huge amount of ring rust from sparring only every 3
months or so.

Amazingly, after 2+ years out of wrestling, I still hold onto some of
the instincts.  I managed a cross-face cradel in one of my
sparring matches over break.  I'm still muscling everything
though.  I honestly fear the day I encounter a stronger
fighter. 

I'm going to be doing my best to make sure said day never happens
though.  I am restructing my lifting entirely.  As of this
point, I don't have the specifics, but the general split will be
Day 1: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders-weights
Day 2: Back/Traps/Biceps-weights
Day 3: Legs/Abs-weights
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders-bodyweight exercises (BWEs)
Day 6: Back/Traps/Biceps-BWEs
Day 7: Legs/Abs-BWEs

Said program should give me a good balance of both muscular strength
and endurance without bodybuilding.  I'm actually very excited
about this program, and will post the results of whether or not it
"works".  I still have time to figure out how exactly I'm going to
play it out.

Need to work my abs.  A lot.  Extremely weak area. 
There's just so many schools of thought out there though.  I'm
contemplating BWEing them everyday except my lifting day, but I
honestly don't know the best method to go about it.  I need strong
abs for those body shots.

For those of you who have been reading, this a summary of how I've
changed in the past few months since said journal has been
started.  I might make a habit of doing a sesmester evaluation.

Saturday, January 1, 2005

Training Log: Entry 37

Once again changed my bagwork.  Hoping it'll fix the holes in my
game.  Decided to go by 3 minute rounds rather than 5 minute
because the fatigue of the latter encouraged me to have lazy
hands.  Bad habbits.

Rounds 1-2: Shadowboxing.  Focus on snapping punches back right away rather than leaving them out (big problem)
Round 3: Shadowboxing.  Learned a drill to grab the earlobes with both hands to keep hands at face.  Using this.
Rounds 4-6: Bare-knuckle heavybag.  Focus on keeping hands up and snapping punches back.
Rounds 7-10: Grappling gloves boxing.   Work on punching power, yet making sure to snap punches back.
Round 11:  Muay Thai aresnal.  Atm, my knees are burned, so
all I can really do is polish my roundhouses.  Getting a better
pivot (as lacking in the videos).