see your shame destroyed

        A bit of an impromptu session this morning, really i had just intended to do some foam rolling, but it was feeling decent so i decided to make up some bodyweight stuff from last night and do some upper body work just for fun.  I think looking at my schedule I was supposed to take today off, but I feel like at least for the first 10 days I can push pretty hard to get myself empty.  Sorta leaves me wondering how the scheduling for this is going to go, i've got two weeks in seattle at the end of December, and more than likely a move.  Thankfully, if it's where I think it is, getting back into a routine will be SUPER easy:)  Bear-style, yo.

• A1. Pullup: 4x5
• A2. E^2 Pushup: 4x15
• Flat DB Press: 3x8 65
• B*. Strict EZ Curl: 3x8 55
• B*. Strict Pushdown: 3x8 70
• B*. Seated Row: 3x8 130

        I'm really digging the strict form upperbody work, I'm feeling muscles i haven't worked in years, you know, like my biceps and deltoids.  I feel like this is going to be a good springboard into mid-January when I flip back into strength and size, really excited about Juggernaut.  Sorta tempted to check out Juggernaut JiuJitsu too since I'm going to be training full-contact again, but we'll see.  Don't want to get ahead of myself.  Hopefully the gyms i think i'm going to be training at haven't changed too much.  Life is picking up, this isn't a sour grapes thing here, but I gotta say, getting laid off from Riot is probably one of the best things to happen to me recently. Onward!

Today's TrainingTune: Accelerant - Die Sektor

i can go where no one else goes

        Rawr, i feel like this guy today:


        Got up and hit it pretty solid today, it's funny, every so often I'll go on a cycle where i do really limited cardio and don't work any sort of metabolic schemes into my lifting...and you know, when i go back into a cycle where i'm doing cardio and metabolic work, i never think "man, i miss not doing cardio and metabolic work".  At this point, i don't really do it because it's essential for staying lean, I do it because it's fucking FUN.  Swinging kettlebells is fun, farmer's walks are fun, bagwork is fun, heck, walking with ankleweights is FUN.  So in celebration, here are 24 more roaring bears.  I seriously want to find a gym that has chains again when I move, not for lifting, but for bodyweight work.  Chain pushups are the shit.

• Squat: 5x5 225
• Clean: 4x6 145
• DB Incline: 3x8 65
• Bent BB Row: 3x8 135
• A1. Lateral Raise: 3x8 15
• A2. Front Twist Press: 3x8 10
• DB Farmer's Walk: 4x50yd 50

        I don't mind going slightly lighter for speed and lowered rest, it feels like i'm incorporating mobility into my lifts.  Don't get me wrong, I like grinding too (ask my ex's), but fat loss is not the time for such things in my opinion.  I think i'm going to incorporate an evening walk on days i don't go to martial arts, just to keep everything skippy.  4 miles a day doesn't feel like much, and since it's still nice down here in SoCal, might as well keep taking advantage of the awesome weather while i'm around.

Today's TrainingTune: Master Of Light - Monster Magnet

A few of my favorite things

Squat is my bestest buddy ever. I love the squat. The rack is my happy place. That being said, I love the three movements that I did today. I've always enjoyed cleaning, and the overhead squat and clean and jerk are pretty new for me, but I just love the movements. I could have probably pushed another couple of sets of cleans at 175, but the gym was closing soon and I wanted to be sure I could get the overhead squats in.

A. Warmup/Mobility

1 Mile on stationary bike

misc arm and leg stretches (15 minutes)

B. Clean and Jerk

5 x 45#

5 x 95#

5 x 115#

5 x 115#

5 x 135#

5 x 135#

5 x 135#

After the first set of 115#, I thought I was done going up in weight for the night, but the second set felt absolutely great. I was pretty solid on the second half all of the way through, although I need to work on catching it lower.

C. Power Clean

5 x 135#

5 x 155#

5 x 155#

5 x 155#

I should have pushed harder on this, but it was good to have a set at a weight that was completely manageable. I think I may stick a little low on my cleans for a couple of weeks and be sure that I'm getting proper technique into the jumping position.

D. Overhead Barbell Squat

5 x 45#

7 x 55#

7 x 65#

7 x 75#

7 x 95#

7 x 95#

7 x 95#

This felt great. By the end I was struggling with keeping the bar locked out, and after watching some videos of overhead squats, I think I'm keeping my grip too close (I'm at pretty close to a clean grip)

Today's training tune comes to you from the letter M:

our kingdoms coming down

        Ok, life and travelling have finally settled down for a foreseeable month barring having to fly out to the bay or seattle for interviews, so it's back to regular training.  Turkey-to-Tree starts today and i gotta say the fact that i don't have to work is probably going to make this one of the more succesful T2Ts i've ever done.  So this should be fun, I'm doing a liquid carb cycle, 1:1 on training days and 2:1 on off days, which works out to something like ~1600 calories 200g protein/200g carbs on training days and 1200 calories 200g protein/100g carbs on off days.  Since i'm not training on weekends, I may toss in a fast starting Saturday nights and going to Sunday night.

        Today was the first real track day for the NB Minimeeses, and i gotta say i freakin love these shoes.  You need a pair of these immediately, hell buy two, they're...kinda not terribly expensive?  Break em in like any other shoe and don't be stupid like i was and try to do weighted walking the first day out with them, but yeah, definitely grab onto these.  I'll be buying another pair as soon as i start drawing paychecks again, fo sho.

        Alright, time to do as the bears do and take a slight recovery nap, although probably only for about 30 minutes as opposed to a whole season.

• Deadlift: 325x1/305x3/255x5/205x5/135x12 (no rest)
• Push Press: 145x3x6/135x6
• A1. DB Floor Press: 3x8 55
• A2. Bent Lateral: 3x8 40
• B1. Overhead Extension: 3x8 110
• B2. Hammer Curl: 3x8 20
• Hanging High Leg Raise: 4x4
• DB Farmer Walk: 2x50yd 60

        I want to blame the backslide on the Farmer's Walks on the deadlifts and leg raises, but let's be honest and blame it on the fact that i've been so bad about my grip training.  It's something to work on, i'll probably drop the weights on these so i can get the full reps, i really want to do 4 or 5 sets of those.  Can't really argue the metabolic effect from them either, good stuff.  Good stuff.

        I'm going to start over with the TrainingTunes and actually start logging the tunes.  A few people have asked me for a running playlist so they can refer back to certain tunes, so I'm going to post those on the google docs:  TrainingTunes

Today's TrainingTune: Afterthought - Born Into Oblivion

guess who's back?

Not to hard coded, this is my first post here, but work forced me to take a bit of a hiatus from anything but running (a week and change feels like forever to be away from the rack).

I haven't set myself up with any sort of program since moving yet, I've basically just been going in, doing whatever movements I feel like, and trying to increase my weights (although, due to the somewhat sporadic schedule I've kept recently, that last one hasn't happened as much as I'd have liked it to). Generally when I go in to lift I try to do one or two of what I consider my core movements (squat, DB or Barbell bench, standing press, deadlift, power clean), something bodyweight to failure (dips and pull ups, usually, sometimes push ups or squats), and then two auxiliary movements of some sort. So that's the overview of the time I spend in the gym, hopefully getting that more structured in the weeks to come as my work schedule becomes more dependable.

My workout from yesterday, somewhat truncated because I needed to be somewhere:

A. Warmup/mobility

1 mile on exercise bike

shoulder dislocations

miscellaneous leg and shoulder stretches (not sure of the names of most of them)

B. Squats, low bar, A2G

5 x 45#

5 x 45#

5 x 95#

5 x 135#

5 x 185#

5 x 205#

5 x 225#

5 x 225#

6 x 225#

I've recently gone from lifting a bit heavier and doing full squats (parallel) to going down to an ass to grass squat. On one hand, it's a royal pain as the gym I'm going to lacks a proper power rack and I have to stand on plates. On the other hand, I'm much more comfortable down below parallel than I was previously, and I'm starting to feel that in my cleans.

C. Deadlifts

5 x 95

5 x 135

5 x 185

5 x 225

5 x 275

5 x 295

With how less-than-stellar my squat was today, I maybe should have held off on the deadlifts, but I was feeling it. I wanted to bump up to 315, but my form was close to breaking on the 295s, so that will have to wait for a bit more isometric back strength.

D. Pull ups, wide grip

3 x BW

4 x BW

3 x BW

E. Turkish Get-Ups

5 x 30#

5 x 30#

5 x 30#

This was the noise pumped into my head for the heavy squat and deadlift sets:

Baby Oil > WD-40

My garage smells like tacky.


Baby oil is better than WD-40 for removing tacky from my skin.


Also, it smells better.


Best of all, I PR'd my stone lifting today, thanks mostly to this guy for helping me out with form, tacky usage, and encouragement.

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab

B1. Hammer Curls

4 x 8 x 25#

B2. Front Squat

4 x 8 x 135#

The curls and front squats were warmup for the stones.

C1. Atlas Stone 49" lift

3 x 2 x 175#
0 x 175# ran out of gas

I got some tacky and some tape at the advice of Bob, and man, it makes a HUGE difference. I lapped the stones much easier today, even raised the bar 5" (I was wrong in saying it was 48" before, it was 44"). I need to work on my setup and my speed, but I am very happy with my progress so far.


Videooooooo:

D1. OH Press

2 x 8 x 45#
2 x 5 x 95#
2 x 3 x 135#
2 x 2 x 155#

Just wanted to get some light reps in.

E1. High Pulls

6 x 4 x 135#

Working on my explosiveness for snatches.

F1. Farmer Holds

25s x 130#/hand
25s x 180#/hand
25s x 220#/hand

Grippy grip grip work. I think next time I'll drop the set for 180# and go right to 220# so i can do a few and hold it longer. Gotta get this up.


A great session for me as well as for Jess- she used her deadlift suit with great success today, and we capped it off with turkey leftovers. I want to bottle the amazing feeling I had after today's training and give it to people whenever they question why I do this. Pretty sure they'd get it right away.

Thanksgiving and Torture

Hello internet friends, I'm back. My arms aren't though, I'm typing with invisible fingers. Why?



Messing around with a new move, I'm not certain what it's called, but I first saw Jeyne butterfly do it, so I call it the Jeyne drop. Typically this should be done on a higher pole, but I don't have much vertical room to work with, so I tried to end it in a splits instead. (Now that I can finally do them, wooot!) I really need to work on landing softer on that one.

Here is some freestyle dancing:



I've just been insane busy, work has me pulling 60 hour weeks (I know I know, that's nothing compared to what we've all done) but I'm also keeping up on an hour a day of exercise, dance classes, and studying pymel (which is getting more and more delicious by the day). Funny, I've always been of the opinion that if something isn't fun, it just means you aren't good enough at it yet, and all the crazy torturous things I've been attempting lately are really proving that truth.

I was going to drop Salsa, last monday was my last session. During the 3 hours I was there, I realized that salsa is just pole dancing with a partner... crap. I can't stop. I love how everything comes around full circle; at the end of the day it doesn't matter which martial art you're learning, a punch is a punch is a punch.

Time to go cook now, in observance of this holiday, or something like that.

Benches and Squatses and Snatches, Oh My!

It's a two-fer! Forgot to log yesterday.


Saturday was bench day. First ME bench session in 2 months, and mixed it up by trying a new, wider grip. about 3-4" wider, actually. It went pretty well, I think I'll stick with it, I could definitely tell I had a shorter stroke.

Saturday: ME Bench

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab

B1. Bench

2 x 8 x 45#
8 x 95#
5 x 135#
3 x 185#
2 x 205#
1 x 225#
1 x 245#
1 x 265#

265# isn't a PR, but I'm happy with it after a 2 month layoff.

C1. 1-Arm Row

6 x 4 x 120#/arm      

Did these in a 3-point stance. Made it quite hard.

Sunday was ME Squat day, again for the first time in a month or so. There's video for this one, with some ugly ass snatches in it! Not those kind, you pervs.

Sunday: ME Squat

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab

B1. Squat

2 x 8 x 45#
8 x 135#
5 x 185#
3 x 225#
2 x 275#
1 x 315#
1 x 335#
1 x 350#

The 315# I went A2G, so it felt horrible. 335# was good depth, and I think the 250# was borderline. I could have gone deeper, and I also think I could have gotten 365#. Neither a PR, but still. Progress.


Videoooooo:

C1. Snatch

4 x 45#
4 x 85#
4 x 105#
2 x 135#
6 x 1 x 135#                      

SO UGLY. Such bad form on all but maybe the last one, where I realized my belt maybe too tight so I didn't latch it. And it felt way better. Something for next time.


Time for a few days off. Tacky should be arriving soon, and then stone work.

Time for my weekly digest. This week, I sucked. I got some good work done a couple days, but overall, I missed runs and fell behind on my weekly bodyweight routine and missed my normal big lift day. A messy week. But I feel great. Need to kick the intensity back up for turkey week.

NOV 13 2011 : CONDITIONING AND A RUN

CONDITIONING, RUNNING

Conditioning with coach tonight. Lots of jumping stuff, burpees, squats in fight stance, and of course running as a rest. Finished with wind sprints.

After training, Erica and I went for a short run. Felt good to burn off anything left in my legs. Then to eat, sleep, and back to fight training in the morning. The bodyweight routines are definitely helping all my other training. Even if only at psychological level. Just more relaxed as banging through continuous suffering (overheating core temperature, failing muscle endurance, pushing cardio limits, etc.).

NOV 15 2011 : PRIVATE CHOKES, ROUGH SPARRING, AND MORE

BJJ, MMA, SPARRING

This morning I started with MMA striking with the team. We worked on more flow drills and kick flow drills. We wrapped with a good set of bag drills.

Tonight was…eventful. I started with a private with MA. I wanted to work on chokes, and we focused on anacondas, D’Arces, guillotines, Marcello Garcia style guillotines (elbow-up), and finished up with north-souths. We spent an hour working through the mechanics of each of these in various positions and how to increase the percentages on hitting them (and how to defend against each). Some great notes from this. At the end, MA and I rolled for about 10 minutes and he diagnosed some of my grappling game (including a way of increasing my efficacy in escapes leading to better positions using the single-leg).

After my private, I stuck around to spar with the fight team. We had a guest fighter tonight. RP was a pro with 14 fights (though I didn’t know that until after a couple rounds). He was a lefty that came very hard. He stuck me with a nasty straight left that landed clean on my chin. It rocked  me and I dropped. I got back up and finished out my time, but spent most of that time trying to disrupt his flurries of hard punches. The second round, he came hard again, but I was better at maintaining range and began to experiment with ways to disrupt his nasty attacks. I was taking a beating, no doubt, but the second round, I was able to get in the game a bit more and land some of my own (thus slowing his barrages).

After sparring, I did an hour of BJJ in the gi. We worked on triangles and oma platas, then rolled for about 15 minutes. Good stuff. I was able to experiment with stuffing the head when my opponent works butterfly guard to great effect. That being said, he had a good neck and wrestled a lot, so he wasn’t vulnerable to being forced down into a guillotine. After that, I was done.

NOV 16 2011 : JUST MY PRIVATE

BOXING

Today was a short training day. I couldn’t make morning conditioning due to teaching, and I moved m normal Tuesday private to tonight. Coach had me moving around a lot, diagnosing my work. We worked for a solid hour with the mitts. Worked a lot of the moving in and out and combo+stepping to create angle+ combo kinds of work. At the end, he gave me some feedback and showed me some variants of the jab to use in different situations. We then worked on making my jab serious for creating space. Good stuff. Feeling like training is moving into different stage.

NOV 17 2011 : DRILLS AND THE BAG

BOXING, MMA

This morning I was able to get in to train with the MMA team. We all warmed up with some rounds on the bags before coach had us all put on our headgear and get in the ring. We did round-robins wherein one of us is in the middle and every 10 seconds or so the rest of us would take turns coming at that guy. For my round in the middle, I started off clumsy (or at least I felt so), but as I started to get relaxed, I started seeing openings and feeling each guy’s style out better. Marcos really made me work for the last 10 seconds. Pushed me well past my comfort zone, but I finished feeling strong but exhausted for the round. This felt REALLY good.

At night, I trained with the boxing team. A bit slow starting and finishing with nasty bag drills. Skipped rope, shadow-boxed and worked on some of the ongoing technical stuff about stance, movement, shoulders protecting chin while punching, returning hands to protective positions when firing off the opposite hand, etc. The boxing for fitness class was going on, so most of the good bags were occupied. I grabbed a bag that was lying on the floor and worked some MMA ground and pound with knee on belly, switching from side to side then standing over it. Coach grabbed us and we then did about half an hour of bag drills. The guy on the other side of the bag kept having to stop due to shoulder exhaustion and being winded. For some reason, that just felt like fuel to me. I started playing games in my head like imagining that I had to discourage him with my intensity level (as if he was an opponent in a fight and the bag was his proxy).

I read a Tyson interview when he talked about overcoming some of his issues with fighting. I have started to play such games with myself. One of my favorites (meaning that it works for me but is torture for my body) is to look at all the bags hanging around the gym and to imagine that every one of them is a tough guy who I’m going to fight when I finish what I’m doing (and they are all watching me). Rather than saving my energy for them, I imagine trying to break their will from even coming to fight with the intensity of my work. I’ll turn to look at each bag during breathers and it kicks me into the time dilation performance space. While I’m training, I know that they’re watching me. I know…sounds weird, but I’ve stopped thinking things like this are silly and started trying stuff to see what works to get me through and pushes my performance. Silly or not, when I’m doing this I’m pushing past my perceived limits. I’m not thinking about how tired I am, or how much my shoulders hurt, or how hard it is to snap a punch and snap the hand back to the side of my face because each glove feels full of lead, or how I know that I have to stand up and breath deep because if I don’t I’ll vomit my lungs out. Instead, I feel all that, and I know that they know it. And they see me still going at this pace regardless. And I will not break. And they know it.

While I’m in the dressing room five minutes before I come out, I’m breaking my gloves down, I’m pushing the leather to the back of my gloves, so my knuckle could pierce through. When I come out I have supreme confidence. I’m scared to death. I’m afraid. I’m afraid of everything. I’m afraid of losing. I’m afraid of being humiliated. But I’m confident. The closer I get to the ring the more confident I get. The closer, the more confident. The closer the more confident I get. All during training I’ve been afraid of this man. I think this man might be capable of beating me. I’ve dreamed of him beating me. For that I’ve always stayed afraid of him. The closer I get to the ring the more confident I get. Once I’m in the ring I’m a god. No one could beat me. I walk around the ring but I never take my eyes off my opponent. Even if he s ready and pumping, and can’t wait to get his hands on me. I keep my eyes on him. I keep my eyes on him. Then once I see a chink in his armor, boom, one of his eyes may move, and then I know I have him. Then once he comes to the center of the ring he looks at me with his piercing look as if he’s not afraid. But he already made that mistake when he looked down for that one tenth of a second. I know I have him. He’ll fight hard for the first two or three rounds, but I know I broke his spirit.   —Mike Tyson

Getting the office involved!

Hey everyone, first post here on Hard Coded, so a quick introduction.  Names Derek Osborne but everyone just tends to call me Oz.  I'm a character animator for Pipeworks Software in Eugene, OR and a former personal trainer and gym manager.

So I'm always trying to find ways to get people involved in keeping healthy.  Well our technical artist Adam Kelsey is also another guy who loved to get people involved in different ways of physical exertion and came up with the brilliant idea of '2 minutes on the hour'. He was inspired by one of the blogs he reads to plank every hour on the hour for 2 minutes.  He sent out an email and gathered a couple of us who work out regularly.  Well by the end of the day the two of us had amassed close to 10 people to participate.

Somehow it turned into a plan to do regular iso exercises that fit two criteria:

One - they won't cause a lot of sweat.
Two - it hurts like hell.

So today's 2 minutes on the hour was good old fashioned Wall Squats - this last hour we lost a couple to the homeward bound 5 o'clock hour, but here's a quick shot.

That's me behind the fire hydrant...this round I dropped the shoes, as I'm wearing flat slip ons that don't tie, which ultimately ended up being a whole new level of tough...sock slide on carpet unless you really dig in your heals.  :D

So we'll keep doing this and I'll drop some updates, can you get your office to join you in a 2 minutes on the hour challenge???

Til next time, Lead an Animated Life!!!

Oz

Event-A-Day, Day... 2ish?

Haha yeah, so I totally skipped yesterday. Stones on Monday were a bit more taxing that I had anticipated. I got some advice from Bob on what to do with my form, tape and tacky to save my biceps, so that'll come into play on the next stone session.


Tonight I decided to push press. I PR'd that mofo.

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab              

B1. Push Press
2 x 8 x 45#
5 x 95#
3 x 135#
2 x 165#
1 x 185#
1 x 205#
1 x 235# PR!


My plan was to single 225#, but the 205# flew up and felt awesome, Jess was in the gym with me, and I felt all fired up, so I went for the 235# and got it. Of course, I didn't video tonight. But Jess witnessed it, so it counts. :)

C1. Farmer Holds

30s x 130#/hand
30s x 180#/hand
30s x 200#/hand PR for time!


I'm happy with tonight. Probably taking tomorrow night off to send some off some friends who are separately leaving town for animation gigs.

going through the motions

"...In the morning, he will be well, although likely never healed." -The Prydain Chronicles, Book 4

        It's that fun time of the year again, yes friends, the holidays.  Holidays are pure training fuel for me, I am always determined to start the year from a good point to either grow or get lean, usually i just like staying fit-ish and not tipping too much to either side.  I'm switching up a bit between now and the end of the year due to traveling, i don't really want to get on a program and sorta stutter step through it.  It's overall not too hard, i mean let's be honest, most holiday parties, esp company ones, are really just for people and their families, so fuck that noise.  I got other things to do with my not terribly free time.

        Started wearing ankle weights again, i forgot how much of a love-hate i have with these, but then, i seem to be all about love-hates, so i guess it makes sense.  Alright, alright, i'm not here to whine, here's a picture of a bear:


        Bears make me smile.

• Deadlift: Deathset 275
• Push Press: 4x6 135
• A1. DB Floor Press: 3x8 50
• A2. Bent Lateral: 3x8 40
• DB Hammer: 3x8 20
• EZ French: 3x8 45
• Wukong: 4x6

        Every time i do a liquid cut it gets easier and easier...but the results are always good.  I feel like i'm starting this one from a decent degree, so i imagine i can get as lean as i need to be for now.  Good place to start the new year from.

Today's TrainingTune: Aesthetics (are a Moral Imperative) - Surgyn

Event-A-Day Day One

After a deload week where I did no lifting (not on purpose), I decided that I am going to do one strongman event or main lift a night all week, with no other accessory work. I decided to kick it off with Atlas Stone lifting. It... yeah. Watch the video.

A1. Shoulder/Hip Mobility/Prehab

B1. Front Squat

8 x 45#
8 x 85#
5 x 135#
1 x 185#

Did these to warmup for the stones. Figured it was a good bet.

C1. 48" Atlas Stone Load

0 x 175# couldn't even lap it
0 x 175# lapped it
.5 x 175# I got it to the bar but couldn't quite get it over. My toes survived at least.
2 x 1 x 175# First one went smooth and of course I fat fingered the video. Second one was a bear but dammit if I didn't grind it out.


Videos!


Fail Whale:

Teh Grind:

Overall, a good, quick session, as was the goal for the week's sessions.

Odd Week

This week was a little odd (as if any week isn't, which I guess makes every week normal in its oddness, unless it's not odd, in which case it is oddly not odd...I think there's a Russell paradox in there). We were off to Baltimore for early Thanksgiving with Erica's father and then to Dangerously Delicious Pies. The steak, mushroom, onion, and gruyere (SMOG) was amazing. As for the Baltimore Bomb (made with berger cookies), I ate one bite and the insulin surge nearly caused me to code. Erica and her sister ate the rest of the mini pie. It was delicious...but dangerously so. Then at the end of this week we had full faculty crits for our seniors, so I was booked all day for a couple days. Schedule went a bit sideways, but recovered now. Now for the digest...a few days late.

NOV 05 2011 : RUNNING IN BALTIMORE

RUNNING

We’re visiting Baltimore this weekend. It was cool and we ran along the water this afternoon. Lots of winding around buildings and people and such. Erica’s dad lives in a row house in Canton, close to the harbor, so we ran down to the waterfront. At every corner, it seemed as if the path would end, but on the edges of parking lots, around businesses, along waterfront apartments, the path continues as concrete and brick then wooden planks that give a little under your steps before connecting to occasional aluminum boat bridges. We had to dodge dogs and strollers and groups of families, but it was a really nice run with almost a half mile uphill to push through at the end. Since we were going for around six miles today, I focused on working with Erica’s pace and running technique. She did a good job. We were able to get through the distance in only 30 seconds slower than Erica’s best 5k pace (8:30). I felt great. I felt like I could have easily run a couple more miles. ^%&^% I feel good.

NOV 06 2011 : KNEE ACTING UP

BODYWEIGHT, WEIGHT-LIFTING

I feel great these past couple weeks,  but today at the gym, my right knee was really unstable. There is some soft tissue pain and there seems to be a small lump behind the right knee. Probably need to get that looked at. I took it easy, trying to feel it out tonight. On a couple of the squats, when I got low, I lost lateral stability and had to set the bar on safety racks as I fell sideways.

• Squats
• 135×8
• 135×8
• 155×5
• 175×4
• Bench
• 135×5
• 185×5
• 205×3
• 225×1
• 185×5
• Deadlifts
• 185×5
• 205×5
• 205×5

Grabbed some food after weights, came home and knocked out the bodyweight routine. This was last day of 50 seconds. Only dropping to 45 next week. 40 seconds would be too big a jump for pull-ups.

• Pull-Ups on Rings
• 10×5
• 5 every 50 seconds until complete
• On the 4-10th sets, I had to break them up into 4+1 or 3+2, but finished all in the 50 second windows.
• I think this was due to doing deadlifts earlier. Not certain, but was definitely struggling on these this session.
• 10×10
• 10 every 50 seconds until complete
• Prisoner Squats
• 10×10
• 10 every 50 seconds until complete

NOV 07 2011 : BACK TO THE OFFICE

BODYWEIGHT, BOXING,MMA, RUNNING

Back from Baltimore last night and today back to training with the teams. This morning Erica started me on some additions to my creatine and beta alanine stack. She added tryosine+yohimbine+caffeine before my fasted morning workouts.

In MMA striking we worked on flow drills and counters. We also worked on throwing more punches per unit (4+). I need to work on my lunge hook, but it felt better today than ever. We then did a couple flow rounds with kicks only. That felt surprisingly ok. I need to work on balance and technique so that each kick is meaningful, but I didn’t feel as clumsy as I expected. My knee was still weird today. Can’t quite put my finger on what’s going on in there, so just trying not to make it worse  by moving funny nor pushing it too far. Probably make a doc appointment today.

I also seem to have picked up a minor staph infection. Not certain that that’s what it is, but doing the iodine clean and keeping an eye on it. It seems to be going away. In all the years that I’ve wrestled, done various martial arts, grappling, etc., I think this is my first encounter with the mat rat infection. I skipped BJJ and wrestling tonight. Hopefully, this clears up fast, and then I’ll get back to grappling. I have a private with Matt next Monday, so I need it gone by then. I’ve been wanting to do a private with him for a while wherein we spend an hour concentrating on chokes from various positions: gravadas, guillotines, d’arce/brabos, ninjas, etc.

Instead, I boxed tonight. Coach had us doing bag drills again. They were torture, no working the bell. Just keep going until he says “breath” (which means jab out to range and stay on toes and in stance for a few seconds). Then back at it. Once in a while he’d say “get a drink of water,” then right back at it. Flow drills on bag to long runs of straight 1-2 combos continuously and all-outs (working the bag intensely from all angles, looping and straight punches, to the head and to the body). From one to another for a straight 45 minutes with the occasional “breathe” and even less occasional “get a drink.” When we finally yelled “time” at the end, I felt like I was throwing rocks at the bag (meaning my hands felt like big, a$$ rocks that hurt to hold but that I could throw if I used my whole body). I focused on keeping my hands returning to stance and being continuous with good form and breathing. When we finished up, coach and I went for a nice, light 2.5 mile conversational pace run along Bayshore.

After showering and catching up on some work, I resumed my planche progression and L-sit practice. The planch progression is from an article written by Chris Sommer for Dragon Door. I’m currently on the Tuck Planch stage. I got about 20 seconds for my first try, and then the durations dropped quickly. For the L-sit, I’m working toward a full minute in L-Seat position. I’m currently sitting in a tucked seat and extending my legs away from my body and pulling back as I get close to failure. I’m doing 3 20-second sits now. There’s an article at beastskills about the L-Seat. The goal is to be able to hold the L-Position for other skills and to be able to do Planche Push-ups. These are the focii for now in this skill area. Handstand push-ups and muscle-ups are on the horizon as I make progress in other areas.

NOV 09 2011 : 45 SECONDS THIS WEEK

BODYWEIGHT, MMA

This morning coach had me do about half an hour of mitts in my private. He had me moving around a lot, working on my outside game. A VERY active jab and combos of 6-8 punches jabbing out at the end to range. Marcos was working bag while I did mitts and coach asked Marcos if he had his gear with him. He did, so coach had us both don headgear and mouthpieces and had us work scenarios for some rounds. I had to keep him out and he had to try to get in. I have a reach advantage on Marcos, so it was a realistic scenario for each of us. Each round we were given specific tools and techniques to focus on. I felt pretty good. I caught myself raising my elbow a bit when I was getting tired and raising my chin sometimes in longer exchanges (especially when moving backward). Worked on cleaning that up and staying light on my feet.

Tonight I got home from Sarasota too late to train with the team (and I’m still not grappling due to the possible staph), so I just did the first day of this week’s bodyweight routine. This week we only get 45 seconds per set.

• 10x (5 ring pull-ups
• On set 6 I had to begin splitting into 3 and 2
• 10x(10 push-ups every 45 seconds)
• 10x(10 prisoner squats  every 45 seconds)

Still feeling strong and energized. Keeping an eye on the right knee and trying to keep torque low.

show me your eyes

        Gah, gotta get back into some kind of posting rhythm, but first get back into the gym.  I'll come back slow, but i'll come back, for sure:

• Front Squat: 4x8 165
• Push Press: 5x5 135
• DB Floor Press: 3x10 50
• Bent Lat: 2x10 50

        Going to try a new experiment, i'm going to see if i can hit close to 2600 a day (that's about x12 with a slight deficit), 400 of that being the magic 100g of carbs around the workout window and see what happens.  I'm moving off of 5/3/1 for now too and getting onto something that lets me keep rest periods short, though admittedly, i could try and do 5/3/1 and keep my rest assistance short.  That's something to think about when i fire it back up.  Need to get clear on the particulars of juggernaut so i can see if that works.  No tunes or randomness tonight, need to clear out a bit.

Deload and Stones

Today was day 1 of deload week, but I just HAD to play with my new Atlas Stone :)


No video. Battery still dead. Whoops.

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab              

B1. Deadlift
8 x 45#
2 x 8 x 135#
5 x 225#
2 x 275#
1 x 315#
2 x 335#
2 x 360#
2 x 385#
1 x 385#

The 3 reps at 385# were supposed to be a set of 4, but man, my hands ran out. Grip was dead. And this is the DELOAD part of the 6 week deadlift program... supposed to test my 1RM next week. We'll see about that...

C1. 1-Arm Rows

4 x 10 x 80#

C2. JM Press

3 x 8 x 55#

Kept the rows and JM Presses nice and light.

D1. 48" Atlas Stone Load

2.5 x 1 x 175#                              

This would have been 3, but the first rep I lapped and realized that as I tried to stand up, my belt and the stone were pinching my upper abdomen to the point of too much pain to finish the lift. Still, I'm happy with it- it's the first time I've ever gotten a stone up and over anything! Woot.


Talk about a full body workout, though. After the second one, my entire body was done. Definitely going to be a lot of work getting used to this lift.

Lions, and Tigers and ... oh my!

Time for my weekly digest. Good week. Could have trained more, but I feel like full of energy and strong. Whatever I'm doing different (be it the running, bodyweight routine, grappling, getting some free weights back into the routine, eating more, or some combination of the above), it seems to be working. Last week I felt a bit beat up, but this week my body seems to have come around.

OCT 29 2011 : GREAT WESTCHASE 5K AND SYSTEMA

RACE, RUNNING, SYSTEMA

Woke up early this morning and ran a 5k race, the Great WestChase. My run program needed me to run a 5k this week, and this one wasn’t too far. It was a cool misty morning. Finished in 23:26 at about a 7:34 pace.

Later went to Sarasota for a little gathering of some Systema folk and some weapons work. It was fairly loose training and mostly worked on breathing and flow and then some multiple attackers with weapons work. Good times!

OCT 30 2011 : FITOCRACY GRINDING

RUNNING, WEIGHT-LIFTING

This is an absurd workout. I’ve been playing with Fitocracy recently and started poking around at the achievements and quests after inadvertently achieving a couple. I had planned to do a basic lift day (really wanting to do deadlifts), so I just made a workout wherein I could knock out as many of these using a barbell as I could and still get in a decent workout. Basically, I made a list of achievements and quests and turned them into a single workout. One was to run a mile in under 7 minutes. I haven’t tried that since I recently started trying to improve my running, so I added that in and smashed it. I came in at around 6:40. Not where I want to be, but not bad for where I have been. The 275 deadlift was a personal best.

• Deadlifts
• 135×10
• 225×5
• 245×3
• 275×1
• Bench Press
• 135×10
• 185×5
• 205×1
• 225×1 (assisted)
• 225×1 (assisted)
• Squats
• 95×20
• 135×10
• Pendlay Row
• 115×8
• Barbell press
• 135×1
• Standing calf raise (on machine)
• 225×12
• Crunches
• 1×25
• Ran 1 mile in 7.2 minutes

OCT 31 2011 : FOUR STRIPES

BJJ, MMA

Today was the normal routine of MMA striking in the morning for an hour and Drilling Gi BJJ in the evening. In striking we worked on the flowing hands to kicks and shots again. I worked with Marcos. I love his intensity. Nice to train with someone diligent who will will give you a good straight right to close a feedback loop quick. In BJJ we worked the twister half guard. Did drills and competitive drills in the half guard (with and without underhook). At the end of class, Matt gave me 4 stripes on my belt. One away from that blue. He told the class that if I came more often that I’d probably have a blue with some stripes on it. I just want the blue for now. Belts aren’t very meaningful to me (and stripes less so), but the blue opens doors in BJJ circles and opens the door to the competition team for me.

NOV 01 2011 : SECOND WEEK OF BODYWEIGHT ROUTINE

BODYWEIGHT, BOXING, RUNNING

This morning I had my private boxing session with coach. We worked on being snappier, working my range, set-ups, moving, etc. We’re moving into a different phase of my training now. Good stuff. Shoulders on fire at the end of that hour.

After work, I came home and Erica and I did the second week of our bodyweight routine. This week is the same number of Pull-Ups, Push-Ups and Squats, but we only have 50 seconds rather than a minute. That worked out to look like this:

• Pull-Ups on Rings
• 10×5
• 5 every 50 seconds until complete
• On the 6-10th sets, I had to break them up into 4+1 or 3+2, but finished all in the 50 second windows.
• Push-Ups
• 10×10
• 10 every 50 seconds until complete
• Prisoner Squats
• 10×10
• 10 every 50 seconds until complete

We then ran 2 miles with the dogs at the ball park at a leisurely pace. We finished up with 50 crunches to satisfy another Fitocracy Quest.

The plan was to drop 10 seconds each week on the bodyweight routine. I’ll have to see how I feel come Saturday (the third time we’ll do this workout at 50 seconds). I’m thinking that our next jump may be to 45 seconds rather than 40. I hope we adjust quickly enough to jump to 40, but we’ll see.

NOV 03 2011 : LAST DAY BEFORE BALTIMORE

BOXING, MMA

Erica and I are leaving for Baltimore tomorrow, so today I could only do the two group sessions with the teams. This morning I worked out with the MMA team and we worked on some nice set-ups and counters and counter exchanges using combinations of hands and kicks (including counter-kicking). Good stuff. Today was the first day that I felt pretty good about my kicking in flow. Not great, not even good. But not horrible.

Tonight I came back in to train with boxing team. It was a small group and Josh from the MMA team joined us. Coach had us work hard on bag drills. My shoulders are lumps of gelatinous flesh now. Nice.

rest week

I took a contract job a week ago on impulse, and they're in crunch time, so its absolutely run me into the ground. Sick to minor hallucinating levels right now; therefore no stripper video.

I will, however, post something that I think we can all relate to.... the reason we all work out. Really. Isn't it just to look sexy?




(just kidding, I know we all strive for badassery. I just love this video)

Why Isn't My Stone Dry Yet!

I want it to dry already dammit so I can struggle to lift it!!


No video tonight. Battery was dead and I was so fried from work today that I wouldn't have tried to set it up anyways. 

A1. Hip/Shoulders Mobility/Prehab

B1. Push Press

8 x 45#
8 x 95#
3 x 135#
1 x 165#
2 x 180#
2 x 195#
2 x 208#
2 x 1 x 220#

The 220# was supposed to be a double but I didn't have the leg drive on the second, so I re-racked and did the second one a minute later.

C1. 1-Arm Rows

4 x 6 x 115#

C2. Front Squat Holds

4 x 30s x 245#

I had to belt up for the second 2 sets. 

 D1. Pushups

4 x 15 x bw        

I kept looking longingly at my stone in the mold, and noticed that the top is looking like it's almost dry. Should be good to go by the weekend! I just need to measure the power rack and build a platform to load the stone onto, and pick up another stall mat. And learn how to pick up the stone, of course :)