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.

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.

First Post for Me

So this is my first post on here, so I thought I'd give a brief introduction before spilling my training guts.

They call me Robert Cooksey and I am on faculty at Ringling College of Art and Design. I'm on the design side of the Game Art and Design program and I sometimes teach concept development for the animated film side of the house. I also teach as many scripting classes as they let me. I am on the seemingly infinite pursuit of my PhD in Philosophy (only dissertation to go...for a while now). My training is less power-lifting and more functional strength focused. I train with both an MMA fight team out of Gracie Tampa South, and I am currently training for the Ringside World Championships as a Masters boxer (meaning USA Boxing attempts to prevent us from hurting one another...we'll see about that). I do parkour when I can spare the time. Basically, my training is aimed at optimizing diverse energy systems, flexibility, explosive power, sustained control (for climbing and such), and dexterity in as many possible ways of moving as I can imagine. That should give you an idea of the range of training stuff that I might post.

Ringside is at the end of August. I'm looking to fight at 178. I'm on weight now, but could possibly drop to 165 (though not much left to lose). My goal for summer was to drop fat weight first, then start to build up lean muscle slowly. I'm doing two-a-days 4 days a week, I roll on Saturdays with the BJJ crew and then Sundays is the monster hour-long conditioning torture. It's all fairly intense, but the conditioning is a beast involving a lot of vomit, screaming, grunting, and in general, folks trying to mentally not collapse into a bawling mass of aching flesh. There is no stopping. A regular warm-up involves about 20 minutes of jump rope without breaks. Then we start to train.

So today was my private with my boxing coach. We spent an hour with him scrutinizing my feet, hands, chin, footwork, etc. After several rounds of him tweaking my movement while I continuously attacked the bag at varying ranges and working in different directions, we moved to mitts. My feet have gotten a lot better, but what that means is that I'm painfully aware of how good they're not. My left shoulder was on fire after about 45 minutes of jabs and hooks, and I glued my right to my face and my elbow to my side to try to automate as much of the structural management as possible. Right goes out, straight or hooking, it springs back into position.

Our boxing gym is not air conditioned, and I train in Tampa, so it's regularly above 90 degrees before the bodies cram in and start sweating. Today was that kind of day. In that last 15 minutes, coach had me working rounds faster and more continuously, intuitively snapping to the mitts and managing range as he moved about, tried to close, then moved back, countering, slipping. Every few rounds, I was allowed a drink of water. [Quick side note: Only allowed a drink when coach designates time for that. Otherwise, hands-up, on toes, and in fighting mind]. When we finished that last round, my lungs, calves, shoulders, and even forearms felt like they had blowtorches held to them. I had probably sweated a half gallon easily from the weight of my shirt and shorts.

I ate 3 eggs and sausage with my coach. Went home. Ate pot roast with my wife. And passed the #$%$ out. By the way, those who know of Erica and her powerlifting or boxing through Facebook should really check out her food blog, Stuff I Make my Husband. She's a software engineer who is boxing in the Women's National Golden Gloves next week, holds 3 state raw powerlifting records, and went to culinary school. Her blog basically pulls all that together. Sometimes that needs to be explained. I think that this audience understands EXACTLY how those sorts of activities fit together. Her 1 carb brownies are the $%!#. She uses PubMed performance studies as inspiration for recipe ideas. You can get lean, get strong, and eat great food. I won't talk about diet much here, because basically what you see on that blog is what I eat after training.

I woke up after what was supposed to be a short nap (but ended up being 4 hours), grabbed a G2 and went back to the gym to train with the boxing team. More drills, more ring work, then 15 minutes of burn-out sprints on the bags. I am done. Ready to eat and sleep. And do it again tomorrow.

This is what summers are for a professor. I train, write, research, eat and sleep. Not a bad life. Going to be hard to go back to school in August.

Hot outside...

It has been a long time since I have posted an update. I had been training for a 3:00 x3 round boxing match I originally thought would happen in March 2011. It kept getting pushed back and I ended up getting hurt in training. When I was finally healthy my opponent hurt himself. I slacked off for a bit on diet after that and have recently been getting back into it.

My schedule these days looks like:

Monday
3x3:00 jump rope
1h boxing skills with Bruno

Tues
0:35 boxing skills and/or a Bruno jog with 2x hill repeats
1h conditioning training w/Charles

Wed
1h30 pro-training class (0:30 cardio, 1h kickboxing)

Thurs
0:35 boxing skills and/or a Bruno jog with 2x hill repeats
1h conditioning training w/Charles

Friday
0:30 focus mitts with Hank
3mi jog or boot camp class w/Charles

Saturday
3x3:00 rounds jump rope
1h boxing skills w/Bruno

Sunday
open day, varies between weights (dead, squat, bench), 10mi jog, rest, etc...

Conditioning w/Charles consists of movements to simulate fighting stress. When we do weights everything is to failure (with spotting). Body weight exercises are either w/weighted vest or whatever it takes to get to failure quicker. Normally these run in a circuit, from last Tuesday (6/21/2011):

6:00 round (repeat for 3 rounds)

4 left leg round kicks to focus mitt
4 right leg round kicks to focus mitt
8 burpees
repeat for 2:00 without stopping

8 chest stomps (like a front kick but hitting with whole foot) to chest pad
8 squat jumps
repeat for 2:00 without stopping

8 alternating leg round kicks to focus mitt
8 jumping lunges
repeat for 2:00 without stopping

additional conditioning

squat press with 2x35 dumbbells 2:00

place 1x35 dumbbell at each end of a city block, squat press with right hand on one end, left hand on the other 12 reps, sprint to other weight, 2:00 round x3

Mad Squabbles

Boxing Conditioning at Undisputed Boxing Gym this am.

Standard first hour of conditioning, still working up to the full tuck and plank TRX interval times of 1 minute which is around 20-22 reps for me. Good partner medicine ball sit ups today, bad stability disk throws.

The equipment we use for conditioning:

Jump rope (warmups before class)
Stability disks x2
Kettlebell or kettlebells, pick one that is heavy enough for lunges and squats
Medicine balls x2
Big ball (Swiss style)
TRX

In general exercises are done in one minute intervals with 10-15 seconds rest between exercises. Some exercises are done for reps either 10, 12, or 15 with no rests. Planks tend to be done for either 30s, 1m, 2m with a rest period of back rolls.

Boxing today consisted of burnouts on the heavy bag:

10 seconds straight punches as hard and as fast as possible to same spot on bag using hips to throw from a good stance
10 seconds rest
15 seconds straight punches...
10 seconds rest
20 seconds punches...
10 seconds rest
30 seconds punches...
30 seconds rest
1 minute punches with extra emphasis on last 10 seconds

Then learning two combinations we built up on focus mitts using the progression:

jab, jab cross (2)
jab, jab cross hook (3)

jab, jab cross, slip left (2)
jab, jab cross hook, slip right (3)

Final combination:
jab, jab cross, slip left, COUNTER left uppercut, left hook (2, 2)
jab, jab cross, clip right, COUNTER, right uppercut, right cross (3, 2)

We also did uppercut burnouts on the focus mitts. Interval length is 2m rounds per combination with no rest, uppercut burnout rounds are 1m.