Fight Training Day 3: Reality Check

    No, no, this isn't the post where i bare my soul and say that I'll never be a decent fighter and I'm no good, yadda yadda yadda (don't worry, that post is coming).  It's actually just a comment on the fights I went to this past weekend, which were awesome.  If this was anything to set the bar by, San Jose has a great amateur fight scene, though i suppose it helps when you have folks like Cung Le to promote fights.  Lots of really evenly matched fighters and a good card overall.  Great to see what I might be up against in a few years if I make to amateur fights.  That's good because I noticed alot of the fighters didn't seem to have great conditioning, so if I start focusing on that now, man, in 2 years I'll bet I could have some wicked conditioning.  Might have to pick up a strongman conditioning program...

    It's also a comment on the realization that I'm not actually training for fights right now.  I'm training to get in shape to start training for fights, so technically I guess I can't say fight training.  Dunno man, I train at such a great gym with great coaches and great fighters, so it makes you just want to be part of it all, you know?  And i miss competing.  It's been a long time since I've been to a martial arts event, be it tournament, batizado, or whatever, but yeah...I need to get back to it.  You can do whatever you want in the gym, but your numbers, technique, whatever, don't matter until you step in the cage, on the platform, on the mats, where it counts.  I gotta do this thing.

Aritra's on our fight team. Yeah, if i'm going to fight, i have to be serious.

    Not making excuses, but given my low calorie state, I can't really do much extended sparring, in fact, it's tricky just to get through technique now, which is also making me realize that I'm not actually fight training right now.  Can't be training for a fight if you're not practicing fighting, yeah?  Guh, oh well, walk before you can run and all that jazz.  If i DON'T cut down, I won't ever be fighting anyway, so...I am where I am because of my own decisions.  Shouldn't have let myself get all fat again.

Training for 2013.04.15

• Kajukenbo: Test prep - punches, punch combos, and kicking sets
• Kickboxing: "Aritra knockout combos" - ones and twos
• MMA: Jiu-jitsu - working from half guard, taking the back, and into triangle

Food Log for 2013.04.15

• 2 scoops Isopure
• 2 scoops Isopure
• Superfood Remix - slightly modified cuz i had to get rid of some juices
• 10g Creatine
• 10g BCAA
• 10g Leucine
• Total Calories: ~1100

    Really should've taken my C4 before class, I was crashing out and cramping up bad...no bueno.

Fight Training Day 2: Baby Steps

    Spent some time on the plane figuring out what my whole schedule is going to be, sorta fitting since this was hopefully my last major trip for a while so now I can sit back and focus on training.  Isnt' that sad?  I don't think 'yeah, now i'll be able to hunker down and focus on work,' instead I'm thinking 'Yeah! Training!'  Ah well, everyone has priorities, right?  I have to admit, i've been quite a bit more stressed than usual just because I've had so many presentations to put together, I could seriously just feel myself relaxing on the plane.  It's good, it's good.

Focus, Jack...

    I'll admit I'm committing a bit of a cardinal sin when it comes to training programming and that's that I'm making tweaks to a program before even trying it once, but I gotta say, I think i've been training in general long enough to have a good idea of how to manage nutrition.  I'm adding some Isopure shakes to my juice regimen so I can try and spend a few days in the gym, just enough to prime the muscles for some real growth when I hit the rebound.  Really excited about that, should be fun.  I have this idea that maybe I can cut down to below 185 and then build back up, but I think I'm going to leave my goal at 200-205 for now and see what happens.  Harkening back to the very first time I did a V-Diet and I lost like 35 pounds in 5 weeks...good memories.  So here we go...

    Age.  It's a funny thing, you know?  It's still weird for me to say '35', because I feel like I'm doing it wrong.  Age.  It really is just a number.  I'll admit sometimes I sit around and lament 'lost years', but usually just when I'm feeling really sorry for myself (which thankfully doesn't happen that often or in public).  Overall, I don't feel like whatever 35 should feel like, but then, I don't really know and I haven't taken a poll, so...whatever.  Back to doing what I do.

Training for 2013.04.14

• Squat: (135x4)x2/(185x3)x3/225x5/(245x5)x2/255x5/165x12
• A1. Bent Raise: 25 4x8
• A2. Lateral Raise: 30x8/30x4/(30x5)x2
• B1. Hammer Curl: 35 4x8
• B2. Overhead Extension: (50x10)x2/50x6/42.5x11
• C1. Cable Curl: 35x12/(35x15)x3
• C2. V-Bar Pushdown: 50 4x15
• D1. EZ Curl: 70 4x10
• D2. Rope Extension: 50 4x10
• E1. Uni DB Shoulder Press: 45x6
• E2. DB Row: 80x8

Food Log for 2013.04.14

• C4 Pre-workout mix
• Juices

Fight Training Day 1: The Juice Cut Begins...

    When Sifu said cut to 205 so I can fight at 185, i sorta freaked out mentally for a bit.  The only way I figured that was going to happen is if i went on another protein fast, which meant no MMA training.  I love protein fasts for the effect, i hate them for how they feel while you're doing them.  Given my day-to-day, there's no way I could sit around in that mental haze for a week or so until my body kicked over and even then, i still figured i would have to be off the mats for at least 4 weeks.  So, cut to make fighting weight, but don't fight train for a month while i'm doing it...yeah that makes sense.  So he suggested I try a juice cut using something like Odwalla Superfood, you know, something with an abundance of carbs and not too much else.  Now, i haven't learned much in the last year, mainly because I'm fat, weak, and overall a shitty student, but I have learned that when Sifu suggests something, you probably should try it, because he's usually not wrong.  One day in and it's actually not that bad, of course, I'm comparing that PSMFs, which are freaking brutal the first day or so (and about the next 10 days after).  I think i'm also cheating a bit since I'm travelling for the next 4 days and won't actually be training.  Also, I wonder what passes for Superfood in the UK...guess I'll find out soon enough.


Yeah! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions...and me for the next couple of weeks

    I was thinking about a conversation I had a while back with a co-worker about this idea of warrior culture, warrior mentality, etc.  He made some interesting points about how a warrior is someone who plies the trade of war, and that a modern-day warrior is basically a soldier.  If you want to be a warrior, he said, go enlist, pick up a gun, and deploy to Iraq.  I don't disagree with this, and I do agree that there are alot of folks who train different martial arts and talk about "being a warrior" falsely.  In fact, I remember one of the reasons I started training Capoeira back in the day was because on the surface it seemed a bit more holistic than traditional martial arts that were just about fighting.  Of course, I learned over the years this wasn't entirely true and that at it's core, Capoeira really is a martial art...which makes me smile everytime i see that stupid NOS commercial.  Any Capoeirista worth his salt knows you don't go ito a real fight and do all the flashy shit we do at demos (well, not "we", it's been years since I stepped into a roda), but that's the essence of Capoeira.

    Anyway, now I'm starting to ramble a bit, but my point is that while maybe claims of being a "warrior" are a bit overblown, the concept of a martial spirit is something that I think everyone who trains touches on at some point, but I don't think it's just the training.  I think back to times when a bunch of us were sitting in someone's living room stripping tires for berimbaus, stringing berimbaus, cutting dead skin off of each others' feet or otherwise patching each other up, to today, sitting on the bench wrapping up before training...These are the experiences that tie us all together regardless of what style we train.

    Blah, I'm just waxing all nostalgic and dangerously close to poetic.  Better quit before I do something evolved or enlightened...

Training for 2013.04.09
Combat Jiujitsu: Working from butterfly guard
Kickboxing: Fight Conditioning - Hands and feet w/double unders

Fight Training Day 0

    Yep, it's official, going to finally step in the cage and get wailed on for a few rounds.  Kind of a shitty time to start fight training as i'm leaving the country for a week tomorrow and not going to be able to train.  This got me thinking about how not conducive to training modern society is.  Let's be honest, most hotel gyms are just SHIT.  Oh well, i suppose it is a great time to start juice cutting, since I won't be exercising, which means i won't get totally wrecked from going low calorie.  So yeah, i'll be logging progress here now that i actually have something to talk about again, should be exciting...

Training for 2013.04.08, Current Weight: 235
Kajukenbo: Fight Conditioning - Punch combos with opposite leg kicks
Kickboxing: Fight Conditioning - Punch combos with opposite leg kicks
MMA: Circuit Challenge

• Pushup x100
• Situp x100
• Leg lift x100
• BW Squat x100
• Shoot x100
• Sprawl x100

calling me down

    Man, it's been awhile hasn't it?  Let's just say this right now, no numbers for this post, I'm really just putting some thoughts down on paper...ish.  That and i wanted to post a picture of a bear, because it's been so long...I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation and realizing that he's getting older.  But do bears have such thoughts?  I wonder...


    I have to a little reflection and admission, and that's that training-wise, 2012 sucked.  Yeah it was all my fault, i mean sure, i can grouse about how work got crazy and how my personal life went to hell for a few months and how because of all that i got fat and out of shape again, but regardless, I am in a state of my own creation.  That state being WAY overweight and needing to fix it pretty badly.  Me being me, it means another chance to experiment with training and diet.  Fun, fun.  This time though, I don't want to stop doing martial arts.  Ordinarily if I wanted to drop weight, i'd just do something like a V-Diet or RFL, but the issue with those is i get BORED.  Sure it's only for 6-8 weeks, but 2 months is a lot of training sessions (88, i think), and I already took a really big break from Kaju (during my aforementioned life suck storm).  So the trick now is how do i eat for fairly accelerated fat loss, but still keep doing all the training i want to do?

    Well, i'm glad you didn't ask that question, cuz it means i can just force my story on you and make you read because you're here.  So I'm starting with a modified carb backload, and by modified i mean i'm just not eating a metric ton of carbs every night, i mean seriously, i've read articles where people are talking about eating 3 pounds of potatoes and the like.  I'm sure that'd be awesome, but yeah, that's a bit much for where I'm trying to get.  I'll admit that i like not having to be terribly careful about food, i mean sure, if i were going out to dinner every night, i know it'd be easy to consume 6000 calories in one sitting, but I usually cook for myself (and sometimes Annie if i feel like torturing her), and as we all know, it's pretty tricky to get several thousand calories worth of rice, pasta, and or meat in one sitting if you're doing it from scratch...well, i suppose if you were to add some sauce or something like that...mmmmm sauce. But i digress...

    I notice also that my body seems to be able to handle martial arts training way better than weights anymore.  I'm totally the old broken guy now, training a few hours a day, then limping home so i can pop advil and bathe in aspercreme.  Oddly enough, i can still not sleep and make it through a few sessions of kickboxing and grappling (as today was evidence too) at a...mmm...let's say decent clip, but by no means totally burning it out, but that's mainly because i'm just trying to figure out baselines.  I certainly don't plan on taking it easy on myself just because i'm trying to keep my cortisol levels down, right?

    So i think the training matrix for the next while is going to be:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Circuits	Lift	Circuits	Lift	Circuits	KickBoxing
Kajukenbo	Kickboxing	Kajukenbo	Kickboxing	Kajukenbo
Kickboxing	MMA	Kickboxing	MMA	Kickboxing

    It's a little odd for me because it's the first time in a while i've done...err...let's say non-lifting dominant training.  Taking a little advice from Jim Wendler and Dan John (because you know I'm tight with both of those guys, yeah we're like that...or something) and cutting lifting back to the two days so I can keep it in the rotation, but not get totally dominated by it.  I'd probably be crazy to try and do a bit of a cut without some sort of resistance exercise, I'm interested to see how well Wendler's proposed 5/3/1 for MMA template works out.  I guess we'll know soon, I have a Kajukenbo seminar at the end of April I'd like to be in shape for.  It's good to have goals, yeah?

...and of course, Today's TrainingTune: Decay - Sevendust

projection mapping and poledancing

This is a very preliminary iteration, trying to get the blob tracking / human recognition with a kinect lined up with a dancer in a projection space. If we can get it working, that'll open up a huge gateway to everything interactive. Processing.. Unity... UDK... have I got your attention yet?

weapon drills

I have a video for you, yay!  Weapon drills.

On a side note, I've been trying to get into really random things, and it's been having awesome side effects.

I picked up:  Swordfighting, ballet, yoga, and running... and I'm eyeballing a fabric dancing/pole dancing school.  We shall see how that turns out.  :3

Foam roller is my dearest love right now... running is TOUGH.  o_o  And ballet has given me a flat stomach, and the biggest appetite of all time.

 :O  <--------  CONSUME