Inspiration

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I love this blog.  I love the fact that there are others in my industry who have the push, drive and desire to fine tune their bodies and their minds, people with the same love of work and the same love of pushing themselves to the limits.

The members of this blog are a new found inspiration for me.  I spent part of my afternoon reading through the last couple of posts and was so jacked up to get my workout on, my two hour commute home nearly killed me! I was so pumped up by what I read all I did was reflect on this new set of people I have had the great luck to have stumbled into and what kind of mental strength I can pull from each and every one of them.

anim8d - Tim...duud...you're just a straight up monster. I've always had a respect for guys (and gals) who are willing to pick up a giant sphere of concrete and drive it over a pole...over and over and over.  People who push their muscles as far as they'll go for that one single over the top number just to do it again to beat their last mark. You sir are an inspiration.

Linnea - Dropping in with a BOMB ass leg routine for an introduction of yourself to me (I hate to say it, but I have not gone back and read anything before I was invited to contribute). A self-proclaimed love of powerlifting after discovering it 5 months ago...and pushing your limits!  You ma'am are also an inspiration.

Erica - I know you don't post here, but I've read through the most excellent blog Stuff I Make My Husband.  There's many a recipe on there I must try! On top of that, your own personal accomplishments are out freeking standing!  You look marvelous, and for all the things you do and the love you share with your man and the world, make you an inspiration!

Robert Cooksey - HOLY ISH! No posts since Turkey Day and you come in and drop a weeks worth of STRAIGHT UP WERK! Like a boss yo! Your conditioning is extreme, mad props and much respect.  You sir are an inspiration.

Annie - I love the fact that you post your battle scars, EPIC! It's great to read that you push mentally and physically.  I would love to see your process as well, as I respect your thoughts and feelings while you push yourself as much as I respect the punishment you continue to post.  You also are an inspiration.

Seth to the Mutha Effin Gibson - I absolutely cannot wait to meet you in person.  I was hoping GDC was going to be it, but alas only one of the art team gets to go and that's AK, so not quite yet.  You sir are the Rock of Gibraltar of Hard Coded.  Constant posts of what kinda bad azz workouts your crushing through, what kinda mental mastery you are throwing down and what kind of drive you have.  On top of that, people the world over have nothing but wonderful things to say about you.  Duud you are Ozsomeness on a whole new level!  I push harder after reading your posts, I drive myself farther knowing that if I don't when we get a chance to workout together, I won't be able to keep up.  You sir are beast, bear and inspiration.

Tonights workout was all about draining the tank.  Normally I take Fridays off as it's the day I drive home from the studio to my family, but my gym membership in Eugene expired this week and I don't want to renew as I don't know if I'll be at the current digs much longer, much turmoil abounds with our projects.  So I must know break a 4 day workout week down to 3 days.  Tonight is day 1 of 3.

Chest wrecking 101

Super sets - 30 second break
Chest Fly 50 x 30
Incline Chest Fly 50 x 30
Chest Fly 50 x 30
Incline Chest Fly 50 x 30

Decline Fly 40 x 30
Decline Fly 40 x 30

Tabata Heavy Bag work
20seconds all out 10 second break - switch stance between sets
Jab Cross
Jab Jab Cross

I got in 3 1/2 minutes until I just couldn't breath any longer.  I have a small tank.

I most definitely want to say thank you to everyone here who post the workouts and the thoughts and motivation behind them!  Inspiration is invaluable!!!

TIM!!! I'll be in Seattle/Bellevue the last Thurs/Fri of this month and look forward to putting it down with you!

moar bruises

Hey guys,

Been awhile... I typically don't like posting unless I have something to physically show for it. Since I've switched from dance to martial arts, I don't really have pretty videos to put up... so here's some bruises.









Life's been beautiful and wonderful. I love being back in a gym with a master I respect, and I feel like I've been slowly shedding shackles for years. Things I didn't even know were weighing me down. Letting go of labels like, "tech artist", "game developer", "wife"... these things that were once so core to my being, I find that I'm left with "me". It's a nice feeling.

Class has been great! We did a grappling session that left me immobile for half a day, and before that a minute making waves on a hemp rope. I love the diversity of junk sifu throws at us.

On a side note, I'm starting to get kinda buff, which is awesome. Yvonna wanted to submit me for a modeling gig so I took some figure shots for her. It really surprised me... apparently my body looks a lot different head on than it does top down. Guess that happens when you're too busy to look in a mirror, it sneaks up on you.

awake, aware, alone

GET.

FUCKING.

ANGRY.

        Next time you need to push through a brutal workout, get fucking angry.  Find something, dig something up, hell make something up, but get fucking angry.  Tonight was probably the best CrossPit session i've had since i started and i am determined to not slide back.  Thankfully, i have more than enough things to keep me angry for a while, my upcoming fight being the least of them.  As i stated earlier, i'm not bitter, i'm "recovering".  Time to begin some heavy rebirth.

Bring me pleasant dreams tonight, grandfather

        Speaking of fights, i gotta say, being in fight training mode for the first time in a while is insane.  My focus in class has totally been jacked up to crazy levels and i retain everything now.  Heck, i'm even remembering lessons from back in the beginning of january.  Part of me wants to chalk it up to just getting comfortable with the training again, but honestly, I feel a total sense of urgency that I wasn't feeling before.

        Ultimately, it's up to Sifu if I fight, but I'm determined to give him a reason other than "you haven't been in training long enough".  I'll be happy if I don't fight because there are specific gaps in my game, but I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't fight because I'm just not experienced enough overall.  Part of my purpose in training at an MMA school was because i wanted some ring time.  But you know what?  If not this time, next time, Gadget...next time.

        Man, not to blow my own horn but I powered through tonight's split for sure.  The best drive is that which you don't have to reach or dig for, just that which is bubbling under the surface, waiting for you to break the tension.  Tonight was a good night:

Warmup:

• A1. Jump Rope: 2x3min
• A2. Pushup: 2x1min

Main:
Pit 33s

• B1. Jump Rope - Double Under: x33
• B2. Bodyweight Squat: x33
• B3. Pushup: x33
• B4. Bag Punch: x33
• B5. Bag Kick: x33
• B6. Perform circuit for 20 minutes, no rest

Blastout:

• C1. Ab Scissor: 2x25
• C2. Knees-to-Chest: 2x25
• C3. Leg Raises: 2x25

        I made it through 4 reps, would have gone 5, but didn't finish kicks, so it doesn't count.  We don't do these sorts of circuits very often in CrossPit, but since they tend to follow similar patterns, i feel like i can carryover the number of reps between similar sessions.  I gotta admit when Sifu started out by saying "ok so we're gonna do 25...", i was seriously hoping for a blackjack.  I wanted to hurt myself tonight, yeah yeah, whine whine, so emo, like anyone gives a fuck. I know, i'm allowed to be self-indulgent every now and then.

Today's TrainingTune: Naked (God Module Remix) - Assemblage 23

Back from Hiatus

I haven't posted here since around Thanksgiving when my schedule went crazy. Since then I had end of semester crunch, E and I have been to New York, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, the new semester started, and I've settled back into training mode (the weird spring semester version). So, back to my Thursday routine digest:

FEB 01 2012

Obviously, I’ve gotten off track in logging here. I’ve been trying to maintain my logging at Fitocracy, but it is far less detailed than the posts that I make here. And so, today I’m back on it.

I’ll start with Sunday of this week and catch-up for this week and then start regular logging again. So…Sunday.

Sunday is our normal conditioning day with Coach. He killed us on this one. We started out with running in place, jumping jacks, etc. The normal warm-up kinds of stuff. But he kicked in really quickly with the hops, burpees, jump split-squats, explosive jump and jacks, etc. My legs were ready to fail and I could barely get up in my last burpees when he changed pace and had us grab small dumbbells. From here we began punching continuously for about 20 minutes. My shoulders were past failure and I could barely hold my arms up in resting/fighting stance. Everything hurt. Everything was beginning to cramp. Arms, shoulders, calves, small core muscles. On to push-ups and planks. Then we switched to duck walk races, push-up races, etc. The plyometric push-up wheelbarrow races were a godsend after all the other stuff. I don’t know why they felt less terrible in comparison. At the end, we ran sprints. And my entire body was torched.

Monday, I was feeling the effects of Friday’s lifting session followed by Sunday’s conditioning. I came into striking class in the morning and got to work with Lefty D. We were working on flows to strike-kick combos and counter kicks. Working with a lefty who is focused on striking primarily was good work for me. I had run 4.5 miles to warm-up and by 10 minutes in was loosening up.  I’m gaining comfort and balance with my legs, but it’s been a while since I kicked regularly, and there is some serious motor program building and refinement going on.

Today, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I headed into the gym for my private. Coach had M working with me for the full hour. I was drilling moving around, controlling with my jab, counter jabbing, set-ups and follow-ups, parrying, parry-counters. All good. A LOT of leg movement and my left shulder was still torched and aching badly. After an hour of drills, we all bagged up and headed to the park for sprints. M, A, P, BR, and I all raced back and forth across the field running wind sprints for over half an hour. By the end, we were all grateful to hear “time.” I was pushing myself today and only M was able to consistently stay ahead of me. That being said, I got the feeling that A wasn’t pushing very hard. When he turned it on, I couldn’t catch him.

I feel rough. Feed, rest, and back at it in morning.

DEAD LEGS? JUST ADD KICKS!

FEB 02 2012

This morning M, E, Coach and I ran together. Marcos and I had dead legs from the previous several days of training (including yesterday’s sprints). We decided to keep it short at 3 miles instead of our normal 5. Even so, we were sloooow. When we got back to the gym, I stretched for 10 minutes, skipped some rope, and shadow-boxed to try to stay warm and not tighten up.

When we started striking, it was clear that my legs weren’t through the grinder yet. I got paired with P, and traded leg kicks inside and out for sets of 20. We then did some combo kicks to the leg and ribs, and some straight kicks before working on kick parries, and counters. Painful as it was, I didn’t bruise.

When I got home, I banged out 40 push-ups and 100 crunches for a silly Fitocracy quest.

FITOCRACY QUESTING

FEB 05 2012

Today Coach cancelled conditioning. He suggested that we rest, as many of us were pretty beat up this week and he apparently is planning to push us next week. Of course, I had a couple days off due to full faculty crits and Moby Francke’s visit, so I didn’t take his advice and instead used the day off to make a workout routine that would satisfy a gang of Fitocracy quests.

I’m not going to log all the ridiculousness, but what I did was make a list of the exercises to satisfy 10 quests. Wherever there were repeats of an exercise, I kept the highest rep/set/weight requirement and deleted the lesser ones. I ended up with about 20 activities that E and I knocked out in about an hour. After that we ran 2 miles with the dogs (dual-purposing exhausting the canines and satisfying a quest requirement). In the end, we satisfied 10 quests in a single workout. And then I slept like I’d earned it.

BACK TO THE RITUAL

FEB 06 2012

Today M and I met for our morning run and were back to the 5 mile pre-training run. We were slow (about 9:08 pace) but got a good sprint for the last 1/8 mile. the weather has been beautiful for morning runs along Bayshore.

Coach murdered us in training. Bag drills without breathers for rounds wherein he would change pace, combos, intensity, speed, etc by calling out changes. After pre-exhausting us, it was time for flow drills to take-downs, clinch-knees, and combinations thereof. As one of us was throwing up and others managing breathing to prevent joining him, we switched back to bag drills for a sprint to the end that left my shoulder girdle feeling like chewed up burger.

Good stuff.

CLIMBING STAIRS IN THE RAIN

FEB 08 2012

I had my private this morning. We switched it up, and I was working close work, bullying with my shoulders and driving into the ropes, etc. After a few rounds of mitts, Coach had M glove up and give me some work. M came hard and was pushing. We were in nearly constant contact, pushing, turning, and taking short shots, turning each other, using the body to close and open space for short hooks, uppercuts, etc. We each landed some nasty ones. I ate two chin shots that has left my jaw unable to close fully. That’s what I get for leading with my head.

After my private, we all headed to the park for sprints. It was raining lightly and had rained last night, so sprints on the grass were out of the question (too large a risk for injury). Instead, coach had us go to the hill and run stairs up and down for rounds with intermittent sprints between the up and down staircases. I felt REAL good on these. To finish us off, he sent us up and dow the hill in duckwalk races. That sucked. A LOT. I kinda liked it.

FEELING GOOD

FEB 09 2012

I felt pretty good today – excepting my jaw which I still can’t close fully. This morning, we had boxing at 7:00am. Coach had us all working bag drills fairly intensely. It was round after round after hard, fast, and intense punching with the usual screams of “turn your hip” and “right hand up” and such.

After we finished, M and I went for a 2.5 mile run with Coach (about 8.5 min pace) to stay warm. Sprinted the last 1/8 mile and still felt strong. At 9:00 we started up MMA training with the MMA team. More bag drills followed by partner drills of continuous punching exchanges with intermittent shots and kicks countered by short combos and kicks. Did some fighting forward and backward kicking and counter kicking. I worked with New D, so I got some work with a natural south paw. Nice.

After work, I met Erica and we did 3 miles of road work. Slow pace (about 9 minutes), but steady and felt nice to be out in the cool air along the bay.

Hello World!

I tried powerlifting for the first time about 5 months ago, and it clicked. This was what I wanted to do. This was what made my heart pound with excitement. The sound of heavy weights crashing back into the rack or to the ground made me smile. Searching for my body’s limits was an addictive pursuit and I couldn’t get enough.

that aside... here is a bit about me:

im an environment artist currently at Danger Close Games (EA LA) working on a medal of honor game, and my previous titles were the last two call of dutys. I have a love for cooking, hitting things, lifting heavy things, and ridiculously cute things. I absolutely adore scifi novels, movies, and tv shows. and i love extreme sports. oh and i play violin! (no, not like those crappy covers you find on youtube. legit professional classical violin).

now on to the training bit!

luckily i work at a studio with an AMAZING gym, all the weights you could dream of, and tons of good supplementary isolation machines. the only stuff its missing is a weight sled and a peg board. oh and chains. because honestly. who doesnt love lifting giant chains.

todays workout:

• deadlift 180 5x5
• bodyweight squats 20
• squats 95x15, 135x8x5 (just focusing on form here for the most part)
• legpress 180 - 5x8
• leg curls 3x20
• hyperextension (do these superslow with weight and hold for 10 seconds) 5x10
• reverse hypers (these suck) 5x10
• abs 5x10 @55degree incline
• aaaaand then bodyweight lunges. 25x4 each leg. death.

after a leg day like this, i like to make myself some sweet potato fries (baked) as an aftergym snack with my shake, some sort of hefty meal like a nice juicy steak or slowcooker stuffed with meat, and end the day with some protein cookie dough or brownie batter (basically just protein powder with a tablespoon of water and a teaspoon of almond butter) its delishhh. did i mention i LOVE food?!? because i do. i really really do. like a freakishly large amount of love for food. oh and here are my two favorite leg day songs! im a sucker for doing what lyrics tell me to do. so this works out really well: "put your ass into it" and "stand a little taller". works for me!

No Rush....

....so I have been kinda sluggish and seem to be getting a bit tired right dab in the middle of the afternoon, which is extremely unusual for me, and today was a pretty 'no rush' kinda day.  Take my time with the cycle I'm working on, take my time rolling to and from lunch with the crew, take my time driving back to the pad, take my time reading up on a few things, take my time changing, take my time driving to the gym...hell I was going like 3 miles under the speed limit.

It's been this way for a little over a week now, and I've been wracking the ole melon trying to figure it out.  Lack of sleep?  I've been staying up a bit later than normal, getting up at the usual time.  Might be it.  The almighty 'seasonal depression' famous to those of us who live in the PNW? (that's Pacific NorthWest if you're not local-ish and don't know).  Well I've been guilty of a little slow down in the past, could be that too.  Fighting a cold or other body invasion?  Feel fantastic outside of being a bit run down and tired, so that's not it for sure.

Well then I read Seth's latest post, and I think I've got it figured.  Caloric deficit.  I've been cutting the intake, dropped a good portion of my carbs, hell I cut flour down to a bare minimum, and have upped my protein.  Well processing proteins and converting them to muscle tissue forces the body to work a bit harder than using carbs and fats as an energy source.  Yup, pretty sure that's it...I'm not about to jump into carb loading phase, but I may change some of my food choices now and again to keep the fuel tank a bit fuller, but I will say I am noticing a physical change...and like Seth says, 'change is good'.

So today I even took the workout a bit slower, longer breaks between sets and exercises.

240 reps - 36 mins

Leg domination day - 4 exercises 2 sets each.

Lying leg press - back rest reclined completely to make sure my range of motion is extreme
270 x 30
450 x 30
Seated Leg Extentions
70 x 30
85 x 30
Straight legged dumbbell deadlifts
40 x 30
40 x 30
Seated Leg Curls
70 x 30
90 x 30

A bit lighter than I'm used to but still left the gym feeling like I need to yak...so overall a solid workout.

My Legs They Are Sausages

So I wore gear for the first time ever tonight. I figure if I'm going to compete in strongman, I may as well get every advantage I can.

My legs looked like two hairy sausages, except for the areas that the suit ripped the hair off of. That kinda hurt.

Also apparently the camera adds 10 pounds to my stomach as well as my bald spot...


A1. Deadlift

8 x 135#

5 x 225#

3 x 275#

1 x 315# suit on, straps down

1 x 365 straps down

2 x 0 x 405# straps up- suit was biting hard on my right side, and with the straps upit was way harder to get down to the bar

2 x 0 x 405# straps down. This is hard.

1 x 405# straps down woooooooo

1 x 405# straps up bigger woooooooo

B1. Snatch

4 x 45#

2 x 65#

2 x 85#

1 x 105#

1 x 120#

1 x 135#

.5 x 135# I got under it but couldn't stand it up
.5 x 135# I got under it but lost my balance

1 x 135# 

.5 x 135# I got under it but couldn't stand it up 

Overall a great day in the gym. Jessica PR'd her geared squat at 325# and made it look easy!

I'm gonna look into maybe squat briefs for squatting, and see if they help at all with deadlifting. For now I'll keep learning the suit.

Video after the jump, be warned that I am a shirtless fatty in the deadlift suit. Watch at your own risk :)