Becoming an Athlete

Today was my first "arm and shoulders" workout. I have to say, it is every bit as boring as I thought it would be. 1) Shrug-Pull-Snatch compound set. This is awesome for developing explosiveness and leads to nice size gains in the traps and upper back. Do 4 shrugs, 4 High Pulls, then 4 Hang Snatches without rest. That comprises 1 set. 115 x 4 sets x 4-4-4 reps 2) Seated side raises: 15s x 4 x 10 3A) Zottman curls (MUCH harder than I thought) 20s x 10 x 10 3B) Dumbbell Skull Crushers: 20s x 10 x 10 The Zottman curls hurt. The weight was too light for my tricep work, but I want to achieve a bit more balance between my tricep and bicep strength, so I'm limiting myself to the same weight for each movement.

I always go a little lighter on the first session of any new phase, but the weights felt lighter than I expected. Squats: 185 x 8; 195 x 7; 205 x 6; 215 x 5; 225 x 4; 235 x 3; 245 x 2; 255 x 1 Next week I'll start with 205 x 8 Barbell calves raise: 225 x 20; 245 x 20; 275 x 10; 315 x 10; 225 x 40, 19

I'm starting a 12 week mass phase that will be broken into two 6 week phases. For this first mass phase, I'll be lifting four times a week with no cardio . I want to give my shins a real chance to recuperate before I start running again. The plan is structured like this: Monday: Leg strength day Tuesday: Shoulders and arms Wednesday: Off, with at least 20 minutes of stretching Thursday: Leg volume day Friday: Chest and back Monday is an old 1950's IronMan workout. The idea is to do 10 sets of squats. With each set add 10 pounds and decrease one rep starting weight(lbs) x 10 reps +10lbs x 9 +10lbs x 8 +10lbs x 7 +10lbs x 6 +10lbs x 5 +10lbs x 4 +10lbs x 3 +10lbs x 2 +10lbs x 1 Because I'm not a 1950s Ironman , I'm going to start with 8 reps and work down to 1. I'll also be doing 6 sets of calves Tuesday: " German Volume Training ". This is another old school mass workout. 10 sets of 10 reps for opposing muscles. I'll be adding in traps and shoulder...

I got a late start, so I tried to make this hard and short. A basic strength circuit: A) Mixed grip chin/pullup The mixed grip pullup was fine. I was able to perform sets of 8-10 B) Deadlift I felt weak on the deadlift. I could barely get 295 for 2 reps, so I dropped to 225 for setx of 6. C) Dip Dips were OK, but not spectacular. I got anywhere from 6-12 reps. I'll be goofying off with whatever I feel like the rest of the week, then starting a hypertrophy phase on Monday.

Triple digit heat will suck the life out of your workout FAST! I went through no less than a half gallon of water during my workout. 1A) Barbell calves raise: 305 x 13, 11, 12 1B) Standing Press: 125 x 8; 130 x 6; 135 x 4 2) Bench Press: 155 x 10, 10, 10, 6 I cut this short because of the heat and having out of town guests. That and I need to remotivate myself. :(

Today was a solid workout with more conditioning and less sparring Shadow boxing / kickboxing: 2 rounds Burpees: 2 x 20 Jab-cross-hook burnouts: 2 rounds Superset: A) Hindu squats: 2 x 20 B) Spiderman pushups: 2 x 5 Kicking drills from Orthodox stance: A) Right (rear) thigh kicks: 2 x 20 B) Left (front) thigh kicks: 2 x 20 Sparring: I think we did about 5 rounds today.

Strength Circuits 1A) Pistol Squats: 8, 10, 8, 6 1B) Pullups: 8, 8, 6, 4 1C) Dip: 10, 10, 7, 7 2A) Deadlifts: 225 x 5, 4, 6, 7, 8 2B) Alternating curls: 35s x 10, 10, 12, 12 Pistol squats are essentially single leg bodyweight squats. The neural factor is through the roof. They don't get my lungs going, but my legs just shut down after 4 or 5 per leg. I'm hoping to build up enough strength to do 10 per leg, but for now, four sets of 5 each would be just dandy!

The wind was so bad Friday night that we decided to run 200s. That way we would fight the wind for the curve, and end with it at our back for the straight. After 3 of these the pain in my shins was so severe that walking was an accomplishment. I'm going to lay off sprints for at least 2 weeks. Thankfully, my kids are fast on their bikes, so roller blading along side them will have to suffice for a bit. After two weeks, I'll start back with aerobic paced jogs.

A lot of light sparring today. One of the guys had a hurt leg, so we just boxed. The last round was great. My partner and I were both completely spent. All told, it was probably 6-8 rounds of sparring. We ended with Circuit 1: 50 jumping jacks as fast as possible 30 squat jumps 10 cross-over pushups 15 jab-cross-hook combos Circuit 2: twice 10 Box jumps 10 Single leg lateral box jumps In about 4 hours I'll be running 4 x 400s, and ending with 3 x 100s. I'm going to have the biggest nastiest Banana Split I can get afterwards!!!!

I was sore from the previous day's bodyweight workout and sparring, so I felt exceptionally weak. 1A) Barbell calves: 275 x 10; 295 x 10,10 1B) Overhead press: 115 x 8; 125 x 6; 135 x 1 2A) EZ Bar curls: 80 x 10,10,8,4 2B) Front squat: 135 x 8,8,8,8 (the squat rack was in use so I had to clean it from the ground at the start of each set) 3) Bench press: Sadly, I could only muster 135 x 10,10,10,10 I planned to do bent over rows next, but my back was sore, so instead I did 4) Supported dumbbell rows from an incline bench: 20s x 10,10,10,10

Only one other guy showed up today. We did a warm up round on the bag. I won't even call it a heavy bag. because it is our work gym, its some lame-o bag that LOOKS like a heavy bag, but weighs about 20 lbs. I had us doing tons of plyos, switching from upper to lower body. We tried 100 hindu squats, but crashed at 50. We kept moving between plyometric pushups, tuck jumps, crossover pushups, toe touching jump, medicine balls passes and slams, then hindu pushups. After about 30 minutes of unstructured but constant movement, we decided to spar for 2 rounds. All in all a good workout. Until I get a REAL heavy bag at our gym, I'll have a hard time doing these workouts during lunch: http://arlenescrosspit.blogspot.com/

Yesterday's session was 4 x 400 meters. It is only one mile, but it hurts like nothing else. My shins and lower calves still hurt pretty severely, but rubbing them down afterwards with my ice-filled pipe is helping. On the 3rd run, I did something that I haven't done in at least a year. I quit. At about 200 yards into my sprint, I just shut down and walked. It was horrible. Sure my body hurt, but my mind just flipped the "Wuss Out" switch and I stopped running. I finished the 4th with a great deal of pain, but I finished. I have promised myself that I won't ever do that again.

I'm not a crossfit guy, but I do like the standing shoulder press. Crossfit total is the sum of your 1 rep max for squat, deadlift, and standing shoulder press. The rest of the world (ROW) uses squat, deadlift and bench press. Last night I maxed out on all four exercises. Squat: 325 lbs Bench Press: 245 lbs Deadlift: 365 lbs Standing Press: 175 lbs Crossfit total: 865 ROW Total: 935

"Its like hiking, but with all the amenities" That's how I described it to my girlfriend after our stop at REI to cool off. We parked at Auditorium Shores on Riverside and 1st. We wound our way back and forth to the state capital, then over to Lamar and had a short break to watch the dirt jumpers at the 10th street bike park. On our way down Lamar we stopped at REI and Bicycle Sport shop to let my dog cool down for a few minutes. He really liked the Mago-Strawberry energy goo! We made our way down to Oltorf and headed to San Jose church for a peacefully moment. We then continued south on 1st Street to Cumberland, and stopped at Havana restraunt for a HYOOG Cuban Sandwich and about a gallon of ice water each. My dog really likes their roast pork!!! We stopped at the Great Outdoors for a while, then headed back up Congress to Town Lake. All told, we "hiked" 9 miles through Downtown and South Austin. It was an awesome excursion!!!!! Thank goodness for the ...

I was able to muster up the mental strength to sprint 2 laps. my times are solid, but my lower calves (soleus) and shins are in bad shape. About 20 yards into my 3rd sprint, the pain was unreal, so I stopped there. I decided to make my own recovery tool. I went to home depot and bought a 1.25 inch steel pipe that is 12 inches long and threaded on both ends. I filled it with water, and capped both ends. I froze it then used this insanely cold device to smash up all the soreness and adhesion in my calves and shins. The steel transfers heat very well, so it feels exceptionally cold. I will continue to use this daily in hopes of being able to sprint with less pain.

Bad news for this bear. I got my bodyfat assessment and it was up significantly since I had it last done in july. I'm not sure the reading was very accurate, because I can still my abdominals outlined very easily, except for the lowest segment. In any event, I decided to add a supplement to my regimine because recovery has been slow after sprints. Alpha Male is just a great name for a purported testosterone booster. The ingredients are all backed by numerous studies, but the whole supplement industry is still hasn't eveolved much from its "snake oil" roots. Some of the pclaimed benefits include: faster recover times faster strength gains increased fat loss Alpha Male is made by one of the better companies, Biotest. Feel free to read about the supplement here: http://www.t-nation.com/productInfo.do?id=1054351 At the end of this 4 week phase, I'm going to do another BF% assessment, along with baseline my Crossfit total and rest-of-the-world total. I took my f...

A bunch of guys were supposed to meet me around lunch time for a fight conditioning session. I was the only one that showed, so I made it short 3 rounds of jump rope (3 mins per round, 30 second rest) 1 round for stretching 3 rounds of shadow boxing 3 rounds working the heavy bag It wasn't the hardest I've ever worked, but it is better than nothing.

The first realization: I need to lift the day BEFORE running 400s, not after. I was spent when i stared the workout Single leg calves off a step: 35 x 10,10,10 for each leg. I don't have any dumbbells heavier than 35. Barbell calves: 205 x 20,20,25 A) Pistol Squats: 10, 10, 6 B) Pullups: 8,6,5 C) Dips: 6,8,8 I was too tied to hit all the reps I wanted, and WAY too tired to attempt deadlifts. I did get in some dumbbell curls: 35s x 10,10,10 for each arm.

Who knew 1 mile could be so hard! I did sprinted 4 laps last night aroun 8:30. My rest inetrval was roughly 90 seconds. I'm not exactly sure how long my rest intervals were or my times because I don't have a stop watch. The most suprising thing for me was how quickly I was recovering between laps. But after lap four, my legs were too fried to even think about running my three 100 yard sprints. Including warm lap and stretching, the whole thing was less than 30 minutes.