Becoming an Athlete

I wasn't having such a hot workout anyway, so it was a welcomed interruption when my ex wife dropped off the kids.

I have to say, I like the pain that comes from this type of training, but it just doesn't challenge me systemically the way fight training does. But, you have to train for your goals, not preference. 1) Low pulley forearm flexion: 25 x 30; 70 x 20; 80 x 12 2) Low pulley forearm extension: 20 x 20; 30 x 20 3A) concentration curl: 25 x 10 3B) 1-arm zottman preacher curl: 20 x 10 3C) 1-arm preacher curl: 20 x 10 ---- I've been doing all three movements for one arm before training the next arm. It much more painful that way. 4A) 1-arm kickback: 20 x 10 4B) 1-arm cross body extension: 30 x 6 4C) 1-arm overhead extension: 20 x 10 5) EZ bar standing curl: 70 x 21 6) Pinkies touching low pulley curl: 80X10-60X10-45X10 (stripset; reduced weight and continued reps without rest)

Monday night's workout was the hardest I've done this year. Maybe even harder than most of my 2008 workouts. One complete cycle through every movement with little to no rest. It was 30 minutes (measured in minutes, not seconds) from start to stop. This exposed my continued weakness in my calves. 1) Jump rope: 5 mins (HARD) 2) Spiderman walk: 20 3) 450yd run 4) Wood chopper with resistance band: 10 ea 5) Standing rotation with resistance band: 10 ea 6) Plank row: 10 ea, 25lb dumbbells 7) 450yd run 8) Ab wheel: 30 9) Hang clean: 10, 95 lbs 10) Diagonal medicine ball slam: 8 ea, 25lbs 11) Jump rope: 5 mins (INCREDIBLY HARD)

Today's practice was a bit easier. We had a lot of new kids, most of whom were in elementary school. Few of the high school kids were around. It was nice to go through all the movements at an easy pace for two hours. I feel stretched and restored.

Thank you, Crossfit! Were it not for those insane conditioning workouts, I'd have been broken by the work it took to build a garden on Saturday. I used a massive tiller to create the 10' x 20' garden. It took about 3 passes to get it done. Then I unloaded a cubic yard of the enriched dirt and tilled that it. Next was making the furrows. Then unloading enough landscaping bricks and making the retaining wall all the way around. My fiance and I split the work as equally as we could, but that tiller was too much of a beast so I owned that job. It rattled me to my bones!!!! 4.5 hours of back and grip thrashing labor!!!

My arms can't help but grow on this crazy Ian King routine! In just three of his workouts (over two weeks), my arms are bigger than they've ever been. I don't typically do direct arm work, so I'm sure my response is better than a normal weight training individual; i.e. someone who has done similar isolation work before. 1) Dumbbell forearm extension: 8s x 20; 15s x 20 2) Dumbbell forearm flexsion: 15s x 20; 30s x 17 3A) Skull crusher: 85 x 5; 75 x 10 3B) Close grip bench press: 135 x 10 3C) Dips to parallel: 6 4A) Incline dumbbell curls: 25s x 5, 10 4B) Seated supinating curl: 25s x 10 4C) Seated Zottman curl: 15s x 6 5) Seated French press: 55 x 21 (7 top, 7 full, 7 bottom half) 6) EZ Bar reverse curl: 65 x 21 (7 top, 7 full, 7 bottom half) 7) Hammer curl strip set: 30x8-25x4-15x10 Good grief this hurts!!!!

I must have really needed that time off. Last night's workout was GREAT. Deadlift: warmup(135x5; 225x5); 275 x 6, 7 Front squat: 165 x 12 Bench press: 210 x 6, 6; 135 x 18 Bent row: 115 x 10, 8 Trap / back complex: a) bent row: 105 x 7 b) sumo grip high pull: 105 x 7 c) hang snatch: 105 x 4

Since today was "arms day", I also did some hard core fight conditioning. 4:00 PM: Arms workout 1) Forearm curl: 45lb x 20; 75lb x 15 2) Forearm extension: 45 x 7, 7 3A) Concertration curl: 25 x 10 3B) EZ Bar Preacher curl: 75 x 8 3C) Single Arm zottman curl: 25 x 10 4A) Seated Dumbbell kickback: 15 x 10 4B) Cross-body lying extension: 30 x 10 4C) Single arm seated overhead extension: 20 x 10 5) Standing EZ bar curl: 65 x 21* 6) Incline close grip bench press**: 125 x 21* 7) Low pulley curl strip-set: 80x10-60x5-45x4 *21 reps: 7 in top half, 7 full range, 7 bottom half ** Incline close grip bench press: I don't like this angle. It hurts my shoulder so I'm going to find a substitute. 6:00 Conditioning workout: 4 rounds for time: A) 20 pushups B) 20 dumbbell swings x 35lbs C) Hill sprint*** This KICKED MY BUTT!!!!!! On the 4th circuit of dumbbell lifts, I dropped the weight at rep 6. My arms could barely hold the weight, and with little to no control. Having ...

I'm not sure what came over me, but I couldn't rest or eat enough over the last few days. I needed a short break from training. I ate like a pig and slept like a hibernating bear. I feel fantastic now!! I think maybe my body needed to reload and repair. I'm back at this week.

I was too sore from the goodmornings yesterday to do working weight deadlifts today. 1) Deadlifts: warmed up with 135 x 10; 225 x 5 2) front squat: 155 x 12 (EASY!) 3) Bench press: 205 x 6, 6; 135 x 15 4) Bent row: 105 x 10, 10 5) Back / Trap complex: 105 x a) bent row: 7 b) sumo grip high pull: 7 c) hang snatch: 7 Holy crap this complex sucks!!!!!! My back, traps and grip are DONE ! My heart and lungs are on fire.

We really killed ourselves last night. My fiance did great, and I did OK. 4 rounds for time: A) Hanging knees to elbows (15) B) Rounded back goodmorning (65lbs x 20) C) Ab wheel (25) D) 450 yard run (around block) Since my hamstring was hurting from track on Sunday, I was only able to do 2 1/2 runs before I backed off because of pain. I don't want to sprain it like I did in 07. My fiance did all 4 rounds. She's bullet-proof!

Today's workout was just getting the feel of how I should do this. The next 4 Mondays will be 100% intensity. 1) Barbell forearm flexion: 45 x 20; 65 x 20 2) Barbell forearm extension: 45 x 5; 45 x 10 3A) Concentration curl: 25 x 10 each 3B) Low Pulley Bicep curl: 70 x 10 3C) 1arm preacher bench Zottman curl: 20 x 7 each 4A) Dumbbell tricep kickback: 10x10; 12 x 10 each 4B) cross body tricep extension: 20x5; 25 x 10 each 4C) 1arm overhead tricep extension: 25 x 7 each 5) EZ Bar curls: 65 x 21 (7 top half, 7 full range, 7 bottom half) 6) Incline close grip press: 115 x 14 (7 top half, 7 full range) 7) Pinkies touching EZ bar curls: 60 x 10

I've become a big fan of CrossFit, but I don't think I'll ever train this way exclusively. It makes a nice conditioning phase, and I could probably to it for up to six weeks at a time, but there are some gaps. In the last 5 weeks, my conditioning has come up to level of where I was last year as I peaked for my 1st pro fight (which didn't happen, sadly). But over the last 5 weeks, I've noticed some changes I am not as pleased with. Some are cosmetic, and others functional. So my hybrid phase starts today. My arms have always been too small for my torso, so I'm incorporating Ian King's 12 week arm cycle . Monday AM: Arm workout A Monday PM: CrossFit* or MMA @ XFC gym Tuesday AM: Whole body strength day Tuesday PM: MMA @ XFC gym or CrossFit* Wednesday: Scott Abel's shoulder workout Thursday AM: Arm workout B Thursday PM: CrossFit* Friday AM: Whole body hypertrophy day Friday PM: CrossFit* *CrossFit workouts: I'll be cherry picking WODs that em...

At track today, I started doing some 100 yard sprints, and felt my left hamstring on the 2nd or third run. I decided to forego any more sprints, and just stretched for the next 20-30 minutes. I did some medicine ball plyos, then ran the "obstacle" course. Hill run with a 12lb medicine ball barrier hops (over cones) 20 yard sprint 10 pushups 50 yard sprint 10 prison squats ~150 yard winding run to the finish line

Wow! My grip and pulling strength have gotten so much better! I had some great clibs. I was able to make use of grips that were only big enough for my fingertips and climb inverted wall much more easily.

My fiance and I were bored so we did a strength-based workout. 1) Squat: 225 x 10; 275 x 5 2) Bent row: 95 x 13; 105 x 9 3) 1 rep chin-up: 20 seconds up, 20 seconds hold at top; 40 seconds down 4) Bench press: 205 x 6, 5 5) 1 rep dip: 10 seconds up, 20 seconds hold at top, 20 seconds down

I didn't do split jerks, because I was worried about hurting myself (pulled a groin last year). I warmed up with: deadlift: 135 x 10 snatch grip high pull: 135 x 5 Workout: Clean & Jerk: 135 x 1; 155 x 1; 175 x 1, 1; 185 x 1, 1. Failed with attempt for 195

Today is a rest day, according to CrossFit schedule, so I just did an easy 2 miles. Enough to sweat on this awesome spring day; but not hard at all.

Xtreme Fight Championship is an MMA promotion company here in town. I went to their gym on Monday night and will be joining next week. Because of my schedule with the kids, I'll only be able to train on Monday and Tuesday. So my new workout schedule for a while will be twice a day, with strength training in the AM, and MMA or conditioning in te PM. Because this will be so demanding, I'm going to split my AM strength training. My arms are a glaring weak link, so Monday and Thursday are arms. Tuesday and Friday is the rest of my body. I'll be doing CrossFit conditioning workouts on Wed - Friday night.

I felt so bad about my crappy noon workout that I decided to punish myself in the evening. My fiance and I went to Lake Pflugerville. Instead of doing our normal 5K lap, we decided to race across the dam. In this picture, you can see the dam along the right. Its a straight-away that is maybe 1000-1200 yards. We walked down to one end, got on our marks, and ran as fast as we could to the finish. We walked back and did it again. I felt strong start to finish on both runs. I was able to maintain good stride length, good posture, and spring off the balls of my feet the whole time. We had said we would run thee of these, but by the time we finished two, it was too dark. I can't wait for the time change this weekend!!!!

Barbara is a named workout from the CrossFit repertoire: Five rounds, each for time of: 20 Pull-ups 30 Push-ups 40 Sit-ups 50 Squats Rest precisely three minutes between each round. I couldn't even get 10 pullups consistently today. My back is spent from yesterday's deadlifts. Here is what I did: This is one I'll come back to as a benchmark to gauge my improvments. Tonight I'm going for a run to shake of the stink of failure.

This is the most I've been able to deadlift in a few years! Although not a PR, it's the most I've lifted in my 30s. Deadlift: warm-up 135 x 10; 225 x 5 295 x 1; 315 x 1; 345 x 1; 355 x 1; 365 x 1; 385 x 0 (partial); 385 x 0 (didn't even get off the ground); 375 x 1 375 is good! Back in the day (my mid 20s), I could pull slightly over 400, so I'm getting close to former PR territory!!!!!

The CrossFit WODs have really helped my conditioning, but my maximum strength seems to be dropping, especially in the horizontal pushing and pulling movements. So I modified Sunday's workout just a bit: 3 rounds (didn't keep time, but did it as fast as i could) A) 400 yards B) Plank Row: 30s by 5 ea C) Bench press: 205 x 5 It felt good to use 205 on bench press. I was afraid sprinting 400 yards would have zapped my strength, but I lifted it just fine for all three circuits.