Becoming an Athlete

I trained a client after work today before heading to the gym. I am teaching him how to fight. It's great to get in all the warm-ups and stretching with him before I head to the gym. I am closing in on front splits, but my side splits are still a ways off. After training him, I went to the gym for an arm workout. I fully admit I train arms. I had avoided any direct arm work for many years because I thought training as a single coordinated unit using compound lifts was all I needed to stay balanced. In the last 2-3 years, there have been periods when I could do 15+ strict pullups or chinups and and easy 25+ dips, but my arms never matched my torso. So today, I did an Ian King arm workout. Th. e volume is MUCH lower than I'm used to, but the drop-sets amd tri-sets made up for it. Bicep tri-set (all 3 movements for one arm before switching arms) a. Cross-body hammer curl: 20 x 10 b. Concentration curl: 20 x 10 c. Dumbbell preacher curl: 20 x 10 Tricep tri-set (all 3 movements for ...

Monday AM: Front squats: 135 x 5, 10; 185 x 6, 10, 10, 10 Conventional Deadlift: 205 x 10, 12, 15 Back squat: 145 x 25 Monday PM: 1-arm db row: 60 x 12, 12, 12 per arm wide-grip seated row: 75 x 15, 15, 13 Supine grip pulldown: 140 x 12, 12, 12 Wide grip pulldown: 100 x 15, 11, 9 (forearms gave out before my back) Overhead press: 95 x 12, 12, 8 dumbbell lateral raise: 15s x 15, 6; 10s x 15, 15, 12, 9 Hammer Strength incline press: 55(per arm) x 12, 12; 70(per arm) x 12, 8 I skipped any additional chest work.

I was bored, and I missed Friday's workout, so I did some squats on Saturday morning. Nothing fancy. front squat: 185 x 10, 10, 10 Sumo deadlift: 185 x 15, 15, 15 Back squat: 145 x 20 After that I just goofed off with the kids.

Much needed day off. Not sure how else to describe this, but even my knees feel heavy.

Tuesday night was an arm workout. As usual, my left elbow caused me to hold back quite a bit. I compensated with slower tempo, lighter weight, and higher volume. I stopped when my elbow started hurting. Skull crushers are definitely OFF my menu for a while. Even the bar made my elbow hurt. All told, I did a decent job, because biceps and triceps of both arms are sore.

My elbow held up much better today (Monday evening). 1-arm db rows: 55 x 12, 12, 12 wide grip cable row: 75 x 12, 12, 12 Overhead press: 95 x 12, 12, 7 Hammer Strength lateral raises: 17.5 x 15, 15, 12 Supine grip pulldown: 140 x 12, 12, 12 (elbow started hurting) Wide grip pulldown 100 x 10; 90 x 15, 13 (elbow REALLY sore now) Hammer Strength incline press: 60s x 12, 12, 12 I skipped cable cross-overs.

Straight forward, but not easy. Front squat: (warm-up with 135 x 10) 165 x 10, 10; 175 x 10 Sumo DL: 175 x 15, 15, 15 Back squat: 135 x 25 Althought this was hard, I can tell I'll need a bit more volume.

I was bored on Sunday afternoon, so I got in a good but light fight training session. As I told my wife, I'm trying to get some of my "polish" back. I have been stretching consistently for a few weeks now and was working on head kicks. My right is fast, accurate, and VERY high. My left is slower, less accurate, and about shoulder hieght at best. I enmded the workout with lots of hip, groin, hip fklexor, and hamstring stretching. jump rope: 3 rounds (3min / 1min rest) Heavy bag: - 2 rounds light warm-up, boxing only - 3 hard rounds, boxing only - 2 rounds light warm-up, kicks and knees only - 3 hard rounds, full kickboxing about 20 minutes working on technique and form. No rounds, just sharpening the skills. Lots of stretching

I am really enjoying two legs in the AM and upper body in the PM. It means plenty of volume and intensity for both efforts. No more tiring half way into a gruelling workout. I did plenty of rowing and pulldowns, and overhead pressing and incline dumbbell presses. Nothing fancy, but still sore as of Sunday

Simple, straight forward, quick, and intense FBGM (warm-up): 85 x 12 Deadlift: 225 x 10; 275 x 10; 295 x 7 Front squat: 135 x 15, 15, 15 Back squat: 115 x 25 Now I'm really gassed, but should be ready for upper body later this evening.

My left elbow is still hurting from that case of bursitis. Doc said to continue taking the anti-inflamitories for a month. :( After a few sets of bil-lateral work, I had to switch and just work my right arm as my left elbow was too painful.

It was hot, and the ride was fast. I got my wife a pair of road tires for her mountain bike. She has a 45 mile road race coming up, so it made sense to make her mountain bike a little more road-worthy. And what a difference it made. She normally lags behind me by about 50 to 200 yards, just depending on how hard I'm pushing myself. And I usually have to stop and let her catch up. With these new tires, she was actual right at my side. We decided on a 1 mile race that had 3 different "sections" 1st section - 1/4 mile of twisties (All Adrian) 2nd section - 1/2 mile uphill slope (Jaime took the lead but I punched it and reached the top first) 3rd section - ~1/4 or less of flat to slightly downhill (Jaime burned me bad here. I had better top speed, but my tires are so big and gnarly that I couldn't sustain my top speed as long as she could. Jaime won by ~70 yards) End result: Jaime takes the checkered flag, and we both burst our lungs and fried our legs. After all that, we...

My schedule was crazy yesterday. I had a 7:30 Am call, and then a meeting that went from 1:00 to 6:00 PM. The current plan has me doing squats and deadlifts on Monday and Friday morning, and upper body work on Monday and Friday evening. Since work started early and ended late, I tried to cram it all into one 7:00 PM workout. I did 3 sets of front squats, 3 sets of sumo deadlifts, and one set of 20-rep back squat. After that was horizontal pulling for 5 sets, vertical pushing for 4 sets, and vertical pulling for 4 sets. I skipped the horizontal pushing, as the squats and DLs left me below empty!!!!

Great workout. We warmed up with an Indian Run, then did a nice strength endurance workout. After that, we ended with 100 yard sprints. All in all, a great workout.

I went light because of the grotesque deformity; I mean bursitis. Stretch position arm superset : a. Incline dumbbell curls: 20s x 10, 10, 10, 10 b. Incline bench french press: 45 x 10, 10, 10, 10 Mid-range arm superset : a. EZ -bar curl: 65 x 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 b. Dips: BW x 6, 8, 10, 12, 10 The dips REALLY hurt my elbow. Next Wednesday will be better.

WTF ??? Man, I have finally decided I am not going to be derailed by any more injuries or "set-backs". I'm just going to suck it up and do what I can to 1) work around the injury or 2) work through it if I have to. That is a picture of everything the doctor drained from my elbow on Wednesday afternoon. And he only got about 1/2 of the total fluid. I busted up my leg and elbow last month when I fell on an oyster reef in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, looks like my elbow took more of a beating than I thought. It has been hurting all month, and then finally, on 3 JUL, it just started swelling. I hadn't had any other injuries. It just swole to the size of a lemon or lime with fluid right under my elbow skin. Acute bursitis. Most likely some oyster fragments doing damage for the last month. Well, I went to the doctor's office on Wednesday, 6 JUL and had almost all of the fluid drained via syringe, and then the kind doctor refilled it with Cortisone, and then prescribed me ...

I hate jogging. It is slow, it is boring, and it only becomes challenging after about 30 minutes. That's why I prefer to run. In particular, I love 1/2 miles, 1/4 miles, hill sprints, and some 40 t0 100 yard sprints. Let me make some critical distinctions. Jogging is slow, and doesn't pose any demand on your ability generate force or speed. A run is a hard, fast pace that you can't sustain for more than about 5 minutes. A sprint is kicking in the afterburners and makes you feel God-awful after about 20-30 seconds. I avoid jogging because it teaches me to be slow. I lean towards running and sprinting because the metabolic demand is unbelievably high, the positive effects are generated after a brief but intense workout, and they raised metabolic state lasts for hours post-workout. Running and sprinting teach my body to be faster, more explosive. Today was a brief re-introduction to running and sprinting. All I did was: 540 yards (around the block): x 4 fastest time - 2:27 Hil...

I wanted to do deadlifts and squats, but my legs were still too weak from the ride. So instead, I did a basic upper body workout. horizontal pulling: 6 sets vertical pulling: 6 sets vertical pushing: 5 sets horizontal pushing: 4 sets Nothing special, just 2 basic exercises per movement pattern, lower loads than I normally lift.

My wife is trying to kill me. She flat out wants me dead. She is Italian after all. She is getting ready for a 40 mile bike race in August, in Fredricksberg, TX. The weather should be hot, dry, cloudless, and about 105 by then. To prep for the race, we took our mountain bikes to Lake Somerville state park and rode their 13 mile trail. This no crushed-gravel, hike-and-bike, text-while-you-ride wussy trail. It isn't exactly a vertical drop either, but the whole trail is river stone and sandy loam., B oth of those materials excel at sucking up your momentum and bringing you to a sudden halt. We were peddling the entire distance. Now granted, 13 + 13 = 26, but when we finished the 13 mile trail, we road another 2 miles out to get to the lake / picnic area. Byt the time we hit mile 15 and a picnic table, I sprawled out on top and went to sleep. So 2 miles of road to get b ack to the 13 mile trail equals 30 total miles. I am STILL SORE 3 days later.

On 30 JUL, my wife and I did a killer leg workout. We were experimenting with lower loads, and MUCH MUCH higher volumes. Talk about taxing! Set after set of front squats, wide stance Hatfield bar squats, high rep (30-50) leg presses, step ups, and barrier jumps. Afterwards, we went to play tennis. Our match looked like Frankenstein Vs. The Mummy!!! On Friday, 1 JUL, I did an upper body workout. Nothing special. Just coverd all the movement patters with lower loads and higher volume. Horizontal pulling for 6 sets.; vertical pulling for 6 sets; vertical pushing for 5 sets; horizontal pushing for 4 sets. It feels good to feel sore!!!!!!!!

Work and injuries have gotten the best of me this year, but I'm done being a weak-dick excuse maker. I'm done being average. Does work suck any less today than it did yesterday? NO! Do I reach my goals any faster by waiting till the "time is right"? NO! I'm going to get in some solid conditioning work over the holiday weekend, then start lifting with a plan on Monday. The conditioning work will get my heart, lungs, and head back into ultra-high intensity mode. I can't wait to start pushing myself to the verge of passing out again!!!!

I had business travel, so I just did a makeshift workout. 5 circuits of: a. Situps x 20 b. Dumbbell overhead press: 50s x 7 c. Dumbbell lateral raise: 10s x 10

nothing special. I just did about 7 sets of squats, working up to 315 x 5