Becoming an Athlete

Fun work on Thursday, but my neck is paying the price!! Warm-up: 2min on / 30 sec off Jump rope: 2 rounds Knees and elbows on heavy bag: 2 rounds Blocking / flow drills: about 15 minutes I'm not sure what exactly to call this. It is sort of a blend of Filipino Dumog and Wing Chun Trapping Hands, combined with a bit of Kajukenbo . Basically you alternate rolling blocks and punches and get a rythme going. the idea is to develop speed, circular redirection, and 'feel' for what your opponent is doing. Randomly throughout the drill, I had my partner disrupt the flow with a hard block and counter. This teaches him to throw one of the basic block techniques instinctively and efficiently, and it hones my blocking of unexpected punches. Clinch Drill: 4 rounds of 2min on / 30sec off One person holds a clinch with about 50% resistance, and lightly throws knees, elbows and forearms. The other person practices escapes of any variety. We alternated rounds for 4 rounds, e

Still trying to get my back and biceps up to par with the rest of me. This was a fun one. 1. Cleans: I started off with cluster-sets, and finished with one normal set. Clusters are basically singles with a short pause, strung together for a full set. 135 x 1-1, 1-1-1-1-1, 1-1-1-1-1, 5 2. Chinup-Pullup giant set. a. Wide grip pullup: 1 1 1 1 1 b. Medium grip pullup: 2 2 2 2 2 c. Medium grip chinup: 3 3 2 1 2 d. Close grip chinup: 2 2 1 1 1 3. Incline dumbbell curls: 25s x 10, 10; 30s x 6, 6, 6, 5 4. Seated hammer curls: 30s x 7, 8, 9, 7

Today was harder for my training partner than me. I couldn't find the stopwatch, so we used a round timer. Durting the heavy-bag work, he got the pleasure of working the 2 minute portion, and I was stuck working the 1 minute portion. :) Warm-up: 4 rounds (2min work / 1 min rest) jump rope: 2 rounds 5 burpees + spiderman crawl to end of driveway*: 2 rounds Heavy bag work: 10 rounds (me - 1min work / 2 min rest) I normally like to work more, but since I only had my round timer, I opted to work the rest period and let my buddy work the normal 2min round. We did gobs and gobs and gobs of knees, hooks, elbows/forearms, and combinations thereof. * 5 burpees + spiderman crawl. I hadn't done spiderman crawls in a long while. What an awesome total body movement. I felt it in my obliques, hip flexors, and all of my upper body pushing muscles. The added bonus of the awkward postions mean that breathing is difficult. I'll be doing this little combo much more often!!!!!!!

I was still tired from the big hike the day before. Since I didn't finish all my squats, I ended the session with a 3 mile ride. 1. Complex: 65 lbs x a. Clean - 8 8 8 b. OH squat - 8 8 8 c. Bent row - 8 8 8 2. Wide grip pullup. bw x 4, 3, 3, 3, 3 3. Lower trap raise: 12s x 9; 10s x 11, 12, 9 4. Bench press: 205 x 3; 215 x 3; 225 x 4 5. Front squat: 185 x 10, 7, DONE!!!! leags were dead 6. 3 mile bike ride

On Saturday, my wife and I went to Enchanted Rock state park, but it was freaking CLOSED! The park was at capacity, so we headed back to Austin. To make up for that, we went for a hike around Lake Georgetown on Sunday. We hiked about 8 miles and jogged just over a mile. I was in my hiking boots and carrying a pack, so it was a challenging jog. 9 miles altogether.

I really kicked my ass today! I'm still light-headed and covered in sweat. Since I was short on time, I skipped the complexes but still got a good warm-up in. Warm-up: t-bell swings: 35 x 10, 5; 63 x 10, 5 And the workout.... Deadlift: 225 x 5; 275 x 5; 285 x 5; 295 x 5 Overhead press: 115 x 5; 125 x 5; 135 x 7 Dips: bw x 5, 7, 7 Chin-up*: bw x 5; +8 x 2; bw x 4, 5 Squat: 115 x 30 * My chin-ups could have been better but my arms are still shot from Wednesday's workout.

Great workout today with my buddy Chris B. After 3 tough rounds of warm-ups, we worked on a lot of kicks. Started with new stuff, then drilled the same from last time. Then some kick-punch combo drills, then true heavy-bag work. Warm-up: (2 mins work / 1min rest) 1. Alternating jump lunges 2. Jump rope 3. lateral drop stance (OUCH!!!) Skills and Drills: (no real time limits. Just working technique. When you get winded and form breaks down, we switch) 1. TKD stlye rear kick 2. TKD stlye front kick 3. TKD side kick (left) 4. TKD side kick (right) 5. Rear push kicks (from right and left lead stance) Heavy-bag work: (3mins on / 3 mins off) 1. Punch kick combos; coach calls. punches in the air and kick to heavy bag we did maybe 5 round of this 2. Punch combos; coach calls. All on heavy bag with full speed and maybe 50% force we did maybe 3 rounds of this

I didn't have a plan for Wednesday evening. I just knew I wanted to hit back and biceps. My upper back and biceps are really small compared to the rest of me. I just did want I felt like doing, Chin-up: 13, 13, 10 Incline dumbbell curls: 25s x 10, 10; 30s x 6, 5, 4; 25s x 6 Supported dumbbell row: 35s x 15, 18, 18, 15 Nothing fancy. just some work.

My wife and I walked about 3 miles up and down the trails at Walnut Creek. It wasn't hard, but I felt the soreness and and fatigue from the boxing workout earlier.

It's awesome to coach and train at the same time. Since I am keeping an eye on my training partner's form, and demonstrating etc., I forces me to takes little breaks during my work. If I were training for a fight, that'd be a bad thing. but as it is, it's wonderful. It creates a natural progession in intensity. Since I am coaching, the quality of the work I am putting form is great!! As he gets better and I spot-correct less, my quanity of work output goes up! Anyway, this is the workout we did. Technique drill 1: 15 minutes high block - cross outside block - cross catch - cross brush block - cross low block - cross high block - jab outside block - jab catch - jab brush block - jab low block - jab Technique drill 2: 10 minutes Partner drill which alternates jab - hook (offense) with catch - cover (defense). We kept swapping for about 10 minutes. The workout: 3min work / 30sec rest 3 rounds heavy bag - free sparring 3 rounds of conditioning circuit - 50 jump r

Started off with another complex, but added 10 pounds: A. Sumo grip high pull: 55 x 8 8 8 B. Hang snatch: 55 x 8 8 8 C. Drop lunge: 55 x 8 8 8 per leg D. Barbell curls: 55 x 8 8 8 On to the meat sets: 1. Pullup: bw x 5, 5, 4 2a. 1-arm prone fly: 12 x 15, 15 per arm 2b. 1-arm db row: 30 x 15, 15 per arm 3. Bench press: 185 x 5; 195 x 5; 205 x 5 4. Pushup from handles: 15, 9 5. Front squat: 185 x 10, 10, 10 6. Back squat: 115 x 25

Lord, thank you! What else do I say?? It feels great to be back on track in all aspects of my life. Professionally, I back to kicking ass. In my personal life, all is spot on (newly married, kids adjusting, wife and I adjusting etc.). Physically, I'm good to go! I still have the hernia, but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse. I'll take care of it after the summer. there is just way too much fun to be had for me to have a procedure that will ground me for 6 weeks. Today's workout was freaking unreal! I'm sweating, dizzy, and have to type slowly with one finger because my hands barely work. I went through this entire workout in about 35 minutes!!!!!! Warm-up Complex * A. Clean: 95 x 8 45 x 8 45 x 8 B. Drop Lunge: 95 x 8 45 x 8 45 x 8 C. Bent row + GM: 95 x 6 45 x 8 45 x 8 D. Barbell curl: ---- 45 x 8 45 x 8 Deadlift: 275 x 5; 285 x 5; 295 x 5 Overhead pres

Jump rope: 2 x 3min rounds /30sec rest Shadow box: 2 x 3min rounds /30sec rest Heavy bag partner drills: A guy came over to train, so we would alternate a few seconds to a minute at a time: - jabs; jab - cross; jab - cross - hook; just hooks; etc. - round kicks; lead kicks; knees total time : about 20 minutes burn-out drills: 2 x 1min on / 30sec rest "coach" calls the combo and the trainee does it as fast as possible and continuously till the next call.

This was an attempt to cover a lot of ground in one session. deadlift: 135 x 10 pullup: bw x 10 deadlift: 275 x 6 dip: bw x 10 deadlift: 275 x 6 chinup: bw x 6 deadlift: 275 x 6 dip: bw x 8 deadlift: 275 x 6 chinup: 15lbs x 3 Heavy bag work: 1 minute on, 1 minute off. x 3 'rounds'

Just a long simple bike ride to get the blood pumping. It felt great. We were gonme for about 2 hours.

Work has utterly kicked my ass through the month of March. I made time for about 7 workouts, but that was all. I've shaken off the apathy and the disappointment and am back at it full force! I won't even bore you with the details of my handful of March workouts. they were full-body, and tough, but too few. Time to kick it into high gear!!!!! Twice a week fight training & conditioning coupled with twice a week heavy strength training should be just what I need to feel right again!!!!