Becoming an Athlete

I've been back at the boxing gym for two weeks, and I'm loving it as much as when I was competing.  Having cut down to a rock solid 197 makes a world of difference.  My stamina is about as good as it was when I competed at 187. Here is how Tuesday's workout went: Jump rope x 6 rounds (3min /30sec) MetCon: 3 rounds of a. tire flip x 6 b. tire jump (like box jump) x 10 c. sledgehammer smash x 20 (10 per side) Ab circuit 5 rounds of a. weight overhead situp x 10 b. trashcans x 10 c. leg raises x 10 Mitts:  I was holding for others, not working mitts.  Maybe 6 - 8 rounds Heavy bag:  Now for the good stuff!!!!  3 rounds My ideal boxing schedule will look like this: - Stamina Day: run: 2 miles jump rope: 3 rounds Bodyweight circuit: 4 rounds (details could vary) a. pushup x 25 b. Russian twist x 20 c. Alternating jump lunges x 20 d. Handstand pushups x 5 - 10 Shadowboxing or partner drills:  3 rounds Mitts:  4 rounds Heavy bag: 3...

I'm down to 199.4 after yo-yo'ing a bit with camping and hanging out with my kids.  I ate plenty of chips, granola bars, cookies, fruits, and all manner of carbs you could imagine.  After 2 weeks of that I was up to 207.  As of this morning, I'm 199.4 and feel amazing. I've been steadily increasing my cardio output in an effort to feel more like an athlete and less like a mannequin. Saturday: 1/4 mile laps 2 x laps walking 6 x sprinting the straights and walking the curves Sunday: mixing it up 1/4 mile run 80# KB swing x 10 1/4 mile run 20 pushups repeated for 4 circuits (8 laps total) Monday AM: Old school lifting, worked up to some heavy ass weight Monday PM: Simple track circuit 1/4 mile run 25 pushups 80# KB swings x 10 repeat for 4 circuits (4 total laps) Tuesday AM: MetCon!!!!! Complete for time: clean & jerk: 155 x 15 pullups: bodyweight x 20 dips: bodyweight x 25 treadmill: 1 mile not sure my total time, but I ...

We burned 800 calories in 45 minutes doing simple, straight-forward work, with short rest intervals. Vertical push/pull superset a. overhead press: 85x10; 95x10; 115x10; 125x11 b. Pullup: bodyweight x 6,7,8,8 Flat back goodmorning: 125x10; 135x10; 145x10; 155x10 Arms superset: a. barbell curls: 95x7, 10, 10, 10, 7 b. skull crushers: 55x15; 60x12; 70x10; 80x10, 10 That's it.  Nothing fancy.  Just hard work on basic lifts.  Friday is our day to try out all the crazy conditioning plans. 

Man, this week is just freaking magical!  I've dropped 4 pounds since getting back from a hiking trip, and I'm at a rock solid 200 pounds. Everything is working (hate to use the cliche but) synergistically. I've been following the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse Diet.  I won't do 10 days, but M-F, with weekends for clean eating.  I'm adding a ton of protein powder to my smoothies to stay anabolic as I cut.  Despite a radical reduction in carbs and caffeine intake, I feel amazing.  Strength and stamina are up.  Joint pain is down, Abs are getting more and more defined.  Love handles are 95% GONE. Even my cheeks are starting to get lean.  I'm much less chipmunkish and worked my way to weaselish. The smoothies taste like a mixture of compost and yogurt, but the results are astonishing!!!! So my buddy uses a heart rate monitor and discovered that we burned about 750 calories today in our 1 hour old school workout.  It's so simple, I feel foolis...

My training buddy and I were talking about how the blended training qualities approach has been doing wonders for our fitness, but not doing much for hypertrophy, so we decided to split it up a little differently. Monday and Thursday are all about old school strength training.   Think Larry Scott, Reg Park, and maybe even HIT.  High quality sets; perfect reps; taking the last set to absolute failure Tuesday and Friday are conditioning days.  Yeah, you could call it CrossFit or MetCons, but then I'm sure I'd owe somebody $150 a month, so we'll stick with Conditioning.  High volume, low percentage of 1 rep max, lots of rowing, farmers walks, bodyweight movements etc.  The "kitchen sink" approach to circuits to get you smoked. So far, I'm making AMAZING progress. I've honestly never been stronger, leaner, or more athletic. One of the key learnings for me has been Rep Maxes.  Trying to increase max reps on a certain load is better than trying to always l...

I was weak today on deadlift for a few reasons: hard squatting the day before insufficient warm-up cutting carbs as low as possible doing just vegetable smoothies as of Monday Today's session: Clean grip muscle snatch:   45x10; 65x5; 95x5 (light weight just to wake up) strength superset: a. Chinup:  +35  x 5,4,4,4 b. Deadlift: 225x5; 275x3; 225x5,5 strength endurance superset a. flat back goodmorning: 95x10; 115x10; 135x10 b. Kroc row: 85 x 10/10; 10/10; 10/10 MetCon a. American KB swing: 50# x 25, 20, 15 b. TRX inverted row: BW x 20, 15, 10 c.  Side-plank knee-to-elbow: 15/15, 10/10, 5/5

Here's a good representative example of the current phase of training. Nice long warmup CNS warm-up:  just a few of each to get ready to lift HEAVY a. wall ball b. toes to bar or hollow-body rocks Bench press: 135x10; 185x5; 205x5; 225x7 Squat: 135x10; 185x10; 225x10; 275x5; 315x7 MetCon a. Thruster: 95 x 20, 15, 10 b. Burpees: 20, 15, 10 I felt like I was going to pass out and have a heart attack by the end of 20 reps each of thrusters and burpees. By the time I got to 10 each, I was a zombie, just doing it while light-headed and feeling my pulse rip out of my neck.