Background
Been a while since doing one of these things.
I think I did try another workout blog in the last year or two but it never took off.
For the last 2 years I’ve been very busy with school, family, and work.
I have been able to hit fitness gyms with some consistency but martial arts have been another story: I would start training again regularly during breaks between semesters and as soon as class projects started getting busy, I would just stop going.
The times I did try to train martial arts, it was mostly solo training at one of two gyms.
The first gym was partly owned by a friend of mine, who was eventually bought out.
Eventhough, I’d been going there for years before i started school, I still hate the vibe there.
The second gym was right across the street from work and is free, but the aerobics room with the heavybag is constantly locked for other things like military PT sessions, dance classes, and people watching P90x dvds. I could never train there consistently because I never knew if the room was available. Instead, I would just lift weights and do cardio. I didn’t record any of those fitness workouts (or the 120 trips to Gold’s in 2009) in a blog because I was already tracking them in a notebook.
I am about to start the last semester of my master’s and should be finished in December.
My kid’s 2 now and is a lot more self-sufficient.
I changed jobs last November and am doing a lot better financially & job satisfaction.
I’m finally finding a little more time to myself these days.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
As for my diet, I did well the first half of last year, dropping down into the 220s with weight watchers. Eventually, they cancelled my Friday morning meetings, school really started getting in the way, work was making me a basket case, and I just gave up. I started drinking pretty heavily and packed all the weight that I’d lost back on.
It’s not all bad though. I got a new, better job, I’ve been able to cut back on the drinking, and I did actually see some significant strength gains from my weight workouts. Still, my weight is unacceptably high.
Suntzu came to visit about a month ago and helped me realize that I need to get back on track. I’d like to shoot for one more attempt at gaining some in-ring experience.
At the very least, I know that there’s a huge gap in my life when I’m not training for something (whether real or imaginary) and that I really need to make some serious changes. Having a family shouldn’t mean giving up my passions. My health may depend on establishing a good training habit that I maintain for as long as I’m able.
Instead of waiting until I’m done with school in January to start committing to working out consistently again; I want to start making the baby steps now, so that I can hit the ground running in January.
My Goals
I want to weigh under 200
I want my endurance back
I want my technique back
I want to get in the ring once more
I’d like to bench over 200
I’d like to squat over 300
I’d like to be able to do 10 chinups un-assisted
Lessons Learned
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Crazy diets don’t work. When I try to force myself to eat food that I don’t want to eat, I get nauseous. The only thing that’s kind of worked the last few years is portion control with weight watchers. I’ll be starting that again tomorrow morning. I tried protein shakes, fruit & veggie juicing, and harsh diet restrictions; all of them made me sick in the end. Vitamins and nutrients are important; so is food that doesn’t make me vomit.
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Running is overrated. I always hated running before, but had this secret thought that it was necessary for uber-endurance & weight loss. From June til August, I ran 3 times a week on average and worked up to 3 miles a shot. When I stopped, I didn’t have that much trouble making it the 3 miles; but my back, my hips, my knees, and my feet hurt constantly. Cardio-vascular-wise there was almost no impact. I would barely be breathing hard. I ran as fast and far as my joints would let me. In the end, it just wasn’t worth it: I didn’t lose any weight, it really didn’t do much for my cardio or endurance, and it hurt all the time. I’ve gotten much better results from the elliptical crosstrainer - which upped my endurance, my cardio, and was more likely to help me drop weight.
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Weight lifting may be counter-productive. I know some of my goals are strength-related; but a body building routine is not going to cut it for getting back in shape.
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I miss martial arts. I miss having a coach. I miss the camaraderie of a good gym. I miss aspiring to fight. I miss honing techniques.
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Easy does it. This should be #1, but I’ve learned this lesson so many times, it’s not really new. I have to work on consistency and slowly building up to my goals. Jumping in full bore might work for teenagers, but by the time you’re in your mid 30s and in as bad of shape as I’m in, it’s a recipe for disaster. If I’m feeling like cr@p some day, it’s time to take the day off. Don’t need to schedule 5 days a week till my body can handle 5 days a week. Slow and steady will win this race. Even though I want to fight again, I need to establish good, sustainable habits. This about good life habits, not an 8 week bootcamp.
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Sleep is important. Trying to get less than 8 hours when I’m hitting the gym is not going to cut it.
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Balance. I can be more than casual, but I have enough responsibilities right now that I can’t completely become a monk for this stuff any more. Not only that, but I like other things besides fighting (always have, really). I’m going to need days where I study Japanese or computer stuff. I’m going to need the occasional weekend at the river.
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Remember my motivations. Gotta remember my goals and what I’m shooting for. That’s why I like putting my goals at the start of these blogs.
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Take advice with a grain of salt. Some people just give bad advice. There’s a big part of me that wants to earn peoples’ respect, so I’ll abandon my plan in order to do what they’re convinced is right. Need to have that faith in myself to trust that maybe I’m doing what I’m doing for a reason. It’s okay to hear someone’s advice & consider it, but I don’t need to run out and change all my stuff up because they think things should be done a certain way.
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Just keep getting back up. Fall 7 times, get up 8. Setbacks are going to happen. Failure is when you throw in the towel and give up when faced with hardship.
THE METHOD
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Diet Going back to weight watchers to get some education in proper portion control. Food is probably going to follow the new food pyramid with fruits & veggies at the bottom (ie the largest & most basic portion of my diet).
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Technique Until I’m done with school, I’m going to be training muay thai somewhat casually on Fridays. The main reason for this is because I find that the muay thai gym is best for technique, but maybe not the best for the conditioning I’m looking for right now.
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Conditioning I joined the local Krav Maga gym. I went to check it out because Suntzu may be working there; but the biggest reason I joined is that this gym has some really good fitness classes. They have a cross fit-like class (cross fitness), they have a kettlebell class, they have a heavybag class in a room full of like 100 heavybags (I almost needed a change of pants when I saw it), they have heated yoga, and the Krav Maga classes themselves are pretty cool (they eventually get to shoot stuff). The classes tend to get your heart rate up very high and keep it there for about an hour. Nowhere near as monotonous as the elliptical crosstrainer, and probably even burns more calories.
SCHEDULE
Note: this is my goal schedule for the fall. I don’t know how long it will take me to build up. I may also insert extra weightlifting sessions at Gold’s that I haven’t accounted for yet. I’ll be attempting to hit 6pm classes, as I get out of work before 5:30 usually, and the gym is about 20min away. If I am running late, I have a list of back up classes that start around 7.
Monday [6pm to 7pm] - Heated Yoga
Tuesday [6pm to 7pm] - Cardio Bag
Wednesday [6:15pm to 7:15pm] - Cross Fitness Plus
Thursday [6:30pm to 7:30pm] - Krav Maga level 1
Friday [6pm-ish to 8pm-ish] - Muay thai gym
Saturday [8am or 10am] - weight watchers meeting
-starting weight: 255
