Pork Chop's latest workout blog

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
81

Saturday 1/21/2012
We were late to muay thai class Saturday morning, yet we were the first ones there.
I haven’t been doing the calisthenics routine lately at the muay thai gym.
Friday’s warm up was just 3 rounds of my jump rope + calisthenics routine.
Saturday’s warm up was 5 rounds of jump rope + calisthenics, plus stretching, and a good amount of shadow.

I held pads for about 4 or 5 rounds; alternating between 2 of the newer guys.
One guy wanted to try the pad routine that I used to put Suntzu through.
He started strong, but didn’t make it - blaming cigarettes.

Suntzu and I spent the last few rounds doing clinch sparring.
Rich showed up right before we started clinch (15~20 min before the end of class).
I was supposed to do clinch with him (because we’re both bigger) but he was taking forever to get ready.
Meanwhile, suntzu & I were ready to go.
Rich ended up working with another guy.
When we finished up, the other 2 guys looked busy so I didn’t feel like butting in.

Pretty good workout, but I would’ve liked to have gotten in some rounds of pad work for myself.

After class we headed over to the grand opening of the new krav maga spot on the north side of town and picked up some Mediterranean food on the way. There were seminars going on, we got there a little late for the 2:30 seminar. I finished off my food by 2:45 and jumped into the intro to bag seminar. It was only 30 min. It was high enough intensity to make me break a good sweat. The pace was such that any time I started getting nauseous from the food, we’d start doing something else - it was perfect.

I think the bag class more than made up for not getting in any pad or bag work.
All-in-all it was a great day.

82

Monday 1/23/2012
Went to Gold’s for some lifting & stretching.

  • Warmed up with about 17 min of cardio (total) on a couple different machines.
  • Seated Calf Raise, 90lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets
  • Hyper-extension chair, 25lbs x 20 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps, 25lbs x 15 reps
  • Face pulls, 40lbs x 10 reps, 60lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps, 90lbs x 10 reps
  • Cable version of Hammer Strength pulldown, 90lbs x 10 reps, 110lbs x 10 reps
  • Hammer Strength Pulldown- was all over the place on this one. Started off low weight with high reps, moved to higher & higher weight with low reps, finished with medium weight for high reps. Total about 6 to 8 sets.
  • Cuban presses with 10 or 15lb kettlebell (wasn't marked), 3 x 10 reps each shoulder
  • Finished up with a battery of static stretches for upper & lower body.

Enough of a workout to make me sweat, not really so much to kill me.
Not terribly sore today, but it might hit later.
Didn’t sleep well last night (5 to 6 hours maybe).

83

Wednesday 1/25/2012
My fears of getting sore later in the evening on Tuesday were well-founded.
By the time I got to the house to pick up Suntzu Tuesday night, I was completely burnt.
We debated for a while whether or not to go, but ultimately decided to listen to our bodies and get some rest.
Ended up sleeping 10 or 11 hours Tuesday night.

Wednesday, still sore, I left work early to pick up Suntzu and head to the muay thai gym.
My hamstrings were/are very sore and my lower back just plain hurt(s).
I realized that I really over-did it on Monday with the hyper-extensions.
I actually reached failure a couple of times on that exercise and did not pay it enough attention.
Paying for it now.

Wednesday’s workout was pretty light.
5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics on the rest rounds.
Shadowbox for maybe a round or 2.
The rest of the class was spent learning clinching techniques.
Reviewed some nice clinch escapes/counters and even learned a really nice toss or two.

Got home last night and saw the ICMAC thread here on the General Forum.
Houston’s Feb 18th seems really early to be fighting; but there’s also an event in Dallas in April.
Reviewed a bunch of the ICMAC and Legends of Kung Fu sanshou/sanda clips on youtube.

Gotta say, ICMAC looks pretty nice:
headgear and 12 oz gloves provided,
no chest guards required,
sanda rules (knees + ring/no pushing out of bounds),
and a light heavyweight class for folks 206-225lbs.

There are various divisions broken up by experience: A , B, and C.
A = 5 or more amateur fights (no pro); 3, 3-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
B = 4 or fewer fights, no more than 2 wins; 3, 2-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
C = no fights, or no wins + 1 loss; 3, 1-minute rounds with 1 min rest.
My record is 0 wins, 1 loss; so I qualify for C group.

Not sure about insurance (but it seems likely) or cost. Also wasn’t quite able to get a complete grasp of the level of competition at the Texas tourneys from the vids that are available.

I would love it if Houston was in April, Dallas was in May or June, and Legends of Kung Fu was in July - then I would think about making a run at all 3.

Going to discuss it with my coach on Friday & show him the vids I was able to find.
We’ll see what he says.
If not this time around, I think Dallas in April is a serious possibility.

84

Friday 1/27/2012
Thursday was a bit of a waste - I probably should’ve brought my gym clothes to work in anticipation of it.
Friday, I did bring my gym clothes to work.

Friday was a really rough day, personally.
Had some trouble on the road that I hope doesn’t come back to haunt me.
Situation didn’t feel safe, instinct took over, my actions may have some ramifications, but at least I’m alive.

In other news, my brother was in the hospital for some stroke-like symptoms.
He should have his test results Monday.
He’s only 22, so it’s pretty scary.

Workout-wise; I hit up the muay thai gym.
Workout was kind of short, with some interruptions.
5 rounds of jump rope with calisthenics.
3 rounds of shadow.
5 or 6 rounds of bag - focused on my shins for 2 rounds each leg & did combo work the other rounds.
Shins look like hamburger.

85

Saturday 1/28/2012
Muay thai gym.
Jump rope 3 rounds.
3 rounds of heavy bag.
5 rounds of sparring (3 of which with new guy who shows a lot of promise at 6’2, 210, lean & muscular).
held pads for 2 rounds.
finished up with another couple rounds on the bag (hands)
Mind was telling me I could do more, body - not so much.
Feel like it was almost an ideal workout.

86

Tuesday 1/31/2012

Monday was a waste.
Sunday night my kid had nightmares & was up til almost 2.
I didn’t fall back to sleep until 4.
Didn’t go to work Monday, slept almost the whole day.

Tuesday I hit the Krav gym for cardio bag.
Solid workout.

Tonight (wednesday) I have a work meeting, as I do every 1st wednesday of the month; so I’m going to try to hit “all in all out” on thursday to kinda make up for it. I hope I survive.

87

way to keep on keepin on chop. At least you’re getting out to the gyms and getting fit. I’ve been on a regular schedule the last 4 weeks with doing weights, hopefully i can keep it up. Maybe i’ll update my blog in a couple of weeks if i continue to stay on the path.

Not to take the thread off track but, i’ve heard others mention that their kids having nightmares and keeping them up during the night and i have to admit it that none of my kids have experienced that, which always made me wonder. I guess they just haven’t had one as intense as others and i can’t complain about their sleep habits, knock on wood.

88

[QUOTE=Brule;1155334]way to keep on keepin on chop. [/QUOTE]

Thanks! :smiley:

[QUOTE=Brule;1155334]Not to take the thread off track but, i’ve heard others mention that their kids having nightmares and keeping them up during the night and i have to admit it that none of my kids have experienced that, which always made me wonder. I guess they just haven’t had one as intense as others and i can’t complain about their sleep habits, knock on wood.[/QUOTE]

It doesn’t happen to my kid that often.
Maybe every month or so.
He only sleeps in his own bed, but he likes it when my wife sleeps next to him.
That night she put him down at 7:30; which is hours earlier than normal - we shoot for 8:30, but rarely get him down by 9:30.
She laid down with him at the beginning and took off around the time he would’ve normally gone to bed.
The end result was that he ended up taking a nap and woke up disoriented when mommy wasn’t there.

89

Thursday 2/2/2012
Since wednesday was a bust, I kinda tried to make up for it tonight.
I did All-In-All-Out.
Oh God, why? What have I done?
Holy sh!t ballz that workout is hard.

90 minutes.
The workout was all over the place, and it was all hard.
One section of the workout, he said we were doing a bodyweight-only version of one of the crossfit days.
Another section was straight up tabatas: 8 sets 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off; doing stuff like burpees, thrusters with 2 25lb kettlebells, jumping pullups on the rings, and knees to chest.
Like I said, all over the place: agility drills, battle ropes, sprints carrying a heavybag.

Lots of fun, but really, really hard.
People were disappearing throughout.
Could never do this every day, but as a once-a-week thing, it’s awesome.

90

hurting really bad after thursday.
was a zombie at work all day friday.
after work, i missed the exit for the gym and missed my exit for home.
started taking a nap, but my wife didn’t seem to understand me when i said “i don’t care about dinner, i need to crash” and woke me up anyway.
right now, i’m hurting, it’s late, and i can’t fall back to sleep.
I don’t know that i’ll even be able to make it saturday.
i’m not quite ready for that all-in-all-out class yet.

91

Monday 2/6/2012
Back to the gym after a long weekend off.
After last week’s fiasco, i figured it was time to go back to the drawing board for some tweaks.

My schedule has been Yoga monday, cardio bag tues/thurs, muay thai wed/sat (sometimes fri).
Hitting the bag class twice a week with muay thai has put a lot of strain on my shoulders.
I was hoping that I could eventually transition into all-in-all-out on thursdays instead of the bag class. Last week showed me that all-in-all-out is a no-go. My body just can’t handle it (maybe later).

I’ve decided to add some weights after yoga and do my yoga day twice a week (Tues & Thurs).
The official program is:
Mon- Yoga & Weights
Tues- Cardio Bag
Wed- Muay Thai
Thur- Yoga & Weights
Fri- Rest (optional Muay Thai)
Sat- Muay Thai (sparring day)
Sun- Rest
Doubling up on yoga and weights just feels like a good idea for injury prevention and a little bit of strength.

For weights, I’m following something similar to Starting Strength beginner’s program - 3x5 for 3 bigger lifts. I’m going to keep the weight medium-low for now, until I feel ready to do more.

Did 1hr yoga class.
Followed up with weights.

Yoga class was a bit more strenuous than I remember - I sweat a lot.

Weights:
Deadlift - 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets
Squat - 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets
Assisted chinup (neutral grip) - 52lb assist x 5reps x 2sets; 70lb assist x 5reps x 1set - 70lbs felt like where i really should be.

92

Tuesday 2/7/2012
Cardio bag Tuesday night.
Same guy taught it that taught All-in-all-out on Thursday.
It may not be the A-I-A-O class that killed me so much as this guy.
This was one of the most brutal bag classes I’ve experienced.
Unless I somehow got out of shape by having 1 week of only 2 (hard) workouts; this class was unusually hard - was like a mini A-I-A-O with no breaks or even time for setting up different exercises.
The guy’s a big fan of Tabatas and says as much in class.
Thing is, we don’t stop at 10 rounds (5 min?) of Tabata intervals; it’s an hour long workout.
Went through all the stages of a tough workout yesterday:
out of breath, pukey, hot, unable to catch my breath, “powering down”, dizzy, faint…
Afterwards I was pretty much a vegetable for a good hour or two.
Good workout.

Today I feel okay so far.
I’ve just been really grumpy all morning.
A lot of times after a hard workout, I feel okay most of the day and around 4 I start getting achy, cramping, and sleepy. Shooting for muay thai tonight, so I hope that doesn’t happen.

93

Wednesday 2/8/2012
Went to muay thai tonight.
Worked real hard.
Noticed myself getting tired at weird times again, but gutted it out.
Got my work in at least.

My coach says i’ll fight this summer.
Told him my weight hasn’t budged in the last month and that I might have to fight heavyweight.
He didn’t seem too positive about it.
At the very least he wants me to hit up my teammate, the personal trainer for some serious strength training (probably just get him to sign off on my 3x5 stuff).
We’ll see what happens by the summer time - either my metabolism will kick in, or at least I’ll be stronger.

My wife’s locked me into this routine of eating a big dinner with her.
She doesn’t eat all day, so she’s usually starving and she demands I eat with her.
In the past, I wouldn’t bring enough food to work for lunch and I’d be starving too.
Lately, I’ve been feeling less and less hungry in the evenings; it might have something to do with me taking over the chore of giving my kid his night time bath.
Today it came to a head and we had a little bit of an argument over it.
I’m going to try to just make myself something light for dinner from now on.
It might help with the weight loss.

94

Thursday 2/9/2012
Yoga & weights last night.

Yoga class was actually pilates + yoga for an hour.
A lot of that stuff is all bodyweight oriented, so it’s pretty tough if you’re big.
Sweat like crazy.
Given that I don’t really have any dedicated cardio workouts, I’m hoping this and the cardio I do in my other workouts will suffice.
My biggest limitation is time; so if I can actually improve something & get some cardio in there instead of mindlessly grinding away on a cardio machine, then that’s preferable.

Weights:
Squat: 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - was a little tired and clipped the rack on the way down. Holding the bar pretty low on my shoulders so I don’t hurt my neck again, so it can get a little awkward. Don’t think the weight is all that tough though. Will give 135 at least one more week before moving up to 185.

Deadlift: 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - bumped up weight and didn’t really notice much of a difference. I can usually jump back into 225lbs x 10 within my first month of working out, so I’m playing it very conservative. Will try to give 185 at least 1 more week before moving up to 225.

Assisted chin up: 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - felt really strong on this one. One more time and I should think about reducing the assist; maybe I’ll give it another week.

I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I should add some pushing (probably overhead press).
There’s also the idea of having 2 different upper body portions: 1 with assisted chin + dip, the other with t-bar row + overhead press. Thing is, the yoga classes have so much supporting of the upper body with the hands, I do tons of pushups throughout the week between my other classes, and hitting the bag is very taxing on the shoulders. I think I’m going to wait until my body adapts to my schedule and things gets easier.

I got in touch with my personal trainer classmate at the request of my coach. He hasn’t contacted me back yet, but I emailed him a pretty lengthy email only last night.

I was down another pound as of this morning (just under 238). Light dinner is helping, and I don’t feel hungry. So maybe I just plateaued there for a bit & am starting to have movement again. I’m usually low 230s, upper 220s when I’m working out without any crazy dieting though; so that’s why I’m not very confident about my weight. If I can get under 220 by June with a schedule I can easily maintain, I could probably get strict for a month and get under 200~205 by July.
Wish I could make 185 without killing myself.
Just gotta keep grinding away and thinking long term.

95

Saturday 2/11/2012
Friday was my rest day, which was nice.
Saturday was sparring day.
Got in about 3 or 4 rounds of hands at the end.
Overall, the workout was close to 2.5 hours
Good workout.
Enjoyed working with the guy on hands.
Think I’m doing well about taking my ego out of the equation and learning to just enjoy it.
The guy I worked with was a good partner and that always helps.

96

Monday 2/13/2012
Yoga tonight, then weights.

Yoga class was partner yoga.
Started off with a dude.
He didn’t like the exercises (they were a bit… awkward) and took off after like the third one.
Teacher tried to get him to stay, he said “not a snowball’s chance in he||”

My next partner was a cute girl, so it worked out.
Had to modify some of the exercises so I wouldn’t crush her, but she put up with me and we got a good workout.

Afterwards, went to lift weights.

Squat 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - held the bar real low on my shoulders and went ATG (or at least as much as my joints will allow). Was a little out of breath between sets, but otherwise it felt pretty good. Some awkward moments balance wise, but most of that is because of the bar position I think. Next week I’ll bump it up to 185 and see how it goes. Thursday will be my last time at 135.

Deadlift 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - really focused on strict form. It felt pretty easy. Like with the squat, I wasn’t exactly throwing around the weight, and I did get a bit winded, but it wasn’t much of a struggle. Next week I’ll bump it up to 225, Thursday will be my last time at 185.

Usually do a 135lb power clean after my last set of legs and even that is starting to feel light.

Assisted Chin Up 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets - I feel like I’m doing these with perfect form. I feel like I could step it up. Will use the 70lb assist one more time on Thursday and then drop down a plate (55lb assist?).

Went home and before dinner jumped on the scale - just under 238, basically another half pound or so. Just gotta keep it up and see how far I can go.

Feel pretty good tonight, just sleepy.

97

Power blew at work so we got out at around 10:30am.
I’m in full couch potato mode.
Took a 2.5 hr nap and played some video games.
Gym tonight is not looking probable; would have to leave in an hour and feel more inclined to go back to bed.

98

Wednesday 2/15/2012
Fun night.
Felt compelled to “make up” for being a couch potato Tuesday.
Muay thai class.
5 rounds jump rope with calisthenics on the rests.
3 sets of 10 kbell swings
1 round of 5 jumping jacks + 1 burpee, continuous
held focus mitts for 3 rounds
held thai pads for 3 rounds
hit focus mitts for 3 rounds
hit thai pads for 3 rounds
finished up with 4 rounds of conditioning kicks: 1 kick, 1 leg, continuous for each round, so 2 rounds each leg, low round kicks & medium round kicks. Tried to break the bag.

99

i just got majorly hosed tonight.
less than 5 minutes from the gym, was called away on an “emergency”.
so angry right now that i’m nauseous.

100

Friday 2/17/2012
Was able to kinda make up one of the days I missed.

12 min on treadmill, warm up, walking on an incline at 60% max heartrate.

Squat 135lbs x 5reps x 3sets - mixed it up, held it low on the back first set, then used the sting ray plastic “holder”, final set started as front squats but finished out with zercher squat when i couldn’t get it to sit right (and my arms were hurting).

Deadlift 185lbs x 5reps x 3sets - nothing special. Pretty easy.

135 power clean was automatic - it just went straight up.

Overhead press 95lbs x 5reps x 1set; 115lbs x 5reps x 2 sets. 115 was nice and heavy, but didn’t feel like too much. I’ll stick with it for the next month. If I can build up to 135, I may just end up doing power clean & press.

Assisted chinup 70lb assist x 5reps x 3sets. Maintained perfect form, but I was tired, and it was a bit of a struggle. I think I can up the weight next week, but I’m going to have to get adjusted to the new workload.