Yet another BB Training Blog

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
41

Monday was pretty awesome.
Got out the house by 6:15 and was working out by 6:30.

Normal interval training warm up on elliptical crosstrainer for 10 min.

Squats- 3 sets 5 reps 225 pounds. I can feel the difference in weight very clearly between this and 205, but still not impossible. I think I’ll stay here at least the rest of the week and maybe one more week just to make sure I lock down my form best as possible.

It was getting close on 7, which is when the beginner boxing class starts; so i put the weights on hold for a bit.

Hit skills training hard…

4 - 2:30 rounds of jump rope (they were running 2 min rounds with 1 min rest, the extra 30 seconds came from cutting the rest in half)
4 - 2:30 rounds of shadow box; some with weights
3 - 2 min rounds of 300lb bag, with weight vest
3 - 2 min rounds of 300lb bag, without weight vest
3 - 2 min rounds of a smaller banana bag (still over 100lb)
3 - 2 min rounds of the uppercut bag
3 - 2 min rounds of double ended speed bag
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow

jumped back on weights

dumbell military press: 1 set of 10 with 40lbers. 2 sets of 6 with 50lbers
seated row: 1 set of 10 with 100; 1 set of 8 w/160; 1 set of 5 w/205

Then went for some cardio.
Could barely move at this point, so even doing cardio took a lot of effort.
Did 30 min of best effort; albeit somewhat slow cardio on the elliptical crosstrainer for around 550 calories. Heart rate stayed above 160 the whole time, with a lot of stretches over 170; was too tired to push it to my normal high intensity 180+ range.

Ate a bunch of chinese food over the weekend; still finishing the leftovers.

Sunday after the kung fu fell through, i spent the rest of the day chillin in bed. I really noticed my jerk neighbors downstairs and their chainsmoking. They smoke pot too sometimes. I kept getting tightness in the chest and mini asthma attacks that seemed to correspond with each time the nicotine smell started wafting up into my apartment (though not as serious as when I drink Surge). I know this sounds hypocritical coming from someone with the experiences I have with smoking - but there’s a difference between a once a month/2 weeks type of habit, and putting up with the constant 2nd-hand smoke of a night and day chain smoker. Even when I do/did smoke, I go to great lengths to make sure that the smoking takes place in a deliniated area so I don’t have to continually breathe it in & so all my stuff don’t stink.

I have a feeling that a lot of my perceived problems with my health will improve in march when i move out of this dump.

My weight’s still kinda scaring me, but I’ll give this program another month or two before I reevaluate and decide whether or not to get concerned. Aside from the chest thing, which can be explained by other external factors; I feel like i’m performing well, with generally good strength, endurance, speed, and power. Performance is my priority, but i would really prefer it if my weight didn’t balloon.

Tonite I’d like to work on kicks and/or takedown kinda practise.
May do some cardio as well; but it’s not a huge priority after doing it yesterday.

42

Originally posted by BMore Banga
My weight’s still kinda scaring me, but I’ll give this program another month or two before I reevaluate and decide whether or not to get concerned.

Dude, you’re doing a ton of work. Have you lost any weight in the past 4 weeks? Do you feel better/stronger/more energetic? Are you tired all the time?

What about your weight scares you?

43

I haven’t lost anything.
If anything, on a full stomach or after a sodium meal, i’m heavier.
I welcome my rest days when they come because I get pretty burnt, but I’ve suffered overtraining in the past and I think I’ve done a decent job of avoiding it.
I notice the times that i’m skirting overtraining & burnout are the times when my weight actually dips.
I don’t get as sore as I used to and I feel more energetic in the gym than i did.
My lift to bodyweight ratio still isn’t good yet, so i guess i got a ways to go before i’m close to what i’d consider “strong”.
I think benching my bodyweight, squatting 1.5 times bodyweight, and pulling off 5 pullups would be a good start.
Maybe I just gotta pack on the muscle to get there before I can really worry about stripping the bodyfat.

That new government guideline for 90 min workout a day for weight loss is pretty motivational. Going to ride off of some of that.

44

Last summer I dropped about 10 lbs of body fat. I did it by running a lot, lifting, and going to kung fu. But the most important factor was my diet. I recorded everything I ate. I planned a whole weeks worth of meals in advance. I used http://www.fitday.com to keep track of my protein, carbs and fat intake. I ate small meals all day long and the weight melted away.

A typical day was like this.
-protein shake with water
-bowl of raisin bran with 1% milk.
-1/2 a peanut butter sandwich or protein bar.
-2 servings of cottage cheese
-a salad or a 6 inch turkey sub a subway.
-some baby carrots a banana or an apple.
-some whole wheat saltines
-grilled chicken with rice and veggies.
-maybe a shake at night.
-about a gallon of water.

I’m certainly not an expert in this area. This is just what worked for me. But if you put a little more time into planning your diet, you’d probably see better results. I know you didn’t ask for input like this so I hope I’m not overstepping my bounds. :slight_smile:

45

My biggest problem with my diet is that it’s either famine or flood.

If I restrict what I eat, i usually feel like crud, have no energy, and have a hard time stayin on it: too many memories of the great famine of 2003; I also tend to get bored of food when I know I’m supposed to eat it.

If I don’t restrict what I eat, I end up eating too much or eating bad stuff. Especially with how much my gf likes to eat out.

What I’ve been trying to do is eat normally but make a daily effort to clean it up- eat a little bit better and a little bit less.

I’ll give that menu a shot. I have a real hard time planning what I’m going to eat; esecially when it makes me overly hungry.

No worries on overstepping. :slight_smile: I appreciate the input.

46

Had a craaaaappy day at work yesterday.
Thought about going home for a second, coz it was so darn cold out; and then the question of “well what would I do if i went home?” came up and I realized that the best way to stay in the habit of going to the gym is to actually enjoy being there. Instead of thinking about all the stuff I would have to suffer through if i went there, I started thinkig about all the training that I’d enjoy. Next thing I know I’m in the gym and warming up.

A bunch of laps around the training area doing warmup and footwork drills.
3 - 2 min rounds of jump rope
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow boxing
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on the banana bag
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on the 300lb bag
3 - 2 min rounds of kicking on one of the softer banana bags, with the last 30 seconds of each round throwing continuous knees on the uppercut bag.
3 - 2 min rounds of some more shadow
A ton (around 20) of laps around the gym doing kicking drills (took at least 15 min).
a lap around the gym doing penetration stepping.

at that point the UMBC ice hockey team came in to do their training.

I grabbed a mat and decided to do calisthenics in a small corner:
20 pushups
20 jumping squats
10 squat thrusts
Then ab death: 50 crunches, 50 left crunches, 50 right crunches, 50 leg lifts, 50 knees to chest, 50 bicycles
10 iron bridge pushups
10 iron bridge neck pushups: rocking weight back and forth onto back of head
Farmer Burns neck drills: knees & forehead on ground, circle forward 10 times to each side.
10 forehead pushups: from farmer burns position, transfer weight from knees to toes, while straightening legs

Finished out at about an hour and a half to make my gov’t mandated 90 min. Probably should’ve done some static stretching, but the UMBC guys were starting to spread out- sucking up my workout space.

47

just dropping a quick note.
had to pick up my glasses today at the optometrist.
decided to go out to eat during the pickup and ate a lunch consisting mostly of yakitori sticks.
More importantly, i realized it’s snowing real bad.
Almost had a few accidents just driving to the optometrist - which is close.
May skip the gym tonite, the last thing i need is a friggin accident.

48

Played it safe yesterday after almost crashing a couple times on my 8 minute drive home. Let’s hope drivig conditions are a little better today.

49

Shoulda blogged last night when I got on after my workout.
My workout was ummmm “woah”.

10 min elliptical interval warmup

3 sets of 6 assisted pull/chinups: 55lb assist, 40lb assist, 25lb assist
1 10 second negative (think I mighta done 10 on the first set)

3 sets of 6 dumbell bench: 80lbers, 2 sets with 85lbers (think I mighta done 10 on the first set)

3 sets of 6 squat: 225. they moved the squat rack in front of the window so i finally got to see my craaapppy form. 225’s light enough that I can do crappy form and still reliably finish the rep. I’m really working on improving it- but my structural problems with my feet really affect my balance. Having the problem of doing a good morning on the way back up- i’ll catch it pretty quick and readjust before I go up, but that sticking point hits almost every rep.

My skills workout was kind of a blur (this is kinda best guess).
Lots of laps around the gym for warmup and footwork drills.
3 - 2 min rounds of jump rope
3 - 2 min rounds of shadow w/weights
9 - 2 min rounds of 300lb heavybag; was doing reps of particular techniques, might’ve been as many as 12 rounds, not sure; but it really killed me.
3 - 2 min rounds of one of the smaller banana bags.
3 - 2 min rounds of uppers, hooks, and knees on the uppercut bag (30 seconds of knees at the end of each round - ouch)
3 - 2 min rounds of straight footwork (shadow boxing w/just footwork)
3 - 2 min rounds of more shadow boxing

Stuck around for another hour or 2 to watch the UMBC hockey team spar 1 min rounds with 1 min rest; while I drank a protein shake; and prayed for the pain to go away.

Woke up this morning with a headache. Had a little trouble getting to sleep last night. Overslept.

My supplements are all but gone.
On my last jug of Grow!
Bout to take my last CLA pill; and all that’s left is chromium pic. and my jumbo bottle of multivitamins.
Need to knock over a liquor store to buy supplements…

50

Friday I had a nice light day. I was sore as heck and got out of work late, so I was just happy I got to the gym.
Did 30 min of jogging (gotta get in my yearly quota of this gawdawful exercise) and 6 or 7 rounds, 3 min each, of shadowboxing.

Saturday I got snowed in.

Woke up too late today (sunday) to do too much. Might hit the gym around 7 or 8 for a lil bit.

51

Didn’t get back from the grocery store till 8:30 last night, so i didn’t make it to the gym.

Haven’t trained kung fu with the guy I been training with since before Christmas. I’m starting to think maybe the whole idea wasn’t very sound- more because of my commitment than anything else.

52

Forgot to mention that I didn’t get to bed Sunday night till almost 4 and was workin on around 4 hours of sleep.

Still managed to hit the gym though.

10 min elliptical cross trainer warm up

squat - 3 sets; 10, 8, 6 with 135, 185, and 225; focused on my form. Form wasn’t SO bad yesterday, even on the 225 set. I’m trying to follow the t-mag squat tips. “Chest out” actually seemed to help. I’m pretty sure my hips are shooting out at the bottom of the movement when I start pushing up.

dumbell bench - 4 sets: 2 with 90s, 4 with 90s, 8 with 85s, 4 with 85s. Failed right off the bat on the second rep with the 90s. Dunno if I let the dumbells fall too low or what. I was choking on something starting on my squats- think I accidentally inhaled a little chunk of towel- and it really affected me on the first set. Set it back up, took a few deep breaths and gave it another shot; went up easy this time- go figure.

assisted pull/chin up - 6 with 55lb assist, 6 with 40lb assist (failed on last one), 5 with 25lb assist (failed on last one), 10 second negative with no assist. I think I’m on the verge of actually being able to do a pull/chin up.

Skiowz…
3 rounds, 3 min jump rope
3 rounds, 3 min shadow with weights and vest
3 rounds, 3 min 300lb heavybag with vest
3 rounds, 3 min banana bag no vest
3 rounds, 3 min double ended speed bags (2 on the peanut, 1 on “regular” - the peanut’s a little easier, but feels more realistic)
Finished with a set of 24 step taichi. Wow what a difference. Didn’t slouch on the form (though I’m far from where I used to be on it); but afterwards I felt better than I did when finishing up with the southern stuff.

Solid day, not a great day; but on 4 hours sleep i was thinking about not showing up at all. The weight vest stuff took a lot outta me. The workout was hard, but I also figure going 80 or 90% means I’ll have more left later in the week.

Diet yesterday was decent. Been drinking a bit of Arizona tea; but didn’t even finish my lunch.
Cracked open my last bucket of Grow! protein; it’s vanilla yuck, what was I thinking? Actually had a shake with some creatine and flax seed oil after the workout. Spiked it with a bit of holiday spice pepsi (i know, i know, but i love the stuff and i needed some post workout carbs).
Went to bed hungry, woke up hungry, but i’m doin alright today. Only got 6 hours of sleep though. Gonna end up crashing on thursday.

Tonight’s agenda is cardio at the gym and skillz at diane’s.

53

I was still kinda hurtin tuesday from bad sleep.

Stopped by bxf first for 30 min of HIIT cardio on the elliptical crosstrainer.

Then I jumped in the car, raced home, switched out my sweaty shirt for a clean one, and then raced up to the kung fu school.

By the time i got to the kung fu school, it was almost an hour later.
Soreness was starting to set in, everything below the knees was beginning to ache.

At the kung fu school I had a hard time getting into my rhythm; dunno if it was from the earlier cardio, or from the sudden absence of a ring timer.
Even still, I did manage to get in some work over like a 2-hour period:

Jumped rope for about a round’s worth.
Shadow boxed for like a round.
Did laps around the mat area doing various drills (some warm up, some punching, some footwork, some wrestling).
Jumped on the bag for like a round or 2.
Ran through a couple forms.
Learned 2 cool throws that combine for a nice combo (thanks Suntzu!)
Worked on a breakfall a good 10 times.
did a little stretching.

Eventhough it wasn’t the most efficient workout, it was fun, and I picked up some valuable info.

Think I’ll make tuesday (and possibly thursday) nights at the kung fu school a habit till someone tells me to stop comin. lol

Last night I was in bed by 11; but it didn’t feel like I slept the whole night. I was SUPER SORE by the time I crashed. This morning, eventhough I didn’t care what time I went into work, i couldn’t sleep anymore by 8. I’m still a bit sore today, and a little run down overall; but I don’t feel quite as zonked and sleep deprived(at least for now).

Plannin on hitting the weights tonite. The weigh-ins for Ballroom Boxing (at Michael’s of Glen Burnie) are at my gym tonite so I’m just hoping I can still work out. At least I get free ticket to the event on Thursday, so I’m happy bout that.

54

be sure to sit in the back where the ring girls come out on their way to the ring… :smiley:

55

Wed & Thurs Jan 26 & 27

Wednesday; by the end of work I was dog tired again- totally ready to pass out by the time I went to the gym.

Wednesday night the Ballroom boxing fighters were at my gym for the weigh ins. Didn’t think I was gonna be able to do any skills training; so i made a deal with myself to at least do my warm up and weights.

10 min on the elliptical went nice, think i broke a personal best as far as distance and calories and such. These new machines go up to level 25, the old ones went to 20. Strange thing is 17 and 18 feel pretty consistant on both machines. Today’s 10 min was on 19. It’ll be awesome when I can go 10 min at 23.

Because I was so tired I didn’t want to spend too much time with free weights; because I felt like i was in ripe conditions for screwing up my form and getting injured. I went ahead and did machines instead.

Seated row: 3 sets of 6 with 160, 190, 220
Seated military press: 3 sets of 6 with 90, 110 and 130. Not 100% sure on these weights; but this exercise sure does feel nicer on the machine vs dumbells- more stable.

Seated Leg press: 3 sets of 6 with 360, 450, and 540. This was on the hammerstrength machine- which is kinda like your normal leg press sled, but each leg moves independently. The range of motion seems a little shorter than with the sled too. Pretty sure I could’ve handled 720 on this thing too. Squats are definitely a better exercise, but I was feeling so burnt I didn’t wanna risk it.

At this point I thought i was gonna go home but the proz cleared the cameras out of the training area and stayed back in the aerobics room; so I got my bag and started to work out. It’s kinda amazing how much having some proz and pro trainers (not to mention a ring girl or 2) watching you can change your workout. Ended up going a lot harder than I thought I would at that state of exhaustion.

3 rounds 2 min of jump rope.
3 rounds 2 min of shadow (2 of the rounds with weights)
3 rounds 2 min on 300lb bag
3 rounds 2 min on uppercut bag (last 30 seconds knees)
3 rounds 2 min on regular banana bag
3 rounds 2 min on double ended peanut bag
3 rounds 2 min of shadow

By this time i was truly burnt.
I’ve been having aches and pains for a few weeks now.
My achilles on my left feels shot.
I’ve also come home pretty sore many a night.
But I kinda felt like I was going to die after that.
Doesn’t look like much in retrospect, but it was a decent length workout at a higher intensity than I thought I was gonna go.
Tried to hit the hay by 930 after that workout to catch up on my sleep.
After trying to sleep unsuccessfully for an hour, around 10:45 I cheesed out and got some help.
Had a nice little ****tail of 1200mcg of Melatonin and a dose of NyQuil. Knocked me out quite nicely.
Actually woke up early for work too; but anytime there was a lull in the action, i was out without warning- but it was odd coz i didn’t feel that tired.

Came home early from work (coz i was in a meeting all day) and took a nice 2~2.5 hour nap.

Went to the kung fu school to work out today too; almost like active rest. We worked on a lot of stuff: kick catches, boxing, a good amount of wrestling & takedown practise, some bag work, and put in some good work on breakfalls. Very productive day without killin myself (thanx again guys).

Friday’s another tough day at bxf: warmup, weights, skillz.
Saturday’s cardio.
Want to work on calisthenics & bridging one of those 2 days (was planning friday, but saturday’s looking quite attractive).

PS- Finally got another job. I lucked out. Staying in the area; which is a mixed blessing; but I think I’m really gonna enjoy doing the new position.

56

Friday.
Totally hurting day… shin splints, pulled hammy, pulled achilles, tendonitis in the knees… and that’s just my lower body…

Did my 10 min warm up…

Squats: 225 x 6; 275 x 3; 225 x 6 - the 275 set wasn’t all that heavy, I just didn’t like my form so much; 2 of the reps were okay, the 3rd was atrocious. Could probably put up over 315 and go all the way down; but on the way back up, there’d be a section that looked like a good morning- so i’m just playin it safe and makin sure my form takes the precedence.

Incline bench: 10 x 135; 6 x 185; 8 x 155. I didn’t like the way the 185 felt, mighta done less than 6, can’t remember. Found myself fudging on the descent coz i was getting that fear that i couldn’t get it back up; though at the top it didn’t feel super heavy. Weird day, guess I was just that burnt.

Assisted Pull/Chin up: 6 x 40lb assist, 6 x 25lb assist, 5 x 25lb assist, decent negative at the end.

Shin splints & knee tendonitis were killin me by skills time.
Stayed away from jump rope.
Just did an hour of laps around the training area; a lot of skills drills and threw hundreds of kicks.
Took the last 5~10 min to shadowbox in the ring.

Saturday I took the day off; figured I’d be working out sunday, so no need to shoot for 7 days straight.

Saturday night there was some bs at the boxing matches. Brooklyn Park Boxing is a very dirty dirty organization for promoting & competing.

Also on saturday night, I suffered the mental/emotional trauma of having to watch old Peruvian men dance to disco songs until the wee hours of the morning…d@mn you Julioooooooooo!!! :eek:

Sunday I got snowed in; so no trip to Virginia. :frowning:
One positive thing is that the rest really felt nice and my aches and pains are largely reduced, if not gone altogether.

Tonite I gotta drop off some stuff for Julio so I probably won’t make it to the gym until late.

57

Incline bench: 10 x 135; 6 x 185; 8 x 155. I didn’t like the way the 185 felt, mighta done less than 6, can’t remember.

Way to go E…I wish I could do 185 once…keep up the good work…

58

appreciate it :slight_smile:

forgot to mention 2 things…
first is that i found out a very dangerous thing yesterday:
Cluck U chicken delivers to my house… :eek:

second is that I’m thinking of adding sumo style deads to my routine…

59

Sounds good…the sumos I mean…I never really ate cluck u even though that’s all anybody else at my college was eating…I’m thinking of adding in flat bench presses…

60

Originally posted by BMore Banga
Friday.
Totally hurting day… shin splints, pulled hammy, pulled achilles, tendonitis in the knees… and that’s just my lower body…

D@MN! What the hell did you do?