Yet another BB Training Blog

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
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That’s actually just the sum-total of the little injuries and strains i pick up throughout a week of training; magnified by fatigue…

Like if i practise duck walks or screw up my form on squats and/or penetration stepping (walking the bow and arrow stance in a wrestling shot type manner); then my knees start achin.

The achilles (and shin splints) i think i picked up jumping rope; coz it sure does flare up when i’m jumpin.

Pulled my right hamstring throwing a left head kick. Rocked back too far on my supporting leg or something, made my hip feel tight and sore, while giving the hammy on my support leg a definite pulled feeling.

These type of aches usually get magnified if i jog. Jumping rope isn’t as bad, but it definitely don’t help. My right foot was club when I was born, so it’s more a structural thing than anything else. I’ve gotten used to operating on a certain amount of that pain regularly; but the more tired i get, the more the aches scream.

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We are cut from the same cloth man. One of the reasons I do so many different things is to give my aches and pains a day or two to heal while I’m doing something else.

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Tanks :slight_smile:

Monday had to do somethin for Julio, didn’t make it back in time to go workout.

Monday nite old friend called while I was getting ready for bed; he was having problems, so 2 hours later I finally got off the phone. Didn’t sleep till almost 2, took Tuesday off from work.

Tuesday:

Went to BXF first. wasn’t sure how much to do, because I was planning on meeting everyone at the kung fu school later for what was going to be a hard workout.

Did 10 min warmup

Squats: 225 x 3; 135 x 20; 275 x 3 (not all the way down), 275 x 3 box. My hips were being difficult on the 225. Tried stretching out and my hammy started buggin me again. the 20 rep set was kinda easy- could probly do it with 185. the 2 sets with 275 were kinda rapid fire; didn’t drop down as far as I could on the first one (reluctant to consider it), used a small stool for the second set. Days like this make me feel like all the work on fixing my form isn’t doing much… frustrating.

Sumo style deadlifts: 225 x 10; 315 x 5; 315 x 5. Tried to max at 405 twice, but it wasn’t coming. At long last deadlifts make their way back to my routine. Sumos are the best I’m gonna do until I get a diamond bar: not doing stiff legged ones anymore. Kinda hoping it makes squats easier.

Assisted pull/chin ups: 40lb assist x 6; 25 x 6; 25 x 6; 10 count negative. This is getting easier and easier. I may be able to do a pullup (or multiple pullups) soon.

Dumbell bench: 8 x 80lbers; 4 x 90; 4 x 90. Not much of a burn, could probably handle another set or more reps or somethin.

Kinda bs’d for a bit; had some time left before I was to go to the kung fu school. Didn’t feel like doing cardio. Drank a shake and bs’d with the guys that work at the gym.

Drove 30~45 min to kung fu school. Bad traffic. Glad I took the opportunity to cool down a bit before jumping in the car, cuz I usually get real stiff and cramped if i drive a lot right after a hard workout.

At the kung fu school, I got to working out by 7:15. It was just me at first; Jon was working with another guy, and other people hadn’t shown up yet.

Started with laps around the mat, doing warmups & footwork drills. Achilles was still feeling a little inflammed/strained so i tried to work around how it felt best I could.

Did 4, 2 min rounds of shadow with vest.
7, 2 min rounds of heavybag
5, 2 min rounds of pad work. Julio was ignorin the round timer, so some of the rounds were upwards of 3 min & 10 seconds rest.
4, 2 min rounds of alternating shadow and pad work (2 rounds each).

Finished up with some neck work out of the bridge.
Cut some of the reps in half and while I have a sore neck, it’s not the same level of whiplash; and i think that’s good.

Started working out at 4; finished up after 9.

Bought some epsom salt last night.
Got to bed a little late, but somehow woke up real early.
Felt pretty good.
Felt even better after an epsom salt bath.

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Hate not getting enough sleep.
I wake up alright for work, but by the time work’s done, I feel like i got hit by a truck.
Such was the case yesterday (wednesday).

I usually don’t blog this, but about everyday I walk almost a mile to get to my car from work- overflow parking lot’s real far away from the building; wearing real heavy shoes and carrying a heavy bag.
Felt like I got hit by the shuttle bus that usually takes workers up to the parking lot… wanted to give up less than a quarter of the way, but i didn’t.

I got to the gym, feeling similarly drained. The plan was cardio and skillz.

Picked my cardio poison:
jogging on the treadmill
I’ve always been a terrible jogger. The exercise is my most hated.
Jogged for about 25 min (including warmup & cooldown), for a little over 2 miles.
O man do I hate jogging.
Was cramping up the whole time.
Hate to keep whining about my poor feet, but when you’re flat footed and club footed (corrected), running’s absolute murder.

Then it was time for SKIOWZ

Left the round timer on 3 min rounds, 1 min rest.
3 rounds of jump rope
3 rounds of shadow box (2 with weights, dropped 'em to get loose)
4 rounds of 300lb bag
4 rounds of regular banana bag (last 30 seconds knees)
4 rounds of double ended peanut bag
4 rounds of shadow in the ring

Then I hobbled home.
Almost 3 hours of working out; not bad.

Tonite I get out of work at 5:30; probably can’t get to the local gym till 6; need to lift & warm up for almost an hour; but i need to be at the kung fu school by 7, and it takes 30~45 min through traffic to get to the gym anyway. Not sure what to do. May disappear from work early LOL.

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Got outta work late so got to the gym late; so I was kinda in a rush.
Was hurting, but took the initiative with a couple cups of green tea a few hours before work was over to give me enough of a caffeine rush to carry me through late day doldrums.

Did my 10 min warm up on the elliptical crosstrainer.

Jumped on the overhead squats…
10 reps with just the bar - nice, i can go all the way down with good form and it’s a little difficult
8 reps with 65 - I can work with this. getting a little difficult on the shoulders on the ascent: if I lose form the weight’ll lean forward ever so slightly and burn my shoulders pulling it back.
4 reps with 95 - starting to get dang heavy
6 reps with 95 - the better my form, the more i can do. Shoulders are the limiting factor.
5 reps with 95 - i’m enjoying this
4 reps with 95 - i’m hurting

Jumped in my car and drove to the kung fu school.

It was snowing so the drive took longer than normal and I was real late.

Warmed up a little with laps.
Did a bit of shadowboxing.
did a round of clinch work with suntzu (short round)
Worked the bag for a good 4 rounds.
Sparred for 2 and a half rounds. To paraphrase: Suntzu lights up a guy who’s got 100 pounds on him till the big guy bows out.

Turned/sprained my big toe at the end of the first round.
Was doing okay with it until the 3rd round: suntzu closed distance, I covered and went for a kick catch, after it failed, i went for a shot, forgetting that my bad leg was the one i was driving off of. Ended up stretching the big toe on the shot and it got worse when suntzu sprawled; I was like “ow”, so he thought it’d be a good idea if i called it a day. I probably should’ve just kept my mouth shut. I’m just sick of injuries. I’m deciding I’m not going to let this one slow me down.

As if to reinforce my decision to keep on keepin on; I got home and…
TADAAAAA
MY KETTLEBELLS ARE HERE!!!

I can hardly move the 2 pooder and the 1 pooder is more difficult than I thought it’d be. kettlebell swings make my toe (which is almost 50% larger than normal) throb like nobody’s business, but fuggit, it’s fun. :smiley:

Overslept this morning; which is kind of a good thing, coz except for my toe (and an achey shoulder from the overheads) i feel pretty d@mn good. Hitting up the gym tonite; though probly won’t make it there till almost 7, bringin the 1 pood kettlebell.

Tonite I’m going to gauge what I can do with the kettlebell.
I may also mix in front squats with the rest of my weight routine.
Footwork and some kicking may be out the window for a day or 2.
Hoping sometime over the next week or so I’ll be able to come up with a reliable routine for all my favorite exercises:

Overhead or Front Squats
Sumo Deadlift
Dumbell Bench (supplemented w/inclines & military press)
Assisted chin/pullups (supplemented w/seated rows)
Kettlebell work (thinking 1 armed versions of snatch, clean & press, and sidepress)

Dietwise, yesterday wasn’t the greatest. In general though I don’t think I’ve been doing so bad. I think I may finally really stress it in March~April when I re-evaluate where I’m at.

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i have the KB video if you want to take another look at it… and you didn’t mention the throw you got on me… awesome… wish someone would have taken a picture or got video of it… it was like wore work with know wires :smiley:

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Definitely wanna check out dat video!

Thanks for the compliment.
Your leg kicks from the outside and head movement on the inside were ridiculous; a lot better than I remember- tho it’s been a while.

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cr@p…
stuck at work and may not be able to get in much of a workout before closing.

we’ll see what happens, but I don’t know if i’ll be outta here in under an hour.

thinking about just going and playing with one of my kettlebells in the parking lot… better than nothing.

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Okay i was all set to skip tonite, BUT I DIDN’T!
W00T!
Jacked to the gills on caffiene; plus I didn’t quite burn myself the night before.
I almost prefer not completely killin myself; coz then I have more energy the next day.

Anyway, enough gloatin, onto my gimp workout.

Yah, my toe’s still messed up; so i busted out my kettlebell and played for an hour.

1 pooder
20 swings with the left
20 swings with the right
10 presses with the left
10 presses with the right
40 swings with both arms
20 clean and presses with both arms
20 behind the head extensions with both arms
10 curls with the left
10 curls with the right

Finished up with 3 sets of 30 pushups.

Totalled a lil less than an hour.
It actually felt a little light; but i was breathin hard at certain points.
I’ll see how sore I am tomorrow.
May play with the 2 pooder; do some pull ups, and do some deadlifts tomorrow.
Might even bust out some front squats.

Otherwise, with the toe, I’m kinda limited.

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Saturday I didn’t feel too sore, but I didn’t have a ton of energy either.
Just chilled saturday.

Sunday I woke up early and went to go train with the cool folks of Herndon, VA.

I’m still sporting a gimp toe and really have to adjust to compensate for essentially being one legged.
Learned a LOT down there; eventho I had to go like 50%.
Picked up a mighty nice combo.
Worked on my shielding a lot; with 14 ounce gloves, with a couple new guys. This ended up being really good for me- a huge difference in the amount of force you take when you’re hiding behind 20 ouncers vs 14z; let alone the immediate difference in coverage area.
I’m committed to working on my neck muscles after feeling that force; I just wish the exercises didn’t keep giving me whiplash.
Played around with the 2 pood kettlebell.
I can swing it 2 handed about 5 times; 2 handed clean and punch (upward at 45 degree angle) about 5 times.
I can swing it and clean&press it with my right arm; but I might not be able to do it with my left till my foot heals.
Hard to do heavy swings when you’re worried about your base.

Somehow this weekend I dropped 5 pounds.
Don’t ask me how or why.
If anything I dropped down the intensity of my workouts since thursday; I haven’t been eating all that much better, heck I kinda wonder if i haven’t even gotten enough protein.
O well, best not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Hoping to host everyone tonite at BXF, gotta ask around to see if everyone’s still gonna make it. Sick of bein injured.

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Coach stood me up yesterday; think it may be the last time.
For around a year I’ve been looking into other training options; some as supplemental, others as possible fulltime replacement.
Tueday of last week was one of only like 2 times I’ve worked out with him in the past 3 months.
Think it may be time to move on.
Tried working with a buddy- doing my sanshou thing and trying to integrate it with his traditional approach, but it just really wasn’t a good fit for me, and I had a hard time commiting.
May even change sports; but not planning on losing touch with the friends I’ve made in BSS.

Still manage to salvage a little bit of a workout yesterday.
I stuck mostly to machines- so I could take pressure off my foot, and take it a little easier on some joints that have been giving me problems.

10 minutes kinda easy on the elliptical crosstrainer

Seated chest press: 10 x 130; 10 x 160; 4 x 190, 4 x 190. The 190s were hard, but i guess they’d be considered a new pr; once I got 'em up they were easier tho.

Assisted pull/chin up: 6 x 40lb assist; 5 x 25lb assist, 5x25lb assist; 4 single attempts with no assist; a spent (and probably 2 fast) 10 second negative.

Leg extension (the one where you toekick forward): I ended up doing a ton of sets of 10 because it was so easy. Did like a set of 6 with the entire stack. I guess you could say this was a pr…

lying ham-glute curl (padded bar rests under your knees while you lay on yer back): set of 4 with 180; set of 10 with 135lbs; set of 10 with 135; set of 6 with 180.

held pads for this guy from Mi-Ki-Do who works out at the gym

shadowboxed for a good 10~15 min straight.

Shoulder’s hurting, neck’s hurting, toe’s hurting; apparently i gained weight back (didn’t eat much yesterday shrug). Toe’s getting a little better at least.

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Just realized that I forgot to add all the ab work and bridge pushups I did yesterday… the routine was pretty consistant with the ab routine i posted earlier… didn’t do any of the neck stuff tho coz it’s still buggin me…

Tonite was kettlebells kettlebells kettlebells…
Did tons of different lefts for over 2 hours…
Listing it all would be near impossible…
the real killer was 3 sets of 10, 2-handed swings with the 2-pooder

Also did 15 min of shadow, 15 min of bag work

Toe’s slowly healing; but if i catch it wrong omygod…ouch…

Waited too long to eat after class… couldn’t help myself…
Cluck U chicken is a dangerous, dangerous place…
Ate like 10 chicken strips (no salad dressing).

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Today is my 1 week anniversary of ruining my toe… o how i love you my swollen, black and blue, pain bringer…not…

Last night was weights

couldn’t warm up on the elliptical - my foot started cramping up real bad coz i’ve been putting pressure on it at an odd angle.

ended up walking 5 minutes best as i could on the treadmill instead.

then on to weights

overhead squats: 10 reps with the bar (45 lb); 8 reps w/10 pounds on each side (65lb). Failed on last rep of second set, shoulders were burnt, been doing a lot of shoulder work lately with the kettlebells and all. Switched to front squats.

front squats: 3 sets of 10 with 25 on each side (95 lb).

back squats: 2 sets of 10 with 45 on each side (135).

Tried to do sumo style deads but my foot started cramping up again as I was setting up.

dumbell press: 3 sets of 6 with 80 pounders.

assisted pull/chin: found out that I’ve been adding a half plate on everything (doesn’t LOOK like a half plate, so i never noticed it).
3 x 40lb assist; 3 x 47(?)lb assist; 6 x 32(?)lb assist; 6 x 32(?)lb assist.
one really nice 10 second negative, really felt more in control than i have in a while.

Kicked the bag a few times with my good leg, weakly… almost like throwing a kicking version of an “arm punch” i wasn’t able to get much behind it.

Kettlebells at the kung fu school tonite- probly hi rep stuff so i can actually sweat and breathe hard; while taking it a little easier on my shoulders.

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tried to help out the class last night.
walked around thai padding anybody that needed it.
i think maybe my thai pad skill has gone downhill, or maybe i was just unprepared for some of these guys to just spazz.
clocked myself a bunch of times, one time in the jaw put me in “someone needs to get hurt” mode.
they need some serious work.
not much motivation to work with these guys other than padding them; if i’m going to be putting myself at risk of being hurt by these spazzes, i’d at least like to be able to defend myself. think it’d be too hard to teach someone respect and control just standing there, letting them tee off on you, without firing something back.

toe feels almost 60%
it’s made a lot of improvement
still trying ot take it easy so i don’t reinjure it right away
don’t know that i could actually push off of it for something like jump rope though.

did 2 sets of 40 (pretty close to max) 2 handed kettlebell swings with my 1 pooder. kinda killed me i was real tired (doing a lot of reaction drills with the thai pads will make you sweaty and tired).
did a little shadow too.

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Didn’t work out on friday, had stuff to do.
Wrestling got cancelled this morning.
Bout to hit the gym here in a bit.
Throat’s a little sore, so i’ve been tempted to take the day off, but i just got my new gloves and wanna play.
Probably should’ve gone to Virginia today to train if i wasn’t gonna wrestle.

Tomorrow is double duty… virginia for some muay thai, then off to dc for 4 hours of lion dancing.

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just got home and want to jot this down before i forget.

went to the gym and was feeling pretty good.
jumped on the elliptical crosstrainer to see if my toe was going to allow me to do it, to my surprise I was actually able to crank out a good 10 minute interval session around my normal level.

Chatted with the guys that work at the gym while my heart rate came down. They gave me a hand held BF%age measuring device: 26.4 or something. Guess I’m obiece, o well at least it’s better than the BF%age reader I got at home- but the BMI reading looked similar to the %ages I get at home. Guess I’m still a lardazz. Told 'em I hope my bodyfat protects my brain and keeps me from gettin KOed; then it was on to weights.

I love front squats.
I use a cradle grip, using my gym towel to reduce the bruising in the crooks of my arms.
I did:
95 x 10 reps
115 x 10 reps
135 x 8 reps
185 x 6 reps
225 x 2 reps failed on the second. I wanna say it was fatigue more than anything else. I think i’ll be able to front squat my normal backsquat weight for workout weight in another week or two- after that, sky’s the limit.

Next was on to sumo style deadlifts.
These suuuuck in shorts; my knees got a lil banged up.
225 x 6 reps
225 x 6 reps
315 x 4 reps
315 x 1 rep
315 x 1 rep stiff legged style; yes, my straight leg deadlifts are still better than my sumo, ugh.
315 x 1 rep (back to sumo).
My grip kept giving out; i think because as it banged my shins and knees it put extra stress on my grip. gotta figure out how to bring it up without smackin into stuff.

Next was bench.
90lb dumbells x 6 reps - holy crud, this used to be my 1rm
90lbers x 5 reps
90lbers x 5 reps (think I mighta failed at the bottom of the last one)
Sweet geebus, if I can do this with 90s, I might be ready to try 95s or 100s. I’m shooting for 110s or 120s; hoping I can hit that in the next year.

Last was assisted pull/chinup.
6 reps wide grip pullup with 25lb assist + 3lb half plate + 6lb half plate (these machines have funky half plates, one big one small, I’m assuming they total less than the total of 1 normal plate).
6 reps medium grip neutral with 25lb assist + 3lb half plate
6 reps closer grip chinup with 25lb assist.
1 nicely controlled 10-1-thousand negative with wide pullup grip

At this point I ran to my car to play with my new gloves.
I basically did between 5 and 10 minute rounds on a bunch of different bags; for a total of 30 minutes.
hit the 300lber, the soft banana bag, the hard banana bags, the lighter boxing bags, and the uppercut bag.

I really love the new gloves, they’re a little hard, but definitely softer than the bag version of the same Ultimate Classic glove.
Sparrin with 'em’s gonna be a trip.

Bout to go to Jillian’s tonite (think Dave & Busters but less expensive and not as nice) for my gf’s work party.

Tomorrow’s gonna be a wicked day.

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Wow E…good lifts on the dumbell bench…Rick was giving me some advice the other day…so if you need any tips he’s more than happy to help…

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left the house at 8am
got home at 9pm
in between i did 2 hours of some wicked sweet MT with the cool people of Herndon Virginia.
I also did about 4 or 5 hours of lion dance.
yah the body is hurtin.
sore throat still here

'k so sat and sun will be herndon time
wed will be dc time

not really ready to give up either half of the equation.
guess that means i’m going back to the balancing act, but i intend on using a lot more tact this time around.

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PS- thanx jon :slight_smile:

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Got sick over the weekend so i been bedridden all day…
Think i’ll be alright tomorra