Another minor accomplishment

Writin' letters to honeyz on the typewriter

I'd be lying if I said I have been specifically working on this. It is something that I've wanted to do for the longest time so a few days ago I decided to see how I've progressed. Lo and behold I was able to go each direction twice.

Didn't fully extend on this one, but wanted to show this picture because of the badass Kali stick fighters in the background. They were filming for something and put on quite the demonstration. Those are some bad dudes. 

"Hey, brahski. It's me, Fake Question Guy. If you didn't train for the typewriter specifically then how have you been training?"

Good question, self. I just did a lot of posterior chain work. I have done static holds at the top of the pull-up but maybe only once a week. I think I'll start working on this directly now. I mean, as you can see I have a whole jungle gym to do it on. 

I'm headed out of town this weekend to Pennsylvania. I'm going to bring my suspension trainer and a few bands. Hopefully I can find something interesting out in the woods. If not I'll just start uprooting trees, or the people. Remind me to leave my Cowboy and Ranger gear at home. They get all weird and territorial out there. I don't want someone who can't pronounce Rs to yell at me with a mouth full of cheesesteak. :(

Videos of some fun I had over the weekend

Not much to say today. I had a pretty productive weekend, which centered around lifting shit. This first vid is from Saturday and I'm doing some odd object lifting. I put two of my sandbags into an army duffel and lifted it. A lot.

The bag weighed 139lbs total. I'm about 4 sets in at this point. This was also the last thing I did on that day so my quads were pretty smoked. I'm pleased with myself since I've never tried this before. Next time I'll make sure the yoga mat isn't there. That tends to make an already awkward lift even more awkward.

The next day was one filled with overhead pressing, cleans, and farmer's walks. Here I am taking 220lbs (total) up and down my sloped driveway.

Have you noticed a prevailing trend in the gear I'm wearing in both vids? Yeah. I'm actually wearing pants. Just kidding. I'm channeling Yu Darvish for massive power through my Ranger's hat. While that doesn't make any sense at all, let me show you this amazing HD video which gives you a better perspective on the driveway:

I tried working with 320lbs but was only able to carry for 20 yards at a time. I saw Diesel Crew working their FW skills by doing static holds with massive weight so I'm going to start incorporating that into my training.

I need to write a blog soon about how my overall mood has changed ever since switching from the big plastic jugs of water over to stainless steel imbibing utensils. You know, these:

Sriracha inserted into pic for straight up legit player shit representation and perspective on bottle size. Anyway, here is a short teaser for the blog: I'm no longer a moody stressed out whiny man.

Stay...shiny.

That's it. I gotta say something

There appears to be a prevailing trend amongst humankind where we use other's supposed genetic disposition to make excuses for our own physical state of well being. It's pathetic, and a glaring reminder of just how lazy and undisciplined we are as a society.

I have heard this so many times "Patrick, you're so lucky you don't have to worry about being fat because you're so naturally skinny." or "You don't know how hard it is to get in shape because you're so skinny already." and "You are just so good at everything you do you don't know what it's like to not be." Hold up, player. Say what? Are you trying to say that I enjoy being 6'4 and a natural 170lbs? Are you saying that I like having bones as sturdy as a bird's? Are you saying I enjoyed being made fun of growing up for being a beanpole and a weak piece of shit? Or maybe you're just looking at my current body composition without giving a single second of thought to the fact that I work my ass off on a daily basis in order to not be mediocre and to be of strong mind and body? Do not minimize my struggles because of your own, and do not use me or anyone else as an excuse for whatever state you put yourself in.

"Whoa, bro. You're being super emo right now. What are you saying? Are you about to write a poem about it?"

First, welcome back to the blog, Fake Question Asking Person. You ran off after that one hot steamy night we shared together after your last fake question. No I'm not going to write a poem. I'm trying to say that everyone has their own mountains to climb, whether they be a physical one or mental, and whether they be fat or skinny. For me, I've always hated being skinny. HATED it. I see jacked NFL linebackers and wish I had that kind of silverback gorilla strength. Do I hold it against them for being infinitely stronger than me, and use that as an excuse for my "poor" genetic make-up? Hell no! I use that as motivation for me to get out there and work as hard as I can in order to get the most out of this poorly pieced together body. You see, it's all in the mindset. If you continue to use other people's body composition and abilities as some sort of sick justification for your own unhealthy state and/or lack of mental fortitude then you will never make any progress and will be stuck in that depressing unhealthy rut for eternity.

"You're just so smart and know everything. I'm not like that so I'm just going to be resigned to be stupid because you're so smart."

F that! Don't look at someone who is smarter than you and get depressed by it. BE INSPIRED BY IT! "Wow, human beings really can be that intelligent? I want to know if I can be that intelligent too!" While the cliche "anything is possible" isn't entirely true, you can do your best to make it as true as possible by actually putting forth a concerted effort to change. Adjust your mindset from one of poverty to one of prosperity. Women are the absolute worst about this. They are so negative and catty, especially when it comes to looking at other women who are hotter and have a better body. If you spend all of your time focusing on other people's strengths you will never realize what your own strengths are, and you'll never take strides to improve them and become the best you can be. You then automatically put someone, who could have some awful demons of their own, on a very undeserved and unearned pedestal. Quit being so negative about it all! To put it frankly, it's pathetic and undeserving of any sort of respect.

It's all in the mindset. I watch videos every single day of people doing incredible things. I don't think "Aww that's awesome I can never do that." Instead, I am driven by what I see and even though I know I won't be able to accomplish the feats some of those people have, I know that I'm doing everything I can to improve me in order to play the best hand with the cards I was dealt in life. Besides, the more you work on improving yourself the more likely you are to discover that you're able to do something that many aren't. It just takes an ounce of willpower and want to find that out.

So, fat people, next time you're talking to a super skinny person adjust your mindset and remember that maybe that person doesn't want to be that way. If you have negative thoughts don't vocalize them. Same goes to you, skinny people. Don't look at a jacked bro and vocalize jealousy. Be inspired. Understand that you are special in your own way and not one person is like you, but every person has their own struggles just like you. Maybe once you start focusing on improving yourself you'll realize how great you are. Why wouldn't everyone want to find and achieve their greatness? Do not fear the hard work, sweat, tears, and pain that will undoubtedly occur while on that path of discovery. The rewards are well worth it.

Now excuse me while I go polish my abs.

Just kidding.

I ran out of polish. Stay shiny

Coping with injury, because your injury is tired of hearing you bitch

You avid PDT readers know that I have a history of injury, and some might say I flirted with it so much that we came close to having an injury-riddled bastard baby. Does that make sense? Good. I've noticed that many of us who end up injuring ourselves have an incredibly difficult time relaxing and letting our bodies heal. Our minds take us to places of insanity where the likes of only Captain James T. Kirk and Hologram Tupac have been before. All we want to do is get out there and train.  Lies begin to perpetuate within our brains, tormenting us, and making us feel far more worthless than we really are: I'm lazy, I'm getting fat, I'm losing lean muscle and am super weak, I'm having far fewer bowel movements, or whatever may drive you bonkers. Some might say that's a mild form of depression.

My not-wife girlfriend recently hurt her lower back doing power clean progressions. This was due to a number of reasons: pushing herself too hard, not being 100% focused on the lift, and not doing the proper prehab/rehab work necessary for training as hard as she does. This girl is intense. She really gets after it, but always felt all of the stretching and extremities bullet-proofing was only for manly athletes. That's something I need to write about in the future. Unfortunately, or fortunately, injuries have a very aggressive way of slapping us in the face with huge doses of reality. If you're going to train hard then you need to prepare your body for that training, no matter what sex you may be or what your fitness goals are. She understands that now. Funny how women never listen to their significant other until the real world hits them upside the head or someone else tells them the exact same thing.

I digress, the reason I'm writing this is because back when I was hurt, and I FINALLY forced myself to relax and take an extended period of time off, the aforementioned lies started going through my head. I was going nuts. All I wanted to do was train, and each day I missed I felt weaker and more worthless. I battled those thoughts and I knew exactly why they were going through my brain, and that they simply weren't true. Now my not-wife girlfriend is going through the same thing. It's bad, but she has never been an athlete before so she's never had to deal with the drop off in endorphins which occurs when one must rest. I can imagine the struggle she's going through as I struggled with my own injury issues and faced similar battiness of the brain. I would always complain to her that I was going crazy just sitting around. She called me obsessed, and I'm sure she thought much worse. Hey, I don't open up very often so I thought I was doing her a favor. Guess not. I think she now understands that I wasn't obsessed, I was just dealing with something along the lines of post workout depression. And no, I'm not referring to the kind where you workout and then hate yourself afterward for not pushing yourself hard enough.

So, what causes this depression? Well, as we all should know when you exercise your brain releases a chemical called endorphins. These endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, as they bind to your neuro-receptors and relieve pain. When we exercise those endorphins are released throughout the body. Mmm. Endorphiny. Some of you may have experienced this feeling as a "runner's high". For those of us who train constantly, that feeling is always around. So what happens when it's removed? Well, see the above paragraphs.

This is when we need our minds to be their sharpest because if we begin to buy into the lies and the madness we further sink into depression and negativity which is 100% counter productive to actual living, and/or we fool ourselves into thinking we can get out there and train in a way that does not exacerbate whatever our injury may be. While that is possible depending on the type of injury, it's not always advisable. Besides, we grow when we rest. Many of us don't rest enough as it is which is why there are a plethora of injuries related to training too much.

So what do we do? Well, recognize the negative feelings for what they are. They may not go away, but if you label a lie a lie then you're much less likely to entertain it. Stay the course, and try and reprogram your brain from thinking "I'M TURNING INTO A LARDASS!" to "I'M RESTING MY BOD SO I CAN ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE SOONER THAN LATER!" Let's face it: you may end up losing some muscle mass. That's not that big of a deal though, as something that was once there can easily be rebuilt. On top of that, excessive external resistance work puts a huge amount of stress on your joints. If joints had purty mouths I guarantee they'd be verbally fellating you for taking this time off. Once you get back to into the swing of training you'll realize just how beneficial that time off was. You can also use this time to plan ahead and program. Set goals, study proper programming, evaluate your training regimen, and absorb as much info as you can. Take this time to grow mentally.

If your injury allows you to stay active then find a way to stay active. Go for long walks, do some bodyweight work (injury dependent), and/or spend some quality time with yourself. Hm. Oh and most importantly keep eating clean! When we're working out we can often justify an incredibly unhealthy meal by saying "Well, I train hard so here is a little treat for me." Try and picture the thoughts you'll have after eating a root beer float with a deep fried hamburger on top. I imagine you'll OMG the shit out of yourself. Eat a lot of foods which promote an anti-inflammatory environment. Your body will thank you. Don't give any fuel to the negativity, or leave any door open for it to come barging in. It takes mental strength, especially for those of us who are naturally intense, but it's something that can be done.

Hope this helps someone. Stay shiny.

Let's get saturated about fats

My company is on some wonderful campaign to get all of their employees healthier. I imagine they couldn't give a shit less about our health and are just trying to minimize overhead on insurance costs, and even if that is the case they might want to start proofreading the cute little booklets and info packets they've been handing out as of late.

Our break rooms are littered with this cute little pamphlet called "FAST FOOD - Smart Eating Guide". First of all, this book should only consist of one page. Said page should only say "FAST FOOD: DON'T EAT IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A TYPICAL FAT AMERICAN!" but unfortunately it delves into several dietary myths and promotes them as truths. You know, without any sources cited or surrounding facts to back up the statements. I'm only going to touch on one of them here, and that is on the topic of saturated fats. I bet the subject line of this blog made you think I'd be discussing the post mating cholesterol levels of three legged forest hamsters, didn't you? No? Oh. Here is a quote from the book, which you can also google if interested in reading it all:

Here are the simple facts about fat and salt. Healthy diets include dietary fats, but certain types of fats aren't good for you. 

The bad fats, saturated and trans fats, raise the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in your blood and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and certain types of cancer.

Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats don't raise bad cholesterol levels and are better for you. Fats from plants, such as nuts, seeds, vegetables and avocados are good sources for these fats. 

Dieticians recommend that diets include 30% or less of its calories from fat and have less than 300mg of cholesterol. Saturated fats should account for less than 7% of your total caloric intake and trans fats less than 1%. 

Whoa. Say what? Let's pull the e-brake for a second because I see Mark Sisson on the side of the road flinging pieces of bacon at me while carrying a club and dressed like Fred Flintstone. Mark, THREE YEARS AGO, posted this highly informative piece on saturated fats. Because I believe that you, the reader, are capable of reading on your own I'll let you go ahead and read through that. Interesting stuff, huh?

Is that not enough? Well, here you go:

http://www.musclehack.com/the-saturated-fat-cholesterol-myth-destroyed/
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/saturated-fat-is-not-evil.html
http://healthyfixx.com/1/busting-the-myths-of-saturated-fat
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/food-myths-debunked-all-saturated-fats-raise-blood-cholesterol.html

Okay I got bored of copying and pasting. There are quite literally hundreds of articles debunking that stupid myth that saturated fat is bad for you. It's a shame that Better Books couldn't go the extra mile (i.e., typing in several words into a freaking search engine) to corroborate their claims. Well, I guess it makes sense since on the very next page they go onto one of those "eat this, not that!" topics when going to fast food chains. It's always the same: skip the burger, go to the salad. Punch me in the balls. The salad choices they list all have over 1500mg of sodium and are loaded with evil sugar. Yeah we should really heed this pamphlet's words.

I know I didn't give much personal insight on this matter, but I've got quite a few things to get done and figured I'd get this out there for anyone who may be reading my blog this very minute looking for info on saturated fats. THE PEOPLES DEMAND IT!

Stay shiny.

Monday training that ironically occurred on Monday

Just finished a nice workout down in my "gym". You know, my parking area.

Said parking area gym ("PAG"? No? I'll work on that) is currently infested with lots of newborn mosquitos due to the rash of storms and it being spring in Texas. They're sooo cute with their whole blood sucking and disease spreading thing. It made rest periods infinitely more fun as I wasn't really paying attention to the little bastards while working on my exerciseseses. Anyway, today consisted of kettlebell swings and snatches, and afterward I felt so good I decided to get in some barbell rows, OH presses, and power clean progressions. 

Oh, and I only have two KBs: a 30lb and 53lb. Don't judge me. Off the top of my head it all went a little something like this:

• Dynamic warm-up
• 50 one arm swings (each) - 30lb KB .. this was mostly to get my hips firing 
• Kettlebell snatches - 3 x 15 @ 30lb, and 3 x 8 @ 53lb. 
• One arm rows - 2 x 25 @ 53lb kb, 3 x 8 @ 95lb barbell
• OH presses - 2 x 8 @ 95lbs
• Hang cleans - 2 x 8 @ 95lbs, 2 x 5 clean progressions @ 135lbs

I'm not the strongest guy ever. Please continue with that whole not judging me thing. The barbell stuff was mostly done with focus on form. I got a lot of that work in on Saturday so I kept it mild. I'll get my daily push-ups done later tonight when the lights are off along with my pants.

Criticism welcome, critique and suggestions preferred. 

Dan John on perfecting that there cattleball swing

This clip from one of Dan John's seminars is fantastic, and not just because of the community rec center attendees and dad jokes, but because this man can flat out teach. He makes it so easy to understand how the human body functions, or how it should be functioning. 

I love the kettlebell swing, and the information contained in this vid helped me tweak my form. The whole attacking the crotch thing is something I wasn't doing, which is strange because I attack it plenty while not training. 

I know this is an old vid with information many already know, but I'm sharing it anyway on the off chance that if someone stumbles upon this blog they'll find it helpful. Hahaha that's funny. The whole stumbling upon this blog part, that is. 

I'm off to attack crotches. 

Shirtless Saturday programming

Every shirtless Saturday needs to start off with some power food, lest everyone stare at your bare chest and proclaim "That man hath not the fuel to be powerful and has the aura of a Tinseltown ladyboy!" I'm not sure what that means, but these tacos were really good.

MEAT. EGGS. STUFF. Sure they were the most expensive tacos I've ever purchased in the history of my life, but I'd do it again right now if the line wasn't out the door. Oh, those are from Velvet Taco. Check out that lobster roll taco. Yeah. Will work for lobster roll tacos.

After my taco consumption I pounded a couple cups of coffee, rehydrated, and went downstairs to my parking space gym. It was extra wonderful today since the entire complex was seemingly doing laundry, and to my great fortune the dryer vents right into my area. There is no airflow other than that. Needless to say extra sweat begets extra chalk. And extra dudesexiness (not subjective or up for debate). 

* Dynamic warm-up

* Hang clean - 4 x 8, 8, 6, 6
* Clean and press - 4 x 8, 8, 6, 6
* Deadlift - 5 x 8, 6, 4, 2, 2
* Tire slams - 5 x 10 (sub band slams, rock slams, ball slams, baby slams, or whatever if no tire)
* Uphill tire shot put + downhill OH carry - 3 sets (shot put tire up the hill, carry OH down, no rest)

I live in Dallas so hills are hard to come by without traveling. I just use my driveway which is about 30 yards long with a decent climb. Hope you guys got at it as well. Tomorrow for Pantsless Sunday I'll get in a suspension workout at the park with the ladyfriend. Let's hope she has a positive mindset. Speaking of, I need to write about that soon because all of the f'ing negativity people hold towards themselves and their capabilities drives me bonkers. 

Stay hard. 

Poliquin on nutritional deficiencies with vegetarians

Poliquin, master of crazy and loser of marbles, recently wrote an informative article on nutritional deficiencies vegetarians face in their diets. Instead of slamming the diet itself he takes a different route and offers up suggestions in order to make up for the missing essentials that plants and the like simply cannot provide. I won't get into quoting the article because you can read for yourself. I'm just sharing.

The state of my training, with pictures

I've now been training MMA/self defense for around 3 months. I think it's been that long. I don't pay attention to these kinds of details anymore. I just go in and work my ass off each day and try to forget about yesterday. Or, that's just a poor excuse for slaughtering my short term memory during my wild and out party years. Sure we've all been there, but I doubt any of you injected pure MDMA with a turkey baster through your nostrils.

Living forever aside, I've made great progress. I've really had to scale back my strength training since it interferes with my "combat" training, yet I am stronger than I've ever been, I'm more explosive than ever, faster, and way more awesomer looking with my shirt off. Yeah. WAY more awesomer. That's important when being punched in the face, right? I thought so. Oh, and I weigh in around 180lbs now. Wow.

So, without further adieu, here are a few pictures of me beating the piss out of a mouthy tire with an 8lb sledge. This was just a conditioning finisher. BTW, you like that mammoth EliteFTS wrist brace? Yeah I know you do. I've been rehabbing that wrist for awhile now, and my healing timeframe has gone on for an exceedingly long time. I imagine punching things does not create a conducive healing environment. I'll need to see an abstract on pubmed before I make a final determination.

Now that I've got your pants area all worked up, here's a vid from the following training session. 20lb sledge, 5x10e for power. This was the 3rd set so I'm not sure how much power I was making. 

20lb sledge finisher video

I'll fix the embed later. You know, when I'm not at work and am able to. On second thought, F all of that. Blogger can't find my video, unless "Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer" is it. I don't think so though.

For all zero of you who asked, here is what my strength training primarily consists of:

Deadlifts (deficit, sumo, standard)

Squats (box, front, farmer's, goblet, split squat)

OH press (barbell and KB)

Farmer's walk

Pull-ups and rows

Various other BW movements, much of it done on the suspension trainer

Macebell training

DB snatches

Ancillary grip strength training

That's just stuff on my own. I do loads of core work in my training, but I'm pretty much over this entry and need to go to the store. If anyone wants actual details on core work, prehab/rehab stuff I do, along with my stretching then I'll gladly expound.

Love you all. 

I suck at blogging

Over the years I've probably started 5 or 6 blogs and have failed to consistently update every single one of them. I go at them strong for a month or two, and then I just give it, and myself, the middle finger and I stop writing entirely. I have a bit of a perfectionist issue with myself, and I quite frankly hate my writing. It's never up to my standards, but then I realized nothing I do in life is up to my standards. Including my training. Does that sound like a recipe for a side dish of going batshit insane? It does to me.

So here I am, again, but with a more F it attitude. I'm going to try and be more lax on my standards with the hopes that my prose isn't bottom barrel quality shit like Steel Reserve 40s. Although, on certain occasions Steel Reserve can be pretty amazing. The following day is one generally filled with pain, anguish, and questioning of all things related to life. So, on second thought, I hope the same holds true for this blog. I want this site to put forth the most amazing, high quality, bottom barrel garbage possible. I want it to blow your effing mind, only to have you wake up cursing my name the next day. I hope you hold me to this high standard. So, here we go...again.

Snack tip for healthy snacking

I'm big on getting one's necessary nutrients from food sources rather than sucking down a protein shake or some other supplement drink. Unfortunately that can become quite pricey and sometimes our options seem limited. Well, let me offer you another solution: beef jerky! No, I'm not talking about that heavily processed crap you can buy from the store. I'm talking about making your own. Yes, you must make an up front investment (I'll get to that) but I promise you it will pay itself off over time.

Grass-fed beef is my favorite meat, and probably one of the best meats out there nutrient wise if not the best. Google for yourself. Unfortunately grass fed beef can be pricey, and for those of you who thought you have to buy top round or sirloin meats to make sliced jerky then allow me to introduce you to my new toy:

The Weston Original Jerky Gun! This allows you to use ground meat for jerky making. While grass fed ground beef is pricey ($4.49/lb at Whole Foods for lean), it is actually a complete steal when you compare it to what you get from a $10 bag of store bought jerky. I picked up 2.6lbs of lean grass fed ground beef for a little over $11. This gun holds just under 2lbs of meat, and is easy to load and even easier to clean. The whole process is simple: grab a bowl, grab your ground meat, mix in spices of your choosing, and shove into the gun. Boom. Ready for squeezing out pressed jerky strips onto your dehydrator's trays. 3-4 hours later (depending on your dehydrator) you have fresh beef jerky with no preservatives or other crap. How do I get my jerky to last a long time? I store it in the freezer, and only take out the sticks I will consume that day. Depending on the size of the sticks, that is probably 4-6 total.

Onto the dehydrator. I used to have the old shitty Rosco round dehydrator that you can purchase at Target for like $20 or something (3 tray only, not 5 tray). It worked, but it would take 10-14 hours or so and you have to constantly rotate the trays to dry the meat evenly. Super annoying. So, I decided to pony up and buy the NESCO/American Harvest square dehydrator.  I couldn't be happier with this purchase. The thing has worked like a champ so far. Due to the design and how the fan works you do not have to rotate the trays. There is also a temperature control on it. If I had any complaints at all it would be that this is not a smoker. Unfortunately I live in a condo, and smoking meats would irritate my neighbors (or make them stage a raid to steal my awesome smoked meats) and it's quite the laborious process.

On top of meats, you can dehydrate pretty much anything you want. Even your ballsack if you're into that kind of thing. I strongly urge any of you with a dialed in diet, which calls for the wonderfulness of grass fed beef, to put forth the $90 or so on the two aforementioned items.  Hell, if you have Amazon Prime you can have both by tomorrow for next to nothing on shipping costs. It will more than pay for itself, and grass fed beef is essentially the meat of the gods. I read on that wikipedia somewhere.

Stay hard.

Wednesday workout recap on Thursday, and other random thoughts

I got in a decent session over at Diesel yesterday. I'm cutting down the # of exercises I do and the frequency of actual strength training because of my training for the Kumite. I haven't back squatted nearly enough in recent weeks so I had to dial it back a little bit. I wasn't sure how my body would respond the next day, and I have coconuts to smash and trees to kick.

Squats - 5 x 5 - @185lbs
Weighted dips - 5 x 5 @ 20lbs, 25lbs, 30lbs, 35lbs, 35lbs
Weighted pull-ups - 5 x 5 @ 20lbs (I rotated doing pull-ups, chin-ups, and wide grip pull-ups)
Suspended push-ups - 5 x 10 using gymnast's reverse grip

If I was somehow able to trick you into reading this blog earlier then you'll know my weakest movement is pressing. I'll never be a total bro in this area, but I'll have a solid handle on my bodyweight. Whatever makes ME happy. Later that night I got in my wrist and elbow rehab work with the Flexbar and mini band. I can tell you that is working. I also make it a nightly routine to do 50 band dislocates, and 20 band inlocates. I also stretch my shoulders/pecs using the band at each point during the OH squat. I'll hold it 10 seconds or so starting at the top, then 10 seconds a bit lower to the ground, and then another 10 at the bottom of the movement.

Moving on..

I just came across this video of "The Fittest Man on Earth" over on CBS Sports. Isn't that sort of like Americans proclaiming to be world champions in a sport that only they play? Let's not forget that one of the contests for the Crossfit Games(tm)(c) was the softball throw. He is quite simply the fittest man in the world of Crossfit(tm)(c). That's commendable as he is in amazing shape, but come on. This is example 194387234 of why CF "athletes" rub people the wrong way. You can workout super fast. Good for you. Average at everything, excel at nothing. Don't get me started on Reebok and their involvement. They are already on my shitlist for supporting SOPA and PIPA. I'm pretty sure they're losing sleep over my disdain.

Enjoy the day everyone. Remember, "Do today what others won't so you can achieve what they never will." Train hard, and recognize excuses for what they are.

Last night's training

It went well. Better than my last session at least. My wrist gave me less problems, and my conditioning is really starting to noticeably improve. My rest times have lessened and I'm taking far fewer breaks during rounds on the heavy bag. My shins took a royal beating from all of the kicks, but that's fine. I knew full well what I'd experience going into this so I started conditioning my shins to take the abuse awhile back. How did I do that? Well, I rub a wooden dowel rod up and down my shins to help kill nerve endings (bro science? I don't know but it seems to work) and have been hitting them hard with my solid rubber flexbar. If I had a giant black RPD (rigid pleasure device) I'd use that. In public. But not on my shins.  Uhhh so anyway here is a brief overview of the workout:

• Combo work on the heavy bag using power (jab high, jab high, right cross to the torso), coupled with the same combo on the mitts while going for speed. 
• Speed ladder and jump rope for conditioning and foot work
• More mitt work to work the jab, cross, left hook, uppercut combo. 
• Even more mitt work but this time with the thai pad for throwing kicks into the combos
• Heavy bag utilizing all of the various learned combos, including kicks and knees. 
• Shadow boxing coupled with sprawling. Simple jab, cross, jab, cross, sprawl. I felt like I did this about 100 times, but it was probably more like 10
• Finished with 2 minutes of hard jump rope using varying footwork techniques. I'm not too bad with the jump rope, but doing this last was quite humbling. I stumbled more then I wanted (I think 4 times total) and it felt like an eternity. 2 minutes with the rope is absolutely nothing so I need to spend more time using the rope, or just realize I'm still a beginner and just keep doing what I'm doing. 

I really wish I would have joined some form of martial arts when I was younger. I feel like this is what has been missing from my life for a long time. I'm hooked. Today I'll be strength training. Squats, dips, pull-ups, and farmer's walk are on the agenda. 

Eat big, train hard, train smart. 

Where am I?!

The man right 'chere. I finished DJ's 40 Day quite some time ago. Guess what? I hit my deadlift goal of 405lbs. Matter of fact, I pulled it and backed it up with 3 subsequent (but separate) pulls. I have video, but am posting this from a place where I can't access youtube. Will post later. After that I decided to "de-load" doing bodyweight exercises and light conditioning. My body just flat out hurt. Last week I decided to see where I was at strength wise with the deadlift, and I was still able to 405lbs. Although, I must admit it was an UGLY pull. I really felt it the next day too.

During my hiatus from iron I had a few changes in my life. For one, I left the hoity toity ritzy spa gym and moved over to a "real" gym down the street. It's not in my office building, but it isn't far. It also has most all of the equipment I need, and yet is maddeningly lacking in other areas. Oh well, it's cheaper. I haven't been in a normal gym in so long I forgot about all the bros doing sweet isolation movements right in the mirror. My favorite so far was some guy doing BB curls on the deadlift platform with 10lb plastic training plates on each end. Oh boy. If I can actually be consistent with this thing I'll have some good stories to tell.

The second change was something I've wanted to do for years now: I took up MMA. It's more geared towards self defense than it is competition,  and I don't train out of an Affliction/Tapout gear riddled gym. The place I train out of actually is a large warehouse where several other disciplines are taught: Silat, Kali (and all variations), Schola Saint George, some crazy knife fighting (the name of the art escapes me), and kickboxing. I'm the only one in my class so I get 100% of my trainer's attention. Right now I've been going twice a week for the last 4 weeks, and once my body is better adapted then I'll start going 3 times a week.

So, since I'm training like a fighter I must adjust my strength training accordingly. I'm going to again take DJ's simplistic, yet repetitive approach to resistance training. I will have to cut that down to 3 days in order to avoid overtraining as I get my ass kicked on MMA days. I must say, I've never been better conditioned in my entire life. My bodyfat percentage has dropped as has a bit of weight, but if my strength training session yesterday told me anything it's that I haven't lost much, if any strength. I was able to rep 315lbs + 75lbs of chains for 2 x 5. I obviously did not experience the full weight of the chains as there were still links on the ground at the top of the pull. Do I even need to explain that to you all? No? Good.

I also now train a group of guys each weekend for GPP. Well, not "for". We just train GPP. A couple of the guys were very much green when it came to training, and after we got the push/pull fundamentals out of the way we were able to dive head first into GPP. They have a long way to go, but have made significant progress. I think this is what I enjoy doing most each week. If I didn't suck so hard at this blogging thing I'd take video and pictures. I'll post the workouts to the blog in case any of you want to try it on your own. Don't hold your breath, but do. Starting...now.