February 26th, 2008 Weigh-In
Did a weigh in this morning – down 2 pounds since the beginning of the month – not surprising – I’ve been eating a lot more as I felt I was loosing too quickly through January and I’ve done a lot of strength work this month so I’ve likely gained some mass as well.
Clothes are continuing to get loose, so I’m still going the right direction. I was pretty bad this past weekend though – had some pretty heavy restaurant meals over the weekend so I am likely retaining some water right now and probably lost more than 2 pounds. No worries – it’s just a number and I’m in this for the long haul.
As of February 26th, 2008
Weight: 233.8 (-44.4 since start of blog) (-56.2 since June)
Bodyfat %: 28.1 (-7.8%)
Hydration %: 49.2 (+5.2%)
February 24th, 2008 Workout – Snowboarding
Went snowboarding on Sunday – in retrospect I should have skipped the day as my hip flexor felt a little tight by the end of the day – no pain, but I would have been better off resting it.
I finally figured out my problem with controlling myself off the chair lift and skating around on my board – I wasn’t bending my knees enough and was standing too tall. Now I can get off the chair pretty much under control and can go either left or right and not knock anyone over ;) Skating around on the board has gotten a lot better too. I still need a lot of practice but it’s getting there and getting more fluid.
I also figured out the motion necessary to turn without swinging my arms – it’s helped me keep my turns smoother and my problem with my rear leg kicking forward too much after a turn onto my heel side is getting better too. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with picking up speed now too – or as my instructor says – going “ricky bobby fast”, haha. Ironically, the only times I fell were when I was going to slow during a turn.
I’m really looking forward to going up to blue mountain this weekend – I’m taking the week off of Muay Thai to give my hip flexor some time to rest. I’m still doing upper-body workouts and doing some stretching and light movements for my hip flexor, but otherwise I’m taking it easy. I finally found a decent door mountable pull up bar, so I’m working on my back and bicep strength as well doing pullups and chinups.
February 23rd, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Had my first injury today – yay! We were doing cross fighting drills and I brought my left leg up pretty quick to block a thai kick. When I did that I heard / felt a popping sound in my groin and a sharp pain. I’ve felt the same thing a couple of times over the last week or so and it went away pretty quick but this time it hurt a bit more so I decided to get it checked out. Lucky for me the school has an athletic therapy worker on site so I was able to get it checked. Seems like I overextended and irritated my left hip flexor.
The pain went away pretty quick, but she said she could feel the muscle spasming and to take it easy. So I left class early and now I’m getting rested and putting ice on it. I learned some stretches I can do to work on the flexibility and I’m going to do some more reading on stretching in general and work it into my morning routine. The last thing I want to do is to get a bad injury and then have to give up muay thai or snowboarding – it would break my heart at this point.
So today is rest and ice – going to see how it feels tomorrow before I decide to go snowboarding or not. Hopefully it’ll be fine by then but if not I’m staying home – even though it’s going to be pretty much a perfect boarding day :(
February 20th, 2008 Workout – Mixed Martial Arts
I’ve been wanting to try out the MMA class at my school for a while so today I went to that instead of Muay Thai. The MMA class is a combination of many different arts and covers striking, groundwork, submissions, grappling and takedowns. The class was a lot smaller than the Muay Thai class and I had a blast.
It was 90 minutes long and we started with a warmup – a bit different from the Muay Thai warmup – we did different forms of running and some exercises more applicable to grappling such as shrimping and bridging. After that we watched the teacher do a demonstration of how to get into the guard position when your opponent has you in a mount and is striking at your head. We practiced that for a while with our partners then moved on to learning how to escape from a mount by sweeping your opponent, then getting on top of them and putting them into a triangle choke hold. Finally we finished with 20 minutes of sparring – not really freestyle sparring, but more objective based sparring. One partner would start on the ground and the other would get into a mount position. The person in the mount would try to stop the person on the bottom from escaping any way they could. The person on the bottom had to either get into a guard position or escape and get on top of the other person.
I really enjoyed the strategy aspect of the class and it was interesting to see how all of the moves worked. It’s like a game of chess, but more creative – there are set patterns from each position but there is also the opportunity to be creative as well. I’m definitely going to take these classes regularly.
February 17th, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Just finished a Muay Thai workout at home – did the usual warmup and shadowboxing, then did a bunch of rounds on the heavy bag. Nothing really different than what I’ve done before so no need to go into the details.
Today is my cheat day – and I’ve got a batch of pizza dough rising in the kitchen, waiting to be made into a turkey sausage calzone. Anyway – I’m disgustingly sweaty from my workout and need to clean up. Will post more later.
February 16th, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Been 3 days since my last workout – ugh! I got in some random sets of crunches / push ups / squats – but nothing I’d call a real workout. So I was super anxious to get out to today’s 2 hour Muay Thai class. Most of the class was spent working on a 15-point back and forth drill. The drill was pretty long and was fun to do – for the first time we worked elbows into a drill. The elbow is such a strong weapon – whenever I watch a Thai fight, a clean elbow to the head will end it if it gets through.
The drill went like this:
- Cross / Parry
- Hook / Block
- Elbow / Block
- Knee
- Push
- Thai Kick / Guard
- Cross / Block
- Hook / Block
- Cross / Block
Good times!
In between sets we did the usual conditioning – situps / punches, leg raises and push ups. Finished off with some kicks on the heavy bag and then stretching. It feels good to get back into the gym again. I’m not going to get a chance to go again until next Wednesday – luckily I have a heavy bag here or I’d suffer withdrawal :D
February 13th, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Back to Muay Thai class today after missing class on Monday – did I ever miss it! Anytime I can’t get to a class I feel a real sense of loss – the class is just so much fun and I never thought I would enjoy it this much. I’m so glad I got back into martial arts – Muay Thai <3
We did mostly foot work drills today – learning about the golden triangle to make sure that when we move we always move our feet in a way that keeps us in a proper, solid stance. I practice this at home when I shadowbox and when I do work on the heavy bag. I practice moving around during my drills and making sure I keep my feet in a proper stance. The idea is that by always keeping a proper stance every move will have maximum power and you will have maximum stability when someone is attacking.
After class I went over to my parents place for a birthday dinner – had way too much chinese food and cake. :D I feel so bloated, tired and gross right now – it’s hard to believe I used to eat this much almost every day – I feel physically sick right now from doing it once. Tomorrow is going to be a super-clean eating and intense workout day for sure.
Another year older
Today I turned 29 years old and for the first time I feel younger instead of older, both mentally and physically. It’s a nice change for once and one that is welcomed for sure. I’d like to think I’m a little wiser and smarter, but the reality is that there is still so much unknown that needs to be learned and there always will be.
As the years have gone by I’ve realized that I don’t agree with the traditional definition of growing up – which to me seems to be that we should settle into some preset pattern of life milestones, giving up our true dreams and identities in the process. Instead I’m going to choose to live on my own terms and see what happens. I don’t know what the end result will be, but I know I’ll enjoy getting there.
For years I had settled into comfort and complacency and never really thought about what I wanted from life or what I needed to do to get there. This last year has been a year of change and my life has done an about-face in almost every aspect. For the first time in my life I have a very clear picture of what I want out of life and what steps I need to take to make it happen. I’ve found the focus and determination that was missing for so long and there is no way in hell I will squander it by not going after what I want.
I’ll be making some major changes to this site soon. I’ve got some big ideas for it and I’d like to eventually turn it into something more than just a simple journal. I’ll have at least two other sites up by the end of the year. It’s going to be a great year and I’m going to make sure that in a year’s time, turning 30 will be my best birthday yet.
Inspirational Words
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali
February 10th, 2008 Workout – Snowboarding
Went snowboarding today – but I only managed a half day. Weather just was not co-operating today – it was -11 out the wind was insanely strong – to the point where it was slowing me a lot while going down the runs and actually pushing me backwards at the top of the hill. The runs themselves were pretty bad too – they were almost frozen solid – lots of icy patches and less people to tear up the packed in snow made it hard to control. To top that off – I noticed that the zipper in my winter coat is completely mangled and I made it worse trying to get it unstuck. The zipper pull comes right off now and even when I do manage to get it on, the teeth don’t stay open.
So… bitterly cold day + terrible wind + jacket that doesn’t close + crappy conditions = finishing at 1:00 :(
The good news is that the weather kept a lot of people home, so the runs were almost abandoned and there were no lines at all for the lifts – I managed to get in a good dozen runs while I was there and only had 1 good head-cracking fall and a couple of small ones. Only fell twice getting off the chairlift too! I even managed to skate around with one leg strapped in a little more confidently. So I’m still getting better and having more fun each time I go out.
Picked up a new winter coat on the way home – I’m outside enough in the winter now that it’s actually worth it and my old one was pretty beat up already so the zipper thing was the nail in the coffin really. Good thing I’ve almost completely given up drinking, otherwise I wouldn’t have the extra money to spend on lift tickets and boarding stuff ;)