Day 6/63 – April 29th, 2008 Workout – Biking / Misc
I first tried doing Pull Up negatives on the 25th – they definitely worked, because even yesterday my lats were still feeling really sore. I’m working them harder doing the negatives than I ever have using a lat pull down machine or doing rows. I’m pretty much making them carry my entire body weight, which is quite a bit higher than the weights I use on other back exercises.
Since the workload is so much higher, the next few weeks are going to really suck in terms of back soreness. I’m sure my body will adapt quickly, but until then I’m going to have some tough back workouts. I’ll be looking up some more stretches I can do for my back to do during my warm ups and cool downs to hopefully prevent some of the excess soreness.
Anyway – I did a quick jumping jack warm up last night then some stretches. Did a few sets of ab work, squats and push ups and then did 20 pull up negatives. This time instead of jumping up, I used an old bass amp to stand on first and then lifted my legs up. I think it’s a little less strain on my back than jumping up and holding on. I still can’t hold my chin over the bar even if I start there, so I’ve got a long way to go. I’ll have to just keep working at it and I’ll get there.
Day 5/63 – April 28th, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Back to Muay Thai class! Today’s class was focused on the buildup of a combination. We started out doing a cross / hook combo and then blocking a hook from our partner. We then gradually added on a second cross / hook with either a thai kick, a knee, or a double thai kick to the leg / body.
Lucky for me we were only blocking hooks to the left side. My orbital piercing on that side is almost 3 weeks old now and pretty close to healed up – it’s still a little tender though so I had to watch it while blocking. The orbital on my right ear is only 2 days old and I can barely touch that ear without cringing in pain. But, today was my lucky day and I didn’t have to get punched in the bad ear ;)
Finished up the class with some non-stop drills. 15 seconds each of quick jab/cross combos, push ups, right kicks, squats, left kicks and high jumps. We did that routine twice for a total of 3 minutes non-stop. The jumps killed me the first time around and I had to push myself through the second set to finish. Jumping ain’t easy when you’re 225 pounds.
In related news… I’m going to take my green shirt test for Muay Thai on May 23rd. So I’ve got just under a month to get ready and get my conditioning and technique sorted out. Hard to believe it’s been over 6 months since I started – time goes quick when you’re busy.
Day 5/63 – Random Thoughts
Some random thoughts from the last few days:
- I am just about done with television. Over the last 6 months I’ve cut back a lot (from 30+ hours a week to 5 or less) and now I am going to disconnect the TV in my bedroom. I think it keeps me from getting proper sleep sometimes as I end up watching some of the late Iron Chef show. I still love watching movies when I have time and some hockey, but I have too much I want to accomplish to waste time idling in front of the tube.
- I love my family… they kick ass in so many ways. :D
- Pull up negatives work really well – my back is super sore 2 days later still. I don’t think my back has ever been this sore after doing pull downs or rows using a machine. Bonus, I can use my doorframe mounted pull up bar to do these at home whenever too.
- Horseback riding is tougher than it looks and the saddle is not ‘man-friendly’.
- I have actually noticed a difference in my confidence level after making an effort to improve my posture.
- I miss my long metal goatee, but I look a lot better with it trimmed properly. It was starting to look like a pube-chin :|
- I love Thai food and need to experiment with integrating more of the flavours into my own cooking. Making healthy meals that are still tasty is a challenge but the more I try things out, the better I get at it.
- My closet is a lot emptier after filling two big garbage bags full of clothes to donate to goodwill. All my XXL and most of my XL stuff went in there, which was more than half my clothes. I’m going to put a little more thought into what I replace them with too.
- I’m starting to feel a little bit more outgoing – still hard for me, but I’m getting there.
Day 4/63 – April 27th, 2008 Workout – Biking / Boarding / Horseback Riding
Today is supposed to be my rest day, so I didn’t do anything too intense today. Took the dog for a bike ride and did a little skateboarding practice in the garage. It’s definitely a lot harder than snowboarding balance wise, but it was fun and I’m going to keep at it… and hopefully not break anything in the process. Also went horseback riding for my friend’s birthday. Not sure how much of a workout that is though.
Went to chinese buffet today for my Grandma’s birthday – never a good place to be when trying to lose weight. I loaded up on fresh veggies and steamed seafood, stayed away from the fried stuff and only had a few small pieces of some of my favourites. Stayed away from the deserts too!
Tomorrow I’ll be 100% better and ready for Muay Thai class. Can’t wait!
Day 3/63 – April 26th, 2008 Workout – Biking / Muay Thai
I think I’m pretty much over my chest infection now. I feel about 90% but I didn’t want to risk going backwards so I skipped the 2 hour Muay Thai class today and did a workout at home instead. It turns out I would have been fine anyway as I I felt great during my workout and had no breathing issues at all, so it looks like that’s the end of that.
It looked like it was going to rain earlier and I wanted to make sure the dog got his exercise, so I took him out for a half hour bike ride. Instead of going the easy way this time and taking the paved paths, I went through the hilly dirt paths at the park instead. Nothing major, but enough to get the heart pumping rather than just cruising around taking it easy. Ozzy is exhausted and sleeping now, so I know it was good for him too.
Got back from that and did my workout a bit later. Did the following routine:
1. 50 jumping jacks
2. 25 push ups
3. 15 toe touch crunches
4. 25 left jabs
5. 25 right crosses
6. 25 left jab / right cross combos
7. 25 left jab / right cross / left hook combos
8. 25 right jabs
9. 25 left crosses
10. 25 right jab / left cross combos
11. 25 right jab / left cross / right hook combos
12. Thai kicks / squats – 1 right kick, 1 squat, 1 left kick, 1 squat, up to 10
I threw in a bunch of random push ups and crunches in between the rounds too. By the end I was sweating buckets and exhausted.
I’m happy to be healthy again – can’t wait to get into class on Monday. Now I’m off… getting another piercing. I think I started another addiction :|
Day 2/63 – April 25th, 2008 Workout – Biking / Pull Up Negatives
Still feeling under the weather today. I was really looking forward to a 2 hour Muay Thai class tomorrow morning, but it’ll kill me if I go in feeling like this. Oh well – there are 9 whole weeks, so I can’t let a couple of days get me down. I’ll get in a workout tomorrow for sure, just not a 2 hour killer class ;) I still managed to get out for a decent bike ride with my dog – it’s not too much of a workout really but now that it’s warm out, I have this feeling like I’m obligated to be outside.
I was doing some research on pull up strength earlier and how to approach it when you can’t even do a single pull up. Read through a lot of different articles and most of them seemed to keep coming back to a single idea: pull up negatives. Basically you go to the pull up bar, grab the handles, jump up and then try to hold yourself as long as you can in the up position and then slowly lower yourself down.
I tried it out today and did 20 reps, holding for about 5 seconds and then slowly lowering myself. I can’t hold myself completely in the up position yet… just a bit over halfway. But even after the first rep, I felt it burning in my lats so it’s definitely working. I’m going to do as many of these as I can every second day and keep increasing the number of reps / duration / height. It’s only been a few minutes since I finished and I can tell I’m going to be sore already. I could do more, but I don’t want to push myself really while I’m not feeling well.
April 24th, 2008 Workout – Biking / Pullups – Day 1/63
Today was the first day of my 9 week challenge, and did it ever start off badly. I really didn’t have much gas at yesterday’s Muay Thai class and thought that I was just tired and dehyrdated, but it turns out that I’m sick with something or another. I woke up today to my throat feeling very sore with a really rough cough. Earlier in the day I was coughing up a little bit of blood, but that’s gone away now so hopefully I’ll be alright by tomorrow.
I was really looking forward to getting into the gym today for a weight workout, but being sick, I decided against it as it would probably just make things worse in the long run. I didn’t want to sit around completely and do nothing though, so I took the dog for a bike ride and brought him over to the leash free park to tire him out a bit. Later on I did 3 sets of pull ups on my door-mounted pull up bar. It works alright, but until I can do a full body-weight pull up it’s of pretty limited value as it’s hard to really adjust the difficulty.
As my back seems to be my weakest area, I’m really going to focus on it over the next 9 weeks. I’ve always had a weak back and I don’t think I ever really put any hard effort into increasing my back strength in the past. My chest has gotten a lot stronger over the last 6 months and I’m already out of balance enough as it is, so the back is going to get extra attention.
Back day is going to be very strength-oriented, meaning heavy weights (80-100%) of my one-rep max, low reps, lots of sets and lots of rest between sets. I’m also going to squeeze in as much work on the assisted pull up machine as possible at the gym.
As far as diet goes for the 9 weeks, I’m really going to up my protein. I’ve probably been hovering around 0.5 -0.7 grams of protein per pound per day and if my goal is strength building, I should really have that over 1 gram per pound. So it’s time to stock up on chicken breasts, fish, cans of tuna and egg whites. I got 2 5lb jugs of protein in the mail today and I’m going to Costco tomorrow which should cover the rest. I just hope I’m feeling well enough tomorrow to get into the gym and especially make it in to Muay Thai on Saturday. I haven’t done a 2 hour class in about a month now :(
Kombat Arts 9 Week Fitness Challenge
Yesterday I made it into Kombat Arts for my first Muay Thai class after a 2 week vacation. I ate and drank way too much while on vacation and gained 14 pounds of bloat in 2 weeks to go from 225 to 239. Fortunately I know myself well enough to know that 10-12 of that is bloat/water/glycogen, but even 2-4 pounds of gain over 2 weeks is way too much. Vacation left me feeling sluggish and fatigued rather than refreshed. So when I got to class and saw that the school was starting a 9 week fitness challenge I signed up right away. What better motivation is there to really push myself back into a good routine?
So I signed up for the challenge, weighed in and did the fitness test. Here’s my starting stats:
Weigh-in: 238.8 – evening weight, clothed and full of vacation bloat ;)
Pull ups: zilch – I’ve never been able to do a single pull up, but that’s going to change in 9 weeks
Broad Jump: 60 inches
Box Squats: I think I had 14-15 on each leg – not sure
Push ups: 24 – can usually do more, but was running on empty by then
By the end of the 9 weeks, I’m going to make it to these stats:
Weight: 215
Pull ups: 5
Broad Jump: 70 inches
Box Squats: 18-19
Push ups: 40
I’m going to really bust my ass hard for the next 9 weeks. Going to eat well, squeeze in as many workouts as possible and keep active in general. I’ve already come down from 290 and not being able to do a single push up / sit up last June to where I am today and now it’s time to really step it up.
April 23rd, 2008 Workout – Muay Thai
Had my first Muay Thai class since getting back from vacation today. I ended up getting really gassed – the after effects of vacation combined with not getting a good nights rest, the gym being hot and me getting pretty dehydrated. I really need to pick up my water intake now that it’s warming up. Still, it was a good class and it’s nice to get back into some regular activity now that I’m back.
I also found out today that Kombat Arts academy is having a 9 week fitness challenge. Being just back from vacation and needing something to push me hard, I signed up. I’ll write more about it tomorrow. Need to get some sleep now.
April 22nd, 2008 Workout – Biking / Weights
Had my first real workout since getting back from vacation and it feels good to get some real activity going again. Vacation was awesome and we did a lot of walking, but after 2 weeks of crappy food and no real strenuous exercise I was really starting to feel sluggish. All the booze and the lack of sleep didn’t help at all either.
But – vacation is done now and it’s rehab time. The next month I’m going to be really strict on my training and diet – starting with a week of detox. No processed foods at all this week – just fish, chicken, veggies, fruits and nuts. I need to get all that crap out of my system from vacation ;)
Anyway, the weather was great today, so I took Ozzy out for a bike ride. Rode down to the bike path and then went off on some rougher trails with some uphills to get the heart going. After 30 minutes he was wiped out and slept while I headed over to the gym. I haven’t been to the actual gym since I started Muay Thai 6 months ago. I’ve been doing some sporadic weight training there but mostly have been doing all body weight exercises. Now that I’ve lost a lot of weight I want to make sure that I keep the muscle I have while losing the rest, so I’m going to get back into a regular weight lifting routine in addition to Muay Thai.
Since I’ve been mostly doing body weight exercises I didn’t think my strength would have gone up that much, but I was surprised to see that most of my lifts have gone up 15-25% over the last 6 months. It just goes to show how physically demanding the Muay Thai classes really are.
Now I just have to wait and see how sore I get tomorrow :|