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Squirrelfighter's Training Journal

15K views 89 replies 8 participants last post by  Squirrelfighter 
#1 · (Edited)
Alright, a training log, nice, excited. Pumped even.
Ah, the rhetoric...anyway, to the point.
 
#66 ·
Today was a short workout.

I hit the bag for about an hour. Initially the goal was just to move around, bob, and work some combinations. The combinations were:

-jab, cross, lead hook, rear uppercut

-jab, jab, cross, lead uppercut, overhand

-jab, jab, cross, lead hook, rear roundhouse kick (body)

-cross, lead hook, rear hook (body)

-cross, jab, lead leg kick

-straight push kick, jab

-jab, jab, flying kneee (kind of), clinch knees/elbows

From here, I moved on to doing some lifting (which mah b*tch ass always needs more of!).

Today was Endurance upper body, which was:
3/30 sec rest between exercises, 60 sec (approx) between sets

•Bench Press (15 reps)

•Medicine Ball Bounces (30 reps)

•Standing Russian Curls (10 reps per side) this is not the workout's actual name, but its the approximated title I've created that describes a similar motion, since I don't know the actual name.

•Punch Press (10 reps per side)

•Sit ups (30 reps) while I hate sit up when used to create more visible abs (they don't do that, end of story), building a solidish muscly barrier to protect against body shots is pretty important!

•Bent Over Rows (15 reps)

•Inverted Rows (15 reps) let me tell you the story of my pain. I HATE inverted rows. They hurt (a man-sized amount).

•Bench Press (15 reps)

The workout felt solid. I was tired, it was a bajillion reps (or at least it felt like it was) and I was sweating a lot. Seems successful to me...
 
#67 ·
Another day another...thingy.

Today was just some bag work. I worked some of the previously stated combinations, but spent more time working my rear head kick from southpaw.

As I've probably said many times before in this log I fight southpaw, but I'm right handed. I fight in southpaw for the balance it gives my stand up, and makes shooting for a takedown easier.

Well, in this case this "balance" is goddamn frikkin annoying! I tossed a LHK and it fell kind of weaksauce. I tossd it again, if felt better but still...weak. So I threw 30 of them trying to get down whatever error I was making. And after 30 of them I determined that the error was: I'm not completely ambidextrous, and my RHK from orthodox feels significantly more powerful.

This brought into question should I go back to orthodox and have more power. I decided to stick with southpaw. I've dedicated years to southpaw, and I've known from the first day I trained purely southpaw that I wouldn't be as powerful. Its a matter of comfort and while my feet are less powerful from that position, my hands are far more comfortable, and more accurate I think. I think if I find myself stuck in orthodox, i.e., suffering from leg-kicked-to-f*ckitis, or something like that, the knowledge that my kicks are more powerful is important to know.

Outside of that I've started using the MyPlate program I saw on illmatic's log which is awesomely awesome in every way. But remarkably annoying in that, I wasa testing it by putting in my diet for the past couple weeks and I realized, my diet is perfectly balanced, and yet I still have no abs...BULLSH*T!!!

But its helpful in organizing meals for several days in advance, and lets you know in realtime what any changes will look like overall. All in all, very cool.

At this moment trying to string some workouts together with my training partner, but don't know if/when anything would go down. So...probably more boring solo sh*t on the horizon.
 
#68 ·
Post time BEGIN!

So did some solid padwork yesterday with my training partner. Orginally the plan was Oly lifts, followed by padwork, but things kind of broke down so the Oly lifts were crapped and it was just a padwork day.

Padwork was vigorous as all hell. My cardio isn't as good as it was before, but DAMN! this session was I think the most vigorous in a very long time. While my lung felt of death, and my spit was lathery and nasty I felt like my punches were decently solid and powerful, except my uppercuts. See my problem is I have kind of iffy uppercuts, and because of this they're innaccurate, so to land them on a focus mitt I have to slow them down (frikkin fail right!).

I was pleasantly surprised when my training partner was like "we gotta get some new focus mitts right? Well lets make sure these things are thicker next time." I laughed it off, and we went on. And after I held the pads for him, I concur, must get thicker mitts!

Outside of the act of training. Purchased a sled last week, should be arriving this week sometime, which excites me because sled stuff is something I've been wanting to do for over a month now. Lack of funding means that I won't be getting my hands on any more equipment or gear for at least nothing month or two.

Diet sh*t yo! I had a nice long argument at home for not wanting to eat food which I consider unhealthy. And I had the MyPlate program to back me up, so things worked out. And additionally, I've been able to keep all of those snazzy ratios I mentioned like 6 months ago in order. Which is pretty nice.
 
#69 ·
Did some kickboxing this past week, nothing worth discussing in depth.

I'm going to be competing at the Arnold Sports Festival (deja vu amirite?) in Columbus next March, and I figure a solid 10 months is ample training time to get me where I want to be. (Link: http://www.arnoldsportsfestival.com/home/sports-and-events/martial-arts-festival.html) I will be competing in the Muay Thai comp. The rules ban elbows, at least I think it does!, and knees are limited to only be to the body. Headgear and shinguards required. The goal is compete in the Cruiserweight class(190-219). There's a fair bit of paper work and other relentlessly annoying BS associated with it. But I'm actually excited for Martial Arts again, which is the biggest key to success.

Today I did some partner work. It started with some basic padwork. It was improvisized with my training partner putting the pad in specific positions, denoting specific punches. I felt losery that my lead kept fatiging. But the focus mitt portion felt solid. Next came Thai pads. In this case I worked the leg kick at the end of punches. Next came another round of shin conditioning. My training partner threw a bajillion leg kicks, and I checked 'em. Seemed simple enough. The charlie horse on my right calf seems to disagree with that! Finally head movement and footwork stuff. Pretty much I put on head gear, my training partner puts on 16ozers, my hands at my waist (or try to keep them there) and evade a flurry of jabs with footwork and head movement, while trying my best to stay in the pocket (or close to it!). We did this once before and I felt like a boss, this time I felt more like a loser who thought he was a boss, then got pwned. I felt good dodging and moving away from a few, but I kept moving back, and couldn't get my feet to move at angles how I wanted them to. A bit of win, and a bit of fail with that one.

The workout was only about 90 minutes, mostly due to me having to work today and not wanting to go to work smelling like a hippopotamus (sp as f*ck!). The workout still felt solid for being so short. I worked up a pretty decent sweat so its some kind of progress!

The ingestion insurrection I call a diet: Its been kind of back and forth. I had a spell of oh sweet jesus look at my girth recently, but I've kind of come over the hump (no pun intended, for once!). I accidently bought cookies and creme protein shake a while back and hadn't been using it due to the fear of horrendousness. But it actually tasted pretty good when I finally broke down and tried it. Much better than chocolate flavor by a long shot. So there's some more win.

With summer upon me, I'm excited to be doing stuff outside again (Mostly camping). Working out outside is always fun and being where people can see you is always motivating to push just a little harder.


Edit: A fights from this years classic to give me an idea of the level of competetion.




And one from 2010

 
#70 ·
Had a nice workout today.

Started with some padwork. Focus mitts. It was solid stuff some of the combinations felt pretty natural so they were definitely worth fine tuning and perfecting.

Did some clinch work. First just breaking the THai clinch or taking control of the clinch and making it a body clinch, or working in to grab my own Thai clinch. Then worked on defending knees and the proper way to move around in the clinch to minimize damage. Finally countering with my own knees in the clinch.

Checking leg kicks. I have some an edema the size of a small orange on one of my shins and they're tender but they feel solid. Probably won't bruise so that's a plus.

Finally sparring. Did sparring with MT round length for the Classic (2 minutes). Which is really weird because I'm used to spending the first 60-90 seconds of a 5 minute round loosening up and/or looking for openings. With rounds so short I have to rely on my combination selection and hope it lands.

Did six rounds. During the first two I was just moving around looking for opening and went through the grinder as my opponent landed a couple leg kicks and a few punches. In the third round I got all loosey goosey and started mixing stuff up nicey. Threw several side kicks to the body, a few roundhouses to the lead leg and a few front kicks. Even a jumper al a Machida because I felt like bein' stupid (I didn't fully dedicate to throwing it, I didn't leap forward enough). In round 4 my partner grabbed a solid clinch and threw a couple knees. I (stupidly) just started working the body and ignored the principle rule of clinch work (arm control). I ate a solid uppercut on the break which hurt. In five and six it was more the same, I couldn't keep up with the shortened round and felt like I was getting beatdown. The only real enjoyable moment (besides throwing a switch front kick!) was at the end of the 6th round. I was getting out worked, and I was up against the wall. My partner was throwing some nice combos but I caught him with a solid hook which made him back up. So aside from catching a beatdown I had fun at least!

Diet's been okay, nothing special to speak of.

I've had a headache for 10 hours from sparring today. I f*cking need to buy some ibuprofen ASAP.
 
#71 ·
What! Two noteworthy workouts in as many days? What evil magic is this!? :thumb02:

So today I did another workout with my training partner.

This one started out with the usual padwork. Felt really solid with this one. I worked several combinations that were sort of based on a few previous combinations that I tried to cut up and strip down to make them more efficient (if that makes any sense).

They were, to the best of my memory:
jab-cross-lead hook-rear uppercut
jab-jab-cross-lead hook
jab-cross-lead uppercut-rear hook
jab-jab-cross-lead uppercut-overhand

What to me was more important that the fact that the combinations felt solid it was more that I felt solid. My straight punches didn't feel like I was reaching, my rotational punches felt like I was turning the perfect amount. All in all I feel like my boxing is actually coming along. I think one of the areas I have paid little attention to was my pure boxing, using it mostly for straight rangy punches or to set up kicks, or just to brawl instead of box. Now I'm working on changing that and (trying to) make myself a much more technically sound and versed fighter.

Beyond the padwork was takedowns and takedown defense. He's competing in Sanshou at the classic, and a funny thing about Sanshou: Its essentially MT with takedowns. So MT, but better (as applied to MMA). It began with me shooting on him. My takedowns have never been spectacular in any way. I shoot low and kind of grind through them and eventually throw my opponent enough off balanace he dumps over onto his side. However in Sanshou (Sanda) there can only be two points of contact at any time, so the shooter has to shoot without dropping to a knee (muey...hard).

I was able to make the change in my style but it felt awkward. Another problem with me is that I lack the explosiveness you need to shoot at the hips and succeed. So I need to definitely work on my powercleans, deadlift, and squats to properly emulate the takedown style of a Sanda fighter, and it would probably be a good idea to do that anyway!

After that I spent a couple minutes on my hip throws. I used to be much better at it than I am now. Mostly because my training partner knows how to defend them now, and is mad stronger than six months ago when it was easy. I worked a total of about 10(ish). And succeeded on a grand total of about 3(ish). I also worked a simple trip that entails me pretty much stepping behind his right foot with my left (or vice versa) and hooking my angle behind his, then dumping him over on that side. Doable, but definitely needs major refinement. I need to work on the explosive strength in my core, hips and legs to reduce the failure rate on most if not all of these techniques.

Diet is the same as yesterday. Today I've only eaten a protein shake as well as a chicken breast and some weirdo mini potato thingys that my training partner made. I need to eat more to maintain a high motabolism, but I also have to make sure what I eat is the right kind of foods, at the given time. So, to avoid any critical mistakes, I'll just eat when I'm hungry until I can figure something out for a better execution of the dietary side of things.

Edit: Excitement level for the Classic at over 9000! Have been looking over their recommended hotels, which ones they provide shuttle transportation from, times for events of interest (BJJ/Sanda/MT/MMA Demos, last year Couture and Maynard were there/etc). This is a really serious event with so friggin many opportunities to learn. Very excited at the prospect of going, which is pretty motivating for workouts.
 
#72 ·
Pretty much the shortest partner workout ever.

Padwork. That was it. Padwork.

Worked on keeping my boxing tight again. And relying on long rangy punches to hold together or to finish combinations less. I also noticed a silly flaw in my stand up I hadn't noticed after years. When I throw an uppercut, I like to follow it up with a straight cross. The problem is that I don't snap my body back to center after the uppercut so I FEEL off balance. I'm not off balance but it feels like I am, so I kind of enact that instinct to restart, which throws off the timing big time. I'll have to spend a few days working hard on the lead uppercut, cross combo to get that piece of body mechanics in step.

The combinations I worked, to the best of my memory were:
jab-cross-lead hook-rear hook
jab-jab-cross- lead uppercut-rear hook
jab-rear uppercut-lead hook-cross
jab-cross-lead uppercut-cross(kind of felt like it was becoming an overhand due to balance issue, but I felt comfortable with it so I may just treat it like an overhand)

Beyond the padwork, my partner and I played around with some squats but nothing serious.

Was supposed to workout with my partner again today, but last night helped a buddy move into his new third floor apartment. Who the f*ck lives on third floors anyway! And I may have pulled a muscle in my back, iced and tiger balmed, feels a bit better today. Suffice to say I canceled for fear of agitating it any further.

Hope to get another 3-5 partner sessions in this coming week but don't know how doable it'll all be.

Diet was fail HARD yesterday, but outside of that have been trying to keep calories, fats and carbs in a balance. I think I've mostly succeeded but can't seem to get the negative numbers I need to drop weight for the classic. Over time it'll happen (I suspect) but I want to drop into the weight class early so I can reaclimate to my limitations. I'd hate to be in the ring at the classic and realize I'm able to land a combination I didn't know I was able to do in training.

I need to add lifting to my regular routines, for the simple reason of more burned per week. I used to love lifting, but now I friggin hate it. I don't know what magic I lost, but I must go upon a quest to recapture it!
 
#73 ·
Did a couple solid workouts this past week.

The first was kinda of short. More just a pad session to get the sweat flowing. It was more of the same. Tried to keep my punches tight and strong without being too rangy. I think I also need to work on more targetted striking because alot of the time I land its to the side of the head or to the top of the face. Need to adjust to striking lower on the face, and aiming for the jaw. Still thinking of a way to do this that doesn't require me strapping my training partner to a pole....

The second workout of the week was a combination padwork/lift. The padwork was really meh. We (for some god awful reason) did not stretch before hitting the pads. So I felt really sluggish and couldn't make my body do what I wanted it to. Next came a bit of takedown/takedown defense. I felt horrible missing several hip throws and only succeeding on maybe one.

Lifting for the day was my training partners planned lift for the day. Its coined "Max Effort Lower Body." He described a template which is using to design workouts and this is a product of said template:

Good Mornings 8x3 Not a fan of these at all.
Squats 4x10 lowered the weight significantly to get here from a power lifting weight to sustain through the workout, kinda of felt blah
Lower Back Extensions 2x12 always enjoy these, in hindsight probably should have done more sets
Glute-Ham Raises 2x8 I f*cking hate these. They put rediculously unnecessary pressure on my knees. Never again.
Kneeling Squats 3x8 Felt weird, not sure what muscles I worked for MMA, awkwardly sexual movement though...

My training partner is considering a career in S&C and wants to try his hand at this career option. I most definitely jumped on the opportunity to have an S&C coach potentially. I think we just need to work out exactly what I want/need. But I'm definitely excited for the prospect of some kind of leadership in this area which has always been kind of on the back burner for me.
 
#74 ·
-Insert snazzy content title-

So its been a couple days and I've managed a couple more solid (feeling) workouts.

After watching Guida dry hump the f*ck out of Pettis I texted my training partner and set up a rolling session. Hell no! am I gonna let a mofo do that shit to me.

The rolling was broken down into three section. 1. Full guard grindage. 2. Guard passing grindage. 3. Submission fighting. 3/5 total rounds.

In part 1, attempted a handful of submissions including a triangle, armbars, and a kimura. The triangle was fail, I have never ever been able to sink a triangle on my sparring parnter. I blame my medium frame, his large frame and huge shoulders/core, also some technical failures on my part. I was able to maintain wrist control the whole time. The kimura attempt was a last ditch effort near the end of the round. I was hoping to at least get a sweep out of it, but I failed and the round ended. I took only a minimal amount of GnP because I tied up one arm, and wrist controlled the other for the majority of the round working for the armbars/triangle.

Part 2, I failed on a level I rarely ever manage to fail. Within the first 60 seconds of the round I got mounted. When I tried to buck and roll to escape, I had may back taken. And I spent the next 4 minutes flattened out on the mat trying to minimize damage, roll back over or escape. I failed on all counts and got pwned so damn hard it hurt (literally).

Finally, Part 3. I started on the bottom and got put into a cricifix (there's some major flaw in my game that really makes this technique easy to sink on me). When he was unable to secure and maintain the crucifix, he transitioned to the mount. This time when I bucked and rolled, I got the sweep and ended up in side control. I kept the position for the rest of the round where I worked for cross body kimuras and an inverted armbar.

So net my training partner decided he would like to try it on the bottom for parts 2 and 3. So that happened.

Part 2-2. I was in full guard and I defended a couple subs and an attempted sweep before transitioning to side control. Where I spent the majority of the round landing some GnP.

Part 3-2. This time I had another stupid fail. My training partner went for a triangle, and instead of defending it I herped the derp and fell right into it. We went back to one, and I broke the guard and transitioned to the mount. From there I took the back. My partner managed to shake me off and I somehow ended up in an armbar. I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden I was in pain. I defended and ended up in side control.

I've taken from this I have to work really hard on my ground game if I want to be able to do anything there. I work for positions and stay calm, and think I know what I'm doing on the ground, but somehow still get outgrappled. Work must be done to fix that, not sure what kind, but we'll see.

Yesterday I did some lifting with my training partner. He has his scheduled lifts and I jumped in on this one. It went:

Incline Bench 6x1
Close grip bench 5x5
Overhead press 3x10
Flat bench 3x10
Overhead tricep extentions 4x10
Lat Pullovers 3x12

When it comes to the diet stuff its been kind of back and forth. These past couple of weeks I've been eating more fruits and vegitables and cutting back even further on processed foods and ALMOST cut out fried foods. There are a few occassions where I just can;t say no to something as nomz as home made fried potatoes. Other than that its been pretty solid though. However, I've noticed a new trend from my family when it comes to purchasing food. Since they've bought less processed garbage and fatty fried food, they've replaced it with sweets.

I opened the pantry and found, to my utter dismay, swiss cake rolls, chips a'hoy cookies, pudding and potato chips. Why must I constantly be tempted! But there's some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. All my math figures, as well as a friend of mine's word suggests I'll be moved out in about a year. So I just have to deal with all the temptation and frustration for only an entire goddamn year! :thumb02:
 
#75 ·
Maxed yesterday so my snazzy new S&C coach can figure out weights.

Lost about 10lbs on my bench due to procrastinating like a leuzur! But added 10lbs more to my deadlift somehow (probably by being less of a -explative-)...

Apparently he noted flaws in my form due to muscular failures. Ecited to be lifting again.

The workouts I'll be doing have been at least conceptually broken down for me. It works out as:

Monday - Dynamic Effort (with a lean towards the upper body)
Tuesday - Max Effort (Lower body)
Wednesday - Recovery
Thursday - Max Effort (Upper body)
Friday - Dynamic Effort (with a lean towards lower body)
Saturday/Sunday - Recovery

He said he doesn't want me to know what exercises I'll be doing, because I'll probably be unwilling to do it if I know in advance. He also says I will curse at him profusely thoughout each workout. He knows me remarkably well...
 
#76 ·
So today was Dynamic Effort upper body. The workout was as follows:

Cicuit set x3
Progressive Distance farmer's walks x3 at 20, 30, 40ft
Hang clean & jerk x6
Overhead tire sledge x6 per side
Progressive distance Zercher carry x3 at 20, 30, 40ft
Hang clean & jerk x6
Overhead tire sledge x6 per side
Progressive distance Overhead carry x3 at 20, 30, 40ft
Hang clean & jerk x6
Overhead tire sledge x6 per side

This was death. A thousand deaths.

As expected I cursed at my S&C coach pretty much the entire time. With nuggets of greatness like, "I will kill you a thousand times and raise you a thouand and one just to slap you in the face!" or "I will kill you and everyone you have ever loved you son of a bitch!"

Near the end a thought dawned on me. You have to know someone pretty well for you to be able to say "I will kill you and everyone you have ever loved," and they reply with, "Oh you. Now finish your set."
 
#77 ·
Lifting again.
Max Effort lower body:
Front Squats - 5x5
Deadlift - Dropset
Cabled Abdomenal contractions - 4x15

Workout while appearing small was friggin solid. Because I worked deadlifts and squats the same day I actived just about every muscle in my core, hips and legs. Which means, my back, abs, ass(f*ck your glutes!), hamstrings, quads, and calves, along with all the necessary stabilizers, all ache at once. Skillfully done S&C coach, skillfully done.

During this workout I felt quite a significant rage in the direction of my training partner. This was mostly due to being tired and having this mofo telling me, go do that, go do this. I didn't threaten to murder his family this time, which is a good thing right?

For my diet. I hadn't noticed until just recently how little I've started eating recently. I've been dumping a shitton of fruit into my diet. And I think chocolate has been replaced by watermelon as my insatiable hunger food. And milk is pretty much the greatest tasting thing man ever put inside a rigid plastic shell. (disclaimer moment) however I did go to Buffalo Wild Wings and feast on some snazzy wings yesterday, so... its still a bit back and forth.
 
#78 ·
Lifted. Max Effort Upper body

Flat Bench Press 5x5
Inverted Rows 3x8, 6, 6
Seated Rows 8x10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 4, 6, 8
Close Grip Bench 5x5

I had hoped for the cabled abdomenal contractions to be a regular thing since their applicableness was very applicable and I enjoyed doing them. But forgot to ask, and obviously they weren't a priority.

All in all the workout was solid. The next day my lats/chest and arms are sore but not ungodly so. My left hamstring is still killing me. To the point where I canceled Dynamic Lower today and rescheduled for tomorrow, along with padwork/sparring etc. I don't even know if that'll still be on. There's a fairly significant pain in the hamstring, as well as stiffness and its right behind the knee. The knee itself (right beneath the knee cap) also aches profusely. I'm not one to go to the hospital for anything, but I'm genuinely considering perhaps seeing if I can have some x-rays or something to see if there's a damaged tendon/ligament (this is due in part to the fact that tiger balming the f*ck out of it has had zero effect) or wait, and see if the muscle is just strained, time will solve a strain.

Diet has had a couple hiccups the past couple days. I can't remember what I ate, but I remember it being unhealthy for dinner the day before yesterday so...yeah, hiccup. And I may have had a pudding snack pack at some point...its all a blur of apathy.

Anyway, I'm rethinking my goals a lot lately. Maybe due to the injury I've got a fear streak in me that's causing it, or maybe I'm just less interested than I was a few years ago. I don't really know. All that matters at the moment is tomorrow I've got more shit to do.
 
#80 ·
Knee is in decent condition. I think the issue was simply a strain on the muscle. Minimal activity has helped to minimize and problems and its continuing to improve--slowly, very slowly.

Workouts over the past couple days:

6/21
Padwork. Worked a half dozen combinations. About 30-40 minutes of pads.

Circuit set x4

BW squats x15
Walls sits x30 count
Split squats x8 per side
Side walks x15 -- "lengths" of about 12-15ft and back
Bridge holds x30 count

6/22
Pads and sparring.

Padwork was more indepth this time. Worked similar combinations as the day before:

Jab-cross-lead hook
Jab-rear uppercut-lead hook
Jab-rear hook-lead hook
Jab-cross-lead uppercut-rear hook
Jab-jab-cross-hook-rear uppercut
Jab-jab-slip-rear hook
Jab-cross-lead uppercut-rear hook-lead hook-rear uppercut

The last one is more of just a burner. Its a long string of punches that work almost the full range and make the core/shoulders ache after a long series of rapid fire punching. I like to do it late in a session because it rearlly makes you work much harder that the smaller perfected technique oriented combos.

After that was sparring -Sanda Rules- this time.

I got out rolled by a more versatile fighter. While I threw a few lazy front kicks and some solid low kicks (if I do say so myself!) he landed with side and front kicks more often and about the same on round kicks. He moved me around much more easily with his punches than I was able to him.

But when he managed to get me cornered I felt like I countered well. I landed a solid straight--he thought hook, I thought it was a straight, and I threw it so God dammit it was a straight!--that landed flush, and he countered with a flurry of hooks that made me cover up and look for another opening. The hooks hurt, but I don't have a headache so I guess not enough for me to be concerned!:thumb02:

I went for a takedown attempt in the second, and again in the third, but was stopped on both occassions because I kept putting my knee on the ground (in Sanda no more than two points of contact even during a takedown). I'm so used to the low and deep MMA takedown that the Sanda one is hard to emulate.

I also clinched in the second. I HAVE to work on setting up the clinch because I took a lot of punishment to get there. When I was there I landed a handful of body punches and a knee before my partner shook it off. My partner landed a knee as well but I didn't feel it and it was only mentioned afterwards. The knee I landed he recognized, but he was unphased.

Diet feels okay. I still need to cut more fatty foods out overall, and find healthy alternatives. But for the moment the occassional f*ck up isn't going to kill me.

I think I'm experiencing phantom results simply due to my body adjusting to being more active than the past couple months. I've still got three more weeks before I do a weight check and see where I am. Don't expect me to post it here unless its something to be proud of!!!:thumb02:
 
#81 ·
So its been an exceptionally long time since my last post. Memory serving, (since scrolling down to look at the last time stamp would be too simple) it's a little over a month.

In that time, I moved out and got an apartment with a friend. And have spent this entire past month pretty much just figuring out how to live not at home. I was woefully unprepared, something that surprised me, considering I believed I was pretty self sufficient. But now that those stupid things are in order I can get back to training.

Two days ago:
Just did some shadow boxing, stretching, and range of motion stuff. I felt pretty stiff from the inaction.

Yesterday:
Some padwork. Neglected a sufficient warmup so I kind of lost it earlier than hoped, but my ability to sustain activity hadn't lost much intensity in the layoff. I recorded the session with the hope that I could potentially Youtube it and get some of those oh so positive critiques the internet has to offer (can you sense the sarcasm?), but there was some kind of error in my partners camera and it only recorded 2:36 seconds. So, pretty much just the jab, and jab-cross to wake up the muscles.

On the subject of those two combos, damn, I was dropping my lead pretty bad and flaring my elbow when I threw a cross, I need to spend some time in front of a mirror working on keeping my straight punches tighter and the hands a bit higher.

The only positive I can find in that session was my partner commented on how my lead hook at the end of the jab-rear uppercut-lead hook combo felt pretty powerful for a lead hook. Which I attribute to having better developed footwork and core movement than I've had in the past.

Diet:
I was very excited for the idea of being on my own and able to buy the foods I want and not what someone else buys for me. In theory this is fantastic, in application, when I walk into the super-center, I'm like a nine year old sprinting down the toy aisle. I buy all that healthy shit, but then I also take a swing down fat-kid-alley, and we all know how those things turn out...
 
#82 ·
Oh hey I had a log? No friggin way? What is this dark magic? (Kidding of course)

So its been forever since I logged. Not that I didn't aim to. Twice in the past month I've written an entry, and erased it because I didn't feel like posting.

Currently, I'm coming out of a moving-from-place-to-place-like-some-nomadic-herder flux. Which has made getting all, or even half of the workouts I want in, in. BUt I have high hopes for the new place, its got tons of potential, and opportunities. So I'm content.

Workouts have been mostly padwork, a little technique work, but I need to do more. The long stretch of inactivity/irregularly timed activity has had its effects and I need to tighten things up a bit.

A few areas where I've noticed errors in need of improvement.
-I tend to drop my lead hand. When doing pads, when the ol' pad holder fella swings a counter, which I am to bob like some demented bobber (lol, its funny because its the same word), I bob like a sexy bitch, but my lead drops to waist level, I still snap punches from the waist, and my shoulder lifts to cover my tucked chin, its just bothersome to a small degree.
-I also tend to get a little off balance and overhandy as of late if I'm chaining 1,2's on the pads. A little more work on maintaining my center of balance and technical work will help to remove that flaw I think.
-I'm putting my weight too far forward whenI get into a power-punch heavy combo, I love the f*ck out of a cross, lead hook, rear hook, combo, but I get too heavy on my front foot when I throw it, which is a huge no-no.

That the stuff I plan to work on initially, there's plenty more, but a realistic goal like hey, lets not be an off balance fucktard would make things so much easier.

I need to get things set up in the new place to work my wrestling. I love the act of shooting for a takedown, and working a lateral drop, or throw/trip from the clinch, but I have to open up a little more space to be able to train it effectively in this new environ.

I also want to work on my finishing on the ground far more than currently. I was screwing around with my training partner a about a week ago, and landed an arm-triangle for the first time successfully. I have always wanted to land one, but always failed to sink it. And landing it reminded me, I f*cking love submitting people. Landing a flush hook, or cross is nice, but the feeling of a tap has almost no equal to me.

Beyond the JJ and wrestling, on the feet I want to work a lot harder on working various kicks into my combinations. I feel like over the past year I've become to boxery and rely too heavily on my hands and occasional leg kicks. I want to throw more front kicks, lots more side kicks, and maybe get the quickness down to be effective with a spinning back kick.

I fear that part of the problem was, as my principle training partner got better takedowns, I became less willing to go for broke with a big kick, because my JJ is not where it needs to be to sweep, and stand, or sweep at all (unless I'm in half guard, that's the easiest sweep for me).

/diary

As for my diet/weight. Weight is down. Diet is okay. Still eating too much processed food, but in the modern age, and on my budget, its pretty hard not to. As long as things continue the way they are, I should be getting aligned with where my goals are, hopefully by around spring (April) I'll be about 210-220 (with the proper disposition of musculature) and be able to start getting everything in order to get my first fight BEFORE this time next fall.

I think I've procrastinated enough over the past year.
 
#83 ·
Solid couple workouts this past week. I'm still hovering around 2-3 a week, I would prefer to get that up to at least 4, but I can't complain really.

Started out with some stretching, I haven't done deep stretching to improve my flexability in a long while and I could tell, but once I got past the ol' ouchy it hurts like I'm being stabbed breaking point, it wasn't too bad, and I felt a lot better.

Did a lot of padwork, mostly improv, but I worked a couple specific combos:
jab-lead hook-cross-lead hook-rear uppercut
jab-jab-cross-lead uppercut-(Thai)clinch

Other than that it was mostly my training partner putting the pads in the proper position for me to do whatever combination he wanted to see. It felt solid, and was a rather high intensity session, so I had a good sweat goin.

Next came some rolling. It was more me working takedowns, and him defending, followed by rolling if I scored one. (4 for 5 takedown success rate yo!:thumb02:)

On a tangent: The fifthg and horribly failed takedown attempt was a clinch takedown attempt. I knew my partner had solid TDD, but homie blew my mind. I had a double-under body lock in the side position and first went for the back-trip the put down, which failed, then went for a front-trip (trying to put him down and take his back), which failed. I tried to suplex him (suplexing a 230lb man when you have the muscle mass of a MW, not as easy as I'd hoped. Next I tried to drive through and bowl him over. That was poorly concieved and I failed miserably. Finally, instead of working for another takedown I just latched on and threw all my body weight backwards. That failed, so I just kind of hung from his core confused, and laughing because I didn't know what else to do. The craziest part: He defended all of this by staying centered and low in a horse stance. F-you anti-traditionalists!

One one of the takedowns/rolling scrambles, he tried to stand and ended up turtling as I got an under-over grip from the back position. I dug one hook, and used my weight and momentum to roll him onto his back (with me in the back position still). I worked for the rear naked, and at the same time dug my foot under my opposing knee, trying to set up the body triangle. I felt like I'd sunk the rear naked and was trying to get him to tap, I arced my back and tightened the choke to either get him to tap or make him sleep (not the prefered outcome). I eventually gave up the sub, assuming I didn't have it sunk, since he was still struggling and I wasn't getting the tap. He rolled into the top position when I couldn't finish the body triangle, and ended up standing and we went back to one.

After we were done, he explained, I did have the choke sunk. He decided he didn't want to tap, and even though the world was getting fuzzy, he gutted it out (like a bau5).

Two things I took from this work:
1. The importance of the cornerman. Someone in my corner would have known the choke was deep and yelled for me to dig it in deeper.
2. I'm getting better that this "Jujitsu" thingy. Before I would have never thought of working for a body triangle, I would have been content with the hooks, and worked from there. Even though I failed, and lost the position, I was working for a stronger, more effective position, so it was worth the loss to me (in training, in competition, I might've gotten f*cked up for losing the position).

My diet is still improving, I've located the lost supplement bag (when I started moving) I threw all 7 (or 8) kinds of supplements into a bag, and lost it. Well, while unpacking today, I located it. Beyond that, I've been trying to keep my diet as clean and balanced as I can. Admittedly I had fast food once or twice this week, but I think it's an improving work in progress.
 
#84 ·
Couple workouts in the past five days. Oone was kinda mehg and not worth detailing, but one I felt may have been the best workout in a long, long while.

Started with some meh focus mitt stuff. More just working a couple basic combs to warm up/not get lazy with the basics.

Next was some stuff on the thai pads. Worked on throwing knees at the end of combinations. Felt like solid stuff. The only thing I can take from it that was negative was, when I'd throw the lead knee, it wasn't leaning backwards/treating it as a counter. I was more, shuffle stepping/jumping forward with the back leg and throwing it as more of a flying knee. Which I'm okay with, but would've prefered to work on the counter knee as much as/more than the offensive knee.

Next, worked a lot of improv combinations which felt good (tiring, failishly) but good. Did a lot of work with leg kicks/countering off the leg kick and movement.

Finished the pads with machine gun kicks.

Next did some rolling. Worked mostly just positional control, GnP, and advancing position to begin with. Going for subs if the opportunity presented itself, but working mostly to gain/maintain dominant positions, or escaping from disadvantageous positions.

Landed a lot of sweeps. I felt like me landing these were a combination of a lot of factors. 1. I think I'm a little stronger than when I rolled more often previously 2. I'm a decent bit lighter, and 3. My training partner was somewhat rusty, as I was.

I think the biggest thing I noticed was that I was able to get the finish (once the blood started flowing and I was in the mix) with the arm triangle. As I've said before, I was having so much difficulty finishing with the arm triangle, and I managed to lock it up tight. I think I might have been slightly off of ideal position, because I could hear a lot of difficulty breathing, and significantly less loss-of-consciousness related sounds. I was more on the windpipe with the heaviest pressure than the artieries. Which is a minute problem, but one I noticed.

Finished the workout with technical stuff, i.e. defending the back take, taking the back, evading submissions, countering submissions and positional changes. Felt good with my JJ, I can feel it getting better, as is my wrestling.

I want to be good at the whole shebang, but preference plays a big part in how a fighter fights. Some guys are good all around, but love the technical side of the stand up, others like to stand and bang. Some like to grind their opponent down, and feel their will break, others like to feel the tap.

I feel like I want good technical kickboxing and MT, but I honestly really regret not trying to wrestle or something in high school because dominant groundwork (WITH A FINISH FFS!!!) really feel like it might be my home.
 
#85 ·
Another week.

Originally a had 3 workouts planned for this week. But due to party-recovery, and a shoulder injury on my training partner's part, it ended up being only one. Fail, but the workout itself was pretty damn good.

Started out with some grappling. Started on the bottom, parter in side control. Worked a bit, moved back to guard. He stood up (and mimicked the ol' look at this buttskooter fans thing with his arms) had a good laugh and went back to it. This time I was on top, initially landed in half guard off the takedown, but only just, he was turned into me but I kept my base low and flattened him out. Freed my leg and got into side control where I worked some (very) light contact GnP to the head and ribs/core. Spent almost the entire round here working, but my training partner hit a sweep and scrambled to his feet, I locked up his legs and tried first a trip into side control (to my right), then a drop into half guard (to my left). The drop failed massively, and I ended up mounted. Must work on that!!!!

After the rolling moved onto some ball bustingly high paced Thai-pad stuff. Treated it like an actual fight, mixing it up, countering, sprawling, clinching the whole shebang was improv. Felt really good (in hindsight) and felt surprisingly real. I have a tendancy when on the pads to drop my hands between combos and reset, in this case that wasn't the case. I kept my hands up my chin down, and my feet centered and moving. Maybe it was the unexpectedness or something else, but it was a great session. 3x3 rounds so nothing lengthwise to really write home about, but it was intense and fun.

After the 3x3 worked mostly on technical stuff with the focus mitts. Only ended up working one combination I want to be better at. It is the R. Uppercut-L. Hook-R. Hook-Cross. The biggest thing I wanted to work on was my head movement, fluidity and keeping my dukes high during the combination, I tend to cock punches back when I throw repeated power punches. I felt improvements in the head movement, and in keeping my hands up, but the fluidity is still a problem with that combination.

For my diet, its been decently solid. Ate pizza today, and once about 6 days ago. But outside those blemishes its been pretty solid, taking a couple vitamin supplements, but other than that no serious protein supplements, but have started trying the OxyElite Pro (thermogenic) I keep hearing about, seems to be working, will revealuate when I finish the bottle.
 
#86 ·
Worked 5 12 hour shifts last week and couldn't find the energy to live, let alone workout.

Solid workout today.

Started off with a light warm-up then technical JJ work, then rolled. Almost got subbed by a guillotine but ended up finishing with a Kimura. The JJ segment felt way too short (planning for a longer one tomorrow) not sure why it was so short and losery.

Did some technical stand up stuff after that, mostly moving and working to body off of the jab.

Did a mach 3/3 amateur fight. Its 3/3 instead of 3/5 because I've found over the years that I'm a pacey f*ck, and with those additional 2 minutes, I can move and feint and look more assured openings, in this case its more about keeping the pace high and staying aggressive, which isn't my style really, but if the most I get from it is better cardio and a feeling of more well-roundedness, that's okay too. Ended up finishing in the third by RNC.

Had aimed for some powerlifting after a short recovery break, instead the internet stole my soul and I played video games...

Diet has been pretty good actually. I can feel and see myself getting into better shape, hope to reach my goals before spring. It'll be a little rough to get there by then, but its completely doable.

I'm pretty happy with my eating. Since I got a promotion, I've been working 12 hour shifts, get paid way more so worth it. And I've been able to keep my diet in line and not overeat, or eat poor quality fast food with any regularity.

Things feel like they're starting to kind of fall into place and if I can maintain this pace, I can keep myself energized.
 
#87 ·
Worked 12s today and yesterday, but two days ago, (Tuesday) had another solid workout.

Started with some mega deep stretching, everything from my ankles to my shoulders tingled as I extended my flexability.

Started with some rolling (since I prefer rolling before I reak of a thousand gorrillas frollicking in the swamps of Dagobah.

Started on the bottom, worked "for the finish" not rounds. Which means it was a long one. Started in guard, but couldn't lock up a closed guard, so I controlled his legs, eventually he broke the guard and passed to half, then side control when I didn't respond accordingly. I ended up mounted, defending light GnP. He jumped on an armbar. He had it locked in, but didn't go thumb-up, so I was able to minimize hyperextention, escape, and ended up taking his back. I dug for the hooks and worked for the headlock, but when I couldn't get the hooks, went fo rthe body triangle. He pushed off the wall and turned slightly into me, making the RNC impossible. I broke the position and slid myself into side control as he tried to scramble. Worked for an finished with an Americana.

In the second go, I was on top and worked methodically from guard. I did a lot of hand fighting and posturing to stay heavy on his chest. I didn't concern myself that much with breaking the guard initially, more with wearing him down and tiring him out. I worked a bit of light GnP to the body while stuck in hand fighting mode. Eventually I broke the guard and stepped over into half guard, and then slid my leg free into side control. More hand fighting and posturing for position ended up with me trying to lock up the arm triangle. I had the head-arm position andworked to step to the other side. I almost got all the way over but got caught in far side half guard. I wiggled my body into a barely half-guardish side control and squeezed the arm triangle tight for the tap.

In the third stanza, was on the bottom again. This time I managed to get the closed guard, but, maybe due to fatigue or slipperiness, or whatever, he snuck out and hopped right into mount. High, suffocating mount. He snagged an arm and torqued an Americana. I tried to use his weight shift to take it to get a sweep, but failed and after a bit of grimacing and struggling, I tapped. :(

Rolling ended up being about 45 minutes to an hour.

After that did the obligatory kickboxing. Didn't do any 3/3. Just technical stuff on the focus mitts (which are falling apart due to heavy use, need better ones soon).

After a short internet infuzed lol filled break, moved on to some lifting.

Sumo deadlifts (5x3)
Pendlay rows (3x5)
Power cleans (5x2)
Attempted suitcase deadlifts and hang cleans was filled with hate for them and rage quit
Did curls to calm my ego.

Diet is more consistent. Trying to add some more greenery and remove almost all greasiness. I'm mostly succeeding, mostly. Trying to eat less bad, more good, and keep the metabolism up, admittedly the pump up of the metabolism and energy is almost completely the responsibility of the thermogenic, which is causing very positive results to my energy level, which in turn makes me more willing and able to eat better/workout more regularly and harder.
 
#88 ·
Latest workout was kind of an odd one.

After the obl;igatory stretching. Went into a sort of partial contact warm up deal. Only the speed and intensity amped up pretty quickly to the point where it wasn't a warm up just a workout.

Spent the entire time trying to focus on developing my footwork and head movement. I found that I still kind of have a little discomfort letting my hands go. I like to kind of pick at my opponent with one or two punches, but don't really throw three and four punch combos, unless I end up in a flurry situation. Which I look forward to working on tomorrow. The tentitiveness is more of just a minor annoyance now, but it could become a serious problem if I don't nip it in the bud.

Felt like between myself and my training partner I had better cardio. While we were both breathing heavily, I felt I was a little lighter and bouncier on my feet. At one point late in the session I joked, "You tired brah? I can bounce around like this all day dude, my legs went numb like 20 minutes ago!":thumb02:

I also worked counter-frog kicks to the thigh/inside of the knee with the lead leg. Its actually something I've theoretically known how to do for a couple years now, but after watching Condit, Silva and JJ have so much success with those techniques I figured they're more applicable than I thought, so I've been trying to incorporate them into my total defensive package.

Really didn't do any rolling, defended a takedown near the end of the 45 minute mega-round and scrambled, turning it into my own and landed in half-guard, but that's about it.

I kinda regret that being it, I had planned on at least doing a distance run/sprints, but losered out and just hung out afterwards. Was absolutely drenched in sweat, so it made me feel at least a little better about myself.

My diet has been decent. Nothing cataclysmic to report, but nothing really fantastic either. I think now that I'm fully in control of my eating habits (for the most part, the beast escapes into the fridge every once in a while :thumb02:) I can start looking at experimenting with some of the theories I've read to try and boost my metabalism, energy and recovery.
 
#89 ·
The massive delay in postin in my log is the result of being so busy with work, workouts, Skycrack and an attempt at a social life.

So for the sake of actually having additional content:
I know new years resolutions are a joke, 99.99% of them are never completed, but in the spirit of improvement. I have one. Its simple. Fight at 205 Amateur before the end of 2012.

I know I've set competition goals before. But, sadly they were kind of a joke. Disregarding the irony of saying setting these kinds of goals can be a joke, and the sheer number of "wills" I'm about to write, here we go.

I will be applying to local and regional promotions in the next 6-9 months, and looking into understanding how acquiring a manager works, getting licensed and all of the associated components. Same for coaches, as well as finding the exact gym that fits right. Suffice to say its a lot for 6-9 months, but its completely doable.

As for the most recent workout:
Rolling 3/3
Focus Mitts
Thai Pads 3/3
-a short break to imbibe food and interwebz-
Deadlifts - to max
Stiff Legged deadlifts @ f*ck if I remember
 
#90 ·
Delay in posting is mostly due to total apathy, not with training, or the sport, with MMAF. Just haven't felt like posting at all, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've posted in the past month or two.

Recapping the last couple months:

Lots of padwork (insignificant in the long run)
A bit of dieting, nothing to write home about.
Got into a gym finally
Started a strength training routine, as well as MMA based conditioning circuits

With this new gym membership I'm finally able to utilize real training aids I just couldn't get my hands on before, i.e. quality cardio machines, versatile olympic racks, and a variety of heavy bags, speed bags, battling ropes, and monster truck tires. All essential equipment I wasn't in a position to use.

The only area where there is a deficiency is that there isn't an MMA coach/trainer, just all the equipment, and the wherewithal of the user. So far I'm happy, I had forgotten how much more fun gym training was compared to home training. :thumb02:

That is all. Ideally, I post again before June. Lets hope.:confused03:
 
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