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New Fighter Training Log

3K views 8 replies 1 participant last post by  twholman 
#1 ·
Hey everyone-
I'm starting a new training log here, in the hopes that it will keep me motivated, help me to track my progress and may help others who are wanting to do the same things that I'm doing.

First, a few things about me. I'm a soon-to-be 2nd Lt. in the USMC, went to OCS last summer. I'm in reasonably good shape, have a 294 PFT score for the other devil dogs out there. I have about 8 months before I go to TBS (the next training increment I need to go to) and in this time I hope to become as close to an amateur fighter as possible. But I have a long way to go, as the only experience I have in MMA is a stint of about 2 months of study a year and a half ago. I’m 5’9” and weighing in at 156.

I'm gonna be doing MMA class for 5 nights a week and training at the gym every morning for strength and conditioning stuff. I'll rest on Sundays. For the first few weeks, I'm gonna be listening to my body, so it may be only 2-3 days a week that I'll be going to the gym in the morning. I have a trainer lined up for tomorrow morning who is a mixed martial artist who I'm hoping can set me up on a program that will help me meet my strength and conditioning goals. My goals are to be able to run 3 miles in under 18 minutes by the time I’m done training, and to maintain the levels of strength I have now, while cutting body fat. My max weight lifts are as follows:

Bench Press: 175
Dead lift: 265
Squat: 275

I've purchased most of the gear I think I'll need starting off, mouthguard, MMA gloves, heavy bag gloves, MMA shorts.

As far as diet goes, I’m doing research on a good diet program that I can get on that will help me meet my goals. My supplements are as follows:

ON Pro Complex protein taken morning, before bed, and post workout, and post training sessions (I’m gonna try to get on illmatic’s protein shake for extra calories)
ON Opti-men multi 2x daily
ON Fish Oil 2x daily
Sci-Fit Krealkalyn Creatine just after workouts
ON BCAA capsules just before and after strength and conditioning sessions
Jack3d for before strength and conditioning sessions (morning pick-me-up)
NOW Sports Beta Alanine for 6 hours post workout recovery

Finally, I’d like to say that any help anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated. I’m going all in on this, and I really just want to learn as much as I can and better myself as a person and Marine Officer.
 
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#2 ·
first class

Had my first Jiu-Jitsu class last night. It went well, worked on moves out of the half guard, going into the electric chair, and old school sweep. I'm not sure about names, it was my first night so a lot of the moves were hard to learn. But when it came time for rolling, I felt like I was able to do the moves that were taught. But I definitely got owned pretty much every time due to my not knowing what attacks to do from any given position. But I made up for this with some mad determination to not get submitted, which helped. The gym I'm training out of is full of very nice people who helped me with stuff.

Overall I'm very excited about the classes. Tonight is gonna be a more kickboxing oriented session, which is mostly what I did in my previous studies. Hopefully I won't be as retarded tonight.

Also, tomorrow is my first personal training session for S&C. Really excited for that!
 
#3 ·
Day 2

Another Jiu-Jitsu class today, worked on sweeping out of the half guard again into the electric chair position. Then we worked on getting into the electric chair position from something called the dog fight that I didn’t really understand yet. I also learned the jaws of life move for getting double underhooks, which seems like a very useful tool that I’ll have to remember. Sparring was a lot of the same, just me trying the same moves, I just learned, then not knowing what’s going on when my partner tries some submission. Kudos to the guys I train with, cause they don’t mind answering stupid questions that I’ll ask in the middle of a sparring round. I’m doing my first day of personal training with an MMA guy tomorrow. I’m hoping he’ll set me up on a sweet program, which I’ll share on here as soon as I get it. Still working on the diet thing, I’m reading a book, Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook to set up a program for that. Just been busy having just moved back from college and reconnecting with old friends/moving back in/getting a job set up, so I’ll do my best to get that figured out ASAP.

I’m hoping that the gym I’m at will offer enough in the way of kickboxing. I may have to branch out and find another private teacher who can get me some good technique lessons on kickboxing. Then the next challenge will be finding a sparring partner. There is a straight boxing gym in town, may have to look into that.
 
#4 ·
Personal training day

First training session with personal trainer was today. We just went over warm ups and stretches which seemed like exactly what my body needed. I had done the 300 workout from men’s health (http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/muscle-building-11) on Tuesday, then went for a bike ride on Wednesday in addition to the jiu jitsu classes, so my body was getting broken down. I was sort of pissed off about my body fat percentage, which was 13%. It’s all about the diet in getting that down. Hopefully
Getting higher levels of cardio than I was in my body building program that I was on for the past 12 weeks (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/12-week-daily-bulking-trainer.htm) will be a good help in getting that down. I was running 19:20 three mile before, but I don’t know if I could do that now. Anyways, jiu jitsu class again tonight, hoping to do some kickboxing as well in the MMA class which runs right after jiu jitsu.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Sunday first private lesson

Didn’t blog after the training class on Friday so here’s what I recollect: We did some basic striking combos, mainly a jab, cross, left hook. We did a couple circuits, but it was mostly conditioning. I feel like I need to get the basics down so I’m not practicing bad habits when I do conditioning circuits like that. So I lined up some private lessons with a pro fighter who trains at my gym. He seems very smart, straightforward and totally down to do some straight up technique at least to start with so that I have a solid base to move forward on. In the rest of the class, we learned a takedown from the clinch that involved holding the back of the neck with the left, grabbing their left wrist with the right hand, a skipping motion forward to bring the left foot in, and then sweeping the opponent’s lead foot for the takedown. Looks like a pretty useful move for a takedown from the clinch. Jiu Jitsu wise, we continued to work on sweeping out of the half guard with the electric chair (if your opponent isn’t crushing you down, but doesn’t give you his foot for the old school), old school (if he posts up and wizards but keeps his foot close enough for you to grab) and switchback plan B (if he crushes you down and doesn’t give you the foot for old school) methods. I SUCK at the old school method. I’m marginal at the electric chair, and OK at the switchback plan b.

Finally found someone to study kickboxing with, and did my first private lesson today. We went over the basics – stance first, then movement forward and back. I think I was picking this stuff up pretty quickly. We talked about “grabbing apples” out of the jab and the cross, i.e. flicking the wrist out and back into position after punching. My stance and balance seem to be pretty ok, but I need to focus a lot on the use of my hips in the cross. He calls it “sitting down.” I also need to focus on not leaning into my punches and finding the correct distance to throw punches from.

We got into some basic kicking technique, but didn’t get too far due to my retardedness with using my hips in the kicking motion. I am gonna do some shadow kicking tonight and just do that over and over again until I feel like my hips are engaged. I’m really excited to hit the gym tomorrow and do some conditioning. Gonna make use of the mirrors at my gym to check out my technique as well as a weight circuit tomorrow. Gonna try warming up with skipping rope too.

Diet is starting to shape up – it’s been hard to stabilize my diet after having moved back home just last week. I really like illmatic’s protein shake idea, think I might start using that to boost caloric intake as my workouts get more intense. I’m starting my day with cereal, protein shake. Then for lunch I’ll have something like chicken with brown rice or a couple tuna or turkey sandwiches on whole wheat. Dinner usually consists of whatever my family is having, might be something out, for instance I had Applebee’s fiesta lime chicken last night. Then I'll have a snack before bed, usually protein shake and some fruit or bread, or some eggs cooked up in the microwave real quick. I know it’s not ideal, I’m working on some recipes that will help to keep my diet more nutritional.
 
#7 ·
S&C beat down

Had another private lesson last night, worked on some punching combos/footwork and learned the basics of the hook. Love my teacher, he seems to know exactly how I like to learn, which is fundamentals all the way. Jiu jitsu class after was basically me getting owned the whole time, my body was in pretty bad pain after. The technique was going from half guard lockdown to a dogfight technique which allows you to sweep the opponent over on top of you to get in his half guard. This shit is all above me, but I’m just gonna keep going for what I do know whenever I roll with people and go from there.

Had a personal training session earlier today that really really kicked my ass. Did a few circuits that were upper body, then lower body then core then triceps then core again. Each circuit had 2-3 exercises that really kicked my ass good. I was feeling so beat that I had to skip class for tonight, but I’ll be fresh and ready to go for another personal training session tomorrow and class as well. CAN’T WAIT for that. The dream of getting a fight and dominating it keeps driving me. I even dream about being in the ring, I hope I can keep up this level of intensity.
 
#8 ·
being injured sucks

So the reason I haven't been writing on here is that I haven't been training! I seem to have strained a muscle in my lower back and I'm having a really hard time trying to recover. So I've been taking it easy the past few days so that I can have a baseline of health to move forward in my training. I think I'm gonna try and just do my own strength and conditioning workouts and not do jiu jitsu or kickboxing classes until the beginning of next week. This way I can make sure that I'm totally healthy and ready to train. Mentally this is extremely difficult for me. For a guy like me, nothing is more depressing than sitting at home not doing anything.
 
#9 ·
frustration, more rest needed

Kickboxing lesson today to see how things feel. Felt great at the gym, but afterwards, was definitely feeling worse pain in my back. I think I’ll have to really take it easy the next few weeks, which really is gonna suck. I was so optimistic about jumping into training, but I guess my body just wasn’t ready for that level of training yet. But I still have a voracious desire to be learning all I can – I’ll just have to ease into things moving forward.

As far as what we actually worked on today, getting more and more into kicking technique shows me how much I really do suck at it. But I am getting better. My thai kicks are getting more and more solid. Putting those together with push kicks into combinations is an exciting step to take, but when I do those combos, I definitely lose the technique and my power suffers. So I’m gonna make sure that I have the technique in muscle memory before I spend too much time practicing on my own and conditioning – another good reason to ease into things moving forward.
 
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