Happy Memorial Day!

I've been training my ass off. Today I did lots of kettlebell work. It was brutal. I'm going to train all of this week and then next week is my vacation. I plan on doing pushups, pullups and squats mixed with jumping rope to stay in shape. When I come back, I begin Operation:Asskick. Have a great Memorial Day!

A Question of heart

This past weekend, a friend of mine, Josh, fought his first MMA match. I was not able to attend but I did get to watch the video afterwards. It was amazing. Here’s the link (His last name is Cavan, you have to hit the arrow to get to it, I think it’s the fourth fight): www.nmefighting.com

As I watched, I noticed something that disturbed me…..alot. The video starts with the announcer and then it pans to my boy. Josh looks ripped and in shape, what you would expect of a fighter. They then go to his opponent, who is, er, um, *cough* not quite in good of shape. The fight itself is even worse as Josh’s superior technical skill and conditioning makes short work of his opponent ending in a submission after two rounds of brutal pummeling by Josh. Also, when Josh showed up for the fight, he made weight with no problem but his opponent was 3 to 4 pounds heavy and had to go run in the parking lot. He wasn’t ready.

I than watched the other fights and noticed the same thing. It seemed like very few of the fighters were ready for the fight, and no, I’m not talking about aesthetics as one of the fights offered an extremely lean fighter who obviously had poor conditioning (gassed in the first round) and/or idea of what he was doing. Make no mistake, I’m not detracting from or insulting his opponent or any of the fighters as I respect anybody who gets in that ring. It’s just that I’ve always functioned under the assumption that if you’re going to fight in an MMA match, that you train as hard as you possibly can because the intention is to win.

I asked Josh how long he had to prep for the fight and he said one month. He didn’t know how long his opponent had but I will assume it was at least one month. In that month Josh went from 190 to 170lbs. Twenty pounds. Seriously. Twenty pounds. Anybody that has ever dieted knows how difficult this is. I can speak from experience (right now as a matter of fact) that this is torture. It’s do it yourself water-boarding. This incredible feat speaks volumes about Josh’s dedication to winning (not to mention character) and I believe this is what separates the mediocre from the champions, especially at the amateur level.

I guess my biggest problem with all of this is this approach to the sport itself. This is a sport that involves inflicting injury on each other. If you’re not careful, you can be crippled for life and it seems like these people are treating it like a casual hobby. I don’t understand that.

I also don't fully understand why you wouldn't want to do the best job you possibly can. I am not the most coordinated or athletic guy.....Actually I'm probably the furtherst thing from that. But I am damn sight (sp?) not going to give it my all and become the best fighter that I can be. If I lose (I'm not), it's going to be because the other guy is a better fighter than me, not because it sucks not to eat pizza or because I was too lazy to get out of bed. I just don't get it.

Heavy day

So I felt guilty after yesterday's blog about not being able to put on any valueable muscle. So I grabbed my 28kg kettlebell and went to town. Despite the fact I've lost 12lbs, it was easy and I feel pretty confident moving up to the 32kg. I am amazed that I can still throw that weight around as easily as I did. Of course my presses are still weak but that's because of my jacked shoulders.

On a different note, I didn't do any jump roping yesterday, instead just relaxing. It must've been just the break my central nervous system needed as I killed it today. My speed and tempo was way up there with little errors. I may have to build more rest days in to my routine.

I also worked my combos today. Mostly my jab, cross, hook combo. It's coming along nicely. I need to pick up the pace though. This fight'll be here before I know it.

Week

On Monday, I woke up at 430, skipped rope, did pull ups, and then did a mildly heavy kettlebell circuit with the 53kg. I worked my grip throughout the day using a Captains of Crush gripper #1
Tuesday, I did Muay thai and the conditioning that goes along with that.
Wednesday, I skipped rope, did my pull ups, and did a light (35kg) but intense kettlebell conditioning routine and BJJ in the evening.
Thursday, Muay Thai with pretty brutal conditioning in the morning and BJJ in the evening. I worked my grip throughout the day using a #2 gripper which was pretty difficult.

Today, I am going to take it easy and just do some pull-ups, jumping rope and some skill work. Probably some foot work and strike and move drills. I am still just standing around and taking straight punches. I is smart. I didn't go to work because I have to deal with my doctor concerning my ADD meds. It never ends. As long as it doesn't screw with my heart, I'm bueno.

On a separate note, my weight is down to 189. Four more pounds to go! I was advised to stop dieting and focus on building muscle for the next three weeks but I seriously question how much muscle I can put on in such a short period of time. Make no mistake, I understand that strength is important in MMA, but I think conditioning is going to win the day. I will keep training with kettlebells in an effort to keep my strength up but realistically I don't think I'm going to be any more powerful out there than I am now. So I think the focus should be to keep the muscle I have while still losing weight.

My plan right now is to keep conditioning with heavy to medium weight kettlebells and bodyweight for the next three weeks while still trying to drop weight. At the end of that three weeks, I am going to Hawaii and will just do some light bodyweight training. I am thinking I will put on some bad weight while there. When I get back, I will kick into overdrive with an emphasis on conditioning and sparring. I am planning to put myself into a state of overtraining. At the two or three week out mark, I will scale back a little and keep the weights light to maximize recovery. The week before I will keep it really light and do nothing but skill work three days before.

I don't think I am going to agree to fight again for awhile. I think my next goal will be to get down to a scarily thin 175 and then try and bulk up to 185, putting on as much lean muscle as possible. I think five to eight pounds of lean muscle and two pounds of fat is realistic but what the hell do I know? It's such a fine balance and I'm really not very body smart (Actually, I'm just not smart period, hence why I have a uber intelligent wife!). I've read alot about the subject but the actual application eludes me. Oh well.

The Rewards of Combat

These are injuries accrued over the last few weeks and have healed up (more or less).

This is my leg after sparring with Graham before his match. If you can believe it, it actually got worse and spread across my whole leg after several days.

This is my back after doing cage work. We practiced getting pinned against the cage on the ground and inching our way up using our legs and shoulders.

Fun times to be had by all.

Mother's Day

Today all I did was skip rope for ten minutes and than do three minutes of skill work. I am going to try and keep Sundays pretty relaxed for maximum recovery. Monday marks twelve weeks to the fight. Scary. Eight weeks will be even scarier. I am not sure if they are going to have an opponent for me or not. Hopefully it's somebody in the same skill range (read: beginner).

Skipping Rope

Jumping rope is pretty difficult. I don't if it's because I'm stupid or what but it is quite the skill. Today I jumped rope for ten minutes straight. Nothing fancy, just straight up and down. My goal is that when I hit ten minutes with very few errors, to start adding more fancy footwork. I am now skipping rope every day. It's kinda cathartic in a way. I just listen to my music and zone out. The time flies. I followed this with some footwork/skills drills. I did three minutes of just pure movement, followed by three minutes of just jabbing and moving, and than I finished up with three minutes of jab/hook combinations. I did a little hook work but it's still pretty ugly. I need more practice.

Sick Conditioning

Went home sick today. Just feel like crap. In an effort to burn the sickness out of my body, I worked out. Only time will tell if this was a good idea or not.
Warmed up with 5 minutes of skipping rope, worked on my hook a little and then did the following from Ross Enamait (Rosstraining.com):
4 rds of
30 seconds of burpees
30 seconds of mountain climbers
30 seconds of jumping jacks
30 seconds of pushups
30 seconds of squats
30 seconds of medball slams
with one minute of rest between rounds. It wasn't horrible but I don't feel so good now. I need to get more core in but I'm slowing sinking into this.

Today's Workout

Today's Workout focused on strength.

I started with my pull-ups from twentypullup.com. After that I did another workout from the Benevolent Dictator's book (Elitefts.com):
100 swings warm-up (16kg)
All other exercises with a 24kg.
50 Two Handed Swings
25 One Arm Swings each arm
50 Hand-to-hand swings
2 sets of 8 cleans per arm
2 sets of 5 cleans and presses per arm
3 sets of 5 snatches per arm
3 set of 10 front squats

I was strong except for the presses. My left just couldn't hang. Too bad. Tomorrow's focus is on conditioning.

Sparring

Tonight was my first attempt at MMA sparring, no ground, but takedowns were allowed. I did a total of five rounds, three minutes a piece against two opponents. It was interesting. Adding knee strikes, kicks, and elbows is definitely a different ball game. One of the knee strikes I took knocked the wind out and made my back feel like it was on fire. Fun.

On the plus side, now that I am off the Ritalin, I had hellacious wind. Sparring was no deal and the one minute rest between rounds was more than sufficient. I need to work on my technique. It's ugly.

Workout

I did some pullups ala twentypushups.com and then did the following from the Benevolent Dictator's Fun and Exciting Kettlebell Workouts available at Elitefts.com:

100 swing warm-up

Round 1

50 one arm swings per arm

20 cleans per arm

10 clean and presses per arm

15 snatches per arm

10 front squats

Round 2

75 one arm swings per arm

25 cleans per arm

12 clean and presses per arm

20 snatches per arm

15 front squats

Round 3

100 one arm swings per arm

25 cleans per arm

12 clean and presses per arm

20 snatches per arm

15 front squats

It was an ass kicker. I started with the 20kg and quickly realized the errors of my ways. I couldn't even finish with a 16kg. I almost threw up and this is one of the beginner workouts. Scary. I finished with some neck work. Tomorrow I am sparring with a friend in preparation for his upcoming fight. Yikes.

A Change Up

Well, my fight was canceled due to a lack of fighters. Now I'm going to start training for an MMA match and am going to put boxing behind me for now. I've been asked to do a fight at the end of July but just don't see that happening, mostly because I don't want to because my ground skills are below par (I haven't sprawled in a long, long time). Three months isn't very long to get them up to snuff.

Right now I am weighing 193lbs. and my conditioning is through the roof (but could always be better). I've lost alot of good muscle due to a lack of protein intake while in training for the last fight which was stupid. Tomorrow, I'm going to implement MBody Strength's 'Strong Like Ox, Lean Like Lion' routine which I got from www.Mymadmethods.com. I am solely doing it to pack on some lean muscle and regain strength. The workout has some conditioning built into it too so I can totally justify it.

I learned alot on this last go around and won't be doing that again. I need both strength and conditioning.

Week 1, Day 2 Fight preparation

Today I was lazy and decided to only do minute drills. I did three rounds of 30 seconds each of the following:
Burpees
Mountain climbers
Jumping jacks
Push-ups
Bw Squats
Run in place

Cardiovascularly it was easy. I died on the mountain climbers and the push-ups but otherwise, I finished pretty strong. I think next time I'll do shadowboxing instead of running in place. I need to do more skill work but I just don't have the time right now. Allegedly, conditioning is more important in amateur matches then skill. I guess we'll see.

Week 1, day 1 Prepping for the fight

Today's torture:
Started with 4 200 yard sprints

Then moved on to the strength routine: (Three sets of five, 2 minute rest between)
Double 28Kg Squats
24Kg Clean and presses
Pull-ups
Push-ups (sets of 15)
28Kg rows

On the third set, I think I shorted out my neural network because I was done. My form went to crap and I had trouble cleaning the weights. It was like a power outage. Kinda sucked. I finished my strength routine with 24Kg snatches for two minutes straight.

I then did core: (30 secs each, 5 sets, 2 minutes rest)
Crunches
Double V-ups
torso twists with a 12Kg
Supermans

Plank for 1:30

I am hurting but I'm not completely destroyed. Tomorrow morning's workout should do me in pretty good.

Bad blogger, no biscuit

So I haven't blogged in a while. Just been too busy. Last night I went and trained with a professional boxer. It was ugly as I ran out of gas. I have alot of conditioning to do before I'm ready for my fight. On the plus side, I made it for a solid 30 minutes before getting smoked, but it's not enough.
I think I'm gonna have to drop the Convict Conditioning for a while as my focus needs to be more on stamina then strength. Strength is great but if it doesn't last, what good does it me?
Apparently my technique, especially my punches, is alright, but I still need alot of work.