Hey guys, still feeling sick but not running a fever anymore. I'm going to take today off in the hopes of making a full recovery for tomorrow. To keep it interesting as I'm sitting here home from work today, I figured I'd respond to some posts



Haha, I'm glad there is someone reading this like me. When I took my first boxing lesson a year ago or so, we did a full two hours workout and after 30 minutes I couldn't even move. I remember vividly after doing the light warm-ups we did stair runs. The place I was taking lessons at was a Police Athletic League that used an old school gym, and on the side of the gym the stairwell to go up and down the 4 floors of the building, so we basically ran up one side and down the other over and over again for 30 minutes to build endurance and leg strength. I was pretty out of shape then but I had good endurance and I was running like 2-3 miles every two days so I thought this would be no problem. Boy was I wrong. When we got done with this I felt that if I ate before I came I would have thrown up. We did 200 jumping jacks after this and i might have done about 60. It was the only time in my life I've ever had involuntary muscle spasms. My legs were literally just shaking for about 10 minutes.

I feel dumb saying this, as I'm sure everyone else who has been through similar stories has really cool and inspirational things that keep them motivated, but for me It was the movie The Edge with Anthony Hopkins that got me through it. There is a scene in the movie where he is talking to Alec Baldwin and he says "What one man can do, another can do" and he makes him basically repeat it and yell it. That is what I was doing in my head the whole time. What One Man Can Do Another Can Do. I can do this.

As for your other point, it's funny because I don't really have any good places to train or workout in my house, but i was standing in the kitchen the other day after practice with my foot planted practicing kicking the corner of the wall focusing on hip rotation, not over kicking, and maintaining my balance. I felt pretty stupid, but I feel like I realized some of the problems were that I was lead stepping to far, and at a bad angle. I'm excited to try it out and see what my instructor says on friday.

Also, I will be checking this pretty frequently today, as I'm bored and basically bed ridden with a couple books and my laptop feel free to ask any questions and what not. I'm an open book.

[Day 4] Hey all, I was feeling a lot better today (until now) , over my cold. And you know what that means! WHOOOO TRAINING! haha

Today was my first day of Submission Grappling. Now before I talk about what happened, because it's not going to take up a lot of space, I want to say something. One of the reasons I am making this into a blog style situation instead of just keeping a journal for myself is that I hope I can inspire some people, not to be UFC fighters, or anything like that, but to become better people, possibly eat better, get into better shape, or simply learn something your interested in. Besides MMA I am currently very interested in the outdoors. I just bought three books basically telling me all the information I would need to live off the land, hunt , farm, work, etc. I plan on studying and learning some of these skills over the next few months.

I am a firm believer that because of all the modernization of the world, people are becoming much more specialized and much less capable. You might be the smartest accountant in the world, but if you can't change a tire when you get a flat, maybe you should learn. The reason that I went off on a tangent is that I want to stress how what I am doing, is starting bare bones. I am out of shape, I am not strong for my size, I am not good cardio wise, and I have no technique advantage over anyone that has trained for a month. I am 22 years old, and just starting now. In 6-12 months when I'm in shape and hopefully doing well, I can look back to anyone and say "As long as you put in the effort and never give up you can do this. Age and ability mean nothing. Hard work and desire mean everything.

Now if you understand that maybe you'll see why I am very depressed with my workout today. Our instructor happened to get sick so he was not able to teach class tonight, which meant one of the senior students would be in charge. This was sort of abrupt so we decided to warm up, and spent the whole 2 hours just rolling and grappling. This is actually a great first class in my opinion as it allows me to see the level of people in the class, get used to training again, great exercise, and I can tear off any feeling that I am good at this in order to let learning start the next class.

The first pairing started off me grappling vs a 180lb kid who was lanky but strong. We were doing 5 minute rounds, and he ended up locking in a arm triangle just as the five minutes was up. (Tapped out Counter: 1)

Next I was matched up with someone about my size 200lbs, who I do believe this was his second class. He was stronger than me, and I was out of shape, but over the course of the next 20 minutes I was able to tap him out 8 times to 1. This was fairly alarming because my sweeps and passes were working so well, but I had a hard time finishing him when I was in mount. It would be easy to say if I could punch I would have won, but I really feel I need to work on submissions. (Tapped out Counter: 2)

Following this I was matched up with the senior student. He was about 150lbs. This was going to be fun. Oops. Never mind. We start from a standing position. I shot for a single, and within 15 seconds he had a rear naked locked in. I'm not really sure about how it happened, but it was quick as hell. We start again, I take him down, he takes my back, i spin out of it but get caught in a triangle choke. We start again. I pull guard, and flip him, he sweeps me and he had my left arm behind my back and choked me out I'm not really sure what it was, kind of like an arm triangle. Now we get to the part that I consider ruined my training session. We start again, I take him down, pass to half guard, then he slips onto my back, and gets a body triangle on. At this point it was like 40 minutes into the class and I was exhausted. I really really wanted to tap to a body triangle.

Now let me explain. I've said above, my single positive trait in fighting sports is heart. And here I was exhausted and wanted to tap to a body triangle. Thankfully he finished with a rear naked choke because I really don't know what I would have done if he didn't. I will make sure this never happens again. (Tapped out Counter: 6)

After this I started rolling around with two little kids that were there (we had an odd number of people) trying to show them some basic sweeps and escapes. This was fun and relaxing.

After this I watched some triangle escapes / guard passes that some of the guys were showing.

Then lastly I went back to rolling with the 170lb lankey kid from above. He caught me in a guillotine and a triangle choke, but it was a lot of fun, I almost got a gogoplata, which was nice, and being as how I have about 20lbs excess weight around my belly, I was happy in my flexibility haha. (Tapped out Counter: 8)

All in all I feel like the training session went well. I enjoyed rolling and getting back into it. I look forward to starting to improve my techniques and escapes. I find that I don't drive in enough when spinning from someone on my back to guard so I leave myself open to triangles. I also need to work on side control / mount submissions as I said above. I think I heard it best said in a documentary where you push yourself so far, then the next day you go a little bit further, than further. I am going to think about my wanting to give up to a body triangle like that. It happened. Next time I'll go further. Then Further. then further. Until I've found my own Yamato Damashii.

Oh I forgot to mention, I also took a elbow to the orbital socket, when someone was trying to go into side control, so nice little bump there. First training injury! haha

Tommorrow is back to Muay Thai.

Thanks for Reading!
VocalistSSP

[day 5] Today i seemed to underestimate how bad i would feel after training. My entire body is sore, and my left wrist is basically useless. I wore a ace bandage around it keeping it straight all day and it seems to be almost back to normal, but I didn't feel that It would be good to go to muay thai and be hitting pads / holding pads with it. Becuase of this I won't be training today.

Sometime tommorrow or sunday to make up for it I will be doing something, I have in my head like 2 mile run, 10 minutes of shadow boxing, and 30 minutes of heavy bag work at my house. I'll post exactly what I decide to do and go from there.

Thanks for reading, as always
VocalistSSP

I can definately start adding some cool pictures :]

As for what I would recommend for getting in shape lets see.

I'm a firm believer that cardio / diet are the most important things. You can do things like Body weight squats and pushups and ab exercises without any weights. I also love pull ups. Spend $10 get a good pull up bar, and set it up and you can get into great shape just running, body weight squats, push-ups, ab exercises and pull-ups.

Also, do burpees. I even found a video of a hot girl doing one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfNA_lmkHM

I try to stay away from telling people to get freeweights because if you aren't lifting properly you can really hurt yourself, especially with Squats and Deadlifts (my two favorite lifts)

I would recommend anyone looking to get into shape checking out Ross Enamait's books. He has some awesome ones.

[day 8]

Sorry for a lack of an update yesterday, I was lazy and didn't go through with my plan of running / shadow boxing.

Today I have to keep it kind of short as I'm about to go out to meet some friends, but I did muay Thai.

First we did some light warm ups, running around, running sideways, backwards, etc. Then we did long jumps in a circle around the mat, then jumping knees in a circle around the mat (Much harder than you'd think as you start from a flat footed even foot position, not like skipping).

After this we did some stretching. I really need to work on my flexibility, I can almost lift my foot behind my head, but I can't grab my toes with my feet in front of me.

Following this we did some cool exercises where we arranged ourselves in lines next to a line formed by where the mats came together. Then we worked combinations were we had to start on one side and finish on the other. Then back and forth trying to focus on angles and combinations at the same time.

After this we did 4 rounds of 3 minutes of shadow boxing, one being all punches, one being punches and knees, one being punches kicks , and one being punches kicks and knees, also trying to focus on adding in cutting and angles as well as defensive blocks. This was a lot of fun and really tiring. I have a lot to work on in this department (cardio, kicking, knee forms, balance)

After this we partnered up and did mitt work with punching combinations then punching and kicking combinations.

And that was the class.

Tommorrow I'm going to do a cardio day, then Wednesday is going to be a muay thai bjj day. Hopefully tommorrow since it's just cardio I can come back and add to this some, as well as provide my views on why running miles is stupid, but running 1/2 miles is smart

Thanks for reading
VocalistSSP

[Day 9]

Today was just a straight cardio day. I jogged for 30 minutes at lunch time and then after work. I had other plans but the weather hasn't been cooperating with me as of late.

Today is also the day where I begin to seriously stick to and follow my healthy meal plan and try to eliminate all excess sugars and fats, no carbs in the evening, etc.

I also ordered two supplements:

Whey Protein Powder
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/whey.html

Caledrin with Glucosamine
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/doc/cel.html

The protein power I use as sort of a meal enhancer / replacement as it lets me add a source of lean protein to any meal. It also acts as a hunger suppressant as protein takes the longest to digest. The Caledrin is a joint supporter which is suppose to help maintain the joint health. I feel that in training MMA and Wrestling, or even if your lifting heavily you should take joint supplements. They really get stretched out and can cause you loads of trouble in the future. Besides these do I also take a regular supply of Fish Oil pills for healthy fats as I try to eliminate all fats from my diet.

As I said in my last post I will try and discuss my feelings on cardio here. I think any running over a mile is a waste. Now you might be asking yourself "but you ran for an hour today!" You are right, because the weather made me unable to go outside, jogging on a treadmill was my only option for exercise so I took it. In my opinion, running for over a mile will not help you out in endurance with any sporting activity. It is training that activity that provides you with your endurance. For example, in boxing, if your going to fight a 10 round fight with 3 minute rounds, I suggest you spar at least 2 days a week using 10 rounds of 5 minutes or 14 rounds of 3 minutes. Anything where you are going above and beyond what is required of you. The reasoning for this is because you are mimicking your activity, running is a very low difficulty exercise and only strains your legs while also putting strain on your knees and joints.

What I prefer instead of this is short High Intensity workouts which will help to stimulate your central nervous system, as well as burn more calories and ramp up your metabolism in a faster time. I live near a 400meter track which works perfectly. I Sprint the first 100 meters as fast as I can, then proceed to jog the next 300 meters. Then I take a 30 second rest, and go again 8 times (about 2 miles). After this I begin to do sprints where I sprint 20 meters job back, then sprint 50 meters then jog back, then sprint 100 meters then jog back, take a 2-3 minute rest and do that 3-4 times. This usually takes me about 30-40 minutes and you feel like dying after but it burns way more calories and ups your metabolism and provides way more endurance than jogging. It also help to improve speed I believe.

The Plan I tend to follow is Mon-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday I will do a light 30 minute jog or I'll try to run up hills or jump roping Some form of light cardio, and then Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday I'll do the above routine.

Thanks for reading
VocalistSSP

[Day 10] This will be lackluster. I was planning on going to Muay Thai and BJJ but classes are cancelled tonight. I guess a couple of kids got ring worm, so they are going to clean the whole place top to bottom. I'm going to go do some cardio in a little bit so ill prolly post what I do a little later.

I'm pretty depressed about this because we're suppose to get 10-14 inches of snow the next three days and that could potentially kill my training this week.

VocalistSSP

I hear ya mate. We are having snow here too and its not stopping. Snowing everyday and every day a little colder.

Personally i cant wait for spring and summer to come and i guess its same for most of us living in the northern hemishpere right now.

I am happy and content that i picked up going to the gym this week. Bought myself a new card and will try to go 3-5 days a week.

Thank you for providing some motivation

[Day 13]

Sorry I haven't posted the past couple of days. We had terrible snow on Thursday and Friday so classes were canceled like I feared. The nice part about this is that I don't have any real time constraints so this setback doesn't really bother me. Tonight I'm going to a boxing match in Atlantic City to see Undefeated Mike Jones fight Henry Bruseles. I have really good tickets so I'm excited for it. Mike Jones is a highly touted welterweight prospect from Philadelphia.

I also made a bet with my friend who is also trying to lose weight that I could lose 12lbs over march 1st-7th. My plan to do this besides eating healthy something like this:

6:00am - 6:30am Wakeup => Run
6:40am - 7:30am Make Breakfast / Shower / Go To Work
1:00pm - 1:30pm Run during Lunch
1:30pm - 2:00pm Eat Lunch
6:00pm - 9:00pm MMA Training

I'm debating the pros and cons of adding a 3rd cardio period after I get home from MMA, but it has a lot to do with proper eating / sleeping and traffic times. I would like to fit it in, but I'm not sure if I can come home after mma and run after only an hour break. Also if I am going to be working out this hard I am going to need lots of rest and recovery.

overall I probably won't end up doing a 3rd cardio, but We'll see how my body takes to this plan. I'm really putting a lot of faith on my diet to keep my hydrated / energized and my joint supplement to keep my knees and body in good condition.

Thanks for reading. I'm not sure how much time ill have to post next week as ill be trying to work out at all possible times, but Hopefully I can post a good update for you guys/

VocalistSSP