Sunday 23-12-07 – Gunz in the Cold

“Screw it!” I told myself.  I hadn’t done a workout in 10 days, and I knew I had to do one sooner or later.  I got off my ass and ventured out into the cold.

During the school holidays, I always find I feel like doing absolutely nothing, and it sucks.  I normally end up getting bored, and wasting time no the computer, gaming, talking, surfing the web or doing other pointless tasks, half of which I don’t even enjoy.  So why do I keep doing them?  I really don’t know.  Laziness I suppose.  In the holidays so far I’ve slept, watched TV, been on the computer, and not much else.  I have learnt a lot about PC building and overclocking and learnt a bit about the medieval ages (thanks to Total War ), but apart from that it seems as though I haven’t done anything beneficial, or at least nothing I can remember.  Sure, I’ve had some fun playing games, so I don’t call that wasted time, but it still feels fairly pointless.  I realised yesterday that my diet had started getting very bad – I still was eating fairly well at meals, but I was snacking on chocolate biscuits, not eating as much fruit or meat as I should be and generally not thinking about it at all.  I’ve started cleaning it back up, and I’m going to limit myself to one ~150kcals worth of chocolate biscuit a day (yeah, probably too much, but that’s one biscuit bar or two digestives!).  I’m going to try and substitute them with eggs, nuts, fruit, veg etc, which shouldn’t be too hard.

Anyway, onto the workout.  I didn’t feel like doing too much, and the weakness in my arms is really starting to annoy me.  My legs are, and always have been, fairly big and muscled, yet my arms are pathetic.  So I decided to do a dedicated arm strength session.

It was freezing outside.  Actually, probably not quite 0°C, but f*cking cold none-the-less.  Once I had warmed up it was fine, apart from one thing.  Arm workouts require pullups and chinups, which require a bar.  The bar I have to use is a long metal one in the parlour, which has holes in the walls rather than windows.  The bar was very, very cold.  Add to the cold it was an old one I found, it wasn’t smooth (although luckily not rusted).  Tight grip + cold bar + rough bar = pain.  A lot of pain.

I started off in my typical way – Sprinting, 3 rounds of 2min work/1min rest rope jumping, the stretching.  As I was doing arms, I added on 20 pushups just to get my arms used to moving.  Post warmup I went onto pullups.  I can’t do unassisted ones, so I used my Iron Woody bands to allow me to do them.  I can count the amount of times I’ve done pullups (and chinups) on my hands, so my arms really aren’t used to doing them, which makes them especially hard.  First set I did 5 full range of motion ones (dead hang to chin over bar).  It was relatively hard to get my chin over the bar in the last one.  After 60 seconds rest, I did the same, but this time including static holds.  I did four statics of 3 seconds for each of the 5 reps – One at the top of the motion, one 1/4 down, one 2/4 down and one 3/4 down.  To get my chin over the bar in the last two or three was pretty damn hard, I’ll tell you.  As already mentioned, the bar is truly evil, and by now my hands were hurting quite a bit.

I rested for 2 minutes, then went onto pushups.  I did 20 with a wide stance (so at the midway point my forearms were perpendicular to my upper arm), rested for 30 seconds, then 10 raised ones.  The raised ones were done using stone builds to each side, about 18″ high each.  I went down as far as I physically could, then all the way up.  I didn’t realise how hard these were either!

Another 2 minute rest and I was onto chinups.  My hands were hurting slightly less, although the second I grabbed the bar the started hurting again!  I used the same principle with chinups as I did with the pullups – 5 reps normal, 60 second rest, then 5 static-hold reps.  My the end of this my hands were really hurting – Damn that bar!

Next I was onto body rows.  I do body rows using a raised stone platform (like the pushups), and with some rings I made using chains and PVC pipe (to hold on to).  Cost about £5 to make, and very useful.  Because my feet were raised, the range of motion of these body rows was pretty high.  At fully hanging I was below horizontal (my head closer to the ground than my feet), which made them harder.  I was hoping to knock out 15 to 20 rows, but I barely did 10.  I attempted 10, but the last 4 were pathetic, and the last one I couldn’t rise more than an inch or two, however hard I tried.  My painful hands probably didn’t help.  I was planning on finishing with a hang for time from the pull/chinup bar, but I could tell my arms would dead and I would do terribly (if I could even hold on!).

And that was that, my arm workout finished.  What annoyed me was that although my hands hurt, my arms felt fine, or at least slightly tired.  I keep thinking they should be really aching, even though I know (from Ross Enamait and other people) that idea is wrong.  It just feels as though I could’ve done more, even though my body rows proved otherwise.  The first thing I did when I got inside was run my hands under warm water, to warm them up and help with the pain.  It felt like bliss!  Even as I’m typing this, about half an hour later, I can still feel pain in my hands though, although it hasn’t stopped my writing…OVER 1000 WORDS!!  OK, that was a bit on an excessive post.  Congrats if you’ve read this far!  If you have, comment to tell me!

Sunday 23-12-07 – Gunz in the Cold

• Sprinting
• Rope Jumping
• Stretching
• 20 Pushups
  • 2 minutes rest
• 5 assisted pullups (dead hand to chin over bar)
  • 1 minute rest
• 5 assisted pullups with 4 static holds each (dead hang to chin over bar)
  • 2 minutes rest
• 20 90° pushups
  • 30 seconds rest
• 10 raised pushups
  • 2 minutes rest
• 5 assisted chinups (dead hand to chin over bar)
  • 1 minute rest
• 5 assisted chinups with 4 static holds each (dead hang to chin over bar)
  • 2 minutes rest
• 10 body rows

Not sure when I’m going to workout next.  Christmas is tomorrow’s tomorrow, so not long now!  I was hoping to get some new trainers for Christmas, although my mum informed me today that I’m not.  I found out today that I think my feet must have grown, as my current ones hurt the sides of my feet, especially when skipping/rope jumping.  I’ll probably order them myself today, but might not work out until I have them (which actually probably wouldn’t be too long).

As always please comment!!  I’ve spent ages writing this, make me feel it was worthwhile!

Wednesday 19-12-07 – No more school…but no more training either

Today we broke up for the Christmas holidays from school, at last.  Now I can sleep, and have fun.  Well, sorta.  When I go back I have mock GCSE exams, so I’m going to have to revise quite a bit.  Oh well.

I haven’t done any training since my last session.  I know I should’ve, but I really couldn’t force myself to.  It’s been really cold lately…Oh, screw the excuses.  Main reason was because I’ve got a bit lazy, as I often find I do in Winter.  Now I’m off school I will have more time to train, and intend to.

One of the reasons I haven’t trained since Monday is because of one of my other loves – PC gaming.  I know that just makes it sound worse, but I really love gaming – My inner geek releasing itself. I borrowed Medieval 2: Total War off a friend on Monday and have been playing it a lot since, it really is a great game.  Even though it’s about 2 years old it’s still one of the best games I’ve played in ages.  If you like gaming, especially RTSs or TBSs, you should definitely give it a try.

I’ve half-finished Stretching Scientifically now too.  It was worth getting, although I did have some problems about implementing it.  Review soon!

I think that’s pretty much it for now.  Hopefully some training tomorrow, more conditioning methinks.  Maybe I’ll do the Sweet 16!

Don’t forget to leave some comments, I’ve only got a couple on the whole site.

Thursday 13-12-07 – (Accidental) Strength Session!

I kept my promise!  I said I would do a workout today, and did.It started off with the warmup.  This started with sprints up and down the parlour (weaving around my punchbag and around my chains, so I was running in a figure-8 shape).  Immediately after that, 50 jumping jacks.  Then, more rope jumping.  It seems I’m starting to get my “skill” back: I started with some bounce-step, but then went onto alternate-foot step.  This time it went a lot better, going over 30 seconds non-stop with the latter technique (when recently I’ve barely been able to do 10!!).  I did three 2-minute rounds, like normal, and in the 1-minute between-round rests I decided to practise some arm crossovers (just the crossover part, as recommended by Buddy Lee in his Jump Rope Training).  So, it went well.

Now, I was planning on doing a conditioning routine known as the Sweet 16 today.  It was create by Ross Enamait and is in his book Infinite Intensity, and it involves…Actually, I’m not going to tell you!  I’m going to save it for another day, when I actually do it. Anyway, instead I went and did some band-assisted pullups (using one of my Iron Woody band).  I’m terrible at pullups, I admit, but you have to start somewhere, and for me that was with band-assisted ones.  I did two sets of 5 reps (as full a range of motion as I could), followed by one set of negative static holds (hold at highest position for 5 seconds, drop a small amount, hold for 5 seconds, repeat until at dead hang position).  Rest between sets was 40 seconds.  After one negative I couldn’t do any more, so after a rest I moved on to partial ab wheel rollouts (described in my Wednesday 28-11-07 – Home Bag Work post).  I did three sets of 5 reps.  It was now I decided to carry on and turn it into a strength session.  Next I went onto one-legged squats (like a normal bodyweight squat…But with one leg).  I can’t do full ones unassisted, but then I saw my rings (like gymnast rings, but mine homemade using chain and PVC pipe), and it gave me an idea: Do full-range ones, but hold onto the rings to aid with balance and strength (if I can’t get up fully using just my leg, pull up using my arms).  I hadn’t heard of doing them like this before, but I decided to give it a go.  And, it worked excellently!  Again I did three sets and 5 reps (per leg).  Afterwards by legs were well and truly thrashed.  I then went onto pyramid pushups, going from 1 rep to 7.  I only did one set of these, because I did it until I couldn’t do any more (I stopped the rep before I wouldn’t be able to do any more).  By now, my muscles felt knackered.  I noticed I had spent over 30 minutes there, so decided to call it a day and stop.

I ended by walking and stretching.  The squats had surprisingly affected my legs, and by the end they were shaking quite a lot.  Even now they ache a bit.  Tomorrow will definitely be a rest day!!

As a side note, I received Stretching Scientifically today.  Written by Thomas Kurz, it’s all about stretching and from what I’ve heard it is THE best book to build flexibility.  A quick look through it shows it’s very complex and detailed, with a lot of (small) text.  I’ll probably review it soon.

Tuesday 11-12-07 [EBC] – Partner Pads

First training session at the Exeter Boxing Club in three weeks earlier.  At first I was half not looking forward to it, although I don’t really know why.  But by the end I remembered exactly why I go – Because it’s so damn fun!

We started in the typical way, with running around the gym with floor touches, jumps and direction changes.  This was followed by four rounds of jump rope work – three of 2 minutes, the last one of 3 minutes, the rests between rounds being 1 minute.  This went better than last night’s jumping, although still wasn’t great.  I did some bounce-steps, attempted alternate-foot steps, some speed bounce-steps and tried crossovers again (with no luck of course ).

The entire session was pretty much spent with pad work (although we were using gloves instead of pads, t’was easier).  I went with this guy called Mark, who was the best partner I’ve had there.  He worked hard, but he also liked a good laugh and a bit of messing around.  For example, I kept giving him 1-2-3s, so he replied with the most confusing combinations he could think of, which often ended in me just looking at him perplexed or completely and utterly screwing it up.  Yeah, doesn’t sound like anything special but it was a good laugh.  Don’t let this make you think we weren’t practising skills – We were doing all the punching as well as we could, but we were enjoying it too.  Put simply, he was great fun to be partnered with.

On the pads we were doing just jabs, crosses and hooks, mainly practising on moving in, 1-2ing the pads, moving back, 1-2ing again.  There was also quite a lot of single shots and other combos (1-2-3s, 1-1-2s etc), but the emphasis was on 1-2s and moving.

We finished off the same as always also – A random circuit of bodyweight exercises with active rest (jogging on the spot) between exercises.  I think the circuit this time was: Running on the spot, Knee tucks, Pushups, Situps, Squat Thrusts, Star Jumps, Pushups, Squats.  Something like that anyway.    Then it was simply walking and stretching.

Now for the bad news.  This is the last session this year!  So I won’t have another session until the 4th January 2008, in about a months time.  I’ll keep up my training though, just I won’t have Exeter ABC to go to .

Until next training session (might rest tomorrow, Thursday maybe?), keep commenting and reading!

Monday 10-12-07 – Urgh

I said I would do a workout today, and I’ve kept my word.  But…It really didn’t go as well as planned.

When I went out, it was 3°C – The coldest I’ve ever worked out in.  Even though the parlour was open, , after a few minutes I didn’t notice it and I was down to the tracksuit trowsers and sleeveless tee only.  This was the first time I listened to rap-style music while working out (Rage Against The Machine) which seemed to work fairly well, surprisingly.

I started with some sprinting up and down the barn with some jumping jacks.  Then I did some basic stretching.  Nothing unusual there.

Next was my normal warmup, rope jumping.  However, it went TERRIBLY.  Firstly, my Gymboss kept failing on me (I don’t think I was clicking the start button hard enough).  That was soon solved, and my first round was simply bounce-step jumping.  It didn’t go as well as planned – I kept catching the rope, more than before.  In the next round I tried alternate-foot step, which pre-illness I was starting to be able to do well.  But I could barely do any at all without catching the rope!  Literally, I think my max was between 5 and 10.  This really didn’t make me feel optimistic, as you can probably expect.  The next round, I tried again, and it still didn’t go well.  I also tried arm crossovers (crossing the rope in front of you) and I couldn’t do them at all (admittedly I’ve never tried before).  I ended the round with simple bounce-step jumping, but was feeling pretty negative about the whole thing.

After that it was on to the heavy bag.  It was then I realised I’d forgotten my wraps, but I didn’t bother going back inside to get them.  So, I just shoved on my gloves and got going.  I went for six 2 minute rounds with 1 minute rest between rounds.  I was mainly practising the speed of my jabs and straight rights, but I ended up just doing whatever.  As with the rope jumping, I was amazed how bad I had got after not practising for about 2 weeks.  I wasn’t doing too badly though, although a couple of times I temporarily hurt my hand from a dodgy right cross and left hook (which I’ve only just learnt).  Not wearing my wraps probably didn’t help with this .  Soon the pain was gone though, and by the end of the six rounds I was tired, but not in pain.

I finished off with pushups and squats to a couple reps before failure.  I ended up with 22 pushup and 44 squats (pathetic, I know).  I decided to call it a day, so walked and stretched, and then came in to write this!

I also set myself a target today.  On my next birthday, my 16th, in June, I will take a picture of me in my boxing gear, topless, and use it as my MSN picture.  Now, I don’t want to put a picture of me looking ugly and flabby do I? So I want to shift as much of this weight as possible and try and improve my beach muscles (without training for hypertrophy though).  I’m dreading it already.

Update!

Some of you may have been wondering why there hasn’t been an update in a few days. Well…That’s because I haven’t done anything.

I was ill badly until Monday, and on Tuesday I thought it would be best if I didn’t go to boxing. I’m still not feeling great, and my muscles still ache from the Thursday training (which I guess is because whilst ill I didn’t consume enough food/protein). I’m also not going to be able to go boxing this Friday, as I’m going to a concert.

So, this hasn’t been a great week. I do plan to start again next week, but maybe starting a bit slower, only training a couple days a week (Mondays and Wednesdays probably).

On another topic, I’ve finished Full Throttle Conditioning (the book).  Where the DVD actually shows how to do the different exercises, the book tells you why to do each exercise, what order to do them in, what different types of routine you can do, how to plan the routine for long-term successes and more.  Put simply, the DVD focuses on the exercises and the book focuses on the routines and the science behind it all.  A very good read, I still highly recommend buying it if you haven’t already!

Again, comment away!

Ill

I didn’t go boxing yesterday.  I didn’t even go to school yesterday.  I spent most of yesterday lying down, sleeping or watching TV, with a bad stomach ache, a headache, aching muscles, the whole lot.  I’m feeling slightly better today, although my stomach is still pretty bad and eating anything makes it feel worse.  The headache comes and goes, but it’s pretty much gone.  I’m still far from 100% though.

There has been an illness going around school, and I think my working out left me more vulnerable.  Because of this, I’m probably going to cut down training to my boxing sessions plus about two more per week, for now at least.  I don’t want to get ill again, at least not yet .

Well, that’s all for now.  My next post will probably be on Tuesday for my boxing session, as long as I’m feeling better.