troubleBound's log

Goal: Cutting the fat that's holding me down and getting in good enough shape to spar again ASAP and gaining strength, more than I ever did before (not necessarily gaining muscle size or weight. In fact, I think I'd rather lose weight. I'd like to be able to do pullups, 1-arm pushups and pistols, and eventually plache pushups).

EDIT: I also stretch everyday before I do anything. I do a few yoga hasanas, focus mainly on my glutes, hamstrings and thighs which are the muscles that get the sorest. I also do a few upper body stretching exercises to maintain arm and upper body flexibility and bridges for back flexibility.

Well started last week, first week of march. Started fresh going to the boxing gym. Went to the boxing gym only twice, Monday and Friday afternoon. Monday morning I did tabata thrusters. Then Wednesday and Friday mornings I did tabata burpees.

Tuesday afternoon I ran 3 miles in about 25 minutes (not constant speed. I'd bump of the speed for a minute or so, then go back down and so on) and thursday morning I ran 3 miles, but quite a bit slower at 27 minutes. In the boxing gym I did 3 rounds skipping rope, 3 rounds shadow boxing, 3 rounds heavy bag, 1 round uppercut bag, 1 round up and under, 2 rounds speedbag.

EDIT: On the heavy bag, as well as shadowboxing, I focused mostly on jabs and a few 1-2's. I also tried to move around and use footwork as much as I could.

Towards the end of the week (Thursday and Friday) I started doing again, strength exercises like in the book "The Naked Warrior." Still can't really do 1-arm pushups (I've been doing these against a wall) or pistols (I do these either pole-assisted or using a low chair), but I'm working towards it. I feel like I'm getting close on those pistols, but not so much on the 1-armed pushups. I've been trying to focus on gaining strength outside the boxing gym, and focus on endurance IN the boxing gym (as well as with my 3-mile runs and tabata exercises).

Over the weekend I got kinda sick. I woke up yesterday (Monday) early enough to do some tabata, but felt like dying so instead decided to sleep a bit longer. Towards the afternoon I felt good, and decided to go to the boxing gym. I went a bit easier. Did 3 rounds rope skipping, 3 rounds shadowboxing, 3 rounds heavy bag, 2.5 rounds speedbag. No up and under, no uppercut bag this time. At night I did a few pole-assisted pistols and a few 1-armed pushups against the wall.

Today I still feel kinda crappy (not nearly as bad as I did yesterday morning) so I haven't done anything. Thinking about going to bed early cause I know what I'm lacking is some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel in top shape and I'll be able to do tabata in the morning and go to the boxing gym in the afternoon. Since the weather seems to be improving, I think I might do sprints tomorrow morning. Might do a couple of pole-assisted pistols and assisted 1-arm pushups again.

Will post tomorrow.

Went to the boxing gym today. Did 3 rounds rope, 3 rounds shadow, 3 rounds heavy bag (same thing, again focusing on jabs and moving around mostly and some 1-2. Felt pretty good, so I was able to throw many more punches this time), 2/3 a round of uppercut bag, 2 rounds speed bag. Didn't do tabata today because I couldn't wake up early enough (slept through the alarm. Had a very long night). Have done a few sets of assisted pistols and assisted 1-arm pushups. Planning on doing some core work and more pistols and 1-arm pushups after I finish digesting dinner. Tomorrow I will run 5k... Thinking about doing it in the afternoon rather than the morning. We'll see. If I wake up early enough I'd rather do morning and be done with it.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your goals. :Bannanalick:

Heres a bunch of stuff that should help you get where you want to be:

http://www.rosstraining.com/forum/]RossTraining.com

RossTraining - Articles

RossTraining.com • View topic - WORKOUT OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/]MapMyFitness.com -

Stew Smith Archive - Military.com Military Fitness Center

John Berardi - Solving the Post Workout Puzzle Part I

John Berardi - Solving the Post Workout Puzzle - Part II

LV's Grocery List - WorldFitness Training Forum

http://training.fitness.com/nutritio...01-a-32846.htm

Calorie Calculator

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

Also visit bodyweightcoulture.com that site is gold for body weight tutorials and progression ideas. Good luck and keep it up :)

good to see you made a training log, troubleBound.

Welcome and good luck.

Thank you all for the information. I haven't posed in a while, I know. Alright so here's what happened the rest of last week:

Thursday - ran 3 miles in about 25:30. Did several sets of assisted pistols and 1-arm pushups.
Friday - again, boxing gym. 3 rounds skipping, 3 shadow, 3.5 heavy bag this time, and then did some torso pivoting exercises (put a broomstick or rope at a certain height and without bending the knees swing your torso from one side of the obstacle underneath it to the other side) for the rest of the round. 2 rounds up and under, then 2 rounds speed bag. Afterward did very few sets of assisted 1-arm pushups and pistols.
Saturday- did many sets of assisted 1-arm pushups and pistols and I think I kinda made a breakthrough in getting the form right. I'm also hoping I will soon have the strength to do proper pullups/chinups and handstands.

Today, monday, will go to the boxing gym and will do about the same. Then more assisted pistols, etc. I'm bent on getting those soon, and I think I will.

You should balance your push ups with chin ups so you dont get a muscle imbalance.

You're absolutely right. I haven't even been doing many regular pushups, just the assisted 1-handed ones. The thing is, I can't do pullups and chinups. I thought I came close to getting them at one point, but then pretty much stopped trying and started trying those other exercises. Last night I tried again and didn't even come close (well was kinda close with the chinup)... But I dunno, for some reason last night, and today I've felt so lazy and weak. I think I need to sleep a little bit longer (I did go to bed after 3 am last night. Woke up at 10, so I didn't sleep THAT long). I'm not strong enough. It's why I've been working on getting stronger so I can get started on those other exercises finally.

I'm also thinking about changing some things already... Working endurance on separate days as strength/high intensity... cause when I go to the boxing gym and when I run the 3 miles I'm just too beat to do much else that day. I'm considering dropping the 3 miles and doing tabata on those days instead of on the same day as boxing, cause when I do tabata I do have energy the rest of the day to do strength exercises, but not so much when I run the 3 miles... and I don't think I'm over exerting myself when I do 3 miles in the 25 minute mark (because I've never gotten headaches or anything that might indicate so... I could be wrong, but I thought all sorts of things indicated fatigue: from bad mood to head aches or cold-like symptoms, but I haven't felt any of those really).

I take suggestions.

Monday (today) - I pretty much got out of the boxing gym today and did the usual 3 rounds skipping and 3 rounds shadow boxing. Then did 3 rounds heavy bag, but the first 2, especially the 1st one was so bad, I was so mad. I felt like I was just tapping the bag... Like I said, I've felt so lazy since last night... Anyway, I did an extra 2 mins 30 sec round on which I gave it my all in each punch and that one went pretty well. Then did 2 rounds up and under, and 2 rounds speed bag. Gonna try to do some strength exercises... 100% certainly some core exercises, but I dunno about anything else cause at least at the moment my arms, shoulders and back feel very tired.

This will help you get better at chins and pull ups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7q14s5-2w

thanks! I've read some of the Ross links. Very helpful, thanks again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wesrman

This will help you get better at chins and pull ups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7q14s5-2w

---

Is there any substitute to the exercises that require squat racks and barbells? I don't have access to those. What can I get?

EDIT: I also have a question about strength training. From reading the naked warrior I had read that you shouldn't go until failure. Many other sources agree with that. However there programs like this: BodyWeightCulture.com - Free Body Weight Exercises for muscle gain, weight loss and more that want you to do "maximum" sets. However in "The Naked Warrior" it is indicated that it is more efficient to do just enough that you could do some more reps, but do vast numbers of sets and used and example of an ex-marine, I think, who would do 5 sets of chin ups whenever he got the chance throughout the day usually totaling 100 chinups (I don't have the book in hand so I'm not using the exact numbers) a day, and this is how he got to up his number of chinups incredibly quickly and without ever fatiguing when training for it. So wouldn't the best way to get to 100 pushups would be, say you can do 20 pushups max, then do 16, but lots of times per day, and test you max (which should've gone up drastically) and repeat until you get 100 max?

Doing the negatives on a pull up bar once per week and hanging from the bar should help a bit.

Stopping before failure will help you get stronger faster i think, but sometimes its good to push it so id say do a mix of both.

Cool. They do have a pull up bar at the gym. Alright, tomorrow I'm planning on doing tabata burpees, some shadow boxing and some strength exercises (today, for some reason, my shoulders felt so sore I couldn't even do pushups).

Tuesday - ran 3 miles in 24:56, probably my best time ever. And for the last mile or so I could've gone a bit faster, probably, I just didn't wanna push it too far. Didn't do much else... Did a couple of sets of clap pushups but that was it. For some reason my shoulders were incredibly sore. Still managed to fool around with a friend's trapeze (he's got one at home. It's lots of fun, lol).

Wednesday (today) - just got out of the boxing gym. I felt much MUCH better than monday. I did 3 rounds of skipping, and they were good rounds too, and then did 3 rounds of shadow boxing, 3 rounds of heavy bag and an extra 2:30 round. This time I felt like I was throwing effective punches not lazy pattering like I did on the first 2 rounds on monday. Then 2 rounds up and under, two rounds speed bag and I'm gonna do some assisted pistols, assisted 1-arm pushups, clap pushups, t pushups, negative chinups and core-work. I feel so much stronger today than I did on monday. Lots of energy today.

Thursday - tabata burpees
Friday - boxing gym. 3 rounds skipping, 3 rounds shadowboxing, 3 rounds heavy bag and an extra 2:30 round, 1 round up and under, 2:30 round speed bag and did some lower back exercises for the remaining 30 seconds, then 2 more rounds speed bag. Did some negative chinups.
Saturday(today) - Did core work and some pushups and thinking about doing some 1-arm assisted pushups, some clap pushups, some assisted pistols and such.

I think a coach will have me work the pads on monday. I hope so. He was like "done already?!" on friday and asked what I did so I told him and he didn't say nothing but asked when I would come back and I said monday and what time. I really wanna work the pads anyway. So I think monday's gonna be a long gym day.

I've been considering starting to consume creatine. Any information on that (should I "load" or just tell me how to consume it), would be helpful? Also, if you think it'd be a waste of money at this point let me know too. Thanks.

Why do you want to take creatine?? Just curious cuz it has some benefites, but unless you have a specific reason you can live without it.

One thing you should think about is improving your diet, especially pre and post workout.

Yeah I think I've made some improvements nutrition-wise. I still have some things to polish. Creatine would be for faster recovery I guess. Especially last week there were days when I'd go to the boxing gym earlier in the day and I wouldn't feel like doing much else pretty much for the rest of the day. I guess I can live without, though.

Yesterday I finished the day with some capoeira squats, some assisted pistols, some assited 1-arm pushups, some close grip pushups, some triangle pushups, some clap pushups and I also did this one exercise: you start on your knees, do as if you were squating on your knees, just a little bit and propel yourself up so you stand upright without using your hands, just your legs.

went to the boxing gym yesterday. Did 3 rounds skipping, 3 rounds shadow, then like 4.5 rounds heavy bag, and I threw more punches than ever before. I felt very energized. Then did a round of capoeira squats and that torso rotation exercise. Then a round of core exercises and capoeira squats. Then 3 rounds of speed bag. Yesterday was a longer session. I also did some triangle pushups later in the day and some negative chinups.

Today I might just do some tabata burpees and more bodyweight exercises. Only my abs are sore today. Arms and everything else feel alright except for some of my neck muscles.

After two of the busiest days in my life, I finally got to do something today. I ran 2.75 miles in 25 minutes. I was doing fine. I finished the first 2 miles in like 16 minutes, but had a terrible stitch and had to briskly walk for most of the last .75 mile.

Tomorrow thinking about doing tabata burpees and going to the boxing gym.

Been a while. I haven't gone to the boxing gym this month because I'm out of the country. Will be back by August. Have kept exercising, still with no access to weights, either. I've done a lot of circuit training and stuff that challenges not only my strength but also my flexibility (and it makes good cardio. I've done a lot of capoeira exercises for this, can do the capoeira squats flawlessly and lots of back bridges, and I'm working towards the handstand and handstand pushup). And I just feel like today I reached a milestone. After trying and trying to do pistol squats, I read the detailed section on pistols from the naked warrior and for about 1 week I did box-assisted pistols every day, but then, this week, I managed to do like 5 sets of 2 pretty well-performed pistol squats (I mean, I did fall back and to the sides a couple of times, but I would always get back up and manage to do the 2nd rep, and on each set I felt like I could do 1 or 2 more but I didn't wanna push it. I know if I keep doing several mini sets like this whenever I get the chance, I will not get too sore and will improve my form). I feel so strong and accomplished.

Still working towards the 1-arm pushup (I'm waiting for this one before attempting handstands, because since I have no training partner to help me, I wanna make sure my arms/triceps and core stabilizers are stronger before attempting by myself, just in case). I think by the end of the month I'll be either really close or there already, hopefully. I've kept doing tabata burpees too and I'm down to about 16% bodyfat at 84 kilos (I thought for sure it was gonna be more like 20%. Well, I'm pretty sure it was considerably higher a month or 2 ago, cause now I can see more detail in my muscles, especially my core muscles). I really want to get handstand pushups and 1-armed pushups by the end of the summer (by august). Then I'll start lifting weights and go back to boxing.