Overhead press
140 x 3
160 x 3
180 x 5
Last set super-set with 10 chin-ups
137.5 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 9
Super-set with weighted chin-ups
30 x 5 x 10
Giant sets
Dips: 2 x 10
Keg curls: 150 x 20, 15
Lateral raises: 15 x 15, 10
Steady progress with every session. Calorie intake is up, but carbs are low in the morning at work and late at night. I’m due for a weigh-in one of these mornings. Feels like I’m around 200 lbs.
Yesterday: 3.20 mile jog in 37.50. This morning was another 5 minute jump-rope round followed by 60 crunches.
20 ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells in 6:38
5 minutes of burpee chins
5 minute round on the heavy bag
Did 10 ABCs without a rest pause, followed by 5, 3, then 2. Wasn’t pushing the reps or pace because of my back, which held up but has been in more pain on the lower right-side than usual lately. Burpee chins felt very tonic for my back and I woke-up the next day feeling good, while yesterday there was morning pain.
Remembered this time to actually do 3 squats instead of just 2.
Boxing was a good technical session yesterday. Rotated through partners 3 times so got a good mix of people to work with. Simple combos were practiced while taking turns throwing, but my first partner was the big fella I spar so practicing my sense of distance with him was helpful.
Something I’m experiencing more in boxing than I did in Muay Thai was entering the mindless state where my body moves on its own without thinking. My accuracy with kicks was never great so I’d overthink things in Muay Thai, but in boxing I can just flow. Really experienced that with these partner combos, need to channel that in sparring. I still practice kicks and knees on the heavy bag at home, by the way; don’t want to lose my technique on them.
I think if I deadlifted heavy today, my back will pay for it tomorrow. I will do some manner of lower-body training, but probably not heavy deads. Belt squats and leg curls are what I’m thinking.
Got set-up to deadlift on Saturday, but I worked up to 495 and called it a day after 2 reps. Every rep felt like a slow grind and I had a headache from poor sleep. I’m pleased that I didn’t have any failed rep attempts, which used to plague me.
My brother was visiting from Seattle so I took him out to dinner with my girlfriend at our favorite local Italian spot. When I ordered the lobster fettuccine I was NOT expecting an entire lobster dwarfing the pasta portion, so that was an awesome surprise.
On Sunday I received a text from the sparring coach inviting me to spar one of his fighters on Thursday, so that just about made my day after going to sign-up for classes and seeing the announcement that there will again be no sparring on Tuesday.
Sunday after the press workout: 3 rounds, 3 minutes each of shadowboxing, using VR boxing sim Thrill of the Fight
4 hill sprints followed by a 15 minute jog afterwards.
Noticed my left shoulder was feeling a little achy.
Monday morning: 5 minute round of jump-rope
Evening: 8 minute jump-rope round
3.4 mile jog in 36:22
Tuesday morning: another 5 minute round of skipping rope before work. This is pretty much a daily ritual except on squat days.
Been enjoying mixing in the VR headset for training sometimes. It’s like enhanced shadowboxing.
21 ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells in 6:03
5 minute heavy bag round
5 minutes of burpee chins
5 minute heavy bag round
Improved my time and added a rep on the ABCs. First go was 11 reps unbroken. Left shoulder feels better and I experienced no pain while pressing or hitting the bag.
Burpee chins have been excellent for gently decompressing my back. It was feeling great throughout the day, but sleep made it feel stiff again. Pain in my right side has diminished, at least. I’ve opted not to back squat until after sparring on Thursday - can’t risk my back getting worse, and it’s been feeling better overall from the break.
I’ve got this, not done it for a while but my goodness me I’ve never sweated so much in my life, and no ones firing back at me for real, shows how insane boxing conditioning is, been enjoying watching songs classic fights on YouTube recently, absolutely love it.
Will there be an opportunity to get a competitive fight in for you at some point?
@T3hPwnisher Thanks for bringing that up. I was doing 60+ seconds daily a few months back, but fell out of the habit due to elbow and forearm pain. Now that it’s been getting better I’ve been thinking about starting it up as regular work again. I’ve been doing random hangs here and there about once a week to test how my forearm feels.
@alex_uk That game’s a workout for sure. As far as a fight goes, I’m trying to get more sparring in first. I’ve practiced a lot of defense in class and by myself, but I’m still making amateurish reactionary mistakes when someone is aggressive in sparring. Right now I’m signing up for every single sparring class and accepting every coach invitation, but that still puts me at sparring roughly 3 rounds a month. Sign-ups for the master’s boxing team will be available soon and I’m planning on jumping on that for a roadmap to more ring practice and a fight.
Speaking of which, sparring yesterday was undeniably a fun one, but a bit frustrating in that I once again started out too nice. I’ve sparred this guy before and he tends to go VERY light, to the point that I had to recalibrate my power because I’d just got done doing hard rounds with someone else. This time, it started out that way but he soon switched to harder shots that caught me by surprise. A few times my defense fell apart when he flurried as I fell back into that dumb habit of trying to parry multiple punches, but because his guard was always low, I caught him with a lot of jabs, crosses, and hooks as he was rushing in. We both ate a lot of shots to deliver our own.
My corner coach was the uncle of my previous Muay Thai coach so that was awesome. He advised between rounds to get low and dig to the body because his elbows tend to flare out. I ended up catching him with some hard body shots at the start of round 3. After taking a few of these he surged forward aggressively, some of which I blocked and others that I ate, but he slowed down a lot after this. I heard his corner coach yell out that the round is almost over and to make things count, but he didn’t really come alive after that early round flurry while I ended by peppering him with 1-2s.
My cardio was awesome. Didn’t get tired and wanted to go more rounds. I also procured this shot of me throwing a jab.
Close-grip bench press: 225 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 9
Super-set with dumbbell rows: 115s x 5 x 10
Incline chest flyes: 35s x 12, 50s x 10, 35s x 10
Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls: 50s x 20, 50s x 16, 35s x 20
I could have sworn I already did this workout and hit 290x3, but turns out that was last month. Felt like I had a 5th rep of 295 in me, but Jim Wendler advises not going all-out on the top sets when doing Boring But Big.
Halloween last night was as good as a low-key night could be. I had a dentist at 9:00 a.m. this morning so my girlfriend and I stayed in and watched Halloween episodes of King of the Hill, Simpsons, and The Office. King of the Hill won. We even managed to squeeze in a little roleplaying game time before bed with Champions of Norrath for PS2.
Squats
365 x 5
415 x 3
465 x 1
Drop-down to 405x5, 315x8, 225x10, 135x10
Reverse hyper leg curls
6 plates x 20, 20
I’d been putting this squat day off to let my back recover and it’s been feeling excellent the past several days. Unfortunately this still took its toll. The 465 squat itself felt incredibly light and everything else felt fine until the last set of leg curls, funnily enough, and even then it was faint pain. No problem, I figured; I’m done now anyways. But as the night wore on, my back slowly began to feel worse and worse. Same problem spot that’s been getting my attention lately: lower right side.
While recently reviewing my training log, I noticed that my back tends to like the softer side of my reversable mattress more when it’s in pain. Sure enough, I flipped it to the soft side and when I woke-up to use the restroom, my back didn’t hurt at first. Same deal in the morning. Eventually, back pain set in again, but that’s a promising confirmation considering that waking-up is typically very painful after a back injury.
I have a scheduled deload coming up, and I will almost certainly replace the heavy deadlift day this week with something lighter. I also have belt squats in my arsenal for when it’s time to lift heavy.
Jump roped for 5 minutes yesterday morning and did a good amount of walking rest of the day. 10 minute walk after lunch at work and then a 45 minute evening walk after work. Back is feeling a little better and boxing is still on for this afternoon. Will wear my Cerberus soft belt for support just in case we do a drill with a lot of ducking.
