Can't teach an old Kiwi new tricks.

You're right. I mainly use the gym when I am at work, so it's usually during my lunch break or just before I start my shift..so I'm limited on time quite often.

I have recently got another membership to a gym local to my home that I use when I am off shift, which is really the place I should be getting my assistance exercises in, as I am not limited by time there.
 
Might be a good idea to not be so rushed for time when deadlifting. Get to know it, love it, be intimate with it.

ALSO, updates:

1- Going to Welly today for training at a couple of different gyms. I'll try get some sparring footage if I can, but may not be able to.

2- From what I hear, I might be getting a fight in 4 weeks up North a bit. Not sure I'm even supposed to know this, but if there's a small possibility of a match-up then I'm going to train my ass off for it.
 
26/01/2013:

Muay Thai:

Spent the morning at Combat Room in Welly. After hanging around looking suspicious and trying to find the way in, a dude sitting across the road came and introduced himself as one of the trainers, and said that he'd left his keys at home. We got in a while later, and started with a basic warm-up, some shadow boxing, then a small bit of bag work. Some guys skipped, other guys did whatever. It was pretty relaxed. After that a structured warm-up, running across the mats, doing lunges, sprints, rolls, etc.
From there we went into sparring. Combat Room is a fight gym- the guys who were there mostly were amateur fighters, some with more experience than others, most of them more experienced than me. We started off quite light, but some of the guys picked the intensity up pretty quickly. I remember blocking one head kick, and somehow the guy's knee hit my nose, so I spent the rest of the day with a crusty red nostril. About an hour later, my left shoulder started playing up, so I decided to stop using it to punch, and to just try hit with my right instead. I paired up with a fairly aggressive dude shortly after and wound up with a small cut on my lip when he landed a fairly clean right hand. I decided to call it a morning there, watched some more sparring for another 10 minutes and then went off to my next place to train.

Next stop was Jai in Wellington. A more white-collar, business-based gym, but not without its share of fighters. My favourite thing about visiting Jai is the Thai trainers there, there's always something to be learned. At this stage, my left foot was pretty badly swollen (I think from kicking someone's elbow) so I needed to get a new pair of ankle sleeves and got some liniment oil too. Ankle felt much better with these, so I sparred from about 12:30 until about 2, keeping things light.
At 2:15 the structured sparring class began. Started off with boxing for a few rounds, doing sets of push-ups between. After the boxing sparring, moved into doing about 6 rounds of regular sparring, and then finished off with 10-15 minutes of continuous clinching. I enjoy sparring here because it's usually lighter, more technical, the way that Thais do, and the fighters there are technically skilled too. After that, 200 running knees and then 100 push kicks on the bag nonstop. Dead afterwards.

No pictures or video though.
 
Chapter 2: Unleashening of the Beast (Also, fixing my shit some more)

So, I've been told that I have a fight in 4 weeks at 68kg. Primary focus from here on out is conditioning- I'll also run a cycle of 5/3/1 for athletes at the same time I'm building up to this fight. Last week I'll actually follow the de-load protocol, what with there being a fight right around the bend and all that.
I realize that a lot of people here are biased against using circuits for conditioning, but they are going to feature in my log semi-regularly. I can't stand the thought of just running and rowing for conditioning- circuit training is good as a mental break from roadwork and other such things.
Also, going to start including a lot more direct ab work and lower back work, plus some muscular endurance work.
We're about to see the total volume of my training increase quite significantly.
 
28/01/2013:

AM:

Prehab:

Just 2 sets of 15 reps of elbow-supported rotations each arm.


Core:
Rollouts, 10 reps at BW, 5 reps +10kg, 2 sets of 5 reps +20kg, 20 reps at BW
Hanging leg raises, 3 sets of 10 reps
Russian twists, 3 sets of 20 reps with 10kg
Dumbbell side bends, 3 sets of 8 reps with 32kg
Back extension, 3 sets of 10 with 20kg


Muay Thai:
Warmed up with a nice 20-30 minute run (and when I say nice, I mean horrible). After a short rest, got changed and did 5 x 3-minute rounds on the heavy bags. No particular focus, just getting work done. Each round started with 20 kicks. 30 seconds rest between rounds. Now I have to rest up until training tonight. Got a text from my trainer earlier saying to remember to bring running shoes- I have a bad feeling about this...


PM:

Muay Thai:
Warmed up with a few minutes of skipping, followed by a 2-3km run. We ran to a nearby park, where our trainer had set out some cones for shuttles. Did 3 conditioning routines, 6 cones set out in a rectangle. First conditioning circuit:

Shuttle 10m, 20m
10 push-ups
Shuttle
10 sit-ups
Shuttle
10 burpees
Shuttle
10 mountain climbers
Shuttle
10 squats

Rested 1:30 between each round. Had to decrease our time between each round. First round was about 3:10. Next round had to be 2:50 or less, last round had to be 2:40 or less. Made it in 2:30 on the last round. Jogged around the park for a lap to recover, and then:

Start at a cone in the middle of the left hand side of the rectangle, lying down. As fast as possible, touch each cone, returning to the start cone between touching each cone. Each set took about 30 seconds to do, about 2-3 minutes rest between each set while everyone else did their session. Another slow jog to recover.

Finished the conditioning with a fireman's carry and sprint workout. Being carried upside down on someone's shoulder made me feel a bit like chundering, but I kept it down. 2 of the 6 who did the workouts did spew though.

Finished off by jogging back to the gym, having a quick stretch, and then doing 5 or 6 rounds of sparring, not too heavy.

Ate butter chicken and now feel like going to go die in bed.
 
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Nice to hear you've got a fight sorted, will you be posting it on here after?
 
Good luck Kiwi. I was exhausted just reading that!
 
Nice training! Let us become beasts together! What happened with that other fight? Or is this latest one confirmation of the match up?
 
Also, going to start including a lot more direct ab work and lower back work, plus some muscular endurance work.

Don't forget muscular endurance of the pulling muscles located in your arms- for clinch, etc. I hear that this can be developed by taking dumbbells or a barbell in your hands with a fully extended arm by your sides, and then flexing the arms at the elbow joint in order to bring the weight up to your shoulder. I hear that 5 sets of 12-15, followed by successive sets to failure with lighter and lighter weights, is particularly effective for developing endurance in these muscles.
 
Good luck Kiwi. I was exhausted just reading that!

Cheers!

Nice training! Let us become beasts together! What happened with that other fight? Or is this latest one confirmation of the match up?

This latest fight is a confirmation for a match-up in 4 weeks time. Not at the show I was thinking of, but it should be a good show. Last fight I had (in November) was a split win for me.

Don't forget muscular endurance of the pulling muscles located in your arms- for clinch, etc. I hear that this can be developed by taking dumbbells or a barbell in your hands with a fully extended arm by your sides, and then flexing the arms at the elbow joint in order to bring the weight up to your shoulder. I hear that 5 sets of 12-15, followed by successive sets to failure with lighter and lighter weights, is particularly effective for developing endurance in these muscles.

Jauntyyyyyyyy, baby, check through my last strength training entries- curls have been used, no sweat.
 
Jauntyyyyyyyy, baby, check through my last strength training entries- curls have been used, no sweat.

Yes, after going back a few pages, I see that curls were done on the 25th. But that is three days with no curls now, which is about the maximum time you can not curl without your awesomeness/athleticism/manliness levels starting to decrease.
 
29/01/2013:

AM:

Conditioning:
Treadmill sprints. 60 second walk at 4k, 60 second jog at 10k, and then 60 seconds on 60 seconds off for 6 sets. Increased the speed each set. Sets were performed at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20k.

I hate running.


Muay Thai:
5 x 3-minute bag rounds, done after sprints. First round was focusing on 1-2-left roundhouse. Second round, 2-3-right roundhouse. Third round, jab-teep-right roundhouse. Fourth round, 1-1-cross to the body. Last round was pyramid kicks, 1 to 5 and back again, each leg, for as many reps as possible.

Core:
Finished the morning session with some higher-rep floor work. 3 sets of 20 reps each of sit-ups, crunches with feet in the air, and leg raises. Abs have bad soreness from yesterday, so this was fucking painful.

PM:

Muay Thai:
Sparring. Started off with a few 3-minute rounds of 3-step sparring, followed by more rounds of regular sparring. In the last round of sparring, I may have kinda accidentally split someone's eyebrow when a knee that wasn't meant to connect connected. Feel super shit about this, because now he'll need stitches (no maybes about that) and that's going to put him out of training for a couple weeks. Feel like a **** for that, but accidents do happen, and I'll take more care in future. Anyway, I held pads for my training partner for a few rounds, then he held for me.


Notes:
Body is feeling the strain of twice-daily training sessions, as well as the increased intensity. Looking forward to a less intense day tomorrow (weight training and LSD). Hopefully I'll adapt to the training in time to be able to take advantage of it. Oh, and still don't know who I'm fighting.
 
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So you plan to set up some circuit training? I'd like a look at that. Would you be using them for aerobic training or anaerobic? I'm thinking of doing something myself as running on top of all my training is a little hard on the joints.

Another thing: how did you approach fighting without shin-guards? I'm 6 weeks out from my first. Did you do shin-guardless sparring? Did you feel it during the fight? Just curious. My mentality is basically, well, shits gonna hurt just gotta push through it!
 
So you plan to set up some circuit training? I'd like a look at that. Would you be using them for aerobic training or anaerobic? I'm thinking of doing something myself as running on top of all my training is a little hard on the joints.

Another thing: how did you approach fighting without shin-guards? I'm 6 weeks out from my first. Did you do shin-guardless sparring? Did you feel it during the fight? Just curious. My mentality is basically, well, shits gonna hurt just gotta push through it!

Yeah, I'll do some circuit training. It's definitely mostly anaerobic, but because it takes longer than, say, a couple minutes there will be some aerobic carryover (obviously different to the type you'd get from LISS). If you feel that your joints are taking a pounding, then you can always look into other forms of cardio.

Also, with regards to the whole no shinguards thing, I might do one or two light sessions without them, but in all honesty I've never felt anything on my shins in the ring during the actual fight. As long as you kick good, heavy bags, pads, and spar frequently you should be fine.
 
30/01/2013:

Strength:

Squat: 5/3/1 reps: 5 x 90kg, 5 x 97.5kg, 5+ x 102.5kg (8 reps)

Bench: 5/3/1 reps: 6 x 60kg, 5 x 65kg, 5+ x 67.5kg (10 reps)

Chin-ups: 5 x BW, 5 x 15kg, 3 x 3 x 25kg

RDL: 5 x 60kg, 5 x 80kg, 2 x 5 x 90kg

DB incline press: 8 x 22kg, 2 x 8 x 26kg, 12 x 26kg


Back on 5/3/1 for athletes again, taking advantage of a low-frequency training programme. Feels good.
 
31/01/2013:

AM:

Core:
Dragon flags, 3 sets of 4 reps. Made me feel like my head was about to explode.
V-ups, 3 sets of 15 reps
Pallof presses, 3 sets of 10 reps each side with 50lbs
Back extensions, 2 sets of 20 reps


Cardio:
A good 5km run in the 30-degree heat. Sweated buckets. Also, still fucking hate running.


PM:

Muay Thai:
Warmed up with some more phone boxing with the beginners. I had my 10oz gloves on, as I was trying to get a feel for them on the bags, and forgot to switch them out before we started. Switched to wearing 16oz gloves for regular sparring. Sparred for a while, and then got put through the gauntlet. 10 minutes, a fresh opponent each minute. Shit was rough, but people said I did okay, so that's good I guess.
 
Explain, por favor.

Boxing starting in close, elbows touching your partner's. The reason it's called that is supposedly that you should be able to do it inside of a phone booth since you're sticking so close to each other.
 
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