DrBdan Presents: Operation Bench Press (2013)

[DrBdan]

Still got plans to fight / do another smoker? (sorry not read you log for a while so you may have already mentioned it)

Yeah I'd like to do another smoker. I feel like this would be my first real fight since the one I did in 2009 was against another guy from my gym and was more like sparring than an actual fight.

They are sending some guys down to Iowa for a big MT tournament at the end of June so I think they are hoping to do two more in-house events before then to get guys more experience, probably March and May. May might be a consideration for me, it really depends on how training goes.

 

[DrBdan]

Thurs Feb 21, 2013

Muay Thai

I was running a bit late and then my wife called me right as I got to the gym so I missed half of the warm-up. Did 5 minutes of skipping and then joined the class for about 10 minutes of ab work. Abs... so sore.

combo!!
- jab, cross, hook, cross, block 2 punches, jab, cross, jab, cross
- above plus switch left kick, switch back to cross
- catch right kick, right knee, pass the caught leg, right kick

Pretty long combo today. Focus was on making it flow and transitioning cleanly between offence and defense. I felt really relaxed today so the combo flowed pretty well. My partner was taller than me and had long legs so for the right knee I really had to extend my hips.

- 200 straight punches

Next both partners put on gloves and one had a belly pad. We practiced using teeps to defend punches. One partner would throw jab/cross, the other would block, then another jab/cross and the other partner would teep instead of blocking. We did this for a while and then gave the guy with the belly pad the option to defend the teep. After that we added fake teep to knee. We did this for a while, one partner trying to land the second jab/cross, the other trying to counter.

Burnout
- 2 burpees, jab, cross, right elbow, right knee
- 2 burpees, jab, cross, body cross, left hook, double right kick
- 2 right kicks, 2 left kicks run back and forth across mat

Each round was 2 minute. 10 burpees after round 1, 20 burpees after round 2, 30 burpees after round 3. I only did 10 burpees after round 3 because I was going to fall over.

I felt pretty good today which is surprising since I haven't slept well this week. I guess it helped having Monday off so this is my 3rd day of training in a row instead of 5th. I did well in the teep partner drill but my partner was very inexperienced so it was to be expected. Still builds some confidence.

I've noticed over the last year that my hip flexibility has really improved, most likely due to training Muay Thai regularly. I can now throw a head kick without too much trouble (I still occasionally lose my balance backwards) and more importantly I can get my knee up higher and faster for teeps. I always felt like teeps shoulld be a good weapon for me because I'm tall and lanky (my round kicks are solid) but my lack of hip flexibility made it hard to fire them off fast enough to be effective. So booyah, bring on the teeps!!

EDIT: In related news, my gym is opening a new location in the East end on Monday. They will have classes from 6:15-7:45 which is sweet because the gym is about 20 minutes from my house meaning I can be done and home by 8:30 instead of 9:30-9:45 when I train at their downtown location. I probably won't be able to spar there but I can at least do pad work there and spar downtown. I'm not sure who the head trainer is going to be so that might affect my decision as well.

 

[DrBdan]

Fri Feb 22, 2013

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, DCSW

- Bench
45x10
75x6
95x4
115x2
135x2
155x6
155x6
155x6

Solid, good bar speed today.

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x3
255x3

Felt rusty since I missed squatting last week, blah.

- Chins:
3 sets each of regular, close grip, wide grip overhand. 4 reps/set. The last few times I tried sets of 5 and failed to hit all the reps so I dropped back to 4 this time. It was pretty easy so I'll try 5 again next week.

On Tuesday I accidentally left my ankle weights by the flat bench and when I came into the gym today someone had pushed them to the side but they were still there. Good stuff.

 

[DrBdan]

Tues Feb 26, 2013

sleep: 6 hours (1:30-7:30)

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, DCSW

- Bench
45x10
75x6
95x4
115x2
135x2
155x1
177x6 (+0 reps)
177x5
157x3
157x3
157x3

My form felt solid today but the reps weren't there. I didn't get enough sleep and I feel like I'm catching a cold so that doesn't help obviously.

- Chins
Ladder: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/3,4 (35 reps total). Not bad.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

WOuld you compete in Iowa?

 

[DrBdan]

Probably not, I don't feel like I have enough experience. I guess I wouldn't rule it out but usually those spots are reserved for the more experienced amateur fighters.

 

[DrBdan]

Wed Feb 27, 2013

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x1
225x5
255x3
275x1
285x1

Solid. I took a break between 45 and 95 to talk to my friend. He's trying to work his way up to 255x50 and currently is at two sets of 115x30. I'm not exactly sure why, I think he said he read about some really strong guy that would do super high rep sets. Anyway, I probably should have warmed up more because I didn't feel warmed up enough for 255x3. The reps didn't feel that great so instead of jumping to 285 and I did 275. It was easy so I decided to do 285 after all and it was solid. It should be considering that it's only about 84% of my max.

- Chins:
3 sets regular, 3 close grip, 3 wide group overhand: 5/5/5, 5/5/5, 5/3/3 (41 reps). This is better than last time I attempted sets of 5 and it's more total reps than I did 9 sets of 4 so I'm going to stick with work sets of 5. Slow progress is still progress.

 

[casperthegst]

Bdan what did your schedule look like when you were running the texas method as far as mma and lifting? I am trying to decide how much conditioning can be done with it or at least can be adapted to. This run on starting strength has been great and I was planning on playing some pickup basketball games as conditioning with lifting as priority. I was thinking about running 531 but I really want to give texas method another go as I think I will have better results this time through sense I've got diet and technique in check this time.

 

[DrBdan]

Hey casper. I've never done the Texas Method while doing Muay Thai. I think if I tried to do both together it would run me into the ground. I ran TM in Fall 2010 and 2011. This is what I did in Fall 2010:

Sun - Ice Hockey
Mon - Volume Day
Tues - Rest
Wed - Light day / Floor hockey
Thurs - C2 rower intervals
Fri - Intensity Day
Sat - Rest

When I ran it again in Fall 2011 I wasn't playing floor hockey anymore and I also dropped the rowing from Thursday so my schedule was just hockey on Sunday and then Texas Method M/W/F. If I was trying to fit Muay Thai or MMA training into the TM I'd probably do it on Sat/Tues/Wed so that I had Sun and Thurs as rest days before the two hardest days of the TM. If possible I'd also try to take it easy on Tuesday because usually I felt pretty destroyed after Monday's volume day.

 

[DrBdan]

I took Friday off to make my cat to the vet again. She's very sick and we are now giving her a bunch of meds and sub-q fluids every night. If she doesn't respond to this we'll probably have to put her down

I was also heading out of town to visit my parents so between that and driving my wife to/from work I didn't have time to lift. I have to drop by the vet tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment on Tues, a funeral on Wednesday, and then I have to schedule another vet appointment for Thurs or Fri so I probably won't get much training in this week. Balls.

Sun March 3, 2013

Hockey
It's late so this will be quick. First game of the playoffs and we won 5-3. Their top guy took a high sticking penalty on the first shift of the game (caught our d-man in the throat actually) and that seemed to make him a bit cautious the rest of the game.

It was a pretty close game, they were up 2-1, we made scored twice to make it 3-2 but they quickly answered to make it 3-3. We scored with about 3 minutes left to take the lead 4-3 and then potted an empty net goal to win 5-3.

I had a great game though I scored no points. I drew a few penalties, killed a few penalties, and generated a bunch of good chances. The important thing is the win of course.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Shitty news about the cat, Doc!
Diagnosis?

Apparently my cat, Perseus (represented below by the orange cat) hopes for a speedy recovery!

 

[DrBdan]

My cat became very constipated over the Xmas holidays and stopped eating. When cats don't eat for a few days it can lead to rapid weight loss and liver issues. It didn't help that it started over the holidays because we probably didn't notice it as quickly as we would have otherwise.

She was so constipated that some laxatives and an enema didn't work. She had to stay overnight a couple times and the vet was eventually able to clean her out, so to speak, but they suspect that there was some damage to her colon. That was in mid-January and she still isn't eating a lot and has continued to lose weight since then. She had blood work done in early Jan that showed that her liver values were slightly elevated but not alarming however when she had it done again in early Feb they were worse which is a bad sign.

On Friday the vet gave me three options:

- Aggressive medication plus sub-q fluids for a week
- Ultrasound to figure out if something else is causing all this (e.g. cancer)
- Put her down

The ultrasound will be rather expensive and most likely will tell us that A) something incurable like cancer is causing this and we have to put her down or B) nothing else is wrong and it's just a vicious circle of lack of appetite->weight loss->liver issues->lack of appetite etc

The fluids and meds weren't too expensive so I went with that and it's pretty much the last ditch effort. She gets 3 pills, 2 injections, and sub-q fluids so if that doesn't help then nothing will. She seems to be feeling a bit better after doing it for a couple days but her appetite is still up and down. She didn't eat much yesterday but ate a lot this morning so hopefully that's a sign that she is improving.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Oh man. Best of Luck Doc.
We really get a sense of what it would be like if our Health Care system was fully private, eh?

Anyway, hope things get better!

 

[DrBdan]

Thanks. Yeah I can't imagine what it would cost for all this for a human instead of a cat!

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Thanks. Yeah I can't imagine what it would cost for all this for a human instead of a cat!

The sad part would be having to chose your care based on what you can afford as opposed to simply getting it checked and having the proper course of action prescribed or requested. Couldn't imagine having to make decisions like that for my son, as an example...

 

[miaou]

Good luck for your cat, DrB.

I fucking love cats.

 

[LitteringAnd]

Sorry about the cat Doc. Hope all works out ok.

 

[DrBdan]

Oh hai log!

Thurs March 7, 2013

Muay Thai

I was actually there early so I did a bit of skipping and stretching and then teeped the teardrop bag for a few minutes. Warm-up had a lot of lower body stuff and no ab work at all.

combo:
- cross, hook, cross, right kick

Today we focused on footwork and maintaining your stance and balance. We'd throw the combo, step to the left and our partner would throw a kick that we'd check. We'd do that over and over moving in a square. Obviously the focus was on footwork and maintaining proper stance and balance so you could get our leg up fast enough to check. Later we added cross defence so your partner could choose to kick or punch but same idea.

- 200 punches, 200 knees, 100 teeps. This took about 10 minutes, very tough.

Clinch work. We started on our knees warming up with basic pummeling. After that we worked with overhooks. The goal was to keep your opponent from getting their hands on your neck (double neck tie) while also working for an overhook or two.

We then practiced transitioning from double overhook to a single overhook with the other hand on the side/back of their head so you can push them down into a knee. After that we practiced a counter throw when you caught in a single overhook. You basically use the overhook to pull them toward you and off-balance, then knee their thigh to put them off balance then twist and dump them.

The burnout was a 4 minute round. Our partner would call out something (jab/cross, right kicks, teeps etc) and we would do 10. For the final minute we did 2 right kicks, 2 burpees, 2 left kicks, 2 burpees. 10 push-ups to finish.

Did some stretching and chins afterward. For chins I did as many sets of 5 as possible, I got 6 sets plus 3 reps (33 reps total).

For some reason my sweat was incredibly salty last night, it was pretty gross. I wonder if it's because I hadn't trained all week and had been eating kinda crappy so salt was building up in my system. That would explain why I felt kinda bloated and fat /womantalk.

 

[DrBdan]

For those that commented, my cat is doing better. The additional fluids really seemed to help as she has more energy now and is eating a bit more. I took her to the vet yesterday and she is up 0.1 kg. She's not out of the woods but at least she's finally moving in the right direction. The vet dropped her two injections so now it's just a few pills and the fluids every night. She isn't pooping every day but hopefully as she gets more energy and eats more she will get back to being regular.

If she gets back to 100% health the good thing is that she will have lost weight. She was actually overweight before so this has been an expensive way of making her lose weight. The next challenge is getting my other cat to lose weight (he is currently around 23 lb and needs to get under 20 to avoid diabetes).

Fri March 8, 2013

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, DCSW

- Bench
45x10
75x6
95x4
115x3
135x2
155x6
155x6
155x6

Solid. My shoulder were a bit sore from MT last night but the reps were smooth.

- Chins
Ladder: 1/2/3/4/5/6/5,5.

 

[DrBdan]

Sun March 10, 2013

Hockey
Second game of the round robin. We lost 4-3 in a shoot out and were eliminated from the playoffs via tie-breaker. We were 1 skater short of a full team which is never good (not enough ice time makes it hard to get into the game) and we lost our top guy in the second period. It was a bullshit call and the referees in general were terrible today.

We controlled a lot of the play in the 1st and 3rd periods and had our chances but couldn't convert. We were down 3-1 with about 5 minutes left and we rallied to force overtime so we had the momentum but couldn't score. They won the shootout 2-1 which is a shitty way to end the season.

We have some time to sit and stew about it as the Summer season doesn't start until May. It was a good season overall but a shitty end.