The Country Bumpkin Training Experience (MMA Conditioning)

-Basic Stats-
Age: 21
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 226.8 (Trying to get to 185-190)
I moved from Cali to Montana for the summer to get back in shape.

After my last fight I took about 4 months off to party with my friends and eat good food. No training whatsoever. I know, it was pretty stupid. Anyway, i went from 190 up to 235.

So, I decided I don't want to be a fatass anymore so I moved from Cali to montana for the summer so I can isolate myself and train while helping out around my mothers farm.

I have no jiujitsu or striking coaches up here, just some dumbbells, a swiss ball, a 6 pound medicine ball, and a jumprope.

My goal is to burn all this fat off while toning muscle. I spent the last few days writing up this schedule for my training and I think it is pretty good for what I want to accomplish, maybe in a few months i will switch it up to start making strength gains.

Ive adjusted my diet and started my training yesterday, I look forward to hearing any tips/criticisms that you guys might have.

That being said, here is the workout schedule I came up with:

Mon: Cardio, Upper Body
Tue: Cardio, Core, Shadowboxing with emphasis on punches
Wed: Cardio, Lower Body
Thur: Cardio, Core, Shadowboxing with emphasis on Knees & Kicks
Fri: Cardio, Upper
Sat: Cardio, Lower, Core
Sun: Day Off.


and here are some of the exercises I will be doing, if you guys can think of anything I should add, i would really appreciate your input.

Upper body:

Pushups
Widegrip Pushups
Swissball Pushups (feet on the ball)
Medicineball Crossover Pushups
Medicineball Explode and hold one arm pushups (dont know what these are called)
Medicineball spikes
Curls
Overhead Press
Dumbbell Snatch
Bent over Rows (one handed and two handed)
Skull Crushers
Medicineball Throw n' Sprint (Basically like throwing a chest pass, and then sprinting to it, repeat)
Knee drop Pushups

Lower Body:

Squats
Turkish Squats
Survival Drops
Lunges
Ceiling/Floor (Basically touch the ground and then jumpwith arms up)
Turkish Get-ups

Core:

Plank
Side Bridge
Swissball Crunches
Supermans
Side Bends
Reach and catch crunches
Feet on Swissball Twist crunches
Swiss Twists (Basically like a russian twist except on the swiss ball)
Medicineball Sit-ups (situp with medicine ball on chest, and then when I go down my partner drops it on my stomach, repeat)

Cardio:

Jump Rope
Footwork& Light Shadowbox
Jumping Jacks
Jogging



there it is.

Now on to the log.

 

5/28/08, Wednesday.

Cardio and Lower body

17 Min. Cardio(Jumprope, Jogging)
Squats 2x25
Turkish Squats 1x25
Survival drop 1x50



Had more planned but had to stop because my lower back was hurting pretty bad.
damn im a fatass.

 

5/29/08, Thursday

Cardio and Core

20 Min. Cardio(Jumprope, Jogging, Shadowboxing)
KneePlank 2x90 sec.
KneeSidebridge 2x90 sec.(2 sets on each side)
Swissball Crunches 1x50
Superman 2x25
Reach N' Catch 1x25
Sidebend 2x25 with 15lbs. (2 sets per side)
Swiss Twists 2x50 (with 6lb. medicine ball)
Medicineball Situps 1x25

It was easier than I expected, except for the cardio, the cardio is definately harder with this extra 40 pounds ive got around my waist. But I suppose its the only way to get rid of it.

 

Any advice, recommendations, or general critique would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thats a lot of cardio. What about some sprints? Honestly it looks like your doing way to much and what you are actually doing can be better replaced by just one or two much more efficient exercises. Like ab wheel rollouts..

 

i dont have an ab wheel. why is it too much? does doing too many variations of an exercise slow results? Should I stick with just one or two exercises and up the sets on them?




Also, i just read this so i will be changing the order of my workout:

Glycogen stores are stores of energy that your body uses during weight training and cardiovascular exercise. Although, during weight training glycogen stores are the only energy source used. Thus, completing your cardiovascular routine before weight training will substantially deplete your energy (glycogen) stores needed to complete a proper weight training program. Also, completing your weight training before your cardiovascular program significantly decreases you glycogen stores. So, when you begin your cardiovascular training your body burns less glycogen and more of your stored fat. In summary, to reach you optimal fat burning stages and to have the proper energy to utilize an exercise program, complete your weight training before you cardiovascular training.

 

5/30/08, Friday

Cardio, Upper body day.

So today I worked out before breakfast thinking that because my body had burned off glycogen stores throughout the night, I would burn extra fat. I think this was wrong, as my upper body workout was extremely difficult to get through and i felt a bit weak.

I think from now on i will do cardio before breakfast and then eat and rest a few hours before doing my strength/muscular endurance type stuff.

anyway heres what i did today.


Pushups 1x20
Widegrip Pushups 1x20
Medicineball Crossover Pushups 1x2 (i know, im a weakling)
Medicineball Spikes 2x25
Curls 1x25 (15lbs.)
Overhead Press 1x20 (15 lbs.)
Dumbbell Snatch 1x20(per hand, 40 total,
15 lbs.)
Bent over rows 1x20(15lbs)
Onehanded bent over rows 1x10 (15lbs)
Skullcrushers 1x15 (15lbs)
Medicineball Throw/Sprint 1x20
Kneedrop Pushups 1x10 (struggled to get through these ones)

17 Min. Cardio (jumprope, jogging, footwork, jumping jacks)




yup. I was gonna do 20 minutes of cardio but i was dying. also i was shooting for 1 set of 10 on the medicineball crossovers, but could only do 2, and then after that i was gonna do the Medicine ball explode n hold, but i was too weak to do even 1.

Later on in the night I decided to post up a score for the monthly challenge(snatches) so i did:

Dumbbell Snatches 15lbs, 93 reps.

Also my diet is pretty much like this.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal w/ 1/2 cup raisins and 1 tbsp. honey. 2 fried eggs.

mid afternoon: Protein shake with 1 1/2 scoops whey and 20 oz water

lunch random proteins with random veggies. (beef, turkey, deer, elk, pork, fish.... greenbeans, peas, squash, corn, etc.) Also I try to stay away from dairy and starchy carbs (except for breakfast when i have oatmeal)

Now I know pork isnt allowed on the gracie diet, but is there a reason?


Any advice anyone?

 

Have you checked out rosstraining.com yet?

 

a while back... why do you ask? is there something there i am missing? (other than high intensity sprints, which i plan on starting soon, i just wanted to build up my legs endurance first)

 

ok, so i just looked at rosstraining again and decided in a week or so(next time i go to town) i am going to get stuff to make an abwheel and hopefully a sandbag.

As soon as I get these i will switch up my training regimen to where i will do 3 days a week of overall body stuff, doing compound movements and supersets. and 2 days a week doing strictly core stuff. I will also be doing HII sprints instead of my 20 minute cardio.

but for the time being, im gonna stick with this to cut some of this fat off. (hopefully... i dunno if this is the right plan, i wish someone would help me out here)

 

5/31/08 Saturday

Lower, Core, Cardio


I went to town today and didnt get back till around 7, and I was too lazy to do cardio, and my abs are still hurting from the medicineball slams yesterday, so heres what i did.

I started by doing the monthly snatch challenge, even though i did upper body yesterday(and did the snatch challenge yesterday) but today was the last day, so i had to do it and post up a better score.

3 minutes of snatches!
104 reps, 20lbs.= 2080 lbs.


Hindu squats1x25
Survival Drops 2x25
Squats 1x25
Ceiling/Floor(jumpsquats) 1x25


yup. thats it. i skipped my cardio and core stuff.

 

oops. double post.

 

No offense, buy why are you doing those gay weights? It looks like you're getting plenty of cardio in even without it. Why not get stronger on the way to improved cardio?

 

What do you mean? like cut out all the weights and bodyweight stuff and just do strictly cardio?

 

Sorry, I was just curious why you weren't including heavy weights in your program.

 

its because i dont have very much weight to work with right now. soon im gonna build a sandbag and hopefully get my hands on a tractor tire and a sledge.


so why do you say i should cut out the bodyweight stuff? or did i misinterpret what you said

 

Sunday- my day of rest.


im gonna go fishing in a little bit, hopefully ill catch a whole shatload of fish so i will have some good food for the week(or at least a few days.)

booyah.

 

6/02/08 - Monday

Upper & Cardio day...

Well, I didnt catch any fish yesterday, it started raining as soon as i got there so I said fuck it and went home after about 15 minutes. anyway, on to the training!
Todays training basically sucked. Couldnt do very much cardio cuz my knee was hurtin, couldnt do pushups cuz mywrist was hurtin. GHEY!

so heres what i did.

Shadowboxing 1x3 min. Round(warmup)
Curls 1x25 (15lb. dumbbells)
Medicineball Spikes 2x25
Burpees - 10 (wrist and knee wouldnt allow more)
Floorpress 1x25 (15 lb. dumbbells)
Floorpunch 1x15 (15lb. dumbbells)
FloorFlyes 1x15 (15 lb. dumbbells)


I know, today was a sissy day, hopefully ill be able to make up for it tommorrow. and hopefully ill be able to get a sandbag and a chinup bar soon so i can transition to a strength phase. Oh yeah, im gonna try and get a tractor tire and sledge as well. I feel like my muscular endurance phase only needs to go for a few more weeks before im ready to go to a strength workout, so yeah... Im looking forward to being able to work with some REAL weight.



This is starting to become more like a diary than a training log... its pretty much me making notes to myself.

whateva.

 

6/03/08 Tuesday

Core and Cardio day

Shadowboxing 1x5 min. round (warmup)
Kneeplank 2x90 sec.
Sidebridge 2x90 sec.
Swiss Crunch 2x25
Superman 1x25
Reach N Catch 1x25
Sidebend 2x25 (15 lb. Dumbbell)
SwissTwist 2x25
Cardio 13 min. (jogging, jumprope, jumping jacks, footwork)



I was shooting for 20 min. of cardio but my right knee is still a little sore. i need to quit being so fat so my knees can function properly.

Also, today is the second day that I have been using Apple Cider Vinegar PWO, and I feel great, I havent noticed a huge difference in fat loss yet, but as far as muscle recovery, im amazed!



that is all.
goodbye.

 

A picture for the before/after comparison type thing.
Taken today, 06/03/08

Weight: 220.6