The Road to One Thousand (Strength, Muay Thai)

[LitteringAnd]

You ever had St. Bernardus ABT 12? It's a Belgian Abbey ale. I'm not a big fan of that style, but this one was incredible.

I love beer and drink it whenever possible, but you guys are on another level. Maybe its because I'm in a small town without the selection you guys have, but since joining this forum I feel like I don't know shit about beer.

 

[toonie]

Also, log needs a video if you have one!!

 

[DrBdan]

Alas, killing it seems a lost art. I am personally grateful to deadlifts for his noble attempt to bring it back.

You ever had St. Bernardus ABT 12? It's a Belgian Abbey ale. I'm not a big fan of that style, but this one was incredible.

Never had it. I'm not really a big fan of Belgian Abbey Ales. My wife bought a Belgian 6 pack on the recommendation of a friend and (3 different beers, 2 of each) and I haven't liked either that I've tried. That ABT 12 beer gets great reviews on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer but from reading the descriptions it doesn't sound like something I'd like. I don't think the LCBO carries it so it's probably a moot point.

Congrats on the deadlift PR doc! So close to 1000!

Thanks. I have a video but I was out late last night and didn't have a chance to upload it. I'll do that tonight.

I love beer and drink it whenever possible, but you guys are on another level. Maybe its because I'm in a small town without the selection you guys have, but since joining this forum I feel like I don't know shit about beer.

Haha yeah it can be overwhelming at first. It's only really been the last two years that I've increased the range of my beer drinking. I used to only drink a handful of different beers but once I started trying some of the different stuff it snowballed into trying them on a consistent basis.

 

[scoopj]

I love beer and drink it whenever possible, but you guys are on another level. Maybe its because I'm in a small town without the selection you guys have, but since joining this forum I feel like I don't know shit about beer.

If you ever find a place around you with a decent selection take advantage. It'll open a whole new world!

Never had it. I'm not really a big fan of Belgian Abbey Ales. My wife bought a Belgian 6 pack on the recommendation of a friend and (3 different beers, 2 of each) and I haven't liked either that I've tried. That ABT 12 beer gets great reviews on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer but from reading the descriptions it doesn't sound like something I'd like. I don't think the LCBO carries it so it's probably a moot point.

Same. I had never tried a Belgian Abbey that I enjoyed at all, but this was different. We asked a guy working at Total Wine for his top recommendation in the entire store and it's what he came up with. I don't know what to compare it to. Maybe a nice doppelbock like Ayinger's.

 

[DrBdan]

Deadlift vid added to post 1230 for your viewing pleasure.

 

[scoopj]

Deadlift vid added to post 1230 for your viewing pleasure.

Maybe I'm just an idiot (I'm sure that's the case here) but that plate outside of your last 45 looks bigger than a 10 lb plate. Is it just much thinner?

 

[DrBdan]

Maybe I'm just an idiot (I'm sure that's the case here) but that plate outside of your last 45 looks bigger than a 10 lb plate. Is it just much thinner?

Yeah they are odd plates, you're not the first to comment on them. The 10s have a large diameter but are really thin. They also have holes/handles in them so about 1/3 of the plate is empty space.

 

[toonie]

Easy, easy lift.

"All right!".

 

[DrBdan]

Fri Dec 30, 2011

C2 rower + dynamic stretching

- Low Bar Squats
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x1
255x1
285x1
315x1

I felt a twinge in my back on 315 so I called it a day, no PR. I don't have any back pain now but it feels a little off so I'm glad I didn't push it. 315 wasn't that smooth anyway so I doubt I would have gotten 345.

- Dumbbell rows
25x10
50x5
80x10
80x10
80x10

- Face pulls: level 4, 3x12

Bunch of shoulder dislocations.

 

[DrBdan]

Tues Jan 3, 2012

Muay Thai

First class in over 6 months, holy shit. Warm-up was the usual skipping followed by bodyweight conditioning and a tonne of ab work. I've never been great at this stuff so of course I was dying. Even at my best conditioned (late 2009) I would die during the warm-up but wail on the pads with no problems.

Partnered up and did some combos:

- jab, right elbow, left hook, right uppercut elbow
- above plus jab, cross, jab, cross, right kick, right kick, left teep

We also threw in some rounds of clinch knees. I didn't feel as rusty as I thought I would but my conditioning is terrible.

After this both partners put on belly pads and boxing gloves. We practiced catching jabs and returning a cross and ducking a hook and returing a cross. We also practiced parrying a jab or a cross and teeping back.

We finished with a crazy long burnout of right kicks, left kicks and hooks. We started with double right kicks and then double left kicks. Next we threw 10 hooks standing and then 10 hooks on our knees for 30 seconds with every pad holder before finishing with 1 minute of jab/cross. The burnout took about 10 minutes, brutal.

We finished with a quick stretch.

Notes
On the whole my technique felt better than expected but my conditioning was worse than expected. That's good though because conditioning comes back faster. The class was split between Robert instructing (he's an amateur fighter and he did the warm-up and pad work) and Ajahn. Ajahn did the defensive partner drills and the burnout.

 

[MilkManUK]

Tues Jan 3, 2012

Muay Thai

First class in over 6 months, holy shit. Warm-up was the usual skipping followed by bodyweight conditioning and a tonne of ab work. I've never been great at this stuff so of course I was dying. Even at my best conditioned (late 2009) I would die during the warm-up but wail on the pads with no problems.

Partnered up and did some combos:

- jab, right elbow, left hook, right uppercut elbow
- above plus jab, cross, jab, cross, right kick, right kick, left teep

We also threw in some rounds of clinch knees. I didn't feel as rusty as I thought I would but my conditioning is terrible.

After this both partners put on belly pads and boxing gloves. We practiced catching jabs and returning a cross and ducking a hook and returing a cross. We also practiced parrying a jab or a cross and teeping back.

We finished with a crazy long burnout of right kicks, left kicks and hooks. We started with double right kicks and then double left kicks. Next we threw 10 hooks standing and then 10 hooks on our knees for 30 seconds with every pad holder before finishing with 1 minute of jab/cross. The burnout took about 10 minutes, brutal.

We finished with a quick stretch.

Notes
On the whole my technique felt better than expected but my conditioning was worse than expected. That's good though because conditioning comes back faster. The class was split between Robert instructing (he's an amateur fighter and he did the warm-up and pad work) and Ajahn. Ajahn did the defensive partner drills and the burnout.

Feel tired just reading that, not been to my Muay Thai club since October and probably won't be going for the 1st half of this year at least.

 

[DrBdan]

Feel tired just reading that, not been to my Muay Thai club since October and probably won't be going for the 1st half of this year at least.

Too bad, the longer you're off the harder it is to go back. My legs are soooorrrrre this morning, holy hell.

It doesn't help that I've put on 35 lb since the end of 2009 when I was last trained consistently. I hope that in a month or two my conditioning will be decent again and I will have lost 5-10 lb and I'll be a beast. I'm really interested to see how I'll look and feel when I get back down to 200 lb. In 2009 I was down to 178 at my leanest but even then I didn't have much definition but now I'm stronger and I don't think 180 is a realistic weight anymore but I think I'll feel good around 200. I'm sure if I do a Muay Thai fight Ajahn will want me even lighter, he's crazy like that

 

[DrBdan]

2011 Year In Review

I started the year with a 900 lb big 3 total and a bodyweight of around 210 lb. In January I started running the 5/3/1 as a two day split Mon/Thurs with conditioning on Tues/Fri and hockey on Sunday. My plan was to return to Muay Thai in Febuary but that was delayed by my needing new contacts.

At the beginning of March I changed my routine to lifting one day/week with two days of stairclimber work to get ready for the CN Tower stairclimb plus one day of Ross style bodyweight conditioning to get ready for Muay Thai and BJJ.

By the end of March my hockey team was eliminated from the playoffs after losing both of our round robin playoff games. While we didn't win I had a successful season leading the team in points in the regular season. Unfortunately I ended the season on a cold streak with only 2 assists in our last 5 games and no points in the playoffs.

At the beginning of April I tried out a new Muay Thai/BJJ gym. They teach both separately and don't really focus too much on MMA. Anyway, I tried a bunch of BJJ classes and one Muay Thai class. BJJ was a lot of fun but unfortunately their prices were too high to make it worth my while. For someone that is able to train 4 or 5 days/week it would be a good deal to get top notch BJJ and MT at one gym but for 2 days of training it was too much.

April ended with another try at the CN Tower climb with the goal of breaking 16:00 finally but I was nowhere near, finishing in over 17:00.

At the end of April I started my own two day program with bi-weekly progression and also switched to low bar squats. I also started back at my old Muay Thai gym in April. Unfortunately the Thai master Ajahn Amnat left the gym and the instruction wasn't as good. I stuck with it as the guy that was running the sparring classes was good.

In May my summer season of hockey started. This season we were in a more competitive division and did much better (details farther down). I continued running my two day program with Muay Thai and hockey until the middle of June when I injured my foot. ASUThermo illustrated it for me here, lol:

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/55444067-post879.html

This had me off my feet for about 10 days and after getting back into the gym I promptly pulled 405 for the first time. Unfortunately there was still some swelling so I missed a few weeks of hockey and had to stop Muay Thai. I was back to hockey by mid-July but my foot still wasn't fully healed so I resigned myself to putting MT on hold and switched back to the Texas Method. It actually ended up taking until early September for my foot to be back to 100%.

Back to summer hockey. We had a solid season, I again lead the team in regular season points but also in playoff points this time. We did much better and made it to the finals before falling 6-3.

September brought the start of another season of hockey. Again we are in a competitive division and we are currently tied for first in our division. I'm currently second on the team in points as one of our better players returned to the team after taking the summer off.

I ran Texas Method until November when I did a pieced together program until December. In December I tried a class at a different Muay Thai gym but around that time I heard that Ajahn Amnat had returned to my old gym so I decided to not switch and return to my old gym in January.

I finished the year with a big 3 total of 970 at a bodyweight of 218-220.

 

[DrBdan]

Wed Jan 4, 2012

Mobility/Recovery Day

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, Agile 8, shoulder dislocations, face-pulls.

 

[scoopj]

I remember you getting back from your foot injury only to pull 4 plates. I spent the next week trying to jam a gigantic splinter in my foot.

 

[DrBdan]

I remember you getting back from your foot injury only to pull 4 plates. I spent the next week trying to jam a gigantic splinter in my foot.

lol! I highly recommend the deadlift singles program over a foot injury but your results may vary.

 

[CRZA]

I remember you getting back from your foot injury only to pull 4 plates. I spent the next week trying to jam a gigantic splinter in my foot.

lol. Nice review. You def. going to own 1000 total in 2012. What program are you on now?

 

[DrBdan]

lol. Nice review. You def. going to own 1000 total in 2012. What program are you on now?

Thanks. My program will be 5/3/1 plus deadlift singles.

- Day 1
Squat 5/3/1, 1 back-off set
Bench 5/3/1, 1 back-off set
DB Rows: 5x8-12

- Day 2
Deadlift singles
Bench - 3x5 ramping up with 55/65/75% or working up to a heavy single at 100% of training max
Squats - 3x5 ramping up with 45/55/65%

I'm not doing any overhead pressing because it bothers my left shoulder still. I'm only doing one backoff set instead of full assistance because right now I need the recovery ability for Muay Thai and I think I can make progress with minimal assistance since I squat and bench a second time on Day 2.

My overall schedule will be this:

Sun: Hockey
Mon/Tues: Day 1/Muay Thai
Wed: Recovery/Mobility work
Thurs: Muay Thai
Fri: Day 2
Sat: Rest

Right now my plan is to lift Mon and do MT on Tues. The way my MT gym is setup is Tues/Thurs/Fri at 6:30 the class is all pad/bag work and light partner drills but no real sparring. Mon/Wed at 6:30 is a more advanced class with a lot more clinch work and sparring. While I work off the rust and get my conditioning back I'll do Tues/Thurs but eventually it will be Mon/Thurs and maybe even Mon/Wed/Thurs in the long run.

In other news, I was dizzy this morning and felt horrible so I'm not going to Muay Thai. I feel better now so I'll try some light lifting this afternoon. I think I'm just over-tired, hopefully I'm not getting sick.

 

[MilkManUK]

Are you planning on upping your calorie intake to accomodate your new schedule?

 

[DrBdan]

Are you planning on upping your calorie intake to accomodate your new schedule?

For now I'm going to keep it the same except for trying to cut out some of the junk I've been eating over Xmas and just generally eat healthier. I'm hoping I can lose 5-10 lb over the next few months and in the long run I'd like to be around 200. I haven't weighed myself this week but I'm around 220.

Thurs Jan 5, 2012

C2 rower + dynamic stretching

- Bench
45x10
65x8
95x5
115x5
135x5
155x5

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
185x3
225x1
275x1
315x1
315x1
315x1

Everything was easy, this was mostly a session so I don't feel too rough when I get back to business next week. I felt okay when I got to the gym and started to feel better throughout. I think I was a bit dehydrated because I drank a lot of water while I was there. My left knee was a bit sore after yesterday's mobility stuff and it's still a bit sore today. I've had this before, I mostly feel it when I go down stairs. I think I had the same thing last time I went back to Muay Thai, it just isn't used to abuse yet.