REST DAY

Over the past few months I have been thinking about what I would like to achieve in 2010. I don't really like to say things like 'I'm going to do this for the year' I prefer to set a goal, achieve it then either reevaluate it or set a new goal. Having said that there are a few things I specifically want to focus on for the time being.

My main exercise related goal is to run the Boston half marathon in October. Its safe to say that as of now I have never run more than 8kms at any one time so this will be very challenging for me. I want to complete it in less than 1 hr 50 min, simply because that was my wife's time and I have to beat her! haha :-). I plan start following the WOD's from crossfitendurance.com around the beginning of the summer to prepare me for it but until then I will just do the odd run + row when they pop up in my WODs.

My crossfit specific goal if you like is to complete Fran in under 5mins. Considering my current time is  6:52 I think that this is more than achievable. Simply by improving my kipping technique I should be able to take a minute off the time easily. I'm not sure how many times I am going to test myself but I would like to think maybe every 2 months but we'll see.

My third goal will also help me with my fran time which is to be able to do 20 kipping pullups in succession. I can currently do 10 before I lose my swing so this will just be a matter or practice.

2009 was a very good year for me. I had a lot of big changes in my life and I am expecting a lot more to come in 2010!
I'm looking forward to tomorrow to begin the year with a bang.

Clean + Jerk

Another day of testing today. I almost have all my max lifts done, just have 3 or 4 more to do.


warmup 
skipping - 5mins
mobility drills - high kness, butt kickers, arm circles,

skill
butterfly kips + regular kips
My shoulder still hurts at the moment so I wasn't able to spend as much time as I wanted doing these but my technique is def getting better.

WOD
Clean + Jerk 10 x 1
95, 105, 125, 135, 155, 175, 180, 190, 200
I was pretty happy with my lifts, I reckon I could have gone a little heavier but my form on 200 was probably just acceptable.

nice day of rest tomorrow, time to reflect on my year and plan ahead for 2010.
I'm really looking forward to it.

M

Its been a long time since I hit the rower so I decided to follow the .com WOD today which was row 5km.

warmup 
shuttle runs, up + down the gym and some mobility drills

strength 
5 pistols each leg
5 weighted pullups-35lbs
5 ring dips
3 rounds.

I went though these rounds quite slow just focussing on form etc. My balance in my right leg is a lot worse than my left so I need to work on it a bit.
Pullups were good, 3 rounds of 5 was perfect.
Dips were by far the hardest, Im still very new to rings and dips are another one of my weaknesses (add it to the list)

WOD
row 5 km
Time = 19:51

I managed to get through this holding averaging a pace between 25 and 30 strokes per minute. I said to myself before hand that this is what I was aiming for so Im pretty happy about it. Sub 20 was also what I was aiming for so I held the tempo right where I needed it the whole way and sprinted the last 100.

The rower was humbling as always.

Playing with one arm snatch

I was playing around a bit today before my workout and did filmed the lifts below. Considering I did no warm up and only did one practice lift with the bar (45lbs). I reckon I could have made 115lbs and maybe even heavier if I was warm and built into it properly but again it was only for fun.

Squat

delighted to be back in the gym and I'm pumped about starting some new programming within the next few weeks.

warmup-
skipping - 5 mins
mobility drills - 5 mins
handstand practice - 5 mins

Skill-
I did a little butterfly pull up technique but I have a sore shoulder at the moment so it was very limiting.

workout
Backsquat 10 x 1
135, 185, 205, 215, 225, 245, 265, 275, 285

I would have liked to have cracked 300 but it wasn't going to happen today. 285 was very tough for me but I think that I can break 300 in the next few attempts.

Turgish get-ups 55lbs
5 right
5 left

cooldown
stretch

Very good workout.

REST DAY

A nice day off today and Im back into it hard again tomorrow. For all of next week Im going to be doing some strength testing to find my max for all of the lifts I have not done yet. Starting on friday I will be incorporating strength cycles into my daily WODs so in order to accurately do this I need my max lifts. Im really looking forward to it. 2010 is going to bring a lot of good things for me and I can't wait.

Push + Swing

We went for a hike this morning in the woods and I'm kicking myself that I didn't bring my camera! It was so awesome being in the woods with the snow and everything. nothing I can do though!

The last of my basement workouts today.

warmup
light jog w high knees + butt kickers

workout
5 pistols
20 push ups
30 KB swings 35lbs (15 each side)

5 rounds for time

11:56

Good workout. I tried to do the pistols with 35lbs to begin with but just managed to complete the first round with it so did the next few rounds BW.

Run Time!!!!

ohhhhhh yeahhhhhhh, xmas day run with my beautiful wife in the maine countryside.
we just did a short loop around the block, I think it's like 2.4 miles. We did sprints between telephone poles, not too sure how far it is between em but we did somewhere between 10 + 12 I think.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Quickie b4 Breakie

It was tough even thinking about working out this morning but I knew I wouldn't do it if I left it to later so I did it!

10 squats
10 push ups
10 sit ups
10 rounds
Time = 7:25

Pretty easy workout all in all, not the best time but I can't really expect more first thing in the morning but the main thing is that I managed to fit in a workout.

REST DAY

Im up in Maine for the weekend festivities. Im going to try to get a couple of workouts done in the basement at some stage or I may venture out into the snow.
Happy holidays

Snatch time

Seeing as Im going to my wife's parents for xmas I decided to get in another strength workout b4 I resort to the basement bodyweight workouts!

Warm up: 5 mins skipping.
PVC pipe drills + shoulder mobility

Workout
Snatch 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1

95, 115, 120, 130, 130, 135, 135, 140, 145, 150, ---155
I think my previous PR was 135 but that was months ago so after the 150 I felt pretty good so tried 150 & got it then missed an attempt at 165. I might be able to get 160 next time. We'll see.

155lbs

FRAN

Good ole franny!
One of my goals for 2010 is to get a sub 5 min time on this workout so I thought i'd give it a shot to know where I'm at.

Warm up: basic mobility, went over technique for thrusters with PVC + did a few kips.

Fran
21-15-9
Thrusters (95lbs)
pullups

Time 6:52

As always this workout was a killer! My previous time was 7:36 so I'm happy I beat it but feel like I could have done better. During the second round of pullups I felt a twinge in my shoulder and it slowed me down a lot for the last round. I had to resort to doing 1+1+1 for the last few pullups so that slowed me down but the main thing is that I beat my previous score so all good!

Strength

warm up: skipping 5 mins + 3 rounds of
6 kips
12 pushups
15 squats.

workout:
Deadlift 10 x 1
135, 155, 175, 205, 225, 245, 265, 285, 305, 315. Attempted 325 but couldn't lift it.

I initially thought that I had started too light but it worked out to be perfect. I thought I could have done 325 but it wasn't there.
I haven't done deads for a long time but at least I have numbers to work with now.

REST DAY

A well received day of nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!

unbroken

As a warmup today I did about 5 mins working on double unders again. A skill I have yet to master but Im working on it!
I also did a nice easy run through 3 rounds of :
3 kips
5 push ups
10 squats

The workout today was called unbroken because once you begin each set you are not allowed stop until all reps are completed
HSPU (hand-stand-push-ups) - once you kick up you must stay up
Squat Cleans - touch and go reps, you cannot do 2 and rest etc.
Pullups- cannot let go of the bar
KB swings - no double pumps, all swings completed in succession

7 rounds for time:
4 HSPU - red elastic band assisting
5 Squat Cleans - 95lbs
6 Pullups - kipping
7 KB swings - 55lbs
Time: 12:13

This was an awesome workout! I really enjoyed it, The HSPU's could have been harder but 4 is my max against a wall at present so I had to scale them. The Cleans weight was good, I could have gone a little heavier but I thought it best to use a weight I would be able to complete all the reps in succession but it was still difficult, def the hardest exercise in the workout. Kips were good, I got through each set with no break & the same with the swings.

I took a few people through this workout last night so it was good to get an idea of how they felt! 7 rounds is a lot!

Skill work

I was extremely sore today from the last 3 days so I treated today as an active rest day to work on my technique for a few things I've been lacking in. Working on your weaknesses is something everyone hates cause it usually involved stuff we suck at but it has to be done!

500m row warm up, nice n chilled, just focussing on stoke.
5 mins working on double unders
5 mins working on my handstands
3 sets of 7 kips
Turkish get ups with barbell, I managed to do it with the bar + 20lbs on each side = 85lbs, its not really heavy, just difficult to balance.
light stretch

Im gonna attack tomorrow!

Strength in Motion

I didn't go out to the gym today so decided to do a session at home. I was really sore but I felt good after the warm up so it was all good.

Dynamic flow drill warm up;

2 rounds

10 swings each side

5 clean + press each side

5 squats - KB racked each side

5 snatch each side

Workout;

45lb KB used for all exercises

All of the exercises are preformed for 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest between each except for the first 2 which have 60 second rest.

Round 1

one arm press sec each arm  : L-12,  R-12

1/2 snatch each arm : L-8, R-8

double squat  : 14

KB get-up-sit-up  : 7

double KB dead clean : 8

figure of 8 to hold : 8 each side

push up : 24

plank : done

Round 2

one arm push press : L-12, R-12

snatch : L-11, R-10

hand 2 hand sumo deadlift : 24

side bend : L-18, R-16

alternating clean : 8 each side

figure 8 to hold : L-8, R-7

close grip push up: 24

Round 3

long cycle jerk : L-6, R-5

1/2 snatch : L-8, R-9

behind the neck squat : 20

windmill : L-8, R- 7

double KB long cycle clean : 11

staggered push up (explosive) : 16

high plank : done

Work out was pretty hard during the exercise but the rest periods made it very manageable. If I do this again I will decrease the rest periods to 15 seconds.

Cool down: full body stretch routine.

Flexibility + Warmup

I have been doing a bit of research regarding flexibility and warmup recently as they seem to be a very neglected component of training. Seeing as Flexibility is one of the 10 skills we focus on at CrossFit I have decided to write this brief article.
I'm going to first discuss the benefits of flexibility and how important it is as part programming along with how it ties into the warm up. I will then outline the different types of flexibility training available.

Flexibility is defined as "the ability to maximize the range of motion (ROM) at a given joint" or to apply it strictly to training we could say "the ability of a joint to freely move through full normal range of motion"

Being flexible has a wide variety of positive's in relation to sport. By being flexible you are allowing full range of motion through your joints which in turn helps to eliminate awkward & inefficient movement. This can decrease the chance of injury.
Achieving good flexibility is important as it can help improve your ability to preform various movement skills. The ability to move effectively relies on strength and coordination (2 more of the skills we work on). Our goal should be to achieve flexibility intertwined with strength so as to still have joint stability. This will help you to have better control over your movements. Also having both strength and flexibility at any given joint will decrease your chance or injury to that particular area. There are many different factors affecting a persons flexibility such as age, sex, temperature, activity level, the list goes on but regardless of your current level of flexibility you can improve with correct training.

Importance of warm up
The purpose of a warmup is mainly to raise the body's core temperature in order to prepare it for the activity to follow. If your workout is going to be at an intense level then sufficient warm up is a must to help achieve that intensity. We have all been in the situation where we are running late and either rush the warm up or simply skip it. This is a huge mistake and we all make it periodically. These mistakes can lead to injury and poor performance during the workout. When you warmup the amount of blood flowing to your muscles increases which makes them warmer which in turn increases flexibility (see how this is tying together?). A warm muscle will contract more forcefully and relax quicker which results in greater speed & strength.

For the reasons listed if you like to include stretching as a part of your warm up do it at the end of the warmup not the beginning. Stretching before your core temperature has been elevated can actually cause tissue damage to your muscles. The best time to incorporate stretching into your workout is at the end when your core temp should be at its highest and you are sweating. For flexibility training post-workout is best for your stretching, it can also help to return your muscles to their resting length by stimulating blood flow and reducing cramps - as opposed to finishing your last exercise and then sitting down for 10 minutes. This kind of ties in with your cool down helping to restore your body to its pre-workout state.

Types of warmup
Passive - hot showers, massage, heating pads
General - jogging, cycling, jumping jacks, skipping etc
Specific - jogging before a run, warm up set of a particular exercise

Types of flexibility training
Active - you stretch yourself
Passive - a partner or a machine stretches you
ballistic - repeated bouncing - this is really non beneficial and can actually cause more harm than good so its not advisable
PNF - a partner takes you gradually past your normal ROM a set number of times - this is probably one of the most effective ways of increasing your flexibility but you must make sure that your partner knows what they are doing
Dynamic - simulates movements that will occur in daily activities eg. lunge walk

Doing yoga is always another option as that will greatly help you improve your ROM and blood flow to the working muscles.
I really enjoy yoga but rarely end up going as I have numerous other commitments.
Maybe in the new year.

GHD

Todays workout was interesting to say the least. Looking at the board I thought to myself "sub 10 mins easy" but as with a lot of crossfit workouts they look ALOT easier on paper than they actually are.

For a warm up I just worked on my kips a little and played on the parallettes for a while. Im loving them!

GHDSU = Glute Ham Developer Sit Up
OHS = Over Head Squat - done with 45lbs
30 GHDSU
5 OHS
25 GHDSU
10 OHS
20 GHDSU
15 OHS
15 GHDSU
20 OHS
10 GHDSU
25 OHS
5 GHDSU
30 OHS
Time = 15:36


This was a killer! Seeing as I had never done GHDSU's b4 I was shocked at how difficult high reps are at them.
It was a really good workout, at the beginning 30 is a lot to get through then 5 OHS's are nothing but to get back into 25 GHDU's was tough. As each round passes the sit ups get easier as the number drops and vice versa with the squats. Very deceiving workout!

This sucked!

I love arriving at the gym having no idea what I am about to do! I was hoping for some pull ups or something but I was out of luck.

Warm Up;
Practiced double unders and did a few sets of kipping pullups trying to work on my technique.

Workout
Weight  95lbs
2 power cleans + push press
10 ring dips
4 power clean + push press
9 ring dips
6 power clean + push press
8 ring dips
8 power clean + push press
7 ring dips
10 power clean + push press
6 ring dips
12 power clean + push press
5 ring dips
14 power clean + push press
4 ring dips
16 power clean + push press
3 ring dips
18 power clean + push press
2 ring dips
20 power clean + push press
1 ring dip

Time = 22:50 --- I didn't actually look at the clock as soon as I finished as I was just glad to be done with the workout! I did the first 2 rounds with full ring dips but had to use the band for the subsequent rounds.

This one really sucked, I had a lot of strength left it, it more metabolic than anything.

I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring!

Sunday sunday

I took another rest day today. I played around on the parallettes a bit but wouldn't really call it a workout.
Im expecting a hard week though so I'm looking forward to it.

Home made parallettes !!!!!

I've been wanting to make a set of these for ages and finally took the initiative ! They are so easy to make its a joke!
All it takes it $32.78 and a couple of hours at most.  

For those interested heres how to do it.
Materials + tools

• 10 feet of 1 1/2" PVC 
• 4 elbows
• 4 T's 
• 8 end caps
• PVC glue & primer
• cloth or rags 
• sand paper
• tape measure
• pencil or marker
• hand saw

                                                                                      

1: get your 10ft pipe and make a mark at 24, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80, 85, 90, 100, 105, 110 & 115.

2: cut the pipe at each marking - (At home depot they actually had a saw + tape measure so I was able to do it right there in the store. )This will give you two 24" four 8" and eight 5" pieces.

3: next you gota stick all the bits together. I had no idea how to use primer or glue or what order so I just youtubed a video and found out. haha. Its really easy.

4: After you stick em all together you just make sure that you put em on square and thats pretty much it.

5: sand down the handles so that they will hold chalk as otherwise your hands could slip.

I'm definitely going to be making more of these for the gym!

Interesting training session

So I get to class this morning & help out coaching and then decide to do my own workout.
The workout was as follows (I think)

1 power clean
1 push jerk
1 behind the neck push jerk

2 front squats

1 push press 

1 OH squat

I think that was the order. The idea was to do 5 rounds of each trying to lift as heavy as possible in each round. At the end you add up all the numbers from your heaviest set.

Then you do overhead KB swings (55lbs) AMAP for 3 mins. You then multiply the number above by your number of KB swings you did and thats your score.
confusing right?

Well just as I finished my workout one of the members noticed smoke in the room. We we trying to find out where it was coming from when the fire alarm went off. Next thing there's 4 fire trucks outside.
I think it came down to an electrical problem in the basement but I'm not sure.

Anyways I was unable to write down all my weight + reps so no score for me!
I know I got 71 KB swings & my lifts all averaged around 185.

Fun day!

REST DAY

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Crossfit

Back at Newton again tonight.

Warm up
mobility drills.

Workout
Row 400m
7 muscle ups (if you cant do muscle ups do 10 pull ups + 10 ring dips)
5 rounds for time

Result= 18:33

I managed to do the first round with the muscle ups but had to do the pull ups + dips for the others.
Really need to work on the down phase of my kips.
My ring dips were assisted by a stretch band.

Stretching for cool down.

CrossFit Newton

I've just joined the team at Crossfit Newton and will be helping out coaching for the next few weeks and hopefully beginning my own classes in the new year. Today was my first workout at the gym.


mobility warmup; high knees, butt kickers, side to side lunges and some similar drills.

Strength: Find max Thruster.
I gradually built this up and got a max of 185lbs.

Met Con:
10 power snatch 35lbs KB right side
20 walking over head lunges 35lb KB right side
10 power snatch 35lbs KB left side

20 walking over head lunges 35lb KB left side

3 rounds for time

Result = 12:15  - I'm pretty happy with this time but I probably could have gone a little faster. It was a really good workout. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK2D2)

I decided to change the warm up again today again just for variance.

Warm up 
5 squats
5 pull ups
5 push ups
5 sit ups
-5 rounds-

took it nice and easy, rotated my grip on pulls from underhand, overhand, neutral

Workout
get ups with 44lb KB
as many as possible in 5 minutes alternating each side left + right

Result = 9 full rounds, I got the bell to the floor on the last one at 4:59, I beat my previous score from last week by 1 extra (last week - 8 full rounds + 1 on right side)
It was a struggle to get this score though but I will try and match it if not better it on thursday.

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK2D1)

back into it again.

Warm up 
partial get up - take 30 secs for 1 rep
single high pull followed by single snatch (right) 30 sec
press (right) 30 sec
squat in rack position (right) 30 sec
one arm swing (right) 30 sec

Transition drill
figure of 8 to a hold 30 sec (finish with bell in left hand)

one arm swing (left) 30 sec
squat in rack position (left) 30 sec
press (left) 30 sec
single high pull followed by single snatch (left) 30 sec
reverse get up - take 30 secs for 1 rep


Workout 
swings x 20 44lb KB
jumping jacks 1 min
swings 20 44lb KB
mountain climbers 1 min
swings 20 44lb KB
pushup to squat thrust 1 min
swings 20 44lb KB
jog 1min

Result=  2 full rounds + 8 swings. Im pretty happy with this bull it actually seemed quite easy! In relation to the first time I did it last monday I was able to smoke the swings!
The thursday workout has 30 swings in it so that'll be interesting.

NEWPORT

Today I decided to do the Art of Strength Newport work out. I'm going to use this workout as a benchmark workout to gauge progression.

Round 1
side 2 side stretch
squat thrust with a snatch 20lb KB (alternating snatch left/right)

30 seconds each exercise, repeat for 3 minutes

1 minute bicycles

Rest 1 min

Round 2
single arm thruster 44lbs
single arm swing 44lbs

30 seconds each exercise then switch sides, repeat for 4 minutes

leg raises - 20 seconds straight up, 30 seconds side to side.

Rest 1 min

Round 3
2 handed swing 44lbs
hot potato 20lbs

30 seconds each exercise, repeat for 4 minutes

twisting crunch 1 min; 10 count, 8 count, 6 count, 4, 2

Rest 1 min


Round 4
punch matrix
plank

30 seconds each exercise, repeat for 3 minutes

leg raise - elbow to knee 1 min - switch sides after 30 seconds

Rest 1 min 

Round 5
side snatch
overhead static lunge

30 seconds each exercise, switch sides,  repeat for 4 minutes

side plank, elbow to floor - 30 seconds each side

Rest 1 min


Round 6
squat + knee 20lb
sots press 20lb

30 seconds each exercise, switch sides + repeat total 2 mins

standing oblique crunch 30 seconds each side

Rest 1 min


Round 7 
hand to hand cleans 44lbs
dragon lunge

30 seconds each exercise, repeat for 2 minutes

Russian twists with KB 20lbs  15 secs normal, 15 bicycles + repeat

Rest 1 min


Round 8
kettlebell push up
dive bomber cobra

30 seconds each exercise, repeat for 3 minutes.

Janda crunch 1 min.

Result= 30 minute workout not including the rest periods.

This was a really good workout, quite challenging even though on some of the exercises I used quite a light bell. You could choose to do this work out in different ways depending on the type of weight you use.
1 - use a light weight and burn yourself out cardio wise
2- use a weight that is comfortable for you and work more on muscular endurance
3- use a heavy weight that is quite challenging for you and do the exercises slowly and focus on strength.

I think this time for me I fell somewhere in between 1 & 2.

quick stretch to cool down.

Beginning of week 2 of Enter the kettlebell tomorrow.

REST DAY

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK1D4)

Last day of week 1. The program says to take the weekend off but I probably won't ! :-) I may begin week 2 on sunday depending how the weekend goes.

I decided to change the warm up again to keep things varied.

Warm up
50 squats
10 long cycle cleans each side (alternating) 44lb KB
10 swings each side (alternating) 44lb KB

L sit practice: 3 mins cycling 10 secs on 10 sec off


Workout
get up singles alternating left + right - 44lb KB
As many as possible in 5 mins while keeping good form.

Result = This was my first time doing this with the heavier bell and was a lot more challenging but a much better workout at the same time.
I managed to get 7 each side + 1 more on my left.

End of week 1 

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK1D3)

I was really not looking forward to this workout today cause Im really sore from yesterday but here goes.

workout is the same as monday.

Im going to substitute the warm up as well as some of active rest periods for different exercises to keep it varied. The focus should be on the swings anyways.

Warm up
20lb KB
right arm swing 30 sec
left arm swing 30 sec
right arm snatch 30 sec
left arm snatch 30 sec
long cycle clean right side 30 sec
long cycle clean left side 30 sec
windmill right side 30sec
windmill left side 30 sec
squats 1 min holding bell by horns.

5 min total.

Result = This was a nice little warmup routine. It got the blood going even though the KB was very light.

:1 min rest:

Workout
44lb KB

swings x20

jumping jacks 1 min

swings x20

mountain climbers 1 min

swings 20x

push ups 1 min

swings 20 x

shadow box 1 min

As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes

Result = 3 seconds faster than monday! haha, I thought the exercises I substituted the active rest periods with would have a major difference today but obviously not. So I got through almost 2 full rounds finishing my last set of swings with 53 seconds left.
There is 1 more workout in the program with 20 swings so I will try to crack 2 rounds on that one.

light stretch to cool down.

FOOD MATTERS

I seem to be posting a lot about nutrition the last few days but I guess its because its so important! As kind of a follow up to the Food Inc, I just watched another movie which really hit home with me. Its called Food Matters. I feel that it is a must see for everyone regardless of the fact that you think you may have a good diet or not. If you dont want to buy the dvd then you can watch it online for $5. Have a look at the trailer below and visit their website (link on the right) to get some great resources on superfoods.

CINDY

Today is a break in the Enter the Kettlebell program but I felt like working out so I did the Crossfit benchmark workout cindy.

The workout is as follows.

5 pull ups -any type you like so long as they are the same throughout the workout.

10 push ups -again any type you like.

15 squats -any type provided that its a bodyweight variation and you go below parallel.

The goal of the workout is to preform as many rounds as possible in 20mins taking as little rest as possible. The workout usually starts off quite easy and each round gets harder and harder.

The time is set + the amount of work done is up to you!

Warm up

5 mins shadow boxing

5 single arm swings -44lb KB

5 long cycle cleans each side

hand to hand swings 5 each side

get up sit ups x10

Workout

5 pullups (underhand strict)

10 push ups (normal)

15 squats (prison squats)

as many rounds as possible in 20 mins

Result = 13 rounds + 5 pullups + 10 push ups. - For the first 6 rounds I averaged 1 min per round and for the subsequent 7 I averaged 2 mins per round.

My record for this workout is 17 rounds which I did back in August. In that workout I had someone pushing me so I couldn't take any rest and I also did kipping pullups. During that one I managed to hold 1 min per round for 12 rounds tapering off towards the end.

As always this was a killer and I hope to beat my score in the not too distant future.

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK1D2)

Week 1 Day 2

Todays workout is very short.
Warm up is the same as yesterday and the workout simply consists of 5 minutes of getup singles alternating sides (left/right) for 5 minutes.

Warm up

wall squats 10

halos 10 (20lb KB)

pumps 10

Result= 10, managed to hold it again with relative ease.

Wrokout

get up singles alternating.

Result= 8 on each side. I used a 20lb KB (kettlebell) which is probably a bit light but the only other size bell I have at the moment is 44lbs so its a bit heavy. I might do a little practice in between workouts with the heavier one but for the set workouts Ill stick to the lighter one for the moment.

Again this workout seems very easy but as I said before the prep weeks are designed to work on technique which is paramount.

Nutrition 1

Having spent the last few years playing with different methods of eating I have found that the system that works best for me is along the guidelines of the Paleolithic diet which is based on what humans ate hundreds of years ago. The following sentence is as simple as it can be made.

meat + vegetables , nuts + seeds, some fruit, little starch + no refined sugar. I try to stick to these guidelines as much as possible which works out to be 80/20 most of the time. I found this video which sums everything up nicely. The website has some great resources also so check it out.

Enter the Kettlebell workbook (WK1D1)

To kick the blog off Ive decided to begin this program and keep a review + log here. The workbook itself takes 12 weeks but I will not be completing it all together, I will just be incorporating the workouts into my current training. Seeing as I am training at home for the next week or so the first few workouts will be in order.

The program requires that you complete 4 weeks prep which seems quite easy but I will complete them for feedback sake.

It is also recommended that you actually read the book Enter the Kettlebell before following this program as you may not know what some of the exercises are. You can purchase the book from amazon or ebay pretty cheap along with this workbook.

The program sets out 4 training days a week. For the first 4 weeks the layout of the workouts are the same except the number of swings increase by 10 each week. I will be substituting the warm up drills and active rest periods for alternative exercises to keep it as varied as possible.

Week 1

#1

WARM UP

wall squats 10x

halos 10x (20lb kettlebell)

pumps 10x

repeat sequence for 10 mins

RESULT =10 rounds, pretty easy to maintain a round a minute without pushing yourself.

WORKOUT

swings 20x (44lbs/20kg)

jumping jacks 1min

swings 20x (44lbs/20kg)

mountain climbers 1min

swings 20x (44lbs/20kg)

burpee push up min

swings 20x (44lbs/20kg)

jog 1min

as many rounds as possible in 12 mins

RESULT=1 full round + everything down to the jog. When I finished the last set of swings there was 50 seconds left so I was 10 secs off making 2 full rounds. If I had known I was that close I would have gone a bit faster.

The workout itself was relatively easy. Im trying to get my form perfect on the swings as this is what the prep workouts are for. Im looking forward to tomorrow.

How much do we really know about about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

The Beginning.

Starting Monday I will begin keeping daily logs of my workouts + anything I happen to come across of interest in relation to Nutrition or exercise. I will be posting both my own opinions on topics a long with others and I am completely open to discussion on everything. I welcome argument, I actually love nothing more than discussing different methods of training with people. At the end of the day we are all climbing the same mountain and there are many different ways to get to the top.
Let the journey begin!

Thailand--Training journal 20th Aug 2009-20th Sep 09

Going to Thailand to train has always been one of my goals and I have finally completed it! During my 4 weeks at Tiger Muay Thai I kept a detailed training journal with every workout I did along with diet and anything else I got up to over the month.

Here it is, hope you enjoy.

** On a side note, when I list the various techniques that we went through in class they are kind of written in short hand. This is completely for myself so I can remember what we did on a particular day, its not meant to be an instruction.

21st August 2009 (Friday)

Just arrived at the camp. Its about 1 am local time but its 6am for me accounting for time change etc. I left my house this morning at 11 am so I've been traveling close to 20 hrs.

First impression of the camp is that it's huge! The place seems to be in the middle of the jungle. Seeing as it was so late everything was closed and no one seemed to be around except the security guard who was asleep on one of the rings! He got someone to show me to my room which is about 10 feet away from one of the training areas.

First off the light in my room doesn't work but its late so I told them not to worry about it until morning. The room itself is really nice, double bed,tv, aircon, fridge + my own bathroom. The only problem is that I requested a smaller cheaper room. I have read a few reviews on the internet about places doing this sort of thing but I hope its just a mistake and not a scam. Either way I'll talk to them in the morning.
The heat here is actually ridiculous! I can only imagine how bad it will be in the morning. Need sleep, Day 1 training in the morning.

***6:30am
Didn't sleep very well, kept walking up every hour or so which is annoying coz Im really tired. I took a walk around the camp to get an idea of the place. It's huge! The Muay Thai training is split up over 4 areas. The beginners area is probably the biggest with 2 full size rings, a massive floor space and a line of heavy bags. The Intermediate area has one ring, heavy bags and a large ish floor space. The Advanced area is smaller again with one ring and just enough floor space. There is also a fighter ring where all of the camp fighters or guests train who have upcoming fights. There is an MMA area as well which is probably just a little bit smaller than the beginners area.

Its got a large mat area with bags lining the outside, full size ring + cage and another large ish free weights area next to it. There is also an indoor gym just behind the fighters ring which is quite small but it has everything you need.

I waited around until the restaurant opened and got myself a shake b4 the 7am yoga class. One of my friends (Curls) who has been traveling for the past year decided to come and train with me for the month as well and he showed up right before the class. The class was quite challenging as I had not done yoga in a while but it was a really good way to warm up for the day. Afterwards we went and paid for our rooms etc. It turns out that there were no cheap rooms available at the moment so I got the upgrade for free! very happy about that.

The camp can house around 100 people at a time but there are quite a few guest houses on the same street who make most of their money from Tiger. The luxury of staying at the camp is definitely the way to go though. Its so nice to just open your door in the morning and walk a few feet to where you are training. It can be a little annoying at night time though if people are training late but what do you expect at a training camp right?

9-11 am - MMA NoGi BJJ

We thought it would be a good idea to do a grappling class to get into the swing of things as it wouldn't be as demanding as the Muay Thai class. The head trainer Ray Elbe wasn't there for whatever reason so a guy named Andreas took the class. The format of the class was pretty much the same as any BJJ class. Basic warm up consisting of jogging, tumbling, shrimping stretching etc. Then we get shown a technique and drill it for a couple of rounds. Usually you get shown 2-3 drills in any given class which all kind of relate to each other in terms of position etc. Every friday they have an inhouse grappling tournament which is pretty cool. There was 9 of us in class this morning and each person had the chance to fight at least twice. I won my first match by armbar but lost my second by a choke. It was a really cool way to kick things off with a little competition. All of the guys in the class were really friendly and very encouraging to everyone. After the class we showered, got something to eat and rented mopeds to go to Patong which is the main town in Phuket. Its about 20 kms (13 miles) from the camp. It was really cool just driving around seeing how the thai culture is. The people are overly friendly pretty much everywhere to the point you think they are trying to fuck you over!

Being on a moped made me realize how much I missed my motorbike. We cruised around and checked out some of the 100s of stalls around the place before returning to the camp.

I'm still really tired and jetlag is kicking in so Im going to give the evening class a miss.

***

Finally got some sleep and Curls came and woke me up after a few hours. We went back into Patong to check out the bars n stuff but didn't drink. I made the decision before I came that I was only going to drink once over the month and Ill probably wait until the end of the trip to do that. If I wanted to get drunk and party I would have gone somewhere else. Im here to train no.1 and everything else can wait.

I've never seen anything like the gogo bars over here. I've been to Amsterdam a few times and thought that was bad but its nothing compared to this place. It's actually borderline disgusting. There are literally hundreds of hookers + ladyboys everywhere and they try to grab you as you walk past. It was kinda funny at first as I had never experienced anything like it but it really started to piss me off after a while as it becomes difficult to just walk down the street in some parts. Rather than being tempted by the hookers it made me just feel sorry for them. All these hundreds of women just sitting at bars trying to make money. It really gave me some insight into the poverty that exists under all the smiles. Patong is actually famous for the girls though and 90% of guys love it there so each to their own I guess.

As we were heading home we got caught in a rainstorm and got soaked. It was actually kinda fun even though the rain was so heavy that it was hurting my face and I couldn't really see at one point but we made it back which is the main thing.

6:45 am - vanilla protein shake + banana

8 am - muesli fruit +yogurt

11:30 am - noodles, chicken + veg

2:40 pm - chicken, rice, veg

5 pm - fruit + yogurt

7 pm - noodles, chicken, veg

22nd August 2009 (Saturday)

Had a good 6 hours of sleep which felt really good. We went training on the beach this morning which consisted of running, muay thai drills and a little technique but was really light hearted and more fun that anything. We had a big tug of war, guests vs trainers at the end which was fun, we won of course! Our big western bodies were no match for the small thais!

When we got back to the camp myself and curls had a quick workout in the gym then hit the sack for another couple hours.

Today was the monthly BBQ beatdown which is held on the last Sat of each month where they have the beach training in the morning and BBQ at night. The camp runs smoker fights at the BBQ .I would like to have gotten some experience by having a fight here but I didn't arrange it in time. There was 5 Muay Thai fights, 1 boxing, 2 NoGi and 2 MMA fights. They were all very entertaining and was a good night. Lots of music + everyone was getting drunk, except me! :-). Im trying to stay clean ao I didn't have a drop. Had an early night instead and just went to bed after the fights.

6:30 am - muesli + vanilla protein shake

11:30 am - noodles, chicken, veg

4 pm - rice + veggies

7 pm - noodles, chicken, veg

23rd August 2009 (Sunday)

Today was Sunday so no training. It's rain season here at the moment and it pretty much pissed rain all day long so I just stayed in my room reading for the most part.

On a side note what I found pretty funny is that when you buy gas for your moped or what ever, you can get it off the side of the street in bottles! i thought this was crazy at first but its completely normal over here. I don't think you'd see anything like that in the west!

5:50 am - muesli with milk

9:40 am - vanilla protein shake w banana

11:40 am -thai omlet

with chicken + fried rice

3 pm chicken + stirr fried veg

7 pm - muesli w milk

24th August 2009 (Monday)

6:30 am got up and had breakfast and did the 7 am yoga class for 30 mins before going for a quick run before the Muay Thai class. I was expecting it to be longer + harder but it couldn't have been any more than 2 Kms. If I had known what the class was going to involve I would have been happy at how easy it was.

As I said above all the Muay Thai training is split up over 4 areas. The trainers do their best to put you in a group with a similar skill level as you. I decided to go to the Intermediate class first as I have not trained in months.

The Muay Thai classes were about 3 hours to begin with but it got reduced over my time there as the trainers noticed that people were just too tired to handle it so they knocked 30mins off the end the classes (not that 30 mins makes a huge difference!).

The BJJ + MMA classes were always 2 hours. The structure of the classes were similar to the MT classes but without all the kicking bags etc.

The structure of a typical week is like this

Mon- fri

7 - 8:00 am - Yoga , BodyFit

8- 10:30 am -Muay thai

9 - 11:00 am -BJJ NoGi

3 - 6:30 pm - Muay Thai

4 - 6:00 pm - MMA

On Saturday there are Muay Thai classes as well but I never went to them so Im not too sure what the layout of the class was. No classes on Sundays

On Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the Muay Thai class its boxing technique + sparring in the morning and Muay Thai technique + sparring in the evening.

On Tuesday + Thursday its clinch technique in morning and evening, clinch sparring in the morning and a group run in the evening.

The focus of the day in the MMA program is at the discretion of the head trainer but always involved padwork and sparring.

8- 11 am - Intermediate Muay Thai

All the muay thai classes have pretty much the same warm up consisting of jogging, high knees, butt kickers, side jumps + stretching. Some of the trainers will get you to do different stuff but its all pretty similar.

This class we did a few boxing drills for punching + blocking to begin with, it was basically things like not flinching and just blocking or taking the punch. Next was 20mins of shadow boxing in front of mirrors and the trainers would come around and correct technique if needed. Next was 4 5min rounds of boxing sparring changing partners every round. This was def my favorite part of the class. I sparred with a Canadian, an Irishman and a guy from Franch. They were all pretty good and it felt really good to be sparring again after my long break from training. After sparring we did 5 rounds on the pads with a trainer calling combinations. The guy who I was with was very critical on technique but worked me really hard as well. I was getting really tired by this point and the trainer kept shouting at me 'more power, power'. Then onto 5 rounds on the heavy bags throwing combos with different sprints at the end of each round. We then had to do 100 round kicks on each leg on the bag rotating legs every 20 and after that it was onto lying leg raises where your partner pushes your legs down. We had to do 100 total + me and my partner broke it down into 2 sets of 30 + 2 of 20. After that we all had to lay on our backs and the trainers came around with Medicine balls and beat our abs with them 50 times each.

Stretching to cool down.

I was fucked afterwards! It was an awesome session and I can't wait to see what shape I am going to be in 4 weeks from now! I drank about 4 Litters of water during the session and didn't need to piss once so that'll tell you how much you sweat during these sessions. (throughout the rest of the training I averaged 4-6 liters per session)

As I was walking back to my room my vision started going blurry which developed into a full blown migraine! I went straight to bed after a quick shower and slept it off but my head was still a bit fuzzy when I woke up so I decided to skip the evening training and just wait till tomorrow.

6:30 am - protein shake + muesli

11 am - protein shake

12:30 pm - chicken, noodles, veg

3:40 pm chicken + bacon caesar salad

7 pm - chicken, nuts, rice + veg

9:20 pm muesli w milk

25th August 2009 (Tuesday)

Got up at 6:30 am again and had something to eat and did 30mins yoga + the same run as yesterday. I'm feeling really good about being here today. Im so excited to be here and have nothing to do except train for a month! Its a very surreal feeling. We've met so many people from all over the world here already all doing the same thing. Its really an awesome environment.

9-11 am NoGi

After an hour off I went to this class. Generic warm up consisting of tumbling, shrimping stretching etc.

The technique today was arm drag to take the back. The trainer showed us a cool submission where you separate your opponents hips. Really cool sub but very hard to catch someone with.

Next was cardio which Ray called 3-30 which consisted of 3 rounds of shadow boxing with 30 sprawls. It works like this - you are shadow boxing and your partner shouts sprawl, this is repeated 30 times then you + your partner switch and this is repeated till you have both done 3 rounds.

After cardio we did around 3 rounds of rolling. I rolled with curls first and managed to tap him out but then got submitted 3 times by the other 2 guys I rolled with. the standard seems to be really mixed between really good guys + average people. The same as any gym I guess.

The class was really good + I felt like I learned a lot.

After class just chilled in my room and tried to get some sleep before the next class (this was pretty much the theme for the trip, train, eat, sleep)

4-7 pm Advanced Muay Thai

As I was getting ready for training one of the trainers told me to go to the Advanced Muay Thai class so I went over to that area.

Class consisted of the generic warm up + stretching followed by some elbow techniques.

2 rounds of shadow boxing.

The trainers then set up a huge circuit consisting of 7 bag stations - front kicks, punching,elbows, knees, kick combos x 2 + low kicks then another 5 stations with trainers holding pads - punching, low kicks, knees +everything x 2. We did 5 mins on each station with no break! When the whistle went we moved striaght to the next station. It was awesome! really hard but awesome.

After the circuit everyone got in the ring and drilled some clinch work which I've never really done so it was no surprise to me that I sucked at it. Then we did the circle of death which consists of 1 guy in the middle and every time he throws someone or gets thrown himself a new guy comes in. After 15 mins of that it was run time. All the classes (beg,Int,adv) joined up for this. The run we went on was about 7kms up into the mountains. We saw some really cool views and some traditional Thai living. One guy who forgot to bring his sneakers to training started the run in sandals and ended up finishing it in bare feet! Crazy ! I didn't see him for a couple days afterwards so I imagine blisters gtot the better of him. The run took around 40mins total I think.When we got back to the camp we were instructed to do 300 situps, any variation you like. I got to about 175 before they stopped everyone and did a brief cool down stretch.

All in all the class was awesome. It really felt like we were learning the art of muay thai. I'm on such a high just being here at the moment. I'm definitely gonna do this class again tomorrow.

6:30 am - protein shake, muesli + milk

8 am - protein shake

12 pm - chicken, noodles , veg + some nuts

3 pm - chicken + steamed veg, rice

7:20 pm - protein shake + chicken + pineaple w fried rice

9:30 pm - peanuts

26th August 2009 (Wednesday)

7-8 am Bodyfit

People have been talking about this conditioning class so I decided to give it a shot.There was about 10 people in the class.

-generic warm up of jumping jacks etc

workout:

5 rounds of jumping kicks, DB swings + flutter kicks with a twist.

1 min each exercise with 30 sec rest between each round.

Then we did some tabata intervals (20 sec on 10 sec off)

high plank twisting each side, mountain climbers, high plank to low plank rotating, plank.

stretch at the end.

As a whole this class was really good. It can be quite demanding if you go hard and its one of those things that you get out what you put in.

Some people come here just to get in shape and I would recommend doing this class if thats why you come here but seeing as its so hard it can impact the rest of your training if you are here for Muay Thai or MMA. It would be difficult to do this as well as 2 other training sessions in a day.

9-11 am NoGi

This class was good but I was fucked after Bodyfit. We drilled a basic guard pass to knee bar/ankle crank. I had a good few rounds rolling at the end. I subbed one guy with a kimora but he got me back with one straight after! Another guy caught me in a guillotine when I shot too early but other than that I managed to hold everyone off.

Felt really tired after this morning so I decided to take the evening off. Its gonna take me a while to get used to training this much.

6:30 am - muesli

8:20 am - protein shake

11:30 am - chicken + veggies + strawberry shake

3 pm - chicken, noodles + veg

8 pm - chicken, rice, veg + mango smoothie

27th August 2009 (Thursday)

8-11 am Muay Thai

There was only 2 of us in the class this morning so we got a lot of attention from the trainers.

Normal WU(warmup) + stretch,

shadow boxing

elbow techniques - Im really liking these as I haven't ever really done elbows before.

4 rounds on the pads. The first trainer I had was relentless when holding the pads. each round was literally 4 mins of non stop combos and he didn't seem to care at all about technique, he just wanted to kill me. The other guy I had Prosop

was a bit more chill + corrected my technique a good bit.

-4 rounds on the bags doing whatever we wanted.

-clinch technique followed by 2 very long rounds of clinching. The guy I was with 'Johno' has been here for 6 months so he was kinda helping me out on technique etc.

Next was one of us lean against the ropes and the other did 200 knees (100 each side) into the ribs. We didn't go very hard + was more cardio than anything. I twisted my ankle badly during my second 50 + had to take a break for a min or two before continuing. I had been extremely nervous about my ankle prior to coming here as I had a complete ligament reconstruction in Feb and I haven't really trained since so it was very worrying when this happened but it was ok after a rest so I kept going.

Next was a similar drill only we pushed our partner back into the ropes first and as he bounced back you do a jumping knee. 50 each side.

300 situps then stretch.

Was a good class overall. Bring on the afternoon!

3:40-7 pm Muay Thai

Got to class a little early to do some skipping + stretch a bit.

-generic warm up.

Technique today was kick lean back + knee block. We drilled it a few rounds then wrapped our hands for 2 rounds shadow boxing.

-Pad work - I got Prosop again and I liked what we did through the rounds. Then 3 rounds on the heavy bag working technique. I got Ngoo to help me a bit with what I was doing. His english is quite good so that was a bonus as most of the trainers have only a few words of english.

-clinch work in the ring - 5 rounds, each round with a different person. Then it was run time again. We did the shorter run which we normally do in the morning this time but went much faster. I struggled to keep up at the front of the group but Im assuming that my fitness will improve as time goes on.

100 push ups

200 situps

7 am - muesli

10:30 am - protein shake

11:30 am - chicken, veggies

3 pm - chicken, noodles , veg

7:30 pm - protein shake, chicken + veggies

I've been here a week now and its actually crazy how fast it has gone as I feel like I am only getting into the swing of things. My advice for anyone thinking of coming here to train is that you should give yourself min a week to adjust to the time change + climate. I was being a little optimistic expecting to arrive here at 1 am and begin training hardcore at 8 am.

Summary of my training so far.

• FRIDAY: YOGA, BJJ
• SATURDAY: BEACH TRAINING, WEIGHTS
• SUNDAY: OFF
• MONDAY: YOGA, MUAY THAI
• TUESDAY: YOGA, BJJ, MUAY THAI
• WEDNESDAY: BODYFIT, BJJ
• THURSDAY: MUAY THAI, MUAY THAI

28th August 2009 (Friday)

I woke up with a really sore neck after the clinch work yesterday. I would prefer to give the BJJ class a miss this morning but there is a black belt coming to teach the class so I don't want to miss out on the opportunity of learning from him.

9 am BJJ Seminar with Jerry Laurita

This class was pretty good. Jerry showed us some really easy chokes from mount + a few ways to transition into armbar from it. He also showed us how to transition to the back from that position + finish from there. he gave us a basic run down of the points system in BJJ + BJJ NoGi. He gave some good advice saying that you should never start attempting submissions until you are ahead on points. He was very clear with all of his explanations and I really enjoyed the class. We didn't get to roll at the end but I was kind of relieved because of my neck being so sore. Im gonna do the MT class this evening, sparring class!!!!!!!!!

3:40 - 6:30 pm Muay Thai

Woke up after a nap and Im in no mood for training so I downed an M150 (best energy drink ever) and I was ready to go. I swear 1 of those tiny bottles will keep you going for hours!

normal warmup + shadow boxing.

technique today was side step elbow. I think we actually did the technique before the shadow boxing cause the head trainer MOO gave a big speech about no power in training, only power in the ring! He was really technical with everyone which was good. I got to do pad work with him and it was the best pad session I've had so far. He corrected me on a lot of little things I was doing wrong without even knowing like the position of my foot when I knee etc. I booked a private session with him for Monday so I'm really looking forward to that.

3 rounds of sparring which was good. I had a different partner each round which was really good variety. It feels so good to be sparring again such a long lay off! I forgot how much I love it.

3 rounds on the bags, 1 just punches, 1 knees + front kicks + 1 side step round kick.

Afterwards we went over some stance technique again which was very helpful.

100 push ups

200 situps.

I powered through the situps today, hardly stopped at all but I struggled with the push ups. I loved this session + I got a real rush afterwards. I love training!

***

Curls + I decided to go into Patong after some food to get a break from the camp for a couple of hours. We ended up getting a puncture on the way and didn't know what to do as it was late and everywhere was closed. Some random guy pulled up on a bike and brought us to a repair store where there was 2 kids who didn't look older than 17 who took the tire off and replaced the tube faster than I've ever seen anywhere!

When we got to Patong we just walked around for a bit fighting off hookers and people trying to sell us crap. We chilled at an Irish bar for a bit that Curls mate from home owns. It was nice to get a little break from the camp but Im ready for it again tomorrow!

7:30 am - muesli, fruit, yogurt + mango smoothie

12:15 pm - beef w spicy noodles, veg + fruit platter with banana, pineapple, mango + dragon fruit

1:45 pm - Nature valley bar

2:45 pm - muesli

7:30 pm - chicken, rice, veggies

10:30 pm - peanuts

29th August 2009 (Saturday)

Decided to take the weekend off training to recover a bit and just relax. There was no training this morning anyways as there we monks blessing the camp so we only really took off one session. The ceremony was quite cool even though I had no idea what was going on! Had a really good lunch afterwards with stuff like sticky rice + banana (sooooo good). Afterwards we went to a market and bought some presents for people back home. We then took a trip up to the Big Buddha monument which overlooks Phuket but couldn't really see it because of the rain but it was still really impressive. To get to it you have to drive roughly 6kms up a mountain and the statue is at the top. One of the monks blessed me with good luck and gave me a bracelet which he put on my wrist.

On the way back down the mountain we stopped by an elephant trekking place. I had never seen an elephant in real life before so I was fascinated, took some photos and gave him a few bananas. I kinda felt bad for them as they had their feet chained up so they couldn't move much but nothing we could do i guess.

We went to patong again and just fucked around at the mall + bought a few books n stuff. I realized after buying the books that I didnt have my keys on me and that I had left them in my moped! I was 90% sure the bi

ke would be gone so I didnt even bother running back to it. I just walked out to the car park but it was there and the keys were just sitting in the ignition. Very relieved about that! I actually did the same thing last week by the beach and when I went back to the moped there was a guy sitting there with the keys! I just gave him a tip for helping but I was very surprised that he didn't just take it as there is no way I could have found him. We went bowling in the evening for an hour or two and just went back to the camp and chilled after.

7 am - muesli

9:20 am - nature valley bar

11 am - sticky rice w banana, veggies + fruit

2:20 pm - peanuts

4 pm - fried chicken + onions

6:30 pm - chicken, rice, veggies

11:50 pm - nature valley bar

30th August 2009 (Sunday)

Really chill day today, went back up to the big buddha again to get a better view as the weather was much better. Went for a swim after and just relaxed. Really looking forward to training tomorrow! Even though I am here to train it can get very mentally tiring as well as physically so its good to take at least 1 day off a week to just chill and do normal tourist stuff. It also helps kind of reinvent your love for training again.

9 am - muesli

11 am - nature valley bar

1 pm - Tuna sandwich + fries

5 pm - chicken, noodles, veg

8 pm - nuts

31st August 2009 (Monday)

8 - 10:30 am Muay Thai

Went for a quick run before class.

Boxing technique- stepping back from a stomach punch + stepping out with a hook. Did another one stepping back and stepping in again with a jab cross.

2 rounds shadow boxing

4 rounds on pads. I cant remember the guys name but I learned a lot. My kicks are getting a lot better now. Its been a bit of a struggle as I'm used to bending my knee when I kick but the thais tell you to keep it straight. They are coming along though.

4 rounds on bags working technique.

3 rounds boxing sparring changing partner each round. I enjoyed it but the guys I sparred with weren't really that good so I found it a little too easy.

100 push ups

200 situps

Although the majority of the time the classes were good, occasionally a few shit guys would be in the class and clearly didn't really know what they were doing which was frustrating in the advanced class as when sparring you kind of felt obliged to take it easy on them. We never really hit too hard anyways but hard enough to get a workout and when the dude is shit its makes you feel bad, well me at least.

2:30 - 3:30 pm Private with MOO

This session was awesome. We went over a lot of kicking technique + some fighting technique.

First 2 rounds shadow then went through all the technique which he made me write down so as not to forget.

leg catch techniques

1-catch, step back, swing leg, kick

2-low sweep

3-lean forward neck

4-twist leg

5-knee,spin elbow

6-catch, step elbow, spin elbow

We then did 3 types of front kick

1-straight- moving forward or backward

2-outside-moving left + right

3-inside-moving back

Lowkick

inside + outside + jump

inside + outside + right kick

leg kick moving side ways

back of knee sweep

2 rounds of pads at the end.

I got more out of this session than I have learned in any class. It was really awesome and made me love the training even more.

Over the 4 weeks I was there I went though phases of absolutely loving every second of training and phases of asking myself "what am I doing here". Doing private sessions really made me love the training even more as it was specific to you. The next time I go back I think I will do one class a day and one private session. You need the classes to get your sparring in but I reckon you equally need the private sessions to make your training more relative to you as the trainer can give you his undivided attention.

4 - 6:30 pm Muay Thai

normal warm up

technique was knee block + lean back.

3 rounds Muay Thai Sparring, best session so far. Im really starting to feel good on my feet now and Im a lot more comfortable moving around the ring.

3 rounds pad work, I was fucked by now so I took it very easy.

3 rounds bag work.

20 mins clinchwork, getting a little better at it now but I still suck.

100 round kicks on bag + 100 front kicks.

300 situps

100 push ups

stretch to cool down.

It was really difficult doing the 3 sessions today. I might be able to manage it a little better if there was more of a break between the private and the next class but that was the only time MOO had available so I had to take it. Today was the hardest day so far physically.

8pm

Went to watch some fights at Patong Boxing stadium. Was very good. One of the main fighters for the camp (Bernung - ranked top 10 in his weight division in thailand 2009 ) was fighting and he landed a cartwheel kick on his opponent! It was awesome. He knocked him out in the first or second round.

7 am - muesli

10:30 am - protein shake

12 pm - chicken, rice, veg, nuts

2 pm - nature valley bar + milk

7 pm - protein shake, chicken, noodles, veg

8:30 pm - popcorn

11:50 pm - nature valley + milk

1st September 2009 (Tuesday)

9-11 am NoGi

The bangkok grappling games are on in 20 days so Ray has decided to change the style of the warm ups. Everyday we'll be drilling 3 basic moves. Today was armbar, triangle + sweep.

technique for the class was triangle + how to transition to omaplata from it. It was a good class. Had a really good roll today. 4 rounds with different people. I tapped 3 of them- all with armbar + I got a triangle on one guy as well (my first one rolling).

Im trying to mix up my training as much as possible but I kind of enjoy the Muay Thai classes the most. It might be because I haven't been able to kick for so long and Im just overdosing on it now but Im trying to work in some BJJ + MMA as well

4 pm Advanced MMA

I've bee a bit apprehensive about going to this class as a lot of people around the camp have said negative things

about the trainers hitting to hard etc but I decided to check it out for myself.

shadow boxing WU -3 rounds,

3 rounds pad work. The dude I had was pretty good, no technique correction or anything though he just wanted power!

3 rounds sparring. Ray grabbed me straight away and went into the cage. We started off quite light and I thought it was all good when he threw a head kick that connected really well and almost knocked me out! He apologized so was all good. Very tough round though. He does hit really hard but I loved every second of it. I prefer it when its hard coz its more real. I went with this chick Claire for the next round. She had really good leg kicks and I was feeling em for a while afterwards. 3rd round was with an auzzie dude which was an awkward round for me coz he was a south paw and Im not used to sparring them but it was good for experience.

We worked some G N P technique then and a few basic escapes etc.

I really enjoyed this class in spite of what everyone was saying about it. I guess if you dont wanna get hit them just don't do it!

8 am - muesli

12 pm - protein shake, chicken, noodles, veg

3:30 pm - sticky rice w banana

7 pm - protein shake + chick, rice, veg

9 pm - muesli

2nd September 2009 (Wednesday)

Woke up really sore and I couldn't really put weight on my leg so I decided to take the morning off from training. Went to the beach and had a swim and just chilled for the morning.

4pm Muay Thai

Generic WU

technique round kick + front kick, it was good transitioning between the two.

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds muay thai sparring , I loved this sparring session, got kicked in the face twice but was all good. I was with an English guy first, he was really aggressive but I liked it. I had a good round with another english dude and another with an auzzie guy.

3 rounds pad work, after the first round I was dead! I think it was cause I didn't eat much or maybe because I didn't have the energy drink I normally do and my body was just used to it.

The whole rest of the class was horrible.

4 rounds on the bag.

50 kicks each leg, my partner was obviously having a tough session as well as he just walked off half way through the kicks! just one of those days I guess.

20 mins clinching, I really dont like it, prob coz Im still shit at it but I really don't enjoy it.

100 push ups

300 sit ups

I'm delighted today is over, gonna get some sleep and attack it again in the morning.

8 am - muesli

12 pm - chicken + veggies

3:30 pm - chicken + veggies

7 pm - chicken + veggies, protein shake

10 pm - muesli

3rd September 2009 (Thursday)

9 am NoGi

We went through the same warm up as tuesday, armbar from guard, triangle + sweep. The technique for the class was how to escape from being caught on your back.

-trap arm - not necessary but a bonus, bridge back + fall to the side, pin their foot with yours + escape your hips to the side. if they try to go to mount then get rid of the hook and take halfguard, underhook + control biceps.

We did 6 5 min rounds rolling. I did good in the first 2 but lost the subsequent 4. I choked out the first 2 dudes with a basic choke from mount. Then I went with Victor who is amazing on the ground and pretty much dominated me. Then I was with 2 other guys who were just too strong for me and I couldn't do much against them. Overall it was a good class.

**the escape we learned has been extremely useful for me since then

2:30 pm Private with MOO

This session was awesome again. I told him at the start that I've been having trouble connecting with my overhand right during sparring so he went over a little of my technique for that at the beginning of the session. I think the problem was that I wasn't throwing it straight enough but we'll see tomorrow at sparring. He took me through 5 techniques which are all counters of the 6 leg catches he showed me in the previous session.

all done after opponent catches leg

1-twist foot + push away with heal

2-bend knee in + down, pull it out + inside front kick

3-opponent big step in - bend knee, grab neck + push away (spring)

4-opponent takes short step to go for low sweep - same defense as before but jump as well.

5-block back elbow + grab waist.

These techniques seem really useful and I hope to try some out in sparring tomorrow.

4 pm Muay Thai

After a 30 min break I was ready to go again. Its tough going having a class straight after a private but Im getting more conditioned to it now.

Routine WU

clinch technique- one hand in, one out. with the outside trap opponents

arm, push up the other one + lock hands, feet outside his + twist. It works quite well but I def need more practice at it.

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds on pads with MOO. This was awesome as he knows what I am working on from the privates so it made it a lot more personal. He gets me to do superman punches + elbows as well which are really fun.

4 rounds bag, I was fucked by this stage so I just worked technique more than power.

-couple of rounds clinching. It was ok but I was getting pulled down way to easy by my partners. I have to start focussing a little more during clinching especially when I am tired as it can be costly.

Next was the run. We did the short one today but I was dead by this stage so I welcomed it. Myself and Curls just held pace with each other and took it easy.

100 push ups

300 situps

Today was another one of those days I just wanted it to be over. On the days we have sparring I usually feel a lot better afterwards so bring on tomorrow!

7 am - muesli

11 am - protein shake

11:30 am - tuna salad + chicken + veggies

7:30 pm - protein shake, chicken + veggies, small choc bar + small bag of nuts

9:40 pm - muesli

2 weeks down. I feel like I am into the swing of things now. Still a few ups and downs but mostly ups.

• FRIDAY: BJJ, MUAY THAI
• SATURDAY: OFF
• SUNDAY: OFF
• MONDAY: MUAY THAI, PRIVATE, MUAY THAI
• TUESDAY: BJJ, MMA
• WEDNESDAY: MUAY THAI
• THURSDAY: BJJ, MUAY THAI

4th September 2009 (Friday)

9 am NoGi

3 positions for warm up were, submission from side control, sweep from half guard + passing the guard.

technique today was single leg takedown + a few ways to counter it. Takedowns are probably my biggest weakness so I was happy to get to work on them.

As with every friday today was the in house grappling tournament. The class got split into 2 groups and I was in the half with all the good dudes. First match I was against an english guy. he got me in a guillotine pretty much straight away when I went for the shot which was gutting, I was really pissed at myself. I managed to get out of it but he took my back and got me in a RNC. My second match was better and I was well ahead on points but the guy managed to sweep me and took mount in the last 30 secs so I ended up loosing.

Points system

2 points - takedown, sweep, knee on belly

3 points - pass the guard

4 points - mount + back with both hooks

4 pm Muay Thai

Seeing as I had a bad morning getting tapped I was determined to to have a good evening session.

routine WU

technique was side stepping + elbows on attacking opponents, same hand same side

2 rounds shadow

3 rounds MT sparring, I felt awesome today. I had heaps of energy and I was landing all my shots. Im def feeling a lot more confidant now standing up. I managed to catch a dudes leg once but didn't get the sweep as he was against the ropes. I had MOO again for my 3 rounds pads which was awesome as usual.

4 rounds on the bag, just practiced my kicks + right hand.

60 round kicks rotating every 20 to opposite leg.

20 low kicks on the long bag each side.

300 situps

100 push ups, Im finally starting to get better at these. When I first got here I was doing 10 sets of 10 then 4 x 20 + 2 x 10 then 5 x 20 and today I did 2 x 30 + 2 x 20.

Im still shit at them though. No matter how many I do It doesnt improve too much.

awesome day!

7 am - muesli

11 am - protein shake

11:40 am - chicken + veggies

3:30 pm - chicken + veggies

6:45 pm - protein shake

7:45 pm - chicken + veggies

11 pm - chicken tika, cheese naan + peanuts

5th September 2009 (Saturday)

9 am - weights

I did a quick ish upper body weights workout this morning. Pullups, dips, depth push ups, bicep curls, skull crushers, side bends + supermans.

It was a pretty average workout but enough to get a good sweat up.

One of my mates from NZ arrived today. She's staying at a different camp to us so I went over to pick her up and we went into Patong for a bit to fuck around. It took forever to find her place as it was even more out of the than our camp. It didn't help either that I got sent in the wrong direction 4 times by people who spoke no english. I finally went into an internet cafe and google mapped it.

When we finally got into Patong we did the usual walkabout looking at everything. Its a very entertaining place to just walk around.

8 am - muesli

10:30 pm - protein shake

12:30 pm - tuna sandwich + chips

3:30 pm - chicken, rice

5 pm - bag of nuts

10 pm - chicken, noodles, veg

6th September 2009 (Sunday)

Had a really chill day today. When I got up I went and picked up my friend and went to Patong again and just lay on the beach all day. It was pretty relaxing apart from every 5 minutes (literally) someone comes up to you trying to sell you stuff. Most of it is crap but I ended up buying a few things anyways.

8 am - muesli

10:30 am - omlet w chicken, garlic bread + mango

1 pm - cafe mocha frap + fruit

4:30 pm - sticky rice + banana, nuts + crackers

7:30 pm - muesli x 2

7th September 2009 (Monday)

8 am Muay Thai

I woke up a bit late this morning so rushed to training.

Boxing technique- uppercut to the body, over hand right.

slip jab + right cross + block left, block right,duck left, duck right then body punch.

4 rounds sparring. there wasn't many people in the class today so I got to do all 4 rounds with the same guy. He was an Irish guy as well. He was pretty good and the sparring was pretty even. He liked to wait for me to come in attacking and then counter and I like to try to keep pressure on people so it was a good session. I was very relaxed during all the rounds and managed to work my blocking a bit. My boxing def needs some work but its improved a lot since being here. I felt like in the later rounds I made more mistakes as I was taking more chances but I may have just gotten a little over confidant.

4 rounds on the pads with MOO. excellent as usual. I had Prosop for the last round and he was just fuckin around trying to be funny with the pads (he does that most of the time) and it kind of pissed me off as I wanted to work hard.

4 rounds on the bag

We worked on some blocks + knee technique up + down the mat.

100 push ups

300 situps

2:30 pm Private with MOO

Heaps of new tricks once again to do while sparring.

1-kick + block straight after without letting ur foot touch the ground

2-If opponent blocks then low kick and pull his back leg to get the sweep.

3-inside leg kick, outside to the body

4-front kick catch same hand same side - hips back + swing leg

5 - push hands + catch + takedown

6- opponent is coming in punching - low sweep leg.

7- step 45deg as they step to kick + knock hand out of the way +kick.

8-start with left leg bouncing (variations)

9-fake body (kness) hook + kick

10-kick-opponent blocks, kick-opponent blocks, fake kick- front kick (sneaky)

Went through all of these on each leg then did a couple of rounds on pads. It was a really good session. I'm noticing a huge improvement in my fitness now. The padwork is usually where I notice it the most as in sparring + bag work you can kind of control the pace but when on pads + you have the trainer shouting at you you don't really have a choice but to go hard.

4 pm Muay Thai

I was really tired after the private but dragged myself over to the class. We only did 3 rounds of sparring but it was good. I can really notice a huge difference in my confidence in the ring and how relaxed I am. Im using a lot less energy now and picking my shots more carefully rather than just going in and brawling which is kinda what I used to do. At the same time when I am sparring I try to be the one setting the pace. I like to be moving forward constantly even if my opponent is much better than me. I like to keep pressure on them. I managed to land a few of the techniques I've been learning especially no. 10 on the list above, it works 90% of the time on people.

3 rounds pads with MOO, probably the best rounds I've done so far since being here. He hardly needed to correct me at all so I presume that my technique has improved.

3 rounds on the bag.

10 mins clinching, I still hate it, Ive been trying to work on it but no matter what I just dont like it, you have to take the good with the bad though I guess.

100 push ups

300 situps

7:50 am - muesli

10:40 am - protein shake

12:30 pm - chicken + veggies, nuts

3:40 pm - muesli

7:30 pm - chicken, noodles, veg + mix fruit

9:15 pm - muesli

8th September 2009 (Tuesday)

9 am NoGi

I was pretty tired this morning (seems to be the theme these days). I think it might have something to do with not getting enough sleep. Usually after morning training I get a couple hours in but it always takes me a long time to fall asleep at night. Its extremely hot at night and its a struggle to get comfortable. It sucks but what ya gonna do ?

Warm up today was drills of a takedown (single leg) submission from mount (armbar) + a guard pass. The techniques we drilled for the class were a basic sweep from the bottom, bridge + roll and also went over some shrimping to get out from the bottom when mounted. Cardio today was circuits . 4 min rounds of exercises for 30 secs each. I cant remember all of them but it was relativity easy.

4 rounds of rolling today, went with Andreas which was sweet. I had a good roll with him, he managed to tap me but I held him off pretty well through the round. Next I had Bernung, it was a good battle as he is really strong but neither of us managed to get a submission + the last 2 rounds the guys I was against was very back n fourth with no submissions.

average class.

I took the afternoon off so I could relax a bit. I went to a really nice beach and had a swim. The days I do 2 sessions + a private seem to really take it out of me.

8 am - muesli

11 am - protein shake

12 pm - chicken + veggies

3:50 pm - muesli

7:15 pm - chicken + veggies, nuts

9 pm - muesli

9th September 2009 (Wednesday)

8 am Muay Thai

I kept waking up last night with wierd stomach cramps so I didnt get a good sleep but Im not gonna let it ruin my day!

WU as normal

boxing technique,

1- fake jab, cross to the body

2-fake jab, straight to the head , uppercut to the body

3-fake right, left to the body

shadow 2 rounds

4 rounds boxing sparring, really good, landed a few really good shot on the boys + ate a few good ones as well

4 rounds pads with MOO again. Awesome as usual, Getting privates with him really pays off as he is def giving me more instruction than he needs to. He showed me some cool new elbow tricks as well.

4 rounds on the bag

100 push ups

300 sit ups

4 pm Muay Thai

Really small class this eve. There was only 3 of us.

normal warm up.

Technique

1-round kick

2-front kick

3-round kick jump to the side

4-side step + knock down hand + low kick

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds pads with MOO. He pushed me really hard today and I was dead by the 3rd round but managed to push through. For some reason MOO told me to sit out for the 4th round so I'd have energy for sparring.

3 rounds of sparring, I was with an auzzie dude. The sparring was really evenly matched, I actually think that it would be a good fight between the both of us.

3 rounds on the bag.

I wana try something the next time in sparring that I just learned on the bag. Fake overhand right then hook to the body.

I've been on a quest recently the last few times sparring trying to land a clean superman punch on someone. Usually people just cover up but I'm sure Ill get it eventually!

10 mins clinching at the end of class which was pretty chill.

200 slipping knees holing onto the ropes

100 push ups

300 situps

I did the push ups in between the situps today 3 x 30 + 1 x 10

good class + day overall

7:30 am - muesli

10:30 am - protein shake

11 am - chicken + veggies + mango smoothie

2 pm - muesli

6:30 pm - protein shake

7 pm - chicken cashew nuts + rice

10th September 2009 (Thursday)

7 am Bodyfit

Up at 6:50 and wandered over to the weights area. Its awesome that in order to train all you have to do is walk less than 20ft from your bedroom door! No bullshit having to catch the bus or drive and find parking etc.

Anyways I got to the class + went through a full body warmup consisting of twists, star jumps, lunges and stuff like that. The workout today was a tabata style one with 7 exercises, 8 sets of each, 20 secs work 10 rest on each.

1- KB get up sit up

2-reverse woodchopper

3-figure 8 to a hold

4-windshield wipers on the floor

5 reverse crunch on floor

6-overhead tricep extension on knees

7-bicep curl

spent about 10 mins stretching at the end.

It was a really good class. I would really like to do it more but it would mean sacrificing another class during the day and I can always do fit classes at home but I cannot get the level of

Muay Thai instruction I get here anywhere else so I prefer to focus on that for the time being.

1:30 pm Private with MOO

Worked a lot more technique today again. He was saying to me thats he's been watching me sparring the last few days and that I have no problems with technique now, that I just need more tactic.

1-catch leg, step same side

as leg ur holding (1) small step forward (2)

kick hammy (3) pull down on neck (4).

2-catch + step same side, quad kick, back same place + back elbow

3-catch leg, step knee + grab neck, foot down next to thei

r foot + swing neck

4-catch leg, step 45 forward, let the leg slide a little bit + swing neck

5-catch leg, elbow chest + side step, kick neck

6-catch leg, hook + side step

7-step forward + push jab to chest with option to low sweep if they right kick (defense for opponent stepping forward to kick)

3 rounds on the pads at the end. They felt really long. in the 3rd he wasn't even calling out any of the combos, just holding up the pads in the position for what I had to throw. It was really cool + a sign that I must be improving. very good session.

Took rest of the day off.

8:10 am - muesli + protein shake

12 pm - chicken + veggies, crackers

3 pm - muesli

6 pm fried rice, chicken + pineapple

6:30 pm - mixed fruit

9:40 pm muesli

3 weeks down, can't believe I only have 1 left!

• FRIDAY: BJJ,
• SATURDAY: WEIGHTS
• SUNDAY: OFF
• MONDAY: MUAY THAI, PRIVATE, MUAY THAI
• TUESDAY: BJJ
• WEDNESDAY: MUAY THAI, MUAY THAI
• THURSDAY: BODYFIT, PRIVATE

11th September 2009 (Friday)

8am Muay Thai

routine WU + stretching

boxing technique

1-right cross double upper to the body, duck + hook to the head

2-1,2,3 duck 3

3-slip jab uppercut duck +turn + hook to the head.

2 rounds shadow.

4 rounds boxing sparring. It was really good as always. I did all 4 rounds with the same dude I sparred with the other day. Same as the other day, very even between us. We were actually saying to each other after that we would probably have a good fight. I was very relaxed during the round as usual and I felt like I had a lot more gas than him especially in the last round.

4 rounds on the pads with Prosop. He was fuckin around with the pads wiggling his hips n stuff and trying to joke but it was kinda fun today. He is honestly shit at hold pads though!

4 rounds on the bag working

combos as usual. I need to start working kicks a bit more with punches so mental note *

100 push ups - 2 x 40 + 1 x 20

300 situps

4 pm Muay Thai

I managed to get a good few hours sleep before this class so it made up for my lack of from last night.

normal WU

technique today was elbows,

1-side step elbow then you hook, opponent blocks, hook again + he ducks your hook + step forward + back elbow.

2- side step as we grab him in the clinch swing them around by the neck + uppercut elbow

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds on the pads. Prosop again, fuckin around as usual, it pissed me off today coz I wanted to work hard, it was average and I managed to get a good workout but it would have been better with anyone else.

4 rounds sparring. It was really chill this eve, everyone was just relaxed and working on technique. It was good in a way to relax a bit but I would have preferred to have had a good bang with someone.

4 rounds on the bag. I had a lot more energy today after my mid day nap so I tried to let it out on the bag.

At the end of the class we did a little bit of movement technique in the ring.

300 situps

100 push ups 1 x 50 1 x 40 1 x 10

Pretty good class aside from the pad work.

**

We decided to go into Patong drinkin tonight. After 1 beer I was almost drunk! Myself and Curls kept going to 7-11 to get beers and just drank them on the street walking around the place talking to people, it was pretty funny. I finally went to one of those notorious Ping Pong shows. I've never seen anything like it in my life. This chick was putting different things inside her and pulling them back out, one of them being a small live bird! I'll leave it at that. We went around to a few bars and a club after words and I ended up mopedin home pretty drunk which was a bad idea but I made it safe n sound so no harm done.

7 am - protein shake + museli

10:30 am - protein shake

11:30 am - tuna salad, mango

2:40 pm - chicken sandwich, fries + banana

6:30 pm protein shake

7:30 pm - bacon cheese burger + fries

11:50 pm - 2 chicken burgers, nuts + icecream

*DRINKS*

12 September 2009 (Saturday)

Woke up pretty hungover but I managed to shake it off after drinkin

lots and lots of water, its never really worth it is it? I went in to pick up curls who stayed with some chick and we went paint balling with a few of the guys from the camp. It was really fun. I had never been before. Didnt realise how much those tiny balls actually hurt!

10 am - mc donalds, sausage, egg + hash brown

12 pm - mix fruit

1:30 pm - tuna cake

3 pm - muesli

5:40 pm - tuna + crackers

6:15 pm - chicken + cashew nuts

8 pm - nuts + snacks

13th September 2009 (Sunday)

I did a kettlebell workout this morning when I woke up. Pretty generic full body circuit which I went through twice

Overhead Squat

Swing

Row

Single Chest Pre

ss

Standing Shoulder Press

Bicep Curl

Overhead Tricep Extension

Side Bends

Figure of 8

Knee raises

It was actually a pretty good workout considering it was so basic.

I had a quick shower and then went for a Traditional Thai Yoga Massage. I went to a spa where you go for a swim and a sauna before hand which was really nice. To be honest the massage wasn't very good at all. It was more painful than anything and not even good pain. the chick gets up on your back and digs her knees into you and stuff and it just hurts. It felt more like a stretching session than a massage but whatever. Someone had told me beforehand that it was like this but I thought it would be good anyways. Next time I'll go for a normal oil massage to try and relax a bit.

7 am - muesli

11 am - protein shake

2 pm - tuna + crackers+ nuts

6:30 pm - chicken , noodles, nuts

14th September 2009 (Monday)

9 am NoGi

The warm up today consisted of a single leg takedown, basic guard pass + moving around the body.

Technique we drilled was going from the clinch to a takedown- arm that has underhook chuck + single or body lock, head

in chest + bend their knee. Also did one where you go hip to hip + explode up + lift your opponent.

Cardio today was that 3 30 drill we did before.

We did 4 rounds of rolling. The first 2 guys I went with were really new to the whole thing and I was pretty much able to do what I wanted to them, ended up tapping both of them twice(americana, kimora, choke + anaconda). Its nice to do that sometime but you always learn more against better guys. The next 2 guys I went with were both quite good and they both managed to submit me but they were pretty even rounds.

It was a good class. I should be coming to it a bit more to mix my training up a bit and not be too focussed on Muay Thai but seeing as i am in Thailand I want to make the most out of it.

4 pm Muay Thai

Only 3 ppl including myself turned up for class today so we got plenty of attention. The other 2 peeps were an english chick and a guy from NZ.

Technique

1-kick-opponent blocks then you jump to the side + low kick

2-kick then block straight away

3-inside leg kick, you block then counter with body kick

4-kick-opponent blocks, kick again, opponent leans back + kicks you in the side or back

2 rounds shadow

4 round son pads with MOO. Once again the best rounds Ive done. I seem to just keep improving now that Im getting closer to the end of my stay. I've notice a huge difference in myself since I've been here. he was doing the same as the other day where he doesn't say anything just hold up the pads where he wants me to throw.

4 rounds on bag. Robert

got us to drill one combo only each round

1-jab, front kick, kick

2-jab, front kick knee

3-jab front kick, elbow

4-combos but setting them up with a jab or front kick

I felt pretty light headed in the 3rd + fourth rounds but managed to get through them.Because there was so few ppl in the class I got to spar 4 rounds with Robert. He came out pretty light at the beginning just jabbing + light kicks so I thought I was gonna be sweet but in the second he came out swinging! Pretty much perfect power the whole way through but quite hard at the same time. He was literally coming forward swinging the whole time in each round. He was leaving himself open a lot though so I was pretty much able to hit him at will. It wasn't pretty but it was a lot of fun. It was pretty much a brawl but the both of us were just laughing the whole way through. It was probably the most fun sparing I've had since being here.

We did about 10 mins shadow boxing just doing technique in the ring at the end. I have a bit of trouble keeping my weight 50 50 coz of my ankle injury I tend to keep my weight on my left foot but at least I am aware of it now and I can work on it in the future and of course we finished up with the usual 100 push ups and 200 situps.

8 am - muesli

11 am - protein shake

12:15 pm - chicken + veggies

3 pm - chicken + veggies

6:30 pm - protein shake

7:30 pm - 2 tuna bur

gers

9:30 pm - muesli

15th September 2009 (Tuesday)

So I ended up setting my alarm clock for 7:30pm instead of am and slept in and missed both the morning Muay Thai class and BJJ class, it was annoying seeing as its my last week n all but whatever, Ill make up for it this eve.

4pm Muay Thai

Seeing as I missed the morning class I went over to training a little earlier to skip for a bit.

warm up as normal

clinch technique

1-one hand inside, one out, with the inside one trap opponents arm + at the same time work the other hand in + push his arm

away + hold on the hinge of the arm, step outside

2- same start, opponent tries to go under, you block by pulling your elbow to chest, he tries to go over + you grab bicep, step back + side + grab other arm + knee.

3- fight for position.

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds on the pads. I had Prosop which I wasnt happy about but I was determined to work hard. He was trying his usual shit but when he did I would just hit him lightly or give him a little push kick trying to get him to cop on a bit but its no use. I would have preferred anyone else but I made the most of it. It seems that my luck with pad work goes up and down. The majority of the time its awesome but otherwise its shit, no middle ground.

4 rounds on the bag just working combos similar to yesterdays ones.

Running time again! I have no idea how far this one was but it had to be at least 5kms. Just before the half way point there was a huge hill we had to run up. I was heaving by the time I got to the top and could barely breath, it was a really steep incline. We could only go so far up the hill as the trainer told us that there was wild dogs up further and they bite so that was all the information we needed. The view from where we rested was amazing, it was well worth the effort just to look at it. On the way back to the camp myself and Curls were a good bit ahead of the rest of the group and one of the trainers (Robert) was parked up about 300m from the camp. He told me an curls to race to the front gate. Of course I took off sprinting as fast as I could straight away and left curls for dead. I had completely burned out after about 200m all the while curls was holding a nice comfortable pace behind me and when he saw me slow down he sped up and over took me to win with about 20m left. My own fault completely but it was all in fun.

back to the ring for 300 situps and 100 push ups, I was pretty tired after the run so I had to break up the push ups a lot.

Sparring tomorrow, Cant wait!

9 am - muesli

11:30 am - 2 tuna burgers

3 pm - tuna + crackers

6:30 pm - 2 tuna burgers + fries

16th September 2009 (Wednesday)

8 am Muay Thai

Very small class this morning, 4 of us in total. All of us were similar in size +weight though so it made for good training.

warm up

technique today was punch + catch

1-jab, opponent kicks, you side step + catch

2-jab cross, opponent kicks off whatever leg + you catch

3-catch leg + lift leg up + 2 step forward + push opponent away

4- catch leg + knee + grab neck, s

tep back + to the side + swing him down- if he grabs your neck just lean him down straight away.

2 rounds shadow

4 rounds boxing sparring. It was really good as always today. I was with that Auzzie guy again for 2 rounds. I feel I got the better of him today but I dunno for sure. I went with a huge guy from NYC then but he was really shit so I had to go really easy with him. I had another Auzzie guy then who was really good. He ke

pt bobbing + weaving and was really hard to hit. He had good hard punches as well which I liked. I really enjoyed that round.

4 rounds on the the pads with MOO. Delighted I didn't get the old guy again. The rounds went pretty well but I got really tired in the 3rd so I had to slow down a bit. In the middle of the fourth I was doing multiple kicks and landed wrong on my bad ankle. I twisted it pretty bad. I had to sit out the rest of the session and just got some ice on it. Its hurting really bad at the moment but Im hoping it'll be ok.

4pm Muay Thai

My ankle was still really sore so I asked the trainer if it was ok for me to just do hands for the class. I couldn't do the usual warm up so I just waited till the stretching. The technique today was front kicks

1-fake step with front leg then kick

2-kick, opponent blocks, kick again, then front kick

3-raise knee, back to base then front kick

I had to go really light on my foot but I managed to get through it ok.

2 rounds shadow

MOO told me not to do sparring, not even boxing so I went with him instead on the pads. I was pretty gutted cause this would have been ,my last sparring session but its better to be smart about it than risk damaging my ankle anymore. Boxing on the pads was good but Im really not a good boxer and the focus mitts MOO had were pretty shit but it was still a good couple of rounds.

4 round on the bag just boxing while everyone else did pads + another 4 rounds on the bag with everyone else. Everyone had to do knee + front kick drills afterwards so I went straight into the push ups + situps. It was really strange, while curls was sparring he twisted his ankle as well and had to sit out half way through the session! Both of us in the same day! We thought it could have been some Karma thing coming back on us but who knows.

My ankle is still pretty bad but hopefully it'll be ok for our last day here tomorrow.

7:30 am - muesli

10:40 am - protein shake

11:45 am - 2 tuna burgers

3 pm - tuna + crackers

7 pm - protein shake

7:30 pm - chicken cashew nuts + mixed fruit

9:20 pm - cashew nuts

17th September 2009 (Thursday)

Well my ankle is really swollen and I cant really walk on it so I guess Im done. I went along to the 9 am NoGi class just to see what they were working on.

guard pass- when in guard, lie on opponent + get an underhook, flatten out body, sit down to the side, eitherfigure 4 or step on ankle + slide hips through or pass to side control.

In guard, posture up, check which of his legs are on the bottom of his guard, slide your hand in and pry his legs open, at the same time put your other hand between his legs or risk a triangle.

when you posture up if they try to guillotine you then lie on them + wrap arm around their shoulders, lock hands + drive shoulder to wrist.

4pm - weights

Ankle was still pretty bad so I just did an upper body weights workout.

Pullups

Push ups

Rows

Shoulder Press

Bicep Curl

Overhead Extension

Side Bends + Situps

7:30 am - muesli

11:45 am - omelet, veg + rum raisin ice-cream

3 pm - 2 scoops ice-cream

7 pm - 2 tuna burgers

8 pm - 2 donuts

11 pm - couple beers + nuts, chicken on a stick.

• FRIDAY: BJJ,
• SATURDAY: OFF
• SUNDAY: WEIGHTS
• MONDAY: BJJ, MUAY THAI
• TUESDAY: MUAY THAI
• WEDNESDAY: MUAY THAI, MUAY THAI
• THURSDAY: WEIGHTS

Well thats pretty much it, 4 weeks gone in the blink of an eye. I would recommend one of these trips to anyone who likes to train and has an interest in Muay Thai.My only regret about the trip is that I did not arrange a fight while here. I will definitely have one the next time I go to test myself.

When I look at all the workouts on this table it seems like a lot but when I was there I actually felt really bad if I missed a session. When compared to my workouts at home which consist of an hour a day (if even) its crazy to think that I give myself a hard time over in Thailand when I miss one class but still train for 4 hours on that day. I guess its the whole mentality of being there in general.

I hope that people like this training blog. I left out a lot of things like people I met or some of the more mundane things I did as I wanted to keep it strictly training.

Anyways thank you for reading and check out my future posts to come on the different stuff I get up to.

Before pic taken the day i left for Thailand

After pic taken the day I left the camp in Thailand

Video Montage of most of the photos I took over the month