Monday, November 28, 2011

1000 lb Club!


Not too long ago I put up a post where I talked about my goals.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here are the key points again:

1. Bulk up via strength training to about 150 lbs (~10-15% body fat is fine)
2. Join the 1000lb club (Deadlift, bench, and squat must add up to at least 1000lb)

3. Bring my conditioning up (Cut back on strength training and focus on circuit training ~5-8% body fat)

As of today, I have officially accomplished the first two goals.  :)  I've been sitting around 150 lbs for a few weeks now, and just today I hit the 1000 lb mark.  I deadlifted 405# (5x) a few days ago, and I squated 345# (5x) today, and benched 250# (3x) last week.  I'm still working on the bench, but I hurt my shoulder so I need to give it some time to heal.  I finally completed the Madcow program, which was an overwhelming success.  I truly doubted it would work at the beginning, but I'm really happy I stuck with it.  

Bulking up was a success
 Now for my final goal.  I just hope that I don't lose all my weight and strength once start doing cardio.  

But the way things are going, anything's possible.  Life is good :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

... And Again...


Congratulations to me! I managed to make it exactly one month and 2 days before I got sick again! 
No.
This isn't right, what is going on?  I was in Calgary for a conference, I didn't work out, I didn't train, or anything, just took it easy.  But on my flight home, I started to feel it coming.  Uh oh, I thought.  By the time I was home I was already getting feverish. 

Makes me wonder if I should just live in a bubble.

Anyways, I'm better now, and I'm so close to the end I can taste it.  Not having to be forced to go to the gym every second day or else I'll fall behind on my Madcow program, not having to eat 6 meals a day with each one feeling like a losing battle, not having to work so hard lifting weights but have no gas in the ring.  I'm on the last week of Madcow, and I technically should be done by now, but I've had a few hiccups, a couple that I mentioned already and I've also had troubles with a few of the lifts.  I know it's my last week, but I want to finish it strong and earn every bit of it.  So if it takes me another 2 weeks to finish, so be it.  I went to the gym today and I couldn't finish the sets but this happens everytime after I get sick, so I'll just rest up and get back to it in a couple days.  I've been sitting steadily at 150 lbs so no complaints there.  It's not the 155 lbs I had initially wanted but I'm happy with it.

My other goal was to become part of the 1000lb club.  I think I talked about it before, but it's when your combined deadlift, bench press, and squat is over 1000lb.  Right now I've lifted 980lbs.  soooo close!  I can't give up yet, I just got push through a little bit longer....

"I ask not for a lighter load, I ask for broader shoulders"


Monday, October 17, 2011

Sick... Again?!


How has this happened?  I'm not even close to being overtrained! It's a week back into my routine, definitely not working that hard at all, and bam I'm sick again.  That's twice this year, about 4 times last year... whaaaaaat is going on?  This is so frustrating, how often do people usually catch a cold/fever, once a year? It screws up my routine always sets me back.

So what is the key to staying healthy while training?  Especially in a sport where bodily contact and fluid transfer (sweat) is unavoidable like MMA?  I guess I don't know, because I eat healthy and I get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.  If anyone has any tips, leave them in the comments section below! I will try them out because I'm tired of being sidelined all the time.  Certain foods that boost immune system? I'm all ears.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Still here

Ok so I haven't been keeping up with my weekly does of awesomeness, I feel bad.  Between work, training, and eating I barely have any time to relax.  I've also been back and forth to Calgary for work/holidays a lot lately so things have been a bit hectic. 

To be honest, I actually don't have anything to blog about.  Bulking up is really not that interesting; eat, sleep, boring workout.  I'm past halfway done my Madcow program and I can't wait to be done.  I'll talk more on that later, but basically my conditioning is really suffering at the MMA gym.  I can barely make it through a round of sparing without my arms filling up with so much lactic acid I can't hold them up to cover my face.  So I just block with my face :).  I haven't done any cardio, no gymnastics, none of the fun stuff essentially.  So I can't wait until 5 weeks later when I'm done with this. 

But until I start doing interesting things again, here's a clip you may find enjoyable.  Lou's the man. If you don't know who he is, you need to watch pumping iron, with Arnie.  That, or the hulk.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Anodyne: Physio

Yesterday was my appointment at Anodyne Chiropractic and Sports Therapy.  I had a one hour session with a Chiropractor and a one hour deep tissue massage after.  This is the first time I've ever been to either chiro or massage, and I gotta say, it was a pretty good experience.  When I had first called I was looking for physiotherapy but I was surprised when they said they don't have actual physio therapists.  I thought Chiropractors only worked on things regarding the spine, but I guess I was wrong.  He worked in my foot, trying to mobilize the soft tissue.  It was apparently called the ART soft tissue treatment.  After that, he used the Graston technique, where he rubs a butter knife like tool over the injury, trying to break down the scar tissue.  I was a little worried at first because my doctor had told me we wanted everything to get real stiff to stabilize my foot, but I guess after a year, it's time to bring back some mobility to my joints.  My foots a little sore today but that's expected.  He also cracked my back, aligning my spine.  Apparently I'm really stiff and he had a hard time cracking my upper back haha.  The massage was pretty painful at times but I felt pretty good afterwards... I guess.  Pain is good right?
Later that afternoon I went to the gym, and when I was doing squats, I noticed an improvement in the strain on my lower back.  There seemed like no strain on my lower back at all and everything was stretched out, so I guess something was outta line before.

I've heard good things about Anodyne from quite a few people so I'm optimistic they'll get my foot stronger!  And if you've never had a deep tissue massage... get one, it's definitely worth it!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Getting in the groove of things

Ever since I moved it's been hard to find the time to blog.  Nonetheless, I've been keeping up with my goals I mentioned earlier.  Weight wise I stepped on the scale at 145 lbs today!  An all new record.  When I was living at home, my weight would fluctuate but never really go up, but with my new diet and training regime it's well on it's way.  I haven't gotten around to count my calories or any of that stuff, but I structure my meals around a few basic rules:

1. Use the food pyramid.  When buying groceries I make sure there are proportionate amounts of each food group.
2. Eat healthy.  I want to gain lean mass, not get fat!
3. Eat LOTS.  I try to get in 6 meals a day, with each meal not being extremely large.

Here's typically what I eat in a day:
6:15 AM  - Omelette with 2 eggs and red pepper, green onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, ham and cheese. 
                 - Bowl of oatmeal
10:00 AM - Ham, lettuce, and cheese sandwich
                 - Bowl of yogurt with berries
                 - An orange, or apple
                 - Handful of almonds
12:00 PM - Either pasta, or rice with chicken and brocolli
                 - Another fruit
3:00 PM   - Tuna Sandwich
                 - Another fruit
6:30 PM   - Rice, with chicken breast and vegetables on side
9:30 PM   - Fruit Smoothie

And here's the graph of my weight progress


Lastly, I just finished week 6 of the MadCow lifting program.  I'm seeing gains already, so I can't wait until week 12!  Since things are starting to get heavy though, I started taking creatine again.  Today was my first day so I will be on a 5 day loading phase this week!  

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Baked Lemon Herb Chicken Breasts

Chicken breasts offer a great source of protein, and they can be cooked so many different ways and compliment a variety of dishes.  For example, for dinner I would have a chicken breast with sides of rice, potatoes and asparagus/broccoli.  A chicken breast contains approximately the same amount of protein as a scoop of protein powder, so next time you get out of the gym try this recipe instead of guzzling down that sandy mixture. 

Protein: 30-40 grams
Servings: 4 breasts
Prep time: 15 minutes
Inactive prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon lemon zest (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 whole lemon (3 lemons in total should do the trick)
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
salt and black pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Warm olive oil over medium-low heat, add garlic, and cook just for a minute, not letting the garlic brown.  Remove from heat, and add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Pour mixture into a baking dish.


 3. Pat chicken breasts dry and place them in the sauce.  Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and stick them in between the chicken breasts.

4. Bake for about 30-40 minutes. 

Enjoy! (sides: tomato salad and soy sauce eggplant w/ rice)
Recipe Source: Television Food Network

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Switching to the Madcow Strength Program


I've probably said this before, but here are my fitness goals:

1. Bulk up via strength training to about 150 lbs (~10-15% body fat is fine)
2. Join the 1000lb club (Deadlift, bench, and squat must add up to at least 1000lb)
3. Bring my conditioning up (Cut back on strength training and focus on circuit training ~5-8% body fat)

Obviously when I start the conditioning, my weight will drop a bit, maybe settling down around 145lb.  The idea is to become lean yet still strong, so I have to gain a bit of extra weight when I'm bulking to anticipate the weight loss after.

Moving to Grande Prairie kept me busier than I thought it would, and during the transition I didn't go to the gym for about a month.  Now I'm finally settled in, I'm back in a routine and going to World's Gym for my weight lifting needs.  Like I mentioned in previous posts, I said I would start a new program to help me break over some of the plateaus I was experiencing.  This new program is called the Madcow Program.  There's speculation over where exactly this program came from, but these 5x5 programs are nothing new and they have been proven again and again.  Essentially 5x5 programs are structured around the ideology of 5 sets of 5 reps.  5 reps is less than the usually 8-10 rep standard that many in the fitness world preach, but in order to really get strong, you need to lower the reps and increase your load.  To offset the low number of reps, you maintain the work output by increasing the standard 3 sets to 5 sets.  There is a popular lifting program called Starting Strength, and it is a 5x5 program aimed at people fairly new at lifting weights.  It gets people strong pretty quick!  It's a program by Mark Rippetoe, a highly regarded coach with 25 years in the fitness industry and 10 years as a competitive power lifter.  He has a website here: Starting Strength, with lots of useful tips and videos and he also has a book by the same name.  Needless to say, more and more people are starting to jump on the 5x5 bandwagon.

Now the Madcow program is a intermediate lifting program, usually for people that have completed programs such as Rippetoe's Starting Strength.  Because gains are harder to come by, the program ensures optimal recovery, and slowly ramps up weight over the course of weeks.  Here is some more information on the Madcow program: http://stronglifts.com/madcow-5x5-training-programs/

Some fantastic person created a spreadsheet that is easy to use and follow where you enter how much weight you can normally lift at max, and it calculates exactly what weight to use each workout.  Here's a screenshot of the spreadsheet and you can see in the red box my workout for today.  This is my second week doing it.  During my one month hiatus, I lost a bit of muscle and I'm finding myself not as strong as before.  I still kept my "maxes" the same as before though, so I'm hoping that I regain my former self pretty quickly here.  By week 4-5 you should be breaking your old personal records, so until then it's supposed to be pretty easy.  Also, if I stick to this, by week 12 I should have hit the 1000lb club!

Now you might be asking, so do you really only do 3 lifts a day?  In short, yes.  These compound exercises are your bread and butter and should result in the most gains for what you are putting in.  Since you are stressing your body so much with a lot of weight, you need a lot of recovery.  However, there are complimenting exercises that you can throw in.  As long as you don't spend another hour working your biceps, you should be fine.  For example, one day i did some pullups, the other day I did some light clean and jerks.  Don't overdo it.  Of course, what do I know, this is my first time doing this program.  What I do know is though, in weight lifting there is the law of diminishing returns.  Up to a certain point you can work out for hours on end and not get corresponding gains.  Ever worse, you can overtrain and get sick, and that throws your body really out of whack.

Anyways, food doesn't cook itself, so I better get off the computer and make some lunch.  Oh and on that, I'm going to post some of my new nutrition and put up a recipe I tried out and like.  It's nice and simple, and got lots of protein for your weight lifting grunting needs! 

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Grande Prairie Update

Sorry, it's been over a month since I've posted.  To be fair, I didn't have my computer or internet access for about 3/4 of that time.  I've finally moved to Grande Prairie, and this is the first weekend where I'm settled down and not too busy.  I was in a hotel for the first week because I couldn't move in until August.  It would have been 2 weeks in the hotel, but luckily the manager let me move in a week early.  Not to say the hotel was horrible... the place I stayed at had it's own kitchen so I was able to cook at least!

I ordered Internet and TV from Telus as soon as possible, but somehow they always manage to disappoint me.  They screwed up my address and when I called them to correct it they said "oh yeah, we have the right address, don't worry".  Sure enough, they call me that day and tell me that they can't hook up my services because of the wrong address.  ugh.  So I had to wait an extra week and a half before I had internet/tv.  It wasn't too bad though, because I drove to Calgary for the long weekend and drove back up with my girlfriend.  She stayed for a week, and on the weekend we drove down to Two Lakes and did some hiking.  We got lost in the bush, but it was a pretty fun adventure.  It was a rainy day and by the end of the day we were soaked from head to toe.  Here's some pictures:


My muddy truck!





Amazing


Beautiful girlfriend at the wapiti river!

Missing the cowboy hats...


For whatever reason, the grasshoppers in GP are breeding like crazy this year, and these little buggers seem to really like my grill...


Anyways, my girlfriend is gone now, and I'm settled in, and it feels like every minute of my time is spent cleaning and cooking!  I joined World's gym, and also joined the team at GP boxing.  They're a small group of guys but a great bunch and we can all help each other improve our game.  Anyways, I train Monday to Thursday at the boxing gym, and then I work out 3 times a week.  As a result, I don't have much time for cooking and I need to cook a lot of food in advance and I've become best friends with tupperware.  Here's a picture of one of my better creations :)


Baked Lemon Chicken with herb roasted potatoes with rice and broccoli. Mmm!  

I'll make another post about my new training, but until then, here are pictures of my new apartment!  I really need to go to sleep cuz I'm bagged!  









Ciao!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Top 3 Mistakes in Weight Lifting

Over the years I have seen people do some pretty stupid stuff at the gym.  For example, the other day I saw 3 high school kids walk over to the squat rack, put 10 lb bumper plates onto the barbell, and proceeded to do bicep curls.  I stared at them in disbelief but they were too busy comparing their biceps to notice me.  Cutting to the chase, here are the 3 biggest mistakes in my opinion in weight lifting:

1. Forgetting to breathe:  When going for that new personal record sometimes people forget that their brain needs oxygen and that by holding their breathe they are some how stronger.  Breathe!
2. Lifting on an upset stomach: for all those who know what I mean, I empathize.  For those who don't, just don't do it.  Make sure you do what you have to do in the washroom before lifting.
3. Overestimating one's abilities:  Not only does this hinder your progress, if you're lucky you can end up on the internet for everyone's amusement.

Now that I've explained that, I'm sure a few people will disagree with me, but rest assured I was not completely serious when I came up with these.  In fact, they really just complement the videos below... and although they may not be the biggest mistakes... we should all take note.

Enjoy!

Note: Pay attention to the area between the lifter's feet in the first video

Friday, June 24, 2011

Update

Gains!  The past couple weeks has been good in terms of personal records for me.  Last week I clean and jerked 165#, and few days later followed it up with a 195# clean.  My weighted pullups went up to +55#, and I managed to lift 375# on the deadlift!  It's interesting that most of these new records were done at times when I'm training minimally.  I'm really busy right now, with finding an apartment, buying furniture, booking hotels and flights, etc etc, and I just can't train as much as I did before.  It's actually probably because of this that I'm able to lift these weights in the gym.  My body is well rested and strong when I go into the gym, and it's not struggling to recover from previous days workouts.  Sometimes when I take a week off from the gym, either because I'm busy or I'm going on vacation, I come back to the gym expecting that I will be weaker, but usually it's the opposite.  So I figure it's good to give the body a break once in a while, let everything recover back to 100%, and then get back at it after. 

More on deadlifts, I was talking with a friend who competes in strongman competitions, and we're going to try and race for the 3X bodyweight deadlift.  I'm around 135#, so I would have to DL 405#.  He's around 190# and would have to DL 570#.  I think right now he deadlifts just over 500?  Anyways, it seems like a fun challenge and a good goal to set.  Hopefully I can get there in less than 6 months.  I finally went out and bought wrist straps and chalk, so that should help with my deadlifting. 

Anyways, this was a pretty boring post, but like I said I'm busy.  I'll try to make something more interesting when I get time!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Finding a Gym in Grande Prairie

I just got back from a 3 day trip to Grande Prairie.  I'm moving up there for a couple years for work, and I needed to find an apartment.  While I was up there I took the opportunity to check out the gyms, and I think visited the majority of them, if not all of them.  I'm sorry if I missed a few but I went to all the ones that were listed online.  Being sent to a small town for 2 years and not knowing anyone?  Hello gym, my new home.  Ok here we go. 

World Gym

These guys let me try out the place so I did my back workout there.  It's the biggest gym that I went to and it's similar to the YMCA.  With lots of machines, a couple bench presses and squat racks on the main floor and cardio machines on the second floor, it'll have most of what you'll need.  They even have an olympic platform which is a must for me.  The weird thing is they don't have bumper plates for their platform, only plastic covered weights which isn't as bad as the normal ones but I can't imagine it being good for the platform.  Oh well not my problem.  Membership is $60/month if you sign up for a year which isn't bad I think. 

Snap Fitness

There's two of these in Grande Prairie, and they're rather small gyms.  They are 24/7 gyms if you're into that kind of thing but I'm not going to be working out at 3AM at night.  When you walk in the people are quite friendly, and the atmosphere of the entire place is nice.  They keep the place clean and for the average person it's not an intimidating place at all.  Compared to world gym you walk in and it's like Gold's gym in Schwarzenegger's "Pumping Iron".  However, since this is a 24/7 gym there are times where the place isn't staffed and because of that, they don't have a lot of barbell stuff like squat racks etc, due to liability issues.  They have a smith machine, but well...  it's a smith machine.  Membership is fairly cheap, depending on what kind you get you can pay from $40-50 a month.  Also, their membership plans are fairly flexible so they don't lock you in like other gyms.  There's one of these gyms right in my backyard of my apartment, but with no squat racks to do squats, cleans, deadlifts and such, it's really not much use to me.  But again, it's got a variety of machines and you're not that picky then this gym would be a great choice.

Winston's Health & Fitness

This place is located on the upper floor of a building.  It's a smaller gym, definitely smaller than World's gym but bigger than Snap Fitness.  It's got a squat rack, and bench press, but again it doesn't really compare to World's gym.  The staff were really nice though!  The other thing is that since it's on the upper floor, I'm sure cleans and deadlifts are out of the question.  Olympic platforms and bumper plates are very  important to me, as you can tell.  I didn't inquire as to the membership prices, but I'm sure it's around the same as the others.

The Club

A part of the ranchlands apartment complexes, this gym is one of the nicest gyms I've seen at an apartment.  But that's not saying much.  It's ok though.  They've got a swimming pool, two squash courts and a small gym.  Again, no place for cleans, and squats, only a smith machine.  If I got an apartment there though, I wouldn't mind a membership here since it's less than $30/month if you're a resident.  However, since I didn't get an apartment here, I will most likely never set foot in here.

Grande Prairie Regional College

Ok I lied.  I didn't go to all the gyms.  There's a gym inside the college in Grande Prairie, but I didn't go check it out.  I've spent 4 years working out at the University of Calgary gym and it's great, but I was glad to switch gyms afterwards.  Everything is just more convenient when a place is just a gym, I find.  GPRC isn't small compared to UofC so I could be totally wrong, so maybe it's worth a look at.

VO2 Max

I decided to save the best for last.  Actually I was pretty disappointed in the selection of gyms so far, and VO2 Max was my last stop.  This place is a private gym, and they're not your typical gym.  They have a few machines, but the majority of their warehouse is filled with gymnastic rings, barbells with bumper plates, prowlers, ropes, medicine balls, etc.  When I walked in I felt like I was in heaven, I knew that was the gym I was looking for.  They do a lot of personal training, but they also do group classes.  They specialize in Crossfit, with a few classes in power lifting, olympic lifting, and bootcamps.  I've always wanted to get into Crossfit after I put on some mass to condition my body.  Anyways, after looking around the place I came back the next day to attend a Crossfit class.  We started with a 500m row to warm up, followed by some stretching.  The focus of the class was the Clean and Jerk, so we did 1x1x1x1x1x1, increasing the weight each time until we maxed out.  I never did a clean and jerk before, and I lifted a personal record of 165#!  I was pretty happy.  After that, we did 30 clean and jerks for time.  I had 135# on the bar, and it took me 10 minutes to complete... hah hah...  Pretty bad, but I know my conditioning is terrible.  It was a great class, they instructors are professional and friendly and the other people in the class help push you too.  Membership rates are pricey, with almost $200/month to sign up, but I think it's worth it if you are serious about getting in shape.

P.S. Wondering what a clean and jerk is?  Get your mind out of the gutter and watch this hilarious attempt at one.



Conclusion

World Gym and VO2 Max were definitely the two places that stuck out for me.  I would join VO2 Max right away, but I'm trying to put on 15 pounds of mass first so I might join World Gym for a month or two and then switch to VO2 after.  I still need to do more research because maybe it's possible to put on mass with VO2's classes.  Crossfit isn't typically a program for putting on mass, but I with proper nutrition I might be able to.  If there's any gyms I missed I'd love to hear about them so I can check them out as well. 

I went to a few martial arts gyms too, but a couple of the places were closed when I got there so we'll save that review for another day ;)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Warning: Graphic Images


On March 24, 2010 I broke my foot during MMA training.  This will be the first post of my recovery journal.  If you're curious how this happened, I found a video where the same exact move happened to this person during a fight.

At the hospital, it was discovered that I had sustained a Homolateral Lisfranc Fracture and spent the next 3 days there, and had surgery to try and fix the mess that was my foot.  All 5 of my metatarsals were dislocated and displaced with heavy tendon damage.  When I had first arrived at the hospital, nobody actually believed that I had broken my foot, since my shin guards were covering my leg and foot.  The nurse kept asking me why my soccer shin guards were slid down to my foot.  I kept telling him they were kickboxing shin guards but he had no idea what I was saying.  He kept wanting to just yank it off, but as anyone who's worn the cheap fabric shin guards, knows that it's incredibly hard to pull off after training even when you don't have a broken foot.  Anyways, I insisted that he cut the shin guard off, and when they took it off and saw my foot then they took me serious.  I snapped this picture with my phone at the time:
I went to get my x ray done and when they came back, now there were 3-4 nurses around me and 2-3 doctors.  They wouldn't believe that I was just doing MMA, since they said that usually injuries of that sort take alot of force and they've only seen it in car accidents.

Aside: The Lisfranc injury is named after the French surgeon Jacques Lisfranc.  It was common in war for horsemen to fall off their horses and their foot would be caught in the stirrup and they break their foot.  Lisfranc discovered the joints in the metatarsal and he found that he could amputate the foot quite easily by cutting between theses joints.  It was said he could amputate a foot in less than 5 minutes.  Needless to say, I was honoured to have sustained an injury named after this upstanding man.

Anyways, after the surgery, I had 3 pins in my foot as you can see in the banner in my xray.  I was in a hard cast for 2 months and a walking cast for one month.  Here's a picture taken after I took my hard cast.  It certainly looks straighter but it was swollen and looked like a tube of toothpaste.

I was anxious for a speedy recovery so by the time I was in a walking cast, even though the doctor told me not to, I was walking around without crutches.  I can't remember how long after the walking cast came off that I started to walk normally, but I think it was around the 6-8 month mark that I felt like I could start to go back to BJJ class and practice technique and stuff. 

It's been over a year, and I just started to feel a bit confident with my foot.  I didn't do any physio, because my doctor said it wouldn't help, and I think it had something to do with why my range of motion of my foot was so limited but at least it wasn't hurting to walk around.  Last night, I was rolling with someone and I had his back and I didn't even have my ankles crossed.  But he decided to try and ankle lock me anyways, and coincidentally he went for the injured foot and torqued it in the same direction that I had broke it.  I let out a scream and felt like a wuss right after, but I knew I had pulled something.  It's in quite a bit of pain right now, and I'm limping around but I really hope it's nothing serious.  I'm thinking that I should listen to my coach and not the doctors anymore and go to physio.  I'm sure physiotherapists have seen all kinds of injuries and they'll be able to help a bit with strengthening up the tendons and working on my range of motion. 

The lisfranc is a dreaded injury in sports, being common in football.  Usually it happens when a player is on the ball of their foot and someone lands on the heel of their foot.  When that happens it's a season ender usually.  When I got it I searched the internet everywhere, looking to see how people's recoveries from this injury were like.  It certainly didn't look good, with most people saying after 1-2 years they still couldn't walk normally.  I'd like to think I recovered better than most, and hopefully this gives people a little bit of hope when they sustain this injury.  I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't try to avoid using the foot.  I cycled right after getting my cast off, snowboarded, worked out and tried doing rehab on my own.  Although I realize now that I had overlooked certain parts of rehab, I strongly believe that I can recover quickly if I tried.  So don't let the doctors tell you can't do something.  If you have enough dedication to something and the willpower, I believe the body has tremendous healing capabilities and there's always ways to continue doing what you love.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Nothing you do today will be as awesome as this












"Lady in Red" is a classic from the 80s.  The late Princess Diana went backstage after a private concert and thanked Chris de Burgh for writing a song about her, since she was known to wear red.  Truth is, though, that the song was inspired when Burgh first met his wife, and how often men fail to remember the things that bring couples together.  Touching, I know. 

When this guy decided to perform his freestyle canoe routine to this song, that just transcends to the 4th dimension.  After watching this video you'll either be absolutely amazed that how epic this is or curse the gods for stealing 5 minutes of your life.  Either way, you will never hear "Lady in Red" the same way again.  Burgh is rolling in his grave.  What? He's still alive? ... Oh. 

Man, if I ever came across this dude in the forest I would think I've entered the twilight zone.  I'd run for my life... who knows what that creepy old man in a vest and bow tie has in his boat. 

Saturday, May 28, 2011

More Overtraining


 For the past couple weeks Thursdays have been pretty busy days for me.  Starting off with a workout at the YMCA in the morning, then I grab some lunch and run to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class.  After that I take a nap to recover some of my energy and then head back to my gym for kickboxing class and wrestling class.  I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day but I figure I have all weekend to recover.  Anyways, Thursday evening I head home ready to plop into my bed.  All is well until I wake up at 5AM with a really high fever and my entire body aching.  Now in hindsight, I should have seen this coming.  I was feeling kind of bleh all day, but something I found really interesting, is how my weight dropped dramatically the two days prior to getting sick.  If you look at the graph below you'll see that I dropped 4 lbs within two days.  The only other time that happened was after I went for "All you can Eat" Sushi (My weight dropped only because I superficially jacked up my weight by stuffing myself with pounds and pounds of sushi muahahah).  At first I thought it was really strange that I dropped so much weight, but I shrugged it off.  Is it possible that the weight drop was the first sign that I was overtraining?  Theoretically, if this is true, when I see my weight drop dramatically, I can take a rest day to recover and make sure I don't get sick.  Interesting....


After laying in my bed all day yesterday with a fever made me think I should make sure I don't overtrain again.  Here's a list of symptoms of overtraining and I'll highlight the ones I experienced:
  • Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
  • Mild leg soreness, general aches and pains
  • Pain in muscles and joints
  • Sudden drop in performance
  • Insomnia
  • Headaches
  • Decreased immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)
  • Decrease in training capacity / intensity
  • Moodiness and irritability
  • Depression
  • Loss of enthusiasm for the sport
  • Decreased appetite
  • Increased incidence of injuries.
  • A compulsive need to exercise
So how am I going to make sure I don't overtrain again?  Well first, listen to the signs of my body.  I should have noticed the big drop in weight and taken a day off.  Also, I used to take a resting heart rate every morning, but I stopped doing it after a while.  Experts say that when you're on the verge of overtraining, your resting heart rate will be abnormally high.  I'm really curious what my numbers would have been if I had been keeping track.  The other thing I need to do is recover better.  From an article I read:

10 Ways to Recover Quickly After a Workout
1.Cool Down
2.Replace Fluids
3.Eat Properly
4.Stretch
5.Rest
6.Perform Active Recovery
7.Have a Massage
8.Take an Icebath
9.Get lots of Sleep
10.Avoid Overtraining

While I do most of these things, they're a good reminder that recovery is just as important as the workout.  Most of the items there are self explanatory but some might not know what active recovery is.  It's basically low-intensity exercise after a workout which helps blood circulation and removal of lactic acid.  I'd imagine Yoga would be great for this.  Also, I've been meaning to get a massage.  I've never had one, but I think my body would really benefit from one.  Lastly, icebaths, or penguin dives as I call them are really great.  I should do them everyday, but usually I just want to take a nice hot shower :P.  Anyways, time for lunch.  If you see this, you must have read the entire thing so good for you. 

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Day 44 of my 60 day handstand challenge

Hey everyone, I uploaded this video a couple days ago, but I just got around to posting it here.  Shoulder's still hurt so I'm taking a bit of time to let it heal before I do more handstands.  Other than that, ETS! Eat, Train, Sleep.





Speaking of eating, I took my girlfriend to Teatro's last night, a nice restaurant downtown Calgary, in the theatre district housed in the historic Dominion Bank Building built in 1911.  We started off with the calamari appetizer which was really fresh and tasty.  I usually like to have a soup to start too but they were serving cold pea soup that day and well, it was raining outside, a little chilly, and I wasn't feeling it.  For the main course I had the Lamb Terzetto which was delicious.  Served with sausage, sundried tomato gnocchi, mushrooms and rosmary jus, it was better than other lamb dishes I've tried.  I had the lamb dish at this place called La'Chaumiere, a really nice French restaurant, and I think I might like it at Teatros more.  My girlfriend had the Tagliatelle, which had saffron, ham, and scampi in it, and she was happy with it too.  For dessert we ordered the raspberry shortcake and I got the tiramisu.   All in all, a good meal, spent with amazing company.  =D

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Rapture

I'm still here. You're still here reading this. I guess we're not worthy enough for this rapturing business. I can't say I'm surprised though, considering the name of this blog. Gerald Butler would be proud. I just figured I'd better post something before people started getting suspicious. So my body's getting accustomed to my training, and I'm getting more energy throughout the day. My days training can be from 1 hour to 7 hours. Last Thursday I went to BJJ class, then worked out my shoulders, then Muay Thai, then finally wrestling. Sometimes it's hard to get good sleep after these longs days though, because my body is so exhausted that I'm tossing and turning all night. Not sure what the solution to that is... I've been doing Penguin Dives lately and it seems to help. Penguin Dives are just contrast showers that I take after a hard workout or when I'm sore and it helps a bit. It helps with recovery by increase blood circulation to your muscles and joints.

On Monday I hurt my shoulder going for a banana split in BJJ (Eddie Bravo fans?) I was trying to throw the leg over to the other side of my head to go into stoner control and my shoulder just gave out. I had to take Tuesday completely off. Had to skip chest day, and BJJ and wrestling. :( I was back at it on Wednesday with minimal pain, but even now, almost a week later, it's bugging me a little bit, especially with my handstands. Hopefully it goes away soon. Or else I'll have a nice little excuse for why I failed my 60 day handstand challenge muahaha.

Lifting Updates:
Standing Press went up to 135
Power Cleans went up to 155. Been taking tips from Mr. Rippetoe. He's the man.
Squat went up to 295 (almost past parallel)

What else.... yesterday I went to a rapture bbq where I consumed every gram of protein and calorie like it was my last. I scarfed down 2 burgers, 2 hotdogs, and a steak. Tonight we're mixing it up a bit with a japanese style rapture bbq.
Protein is protein. mmmmmm....

Friday, May 13, 2011

Friday the 13th update!

I'm a third of the way through Friday the 13th and I haven't sustained any injuries yet! Knock on wood. Weight training is going good. I just got back from working out the legs and I'm glad I went because I almost skipped out today since it's Friday :P. But I forced myself to go, and finished off another long week of training. My program is very consistent, and I'm seeing small gains here and there. My bench press has gone up to 225#, my standing press has gone up to 125#, and today I squatted 315#, and although I didn't get quite to parallel with my thighs, it's definitely a benchmark. My deadlift hasn't gone up, but I've been super tired the past few back days. I haven't seen any substantial increases that I can attribute to the creatine, but the thing I noticed since taking it is that although my main lifts haven't gone up, which I usually start my workouts with, the other lifts later in my workout have gotten stronger. In other words, usually during my workouts, I start off strong and gradually throughout the hour my muscles fatigue and I get weaker. Lately I've been able to maintain my strength throughout the workout and start to lift heavier weights on other exercises like dumbell exercises.

I weigh myself everyday and I haven't put on a whole lot of weight. I was expecting to put on more because of the water weight from creatine, but that has yet to happen. If I had to guess I'm about 1-2 lbs heavier.

Anyways, the weekend is here, it'll be nice to have a break from training, although I'm going to a grappling/striking seminar this weekend which will be really fun. Taught by 3 different high level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaches and MMA coaches, I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Day 31 of my 60 day handstand challenge

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my handstand progress.  In fact, there hasn't been a lot of progress.  Since I posted the video of Day 7, I got excellent feedback regarding my arched back and walking hands.  Following their advice, I stopped trying to hold the longest handstand, and focused on better form.  The past two weeks I've been essentially doing belly facing wall handstand holds, and trying to work on a press handstand.  (I prefer to have control of my handstand rather than kicking up into it).  But, I haven't seem to gotten very far with it.  My line seems better, but at the same time, it makes the handstand much more difficult in my opinion.  Wrist pain still restrains my training, and I've tried using parallettes, but so far I haven't learned how to dismount properly, and I'm still not used to controlling my balance with my wrists rather than my palm/fingertips.  Anyways, here's a progress video, and as always, any advice is appreciated.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Overtraining...

I'm burnt out.

Ever since I finished school last week, I've been training as much as I could.  My days consist of waking up, working on my gymnastics, mainly my handstand for about 30 minutes, having lunch, then go to the gym to work out and then go to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class or wrestling class.  It was going ok for a while but now every morning is a struggle.  Things that usually aren't sore are sore, and recovery times for muscle groups are taking longer.  Partying on the weekends probably doesn't help either.  :S.  There's too much to do!  Yesterday in BJJ class we were rolling and I got stuck in a choke and probably should have tapped quicker than I did but I'm stubborn, and now my trachea is hurting like a mofo.  Today we were practicing guillotine chokes and I seriously thought my windpipe was going to snap.  Maybe I should take a few days off to recover my body.

Other than that, my gym membership at my University has ended now and I've gotten a summer membership at the YMCA.  The gym's not as nice, but it's closer to my house and it has parking which is really convenient.  It's good enough for the couple months left I have in Calgary.  The crowd is a bit different too.  It makes me cringe how many people at the YMCA don't work out correctly, but whatever. As long as they don't get in my way, I just stick in my music and mind my own business. 

As for my supplements, I just finished my loading phase of creatine, and now just taking my post workout protein shakes with creatine mixed in it.  Nitric Oxide definitely gets you jacked up and motivates you to work harder with less breaks, so that's nice.  I haven't really experienced the "pump" that everyone raves about, but it's still early.  Today was chest day and I was banging out bench press sets pretty quick, and maxed out at 225 lbs.  That's my usual max, but today I felt like they were easier.  I'm not sure if it was the Nitric Oxide or the creatine, but I'm happy.  I know I wasn't too convinced about the NO before, but I don't know, that stuff is delicious.  I got the berry flavour and it tastes like kool-aid with pop rocks mixed in it.  After grappling for an hour and a half I'm usually dead tired and my workouts are half assed but with NO I'm able to get my energy levels right back up and lift hard.  So I don't know, maybe I'll stick with it!  

Anyways, time to nap.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Home Ab Workout

Today a friend of mine asked me what a good workout for the abs was that you could do at home.  When I'm at the gym working abs, I have two main ab sets that specifically target the obliques.  Russian Twists, and Windshield Wipers, which I've shown below in the video.  After that I'll finish off with sit-ups, crunches, etc.  Those everyone knows so whatever.  The number one reason why my main working sets focus on obliques is that a lot of the stuff I do incorporates core tension and balance so I don't feel like I need to attack them so hard specifically, whereas obliques sometimes I find they're neglected.  Russian twists are awesome, but you can't really do them at home, so that leaves windshield wipers.  As long as you have a pull-up bar, which if you're working out at home you pretty much can't do without, you can do the wipers.  Normally you go side to side, but in my variation I like to go full circle to make a bit more challenging. Stretch out your back and lats before doing these, with all that tension you don't want to pull anything. 
And remember, you can do all the ab workouts in the world, but if you've got a layer of fat covering them, no one's going to see them!  So do your cardio!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Supplements have arrived!


My order from bodybuilding.com finally arrived.  I had ordered Myofusion protein, Micronized Creatine, and NOxplode.  I've been on Myofusion since January now, and it's pretty good.  Good tasting and it's not too lumpy when you shake it.  It has a nice creamy texture to it.  Mind you, I've only tried the milk chocolate flavour and cookies and cream flavour.  Cookies and Cream aren't bad but I like milk chocolate a bit better.  C&C is a little bland.  I had gone on creatine before, but at the time I never really had a good workout program going on, and I didn't really stick to it so I couldn't see any real gains.  So I'm going to give it a second try.  NO-Xplode, while I'm not sold on it's benefits, I know what it does and I'm curious to give it a try.  If nothing else, it'll get my energy up for my workouts.  I'm sure it's the same as caffeine but I'll review this product when I've given it a fair shot ;).  Right now I workout 2-3 times a day, so I really need motivation and energy to get through the second and third workouts, so I'm excited to try these new supplements out!
The only bad thing is that they seemed to have sent me one tub of protein short.  I've sent them an e-mail, and hopefully they won't have a problem sending me it...

On an unrelated note, my new fight shorts I ordered from MMAHQ came in today.  The site has awesome deals each day, the shorts were dirt cheap, and the ones I got are the tan ones: