Toad Sage Training

In keeping with the theme of my MAP username I have decided to call my training log by the name that I did. Couldn't really think of anything great, but if you're familiar with the anime Naruto you'll get a chuckle out of it.

I'm starting my own training log on MAP to start recording what I do and see if I have a lack in certain areas of training. Why? Mostly because it gives me something to do on MAP instead of the Epic Troll Thread! It's going to be focused more on my Boxing training and my perception of what/how I'm doing, as well as logging in different workouts that I do on my own or in Boxing Class. It's going to be very sporadic because I've never really adhered to a specific way of training for a set time and constantly change up what I'm doing. It has always worked for me before but who knows, if I record stuff I may start getting more structured. I will try to post up videos or pictures but grabbing my phone to record is usually not on my mind when training so don't get your hopes up to high : P.

Nothing to post today past the initial post. Been doing a lot of "research" today (Naruto fans will get it!)

 

You are making a log about how to sit still for hours on end? I already do that when I have to catch up on my favourite shows.

 

That part of my training is called "Browsing MAP."

 

get fitocracy!
all the cool kids have it!

 

I'm going to use the EDIT function a lot throughout the day since work is sort of sporadic and sometimes I find more then one opportunity to get on the computer, so if anyone is reading the posts they will change on the day of posting. On my last EDIT I'm going to recap the stuff I ate/drank for my reference in non-paragraph fashion, as well as any training I did.

So far, woke up and did my morning routine of drinking NO-Explode (screw coffee) and throwing a lip in (fine tobacco you hold in your cheek, horrible habit I know). Took a deuce and got ready for work.

Drank 16 OZ gatorade and ate a banana 45 min before work. Felt great probably due to nutrition from last night and starting the day of hydrated. Worked for 2 hours landscaping/building and the feeling of today is "stay hydrated, eat well before boxing, and this is going to be one of those 'damn good days.'" Feeling great today, loose and ready for boxing aside from a cold. Off work due to developing inclement weather.

11:00 AM - Half bag of Utz Buttered popcorn and small glass of milk. Level of caring for this horrible nutrition - zero.

12:00 PM - took nap, was going to wake up at 2 but stayed in until 5:00 PM. Have to catch later boxing class. 5 hours of sleep isn't a nap darn it.

Woke up at 5 PM, headed out to boxing at 7 PM. Ate nothing, took a 200 calorie endurance drink called AMP that's pretty much a super sports drink. Felt good during boxing for about 20 minutes, or what it took for me to burn that 200 calories from the drink.

Level of caring for horrible nutrition and bird eating throughout the day during boxing - Enough to make me kick myself in the butt.

Boxing workout:

3 min shadow box
30 sec burpees
3 min rope jump
30 sec burpees
3 min shadow box

Mitt Work
-held mitts first-

Routine -

3 min - pyramid jab cross combo, slipping jab at the end. Pyramid up to 16 jab crosses with a slip, then pyramid back down
3 min - Jab, Cross, (slip jab), Cross, Hook, (slip cross), Hook, Cross, (slip jab), Cross Hook. - Repeated throughout round, minimal foot work/movement.
6 min- Jab, Cross, (slip jab), Cross, (duck left hook) Cross, Hook, (Slip cross), Hook, (Duck right hook) Hook, Cross.

Circuit training (this is the point my lack of eating made me absolutely horrible)

2 Min - Tire pushups/plyo jumps. (Jump on tire, jump off tire, do pushup, jump on tire twice, pushup twice, keep going until end of 2 min)
2 Min - Footwork w/ Tire (step in, step out)
2 Min - Heavy bag working on previous combos during mitt work
2 Min - Mitt work on combos with trainer

5 Min - Abdominal Circuit (not even worth posting, ended up doing all the exercises crappy due to lack of energy)

Key notes for the day
I was never winded, but towards the end of the mitt work I became exhausted. I could perform low intensity exercise no problem, but when anything involved anaerobic endurance I would become exhausted after one or two fast movements or calisthenics. Need to make sure I get the proper nutrition before boxing workouts.

My technique is good. Every punch I threw on the mitts, regardless of effort put into the punches it always had a loud and distinct pop. Noticed I wasn't keeping my hands up after every punch though which needs to be a stronger focus.

20 Gram protein drink after boxing
8 oz some type of fish (just bought it because it was wild caught, forgot the name)
8 oz V8
16 oz water

 

DMR

Breakfast:

3 eggs
3 slices turkey bacon
2 slices honey wheat bread
11 oz V8
(Biotest supplements)
2 FA3
4 Flameout
16 oz Water

Packed Food (aim is to have this eaten throughout work day)

2 bannanas
2 cans tuna w/ mayo
Small bag carrots
Small Can Spinach
2 slices Honey Wheat bread
6 NutriGrain bars
1 fiberone bar
2 premade 20gram protein shakes
1 AMP Endurance drink

Supposed to be a hard/long day landscaping today as well as hot. Aim for after work if I feel capable is hitting the gym up. Goal in the gym will be light deadlifting, lunges and calf raises as well as an abdominal routine. Few rounds of skill work for foot movement.

7:40 PM - Just got in from work.

11 hour work day, gym will be closed by the time I get to it. 11 hours of caring heavy stuff and pulling deep grown weeds is a good enough workout for me. I'll call it my "forearm" and "farmers carry" day. I am beat. Ate most of my food, felt pretty decent throughout the day aside from the sun beating down on me all day. Not much else to say, but todays work qualifies as exercise in my book.

 

So, recapping on the week I injured my lower back on Weds. which made Thurs. and Fri really tough for work. Between working 11 hours thurs and my back hurting today I haven't been able to hit any boxing up. One thing I have found though is that the best thing to eat during the hot day is fruits and veggies that are plentiful in the amount of water they have. Not only do they create less of a need to chug water (because they contain water) but they are filling and provide some pretty good, quick energy. Baby Carrots and Apples were an absolute blessing during the work days for hydration and nutrition, I'm going to give a shot at mixing the Nutri Grains with them at the same time to get some good, long lasting carbs with them for more energy.

This was a good lesson learned because the work day drains a lot out of me, and staying nourished during the day will carry into performance in the gym later on in the day, so I'm getting a good base for what works well for me nutritionally to perform well in workouts/boxing gym time. Nothing to add in the log past that, but I definitely need to keep this stuff in the front of my head and execute it throughout the week.

 

No training today. Back is still killing me but it's far better then it was yesterday. Hoping I can get into the boxing gym tomorrow. Going to start putting a lot more focus on stretching and weightlifting 'conditioning' for some muscle groups to remain injury free since I have a high activity level job now.

 

Hope the back heals up soon Ero-Sennin, best of luck in recovering.

 

Thanks man. It's been a real bummer because earlier in the week I was having a "click" moment in my training where understanding fundamentals and my ability to apply the skills I've been honing was happening. I was dominating my sparring matches and my conditioning was starting to break through. I think I just strained a muscle as when I'm not on pain meds everything is just extremely tight, so hopefully some light work and lots of stretching will resolve the issue.

 

Taking your advice.

No post Sunday because I didn't do anything. Back was feeling somewhat ok so I went to boxing today. Dabbled in the double end back, shadow boxing in the ring working on footwork and using the ring, and then sparring. First round with instructor was great. Caught him with a good right cross to the body when he switched to southpaw instantly and was able to defend decently. Some other combos I tried out didn't work so well but I feel like I was able to adjust and counter decently. The skill difference between the instructor and I is obvious and I don't intend to make myself sound like I'm good, but there were key points of success on my end. I would say the round went 60% figuring things out while getting hit, 20% good defending, 10% super fail attempts with some combos, and 10% success.

Then I sparred a new guy (new to sparring, not the gym). Was working on movement and threw a jab here and there but it was more for him learning then anything. And I threw my back out again. I am writing this after rubbing bengay on my back and using Frodo's heating pad. Hopefully I just irked it and it'll be decent again tomorrow. If it is I'll be going to the gym and doing some light, light work, some rehabilitating exercises, and stretching to hopefully speed this injury along. It's become a real pain in the back : P.

 

First day back in the gym, back is still hurting too much to really do anything. It feels like it needs to "pop."

I did maybe a round of working combos on the heavy bag, and about 4 rounds on the double end bag to warm my body up. Nothing fast and nothing crazy, not a whole lot of footwork/movement.

5x10 deadlifts @ 95lbs to start getting my lower back into the mix of things. Could definitely tell that more weight then that would have been more detrimental then helpful, but I think getting a little bit of work and getting some blood flowing to the area was helpful. I feel a little sore now, but nothing crazy. Followed this with some light stretching.

I know this is a pathetic work out, but it's more to just get my body moving again and feel out my back. I'm definitely not going to jump into anything for another week and will probably have equally pathetic workouts for the rest of the week.

 

Ero-Sennin, since you have taken up Boxing, what is your personal opinion on it as a martial art. What do you like, dislike, what does Boxing best give you, etc.

 

Dang, over here giving me essay prompts! I'm definitely going to respond to this but I have to take the wife to the Apple Store because she can't maintain the welfare of her computer, so I don't have enough time to give what I feel is a proper response. I'm definitely going to answer it though, as it's something I should have a well thought out response for since I'll actually be working at the gym I go to shortly for people asking about boxing/martial arts.

 

With everything I write on my opinions, I'm discussing what I like/dislike and what I see in a real Boxing Gym rather then a Boxing Fitness Gym.

I think boxing is a terrific example of how martial arts can connect all sorts of people from different backgrounds all with different expectations and goals in a martial journey. In my gym alone there is everything from the hoodlum to business owner to average joe, and everyone gets along and can relate to each other through Boxing, exercise related to boxing tradition, and the rich history and culture of boxing. I believe this of martial arts in general, but I think due to its popularity, foundation, and familiarity to the general public that a combat sport such as Boxing can and does have the potential to reach a lot more people in the areas I have resided so far in my life. You can talk about karate, judo, BJJ, MMA and sure, you'll get people who know names and fights here and there, but everyone knows at least one great boxer : P.

One thing I really like about Boxing and combat sport in general, is that it takes a fair amount of discipline and hard work to become proficient in it. It requires a high speed skill set that must be learned and practiced over and over to become a decent boxer. Because of this it is a martial art that requires applications of the techniques learned in a full contact environment, as well as countless repetitions on the different "tools of the trade" such as focus mitts, heavy bags, double end bags, speed bags, etc.. It has all the qualities of a martial art that innately addresses all aspects of combat in the simple practice of the skill sets. To get a good heavy bag workout you need to have focus, stamina, learn how to breath, learn how to work through hesitation, think quickly, learn distance and footwork, and a plethora of other skills that need to be worked in order to develop a good boxing skill set which directly translates into having the necessary tools for an actual combative situation. In the very practice of boxing it requires so much physical exertion that somebody could meet weight loss, stamina, reaction time or strength goals. The art of Boxing encompasses so much of what it takes to be a good martial artist without any added supplements to training (which if added in undoubtably adds to your boxing) along with having a heavy emphasis on full contact sparring, that I believe a Boxer as well as any other combat athlete, will always be a top contender in a combative scenario in which martial artists tend to train for.

What attracted me to Boxing is part location, part family history/story. Where I live I was not able to find any real MMA gyms close by. I need to be a bit further south or a little further north on the East Coast of the US for legit gyms with legit instructors to get what I feel is quality training. There's too much "yeah, we're a tough MMA gym! Rah rah!" from what I've seen. There are quite a few Boxing gyms though. My striking ability while training in MMA was lacking due to the gym I attended had a HUGE focus on grappling and BJJ. I figured it would do me good to learn Boxing if I ever decide to try and get back into MMA, and it would be just as fun to compete in boxing as it would MMA for me as well as quicker to get to competition level (and be decent) as it focuses on one skill set instead of many. I also used to grow up to stories from my father who boxed amateur in New England at the Police Athletic League (PAL) in Providence, Rhode Island during the time a lot of champions were coming out of the area. My favorite story has always been that he was a sparring partner for Marvin Hagglar and knocked him down, to which my pops says he ran out of the ring because he thought Marvin was going to get up ticked off and beat the hell out of him. I always grew up hearing about Boxing, which aside from what I mentioned above is also why I'm attracted to it.

As far as a martial art, it's obviously lacking in some areas. I don't think it's the ideal martial art for people to learn self defense and that you would have to be pretty experienced in self defense related martial arts in order to understand and apply the techniques and skills boxing can teach you for self-defense. I think MMA is much better equipped for a transition into actual self-defense, and I think a TMA mindset mixed with an MMA environment is actually the best way to learn self defense. Self-defense isn't as strong a focus in Boxing as competition is though, so I think it's a little unfair to expect Boxing to be something it isn't. It's a highly refined set of one aspect of combat, the ability to use your hands to strike and your feet/body to move and avoid getting hit. Due to the heavy focus on these things I think it can actually hinder somebody in a combative environment martial artists train for but in a limited way.

As far as what Boxing is giving me to make me continue doing it . . . . . I like hard work, I like violence, and I like the constant reminder of how fragile we are as human beings and how powerful we can be at the same time. Boxing definitely has all that in it.

 

Nice post

I have to partially disagree with you concerning the self defence, but really, overall it was a great post and a pleasure to read.

Thank you.

 

If you like I'll formulate a better argument for why I don't think it's awesome for self defense (to those who's main goal is self-defense rather then combat sports) in the boxing forum? Don't want my log to become a debate forum, but I would be willing to make a thread about it in the Boxing Forum?

 

Alright, back is doing a lot better. I was able to do most of the stuff I did yesterday, but harder. I also added some rounds in on the speed bag.

5x3min double end
3x3min Heavy Bag
5x3min Speed Bag

Double end bag - Really coming along. It was the one things I couldn't quite get so I stayed away from it. I'm finding it's really helping out with turning my hands over for punches and working on closing the gap between thinking about throwing a punch and actually throwing it. It's my "kill hesitation" work in my mind. I also focused on each individual hand on the double end bag (meaning I only hit it with the right hand, or the left hand for consecutive punches) to work on a fast transition from an uppercut to straight punch. Left hand can handle this easily (probably due to the dominance of jabs, hooks, and left up cuts I do on the heavy bag) and my right falls behind after a "up,straight,up" or "straight, up, straight." Right needs some work on quickness.

Heavy Bag - Worked on throwing different combos with speed. Nothing special but I find different combinations of punches I throw on the double end bag to break the "left,right,left,right" routine (Jab, Cross, left up, cross, left, right up) transferring over to the heavy bag with ease. I'll have to see how some of these quick combos work in sparring. I'm seeing them as a quick flurry when I get somebody on the ropes or in the corner.

Speed Bag - I really mixed this up. There's nothing really special about it other then I throw short straight punches in the mix. It usually goes "side of left, front two knucks of left, side of right, front two knucks of right" or "side left, right two knucks, side right, left two knucks" and any way you can mix hitting the speed bag up that way. I'm getting to the point that turing my hands over to hit the speed bag with "short" straights in the mix is getting as quick as hitting it regular. Some head movement and hitting the bag twice before it rebounds was worked too.

All in all a decent training session for hand speed and muscle memory but not intense for a workout. I'm getting more confident in my back though so I'm hoping I can start sparring again next week.

 

If you want to, go for it

My partial disagreement was with how you have to be experienced.
I do agree that some level of knowledge in self defense is needed, but you don't necessarily have to be an expert.

Also, good to hear that your recovery in the back is going well!