Topic: Cyse's Training Journal

[Cyse]

I seem to be having a hard time setting a regular exercise schedule - or rather, setting one and keeping to it.  Hopefully a training journal might help with that.

About me:  I'm 19, female, 5'7", ~170 lbs.  I train mixed martial arts (judo, Brazilian jujitsu, Muay Thai, and boxing) through my college's Integrated Martial Arts Club (IMA), and I snowboard.  In terms of body type I'm probably least optimal for parkour >.<  I'm muscular/heavy but without especial upper body strength.  Oh well, I'll just have to work around that.

I'm working on the APK warmup right now.  I can do a decent amount of it, although the pull-ups give me a lot of trouble.  I'd like to start doing the WOD by the end of this month, but things like the handstand pushups scare me a little  .  As soon as I've established a routine though I am going to try to start working in much-modified versions.

So here's my current (intended) schedule:

Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday:
2-hour martial arts class
part 1 of the APK before class (the squats/pushups/pullups/samson rounds)
 Reason for this being: we do a lot of conditioning exercises before practice for IMA that overlap somewhat, so I'm breaking up the exercises to keep from doing the same thing twice in a row.  Once I get to the point that these are less muscle building, especially the pull-ups, they'll become more like an actual warm up.  At least that's the plan :-)

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:
Running - 1 mile, plus however much walking/sprinting works that day
Parts 2&3 of APK Warmup

Saturday:
Rest day/snowboarding!



Tuesday, Feb. 5th
APK Warmup:
3 sets of assisted pull-ups in the gym (there's an awesome machine that corrects for some amount of weight, depending on how you set it):  1st set 10 reps correcting 100lbs, 2nd set 7 reps for 100lbs, 3rd set 10 reps for 112 lbs.
1 set of 15 squats, 10 pushups, 5 Samsons each side.

IMA:
A lot of grappling.  No conditioning today.

Wednesday, Feb 6th
Ran 1 mile in 10:16, then sprinted a lap (one lap here = 1/13 mile.  The gym has a weird indoor track.  Anyway), then walked about three.
APK Warmup:
-3 sets of the footwork ladder drills (high knees, high knees x2, sidesteps, buttkicks, backwards knees: plus 4 other drills I know from other agility training - two stutter-step patterns, one stutter-step pattern backwards, and 4 quick taps in each square)
-3 sets of 5 Burpees + 30 seconds QM


GOALS: (this list will be expanded as I think of more)
-stick to this routine for all of Feb. (at the least, be exercising in some way on each of the days)
-pull-ups: 3 sets of 10 only correcting for 80 lbs
-start incorporating modified WOD by end of the month
-run a mile consecutively again -a goal I made last night when I started this post, then ended up beating today, much to my surprise.  I thought I was more out of shape than I was...yay!
-run a mile in less than 10 minutes
-3x10 push-ups without any knee push-ups but still full ROM

[Chris Salvato]

Congrats on taking the first step in making a journal Cyse!  It shows a lot of dedication and you will be happy with the results of keeping your own log.  With that said...let me quote you:

I'm working on the APK warmup right now.  I can do a decent amount of it, although the pull-ups give me a lot of trouble.  I'd like to start doing the WOD by the end of this month, but things like the handstand pushups scare me a little  .  As soon as I've established a routine though I am going to try to start working in much-modified versions.

You got the right idea.  You don't need to get through the warmup 100% just yet but it is a good goal to get to that level.  The warmup is mostly to just get the juices going...and to train some things you may be lacking skill in (e.g. I use my warmup time to QM around since it is a weakness and it gets me pretty warm)

Secondly, theres 0 shame in scaling down.  The whole point of Workouts of the Day is that they can be scaled.  Advanced movements like Hand stand pushups come after a long time of training, especially for most women.  They are possible though and with dedication that you seem to have it is just a matter of time.

As for the gravitron/weight correcting pullup machine:
This is very good to get started to work on your pullups.  Also, try to incorporate body rows.  The body rows will help you work your whole body in an effort to get the chin over or to a bar.  They can be done faster than assisted pullups machines and are a good alternative if you don't have access to the assisted pullup machine.  Also, work on doing hangs from the bar alone.  This helps very much too.

Just a matter of time now.  Good luck and I hope that we can all help you!

[Cyse]

Thanks for the encouragement, Phreaknite!  I found a website on ways to train up to doing real pull-ups, and it mentioned body rows, hanging, negative pullups, etc.  I'll have to try incorporating a variety of those.

Thursday, Feb. 7th
APK:  Did pullups on the assisted pull-up machine: correcting for 100 lbs, 2 sets of 10 and one of 5 (tried to finish it out but they were pretty weak ones and couldn't get chin above bar).
Didn't do rest of the exercises because we did...
IMA: 
~Evil Karl!  It's a series of exercises specifically designed for jujitsu.  But they're good general strength conditioning too, and have at least a bit of overlap w/APK warmup:
(all of these done w/7 lb weights)
- 3 sets of rising from kneeling to one knee in the air while raising weights above head (I'm sure there's a name for this sort of exercise, but I don't know it): 14, 12, 12.
-3 sets of standing, crouching, body back into push-up position, push-up (while holding weights, so hands are in knuckle push-up position), jump back to crouch, stand up: 8, 8, 6
-3 sets of Samson-like exercise, except for instead of arms above head leaning back, you do a double bicep curl on each one: 5 each side for all three sets
If anyone is interested in these exercises - I know at least one other person does Jujitsu, maybe more - PM me.  They're very good, specific training :-)

~Striking day: lots of striking to clinch practice, which is my weakest range.  A lot of blocking practice, which is rather bicep intensive, and worked on shooting in for a double leg or single leg takedown, and how to sprawl to defend against that.  Finished with grappling.


Friday, Feb. 8th.
Owing to the fact that 1) I've gotten 3-4 hours of sleep the past two days for various reasons (that ends tonight, hopefully) and 2) today was a college holiday so my friends and I went snowboarding today, I'm counting this as my rest day.  Tomorrow I'll go running and do the agility exercises (I really like those for some reason :-)).



Adding a nutrition log as well (was not all that great today >.<):
Breakfast: banana, chocolate chip scone, 1 cup skim milk
Lunch:  clementine, soft pretzel
1st Dinner (on account of lack of real food during the day because of snowboarding):  meatloaf, mashed potatoes, distinctly overcooked peas >.<
2nd Dinner:  variety of Indian food (not entirely sure what all of it was: one of our group who is familiar with the cuisine ordered for all of us and we did family style.  It was all delicious though :-)  and included some white, some vegetables, and some lamb and chicken), mango juice


Now to relax, and get to sleep at a reasonable hour.  Yay sleep.

[Cyse]

Saturday, Feb. 9th
Ran 1 mile in 10:22 (legs still sore from snowboarding yesterday), walked two laps
Agility drills from APK Warm-up
Stretching
No QM because I mis-timed my workout and was running late to meet people for dinner.

Misc "exercise":
2 hours of disco dancing at a party.  Not relevant to any training, but felt dang good :-)




Nutrition Journal:
Brunch: banana, 16 oz. orange juice, fat free organic raspberry yogurt, tater tots (my delicious, greasy vice), 1.5 pieces of rather bad bacon
Snack: white chocolate truffle
Dinner: Bourbon steak tips, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, chocolate ice cream

[Cyse]

So, long time no see.

Been busy with work and classes, and set an overly ambitious workout schedule for myself to begin with.  Actually did stuff today, though:

Pull-ups: tried going for more strength than reps: did a couple at various weight reductions, ended up managing one with only 55 pounds corrected for.  Then did one set of 10 reps at 88 pounds.

Did 20 minutes of rowing, which I haven't done in a year.  Shoulders are gonna be sore tomorrow....

Then did alternating jogging/sprinting/walking for about 18 laps, the jogging and sprinting were for a mile.

Ended with a lot of stretching.


Currently just trying to pull stuff together and training when I can.  Will have to try at least putting some stretching workout in daily, since I can easily do that in my room.

Lack of sleep is not a good motivator.  Oh well.

[Cyse]

Great success!

While I have not managed to stick to a regular training routine, or even a good diet (*grumblemutterstupidfinals*), for the first time today I actually tried real parkour moves!  Or rather, attempted to follow two tutorials - the cat balance one on the main page, and one for kong vaults I saw somewhere on these forums under techniques, I believe.

For cat balance, I basically stayed at the initial pose shown in the video, with one foot on the rail and the other hanging down.  I could walk my hands out a little and bring my back foot up for a few seconds, but that was it.  That's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Then for kongs, I tried using a sturdy desk instead of a picnic table as in the video.  I didn't think I'd manage to get my feet to clear it, since I have long legs and little flexibility, but I managed to with a bit of a running start.  I didn't vault all the way over, but I got to the point of jumping my feet past where my hands planted.

More progress will probably come...next time I have a paper I have to stay up all night doing.  Which is tomorrow.  Hurray >.<


But yay for first-time attempts at these!

[Gregg]

Congrats on trying out the PK moves. Keep conditioning, and trying new things.
I've found that stumptuous.com has one of the best pages on training for pull-ups [and other exercises]. Don't mind it's for women. It's well written, and it works. That's all that matters.

Travis' Cat Balance video is good. It's the progression on how to do cat crawl. Get comfy doing what you're doing. Experiment. See how far you can lean without falling. Fall a few times [controlled]. Experiment. Have fun.

Kongs - were you using Ozzi's Kong Tutorial? The kong isn't the easiest vault, but it's a good one.

Anyways, congrats on your progress!