1 Hour and 450 Pushups Later
So this challenge was a bit to easy. 5 per minute just didn’t cut it, even with all the situps, skip rope, and shadow boxing in between. Gonna try it again going all out 10 per minute for the first half hour then 15 the next!
June 19 coming soon! Spartan Race Toronto!
At first I was coming in with the mentality of training FOR Spartan Race. But with all the work I’ve investing into my regiment over the last year, I decided that I would put MY training to the TEST. Spartan Race. It’s going to gauge all my hard work and effort into getting into shape. Did I do enough? Did I train hard enough? We’ll see. June 19!
Just some vids on my latest training regiment. Lost a ton of weight doing Muay Thai. Here’s just a peak at some of the routines.
How much fat and oil came out of two pieces of ground beef patties.
I bought the George Foreman Grill a few days back. I decided to start using it today. Took some lean ground beef and turned them into patties. The patties were actually bigger when they went in the grill. As the oil and fat dripped out, I poured it into a glass to see the results. And there you have it.
As for the taste of the meat? Not bad.
Too put into context the size of the patties. Since I don't have a weigh scale.
I finished 100 days early! The goal was to work out hard for 100 days. Rest days didn’t get counted, but I found that once I started going, I just kept going. Half of March and the rest of April was all thanks to Krudar Muay Thai Gym. Though I’ve hit my target early, doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. Still going strong and possibly a new update at the end of the Summer, and of course will definitely do a Fall/Winter challenge to stop the bulge from coming back.
The change in diet wasn’t too drastic, though I find once you start working out hard, your mind and body start making healthy choices automatically. The tendency to move away from fast food, processed food, and junk got easier the more I trained. I still treat myself to burger and fries every so often. I don’t believe in totally eliminating the foods you love, but I keep them in moderation. Basically diet consisted of a lot of cottage cheese, soy milk (due to my lactose intolerance), avocados, bananas, oranges, peanuts, almonds, ground turkey meat, and a lot of eggs.
If you all want to try the workouts I’ve been doing, and if you’re in the downtown core of Toronto or close by or in the area, come on down to Krudar. First class is free. There’s also a special from now until June. Every Saturday, one on one pad sessions with the fighters are only $10! This is deal is worth it. You get to work on your endurance, accuracy, and it’s an overall great workout with one of the pros! Full review on the gym at my alternate blog site BrownOutMagazine. Or you can check out their website as well!
image from tokietox.ca
I thought I trained hard. Last week, I didn’t really know what hardcore was until I visited my sisters gym. She’s been taking Muay Thai at Krudar, downtown Toronto, and has always been inviting me to come out and take part. I used to just brush it off thinking my workouts were probably just as hard as theirs, me doing Wing Chun AND Filipino Martial Arts. I was sadly woken up to a new world of tough! But it brought on a whole new inspiration and insight into my workout plan and lifestyle. Where as I was training for combat, my sister was training to FIGHT! There’s a difference. And I learned that through sweat and pain.
It’s really true what they say. You can’t get results unless you work for them. I though I was working hard the last 30 days. Results were getting there. I was quite happy with myself and my progression, though I was getting that plateau symptom. It wasn’t until I kicked my training into overdrive during the last week and couple days though. I stopped concentrating on heavy weights and muscle building techniques, and went into full combat training.
That meant, full out cardio and resistance training. Twice, almost three times a day. Did a lot of core workouts like planks, lunges, but mixed them up with burpees and heavy bag training. To burn the fat on the sides an obliques, it was a lot of heavy bag kicking and knees. Strapped on some weights in the afternoon workouts to up the resistance. On top of that kettle bell workouts with supersets and drills.
On average I was working out 3.5 hours a day for the last week. Circuit training at lunch, then either Muay Thai or Kali/Arnis class at night. As for diet, I didn’t really change much except for the fact that I ate and ate at the right times and the right portions. Lots of eggs, tuna and toast though. Overall, it was about eating right, always moving, and drinking lots and lots of water.
With that said, I’m going to keep going at this as long as I can. In the last few months, fighting has become more of a part of my life than ever. Hoping to keep this up as an ongoing lifestyle and if all goes right, that newly found 6 pack will just get more defined when summer hits!
*note* If you’re all wondering why the pictures have a different hue or tone to them, it’s because my bathroom lights have been acting up as late. They’re two fluorescent bulbs. In the beginning, there were two. Then one would flicker off now and then. The previous week, both finally died, so i was taking pics in the bathroom with a lamp. Finally replaced the bulbs though, so that’s why the last pic is brighter.
Day One, Last year in May
Me Today
This past week’s theme was toning and endurance.
What worked this week:
Full on cardio with weights. Heavy resistance, lots of exertion. Feeling more toned, endurance levels increased, hitting power increased. Muscle consistency remained constant, harder, more toned.
What didn’t work:
Heavy weights, muscle focusing. Got huge results in bulking up going with traditional heavy weights and muscle building workouts. See day 22. But I found it quickly deflated if you didn’t keep it up. Good news, and I think, the spike in muscle mass helped burn the extra fat down below.
Overall, great workout week.
I think its safe to say, and this is my own personal observation, that I’ve gotten maybe too skinny. Lost a lot of weight, including muscle. But the hard part is done! And hopefully I can maintain it. Now it’s just body sculpting. Trying to tone those muscles and build them back up again. It’s hard to do though, and I gotta be really careful because I find I’m a lot more flexible these days. My martial arts instructors, both of them, have said that I’m not as stiff as I used to be before, and a lot more quicker.
Focusing on muscle groups is an easy trap to get into because you see results fast, and usually in areas that you want to see results in. For guys, focusing on the chest and arms seems to be the easiest to achieve results in. But sacrificing core and flexibility for sculpture often isn’t a great idea, especially if you’re training to compete in sports that require a lot of endurance and flexibility. Strength will be a given, but at what price?
Join and follow me on Gymga! Looking for motivation? Looking for a way to track your workouts and see your progression? Need motivation or new workout routines? Although in beta mode still, Gymga, I find, is a great site to keep you motivated and committed to your workouts. You get to share your workouts, follow other people and track their progression and see what their doing, read up on articles, and get ideas on how you can create your own routines that suit you!
Second Week
First Week, Post Holidays
The toughest part of post-holiday healthy living is getting used to eating PROPER portions of food. I tried some mind over matter. Ate proper portions (not smaller) for mealtimes. I’d eat slower, and chew more. And after my food had gone, I’d force myself to wait 20 minutes before I decided to add more to my plate or eat something else. It works! Your body won’t tell you its had enough unless you give it time to send signals to your brain to tell you to stop eating. No I’m not a scientist. I watch the Discovery Channel.
Workouts this week included: Burpees, squats, and a lot of running up and down stairs.
CitizenMARS 
