Tabata cardio

Stationary cycle
Tabata style (20 on:10 off)

5 mins tabata
rest
5 mins tabata
rest
5 mins tabata

** First time doing this style of a workout. I've done tabata a lot in the past but now I've put it more into a structure, doing 3 rounds basically of it. Once again following closely to fight rounds. The rest periods are currently 5 mins which are what the program I'm taking this type of workout does. As much as I want to drop the rest period to 1 min (like an actual fight) I don't know if they will work out well. Tabata is a very good workout and I think after a full 5 mins the body needs to rest enough to be able to put 100% back into the next round you know? I may try lower rest periods at another time. Really really tired tonight and waited a bit late so I wans't mentally all into this workout but I liked it anyway.

Future cardio will be a 30 min run with a few sprints, 20 min HIIT, and this 3 round tabata. Probably in that order too, building up through the week in intensity. But who knows, I listen to my body first and foremost. Another couple months of my current routine and I'll be starting training again specifically for MMA.

Push day - Light / Neck & core work

Push workout / Light / Endurance

Bench press 5x 20
Shoulder press 5x 20
Front squat 5x 20

* 30 sec rest between sets, 1 min between exercises
* 100 reps per exercise, 300 reps total


Neck / Core

Neck bridge over bench 2 x 25 (IDK what to call this one, I'll research it later, basically laying flat on a bench with my neck over the end, a plate on my forehead using my neck to lift up and down)

Reverse bridge 1 x 30

Ab roll-out 2 x 25
Floor wiper 1 x 50
Bicycle crunch 1 x 50

Glute raise 2 x 50

** Good workout overrall. I really feel I'm not doing enough for my core and I should be doing a lot more. I'm going to try to structure better core workouts and focus on getting my situp/crunch reps up higher. The glute raises I've added to my neck/core workouts are for endurance to help bridges during grappling. I plan on doing weighted glute rasies one time, then non weighted high reps next time, during my workouts. Well, more than likely. Being able to push hard in that movement will pay off for grappling. Having endurance means I can keep bucking someone as well and keep prying into a escape or sweep. Pretty much the same reasons I added the neck movements in, just to transfer over better to grappling. More sport specific exercises will continue making their way into my workouts at this point in time.

Pull workout and Cardio

Warmup; cycle 5 mins moderate pace, light set of everything to be performed

Bent over row; 3x 12,12,10
SLDL; 3x 12
Upright row; 3x 12,10,8
Curl; 3x 10,10,8

Post-workout; shake (1 1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop whey)

* Should've pushed a little more weight probably but a good workout none the less. Ate sensible at thanksgiving but still, really feel I need to tighten my diet back up as I'm cutting now.

later in the evening..

Stationary cycle; 30 mins moderate pace with various sprints and resistances during it

Conditioning, BJJ, Boxing, New routine, more..

Noon work out

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu GI class

1 hour rest

Mobility drills

Neck bridge; 2 sets 15
Reverse neck bridge; 2 sets 15
Glute bridge; 2 sets 50

Heavy bag

round 1; drills
round 2; 2x combos
round 3; drills
round 4; 3x combos
round 5; freestyle

Evening

Pull workout / Light day

Bent over row; 5x 20
SLDL; 5x 20
Upright row; 5x 20

** Just a modified Pull workout with no isolated arm work basically. My push light day will be similar with no CG presses. 5 sets of 15-20+ reps to make it roughly 100 reps each exercise. I figure that is a great start to this heavy/light routine.
---
VERY good workout day. Very good. Really feel the extra work load I'm going to be taking on is really going to pay off.

This is a rough draft of my new routine Ive put together. Its all up in air though, it depends on time and work on what I do weds,sat,sun - but the rest is pretty well set in stone. Not including sport specific workouts for mma, skill work is above all else, but I do try and keep it seperate from heavy days. Heavy days are rarely skipped, but light days can be for other type of workouts. Active rest can be done too on weds/sun. Extra cardio will be added to various days but will try to keep them on light days. I'm shooting for 3+ times weekly on the cycle or running - whatever. This is just more or less my weight routine schedule. Its going to be tough with work expecially, but I'm excited to be doing it.

M - Lifting / Push / Heavy
T - Lifting / Pull / Light
W - Rest or Cardio
T - Lifting / Pull / Heavy
F - Lifting / Push / Light
S - Rest or Cardio
S - Complex/Circuit / Cardio

Push day

Bench press; 3x 8
CG press; 3x 10-12
Military press; 3x 8-10
Hack squat; 3x 8-10

Not a bad workout. I hit the weights heavy and got a great pump out of it. In the future I plan on lifting light though the majority of the time and lifting heavy very few times even if its long time in between fights. Training hard, there really isn't much of an offseason so I want to be in great shape year around for training.

Heavy bag

Heavy bag

round 1 jabs, straights
round 2 jabs, straights
round 3 combos
round 4 combos
round 5 freestyle
round 6 freestyle

3 min rounds, 1 min rest periods

Pre-workout; 2 cups of pasta, 1 veggie egg roll
Post-workout; 24 oz gatorade followed 20mins later by a shake (1 1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop whey)

;; Current status; ending bulk cycle (roughly 4 months I think.. 15 lb gain)

During the rest periods I done shadow boxing, rounds of kicks both sides, jumping jacks, bear crawls, and running in place. Just active rest basically. Been an off week because of all the over time Ive been putting in work. This was just kinda getting back in the swing of things. I really shouldve felt I got more out of this workout but I didn't. Next time I do a heavy bag workout I really want to focus on skill work and start drilling my kicks over and over. I have good kicks.. but they will be even better once I start actually practicing them. But yeah, Its been a shitty long week. Starting tomorrow I will be beginning to cut weight but I wont get into the cardio part till later on since Ill lift heavy in the evening after work. Tuesday Ill be back to BJJ class in the morning and some kickboxing/muay thai sparring after but may take the evening off, I'm just not for sure yet.

Pull day - LIGHT; and info about tuesday, and other stuff

Bent over row; 4x 15-20
SLDL; 4x 15-20
Upright row; 4x 15-20


Neck
- reverse bridges - 3 sets 10
- bridges - 3 sets 10

Core
- crunches - 2 sets 50

**

Well, this started out as a good workout week. My first light weight day went great. Then on Tues (Which I forgot to blog about) I put in 2 and a half hours in the morning in BJJ and Muay Thai, then 2 hours in the evening in BJJ and boxing. After that.. pfft. Its been a hectic week at work and I'm getting off late because I'm closing at work every day for whatever reason. That with the owners being in and the holidays coming up, well its going to be a shitty couple of months till its all over. I REALLY want to up my cardio and skill work. I'm going to start working on getting up earlier and getting some cardio in. That is very high on my to do list. As well as increase core work. Coming up sunday is my first day off since and although I should give a couple ppl a call and see if I cant get some rolling and sparring in, IDK if I will. Been such a shitty... long week. At the end of the workout tonight, I just felt like I did nothing. Yeah, I got a good burn and really tired muscles but.. IDK just not that great of a workout. I'm tired, and want to get my calories in so I can get to bed at a decent time I hope. I hate work, time to really start looking for a job with better hours. Training is the most important thing to me.. my future career depends on this. Unfortunatly I gotta pay bills elsewhere at the moment. /rant.

Oh and my calories are currently 3600-3700. I plan on cutting around 10 lbs (to 130) so I will resume lower reps the next 2-3 weeks while I do my 'mini cut'. I usually shed weight fast and keep the muscle well, cutting is very very easy for me.

ITS TIME TO PICK IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PUSH day - Light

Bench press; 4x 15-20
CG press; 4x 15-20
Military press; 4x 15-20
Front squat; 4x 15-20

--

Neck work-out

Bridge; 3 sets 10+
Reverse bridge 3 sets 10+



** First time doing light weight high reps. Def. a different feeling than with heavy weights but woww did I get tired. Felt like rubber so I'm def. getting the type of workout I am wanting and feel like this is really going to improve things when it comes to fighting, specifically BJJ and wrestling. I'm not quitting heavy lifting, just dont know yet. Going to more than likely alternate heavy/light days for awhile and see how that goes. Alternate days or weeks IDK yet. I will be keeping the same routine for now though exercise wise. I'm not for sure about a lot of things at the moment, I'm just testing the waters at the moment..

Cardio

I usually don't update when its just one thing but here it is..

Pre-workout; 4 oz baked tilipia, 1 cup mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup cherries

Cycle; 20 min HIIT

Post-workout; 12 oz Gatorade follwed by a shake (1 1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop whey) 15-20mins later.

I REALLY wanted to do a lot more but my time is limited. Getting off late and things just makes it hard. I finished a little after 10pm then went through my pre-workout nutrition (shake/gatorade/ then a meal a little afterwards) and jumped in the shower. I am really growing more and more tired of 2nd (evening) shifts by the day. Will def. be keeping my eyes open now for a day shift job somewhere If I can find one. I like where I work, but this is no longer going to cut it. I'm tired of getting off and trying to cram in a workout and getting to bed in the am, just to get hardly any sleep to repeat. 2nds are just stupid. end /rant. :).

All in the same, I also wanted to write more in this blog. When I do get a day off with some free time, I will be putting up a lot more. Basically, I'm looking to increase my cardio quite a bit and drop a few lbs (but just a few lbs). I'm hoping to get 3-4 HIIT or jog/runs a week in on the stationary cycle atleast. More bagwork, amoung other things. Of course, keeping the muscle endurance high on the list and looking into possibly changing my 8-12 reps for muscle up to 15-20 for endurance for a bit, or cycling back and forth. Anyway, I'm way out of time - peace.

And on one last side note; I want a schwinn Airdyne sooo bad!! My stationary cycle has just about had it haha. Gotta save up the $$ cuz I really want the Airdyne to be the base of my cardio, because with that alone (a cycle like mine counts, just I dont like it as much and the electronics are a pain in the ass on them sometimes) can be great for building and keeping cardio. With that several times a week, you can build upon it with heavy more sport specific workouts and get in great shape with that. and thats the plan :).

Taaabata

Tabata

• Bench press
• CG press
• Bent over row
• Upright row
• Military press
• SLDL
• Split squat - left
• Split squat - right
• Weighted crunches
• Bicycle crunches

Tabata; 20 sec on, 10 sec off - each exercise
3 sets of 10 exercises (roughly 5 mins a set) 1 min rest between sets

** Had a long post with a lot of stuff in it but this damn thing messed up and decided I needed to sign in again and I lost all my shit in this post. GRRRR. Anyway, I'm big into doing Tabata workouts and feel they can really make the difference, if one person trains with them in their routine and the other doesnt, I feel the one doing tabata will be a step ahead in conditioning, they really are remarkable. For whatever reason though I've fallen out of love with my own blend that I've been doing like this one above. In the future I will be going back to more full body movements and doing one exercise a full 4 rounds, then the next for 4 rounds, etc. to equal out around 16 mins of total time.

Heavy Lifting and Boxing work

Well things didn't quite go to plan today and my workouts were a little off. I was hoping to get in a great workout of sparring and rolling tonight but it didnt pan out so skipping a BJJ drill class to lift to save my energy for the evening turned out to be a bad choice. Ah well, but I def. need to pick up skill work and up my cardio load in the coming weeks. In the near future I plan on training outside of my main gym quite a bit since I now have the Gracie Combatives dvds, so me and a few people that train there will work out outside of classes so that should help a lot. I really need to figure out how to have more time (working 2nds is hard to find time when other people are free and im off work haha) to spar and roll with my training partners. A lot of changes need to happen to prepare me for the next level..

Noon

Pull work-out

Warm-up; cycle 2 mins, bear crawls, bjj mobility drills, jumping jacks, light weight exercises for each to be performed in circuit style

Bent over rows; 3x 8-10
Upright rows; 3x 8-10
EZbar curl; 3x 10-12

Heavy bag

Didn't really time or do anything specific, just put in 15-20 mins of skill work, throwing a lot of single punches and kicks. I spent the majority of the time working on my jab and my right straight. Just really focusing on fixing a couple of problems I've developed recently for whatever reason and its time to get the fixed tech. into muscle memory. Finished the work on boxing with throwing a lot of kicks to the bag, 30+ on each side low kicks, mid kicks, and just a couple high kicks.

Evening

Heavy bag

3 min rounds

round 1; jabs
round 2; combos
round 3; jabs, straights
round 4; combos
round 5; jabs, straights
round 6; combos (4 oz gloves)

More focused on skill work than conditioning but still keeping a pretty good pace through out the rounds. I wanted to do a run/jog afterwards but didn't get to it. Eitherway, a decent workout and was able to work on some things I had started to earlier in the day and continue those. Working hard to get new things into memory. As usual, 16 oz gloves on all rounds besides what I noted.

BJJ and Conditioning

Noon

Pre-workout; Shake (1 1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop whey), 1/2 cup blueberries

Warmup; Cycle 10 mins, BJJ mobility drills, jumping jacks

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu GI Class - 1 hour 15 mins

Post-workout; 32 oz Gatorade

Evening

Pre-workout; 1 1/2 cup pasta, few slices of venison summer sausage

Warmup; Cycle 5 mins, light stretching and exercises

Barbell Circuit

bent over row x8
upright row x8
military press x8
good morning x8
split squat x8
squat push press x8
stiff leg deadlift x8

6 sets : 60 sec rest between sets

--

Neck bridges and variations

Ab barbell roll outs x 25

Crunches x 50
Side crunches x 20 each side


Post-workout; 16 oz Gatorade followed 20 mins later with a shake (1 1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop whey)

Push day

Bench press; 3x 6-8
CG press; 3x 6-8
Military press; 3x 8-10
Hack squat; 3x 6-8


** No doubt I need to pick my intensity back up when lifting. I haven't pushed myself or lifted heavy enough to really make me work in a long time when it comes to my 'heavy' days. I'm trying to do better but I just don't know. I jumped in lbs on the hack squats and really enjoyed that burn, but still feel with heavy weights on that exercise.. its just a little unstable feeling in the back and lats. IDK, but I'm paying a lot of attention to that. I switched to the hack squats since by having to clean the barbell to a front squat, I just wasn't happy with the amount of lbs I could lift on the squats when I couldve done a lot more if I had a power rack. I work out at different places but more often than not on weight work its usually at my home gym. So thats basically 200+ lbs in plates, barbell, ezbar, dbs, and weight bench w/ rack for bench pressing only. So I gotta work with what I'm given. Not big into the whole go and lift at the gym thing, way too distracting there. A private gym I go to also though has a full set which I use from time to time.

Conditioning - Heavy Bag

Boxing

Heavy bag

3 min rounds, 1 min rest periods

round 1; jabs, 1-2 combos (mma gloves)
round 2; combos
round 3; combos
round 4; freestyle
round 5; freestyle with sprawls
round 6; slip bag
round 7; shadow boxing
round 8; kicks
round 9; dirty boxing, knees, elbows

Pull day

One arm row 3x 12
SLDL 3x 10-12
Upright row 3x 8
Curl 3x 12


* I really like one arm barbell rows (stackin weights on one end and lifting that with one arm between legs) so I decided to switch out bent over rows with a DB variation of that. Mistake. I didn't like a dumbbell version of it at all and felt a decent pump but not a great one that I was looking for. Next time I'll use the barbell. Just to keep things fresh I plan on switching some things out for dumbbells or other exercises in the coming weeks since I've been doing this routine for a little while now. I enjoy using the barbell as much as possible but sometimes switch to DBs to lift lighter loads since its one arm at a time. I don't actually have a lot of plates or a spotter now a days so thats why. The sldl (straight leg deadlifts) went great and I felt an awesome pump from them. Def. Happy with my move up in weight on the upright rows and was long overdue. In the future its going to be hard to decide what to do rep wise. Eventually I'll want to stop gaining muscle and move to high reps, but I want to make sure I dont lose muscle in the long run by using lighter weight and doing high reps and circuits with no heavy days. It might benefit to do high reps and one low in the future. Like heavy sets of deads on pull days and all else high reps - and heavy sets of squats on push days, the rest light. IDK, but something similar ya know. At the moment, muscle gain is good and not only am I not completely lean at the weight I want to fight at, but I def. want to be one of the ones who cuts quite a bit in the future to make weight. I went light on the curls today because both wrists and forearms are pretty jacked up at the moment from a lot of BJJ and bag work. All and all a pretty good workout but my focus wasn't really there, and the one arm rows (DB version) were a major let down. Ah well, there's always next time!

Currently I'm sitting at 3700-3800 cals daily (recently cut back from 4k+). My weight is 135.5 dry and walking around 139-140+. This is where I want to be, but I'm carrying a little extra weight, I could still cut down or atleast close to 125 (flyweight) and I would be really cut and not only that, but my muscles would really show. I feel now with the little extra weight I no longer look like a bodybuilder, still atheletic and big yeah, but don't have that nice definition. Being lean is important for mma and thats why I'm doing this but I also need the weight.. Of course looking nice for the ladies is always a plus..

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the such..

Morning

BJJ GI class

total time; 1 hour+


Evening

No-GI BJJ rolling
Boxing mitt and bag work
and more..

total time; 2 hours+

Push day

Bench press; 3x 6-8
CG press; 3x 8-10
Military press; 3x 8-10
Hack squat; 3x 8-10

Wasn't really focusing well tonight.. Def. wanting to be doing other things.. (high reps low weights to name one). Gotta balance things and figure out what I want to do. Dropping cals a bit to cut just a few lbs. I really want to focus on all high reps but im worried of dropping muscle size due to it which I can't afford to do as I won't be able to make the weight class I want. Better things will come along at a higher weight for me. Sad, but true. Although I'm currently at the weight I want to be at I just dont feel I'm lean enough yet at it. I can def. still cut to flyweight and be really ripped and could go into a fight 10+ lbs heavier than that. so Idk.

Sunday

Sunday is always kinda a mixed day in cardio and conditioning along with skill work. They vary quite a bit. Planning is important when it comes to training, but to throw in some random on the spur of the moment stuff from time to time is great as well. You want to make sure you keep your body guessing and keep new stuff coming at yourself.

Cycle; 20 min HIIT cardio
5 min warmup, 5 min cooldown (not counted in the 20 min HIIT part)

Bodyweight squats x 50
Pushups x 50

Crunches x 50

Weighted crunches x 25
Bicycle crunches x 25

Around the world's x 15 each side
Side bends x 15 each side

Plank x 30 sec
Wall sit x 30 sec
Farmers walk x 1 min

andddd I'm done. peace