Saturday, April 6, 2013

Fitness update - April 2013

Thursday, 4 April 2013
30 min., 215 lbs. 

speed bag – 3 min. x 3
kb swings – 30, 35, 40
pull-ups – 5, 8, 11
dips – 5, 8, 11

[I lost a lot of time dealing with the tire-made heavy-bag––I'm still working on how to hang it––and trying to eradicate the stench that's been coming from two giant dead rats that my neighbor tossed in his back yard next to my garage. I used gasoline, fire, and then bleach. Win!]


Friday, 5 April 2013
25 min., 215 lbs.  

warm-up: mace drills ––> 5–10 min.

speed bag – one round for as long as I could keep up cadence ––> 5'26"
[Actually, I could have gone longer, but I was distracted by the pain in my right hand. I had an intense speed bag session yesterday, and the bones feel a bit bruised. So I'll be icing my hands, or at least my right hand, laying off the speed bag for a while, and maybe not even filming my progress video this weekend.]

kb swings: 20, 20

kb shotput swing: 10/10, 10/10

kb hoist and shove: 10/10, 10/10

[I also did some raking under the back tree to make the ground more level. Getting ready to hang my tire-made heavy bag...! I've already got two friends "on board" for training at my "gym laboratory" once or twice a week this summer, and on the way home from Home Depot today I saw a guy running backwards in the street and I immediately knew, "This guy needs to train with me." His name is James and he lives maybe a mile away. We exchanged numbers and hope to hang out when he gets back from a visit home to Michigan in a couple weeks. He's got a degree in sports science, also motivates/trains his wife, and is way more cut than I am heheh!

Why did I go to Home Depot, you ask? I try to limit myself to one DIY project a month, if it costs me money, so this month I decided to make a mace. I made one in Taiwan, and I've been missing it lately. My mace in Taiwan was about 3' of 1/2" steel pipe, a cap to stop the weights, and some rubber gaskets and a U-bolt to lock the weights up at the top. My new mace is much more ambitious: 3' of 1.5" steel pipe for the weight plates, a bushing to join a 1' long handle of 3/4" pipe, a cap for the top and a U-bolt to lock down the weights. I added a modest 6 lbs. of plates to the head, but, honestly, the mace by itself, even without weights, is quite a challenge after a hiatus, so for now I may just use it as a massive Indian club. For a shorter homemade mace bell, I could try this awesome DIY method. Here's another ingeniously simple method for a homemade mace bell/gada. ;p

Tomorrow I will be back in the gym. I originally wanted to cancel my membership, but they talked me into a 25% lower monthly fee and I'm staying. I figure I need a gym for 1) squatting, 2) deadlifting, 3) db shrugs, flyes, and presses (the Big Three, basically), and 4) farmer walking. Otherwise, I'll stick with my kettlebell, mace, boxing, jump rope, medicine ball, bodyweight conditioning.] 

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