[CelebritySexist]

Just to prove to all of my fans out there that I have been keeping a log of things, I hereby present my record of training for the past few months. I've been telling everyone that I want to get more power for striking, in this instance getting the reprazent from Muay Thai.

My weight-training over the years has evolved from the basic bedroom nonsense of every idiot to becoming the more advanced gym-bound nonsense of every other idiot. There's not really much else to say, apart from that I started this at the weight of ~65kgs, 5'9. I'm 22, and I've decided it's high time to get stronger. Socrates said something about it being a shame that a man should live and not see what strength he is capable of. My brother told me to man up and "stop being such an Auschwitz ****".

Whose advice was more motivating?

[CelebritySexist]

Right, a little background. What I really want, what Clarice covets above all, is as much striking power as possible, regardless of weight classes or anything like that. I used to enjoy the occasional snifter of Muay Thai when I was in Scotland, but now I'm relegated to the sticks where all we have are Wado Ryu karate and boxing gyms which are relatively inaccessible and tend to be heavily oriented in the direction of ("a certain religious persuasion"), ruling out my participation.

No MT = no fun.

So what is a boy to do?

Well, before I left Scotland I was being on and off trained by a former Royal Marine, who was undoubtedly one of the most animalistic mentalists I've ever met. He gave me a routine that looked like this:
Monday: Running, one hour, light pace
Tuesday: Endurance - curls, dips, weighted crunches, burpees, weighted punching for one minutes each, with four cycles
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Squats, deadlifts, bentover rows, shoulder press, benchpress - 4 sets for each exercise, each set to failure (!)
Off
Friday: Running, 30 seconds jog, 30 seconds sprint, for 30 minutes
Off

He also gave me Bas Ruttens striking tape, an absolute jewel which I have taken to the very core of my training. I find it difficult to set my own pace, and this tape does all of the time-keeping and motivation for you. Excellent stuff.

I stuck with this regimen for about two weeks, until my lifestyle (city-based post-student hedonist) took over and it all fell apart. I still had pretensions to fitness and strength, so when I moved home I looked over my notes and diaries, and set about trying to find a better way. I was already savvy to the fact that failure training is a boo-boo par excellence, so I had to find new methods. Then I found Sherdog (continues rambling in fawning manner for another three pages...)

In an ideal world:
Monday: Squat
Tuesday: Bas Rutten tape
Wednesday: Push
Thursday: Bas Rutten tape
Friday: Pull
Saturday: Some kind of running

I spent a lot of time between October and January messing about with different schemes, paring things down, and generally taking up space in the gym.

Now that I've committed to maintaining a journal that everyone and his granny can sneer and hoot at, I have no choice but to deliver the goods, lest the wrath of a bunch of anonymous internet people descend upon my shaven head.

[CelebritySexist]

January 3rd:
Warm-up: 10 minutes shadow Thai

Deadlifts: 1x5.55kg, 2x5.65kg, 1x5.75kg, 1x5.85kg
Shoulder press: 2x10.10kg, 5x5.20kg
Bent-over rows: 1x5.25kg, 1x5.35kg, 1x5.40kg, 2x5.45kg

Put the bottom strap of the cable machine around each foot and performed weighted knees for several sets, varying reps and sets up to 35kg.




January 4th:
10 minutes skipping, 30 press-ups, 30 crunches
Bas Rutten striking tape, adding a kick on to the end of each combo for all of side A

[CelebritySexist]

January 6th:
10 minutes of skipping, stretching

Squats:
1x5 50kg
1x5 70kg
4x5 80kg

If I recall correctly, my depth on this one (as well as on a good few of the proceeding workouts) was quite poor. I don't think I went below parallel once, nor was there any explosive movement on the upstroke.

Bench:
4x5 40kg
1x5 42.5kg

[CelebritySexist]

January 9th:
10 mintues skipping

30 minutes of technique; those damned pesky kids had the gym radio to do some stupid "educational" thing. No matter, the boss brought it around after a bit, which lead to...
Bas Rutten striking tape; all combinations followed by a kick

[CelebritySexist]

January 10th:
10 inuits of skipping

Deadlift:
1x5 50kg
5x5 75kg

Shoulder press:
1x8 10kg
5x5 20kg

Barbell rows:
1x8 10kg
5x5 40kg

[CelebritySexist]

January 11th:

A fairly laconic entry; all my diary mentions is:

Bas tape

[CelebritySexist]

January 14th:

10 minuets of skipping

Squat:
1x5 50kg
5x5 82.5 kg

30 press-ups

Benchpress:

5x5 42.5kg

I think around this point I noticed that there was trouble a-brewing in my left hand; my inner hypochondriac was chanting "Boxer's fracture! Boxer's fracture!" like a geometric mantra. Humbug, thought I.

[CelebritySexist]

January 17th:

Some kind of run, I'm assuming three miles at a moderate pace.

[CelebritySexist]

Janurrraay 18th:
10 minus skipping

Deadlift:
1x5 50kg
5x5 77.5

Shoulder press:
1x10 10kg
1x5 15kg
5x5 17.5kg
1x5 20kg

I think I was still correcting my form on this one, at least, that's what my justification is for the reduced weight...

Rows:
1x8 10kg
1x5 40kg
5x5 42.5kg