Patrick Smith's Training Journal

Latest update is at the bottom of THIS post. Everything has changed drastically since the original post and the last update were written. Thanks for dropping by!

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Hello, GB community! I thought I should start a journal to log my progress and training workouts.

I have decided to write out a fairly simple program for myself (something I am fairly familiar with doing). This program may look too complex at first, especially for someone who doesn't have much experience on this forum (i.e. a noob), but I actually do have lot of experience following this types of program. I do not have trouble sticking to them, and I have written out my short term and long term goals so that I may periodically check that my training program is achieving them.

I decided against following the WODs for a month, primarily because I have not yet ordered my copy of BtGB, and I cannot scale down very well. Additionally, I like knowing what I am going to do beforehand, and I do not enjoy having to modify my session plan a few minutes before I am scheduled to begin. :wink:

Once I get the book, I MAY switch to the WODs, simply because of their excellent programming. For the time being, however, this simple plan will have to do.

This is the program as it stands. I am trying to incorporate GB (Gymnastics Bodies style strength training) into my MA oriented training program. I am somewhat confused in some areas (for one, I think I may be screwing up the rest time by doing three LB workouts a week), but I am sure I will clear those questions up soon. This program is primarily based off the one in the article, Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training.

Note that I have placed some lines in bold or italics. This is not for adding style but for increasing ease of reading. I hope it helps. I have the original plan in a Pages setup.

Basic Overview

Monday

• AM = GB + LB Session

• PM = Skills + Light Conditioning

Tuesday

• AM = GB

Wednesday

• AM = LB Session

• PM = Heavy Conditioning

Thursday

• Am = GB

• PM = Skills + Light Conditioning

Friday

• AM = GB + LB Session

Saturday

• AM = Skills and Heavy Conditioning

Details of Sessions

Strength

Mon - UB Pushing

Tue - UB Pulling w/ LB session

Wed - Rest

Thu - UB Pushing w/ LB session

Fri - UB Pulling

Sat - LB session

UB Pushing

• Frog stand - 6 x 10 sec.

• XR or PB dips (5x5) or XR PPU (5x5) or WHS (6x15 sec.)

UB Pulling

• Front lever tuck - 60 sec. total

• Back lever tuck - 60 sec. total

LB Sessions

• Wallace kicking drills

• A1 Split squats (back leg elevated, torso learned forward) or lunges - 3 x 8

• A2 Adductor Pulldowns - 3 x 8

• P.N.F. Stretching - 5 x 45 sec.

Conditioning Sessions

• Check Infinite Intensity for drills

GB = Gymnastic Bodies (gymnastic strength work)

UB = Upper body

LB = Lower body

WHS = wall hand stand

WO = Workout

These are my primary concerns right now:

• In the past, I have reacted the best with 3 LB sessions a week, but I am don't know whether Tuesday's WO would overlap into Wednesday's. If it does, I would not be having adequat rest time.

• I don't think I would need to add GHRs to my LB WOs, since I am already doing FL and BL work. Think I should?

• Speaking of FLs and BLs, I'm unsure if The Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training intended for both the FL AND the BL to be trained on both Tuesday AND Friday. Perhaps it intends for the FL to be done on Tuesday and the BL on Friday... thoughts?

Update:

I just wanted to add that for now, I am religiously following the WODs and have worked out a routine with Slizzardman. I will begin to update this log with my progress eventually, but for now, I will just log in in the WOD threads.

Update - 3.01.2011

Since I have begun training using GB I have experienced great gains (although very much less than I should have, had I not had other things to work on and had I been doing the GB WODs consistently and correctly, an error I intend to wholeheartedly remedy!).

The routine above is no longer used, but I'll leave it up so that you can see how much it has changed.

Thanks for reading and please comment/critique if you feel like it.

Update - 7.14.11

I have been following the WODs religiously for the last few weeks. Because I have the WOD cycle written out and organized in a text file on my computer, I have a great deal of planning freedom in my workouts and in deciding the various factors I will train in a mescocycle (one month, or 28 days). Because of this, I can look at the entire WOD cycle, know exactly what's coming up, and add squats, deadlifts, extra pull-ups, and conditioning into the week based on the surrounding WODs.

Each WOD cycle is 28 days, and each of my training mescocycles is 30 days. I am presently on the Thursday of the third week. This week is the deload week, which is highly appropriate and perfectly time (although not intentionally) because I have a tournament to compete in this Saturday. Which will no doubt highly motivate me to train even harder and I will jump straight into week 4.

I have just begun to incorporate more boxing type training and to add a bunch of new training tools (homemade of course) such as farmer walk bars, a neck harness, squat-spotter, GHR station, and all sorts of similar contraptions.

Go to the last page of the thread if you'd like to see what I do on a daily bases. I generally summarize (not the precise details) my training/athletic activity of the day in each of my daily updates. Thanks for dropping by... keep dropping by!

as you're just starting out you might take something useful from my log as others did.

hope it helps.

swarovski said:

as you just starting out you might take something useful from my log as others did.

hope it helps.

Hi, swarvoski. I'm heading over to your log right now. Thanks for the response

nice to meet you patrick, name's alberto.

just ask if anything, I'm in the 2nd month of BtGB training but still so excited about it that I keep digging into the forum. There's so much to learn in here.

g'luck with your training.

swarovski said:

nice to meet you patrick, name's alberto.

just ask if anything, I'm in the 2nd month of BtGB training but still so excited about it that I keep digging into the forum. There's so much to learn in here.

g'luck with your training.

I've been reading the great responses in your thread, Alberto. It's great that the experienced people here are so willing to lend a helping hand to those who've just started this type of training.

Thanks for the good wishes.

It's been too long since I logged a journal-like post here, so I think I will start using this journal daily. I already keep a private training journal, eating journal, and regular journal almost daily, but I will just switch my training journal to this one.

I've been reading like mad through Slizzardman and Ido's posts here (Sliz has 200+ flippin' pages of posts! ) and I've been learning (and bookmarking) so much! Although I have improved physically in the last few months, I think I have improved mentally (education-wise) more than anything else. I've also been reading a ton of Charles Poliquin's writing on his website and T-nation.

At this point, I think my biggest issue is that my most basic work capacity is literally pathetic. I wake up tired, I force myself to train while tired, and if I'm "extra" tired I'll take a few days to rest. The problem is, even after 2-3 days of rest with only myofascial release (foam rolling and lacrosse ball) and some mobility work (MobilityWOD), I STILL come back to training feeling drained and tired. It's disappointing, because I have such high goals in athletics but it's extremely difficult to motivate myself to train or to do anything right now. Around six months ago, I used to do two sessions a day for about 1-2 hours each, 4-5 times a week with no problem. After December and my black belt test I took some time off, and came back feeling strong, but in less than a week at not even 65% volume of what I used to do, I was feeling tired all the time.

I'm thinking that I may need an internal environment cleanse like the one Charles Poliquin suggests on his website (http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Articles ... leans.aspx), but there's no way I can afford those expensive ingredients/medical foods, so I'm looking for an affordable substitute.

As you can see, I'm in a bad way right now. I have no doubt that I can push through it and be all the better for it, but I'd really appreciate any help you could offer to help me on my way. Perhaps someone knows of some cheaper substitutes for the medical foods Poliquin suggests or another internal cleanse...

Enough of that for now, though. This morning, despite the fatigue, I was able to do 10 shoulder width chin ups in a row. Something that I've only reached once in the past, when I was specifically training to increase chins. It looks as though training despite fatigue still reaps SOME benefits.

A friend of mine thinks that I have a sinus infection (which can contribute to fatigue) and gave me a nose spray for it, which I am now using three times daily. I am also thinking about drinking psyllium and bentonite shakes to help clear out my system.

In the meantime, I will concentrate on lowering my training volume and concentrating heavily on MWOD stuff.

March 17

3 min jog in place

Ido's Scapula Routine

Ido's Squat Clinic

FSP WARMUP:

A1 - 6x10 second arch hold

A2 - 6x10 second hollow hold

A3 - 6x10 second wall handstand

A4 - 6x10 second frog stand (beg.)

B1 - 3x20 second plank

B2 - 3x20 second reverse plank

C1 - 4x15 second left side plank

C2 - 4x15 second right side plank

D1 - 3x20 second PB support hold

D2 - 3x20 second straight arm hang

E1 – 4x15 second german hang w/ feet resting on floor

E2 – 4x15 second supine row hold w/ retracted scapulas and elevated feet

E1 - 6x10 second L-sit tuck

Plus:

1x5 232 tempo chins

March 18

3 min jog in place

Ido's Scapula Routine

Ido's Squat Clinic

FSP WARMUP:

A1 - 6x10 second arch hold

A2 - 6x10 second hollow hold

A3 - 6x10 second wall handstand

A4 - 6x10 second frog stand (beg.)

B1 - 3x20 second plank

B2 - 3x20 second reverse plank

C1 - 4x15 second left side plank

C2 - 4x15 second right side plank

D1 - 3x20 second PB support hold

D2 - 3x20 second straight arm hang

E1 – 4x15 second german hang w/ feet resting on floor

E2 – 4x15 second supine row hold w/ retracted scapulas and elevated feet

E1 - 6x10 second L-sit tuck

Short on time this morning.

I've temporarily cut volume by a lot. Hopefully to a level that my energy levels can handle it. As they increase, my training volume will increase too.

I forgot what I did on the March 18 and 19...

Monday, March 21

1-3 minutes jog in place

Ido's scapula mobilization

Ido's squat clinic

FSP warm up (takes about 20-30 minutes)

A1 - 6x10 second arch hold

A2 - 6x10 second hollow hold

A3 - 6x10 second wall handstand

A4 - 6x10 second frog stand (beg.)

B1 - 3x20 second plank

B2 - 3x20 second reverse plank

C1 - 4x15 second left side plank

C2 - 4x15 second right side plank

D1 - 3x20 second PB support hold

D2 - 3x20 second straight arm hang

E1 – 4x15 second german hang w/ feet resting on floor

E2 – 4x15 second supine row hold w/ retracted scapulas and elevated feet

E1 - 6x10 second L-sit tuck

WOD

2 Rounds of...

60 second KB swings

5 wide grip pull ups

10 towel pull ups with feet support

5 DL (110 lbs, 120 lbs/ quite easy)

1-2 minutes rest between rounds

Tuesday, March 22

1-3 minutes jog in place

Ido's scapula mobilization

Ido's squat clinic

FSP warm up (takes about 20-30 minutes)

A1 - 6x10 second arch hold

A2 - 6x10 second hollow hold

A3 - 6x10 second wall handstand

A4 - 6x10 second frog stand (beg.)

B1 - 3x20 second plank

B2 - 3x20 second reverse plank

C1 - 4x15 second left side plank

C2 - 4x15 second right side plank

D1 - 3x20 second PB support hold

D2 - 3x20 second straight arm hang

E1 – 4x15 second german hang w/ feet resting on floor

E2 – 4x15 second supine row hold w/ retracted scapulas and elevated feet

E1 - 6x10 second L-sit tuck

WOD

4 Rounds of...

5-6 PB Dips (HARD)

10-15 dips with hands on 15" tall wooden blocks and feet resting on floor in L-sit position

10 sec. tuck L-sit on same wooden blocks (triceps were shot.)

2-3 minute rest between rounds

Finished with superset 2x15 sec. glute bridge and 2x10 wrist push ups

Cool down was Ido's scapula mobilization routine again

Thursday, March 24

1-3 minutes jog in place

Ido's scapula mobilization

Ido's squat clinic

A1 3x5 + 2x3 + 2x1 Deadlifts (tried to warm up very carefully: 95x5, 105x5, 115x3, 135x3, 150x3, 165x1, 185x1)

A2 7x5 pull ups/chin ups mix (narrow chin, narrow pull, wide chin+pull, chin/pull side to side, etc)

4-5 minutes rest between rounds

Friday, March 25

1-3 minutes jog in place

Ido's scapula mobilization

Ido's squat clinic

FSP warm up (takes about 20-30 minutes)

A1 - 6x10 second arch hold

A2 - 6x10 second hollow hold

A3 - 6x10 second wall handstand

A4 - 6x10 second frog stand (beg.)

B1 - 3x20 second plank

B2 - 3x20 second reverse plank

C1 - 4x15 second left side plank

C2 - 4x15 second right side plank

D1 - 3x20 second PB support hold

D2 - 3x20 second straight arm hang

E1 – 4x15 second german hang w/ feet resting on floor

E2 – 4x15 second supine row hold w/ retracted scapulas and elevated feet

5 Rounds of...

60 sec. on, 45 sec. off - KB swings w/ 25 lb weight plate (heaviest thing I've got right now, but I'm making some 40-60lb concrete KB's soon!)

Finish with 2x30 sec. weighted pike

1x5 25 lb SLS per leg

Time for the week's training update! To be perfectly honest, it's way less than it should be, but I am determined to gradually raise it very much while keeping it to a level that I can physically and mentally handle.

Some good news is that starting officially this night, I am a dedicated paleo eater. I am determined to make no more exceptions. I was recently directed to the PaNu blog and it's such a great resource. The summary of Paleo nutriton 2.0 is so concise it makes everything very clear. I like the informed view of what we instinctively know.

Monday

FSP Warm Up

4 Rounds of...

45 second KB Swings w/ 25 lbs -- 25lbs is too light, but I haven't made my concrete 40-60 lb KB's yet. I will soon.

12 Jumping Lunges -- I couldn't do the jumps or senders because of where I was training

10 Squat Jumps

2-3 minutes rest between rounds

Finished with 2x60 seconds seated pointed toe stretch and isometric front splits.

Tuesday

Old FSP Warm Up (did this before Sliz helped me with it)

Glute Bridge + Arch Up - 4x15 sec

Left Side PLank + RIght Side Plank - 4x15 sec

Front Plank + Reverse Plank - 4x15

WOD

3x15 sec German Hang + 20-30 second rest + 5 x 212 Tempo Rows

3x15 sec Frog Stand (beg.) + 20-30 second rest + 5 x 212 Tempo Push Ups

3x15 sec L-sit tuck on wooden blocks + 20-30 second rest + 5 x 212 Tempo Tucked HLL

Rested 12 minutes between sets

Finished with 10 bridge wall walks + isometric side splits.

Wednesday

Warmed up in the morning and did some great kicking practice for about 20 minutes, and started to do kata but only got about 10 minutes into it because I had to unexpectedly leave the house. Oh well, I'll give myself more time next time.

Thursday

3 min. Jog in place

FSP Warm Up

A – Arch hold + straight arm hang = 3x15

B – Hollow hold + PB support hold = 4x10

C – Reverse plank + frog stand (beg.) = 3x15

D – Wall HS + german hang = 3x15

1x10 Cast Wall Walks (4,3,3)

1x5 pike press HeS

+ 1-2 minute rest

1x10 straddle pike press HeS

+ 3-5 minute rest

A1 5x30 second wall handstand

A2 5x5 pull ups/chin ups with varying grips

30-90 second rest between giant sets

Finished with 2x10 wrist push ups on knees and with wrists placed on thinly folded towel (no the hardwood floor, thanks!)

Friday

FSP Warm Up

30 second burpees -- this was kind of lame, and didn't in any way replace the prescribed sprint. Sprints weren't an option, though.

3x10 weight killers (jumping lunges) w/ 20lbs -- in retrospect, that was too light.

3x5 DL's (95lbs x 5 SLDL, 115 x 5 SLDL, 170 x 5 regular DL) -- my hamstrings are still sore!

3x5 HLL tucked

^ Not a giant set, superset, or anything but straight sets, done one all sets of one exercise at a time.

Saturday

No official training today. Just a lot of construction and some tennis with my sisters dog... I did, however, do all those things in the hardest way possible. I guess it could be called either light work capacity or recovery.

Looking forward to training tomorrow!

Okay, haven't updated in a while, but I've been training.

Monday - 4/4/11

4 Rounds of:

45 second WHS (30 + 15)

5 explosive push ups

3 PB dips

5 Wide group pull ups

2-3 minutes rest between rounds

Finished with...

A1 2x10 wrist push ups

A2 2x8 trap shrugs

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Lost Tuesday's data!

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Thursday 4/06/11

Ido's warm ups

FSP warm up

A1 3x5 SLS with 20 lbs slowly

A2 3x5 chin ups 212 tempo

3 minutes rest after A2

B1 3x5 SLDL's w/ 95 lbs, 105 lbs, and 115 lbs

B2 2x5 chins w/ 212 tempo (total of 5x5 chins if you include the first three sets)

Rest 2-3 minutes after B2

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Friday 4/07/11

Intense FSP session + Work capacity

Lost the data to a lot of days (I write them out on paper and store them together)...

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Monday 4/18/11

FSP warm up

3 Rounds of:

45 second WHS (25, 20)

3 WHS PU negatives

5 PB dips

5 Lean push ups with hands near hips

3 minute rest between rounds

Finished with 2x10 wrist push ups

Conditioning:

2xTabata w/ 25lb KB swings w/ 2 minutes rest between the two tabatas

^--- To light, really, but I didn't have anything heavier at the time. I do now.

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Tuesday 4/19/11

Sadiv Squats + jump squats

10 rounds

A1 1 squat at 90% max

A2 3-4 jump squats

30-45 second rest between rounds

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Thursday 4/21/11

FSP

DL warm up = (3x95, 135, 150)

A1 1 DL w/ 170 lbs

A2 3 widish grip pull ups

30-45 second rest between rounds

GB WOD

3 rounds of:

B1 8 hamstring pull downs w/ 45lbs

B2 10 killers with 20 lbs

B3 10 side bends with 50 lbs

2-3 minute rest between rounds

Finished with tabata KB swings and isometric front splits.

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Friday 4/22/11

FSP

3 rounds of:

A1 5 wide grip pull ups

A2 5 half HLL's on PB's

A3 10 rows with feet elevated and 3-5 isometric contraction at top

A4 7-10 towel pull ups with feet support

2-3 minute rest between rounds

Finished with 1x Ido's Shoulder Mobilization Routine

On the menu today was three rounds of Ido's beginner locomotion workout, one round of Florieo workout 1 beginner variation, and a bunch of side and front split mobility work. About 5 inches from a mixed side/front split (the typical martial art front split with back leg turned sideways into side kick position), about 10-12 inches from full side split, and I don't know for sure about strict front split. Sure could kick high when I was done with the session, though!

I love Ido's movement workouts! It really gets down to the root of what I want to be able to do: namely, move! Move really really well, like it's effortless.

Instead of logging what I do per workout here, I think I'll switch the format to a once-twice daily summary of what I did as a whole that day. I think, in the long run, it will be easier to do and more productive.

I've been conditioning myself to waking up early and doing some mental capacity training plus my GB conditioning. I pulled myself out of bed at 5:15 am, bundled up, went outside, and practiced some thinking/focus techniques for 20-30 minutes, then did my FSP + short explosive strength workout (5x5 clapping push ups and explosive rows with 3 second static hold at top).

In an hour or two, I will do 15 minutes of foam rolling, 5 minutes of mobility, 45 minutes of TSD class instruction (I instruct), and finally 15 minutes of sparring to finish off.

Something that I noticed yesterday but forgot to mention is that I've done about three locomotion workouts so far, and each one requires either 12-24 meters of some kind of handstand work. Right now, I just do the beginner variation which is take a step, kind of hop into a handstand, take a step, etc. That adds up to about 15 handstands per round (I do three out of five right now). Because I've increased the time I spend getting into a handstand (about 90+ handstands a week), I noticed a few things.

1. When I lean over to get into a handstand, if I put my hands a LOT closer to my feet, I am now able to almost lift myself into a handstand with only a small push off. It's awesome!

2. If I try to feel how my weight is balanced on my palms (like Ido suggests), I can influence my balance with my fingers and my wrist (read about that on BeastSkills).

3. I can hold a handstand a lot longer if I put my hands a little bit wider than shoulder width. Anything more narrow makes it a lot harder.

Also, not related to handstands, I did my hollow holds this morning, and I noticed a thing or two. First of all, they've gotten a heck of a lot easier since I started keeping my upper back off the floor and reaching for my feet (I don't know why, but when I keep my hands above my head or in line with my torso, my shoulders hurt...). Doing 10 seconds used to be difficult and I couldn't hold an l-sit for more than 3-5 seconds. This morning, I was wearing my shoes (probably about 1-2 lbs... I guess), and the hollow hold for 15 seconds was ultra easy. I felt like I could have done it for another 15-30 seconds without any trouble, while wearing shoes! Not only that, but I can now hold an l-sit for about 10 seconds on a good day.

I admit that I've been feeling and doing much better since I upped my vegetables and fat. I still strongly dislike coconut milk, but I've learned how to bear with fairly disgusting mixtures so I'm getting used to it. I don't even notice the taste too much now.

8)

I woke up at 5:00 am, went outside to do thinking drills, then at about 5:40 am, started my training. Unfortunately, I went to bed too early last night to write down the WOD, so I just improvised with FSP + four rounds of 5 SLS + 10 second rest + 5 box jumps w/ 2-3 minutes rest between them.

Just read Swarovoski's summary of the WODs on Pogo's training log. Dang, that's going to be really helpful!

I plan on doing about an hour or so of foam rolling/soft tissue work, work capacity, and skill practice later.

Yesterday:

Early (5 am) session. FSP plus WOD, finishing with 1x10 wall walks.

Later (2 pm) session. Slow kicks, punches, and hip drills.

Today:

Early (5:30 am) session. Agility and Coordination drills, two rounds of Ido's locomotion workout (beg. variation), mobility (4x1 deep horse stance with knees level with hip), and flexibility (3x45 F/S split isometrics).

I have found that waking up early around 5 am, going outside, and training for an hour and a half is the. very. best. way. to. start. my. day. Seriously, I've read that "an hour of exercise in the early morning is good for four hours of productivity later," but never really experienced. Sometimes in the past, when I would train around 8:30 and have a training session at 2:00 pm later on, I would weasel out of the second training session. Now, though, my early training session makes me more motivated than ever, and I have the discipline to look forward to the next session.

It's a funny thing! Things are turning up!

Planned on doing FSP, WOD, plus Mini-WO this morning before dawn, but I've been quite a bit sleep deprived lately (10 pm + bed time and 5 am - wake up), I literally couldn't wake up. Literally... Waking up wasn't even an option, and just getting up without thinking about it (which usually works) didn't work either

That's all right. I'll make sure I go to bed as EARLY as possible tonight. I need at least 8 hours of sleep a day to function well, it seems.

At the very least, after I got back from work, I did do 15-20 minutes of myofascial release. Felt "good" in a very painful way.

Saturday

Had to pull an almost-all nighter at work last night/this morning, so didn't feel up to training. I did, however, do a very thorough soft tissue session.

Sunday

No training today, of course, since today is Sunday and my rest day, but I did do another thorough soft tissue session and about an hour of "pool fighting." Pool fighting is basically where you fight in shallow water about knee to mid thigh deep, and use those foam sticks commonly found at pools to wack the living daylights out of each other. It also involves a lot of unnecessary jumping, twisting , and cool death moves. Single sword, double sword, long sword, short sword, staves, throwing knives, and even a cannon ball.

Monday

FSP + lower body WOD. The WOD involved short sprints, killers, RLLs, and power cleans.

Hey now, lets see...

I was up bright and early this morning (5 am) to do FSP plus handstand WOD (cast wall walks, pike box press HS, straddle box press HS, and HS wall runs.

I had already done 3x15s WHS, and the cast wall walks were very tiring (and I had another workout planned for later), so I did not do the wall runs. Because I lack the box set up right now, I did pike RLL's and straddle RLL's instead of pike box press HS and straddle box press HS, respectively. It was the only thing I could think of at the time, but I think it was a good choice.

In the middle of the afternoon, went out into the sun (sadly not as common as it should be) and did some work capacity, which included kicking practice and heavy bag punching work.

I desperately want to increase my work capacity for movement in general. I'm thinking about increasing the amount of florieo and locomotion work in my routine.

5 am = agility drills, locomotion, and mobility.

Later on, a little bit of playing tennis with our dog and a very well beat up wall and concrete slab. Finished up with about an hour of thrashing around in the pool... in the shallow area (the whole pool), the water was just deep enough for me to perform a full planche with my feet floating on the surface. It was hard on my biceps, but the water made it possible.

Thursday = work capacity routine

Friday = more work capacity

Saturday = martial arts practice in pool (that was tiring...)

Just got over a horrible sickness that left me with fever for FIVE days! The same fever threatened to return more than once, but thankfully all I have now is a cough (kind of bad) and an intense motivation to get up and train!

By the way, I have not posted here much lately but that is not because I am not here! I am simply trying to adapt the mentality of less talk and more action, plus I usually have so much to learn that saying anything simply gets in the way of listening.

I have been maintaining a journal of a sort on Ido Portal's forum, as well, but I will continue to update this one.

Warning: When I write, I usually feel compelled to write a lot, so please do not feel that you must read or respond to what I write. Read it if it interests you, by all means, and even leave a comment if you like, but I do not expect it! Writing this out helps me to focus on what I need to do, and if it interests or helps you in any way, all the better! 8)

I was maintaining my log at Ido's forum for a bit, while getting advice from him, but now that I've got a lot of stuff figured out, I'm switching back to my log here since I'm more likely to get feedback as well as because I like the consistency.

At first, a few weeks ago, I decided to work quite heavily on work capacity because I would get so tired in my workouts. While it's true that my work capacity (specifically my endurance) is low, the real cause of the problem was that I was simply making my workouts too intense. Slizzardman keeps stressing that consistent effort at a maintainable level is how people get really, really good. Not working so hard for a short amount of time that they can't continue for long. That's been my problem. Once I get started, I want to work really hard and push myself to my limits every time. That's really a mistake, though, because there's no way that that pace can be maintained. Instead, building up through consistent effort at a steady pace will allow for the all-out pace of tournaments and competitions.

Ido recommended me to follow a sub-maximal routine for 5-6 days a week, so I assumed that I should design one and start following it. The problem is that I'm simply not qualified to design a program good enough for that (which I quickly realized after a week of following it).

I concluded that the best choice was to return to the WODs and FSP, which really are sublimely programmed, and force myself to maintain a lower intensity and steady pace. So, I have the WOD pattern downloaded (in a text file) with the 28 day routine, as well as the full post of the WOD for each day (I went through a month of WODs to document them). I have added sport specific stuff, as well as DL and BS/FS, and flexibility stuff, too. I plan on following a more strict flexibility routine once or twice a week. My main focus is GPP plus raising my maximal lifts for the DL and BS so that I can start doing more plyometric stuff. As I said, I'm following the WODs system on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm also attending Tang Soo Do classes on Monday and Thursday evenings (which involves some stretching, kata practice, and sparring). I have placed some additional TSD practice, tabata intervals, and a mini-workout on Wednesday and Saturday. That basically has a 1-1.5 hour training session each morning. Easy to maintain, simple, and to the point!

I have already gone through two WODs, and I feel better already. Yesterday was an pushing WOD and today's was a ring series and a FSP giant set. I skipped the ring series and performed 5x10 seconds per static position instead of 15 seconds. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to maintain the pace of 5x15 seconds without it becoming too challenging (I was right, I think). I added 5x3 SLS (each leg) and 5x3 DL -- which I haven't done since I was so sick. I'm almost embarrassed to write it out because I'm so weak in the DL, but to heck with pride! DL weights were 85#, 115#, 115#, 115#, 115#. I would have gone up more (just a little), but my form needs to be perfect before I try going too heavy. Although 175# is not (sob) heavy for stronger people... :wink: