ExRx.net

That's really my old "stomping grounds." In fact, my dad was born in Colville. I lived in Eastern Washington as a teenager, and again when I was first married. I lived in Kaillspel as a kid. In recent years (before moving to PNG) I lived in Western Wash, near Everett.

I will. I was really nervous about emailing them. I'd have no nerves about contacting an MMA school anywhere to go train. But I kept looking at the guys on his webpage and thinking I might not be the kind of athlete they want to train. I see NHL players and NFL players and teenage phenoms...and uh, me, a 36-year old amateur MMA fighter?

But I emailed anyway, and I got a really good response. Turns out the guy who'd be training me knows one of the fighters from my MMA gym here in the US - http://www.thaing.net/Asylumhome.html - so I feel better already. They already know I've got some injuries and glaring weaknesses, too.

Honestly, I can't wait to go and see where this leads. It's not cheap but I realized I could just spend the money I was budgeting for some anatomy classes and personal trainer cert books and learn far, far more...and get much stronger...and learn how to make myself stronger faster.

This week my trainer at DeFranco's is off, so I'm on my own for lifting. I turned down a chance to train with another guy, I think I need the break from the hard training there and I'd rather stick with one trainer while I'm getting started.

I think I'll do some trap bar deadlifts tomorrow plus some accessory work. Tomorrow night is MMA class.

Also, I scored at a garage sale the other day - my mom found someone selling a bunch of heavy dumbbells. $2 each for a 50, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, and an 85. Lots of fun carrying them to the car and then into the basement.

***

Finally, I'm trying to gain weight. I've been eating low-carb, mostly, with the "mostly" being that I have fruit with my breakfast plus some ice cream at night. I'm not sure what to add if I need more calories; more meat is unpalatable (I'm eating so much I'm getting a little sick of it) and more fish is expensive. I'm thinking I might need to add more carbs post-workout, but I really don't know what I want to add. Maybe just an extra piece of fruit a day for now. It's very easy for me to get fat from lots of carbs so...

Pete, good deal on the DB's. You gotta love garage sales. As to bulking on low carb. It kind of came natural to me as I eat fairly low carb, and have, for over 40 years, but I have found that SMALL additions of legumes and nuts, and dairy, maybe some starch in the form of whole grains (think brown rice, barley, quinoa,etc) usually do the trick. My favorite is to take some meat, and mix it with some chopped veg (chopped broccli, green beans, or anything else) and mix in some rice/bean mix. Don't need much of the rice/bean mix, load up on the veg. Should fill you up, and provide the extra calories without really fattening you up.
Tim

Some poor guy is going to get home from Iraq or somewhere and discover that his mom sold $500 worth of his dumbells for 14 bucks! And weight's going up. I bought a few small plates in the US (my wife was not pleased that I wanted to add them to our luggage!) the the store had raised the price on, but hadn't removed the old price tag, so I got them for the old price. I think they wanted about $4 per 2.5# plate.

Thanks for the suggestions, Tim. I think that's the way to go. I'll start having some oatmeal in the morning, add a little bit more in the way of whole-grain starchy carbs to my meals on my workout days to fill in the extra calories. I'm already getting plenty of nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds), legumes (peanuts, peanut butter), and dairy (cheese, yogurt, light cream).

I really should go back to logging food on FitDay but it's really annoying to do. Your whole day starts being weight, measure, and then find the f&%#ing food on FitDay. ;D

And Jungledoc, I did get those weights off an Army dude. Had his ARMY shirt on, his buzzcut, etc. I carried the 80 and the 85 to my car, so suddenly he had to help too...

I just realized that you haven't mentioned eggs. I know that you are an egg guy (I'm gonna try that Italian Easter pie), but you didn't say anything about them here.

I'm already eating 4 for breakfast every day, sometimes 2-4 more during the day. I need a little variety, and they aren't terribly cheap.

Glad to see someone else liking Box Squats. One of my favourites. In fact, I hardly ever train the normal back squat directly. I rotate round lots of box squat and DL variations and do the back squat for 2 weeks every few months or so.

The Defranco training looks/sounds great.

KPj

I know they love box squats at DeFranco's Training so I was waiting for them to turn up. It was a lot of fun to do them. Much harder than regular squats for the same weight, too.



It's worth every penny. It's not cheap, but considering it's one-on-one training in a top-class facility...it's well worth it. I mean, if I joined GloboGym and got a Personal Training Package for 2 sessions a week for 12 weeks, I doubt I'd get off paying less. Probably more, and I wouldn't have this guy (John Impallomeni) as my strength coach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ns1l-uk ... re=related

And he does MMA these days, too. Woo!

Ouch, those woodchops killed my abs. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I don't use soreness as my main sign of progress, but I'm damn sure I worked hard yesterday based on how sore I am today.

Could you describe in more detail what you do with sandbags at DeFranco's? Thanks. I'm curious.

Sure. The "Sandbag Drills" involve me lifting a 75# sandbag from the floor with both hands and putting on a Reverse Hyper's bench. That's around middle chest height for me at 6'4".

They've had me do two so far - the frontwards one involves getting the bag off the floor anyway I want and then stepping forward and putting it on the hyper. Then I get to haul it off and either drop it or lower it fast (my choice) to the floor.
The sideways one is the same except I stand perpendicular to the reverse hyper bench, and my feet can't move. I can come up on my toes and turn, but not shuffle around. Otherwise it's the same. Pick it up, heave it on the bench, then get it down.

So far, it's been "max reps in 60 seconds" for frontwards and "max reps in 30 seconds, wait about 5-10 seconds and do the other side" for sideways.

Oh yeah, when I say "grab the bag" I mean the bag - not the handles or the straps, but grip the material. I can dig my fingers in and try to hold, scoop under the bag, try to crush it together for a grip, whatever. The bag is pretty tightly filled so it's not easy to get a good grip.

Ugh!

It could be worse.

At least, I'm sure it could be worse. I finish those sets barely keeping my asthma in check, desperately breathing and praying for long rests between rounds. I've been told to keep my arms over my head and breath deeply, and after 2 rounds I need to use the cable machine to hold my arms up because I'm too tired to do it on my own.

Fun, fun!