since the holidays are finally over, and everyone’s back, it’s time to get back to the gym. Usually i wouldn’t make a big deal about this, but since i haven’t been to the gym in 2 weeks(>_<) it’s a pretty big fucking deal. I also go to start to break in some new toys.

So i woke up this morning feeling like a fucking champ. By a “Fucking Champ” i mean i woke up as soon as my alarm went off at 5, and i didn’t groan or complain too much. Since i didn’t know if my gym buddy was going to actually make it today, i didn’t have my gym bag completely packed, so i finished it and rushed out of the house as usually. I took my preworkout(jack3d) and packed some monster milk for part of my “breakfast” at work.

This year Santa was awesome, and as you see below, gave me a set of thai pads! YAY!

Along with my new set of mexican hand wraps(thanks Amazon) and my good ol’ gloves, i prepared for a greatgym workout. Since i’ve been a lazy fuck since my gym buddy left town, i decided to start with chests today, and do legs tomorrow with arms on friday. On monday i’ll go back to my regular schedule, which i won’t repost again. Since i took 2 weeks off, as i expected, i got weaker again so i wasn’t benching as much as i was before. When i was doing incline barbell presses, i ended my set with 50′s in each hand, but that’s still lighter that i was doing a few weeks ago. Usually i’d get down about something like that, but my weight has stayed at 229 since i stopped working out which means i wasn’t eating quite shitty enough to cause myself to gain weight. This also makes me think that if i keep working out, i’ll lose weight quicker now. Don’t ask me why i think that, i just do.

Pad work was a bit of a trial for me. My gym partner hasn’t held pads for people before, so i had to teach him the number progression

1. Jab
2. Jab, Cross
3. Jab, Cross, Hook
4. Jab, Cross, Hook, Cross
5. Jab, Cross, Hook, Cross, Uppercut
6. Jab, Cross, Hook, Cross, Uppercut, Cross


pretty simple, but if you’ve never done it before, holding pads for it can be a bit of a pain. It was a learning experience for us both since i was able to slow down and focus on good footwork and a full body rotation on my punches. I think for him it was a learning experience because he got to see that…..i can hit and kick pretty hard if i put my mind to it.

i forgot my phone in my locker, so i didn’t have a timer, but i just took my rests when my Partner’s(that sounds so not heterosexual lol) arms got tired. This also helped me with my kicks, since years upon years of karate have ingrained in me some not so good habits, i was able to take inventory of them.

After a few rounds, i left for the shower, but after the shower i felt absolutely amazing. Even a taste of MMA training is exhilerating, even if it’s just pad work. I’m thinking about telling my training partner to pick up at least some hand wraps so that he can get a feel for what hitting the pads feels like.

• Work on keeping my stance when moving forward, and not walking
• Making sure to come back to my stance when preparing to attack
• keeping my punches ON THE BODY so i’m not punching people in the face, even if it’s on accident
• Watching my head, and making sure it’s where it’s supposed to be(…so i don’t head butt anyone)
• Work on my bobbing and weaving a bit so I can use any time i’m being punched as an opportunity to counter punch

It’s a pretty big list but to be honest, I know I can do it. For now, i’m going to get as much gym time in as possible so that i’m better by the time I get back to AZ, once i get there, i’ll have the fun adventure of finding a gym that doesn’t blow.

Today was a fun day both BJJ and kick Boxing wise. In BJJ we were reviewing D’arce Chokes again, which is always fun. Luckily I managed not to practice with anyone who likes to tweak necks. Hurray! After that we worked on the Anaconda choke which was loads of fun. The thing I like about it most is the twist you do to sink it in. The only problem i had the first few times i did it was making sure the choke was sunk in deep enough and leaving tight while spinning. I went to class expecting fun times and as always Coach Chris didn’t disappoint. He said most likely, i’ll be able to start rolling again next Monday, since the classes are smaller but we’ll see.

Kick Boxing was a whole ‘nother story. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a Kick boxing circuit class, or so it seems. I went in expecting a usual class, I’d be a bit tired and burn some calories, but it would be nothing special. I always love being proven wrong. I did my usual stations, getting a bit gassed midway though class but i recovered pretty well shortly after. After the usual stations, i expected to do 30/30′s for the rest of the class since it’s what i’m used to doing. It turns out today is body work day. I’ve never done body work before, but it’s basically it’s sparring sans kicking or head shots. Now I’ve sparred for years and years, but under slightly different rules, none of them being boxing rules. Suffice it to say, I didn’t do well. Saying I didn’t do well is an understatement, I did horribly and i was so exhausted that I thought I was going to puke, Which has only happened once before while working out. TO be honest, it’s been good to let me know where I am and how much work I need. It’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve been looking for a good gym where I’ll be in AZ, I’m going to have to keep up the good momentum else i’ll crap out.

The second problem the doctor said I have was my 0-60 change in my diet. He said the reason I have been floundering a bit during classes and feeling gassed earlier than i should is because i went from eating a high calorie diet full of crap, to a super healthy low cal diet. Apparently a slow, sane transition is the way to go? So while I have my new diet in mind, I’m not dropping down to this stupidly low diet quiet yet unless I’m able continue training with no energy. To be honest, i’m probably going to continue with this new diet until at least after april 24th, after that i’ll see where I am and I’ll tone down my calories from there.

Pictures of the new tattoo i’m getting on friday or saturday should be up….after I get them/it.  Info on what’s going on with Kickboxing later and how my coach is leaning BJJ/Judo wise

The ride down:

The ride down from NY to DC was pretty standard. We stopped at a little diner in a rural New York town on the way and had a pretty good(if huge) breakfast. After that, I played the “i’ve been working all night and been up for hours” card and my Wife drove the rest of the way to DC. I woke up to her pulling into her grandmothers house, which is where we were staying.

While we were there:

My plans were to pick up the moonshine I’d purchased, and to get tattooed. It spiraled from there. First my tattoo artist wasn’t available the day we got there(which was Friday) which was fine. I had originally planned to get my tattoo done on Saturday so i wasn’t too pressed at that. Instead, I decided to go get my haircut to get it out of the way and went to a very stupid barber. Now I went to a barber shop called Sonny’s barber shop and had my haircut by a very dumb kid by the name of Pete. Now the reason I’m calling this kid dumb is twofold. First, I told him very explicitly and with pictures(I literally showed him 5 pictures of myself that I had on my phone) exactly how I wanted my haircut. What was required wasn’t too difficult and shouldn’t have taken him anything more than 20 minutes if he wasn’t functionally retarded. Clearly I was wrong, since it took almost an hour and a half and looks like it was done by someone who has Parkinson’s disease. The second reason I’m calling this kid dumb is because while I’ve never met this kid before, definitely didn’t tell him to do so, and didn’t find out til the next day, he decided to burn a V into the back of my neck with his clippers. That second thing in itself was a call for violence and got added to the things to do before I left yesterday, for better or worse.

Once Saturday rolled along, I woke up super late and by the time I got to the Tattoo place, it was already 3. I had planned on doing a bunch of computer work for their shop so I proceeded to do so while my artist dealt with a few other clients. By the time he was finished inking everyone else, It was 5 and after I’d payed for the ink and the moonshine and he’d finished the stencils, it was 6. My wife stopped by around 7 and I sent her with my moonshine back to her grandmothers. So we went until about 10 and then he showed me the gogo(?) club that he manages that was right around the corner, once that was finished it was around 10:30. At this point, I just drove back to my wife’s grandmothers house and when I got there I got a surprise. My father in law and I have a bit of a……spotty relationship. We had gotten in a fight when I hosted Thanksgiving back in 2008 and at this point, It seems that we don’t like each other all that much. Once of the reasons on my side being what looks like a pretty bad case of alcoholism. Usually I wouldn’t care but in this case it affected me for 2 reasons. The first being because….he’s my father in law and occasionally I’ll have to deal with him. The second being because i had just bought $200 with of moonshine which worked out to being about a gallon of the stuff total. When I got back to my wife’s grandmother’s house, the first thing she greeted me with was “my daddy had some of your moonshine” suffice it to say, the first words out of my mouth weren’t “YAY, GLAD TO HEAR IT!” Instead, I asked why she was giving it away when it’s $40 a 5th and I already had a bunch of friends in NY who had bought some(I also got a 5th for myself). So he had a “taste” and that was fine, I let that slide. Until he decided he wanted a bit more for himself that is. Now again, usually I wouldn’t care except for 2 things. First, $40 a 5th and he wasn’t paying and Second, I didn’t offer. Being the…..polite person that I am, I gave him some and ended up losing a half a 5th because of it.

On the way out of DC:

The day we left (which was yesterday) was fun. By fun I mean it was hectic, full of strife, arguing, and me being generally pissed for about 9 hours. My plans for yesterday originally looked like this.

1. Take a 5th of moonshine to a friend in VA
2. Return my tattoo artist his phone since he left it in my car
3. Go to Sonny’s barbershop and either get my money back or cause violence(i have only so much patience, and if you disrespect me, it goes away quickly)
4. Be out of DC and on my way back to NY by 10am

These were all my goals, and while the best laid plans of mice and men are often laid carefully, these were destined to go awry.

We ended leaving  grandmothers house at 9…bad sign. When we left there was a bunch of drama with everyone and by the time we left the second time, it was 9:45. We ran all the errands I’d originally planned on running and My wife left me know that she hadn’t seen her great grandmother like she had planned the day before…..last minute is the best time to find out about such things. I went to my friends house and guess what? He wasn’t there. The trip to find my tattoo artists’ house lead me all around parts of VA I’d never been to the entire time I’d lived in DC.

When I went to the barbershop, That kid wasn’t there. In the end, I ended up sending my wife’s cousin to get the money and told him to keep it. it didn’t matter that I didn’t get it back as long as the shitty ass barber didn’t have it.

The trip to my wife’s great-grandmothers house had me catching even more flak. I waited in the car while she went and visited, I generally hate people and was in a shitty mood and saw no reason to make anyone else feel bad by spreading my shitty mood. Apparently, staying in my car and listening to music while I waited was another slight to a person in my wife’s family because I caught an earful from her aunt. At that point, I was approaching livid and wanted to be left alone so the trip back to NY was generally a quite one. I drove the entire time we were in the DC area and for 4 hours on the way to NY then switched and slept while my wife drove. When I got back home, I realized that the next time I’m in DC, for everyone’s sake I’m just going to get a hotel room