Jumping muscle ups and young kids

This week my son is visiting for Christmas break and my brother is here visiting as well so I wanted to make sure I had enough time today to do stuff and hit the 6 a.m. class at RFM for the first time.

I half expected it to be totally empty but man, there were like six people there not including Kristi the trainer. Guess everyone felt as gross as I did after eating a bunch of crap during the holidays.

Strength today was bench, which has been scary since the pec tear last year. Everytime I want to go heavy and push it I end up freaking out and racking the weight if I feel even the slighest bit of strain on my right side. Push-ups for me thanks, but I do want to reach that goal of 20 reps of 225 so I've got to keep trying.

Then it was time for the workout, as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of: 2 muscles ups, 4 upsidedown pushups, 8 kettleball swings and a 200 meter run. For those who don't know, the muscle ups are dips on those gymnastic rings. They are hard as hell, mainly because you have to stablize yourself while dipping. Your arms shake and it's a bitch. Plus just pulling yourself up to get in position is more than half the battle. That's why I did "jumping" muscle ups today. I tried pulling myself up from a standing position but there was no freaking way. As they say, leave your ego at the door and just do what you can do. So jumping muscle ups here I come.

To add another twist to things there were two new guys at the gym this morning, a couple of young fellas who of course went out drinking last night. Still, they were in good shape, especially one of them that looked like a local surfer. They said this was their first Crossfit workout but they were in good shape to begin with and of course I was thinking that I need to at least keep up with them.

This was not the case however, the younger surfer guy was ripping through the workout and his friend was right behind him. I did well with the first three and didn't even break a sweat until the 200 meter run. Even that wasn't bad. In fact I think I need to really increase my freaking speed on that thing. I could have easily rested while doing muscle ups and USDPU and kswings. Ahhhhhh damn it.

It's going to be one of those weeks where I hit Crossfit everyday. Hopefully for the Saturday workout too. And someone please please please give me incentive to do Paleo again. I really need it.

Light weights are good, very good

So after the brutality of the burpees yesterday, Bumper decides what we need are more squats. Wonderful.

Of course, these are overhead squats which means we get to hold the bar above our head as we go up and down. Even more wonderful. Throw in some pull-ups and it's a happy day.

Wait, did I say what our reps were? 21, 15 and 9. Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaawwwww.

I didn't mess around or act macho today, not with this workout. I threw 10's on each side of the bar and that was it. To hell with that.

Everybody else went heavier. Lori, Kehau, Oran and Luke. Once again, I did not care. I was just looking to survive the workout. Ever do 21 pullups? Unassisted pullups by the way, no rubber bands to help.

Tomorrow is our last day for Crossfit this week until after Christmas. For my gift I would like to choose my own workout. Please I'd like to do four rounds of:

10 handstand pushups, 5 L pull-ups, 10 pushups and a 400 meter run.

See? No squats whatsoever. Thank you Santa.

Whether you jump forward, back or to the side, I. Hate. Burpees.

Today I had some complications before getting to the gym. Two different reporters wanted to meet with the mayor this afternoon, one at 4 and the other at 4:20 p.m. The area was Old Wailuku town which was perfect because Raw Maui Fitness was just a couple of blocks away. I parked the car at the gym and ran to the location.

Things wrapped up nicely at 5 and I ran back, a good warm-up before the workout. I shouldn't have bothered. Bumper had it all planned out. Damn him.

We started out doing stretches and all that then he had us partner up. One of us sat on the ground and stretched out our arms. The other had to jump over the outstreched arms 10 times, then reverse and go the other way. It wasn't brutal, but it was punishing.

But see, that was just the set up. We cranked out some deadlifts then it was time for the real deal, four rounds of five power cleans and jerks followed by 10 burpees which involved us jumping sideways over our weightlifting bar instead of straight up.

You folks reading this might be confused about the workout, but that part doesn't matter. What does matter is that none of us had any leg strength for burpees anymore after that stupid jump-over-your-partner's-arms routine in the warm-up. I did one burpee and felt my legs tremble during the first round and said to myself "Ah crap."

It was brutal and punishing and turned my legs limp. I looked around and saw my fellow gym members collapsing on the ground for the burpees and then barely making it over a bar only two or three inches off the ground.

The whole clean and jerk thing was nothing. I used 115 and could have probably done 20 pounds more. Sure Bumper said I reversed curled the first set of five but after that you have to do good form. There's no other way to get that much weight up underneath your chin. But whatever, that's not the painful part. I'd rather do 50 clean and jerks in a row than 10 burpees again, especially after the jumping we did beforehand.

You know, I'd better be able to block my brother's shots if we play basketball again with all this jumping that we do. I think when he visits for Christmas I might just invite him out for a game at the park. Maybe if I swat a few shots of his I'll feel motivation to jump again.

Otherwise I'm going to continue to hate burpees.

Did I say I hate Cardio? I hate front squats

Why you ask? Because you have to bend your wrists in an unnatural position.

Well, unnatural for me anyway. My wrists just don't go that far back. By the second set I was ready to toss the bar and weights through the wall. If I could have channeled my rage into strength today I would have been more powerful than the Hulk. Or Vernon Patao.

Worst. Workout. Ever.

Bumper had a theory too. Because I sit and type all day my wrists are trained to bend in the other way (although technically that's not true, it's more like a neutral position). Anyway when I bend the other way it feels like the bones will pop out of my wrists.

So so so so so so angry.

The workout was kind of easy too, if  there's such a thing as an easy workout at Raw Fitness Maui. But six minutes of 8 front squats and 8 chest to the bar pullups shouldn't have been that bad. But it was.

Sigh. Please tell me we aren't doing anything on Friday that involves backwards wrist bending. Please.

I want to rock and roll all night, and Crossfit every day

Sorry, couldn't think of a better title, but I am TIRED. Like eyes ready to shut as I type this kind of tired.

See, a friend of mine came in from Oahu this past weekend and we basically drank for three days. Most of it was a blur but I do remember karaoke and poker and live music and two girls from Switzerland and Brazil. At one point we tried to watch the movie "Inception" but by then our minds were too feeble to comprehend anything. Ugh.

Then today, five days since my last Crossfit workout, I finaly made it back to the gym. I was ready for some pain and suffering, but then a funny thing happened instead.

I did really well. Like, had the best workout ever. And the best time of anyone else working out tonight: 11:07. Our workout consisted of three rounds of running 400 meters, 10 handstand pushups and 20 box jumps. I still can't believe it actually and have been trying to come up with theories about how it happened. Here's a few:

1) Resting this weekend actually helped. Normally I'm at Crossfit at least 4 days a week, sometimes 5 if I feel crazy enough. Last week I did three then did nothing physical at all for 4 days straight. Unless you count a five minute swim in the ocean on Sunday, otherwise I rested. So maybe my muscles were ready to workout today.

2) I'm actually improving. So I know I can do handstand pushups like nobody's business but what surprised me was that I was pounding out the box jumps too. My legs weren't burning with muscle failure like they usually do and I kept going strong for all three rounds. My running still sucks but nobody's perfect.

3) Drinking alcohol for three days triggered some sort of survival instinct in my body which forced me to workout extra hard today so that I would sweat out all of the poison.

I think I'm leaning more towards the last theory. Maybe I'll repeat the process again one day to see if I was right. But not this weekend. This weekend I just want to watch Tron Legacy when it comes out and then stay home all week. Thank God.

Peace people.

Oh how I miss you Crossfit

I'm entertaining a friend from Oahu this weekend and so didn't make it to the Friday or Saturday workouts.

But I surprised myself when I actually said out loud "Damn it!" because I was checking the workouts online and my friend was like, "Dude, what's up?" It was hard to explain how I was pissed that I missed out on some handstand holds.

I love handstand holds! I love handstand pushups! Maybe I'll do 'em at home or something.

What kind of sick person am I that I actually miss workouts like some people miss their wife?

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a great time this weekend. Played poker and drank POG and vodka yesterday morning then went and heard some great live music at Charley's last night.

But Crossfit makes my day complete now. Without it I just don't feel right. Heck I even miss blogging about working out which is why I'm here writing right now.

I'll be back Monday for sure, just wanted to say how much I miss everybody.

In the meantime, Mimosas anyone?

Crossfit amnesia

Tonight my mental exhaustion during our workouts has reached a new level. I actually blacked out for a whole round.

We were supposed to do the following: run 200 meters then come back to the gym and do four rounds of 7 pendlay rows, power snatches and back squats, then run 200 meters again.

I distinctly remember running, then pounding out the first set because I was already tired. The second set was difficult and the third was backbreaking. I was grabbing a drink of water after what I thought was my third set when everybody was like, "RUN ROD RUN!!!"

I was confused at first then just took off running. In my mind I kept saying to myself, this isn't right, I didn't finish my fourth set. Hell, I don't even remember starting on it.

I got back and tried to replay the workout in my mind. It was totally bothering me. So much so that I started doing 7 rows and then 7 power snatches again and Derek and Brad were like, "WTF is wrong with you, do you want to do this all over again?" I told them I think I skipped a round and they both said no you didn't, you did four.

Bob, who was doing the round with me said he kept looking over at me and said we were at the same pace till the end but that he and I were neck and neck until the third round. I still can't remember.

I know this though. My body knows when it reaches exhaustion. Crossfit has taught my body to gauge pain and that did not seem like a four round workout. Seriously.

I guess the moral of this story is, if you can, have a partner to keep track of your rounds. I used to need a gym partner to keep me motivated, or to spot me while lifting. Now I need one to remember for me. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I can't decide.

Oh well, see you all on Friday.

So you guys know I used to be a reporter right?

I'm just pointing this out because I am a trained to notice things and know the difference between facts and observation and speculation.

That said, here are the facts from Tuesday's workout:

#1. Lori, Derek and I get to the gym for the 5 p.m. workout and see Kalaheo's truck parked across the street.

#2. During the entire time Kalaheo does not appear during the 5 p.m. workout.

Now, some observations:

#1. I was crossing the street heading to my truck when I see Kalaheo jump out of a parked car about five stalls away from me. He has no shirt on, just surf shorts and he looks somewhat guilty. He says howzit and hurries to his truck.

#2. In the car from which he came from were two girls, one of them has a towel wrapped around her and maybe a bathing suit. It looks like they came from the beach.

Finally, I shall speculate:

#1. HAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA . . . oh man, too funny.

Okay seriously, I don't know what happened but you can read for yourself what I saw. That and Uncle Rod has some advice for our studly high school aged Crossfit member.

You must learn to adopt the "these aren't the droids you are looking for" attitude in situations like those. See, even if you and the girls were just "talking" in the car it looks bad because of that face you gave me. It said, "Please don't look at me even though I am walking out of a car with no shirt and there were two girls in there with me in towels." No no no no no. Wrong.

You gotta walk out with a little strut and act like nothing happened. Maybe throw in a yawn like you're bored. A yawn is always good. Either that or get on your cell phone and start saying, "wassup" even though no one is on the other line. I can't tell you how much trouble I could have avoided if cell phones had been around when I was in high school. My mom would have been like, "Rod did you . . ." and I would have gotten that imaginary vibration and said, "Hold on, mom, let me take this . . . "

So lest I besmudge Kalaheo's sterling reputation I shall reiterate and clarify: I saw him come out of a car with two girls after skipping the 5 p.m. workout. There, that's it.

I'm sure all shall be revealed and I can't wait to hear it. Moving on . . . .

This is a fitness blog after all and I did kick some ass in today's workout so let's get started. First we warmed up by doing as many double-unders as we could in 5 minutes. Brad did more than 200, Lori did more than 100, Derek still has that shoulder problem so he doesn't count. Me, I did 31. As you can tell that's not the part I kicked ass in.

It was the second part, which was ingenious in its evil design. We had to do five rounds of 3 L pull-ups, 5 push jerks and 9 box jumps. Then you rest two minutes and REPEAT the damn five rounds over again.

Like I said, evil. And I was sure I'd suck wind after reading this workout last night. Why? Beceause if any of you rip your pectoral like I did, one of the first things you will lose is the ability to do L pull-ups. It's the way you have to pull yourself up, it relies a lot upon that chest/shoulder muscle area which is the EXACT area that you end up tearing. It sucks.

But lo and behold, it's B. Kikuchi that saves the day. He tells us we can turn our grip around and make it more of a bicep pullup. I haven't tried those in a while and when I did my biceps said, "Oh yeah." See, you don't do a lot of curls in Crossfit. It's not a necessary thing, more for bodybuilding. So my biceps have been resting for a long time, and yesterday they were ready for some action.

Anyway the clock starts and my L pullups are banging. Three is easy. Then I did the 35 lbs dumbells for the push jerks and that was easy too. So by the time I get to the box jumps I'm cruising. Which is a good thing because I hate box jumps.

Fast forward to the end of the first round and I finish first. Against Brad. I was stoked because Brad is a little machine. Then the second round Brad and I finish at the same time. I was blown out but it was cool. First is nice.

So yes, it was a good day today. And if Kalaheo is reading this I'm sorry for busting you man, but that was too funny to pass up.

Aloha gang,

Rod

Thank you Oran, now please buy me a new lower back

I just found out this week's Crossfit's workouts were all designed by Oran, our friendly neighborhood Maui police officer who enjoys torturing us. First we threw up some shoulder presses, 95, 105 and 115 all for 5 reps each. Cake. Then came a mix of 3 squat cleans and 5 pushups. Not bad right?

Well except I left out the part that we do as many rounds as we can in 10 minutes. I cranked out 10 rounds and 1 power clean. Actually I take that back, my partner Jun said I did 10 rounds. I swear I only did seven. Then it was a good thing he was counting because after the fourth round I couldn't concentrate anymore because my BACK was killing me.

Now, lest any of you reading this think that Raw Fitness Maui doesn't care about technique please stop and read the rest of my blogs. Technique means everything, they don't even let you use weights if you can't do the movement right.

So I know I'm doing the movement right, it's just my friggin back. Ever since I was a kid I've noticed something wrong with my back. I couldn't touch my toes like the other kids even when I started stretching in karate class. It got to the point where I could do a full on split sideways but still couldn't touch my toes. It sucked and still does.

Anyway, as I was driving away from class tonight it felt like there was a knife stabbing me in the back during the whole drive back to Paia. As I sit here and type it's fading away but there's something wrong about this. As much as I'd like to blame Oran I think this is something I need to take up with my doctor.

I so cannot wait for these government benefits to kick in. I'm setting up a Kaiser appointment as soon as human resources sends me my medical card. Damn straight.

Until then Oran, bring it on. BRING IT ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!

(Just please do not include any thrusters, burpees or cleans of any kind, thanks)

Crossfit confession, alcohol aversion and Kipping konversion

So I have to start today's blog off by apologizing to one of my fellow Crossfitters, Momi.

Last week Momi asked me why I looked so familiar and if I had ever been a newscaster. I played dumb.

Today she said she saw the news about me and how I was on tv and was like, why were you messing with me. I felt bad, but I really wasn't trying to screw with her.

See, everytime someone asks me if I was ever on TV I think if I say yes the next thing that crosses their mind is "Really? What the heck happened to you?"

I know, it's a problem. But over the years I've gotten a lot of weird comments like:

"Hey, didn't you used to be Rod Antone?" Um, I still am.

Or, "Do you have a younger brother named Rod Antone?" Why? Because I don't look like I'm 20 anymore?

Or they'll ask my younger brother Richard "Aren't you Rod Antone?" and I'm standing right next to him. Then my bro will say "Haha, no but he is" and everybody feels awkward. Thanks.

Or the best is I'll hand over my ID to the bouncer and he'll actually look at my friggen name and ask "Are you related to Rod Antone?" Bruddah, what, Roderic Antone and Rod Antone? Kinda the same name eh?

Anyway, you get the point. And so do I. I don't look like I did when I was on TV. Hell, that was like from 1996 to 2001, almost 10 years ago. Nobody looks like they did 10 years ago.

The trouble is people have an image of me frozen in time, from when I was 24 to 29. I know they don't mean to make me feel uncomfortable but that's what happens.

But the thing is I forget that I can make people uncomfortable too when I play dumb. So I'm really sorry Momi, I seriously did not mean for that to happen.

It's just that when I was younger I thought I would get older and look like Richard Gere did in Pretty Woman. You know, that greying hair but still looking sharp and distinguished. But I put on more than 20 pounds and my hair started thinning out. And everytime someone asks me about my TV days I wince, because it's a reminder that I aged more like K-Fed.

Thank God for Crossfit. And on that note . . .

Cindy was my woman today. For the uninformed Cindy is the name of a workout that has you do 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats for as many rounds as you can in 20 minutes. I did 12 rounds. Kristi said the Crossfit elite do 24 rounds. So since I did half of the elite workout it makes me a . . . what? Crossfit novice? Crossfit padawan? Whatever. Oh and again I didn't use the rubber bands for the pullups. In fact, I think I've finally gotten that Kipping technique down and it totally works. Fifty pullups here I come. Gonna hit that benchmark by March I guarentee.

And last night at midnight Josh and some friends celebrated the end of his Paleo by drinking. I'm so over alcohol. Unless the Swedish bikini team invites me into a hot tub and wants me to do shots I don't see the point. Or Jessica Alba. Or Megan Fox. Or Eva Mendes. Or Rosario Dawson. Or . . . anyway, you get the idea. It's a short list.

Aurite gang, thank God for the day off tomorrow. See you Friday.

One lap or two? One please

Today we had to run a mile for the first part of our workout. I was a little worried about it but only because of my back. It gets tight on these runs and it's ticking me off. As soon as those county benefits kick in I'm getting a physical for sure.

Anyway, we're trying to decide what to do. Either we run twice up the road to Market Street or do one long run down through the Mill Road industrial area. All the guys picked Mill Road, Kehau wanted to do it the hard way of course. She probably wanted to see if she could push some cars along the way, build up her strength cause she's so weak. Like only the third strongest chick in the world behind Corey Everson and Richard Simmons.

So we take off and I'm doing great running downhill. Then it evens out and Brad and Josh start catching up to me and Bumper. Soon everybody takes off ahead of me while I'm bogging. It wasn't my back, I was just out of breath. We run around the business loop then took off and headed back to the gym. At this point I'm way behind and those three are way up front. I get there finally and Bumper has a time of 6:03 and Brad and Josh were around 6:05 and 6:06 or something.

Bumper told me later he was trying to catch up to some of the cars that were passing him. That's how you know when you're the guy who owns the gym, when you have to compete against machines instead of other human beings because they suck so bad compared to you. Don't worry, I'll pass him one day. I just need a strategically placed bear trap. Josh I can distract with food and beer. Then it's just me and Brad and I can nudge him into traffic if I get close. Bwaahahahahahaha . . .

Kehau I won't have to worry about because SHE RAN THE TWO LAPS INSTEAD OF ONE route. I think her time was like 8:58. No, it was better than that but she came in way after the guys did. It's that uphill twice thing, it wears you out I think. Crazy girl.

Then it was time for the "real" workout. Thirty doubleunders, 20 kettlebell swings and 10 knee to elbows for four rounds. Yeedoggie. I said to hell with the doubleunders, I can't do 'em yet. So I did the alternative 90 singleunders which is still sorta hard. It was a tough workout and I beat Josh by one second. Okay, like half a second. But I still won.

You gotta take these victories when you can.

Also today is the official last day of Paleo. I know I already drank but I'm having an offical end of Paleo drink w/Josh at midnight. He's been solid on this thing and I think everybody should congratulate him. Anybody else want to try it? I'm game to do it again if you are.

Thrusters, cheating and workout fashion

So I cheated this weekend.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know. I had five days to go before finishing the Whole 30 paleo diet and I decided to break the fast. But notice I said "decided." It's not like I was fighting temptation and caved in. My brother was in town the same weekend that I got a new job and I said to myself "We need to celebrate." So on Saturday night we did. Could we have stayed sober? Yeah but that wouldn't have been as much fun. Besides my brother lives on Oahu and we don't get to see each other that often.

Anyway, so I had some alcohol. All that means is I'm going to start the Whole 30 all over again. And you know what? I want to. I saw some good results but it's not enough. Thirty days is not enough. I want more. And you know what? It was easy. Once you get going the temptation doesn't even exist. I'm thinking mid Jan to mid Feb. No major holidays and all that. Wait when's the Superbowl again? Uh, wait, maybe after that then.

Today was also the first day back in the gym since last week. Doesn't sound that long right? Well for Crossfit it is. A week off means a tough workout once you come back. And today we had a doozy. First we did back squats. I did 135 5 times, 185 3 times and 205 3 times. Not too bad. Then we did 7 thrusters and 7 chest to the bar pullups for as many rounds as we could in 10 minutes. That was kinda sucky. I only did four rounds with 95 lbs BUT I didn't use the rubber bands at all for the pullups. Yeah!

Somehow I've managed to develop my own Kipping pullups which look kinda weird. My whole body goes horizontal. Bumper and Kristi get a kick out of it but hell dude, I did a total of 28 pullups without those stupid rubber bands tonight. I think I might try to see how many in a row I can do at a time. Some of these guys can do 50 or so I hear. That's nuts.

Oh and I don't know WHAT the hell I did to my back this weekend. On Saturday Bumper posts what looked like a simple workout. You start with 20 pushups then do one situp. Then you do 19 pushups and 2 situps. Then 18 pushups and 3 situps and . . . well, you get the picture. You keep going until you're doing 20 situps and 1 pushup.

So I figure I can just do this at home and start the workout while wearing an old pair of bannana republic cargo shorts. Now, this doesn't sound too bad but I tore the hell out of my lower back somehow. The constant friction of my shorts rubbed a hole in my lower back and it's all red. Looks terrible and feels worse. So the lesson for today kids is to wear the proper workout attire, even if you're just working out at home. Aloha!

Phil Collins, keeping a real journal and too much tape

So yesterday I forgot to mention that during a very tough workout some joker decides to play Phil Collins "Land of Confusion". Really? I had to stop to tell Kristi to change that crap. That might work for Richard Simmons but otherwise should not be played in any gym anywhere. I think Phil Collins is a great guy who sings songs that I wanted to slow dance to in the 8th grade but it's not workout music. How many push presses can you do to "Invisible Touch?" Not happening.

Anyway, today's strength workout called for bench during which I did 5 reps of 135, 3 reps of 185 and 4 reps of 205. See Bumper? I do keep track of it online. I was lifting with the master trainer himself and he gave me grief about not having a real journal. Fine fine, I'll bring one and keep it in the gym. Grumble grumble.

The second part of the workout wasn't bad, fyou start off with 10 reps of what I used to call bent over rows but what the RFM crew calls "Pendlay" rows, after the guy who invented them, the designer of the Pendlay Bay in Las Vegas.

Okay lame joke, sorry. I don't know who Pendlay is actually. Isn't that a filipino word? Here's Pendlay in a sentence:

"Who is that boy, I like him. He has a berry pendlay pace, always smiling."

Ok technically it should have read "priendly pace" but you know what I mean. Yes, another bad joke! See what happens when I workout in the morning? Too much energy.

Back to the workout, you do four rounds of 10 reps of Pendlay rows and then 20 pushups. The rows were cake and I used 135 but the pushups were brutal. I cranked out the first 20 like I was floating on air which was sort of cool. But the next 20 were a little bit harder and the last 40 were painful. I ended up doing two pushups at a time.

(And no Bump I don't know what my freaking time is! Whatever! You made your point.)

And lastly, if you're in the gym you've noticed the three posters of the lady powerlifting with the huge knockers, please stop looking at her chest and count how many strips of tape are holding up each poster. I swear to God Kristi was taping up those things during the entire workout for like an hour. OCD much Kris? I went out with a girl like that once, she had to drive past my home twice before she could turn into the driveway and park. She had to do everything twice which was good sometimes but could be sorta tiresome.

Holy damn am I random rambling man today? Sorry guys, Aloha and Happy Thanksgiving!

Fear factor

I've felt many emotions while working out at Raw Fitness Maui. Anxiousness, excitement, anxiety, frustration, eagerness and many others.

But today was a new one.

Fear.

Today Bumper said we would keep jumping until we reached our maximum height. I thought maybe we'd keep jumping in the air and try to touch a certain spot on the wall or something. But no, that would be too easy.

Instead we jumped on the 24 inch box. Then we added more inches but throwing the 45 lbs rubber weight on it. Then another. Then another. Then another.

I think I got to 39 inches before finally saying enough. I don't know why I felt so scared trying to jump, it's not like you'd hurt yourself too badly if you couldn't. Just skin your knee maybe or bump your shins.

But it was weird, I was scared. And so was everybody else. The higher it got the worse we felt. Even Kristi got nervous and was too afraid to jump at one point. Made me feel better.

It was so bad that I forgot about the second part of the workout, 30 reps of "The Bear Complex". In a nutshell one rep = Power Clean + Front Squat + Push Press + Back Squat + Push Press.

Simple right? Wasn't bad actually, finished all 30 in 14:56. But I still hate bending my wrists backwards. That just kills me. I needs me some flexibility.

I wish I could fix my car like I'm fixing my body

  I didn't work out today because my car died. It's actually a friend's car who was kind enough to lend it to me more than a month ago until I get some steady work but for the most part it's mine now. (Kinda dinged it up a bit, oops).

  But since I've got the time right now I figured talk about a few goals I have for myself in 2011. I'm talking about physical goals in the gym. I've got other personal goals but this isn't the place to discuss them if you know what I mean.

Anyway, here they are:

 - be able to do 50 pullups without stopping or using the rubber bands
 - be able to do at least 10 muscle ups in a row
 - run the 400 in a minute or less
 - be able to powerclean 225
 - shoulder press 185
 - be able to do 50 box jumps without stopping
 - be able to do 50 wall balls without stopping
 - bench 225 20 times

  Too much? Am I not being realistic? I've got all year to reach these goals right? Okay maybe the powerclean seems kinda nuts but I've got the motion down and if you do it right you don't really feel the weight at all as it's going up.

  Oh yeah and I want to continue with the Paleo Diet in some sort of adjusted form. Like be able to eat sugar on Saturdays and starch on Sundays or something like that. And not stuffing my face with doughnuts but more like having a bowl of ice cream on Saturday and some shrimp and pasta on Sunday. Little things in moderation. Also drinking alcohol again will be nice. Yes indeed.

  I think we should all have goals, otherwise why else are we doing this? And I still gotta buy a boogie board and some churchhill fins. I can't live in Paia and not hit the water, it's embarassing.

  What do you think? How about your goals? I want to see them too. Write them out here and maybe we'll try to reach them together.

Aloha gang,

Rod

When it comes to hang squat cleans, last is okay

Five rounds of hang squat cleans. No I don't have my time. I was too tired to look up at the clock. Oh wait, I almost forgot to mention that it was five rounds of 15 squat cleans. And 20 situps. But the 20 situps was almost like a rest period. Damn.

I just gotta face it, my legs are weak. WEAK. But that's okay. They're getting there. I've neglected doing any sort of legs for years and now I'm paying the price. I expect that. But damn it's tough.

Plus hang squat cleans have that stupid move at the end where you bend your wrists backwards and have to rest it on the front of your shoulders. I just don't have that flexibility and don't know if it'll ever come. I hate those puppies. If I had to pick a top three most hated moves in the gym it would be burpees, thrusters and hang squat cleans.

(By the way Bumper, I swear to God if you read my blog then decide to throw all three of those together for a workout one day I will hurt you. And I'll make sure to do it before the workout because afterwards I'll be too busy throwing up blood.)

Today was tough though. Not sure if it's because I spent all day at the beach and was a little pooped but I almost gave up on the fourth round. I was going to fake like I had done all five rounds already but then Kristi gave me that look that said, "I've been counting, do the last round damn it." So I did. Sweet Jesus I did it.

You know I was tired if I came in last after Bob, Josh and Derek and just don't give a damn. Usually I'd be whining about how I didn't push hard enough or some other B.S. but tonight I was just glad to finish.

But I gotta say, I feel good tonight. It's gotten to the point where feeling sore and exhausted means I feel good and not feeling sore and exhausted means I wasted my time today. Welcome to Bizzaro World, aka Crossfit. Have a good one gang.

***UPDATE***

  Okay, Josh said he didn't do all 15 reps on tonight and it was more like 15, 12, 8, 8, 8. That explains him finishing before I did. Seriously though, I was just glad to be done. Ow.

A special day

  On Tuesday Josh and I were pulled aside by Kristi so we could do some mobility work. Which in essence means we are inflexible as hell. I blame years of lifting without stretching. Damn you Muscle and Fitness magazine.

  So instead of doing our strength workout we were subjected to torture so vile it should be used to question prisoners at Guantanamo. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad but it was somewhat painful and weird. But I got a good stretch. I'll try to explain what we had to do but it's difficult without pictures. (Kristi email me those pics at antonerod@live.com, pretty please!)

  SO . . . actually I don't even know where to begin. First she wraped a giant rubber band around my arm and told me to pull against it until I seperated my shoulder blade from my back muscles. This sounded bad and felt worse. Plus it made me contort my face until I knew I looked like some mental health patient, mainly because Kristi's daughter was watching and laughing at me. Then Josh did it and I saw him make faces that looked angry and confused at the same time. Sort of like a constipated Incredible Hulk or something. At least I understood why people were laughing at me, because that face is funny.

  Then she gave us tennis balls, placed them on my traps muscle, then pulled my arm and pushed the tennis ball in with her foot using her leg muscles, which for Kristi is a lot of muscle. She's a pretty girl but she'll throw up some weight on those snatches and squats and cleans and . . .  you get the picture. She's strong. And actually the pressure felt sort of good when I let myself relax but good God she had my arm in a vise. She has what I call the "GI Joe Kung Fu Grip". Must be from grabbing heavy weightlifting bars every day. I have marks on my arm like a little boy who gets abused at home.

  Oh yes, and in the middle of all this stretching Kristi tells me, "Rod, you're fuzzy." At first I'm thinking, "Do I really have that much body hair? Is she telling me I should start shaving my arms? What, just cause she goes out with a hairless hapa Japanese guy that doesn't mean she can pass judgements on the other men in the gym."

  Ah but it seems I got it all wrong. Sorry Kristi. Apparently being "fuzzy" means you are inflexible. I went online to find a yoga instructor's blog which will better explain what Kristi meant (thank God for Google):

*******“The fuzz” are strands of cobweb-like connective tissue that develop between the muscles and between muscle groups when we fail to move our bodies around in all the magnificent ways it can move. These strands of connective tissue multiply and bind together during long periods of inactivity (like when we sleep).
   As time passes the fascia thickens and hardens between those once juicy, smooth and slippery surfaces rendering them less and less able to slide and glide past one another. As the individual muscles lose their ability to move freely and independently of other muscles our movements become less multidimensional and refined. We call this ’stiff’.************

  Thank you to the "Nourish Santa Cruz" blogger for that. Check out the whole blog at http://www.nourishsantacruz.com/blog/tag/muscle-ability/

  Oh yes, did I mention after all  that we still had the damn workout of the day. Run 400 meters, do 21 box jumps, then repeat for a total of 3 rounds. My knee was bothering me for some reason but I do believe my box jumps are getting better. My runs are less painful but I'm not getting faster. Ah well, I think it'll be the last thing to improve for some reason. And yes Bump, I'll post times later.

  In the end I'd just like to say that despite the pain, the personal time that our trainers put in to help Josh and I with our mobility is just a testament to the type of gym they run. Josh pointed out that he's had a personal trainer before and they charge $65 or more per hour. I've calculated that RFM only charges people $6 an hour if you go to all 20 classes that they offer each month. They work with you one and one to develop powerlifting technique and stretching and mobility and it's worth every penny and more.

  Guess what I'm trying to say is they run a good shop and I'm glad to be working out there. Thanks guys.

What's better, lots of weight or lots of reps?

Tonight I threw up some weight. First 135, 185 and 205 for benching. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Then we did two rounds of push presses, dips and kettle bell swings. First round you do as much as you can, rest for three minutes, then try to match the same reps as the first round.

I did 12 push presses, 30 dips and 26 kettle bell swings, then finished up the second round in 1:56. But here's the thing, I went heavy, about 115 lbs for the push press, so I didn't rep out as much as I could have. Twelve reps wasn't that hard to do. The kettlebells were the same way. I did the 44 lbs kettle. Not bad. Plus I got my motion down so I'm not trying to power it up with my back and shoulders anymore.

I don't know, should I have gone for less weight and more reps? Maybe. I just get a better workout if my reps are higher, I know that. It almost feels like I didn't workout tonight. Maybe if I went 95 lbs on the push press I could have gone for 25 reps or higher.

Oh and I should point out that the workout actually calls for ring dips, not regular dips. But I can't do those yet. I've been working on it though. Maybe I should have gone for it tonight. Yeah, then maybe I wouldn't be whining about how I don't feel like I worked out tonight. Grrrrrrrrr . . .

  On another note, I didn't eat a damn thing today and I'm not hungry. Just had too many things to do. Should I be worried about my lack of hunger? It's not like I don't have the fat to spare. Then again this girl's dinner next to me is looking good. Hmmm, maybe it's time I go home and have a meal before I assault this girl for her chicken salad.

See, this is why I hate cardio

Yesterday I had to look at the workout that was posted online like three times. This is what was posted:

4 rounds:
Run 400 meters
Rest 2:00

That's it. No wall balls, no box jumps, no front squats. Nothing. Just running. At first I thought, wow, piece of cake. Then I looked at the 2 minute rest again and said to myself, crap,  they want us to go all out.

Yeah, see that's the thing when you incorporate those other things with running, nobody goes all out. You're running at cruise control because your legs are usually cabbage by the time the 400 meter comes up.

But this, this was another level of evil. Just run flat out, rest, then run flat out again. So simple in its deviousness that I almost admired it. Almost.

See, we have some real nutcases at our gym, and I know nobody was going to try and pace themselves on this run. Especially Derek. Ever since he lost all that weight he's been working out with the intesity of a heroin addict looking to score some smack. There's no stopping him. Plus he's got that injured shoulder so what he can't do with the weights he tries to make up in cardio. In other words, the gimp is fast.

So anyway, we power through our strength workout which includes five sets of 2 rep snatches and 3 sets of 3 rep deadlifts. I made the mistake of lifting with Kats for deadlifts, that guy throws up some mean weight. I think we started off with 225 then kept going up to 285. Tough but I wasn't worried about the weights.

Then we start running. Everybody lines up like we're going to film a scene from "Chariots of Fire" and then we take off when Kristi says GO. To my surprise Bob is off like a racehorse with Derek in second. I might have been third. My buddy Josh was right behind me and the two gals were coming up from behind.

That was the first round. Let's skip to the fourth lap. Bob and Lori and I were last. Derek was first of course. But surprisingly my friend Josh came in before me. Not that Josh is out of shape, but he's a thick guy that hasn't been doing Crossfit as long as I have. But good for him. Bastard.

They averaged out all four of my times for each lap and I think I had a 1:37. Josh had 1:24 or something like that. We were blown out.

Now, about this time I would end this blog but I need to keep going beyond this workout to tell you a related story about the aftermath of  this run. I got invited to a fundraiser in Paia and invited Josh to check it out with me. Anuhea was playing, there was a bikini fashion show, the works. Josh and I are both on the Whole 30 diet and we still have 17 days to go before we can drink alcohol but it was still fun to check out.

Except at some point Josh ends up resting in his truck. In the middle of the girls with bikinis struttin their stuff on stage. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "Brah, that run killed me. My legs are f--ked up."

See, that's what you get for trying to beat my time. Next time run slower. Hahahahahahha.

Pain can be funny, especially if it's not yours

Today was a cool little workout, quick, tough yet not leaving me with a bunch of sore muscles. We threw up some shoulder presses for strength and I did 3 sets of 3 reps of 95, 115 and 135. Not bad. Then we did push ups and pullups for asending and descending reps of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I had a time of 6:54. Again, not bad. And I only used the rubber band after I hit the 7 rep mark and was descending in reps. It's getting there.

But the real fun came afterwards when Oran, our 9 a.m. trainer suggested we stretch out. I was there with Josh, a friend of mine who I introduced Raw Fitness Maui to last week. He was an all star football player in high school, played a year of division 2 college ball, and held all the powerlifting records too. But that was a long time ago. Now he's 33 and like me, a fat ass.

So Oran gives us these foam "rollers". They're about two inches in circumfrence and maybe two feet long. What you do is you put these on the ground and "roll" on them with your body at various angles to stretch things out. And let me tell you, some of those stretches are brutal for the first time.

For me today I had a tight spot right behind my armpit on the right side which I managed to get rid of with the roller after about 5 minutes of pain. Josh however has never done these before.

Yes, I know. I find joy in evil things sometimes.

So Oran has Josh roll everywhere, on his back, his thighs, his ass, everything. All I hear are screams. It's like Nightmare on Elm Street except he's not dreaming. "ARGHHHHHHHH!!!" is all I hear and I can't stop laughing. I laughed so hard I had a cramp in my abs and had to use the roller to get it out.

Oh man that was funny. Plus it was good to work out under Oran's supervision again. He used to watch me like a hawk to make sure I was doing all the powerlifting techniques right and didn't let me put on any weight until I did. Then he switched from the afternoon classes to the morning and today I found out why. He's a police officer and he had his shift changed. Also explains why he watched us so dilligently during our workouts. He's a cop! He's used to busting people! Right on Officer Oran, keep up the good work.

And thanks for making Josh stretch and giving me some entertainment this morning. It's a great way to start the day.

Something is off, or I'm getting stronger

Tonight we did legs, legs and more legs. I hate legs. You walk with them all day anyway, why make them do more work?

But work is what we do at Raw Fitness Maui. And so yes, I squatted three sets of 135, 165 and 180. Then we did four rounds of a full minute of throwing the medicine ball against the wall and then jumping rope for another minute. It was tiring.

And yet, I don't feel the pain I used to during these workouts. I tried to push myself and used the 20 pound medicine ball but I still didn't get that painful feeling. What's wrong with me? I did about 79 wall balls total, then maybe 130 or so jumps on the jump rope. Granted I didn't do double unders but those are impossible right now for me to do in any sort of sequence above "2".

I think it's safe to say that I'm going to have to push the limits even more at the workouts. I might even consider doing MMA in the morning AND Crossfit in the evening. What's that you say? Impossible? Foolish even?

Yeah, I thought so too. But my body is getting used to these evening workouts. It's almost as if it's not enough. So it's either MMA in the mornings or I buy a surfboard and start longboarding again.

OR . . . I could just keep pushing at Crossfit. I'm really not reaching the pinnacles of pain that I am capable of. I was doing about 20 wall balls per minute but maybe I should have been pushing for 30. And I should have tried more double unders.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Okay, now that the serious stuff is out of the way I have to rip on a fellow Crossfit member. I feel bad about it because he's a really nice guy, my cousin's husband Bob. Today he was doing his jump rope part of the workout and was doing some 80's Flashdance routine with high knee steps. I kept watching him and hearing the lyrics "She's a maniac, maniac on the floor" in my head. Plus he had on an old mesh tank top that was probably last worn in the movie "Breakin" by Ozone. It was a trip. Our trainers didn't know what was going on.

But you know, Bob has been training hard and he kicks my ass during the runs. That's all that counts. Don't worry, I know it's funnier when I rip on myself, but I just had to say something about that tonight. We love ya Bob.

Please can I lift more weight than Kehau?

Why do you mock me oh Crossfit gods? I train and train and train and yet the women at my gym still out run me out lift me and just humble me. But let us backtrack so you understand fully.

I was really looking forward to yesterday's workout, which was five reps of shoulder overhead presses followed by 10 burpees for five rounds. Yeah, I know, I said I was LOOKING FORWARD TO IT, as in, "Oh I can't wait to do this." I know, I'm sick in the head. Or getting stronger. Take your pick.

But I was thinking I can pretty much do more weight than almost anyone else in the gym, if it's a straight lifting contest and we're not running laps or doing squats or something mental like that. Burpees are tough but ten of them at a time are reasonable.

Anyway I get to the gym and experiment with weight. First I try 135. Kinda heavy. I'm thinking, am I going to be able to do 5 sets of 5? I have my doubts. So I switch to 115. Okay, cool. Not bad. I'll do this.

So we do our strength routine - which was bench and I lifted 135, 185 and another 185 - and get ready for the second workout. I slap on the 115 and see that Kehau, aka Wonder Girl has slapped on the same weight. Sigh.

I guess I coulda slapped on the 45's at that point but I had already given my racks to my friend Josh and was going to be power cleaning my 115 off the floor. I knew sure as hell I wouldn't be cleaning 135 off the floor for five rounds so I stayed at my weight. F--king Kehau, I don't usually use this word to describe women, but she's a STUD. She freaking pressed that 115 like a champ. I had the best time for our group, 7:08, but since she was doing my same weight it almost felt like a false time. I SUCK!!!

Nah, I know I've come a long way but if you are a competitive guy you can't help but want to blow everyone else out of the water. Eventually. But I gotta say as humbling as it is it's cool to say you work out at a gym which is so intense that the chicks kick your ass. Oh and I didn't mention that Frank, aka the Beastmaster is back. Keahu's husband of course. A tall surfer guy that lifts more than anyone else at the gym. He did 165 lbs I think. Brah. That's all I can say. Brah.

115. Pagh. That's it, whatever weight Kehau is doing I'm doing at least 20 pounds more. Or ten. At least 5 pounds more for sure. Ga-run-tee.

ps - the diet is going well I think. I had salad 8 times yesterday though and it's been tough going #2 all of a sudden. Should I be concerned? Also, what does Paleo say about eating pot roast at 2 a.m.? It's protein right? Stay tuned.

Hunger

So I'm on this Paleo diet thing and I am hungry. I just ate a mix of zuchinni, eggplant, onions and spam. Does spam count as protein? I know the cavemen couldn't hunt for the wild spam beast but they ate the same parts that spam comes from. I actually don't know if this is a Paleo legal meat like substance but damn it I can't just eat vegetables tonight.

I am hungry. My hunger is so great if I was a zombie I wouldn't be walking slowly towards you, I would be running like a freaking track star and would jump on your back from twenty feet away. You get it?

I AM HUNGRY. I feel like killing a cow and pouring hot sauce on it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Oh yeah, I worked out tonight too. Run 400 meters then come back and power clean as much as you can, all within 3 minutes. You get to rest for a minute and a half then do it all over again. Then again. Yes, three rounds. I power cleaned about 95 pounds, that's 25 pounds on each side of a 45 pound bar. Not bad.

That and I wasn't as tired tonight. It's beginning to suck less folks. It's still hard but not as hard. Gotta keep pushing though. I was watching guys power clean hundreds of pounds on youtube and was wondering if I'd ever get to that point. At least I beat Kenna the high school wrestler while during the 400 meter runs tonight, that's something. Did I mention Kenna's a girl? I'll take any win I can right now.

Hey, tomorrow is MMA day. Wish me luck. PEACE.

12:36

That's how long it took to do a strange combination of lunges, pullups and situps tonight. The rep count was 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and 3 for the pullups and situps BUT, you also had to do 20 lunges to start off each round. And the lunge count stayed the same, always 20.

The lunges were tough but my legs weren't totally exhausted. In fact I jumped out ahead of the pack in the beginning. I started to fall behind because I couldn't rep out those pullups though. But that crazy swinging technique is starting to get easier. Hopefully I'll be able to crank out 20 at a time at some point like the other guys.

It's getting better guys. Definitely. I also started the Paleo diet yesterday on November 1st. It's only day 2 and it's not bad so far. The worst part for me is just being paranoid about everything I'm eating. I'm constantly reading labels and looking for sugar. I was at iHop (wait, before you start saying it isn't healthy) and ordered the healthy omlet with spinich and mushrooms and grilled chicken and no cheese. There's too much sugar in ketchup for me to use but thank God for salsa. In fact I think salsa is my new friend. And tabasco. Freaking using tabasco on everything now.

And I don't miss drinking milk but damn, I never realized how much cheese is in everything. Even on some of the salads that I wanted to order. So far so good though. As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Failure IS an option

Today was the first 9 a.m. weekday class I went to at Raw Maui Fitness, mainly because I have to catch a flight this afternoon and won't be able to go to the 5 p.m. class. It was me, Jun and Mary, who is crazy fit. I think she was lifting more weight than me on the push press. Damn.

Anyway today's workout was 21, 15 and 9 reps of kettlebell swings, pullups and box jumps. My time was 7:36 or something like that. (If anyone sees my time on the board and it's NOT 7:36 let me know). Which was kinda odd because our trainer Kristi said usually it takes 10 minutes and I know I haven't improved THAT much.

Well, it turns out my pullups were too damn easy. I was using the green rubber band to assist while Mary was using the skinner purple band. Shoot. Okay next time I use the blue band at least.

BUT . . . I am proud to say I almost killed myself trying to box jump the 24 inch box today. I was trying to push it and managed to crank out 6 when I didn't clear the top and almost ate it. But hey, I tried. That's when I realized failure is fine as long as it's while you are reaching for something beyond your grasp. Next time I'll  do at least 10 of the 24 inch box jumps and then pretty soon it'll be for the whole workout.

So, 24 inch box jump attempts good, sissy green rubber band pullups bad. And I should have probably increased the weight of my kettleball too.

I'm getting there folks. It's comin. In the meantime have a safe and fun Halloween because I am done working out and blogging this week. Five days in a row is enough for me. Can't wait to start again on Monday. Then again maybe I'll check out Hardass Crossfit on Oahu while I'm there this weekend. Hmmmm . . .

Back to Elite Fitness

So when I started this blog I promised a comparison between Crossfit and MMA style training. Except I've only gone to the MMA gym (Elite Fitness) a couple of times while I have been religiously going to Crossfit.

There's a couple of reasons for that, one is when I don't go to Crossfit it's like I fall back and gotta start all over again. Two is that Elite Fitness is kinda out of the way in Waikapu.

Anyway, I promised myself that I would go today to the 10 a.m. MMA cardio class. And I did. And let me tell you, it is a short but intense workout. First we ran around the mat, did footwork and squats and these crazy lunge things that I can't even explain. You get down on one knee and drag the foot from the other leg across the floor. Tough as hell. Throw in some burpees and clapping pushups and I was sweating like crazy.

Ernest is the MMA cardio trainer and it's different every time I go there. Last time we were slamming sledgehammers into giant tires and this time we were doing kicking and punching drills. Thank God I have some martial arts training in karate because I would have sucked at this otherwise. As it was I didn't have the footwork that the other guys had. Plus it's obvious that my right leg is the only one I ever threw kicks with. My left couldn't break a chopstick.

The two workouts are similar as far as being short and intense and have you dripping with sweat the whole way through. But both have different goals. MMA is preparing you for the ring of course, trying to punish your body so that you have stamina to go round after round. Crossfit is just a great all around workout trying to give you functional strength for everyday life. I can see an MMA fighter doing Crossfit to improve his conditioning (and I hear some do) but I can't see a Crossfit athelete doing MMA stuff for some reason. I mean, you wouldn't need to know how to throw a right hook during the Crossfit Games or anything like that.

However Raw Fitness Maui does reccomend that sports be a part of your life, so why not have MMA fill that void? Bump plays soccer regularly and told me he was doing judo until he blew his knee out so me doing MMA stuff doesn't seem that far off base. I'd like to start longboarding again too, not that I ever did it regularly but just to get out in the water on a regular basis would be great.

Man, one more workout tomorrow at Crossfit then I'm done for the week. Hopefully I can keep this routine up. See you tomorrow folks.

6:22

Can you remember that? Six minutes and 22 seconds. That was my time tonight for our workout of the day. That's how long it took me to do four rounds of 5 pushups, 5 renegade rows (per each side) 5 deadlifts, 5 cleans, 5 squats and 5 push presses all with 40 pound dumbbells.

It was tough but I like weights. Weights make me happy. Cardio not so much. That's why this blog is called, "I hate cardio".

Also today I promised Coach Bumper to start recording my times. Everyone else that works out at Raw Fitness Maui has a notebook where they write down their workout and their times. That way you can look back and say, "Hey look, I sucked less at this workout today than I did three weeks ago. Right on."

Actually it is a useful tool and I should do that. But I have this blog and why not keep my times on here? So when you see this WOD - 6:22 it means Workout of the Day - six minutes and 22 seconds.

6:22. Remember that time. The next time we do this crazy dumbbell marathon I expect to either slash that by a full minute or increase my weights to 50 pound dumbbells.
Yeah you heard it here first. Rod is starting to push the envelope, take it to the next level, go the distance or whatever they say when you're ready to get serious.

Because today I noticed that some of my chin fat was disappearing. WHAT? That's right bitches.

I used to be a tv news reporter and CHIN FAT is the enemy folks. Why you ask? Well if your face gets fat then you look like $hit because that's usually all people see on tv right?

I got out of tv long before my chin fat started to grow and moved to print news but it was still depressing to think that if I ever decided to go back to tv I would look 100 times fatter than I used to.

But now I see there is hope. It is October 27, 2010 and my time today was 6:22.

What's yours?

Running scared

Tonight was a straight up cardio blast. Running and sit-ups. Specifically run 400 meters and then come back and do 20 situps. You had to accomplish this feat within 3 minutes over an 18 minute period. That's 6 rounds of this cr@p.

Now, 18 workouts ago I might have been coughing up a lung. But I've actually improved a bit so I didn't do too badly. Lori was running way ahead of the pack and she tried to say she was going to fail before the workout started. "Oh I'm sick, I've got stuff in my throat, you're going to run way past me" blah blah blah blah.

Well Lori is the typical humble local girl with legs of steel. Former track girl, long jump and sprints and all that. Anyway, running is NOT a weak point for her. Maybe I can beat her at military press but freaking A that girl can take off running so I knew for all her complaining she was going to blast past everyone. Could she have run faster if she was completely healthy? Sure, but she still beat everyone. I just like thinking about stuff like that as she blows past me on every lap. Makes me feel better about coming in second.

Oh by the way, I promised Coach Kikuchi that I would tell everyone that I'm actually IMPROVING my physical condition while working at Raw Fitness Maui. He's afraid that my blog makes it look like I just get beat up every workout. I DO get beat up on every workout but in all honesty it hurts less and less every time. Progress right? You know it.

By the way, someone figure out what 40 percent of 190 pounds is. I hate math and I need to figure out which dumbbells to use to hurt myself with for tomorrow's workout. Oh joy.

Get a grip

Today I heard some good news. Kehau, the female workout machine at Raw Fitness Maui, said when she first started working out she couldn't even do a pushup. Now she cranks out dips on the rings. What rings? Those gymnastics rings that you see in the olympics. Yes, that's right folks, at RFM they want you do do ring dips. They ain't easy.

Except Kehau manages to crank out sets of 15, 12 and 9. The whole workout was dumbbell hang cleans, knees to elbows and ring dips for 15, 12 and 9 reps and I think I did mine in 9 minutes. Probably more and not less. But I didn't do the ring dips, in fact nobody did ring dips except for Kehau. I don't want to make excuses but I think I'd be able to stabilize myself if I hadn't had that pec tear earlier this year. But I can still crank out regular dips so at least there's that.

And yes I wore underwear today. Or as Kristi asked, "Are you in uniform today Rod?" Yes, don't be afraid, the children will not go blind.

So I got this week and then it's the start of the Paleo diet on November 1st. Thirty days of natural foods and no processed stuff like sugar and pasta and all that. The tough part is going to be no dairy. I loves me some ice cream. And beer. Damn it. But it'll be nice to see the muscles under my gut again. I might even have the nerve to post some shirtless pics. Gotta bring the sexy back you know.

By the way, I apologize if some of you just threw up in your mouth after reading that last line. I know I did. But I do plan on going through with this 30 day Paleo diet. But first let's get through this week.

Commando squats (or, why you should wear underwear when you workout)

It was my last blog I believe when I promised you more hilarity to my workout stories.

God has answered my prayers, for today I ripped my workout shorts.

And no, I was not wearing underwear.

Let's start from the beginning.

Today was a nice mix of a 400 meter run, followed by 15 overhead squats, for three rounds. Not too bad right? My muscles were ready, however my shorts weren't. They were cheap K-Mart workout shorts that I think I got for $8 earlier this summer and when I squatted down too far today they split during our warm up.

It was so loud everybody heard it and I jumped up and turned around so that the two females in the gym, Kristi and Kenna (who is only in high school), weren't flashed. I felt my backside and the rip went from . . .
well let's just say everything was exposed.
Yes, it was bad. I was imagining doing the run and cars behind me crashing as they glimpsed a view that should not be viewed in public. Or flashing Kenna and then having her parents filing a restraining order against me.

Luckily someone left a towel at the gym. Unfortunately it was a child's Power Ranger towel that barely wrapped around my waist. Still, it was long enough to block everything so I went for it. Hell, I've been writing about pregnant women and one armed gimps doing this workout so I can't let a little clothing malfunction do me in right? Yeah, didn't think so.

I was last behind Bob and Kenna but I powered through the squats better than I did before. My legs are getting stronger I think because the last time I needed to keep resting. Then again everytime I squatted I could see parts of myself sticking out in the mirror, so I think that had something to do with my increased motivation to finish. My running needs improvement but hopefully that happens over time.

Now I must wash this towel, as there is sweat on it from areas of my body that no child should ever come into contact with. There are several lessons to be learned from this story, which I shall list below:

1) Wear underwear
2) Do not buy cheap workout shorts
3) Bring your own adult sized towel everywhere you go, just in case

Have a good weekend gang,

Rod

Pistol whipped

So back in high school I took a Shotokan karate class for a year. We used to meet in the Paia Community Center and practice for an hour. Before practice we would stretch and warm up, with one of  those warm ups being one legged squats. Yeah. You stick one leg out, squat down on one leg and then come back up. I used to be able to do 10 on each side no problem.

Welllllllll, that was a long time ago. Try more than 20 years. Today at Raw Fitness Maui we brought those suckers back although now I hear the official name for that one legged squat is to do a "pistol." Mainly because you feel like shooting yourself afterwards.

So now when I do pistols I fall back on my ass once my I squat past my knee. The whole workout was 5 handstand pushups, 10 pistols (5 on each side) and 15 pull ups for as many rounds as you can handle in 10 minutes. I did 5 rounds and was about to hit the pull ups on the 6th when time ran out. Not bad. Of course I had to put a wooden box under me while doing the pistols but I didn't feel so bad. I don't think anyone did those unassisted. Even our trainers. You need some king sized quads to handle those babies.

And once again the handstand pushups saved my ass. I can crank out about 12 to 15 of those at a time so five is minor. Here's the proof:

Also congrats to Bob, my cousin's husband who I talked into becoming a believer in RMF. He finally joined the regular workout crew (he was having personal training sessions before this to get himself ready) and he tore it up. Go Bob!!!

The workouts are getting less hilarious I know, sorry guys. Don't worry, I sense there will be more humiliating workouts ahead so stay tuned. Promise.

Damn it, I'm going to have to start pushing myself

It might have been the workout or it might have been me, but yesterday was a bit too easy.

Yeah, easy. A word I'm not used to using when speaking about hitting the gym at Raw Fitness Maui. But it was.

We had 10 minutes to do 12, 9, 6, and 3 reps of deadlifts and pushups. I did about 185 lbs for the deadlift but only did regular pushups. Everybody else did the clapping sort. I thought I was being smart because my tri's were still sore from Wednesday's workout but at then end of it I wasn't even breathing hard.

And I don't think it was because I'm in shape yet. Gotta keep this blog honest ya know? It was a very stationary workout so I wasn't getting winded and it played to my strengths.

So why didn't I do the clapping? You know,  I guess I'm so used to scaling down my workouts from everybody else that I figured I couldn't do it. But afterwards I tried 12 clapping pushups and it wasn't hard at all. Yeah it took longer than the regular pushups but it wasn't bad.

So I think I'm at the point where I'm going to have to really think about my limits and what my physical capabilities are. RFM is defnitely a technique first kind of gym but it's also a go harder, faster, stronger place too. I guess I'll try to figure this out on Monday's workout.

Also folks, I know this was supposed to be a blog about two gyms and two workouts but damn, trying to squeeze it in is tough. I feel like if I don't go to Crossfit I'll fall behind everyone else (even more so than I am already) whereas Elite Fitness doesn't really have that sort of competition. Then again I haven't been in the ring with anyone so I could be wrong about that. But their MMA conditioning class is great and I really like doing it on Thursdays. It's just I'm so sore after three days of Crossfit that I really need the Thursday rest day or else Friday will be hellish. I don't know, maybe I should skip the Friday workout and do Saturdays. I gotta think about it.

On another note I've been trying to diet as well. The Paleo diet is very popular at RFM and one of our members Derek has lost a ton of weight on their 30 day plan. Guy used to look like the round mound of rebound and now he's lean and mean. Pretty insane stuff. It's basically the paleolithic diet that the cavemen were supposed to have been eating. Nothing processsed, meat, fish, chicken, fruits, vegetables, no dairy and some other rules. I've been trying to follow the diet but I've been cheating here and there. I'd say I'm 75 percent paleo right now. Fruit, chicken, meat and vegetables but I've been having some dairy here and there. I think I'm going to do the 30 day plan November 1st. Here's the link to the paleo diet website: http://www.paleodiet.com/

Wish me luck gang.

finally, an all upper body workout

Today's workout consisted of 12 push presses and 12 dips for as many rounds as you can handle in 10 minutes.

As we used to say back in high school, "Crackahz." No really, I actually mean it.

I know I whine a lot after these workouts but that's because my lower body has been untrained for 38 years unless you count the kicks I've thrown in several years of Shotokan karate. Anyway, it's a hell of a lot easier for me to push my upper body than it is my lower body. I've been lifting weights since I was 16 but it was all bench and curls and military press. You know, big muscles for the beach kind of thing. It's only now that I'm doing this olympic powerlifting hell that is Crossfit that my legs are learning all sorts of painful lessons that I didn't learn back in high school.

But throwing weight up with my upper body? Yeah, that's something I'm used to. I cranked out six full rounds plus 8 push press reps today. Usually I don't make it past four rounds so today was definitely a good day.

I haven't told anyone this yet but I want to compete in the Crossfit games one day. Maybe on the national level. That and I want to run the Kona Ironman at least once. A buddy of mine said recently that he realized once men pass a certain age, there is no such thing as "maintenance" workouts anymore. When you're younger you can get away with putting in a certain amount of excercise and still look and feel good. You don't have to have any goals, nothing to aim for. Just walk into the gym at least twice a week and throw some weight around.

Well that $hit doesn't cut it anymore apparently. I've got no choice if I want to stay in shape. Either I get stronger and faster or I get weaker and lazier. I really believe there's nothing in between once you get older than 35. So why not keep moving forward? Sounds better than having your physical well being slowly disintergrate as time passes by.

Why am I thinking about this? Well, mainly because I had a good day today. Everything seems possible after a good day. Does for me at least. I'm thinking no rest day tomorrow. Time to hit up Elite Fitness again and see if I can handle another round of MMA cardio conditioning. Hoo-rah.

training for the zombie apocalypse, or how I let a one armed guy beat me today

Yes, it's true. First a 5 month pregnant lady kicks my ass at a Crossfit workout. Then a 12 year old boy. And now Derek the Wonder Gimp with one arm laps me by a mile.

Today the workout sucked so bad only three of us showed up. Derek the beforementioned gimp, Kevin the minicardio machine and yours truly. The task before us was to run 400 meters then squat 50 times for four rounds.

In case you suck at math that's a total of 1600 meters and 200 squats. My quads were already crying when I read the workout online the night before.

To motivate us Bump said to imagine as if we were training for the zombie apocalypse and needed to have our stamina up in order to avoid the legions of the undead. It kind of pumped me up. For the first 400 meter run that is. By the time I counted my last squat I was praying that the zombies would catch me because I would have told them to eat my legs first to stop the pain.

I came in last of course, after Gimp boy. Derek has been going hard core and I suspect him to be smoking meth before coming to our workouts. At least that's my excuse for him beating me today. It can't be because he's in better shape than me right? Maybe I should stop drinking at noon, it could be affecting my performance.

it's all about technique, of which I have none

So today I learned I could possibly have a slipped disk in my back. Or just really really inflexible. Take your pick.

We were doing  High hang cleans at Raw Fitness Maui today and I just couldn't get the movement right. There were like three trainers surrounding me trying to give me pointers but I just wasn't getting it.

Then to top it all off I kept having to stop and stretching because my lower back was getting tight. Kristi, one of the gym owners, was concerned because I seem to have a tight back a lot during workouts. I told her I just thought it meant I was out of shape. She seemed to think it might mean I have a slipped disk and should see a doctor about it. Nice.

By the way I think I should mention that I already hate tomorrow's workout. Run 400 meters then do 50 squats for four rounds. It. Will. Suck.

Thrusters, pull-ups and double unders, oh my

So my last blog talked about handstand push-ups and how I love them. Well true to form on Friday the Raw Fitness Maui workout included three of my most hated enemies. Thrusters, pull-ups and double unders. Damn them.

Thrusters are bad enough and no, it is not a Kama Sutra move. Think squat plus overhead press. It basically punishes your legs until they're worthless pieces of spaghetti noodle. Then there's the pull-ups. In college an old workout buddy and I used to do weighted pull-ups. And just earlier this year I used to be able to crank out 12 but ever since my pec tear I can only do 8.  But at RFM all the girls there can rip 'em out like nothing. Okay, sorry, I meant WOMEN. It's very humbling.

And double unders are a jump rope technique where you get that rope under your feet twice on one jump. I can do 3 in a row but the workout called for reps of 12. That's right, 12 thrusters, 12 pull-ups and 12 double unders. For four sets. I did it but I just couldn't do all 12 reps for all of the thruster sets. My legs were cabbage after the first one.

No Crossfit today. Well, there is a Saturday class but I've got some work to catch up on. I'll probably go for a run on the beach and then attempt swimming a bit in the ocean at some point. I need to buy a long board. Anyone got one for sale?

Damn burpees

I like upside down pushups. I am actually a stud at upside down pushups. When I was 17 I broke my arm and had to rehab myself doing upsidedown  pushups.

Get the picture? And today for Crossfit we were doing upside down pushups.

Granted it was 3 upside down pushups, 5 deadlifts and 10 burpees for as many rounds as you could in 10 minutes.. Still, it was so easy I almost felt bad for everyone else.

Except, while I ripped through the first two I SUCKED at burpees. Basically after 5 rounds I looked like a jumping platypus.

If It was a straight up upside down pushup workout I would have kicked ass. If it was a deadlift contest I would have kicked ass. But throw in those damn burpees and I was mortal like everyone else. It's always something I tell you.

Anyway, tomorrow is MMA conditioning day. Stay tuned.

Let's talk about Tito

Sometimes when kids tell you want they want to be when they grow up you smile and say, "that's nice", but inside you think, "An astronaut? Yeah right kid." Well, there's a 12-year-old boy who works out at my gym that I don't doubt for a second when he says he wants to become a professional UFC fighter. His real name is Thomas but everyone calls him "Tito."

Tito doin his thang in the gym

So to cut to the chase, Tito kicks ass. He runs faster, jumps higher and just blows the doors off of every workout we have. I hear he takes jujitsu and if so I feel sorry for the other kids in the class. He must twist them into pretzels.

So today was another standout Tito moment. The first part of our workout was upside down handstands. Basically you just throw your legs up against the wall and try to hold your self upside down for as long as you can. I did a minute and five seconds. My other two partners Kats and Derek went for a minute 20 and a minute 46 respectively I think.

Then there was Tito. He went for two minutes and more. I forget how much but he kicked all of our asses. Good for him. I actually got mad at the boy the first time I worked out next to him because he was jumping around like a jackrabbit and I was going into cardiac arrest. But honestly the kid is an inspiration. Hopefully I can get my little boy conditioned like him. (Not that I want him to become a UFC fighter but you know that I mean.)

Anyway, that was the first part of the workout. The second part was five rounds, count 'em FIVE rounds of 30 situps, 20 box jumps and 10 pullups.

And I did the whole thing. No skipping reps. I came in last but damn it felt good to finish the whole workout without having to make any modifications. Today felt good. Time for a beer.

Be careful what you wish for

On Friday I complained about how I had to scale back the workout and do a lesser version of what everyone else was doing. Today I did the full workout but was wishing I could give up at the same time. Of course Bumper the gym owner and head torturer felt the need to take pics of my pain. Thanks Bump.

Actually the Raw Fitness Maui workout wasn't too bad, three rounds of 10 reps of front squat followed by a 400 meter run. I repped out the first 10 reps pretty quickly but then totally lagged during my run. By the last round I was the last guy out of four running back to the gym. My legs were okay and not too fatigued but my lower back was killing me. That sort of made everything stiff and I felt like the Tin Man trying to run.

But at least I didn't rerack my weights like I wanted to in the middle of my set. A small victory I guess but I'll take any kind of a win I can get right now. Yay. Hopefully tomorrow I get to write about how I set a new record but somehow I feel that post won't be written until 2011 at least.

My injury

Since today is a rest day I'll take this time to tell you about my injury earlier this year. Basically I tore my right pectoral by being stupid. What happened was I had been doing Crossfit at our gym in Albuquerque but it wasn't a Crossfit class. A friend of mine had introduced me to the http://www.crossfit.com/ website and we would copy down the workout for the day that was posted then do it at the gym. This was my first serious attempt at getting back to the gym after like 3 years or something like that. Anyway, my body was responding well to Crossfit and after like a month I felt better physically than I had in a long time. The only thing was, we didn't do a lot of benching, it was mostly push ups when it came to a chest workout. Well after a grueling Crossfit workout one day I figured I would get on the bench and put some weight up, just to see how much strength I had gotten back. So I warm up with 135 then slap on 185 next. No problems. So far so good. Then the real test of 225 comes and I rep that bastard like 12 times. Effortlessly. Right about now I'm thinking Crossfit has made my body invincible so I throw on 275, a weight I had not done in years. Mind you before this if I did a weight I couldn't lift I never got injured. It just meant I couldn't lift it and it would sit on my chest or shoulders until someone helped it off of me. So I had no fear while putting the weight on. Either I would lift it or I wouldn't. What I wasn't prepared for was that there was a third possibility. Pain.

While lifting the weight up I felt something explode in my right bicep. The pain was incredible and thank God one of my wife's coworkers also happened to be working out that day and was spotting me. I couldn't breathe and felt like I had to throw up. I was rolling around on the bench then on the floor. I was f---ed up.

Anyway, the next day I had bruises on my right bicep and right side of my ribcage. The doc said I tore my pec and unless I got surgery it would stay torn. He held up four fingers and said "this is what your pec muscles used to look like." Then he held up two fingers and said, "Now they look like this." Basically I ripped half of them. Great.

So now I take it slow when I bench of course. I've put up 225 again but I'm afraid to go any heavier. I posted a pic below of the bruising from back in March. The moral of  this story, take it slow and do it right. Some of these gym injuries are no joke.

Annoyed at gnats and angry at myself

If you've been outside on Maui in the last couple of days you might have noticed swarms of gnats flying around. Not like Biblical plague proportions where clouds of them block the sun or anything, but enough where if you're running and breathing hard you will inahle nine or ten of those buggahs.

Anyway, the gnats were annoying but not my biggest concern today. Today I had several other things on my mind when it came to my Friday fitness routine. These concerns were:

1) It was a bastard of a workout at Raw Fitness Maui
2) I had no recovery day because I chose to do the MMA conditioning class at Elite Fitness on Thursday
3) I am the weakest sister in the freaking class

Yeah, no joke. Here's why. Today at RFM we had one of those workouts where you look at what's listed on the board and wonder how fast your gym mates will dial 911 after you collapse. First thing I saw was a sequence of numbers, "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," followed by some even more frightening words, namely "hang power snatch", "overhead squats" and "ring dips."

Now what does this mean? It means you do 10 hang power snatches, 10, overhead squats and 10 ring dips. Then you do 9 hang power snatches, 9 overhead squats and 9 ring dips. You getting the picture?

Oh yeah, then you run 400 meters, which is fine. But when you come back you do everything in reverse sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

BUT what really really really sucked is I didn't do the listed workout. Nope. I had to scale it back to where I (1)  was just lifting the bar w/ no weights, (2) only did a 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, then a 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 sequence and (3) did regular dips instead of ring dips.

Of course gym owners Bumper and Kristi were totally on target when they suggested I scale it back because I almost died doing the lesser workout anyway. Even so, part of me WANTED to die while going for the complete workout. I was watching one of our members named Derek who went all out and I totally wished I could have been there with him. Instead I scaled it back. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . .

Ah well, I guess I really can't wait to write that blog about how I had the fastest time, lifted the most weight or did the most reps one day. It'll happen one day I guess. It's just that making slow but steady gains is hard for a guy with no patience.

The MMA Cane Spider

There's a mixed martial arts cardio class that I've been meaning to check out at Elite Fitness and today was the only day I could do go. It kinda sucks because Thursday is usually our rest day for Crossfit and if I know Bumper, he'll have an evil workout planned for tomorrow.

But I got this website now so every day I don't write something I feel like I'm cheating the 3 people who read it. And I can't write something if I don't workout. So no recovery time for me today.

Anyway, I head over to Elite and Ernest is there setting up the stations for the class. Ernest is about six feet tall and maybe 235 pounds. He's got a tattoos all over his back and shoulders and his arms look like he could rip out a Banyan tree if he wanted to.

I ask him about the cardio class and he shows me how it works. There's seven stations and at each station you workout for 30 seconds then go to the next one. This goes on for 3 rounds. The workout goes like this: elevated pushups, box jumps, flipping a very large tire across the floor, jumping sideways over three stretched out ropes, deadlifts, hitting another tire with a sledgehammer, then MMA burpees.

What are MMA burpees you ask? Well, as you know a regular burpee is basically dropping into a push up then jumping back up. The MMA burpees have you dropping into a push up then springing back up and giving the heavy bag a 1, 2 punch (jab, cross combo).

You get the picture. Long story short, it was a f---ing tough workout. Also I have to point out that the Crossfit training I did saved my life. I would have been dead on the floor after the first round instead of just winded and sweating after three rounds. Also what helped was a cane spider that jumped out of the tire while I was flipping it. I was so intent on smashing the damn thing with the tire that I didn't realize I had flipped all the way across the gym. And for some reason the spider didn't run away, it was there every time I went back to the station. For all I know it was in training too. It does live in an MMA gym after all.

Anyway, after those three rounds we had three rounds of "light" weight training. Bench, shoulder press, shoulder laterals, bicep curls and pulldowns for 12 to 15 reps. The whole workout was about half an hour but I was drenched with sweat afterwards. And I can't believe I'm going to say this but I hope to God we run at Raw Fitness tomorrow. My body has no more strength to lift any more weights this week.

A pregnant lady kicked my ass tonight

Yup, you read that right. She out lifted and out jumped me by like a mile. It wasn't even close. I hate to guess as to how pregnant she was but it seemed like about 4 months? But I guess I should tell you what workout we were doing tonight first.

Down at the Raw Fitness Maui gym it was deadlifts for our strength workout, and then this crazy combination of clean and jerk followed up by box jumps. Basically you clean and jerk weights for as many reps as you can for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, then box jump for 30 seconds. Sounds a little tough right? Did I mention we have to do five rounds in 10 minutes? It's a beautiful thing.

Anyway there were some new people at the gym, a haole couple. The guy was in great shape and the girl was pregnant but still in great shape. They were in the first heat and went ballistic. You count how many total reps you did for the clean and jerk and box jumps at the end of each round and then add it all up. Like for me I did 2 clean and jerks each round followed up by about 10 box jumps so my total for all five rounds was like 60 reps. I know, it's like a little kid's total right? Anyway, the pregnant girl does like 5 clean and jerks each round followed up by at least 20 box jumps so she's got like 100 reps or something. Her husband was clean and jerking weights through the roof and box jumped like Q*bert on crack. I didn't even want to see what his total was. I kept expecting the girl to give birth right there and have her kid jump out and start power cleaning his umbilical cord. Sigh.

No blog tomorrow. It's a rest day for Crossfit and I was planning to go hit the MMA gym but I have to take my son to the Maui County Fair Parade.  I'll be back on Friday though. Stay tuned.

In the beginning

Guess I should tell you how this all started.

I was at my 20th high school reunion this summer (Maui High Sabers c/o 90) and ran into a classmate of mine by the name of Robert "Bumper" Kikuchi. In high school he was like the fastest guy on Maui so of course I expected him to be out of shape. Except he's not. In fact he has his own Crossfit gym and invites me to workout. No problem I think. I had a friend of mine introduce me to it earlier this year although I kinda got injured and had to stop. You just go to http://www.crossfit.com/ and follow whatever the workout is for that day, which is a pretty tough workout usually. Anyway I figure Bumper doesn't have anything new for me so I go check it out.

The place is nothing more than a garage with weights all around and ropes hanging from the ceiling. But he's got me sweating after a 3 minute warm up and then has me lying down on the ground and gasping for air over the next seven minutes. I couldn't believe it. We did something called thrusters and burpees back to back and I almost saw the bright light and went over to the other side. It was nuts.

Meanwhile I look around the gym and there are high school girls ripping through a more advanced workout than I just did. It was embarrassing. And painful. I was hooked.

Then a week later my cousin, an MMA ring girl here on Maui (yeah yeah I'll post her picture later) invite me out with one of her fighter friends, a Filipino guy by the name of Wally. Anyway after a couple of beers Wally invites my cousin and I both down to the gym where he trains for a workout. We go and check it out later that week. Basically my cousin and I were the only ones there without scary tattoos and large, calloused knuckles. But everybody was really friendly (yeah, I know, could have been because of my ring girl cousin) and the workout was fast and furious. Wally had me hitting the heavy bag with jabs and crosses, hooks and uppercuts. Then we worked on speed drills in the ring where I tried to hit the pads while moving around. Then we did something else that involved more punching and push-ups when we weren't punching. Then I asked if I could practice kicking just so I wouldn't have to punch anymore. If it were a real fight I would have gotten beaten down like Tina Turner. I was tired, blind from the sweat in my eyes and couldn't break a bubble with my jab. I liked it.

So now I had two gyms, two types of workouts to consider. I still hated cardio, but at least I was having fun now. Then this blog idea started to form in my head and here we are. I figured if I was going to try and kill myself while doing these workouts I might as well let everybody else in on the joke. Excuse me while I laugh and ice my knuckles.

Like I said, I hate cardio

Especially running. And aerobics. And Tai-bo. And Zumba. Especially Zumba. Looks great when girls do it though.

Anyway, like a lot of guys I lifted weights for years. It was like relaxing and working out at the same time. You sit down and lift. You stand in place and lift. You even get to lie down and lift. It's easy.

Then came my 30's. Then came kids. Then came busy schedules and tight budgets and no money for the gym.

Then one day you look in the mirror and say, "Who the hell is that guy?" with two chins and a belly sticking over your belt. At some point you either grab another beer and say what the hell or start figuring out ways to jump start your metabolism. And the only way to do that is to do some cardio, which, like I said before, I hate.

So I dabbled in P90X, tried one Insanity workout and decided watching a DVD at home wasn't for me. I tried running on the road and swimming at the beach but that was a bust too.

Then fate stepped in and introduced me to two types of workouts which got my cardio going and kept me coming back for more. So this blog is my own personal comparison of both while I go through the workout process.

First there's Crossfit. It's a form of excercise that as far as I can tell, wants to give you functional strength. What does that mean? Well for me it means not having sore legs when helping my friend move boxes upstairs. It also means not getting winded while snowboarding or just playing around in the park with my kids without telling them that daddy needs to rest for a while.

Here on Maui the good folks at Raw Fitness Maui (http://www.rawfitnessmaui.com/) have welcomed me into the fold. They powerlift, do a stupid amount of pull-ups and make me run. That's right, I like running when I workout with them. Why? Because after making me squat and do snatches and thrusters and other painful things I am very happy to run away from their weight room. They hurt me on a daily basis and I am happy about it. It's sick.

Then there's Elite Fitness, (formerly Peak Performance and their website is still called that (http://www.peakperformancemaui.com/), located in the hard to find Waikapu Industrial Center. What they put me through over there I like to call Fight Science Fitness. So far I've hit the heavy bag, practiced my footwork and cranked out push-ups like there's no tomorrow. There are some pretty good mixed martial arts fighters there who have been nice enough to take time out of their workout to show me how they get in shape. Granted, it's not their workout but it's good enough for a scrub like me. Those guys are nuts. The first time I worked out with them I came away with bloody knuckles and a sore back. But I was sweating like crazy so I knew it was a good thing.

So check out this blog if you like reading about how an out-of-shape writer in his late 30's hurt himself today. Along the way I'll introduce you to the coaches and other guys at the gym. And hopefully I get better at this website thing.

Anyway, here we go . . .