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.