I wanted to post last night’s workout on here, mainly for my own reference, but also for anyone that happens to read this. My workout and fitness goals are not to have big “fluffy” muscles, I’m not out to look like a ballooned bodybuilder. I like to be able to scratch my own back. My goals are to have over all strength, endurance, speed, and agility. I have been into Mixed Martial Arts from way back before it was even called that. But in recent years it has been honed to a science and the fitness levels and workouts pro fighters use are, in my opinion, the best out there. What good are over sized biceps in a fight? Why spend 30 minutes doing an “isolated” exercise, when the 30 minutes could be spent doing over all conditioning and complex movements that work several large muscle groups that develop a more conditioned and stronger body?

I rarely ever do the same workouts twice. Since my workout space is limited, I have couple rooms in my basement that I workout in. I have my heavybag and 50lb barbell set up in the laundry room and in the other room I have 2 30lbs dumbbells, a 30lb barbell, kettlebell, stability ball and some tension bands. Weather permitting I go out side for some wind sprints up and down the block, jump rope in the driveway, overhead squats, or use the pull up tower. Three times a week I try to get some training in with the Grinnell College MMA club.

Here is just an example of a typical workout for me:

• Warm up with some jogging in place, jumping jacks or jump rope
• Bodyweight squats (hindu squats) 30-40 reps
• Pushups 30-40
• Sit up cluster: 100 alternating knees to elbows, 50 bicycles, 50 crunches
• Hindu pushups 25-30
• More hindu squats, as many as I can at this point
• Stability ball pushups 20 or so
• Upright rows 30lb barbell 20reps
• Alternating 30lb dumbbell curls to over head press 15-20 each arm
• Upright rows 30lb barbell 15reps
• Alternating 30lb dumbbell curls to over head press 10-15 each arm
• Upright rows 30lb barbell 10reps
• Alternating 30lb dumbbell curls to over head press 8-10 each arm
• Over head press with 30lb barbell 20reps, then 15, then 10
• Sit up cluster
• Side arm raises with the tension band, 20reps x 3
• Over head squats with small heavy bag (about 30lb I think) 20reps, 15, 10
• One arm snatch with kettlebell 10reps each arm x 3

I don’t like to take too much rest between sets or exercises, maybe 30 to 60 seconds. I will take more if I think I need it, but I like to keep moving. I also don’t do all of those each time, but I try to do most of those exercises. I only do that work out a couple times a week. The other days I’ll do either 30 min of Muay Thai on the heavy bag, Randy Couture’s, grappler’s set using the 50lb barbell, or I’m training with the Grinnell MMA club.

Most of those exercises are taken from Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning book. Some are from other books or web sites such as Crossfit.com or even just from watching pro fighters train. The workouts I do work for me and I have lost almost 20 lbs in the past year, I’m about 185lb now, and I feel great. Another thing is that I have made some big changes in my diet. I have drastically cut out gluten foods, dairy, and sugar. I still sometimes cheat and have pizza or a cookie, but for the most part I eat lots of salads, lean meats, fish, fruit and vegetables.

(photo by Zink Photography)

I had a Myspace profile for a couple years before I deleted it about a month or so ago. It just got too annoying with all the stupid bulletins, spammers and my own personal drama, which I don’t need to go into. So I had heard about Facebook and read that it was supposed to be the “smart persons” Myspace. So I created a profile there. But for me it seems to be too hard to find friends on there. I never graduated from a college, I don’t really have much of a social life within my network (Des Moines, IA). I tried adding some people from my gmail address book, which found a few people I knew, I even tried adding some people from work. I think I’m up to 13 friends? Most everyone I know is only on Myspace, sure Facebook has lots of third party add-ons that you can add to your page to interact with your Facebook friends, but if you don’t have many friends what good are they? I don’t want to just go around adding random people, that seems rather stalker-ish to me. I’ve always been in to music, movies and in the past few years MMA, and all that stuff and more is on Myspace.

Maybe I’m just not one of the “smart persons” that Facebook is made for.