OK, so since Coach B is no longer guiding me down the  unfamiliar path of Olympic and Power lifting, I kinda went into a freak out mode for a hot second.  I know TOO MUCH for my own good when it comes to working out sometimes.  I would walk into the gym, and by not having a plan, I’d kind of drift around and not feel like I accomplished anything upon leaving.  Since I started working with Coach B back in September, I noticed my strength improved tremendously, but my shape had kinda gone done the shitter as far as MY standards go.  I like to see more definition, but I also wanted to get stronger.  What a predicament…. LOL

I consulted with another bad-ass dude I know, who actually is co-owner of one of the many gyms I belong to.  We have come up with a  game plan for myself.  Coach B was NOT into ‘non-functional’ exercises, mostly those body builders would base their (my) life off of.  One time he walked into the gym early, and caught me doing chest flys on a cable machine, and basically read me the riot act for a good 5 minutes.  hahaha!  I never did another ‘non-functional’ exercise again until we stopped training together, because he was too ill before passing on.  Coach B’s theory was to not waste time “shaping” your muscles, but to use them in a kinetic chain, and do movements that were specific for your sport, job, or longevity.  I could understand where he was coming from, but at the same time, if I don’t have some obviously ripped arms, I tend to go on a pouting bender.

Now what I’m up to, on top of doing my brazilian jiu jitsu 4-5 days a week, is doing 20-30 mins of cardio FIRST thing before working out.  Kinda like how I used to do back in the day.  I used to religiously do 30-45 mins of cardio EVERY  DAMN MORNING no matter WHAT.  Up until about a year and a half ago, that’s what I did.  Even when I was sick, or detoxing off pain pills (that was a nightmare), I was in the gym doing cardio.  I couldn’t even THINK about lifting weights until I did my cardio.  I would always do my cardio on a machine too.  Typically a recumbent bike (waste of time), elliptical (bad for my back), or stair mill (only piece of machine I can bare to get on today).  Out here in Oz, there aren’t many places that have a stair mills, so I resort to using a treadmill and doing sprints as a last resort, if I can’t find somewhere to go outside.

Now, I’ll do 20-30 mins of interval training, where I’m 1 min on, and 2 min cooling down or 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off…. depends on what type of cardio I’m doing and what the weather is like outside.  Then, I’m splitting my “workouts” into 4 days, with 4 different styles of training.

One day I’ll do Olympic lifts.  Keep the reps 8-10 with 3 sets.  4 different exercises.
One day I’ll do a dynamic lifting workout.  Using kettlebells
One day I’ll do a “body sculpting” workout (aka body building)
One day I’ll do a power lifting workout.  Keeping the reps 3-5 and focusing on building/keeping my strength up.

Once I’ve got the workouts sorted out, I’ll make a video series showing how each day breaks down.