A great fitness excuse the “Birthday Challenge”

We shouldn't need any excuses to be fit but frequently having a goal helps by giving us a direction. A birthday challenge is a great way to keep motivation going – much better in my view than simply having a New Years Resolution. A birthday challenge gives you the goal not of completing something by your next birthday but ON your next birthday, the day of your birthday is the test day. Probably the most well known for this is Mark Madson with his wrestlers birthday challenge: your age in pull-ups, your age in dips, twice your age pushups, 2 climbs up a 16 foot pegboard, 1 true one arm pull up with each hand – all in 25 minutes.



He’s a bit of a showman but his physical abilities are very impressive. Other ideas for a challenge could be to do one of the “Girls” or “Heroes” workouts from Crossfit scaling the numbers for age and time: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#WOD0

Another great source is www.birthdaychallenge.com

Boxing day

Saturday 4/26

Roll Call: Tony, Mike

Warmup:

2x3min/1min Jumprope (last 30sec each round doubles)

2 rounds of 10 pullups, 3 ring dips, hip stretch, 10 squats, 10 roman chair situps, 10 back extensions

Footwork/Agility

30 sec rounds (continuous)

-single leg hop forward and back going across line (30sec right, 30sec left)

-single leg hop side to side going forward and back across line (30sec right, 30 sec left)

2min/1min rounds

-forward and back with jab

-side to side with jab

Defense Circuit 2 circuits of 3min/1min rounds

Maize ball

Slip Line

Swing heavy bag - practice maintaining distance

3 way Partner shoulder bump drill (close range hands up, both slip to inside touching left shoulders, then slip to outside touching right shoulders) - 2 times round robin, switch partner every 30sec

Glove Drills (3min/1min)

Jab - catch - return jab

Jab cross - catch then slip to inside

3 way Partner bob and weave drill (one holds left straight out - partner practices bob and weave under arm) - 2 tiems round roben, switch partner every 30 sec

Glove Drills (3min/1min)

Catch/block or bob and weave lead hook (2 rounds)

Finisher

Punch out drill

-3 person: 1 holds bag, 1 resting, 1 punching rotate each 30 seconds

-continuous hard punching for 30sec (mainly jab/cross)

-each person completes 5 total punching rounds (30sec punching, 1 min total rest each round)

Practice went smoothly today - weather was fairly good but cool enough and windy enough that we needed to keep the garage closed for the first hour. The Finisher was particularly tough today since we had all thrown so many jabs over the course of practice - starting at the 3 round the last 15 sec of punching was really tough on my left shoulder (no pain, just felt dead). Nerxt practice will be back to a focus on kickboxing/thai boxing.

The shoulder bump drill was added to reinforce body mechanics for the slip as well as provide practice for later infighting drill. The stationary arm bob and weave was done for a similar reason - helping reinforce body mechanics against a live target and building awareness of distance.

Thai Day

Tuesday night

Roll Call: Tony, Mike

Warmup:

2x3min/1min jump rope (last 30sec each round doubles)

2 rounds of - 10 pullups, 8 ring pushups, hip stretch, 10 squats, 10 GHD situps, 10 back extensions

Defense Circuit: 2 circuits 3min/1min

Maize ball

Slip line

Heavy bag - work on maintaining distance and circling

Shadow boxing:

2 x 3min/1min Front and Rear Thai round kick (working on full spin, keeping hip engaged)

2x3min/1min Front and rear Front Kick

Partner Drills:

2x3min/1min midline cover for Rear Thai Kick - cover and return Rear leg Thai Kick

2x3min/1min Lead Front kick defense (scoop to outside with lead hand)

Pads:

Rotation/round robin drill - one person holds, another kicks with rear leg and third kicks with lead leg - each round everyone moves clockwise. Rounds 1:30min, total rounds 3 (3min kicking for each person).

Finisher:

3 rounds

Heavy bag carry (bear hug) from garage to curb and back

5 knees to elbows on pullup bar

15 lumbar extensions

We moved through the workout at a good pace (about 1 hour 45 minutes total). Everyone was a bit tired to start and by the end very tired, if I'm any indication I can say I slept very well. Today was a bit rough, my back was sore for most of the day (it's fine now) and I was pretty fatiqued for the whole day. I'm thankfull that today is a rest day (at least from working out - still have to actually work).

Saturday we'll be focusing on boxing drills.

Evening Training - finally getting warmer out

In an effort to add more practice time we are trying to meet at least 1 night at week - this week it was Thursday 4/17 from 6-8pm. With the weather finally warming up we are able to keep the garage open and use the extra space outside for jump rope and box jumps. Next week the plan is to have 2 workouts - one Tuesday night and the other Saturday morning. We are much smoother at running through the warmup, agility and defensive drills so we can now start adding in more dynamic one on one drill.

Thursday's workout:

Roll Call: Tony, Mike

Warmup: 2 3min rounds of jumprope - last 30sec doubles

2 rounds of – 10 pullups, 3 ring dips, hip stretch, 10 situps, 10 squats, 10 lumbar extensions

Footwork Agility: 2min/30sec

Single leg hops over line

Forward and back w/lead jab

Side to side w/lead jab

Defense Circuit 3min/1min

Maize ball

Slip Line

Top and Bottom bag

Heavy Bag - maintaining distance with a swinging bag (in/out, circle, etc.)

Glove Drills 3min/1min

Jab-catch-jab

Jab - catch - return low or high jab

Finisher: 5 rounds of-

30sec squat cleans w/20lb ball

30sec box jumps 20" box

30 sec rope undulations (look at http://www.artofstrength.com/ if you are curious)

(post comments, suggestion or questions to "comments" below)

Some Really Cool Stuff

The Traveling Rings in Santa Monica – some people refer to it as gymnastics on crack.


Santa Monica Muscle Beach is well known for its tradition of physical culture and this is another element that many people haven’t seen (most of us only think of the bodybuilders or maybe the roller skaters/bladers along the beach). I can remember seeing these rings in a few movies and thought they’d be cool to try but I never dreamed of the kinds of things these people are able to do on them and they make it look easy (which it definitely isn’t). At the start of this video you may think its only men doing this crazy stuff – just wait.

Going Strong

Roll Call: Tony, Mike

Warm-up: 2x3min jump rope (last 30sec doubles)
2 rounds of – 10 pull ups, 3 ring dips, 10 squats, 10 sit-ups, 10 back extensions, hip stretch

Agility/Footwork 2min/30sec
Forward and back
Side to side
Forward crossover
Side crossover

Defense Circuit 2 circuits of 3min/1min
Maize ball
Top + Bottom bag
Heavy Bag

Bag Rounds 3min/1min
Jab- jab cross
Jab cross round kick – front and rear

“Quarter Gone Bad” 3 rounds
15 sec 75lb Thruster
45 sec rest
15 sec Pull ups
45 sec rest
15 sec Burpee’s
45 sec rest

Mike
Thruster 7, 6, 5
Pull ups 7, 6, 5
Burpee 6, 5, 4

Tony
Thruster 7, 6, 5
Pull ups 9, 6, 6
Burpee 4, 4, 4

Myself
Thruster 7, 6, 6
Pull ups 10, 10, 10
Burpee 5, 5, 5

Back to the cold again, there was actually a bit of snow coming down after the workout today. If all goes well we'll add an evening practice this week or next so stay tuned.

Back in action again Sat. 4/5

We’ve had a few starts and stops with training but I’m optimistic that the improving weather will help. We were finally able to open the garage on Saturday for training – actual fresh air is always nice. I was hoping to have some more pictures now that I’ve got a camera with a timer but the batteries died after this one picture.

Roll Call: Tony

Warm-up: 2x3min jump rope (last 30sec doubles)

2 rounds of – 10 pull ups, 3 ring dips, 10 squats, 10 sit-ups, 10 back extensions, hip stretch

Defense Circuit 2 circuits of 3min/1min

Maize ball

Top + Bottom bag

Heavy Bag

Slip Line

Stick Basics

Grip – basic blocks – single stick largo mano and mid range

Double stick – largo mano and heaven six

“Fight Gone Bad”

1 minute rounds – ran through 2 times

• 20lb wall ball


• 54lb Sumo deadlift high pull


• 12” box jumps


• 75lb push press


• Jump rope


• Rest 1 min

As you can see we've added some basic stick drills into our usual mix of boxing and thai boxing and I'm hoping to start some groundfighting as soon as it gets a little warmer,