No Rules Training

Since I’m trying to fit my strength workouts and my martial arts training in on the same days (so I can rest on the other days), I’m experimenting with early morning strength sessions on tuesdays and thursdays.  

Today’s workout started at 4:15 am, and to put it lightly was done by sheer force of will. Over the past few years I have become more of a morning person, but that usually means sipping on coffee, eating breakfast, writing, or surfing the net…not picking up weights and putting them overhead.

My reasoning behind getting the workouts done early in the day is so that I’ll have a little bit more time and “mental energy” left in the afternoon to either get other things done or just simply take a nap (something I’m trying to do more in 2010). We’ll see…

So anyway, I had a cup of coffee, downed a scoop of metabolic drive in water and went at it

Warm Up:

10 sumo deadlifts

5 goblet squats (w/curl in bottom position)

5 bootstrapper squats

1 half get up progression (l&r)

a1) clean and press ladders: 4×1,2

a2) pull up ladders: 4×1,2

b) swings: 5 minutes (15 on the minute x 5 = 75 total swings)

I’ll be doing some foam rolling and the 12 minute Eischens Yoga routine at some point during the day.

Also, last night I taught what I thought a pretty good boxing and muay thai  class (as I do every monday at http://www.imbct.com) and because of the odd number of the people, I was actually able to participate. Really, nothing beats when you’re training with basically a bunch of your friends and having a blast doing it. The room was packed and the atmosphere was that of just a love for martial arts and the process involved for learning. I’m reading Born to Run right now by Chris McDougal and one of the outstanding features of the tribe that he is basically digging for information about, is not only their footwear and style of running, but how much joy they have when they’re running. They run purely because they can and because they want to…it’s a “game” more than a sport and they are some of the best ultra distance runners in the world. This attitude ties right into how I’m trying to view my martial arts and how I want others to…it’s play, but “serious play”.