Back from a weekend LA trip for Sonya's 21st birthday. Didn't have time to hit-up Muscle Beach, which wasn't surprising given how short an excursion this was. Went to the Porsche Experience racetrack for my niece's birthday and we all at and lounged in the restaurant while she learned how to drive on the track with the instructor. The food here was the best on the trip - had an excellent wagyu burger. Dinner at Lido Italian restaurant afterwards was good but not as amazing as that burger.

Diet was on point in general. I packed 5 tins of sardines in olive oil and brought an entire bag of whey powder. During breaks on the drive, I'd eat sardines and then scoop dry whey in my mouth, which soon forms into a ball and becomes a protein candy that slowly dissolves (been doing this for almost 20 years so way before the ill-advised social media fad of swallowing plain powder). I would have allowed myself burgers or tacos every now and then, but I knew there would be better food at the destination so I might as well hold off until that. 

New strongman gear arrived yesterday: Rogue throw bag. Going to fill it up with rubber mulch once I make a trip to Home Depot.

 Boxing class consisted of simple partner drills, starting by taking turns throwing 3 jabs of any pattern and consistency, then taking turns slipping 1-2s, then double jabs followed by a right hook, then adding to that combo with body shots at the end. Ended with playing shoulder tag. Partner commented after tag, "You're very fast!" which is nice to hear from someone lighter and younger at this age.

Did a 60-second dead hang after class and then noticed bright red stretch marks under my arm. They were so vivid I thought I was bleeding and tried to wash em off.

 Sparring yesterday went was fun, but opponent was out-of-shape. Big guy who could hit hard, but his strikes were slow. Corner coach told me before the match that he drops his hand after jabbing so counter with my right. Did that a lot, but also found I could land my right almost everytime without using it to counter. My jab had a near 100% success rate, as well. Practiced throwing more body shots than before, but I should throw those harder. They made contact but not as solidly as a body shot should. There were several left hooks and overhand rights I landed that seemed to stun him so I eased up, and in the last round he was very noticeably tired. After getting hit, he would slap his forehead and go "OOOORGH!" several times. His cornerman shouted not to do that and stay calm.

Had a chat with him afterwards while we watched the others go; nice guy. He asked me "You're one of the coaches, right?" and I found out he was confusing me with the Tuesday night coach, who went on to spar after us. That was a cool compliment.

In unrelated news, I'm going to LA on Friday for my niece's birthday and will be returning Sunday, so no boxing this Friday. Will see if I have time to hit up Muscle Beach in Venice again.

 Deload

Medley:

Sandbag floor to shoulder: x 0, 1

Keg press: 1, 1

Circus dumbbell press: 80 x 5, 5

Standing unilateral dumbbell press with Fat Gripz: 50 x 3 x 10

Farmer's walk: 125 x 1 lap

Sandbag floor to platform loading: 3

My brain seemed to completely forget what to do with the sandbag on the first attempt at getting it to the shoulder. Second attempt went up.

I'm ready for sparring today, but I'm aiming to not feel hyped about it and be more relaxed.

 Typed this workout up during downtime at work last week but later ran out of time to finish and didn't save it to the cloud to post it over the weekend.

Deload

Axle press

110 x 5

130 x 5

150 x 5

Super-set with band pull-aparts: 3 x 15

Front squats

135 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 5

Super-set with chin-ups: 3 x 10

Landmine rows

3 plates x 8

4 plates x 9, 10

Super-set with Arnold press: 80s x 7, 8, 6

Sandbag carry: 200 x 1 minute

Left wrist and right elbow are in a little pain. Nothing too concerning, but it's a good time to deload.

Friday evening was boxing. We mostly stayed on the heavy bag, working combos and drilling a high power jab with the wrist supinated almost like a cross between a jab and an uppercut. I commented to the coach after class that it reminded me of Razor Ruddock's "smash" punch.

Saturday was another deload workout:

Barbell shrugs

275 x 3 x 10

Romanian deadlifts

275 x 3 x 8

Bent-over rows: 100 x 3 x 8

Super-set with Swiss bar bench press: 205 x 3 x 8

Axle curls

30 x 50

I finally managed to get reserved for Tuesday sparring. On Sunday, I practiced two combos I want to employ:

Right uppercut - left body hook

1-2 while moving inside, then a left head hook followed by a left to the body

Drilled them across 3 rounds of 5 minutes on the heavy bag with headgear on.

Oh, and I went on fasted jogs first thing upon waking up on Saturday and Sunday with some dry whey scooped in my mouth. Roughly 45 minutes and I walked home about half of the time. Priority was enjoying the outdoor morning time versus maximizing fat loss and a walk home with a podcast playing was perfect.

 Wednesday boxing class: after skipping rope and shadowboxing, everyone lined up with one foot in a plastic ring and took turns throwing close-range combinations that were called out by the coach. After 3 minutes, trainees on one side moved left and trainees on the other side moved right so everyone would get a chance to throw hands together, although we ran out of time to make it completely down the line. One of the combos was a left hook followed by a right hook with the defender ducking both. Through my peripheral vision I was the only one nearby able to keep squatting under the hooks for the full 3 minutes. 

Next, we grabbed dumbbells and a medicine ball and did various workouts with those, my favorite being throwing the ball one-handed at the wall to train power jabs and straight rights.

I couldn't help but see the humor in the skinny coach instructing me to do lateral raises as veins were practically popping out of my ears but I say that in good nature; it was a big class and lots of people were out of shape. Excellent technical first half for me, at least. And some of the medicine ball exercises got a little challenging.

Yukon bar squats

410 x 3

320 x 14

Incline dumbbell press

80s x 10, 10, 9

Super-set with chin-ups: 3 x 10

Been half a year since I've back squatted heavy. Positioning was a little tricky, especially with this bar. 320x14 matches what I did when I was recovering from COVID but weighed over 15 lbs heavier than I do now. 

I realized I'm being a little TOO cautious with keeping reps in reserve because I tweaked my back several weeks ago while at the very bottom during front squats, but it wasn't a bad one at all and overall my back has been feeling great. Let's push squats a little more next time.

This morning: 5 minute jump-rope round and uncounted crunches before work. Boxing class tomorrow and Friday, and hopefully sparring next Tuesday.

Woke-up early for a Saturday and did this in the morning:

Medley

Sandbag floor-to-shoulder: 200 x 1, 1

Keg press: 150 x 1, 1

Circus dumbbell press: 100 x 1, 2

Seated Arnold press

80s x 7, 9, 5

Farmer’s walk

440 x 2 rounds

Farmer’s handles shrugs

440 x 8

Sandbag floor to platform loading

200 x 6

Replaced log training with that medley for the health of my bicep and it worked out well. The circus dumbbell is just a dumbbell with Fat Gripz but calling it that denotes the nature of the movement well instead of having to clarify the type of dumbbell press. The sandbag doesn’t bother my bicep at all, which is great. Getting the sandbag to my shoulder was easy this session because I felt fresh enough to move it up my body fast.

Went in the pool afterwards. Nothing resembling a workout, just R&R time. Played more Tales of the Abyss before and after, too, and advanced the story. I'm liking it a lot more than newer RPGs like Dragon Quest 11 and SMT 5.

On Sunday, after some manual labor fixing my backyard gate that had fallen off the hinges, I did:

3 rounds, 5 minutes each on the heavy bag

23-minute jog for 1.68 miles 

Did a quick back squat set before leaving for a trip to Santa Rosa on Friday since a back tweak prevented me from finishing my front squats earlier in the week. So I knocked out a set of 275x15, which actually made me sore over the weekend. 

Had a fun 4th of July up north. Friday night was a fireworks show at the local fair. I'm not usually thrilled by fireworks but this was a great show - the explosions were huge and we had a front-row seat on the park lawn.

Saturday was very busy with a family outing and by the time I dived into my email in the evening to sign-up for boxing classes, sparring was already full again. I will really have to be disciplined about setting an alarm and signing-up at 4:00pm sharp, no matter where I am.

After 2 days of rest, I came home from work and banged this out:

Axle clean once and strict press

160 x 5

180 x 3

200 x 1

Super-set with band pull-aparts: 3 x 15

Barbell front squats

260 x 5

295 x 3

335 x 1 (PR)

Super-set with NG chin-ups:

Bw x 10

30 x 8

50 x 8

Landmine rows

4 plates x 3 x 8

Super-set with one-arm dumbbell press

80 x 3 x 7

Sandbag carry

200 x 1:15

Also, yesterday and today's mornings I did a 5:00 jump-rope round followed by uncounted crunches and reverse crunches.

 Yesterday before work, I did 5 Turkish get-ups with a 25 lb kettlebell for rehab on my left shoulder followed by 20 bnd

Boxing was very fun yesterday. Alternated between rounds on the heavy bag and working with a partner. One of the prescribed combos was a right hook to the body. I've been wanting to seriously up my body shot game so this was great. Did a good job of getting low by consciously squatting more and really throwing the hook out hard. Funny enough, Jake Paul was doing a good of throwing body hooks on Saturday against Julio Caesar Chavez, even though the fight was a stinker. Ended with partner shadowboxing, which is always fun.

I woke up about 40 minutes before my alarm today, but felt rested enough to get up. My sleep has been really solid this week.