Monday, February 14, 2011

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

Well Fedor, you had a great run, but everyones time eventually comes to an end.  You are still going to go down as the GOAT.  Don't really care what anyone else says.  I'll be pulling for Overeem for the rest of the Grand Prix.

Greatest MMA fighter of all time

Is it required that if you own a Prius that you have an Obama bumper sticker on it?  I swear every single time I see a Prius it has an Obama bumper sticker on the back.

Ok so here are the movie reviews from the weekend.........

GI Joe - Watched this on family night with the kids.  I'll just say this, it passed XXX as the worst big budget movie I've ever seen.  I laughed the whole time at how unreal stupid it was.

The Wolfman - The one with Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro.  Ok this movie got shit reviews but I thought it was solid.  I mean, it's a werewolf movie.  Hopkins and Del Toro were solid as expected.  As was Agent Smith.  Speaking of which, every time I see Agent Smith in a movie I expect him to say "Mr. Anderson"...and then do some unreal shit.

"Mr. Anderson...I'm about to do some unreal shit"

If you haven't been doing a lot of foam rolling don't do the PVC thing first.  You will die.  Start with the normal foam roller and wear that thing out until it's bent.  Then go to the PVC pipe.

Great weather all week and you damn well better believe that I'm going to take advantage of it and get some conditioning in outside.  I have been loving the boxing and getting back to a lot of my martial arts shit.  But there is nothing better than being outside and doing hills or sprints.  I do plan on adding in more and more of the boxing and MMA work and then running hills maybe once a week.  Just to give my legs a break.

So I put my money where my mouth is.  I bought Egyptian cotton sheets for V-day which showed up Saturday actually.  I have a new king sized bed coming tomorrow.  I plan on making the magic happen on it for at least 8 minutes tomorrow night.  I'm some kind of stud let me tell you.

99% of the shit you worry about, never comes to fruition.  I heard this once, and thought about it.  And it did not seem true.  Then I started thinking about it more when I was worrying, and found out that it was.  Keep this phrase in mind the next time worry is overcoming your life.

Dieting sucks.  At first.  The longer I go on a "diet" (cut cals) and don't cheat, the easier it becomes and the more focused I become.  The first week or so, I can't be strict for shit.  I hate those weeks because you are hungry and see no results.  But as I start to bear down and really commit, the easier it becomes and the faster I see shit happen.  So if you do decide to cut calories keep this in mind.  Find something tangible you can attach yourself to.  Like a picture of a certain bodyfat % you'd like to hit, and don't let anything distract you.  The first few weeks will suck the worst, but hunker down and man the fuck up and do what you gotta do.  After a few weeks you'll feel better actually and the results will start coming faster.

I have this chic I have known for a while that is coming to see me this week because her tissue is in such bad shape.  She has refused to take any time off, has ignored tale tell signs of major injuries coming, and now she has no choice but to take time off and do a lot of restorative work.  Look man, taking a week off and spending lots of time on the foam roller and stretching will not hurt you.  It will only help you.  Don't be dogmatic about  your training or so obsessed that you ignore the signs that you need time off or need to do something to fix some issues.

Babe of the week.........

Denise Malini
I like Call of Duty Black ops better than any of the other Call of Dutys.  I'll tell you why....

1.  N00b tubes aren't so powerful.  I got so sick of the game starting and hearing 22 n00b tubes going off.  Then the explosive lands really far away and kills the shit out of you.  People don't use em a lot in Black Ops because they aren't so powerful.

2.  Sniper rifles don't work as well.  They are harder to shoot.  Which is how it should be.  Being a sniper is hard.  Not everyone should be able to do it and be good at it.

3.  No Juggernaut.

4.  No stopping power.

5.  No martyrdom (also pronounced "marty-dom" by the uneducated kids that play)

They got a lot of good shit right with this one, and patch it frequently to avoid hacks.  It isn't as "pretty" as Modern Warfare or MW2 but the game play has been far superior to me.  Nice job guys.

Man, marriage is what you make of it.  Eventually your significant other is going to reveal traits about them that you weren't aware of, or are new based on new circumstances.  Marriage can be a bitch sometimes, and it can be hard.  It's also worth working on if you are really serious about spending your life with that one person.  It also means knowing WHEN to say shit, and what shit you should never say.  2010 was one of the hardest years of my marriage in 16 years but we made it through it and are better than ever.  And it's very rewarding to put the time in and be rewarded for it.  I love you babe!

If you plan on doing a bulk whether dirty or clean add calories in slow or you are going to feel like shit and gain a butt load of fat weight.  Second, be LEAN when you start a weight gain.  If you are above 10% bodyfat you got no reason "bulking".  If you get really lean first, the body will do a better job of not getting you fat when you start increasing calories because it's used to being in fat burning mode.  Thus the first few weeks of the calorie surplus will get utilized better in the recovery process and less in the "create a big fat ass" process.  So if the goal is 4200 calories, plan on eating that for say two weeks then cutting back again.  So to set that up go something like this...

week 1 - 3200
week 2 - 3400
week 3 - 3600
week 4 - 3800
week 5 - 4000
week 6 and week 7- 4200 
week 8 - 2500
week 9 - start over at week 1

This is a smart way to "bulk" and not get overly fat.  You don't need a giant surplus of calories all the time to  get bigger.  You need it when the body needs it for recovery.  If you are mass building you will know when that is if you pay attention to when you are sleepy and tired as hell, and hungry as shit.  Eat good clean foods and get lots of sleep.  It will reward you significantly.  If you don't want to count calories, just eat what the fuck you want and get ugly.  Bam.

Music post of the week........

Since it's Valentines Day and all........(thanks to Spewie for this idea)



Be true to yourself and the ones you love.  Be willing to die to save them, and kill to protect them.  That's really the whole ball of wax to me.  That's the real deal.







2 comments:

  1. Hi Paul,

    The part about foam/PVC rolling and taking time off is really relevant for me at the moment. Squats are currently killing my upper quads/hips. Going to cut lifting back to twice a week and increase the stretching/rolling. Can you please outline what you do rolling and stretching-wise? Also, do you think you can roll or stretch too much? I remember seeing Matt Rhodes say that he felt it aggrivated his joints and sometimes wonder if I suffer from this too - especially when it comes to the PVC rolling, I often feel better when not done for a week or so rather than every day.

    Thanks
    Dan

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  2. Dan -

    Use your "off" days to do all of this -

    Cassack squats for the groin

    Regular ol hamstring stretch. I prop my foot up on a low table and hold for 10-12.

    Hip flexor stretch. Look up my article on raw squatting for this one.

    Foam rolling - IT band, quads, groin. Do about 10 rolls per area for about 3-4 sets.

    ReplyDelete