A New Toy

Just finished making a sandbag to add to my repertoire of lifting odd objects to increase strength, burn fat, and build mental toughness. Just went to the hardware store and picked up 2, 50 pound bags of sand, contractor clean up bags, and duct tape for under $30. I made 4 bags of sand approximately 25 pds each and put them in a canvas duffle bag. The sandbag can then be adjusted according to strength levels by quickly removing or adding the 25 pd bags as needed. There's so many exercises that can be done with the sand bag that hits all the major muscle groups as well as the smaller stabilizer muscles too. Here's a few examples:Back squat
Overhead press
Grip work
Front/Zercher squat

Also, this is the end of my twelve week challenge with my friend Sue, to see who can get leaner. I believe this challenge (unlike the first one where, even at my fattest, I totally smoked her in the half marathon!! lol j/k) was a draw, since we both didn't get to our goal leaness or bodyfat % that we set out to do. But it wasn't for naught since I lost 16 pds and am now down to 177 pds and feel a lot healthier, have more energy, and actually stronger (my core lifts (squat, bench, deadlift) keep going up!). The main thing for me was to change my eating habits by simply making better food choices and controlling my portions. All in all, I'm pleased to have dropped some weight and still not lose much if any of my strength. My fears of becoming that skinny/weak bastard of my youth thankfully did not come to fruition. Right now my goals are to maintain this weight (maybe lose a couple more pds), but more importantly, keep getting stronger/more athletic and keep up the healthy eating. Here's the final pic of this challenge, but not the final one of my fitness journey!
Before( Feb. 3rd 2009)
After (April 30, 2009)

Easy Rider

A friend showed me this video of bicyclist Danny Macaskill doing some amazing, death-defying feats on a bike. You may be thinking, "what does this have to do with fitness and how can doing those tricks help me achieve my goal??" Well, doing those tricks WILL NOT help you with your goal unless your goal is to seriously injure yourself!!! Do not try this at home people!!! LOL

What you can take away from watching it is inspiration and motivation. You can apply those traits to your own personal goals. This goes back to my last post about success. Pushing the envelope, taking a risk, and dreaming big can take you farther than you ever thought possible. enjoy the vid!

Secrets Of Success

Well, these aren't really "secrets", but things you probably already know but maybe aren't implementing into your lives which can hinder your success. Found a great speech from the TED conference which is an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. Success analyst and author Richard St. John gives a short, but powerful speech about what he believes are the secrets of successful people. St. John spent years researching the subject and interviewing hundreds of successful people to come up with eight keys to success:

1. Passion - Do what you love and the $$ will follow.

2. Work Hard - This is self-explanatory

3. Get Good - Practice, practice, practice, which goes back to #2

4. Focus - It's better to be great at one thing than be a "jack of all trades, master of none".

5. Push Yourself - Go beyond what you think you can do, shoot for the stars!

6. Serve Others - Give others something of value. The more you give, the more you get in return.

7. Ideas - These fuel success.

8. Persist - Never give up.

You don't need any "God-given" ability or "genetics" to adopt or improve on any of these success factors, it all comes down to how badly do you want it?!?!?!

That's Odd

No, not the fact that I haven't posted in a while (been busy), but odd as in lifting odd objects to build real world strength. Picking up, pressing, and carrying logs, sand bags, rocks, and kegs, for example, are a great way to increase strength, burn a ton of calories, and build mental toughness. I've recently added this component to my workouts and have noticed a significant increase in my strength and endurance when in the gym as well as on the basketball court.
Odd object lifting goes way back to the old days, when there were no fancy gyms. People who wanted to get strong relied on the basic, simple tools to reach their goals of strength and fitness. Some call it Dinosaur Training, I like to call it just bad ass!! Just the basics, no bs, standing on those dyna discs or bosu balls on one foot with your eyes closed, lifting pink dumbbells......((sigh)) that doesn't get you strong or well-conditioned!! Again, strong does not have to mean "bulky", and building strength should be the goal for everyone since, in my opinion, that is the great difference-maker if all things were equal. Also, having strength/lean muscle helps with calorie burning, injury prevention, and confidence/mental toughness like I keep saying. Lifting heavy, odd shaped objects (with good form, of course) puts the body in an unstable environment forcing you to use muscles that wouldn't normally be worked in a typical gym workout. It also provides a great "functional" workout that can help you perform everyday activities with ease. Usually two days a week I lift in the gym and the other two days I'm outside at this football field (see last post) dragging the sled, carrying logs (the field has some good sized logs laying around), hitting the tire with a sledgehammer, and soon will be playing around with a sandbag I'm making. This is just another tool in the toolbox, and a great way to add a little variety and fresh air to your workouts!

Death To "Personal " Training?

I've recently been playing around with training in small groups, sorta like one of those bootcamp workouts. The more and more I do these, the more I'm seeing the benefits compared to just the traditional one on one personal training. Especially with summer coming up, I can really see the possibilities for my business. The main benefits of group training is the camaraderie, the motivation, and competitiveness which makes for a great, winning atmosphere. With small groups (5-10), form/technique can still be taught as opposed to those other, overcrowded group classes at big commercial gyms. Also, the workout can be still be modified for each individual, if the situation calls for it. Finally, let's face it, these are tough economic times, people are getting laid off, out of work, and struggling to make ends meet. Group training allows the trainer to charge the client less per hour, but still make more $$$ AND still provide a high quality product! Here's today's workout and see for yourself:

Had a great session today with the muay thai fighters, my bro (who trains muay thai, but doesn't compete, yet) and an "average joe" as well. The workout was gritty, old school, and basic, but still tough. We first started out with hill sprints near my house (I staggered the starts to not scare the neighbors, hahaha), then moved on to the circuit portion of the workout. 4 stations, 10 rounds, took 31 minutes (will try and get it under 30 next time). 10 sledgehammer hits, sled sprint 25 yds down and back, 5 jumps onto picnic table top, overhead 35 pd plate runs, 25 yds, do 10 squats w/the weight, run back, 5 plyometric push ups. In the house today were muay thai/mma fighter Cliff Fua who's training for a fight next month, back in action Alex "Burton" Buzon who's looking to get back into the ring soon, and Roberto Andres' Salas who won his last muay thai fight and is looking for a title shot. Check out some pics: (click for larger view)
Theeee hills overlooking beautiful San Bruno!
Alex gettin' it
Cliff vs. The Sled
Andres' killin' the tire like he does opponents
And last, but not least: The Average Joe!

Maurito, "the average MO", "Bollywood", "Tuuuuuungade", Tugade doesn't train to fight or do any sports, other than surf (I guess that's a sport, right??), but he loves these workouts for what I mentioned earlier, the atmosphere, the results it produces (he already feels stronger, has more endurance, he feels like a REAL MAN (all he did before was bikram yoga, hahaha, j/k), and he pushes it just like everyone else. See, you don't have to be an athlete to do these workouts, but if you're looking to burn fat, increase endurance, build mental toughness, and have fun, these workouts are for you!!!

Fight Like Hell!!

Haven't posted in a week, and a lot has happened since then. My dad told me he has colon cancer and is going in for an operation at the end of the month. Luckily, they've caught it early, it's small, so hopefully he'll pull through alright. This, on top of my uncle (dad's bro) just having his colon taken out because of cancer, however, in his case, the cancer has spread to his liver. I saw him on Sunday for his birthday and he's lost a lot of weight. I don't think the enormity of this situation has sunk in, I don't even think about it. Right now, I'm focused on just keeping a positive attitude, gathering as much information on this disease as possible, and encouraging my dad and uncle to stay positive and keep fighting. Sure I'm worried and scared, but I still treat them the same as if they didn't have cancer, still laughing and joking around. I've posted some tips on how to cut cancer risk here before but it didn't really hit home for me personally until now. I'd like to add to that list the importance of being mentally tough, a certain stubbornness and determination not to give up or give in to this disease. In my opinion, if your spirit/will is broken, that's when you succumb to this or anything for that matter. My dad and uncle are stubborn and very determined, though!! I guess that's where I get those traits from!!

Needless to say, in light of this news, my own fitness challenge, project six pack took a dive last week. Fell off the wagon with the eating and also drowned myself in beer. I'm back on track this week and fortunately I'm at 176 pds and look closer to
the week four pic than when I started, but I'm no where near where I thought I'd be. I've kept the weight gain at bay since I take my frustrations/emotions out on the weights and having that increased intensity definitely helps. I'll post a final pic at the end of the month, we'll see how that turns out, all things considered.

I feel the best way for me to cope with the situation is to gather as much information as possible on this disease as well as keeping a positive/no quit/keep fighting attitude like I said before. No need to feel down and out or worry about what may happen in the future, there's no time like the present!! Here's a couple of quotes by a true fighter, Lance Armstrong, that I find inspiring:

“Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight.”

“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.”

Hoop Dreams

So I finally "upgraded" my membership at 24 Hour Fitness to a SuperSport which allows me to work out at that facility which is a lot bigger and has a full length basketball court than the regular 24 Hr. Since I'm already a member of 24 Hr and have been for many years, I think it's bullsh*t that existing members still have to upgrade, but that's a whole 'nother topic or blog post (just the big commercial gyms trying to squeeze as much $$ out of us as they can, IMO).

Anyways, the reason I did it was for the full court bball they have there. I'm not much for playing outside anymore (too much pounding on the joints), or driving to a basketball only gym, so this kills two birds with one stone, since I can play and lift. I haven't touched a basketball in about three weeks since I have been busy training clients, lifting weights myself, and reading, continuing to learn this fitness biz.

I do, however, miss the shooting, working on my game, and playing full court with the boys so this morning, with my new "upgrade" in hand, I went and did some shooting drills (it was early, so no one was in the gym) like I did when I was younger. I made over 200 shots, short jumpers, 3 pointers, shots off the dribble, full court lay ups, free throws, just kept moving for an hour. My shot was still there albeit a little rusty, but all in all it was good to get in there and get some shots up. Basketball also provides a great cardio workout that I can add in from time to time in addition to my metabolic circuits (see last post).

Not many people nowadays know basketball was/still is a passion of mine. I'm not one to brag about what I did "back in the day", or be that guy at the bar saying "I used to......" but playing basketball taught me real, life lessons. I loved the game and wanted to be good at it, but, since I was a skinny, short Asian guy, I was never handed anything (I never was picked first in a pick up game/I hated that!!), if I wanted to excel at this sport, I would have to work at it. This is where I was at a crossroads, as have many people when faced with an obstacle. Do I continue or quit? I chose to continue, putting long hours in the gym at the parks, shooting, playing, lifting weights. This is where having intensity and determination go a long way because by no means did I have the perfect workout program (If I only knew then what I know now, ya think??). To keep this post from becoming a novel, you can read the rest of my journey here.

Today just brought back some memories of my youth, am I that OLD??? LOL. Also, it re-affirmed that spending all those hours on the court didn't just go to waste, it taught me that with perseverance, courage, and some hard work, anything is possible!

Now check out some pics of me back in the day, try not to laugh too hard!!! (1995-96, has it really been that long ago?!??!) (Click for a larger/funnier view)

After a game (forget which one)

The Team

Just Me

Saturday Fun In The Sun

Finally got a chance to get pics of some of the workouts I put myself, as well as the fighters I train through (now if I can only figure out how to edit/upload the video footage I have). Our conditioning varies from week to week (sometimes we'll do a heavy strongman day or lighter, more speed/conditioning day) and today was a conditioning circuit that lasted 30 minutes with a finisher of battling ropes work. It was a smaller group today as some of the other fighters are recovering from their bouts or out of town, so it was my brother, muay thai/mma fighter Cliff Fua, and myself.

As a side note, Cliff's been training with me for about a month now preparing for his muay thai fight in May. He's a heavyweight and fought his last fight at 265 pds (he's 5'11''). Even though Cliff won, he told me that his conditioning was the limiting factor and if he was lighter and in better shape, he wouldn't have to worry about pacing himself. Being lighter and in top shape would allow him to just concentrate on fighting. In the past month working with me, Cliff has dropped 13 pds and is down to 252. No special diets (just smarter eating), no fancy workouts, just good old fashioned hard work!

Now on to today's workout. I chose 4 stations we all rotated through: sled sprints (approx 25 yds), overhead swamp walks (on the high jump mat), sprint 25 yds (on grass), 10 push ups, sprint back, 10 squats, and 5 tuck jumps (over hurdle, hip height), sprinting to each station. 10 rounds, with minimal rest between rounds (30 sec-1 min). It was a good 30 minutes of cardio (beats the eliptical or treadmill anyday!!). Here's some pics (click for larger view/didn't have time to re-size):
Me - Gettin' it done
My bro putting in the work!
Cliff - His t-shirt says it all
Cliff - Overhead Swamp Walks (lunges)
Hops

We finished with a new exercise I'm trying out called battling ropes. Here's a video to better explain:

We just rotated a minute each for 9 minutes (3 minutes ea. person) and, MAN! Afterwards my forearms, upper back, and abs were fried, not to mention it really gets the heart rate up, since you need to go fast/explosive!! I see they use thicker ropes in videos, but mine did it's job just fine today (will pick up a thicker rope at the hardware store this week). This also got us some funny looks from the joggers at the track! Hahaha! Here's some pics (click for larger view): Cliff puts in the work and the results so far speak for themselves. How many people put in the work on a beautiful Saturday afternoon?