New Year, New Workout!

Well it's time. It's a new year and time for a new workout.

Ever since last summer, when I came home from fight camp, I've been looking for a new fight gym. I wanted to find a place where I could train in stand-up kickboxing or muay thai. I wasn't so concerned about working on my Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. What I really wanted, was to punch stuff really hard, burn lots of calories, and sweat. Oh yea, and it had to work with early evening classes, to work with my job and regular life.

One day while taking my training partner, Rex the dog, for a run, I noticed one of my neighbors, Louis, getting out of his car. The dude had a shaved head, and a really bad cauliflower ear. He was wearing a pair of Combat Sports brand shorts and carrying an Everlast gym bag. We said "Hi", did the guy head nod thing and kept running.

Over the next few days and weeks we would see each other in the neighborhood and say "Hi." One day we ran by and Louis was in his garage with the big door up. He was working a heavy bag. We stopped to talk, and I asked him if he went to a fight gym in the area. He told me no, but he does go to a Kick-Boxing facility run by his cousin. He told me where it was, and invited me to come out.

The next day, I hit the facility. I met Luis's cousin. I introduced myself, and his first comment was "I want you to know, that this is a gang neutral facility." "OK" I replied. I then thought to myself..... I'm a 50 year old white guy. What kind of gang affiliation does he think I'm sporting? Does he think because I'm Italian that I'm Mafioso? Well the other students started to roll in. There was about 25 Junior High kids, Louis, myself and one other adult. The other adult was a biker, a lot shorter than me and a whole lot heavier. I instantly sized him up as my probable training partner.

The biker introduced himself to me, noticed my Harley shirt and asked what I rode. I told him I rode a 1979 Shovel Head (Harley Davidson), when it ran. We talked about old bikes and then he gave me the laugh of the day. He said "You're going to really like it here. You know all those punk kids that walk real slow crossing the street and they make you wait for ever? Well here you get to beat them up."

Well most of class was spent with the Coach trying to get all those kids to pay attention. We never got to hit anything. We just did some drills and shadow boxed. The class was probably good for them, but not so good for me.If we were ever going to hit stuff, I really don't want to punch on some 120 pound kid. So I thanked everyone and continued my search.

I found lots of schools and classes, but could never find the right set-up at the right times. Then last week I hit the jackpot. I found a great new facility, less than 2 miles from my home. They have stand-up kick-boxing Monday through Thursday evenings, from 5 to 6:15 and the Brazilian Ju-Jitsu from 6:30-8. On Friday they have a conditioning class from 6-7:30. The class is small, and the instructors patient. I though this might be the perfect place for me.

I went for the first time, and had a blast. I had a great workout, and was completely exhausted when we were done. The next day I could barely get out of bed. This was so cool. The next Monday I decided to join. My wife Kelly told me "You really need to increase your flexibility. You should start doing Yoga with me." "Uhhhh yeah, ok" I replied, not really expecting to have to follow through.

After work, I headed to the gym. When I got there, it was just me and the instructor from the previous kids class. Now this guy might be 6' tall and about 170 pounds. He can't be over 25. I'm 6'5" and about 240. This guy is trying to get ready for some amateur fight. So he wants to work out hard with me. I'm game for anything. After having a wire stuck in your eyeball (that's another long story, ending at Stanford hospital but with a happy ending) you know that nothing can ever hurt that bad again. After doing our warm-up, push-ups, and stretches, we did 3, 5 minute rounds of full speed, all out pummeling. This guy had great technique, but I was able to do pretty well just with my size and strength. This is a real tiring workout. About the time we got done, some other students showed up and we did some drills and exercises. We got to hit the bags and we sweat a lot. Then I headed for home.

I walked in the door, and Kelly had two yoga mats out in front of the TV. Some new wave music and a cheesy yoga DVD was in the player. Oh crap, I wasn't expecting to have to do this. I was already tired and sore but I had told her that I would do it with her.

I took a protein recovery shake and took my position on a mat. I think of myself as being in pretty good shape. Actually, I think of myself in outstanding shape. I lift weights, I do cardio, I walk. I do lots of exercise everyday. I had a body composition analysis that showed I had 8.6% body fat. I should be able to do a little stretching with my wife. Was I in for a surprise!

The workout started with some positions for stretching. They all have weird names, and they even call them poses. What kind of guy does Yoga? My body just doesn't bend that way. I hung in there and tried throughout the entire disk. Some of the stretches I could do, but I felt every single one of them. They hurt. As we were working through all of these near impossible stretches I noticed that my wife was doing great. With all of my workouts, nothing prepared me for Yoga.

I don't know what it was, but as soon as I started doing the stretches, I became quite gaseous. I mean every stretch pushed air right out of me. It was bad. It was so nasty, I could not imagine doing it in a formal class. I would have to be one of those deniers. You know one of those people on the cardio machines at the gym who let loose, then look around and try and make it look like they didn't do it.

As the disc ended, I told my wife to check out my next pose. I called it the lazy facing doggie, and I climbed up on the couch, next to Rex. As I started to relax, I realized that the Yoga must have helped. I wasn't near as sore as I expected. When I got up in the morning, I could definitely feel muscles that had been stretched, but I felt pretty good. Maybe there is something to it. I think it will give me some very needed flexibility in my MMA training. The worst that could happen would be I exercised for half an hour with my wife.

I wouldn't say it was fun, but I think it was beneficial. I definitely have a new found respect for Yoga practitioners. I'm planning on continuing to do the yoga with my wife as part of my new workout for the new year. You might also want to try it, but if not, at least try out the new pose. You know, the lazy facing doggie.

Adopt a Training Partner - Part 2

After we got Rex home, he gradually warmed up to everyone. He now follows me everywhere and he loves to go for walks. or for a run.


Not too long after we got him, Kelly and I took him to the dog park. We drove down the hill and parked the car. We got out of the car and opened up the back door. The dog wasn't there. Where was he? We panicked. I drove back up the hill looking for him. It turns out that as we were driving down the hill, he got so excited that he jumped out the window, and we didn't even know it! Luckily he was ok. With a dog this enthusiastic, how can you not take him for a walk or a run?


If you adopt a young training partner, it is important to talk to the Vet before you start to run him. When a dog is very young, their muscles and joints haven't fully developed. Running them hard may damage their little joints and cause permanent damage. Make sure you talk to your Vet before working out the dog.


Rex and I walked together for many miles. As my strength got better and my workouts shifted towards less roadwork (walking and running), and more strength training in the gym, my workouts with Rex changed. What once was a daily walk, became a weekend only walk. I would still get up early every Saturday and Sunday and take him to the dog park, but I don't think I was meeting his needs.


While all this was going on, we moved to a new house. With the move, we also adopted a second family member. We adopted Bindi. Bindi is a ptibull-boxer mix. Bindi loves to run and she helps keep Rex occupied.


Now with two dogs needing to be exercised, it was the perfect time for me to get back to some roadwork. I now run about 2 miles everyday with the dogs. Rex dictates the pace. He is kind of big and not built for running. Kind of like me. We started out with running intervals. We would sprint until Rex has to slow down or stop. Bindi never needs to stop. Once Rex catches his breath. We hit it again. We run these sprint intervals over the 2 mile course. Over time, we have now gotten to the point where Rex only needs to walk less than a quarter mile on the 2 mile course. Rex has lost some weight and is getting faster and now has better stamina. The good thing is while the dog has been getting in better shape, so have I.

Adopt A Training Partner - Part 1

Want to stay motivated? Want to help out a deserving animal? Want somebody to love you unconditionally? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you need to adopt a training partner!

When I first received a date for my Weight Loss Surgery (WLS), I told my wife that I needed to get a dog. She looked at me kind of funny. Our dog Emma had just been hit by a car and killed a few months earlier. We had kind of talked about waiting to adopt another family member so I think she was kind of surprised. I told her that I needed a dog to serve as my training partner after the big surgery. I explained that if the dog was dependent upon me for a daily walk, it would force me to get out and get some excersise. Not wanting any excuse for failure, she agreed.

We started out our search on the Internet. Most local shelters have pictures of dogs that need to be adopted. After viewing hundreds of dogs on-line, we went to the Watsonville shelter. My wife immediately started looking at little dogs. I reminded her that the dog was for my training partner, so he would have to be big enough to walk some real miles. I spoted a big, goofy looking dog. When we went up to the cage, he wouldn't even come see us. He looked lost and scared. He looked like he had given up. We moved on down the row of jail cells. We picked out a couple possibles. The shelter worker took us outside to a visiting area. She brought the possibles in for us to interact with.

The first two dogs they brought in, just didn't seem like a good match. Finally I asked the worker about the big, goofy dog we had seen. She said that he had been abused and wasn't taking to people very well. She said they would probably have to put him down. I asked her to bring him out. She said she would, but not to expect much. She said to stay seated and see if he will come to you.

The worker brought him in to the visiting area. My wife was in a chair on one side, me on the other. The dog came in and walked straight up to my wife and gave her a kiss. The worker was suprised, Kelly was suprised, and I was jealous. That dog didn't want anything to do with me. It turns out that most of his abuse came at the hands of men. He had some issues.

Well, as you can guess, he came home with us. He didn't have a name, so we named him Rex. That only provided a little trauma to my daughter Tammy. You see we had told her many years ago that if she had been a boy, we would have named her Rex. I don't know why she was so stressed, I mean why waste such a great name?



Part 2 will talk more about my partner