KingGheedora workout log

[KingGheedora]

Wednesday

Workout
1 hour w/ trainer
worked on working angles (slips, ducks) into punches
spin outs
clinch work on the heavy bag

 

[KingGheedora]

Thursday

Workout
8 3-minute rounds of sparring

Rounds 1-4: Jabs to the head only
Rounds 5-6: Jabs and straight rights to to head and body
Rounds 7-8: All punches, to the body only

All 8 rounds are uploaded, here's the link to round 1, click "More From KingGheedora" on the left to see all the rounds. Uploading round 5 and 6-8 to come right after, so if you want to see all 8 and you're reading this right after I've posted, just wait a few minutes.

I am the one in the silver shorts and black gloves. I'm wearing running shoes because of a pain in my left foot.

Sparring Vids on Youtube

The first thing I noticed when watching the video is that I seem to be moving in slow motion compared to how the action feels while we're sparring. Coach said everyone has that same comment the first time they see themselves on video. And my jab is not loose at all, the way I've been practicing it to be. You can see my first two feint jabs in round 1 were loose and then I suddenly stopped.

I got my head snapped back with a couple of his jabs, but nothing really bad this time. Only 3-4 of his body shots landed during rounds 7-8, while I landed several more than he did.

My conditioning has gotten garbage again, since I haven't been able to run for about 5 weeks now because of my foot injury. The doctor this week said to just stay off it for 4-6 weeks, which I've been doing except for jumping rope, so I'm cutting out jump rope. Need to find something better to get my conditioning back up because the stationary bike is a poor replacement for running.

A big part of why I don't punch as much is because I'm pacing myself. You can see towards the latter half of round 7 I get really tired and can't put anything behind my punches (prompting female trainer to yell "throw it like you mean it!").

 

[KingGheedora]

Trained some time last weekend, didn't post about it. Didn't train at all this week. I've been incredibly sick the past 8 weeks, the past 2 weeks have been even worse. Tests for parasites and bacteria/virii have come back negative.

The doctor suspects IBS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, Cron's disease, or Celiac disease, or something along those lines, so I've been referred to a Gastro specialist on Monday morning. The other possibility is colon cancer as well, and the above also put one at a much higher risk for colon cancer.

I've basically had diarrhea, constipation for the past 8 weeks, along with gas and bloating. I'm also having some intestinal bleeding, and abdominal pain that has me doubled over sometimes on the toilet at work. I am in the bathroom at least 7-8 times a day. Last weekend I averaged 20x a day over Sat-Sun. The past couple of weeks I've also developed a near constant low grade fever, and aching knees and lower back. Since I'm not digesting food well, and losing blood I've been incredibly weak. I started taking probiotics and B12 on Monday. I also get this sometimes when I'm on the toilet: abdominal pain like I really need to go but can't, and get nausea and my salivary glands go crazy, producing enough saliva to fill up my mouth and puff my cheeks out in less than a minute.

Physically this is the worst 2 months ever. Social life and work performance are destroyed, as well as my training. Yesterday I started trying to implement a gluten free diet. I'm kind of hoping gluten intolerance is what I have because it seems like the least scary of the above conditions and can usually be cured by removing gluten from the diet.

It is ironic and frustrating that this has come at a time when I was on my way to being in the best health of my life. And I can't help but thing that the two are linked somehow -- some change in my diet I think, has triggered this. Reading about these things it seems like the medical world doesn't really know much about what causes these, or how to treat them, aside from drastic measures like removing all or parts of the intestines and/or colon, or prescribing strong immuno-suppressive drugs that can often stop working.

 

[brikis98]

Ooof, I'm really sorry to hear about your sickness. It's odd, but two of my friends have separately gone through something very similar - one 3 years ago and one over the past 6 months. In both cases, the doctors had no real clue what was wrong despite doing dozens of tests. The medical community does indeed some oddly clueless about digestive issues of this sort. Each of my friends was put on a bunch of different drugs, some with side effects worse than the original symptoms, until eventually a combination was found that worked for them. I think in the short term, various anti inflammatory steroids were extremely helpful, but I'm not sure what the longer term solutions were. Both of them lost a lot of weight during the process, but once the drugs were working, they regained it all and got back to 100%. It's scary stuff, but keep working with your doctors to get through it. Good luck and I hope you feel better!

 

[xboxist]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora

Sparring Vids on Youtube

"This video is private."

 

[KingGheedora]

I weigh 156lbs right now. 3 weeks ago i was hovering around 162lbs. Doctors suck, they basically told me to get a colonoscopy and the next appointment isn't for another MONTH.

I've been eating only meat and honey since Monday, and am reading a book called "Breaking the Vicious Cycle", which prescribes a diet, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, that many people swear has resolved their symptoms (for all sorts of diseases, including celiac, Chron's, and IBS/IBD). The idea behind that is for whatever reason the body loses ability to break down di- and poly- saccharides, so those molecules remain in the intestine unabsorbed, creating an environment for certain bacteria to thrive, as well as release the by products of their life activities which compound the absorption problems.

Since starting that the urgency of my BM's has decreased, and I think the frequency has as well but I haven't kept track. Joint pain is still present in my knees, and hips. I'm still seeing blood most of the time that I "go", but it's not as much as before. Gas and bloating have gone completely, and thus the explosiveness is also gone from BM's, and I no longer get a painful urgent need to go only to release some gas.

I had some tea from the store that listed "fructose crystals" as the ingredient, with no other sugars. That may have been a mistake. I'm not sure if "fructose crystals" dissolve into monosaccharides in water or if they are di/poly in structure.

Before hearing about this diet I had to cut out Gatorade because I noticed it was making my BM's worse, with tons of water. I was drinking it because I was worried about dehydration from diarrhea.

I'm very hopeful that within 2-3 weeks I'll start seeing some signs of this diet working. It's pretty hard to stick to, I'm craving juices, breads and pasta all the time.

 

[xboxist]

No response? heh, ok. I guess I won't watch your video.

 

[KingGheedora]

Update: had to fly to my mom's house because I was too weak to stay alone in my apartment. Found a great GI specialist who first tried putting me on antibiotics for a week to rule out infections. He also gave me an IV to counter the dehydration I was experiencing, and did another CBC. My red blood cell count was 10, where 13 is the lowest normal value. White blood cells were high, and I still had constant low grade fever, albumen was also very low, indicating malnutrition. At that point I weighed 138lbs, down from my normal weight of 162 (with low body fat even at 162 since I work out a lot).

Antibiotics didn't work so we did a colonoscopy a week later. Got another emergency IV and was immediately put on prednisone. They could tell it was ulcerative colitis immediately, and the pathology results from the biopsies they took confirmed this a few days later. The prednisone has worked to reduce the inflamation. I no longer have to go 20+ times a day, I'm no longer losing water through diarrhea, and everything that comes out actually looks like poop, albeit small fluffy/raggedy pieces, and still go about 4-5 times a day. No more blood showing up there either, no more abdominal pain, and no more fever. I am eating a ton now, trying to regain weight and rebuild strength.

At the lowest point I was probably close to death. I haven't weighed 138 since 9th grade (and I was probably a few inches shorter at that time too). I looked like an AIDS patient. I was so weak I had to be in bed all day, and getting up to go to the bathroom would give me a head rush and sometimes my vision would black out completely and I had to hold on to a chair or doorway until that would pass.

I'm so glad that the worst has passed now and that the rest is now to find the least toxic medication that will put me into remission. The one I'm now is not something you want to be taking long term due to the side effects. the worst effects so far are insomnia (I just take benadryl to counter that for now), and the profuse sweating it causes whenever I fall asleep. I have to lay out 2 extra sets of clothes by my bed every night because I wake up every few hours completely drenched in sweat.

 

[KingGheedora]

I'm going to be at my mom's house for probably another couple weeks while I stabilize and the situation with the medicine gets worked out with the doctor.

I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal life and working out again. I started this thread at the end of January, and now in June I am going to have to start from scratch, even worse actually, I'm starting from a point of worse physical fitness than I was in January, so i have a lot to do. I'm going to focus on weight training and condititioning at first, and given that I have to exert great effort right now just to skip steps going up the stairs, I have a long way to go, gonna have to start out really slow. Oh well, in a weird way having a challenge like this makes me even more determined to succeed and get back to even better shape than I was before.

I will probably start up again in two weeks, something like starting strength, with some light cardio 1-2 times a week and then build from there. Right now I'm eating as much food as I can, a lot of rice+peas, a lot of KFC chicken (I buy 14 piece bucket every other day and kill that), bananas, white bread, kefir, and a lot of popscicles.

 

[brikis98]

Wow dude, I'm sorry to hear that, sounds like a hellish experience - and very similar to the one two of my close friends have had. It sounds like you're over the hump and hopefully on your way to recovery. You mentioned it yourself, but I thought I'd reiterate it: prednisone has some very very nasty side effects. I won't get into details but it can have a range of physical a psychological effects that are not pretty. It is extremely effective at helping reduce inflammation, but get off that stuff as soon as you possibly can. Anyways, good luck to you and I hope to see you posting boxing videos again soon

 

[conorvansmack]

Good to see that you're back and recovering. Take it easy and listen to your doctors.

LOL at the 14 piece bucket of KFC, that's awesome!

 

[KingGheedora]

I've been back in NYC for a week now. My weight is about 152-158lbs, depending on what time of day i weigh myself. Most of the weight I lost was muscle (went from 162 to 138), most of what I've gained back is fat. It's weird to be skinnier, yet pudgier.

Today was my first day back at the gym. I'm thinking I'm going to do 2 weeks bulk, 1 week cut, and repeat that circuit about 3 times until I'm in shape again, then will start back with the boxing. Will be trying to build up some running in there too, but I'm taking it really easy to start.

Today I did Stronglift 5x5 Workout A:

Squat: 85x5x5
Bench: 95x5x5
Inverted Rows: 9-8-7
Push-ups: 20-20-15

Will do the ab exercise when I get home, wanted to get out of of the gym before I ran into anyone I knew. Still a little self conscious about my reduced physical state. At last, I'm back!

 

[conorvansmack]

Nice job dude, good to see you back!

Do you really want to do a cut after this, even a short one?

 

[brikis98]

Welcome back. I hope you're feeling better. Now get in there and kick some ass

 

[KingGheedora]

Wednesday

Workout: Stronglift B
Squat 90x5x5
Deadlift 85x5x5
OH Press 70x5x5
Cable Machine Pull-down 90x5x5

Skipped ab workout again. I tried doing pull-ups, but after one I could tell I wouldn't be able to do one set. Fuck! I made so much progress on the pull-ups earlier this year. I wonder if I'll be able to get back to where I was faster than before?

Still eating like a monster. Within a few days I'll be back to my old weight. hahaha, trouble is most of it is fat! I haven't really read much about it, but all there is to a bulk cycle is eating more than I burn right? I'm pretty sure I have that covered, and I've shifted over to more protein and fewer ice cream sandwiches.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
Still eating like a monster. Within a few days I'll be back to my old weight. hahaha, trouble is most of it is fat! I haven't really read much about it, but all there is to a bulk cycle is eating more than I burn right? I'm pretty sure I have that covered, and I've shifted over to more protein and fewer ice cream sandwiches.

Yes, you need to eat a caloric surplus to bulk. However, you also have to convince your body to turn that surplus energy into muscle instead of fat. Some good ways to do that:

1. Weight training.
2. Eating plenty of protein (~1g per pound of lean body mass)
3. Keep the caloric surplus moderate. If it's too big, no matter what you do, lots of the weight you add will be fat. A surplus in the neighborhood of 500 calories per day is usually reasonable.

 

[KingGheedora]

Monday

Workout: StrongLifts Workout A

5x5x95 squat
5x5x100 bench
10-10-9 inverted rows
20-20-15 push-ups
15-15-15 leg raises (apparatus)

 

[KingGheedora]

Wednesday

Workout
25 minutes on stationary bike, ~151bpm, ~9 miles
stretch

First cardio workout since being back, not counting using my bike to get around town on the weekends.

 

[KingGheedora]

Wednesday

Workout: Stronglift B
Squat 100x5x5
Deadlift 95x5x5
OH Press 75x5x5
Cable Machine Pull-down 100x5x5
Leg raises 15x3

Working late and making up excuses/being lazy, so I've only been getting into the gym 2x a week, and haven't really started in on the conditioning. I gotta get in at least 3x.

 

[KingGheedora]

Saturday

StrongLift A
5x5x105 squat
5x5x105 bench
10-9-8 inverted rows
20-20-14 push-ups
15-15-15 leg raises (apparatus)
10-10-10 sideways bends

Running tomorrow.

 

[katank]

Good to see you back at it. Just two pieces of friendly advice. One is to go to 1x5 on DLs. Stronglifts recommends 5x5 on every core exercise except for DLs. Two is to do pullups rather than cable pulldowns. It's a lot more functional and actually works differently.

 

[KingGheedora]

Thanks. I'll move to doing warm-up sets of lighter weights and then doing a little more weight for my official set.

As for the pull-ups, I tried doing some when I got back in the gym after being sick and couldn't really do them so I moved to cable pull-downs. I was doing pull-ups before I got sick, and I'll move back to them next time I'm in the gym. If not unassisted, then then assisted.

 

[KingGheedora]

Monday

Workout: Stronglift B
Squat 110x5x5
Deadlift 65-75-75-100 (5x each set)
OH Press 80x5x5
Cable Machine Pull-down 110x5x5
Leg raises 15x3
25 minute "random hill" on bike. 19.5 mph avg.

Gym was way too crowded, assisted pull-up machine was taken and the cable pull-down was free so I stuck with that this time... I did switch to 1x5 on DL's, with warm-up sets.

I've been eating a lot of junk the past few weeks since I've been back at it, and not following 2 week bulk/1week cut plan.That's okay because I got back to my original weight but with a slightly higher body fat %. So this week is my first cut week. Cleaner diet, lifting 3x a week with bike rides after those sessions, and running on the days in between.

 

[KingGheedora]

I just noticed today that I rarely see people doing squats, DL's, or OH press at my gym. A lot of people doing bench and using the machines. Even the times I go when it's super crowded like today the power rack is almost always free, so it works out in my favor. In less than a couple weeks from now I should be back up to my PR on squat, and well past my PR on DL and OH press. Feeling pretty strong. I've been half-assing this StrongLift routine (only 2x a week) for the past 3 weeks and I already see a difference in my body appearance, strength, and how I feel. Focusing only on lifting and not just mixing it into my boxing routine when I can, the gains are pretty fast.

I can see why people talk up these routines like Starting Strength and StrongLift so much now.

 

[KingGheedora]

Tuesday

Workout
20min. interval training on exercise bike
1 mile treadmill run, 11:34