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Welcome to my Blog.

This is my first attempt at keeping one, my reasons for keeping this Blog are as follows

1. To clearly see my progress in my training as I will be keeping up to date records.

2. To help others with their own training by recording my exercises and goals and giving tips and ideas.

3. To help me reach my own goals, because if I put my goals for all to see then I have to achieve them.

4. I enjoy adding stuff to this site.

Goals:

I am writing this two days after my last competition.  As a team, we came home with a silver medal, which was great but my performance in the individual rounds could have been better. Having a little more mat time than my last competition I came away learning a great deal, learning about myself and other fighters.

So this experience has lead me to a long term goal, the thing with achieving goals is to break them down into smaller goals and reach these one at a time.

My long term goal is to win an individual gold medal in any karate event.

To achieve this I have set myself smaller targets to reach.

1. Lose at least half a stone, at present I weigh 16 stone and want to reach 15 1/2 stone.

2. Improve my fitness

3. Enter competitions on a regular basis

I will try to update this Blog on a daily or weekly basis until my goals have been reached.

Saturday 2nd June 2007

Met Lloyd at the running track today, We try and meet most Saturday mornings for a running session.  As the running track was in use when we got there, we used the five a side football pitch instead.

Shuttle runs using the width of the pitch x 10

Various exercises using the medicine ball (with partner and individual)

Stomach work with medicine ball and without

Very light kicks using focus pads.

10 One step roundhouse (each leg) 10 rear leg roundhouse (each leg) 10 one step hook kicks (each leg) and 10 rear leg hook kicks (each leg) all done without rest.

Roundhouse kicks starting with one and then two keeping leg up and then three keeping leg up all the way up to ten, this was performed both legs.

Gentle stretch to finish.

A nice steady session done in the blazing sun, Fantastic. 

Friday 1st June 2007

Morning run again today, 7am this is part of my new routine James wants me to do at least 3 40 - 45 minute runs per week first thing in the morning. He also wants me to keep my heart rate around 120 bpm, This I found impossible to do I would end up walking to keep it that low so I  just done the run at my usual pace.  To see my running times click Here.

Another thing James wants me to do is up my weight training sessions to 2 - 3 sessions per week, so this afternoon I went to the gym.

Bench Press - 1 warm up set, 1 working set, 1 rep max set (100kg) and another working set.

Clean & jerks 1 warm up and 3 working sets

Shoulder Press 1 warm up and 3 working sets

French Press 1 warm up and 3 working sets

To see my weight training exercises click Here not all the exercises are shown.

Thursday 31st May 2007

Morning run for me today giving me plenty of time to recover before tonight's squad session.  Very pleased with my run today as I went at a very relaxed pace just enjoying the run and the fresh air, ended up running only 37 seconds slower than my personal best. Which means I should be able to push myself harder and beat my personal best any time soon.

Went to see James Collier this afternoon (a nutrition consultant) www.healthyaction.co.uk  James has set a goal weight of 15 stone for me, And has devised a meal plan for me to follow click Here to see my meal plan. James has also made a few changes to my workouts which I will explain as I complete each one.

Squad Session this evening was very quiet just Lloyd and myself.

5 x 2 minute rounds of skipping with 30 seconds rest in between each round.

Moved on to pad work

One round 15 jabs, 15 left jab right cross combo, 15 left right left combo, 10 left right left right left combo.

25 back fists each hand.

Moved on to the big kick pad and did 25 reverse punches each hand. 

Kicking was performed on the focus pads in the following order.

25 one step roundhouse kicks from left stance.

25 right leg roundhouse kicks from left stance.

25 one step hook kicks from left stance.

25 hook kicks right leg from left stance.

Gentle stretch to finish, not a very intense session but got my heart rate up for around 45 minutes.

Wednesday 30th May 2007

As I spent all day yesterday with a stomach bug and most of last night feeling unwell, I was forced to take it easy today. Also didn't go karate this evening as I wanted to make sure I have recovered fully. Also weighed my self at the gym and had lost 2 lbs since Sunday, which normally I would think great but seen as I didn't eat yesterday it can't be that good for me.

My session today was done at the gym. I started with 30 minutes cardio on the bike, which for me is quite easy. This got me nice a warm and ready to do some exercises.

3 Sets of 15 Reps Burpees.

10 stair runs (up and down a flight of stairs).

3 Sets of 10 Reps Squat jumps (jumping onto a weight bench).

3 Sets of 10 Reps medicine ball press ups.

2 Sets of 10 Reps alternate medicine ball press ups.

3 Sets of 10 Reps medicine ball squats.

100 Reps of various sit ups.

Pictures of bodyweight exercises will follow at a later date.

Sunday 27th May 2007

I teach a private lesson on a Sunday morning and pass the gym on the way back home, popped in to see if I had lost any weight.  Still sixteen stone arghhhhh! Although I missed a few sessions of karate this week I still trained fairly hard and thought I might have lost something.  A friend of mine, James who is a Nutrition Consultant, was also training in the gym, so after speaking to James I am going to see him this week and he is going to help me with my diet.  Training has lots of different factors and diet is a very important part of training which I need to focus on more, you need to put the right foods in your body, not only to give you the energy to train but also to recover properly.

Done my gym workout while I was there so I can have a lay in tomorrow morning.

Bench Press - 4 sets with a maximum lift of 80kg 10 reps

Squats 4 sets with a maximum lift of 40kg 20 reps.  This isn't a great weight but I did extra reps and as soon as I completed a set I changed the weight and started my next set, this kept my work rate high.

Clean and Jerks 3 sets with a maximum of 40kg, again I kept the pace high and it got me breathing hard.

Wide arm chin-ups 3 sets with weights to help me (the chin machine works in reverse; the more weight you add the easier it gets).

To see my Weight training programme click - Here

Week commencing 21st May 2007 - Here