Final Post

This semester was very interesting for me regarding my health and fitness. I think that on paper I learned more about health and nutrition than any other semester. After all, I was in this class and another class entitled Food and Nutrition. However, I think regarding my actual health, it was not too great.
Being the last semester of college ever and not having soccer I found myself going out much more and exercising less. I do not necessarily regret this, however, as I believe everyone should enjoy their last semester. What I am interested in is how I act in the future. I plan on getting back into good shape during this summer - the question is whether or not I will follow through with this plan.
I did learn a lot from this class about things I had never questioned or considered before. I think of yoga as an unbelievably important part of your fitness that is often overlooked. I think it is a required component for an overall healthy body.
Before, I had soccer as a motivational factor for being healthy. I like soccer and I wanted to be good, therefore I had to be in good shape. Now, that is gone. What I plan on doing is entering marathons and other athletic events. I want to get into biking or something new. Basically, I need some kind of a hobby that involves fitness. I would love to be good at yoga and I will continue it, but my body is so screwy sometimes I think that it is a lost cause. I think because we only did actual yoga once a week it was hard to see any progress in my body which was sort of annoying. However, I think that if I did it on a more regular basis I would be able to see results.
I'll be honest, sometimes I worry that in the future I will completely out of shape and become a fat couch potato. This is something that I do not want to happen, obviously haha. I am still young and compared to the average person my age I am in great shape so I have a head start. I just hope that I follow through and dont let myself down.

For whoever read this, adios and good luck in whatever you do in the future.

Finals Week

One thing that I find during finals week is that people spend 12 hours straight at the library and are super stressed out. I have always done well on finals and I think the reason why I do well is because I don't study for that long. Stressing out seems to be the worst thing you can do during such an important week. If you are at the library for 12 hours straight I'm going to go ahead and bet that you were productive during maybe half of that time.
Halas sports center is open 24 hours during the heat of finals week and it is open for a reason. After a few hours of studying I find it is neccesary to go workout or walk around or do something that does not involve studying. If you can give yourself a break you can come back to studying and actually be productive.
I may sound like a jerk here, but I simply find it annoying when people tell me how long they were at the commons for. When people bring pillows to the library I especially find it annoying. I am just saying, people need to relax a bit and what better way to relax is to do something like yoga. This week during finals I am going to try to do yoga each day to relax when my brain starts melting from studying so much.
But anyways, good luck on your finals everyone!

-Kevin

Mental Toughness

"Can you talk a little about the mindset, attitude, or mental conditioning it takes to do these workouts? What is that part of it like? Seems like it takes a lot of will/discipline to push hard like that? Do you have thoughts about how people can exercise their mental muscles in this way?" -Amy

     Although I am clearly not an expert, I think that your mindset about working out, as well as mental toughness, are just as important as any other aspect in fitness.  When I think about it, two things come to mind - Your mindset during a workout and your general mindset about working out.  They seem similar and do have similarities, but they are different things.

     During a workout, your mindset is so important.  I think we can all personally relate to this with examples, whether it be ourselves or someone else that comes in mind.  For instance, I can think of multiple times when I was at the gym for 2 hours or more.  The difference of those times is what I actually accomplished and I think this is where your mindset during working out comes into play.  The more you are into your workout and can take that feeling of "pain", that good pain we talked about in class, and see it in a positive light, the better the workout will be.  I think that one of the hardest things to do is to push past that initial feeling of fatique or laziness during a workout.  You may be on the 3rd lap of your run, first set of pushups, whatever it may be, when you get that first feeling where you just want to stop and call it quits is the point where you will decide to keep going and make that time worthwhile, or just give up.

     I have given up plenty of times because lets face it, it is the easy thing to do.  However, I know that when I get past that first feeling of laziness and fatigue I feel like I could go on forever.  I think the best feeling in the world is that feeling after a really long, hard run.  Yea, it may suck during the run, but afterwards it feels amazing. I guess what I am trying to get at is that if you can see your workout in the positive light, what you are getting out of it and how amazing it feels, you will have a successful workout.  However, if you begin the workout with a pessimist approach and never get past that, I just dont think you can get much out of it.  You will be much less likely to push yourself to that next level.

     Here is another example of mental toughness during a workout that most athletes can relate to.  I think Chris can especially relate to it because we played soccer together.  For soccer, our fitness test is a thing called "300s".  These are basically "feared" by the guys on the soccer team.  This test consists of 25 yard shuttle runs.  You have to go 25 yards and back (50 yards), 6 times (300 yards total).  You have to do this in under 60 seconds, then you get to rest, then you do it again, 6 times.  Generally when I tell people about this it doesnt seem difficult, but it is.  Anyways, the point of bringing this up is that this test in my opinion is 60% mental toughness.  When I came my freshman year I always struggled, always passed but always struggled.  Now, as a senior I always dislike doing them, but I do not worry nearly as much about not passing.  This is because I know I can do it, but also because the players that have been there and have done it many times have developed a mental toughness. We dont just give up and slow down when we get tired.  This is the kind of mental toughness that anyone in any sport or any type of performing arts develops with time.  You learn to push yourself to go further and faster.

     The other thing that I think is really important when it comes to mental toughness is your general mindset about working out.  I know personally that if I can make my workout a routine in some way, whether it be really specific (Mon/Wed/Fri at 2pm) or just saying I will workout 3 times this week I will be much more likely to actually workout.  As soon as I skip a workout one time, I am always more likely the next time to be like "well I skipped last time I can skip this time too."

     

     That is basically how I feel about mental toughness when it comes to working out.  Some people are willing to workout every day, some people are not.  Some people are willing to run one extra lap when they feel like they literally cannot move another inch, some people quit.  I think everyone has it in them to be the person that is mentally tough, but it is really difficult.  

I hope I expressed that in a coherent way. I tried. Please let me know how you all feel and if you agree/disagree.

-Kevin

Spring Break 09

     I basically just wanted to make this post to see if everyone else felt like there health went down the tubes over spring break.  I actually did not go anywhere for break, but I had a friend in town all week and we were pretty lazy.  We did go for 3 runs during the 6 days so far, but the longest run was only a little over two miles.  Also, considering how much we ate and drank and sat around, we should have been on the treadmill for like 4 hours every day.

    Before break, I had been working out a lot and felt really good about my fitness.  One thing that really is difficult about your fitness and conditioning, which I believe we touched upon in class, is that if you stop for just a few days you can really feel the impacts.  In order to get in really good shape and lose a few pounds, it takes weeks of good work outs and healthy eating.  Unforunately, as soon as you stop for a few days you can lose everything you gained.

Well, I hope everyone had a good break and was a little healthier than I was.  But then again, it is spring break and it is OK to be lazy every now and then. Laterz.

-Kevin

Nutrition

Through my Food and Nutrition class I have found a really helpful website for anyone trying to keep track of their diet.  If you go to Mypyramid.gov, there is a place where you can track your diet.  They have a huge database of foods where you simply search for everything you ate and then enter the amount that you ate.  After doing so, you have multiple options for analyzing the food you ate.  For instance, you can see all the different nutrients, how much you ate and how much they recommend that you have for the day.  I found this to be very interesting because a couple of days I had really balanced meals without even really trying, while other days I found that I did not get nearly the recommended amounts of certain nutrients.  I have posted below my diet from Monday of this week... For whatever reason I cannot get it to show the reccomended amounts... only what my intake was.  Anyways, I thought this was cool and would really recommend trying it out!

Nutrient	Your Intake	Recommendation or Acceptable Range
Food Energy/Total Calories (kcals)	1950	2760
Protein (gm)	53	56
Carbohydrate (gm)	270	130
Total Fiber (gm)	14	38
Total Fat (gm)	74.3	43.3 - 75.8
Saturated Fat (gm)	19.5	< 21.7
Monounsaturated Fat (gm)	28	**
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm)	22	**
Linoleic (omega 6) (gm)	19.3	17
Alpha Linolenic (omega 3) (gm)	2.2	1.6
Cholesterol (mg)	79	<>
Vitamin A (mcg RAE)	897.6	900
Vitamin C (mg)	151.1	90
Vitamin E (mg a-TE)	7.3	15
Thiamin (mg)	1.5	1.2
Riboflavin (mg)	1.4	1.3
Niacin (mg)	16.6	16
Folate (mcg, DFE)	357.4	400
Vitamin B6 (mg)	1.6	1.3
Vitamin B12 (mcg)	1.4	2.4
Calcium (mg)	530.2	1000
Phosphorus (mg)	953.8	700
Magnesium (mg)	283.5	400
Iron (mg)	11.3	8
Zinc (mg)	7	11
Selenium (mcg)	105.9	55
Potassium (mg)	2517	4700
Sodium (mg)	4163	1500 - 2300

Workout Update

Last week was the first week so far that I did not go to the MMA gym at all and that was simply because it was a really busy week.  I did, however, workout on my own on the punching bag 2 times during this week and these were both excellent workouts.

The following is the workout that I did last week on Tuesday and Thursday

5 Minute round on the bag in the following intervals

1:30 Fighting

0:30 Power Punches (As hard as you can)

1:30 Fighting

0:30 Fluster Punches (As fast as you can)

0:30 All kicking

0:30 Finish (Everything you have left)

Although 5 minutes does not sounds like a lot, it is a long time and it is extremely exhausting.

I did three 5 minute rounds with about a 5 minute break in between.

I plan on working out boxing/sanshou/mma at least 3 times a week. This can be going to a class at the gym or working out on my own on the punching bag.

This week I plan on working out Monday, Wednesday, Thurday, and possibly Saturday.

I worked out yesterday and it was an extremely good workout.  I actually went with two friends of mine and we did the following circuit.

One person resting

One person on the bag

One person doing situps and pushups

Each round is 5 minutes and we did that circuit 3 times.  So, each person was on the bag for three 5 minutes rounds as described earlier with the same intervals,  three 5 minute rounds of pushups and situps and three 5 minutes rounds of rest.  We were all extremely exhausted at the end of that but I felt good because I was recovering fast and I am not sore today.

I have decided that boxing on the punching bag is one of the best workouts you can do.  After doing it for 3 or 4 weeks I can already feel and see improvements in my body.  I feel stronger.  I think I may need to start adding a little more cardio into the workout.  Although there is some already, I do not want to simply gain endurance in my upper body and lose everything I have from soccer in my cardio and legs.

Thats all for now.

Yoga

So far in my Body Conditioning and Injury Prevention class I have done two yoga sessions. The format of our class is two days a week. One day is lecture in which we have been discussing the bones and muscular system. The other day is a studio session. During these sessions we do yoga and ab workouts. These sessions are very interesting. I have never yoga before so everything we do is very new to me.
I really enjoy yoga. I would say that 70% of the yoga I enjoy and the other 30% is a bit uncomfortable for me to do. When I say uncomfortable I mean that I am tight in certain areas and find some positions to be difficult for me to do. I have been trying to recognize which positions are difficult so that I can work on them and get better. The one area on my body that I have the most difficulty with is my hips. Even when we are in the lotus type position to start the yoga session it is impossible for me to keep my hips down. Most of the positions I enjoy, however, and I can really feel the stretching going on in these positions.
I can tell that I will get a lot out of yoga. The flexibility aspect of yoga will really help me when it comes to my MMA workouts. One thing I have always noticed is that people that weight train seem to do it at the expense of all flexibility in their body. I know that to be an all around athlete, and a healthy athlete, flexibility is something that you cannot ignore.

     For example, in Sanshou, one of the fighting forms I have been learning, you must be able to do kicks.  In order to be able to strike a person high, you need to be flexible enough to be able to get your leg up high.  Furthermore, in ground techniques it can help to be flexible as it will allow you to escape certain holds and submissions.

Interesting.

     So, the other day I went to the library and checked out 2 books on yoga.  There were many books on the subject, as there are various topics regarding yoga: metaphysics, religion, etc..  I chose one book that really focused on the practice of yoga itself.  This book had chapters on breathing, positions, and my favorite, the yogic hygene.  

     The chapter on yogic hygene was one of the most interesting and surprising things I have read in a long time.  The chapter basically discussed all the different ways people who practice yoga cleanse their body.  This involved many very disgusting techniques.  They would be very disgusting to write about, but I will give you an example of one of the less disgusting ones. People who are advanced at yoga used to(and I suppose still do?) be able to control their body inside and out so well that they could force their large intestine to come outside their body at which time they would hold it in their arms and clean it.  Yes, this is one of the less digusting techniques.  

     Some of the other techniques are still used today.  One specific one is what people think of when they use a Neti Pot to clean out their sinuses.  Although some of these techniques were shocking, the bigger picture, and what I got out of the chapter, was that people who practice yoga religiously can control every aspect of their body.  They are very focused and can single out nearly whatever muscle they wish to.

     I have a Thursday night class which is over two hours long and I spent the whole time reading about yoga and a lot of the time was spent reading about this yogic hygene chapter.  This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, and there is much more to read and learn about when it comes to yoga.

This week

     So far this week I have spent about 6 hours at the gym doing MMA classes and I plan on going once more this week for 2 hours.  

     On Tuesday I did sanshou basics class which was awesome. I learned a couple striking combinations.  This was really fun but really tiring.  Tony is hilarious. At one point he showed us a move that was him striking the opponent in the head about 3 times within 3 seconds. He told us that in American MMA you cannot strike an opponent in the head when they are down BUT in Japanese Sanshou this is legal.  I asked him if this could kill the person and he said "oh yea." Ha.

    After the Sanshou class we did some MMA and then cooled down and stretched.  I really enjoyed this class and think I could get into Sanshou.  It is really useful for fighting, self defense, MMA matches, etc...

     

     Last night was the last class I went to. This class is called "The Eliminator." I saw this and knew I had to go.  The class lasted for an hour and a half and was unreal. Zero breaks.  We just did crazy stuff for that amount of time.  Tony amazes me because he does everything with us, he teaches every night and does most classes, he literally just does not get tired. At one point we went from squat jumps to pushups. If you stayed with him you probably would have done 70ish slow good pushups.  Everyone in the class was pretty much just on there stomach moaning at the end but Tony was still going strong. Keep in mind that this is after a bunch of other stuff we did.

That is my week so far.  3 nights, 6 classes, 6 hours.  I feel good about this all so far and know that if I keep it up I will be in ridiculous shape.

The First Day

     I went into the MMA gym on Monday and signed up for the classes.  I had very little clue of what I was getting myself into - all I really knew was that I was interested in MMA and the fitness benefits from it.  

     I met Anthony Marquez and he gave me all the information about the gym, I got some shorts and a shirt, and paid the money.  After I changed into my new shorts, I immediately started my first class.  I wanted to get right into it.

      The classes at Extreme Kung Fu Wushu Training Center are all in one hour time slots.  The first class I went to was a MMA class from 7-8.  The trainer put on some metalish/hardcore music and goes "lets warm up."  

      Next thing I know we were jogging in a circle on a mat, dropping to the floor and getting back up (Sprawling) at his command, doing bear crawls, crab crawls, pushups, situps, etc. for about 10 minutes straight. I remember thinking to myself wow I can't even move anymore. Yes, within 10 minutes of my first class I was exhausted.

      Keep in mind that I am in pretty decent shape. My cardio is pretty good as I played soccer all my life and workout on my own regularly. 

      After the warmup we worked on escaping from the mount. I had a partner that was about my height but with about 15 pounds on me. I had wrestled for about a year when I was younger so I knew some of this stuff and with fairly strong legs I did alright.  But, then we switched to new partners and I got an asian kid named Nolan.  Nolan is about 4 inches shorter than me and i must have 20-30 pounds on him.  He was ridiculously strong and talented.  I actually think he works at the gym and I know for a fact he has fought in a real MMA match before ( I found it on the internet).  Needless to say, he dominated me.

     After I was getting crushed by him, I told him that it was my first class ever.  He then took it easy on me and actually taught me a lot.  I really appreciated that.

     We did stuff like that for the rest of the class.  Then, the next class was a Sanshou class which I also stayed for.  

     Once again, I had no idea what I was doing.  We warmed up for about 5 minutes during which I just jumproped the whole time... this was actually really tiring.  Anthony then got the rest of the class going and then showed me the basic stance of sanshou and how to do a proper jab.  I basically just shadow boxed for the next hour which was really exhausting.  I moved on to hitting the bag towards the end of class.

     We all cooled down and stretched at the end of the class.  It was now about 9:20 and I was done with my first MMA class.  I felt really really exhausted but proud of myself. I knew that it was what I wanted to do, but getting myself to go to the gym and sign up as well as get over the initial fear of the class and being new was the hardest part.