Welcome to the first ever Ronin Fitness Blog! I don’t know why it has taken so long for me to think of this, but it has finally dawned upon me to document one of my training cycles! To put this into context, around 18 months into exercising regularly, I had gotten really into MMA and combat sports in general; and with it, I became educated on what the fight camp was. In essence, I took the idea of a 12 week period of a structured weekly training regime, and used that to formulate my training for the year. While there was no fight at the end of the 12 weeks for me, there was the reward of a week off to let the body, and equivocally, the mind to recharge, or as I term it: ‘press the reset button’. What this meant, was that it ensured that 4×12 week cycles per year are being fulfilled, with approximately 4 weeks of rest spread in between, periodisation to cut the story short. This methodology has served for me over 10 years now and has been one of the major cogs behind my consistency to the cause. As time wore on, the campaign could possibly last as little as 11 weeks, or as long as 14 weeks, while the rest periods for a couple of years lasted as long as 10 days, but is now around 8 or 9 days maximum, although the end of the year generally does demand a good 9-11 days, in order to prepare oneself for the challenges that the year ahead brings.
BASE CONDITIONING WEEK 1:
So here in July 2019, this time a week ago, I was preparing to start my 3rd cycle of the year, the start date to be succinct, was to be July 15th. My week off began with my return from Poland on July 7th; as those of you that follow me on Instagram will have seen, I spent some time during 3 of my 4 days I was there in the gym, however by the time my week off had drawn to a close, I was recovering from what had felt like a rock n roll tour; having partied hard in London on June 23rd, for 3 nights straight in Warsaw and then celebrating my 29th birthday for a 2nd time on the weekend of July 13th! So, it comes as no surprise then when I say that this was probably one of the harder starts I found to make to one of my campaigns, in fact, I must make an admission, I literally slept through virtually all of Monday! I may have dragged my carcass up at around 21:30 that evening, however it must not have been until around midnight that I finally got out of the fog I was in, by such time however, it had become obvious that without the nuance of the training regime being complete, there was likely to be no ‘meaningful’ training take place that night.
Before I progress with what I did do that night, I should propose some more background first of all. My first 2 weeks of the scheduled programme is what I call ‘Base Conditioning’, this is a term a took from an old influence and mentor in my MMA applied strength and conditioning/training: Eric Wong and his classic book: Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning. As the name suggests, it is designed to prepare the body and mind for the rigours, and routine and intensity of the weeks to come; kind of like how your warm up should prepare you for the task at hand, namely, the workout/class itself.
So back to the night of Monday 15th July, having seen the clock hit 02:00, I just got my night time routine in of 150 press ups, 150 squats, a plank whilst doing 150 neck raises, and 50 pull ups; it was a cop out somewhat, but it was something nevertheless! The base conditioning week, I normally train no more than 5 days, so the next 4 workouts would likely feature: 1 weight lifting session, 1 weighted vest circuit, 1 Muay Thai class, and 1 wrestling class, with the weekend to recuperate. Tuesday wasn’t much easier either, having gone to work, I was again tempted by sleep, and boy is she is a seductive mistress! I was out for the count for over 5 hours once I came home from work! Thankfully, I was more proactive this night, as I slapped on that god-forsaken 20kg vest and training mask, and go to work on my circuit. I weigh around 67-68kg; so trying to manoeuvre with a 20kg vest, whilst your flow of oxygen is mitigated is borderline toxic, I know! However, it is a brutal workout, one that I have no shame in admitting has brought me to tears before! The usual workout consists of 8 sets of 9 exercises, completed for 8 reps each, however, as this was the first of the campaign, it was reduced to 6 sets; 4 completed with the vest on, and 2 without the vest; let me tell you, you feel like you are flying once that sucker has been removed! The irresponsible timing of the workout meant that I would be eating far later than I would have liked, nevertheless, before I went to sleep that night, I would manage to will myself to complete the voluminous body weight regime before I hit the sack again.
Wednesday would see me return to Team Fearless for Thai Boxing, following a 3 week absence. It was a nice class to return to; the intensity wasn’t too brutal, and I was able to get a few rounds of sparring in, (one of which saw me receive a kick to my head (thanks cuz!), and another, against a much taller and longer guy), followed a couple of rounds of pads. It was brilliant for the heart, the mind, and it goes without saying, the body. It never ceases to amaze me that how just a couple weeks out of the game: how rusty your conditioning becomes; how heavy your feet feel and how blunt your sharpness becomes! Alas, the only way to rectify these things, and get back to the place you were previously, is to jump straight from the frying pan and into the fire! 24 hours later, with a sore neck, and sore pair of quadriceps; I returned to my bread and butter: wrestling. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of the class structure, however, the diet of technical drilling followed by a few rounds of live sparring was just what the doctor ordered! Of course, on the night time of both Wednesday and Thursday, I done my bodyweight routine, as painful as it was, as much I was lacking even the motivation to do it (it was actually borderline apathy if I’m being honest); it still got done, and that, like many things in life that you pursue is the perhaps most profound thing of the whole story.
I had meant to close the first base conditioning week with a session of weights on Friday, however, those sleep demons are so seductive! Truth be told, I had only slept 3 hours or so the night before, so my plan was to get home and have a nap for a few short hours, before lifting some iron; instead, I didn’t end up waking until 02:50 am! Had I not had work in a few hours, I’d have still trained, however, in this instance discretion was the better part of valour, so I wrote the day off as a rest day, and instead, lifted on Saturday. It was a brilliant workout, taking all of the compounds: squats, deadlifts, military press, bent over rows, clean and press, chest press and lat pull downs; I done a couple of sets of each exercise at around 90% or so of the weight I would have concluded the last campaign lifting. This method is excellent for getting the body back into the swing of things as far as the lifting is concerned, while not becoming immediately demoralised by not being able to lift totally as heavy as you would have done the last time you would have lifted. All in all, while the first week base conditioning was somewhat disjointed, and not met with the same enthusiasm as I expected, it was done nonetheless, and the strength one draws from completing the work even you are not in total alignment is absolutely invaluable, moreover, a new week lay ahead to make amends for whatever went awry, and to build on the early gains made.
BASE CONDITIONING WEEK 2:
This was supposed to be a weekly publication, however, it is already Saturday night of week 2, so it’d be silly to produce week 1 now! So the story continues; after a rest day on Sunday where I ate roti, ice cream, cake, chips and kebab (not all at once mind you!) and drank nearly a litre of Tango; I was back on the grind again on Monday, and again, another night of scarce sleep would follow… So I think you know what was going to happen next when I got home; yep, you guessed it, I crashed out! It wasn’t my intention to do so; to the contrary, I had planned to go to the alley on my road, and bust out some sprints, sadly, when I arose from my slumber sometime after midnight, no roadwork would be getting done. I spent a good half an hour contemplating how I would go about things now; do I write this day off and just do 5 straight days between Tuesday to Saturday, or do I another workout instead? I would decide on doing my weighted vest routine, which will now be referred to as the ‘Crazy 8 Circuit’ (again, thank Eric Wong for that term), again, I’d complete 6 sets, again, it sucked, and again, I was happy I did it! Around 90 minutes later, I’d be doing my pre-sleep sets of push ups, squats, plank and pull ups, this time I’d bump the numbers to 155 of the former 3, and 52 of the pull ups.
To prevent this turn of events becoming a habit, (those who follow me on twitter, or speak to me in general, know just how much I talk about the significance of habits), I made the conscious choice to start working out almost as soon as I got home. Situation helped dictate circumstance also, as I went out for dinner that night, so I got an hour’s lifting in; this workout would be more structured as I performed: rows, deadlifts, squats and clean and snatches, with some pull ups, press ups, kettlebell swings, and jump squats; this work out will likely be what I do every Tuesday for the duration of this campaign. Shortly, after I performed my nightly routine of bodyweight work; the rain and lightning descended in all its glory; yes, my kinetic movements elicited the storm, contrary to what science will say…. LOL!
As an Indian, the temptation of a mix-grill is always around every corner; even for somewhat of a disciplinarian like I consider myself to be! While I have no aversion against the food itself, I do hate the digestion aspect of the food, and even with a helping of broccoli when I got home and a decent 6 hour night of sleep; this assembly of meat, curry and bread still felt as though it was sitting in my belly the following morning, and unsurprisingly, my weight that morning was 68.5kg, a near 1 kg surplus from the morning prior!
I didn’t help my cause by having 6 southern fried chicken bites and fries as my first meal on Wednesday, and even with near 90 minutes of Muay Thai that evening, I was weighing 69 kg when I got home, and more damaging than what the scale read, was the bloated feeling and look I had that night. Fortunately, it was likely just stored water, as my weight on the morning of July 25th was 68.3kg. The Thai Boxing was fun, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much sharper I was than I was the week before, even if I did take a few lumps to the face and the legs, and while I was left huffing and puffing at the end; I take it all in my stride knowing that next week, I will be even fitter, sharper, conditioned and resilient the next time I put the gloves and shins on. The trade off in the short term however were my jarred legs that made squatting a ball ache that night; again however, you are left with two choices: do the work or don’t do the work, and you bet your sweet ass that I did the damn work!
So, Thursday rolled around, with what was going to be my final workout day of the base conditioning phase, and I got to Fearless at around 18:40 and stated hitting the bags as I prepared for wrestling. My groin muscles and hips in general were so stiff! I was trying to kick, and I felt like an OAP haha, however, with the day being so warm (wasn’t it hottest day in history here in the UK or something to that effect?), I was quickly back in my groove as far as mobility was concerned, however the punishing humidity certainly had an effect on my intensity; a trend that would also materialise during the wrestling class itself. This sounds like it was immediately a bad thing, to the contrary however, it forced me to have spar much lighter, something which I am actually a huge advocate of; water wrestling as it is correctly termed, is wonderful as far as executing technique, analysing your surroundings and becoming cognisant of your options is concerned, and besides, with the gym feeling like a sauna, I was drenched in my own sweat following the conclusion of the class! I got home and rewarded myself with a Pepe’s: noodles, chicken, fries with some broccoli and garlic, with what was my cheat meal or earnt meal, if you belong to the Mike Dolce school of thought. Once that digested, I completed my final nightly routine of the base condition week, however, going forward, I’d do the bodyweight work before the food arrived, rather than after the fact; just to tie everything into a nice little bow.
So, there you have it! I finally concluded this thing, even if it did take a week longer than I’d have liked! It probably makes for better reading anyway, having the base conditioning week compiled in one sitting, rather than spread across two. I am still deliberating whether to do this weekly, or every 3 weeks or; in all likelihood however, I will make this a weekly thing, so get used to it. I prepare to start the campaign proper now, starting now with a tasty kettlebell circuit (I’d have sprinted, but the weather had other ideas, and I ain’t slipping for no-one!) Monday will see me resume Crazy 8 circuit, Tuesday will be around strength training compounds, Wednesday will by Thai Boxing, Thursday will see me wrestle, Friday will be the rest day, and then the week picks up again on Saturday with a time-under-tension based weight lifting session; more for aesthetics than performance if I’m being honest, before hitting the road again on Sunday and so on and so forth. Every night, bar the Friday will also see me do the bodyweight routine of push ups, squats, abs and pull ups, with the volume increasing every few weeks, beginning tonight, when I up the numbers to 160, 160, 160 and 55.
As always, you can follow me on both Instagram and Twitter @aragami9x, moreover, my DM’s are open as far as any advice regarding training, nutrition, mind-set, perspective is concerned; I will reply as soon as I can! Until the next entry, here is something to ponder:
“The nature of mastery is that the master can never enjoy their own work, even though it is a gift for everyone else to behold. What the master does own however, is that none of the spectators to its work can, is the process; that’s the only satisfaction the true master can enjoy from their own work…”
Goodnight, and God bless you all;
Steven
#RONIN, #RoninStateOfMind, #OSU, #Aragami, #RONINFitness
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