When you did that thread of 'adarq.org' is full of hard-working guys from the bottom end of the bell curve...' it made me scratch my head, we have had a lot of serious athletes here...they just don't stay very long.
I don't know why I said that, I'm a retard sometimes.
By the way, I might have to simply forfeit our contest and give you the crown and buy you an online gift card...... i have developed this strange condition where my hips lock up suddenly or groin, happens every 5-10 minutes randomly than goes away if i do some kind of awkward stretch, but always comes back.
stop lifting so hard for now .. lift nice & light & less frequency, but focus more on continuing to get in better shape, drop fat, etc.
also make sure you are properly hydrated. People who are worried about body comp often end up drinking less fluids to feel like they are losing weight, being dehydrated will make you more prone to injury - especially strains and aches.
also make sure you aren't stretching TOO MUCH, you could be hurting yourself. I'm the king of hurting myself stretching: i've hurt my hip twice really bad from stretching, the worst was sitting with feet together stretching my groin, somehow wrecked my hip for like 5 months or so.
lock up suddenly sounds kinds of nuts.. hope you're ok.
just don't be like raptor - he was stubborn while injured and just kept lifting "hard", hurting himself more and more.. he couldn't just tone it down and do light stuff/get in better condition etc, always had to do something "heavy" and he just could never seem to recover. That was his biggest mistake IMHO, try and not do that.
stubbornly lifting through pain becomes more of a "mental illness" .. i've done it, we all have .. recognize it & put health first. You'd be surprised how fit you can get with the health first mindset too.
really nice vid, but, the intro has me suspect. so he does all of that stuff, then it comes down to SMFR? Instead, maybe he did too much "nonsense"? Maybe doing lots of that stuff with the de-oxygenation mask was completely useless?
I was actually going to create a thread a few weeks ago titled "There are too many damn exercises".
I've gone from a small set of exercise, to lots of different exercises, to a small set of exercises, to a very small set of exercises. Most people want to do cool fun things, or fun looking things, hard fun things, hard weird things .. how much of this is actually needed & how do you gauge the effectiveness of something when you have so much variety?
no idea of Blake's actual training & how it was composed, but it seems like we've been in a phase where monotony is no longer tolerated. We're also in a phase where "different stuff" gets more attention, more likes, more views, more respect etc: it's alot easier to do that with videos like you posted above.
I think the biggest "turning point" for me, was watching the *infestation* of "s&c coaches" in fight sports. That's what really started to really make me cringe. I watched it in person at ATT (American Top Team), I watched it on tv/online such as Brandon Rios doing a bunch of fancy lameness.. Instead of spending that time actually working on a counter, throwing more punches, working skill etc, these s&c coaches got fighters doing lame footwork drills on an agility latter then doing a few hops. IMHO, completely useless.. That kind of coaching permeates everything now.
When I did my second internship at Memorial Fitness/Rehab, there was this functional trainer there. Guy was "brilliant", knew his shit. Knew how everything fit together, anatomically/kinesiology/biomechanically. He was so impressive to most people. He's a good dude, but, the training I saw him provide athletes/elderly/out of shape people was just pure BS. He knew too much for his own good & carved out a niche, offering up sub-par training to individuals of all fitness/athletic levels.
I guess i'm just annoyed with the exercise variety out there. I'm subscribed to a few S&C IG's and every other day they are doing a new exercise, promoting some new ground breaking ISOMETRIC PAP lameness.
It's just interesting how some people approach training so scientifically, and can't coach/improve someone for shit. It's science right? All we have to do is <insert program here> because it worked before, and tweak a few variables. I think "the art" mixed with "some science" is far more effective. An example of "the art" is what I mentioned above, some seasoned boxing coach / track coach knowing pretty much what to do to get their athlete at their peak & address weaknesses for a specific event, who rely less on science & more on experience, instead of letting some S&C coach come in and try to act like a "human mechanic" and just screw everything up.
A really good example of that also, is "RJ" from way back. Dude was science to the max, seemed to ignore alot of people who had more "experience" (on elite track/charlie francis forum, db hammer forum etc) which contradicted things he'd learned in supertraining & evosport etc. Not to talk shit on him, but that's just potentially a good example. Not sure what happened to him, would be nuts if he's an olympic hopeful now or something, that'd be pure wreckage for me. lmfao. Searched him and found his book: http://xlathlete.com/xl/events/engineering-an-athlete.pdf .. it was awesome that he wrote a book but come on.. It's probably an amazing read, would probably derail my training completely and have me doing all kinds of crazy isometric awesomeness. On the other hand, it's probably poisonous. Stuff like that, without the proper experience, can fuck your brain up. However, if you believe in a training ideology so much, that's a very important thing. So believing in your training, no matter how mediocre or useless, is absolutely essential & can still improve performance. That belief coupled with brutal effort, can unlock things even if the training makes no sense - as long as you're still getting in enough of the event you're training for. If some extraordinary belief in sub-par training can unlock more confidence mentally & drive physically, that can definitely improve race/competition efforts & such. S&C is weird.
dno.. been thinking about stuff like that for a while now.
i'm really addicted/obsessed with grapefruit now.. this is what I had after my early walk today:
I need to pro up and get me a grapefruit spoon:
kinda odd how i've just become so addicted .. i've had grapefruit off and on for a long time, but never have I been so addicted to it. Doesn't seem like i've gotten tired of it at all either.
6% bodyfat would be mean! Goodluck I know you can do it
thanks alot man! yeah the lowest i've been in ~7.x% caliper measured back at memorial sportscenter, when I was still boxing.. Was like ~144 then. Need to eclipse that this time!
I see 2 factors to this fight. 1 being GGGs age because he looked almost human in his last bout with Daniels. 2 being if going up in weight slows Canelo at all since hes a predominantly counter puncher. Either way this is going to be a great fight considering the style clash. My heart says GGG but like Adarq said, Canelo is a boxers boxer.
yea Jacobs is legit though. I think Canelo looked more human against Jacobs more so because Jacobs is enormous, has serious power, and can really box. But that size/strength won't be there with Canelo .. However, Canelo's boxing skills are something GGG hasn't seen in a long time. He had problems with Brook's boxing offensive ability but wasn't afraid of Brook's power - and Brook's defensive boxing ability is nowhere near Canelo's.
really can't wait for this.
As of right now, i'm going Canelo by UD 12. I think Canelo's cajones (sp?) in his career will also be the difference maker, think about what this "kid" has done already in his career, going up against a prime Floyd & such. Never backed down from a challenge. I think he's learned more in his career than GGG has. Just think that'll be the advantage that gives him the edge.
Also, I don't think Canelo will slow any due to weight gain. I think he'll look crazy sharp at 154. He's been filling in more over time, probably hard for him to get to 147 these days anyway.
Love both fighters, but got a special respect for Canelo because of the opposition he's faced.
My take on the fight was far different and I went in thinking it was just a theatrical fight. I now remember the McGregor thread adarq opened showing and discussing his attention to movements, detail, and body awareness. I had forgotten all about that but will say that the fight renewed my intrigue with McGregor and I definitely came in more passive if not pessimistic about the fight.
I was actually inspired by McGregor's effort and confidence. I think his mental strength is outstanding in that he believed he could win until the very end. That along with his detailed training inspired me more than anything. If anything, the Victor Ortiz fight was truly a farce, much more than this one. I thought that was a boxer who went in for the payday and mentally just imploded or maybe just gave in not thinking he could win. To this day I still don't know what happened there.
Well, Victor Ortiz is a known head case. He can't stand the pressure. He was actually putting it on Floyd a bit - though Floyd was letting him "BLOW HIS LOAD" (the popular terminology these days lmfao). Once Ortiz got dirty, he just became too apologetic and he let his guard down when the fight was back on.. And one thing you don't do with Floyd, is get dirty with him. He's the king of retaliation. Floyd's said it hundreds of times on video, he doesn't initiate anything dirty, but if someone gets dirty, he can give it back 2x. Ortiz violated the first rule of boxing, "protect yourself at all times", and Floyd ended him. Ortiz might have been able to continue physically, but mentally he's a quitter, he's proved that a few times. That's why I was surprised Conor even made it to the 10th, i thought he'd be done by 8. I saw Conor quit against Nate in their first fight. He did redeem himself in the second fight with Nate, so that put the "quitter" mentality to sleep a little bit. One could say he quit against Floyd in the 10th, he didn't throw a punch, didn't clinch, looked woozy af, didn't protect himself - that's just begging for a stoppage. But me personally, I think he was just toast. I think Floyd rocked him good with some clean shots & Conor was very fatigued, so he was just in that hazy dream-state, bell rung, no energy, just wobbling around the ring trying to survive. So i'd agree, don't think he quit.
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McGregor just posted a recap of the fight on instagram and I just think it shows he's actually an athlete. You can tell he's been thinking about why he couldn't last 12 rounds "under stress" which is the first thing that came to mind for me.
"Just coming back around after a whirlwind couple of days. Thank you to all the fans for the support of the fight and the event! Without your support we as fighters are nothing so I thank you all! Thank you to my team of coaches and training partners! I had an amazing team and It truly was an amazing and enjoyable camp, and honestly I feel with just a little change in certain areas of the prep, we could have built the engine for 12 full rounds under stress, and got the better result on the night. Getting to 12 rounds alone in practice was always the challenge in this camp. We started slowly getting to the 12 and decreasing the stress in the rounds the closer it got to 12. I think for the time we had, 10 weeks in camp, it had to be done this way. If I began with a loaded 12 rounds under much stress I would have only hit a brick wall and lost progress as a result and potentially not made the fight. A little more time and we could have made the 12 cleanly, while under more stress, and made it thru the later rounds in the actual fight. I feel every decision we made at each given time was the correct decision, and I am proud of everyone of my team for what we done in the short time that we done it. 30 minutes was the longest I have fought in a ring or cage or anywhere. Surpassing my previous time of 25 minutes. I am happy for the experience and happy to take all these great lessons with me and implement them into my camp going forward. Another day another lesson! Congrats to Floyd on a well fought match. Very experienced and methodical in his work. I wish him well in retirement. He is a heck of a boxer. His experience, his patience and his endurance won him this fight hands down. I always told him he was not a fighter but a boxer. But sharing the ring with him he is certainly a solid fighter. Strong in the clinch. Great understanding of frames and head position. He has some very strong tools he could bring into an MMA game for sure. Here is a toast of whiskey to everyone involved in this event and everyone who enjoyed it! Thank you to you all! Onto the next one! "
great write up by him.
he definitely is analytical, introspective, etc.. he doesn't just rely on his coaches or other people to tell him what's what. He's got more of that nerd-athlete mentality, instead of raw athlete, that's for sure. Well he has a combo of both, which is very impressive. nerd-athlete + raw-athlete = beast.
I disagree completely though about him being able to last 12 rounds.. The kind of stress he needed, would be a 10 round prize fight, and then a 12 round prize fight. They couldn't "risk" the money though, so they would NEVER do that .. and thus, could never achieve 12 round preparation for this fight. Plus, if he had to prepare against pro boxers who actually fight at 154, he'd be fighting some monsters - not guys who he would outsize. Also look at how sharp/fresh Floyd was in the 10th.. If he was worried about not being able to get Conor out of there in the 11th and 12th, it would have been an absolute onslaught of vicious punches.
It's cool that he's confident he could go 12 with someone like Floyd .. I think being "dumb/naive" about things is important. Is it self belief? Is it naivety? Or both? His self belief made it much more entertaining, that's for sure. But the cold reality is that, he was going to learn the hard way. From all accounts, Floyd wanted to end him in round 10. Let's imagine that's true, that he in fact did try to bet 400k on himself for a 10 round KO, and they prevented it, and he had his friend make the bet. That adds a whole new dynamic to it. It'd mean that Floyd had to make sure that Conor didn't die in round 6, 8, 9 etc. It also meant that Floyd had to turn it up in round 10 and get a stoppage. If all of that is true, the guy coming off a 2 year lay off, massive reach disadvantage, massive weight disadvantage, controlled probably 99% of the fight & basically was pulling strings on Conor.
So IMHO, when it really comes down to it, Conor had no chance. Conor believing he had a chance & TRYING to change the outcome of the fight, is definitely respectable. Pro boxers went in there against a prime Tyson with full intentions on quitting. Obviously Floyd is no Tyson but, to go in there from MMA and fight one of the best ever in a boxing match, to me that's like fighting Tyson.
I think this is the footage paulie released in response to connor releasing footage of knocking malignaggi out. He later on says that it was all staged and people actually fell for this footage. lol funny video. One thing I can't stand is malignaggi keep saying 'suckers' get over it.
look at Floyd actually HELPING Paulie try and save face ... Paulie acting as if all of that was planned etc. Floyd is literally giving Paulie a life-saver here.
Floyd is smart.. Paulie is not. I hope Dana White releases the Conor/Paulie sparring footage, would be great to see if Paulie really got clowned or not. I imagine it was "close" but in the clips I saw Paulie looked out of shape and slow.. So, if Conor schooled him in sparring, that's a major win for Conor. If Dana never releases the footage, it'll just make me suspect Paulie is the one telling the truth.
For me personally, I just hate how Paulie injected himself into this whole situation and won't go away.
Mayweather vs mcgregor smashes the may-pac ppv by 2 million ppv buys. I have mixed emotions about this, disappointing to see that a fight lopsided/onesided like this would generate that many interest but then I realize that it's not a boxing match it's a fight which we all know mayweather would win, so it's more of a exhibition, wwe wrestlemania, circus show fight to entertain the people rather than the best fight the best and therefore you attract non boxing fans because it's a theatrical fight on mayweather's part and then a chance for mcgregor to try and upset it.
So it is what it is a theatrical exhibition fight to entertain the masses.
so I just think the pool of potential buys is waaaaay bigger for floyd/conor, so it's expected that they sold more.. not surprising to me. Also I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing because of the fact that you're bringing in fans from all sides.
will post again later. basically 159-160 to start August, 152 today. so 7-8 lb of weight loss in August. Last night before sleep I rehydrated to my morning weight + 1 (155), and boom still 152. Good sign.
goal is low 140's @ legit ~6% body fat or so. Just want to get there and then re-evaluate. Want to get the "lightest/leanest" i've ever been. I feel like this is a good goal especially since i'm 35 now - as the years go by, we generally just pack on more fat lb, time to strip ALL of that (except essential) off .. I should definitely be able to reach that with determination (cardio) and eating clean.. it's not really a question of whether or not I can do it, just when, and i'd rather get there sooner than later. Walking is great because I know for a fact I can go out there and do it, without killing myself, and burn mostly fat cal.. it's just time consuming.
also woke up this morning, calves are sore but legs feel amazing, literally my first thought was - is the indoor gym open tomorrow? need to get some jumps in.. key point being, when I get really light/lean I also feel like jumping more. Need to get in a high volume jump session soon, maybe even tomorrow morning @ my favorite indoor gym if they are open. I'd jump in my XC flats with an extra insole, instead of my bball shoes, since this indoor surface is really nice.
Yeah a historical leaderboard would be nice, that way we know where everyone is/was at, that way we know where their journals took them and how they progressed.
cool! will post stats later .. I imagine once we get this going people will start posting stats. I'll also dig up some old stats eventually of people who aren't active anymore.