Friday, August 9, 2013

Workout #4

I woke up with shoulder pain again on my right shoulder, though I wonder if it was just sore. My left shoulder felt fine, and then after today's session my right shoulder feels totally fine but my left shoulder is really sore. Such are the struggles of an old overweight beginner boxer.

Light day (no heavy bag, reduce total rounds)

Total rounds: 9.5

1) Shadow boxing - 3 rounds
  • 2 rounds in the beginning and one round afterwards
2) Double end bag - 1 round
  • Today's session was a little bit better. I can do a 3 hit combo but was unable to do a 4 hit combo or to do extended 3 hit combos b/c the bag was going all over the place. 
  • I still am not really getting the hang of bobbing and weaving with the double end bag. 
3) Mitts - 2.5 rounds
  • The trainer's been working me on a number of the same beginner combos. Today he threw in a number of weaves so I would react a bit. 
  • My reaction is pretty slow, to the point I feel myself moving in slow motion. I can see what he's doing but it's as if I can't react to slipping very well. 
  • I heard that beginners shouldn't worry about slipping so much, b/c it takes up too much energy, but rather focus on good blocks and good counters. I'll try and remember that, since I'm typically wiped out by the 2nd or 3rd mitt session. 
4) Light Sparring - 2 rounds
  • My partner was an experienced boxer. He was about 3 inches shorter than me but had really long arms, so our reach was about the same. 
  • As the taller guy, I should have been able to keep him at bay more with my jab but he was within  striking range when I used my jab so I wasn't able to counter very effectively. 
  • He was able to slip almost all my combos, and I only was able to tap him when he had already hit me. If we were in a match he might have even knocked me out, since he tapped me in the head at least a dozen times. 
  • After our 2nd round I was breathing heavily and I couldn't even hear his breathing. I have to improve my conditioning if I want to last 3 rounds, though we did two 3 minute rounds while my match will be three 2 minute rounds with 40 seconds rest. 
  • I need to work on my footwork. I find myself sometimes having my feet nearly parallel at times after throwing a number of combos, and of course I'll get knocked down quite easily. With my body type, I have shorter legs and a longer torso, I have to spread my legs a bit further and be more mindful of moving a bit more slowly on my feet. 
  • It's better to spar with someone much better than you. When I attempted combos he just blocked and let me try them, and would slip or just block them. When he did his combos, he started slow and then started throwing 3, 4 even 5 hit combos. After a while I couldn't even see where his hands were coming from, surprising since there are really only 6 punches in boxing and the jab is probably used 75% of the time. 
5) Speed bag - 1 round
  • I'm going to try and do the speed bag towards the end of my workout since my legs give out quickly, but my arms were hurting enough that I could barely go a full round on the speed bag. 
I did some situps and neck ups (situps where you just move your neck), and could only attempt 10 and 20. I hope to be able to do 100 sit-ups / 100 neck-ups / 50 pushups after every workout. 


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