Johnny's Adventure

  I woke up quite early today, 3:00 am, due to a livid nightmare where I fell through some ice into a lake or something. That caused me to wake up launching forward from my bed. Besides that, I think today will be quite relaxing. Yesterday, I spent my day watching a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition. APJ Tour CHINA . It was interesting to see so many people competing. Especially during this "corona virus time". The only tournament I've been to has been a small Judo competition in California, this one was way bigger and more professional. It was cool to see my girlfriend compete in her weight range but she ended up losing by tapping out to a choke hold.   It took an hour and a half to get to the tournament. We arrived at 9 am and were there until the afternoon. By the time we got home we were both exhausted. I managed to make some nice Chinese food consisting of some okay pan fried noodles with a side of sour hot shredded carrots. Then, I clocked out early. Falling asleep ar

My days are very mundane but I am enjoying my time here. I'm using this time in Shanghai to develop my strength while trying to maintain the flexibility and agility that I gained at the Kung Fu School. The mundane part of my days is my fault because of my procrastination and laziness that I've developed.  Just writing this blog has been difficult because I don't have much to write about. I could write about what I do everyday for weight lifting/power training but that isn't very interesting (and I do that on my Instagram story). I could write about how my weekend was spent walking around Qi Bao at night eating burgers but there really isn't much to that story either. Still trying to figure out what to do. The Burger was really good though, Krusta's Burger in Shanghai. Before I went to the Kung Fu School there was a review I read that said something along the lines of, "Going to the Kung Fu School is a lot like college, you learn so much and challenge yourse

麻酱面 - Some really good (not spicy) noodles! Feeling a bit sore after yesterday. I'm so glad that all of my protein powder has arrived, I'm trying the On Gold Standard Whey Protein which is what my friends at Maling gave me before they left. This time I'm trying out their Double Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream flavors. Right now, I'm taking 2-3 servings (50-75 grams) of it a day as I don't want to give my body an excess amount of protein that just gets wasted. Now, next week I will try 3-4 (75-100 grams) servings a day to see how my body feels. According to my studying, you should be getting 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight.There is no way I'm getting that much protein through the food I eat in China. It has been fun learning this nutrition/exercise science but I don't understand it yet. Getting Close to 100 Pull Ups a Day Recently, I've been reading Zhuang Zi Speaks and some of the parables in there got me thinking. Throughout the book t

It must've been all of the workout videos and articles that I've been reading. My dreams were filled with me being a weight lifting coach last night. Then, there was the dream of me being stuck in some sort of dark maze. Which was odd. Last night, I thought about how I got here. There was a point in time where I was going to move back to Missouri and live with some friends but that didn't happen. I remember another point in time where I was going to go to college and become a programmer. There were many points in time where I was going to join the military. Somehow, I've ended up in a small apartment in Shanghai lifting weights and reading Daoism books.  How did I get here? Well, the whole four years of this blog will certainly help tell how I've gotten here.  Besides working out, I've also been reading Zhuang Zi Speaks which is a collection of parables. There is a lot of knowledge within this small little comic book. Right now I'm just reading the English

A Neat Pose, Low Stance Waking up this morning made me realize how fast the Kung Fu School is becoming a memory. Laying in bed I remembered how my morning was at the school. Waking up at 5 or 6 after sleeping in a 10 year old stiff bed. Preparing tea and breakfast after washing clothes. Then, train. Now, I wake up at 7 or 8, eat some breakfast and... not do much. Kind of in a "limbo". Yesterday was my first day at the gym. It's not a bad gym either, a small 24/7 gym with a treadmill floor, weight lifting floor and two separate rooms for classes and yoga. The only thing I didn't like about it was there wasn't a shower room and the weights were all over the place. Did a basic upper body workout that I read about on A Workout Routine . To be honest, I didn't feel like I "worked out" after what I did. Maybe I did too light of weights.  Didn't sweat, no sore muscles, no tired muscles. It did feel good to get out of the apartment and do something. Toda

 Man, it feels weird that I've been here twelve days. Almost two whole weeks and I haven't trained in so long. Though, I've made some steps to get back into the training routine. I joined a 24/7 gym so that I always have somewhere to go to train. In two weeks I've done so much but also have done very little. I've met up with JD (from minimal ambitions ) a few times and explored Shanghai all while learning about how the others from Maling are doing. As always, we ate some good food like burgers from Charlie's and Shanghai street food. JD will be heading to Spain at the end of the month to continue his own adventure.  A big thing that I've been fighting against is procrastination of what I built up during my time at the Kung Fu School . My blog, my Instagram and my Youtube. I did watch all of Samurai Champloo while writing some scripts for a Youtube video but my actual progress on editing videos has been... nothing. I've been procrastinating on lots of thi