Workout of the Day: For the Faint

People usually gain weight over the holidays because there's an abundance of rich food around, lots of socializing and little exercising. In my case I seemed to up by eggnog consumption along with Strong Balls aka Strongbow Cider and Fireball whiskey while eating randomly and sporadically. McDonalds' new mozzarella sticks hit the market so you can be Damme sure I tried those...twice. I have been keeping up the working out though, for example on this past Wednesday when I met Jean-Claude Van Damme I pulled a double.

In the morning it was fasted cardio where I alternated the treadmill and elliptical. To spice things up I incorporated walking backwards, side shuffling and lunge steps on the mill while over on the elliptical it was all about intervals while pedaling forwards then backwards. After meeting JCVD and before dinner out, I hit the apartment gym for a quick but spasm inducing Back and Triceps work out:

Chins/Bench Dip/EZ Bar Row/Lying DB Extensions/Chin Row on Treadmill/Cable Kickbacks and repeated for 4 rounds before throwing in some delt moves to pump up my shoulders.

You know I'm all about the empty stomach workouts in the AM. But fasted training is an experimental beast. Dolph Lundgren suggests going for a long walk upon rising since your blood sugar is low and the body will resort to fat for energy. It also gets you outside and clears your mind. JCVD has been known to pedal on the bike for 40 minutes after tea and before food while for Charles Bronson it was coffee then a 2 mile run. Arnold gets in a morning bike ride and slams weights in the evening. The Rock does 35 minutes of fasted cardio on the elliptical before breakfast and then hits the weights. For me it's better to just get up and go after a few glubs of water. Sitting around too long I'll start to get hungry and lose the zeal. But the gym didn't open until 7:00 AM on Saturday and I woke up at 5:30. So it might not have been my best idea to wait it out then get in an intense session.

Kettlebell Swing/Chin/Incline Push Up/Step Up/Handstand Push Up/Battling Ropes/Dips/Rope Climb Machine/Back Extensions/Rowing Machine

As you can see, that's 11 exercises and I was going for 3 rounds. I felt good and pumped but made the fatal flaw of taking a sip of water between my 1st and 2nd rounds. That plus my intense aspiration of perspiration lead to feeling like I was going to pass out or vomit by the end of my 3rd round. I can chalk it up to low blood sugar and maybe pushing a little too hard but after 5 minutes of lying on the floor in a cold sweat, I felt great and went on about my day.

What the Flick?! Big Trouble In Little China Remake

1986's cult classic Big Trouble In Little China is one of my favorite movies. I saw the oddball tale of blowhard trucker Jack Burton who gets caught up in a kidnapping, in between rival Chinatown gangs and ancient mysticism complete with sorcery on cable channel TBS one night as a youth and have loved it ever since. Rumors of a sequel have long persisted with a TV show once bandied about. The closest we've come is an ongoing comic book series from BOOM! Studios. Although the film has lived on through cable, VHS and DVD, it was still a flop upon release. Costing a sturdy $25 million bucks plus marketing, the film only brought in $11 million at the box office. On their entertaining commentary, director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell talk about the film's legacy with the actor wondering if the film has finally made it into the black after all these years. Carpenter answered that by simply asking, "where are my checks?" so by Hollywood accounting, the film has not made money.

News of a sequel hit the internet like a bolt of lightening Monday night with news that Thor and X-Men: First Class scribes Ashely Miller and Zack Stentz pitched an update to rights holder Fox and closed a deal to script. The bigger news? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was in talks to star as Burton and produce as the original is one of his favorite films.  Miller is a convention staple, appearing on numerous panels on genre flicks and writing so his heart is obviously in the right place. Johnson is coming off his first solo headlining hit, San Andreas, after years of reinvigorating franchises while being unable to launch his own. At first glance, he seems like a terrible choice. His over the top persona and invincible physicality would negate the original character who was always in over his head, talking a big game then getting kicked across the room and not being able to hold his own in a fight. Sidekick Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) and crusty cool old guy Egg Shen are the real heroes of Big Trouble as they're the ones who fill us in on what's going down in Chinatown and Chi punches, kicks, flips, flies and sword fights his way through goons while Burton knocks himself out or gets trapped under a fallen villain and misses the battle.

Beyond that, is Hollywood really going to bankroll a film where the cast is 90% Asian? If you'll recall, the original has Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall and Kate Burton but every other significant role is filled by the likes of James Hong, Dun, Victor Wong, James Lew, Donald Li, on and on. This is the studio that gave us a totally white version of Orange County on TV and the showrunner removed minority characters from scripts. AKA a Six Demon Bag of slightly racist and melodramatic lame. They also botched the original release by A) not getting the movie and B) having no idea how to market it. Head of studio commented that Jack Burton wasn't too good of a hero, completely missing the point. Johnson is a funny guy, maybe he sees this as a chance to go back to doing some comedy that isn't kiddie friendly like The Tooth Fairy or The Gameplan. If he diffuses his physical presence by constantly being beat up by mystically strong baddies, having no idea what's going on, talking a big game but ending up with lipstick on his face, etc, it could totally work. But if he plans on just bulldozing his way through tossing funny one liners and not knowing he's supposed to be the sidekick, we're in Biiiig Trouble. And not the Tim Allen ensemble cast kind.

Con-Man: WonderCon 2015 Friday

We only got about an hour of floor walking in for Friday but it proved very lucrative. It didn't seem too packed around the Anaheim Convention Center yet as most people were walking out as we were headed in. Lots of cosplayers outside by the fountains with Elvira, Xena, Rocket, Groot and Wheeljack from Transformers among them. Inside seems extra cavernous this year but having wider aisle ways isn't a bad thing, at all. Ran into the vendor I bought my Bishop from Aliens from at Long Beach Expo that Lance Henriksen signed. This time they had Neca's Robocop VS The Terminator figures for cheap so it was my first buy of the night. More walking around and we ventured into Warner Brothers' San Andreas Experience which was basically the trailer with 4D f/x, aka The Rock, Carla Gugino, Mr. Fantastic and that guy from Sideways surviving a huge earthquake complete with vibrating and moving chairs. I'm still not sold on the flick but it was a nice addition to the floor. Elsewhere I picked up some issues of awesome movie magazine Cinefantastique with Demolition Man, Captain America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Robocop II in their extremely deeply researched and reported sights.

Moving onto more of the floor there were big set ups for Valiant and IDW like at last week's Emerald City Comicon along with Image which has several panels this show to highlight their creative owned genre divisions. Boutique Bait had some awesome Street Fighter shirts along with Bruce Lee and Voltron socks! They were right next to Nerdist who had quite the display set up for interviews and podcasts while La-La Records has a show exclusive Masters of the Universe soundtrack featuring 2 CD's of music from the beloved Filmation cartoon. I'm on the fence about picking it up but the bastards also had scores to The Flash from 1990, The Warriors and The Phantom on sale! Arrrgh, choices. I ended up with The Phantom and will contemplate the other titles over the weekend, don't wanna blow my wad on the first night, amirite? Ran into La-La representative and #MovieBro Mike Joffe whom I met through my #ActionBro David J. Moore at Conan the Destroyer as we chatted about all the awesome soundtracks La-La puts out.

It was time to eat but nobody told this guy a frigging Mighty Ducks AND Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Game were going on so getting over to Orange staple The Lazy Dog Cafe seemingly took forever. Luckily their Whiskey Ginger (Jameson & Ginger Beer) along with lots of mac n' cheese, edamame and a burger solved all our problems. Our Lyft driver back was a cool guy, a vegan chef inbetween gigs who loved sci-fi movies too boot. We talked Aliens, Blade Runner, DC versus Marvel, Masters of the Universe and how Dolph Lundgren was a perfect He-Man. Tomorrow will probably be crazy but I'm stoked to walk the rest of the floor as well as check out some panels on writing, pulp heroes, Warner Brothers' presentation and Capcom! See you at the show!

Train in Peace: Andy Hug

Woke up this morning with a hankering to do some shadow boxing and jump roping as cardio.  They say working out on an empty stomach first thing in the morning helps you burn fat as your blood sugar is constant and low from sleep so the body turns to fat stores for energy.  From Dolph Lundgren swimming or walking to Jean-Claude Van Damme cycling to The Rock Elliptical machine-ing it, empty stomach morning cardio has plenty of success stories.

To begin, I opted for shadow boxing via one Bas Rutten, a tough yet hilarious Kickboxer turned MMA champion from the Netherlands.  I'm not sure when he released his workout series but I've had mine since the mid 2000's.  It contains four separate workouts:  Boxing, Thai Boxing, All-Around Fighting and All-Around Workout.  I remember doing these years ago when I had a full workout space complete with punching bags and they were very hard but a great workout.  If you've never had your shirt completely soaked through with sweat, try these bad boys sometime.  If you do the full workout, it's only about 30 minutes but you will be wiped out.

Warming up with 50 jumping jacks and 50 mountain climbers, I jumped into 2-minute rounds of Boxing and completed 6 of the 10 as I wanted to save some energy for jump rope as well.  The tapes also provide 3 minute rounds when you're ready.  Then it was time to jump rope so I put on some Youtube clips of Andy Hug, the Swiss Kyokushin karate champion turned K-1 kickboxer Grand Prix winner who sadly died at 35 from leukemia.  Hug was always in great shape: muscular, proportioned and cut to pieces.  There were plenty of matches, workout montages and greatest hits (literally) on Youtube to keep me occupied and motivated while skipping rope in my living room.

Again, I went for 2 minute rounds jumping in sets of 50 until time was up.  You can jump rope a million different ways and they say it's 3 times the workout of running.  So if you jump rope for 10 minutes, it's like a 30 minute jog since you're always moving and using your calves, quads, core, arms and shoulders throughout.  To spice things up, I started some rounds with a set of jumping backwards and in another I threw in intervals at 20 seconds working and 10 of rest.  In between rounds I did some ab work with reverse crunches, twists and the good ol' ab wheel.  6 rounds of that and I was feeling light and tight, ready to face a day of lounging.

One of my favorite matches of Hug's was against Stan "The Man" Longinidis, a computer programmer turned Kickboxing champion from Australia.  I had heard of The Man because he broke the leg of American champion and Van Damme co-star in Kickboxer, Dennis Alexio.  Longinidis utilized a Muy Thai style that relied on vicious low kicks and the two came out fast and furious, winging high velocity kicks and punches at each other before almost falling out of the ring.  Hug would win by Knockout after softening Longinidis up with a cracking head kick followed up by a perfect left straight right down the middle that laid The Man flat out on the canvas.

Train in Peace, oss!

Summer Cinema Shootout: May

It's Labor Day!  You know, the "yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country". Hopefully you're doing something relaxing or fun, unless you work in the service industry and are getting some nice Over Time.

Labor Day marks the end of the summer cinema season, not just big, special effects filled blockbusters but outdoor screenings in the grass as well.  If this summer's films taught us anything, it's that 1)  Hollywood crams too many movies into a short time and 2)  Audiences can only take so many big spectacle action films.


Thanks to surprise hits like 1998's Deep Impact, 1999's The Mummy and 2000's Gladiator, early May has officially become the start of the summer movie season.  It's great to be first before viewer fatigue sets in as Marvel learned since they've slotted Iron Man Two, Thor and The Avengers there, essentially getting while the getting is good.  This year my May consisted of:

Iron Man Three:  Great way to start the summer.  Fun and surprisingly funny.  Ben Kingsley's Mandarin was superb even if Guy Pearce's Mortal Kombat-esque villain, Gwentyh Paltrow's presence and inherent subsequent annoying media quotes and too many damn Iron Man suits flying around make you wonder where they can really take the franchise from here.

The Iceman:  Not exactly a summer blockbuster but a nice change of pace.  Small, character driven, well cast and executed.  Michael Shannon's killer warm up before going full out for Man of Steel.

Star Trek Into Darkness:  The summer's best use of Peter Weller.  Exciting and funny but with some real high peaks and really low valleys.  Still talking with Trek purists about their loathe for the film but hey, they tried to get Benecio Del Toro to play Khan!  Not sure if J.J. Abrams told Karl Urban to go complete Deforest Kelley... "Are you out of your corn fed mind?!"

Fast & Furious 6:  Good times with car chases, destruction and fights.  A couple truly "What The Fuck but I'm going with it" moments to keep you paying attention.  Diesel and company need to learn from Arnold that the hero shouldn't be noticeably bigger than the villain because when hero wins it's not exciting.  The Rock has become a caricature of himself though and not in a good way.  Well, he was great in Pain & Gain...

The Hangover Part III:  Got a little dark, got a little who gives a shit...I'd rather watch Old School.

May Champion:  Close fight between Iron Man Three and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Great clip of Peter Weller talking about how he got involved with Trek:

Ripspirational: Pain and Gain

2013 has brought us new movies from Stallone, Arnold, Statham, Van Damme and Iron Man but you know what just might be my favorite movie of the year so far?  Pain and Gain.

Why?  Because it's a movie about DOING.  Sure, their version of the American Dream is bigger and more fucked up than yours but damn is it entertaining to watch.  Michael Bay's mini budget opus still looks as flashy and hyper real as his astronomically expensive projects but doesn't quite bludgeon you into a coma with car chases, explosions and fighting robots.

It's becoming common knowledge that Mark Wahlberg gained 40 some pounds of muscle for his role as Daniel Lugo, personal trainer turned kidnapper and extortionist.  The former Marky Mark is a father of four now so training starts early, like 4:30/5:00AM early.  Wahlberg had gotten lean for Broken City but bounced back for P&G by hitting the gym hard, eating 10 meals a day, waking up in the middle of the night to eat and working with GNC on his own supplement line.  In the flick, Wahlberg is all neck, traps and arms.  He's so swole you're not sure he can put his arms down.   Check out an old school workout of his here and a new one here.

The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson plays a newly released convict with a kind heart and evil demons who falls in with Wahlberg's crew after meeting them at the local gym.  If you follow the big man's Twitter you know he went through a rigorous eating and training program to be in top condition for his big year of GI Joe, Pain and Gain and Fast and Furious 6.  A former college football player and professional wrestler, The Rock has always been in great shape.  Lately he's really been going for it, 4:00AM cardio, heavy weights, plyometrics and old school bodybuilding compound exercises.  Rock's eating plan had him consuming 7 clean meals a day and by the end of it, gorging on pizza, brownies and giant pancakes.

Anywho, back to me and the flick.  Growing up idolizing Arnold, Frank Zane and Jean-Claude Van Damme meant I was reading Flex Magazine and not knowing bodybuilding professionals do it for a living and are on some kind of supplementation (legal and illegal).  So watching this time capsule of a movie complete with hip packs, cut off jean shorts, white high top sneakers, Otomix workout shoes, Zumba pants, striped leotards and cut off flannels made me crack up regularly.

On a deeper level, it struck a chord because the characters GO FOR IT.  No half assing, no second guessing, they grip it and they rip it.   I know they're all vile human beings for it but you can't help but laugh at them, especially Lugo's attempt to assimilate into suburbia.  You can relate to his character's constant optimism, positive energy and can do spirit that is twisted by his desire to be more than the guy who is liked but to be the guy who is admired (and rich).

Not sure if further (and ho hum looking) adventures of Superman, Wolverine or The Wolf Pack are going to top this one.

Take a look at Wahlberg and Johnson's eating routine, you'll get full just reading it.