Mr Punch's Brand Spanking New Blog

[Mr Punch]

Old one here. (http://martial.best.vwh.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41449) Thought I'd start a new one as the old one was not titled as a blog, so many people didn't know.

I've linked the old one because it has some very useful advice for weightlifting newbs and people who have (had) lower back pain.

I hope to post on this one more often, but I've been posting less (and training more) recently, so it may well be sporadic.

[Mr Punch]

Background:

Aikido and other aiki based arts since 1990, used to train everyday, sometimes twice a day, always tested in live sparring sessions with friends who did karate, kf etc (no grappling artists at the start of that time other than a bit of judo). At the time I was sparring a lot (ten years ago) we took the TJA approach and used no protection. And yes, although we usually pulled techs we did sometimes go full contact, and yes, we did sometimes (frequently?) end up with injuries: mostly cuts, scratches and bruises but we had mild concussions, dislocations, sprains and stuff too. Teachers inlcuded h2h and riot police teachers, other LEOs and bouncers and their teachers. Emphasis on the practical.

At the same time (ten years ago when I was most active in these arts) we also sparred with bokuto and jo/bo. It was not of course full-contact, but as close as you can get.

At the time I could easily breakfall from pretty much anything on any surface, and we trained in every weather condition too! Now I'm a wuss (OK OK older and somewhat sensible).

Nowadays my involvement in aiki-based arts is strictly limited to exercises and mixing it in in my sparring (infrequently).

Most recently in formal aiki-based teaching I spent about 4 months or so with a geezer who'd learned hsing-yi and daitoryu aikijutsu and was teaching very fundamental daitoryu principles. This improved my aiki and wing chun and general fighting dynamics and I still practice his exercises. He has crazy skills, of the kind that I'm not going to talk about because I'll sound like a flake, but having met some serious charlatans and ki-weirdos in my time this guy changed my opinion of what is really out there. I stopped because of other commitments and some differences of outlook.

Yang-style tai-chi, three years, privates for fighting apps, and classes two or three times a week for wibbly health nonsense. Gave me a good overview of tai chi in general, and maybe helped with a couple of principles, but apart from some chi kung I do for relaxation and stretching, had very little I still use regularly.

Wing chun since 1996. Traditional approach but personally and privately again always sparring with other kfers, tai-chiers, karateka etc. Sparring was a trad approach again, with only gumshields and cups for protection. At the same time (in my wing chun heyday maybe 8 years ago when I was training everyday and sparring pretty much every day too) was also regularly playing around with a judoka and learning some rudimentary groundwork him (by getting owned... though I have to say, maybe I have some natural talent!).

Nowadays my wing chun is a multi-lineage group. We meet usually twice a week, and train forms, apps, chi sao, two-three step sparring, and once in a while full-contact sparring. The full contact is not as often as I'd like. The chi sao is a little too often. we do go quite hard though at times, and a lot more co-operatively at others. We often had light sparring sessions with 'guest' artists from other arts, though not as often as we used to, and I have arranged seminars with an MMA teacher.

MMA (Shooto based - ie, wrestling, BJJ, JJJ, Thai and boxing, with a strong emphasis on double-leg shots as a takedown, and sprawls). About two years, but on/off because of injuries and commtiments, so in terms of good intensive continuous training probably more like six months (sniff sniff). A lot of full contact sparring with protection: got a great chance to pressure test my wing chun and aiki principles and techs in full contact setting.

Would like to do more but can't see it happening for a while, and would also like to compete one day just for the hell of it.

[Mr Punch]

Oh yeah, and kendo: practiced over here for about four years. Still do when i have the time... would love to go for nidan asap.

[Mr Punch]

Sunday 12th.

Wing chun from 1030 till 1430 or so.

Lots of chi sao.

Were at my fu-bro's house with his dummy, so reviewed the first dummy form (had learnt up to 6, but due to thinking their were better uses of my training time than air-dummy since I don't have a dummy... largely forgot them again). Was good, and I was pelased to see how quickly it came back, which kind of made me not feel so bad about not keeping it up, but also made me want to do more!

Basic pole exercises. I can't do one of them, because it needs wrist strength I just don't have! Bit disappointed, as I've been weight-training and didn't know i was so puny!

Pizza and beer.

[Mr Punch]

Monday 13th.

Tabata push-ups.

Was very busy so didn't really have time to train. don't even remember how many I did... maybe 72 or so.

[Mr Punch]

Yesterday:

Warm-up:

Tabata push-ups: 78 (highest yet), only 10 from knees in the middle.

Tabata lunges: 92 (? can't remember) alternating same side, alternate and walking.

Tabata crunches: 126.

Light stretching.

Weights (at the moment I'm limited to the weights I have at home which are two dumbells with a max of 38.5 kg, will buy an olympic bar at some point soon I hope).

Was in a hurry and wanted to work everything pretty much so didn' really think intelligently about what I was doing, just put them up!

3x5x38.5 squats (I always go Ass To Grass... dunno if that' good or what)

3x5x38.5 DLs

1x5x28.4, 2x5x33.4, 1x2x38.5 (failure) overhead presses (I know I can reach bodyweight and over in squats etc but my overhead presses suck... don't know if this is normal for an untrained lifter?).

3x5x38 floor presses (no bench yet).

Cardio:

20 mins heavy bagwork, high intensity... felt like I was going to die!

Run:

Slow, 10 mins.

Cycling:

Very fast, 15 mins up and down.

Later, SLT, CK and BJ and stretching.

[Mr Punch]

OK lads, take it away: I welcome all criticism, comments, suggestions, encouragement, abuse! :D

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

so thats 85lbs per db?

if so that's no joke man ... good job.

[stricker]

Your aikido background sounds no joke either!

You got any particular objectives your working towards or weaknesses that need addressing?

[Mr Punch]

so thats 85lbs per db?

if so that's no joke man ... good job.Holy crap no! Not yet mate! I'm pushing it up all the time but I'll have to check with the db shop to find out the max weight they can take before I get much bigger!

It's actually really puny... those squats are using two 19.25 kg dbs: I'm a complete newb so the max I've pushed up is my BW (then 75 kg) for 5 in DLs and squats in the gym. Now I'm no longer in the gym so I'm going as heavy as I can (which is a measly 38.5) concentrating very much on getting perfect form (I'm still considering myself in rehab for my back) so when I can buy new an olympic bar and more db weights it'll be easier to increase quicker.

I've only just started ATG squatting so I want to make sure it doesn't eff up my knees as I have various recurring knee probs to go with the back.

Stricker, the aikido was surprisingly good. I had good teachers, I trained like a maniac and fortunately came out unscathed (tho maybe my knee and back problems are partly related). I say surprisingly, because I've had good results with aiki principles in full contact MMA sparring and in the street. I do think the principles aren't taught enough in aiki schools though (including the one I was at, good though it was), and there's an over-reliance on techniques, which makes for a dangerous cookie-cutter approach to SD and whatever.

Yesterday, really wanted to train, but was well tired after work and got home and slept like a log.

So... this morning got up at 5:30 to do:

warm-up

The back pain-prevention routine from the other thread.

weights

3x5x38.5 tiptoes superset with 3x5x38.5 DLs

3x5x11.75 bicep curls
3x5x11.75 hammer curls
(not interested in big biceps but want to get a bit stronger in the arms)

1x5x11.75 tricep curls
1x5x11.75 inverted tricep extensions (think that's the name)

ran out of time...

more tonight.

[Mr Punch]

You got any particular objectives your working towards or weaknesses that need addressing?Oh yeah... rehabbing and preventing further back and knee probs, and getting generally stronger.

Want to try cleans, jerks etc, and sometime maybe club-bells and/kettleballs just because I think variation is the best way, but would be far too worried about form for now and have no access to a teacher (my trainer went back to her home country).

Short-term: my wrists need some work, and my pverhead presses and bench really suck, and though I'm not sure how MA-related these are getting them a bit stronger can't hurt!

[stricker]

good objectives, now gotta tailor your training plan to address them :)

[Mr Punch]

Too sick to train for a week and a half, then too busy. :( Hope to train this weekend if my wedding doesn't get in the way too much! :D

[Mr Punch]

Been a bit busy with work and my wedding and whatnot, plsu still been kicking off the tail ends of some odd flu-type bug. Just been odd bits of form work and bag work.

Last week got back into the swing by religiously doing tabata push-ups everyday but one. A lot of lit says tabatas every day are a surefire way to overtrain, but I thought I'd give it a shot and see how it went.

No probs, I rested when it seemed like a good time (maybe Thursday, I don't remember). My count didn't really improve though and was below my PB of 76 (puny enough anyway!) in the low-60s. Also did a couple of tabata lunges.

Saturday I was busy again, no time even for the bag (got up early so can't hammer on the bag due to neighbours), so I went for the tabata pushups again and hit 82 with relative ease. Nice. New PB. Limited myself to only one set of kneeling pushups (before I had been doing kneeling pushups whenever I felt tired, but I think the new mental discipline helped me push myself a bit). Did regular, wide, narrow (killer in a mixed set), scapula (thought they'd be a doddle - bit of a break, but turned out to be one evil burn!), elevated and kneeling.

When I improve more, I want to throw in some plosive ones too.

Sat night drank my bodyweight, so was expecting to feel bad in the morning, but with plenty of water the night before and between drinks and a good diet Sun morning felt fine.

SUN: two hours of fu and aiki.

Went over basics of shihonage (like a standing figure four arm bar) and kotegaeshi (standard disarm shown in many LEO agencies) with my fu bro. This was very basic and slow, without any resistance, just to show him the basics.

Then a long long sesh of kicking drills basically involving one of us front-kicking to chest height and one of us deflecting and kicking through with bong gerk, rolling bong gerk, tan gerk. Then kicking a front-kick, being stopped and turning it into a side kick. Also worked knees of course by doing the same things from the closer.

Good sesh. My legs weren7t working properly after, because they were tired, stiff and bruised.

Decided I was weak in the kicking dept so later (my wife was away!) trained a lot more...!

Warm-up: Mc Gill's back exercises.

Tabata lunges (trying as much as poss to relax and stretch into them: alternate legs, full set on alternate legs, walking, same leg),

Tabata kicks to the heavy bag (first front kicks, then another full set of bong gerk ('roundhouse' knees))... then mixed sets until basically I couldn't lift my legs any more.

Tabata sets of sprawl drills (****! that's a killer!)

Tabata sets of double-leg drills (not good on tatami mats, even with jogging pants it burns the knees and having to wear socks makes you slip and gives you serious strain on your knees even slowly)

Squats 3x5x38.5
DLs 3x5x38.5
Floor press 3x5x38.5

30 mins of yoga (mostly sun salutation sequence plus triangle and warrior) to warm-down.

That ws a good workout, but did have rather too much muscle strain to anything other than stretching last two days. Tonight gonna train again.

Really have reached the limit of my weights (except for the overhead presses) and can't afford to buy any more before Xmas, so trying to vary my exercise routine as much as possible. Gonna try and get some side presses and windmills in tonight, see how those go.

[Mr Punch]

Was busy with work. Just tabata push-ups every day(ish) till 21st.

21st:

Bodyweight training:

warm-up: push-ups, crunches, squats.

Then supersets of various things, mostly too easy... can't remember the exact sequence, but includes things like 15 push-ups followed by 3 x 8 planks on each side, repeated twice. The only one that taxes me is the three sets of 16 Bulgarian split squats superset with 15 elevated push-ups, but not that much.

Still, it's a workout.

23rd:

two hours of chi sao with one advanced training partner who is making leaps and bounds using a few things we've shown him recently, and with one one-year noob, who still doesn't really seem to get the point of chi sao, has shoulders as stiff as planks and is mortally afraid of getting hit even lightly (maybe he has a low pain threshold!).

24th:

Fak sao from BG: one-step drills, three-step drills and chi sao working the same concept.

Good session. Improved my understanding and application of BG.

Yesterday (27th):

Tabata push-ups (PB 88 - various : regular, wide, narrow, kneeling, elevated, scapula, fist)

Tabata crunches (PB 179 - regular McGill's, alternate shoulders, bicycles)

Tabata lunges (88 - walking, alternate, same-side)

Squats 5x5x39.5 kgs
DLs 5x5x39.5 kgs

Kicking drills.

Tabata kicks (179 - concentrating on post leg form and keeping light on my feet - bong gerk knee raises, bong-tan knee raises, front knee raises)

Today (28th):

About two hours, few rests.

Warmed up with aikido ikkyou kaeshi waza: ikkyou, ikkyou and returned, and continuous punching ikkyou drill. Largely co-operative, later bit more resistance but used it to concentrate on footwork and finding centre quickly, and as a basic side and bong sao stretch.

Close range elbow drills from BG: lap sao against elbow-elbow to jaw, kap jarn to disappearing bong control against elbow and straight punch/back fist with the same hand, fak sao against elbow. Good stuff. Started co-operative then got a wittle wuff. Good work-out for rolling out of neck-ties, and breaking out of clinches with elbows and then getting more distance.

Chi sao, rather uncooperative, couple of clips round the head, but not too wild.

Same as usual: need some sparring... haven't sparred in too long. Need bigger weights. At the moment working on cardio and form with my puny 39.5 kgs... if anyone can think of any interesting exercises to do with 19.25 kg DBs until I can get some more weight, please let me know. At least my squat and DL form is perfect and my back is stronger than for years, and I'm still feeling gains strength-wise, but I'm very limited by my equipment for now.

[stricker]

i dont know how strong you are but even with just one dumbell up to 20kgs you might want to try overhead dumbell squats, waiters walks, push press/jerks, bent over rows (balance the shoulder muslces). be careful with anything overhead though, theres raging debate about it with very good arguments for and against...

another good one (stolen off AndrewS) is if youve got a stability ball use that as a bench and do single arm db bench press, hits core strength a lot. be careful you dont smash ya face in tho :p

also all the usual shoulder stuff like front and lateral raises, L-lateral raises, 3 point raises etc db swings are really good but be careful of weights flying off etc... a good place to check for pure dumbell exercises would be ross enamait's site, cant remember the link right now but i think its rossboxing.com or warrior something.

[AndrewS]

Hmmm,

Let's see-

Single or double

For explosiveness and speed-strength-endurance
DB clean and jerk
DB swing
DB snatch
DB push-press

General goodness
DB OH squat
DB front squat

For strength, particularly the last two- Step ups and bulgarians are a substantial load even with bodyweight, add some iron and they get challenging fast. If I remember correctly, the guy who started using stepup instead of squats with his lifters (Soviet coach) was getting 600+lb squats out of people doing high stepups with 250-300lbs.

DB lunge
DB step up
DB bulgarian squat

For fun,

Windmills
bent presses
turkish getups

Hope this helps,

Andrew

P.S. Seated db power cleans- good for the upper back

[Mr Punch]

Cheers sirs,

some good tips I'll take you up on.

Coincidentally, before I read your posts I'd just looked up windmills, Turkish get-ups and side presses...

This was this morning's work-out:

Warm-up:

10 squats, 20 crunches, 10 push-ups
x2

Superset push-ups (10) and planks (side and front, 8 secs each) x3

Superset squats (12) and bird-dogs (10) x3

Double dumb-bell overhead presses:

11.7x5, 12.95x5, 13.2x5, 15.45x5, 16.7x5

Single DB presses:

16.7x5 x3

Turkish squat get-ups:

11.7x3(each side) x2 (these are way harder than I expected and hurt like a biotch: my guillotine injury from two years ago pinged out again in my right shoulder... gonna have to watch this one!)

Low windmills:

11.7x5, 16.7x5, 21.7x5 (each side of course)

LOVE THESE!:)

The windmills felt really good and were much easier than I thought... not so much as a wee twinge in my lower back: I should have listened to you Andrew when you first recommended these to me in my other blog thread. Mind you, they may be so easy because I've already been working on DLs and other back-related leg exercises for so long.

These windmills felt like they were doing good from the get-go. I was highly tempted to go all the way up to the full weight I have available, and also to go for High Windmills and High-Low Windmills, but I let caution get the better of me because my shoulder muscles already pinged and were preventing me from gettign a painless turn to look at my right hand on that side. Next time!

Finished up with Tabata lunges: 100 (alternate, all right, all left, walking, jumping: thought I'd try the jumping ones in the middle there. They're pretty hard but good. Will work more in to the tabata sets)

Went to the anma to get my shoulder seen to, and he said that my lower back and legs were in better condition than he'd ever 'seen' since I've been going to him (three years or so). I'd felt much better and stronger but it's nice to get some confirmation.

I'll the rest of your exercises when I come back from my New Year break next week. Until then the only training I'll be getting is shovelling snow, climbing mountains and pulling sleds... sounds pretty good, eh!:D ;)

[Mr Punch]

31st onwards

DB training (still each one at 19.75kg)

DLs 39.5x5x5
Squats 39.5x5x5

Farmer's Walk (39.5kg - 30 secs) into Waiter's Walk (same) x 5 each. Hard but fun.

Felt grim from the Turkish get-ups... can anyone tell me what the point is? The exercise site I looked at (bodybuilding.com) says the main target is abs, but it seems to me that it's the same as just doing a lunge (gluts and quads) and then a squat... excpet there's a potentially dangerous changeover point in the middle which could lead to a bad squat position. So, what's the point of the TGUs and tips? (Other than to start with substantially lower weights)

My legs really hurt all week from the jumping lunges (think I had my stance too short) and I didn't get to train in the hills: no snow! Just lots of really good o-sechi ryori, sashimi, sake and shouchuu. Started and ended by carrying our bags (about 25 kgs) all round Tokyo and onto the plane and into the boonies and back again!

[Mr Punch]

Year review and training resolutions.

Last year:

Good points:

Felt my fu and general fitness were getting better.

Largely got over my asthma (maybe naturally, maybe partly as a result of training hard).

Got over my bad back and knees (back was the worst problem as it kept going - haven't really had any twinges now since I started weights and McGill's core work-outs - feel I can safely recommend it to anyone with similar problems (recurring mild bulging disc) )

Fu improvements:
understanding and being able to apply more of biu gee: issuing elbow energy in atypical directions; got stronger and faster strikes and better ability to use them in any direction with short hip power; being able to choose between moving as a unit more and delinking at will.

Gained about 5 kg of muscle (largely invisible on my gangly frame!)

Bad points:

Ate too much dairy produce. The week I had of sashimi when I found I could sleep on my back again without having any asthmatic wheezing proved to me that diary is a major exacerbating factor.

Gained about 5% bodyfat. Started last year at about 72-3 kgs and was measured on some dodgy machine at the gym as having about 12% bodyfat. My home scales measured me at 15 at the time, and I'm assuming that the gym's equipment is more accurate. Now I weigh in at 78.5-80 kgs and (on my home scales, not the gym's) 18-20% bodyfat. I'm not overly concerned, as I figure that a) the scales are not accurate, b) I'm going to gain a little bodyfat through my diet (basically eating more more often, including too many dairy products to keep up my amino acid balance), and c) I'm still getting stronger and fitter and you can only see a wee bit of a spare tyre (which is going to happen anyway as I'm 35 next weekend!)

No MMA. Due to time and money constraints, didn't go to the MMA gym at all this year, or to any seminars. Did of course include some throws and disruptive locks (note: not pain control locks, but those designed for unbalancing people as a prelude to a throw or to open up their defence) in training, but no mats so always training to the point of balance, which isn't so useful. Also of course included my excellent boxing skills and thai knees and kicks and some wrestling entries into the wing chun drills, chi sao and light sparring but...

No full-contact sparring! This was the first year I've had no full-contact sparring since I was about 21 years old, maybe younger. I'm not too concerned yet, as I know I have some skills, but I'd rather they didn't atrophy.

No gym. Quit the gym after only six months. Main reason was dollar. However, also felt I'd learnt everything I could from that gym (there were no trainers there and my trainer left to go back home after three months, also there was no squat rack).

Training resolutions

1) Gain another 5 kgs of muscle!
2) Lose about 5% bodyfat... partly by...
3) Eat considerably less dairy: eg, start taking the whey protein shakes with water instead of milk, take amino acid supplements and eat more tofu instead of milk and cheese.
4) Badger my training bros to get some equipment so I can...
5) Start full-contact sparring again.
6) Save and buy some more weights, and a bench.
7) Lift up to one and half times my BW in the big lifts (I know I can do my BW in DLs and squats so that's no problem. Have no idea what my 1RM is, or how quickly I can get new weights or step up the amount, so this is quite a modest goal I think. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to manage 2xBW by the end of the year.)

[Mr Punch]

It's been a while again...!

Been training pretty much in the same vein as before. Still no full contact.

Started running a bit more again (found a cheap public gym, pool and free bouncy running track near where I've lived for the last three years! DOH!), mainly keeping it up for 20-30 mins and not concentrating on distance (usually about 5km) for a warm-up before weights.

Gonna start sprint intervals soon, maybe tonight.

Also started swimming recently. Or my approximation of it! To my horror I've found I should add it to the list of things I USED to be good at! I was in my high school's team, but now I suck, blow, gasp, spit and swallow! :eek: :D I put it down to the asthma, but maybe I'm just crap. :(

The (still light - up to 38.5 kg : 2x19.75kg dbs - still can't afford more) light weights I'm using are getting lighter in all lifting directions! I'll hopefully get back to posting more comprehensive details of the lifting (and fu) soon.

The fu has been the same. A little progress. Working on bong gerk and kicks to try and up my flexibility. Mostly going through basics with beginners and people who've been out of it for a long time.

My diet and minimal (and inaccurate) details of my workouts can be found here. (http://fitday.com/webfit/publicjournals.html?Owner=Mr+Punch) For a two-hr fu sesh I usually put 1:30 of taichi and 30 mins of judo, karate etc in the activity session because that's about the same intensity level. They have separate sections for sparring and bagwork and whatever for boxing so I put those in as is.

Problems: Still can't really gain any more weight. How the hell do I do that?! :) Not interested necessarily in bulk, just strength and a few more kilos. Is that possible or are these goals conflicting? Am I doing too much cardio? Not enough warm-ups?

Also, according to my suspectedly unscientific scales my bodyfat is now up to 21%. My more knowledgeable exercising friends say this is nonsense, I'm inclined to believe them but if you look at my diet records maybe there's too much fat... what do you think?

Any help as ever greatly appreciated.

[Samurai Jack]

Hi Mr. Punch. Where are you? Haven't posted on your BLOG for a bit, and as I'm recieving a little ribbing for similar infractions, I thought I'd share the love.

Trying to lose bodyfat and gain weight at the same time isn't really a very realistic goal, but it's possible to approximate those results by manipulating your exercise level slightly. In fact I've found a relativly pain-free way to lose weight and keep muscle intact.

Here's what you do:

Use that "Fit-Day" site to track your diet and exercise for a week noting whether your bodyweight goes up, down, or stays stable. If goes up or down, try cutting or increasing your calories a bit until it stablizes. Once it is stable, you'll have an idea about how much you should be eating to keep it there.

Now this is where most people will tell you to cut calories and start eating six meals a day, and blah blah blah. It's a nightmare, and nobody i know ever sticks with such a plan.

Instead I suggest you increase your activity level. You don't have to do a lot more, in fact you don't want to lose weight very fast at all here. Instead just throw in an extra hour long class, an extra cardio session, or maybe lift weights for fifteen more minutes. Take a walk on the treadmill after you're through at the gym. Not a run... a walk.

You want to increase your metabolic activity just enough to lose maybe 200 more calories a day through exercise than you do now. Since you've been using Fit-Day, you know how easy it will be to add that as a daily calorie expenditure, and the beauty of it is that you won't really feel like you're doing that much differently.

The down side is that you'll only lose about two pounds of bodyfat a month. Interestingly though, at that rate of fat loss your body will retain 99.9% of it's muscle, and as your muscle-to-fat ratio changes you'll look much leaner and fitter than you would if you went on a crash diet.

All that and you get a painless habit that you can stick with forever.

[Mr Punch]

Hi Mr. Punch. Where are you? Pretty busy unfortunately... and when I'm not busy, I'm training!

Trying to lose bodyfat and gain weight at the same time isn't really a very realistic goal, I think you're the first person that's actually told me that... here I am living in fantasy land...! :eek: :D

but I figured your plan was about right... plus cutting out a bit of the fat (though I don't eat much and I want to make sure I'm not skimping on fishy oils and the things I need).

but it's possible to approximate those results by manipulating your exercise level slightly. In fact I've found a relativly pain-free way to lose weight and keep muscle intact.

Here's what you do:

Use that "Fit-Day" site to track your diet and exercise for a week noting whether your bodyweight goes up, down, or stays stable. If goes up or down, try cutting or increasing your calories a bit until it stablizes. Once it is stable, you'll have an idea about how much you should be eating to keep it there.I've pretty much given up on fitday for now, as I simply don't have the time to fill it in... too busy eating and training!　:D

Also lot of the foods I eat just aren't there (as I live in Japan and eat a lot of wierd stuff) and too difficult to work out through their constituent parts too.

My weight was pretty much stable, and according to those shonky scales my body fat was too… though it noticeably went down with a few days of increased cardio (running, swimming, tabata bodyweight stuff and intense bag interval training).

Now this is where most people will tell you to cut calories and start eating six meals a day, and blah blah blah. It's a nightmare, and nobody i know ever sticks with such a plan.Yeah, the little and often works OK for me, but it's never going to be that strictly doable: I work a full time and a part time teaching job, plus a couple of private lessons, plus kung fu, plus other training, plus lots of housework, plus lots of lovin and a little bit of halo 2!

Instead I suggest you increase your activity level. You don't have to do a lot more, in fact you don't want to lose weight very fast at all here. Instead just throw in an extra hour long class, an extra cardio session, or maybe lift weights for fifteen more minutes.An extra hour of anything would be difficult right now… the fifteen mins may be doable! Take a walk on the treadmill after you're through at the gym. Not a run... a walk.Why a walk and not a run? And how long? I often walk to the gym, but then I sometimes swim after lifting.

You want to increase your metabolic activity just enough to lose maybe 200 more calories a day through exercise ... Interestingly though, at that rate of fat loss your body will retain 99.9% of it's muscle, and as your muscle-to-fat ratio changes you'll look much leaner and fitter than you would if you went on a crash diet.

All that and you get a painless habit that you can stick with forever.Explanation makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot.

I just bought an exercise ball, so I can vary my workouts a lot and start putting in some seated presses, benches, single arm benches, tricep kickouts etc! Happy! Should finally be able to get a couple more plates to get my DBs up to a total of 30-35 kgs each this month too!

[Mr Punch]

BTW Jack, tried your 'Bear' thing the other day with two 20 kgs DBs... harsh! Even at that weight I could only do 3 before I felt my form going... I had just finished tabata pushups, situps and lunges, and a load of high-low windmills at the time.

Also the part where you do the squat with the weights on the back of your shoulders is pretty much impossible with the DBs and my puny arms!

[Mr Punch]

Plus, anyone know about CoCs? Their training grip is 40 kgs right? I closed a 40 kg generic gripper pretty easily several times (and held them closed for an experiment for a few seconds - till I got bored basically)...

what poundage should I go for?

I'm assuming you can do the same as any other weights with them... lighter poundage and more reps for endurance, and higher poundage/fewer reps for strength...?

[Samurai Jack]

Good to see you back my man! Yeah, we all know how it is trying to find time to fit in everything. Usually I just catch up here after a day or two, so my BLOG is a back-log of my hardcopy log. We also keep a community log at the dojo, and have a white board with the day's class content on it as well, so basically every aikido workout I log has actually been written down four times. Some people say I'm obsessive-compulsive.... I call it thourough.

So addressing things in order:


An extra hour of anything would be difficult right now… the fifteen mins may be doable! Why a walk and not a run? And how long? I often walk to the gym, but then I sometimes swim after lifting.

This is my own personal prejudice based on extensive research. Some people call it "lazy". Actually, since the goal is to keep your calorie expenditures small, and to avoid dipping too far into recovery reserves (the time it takes for the soreness to go away so you can get back to training), walking over running makes a lot of sense. That said, since you're in a time crunch, a brief jog will do the trick. I merely suggest that you take it easy and spread your extra exercise over several activities, because psychologically it's easier to maintain in the long run, and it's less uncomfortable. The idea is to lose a few extra calories, not train for a marathon.


I just bought an exercise ball, so I can vary my workouts a lot and start putting in some seated presses, benches, single arm benches, tricep kickouts etc! Happy! Should finally be able to get a couple more plates to get my DBs up to a total of 30-35 kgs each this month too!

Oh, I've heard that doing benches etc. on a stability ball with dumbbells is great for your abdominal core, and with practice you can still get up to considerable poundages. Let us know how that goes.


BTW Jack, tried your 'Bear' thing the other day with two 20 kgs DBs... harsh! Even at that weight I could only do 3 before I felt my form going... I had just finished tabata pushups, situps and lunges, and a load of high-low windmills at the time.

Yeah, I'm really falling in love with the Bear. I really feel it working my hips, abs, and lower back, and can feel those same muscles being engaged more in my aikido and iaido. There's something synergistic going on there, and I'm excited to see what the long term results might end up being. Several people have remarked that I'm "using my center more", and that I am "a lot stronger" since I've thrown them in. If you keep doing them, just do front squats instead of trying to get those DB's behind your neck.


Plus, anyone know about CoCs... what poundage should I go for?


Start out with the #1. The trainer is for folks who've never touched a gripper before. I suppose you could do it for reps if you only have a little Coc, but you want to work up to the larger size as soon as you can. Everyone here (who has one) loves playing with his Coc.

[Mr Punch]

This is my own personal prejudice based on extensive research. Some people call it "lazy". Actually, since the goal is to keep your calorie expenditures small, and to avoid dipping too far into recovery reserves (the time it takes for the soreness to go away so you can get back to training), walking over running makes a lot of sense. That said, since you're in a time crunch, a brief jog will do the trick. I merely suggest that you take it easy and spread your extra exercise over several activities, because psychologically it's easier to maintain in the long run, and it's less uncomfortable. The idea is to lose a few extra calories, not train for a marathon.I getcha. Psychologically, I do whatever I can, when I can... I'm not the most motivated, but I don't have a motivation problem more than a time one.

Right now we're cleaning and rearranging everything in the apartment for a new arrival, which eats most of my real training time, but at least I try to use good stancework when lifting/moving stuff! ;) :)

Oh, I've heard that doing benches etc. on a stability ball with dumbbells is great for your abdominal core, and with practice you can still get up to considerable poundages. Let us know how that goes.Well, so far, the weight limitation is through money, not strength... now I've made the space the ball should be going up today, and the first session immediately after. I'm thinking benches (and should be able to work out a good position for incline type and decline type too), plus the one-handed benches Stricker mentioned, Box (ball) squats (the sitting down and stabilizing should be a hard workout as it goes, even with my puny 20 or so kg dbs), and if I have any gumption left some seated overhead presses... looking forward too it... also maybe got time for a swim before fu tonight, so if I have any strength left after I'll let you know how it went!

Yeah, I'm really falling in love with the Bear. I really feel it working my hips, abs, and lower back, and can feel those same muscles being engaged more in my aikido and iaido. There's something synergistic going on there, and I'm excited to see what the long term results might end up being. Several people have remarked that I'm "using my center more", and that I am "a lot stronger" since I've thrown them in. If you keep doing them, just do front squats instead of trying to get those DB's behind your neck.Yeah, they're good, but maybe a bit much for my level. Like I said, I could only manage three with good form. Also found with the change between the DL bit and the squat bit (is that a clean or a jerk? I don't even know the basic terminology :eek: ) grinds on the T6 (the slightly protruding vertebrae at the base of the neck - if I've even got that right)... maybe I need to keep my elbows out more.

And yeah, I already subbed the front squat for the back.

Start out with the #1. The trainer is for folks who've never touched a gripper before. I suppose you could do it for reps if you only have a little Coc, but you want to work up to the larger size as soon as you can. Everyone here (who has one) loves playing with his Coc.I think with my grip I'll be onto the larger CoC in no time... :D :rolleyes:

[Mr Punch]

Didn't go as planned again, life got in the way! Managing to train every day right now though, which is great.

Saturday (was it?!) did a nice warm-up of eight silk brocade reeling, the core lower back exercises, koryu shikko and shintai jiku (manji walking - first time in a long time and boy am I feeling it now) before I went into squats and DLs... tried to get on the ball for the bench press... but couldn't catch the d@mn thing! LOL :D And then when I tethered it and tried again, I couldn't pick up the weights from the floor to bench them! No rack! Haven't got the ball skills down yet... will have to work it out and try again tonight/tomorrow.

Yesterday swam... improving my tech with the help of a friend. I used to swim in the high school team but haven't for about twenty years and completely forgot most tips. Good workout though... maybe better than if I was doing it properly! Also fu, basics of first two sections of SLT with beginner student... checked his form, went over the stance opening and connectivity, then punching, and tan, pak vs punch and dan chi sao. He wants to move on in the form, but I'm going to introduce him to basic turning and stepping through lap sao drill, stepping dan chi, pad and bag work as soon as he's got his root, and before he starts on the next section.

[Mr Punch]

Last Fri,

forms,

doc mcgill's core back workout

8-silk brocade

10 manji steps

10 shiko

(The above is my new core warm-up set although I usually do 20 manji steps and shiko if I have time)

tabata pushups (106) various kinds

db bear 40 kg x 5 (was going to do 3 sets but twanged my knee)

so

sb squats carefully 40 x 5 x 2

db dls 40 x 5 x 3

db bp (ball - finally got the hang of balancing on the ****er) 40 x 5 x 3

db flies (ball) 10 x 5 x 3

db skullcrushers 10 x 5 x 3

db ab rolls (ball) 10 x 10 x 3 (****ed hard but good feeling)

db curls and hammer curls 10 x 5 x 3 each

db forearm curls and pulls 10 x 5 x 3 each.

30 mins increasing intensity bagwork (my bagwork usually consists of boxing, kickboxing, koryu and wing chun nowadays - seems to work... well the bag never hits me back anyway! :D ) .

swimming - 40mins not so hard plus more manji stepping.

SatKung fu hanami!

Not meant to be a hardcore sparfest or anything - just some core stuff for some new people and a lot of chi sao... (in a park surrounded by the beauuuuutiful flowering cherries and thousands of drunk people). Ended up mixing up some chi sao with thai and takedowns (my friend also does thai so he started sticking in the knees with happy abandon and I was answering with mine we were mixing upn some thai roundhouses and knees with sticky legs - very nice - and since he was kicking my sorry ass, I chucked in a couple of takedowns - a single leg, a halfhearted double leg, an aikido gokkyo or two which is a basic arm drag throw to land him on his arm under me, and a few other things - good fun and a good workout and no-one hurt!)

Drank a few beers and scared (? bored?) off some fat drunken Yank tai chi chick.

Was very stiff from previous day!

Sun Washed out. Meant to train but wound up doing bugger all.

Mon Swimming. A little short of an hour mostly breast stroke and failed crawl (still no progress on timing there!). Also did a lot of wing chun stepping drills, thai and koryu kicking drills and manji stepping in the walking lane... really felt it in my thighs.

Tue Hard work. Did some lifting prior to fu... but heart wasn't really in it... Usual warm-up (McGill's, 8-silk, manji, shiko) then proceeded to fail on a simple and oft-done 40 kg overhead press... maybe balance of new warm-up is off and actually taking it out of me more than I thought. Anyway, went on to db side press (20 x 3 x 3) and full windmills (20 x 3 x 3)... and called it a day.

Cooked some soup ina hurry between lifting and fu and feeling a bit lightheaded from the workout, cut a 7mm x 5 mm x 4mm (deep) piece out of my left forefinger. Not really much fun to be had there. Went to hospital, missed fu.

Yesterday: rested. (Woman's banned me from training till I can do it without cutting my fingers off afterwards! :D )

Today Wife out:

Usual warm-up,

111 tabata pushups inc some new variations.

211 tabata sit-ups of various kinds.

10 kg ab ball rolls x 10 x 3.

sword wringing - followed tabata pattern again for simplicity - with 1.9 kg suburi bokuto: this wringing drill is actually a wing chun pole drill but it's similar to a drill we used to do in aiki and really burns the forearms.

wc pole drills - thrust and figure seven - don't have a pole so not getting the right weight distribution but do it with the bokuto which is near enough.

[Mr Punch]

Really felt the burn yesterday from the forearm workout the day before. The forearm curls and pulls, the sword wringing etc, but mostly the sword wringing I think (althought the marathon Halo 2 tournament may have also contirbuted to forearm fatigue! :D ). Wanted to capitalize on that yesterday - though doing more sword wringing would be overworking the forearms, so wanted to do some full sword swings, but in the end was too busy with work and family stuff to even fit that in... ended up as

yesterday (Friday 6th)

core back exercises.

full stop!

today

Again horribly busy with work and family, plus feeling jaded and exhausted from late night drinking to seal a business meeting, plus woke up with a really sharp crick in my right lower back... finally got round to finishing a kind of a workout just now (about 1 in the morn here).

Took it easy as it's late and I'm knackered:

Core warm-up:

Dr McGills

8 silk

manji steps (10)

shikko (10)

Yoga:
Half Lord of the Fishes
Cow Face
Sage
Plank - lunge

Tabata lunges (bw) 96 (alternate, right leg, l leg, walking)

Yoga:
Plank - lunge.

Nice to spend some quality time with my wife, but a struggle mood- and energy-wise. Oh well, tomorrow , I'm gonna kick my own ass! :o :cool: Good night Jon-boy!

[Mr Punch]

Finally a more substantial training day than all the stretching and stuff:

Swimming: one hour, not so intensive - too many people, but a good few fast lengths and a lot of stepping drills.

Running: Just 2.5 k: 12 mins, bit slow... will work harder. Wanted to do sprints but the track was too busy with people 'hanging out'

Stretching.

Food and sleep (one hour)

20 mins intensive bagwork (mostly kicks and knees, but palms too - no fists as still have injuries to both hands - wing chun, boxing and kick boxing - working bobbing, keeping moving and the crazy monkey guard) warm-up

squats: 3 x 5 x 40 (2 x 20 ish dbs as usual)
dls ditto
(ball) benches ditto
ab ball rolls 3 x 5 x 20 (2 x 10 kg dbs - weighted to one end - growing to love this exercise more and more!)
flies ditto

McGill's stretches (core lower back)
El Macho's stretches (nice little core programme from El Macho on Bullshido for hams, glutes and hip adductors)
Leg swing walking x 10
Manji walking x 10
Shiko x 10

[Mr Punch]

Lots of the same for the last couple of weeks.

Day before yesterday I decided it was time to find my 1RM in squats. I want to find it in DLs, press and bench too, but I thought I'd start with squats.

OK, so the first problem is, I don't have anywhere near enough weight and I'm not a member of a gym. Second problem is, my local gym doesn't have any free weights, only a Smith.

OK, so I thought I'd go with the Smith despite my reservations.

Read up on HOW to find a 1RM on the erstwhile T-Nation (starting with lower weight warm-ups reps), completely forgot (! like a retard !) to rest between sets other than changing up the weights, and found a puny 1RM of 90 ****ing kilos.

Felt dizzy and a bit crap.

Came to three conclusions:

1) Don't forget to rest.
2) I'm still really **** puny.
3) I really really hate Smith machines.

Smith machines are sh!t :mad:

Usually when I'm lifting my puny 40 kgs of dumbbells I feel good doing a squat, DL or anything... although the weights are way to light to improve what I'm doing. I at least figure the stabilizer muscles must be getting a good workout.

I felt the Smith actually compromised my form, and when I tried the DLs I found they were actually impossible. Not even worth trying for a 1RM or anything.

In future I'll have to just stick to what I have at home and try and get to a gym or someone who has free weights as often as I can.

Bought an extra 2 x 5 kg plates for the dumbbells Sunday and gonna buy two more tomorrow. Asked in the shop what kind of max the dumbbells can take, and the shop doofus said, 'Well there's nothing written about it, so I guess as much as you can fit on!' I didn't want to point out that I could fit at least four 15 kg plates on each end, and ask him to confirm that he was telling me it'd be perfectly safe to lift 120 kgs without the shaft breaking! Tosser! :D

[Mr Punch]

Usual warm-ups... now inc El Macho's stretches.

DLs: 5 x 2 x 40 (2x20kg ish dbs)

5 x 2 x 50 (2x25kg ish dbs)

5 x 1 x 32 kg (one-hand DLs x 2)

Tricep raises (each hand)

3 x 1 x 9 kg
3 x 1 x 11.5
1 x 1 x 14

Tricep kickouts (each hand)

3 x 1 x 9 kg
3 x 1 x 11.5
3 x 1 x 14
3 x 1 x 16.5

Forearm curls (and reverse, each hand)

3 x 1 x 6.5
3 x 1 x 7.75
3 x 1 x 9
3 x 1 x 10.25
3 x 1 x 11.5
3 x 1 x 13
3 x 1 x 14.5

Hammer curls

3 x 1 x 6.5
3 x 1 x 9
3 x 1 x 11.5
3 x 1 x 14.5
1 x 1 x 17

Don't usually do arm work so it was nice for a change.

Want to work more core stuff though, so tomorrow maybe back to windmills, one arm presses... or maybe a shoulder sesh. Also going to buy another ten kg tomorrow, so will practice shoulder shrugs and various other nonsense with them on the way home again!

Also practiced some aiki exercises. Been a very long time. Nice.

[Mr Punch]

Not feeling too great after my friend's BD party last night... a few too many gnts and shochuus but managed to beat my PB in tabata pushups with 120! :D

Then usual warm-ups

plus a basic squat routine:

3x5x40

3x3x50

overhead squats

3x3x0 (! first time trying overhead squats... killer! tried with 20 kg but no f'in chance, so did it with nothing to see about the mechanics of it then...)

3x3x10

bear
3x3x10 (usually use bigger weights but was already knackered so thought I'd stay small)

[WinterPalm]

The OH squat is probably the hardest variation to get good at.
If you go to Crossfit and look at their daily workouts, they often have little videos clips at the bottom of each post. More often than not they are clips from workshops detailing the mechanics of various olympic lifts.

For starters: really get your shoulders as high as you can, touch your ears. Keep your core tense throughout...usually you don't go further than the top of your hips being parallel, but olympic lifters do this to rock bottom ATG.
Good luck!

[bodhitree]

The OH squat is probably the hardest variation to get good at.
If you go to Crossfit and look at their daily workouts, they often have little videos clips at the bottom of each post. More often than not they are clips from workshops detailing the mechanics of various olympic lifts.

For starters: really get your shoulders as high as you can, touch your ears. Keep your core tense throughout...usually you don't go further than the top of your hips being parallel, but olympic lifters do this to rock bottom ATG.
Good luck!


ATG is the only way to go with the overhead IMO.

[WinterPalm]

I have found that with most people they do not have the ability to squat that low with their shoulders bearing any substantial weight in the OH position. Without a doubt a full squat position is ideal. The flexibility in the hips, ankles, knees, and crucially in the shoulders is what hinders this exercise for most people. As is the lack of flexibility and core strength the weakness in the front squat for most people.

[Mr Punch]

For starters: really get your shoulders as high as you can, touch your ears. Keep your core tense throughout...usually you don't go further than the top of your hips being parallel, but olympic lifters do this to rock bottom ATG.
Good luck!Thanks for the advice, folks.

I read on exrx that you should put your arms back as far as you can... I certainly can't touch my ears with my shoulders! I just tried with no weights and it kills!

I did go ATG though, and it was very very hard. But, I figure it's supposed to be, so I'm gonna stick at it like that for a couple of weeks while I'm hitting this squat programme. I'm gonna try again today, starting to up the weights. Seem to be generally flexible enough in the knees and hips, but perhaps strangely, found my ankles hurt a bit last time, so I'm gonna try it today with my legs a little further apart and maybe with my feet a little more splayed.

[Mr Punch]

Usual warm-ups and stretches.

Tabata 236 crunches of various kinds (low back stress varieties).

Squats

5 x 5 x 50 (need more weight... this is becoming a warm-up now!)

Overhead Squats

3 x 5 x 13.4

1 x 3 x 15.9 (felt like I could have done more and higher, but time was a factor... formwise, started out like you suggested WP, with shoulders touching the ears as near as d@mmit, lost form slowly as it went but felt ok flexibility-wise. Strange thing: with the arms back like Exrx recs feels more stress on the ankles, with shoulders up like WP suggests feels much harder to push the knees out... dangerous - gotta watch out for that and gonna keep with insignificant weight till my flexibility gets better... maybe start with 3 x 5 x 15.9 next time and work up to the next weight)

Bears

3 x 3 x 23.4

1 x 3 x 33.4

Still only the fourth time I've done these... just getting into the groove, thinking I'd go up for the 50 kg set this time when my right knee twanged with a really sharp pain on the second rep... finished the set very carefully looking for when/where it happened but it didn't happen again. Stopped. Frustrating.

All in all, remaining positive... made some gains in this sesh but as always they always seem too little. I know I'm still a noob and somewhat hampered by what weight I have so I'm trying not to get frustrated but sometimes I do.

[WinterPalm]

One reason I suggested not going ATG is because oftentimes a lack of flexibility or even stabilizer strength in the body makes it difficult and you may put your knees past your toes. I am very adamant about not doing this. I know olympic guys do this but I sacrifice a bit of depth in order to work on keeping my knee/toe alignment proper.
Find some good shoulder stretch/dynamic movement stuff...that should help you.

[Mr Punch]

That's interesting. Most of the literature I've read, and the trainer (of admittedly dubious pedigree) I had, tells me the knees go out as far as the ass, so the ankles are directly below a halfway point along the thigh. You're telling me the knees shouldn't go past the toes at all?

Furthermore, from everything I've looked into, going parallel and not ATG puts a hell of a lot of sheer stress on your knees, something I can't afford to do given my history of knee problems.

I'll look into some shoulder flexibility exercises though. Any recommendations?

[WinterPalm]

There are different interpretations of parallel and full.
Parallel to me, means going until the very top of my hip bone is below the level of my knees...to some this is a full squat. A full squat is done until the hamstrings touch or gently rest on top of the calves.

When you do them, do whichever you are comfortable with. I do not like ATG too much as I have knees that pop quite a bit when I squat with no weight, like always, and if I squat with weight all the way ATG, the popping hurts in the squat and I don't do them that way.
There is a vast amount of literature to support either side: the health and wellness segment suggests a higher depth than what I do. The hardcore weight lifting segment and especially olympic lifters suggest all the way down.

Here's a good stretch:

Stand up against a wall, heels, butt, shoulders, and head touching. Raise your arms above your head straight and touch the wall behind you with your hands. Now try to touch your elbows to the wall. Remember to maintain neutral spinal position and don't hyperextend. Then slowly, very slowly, bring your hands down to your sides along the wall and keep touching or trying to touch the wall with your elbows.

[Mr Punch]

Thanks for the description... it seems like I'm mostly doing ATG after all. My idea of parallel was definitely only thighs parallel to the ground too (which hurts my knees), so I'll have to try yours.

Here's a good stretch:

Stand up against a wall, heels, butt, shoulders, and head touching. Raise your arms above your head straight and touch the wall behind you with your hands. Now try to touch your elbows to the wall. Remember to maintain neutral spinal position and don't hyperextend. Then slowly, very slowly, bring your hands down to your sides along the wall and keep touching or trying to touch the wall with your elbows.Funny, I can do that no problem, but still seem to have trouble with the shoulders to ears bit.

[WinterPalm]

Realisitically you probably won't be able to touch your ears, it is just the idea of getting them as high as possible. Also pinching your shoulders blades. And time, it is a very demanding exercise that requires a lot of stabilization.

[Black Jack II]

crazy monkey guard

That is a great guard. Excellent default position. Nice choice bro.

[Mr Punch]

Realisitically you probably won't be able to touch your ears, it is just the idea of getting them as high as possible. ...You tryin to make me look like a fool!? :mad:

:D

That is a great guard. Excellent default position. Nice choice bro.I'm no expert. in fact I'm new to it. Haven't tried it out in sparring yet...

was looking for a better guard against bigger guys. Smaller or same kind of height people I can usually just whale in and get them with aggression, and that's what I usually do with bigger guys too (! :D ) but was having some trouble finding a safe guard with them if it didn't go my way in the first exchange.

Wing chun's guard is pretty useless. It's good enough for a fence in an SD situation, but as an active guard it has too many holes against guys with longer arms and any skill. The aiki guard is as close as you can get to having a limp wrist as a guard... and although I agree with the trad (as in hardcore, good...) aiki stance of having no stance (which again fits in with Geoff Thompson and whatever in SD and is nice in that it allows you good short-range energy issuance in your strikes with next to no telegraphing from any angle in a neutral position) again, it isn't so good if you need something after it's kicked off.

My MMA teacher was really good at teaching boxing (with it's big ass gloves, street-useless guard), Thai (I always sucked at the footwork which kind of negates the Thai guard a lot I think - and it isn't that great in the first place) and wrestling (which has a good guard for wrestling...) so that didn't really help me develop a good guard so much.

Looking forwards to trying this for real - feels nice and comfortable to use so far.

[Mr Punch]

First day of training since Eleanor was born...

Sprints...

Managed 200 m in 28 secs - way down on my high school champion days, but not bad for standing start, (too) full stomach, tail end of a cold, and no training for a while...

er, that's it! LOL :D

OK, OK, did run on a little bit and then sprint another couple of 200s... then did some tabata pushups when I got back, but a thoroughly lacklustre performance. Looking forward to when my wife's hip-bones have gone back to normal so I can get her in training too.

[Mr Punch]

Decided on a change of tack. Rather than just kicking my own ass for sitting around with a baby on my shoulder, and being up to my eyes in washing and washing up on top of my full time job and three part time ones, though I’d aim for at least one short training session a day. This may only be a four-minute tabata set, but whatever is better than nothing. And so… since I only have fifty kilos of dumbbells available so I can’t push my overall big lifts at all anyway, it’s maybe time to focus on more intervals to build the endurance, some explosive strength and lose a couple of pounds of fat. My diet is OK, my BF isn’t too bad (well my shonky scales reckon it’s 20 % but I reckon that’s nonsense – but I do have a slight gut), and who knows, I think I actually have enough lack in the general muscle dept to put on a bit more muscle weight and lose a bit of fat at the same time (dare I say, ‘tone’! :p ).

So yesterday, with the tail-end of a cold, and without having done any training for a while (the day before’s sprints notwithstanding) I did a measly 96 tabata pushups (those ones with one leg in the air really slow me down, but it feels good and painful).

This morning I warmed up using light low range dynamic leg swings, slowly building the ROM up.

Then I thought I’d go against the advice of just about everyone and see what I could do with an all over set of tabata weight exercises. I had 16.7 kg on each db already so just went with that (a little higher than I would have chosen but before work after a sleepless night with baby Eleanor so couldn’t be bothered to change – I’ve done tabata squats and DLs with 20 kg before but I ended up compromising my form a bit with the DLs and putting strain on my lower back so I thought next time I’d have to make sure I was going lighter until I was sure the quick reps wouldn’t compromise my form).

The result was shockingly poor!

2 x 16.7 kg DBs
Standard tabatas - 20 secs of reps, 10 secs of rest:

Squats x 8 (turned into an extra warm-up - couldn't get any gumption!)
DLs x 9 (concentrating on form but still low for 20 secs)
Overhead presses x 6 (this is where it all went pear shaped - realised before I locked out the ceiling in the kitchen is too low! :D So, dropped to my knees and continued there but lost rhythm and it was TOUGH!)
Side presses x 4 (OK - dunno WTH happened - all I could do to get lock-out)
Knackered
Extra rest... still well out of breath :(
Bench (Ball) presses x 8
Shrugs x 10.

Puny.

Try again tomorrow with 11.7 kgs x 2 - with a tiny touch more planning and a bit more mental fortitude shouldn't be a problem to finish all the exercises and add another with better rep count.

Oh well, it got my metabolism working if nothing else.

[Mr Punch]

Anybody else do tabatas with weights?

Are they supposed to be that hard, or am I just getting punier?!

[stricker]

never done tabatas with weights... just seeing what your posting dude the problem from where i see it is you seem a bit erratic in what your doing. IME results come from consistent effort over time. dont get me wrong mate im not preaching i just know the areas ive made progress in are those ive been organised in, and where i aint made progress is where i havent stuck to a plan...

also if times really really limited simple stuff like 5 min rounds of dumbell swings is pretty good all-round strength and cardio. getting a pull up bar that pops in a door frame could be an awesome investment too, bust out a few sets of pull ups through the day...

for heavy-ish weight work you could think about doing making a fairly heavy sand-bag, good for squats etc

keep it up :)

[Mr Punch]

never done tabatas with weights... just seeing what your posting dude the problem from where i see it is you seem a bit erratic in what your doing. IME results come from consistent effort over time. dont get me wrong mate im not preaching i just know the areas ive made progress in are those ive been organised in, and where i aint made progress is where i havent stuck to a plan...Nah, appreciate any advice as ever... but yeah! I know I'm really erratic right now. But that's just now. If you look at my posts before don't miss where I say that I've been doing more of the same (but haven't been posting about it) - except when I was injured, and now we've got a three-week old baby!

I was swimming regularly, doing tabata push-ups, sit-ups and lunges regularly, and had a reasonable DL and squat routine going, interspersed with cycling other exercises to work other muscle groups (considering the lack of real weight and facilities). Also regular bagwork and fu.

Now, however, with the bairn, I'm just grabbing what I can.

also if times really really limited simple stuff like 5 min rounds of dumbell swings is pretty good all-round strength and cardio.On busy days, with a normal day of work plus part-time job plus baby- (and Mum-!) care, I'm talking it takes a lot of effort to get even 20 mins to train. Hence my concentrating on tabatas and any other quick interval programme.

Plus, since I want to be able lift bigger on DLs, squats and windmills etc to make sure my lower back isn't going to go again before I try to pick-up any new swinging type exercise unsupervised. (Originally I was getting into weights for rehab, right?) A good link to the exercise you mean would be useful though...?

getting a pull up bar that pops in a door frame could be an awesome investment too, Love to. However, this is Japan: I have no regular door frame: just big sliding doors and paper screens; the walls a made of paper composite/thin board; there is one supporting beam which is impossible to use and no supporting pillars!

for heavy-ish weight work you could think about doing making a fairly heavy sand-bag, good for squats etcAgain, space and to store and train is an issue. If I had time for it the nearest (and realistically right now the only available) gym is cheap and five mins walk, but it's only machines. The free weights go up to a measly 16 kg dumbbell.

keep it up :)Thanks for the encouragement! I'm trying!

[stricker]

it's all good man, yeah i know you dont update this after every bit of training :)

here's the first youtube clip that came up for kettlebell swings :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1QcHTkwdI

you can do exactly the same with a dumbell, or there's variations like one-handed etc. as a single exercise goes they're pretty good, and yeah they'll probably be great for your back...

[Mr Punch]

Thanks for that again mate.

One worry tho: not my back this time, but looks like a half-arsed squat position with your knees which is surely gonna tear them up...? (I've had various knee probs before too, which seem to be largely healed since I took up weights, so I'm more than willing for you to set me straight on that too! :D )

[Samurai Jack]

Have you been working on the Bear? I noticed you were starting out with some very respectable poundages, and it's such a brief whole body workout, it might be good for you since you're in a time crunch.

[Mr Punch]

Funnily enough, was going to try the tabata 30 kg weight set again, dumbbell swings, (maybe then) some overhead squats and then the bear to finish (me!) yesterday, but wound up lifting and carrying 4 kgs of cute but unsettled baby for a couple of hours instead while my wife got some rest!

The best-laid plans of mice and fathers!

Try again tonight... :rolleyes:

BTW, can't remember what my pundages were for the Bear, but I think it was somewhere near the max I have for my dumbbells so I'm not actually going to get past the 'starting pundages' if that's the case! Still a good exercise though. A real burner!

[Mr Punch]

Swimming. Half an hour: pretty non-stop.

Tried the tabata weight set I dreamt up. Too d@mn hard for me right now.

33.4 kg (2 x 16.7 dbs)
each set 20 secs of course with 10 secs break...

squats 8
DLs 10
windmills 6
sqs 5
DLs 7
wms (timing was going off...) did 5 each side
sqs (abandoned tabata timing... but still as fast interval with short breaks) 5
DLs 5

seated overhead presses 5 (both hands) 5 l, 5 r.

That shouldn't have been so hard. Seriously unfit.

More tomorrow!

[Mr Punch]

Yesterday morning before work:

109 tabata push-ups... not good.

No time for planned workout after work either: lifting baby (about 4.6 kgs!)

This morning:

50 push-ups (just for a quick warm-up)

20 x empty bar db swings (1.7 kg)
20 x 11.7 kg db swings
20 x 11.7 right hand db swings
20 x 11.7 left hand db swings

(Just thought I'd start light and see how it went... quite nice: thanks for that Stricker - that'll be part of my regular programme. Used the plates on one end of the db bar so it was weighted more like a club - easier to hold that way)

[Mr Punch]

This morning's fu:

just an hour and a bit.

Some light chi sao,

and some very light sparring...

gave me a bit of a chance to see if my finger had healed (seems OK, but still a bit ginger) and to check out the crazy monkey guard against someone else. Wasn't hard enough to really put it through its paces but worked OK. Also seems to fit in very nicely for working entry in wing chun.

This evening:

49 pushups (in a minute)
12 x 2-handed db swings x 2 x 16.7 kg
10 x l hand, 10 x r hand... collar failed on DB! Wondered if it might! Luckily it was as I picked them up (was trying tabata set of swings) rather than in mid-swing where it would have shot through the shoji and the window probably!

Next time will check collar in rest period every time.

Tabata lunges with 11.7 kg... can't remember how many. EDIT: 77... waaay lower than unweighted. About the same for the first four sets... then tailed off.

10 x manji step
20 x shiko.

[WinterPalm]

What the heck is the crazy monkey guard?

[Mr Punch]

What the heck is the crazy monkey guard?

You hold both your palms strongly on the top of your head (some people recommend the eyebrow region but I'm finding that a bit sloppy and difficult to see so I go for basically above the hairline).

This is a great guard for close range. It doesn't leave you open like a boxing guard does without gloves, you can move your elbows around easily to block/cover against punches, and also to open your opponent's guard, for easy acces to clinch, double/single leg or other moves needing a quick level change. It also prevents you opponent punching your own hands back into your face and the subsequent feeling of stupidity like a lot of lazy boxers and fu-ers get!

You can cover your middle with bobbing and weaving, footwork and your legs.

You should always attack aggressively from it tho: it's not going to stop everything.

[Mr Punch]

30 degs and humid all day yesterday. Really hard getting any motivation for exercise but waited till sundown and went running.

Sprints:

200m in 26 secs (100 - 13),
rest 20 secs
100m in 16 secs
rest 30 secs
100m 18 secs
rest 50 secs

then just pain... :eek:

kept running 100m bursts, and most of the time I could focus on the stopwatch I was doing 18 secs each time, with rest periods varying but around 30 secs of jogging, walking or stumbling mostly.

Altogether ran 2 km, 'sprinted' the last 400 m with whatever I had left.

Conclusion: "room for improvement"! Need to do more more often. TBH would have carried on last night but the track was closing.

Then went swimming for just ten lengths breast stroke - wanted to work on my crawl but was already spent, so after the breaststroke just kicked off to practice breathing and did a couple of lengths just kicking.

Followed by walking lengths in the pool:

1 x shiko
1 x manji stepping
1 x wing chun sidekicking
1 x thai roundhouse
1 x wing chun knees
1 x wing chun front kicks

Cycled home.

[Mr Punch]

21st

tabata push-ups - 116

overhead presses, forget what weights and how many.

10 manji steps
20 shiko

22nd

52 pushups in one minute

bicep curls (16.7 kgs) 3 x 5

Completely random selections of exercise... :eek: :o

No sleep due to baby, and no time due to work and baby.

Starting programme as of today or tomorrow when I've worked one out.

[Mr Punch]

Very atypical training session yesterday... and very interesting.

My friend is a member of an actors' action team, and has appeared in a couple of movies over here. He's san/yon dan taekwondo, and does capoeira and on top of that I've been teaching him wing chun. He's doing a seminar on kicking techniques for the movies in one of Japan's performing arts institutes and I've got roped into doing the hand technique session...!

So yesterday we went over the basics of what he's going to teach, so I'm not a complete fish out of water in his section (an hour and a half of taekwondo kicking with added flash for movie style!)... next week I'll take him through my half.

I did karate for a couple of years about 12 years ago or more, and of course went through and used basic Thia teeps and roundhouses in my MMA classes, but it'd still been quite a while since I'd had such a high-kicking workout, and maybe the first time for spinning hook kicks etc.

It was fun, but very taxing.

Couple of things were interesting:

Taekwondo kicks all go through centreline.

The side kick is almost identical to a wing chun side kick found in a couple of lines.

Generally, I found the power generation to be not as difficult as I imagined, and also the flexibililty (since I'm quite inflexible: used to be very very flexible until my lower back injury)

I would think the ones we learned would be very useful in some situations in full contact if you don't fall into the trap of dropping your hands when you kick that many taekwondo people seem to. Also, I was a bit bemused by the bad rep of taekwondo... I mean, I've seen some bad stuff, and my friend is pretty serious (having been a one-time Olympic hopeful, and trained in Korea many times) but I didn't see any evidence that it's quite as bad as everybody makes out. Unless it's just the strip-mall aspect and kiddie belts... but the moves themselves seemed solid.

We trained with an MMAer (5 years boxing in Canada, 2 years and a blue belt in BJJ over here) and too, just to see what we would go across with unfamiliar action students... though as it was mostly for show we didn't really even just play around with any sparring.

So, we covered:

lots of gentle dynamic stretching

front (rising?) kick
side kick
back kick
spinning hook kick

and one other. (I have probably totally ballsed up those names... I'll have to check with my friend!)

We looked at distancing, power, specific stretches for specific kicks, and worked the pads with them.

At the end I larked about with the MMA geezer a bit; we compared double legs between my teacher's and BJJ, he showed me another couple of takedowns and the x-guard which was quite nice.



Incidentally, I'd forgotten how cool the Shinjuku Sports Centre is... and that was the first time I'd been on a Sunday evening...

There were some top-level pro Pancrase fighters up there, capoeiristas galore, stunt and action guys going through some crazy-assed wushu and capoeira routines and acrobatics, some Shooto guys, some goju beginners being taken through sanchin again and again for three hours, some aikido doods, plain ground grapplers... met some of the Pancrase guys, capeoiristas and action guys - fantastic place for MA networking! :)

But boy, is my ass gonna be sore tomorrow! (From the high kicks, you sickoes!)

[Mr Punch]

Half an hour's sleep last night after the session, as my baby decided to try an all-nighter for the first time...

don't somehow see myself getting my weights programme back in line today... :o

[AndrewS]

Hey,

a quick comment on your use of tabata intervals with weights. The tabata protocol is exercising to 90% max heart rate (220-age) for 20 seconds for 8-10 rounds with 10s active rest. At high heart rates motor skills go, and performing a complex movement under load may increase your risk of injury. Given your history of back problems, you should probably avoid using windmills with this and stick to stuff like swings, thrusters (squat to push press), and squats.

A nice way to set this sort of thing up would be a 3-5x5 circut of 3-5 exercises, followed by something like thrusters or pushups or front squats done tabata style.

BTW- caught some of your youtube clips, nice stuff. The manji stepping is eeriely reminiscent of some baji and xing yi stuff I've seen. To my eye it would seem like it's developing characteristics similar to the battle punches for long pole in Wing Chun (opening the hips while stabilizing the upper back). Where do you find similarities or differences?

Later,

Andrew

[stricker]

cool. links mr punch?? pm if preffered ;)

also this may be totally random, but you don't know an english bjjer living in tokyo by the name of philip do you?

[Mr Punch]

Today, another night of no wakefulness, and totally shagged... add 28 degs and round about 85% humidity... and you get... 53 pushups in a minute and that's your lot! (Oh well, at least it's a PB)

Hey,

a quick comment on your use of tabata intervals with weights. The tabata protocol is exercising to 90% max heart rate (220-age) for 20 seconds for 8-10 rounds with 10s active rest. At high heart rates motor skills go, and performing a complex movement under load may increase your risk of injury. Given your history of back problems, you should probably avoid using windmills with this and stick to stuff like swings, thrusters (squat to push press), and squats.

A nice way to set this sort of thing up would be a 3-5x5 circut of 3-5 exercises, followed by something like thrusters or pushups or front squats done tabata style.Nice idea and good advice, and yes, although I don't think there was much danger of injury (I always concentrate on form over reps, esp in the tabata, which is one reason why I don't really make gains so often) it was the windmills that totally fried me last time.

BTW- caught some of your youtube clips, nice stuff. The manji stepping is eeriely reminiscent of some baji and xing yi stuff I've seen. To my eye it would seem like it's developing characteristics similar to the battle punches for long pole in Wing Chun (opening the hips while stabilizing the upper back). Where do you find similarities or differences?They're not really mine: I'm no expert! They're ones of my former teacher... and it was after I'd left the class so I'm not even anywhere near.

And yes, I thought it was similar to the pole's punching exercise, but I don't know the pole, so I'm no expert on that either, except for the pole warm-ups... which is where the hips and back come... no time now but I'll hit this in detail soon.

cool. links mr punch?? pm if preffered ;)

also this may be totally random, but you don't know an english bjjer living in tokyo by the name of philip do you?The links are already around on Samurai Jack's blog, don't have time to dig them out just now...

Met a Phil Yeomans who does BJJ, maybe 6'2: he was a friend of and training some stand-up with one of my fu-bros. Can't say I know him.

[Mr Punch]

Was going to try your suggestion with the tabatas Andrew, but time cut it short again...

iron cross:
bar (1.7 kg - x 2 of course) x 10
3 x 5 x 4.2
3 x 5 x 6.7
3 x 5 x 7.95
1 x 5 x 9.2
2 x 3 x 9.2
1 x 3 x 10.45

Overhead press
3 x 5 x 11.7
3 x 5 x 16.7

Decided on shoulder programme for next two weeks.

[Samurai Jack]

BTW- caught some of your youtube clips, nice stuff. The manji stepping is eeriely reminiscent of some baji and xing yi stuff I've seen. To my eye it would seem like it's developing characteristics similar to the battle punches for long pole in Wing Chun (opening the hips while stabilizing the upper back). Where do you find similarities or differences?



Not to hijack, Mr. Punch, but I have a little insight here:

I did Hsing-i and Pa Kua for seven years before I came to Aikido, and my first impression was that there are way more similarities between these three arts than any others I've seen or sampled. In fact Pa Kua and Aikido share one movement in particular that isn't supposedly found in any other arts, namely Kokyu Ho (called Phoenix Spreads Wings in Pa Kua).

I asked about the similarites on the internal arts board back in 2003 and got flamed so hard I've never mentioned it since. Not that the Trolls objections didn't have merit. Just that my position was either misunderstood, or purposely ignored.

The idea that ancient Samurai studied internal martial arts in the middle of Japan's isolationist period seems far fetched. The idea that Morihei Ueshiba studied Hsing-i and/or Pa Kua in a Manchurian Prison for two months and somehow assimilated the entire essence of the arts (then went back in time and taught it to everyone in the Daito Ryu from his Aikijutsu lineage) also defies reason.

So why are these three arts so similar, when no other arts in Japanese history look the same, nor do any other arts in China have the same flavor? Maybe the issue dosen't require time travel, nor any Historical gymnastics. Could it be as simple as basic body mechanics used by Soldiers in armor using similar weapons?

Remember, Aiki focuses on spear, staff, and sword work, and was developed by Japanese warriors who were accustomed to wearing armor. Unlike other systems of Jujutsu, Aikijutsu actually intergrates the weapons work into the empty hand techniques. For example a sword cut and a hand strike will be performed the exact same way.

Hsing-i was based on Spear and Sword work, and was used to train Chinese soldiers. Hsing-i integrates empty hand and weapons work as well. Pa Kua Chang was probably developed by Dong Hai Chuan, an Imperial Palace bodyguard, who trained other bodyguards to use.... you guessed it, spears, swords, and armor. According to some lineages, Pa Kua and Hsing-i also influenced each other.

So it's not so far-fetched to think that the developers of these styles, which used similar weapons and methods came to similar conclusions, and thus developed nearly identical body mechanics.

[Mr Punch]

Yeah, I seem to remember that thread and saying that I didn't think either option was likely but that there seemed to many similarities...

I agree, and I think it does come down to pole and spear work, which is why I think it's a shame that the pole in WC is so shrouded in secrecy/advanced as that seems to share some of the characteristics. It means that many practitioners are losing out on some very basic power-generation aspects that they should be learning from Day One.

Incidentally, Akuzawa, the koryu teacher I got my exercises from, also did Hsing Yi with somebody relatively famous and good, and he said the same thing. He also used to include exercises from Hsing Yi too, (like the stepping 'chain punch' type thingy - for want of the correct terminology! :eek: ) but then he stopped in favour of only working the koryu stuff.

[Mr Punch]

Last night:

half an hour of tachi-dori waza. Taught the basics my movie action friend for his show-reel.

Great!

Hadn't done it in a long time, but reminded me how much I love it (and lived it!)! :)

In aiki too, those who don't practice so much sword (or at least bokuto) and jo stuff are really missing out compared to those who do too: it helps the power generation, footwork, angles of defence etc. We used to do about half and half weapons (including contemporary ones) and unarmed.

[Mr Punch]

Got up heroically early (overslept 25 mins) considering the ****ty weather and my baby keeping us awake all night again.

That extra 25 mins would have been useful as could have done another exercise or two and on to the tabatas, but had to go light n quick again.

(Weights inc the bar weight of 1.7... all x 2 of course being as there're two dbs! :D )

lateral raises:
3 x 5 x 7.95
3 x 5 x 9.2
1 x 3 x 10.45

front raises:
same

shrugs (front and back):
5 x 5 x 7.95
5 x 5 x 9.2
5 x 5 x 10.45
5 x 5 x 11.7
1 x 5 x 14.2
1 x 5 x 16.7
1 x 5 x 19.2

meh. time time time...

[Mr Punch]

another half a workout...

too little sleep, felt fatigued before i started.

of course, all dbs so all x2

BP 1 x 10 x 11.7
5 x 5 x 16.7
1 x 5 x 19.2
1 x 4F x 19.2
1 x 3 x 19.2

Arnold OP
1 x 10 x 2.95
1 x 10 x 11.7
1 x 4F x 16.7
3 x 3 x 16.7
1 x 3 x 19.2

shrugs
1 x 10 x 11.7
5 x 5 x 16.7
5 x 5 x 19.2
5 x 5 x 21.7
5 x 5 x 24.2


other half tonight...!? or sleep

[Mr Punch]

Opted for sleep, had a busy day yesterday in a few ways.

Trained 6-930 in the eve.

D amn good session.

Bit of everything and only complaint is didn't have more time to work in a bit more detail on a few more things.

Started with some stretches for my fu-bro who's done his back in. Refreshed him on the McGill's lower back ones that I usually do and mentioned a couple of El Macho's for hip adductors and glutes.

Then

Some chi sao with a couple of fu-bros I hadn't seen for a long time.

Light sparring from a chi sao base with an Okinawan (shuri-te) karate guy who was a complete noob to fu. Didn't see much point in starting from chi sao since he had no idea of forward intent or relaxation (but that's what he wanted to do so, oh well) - tried ot give him some idea, but he wasn't getting my explanation so I went with slapping him about a bit to illustrate my points. Then we moved up to a bit of light sparring (no gear) but he obviously wasn't used to anything other than typical karate stuff of coming in and out: the constant forward attacking was obviously more aggresive than he was used to and kind of overwhelmed him (and I was being sweet n nice and not going hard). Bit disappointed in not getting any kind of challenge: very different to Goju ryu guys (which is naha-te) as far as I remember.

Chi sao with a twenty-year formal sempai (sidai?) from my informal fu-bro's school. He was crap. Very disappointed. And yeah, I wasn't being competitive: we started slowly, just testing intent and structure and rolling slowly and upped the intensity slowly for about twenty minutes... he kept backing away and had no angle stepping at all.

Then some padded semi-contact sparring with my fu-bro who also does Muay Thai. He said anything goes, so I got to play with a bit of grappling to. Nice session. He's probably better than me, but way shorter, so I can afford to be a bit slack (though I was trying to keep things tight!). I was a bit too slack and occasionally tanning/kap jaarning his mid roundhouses: bad idea without perfect timing and distancing, and I got an evil knock to my elbow which has since swollen up. :( Hope it doesn't put me out of any training! Still, lesson well learned: started using my legs to check him more, both by blocking, and counter-kicking; keeping my distance with front kicks until I was ready to go in, and stop-kicking his kicking leg or his post leg when I read his timing right. Went well. Worked a nice single leg takedown (half swept him but wasn't sure if he take the landing so changed it halfway through) from a leg-catch, straight into a bungled mount, swiftly took side mount and simulated beating the crap out of him. He's not a grappler at all, so it was all too easy, but it was good to know that this grappling **** works really well on people who dont have a clue! :D Also got a DLT later and would've been guillotined but he didn't know how, so I went through guillotines with him.

Then (very?) light contact sparring with a biiig fu-bro. I was trying to work the crazy monkey guard in close range, to get underhooks or a good clinch/elbow position. Reasonably successful, certainly worth working on with gear next time. Tried one of those funky TKD roundhouses I'd been taught coupla weeks ago: copped his elbow with the top of my foot right next to the bruise from last time... hurts with weight on it today so hope that doesn't put me out of training! :( Next time just gonna stick with the Thai style shin kick roundhouse!

Bit more chi sao with a relative noob still terrified of being hit. Tried to build his confidence a bit.

Then an hour of movie action training: working wing chun hands for purely flash effect! Great fun, but pretty much useless from a fighting perspective, other than teaching my partner basic boxing punches.

Good sesh. Next week more of the same, but want to work some DLT drills, sprawl drills, and basic groudwork if my biiig fu-bro's back's better. Have to remember the kickpads next week too.

[Mr Punch]

Planned some suburi bokuto work and to get back on with shiko and shintai jiku, plus some weights tonight, but the weather's still really crap (really really humid, bout 26-7) and I have too much work, plus family stuff.

Fit in an hour of movie action training again, this time going over the flash looking WC apps with a bit more care substance and attention to detail. So this time it was more like MA training, but still not especially useful in that respect.

Looked at basic boxing punches and combos.
Basic chain punch (turning and advancing).
Pak sao drill.
Pak-da/palm-back of knee stomp kick-turn corner to fuk sao control takedown from behind.
Variations on the takedown: grabbing the shoulders and slamming backwards, controlled descent onto your knee, and standing RNC.
Working to the inside: tan-palm, inside pak to fak-hook-elbow combo.

Little or no resistance, set drills, very slow and basic, but not too shoddy.

Lacklustre day. If I can finish my work on time, tomorrow should be better,a nd the good news was yesterday's injuries which were acting up a lot this morning too seem to have disappeared. :)

[Mr Punch]

Second half of the upper body workout I started, ohh, on Saturday. But still, progress.

DBs as usual so x2 where appropriate.

Bent-over row

1 x 10 x bar (1.7kg)
3 x 5 x 6.7
3 x 5 x 9.2
3 x 5 x 11.7
3 x 5 x 16.7
3 x 5 x 21.7

Surprisingly easy, even for this light a weight... try bigger next time.

Front raise

1 x 10 x bar
5 x 5 x 6.7
3 x 5 x 9.2
3 x 5 x 11.7

Lat raise + Iron cross, superset with tricep kickback.

1 x 10 x 4.2
3 x 5 x 6.7
3 x 3 x 9.2

This last baby was sweet.
I realised I didn't have time to do any more exercises so I put the three together. The Iron cross has the overhead press and the bicep curl in it anyway.

My left arm was losing it towards the end so I'll probably stick at the same weight next time till my left catches up with my right.

[Mr Punch]

Now the bad news...

My injuries turned out to be work-throughable, but it also turns out I picked up a staph infection from rolling at the sports centre on Sunday. ****. It's not too bad, but Japanese doctors provide child's doses of anitbiotics, and she didn't even take a swab sample to see if it was MRSA.

And it means I can't pick up my baby, and we have to wash all the ****ing towels and everything separately.

Anyone tell me how long it should take to clear up?

[AndrewS]

I presume you have an area of infected skin- a cellulitis. It should be responding pretty well inside of 2 days with noticable change in the affected area. Draw an outline around the red part of the affected area. If the red margins are spreading past the outline in the next day or two, not shrinking, head back to the doctor.


Andrew

[Mr Punch]

It's folliculitis so it's more separate spots so far.

Seems to be calming down a bit.
The ***** heads are going.

[CFT]

Hey Mat, that sounds bad especially not being able to pick your daughter up. I had read about such possibilities; I seem to also remember Neilhytolt raving on about not training with people for this reason. I assume that it is actually quite rare to contract stuff like this in a training environment?

Glad to hear you are on the mend.

[stricker]

Hey Mat, that sounds bad especially not being able to pick your daughter up. I had read about such possibilities; I seem to also remember Neilhytolt raving on about not training with people for this reason. I assume that it is actually quite rare to contract stuff like this in a training environment?

Glad to hear you are on the mend.Ive never really heard of things like ringworm being a problem in wing chun from chi sao contact for example, but at some wrestling/mma places it is, especially as its more full body contact. In fact some gyms have a reputation for it...

Wash the mats, use proper hygiene (tea tree oil shower gel is supposed to be good for preventing it), and if someone has it they dont come to training till its cleared up. That way it wont ever be a problem. Oh, and if you go to seminars or other clubs, wear gi pants and full rashguard hahaha

Mat,

Unlucky man, hope it clears up soon and you get back to having fun with your kid!

[Mr Punch]

Wash the matsPublic gym... :eek:
use proper hygiene Always been a hygiene freak, especially since I ran a restaurant and even more so now I have a baby. HAd a shower before I went training and another one immediately after (but not allowed to use soap in the gym shower) and yet another one when I got home!(tea tree oil shower gel is supposed to be good for preventing it)Tea tre shmea tree... over here it'd be cheaper and easier to have my arm amputated!

Definitely gettign rash guard stuff... and a full NBC suit!

Unlucky man, hope it clears up soon and you get back to having fun with your kid!It's cleared up even with the extremely weak Japanese anitibiotics: thanks for your kind words!

[Mr Punch]

Bench

3 x 10 x 7.5
5 x 5 x 15
5 x 5 x 17.5
2 x 3 x 18.75
1 x 5 x 18.75 (forgot how many I was doing!
3 x 3 x 20
1 x 3 x 21.25
1 x 22.5

Still puny but way stronger than last time. My 1RM for bench is terrible: 50 kg.
This time was my highest 1RM with DBs ( 2 x 22.5 DB= 45 + 2 x bar = 48.4kg). Gonna need to buy some more weights within a couple of weeks.

Iron cross and lateral raise superset
5 x 5 x 5 only (had to finish)

Later fu:

pad punch work
dan chi, moving dan chi
bong sao drill
chi sao

This was a bit annoying: had taken all my gear over to the gym on the first floor of my friend's place (bit of privacy, no disturbances, no staph!), but the ****ing concierge came and told us we shouldn't be doing padwork (of all things) in the gym 'because people would think we were fighting' ! Doh! I wanted to point out that Japan had a no slight history of MA, but thought I wouldn't put my friend wh lives there some kind of neighbour probs. Sooo, just chi sao! :(

[Mr Punch]

Bits n bobs, but nothing solid till yesterday:

DLs and Squats superset:
(dbs as usual so kg x 2)

1 x 10 x 16.7
3 x 5 x 20.45
3 x 5 x 24.2

(still the max I have in weights right now... will get some more when I'm comfortably able to bench, single bench and OP them)

Bent-over rows:

1 x 10 x 11.7
3 x 5 16.7
3 x 5 x 21.7
3 x 3 x 26.7
1 x 3 x 31.7

Lateral raises + iron cross superset

1 x 10 x 4.2
3 x 5 x 6.7
1 x 5 x 9.2

Out of time...

Later: action movie seminar work with TKD teacher.

TKD warm-ups and kicks for about an hour.
Wing chun hands for an hour - punch against pads, stepping punches, pak against stepping punches, pak - punch outside, pak - turn corner takedown, biu - palm on inside, pak - fak - hook - elbow on inside... nothing with resistance apart from padwork - but that's the nature of movie action seminars! And still a good workout.

[Mr Punch]

Finally did the movie action seminar yesterday.

First hour and a half was TKD basic kicks. Nice.
Second part was WC, mostly punches, exaggerated pak da and pak da stamp takedown on the outside and exaggerated biu sao palm on the inside.
Fun, but ultimately somewhat useless martially.

Then in the eve got a quick hour and a bit of chi sau with four very different people. Since I don't really rate chi sao type exercises with other chunners as being especially useful anymore at my stage I wasn't really into the idea, but it was OK. There was a WSL's stude's stude over from HK, and he had quite good hands. Couldn't get so much on me without my compliance, but thought he had at several stages. Funny tho, he was a 3.5 yr student and because Japan is so polite, everybody was getting advice off him... despite having 8+ years!

Nice guy. Will prob train with his kwoon next time I'm in HK - esp since he's invited us so there'd be none of that last minute 'Who's your sigung? Well sorry, you can't train with us then!' BS that I got last time (stupid wankers!)!

[Mr Punch]

Had summer camp with a bunch of pupils last week... had a bit of exercise with them in the not-so-great outdoors (the Japanese don't know how to have a camp...!) and did a sesh of bodyweight intervals.

Now:

BP
1 10 11.7
3 3 19.2
3 3 21.7
1 3 24.2
1 1 24.2F

OP
1 10 11.7
3 3 14.2
3 3 16.7
3 3 19.2
1 1 20F

Not bad with those two... wanted to do back-off set of BP but no time. Back-off set of OP in ironcross.

Lat raise + iron cross + kickbacks SS
1 10 4.2
3 3 7.95
1 3 9.2

No time as usual.

Bent rows + shrugs SS
3 5 24.2

[Mr Punch]

Rough template based on one of Exrx's two-day workouts. Always meant to do it but no time. Work slackened off now for summer hol, so should be able to get four weeks of good solid training in (although I do have another Summer Camp, so I'll have to stick to bodyweight and form etc then... mind you, one of my fu-bros is doing the camp with me so maybe do something else).

Upper body yesterday: lower body today, supposed to include abs but due to lack of time (work lighter but still got baby! :D :D :D ), I'll do the abs, obliques etc tomorrow instead of a rest day.

DLs
4 5 24.2*
1 10 24.2*

Squats
5 5 24.2*

Calf raises (first time)
1 10 24.2* (both legs)
5 5 16.7* (each leg)

* is of course doubled for being DBs.

For Squats and DLs the weight is way under what I should and want t be doing but still have to stick with these weights, so going to go for more reps for endurance for now. Didn't have time for any warm-up sets today tho, so a light workout all round.

[Mr Punch]

Abs etc

Tabata DB swings
93

Tabata crunches + 5 kilo plate
Total 178

Oblique Ball Rolls
5 5 11.7
3 5 16.7
3 5 21.7

Too easy, bigger next time. Pleased, last time was ages ago but 10 kg was a struggle.

Windmills*
1 10 11.7
3 5 16.7

Same as above. Happy. Progress slow, but progress anyway.

[Mr Punch]

Sporadic exercise activity over the weekend due to being busy with family and moving house... but A LOT of lifting heavy boxes full of books into high places...

More of the same yesterday plus

five mins speed cycling + tabata sprints + 30 mins interval swimming + 15 speed cycling.

OMG tabata sprints: first time... what a killer!

I've done interval sprints before but never with such intensity... wicked - need to do those again!

[Mr Punch]

Forgot, i also did a meagre ten mins of chi sao yesterday (bit since I think chi sao is of minimal use topping it up with quality chi sao every now and then is about as useful as it gets), and a little forward energy exercise.

Today, cut short again through time... again small gains, but again gains so I'm happy:

BP*
1 10 11.7
3 5 21.7
2 5 24.2
1 4F 24.2

OP*
1 10 10
3 3 19.2
3 3 21.7

Tabata BP 2 x 5kg dbs
94

[Mr Punch]

Yesterday:

really no time - Iron cross and lateral raise superset just to so I could say I'd done something!

IX + LR SS*
1 10 4.2
3 5 9.2
3 5 10.4 (creeping up! - could do more but hard to keep form so leaving off safely)

Today

Tabata crunches + 5 kg 182
Tabata hip extensions + 5 kg 174
Tabata DB swings 15 kg 91

Windmills*
1 10 10
3 3 15
(wanted to do bigger but didn't hit any kind of groove - possibly through doing compound lift after exhausting myself on three tabata sets)

Oblique ball rolls
1 10 10
3 5 25

Bent-over Rows + Shrugs* SS
3 5 22.5

[Mr Punch]

**** busy moving house and doing a summer camp with a bunch of junior high kids...

Did a load of tabatas (far more than recommended), shifted loads and loads of boxes, did a helluva lot of very fast cycling, inc carrying several kilos of heavy shopping (light fittings, furniture, DIY ****) in one outstretched hand on my bike.

On the camp also taught the kids the eight silk brocade and did some capoiera jinga with them... lots of good exercise, no weights/MA... house soon sorted - back on track...

[Mr Punch]

Still too busy with organizing the new place to do any training... :(

Did carry the mikoshi again in the matsuri I always carry in (seventh time this year). That's a ton of gold and wood (yeah, I know I know... a ton of feathers would still be heavy - but not as hard...!) carried on our shoulders for seven hours (this year I went home early cos of the family). It's an excellent work-out for thighs, back, calves (MUST do more calf-raises this year!), shoulders and arms.

My tabi had shrunk in the wash though, and the friend tat was supposed to be getting me a new pair forgot, so I was barefoot for part of it again this year... no fun in 31 degrees on the tarmac! That was more painful than the carrying!

Was quite pleased: my technique has improved (and that technique is directly applicable to MA in general, but specifically wing chun footwork IMO), as has my strength.

My thighs have obviously got bigger through weights too (they're not fat), as I couldn't get the traditional cotton shorts on this year, without the help of two old men laughing at my arse hanging out and tugging and heaving them (and my nuts!) around my ears!

Also took Ellie along for the first time this year, sat her on the inner poles of the mikoshi and got her blessed.

Good times! :) :) :)

[Mr Punch]

Week after the matsuri I took part in the junior high school sports day, my main event being two sprints, one 200 and one 100. The 200 took me 30 secs which is a sprint for a ****ing turtle. Wasn't particularly happy cos since I started sprint training again my fastest was 27, but I have to say the track is dangerous slippy loose stone and a very tight curve and I was too concerned with not falling over! Not bad I suppose.

Anyway, since then not much doing... one bodyweight session:

supersets of

squats, pushups, crunches

then supersets of

pushups and side plank
hip extensions and bird-dogs
squats and front planks
reverse raises and crunches,

and an eight-minute ab workout consisting of various crunches for abs and obliques.

Two days ago did about 30 mins TKD kicking on pads and a few moving drills, and about 5 mins chi sao.

Yesterday, the bodyweight workout as above and the Iron Cross /Lateral raise SS with up to 11.7 kg each db

[Mr Punch]

Had a cold at the w/e so my mammoth kickstart back into serious training I had planned had to wait.

Got into reading Alwyn Cosgrove's stuff on http://www.alwyncosgrove.com/ and T-nation and thought I'd give one of his quick leg workouts a go...

started with the 8-min ab workout

then onto Cosgrove's leg w/o (number three) from http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1013133

Started with just two dbs of 15 kg each: knee twanged on the lunges. Stopped. Started again with 2x10 (1.7 for bar): completed the squats and lunges, but only managed 12 jumping lunges and 8 squat jumps. Didn't try the second set! To be fair, I think my cold is still making me weak, but this is definitely something to work on!

Then went for just the first complex from his number four w/o on the same page, just to see how it went. It went hard! Can't do front and back squats cos I only have dbs, so subbed the back squats with thrusters. Also figured out I can't do a power clean to save my life: will prob need some hands on instruction for that. Until then I could sub Renegade Bears and see how that goes.

Hella hard few mins. Tomorrow hopefully tabata push-ups + something else in the morning and see how it goes for the eve.

Working twelve-hour days on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu right now, eight on Fri and Sat. Not much time for training on top of time with the family. Oh well, gambarimasu.

[Mr Punch]

Same wk sit as before. Still no time to train. Managed a few random tabatas here n there, a few bw seshs and a few seshs of MA, a couple of runs, but nowhere near enough.

My cycling's got faster: from 18 mins PB to 11 mins going to work. :)

Last night did push-ups for KFM fitness challenge, and Cosgrove's all-over complex with 20 kgs - felt good. Then the eight min ab workout.

Hopefully some more of similar tonight.

[Mr Punch]

Finally got some time... and even with the day off that was a struggle! Too much to do...

Anyway, 8 min ab/oblique workout,

push-ups 1 min 44
squats 1 min 37
crunches 1 min 62
pull-ups 1 min 6
(no place to do them - knees dragging the floor, and not strong enough to do sitting position ones - need to rethink location)

Cosgrove's all-over body complex:

bench press (ball)
dead lift
bent row
overhead press
squat
calf raise shrug
good morning

22 kgs (2 x 11.7 kg dbs)

x6 fast as poss
rest half work time
x5
rest half work time... repeat
x4
x3
x2
x1

Cosgrove recommends resting 90 secs between each one but fancied pushing myself a bit more... dunno if it's a good idea the 5 rep set took longer than the 6! :eek:

3x5x22 db split overhead squats... niiiiice!

[Mr Punch]

8 min sit-up sets

windmills: dbs (x2) + 3.4 kg bar weight
10 x 5 x 3
12.5 x 5 x 3
15 x 5 x 3

iron cross/lateral raises
9.45 + 1.7 x 2 kg

x 3 x 3

Just testing the water - long time since I've lifted anything.

Then Cosgrove's lunge/squat torture:

Equipment needed: One pair of moderately heavy dumbbells (optional).

This routine needs to be done to be appreciated. You won't truly "get it" by reading about it.

Start the stopwatch:

1A: Squats (hold the dumbbells at your sides): Perform 24 reps, making sure to break parallel with every rep.

1B: Alternating lunges: 12 reps each leg. Make sure to use a maximal range of motion.

1C: Drop the dumbbells (unless you're psycho) and switch to alternating lunge jumps. Do 12 reps per leg. Get as high as you can and switch legs in the air. King Kong didn't just jump on your back, although it might feel like it!

1D: Squat jumps: Make sure you still get below parallel and get off the floor as high as you can. Perform 24 reps.

Stop the clock! You should be under two minutes for the set.

Rest half the time it took you to complete the circuit and then repeat it. Cursing me and my entire Scottish heritage is normal at this point. If you're able to complete the entire circuit in under 90 seconds, then sta