Haven’t posted on here for a while partly cos it takes a lot of time and partly because I don’t even know if anybody reads it!
I was keeping it as a training diary but I can generally remember what I do so kind of stopped.
Anyway, had a couple of sessions doing the warm-ups above and that training programme (which is supoosed to be four weeks before you up the intensity) but a) some of it doesn’t seem to make sense and b) the B programme involves some step exercises and I don’t have a step or anything that is safe to improvise with really, some of its pairing of supersets don’t seem to make sense and they have included something called a ‘stick-up’ which seems designed only for people who have zero shoulder movement (basically standing against a wall and raising your arms with no weights!)… I was wondering whether to go to the next level of the workout but my back was tweaking after the B programme so I may just skip the whole thing!
Anyway, did the A prog again with 3x15x40 squats and 3x15x40 dls too (all dbs of course) to break me back in to going and going for bw lifts when I get back to the gym next week.
Had some productive fu recently (seem to be able to train more with various people recently) including a couple of nice seshes working clinch, neck ties and answers to them, rolling elbows and short hooks on the inside, and the same over the outside, and using fuk sao for clinch positioning.
Yoga picnic tomorrow… too stiff so hope I don’t fall apart or strain myself too much!
Been busy training mostly but thought I7d pop in with my now occasional blog…
Highlights and lowlights:
Rather ****ed off at my not being able to run any more. Used to be a good runner, but am not seeing any improvement despite having been running 5 km every couple of days. Would like to get it to every day but don’t really have time. Would like to get back to 10 k under 40 mins, but currently running 5 at 24 or so that’s not looking likely. Partly because of my hatred of the treadmill. It’s so ****ing boring. The TVs in my gym are always playing ****ing golf. But even running outside isn’t doing the job… although through being busy I’ve been running recently at stupid times like when there are loads of cars about (which ****s up my asthma), it’s hot and humid, or the park is full of families cluttering up the paths! Also if I run with my running partner I can’t go at full speed because he’s a lot slower. Don’t know if I’m just making excuses or what…!
Tried Tabata training the other day (was short of time) with unweighted squats and push-ups: very good. Will include it more regularly into my training.
Reached the limits of my 20 kg dbs with the big lifts: 40 kgs just isn’t enough to even stress me on the dls, squats or presses. Of course still some work to do with bis and tris. When I’m at home, started on an all-over workout with the 40 kgs. It feels good, but want to get back to big, specific lifts.
Don’t know what to do next. Have to quit the gym for various personal reasons, plus they don’t have a free weight rack, only the Smith. Be using the gym until the end of Oct. So, I’ve got to buy more equipment. Want to continue with the dbs but should get a bar and a bench too, so money’ll be a problem, esp as I should go for an Olympic bar for when I get to lift heavier.
Started incorporating pull-ups the other day. Did six which I was quite pleased with since it was the first time in a few years. Didn’t fail but thought I’d quit while I was ahead. Felt good. Going to make it regular.
On another note, carried the shrine in a festival downtown yesterday. Recovery periods much quicker tho felt some pain in my knees. Great all over workout for strength and endurance: lifting a ton of gold and metal, chanting and dancing forward rhythmically for 10 hours! Really really feel it in my calves and quads today! Great workout if you can get hold of a shrine! The all-day drinking that accompanies it isn’t even too hard since you’re also drinking a gallon of water, constantly snacking on high-protein foods like sashimi and octopus and sweating it out in seconds!
[QUOTE=Mr Punch;701216]Haven’t posted on here for a while partly cos it takes a lot of time and partly because I don’t even know if anybody reads it!
[/QUOTE]
We read blogs. However, perhaps you should start a new thread and indicate that it’s a blog. For example, I never read this thread, so I didn’t know it was a blog until today. Had I known, I would’ve checked it out a long time ago.
As for your initial question, my big 4 are
squats
cleans
bench press
deadlifts
I’d add other things like the farmer’s walk or yoke carry, but you have to have special equipment to do those with heavy weight.
I realize the thread title is useless, but I hadn’t intended it as a blog at first. Unfortunately you can’t change the thread title… and then some people came with some useful stuff (William’s back exercises, all of Andrew’s advice to a rehabbing noob) so I was loath to let it die and start a new one. May do, or I may just continue to post on it irregularly.
As for your big four that seems similar to a lot of people’s. I do all of those regularly now except the clean. I don’t know cos I’ve never tried it but it seems to me that it’s a combination of the DL and squat: what does it add?
BTW, in addition to the weekend’s notes: anybody who thinks the ninja walked around all the time in tabi and their uniforms (and I know some people still have this romantic notion! ) is in fantasy land. I carried that mikoshi (shrine) for nearly ten hours yesterday and I now have immense pus-swollen blisters on my next-to-big-toes, and the toes themselves are swollen. It makes it very difficult to any more training right now and I hope they heal soon!
I do need to do a lot of calf raises, and maybe running backwards and forwards up and down hills to improve my calves’ endurance though I think!
I like cleans and worked on them a bit for a year and a half or so. Right now I’m playing with incorporating pulls back into my lifting regimen. I’ve heard a variety of arguments back and forth on the merits of full oly lifts vs. power oly lifts vs. pulls vs. dynamic box squats, and presently I’m thinking pulls may be the way to go for beginners and people trying to handle a lot of volume (i.e. people engaged in other athletic activities). They require less skill and are the first stage in many schemes for teaching the oly lifts, and you don’t wind up with badly beaten up clavicles, wrists, and shoulders by doing them. The argument has been made that the duck under to catch is an important component of the full oly lifts for athletes, training the ability to reverse. If you believe that, snatch drops + pulls might be a better way to go for a year or so, then start messing with full snatches and cleans.
Snatch drops- put the bar on your back with hands at snatch grip width, jump so it goes no more than an inch or two up, and duck under the bar as fast as possible, so that you’re rock bottom when the bar’s weight settles.
Pulls- the explosive phase of the clean or snatch, done from the floor, below the knee, or above the knee, pulling to a set height, either leaving the arms locked and moving the weight just a little, or pulling high- up to chest level. They’re executed by jumping with the weight explosively.
OK, thanks. Still not entirely sure about the pulls, but I’ll give them a try.
Just started the next phase of the bodyweight programme which I do alternate days with the weights. It was interesting and quite hard. My kneesa re too shot to do pistols right now, but I’m hoping they’ll strengthen up soon.
Weights tomorrow, but at home so all over programme with max of 40 kg dbs. Need to buy some more weights.
Regarding pistols: try doing stepups instead. I worked up to doing pistols while holding a heavy ass sandbag in front of me, and I can’t say I got a **** thing out of doing them.
[QUOTE=William;708068]Regarding pistols: try doing stepups instead. I worked up to doing pistols while holding a heavy ass sandbag in front of me, and I can’t say I got a **** thing out of doing them.[/QUOTE]OK. I do step-ups and just started with Bulgarian split squats, but can’t seem to get back to pistols. May be fear.
Partly because of my hatred of the treadmill. It’s so ****ing boring. The TVs in my gym are always playing ****ing golf. But even running outside isn’t doing the job… although through being busy I’ve been running recently at stupid times like when there are loads of cars about (which ****s up my asthma), it’s hot and humid, or the park is full of families cluttering up the paths! Also if I run with my running partner I can’t go at full speed because he’s a lot slower. Don’t know if I’m just making excuses or what…!
The all-day drinking that accompanies it isn’t even too hard since you’re also drinking a gallon of water, constantly snacking on high-protein foods like sashimi and octopus and sweating it out in seconds!