DarthPenguin

Excellent - glad to hear you are able to get back into it

Welcome! Hope you like it here and best of luck with your training too - hope it goes well.

I like him but he will never be champ. Always a fun watch though. Harrison vs Nunes will be interesting, i'm leaning towards Harrison personally, you? Merab vs O'Malley went as i thought i would though i was surprised with how improved Merab's striking was. Very impressive

Tuesday 3 June Lifting session Needed to be quite a quick session as had stuff to do with the kids plus my foot was playing up Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 55kg x 10 55kg x 10 55kg x 10 55kg x 10 55kg x 15 KB Double overhead press 16kg kb x 2 x 55 reps total in ABF press style CAble neck extension 7kg x 14 7kg x 14 7kg x 14 Cable neck flexion 7kg x 14 7kg x 14 7kg x 14

Congratulations! I have also always enjoyed the time i have spent on here. One thing i think that is done particularly well (especially for a martial arts site) is you have managed to avoid any hint of 'my style is superior to your style' slipping in which can often happen on sites where the martial arts is discussed. Everyone is generally respectful of each others style/s and seems to be willing to enter into open discussions with the purpose of learning from others which is appreciated and often far too rare nowadays

Monday 2nd June Karate session Warm up as per usual then moved onto grade required kihon. After this we did one round of Bassai Dai and then some kumite drills. Once these were done we worked through all the Heian Katas and then Bassai dai again to finish the class. Good session!

Friday 30 May Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 52.5kg x 10 52.5kg x 10 52.5kg x 10 52.5kg x 10 52.5kg x 12 ABC complex with 2 x 16kb 15 rounds EMOM Cable Neck Extension (tri set with cable neck flexion anda single arm cable row) 7kg x 13 7kg x 13 7kg x 13 Cable neck flexion 7kg x 13 7kg x 13 7kg x 13 Single arm cable row (reps = total of L + R) 20kg x 20 20kg x 20 20kg x 20 For these i started in a 'fighting stance' with non working hand forwards. Reached forward with rear hand and rowed it back with twisting trunk. Wanted to try this way to add in some rotational strength too.

Just got back from a trip to Toronto last week so not too much to report - managed a couple of sessions in the hotel gym though. Starting next 'proper' programme now. Will be doing the Juggernaut 2dpw option again with ABF stuff added in as assistance and some neck work too plus whatever i think should be added at the time Deadlift 60kg x 5 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 12 Back to doing conventional deadlift for this programme as want to see if it has more carry over than trap bar deadlift KB double overhead press 14kg kb x 2 x 55 reps total. Have ordered a second 16kg so will be using two of them from here on out Cable neck extension (superset with neck flexion) 7kg x 12 7kg x 12 7kg x 12 Cable neck flexion 7kg x 12 7kg x 12 7kg x 12

Can't see how Pena can beat Harrison with anything other than a lucky strike. Harrison's hardest opponent is the weight cut

Saturday 10th MAy BJJ session This session was focuing on back control / excaping back control and was mainly ecological drills. Worked a lot of defending the choking arm with one / two hands and then getting free. Variety of drills around that then some rolling. Managed to pull off first bow and arrow choke in ages. Realised after i felt more energetic so i think the kettlebell work has helped with my conditioning. Will try to implement this alongside more pure strength work going forwards

Thursday 8 May This was the 100 rep session for the press part of the ABF. Managed all 20 sets with double 14kg KB's. Could probably press a little more but not sure about how easily i could swing the weight to get it into position with the clean so will likely step up to 2 x 16 next etc After the presses : Incline Cable flye (weight is total of L + R) 20kg x 5 32kg x 5 32kg x 8 32kg x 8 32kg x 8 Tried these as a new exercise to see how they went. Was going to try presses rather than flyes but the width of the cable led to flyes being easier. tbh unlikely to keep in programme as was a faff Triceps straight bar pushdown 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 Lat pulldown 50kg x 8 50kg x 8 50kg x 8 Cable neck extension 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 Cable neck flexion 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 6kg x 16

I find this quite interesting as i have always had a similar thought that the ecological approach is good but not really for new people. We use it a lot at my class too, and i find it useful, but someone totally new would have issues i think. For example, last week we were working on retaining open guard and destabilising / sweeping opponent. Worked well for me as i worked retaining de la riva, adjusting to another open guard if needed etc. and it helped me realise an issue i have had before was due to my not 'pulling' enough with my de la riva hook - fixed that and started hitting some de la riva sweeps in the drills and when rolling afterwards :). But for someone new, while the principle of "get your feet on your opponent and keep them there" is valid it must be tough when you don't know the technique. My personal preference would be to for the instructor to teach a couple of techniques (in my example a couple of basic de la riva sweeps), drill them a few times and then do the ecological drill with the same constraints and instructions. Would give people something to work with, or even if they didn't try that they may have an aha moment about off balancing someone and try something else that works for them.

Hopefully the procedure went well and you see the expected benefits I always find that a little time off and thinking about technique when off can work wonders when you are back - it can fix those silly little errors you don't realise you are making

Wholeheartedly agree - it would be similar to a lot of modern judoka struggling with takedowns that involve leg grabs as they have never learned them since the rule changes. One of the main points of training is to build muscle memory so you respond faster / on instinct. This type of training would lead to know muscle memory being built to defend head strikes. Even if the fighter was able to 'manually' try to respond to such strikes they would inevitably be slower than one who defended it on instinct.

Congratulations!! Also, doesn't need to be final update