DarthPenguin

Hi All, While it is not something we celebrate over here i know it is a massive deal in the USA so i thought i'd wish everyone celebrating it a happy thanksgiving. I hope you all have/had a great time with your families

Yeah they would work for that population. In a similar way to the vibration machine craze from a few years ago. They were designed for astronauts to allow them to minimise muscular atrophy (the electric thing may help with the same) since the lack of gravity on space station made conventional weights useless. They were not developed to be superior to weights!

Rewatching it has made me realise how amazingly well trained Eddie is! Is remarkable how well they have him pose in scenes

Sounds like you are really enjoying the Aikido - do you see yourself sticking with it longer term?

Well said, my friend!! Consider this seconded!

Yeah to reiterate what bushido_man said regarding bjj, size and skill in other arts can make a difference, especially when rules are applied. From personal experience : one reason i joined bjj in the first place was i got absolutely destroyed by someone about 5'6 and probably60/70lbs lighter than me, with no seeming effort on his part. However, once i had been there a few months, there was another guy who was always a horrendous training partner (tried to hurt people etc) and he did the same with me. Similar size differential - i decided to play his own game and literally grabbed his legs for a guard pass and threw his body off the wall, then settled into side control. Point being that when i decided i could go completely outwith the rules then size helped (also he was less horrendous with me in future!) Generally i do think that for bjj skill makes the major difference but it is also within the ruleset eg slams. Look at what Rampage famously did to a world class bjj black belt in Arona in Pride years ago. Someone miles better than me and a lot smaller will likely swiftly triangle me and send me to sleep, but if not done right there is a chance i can powerbomb them etc. (though the skilled guy wouold probably finish me easily with something else!)

Glad to hear you are feeling better

When it's done i will take some then

Heaviest 'workout' i have had in ages today - my delivery of gym gear all arrived and i had to carry it from front door to back garden, up quite a few stairs in garden and into new cabin. Lots of equipment so i felt it by the end - was 2 full pallets worth! I had never appreciated how heavy rubber mats were until you move 60 of them (300kg worth!) Have a fun weekend ahead now assembling it all!

Tuesday 14 November Lifting Session Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 3 75kg x 5 85kg x 3 95kg x 3 Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 55kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 70kg x 5 Session went well. All weights felt smooth

Excellent! Assuming he passes (which i am confident he will) being a nidan in uechi-ryu at 18 will be no joke! Is he planning to stick with it or start cross training in a grappling style too?

Awesome news! Congratulations to you both Does Zach have to sit another grading when he turns of age for shodan or does it automatically convert (apologies if it is a silly question - i'm not familiar with how shodan-ho grades work!)

I'm sorry. That sounds terrible. Our family has gotten small too and it seems like every week I hear about someone else who is very sick or who recently died. I don't think you can really say that that does or doesn't sound terrible tbh. Everyone handles this subject differently so i would say that there is no right or wrong way. I would, however, echo Zaine's suggestion of a therapist, they may help with sorting things out

yep, i would agree totally with both bushido_man and zaine. Slight caveat would be that sometimes you can do what you tried and try a little - you can quickly tell if you can manage a little work, which i do find sometimes can help. But if not up to it then don't do it! In the grand scheme of things missing a few training sessions won't hurt anything really

Agreed. The characters are lacking compared to Niles, Daphne, Roz, and Martin. There was such great chemistry between those characters and they fit so well together. I plan to stick with it for a while to see where it goes but I do hope it starts to improve. yeah i totally agree. We also started rewatching the original Frasier series at the same time (my other half had never really watched it properly) and it is noticeable how much better it is!

Best of luck with the test! You've put the work in so now it's just about showing it off!

Wednesday 8 November Karate Session Warm ups as per usual Kihon Didn't do full range of grading kihon but a lot of focus on 'snap' and kime in techniques. Lots of focus on minor details which was good! Kata Majority of class focus was on kata. Multiple run throughs of Bassai Dai, working on refining small details. Also a few run throughs of Heian Godan doing the same. Also worked on Heians Shodan, Sandan and Yondan. Ran through Kihon kata a few times too for my sons benefit. Overall a good class, enjoyed it and a lot of useful focus on details

Tuesday 7 November Lifting Session Abridged session but managed to get in main lift Trap bar deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 92.5kg x 5 105kg x 3 117.5kg x 8 Happy with these. Lifts went smoothly. Am also gradually increasing the beltless sets. Currently trying to do every set less than 100kg with no belt. Will look to gradually increase that as top set increases

Congratulations!

Very succinctly put! Would agree it distils things down though once you go up a layer then the complexities and difficulties crop up (different peoples ideas of what is good etc.) though that opens up a whole other can of worms!

What would (in my opinion) work better would be to sit down and decide what you want to work on : more explosiveness; greater maximum strength; gain muscle; more endurance etc. Work out where you currently stand and where you want to get to and when you want to get there for. This has to be realistic though (eg if your max deadlift is 100kg it would be silly to say you want a max of 250kg in 6mths time etc.) Then look at how you can get there - the training methods needed and the equipment needed. If you lack either then see how you can get there. There will likely be many methods to use so you can obviously tailor this to what you have available / are willing to source (what i mean by this is if your goal is to increase leg strength, you currently have a max back squat of 40kg, but no rack or barbell available but you have dumbell pairs going up to 30kg then you can just decide to do dumbell squats/lunges etc rather than having to do back squats until you max this out.). Set some clear metrics for how you will gauge your performance improvements and if things are/are not working. Then go for it. As with anything there are no shortcuts - similarly to martial arts, you can't just walk in off the street with no training and get a karate bb in 1 year! Likely you already know all the above (apologies) but thought it worth laying out again anyway as is often good to hear!

Monday 6 November BJJ Session Made it along to bjj session today. First session since i was not well so was good to be back though tough. Adding it in is final layer of adding in 'normal stuff' Really good class. Was dealing with responding to opponent attempting to stand in closed guard to pass. Worked on either taking k-guard on one side and working for a sweep or fighting for a strong collar grip and breaking posture back down. Also did a little rolling but will take it easy going forwards. Was trying to really focus on active gripping as i can have a tendency to be a little passive due to my arm length and just 'hang on'. Managed to hit a couple of submissions i wanted to work on (still working cross collar choke and canto chokes) so i was pleased

Saturday 4 November Lifting session Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 5 70kg x 3 80kg x 3 90kg x 5 these felt lighter than expected. Always takes me a while to get back into my squatting groove after not having done it for a while so i was pleased seated overhead press with leg raise superset 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 10 leg raises 10 10 10 10 10

Thursday 2 November Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 52.5kg x 3 60kg x 3 67.5kg x 8 Seated overhead press 20kg x 5 25kg x 3 32.5kg x 3 37.5kg x 3 42.5kg x 5

I would say that they are (likely) an example of marketing hype. Through prior jobs and personal life i have had a lot of interactions with nationally ranked (in the UK) bodybuilders (natural and otherwise), powerlifters and a few professional sportspeople and strength coaches. Almost to a person they would respond with laughter if these type of things came up. If these things worked, or even gave a 0.01% edge on the competition then they would jump right in. Personally i would say that there are no short cuts. There is no realistic substitute for a properly planned exercise programme (be that with weights or bodyweight) with a clear plan for increases and progression. Gradually improving and building from there. It has stood the test of time (with the implements changing) for thousands of years really.