DarthPenguin

Excellent log still! Out of curiosity for the hack squats are you doing them on a machine or with a barbell? For the barbell rows am also curious : are you doing them 45degree style or pendlay style? I've been playing about with these over the last few months and it made me realise how much a belt helps - as a frame of reference i can do 225lb x 3 with a belt in a 45degree row but am currently using 137.5lb without one while i work back up in weight. Pendlay rows are good too but as i am tall them feel like a lot of stress on the lower back (probably crap form on my part!) Hope you don't mind the questions - i was just curious

Thursday 28th July Weights Session Felt a bit week going in today. Don't think my eating has been great today but have been busy with work. finished full workout though so can live with it! Am debating starting to track time taken too. I have the workout planned out in advance and a spreadsheet that calculates my estimated 1RM over time and works out required numbers for the '+' sets to keep progressing. Am thinking that adding a measure of density (tonnage / time) might be useful to track progress too. Need to think of a good way of integrating that with the differing length workouts on the 5+. 3+ and 1+ weeks Bench Press 20kg x 10 40kg x 5 50kg x 3 57.5kg x 5 67.5kg x 5 77.5kg x 6 performance on final set wasn't great but managed the 5+ so can live with it Seated Overhead Press (barbell) - low weights for volume 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 These were lighter but trying to stick to approx 50% of training max for these. Barbell Row - no belt 62.5kg x 10 62.5kg x 10 62.5kg x 10 Neutral Grip Bench lockout / KB Hammer Curl superset Lockout 62.5kg x 10 62.5kg x 10 62.5kg x 10 KB hammer curl 24kg x 8 24kg x 8 24kg x 8 For all exercises after the bench press i used 50sec rest between sets. For the superset it was 50sec between each pairing Total workout time : 38min 30sec

Wednesday 27th July Karate Session Another quite quiet class tonight due to summer holidays etc (which is good for me to improve!). The black belts i usually spar with were not here tonight so less kumite but good to work on other things Warm ups A little more stretching than usual which was good. I want to get my flexibility back to closer to what it used to be (used to be able to comfortably kick a few inches above my head height but now struggle to get to my chin!). Have been rereading my copy of Stretching Scientifically and will try to put it into action Kihon More repetitions of each technique that usual which was good Kata Multiple reps of kata. Didn't get the same issues called out which was a positive (or they are so bad they are a lost cause!!) Combinations The sensei showed some new combinations of strikes with hand and feet and we drilled these for a while. I enjoyed these and could feel that my kicks are beginning to get slightly higher and smoother again 1 step kumite practiced a little one step kumite for grading purposes and then some semi free sparring with unannounced attacks. Overall a good class

Have people seen the second trailer? I saw it the other day and i must say, it looked a lot better. Am quite looking forward to this now.

Thursday 21st July Weights Session Squat 20kg x 10 40kg x 5 50kg x 3 60kg x 3 67.5kg x 5 75kg x 3 85kg x 6 These felt good. Could have possibly squeezed out one / two more if i really pushed it but the risk seemed more than the gain. I had planned for 4 as it was the 1+ set so happy to call it at 6 Trap Bar Deadlift 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 10 72.5kg x 10 Neutral Grip Bench lockout 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 another new exercise. will keep this going forwards. Have been trying out a few new exercises in last couple of weeks to potentially add into plan going forward as i think it needs slightly rejigged

Wednesday 20th July Karate Session Warm ups Kihon Same as usual but also added in ushiro geri which is one of my favourite kicks for soarring so was good to get some more reps in Kata Multiple rounds of kata. All doing Heian Sandan. Am happy now that i have the flow and just need to work on the techniques being sharp. Kumite Loads of rounds of this Started with 3 unannounced strikes, any limb, taking 3 goes each. Then moved onto free sparring. Was paired up with 1st kyu, 1st Dan and 2nd Dan. Seemed to go well too Kata Couple more rounds of heian sandan at the end. i quite like the additional practice when fatigued at the end of class.

Tuesday 19th July Weights Session This was incredibly warm for Scotland - temperature was 32C so decided i would do main lift and get out as didn't want to make myself ill! Seated Barbell Overhead Press 20kg x 8 25kg x 5 30kg x 5 37.5kg x 5 42.4kg x 3 47.5kg x 6 Final set was less reps than i was hoping for but still more than the 1+ programmed in. Am going to put it down to the heat. Decided to do one more exercise to try it (and as i felt bad about only doing one thing!) Straight Arm pulldown 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 This felt decent to do. Cable machine needs oiled/WD40 but that was fine as it means i can use less weight effectively!

Also, view it as a positive - you have now established a baseline and will only be fitter/better from now on. Gives you something to gauge progress against next time!

Saturday 16th July Weights Session Deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 3 90kg x 3 105kg x 5 120kg x 3 132.5kg x 3 Squat 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 Fat Grip DB lateral raise (supersetted with squats) 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 KB Pistol Curl 8kg x 10 8kg x 10 tried these as a new exercise but didn't really like how they felt on my left wrist (have injured it before) so i doubt i will do these again This was an extremely warm evening (for Scotland!) at 24C so i tried to be sensible and called it here. Was pleased as kept up a good tempo throughout

Thursday 14th July Weights session Bench press 20kg x 10 40kg x 5 50kg x 3 65kg x 5 75kg x 3 82.5kg x 3 barbell row (no belt) 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 60kg x 10 KB Hammer Curl 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10

Why Karate? For me the reason was quite simple really. I was a mixed race kid growing up in central scotland in the early 80s. As a result i was in a fight pretty much daily from about 4yrs old onwards. Could usually hold my own but there was one kid in my class that was bigger and stronger and would just come over and beat me up. After a bit my dad found a karate class for me and i started training 4x a week almost straight away. Broke the kids nose as a birthday party when i was 5 so changed schools but didn't stop the issues. Kept training lots and found it helped. Moved to the clubs head dojo which was in a very shady area of a town about 45min away (there was a thing called the 'ice cream wars' that was taking place there at the same time) and kept training away. Was a tough class but was useful for actually fighting! Eventually moved away and to a bigger city so had less need to fight all the time and fell away from karate. Went back and trained in other styles in late teens and have trained pretty much consistently since. Why karate now? Tbh my son wanted to start so i contacted a class and they said they would only take a 5yr old if a parent was there too so i joined the class. Been enjoying it a lot so i can't see myself leaving again anytime soon!

Wednesday 13th July Karate Session Was a really small class again this week. Only 5 of us with that being one 3rd dan, one 1st dan, one first kyu, one 6th kyu and me at 7th. As before this is good for me personally as get a lot of chance to iron out issues in kata plus we usually do some more unusual stuff. Warm ups usual warm up and stretching Kihon Performed usual grade specific kihon but with more reps Kata Started on kata quite early in the class. instructor was just having us out in groups of 1 or 2 to practice our grade kata. Got some useful pointers on Heian Sandan to work on and worked on them throughout the session. They were specific fixes that seemed (relatively) straightforward to implement pad work / kumite drills We did few extra things this week. We practiced front leg mawashi geri and ura mawashi geri. initially working way down the hall, 'shifting' into the kick (bad wording for a quick transference of feet into kicking position eg left leg kick, shoft right foot in to where left foot was quickly while chambering left leg kick.). I used to do this all the time in a previous style and it came quite naturally, though my flexibility is nowhere near what it used to be, particularly in my right hip. Then practiced the kicks to pads and opponents chest. Followed by a few rounds of sparring. I did most of my rounds with the 1st dan. Kata again We went back to kata and i got to check if i was beginning to omplement the changes from earlier in class. Comments were generally on other things but the instructor did mention he could see i was doing the bits he had mentioned which is good

Congrats, well done! Are you going to get a new bb when you get the new shodan or use the same one at the different styles? Just curious!

Sunday 10th July Weight Session Pushed from Saturday due to some family events Squats 20kg x 10 40kg x 5 50kg x 5 62.5kg x 3 70kg x 3 80kg x 8 These felt good. It was unusually warm today for Scotland and i had been working in the garden quite a bit too so i was pleased with how these felt. Strength is slowly coming back up and depth is good still Superset : KB one hand cleans (reps are per hand. both left and right done) supersetted with close angled grip bench press. I have a football bar/multipress bar with slanted innermost handles close slanted grip bench 50kg x 10 50kg x 10 50kg x 10 50kg x 10 KB one handed clean 20kg x 5 20kg x 5 20kg x 5 20kg x 5 these felt good. Could likely do heavier but was focusing on good explosive reps and a short rest time between rounds so it was good. Kihon 100 x straight punches from horse stance Added these in to get a little more done but it was boiling so i decided to stop there as main lift done

Since this is a hybrid class and a white belt is simply outperforming the other colored belts, I also considered the fact that I wouldn't want to instill any lack of confidence in others, particularly children and teenagers. It is definitely not a problem for me to start over because I am confident I would advance quickly with my experience. Just to chime in as i totally agree with Zaine here and have done the same thing. Some of the students at the karate class found it weird to voluntarily go back and regrade but when i spoke to them they understood my reasoning. What i have found from this (plus starting judo after several years experience in BJJ) is that you should just be open and honest about your experience and your desire to learn. If you don't then people start thinking you are just there to prove you are tough and beat people etc. But if you are wearing a white belt and sparring equally with BBs then no-one minds if they know you hold one in something else. My karate class just pairs me up with the BB's for kumite and does the kihon with my current grade and that works well. Another thing i personally find that helps is i intentionally limit the techniques i use to ones i have been shown at the style. So at karate even though i can do a ura mawashi etc i don't do it as not been shown here yet. It is a little harder at Judo newaza as you can't choose not to use weight distribution etc without deliberately losing but you can restrict the submissions you use etc I have also found that the coaches quite like it as it can be a good lesson to the experienced students/BBs that you should always treat a potential opponent with respect as you don't know their skill level - they might be wearing a white belt but they could actually be someone like the 5th Dan Aurik mentioned!

Thursday 7th July Weights session Seated overhead barbell press (no back support) 20kg x 8 25kg x 5 30kg x 5 35kg x 3 40kg x 3 45kg x 10 Barbell bench press (part of superset and lighter for volume) 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 One arm KB row from 3 point stance (reps are per arm) 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 The grip on my 24kg kb's is actually really thick - it is about the same as the thickness of my fat gripz originals so this is also a good grip exercise. will keep adding these in. When i work up to 5 x 20 per hand i will get some 28kg kb's! (new exercise) eccentric accentuated bb curl Straight olympic barbell (20kg) 20 second negative from top of curl 10 reps 20 second negative from top of curl I don't usually use long negatives but i had read about this exercise in an article and was curious. Will try it for a few weeks and see if i notice any improvements

Wednesday 6th July Karate Session Very small class tonight (5 people) though from a purely selfish point of view this is good for me as means plenty of attention and suggestions to fix my numerous technical faults!! Warm up Kihon this was modified slightly and some different techniques shown that aren't normally covered Kata Worked through Heian Sandan a few times with some useful pointers. Thankfully the suggestions were to do things differently that i had been deliberately doing in the manner i was doing them ,due to a misunderstanding on my part, so should be straightforwrd to rectify We also did a pseudo kata made up of shutp uke and spearhand strike (i have totally forgotten the correct name for this!). Followed the embusen for Heian Shodan but with the techniques replaced with almost all shuto uke. Was good practice for the technique Kumite Worked some ippon kumite as practice for grading in September and then did some free sparring. As usual i was paired with one of the black belts as he is the closest in size to me Drills We also did some additional drills for responding to an opponent punching you, using footwork, shuto uke and a strike/throw etc. Was good though i was told that i parry the shuto too much and i should 'prepare and strike with it' instead to hurt the opponents punching arm. I will try to do this in the future but i think until my hand speed improves to the level where i can doge punch, do a preparation and then strike with the block i will likely still parry in sparring etc as i can manage that fine with shuto. Issue is purely lack of skill on my part though so i will work on fixing it!

Fair enough, if you have seen it done etc ,and no disagreement that they are 'proper lineages'. I would still wonder though if the Brown belts sought permission from their Black belt coaches for the promotion first but no way of finding that out without being involved directly. As to who told me it was frowned upon he was a Black belt under one of the Gracies too and for the first year and a half after earning his BB he had to cover the red tab at the end of his belt with white tape. He wasn't allowed to promote off his own back until the tape came off. But tbh everyone has different rules in martial arts. Skill wise i have no issue either with a Brown Belt promoting someone to Blue etc. - they are obviously skilled enough

Sounds intriguing. i'll need to give it a look, thanks! I'm just finishing the new prequel/follow up to the Hellequin books but that sounds like an interesting option for a new book

This is totally different to what i have experienced and observed. A Purple/Brown belt usually can NOT promote. What they can do is ask their BB instructor/coach to promote someone, or ask for their permission in special cases to award a grade. We came against this when i first started in 2008/9 as my coach at the time was a 4 stripe purple then got his brown. He did not start awarding promotions until he had been a BB for a few years. He was actually told by his instructor that he could now aware promotions. My new instructor is the same. He is a BB and can now promote if there is a Purple/Brown promoting off their own back then it sounds kinda sketchy to me tbh. Most reputable BJJ places would frown on that

I concur because I try to start off on my back as comfortably as possible. Although the person in the top position can adjust to my own advancements, the more time he spends not being able to submit me lol You're right; preventing being put in the position in the first place entirely is the wisest course of action! still...the TD can occasionally be inevitable when you're gassed..and there you are My response to that would still be scramble, scramble, scramble. Smaller fast people can be really annoying when they are scrambling quickly. To the gassed point, it's the being gassed that is a large part of the issue rather than the ending up in side control etc post takedown. Personally i found two non technique things that made a massive impact on my rolling : 1) more cardio. bigger gastank never hurts (mine is still laughningly small!) 2) Adding in hang power snatches to my lifting routine. I added these in a few years ago and notice an almost immediate improvement in hip power and explosion. Not doing at the moment since the ceiling where i lift is too low for me to do it but when i get somewhere higher i will add straight back in

I'll approach this from the opposite side : while not massive i'm about 225/230lbs and 6'4" so i often am the 'larger one' when rolling. The things that cause me the most problems are people who are annoying fast people with lots of changes of movement and position. i especially hate them working on speed passes of the guard etc. I have always found that smaller opponents have lots more space available for 'wriggling out' of things and a lot of focus needs placed on keeping them trapped/pinned. I always try to start from my back and then i have to 'earn' being in top position. Once there then i can try to slow my opponent down and grind down if they are smaller but i want to earn it - not just get it because i am big. Maybe worth seeing if any of your training partners are amenable to practising this way - will do you both some good i find. Otherwise you absolutely must avoid letting the bigger partner close space and settle onto you in a tight side control as you are then screwed tbh. Personally i prefer to hold side control and work submissions from there against someone smaller as when i move to mount they have a little more space to get out (though that might be my lack of skill) Hopefully the above rambling is of some use!!

Thats it finished now. Whats the verdict? Myself i enjoyed it - a few issues but on the whole it was good. I think they are setting up for a second season that will lead into a Quinlan Vos spin off : Season 2 being Obi-Wan hunting down the path and Quinlan, with Vader staying in his castle and sending inquisitors to do the same. I think the scene with Vader at the end of the finale was to lead into that. Then once Quinlan is found he can go off on his own and be cool and then they get a jedi spy show spin off - plus the fans will go wild!

Haha eventually! Though fitness is relative. In my head it is always a goal that is to be strived for as can always be 'fitter'. More likely future title is ".. log an almost FIT person"

Saturday 2nd July Weights session Kept this one quite short as had a lot on this weekend so really just wanted to get in, do main lift and get out. Added in a small amount of accessory work just to feel like i had done a bit! Deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 97.5kg x 3 112.5kg x 3 127.5kg x 5 These felt good and went up smoothly. Tried to really concentrate on pushing the ground away and it made a difference. Squats 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 supersetted with Fat Grip Db Lateral Raise 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 5kg x 10 I sam quite liking these. Feel them quite a bit in the shoulders (which is good) but can also feel the grip work. Am building them up slowly and gradually as dont want to chance any tendonitis developing (have had issue in the past years ago when grappling a lot and adding in more forearm/grip work). Reminding myself that it is a marathon not a sprint