DarthPenguin

Tuesday 10 September Lifting Session Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 5 70kg x 3 85kg x 2 90kg x 1 95kg x 10 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 3 67.5kg x 5 75kg x 3 85kg x 1 Cable Face pull (supersetted with bench press) 15kg x 10 15kg x 10 15kg x 10 15kg x 10 15kg x 10 Cabe chest flye (weight is per hand - superset with lying leg curls) 20kg x 14 20kg x 14 20kg x 14 Lying Leg Curl 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 Triceps rope pushdown 30kg x 16 30kg x 16 Cable lateral raise (reps = total of L + R) 15kg x 28 15kg x 28

Yep i added one too - couldn't resist adding one that matched my username!

Glad to hear it is going well calories burned is an interesting one: are you tracking it to gain / lose weight? If so then often a scale is more useful tbh as calories burned etc. need judged in conjunction with intake of calories, expenditure from other activities / existing and your general metabolism. Tracking scale gain/loss over time at the same time every day might be more reliable, or a lot of people just use a mirror test / pictures. Plusses and minuses to most approaches tbh

Was an interesting first week - as a Bills fan not sure if i should be happy at the comeback or annoyed that it was needed tbh!

yeah for us my class works a lot of standing (we have a lot of judo black belts too though so it can be painful!) and has wrestling classes too. From those of us who aren't judo black belts, and have been training a while, a lot of us are enrolled in a variety of judo clubs too to work on it! It is good fun but i wish i had picked it up when a lot younger - starting judo in your mid 40s can be rough!

Thought i would check in and ask how the routine is going? Hopefully it is all going smoothly and you are seeing some benefits

Saturday 7 September BJJ Session Session was on closed guard techniques. Worked initially on back take from closed guard, arm drag your opponent, clamp tight (grabbing to far rear armpit), then climb up. Found the final securing back not that great mainly due to being a lot longer than the guy i was practising with so was tough to squeeze in. Then moved to flower sweep from there, assuming not taking back, once arm is trapped go for the sweep. Is a sweep i have always liked so it was good to practice it more. Went from there to drilling scissor sweep if couldn't get arm pinned against you and finished with scissor sweep into and armbar almost straight away. Armbar involved sliding your head side shoulder under the opponents arm as soon as you sweep them over and not coming up all the way, settling instead into armbar. Wasn't the smoothest so need to work on that quite a bit. Then some rounds of positional sparring and 'proper' sparring which both went fine

For me, personally, i would say it is the confidence of knowing you can take a hit etc. Silly as it sounds i can think of multiple times when people have been behaving in a manner they shouldn't and other people have been tolerating it out of worry etc. and i have been confident to speak up and deal with it. I remember my other half telling me once "but you can't say that to them they might hit you" and being nonplussed by my response of "i have been hit plenty of times by bigger people than that who likely know how to hit better" - thankfully there isn't a huge issue with weapons here otherwise would be different! I have also always thought that they are good for making you aware that appearances can be deceiving - plenty of exceptionally skilled and talented martial artists look like they couldn't hurt a fly - best one i can think of is just look at Mikey Musumeci : looks like a quiet, nerdy guy but is an amazing grappler / submission fighter.

Easter Eggs? That sounds intriguing! More seriously, well done Patrick, you have obviously put in a massive amount of time and effort to the update (not even including the work you put in previously making sure the site existed!) so thanks for all the work and it looks good :)

Best of luck tomorrow Patrick, am sure if will all go smoothly! If there is anything you need to help check it is going as expected that i can help with then please let me know.

Monday 2nd September Karate Session warm ups as per usual though a little more leg stretching which is good! lots more kids that adults tonight so the class got split into the 3 adults (one black belt and 2 1st kyu's - including myself) and the kids with another instructor. Lots of work on kata which was really good. Due to the smaller numbers we performed the katas individually which meant it was a lot easier for the instructor to drill down to little points. Got several useful comments and we worked quite a bit on drilling our individual comments. Did some kumite drills next: worked on punching a wall with glove on, with the goal being to just touch and no more, then tested our distance by removing the gloves. Was pleasantly surprised with how non beat up my knuckles were from doing it afterwards which is a good sign! Worked a few footwork drills after too. I am really awful at the stereotypical "bouncing" shotokan footwork, i use much more kickboxing style footwork i think which works better for me (not sure how best to articulate it but less bouncing!). The instructor was adamant that should be bouncing though which was a little sore on my ankles - i will try to adapt over time and see if i can have it as an option when needed going forwards. Really good session though

Tuesday 3 September Lifting Session Seated overhead barbell press 20kg x 5 35kg x 5 45kg x 3 50kg x 2 55kg x 1 55kg x 10 Trap bar deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 90kg x 3 105kg x 5 120kg x 3 135kg x 5 These felt good - think i could do more if needed which is good but will stick to the planned progression Bulgarian Split squat (superset with cable lateral raises. For both total reps = L + R) 16kg x 12 16kg x 12 16kg x 12 Cable lateral raise 15kg x 23 15kg x 23 had to call it there as needed to take my son to his athletics class

Friday 30 August Lifting Session Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 55kg x 3 60kg x 3 65kg x 8 65kg x 8 65kg x 10 Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 3 67.5kg x 3 77.5kg x 3 87.5kg x 5 Cable chest fly (weight is per hand) 20kg x 13 20kg x 13 20kg x 13 Cable lateral raise (reps are total of L + R) 15kg x 24 15kg x 24

That sounds intriguing, i didn't realise there was a Sherlock themed one out there - i might just take a look for it next time i am in a bookshop / comic store (usually most weekends!)

sounds like a lot of fun! Also good to be at a bjj class that uses some stand up - too many totally ignore it!

Yeah am curious too! Am gradually beginning to get into it - read the first volume of Berserk the other day which was interesting!

Great, hope it goes well What kind of group classes or do they vary by the session?

Monday 26 August Lifting Session Trap bar deadlift 70kg x 5 85kg x 3 100kg x 3 110kg x 3 120kg x 8 120kg x 8 120kg x 10 Seated overhead press 20kg x 5 30kg x 5 42.5kg x 3 47.5kg x 3 52.5kg x 5 Cable chest fly (superset with bulgarian split squat) - weight is per hand 20kg x 12 20kg x 12 20kg x 12 Bulgarian split squat (reps = toal of L + R) 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 these are feeling smoother and smoother every week Cable lateral shoulder raise (reps = total of l + r) 15kg x 16 15kg x 16 15kg x 16 Triceps overhead extension 30kg x 16 30kg x 16 30kg x 16

Wednesday 21 August Karate Session Warm ups as per usual though we are doing a little more dynamic leg stretching which is good (my flexibility is crap and hopefully this will help!!). Worked through a moderately long combination that involved quite a few techniques: kizami tzuki, oi tzuki, gyaku tzuki, step forward age uke, gyaku tzuki, gedan berai, gyaku tzuki, soto uke, reverse uchi uke, double punch, uch uke, reverse uchi uke, uraken, gyaku tzuji, shuto uki, mae geri (front leg), nukite, front arm shuto uke again with no forward step (jsut adjust footing) then haito. Was a good sequence to work on hip rotation and footwork so enjoyed it. Moved onto some kata then plenty of kumite drills. Again did drill of someone against wall and opponents attacking with single unannounced attack then counter with gyaku tzuki. I messed up first time and reflexively countered with a kizami tzuki. After the joking comments stopped i remembered to counter with the right technique thereafter! Then some more kata and class finished

that sounds intriguing! Myself i have constantly toyed with the ides of learning Japanese - mainly because i visited it before and loved it but noticed how little English people spoke there. My son loves Anime etc and would be great to take the family there on holiday but would be much better if at least one of us spoke some of the language!

That sounds like a lot of fun but i can't get over the cost for a usual game!! I knew it was a lot but not that much! They do really exploit you guys: as an example i have been to a few of the NFL London games, sat in Wembley (which is also a very fancy stadium) in the fancy padded club seats and paid £100 for a ticket (decided to spend a lot on them as it's not a common occurrence). Is similar to the boxing and UFC ppv values: here i pay my satellite tv provider £20 usually for the big boxing ppv's and most of the UFC ones are included in my TV subscription, with rare ones costing £20. Then i see that they charge their US customers $99 for the same! Sounds like an excellent experience though and hopefully it manages to become a yearly occurrence

I had to read that twice - a 1st dan at TKD (which is usually very rigid in the respect portion etc.) told a 4th dan their technique is incorrect like that? That seems like quite an ego! Ignoring the fact that the advice you were given in pretty much the opposite of any style i can think of (ignoring differences like power comes from the fee / from the hips etc.) they are usually all "more than just your arm". I would have thought if she had a question that she would have phrased it like "interesting, you perform that strike differently than i am used to, my sensei teaches it like (her way), i am curious as to the difference".

Regarding the group thing have you looked into anything like Crossfit boxes? I know that the quality can vary a bit (and i am not entering the discussion here about alleged form issues) but i have friends that prefer to work out with people and they go there and find it works well for them. Plenty of strength work, power work etc but within a supportive group. Also, many gyms run kettlebell classes etc. so might be able to find one of those you could do? Can't offer too much here as i am totally at the other end of the spectrum to you and much prefer to work out myself! It is one of the reasons i use a home gym: i can make a workout plan, with the exercises and rest times sequenced and follow it exactly - dont have to make sudden adjustments due to equipment availablity in a public facility etc!

Monday 19 August Lifting Session Squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 3 70kg x 3 80kg x 3 85kg x 8 85kg x 8 85kg x 10 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 62.5kg x 3 70kg x 3 80kg x 4 Sumo deadlift fat bar (tri set with fave pulls and lying leg curls) 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 Lying hamstring curls 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 Cable face pulls 25kg x 11 25kg x 11 25kg x 1 Triceps rope pushdowns (superst with cable lateral raises) 30kg x 15 30kg x 15 30kg x 15 LAteral raise (reps = total of L + R) 15kg x 12 15kg x 12 15kg x 12

The old misload. How do those little plates sneak on there, anyway??? i had used it for the set before and taken it off the bar and thought i had put it on one of the weight horns but i think i absent mindedly put it back on the bar. At least it wasn't a 10kg plate or something - that might have been an issue!!