bushido_man96

How do you do it with your back?

Congrats!

7/24/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5. Barbell Rows: 95x10, 95x10, 95x10. A jumbled schedule at work this week, so I missed a few more days of training. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We have a tournament coming up this weekend, so after doing a brief warmup, the CI, another instructor and myself watched our black belts do forms, and then gave them critiques for tournament competition, things to clean up, space out, etc. 7/26/2023 Strength Training Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 130x5, 130x5, 130x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x5. The first set of presses made me question how much I loaded. Sets 2 and 3 went more smoothly, though. TKD Class: T-shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Rolled out a bag to do some bagwork tonight. Ended up toying around with 360 side kicks, and then jump 360 side kicks, along with the CI, who was asking about some technical aspects. Wore me out pretty good. At the end of class, we did some breaking with the rebreakable boards, doing a palm heel smash. I did two grey boards, then 3, then did 3 grey boards and one green board. Will keep working up next week, hopefully.

That sounds like a really fun week! You'll have to share some pictures when you are finished!

I can see how that will work well for someone who is really fast. Explosiveness tends to be a genetic trait, though, and when one isn't really explosive, using the hips to help generate power is a good alternative.

7/14/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 230x5, 230x5, 230x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5. 7/17/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 235x5, 235x5, 235x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 110x3, 127.5x5, 127.5x5, 127.5x5. I had thought about adding pull-downs back in, but I was truly gassed after that final squat set. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Tonight was a forms review night, which I was ok with. If there were any issues with a form, we did it again before advancing. White belt through middle brown belt. I had good power throughout, and was a little sore in the arms the next day.

Welcome to KF!

I think the main reason it is difficult for the general martial arts instructors to teach this kind of material is the equipment needed to make the training worth having. At work, we will train with simunitions rounds and the appropriate protection. The guns aren't cheap, the rounds aren't cheap, and the protective materials aren't cheap, making it very tough to make a good curriculum for your typical martial artist who owns a school to put together. We might only do this training once or twice a year, as well. It is possible to train the strategies and tactics that go along with these scenarios, but your really don't know what it's like until you have rounds hitting you in the chest and you get that adrenaline dump. I do believe the main issue is the cost.

Been a while since my last post here....it was a bad stretch for about a month. Finally, things came around, and I made it back to the gym. 7/10/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Starting over...again. On the last two sets of squats, I had a little lightheadedness after the racking the bar. Going to monitor this going forward, and if it continues, change my rep scheme. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. My schedule has rotated, so back to class, too. It was a self-defense focused class tonight, and we worked on knife defenses. I focused on redirecting the attack and controlling the weapon hand, then counterattacking with lots of strikes to take the bad guy's focus off the knife. 7/12/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x5, 205x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 120x5, 120x5, 120x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 275x5. Lost so much on deadlift (and didn't have much on it to begin with). The long road lingers ahead.... TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. I went through forms, white through high blue belt, and they went well. I haven't forgotten them, at least. The body was sore and didn't want to move much, but getting some work in was good. I broke the class up by helping a young student with his deadlift technique, and then the CI was working on a palm heel smash breaking boards. He's working up to concrete slabs. I was tempted to join in with him, but will likely need to work up a bit.

Kudos to both of you for sharing here. Those are a great handful of questions to ask, Zaine. Very helpful. I find myself in a slump in training quite often. I'm not sure quite how to get around it. My shift rotates, though, and sleeping during the day is not productive for me, so I think I'm often just tired when it comes time to train. On those days, I still try to do something, even if it is just a walkthrough on forms. It can be a tough thing, for sure.

Happy Independence Day to all the US members celebrating! Enjoy your day, and stay safe around those fireworks!

I don't. I know lots of devices, like Apple Watches and the old FitBits do that stuff for a lot of people. I've personally never been interested in making sure I hit a step count every day.

Welcome to KF, Nick!

I'm the oldest of three as well. I did some mean stuff at times; I recall throwing big rocks at my middle brother's head often. Both of my brothers got bigger than me, though....

My dad introduced me when I was really young, probably around 6 or 8 or so. He just drug me along to a few classes he went to. I wasn't a committed student at that time, but the seed had been planted. Fast forward to my 8th grade year, a buddy of mine talked me into coming to a TKD class. That was it.

6/14/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 152x5, 152x5, 152x5. Snatch Grip Deadlift: 185x3, 225x2, 250x5, 250x5. 6/16/2023 Strength Training Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 270x5, 270x5, 270x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 153x5, 153x5, 153x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x5, 135x8, 135x8, 135x8. Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 115....pain! Iso-bench didn't go today. Got in, tried a rep, and it just hurt way too much. I tried adjusting the grip, and it still hurt way too much. As I type this, it's 6/30/2023. So, I've not had a training session in some time. Things have gone really south for me lately. Meniere's disease has flared up with vengeance, and I'm not sure why. My head has been a mess for going on three weeks now; lots of lightheadedness and general discomfort. Trying to lift heavy while that's going on isn't great, and my balance has been affected, too. 6/26/2023 DT Training Session: I did 4, 2-hour blocks of training at the department today. Even though I haven't been feeling the best, the sessions still went pretty well. We covered a lot of choke defense stuff, various headlocks, etc. After the training session, I was at home running around the kitchen, trying to get supper around....I bent down to get foil out of cupboard, stood up, and the world spun for hours. Ended up medicating myself and crashing out for 13 hours. It really sucks.

Thanks for that layout, Wado Heretic. Lots of really good points here. And you're spot-on about TKD.

Awesome!

6/5/2023 Strength Training Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 265x5, 265x5, 265x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 150x5, 150x5, 150x5. Lat Pull-downs: 162.5x10, 162.5x10, 162.5x10. Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 110x10, 110x10, 110x10. 6/9/2023 Strength Training Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 151x5, 151x5, 151x5. Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 330x5.

Sounds like you had two great Martial Arts days there. Congrats on grading up! The seminar sounds like it would have been a good time, too.

Do you think you'll try that company again?

I'd hate to suggest this, as it would be kind of expensive, but have you thought about ordering two uniforms, one bigger than the other to fit your body better, and mix in the bottoms from the smaller order? I don't know of any company that will sell tops separate from bottoms. But somebody should consider doing that.

If he's Shorin Ryu, we don't use hips to generate power. Just an FYI. If I was testing him for a dan rank and he used hips, he'd fail. What's the reasoning behind this, if you don't mind me asking. I generate power in my techniques using my hips, so that's why I'm curious.

Could be some underlying principles that tend to apply to all MAs in general?

One thing that I have done is reduced the number of classes I go to in a week. My knees just take a beating every time I got to a traditional class, doing basics. I've also pulled back on my output during basics. Don't read that the wrong way; I'm not lazy; I keep the form good and tight, and I put forth good effort; I still get tired and sweaty. However, I don't blast everything like I used to. I guess I would say that I do a better job of pacing myself than I used to. When it comes to sparring, I'm not sure how to explain what I do differently. I've never been very athletic or explosive, so I'd say I was a below average sparrer when I was younger. But, now it seems different. I don't try to outwork anyone when I'm sparring. I pace myself, and don't throw a lot of techniques just to throw them out there and keep someone busy. I would just describe it as "old man sparring." I use a little bit of footwork, and I don't chase people down a lot. If they want to hang back, I'll let them, and wait for that moment when they come close or leave an opening (or I'll bait one open), and then I'll unload. If some youngster that likes to be offensive, bounce around, and throw lots of stuff, I'll do a lot of blocking and when they get in close, I punch a lot, and I don't care if they punch me back. And for a short heavy guy, I can surprise them with some speed and kicks higher than they might think I can throw. But as an older fellow, I just have to wait them out sometimes. I heard a saying not too long ago that really rang true to me: "some days, you're chicken salad, and most days, your chicken poop." Those chicken salad days don't come around as much as they used to, so I appreciate them a lot more when they do.