The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

4/12/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 130x1, 148.5x5, 148.5x5, 148.5x5.

Snatch Grip Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 260x5, 260x5, 260x5.

A decent session, considering my back and my knees were bothering me. The first press set was tough again, but the second and third sets went well. I may up my last warmup to a double and see how that affects the first set. Snatch deads went up good.

[bushido_man96]

4/14/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 150x5, 150x5, 150x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 140x10, 140x10, 140x10.

Iso-lateral Bench Press: 45x10, 45x10, 45x10 (22.5).

All felt pretty good today. Press seems like it might be slowing down. I anticipate programming changes coming soon. I put the wrist straps on for the last set of presses.

[bushido_man96]

4/17/2023

TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. I did my calisthenics warmup prior to class again, minus the bouncing around; my left foot was hurting when doing this. In class, we did Do-Kang 1, which I managed to botch up nicely, and then went into Ho Sin Sul. We started with some punch defense flow drills, which me and the guy I worked with turned into some extra passing and extra punches. The CI had been to an Aikido seminar over the weekend, and he took some things from that, and we modified them a touch, and worked on Aikido-esque punch defenses. We worked in a wrist lock takedown to an arm bar, which I then started altering for more of a securing position from which to cuff and detain from. I talked about the use of spacing, by either taking it away, or making it in order to achieve the goal of the technique, and making sure not to linger in between.

I didn't get my lifting session in today. I was up the night before with some stomach/digestive issues, and this afternoon was taken up because my youngest had to have a root canal done (poor guy was a trooper, though).

[bushido_man96]

4/18/2023

Defensive Tactics Training: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. Teaching for the department today. We covered lots of striking and striking tools; straight punches, palm strikes, hammer strikes, all with front and rear hands; low front kicks to the groin and push kicks to stop an incoming attacker; elbow strikes and knee strikes. Lots of pad work, and lots of fun.

[bushido_man96]

4/19/2023

TKD Class: T-Shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Pre-class calisthenics warmup. Then, it was heavy bag work. I did most of the basic kicks: front, round, side, hook, inside crescent, and outside crescent kicks. I did 10 front leg and 10 back leg, orthodox and southpaw. That's 40 kicks per, 240 total. I also did back spinning round kicks with a step, and spin side kicks, 10 each leg, for another 40 kicks. I finished with hand techniques on the bag; knife hand, upset knife hand, ridge hand, lead punches, crosses, lead palm strikes, and rear palm strikes. I did 10 each side, and switched between orthodox and southpaw for the palms and punches. Totaled 140 strikes, if I counted right. Finished with a bit of stretching.

4/21/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 151x5, 151x5, 151x5.

Deadlifts: 185x5, 225x3, 315x1, 355x5.

I hemmed and hawed about what I was going to do today; I was pretty sore after my DT training class, especially with some lower back pain. Thus, I didn't train on Wednesday. As I was heading to train, I thought I'd do my light squat, and then maybe do singles on the press and some singles on the deadlifts. But, I got the light squats done, and just said to heck with it, and did what I would have done on Wednesday for my regular pulling workout. I'm glad I did; I pulled the weight I was supposed to pull, and pressing went well, too. I should get back to normal next week.

[bushido_man96]

4/24/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 255x5, 255x5, 255x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 152x5, 152x5, 152x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 145x10, 145x10, 145x10.

Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 50x10, 50x10, 50x10 (25).

I really hammered through the session today, and it went pretty quick. I'm going to focus on this pace.

Had some family stuff going on, so didn't make it to class this night.

4/26/2023

SIMS Training: 2 hours of SIMS training at the work today. Six scenarios; some building searches, and some traffic stops. Always a little stressful, always learn a lot. Great use-of-force training.

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 153x5, 153x5, 153x5.

Snatch Grip Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 265x5, 265x5.

Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 55x10, 55x10, 55x10 (27.5).

The light squat seems to still be helping out like I want it to, so I'll stick with it moving forward. In a few weeks, I'll look at adjusting the load. I got the press warmed up and the first set done between the two squat sets, which made the workout run smoothly and I stayed nice and warm the whole time. My right knee was really hurting from the SIMS training earlier; lots of kneeling down and looking under vehicles aggravated it. I really felt the pain in my knee when pulling, but I stuck it out, and was glad to get the sets done. Iso-Bench is still going well, so long as I find and keep that right groove. As the weight keeps going up, I'll start reducing the reps. Press has been feeling pretty good this week.

TKD Class: T-Shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. I spent the first 2/3 of class working on Sanchin kata. I'm not all the way through it yet, but it's coming along. I'm still not sure I'm doing the stance properly; not sure how wide I should be, or how deep I should set, so I'm just playing with it as I'm going forward. Working on the breathing, too. I'm not going to be doing some of the funny breathing methods and making funny noises like I've seen in some videos, but I'm working on inhaling/exhaling at the proper places. Although the moves are fairly simple, I found myself getting some pretty good work in.

Next, we sparred. I hadn't sparred in quite some time. There were 7 of us in class, and everyone got to spar everyone. We did 45 second matches, then rotated, rested shortly, and went again. My kicks seemed to be working decently; need to clean up some of the spinning stuff, and especially focus on the timing for the spinning counters. Overall, I felt like I was moving well and putting things together ok.

[bushido_man96]

4/28/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 260x5, 260x5, 260x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 154x5, 154x5, 154x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 150x10, 150x10, 150x10.

Iso-lateral Bench Press: 60x10, 60x10, 60x10 (30).

5/1/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 265x5, 265x5, 265x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x1, 155x5, 155x5 1/2, 155x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 152.5x10, 152.5x10, 152.5x10.

Iso-lateral Bench Press: 65x10, 65x10, 65x10 (32.5).

I'm starting to notice the weight shifting forward on some of the squat reps, so I'm trying to fix that issue as the weight gets heavier. On rep 5 of press set 2, I must have got it out of the groove, because it died halfway up and came back down. I grinded out a full rep to complete the set. These sets are definitely feeling heavier, and I'm starting to notice I'm having to get more layback earlier in the sets to finish them.

My work schedule has rotated again, and I'm back to working afternoons with weekends off, which is not good for the TKD class schedule.

[DarthPenguin]

The Presses are looking good still - really nice weight!

Out of curiosity, for the iso lateral bench press, is it on a machine or is it a single arm dumbell press? How are you finding it?

[bushido_man96]

The Presses are looking good still - really nice weight!

Out of curiosity, for the iso lateral bench press, is it on a machine or is it a single arm dumbell press? How are you finding it?

This is what I'm using: https://www.lifefitness.com/en-us/catalog/strength-training/plate-loaded/plate-loaded/iso-lateral-bench-press

It seems to be doing the job right now. I don't notice a lot of stress on my shoulders, and I feel that I'm getting the work in my chest that I want.

5/3/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 156x5, 156x5, 156x5.

Deadlifts: 185x5, 225x3, 315x1, 360x5.

Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 70x10, 70x10, 70x10.

You mentioned the press, DP; it's definitely getting harder now. I'm trying as hard as I can to relegate the most layback to the last few reps of each set, but I find myself doing more layback as the weight goes up. There is nothing wrong with this, other than I wish I didn't have to layback so much at such light weight.

The deadlifts felt heavy today. But slow and steady they went up, which is what counts.

[bushido_man96]

5/5/2023

Strength Training

Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup.

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 270x5, 270x5, 270x5.

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 157x4, 157x5, 157x5, 157x1.

Lat Pull-downs: 155x10, 155x10, 155x10.

Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 75x10, 75x10, 75x10 (37.5).

I get the feeling press is going to slow down. Only got 4 reps on the first set, but tried for the 5th. Surprisingly, the next two sets went for 5. Finished with a single to get my 15 total reps. Starting to chalk my hands for squat, and it's helping with the bar slippage.