The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

8/16/2022

Strength Training

Snatch: 65x2, 75x2, 85x2, 95x2, 100x2, 105x2, 110x2.

Clean & Jerk: 115x2, 125x2, 130x2, 135x2, 140x2.

Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x3, 275x1, 295x5.

This was a day of pulling. Used the lighter, technique-focuses Olympic lifts to warm up for the deadlift. It mainly only bothered my shoulder when I brought the weights down from overhead. I'm going to try to keep this up, driving the numbers on the Olympic lifts up on the back end. As the numbers start to level out, I'll probably do a few more sets across to acquire some heavier volume.

8/17/2022

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt class. Did some jabs, straights, and jab/cross work on the heavy bag, and a little kicking. Did a little speed bag work, too. Sparred with a few of the kids in the class, only using punches and footwork/blocking to close distance. Did some round kick/reverse side kick and round kick/reverse hook kick combinations up and down the floor, and worked with the CI on his spin heel kicks. Light stretching on the machine to finish.

[DarthPenguin]

How do you find the olympic lifts benefitting your ma training? Am curious.

I used to find that doing a hang power snatch had an almost immediate impact on my hip explosiveness when grappling. Can't do it at the moment due to low ceiling height, but was wondering if they have a similar benefit for a striking style?

[bushido_man96]

How do you find the olympic lifts benefitting your ma training? Am curious.

I used to find that doing a hang power snatch had an almost immediate impact on my hip explosiveness when grappling. Can't do it at the moment due to low ceiling height, but was wondering if they have a similar benefit for a striking style?

Honestly, the carryover is in the strength improvement. I'm not a naturally explosive person, and although I'll be able to drive these lifts up for a while, they aren't going to ever get to be really awesome numbers.

8/18/2022

Strength Training

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

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 120x5, 120x5, 120x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 157.5x10, 157.5x10, 157.5x10.

Hack Squats: 105x8, 105x8, 105x12.

Going to try to run sets across on squats now for a while, see where we get. Lots of shoulder pain after pressing. I got all this done in just under an hour.

[bushido_man96]

8/19/2022

Strength Training

RDL: 135x8, 155x8, 165x8, 175x8, 175x8, 175x8.

Barbell Rows: 120x8, 120x8, 120x8.

Good stretch in the hamstrings with the RDLs again. Still having shoulder pain.

[bushido_man96]

8/22/2022

Strength Training

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

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 160x10, 160x10, 160x10.

I didn't turn my toes out quite as much on the squats, and that seemed to relieve the pain in my adductor tendon. It also seemed to hit the quads more, too. With that revelation, I didn't hit the hack squat today.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Stretched before class on the stretching machine. Started class with Do-Kang 1 twice, then Do-Kang 3 times; once by count, then twice by a slower count, helping a younger student learn it. Next we reviewed green belt material, doing Do-San and Won-Hyo twice, then watched the other two students go though those two forms a few more times each, making sure they know them, and helping them with shoring up some shortcomings. Then went to green belt one-steps, and got through two run-throughs of the seven one-steps. Finished with a couple of run-throughs of the first 6 three-steps.

8/23/2022

Strength Training

Snatch: 65x2, 85x2, 95x2, 100x2, 105x2, 110x2, 115x2, 115x1, 117.5x1.

Clean & Jerk: 120x2, 125x2, 130x2, 135x2, 140x2, 145x2, 145x2.

On the first set of 115, on rep two, I couldn't get cleaned all the way up, and had to press to lockout. That's no good, so I dropped the next set to a single. It was pretty tough at that point. Clean & Jerk ran up well, until I hit 145. Then, the rack started feeling crappy, and felt heavier overall.

I spent so much time on snatch and C&J that I ran out of time and didn't get to deadlift. I'm going to have to spend some time looking at the numbers and figure something else out, especially if I plan to deadlift this same day. I think I may settle on a little lower weight and work sets across, then go to deadlifts. See if that helps with the time.

[DarthPenguin]

Is the main focus of the session the deadlift or the olympic lifts?

I know it is common to do the power movements first, so the olympic lifts are done first, but i always quite liked doing deadlifts first and then whatever olympic lift i was doing.

Rationale was i wanted to maximise my power/strength for the deadlift to get maximum benefit and then do the power work. I thought that since the olympic lift part was to work on explosiveness and it uses as much fast twitch muscle as possible, that even if slightly weaker post deadlift i could still use as much as possible to do the olympic lift.

Also, doing it this way means you may only get one olympic lift in post deadlift if short for time but you will have done both max strength work and power work in the session, rather than only power work.

If the purpose is power generation though then keep it the way it is. Maybe split the snatch and clean & jerk to separate sessions?

[bushido_man96]

I may have to break them up into different sessions.

The big misconception about "power work" is the idea that explosiveness can be increased to any great degree, but it really can't. But that's a whole other conversation.

I want to do the deadlift last, because the Olympic lifts are very technique dependent, and doing a heavy set of deadlifts first is going to leave too much fatigue to really get anything productive out of the Olympic lifts.

When doing the deadlift or the snatch or clean and jerk, there is no "selection" of which muscle fibers get involved. In a max effort deadlift, as many motor units as possible are recruited. Not slow twitch compared to fast twitch. A clean or snatch are submaximal compared to a limit set of deadlifts, but the longer range of motion still requires the body to recruit as much of its muscle motor units into contraction as possible in order to accelerate the load and rack the bar.

At any rate, I'm mainly using the Olympic lifts to warm up for the deadlift, but I've got too many sets going on, and it's turned into a monster, really. What I need to do is figure out a day in which I can get some quality work on each of the Olympic lifts, and then have a more structured warm-up session planned for deadlift.

8/23/2022

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt class. A bit of stretching in The Rack prior to class. I did go through my 4th dan form a few times, which I hadn't done in some time. Also did some bag work. For the last half-hour of class, we sparred, which I hadn't done in months, mainly due to work schedule. We had a pretty good group in the class, too, and sparred one minute rounds.

[bushido_man96]

8/26/2022

Strength Training

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

Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 125x3, 130x5, 130x5, 130x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 162.5x10, 162.x10, 162.5x10.

Hack Squats: 125x8, 125x8, 125x8.

First set of squats was just all over the place. I guess I couldn't decide what to focus on, and there was just all kinds of wreckage. Trying to set things up to avoid inflaming my adductor tendon is messing things up. The other two sets were ok. I had to get my toes back out a little more, and focused more on pushing but back in the bottom, and not bouncing or knee sliding, feeling the "bounce" off the hamstrings, and then driving up. Seemed to help.

Press still hurts. I fear I have an injury that may require surgery, and I don't want to have surgery, and I don't want to rehab. Time will tell....

[bushido_man96]

8/29/2022

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 245x1, 270x5, 270x5, 270x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 165x10, 165x10, 165x10.

Triceps Push-downs: 60x12, 60x12, 60x12.

Lots of pain in the shoulder, so avoided pressing. I was going to try to do some curls, but those really hurt.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Stretched on The Rack prior to class. Warmed up with Do-Kangs 1-5. I really considered not doing jumping techniques for the last segment of Do-Kang 5, but I did them anyway, and of course, regretted it. After that, we spent the remainder of class going through three-steps several times. I'm going to have to miss class on Wednesday, which is a real bummer.

[bushido_man96]

8/30/2022

Strength Training

Cleans: 115x2, 125x2, 130x2, 135x1, 140x1, 145x3, 145x3, 145x3, 150x3, 150x3.

Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x3, 275x1, 300x5, 340x1.

Dropped the jerk to save my shoulder and also push the weight a little more on the cleans. Much happier with today's work. Deadlift went well, and a buddy was working with 340, so I jumped in and pulled one, and probably could have pulled a few more.

8/31/2022

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt class. Started out stretching in The Rack, then moved to just a little bag work. The CI bought a new toy for the dojang; a board holding station, and some plastic rebreakable boards that attach to it magnetically (the station will also hold wooden boards). We tied to one of the Wavemaster standing bags, and I proceeded to do a bunch of breaks. Back leg round kicks with both legs and two of the "boards," and also did a top of the foot round kick with one board. Did a left hand knifehand through one, and a right ridgehand through one (never did that one before). Also did side kicks with both legs and two or boards each. Also punched it once, and it broke much better than I thought; last time I had done punching on boards, it didn't go well. Even with all that funning around, I still went through Choong Jang hyung a few times.