The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

12/21/2023

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 165x5, 190x3, 210x1.

Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5.

Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x2.

Bench Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x5, 100x5, 100x5, 100x5.

I've really lost a lot on the deadlift. Grip strength needs to go back up. On the last set, I initially wanted to hit a triple, but I honestly thought if I pulled the third rep, the pressure in my head would have been to great, and it would have messed me up for the day. I may try doing multiple doubles and see how that works out to get a bit more volume.

Bench press is still feeling ok. If I get it much heavier, I may start alternating the press and the bench each workout.

[bushido_man96]

12/28/2023

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 170x5, 195x3, 215x1.

Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 100x5, 100x5, 100x5.

Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 275x3.

Bench Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5.

12/29/2023

Aikido Class: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. First day of the winter camp. The focus was on footwork, watching the footwork on demonstrations, and trying to get it done right above and beyond anything else in the rest of the technique. Along with this came focus on the stance itself, making sure the balance and weight distribution is proper, and one can move well from it. We did quite a few techniques, and I don't know the names of all of them. But I did concentrate on my stance and footwork as I was performing the movements, working on proper spacing as well.

[bushido_man96]

12/30/2023

Aikido Class: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. Another day of the winter camp. This morning session was focused on keeping weight under center. The idea was to focus on keeping weight under center during the techniques, and he chose techniques that helped us work on that. So, keeping the stance work in mind from the day before, along with trying to stay centered, I think I did ok on some things. I definitely still need work, but seeing these basic principles being focused on will help in my classes going forward. I was pretty sore and achy from the previous session, but I hung in there.

Aikido Class: 3:00 - 6:00 pm. Second session of the day; this one was focused on the centerline, and keeping the techniques in the centerline, and making the body work as a unit along the centerline as well. We ended up repeating some of the same techniques we had done in the earlier session, so now I was thinking of stance, and keeping weight under center (and relaxing my shoulders all the while), and now keeping the techniques in the center and "connected." More good practice, and I still have a long way to go.

Six hours of Aikido isn't a bad day.

[bushido_man96]

1/2/2024

Strength Training

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

Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5.

Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 280x3, 280x3.

Going to try triples across on squats.

[bushido_man96]

1/3/2024

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. Before class started, I spent about 15 minutes going through or traditional basics warmup. I sat in The Rack for several minutes afterward, and got a good stretch. For class, I rolled out a Wavemaster, and did our first kicking "station," which was 5 variations of front leg side kicks. I did 5 kicks each leg. After that, I did Chon Ji, Dan Gun, and Bo Choong hyungs, then went back to the bag for another kicking station, this time 5 variations of front leg round kicks, again 5 each leg. Next was sparring. Why not, it'd only been a few months! It went ok, really, and I felt like I moved ok and blocked well.

Overall, not a bad night after being off a few months due to work.

[bushido_man96]

1/4/2024

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2 135x5, 175x3, 195x3, 195x3, 195x3.

Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5.

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

I'm going to take a different approach to the lat pull-downs. I'm going to find a number where I can't get 10 reps on the first set. From there, I'll do 3 sets to failure with a 5 minute rest between sets, and when the first set gets to 10 reps, I'll up the weight to the next plate on the stack. The hope is to drive towards doing chin-ups.

[DarthPenguin]

1/4/2024

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2 135x5, 175x3, 195x3, 195x3, 195x3.

Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5.

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

I'm going to take a different approach to the lat pull-downs. I'm going to find a number where I can't get 10 reps on the first set. From there, I'll do 3 sets to failure with a 5 minute rest between sets, and when the first set gets to 10 reps, I'll up the weight to the next plate on the stack. The hope is to drive towards doing chin-ups.

For me i always find it works quite well to increase the reps to 12 for all sets and then increase the weight, hopefully for a minimum of 8 reps per set or try for 10 then keep at that weight until sets of 12 and then increase. I find that works quite well as for me my rep strength is very different to my max strength. Probably similar to what you do already!

[bushido_man96]

I find rep progression to be pretty useful when it comes to some of the ancillary lifts, but can also be useful with the compound lifts.

[bushido_man96]

A blizzard out here really put a damper onto training for the week. But got some sessions in towards the end of the week.

1/10/2024

TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Been a long time since I've done a traditional class. Basics, forms (Choong Jang), one-steps (low green belt), and a little sparring with the only other student, a little green belt. After sparring, we held rebreakable boards for the green belt to work on his side kick technique.

6:30 - 7:30 pm, T-shirt Class. Did both classes tonight. I went through all the black belt forms except for Choong Moo, did some round kicks and front kicks on the bag, and spent some time before and after this class stretching in The Rack.

I'm going to try to make both classes on Wednesdays going forward.

1/11/2024

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 175x3, 200x3, 200x3, 200x3.

Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 95x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5.

Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x3, 295x3.

[bushido_man96]

1/16/2024

Strength Training

Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 175x3, 205x3, 205x3, 205x3.

Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 95x3, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5.

Lat Pull-downs: 150x10, 150x10, 150x7.

I'd had an episode earlier in the week, on Sunday, and my head was not in a good place. Later this evening that I trained, I started having some more issues, but the next day was better.

1/17/2024

TKD Class: 7:00 - 7:40 pm. T-shirt Class. I was late to this class due to my son's baseball practice starting at 7:00 pm. But, it's always been more of an open class anyway, so I made it a point to get in and get some work done. I started off with 10 solid minutes of work on the standing bag, lots of punching and footwork. I did throw in some kicking. I moved to the speed bag after that, and probably spent about 5 minutes working on it. I went back to the standing bag, and worked on punching with the lead hand by stepping up with the back foot, which is a good way to close space and hide it from your opponent. I mixed that up with some step-up front kicks and round kicks. I finished up with a side kick combination: front leg side kick, spin side kick, then switching to a jump spin side kick with the opposite leg. I followed this combination up by doing it as a floor drill, which changes the dynamics of things when you don't have something to hit. I ended with 10 solid minutes of stretching in The Rack.