Karate4Life Training Log

[Karate4Life]

OSU!

I'm starting this training log in order to keep track of what I'm doing, and I'm looking forward to reading your feedback. Any comment is welcome.

Beside Karate I lift weights. Note: This is pure strength training, it's got nothing to do with body building. The aim is to improve my Karate. I'm using the 5x5 and the 5/3/1, respectively.

I'll make a start with what happened during the last few weeks.

Thursday, July 17th, 2014

Cycle 5, week 1

Bench: 60.0kg/70.0kg/80.0kg: (5/5/5): 5/5/5.

Additional Bench: 70.0kg: 3x5.

Pull-Ups: 5x5.

Dead Lifts: 105.0kg/120.0kg/135.0kg: (5/5/5): 5/5/5.

Squats: 50.0kg: 5x5. All fine. Need to work up again. Background: I had a knee inhury, and I'm recovering from it.

Friday, July 18th, 2014

Squats: 50.0kg: 5x5.

5x3 minutes shadow sparring and bag work.

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

Midnight run, 7km. Great!

Sunday, July 20th, 2014

Cycle 5, week 1

Bench: 60.0kg/70.0kg/80.0kg: (5/5/5): 5/5/5.

Additional Bench:

- 70.0kg: 4x5.

Dead Lifts: 105.0kg/120.0kg/135.0kg: (5/5/5): 5/5/5.

Pull-Ups: 5x6.

Monday, July 21st, 2014

1h Pad-work and sparring with my buddy S.

Squats: 60.0kg: 5x5. ATG.

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014

Out all day with the kids - cycling 20km.

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014

Out all day with the kids - cycling 20km.

Thursday, July 24th, 2014

Cycle 5, week 2

Bench Press: 65.0kg/75.0kg/85.0kg: (3/3/3): 3/3/3

Additional Bench:

- 80.0kg: 3.

- 70.0kg: 3x5.

Dead Lifts: 115.0kg/130.0kg/145.0kg: (3/3/3): 3/3/3

Pull-Ups: 5x6.

Friday, July 25th, 2014 and Saturday, July 26th, 2014

I’m sure I did something, but for the life of mine I cannot reconstruct what that was. Whatever…

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

Cycling with the Kids, Tennis with with my son Jassim

Kata in the evening:

- Gekisai Dai Ichi

- Gekisai Dai Ni

- Saifa

- Seienchin

- Sanseru

- Shisochin

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Lunchtime session with my student S - Calisthenics

- Lots of pull-up variations

- Some push-up variations

- Squats and Planks

Some jodan kicks in between sets

10 minutes stretching

[Karate4Life]

Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

Today's lunchtime session:

Kata review, each 3 times:

- Seisan

- Shisochin

- Seienchin

- Gekisai Dai Ichi

- Gekisai Dai Ni

Stretching 10 minutes

Shadow Sparring: 4 x 2 minutes

Today it was unbelievably hot and humid here in Hamburg, I must have lost 3 liters of water. Thank god for the showers in our offices!

Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

Weights with S.

Bench: 70.0kg/80.0kg/90.0kg: (5/3/1): 5/3/1.

Additional Bench:

- 90.0kg: 1

- 80.0kg: 2/2

Dips-and-Pull-Ups-Pyramid: Do 1 dip. Do 1 pull-up. Then do 2 dips, and then do 2 pull-ups. Up to 5 reps, and then down to 1 rep again.

Squats: 60.0kg: 5x5. All good here.

Thursday, July 31st, 2014

Today's lunchtime session, sweet 40 sweaty minutes:

Kata, 3 times each:

- Seisan

- Shisochin

- Sanseru

- Seienchin

- Tensho

4 x 2 minutes shadow sparring

Strikes against concrete wall, 20 times each:

- Seiken

- Shuto

- Shotei

It's shocking to see how much my Sanseru kata sucks. For the neutral observer it would probably look OK, but it feels just wrong.

Friday, August 1st, 2014

Today's lunchtime session, another sweet 45 minutes:

Kata review, each 3 times:

GoJu Ryu:

- Seisan

- Shisochin

- Gekisai Dai Ichi

- Gekisai Dai Ni

Kyokushin:

- Pinan Sono Ichi

- Pinan Sono Yon

10 minutes stretching

10 minutes shadow sparring

Lesson of the day: Breathing makes things easier, and tensing up doesn't.

Saturday, August 2nd, 2014

- Cycling 15 km with my wife and my kids. My youngest (5 years old) did the whole distance with us and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I think that this is a remarkable effort for someone so young with such short legs. Well done, my daughter (and my son and wife as well)!

- Running 15 km in the evening.

Lesson learned: Sometimes it's good to take the time for things that you enjoy.

Sunday, August 3rd, 2014

Weights.

Cycle 5, week 3

Bench: 70/80/90: 5/3/1. I hate the bench press. I hate it.

Additional Bench: 80: 3x3.

Dead Lifts: 125/140/160/170: 5/3/1/1. I love the dead lift. I love it.

BW Dips: 5x5.

Deep Push-Ups on PU stands: 3x10.

Ab-Wheel Rollout: 3x10.

An awesome session. Lesson of the day: Life is good!

[Karate4Life]

Monday, August 4th, 2013

Lunchtime session.

Kata, 3 times each:

- Seisan

- Shisochin

- Gekisai Dai Ichi

- Gekisai Dai Ni

- Saifa

- Sanseru

- Tensho

3 x 2 minutes shadow sparring

Hitting the concrete wall, 30 times each side:

- Seiken

- Shuto

- Shotei

- Chusoku

Lesson of the day: Just let it flow and everything falls into place.

Tuesday, August 5th, 2014

Lunchtime session.

Kata review, 5 times each:

- Seisan

- Shisochin

- Seienchin

6-7 minutes stretching

10 minutes kumite combinations from kamae.

Techniques against concrete wall:

- Chusoku mae geri chudan, 10 times each side

- Chusoku mawashi geri jodan, 10 times each side

- Shita tsuki, 35 times each side

Lesson of the day: Transferring one's kata from one style (GoJu Kai) to another (IOGKF) and thus trying to change years of muscle memory is one hell of a task.

Late night session:

- 30 minutes relaxed bag work.

- Pull-Ups: 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1.

- Bent-Over Rowing: 50.0kg: 5 x 10.

Another lesson for today: Easy is the ticket. Tensing up gets you nowhere.

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

Lunchtime session.

Kata:

- Seisan, 10x

- Gekisai Dai Ichi, 10x

15 minutes stretching

Strikes at concrete wall, 40 times each side: seiken, shuto, shotei

Evening weights with S.

Cycle 5, week 3 reloaded

Bench: 70.0kg/80.0kg/90.0kg: (5/3/1): 5/3/1

Additional bench:

- 80.0kg: 4/3/3

- 60.0kg: 10

Dead Lifts: 125.0kg/140.0kg/160.0kg: (5/3/1): 5/3/1

Additional Dead Lifts: 170.0kg: 1

BW Dips: 5x5

Deep Push-Ups on PU stands: 2x10

Plank: 2 x 1 minute

Bicycle crunches: 2 x 100

Next week is deload week – looking forward to that.

Lesson of the day: Back to basics, and THINK about what you’re doing Christian.

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

Lunchtime session with C and O:

- Stretching

- Sparring

- Pad Work

Well done, m’lady and gentleman!

Friday, August 8th, 2014

Lunchtime session:

- Junbi Undo

- 600 kicks from kamae: Mae, Mawashi, Soto Mawashi, Yoko

- Stretching

Not too good today- This.Goddamn.Hip.Flexibility!

Lesson of the day: Stretch more!

[Karate4Life]

Saturday, August 9th, 2014

7 km run with my boy Jassim. Son, you ran like the wind, I’m really proud of you, and here’s a big OSU for you!

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

Evening weights with S.

Cycle 5, week 4 – Deload week

Bench: 60.0kg: 5x10.

Dead Lifts: 100.0kg: 5x5.

BW Pull-Ups: 5x5.

BW Dips: 5x5.

Deep Push-Ups on push-up stands: 3x10.

Overhead press in zenkutsu dachi: 30.0kg: 3x5.

Lesson of the day: Sometimes it’s good to pull back a little and go easy.

Monday, August 11th, 2014

Lunchtime session today:

Junbi Undo.

Kata, 5 times each:

- Shisochin

- Seisan

- Gekisai Dai Ichi

- Saifa

- First half of Suparinpei (still getting it together)

Stretching.

Nice one!

Lesson of the day: None. It was just a good session...

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

I know I did something on that day, but I forgot to write it down and cannot for the life of mine remember what it was. Probably a lunchtime session with kata and stretching. Ah well, whatever…

EDIT: Yes, come to think of it, it was indeed a kata session!

Wednesday, August 13th, 2014

Lunchtime session:

Kata review, 3-5 times each:

GoJu Ryu:

- Gekisai Dai Ni

- Saifa

- Seienchin

- Shisochin

- Bits and pieces of Suparinpei

Kyokushin:

- Pinan Sono Ichi

- Pinan Sono San

- Pinan Sono Yon

Concrete wall, 5 minutes: Seiken, Uraken, Shuto, Shotei

Lesson of the day: Quality over quantity, yes, but it sure is fun to do as many different kata as time permits!

Thursday, August 14th, 2014

Lunchtime session with my co-worker O. 45 minutes of rather intense partner work on kumite combinations. Well done, buddy!!

In the evening weights:

Cycle 5, week 4 – deload week.

Bench: 70.0kg: 10x5.

Dead Lifts: Several sets with 2-3 reps. Max. today: 170.0kg x 1.

Pull-Ups: 5x5.

Push-Ups on Push-Up stands: 3x10.

Overhead Press: 32.5kg: 5x5.

Friday, August 15th, 2014

Rest day. Too many personal matters that needed settling.

Saturday, August 16th, 2014

Cycle 5, week 4 – deload week, sort of

Bench: 70.0kg: 5x5

Additional Bench:

- 80.0kg: 3

- 85.0kg: 1

- 90.0kg: 1

- 80.0kg: 3

Pull-Ups: 5x6.

Overhead Press: 32.5kg: 5x5.

Dead Lifts: Several sets with 3 reps. Max. today: 160.0kg x 1. That’s enough for today.

Push-Ups on Push-Up Stands: 3x10.

Good one! Lesson of the day: It’s good to walk this road with good companions!

OSU!

[yamesu]

Hi Mate,

The Martial Artists Training Log thread in this section has a number of us keeping records like this if you wish to head there.

There is also a number of people from different styles which gives a great indication as to how different styles employ different training methods.

Osu.

[Patrick]

Thank you for sharing that, yamesu. I appreciate it. There are benefits to both approaches and, right now, we can facilitate both.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Karate4Life]

OSU!

Thank you for your comments. I took a look at the thread you mentioned, and I agree, it's very interesting to directly compare the routines of people from different styles. It's just that this separate log will help me to keep track of my own practice, and I really look forward to any comment any of you want to spend.

Weekly update:

Monday, August 18th, 2014

Lunchtime session with my co-worker C. She’s a newbie, but she grits her teeth, sweats, and gives her best. That was actually more teaching than training, but hey, that’s the kind of people I want to train with! Great spirit, well done, C!

Tuesday, August 19th, 2014

Lunchtime session with my new student S. He joined our company just yesterday for internship and bachelor thesis, and I discovered that he’s been doing Muay Thai for many years now. This guy is from Ukraine, and honestly I don’t know anyone from there who hasn’t a bit of martial arts experience. I invited him to join me today, and what could he say? I’m his supervisor after all, hehe… We did some nice pad work and some very mellow sparring just to get used to each other. We ended with some minutes of stretching. Nice one, I figure it’s going to be a lot of fun to have this guy around – kind, humble, hitting hard, training seriously.

Wednesday, August 20th, 2014

Bench Press: 70.0kg/80.0kg: 5/5, 75.0kg: 5x5.

Goblet Squats: BW/10.0kg/20.0kg: 10/10/10. Hold each squat for some seconds and go as low as possible.

Squats: 60.0kg: 5x5. OK, good. As long as the knee doesn’t scream at me I figure everything is fine…

BW Dips: 5x5.

Lots of couch stretches in between sets in order to losen up the hips.

Thursday, August 21st, 2014

Lunchtime session with S and O. 45 minutes of pad work and sparring. We agreed on knockdown rules and sparred with some good contact. Deep and hard stretching in the end while I waited in front of the showers for the others to finish their business.

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

Lunchtime session with S. Pad work and knockdown sparring. That guy’s pretty skilled and strong, so it’s really a lot of fun. My kicks are better than his, his boxing is far better than mine, so as long as I can keep him away I’m fine, but as soon as he manages to close in I’m in trouble, and due to all this bobbing and weavign that boxers do it's one hell of a task to block his strikes because they come in so fast from the weirdest angles. It’s really good to have him around.

OSU!

[bushido_man96]

I used to do the 5x5 method for lifting, and really liked it. I liked the idea of squatting especially, and building up power and strength. Right now, time is an issue for me, but maybe someday I'll get back to it.

I have also looked into the Starting Strength method of training, and really like the idea of adding the power clean and power snatch to a workout. If I get the time, I will add it back in.

[Karate4Life]

Dang, I haven't posted here in ages, so here's an update.

I have moved all over Germany due to a new job, and now I am located in central Germany. The last two years have been really chaotic, and I managed to train regularly, but mostly on my own.

Unfortunately, there is neither a GoJu Ryu dojo nor a Kyokushin dojo within reasonable distance from my new home, so I joined the central German JKA Shotokan headquarters which is actually only a 10 minute drive from where I live. It is an excellent dojo, and while I still have a lot of difficulties with adapting to what the Shotokan folks are doing, it is nevertheless great fun training with them, and after those few months that I have been with them this dojo begins to feel like home. Great people, great training, excellent instructors, and most important: I was made to feel welcome from day one.

Due to my rapidly deteriorating knee condition (advanced arthritis on the right side) I have decided to quit powerlifting about a year ago, and that was a hard decision - I love lifting weights. But well, as years go by we need to adapt to what our bodies dictate, I suppose. So right now it is only Karate, and I manage to get 4 sessions per week in (2 in the dojo, 2 at home in my man cave).

I am looking forward to posting my training here more regularly and to enter discussions with you.

Saturday, 5th May 2018

 

The annual dojo seminar

There were four groups, kids beginners and advanced, and adults beginners (9th kyu - 6th kyu) and adults advanced (5th kyu - dan grades). The seminar consisted of 8 sessions á 75 minutes, and I was responsible for two sessions with both adult groups. In the beginner's group there were only 10 people (white belts up to green belts), and the advanced group had about 20 people (I forgot to count), most of them brown and black belts. My missions was to teach a GoJu Ryu kata and bunkai to both adult groups.

I did kata Gekisai Dai Ichi with both groups. It is a beginner's kata in GoJu Ryu, it is quite simple, and it is short so it can be taught easily within 75 minutes. In both groups we started with light randori for warm-up, followed by a short introduction to two specific stances and some techniques that occur in that kata and which are not done in Shotokan. In the beginner's group I managed to get the kata across so that at the end everyone was able to do it properly, and we even managed to extract three partner drills from the kata that they did in pairs. With the adults we were done with the kata after about 40 minutes so that we had plenty time to put several of the combinations contained in the kata into practice with a not-so-compliant partner. That was great fun, everyone gave their best, people were sweating, the room was filled with kiai and heavy breathing and the last 10 minutes were reserved for pad work where I instructed all of them to put specific short combinations contained in the kata to the pads as hard as they could.

A good day. I felt honoured to be trusted with these two sessions. After all I've been in that dojo only for some months.

Monday, 7th May 2018

Home-Dojo

Some shadow sparring

5 x 2 minutes kickboxing on the heavy bag

Kata:

- Heian Godan

- Hangetsu

- Meikyo

- Tekki Shodan

- Tensho

A good session!

OSU!

[Karate4Life]

Tuesday, 8th May 2018

Could not make it to the dojo in time due to work obligations, so I worked in my home dojo late at night.

Interval training, 10 rounds of: 1 minute continuous boxing on the heavy bag, 30 seconds mellow shadow boxing

3 x 2 minutes kickboxing on the heavy bag, all out

Kata, several times each:

- Hangetsu

- Meikyo

- Heian Yondan

- Heian Godan

- Tekki Shodan

Good session!

OSU!