DarthPenguins Training log of an unfit person!

[DarthPenguin]

Wednesday 24th August

Karate Session

This was a really good session. The other instructor took myself and one of the other students aside and ran it as a mock grading, checking all the things we need to cover for the grading in a few weeks.

Pleased with the feedback, got a couple of minor things to work on, but otherwise if i perform the same at the grading i should pass smoothly. Will try to work on the details for next few weeks and no slip up on anything else!

It's always great to get this kind if individualized attention and feedback. Best of luck on your upcoming test!

Thanks! I take the view that my instructor wouldn't let me sit it if i wasn't able to do it, so as long as i perform to usual standard it should be fine. If not, then whats the worst that happens - i have to resit it again in a few months. If so it just means i need to improve more which is fine!

[DarthPenguin]

Saturday 27th August

Lifting session

Squat

20kg x 10

40kg x 5

50kg x 3

65kg x 3

75kg x 3

85kg x 8

47.5kg x 10

47.5kg x 10

47.5kg x 10

Deadlift

70kg x 10

70kg x 10

70kg x 10

Wrist Roller

3.75kg x 8

3.75kg x 6

3.75kg x 6

Was pushed for time today so made sure to get the main lifts in and also wanted to make sure i used wrist roller. Will add one more exercise in next time. Will likely be something lighter as squats and (light) deadlifts is still a taxing session

[DarthPenguin]

Monday 29th August

BJJ Session

Went to the Monday lunchtime Gi session. Will try to make this a regular class going forwards.

Techniques

We were working on chaining some guard passes today. Start with a knee cut pass, then when opponent stuffs it with knee shield and pushing 'slicing' knee back, shift to a shin slice pass, then when opponent stuffs that, shift back to knee slice pass. Then worked on the opponent catching you in 'quarter guard' when slipping through and a neat way to bring yourself to full mount from there.

Focus of classes for next few weeks is going to be chaining techniques. Thursday class is going to be submissions which i am looking forward to as i find chaining submissions is probably my weakest chaining part.

Drilling

Worked positional sparring for the earlier techniques. Bottom partner starting in half guard with knee slice knee partly through. top partner working for pass, bottom to sweep or keep guard. no going to closed guard etc. worked several rounds of this

Rolling

Couple of rounds of rolling to finish off

[DarthPenguin]

Tuesday 30th August

Lifting Session

Bench Press

20kg x 10

40kg x 5

50kg x 3

60kg x 3

67.5kg x 5

77.5kg x 3

85kg x 0 failed on this for the first time in a long time

Failed the 1+ lift but i was feeling quite fatigued coming into the session after bjj the day before. Am going to put it down to not doing upper body work after a grappling session for a quite a while. Will repeat this weight cycle for bench and see if hit the weight at end next time. Other sessions had felt good and weights went up smoothly. If doesn't go properly will reset back a few weeks. Not going to drop the bjj session so will adapt the lifting to it.

Seated overhead press

25kg x 10

25kg x 10

25kg x 10

This felt more fatiguing that usual for a light weight due to the shoulder fatigue i had going in. Got it done though as i think it will be worth it

Bent over barbell row

60kg x 10

60kg x 10

60kg x 10

these were fine. Focused a lot on form here. will increase the weight next session but still planning gradual increases

Wrist roller

3.75kg x 8

3.75kg x 8

3.75kg x 6

These went fine, Final couple of reps were tough as expected.

[DarthPenguin]

Wednesday 31st August

Karate session

warm ups

kihon

We worked a little more from freestyle stance, practicing punches with a little shift in etc.

body conditioning drills

we took turns having people stand one in front and one to either side with them doing a light mae geri to the stomach (in front) and either left or right leg mawashi geri to stomach. Kept moderately light (though the instructor was asking people to hit me harder as i am reasonably big lol). Lesson from it is i need to do more ab work!

Kata

Several rounds of kata. For Heian Sandan i was focusing too much on the stomps and bringing my hip through properly without making it into a crescent kick motion, as a result i wasn't snapping the elbows in enough. Think i fixed it once pointed out.

Also ran though Heian Nidan, which reminded me how much i prefer Heian Sandan!

Kumite

Just worked several rounds of the grading one step kumite with one of the blackbelts. Technique is fine, was just told i should do more 'staring out your opponent' as the grading examiner likes the martial spirit shown. Simple fix to make so started implementing it after first round

[bushido_man96]

I would cut that first set of 10 out of your bench session. Is that a warmup set? If so, 10 is probably a bit excessive. The warmup sets should be just that; a warmup. If they detract from the work sets, then they have become work sets themselves.

How much time did you rest between work sets? How's your eating and recovery?

[DarthPenguin]

I would cut that first set of 10 out of your bench session. Is that a warmup set? If so, 10 is probably a bit excessive. The warmup sets should be just that; a warmup. If they detract from the work sets, then they have become work sets themselves.

How much time did you rest between work sets? How's your eating and recovery?

All fair points.

The first set is just with the empty bar to loosen up, so could cut it to 8 i think. Issues i think were i did too many reps of the final warm up set and i also did much too slow a negative on the set that was missed. Was thinking about it later and realised i did it massively slowly.

Recovery wise i was a little achy when doing the weights session from bjj the day before but felt normal after the weights session and have felt normal the rest of the week too, so might just have been an off day.

Will wait and see if similar issue pops up once more then i will make some adjustments if needed.

Cheers for the input

[DarthPenguin]

Saturday 3rd September

Lifting session

Deadlift

70kg x 5

80kg x 3

90kg x 2

100kg x 1

110kg x 5

122.5kg x 3

137,5kg x 3

70kg x 10

70kg x 10

70kg x 10

Cut the volume on final warm up sets a little in case that would help after bench issue earlier in week. reps felt smooth. heavy set felt heavy but fine, happy with how it went

Squats

47.5kg x 10

47.5kg x 10

47.5kg x 10

Wrist roller

3.75kg x 8

3.75kg x 8

3.75kg x 8

[bushido_man96]

When I do warm-up sets, I will usually start with two sets of 5 with the empty bar, then do a set of 5 at 50% of the work weight (or first work set), a set of 3 at 70%, then a single or double at 90%. I pretty much do these without rest in between, either; just enough time to load the next set and then do it, then after the last single or double, get right into the first work set. After that set, I'll rest probably 7-10 minutes, depending on the weight.

That method has worked pretty well for me, and does a good job of getting the system ready for the work sets.

[DarthPenguin]

When I do warm-up sets, I will usually start with two sets of 5 with the empty bar, then do a set of 5 at 50% of the work weight (or first work set), a set of 3 at 70%, then a single or double at 90%. I pretty much do these without rest in between, either; just enough time to load the next set and then do it, then after the last single or double, get right into the first work set. After that set, I'll rest probably 7-10 minutes, depending on the weight.

That method has worked pretty well for me, and does a good job of getting the system ready for the work sets.

Yeah that makes sense. I think i have been slightly overdoing the volume on the warm ups. Took a look back at my decade old gym logs (when i was less feeble!) and i used to do very similar to what you say above. Deadlifts are the lift that i probably do closest to that currently and it seems to be the smoothest progression over time. Have started implementing slightly reduced warm ups already