Shotokan's time to use what was learned

[sarakingdom]

40 minutes ago, Shotokan said:

My hips were a bit tight today and I felt them through all five Shotokan katas and the two Iaido katas.  I'm thinking I might need to find a day when I can add some focused mobility / flexibility training again.

 

I rarely make the time, but increasingly think this is wise.

[Shotokan]

13 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

I rarely make the time, but increasingly think this is wise.

I might have to change my challenge a little to force me to get more mobility in each week. 

[Kishi]

If you're sitting a lot, you can really loosen your hips up with a forward lunge/squat hold combo. Forward lunge to open up the front, squat hold to loosen up the back. I try to do it once every half hour or so, that or get up and walk, and it's made a significant difference to me.

[Shotokan]

Day 7:

 

Today's workout was one circuit of the following.  

 

Farmers walk 100 steps with 120 lbs

Two arm kettlebell swing 25 x 15

Goblet squat 25 x 5

Push up 10

One arm kettlebell row 20 x 10 right

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 left

Goblet squat 25 x 3

Push up 7

One arm kb row 20 x 10 left

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 right

Goblet Squat 25 x 2

Pushup 5

 

Two Shotokan katas and two Iaido katas finished the workout and now some writing to finish up this week. 

 

Week one went just as planned.  Three kicking workouts, two inhumane burpee workouts, over 35 katas and almost 600 words written. 

[Shotokan]

6 hours ago, Kishi said:

If you're sitting a lot, you can really loosen your hips up with a forward lunge/squat hold combo. Forward lunge to open up the front, squat hold to loosen up the back. I try to do it once every half hour or so, that or get up and walk, and it's made a significant difference to me.

I wish I could do lunges.  Whenever I do them, it puts my left leg out of alignment and it ends up making my quad tighten up, sometimes for days which causes my knee to hurt.  I talked to my chiropractor about this and he agreed that it's probability related to my hip flexors being too tight which is making my leg rotate externally when I lunge. 

[Kishi]

11 hours ago, Shotokan said:

I wish I could do lunges.  Whenever I do them, it puts my left leg out of alignment and it ends up making my quad tighten up, sometimes for days which causes my knee to hurt.  I talked to my chiropractor about this and he agreed that it's probability related to my hip flexors being too tight which is making my leg rotate externally when I lunge. 

 

Well, I don't mean it as an exercise, I mean it as a stretch.

 

 

Of course, if you can't do it, then you can't, but even as someone whose knees don't like lunges, the position's really good for introducing a stretch into the flexors.

[Shotokan]

4 hours ago, Kishi said:

Well, I don't mean it as an exercise, I mean it as a stretch.

Sometimes I need to be hit with a hammer.  Thanks @Kishi!  I have done those before and those don't bother my quad like moving lunges.  I'm going to give those a try again.  I also have Rick Kaselj hips flexor routine which really did seem to help.  Thanks again for bringing them up. 

[Shotokan]

Day 8:

 

I should have posted this last night but I ended up working on something and lost track of time.

 

Single leg raise 10 each leg

Front snap kicks 5 each leg

Fire hydrants 10 each leg

Side thrust kicks 5 each leg

Donkey kick 10 each leg

Back kick 5 each leg

Glute bridge with band 10

Side snap kick 5 each leg

Medicine ball scissor 10 x 8lbs

Roundhouse kick 5 each leg

Swissball squeeze 12 

 

Two Shotokan and two Iaido katas finished up the night.

[Shotokan]

Day 9:

 

Today was something a little different thanks for @Kishi mentioning this hip flexors.  I pulled out the Hip Flexor Mobility drill video and did it.  I didn't think I was as tight as I was but afterwards, my hips and my knee felt so much better.  The only problem is, when I did my katas, my right leg was shaking when I did certain stances. Either way, I think the routine was a really good for me.  

 

Six Shotokan and one Iaido kata finished up the day.

[Shotokan]

Day 10:

 

Active rest day today went well.  I went well.  I went to teach and got in some kata on the side.  One of the benefits of teaching is that I do techniques without a warm up and it makes them a bit more real life. I did three Shotokan katas total today.

[Shotokan]

Day 11:

 

Kata only day. Five Shotokan katas and two Iaido katas.  It was late, I was tired from work and even though the katas felt pretty good, I was too drained to do much more.

[x Valkyrie x]

Nice job, Shotokan! I had to google katas, I had no idea what that was, they seem as intricate as a dance! Wow!

 

I'm glad the hip mobility stuff helped you. Something that can help sometimes(physical therapist assistant here) in addition to mobility work is strengthening your middle hip muscle (gluteus medius, if you care to know lol), which is done with basically anything with a single leg stance or a split leg stance or lateral movement, because the middle hip stabilizes the pelvis during movement/single leg positions, like kicking or balancing. When it's weak or fatigued, other muscles have to try to stabilize the pelvis and become "tight", sometimes leading to that hip flexor tightness you're describing, which can cause knee and back pain/tightness, so it may be worth looking into. 

 

Keep on kicking butt! Your KB/burpee workout is awesome...I may steal the idea! 

[Shotokan]

19 hours ago, x Valkyrie x said:

Nice job, Shotokan! I had to google katas, I had no idea what that was, they seem as intricate as a dance! Wow!

 

I'm glad the hip mobility stuff helped you. Something that can help sometimes(physical therapist assistant here) in addition to mobility work is strengthening your middle hip muscle (gluteus medius, if you care to know lol), which is done with basically anything with a single leg stance or a split leg stance or lateral movement, because the middle hip stabilizes the pelvis during movement/single leg positions, like kicking or balancing. When it's weak or fatigued, other muscles have to try to stabilize the pelvis and become "tight", sometimes leading to that hip flexor tightness you're describing, which can cause knee and back pain/tightness, so it may be worth looking into. 

 

Keep on kicking butt! Your KB/burpee workout is awesome...I may steal the idea! 

Kata can certainly be compared to dance.  Each movement has many different details that some people spend a lifetime trying to perfect. 

 

Thanks for all the great input!  I do a lot of single leg stance and split leg work during my Karate training but I have been leaving the lateral movements out lately.  I need to work them back into my routine again.  I am certain that I have other muscles working to compensate for the weaker muscles caused by 30+ years of desk jobs. 

 

The KB/burpee workout was stolen from Dan John and he says that everyone steals everyone else's workouts anyway.  I took was he suggested and added a little bit to it to get some more upper back work in it.  I added one more part to the routine, when in the bottom of the goblet squat, I do curls for the same amount of reps that I do for the squats.

[Shotokan]

Day 12:

 

This day didn't go as planned with a late night at work again and an exhausted mind.  I ended up with five Shotokan katas and I think two Iaido katas.

 

Day 13:

 

Today was another late night at work but I forced myself to get in a good workout even though I didn't start my workout until 11:20 pm and I have to be at work early in teh morning tomorrow or I guess today now.  I did the following:

 

Farmers walk 110 steps with 120 lbs

Two arm kettlebell swing 25 x 15

Goblet squat with curl 25 x 5 

Push up 10

One arm kettlebell row 20 x 10 right

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 left

Goblet squat with curl 25 x 3

Push up 7

One arm kb row 20 x 10 left

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 right

Goblet Squat with curl 25 x 2

Pushup 5

 

Single leg raise 10 each leg

Front snap kicks 5 each leg

Fire hydrants 10 each leg

Side thrust kicks 5 each leg

Donkey kick 10 each leg

Back kick 5 each leg

Glute bridge with band 10

Side snap kick 5 each leg

Medicine ball scissor 10 x 8lbs

Roundhouse kick 5 each leg

Swissball squeeze 12 

 

Five Shotokan katas and only one Iaido kata.  

[Kishi]

Yes, well, plans work until they meet real life, and then they don't. You're still making the most of it and getting good from what you can. That's awesome, so keep it up!

[x Valkyrie x]

Nice job on getting the workouts in. I hope you can get some good sleep this weekend  

[Shotokan]

Day 14: It didn't go as planned.  The workout from late Friday night ended up keeping me up until well after 1:00 am because I wide awake. I had to be at the office for a five hour job that turned into 11 hours. Only one each of Shotokan and Iaido katas.

 

I missed my goals this past week by about a third.  I did around 25 katas, only one inhumane burpee and two of my kicking circuits along with about 400 written words.  Not terrible but not what I wanted.

 

Day 15: I was super tired, from being up early to see a client this morning.  I ended up falling asleep in my chair here for about 20 minutes and then my kata coach showed up for training. Kata training went well with about three full katas and a bunch of sections that we worked on.  The cool part is, she is seeing a big increase in the speed of my leg and hip movements when doing techniques.  I am guessing that the all kettlebell and hip work is paying off.  The stability and control over my lower is better than it has been, at least its better now that is has been over my last 13 years of Karate training.  Things are looking up but I really need to get some sleep and spend less time at work. I don't how that's going to happen but I need to figure it out.

[Kishi]

It's always gratifying when the work done outside of class pays off inside of class.  Groovy!

[Shotokan]

Day 16:

 

The band warm up that I used in the past was a good start to my workout today. The lateral movements really got my hips warmed up.  Thanks @x Valkyrie x for the advice. 

 

Next came the kicking workout:

 

Single leg raise 10 each leg

Front snap kicks 5 each leg

Fire hydrants 10 each leg

Side thrust kicks 5 each leg

Donkey kick 10 each leg

Back kick 5 each leg

Glute bridge with band 10

Side snap kick 5 each leg

Swissball squeeze 12 

Roundhouse kick 5 each leg

Medicine ball scissor 10 x 10lbs - I used a kettle bell for the scissor today but it bother my shoulders.  I think the handle is too small so I might have to use a larger kettlebell

 

After that came eight Shotokan katas along with two Iaido katas.  I'm not sure what did it but the katas felt really good tonight. They just flowed along and the techniques and my hips action was working better than I remember from last week.

 

[Shotokan]

Day 17:

 

Today's workout was teaching and demonstrating some techniques for a few students. A couple katas will end the day.

[Shotokan]

Day 18;

 

Well, the Wednesday blues came around again.  I had big plans for a big workout tonight but that didn't go as planned.  I am hoping to get some kata in before bed.

[Kishi]

Dude, same. RAH. We gotta get over Wednesday.

[Shotokan]

15 hours ago, Kishi said:

Dude, same. RAH. We gotta get over Wednesday.

I wish we lived closer so we could meet every Wednesday and train!  

 

I did end up getting in two Shotokan and one Iaido kata around 12:30 am though. 

[Shotokan]

Day 19:

 

What I didn't do on Wednesday, I made up for today.  My legs are really sore for some reason and I think it was the band warm up from Monday because of the parts of my legs where it hurts. In order to fix that, I did the same band warm up again today.  I'm not sure if it is going to fix it but the rest of the workout went well.

 

Farmers walk 110 steps with 120 lbs

Two arm kettlebell swing 25 x 15

Goblet squat with curl 25 x 5 

Push up 10

One arm kettlebell row 20 x 10 right

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 left

Goblet squat with curl 25 x 3

Push up 7

One arm kb row 20 x 10 left

Single arm kb swing 15 x 15 right

Goblet Squat with curl 25 x 2

Pushup 5

 

I started doing katas and I ended up doing every kata that I know well today.  That's 24 Shotokan katas and 10 Iaido katas.  I don't know what happened but the katas got better and better as I kept going.  I did them medium speed today instead of slow and I was able to keep all of the technique fixes that I have been working on.  Posture was good, hips were working and they just flowed like water.  I never had a kata workout like this before.

 

 

 

 

[Kishi]

Sounds to me like you wound up hitting flow state. Start off doing something well and doing it better and better as time goes by? Body must've been ready for it.

 

So now the trick is trying to figure out triggers so you can do it again.