Osu

[Kishi]

Hey there guys. It's been brought to my attention that I didn't have a Battle Log. I figured it was time to change that.

So, a bit about me for those of you who haven't met me before: I'm Kishi. I'm a martial artist specializing in Kenkojuku-Ryu Shotokan, a type of Karate. My sensei wants me to get into Judo as well, but I've got enough on my plate that I don't feel good pursuing that just yet. I'm a calisthenics guy not necessarily due to choice, and my martial arts force me to develop a lot of other athletic qualities, such that I'm not really a strength guy or an endurance guy. I'm kind of both.

I have a lot of reasons for doing what I do, and I was pursuing my goals before I ever even found this place. I've talked about them before. But these reasons have changed in the past as well, and I suspect they'll change again.

Since the end of last challenge, I've been taking it easier. I wound up with some overuse problems, some acute muscle soreness that has only been exacerbated due to certain movements I've performed. Lately I've been focusing on the Trifecta as detailed in CC2, and developing my handstand using the free protocol over at GMB. It's been good, but I'm getting an itch to start training again, and I reckon I'll post my deeds here before the night is out.

Since I pigged out on junk food and drove my body fat percentage back up by a full point, I've decided to go Primal with a single Cheat Day every Sunday. It's an intentional thing, no worries. I had a feeling it might happen this way. Starting today, as of 9 AM, I weighed in at 181.5, at 15.3% body fat according to a BI scan. It's not the most accurate, but it does reduce user error on my end, so at least it's not wrong on my account.

So. Here we are. And here we go.

[Kishi]

Heh. Told y'all.

Morning Mobility: Head Bridge Hold, Hanging Knee Raise, Straight Leg Twist Hold x 20 seconds each. It's a bit of a wake-up.

Then, after work: 6x110 seconds jumping rope, and some core work. Think a knee raise only held whilst flat on your back. Did that for a solid minute, which means I'm in striking distance now for doing some handstand work off of a wall.

[Hermione Gainser]

Exxxxxxxxxxxcellent

head bridge hold? Do tell. That sounds like something that could be useful for one of the yogis trying to get her wheel on.

[Kishi]

Exxxxxxxxxxxcellent

head bridge hold? Do tell. That sounds like something that could be useful for one of the yogis trying to get her wheel on.

It's basically a bridge where you raise your hips and body until only the crown of your head is on the ground. It's kind of a halfway point for developing form, without the tension squeeze of a full bridge.

[Kishi]

Morning mobility happened today. Hanging Bent Leg Hold is friggin' amazing for the lower back - you feel the stretch deep in your back, as opposed to on a superficial level, if that makes any sense.

So, uh. Handstands. Not quite there yet... but my feet walked up the wall today. Shoulders feel great.

So, 6x10 seconds in Not-quite-Handstand, and 6x10 seconds of core tension work; the legs are extended out a bit more, to decrease leverage and increase challenge. All this after 10 hours on my feet at work after 6.5 hours of sleep. Good day.

[Kishi]

So, if anyone wants any verification regarding the effectiveness of the primal diet, you come talk to me. After only three solid days of eating that way, I decided to take my cheat day. I ran measurements beforehand, however, and they came to three pounds lost, down to 14.9% body fat.

 

That was only three days, and one of 'em I tripped up at the end. Already, my body's gotten rid of some excess water and burned some body fat. So I didn't feel too bad about taking my cheat day on Sunday, as is usual.

 

Anyway, looks like the challenge isn't officially starting for a week or so. There's some kind of mini-challenge going on, they say... in the meantime, though, I mean to restart my training again starting tomorrow. Should be fun!

[Kishi]

Eek, work starting soon, so I have to be quick.

 

Morning mobility done.

 

Neutral Grip Pull Ups: 3x1

Pistol Box Squat: 3x1

Incline One Arm Push Up: 3x1

Cossack Squat: 3x1

Elevated Pike Press: 3x1

Half Bridge: 3x1

Hanging Frog Raise: 3x1

 

Accomplished in about 19 minutes. Followed this with 120 KB swings in 10 minutes.

 

Finished the day with some handstand training. Good stuff today... now to go eat all the things and prepare to fast through the night... work will be too busy to allow something like eating. Here we go!

[Hermione Gainser]

It's basically a bridge where you raise your hips and body until only the crown of your head is on the ground. It's kind of a halfway point for developing form, without the tension squeeze of a full bridge.

 

ah ha!

 

re primal:  you sound like my boyfriend.  He can eat primal/paleo for week and get shredded in no time.  Little jealous, I gotta say   But good on ya!

[Kishi]

ah ha!

 

re primal:  you sound like my boyfriend.  He can eat primal/paleo for week and get shredded in no time.  Little jealous, I gotta say   But good on ya!

 

Ha ha, it'll work as long as I'm not busy stressing myself out over how it's not working as fast as I want.  

[Kishi]

Sorry I haven't checked in the past couple days. Turns out that when you work at a coffee shop that's right at the corner of the place where they're dropping the ball for New Year's, it gets hectic. I ended up working from 4 PM to 1:30 AM on New Year's Day. Not complaining - need the hours, and it was fun - but it really knocked me for a loop. I've been doing a lot of sleeping the past couple of days.

 

Unfortunately, I made a commitment to reconnect with a lot of my friends, and to not feel guilty about missing workouts if it meant being with them. It's costing my training somewhat... but I've made up my mind to be okay with it, and to be truthful, I'm pretty okay with it. The challenge is an excuse to turn the intensity up to 11 and push, but in the pre-challenge period I don't mind moving a little slower, a little more thoughtfully, you know? Life is hectic enough.

 

Besides, they're getting ready to change my schedule at work, which will definitely influence my training schedule as well. It'll be... interesting.

[Kishi]

Found my way back to my jumprope today. That was pretty awesome. 6x120 seconds. Managed to perform thirty crisscross jumps in a row, which was a personal benchmark I'd meant to set before working on crisscrossing sprints in place.

 

I got super excited and started practicing... and then something pulled in my back. -.- Damn, but it's always something, I tell you what.

 

Fortunately, a round of the CC2 Trifecta has made the pain manageable. I suspect that if I actually do the things in the morning like I say I'll do, it'll probably help to make the joints and the muscles more resistant to this kind of thing.

 

Anyway, handstand practice is out for the moment. We'll see what tomorrow brings on that.

 

Went to find one of the gyms on my list of possible places to intern, because I wanted a chance to see what the facility was like and what I could do to play to my strengths there. Unfortunately, I had bad information on where the place was, and I struck out trying to find the place. Twice. I have since updated the information, and I'm going to take a shot at it tomorrow. Right now I've got laundry and writing to do.

[Kishi]

Well, guys, I'm not abandoning the log by any stretch. But the challenge is gearing up, and I've decided to go ahead and post my thread in the Monk's Guild. You can find it here.

 

It'd be superfluous to try to post workouts in both places, so I reckon I'll be chilling over there for a while. Y'all feel free to stop on by!

[Kishi]

::blows off the dust::

 

Whew. Time has flown since the last time I stopped by here. In that time, the guild's seen a lot of changes. Heck. I've seen a lot of changes. All kinds of different things happening now, in the guild and in my own training.

 

I'll skip the details and just get right into the hard stuff.

 

Warmed Up.

 

Push Ups: 4x21, 25, 21, 21; 1x35 (YAY, improvement).

Squats: 1x55

Pull Ups: 1x6

Lunges: 1x27/leg

Hanging Leg Raises: 3x5

 

Time Elapsed: 27:27.

 

All's well. Now I just have to figure out if I can get back into the dojo at some point.

[Kishi]

NO. Can't start this thing up again only to leave it in the dust again. Nuh-uh. Not happening.

 

Yesterday's workout was pretty simple. I'm experimenting with Tim Ferriss' concept of the minimum effective dose. In particular, his experiment with KB Swings and how you can experience significant fat loss on just 75 consecutive swings done twice per week. Currently I'm at a set of 45 swings and a set of 30 swings, as of yesterday, at ~44 lbs.

 

After a brief rest, I also practice the KB Snatch, because I'm trying to pass the Secret Service Snatch Test (at least 200 snatches with a 53 lb bell). Presently, I'm at 80 snatches with a 25, but I did them in four minutes yesterday which means I'm on pace. Granted, it's not Ferriss' MED, but I'm a martial artist and superhuman feats of work capacity is our shtick. Gotta live up to it.

[Kishi]

Sweet. Workout done today. Progress, although not as fast as I'd like.

 

Warmed Up

 

Push Ups: 4x25, 29, 25, 25; 1x25 (FAIL; was aiming to get a finisher set of 36, but that didn't happen. Still, total volume is up to 129, which is good).

Squats: 1x56

Pull Ups: 1x7 (Failed, made it to 6. Kind of thought this would happen; will step this back a bit).

Lunges: 1x28/leg

Hanging Knee Raises: 3x6

Inverted Rows: 3x1

 

Time Elapsed: 36-something. Got no sleep last night; definitely had an impact on performance today.

 

Starting the rows on account of an observation that correcting forward slumped posture is about having the shoulder blades pulled back. Inverted rows represent a contraction in that direction, thereby enforcing the habit of better posture. I've been paranoid about that lately, so I decided it was worth trying. And plus, it's a move I'd have to get proficient in for the program I'm working on anyway.

[Kishi]

So, the 19th, I did some stuff with Tabata intervals, up to 4 intervals. Saturday I was planning to do some stuff, but I just had no energy, and no challenge to drive me to glory, so I chilled out instead. Sunday was a rest day too.

 

Today, I fooled around with kettlebells and with a bit of rope for isometric strength work. 50 swings, followed by 25 swings, at 45 lbs weight. Then five minutes of KB Snatches at 26 lbs; got up to 100 total.

 

Good day. Tomorrow, we're gonna get into some harder strength movements.

[Kishi]

Wow, this was an interesting day. Was gonna go for a finisher, but something pulled in my left shoulder, so I ended up calling it and focusing on some SMR with a lacrosse ball. Huh. Oh well, guess today was not the day for finishers.

 

Pull Ups: 4x2

Close Squats (Hip Distance Apart): 4x10

 

Close Push Ups: 4x5

Rear Leg Deadlifts: 4x1

 

Inverted Rows: 4x1

Calf Raises: 4x1

 

Dips: 4x1

 

Hanging Knee Raises: 3x7 (Swayed like crazy on these today. Need to settle into this and focus).

Bridges: 3x1

Russian Twists: 3x1

 

Total Time Elapsed: 30:48

 

Whew. Now, off to get some sun and wait for my clients to be ready.

[Kishi]

Oof. All right. Time to post some numbers.

 

Yesterday, I wasn't able to get away from the studio to get out to the gym and do my swings. Fortunately, there is a rower here, so I was able to go ahead and practice Tabata Intervals instead. Made it to 5 intervals yesterday. Holy crap. Two's easy, three taxes you, four it starts to hurt, and five you're screaming to get it done.

 

I also did some more isometric stuff with the rope as well. It's pretty incredible, the amount of repetitions of absolute tension you can perform when you're not moving anywhere. I think I ended up with 13 reps a minute, and there's no reason to assume I couldn't do more.

 

Today, after warming up:

 

Kipping Pull Up: 4x1

Jumping Squats: 4x10

 

Plyometric Push Ups: 4x5

Jumping Squats: 4x5/leg

 

Standing DB Row: 4x5x30

Ankle Hops: 4x10

 

Hanging Knee Holds: 3x21s (FAILED at 2x18s, succeeded at 3x11s).

Bridge Hold: 3x3s

Plank/Side: 30s/15s

 

FINISHER: 66 Burpees in 10 minutes.

 

Time Elapsed: 44:40 (probably finished sooner, but laid in a puddle of victory for a minute or two).

 

Fwah. Damn. Done. Tomorrow, rest day.

[mightstone2k]

A'ight boss, I'm subscribing here.  I sense a kindred spirit, and I think your journey will inspire me on mine.

[Mikroftt]

Love the 2 Tim 2:3-6 reference.  Might have to borrow that from you if you are OK with it.  Keep it up, sounds like you are doing great.  

[Kishi]

What. WHAT. People are following this thing?

 

OH DARN IT.

 

If I'd known, I would have kept all of y'all more up to date. So sorry that I left y'all out of the loop!

 

Anyway, lots of things have changed since the first days. I've got some experiments in mind, and I'm gonna see what happens with them.

 

In the meantime, I ran 3.5 miles today, with a 9:09 average pace. Looks like I hit my progression standard for running, so now it's time to bump it up to 4 miles.

 

I'll have some strength stuff for you guys tomorrow. See you then!

[mightstone2k]

Ha.  Yep, you have followers.  I'm a sucker for seeing what martial artists are doing.  How is the personal trainer career-stuff coming?

[Kishi]

Ha.  Yep, you have followers.  I'm a sucker for seeing what martial artists are doing.  How is the personal trainer career-stuff coming?

 

Ha ha ha, lost that job. I've got some stuff I'm doing on my own, now, and it pays way more per hour, but the trick is that I don't have enough clients to make that work yet.

 

I think I've got the job front handled for now, but even so.

[Kishi]

All right, so, off to a Halloween party tonight, which means I had to get a workout in. Played around today with chin ups and pistol progressions.

 

So, here's what I'm doing. I set a timer for 20 minutes. I have the list of moves, how many reps I'm going to do of them, etc. After warming up, I proceed to do as many sets as I can in that 20 minutes. The next 10 minutes are basically devoted to a finisher of some kind. Last Monday, it was push ups and core work.

 

Each move is being done with the CC counting scheme - two seconds in, one second hold, two seconds out.

 

Here's how it played out:

 

Rolling Squat: 4x7 (using the Pistol tutorial from GMB)

Chin Ups: 4x3

Cossack Squats: 4x3/Leg

Inverted Ring Rows: 1x10, 1x5, 2x3 (hahahaha. I should have seen that coming. Going slow like that? Man. It burned).

Jumping Lunges: 4x3/Leg

L-Sit: 2x3 seconds (these were actual, bona fide L-Sits. I figure, I need to strengthen that chain of muscles if I'm working toward a full on Pistol. But something in my left shoulder protested the move, so I cut it early and just kept training the others).

Finisher: Death By Burpees: 61 burpees in eleven minutes. Not my best score, but burpees are a very leg-intensive move, and my prior work didn't take that into account. We'll get her back up.

 

Anyway, whole thing took about 35 minutes or so, not counting the warm up or the cool down. Since the idea now is to find ways to get lots of strength work in little time, I think it's gonna work. I might post up about my ideas in the Programming section for bodyweight training, not sure.

 

Anyone with any thoughts, feel free to chime in.

[Teirin]

Death by burpees is an accurate name :-)