Osu

[Kishi]

Can't be that accurate! I ain't dead yet!

[Kishi]

All right, today's workout. All about inversions today, so, handstand and bridge work.

 

Handstand Holds: 4x11s

Shoulder Bridge Lifts: 4x5

Elevated Pike Press: 4x1

Shoulder Bridge Lifts with Twists: 4x2/side

Frog Stands: 4x11s

Shoulder Bridge Lifts with a Kick: 4x2/leg

 

Finisher: Tabata intervals with shoulder bridge holds and twists.

 

Cool down slipped my mind on account of having forgotten to eat yesterday and just being crazy hungry, so I went right to work with that. Oops.

[Teirin]

Forgot to eat????  How????!!!

[Kishi]

NaNoWriMo started yesterday! I found myself writing, writing, writing: writing for work, writing for story, all of it. Just on and on and on.

[Teirin]

Ah, that makes more sense. Don't forget to take care of yourself.

[Kishi]

Ah, that makes more sense. Don't forget to take care of yourself.

 

I don't mean to. But this month, girl. It's hard. It sucks on the willpower something awful.

[Teirin]

If you can make the time to exercise, you can make the time to eat.  Fuel is important.

[Kishi]

If you can make the time to exercise, you can make the time to eat.  Fuel is important.

 

I absolutely agree. And I normally do. That was just a really weird day.

[Kishi]

Battle Report for the day:

 

Warmed Up

 

Incline Push Ups: 1x10

Floor Leg Raises: 1x10

 

Push Ups: 6x6

Bicycle Leg Raises: 6x3

Notes: This stuff is hard when you do it slow. If I was just doing them to do them, that'd be one thing. But I'm moving slowly on the push ups and holding myself as still as I can when hanging on the bar. I got all that done in about 20 minutes, but I was shaking by the end.

 

Finisher: 7x30s Sprints-in-Place

 

Cooled Down

 

So, yeah. That was done well today.

[Mistr]

Notes: This stuff is hard when you do it slow. If I was just doing them to do them, that'd be one thing. But I'm moving slowly on the push ups and holding myself as still as I can when hanging on the bar. I got all that done in about 20 minutes, but I was shaking by the end.

 

Yep.  Sure is.  That is what all my leg exercise are like now.  All endurance and slow twitch work.  "Slow and controlled with good form" is the mantra of my physical therapist.  Who knew that muscle strength and endurance are so different?

[Kishi]

Yep.  Sure is.  That is what all my leg exercise are like now.  All endurance and slow twitch work.  "Slow and controlled with good form" is the mantra of my physical therapist.  Who knew that muscle strength and endurance are so different?

 

Mm. It sounds like she's working on keeping you under tension for as long as possible. The difference that cadence can make is pretty incredible.

[Kishi]

Whew. Tiring today. Good stuff.

 

Warm Up

Squats - 1x10

Banded Chins (blue) - 1x8

Back Lunges - 1x10/Leg

 

Pistol Progressions - 5x8

Chin Ups - 5x4³, 1 (the notation means that three of these sets had four repetitions).

Cossack Squats - 5x4/Leg

Inverted Ring Rows - 4x6

Jumping Lunges - 4x4/Leg

L-Sit - 4x3s

 

Finisher: Death By Burpees - 64 burpees.

 

Cool Down done, but incompletely; I thought I was going to have some work stuff to take care of, and I ended up cutting it short.

[Teirin]

What are these banded chins?

[Kishi]

What are these banded chins?

 

Well, it's the use of a resistance band looped around the pull-up bar. You create a sling that you put your knee into and it basically provides a form of dynamic assistance. It's a very popular move with the Crossfit crowd, who tends to love pull ups, but which also tends not to be able to do pull ups. And having dynamic assistance like that is better than a machine anyway, so.

[Teirin]

Hmmm, that sounds very good.  I may check into those too.  Thanks!

[Kishi]

Managed to get a workout in today. Woot!

 

Warmed Up

Handstand Holds: 4x12s

Shoulder Bridge Lifts: 4x6

Elevated Pike Press: 4x2

Shoulder Bridge Lifts with Twists: 4x3/side

Frog Stands: 4x12s

Shoulder Bridge Lifts with a Kick: 3x3/leg

 

Skipped the Cooldown, because write-in. Otherwise, yeah, everything is good to go.

[Kishi]

Wow. WOW. WOOOOOOW.

 

I haven't updated this thing in almost 4 years.

 

Welp. Better blow the dust off this thing and start rolling again.

[RedStone]

 

[Kishi]

21 hours ago, RedStone said:

 

 

Right?

 

Also, hi! I have not seen you in a while. I am sorry that I have not stopped by to see you. I hope you've been well! And I will try to change this, as I can.

 

*

 

Hoookay, let's get the dust off this thing.

 

*Cough*

 

It's so cute to read what I wrote back then. How far I've come in my understanding... and yet, how everything's come back full circle. In the end, I did become someone who wants to practice and take things slow, but I found way better programming that takes better care of my body and allows me to develop longevity. I have cultivated true patience, that born of necessity, because I begin to see the truth that I am not going to get younger. Yet, at the same time, by properly applying rest and food and practice, I can retain and in some cases even restore function that I might have once considered lost.

 

I suspect that this blog will become built around tracking my practice and just ranting and raving to my audience of one plus whoever finds my ways amusing. I'm not sure exactly how I'll build it - I like the way @Urgan built hers, but I'm too touchy-feely-hippy-dip to track in the same way that she does. Also, since my strength work is proprietary, I can't exactly betray set and rep schemes or movement progressions. Meaning that this is in danger of being a place where I come across as this smug, self-satisfied vaguebook punk whom I personally despise.

 

I hope you, the readers, and whoever else stops by, are the impatient kind who'll call me out for my arrogance when that happens, because yeah that's totally gonna happen.

 

At this point, the schedule has become something like this:

 

Monday - Rest

 

Tuesday - S&S/Shotokan

 

Wednesday - SLS/Judo

 

Thursday - HS/Shotokan

 

Friday - S&S/Kali

 

Saturday - HBP/RC/sPL/Bagwork/Running/AHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Sunday - FL/SL/MN/RUN FASTER

 

Abbreviations are as follows:

 

S&S - Simple and Sinister, a general physical preparedness program built around the KB swing and KB TGU.

 

SLS - Single Leg Squat

 

HS - Handstand

 

HBP - Hollow Back Press

 

RC - Rope Climb

 

sPL - Straddle Planche

 

FL - Front Lever

 

SL - Side Lever

 

MN - Manna

 

Yesterday was Kali and S&S. I did the fast version - 100 swings in 5 minutes, and 10 TGUs in 10 minutes. TGUs are stupid light right now because I decided to be stupid and train through the opening stages of Golfer's Elbow months ago. Now I have to pay the price for it. I've been good for a bit, but there was an outburst of pain in it earlier in the week. That's frightening, although to be clear it's way better to have one than lots of outbursts and twinges throughout the week. I'll probably have to stay light for another month or so, although if I can continue to grow my strength in other pulling motions I'll call that even.

 

Kali afterward was fun. Manong, my teacher, is a believer in folk remedies and such like that, so we opened class with ginger-turmeric tea. Good stuff. I dunno if I believe his claims about the benefits, but I think it's worth trying... although that means more time spent on prep work, yaaaay. How American of me to spend things I don't have.

 

But yeah we play with knives. And it was impressed on me how different things are when you bring a knife to a fist fight. Manong's daughter trains at local Gracie BJJ school, and while there's much respect, he decided to spend class on how to deal with disarms and counters. The key, apparently, lies in having the habit of controlling the other guy's arms first so that he can't get control of you, as well as being able to think in circles and controlling the path of the blade.

 

It's weird, though, this mix of styles. They don't necessarily mix together in the ways that you think they do, but they function as things to do in different ranges of combat. The knife is dangerous both at long and short range. Without the knife, kickboxing functions as a long range thing, but the closer you are to the opponent the less sense it makes to present kickboxing's solutions. You wind up trading longer shots like jabs and crosses for shorter like hooks and upper cuts, before getting so close that you have to grapple, which is where judo comes in.

 

I don't mix them well yet, but these things have a way of hammering themselves out. That's the nice thing about my pedagogy - if it doesn't work, it doesn't survive, and you don't have to waste time on it.

 

Speaking of, though, Manong wants me to invest in a fencing mask and practice blades so that we can actually fight with this stuff. The flow discipline aspect of it is a lot of fun, but it's not meant to be just dancing. This is meant to be ready.

 

Anyway, have today's training to do, so better get on that.

 

One other thing is that I have writing to get back into. I think I have enough planned out that I can safely begin to work on the work itself while planning out additional scenes. I'll probably have to invest in a notebook because open screens at night makes Kishi a sleepless boy. Oh well. Can't be helped.

 

Have some music for reading all this!

 

 

[Urgan]

Commenting as a bookmark for this BL~ 

 

hai.

[Kishi]

13 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Commenting as a bookmark for this BL~ 

 

hai.

 

hi~

 

[RedStone]

22 hours ago, Kishi said:

Also, hi! I have not seen you in a while. I am sorry that I have not stopped by to see you. I hope you've been well! And I will try to change this, as I can.

 

Same! Finishing school + new job = very different relationship to forums. But I read still if not post a ton! Will be keeping an eye out!  

[Kishi]

On ‎8‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 2:30 PM, RedStone said:

 

Same! Finishing school + new job = very different relationship to forums. But I read still if not post a ton! Will be keeping an eye out!  

 

Yeah, no, I get that. Real Life comes first. As it should. I hope your studies have been awesome!

 

*

 

So. New digs. I was going to post a gif about how I felt, but now I'm updating from work, because that's how my life rolls these days. So no gif for me.

 

Took measurements on Saturday and they seem to be trending down again. So far so good. We'll see if it continues.

 

Saturday went as follows:

 

HBP PE2 - 4x9 - Fine

 

RC PE1 - 5x9 - Fine

 

sPL PE1 - 4x15 - Fine

 

'Fine' means I didn't die doing them. But I don't get to advance to the next step until a given move is 'Easy.' After that was done, I skipped rope some and then went to play on the bag for a while. Even managed to work uchikomi into it. Afterward, did the treadmill test - a 10-minute mile on the treadmill with an eye toward ease of completion. It was easy. Apparently my heart is in good health.

 

Sunday was a briefer day than Saturday, but I made the most of it.

 

FL PE2 - 3x12 - Easy

 

SL PE1 - 4x30 - Easy

 

MN PE1 - 4x9 - Fine

 

That manna progression at the end. Whoof. It really suffers I think from being the last one in rotation. I actually had to stop in the middle of a set because my body wouldn't let me go any further with it. But I can't go back a step in sets/reps at this point or else I'll never get better. So, just going to have to grind this out.

 

Also, FL PE 2 is not going to stay easy for long. It's a moving version of FL PE1, and even though it's a small movement, it ramps the difficulty pretty hard.

 

I skipped rope for a bit and went a round on the bag - truncated time - then went and ran hard: 4x.19mi x12mph. Phew. That'll burn you out.

 

Yesterday wound up being something of a cheat day, between homemade nachos and ice cream (which was not homemade) but I ate all the vegetables and woke up hungry today as opposed to nauseous, so I must have done something right.

 

Also, tried my hand at ginger and turmeric tea. The recipe calls for fresh-grated ginger and turmeric root as well as ground black pepper and the light of a crescent moon. I wasn't sure if I made it right or not, since when I set it to steep, it didn't have as deep a color as manong's. Then I poured it into a mug w/o reflective surfaces and wow that drink was potent. I found myself waxing poetic about drinking something that had all four elements in it - fire for pepper, earth for ginger and turmeric, water for water, and air for steam.

 

And then I realized what I was doing and proceeded to chop down ten trees and hunt a bear while rage-singing the National Anthem because Kishi ain't no hippy.

 

Anyway. It was good, although it's too soon to tell if it's good for anything beyond turning my fingers orange. Manong says to give it a few days, though, so we'll see.

 

Rest day today. I need it. Couldn't get down quite in time because I was figuring out the recipe, so kind of sleepy today. Hopefully things will be okay at gaming tonight. Again, we'll see.

[Kishi]

Catching it all up!

 

Monday DM-San was out of town, so no gaming for us. Which was fine with me. I went home early and slept the sleep of the just.

 

Tuesday, the weather was bullshit again. So, no kettlebells in the park. I considered doing some Neila Rey stuff until it occurred to me that I actually had other things to practice. So, I went and did HS training and then practiced MN PE1, since that's the variation that's lagging the farthest behind right now. HS went up nice and easy, and I was able to hold it each time. MN PE1 is not so easy, but I still managed to hit all my sets and reps. Not going to advance that until I can do it in context with the other lifts. Skipped rope afterward, then went to Karate.

 

Karate was good! It was just me and K-sensei last night, so we went harder like in the old days. Lots of practice in reading distance and reacting accordingly. We had a fun new drill where he'd flash pads and then I'd have to determine what to do based on his body's movement rather than just what the pads presented - so long punch if he moves back, hook if he's in close. Way more confusing than it sounds, because the eye has a tendency to track the pads rather than the body, so if the pads are held a certain way you'll try to hook when the distance is too far. And it wasn't just me. I threw Sensei for a loop too when it was my turn to hold.

 

Also went over what's called a check-hook, which is when you sidestep a jab and throw a hook over that arm.

 

Sparring afterward was good. Managed to throw - and land! - a couple check hooks and managed to hit him with Iceberg again, which was fun. He's taken to working judo into his movements again, though, and we got tied up a lot. Which happens.

 

Anyway, that crazy hippy tea that I mentioned Manong told me about? Well... I'm not entirely certain... but I think it's working. At the end of the day, prior to drinking this, I had a tendency to move like an old man, particularly in my knees. I could kneel down no problem, but standing back up again was a real bother and I'd have to grind on through. But ever since I started drinking this stuff, I feel... spry. I was practically able to spring up from the ground last night, which I thought was pretty cool. Also, I used the tea to justify getting a mortar and pestle, so I can live out my weeaboo fantasies of making tinctures and potions in the anime!middle ages, apparently. Why mortar and pestle? Because in order to activate turmeric in the body, you need black pepper, and it's faster and closer to recipe to grind up pepper in a bowl than it is to try to do it through a regular grinder.

 

Incidentally, you could probably do all of this with a food processor, but all the stuff I had available around me was for like 10 cups of food, and root turmeric isn't even the size of my pinkie finger. I couldn't justify the expense, so, gotta do it by hand. It turns my fingers orange and makes clean up a chore, but it's worth it.

 

Today should be judo, but I was so wrapped up in getting out the door that I left the gi jacket back at home and by the time I realized it I was already on the road. Annoyed about that, especially since Saturday got eaten because another friend is moving and needs a body. But on the other hand, had a cop follow me over the speed limit for a while before he wandered off without ticketing me. So, day's not that bad.

[Kishi]

So, Wednesday! Wednesday wound up being pretty okay. Absent the opportunity to do Judo, I ended up going to the gym and practicing SLS. I can see how this program builds and develops its volume. Depending on where you are, it's encouraged that you engage in warm up sets for a given movement. These are naturally higher rep than the movement you're practicing presently. So while I had 3 working sets of SLS PE3, I also had two larger sets of SLS PE1 and 2 tacked on top of that. You can wind up putting a lot of reps in over all those sets.

 

After that, I skipped rope for a bit and worked the bag for a bit. Then left, got food, cooked food, drank tea, and went to bed. All without realizing that I left my work clothes at the gym... until this morning. When I realized.

 

Fortunately, nobody flinches at khakis and Chucks, so I'm in the clear on that.

 

Anyway, today's docket includes HS work and karate.

 

Lot of food thoughts today. One of our secretaries is leaving tomorrow, so we're celebrating her time here with cake and ice cream. Which sounds amazing, but for me it's coming on top of a week where the folks foisted off a bunch of food on me and the PT clients also tried to feed me. It's all too much, and if I'm honest about it I'm kind of starting to resent it. With my folks in particular, it's because they have too much extra food because they aren't used to buying what they need versus what they want. So they get all this good, fresh food, but when their diet plan takes them away from it for a week, they pass it to me because, "Oh, he works out, he'll burn the calories." And then I don't do it, because I know it doesn't work that way, and then nobody touches it and when I can finally budget the food in, I get to it and it's gone bad, so I have to throw it out. Which is annoying. I don't like wasting food.

 

Sigh. Of course I'm going to eat with the unit today because food does build community, and it's useful to do so today. And it's not as if my performance is suffering, so it's not like added calories are really an impediment. I don't really need lean out, and nothing's going to happen today to interfere with the dietary stuff I'm following now. But. Still.