Osu

[Kishi]

Monday was nice and quiet. No gaming. I'm actually staying late this week to work the last overtime of the fiscal year. It'll be enough to cover my ticket and registration for the Fenway Sprint in Boston. Good times. I'm sure K-sensei will disapprove, since he works here with me. I don't really care. I have other problems to solve right now.

 

It does, however, make for some interesting logistical problems with training. Especially since I'm wanting to use the HRV in conjunction with the S&S, just to see what that does to training. Mostly, I'm just worried about training too late at night and the tonic effect of training... though, I suppose that's what melatonin's for. And I can probably do all my stuff early at the gym as opposed to burning time getting home and having to navigate all of that.

[Kishi]

Tuesday was another long day in the trenches. Swings afterward were good and easy. Managed to keep my heart rate in the right ranges. I was surprised to find that one arm swings were more taxing than the two arm, given that you can explode more with both hands on the bell.

 

Was able to do TGUs with their bells at the gym, which was nice. Now at 3 TGUs with the 35. So far, so good. Not really any soreness to speak of...

 

at least, until this morning. Again, no real soreness to speak of, but if I concentrate, I can feel differences between the right and the left. Nothing big, nothing twingy, but still present.

 

Man, all this touchy-feely stuff's going to set me up for somatic disorder if I'm not careful. Of course, this could all be holdover from that foolish decision to engage in curls. Feh. Didn't need 'em. Actually, the inverted rows I'm doing now are helping my biceps peak pretty well, which is just one more reason I don't need Curlz.

 

It's a leg day today. I'm thinking I'll do my squats and hit the dreadmill after work. Maybe even spend some quality time with the foam roller. If anyone hears any screaming, don't worry - that just means it's working. XD

[Kishi]

Wednesday's training, I decided to skip a couple steps in my SLS work. Reason being that I took to using squats throughout the day as a kind of warm-up/mobility work. I figured it was kind of ridiculous to use those for strength.

 

So.

 

Supported Squats x 21

Halfway Squats x 15

Full Squats x 9

Deck Squats 3x2 Fine

 

Deck squats, since I can't post videos from work, are a rolling squat where you squat down, roll onto your back, then roll back up.

 

I've done deck squats before, but this version is actually trickier. The version I did was from GMB's pistol tutorial, where you deck squat with feet roughly shoulder-width apart. GB style deck squatting is done with your feet close together, so you're actually doing a close squat rather than the norm.

 

I... struggled with these. I can do them, but my body really wants to go backwards, and when I come up I have to do a little hop to keep my balance. It's a subpar practice, which frankly is annoying given how much of your strength in this style of training is derived from proper practice and technique. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice. There is a step that's recommended where you do deck squats onto an elevated surface, but there's just no way to make that happen with the gym set up that I have. I tried to use a weight bench, which was a good height but just doesn't feel safe to roll onto. I tried stacking a bunch of workout mats, and I got a decent height off of them, but I had to fold them up a lot in order to make that happen and I wouldn't have had enough room to actually roll out.

 

So, I'm stuck doing this for a while. But TBH, I'm okay with it. Deck Squats are the last step of where I am in the present module of GB training. I'd have to buy the next module in order to keep going, and I'm not really in a rush to do that just yet. And it's a few steps beyond where I am in terms of the other movements as well; I don't mind taking some time to catch those up either.

 

Legs felt heavy this morning, like they worked yesterday. Good. Wanted to get a run in, but it was inching toward 2100 by the time I was done and I decided to respect my body and try to get some food and some sleep. Reason being that I had some time, but I didn't think I'd be able to run a mile in that time that would be good for my heart.

 

I'm thinking I might have to adjust my strategy a bit in terms of how I train - maybe shoot less for a mileage goal and more for a time goal. To get into the nitty gritty of why, basically, Primal Endurance is an update of the original Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book (which you can get for free and is totally worth getting). In this, Sisson delineates three essential modes of movement - LISS cardio (like walking), strength training, and sprinting once every 7-10 days. Primal Endurance is the next step of LISS, which attempts to incorporate running and harder endurance work with the lower-intensity stuff like walking and hiking and such. In which case, it's not really about the mileage, but about the time you spend and the quality of it.

 

This past week, I spent about 50-60 minutes on focused endurance training with lots of regular walking around lunch. So, in the remainder of this week, I think it's reasonable to try to log 75 minutes of focused endurance training. We'll see if it works or not.

[Mistr]

Whee, you have been busy while I was wandering off and not keeping up. I enjoy reading about how you tweak your training and analyze it. Still mostly goes over my head, but I can see the difference from two years ago.

On 9/14/2017 at 11:22 AM, Kishi said:

Also sensei said I was too old to get more flexible. Yeah. Not taking that one lying down. (unless I have to. For stretching).

 

That better not be true. I am still working on increased flexibility and I'm a lot older than you. 

 

On 9/14/2017 at 11:22 AM, Kishi said:

Tuesday, I stayed home to deal with some car trouble. My Check Engine light came on when I went to see the eclipse, and I'd been driving on it for a while. I managed to get it assessed, and the good news is that it's kind of a nonsense fix. Basically, there's a flap in my engine manifold that's stuck in position, and it's interfering with airflow through the engine making it work harder to perform. Meaning that it's bringing down my gas mileage.

 

Good news is it's not dangerous. Bad news is, the dealership wants about $1500 to fix that. That's a bullcrap estimate if ever I heard one, so I'll be taking it around at some point to get another estimate from other people. I'll also be hitting the overtime hard starting this weekend, just in case I can't get a better estimate.

On 9/15/2017 at 11:06 AM, Urgan said:

I think being a responsible caretaker of what you have is manly. Knowing that you are out of your depth is smart, trying to pretend this isn't a thing is dumb. One can always strive to learn more, of course. Learning to do it yourself or learning to be more informed when talking to the people who do the actual work on your car, yeah? Fortunately I married into this field so this isn't a thing. You would be amazed at the markup buying from retail Auto Parts places, much less the actual shops.

 

I like the idea of a second opinion to verify that hard-earned money is being used well by an honest car shop that provides quality service, but once that's been verified, haggling with the business is just jackassery. 

 

I've always been under the impression that the dealership is the most expensive of all possible shops for fixing a car. I agree with Urgan that getting a second opinion is smart. I changed shops this year. The last one had excellent customer relations but the mechanics weren't great and the prices were high.

 

My former, much missed mechanic once told me that my car had an oil leak. He said that for the expected remaining life of the car it would be far more economical to put in an extra quart of oil every other week than to fix it.

 

I am soooooo glad that Hermes kept his part-time job at the Auto Parts place so he can get the employee discount. And that he has the skills and willingness to fix my car. If those things were not true, it would be totaled.

[Kishi]

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

Whee, you have been busy while I was wandering off and not keeping up. I enjoy reading about how you tweak your training and analyze it. Still mostly goes over my head, but I can see the difference from two years ago.

 

Well, yeah, but you've been busy too. You have a lot to occupy yourself with where you are, so, it's okay. I'm just glad you stop by.

 

Anyway, yeah. Tweaks are fun. Finding new ways to do things is genuinely enjoyable to me. In a lot of ways, though, not all that much has changed. I'm trying to do lots of different things, but just enough of those things to get what I want from them. I still think of myself as following the Primal Blueprint - I still walk a ton, and I do lift. Just need to find a way to bring sprints back in. Which I have, though at what cost I cannot say.

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

I've always been under the impression that the dealership is the most expensive of all possible shops for fixing a car. I agree with Urgan that getting a second opinion is smart. I changed shops this year. The last one had excellent customer relations but the mechanics weren't great and the prices were high.

 

Well, I hadn't heard that, and when I saw in preliminary research how much something like that could cost, I figured that talking to the dealership would allow me to save on parts if not labor. They said they'd take the cost of the part off. They still want $1.5k. So forget 'em. Even with the cost of the part, I can't see this being more than $700-$1100.

 

I've had better mechanics too. Had one who was my go-to back when I lived in Raleigh, and my work does have a mechanic right next door. So I reckon I'll take it to them and get an estimate.

 

*

 

Yay, another 12-hour day in the books. Just one more and I'm done. It's not even that it's tiring, but it's so boring to have nothing but work to do day in and day out.

 

Went and did GB core at the gym.

 

Hollow Body Tuck Hold x9s

Hollow Body Rocks: 5x36 Easy!

 

Russian Twists x18

Side Plank Tucks: 5x6 Easy!

 

Tuck Ups x9

Split Tuck Ups 3x3 Fine

 

Most of the core work was pretty easy last night. I could probably advance the reps on the split tuck ups as well, but I did the first set wrong since I thought I was correcting for tight hamstrings. I thought it'd be easier if I did them with my legs straight up. Turns out it's easier with legs out to the side, although my hamstrings are tight enough that I can't execute with straight legs no matter what the position is. That is something I'll be able to address with the integrated mobility and the front stretch series, so for now there's no reason not to add reps. It's not a broken pattern. Not yet.

 

Also, this marked my first real exposure to the Jefferson Curl. What is the Jefferson Curl? It's a forward fold with a barbell in your arms. Wild, man. Feels like it breaks a lot of rules, but my back isn't hurting and it felt pretty good as long as I moved slow with it.

 

Tonight, I'll be getting out late, and if I want to get to bed earlier, that means getting the training done early enough. That probably means upper body work tonight and sprinting tomorrow. Which I'm okay with. Should give me a couple of relatively easy days afterward to rest this up.

[x Valkyrie x]

Wow, your variety of training is inspiring! I've been thinking of adding KB to my training...how many days a week do you do martial arts vs S&S/other training? Super impressive, friend!

[Machete]

On 9/28/2017 at 10:12 AM, Kishi said:

I've done deck squats before, but this version is actually trickier. The version I did was from GMB's pistol tutorial, where you deck squat with feet roughly shoulder-width apart. GB style deck squatting is done with your feet close together, so you're actually doing a close squat rather than the norm.

 

I... struggled with these. I can do them, but my body really wants to go backwards, and when I come up I have to do a little hop to keep my balance. It's a subpar practice, which frankly is annoying given how much of your strength in this style of training is derived from proper practice and technique. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice. There is a step that's recommended where you do deck squats onto an elevated surface, but there's just no way to make that happen with the gym set up that I have. I tried to use a weight bench, which was a good height but just doesn't feel safe to roll onto. I tried stacking a bunch of workout mats, and I got a decent height off of them, but I had to fold them up a lot in order to make that happen and I wouldn't have had enough room to actually roll out.

 

So, I'm stuck doing this for a while. But TBH, I'm okay with it. Deck Squats are the last step of where I am in the present module of GB training. I'd have to buy the next module in order to keep going, and I'm not really in a rush to do that just yet. And it's a few steps beyond where I am in terms of the other movements as well; I don't mind taking some time to catch those up either.

 

Honestly the SLS portion is just Pistol progressions. The money is in the mobility elements. Karen Smith has a progression and assessment system that also involves the feet-together-knees-together squat.

 

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

Also, this marked my first real exposure to the Jefferson Curl. What is the Jefferson Curl? It's a forward fold with a barbell in your arms. Wild, man. Feels like it breaks a lot of rules, but my back isn't hurting and it felt pretty good as long as I moved slow with it.

 

I've been using the J Curl for the past 5 months on a level 7 competitive gymnast who couldn't touch her toes. She can knuckle around a 5-inch deficit now. It's funny because it looks so wrong. I've only had one person recognize what I was doing; the Brit weightlifting coach at the CrossFit box yelled out from across the gym at me "Hell yeah, Jefferson Curls!"

[Kishi]

1 hour ago, x Valkyrie x said:

Wow, you're variety of training is inspiring! I've been thinking of adding KB to my training...how many days a week do you do martial arts vs S&S/other training? Super impressive, friend!

 

Well, at this point, I'm doing 3-4 days of martial arts a week. Generally, it's easy enough that I can do something else on top of it without any real trouble. So, typically, my training has been S&S or GB or whatever followed by a piece of fruit followed by whatever martial arts stuff I'm going to do. The reason being that there's a lot of time between when work stops and martial arts starts, and I get bored.  So it's not really a versus thing so much as it's a side-by-side thing. I try to stay way within my limits and not spend myself too much on any one thing; as a result, I appear to be able to train and be available to be useful to people when they need me.

 

11 minutes ago, Machete said:

Honestly the SLS portion is just Pistol progressions. The money is in the mobility elements. Karen Smith has a progression and assessment system that also involves the feet-together-knees-together squat.

 

I had a feeling. So, saying that, do you think that I should switch over to SFG pistol progressions, or would it be better to stick to GB for the mobility?

 

14 minutes ago, Machete said:

I've been using the J Curl for the past 5 months on a level 7 competitive gymnast who couldn't touch her toes. She can knuckle around a 5-inch deficit now. It's funny because it looks so wrong. I've only had one person recognize what I was doing; the Brit weightlifting coach at the CrossFit box yelled out from across the gym at me "Hell yeah, Jefferson Curls!"

 

Nice. Did you start out with a regular barbell or did you go lighter and add weight?

[Kishi]

Friday was the last 12-hour day. Given our budget, that's probably going to be the last overtime for months. Oh well. I'll take it.

 

Afterward, I did GB Upper Body. Went as follows:

 

Incline Push Ups x9

Push Ups: 4x15 - Fine

 

Incline Rows: 5x15 - Easy!

 

Scapular Push Ups x9

Forearm Planks: 4x36s - Easy!

 

Finisher: Pinch Grip Farmer's Walks - 1x80x25

 

I'm pleased to report that my fears of low carb killing my strength have so far proven unfounded. Instead, it happened as I said it would: in a nonlinear fashion.

 

And I failed forward too. With the push ups, I got to 3x7 reps last time before my body couldn't give me any more. This time, I made it to 4x10 before my body quit on me. At the rate I'm going, it's probably going to work out to another couple sessions before I advance again - one session to get the reps, and another to get all the reps smoothly. Possibly more sessions, but even if that's the case, it's not like I'm getting weaker doing this.

 

Had to fight for the incline rows a little bit. There was never a point where I had to stop, not like last time, but there was definitely a point in the final set where I really had to buckle down in order to get it done. No grindy reps, no sticking points or anything like that, but a definite sense of "Hey, this isn't comfy and I really don't wanna be here!" But something else in me couldn't bear the thought of still being on this step of the progression. These incline rows are good exercises; they've been wonderful for my elbows and I'm pleased to say that my guns haven't exactly shrunk. But I want to move on. So I commanded myself to meet my expectations, and I did.

 

I'm really glad to see that the nutrition hasn't compromised this, although in fairness, this might be because a lot of these movements are considered to be less strenuous and more about mobility. That doesn't make them easy, but it does mean that movements further up in the system might be more intense and require CHO to refuel. But, can't worry about them yet because I'm not doing them, and the present circumstances manage me quite well.

 

Not a whole lot to say about the planks. They were very plank. Did manage to keep my scaps protracted throughout, which was the holdup from last time, so that's a plus. OTOH, it's getting harder to hold this. Which isn't related to nutrition, but is related to programming. Doing this at the end when you're tired from a bunch of other stuff is just not easy.

 

Finisher felt great on my forearms. Single set, 80 steps, 25 lb plates. Forearms veiny af afterward. No troubles with my elbow last night, and no troubles today either. Which makes Kishi a happy, happy boy.

 

I thought about logging some minutes, but decided that with the time of night that it'd be better for me to get some quality time with the foam roller and LAX ball. So that's what I proceeded to do. Found some sore spots and mashed 'em for about 30 seconds or so. Good times.

 

Today's plan is going to be a little different. I was planning to do sprints, and I still plan to. However, Sisson advocates a style of weightlifting which he refers to as Maximum Sustained Power training, and which the rest of the world refers to as cluster sets. Basically, take a weight you can lift 1-5 times, lift that shit, rest 20 seconds, then lift that shit again. Do as much as you can until you can't with good form.

 

He says that cluster sets done with the right movements - lower body stuff like deadlifts, squats, and single-leg work - can help to prime the nervous system to make for a better effort.

 

So, while I don't consider this kind of thing strictly necessary for this kind of training, it is an option for me as long as I'm training from home. Might as well take advantage of it. We'll see how this goes. Hope it works!

[Kishi]

Yesterday's training was fun.

 

Went to the gym, warmed up, put 135 pounds together, and spent the next 9 minutes or so lifting. I definitely could have gone heavier - weight went up easy - but I wanted to hold off on that since one thing that I struggled with the last time I did deadlifts was the set up. I used this set up from Alan Thrall, however, and really dug into doing the things he said to do like shifting the shins forward and dragging up the body as opposed to letting the weight swing out.

 

 

But yeah, basically, I managed 36 total repetitions at 135 over the course of about 9 minutes. Total tonnage was 4,860 lbs. For context, I went back to my heaviest lifting session with deadlifts back when I was doing 5/3/1, and that was a little over 4,200 lbs. All done in sets of 1-5 repetitions with about 20 seconds rest in between.

 

Probably could go heavier. And I think instead of my old thing where I would just go up by a pound, I'm going to jump it up by 5 lbs until I hit a point where I can't hit 5s so easily. The proposed rule of thumb is that the weight is light if you can hit three 5s, and I hit four, so it's probably too light. OTOH, I don't mind working with a lighter weight to get my form right, and see also that my tonnage exceeded the total last time. Huzzah, volume!

 

Afterward, I went home and sprinted. The effect wasn't quite as pronounced as I would have hoped, but it took me a little longer to get to sprinting than I would have expected, and I'm not sure if the time spent resting might have affected things. OTOH, lifting that much had no negative effect either. Which I guess means that cluster sets of a movement are a Nice To Have rather than a Need To Have. Good to know, and fun to do.

 

I weighed myself again yesterday, and I'm down another 1.4 lbs, tracking at 20.1%. So far so good. Keeping/gaining strength, not restricting calories, not feeling bad, getting enough sleep. Everything is on track as of this past week.

[Machete]

On 9/29/2017 at 3:21 PM, Kishi said:

I had a feeling. So, saying that, do you think that I should switch over to SFG pistol progressions, or would it be better to stick to GB for the mobility?

 

Nice. Did you start out with a regular barbell or did you go lighter and add weight?

 

If you have F2 and F3 I'd keep doing that. If not I'd just go straight to Pistol work and load it. F2 is prep, F3 gets specific. Not much SLS stuff in F4.

 

We're still on a 20-pound dumbell. Me personally, I started with an empty bar.

[Kishi]

16 hours ago, Machete said:

If you have F2 and F3 I'd keep doing that. If not I'd just go straight to Pistol work and load it. F2 is prep, F3 gets specific. Not much SLS stuff in F4.

 

Aight. Switching out to SFG then.

 

BTW, it occurs to me that I ask a lot of questions of you, when you are probably not looking to answer questions. You answer them anyway, and I am grateful. So, thank you!      m(_ _)m

 

16 hours ago, Machete said:

We're still on a 20-pound dumbell. Me personally, I started with an empty bar.

 

Me too! Mine's 10 lbs, though.

 

*

 

Sunday was a nice, relaxing session of headstands and running. Nice, easy pace. I didn't manage to log all the minutes that I wanted to - like I said, I chose to focus on sleep and mitigating stress last week, and Sunday I also had friends to go see, so I didn't get to the gym early enough to see friends at the agreed time and also get my minutes. I still managed a longer stretch of time running than I did previously, which is good news. Time with friends afterward was fun as well.

 

Today, all's quiet. Just a lot of rest. I'm thinking, if I'm switching from F1 pistol progressions to SFG pistol progressions, I'm going to have to figure out how to approach integrated mobility... which, I'm not convinced is going to be a problem, given that you can find videos of progressions online anyway. So I'm thinking at this point, I'mma switch over to close squats with a counter-weight to see how that feels; based on how that assesses, we'll go from there.

 

Not sure what that does to my training time for Judo on Wednesday nights. Of course, on the other hand, I could burn a half hour of leave every Wednesday to account for that and still come out ahead in my quotas, so.

[Kishi]

Decided to test my Close Squat, and basically I can do it with a counter-balance, but my legs split apart. So my feet are still together, but my legs splay out like a spider or a ninja. I'll have to reread the assessments on that to determine what the best course is, because in reading and watching the videos I'm not sure that my quirks actually qualify. Though, then again, as long as my feet are staying together, maybe that's good enough.

 

Ah well. Keep reading, keep studying.

 

Edit to add: I think my standards might be too high. I can hit the squat very similarly to what I see Ms Smith doing; I think I just need to develop practice and a sense of balance.

 

Edit to add: yup. Bottom position in close squat is not the same as a standard squat. I can hit that height under control. The looks I'm getting in the office doing it, though...

[Kishi]

Tuesday in the books. S&S and Karate. And for funsies, did both with the flu vaccine freshly in my system.

 

Managed to do swings and actually force my heart rate to work. Went until the monitor started to beep, then cooled things back down again. Nicely enough, even following my heart rate, I still managed to get 100 swings at 70 lbs in about 5-6 minutes. TGUs afterward felt fine, and elbows are feeling fine today too, but given that they took an aching later in the week at the present dosage I decided to hold and see what happens. Had enough time afterward to go log 6 minutes on the treadmill before heading off to train.

 

Karate was good. Focused on movement. Had a rough first round sparring w/ sensei, but managed a good second round afterward, although I got clocked something good for that. I'm pleased to report that the vaccine didn't cause any ill effects for me, although sensei and waifu both reported a lot of wooziness and malaise. Score one for Primal I guess.

 

I've been rereading and obsessing over the SFG guide to pistol assessment and correction that @Machete posted to me, and after looking over Smith's recommendations, I think what I'm going to do is attempt to reap the best of both worlds - keep working on the GB progression for mobility and general proprioceptive benefit, but also do single box pistols in a grease-the-groove fashion. Hopefully, an added easy strength practice should translate into benefit as far as doing better repetitions and such.

 

Because why do one thing when I could do more than one thing?  Gonna try something different today and try to do my strength work over lunch. Shouldn't take long and should allow for easier recovery for Judo tonight.

[Kishi]

Wednesday turned out to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, SLS went great. I was able to control the deck squat better and was even able to pop up a couple of times with my feet within hip-distance of each other. Way better than last time. Single pistols went great also, although I'm noticing that I have a tendency to collapse the knee inward on my left that I need to address. Which I'm happy to - better to find it now in development than later when I'm going for it.

 

OTOH, skipped out of Judo. Gaming group tried to manufacture some drama by trying to bump one of our players out. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be upset by it. Basically, we have a table full of roleplayers, and this one dude whom I brought into the game is more interested in rolling the dice to see random things happen. He's not a very good roleplayer, and at least at this point he's not terribly inclined to be. Which I think is fine - not everybody plays with the same goals and the same expectations.

 

But yeah, basically, they wanted to get rid of him because they felt that he didn't do a very good job. And I could see their point. He's been with us about a year or so, and he's not really improved all that much. He's had opportunities to do so, but he doesn't take them and doesn't really seem to approach the game as a character, if that makes any sense. The girl who came to tell me about this said that if any reason was given for us to keep him, we'd keep him. And I was like, "What, the fact that he's a decent person who likes us and the game isn't enough?" An argument that I suppose wouldn't carry so much weight if it weren't for the fact that we tend to gather toxic people in the space where I play and that our tendency to do so has practically driven me away from the table at times.

 

And it upset me because it really offended my sense of fairness. I mean, here was basically this nice, solid dude who just tended to engage in unskillful roleplay, and rather than help him get better at it, we were going to throw him out. And the craziest part was, I tried to be a people-pleaser and go along with it. But I couldn't do a very good job at keeping my feelings to myself, even over text if that gives you any indication. I came pretty close to losing my temper, at which point I apologized for getting upset just as she got upset for making me upset. Cue the vicious cycle of apologizing for things and such.

 

One other thing that I think fed into it is that the girl who brought this up, and who's basically acting as the admin for the game, is the same girl who has had a crush on me in the past that I don't think ever really got over it. Meaning that I thought she was attempting to give my poor roleplay a pass because she wants reasons for me to be around. See my earlier rantings for my resentment over how I have to get over my romantic feelings when they aren't welcome while nobody else can be bothered to do the same for me.

 

But we squared it and we decided to see if we can bootcamp this guy's roleplay into shape. If we can't, well, that'll be what that'll be.

 

Anyway, I could've gone to judo afterward, but I kind of let myself get lost in thought and rumination and how nice it was to just sit and not have to go and do anything anywhere for once.

 

Today's docket... I am unsure of. I'm either going to Karate and Core training, or I'm going out to food trucks and movies on the lawn with some lady friends. I ran measurements today, and I'm tracking at 18.9%, which I don't buy because my weight fluctuated up higher than it does during my normal weigh-in times. Still, a downward trend is nice. If I track below 20% again on Saturday, I think I can reasonably claim it as legit.

[Kishi]

Thursday wound up being a Karate and Core night. One of the lady friends was down sick for the evening, so the thing was cancelled.

 

Hollow Body Tuck Holds: 1x9s

Hollow Body Tuck Rocks: 4x48 Easy!

 

Russian Twists: 1x18x5

Twisting Side Planks: 4x8 Easy!

 

Tuck Ups: 1x9

Straddle Tuck Ups: 3x3 Easy!

 

I say easy, but really, a lot of it at this point is just getting used to muscular strain. Particularly on those tuck rocks. I don't think I know many other exercises that made the abs as sore as these do, and while keeping my lower back pain free.

 

Think I might have done the mobility portion of the straddle tuck ups wrong, though. Rushed 'em a bit without thinking about it, and I think my lower back's trying to complain about them a bit as a result. Will keep watching. Did, however, manage to get lower, which I thought was pretty great.

 

Wrapped up with enough time to run for 10 minutes or so.

 

Karate afterward was good. Lot of focus on movement and the placeholding nature of the jab. Had a rough first round sparring although I managed some good things; managed more good things in the second round.

 

Today, we'll be eating junk food for lunch, so I ran measurements again, as is my habit when indulgences are planned in case they throw off the standard measurement. Trended even lower this morning than I did yesterday. Nice. I will attempt to hack my way around the indulgences, and... everything should be fine. Upper body and Kali on the docket for training tonight, although that's going to be complicated on account of me getting K-sensei home from work. Should be able to do a rush job of it, though. I'm not made out of glass.

[Kishi]

Failed to hack my way around the indulgences. Plan was, go do some squats in the bathroom before getting called down to indulge. What happened was that I tried to time it to the time we were scheduled to come down, and we got called down earlier than I was told. So, that didn't happen. However, thanks to the dietary habits, I was able to get back on track in terms of eating real food, and even with Kali running long and not allowing me to eat a 'clean' dinner, in testing this morning, I tracked at an even lower waist measurement/body fat percentage than I had in the past three days.

 

This is, frankly, wonderful news. And TBH it's kind of freaking me out. Like I'm wondering if I'm measuring things rightly, or if I'm just trying too hard, pulling my stomach in a bit too much when I stand up straight to make the measurements. But on the other hand, people who haven't seen me in a while have been telling me that I've lost weight since the last time I saw them. So I don't think it's just me.

 

Training yesterday, I managed to hit all my lifts, some more easily than others. Looking back at it, I think in some ways I might be trying too hard to make my push ups explosive. Even though I managed 4x15, it wasn't easy, and the idea of doing so explosively doesn't really seem to fit all that well with the other gymnastic movements I'm trying to hit. I'm presently under the impression that explosive movement will be a thing in this program eventually, but right now, with me trying to build and rebuild my tendon strength, it's probably better to focus on a smooth, controlled cadence that emphasizes practice, rather than trying to burn carbs out of me. I've been wearing my heart monitor when doing this work, but I have a hunch that if I did so, what I would find is that I would hit that magical fat burning zone that Maffetone mentions.

 

Today, on the other hand, is all about that power. Max Sustained Power deadlifts and sprinting on the versaclimber at the gym. Why the versaclimber and not regular sprinting? Well, because today is the day that I normally sprint, but my legs are feeling a little off. Not sore, not exactly, but not quite 100% either. A less intensive form of sprinting can be useful in this case, then, that will work me hard without the high-impact nature of hitting the road. The fact that this is easier incidentally should translate to easier recovery over the rest of the week.

 

Besides, even if I'm mostly over the soreness from the Jefferson Curls I did on Thursday, I don't really want to go back into that or else to delay my recovery. So. It'll be what it'll be.

[Kishi]

Nasty, brutish, and short. That's what my training was yesterday.

 

Cluster set of deadlifts at 140 lbs. Total volume was 5,320 lbs. Huzzah, volume. Could only manage 2x5, though, before the fatigue kicked in, so I'm going to stay at this number for a while.

 

Hit the versaclimber afterward and decided to do 10 seconds work to 20 seconds rest for five sets. OH MY GOODNESS. This was brutal. No impact, no soreness, but oh my God this wore me right the fuck out. I can see why Sisson likes this. Didn't take even four minutes total, and I was done.

 

Went for a long run afterward. 27 minutes total. Kept my heart rate in check, never got tired. Marveled at this.

 

After that, did some kata, played around with air uchikomi, and played with Kali flows. Tried to practice with an eye toward working on my weaknesses - I have some proprioceptive difficulties, not to mention an attitude problem regarding some of the flows. I think to myself that if I cut out some of the steps that I'll do enough damage. Truth is, I can do damage, but I can do more damage if I control the other person.

 

Also, there's a lot of little tiny details in the movements that I really need to work on and refine. And as long as I'm listing out things to work, I need to be willing to communicate with manong that I need a little bit more slowness and ability to work through the thing as opposed to just trying and failing to do the things that he's not telling me to do that I need to do anyway.

 

Oh well. I spent a little time on the heavy bag, but not as much as I would have liked. I think, going forward, I'd like to make a point of getting a minimum of two rounds in each time I go, just to mimic the demands of sparring when I'm in class. I'll probably intersperse that with banded uchikomi, just to practice judo as well.

 

Aaaaand, yeah. That's my training thoughts right now. Today should be a relatively easy day.

 

Oh, and I tried canned coconut milk in my cooking for the first time last night, per @CourtnieMarie and @Urgan's endorsements/experiments, and oh my goodness. It's like a religious experience. In a can. I did it with my rice last night and then also with my pain tea, and it was glorious. I think I need to make a point of including this in my macros going forward. Would never have tried it w/o y'all, so thanks for that.

 

And, what else.

 

Working on my writing, still, which is pretty great. NaNoWriMo is coming up in some weeks, and I'm genuinely not sure if I want to do it or not. I'm not really as into the community as I used to be and I'm not sure that 50K words is going to be useful to me at this point. If some of my local artist friends were doing so, that'd be one thing, but as it is it's just a bunch of spinster housewives and super-awkward people who won't reciprocate whatever investment I give to them.

 

On the other hand, it's a tradition, and writing with reckless abandon is fun just on its own. And it'd be good to remind myself that I can do more than churn out the odd page every now and again. Maybe take some of the self-imposed limiters off.

 

So... on a fence as of now. Hopefully I'll tilt one way or the other before long.

[Urgan]

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

After that, did some kata, played around with air uchikomi, and played with Kali flows. Tried to practice with an eye toward working on my weaknesses - I have some proprioceptive difficulties, not to mention an attitude problem regarding some of the flows. I think to myself that if I cut out some of the steps that I'll do enough damage. Truth is, I can do damage, but I can do more damage if I control the other person.

 

 

The instinct comes from a good place to make things efficient, but those steps are there for a reason, lol. Do the Thing.

 

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

Also, there's a lot of little tiny details in the movements that I really need to work on and refine. And as long as I'm listing out things to work, I need to be willing to communicate with manong that I need a little bit more slowness and ability to work through the thing as opposed to just trying and failing to do the things that he's not telling me to do that I need to do anyway.

 

 

This is an annoying thing, teachers moving too quickly. A fail, IMHO.

 

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

Oh, and I tried canned coconut milk in my cooking for the first time last night, per @CourtnieMarie and @Urgan's endorsements/experiments, and oh my goodness. It's like a religious experience. In a can. I did it with my rice last night and then also with my pain tea, and it was glorious. I think I need to make a point of including this in my macros going forward. Would never have tried it w/o y'all, so thanks for that.

 

I'm just over here like putting butter in my rice because it's all that sounds edible sometimes. Glad it has you rapturous, lol. Got some in my fridge, we shall see how my stomach handles the oatmeals lately.

[Kishi]

41 minutes ago, Urgan said:

The instinct comes from a good place to make things efficient, but those steps are there for a reason, lol. Do the Thing.

 

Well, there was a specific flow that I hadn't understood well where, when I was practicing on my own, I was envisioning attacking from under the guy's arm, when the reality is it's supposed to start from over. Also, need to work on keeping myself heavy on positions while still striking. So, you know.

 

Still not sure what would happen if I wound up sparring with this stuff.

 

43 minutes ago, Urgan said:

This is an annoying thing, teachers moving too quickly. A fail, IMHO.

 

Nah, I don't disagree, given how much I got from it when I asked him to slow down and us work through something. I should have started calling him out on this months ago. I think he's happy to do so; I just didn't communicate to him that it would help, and for the most part I was able to muddle through and figure it out. But it's on me, too. I should have asked him about this.

 

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

I'm just over here like putting butter in my rice because it's all that sounds edible sometimes. Glad it has you rapturous, lol. Got some in my fridge, we shall see how my stomach handles the oatmeals lately.

 

I hope it turns out well for you~! I was just surprised - I'd only ever been exposed to the carton stuff. But the canned stuff makes the carton stuff seem like sugar water. I dunno if it's just me living La Vida Lo-Carb or what, but I've really been enjoying it so far.

 

*

 

Sunday was a relatively restful day after trying to kill myself on the Versaclimber. Practiced headstands and managed 4x60s, nice and easy as you please. I'm finding it's like what @Machete said - you need tension, but only enough to hold the lines you mean to hold. Sometimes that's a lot. Sometimes, not so much. Did a single round of pinch grip farmer's walks afterward for 90 steps at 25 lbs. Think I'm going to keep that for a bit since my grip started to slip toward the end.

 

After that, ran another 27 minutes. Everything felt fine. Started listening to some of the WriMo podcasts just to see if I could get back in the mood, and I think I want to do NaNo this year but I need to get something else out of it. I could possibly use it to progress on my Fight Club with Magic story that I've been working on for a while, especially since it changed so much from what I worked on last year that I could justify doing more with it.

 

That or a transhuman story with religious overtones and violence. Like Asura's Wrath. Only gooder.

 

Spent some time doing kata and flow and spent the rest of the time before joining my parents working on the bag and banded uchikomi. Came back to the pleasant discovery that my folks were eating relatively low-carb, which made me happy.

 

That was yesterday, though. Today, just stretching and taking it easy.

[Mistr]

Good for you on doing All The Exercise. Especially nice that some things feel easy and that you can run after doing a bunch of strength and endurance work.

 

I agree with @Urgan, it makes sense to do all the steps in a kata. They are there to train muscle memory. That's different than training to be effective in sparing. Both are important. Different drills for different aspects, just like you do in lifting. Strength, volume, endurance, explosive power. You wouldn't argue that any of those are not important, right?

[Kishi]

23 hours ago, Mistr said:

Good for you on doing All The Exercise. Especially nice that some things feel easy and that you can run after doing a bunch of strength and endurance work.

 

Thanks! I'm trying to keep away from blending things too much. So I might do a bunch of different things in a session, but I try to make them all each be their own thing rather than blending them, you know? Not about that life anymore.

 

On ‎10‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 4:01 PM, Mistr said:

I agree with @Urgan, it makes sense to do all the steps in a kata. They are there to train muscle memory. That's different than training to be effective in sparing. Both are important. Different drills for different aspects, just like you do in lifting. Strength, volume, endurance, explosive power. You wouldn't argue that any of those are not important, right?

 

I don't disagree with that. I just figured I'd found a better way to move.

 

*

 

Monday was a rest day. Stretched and took it easy

 

Gaming afterward was fun. It was the birthday of one of our players, so Chinese pastries were had. Think like American pastries, only not so overpoweringly sweet and filled with things like custard or red bean paste. Freaking good.

 

Stayed out too late last night, though, and decided to suffer and get some writing done. It feels like the right thing to do, although I have to admit I'm a touch more snappish today than I'd like. Mondays, I've noticed, set the tone for the week's sleep - if I get down on time, I'm okay, but if I don't, then I wind up dragging so much that I never really recover.

 

I forgot to mention, we had a new student at Kali who's apparently studied under K-sensei before. He's got a background in Thai Boxing and he's twice the size of me. Oooh boy. Might have to break out my right hand something fierce tonight.

[Urgan]

30 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Stayed out too late last night, though, and decided to suffer and get some writing done. It feels like the right thing to do, although I have to admit I'm a touch more snappish today than I'd like. Mondays, I've noticed, set the tone for the week's sleep - if I get down on time, I'm okay, but if I don't, then I wind up dragging so much that I never really recover.

 

This is truth. Live and die by the Sundays.

[Kishi]

17 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

This is truth. Live and die by the Sundays.

 

Currently die. Uggggh

 

*

 

The Sleepless Saga continues. Had to stay up last night to cook food for breakfast for the next few days. Meat and nuts is a fantastic recipe that I enjoy muchly, and it's not like the prep for it is terribly involved, but it does take time, and time is everything.

 

Compound that with the fact that I'm apparently on a light sleep kick again - I wake up with the first bit of pre-dawn light and my mind's off to the races before I can slow down and try to get back to sleep, because what's the point, I'm going to have to be up in an hour anyway and I might as well not waste time, right? But bed is so comfy. I think I've just got some underlying stress I'm carrying with me - I'm ruminating too much on the singleness thing again, which is never constructive, and also my brother's going to room with some friends of his so I'm on my own again to find a place to live and man, government work does not pay enough to make living on my own easy.

 

I could deal with that with meditation, I suppose. Which means more time awake. Hah! Fantastic.

 

The fact that I'm writing in run-on sentences means that, probably, in my heart I've decided to NaNo. I hashed out a setting for my transhuman story in about ten minutes - post-apocalypse where man made sentient Nuclear Equipped Weapons Platforms - NEWPs - powered by magic and run by affably hostile AI, who must be fought by humans whose consciousnesses have been downloaded into bodies which also are powered by magic. They'll have Tron lines when they do cool things and make pew pew noises. No lie - this is probably going to get a Nebula.

 

At least work is going good. And karate last night was easy. It was just K-sensei and me, which I thought for sure meant I was going to get whipped, but he was feeling woozy and tired from sickness in the past week. So we just took it easy, worked pads for a while and worked on fitting strikes together. Got some insight into why I can't seem to land shit on the man - he's way better at controlling where he is in relation to where I am, so he's able to force me to punch across myself as opposed to me punching all the way through with an open hip. Unfortunately, that's down to a matter of timing, that or manufacturing the positions I want. Just gotta get good.

 

And, uh, yeah, that's where it stands right now. Training is good, nutrition is good, life is good if I'd just slow down and realize it. Just gotta take a deep breath and slow down a bit.

 

Edit to add: forgot! The forward split program and the Jefferson Curls are doing good things for my hamstring flexibility. Last night, I was able to reach the ground on a forward fold with straight legs and no bend. Don't think that's ever really happened before. Nice!

[Kishi]

Wednesday was a relatively quiet day. Managed my Deck Squats pretty well, and the legs are getting closer to one another but I'm still not able to pop up from the ground with them together. I can control the fall back and do them with my legs together, but when I come back up my legs split apart.

 

Good news about that is that, one, I can come back up under control and two, they're within hip distance of each other. I experimented with it and can in fact pistol up off the ground that way, so I'm not entirely convinced that I need an utterly perfect Deck Squat in order to progress. But, like I said, not in a hurry. Truth is, everything else is still really far behind relative to my leg strength, and given everything I'm doing at this point I just don't see a percentage in trying to rush. Lots of different stressors to manage. Lots of adaptations to get.

 

Judo afterward was pretty good. Got some pointers on my newaza and even though I got rolled a bunch, the pointers made it a lot harder. I'm peaceful with this. You can't roll with a BJJ guy and expect much if you're not getting similar practice, so, meh. I spent the rest of the night playing practice dummy for some folks going down to shiai in Dallas. At one point, I was rolled into their big drill - two uke standing opposite each other with tori in the middle. Tori goes to one uke and fits in a throw, then rushes to the other and fits in. Back and forth, back and forth. And, having done so and compared my conditioning to my sempai, I can safely conclude that their conditioning is shit. Which isn't a surprise, but always makes me happy whenever I'm reminded. I dunno if they just burned themselves out by not managing their pace, but I managed to go and go and go without ever stopping.

 

Afterward, managed to get home and lose sleep by making pain tea. Oh well. The saga continues.

 

Looking at writing, I did more last night, and I'm glad I'm redeveloping the habit of showing up each day to do something. I think for NaNo, the other thing that I want to get out of this is a sense of character. Making compelling voices and making them distinct and interesting from one another. I'm sort of practicing that now with the current project, but it's something I'd like to practice more with the other.

 

Because the major hurdle at this point is that I don't really have any characters whose story I can tell. I'll let the plot develop off these characters and their motivations and their conflicts, which I think will be fun. But I can't get there without characters in the first place.