"Heaven is right where you are standing and that is the place to train."

[AikidoBryan]

"One does not need money, status, or a building to practice The Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing and THAT is the place to train."

First challenge... Here we go (again on my own... Does anyone appreciate the White Snake reference? :-) )

I haven't strength trained in a while, so I'm a little unsure of what my body is capable of right now. This first challenge won't be much of a challenge, so much as an exploratory mission. Before I can design a proper program, I need to know what kind of strength I already have.

I'll post a link to the goals I set HERE. I'll come back and edit this post when I figure out how to do that. :-)

I'm trying use gymnastic movements more than weights. If I do use weights, I'll be using kettlebells or something I rigged up. I'll be driving a truck soon and theres not a lot of barbells in a truck and I can't guarantee I can get to an actual gym.

So I started with something basic:


Aiki stretching. Not sure how to describe this. Involves a fair amount of what I would consider Yoga movements, though I could be wrong, I've never done actual Yoga. Also involves putting myself into many of the wrist locks we have ex; Kotegaishi, Nikkyo, Gokkyo, Gyaku Gokyyo, Sankkyo.

Ukemi. Basic forward (Zenpo Kaiten) and backward rolls (Koho Kaiten); really being mindful of how my feet are touching the ground during a backward roll and making sure that I roll in a straight line and that my feet are landing 'on the line' as I roll both ways.

Shikko- Its basically knee walking and other knee exercises that increase mobility and train to get up quickly so as to be able to recruit power from your center when performing any Suwari Waza or Hanmi Hadachi. Hard too explain. Youtube videos abound.

Next is where I really explore my current level of strength. I start with diamond pushups from knee position to increase the load that was directly over my shoulders and thus on my arms, and move into knee/ feet abd planks, and bodyweight squats full range of motion holding that core tight throughout the movement.

I like my workouts to be short, very short... 15- 20 minute short. So here is how I arranged this very simple workout.

3 movements x 3 sets x 1 minute per movement. 10 secs rest in between movements.

Diamond Knee Pushups

Hand/ Knee Abd planks
Full ROM body squats

This workout took exactly 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Not a very difficult workout, a great workout to rebuild those motor patterns and neural connections and work on proper form, but no where near adequate for building strength. That's something that I'm ok with right now. I plan to incorporate much more gymnastics (pullups, handstands, ring work etc) into my training, so for now just getting reacquainted with how my body moves mechanically during a work load is a really good investigative practice.

 

I have had success previously with very short but intense workouts. This workout simply wasn't intense enough. That's how I save time. I jack up the intensity and train till failure. If it takes 40 minutes to reach muscle failure, that's fine. If it take's 14 minutes to reach failure, well that's preferable.

 

My goal in progression has usually been to increase intensity rather than add more movements, and to reduce rest time to ZERO seconds between movements. Eventually I progress to working out in the fasted state. When I was yoked out of my mind on the truck before I was doing 5 movements x 3 sets x 1 minute each movement SLOW CONTROLLED movements with 0 seconds rest. The whole thing literally took 15 mintues start to finish and 15 minutes was about all I could stand.

But we'll get to that later.

Later tonight, I'll be doing my weapon suburi. When I've actually done it, I'll come back here and edit this post to reflect that.

As far as nutrition goes, it's a little challenging to actually be Paleo right now. I'm visiting my family before I go back on the truck and I am most definitely NOT in a Paleo house hold. For now, I'll just eat as good as I can, but it causes serious interfamily problems if I decline certain food items. Ironically, its not even a religious thing. My Dad is a chef and takes great pride in his food. Its a slap in the face to turn down meals from him, which are arguably some of the best food you'll ever eat. Not every Dad can make swans out of apples. :-)

EDIT: Conned my Dad into imparting some culinary wisdom to me and we made and almost Paleo dish. Shrimp stir fry with zucchini, orange bell peppers, and onions over a bed of white rice seasoned with Italian seasonings. Rocked a blueberry/ strawberry yogurt smoothie afterwards.

In the mean time, Sardines in Tomato sauce are my best friend. With 40g of protein a can, its hard to beat it. 

I'm rereading Paleo Solution and Primal Blueprint. Also picked up a copy of Overcoming Gravity. Good stuff.

Meditation goes ok. My mind is very restless, but I think limiting my coffee is going to definitely going to help. I'm headed to the store to buy some green leafy vegetables as the structure of chlorophyll, what makes green things green, is essentially magnesium and adequate magnesium greatly reduces anxiety and feeling of restlessness.

EDIT: Here it is the end of my day and I'm actually a little sore from those pushups. I'm not sure if I should be glad that my body is going to adapt and improve from this... dissappointed that that little workout is all it took to get me a little sore.

As always thoughts and critiques are always welcomed and encouraged.

[AikidoBryan]

Today was a FUN day.

My upper body is sore form the pushups, but my core and legs are fine. So... wondering what I would do with my day, I stumbled upon Ido Portal.

Holy Shit Snacks!

What he can do with the human body is amazing. I want to be able to move like that. Thus, I got busy on some handstands and many of his range of motion exercises. Good stuff. Fun stuff. I'll be doing more of his method.

Also, my Dad and I got in the kitchen today and made zucchini ravioli. We took a zucchini and sliced it into thickish medallions and then took a small paring knife and made a small insertion no bigger than the blade itself and maneuvered the blade around inside until a "pocket" was formed inside the zucchini wedge. Then we stuffed the zucchini ravioli (zuccioli?) with shrimp and cheese.

Good shit.

Then we made a coconut shrimp rice dish. Not sure what to call it. But it was pretty freakin awesome and MOSTLY Paleo. Certain concessions must be made while I am with my family, but when I can stimulate my Dad's creativity, I can sell him on "the challenge" of cooking with Paleo's restrictions. Cooking with restrictions is like my Dad's way of playing his culinary version of Resident Evil 3 on Hard Mode. LOL.

My mother recently got out of the hospital and was diagnosed with GERD (Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease) and her entire digestive system in inflamed. Her body is basically on fire inside.

Will Paleo come to the rescue and combat systemic inflammation?

Not if my Mother won't friggin' try it!

I am pitched in battle for my Mother's health against the deadliest of enemies: Grains, Dairy, and really shitty "old people" supplements.

My mother would rather die than give up beer (hops, a grain) bread, and cookies.

BUT! On a positive note, I got my mother to take her knee health seriously and work with me to develop some knee strengthening exercises she can do. Nothing difficult, just sensical stretching and modfied above parallel squats. I alos got her to realize that the way she gets up out of the chair is weakening her knees. She rocks forward when she stands up loading all of the weight on to the hips and then locks her knees and uses her back to lever the weight up.

Absolutely terrible idea for a great many reasons. Now she's aware of it. We'll see if she changes anything.

All in all and great day though. Insane bodyweight movements, great food, a superficial amount of success in conveying health wisdom to my mother.

Good day indeed.

:-)

[Stooshie]

You've certainly got quite the challenge planned out! Great job with that. Keep up your good work and I'm sure you'll emerge from the challenge quite victorious!