Shotokan's complex of not so complicated complexes and more....

[Shotokan]

I first want to thank all my friends here who stuck with me along my past challenges.  I also want to apologize for not being the most consistent person when it comes to replying to all of your challenges and updates. 

 

I want to share something with many of you that I normally do not share in public. Last year was a total toilet flush for me. For every good thing that happened, I feel that there were 5 bad things that came into my life.

 

It all started when my full time position was dissolved in February of last year. When that happened, I had big dreams of making it as full time freelance writer and IT consultant but sadly, after 11 months, I am only a little farther ahead than when I started. I researched and studied everything that I could get my hands on but I wasn't able to gain any traction except for a few side jobs doing consulting. Needless to say, that put a great deal of stress on my mind and not only did it make my mind cloudy, it took a toll on my workouts and training.

 

My main goal was to do things that help others. The main reason that I have volunteered teaching Karate for the past 8 years is because it feels good to help others without expecting anything in return. I was hoping that my writing would be another way to do this but I am lucky to get a handful of readers each time I publish a blog post and it's hard to sell services or affiliate programs when no one is listening.

 

The biggest kick in the pants was having the Typhoon go back to full time work after 20 years of being a stay at home mom. This is one thing that I never wanted to have happen but it was either that or end up loosing the house and everything that I worked for over the 30+ years.

 

This was also the first year that we had holidays without some close relatives that passed away and that too was heavy on mind. I understand that things change but I also realized that somethings will never be the same again. 

 

There were a few good things that happened, one of them is the Typhoon and I getting our 1st Kyu rank in Iaido and my son finally found a job that he likes. I am also grateful to have my parents and the Typhoon and my son but I feel that I haven't been towing the line like I should be and have done for in the past.

 

When I get in this state of mind, I have tendency to find other areas to keep my mind off the bad stuff and my workouts do a great job of that but they also take me into a state of over-training that ends up making my body shutdown and lets my mind get flooded with all the crap that it normally keeps in check. The last few weeks of last challenge was proof that I was pushing my body too hard and it made me shut it down for almost three weeks.

 

With that said, 2015 is going to be different. I need to use fitness to it's fullest and dig deeper into yoga and meditation to clear my mind while still getting into the best shape of my life without burning out.

 

1. Get simple with complexes by doing some form of barbell complex at least 3 times a week.

I need to improve my fitness and mobility levels and I am thinking that barbell complexes might be the key. I dabbled with barbell complexes in the past but I never really got into them. For some reason, I started doing them the other day with the 45 pound bar and it felt really good. My son happened to be around when I was doing them and I talked him into doing them with me so I hopefully have my favorite training partner working out with me every time I do them.  

 

The complex that I am doing is 6 sets of decreasing reps down to 1 rep with 8 different movements consisting of deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, clean, push press, front squat, bent over row, barbell curl (switching grip after bent row) and push ups. For those who haven't done these before, you start with 6 reps of each movement on the first set, then 5 on the second set and continue dropping the reps until your last set is 1 rep of each movement. It only takes a short time to do them but it really gets the heart and muscles pumped.

 

2. Karate and Iaido is still a priority.

My Karate has improved a great deal over the last few challenges, especially my kicks (thanks to CheeChoe!), but I still need more improvement.  This time around, I am going to set the bar higher by doing CheeChoe's kicking routine 4 times a week. I also want to continue doing the Tabata static stance training 4 times a week. My at home Karate class has gone a long way at helping me when I am in my formal, weekly Karate class and I still want to continue doing it at least once a week. 

 

3. Rest the body and the mind.

Even though I am still going to be doing a good amount of training, I wanted to come up with a way to keep moving while resting. My thought is to do some Yoga at least three days a week. I never really got anywhere with Yoga in the past, because it was really painful, so I found a book called Remedial Yoga that is supposed to give the benefits of Yoga without doing the advanced moves that I cannot do yet.

 

Life goal: Free my mind.

I tried to do the mediation during the last challenge but I really didn't do it enough because the mental chatter kept getting in the way. This time, I want to meditate at least 5 minutes a day 5 times a week with hopes that it will clear my mind and allow me to focus on improving, instead of focusing on what will happen if I don't improve.

 

As always, everything is subject to change as the weeks go along.

[Teirin]

Damn man, that's a bad year.  Hope it helped to write it down and look at it.  This year will definitely be better.  You will make it happen.

 

What kind of yoga?  Always an interest.

 

Pass on greetings and hugs to the Typhoon :-)

[Schrodinger32]

It sounds like you've had a lot on your plate for quite some time. Hang in there and don't push yourself too hard this year!

[Shotokan]

Damn man, that's a bad year.  Hope it helped to write it down and look at it.  This year will definitely be better.  You will make it happen.

 

What kind of yoga?  Always an interest.

 

Pass on greetings and hugs to the Typhoon :-)

Thanks Teirin!

 

The yoga book is called Remedial Yoga by Rosie Evans. The reason that it interested me is because I would often push myself into poses that I just couldn't do at the time and this book is supposed to take out all the tough poses and let you improve the basics before getting into the harder poses. A lot of the poses in the book remind of Tai Chi movements that I used to do. The other part is, the book was only $3.00 on Google books. 

 

I'll pass greetings and hugs from you to the Typhoon.

[Lou_be_Lou]

Hang in there - what a hard year.  Best wishes for a hugely improved 2015. 

Great that your wife and son are supportive!

 

Good luck with finding balance with your training and life.......

[Taijibum]

Wow, sorry to  hear about the tough year! Its now a new one, so theres that.

[Kishi]

 

That sucks, sir. What a lousy year.

 

But it's over now, and while you carry the momentum and the marks of it, the old is gone, and the new is come. You have this whole wide challenge out before you, and the opportunity to do much with it. Hit the complexes up and free your mind.

[Shotokan]

Workout 1:

 

1/5/15 - It feels weird typing 15 as the year now, it will take me about 9 months to get used to it.

 

Ah, it feels good to be back in a challenge again. It seemed like it was forever between the last challenge and this one.

 

I almost didn't workout because of some pain in my right knee and hip but I forged ahead and it felt better as I got through it.

 

Some anecdotal advice for people wearing natural shoes. I bought a pair of Adidas natural shoes. These are the shoes that have flat bottoms with no support and I have to say, since I have been wearing them all of my knee and hip pain has been almost non existent until the other day when I wore my Nike running shoes.  I only wore the running shoes for about 45 minutes and my knee started to hurt and the pain soon went to my hip. I have feeling, this is the anecdotal part, that wearing them changed the way I walk and it ended up putting stress on my right periformis muscle. The reason I say this is anecdotal is because it could have been something else besides the shoes that caused the pain but it is really odd that it happened right after I wore those running shoes.

 

Back to the workout. My workout partner wasn't feeling good so I had to go it alone today.

 

Barbell complex: 45 pound bar for 6 sets with the following reps for each respectively 6/5/4/3/2/1.

 

Sumo deadlift

Stiff leg deadlift

Power clean

Front press

Front squat (heels elevated - this really helps me)

Bent over row

Barbell curl

Push ups

 

Cheechoe's awesome hip routine. I can't say enough about how much this routine has helped my kicks. My kicks are no where where they need to be but Cheechoe's routine has helped me improve more in the past few months than I have in the past 10 years. If any of you are struggling with your kicks, I strongly suggest you give her a routine a try. I did modify it a little bit because Shotokan kicks are a little different then Taekwondo kicks but it is essentially the same.

 

I finished up with some Karate and Iaido kata, some serious piriformis stretching and the foam roller.

 

I will admit, I am a bit sore today but it's a good sore.

[Taijibum]

It's all about the shoes, man. It's al about the shoes.

[Kishi]

Geez, that complex looks nasty. You gonna load that barbell at any point?

[Shotokan]

Geez, that complex looks nasty. You gonna load that barbell at any point?

It feels really easy with the empty bar. It gets my heart going but I am not spent after doing it.

 

I am planning on adding some weight soon. My son made a really good point, if we use larger plates, we don't have to deadlift as low.

[Cheechoe]

Oh, Shotokan.

 

 

We love you. <3

 

 

2014 sucked. But this is a new year. It's hard to have big life changed like career, or your wife going back to work. But that's part of the ride, isn't it? You married each other for love and HELP. A partner is there for support and encouragement and it's ok to not feel like you are 'pulling your tow' right now.

 

It'll get better. In the meantime, I'm glad you are still trying to better yourself in other areas.

 

Keep us posted on yours and Typhoon's kyo testing! Sounds exciting!

[Shotokan]

Oh, Shotokan.

 

 

We love you. <3

 

 

2014 sucked. But this is a new year. It's hard to have big life changed like career, or your wife going back to work. But that's part of the ride, isn't it? You married each other for love and HELP. A partner is there for support and encouragement and it's ok to not feel like you are 'pulling your tow' right now.

 

It'll get better. In the meantime, I'm glad you are still trying to better yourself in other areas.

 

Keep us posted on yours and Typhoon's kyo testing! Sounds exciting!

Thanks Cheechoe!

 

One of the big things that I learned in 2014 is to stop saying "things can't get any worse" because every time I said that something came along to prove me wrong.

 

I will certainly keep everyone posted on the Iaido testing.

[Shotokan]

Workout 2:

 

1/6/15

 

It was my first day back teaching and taking Karate class after 3 weeks off. I am really glad that I still trained outside of the dojo or I would have been in trouble. I can tell that almost everyone else didn't train over those few weeks and it really showed. 

 

Class we fairly tough overall and we started out with some pad kicking drills. I partnered up with my son and he was kicking like a mule. We also did some punching drills and that's were I was able to get him back.  We spent the rest of the class working on some katas and even one that we never worded on in class before. It's always cool when the lead Sensei takes us, step by step, through and entire kata and gives us all the little details that we might not learn on our own. 

[Taijibum]

People dont think you notice when they dont practice, but you notice.

[dbexx]

Workout 2:

 

1/6/15

 

It was my first day back teaching and taking Karate class after 3 weeks off. I am really glad that I still trained outside of the dojo or I would have been in trouble. I can tell that almost everyone else didn't train over those few weeks and it really showed. 

 

 

I hadn't even considered this, but this really resonated with me. Thank you for posting it.

 

I really hope this year is a huge amount better for you than last.

[RisenPhoenix]

Aw man.  Rough year, Shotokan.  I know the feeling, especially with the work woes.  But you're right.  2015 is a new year.  You can learn from all the crap that was thrown at you and work around it to make this year freaking awesome.  And hey, those glimmering high points look epicly better because of the rest of the crap, right?

 

 

One of the big things that I learned in 2014 is to stop saying "things can't get any worse" because every time I said that something came along to prove me wrong.

 

To be fair, that's just inviting catastrophe.

[Shotokan]

So, instead of this happening during the 4th week or at the end of the challenge, I thought it would be a good idea to get sick now instead. I started feeling sick on Wednesday and by Friday it was all downhill from there.

 

The stomach ache, the sore joints and chills, then the fever last night into today didn't make for a good couple days. I still had to go teach Karate yesterday and today because it was the first classes of the new session and we were short with helpers. Needless to say, it is not easy demonstrating Karate techniques to new students when your hip joints are one fire. 

 

I chalk this one up to, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?

[Kishi]

It's that karateka mindset of getting ish over with. Well played?

[Shotokan]

It's that karateka mindset of getting ish over with. Well played?

Not sure if it was well played or not but I sure hope it's over. I was able to get some decent kata training in today and I hope to get back to lifting tomorrow.

[Shotokan]

Still not ready for prime time yet so today was some kata and a little bit of hip exercises and stretching. I really have to up my antioxidants or something.

[Taijibum]

Kata! I am beginning to love kata. I always hated them when I was a kid. All I wanted to do was spar and learn new kicks. Now I am all about the kata and learning all the secret ins-and-outs of my style. Yeah, I understand why we have kata now.

[Shotokan]

Kata! I am beginning to love kata. I always hated them when I was a kid. All I wanted to do was spar and learn new kicks. Now I am all about the kata and learning all the secret ins-and-outs of my style. Yeah, I understand why we have kata now.

I am a kata junkie! To me, there is nothing better than doing kata when it comes to getting the body and the mind working as one unit. At the best times, I get into a meditative state where I feel there is no one else around me. I can't see anyone or hear any outside noise when I am in that state. If the building was to fall down around me, I wouldn't notice. When I compete, even if I have a thousand people watching, I do not see or hear them until the kata is over.

 

I am not to this point yet, by my Sensei told me, when he does his kata, he is able to watch himself do it from above as if he is sitting in a balcony. Granted, he is a 7th Dan with over 40 years of Karate training and 30 years of Iaido training but when you see him do kata in person, he is not there. His eyes change and he is living the battle. You can actually feel his energy and it makes your breathing change as you are watching him. That's why he is the Master and I am the student. He can totally shut off his ego and do his kata from his heart. It is a sight to behold.

 

Most of the people that I started training with wanted to spar too but I was never a fan of free sparring, I always wanted to knock my opponent out and end the fight but they tend to disqualify me when I do that during a point sparring match. One strike, one kill has always been something that I strive for when training and I try to make each move of the kata reflect those thoughts.

[Kishi]

Now, see, that's interesting, because my training took the exact opposite track. My sensei was of the opinion that kata existed as a way to codify effective biomechanics, to show you how to do a proper punch or how to kick better. Once you knew that biomechanic, however, there wasn't any point in further practice beyond using it as a touchstone to keep in contact with the community at large.

 

To be fair, I'm probably not the best person to ask, though. When we first met, he thought he was going to have a sparring partner. He didn't know I was as bad as I was back then. So he did agree to teach me, but looking back it now I can see that he trained me in such a way that it was useful to him. He wanted someone who could throw the technique at full power under pressure, without necessarily the emphasis on tactical positioning and such like that. I'm probably kind of drunk on that kind of power in some ways - it makes me a little overconfident in terms of what I think I can handle.

 

But we are who we are, right?

[Taijibum]

Karate kata must induce the same effect that Tai Chi does. I have had that above the body thing in Tai Chi, and it is called decentering in psychology. Thats the kind of stuff I started college to study. Its nice to see it in karate and not just Tai Chi. That gives me a bigger subject pool to recruit from.