Monk-assassin law student checking in

[mightstone2k]

Howdy folks. I'm a martial artist from way back (Sam Dan in Tang Soo Do [any WTSDA folks here?]) who has relocated from Western Pennsylvania to Chicago for law school. One thing I've learned in the relocation is that I'm not a city boy

Lessee... my goals are as follows: I'm trying to get accepted to the JAG Corps (Air Force or Army preferred), so I am working a lot on bodyweight exercise. It helps that I am too poor to afford much beyond my resistance bands, pullup bar, and weighted vest. I eat Primal as much as possible; cooking is one of the things that keeps me sane during school (I'm a 1L presently). I have been really influenced by Ross Enamit's Never Gymless and Infinite Intensity; as a martial artist, training like a combat athlete makes the most sense. Right now I am very diligent about my 3/week resistance training days, but my conditioning is more sporadic. Once a friend of mine moves out here, we are going to start training martial arts together; he comes from a blended system and has great hands, I have a traditional kicking background. It's great to have like-minded friends. On the spiritual side, I'm Catholic (very much enjoy C.S. Lewis) and open to chat with folks about spiritual and philosophical questions. Please don't try to start flame wars on the subject; I neither impose my beliefs on anyone nor attack them for their beliefs. I like open Socratic dialogue .

That should about cover my bases.

Edit: I will be posting a journal once finals are done and I'm back home with time on my hands. Not only will I be updating it with the usual workout/nutrition stuff, I will also be musing about law, martial arts, spirituality, philosophy, and whatever else crosses my mind. Open discussion welcome!

[Kishi]

Well, as a fellow monk who does a lot of assassin-like things, I bid you welcome! I've read some Enamait in my day too; I'm currently following one of the 'lighter' plans in the back of Never Gymless. It is almost too much for me.

How do you like Infinite Intensity?

[mightstone2k]

Danke schoen

I haven't done anything out of Infinite Intensity because I don't have the dumbbells. Right now I'm working the beginner plan in the back of Never Gymless; it might be the same one you're doing. Six days/week, alternating days between strength and conditioning/core? Oddly enough, I feel better when I get those conditioning days in; they're just so hard to convince myself to do when I get home from class. That's a mental discipline thing that I'll need to improve more next semester.

What is your martial arts experience? I'm guessing judo, based on your picture. How do you like it?

[Kishi]

Yup, one and the same! I've just recently passed Enamait's prescription for explosive work, so I've started throwing that in. Additionally, I'm working on getting from 20 seconds in the minute drills to 30 seconds. I figure, when I get to a point where I can do dead hang pull ups for a minute, I'll be able to level that all up too. That's the hope, anyway.

I'm actually mostly a Shotokan student, and have been at that now for a few years. Judo is a relatively new part of my training, one that I mean to start up again in the next week. It's very effective, but I'm very bad at it, and learning to enjoy something like that takes a lot of... effort in the mind.

Still, I think it'll be worth it. What about you, though? Are you continuing with TSD, or do you have something else in mind these days?

[mightstone2k]

Right now I'm still exclusively TSD. It's just something to do at home to keep a bit of the edge on; there's martial arts all over in Chicago, but my limited time and money need to go other places . One of my friends from college starts a job in the city in January, so we are going to get an apartment together and start training. He comes from a blended system that, to me, seems very similar to JKD, and he's been training at a JKD school in Florida for the past year. He has phenomenal hand skills, which is a particular weakness of mine. So between that and the martial arts Meetup group in Chinatown (in warm weather), it looks like the next three years are going to be mostly informal cross-training. When I get out of school, I'd love to start training in some of the Filipino arts.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome, I'm working on joining the national Guard as a chaplain. The 100 pushup plan and 200 situp plan (Just google either of those) can be a big help in getting ready for either the army or airforce PT test. There are also good plans for intervals and such to get up to the run requirement. I'm also working on doing pull-ups because I know there will be a lot of upper body requirements in the obstacle courses in training.

Welcome to the Rebellion!

[mightstone2k]

I've seen a lot of positive talk on the 100 pushup plan. Someone on the Mark's Daily Apple forum started a thread logging his progress and he raved and raved about it. I gave it a shot in undergrad and it didn't really work, but I was fumbling around in those days. Maybe it's time to revisit it.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

To be fair, I'm struggling getting traction and moving past week one, but that's really more a Tanktimus'-arms issue rather than a flaw in the plan.