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[sandman]

Osu! So I've been kicking around the idea of logging my workouts here, but put it off because I'm not sure I'll stick with it (logging the workouts that is - I'm sticking with the workouts themselves, no question). At any rate, I'll give it a go...

First a little description of the method behind my madness... I like to use events like belt tests and competitions as opportunities to review the effectiveness of my training - what worked, what didn't, etc... I competed in a semi-knockdown tournament a couple of weeks ago and just tested for 4th kyu last Thursday, so I've got a couple of recent learning opportunities to draw conclusions from. I won't go into all the details, but based on my own observations and feedback from my sensei and others, I have to say that overall I'm moving in the right direction. Therefore I'm really just going to be tweaking on what I was doing before, not making any drastic changes. What I've been doing for the last few months was heavily influenced by what I've read here on the forums (thanks GJE Chamberlain!). Lately I've also been inspired by the RossTraining and Crossfit sites, so I'm looking to add some bits from there to the daily routine.

Goals are primarily just to generally improve my skills, power, and conditioning (I would say in that order). I do have some specific skills I want to improve on, but I won't get into that just yet. No worries about my weight or anything like that. The next tournament that I know of is not until April, as is the next belt testing opportunity - when those start getting a little closer I'll revisit the training, review with my sensei, and see what I need to do differently to prepare.

Here's a weekly overview of my training:

I train at the dojo usually just once per week - under normal circumstances that's all I can commit to and still keep harmony in the house-hold. I'd like to do more, but that's all I can do at this stage in my life. Luckily I have pretty flexible work hours and a good gym just around the corner from the job, so I am able to commit to a good hour of training every day on the lunch break, and am usually also able to get in an hour over the weekend, either at home or at the gym. So a total of 6 solo workouts during the week, plus one at the dojo. Dojo workouts can vary greatly so I won't go into that on this post.

MONDAY: Skills training

A lot of kihon and kata, combinations in fighting stances and in traditional stances, reps on the heavy bag, working on specific techniques / combos that I want to really get down, etc... I try to mix it up a good bit every time. The major change I want to make here is that I have realized that previously I didn't do this workout with as much intensity as I could have. I've always been good about doing every technique hard, but I didn't push the pace throughout the workout. Going to do something about that now....

TUESDAY: Strength / power

Start with 6 - 8 x 1 min rounds on the heavy bag focusing just on power striking. Every punch and kick delivered as hard as possible. The first 5 or so rounds are basically reps, for example 10 crosses with the right hand, then 10 with the left, then 10 right hooks, 10 left, etc... The last round or two are more freestyle and using combinations, but still everything is about full power.

Then to the iron - 5 x 5 on 3 different heavy compound lifts, one for pushing motions (like bench press, weighted dips, etc), one for pulling motions like pullups or rows, and one to hit the legs like power clean, deadlift, thrusters, etc... I also work in core exercises after about every other set. So an example workout might be 5 x 5 on bench press with a couple sets to failure of situps, 5 x 5 thrusters with a couple sets of leg lifts, and 5 x 5 weighted pullups with a couple of sets of hip and side extensions. My tweak here is to add more variety - previously I just stuck with the same 3 exercises almost every time. Now I want to change it up every workout to keep my body from getting used to any routine.

WED: Conditioning

This usually consists of 3 phases:
1) a couple circuits of high intensity body weight exercises (for example 20 clappers, then lunging kicks across the floor and back, then 20 medicine ball situps, dropping the ball on the stomach after every one. Rest one minute, then repeat. That's one circuit, then do the same thing using some other combination of exercises.
2) 2 minute rounds of some other body weight exercise mixed with shadow boxing. For example, 1 rd might consist of 30 sec of burpees, 30 sec shadow boxing, 30 sec burpees, 30 sec shadowboxing. Rest 30 seconds and repeat, 2 to 4 rounds.
3) Tabata intervals on the heavy bag or 30 sec punchout drills

My tweak here is simply to add more drills to the rotation (not adding more drills to each workout, just adding more variety from one workout to the next) - I've seen some killer routines lately on Crossfit and Rosstraining that I want to try out. I'll also throw in running intervals and/or rope skipping intervals from time to time. Also want to just continue to build up the intensity by doing things like going from 30 sec to 45 sec on the punchout drills where possible

THURS: Skills - repeat of Monday

FRI: Power / strength - repeat of Tues

SAT: Conditioning - repeat of Wed

SUN: Rest

So that's the thinking behind the training. Will start posting actual workouts separately, starting with today's. The next couple of weeks will be a little bit off due to the holidays - no access to the gym on some days and we have the in-laws visiting for a couple weeks so more difficult to get in a workout at home. That's OK - I've been training hard this year and it won't kill me to miss a couple days here and there....

[Dent]

Osu!

Nice to see your post, and the reasons behind it, Sandman!

Good luck with the outlaws too. (I always find more time for training when they're visiting... )

Osu!

[sandman]

Wow, that first post was long.... Thats why I broke that out - you can read it if you're interested, otherwise...

Anyway, today's workout was a skills training session. All kihon and kata at a pretty intense pace - after the warm up it took a total of about 40 minutes and I left with my shirt totally soaked with sweat and feeling completely pooped.

Started with basic kihon in natural stance - 40 each of tsuki at every level (jodan, chudan, gedan), then basic blocks, then basic kicks.

From here went into several different 4 technique hand combinations, again in natural stance. 1 example: right hand chudan soto uke / right hand uraken / left hand haito / right hand gyaku tsuki

Then went into combinations moving in zenkutsu dachi (for example, stepping in gedan uke / gyaku tsuki). Probably did about 10 different combinations, varied with different blocks, kicks and hand strikes, x 6 reps per combo. Did a few more combos in shiko dachi.

Finished up by going through all of the kata that I've learned so far, starting with the most advanced and ending with the most basic. That's a total of 8 katas. Limited the amount of rest between katas to 10 breaths. Was totally blasted at the end.

[sandman]

Originally Posted by Dent

Osu!

Nice to see your post, and the reasons behind it, Sandman!

Good luck with the outlaws too. (I always find more time for training when they're visiting... )

Osu!

Osu! Actually my outlaws aren't so bad. I'll be eating like a king while they're here, that's for sure. Also, I have the advantage of not speaking the same language Makes for a pretty good excuse...

[Dent]

Osu!

Originally Posted by sandman

Osu! Actually my outlaws aren't so bad. I'll be eating like a king while they're here, that's for sure. Also, I have the advantage of not speaking the same language Makes for a pretty good excuse...

We eat well as long as I keep my Mother-in Law out of the kitchen, and I've long suspected that we speak a different language, even though much of the vocabulary is the same...

Osu!

[meguro]

Osu! I expect you will keep on training, but I do hope you keep up the journal.

[BigAl]

Sounds like a good approach sandman, hope to see you make some great progress with your training.

[sandman]

Originally Posted by meguro

Osu! I expect you will keep on training, but I do hope you keep up the journal.

Originally Posted by BigAl

Sounds like a good approach sandman, hope to see you make some great progress with your training.

Osu!! Will do my best on both counts!

[sandman]

Just came from the gym - today's workout was apparently just not meant to be... Was supposed to be a strength / power workout - the plan was to start off with a few 2 min rounds of rope jumping, just for warm up, then do 6 rounds x 1 min on the bag working on power striking, then hit the iron.

Instead, about 1 minute into the 2nd round of rope jumping, the rope broke. Crap! Note to self: you get what you pay for...

So then I just did a bit of dynamic stretching to complete the warm up and jumped into the bag workout. Got a couple of rounds into it and noticed that some lower back pain that I've been feeling was suddenly starting to feel worse. Got about to round 4 and I had to stop - this was no longer the just dull achy thing from too much time in the office chair. Now it was a pretty sharp pain when I did any twisting movement. Double crap!!

Luckily, my hind sight is 20/20 - decided I probably shouldn't have been doing this type of workout with back pain. So at that point, I stopped, did a bit of stretching and decided to try hopping into the pool for some lap swimming as I've always heard that swimming is pretty good for the back. I only swim on rare occasions like this one but I had my suit in my gym bag so I went for it. Since I do it so rarely it didn't take long to poop out. I probably only went 6 or 7 laps, but it was better than nothing. Then I treated myself to a little back therapy in the hot tub

The next couple of days I probably won't be able to work out anyway, so hopefully the back thing will be better after a couple days of rest. Might have an opportunity to work out on Friday, so we'll just see how it feels then.

[meguro]

Ouch! Sharp pain sets off alarm bells. Hope it's nothing.

[sandman]

Osu!

So the back is feeling a bit better but I was very naughty over the holiday - lots of whiskey and calories.... I felt ready to hit it again today but needed to come up with a workout that wouldn't aggravate the back, so no heavy lifting or pounding on the bag. Also, with the holidays kind of screwing up the regular workout schedule my plan is to focus on skills training and then add something to the end of each workout to sort of maintain the strength and conditioning until the schedule is back to normal.

Today's punishment went like this:

The Warmup: 4 x 2 min rds skipping rope

The Skills training: Kihon and kata, moderate intensity for about 20 minutes. Had to avoid mawashi geri as that seemed to be stressing the back.

The finisher: 70 burpee / pullups That one sucked.... big time.

I first saw this exercise on the crossfit website - they did 100 reps. I didn't think I had it in me to do 100, so I figured on 50. However after catching my breath after the first 50 I felt like I could try to do a bit more so did another 20. I think pretty much all the Johnny Walker I'd had in the system is now in a big sweat puddle on the floor of the gym... This was a great workout - hit all the big muscles as well as the cardio.

[sandman]

A pretty decent workout today....

The warmup: 4 x 2 min drills (30 sec rest in between)
Drill 1: Rope skipping
Drill 2: Agility drills with medicine ball slams mixed in (sprint across the room and then run backwards to the start, turn sideways and shuffle across the room and back, carioca drill, high knees run, etc...)
Drill 3: Rope skipping
Drill 4: Step drills (quick stepping up on the step - 20 steps, jumping side to side over the step - 20 jumps, etc...)

This was more intense than I anticipated - absolutely took the breath out of me

Skills: About 15 minutes of shadow boxing and working combinations

Core and miscellaneous: 2 sets of 20 incline situps / 2 sets of 10 back extensions / 2 sets of 10 side extensions (per side). Lunges holding 20 lb dumbbells in each hand - holding the db's by the weight, not by the handle - this worked my grip really hard. 3 sets lunging until grip failed (10 per leg / 7 / 5). 20 knuckle pushups

The Finisher: Went outside and did 4 x 2 minutes running intervals - running at around 75% of top speed, 1 minute of walking between intervals. The lungs were screaming after this one.

All in all, about 50 minutes

[Dent]

Osu!

Quite the vigorous post-Christmas workout. Way to get ready for New Year's Eve!

Osu!

[sandman]

Originally Posted by Dent

Osu!

Quite the vigorous post-Christmas workout. Way to get ready for New Year's Eve!

Osu!

Just making room for some more whiskey

[Dent]

Osu!

Originally Posted by sandman

Just making room for some more whiskey

That takes planning!

Osu!

[meguro]

Osu!Hard core, sandman! I like it. Pinching 20# db's=killer grip. Good stuff.

[sandman]

Osu, Meguro! The forearms weren't exactly thanking me, but screw 'em - they'll have plenty of time to hurt tomorrow

[sandman]

Today was a rest day - no workout.

However, Mrs. Sandman went for a free trial workout at a local Crossfit affiliate this morning. I found out a couple of weeks ago that they had a location just a few minutes from us, and talked my wife into trying it out. She'd been going to a Curves gym for a while and wasn't getting much out of it, then I started training her a couple nights a week at home to give her a more intense workout - I'd had her doing burpees, tabata intervals, and even hitting the heavy bag (among other things). She's starting to make progress but its hard for both of us to make the time together consistently, so when I found out there was a crossfit nearby I showed her the website and she was all over it. We went together to check it out last week. It was a great atmosphere - really old school looking with rings, chalk buckets, olympic lift stands, etc... - cool! The only machines in the place were 2 or 3 rowing machines along the back. So she had a taste today and really enjoyed it. Only problem is that she was laid off a few weeks ago - she's got to get back to work before she can sign up, but she's looking forward to it. At that time I'm also planning to arrange a 1 time coaching session with them to work on my form on olympic and power lifts.

Osu!

[Dent]

Osu!

What sort of cost is it for your local Crossfit, Sandman? It can get a bit steep here, about $130 a month.

Osu!

[sandman]

About the same here - it is pretty steep, but if it gets the old lady - er, I mean... never mind.