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[meguro]

Chin up, Fred! Value is determined by how much you are willing to pay. Just because the belts are the same color, doesn't mean the have same value.

[knuckleheader]

Originally Posted by FredInChina

Nov 24th - Wednesday - Grading.

Thanks Dent & Sandman for the support, I appreciate it!

I am now a "proud" 9th kyu!
...along with everybody else : guys I had not seen in months, please line up, here is your new belt...

A parody.
Even if I could understand that for lower ranks it is more of a formality than a real grading:
it is definitely not good for the spirit;
however some guys were obviously not at 6th, 5th, 4th kyu level & none at 3rd & 2nd!
it is discount time in China tonight, "black Wednesday", everybody passes, just show up!!!

At least for tonight, it is way past my level of acceptance & I am p*ssed off beyond reason.
Monopolies distort markets!

Please, K4L extended family, accept my apologies for venting here, my intent was not to disrupt your harmony.

It may be difficult. Some things you'll just have to overlook. As long as your personal standards are met. Maybe you'll eventually train elswhere.

Not your fault Fred.

All you can do is continue to challenge yourself. Sooner or later the ones who slip through the net get exposed, as do instructors who grade everyone.

Gary

[jcarmello]

Mind your house Fred! Keep it neat and tidy to your expectations. As you keep at it and achieve your best, you will set a standard known as the "Ultimate Truth".

Good job on the testing!!

Osu!

[FredInChina]

Thanks all for your kind words & support, I felt double bad this morning that I still didn't have anything positive to say outside that I was able to spare "Ms InChina" my temper and I did not kick the dog; gradings are supposed to be milestones that measure progress & tell you where you are at... I guess I'll do my own measuring.
All right, let's close this sorry chapter & move on!

Felt like a caged lion upon getting up & decided it was time to put Achilles, calf, knees and legs to a little test I've had in the back of my mind for a while - that one would also bury resentment and frustration from yesterday into exertion.

Nov 26th - Thursday Morning - Flight 17.

Flight 17 is very, very simple, it is door to door with a visit to the ground floor, using the staircase. Each flight of stairs has precisely 17 steps - hence the name of this workout - all 25 of them!
Going up is the work; going down is the active recuperation; I stop 10 seconds on top to measure my heartbeat (no sense over heating an old mechanic)
It starts with going down, obviously I don't live at the 25th floor ...underground!

I lacked the proper calibration and thought 10 reps sounded good - I settled for 5 after a back of the envelope calculation showed that 10 would require over an hour and a half.

Spot on! it took me 43 minutes to complete 5x25 floors = 125 = 2175 steps.
1st down+up - under 7 min - HB 168 - Going down takes around 3 min.
2nd down+up - under 8 min - HB 162
3rd down+up - under 9 min - HB 174
4th down+up - under 10 min - HB 168
5th down+up - under 11 min - HB 168

I could go faster on the way down, but felt like I needed the rest so I paced it; I also wanted to spare my knees - I'll have to measure my heartbeat at the bottom and adjust accordingly.
(HB is measured over 10 sec x 6 so the differences are a count error - quite consistent)

This one got my lungs on fire, but the legs held to their duty - a sign that my cardio needs working on. On the 3rd up leg, the towel on my neck felt like 100 pounds & the little voices were screaming.
Quads, hamstring, glutes and calfs got a nice deep and non violent workout.

Finished with the splits routine... with all the excuses and skipping it lately, lets count it like the start of week 2 = day 8!
It felt so good stretching in front of my window with view on the NingBo river that I added more hip & adductor exercises, enjoying the view.

I am feeling really good and energized; not exerted.
I am thinking that Flight 17 - maybe a 3 x up/down + stretches - would make a perfect before breakfast routine... ...if I wanted to commit to it.
The 5 x Flight 17, if worked consistently could be brought down to 35 minutes.

Osu!


[Edit]
PS: there are 3 instances of partially blocked staircase that would make every (ex)firefighter I know scream bloody murder:
- 5th floor: doors and various construction materials are stored in the staircase.
- 7th floor: a supermarket trolley.
- 11th floor: 3 bicycles...

[Dent]

Osu!

Originally Posted by FredInChina

I am now a "proud" 9th kyu!

Even if I could understand that for lower ranks it is more of a formality than a real grading:
it is definitely not good for the spirit;

At least for tonight, it is way past my level of acceptance & I am p*ssed off beyond reason.

Please, K4L extended family, accept my apologies for venting here, my intent was not to disrupt your harmony.

You have reason to be annoyed, but as Meguro says, not all belts are equal.

Originally Posted by FredInChina

Going down takes around 3 min.

Looking forward to when you start taking the elevator down, to cut back on unneeded recovery time.

Osu!

[vapor]

Dent- I am on the 27th floor if you want to match Fred's efforts, next time you are in town!!

vapor

[Dent]

Osu!

Originally Posted by vapor

Dent- I am on the 27th floor if you want to match Fred's efforts, next time you are in town!!

Hah! That was part of our training for a WT. 9 floors timed run up, jammed in the elevator and sent back down. Over and over and over again...



Osu!

[sandman]

Nice work Fred! I'm kind of glad I don't have access to stairs, because otherwise I'd have to join you in solidarity.

[FredInChina]

Nov 26th - Thursday Evening (1800-1900) - The Seventeen.

Since I received my sparkling brand new gymboss, I had to come up with something to try it out.
This one did it & I now understand the tongue in cheek comments from Gary and Sandman telling me that I would love it...
If Ross Enamait put back the work into workout, I do understand now why the BOSS in gymboss!

This is a circuit of Push-ups, pull-ups, suspended knee raises, weighted sit ups & makiwara.
- two double reversed ladders for the knee raises and push-ups
- 3 Pull ups (I suck at it & on a good day, I can do a whopping 5 or 6 in a row)
- 25 weighted sit ups (10Kg) & planning to drop the weight somewhere in the second half.
- Makiwara was there to palliate my lack of calibration for the timing with a plan to do 10 gyaku tsukis each hand before the gong.

See workout as attached image.
17 reps - 2'30" work & 1' rest - Total workout time: 1 hour
Did it at the dojo where there is a pull up bar (from this morning spent in the staircase, I know there is plenty of space to hang a bar there and nobody will ever know... I'll think about it.

- The pull-ups are really something to work on, I needed assistance (toes on the wall) for nearly each one. it was also not too good for the shoulder and the grip needs firming & hands are a bit tender.
- The knees raises were just okay - I usually do them from a dip bracket (with elbows rested) - hanging makes them more of a challenge, it is a lot harder to hold them up. Had to cut down on the raises in the second part of the ladder, both to "keep up with the boss" and to be able to do good ones with no momentum.
- The push-ups were okay but the last quarter saw reduced range of motion - have to work on that to make full reps of good ones; I am paying for the last 10 days of shoulder pain that hampered training. I believe a ladder work on push ups (or pull ups) will allow more work & bring progress faster than add one every day, DharmaDesigns fashion... we'll see.
- Makiwara was a strike of genius as an after thought add up - it helped keeping busy during the full planned work time that will benefit from a little bit more experience & calibration. The challenge was to focus to give clean strikes and not over powering them - the strikes kept getting stronger and stronger though - I feel the knuckles, but it is reasonable - high rep, low power is the way to go for the time being..
- Sit ups are not much of a challenge, even the weighted ones; just keeping busy and getting tired doing them. I think I could do 500 reps non stop twice with 5 min rest - does not make sense any more: I need to bring in better abs exercises.
With this morning Flight 17 and tonight The Seventeen, I will call it an early night and hope not to get cramps during sleep (had a couple of cramp alerts in toes, sole of feet and calves during tonight's workout).
Now I need to sit down and put down some goals and metrics so I can plan workouts to meet them...

I was leaving the dojo when the fighters came in to prepare the tournament in 2 weeks --- only the fighters were only one!

Osu!

[sandman]

Sounds like another great workout Fred - that's 2 in one day! I guess you'll sleep well tonight.

Other abs exercises you might try:
- straight legged situps
- knees to elbows (lay on your back, hands behind head, bring right elbow to left knee, alternate)
- russian twists (normal situp position - hold a med ball or other weight out in front of you, sit up about halfway, then twist from side to side as far as you can)
- dragon flags (lay on your back where you can hold on to something behind your head for leverage, pick your whole body up off the floor, up to about the shoulders. Then ease your lower body down and then back up. Legs at a 90 deg angle to your upper body is easy - legs near to 180 deg is HARD)
- get an ab wheel - rollouts will kick your abs' ass and will bring other muscles to the party as well

And on the pullups - I have a similar problem where if I'm not careful I'll tweak my shoulder every time. I've found that I basically have to stop before I reach full extension. At the very bottom of the movement, the shoulders sort of turn into it. If I get to that point I've gone too far. Adding time to just hang at the end of a pullup session will develop your grip. You can also try towel grip pullups from time to time to hit the grip a little harder.

Osu!

[FredInChina]

Indeed, I slept very well & feeling a tad sore - mostly calves, lower hamstrings, lower triceps & hands - tells me there was work in that workout.
The left shoulder is a bit raw... I'll do power kicks on the bag today.

Thanks for the great abs exercises you recommend - unlike you that does not have XL staircases readily available, at last I found an abwheel ; there go my excuses!

I'll benchmark the dragonflies, I don't think I can do that just yet - I'll post my experiment - but I'll certainly give a go at the Russian twists, knees to elbows & straight legs sit ups.

Thanks for the tips on pullups and grip.
Going to bed, I was thinking that carrying one 5 gallons large plastic water containers (the sort that you put upside down on a hot/cold water dispenser) in each hand and do "farmer's walks" up & down the stairs would work for the grip as well - I am glad I 'forgot' about this idea overnight...

Osu!

[FredInChina]

Saturday morning: the farmer's walks with the water containers and the Russian twists will have to wait - oh baby, I can't seem to find a spot on my body that isn't sore from yesterday's training... Here is what happened:

Nov 27th - Friday Evening (1800-1930) - Power kicks on heavy bag.
I needed to verify the effectiveness of my kicks & today seems a good day to do that.
The place to go for an impartial evaluation is the heavy bag:
It never lies nor needs my love and will tell me each time I suck, sometimes painfully!
It also tells with a nice little jerk dance & chain music whenever I am doing better.

- Ushiro Geri Chudan - 100 each leg - 100% power
This needs work; the right leg is okay, with good power & speed but could be dramatically improved with work - Left leg desperately sucks, off target 50% of the time & the other 50%, a random part of the foot hits it.
Right leg can do two ways (straight long range and more round shorter range) - Left leg... hummm!
- Mawashi Geri Gedan - 100 each leg - 30% power, shin conditioning.
Our heavy bag is too hard for my present shin condition to go full power; I'll have to work these on pads with a partner (Alex, get ready for some legs conditioning...).
- Mawashi Geri Jodan - 100 each leg.
Had to tie 2 pads to cover the bag chains as my foot was getting nicked each time. Happy with both legs reach up (I'll have to measure it, but close to 2.1/2.2m high), all that stretching pays.
Power delivered, speed and consistency is another matter - I throw nice pretty kicks that bring ohhhs and ahhhs and a snap on the bag, but are mostly useless.
I am also doing it wrong, there is something I have not understood in that kick... just don't know what precisely.
- Yoko Geri Chudan - 100 each leg.
The most powerful of fast kicks, or the fastest of power kicks... I never was good at it.
Did not dare to go 100% power, scared my ankles would not like it: it will require time and reps on the bag to strengthen ankles & condition the feet.
- Tobi Yoko Geri up-Chudan (or low-Jodan ) - 50 left leg.
Was feeling pretty good at that time, so that "old fard" could not stay on the ground and decided to take off.
Started slowly, being prudent and experimenting, but quickly got caught in the fun of jumping and hitting the bag.
No first step, jumped from a standing position and hit consistently between chudan and jodan
Don't know how it looked, but the bag was screaming its liking it with jerk, twist and chain music - a lot of fun!
Stopped when my right ankle told me so.
- Mae Geri Chudan - 100 each leg - 50% power
I love that kick, front and back leg - one of my favorites.
Power delivery is hampered by the toes position that I don't seem to be able to bring back up enough & I didn't want to jam one.
Focused on the chusoku, ankle and foot position.
A favorite weapon that I can deliver quickly at medium and longer range at all heights - I'll have to hone it to increase power, speed & accuracy.

Kicks in the air:
Was running out of time with class coming up so I did 20 reps of each leg:
- Kakato Geri Jodan.
- Ura Mawashi Geri Jodan.

A total short of 1100 kicks - I was pretty wasted before class, but quite happy I went through a kick session, which I was longing for.
Tried to jam too many kicks in one bag session & the objective was not well defined - was it power or technique??
Still, I am glad to have a reference point that tells me where I am at.

Maybe needs to focus on technique before power? power will come later.
Maybe, as Spirit pointed out elsewhere, focus on one kick and not the whole arsenal?

...............................

Nov 27th - Friday Evening (1940-2100) - Dojo class.
Warm up, reduced kihon, zenkutsu & kiba dachi moves. The shoulder woke up and I passed on some of the exercises.
Work with partner (Alex was there) on punches and blocks, light kumite style with one hitting, the other blocking.
Had to pay extra attention not to hurt Alex's thumbs before Dec tourney (he is still sore from the fights 6 months ago at the last tournament!), so I let all his shita tsukis pass without attempting to block... & was reprimanded for that.
Moved on to light sparring with reduced techniques: punching + hiza geri + gedan mawashi. had a good fun with Alex; we worked at preparing his combos and timing for the tourney. I managed to half sweep him off the ground after I'd been trying to do that for a while now; he hung on to my Gi, otherwise he would have fallen square on his back, all 98 kg of his; the thought of it made me smile inwardly...
His hiza geri were short and/or ineffective; either he is slow or I was evading quickly; likely a combination of both. We worked on it & I showed him how to change his hiza into mae geri when the adversary moves away. Spent the rest of the session on that & he was really getting it; I caught a few of his "hiza to mae geri" in the stomach - well done Alex!
Finished with 50 push ups and some abs.


Had an eye opening discussion about Wednesday grading with a few guys at the end of class... I have to let the dust settle and think about it, but be sure that I'll blog my thoughts shortly...

Osu!

[Ros]

Fred that's so impressive - I'm not surprised you're sore!

[sandman]

Osu!

Sounds like a couple of great sessions Fred. I like the act of evaluation after the workout itself - how to make it better? Trying new things and then deciding what to keep, what to toss out, and what to tweak and why is a great learning opportunity. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[FredInChina]

Originally Posted by sandman

Osu!
Sounds like a couple of great sessions Fred. I like the act of evaluation after the workout itself - how to make it better? Trying new things and then deciding what to keep, what to toss out, and what to tweak and why is a great learning opportunity. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Osu Sandman, you are very welcome.

Indeed, I am enjoying the opportunity to get my legs really working for the first time in half a year...
Not completely there, but within reasonable limits, I am pushing against the boundary & loving it.

It is also the first time I keep a workout log and I am liking the process it puts me through. Pushing ahead and exploring, then doubling back, measuring what works & adjusting. I suspected that much when I started & I feel really good I committed to it.
I sort of owe it to your example so thank you!

I find it very helpful to receive comments, advice and encouragements. the next milestone will be to receive feedback that my log has somewhat inspired or helped someone.

What I need to do now, as I posted a couple of days ago, is to take the time to clarify and write down goals I can measure against & justify the accountability part of this log...

That said, today was an absolute rest day, my body demanded it; I didn't even think of arguing with it.

Osu!

[FredInChina]

Nov 29th - Sunday (1600-1720) - Flight 17 spiced up.

Body and legs still sore, but not enough for an acceptable excuse. After yesterday's full rest, I also did not want to show up with nothing to log!
The left shoulder was raw & I ruled out fighter's training - I opted for a spiced up Flight 17 instead and had the immense pleasure to have Ms. InChina & our 12 years old pug join me in the effort.

Flight 17 consists of down and up the 25 flights of my staircase.

Today was 3 reps:
Rep 1: add 10 push ups each 5 floors = 5x10 push ups.
Rep 2: each 5th floor is climbed with my own version of plyo half sumo squats with 1 sec hold at bottom = 5x17= 85 squats
Rep 3: same as Rep 1 = 5x10 push ups for a total of 100 push ups.

Total time 35 minutes, including some encouraging to Ms InChina and our dog.
HB maxed at 168; Push ups were okay & I focused on form and amplitude & had to be careful to the shoulder, the squats required taking a good 10 deep breaths before moving on.

Finished with the splits routine that my little voice had categorically ruled out and made a scene when I did not listen.
From very very sore, the stretch eased up into a somewhat masochistic pleasure as I was feeling the knots dissolve slowly - feeling good now.
A good moderate workout, more suited for before breakfast than the middle of the afternoon.
It seems that my relationship with Flight 17 is slowly evolving into something more serious and regular... We'll see!

Possible future variations of Flight 17:
- reps every 4 then every 3 flights.
- Flight 17 2x2 or 3x3
- flights on one leg,
- Push up ladder i/o fixed number
- knee raises,
- abs, etc...

[PS:]
To satisfy everyone's curiosity:
Ms. InChina valiantly finished 2 reps (save push ups or squats) & the mutt nearly died on the 7th floor of its first rep and had to be evacuated by urgent elevator dispatch; thank you for asking !

[sandman]

Well done to you and Mrs InChina. Sound like the pug needs some more training though

[FredInChina]

Originally Posted by sandman

Well done to you and Mrs InChina. Sound like the pug needs some more training though

Thank you!
That was a lot of fun, but the poor old thing was panting and courageously trying to stay with us. On the 7th floor, he just sat there, watching and hoping for the best.
He's been sleeping since LOL
Osu!

[Hangtime]

Congrats on the promotion Fred. Don't worry about how others look/perform, do the best you can and get what you want out of the experience. OSU!!

Also, nice progress...you, Sandman and DD are making me want to step my game up a little bit!