Friday 16th January Bike ride (1 hour) Rode my mountain bike through a local woodland park. Plenty of steep inclines. Reckon I covered at least ten miles. Got the heart beating pretty damn fast and had me a good old sweat going on. Not rode in ages so was quite fun. The achilles I tore felt weaker than the uninjured one but at least it didn't hurt. Small victories and all that. Taekwondo Not training, just watching. Want to get back into forms competitions and I always preferred TKD patterns, so I figured I might as well start now even though my hip is giving me grief. I don't know what I'll be able to do if I do in fact need another hip replacement. It was an ITF school, independent from the big three ITFs but they still wear the traditional uniform. And, much to my surprise, they used little to no sine wave! I spoke to the head instructor after class about my current condition and he said he would be happy to have me training no matter what state I'm in. I'm in Portugal next week so my first class will be 26th January. I also want to do WTF forms too, so I'll be visiting another club tomorrow. The plan is to train at both clubs three nights a week each (six nights in total). Stretching (20 minutes) • Standing "toe touch" stretch (palms flat on floor): 2 x 2 minutes. • Seated "toes up" side split stretch (180°): 2 x 2 minutes. • Isometric left front split (180°): 3 sets. Left front split starting to feel a lot more stable (much less effort required to hit 180° than a few weeks ago). Going to be conservative and take my time before even trying to push into oversplit territory.
Do you mean that you like the idea of no sine wave? If I read your log correctly, you want to do pattern tournaments. Do you foresee problems if you learn the patterns without sinewave and join ITF patterns tournaments?
Yes. I'm not the greatest fan of sine wave. Especially when it's over-exaggerated in some patterns contests. I get the concept, I just don't buy into it too much. Nor do I think it's very pretty. I want to compete across the board: ITF, TAGB, WTF, and open. I think there will be challenges in any one of those organisation's tournaments because I won't be doing the pattern/form exactly like they do. I expect to lose points due to aesthetic differences but I'll be doing it more for the enjoyment than anything else. I think the old fashioned hip twist (as in TAGB tournaments) will aggravate my hip so I'll be dropping that too. I prefer the WTF way of doing forms: upright posture, no exaggerated bobbing up-and-down, no exaggerated hip twist. Not saying it's the best way to do forms. Just that it's the way I prefer to do them. This video of Park Si-Ju illustrates my favoured method of doing forms: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmscO6NCzRs[/ame]
I'm not a huge fan of the whole kata thing, I think most videos of kata/patterns look like some one wearing a gi having a seizure on a mat or just bad dancing but that video actualy looked good She moves incredibly and her controll is awesome. Is that the usual style of wtf tkd patterns or is it just that she is an exceptional example?
Yeah. I agree. That typically happens in the non-traditional divisions like CMX (Creative / Musical / Extreme -- all separate divisions in their own right). I see a lot of youngsters who didn't spend time developing strong basics and want to do all the "flashy" stuff too soon. Example: Check the video below. Very good gymnastic skills but the stances are weak and unbalanced, the hand placement is sloppy, and the kicks aren't what those kicks are supposed to look like (e.g. a 360° hook kick done instead as a crescent kick because it's easier, and the height is pretty mediocre)- [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq7pgV5HW-U[/ame] I probably should have prefaced that video by saying she's a world champ But yeah that's the general style of WTF patterns.
Because I'm ITF, I find the way she perform patterns a little bit strange. For me it's sinewave and slower movements. But I can enjoy the way she does it, perfect technique, balance and power and understand why this is your favoured method.
Jaroslaw Suska is one of my favourite patterns competitors even though his sine wave is very pronounced
Saturday 17th January Exercise bike (30 minutes) Unable to go outside because of snow. Set the indoor cycle to 60% resistance and kept a steady pace of 13-15mph. Stretching (20 minutes) • Standing "toe touch" stretch (palms flat on floor): 2 x 2 minutes. • Seated "toes up" side split stretch (180°): 2 x 2 minutes. • Isometric right front split stretch (170°): 3 sets. Was still an inch or so off the floor in my last front split set (which is roughly 170° angle between my legs), despite being able to get flat the last time I did it. Going to precede stretching sessions with a serious foam roller mashing (especially the right hamstring) and up the number of relaxed stretching sets beforehand.
Suska is surely one of the best (is also my opinion). In our dojang he's getting used as an example many times.
Sunday 18th January Stretching (40 minutes) • Standing "toe touch" stretch (palms flat on floor): 5 x 2 minutes. • Seated "toes up" side split stretch (180°): 5 x 2 minutes. • Isometric side split stretch (180°): 3 sets. This was my last chance to get workouts in for about a week and only managed to stretch lol. Upping the number of relaxed stretching sets seems to have helped; think I might need to approach this like rehab and do extra sessions first thing in the mornings to release the tension in certain muscles. Flying to Portugal today (19th) to watch Mrs. Redcoat fight at the BJJ Euros. Back on Friday but I probably won't be posting here or elsewhere on MAP as much in the meantime.
Saturday 24th January First proper workouts in nearly a week due to being in Portugal for the IBJJF European Championships. Lisbon has lots of undulating hills and we did plenty of walking if that counts (I reckon a good 3-5 miles a day). Had a great time and Mrs Redcoat brought home the silver medal (completely smashing the current Asian Open Champion in her first match). Stretching (40 minutes) • Standing "toe touch" stretch (palms flat on floor): 5 x 2 minutes. • Seated "toes up" side split stretch (180°): 5 x 2 minutes. • Isometric side split stretch (180°): 3 sets. Weights - Shoulder Day (30 minutes) • Barbell overhead press: 2 x 10 (5kg - warm-up). • Barbell overhead press: 5 x 10 (10kg). • Dumbbell front deltoid raise: 5 x 10 (5kg). • Dumbbell side deltoid raise: 5 x 10 (5kg). No real goals with regards to weight lifting. Doing a basic 10-rep bodybuilding scheme because I want a bit of hypertrophy, a bit of strength, and a bit of cardio. I'm happy as long as it gets my heart rate up and I can feel the muscles working. Just keeping active while I figure out what's wrong with my hip, y'know? Haven't lifted weights in months so I started off real light (can't be bothered working out my current 1RM loads). Wasn't hard at all but the weight will keep going up, so it'll get plenty tough soon enough.
have you tried thrusters? light enough that they shouldn't be excessively aggravating to your hip, and enough high rep potential for some hypertrophy and metcon (and you can follow them up with push presses too once fatigue builds up). i prefer them behind the neck, but regular ones are cool too.
Yeah I'm familiar with thrusters but I'm laying off any weighted exercises right now (doctor's orders as I have an arthroscopy tomorrow, and I can't go deeper than a measley 1/4 squat with any weight before my hip says "Uh-uh").
Update: Didn't do anything today or yesterday because Saturday's stretching session made my hamstrings quite tender
All the problems he's been having with his legs, I think the last thing Redcoat needs is some lunatic barbequeing his hamstrings . Actually, would it be easier to do the splits without hamstrings? :thinking:
Update Sorry I haven't shown my metaphorical face in a while. I finally accepted I had a real problem with anger, so I got in touch with Combat Stress (I have Southpaw to thank for that). They made a referral to my local mental health team and I ended up "scoring" very highly on their PTSD screening. I've since completed a residential PTSD treatment course and I feel like a totally different person to who I was. I now have lots of coping strategies to manage my anger, and honestly I feel fantastic. The arthroscopy I had revealed my right hip is in a bad state, so I'm on the waiting list to get it replaced. Like my left hip, the damage is related to my time in the army so I'm in the process of filing a claim against the MOD. If it's successful, I'll buy everyone a beer. As far as physical training goes, I can't kick or hold weights above my shoulders. For martial arts, I'm just boxing five nights a week. My fitness work consists of riding an exercise bike for an hour every morning, followed by relaxed stretches (I can still do front and side splits relatively easily). I'm also doing deadlifts, rows, and weighted dips & pull-ups a couple days a week. Got to do what you can with what you've got, right?
