Slothosaurus Training Log!

WOOOOP!

I just felt like say that.

Note to all: Do not have a large doner meat and chips before training. Yuck. Also, having to fish slugs off the ground with your bare fingers is fine, but don't rub your eyes afterwards!

02/09/13:

Warm up:
Few minutes of crocodile twists and stretches, followed by seven repetitions of Pinan Sandan. Started slow and gentle and getting progressively faster until you hit #7 at full speed and intensity. Loved this as a warm up. Did not love the little brats who live nearby scattering loads of stones in the road by our house where I was doing the kata barefoot. Still, good way to start.

Moving kihon waza:
Mae geri chudan x 96 (first half medium, the rest fast/full speed). Felt so good to be able to do this fast after days of not being able to!
Tsugi ashi gyakuzuki chudan ipponken x 72 (50/50 split).
Mawashi geri chudan x 96 (50/50 split)
Ayumi ashi junzuki jodan x 48 (50/50 split)
Ushiro geri x 36 (slow/medium - still trying to get to grips with this)
Ayumi ashi jodan uke gyakuzuki jodan x 72 (50/50 split)
Tobi mae geri x 16 (all fast - aggrovated my hamstring at this point, so called it quits on moving techniques)

Gentle stretches for two minutes

Sonoba kihon waza (stationary fundamental techniques):
Jodan zuki x 50 (medium), chudan zuki x 50 (full speed, naihanchi dachi)
Jodan uke x 50 (medium), jodan uke x 50 (full speed, shiko dachi)
Naiwan uke jodan x 50 (medium), naiwan uke chudan x 50 (full speed, shiko dachi)
Gaiwan uke jodan x 50 (medium), gaiwan uke chudan x 50 (full speed, naihanchi dachi)
Gedan barai x 50 (medium), gedan barai x 50 (full speed, naihanchi dachi)

Again, hamstring started to whinge, so I figured it was better to play it safe than sorry.

Warm down: OVER 1 KILOMETRE RUN BAREFOOT WITH PLENTY OF GAS LEFT!!!!

And stretches.

I know the distance is pretty crappy for you guys, but for me that was HUGE. It wasn't all that long ago that 20 metres would have caused havoc with my shin splints, so this felt AWESOME!!!!!

Total time - 1 1/2 hours.

Grip training - used a tennis ball, squeezed it with my four fingers pushing into it against the palm of my hand. Tore the ball in half on my first try. Must be doing something right!

Sadly, I am down a tennis ball

 

Can you tell me about how you practice uke and barai? Outside of kata and in-class application, it's always seemed like something so simple that it's not worth practicing to death-except against a bag (my shihan has showed me how to use these as counter attacks). Domo arigato! :hat:

 

Why are you doing so much barefoot training?

 

I'm not sure why, but I've found with my new instructor "gedan barai" is essentially "gedan uke" with a couple of very subtle but massively important tweaks. I'm assuming it's a style difference, but then having gone from a Goju background into Wado, it kinda feels like I'm learning everything for the first time all over again.

But it depends really. Most nights at home I tend to adopt either naihanchi dachi or shiko dachi as the posture to practice from and just drill the body mechanics over and over again. When you think about it, aside from the fact I think every kata starts with some form of defensive movements they're also amazing techniques to open up an opponent for a good counter attack in my eyes. So for me they're as essential as drilling tsuki or keri.

Occasionally though if I'm down at the park, what I do is take an old squash bottled tied into a tree with a bit of string and fill it with water. Usually I tie it so it hangs at head height. Push it away and then refuse to move and deflect until the absolute last moment when it's that or it cracks you across the nose. You'd be surprised how fast you move when you have something swinging towards your face (even as lame as a water bottle) that isn't entirely in your control. You can then go more advanced and tie multiple bottles and get them all moving, but that can get a bit chaotic .

There's other tricks you can do depending on where you train - like trying to move faster than your shadow or seeing in your mind how you want your deflection to work and trying to go faster than that, too.

Because (1) I don't have any sets of trainers any more. Every set I use has literally either been torn in half or had the grip worn do so much I can't move safely in them and (2) because I genuinely find it more comfortable actually. I do have a pair of steel toe-capped boots that aren't in bad condition, but they're very uncomfortable for me to move in. I also have a pair of sandals I can wear, but the grip on those is wearing out too. They're fine for shopping trips where I'm moving casually and relaxed, but not great for trying to jog in.

 

03/09/13

No real kihon waza training tonight. Decided I felt like a change. I haven't done any real significant body weight training since I tore the ligaments in my leg and cracked my shin bone at the end of last year, figured since my cardio and overall strength seem to be back to how they were I would try that instead.

Knuckle press ups, elbows tucked in, arms 90 degrees x 10.
Jack knives x 10
Plank x 1 minute, abs and buttocks tensed up to keep proper alignment.
Wall sit x 1 minute.
Burpees x 10. Rather than doing a star jump I launched myself up into naihanchi dachi and practiced nido zuki jodan (double punch head height)
Mountain climbers x 20 (counting two movements as 1 rep)
Squats x 10, going from standing straight to getting your butt just off the floor.
Hand stand x 15 seconds. Not quite at the stage I can do it properly again, so I'm having to support myself by bracing the toes on one foot against a wall.

Rest x 1 min 30 seconds.

3 complete sets of the above exercises. 2 minute stretch after completion of the third set.

Tobi mae geri x 16 to get my legs moving. Hamstring started to twinge again, so I stopped there.

Chi-ishi:

"Limp wave" - 3 sets of 22 reps, 5 seconds between each set.

My shin splints are playing up bad after yesterday, so I called it quits there.

Total time - 40 minutes.

Not an amazing session, but I'm ok with the fact I did something. I think I'll start doing that once a week and work up again, it's been too long since I did proper bodyweight training.

Hoping to get some time in the park with my small tractor tyre tomorrow, so should be fun. And I got some good news! I tried to put on my t-shirt after I got changed and had a wash post training, my t-shirt got stuck on my wings! Woop!

Also, I think I have another pet hate. People who start smoking nearby and all you can smell as you're gasping for air is other people's cigarette smoke :bang:

EDIT: Forgot to add 2 mile walk for shopping today, the same yesterday and 1 mile the day before.

 

I love and hate my tractor tyre...

Took it down to the park earlier, decided as I haven't trained with it for a little while it was about time we got acquainted again

Warm up:

Light stretches

3 x 10 body rows - had to grip onto an obi suspended off a large chunky tree branch. 30 second intervals between each set.

3 x 10 leg lifts. Start with the feet a couple of inches off the ground, raise both legs straight to 45 degrees on the first set. Second set, raise them to 90 degrees. Third set curl as far as you possibly can with each set, hold for a couple of seconds, then return. 30 second rest between each set. Had to stop myself rolling over on the last one

More stretches.

Tractor tyre (weighs a little over 30kg I think, stands at my hip height - I'm 6'1"). I want a bigger one, but beggars can't be choosers.:

3 x 20 flips. 30 seconds between sets. Because the tyre is light, the flips were done one handed gripping with the finger tips, each time the bum has to pretty much touch the floor.

1 minute rest, time spent stretching.

3 x 10 lifts. Squat down into shiko dachi (but with the legs at a full 90 degrees rather than the previous example), stand up as fast as you can, lift the tyre onto one shoulder, hold for one second. Down. Repeat. 30 seconds between sets.

1 minute completion after the sets, time spent stretching.

3 x 10 curls. Conventional curls were hurting my wrists too much today, so I had to stand inside the tyre, grip with my finger tips with my palms facing out, then lift up to my armpits. 1 minute between sets.

1 1/2 minute rest, time spent gentle jogging.

3 x 10 tosses. Take a step forward, brace the tyre against your rear leg. Roll/hoist it onto your chest, then with your leading hand push the tyre away as far as you can. Jog after it to catch it. Rinse and repeat. 1 minute rest between sets.

1 1/2 minute rest, time spent massaging my legs.

3 x 10 rear tosses. Squat into shiko dachi as before, launch your weight up and toss the tire behind you as far as you can. Run after it, throw it again as soon as you reach it. 1 1/2 minutes between sets (I was tired).

1 1/2 minute rest, catching my breath.

10 x 50 metre sprints. Tied a couple of obis to the tyre. Tied the obi's around my chest. Sprint 50 metres at a time (surprisingly hard), 10 seconds rest between each 50 metres, 30 seconds rest after 250 metres.

1 x 1 tree pull. Flipped the obis over a chunky branch, hauled the tyre up so it touched the branch. After that the obis got stuck in the tree, so that was a no go from there.

20 minutes carrying the tyre across one shoulder.

Total time - 1 hour 15 minutes.

There were a few more sets of exercises I usually do when I train with just the tyre, but I ran out of time (had to go home, feed that pesky family!).

2 mile walk for shopping today.

Refusing to train tonight. I've not been sleeping for the last few days, I'm exhausted, I've had chinese, I think I'm gonna kick my feet up and play the Dawnguard dlc for Skyrim I downloaded today

I think there might have been more, but for the life of me I can't remember :dunno:

EDIT: I remembered now!

 

Time for a macho mention now:

Taking apart a recliner chair earlier, the damn thing had the back piece bolted, glued and screwed to the metal frame. Really quite well constructed. Most of the screws through the chair had been unscrewed, but there were a few that couldn't be accessed that were holding the back on and the whole chair together.

Up steps karate sloth and with a heroic demonstration of awesomeness, tugged and pulled until I snapped the metal frame on one side. Then grabbed the whole back piece and managed to twist it around until I snapped the frame on the other side in a display so awesome my father-in-law and wife both couldn't quite believe what they'd just seen.

Brute strength and ignorance for the win!

Probably shouldn't go in the training log, but it was worth an honourable mention

 

05/09/13

Absolutely nothing tonight. Had a bit of a crap day and the wife has had a flare-up with her chronic pain condition, so I'm on house husband duty tonight.

 

Did you suddenly bulk up, turn green and tear your shirt too?

 

Lol! The thought crossed my mind, but being the civilised gent and not wanting to either expose my horrifically white skin (I could play the part of Casper!) or tear my favourite t-shirt, I decided it was better not to do this. Or maybe the wife decided for me. I can't remember :thinking:

Friday 06/09/13

Gentle kihon waza tonight, I should be going to the dojo tomorrow (I'm a day out and nearly missed my chance to go!). Not doing anything today was probably better for me than I thought. My mood swings have gone the way of being really, really angry the past couple of days. I also ended up passing out for a nap for a couple of hours this afternoon completely against my will. No-one could wake me up at all.. I must have needed it mind, I haven't had a restful night's sleep in a few weeks.

Anyways, onto shenanigans!

Sonoba Kihon waza (medium/full speed):

Jodan zuki x 50 // chudan zuki x 50
Jodan uke x 50 // jodan uke x 50
Gaiwan uke jodan x 50 // gaiwan uke chudan x 50
Naiwan uke jodan x 50 // naiwan uke chudan x 50
Gedan barai x 50 // gedan barai x 50
Naname zuki chudan (diagonal punch middle level) x 50 // naname zuki chudan x 50
Shuto uchi jodan x 50 // shuto uchi jodan x 50
Nuki te uchi chudan x 50 // nuki te uchi chudan x 50
Uraken uchi jodan x 50 // uraken uchi jodan x 50

Moving kihon waza (medium/full speed):

Mae geri chudan x 64 // mae geri chudan x 56
Mawashi geri chudan x 64 // mawashi geri chudan x 56
Ren geri x 25 // ren geri x 25
Tobi mae geri x 50 (all full speed, very hard to perform jumping techniques at a medium speed)

80 x repetitions of half the first movement of Pinan Sandan (just shifting my weight off the centre) // 20 x repetitions of the full first movement (left and right). Not happy with this part of the kata, so I spent a few minutes drilling it.

Total - 1hr 5 minutes.

Gentle stretches post workout.

I wanted to do more actually and even do some more dojo undo exercises, but since it was nearly 10pm when I started (breaking one of my cardinal rules of training!) I decided to call it quits then. Especially as going past 11pm is against another of my cardinal rules of training.

Had a bit of a breakthrough though - tonight was the first time I've practised chudan zuki in the last 3 years or so and it's managed to be surprisingly fast and not feel stiff or robotic! I am rather pleased with that .

Now just the rest of my techniques

 

Saturday 07/09/13

Had a thoroughly crap nights' sleep to start things off. My baby boy was having really bad nightmares which kept me up for a while and when I did sleep, the dreams were horrifically vivid and real. Not fun when it's a cross between Dead Space 2, Event Horizon and Saw. :bang:

So I got up three hours before time to go to the dojo today. Got the kids woken, dressed, fed, watered, the whole works. With over an hour to go...and I passed out for over two hours. By the time people could actually wake me up enough to sit up, the dojo session had already started. So I completely bloody missed it! Gah!!! :bang:

Never mind, I figured! I can start training earlier tonight, get a longer session in, make up for lost time!

Kata:

5 x Gekisai Dai Ni (medium speed)
5 x Pinan Sandan (medium speed)
6 x Saifa (medium speed)

Sonoba Kihon waza:

Jodan zuki x 50 // chudan zuki x 50 (medium/full speed)
Jodan uke x 50 // jodan uke x 50 (medium/full speed)

Mae geri chudan x 50 // mae geri chudan x 50 (medium/full speed)
Mawashi geri chudan x 50 // mawashi geri x 50 (medium/full speed)

Chi Ishi:

"Limp wave" x 120

Total time - 1 hour.

2 mile walk for shopping.

It's raining, my pelvis keeps clunking/cracking every time I attempt a geri movement, my aggravated hamstring isn't getting much better, the little brats have tossed a crap load of stones all over the area I practice kata AGAIN! I'm gonna have to see the doc about the fact I'm not resting properly when I sleep, it's getting too much.

 

I would pay to see that.

Hope your sleep pattern improves. Could be a sign of chronic fatigue.

 

Your pelvis cracking that sounds odd. One of my hips used click but doing some of the things recomended in this article seem to have stopped it.

http://anthonymychal.com/2011/11/how-to-cure-snapping-hip-syndrome-2/

 

Lol, it would be a damn decent movie actually. Most of my dreams would mind . They're pretty cool, until they become almost so vivid you can almost feel the moment a dudes' knife slips into your stomach, or the bit where a zombie like creature tugs on your arm hard enough to wrench the shoulder out the socket, or hear it far too well when somebody has their spine snapped. Then they become a tad creepy for my tastes.

I think the worst bit is I never hook up with the girl though. Ever. She always dies or something. :cry:

I had thought about this. You might be onto something, but it doesn't explain why I have difficulty "shutting down" to go sleep for the night (even after stretches, breathing exercises, etc), but it would explain the muscle and joint pain, lack of concentration, worsening short term memory, etc.

That might help for when my hips play up actually.

The only thing I can say about the pelvis is that it really isn't much like the hips. It's literally like you can feel the two halves of the pelvis shift a fraction each time. Makes slightly less of a "crack" and slightly more of a "clunk". Doesn't happen very often, but it was bad last night.

 

.

 

^^ Because everything's better with an "Oh myyyy.....". Gotta love George Takei

Sunday 08/09/13:

2 mile walk for shopping.

That was it. Evil, evil wife tricked me into playing Skyrim for a while so she could watch, so by the time I wanted to train it was past 10:30 at night.

Damn woman knows me too well...

Monday 09/09/13:

Kettle bells (2 x 5kg):

32 x Junzuki chudan
26 x Chudan tsuki in Sanchin Dachi
30 x "lifts" - my pelvis was only "clunking" some of the time today and never when I was going into shiko dachi either, so that was an improvement.
28 x "Push the roof"s
28 x "Mississippi"
24 x Mae geri with kettle bell on foot
13 x "Bear Squat"
20 x "Toss and catch". Start in shiko dachi, stand up, launch it up, tap it twice, catch with the opposite hand, drop back into shiko dachi.

Makiage Kigu (wrist roller, 7kg/15.4lbs):

7 x repetitions going up and down.

The fatigue is definitely getting to me. The spasms I had across my hands and down my lower arms were freaky.

2 x Barbell plates (10kg/22lbs each):

26 x pinch grip. Can do more, so I'll have to push for more.
8 x knuckle press ups, elbows tucked in. Upon completion of each press up, draw one plate up to my ribs, straighten my arm behind me as far as I can with the plate in my hand, return to my ribs, then down. Rinse and repeat. The press ups are getting easier again at least, but the fatigue isn't.
13 x "Pass the parcel".
13 x Curl & press in Shiko Dachi. Starts as a hammer curl, turns into an Arnold press while dropping into shiko dachi.

Jerry Cans (2 x 20kg/44lb)
Farmer's Walk - Done for 52 steps before failure. Made it harder by wrapping the handles in dish cloths to make the grip more difficult.
Farmer's Walk 2.0 - Zero reps. The sides were soaked for some reason (I'm guessing there's a leak in my shed) and on the first step I dropped it. Had to rest it on my stomach, which meant I wouldn't be doing it properly.
12 x Bicep curls. Done in the same way as the tractor tyre a few days ago.
15 x kettle bell swings. Awkward as hell doing it with jerry cans though, the size of them is just horrible.

Chi Ishi (1 x 5kg)
26 x "Limp wave"
28 x "Shiko Roll"
26 x "Round the sloth"
28 x "Chi-ishi swings"
26 x "Setting sun"

Total time - 1 hr 12 mins.

Ran out of time, so I'll have to try and do some more later.

On the down side, the fatigue is getting pretty bad. When the wife gets back I'm off to book an appointment with the doctors about it. Also meant my hands and muscles were spasming quite seriously while training, which was crap.

But on the serious plus side, my cardio has vastly improved in the last few months despite progressively worse fatigue! Woop!

 

I tend to agree. You need some non-MA, non-fitness type activity days. Rest your mind and body. I've had 6-7 weeks out of Judo and ready to kill it when I get back in the dojo, apart from a little bit of band Uchi Komi and more squatting I have done no training.

I recommend Kelly Starrett's mobility WOD on youtube.... Also if I'm reading your log correctly you are doing punches and kicks with added weight, seriously that's not a good idea

 

I've arranged to see the doc anyway as I had a few others things I needed to sort out (like kids' medicines) so I figured it was worth a check in anyway while I'm at it. The reason I wanna check with the doc is that I haven't had a full night's sleep in months and according to the missus the last two months have been particularly heavy for me.

I know enough about what my body wants to know when I've overdone it with the training (believe it or not). The aches, the stiffness, the complete lack of energy, lack of co-ordination, muscle spasms, that horrid feeling like someone's leeched the energy out of your muscles, random cravings for extra fluids or certain food types and so-on. I know all those, but this is definitely different.

Leave Skyrim?! Are you mad, man?! There be dragons to slay, bandits to shout at, cheese to steal!!!

That's true for a lot of people. I've never found it works well though. Sure, I might mentally want it a bit more, but everything else tends to go down the pan.

I probably do, but as I'm limited for options I'm not sure what to do (no transport, little money, family in tow)

:jawdrop:

...and you can train after that much of a break how, exactly? But you've continued with some form of training in that time, haven't you?

Cool beans, I'll have a squizz at that.

Some, but not the way you might think. The first couple of years of training I was pretty religiously drilling my kihon waza with 2 - 4 kg strapped to my arms and legs going full pelt because my instructor told me it was a good idea. Yeah...it wasn't. It really wasn't. 1000 reps + with added weights like that hurt.

Now I only do a few a couple of times a week just 'cos it does force me to correct my balance a little more. Even then, they're not full extensions, only done slowly, etc. Been thinking of knocking the punches on the head though. They're just not working for me any more.

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09/09/13 (cont.)

No real training tonight. Bit more stretching, but that's about it. Wife sat down with me to try and organise a rough rota for stuff. Going to make sure I have days off as well as usual training days, see how things go.

 

10/09/13:

Not a great deal today. Had planned to do some pad work this morning, but one of the local mums sent her triplets down to do some P.E with me. I ended up running/jogging/sprinting over 2k (woop!) but didn't do any pad work today.

Sonoba kihon waza:

Jodan zuki x 50 // Chudan zuki x 50
Jodan uke x 50 // Jodan uke x 50
Naiwan uke jodan x 50 // Naiwan uke chudan x 50
Gaiwan uke jodan x 50 // Naiwan uke chudan x 50
Gedan barai jodan x 50 // Gedan barai chudan x 50
Uraken uchi jodan x 50 // Uraken uchi jodan x 50
Shuto uchi jodan x 50 // Shuto uchi jodan x 50
Nuki te uchi chudan x 50 // Nuki te uchi chudan x 50
Naname zuki chudan x 50 // Naname zuki chudan x 50

Total time - about 25 minutes or so.

Van Zandt recommended a foam roller to me, so I've gone ahead and ordered one today to help with stuff too. Be interesting to see what that does for me .