Wednesday (29/11/17) Rest Day Thursday (30/11/17) So, after just over an hour of throws, takedowns and ground skills at Judo on Tuesday, tonight at Karate we did 90 minues of, yup, you guessed it, Throws, Takedowns and Ground Skills. These lessons are a whole hell of a lot less technical than those practiced at Judo though, and which we obviously allow Striking to be included as part of each drill/technique. I was partnered up (to assist) with 2 Red belt (7th Kyu) students, who had not done a great deal of these kind of sessions, so we limited things to Tai O'toshi, O' Goshi and Kesa Getame, as well as ways to step these up, and how to defend against/escape from, both with and without striking. The session then finished up with some (fun) manic Free-for-all Randori, where anyone and everyone was fair game - It was a small class though, of just 12 students, but that in no way made it any easier. Friday (01/12/17) Bit of a something of nothing day today, with just 1 minute of Burpees, following Tabata timings - This may seem pointless in and of itself, but it is just day 1 of a progressively harder Christmas/Advent plan that I have in place for December... ...which may be subject to (slight) change, but which I hoping to stick to as closely as possible. Travess
Saturday (02/12/17) Just a short and (extremely) succinct update today... Calendar day 2: 2 minute Crunches Tabata @ 83 reps Travess
Sunday (03/12/17) One of those rare as rocking horse poo occasions, where in I get home from work to find a darkened and silent house, with all 3 of my precious gals still fast asleep in their beds... ...time for an almost* pre-7am workout! (*almost, because I started before 7, but didn't finish until after...) Warm-Up: 6 minutes of Stretching Various Kata (Ichi, Ni, Saifa, Seyunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Tensho and Sanchin all at 50%) Calendar day 3: 3 minute Mountain Climbers Tabata Starting HR: 67 bpm Finishing HR: 144 bpm Start time: 0657 End time: 0720 Note: My wife had the heating on, ready for when her and the girls wake up, so am close to burning up, as I sit here and type this!!! Travess
Monday (04/12/17) AM: Warm-up: 4 minutes of Stretching 2 x Tensho Kata Calendar Day 4: 4 minute Bicep Curl Tabata @ 96 reps (12kg Kettlebell / Closed grip) PM: Karate @ 90 minutes - We had a new walk-in student tonight, and I was tasked with teaching his introductory session(s) My teaching style for newbies has always been one of both verbal teaching points, and visual instruction (i.e. doing everything along side them, so that they have a frame of reference to copy along to) As such, tonight I (we) covered close to (if not over) 100 reps each of O' tsuki, Age Uke, Uchi Uke, Gedan Barrai and Mae Geri, as well as severel lengths of the dojo in Zenkutsu Dachi, Sheiko Dachi and Sanchin Dachi. He really seemed to get into the training, even saying more than once that he was 'loving this' but he became very quite when we watched the seniors Shime Testing their Sanchin Kata - I do hope we didn't scare him off!!! Travess
Tuesday (05/12/17) AM: Calendar Day 5: Kind of took the 'lazy' approach today (i.e. no warm-up, no kata) jumping instead straight in to a 5 minute Plank Tabata. PM: Judo @ 90 minutes - As I stated last week, tonight (and Thursday for the Thursday session students) would be the night of the Grading - Now, it had been my understanding that my participation was gonna be that of an Uke, for those taking part in the grading, as I'd only completed 6 of the required 12 weeks of training. How wrong I was! It was decided that because of my background and foundation in both throws and takedowns, that I'd do what I could and let my Judo speak for itself... (As we'd covered most of the syllabus last week, and I'd already subsequently posted about it in this thread, I'll just quote it here rather than re-type it) ...which in this case warranted a Double Grading - Which I couldn't be happier about. Travess
Wednesday (06/12/17) I awoke with a pretty sore back this morning (lower right small of back) which I felt go during one of the Tachi Waza Randori rounds that we did last night (which I seem to have omitted from my post) - I went in for a Seoi Nagi at the same time that my partner attempted an O' Goshi, and something gave. In light of this, I chose to restrict today's workout solely to what is listed on my calendar... Warm-up: 6 minutes of Stretching (Quads, Hamstring, Calves and Ankles) 2 x Tensho Kata 5 x Staircase sets (Walking) Calendar Day 6: 6 minute Staircase Sprints Tabata @ 28 reps/flights of stairs (up and down) +6 steps Starting HR: 68 bpm Average HR: 108 bpm Finishing HR: 136 bpm Start time: 0916 End time: 0936 Travess
Thursday (07/12/17) AM: No Kata or Staircase assending today, as my wife had left me a list of Chores to do, so I decided that they'd make an adequate warm-up instead. Warm-up: 30 minutes of Household Chores (Hoovering downstairs, storing boxes in the attic, tidying the kitchen) 6 minutes of Stretching (Quads, Hamstring, Calves and Ankles) Calendar Day 7: 7 minute Squats / (alternate leg) Lunges / (alternate leg) Assisted Pistol Squats (alternating between the 3 for each 20 second work period) Tabata @ 64 reps / 40 reps / 32 reps respectively. Early PM: Kids Karate @ 60 minutes - Ran a 15 minute warm-up, that required both a physical presence, whilst at the same time requiring them to be able to follow rapid goal changes. Next up, we worked on Team Building Sparring Drills, that had 1 student in each group dubbed as a 'VIP' who had to be protected at all cost. Finally, on the Pads, they looked at a Pre-emptive Slap, refining everything from they Lay Up and Striking thru the Pad, to Use of Hips and Footwork. Later PM: Karate @ 90 minutes - More Teaching for me, with the same lad that I took on Monday night's session (and who I'll likely be working closely with, until the new year) The 1st 45 minutes was mostly spent on Kihon, Stance Work and Pad Drills, revising and refining the same basic techniques that we covered last session. I then walked him thru the footwork, begin to end, for Gekisai Di Ichi, focusing solely on Correct Stance, Foot Placement, and Posture. Finally, we integrated in to the rest of the class, who were running a few interesting Advanced Combination Pad Drills - Many of these were very much a case of 'running before he could walk' for my new charge, so we took each one slowly, working on the pattern over all else. Travess
How come you are doing bicep curls so much and is tabata a good protocol for this sort of exercise anyway?
Simple (though admittedly not necessarily correct) answer is 1) I enjoy (as much as anyone enjoys these sort of things) Bicep Curls and 2) I favour the stop/start principles offered by Tabata for all my workouts. A less simple answer, at least to the 2nd question - Tabata certainly isn't bad for this kind of exercise, though it admittedly is suboptimal, especially if your goals are hypertrophy. Obviously a more compound workout would be better than this! All that being said, I'll be the 1st to admit that I am very much a 'blind squirrel searching for acorns' when putting together my workouts, so any and all advice is always welcome. Travess
Unless of course you were referrig to my advent tabata workout (which didn't occur to me earlier) then that was nothing more than my 7 year old and I coming up with random exercises, and pulling them out of a hat... Travess
Friday (08/12/17) Rest Day All the stresses, road bumps and general grind of daily life, having to deal with problems created by others, as well as those created by myself, instilled in me one hell of a 'What's the bloody point in it all!!!' outlook today I'm sorry to say... Saturday (09/12/17) aaaand, I'm back! Started the day off with a 9am Kids Karate class, where we covered Basic Kihon Drills, Compliant Scarf Hold and Upper 4 Quarters Hold Practice, as well as a few rounds of Randori (looking to secure either of the aforementioned holds) Warm-up: See above... Calendar Day 8 and 9: Now that I finally have my 'Mojo' back, I decided to retroactively complete yesterday's calendar workout, by interweaving it with today's 9 minute Bag-Work Tabata, which I alternated each minute of with yesterday's 8 minute Press (on the TRX) Tabata (giving me a 17 minute Tabata workout in total!) Start time: 0845 End time: 1055 Starting HR: 71 bpm Average HR: 97 bpm Max HR: 161 bpm Travess
Sunday (10/12/17) Rest Day - Spent nigh on 3 hours shovelling drives and public path ways today, either at my house, a few of my neighbours houses or at my parents place, so whilst I am classing today as a rest day, I definitely still worked hard. Monday (11/12/17) Rest Day - My shoulders, back and arms were suffering greatly following yesterday's snow day, so I decided to rest up (inc no Monday night Karate) for a day... Tuesday (12/12/17) Rest Day - ...or two! Wednesday (13/12/17) Missing 3 full days of my calendar training choices, meant that I was now 46 minutes (inc. today's) of Tabata Training in arrears. ...So, to play catch up, I decided to combine 4 different exercises in to One 4 minute Tabata (alternating between each exercise at each 1 minute mark) Minute 1: Mason Twists Minute 2: Shadow Boxing Minute 3: Bicep Curls Minute 4: Staircase Sprints which I repeated for a total of 11 rounds, with a minutes rest between each round. Start time: 10.07 End time: 11.01 Starting HR: 76 bpm Average HR: 112 bpm Max HR: 168 bpm Calories burnt: 691 Hopefully now I wont feel too guilty about tonight's all you can eat Chinese, which will likely be washed down with a few beers, OR about the extra large bag of popcorn that I'll be consuming at midnight!!! Travess
