The Git's Coronary Bypass Bypass

What are you talking about? You have two sons...

 

I assume you're still feeling knackered using light weights as you are. Get well soon, mate!

 

____ you and the horse you rode into town on Its kilograms; not pounds.

Nahh, seriously, it's not from being knackered - its from being paranoid

 

Interesting in that - yeah, they've both had boxing - that's how I started MA; but the danger of them getting hurt...its a lot different when you are sparring with kids - they are so fragile.

They were both moved to adult boxing class because of their power and ability back when we were in Ohio. One of them began having bad, bad headaches - enough to make him cry ( and he doesn't cry) about half-hour after the class was over.

They were getting tagged - what looked like ( and felt like from the adult sparring partners POV ) little pillowy soft punches were in fact having consequences and I pulled them out of the adult boxing class and put them in something safer - American football. (yeah, right)

Now he's laid up with a fractured rib after their last scrimmage.

But, nahh...never spar with kids - ever.

 

LOL Sorry I came across as rude...wasn't my intention 'tall. :bang: I know you were using metric...it just still seems like light weight for the particular exercises you were doing. I can see why you're paranoid now. I would be too in your position.

 

You warn't rude. I was just giving you jip as the occasion presented itself

They are very light - no doubt. Some of it is fear of the returning tendinitis. Also my weight equipment set up (unlike my boxing/mt setup) leaves a lot to be desired. I'm back squatting off of a bench-press rack - not a power rack - for example.

I'm also using a standard bar that has threads for a threaded "locking" collar and the more plates I have on it the more the collars un-thread themselves from the plates moving and putting a locking pin to keep the collars from coming loose reduces the number of plates I can have on it, etc., etc.

Just not in a position to go out and get an Olympic set. I'm just going to pick up a couple of heavier standard plates to reduce the volume and that should put me back to square one.

That and a power rack.

 

03.09.15


Warm up - yeah, yeah

Back Squat (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 40kg, (5X5) 52.5kg

Bench Press (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 40kg, (5X5) 52.5kg

Dead Lift (1X8) 20kgm (1X5) 40kg (5X5) 57.5 kg

Overhead Press (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 35kg, (5X5) 45k

Barbell Row (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 30kg, (5X5) 42.5kg

Cool down - yeah, yeah, yeah

Nothing to add...ho hum...

 

04.09.15

Today was gonna be a throw-away day. Just felt directionless and mean as cat-squat and had planned to just lay into the 150lb bag till I warn't able to go anymore.

I decided instead to test myself. I went back to my very first log and decided to see if I could at least duplicate it, if not surpass it.

I had to really force myself to skip and do jumping jacks for the warm up. I just wanted to bang - which is why I forced myself not to - just to spite belltoller.

Just one of those sod-it-all-sod-the-sodding-rotter days. Frustragette City. A dangerous state of mind to be in. Good thing I don't like drinking too much - I suppose.

Anyroads - the results were not good. I haven't been in a boxing gym for six months or so and not being pushed to my limits each time I train has led to decline.

Couldn't last more than 3 to 4 rounds at 3min with 30 second rests. The first time I logged I was doing 9 rounds plus 5 minutes of skipping right in the middle of them. At one point I think I'd managed over 15 rounds at 3min a piece.

That's right, folks. The idea of self-training is one of bovine-fecal production.

If one isn't feeling this close to dying while you are training, you're wasting your time. We (generally speaking) just aren't going to push ourselves to that limit each time - it takes another to do so.

Lets not even discuss technique, experience, reference pov's, skill acquisition - I already knew those would be saying "bye-bye" - but I thought one could maintain their basic skill-set and certainly their conditioning.

No, no. It all dies.

Of course we all know that. But now I know it not just anecdotally, intuitively but experientially. As if I needed the numerical proof

Time to find a trainer.

I really don't care in what anymore. Just someone close enough that I can get to them in a reasonable amount of time several times a week who has enough experience in something to know what my limits should be and take me up to them - not past them - my enlarged heart and leaking valve have'nt gone away for certain - but right up to my envelope - progression.

 

05.09.15


Back Squat (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 40kg, (5X5) 55kg

Bench Press (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 40kg, (5X5) 55kg

Dead Lift (1X8) 20kg (1X5) 50kg (5X5) 60kg

Overhead Press (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 35kg, (5X5) 47.5kg

Barbell Row (1X8) 20kg, (1X5) 30kg, (5X5) 45kg

Sod it. I'm moving to 100kg for the next bench. 300lb for the back squat and - what does Strong-Lifts say? 180kg for DL's

That'll show the codswallows who's in charge. Uh-huh

I suppose if there be any advantage to being over 50 ... its we likely don't care about impressing anyone anymore and as far as big gains in little time - once you've blown your whole wad in pork-belly futures, you don't see Risk wearing garters and pumps they way you used to.

----------------

Events after this post took their course - kids football injuries, other diverse and sundry issues would take their toll in training time over the next couple of weeks.

As 300 - 500 lb Olympic Starter Weight set being more than I want to shell out for now and I really don't want to invest much more in plates for a cheap, 5 - 6 ft standard bar whose real capacity isn't much more over 200lb, I think a couple of plates more and that'll be that.

----------------------

Training frustration has pushed belltoller over the edge. While taking a son to the local rec centre to get some coaching, I couldn't help but notice canny little monographs on Tai Chi Chuan - posters illustrating various moves in Taiji and some brief descriptions of the origins of the art plastered all over the walls outside the basketball court.

Fit most of my requirements; feasible to get to, offers real training in an actual physical location, reasonably priced ( very much so in this case), lacked 'bait and switch' (i.e. fee'd to death with belt tests, etc) a bona fide martial art that doesn't require cult-like belief before efficacy is demonstrated.

The only requirement left to satisfy - its instructed by a recognised personage qualified and deemed as such in the field. He may very well be - I just haven't gotten round to find out that yet.

 

I s'pose that's a pretty good general Rule of Thumb. It's funny; there's a father/son pair who're in my Kung Fu class. Dad's about my age. Jr.'s about 15. A set of circumstances had them facing off during sparring class one night.

They were remarkably civil. Oh, they fought. And both were trying to get the upper hand with each other. But the dad clearly won the round. He admitted he had mixed feelings. On one hand, he wanted to see his kid do well. On the other...dad still needed to show who was boss.

 

The late great Robin Williams once called Tai Chi "Kung fu on Quaaludes". Still, it's some genuine good stuff. My Sifu also teaches that. Every once in awhile he's show us some little Tai Chi sample, like knocking a man off his feet just by gently turning his wrist.

That may be just the ticket. Assuming it meets all the requirements.

 

I never sparred with them in class, unfortunately. I think if I'd been the sparring partner for them, I wouldn't have had to pull them out.

They'd had a new fellow sign up for the class and the instructor probably didn't do his homework with regards to assuaging just how heavy handed he was - he warn't trying to hit hard - one could see that - it was just that he had so much power - my god. He ended up Ko ing a long time student (just a couple of years younger than I) and really messed him up.

He was hospitalised for days and ended up quitting the class because of the frightening headaches he was still having a month or so after he was cleared.

As it was for my son, is was scary. He was having personality changes - highly agitated, crying - that went along with the headaches. It wasn't that he was getting hided, bloodied up or any of that - this was freaking scary.

A couple of times seeing that and that was it.

Funny that. That's about what I'm looking for as far as Tai Chi goes...

Say what?

 

Yikes!

HOLY Vatican City!

Yeah I get that. We had a guy like that in Muay Thai. He was just doing boxing, but he was a bully. He'd throw hard during sparring (instead 50% - 60% power like we're supposed to) and had this whole Cobra Kai "Winning is everything, losing is for the weak!" attitude.

I hated sparring against him because he was just such a jerk about it. Used to get slight anxiety attacks when I'd see him in class, but I could hold my own, at least.

One day, one of our best fighters got tired of his nonsense and got in the ring with him. The Bully did his usual stuff...punching hard, attacking after the closing bell, cheap shots, etc. Muay Thai fighter kicked him in the head.

Bully: "Hey! You're not supposed to throw kicks!!"

Muay Thai Figther: "You're not supposed to throw hard."

Bully left the next week.

Yeah. Sifu was demonstrating internal power (chi). One of the upper belts threw a punch and Sifu caught it. Then he just turned his wrist and flung the guy a couple of feet.

I know there's more to it than just that. But that's how it looked to me.

And it was AWESOME!

MOD Note. watch the masked profanity please.

 

Hmmm...there's been some debate in the Internal Arts forum about this sort of thing - internal "chi" power and throwing one's chi about.

I have to say its one of the more dodgy aspects of TCMA's and I'm not convinced at 'tall - in fact, just the opposite - with regards to anything that is essentially action at a distance.

Of course wrist locks and throws are credible - even sitting down, I suppose.

I had a friend at one time, he was Vietnamese and had fought for the US before North Vietnam invaded/unified. He showed me a couple of LE crowd-control techniques that were surprisingly effective at getting someone moving in the direction you wanted them to with very little exertion.

But that is different from this, which I find utterly silly and unbelievable. You're not meaning this when you speak of internal chi power I hope

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I[/ame]

 

24.09.15

Gymnastics Rings

Pretty good session. Will have to come back to fill in the details a little later.

 

03.10.15

Spent the past week fording streams, wielding pick axes and mattocks while eternally soaked with sweat and rain in the Appalachian foothills all the while nursing a son who' contracted food poisoning under such dire circumstances has left me a bit stiff and weak-in-the-gut - I did manage to climb back on the rings today - albeit my get-up-and-go had decidedly got-up-and-went

Hold from Top Position (2 sets @5 seconds each)

Ring Dips (2 sets @3 reps each)

Ring Pull Ups (2 sets @2 reps each)

These were each alternated with jumps on the box and sit-ups.

Jump box 3 sets@3 reps each
Sit ups 3 sets@10 - 12 reps each

I had zero energy today - but still glad that I pushed through something.

Next week I plan to jump back on the heavy bags, speed bag and double-end bag in preparation for my upcoming Taiji and Kung Fu classes.

What to work on? I've not a bleedin clue but it couldn't hurt, could it? If I can recall some of my Muay Thai kicks - I might try to throw those in as well ( since I have a rather decent MT banana bag, why not?).

Kung Fu, at any road, does include kicking.

 

Is the taiji with a different instructor to the kung fu class , do you know what style or have a link ?

Sounds like you had the full prospector experience - battling the elements and ill health , d'you find any gems ?
Notwithstanding your son's food poisoning it sounds like an excellent way to spend some time - load up the pick-up with a 12 gauge , a rod and a few provisions, hit the back roads , cook what you catch , maybe pan a few nuggets ( forgive my daydreaming , )

 

Nah - its with the same instructor - I'm pretty much decided against the KF class and will just keep the Tai Chi.

No 12 gauges - ha. Sadly the rains and food poisoning ruined what started off to be a promising adventure. You know those rolling, god-awful, sweating pains that go on for hours before it allows you to chunder. Not easy for the bairns to keep their composure through such.

It was our first time trying our hand at it - next time we'll have a much better idea of how to go about it - the trick is finding a likely place that isn't private and directly inside national preserves (hands off) and hasn't been gone over with a fine-tooth comb already - not that easy! Although my son did manage to find a bit of sapphire, quite a bit of garnet, amethyst and so-forth before he became ill. He's a nose for that sort of thing.

 

07.10.15

Did quite a bit of good interval's last evening. Not planned but found myself in the mood for it.

The road outside our house has a 25% - 30% gradient @ 300 metres or so. The dog and I did 3 sets of a fast walk, slow jog and a sprint each set for the length of that section of the road.

Most odd in finding it not the sprints to be taxing but the walk - I did it with maximum stride length - similar as to what I would do with staircase lunges.

Cardio held out well, surprisingly - but I'm paying for it with achy legs this morning.

 

10.10.15

Well, alright. The TCC session hinney and I had today sparked the training bug in ole belltoller, so it war down to the basement he went.

No warms ups, no stretching - just wanted to bang.

Everlast (black leather one - its actually harder to work with than the red composite) Speed bag.

8 minutes, 30 sec rest.

Had a bit of timing/rhythm troubles with my right today - which is unusual.

70 lb Canvas Bag

Combos and slipping/footwork practice - man, am I out of synch after leaving the boxing gym for so long now 3 rounds

150 lb Muay Thai Bag

Rapid 1-2 burnout alternating with combos with level changes 3 rounds. I held out but by the time I got to the last combo set - I don't even remember doing it, though I did.

That's a little scary.

Reluctant to go back to the cardiologist - don't wanna know
Reluctant to put the BP cuff on - don't wanna know

Living in fear is - not living.