Friday 21st March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° sidee kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Afternoon - Sparring (1 hour) Did some prep at the England karate team gym for the exhibition fight in a few weeks. Got a feeling my opponent will be more puncher than kicker so I had my partner do boxing-only combinations while I did front leg kicking combinations. Very comfortable sparring boxers these days, which is great because they used to be my worst nightmare. Commanded the centre of the ring most of the time, keeping my partner at range on the end of my foot. Throwing fake head shots so he covered up and converting into a side kick to the body worked well. Followed up the side kick with 2 or 3 head kicks in quick succession. Did find myself against the ropes a few times (our gym has a full sized boxing ring). I survived my partner's punches by leaning and swaying lots until I could "dance" my way out (footwork is probably my strongest attribute after flexibility and strength for holding my leg up in the air). A few times I leant my head and torso to the floor, and kicking him in the head, followed by manoeuvring myself back to the centre of the ring. Did about 10 rounds in total, but if I'm honest we lost count. It was light, fast and fun. Just the way sparring should be. Evening - Belt Test Prep (2 hours 30 minutes) Traditional line work and katas (9th kyu - 3rd dan) for 20 minutes. Kicking combinations on the pads (switching over holding the pads every 10 or so reps) for 30 minutes. Volunteered to be a "shark" for one of the other lad's 100 man kumite preparation (he spars a new opponent every 60 seconds). Only 3 of us "sharks" so we did more rounds than usual (normally 5 "sharks" who do 20 rounds each), ended up doing 34 rounds (1 minute on, 2 off) while the other two did 33. Poor guy in the middle ("bait") stays on for all 100! Full padding and light contact, we're not there to hurt each other. The 2 minutes rest between each of my rounds was more than enough to keep me kicking all 34 rounds (I do 24 x 3-minute rounds every morning at a much higher intensity) without my leg getting at all tired, but my chest was burning really badly by about round 25 onwards. All of today's sparring probably won't help tomorrow morning's workout lol. Finished with a few minutes doing relaxed stretches in deep front and side splits.
Saturday 22nd March Morning - Karate (2 hours) Slept in way longer than expected (yesterday's multiple sparring sessions wiped me out) so I didn't have time to do my regular stretching and kicking workout. Got to the team gym expecting to do a practice shark tank, in preparation for the actual 100-man kumite test event next week. When my instructor told us all to put on our "number ones" (traditional gis and belts), I thought, "Uh oh". The sneaky bugger had scheduled it for today instead! I have to admit I felt a little sick. Warmed up on the pads for 10 minutes, but nothing too hard as I was saving my energy. Padded up (head guard, gum shield, 10 oz. boxing gloves, groin protector, shin guards and kick-boots) and took my place in the centre of the mats. My instructor gave a small speech about the purpose of the test (physical and mental endurance, heart etc) and recited the rules (punches to the head and body, kicks to the head and body, I had to keep fighting no matter what i.e. no going out of bounds, my opponents had to apply constant pressure but keep it semi-contact). Five opponents were picked out (all great friends of mine) ranging from lightweight to heavyweight, all 3rd dan and above and each of them a world champion. They would do 5 rounds each. I felt comfortable the first dozen rounds or so, mixing up punches and kicks so I didn't burn out too quickly. By rounds 25-30 I was breathing quite heavy and backing up much more noticeably. Had to avoid stepping out of bounds (get a warning for doing it twice, do it a third time and you automatically fail). You pretty much have to just defend/counter from the get-go or you won't make it to the end. It really is a matter of "surviving" rather than "passing". At some point around the halfway mark, I was sparring Chris (6'4, 230lb 5th dan) and he caught me with a sweet left hook to the face. Felt a crunch and noticed something in my mouth felt loose. Backed up, removed my gum shield and spat out half a molar. His punch had broken one of my teeth. My instructor asked if I was ok. I nodded, put my gum shield back in and continued sparring. To be honest, I was too tired to care right then and just wanted the test to be over. I grit my teeth (even the broken ones lol) and stuck it out to the end, even landing a couple of head kicks in the final few rounds. Got a round of applause from all the other athletes watching; the team spirit this event builds is great. Everybody is calling out your name, cheering you on to the very end. I hugged all my sparring partners and shook hands with my instructor, who congratulated me on passing (I was closer to passing out lol). My heart was thumping loudly in my head, my lungs were heaving and my muscles were drained of every last ounce of energy. But I made it. :happy: Got the ice breaking test to look forward to next weekend
lol cheers, that's a comfort for the pain that's kept me up half the night. Left cheek and nose have swollen up where I must have been tagged a few times.
Sunday 23rd March Nowt. Nada. Zip. Rest day spent eating junk food, drinking alcohol and watching movie after movie after movie after movie after... you get the idea. Drunk texted a friend with the idea of doing a 100-man kumite every day for 100 days, for charity. And now he's seriously considering it.
Ya know, that would be something that'd interest film/television producers. But it would make winning the Ultimate Fighter seem like a day in a junior-school playground in comparison to sheer difficulty and exhaustion.
Monday 24th March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (1 hour 25 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (20 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (10 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° side kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) This morning was a total failure. Slept in later than normal AND had the energy of an elderly sloth. No offence, karatesloth (not that I'm calling you lazy or elderly, but, you know...). Had to neck a scoop of Superdrive just to get me the hell outta bed. Took another dose before my workout and spent 20 minutes making excuses to stay on the foam roller while trying not to vom. Managed to get all my technique drilling in through sheer willpower, but felt like I was going to <CENSORED> myself at the thought of 24 rounds of shadow kicking and the Focusmaster. Saturday's test obviously wiped me out much harder than I had first thought. Not so much the cardio/stamina demands, but sheer mental exhaustion (and getting my face punched/kicked in for 100 rounds). The stress of the test has affected me. Threw my clean eating out the window for today and gorged on sugar and junk food. Afternoon 1 - Stretching and Kicking cont'd (1 hour 15 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Got the second half of my morning workout in just before lunch. Then proceeded to eat two large Big Mac meals back-to-back. Afternoon 2 - No Gi Judo (1 hour) Hooked up with a couple of my karate teammates who also do judo and BJJ. Did some weird capoeira/gymnastic stuff to warm-up. Drilled hip throw (o-goshi), inner thigh throw (uchi-mata), sweeping hip throw (harai-goshi) and body drop throw (tai-otoshi). At the end of each throw we added a flow drill of passing their guard → full mount → arm bar (juji-gatame). So the whole exercise was throw, pass, mount, sub. Did the full flow with all four throws listed above, about 5-10 times on each side. Finished with some ne-waza (ground grappling) and I got battered. Evening - Sparring (30 minutes) Joined in with sparring at the end of coaching a team training session. Punches and kicks to the head and body, ankle sweeps and hip throws (with punch to head/body of floored opponent to finish), all light contact. Did about 5 or 6 rounds (3 minutes each). Felt much chirpier than in the morning so was head kicking all the way through. Got thrown with a beast of a hip throw, which sounded like I dislocated my spine but really didn't feel too bad. Went for pizza with my teammates afterwards and scoffed a 9" garlic bread and 12" margherita pizza all to myself. Must have eaten about 8000 calories today lol.
Tuesday 25 March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° roundhouse kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Energy levels felt good enough for me to get back to my usual routine without any issues. Afternoon - Upper Body (45 minutes) • Pull-up: 5 x 10 (10 kg vest, thick towel over bar to train grip) • Chest dip: 5 x 10 (10 kg vest) • Chin-up: 5 x 10 (10 kg vest, thick towel over bar to train grip) • Gymnastic ring muscle-up: 3 x 3 (no weight) Seem to get a better "pump" (as the bar bros say) with "functional" (I know zaad hates that word lol) movements like these, with the weight vest to up the intensity. Still aiming for hypertrophy and figure I'll be like Dwayne "I don't do steroids, honest" Johnson by the time I get my first set of 10 muscle-ups. They're murder! Evening - Sparring (30 minutes) Some of the guys n gals stayed behind after a 2.5-hour team training session to get extra training in. Padded up and did 3-on-3 tag team sparring. Format is very similar to WWE in that you can be backing up as your opponent attacks, tag your teammate's glove and they jump in to hit your opponent without them even realising it. Lotta fun
Wednesday 26th March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° hook kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Afternoon - No-Gi Judo (1 hour) Trained with my buddy Shaun (judo 2nd dan) after I finished coaching him in a 1:1 karate session. Hip throw (o-goshi) is my weakest technique so we drilled that for nearly half the workout. Worked on countering their counter (they step over your attempted hip throw by trying to take your back) by converting hip throw into inner thigh throw (uchi-mata). Took me a while to get the hang of this and still didn't feel 100% by the end. Enjoyed drilling the crap out of hip throws though. Evening - MMA Class (2 hours) New BJJ/MMA gym has opened up so I thought I'd check it out. Head coach is a Gracie JJ black belt with a solid boxing pedigree. Talked to him before class and explained my background, he let me skip MMA Fundamentals and go right into the Intermediate/Advanced class. Warmed up with light jogging and arm circles with some short sprints and burpees mixed in. Spent the next few minutes shadow boxing on our own before partnering up and smashing out boxing combinations on the focus mitts. He built the combination up move by move i.e. jab, then jab-cross, then jab-cross-hook, and so on until we were doing a 6 or 7 punch combination. Impressed with his attention to detail. Next worked on front and roundhouse kicks (Thai style) to the body. Hit the big kick shields first then lightly on our partners, with them catching every other kick and countering with a sweep. Followed on from the sweep with getting full mount on our partners, trapping both arms and dropping punches on their heads. This formed the biggest portion of the class. Last 1/3 was sparring, which was nice and controlled. My main tactic (obviously) was to head-kick-and-move. Found axe and hook kicks to be hard for a lot of them to deal with. One guy (much bigger than me) didn't take it too well. Slapped his face with a hook kick from close enough to kiss him, he shook his head a bit then spent the rest of the round chasing after me with huge lunging front kicks! Quite hilarious looking back on it. Another guy managed to avoid my kick and got me in the clinch. Stuck a few knees in me (they hurt). All that drilling this afternoon paid off because SOMEHOW I chucked him with o-goshi! Not sure how I did it but I got told off for not following him to the floor. Last round was against one of their top guys who had me on the floor quick as lightning with a killer double leg. Spent the next 3 minutes clinging on for dear life as I fought to stop the armbar in all its colourful variations (I tapped lots lol). All in all a good class full of friendly people.
Thursday 27 March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° side kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Afternoon - Boxing (1 hour) Solo workout consisting of jumping rope, shadow boxing and punching the heavy bag. Should really get back to a class at some point before the 22nd Century... Evening - MMA Class (2 hours) Back at the same gym as yesterday for another class of doin' UFC. Quite shocked how busy MMA classes are. Can easily see it becoming the next McDojo cash cow. Today's focus was kickboxing. Spent the first 30 minutes drilling boxing techniques in pairs, first without focus mitts and then without. It was the Intermediate to Advanced class so I had no idea why my partner was there. He was twice my size and couldn't pull his punches. I had red welts on my shoulders where he kept hitting me damn near full whack, and the only reason I didn't get injured is because I was rolling to absorb the impact. I told him to ease up. He said, "Oh it's okay, I come here three nights a week." "For how long?" "Two months." Anyway, we got on to doing leg kicks and Gigantor came lunging in like he was trying to chop down a fricking oak tree. Luckily I moved my leg out of the way in time. He recovered back to his fighting stance and started swinging his leg at me again. I backed up (almost crashing into another pair of training partners) with my hands up going, "Whoa! Whoa!" I threw pleasantries to the wind and told him to calm the <EXPLETIVE> down. He looked a bit shocked, then mildly angry, claiming he was good enough not to hurt me. I pointed to the marks on my shoulder and (again) said he needed to wind back the intensity. He said, "This is MMA, go home if you can't hack it." :wow: The head coach was observing and simply reminded my partner that sparring was next and then it would be my turn :fight4: We continued drilling the leg kick and counter (he still didn't ease off) for a few minutes then padded up for sparring (head guard, gum shield, boxing gloves, groin protectors and shin-instep guards). The coach said to keep it intense but playful, and to remember that our partners can hit us as hard as we hit them. I think my partner had been watching too many Machida highlight reels because he came bumbling in with an attempted Karate Kid-style jumping crane kick. I took a step back into left foot forward stance so his kick missed by a comfortable margin (but he was still in my range), then delivered a spinning back kick. My hips drove forward and my right foot sank into the pot belly protruding out from beneath his TapouT t-shirt that was two sizes too small. The 'slap' of my foot connecting with his skin was accompanied by a heavy wheeze as air rushed out of his lungs. It wasn't even 50% power but enough to make him lay down on his back panting. I took my gum shield out, knelt down and patted him on the shoulder with a (condescening) smile. There was a perfect red mark the shape of my foot on his belly The head coach told my partner to sit out the rest of the session, gave me a sly wink and told me to jump in with others. Sparring formed most of the night's class and went without further problems. Finished with 10-15 minutes of circuit training and static stretches.
That sounded like a dignified way of gently educating a classic oaf. At least you didn't tell him "this is mma, go home if you can't hack it" afterwards...
I'm usually a patient guy and I get that what I did was a bit of a dickish move to pull on a noob. But I literally can't afford to get injured, and I certainly won't let it happen due to idiotic recklessness. Plus that pot belly was just screaming out to get kicked!
Friday 28 March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° roundhouse kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Loving these marathon kicking sessions. My leg, heart and lungs all feel strong by the end of the workout. No real drop in my energy levels come the end of the week, which means I'm eating and sleeping right. Still hovering around the 66 kg mark but my body fat has dropped to a little over 9%. Starting to see new veins popping up all over the place (I've been 6% before - my current target - but never with this mass). Pretty sure my forearms are thicker from all the grip work. They look it but never took measurements to compare with. Love kicking, man. Afternoon - No-Gi Judo (1 hour) Making these sessions a daily thing. Seem to have rediscovered my liking for judo. No-gi, at least. Can't be bothered with all that heavy jacket bidniz. Just me and my training partner Shaun (karate teammate and judo black belt), who is now my unofficial judo coach Did front rolls, back rolls, handstands to front rolls, cartwheels and hand walks to warm-up. Then did moving entry drills (uchikomi - practicing the offbalancing part of the throw without actually throwing) from collar-and-elbow tie (ippon-seoi-nage, o-goshi and harai-goshi) and over-under clinch (o-soto-otoshi and o-soto-gari). Followed this by drilling each of those entries as a full throw (compliant partner) ten times on each side. (Unlike striking, where I can get away with using just my right leg for kicking, I'm not experienced enough to throw on one side only.) Spent a few minutes after that doing moderate resistance randori (sparring), where I had to get any throw I could while Shaun tried to stuff my attempts. I didn't get a single one We switched roles after about five minutes and Shaun threw me at least a dozen times. Lucky I know how to break fall! Finished with a ne-waza (ground grappling) flow drill, with the attacker (on the bottom) transitioning from failed triangle choke to armbar from guard (Shaun recently got his purple belt in BJJ). Again, practiced that about ten times on each side. Picked up a cool trick using the elbow of my free arm to hook the wrist of my trapped arm (normally I just grab my trapped arm with my free hand and yank for England, which is always followed by me tapping 0.04 seconds later). Evening - Sparring (1 hour) Joined in at the end of coaching a team workout with some mixed-rules sparring (punching and kicking above the waist, throws and sweeps). Had a memorable round against Shaun. He's a bit taller and stockier than me, and a far better puncher (ex-amateur boxer), but I outperform him in kicking. Shot my leg up vertical and brought down an axe kick with the intention of hitting him in the head. He leaned out of the way, causing my foot to land on his shoulder. He held my foot in place, got an underhook with his other arm and knocked me off balance with big inner reap (ouchi-gari). I landed on me ****, quickly followed down by Shaun. I instinctively trapped him in closed guard (Achievement Unlocked: BJJ FTW! ), which he quickly passed and tapped me out with scarf hold (kesa-gatame). Probably the best counter to my kicks I've seen in a long time!
Saturday 29 March Morning - Stretching and Kicking (2 hours 45 minutes) • Prehab: Foam roller (5 minutes) • Mobility: Joint rotations (5 minutes) • Warm-up: Jump rope (5 minutes) • Dynamic stretches: 180° front leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Dynamic stretches: 180° side leg swings (1 x 12 - right leg only) • Technique drilling: 180° hook kick (10 x 10 - right leg only) • Shadow kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • Focusmaster kicking: 2- to 5-kick front leg combos (12 x 3 minutes - right leg only) • 180° side kick static hold (3 x 30 seconds - right leg only) • Relaxed stretches: 230° front oversplits (2 x 1 minute - both sides) • Relaxed stretches: 190° side oversplits (2 x 1 minute) Morning 2 - Breaking (30 minutes) Final part of my 3rd dan test was breaking 1.5-inch thick ice blocks. Broke two (at once) with a right-hand reverse punch (think boxer's cross), three with a right elbow and four with a right leg stepping-in spinning back kick. My instructor made me do it twice over because I was using my right side only (candidates usually do it once on each side). Anyway, I passed so I'm officially a 3rd dan now. Bit of a milestone for me because I never bothered going beyond 2nd in other styles. Afternoon - Lifting (1 hour 30 minutes) • Back squat: 2 x 5 (30 kg) • Back squat: 1 x 3 (40 kg) • Back squat: 1 x 2 (50 kg) • Back squat: 5 x 5 (65 kg) • Barbell row: 2 x 5 (25 kg) • Barbell row: 1 x 3 (35 kg) • Barbell row: 1 x 2 (45 kg) • Barbell row: 5 x 5 (50 kg) • Deadlift: 1 x 5 (60 kg) • Deadlift: 1 x 3 (80 kg) • Deadlift: 1 x 2 (100 kg) • Deadlift: 1 x 5 (120 kg) • Pull-up: 5 x 10 (10 kg vest; thick towel over bar to train grip) • Chin-up: 5 x 10 (10 kg vest: thick towel over bar to train grip) Decided to throw in a maintenance strength workout at the end of my training week just so that I don't regress too far because I'm too busy kicking. Not going beyond x1 and x2 BW for squat and deadlift respectively because those loads are sufficient for my sport. Maxed out on rows at 50 kg however. Grrr. Got hungry so didn't bother with isometrics at the end. Evening - BOB XL Workout (30 minutes) Got a new BOB XL freestanding dummy (the one with an armless torso and head) delivered to my home gym so I now have that to play with in addition to the Focusmaster (wall-mounted pad station). Did a few leg swings then practiced some basic side, roundhouse and hook kicks. Set it to 6 feet 5 inches tall and could still kick it in the head from standing (albeit very up close). Very light and informal workout but putting it here for record keeping. Will probably add a few rounds of BOB XL kicking in my early morning stretching and kicking workouts from Monday.
