Mr Punch's Brand Spanking New Blog

[Mr Punch]

Old one here. Thought I'd start a new one as the old one was not titled as a blog, so many people didn't know.

I've linked the old one because it has some very useful advice for weightlifting newbs and people who have (had) lower back pain.

I hope to post on this one more often, but I've been posting less (and training more) recently, so it may well be sporadic.

[Mr Punch]

Background:

Aikido and other aiki based arts since 1990, used to train everyday, sometimes twice a day, always tested in live sparring sessions with friends who did karate, kf etc (no grappling artists at the start of that time other than a bit of judo). At the time I was sparring a lot (ten years ago) we took the TJA approach and used no protection. And yes, although we usually pulled techs we did sometimes go full contact, and yes, we did sometimes (frequently?) end up with injuries: mostly cuts, scratches and bruises but we had mild concussions, dislocations, sprains and stuff too. Teachers inlcuded h2h and riot police teachers, other LEOs and bouncers and their teachers. Emphasis on the practical.

At the same time (ten years ago when I was most active in these arts) we also sparred with bokuto and jo/bo. It was not of course full-contact, but as close as you can get.

At the time I could easily breakfall from pretty much anything on any surface, and we trained in every weather condition too! Now I'm a wuss (OK OK older and somewhat sensible).

Nowadays my involvement in aiki-based arts is strictly limited to exercises and mixing it in in my sparring (infrequently).

Most recently in formal aiki-based teaching I spent about 4 months or so with a geezer who'd learned hsing-yi and daitoryu aikijutsu and was teaching very fundamental daitoryu principles. This improved my aiki and wing chun and general fighting dynamics and I still practice his exercises. He has crazy skills, of the kind that I'm not going to talk about because I'll sound like a flake, but having met some serious charlatans and ki-weirdos in my time this guy changed my opinion of what is really out there. I stopped because of other commitments and some differences of outlook.

Yang-style tai-chi, three years, privates for fighting apps, and classes two or three times a week for wibbly health nonsense. Gave me a good overview of tai chi in general, and maybe helped with a couple of principles, but apart from some chi kung I do for relaxation and stretching, had very little I still use regularly.

Wing chun since 1996. Traditional approach but personally and privately again always sparring with other kfers, tai-chiers, karateka etc. Sparring was a trad approach again, with only gumshields and cups for protection. At the same time (in my wing chun heyday maybe 8 years ago when I was training everyday and sparring pretty much every day too) was also regularly playing around with a judoka and learning some rudimentary groundwork him (by getting owned... though I have to say, maybe I have some natural talent!).

Nowadays my wing chun is a multi-lineage group. We meet usually twice a week, and train forms, apps, chi sao, two-three step sparring, and once in a while full-contact sparring. The full contact is not as often as I'd like. The chi sao is a little too often. we do go quite hard though at times, and a lot more co-operatively at others. We often had light sparring sessions with 'guest' artists from other arts, though not as often as we used to, and I have arranged seminars with an MMA teacher.

MMA (Shooto based - ie, wrestling, BJJ, JJJ, Thai and boxing, with a strong emphasis on double-leg shots as a takedown, and sprawls). About two years, but on/off because of injuries and commtiments, so in terms of good intensive continuous training probably more like six months (sniff sniff). A lot of full contact sparring with protection: got a great chance to pressure test my wing chun and aiki principles and techs in full contact setting.

Would like to do more but can't see it happening for a while, and would also like to compete one day just for the hell of it.

[Mr Punch]

Oh yeah, and kendo: practiced over here for about four years. Still do when i have the time... would love to go for nidan asap.

[Mr Punch]

Sunday 12th.

Wing chun from 1030 till 1430 or so.

Lots of chi sao.

Were at my fu-bro's house with his dummy, so reviewed the first dummy form (had learnt up to 6, but due to thinking their were better uses of my training time than air-dummy since I don't have a dummy... largely forgot them again). Was good, and I was pelased to see how quickly it came back, which kind of made me not feel so bad about not keeping it up, but also made me want to do more!

Basic pole exercises. I can't do one of them, because it needs wrist strength I just don't have! Bit disappointed, as I've been weight-training and didn't know i was so puny!

Pizza and beer.

[Mr Punch]

Monday 13th.

Tabata push-ups.

Was very busy so didn't really have time to train. don't even remember how many I did... maybe 72 or so.

[Mr Punch]

Yesterday:

Warm-up:

Tabata push-ups: 78 (highest yet), only 10 from knees in the middle.

Tabata lunges: 92 (? can't remember) alternating same side, alternate and walking.

Tabata crunches: 126.

Light stretching.

Weights (at the moment I'm limited to the weights I have at home which are two dumbells with a max of 38.5 kg, will buy an olympic bar at some point soon I hope).

Was in a hurry and wanted to work everything pretty much so didn' really think intelligently about what I was doing, just put them up!

3x5x38.5 squats (I always go Ass To Grass... dunno if that' good or what)

3x5x38.5 DLs

1x5x28.4, 2x5x33.4, 1x2x38.5 (failure) overhead presses (I know I can reach bodyweight and over in squats etc but my overhead presses suck... don't know if this is normal for an untrained lifter?).

3x5x38 floor presses (no bench yet).

Cardio:

20 mins heavy bagwork, high intensity... felt like I was going to die!

Run:

Slow, 10 mins.

Cycling:

Very fast, 15 mins up and down.

Later, SLT, CK and BJ and stretching.

[Mr Punch]

OK lads, take it away: I welcome all criticism, comments, suggestions, encouragement, abuse!

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

so thats 85lbs per db?

if so that's no joke man ... good job.

[stricker]

Your aikido background sounds no joke either!

You got any particular objectives your working towards or weaknesses that need addressing?

[Mr Punch]

so thats 85lbs per db?

if so that's no joke man ... good job.

Holy crap no! Not yet mate! I'm pushing it up all the time but I'll have to check with the db shop to find out the max weight they can take before I get much bigger!

It's actually really puny... those squats are using two 19.25 kg dbs: I'm a complete newb so the max I've pushed up is my BW (then 75 kg) for 5 in DLs and squats in the gym. Now I'm no longer in the gym so I'm going as heavy as I can (which is a measly 38.5) concentrating very much on getting perfect form (I'm still considering myself in rehab for my back) so when I can buy new an olympic bar and more db weights it'll be easier to increase quicker.

I've only just started ATG squatting so I want to make sure it doesn't eff up my knees as I have various recurring knee probs to go with the back.

Stricker, the aikido was surprisingly good. I had good teachers, I trained like a maniac and fortunately came out unscathed (tho maybe my knee and back problems are partly related). I say surprisingly, because I've had good results with aiki principles in full contact MMA sparring and in the street. I do think the principles aren't taught enough in aiki schools though (including the one I was at, good though it was), and there's an over-reliance on techniques, which makes for a dangerous cookie-cutter approach to SD and whatever.

Yesterday, really wanted to train, but was well tired after work and got home and slept like a log.

So... this morning got up at 5:30 to do:

warm-up

The back pain-prevention routine from the other thread.

weights

3x5x38.5 tiptoes superset with 3x5x38.5 DLs

3x5x11.75 bicep curls
3x5x11.75 hammer curls
(not interested in big biceps but want to get a bit stronger in the arms)

1x5x11.75 tricep curls
1x5x11.75 inverted tricep extensions (think that's the name)

ran out of time...

more tonight.

[Mr Punch]

You got any particular objectives your working towards or weaknesses that need addressing?

Oh yeah... rehabbing and preventing further back and knee probs, and getting generally stronger.

Want to try cleans, jerks etc, and sometime maybe club-bells and/kettleballs just because I think variation is the best way, but would be far too worried about form for now and have no access to a teacher (my trainer went back to her home country).

Short-term: my wrists need some work, and my pverhead presses and bench really suck, and though I'm not sure how MA-related these are getting them a bit stronger can't hurt!

[stricker]

good objectives, now gotta tailor your training plan to address them

[Mr Punch]

Too sick to train for a week and a half, then too busy. Hope to train this weekend if my wedding doesn't get in the way too much!

[Mr Punch]

Been a bit busy with work and my wedding and whatnot, plsu still been kicking off the tail ends of some odd flu-type bug. Just been odd bits of form work and bag work.

Last week got back into the swing by religiously doing tabata push-ups everyday but one. A lot of lit says tabatas every day are a surefire way to overtrain, but I thought I'd give it a shot and see how it went.

No probs, I rested when it seemed like a good time (maybe Thursday, I don't remember). My count didn't really improve though and was below my PB of 76 (puny enough anyway!) in the low-60s. Also did a couple of tabata lunges.

Saturday I was busy again, no time even for the bag (got up early so can't hammer on the bag due to neighbours), so I went for the tabata pushups again and hit 82 with relative ease. Nice. New PB. Limited myself to only one set of kneeling pushups (before I had been doing kneeling pushups whenever I felt tired, but I think the new mental discipline helped me push myself a bit). Did regular, wide, narrow (killer in a mixed set), scapula (thought they'd be a doddle - bit of a break, but turned out to be one evil burn!), elevated and kneeling.

When I improve more, I want to throw in some plosive ones too.

Sat night drank my bodyweight, so was expecting to feel bad in the morning, but with plenty of water the night before and between drinks and a good diet Sun morning felt fine.

SUN: two hours of fu and aiki.

Went over basics of shihonage (like a standing figure four arm bar) and kotegaeshi (standard disarm shown in many LEO agencies) with my fu bro. This was very basic and slow, without any resistance, just to show him the basics.

Then a long long sesh of kicking drills basically involving one of us front-kicking to chest height and one of us deflecting and kicking through with bong gerk, rolling bong gerk, tan gerk. Then kicking a front-kick, being stopped and turning it into a side kick. Also worked knees of course by doing the same things from the closer.

Good sesh. My legs weren7t working properly after, because they were tired, stiff and bruised.

Decided I was weak in the kicking dept so later (my wife was away!) trained a lot more...!

Warm-up: Mc Gill's back exercises.

Tabata lunges (trying as much as poss to relax and stretch into them: alternate legs, full set on alternate legs, walking, same leg),

Tabata kicks to the heavy bag (first front kicks, then another full set of bong gerk ('roundhouse' knees))... then mixed sets until basically I couldn't lift my legs any more.

Tabata sets of sprawl drills (****! that's a killer!)

Tabata sets of double-leg drills (not good on tatami mats, even with jogging pants it burns the knees and having to wear socks makes you slip and gives you serious strain on your knees even slowly)

Squats 3x5x38.5
DLs 3x5x38.5
Floor press 3x5x38.5

30 mins of yoga (mostly sun salutation sequence plus triangle and warrior) to warm-down.

That ws a good workout, but did have rather too much muscle strain to anything other than stretching last two days. Tonight gonna train again.

Really have reached the limit of my weights (except for the overhead presses) and can't afford to buy any more before Xmas, so trying to vary my exercise routine as much as possible. Gonna try and get some side presses and windmills in tonight, see how those go.

[Mr Punch]

Was busy with work. Just tabata push-ups every day(ish) till 21st.

21st:

Bodyweight training:

warm-up: push-ups, crunches, squats.

Then supersets of various things, mostly too easy... can't remember the exact sequence, but includes things like 15 push-ups followed by 3 x 8 planks on each side, repeated twice. The only one that taxes me is the three sets of 16 Bulgarian split squats superset with 15 elevated push-ups, but not that much.

Still, it's a workout.

23rd:

two hours of chi sao with one advanced training partner who is making leaps and bounds using a few things we've shown him recently, and with one one-year noob, who still doesn't really seem to get the point of chi sao, has shoulders as stiff as planks and is mortally afraid of getting hit even lightly (maybe he has a low pain threshold!).

24th:

Fak sao from BG: one-step drills, three-step drills and chi sao working the same concept.

Good session. Improved my understanding and application of BG.

Yesterday (27th):

Tabata push-ups (PB 88 - various : regular, wide, narrow, kneeling, elevated, scapula, fist)

Tabata crunches (PB 179 - regular McGill's, alternate shoulders, bicycles)

Tabata lunges (88 - walking, alternate, same-side)

Squats 5x5x39.5 kgs
DLs 5x5x39.5 kgs

Kicking drills.

Tabata kicks (179 - concentrating on post leg form and keeping light on my feet - bong gerk knee raises, bong-tan knee raises, front knee raises)

Today (28th):

About two hours, few rests.

Warmed up with aikido ikkyou kaeshi waza: ikkyou, ikkyou and returned, and continuous punching ikkyou drill. Largely co-operative, later bit more resistance but used it to concentrate on footwork and finding centre quickly, and as a basic side and bong sao stretch.

Close range elbow drills from BG: lap sao against elbow-elbow to jaw, kap jarn to disappearing bong control against elbow and straight punch/back fist with the same hand, fak sao against elbow. Good stuff. Started co-operative then got a wittle wuff. Good work-out for rolling out of neck-ties, and breaking out of clinches with elbows and then getting more distance.

Chi sao, rather uncooperative, couple of clips round the head, but not too wild.

Same as usual: need some sparring... haven't sparred in too long. Need bigger weights. At the moment working on cardio and form with my puny 39.5 kgs... if anyone can think of any interesting exercises to do with 19.25 kg DBs until I can get some more weight, please let me know. At least my squat and DL form is perfect and my back is stronger than for years, and I'm still feeling gains strength-wise, but I'm very limited by my equipment for now.