Well, I couldn't start my log until I had a title [no title, no log, those are the rules]. So here I go!
My goal is to lift strongly so that I can do the other things in my life well or even better:
TKD jump spinning kicks and low horse stances
remodel my house - painting, drywalling, kneeling into cramped corners to remove decades-old tack strips
a full day of gardening
a vicious four square game at work
learn to telemark ski
cycle a century or two
I'm nearing the end of Stage one, so I'll post my start/finish lifting data next. Let me just say that I am stoked that my rest week coincides with my spring break.
Our school is part of the ITF branch, but we use a different belt system and do our forms in a traditional karate style. And our sparring is strictly non-contact.
Our sparring is a bit different from what people generally associate with TKD - no big red or blue targets on our chests. One minute straight of jumping kicks is pretty tough right now - two minutes at black belt level. Yikes - I'm still a ways away from that test though - I'm at 4th kup, which in our system is 2nd degree purple.
*Squats have taken me a long time to figure out. I stayed at 50# for several workouts trying to figure out how to stop dropping my torso as I lowered. Now I'm eyeballing a spot on the wall about 10-12 feet high and it's working. My balance is much better and I'm able to get that "drive down with your heels" feeling.
**I hate these. I've gone back and forth between stepping up onto a bench with 20# DB, knowing that I was "cheating" a bit, to trying step downs with BW only, not letting my trailing foot plant on the ground at all, a la pistol squats. I hate these.
*My left shoulder is still screwed up from a pinched nerve last year. I can feel how much it has strengthened, but it's tender still.
**It seems like only yesterday that I hit the puke zone in workout 1 on these.
Current workout:
Last night was workout 7B for me and it was the first time that I've crapped out on a workout. I felt strong as heck on the deadlifts, even emitted a girly grunt on the last rep with 100#. But then I got to the lunges and felt a pain under my right kneecap when stepping forward with that leg. Went to BW only, and the pain was still there. crap. I wonder if it's from whacking my kneecap with the bar on deadlifts, I do have a lovely bruise there...
Two more workouts and my rest begins on Monday. I'm skipping the AMRAP because I know that I need a rest _now_ but want to complete the last two workouts.
Our school is part of the ITF branch, but we use a different belt system and do our forms in a traditional karate style. And our sparring is strictly non-contact.
Our sparring is a bit different from what people generally associate with TKD - no big blue red or blue targets on our chests. One minute straight of jumping kicks is pretty tough right now - two minutes at black belt level. Yikes - I'm still a ways away from that test though - I'm at 4th kup, which in our system in 2nd degree purple.
Hah - I know, I'm usually the one that gets a little carried away and needs to be reminded...
We do get the hitting part in though... Broke two boards with an outward knife hand strike (non-dominant hand) the other day - yeah! Take that, imaginary mean person's ribs!
Hah - I know, I'm usually the one that gets a little carried away and needs to be reminded...
We do get the hitting part in though... Broke two boards with an outward knife hand strike (non-dominant hand) the other day - yeah! Take that, imaginary mean person's ribs!
*snort* Yeah, that could work, too Board breaking is loads of fun. So are cinder blocks... Oo, cinder blocks--I want another crack at one. Missed both attempts at my black belt test
We do continuous round sparring in my school. Chest protectors are required for the lowest two belt levels, optional after that, and not allowed for black belts.
It may sound weird, but I like being hit hard when we spar--reminds me to work on not being hit. If that made any sense...
I wonder if it's from whacking my kneecap with the bar on deadlifts, I do have a lovely bruise there...
I'm so glad to hear that someone else periodically gets their knee on the deadlift. I've always wondered about my form because every few weeks or so I smack myself.
You've made awesome progress! I just did 6B today, I love the program
I did TKD for awhile when I was younger, but my school closed and then I went to college. I got disqualified from a non-contact competition once, because...well I think it's pretty obvious...opening roundhouse kick to the head probably wasn't a good idea. She cried, etc, etc, no medals for me. Although they let me play with the boys after that and I got second place. Reading about all you guys talk about TKD makes me miss it.
I did TKD for awhile when I was younger, but my school closed and then I went to college. I got disqualified from a non-contact competition once, because...well I think it's pretty obvious...opening roundhouse kick to the head probably wasn't a good idea. She cried, etc, etc, no medals for me. Although they let me play with the boys after that and I got second place. Reading about all you guys talk about TKD makes me miss it.
Very nice.
(But how in the world do you have a "non-contact competition" in sparring? We call that "forms".)
I did a bit of karate as a kid, but really started TKD in college, after an ankle sprain sidelined me from soccer and then my black belt friend decided she wanted a sparring partner. It's a college club, so everyone is 18+. (I graduated a few years ago, but they still let me come.)
You know, Gina, we've had quite a few members who did a martial art as a kid and want to pick it back up, and they always remember a lot more than they think they do. You can always tell the ones with previous experience. So maybe if there's a good school around you, you might want to pick it back up again. (But find a school that lets you hit people.)
Re: Deadlifts
There were a lot of threads discussing deadlifts a while back, esp. whacking knees with the bar. The "search" feature should pull them up. I do remember people advocating Starting Strength as a great resource for fixing DLs and squats.
What no contact LOL! We were not supposed to contact but I managed to get more than my share of bloody noses, black eyes and broken toes. Finally I said enough!
I had to go to work with engineers looking like I got the bad end of the stick. I was one of the only ladies. I made it to about 2 levels below blackbelt. DH was a blackbelt and I kept asking why he didn't beat the snot outta guys who beat it outta me LOL! They were terrified of him because he is tall with big feet .
I do miss it, it is cost prohibitive in my area, I was hoping to get all my kids in it. Besides the only studio around is my "previous" rival studio... I have to drag some old pics out and scan them LOL!
My deadlifts are feeling pretty good overall - no lower back pain whatsoever - I think that it's the dragging the bar over my knees part that occasionally goes wrong. The pain under my kneecap was a little scary. Aspercreme and rest will hopefully do the trick.
Re sparring -
It's pretty fun, actually. For testing, our sparring is really just for demonstration of that level's kicks - blue: jumping; purple: jump spinning; brown: multiple kicks in air. There's two people aiming their kicks towards one another, but the emphasis is on technique.
Tournament sparring is another matter. We score points if an attack - hitting or kicking - is within a certain distance - 8 inches or so for white belts, an inch or so for black belts. As an example - Gina's opening roundhouse kick to the head would have scored had she stopped the kick and rechambered within a few inches of her surprised competitor's head. So it emphasizes the self-control tenet. I still smack and get smacked once in a while. If serious contact does occur, both competitors are held to blame - the hitter for not being under control, and the hittee for not dodging the blow. Though the hitter can be penalized for total lack of body control or blind technique.
I know that many martial artists think that this style is a waste of time .... That's okay .. I'm still very new to all this and am happy where I'm at now. We get into controls and breakaways sometimes, and I realize that I want very little to do with joint work - one loss of concentration could really screw things up...
It's pretty fun, actually. For testing, our sparring is really just for demonstration of that level's kicks - blue: jumping; purple: jump spinning; brown: multiple kicks in air. There's two people aiming their kicks towards one another, but the emphasis is on technique.
We have "combos," a couple of kicks & hand techniques together, at each belt level to show the new techniques. Invisible opponents
Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaC
Tournament sparring is another matter. We score points if an attack - hitting or kicking - is within a certain distance - 8 inches or so for white belts, an inch or so for black belts. As an example - Gina's opening roundhouse kick to the head would have scored had she stopped the kick and rechambered within a few inches of her surprised competitor's head. So it emphasizes the self-control tenet. I still smack and get smacked once in a while. If serious contact does occur, both competitors are held to blame - the hitter for not being under control, and the hittee for not dodging the blow. Though the hitter can be penalized for total lack of body control or blind technique.
I can understand the self-control reason for non-contact. The joke in our school is that you don't want to spar the yellow belts (first level with sparring) because they have no self-control. But after an opponent tells you you're hitting too hard--or not hard enough--you learn to adjust. (Hey, I think I just came up with a new drill for the yellow belts in their sparring class. Maybe they'll stop bruising me up!)
We have the "both fault", as well. Some of the more serious hits I've seen/had were from either not moving out of the way or moving in to the hit (while thinking you were actually dodging). And yes, the hittee gets told it was their own fault. But if you're a black belt, everything is your fault. Doh!
I've judged a few tournaments, and we always emphasize "appropriate contact level" for each belt level. For example, the yellow belts can not hit very hard while the black belts had better hit pretty hard for the hit to count. Of course, they can still only hit to the target areas. Especially with the lower belts, we have to remind that if the hit is too hard, it will not count. It's control, but kinda backwards, I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaC
I know that many martial artists think that this style is a waste of time .... That's okay .. I'm still very new to all this and am happy where I'm at now. We get into controls and breakaways sometimes, and I realize that I want very little to do with joint work - one loss of concentration could really screw things up...
Meh, I'm not good with remember all those joint manipulations, and I shudder anytime we work on moves that will dislocate elbows if done fully. I dislocated mine falling during sparring; not from contact, just stupidity.
I've honestly never heard of "no contact sparring" before. It just seems strange to fight without hitting anyone or being hit since I've been hit for so many years. We've done some as a warm-up to sparring or as a drill, with any hit being a set of pushups, but never a fight that way.
What targets to you aim at? We have sides of the head, right above the forehead, chest, and ribs. Do you guys do a lot of strikes toward the face, kidneys, throat, and other areas that wouldn't work for contact sparring? I could see that as a definite advantage of non-contact sparring, something that would be useful for self-defense teaching. (Whereas we have to teach the kids to spar and later teach them to fight (mostly throwing out all the Rules).)
Still, I think between no-contact and contact sparring, I'd rather have full contact, crazy as that is. There's something fun in it. Kinda in the same way I think Alwyn's workouts are fun. Fun as in "I survived. I must not've done something right..."
All this talk of TKD makes me miss it. I did it for a while too, then switched to Kung Fu for a while. I fractured my wrist sparring, took time off to heal, and never quite made it back. In the process, I had a girlie moment and started ballet--quite a change! I'm over the girlieness though, and am considering going back to some form of martial arts after snowboarding season is over.
(But how in the world do you have a "non-contact competition" in sparring? We call that "forms".)
I don't know, it was this weird tournament that was hosted by one of my instructors old students...so we always went to it. Uhh...it was point sparring and the idea was that the kick WOULD have made contact, so you got the point that way. It was kind of silly.
I've thought about getting back into it...it wasn't THAT long ago...8 years or so. I agree that I probably would remember more than I'd expect to.
Squat: 75# (wow - I thought I'd be stuck with the bar for a long time)
Push up: final set of 8 from floor (elbows <90deg)
Seated Row: 85# (these make my eyes sweat)
Step up: BW on knee high step (did I mention that I hate these?)
Prone Jackknife: 15 (killer)
Velogirl and I brought a friend to the gym today whom we know would dig this workout - she's a very powerful cyclist. Showing her the moves and helping her fine tune her squat form made me realize just how far I've come over the past 6 weeks. Very cool. She did her 2x15 pushups at 45 deg and was surprised that they were harder than they look. I like that AC steers us women away from knee pushups because I can tell that my whole body really has gotten stronger in my progression toward the floor.
I hate doing pushups at TKD because we're on a padded and carpeted floor - I always feel totally lame that I haven't improved more. So it really surprised me to try them from the floor today and be successful! I'm glad they're in stage 2.
STAGE ONE DONE!!!!! No AMRAP for me... Rest time has officially begun. It was a good final workout. 8 AM workout - my first early one. Banana and coffee for breakfast. Felt fine, better actually than on Saturday mornings.
Deadlift: 100 x 8 all three sets. Focused on glutes and felt it. I want to check shoulder form though. Should they be low and pulled back from the start, or is it okay to kepp them forward at the start of the lift and pull them back as I lift?
Shoulder Press: 30x8, 40x5, 40x6 finished sets w/30. Felt stronger than other times, still major imbalance.
Lat Pull down: 85x8. Very hard to squeak out. Second set found myself "bouncing" at the top for momentum. Better on third set.
Lunge: 20x8, 30x8, 30x8. No pain!!! Read somewhere that forward momentum should stop after step. This made a huge difference and probably saved my knee!
Crunches: 10#/15
I may still go with velogirl to try out movements for next workout to shorten the break in time. This is the most committed I've ever been to an exercise plan. good job me.
Went to the gym last night to do a run through of some of the new exercises in stage 2 and get a sense of starting weights.
FSPP is interesting, to say the least. Warmed up with 30# 5' bar. It felt pretty good, so I went into the squat rack to try out the oly bar. Hmm. much more challenging. I racked and reracked quite a bit to get the hang of the forearms and wrist thing. From what I'm understanding it's a learning curve to get the hang of the bar and hand transition. The Jerry Hill cf thruster video seems like the best tutorial...
So I think I'll start with the 45. I don't think it will take much to add more weight once the coordination is there. I feel like I'll be capable of 50-60#.
Dumbbell 1-pt row. geez, just getting the balance took quite a while of standing there, by then my leg was already getting tired.
I like the variety of lunges. Step ups - yuck.
Wood chop - cool exercise! I'll start at 50#
Underhand Lat pull-down - How nice to feel strong after the wide grip ones! Start at 85#
Cuban snatch - yikes! very difficult - 8#db - since it's a snatch, is it supposed to be explosive? hmm...
Lastly - what is the difference between the Bulgarian Split Squat and the Static lunge, rear foot elevated - I see that there's supposed to be 6 in or so diff in height of back foot, but what makes one a lunge and the other a squat??
Maybe start tomorrow... otherwise I'll wait until Tuesday.
My weight has dropped a few pounds during rest week, interesting. We'll see what it does when things start up strong again.
After a good motivation chat with velogirl, I decided to jump back to stage one and finish it up with her before moving on to stage two together. It will be good for both of us to work out together at the same stage. I started early since she was on a business trip, and there's been a little bit of her playing catch up and me excited about what's next.
Workout 7A kicked my ass .. again. Tho we were pretty stylin' in our new Chucks - well, her new Chucks and my Old Navy knockoffs. Those squats are so darn tough. I don't know about all this "women are quad dominant" talk when I find that I can't get my butt low enough. During warmups I sat really low in the whole and found it pretty comforting to just let go of the bar and ta da - thank you safety rails. I know that we're really folding forward on our squats - I just don't know how much is too much. We both can get our butts to bench height no problem, but any lower and we fold forward.
Hit the puke zone dong the rows - funny how such a benign exercise generates that feeling. 3 sets of 8 pushups from the floor - yeah boy! I just looked at her and was like, "Regardless of what the mirror is showing or not showing right now in terms of the goddess thing - I cannot freakin' believe that I'm doing pushups on the floor!"
I even managed my step ups a little bit better.
This week the goal is to clean up the diet - plan, plan, plan.
DL - 105x8 all three sets - these were hard, seemed a lot harder than 100#. We're doing them on the floor, so I know that they're tougher. We saw a guy DLing in the squat cage - 135# - I was like, dude, that guy's huge, and I'm only 30 pounds away from that. The guys in the gym (and girls) are gonna freak when we start putting the big plates on the bars!
shoulder press - 20# db did 5,5,4 then finished each set with 15#
pull down - 70, 85, 85 - 85s are getting easier, focusing on really activating core, hips, and traps
lunge - 15# db
crunches - 3x25, no weight, just went for endurance.
These workouts make me tired, no doubt. It's very tough to go to the gym after sitting in traffic for an hour. I'm starting to lose a bit of flexibility .. hmm.
Today I put my students through another "tabata torture." I had them doing atg squats and they started chanting out the reps in these Marine style voices - hilarious! Not so hilarious that I couldn't keep up with them...
DL - 105x8 all three sets - these were hard, seemed a lot harder than 100#. We're doing them on the floor, so I know that they're tougher. We saw a guy DLing in the squat cage - 135# - I was like, dude, that guy's huge, and I'm only 30 pounds away from that. The guys in the gym (and girls) are gonna freak when we start putting the big plates on the bars!
Hurray for making people freak out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaC
Today I put my students through another "tabata torture." I had them doing atg squats and they started chanting out the reps in these Marine style voices - hilarious! Not so hilarious that I couldn't keep up with them...
I envy you guys, having each other to support/encourage/cajole into working out. Not to mention having someone to eat right with all the time, keep each other accountable.
I end up cooking 2 different meals many times cuz dh doesn't appreciate "diet" food. Sheesh.
Nice increase on the shoulder presses! Is it feeling better?
Keep up the good go.
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Skipped the workout on Tuesday, so today was workout 8A. squat day.
okay, these are still a nightmare. velogirl and I were getting snitty in the gym over form - butt not getting low enough - folding forward into a good morning - yada, yada. By the end, we're just down to an empty bar trying to get some decent form that passes each of the other's critique... My preference is to try to go atg, but I know that I don't have the flexibility yet. But we're both doing the whole GM thing. At least it's over and the front squat should help with the posture thing.
Push ups - 3x8 on the floor - even got my forehead down for one or two.
Row - 3x8 85#
Step ups 2x8 10#, 1x8 15# These are finally feeling not dreadful
JK - 3x15 - even tossed in a couple pushups just to see if I could!
yummy shake afterwards.
Oh yes, and I'm trying to work on kipping pullups. fwd, back, jump, push away... Brought the step over to the chin up bar - eh, interesting. Hard to imagine generating that kind of power.
My upper back is still tweaked. I don't think that back squats are good for it. VG popped the ribs back in after the workout. I know that I should probably see the chiro, but I hate to spend money to have someone tell me something hat I don't want to hear....
I have similar issues with my squats - even with a trainer watching me, I tend to fold too far forward. But any further upright-ness of my upper body results in me tipping over onto my a$$ - flexibility, I guess... ugh!!! I have 8A tomorrow and then I'll be done with squats for a while too - looking forward to front squats for the same reasons you are - to help with my posture/form... harder to fall backwards with them, at least! Let me know how yours go since you'll get there before me...
Finished Stage one on Tuesday with velogirl. I repeated the last few workouts so that we could sync up.
DL - 115# moved up to the big girl plates!! 35# plates! sweet.
Shoulder press - started at 15# watched my left shoulder unable to press without shrugging, so I went down to 10#. My shoulder remains tweaked .. but not hurting at all.
Lat pull down - 85#. first set was great, got tough after that. I like feeling the increased strength.
Lunges - 15# db. I actually really like these. huh. I'm looking fwd to the BSS and lunges of stage 2 because I feel the difference in my jumping.
Crunches - same old, same old.
We'll start stage 2 tonight. -- Practiced FSPP and the posture on the FS is so much easier than on back squats.
Practiced FSPP and the posture on the FS is so much easier than on back squats.
What weight did you practice with? I'm excited to start front squats because I know it'll make me less likely to fall over - hopefully I'll get that better posture too...
I'm worrying a bit about my "off" week and what to do - I plan to do HIIT and maybe practice/learn some of the Phase 2 moves, but with light weights so as not to stress my tired muscles... is that what you're doing?
Do, or do not, there is no "try."
.)
Linear Mode
