Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

I didn't lift or do anything this week preparing for today. My plan was to try for 225 again but yesterday I had one of my routine chassis realignments with the chiro. Apparently the ribs or something in the upper torso had gotten out of line and getting everything put back where it belonged made my shoulders unhappy. I spent most of last night waking up from numbness and soreness in both of them. The upper ribs must have been all over the place. So it would appear that I needed a little more time to regroup and recover. So why an entry? Because I said I would do a thing and now I haven't. I don't make those plans or commitments on an idle whim and since I don't talk empty BS here, I felt some accountability was in order.

My new plan going forward is to evaluate how I feel on Sunday and if all is well, start in on my next cycle. I'm not giving up on 225 just yet and as a lesson learned from this one, I'm going to try a short cycle of 9 weeks or so to go after it. The ramp up in the overhead press will be sharper to prevent the overtraining that set in the last few weeks of this past cycle. Since only the last week will get me into some serious new territory poundage wise (and then only in the overhead press) I think I'll outsmart my recovery processes. But we'll see.

[johnreynolds]

Hi Mark, I see you're getting close to the body weight overhead press, the test of a real man. Bench presses are for sissies ! I've been chasing that the last year. I'm up to around 95%. Been doing partials from the rack, push presses, speed, dumbbells press etc. I think I'm over training it. Keep at it.

[bob g]

...
My new plan going forward is to evaluate how I feel on Sunday and if all is well, start in on my next cycle. I'm not giving up on 225 just yet and as a lesson learned from this one,
...

It's best to use the hard won wisdom we always tell the pups about. Lead by example and all that rot. You'll get the deuce in good time.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Damn I needed to hear that just now bob, thanks! I keep grappling with ambition, the reality of my age, and trying to avoid settling for limitations too soon.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

My delts are still sore as hell, all on the medial portions. The rest of me felt pretty creaky too but off to jujitsu for me. Push ups were even painful which was a first since my troubles with my shoulders began. Re-starting lifting tomorrow is looking less likely, and it appears I really dug myself into a recovery hole. But I may just suck it up and get my old ass into the gym and try my shoulders out.

So I got matched with the OCD green belt who was ever so happy to see me. Master Bellman had working on teaching him chokes. This was a good thing because most of them don't require much more than intelligent control and movement of the wrists. So it saved my shoulders and complaining lower back. He had a lot of flaws that required correction and in the interest of making sure he got them worked out properly I held off tapping out too long several times. I nearly collapsed once when my knees buckled from holding out. It really comes down to supinating the hands while flexing the wrists to take out all the slack in the space between the hands and the neck, then night-night. Then we worked on some naked chokes which also rely on positioning the wrist over the trachea and doing the same flex and supination to cut off the air. The naked strangle uses the inner forearm and biceps to effect cutting off the blood supply, ad we worked on those too. These too left me weak and dizzy from waiting until he got everything lined up just right. One of our 3rd degree black belts told him to relax and let the technique flow. The green belt didn't understand what he meant by that and I told him he was breaking the technique down into too many components and losing momentum. Not speed, but more like continuity. He's too analytical and it gets in his way. Had a dicey drive home with the lingering woozies from the chokes.

[Gwynn]

I keep grappling with ambition, the reality of my age, and trying to avoid settling for limitations too soon.

This. You put it so well! Not an easy balance to find.

[Mark E. Hurling]

It's like trying balance while sitting on a four legged stool with one of the legs missing.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Damn I needed to hear that just now bob, thanks!

He just did the same for me, Mark. Bob is a gem.

[Mark E. Hurling]

He just did the same for me, Mark. Bob is a gem.

It must be a Midwestern thing.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Overhead Press: 165 x 5 x 3.

Squat: 250 x 3.

I did a GXP and finished with the foam roller and stretching. I dosed up heavy last night with ibuprofen, and used lots of a topical anti-inflammatory called voltaren, along with cold packs and woke up with no discernible pain in my delts, and 85% capacity. Once I started lifting though, I could feel every rep even with the empty bar on warmups. Sore under load, but I did it. The lower back was better too, so I figured the squats would be OK since I am starting light to cycle back up. So it was until 250 when I could feel the strain a little. I noticed it seemed harder than I would have expected and then saw my stance was a little narrow. Rep #2 produced an ominous deep "thunk" as L4 reset itself into a new position. Scared the crap out of me but didn't hurt so I completed #3 and still feel OK. I also noticed my heart rate was lower through this session, so it may indicate how overtrained I had become and how maybe I did recover after all now. So all in all, it's good to be back in the gym. I donned my hair shirt and got under the iron to do my penance for inactivity. It is Sunday after all.

[ChuckBell]

Rep #2 produced an ominous deep "thunk" as L4 reset itself into a new position. Scared the crap out of me but didn't hurt so I completed #3 and still feel OK. I also noticed my heart rate was lower through this session,

Darn Mark, that "scared the crap out of me" just reading it. I think my heart rate increased too! Don't take it easy, but take care!

[Mark E. Hurling]

I've feel that almost every time I do my straight legged, narrow stance toe touches while warming up in jujitsu. It's just disconcerting then. The only other time it happened lifting was nearly 20 years pulling a very bad form dead lift. That particular instance had me laid up for a couple weeks. You can well believe I had all I could do to maintain an even strain after this little reminder of it this morning.

[tertius]

I've feel that almost every time I do my straight legged, narrow stance toe touches while warming up in jujitsu. It's just disconcerting then. The only other time it happened lifting was nearly 20 years pulling a very bad form dead lift. That particular instance had me laid up for a couple weeks. You can well believe I had all I could do to maintain an even strain after this little reminder of it this morning.

I've had this happen once or twice as well. No injuries so far, though. I suspect it's just a situation where something that was waiting to move gets the impetus to do so from the force of the isometric contraction and being loaded.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You are probably right about this, but when you get a major owwie from it even once you get the willies to a greater or lesser degree from it every time you feel it. I can't help thinking of the Python's line about the Spanish Inquisition and being stretched on the rack.

[Bean1871]

"now, you will stay in the comfy chair until lunchtime!"

[Mark E. Hurling]

Well it was more along the lines of "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" and then the ensuing terror it once evoked. A really good account making allusions to this was in one the growing number of books by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood. The author is Spanish and writes about the 16th Century derring do of certain characters who might be described as musketeers en Espana. He provides a fascinating counterpoint to the views of the Spanish the English authors like Cornwell and O'Brian present of the people and the place. A great writer with a good viewpoint.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

You are probably right about this, but when you get a major owwie from it even once you get the willies to a greater or lesser degree from it every time you feel it.

Having had a few lumbar owwies in my time, I can relate. But it sounds like you got away with it this time.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 190 x 5 x 3.

Hammer High Row: 260 x 5 x 3.

Claw Grip: 186 x 2 x 5.

Foam roller and stretching.

[Gwynn]

Well it was more along the lines of "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" and then the ensuing terror it once evoked. A really good account making allusions to this was in one the growing number of books by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood. The author is Spanish and writes about the 16th Century derring do of certain characters who might be described as musketeers en Espana. He provides a fascinating counterpoint to the views of the Spanish the English authors like Cornwell and O'Brian present of the people and the place. A great writer with a good viewpoint.

Yay! A new historical writer to read!

[Mark E. Hurling]

I've got a whole list of such authors. If you're interested let me know. I highly recommend Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle for a real immersion in a worldwide tour de force for the 17th Century.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I've got a whole list of such authors. If you're interested let me know. I highly recommend Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle for a real immersion in a worldwide tour de force for the 17th Century.

I own TBC, but I've never cracked it. I'm afraid that once I do, I won't emerge for many moons. After I first discovered Stephenson, I read Snow Crash, Diamond Age (read it twice) and Cryptonomicon in rapid succession. Probably the most unproductive month of my life.

That man can write.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I thought I caught a whiff of Shatoe in that story you linked a while back. You're right about TBC, it takes over your waking consciousness once you start it.

[tertius]

Mark, I fiddled with the Hi-row machine today, fer shitsngiggles. Not nearly as strong as you, obviously, but interesting movement.
It just occurred to me that you never seem to do chin-ups. Why is this?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

I did a GXP and finished out with foam roller and stretching.

I did do chins for a few months a ways back, but as I have said once or twice I suck at them. Of course now I know why with that rat bastard Tanita having screwed me over on weight gains as it kept indicating progressive weight loss over nearly 8 months. So it's my fat ass. I'll try them again in a little while, after I make one more run at 225 in the OHP. In spite of all the slagging about machines here, Hammer makes some good ones for the upper back pulling movements in my opinion. Much better than a cable pulldown. I found that their bench pressing machines never failed to give me tendinitis in the elbows for some reason no matter how I varied my grip.

[Eric K]

...In spite of all the slagging about machines here, Hammer makes some good ones for the upper back pulling movements in my opinion...

I gather that a strong upper back is essential to a good press; probably why your's is so strong.



...I found that their bench pressing machines never failed to give me tendinitis in the elbows for some reason no matter how I varied my grip.

This is probably just a result of the forced line of action inherent to a machine.

[Mark E. Hurling]

On the way to jujitsu last night I noticed that Temple Menorah had it's usual Redondo cop car in the parking lot for Rosh Hashana. Terrible that it requires police protection to worship in safety.

The kids last night were profoundly lackadaisical and loosey goosey. They improved in the last 20 minutes, but was herding cats par excellence through much of the session.

The adult class had me paired up with the recently arrived 13 year old blue belt from the kids class. He struggled with a few of the new techniques we got shown last night because the bar has been raised for him. But he hung in. We worked on wrist grab counters where the defender uses a circular step around to move past and behind the linear force exerted by the grab. Once there, a simple move of the defenders hand, wrist, and arm will draw the attacker back and off balance to a fall if they don't release their hold immediately. We also worked the shoulder drop move from a wrist grab. The wrist is grabbed and instead of pulling back the defender steps into and slightly across with the opposite foot and puts a shoulder into the solar plexus or sternum of the attacker. At the very least it knocks them back a step or so and can knock the wind out. We worked on a chest push counter where the attacker's hand is swept downward to the belt line bending the fingers and wrist back and then reaching under their elbow and pulling up. Very bad for the wrist and fingers and to a lesser degree, the attacker's elbow. Finally, we did some rear bear hug counters. One involves rotating the attaker's hands upward and rotating the palms outward. This changes the configuration of the forearm so that they can't "dig in" to the torso and so the defender slips right out of the hug. Another variant was a delaying and prevention move to being picked up off the feet from this attack. The defender simply grapevines a leg in between one of the attacker's and hooks the shin and instep in behind their calf. This kid weighs 75 lbs. and I could not pick him up no matter how hard I pulled. It's the picking up by the bootstraps phenomenon because they are anchored with that foot and leg.

My back has always been strong Eric. These days though I take a lot of care with the lower back because of the pounding it gets from the falls in jujitsu. So I don't try to gut out the utmost in my squats and deadlifts so as not to end up with down time from a tweak. I can't recall if it was Jowett or Liederman from the early 20th Century who said that the lower back was the keystone to strength because it was so pivotal in the big results producing moves. They were right though. Even Arthur Jones, as much as he got wrong, was correct in one of his strength bulletins when he talked about how without the connecting linkage of the lower back to transmit force from either the upper or lower parts of the body in concert with each other, no one would realize meaningful strength. As for the Hammer bench press; yeah true, but I figured it was angle of the handles that did it more than anything else.

[Eric K]

One definitely needs lumbar strength for power transfer. That was the biggest indicator for me to switch from pulling every session to pulling every other session; when the point came that my back was still recovering from deadlifts, my squats suffered. You have a tough balance to work, with your dedication to jiu-jitsu; I'm sure you've got a good handle on it, though. (Hell, you can't be doing too much wrong with a press like yours.)

[ZKP]

Mark

Have you tried a shitload of singles? If you could press, say, 215 for 15 singles in one session, I'm sure 225 would go up. I've found you can train singles more often as well. Just food for thought. Your issue might not be strength per say, but expressing it as a single, hard lift. Good luck.

[Mark E. Hurling]

One definitely needs lumbar strength for power transfer. That was the biggest indicator for me to switch from pulling every session to pulling every other session; when the point came that my back was still recovering from deadlifts, my squats suffered. You have a tough balance to work, with your dedication to jiu-jitsu; I'm sure you've got a good handle on it, though. (Hell, you can't be doing too much wrong with a press like yours.)

I haven't mentioned lately but early on in this log I used to talk about the balancing act involved between lifting, jujitsu, and recovery, especially with respect to the graeco-roman shocks to the lower back from falls. Like I said to Gwynn, it's like staying stable on a four legged stool with one of the legs missing and it gets trickier as you get older. In the nearly 7 years I've been practicing jujitsu I can tell the difference from when I was in my mid-50's.


Mark

Have you tried a shitload of singles? If you could press, say, 215 for 15 singles in one session, I'm sure 225 would go up. I've found you can train singles more often as well. Just food for thought. Your issue might not be strength per say, but expressing it as a single, hard lift. Good luck.

I've thought about that and it may have some merit and application. Once I get this PR out of the way, I am planning on trying it for a cycle or so.

Speaking of age and recovery, I was too beat to get up at O-dark 30 this morning and lift. Work has had me putting in some longer hours and the usual sleep disruption that happens on the nights I do jujitsu were more than I could deal with. So I slept in.

[yorick]

I've thought about that and it may have some merit and application. Once I get this PR out of the way, I am planning on trying it for a cycle or so.

That advice from ZKP seems like a pretty good option.

I was able to hit 290 on the bench press at about 175 lbs bodyweight by doing a lot of heavy singles, doubles and triples. I mostly did a lot of pyramiding up and down. I would bench once a week and hit something like 225x5, 245x3, 275x1, then come back down.

I've been back on the linear progression train trying to get to 300. 225 for 3 x 5 felt pretty tough recently. If I can't keep up the LP with microloading, I might go back to the pyramiding scheme.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I haven't mentioned lately but early on in this log I used to talk about the balancing act involved between lifting, jujitsu, and recovery, especially with respect to the graeco-roman shocks to the lower back from falls. Like I said to Gwynn, it's like staying stable on a four legged stool with one of the legs missing and it gets trickier as you get older. In the nearly 7 years I've been practicing jujitsu I can tell the difference from when I was in my mid-50's.

Balancing strength training recovery and martial arts is an art in itself.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

Amen to that Sully.

Jujitsu today with a heavily taped sore big toe with an ingrown toenail. I was instructed by one of the 4th degree black belts on chokes. He told me early on that my chokes were very good but had me do some tuneups on finer points of technique that I thought I had down pretty well. After some brief discussion I discovered upon reflection that the green belts I had been working with in chokes were tapping early because they spooked when I started to tighten up around their necks but probably before the choke came on too strong. He told me that the strength of my tighten and pull moves were unnerving but he could judge it better having around the block longer. He added that since I had this part down to just position the choke and not bear down. So we focused on entries and transitions from attacks. It was good to get some feedback on my technique as a student, since I've been doing more teaching than anything else for nearly a year now.

A purple belt got added in later in the session and the black belt had us working control techniques in a series of combinations. In my case leading right up to a choke without putting it on him, just having my hands and arms positioned to do so. The combinations were things like wrist locks, arm bars, and takedowns. I found that some of the judo hardwiring was still there when it was my turn. I pulled off a few sneaky foot sweeps, a hp throw that really launched him, and a heel trip called Osoto Gari. Mushin ryu barely covers sweeps, but does put some attention on the heel trip. As for hip throws, some of the other black belts were amused by resounding thump when my partner landed. They recognized the technique but no one else had ever seen it before. The other blue and purple belts were in awe.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 180 x 5 x 5. Shoulders are doing well so far.

Sumo Deadlift: 275x 3. This was not as easy as it should have been but then I expected it with my lower back a little off the last few days.

GXP followed by foam rolling and stretching. I ran the numbers on my heart rate monitor a little more closely than usual and found that by average heart rate was 123 bpm for the entire 56 minute workout from warmup stretching. This comes in at 75% of MHR, so not too bad for a cardio effect and way superior to an elliptical. The 28 minutes of lifting alone had me at 112 bpm for 70% of MHR and this at a leisurely pace of 2 minutes between sets. Pretty amazing stuff.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Overhead Press: 135 x 8 x 3 + 10

Hammer High Row: 270 x 8 x 3 + 10

Pinch Grip: 155 for 30 seconds. PR! This took over a month to get to a 30 second hold.

Foam roller and stretching.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Pinch Grip: 155 for 30 seconds. PR! This took over a month to get to a 30 second hold.



Nice.

[dcottrill43223]

...heavily taped sore big toe with an ingrown toenail.

Oh man, just the thought of an ingrown toenail makes my stomach churn. I'm pushing 60 years old, and my ingrown toenail experience was in junior high, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I was playing basketball with this >200 pound guy who went up for a rebound and came down right on my toe. I swear my life passed before my eyes. When I got home and took my shoe off my sock was bright red with blood. Being 14 years old, I just threw it in the laundry hamper. You should have heard the blood curdling scream when my mom went to do the wash. Eventually had to have surgery to fix it. I hope your luck is better than mine.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Sully.

As for the ingrown toenail, it's pretty well on the mend. I performed some more minor and inexpert surgery but cut the offending owwie part out and packed it with a cotton ball after I hosed it with peroxide. Foamed like crazy. The worst thing though was a couple of years ago when I got distracted (not unlike bob g recently) by a girl in the gym and slammed my thumb between plates putting a 45 back on a tree. It filled up with red that turned purple rapidly like the temperature rising in an old thermometer. The nail fell off a couple weeks later and the regrowing process was agonizing. I had to pry up the leading edge every day or so as it came up from the nail bed and would want grow down and burrow into the quick. Then pack it with cotton and repeat. For three weeks. That was really long term unpleasant.

[Gwynn]

Jujitsu today...The combinations were things like wrist locks, arm bars, and takedowns. I found that some of the judo hardwiring was still there when it was my turn. I pulled off a few sneaky foot sweeps, a hp throw that really launched him, and a heel trip called Osoto Gari. Mushin ryu barely covers sweeps, but does put some attention on the heel trip. As for hip throws, some of the other black belts were amused by resounding thump when my partner landed. They recognized the technique but no one else had ever seen it before. The other blue and purple belts were in awe.

I like hearing about your training in your log! Osoto Gari is my favorite throw.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Gwynn. I've wondered on and off if it was worthwhile entering the martial arts side of what I do or not. Including was a another struggle with putting ego on display, or illustrating the balancing act with lifting and age. I hope it doesn't come off as the former. When I took judo as a freshman in college in 1968 the first two throws they taught us were Osoto Gari and O-Goshi. Those two are so hardwired in I'll probably do a breakfall when they put me in my coffin.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight; 246.5

Did a GXP and loosened up the creaks with foam rolling and stretching.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Thanks Gwynn. I've wondered on and off if it was worthwhile entering the martial arts side of what I do or not. Including was a another struggle with putting ego on display, or illustrating the balancing act with lifting and age.

Well, if it looks like ego-boo, we're both guilty. For me, it's a documentation of intense practice that has serious implications for recovery from training. It belongs in our logs. So sayeth I.

[Simma Park]

Well, if it looks like ego-boo, we're both guilty. For me, it's a documentation of intense practice that has serious implications for recovery from training. It belongs in our logs. So sayeth I.

I think those of us who have done/do MA, at least, realize that A) there is an art to balancing the MA and the weight training and B) the lessons of one realm often inform training in the other. As a result, I, for one, like to hear about your experiences with these.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks to the three of you who are among my favorite people here for the input. I'll continue then. Ironically, the balancing broke down a little on Wednesday when my right foot started giving me grief as a cold front and rainstorm moved down to LA from the Bering Sea. In addition to breaking that ankle twice, once in high school football and then my senior year in at college at the NCAA regionals in judo at Ball State (hee-hee, I said ball) I also broke the teeny tiny little bone on the far outside medial part of my foot. Rolled my ankle coming off the mat at the end of a 2 1/2 session of jujitsu about 5 years ago. Crack. It had me hobbling so badly I almost had to stay home from work. So no jujitsu. Old injuries catch up to you anon. But anyway.

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike (Light/Speed Day)

Bench Press: 140 x 8 x 3 + 10.

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 75 x 8 x 3 + 10.

Back Extension: 90 x 3 x 10. I did these three back to back and fast as a giant set. Since the shoulder is feeling OK just now, I figured I'd hit the fast twitch muscles fibers a little and tax them.

Foam roller and stretching.

[JC]

On the subject of lessons from one thing applying to others, i have found the setup-distraction-technique (don't know it's oriental name) very useful for changing my youngest daughters nappies. If she doesn't have a distraction to occupy her hands, they very quickly move down to investigate the serious business below. Which is very much not the ideal way to do things.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Along with that jon, I'm just now re-reading Patrick O'Brian's book Far Side of the World. In it Dr. Maturin is talking to another ship's surgeon about techniques of tooth removal (this is about the timeframe of 1813) and how beating a drum to distract the patient is useful. The other surgeon agrees and adds how it is also a useful technique to pinch the opposite cheek or pull the opposite ear in conjunction with that to heighten the distraction effect.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

This comes out of "pain gate theory." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain#Gate_control_theory) It is well-exploited by some dentists, and even doctors are catching on.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

No jujitsu today for mere brown belts. Black belt only class. It's just as well, because my foot is still griping away. Since the foot was ailing I had to my usual walk along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific. So I went to Gold's, did a GXP, and finished off with some foam rolling and stretching.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Since the foot was ailing I had to my usual walk along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific.

Color me jealous. When I was stationed at Pendleton I was at the Weapons Training Battalion at Edson Range. NCO billets were within about, oh, I'd guess a 1/4-1/2 mile of the beach. My favorite back yard ever. Haven't seen the SoCal coast in years.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Camp Pendleton has something named after one of the Raiders' officers like Edson. I had a stint in San Diego at one point and would drive past Pendleton on I-5 several times a week. It was quite a sight watching them fast rope out of Chinooks or maneuver at speed in their Strykers. I even saw a combined arms operation with helo carriers, the USS Boxer, and LCAC's making a beach landing one. Very awesome stuff to see.

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Overhead Press: 180 with 15 singles at 1 minute intervals. I decided to try this to see if I can reprogram my CNS to better achieve a max single. Not easy, but not terribly difficult, just different.

Squats: 275 x 3. While I was doing these a younger guy (almost all of them are these days) in his mid 20's to early 30's was doing squats in the half rack next to me. His setup and form looked better than anything I'd seen at Gold's before, but his head and neck orientation kept changing slightly. Nothing huge but it looked counterproductive. I almost never talk to others when lifting, let alone to discuss technique, but I mentioned it to him when he finished his set. He said he had just started squatting this week and had I heard of Mark Rippetoe and Starting Strength? Some chuckling ensued by the both of us with that and some further exchange of conversation. Surprisingly, he was not aware of the Forum here, so I suggested he check it out for advice if he wanted or needed it. He thanked me for the tip, and it felt good to have been of some help. Kind of like being thanked for teaching at jujitsu.

Foam rolling and stretching to finish off. Since I was doing something different with the singles today I wore the heart rate monitor to see how much effect it might have had. I averaged 116 bpm for the entire workout including the pressing at 72% of MHR. The entire lifting session was 52 minutes and so it beat the Hell out of the same amount of time on the elliptical or rat wheel called the treadmill.

This was one of those off days what with having slept really late with the cooler Fall weather making it soooo comfy under the covers. Dearly Beloved also woke up earlier than usual and decreed we shall go to breakfast 2 hours earlier. So lifting got moved back 2 hours. I've never been in the gym at that time of day, and it was entirely different in terms of most of the population and feel of the place. The geezer dudebros were still there chattering away. The squat guy and I were chuckling about them too.

[StrongIslander,NY]

Hi Mark i posted in fat tax for you. wasnt sure why- i was curious about that name mentioned in oldsters log-that's all?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bike (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 200 x 5 x 3.

Hammer High Row: 290 x 5 x 3.

Claw Grip: 190 x 2 x 5 PR! This is the entire weight stack on the cable machine.

Foam roller and stretching.

[johnreynolds]

Way to go Mark, we'll buy you a protein shake. Ready to crush some bones there !

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

Heh. Thanks John.

Did a GXP and ran through the foam rolling and stretching.

Jujitsu last night with the kids class was just great! In spite of the full moon. They all had their heads screwed on straight and did really well. Even the worst miscreant recidivist of the bunch who I have handed out sit-ups and push-ups by the score to. I told him he did great and he lit up in a happy grin since he's pretty wary of me. I also told his mother how well he did. She's a blue belt who helps teach the kids class and is part of the adult class. She lit up too because she just despairs of his antics and I know it hurts her when I discipline him in class. She said that praising her kid meant a lot when it came from me because . . .In another ironic twist, one of the techniques we worked on was the escape from guard using the elbows to the insides of the thighs. Lots of howls from the kids on that one, but they all hung in. Good on 'em!

Adult class had the older Japanese lady bowing to me and calling me Sensei. It's just so hmbling, and I pointed at Master Bellman and siad, "That's his title not mine, I just get to assist him." We worked on a bunch things but there were two techniques I have never seen before in over 7 years in mushin ryu. The first was a counter and escpae to a low bear hug. In it, as the attacker's arms start to close the gap you drop both hands down in low palm heel strikes with dead hands onto the forearms. It causes them to root and anchor right on the spot and their head drops forward. Perfect for a close in elbow, head butt, or spear hand under the jaw to displace the head. The palm heel strikes are delivered kind of like you would to a misbehaving dog trying to jump up on you. Bad dog! The other technique was an escape and counter to a front choke where you cross your arms over the attacker's extended arms and step back and draw you elbows in toward your chest. This too causes their head to drop forward and root their stance. You then follow up with a double insanity blow of open hands to the ear drums. He then demonstrated an old favorite on one of the purple belts called the dance of pain. It involves finger bars with a turn in toward the attacker's thigh, a transition to a palm up goose neck after a partial escape, and a final elbow control with a drop to the ground and a return pull back up to the feet. It is so damn painful.

[Oldster]

That is a mind boggling PR, Mark. Now that you've ran out of weight stack, is there some way to add extra? Or just add reps.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Gold's has some add-on square rubber coated plates I can stack another 20 lbs. on or so. It's a pin fixed cable stack so I can also grab another pin and affix a 45 lb. plate to. I already do this with a Maxicam bearing loaded wrist roller with a 200 lb. plate stack. Besides the "broomstick" diameter sized handle it also has some door knob sized handles affixed to the outer ends of the bearing loaded movement roller. I pin a 45 lb. plate to that and roll it up clockwise then counterclockwise for some wrist strength. I just don't talk about it as part of my regular workout since I do it every other week or so. Its like using a plus sized thick bar. We use a lot of techniques in mushin ryu that call for twisting and torqueing the attacker's wrists to wind it and the rest of the arm up like a rubber band. It comes in handy when a recalcitrant young 'un primate decides to resist a little to test the old man in class. Watching the fuckhead's eyes widen is immensely satisfying when they get a reminder to respect their elders. Kind of like the Old Guys Rule T-shirt with John Wayne on it that says, "Since you don't respect your elders, I guess I'll just have to teach you to fear your betters. Pilgrim."

[Oldster]

It comes in handy when a recalcitrant young 'un primate decides to resist a little to test the old man in class. Watching the fuckhead's eyes widen is immensely satisfying when they get a reminder to respect their elders. Kind of like the Old Guys Rule T-shirt with John Wayne on it that says, "Since you don't respect your elders, I guess I'll just have to teach you to fear your betters. Pilgrim."
That's funny!

Reminds me of a time when I had hired a young new guy to clean up that 'had lifted' at some point. He stayed late after work one night and found out he wasn't as strong as he remembered. But I'll never forget when we were doing some forearm work with a wrist roller from Ironmind. A couple of us worked up to around 250lbs and apprently the new guy thought it looked easy. The look on his face was priceless when he realized he couldn't even break it off the ground. He never stayed late again.

[Mark E. Hurling]

There's nothing like old schooling the uppity kids, is there?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Overhead Press: 160-5-5-4-5-5 I got careless about rest between sets and so missed 5 on set #3.

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 90 5 x 5.

Front Squat: 135 x 3 x 6.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

Came into jujitsu with Master Bellman talking to one of the other black belts about bonsai and showing a couple of his latest projects. Both just wonderful, but one was placed in some volcanic tufa with lots of reds, blacks, and browns and full of holes as only gas being expelled through liquid rock can create. I have to learn how to do this when I get old. Looks way cooler than taking up golf.

I was matched with a 13 year old and and a 30 year old purple belt. I outweigh the kid by more that 120 lbs. and the other guy by 80, so they had their job cut out for them making the techniques work. We began with a series of spinning wrist takedowns with variations on the entry. The first was from a cross wrist grab. The defender counters with a back fist and then grabs the attacker's wrist, steps behind and pivots pulling the hand and arm over the attacker's shoulder to a rear takedown. Of course the defender can resist, but they'll get their shoulder ripped out in the worst possible way. Both of them had a very difficult time getting my hand and wrist over my shoulder. I don't resist, but my shoulder girdle is so tight, they can't even force it unless they have their foot and body position just right relative to where I am. I'm too tight and the muscles just won't let it move. I had to coach them through how to step further back behind me and to bend their knees. Then I dropped like a sequoia.

I had a chance to work with the only black belt larger than me and considerably so. By about 50 lbs. We worked a lapel grab where the defender grabs the gripping hand and counters with a lowering dead hand slap to the side of the head with the other hand that rattles the molars in an entirely unexpected way. The slapping hand then transits across to the attacker's gripping hand and inverts it so that the little finger is pointing up. Then the defender bends the attacker's wrist and elbow so that the arm forms the rough shape of a "Z." We call it a Z-bar and with a twist of the wrist so that the pinkie is bent toward the attacker's nose, the attacker drops to their knees to relieve the pain and torque. Right into a knee to the face. Or just more torquing of the wrist that causes things to rip or break or both.

Some good stuff today, and as informative for me as it was for the guys I was working with.

[Gwynn]

We worked a lapel grab where the defender grabs the gripping hand and counters with a lowering dead hand slap to the side of the head with the other hand...

I really like this. At my school we now have two tracks you can follow - regular Danzan Ryu and what sensei is calling Danzan Ryu Aikijutsu, inspired by Bellman Sensei's Mushin Ryu. The Aikijutsu takes out the load bearing throws and adds a further list of yawara which we just call Advanced Yawara, so instead of 20 different throws, you just learn Osoto Gari and the Advanced Yawara. This technique is on the Advanced Yawara list, although we turn the arm over further, past the Z-bar position into hijishime which is a variant of an arm bar. Of course, if or when they retract the arm the z-bar goes on hard and fast.

At the levels past green belt when we get into Oku and Shinin lists, the most aiki variations tend to be more subtle and elegant, and can all be done by a much smaller person because they take advantage of the attacker's momentum. Pretty great stuff.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Hey yawara! There's a much disused word these days. I actually still have a yawara short baton made by Safariland from the 70's when I was a cop. I bought it after I really cut up an arrestee's face by accident with an ill-considered wrist turn with a flat sap. It gave him 30 stitches on the side of his face and he looked like I had used a hatchet on him. Dumped the damn thing that night before the shift was over and started learning the yawara. I showed it to Master Bellman and one of our 7th degree black belts who was then still active duty LAPD SIS. They both got a chuckle out of the antique.

But I know what you mean when you use yawara, one of the older names for jujitsu. The technique you describe sounds like one of what we call an ulna press takedown off the Z-bar, and it was one of the other variants we did this morning. I just didn't mention it for brevity's sake.

[Gwynn]

We still use the nasty stick, but we call it Tessen - many of the techniques we use with the yawara stick were done with an iron fan. In a word: Ow. But useful, since you can do them with a (sturdy) pen.

I've also seen similar techniques to the yawara stick techniques done with a slightly longer piece of wood and called "Bo." This was pretty confusing at the time, because the bo techniques that I know are part of our aikido curriculum and done with a six foot staff and thus are quite different.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minutes warmup. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 190 5 x 5. Shoulders still good (knocks wood)

Sumo Deadlift: 330 x 3. As is often the case on Sunday mornings after some bouncing around on Saturday morning from jujitsu my back felt a little dodgy. But in addition to that my right knee woke me up around 12 last night. After some fruitless attempts to find a position that didn't hurt so much it kept me awake I got up and took some ibuprofen. Finally got back under after having lost over an hour of rest, so I was dragging and not sure I could straighten my knee well enough to even attempt deadlifts. But do them I did, and although I am in a haze and need a nap. I think maybe the front snap kick drills we did yesterday where I made my pants cuff pop so crisply may have caused the problem. Never happened before, but then I've never been 61 before either.

The foam roller had my lumbars crackling like bubble wrap. Stretching helped too.

Gwynn, as for a handy yawara "stick" to keep with you consider this. I learned as a cop the distracting and disorienting value of a very bright light to the eyes even in daylight. It moves the attacker's mind elsewhere momentarily and at night frizzles the night vision for at least 10-20 seconds. Which is more than enough time to escape or damage them badly and then move on smartly yourself. I carry a AA flashlight made by Gerber called a Cornea. It's very bright although the beam does not have a narrow focus. Not that it matters at the close range we do jujitsu at. Then of course there are all the attacks you can bring to bear on the hands, fingers, pressure points, and other various bony surfaces of the body. The AA is just the right diameter for this, although I'm sure the AAA will work well too. I picked the Cornea because I have pretty wide hands and I needed the body of the flash light to extend well past the top and bottom edges of my hand. You can probably find cheaper and brighter lights that are smaller, (the Cornea is just under $30) but that's why I use it. I also carry my keys on a carabiner big enough to fit my hand inside. Kind of like brass knuckles, but not, if you catch my drift.

[Carlos Daniel]

Kind of like brass knuckles, but not, if you catch my drift.

You scare me just a little bit, Knurling.

[skipbeat]

I just want to say that reading geezer logs such as this one are by far the most entertaining and useful. You have this little asswipe of a 19 year old's respect. Good luck MEH!

[Mark E. Hurling]

You scare me just a little bit, Knurling.

Hell, I didn't even mention my S&W pocket clip tanto with an EZ-out lug! I didn't want upset anyone. Gibbs Rule #9: Always carry a knife. Preferably one with a serrated edge for cutting rope or especially a jammed seat belt.


I just want to say that reading geezer logs such as this one are by far the most entertaining and useful. You have this little asswipe of a 19 year old's respect. Good luck MEH!

Ah gwan, skip! Give yourself some credit for at least showing some respect for the elderly.

[skipbeat]

I respect anybody that could kick my ass! Being an ex-cop, you have one of the more colorful personalities on the forums, and it's fun to read all the stories especially when they involve ass kicking. Sometimes I don't understand the lingo though. I'm sure it's mutual.

[Mark E. Hurling]

What lingo? I'll try to translate it into Canadian.

[skipbeat]

Some form of geezer talk that goes right over my head. Eh? I'm really that transparent eh?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah that's the trouble with Elizabethan English or Anglo-Saxon. It doesn't translate into the 21st century very well sometimes. Really though, I'll be happy to explain some of archaic terms from the 60's, 70's, or later. I'll just consult my stone tablets.

[tertius]

I was matched with a 13 year old and and a 30 year old purple belt. I outweigh the kid by more that 120 lbs. and the other guy by 80, so they had their job cut out for them making the techniques work. We began with a series of spinning wrist takedowns with variations on the entry. The first was from a cross wrist grab. The defender counters with a back fist and then grabs the attacker's wrist, steps behind and pivots pulling the hand and arm over the attacker's shoulder to a rear takedown. Of course the defender can resist, but they'll get their shoulder ripped out in the worst possible way. Both of them had a very difficult time getting my hand and wrist over my shoulder. I don't resist, but my shoulder girdle is so tight, they can't even force it unless they have their foot and body position just right relative to where I am. I'm too tight and the muscles just won't let it move. I had to coach them through how to step further back behind me and to bend their knees. Then I dropped like a sequoia.


That reminds of a guy I used to work with a lot. He'd been a dancer in his youth, and I doubt he was as strong as you, but he was solidly built. But man, was he tight, just wound like a spring. It was a problem if you couldn't get the technique started, or work an angle correctly, but once you got the lines right (which was quite often only a small adjustment), any force you put into the system went right to his center like a shot.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Overhead Press: 130 x 8 x 3 + 11.

Hammer High Row: 270 x 8 x 3 + 11.

Pinch Grip: 140 for 25 seconds. Nothing to brag about here. I missed loading my goal weigh (160) by 20 lbs. because I couldn't count to three 10 lb. plates along with the others and so screwed this up royally.

Foam rolling and stretching.

I'm surprised about someone who was a dancer being tight like that tertius. I thought that they all worked very hard at being flexible. I've always been very tight in the shoulders though. I didn't start stretching until 40 when I decided to quit using a board under my heels to squat. It started with the achilles, and now has taken over trying to keep everything limber.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minute warmup on the bike (Light/Speed Day)

Bench Press: 140 x 8 x 3 + 12. Rapped these sets of 3 fast and felt the shoulder a little. It leads me to wonder if too much enthusiasm for the speed reps in the past may have caused my problems. This was nothing significant, but just kind a gnat buzzing around the ears, right shoulder, and consciousness.

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 75 x 8 x 3 + 12.

Power Clean: 155 x 3 x 3.

Then I did a GXP followed by foam roller and stretching. I spent most of Tuesday showing some new people visiting around our site at work and ended up doing a lot of standing while doing so. It tightened my hamstrings and took out my lower back for jujitsu Wednesday. Half the time I get over this with a good night's sleep but it was not to be on this occasion. The chiro mostly fixed things for me yesterday afternoon so I figured some power cleans with moderate weight would not be too taxing of the healing back. Sort of, but I would have been better off not trying to feed that particular rat this morning.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

Getting old is not for sissies. I've had one ailment after another in the last two weeks or so, what with a recurring foot and ankle problem from old breaks in my teens and early 20's, my lower back, and mysterious pains in my left wrist that denied me some sleep earlier this week. Together they combined to make it infeasible to lift or do jujitsu lately. That and some off site physical security training I was press-ganged into conducting this week. But I'm mostly OK now.

Jujitsu with the kids class last night was another success for all concerned. They listened up and were remarkably receptive to some coaching of their two hand deflections to a back leg sweep takedown. This was a pretty advanced technique for all of them and they didn't get it the first few tries but eventually pulled it off in most cases.

The adult class had us working on similar techniques as well. A two hand deflection of a straight punch with a 45 degree side step transitioning into a classic sleeve and lapel grip heel to heel trip otherwise known as osoto gari. We worked on a variant of this entry and transition to a cross leg rear takedown using our left leg and foot to the knee and calf of the attacker with a pull down and backward with the left hand along with some help hooking around the neck with the right arm. We then worked on a two hand outward block of a roundhouse punch. The right hand breaks contact with the arm and fires across to the right side of the attacker's neck and just under the jaw in an upward curving knife hand (shuto) that really rattles the molars and can induce a lightning flash in one or both eyes even done at 30% power. The follow up is that same hand then grips the attacker's collar or shoulder on the right side and the elbow pivots upward under the chin moving the head backward and setting the balance there also. As the head goes, the body follows. The defender then transitions into osota gari and the fall is a very hard one with the back of the head leading the way to the ground. A real skull cracker if you don't know how to fall by rounding your back and tucking your chin to your chest. We promoted two blue belts one stripe at the end of class.

I did a GXP this morning just to reinforce getting back in the trenches.

[Gwynn]

Getting old is not for sissies. I've had one ailment after another in the last two weeks or so, what with a recurring foot and ankle problem from old breaks in my teens and early 20's, my lower back, and mysterious pains in my left wrist that denied me some sleep earlier this week.

This scares me because it describes what I have right now (meaning at my current age, not just today but in general). The only injuries that I've accumulated come back at random times. I can only hope that strength training will help me to not deteriorate further.

[Oldster]

It leads me to wonder if too much enthusiasm for the speed reps in the past may have caused my problems. This was nothing significant, but just kind a gnat buzzing around the ears, right shoulder, and consciousness.
YES! YES YES YES.

I tried to caution you. Speed is good. But ONLY speed under control. Speed is where we learn to PULL the bar down, never letting it lower on its own using gravity. Control is where we pull the bar downward with the same power that we push it upward. No bounce, just pure manhandled control. For instance, I can handle 3 reps at 225lbs in about 1.9 seconds. But I can also handle 315 for about 3.5 seconds for better control. If I take that same 225 and use the same control as the 315, I manhandle the weight as if it were nothing. Does that make sense? We aren't looking for overall speed we are looking instead for controlled speed. Quick speed to be sure, but under complete control.

You ain't a kiddin' about getting old isn't for the faint of heart. It is tough. The Perfessor was just talking last night about how youth is wasted on the young.....


The only injuries that I've accumulated come back at random times. I can only hope that strength training will help me to not deteriorate further.
*I* don't believe so. If I did, weight training would not be a part of my life. Instead I look at weight training as truly the fountain of youth. I think you can set your mind at ease.

[Mark E. Hurling]

This scares me because it describes what I have right now (meaning at my current age, not just today but in general). The only injuries that I've accumulated come back at random times. I can only hope that strength training will help me to not deteriorate further.

I have no doubt if wan't lifting I'd be in way worse shape in terms of hurting from one thing or another. You can't quit trying to kick the Reaper's ass for as long as you can.


YES! YES YES YES.

I tried to caution you. Speed is good. But ONLY speed under control. Speed is where we learn to PULL the bar down, never letting it lower on its own using gravity. Control is where we pull the bar downward with the same power that we push it upward. No bounce, just pure manhandled control. For instance, I can handle 3 reps at 225lbs in about 1.9 seconds. But I can also handle 315 for about 3.5 seconds for better control. If I take that same 225 and use the same control as the 315, I manhandle the weight as if it were nothing. Does that make sense? We aren't looking for overall speed we are looking instead for controlled speed. Quick speed to be sure, but under complete control.

You ain't a kiddin' about getting old isn't for the faint of heart. It is tough. The Perfessor was just talking last night about how youth is wasted on the young.....

Yeah, I think I kind of lost lock on that trying something new. Just a little more care in the future will be the order of the day.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minute warmup on the bike (Medium Day)

Overhead Press: 155 x 5 x 5

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 95 x 5 x 5

Front Squat: 135 x 3 x 6

Foam roller and stretching. Good to get back in the groove.

[tertius]

Good to get back in the groove.

Yes. Even though I have been very sore this whole week, I have generally felt better, slept better, and so on.

Inactive humans become unhappy sort of quickly, it seems.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I was thinking about that very thing from following your own log. Sore just now? Oh Hells yes. My quads and glutes are not at all happy from the front squats this morning.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Inactive humans become unhappy sort of quickly, it seems.

Funny how that works.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

Jujitsu today had us start with a series of drills that were done slowly without a lot of torque exerted on uke to make him tap. It was about teaching smooth movement and transitions with good hand and especially footwork. The attacker grabs or pushes at the defender and his fingers are captured and barred backward and downward. We alternated hands both in defending and pushing. The variants we did included bringing the attacker's hand down to knee level, then rotating it palm upward and into a reverse gooseneck. The most difficult one for the OCD green belt (lucky me) and the blue belt I was working with was the variant where we transitioned to rotating the attacker's palm counter clockwise with the elbow at a right angle. Very painful from the shoulder to the wrist when cranked even a little bit. But since this was discouraged no one had to tap.

Then we worked on moving each other backward from a face to face stance. Pushing was ineffective with a solid stance until the hands were angled to push up and backward over the shoulders. There's an excellent illustration of this in Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere rendering the other person buoyant and to the rear. We finished with a new technique (to me) of using the thumb to dig between the ribs as a means of distracting a ground attack.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 200 x 5 x 5.

Sumo Deadlift: 335 x 3.

Followed by a GXP with two young women of post-college age having one of the most bizarre exchanges I have ever heard on the treadmills near me. At volume no less. I've been around gyms long enough to know that sometimes this occurs, but not recently, and never in quite this level of detail. They were bemoaning the cluelessness of themselves and other women of their acquaintance and what they would post on social media. Both photos and anecdotes. Their own faux pas were discussed in painstaking depth and I could not for the life of me understand how two otherwise intelligent seeming women could go on about some very personal matters in such a public venue with the volume control at about 7. It's bad enough with the dudebros (geezer or otherwise) trumpeting their putative exploits but then I don't expect much from them. But these two seemed smarter than that. Too old I guess.

[Gwynn]

They were bemoaning the cluelessness of themselves and other women of their acquaintance and what they would post on social media. Both photos and anecdotes. Their own faux pas were discussed in painstaking depth and I could not for the life of me understand how two otherwise intelligent seeming women could go on about some very personal matters in such a public venue with the volume control at about 7.

Seems like they've already demonstrated by posting personal details on Facebook that the line between public and private is, at best, vague for them. It amazes me that a society that supposedly values privacy of information is also so willing to self-publicize. Don't they see where this is heading?

[tertius]

Seems like they've already demonstrated by posting personal details on Facebook that the line between public and private is, at best, vague for them. It amazes me that a society that supposedly values privacy of information is also so willing to self-publicize. Don't they see where this is heading?

Not to derail Old Man Knurling's log, but!

This is what happens when you have a society where people are famous because they are famous, and their every action is made known to the public, and shown on shitty reality teevee shows. It establishes the idea that anything in your life, no matter how inappropriate or stupid, is fit for public consumption.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Mighty polite of you there tertius, but no harm done. I can hardly gripe if someone comments on what I post here. Sully's log is the champeen at this sort of odd digression.

I find this whole thing so damned incredible especially since I am currently in the business of protecting the security of information. People's lack of concern about the most intimate details of their lives and their persons is stunning. I can't help but shake my head about Scarlett Johansen's panic over her self taken cell phone photos (I can only imagine of what) when she discovered her account was hacked. Hacked like a bunch of other celebs over abstracting their most basic information from their social media posts and using Password Unlock 101 to get in. Like birthdays, names of pets, etc. They're known for their looks I guess, not their intelligence. No matter how earnest and caring they want to appear during interviews.

[Carlos Daniel]

Mighty polite of you there tertius, but no harm done. I can hardly gripe if someone comments on what I post here. Sully's log is the champeen at this sort of odd digression.

I find this whole thing so damned incredible especially since I am currently in the business of protecting the security of information. People's lack of concern about the most intimate details of their lives and their persons is stunning. I can't help but shake my head about Scarlett Johansen's panic over her self taken cell phone photos (I can only imagine of what) when she discovered her account was hacked. Hacked like a bunch of other celebs over abstracting their most basic information from their social media posts and using Password Unlock 101 to get in. Like birthdays, names of pets, etc. They're known for their looks I guess, not their intelligence. No matter how earnest and caring they want to appear during interviews.

I've seen her pics. Not bad if you ask me.

[tertius]

I've seen her pics. Not bad if you ask me.

I gave it consideration (because damn is she hot), but I decided i didn't want to contribute to a continued invasion of her privacy.
I mean, she's done her share of cheesecake photoshoots, but she's never appeared properly topless on screen.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

You can't quit trying to kick the Reaper's ass for as long as you can.

This.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Sully's log is the champeen at this sort of odd digression.

And proud of it!

[Carlos Daniel]

I gave it consideration (because damn is she hot), but I decided i didn't want to contribute to a continued invasion of her privacy.
I mean, she's done her share of cheesecake photoshoots, but she's never appeared properly topless on screen.

They aren't worth dying for, however. Much better pictures around here (NSFW http://www.kindgirls.com), for instance, even if from unknown girls.

Hope Knurling doesn't mind me posting this above link.

EDIT: I meant aren't worth dying for

[Mark E. Hurling]

I gave it consideration (because damn is she hot), but I decided i didn't want to contribute to a continued invasion of her privacy.
I mean, she's done her share of cheesecake photoshoots, but she's never appeared properly topless on screen.

Not me. Didn't look. I have a difficult time describing why I never thought she was all that good looking. Mainly because I have always liked brunettes better. I married one after all. Someone once described her as reasonably OK but some aspects of a lingering shellfish allergy. Must be a reverse loop of the cheekbones I guess. But then I never had a lot of attraction to blonds anyway. Shallow of me I suppose, but none of them ever had the time of day for me when I young single and dating. Apparently Taylor Swift (Dearly Beloved really loathes the bright, lipsticky, polished, and bitchy look she affects) has just gotten outed the same way.

[Mark E. Hurling]

They are worth dying for, however. Much better pictures around here (NSFW http://www.kindgirls.com), for instance, even if from unknown girls.

Hope Knurling doesn't mind me posting this above link.

I don't mind, but I won't look either. Must be the effect blonds have on that hot Latin blood.

[Carlos Daniel]

I don't mind, but I won't look either. Must be the effect blonds have on that hot Latin blood.

Suit yourself! (your wife is watching right now, right?)

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weelll, she's sitting across from me on the next sofa at a right angle while I'm using the laptop just now yes. In fact, she's looking somewhat amused by my own chuckling as I read and type this. But that wouldn't stop me by itself. You tempt me here, but not enough to look. You Brazilians have much better looking women. Not unlike Dearly Beloved, who irony of ironies is half Polish and half Swedish.

[Carlos Daniel]

Weelll, she's sitting across from me on the next sofa at a right angle while I'm using the laptop just now yes. In fact, she's looking somewhat amused by my own chuckling as I read and type this. But that wouldn't stop me by itself. You tempt me here, but not enough to look. You Brazilians have much better looking women. Not unlike Dearly Beloved, who irony of ironies is half Polish and half Swedish.

Well, I suppose Big Brother (Big Sister?) is watching you, after all.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Now if you actually read 1984 you would know that a good citizen of Oceania loves Big Sister. And I do. It doesn't matter if she is watching.

[grubinski]

Dearly Beloved, who irony of ironies is half Polish and half Swedish.

My first girlfriend was Polish. I've had a soft spot for Eastern European women ever since.

[Carlos Daniel]

Now if you actually read 1984 you would know that a good citizen of Oceania loves Big Sister. And I do. It doesn't matter if she is watching.

I read it so long ago...

I love my "Big Sister" too. She's halfway across the globe right now, so I'm a little sad right now. :(

[Mark E. Hurling]

My first girlfriend was Polish. I've had a soft spot for Eastern European women ever since.

With a surname like grubinski I can't say I'm surprised. Not that there's anything wrong with being Polish. Without them the Brits would never have cracked the Kraut's Enigma encryption in WWII and we the Jap's Purple encryption that used the same device. The Poles actually managed to attack a Wehrmacht outpost and grab one and then deliver it to the Brits. Along with some of the best mathematicians in Europe to work up the algorithms. You just always need to remember that what appear to be a lack of vowels are a result of the additional 4 vowels in Cyrillic that Dearly Beloved's uncle told me we savages East of the Urals did not possess.

[grubinski]

With a surname like grubinski ...

Actually, 'grubinski' is a nickname of very long standing. My real name is Mike Gruber. I don't meet too many other Grubers, but I have heard it's the most common name in Austria.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Sehr gut mein Herr. Now you're speaking my language. Deutsche. Or given your Oesterreich ancestry, Hoch Deutsche. My people came from the North Coast and around the Harz Mountains, so it's Plattdeutsche for me. I wouldn't be surprised it's fairly common in Germany too.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Overhead Press: 130 x 8 x 3 + 12

Hammer High Row: 130 x 8 x 3 + 12

Pinch Grip: 160 hold for 13 seconds. All the chalk in Christendom couldn't defeat the slightly damp (from the fog coming in off King Harbor) rubber coated plates I was using. Like trying to grip a damn squid.

Foam roller and stretching.

[tertius]

Pinch Grip: 160 hold for 13 seconds. All the chalk in Christendom couldn't defeat the slightly damp (from the fog coming in off King Harbor) rubber coated plates I was using. Like trying to grip a damn squid.

Maybe you should have used some pagan chalk, then.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah that's it. Have to dig some up from Salisbury Plain after the solstice at midnight. I'll sacrifice a black hen over the spot first, and then pronounce the triple hecate spell. Couldn't get more pagan than that.

[tertius]

Yeah that's it. Have to dig some up from Salisbury Plain after the solstice at midnight. I'll sacrifice a black hen over the spot first, and then pronounce the triple hecate spell. Couldn't get more pagan than that.

I think you mean ON the solstice. That's if you want the maximum gripping and drying power in the chalk, anyway.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Nah, after. Then the powers of darkness hold their greatest sway. I also forgot the invocation to Nyarlathotep.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

Quick in and quick out at the gym this morning with a GXP. Busy morning ahead at work.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bke. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 140 x 8 x 3 + 15

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 75 x 8 x 3 + 15

Back Extension: 90 x 3 x 10

Foam roller and stretching. Some new mystery hurt manifested itself yesterday in my left adductor. I limped all day and when asked by one of my co-workers if it was my back I said "Nope, an adductor way up high. (pointing at inner leg) I guess I'll have to see the groinocologist."

[Carlos Daniel]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bke. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 140 x 8 x 3 + 15

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 75 x 8 x 3 + 15

Back Extension: 90 x 3 x 10

Foam roller and stretching. Some new mystery hurt manifested itself yesterday in my left adductor. I limped all day and when asked by one of my co-workers if it was my back I said "Nope, an adductor way up high. (pointing at inner leg) I guess I'll have to see the groinocologist."

"Since you seem to be so interested in the subject, you can feel it if you want. Not there, that has Dearly Beloved's name on it."

[Mark E. Hurling]

Carlos, you are incorrigible. Thanks for the laugh on a morning when I really needed it.

[Carlos Daniel]

Carlos, you are incorrigible. Thanks for the laugh on a morning when I really needed it.

That's why I'm here for!

[hamburgerfan]

Hey Knurling, do you still listen to classical music when you train?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

My left leg problems did not clear up since they first showed up on Thursday, and the limping has now made my lower back and right ankle start acting up. So no jujitsu what with that accumulation of miseries. It didn't help yesterday that I was doing a lot of moving around and up an down ladders taking care of some ill-advised actions by a well meaning government guy. So I went to Gold's and hit the stationary bike since that didn't hurt anything. Then stretched as comfortably as I could. The way the inner thigh (the gracilis I think) hurts when sit down or get up again does bode well for squats tomorrow but I'll see when I get there.

Yes I do still listen to classical hamburgerfan. Rimsky-Korsakov, Wagner, Strauss, Respighi, Tchaikovsky are all great for getting my blood up. Mostly I reserve them for when I for for planned max singles. Nothing like Also Sprach Zarathustra followed by The Death of Seigfreid followed by The 1812 Overture to take me through the warmup sets and right to main event.

[hamburgerfan]

I like to listen to it on occasion too. Nothing better than Prokofiev in my opinion.

[Carlos Daniel]

Yes I do still listen to classical hamburgerfan. Rimsky-Korsakov, Wagner, Strauss, Respighi, Tchaikovsky are all great for getting my blood up. Mostly I reserve them for when I for for planned max singles. Nothing like Also Sprach Zarathustra followed by The Death of Seigfreid followed by The 1812 Overture to take me through the warmup sets and right to main event.

You're the best, Knurling. Thanks to you, I'll light up a cigar and listen to Bruckner or Chopin. I'll be a little race to see which finishes first (if it's Bruckner, the cigar will be gone by the end of the first movement).

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

I woke up with the leg, back, and ankle a little better after a big honking fistful of Advil as I went to bed last night. I decided to let the gracilis heal a little longer, although the lower back and ankle would probably have stood the strain of a 310 set of squats. In addition, since it was cooold (as such things are reckoned here in SoCal) I decided to start off with a fit test on the elliptical to gauge my cardiovascular fitness. This took a little over 12 minutes and warmed me up pretty well. I tested out at 38.8 VO2 max, a few points over the Excellent threshold for 60+ geezers so I was happily honking along.

Overhead Press: 200 x 1 x 14. Failed on single #15. Rest between sets was 2 minutes and I could feel the failure on lockout reeeaaallly start to whisper in my left ear about single # 12. I should have spanned out the rest periods to 3-4 minutes between sets then, but old fucks can be arrogant and stupid just like the young can and getting older doesn't always get you over this tendency. I barely got single #14. It was the battle of Stalingrad all the way up, and I was flexing and locking out my quads so hard it felt like my right vastus medialus was going to cramp up and explode. But I got it. I waited 4 minutes for single #15 but it was clear the old CNS and upper body had had all it was going to take from the last one. I barely got it off my clavicles and the triceps said "Not in this lifetime bucko." Hit the safety catch bars with a resounding crash that silenced even the geezer dudebros who were engaged in their usual primate verbal grooming behavior.

I tried a couple of air squats just to tempt fate a little further, but my quads etc. were cooked from single #14 and the gracilis announced in a calm voice, "Just how long do want this recovery to stretch out for?" So I bailed on them.

To each their own Carlos. I don't think I've ever heard any Bruckner, and Chopin always seemed to have a pleasantly soporific effect on me. Like warm milk before beddy bye. Nah, give me that dodgy wanderer Wagner, or that deaf cad Beethoven, or one of those frequently drunk Rooskies for some real loud thunder and lightning. Something about moving to Vienna took the testosterone out of too many good German boys. Not all of them, but too many. Goddam Hochdeutsche panty waists made their influence too overwhelming.

[Simma Park]

I don't know that I would characterize Bruckner as emasculated in any way. I think you'd rather like his oeuvre, MEH. He's a good fit for someone who appreciates later Beethoven, IMO. And he dedicated a symphony to Wagner, with Wagner's explicit approval.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 249

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 215 x 5 x 3. Felt good, no shoulder problems but the lingering effects of all those singles Sunday has my upper body pushing structures feeling the heat. But in a good way. I even managed a 3 second pause on the last rep of the last set with no sweat.

Hammer High Row: 320 x 5 x 3.

Claw Grip: 192 x 2 x 5. I had intended to stay at 190 for a month or so, but gave another increment a try. Piece of cake.

Foam roller and stretching. The gracilis felt OK I thought until I went through my series of hip flexor and illiopsoas stretches and started to feel it again. But! It's definitely on the mend and jujitsu tomorrow is looking good. I just discovered that one of the engineers I work with (also named Mark) does Kempo. Very cool, since mushin ryu had a bunch of Kempo moves added back into it by Master Bellman. We had a brief but interesting chat about it. More to come no doubt. The time change has worked wonders on my attitude. I think I was getting a touch of seasonal affective disorder with long of hours of morning darkness. The fall behind extra sleep and the overnight temps falling to 40's makes this Illinois boy sleep like nothing else.

You and Carlos have convinced me about Bruckner spar. I'll have to give his music a listen.

[Carlos Daniel]

Bruckner is... long. But spar isn't far off by saying it has some resemblance to late Beethoven.
Try his 7th symphony.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Y'all have been up to no good while I've been gone.

I'm afraid I don't know Bruckner. Will have to check it out.

[Simma Park]

Bruckner is... long.

I heard he was just average. But people love to spread rumors about that kind of thing.

[Carlos Daniel]

I heard he was just average. But people love to spread rumors about that kind of thing.

He's dead, so I guess we'll never know.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

He's dead, so I guess we'll never know.

Perhaps. Maybe they made a "death mask."

[Carlos Daniel]

Perhaps. Maybe they made a "death mask."

Either that or we'll have to count on first-hand (ha!) accounts.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Did a GXP this morning on the elliptical. I keep meaining to vary this routine a little and kind forget until halfway in, because the elliptical is convenient. I used to do a wider variety of cardio routines than this and can't quite figure out why I don't now. More attention to detail is obviously required.

Also had my semi-annual blood pressure med review and am pleased, as is the doc that I am holding steady at 120 over 70. God knows it took nearly a year of juggling meds for the daytime, nighttime and dosages to get to this point, so yay for me! Once I get the 225 overhead press, I have got to get my weight down 20 lbs. Not doing so well at it now as is apparent.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Full moon fever for the kids last night, and we got 5 new ones. A lot of goose-assery all around the whole time. I did find a couple of the kids doing something completely wrong on what we teach as the release from getting caught in guards. You start just below the sternum, walking the hands down like you would a heel and toe move with the feet until you reach the bladder. Then you wedge the elbows out to the muscles and femoral nerve on the inside of the thigh. They were hopping their hands up and down like a cross between a kangaroo, and CPR. So I took a few of them over to the wall and showed them how to walk the hands down in the vertical plane. The change in orientation seemed to sink in at last.

The adult class had me teaching the one new student the basics. He picked things up and got them right faster than anyone I have ever seen. A great sense of use of the footwork in conjunction with the hand movements. The one thing he had a little trouble with was the concept of hip rotation and orientation to increase power and torque of the upper body movements. That seemed strange given his other skills, so asked him what sports he played. Just basketball, so that was probably why. Lots of vertical but relatively little rotational movement. If he had played baseball or thrown the discus he would I think have had a better feel for that too. Overall a real pleasure to teach a talented and receptive person. We also worked on the circular counters to linear attacks. A straight punch deflection and wrist grab counter to using the other hand to initiate a rounding force across the metacarpals that folds the wrist inward on itself and winds everything from there to the shoulder up like a rubber band. Since the muscles don't work in such a manner as to be able to resist that it's all force applied to the ligaments and tendons. And they can't prevent any of the force from torquing them into curlicues. Great night despite an inauspicous beginning with the kids.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

No jujitsu today since it's black belts only. As mentioned in tertius' log, I didn't get into the gym to lift yesterday. Lot going on at work just now and the immediacy of getting everyone's itches scratched took a lot of out of me. Then again, the last few months or so have been wearing me down. This is either the calendar of years catching up with me, a touch of seasonal affective disorder, or the toll of work. I more frequently have trouble shaking off the cobwebs lately. But to salvage something of my self respect, I got into the gym later this afternoon for an easy cardio session followed by foam rolling and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 205 x 5 x 5.

Sumo Deadlift: 345 x 3. Last rep was a real grinder. Left me gasping for breath and a purple face, but I got it.

Running GXP, since I've been grousing about this and it was fresh in my mind I decided to do more than grumble. Foam roller and stretching to finish off.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Then again, the last few months or so have been wearing me down. This is either the calendar of years catching up with me, a touch of seasonal affective disorder, or the toll of work. I more frequently have trouble shaking off the cobwebs lately.

I should just copy this and paste it to my own log. I feel ya, bro.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I should just copy this and paste it to my own log. I feel ya, bro.

At the risk of perhaps indulging in ein bisschen schadenfreude, it's a little reassuring to know it isn't only me.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Overhead Press: 130 x 8 x 3 + 10.

Hammer High Row: 270 x 8 x 3 + 10. Did this fast and back to back with the presses.

Pinch Grip: 160 for 23 seconds.

Finished with foam roller and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

5 minute warmup on the bike. (light Day)

Bench Press: 140 x 8 x 3 + 15

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 75 x 8 x 3 + 15

Back Extension: 90 x 3 x 10.

Followed by a GXP foam roller and stretching. This week has been a beast! Lots of shit going on at work but if I told you more I'd have to kill you. Maybe eat you like Oldster would, except for the liver. I hate liver. I was too worn from the alls and the sundries to even try dragging my butt to jujitsu Wednesday night, and slept in on Thursday so I doubled down on the GXP this morning along with the lifting. Then into work extra early today for still more dirty deeds done dirt cheap. God am I glad it's Friday!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

I was tired this morning but got over to the dojo for my weekly dose of drubbing. Very glad I did too, because we worked on things I had never seen before in this art. We started out with some variations on the judo throw Osoto Gari with a series of 3 or 4 variant hand use entries that displaced the head and neck and resulted in a really hard fall. Nothing too new there, but then we moved to a release and counter from a front choke. You reach up and put your thumbs in the attacker's eyes and then drop your left hand in a knife hand strike to his right brachioradialus or the L5 meridian point. Your right thumb stays in his eye and you drive it across to the left, down, and backward. The attacker folds like a card table. The fear and aversion from the thumbs in the eyes is primal and all you want to do is get away. By the time the brain begins to get organized, you're down on the mat and getting choked or pummeled.

We then went a wrist grab on each one by two assailants. The release was effected by pointing your fingers downward and outward while stepping forward and bending your knees. You are driving left and right with the knees and elbows at the same time and the net effect makes impossible for one or both attackers to hang on to you. Once you get one hand loose you drive an elbow in close to the other's torso and you were out.

Then there was the technique where your grab someone's wrist for a technique and they seize up and make a fist. To break this deadlock you drive a rising ridge hand strike to the underside of the forearm that has the fist at the end of it. The wrist bends immediately and then it's just a matter of a little twisting and torque to apply a wrist lock and immobilize the arm or take them down with a wrist flex take down. Very nice.

Finally there was a variation of finger bars that was new to me too. An attacker reaches for you and you grab them bending them back and up towards the attacker. Pretty effective all by itself. But if there is some real serious resistance, reach over with the other hand and deliver a dropping left knife hand on the attacker's forearm twice down toward the wrist. Then you use that left hand to draw against the back of his hand and it hurts like a bastard and tends to prone him out. Great session.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

The attacker folds like a card table. The fear and aversion from the thumbs in the eyes is primal and all you want to do is get away. By the time the brain begins to get organized, you're down on the mat and getting choked or pummeled.

I love equalizers. I'm not a big person, so I love to work on the dirty shit: eyes, throat, groin, knees, fingers, you name it.

When I took my first Krav test, we were doing the warm up and review, and I got called out by HI. One of the examinees had his head split open by his "partner," a 6'6" 280-lb Goliath who had failed to control an elbow strike. I told the guy he couldn't test and sent him to the ER. I went back to warm up with my partner, and Goliath comes over. "I'm with you guys now," he says. So not only did we have to test as a threesome, we had to test with The Dangerous Giant With No Control. I won't go into the details, but it was pretty horrifyin'. He was throwing me and my partner (a 210-lb cop) around like rag dolls. Broke one of my partners floating ribs. When he did low kicks to the shin, they went right through the pad; I could feel the marrow in my tibias shaking loose.

ANYWHO, the point is that during one technique, well into the test when we were all getting exhausted and sloppy, Goliath came out of his stance a moment too soon, and I punched him right the throat by accident. And the guy was just completely incapacitated for several minutes. I could have done anything to him. He was mine. A nice object reminder that fighting "dirty" can pay big dividends. I practice throat strikes more than I used to now.


We then went a wrist grab on each one by two assailants. The release was effected by pointing your fingers downward and outward while stepping forward and bending your knees. You are driving left and right with the knees and elbows at the same time and the net effect makes impossible for one or both attackers to hang on to you. Once you get one hand loose you drive an elbow in close to the other's torso and you were out.

Sounds like a Tang Soo self defense. Good stuff.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I love equalizers. I'm not a big person, so I love to work on the dirty shit: eyes, throat, groin, knees, fingers, you name it.

Master Bellman calls it old man technique. He's 5'6" maybe 160 lbs. and looks like an entirely unimpressive balding accountant. In fact at the end of the session yesterday he talked about how when he was 13 and the smallest kid in the class and surrounded by 200+ lb. other students, his sensei would say, "This technique will work for everyone but Dave." He said he had to learn how to make the techniques work even though he was small and weak and persist until he found techniques where size and strength really didn't matter. Then of course they center around the most vulnerable areas or what I have come to call the fire alarm pull stations on the body. It's one reason why I work on my grip. Lots of places to grab loose skin on the inner sides of the limbs, torso, the (ahem) groinal danglies, ears, or nose. Oh, and the trachea. Can't forget the trachea. I used that to end fights and resistance a few times as a cop with just the thumb, middle, and index fingers. I knew about eye attacks, but yesterday was the first time I had ever had fingers inserted into the sockets (lightly) and was disturbing. I've had and used finger flicks across the bridge of the nose and the eyes, and while they are effective they don't begin to compare. I have no beef against the competitive jujitsu folks, but the structured nature of rules, rings, and refs take about 25%-30% of total techniques away for valid safety reasons. A real fight will not go 3 or 5 minutes, but more like 30-60 seconds, and 30 might even be a stretch. When you can't breathe or have some broken fingers or crushed instep, you can't fight. I'm rapidly getting to the point of view that trying to explain this to some folks is really pointless.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Overhead Press: The plan today was 15 singles with 210 lbs. I got to 185 in my warmups and it was hard. I thought maybe taking a single with 210 and then saying screw it and going right for 225 might be in order. Didn't even get out the first single with 210.

Squat: 315 x 1. The plan here was 310 x 3 but I decided to try to salvage some self respect with three big plates each side. My lower back was still feeling the falls from jujitsu yesterday and my right knee has been nagging me all week on the outside with what feels like it might be a ligament. I just don't feel like griping about everything that hurts on me. I got up to 275 and backed it out and the erectors twanged a couple of times when I dipped my knees a skosh and I re-racked it having lost my courage. So I belted up and got under it again and did it with ease. Then the same with 315. But only one, I got the willies again and re-racked it. Aggravating too, because absent my loss of nerve, I think now I could have gotten out two more.

Did a GXP and went home.

Time for a lessons learned review. This year began in triumph with what I thought was progressive weight loss and a 200+ overhead press. In fact at the time I thought it was a bodyweight press. But no, that rat bastard Tanita scale played me false. But whatever the bodyweight, I still have the press to be glad about. Then came my ambition for two big wheels in the press. But not meant to be this year. As the year went on, work demands ramped up big and became an ever growing distraction. Like that big machine from space in the 50's science fiction classic, Kronos. The more power you used to try to overcome it, the bigger it got. Then there was the 3 pounds I dropped this past week. It all combined to result in today's workout. I made three max effort runs at the press this year, and in retrospect that was one too many. I suspected as much when I started this one, but hung in and refused to acknowledge it so as to avoid it becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. It may even be that this is as far as I get in the press. I'm 61, and the gas fumes in the tanks are getting thin. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I am going to make damn sure I have recovered from this last grab at the brass ring. I'm taking at least a week off and maybe two and a little more to rest up and regroup. Then a few months of ramping up again, but not to a max effort, just a slightly demanding one. Also more attention to eating to drop some more weight. Then in about 3-4 months I'll evaluate my chances at another run at 225 in the press again.

[ZKP]

Mr.Hurling

I see you're trying the singles. A thing i'd noticed with them, since they are a lot less volume (think total reps lifted), is that they can be trained more often. Since you obviously don't give much a shit about your bench( I don't either), sub in things which will help your top end strength....board presses or bottom position rack presses or something like that on otherwise bench days, and press every time you lift. Think mon 15 singles(90%), wed 5 singles, fri 10 singles w/5lbs more.....with your specialized top end horizontal pressing on mon and fri. That would be 30 heavy reps a week plus assistance work. Just something to think about and some things that have worked for me...good luck

[bob g]

Oh, so it's MR. Hurling?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_CGIWYT8PQ

Mark, I couldn't resist.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ha! I had the same reaction, but I hate to mock someone who took the time to pay some respect to me. Even if I doubt I deserve it. Not a bad tip ZKP, and I appreciate it. But Mr. Hurling was The Old Man's name. Just call me Mark, Knurling, or MEH. It's easier for me to know how to act.

[tertius]

God, getting a thumb in the eye is just terrible. I've only ever had it happen on accident, but it really makes you let go of somebody and just cover your face.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The real revelation for me was the simple placement of someone else's thumbs even lightly to moderately in my eye sockets and on my lids. It triggered the response like a switch was flipped, and not in a good way at all.

[ZKP]

I follow ya....Mark. To hell with thumbs in the eyes....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03MiposHT60

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Into the gym for a GXP just to keep the blood flowing and uncongealed. Finished off with a much needed session of foam roller and associated stretching to get some lower back and hamstring kinks I had accumulated from a lot of standing around checking things off lists this week. A lot of people are staying home today, the roads were like the old movie On the Beach and you could hear crickets and see tumbleweeds blowing down the corridors at work. All can hear in my subconscious is Dust in the Wind.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Weight: 246.5

Into the gym for a GXP just to keep the blood flowing and uncongealed. Finished off with a much needed session of foam roller and associated stretching to get some lower back and hamstring kinks I had accumulated from a lot of standing around checking things off lists this week. A lot of people are staying home today, the roads were like the old movie On the Beach and you could hear crickets and see tumbleweeds blowing down the corridors at work. All can hear in my subconscious is Dust in the Wind.

Heh. Thanks for the classical references. Just watched OTB again a month ago. Gregory Peck was the George Clooney of his time. Only better.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Heh. Thanks for the classical references. Just watched OTB again a month ago. Gregory Peck was the George Clooney of his time. Only better.

Yes he was. Infinitely classier.

Weight: 247.5

Jujitsu this morning was another really great session. One blue belt showed up and he was a little bigger than me so I had a partner to work with that could give me a sense of reality. I was the only brown belt, and all the rest were black belts. So Master Bellman opened the gates to some things that the blue belt in particular was fortunate to be around for. Me too for that matter. We started off with a series of defenses and escapes from a double lapel grab. They were variants of collapsing the attacker's elbows, or stepping back to draw the attacker forward and off balance to the front, or low hook punches to the floating ribs. Some of the half dozen or so were combinations of all of them.

We then moved on to some ground techniques that were about keeping someone from getting up until you could get a control hold you were satisfied with to get them up under your terms. One starts out on the ground proned out. As they start to draw up a leg you put a knee into the outside of their quad. Either on the side closest to you or you reach across to the opposite quad and nail it with your elbow. Right on the illiotibial band. Goddam does that hurt. I made the mistake of asking Victor, the biggest (300+ lbs.) what the strikes felt like. I was trying to spare him getting hit again. He said, "Get your ass down here and let Master Bellman do it to you!" Oh baby. Your leg spasms and you can't control the autonomic straightening out of it. You can't get up unless you have one or both knees drawn up.

This gave me an idea. Master Bellman asked s if we had any questions about techniques in general. Since John, the 8th degree black belt in our art and a retired veteran of LAPD was there, I asked about the right way to de-link demonstrators and remove them without pepper spray. This elicited a lot of laughs. John said, "Get a riot baton and I'll separate those guys in short order." That amused me because that was my first thought when I saw the UC Davis pepper spray video. Lever them apart the old school way. But Master Bellman said "OK Mark, sit down. Victor, Dave, you sit down next to him and link arms." Victor, as I mentioned earlier is 300+ and Dave, the blue belt is probably 260, and I'm 247. So collectively, we weigh 847 lbs. This is the load some poor schnook of a cop might have to lift to pick just one of us up. We linked arms and Master Bellman (all 5'6" and 160 lbs. of him) told us to get strong. First he stepped between Victor and I and then stuck his elbow and forearm against Victor's neck and stepped sideways. Victor peeled away in seconds. Then it was my turn. I can say with complete frankness and certainty that when your head and neck are displaced, you can't maintain a link of arms with the person next to you. It looks pretty innocuous too. Is it painful? Kind of, but not so much that my eyes felt like they were about to fall out. What really takes place is that you lose strength as your neck bends over. No doubt the sensitive feelings of the poor demonstrators would be hurt and they would complain of brutality. But the discomfort subsides immediately once the elbow is withdrawn, and it doesn't leave a painful residue behind. Even easier than what I came up with. Then you stand them up with a right angle hold or goose neck compression on the wrist. A piece of cake, that gets even easier when you speak softly and politely in the ear of the person you are standing up prompting them how to get their feet and legs underneath them as you remove them.

We finished off with a defense against being pushed up against a wall. Something suggested by Victor. The attacker pushes you against a wall from behind. The key in this is to get one shoulder forward and the opposite leg back. Then you push back in a kind of hip check and leading with the elbow. First the hip bangs in to the attacker in the lower body, and as the attacker gets knocked back, it allows you to bring the elbow back and into their face, head, chest, or neck.

[tertius]

Sounds like a good class. That demonstration of the body following the head is pretty damn fascinating.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The last few classes have been exceptional. It might be the subject matter, or it might be I've been exposed to some of these techniques before but didn't know enough for them to really make an impression or truly understand what I was seeing. About two years ago the wax on wax off suddenly fell away for me as a green belt and I began to see the underlying patterns and more of the subtleties in the art. It doesn't happen every time I step on the mat, but when it does, it's like getting the magic trick.

As for the head and body thing, I've heard it since I was 18 in Judo 101, the first PE class I took in college. "Where the head goes, the body follows" from the instructor a huge Buddha bellied Cecil Franklin. But like a lot of "big technique" it has way more aspects than I know even Franklin understood, let alone a teenager. One thing I failed to mention was a standing them up technique from yesterday where once de-linked, you place the top edge of the index finger under the nose (the philtrum) with one hand, and insert the index knuckle of the other hand under the mastoid. Then you pull up and slightly to the rear slowly and gently. You just want to stand up to relieve the owwies, and like with the elbow to the neck it stops the instant the pressure is let off. Of course gloves might be a good idea if the demonstrator has a runny nose.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

As part of the recovery I decided not to neglect the cardio. A quick GXP followed by some of the usual foam rolling and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

Jujitsu last night had Master Bellman experimenting with a different class structure and teaching model with the kids. The blue belts were delivering the instruction with me overseeing the process and talking quietly to them to make sure they got the instruction right. Impressive couple of blue belts, including one boy who (finally) seems to have gotten serious about jujitsu and did a good job of teaching last night. Maybe because none of his goof-around buddies were there.

I taught a new white belt in the adult class. The guy moves well and has most of the the basic techniques down well. A little correction was called for because like a lot people new to this art, he has a tendency to lean forward or to the side rear at the waist. Not good because the head off a center plane tends to put you off balance making you vulnerable to a takedown and harder to move quickly until you get everything lined up on center again. I always tell them to keep the head, shoulders, hips, and knees more or less lined up over each other even with the knees bent. I helped him polish up his blocking technique. His kicks were a little too much football drop kick and not enough draw up the knee, extend the lower leg, impact below the waist with the ball of the foot, and retract the lower leg. He improved his kicks a good deal from the start to the finish of the 90 minute session.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

His kicks were a little too much football drop kick and not enough draw up the knee, extend the lower leg, impact below the waist with the ball of the foot, and retract the lower leg. He improved his kicks a good deal from the start to the finish of the 90 minute session.

"Pick it up, stick it out, pull it back, put it down."

God knows how many times I've uttered that, teaching people how to kick.

Then I started Krav, with their groin kick, which is a lot like a football kick, and is their most important kick. Krav has been a real exercise in Emptying the Cup.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

I did a GXP this morning and worked out the kinks with foam rolling and a good stretch. I also finally committed and signed up for the Costa Mesa Seminar in March. Of course since I was not paying attention and got interrupted at work I managed to order two of the seminars but that'll get fixed without doubt. I also ordered Starting Strength:3.

I've always had mixed thoughts about chambering kicks. I came to the conclusion some years ago it was a bad idea for high kicks because of the time and telegraphing effect. We don't kick above the waist in mushin ryu, so the drawbacks are pretty minimal. One thing with an American football kick that was drawing this guy off a little was his tendency to lean way back as his foot came up. That can result in a different kind of problem.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

Jujitsu this morning and 48F! in SoCal at sea level by the beach no less. Bracing. We worked on a bunch of sweep and leg hook techniques that were like old home week for me since they were familiar friends from my salad days in judo. But the entries were from defenses and blocks of punches instead of the sleeve and lapel lockup so well known by judokas. The first was from the attacker throwing a right roundhouse punch with the defender making a step in outer block and a right side hip check to knock them back and off balance. Then the defender steps in with the right foot to hook the heel and ankle while shoving the attacker backward and down with a forearm to the upper sternum. Pretty much what judo calls ko-ouchi gari. We then did a variant from a straight punch by the attacker. This was dealt with by a two hand left stepping deflection block with the defender ending up to the attacker's right side and slightly to their rear. Then the defender sweeps in with a left foot behind the heel of the attacker with an elliptical counter-clockwise pull to the rear and down. Crash! AKA ko-soto gari in judo. Since I got teamed with the OCD green belt this got into a lot detailed analytical loops until one of the black belts cut him short brusquely. Lucky me.

We worked a technique that I really find near impossible to do well and so won't describe it, but it did lead to something else that may be useful in future teaching. I mentioned taking some kids aside a few weeks ago to get their hand positioning correct on a ground escape. So I took them to a wall to better explain what walking the hands down the body meant. They got it right away after demonstrating it on the wall. The green belt was having some similar problems with the final hammerlock portion of the series of steps. The attacker ends up proned out with their arm jammed up behind them. I kept telling him to pull my arm across my back and pull my wrist up toward my head. So I stood up and leaned against a wall facing it. I said to pull up on my wrist and "bing" the light came on for him. I think the use of the word up or down when the technique's orientation is a horizontal one on the ground may cause cognitive stuttering with some people. I need to be alert for this in the future.

We finished off with a defense against a front bear hug starting with thumbs in the eyes and transitioning to a key neck turn to a head and neck lock. One hand is on the chin with the other on the forehead twisting the head and neck. It immobilizes and weakens the attacker very effectively. Then the hand on the chin comes up to smack the back of the hand on the forehead while the cervical and upper thoracic vertebrae are pretzeled. Even done moderately, it sends a shock wave through the brain and down the spinal cord to the rest of the CNS. A little more force makes you see a white light for a little while. Done at full power it would at the very least break the neck and probably kill you.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Back to lifting after a two week layoff. Good to be facing the prospect of challenging myself under the iron again.

5 minute warmup on the bike.

Standing Overhead Press: 135 x 5 x 3. I'm into full disclosure today. I have been doing seated overhead presses and decided to go completely old school. Why? Because I wanted to protect my back and I always had the image of some damn rooskie laying back so far in the press that it looked like an incline press. But two things changed my mind. The excerpts from the latest edition of Starting Strength and the upcoming seminar I signed up for in March. Time to leave old shit behind. But all went well. The slight layback and the lockup of the rest of the body from hips to sternum made this a cake walk. I had always tried in the past for a very upright military press but this worked pretty well. Especially with some attention to details like breath control. Inhale on the eccentric and exhale on the concentric. I forget that during striking drills in jujitsu too.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Squats: 275 x 3. My lower back was a little unhappy with the aftermath of jujitsu yesterday. I was pretty uncertain about the standing presses but that was fine. The squats? I nearly bagged on them even though this was hardly a challenging set. I incorporated the drop into the hole you talked about Sully and it was a little scary because I have always been slow and deliberate about this to make sure I didn't get into trouble. So I worked my way up to 275 and stepped back and got halfway down when my L5 and my right knee sounded out with a double tap of resetting skeletal structure. Freaked me the fuck out and I re-racked. I even took off one of the 25 lb. plates and stopped halfway to the plate tree. So I took inventory and decided to not let myself surrender (just yet) to my fears and weaknesses and accept less from myself. So I put the plate back and got back under. Did it.

Then a GXP, foam roller and stretching.

It was another great brisk morning in SoCal at 45F. I just get so amused by the Kalifornians who got so unsettled by the winds this week and were all bundled up at the Starbucks I go to for my caffeine kick in the ass for the gym. Leather jackets and mufflers even, while I got in line in my hiking shorts and OSU t-shirt. I keep telling them just come to Chicago for one winter, we'll teach you how to drive 80 mph on black ice on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

[Oldster]

Time to keep an eye on the old fella. Big things are gonna be happenin' here.

[tertius]

Weight: 246.5

Back to lifting after a two week layoff. Good to be facing the prospect of challenging myself under the iron again.

5 minute warmup on the bike.

Standing Overhead Press: 135 x 5 x 3. I'm into full disclosure today. I have been doing seated overhead presses and decided to go completely old school. Why? Because I wanted to protect my back and I always had the image of some damn rooskie laying back so far in the press that it looked like an incline press. But two things changed my mind. The excerpts from the latest edition of Starting Strength and the upcoming seminar I signed up for in March. Time to leave old shit behind. But all went well. The slight layback and the lockup of the rest of the body from hips to sternum made this a cake walk. I had always tried in the past for a very upright military press but this worked pretty well. Especially with some attention to details like breath control. Inhale on the eccentric and exhale on the concentric. I forget that during striking drills in jujitsu too.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Squats: 275 x 3. My lower back was a little unhappy with the aftermath of jujitsu yesterday. I was pretty uncertain about the standing presses but that was fine. The squats? I nearly bagged on them even though this was hardly a challenging set. I incorporated the drop into the hole you talked about Sully and it was a little scary because I have always been slow and deliberate about this to make sure I didn't get into trouble. So I worked my way up to 275 and stepped back and got halfway down when my L5 and my right knee sounded out with a double tap of resetting skeletal structure. Freaked me the fuck out and I re-racked. I even took off one of the 25 lb. plates and stopped halfway to the plate tree. So I took inventory and decided to not let myself surrender (just yet) to my fears and weaknesses and accept less from myself. So I put the plate back and got back under. Did it.

Then a GXP, foam roller and stretching.

It was another great brisk morning in SoCal at 45F. I just get so amused by the Kalifornians who got so unsettled by the winds this week and were all bundled up at the Starbucks I go to for my caffeine kick in the ass for the gym. Leather jackets and mufflers even, while I got in line in my hiking shorts and OSU t-shirt. I keep telling them just come to Chicago for one winter, we'll teach you how to drive 80 mph on black ice on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Breathing presses? Heresy!

Glad you got back under the bar. I'm hoping I can get my shit together well enough this coming week to be able to get back into the gym by the end of it.

And yes, a dry 45 degree day is barely jacket weather on the Lake. I've especially found this to be true now that I've gained about 30 pounds since last winter.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Breathing presses? Heresy!

Glad you got back under the bar. I'm hoping I can get my shit together well enough this coming week to be able to get back into the gym by the end of it.

And yes, a dry 45 degree day is barely jacket weather on the Lake. I've especially found this to be true now that I've gained about 30 pounds since last winter.

Hey! You'll get there in your own time. As for the winters, there's an old saw about how if you make it through the first two winters in the Midwest after you're born, you live practically forever after that. Then it's hard as hell to die or to be killed.

[tertius]

Hey! You'll get there in your own time. As for the winters, there's an old saw about how if you make it through the first two winters in the Midwest after you're born, you live practically forever after that. Then it's hard as hell to die or to be killed.

Eh, Chicago winters haven't got anything on the Dakotas. But I'll take it!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 249

5 minute warmup on the bike (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 185 x 5 x 5.

Curls: 60 x 5 x 5.

Claw Grip: 195 x 2 x 5.

Foam roller and stretching.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Hey Hurling, I'm back from the dead/moving. How are things?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Hey! Wondered where you'd gotten to. Where'd you move? As for me, I'm getting nibbled to death by ducks at work these last few months. Not only did I pick up a doubling of responsibilities, some new government requirements and government oversight types have nearly doubled my original job. So I'm very busy and getting tired fast.

BUT, I'm going the SS Seminar in Costa Mesa in March, so life on that front is good. Good to hear from you again.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

I moved to the Denver area, about 10 minutes south of the city. Not a bad place. Pay increase was pretty substantial; I'm working for a division of Halliburton and the O&G industry pays well.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I used to travel to Colorado every 4-6 weeks some years back on business. It sounds like you're around Littleton. A nice area indeed. Of course tertius will never forgive you for falling under the spell of that devil-spawn company that Darth Cheney was part of.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

I'm just north of littleton in englewood. I actually work for Landmark Graphics (a company Halliburton bought a while back) and have no connection what so ever to the field operations and contracting arms. And it's Darth LORD Cheney.

[tertius]

Oh, Jamie's a lost cause. No matter where he works, he's just going to spend his money on drugs and hookers anyway.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Dips: Bodyweight x 8 x 3 + 10. I havent done these for over a year. Amazing how hard just 3 seemed in the first few sets.

Power Cleans: 135 x 8 x 3. Tweaked my back again dammit! This may require a second trip to the chiro this week. Shit-shit-shit.

Front Squats: 135 x 3 x 6.

GXP and I finished with foam roller and stretching.

I got SS:3 in the mail last night. Only to page 20 so far and what a start! As complete an explanation of position of body alignment and movement along center axis as I have ever read. We talk about this in mushin ryu to some degree but it's all in the oral tradition. The text backstopped with illustrations and angles is really eye opening.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I got SS:3 in the mail last night. Only to page 20 so far and what a start! As complete an explanation of position of body alignment and movement along center axis as I have ever read. We talk about this in mushin ryu to some degree but it's all in the oral tradition. The text backstopped with illustrations and angles is really eye opening.

How come everybody's getting theirs except me? You got the hardcover?

[Mark E. Hurling]

No the softcover. Dearly Beloved was laughing about how much curiousity it occasioned from our daughter when it arrived yesterday. She's always been fascinated when people get packages. Especially me since I never get them.

[tertius]

No the softcover. Dearly Beloved was laughing about how much curiousity it occasioned from our daughter when it arrived yesterday. She's always been fascinated when people get packages. Especially me since I never get them.

Should buy her a copy too. She should have good genes for strength, by the sounds of things.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Should buy her a copy too. She should have good genes for strength, by the sounds of things.

Jah. A lot of people we know and love are getting this book for Christmas. Some will be pleased. Some will be...bemused.

[Mark E. Hurling]

She does indeed have that potential, but she is entirely uninterested in anything but dancing. One of my most significant failures as a parent.

[Gwynn]

She does indeed have that potential, but she is entirely uninterested in anything but dancing. One of my most significant failures as a parent.

That was me from the age of 6 to about my mid-30's. And now look what's happened. ;-)

[Mark E. Hurling]

Sorry Gwynn, I was trying to soft peddle some other concept about my discontent regarding our daughter and I inadvertently swerved into a marginal denigration of dance. I know dancing is very demanding in terms of physicality. The real problem is that she's lazy when it comes to physical activity and fat, and not just a little either. I recognize I may get some grief for this comment, but there it is. Nothing I could do would motivate her. She did work out a little on the track and field team and golf in high school. She's a big young woman now at 22. Like most of us Hurlings where The Old Man's DNA overwhelmed lesser organisms like it was Iwo Jima, she reached 5' 10" by the time she was 15. Also well North of 200 lbs. Like me she competed in the discus and shot put in the field events. But then we have a large population of Samoans and other Pacific Islanders and they can toss those implements like nerfs. Maybe she'll get the ferrous religion later and get herself in some semblance of order, but that is her decision to make and her life to lead. My own poor attempts at programming were worse than useless.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy day)

Overhead Press: 140 x 5 x 3. Today was the beginning of my re-programming of decades-old practices. Fortunately, this was not too hard with this movement. I picked up some good things from the book like hand spacing and breath control, but it seems like just accepting that layback in the press was not a bad thing and locking back into the full extension from last week was a big part of the battle. I had to experiment with hand width a little, but the breathing was a fairly significant technique.

Pull Ups: Bdywt. x 5 x 3.

Deadlift: Warmup sets of 3 with 95, 135, 185, 225, and finished with 245 x 2. I spent the morning getting the deadlift section under my belt before going to Golds because I knew that not doing a sumo style would be a huge break with what have become comfortable with. It was like the re-programming I had to undergo when I took up jujitsu and found that most of my judo hardwiring was the wrong circuitry and had to be torn out and replaced. Unlearning must get easier though once you've done it once already, because this seemed relatively easy. Narrowing my stance and widening my hand spacing had far less disruptive impact than I thought it would once I lined up my feet properly under the bar. Remarkable! I also discovered that my alternating group didn't feel right, but the double overhand felt perfect. That struck me as odd because a mixed grip has always felt find in DL's and shrugs. Of course my shins are barked up from keeping the bar in close so I'll have get some longer socks or start wearing sweat pants. I felt rock solid but stopped at 245 because I split the butt of my shorts.

I finished with a GXP foam roller and stretching.

The effect of the book even so far seems huge. I am going slow with small jumps to dial in the form. Also, my back is still not quite right from the power cleans Friday even after the second session with the chiro. So it's a good thing that there was no jujitsu yesterday for other than black belts. I continue to do presses and pull ups back to back, with a 3 minute interval between the two. This kept the heart rate cooking along at 135 for the full 62 minutes this workout took from stationary bike to last stretch. For 61 year old geezers, this represents over an hour at 85% of MHR. Lots 'o cardio from that. Also the shorts splitting gave me an idea for what to tell Dearly Beloved to give me for Christmas. Since she's been asking me what I want. So since my years-old Columbia hiking shorts are losing internal support for my boys and the seams are starting to split from wear and tear, that's what MS Claus will see that I get.

[JC]

Just in case you're interested i've found the recent popularity of mixed martial arts has spawned a small industry of shorts manufacturers that don't look like they belong on Gary Glitterand have all the stretch to achieve headkicks and crap... basically something to lift in that doesn't look like leggings or 70's running shorts (although i won't go as far as to say they don't look ridiculous, but there are some out there that are fairly plain with just a few small logos and junk).

And i'll be damned but I get a little dissapointed when your training log updates are actually about training!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the tip jon. I'll point her in that direction. Oh, she asked me to ask you if they will provide adequate support for the boys.

What other stuff besides training? Why sir, whatever do you mean?

[JC]

Gotta wear pants (actual pants, not trousers) underneath; no pseudo netting pants in there (ball support-wise). I read your log for the story telling, it's like pulling up a stool at the bar when an old warhorse starts talking... but then he just sprouts some numbers about barbells? It leaves me scared, confused and aroused is all i'm saying.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 250 !?

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 190 x 5 x 5. The re-programming continues. Strangely, breath control with this is harder for me. I'm using a wider grip around 24" and getting used to consciously changing my hand orientation slightly. Not really a problem, it just feels different. If anyone but Rip had said this I'd probably shine it on, but then again, I know what a subtle but significant difference the right samll hand movement can make from some of the joint locks we use.

Curls: 65 x 5 x 5. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Pinch Grip: 160 with nothing to show for it. I made three tries at this and could not hold it for even one second. Odd, because I've held this weight for 15-20 during earlier work with this weight. I can only conclude that the high humidity from the rain the last two days has some obscure effect on the plates that even chalk doesn't help overcome. The weather was much the same the last time I had this problem.

Foam rolling and stretching for the conclusion. Hustled into work with a very demanding schedule all week. Late commitments tomorrow are looking make getting to jujitsu dicey.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Well. Not only did work overwhelm jujitsu on Wednesday night, but also lifting later in the week and even bled over into leaving me too drained to get bounced around on the tatami this morning. So why piss and moan about what I didn't, or more accurately couldn't muster the will to do? Not because I enjoy telling others of my misfortune and the woe is me. It's part of the balancing act of life and how tenuous that act can be when work demands overwhelm the rest of life. The physical demands are near zero, but the standing around this week supporting multiple tours as security minder or zampolit took a huge toll on my lower back. Moving around and walking during my normal course of things I do at work actually keeps me loose. But standing at parade rest making sure no one goes someplace they aren't supposed to starts a chain of events that after 5 minutes makes my posterior chain start to contract and lock up from the back of the knees to the erector spinae. Coupled with new duties I don't fully understand and this week's chaotic string events, it also cooked my grey matter.

But, I did manage to get in some low intensity cardio along with my old friends foam rolling and stretching. Tomorrow I start squatting better courtesy of Rip.

[Gwynn]

Sorry Gwynn, I was trying to soft peddle some other concept about my discontent regarding our daughter and I inadvertently swerved into a marginal denigration of dance. I know dancing is very demanding in terms of physicality. The real problem is that she's lazy when it comes to physical activity and fat, and not just a little either. I recognize I may get some grief for this comment, but there it is. Nothing I could do would motivate her. She did work out a little on the track and field team and golf in high school. She's a big young woman now at 22. Like most of us Hurlings where The Old Man's DNA overwhelmed lesser organisms like it was Iwo Jima, she reached 5' 10" by the time she was 15. Also well North of 200 lbs. Like me she competed in the discus and shot put in the field events. But then we have a large population of Samoans and other Pacific Islanders and they can toss those implements like nerfs. Maybe she'll get the ferrous religion later and get herself in some semblance of order, but that is her decision to make and her life to lead. My own poor attempts at programming were worse than useless.

Hey, I didn't take it that way! But I know that dance as a profession makes many parents scratch their heads and wonder how their child will manage to feed him or herself, much less get health insurance etc. Sounds like your kid is not heading into dance as a profession? At 22, she should already be there if she is. I think it's great that she's 5'10" and 200 pounds, especially as a discus thrower. But the dance world is not ready for that body type and probably never will be. She will find her own way. :-) P.S. I was 5'8" by the time I was ten years old. It is NOT easy to be a big girl child.

[ZKP]

She does indeed have that potential, but she is entirely uninterested in anything but dancing. One of my most significant failures as a parent.

All we can do is cook em and love em. Give em a moral compass and be there for them. Don't be so hard on yourself. Her choices are hers, and perspective makes a difference as far as the validity of any pursuit is concerned. Thank God I only have to live my own life...
PS. How's the pressing coming?
ZKP

PSS. Gwynn speaks truth

[Mark E. Hurling]

Gwynn, ZKP, thank you both for your thoughts and observations. Both spot-on and ones which I know to be true. But truth and reality can be hard. When all is said and done, she does indeed have her own life to lead. I was a fat kid myself until 17 when football season ended. I have deep and abiding issues of my own on the subject and happily for her, she does not seem to have herself or had to undergo.

As for my pressing, I'm re-programming oooolllld habits of long standing with advice from Rip's 3rd edition. So far so good.

[JC]

Any tips on raising a big girl or two? My four year old is taller than most 5 and some 6 year olds... will this likely stay with her and is it an issue? She's not chubby or out but i suppose she could get to be. Info - i am only 5'8" but the wife is 5'10", neither of us ate well as children but i'm in charge of cooking et al. and our children eat pretty good so maybe they'll be bigger than us?

[Mark E. Hurling]

I think I can answer this in part jon, but I'll just say up front that some of my comments and advice are heavily freighted with some deeply abiding personal matters that color what I have to say. I highly encourage Gwynn and spar to chime in on this if they would. One because of Gwynn's own experience in being tall and spar's better grasp of the less conservative currents than I have. I happen to think I'm tuned in to this pretty well, but I'm also smart enough to know that I'm not always right.

OK then, part one - tall girls. We knew our daughter was going to be tall early on. She was in the 95th percentile of growth from the beginning and was 3 feet tall before age 2. The rule of thumb among pediatricians is that you reach about half your adult height by that age. So since I'm 5'11" and she got the Hurling DNA big time we figured anywhere from 5'10" to 6'. She looked exactly like my middle sister who also got the Hurling DNA overwhelmingly as well. In fact she looked more like my sister's daughter than Dearly Beloved's daughter.

So we prepared her early for the probability that she would tower over the others in her classes. Which she did. She never came home upset from teasing over it though, and I don't know if that meant it didn't happen or that she didn't care about it. We worked on self esteem thinking and body image so that she would feel comfortable being who she was and how she was. I know this may sound utterly unlike me and most of the things I say and do here, but some aspects of the liberal ideas of self esteem have some merit. I know I grew up hating myself for being a fat kid and I was teased about it mercilessly. Dearly Beloved, being half Polish and half Swedish is pretty dark skinned. She got it bad as a kid too being called the N word during the summers when she'd get really dark. Given our own experiences we wanted to armor her up in case she got some of the same treatment. It seemed to work.

Now for the part where I go to the dark side. In conjunction with this, Dearly Beloved and I got into some bad habits in child rearing. We both had full time jobs until our daughter was in high school. So the golden arches for a quick drive through became convenient when taking her to day care and later kindergarten. Then in grades 1-5 we discovered that the kids had very little time for lunch and so would stuff their food down fast. More bad eating habits. About age 8 or so, we were appalled when she face planted herself at an Italian restaurant into the tomato salad and gobbled it. Nothing we did could get her eating back on track and we were stuck with a dilemma between trying shame to get her to eat more rationally or starving her. So I resorted to near dragging her to the gym to get her to exercise. Yeah, that went well. I should have remembered my own experience with The Old Man when he expressed less than favorable opinions over my own physical prowess. But then I wasn't prepared to put her through boot camp like I got from him.

The down side of the self esteem movement has morphed in the US and from what our daughter tells us in the UK as well to fat acceptance. She was even a spokesperson and activist for it in college. They have all manner of studies and rationalizations for their fatness and too bad if you try talking them out of it. Ain't gonna happen. So we gave up about her senior year in high school. She has to find the will and desire to this for herself and that's that.

So I can only say in conclusion that you have to be alert to what you are doing and what they are doing and try to head off any bad direction earlier rather than later.

[JC]

Well at least she (your daughter) sounds happy about it all and is confident with herself.

Back to mine; she used to come train with me in the garage (i put a sandpit in there so really she played and i sometimes let her copy me with an empty e-z bar) and i guess she likes the idea of training. she's always asking me 'is this exercise?' (doing activity x) and saying stuff like 'now i have muscles' (after activity x). She's only 4 so i don't want to actually put her into something that becomes a chore (she did gymnastics for a while but she was scared of being upside down and there was only so much to do upright, so after a while we stopped taking her, although when she's a bit older we might start again). Currently we just play wheelbarrows, skipping, jumping and rolling on our bed, punching some old boxing pads that try to sneak up on her, racing to point x when walking around and that sort of thing... basically what age is about right to start letting her actually exercise properly? I don't want to push her to do anything and turn her off of it, but she's always asking and it's starting to sound like an obsession, and i'm feeling a bit guilty indulging her all the time, like i'm setting her up for a breakdown/pushy sports parent routine.

Cut to the chase - how old is right for letting children exercise?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 145 x 5 x 3. So far so good. The levering myself under the bar at full extension seems to be dialing in better each time I do it. It feels comfortable and strong. I also can knock out all three reps on one gulp of air. This keeps the whole upper body locked on like I was wrapped in kevlar. Still a little fumbling finding the right width of grip. I was little too close on the first set and couldn't get the bar all the way down on the upper chest.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Squats: 225 x 3. This was the first session trying to incorporate Rip's 3rd edition. I find that I think I have the foot spacing and back extension down pretty well along with the head and neck eyeline tips. What came as something of a shock was the probability that I wasn't going quite deep enough. So I dropped as low as I could. It wasn't a lot farther down, and I suppose I'll have to get the final word from Rip in March at the seminar. But it felt OK and it definitely engaged the hams and adductors more, because both are grumbling as I type this. Mister back however, feels just fine. I also noticed that I had to put the bar a pin lower to follow Rip's guidelines and that took some getting used to as well. Now I'm trying to dial in the upper body skills of positioning the bar low enough and fine tuning my hand spacing properly. The two are linked in a manner I had never considered before. I also discovered that the very small detail of "grip," wrist, and hand positioning on the bar are tricky too. I did this correctly I think maybe once in my warmup sets because the bar seemed to float. I made some more adjustments and discovered I went too far when I got home and referred to the book again. Ah learning! I stopped at 225 because I want to get these small things and depth as good as I can and build up 5-10 lbs. a session.

In other news the geezers were out in force this morning at Golds. There was only the one geezer dude bro and since he didn't have his grooming partner to chatter away with, he was quiet for a welcome change. While I was doing my pull-ups I saw another guy with an Old Guys Rule t-shirt with The Duke on the back. I told him he needed to get the one where Wayne says, "Well if I can't teach you respect for your elders, I guess I'll just have to teach you to fear your betters, pilgrim." He asked where I got mine, and I told him the same place he bought the one he was wearing.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cut to the chase - how old is right for letting children exercise?

Jeez jon, it sounds like you're doing all the right stuff now. As far as strength training? I'd say around 10-12 for the real grinders like "heavy" squats and deadlifts. The other things like she is doing with the EZ curl bar are fine. It's a good way to acclimate her to feeling comfortable around the iron. As far as other kinds of exercise like sports? Age 6-7 is common here in things like soccer and other US sports like softball or basketball. Master Bellman teaches a jujitsu class for 7-13 year olds. That's the one I help teach before the adult class on Wednesdays.

[Gwynn]

I think I can answer this in part jon, but I'll just say up front that some of my comments and advice are heavily freighted with some deeply abiding personal matters that color what I have to say. I highly encourage Gwynn and spar to chime in on this if they would. One because of Gwynn's own experience in being tall and spar's better grasp of the less conservative currents than I have. I happen to think I'm tuned in to this pretty well, but I'm also smart enough to know that I'm not always right.

OK then, part one - tall girls. We knew our daughter was going to be tall early on. She was in the 95th percentile of growth from the beginning and was 3 feet tall before age 2. The rule of thumb among pediatricians is that you reach about half your adult height by that age. So since I'm 5'11" and she got the Hurling DNA big time we figured anywhere from 5'10" to 6'. She looked exactly like my middle sister who also got the Hurling DNA overwhelmingly as well. In fact she looked more like my sister's daughter than Dearly Beloved's daughter.

So we prepared her early for the probability that she would tower over the others in her classes. Which she did. She never came home upset from teasing over it though, and I don't know if that meant it didn't happen or that she didn't care about it. We worked on self esteem thinking and body image so that she would feel comfortable being who she was and how she was. I know this may sound utterly unlike me and most of the things I say and do here, but some aspects of the liberal ideas of self esteem have some merit. I know I grew up hating myself for being a fat kid and I was teased about it mercilessly. Dearly Beloved, being half Polish and half Swedish is pretty dark skinned. She got it bad as a kid too being called the N word during the summers when she'd get really dark. Given our own experiences we wanted to armor her up in case she got some of the same treatment. It seemed to work.

Now for the part where I go to the dark side. In conjunction with this, Dearly Beloved and I got into some bad habits in child rearing. We both had full time jobs until our daughter was in high school. So the golden arches for a quick drive through became convenient when taking her to day care and later kindergarten. Then in grades 1-5 we discovered that the kids had very little time for lunch and so would stuff their food down fast. More bad eating habits. About age 8 or so, we were appalled when she face planted herself at an Italian restaurant into the tomato salad and gobbled it. Nothing we did could get her eating back on track and we were stuck with a dilemma between trying shame to get her to eat more rationally or starving her. So I resorted to near dragging her to the gym to get her to exercise. Yeah, that went well. I should have remembered my own experience with The Old Man when he expressed less than favorable opinions over my own physical prowess. But then I wasn't prepared to put her through boot camp like I got from him.

The down side of the self esteem movement has morphed in the US and from what our daughter tells us in the UK as well to fat acceptance. She was even a spokesperson and activist for it in college. They have all manner of studies and rationalizations for their fatness and too bad if you try talking them out of it. Ain't gonna happen. So we gave up about her senior year in high school. She has to find the will and desire to this for herself and that's that.

So I can only say in conclusion that you have to be alert to what you are doing and what they are doing and try to head off any bad direction earlier rather than later.

Honestly, it sounds like your daughter is doing just fine and I think you'd be justified in being proud of her. As far as fat-acceptance goes, I really don't see the down side there. But I'd have to let Spar head that debate, as she is far more capable of it than I am. Sounds like you did a good job as parents, too. Every parent has his/her own issues and tries to make their children do stuff they don't want to. I think the main thing that's important is for the child to know she is loved even if you don't agree with or understand her choices.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Dearly Beloved and I are very proud of her for her academic achievements. She graduated magna cum laude from a PAC 12 school (OSU) in sociology. She's a great, kind, and caring young woman and will I have every confidence do well for herself as she progresses through life. We love her a great deal, except when she and Dearly Beloved are working out their mother/daughter conflicts. Then I have a few choices, don my striped shirt and grab my whistle, head for the bunker and ride out the artillery barrage, or go for a drive. We lucked out, because I know all too well that you can do everything you think right and end up with a reprobate. I have some cousins who are sterling examples of just that.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

You did luck out; of course some awesome parenting probably had something to do with it, too.


"It's a crap shoot. You have dreams about your kids. In one dream, he's going: 'I'd like to thank the Nobel Academy.' And in the other dream he says: 'You want fries with that?'

-Robin Williams

[tertius]

Just a few points:

JC, I'd recommend talking to Tbone about your little'un lifting. There's some vids in her log of her older daughter (i think) lifting, even.

MEH - On the fat acceptance thing, i'll put up a few words since spar is in absentia at the moment. The point is not to say "Being fat is awesome" and to encourage people to be fat, or even necessarily to stay overweight. The point is to say 'I am awesome' regardless of your weight, and to help heavier women feel beautiful and valuable, as they are. Instead of sub-human, as people like Jefferson, stonerider, and so on would prefer. Because while it's a positive thing to diet and exercise out of a desire to improve yourself, or your health, it is a whole other kettle of fish to do so because outside pressure has made you uncomfortable in your body, and hate it. The former will leave you happy, with healthy habits about food and exercise and a good chance to stay where you want to, in terms of how you want your body to look or perform. The latter will leave you a terrible mess. So that's really what it's about. Not letting society make you hate your body, and ruin your relationship with it.

As for the health side, that's tricky. Some people can go their whole lives being thick, while also being strong, with a high level of cardiovascular fitness, having a good lipid profile, etc. Others can't hack being even a few pounds overweight without starting to have problems. So this is highly individual, though mostly genetic, and probably your reaction to being heavier will be somewhat informative about your daughter's.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I know some of what you talk about tertius. But getting her to exercise in any fashion was near impossible. I am convinced it was a matter of choice and a form of rebellion in her case.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 200 x 5 x 5. With a good deep breath, I can now do my sets of 5 on one lungfull of air.

Curls: 70 x 5 x 5.

Claw Grip: 200 x 2 x 5. PR! I'm taking it easy on the other stuff, but figured I'd go for the gusto on this one today.

Foam roller and stretching. Things have quieted down at work considerably now that the circus and traveling clowns have left town. The crickets and tumbleweeds are creeping out and making their presence known now.

[Gwynn]

MEH - On the fat acceptance thing, i'll put up a few words since spar is in absentia at the moment.

thanks tertius!

[Gwynn]

I know some of what you talk about tertius. But getting her to exercise in any fashion was near impossible. I am convinced it was a matter of choice and a form of rebellion in her case.


Think of all the other ways young women choose to rebel and breathe a sigh of relief ;

[tertius]

Think of all the other ways young women choose to rebel and breathe a sigh of relief ;

Seriously. Think of all the obnoxious boyfriends that never had to go missing...

[Mark E. Hurling]

I resisted an on-line log for some time before starting one here. I always kept a purely numeric spreadsheet with goal weights and reps and whether or not I got there for that session or not. This log has given rise to more coherent and organized thinking about what I do. The writing it down and organizing it in more or less grammatical sentences clarifies my thinking. Then there’s the advice you get here when you ruminate about that somewhere other than the confines of your own head. So I’m just happy as Hell to get my workouts logged and posted so that it feels like I actually did them.

1-25-12

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 215 5-5-5-5-4. Since I can still feel a little of the owwie in my pec I picked up from this a week or so back I didn’t try to gut out the last rep.

Curls: 90 5 x 5.

Pinch Grip: 150 and I couldn’t hang on the damn thing at all even wit a 10 lb. drop to reset. I have no idea what’s going on with me losing my grip, so to speak.

Average heart rate for this session was 142 bpm. Even with 3-4 minute rest intervals.

Jujitsu tonight had me teaching newbie kids the basics. One of the girls was teamed up with boy who was constantly correcting her when she wasn’t wrong on her technique. I asked her if he was her brother. She said no he’s my cousin. I asked her isn’t it funny how boy cousins always think they know than you do? She went into a fit of giggles and her cousin got embarrassed and started stuttering. The mom of one of them sitting along the sidelines heard me and cracked up. Fun for all.

The adult class had me getting some coaching and fine tuning of choking technique with a green belt overseen by a really great 4th degree black belt. Excellent teacher. He guided us through the finer points of how to displace the sternomastoid muscles of the neck with a very gentle touch. Then on to seal off the carotids and you’re on your way to dreamland in seconds. It’s amazing how so little strength and effort are required to do this. Then we did the rice bale throw which is similar to judo’s tomoenage. But ours doesn’t use an assist with the foot and ends in a choke as the other guy hits the mat. As usual, when I get thrown my 245 pounds hits the mat with a resounding WHUMP! This stops the rest of the class in it’s tracks for about 30 seconds or so while everyone takes a long look at the floor to make sure there’s no crater there.

1-26-12

Weight: 246.5

In and out fast with a GXP, foam roller and stretching.

1-27-12

Weight: 247

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 110 x 8 x 3 +10. I started with dips, but now I know where the owwie came from recently. The right pec did not like this move. So I switched to the press. I’m going to do the lying triceps press instead for the foreseeable future. Funny because it’s very much like the really old school pullover and press that I started doing in high school in the 60’s from Hoffman’s old Strength and Health mag. I’ve doing it on and off ever since. Just not in the last year or so.

Power Clean: 135 x 8 x 3. Still working on the rack and not using my arms for pull.

Squat: 135 x 3 x 6.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

Off to a Saturday session of jujitsu today for the first time this year. Great to be back in that routine. After some of the most appallingly stupid meetings and teleconferences I was in at work this week it's especially good to find this form of release. I can think of a few hours of my life I'll never get back and that I swear made me dumber. The Santa Ana winds kicked up around 60 and damn near blew my aging Camry off the road both to and from the dojo.

I got paired up with the OCD green belt and we were supervised by a 2nd degree black belt while we worked on chokes. The black belt has matured in the last few years because he used to fuck with me an put the hurt on when he could sneak it in. This ended a few years back when after he tweaked my elbow hard enough in an arm bar I hauled it backward in a one-arm row that dragged him right along with it. He then got some lateral side hip thrust that flung him into the wall hard enough to put a 2' x 2' dent in it. He quit his BS then and Master Bellman made a point of keeping us on opposite ends of the mat until recently. But he taught some good points. Of course the green belt when into an analytical mobius loop that we had to keep pulling him out of to get anything done. A couple good takeaways were to use the tips of the fingers to dig in to the trachea on a bear claw choke rather than the finger pads. Better penetration to the windpipe with slightly more angled fingers. We did the rice bale and I thought I was going to get killed by the green belt. He somehow managed to turn me in mid air and land me at a 90 degree angle to my frontal approach attack. My neck is still very sore and my head feels like it was used as a conga drum.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 165 x 1-1-1-1 This was supposed to be 5 sets of 3 but today was not one of those days to brag about after last week's triumph. I woke up with a posterior chain giving me no end of complaints from the L-5 to the atlas vertebrae from jujitsu yesterday. The upper back and neck were particularly troublesome so that probably accounts for my dismal performance on this lift. Last weeks round with 160 wasn't a cake walk, but I didn't expect this kind of struggle. I couldn't even get 1 rep on the 5th set.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Deadlifts: 285 x 3 295 x 3. After the press I didn't expect a lot from this even though this weight is still somewhat below anything taxing for for me. But I'm still reprogramming long held habits of form and am determined to get things right before going to the wall. The low back did not stop me at all. I did however forget to wear long socks and now my shins are gratered up from the knurling. I also discovered how much difference even 1/2" can make in distance from the shin when coming up. Like at least 20 lbs. were added since the previous rep.

Finished out with a GXP and then went out to steak and eggs for breakfast with Dearly Beloved.

[Oldster]

Finished out with a GXP and then went out to steak and eggs for breakfast with Dearly Beloved.
Mmm mmm good! My favorite! Probably way too favorite. I probably have it 10-12 out of 30 days. Elk steaks and fresh eggs from my hens, along with nice piping hot sourdough bread that I am FINALLY getting better at!

I'll say one thing though Mr Foohey, you kung foo types take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!

[Mark E. Hurling]

I'll say one thing though Mr Foohey, you kung foo types take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!

It's the main reason I include the battering I get when I'm not under the iron. It's the balancing act between recovery from effort and recovery from trauma. Usually minor but now and again edging toward the less than minor.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 215 x 5 x 5. Nice to move on after missing the last rep last week and then Sunday’s less than stellar session with the standing overhead press.

Curl: 95 x 5 x 5.

Claw Grip: 210 x 2 x 5 PR! Also glad that at least this dimension of grip has not faded on me. I have to stand in a braced back stance to do this now or I’d be hauled off my feet when I use the cable stack. Lots of odd looks when I do this. The IronMind claw curl webbing looks strange enough but when coupled with the whole enchilada, well I can see why it draws some perplexity.

Foam roller and stretching.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Congrats on the grip PR!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Sully!

Dang what a week at work. Talk about life getting in the way of other things you’d rather be doing. I spent Tuesday night into Wednesday morning overseeing moves at work until after midnight. Long day. Then I got paged at 0410 to come in because there was a fire. I went from Elmer Fudd to wide awake about the same speed the nose wheel of a 747 goes from 0 to 100+ on impact at landing. Hustled in and got ready to perform inadvertent disclosure debriefs on the city fire dogs if need be. Happily it wasn’t necessary. A little personal satisfaction on my part too. They tried using a fire axe to get into one of the areas I designed and discovered that steel acoustic doors and 9 gauge expended metal in the walls just chips the axe head. But there was no fire there anyway so no harm was done. Other than to someone’s ego in turnout gear. Went home again to come in later that day and got three more pages at 0810 when I decided to throw in the towel on sleep. The 2nd caught me in the shower and the 3rd caught me taking a dump. The last two resulted in blistered ears for the callers when I informed them I was on my in anyway. So I’ve been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since. No jujitsu (again!) because I conked out on the sofa 5 minutes after getting home Wednesday night. Couldn’t even contemplate getting up in the morning to lift until today.

Weight: 246

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Lying Triceps Press: 65 x 3 x 12. Lots of fun revisiting an old favorite of mine. I haven’t done reps that high in a few years, so that was different too.

Power Clean: 135 x 8 x 3. This is coming along. The rack seems to be getting a little better but I’m confident Rip and company will pick me apart on this at the March seminar. I asked a couple of older guys, geezlings maybe, to step a leetle further back while I did these because I have a tendency to stagger backward on the rack every now and then.

Squats: 135 x 3 x 6. I’m struggling with the triad of hand spacing, bar depth on the back, and hand orientation on the bar again. Seems like it should be simpler to get this right.

Finished off with a GXP that fatigue prevented me from doing earlier this week, foam roller and stretching.

[Oldster]

Some mighty good lifting and a great PR of late, old man. Very very nice.

I like doing a big of direct tricep work every now and then, your lying tricep press is always a good one. My DB pullover and press is another good one but terribly demanding.

No wonder you keep hanging in the upper 240's in BW, your tri's are just pumped up and growing all the time!

[Mark E. Hurling]

That must be it I guess. The arms have stayed at 17 1/2" and the chest still tapes at 52" which I still think is more about my lats and traps than that thicket of white hair in the front. Funny though, the mustache has nearly gone from grey to white too, but my hair just has some sprinkling of silver in the brown.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

That must be it I guess. The arms have stayed at 17 1/2" and the chest still tapes at 52" which I still think is more about my lats and traps than that thicket of white hair in the front. Funny though, the mustache has nearly gone from grey to white too, but my hair just has some sprinkling of silver in the brown.

Lucky fuck. I'm 51 one and rapidly approaching complete silver plating.

[Oldster]

Silver hair is funny. I'm finally starting to get a bit along the edges. But the Perfesser started seeing grey hair at the ripe old age of 16. When we married she had already started coloring her hair. At age 35 she had nearly a snow white head with a smattering of pepper.....

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245 (yay[!])

Just getting to the dojo this morning was challenging. CalTrans had a bunch of unannounced ramp closures that caused me some detours and slow patches on the way. Goddam slugs.

I got paired up with a green belt who is my size and it's a welcome change to work with someone who isn't overpowered just by the size and strength difference. He has the whole shaved head thing going on and he's half my age, but a good solid partner to work with. None of the bad-ass baggage that too often accompanies that look. Very smart guy and a nice one too.

We did some interesting variations of techniques I was familiar with already. One was blocking an upper cut and transitioning to a takedown. Right upper cut blocked by a descending left dead hand shuto. The left hand tracks to the wrist and grips while your right hand reaches over and palm slaps the attacker's closed left fist. This "energizes" the attacker's arm from elbow to knuckles and I can't explain it further but am just repeating what I have learned. You then smack the attacker's fist in a small sharp circle turning the wrist inward. The attacker folds up starting at the wrist and when you step toward him with your right foot he falls backward. Resistance is futile, you get assimilated by the mat.

Another technique starts from the attacker making a cross wrist grab to your right hand and pulls you in to clock you with his free hand. You grab his wrist with your free hand as you step in and pry your right hand loose as you turn that elbow toward him in a hard strike to the sternum that also intercepts his incoming other free hand that was going to clock you. You then wrap your right arm around his and grip your left wrist in a figure four arm lock while twisting your hips to the left. While all this is going on, your left hand has released it's grip on the attacker's wrist and snakes to the top of his hand and turns his wrist inward and downward. I watched Master Bellman demonstrate this on the green belt I was working with and as off balance as you get before the wrist is torqued, once the wrist turns the whole body collapses like watching a controlled demolition in slow motion. Once the brain registers the hurt to the wrist the knees start to buckle in an attempt to relieve the pain. Then the entire bodily structure goes down brick by brick.

Lots of other good stuff too. The green belt was having trouble orienting to my body position because he wasn't aware of where my feet were. I told him to relax his vision and look at my upper sternum. His peripheral vision would see the rest of my body without having to shift his eyes or drop his head to look. It helped him immediately.

When I got home I asked Dearly Beloved to find my scapular ridges and press on them so I would know where they are so I could better place the bar when setting up to squat. I think I have been trying to get the bar too low on my back. I'll find out tomorrow when I squat a little heavier.

[Oldster]

Weight: 245 (yay[!])
You hardly throw a shadow now.


I think I have been trying to get the bar too low on my back. I'll find out tomorrow when I squat a little heavier.
Thats why I'm not a big fan of trying to put the bar in a specific region that is chosen or told that it is the right spot. When we take the bar on our back we should be able to instinctively know (to a point) where it should go to fit our own specific center of gravity. I couldn't give a shit if I use a HB or LB style, the bar knows where it should be on my back.

But that could be the four drinks of Bird Dog whiskey talking......

[Mark E. Hurling]

Well I must say that Bird Dog sounds classier than cheap-ass Albertson's wodka. I'm sure it's a howling success. But then again I've barked up the wrong tree a time or two. That is when I wasn't lifting a leg on it.

In the words of Jim Carrey in The Mask, "Somebody stop me!"

[Oldster]

In the words of Jim Carrey in The Mask, "Somebody stop me!"
Nope, you are on a roll man, keep it going!

But man is it a great sippin' whiskey. And I've been a sippin' this evening............

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5 (clunk! jaw hitting the floor)

Interesting day all around despite the dings I've suddenly managed to acquire. I woke up with some massive tendinitis in my right elbow. I think it's a combination of the tricep presses Friday and I know it's almost undoubtedly mainly the result of a couple of hundred reps in punching drills from jujitsu yesterday. I haven't had this malady much lately praise be. I can't bend my elbow too acutely and I can't lock it out completely either. Not just because it hurts, but because it just won't do it. So presses and pullups were out. So was shaving with my right hand. I've broken my right arm three times as a young 'un so I can do almost everything left handed. There are a few things I can only do left handed like shoot pool, pull a bow, and shoot a long gun. But then I have a left master eye so that's why too I suppose. But left hand shaving with five blades can be a little daunting. No tissue paper daubed face though, lucky me. With luck, the fire will go out in a day or two and I can do something for the upper body again.

Then there's the right outside knee that's been deviling me for a month or so. After reading the recovery portion of the forum I think it may be the ITB (duh!). So I added some foam roller to that and some (more) stretches today so maybe I can sit in zazen in the bowing in and out at jujitsu again. Hope it works. My right side is not happy with me just now.

I couldn't get to Golds this morning anyway because the Super Bowl 10K was being held and its on the finish line. So I slept in and got a haircut later. On the way there I saw 4 Torrance cop cars with lights flashing parked on the corner of Del Amo and Anza. There was a BMX bike on the ground and a mass of 4 dark blue uniforms thumping and writhing on top of a barely visible, screaming somebody or other wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt. One of the younger cops had his sleeve rucked up to his shoulder and there was a LOT of blood on it. Not sure whose blood it was, but I did hear one of the cops yell "He's trying to bite again!" So who knows. I almost pulled over and offered to assist and then remembered one of my own similar scenarios when a citizen offered to help. Funny story, but embarrassing at the same time. So I drove on and saw 3 other Torrance squads converging on the scene. Gotta check The Daily Breeze for details tomorrow. Torrance has a bad rep for it's cops but they have always been polite and professional even when they gave me traffic tickets. It stems mainly from not responding to local Black and Mexican activists when arrests they don't approve were made. Torrance doesn't respond to such PCness and since it has never taken Federal funds for anything has even told some ambitious US Attorneys who wanted to make their bones for Clinton to take a hike. This however, might not be one of their finest hours.

Finally got in a GXP this afternoon and my ITB burns from the foam roller.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

I managed to get a GXP this morning. The flames in the elbow are dying down but I still can’t lock it out and bending it acutely is still not doable so lifting is not in the cards until maybe tomorrow. I did foam rolling and stretching including for my ITB, and while I still can’t get my ass all the way down on my heels yet without real bad pain in my knee, the angle is closing up from last week. So the new stuff looks like it might be helping.

As for my witness of the street drama with Torrance PD, I still haven’t seen any mention of it in the papers, so it looks like some enterprising watch commander “buried” it in an obscure corner of the arrest blotter. All of which is starting to smell as to how the whole thing must have been handled.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

Jujitsu last night had me reviewing our white belt course at speed with the two newbies. They did good and promoted to orange belt at the conclusion of class. A bunch of other orange belts and blue belts advanced a rank too. Always a lot fun shaking the kids hands in congratulations. Minor dust up between two kids got a helicopter mom all exercised. I feel for her kid, because she’s suffocating him.

The adult class had over a dozen again. Large group these days. I was teaching technique to blue belt 1st degrees who appeared to have forgotten some of their own course techniques. One of them was one of my favorites. The attacker grabs your left lapel and you send a right vertical fist right to the chin. Then that same hand arcs across to the hand on your lapel grips it and inverts it so the attacker’s chop of the hand is pointed at the ceiling. You then loop your left arm over their wrist and bow downward. It’s called a torture hold and your wrist would certainly agree. The attacker’s knees buckle as they try to drop below the torque applied to their wrist to relieve the pain. It hurts bad enough and suddenly enough that even considering trying strike with the free hand never occurs to them. Very slick.

Another one is the key neck turn. This time the attacker tries a double lapel grab and your reach up with your right hand on the left underside of the chin and jaw and initiate a turn to your right and upward. Your left hand snakes around to the back and left side of the head and pulls inward and downward continuing the arc of that turn. As this is happening you step back with your left foot and pivot on your right foot while turning your hips counterclockwise. It corkscrews them right down on the ground. Resistance could be damaging to the neck. Very short, very quick, and very effective on the biggest people.

We promoted a white belt and two belts got a rank advancement to first degree.

The elbow took a little damage last night from some armbar techniques, otherwise I’d probably have lifted this morning. Nope. So I’ll recover one more day and do a light day tomorrow. That’s one more day of recovery than usual but then I’ve never been 61 before either.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Another one is the key neck turn. This time the attacker tries a double lapel grab and your reach up with your right hand on the left underside of the chin and jaw and initiate a turn to your right and upward. Your left hand snakes around to the back and left side of the head and pulls inward and downward continuing the arc of that turn. As this is happening you step back with your left foot and pivot on your right foot while turning your hips counterclockwise. It corkscrews them right down on the ground. Resistance could be damaging to the neck. Very short, very quick, and very effective on the biggest people.

I love this technique. It's part of the TSD self-defense curriculum; in Krav it's used for bearhug-front-arms free.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I love this technique. It's part of the TSD self-defense curriculum; in Krav it's used for bearhug-front-arms free.

The one we use for that is pretty close to this one, but with a few minor differences. We lead off with a head butt, knocking the attacker's head back as the defenders left forearm loops around the back of his neck and the right hand goes up to his forehead with the palm fixed on it. Then the defender takes a step back with the left foot as the left arm pulls his neck back toward the defender and the right hand presses the forehead back. The attacker folds up like a cheap card table under a pile of cinder blocks. Then the defender either stomps them in the balls or just runs like hell. Or both.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Tricep Press: 75 x 3 x 12. This didn't seem to aggravate the elbow. I slowed down the rebound at the bottom of the rep just to be safe.

Power Clean: 135 x 3 x 8. This seems to be getting better by small increments. A little more attention to a wider hand spacing seemed to improve the rack position with respect to wrists. The bars not quite lying on my delts yet but it's getting closer.

Squat: 135 x 3 x 6. Wider hand spacing here again seemed to help along with the tactile cue from Dearly Beloved last week on locating my scapular ridge. Since then I've figuired out how to reach around my own shoulders and locate it. So I think I'm getting the bar where it belongs on my back now. Or at least closer. Same/same witht the wrist position. Funny how the right knee is still tender but the rebound at the bottom doesn't seem to bother it at all. I fiigured paying attention to shoving my knees out farther might help this too. It did.

Foam rolling and stretching. The elbow is still just a touch tender, but nothing to stress over. It didn't affect me in the lifts much if at all. Then knee is still not happy, but seems to be getting better veerrryy slowly. I'll try some cold packs too. I bumped into the one guy that I know at Gold's who knows Rip exists. We talked a month or so back about squat form. He didn't know about the upcoming seminar at Costa Mesa and was excited to see if he might get in.

Elapsed total time for the workout was 43 minutes with an average heart rate of 140 bpm which comes to 88% of MHR. Good to get under the iron again.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 165 x 3-3-3-3-2. Pretty encouraging actually after two bad heavy days in a row. One where my upper back was jacked and the other from tennis elbow. One of the morning regulars who is probably a geezling was asking me about presses because he noticed I "just do the powerlifts." So I gave him the gospel about Starting Strength and Rip. He's an engineer at another aerospace company near mine and I see him moving around El Segundo when I am doing likewise so I knew just how to pitch the engineering aspects of moment arms. He was very interested so we'll see where this goes.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Deadlifts: 315 x 2. My own fault, this. I got over eager to pull 315 because of the three big wheels ego boost. Should have stuck with the 305 I had planned and then done another set of 3 with 310 if the 305 went well. But no, I started thinking with the little head. I was also wearing long trainers to protect my shins. They did the job great. But my grip got wobbly on rep #2 and I switched to a mixed grip for #3. The sudden change resulted in the bar coming away from my upper shins too far and my lower back started objecting so I set it down. I contemplated trying for another run at 3 and decided that this was a good lesson in patience and adhering to plan. So here I sit, with Mr. Lumbar slightly unhappy but not in an incapacitating way.

In the spirit of doing something different I did a GXP with strikes and low kicks on the heavy bag. Man did that get the HR up! 144 at a couple of points with a mix of all the strikes we do in mushin ryu. Punch, jab, ridge hand, vertical fist, palm heel, insanity blow, elbow strikes, hammer fist, foot sweeps, roundhouse, knee kicks, knee roundhouse. I'm sure I looked spastic and entirely demented. Too bad.

Stretching and foam rolling. Right outside knee is still not happy. As an added bonus I saw the local cops pulling over bicyclists who routinely ignore stop signs for a change this morning. Cops 3, bikers 0.

[BillBrownley]

Stay with your plan. I always get banged up and sometimes have to reset, whenever I get greedy. Nice overhead presses--maybe one day I will get there.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Bill.

Weight: 247.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 220 x 5 x 5. The last rep was a grinder that stalled halfway up. My butt slightly broke contact as I dug in to lock it out. Might have passed muster with judges in a match, but I will repeat this so as to earn it and own it next week.

Curl: 100 x 5 x 5. I'm really surprised how these keep going up without a lot of fuss. Glad, but slightly unnerved.

Claw Grip: 215 x 2 x 5 PR! Now this is amazing. I'm pinning a 25 lb. plate to the 190 lb. cable stack. If my footing slipped I think I'd get launched across the gym floor like a punkin hurled (heh) by a trebuchet. I have to lean back at a 45 degree angle with a deep hard horse stance to pull this off. Some of the MMA guys who train there are giving me strange looks. Not enough tats and piercings I guess.

Foam rolling and stretching. My right knee has really been out of sorts and getting more intrusive since Sunday. So I'm ditching the ITB stretches because they seem to be making things worse. Funny I can squat without a lot of discomfort and deadlifts don't seem to have any effect on it at all. I'm beginning to wonder though if I'm doing something in form adjustments to my squatting that is causing this. This whole day is a little odd because I had to get my old rear end into work last night again to oversee some movements at midnight. So I slept in and lifted at 8:30 rather than my usual O-dark 30. Actually kind of nice, but I was and am still a little tired and disoriented. Also Mr. Lumbars are letting me know that my Thursday appointment with the chiro (she of the magic hands) can't happen soon enough.

[Oldster]

Awesome stuff, Mark. As to your greediness with the DL. Been there, done that! Probably will always be. I swear it is just laziness on my part, instead of needing to load all the 'small change' on the bar, its just easier to throw on a plate! Plus there is the mental side of it, just knowing you are pulling 3 plates.

Amazing grip work. PR after PR. I'm curious. If I've asked this question before, don't stop me. Is your handshaking grip as powerful as I would guess? Years ago I met a 'hong kong fooey' that was......scary. About 5'2" and 250lbs, he used to be quite a powerlifter in his day too I'd heard. When I was introduced to him and shook his hand, I've never forgotten it. My grip is strong, probably a little stronger than average. But what I felt in his hand was almost inhuman. There was no doubt in my mind he could have ground the bones in my hand to hamburger. Don't get me wrong, he didn't attempt to show off. But I could feel the inhuman power in his hand.

That is how I look at your grip strength I guess when I am looking at all these grip PR's!

[Mark E. Hurling]

No you haven't asked this before Oldster. I don't know about my handshaking grip with any kind of certainty. The only time I intentionally tried to nail someone with it was a long time ago when I was working for the Rock Island Railroad. We were at range training and some of the special agents from the Quad Cities (Rock Island, Moline, Bettendorf, and East Moline) came in to shoot with the Chicago contingent. John Struna Quad Cities Division Special Agent, walked up and introduced himself with a hand shake that left me wondering if the blood flow to my fingertips was ever going to return. So I replied in kind and watched his eyes start to bug out when I clamped down hard. This was around 1979 and I was not as strong then as I am now in any respect even though it's 30+ years on. He didn't shoot worth a damn that day, so I figured I had taught him to quit playing silly-ass dominance games with people he didn't know. Not a bad guy as it turned out later, just a little misguided in some of the social graces.

I haven't tried to do that with anyone since then, because no one has tried the grip game with me since then. I go out of my way to be careful with people shaking hands, especially in the last few years when I started training my grip. The powerlifter you describe must have really had strong hands given what I am guessing at regarding the size of his hands and length of his fingers. Finger length plays a big role in exerting force and hence "the hurt" in something like that. At 5' 2" I'm guessing his hands and fingers were not that big or long. But everyone is different, so he could have had anomalously large ones. Franco Columbu was like that I've read. But given short fingers, the kind of power you describe must have been indicative of some tremendous strength.

My own hands are wide and long but with only average length fingers. Thick suckers though, with a size 18 wedding band.

[Carlos Daniel]

Columbu pulled 700+ as a below 200 lifter. I might be wrong, but I think you can't pull like that with small hands.

[Mark E. Hurling]

There's a photo of Franco in an old book I had in the 70's deadlifting an incredible number of plates on each side. The book described him as having a grip "that could make an oyster wince." I think it was the movie Pumping Iron that showed Franco visiting his family seat in Sardinia and picking up a little FIAT (Italian for Fix It Again Tony) first by the bumper and then by a side panel and sliding it sideways into a tight parking space. Funny as Hell to see, and it got my attention.

On a more domestic note for us folks in the good ole' U S of A, Ken Leistner wrote one of his great short articles in The Steel Tip titled, The Butcher's Boy. In it he talked about growing up on a gritty part of Long Island in the late 50's and early 60's who could pick up the front end of some real heavy-ass Detroit iron, a Chevy Impala. His description of this being done on a weekend night in the gravel parking lot of a drive-in Dairy Queen brought back some real geezerish memories. Not that I ever saw a feat of strength like that as a teen, but the setting was straight out of American Graffiti one I'm quite familiar with.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Anyone who has read this log has long since come to the conclusion that I'm a garrulous old fart and today will be no exception. I've trained almost exclusively solo since the earth's crust cooled enough to allow rocks to solidify and pick them up and put them on a tree to lift with. Maybe half a dozen times over the years have I had someone train in with me to bench or squat or press. Just easier that way, because too many people don't have a clue what they are doing in the gym and only act as a distraction.

But today some friends came into town and since we had been corresponding about it for a while we decided to meet up at the King Harbor Golds Gym. It was easy enough spotting them since they had weight lifting shoes in hand as they walked up the stairs. I had used my meager powers of persuasion through my fading charm to sweet talk the young lady working the desk to waive the $25 (each mind you!) guest fee and we shook hands and warmed up.

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

I even managed to keep to my normal light weights programmed for this and not let my ego override my body's ability to cash the iron check. Just to show off to the younger folks. Man's got to know his limitations. Clint said it in Magnum Force, so it must be Gospel. Clint never lies. Except maybe to the women in his life.

Squats: 135 x 3 x 6. My knee is not happy at all. It's grumbling at me as I type this and I think I now know why. Two things maybe. After intensive review of SS:3 and actually getting out a tape measure to get some metrics on what shoulder width actually means I discovered over the last two days my stance has been too narrow. Measure shoulders, measure space between thumbs with arms hanging at sides, place heels on the tape measure, and hey presto! I've been at least 3-4 inches too narrow. Silly bugger. I also reviewed what rebound and bounce out of the hole actually means and then looked at the squat checks of some other people that they posted. I'm almost certainly dropping too fast and no damn wonder my old right knee doesn't like it. More to work on.

Lying Tricep Press: 80 x 3 x 12. No repeat of the elbow tendinitis, so all was well there.

Power Cleans: 135 x 3 x 8. Got a little form check and coaching from the friends on this. So more work on the rough carpentry. As this was going on one of the personal trainers ambled by and said, "Got some training partners today, huh?" Only time I have in the 6 years I've been working out there, so her mild surprise and bemusement was understandable.

Good session and a real novelty to learn about, albeit it late in life. It's good to see friends and especially good when you can do things you all enjoy together. What could be better than grabbing the bar?

Now in about an hour I'll be off to get a chassis realignment from Dr. Laura, the high priestess of frame adjustments.

[Oldster]

At 5' 2" I'm guessing his hands and fingers were not that big or long. But everyone is different, so he could have had anomalously large ones. Franco Columbu was like that I've read. But given short fingers, the kind of power you describe must have been indicative of some tremendous strength.
My hand disappeared in his. His fingers were so thick that they made his fingers probably appear shorter than they were. He left an impression on me I've never forgotten this many years later.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah that explains it. Big hands and long fingers will put the hurt on every time in those situations.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

I did a GXP today. Foam roller and stretching. Dr. Laura while fixing my back yesterday worked on my knee with ultrasound too. A little probing here and there around the knee and the outer quad indicated a very tender ITB, so maybe that's the culprit after all. So it's back to stretching that again. After talking about a weakness for pecan pie in another thread, it fixated me on one. So after looking all over Hell and creation I finally found one today at Marie Callendar's. We'll see if my will power for moderation is equal to this temptation.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

We'll see if my will power for moderation is equal to this temptation.


Luck with that. Pecan pie has Transcendental Power over mere mortals.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

As for the pecan pie, I had my first minor victory. A 1/8th slice with some cookie dough ice cream and no added sneaky small slivers later.

I reviewed some more squat tapes here and yup, there's no doubt. I need to slow my descent down and stop dive bombing it. I gave the title to this log some considerable thought. Mainly about the finish line. We all know there is one, but we do everything we can to slow down the crossing of it. Not always the right things. About two years ago, I thought my back was going to take me out of martial arts. Not now, but I have to get this knee thing figured out because it's getting more intrusive.

So intrusive in fact that I mentioned to Master Bellman that I can't sit in zazen just now which started some chuckling from him and one of the 4th degree black belts with a heavy duty metal brace that he puts on his knee before his gi pants. I'm at least five years older than both of them. "Yeah age catches up with all of us." Both of them have had hand surgeries related to martial arts follies in their youth. A thick heavy bone structure with inflexible wrists has its advantages sometimes I guess. "You can do a standing bow, Mark." Thanks, Master but I'll just do high kneel I thought. I also discussed what a shoulder width stance really means. They agreed with Rip.

Big class today. A couple of first degree purple belts showed from the Westchester class and along with green belt the same size as me. Plus the usual suspects. We worked on some really interesting stuff today. Some of the highlights:

The first was a double lapel grab by the attacker. You use a C-shaped left hand to shove his right elbow down and across to his left hip as you step forward with your left foot. At a very close interval afterward your right hand knocks his left hip back with a palm heel strike just where his quad joins his pelvis. His balance is seriously compromised. You have achieved a powerful kuzushi in Japanese parlance. Your left hand snakes down to his right wrist and grabs it in an inverted grip and pulls it further across his body and then up and around his neck. This spins him counterclockwise, backward, and down into a hard fall.

In the next one the attacker throws a right roundhouse. You block it with a left outer block as your right hand comes up to deliver a palm slap to the left side of his head and jaw. This results in him staggering sideways and downward to his right front. While this is happening you step forward with your left foot to turn your hip slightly as you strike his bladder or groin with a left hammer fist causing his knees to buckle still further. You finish him off and take him down with a right arm clothesline to the left side of his neck. Another really hard fall preceded by a couple of brain rattling strikes to the head that won't hurt your knuckles a bit.

There were a couple of other good ones but we finished with an attack that has your back pinned against a wall by the attacker's right hand around your neck with his left hand about to come in with a devastating reverse punch. No gettin' up from that one after it lands successfully. You're out and probably slightly brain damaged. But the counter has you bringing up your left hand to his right elbow and your right hand to his right wrist in a hard dropping and collapsing POP. His whole arm both bends and twists counterclockwise as you step to the left by passing his linear thrust of the right hand. You then drop his arm forward driving his head into the wall he was going to drive yours into. There are some set ups for this that involve low foot kicks, or knee strikes. The green belt and purple belt kept relying on grappling and I stopped both of them a few times reminding them to use their feet to defocus the attacker's attention from the high attack to the pain in his lower parts.

Great session, with some great partners to work with.

Later Dearly Beloved and I went to Gold's so she can get some cardio in and I can heat up with about 10 minutes of warmup into some stretching and minor grip work. We do this every Saturday and Sunday and I don't usually log it but today something happened that was a first for me. While I was stretching guy a few years older than me and a good deal smaller was using some dumbbells. Some dudebro came up to him and started giving him a hard time for using his 25 lb. dumbbells. Said dudebro was late 20's to mid 30's with long hair wearing a Dodgers ball cap backwards. I mostly tuned it out figuring it would be over in a while but the older guy wasn't backing down saying no one had been using these and anyway there were two more pairs of 25's down the dumbbell rack. But dudebro wasn't having it and kept after him.

So I started paying attention. The older guy was I'd guess in his mid to late 60's and while spry, not an impressive physical specimen at around 5' 7" and maybe 150. Dudebro was about my height of 5'11" and 175 or so. Also not exactly the Hulk but mouthy as shit. I suppose he figured he had struck on someone to bully verbally. When he walked away from the older guy and said "Yeah fine old man!" I flashed over and the red mist began to descend over my eyes. If he had kept moving away I would have lasered him to death with a back stare, but he quickly reversed course and came back. So I walked over and intervened.

Be kept jaw jacking the older guy at arm's length and I said, "You know what, old men look out for each other, sonny." "Oh yeah, well what are you gonna do? I'm not scared!" To which I thought, "Except I just spooked you and you won't have time to experience real fear in the next few seconds if you start to do more than talk."

Sadly, or perhaps for the sake of keeping my clearance and hence my job, just as well he didn't do more than talk and decided to up the ante with some dumb ass and assholes thrown in. But not exactly at me. He wouldn't make eye contact with me and he directed them at the older guy. So I told him that we weren't here to listen to him jabber and that I was going to the desk to report him. I did, and the guy running the desk had him sitting down and whining as I walked out with Dearly Beloved.

She asked what that was all about and I told her. She then flashed over and suggested what else I should have said to him. To which I said in the car on the drive home, "You've been hauling me back from fights for our entire marriage so I wouldn't get arrested for aggravated battery and lose my job. If I had said even one of those things he'd have swung on me. I know how to provoke that kind of thing but decided not to this time." One time in a vehicular dispute as I got out of the car to rearrange someone's lug nuts, she grabbed my wrist pulled me back from the passenger's seat so hard I nearly got knocked out on the roof's drip channel. But times and attitudes change. I'm a short timer for retirement and I need to finish out and draw it with a clean slate. So I laughed her indignance off and told her next time. Maybe when I see ball cap dudebro in Gold's again.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 165 x 3-1-1-2-1. The suckiosity was nearly overwhelming. My concentration was all over the map. Not enough ritalin in all of Christendom for me this morning. I'm over analyzing and over thinking things way too much. This happened to me as a blue belt and it took months to get past a few hard smacks to the head or torso reminding me to relax and just do, not think. In this case it's eye line now, hand spacing, layback, and even breathing. Really crazy too because I did so well on this last week. Trying to change up too much at once I guess. I may be snake bit in the head over this weight, or maybe it's time for a reset. Not sure which.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Squats: I managed to jack up my already dodgy lower back in the presses and while the wider stance and significantly slowed descent felt OK Mr. Lumbars couldn't convince me to do more than load up and walk back with 275 only to dip my knees and feel the load start down my spine. Nope. Not even the second time when I was more than a little pissed off at myself. Lots of foam rolling and stretching with no GXP until later today. It was time to cut my losses and get the Hell out of Dodge.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 220 x 5 x 5. Earned it and own it. Strange in light of the overhead presses.

Curls: 105 x 5 x 5.

Pinch Grip: 150 for 27 seconds. Still trying to figure out why this suddenly got so damn difficult.

Foam roller and stretching. One of the engineer types I know from another company was oohing and ahhing over my spreadsheet log as I was writing stuff in it. I told him contact with engineers was contagious.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I'm at work this morning in a heavy knee brace and lots of ibuprofen and acetometiphin and a cane. I can't do a lot of walking, but I can hobble around slowly. I'm awaiting approval for an MRI from Boeing insurance to determine with some certainty just what this injury is and the extent of it. My doctor, after reviewing the X-ray thinks it's either the meniscus or the ACL but will know better after the MRI.

Pisses me off no end so close to the seminar. Shit-shit-shit and SHIT!

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I'm at work this morning in a heavy knee brace and lots of ibuprofen and acetometiphin and a cane. I can't do a lot of walking, but I can hobble around slowly. I'm awaiting approval for an MRI from Boeing insurance to determine with some certainty just what this injury is and the extent of it. My doctor, after reviewing the X-ray thinks it's either the meniscus or the ACL but will know better after the MRI.

Pisses me off no end so close to the seminar. Shit-shit-shit and SHIT!

That is a solid bummer. Let us know what the MRI shows. Sorry, man.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah, will do. I got the green light on the MRI this afternoon, so I'll see when I can get imaged. On the plus side, the discomfort is only slightly above what causes my jaw to tighten when I bend my knee at too acute of an angle.

[bob g]

Bad news, Mark. The thing is, if the Doc doesn't amputate you can do what the old dinosaur coaches said and, "spit on it, tape it, get back in the game" - at least for the seminar.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Heh, sounds like my high school football coach, John Perucca bob. A page right out of Lombardi's playbook. It must be an Italian thing. Anyway, I have an MRI on Monday morning and my GP's follow-up Monday afternoon. He's been humoring me and tending to my ills for over 20 years and is not one of those who simply says, "Well don't do that, and for God's sake quit squatting." He's always amused and bemused when I come in with my latest owwie from MA or lifting or just plain age and helps figure out how to negotiate with my body and current abilities.

I've been in contact with Stef a couple of days ago declaring that I'm not ready to throw in the towel and whine for a refund. I may be unable to squat, power clean, or deadlift. I'll just have to see what the doc says and what my knee feels like. But I think I can still get a lot of valuable information even sidelined for those lifts by watching, listening, and doing what I can. I'll gut out the overhead and bench pressing. I can't imagine that will be an issue. Likewise many of the auxiliary exercises if those are covered. I've done that before as have others in our dojo when in the hurt locker. So far Dearly Beloved is behind that plan. We'll see how the next days and weeks develop.

After the ill-considered move of not having taken a vicodin last night to assure some sleep I woke up at 1:30 for several hours and along with rather knotty work problems began planning what kind of lifting I can still do. Substituting good mornings for deadlifts might be just the shit hot ticket. Squats or anything like them just now are just not in the picture what with Mr. Knee feeling this way and unknown damage lurking in the background. The X-ray showed what looked to me like a 1/4" gap between the femur and tibia. Doc says that's not good. Not sure what that means or why it isn't. He also asked if the inside of my knee hurts because there's floating bone chip between the femur and tibia. Nope doc, that's never bothered me. Except maybe as a sophmore in college when my knee got dinged from a tai otoshi in judo on a locked out knee. That hurt for while. He also has been telling me for the last 15 years that I have huge calcification of my cartilages in the shoulders, wrists, and knees and is surprised I don't have more arthritic joint problems than I do.

But I am not tapping out just yet.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

I drove up to the dojo in Northridge, about 48 miles one way to play spectator this morning. I was discussing my injury with Master Bellman who had torn his meniscus years ago. From the description of his problems then and now once in a while it sounds like maybe I "lucked" out and just tweaked mine too. Hope so because the people at work watching stump around with my cane like Ahab have said better that than an ACL from their own knee injuries. But what will be will be, and once I know what's up I'll figure out what I can do and then test the boundaries of what I'm told I should avoid. But the swelling was down last night and this morning and I can move along without the cane to slow me up. I just look like Chester from Gunsmoke without the high whiny voice.

So while we're talking I get paged from work. Something has to get moved and it isn't clear to the guard who paged me just what it is, so I ask for the engineer to get on the line. It's a rather very important something that they should have coordinated with two other branches of security besides me to attempt to move. Which from the stuttering and stammering produced from some terse and direct questions I posed to the 23 year old engineer didn't appear to have taken place. So I declared a hiatus to moving anything until I got there to review in person what it was and what was going on. Of course I didn't have my access control badges or emergency call up numbers with me to speed things up so it took nearly an hour and a half to drive home (48 mileson LA freeways) and then into work (10 miles on South Bay surface streets).

Note to self: henceforth and forever more hereafter never let your backback with all the information (AKA the football) needed to get into or do anything get more than 30 feet away from you at any time. Even when you're in the car.

So here I sit at work pissed off beyond belief, having ascertained that most of the other Security branches had been contacted to help work this issue. Just not the guy in the one who can actually get some rather large doors opened. I'll try to get into the gym later to stretch and maybe experiment with some good mornings. (grumble)

[JohnRoman]

Chester from Gunsmoke


You are showing your age my brother. I doubt 1/2 of the members on this site know about Chester or Gunsmoke. If they research it, I'm sure it will be lame compared to the offerings now. I hope the knee gets better soon.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the good wishes John. Good joke too, I make these kind old references all the time to cause the young 'uns to use google and amuse the elderly.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

5 minutes warmup on the elliptical. The bike pedal's range of knee flexion was more than my metal reinforced brace liked. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 165 x 1-2-2-2-1. Total of 8 reps, 1 more than last week but now a reset is certain. I was doing better when I got out all 3 reps on one huge valsalva. I find that resetting and breathing between reps disrupts everything. But I think I have my hand spacing figured out now.

Pull Ups: Bodweight x 5 x 3.

Deadlifts: 3 reps each at 95-135-185-225-275. After a lot of searching and reading up on knee injuries and rehab here yesterday, I discovered that the brace lets me bend my knee enough to deadlift. I stopped at 275 just to not press my luck too far. Dearly Beloved would have a chunk out of me if she knew I was doing these.

GXP and I was out of there. Knee feels OK. Ran into the engineer who liked my spreadsheet a week or so back. He joshed me while I was using it to calculate my average HR (119) about the security people crawling out of the Stone Age finally. Amusing guy, too bad there aren't more like him where I work.

[tertius]

Damnit Mark, I stop paying attention for TEN MINUTES, and you go and fuck up your knee. TEN MINUTES!

Wrap it up and take care of it. I suspect your correct that deadlifting is still doable, since you should be doing it with hips high and minimal knee bend. And you still MIGHT be able to squat, depending on how it responds to a good tight supportive wrap.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

No 5 minute warmup today to make sure nothing gets out of line with the knee. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 225 x 5-5-5-5-4. I was pleased with this even having missed the last rep of the last set. I wasn't certain I'd do this well. In an attempt to get my successful breathing pattern back for the standing overhead press I sucked in a lot of air and managed 3-4 reps on one lungfull.

Curls: 110 x 5 x 5. Done but ugly. Time to stay with this weight for a while.

Claw Grip: 217 x 2 x 5. Another increase over the last run with 215, but I'll wait until I hit 220 before I declare a new PR.

I experimented with light squats (empty bar and 95 lbs.) mainly to get a sense of the depth I can hit with my knee brace. I think I'm there, but the metal hinges resist allowing that depth pretty hard. Most encouraging was that it didn't hurt. Except for where the hinges dug in to my leg and the ultra-heavy duty velcro felt like a wood rasp on my calf and hamstring.

As for this injury, I look back over the years and this knee has bothered me on and off that I can recall for at least 20-25 years. It would hurt for a while and go away and a couple of times I'd see a doc about it, get some anti-inflammatories and all would be well for a few years. I think it all stems from that damn tai otoshi that I had my knee locked out on when I was 19.

For those who may get an MRI I can advise this. If you're claustrophobic, make sure you admit it. I'm not, and I was only in the donut up to about my sternum and I have to say it was a little confining. I don't know that my shoulders would have fit if I had to go in further. I got my choice of music to listen to on some really great Bose headphones and I picked Steely Dan. Great music to get a quiet and relaxing drunk on with. Then there's the part where you can't move for 30 minutes. Not a finger or a toe twitch even. Pretty hard to do especially when the noises the MRI is making are loud then go quiet and come back again with a different kind of noise. Very hard to stifle the old startle reflex.

[Gwynn]

I experimented with light squats (empty bar and 95 lbs.) mainly to get a sense of the depth I can hit with my knee brace. I think I'm there, but the metal hinges resist allowing that depth pretty hard. Most encouraging was that it didn't hurt. Except for where the hinges dug in to my leg and the ultra-heavy duty velcro felt like a wood rasp on my calf and hamstring.

This is great! Good luck with the MRI results!

[BillBrownley]

Mark--I have had issues as you describe and found that while I could not cut and run, or dance (some would argue I could not do that anyway) or really any torquing movements, I could squat and dead lift fine. Probably something about the musculature protecting the joint in a predictable movement pattern.

Just do what you can do without significant injury related pain (sorry about the brace pain) and keep working.

Let me know how the seminar goes--I wish I could do one--thanks, Bill

[Mark E. Hurling]

Check out Rip's Q&A for some more of my tribulations with this knee. It's titled Meniscus Tear. The dopes at the doc's office showed me how to put it on backwards! No wonder the brace felt off. I'll have a full report of the seminar.

[Oldster]

Wei

Bench Press: 225 x 5-5-5-5-4.

Curls: 110 x 5 x 5.
With your knee injury, you are going to become the King!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

5 minute warmup on the bike. Amazing how easy this is with the knee brace not on backwards. (Light Day)

Tricep Press: 90 x 3 x 12

Squat: 135 x 3 x 6.

Back Extension: 70 x 3 x 10.

GXP and I was outta there. Between the knee and work I had to forego jujitsu this week. You'd think with all the funding cuts being bruited about we'd go into hibernation. Not the case we've tripled down. I haven't seen this much stuff going on at work since Reagan was in office.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 150 x 5 x 3. This is a reset to get my valsalva technique back. So far so good, all 3 reps on one huge lungful.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight x 5 x 3.

Squats: Sets of 3 45-95-135-185-225. The knee is feeling good. I am sure I was good for 275 or more, but I'll work up to that more slowly once I get past the seminar and the next step of diagnosis with the ortho.

GXP and done. I'll be back later today for some foam rolling, stretching, and grip work.