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

[tertius]

Groovy.

[Oldster]

Groovy.
Very groovy!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks guys. I need all the good wishes I can get.

[Oldster]

You get a lot more good wishes from me than I type.

I'm slow and lazy.

[Carlos Daniel]

Hope the knee is doing fine. Saw an opening spot at the seminar, hope it wasn't you dropping out because your fossilized knee started crumbling or something.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Nope Carlos, wasn't me. I saw that too and thought I might post something in Rip's Q&A, but thought it was too self centered and attention seeking. Like me dropping out was something everyone needed to be informed of. The knee is doing reasonably well. After that and some crazy-ass things at work the last week or so I had real doubts if this seminar was in the cards just now.

I went to jujitsu tonight intending to either watch from the sidelines or simply help teach. I worked with one of the newbie kids who started out well and got progressively more stiff and tense as the session progressed. I tried everything I could think of to get him to relax. It worked for a while and then he'd lock up again. I don't know if it was over thinking or self consciousness. He had a bad flinching problem when I was showing him the strikes. It made me wonder if he gets hit at home.

The adult session had me doing most of the things all the rest could, minus a few of the more knee intensive techniques. I got paired up with a really talented kid of 13 who I outweigh but over 120 lbs. He hates touching my sweaty head once I get warmed up, but he has great timing and some striking skills that will serve him well if he ever has to use them for real. We worked on some techniques that involved blocking a roundhouse to stepping in for an inner foot sweep or O-uchi Gari that takes you right down. I just had him work it so he took out my left leg so as to spare the right knee. Several other good techniques but one I have always liked and haven't seen taught in a while. The attacker comes in for a low tackle or leg takedown. You side step into him with a forearm to the side of the neck, grab his jaw and side of his head and crank him in a corkscrew down to the mat. The Gracies arranged the rules in MMA to make sure this was illegal. What a surprise.

[BillBrownley]

Mark--hope your knee is getting better. Re:Martial arts, I have dabbled in a number, but in sparring in any of them , something I learned from my college boxing coach has always stuck with me. "Don't worry about how big or tough they look. 99 percent of people really don't want to hit other humans. Worry about the 1 percent that will actually hit you and mean it". Assuming there is some truth in that (it has been my experience that it is true)--can this be trained? In other words--do self defense courses work to take you out of 99 percent and be in the 1 percent--at least when it matters? Or are you stuck with what you are born with--to paraphrase Popeye--"you am what you am".

And I guess secondarily--do you think it is nature or nurture-or if both is one primary?

Deepish thoughts.

[Mark E. Hurling]

If by your question you mean getting over the inhibitions to hit, I think it can be trained or induced out of you. It doesn't take Manchurian Candidate conditioning either. Most people don't want to hit others, your boxing coach was right. You get over that by realizing you have a stronger regard to not get hit yourself first. Running away always works and is a good way to not have hit or get hit. But it does tend to make you hate yourself and is sometimes the wrong response when you have obligations either familial, friendly, or occupational to fulfill.

I was a big, strong, peaceful kid who The Old Man despaired of when it came to standing up for myself. It changed my junior year in high school when I decided that I was by-God going to make the varsity football team no matter what it took. We were doing tackling drills and I hit Jeff Frank, a friend since 6th grade, so hard when he was carrying the ball it cracked his retainer in spite the mouthpiece he was wearing. I didn't want to hurt him, but I have never looked back since I made that decision over the Summer. I made varsity and was honorable mention in all-conference two years running. Mainly on the strength of several blocked kicks that took a few punters out of the game and one out for an entire season. So in my case it was determination to achieve another objective.

Hitting people with the hands is different than that though. It is true naked aggression. I stand in front of the kids during punching drills and hold up my hand as a target to get them over this and to improve their focus. I could use a hand held punch pad but that's for weak woosies and it doesn't provide the kids with the real feed back of what it feels like to hit human flesh. Also a lot of what we teach involves other techniques than striking so self defense isn't always about getting over the disinhibition against striking.

As for knowing who is the 1%? You can't. But you can use deflection, blocking, and side step evasion when an adversary moves in on you. Then you have other options for follow-up, counters, takedowns, throws, chokes, locks, or strikes of your own.

So in my own case I trained it out of myself. But others may need a drill instructor or sensei or coach to do the same. Hope this answers the intent of your question.

[JohnRoman]

my college boxing coach .... "Don't worry about how big or tough they look. 99 percent of people really don't want to hit other humans. Worry about the 1 percent that will actually hit you and mean it".

Not my experience. Maybe another way to put it is that most people don't want to hit you without assurance that they will not get hit back. I think everybody has some aggression but consequences back quite a few down. That 1 percent will swing in a second because they are not scared and they actually like to fight. There is another large percentage that isn't scared but will fight if pushed over a limit. That limit varies wildly from person to person. Then again, their are many truly good hearted people in the world that would die before showing aggression to somebody. But threaten their kids and see what happens.



do self defense courses work to take you out of 99 percent and be in the 1 percent--at least when it matters? Or are you stuck with what you are born with--to paraphrase Popeye--"you am what you am".

And I guess secondarily--do you think it is nature or nurture-or if both is one primary?


I have seen in the students I trained (years ago) that it could. But it took time. I think it is similar to lifting weights. Have you ever spotted somebody that you knew they could lift it but you saw the panic in their eyes because they thought it was "too heavy"?

You can train somebody out of fight, flight or freeze but it could take time. As with most other things, the more immersed in something you are, frequency & later intensity, the less time it could take. Then again, pushing to fast can create trauma that will take even longer from them to overcome.

[Gwynn]

The attacker comes in for a low tackle or leg takedown. You side step into him with a forearm to the side of the neck, grab his jaw and side of his head and crank him in a corkscrew down to the mat. The Gracies arranged the rules in MMA to make sure this was illegal. What a surprise.

We still practice this one, in a couple of different variations. I'm taking ukemi for two different dan tests and I have to receive this in all its glory over and over. Sometimes the forearm to the neck inadvertently becomes the pointy tip of the elbow right to the collarbone. Doh!

I'm glad to hear that you're not the last minute drop out to the seminar! Sounds like your knee is doing much better. I hope you have a great time and looking forward to hearing about it.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Gwynn! I'm in the final couple of hours before I wend my way South to Costa Mesa and sign in. I've actually got butterflies. Silly old man.

[BillBrownley]

If you don't have butterflies, it doesn't mean anything. I still get butterflies before every rugby game, and I am on like my 500th game--I stopped counting a long time ago. This is important stuff--really. Go and meet the challenge, and enjoy it.

And good luck and good wishes.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Thanks Gwynn! I'm in the final couple of hours before I wend my way South to Costa Mesa and sign in. I've actually got butterflies. Silly old man.

It's all good. You're gonna have a blast. Get pitchers.

[Simma Park]

Glad to hear the dropout wasn't you. I'm sure you'll do fine and have a great time on top of it all. I look forward to your report!

[Mark E. Hurling]

In the words of Samwise, "Well, I'm back."

Thanks to all of you for the good wishes and encouragement that I am only now getting a chance to look at. It was eye opening.

[tertius]

I'm slow and lazy.

What is this nonsense? Slow, maybe. Never seen you run. Lazy I don't buy for a gawdamned minute.

[tertius]

In the words of Samwise, "Well, I'm back."

Thanks to all of you for the good wishes and encouragement that I am only now getting a chance to look at. It was eye opening.

We await your story of the event.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Finally able to get to the gym again! Short and sweet, I did a GXP.

The story (or at least book 1 of it) friend tertius, is in the Starting Strength Events section under Costa Mesa Seminar Report. Although not brief it was in fact summarized because a whole lot more went on than I talked about there. I tried to keep as much of the self referential aggrandizement out of it as I could. Not sure if I succeeded in that or not.

But damn was it great! I was so-fucking-sore on Sunday from doing squats and deads on the same day I had to get down from my chair during lectures a few times and sit on the floor in a figure 4 hamstring stretch. Then again having Ryan and Rip yell me down low enough in the squat just crisped my posterior chain. "Hurling Goddammit, git yer ass down! REACH FOR IT!!!!" I guarandamtee you when Rip is over your shoulder doing that you WILL pull out all the stops to do it. Of course the other 30+ people there watching you just then can make it a point of pride to not wuss out.

I was sore until Tuesday and then my knee started feeling funny in a new place medially. Not sore exactly, just not quite right. It may or may not have been a result of the power snatches. Besides my horrendous inflexibility that made that the go-to move, I overheat easily and didn't wear my training longies until I started to see blood on my shins. So my shins are still scabbed over. I also got pissed when the bar caught on the knee brace, so I ripped that off with a huge roar of tearing heavy duty velcro. Tossed it across the gym to my back pack. Maybe another one of not my smartest moves. Didn't hurt at the time though.

Couple the sore stuff with the time change and a late night at dinner that I lost sleep over and I was cruising the whole weekend on coffee and Tums to kill the coffeee heartburn. I ended up not hydrating properly and so got the ultimate old man's disease. Some terrible constipation that made even the Monday recovery at home and Tuesday back to work something less than stellar. Those things and a crushing set of email traffic on both my PC's at work chained me to my desk and drained me to make jujitsu or lifting a dream. I finally am more or less back on my normal sleep routine.

I have an appointment next week with the ortho to see what's next with Mr. Knee. I'll be happy to expand on more if ya'll are interested. I just didn't want to become to obnoxious about things. I'm still embarassed over having my name come up when you google Starting Strength. This is Rip's site. I just feel lucky to get to post here and shoot the breeze with you guys. It really is a circle of friends the like of which I've never had in my life up to now.

[Gwynn]

It really is a circle of friends...

I agree!

[Oldster]

I just feel lucky to get to post here and shoot the breeze with you guys. It really is a circle of friends the like of which I've never had in my life up to now.
Like Gwynn, I couldn't agree more.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Awww, you guys. I feel all warm and cuddly now.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243

5 minutes warm up on the bike. (Light Day)

Lying Tricep Extension: 95 with 3 sets of 12.

Squat: 135 with 3 sets of 6. I now know that I was setting the bar to high in the rack to get a good low bar position or as close as my shoulders are likely to let that happen. This alone helped considerably in the set up. From there, I just need to work my hands in a little closer over time to get a good trap contraction established under the bar. As for as depth, I was wondering a few times if my ass was going to hit the floor I was trying to go so low. I also learned what hip drive really looks like and feels like now so that was a a somewhat novel experience to reinforce this morning.

Power Snatch: Sets of 3 55-65-75-95. I woke up with the knee feeling a little better and almost left these out. Maybe it would have been better if I had. But I had to try at least one set and they went great. So I dove in for some more. Lots of odd looks since no one amongst the morning usual suspects does these. I scraped the scabs off my shins but I don't care. These were a lot of fun and much easier than power cleans as odd as that sounds. Of course I'm not using any weight of note but . . .

My knee actually feels better now than when I woke up even so, yay! Hard exercise can actually fix the lame.

I can't repeat enough how valuable the experience of seeing and when needed being put in the right position was at the seminar. A number of attendees there didn't need much more than verbal coaching but I was not one of them. It's a lot like what I have done in teaching jujitsu myself. Master Bellman has said that people learn verbally, visually, and by experiencing movement. Not unlike what Rip and Company taught last week. I have had to firmly and sometimes a little forcibly put someone's foot in the right position or take their hand and arm through the range of motion in an arm bar or wristlock so they could "get" the technique that demonstration, explanation, and repeated verbal coaching and correction couldn't accomplish.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243

I did a GXP today along with foam rolling and stretching. After that I worked on grip and set up for the overhead press with the empty bar. Along with squats, this exercise really pointed out the fundamental aspects of body mechanics and flexibility. I've had to regroup more than once in the last 6 months in the press. First going from seated to standing, then trying to do what I thought was in the parameters of Starting Strength. Now trying to further remodel what I have been doing the last several months.

TomC got my hands in position with a few experiments moving them wider and wider to limits of the model that is taught. Then he started pushing my elbows inward while I had the empty bar in my hand trying to get them vertical. I was making faces and he asked "Does that hurt?" No, but it constricted my ribcage to where it was hard to breathe. Not much improvement. TomC said "Man! You are one tight mother fucker." Which made me nearly drop the bar while I was laughing.

But after a few sets of this I warmed up and it got easier to achieve. I have never been very good at warming up enough. So lots of warmup sets to loosen things up is what I need to do I think.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (What passes for Heavy Day these days) I added some towel dislocates and some shoulder windmills to get the shoulders looser for presses.

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 3 45-65-95-115-135-145 (3 sets)-155 for 1. A lot of re-programming of fundamental movements going on here. I managed to get my forearms vertical and have figured out the landmarks for grip spacing now, but getting the shoulders forward and keeping my elbows in will take some diligent attention and work. I'm not sure I was spot-on with that throughout. I also discovered that TomC was right about my knees having a tendency to unlock. I caught myself at that a few times. Then there was re-setting and doing a valsalva between each rep. But you eat the elephant one bite at a time. So the poundages went down. Pretty humbling, but I'd rather do this right than fool myself.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight 5 sets of 3. These are getting easier with a little less fat to haul up. I may add some reps.

Squats: Sets of 3 45-95-135-185-225-245. I got ready for this between sets of presses with dropping low and looking in profile at the mirror to be sure I was below parallel. Then paying attention to how that felt through the hip joints and lower back. I have come to the conclusion that I was spooked about my knee at the Seminar and that kept me high. I had my brace on and dropped low-low-low and had no trouble with it then, and the knee feels reasonably OK now. Finishing out with 245, the most I have tried since the injury, was satisfying too. I just have to be vigilant about making sure I don't get careless in the depth as the weight mounts up. Oh, and hip drive first. I need to keep that in mind too.

[Carlos Daniel]

Filming yourself is way better than looking at the mirror with 200 something pounds on your back. You don't need to upload it, just film it and watch it as you rest between sets.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Not a bad idea Carlos, but I'm the worst in filming, video, etc. there is. Even with an Instamatic from way back when. Then there's the whole no cameras in the gym policy at Gold's. I did the first part in an air squat to get the unloaded feel.

There are a lot of things about technology that I think are the cat's ass. This too, but I'm just no damn good at it. I use video both overt and covert at work all the time. But in an entirely different way. I have to burn in deep, deep, deep in muscle memory the tactile sense of how low is low enough and then maintain the integrity to stick to it.

But thank you sincerely for the tip.

[JohnRoman]

I don't know if it will help you but I've got a milk crate that I stack boards on to for the proper depth. I can check depth in the mirror at home to see what makes the right height. On recovery or light days I take the crate to the gym and use them to pause on. I have to concentrate on many of the warm-up sets because it never feels like I'm low enough on them. Once I hit depth on those the work sets seem to be no problem.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Good idea John, and thank you. I started with a bungee cord early last year as a similar kind of tactile cue. My major mistake was accepting advice from someone else in the gym who told me I was deep enough and setting the bungee at that level. The butt location sensors worked pretty well, assuming I had set it low enough in the first place.

[Carlos Daniel]

I think the "i'm too old for technology" doesn't cut it since you seem to be a smart and technologically adapted geezer , but the no video policy doesn't give you much room to work around, which sucks.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the bracing call to arms Carlos. You're right, I'm babying myself a little on the technology thing I'm sure. When I be honest with myself and think of the the stuff I do at work like calculate how many electrons have to dance on the head of a ground rod, I realize I'm just being a stubborn old fart and resisting the advance of technology whenever I can.

[Gwynn]

Thanks for the bracing call to arms Carlos. You're right, I'm babying myself a little on the technology thing I'm sure. When I be honest with myself and think of the the stuff I do at work like calculate how many electrons have to dance on the head of a ground rod, I realize I'm just being a stubborn old fart and resisting the advance of technology whenever I can.

I have had a horrible time videotaping myself. I have been practicing trying to get the right angle and distance and it's irritating enough that I only do it once every week or two. But, I have found it to be really worth annoyance. Also, I have a Flip camera and cheap tiny tripod which is the size of my cell phone and I doubt anyone notices it's there. I think it's worth a shot. (no pun intended ;-) )

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Second Gwynn et al. I use the "Video Coach" every time I lift, especially for squats, cleans and snatches.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 225 5-5-5-5-4. Sooo close, but couldn't lock that sucker out on the last rep. Good thing for lower catch hooks since I always do this sans spotter.

Curl: 110 5-5-5-5-5. Standing pat for now in this movement at this weight.

Pinch Grip: 150 held for 20 seconds.

Stretching and foam roller.

I guess I'm going to have to get one of the cheapie vid cams and try this. Thanks for the tips lady and gents.

It is really hard getting confronted with how wrong you have been doing things for decades and working on hammering your brain and body into doing it correctly. Especially when you have to drop the weight (again!) and burn in the new adjusted movement before you can start moving up again.

[Gwynn]

It is really hard getting confronted with how wrong you have been doing things for decades and working on hammering your brain and body into doing it correctly. Especially when you have to drop the weight (again!) and burn in the new adjusted movement before you can start moving up again.

I am trying to make peace with the idea that Form Creep is a fact of life.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Form Creep. I like that. Kind of like the mission creep I hear so much about at work. Except for when someone is calling ME a creep.

[JohnRoman]

It is really hard getting confronted with how wrong you have been doing things for decades and working on hammering your brain and body into doing it correctly. Especially when you have to drop the weight (again!) and burn in the new adjusted movement before you can start moving up again.

Yeah but you know what the right thing to do is. It is never too late to turn around because you are on the wrong road. You'll get there and looking back you may even appreciate the reset. The difference that you see in a lot of people is that when they are confronted with the truth, the strong ones are those that accept it and use it to get better.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Seems like the story of my lifting life John. I've done so much wrong over the years I'm surprised I haven't worn out the RESET button. Completely unlike the Staples EASY BUTTON. But life is a long march.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242.5

Jujitsu last with the kid's class had some promotions with particularly notable one. One of the older girls got promoted to purple belt, the first one I've seen since I've been at the dojo. She's a great kid and works hard and diligently at perfecting her technique. She actually cried once when I made a minor correction to a technique she did, and it took me aback. But then she is very serious about this art.

The adult class had us working on some O-soto Gari variants with a reverse step in and an extended leg position that you end up with a lot in judo when the other guys moves the wrong way when you go in. You step in with the right foot and hook around the calf. Then you hop in and stamp the right foot bringing the other guy down. We did another variant where the attacker reaches for you or pushes at you. You deflect it cross handed with the right step then bring that same hand up to side of the head as your left encircles their right hand and you execute the throw the same way. This lead to some discussion with the purple belts I was working with about entries for other kinds of attacks. Something judo doesn't teach at all for competition. Like a roundhouse that you do a left out block with and then throw your right arm and shoulder at the attacker with the arm going over his trap and neck hard in something like a head butt move. Your leftarm encircles his right and it's a very hard throw. Also if done with a little finesse, the right arm and shoulder move won't get you warned or tossed in judo tournament. You just have lead with the shoulder and make sure only the inside of the arm connects. My preferred finish for this is to follow them down on one knee and grab the trachea further slamming the head on the ground without committing to a hard wrap up that you can't get up from fast.

We also did some foot taps to root our stance to show how it cements you firmly to the ground. The newbies were amazed by this. I've found some of the coaching methods used at the Seminar I already do when I paid attention to them last night. But not always. Some people are so far out of whack with a multi-move complex technique it takes some more dialog and now and then even taking hold of an elbow to guide them in the right arc of movement. My knee brace and the scabs on my shin excited some comment as we took off our gi's at the end.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243

5 minute warmup on the bike (Light Day)

Lying Tricep Extension: 100 for 3 sets of 12.

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: Sets of 3, 50-70-95-95-95.

Stretching and out of there.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

No jujitsu on Saturdays for another few weeks until we get where the new dojo is going to be straightened out. Some boring issues about our current arrangements resulted in a move that seems to have been delayed for a while.

So I did a fit test today because my metrics OCD suddenly asserted itself. I used some new equipment because the the old elliptical had been replaced a month back or so. The first test cut off after 10 minutes because the machine declared my heart rate was too low. So I did another one and upped the recommended RPM's by 10-15 to drive it up enough. I tested out at a 39 VO2 max in the 99th percentile. So yay. I guess what I'm doing for conditioning and cutting my rest periods on light lifting days is doing what it needs to.

[Oldster]

Yer gettin' purty skinny there, Mark!

Nice!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

I took note of the fact that Rip recommended paleo style eating and a couple of the young 'uns (which was everybody compared to me) at the seminar were snacking on something vaguely Italian looking that they called a meatza. So I've cut out more of the grains that I was eating. I was eating as much as I was mainly for the fiber, because of well, you know. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Standing Overhead Press: 155 2-3-2-1-2. I think I have the grip width and arm position code cracked, but everything else was all over the map like Chuck Yeager in a flat spin. My knees kept unlocking and I wasn't laying back far enough or timing it right. Mr. Miyagi was all over me too, whacking my knees and entire posterior chain with a shinai and fussing at me for lack of focus. I'm going to drop back to 145 to get things unkinked and then work upwards.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

Deadlifts: 275 x 3, 315 x 3. I only planned on 275, but it was so easy I went for 315. What's more, I did it with a double overhand grip. At the last second I remembered that the last time I tried 315 my grip got wobbly, so I chalked up and held on to all of them, although the last one came out a little from my shins. I also remembered to put on my longies so as not to break open my scabs on my shins again. I collided with some equipment yesterday and peeled a big one off that started trailing down to my ankle before I noticed it had opened up again. Dearly Beloved was concerned and not at all amused. Blind Master Po was chuckling dryly into my ear from a few feet behind while I was doing the last two sets. "Very good Grasshoppah. You grasp pebble." Beats the Hell out of the Reaper whispering to me last year when my back would get wobbly. Not this time though, my back felt solid all the way, and the 315 wasn't that taxing. But know when to save up for the next session's pull.

Since I tested out so well yesterday, I rewarded myself with no GXP this morning. I may do one this afternoon when I go back and do some tinkering around and stretching. When I reviewed my heart monitor stats, I had maintained a average heart rate of 144 bpm for 40 minutes. That's 93% of MHR for me. No wonder I tested out so well yesterday.

I saw the orthopedist Thursday about my knee. Good doc, he's a partner of another ortho I've been seeing on and off for years for my knee and when I broke the tiny little metatarsal on the most lateral part of foot a few years back. That happened walking off the mat after a session in jujitsu. My ankle rolled and crack! He's spine specialist and finally got me to see the light and talk to his partner. Also my GP recommended him too.

He showed me the pieces of meniscus on my X-ray and said there were chunks all over the place in the joint from an old injury. I explained the 40+ year old judo injury. He agreed that was probably it. There was a lot of pressing and prodding and joint manipulation with "Does this hurt?" No not so much. Then I told him about the seminar and squatting 245 last week and his eyes didn't roll up in his head. So I showed him a below parallel squat and he was impressed by the lack of pain. Not to mention he didn't even blink when I told him I was still doing jujitsu.

Then he launched into my options. Anti-inflammatories and ice, cortisone and joint lubricant injections, or surgery. I was glad he wasn't one of those guys who always looks for every opportunity to practice with his scalpel. So I'm taking 5 Aleve a day and using ice when I think I might need it. The knee is getting less and less noticeable.

[tertius]

Mark, i think maybe you should lay off the hallucinogens before lifting. You'll see and hear fewer Asian masters that way.

As for "well you know", eat your greens, and don't forget the kraut and kimchi. Very few carbs, plenty paleo, and they'll keep things running smooth. The main thing most folks would have you cut down on is grains, beans, and processed food. You'll drop weight suprisingly quickly that way. Some will just be water, but I'm willing to bet you'll get down towards your goal weight rather faster.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Hey! I was stone sober when that happened and when I posted it. Funny though. Po is a lot easier to please than Miyagi. Pick, pick, pick, it's all part of the Zen tradition those heartless Nipponese imposed on Okinawans.

Thanks for the food tips too. I eat lots of salads and I love kimchi. Sauerkraut, like most German food not so much. Probably sounds funny coming from me but Deutsche DNA will only go so far. That's why we kept invading France and Italy, better food.

I went back for round 2 at the gym this afternoon. It's raining buckets here in LA-LA land and I nearly flooded out on the way. I did come cardio, stretched, and did an extra 10 pounds on the Maxicam wrist roll-up that I already pin a 45 pound plate to. So there was that. Then while I was doing some foam rolling a couple of extras from Jersey Shore were gabbing it up. A woman in her 40's called out to them to quit dropping the F-bomb every third word. Funny as Hell to watch. I've commented a few times about the geezer dudebros and women and inappropriate conversations but this was a great reverse fusion of both.

[Oldster]

So I'm taking 5 Aleve a day...

My liver just cringed. My Docs have told me unless it is an emergency to stay away from anti-inflammatories. Bad liver juju.

[tertius]

It's raining buckets here in LA-LA land and I nearly flooded out on the way. I did come cardio, stretched, and did an extra 10 pounds on the Marxism wrist roll-up that I already pin a 45 pound plate to. So there was that.

This is how I read that section, and I was thoroughly, thoroughly confused for a few seconds.

[Mark E. Hurling]

My liver just cringed. My Docs have told me unless it is an emergency to stay away from anti-inflammatories. Bad liver juju.

Listen. If cheap-ass Albertson's wodka hasn't dented my liver, Aleve has no shot at all at it.


This is how I read that section, and I was thoroughly, thoroughly confused for a few seconds.

God you make me laugh. An evening to remember.

[Oldster]

Listen. If cheap-ass Albertson's wodka hasn't dented my liver, Aleve has no shot at all at it.

Heh!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

Went to the Tuesday jujitsu class since the vagaries of the Torrance YMCA has a 2 week down time between sessions. I haven't been to this one for a while so there mostly a whole new bunch of people. The kids class had me working with an autistic behavioral terror. Very challenging kid to work with, and he kept having to get sent off the mat to calm down and re-compose himself. I managed to get him to do a few of the techniques in some semblance of god order. Master Bellman told me after class that he actually kept at it better than usual and that it must have been my low-key persistence. Nice to hear.

The adult class had me working with a petite Asian woman about half my size but very attentive and eager to go right at the techniques. We all worked on some yawara which is the really old school name for jujitsu and closer to the Chinese chin na that jujitsu developed from once it hit the home islands in Japan. It involved a lot of rotational twists of the wrist on its internal and external axes which in turn rotates the whole arm right up to the shoulder joint. With enough rotation the bones, muscles, and ligaments of the arm winds up like a rubber band and eventually the shoulder begins to drop as the downstream limbs run out of slack. Then something tears, breaks, or you learn to go with it and fall to limit the potential harm. Not unexepectedly, she had some trouble causing my wrist and arm to rotate. She thought it was because she wasn't strong enough, but with a lot of incremental repositioning of her fingers and thumbs on my wrist and metacarpals, I managed to show her how to get the right leverage to make things move. I tried the small, brief, and short coaching cues like Rip teaches at the seminar and that seemed to work pretty well with her.

Then there's the lifting.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Bench Press: 225 for 5 sets of 5, PR! I finally got this. I can remember trying to get 4 reps with 225 for years in my late 30's and early 40's and now I managed this. Since I'm reduced to remodeling my form on the standing overhead press with much lighter weights, I'm going to try a max single in this next.

Curls: 110 5 sets of 5.

Claw Grip: 220 2 sets of 5. PR!

Stretching and foam rolling. A nice take away this morning.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Bench Press: 225 for 5 sets of 5, PR! I finally got this. I can remember trying to get 4 reps with 225 for years in my late 30's and early 40's and now I managed this. Since I'm reduced to remodeling my form on the standing overhead press with much lighter weights, I'm going to try a max single in this next.



Awesome. You give me hope. Nice work on the claw grip, too.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

Thanks Sully. I did a GXP today in a hurry and had to ditch the post routine foam rolling and stretching. I overslept and my sleep in general has gone to the dogs. I keep waking up with one or both hands asleep or tingly dead and achy. Really miserable.

BUT: the knee is feeling really good and nearly 100% like there was nothing wrong with it. I only wore the brace as a safety factor in jujitsu Tuesday night and not at all otherwise this week. The OTC anti-inflammatories seem to have come through, and I'm going to ease off on them for a day or so to see what happens.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246. Hm, looks like I may have been premature in celebrating some weight loss.

5 minutes warm up on the bike. (Light Day)

Lying Tricep Press: 100 for 3 sets of 12.

Squats: 135 for 3 sets of 6. The hip drive, depth, low bar and narrowing my grip width seem to be coming together a little at a time.

Power Snatch: Sets of 3, 50-60-70-95-95-95.

Early in to work again this morning, so once again I had to hustle out with no stretching or foam rolling. But then again, my back feels more solid than it has in 10 years, so maybe I can dispense with this. Funny how squats and deads seem to have fixed it when I avoided both for over 10 years to protect my back.

[Oldster]

But then again, my back feels more solid than it has in 10 years, so maybe I can dispense with this. Funny how squats and deads seem to have fixed it when I avoided both for over 10 years to protect my back.
10 years of being a bad bad Mark. Even when my back is messed up I find a way to squat and dead.

Isn't it funny how we can prematurely in celebrating weight loss without even knowing it. I've watched the Perfesser struggle with it for almost as long as we've been married. I recognized it, yet she couldn't. Still can't. I believe we are all guilty of it at sometime or another.

Is that lying tricep press doing you any good?

[Mark E. Hurling]

I did things like hip belt squats and trap bar deadlifts along with back extensions to keep things going. But it ultimately did nothing to keep the back solid. The lying tricep press seems to have strengthened them for the recent improvement in the bench press.

[Oldster]

I The lying tricep press seems to have strengthened them for the recent improvement in the bench press.
Excellent!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

Our dojo is still working out the vagaries of finding a new location, so no jujitsu on Saturdays for a while. Instead, I went to Gold's and did a GXP and finally got some much needed stretching and foam rolling done.

The weight thing, I am coming to the conclusion, is a result of an extraordinary workload, high velocity of events, and chaos at work alternately knotting up my stomach into loops and then near starvation resulting in too much food at once. I am revising my previous statement further upward. This has now reached the level of converting the Ford Thunderbird factory in Pico Rivera to prototyping of the B2.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 145 for 5 sets of 3. I am getting the form set now. My knees stayed locked the whole time. One or two minor bobbles on keeping my arms vertical and out in front of my body caused a little difficulty but everything lined up in hte end.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

Squats: 255 for 3 and since that wasn't terribly difficult I came back for 265 for a set of 3. The knee and my back feel good and now that have set the bar a pin lower in the rack I can get it in the low bar position easier. That coupled with the other factors coming together make even dropping below parallel not scary for the low back at all. I just have to continue on getting this grooved in.

Foam rolling and stretching and out of there.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

I did a GXP, foam rolling and stretched this morning. Entries have been sparse because a combination of work-related stress, sleeplessness from the stress, and fevers have been laying me low. The work situation was such that although maxed out on vacation and more than enough sick leave, I couldn't stay home. Ends and Pieces entries were my only lifeline for maintaining some semblance of sanity. I wanted to lose weight but Christ! This is not what I'd recommend as the way to do it.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Attention to recovery, Mark. If things are crazy and you're feeling peked, focus on food and rest.

[Oldster]

Weight: 238.5
Excellent, Mr Hurling! I see you've lost 7 1/2lbs!

Sorry about the manner in which you did it.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Good advice. The stomach has not wanted much food this week which is unusual for me. The rest? That's getting a little better the last day or so, but like I've been saying, the pace at work right now is unrelenting and I can't always switch my brain off when I get into bed.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238

I did some low intensity cardio and other such to gauge how much better I was. Pretty good so far. I also added a 25 lb. plate to the 45 lb. plate I have been using on the Maxicam wrist roll up with the 100 lb. stack. Got it to the top on both the pronate and supinate rolls which is 25 more pounds than I've ever even tried before. The the standard finish of stretching and foam rolling. Tomorrow's session is looking just fine.

[Gwynn]

Glad you're feeling better!

[tertius]

Weight: 238.5

I did a GXP, foam rolling and stretched this morning. Entries have been sparse because a combination of work-related stress, sleeplessness from the stress, and fevers have been laying me low. The work situation was such that although maxed out on vacation and more than enough sick leave, I couldn't stay home. Ends and Pieces entries were my only lifeline for maintaining some semblance of sanity. I wanted to lose weight but Christ! This is not what I'd recommend as the way to do it.

If E&P is keeping you sane, that's bad.


Attention to recovery, Mark. If things are crazy and you're feeling peked, focus on food and rest.

This.

Also, if you're having trouble sleeping, I recommend this: http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/skullcap.php

I have been known to make wicked strong skullcap tea, and it will help take the edge off. So will Kava, but skullcap is easier to brew, and tastes better. It also will give you quality sleep, unlike the Albertson's.

[Oldster]

If E&P is keeping you sane, that's bad.
REALLY bad!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Gwynn.

Yeah it is bad, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that there's a solid cadre of security co-workers of about 40%. The rest are complete morons that seem to cause my workload to double and my frustration to go through the roof.

Dearly Beloved has some Sleepytime tea which I recall had some of that in it, but I just looked it up and apparently not any more. As for the wodka, I haven't had a drop for over a week and I've sworn off the stuff for the foreseeable future. As you correctly allude, I doubt it did much to help the ping ponging going on in my head. It numbs the consciousness, but I need to just lay off it. I have a feeling that the weight loss is probably part of the laying off of it too.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 239.5

Warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 150 3-3-3-3-2. The last rep on the last set came completely unraveled. I could not get the breathing, layback, or anything together and finally leaned forward and slammed the bar back into the rack in disgust. But otherwise, the rest of the form and such is getting firmly ingrained.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3. Considerably easier at under 240.

Deadlift: 325 for 3. Challenging, especially when my grip began to go wobbly at the top of rep 2. I set it down, reset in a mixed grip, and not surprisingly, the bar drifted out from my legs a little. But I did it. I thought I had enough left for another set of 3 with 335. Which I got with a mixed grip. That took so much out of me though I called it quits and will save the GXP and stretching for later.

Altogether a pretty satisfying return to lifting after feeling out of it for a week or so.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike.

After getting 5 sets of 5 with 225 in the bench week before last, I decided I was going for a max single. Then I got sick and missed 2 days lifting last week and all jujitsu. So today I went for it. I figured 255 would be a launching pad for a run at 260 next week if it went up reasonably well this morning. So here's how that plan worked out.

Bench Press: Sets of 5 reps in warmup 45-95-135-185, 225 for 3, 240 for 1. That was pretty easy so I decided to cut to the chase and try for 260. I scared up a spotter and nailed it! 260 for 1! That was challenging but I knew I had more, so I waited 5 minutes. Then I loaded 275 and got that for 1! WHOO-HOO!!!! I didn't think I'd make a 275 bench again. The last time I pulled that off was in my early 40's. No PR's here, but in a few months I'll try again a little heavier. Time for a slight routine change while I reconstruct my standing overhead press. Damn what a pleasant surprise.

Curl: 110 for 5 sets of 5.

Claw Grip: 222 for 2 sets of 5. PR!

Foam rolling and stretching.

[Oldster]

Nice job on the bench, Mark! The thing about singles in the bench is that the first time we attempt them is the worst we are going to be. If you were to take a couple weeks doing a light/heavy scheme per week you'd find yourself bumping at the edge of 300lbs, depending on a few different things. Unless you've been performing quite a few heavy singles, your nervous system isn't going to be firing the muscles correctly to really lift heavy and it takes a few weeks or even a month before everything is in sync.

Nice job with the grip PR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thank you. How would the light/heavy scheme look in terms of sets, reps, weights, and weekly programming?

[DaddyMantz]

Congrats on the bench!

[Oldster]

The first session during the week would be the light one, followed by the heavier one 72 hours later.

Your light day would have you working up to about 165lbs for 6-8 sets of 2 followed by whatever assistance work you normally do.

The heavy day would have you working up to 2 or 3 singles maybe even 4, at 255 or so (whatever doesn't have you struggling for each rep). Warmups up to the singles are up to you, I prefer medium reps to warm up, my partner prefers singles. Then go up 10lbs per week for 3 or 4 weeks, dropping back to just 5lbs or so for as long as you showed good progress.

But remember, NO ELBOW FLAIR!

[bob g]

...
but I knew I had more, so I waited 5 minutes. Then I loaded 275 and got that for 1! WHOO-HOO!!!! I didn't think I'd make a 275 bench again. The last time I pulled that off was in my early 40's.
...

That's fantastic, Mark. Way to go!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

Thanks to all of you! OK so I've tweaked my programming like you said, Oldster. Looks like it's going to be fun.

Jujitsu last night at last. I worked with a newbie who, while well behaved and attentive, seems to have a terrible time remembering from one coaching cue to the next. I'm consciously working with short brief cues now and it didn't seem to help much with this particular kid. Not because of any shortcomings of the method I don't think. Some people really have a hard time getting motor skills together and he seems to be one of them.

I had a chance to teach the blue belts last night. A couple of good young guys in their mid 20's. It's been a while since I taught the blue belt techniques and it was a refreshing change from the white belt stuff. They had a lot of questions which caused me to stop review and rethink what and why I had just told them to do in executing the technique. Foot work especially has become a key focus for me now and that's relatively new even though it's so fundamental. But often entirely overlooked. We did some escapes from a two handed rear wrist grab into an arm ripping right angle hold that ends up with the attacker's elbow bent at 90 degrees pointed at the sky and wound up like a rubber band. Very painful and an excellent set up for a come along, take down, or strangle. They actually thanked me after the class. Nice.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 165 for 6 sets of 2. Into the heavy/light program as recommended by Oldster. Otherwise no changes to the rest of today's routine.

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 95 for 3 sets of 3. These movement patterns are getting cemented in and more smooth.

GXP followed by foam rolling and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 237.5

I think maybe the weight continuing to come down is the not drinking.

No jujitsu while Master Bellman finds a new home for the dojo in the San Fernando Valley. I'm really missing the Saturday sessions. So today I went to Golds and did some easy cardio to get warmed up followed by my newly now favorite grip exercise the wrist roll up with a 45, 25, and a 2 1/2 lb. plate pinned to the 100 lb. stack. It just climbs steadily. Then foam roller and stretching with a bunch of late teen early 20's dude bros were primating their way around the heavy bag. I almost thought they were going to start grooming each other.

Our daughter stunned me this afternoon by asking if I'd help her with some strength training she out of nowhere got interested in. I tried this with her in high school when she went out for the shot put and discus on the track team and she mostly blew it off. Even though it was her idea then too. Maybe this time for sure. I sure hope. So I started her out by getting her in the right stance and back position for squats. Her achilles tendons are tight like mine were in my late 30's until I started stretching them so it was hard for her to keep her heels on the floor. So I had her put on some shoes and that helped a lot. But I told her to stretch and get comfortable in a low squat. Let's just see how this goes.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Our daughter stunned me this afternoon by asking if I'd help her with some strength training she out of nowhere got interested in. I tried this with her in high school when she went out for the shot put and discus on the track team and she mostly blew it off. Even though it was her idea then too. Maybe this time for sure. I sure hope. So I started her out by getting her in the right stance and back position for squats. Her achilles tendons are tight like mine were in my late 30's until I started stretching them so it was hard for her to keep her heels on the floor. So I had her put on some shoes and that helped a lot. But I told her to stretch and get comfortable in a low squat. Let's just see how this goes.

Fantastic. She's been watching you and going "hmmm....you know, the older I get, the smarter Dad seems to be...."

[bob g]

Fantastic. She's been watching you and going "hmmm....you know, the older I get, the smarter Dad seems to be...."
At our house with N=3 we were at our stupidest when each child was about 15. Then we got smarter and smarter until they each reached about 20. Then we were back to being the wise protectors and sage advisers we were before the brats reached junior high scool.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Fantastic. She's been watching you and going "hmmm....you know, the older I get, the smarter Dad seems to be...."



At our house with N=3 we were at our stupidest when each child was about 15. Then we got smarter and smarter until they each reached about 20. Then we were back to being the wise protectors and sage advisers we were before the brats reached junior high scool.

Yeah, right up there with Mark Twain's similar remarks about how when he got to be in his 20's it was amazing how much his old man had learned. Of course this might also have been triggered by a few things in the last week that she helped me with technology wise or my jubilant post-it notes I plastered all over the refrigerator and bathroom mirrors that said "275 BABY!" before she and Dearly Beloved got up. I now have to document in-progress construction by government decree at work and I had to crash learn how to use a digital camera. She explained to me how I hadn't snapped in the memory card all the way. Also I decided to maybe get my feet wet in the e-book world and she showed me how her Kindle worked. So maybe this is some reciprocity. I'll take it though. I asked her this morning what sparked this sudden interest in lifting again and as is often the case, she played her cards close to the vest. "Just something I got interested in again, Dad."

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

Bench Press: 250 for 3 singles. Remodeling continues. I was planning on doing just 2 singles, but 3 felt possible and so I went for it.

Pull Ups: 5 sets of 3.

Squat: 275 for 3 and just because that felt not too terribly taxing, 285 for 3. I used my belt today because my back feels a little dodgy. But the knee and back held up fine, even if the back still feels sapped by something or other.

Stretched and foam rolling.

There was a lot going on outside the Golds in King Harbor this morning. On the way there I saw a Coast Guard cutter off the bluffs at Esplenade cruising which was unusual. Then about 20 minutes into my workout I could see the LA County Sheriff's big Sikorsky helicopter in an orbit around King Harbor Pier. I thought maybe it was another amphibious landing by illegal aliens from Mexico like happened in El Segundo last month. On the way home I saw more Redondo cops around the pier and at least half a dozen LA County Fire Department and Lifeguard vehicles hovering around. I asked what had happened as it turns out a young couple had jumped off the end of the pier around midnight. The young woman was swept ashore and was OK, it was a cold windy night last night with some big waves. The guy hadn't been found yet.

Later after breakfast Dearly Beloved and I went on our breakfast car cruise of the coast and saw a grey whale off the bluffs. Caught the spouting and a lot of thrashing. Very cool.

[Oldster]

Weight: 238.5
Bench Press: 250 for 3 singles. Remodeling continues. I was planning on doing just 2 singles, but 3 felt possible and so I went for it.

Was it easy enough that you could perform the same weight and get perhaps 4 or 5 singles next single session?

If so, do the same weight again and try to get another single or two. That will help lay a good base to start.

Keep the light day at the same weight for a few more weeks. Then add 10lbs and repeat for a couple more weeks.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah, I do think I had another rep in me this morning and I was a little tired to boot. I am sure I can do 4 next week, so I'll give that a shot and lay the foundation. Slow and steady wins the race.

[Oldster]

Slow and steady wins the race.
Truer words were never spoken, Kemosabe.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Kemosabe.

Every time I see that word these days it makes me think of the ooold Mad Magazine cartoon of the Lone Ranger and Tonto surrounded by injuns. The Masked Rider turns to Tonto and says, "Well Tonto, this looks we're at the end of the line."

To which Tonto replies, "What do you mean we Kemosabe?"

[Mark E. Hurling]

OK, I finally got the skinny from our daughter about her suddenly renewed interest in lifting. It seems one of her websites, xojane had an article by one Dana MacMahan on powerlifting. She pointed me to the place and I read it. Holy cow, MS MacMahan even mentions Starting Strength as a good place to go to get started. So this is a win-win all around. I'll have to see if Rip wants this in the Q&A. http://www.xojane.com/healthy/how-to-start-lifting-weights

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Cool. Thanks for forwarding this.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You're welcome.

Weight: 240

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 130 for 5 sets of 5. I meant to do this with 140 but could see that it was no-go. Those heavy benches really took the zip out.

Curl: 110 for 5 sets of 5.

Pinch Grip: 150 for 15 seconds. OK enough. I'm clearly too heavy on this for a 30 second hold. I don't understand where that grip strength went, but I'm cutting waaay back and starting up again.

[slowjoe]

Pinch Grip: 150 for 15 seconds. OK enough. I'm clearly too heavy on this for a 30 second hold. I don't understand where that grip strength went, but I'm cutting waaay back and starting up again.

Is this the exercise where you only load plates on one end of the bar, and grip the smooth side of the plates?

If so, is the execution like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi6qsnbJ_bA ?

I want to add something like this to the rotation, and don't know how to do them right.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I can't look at you tube because they won't let us load the stuff at work. But here's what I do. I load 35 lb. Power Systems bumper plates onto both ends of an EZ curl bar along with some smaller iron plates to get to the poundage. All the iron plates at the Gods I lift at have slots cut along the edges so I wouldn't get a realistic pinch grip. Hence the bumpers. I chalk up, bend over, and grab the bumpers on each end of the EZ curl bar and stand up with it holding on as long as I can with 30 seconds as the goal.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 165 for 6 sets of 2. I'm doing these with a narrow grip

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 100 for 3 sets of 3. Decided to see if I can add 5 lbs. a week for a while and keep good form. It felt pretty dialed in this morning.

[Oldster]

Bench Press: 165 for 6 sets of 2. I'm doing these with a narrow grip
Good.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.5

I did a GXP this morning. Finished out with foam rolling and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238

I did some more low intensity cardio followed by the wrist roll up where I pinned the 45, 25, and a 5 pound plate to the stack. Another 5 lb. increase. Maybe that's where the pinch grip strength has gone. More foam rolling and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241

5 minutes warmup on the bike.

Bench Press: I got the 4 singles with 250. Number 3 was a little wobbly when my concentration broke and the bar path got bad. So I got a spotter for rep #4 and it went up like it was on hydraulics.

Pull-Ups: 5 sets of 3 with bodyweight.

Deadlifts: Sets of 3 135-185-225-275 Singles 315-365-375. This was a most welcome session. I decided last week to try for maybe a 355 or 365 single, since it was the first time I'd tried this in nearly a year and I got 355 doing sumo. So I gained confidence as the week went on and decided to open with 365. This went up easy and I took a flyer on 375. It was challenging but clearly not the best I could do. But I left it for later. I have no doubt that I am just a month or two away from 405.

Foam rolling and stretching.

[Oldster]

Bench Press: I got the 4 singles with 250. Number 3 was a little wobbly when my concentration broke and the bar path got bad. So I got a spotter for rep #4 and it went up like it was on hydraulics.
Perfect. Hydraulic pressure is what I'm looking for.

[jwt708]

Hey Mark, not sure if you've mentioned this before, but what is a GXP?

[Mark E. Hurling]

This is a popular question that crops up now and again. So here's the skinny:

Now then, if you are concerned about cardio for your health's sake and general fitness you might try a Graded Exercise Protocol. In this, you take 5 minutes to ramp up to 85% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Then you continue at that level of intensity for 5 minutes. Then you ramp down over the course of 5 minutes. Do it twice a week. That will provide a good base of cardio for your needs. It has kept me in the excellent category of Vo2 Max for geezers (60+) for the last year or so.

[bob g]

...
Bench Press: I got the 4 singles with 250. Number 3 was a little wobbly when my concentration broke and the bar path got bad. So I got a spotter for rep #4 and it went up like it was on hydraulics.
...

Niiice. Feels good, eh?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yes it did. But the deadlift positively stunned me.

[jwt708]

Thanks for the clarification on GXP.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the clarification on GXP.

You're welcome. It really does a good job. Let me know if you have more questions.

I set up and supervised our daughter's lifting last night in our garage where I have a bunch of old standard plates and bars from when she tried this the first time in high school for track. I have to get a longer bar because at 5'10" her wing span makes a 6' foot bar impractical for squatting. Also a good solid bench. So I'll be hitting Play It Again Sports for some used equipment.

The program start simple with A and B workouts. A: Squat-Press-Deadlift and B: Squat-Bench Press Deadlift. I coached her through A last night.

She followed instructions pretty well with a little push back about things that make no sense to her like eye line, head, and neck orientation. Also a little static about the thumb on top of the bar. But she did it just humor me. I didn't even have to explain hip drive to her coming up. She took to it on her own with no coaching from me. So that was cool and I told her about it to set it in right at the beginning. I did have to tell her not to drop down and pause at the bottom though, rather to rebound out of it. Her layback in the press was good too and she understood and took to the breath control better than I did when I tried to do it at first. Her deadlift form was good too without a lot of correction once I got her feet and grip width set up.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 135 for 5 sets of 5. The form on this is really coming together now. These were mostly easy reps too. A few got out of the sweet spot and got messy but finally some sense of synchronicity and cosmic convergence maaaan. The heavy singles Sunday didn't seem to take the starch out of me like last week.

Curl: 110 for 5 sets of 5.

Claw Grip: 225 for 2 sets of 5 PR! I just can't figure out why this and the wrist roller keep climbing and my pinch grip has begun to evaporate. Ah well, I should be grateful for any kind of progress at this late remove.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240.5

Jujitsu last night had me teaching the one new white belt the basics again. Good kid but he really has problems putting things all together. I was probably pretty much like this myself at his age. The adult class had us doing a string of techniques all based around head displacement and spinal misalignment. I must be getting more of the principles ingrained in me since I seem to be able to recognize this common linkage more frequently lately. So that's a good thing. We lead off with a side step deflection counter to a straight right punch that leaves the attacker extended down and forward with the defender to his right side and slightly behind him. The defender's left hand then extended across his jaw turning his head and then drawing the extended arm down and back. This takes the attacker backward and down. We then went to a defense against a push where the defender meets, merges, and tracks the hand down to the fingers. Then the defender grabs the fingers and twists them bending them backward which drives the attacker's elbow up and it hurts everywhere between the shoulder and fingertips. We did a defense against a front choke where the defender nails the attacker with a vertical fist to the sternum then stepping back and raising the opposite arm and circling it down to break the grip and then countering with a backfist. Interesting stuff, although not really new to me. Lots of fine tuning of the blue belt I was working with.

[Gwynn]

I set up and supervised our daughter's lifting last night in our garage...
The program start simple with A and B workouts. A: Squat-Press-Deadlift and B: Squat-Bench Press Deadlift. I coached her through A last night.

She followed instructions pretty well with a little push back about things that make no sense to her like eye line, head, and neck orientation. Also a little static about the thumb on top of the bar. But she did it just humor me. I didn't even have to explain hip drive to her coming up. She took to it on her own with no coaching from me. So that was cool and I told her about it to set it in right at the beginning. I did have to tell her not to drop down and pause at the bottom though, rather to rebound out of it. Her layback in the press was good too and she understood and took to the breath control better than I did when I tried to do it at first. Her deadlift form was good too without a lot of correction once I got her feet and grip width set up.


This is fantastic! It's cool that your relationship is good enough that coaching can happen, too. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

[Mark E. Hurling]

This is fantastic! It's cool that your relationship is good enough that coaching can happen, too. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Thanks for this Gwynn. After our checkered history on this stuff, her interest and her attentive listening is pretty heartwarming. But this time I'm letting her proceed at a pace she's comfortable with. I do not want to screw this up.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241

5 minutes warmup on the bike (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 260 for 4 singles. The last single was easier than the first one. But I figured make haste slowly and forebear another single that I knew I had in me.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight 5 sets of 3.

Squats: 295 for 3. This was a little challenging and I toyed with the idea of adding 10 more pounds, but there's time for that later. It's more important to stay on track on form and especially depth.

I did a GXP to finish off. Average HR for the 62 minute session was 130 bpm or 81% of MHR. Not bad. The lifting segment was 127 bpm for 79% of MHR for 43 minutes. Pretty surprising to me given low rep sets with 3-4 minute rests between the upper sets.

[Oldster]

Bench Press: 260 for 4 singles. The last single was easier than the first one. But I figured make haste slowly and forebear another single that I knew I had in me.
Beautiful. That was all perfect.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I plan on trying this again next week with 270 for 2-3 singles or maybe even 4 if the mojo is still rising.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 140 4-4-3-3-3. Hard as Hell this morning. Next week will be better.

Barbell Rows: Sets of 5 45-95-135-185-195-205-215-225. My first time trying these and was looking for a reasonable top end. So 230 for 5 sets of 5 next week.

Pinch Grip: 140 for 30 seconds. Finally! I dropped the weight down to a level I can hang on for the full 30 seconds. Now to start working my way back up.

[Oldster]

I plan on trying this again next week with 270 for 2-3 singles or maybe even 4 if the mojo is still rising.
I have no problem with that, but don't hurt yourself trying to get an extra one. 4 would be fantastic though. At your age I would just like to see them be very smooth. They don't have to be fast, just in the groove and smooth. Make sure your set-up is tight.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

In and out fast this morning having overslept. Did a GXP and hustled through getting ready for work.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240

Jujitsu last night with the kids had them doing circle of terror drills. In this, a circle of 4-5 people form around one person. The leader (me in this case) waits until the one in the middle has their back turned and then points to someone to attack as the one in the middle as they are walking the interior circle. There are some variations of this where the one in the middle does the attack as they walk around too. The kids had a lot of fun with this .

Adult class was almost all ground technique. It started off with the defender on their back on the mat manuvering to keep their legs oriented toward the standing attacker as they moved in or circled to one side or the other. My partner, a green belt, is feisty and fast but didn't realize he could use his elbows to turn with too and would just use one or both feet. This left him vulnerable to a leg grab and fast bypass of both legs into a mount or side hold down. So I showed him how to do that and he was near impossible to get past then. We worked on defender on the ground leg to leg takedowns. Very hard on my knee as the attacker, thank God I wear my metal reinforced brace doing this stuff. Still a little achey this morning in the knee.

Since we're both at the level where we are taught and can use chokes we worked that too as follow ups once we were both on the mat. He's got good instincts for choking and if you get careless with your hands he'll grab some fingers and you are going to hurt like Hell. But we teach a defensive technique that has you curled into a fetal position usually on your knees but also on your side sometimes. The arms are crossed in high X across either side tight next to the neck with the hands in fists and the chin dropped to your chest. A very tight curl is very hard to break into to do any grappling. Of course you can kick or strike them so that's not a long term position for a successful end to a real fight. He couldn't get to my fingers or neck for a choke, so I showed him how to snake his hand and fingers in above my fists but under my nose and pull upwards. Man does this hurt! Your whole head and neck come right up with it to relieve the pain. In vain I might add. Of course then your neck is exposed and you get choked out.

I don't like ground techniques for self defense but given my history of competing in judo with them I'm pretty good at them. Our team in college exploited a niche that the other teams neglected and we won over half our matches with chokes, pins, or arm bars. The green belt doidn't have an instinct for finding arm bars since he like chokes and finger wrenching techniques, so while we were working together I pointed out some stages at which he could get an arm bar or figure four lock on my arm. A good session last night, but I have strawberries all over me including one on my chin and cheek. Already some comments at work about them asking if Dearly Beloved got a little rambunctious last night.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 165 for 6 sets of 2. Did these fast.

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. I didn't remember to rotate my elbows outward until workset #2. I'll stick with this weight for a while because I also noted a tendency to press out. Needs more pull and speed.

I worked with our daughter again today after work. Her squat stance was a little wide and her knees complained a little, but she figured out on her own what the problem was. Her overhead pressing is really good and used as much weight for that as she did for the squat and it bombed right up. Her deadlift form is positively flawless. It's amazing how once the set up stance and distance from the bar is established for her, everything else lines up into place.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242.5

Some low intensity cardio today with just a little stretching. Today I pinned two 45 lb. plates to the rollup weight stack. Too big of a jump at more than 10 lbs. than last week. But it was easier than stacking plates like I had been, and even so I rolled it up over halfway before the grip gave out. So one more challenge to go at.

I've been experimenting with little to no stretching the last few weeks as a result of some suggestion by Rip in the Do You Find This Common thread in his Q&A. So far this is like once a week for 5 minutes and fewer exercises as opposed to 5+ times for 10 minutes. Since my squat and deadlift form have gotten cleaned up my lower back is doing so much better. The only thing that seems to get to it is jujitsu.

On the home front, our daughter and I went to lunch today just because we enjoy each other's company. She was groaning a little about her quads, as she first described them, which turned out to be her adductors from squats yesterday. I told her that was probably because of her wide stance yesterday. This lead to a whole discussion over Panda Express about form, setup, back angle, head and neck position, and eyeline. She even expressed interest in reading SS:3 as the basis for understanding what to do besides "because the Dad unit said so." After our battles over exercise etc. in the past, I can't begin to express how encouraging this all is. I just have to keep throttling myself back so as not to come on too strong. This is not an easy bit of The Old Man's DNA to overcome what with his HIT THAT BEACH AND TAKE THAT HILL!! driving personality. Being a parent gets tougher when the kid gets to be not a kid any more.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.5

This morning started off inauspiciously. I woke up with a headache, probably for all the sleep I've been missing through the last several days because of work issues deviling me. These issues have also been building a head of rage and anger the likes of which were threatening to cause a blow the likes of Mt. St. Helens or the Big Bang at Old Faithful we keep hearing about from geothermal types. I had to damp it and keep my job but decided to focus it for this morning. So I amped it up some more with Also Sprach Zarathustra on the way in to the gym. Bad idea, because that woke up The Old Man and my high school football coach Mr. Perucca. It was like getting it in stereo from two drill instructors in either ear then all morning under the iron. Kind of like the three drill instructors I saw one time hazing a police recruit doing push-ups for a screw up at the Rio Hondo Police Academy one afternoon.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: I got 3 singles with 270. A 4th felt possible and Coach and the Old Man were giving me Hell for not going for it, but my right shoulder felt funny right from the empty bar warmup and I decided to keep one in reserve. Also I didn't entirely trust the one guy I could find to spot me. He hovered too closely and I could tell he didn't seem to have a lot faith in his own ability to help. But got 'em all even so.

Pull Ups: bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

Deadlift: Sets of 3, 135-225. Singles 315- 345-385. That 385 was a grinder especially right at the kneecaps but I got it. I've been hitting what I think may be the bleeding edge of my envelope these days and actually loaded up the bar with 395 for one more single. I took a stance and gripped the bar, sucked down a huge gulp of air and . . . Decided to let it go and stand up. No point in risking that last potential tweak of the L5 because I got impatient for that run at 405 in a few more weeks. So I'll do it in 10 lb. increments even though up to now I've been doing 20 lb. increments each session. P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E. This was no mean mental feat either. Because The Old Man and Coach jacked up the volume in my head to 11 as I was taking that last breath.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E. This was no mean mental feat either. Because The Old Man and Coach jacked up the volume in my head to 11 as I was taking that last breath.

There it is. Strength AND wisdom.

[Oldster]

Bench Press: I got 3 singles with 270. A 4th felt possible and Coach and the Old Man were giving me Hell for not going for it, but my right shoulder felt funny right from the empty bar warmup and I decided to keep one in reserve. ....But got 'em all even so.
Excellent. Now you have a minor decision to make. Do you stay with the same weight next week and try to get the 4th rep or do you go up 10 and attempt your reps?

You and I both know where I come down on that.


..actually loaded up the bar with 395 for one more single. I took a stance and gripped the bar, sucked down a huge gulp of air and . . . Decided to let it go and stand up. No point in risking that last potential tweak of the L5 because I got impatient for that run at 405 in a few more weeks.
Beautiful.

[jwt708]

So I amped it up some more with Also Sprach Zarathustra on the way in to the gym.

Nietzsche before the gym?

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Strauss.

Tone poem.

Think it got used in a movie once.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Excellent. Now you have a minor decision to make. Do you stay with the same weight next week and try to get the 4th rep or do you go up 10 and attempt your reps?

You and I both know where I come down on that.

Yup, one more run for a 4th rep next week. That's my plan. I think maybe a 5 lb. jump though once I get that at as a confidence booster for the next increment.


Nietzsche before the gym?

What Sully said. I leave the German philosophers to him. I can actually read and speak German and Kant's circularity of language put me off philosophy for good.

But that resonating organ note at the end of one of the Strauss family masterpieces is very inspiring.

[Oldster]

Yup, one more run for a 4th rep next week. That's my plan. I think maybe a 5 lb. jump though once I get that at as a confidence booster for the next increment.

Excellent.

[Mark E. Hurling]

My butt was dragging the last two days from poor sleep and all I wanted to do was come home and crash. But our daughter wanted to lift and is getting progressively more serious about it. She even changed into some better shoes, a sweat shirt and pants. Her squat form is good, her bench press was a little scary for her because she thought it might be too much. But she ground out all her reps in all her sets even when I asked in the intervals if she thought it was too much. "It's challenging Dad, but I'll try it." This is just music to my ears. I never expected her to push herself like this and as I have said I have myself throttled back hard on this so as not to overreach. Her deadlift was so easy for her she said she wants to try a bigger jump next time. Priceless.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

This is awesome, Mark, and it sounds like you're handling it just right.

[jwt708]

Thanks Sully and Mark for clearing that up.

I thought it weird that someone would get amped up reading or maybe listening to Nietzsche. I also hope to try out your GXP tomorrow.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

Tough week in terms of sleep and fatigue. I slept in midweek and so missed medium day.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 175 for 6 sets of 2. The right shoulder feeling it a little. Strange too, out of nowhere.

Squats: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. Getting smoother now that I am remembering to rotate my elbows out.

Finished with a GXP.

The new longer standard plate exercise bar arrived yesterday and our daughter came home from being oot and aboot with a friend was thrilled. So thrilled in fact, she shouldered it in the living room and ground out some sets and reps to try it out. Then did some overhead presses. Progress by increments.

Oldster, I've been wondering. Do singles generate greater overall fatigue and hunger? Because my rear end is dragging just now and I find I've had a ferocious appetite the last week or so.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240

Another inauspicious run up to this morning's lifting. My right inside knee and foot started hurting yesterday. No idea why. The knee got worse as Saturday went on and I had to resort to pillows under my leg to sleep it was so uncomfortable. I hoped it would clear up by the next morning and while my foot did, not so the knee. So I pulled out the armored metal brace I got after the meniscus tear got diagnosed and wore it to the gym limping all the way. This was after using topical anti-inflammatories along with Aleve. Bending the leg hurt (a lot!) especially when I'd do something like cross my right ankle over my left knee so I figured squats were a non-starter. BUT! I had those 4 singles with 270 to try.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day) Even the bike made my knee hurt.

Bench Press: Reps of 8-45-95-135, reps of 5-185, reps of 2-225, single-250. There was no one to spot me so I figured I was good for the first shot at 270. Nope. Thank God for catch bars. Well this thoroughly pissed me off so I tried again. Also nope. Halfway was all I could do. Why, I wonder even now as I type this? Two possibilities. The first is that the cumulative fatigue I mentioned last week did me in. Maybe. Then there was the guy doing curls while taking the bar from the uprights on the bench I use. Never seen that before, so I used another bench. But since not all 45 plates are created equal it is possible that I have been using light plates from that bench/rack or heavier ones from the one I used this morning.

Pull-Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

I grumped my way out of the gym. All I could think of was that sequence in Patton during the Battle of the Bulge where he orders up a weather prayer from the Chaplain. I'm no fan of the man himself, but that was the most moving part of the film what with the narration of the prayer and men getting burned up by flamethrowers while you hear the words "As we proceed from strength to strength". Then you see the soldier fall face first alone in the snow after having been shot. Very inspiring when you need to make Dearly Beloved happy for Mother's Day. So with that image hanging like some foul smoke in my brain I did what I could to make this a good day for her.

We go together in the afternoon for her workout and some easy cardio for me. But I had to get that damn iron monkey off my back. I figured I might be able to do some deadlifts even if they weren't full out. But how to pull this off when she has seen me limping all day? Trust me on this, you don't want to listen to or argue about the hazards you put yourself in harm's way of. Even though she has seen me come home reeling, or scabbed, or crawling from some misadventure or other for over 36 years of dating and marriage. So I waited until she got in another part of Golds and got my shoes and belt and positioned myself so she couldn't see me doing deadlifts. Better to ask forgiveness.

Deadlifts: Sets of 3-135-225, singles with belt 315-365-395! Not a PR but nice to pull off. I lost form just slightly and it came out just below my knees. My low back started to complain but I hauled it back in and straightened up with it with the knurling scraping my quads. And so I did it and didn't get caught at it. Then I did a GXP to camouflage my illicit guilty pleasure.

But she found me out when she saw me taking off my weightlfting shoes and stashing my belt. "Why are you changing your shoes?" So I fessed up. Quite an oddment of a day altogether.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 140 for 5 sets of 5 and it was easy. Pretty encouraging after the last few sessions of all things pressing. The form and breathing all clicked like it was on bearings. So onward and upward.

Bentover Rowing: 230 for 5 sets of 5. Also not a killer, but my lats are sore in a way they have been very few times in my life. But a good satisfying kind of sore that lets me know I worked hard.

Pinch Grip: 142 for 20 seconds. I got in a hurry and didn't get a real good grip on this. I should have been able to go the full 30 seconds. Next time.

I'm staying the course in not doing much stretching as the experiment I said I'd try at Rip's suggestion. So far so good. My knee was slightly less sore this morning no doubt thanks to 5 Aleve a day I'm taking along with the cold packs I have at home and at work. But so far it doesn't feel good enough to try squats with just yet.

[Oldster]

About your poor bench showing the other day. Don't sweat it. Just come back next time and attempt the same workout. I'm sure you'll be fine.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 175 for 6 sets of 2. Did these fast and with a narrow grip.

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. The last rep of the last set came a little unglued.

Finished out with a GXP. My HR for the lifting alone averaged 148 because I did the three exercises as a circuit.

My knee finally relented on me and gave up hurting after a few 5 a days of Aleve. It was a bye-week for jujitsu this week by the schedule and YAY! Master Bellman has got the new dojo ready for Saturday sessions in Northridge again. Good news for the last part of the week.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike.

Bench Press: 270 with 2 solid singles and 2 assisted completions. I had a guy spot me this morning who is not a morning regular. Liked the Old Guys Rule T-shirt. Nice "young" Black guy of 34 who couldn't help but ask "How old are you anyway?" So we exchanged ages and names. He was amazed at the age and the weight which is always a nice ego boost.But he spotted to close and by single #3, I bounced the bar off an upright on the way up. Everything got loose then and he grabbed it halfway up. It was so off putting that rep #4 was only a little better.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

Squats: 305 for 3. I felt my depth was suspect so I'm going to repeat these again just keep myself honest.

My concentration was bad today. Lot of work things on my mind and none of them good. Normally I can overcome that, but not today. I may just pull the pin sooner that I planned because I don't need this kind of shit with this much of my active, useful life left.

[tertius]

My concentration was bad today. Lot of work things on my mind and none of them good. Normally I can overcome that, but not today. I may just pull the pin sooner that I planned because I don't need this kind of shit with this much of my active, useful life left.

If you've got the income to manage it, and a plan to stay busy (which I'm pretty sure you do), I'd say go for it.
Work to live, not live to work. If the jobbie job is causing you more stress than the money relieves, then maybe it's not worth it.
But, is it also just a phase? Will things get better, or is the culture of the business just becoming a place that is hostile for you?
If you think it's a permanent shift in a direction you can't tolerate for long, I'd suggest you start planning for an expeditious exit.

But hell, what do I know?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thank you, the cyclical thing is exactly what is going on right now. But it's uncertain how long it's going to last and how I can put up with what is going on. I already see some changes backing off from the external sources but the internal? Not yet or in the offing so far. Right now it's like being in a nuclear reactor with the control rods pulled out. Profoundly hostile. I suspect in 6 months things might get better because the externalities will have subsided still further and the internal problems will too in response. Or the internal bonzos will self destruct themselves out of being a problem. But no certainty of either one.

I've never been much for a lot of things and money, just enough to be comfortable. Which is the case now. Not expansive, but enough. The keeping busy part I have all figured out. The real anchor is our daughter living with us and not being able to get established on her own with a full time job just yet. I don't intend to pull up stakes and leave on her own to sink or swim from 2000 miles away. She doesn't like CA much anyway, but she was born here and this is where all her friends are. On the other hand I don't want to put her in the position of making a decision to keep us here for her, or the associated guilt that might arise from it. Some of the minor ties are the martial arts connections. Nothing like what I do in IL where we'll move to at some point. Without a black belt, the self defense book(s) I have planned have no credibility and that is a few years off just yet.

The money part looks possible. But I have to decide if I can hunker down and ride it out, or get out while I still have some dignity and self respect intact.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I've never been much for a lot of things and money, just enough to be comfortable. Which is the case now. Not expansive, but enough. The keeping busy part I have all figured out. (snip) The money part looks possible.

This is me. I spend a lot of time thinking about Second Act these days. No kids to put through college, med school loans are paid off, house is almost paid for...and modern medicine is turning into something I don't want to be a part of much longer. This is heavy shit to think about. Your post didn't exactly take my mind off it.... ;^)

[Mark E. Hurling]

Sorry Sully, but the Brave new World of the current generation of government security representatives along with the new (actually a return to the old) requirements are really wearing thin. With them however, they already seem to getting a grasp of reality outside the direct infulence of the wise Imams in the holy city of (we'll just call it) DC. In any event they'll be rotated out on a routine 18-24 month basis the way they always have been.

But the real issue are the upper level managers on the job who are running around like Michael Jackson with their hair on fire. They never understood the old requirements and got comfortable after 15 years of watching enforcement of them decay. Now that they are back, I'm just about the only one left around who ever understood them. Much good that seems to do me lately. It's time to leave those other damn lame-ass penguins on their unstable ice floe.

The whole physical/technical security thing is a non-fiction book in itself. I actually started working on one nearly 20 years ago and was in contract negotiations with Butterworth's. I wish I had kept or could find my outline for that.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 145 for 5 sets of 5. The form is clicking along now.

Bentover Barbell Row: 235 for 5 sets of 5.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

Work drained the life out of me yesterday and I had nothing left for jujitsu. Damn.

Decided to do a fitness test mode to monitor how well or not the GXP's are doing and scored a 42 VO2 Max! Pretty good considering the excellent range for the 60+ set starts at 36.5. A great return for very little time and relatively low effort invested. No rhabdo required.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Bench Press: 175 for 6 sets of 2. Narrow grip and done fast.

Squat: 135 for 3 sets of 6.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. Form gradually smoothing out.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

Woke up feeling creaky in the back and right shoulder. The back is probably from getting adjusted by my chiro on Friday. Getting the chassis realigned can have that effect. So I decided to think through my warmups more carefully today. With variable results.

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 270 for 2 singles. I tried for a 3rd but made it only halfway up. Thank God for a good spotter. Since the last few heavy sessions have been a little wobbly, I did fewer reps in the warmup sets and went to singles at 225. I think I have milked these singles for as much as I can. I'll take a run at 280 next week and recover with a 5-3-1 for a while.

Pull Ups: Bodyweight for 5 sets of 3.

Deadlift: Sets of 3, 135-185-225-275. Singles, 315-365. I went for 405 today with high hopes especially after 365 went up without much effort. But I think I did too many warmup sets and should have done my last one at a lower weight. Because I broke 405 off the floor and that was it. Pissed me off, and I waited a little and tried again with the same result. I think it was mainly in my head, but what with my back feeling creaky I decided to try again week after next.

[BillBrownley]

Re:dead lift--definitely too much warm-up IMHO. With deads, if I am going for a record--135 x 5, 50% of anticipated max x 2, 75 % of anticipated max x 1. Then go get it. Thanks, Bill

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah, normally its more like 135-225-315 and then a filler with the top effort. I was testing my back on the way up and I tested myself right out of 405.

[JohnRoman]

I'd make sure I was warmed up good before maxing. Especially with no other back and/or leg work before doing deads. Better safe than sorry. It does seem to be a balance between pre-exhaustion versus jumping too far and overloading your CNS. This seems to be worse with deads than the other lifts for me.

I think some of these younger guys are maxing too often and I think that can drive you backward on your deads. I'm sure that would probably happen for me. After I got above 400# my body start feeling like I'd been in a car wreck for days after max deads so I space them fairly far apart.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The funny thing is in spite of my creaks this morning, my lower back feels fine now. In fact it feels better now than it did when I got out of bed. But anyone who might have lingering doubts about the effect of deadlifts on the lats? Mine feel rather crispy just now. All the years (decades!) I have lifted I think I felt my lats get even slightly sore maybe twice. But the last month what with the heavy deadlifts and bent over barbell rows have them feeling cooked at least once a week.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Our daughter hit me up to go lift again this afternoon. I finally convinced her that her clogs were not the best thing to squat or deadlift in so she dug out some chucks she had had since high school last week. Her squats have been improving ever since and her knee complaint vanished. Now if I can get her to get religion on breathing and the valsalva with pressing moves it'll be another minor victory. But I learned my lesson in middle and high school with the hard core overbearing approach. So I'll just wait and let her hear it from me in a relaxed low key manner and eventually she may get the message.

She is getting more aggressive in adding weight than I would have done myself so as not to push her to the point of failure or so much soreness it would wipe her out. No race here, just slow and steady additions that keep her motivated to challenge herself some more. She told me to add a 20 lb. jump to her deadlifts which pleased me no end and while it was hard for her she hauled 'em all up. Likewise with her bench press when she had me add more than I expected. Her one problem seems to be the squat and I think it's because of the shoes earlier and the shorter bar that constricted her shoulders. But she seems to be getting the mental groove of those now too. Her form is probably better than mine is.

I asked her if at some point she might be interested in going to the gym to lift as the weights keep increasing. This is a Big Deal for her because she is really self conscious about her weight and size and all the "other people" there judging her. She didn't reject it out of hand and said "Let's see how it goes Dad. But for now I'm happy out here in the garage lifting with you coaching me." Warms my heart.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Standing Overhead Press: 150 for 5 sets of 4.

Barbell Rows: 240 for 5 sets of 5.

Pinch Grip: 142 for 30 seconds.

I'm finding all the signs of overtraining are dragging me down. I no doubt tapped an artery too many times with max singles especially in the deadlift. It has taken a major act of will to drag my butt out of bed for at least a week to get in the gym and lift and I've had trouble falling and staying asleep. So I'm taking a little time off from lifting and restarting with a 5-3-1 routine. I'll see how well I muster the energy for jujitsu tonight.

On a brighter note, our daughter was hard the iron last night and is now overhead pressing as much as she bench presses. Odd that, and I told her so but she just considers it her unique badge of honor.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

So I'm taking a little time off from lifting and restarting with a 5-3-1 routine. I'll see how well I muster the energy for jujitsu tonight.

This sounds exactly correct, Mark.


On a brighter note, our daughter was hard the iron last night and is now overhead pressing as much as she bench presses. Odd that, and I told her so but she just considers it her unique badge of honor.

This is way cool. The weight ratios will even out over time; the most important thing is that she keeps coming back. Awesome.

[Carlos Daniel]

Just don't stop lifting. Do some light stuff to keep the groove greased and then come back when you're recovered.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Stop? STOP!!!??

Not a bloody chance in Hell. I worked too damn hard to get this far back into territory I had barely explored in my 40's. In the words of Al Pacino in Scent of A Woman, "I'm just getting warmed up!"

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241

I dug deep and got out for jujitsu last night. Good to be back on the mat again. I got caught up on the travails of getting the new dojo set up in the Valley and then on to teach a newbie the basics in the kid's class.

Which was pretty much what I did with two white belts in the adult class too. Good couple of people. The elderly Japanese lady was there. She is always so deferential to me it's unnerving, but humbling too. The other guy was brand new to martial arts but learned pretty quickly with a few minor clean ups of his blocking technique.

Boy am I sore and tired. My lats are still barking at me from the rows yesterday, so this hiatus from the heavies will be a good thing for a brief period.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

Our daughter had another session of lifting yesterday. Advances of 5 lbs. per exercise which continues to surprise and please her, although she is a little sore from benching and squatting today.

Back to jujitsu where I was alternately teaching a blue and purple belt 1st degree their respective techniques. I have not had the chance to see all the purple belt techniques for a while so I had to fetch some pointers from Master Bellman to remind me of the keys to teach but while challenging it was enjoyable. The new dojo is spartan with some new and very hard mats that cushion the falls OK but sting the hand and arm when you slap on contact.

Some of the techniques involved finger bars and man oh man do they leave you with a lingering set of aches. I showed the purple belt how you can catch a grab attempt halfway and with a good grip and finger bar you can prone out the attacker and stand them back up again with ease. Just turning your wrist up, down or sideways makes the attacker do all the work of laying out and getting back up again to relieve the pressure and pain inflicted on the fingers. Great to be back at it especially with something other than teaching white belts.

[BillBrownley]

Great work with your daughter. I think it is really cool you are helping her in the gym--that she is doing it with you--and that you are wise enough to proceed at her pace--and keep her coming back. The lifting will be there--the iron is always the iron, and it never lies.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Bill. She's been hacking her lungs up all week and is too sick to lift just now.

Weight 249.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. Good to be back and now doing a 5-3-1 routine to recover.

Dips: 3 sets of 8 with bodyweight. The first set was creaky and hard but I got better as I went. No shoulder complaints either which flared up last time.

Deadlifts: 255 for 5, 295 for 3, 335 for 1. I'm not knocking out more reps for the first cycle of this.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

Well I screwed that up good and proper. That deadlift yesterday should have been for sets of 5. Oh well, a good break-in back to reality.

I had to drag myself out of bed and get my butt to jujitsu this morning arguing with myself all 47 miles to the dojo in the San Fernando Valley. Long-ass way to drive to get beat up but the quality of instruction on Saturdays is especially worth the effort.

The new dojo had a couple of guys I hadn't seen in 3 years or so a green belt and and a 2nd degree black belt. Good guys too. I worked with the returned green belt which thank God was not the OCD 1st degree green belt.

We did an interesting variation of of a standard block and takedown counter that starts with the attacker throwing a right roundhouse and the defender doing a left outblock that scoops over and directs the strike down and across their body. The defender's right hand offsets the attacker's head and normally these two moves take spin them on their axis and flatten them. But in this variation, at that point the defender steps back with the right foot and pivots while maintaining the head misalignment and changing hands and pulling the attacker's head backward. As I learned at age 18 in judo 101 in PE, where the head goes, the body follows. The body also hits the ground hard too, with a cricked or broken neck if you try muscling out some resistance.

There was a defense against a front choke where the defender launches a right vertical fist to the sternum or solar plexus of the attacker with an impact accelerating strike to the defender's side that puts at least another 10% to the kinetic energy of the strike. Then the fist drops and impacts the defender's own right quad in another accelerating move that leaves the arm moving up and across in a windmill motion that strips the hands off the neck. The attacker is already moving backward from the vertical fist or doubled over, and the windmill completes the counter. At least until hand making the windmill descends in a hammer fist to break the nose.

Resting up now for a special seminar tomorrow with O-Sensei Brosius.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

5 minutes warm up on the bike. Sets of 3 this week.

Standing Overhead Press: 115, 135, 155

Pull Ups: 3 sets of 3 with bodyweight.

Squats: 215, 255, 275. My lower back was feeling dodgy this morning and I can see that doing both heavy squats and deadlifts in the same week may leave my lower back a little overwhelmed recovery-wise. So I only felt like it could take one rep in this an it may not have been to depth. I didn't want to take the chance of boogering my back for the seminar later today. So time for some revisions I think.

So I came home and showered to get going for the Brosius seminar. This was well worth a little caution and fatigue because his approach is different in several ways to Master Bellman's. O-Sensei Brosius always asks what we'd like to know. One of the other people attending who knows about my work on women's self defense book started by asking about seated groping and grabbing attacks. Nice to unintentionally have programmed someone else to ask my questions for me.

So from a seated position the attacker grabs the defender's wrists. The defender draws up one hand and uses it to feed the attacker's wrist to the other hand. From there the defender grips that hand inverted and turns it so the attacker's pinkie is facing the ceiling. From there a little stretch and downward torque on the wrist and the attacker just wants to face plant to get away from the hurt. In a theater or bar this would be a forehead intercepting the next row of seatbacks or table. Or the heavy oak molding on the bar itself. That'd leave a mark.

An arm around the neck to pull her in was dealt with by sending the near arm's hand (depending on which side the attack come from) up to the philtrum under the nose and pressing upward and backward. This hurts so much all you want to do is shove your neck up and back and let go to get away. Trying to hang on is the last thing on your mind.

His approach to a grope of the buttocks is very simple and straightforward. The defender steps back diagonally and drives the same side arm or elbow back along with a hip turn. Then step to the opposite side and away. I like this better than what I came up for my book with because it takes far less skill to execute and is a more appropriate response to a low intensity attack. Maybe not as satisfying for the woman being groped with the wrist flex I wrote about, but it's about what can work for everyone. Not stroking my ego. Thank you O-Sensei.

I asked about a one handed throat grab as preparatory for a sucker punch with the other hand. The attacker typically grabs with their left hand to strike with their right hand. The defender simply drives their right hand across to the wrist of the gripping hand at a 45 degree angle and it pops right off. It doesn't even have to done hard. The 45 degree angle counter to a 90 degree linear attack defeats it every time.

He then got into a defense for quick jabs. He recommended a circular hand over hand paddling move while stepping forward. You just want to step back from it and it's nearly impossible to get a strike through the hands.

We worked on how apply a fast and effective rear naked choke so it was harder to stop or counter. Too often we get caught in bring the arm around in a wide loop that if the defender is alert, they'll pick up and get an arm up to stop it. He said to snake the hand and arm over right next to the neck with the opposite hand already up to cap the back or top of the head to bring on the lights-out effect faster. This is more important than is obvious because I've been stopping such careless approaches by green belts and upper ranks for a few years now just by bring my arm up and usually spinning into the attack and bringing my other arm up and around into a really nasty shoulder and upper arm lock.

He showed us a very slick way to spin someone facing you around with a minimum of effort. The left hand comes up to the other guy's shoulder and pulls as the right hand drives in low in a palm heel strike to the joint where the leg attaches to the pelvis. The strike doesn't even have to be a hard one and the leg buckles and the hips are driven backward on one side, which makes the pull and turn easier. They end up with their back to you and nothing good will develop for them after that.

We did a number of other things but Brosius' approach doesn't talk a lot about principles, mostly what a particular technique does or works. He is big on misdirection with one hand while readying the other one for the real strike. Same with focusing the attention on the hands and then launching a low kick or sweep. This approach has worked well for me in the dojo and during for-real fights as a cop. Especially the low foot attacks. Never see them coming.

He is also not big on strikes with the fist unless it's a hammer fist. Delivering a back fist causes you to have to draw it cross your center line. All the other guy has to do is move and use one or both hands to control that elbow and the whole arm is stuck. A strong step to close will pin it right against the torso. Not good.

One of his prime directives is a hands up, palms out stance. It appears innocuous and non-offensive but in fact the hands are ideally positioned to either block, counter or strike.

A great session all around.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

5 minutes warmup on the bike. Sets of 3 week

Bench Press: 190, 220, 245.

Barbell Row: 175, 200, 225.

Claw Grip: 215 for 2 sets of 5.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

I was too drug out from a combine of work stuff (again) and having to have worked late to get to jujitsu last night. BUT! It the more than doubling of task load imposed on me last year got reduced yesterday afternoon by transitioning my physical security duties to (heh) three other people. This is a huge millstone of stress off my neck and I hope now to get re-charged properly for all other things physical like lifting and beating people over the head with finesse. I even got some photos from Master Bellman and the clinic last weekend. I wonder who that geezer in the black gi is. Man do I feel some relief. My job is not physically demanding in the sense of tote that barge and lift that bale but the time, creativity, and urgency surrounding things can be daunting. I include these work related comments as another ball in the juggling act of life, work, exercise, rest, and recovery to keep in the air.

Sooo I did a GXP today and going to try to get adjusted later if I can get an appointment.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

5 minutes warmup on the bike.

Dips: 3 sets of 8, bodyweight, +5 lbs., 7.5 lbs.

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 3 with 105. The second set was pretty loosey and goosey for reps 1 and 2.

My right medial delt was not happy nor was my lower back. Even after a trip to Dr. Laura of the magic hands yesterday. But I managed.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

Jujitsu today with a lot of interesting and different things going on. We lead off with an old standby that Jigoro Kano called Osoto Gari. Except as a counter to a roundhouse punch after an outblock. We then moved to a variant counter from the same attack called Ouchi Gari with a low sweep at the calf/shin level rather than the way judo teaches it. Funny, because it was one of the adaptations of judo I learned to make as a young cop to avoid getting my own ass kicked.

Then we worked on a bar arm takedown from a right straight punch. The defender steps left and deflects down and circular across the attacker's body line with the right hand in a palm up sweep from left to right. The right arm then returns up and across the upper sternum or neck palm down as the hips rotate back counter clockwise. Pretty much what football calls a clothesline because it takes the head back over the heels. If that doesn't do the job the left hand comes around to deliver a palm heel strike to the attacker's lower right side back just above the pelvis. Down like a stack of blocks.

We also worked a straight punch counter with the same kind of block as above transitioning to a wrist grip with the right hand and a neck or shoulder grip with the left hand pulling back. At the same time the defender's right hand takes the attacker's right hand out of it's linear configuration and back and downward in a circular counter. This levers the whole spine into misalignment and the stack of blocks we call the human body collapses again in an ungraceful heap.

Professor Helms, high ranking in our own art and even higher in Okinawa te had us working striking drills at the end. He had another black belt hold up focus pads and had us use an open handed "slap" strike. After a few smacks he stopped me and told me loosen up my shoulders. He said like him, I had worshiped the Iron Gods too much and needed to overcome that devotion. Lots of laughs from all including me. I love this guy. He's a retired LAPD Lt. (SIS) who has had to take some really bad people out permanently during his 30+ year career. He's about a year older than me and roughly the same size right down to the graying cop mustache. However he is a real bad ass but a great guy. He demonstrated the strike on my left shoulder and the shock wave traveled past my sternum to my right shoulder. Then he said that retaliation would be considered elder abuse. Until I reminded him I was over 60 and almost the same age he was. More laughs. Great day.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

5 minutes warm up on the bike. (5-3-1 Week)

Dips: Sets of 8, bodyweight +10 lbs., +12 lbs., +15 lbs. But wait you may say, didn't you just do these? Yes, I did and I think now I have finally spread out the lifts and assistance exercises correctly.

Deadlifts: 5-265, 3-300, 1-335.

[bob g]

Weight: 243.5
...
Professor Helms, high ranking in our own art and even higher in Okinawa te had us working striking drills at the end. He had another black belt hold up focus pads and had us use an open handed "slap" strike. After a few smacks he stopped me and told me loosen up my shoulders. He said like him, I had worshiped the Iron Gods too much and needed to overcome that devotion. Lots of laughs from all including me. I love this guy. He's a retired LAPD Lt. (SIS) who has had to take some really bad people out permanently during his 30+ year career. He's about a year older than me and roughly the same size right down to the graying cop mustache. However he is a real bad ass but a great guy. He demonstrated the strike on my left shoulder and the shock wave traveled past my sternum to my right shoulder. Then he said that retaliation would be considered elder abuse. Until I reminded him I was over 60 and almost the same age he was. More laughs. Great day.

It is so impressive to experience a master doing a difficult thing an with economy of movement and preparation. I don't know the martial arts game but you describe a man of great skill and humor. So cool.

[Mark E. Hurling]

John's approach is different than Master Bellman's. He has absorbed a lot of the complex movement patterns of mushin ryu and even commented yesterday it took him some years to get them figured out. But like many people who started in karate, he tends to very straightforward linear movements and strikes. They work just fine too. My first art was an Okinawan style called shorei goju. Very similar unsurprisingly to what he does. Between those predispositions and the big throw movements of judo from my college years, the "small technique" and subtlety of mushin took some getting used to. tertius has commented about a Chinese MA he studied under and his use of the term anatomical physics. Master Bellman uses the same term. So although nowhere near as skilled or experienced as Professor Helms, I understand where his economy of motion comes from even if I can't demonstrate it to within a galaxy of his ability.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

5 minutes warm up on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Standing Overhead Press: 5-110, 3-125, 1-140. Easy as pie.

Barbell Row: 5-165, 3-190, 1-210. See above.

Pinch Grip: 145 for 20 seconds. Building back up a little at a time.

I'm only doing the single so as to get more fully recovered on this go-round. It seems to be the right idea because I am less achey and more enthusiastic about the lifting again. Of course getting my task load cut by 60%+ at work has lowered my stress immensely. I now have one job instead of 2 1/2.

I did the sets back to back and wore my heart rate monitor to get a sense of the cardio value. It came in with an average HR of 130 bpm for 29 minutes in total, at 81% of MHR. Never sell strength training short as a cardio conditioning approach.

[Oldster]

Mark, I haven't had a chance to check in on your progress and how you did with your heavy benches. A new PR? Injuries? I'll have to check back later, I have a house full of Grandkids that are staying here for the next week!

[Mark E. Hurling]

No new PR's and happily no injuries. I got close to one in the DL but took too many warmup sets and blew it. The bench just stalled on me and I took a week off to recombobulate myself. But I'm back at it now with a 5-3-1 routine to catch up on some recovery. The singles were a heady brew and immensely motivating. I think I have to approach them for maybe 4-6 weeks tops though to get the best out of them. But that's what experience and learning is all about.

[Oldster]

I think I have to approach them for maybe 4-6 weeks tops though to get the best out of them. But that's what experience and learning is all about.
I'm a big fan of 'about' four weeks. My partner is a fan of six weeks and I've seen him have great luck with a series of six week cycles back to back to back with very good success.

As you say, experience and learning is what this entire journey is about.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I soldiered on for 7 weeks banging away at them. Watching the DL go up and up and up was addictive. Man did I need that week off. Probably I needed two weeks off, but I couldn't sit still that long.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 243.5

Jujitsu last night with me teaching an adult 2nd degree blue belt ude garami or a figure 4 arm bar on the mat. He asked before the kids class got started so I showed him the basic technique from the mount and then two variations from the side. I struggled with this technique my whole four years of competing in judo in college. Never could get it right and it was because of the written rule that thou shalt only bar the arm or elbow never the wrist or shoulder. Except it is a shoulder bar that will rip the rotators right out and then start disassembling the main deltoids in detail. Very nasty when done correctly by pushing the hand down to the mat while lifting up on the elbow at the same time.

The kids were great last night. We have a very talented girl who is a 4th degree (kids) blue belt. I asked Master Bellman if she was about ready to move up to the adult class and he said in about 6 months. She's only 9 I found out later and looks to be 12 or 13 given her size and her ability to move well. She was cleaning the clock of doofus boy she was matched up with. Good kid, a good listener, and gave this look of incredulous disdain when I asked her if she was 12. "No I'm 9!" She declared with a slight eyeroll. I guess she must get this a lot and might be self conscious about her height. Our daughter was tall for her age and is 5'10" now. I just didn't read the signs all that well this time.

The adult class had us doing a number of techniques I had never seen before but are variations of other basic techniques. The first was a wrist grab from behind. The defender drops their knees as they bend their elbow while rotating it outward like a bent arm lateral raise with a dumbell. Then they step to that same side and duck under the arm while bring it over their head and across. The attacker's grip fails at some point on the apogee or if not, the defender is set up for an elbow strike to the attacker's ribs, a right angle hold on the arm, or several other things that will do the attacker no good at all.

Another technique had the attacker grabbing the hand in what looks like an agressive handshake hold to pull the defender in to them. The defender steps back with the same side foot and rotates the hips in the same direction. At the same time the opposite hand inverts and comes around toward the wrist of the attacker's hand. Then the defender pulls their hand backward and down toward their belt line as their other hand connects at the attacker’s wrist in the same direction. The attacker’s hand pops off and they are taken way forward off balance in a low stagger or right to their knees. They are then set up for a wrist flex that takes them down flat on their back. Resistance only earns a broken wrist and torn ligaments and they will still end up on their back to escape further pain and damage. Interestingly, I noticed that the step back and hand movements are nearly identical to what Iaido types do when preparing to draw their sword. The attacker is so close though the wakazashi would have to be used because a katana would be too long and just get in the way. The attacker’s neck ends up positioned perfectly for a decapitating stroke. This kind of resonates with a post I made in response to tertius about Neal Stephenson’s sword gamery site. Much of what we in the West consider traditional good manners with respect to hand shakes, greetings, and distance actually stemmed from presenting one self in a non-threatening manner. So as to avoid giving offense or hinting at a possible draw of an edged weapon for a slash or thrust attack. This may be focused on all things Eastern in my current example, but Europeans carried long rapiers and shorter daggers in a crossdraw manner just like their samurai counterparts in Japan.

[tertius]

I soldiered on for 7 weeks banging away at them. Watching the DL go up and up and up was addictive. Man did I need that week off. Probably I needed two weeks off, but I couldn't sit still that long.

Yeah. I know that feeling.



Another technique had the attacker grabbing the hand in what looks like an agressive handshake hold to pull the defender in to them. The defender steps back with the same side foot and rotates the hips in the same direction. At the same time the opposite hand inverts and comes around toward the wrist of the attacker's hand. Then the defender pulls their hand backward and down toward their belt line as their other hand connects at the attacker’s wrist in the same direction. The attacker’s hand pops off and they are taken way forward off balance in a low stagger or right to their knees. They are then set up for a wrist flex that takes them down flat on their back. Resistance only earns a broken wrist and torn ligaments and they will still end up on their back to escape further pain and damage.

Defender steps back, while the aggressor is pulling forward? If I'm following I'm familiarish with a similar technique, though we didn't go to the floor very often (the change in direction that starts with torquing the attacker's wrist is enough to take them off their feet with ease, and/or do horrible things to their wrist, if done swiftly and sharply, so I'm with you there), but it starts from a forward movement by the aggressor, rather than a backwards movement, so I'm having some difficulty following the motion and force, here. Or is this a matter of catching the attacker right before they begin to pull back? Tricky timing there.


Interestingly, I noticed that the step back and hand movements are nearly identical to what Iaido types do when preparing to draw their sword. The attacker is so close though the wakazashi would have to be used because a katana would be too long and just get in the way. The attacker’s neck ends up positioned perfectly for a decapitating stroke. This kind of resonates with a post I made in response to tertius about Neal Stephenson’s sword gamery site. Much of what we in the West consider traditional good manners with respect to hand shakes, greetings, and distance actually stemmed from presenting one self in a non-threatening manner. So as to avoid giving offense or hinting at a possible draw of an edged weapon for a slash or thrust attack. This may be focused on all things Eastern in my current example, but Europeans carried long rapiers and shorter daggers in a crossdraw manner just like their samurai counterparts in Japan.

It's funny how much empty hand parallels weapons work, sometimes, but it's not really all that surprising. Implements are just extensions of the arm/hand, after all.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Yeah. I know that feeling.

The addictive achievement endorphins overcame good common sense. I sensed about halfway through week 5 I was going too deep into the well. But I wanted those 280 bench and 410 lifetime deadlift PRs so bad. I know my limits better now and can start higher and so climb in a less steep shorter cycle curve. If that made any damn sense at all outside my head and the graph I just conjured up in it behind my eyeballs. I'll rest when I'm dead. Plenty of time for it then. I'll just be blissfully plucking some harp strings. After purgatory of course. Or unless I end up in the lowest pit of Hell being gnawed on by the great shaitan a la the very frightening Dore engraving.


Defender steps back, while the aggressor is pulling forward? If I'm following I'm familiarish with a similar technique, though we didn't go to the floor very often (the change in direction that starts with torquing the attacker's wrist is enough to take them off their feet with ease, and/or do horrible things to their wrist, if done swiftly and sharply, so I'm with you there), but it starts from a forward movement by the aggressor, rather than a backwards movement, so I'm having some difficulty following the motion and force, here. Or is this a matter of catching the attacker right before they begin to pull back? Tricky timing there.

That was bad wording on my part. Good catch. The attacker takes that grip prepartory for the pull back into them. Usually with the other hand poised for a terminal velocity sucker punch that will crack a mandible or temporal bone. The timing is to catch thier linear move forward at the last few degrees of the advance with the hand movements and step back. Otherwise it becomes a tug of war as you no doubt envisioned. So you are correct. You have to extend their attack by going with it and stepping, hip turning, pulling with the gripped hand, and pushing with the other hand. Also correct about the effect on the wrist at the point of initiation. That alone can break, rip, and tear. The wrist flex follow up is for the finish as needed with a knee drop to the ribs, the side of the head, or a stomp to the groin or ankles. Or even then pulling the arm straight again and breaking the elbow in a bar across the knee. They'll think of you every time it rains or gets ready rain for the rest of their life.


It's funny how much empty hand parallels weapons work, sometimes, but it's not really all that surprising. Implements are just extensions of the arm/hand, after all.

One of the things I read about aikido, I think it was Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere was that many of the techniques Uyeshiba systematized from jujitsu involved the sword. Not only drawing the sword, but also gripping the sword, as well as the circular cutting movements with the sword. Another such example I think we use is one of the first techniques we teach the newbies for a front choke. It's called a wedge release. The attacker is gripping the neck with both hands and the defender brings both hands together like they were clapping but in a fist around fist overlapped on each other. The fingers are not interlaced though. They'll get broken otherwise. Then a hard two handed strike to the solar plexus and bring them up over the head and then down on the attacker's nose as the defender steps back. The attacker's hands fly off on the up stroke and the nose bleeds like a fountain after the down stroke. You can easily envision a sword in the classic samurai two handed stroke for the down stroke. I'm told a thrust with a katana was considered an unorthodox technique. But what do I know. I understand European edged and impact weapons better. Gimme a scramsaxe or godendag any day.

Hark! Do I hear women in braids carrying spears and sounding horns?

[tertius]

Thrusting is for spears, and some knives. Why use an elegantly curved blade (with the curve achieved only through a process that could destroy the blade) for something as linear and brutish as stabbing? Not to say that it wasn't done, since they've got that tip on there for a reason. But it certainly isn't a 'refined' Japanese sword technique.

[Mark E. Hurling]

We'll have to ask Gwynn. She'll know for sure.

EDIT: Heh. Beat me to it!

[Gwynn]

I'm told a thrust with a katana was considered an unorthodox technique.

Not at all - one of our (Toyama Ryu Battodo) most basic strikes is a thrust. Done either two handed or one-handed, and either to the throat or angled to go between the ribs.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I've got some friends who do kendo that have said the only vulnerable point for a thrust is the throat. Because when the shinai is held up overhead the armored throat plate rides up exposing the throat to this attack.

[Gwynn]

Thrusting is for spears, and some knives. Why use an elegantly curved blade (with the curve achieved only through a process that could destroy the blade) for something as linear and brutish as stabbing? Not to say that it wasn't done, since they've got that tip on there for a reason. But it certainly isn't a 'refined' Japanese sword technique.

While the thrust is a very commonly used and actually rather elegant technique when done at the right time, I will say that the fact that the blade is curved makes the motion different than when done with a non-curved blade. You just extend your arms, you don't "poke" the sword out by bending at the elbow.

[Gwynn]

I've got some friends who do kendo that have said the only vulnerable point for a thrust is the throat. Because when the shinai is held up overhead the armored throat plate rides up exposing the throat to this attack.

To understand the various techniques over the continuum of Japanese sword, you have to take history into account. After the Japanese civil war era ended, many sword styles changed over the following 200 years due to the samurai class becoming basically unemployed. There was a lot of dueling and assassination, and armor was not worn. The style I practice is what was taught at the Toyama military academy, and itself changed, from the Russo-Japanese war to World War II, after which many of the highest level teachers dissociated themselves from the school.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for this Gwynn. I have a whole new range of stuff to look into now.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Bench Press: 5-185, 3-210, 1-235.

Power Snatch: 105 for 3 sets of 3. This has grooved in fairly well now. I'm going to try with 110 next time.

[tertius]

To understand the various techniques over the continuum of Japanese sword, you have to take history into account. After the Japanese civil war era ended, many sword styles changed over the following 200 years due to the samurai class becoming basically unemployed. There was a lot of dueling and assassination, and armor was not worn. The style I practice is what was taught at the Toyama military academy, and itself changed, from the Russo-Japanese war to World War II, after which many of the highest level teachers dissociated themselves from the school.

Yeah, i was thinking more of "classical" technique, in particular that influenced by the type of armor worn by the Japanese, which I thought was pretty resistant to thrusting/penetrating attacks (I could be misremembering this though, certainly). Also, most of my exposure to Japanese sword technique has been through aikido and iaido, where I didn't remember many thrusting attacks (and these mostly at the neck). On reflection, both of these are rather philosophically oriented practices, so may or may not be good representatives.

How are the techniques from Tomoya oriented? More practical as opposed to philosophical?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

I worked out with the newly returned green belt and re-taught him choking since he has been away from the dojo a few years. He torqued my neck hard as Hell a few times and my cervical vertebrae feel like they got slightly rearranged. Head ache too, but that could be the after effects of having my carotid arteries cut off a few times, a fair back pressure built up, and then a big surge of arterial blood flooding back into the brain. I greyed out a few times, but it's just what you do when you want to be sure the person you're teaching has got the technique right finally.

The biggest thing I had to get him over was using his wrists instead of his elbows in hard twisting hammer curls that hurt like a bastard but have little effect on knocking you out. So my cue to him was "wrist not elbow" with my hands touching his elbows to reinforce the words. He finally got the tap out time down from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. I hadn't had a chance to practice these myself for a few months but as it turned out I got him in la-la land in about 2-3 seconds. I wait for the hand move up for the tap and release even before contact is made, but even with that his knees buckled a few times. We were both woozy by the end of the session. I also discovered that a palm up palm down cross-handed choke kata juji jime was as effective as it was for me because of the mixed alternating grip. Just like in the deadlift. The hands and wrists torque in opposite direction and seal off the carotids in short order.

We also did the rice bale throw. Scary as Hell if the guy throwing doesn't do it or get it right. So I spent a few extra minutes describing and pantomiming the throwing part of it so as not to get my neck broken. The attacker charges in a low tackle and the defender bulldogs them around the neck while rolling backward on the same line of attack and driving one or both knees into the midsection to boost the attacker over the top. Then the defender tightens up on the neck while rolling over onto their stomach. The green belt for some reason had a problem keeping his back roll from angling off to the side. Very bad for my neck. But some vitamin I should have me a little better.

I forgot something very enlightening. One of the counters to a choke involved an arm bar that wraps around the defender's torso or hips. Very bad on the elbow. Victor, a 3rd Dan and maybe the only one at the dojo stronger than me showed us how it was refined and improved. He reached across and started working pressure points on my head with his thumb. Stretched me out and extended the barred arm even worse until the elbow screams. Not to mention the pressure point being worked. He nailed me behind the mastoid, on the temple, and a spot on the lower jaw. All you want to do is move your head and upper body away from the hurt and that just makes the bar worse. It looks like nothing as the pressure points are being applied too. Except for the yelling and gasping from me.

[Gwynn]

How are the techniques from Tomoya oriented? More practical as opposed to philosophical?

The kata we practice as Toyama Ryu comes from the sword curriculum of that school, and my understanding of it is that it was an amalgamation of various family ryu, which was done in order to prevent one style from being seen as dominant, thus encouraging harmony among the officer class. I think the school dates back to the end of the 19th century. The curriculum was modified several times as a result of it being used in the various military engagements Japan engaged in from that time up to World War II. One example is that the early curriculum often used straight cuts. These were modified to angled cuts, because when you do a straight cut on uneven ground you run the risk of burying your sword in the ground. Also, angled cuts are much easier to do running. So I would call the techniques done out of this school pretty practical - but practical in terms of the demands of the time.

While the style at my school is called Toyama Ryu, we actually are lucky enough to also practice kata that pre-dates Toyama Ryu by a few centuries; notably, much of our two person training comes from the Yagyu Shinkage Ryu. These techniques do come from an armor-wearing era, although it's hard to know how much they've changed since the 1500s - at which time they were also practical, and used on the battlefield. However, after the civil war era ended in 1600, the techniques probably started to change. After the Meiji restoration, the samurai class effectively ended, and again the techniques must have changed.

I don't know enough about iaido to comment on its history or its practice, although my understanding is that it teaches you to cut right from the draw, which to me suggests dueling, as opposed to battlefield technique, as its practical application. As far as aikido is concerned, the style of aikido I practice doesn't have a sword component. My aikido grand-teacher (Toshishiro Obata Sensei) was uchi-deshi at the Yoshinkan dojo under Shioda sensei, but his main art is sword, and he did not teach a sword curriculum as part of his aikido curriculum as he already had a separate sword art. So I can't really comment on how other aikido schools view their sword curriculum.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Deload: good thing too)

Dips: -70 on gravitron for 3 sets of 8

Hammer Curls: sets of 8 45-55-65. Taking a page from Oldsters book on these, although I am not fond of dumbbells. So since Gold's has one of those high-tech pronating wrist circle curl bars that you can rotate your wrists in any which direction I used that.

Squats: Sets of 5 110-135-165.

I did these three as a giant set since they weren't taxing. The whole routine took 23 minutes and perked my average HR at 128 bpm for 80% of MHR. I decided to experiment with a little of this to see how much cardio I'd get from a deload session. Pretty much the same as the others as it seems. I think I'm going to like these deloads a lot. God knows after yesterday I couldn't have done well if this were not a deload.

I am hurting a multitude of places from my mastoid and cervical vertebrae, to my L5. Also on the temple where Victor worked me over yesterday in refining that torso arm bar. I am paying the price for being a good uke with the chokes and the rice bale throw gone bad. My head hurts with a headache that won't let up even with liberal (did I actually say that?) use of Vitamin I.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

To understand the various techniques over the continuum of Japanese sword, you have to take history into account. After the Japanese civil war era ended, many sword styles changed over the following 200 years due to the samurai class becoming basically unemployed. There was a lot of dueling and assassination, and armor was not worn. The style I practice is what was taught at the Toyama military academy, and itself changed, from the Russo-Japanese war to World War II, after which many of the highest level teachers dissociated themselves from the school.

Toyama-ryu is what I learned first; Toshishiro Obata sensei is perhaps the best-known exponent in the West. Later, I learned Eishin-ryu, which is an arguably more "classical" style and incorporates a lot of techniques from seiza and from the seated-in-armor position (tatehiza), both of which can be uncomfortable or awkward for people unused to these postures. Toyama-ryu is perhaps a more "Westerner-friendly" style, emphasizing the draw from a standing combat position. I enjoyed them both. I'm terribly out of practice. And I never did get very far in kendo. Life is too short to do all the good shit, I swear.

[Gwynn]

Toyama-ryu is what I learned first; Toshishiro Obata sensei is perhaps the best-known exponent in the West. Later, I learned Eishin-ryu, which is an arguably more "classical" style and incorporates a lot of techniques from seiza and from the seated-in-armor position (tatehiza), both of which can be uncomfortable or awkward for people unused to these postures. Toyama-ryu is perhaps a more "Westerner-friendly" style, emphasizing the draw from a standing combat position. I enjoyed them both. I'm terribly out of practice. And I never did get very far in kendo. Life is too short to do all the good shit, I swear.

Another sword geek! It's true that life is too short. If I had more time [were independently wealthy and didn't have to work] I'd also study naginata; there's a very good school near me.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Deload)

Standing Overhaed Press: Sets of 5 55-70-90.

Barbell Row: Sets of 5 90-110-135.

Claw Grip: 2 Sets of 5 220.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Lots O' stuff happening at work this week. In and out of the gym fast with a GXP.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Real change of pace for me today. I had to get into work at 0500 and "do stuff" so no morning workout for me.

So I left at 1:00 and lifted then. Running on fumes too because I use my morning lifting routine to wake up and I slept like crap last night. Thank God for deload week.

Bench Press: Sets of 5, 95-125-145.

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 3 with 110. A little challenging.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

Interesting drive to the dojo this morning. I passed the X Games set up in downtown LA and a platoon of National Guard with ropes and gear on a training exercise on Stony Point rock formations off Topanga Canyon Road.

I worked on re-teaching the green belt chokes. I'm in way better shape than this time last week but he still needs some work on technique without rearranging my neck bones. Done right, there's no discomfort at all. Just tunnel vision and then sleep. The practice I had the last two weeks had him tapping as his knees buckle in 1-2 seconds and I'm releasing as I see his hand come up for the tap out.

We lead off with the rice bale throw so we would both be fresh and not woozy from chokes. I walked him through it again emphasizing keeping himself on the line of attack and continuing the move along the same line. The teen blue belts were amazed and slightly scared by the throw. They asked about the noises I was making as I got choked. Just me trying to get air in my lungs and gargling as my carotids close up and my trachea shuts off.

One of the other techniques had one of the black belts showing how to deflect a straight punch up and then dropping under the exposed side and driving the point of the shoulder into the 5th rib. It hurts and the lungs empty explosively as you drop slightly. Right into a cross-neck choke that comes in under the raised arm. Then nighty-night time.

We finished up with some instruction on combining low kicks with blocks, deflections, and joint locks or counterstrikes. Even some low hooking sweeps as combinations for the same. Boy was that playing my song. Those were some of the adaptations I had to make with the judo and earlier shorei goju I had to make when I had to fight for reals.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Dips: 15 lbs. 8 reps, 17 lbs. 8 reps, 20 lbs. 6 reps.

Hammer Curls: Sets of 8, 65-75-85.

Deadlifts: Sets of 5, 235-275-315.

Finished with a GXP.

I must confess I don't like sets of 5 as much as sets of 3. But you have to eat your peas and carrots sometimes. For that matter, I'm not crazy about sets of 8 either but they do have value I suppose. I wore my HR monitor again to gauge the cardio impact with sets of 5's. I did the three exercises as a giant set with just enough time between them to set the next weight and put on my knee wraps and belt at the two last sets in the DL. At that the lifting portion of this session lasted 42 minutes with a smokin' average HR of 146 for 92% of MHR! Aorta blowed up my heart. My traps are a little out of sorts now and although my right glute and hip flexor somehow expressed some unhappiness in the middle of jujitsu yesterday for reasons unknown, a little Vitamin I a la Sully's tip from his workouts has me feeling way better than last Sunday.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Sawing a log peacefully until my pager woke my ass up at O-dark 30 from work related things. So I figgered "Hell I'm already awake (sort of) might as well go lift." Even though tomorrow was planned so I could sleep in both days.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 5, 95-115-130.

Barbell Row: Sets of 5, 135-150-170.

Pinch Grip: 145 for 12 seconds.

Man are my triceps and lats sore! I have no idea why because those weights aren't even close to taxing for me. Also I discovered a HUGE bruise on the outside of my right forearm. Must have been from Saturday's jujitsu session although I have no idea how or when it could have happened. It doesn't hurt, but it's an ugly nasty color.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

Went to Jujitsu last night to a session I don't usually attend because of need to recover from earlier drubbings and the press of work. The kids class was interrupted for me by a page from work that I had to straighten out by phone. But back into the breach with a couple of boys who seemed to think they were in speech class. They couldn't shut up and just do the techniques. But I finally go them settled and focused in on what they were there for.

The adult class was larger than I had seen there in some time. Mostly comprised of teen girls. A couple were shy and reserved and one was outright passive-aggressive in getting her even to follow along in the warmups. We worked on some kneeling technique since most of the class were newbies and not equal to a fall from a standing position. There was a wrist flex takedown from a push or attempted grab that took a fair amount of rough carpentry to hammer into place. Then there was a technique that involved a cross hand transition from a push that was blocked with an inverted hand. It was a preparation for a torture hold to the wrist that the newbies were to stop just short of but the more experienced could follow through on. We finished out with the other black belts putting focus mitts on and teaching some of the blue and purple belts how to follow through on an open palm "slap" strike. I've been talking about this elsewhere in other threads lately and you can tell the difference in terminal kinetic energy being delivered immediately once they get the hand and palm orientation right along with shoulder roll. The sound of the strike changes from a high pitched SMACK on the surface of the focus mitt to a meaty THUD!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Bench Press: 160-5, 180-5, 210-8. I finally remembered to do as many reps as possible this time on the last set.

Power Snatch: 110 for 3 sets of 3. All over the map with these this morning. Ugly as Hell for several reps.

[Oldster]

Man are my triceps and lats sore! I have no idea why because those weights aren't even close to taxing for me.
Most likely because of this:

Dips: 15 lbs. 8 reps, 17 lbs. 8 reps, 20 lbs. 6 reps.

When I haven't performed dips for quite some time, both my triceps and lats will become extremely sore. Even if I am doing lots of pressing movements leading up to adding or switching to dips.

I am a big believer in always doing some sort of back movement on every pressing day, just one of my little quirks. On Thursdays I only closegrip and dip so you might think I am not getting any back work in. Not so IMO, the dip is a monsterous trap and upper back movement along with chest and triceps.

I'll never forget a little fellow I knew back in the '80's. He was only about 5'5" and about 200lbs all of which was from his massive upper body. Super thick chest, triceps, traps and lats. Turns out he did only one single thing. Dips. He dipped high reps, super heavy low reps and weighted medium reps and darned near every day of the week. The thing that always stood out to me what the thickness of his upper back. All from dipping.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

I got hit with my cardio metrics OCD this morning and did a fit test. My resting heart rate was lower than usual and it took a long time to get it high enough to test. I tested out at 38 VO2 Max. Still excellent after all these years for the geezer again.

Our daughter has had some injury and health maladies that kept her from lifting for a while but didn't lose any strength when I coached her lifting session this afternoon.

[Oldster]

I tested out at 38 VO2 Max.
What does this mean?

[Mark E. Hurling]

It's a measure of the ability to transport and use oxygen when you exercise. The higher the number, the more oxygen you can use and so keep the cardiovascular system including the heart and lungs in better shape once you know where you are. It's a benchmark to look at.

Here's some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Jujitsu today had me teaching a different green belt who had returned after some absence of over a year. He was good to work with because he's one of the few people my own size and about the same level of strength. We started at white belt and got to blue belt 2nd degree going through all the techniques to reintroduce them to him. I hadn't done some myself for quite a while either so it was a good review for me too. Victor, one of the 3rd degree black belts came over to observe and supervise. He took over at a few points to illustrate some of the 26 principles we use to the green belt. Also to see if I could spot them before he said what they were to test me. I didn't realize this until I blurted some out and then he looked over at me and grinned. I picked up the test then. Victor went on to tell us to avoid using strength rather than technique. Then he called me a gorilla who needed to keep that in mind. Amusing rather than annoying. Good session with a standing bow at the end for us geezers and our creaky knees. I ran through the geezer taxonomy as we walked off the mat and the teens were particularly amused by geezosaurs and geezoliths.

I decided to lift this afternoon even though 2 1/2 hours of jujitsu had sapped me a little because I'd be up late tonight and I wanted to sleep in tomorrow.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (3's week)

Squats: 3 reps-195, 3 reps-225, 5 reps-255.

Dips: 3 sets of 8 with 15 lbs.

Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 8 85-95-105.

I might have hauled out 1 or 2 more reps on the squat but my lower back was more than a little fatigued from getting thrown and bounced earlier so declared victory with my somewhat more modest effort.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

Things came up this morning so I lifted after work again on the way home.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (3's week.)

Standing Overhead Press: 3 reps-105, 3 reps-120, 6 reps-135.

Barbell Row: 3 reps-155, 3 reps-180, 8 reps-200.

Claw Grip: 225 for 2 sets of 5.

Total workout time of 23 minutes with an average HR of 118 working out to 74% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

In and out for a GXP this morning. I had more than usual difficulty in getting my HR up around 80-85%, so maybe the cardio is having the desired effect.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (3's week)

Bench Press: 3 reps-175, 3 reps-200, 5 reps-225.

Power Snatch: 110 for 3 sets of 3.

24 minutes of lifting with an average HR of 122 bpm for 76% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Into the gym for a GXP and out again to work. With a hi-ho, hi-ho and those other little guys trailing their picks behind them.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Jujitsu today had us working on a number of things leading off with the black belts holding up focus pads to help us get the open hand slap technique dialed in. As is usually the case I got coached on loosening up my shoulders to strike through the pad and about 6 inches past the surface.

We then went through a series of fast techniques that emphasized backhanded strikes with and open hand with the metacarpals as the impact surface delivering the hurt. Then we went into a few torso strikes with a bent wrist backhand strike to the lower ribs and liver. Called a crane strike because the hand and wrist look like a crane's head.

Then we did a phase 1 drill where we get attacked with grabs, chokes, and other attacks for 5 minutes. I haven't had the chance to do these for some time and it was good to see that my reactions and instincts were still good. Gary, one of the black belts supervising us had to tell me to slow down and allow the attacker to get a good attack established. I have a tendency start moving to escape or neutralize the incoming technique as soon as I see the move or feel the hand on me. Good in one aspect, but the point is to learn the technique assuming your attention has been spoofed elsewhere and you have to start from ground zero.

During the course of these drills I learned something entirely new. I had a high arm bar put on me by one of the other black belts that cranked my elbow pretty effectively. Then he stepped out and rotated his hips clockwise and extended my arm out over my feet. This shifted the joint lock to my shoulder and what was more I couldn't get air into my lungs. Very strange and something I asked about but for reasons I don't know I didn't get a complete explanation of the breathing thing. Probably some black belt principle I'll have to wait to know more about.

It was hotter than Hell in the San Fernando Valley this morning. Happily I live closer to the ocean where it's 20 degrees cooler.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Deadlift: 275 for 5, 315 for 3, 345 for 3.

Dips: 3 sets of 8 with 15 lbs.

Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 8 with 105.

The entire workout lasted 45 minutes with an average HR of 150 bpm at 94% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Standing Overhead Press: 115-5 reps, 130-3 reps, 145, 4 reps.

Barbell Row: 170-5 reps, 190-3 reps, 210-6 reps.

Pinch Grip: 145 for 17 seconds.

Workout lasted 32 minutes with an average HR of 125 bpm for 78% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

Kids class in jujitsu last night had some newbies that were terribly uncoordinated. Watching them falling was frankly frightening and I wondered if a couple of them would survive. I imagined I'd be teaching them to fall better, but instead I was tasked with supervising a blue belt and purple belt teaching the newbies the basics. Kind of interesting getting to run a mini-class. One of the newbies has a karate background. I could tell during some of the opening warmups and drills that he had some striking skills and a better stance than a few of the senior orange belts. So I asked him about it. Good kid too.

The adult class spent the first half on some review and discussion of striking techniques. Like not to use a fist to hit the head so you won't break a knuckle on something. Lots of demonstration of ridge hand strikes, knife had strikes, and hammer fist strikes, and palm heel strikes to the head and neck. Fist strikes were targeted at the points below the neck for the most part. I've seen some really bad hand damage in fights a few times when the striker's fingers connected with some teeth and got cut and developed a nasty infection. Not in my own case happily. I then worked one on one teaching purple belt first degree techniques. I hadn't done some of these in a long time and I needed a reminder on a couple from the black belts. They included some old stand-bys from judo like deashi barai and hiza guruma. We then worked on some joint control techniques. The purple belt won't be back for some weeks since Ramadan starts today. Too hard to keep up a daylight fast and do jujitsu. Too bad but I look forward to seeing back later. One of the whithe belts got promoted to blue belt at the end.

I woke up this morning creaking in the lower back. Nothing new there after getting bounced around the night before. But I went in to Gold's and did a GXP. The back loosened up and I feel a good deal better now.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

I took the day off from work and slept in to catch up on some sleep and rest. I woke up loggy and creaking. My vertebrae felt like a wobbly stack of old chipped kids blocks that had been played with hard for about three generations. I really considered blowing the iron off but sucked it up and went in anyway.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Bench Press: 185 for 5 reps, 210 for 3 reps, 235 for 4 reps. I was really pleased with this last set given my malaise.

Squat: 210 for 5 reps, 240 for 3 reps, 265 for 1 rep. The back was just too wobbly to try for more with any confidence.

Power Snatch: 110 for 2 sets of 3. I didn't have enough left for my usual 3rd set.

[Oldster]

235x4! Very nice, old man! Nice job holding back on the squats'n'snatches. It would have done you little good in pushing when creaky.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for that. Some victories are small, but victories nonetheless.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

Fatigue sat on me like an anvil. Also the creaky back wasn't ready to let up on me, so I decided to let the blocks re-settle into some semblance of proper order and not get rearranged in the dojo this morning. Pissed off guilt that only a Protestant who converted to Catholicism can generate. Martin Luther AND the Pope wagging their fingers at me. Never mind Mr. Miyagi pointing his chopsticks at me. So in penance when enough cobwebs cleared and I loosened up I tried a running GXP which the knee did not like one little bit. So I finished it out on the cross country elliptical.

Getting old really sucks and I have been feeling it in spades this week. BUT tomorrow starts a deload week on the 5-3-1 routine so maybe that is just what I need.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Martin Luther, the Pope and Mr. Miyagi. An Unholy Trinity.

[Oldster]

martin luther, the pope and mr. Miyagi. An unholy trinity.
lol!

[tertius]

Martin Luther, the Pope and Mr. Miyagi. An Unholy Trinity.

I like to think of MEH's Pope as like an Ur-Pope, with a hat like eight feet tall.
He battles Luther (who is armed with a hammer and 95 Theses, which he attempts to nail to the Ur-Pope's Hat) for the chance to make Mark feel guilty.
And while they fight, Mr. Miyagi makes Mark polish his car.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I have tears coming out my eyes laughing at this stuff. Dearly Beloved chuckles with her own hearty guffaw after asking me what I'm going on about. You all inspire me to recall Jimmy Buffet's immortal lyric, "Vampires, mummies, and the Holy Ghost."

Weight: 247

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Deload week, he sighed gratefully)

Dips: -40 for 3 sets of 8.

Hammer Curls: 60 for 3 sets of 8.

I did some foam rolling, hamstring stretches, and towel dislocates to unkink. I've purposely been not doing these to experiment with how necessary they were. Maybe this will keep me on a better keel by returning to them. Entire session took just under 20 minutes with an average HR of 107 for 67% of MHR.

I'm also experimenting with a greater frequency of squats and deadlifts than once every other week alternating them. I re-read Wendler and lo and behold, his 3 day a week program showed a 4-5 interval for squats and deads with OHP's and bench pressing in between. i.e. 4 big lifts spread over 3 sessions a week. So I'll see if this gives me enough recovery time between the biggest of the big lifts on my lower back. I do know that doing both squats and deadlifts the same week followed by more of the same did not do me well at all. More learning ahead.

[Oldster]

I re-read Wendler and lo and behold, his 3 day a week program showed a 4-5 interval for squats and deads with OHP's and bench pressing in between. i.e. 4 big lifts spread over 3 sessions a week. So I'll see if this gives me enough recovery time between the biggest of the big lifts on my lower back. I do know that doing both squats and deadlifts the same week followed by more of the same did not do me well at all. More learning ahead.
I've never been able to hand a lot of squat/dead volume per week. Probably one of the reasons I've been battling a few pain demons of my own of late. For 20 years I squatted once per week, one single top set, one single top rep. It built great strength with not a single injury, ever. But the drawback was my deadlift which was terribly neglected. So I guess we need to figure out a balance or accept a slight weakness if we aren't a competitor.

[tertius]

I've never been able to hand a lot of squat/dead volume per week. Probably one of the reasons I've been battling a few pain demons of my own of late. For 20 years I squatted once per week, one single top set, one single top rep. It built great strength with not a single injury, ever. But the drawback was my deadlift which was terribly neglected. So I guess we need to figure out a balance or accept a slight weakness if we aren't a competitor.

I do think those of us who aren't competing (or who don't have a lifestyle that allows them to devote a lot of time to training and recovery) are probably well served to spend a bit more focus on the lifts that matter to us personally. For me that's deadlifting first, any and all squats second, and I'd rather train my deadlift harder, and let my squats be neglected a little bit.

[Oldster]

I do think those of us who aren't competing (or who don't have a lifestyle that allows them to devote a lot of time to training and recovery) are probably well served to spend a bit more focus on the lifts that matter to us personally.
Yep, yer preachin' to the choir, Reverend!

Work what you like and work what you love super hard.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You both make some good points, and I am now wondering why I seem to feel compelled to heavy up more often.

[tertius]

You both make some good points, and I am now wondering why I seem to feel compelled to heavy up more often.

Because not doing so feels like treading water, probably.

[Oldster]

Because not doing so feels like treading water, probably.

Wow. How simple an explanation was that?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Stuart McRobert's site, Hardgainer had a term for this failing called CRC. No it wasn't a cyclic redundancy check, but chronic routine changing. Not all change is good. I do have some thoughts about competing but reality is what it is.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks for the reality check gennlemen. I don't why I suddenly felt compelled to increase the frequency here, but thinking through the recovery and damn good track record I have had with my back with alternating squats and deads every other week I realize that the practice has stood me in good stead. So I'm standing pat. Especially just now with what feels like fatigue issues. But we'll see if a deload week sets me up again.

[Oldster]

Especially just now with what feels like fatigue issues. But we'll see if a deload week sets me up again.
It took me years to succumb, but when I now feel fatigue I either take an easy week or I cut my overall work back for a short time though keeping it fairly heavy.

Simpliest way is to deload.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

Deload

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 5, 55-70-90.

Barbell Row: Sets of 5, 95-115-135.

Claw Curl: 2 sets of 5, 220.

In and out fast since I overslept this morning. The weights were what I usually use for warmups so I didn't hit the bike and was out in just under 15 minutes having done all my sets back to back with no rest.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

Deload

Bench Press: Sets of 5, 100-125-150.

Power Snatch; 3 sets of 3, 75.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

I have gained permission from our daughter to report her progress. Nothing super spectacular, but she's pleased with her progress and so am I. Squat: 65, Bench Press: 50, Overhead Press: 50, Deadlift: 100.

Jujitsu today started off with a lot of striking drills, more hands than feet but that's what we do. The BOB took a lot of impacts, but since there was only me and two teen blue belts from the lower ranks he survived handily.

We were shown a variation of a key neck from a front choke that was new to me and to the other black belts. The attacker chokes you at arm's length and you reach up with the left hand behind their neck and then bring the right forearm up to the left side of their jaw. Then rotate your left hand and right forearm clockwise while stepping back with your right foot. Corkscrews them right down or gets their neck broken. That's if you do it in a relatively slow and controlled manner. Fast is a break.

Then I got paged from work and had to make bunch of calls to sort out some mysterious intrusion alarms. This took me off the mat for half an hour. They turned out to be some operator error by area occupants and poor coordination with the guard force. One gigantic piss-off.

One the black belts taught me an interesting hammer fist strike as the opening move to escape a cross-wrist grab. They grab your right wrist and you drop a hammer fist on their L5 (brachioradialus). The nuance to the strike is a quick clockwise rotation as the strike contacts the forearm. It lights up the whole arm from fingertips to the where the delt joins the traps. The rotation moves the muscle away from the nerve (or meridian line) and makes for a far more powerful impact. To say it's easy to then bend their elbow is something of an understatement. So you rotate their arm up into a standing figure 4 (ude garami) arm lock that you can also step through with and use as a takedown.

[yorick]

Mark, that's awesome that your daughter is lifting. I hope she keeps it up.

My wife lifted with me for awhile, then quit. I think she's going to get back into it soon.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I hope so too. I screwed up big time when she was in middle and high school on pushing her to exercise. It didn't go well. At 22 she decided she wanted to do this on her own and asked me to coach her a little after I finished the seminar with Rip in February. Now she asks me, "Dad, lift tonight?" She lifts with an old exercise set in our garage.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Dips: 3 sets of 8 with 17 lbs. EZ-PZ.

Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 8 with 110 lbs. Also EZ-PZ.

Deadlifts: Sets of 5, 235-275. Top set with 6 reps 315. I had at least 1-2 reps left but I was still feeling yesterday's drubbing a little in my lower back so I only paid a little down on the lay away plan this installment. It was a combination of caution over the back, oxygen debt, and just simply I don't many reps over 5 these days. 6-8 reps were always my preferred range in past years when I was more into Silly Bullshit.

While I was between sets one of the morning regulars asked me for a spot while he was doing seated overhead dumbbell presses. An engineer from another aerospace company and we see each other around and about when circumstances allow us to unchain from our offices. He was using 60 lb. DB's so it was no mean feat of 6 reps. What I noticed was that as he got into the higher reps his wrists cocking outward and the DB's started moving apart from about halfway up. So I mentioned to him he was creating a moment arm with that and to try to keep his wrists cocked inward to keep the DB's closer together. I also suggested that he move his hands outward on the DB grips to cause the DB's to naturally cause his wrists to cock inward from the off center inward slant of that grip. Some mutual joshing ensued about what a sorry-ass state of affairs it was when a security guy has to straighten out an engineer on moment arms and leverage. I would never have noticed this absent having read SS:3 along with the heavy dose instruction from Rip and Co. this past February. It's kind of like some of the technique nuances, strength curves, and leverages I began to notice in the last few years in jujitsu while teaching and being taught on the mat. Enough wax on/wax off with Rip and Mr. Miyagi can prove immensely beneficial. He then asked my opinion about the press behind the neck. I said I'd quit doing them over 10 years ago and many of my shoulder problems got better. Since I'm one of the geezers there in the mornings with at least a decade or so on him he's started to consult with me about things.

The total workout lasted 45 minutes with an average HR of 138 for 86% of MHR. Me dilithium crystals was all drained, Cap'n.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 5, 95-115. Set of 8, 130.

Barbell Row: Sets of 5, 145-165. Set of 8, 190.

Pinch Grip: 145 for 10 seconds.

Total workout time was 29 minutes including warmup with an average HR of 126 bpm, hence 79% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

Jujitsu last night with the kids had Master Bellman using a new approach to organizing the teaching method. We'd show them a couple of techniques and then have them practice it a few times. Then we'd line them up and have them step up one at a time to an assisting adult blue belt to practice the escapes alternating each time they stepped up. Then we'd show them some more techniques, practice, and line up again using more of the total techniques as we incremented them in increasing numbers. The biggest challenge was keeping the white belts I was in charge of focused and not watching the other orange and blue belts do their stuff. It concluded with having our star pupil, a really talented girl senior blue belt lead the white belts in blocking and punching frills. A very composed girl but shy, and I had to remind her to talk and count louder so everyone could hear her.

The adult class had me teaching green belt 1st degree gi-assisted chokes. More like a demo and then letting the green belt choke. Unlike the strangles which don't hurt much if at all when done correctly, there's no way to not evoke some real discomfort and gargling sounds when you're letting someone new to them get the hang of doing them correctly. I could feel all the other lower ranks watching and wincing as I was emitting some real whale calls while Mike was cutting off all the air to my lungs and crushing my trachea. One of them was called a 2 knuckle choke where the index or middle finger knuckles are extended while gripping the collar. The you push the knuckles inward to seal the trachea. Painful. A couple of them involved some assisted ground and rollover entries that have uke's back bent like a bow with the hips pinned and the neck pushing forward just making the choke come on even faster. A really interesting one is kind of a throwback to old Japan where the defender takes off their obi and uses it to block a straight punch and then loops the obi over the attacker's neck like a garotte. There's a unique way of keeping the belt slight loose and then snapping it rigid as the block moves in that adds some force to the block that is entirely unexpected. It knocks the linear punch with a popping kind of impact off line and out of the way.

At the end of class as we prepared to bow out the elderly japanese lady I had been teaching got promoted from white belt to blue belt. Three of the purple belts got promoted to 2nd degree purple. My back is feeling the bending it got last night just now.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Holy crap! 60,000+ views? Incredible.

My morning was disrupted by a page from work before I even got out of bed and I had to hustle in to keep the aerospace industry safe for democracy. Truth, justice, and the American way triumphed but I had to put off my GXP until my homeward commute. But done and done. I walked in the front door and our daughter greeted me with "Lifting tonight dad?" Well of course.

She dug deep in her squats and came up from the depths like she had hydraulics powering her. Very smooth. The overhead presses were hard but she hung in and got 3 sets of 4 reps instead of the full 5. But she didn't give up. Great job. I told her she was learning her abilities and limits with efforts like this and best of all she was pushing herself without some verbal nudging from me. Well maybe a little. But nothing like screaming out GIVE ME 5!

[Oldster]

Holy crap! 60,000+ views? Incredible.
Mr Popular!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Seems to fly in the face of my caustic comments and personality elsewhere. Then again it might be that it's at least in part a death watch waiting for a massive fail or injury.

[Oldster]

Then again it might be that it's at least in part a death watch waiting for a massive fail or injury.
Naw, its probably the simpliest thing. Old guys read it because of age. As Mr Hong Kong Fooey you have the kung fu doods following you. And I wouldn't be surprised if you have some grip guys following. And of course, the young morons who actually hope and cheer for injury or failure.

You are the all around draw!

[quinn]

Old guys read it because of age.

Bingo. I learn more from the geezer logs than anything else.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You are the all around draw!

God help us all then. Thanks guys.

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5's week)

Bench Press: 5 reps, 165-190. 7 reps, 215.

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 3 with 110. This seems to be coming together a little better when I remember to rotate my elbows out to take out the deeply ingrained tendency to pull with the arms from hauling hay bales as a young 'un. Also I have been paying more attention to the jump and pushing forward as the bar hits the upper quads. It gives the whole thing a better boost to the top.

Some stretching to ease my lower back.

I've started including some references to the disruption my new assignment at work plays on my life because as I've said before in this log (just not recently) that life, lifting, work, sleep, recovery, and the MA I do is an increasingly tricky balancing act. The last few months have been heavy on me from work and I think just getting older. I'll be 62 in September and I can hear Father Time's footsteps shuffling up behind me better and better these days. I get paged at home, when I'm sleeping, at work, and elsewhere. Like yesterday. It screws my sleep to no end. But in any event, I slept poorly last night because of mysterious aches in my left hand at the base of my thumb (thenar eminence) and my right front delt. No idea what brought this on. But they woke me intermittently all night. I almost didn't go in to lift because I wasn't sure I could bench with left hand especially. But I adjusted the bar slightly on my hand and while it felt a little odd it made the benchingo doable, but not exactly happy making. The power snatch, beng a pull it had no affect on at all. So here I sit bleary eyed at work wondering if I can sneak out early to catch up on my sleep.

[hamburgerfan]

Seems to fly in the face of my caustic comments and personality elsewhere. Then again it might be that it's at least in part a death watch waiting for a massive fail or injury.
Just like nascar.

[tertius]

Sleep is as important as food. Do sleep.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Food is much easier than sleep these days. The only thing I have going in that department is that unlike a lot of guys my age who grouse about having to get up one or more times a night to take a leak, so far I don't have that problem. (knocking wood as he harks back to his Druidical forebears momentarily)

My hands and shoulder keep going dead on me and the tingling wakes me up. I lay there grumpy and wondering what Hell I can do to not have this keep happening. I have three pillows under my head to try to keep a neutral head, neck and upper spine and it doesn't seem to be working lately. Then there is the ever present brain gallop that has things running through my head like that damn boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[tertius]

Get a thorough and vicious massage?

Personally I always felt that sleeping on the floor in my office on just a sleeping bag did good things for my back.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245

Another crappy night's sleep with the hand throbbing from time to time. But I went in to jujitsu anyway. We have a new purple belt who moved to Irvine from AZ where one of Master Bellman's black belts, Patrick teaches. Also a brown belt and a green belt showed up and we all three got grouped together. This was a welcome change from working with teens half my size and strength because both of these guys are not exactly young or small.

It's becoming an increasing source of bemused comment that I am not easy to move even when I'm not actually resisting. "You're going to have to give Mark's shoulder a harder smack than that to move him off balance, OK?" The first one didn't even slightly shift me let alone buckle my knees slightly like it was supposed to. So I told him to strike lower and right where the delt joins the pec instead of down on my trap and I was knocked back a quarter step when he also added some real mustard to the strike.

We worked on some O-uchi gari and Ko-uchi gari takedowns from a straight in approach. I've known these techniques for nearly 40 years but I used them at the end of a 4 throw combination. So I had to adapt to someone being more stable than staggered from two preceding throw attempts. This was where the strike to the shoulder came into play as part of the off balancing.

During the demonstration of one of the techniques Master Bellman commented that no matter whether a strike is a linear straight punch or a circular roundhouse strike once it is stopped or blocked and is locked up, any resistance becomes linear. This hit me some resonance so during working on the technique itself I had a sidebar with one of the other black belts to explore what that actually meant. So we used a roundhouse strike to work through it. Sure enough, once the roundhouse had been stopped my arm locked up tending to move to a 90 degree angle where the strength curve is greatest. This happened not only when the line of force extended out through the fist but also if the line of force extended outward from the upper arm bone as if you were using the forearm to hold someone off after the strike was blocked. I'm still working my way through what all the implications of this are in my head. But it seems to say to me that circular force can applied until some serious resistance hits it and then the brain, muscles, and CNS defaults to linear motion. I know this is true for strikes and am still working through the corollary for pulling. I do know that once you get linear resistance you can defeat it with an elliptical pull or a 45 degree linear one.

All in all a really good session. Plus my hands feels a little better.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 244

The hand got progressively better yesterday and so I had a better night's sleep, praise be. This was of some concern because dips would have been damn hard to do where it was hurting.

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (3's week)

Dips: 3 sets of 8 with 20 lbs. Smooth as could be.

Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 8 with 115. Also good.

Squats: Sets of 3, 205-230. Set of 4, 260. I did these in the power cage and discovered that squatting to real depth bangs the bar off the safety rails when I set it on the 4th hole from the bottom. So time to drop them to the 3rd.

Finished with a GXP. The lifting portion alone was 30 minutes long with an average HR of 144 bpm, for 90% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (3's week)

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 3, 110-125, set of 7, 140.

Barbell Row: Sets of 3, 160-185. Set of 8, 205.

Claw Grip: 2 sets of 5 with 220.

Back feels good again and the lft hand is nearly fully recovered although I could tell the claw grip on the left was a little weaker than usual. I have discovered a series of bruises on my right upper arm and torso. Apparently the Saturday session of jujitsu was a little more intense than I thought when I was getting grabbed and smacked to get me moved off line.

[JM3]

Get a thorough and vicious massage?

Personally I always felt that sleeping on the floor in my office on just a sleeping bag did good things for my back.

I like sleeping on a hard floor when my back sore.


Mark- are you icing?Using water therapies? I wouldn't get a vicious massage- id hit a place like this:

Www.spaworldusa.com. And let the joints float and relax a bit.

[tertius]

Well, there you go. Defer to the expert! Especially when he says you should go get pampered.

[Mark E. Hurling]

We had a jacuzzi for some time. It finally croaked to our great dismay. Too poor to get 'er fixed.

If I slept on the floor the damn cats would crawl up on me and suffocat me. Rita's not all that big but Max a huuuge neutered gray tabby must weigh nearly 30 pounds. If he got on my chest it'd be curtains for me. Curtains, I tell ya'.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

Did a running GXP this morning and forgot my bloody pager and cell phone at home. So of course I got paged and it woke up Dearly beloved who was mightily pissed at me for my featherheadedness waiting for me when I came in the door all sweaty. No jujitsu tonight, lots of work related things to take care of for a day or so. Hopefully Friday will have me lifting again if I can lift my nose from the grindstone.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

Demanding week at work. Thursday had me in at O-dark 30 and on my feet all day. After about 3 hours Mr. Back started getting very unhappy. So unhappy that I creaked out of bed Friday morning like the Tinman of Oz and figured that power snatches would snap me in twain. But Dr. Laura, she of the magic hands set me mostly right later that day.

So off to jujitsu where I got paged halfway there (again!) and had to run in and take care of some matters. Missed half an hour of the session. Once there though it was a great session with more revelations about movements, joint angles, strength curves, and weaknesses that have some direct cognates in what Rip teaches in lifting form and linear movement against resistance. I got paired up with another brown belt and we alternated practicing with each other and helping teach the lower ranks.

The real AH HA! moments came halfway into the session when Master Bellman started demonstrating some escapes from ground techniques when the attacker is attempting a mount. In the first, the attacker gets a mount and reaches down with one or both hands to choke, punch, or grab the defender's front. Any of these are linear attacks. The defender drives their hands inward over the center line and then upward and outward over his head. This pulls the attacker forward and down in a face plant and pretty unstable. Then the defender goes to work on hooking the left leg with his right leg and then wrapping around the left arm with both hands and pulling the elbow down as he rolls hard his right while doing a left side upward hip thrust. Done with the right force and timing it rolls the attacker right off.

Another escape was much the same but included a push of the left leg backward right where the knee meets the mat. That's where the push needs to be for the best leverage. A 3rd technique added the use of a quick roll to the right by the defender to offset the attacker's leg and balance before they can fully settle. Then the defender gets a knee under and inside one of the attacker's legs and forces it outward and back.

I began to see to angles playing a roles in the breaking down and weakening the strength of the attack by the 2nd technique. Then a bunch of things fells into place. The joints on the human body are strongest and most resistant when they approximate a 90 degree angle. But open that angle up or close it down to make the angle more acute or obtuse, and the strength begins to leak out of it like air from a punctured tire. That is eaxactly what was going on by shoving the leg back at the knee level. It opens up two 90 degree angles of the leg at the knee and the hip and makes it very hard to support or resist any force brought to bear on it especially from a side lateral roll. The same is true with wrapping and pulling down at the inside of the elbow to collapse it into a very acute angle that can't push well and definitely can't project linear force in any meaningful way to stop a side lateral force or roll. Finally, the biggest light bulb popped when I realized that turning the upper leg's femur outward and backward opened up a more obtuse angle of the femurs in relation to the hip or pelvis than can effectively exert force or resistance as well. Kind of like looking at turning the knees out but not too far out in the squat and keeping them tracking in line with the feet. SS:3 pgs. 46-47 and 57 show. But interestingly, too wide produces a point of quickly diminishing returns.

The last bit of the class had the other brown belt and I doing Phase II drills with 5 minutes of attacks of any kind from one and defenses and counters form the other. This began to escalate in intensity until we were getting very close to full on sparring on strikes, chokes, joint locks and the like. I was trying to damp myself down but as we got into it we went at it harder and faster until the black belts cooled us down with the admonition, no more strikes. This got us back on a more even keel. Great session for all that it was 103 in Northridge this morning. I must have lost 10 pounds.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I have just been informed by Dearly Beloved that I am sporting a large brown and purple bruise on my left forearm from the wrist to halfway to my elbow. It doesn't hurt in the slightest but I can say that I have never seen or had a bruise that started out brown before. Evidently that sparring went even further South than I thought

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (5-3-1 week)

Dips: 3 sets of 8, 20 lbs.

Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 8, 115.

Deadlift. 135-5, 225-4, 275-1, 315-1, 365-1, 405-nope, 405-nope. I decided to try for 405 again and got it to right below my kneecaps. So close. I tried again and broke it off the floor but that was it. Next time for sure!

[bob g]

I thought about you while eating lunch at The Squirrel in Corvalis last week. OSU is a nice campus. We were just driving through but Corvalis seemed to have a good vibe. It is a long way from southern Califonia, though!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Corvallis is a nice place and the OSU Campus reminded me of SIU in a lot of ways. Best of all it is 950 miles North of SoCal.