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

[Oldster]

No not 75 lb. dumbbells. Ah if only. This was hammer curls with one the gym's fancy-schmancy special curling bars that give one a parallel grip with both hands. But I am going for 120 next week once I get done with the deload week.

Gotcha! Never heard of such a thing. Do you think it is working for bicep strength?

The -70 is one of those Cybex counterweights that take 70 lbs. off my weight.

Now that is something I've heard of. Never seen but heard of it. Good luck with the 25# next week!

But thanks for the props on the 240.

Hey, that seems pretty big. I think you've made some really good gains over the past year or so in the bench. Keep 'er going!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Gotcha! Never heard of such a thing. Do you think it is working for bicep strength?

I have done EZ curls on and off since I was in my late teens with the old school bar. Not a big effect. Inspired by your own efforts I decided to try these suckers again with this device I have seen in gyms for the last 25 years. But this time I figured I'd challenge myself to some real weight instead of Larry Scott biceps peak on a Vince Gironda spider curl bench. I've always liked a parallel grip since I was 19 and a guy I knew showed me a vertical fist strike that he learned from Isshin Ryu. It instantly made sense to me for striking, pushing, and pulling. Here's what it looks like.



I've never used this much weight for 3 sets of 8 in my life.

Hey, that seems pretty big. I think you've made some really good gains over the past year or so in the bench. Keep 'er going!

Thanks again. Until I came home to this place I had left the bench alone for over 10 years.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

Deload week.

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 5, 65-75-95.

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

Claw Grip: 2 sets of 5, 220.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246

What a week (again)! Long into yesterday night that caused me to mis jujitsu. Major piss off on that too, because one of the guards who is a purple belt at the dojo told me that they practiced techniques with eyes closed last night.

So up this morning and in and out for a quick GXP. Got paged right out of the shower and had to hustle my ass into work without breakfast even. BUT. It looks like I may a month or so slight respite from some of the craziness for a little while.

[Gwyn Brookes]

Major piss off on that too, because one of the guards who is a purple belt at the dojo told me that they practiced techniques with eyes closed last night.

This is one of my favorite things to do, especially if you have few enough people to allow your uke to do some aggressive pushing and pulling when they grab you. I find that I'm often in a better mechanical position with eyes closed than I am with them open. Weird.

Right now my dojo has a "special" friend that keeps coming by, unfortunately at the moment he is living across the street. He is obviously not taking his meds. He says he has a 10th Dan in Jujitsu and Kempo, and he can't find a teacher because he is too good. The last teacher he visited was a hard-to-find Chinese MA teacher in Chinatown who told him, "yes, I cannot teach you, you are too good." Hahahaha.

We are used to having an occasional wingnut traipse in because of our location, but this one is truly special. Luckily my teacher worked in mental health for a long time and knows how to present the right psychological affect in order to defuse potential problems.

I hope your practice is going well. I am considering ceasing to practice nage because of my hip. It's a difficult decision but luckily Danzan Ryu is such a comprehensive art that there's a lot left to practice. I hope you don't mind that I called your post silly in E&P. I know we are politically opposite, but I consider you a friend.

Cheers,
Gwynn

[Oldster]

But this time I figured I'd challenge myself to some real weight instead of Larry Scott biceps peak on a Vince Gironda spider curl bench. I've always liked a parallel grip since I was 19 and a guy I knew showed me a vertical fist strike that he learned from Isshin Ryu. It instantly made sense to me for striking, pushing, and pulling. Here's what it looks like.



I've never used this much weight for 3 sets of 8 in my life.

Very nice. I've never seen or heard of such a thing in my life! But it looks cool, thats for sure. If it allows you to use more weight, I'm all for it.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 245.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike. (Deload sets of 5 week)

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

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 3 with 95.

Claw Grip: 2 sets of 5 with 220. Forgot to log this earlier this week.

[Mark E. Hurling]

This is one of my favorite things to do, especially if you have few enough people to allow your uke to do some aggressive pushing and pulling when they grab you. I find that I'm often in a better mechanical position with eyes closed than I am with them open. Weird.

I think the eyes closed cuts off a lot of the other information streaming into the eye-brain-hand feedback loop and our bodies revert to a more natural stance and positioning in general. Hence the mushin or without mind.

Right now my dojo has a "special" friend that keeps coming by, unfortunately at the moment he is living across the street. He is obviously not taking his meds. He says he has a 10th Dan in Jujitsu and Kempo, and he can't find a teacher because he is too good. The last teacher he visited was a hard-to-find Chinese MA teacher in Chinatown who told him, "yes, I cannot teach you, you are too good." Hahahaha.

We are used to having an occasional wingnut traipse in because of our location, but this one is truly special. Luckily my teacher worked in mental health for a long time and knows how to present the right psychological affect in order to defuse potential problems.

We used to get these marginal types in judo when I was in college. We found that making them pay some extra special attention to breakfalls and using them as crash dummies for throws had them reconsider and they'd move on to shototkan or TKD. We've been lucky in Master Bellman's moveable feast of a dojo since I've been part of it. We hear tales from him and the other black belts about some flakes over past years. The only one I have encountered was a teenager who showed up for a few sessions at the Torrance Wednesday night class. He was a black belt in mad monkey kung fu, him say. Master Bellman said "Go work with him." with a slight bump of his elbow in my ribs. Message recieved Sensei.

Real case of ADD with that one. But after teaching him to fall and then correcting him a few times when he wasn't following a ground technique being demonstrated when he started trying to gouge my eyes he decided not to show up again. That eye gouging attempt earned him a double insanity blow to the eardums followed by a bear claw grab of the trachea that turned him purple. We teach that eye gouge technique but only to green belts and above. When he didn't drop his hands as I warned him off as he went into the gouge I took him apart. Master Bellman came over as he was getting air back into his lungs again and asked him just where he had demonstrated the eye gouge technique (rhetorically) to the class.

I hope your practice is going well. I am considering ceasing to practice nage because of my hip. It's a difficult decision but luckily Danzan Ryu is such a comprehensive art that there's a lot left to practice. I hope you don't mind that I called your post silly in E&P. I know we are politically opposite, but I consider you a friend.

Cheers,
Gwynn

Practice is pretty hit and miss the last month or so as a result of long hours at work and a pager that won't let up on me at any random point in time. But great when I can detach enough to get my head fully into it. I'm not sure just what nage your Sensei teaches in Danzan. The Wally Jay version of it has most of the judo throws, but do throws like harai goshi or uchimata bother your hip? Because both are more "leg centric" than "hip centric" in my own experience. But then we don't do nage but once in a blue moon or whenever I get squirrely in a practice session and do one. No one else really pays attention to those throws in mushin ryu, just me. But bottom line as you know in Danzan, there are plenty of things like wrist flex and arm bar takedowns that do the job as well if not better. You don't have to turn your back to make them work and they take far less effort.

I must have missed the "silly post" comment. Or if I did see it more than likely I just just got amused by it. Not to worry, I put plenty of silly in my posts. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not intentionally. No harm done.

[Gwyn Brookes]

I'm not sure just what nage your Sensei teaches in Danzan. The Wally Jay version of it has most of the judo throws, but do throws like harai goshi or uchimata bother your hip? Because both are more "leg centric" than "hip centric" in my own experience. But then we don't do nage but once in a blue moon or whenever I get squirrely in a practice session and do one. No one else really pays attention to those throws in mushin ryu, just me. But bottom line as you know in Danzan, there are plenty of things like wrist flex and arm bar takedowns that do the job as well if not better. You don't have to turn your back to make them work and they take far less effort.

We have a list of 20 throws, many of which are judo throws. The main issue is taking falls from hip throws. Throwing itself doesn't bother me, but taking falls, on either side, sends a painful jar into my right hip and I spent a couple of days with more inflammation after practicing. Sensei says I am probably landing too much on my side. I'm sure he's right, and will definitely give it a shot, but I am nervous about my future. A buddy of ours who runs another school out of our dojo, also jujutsu, showed up the other day on crutches and he has to have a hip replacement, even though he's only about 10 years older than me at the most. I do not want that to be me.

Crazy guy is too disruptive to be part of our class in any way. We are pretty good at accommodating people who don't have social skills, but this guy is beyond socially inept and right in the territory of crazy, sadly. He will probably move on eventually.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Try this for positioning of the fall. I end up teaching this a lot to the newbies and forgive me if it seems too fundamental and patronizing. Start flat on your back supine with both scapulae on the tatami. Roll to the (right) side so that most medial part of your thigh and outer (right) glute and outer ankle bone are touching the tatami and your (right) arm is at that old standby the 45 degree angle. Now of course you know already that this is too far and will only jar your hip more, but it will act as a physical and tactile reference point. Then roll back slightly (to your left) so the outer part of your (right) foot, your (right) glute, and your (right) scapula are in contact with the tatami. These are probably the points of contact you want to land on to save your hip.

A way I learned to do this myself some 40 years ago was start on my back and roll from left to right and back again with a slap on each roll. Start slow to get the angle right and burned in and then gradually speed up. When you have that down to your own reasonable satisfaction try doing the drill by lifting your hips and legs up and turning and thrusting sideways from left to right with the slap. Maybe that will help get your breakfalls to a better place. At the very least the transmission the shock on landing gets cushioned better by the largest muscle cross section the body has.