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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.

Quick in and quick out today. It was family day at the Rec Center and the place was awash in unsupervised kidlets running wild. So I did a GXP and got the Hell out of Dodge expeditiously.

Average HR was 135 bpm @ 88% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 240.

Worked on rounds of speed bag, cable rotations, the rower, elliptical, SciFit, and stretched. I woke up with my right hand feeling cramped and achy, so I left off the heavy bag, figgering that would only further aggravate it. I must have rolled over and slept on it immobile for a few hours last night.

Planning to start a 5-3-1 routine soon. I laid out a template for it in Excel last night. Now to cycle up to some max singles to feed in the data to the template.

Average HR was 122 bpm @ 80% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242.

Sets of 5.

Incline Press: 170 for 3 sets.

Hammer High Row: 320 for 3 sets.

Deadlift: 255-260-265. Not easy-peasy, but not grinders either.

Average HR was 130 bpm @ 85% of MHR.

I am on the last hole of my belt. Probably time to buy a hole punch.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Weight: 241.

Chaotic night on the mat. Emma showed up and brought her American Girl doll, Grace, clad in her gi. Very charming. Alex and Zach also showed and were given their white belts, along with the unexpected Jake, a prime candidate for the hitlerjungend if there ever was. Thank God Ken showed up halfway through class to help herd the cats.

They each have their own issues to work on. Talking too much, attention span, moving too fast, and too stiff. Which is really amazing to see in 10 year old Alex. I've joked about the Tin Man before, but this poor kid needs a bath in WD-40 to loosen up. The new kids are beginning to get over their fear of the breakfalls but it was hard for them. I had to work them over on the falls repeatedly before they started to show some improvement. From there, I let them work out their frustrations on the striking dummy, Dave before proceeding on to the white belt escape techniques. We didn't get far because of the time taken up in polishing their falls.

Good kids, but challenging tonight.

Average HR was 104 bpm @ 68% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 239.

Sets of 8.

Seated Press: 105-110-115.

Rope Handle Tricep Presses: 170 for 3 sets.

Rope Handle Curl: 190-195-200.

Claw Curl Grip: 130-40-150.

Average HR was 119 bpm @ 78% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 242.

Today was an experiment to see what kind of conditioning effect the warm ups in Jujitsu do. The warmups consist of some loosening up of the wrists, shoulders, torso, hips, and hamstrings. Then some ground rolling in preparation for breakfalls including some supine punching side curls and kicks to defend oneself after a slip, fall, or takedown. Then back falls, side falls, and front falls. Concluding with drills including 10 directional stepping, blocking, and punching. I added in speed bag and medicine ball tosses just because hand speed and ballistics rule.

The warm ups surprised me in that average HR was 126 bpm @ 82% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Ken and Ethan showed tonight. I took them through the three takedowns that they have been having trouble with and they made some progress toward improving their technique. Their problems resided around turning out the foot on the throw to better recruit the hips into the throws. A simple foot turn can better engage the hips and add 30 to 50% more power to the technique. Their other problem was remembering to push AND pull with the hands to better unbalance the upper body.

Then I had them review white belt technique which both had semi-forgotten elements of, having not practiced them for a few months. We finished off with a discussion of ranging and distance for hand and elbow strikes. Elbow being the closest, followed by the uppercut, then the knife hand strike, and finally the vertical fist and straight punch being the farthest out.

Average HR was 110 bpm @ 72% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 238.

I'm working on singles now to get a gauge of where my maxes are just now. I don't trust predicted maxes based on reps. There are too many individual variables that render them useless for many people. So, gotta try in real life. As mentioned earlier, this is to get into a 5-3-1 routine where percentages are based on maxes. Wendler, the guy who came up with the system recommends starting a little under that to get some momentum going from the start rather than an early stall.

Bench Press: 185-205-225-230. My best bench in competition, with commands and an enforced pause on the chest with judges was 243. I may have had that in me this morning, there was a little left in the tank after the 230, but I decided to let that be my margin of starting momentum.

Hammer Row: 270-360-410.

Leg Press: 630-650-680-700;.

Altogether, not too bad, especially given the weight loss involved. The routine with 5-3-1's will be for the big stuff like legs, presses, deadlifts, high pulls, and rows. The bro stuff done for arms, delts, and ego will be sets of 8. I will re-incorporate an explosive day with high pulls, push presses, and cable rotations to get ready for the highland games.

Average HR was 129 bpm @ 84% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.

Today consisted of rounds of tire flips, speed bag, rowing, side bend, heavy bag, and stretching.

Average HR was 129 @ 83% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 241.

Got to the Rec Center and discovered it was closed for MLK. Rats.

So I declared victory with an easy day of walking around Lake on the Campus in 12F.

Average HR was 109 bpm @ 68% of MHR.