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

[Mark E. Hurling]

I am paying with considerable interest in DOMS from the merely moderately heavy deadlifts yesterday. I decided to take a load off by getting out my nearly never used bicycle to tool around my neighborhood. If where DB and I live could be called that. I am waaaay out of practice on shifting and riding these things. Much harder than a motorcycle, and I don't mean that in terms of the exercise. The gentle rolling rises and dips around what could be loosely termed the lake area between Carbondale and Murphysboro turn out to be a little more challenging than they look. That, plus having to keep adjusting the height and angle of the seat made things less than fun. So some tool time is in order to get seat and handlebar height and orientation properly sorted out. Along with figgering out effective shifting.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Despite all my grousing about being compelled to resort to the parkour station, I did grow a little attached to those open air outings. Since I don't have any way to do dips or pullups, it was out to Lake on the Campus again this morning.

Loaded backpack, with 3 sets of 5.

Dips

Ring Pull Ups

Knee Ups

Another gorgeous Spring morning complete with egrets, green card Canada geese, and mallards.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

More of the Jujitsu Zoom today. Skills and drills along with some review of the basics in lower ranks techniques which was good to see again after nearly 4 years of departure from the group setting and leadership of the dojo back in CA. I discovered that I had drifted into performing and teaching the last two steps of the star set stepping drill incorrectly, stepping froward instead of backward as it should be.

The techniques were escapes from chokes with a few more advanced follow up strikes that white belts don't get taught, including use of the yawara in the strikes. Then on to some counters to shoves involving great pain from breaking, tearing, or ripping bones, ligaments, and tendons of the wrists and fingers.

Finally there was demonstration and discussion of sensitive pressure points and meridians. One of which on the outer quad I can definitely attest to the effectiveness of. The late Tom Reichenbach, a high ranking black belt was correcting some form flaws another blue belt and I had some 10+ years ago before he passed on. He pointed out that leaving too much weight on the front leg with a wide stance slowed mobility and set you up for a nasty fall. He casually dropped a light impact backfist on my right quad on the illiotibial band. My leg buckled and I nearly collapsed in a heap. I would have hit the mat but Tom grabbed me and held me up. He apologized and said he didn't think he had tapped me that hard. The thing is, it wasn't hard at all, just in the perfect place to set off a chain reaction spasm that made supporting my weight on that leg impossible. More of what some here call Eastern ooga-booga.

[Mark E. Hurling]

More ramping up and getting accustomed to the new routine.

Sets of 5.

Hip Belt Squat: 80-115-150-185-195-205.

Hammer Curls: 80-85-90.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Summer came to Southern Illinois a little early last week with heat and humidity pumping up from the Gulf. Since I have grown to enjoy some of the outdoors along Lake on the Campus, it was more important than ever to get my conditioning in early before it got unpleasant. It was 73F with a pleasant breeze, nearly perfect. As I went through my routine I saw Ma and Pa Canada geese with some fast growing young un's paddling calmly and majestically on the glassy lake.

Two sets of three to engage the Type II fast twitch muscles:

Kettlebell Swings
Clap Push Ups
Box Jumps
Medicine Ball Slams
Hamstring stretches.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The ramp up continues. Sets of 5.

Bench Press: 45-95-115-165-185-195-200. Much better this time around.

Barbell Row: 115-165-185-195-200.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Very dicey weather this morning, which made my original plan to kayak Evergreen Lake unfeasible. So I took another pedal around the general vicinity of Casa de Hurling. I got the handlebars adjusted to a height that doesn't tax my lumbars and the shifting skills are coming along. Now to get the dang seat adjusted and oriented better.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The last week or so my sleep has been spotty at best. It caught up with me yesterday and I had to take a complete rest. My lumbars were still whacked from the bent over barbell rows and the planned deadlifts were a bridge too far. So I kicked back for the most part.

Today I subbed in my outdoor session along the lake to let my lumbars recover some more.

Dips
Ring Pull Ups
Knee Ups
Hamstring Stretches

Done with loaded backpack.

Dick's Sporting Goods was open so I got some additional 10 and 5 lb. plates for better progression loading jumps.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Jujitsu Zoom this afternoon.

More work with the yawara, and then a branch off into knife technique. The latter including Okinawa-te techniques and some old fashioned Harlem knife fighting Master Bellman picked along the years. It included how to use the butt or hilt of the knife as a less lethal but stunning impact weapon like the yawara. I got a good reminder of where to keep the other hand not holding the knife to protect my body, that being up around the 10 ring.

The session concluded with some Jujitsu entry techniques. This spanned empty hand counters to front chokes and shoves by blocking and spinning the attacker for a rear takedown to blocking an uppercut and moving into a hammerlock.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Oh frabjous day, callooh, callay. The Den, the gym I joined when the SIU Rec Center closed, was open this morning when I drove by to check up on it. I had already contacted the Rec Center and they apologized but said they would announce when they EVENTUALLY open again. Thanks for nothing. So I paid up the mere $25 a month and came back later to lift.

Deadlifts: 135-5, 225-3, 275-1, 305-1, 335-1, 355-1. The pull wasn't too hard, but I picked a bar with not the greatest knurling on it and forgot my liquid chalk. So my grip was a little dodgy. The guy who owns the Den allows chalk but wants it handled with some discretion. Anyway, I seem to have retained more strength than I thought I might have lost.

Seated Press: 45-8, 75-5, 95-3, 115-1, 125-1.