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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

That wrist REALLY was messed up. It hurt so bad it kept me awake much of Monday night. So I laid low yesterday and planned on doing so today. But I felt I had an obligation to teach Jujitsu. I confined my techniques to the left side only. It was challenging and a little uncomfortable even so, but I managed to get through teaching most of the Purple Belt course. Fortunately only a couple of those techniques involved using the wrists to any degree.

[Cheesepuff]

Good luck with the wrist. We're counting on you for inspiration and music selections.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Good luck with the wrist. We're counting on you for inspiration and music selections.

The wrist, fingers, and thumb have largely recovered. I did some very light cardio today that didn't involve the hands just to be safe. Looking back, I think the current problem was a result of my routine. Triples may have some value for us oldsters, but ramping up 8 sets of 2 to 8 sets of 3 looks like it was more volume this this guy could handle. But then the routine was one Hepburn used in his prime, and at 70, I suspect I am a touch past that mark. So to speak. Hard on the hands and hard on the lumbars. Hence my more frequent trips to the bone cracker to get realigned. Then too, I took a look back at my resting heart rate and it has been elevated for at over a month.

Time for a change. I may try mock meet to test my 1RM, but then I am probably overtrained just now. For certain I'll return to another Hepburn routine of singles that I had better results from. It'll be a little sporty to start it next week since I'm teaching a martial arts camp every morning, but I think I can manage.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Since this week is going to be an exercise in resisting discombobulation I am doing some (for me anyway) counter-intuitive things to maintain an even strain. My departure for the first day of martial arts is imminent, but I want to record this morning's lifting.

Testing my 1RM for the bench press instead of my usual mock meet format. I didn't want to potentially tweak my back for teaching the kidlets.

Bench Press: 45-5, 95-5, 135-3, 185-1, 205-1, 225-1, 235-1 (and may I add WOO-HOO!!!). I haven't hit 235 in the bench for 3 years. This is big, because the IPL world record for 70 year old, raw (no supportive equipment), drug tested lifters is 225. So I am on track to beat the current world record for the bench in November.

Hammer Row: 180-3, 270-3, 325-1,1,1,1. I stuck this in for some balance and to kick off my return to the Hepburn singles routine.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Off to a reasonable start with the martial arts camp. There were only 5 kids this morning, a huge improvement over the 15 or so pre-pandemic. They listened fairly well and a couple of them actually got most of what I was demonstrating right. One girl has a problem with her knees caving inward which will likely give her knee problems eventually during the course of her life. I was fortunate in that I had one of the Karate guy's students as a counselor and general assistant teacher for all the martial arts classes. The assistant is pretty good, even in getting the Jujitsu techniques corrected for the students. She and I worked with the girl to get her to work on pushing her knees out. I had her squat and use her elbows to push her knees outward. It remains to be seen how she'll respond to this or if she'll continue to be aware of the issue and correct it.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Day 2 of martial arts camp continued smoothly. I had two of the Karate guy's students assisting today and they both are patient and helpful with the kidlets. Yesterday I taught them back falls which they retained remarkably well when I had them review. None of them wanted to start from a lying down or squatting position, they wanted to do the falls from a standing start. Today they learned front falls. I don't have them do these standing until after a few sessions because if they get it wrong the faceplant can cost them a broken nose or a lost tooth. But two of the girls have done gymnastics and begged to try them standing up. No tragic ending for either of them although they did need a little tuning up on hand and arm positioning once they hit the mat. A couple of game young girls. We moved on to some escapes from grabs and countering strikes. They had gotten some skill at the strikes from the Karate class, so other than reminding them to keep tight fists, not much to fix there. The escapes themselves are nothing remotely resembling what Karate teaches, so there was some close hands-on instruction for those.

After the class one of the other girls said she really enjoyed the class and had fun. Music to my ears.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Back for some conditioning. Speed bag, box jumps, crunches, medicine ball tosses, and heavy bag.

[Fred J]

Bench Press: 45-5, 95-5, 135-3, 185-1, 205-1, 225-1, 235-1 (and may I add WOO-HOO!!!). I haven't hit 235 in the bench for 3 years. This is big, because the IPL world record for 70 year old, raw (no supportive equipment), drug tested lifters is 225. So I am on track to beat the current world record for the bench in November.

Cool..Good effort! Good luck in November.

[Eric Larousse]

Very good news. If I can hold on to that type of strength in35 years I would be very pleased.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thank you gentlemen. But to slow the sadly all too natural loss of strength, you have to be diligent in pushing back against the rust.