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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Rounds of rower, elliptical, medicine ball tosses, crunches, stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

3rd Cycle, Week 3. 5 reps @ 75%, 3 reps @ 85%, 1 rep @ 95% with AMRAP followed by 12 rep set.

Seated Press: 110-125-140/3, 95.

Hammer Curls: 115-130-145/3, 95.

Close Grip EZ Curl Bar Floor Press: 110-120-135/5, 95.

Stretched.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

In between Jujitsu sessions for a couple of weeks, bit I was covering for the Karate guy's class while he was at an out of town seminar of his own. There were 5 students, ranging in age from 10 to mid 30's. I explained some of the basic differences to them and joshed along with them to relax them a little. The adult mentioned grappling, which I chuckled over and told him he had hit one of my buttons.

Grappling has little coherent meaning for me. It's the heaving and straining wrestlers do while looking for an advantage to exploit. The Jujitsu I teach is comprised of escapes, counters, joint locks, throws, takedowns, chokes, and pins. Along with many of the hand and foot strikes of Karate. Grappling is something attackers do and defenders sometimes resort to in order to transition to one of the other techniques.

I explained the concept of leverage and moment arms. One the kids, who was in my Summer camp, got the concept immediately. I joshed him about being a budding STEM devotee. He did a classic head down aw shucks posture. A moment we all enjoyed. This kid was and is a talented athlete that I spotted last year and was sad that he chose Karate.

I showed them non-traditional weapons. Not a bo, tonfa, or sai; rather flashlights, umbrellas, and canes. They were fascinated. I determined that I would not teach traditional weapons before I made black belt. We don't live in samurai Japan.

Altogether a fun night.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Rounds of handball, prowler, SciFit, leg raises, Jacob's Ladder, and stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

3rd Cycle, Week 3. 5 reps @ 75%, 3 reps @ 85%, 1 rep @ 95% with attempts at 1 RM singles.

I dressed for the occasion (in further mockery of the What Are You Wearing thread) in a USA powerlifting ball cap, a red USPA powerlifting t-shirt, and tied it all together with navy blue shorts decorated with white stars. You could practically hear John Phillip Sousa groan.

Incline Press: 150-170-190-205.

Hammer High Row: 285-325-360-390.

Deadlifts: 250-285-320-340. I haven't managed 340 in a couple of years. Might have had 350 in me if I had made that attempt, but, take the incremental recovery of strengths as I can.

I managed to bash the back of my left hand somehow while plate loading DL's and now have one to match the one on my right thumb. It bled a lot, so I resorted to the tried and true lifter's on-site styptic, the chalk bowl.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The Rec Center is closed today so I took a jaunt around Lake on the Campus. A gorgeous morning before it heats up too much here. It was a pastoral scene with a glassy lake and Canada geese doing water landings and takeoffs, along with a hawk calling and zooming among the treetops. Then the ducks were quacking it up with some squirrels up to their usual twitchy antics in search of food and generally playing around. A great way to get in some low grade conditioning.

Yesterday was supposed to be a "rest" day, but duty called with assisting coaching Special Olympians in softball and flag football. I sucked at the former, but managed to make myself useful in helping out with infield practice by shagging stray balls. I never played flag football, just high school regular football. S/O flag football is 5 on 5 with only the center allowed some token "blocking" by standing in the way of incoming rushers. The team consists of a center, a quarterback, and three receiver/running backs. Having been a defensive and offensive lineman, none of my long dormant skills are useful in this variant, but I am relearning the game and plays for the upcoming tournament in July at the Walter Payton Center.

The tale the Fitbit told of those two hours was somewhat surprising in the amount of 60%-70% cardio it provided when I reviewed it later.

[Mark E. Hurling]

3rd Cycle, Week 4. 5 reps @ 40%, 5 reps @ 50%, 5 rep @ 60%.

Bench Press: 90-110-130.

Hammer Rows: 170-255-325.

Hammer Leg Press: 355-425-480.

All in all, not a bad cycle this time around. Some regains of strength in a few lifts and in the bench press and leg press fails, I am more convinced than ever that this was from the previous days' activities that took the edge off.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Rounds this morning of prowler, SciFit, heavy bag, medicine ball toss, rower, and stretch. The dang speed bag swivel bracket has not yet been replaced. (sigh)

Last night I trained John the Special Olympian in bench and deadlift. It was the 5-3-1 3rd week of the 2nd cycle for him and he came through like a champ on multiple reps of his final set. Next week is a rest/deload for him to set him up for more regains in 3rd attempts at the Summer Games. He's looking good.

[Mark E. Hurling]

3rd Cycle, Week 4. 5 reps @ 40%, 5 reps @ 50%, 5 rep @ 60%.

Seated Press: 60-75-85.

Hammer Curls: 60-75-90.

Close Grip EZ Curl Bar Floor Press: 50-70-85.

In some Special Olympics training for coaching certifications, both general and in powerlifting.

[Mark E. Hurling]

To my intense frustration, the Illinois State University Rec Center would not let me in with a guest pass unless I had a university sponsor. So in something of a snit, I made do with my conditioning with some brisk walking around the shady campus quad. A beautiful quad I might add, and it got me over my case of the ass.

After a little research I found a nearby black iron gym I can lift at nearby for my lifting tomorrow.