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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 1, Sets of 5 @ 90% of 1RM

Seated Press: 115 lbs. @ 65%, 130 lbs. @ 75%, 160 lbs. @ 85% with only 3 reps. Just ran out of gas

Pullover and Press: 75-85-95, sets of 5

Hammer Row: 205 lbs. @ 65%, 235 lbs. @ 75%, 270 lbs. @ 85% with 8 reps.

Cable Curl: 135-8, 145-8, 155-8.

Music: Darth Vader Death March, March of the Toreadors, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Fame, Respect, Lunatic Fringe, Patton, A Boy Named Sue, Rites of Spring, George of the Jungle, Black Betty, Back in the USSR, Roadhouse Blues, Another One Bites the Dust.

49 minutes average HR 127 BPM @ 85% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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Jujitsu tonight had some new wrinkles. There's a whiteboard in the basement room where we practice and I used it to illustrate why and how moving from the hips makes the techniques effective. Along with the various meanings of the dynamic sphere in Aikido versus Mushin Ryu. Aikido sees the dynamic sphere as centered on the individual at the line of the naval. Additionally, it can be seen as the reach of the arms and legs in terms of strikes and/or grabs.

In Mushin Ryu the center of the dynamic sphere is the point at which the attacker engages the defender, either from a grab or the point of the strike with hand or foot. As such, any actions, blocks, counters, etc. are at that point of engagement. I decided to illustrate how these things differ from each other and how they look in simple stick figure terms.

Ken had some ideas as how to do some dynamic practice similar to sparring. The art does lend itself well to sparring because once the action starts, particularly when standing techniques are in play, it's easy to inflict some non-trivial injury. Pulling punches and kicks is not too difficult, maintaining careful control during a struggle to apply or resist a joint lock is not so easy to achieve. Particularly once the dynamics of resistance and applied leverage come into play. Ground fighters don't have this issue, but gravity while standing is a force multiplier that can break bones and tear ligaments and tendons. Which is why, even in a sport like Judo, arm bars and chokes while standing are not permitted for safety reasons. But, Ken had some valuable suggestions that might work given some self discipline.

I have always encouraged students to speak up with ideas and suggestions and was glad to see him come forward with his own.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 1, Sets of 3 @ 90% of 1RM

Squat: 165 lbs. @ 70%, 185 lbs. @ 80%, 205 lbs. @ 90%. I was cruising through these sets and reps with ease and thought I'd jam out 4-5 reps on the last set. Alas, on the 3rd rep of the last set I got out of balance forward and had a rocky couple of seconds getting stabilized again as I as coming out of the hole. My right foot shifted and shuffled forward and back about 12 inches. Very scary. I took a few deep breaths with the bar on my back, but was so spooked I just hammered the bar back into the rack and called it quits.

High Pulls: 125 lbs. @ 70%, 140 lbs. @ 80%, 160 lbs. @ 90%.

Music: Steel Claw, 1812 Overture, Hot Blooded, Thunderer March, White Rabbit, Sharp Dressed Man, Whole Lotta Love, Madman Across the Water, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Everybody Wants You, Punisher Theme, Monty Python Theme, Round and Round.

54 minutes average HR 131 BPM @ 87% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 2, Sets of 3 @ 90% of 1RM

Bench Press: 150 lbs. @ 70%, 170 lbs. @ 80%, 190 lbs. @ 90% with 4 reps.

Push Press: 95 lbs. @ 70%, 135 lbs. @ 80%, 150 lbs. @ 90% with 8 reps.

Pulldowns: 115 lbs. @ 70%, 140 lbs. @ 80%, 160 lbs. @ 90%.

Cable Curl: Sets of 8, 155-165-175.

Music: Death of Siegfried, Immigrant Song, Semper Fidelis, Back in Black, Hall of the Mountain King, San Quentin Blues, 1-2-3-4 United States Marine Corps, King of Pain.

36 minutes average HR 117 BPM @ 78% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 2, Sets of 3 @ 90% of 1RM

Deadlift: 235 lbs. @ 70%, 265 lbs. @ 80%, 300 lbs. @ 90% with 4 reps.

Hammer Leg Press: 405 lbs. @ 70%, 465 lbs. @ 80%, 520 lbs. @ 90% with 6 reps.

Music: Wild Boys, Sledgehammer, Hazy Shade of Winter, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Devil in a Blue Dress, .Here I Go Again, Ghost Riders, Great Balls of Fire, Radetzky March, White Rabbit, Smuggler's Blues, Highway to Hell, Up Around the Bend.

63 minutes average HR 132 BPM @ 88% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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This is shaping up to be quite a week. I did back to back lifting sessions on Monday and Tuesday because I knew Wednesday and Thursday DB and I would be volunteering with Special Olympics bowling. I was already feeling thoroughly hammered about the lower back, knees, and legs from the deadlifts yesterday. The bowlers I worked with today needed a lot of assistance with picking up and handling the balls. I got home feeling wasted and had a long nap. We'll be back at it there again tomorrow.

Then off to Jujitsu this evening. Ken is coming along incrementally with the Purple Belt 2nd degree techniques. It's hard for him to relax and make the techniques work by moving from the hips rather than putting on the gorilla suit and flexing his muscles. I completely get that tendency, when you train for strength it ain't easy to not use that as your first go-to. But that is not what this set of techniques is about. The resort to flex up and use arms and shoulders defeats everything.

Ken won't be able to assist at a demonstration this Saturday at the Rainbow Cafe. This is a safe place where LGBTQ kids meet to relax. It may seem out of character for me to do this but bullying is something I won't condone. While I have my issues with activists I have strong protective instincts for those who need it, and these kids do. So I teach where the need is. I'll have to figure something out to make this demonstration work.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Catching up from the busy last week.

Cycle 3, Week 2, Sets of 3 @ 90% of 1RM

Seated Press: 115 lbs. @ 70%, 135 lbs. @ 80%, 150 lbs. @ 90%.

Pullover and Press: 95 for 3 sets of 5.

Hammer Row: 220 lbs. @ 70%, 250 lbs. @ 80%, 285 lbs. @ 90%.

Cable Curl: Sets of 8, 155-165-275.

Music: We Will Rock You, Eye of the Tiger, Bolero, Gimme Shelter, Born to Be Wild, Ring of Fire, Night Train, Who Let the Dogs Out, Don't Stop Believing, Working for the Weekend, Sympathy for the Devil, Point of Know Return, Living la Vida Loca.

50 minutes average HR 135 BPM @ 90% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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Lifting was Friday, and Saturday was the demonstration for the LGBTQ youth belonging to the Rainbow Cafe safe space. The space itself doesn't lend itself well to martial arts demonstrations, so it was held in the Carbondale Park District Life Center. Only two young women showed up due to a sudden spike in Covid cases, along with two of the adult volunteers.

The demonstration consisted of the Aikido people, myself, and the Karate people. Ken, my only student just now was tied up elsewhere, so Chris Wissman, the Karate guy loaned me one of his students as a crash dummy. I had prepared a lesson plan anticipating more attendees with a mix of male and female students and how to navigate and avoid risky areas in school and elsewhere. Very little turned out to be applicable with the two did attend. I tailored the techniques I taught to the kind of attacks they were most likely to encounter. These were bear hugs, front chokes, shoves, hair grabs, and a few other common and simple counters to these attacks.

One of the male volunteers had some good questions that went beyond the scope of the intended audience, so the three of us teachers ranged a little wider than intended. Even with the low attendance it was well received and we plan on more demonstrations or workshops later.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 3, test singles.

Squat: 45-95-135-170-195-225-245. I haven't managed a 245 squat to depth this year. Which bodes well for North American Championships coming up in November. But this week will tell the tale better when I determine how my bench press and deadlift are shaping up.

High Pulls: 95-135-150-165.

Music: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Kashmir, Fire Down Below, Shipping Up to Boston, Firebird Suite, Dueling Banjos, Kickstart My Heart, I Like Em Big and Stupid, Chain of Fools, Smoke on the Water, Back in Black, Mission Impossible.

56 minutes average HR 127 BPM @ 85% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 3, Week 3, test singles.

Bench Press: 45-5, 95-5, 135-3, 160-1, 185-1, 200-1, 220-1. I was wondering if 225 was possible, but 220 was a squeaker that I ground out for a lock. My spotter was a young woman who was benching 135 and 155 for sets of 5. When she finished I congratulated her on being the strongest woman I'd seen in this gym. Then, I asked her if she would spot me since I told her she seemed to know what she was doing. Lots of blushing ensued.

Push Press: 45-5, 100-1, 120-1, 130-1.

Pulldown: 125-5, 140-3, 160-1, 205-1.

Cable Curl: Sets of 8, 175-185-195.

Music: Run Through the Jungle, O Fortuna, We Are the Champions, Volga Boatmen, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Urgent, Rocky, Shaft, Lunatic Fringe, Tush, My Grandaddy Was a Horse Marine, Weird Science.

50 minutes average HR 118 BPM @ 79% of MHR.