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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Another night of not so great sleep. Not sure why, although the cold packs seem to have helped with the delt discomfort that had been brewing since the bench pressing yesterday. The delts feel pretty god today. No problem reaching up and behind the neck at all this morning. So I had that going for me.

Into the gym for a GXP. I reset the resistance level to 12 just be sure the trend I saw developing before the Last Great West Coast Road Rally was still in force. As in I needed more resistance to get to 85% of MHR. Sure enough, I could see I wasn't going to get there so I upped my rpm 10% and just managed it. So clearly as can be, I need to bump up to level 14 and maybe slow down a little to find the sweet spot. Foam roller and stretched. I also am going to add shrugs to my medium day routine and move the dumbbell rows to the light day just to get more pulling in and assure better balance.

Saw the dolphins frolicking off the coast on the way home and a lot of brown pelicans. These big old birds have really been around in force since December. It must signal some kind of prevalence of fish schools around to feed all these guys.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Mark, I feel like a dummy, but WTF is a GXP? General Exercise Program? I suppose I could Google it, but I'd rather hear you explain...

Also, your log has brought the whole concept of foam rolling belatedly onto my radar screen. Saw somebody doing it before Krav last night. I have decided to make a purchase and investigate further.

[Mark E. Hurling]

GXP is a graded exercise protocol. Carpinelli did some of the foundational work on it and Clarence Bass and Richard Winett have commented on it at their respective sites. It takes 15 minutes. 5 minutes of ramp up to 85% MHR, 5 minutes at 85% of MHR, and 5 minutes ramp down. Twice a week, and that according to Carpinelli, Bass, and Winett will assure some good cardio returns and insurance absent the 30 minutes 5 times a week at 75% MHR we all did per Cooper for decades. It sure seems to be standing me in good stead with 38 and better VO2 max readings.

Get a firm foam roller or make one from PVC pipe covered in a yoga mat. Depending on your problem areas roll at least 10 times before moving on. I use it for lower back and mid back set at a 90 degree angle to my torse and then a final completion for each set of traps and rhomboids per side lying lengthwise on the roller. Be prepared for lots of snap, crackle, and pop as the spinal processes get more less realigned in proper order.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Excellent. Thanks.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Discomfort ramped up in the right delt all afternoon yesterday. It was all I could do to get through jujitsu last night. Strangely, doing push ups causes no pain at all. I've got to either drop benching entirely or rest it out with some alternative until the delt gets fully healed, because if the price of bragging about a bench press is dropping jujitsu, I'll ditch the bench. I'm going to try benching tomorrow off the rack pins a few inches above my chest. I experimented with that a few weeks back and it felt OK, plus it probably emulates the approximate range of movement in push ups which are giving me any trouble.

There were three boys in the kid's class who must have shotgunned several Red Bulls each before coming in. They were goose-assing around even during the bow-in and when Master Bellman signaled me to start leading the warmups I pounced. I went into full drill sergeant mode like I never have before and cleared the front row in front of me hand grabbed the sleeves of the miscreants and lined them up right in front of me. Even then I had to hand out extra pushups including some to another uninvolved biy who asked "why?" when I did it. "OK, then you get 20 more too. Get at them." We promoted some white belts to orange belt at the end of class.

The adult class had me teaching the older Japanese lady, about 64 I think she said. She is very diligent and very impatient with herself. I know I have been drawing the challenging teaching assignments as part of evaluation at this rank because being able to do good teaching is a big element for advancement to nikyu, brown belt 2nd degree. Lots of humor was required to keep her on track and spirits up, and she did fine albeit with a lot of grinding of her teeth. At the end of class we promoted one the young Asian girls to blue belt and she was sent over to me to learn how to tie her belt. I had gotten out of my own gi at that point and while I was showing her, the Japanese lady came over and started folding my gi. I said I'd do that, and she said "I was taught to show respect for Sensei so that's what I'm doing!" I said that she did me too much honor and that Sensei was Master Bellman over there, I am just allowed to help. She nodded and bowed and kept folding my gi. A very humbling experience.

[tertius]

Teaching is good for us, most certainly.

Can you do dips, Mark? Or you could have Dearly Beloved sit on your back while you do push-ups, if you want to add weight. That ought to amuse her.

[The Emancipated Freak]

Can you do dips, Mark? Or you could have Dearly Beloved sit on your back while you do push-ups, if you want to add weight. That ought to amuse her.

I am certain that if he does this than she will start doing them with him on her back. She seems to be that kind of lady. Knurling is a lucky man, or maybe he's just slick with da ladies.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I tried dips some weeks before and they really hurt more than the benching. As I type this it seems to be ramping up another order of magnitude and I'll have to play tomorrow by ear regarding lifting at all. Maybe no pressing moves. I'll just have to see. I'm at work so cheap-ass Albertsons wodka is not something I can use just now. At least and keep my job. As for the push ups, very amusing image there. I was actually thinking about that earlier after making my first post here. Thanks for the thoughts guys.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The delt screamed at me all night and sleep was a precious commodity not to be had in any significant measure, so beside the hurt, and I have a pretty high threshold for pain, I was too tired to get into the gym this morning. I haven't had this much pain for over 15 years, which as I think back on it, was right about the time I quit the bench press. I'm not sure at this point if I can safely do jujitsu tomorrow, but I'll take that day by day, and improvise what I can do without setting my recovery from this back still further or hurting myself worse.

[Oldster]

I'm sorry to hear about the pain, Mark. Rehab it and maybe at some point you can get back to benching and dipping.