State of My Arts

Testing day is right around the corner.  This week will be a good, hard, physical week.  Next week will be toned down a bit so that I’m fresh for Friday the 25th.

It kind of seems as though I’ve been turning this into a fitness blog rather than a martial arts one, but I suppose that’s just a reflection of my outlook on the matter.  I don’t have a tremendously athletic build, as I have a tendency towards stockiness (having once been over 60 pounds heavier than I am today).  So I have to work hard for what I’ve got.

Anyhow, on that theme, today was a lifting day (P90x Shoulders and Arms), followed by a 2 mile run with 3 pound dumbells.  I wasn’t sure how far I’d get on my run, so I was very pleased that I made it through 2 miles.  On an unrelated (cough) note, my left shoulder and neck are pretty well locked up and are pretty sore right now.

On the martial arts side, yesterday was a good test-prep class.  We spent a good amount of time doing One Step Sparring techniques.  I was partnered with the head of the TKD program, and there wasn’t anything in particular that I needed to clean up there.  He also took a look at my bong forms later in the class and gave me a couple of good tips there.  We also went through most of the other forms that I’ll be doing, which was a good review.  And, for good measure, we worked escapes from various grabs as well.

I still need a  bit of work on Pyong Won (4th black belt form).  I’m hoping one of these classes this week involve a bunch of kicking drills — a good ol’ kick the target class.  It has been a while since I’ve done a bunch of spinning back hook kicks, 360 kicks, jump back kicks, and the like.  Nice thing about being an instructor, I can always lead the intermediates in that sort of class and join in along with them.

Other than that, I’m feeling pretty good about things.  I have a couple of essays to write, and I should get on those soon.

TKD, Training

I was off of training for a few days.  In fact, I didn’t work out Thursday all the way through Monday, which means I had five days off.  It felt pretty good.

But then, it felt good to get back to it today as well.  I did the P90x Plyometric workout, which always leaves me gasping for breath.  Then I taught a decently-sized beginner class of 8 students.  I ran them through an aerobic workout, then on to a poomse section.  My thought in recent weeks is to do at least 10 minutes of forms each class as a group.  However, I think I need to spend more individual time with the students.  I’m seeing some small individual errors that are hard to correct in a group setting.  Maybe next week I’ll break down into individual forms work.

After class I worked on my two bong (staff) forms, as well as Pyong Won, the 4th black belt TKD form.  Just a quick 10 minutes worth of work, but I am a little rusty on those.  Well, in truth, I’m still working on learning Pyong Won.

On another note, I finally finishing reading Warrior Mind, the martial arts book written by one of the senior students of my instructor’s instructor.  It is an interesting book, and I’m promising a full review of it shortly.

TKD, Training

It is now 4 weeks until my 3rd dan test.  Last week I was mulling over what I should change up in my routine to get the most ready for my test.

Well, last Sunday I went through the P90X Plyometric routine — and boy, is that a killer.  I forgot exactly how tough that routine is, since I had only done it once before.  I resolved at the time to do that once a week — though I’m now out of whack with that, as I will relate henceforth.

Last week was as follows: Sunday: P90X Plyo; Monday: Black Belt TKD; Tuesday: P90X Chest, Shoulders, Triceps (lifting), plus Beginner TKD teaching; Wednesday: Hapkido, Intermediate TKD teaching, Advanced TKD; Thursday: rest; Friday: Hapkido; Saturday: Intermediate/Advanced TKD. 

The item missing from that list is lifting on Friday.  I just wasn’t up to it that day.  That was just as well, since the Hapkido class involved a number of hip throws.  The class that night was 4 students, and I was the 2nd lightest of that group.  So I got the easier duty of throwing the female black belt in attendance.  The only tricky thing about throwing her is that I need to squat lower to get my center below hers.  Still easier than throwing the 220- and 250- pound gentlemen.

Today, I opted not to do the Plyo routine.  I felt like lifting, since I hadn’t done that for 5 days.  Today was the Back and Biceps routine.  My biceps are pretty darn fatigued now (mission accomplished).  Usually at the end of the lifting routines, I’ll do the 15 minute abs/core routine.  Didn’t feel like doing that, either, so my guilt-ridden conscience prompted me to go for a short run, somewhere between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half.

My weight is currently in the 195-ish range (194.6 this morning).  Dropping another couple of pounds would be nice, though I’m running a little low on time to do that barring a concerted dieting attempt.  This week is the weekend of Labor Day, and I’ll be taking a 4-day weekend (from work and training) and eating a lot of unhealthy food.  Then there will be two weeks of regular training, followed by the week of the test.  During that week, I won’t be doing any extra exercise, just TKD classes on Monday and Wednesday.

And I’m sure I’ll be ready to go.

TKD, Training

I’ve been sticking with the P90x workouts I detailed five weeks ago.  I have been happy with my results so far.  The weights and reps have been slowly increasing.  I haven’t measured my biceps or other parts of my musculature recently, but I think there’s been improvement there.

By far the most encouraging thing about my workouts, though, is the stability of my shoulder.  I’m no longer feeling any slippage or crunching of scar tissue in my AC joint when I do pushups.  Wide grip pushups are relatively easy, while military-style pushups are more troublesome from a strength standpoint than from a stability standpoint.

My left side is still lagging behind my right in a lot of the exercises.  It is especially noticeable during bicep exercises, which is a little surprising (I’d have expected a bigger difference in shoulder exercises).  The right side of my back is a bit weaker than my left due to the muscle paralysis that I’d gotten nearly two years ago from Lyme disease.  Last week those same weakened muscles were spasming a bit on me, so my shoulder blade wasn’t quite working the way it should.  The spasming has relaxed, and things are good.

This past Wednesday during TKD class, the instructor pulled out the stopwatch for 2-minute max pushups (and situps).  I was able to do 70 full-range pushups, though a couple of them were a bit sketchy.  This was at the end of class, and it was also at the day after doing a couple hundred pushups as part of my Sunday P90x workout.  Not up to the 90+ I could do a couple of years ago before these shoulder issues took me down, but it is definitely a sign that I’m making good progress.

Training

There have been a few bits of news and notes around the dojang.

• Master Morgan’s book has been released, and I have my personally autographed copy.  In his note to me, he makes a crack about me needing a haircut (I’m bald).  It is neat to have a book written by someone you have trained with, if only once or twice a year.  I haven’t started reading it yet, but I will do so fairly shortly and give a recap of it when I’m done.
• As I’ve mentioned previously, this weekend is the children’s tournament at our dojang.  Last I’ve heard, there are only expected to be 25-30 competitors.  I put a couple students who aren’t competing on the spot during class, and just kind of got mumbled “’cause I don’t want to” responses.  Disappointing.  Friday night is dojang prep and ring setup.
• I’ll be testing for my 3rd dan in TKD in September.  It will be my last TKD promotion exam, as subsequent ranks are presented when the head instructor deems they have been earned.  The 3rd-to-4th guideline for time-in-rank is 5 years, so this will be my final promotion for quite a while.  2nd dan Hapkido isn’t really on the radar, either.  Purple belt in BJJ will require me to actually start up that training again, and wouldn’t happen for a few years once I do start back up.  Phase 1 Kali certification might happen at some point.
• Speaking of BJJ, I do miss grappling.  My shoulder is getting a lot stronger, but getting it caught in a Kimura or an omo plata would be a very, very bad idea.  I had been thinking that maybe I could restart in August, as my next doctor’s appointment is on August 5.  But with the upcoming TKD promotion exam, maybe I’m better off holding off on BJJ until after that.
• Sometimes, class attendence is weird.  This week, my intermediate class had exactly 4 students.  Last week, there were 15.
• I missed last night’s Hapkido class because I got stuck at work.  Can’t remember the last time that happened.
• The red belt I had written about a while ago has been coming regularly to Hapkido classes.  It’s good for him and he is enjoying it.  He might still be a bit frustrated with TKD, but he’s fitting in nicely with a different focus to his training.

BJJ, Hapkido, TKD, Training

I really didn’t mean to go nearly two weeks between posts.  I actually thought I posted a few days ago, but it turns out I merely left it as a draft.

Here’s my current workout plan that I started last Tuesday:

Sunday: P90x upper body/abs
Monday: Advanced TKD; Kali
Tuesday: P90x upper body/abs; Teaching beginner TKD
Wednesday: Hapkido; Teaching intermediate TKD; Advanced TKD
Thursday: Rest!
Friday: P90x upper body/abs; Hapkido
Saturday: TKD (90 minutes)

There are several P90x upper body routines: Chest & Back; Shoulders & Arms; Chest, Shoulders & Triceps; and Back & Biceps.  I’ve only tried the first two so far, and they are definitely good, challenging workouts.  The Chest & Back workout involves lots of chin ups, so for me that involves cheating (only lifting some of my body weight).  My shoulders just aren’t that strong yet.  My left arm is far weaker than my right — my left arm will fail on the final move while my right could have done more weight/reps.  Hopefully that left arm will catch up.  I haven’t had issues with my surgically repaired shoulder doing the lifting programs.  When I first started doing push ups (a couple of months back), the scar tissue would crackle and pop, but that is no longer happening.  So full speed ahead with strengthening.

Another quirk to my workout schedule is that I like to play tennis.  I almost invariably play with the same guy, and we keep it very light and active when we play.  We don’t bother serving or playing games, we’ll just rally back and forth workout ground strokes, approaches, and point construction.  So it is a good cardio workout.  We often play on Sunday (when my partner isn’t injured), so that will make for a tough double workout on those days.  We’ll see how that goes.

Fitness, Training

Yesterday I talked about my weight and my fitness goals.  My position at the time was that I’m doing a whole lot of exercise, so maybe I should just let the nutrition thing slide and continue to do the things that are maintaining my weight, but not allowing it to drop.

But the more I think about it, the less defensible that position is.  As I stated, I’m training or teaching martial arts around nine hours per week.  And I think I’m going to make an honest attempt to continue with the P90x program.  Today was the Plyometrics workout, which is a 58-minute DVD of jumping around in different ways.  (Side note: one of the four doing the workout on the DVD has a prosthetic lower right leg, which astounds me.)  I’m sore from yesterday’s chest/back/ab workout, but I’m not dead from it.  Tonight I did the hour-long plyometrics, then went to the dojang for a black belt TKD class (thankfully mostly hand techniques), then I stayed for the Kali class (which, unfortunately for my tired legs, had plenty of footwork drills).

Back at the ranch (as one of my college professors loved to say), the fact is that if I’m going to add an daily hour-long workout to my martial arts routine and I’m also going to play tennis hopefully once or twice per week, I’m starting to push 20 hours per week of exercise.  And I can’t be bothered to spend maybe an hour or two per week researching nutrition and meal planning?  That doesn’t seem to make much sense.

Part of my mental hangup with changing my diet is not feeling sure that I know what direction to go.  There has been so much misinformation over the years regarding nutrition, that it is tough to feel confident in anything I read.  Among the martial arts blogs I read, there have been two nutrition programs that have stood out with positive reviews: Precision Nutrition and Fat Loss Troubleshoot/Metabolic Repair Manual.  Sometimes all those testimonials seem over the top, but I think I’d have a much higher level of confidence following one of those programs than trying to do my own thing (which is working soooo well for me).  Both of those programs are much more expensive than a simple diet book, but they both come with plenty of extras that should make it worth my while.

So I’ll mull over it a bit longer, and almost certainly come to the conclusion that if I’m willing to spend hundreds of dollars on exercise videos, that $77 or $97 isn’t too much to pay for something that has the potential to fundamentally alter my diet for the better.

Fitness, Training

Periodically our dojang will change the training schedule up a bit.  Usually this is due to changing demographics within the school.  For instance, a couple of years ago there were a number of juniors and seniors in high school — but now those students are off to college.  When I first got my black belt, there was a black belt-only class on Friday night.  A black belt couple from out of town would come to the dojang for that class and stay nearby for the following morning’s class as well.  All told, there were usually a dozen or so in class.  It was the high point of my training week — I was a new black belt training alongside a dozen other black belts and working on advanced techniques.  Maybe nine months after I got my black belt, attendance had dropped to the point where the class was no longer sustainable.  The out-of-town couple had stopped coming, some others had other regular responsibilities, and the remainder no longer made it as high a priority.

Similarly, there was a poom (junior black belt) class that regularly drew 10-12 advanced children, though maybe a year later it was down to three or four.  Ditto Friday night Hapkido, which had been down to maybe 3 regulars for a number of months.

Most recently, the Monday night Hapkido class fell by the wayside.  Monday was the “advanced” Hapkido class, though the Hapkido program was small enough that it was the same people as in the other, all-level, Hapkido classes.  The schedule change in the fall added a black belt TKD class immediately prior to the Monday Hapkido class, which made for a pretty tough double workout, and most opted to just participate in the TKD class.  In addition, the regular Monday night Hapkido instructor had been having shoulder and medical insurance issues, and he could no longer come to class.  We have several well-qualified Hapkido instructors to fill that void, so it was most likely due more to the schedule change than anything else.

But as one falls, another rises to take its place.  Recently, we’ve seen a strong growth in the Wednesday and Friday Hapkido classes.  Both of those classes are taught by an instructor who lived and trained out in Portland, Oregon (where a number of us periodically go for seminars) until he met one of the black belts from our school, fell in love, married her, and moved out here.  Anyhow, he is a fantastic instructor, a 7th dan with over 30 years of experience.  He runs a very traditional class, and gives us a bit of a different take on Hapkdio than we’ve been used to.  Those Wednesday and Friday classes are up from maybe 4-5 students to 10-12.

It is interesting how different classes wax and wane.  This week, I switched teaching duties with another instructor for the beginner classes (I taught Thursday instead of Tuesday).  The Thursday beginner class was very small (six people) — I’m not sure if the Thursday class is normally that small, or if I caught it on a light day (the Tuesday class is normally at least 10).  The following class, a green belt and up class, was very well attended.

Overall, adult participation has been very light over the last month, though it did pick up noticeably this week.  Here’s hoping for a great summer of training.

Hapkido, TKD, Training

Wow, it has been a while since my last post.  This one is more or less to let you know that I’m still around and still training.

This past weekend was one of food indulgence.  So now I have some weight to lose.  I’m going back on my 6-day diet, and I just finished my grocery shopping for that.

Training has been on a bit of a hiatus; between family obligations and a long weekend, I only trained Monday and Tuesday of last week.  Last night was a back-to-basics class, which was good.  Tonight I’ll be running a similar type of class for the beginners.  We’ll be running a promotion exam in 10 days, so we’ll be making sure everyone is up-to-date on their requirements.

The dojang roles have now been more clearly defined.  My late instructor’s most senior TKD student (5th dan) is officially in charge of the TKD program.  He ran that basics class last night during the black belt class last night, and he’s the final word on how we do things in that art.  Our 7th dan Hapkido instructor is officially leading the Hapkido program, no surprise.  And one of our other master instructors is in charge of the Kali program.

Our schedule will be changing slightly in three weeks.  The changes are mostly to push the kids classes a little later in the day.  4:30 was a struggle for parents and instructors.  Well, instructors who aren’t me, anyway, since I don’t help out with those classes.  I’ll still be leading the Tuesday beginner adult class as well as the Wednesday intermediate class.  A kali class will be replacing the Monday night Hapkido class, which had fallen off the map anyway as it immediately followed a high energy black belt TKD class.  People just ran out of gas and weren’t staying for that Hapkido class.

Now I’m off to do a cardio workout prior to teaching my class tonight.

Fitness, TKD, Training

This past week I was able to rejoin some of the advanced TKD classes.

• Monday: Class focused on Hapkido-type drills, and I took part in ones that weren’t troubling for my shoulder.  I did a few very low soft rolls on my good side, but I didn’t want to take any falls.
• Tuesday: In teaching the beginner adult class, I focused on one-step sparrings.
• Wednesday: In teaching the intermediate adult class, the focus was on poomsae.  In the advanced class, the focus was again on poomsae; due to the way the class broke down, I worked with three pre-teen red belts on Tae Geuk Pal Jang, the last of the student forms.
• Saturday: This week, the Saturday class was a Kali class.  I actually did some two-stick hitting, though I was very careful of my bad arm.  Not a particularly intense cardio-type of class, but it was fun to be working sticks again.

In addition to the classes, I used the exercise bike (I think) four times this week, for between 35 and 40 minutes at a time.  Things are going pretty well.

Hapkido, TKD, Teaching, Training