Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

Gave my kid orange belt today.

Had a VERY good lesson: much like Monday’s. Things seemed to be clicking. We drilled footwork, focusing on keeping a strong stance while moving, which I think made one-steps and forms better. Thumbs still get crazy, but significantly less so than they were before. Punches looked strong.

After a 50-ish minute lesson, we did a 10 minute test in front of the audience of my wife. Demonstrated punching, snap kicks, push kicks against a pad, break aways, one-steps (defending against push kicks and punches) and the form. Only mistake I caught was using the wrong block for one of the one steps, but otherwise retention of material was solid and could be demonstrated on command.

I’m excited, as I’ll be teaching them roundkick and knifehand from the TKD curriculum, along with thai roundhouse and hook punches, to add some circular attacks to all the linear ones they’ve learned. Will also be teaching them the second form (Dan Gun), which means learning high blocks and knifehand blocks. Those are…less exciting, haha.

Going to introduce pad work too. My kid seems to be able to keep form long enough that I think they can hit some pads without hurting themselves.

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Congrats to your offspring! Looked like a rocky road from what you said about the last session. If you don’t mind: How old is he/she?

@Koestrizer Much appreciated dude. Last one was rocky, but we had a talk. My kid takes after my wife more than me: when they do something wrong, they beat themselves up over it rather than get excited at the prospect of being able to improve. Basically they hold themselves to a higher standard than I hold myself to, haha. And since we’re different like that, when my kid was getting pissed off, I interpreted it as though they were getting pissed off at me (rather than themselves), so I stopped the lesson short so we could cool off, when really the best thing may have been to let the lesson go and cap it off with a few small victories. I’m tapping back into my instructing background and remembering some stuff, haha. After getting that sorted, we had laid the groundwork for more productive lessons, and once today’s lesson happened I saw a repeat of the great lesson on Monday and knew we had gotten to the point where the fundamentals are THERE: it’s just a question of being in the right headspace.

I try to keep pronouns and gender ambiguous when talking about the kiddo, just because there are a lot of weirdos out there and dudes that hold grudges against me because I lift weights differently than they do. I’ll say my kid is younger than I was when I started learning martial arts, so that’s something I try to keep in mind when I teach. They also didn’t grow up as inundated as it as I was. I really miss the late 80s/early 90s, where martial arts were EVERYWHERE in the media. Ninja Turtles, Karate Kid, Only The Strong, Best of the Best, Surf Ninjas, 3 Ninjas, Bloodsport, etc etc. I’m still a sucker for all of it, haha.


PM WORKOUT

Axle bench press 296
2x10
1x7

Close grip axle bench press 256
1x9
2x6

Swiss bar incline bench 220
1x10
1x7
1x6

Dips
1x45
1x37
2x33

Poundstone Curls
106xAxle

Standing ab wheel between sets of benching
8x8

Notes: 2:45 between sets of benching, 2:00 between sets of dips. My forearms are sore again. Lesson is obvious: benching day after squats causes this to happen. That said, they were sore to the point of agony: just a little reminder the whole time. I imagine the BAS is a bit of a culprit as well.

Had the realization that adding more sets of dips at the end is the obvious way to get in more volume on the back end of these workouts with the short rest periods. I might just add a set per day and then bring it back down to 3 sets when I get back 3 minute rests.

Stubbed my toe on my stair jumps today. Just kinda sucks, but nothing broken.

EDIT:

Finished the day with 3 rounds on the BAS. 2 minutes on, 1 minute skipping rope. Used the MMA gloves. My forearms are starting to ache: I may ease into the MMA gloves. Do a round or 2 and then get back to the 16oz ones. May still need to conditioning the muscles in my forearms after such a long time off.

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I really enjoy following along the journey of you teaching your kid martial arts/ your kid learning martial arts. Incidentally you’ve described a technique as a teacher/ parent/ superior that was described in detail in the book I’ve been reading today. Kinda cool to see that reflected here.

I get that. We are still on the internet after all and every time I look into any comment section of… anything, I am reminded of the horrors that place hoards, haha.

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Definitely appreciate it dude. I’m glad to know the log isn’t going in a weird direction for the people that follow it, haha. Martial arts will always be my first love: it’s been fun going back to it.

And there’s SO much psychology in learning. I’m glad to see I’m stumbling across some academic stuff, haha. What’re you reading about these days detailing it?

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I read a little more psychology and philosophic based books, like for example " Man’s Search for Meaning" or " Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death".
Currently I am reading “Return to The Why Cafe”. Really enjoyed the first book a while back.

That abstract reminded me of a story out of the book in which the character described a difficult situation with his daughter. He realized that he not only had to be a participant of a given situation but also an observer. That way he could empathize with the other person (here his daughter) and realize how he can get through to her by understanding what motivates her and how different she might evaluate the same situation that they are both in together.

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@Koestrizer That’s very well put. It’s definitely a balancing act between being there and being out of there at the same time. When you add in the family element it can be VERY touch. I have to worry about maintaining a relationship of athlete and coach along with parent and child. Which is partially why I want to get my kid some outside instruction. I know, despite my best effort, I can’t be unbiased, and I don’t know if it will be by going easier or harder on my kid.

That said, I did a quick drop in on that Tang So Do place and there were doing jump spin back kicks and it just looked goofy, haha. So hopefully i don’t become one of those dad-coaches that undermines the instruciton.


Was just a generally active day today. Did about 2 hours of lawncare (mowing and edging), build some more sandbags for the BAS, and then the wife and I trained on it. We traded off 1 minute rounds (so that we’d work a minute and rest a minute). During my off minute, I’d do 10 reps of 25lb slamball slams. Used the 16oz gloves. On the final round, I just unloaded alternating hooks until the round was over. Good burnout. Gave it 5 minutes of rope skipping at the end.

After our time on the BAS, Wife hit me with “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t figure out how you can move so slow and generate so much power”. I remain an enigma.

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One of my coaches nailed me with those a couple times. Dropped me both times.

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They hurt like he’ll when you land them. Same with the showtime kick, haha.

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PM WORKOUT

Max Effort Lower

(4) High Handle Trap Bar Mat Pulls
5x155
5x245
3x335
1x425
1x515
1x605
1x695
1x765 (20lb PR)
1x775 (10lb PR)

GIANT SETS (dead-row-chin)

2 second pause high handle trap bar pull 405
3x10

T-bar row 3 plates and a 10
3x10

NG chins (various grips)
3x5
1x14

Notes: 3:45 between heavy pulls, 2:00 between giant sets. Video is a little weird because I got a surprise for my kid’s birthday in the garage and didn’t realize it had gotten on video. In the off chance my kid stumbles on my youtube channel, I didn’t want them to see it. But still wanted to share the video because my hamstring felt great and I hit some crazy grinders on it. Low back was a little sore from bobbing and weaving during boxing yesterday, but not performance limiting.

I really think I’ve stumbled on something awesome with the pause deads. Seems to be going a long way. Same is true with reducing my squatting to once a week and focusing on hammering the back.

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Holy shit dude…you’re knocking on the door of 800. Both reps were just awesome to watch. About a 5-6 second concentric on the first one, and the second one was just an eternity.

Fuck, that got me amped up again. Been sitting here in soggy clothes feeling nauseous up until I saw that.

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Thanks man. Always means a lot from you. My leverages are getting back to where they need to be for strong pulls: just need to keep my connective tissue strong. And, of course, get it from the floor, haha.

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Yeah. Your log and this motivated me to go out and do some swings… that lasted 5 min :joy:

Edit: decided not to be a pussy and knocked out a 100rrp set- unbroken the power of @T3hPwnisher is real

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I love the subtle modesty here.

That’s some crazy weights being moved man.

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Subtle? More like hyperbolic understating

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Much appreciated @dagill2 and @anna_5588 In this particular case, I knew I HAD 765 last week: just wasn’t worth blowing on the hamstring. This was a bit of redemption and then hitting a PR, so more like a 10lb PR vs the 30lbs it looks like.

When I take it to the floor, I’ll be excited. I was capped out at 720 for a while and kept seeing regression, but now I think I’m back on track.

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Man that is awesome. You’re going to pull 800lb this year for sure.

That deadlift is phenomenal, dude.

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Everyone else already said it mate but it’s worth repeating, very nice job, love ya work.

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I always see wild numbers in your log, and because I’m used to seeing them, I think I’ve become desensitized.

That was until, much like @flappinit, I realized you’re on the cusp of 8 hundo. Good lord.

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Said so few people ever. Hell of a job man.

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