Strong Pwn strong.
I’m silently taking notes of your training, trying to learn. One day I’ll mimic your workout, with much much lesser weight of course.
And I love to read about you coaching the kid. That’s a gift to be able to do it. Keep up the good work
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@mattjp Thanks man. If I can get down to the floor without blowing out more tissue, I’ll be set, haha.
@simo74 Thanks man!
@kdjohn Hah, thanks dude! Those hundreds milestones become big ones. The high handle trap bar has been nice for giving me something else to aim for.
@mr.v3lv3t Thanks man. They’ve been a blessing for keeping the weight on the bar low. I got burnt out on heavy supplemental work.
@mortdk Oh man, I’m terrified of what anyone could learn from me, haha. Definitely interested in how it turns out for you. And thanks. As much as it sucks that the world had to shut down, all this time together has been a blessing.
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TKD lesson was interesting today. First day at orange belt, so went over a few basics and then introduced new material to get them excited. Went over the knifehand strike, which is goofy but part of the new form and a good introduction on striking at different angles. Then introduced the roundkick by having them lean against a wall so they could focus more on the kick vs balance. They actually had a very strong handle on how that kick is supposed to work and how it relates to chambering of kicks in TKD. We talked about kicking with the instep if we’re in shoes or kicking with the ball of the foot if barefoot. I was honestly surprised at how well they picked it up.
What ALSO surprised me was how much they struggled with the Thai roundhouse, which I taught them after the roundkick. I honestly thought this would be very intuitive, since it’s just swinging a leg and smashing it into someone. I think my biggest mistake was demonstrating it to my kid and showing them how I spin through the kick when it’s done against the air. In my head I’m like “Hey look: a kick so hard it makes you spin.” What my kid picked up was “We’re doing spins and maybe there’s a kick in there somewhere”, so they just sorta tazmanian deviled a bunch.
Normally the progression I like to do when teaching a new movement is practice it in the air, then practice it at a human in the air, then on pads, then in one steps, then sparring (eventually). However, I had to change things here and bring out the pads, because my kid just wasn’t figuring that the intent was to smash the leg into a target. On the air, they’d eventually get the leg out, but it was just hanging out. Once I got out the thai pads, things started clicking a little bit.
I didn’t spend much time refining techniques today: just wanted to get their feet wet so that they knew what we’d be focusing on. I’m teaching them that the roundkick is a kick done with the front leg, while the roundhouse is a kick with the back leg. I feel like that’s just going to make things easier for now. I taught them that the snap kick and push kick are front leg kicks as well, so now we have front and back leg kicks to use.
EDIT: Totally forgot about this guy in the basement
We were down there and I spied it. Called the kid over and the roundhouses immediately clicked. Like a Jr banana bag, and since it’s just air, zero fear in committing to the kick. Gonna drill on this for a while, but this looked great.
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Have you noticed any changes in your conventional deadlift since training TPD so diligently?
I’m curious on the implications extensive training on TPD would have. I trained side handle deads very heavy leading up to nationals and got double digits on a 720 frame and my conventional deadlift in turn felt very strong. PR’d on it less than a month after not even having training it, albeit sub-700.
I notice, even off mats, the TPD pull does challenge the stability of your low-back, regardless of the upright position. I wonder if that less-significant taxing of the lumbar/core (yet just significant enough) is what enables me to just be stronger at pulling virtually any way, because it primed my CNS and blew up my back muscles.
Curious on your thoughts.
Well if nothing else, they are excellent for blowing out blood vessels, haha. That aside, the big reason I do them is to get my body used to handling heavier loads than it does on the conventional deadlift. Even though the conventional is mechanically more difficult, it now isn’t the absolute most weight my body handles. The instability probably plays into there as well.
Hard to say the impact so far. I grew big enough to change my leverages, but now that I am getting back I FEEL stronger. I may have to tighten the belts again soon and really see what I can do. But if nothing else, the trap bar is making me stronger in general, which is enough.
Yesterday, I did 4 closes with the 2.5, then 14 with the 2 and 35 with the 1. I used forced closes to make the left hand match the right.
My right shoulder has been loose in the socket the past few days. Feels minorly subluxed. Tends to happen as I get leaner. I did 20 NG chins and 60 band pull aparts today, and may go about doing that daily to see if it’ll help keep it stable.
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Such an uncomfortable feeling, when you go to grab something awkwardly or keep the shoulder extended for too long and you can feel it almost start to slip. Dunno if that happens to you, but I have a chunk of bone in my left shoulder that popped off during a dislocation years ago, and it makes for a crappy socket and a permanent risk of dislocation, and occasionally I’ll reach for something and just feel it start to slip.
I’m sure the inside is all sorts of jacked up. The first time I dislocated it, I tore the labrum. I got surgery, but then dislocated it 5 more times on top of that and subluxed it a few dozen, so that didn’t help at all. It’s one of the reasons I got out of combat sports in the first place: I dislocated it twice on an overhand right and twice on a takedown attempt. It’s why I tend to only use the left hand in striking, but trying to get the right back into it (which is most likely contributing to now).
Shoulders suck. Theres a lot of talk about the knee being a crappy joint…and well it is but the shoulder has to be worse.
I screwed mine up just tossing a football around once…wth. Now I have to continually do dislocates and pullaparts through out the week just to do any kind of press pain free. I have a hooked acromion process…could have surgery but if I prehab its usually fine.
No question. I always said, if you were tasked with coming up with a body and you showed your boss a blueprint of a shoulder, you would be fired for showing up to work drunk.
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TKD lesson was nearly an hour today. We’ve got so much material now I have to actually break the lessons apart and only cover some of the curriculum each day, whereas before we could go over everything in half an hour.
Overall it was positive. We learned the first part of “Dan Gun”
Specifically the block and punch on both sides. Was rather proud of myself: taught my kid that it was basically dirty boxing. You use the block to deflect a punch while stepping in to the outside, and then that whole “hand out, step forward and punch” part is grab the opponent (hair, clothes, whatever), pull them into you and punch them in the face.
I still don’t think my kid really “gets” what a punch is. They’re too focused on just getting the arm out. We drilled one-steps, and they were acting like a battering ram: lock the fist out, then run the body into the opponent. We took out the MMA gloves and focus mitts and I tried to get them to really give it a pop. Was still pretty lackluster, but getting there. I gave my kid permission to really punch me in the liver during one-steps, to see if they could generate any sort of power. Toward the end, it was kinda sorta happening, but still something to work on.
Their roundkicks in the air look real sharp. Seems they have an easier time with those vs front kicks. Got down in the basement and drilled the rear roundhouse on that inflatable bag I showed before. My kid has legit devastating kicks. Their roundhouse and push kicks are things I wouldn’t want my connective tissue on the end of, which I know first hand because they like to kick me straight on my ACL reconstructed knee with the blown out hamstring.
That said, sh*t, those moves are Muay Thai, not Tae Kwon Do. Funny that…
Still struggling a bit with the psychology part of things. Once my kid gets frustrated, learning is pretty much over. However, my kid gets frustrated LEARNING things, so it’s a bit of a cycle. Furthermore, once they get frustrated, they do this weird perpetual motion thing where they keep doing the thing they’re struggling with worse and worse so that they can get more and more frustrated about it. That’s hard for me to wrap my head around. It happened today when they were trying to change stances during the form, and it happened hard when I had them try throwing the roundhouse with their left leg as the rear leg instead of the right leg. That second part blew my mind: I legit didn’t think that was a big ask, but they looked at me like I just asked them to eat the sun. They threw anything BUT a roundhouse at the bag. Hook kicks, cresent kicks, front kicks, lateral knees, all things I hadn’t taught them, but they were adamant they weren’t going to throw a left leg roundhouse that day.
I tried to remember a lesson from last time, and had them end the session with those right leg roundhouses. They were rocking the bag there, which was great for them, but also blew my mind they couldn’t do it with the left side. It wouldn’t such a big deal in Muay Thai, where you can just be an orthodox or southpaw, but TKD is big on fighting from both sides.
Taught my kid the trick about throwing down the right arm to get the hip to turn in the roundhouse. They picked it up pretty well.
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Without knowing anything about fighting, I can see how this would be hard. Just experimenting right now, I can stand on my left leg and wave my right leg around in different directions a whole lot easier than vice versa.
I was a skater when I was younger, and a big thing in that is being able to do tricks “both ways.” I’m goofie footed and only practiced that way for my first year and it made it really hard to get comfortable going the other way.
So at least you’re catching it now!
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Just watching a Dan John lecture on Epistemology and who shows up? Bosu squat Barry. Looks like your blog might have a famous fan.
@jshaving I definitely appreciate the differences in sides. I’m an orthodox fighter, and though I CAN throw punches and kicks southpaw, it’s absolutely not nearly as effective as when I’m orthodox. The thing is, the thai roundhouse is a brutal kick, not just in terms of the damage it does, but how it’s executed. Whereas the TKD roundkick is complex in terms of execution (picking up the leg, chambering it, pointing the knee, picking up the toes to hit with the ball of the foot), the thai roundhouse is swinging your leg like a baseball bat and smashing the shin into the other dude. Basically, find the hardest part of your leg and slam it into someone. And yeah: it’s got more to it than that when you dig deep into it, but as far as learning the basics of it goes, it just seems like an “obvious” kick to make, which is why watching my kiddo do so many more complex things was mind blowing, haha.
There was an old infographic back in the day that did a great job showcasing all the differences, but here’s a video of the two
His TKD style kick is a little different than what I learned, as he’s hitting with the shin rather than the ball of the foot/instep. Shorten the range a touch. But close enough. And that’s what’s nutty: my kid can TKD roundkick with either side just fine, but the roundhouse was throwing them off. I have a feeling they’ll get it next time though. They seem to have breakthroughs after a day or 2 to marinade.
Edit: True to form, called them down to the basement today and they got it. Not as good as the right, but good enough.
@dagill2 Hah, if only. That image was old the first time I used it. Been making the rounds FOREVER: I just made it a running gag.
Got my annual physical today. Heart rate was 58, blood pressure 122/77, right eye tested 20/17, left eye 20/15, and I was honestly having issues with the eye test fogging up while I was wearing a mask that I think I coulda scored better. Clocked in right at about 200lbs bodyweight. Got some labs done: should hopefully get the results soon. They informed me that next year I get to do an EKG. I’m just glad it wasn’t a prostate exam.
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Thought you might enjoy this.
Whenever people want to turn their nose up at traditional striking arts like TKD and karate, I direct them to a Swiss fighter named Andy Hug. The guy was an absolute monster back in his prime, and used all kinds of rarely seen kicks to demolish his opponents; stuff like crescent kicks and axe kicks were a regular part of his arsenal.
Granted, he had additional training outside of his karate background, and he trained kyokushin so he was familiar with contact, but it just goes to show that a traditional art trained with the right mindset can be devastating.
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Oh year the old damn I’m lucky I didn’t get the prostrate exams from the hit nurse 
maybe next time
@kdjohn Gotta love the blue eyed samurai! Him and Mas Oyama in general. I always thought Kyokushin was cool and wanted to learn it, but could never find a school. But these days, I find the idea of kicking someone in the head tough. Not physically: I just don’t like hurting people that bad. Another reason I stepped away from combat sports. Don’t mind taking the hits, but don’t have the killer instinct. Somehow punches seem more humane, haha.
You ever check out Laurence Kenshin on YouTube? Does some great striking breakdowns. Has a good one on Hug.
@simo74 I am just not ready to be that old, haha.
And if a nurse is doing your exam: you are being scammed…
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I thought there was something suspicious about that nurse when she started emptying bins and mopping the floor after my exam 
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TKD lesson went very well today. Warmed up with Chon Ji, so we could focus on all the basics. Still don’t think my kid “gets” upper body attacks. We did some mit work and I caught that they were stopping before making contact. Taught them the whole “strike beyond the mitt”. My kid asked “Doesn’t that hurt?” And I go “The other guy, yeah.” But that, I think, shows the issue: too focused on avoiding pain. I get it: the feet and shins are a lot hardier than the hands. We may do more gloved work so they can get comfortable, but I’d still like to see commitment when striking the air.
Taught them their first combination: front leg push kick-rear leg roundhouse. Biggest issue was landing that push kick in the right spot for the follow up roundhouse: my kid tends to bounce off the target and switch stances. Still, good enough for the day, and we got to have a conversation on how/why we’d employ that combo. Left leg roundhouses looked significantly better. Talked a lot about turning the hips over: showed my kid how you can get all your power from that even with a “slow” kick compared to quickly rushing out the kick and not turning.
Follow up squat workout
AM WORKOUT
Buffalo Bar Squats
5xBar
5x140
3x230
1x320
1x370
REST PAUSE (12 deep breaths between sets)
12x410
3x3x410
2x2x410
2 minute rest
10x230
Notes: Significant improvement over the last week. I’m about 95% healed in the hamstring: could just barely feel it start to pull on that very last rep of the topset and decided to cash in on the victory. Left groin is feeling better too: still tender, but not like it’s been sawn in half. My conditioning has dropped significantly under the heavy weights, so I nickle and dimed it to my goal rep total and then just got under the bar one more time to condition myself to get used to that feeling. It was actual those final 10 reps that sucked the most: connective tissue was not having it at that point.
Right before the workout, the kid wanted to know what a jump kick looked like. I did the first jump front snap kick I had done since about 2002 and just about retore that hamstring, haha. I at least had enough awareness to know it was a bad idea, so I didn’t fully extend the kick, but could definitely feel the pull on it. All this time limbering up has been good: I can kick well above my waste to about shoulder/chin level, but I’m still not quite what I was. In time.
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The move at around 1:30 when he kicks the leg out from the dude trying to kick him with the opposite leg was my favorite part of that.
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