Things don’t always go as planned

I am about to finish up week 5 of my 8 Week Strength training block. As mentioned on my last post, the last week or so of training has been less than ideal due to lower back issues. In general, the skills and cardio training are working ok, but the strength training is suffering. Kind of a problem when the primary focus is supposed to be strength training...

Starting next week I’ll be traveling for a couple of weeks. My original plan was to power through to Week 6, improving the strength as much as possible in those first 5 weeks, and then maintain on the trip by improvising some strength work here and there, as I won’t have regular access to a gym while I’m gone.  It’s disappointing that the back problem halted the momentum, but it is what it is... I didn’t make as much gain in the strength department as I’d hoped, but I did gain some. I’ll take it.

When I get back, I’ll have about a week to ramp back into Fight Prep mode, getting ready for Superfights in July.

Old Fart's Dilemma

My training has suffered a bit over the last week and a half due to stiffness in my lower back.  I'm not sure what triggered it - one morning it just felt a little bit stiff. I am quite sure that ignoring common sense and doing deadlifts in the gym that day made it worse. Maybe if I'd been smarter I just would have had to deal with it for a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks (and counting)...

The first few days afterward I took it easy, no training at all. Then I eased back into the gym and found that staying active seems to make it feel better, at least for awhile. I've also started taking a more aggressive rehab approach:  ibuprofen for the inflammation, lots of foam rolling and light stretching to loosen it up, and liberal applications of the heat pad in the evening. So far so good, but I'm not there yet.

What do you do for lower back problems?

Learning From Experience

I do a lot of research on training - I'm always looking to see how the best of the best are approaching their strength and conditioning, their skills improvement, their nutrition, etc...

But nothing beats learning from experience. Some of what you see in the research might not apply to you, some of it is taken out of context, and some of it is just plain B.S. It is always good to do some research - there is no sense re-inventing the wheel. If it makes sense, sounds logical, by all means use it! But when you keep a detailed training journal, over time you can really start to see what works {and what doesn't work} for you.

Here are a few key learnings I've taken over the last few years of journaling my training:

• Strength can be maintained quite well with just one strength training session per week. Strength gains can be realized with just two sessions per week. More than two strength sessions per week seems to be overkill for me.
• Strength levels do not tend to taper off until well over a week - when tapering down training before a fight, I can stop the strength work at least a week ahead of the fight without fear of reducing strength levels.
• Of all the different attributes, strength is probably the easiest to maintain, but the hardest to build back up once I lose it. Consistency is key.
• Cardio levels begin to drop more quickly - a couple days off is ok, but more than 4 days off and I start to see a drop.
• Cardio capacity {particularly the high intensity variety}during training is very much affected by mental state. Quite often I am limiting myself with my mind. I sometimes come into a session with some sort of lame excuse to limit the intensity or output, and then I realize when I am done with the session that I could have gone plenty harder. The mind is everything!
• I have a severe allergic reaction to stretching. Not really - but time after time I have listed as a priority improving my flexibility, I have laid out a plan to improve it, and then I have let that plan fall to the wayside. I'm not sure how to fix that at the moment.
• Learning new skills is fun and exciting, and keeps the training fire stoked and burning hot. My recent experimentation with boxing and kickboxing is a prime example. In knockdown karate, my improvements of late are small, incremental, hardly noticeable. But in boxing I feel I'm making big improvements every week {when you are starting off at zero any improvement is noticeable}. It feels good to get better at something.

 This is what I've learned about my training. Your own experiences may vary, but you'll never know until you start writing it down.

Live It Up!

 Days off are always more fun than sitting in the classroom.
You are trained from a young age to base your life around dribbles of allocated vacation. Be grateful for them.

 I shamelessly stole this from Jessica Hagy, here.

Obviously this is a sarcastic take on modern society. Great reminder not to wait for your next vacation to live your life!

Karate Face

When Sandboy puts on his karate face, things get serious...

Commitment

Sandgirl has been struggling a bit with her karate. In the beginning she, like most students, was able to cruise through and keep up with expectations solely by working in class. In the early stages, she actually looked really good for her age and level without having to do all that much any work on her own.

Now however, her next test is 4^th kyu green belt, which is a big step. Class time alone is no longer enough to really learn all the new skills and katas and still keep the old stuff fresh. On top of that, the expectations for her technique are higher – if she is to become a green belt, it is no longer acceptable to have a sloppy stance or a loose fist. She was due to test for green last December but she wasn’t ready, and she was ok with that. Now the class is having a grading again in April, and we again made the decision for her not to test (we worked together a good bit this past week – she made some real improvement, but it was too little too late). She is butted up squarely against the green belt wall.

One of the co-leaders of our dojo said something to me recently that made a lot of sense. He said that this is the level where students begin to realize that it will take a true commitment to continue. It is no longer something new that they are experimenting with, they can no longer take a casual approach and expect to keep up. Now questions are asked and decisions are made: Am I ok with continuing and barely getting by? Do I have time to invest outside of class to practice? Most importantly: How bad do I really want this?

The answer to this last question really determines the answers to all the others. Unfortunately, for many the answer is “not all that much,” and they drop out.  But that’s fine – that’s a part of the normal turnover for virtually every dojo in existence. Karate is not for everyone, and this is precisely where many people realize that.

Regardless of how Sandgirl answers that question for herself, I’ll look forward to helping her along her path in whichever direction it takes her.

Building the Foundation

We had a fantastic trip to Puerto Rico - lots of exploring, hiking, sampling the local food and enjoying the beautiful beaches. There was no training, no diet, no worries...

{Head over here to my wife's blog for pics from the trip}

In my last post before the trip (see here) I talked about prepping for the upcoming Superfights tournament in July. Up to that point, my training had been erratic due to a hectic work schedule, but now I'm back from the trip, work is more or less back to normal, and I can focus on repairing the foundations of my strength and conditioning.

I'm in week 3 of my 8 Week General Endurance / General Strength Block, and things are already feeling a lot better. I'm already getting pretty close to my previous strength levels, the cardio is coming back despite a chest cold I've been fighting, and I feel like my strikes are landing pretty solid on the bag and pads.

Here's a rough weekly overview of what the training looks like:

Monday: 
Skills - bag and pad work, footwork, partner drills, sparring, etc...

Tuesday:
Strength - basic heavy lifts, sets and reps in the 3x3 to 5x5 range

Wednesday:
Cardio - usually via skills work. Skills circuits, mixed in with burpees, running, rope skipping, etc...

Thursday:
Skills - a repeat of Monday

Friday:
Strength - early in this block will be a repeat of Tuesday, but as the training block goes by I'll start migrating from basic compound lifts to more dynamic / explosive stuff, like plyos, hill sprints, etc...

Saturday:
Cardio - like on Wednesday

Sunday:
Rest (everybody needs a rest day!)