Conditioning/workouts/training tips [Archive]

Crafty Dog

03-09-2010, 12:23 PM

Boo Dog is one of the best of our current fighters. His grappling, kicking, and MMA skills are of a very high level too. ((He regularly can hit people in a DB Stickfight with a backhand-spinning heel hook kick combo btw). He spars regular with UFC fighter Manny Gamburian.

As you would expect, he is very athletically fit and recently I have started his push up routine.

It is very simple. Throughout the day, do many moderate rep sets. Thus if one does ten sets of 10 during the day, that was a 100 rep day. Do ten more the next day. The idea is to do it six days a week, increasing in reps every day. Over not too long one should be doing some fairly impressive numbers e.g. in four months one should be doing over 1,000 PUs per day.

Boo likes during the bottom half of the motion in order to focus on the chest. He currently is north of 1,400 reps a day.

OTOH I am well below that :-) though in defense of my ego I hasten to add that I prefer full reps.

bmcoomes

03-10-2010, 09:33 AM

Can I ask what the value of those massive numbers of push-ups is?
After some time doing that you’re going to overspecialize and get diminished returns. I’d guess it would happen very rapidly with the amount of stress you’d put on your self with those numbers. The fitness and skill carry over of the basic push-up is very limited in the field of martial arts in my opinion.

gagimilo

03-10-2010, 11:03 AM

Obviously, the point here is in the method, not the particular exercise per se. The same approach could be used with squats, situps, pullups, whatever...

bmcoomes

03-10-2010, 11:29 AM

I understand the method it's the grease-the-groove also known as Neural Endurance (if I remember correctly). My point is why people are after these huge numbers when they really don't get you any were but injured. Now I'm all for conditioning I think it's a large missing part of most martial arts training but conditioning and fitness is specific to the activity.

Crafty Dog

03-10-2010, 02:07 PM

I had a relatively long response to this yesterday, but see now I must have screwed up somehow in posting it-- and don't have it in me to redo it :-)

So, the short version is I really like the results so far and will move on to something else (e.g. something I call "Tai Chi weight lifting") when I feel the rate of progress diminish.

Changing subjects, I am getting ready for a 5 day tracking course will be be on very hilly terrain. We will return to a base camp every evening, but will be carrying 45 pounds for 4-12 miles each day. With two weeks of conditioning (I have 9 weeks to go) on Monday I did 4.48 miles with 50 lbs at a rate of 3.22 MPH and an average pulse of 100.

The wisdom shared with me about acclimating to footwear early has begun to sink in.

I think I have pretty good arches, but I am feeling a little bit achy in them so I may be getting some arch supports today for tomorrow.

The plan had been to go 3X a week, but now I think to go every 3d day instead with other aerobic work on the other days (I'm thinking to focus on peak heart rate today with rows to balance out all my PUs).

My upper back now feels comfortable enough with the weight to begin hills tomorrow. There's a really nice long incline down the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean about 10 minutes from here (a man could go further and do worse) so I figure to go up and down it for what feels like a suitable challenge for the day. Traction should be a bit of an issue, so I will get to begin exploring that aspect of the experience too.

TAC!

Crafty Dog

03-16-2010, 04:14 PM

I had forgotten how beautiful Bluff Cove is. I just got back from my second workout there. Both days were competely unweighted in the Vibram barefooting shoes so the uneven dirt/gravel/rock path provided outstanding work for my feet, ankles, and calves. I think this will really help as I begin to focus on longer and further on weighted days. Next weighted day (tomorrow?) I will be trying out my new "Super Feet" arch supports. At $30 they ain't cheap, but I figure I am worth it.

The Adventure continues!

Crafty Dog

03-18-2010, 07:03 PM

Today:

6.16 miles with 40 pounds, Merrill hiking boots. Started with a 30 lb vest and a 10 lb headband (idea-- acclimate neck to wearing a helmet) and "Superfeet" arch supports. After one mile, the change in my feet's height in the boots due to the Superfeet Arches hinted at blisters, so I took them out and all was well. After two miles my neck had enough for a first day with the 10 lb headband, so I took it off and re-inserted 10 lbs of weight into the vest so as to maintain the 40 lbs.

Average speed 3.05 MPH

Crafty Dog

03-30-2010, 08:01 PM

8.12 miles with 40 lbs at 3.25 MPH. First half was with ten of the pounds being a headband and for the second half I took off the headband and added ten pounds to the vest so as to stay at forty overall.

Crafty Dog

05-01-2010, 01:04 PM

I've forgotten report on this for several weeks now.

Since then I've done

*9 miles with 40 pounds

*8.4 miles and 300 squats (10 every lap) with 40 pounds.

Then I got word that the tracking course for which I am preparing has been postponed until July (July in the AZ Sonoran Desert, oh joy!) which was a bit of a let down, so in conjunction with our DB Tribal Gathering of the Pack I took it relatively easy for about 10 days and started back in the groove on Wednesday with 50 pounds for a mere 3.12 miles. I could have done more, but I was just to fg bored going around the same .28 mile dirt loop. I need to find our trail up in Palos Verdes for variety! Today I will be going to Bluff Cove after teaching and doing my routine there with 50 pounds.

Crafty Dog

05-05-2010, 09:11 AM

http://www.youtube.com/user/DBMAVIDS?feature=mhw4#p/a/u/0/pD7QO0m9hKc (http://www.youtube.com/user/DBMAVIDS?feature=mhw4#p/a/u/0/pD7QO0m9hKc) shows where I do my hilly rucking routine. (150 feet in .33 of a mile according to mapmyquest.com ) A man could go further and do worse! This clip is of my first day (3/1/10) and shows me doing it without any weight at all. Anyway, I think I am ready to leave the flat course rucking behind and focus on the hilly work. Yesterday I did 60 pounds for 3 miles (5 round trips). On non-rucking days I do my strength work-- currently focused on a return to heavier weights. (the weights are heavier for me, but the numbers are not impressive at all, I'm "just an old man having a good time") Monday was deadlifts and back (chins, t-bar bench rows. Today will be squats and chest/shoulders, along with rowing machine for cardio.

Carol

05-05-2010, 01:59 PM

Sorry to hear about the desert...but way to go sir! :) :)

Crafty Dog

05-05-2010, 05:34 PM

Carol, I think I'll wait to accept your praise until I actually complete the mission :-)

Changing subjects (well, sort of) I like the way this man thinks:
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article_issue/issue_625#death-march

Carol

05-06-2010, 01:34 PM

Take it as a small "way to go." When you complete the mission, I'll give you a "way to go" that's much larger. :D :D

I like the idea of the NSW mile! Great ideas in the article. I've been looking for new ways to strengthen my stabilizing muscles myself.

The importance from a hiking standpoint -- we use the large muscles in our legs to climb up a hill/mountain. This is what provides the strength and power. However, it is the small stabilizing muscles that get used when climbing down the mountain.

Something that I've heard a lot from people that don't hike is "Going down is the easy part, right?" Its the dangerous part! Far more hikers are injured on the way down than they are on the way up. If you stumble going up the mountain, chances are you get your knees banged up a bit. You fall in to the slope, nothing an ice pack can't cure. Going down, a slip or fall has the potential to be a catastrophe because once you lose all stability, you cannot get it back unless something physically stops you.

I don't have winter gear, so my first hike of the season was up a smaller mountain with an auto road to the top. The climb up involved a good bit of sweating and cursing. The climb down surprised even me. By the time I got towards the bottom, my legs were literally shaking on the downward steps. I won't let that happen next year. ;)

Crafty Dog

05-17-2010, 08:53 AM

a) Tuesday 6 days ago I did 6 miles with 45 pounds on my Bluff Cove routine. Tomorrow the plan is for 6.67 miles.

b) At the DBMA "Kali Tudo"(tm) Training Camp shoot for our KT-3 DVD Kenny Johnson brought out a beautiful set of wooden Indian Clubs. The metal ones that I had been exposed to previously had felt interesting, but not quite right somehow. OTOH these felt great, so I bought a set for myself. They arrived yesterday and so a new adventure begins.

Crafty Dog

11-13-2010, 09:30 PM

Utlimately I peaked on this routine at Bluff Cove in June with 50 pounds for 8 miles-- then the tracking course was cancelled because the instructor got a big military contract.

So last week, after several months off this routine I returned to it for 2.67 miles (i.e. four round trips) with my Vibram footwear and no weight. My feet, ankles, and calves love this. I regard the ability to run, job, and walk on uneven terrain to be a warrior skill.

PS: BTW, it was a beautiful 85 degrees today so I got to work on my suntan. :-)

Crafty Dog

11-20-2010, 07:52 PM

Squat routine progressing steadily, as is the return to Bluff Cove; my time today for four round trips improved significantly while I kept the heart rate between 117 and 154-- nothing impressive, but pleased with the progress.

Carol

11-22-2010, 04:52 AM

Excellent! I hope to hike my first 4000 footer in the next few days. I'm determined to get that in before my 42nd birthday which is coming up soon.

Crafty Dog

11-24-2010, 07:02 PM

Spent the $15 to go to a special gym today (The Yard in Hermosa Beach) frequently the site of various pro athletes. One of my favorite gizmos there is the "powerplate", a device which vibrates in a special way and releases muscles, blah blah; it is excellent for performanc preparation.

So I did squats (workout 4 or 5 in my squat cyle) and accomplished today's mission (5x195) rather easily. Yes, the numbers are humble, but for me it works best to plug along steadily adding 10 pounds a week until the rate of return diminishes-- typically somewhere around 5x255. Then I am done and on to some other routine.

Also, for some strange reason I did incline bench today. I have no idea why I prefer incline to flat bench, but I do.

Crafty Dog

11-26-2010, 01:51 PM

For several months now my hip joints (especially the right one) and my sacral joint have been really annoyed and my usual methods for putting things right have been working very slowly. One of the things I like about the Powerplate is that it allows me to release my quads in a way that for me other methods just don't get as well.

Lo and behold! My hip and sacral joints are feeling quite a lot better and it occurs to me that perhaps the underlying problem all along included my quads being really tight-- perhaps induced by the downhill portion of the rucking training I was doing.

Crafty Dog

11-27-2010, 01:27 PM

My 11 year old son is closing the gap on me in the 100 yard dash. Yesterday he challenged me to a 1/4 mile , , , but I had to go to BJJ ;-) I think I will be working my quarter mile when he's not looking LOL.

Rolled BJJ for about an hour last night, most of it with a 20 year old purple whom I had the satisfaction of making sweat in between my taps. TAC!

Crafty Dog

12-01-2010, 10:02 PM

Started Bikram Yoga (the one done in a room over 100 degrees) yesterday and did my second class today. Seems like a good training for December. :-)

Squats tomorrow!

Crafty Dog

12-17-2010, 03:21 PM

I have been doing the Bikram 3x a week and like it A LOT. There seems to be tremendous synergy between it and my other workouts. Even my own stretching routine is giving me more results :-)

The squat cycle has progressed to where the weight now challenges me. Wednesday was 5x235. I am not trying to impress anyone with this number! Indeed, quite the contrary, I am admitting how very ordinary I am! Next week I will shoot for 5x245 and 10 pounds more each week until I peak out. Usually this is at 255, but I have been trying some new things since I last hit 255 and dream of doing better than that.

My squat cycle in the spring was unsuccessful because the combination of my heavy rucking program and heavy lifting wound up irking my right hip joint to the point where I dropped the squats and deadlifts so I could stay on track with the rucking.

This afternoon is my open mat jits roll over at Rigan Machado's mat. I have a deranged tendon lock idea from guard that I want to see if I can get heh heh heh.

The Adventure continues!

PeteNerd

12-20-2010, 05:24 PM

Crafty Dog

12-20-2010, 05:52 PM

My squat program is so easy even a dog can do it :-)

When I begin a cycle, I begin at 3 sets of 10x135 (I'm leaving out the tedious details such as set with bar, set of Roman DLs at 95, etc.) The next week again I do 3 sets of 10x135 and 1 set of 5x155. Following week I build up to 1 set of 5x175; then over the following weeks I increase 10 pounds each week until I cease progressing for two weeks. I do this every 7-9 days and in between I make sure to have a day that really pushes the legs athletically.

For example, I might go to the football field and do 100 yard dashes and a quarter mile or two with some basic football agility drills or I might go to "the Dune" (a monstere sand dune in Manhattan Beach) where I do bear crawls up and sprints down and on the last set down I do frog jumps (i.e. plyometrics with big air time and a soft landing).

That's it.

Last time I did the cycle (excluding the cycle I tried in the spring that was interrupted by injury) was about 2 years ago. I hit 5x255; I hope to beat that this time. I choose 5 reps instead of 1-2 reps because I think it lessens the risks of injury.

PeteNerd

12-20-2010, 06:17 PM

Sounds like a good plan. Why not make some 5lb jumps as you approach your previous max? I'm sure a little more volume wouldn't hurt in that range. I did a linear progression on squats for awhile, and currently i'm adding weight every workout and just repping it out. If i make more than 5 reps I add weight the next time. When i have to reset i'll take 10% off and do it again.

Pete

Crafty Dog

12-21-2010, 09:16 PM

Sounds like roughly the same thing. In my case if I don't hit 5 reps, then I do the same weight the following week(s?) until I do. Then I move up again. That said, if my progress has tapered off this much then by my criteria it is probably time or near time for me to move on to the next thing e.g. leap stalls and related pliometrics.

Crafty Dog

12-25-2010, 06:09 PM

Sometimes I do my squats at a gym where the weights are in pounds, and sometimes I do it at a gym where my weights are in kilos, but the bar is the usual 45 pounds. This yields some weird numbers :-). In the last three weeks my numbers were 5x221, 5x235, and 5x253. This is a faster rate of ascension in the weights than my formula calls for e.g. increase only 7 or let ego chatter drive me to go for an 18 pound jump-- ego won out and I barely made the 5x253 this week. So I think this coming week I will stay at 253 and make sure I nail it with confidence before moving up again.

Crafty Dog

01-02-2011, 01:43 PM

I did Romanian Dead Lifts (which I do with a slight bend in the knee instead of straight legged) instead of squats this week to tune up the hips and hamstrings as well as some single and double legged hamstring curls for peak contraction of the hamstring. Felt like a very good workout (power on the heavy bag was stronger than in many years!) and I was really pysched for this coming week to move up in squats-- which would be territory not seen in many, many years. So what happened? I was carrying a table down the stairs for my wife (awkward size and weight) and slipped and wrenched my ankle. I am not sure yet what this will mean for my squatting or my Bikram for that matter (it has lots of one legged postures). I am not scheduled to squat until Thursday or Friday, so we shall see.

The Adventure continues , , ,

Crafty Dog

02-11-2011, 10:56 PM

Back to back weekends of seminars (three days in both cases) has shot my training routine all to hell. Took my eleven year old son for 30 minutes of mostly walk but some jog on the beach this afternoon. Good for the calves! Tomorrow a full day of privates with some federal LEOs.

TAC!

Crafty Dog

03-04-2011, 11:27 PM

Friday afternoon roll over at Rigan Machado's. Lowest belt there was a purple. They go easy on me now, and mostly my satisfactions come from being as difficult as I can to make tap.

Had a slick new move I picked up from a Stefan Kesting clip of Eric Paulson; got it one time!

Tomorrow some work on the DBMA military program.

TAC!

Crafty Dog

03-27-2011, 08:37 AM

Been continuing to do the Bikram Yoga and an off-shoot thereof that also is in the heated room. The synergy of this work with my other stuff has been outstanding.

Crafty Dog

04-24-2011, 11:00 PM

We were riffing on the DBMA Assn forum about what the best single exercise was. Many of the guys liked the burpee, but that was only until I nominated , , , drum roll please , , , sex.

*Stimulates testosterone production
*Hips and glutes-- range of motion, coordination, and strength
*other muscles depend on which position(s) used
*aerobic
*anaerobic
*reduces blood pressure
*promotes restful sleep
*highly motivating

gagimilo

04-25-2011, 08:33 AM

I would have to argue that sex is not a single exercise, but rather an awesome exercising regime ;-)

Crafty Dog

07-03-2011, 10:28 AM

Sharing an idea here for that rather awesome exercising regime. ;-) Get one of those big exercise balls (a.k.a. a "Swiss Ball"). Place your woman on it bottoms up. :-)o==8 Not only is her back supported this way, but the ball will reciprocate your motion on the front of her pubic area. She will probably feel best with her hands on the floor. Research which size ball she likes best.

dianhsuhe

08-13-2011, 01:26 AM

Started to read this thread because I was curious about that land nav. course, then got interested in your legwork routines as I prepare to fight in my first open Gathering next month, and finally after 4 pages of posts found the Holy Grail of Martial knowledge- the Swiss ball "Dog" style (pun intended) sex move. Thank you sir! Now I just need to go down to the garage to get that pilates ball and my Crafty Dog 31" stick. LOL

Crafty Dog

08-16-2011, 12:23 AM

Well, as we like to say at DBMA "Smuggling Concepts across the Frontiers of Style!" :-)

Crafty Dog

09-09-2011, 07:24 PM

After a hiatus due to extenally imposed barriers, I have returned to my beloved Sand Dune in Manhattan Beach, this time with my son (12 years old) in tow. Currently we are going 2x a week. As always, the work is intense-- the Dune brings TRUTH! The battle cry for my son is to "Unleash the Beast!" in his BJJ. In just 3 weeks the results are impressive. He now brings it longer and harder and is more willing to explode e.g. escape from mount. Also, he now kicks my ass going up the Dune! Where did THAT come from?!? His glee makes it all profoundly worthwhile.

Crafty Dog

12-28-2011, 06:11 PM

Woof All:

To be honest, I go through phases where I don't consistently live up to it, but I hold the idea that, particularly as we get older, it is a good idea to have an all out anaerobic explosion on a regular basis. As Guro Inosanto said to me one time "It is good to know where you are at."

There are various ways this can be done. IMHO one of the best is the all out sprint. For me, this means the one hundred yard dash (one hundred meters for most of the world) and the quarter mile. I know what my time is when I come back to it after I have been away from this for a while, and I know where I usually top out after working at it once a week for 4-6 weeks.
...
I've been travelling a lot lately, but I also recently (about two months ago) had an x-ray done of my hips. The ongoing pain had just gotten to be too much and I finally overcame my aversion to the idea of the radiation and had the x-ray done. While I certainly did not like what I saw and what I learned, it also has changed my training quite a bit in certain respects.

So it was with particular interest that I did my 100 yard dash yesterday for the first time in about three months. I confess to being greatly tickled that I shaved something like .7 seconds off my best time of recent years.

The Adventure continues!
CD