The next stage of evolution

[dope540]

started this journal when i started my clinical placement at the beginning of november just to keep me motivated and to keep track of my progress whilst i was there.


glad i did the journal as there was nothing to do where i was, no internet (although i managed to get the net through my mobile internet on my mobile phone half way through my stay there), no tv, no gyms.

the high street was like 10mintues bus ride away but it costed 2 quid to get there and the same back so unless i had to go, i pretty much just stayed in.

so the place was pretty much like a prison.

my workouts were all bodyweight stuff, using whatever i had to use in the room and a few pieces of kit i take with me on my placements.


got a martial arts tournament coming up in the first weekend of december so just wanted to see how things go with the plan and diet i did for the past four weeks.

aiming to place a the tournament but not majorly fussed if not as it's just seeing how this all goes and what tweaks i need to make for my next tournament.

the next tournament, major one, is in february 2009, the WKA english nationals which is also the england team selections for the team to go to the world championships that year. would like to defend and maintain my british title and to do the worlds again. also depends on how busy uni is as i'm in my final year now.

just got to cement my self to the top spot as i've been thereabouts over the past few years, also scores to settle. the guy who won it this year, i beaten last year. missed this year due to it being too expensive and uni.

the one i'm doing in december is on WAKO rules (world amatuer kickboxing organisation) for forms/ katas. its basically split into:

male/ female
kids/juniors/ adults

then in each of them, its further split into:

traditional/ creative

creative is the modern stuff where the person makes their own form up and can do it with or with out music and with or without weapons.

traditional is split into hard or soft style.
soft style is stuf like wushu, some of the kung fu styles, some japanese styles, basically all the fluid and flow-ey styles.

everything else is in hardstyle.
i do itf tkd which is hardstyle but does have some softness to the forms which puts me at a disadvantage as i'm kind of inbetween. but its fun as yo compete with everyone that isn't doing soft style and meet new people.



the WKA competition i normally do, the forms section is split into:

male/ female
kids/ juniors/ adults
then traditional/ creative
creative is the same as in WAKO
traditional is split into chinese/ korean/ hardstyle (japanese)

rules are slightly different for each. for instance in hardstyle, the forms are more power and tension, really old school karate style. whereas in the korean section (tkd and other korean arts) there is a mix of hard and soft in ther forms and the forms generally have more kicks in them.

[dope540]

*i just copied and pasted from my word.doc onto here, so may look a bit funny*



Dope540's cell training.

Decided to start a journal whilst I'm on placement for motivation and to stop me from being lazy.

Date- 2nd November 2008 to 28th November 2008
Location- St Helier hospital accommodation, working at Sutton hospital.

I aim to workout everyday, intensity will vary depending on energy levels and how hard clinic was earlier in the day. Every other day will be tkd workout. Mainly going to be drill work for traditional forms, each technique or section will get drilled at least 20 times, most likely going to be individual technique due to lack of space. Non traditional days will be fitness and general conditioning.


Trying out and seeing what works as I have a competition in the first weekend of December, nothing major, just a testing ground for this routine as my next major competition will be next February for the England team selections and I'm on placement for then as well so would like to see what tweaks needed for this routine.

2nd November-

No workout as travelling most of the day, packed train and little food meant I was cranky for most of the journey.

Got to St Heliers and found out that my room key wasn't left out at security for me, really weren't a happy bunny. If the security wasn't so ugly and fat, I would've ranted. Got put in the doctors on-call rooms on the other side of the hospital. All in all, day was pretty pants. Although I did squeeze a teeny bit of training in. Did some dinosaur training with the large holdall I had moving up and down stairs, the stairs in London Euston took ages.



3rd November-

Had morning off from clinic as I still wasn't cleared to work yet and had to see occupational health and since I had the morning off, I picked up my keys and moved my stuff in the actual place I was supposed to stay.

No workout today either as had to do food shopping when I got back and to also help my placement partner move her stuff as well. More dinosaur training.

Room is a prison cell, well almost. Has a fridge, bed, sink and cupboards under it, some drawers and wardrobes that take up pretty much half the room and a chair and desk. Desk is like a kiddies desk, my laptop just fits on it! Workouts will sometimes incorporate some of the furniture, most of the times I will be doing variations due to space limitations.

4th November-

Easy day at clinic, finished early but just missed the shuttle bus so did some lunges and squats in the car park whilst I waited for the next one. Had a Total MRP as well whilst waiting, got some dodgy looks off the fat consultants.

Got back to flat.

Did a workout using a deck of cards, number cards had number values, royal cards had value of ten, ace either one or eleven and jokers were a wild card but I gave them a value of ten.

Equipment used: Jungle Gym 1 from lifeline fitness USA.

Shuffle cards and all that, place deck face down, turn over top three cards, tot up the values and do target reps.

My exercise choice was push ups ( hands just outside shoulder width, elbows at 35 degrees from body), bodyweight rows and bodyweight squats.
Hooked the JG over my room door and locked the door from the inside to secure the door, adjusted straps so my body was angled 20 degrees off the floor when I grabbed the handles and with arms out stretched.

Push ups followed by rows followed by squats.

The rows killed me the most, really had to grip the plastic handle, had to use rest pause when I got about half way through the workout for rows.

Repeat till deck was exhausted.

Pretty much died on the last set, but still plodded on.

Actual workout time- 40 minutes.

Total time including cool down- 1 hr 10 mins.




5th November-

fairly easy day at clinic, only saw patients in the morning and had a tutorial in the afternoon so had bags of energy left.

Did drill work for traditional forms. Each technique or section was drilled 10 times each side. Some of it was in sections as a couple of movements link together.

Some techniques took longer than others. e.g. a basic stance with a front punch takes less time and is easier than slow motion sidekick at head height with a count of 4 seconds from chamber to full extension.

Started to tire halfway through.

Actual workout time- 50mins.



6th November-

Absolutely knackered today. Half the patients in the morning didn't turn up and in the afternoon only saw one patient. I was so bored it exhausted me.

Did thruster tabata today, soooooo fun and really killed my shoulders:
12
11
11
10
10
10
8
9


Used my 'mega' resistance Reebok band for the shoulder press, placed the band so it was behind my forearms so it pulled my arms back, keeping my chest out.

Then used my JG for some fun, still getting to grips with it at the moment.

JG push ups- hooked over back of door and adjusted straps till I was about 35-40 degrees from the ground. Had straps underneath me as if I had them the other way, the straps sit on my arms and get stabilised.

Managed 3 sets of 5 push ups on JG.

Bodyweight rows on JG- 3x 10, body and legs straight at 10 degrees from the ground.


Triceps extension- extensions are so fun on this, found it worked my triceps, rear delts and lats slightly. Probably to help stabilise my body. Again 3x5



Deadbugs- 15 each side.

V- sits- 25 reps.

Bronco burpees- 20 reps.


Actual workout time- 50mins.

[dope540]

7th November-

traditional workout, mainly dynamic tension with sections of forms.

Took 20mins in total.


8th November-

no workout as went to London to meet up with a couple of mates who are also doing clinical placement in and around London. Walked 15 miles overall in the day, including time when we got lost.



9th November-

JG workout with deck of cards, similar to the previous workout with cards.

Exercises were incline push ups, pistols and bodyweight rows. Followed by 3x10 burpees.

Really caned my back and legs as majority of the high value cards came up on the leg and back workout. Worst was 38 bodyweight rows.

Had to use rest-pause when just over half the deck was gone.

Approx 1hr.



10th November-

easy day at clinic so had bags of energy left.

Did traditional forms drill work.

Split it into sections instead of individual techniques and drilled 10 times each side.

Upper chest and triceps still hurting from yesterday.



11th November-

Boring day at clinic, spent most of the day doing stuff that is not relevant to helping me pass my course. But spoke to the tutor that I want to see more patients and she said it was cool, so hopefully from tomorrow I'll be left on my own and just do my own clinic.

Triceps still slightly sore from two days ago.

Did tabata thrusters and some general conditioning with deck of cards.

Tabata:

14
13
13
12
10
12
10
10

Conditioning:

knuckle push ups with elbows tucked in close to body.
Blue woody band bent over rows
triceps extension on the jungle gym
blue woody band rdl
typewriter push ups
blue woody band rows.

Typewriter push ups: hands super wide, fingers pointing outwards. The body is as low as you can go without touching the ground and shift from one hand to the other hand. So when you are shifted over to the right hand side, the right arm should be bent and tucked in close to the body and the left arm is out straight or slightly bent.

The joker got a value of 20 reps this time round and due to the luck of the draw, most of the high value cards appeared when it was for the triceps extensions and the typewriter push ups.

Pretty much died just before I got half way through the deck and had to use rest-pause for the rest of the deck.

Actual workout time: 1hr 7mins.




12th November-

still slightly sore from yesterday. Major doms in the triceps though.

Shortened my traditional workout to just the essentials, pretty much the dynamic tension stuff.

Workout time- 20 mins.



13th November-

conditioning.

Still got major mods in triceps. Did deck of cards workout, aces were a value of 1 this time and jokers were 10. If the card totals is 15 or less then I did that many reps each side, more than 15, I split it in half for each side of the body if it was a unilateral exercise.

Variation of a push up, don't know what its called though. It's a mix between a military push up and the 'lalanne' (sp?) push up where your hands are in front over your head, kinda like if you laid on your back and placed your arms straight over your head.

My mix was one arm in a close grip, elbows tucked in and the other arm was out in front.


Pistols

JG rows

burpees

some kind of weird push up, shoulder press combination. Youtube up 'bartendaz crackin the concrete'.


Lunge jumps.

Still had major doms in the triceps. Burpees pretty much killed me about 1/3 way in.


workout time- approx 1 hr. only realised that I forgot to check what time I finished halfway through my cool down stretches.



14th November-

was planning on doing traditional forms, but felt sapped of energy.

Did my warm up and got half way through my 1st section of forms when I just felt that it just wasn't gonna happen today. Gonna get a early night and do traditional tomorrow.




The next week and a half I hope to up the intensity a bit, then the last half of my last week is just going to be just general maintenance as I will have to get stuff ready to be packed, and the first week of December will be running through my forms lightly, all the way through. No weights sessions for that week. Well that's the plan for now.

15th November-

traditional forms.

Increased the length of each section be one or two movements, again each side was drilled 10 times with each technique or section.

Hook kick speed has decreased a bit, going to introduce some hamstring work tomorrow in conditioning.

3 weeks till competition and techniques are feeling sharper.

Workout time- 90 mins.



16th November-

conditioning.

Deck of cards workout, loving these at the moment due to the randomness of the reps I have to do.

JG push ups
traditional sitting stance/ horse stance squats, bit like the sumo powerlifting squat stance.
Blue woody band upright rows
hamstring curls on the JG
woody band rows
one legged drop burpees


good workout, good energy levels, most likely because I spent most of the day just faffing about and doing nothing.

I did double the number of reps from the cards for stance squats as its fairly easy and the higher reps will help with stance conditioning for my forms.

Hamstring curls were a new movement for me on the JG. I kept the straps the same length as I used for the push ups just to save faffing about. Laid down on the floor and hooked my feet through the feet straps on the handles and raised my hips up so my body was straight and just my upper back and head was in contact with the floor. Curled legs in and my hammys were burning.

One legged drop burpees I got from the bodyweightculture.com beyond burpees video. More difficult than normal burpees and work rate was a bit slow. But really fun.


Workout time- 1 hr on the dot.







17th November-

no workout today, gotta catch up on uni work and dissertation stuff. Was planning on doing traditional today, going to move it to tomorrow.

Workout time- Nada!



18th November-

traditional today, felt a bit sluggish but got revitalised after my warm up.

Forms were split into 12 sections, again each side drilled 10 times. Workout took longer as I did each section as it would be done if I did a full form, whereas in the previous workout, I did the sections and drilled it both sides of the body regardless whether that bit was near the start or the end of the form.

Workout time- 95 minutes

[dope540]

19th November
energy sapped, cranky and not a happy bunny due to various reasons.

One was that I missed some obvious stuff today at clinic and brain went dead in the afternoon and couldn't get clear thoughts.

Another is I think I'm not giving my body enough recovery. I'm getting the 8hrs sleep I need to just to function as by the time I get back from clinic, do workout, cook food then do some reading, by the time I've finished its like 11-11.30pm.

Also diet plays a part, it's been pretty pants. Tight on money and space issues.
So far for the past 2 ½ weeks I've been having:

breakky: Swiss muesli and a tin of tuna

lunch: sandwich bought from the canteen or chicken breast slices sandwiches, flapjack bar, apple and 3x fish oils caps

Finish clinic: total mrp (2 scoops) just before I jump on the shuttle bus back to the accommodation.

Dinner: varies wildly depending on what was reduced or on special offer at the supermarket. Had 2x cheese and ham chicken kievs with a baked sweet potato, ½ a broccoli all on a bed of watercress.


Pre bed: taurine in 300ml full fat milk, also whack in some superfood xs in it as well.


The first week I had porridge for breakky, but changed it to muesli for the second week as it was quicker to prepare and have really noticed the decrease in energy levels, so going to switch back to porridge tomorrow onwards. The breakky was the only thing that changed.


Anyway, workout today took longer than I wanted.

Did tabata thrusters:

14
14
13
12
12
12
10
10


deck of cards workout:
JG triceps extensions
Bulgarian squats using my chair
bodyweight rows on JG
conventional burpees
pseudo planche push ups
atg squats


psuedo planch push ups is kinda like a working your way to full planche. Its basically a push up but your hands are close to your body and are at hip level. Really hit my tris and front delts.

Conventional burpees pretty much killed me on each circuit, had to use rest-pause. Nearly vomited after the first circuit.

Going to switch back to porridge tomorrow and had a rest day and catch up on some work. Then Friday I have the afternoon off so going to nail some traditional.



21st November;

fairly good session. Did traditional, took slightly longer than usual but I made sure each and every technique was nice and crisp otherwise it would not be counted and really tried to get the mind-muscle connection going.

Workout time: approx 90mins.





22nd november-

was supposed to meet up with a few mates from my class in london but was limited on dosh so just strolled over the road to the recreational area.

Did some pull ups and chin ups on the bars on the basketball court and some more pull ups on the metal gazebo thing.

Didn't really plan on doing it but boredom go the better of me so had to get out my room. Got some funny looks off the kiddie chavs and a few of the skaters that were on the skate ramps a few 40-50 metres away.

Felt good to do some pull ups again.


Did my main workout later on, again deck of cards. I love it now as it's all random.

JG push ups
conventional burpees
woody band deadlifts
bodyweight split squats


good session, and was surprised that fitness has increased for burpees, only in the last set I had to use rest pause. Other than that I knocked out all the burpees in one go.

Actual workout time: 51 minutes




23rd november-

major doms in chest and back. Was planning on doing forms drills but had a feeling that my body wasn't going to be up for it so did tension exercises and a few slow-motion kicks.

Felt fresh at the end of the workout, the change in traditional helped prevent me getting bored.

Going to ease back the sessions next week to make sure I don't peak too soon or over train. Then the week after I'm planning on 2 traditional sessions at the gym and may add in a heavy weights session as well.

I've found that a good heavy session a few days before my competition works well, and I 'm also missing the iron big time. Have noticed my back strength deteriorating since I've been here for the past 3 weeks. Nothing works as well as heavy deads.

Done in approx 30 minutes



24th november-

no workout as need to catch up on work. In the end, didn't do any work.



25th november-

did traditional today. Went well. All my movements were nice and crisp. Going to reduce the frequency I do them now.


Workout time- 80 minutes.



26th november-

general conditioning day. Did my favourite again today...deck of cards.
Exercises were bronco burpees
woody band deadlifts
weird shoulder push up thingy.

The last exercise is kinda like the starting position of a hindu push up/ divebomber and from there you just do push ups from there. So your bum is in the air and your back is in a natural position.

Aces had a value of 1 and jokers had a value of 20. all other cards stayed the same.

Hated the way the cards came out today, I put the push up as the first exercise and the first three cards that came up were a queen, joker and a king.

The second joker came up on the second to last round again for the push up.

Happy with the workout today, had a interesting day at clinic and the tutors pretty much left me to it, came back to the accommodation and was feeling drained and didn't want to workout but glad I did.


Workout time- 47minutes

[delphinus]

Wow!!!! GREAT LOG Dope!

Firstly, I am impressed by what you do. I've always been fascinated by martial arts and really admired the strength, speed, skill and physique of the people who do it. Yes, I am a girl who likes watching Bruce Lee movies!!

I would also like to commend you on your dedication in difficult circumstances! It is only when people face difficult circumstances that their dedication can be determined. Good on you! Love your creativity too, shows how much you understand what you are doing!

I would like to wish you well on for your tournament, I am sure you have done everything you possibly can! I do hope we get some pictures though, either on your post or in an album, we are lacking those from you!

I will continue to watch with GREAT interest!

[LionHair]

Dope - great mate .... are you back home with the Sandbag family now ?

[dope540]

Quote

Wow!!!! GREAT LOG Dope!

Firstly, I am impressed by what you do. I've always been fascinated by martial arts and really admired the strength, speed, skill and physique of the people who do it. Yes, I am a girl who likes watching Bruce Lee movies!!

I would also like to commend you on your dedication in difficult circumstances! It is only when people face difficult circumstances that their dedication can be determined. Good on you! Love your creativity too, shows how much you understand what you are doing!

I would like to wish you well on for your tournament, I am sure you have done everything you possibly can! I do hope we get some pictures though, either on your post or in an album, we are lacking those from you!

I will continue to watch with GREAT interest!

thanks, its the thing i was born for. hahah yeah, i've done the best i could with the limited resources i had and sub par diet. will try and get some piccies, depends if someone manages to snap one as i usually do tournaments on my own as a few days pre tournament and before the competition, i dont really talk much and seem anti-social to some people. so prefer to do it alone rather than push people away. there are people that i do speak to at the competition and its usually my coach and other that i havent seen for a wile and to catch up.

Quote

Dope - great mate .... are you back home with the Sandbag family now ?

kinda, heading back to liverpool tomorrow afternoon, so not really had time to train with the sandbag family yet.

[delphinus]

I'm a bit like that myself Dope - people think I am rude or stand offish because I don't "chat". It's not that, I am just private and focused (people at work think I am a miserable sod, boy do they NOT know me!).

Which area of what you do is your particular love? (Like me - I absolutely love my 5.5 mile swim in Coniston, it's the best one around in my opinion despite being shorter than the real testers).

How confident are you feeling about the competition?

[dope540]

Quote

I'm a bit like that myself Dope - people think I am rude or stand offish because I don't "chat". It's not that, I am just private and focused (people at work think I am a miserable sod, boy do they NOT know me!).

Which area of what you do is your particular love? (Like me - I absolutely love my 5.5 mile swim in Coniston, it's the best one around in my opinion despite being shorter than the real testers).

How confident are you feeling about the competition?

its mainly a few days pre comp till when i step on the mats that i dont really chat much. other than that, i'm cool with most people.

i prefer competing in forms/katas, have been for a few years now. have fought in sparring back when i was a kid and got a few placings, but decided to do forms as i got older as i wasn't growing any taller, yet i was still getting bigger nad heavier. i'm basically in the heavyweights in adult male category now.

i reckon forms is jst as hard or slightly harder than sparring as in sparring, if you lose balance or things get out of hand, the ref can jump in.

in forms, its just you and if you lose balance or things mess up, the judges will pick it up, 5 judges. one centre judge which is the chief judge and a judge on each corner.


feeling ok about the competition, got two more forms sessions next week and i'll be done. those session are just to run throuh my form in full a few times as i was doing sections at a time when i was on placement.

[LionHair]

Dope are these the Jungle Gyms mate? Jungle Gyms | LifeLine USA which model is it that you've got ?