Cool things

Okay, so I'm not going to write about Japanese culture in this one.
I am going to write about cool pieces of training equipment.

1) Makiwara.  We've installed one in the garden.

2) Taketaba, which is the bamboo bundle thing.

3) Plastic drain pipe.

Which one is the odd one out?

The Plastic pipe, it doesn't condition your body, it makes you feel better.  Honestly.  Go invest in one, only needs to be a metre long.  You put it on the ground and then you lie across is like a foam roller and you roll out all the knots in your back.  I started using one yesterday and I'm already feeling looser and I found the knot on my back that was causing my shoulder trouble.  Even better than rolling out the knots is relaxing into the pipe, just feeling your back slowly click as pressure is relieved.  Painful, but good pain.

This is my equipment recommendation of the year.  Buy one, use it, feel better!

And get better posture.

Yeah, posture, that thing I'm just not designed for.  Well, I am designed for it, just that my posture is fairly caveman like.  But I am improving, pulling shoulder blades back, using that drain pipe.  Already feeling the benefits.  This is the thing about being here, the chance to do all those training things I never really bothered to make time for back in the UK.  Notice I didn't say that I had no time, I did have time, but I used it on Call of Duty, or other gym work.

So, goals...

I said before that I intend to hit the 200kg dead lift mark.

I also intend to be able to do 100 push ups in one sitting.  That's a big goal.

And weigh 100kg.

Those are my 3 current goals, we'll see how they pan out.

Sunday

My God it is raining.  Real hard sheets of rain, and constant since 6 this morning, so that's about 7 hours of constant rain!  Warm though, not that you notice it till you go into an airconditioned building.

So, Saturday was a relax day, helped James with gardening, then we managed to put together a bamboo knife hand conditioning thing whose name we don't know, but it is basically a fair bit of bamboo tied together that you then do knife hand strikes through...

Just had five instructive minutes on the internet trying to find the name.  Found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ykNZ7rAcw

and

http://www.skepdic.com/yellowbamboo.html

Sigh, Ki masters... so sad.

Anyway, back on topic, as it were.  We went to Gojo Ryu on Saturday night, had fun there.  The katas are very different to the Shuri-te ones I've learnt; all slow, slow-quick-quick!  I spent some time getting lost.  The one strike kumite was interesting also, though I found the ranges on it difficult.  I like to step forward, but the requirements were to step back.  Overcoming natural inclinations is hard, but then I have a natural inclination not to get hit and I still tend to embrace that!  Humm...

Today was meant to be us doing the Fudoshin challenge, but the rain has prevented us.  I'm going to go out in a bit and lift weights in the rain, do some weight circuits to get the blood flowing.  There's a family meal this afternoon, but we might get out in time to go to Gojo Ryu again. 

Tomorrow will be me at the Budokan in the morning, then jujitsu in the evening.  Ah, this is the life!

Heeeeee!

You know, it occurs to me that I was meant to be doing some stuff on my observations of Japan on this blog.  I'll try and stick an entry up later.

Peace out!

Friday!

Well, rainy season is well and truly here!  There's no denying it.  I thought rainy season started a week and a bit ago, but I was wrong.  Shun told me that it started on Friday and he was right!  2.45 Friday morning and the rain is waking me up.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's look at Thursday.

Thursday was simple enough: get up, eat, cycle to the Budokan... only the Budokan was closed!  After some swearing I decided to go for a wander and cycled around.  It was a hot, hot day.  Not as hot as Wednesday was, but far more muggy.  Even at night it was 26 degrees C!

Anyway, came across a little boxing gym and am seriously considering joining.  $100 a month, which isn't too bad, and I can train every day except Sunday.  So, certainly worth thinking about, but I need to get this laptop issue resolved first, so that'll be the decider, whether the laptop eats money or not.  Acer aren't mega helpful, but we'll see.  I stripped loads of data from this thing and it seems to be running a bit better now.  Fingers crossed...

Came back from wander, helped James with tree house, then did a little circuit:

Short hill sprints (30 metre, incline of 60 degrees) - 5 of those in 3.05.83

Then sand bag burpee shoulder press
10 - warm up
Rest
10 in 49 sec
Rest
10 in 38 sec

Shower, food and then off to Karate.

I'm grading on May 29th, so that'll be interesting. I need to know 3 kata and I finally managed to get the hang of Naihanchi (Ni Han Shi) and am seeing the intricacies of the damn thing.  Someone said that all Karate begins with that Kata, and I can see why, it's brutal and no nonsense.  I also got taught the beginnings of my third kata, which is called Pinan which is very different to Naihanchi.  We shall see how I progress.

In other karate news, my kicks are getting higher and my knuckles are getting used to the maki-wara.

Today got up early with James and went to park.

Mile run
2 x resisted sprints @80m

30 press ups (shoulder!!!)
50 sit ups
50 leg raises (off a ledge, so felt that!)
20 burpess (shoulder!!!)

James and Shun did some chin ups, but I left that alone to leave my shoulder some slack.
Stretched, jogged back to car.

Now, because I'd been meaning to go to the Budokan yesterday, I had to go today.  I was tired and stiff but it was in my head to go and after breakfast I went.  Ten minutes into the journey, the rain started to come down and, 5 hours later, it's still pouring down!

At the Budokan I did this:

Mobility warm up
Deadlift - 70k x 5, 80k x 5, 100k x 5, 120k x 3, 140k x 3, 160k x 1, 170k x 1, 180k x 1
(Beat that Pete!!!!)

Bicep - 20 k bar x 30 (21's protocol), 40k x 15, 50k x 9
Tricep behind head extension - 20k per arm x 5, 3 sets!

Previous to this I'd have needed a back support to hit 180k and I could probably have done a few more singles, and that's on top of training at 6.30!  I do intend to hit 200k by the time I get back.  Feeling so strong!

Weighed myself at the gym before training - 104.6k (after training I was 104.25!)

I've lost about 6k since coming to Japan, but my weight loss seems to have stabilised recently.  Although my belly is still shrinking!  The fat is going it seems and muscle is being gained; certainly, my legs are bigger, so are my forearms. I wonder what I'll look like in 2 months...

Cycling back the rain was worse than ever!  I actually ended up with wrinkly finger tips!  Warm rain though.  It's meant to last 2 weeks... we'll see...

Problems

Sigh, computer problems continue apace. Backing up laptop currently, may need a new hardrive!


Went on a trawl of the second hand shop in Naha.  HUGE.  Have pictures too, so very cool.  Will post them up. 

Hanging with Mike all day, we went to the Dragon boat racing, which was cool, then went to Koksai Dori and wandered.  Very nice.  Have more pictures, but need to wait before putting them up!


Then home and training with James, Bo Kata and Nihanci Shodan kata.  And Maki Wara work.  Getting the hang of it now, not bleeding so much :)

Peace out!

Right, I'm going to set up Picassa, so wait for that on the picture front!

In other news, yesterday was a neede rest day. Pottered around with James and the girls, went to a sports depot and bought protein powder with glusocamine (needed, our joints are taking a battering) and a farmer's market/petting zoo.

Then BEACH and BBQ!

Ah, this is the life.

Okay, I've added a picture of the cliffs at Odo beach because they're cool. Man, the sunset, Greg would have loved it with his high power camera, so beautiful.

Today we went training at 6.20am. Mile and a half run round the Budokan, then 2 sets of resisted running, really feeling the power increase in my legs. Then 10 Pull up, 10 chin ups, then 5 pull ups, 4 chin ups.

Hanging leg raises, managed 8.

Push back sit ups, 50.

Thn fartlek'd back to the car, that was hard.

Now all chilled, going to grab another protein shake and head on out for some adventuring!

Monday adventures

Well, Monday was a hell of a day.

On Sunday, we didn't get to Gojo-Ryu as entertaining got in the way, so 6am we were up on Monday for a brisk 1/2 mile jog (well, brisk for James, not so brisk for me, and he threw in this utterly hideous new hill!), then pad work. 15 minutes straight each, working through different combinations, movement drills and so forth. Holding those Thai pads for 15 minutes straight is haaaard.

Then shower, breakfast and James had to go to work. I got to go off with Mike and have adventures!

Mike wanted to see Okinawa Land (a them park) and also the Limestone caves. There's limestone caves in Okinawa land and across the road are more caves, his wife booked us in the place across the road for 11.15. We set off from James' at about 9ish and drove in a sort of, "we know the vague direction" type of way. Along the way we noticed that Japanese road signs are real accurate: 5.1km to Okinawa world, 2.9km to... you get the picture. For a joke, we set the milometre and sure enough those signs were accurate!

Once at Okinawa Land, we hit the snake house, which was cool. Lots of snakes and a snake show! The snake show was something else, the kind of thing you just couldn't do in the UK: the guy putting it on was showing how mean and nasty a habusu can be in comparison to a cobra, and this involved him basically bitch slapping the cobra! Funny to watch, but... later he had a habusu in a glass tank and put balloons in there for it to burst. It didn't want to perform, so he prodded it with a stick!!!

From there we crossed the road to the limestone caves.

What can I say?

Fucking amazing!

Beyond amazing. We started off in a sort of grotto and then went for a walk through jungle to different caves, all of which were formed from coral and then layered over with limestone. We saw caves of the gods, we saw 150 year old trees, twig spiders and the site where they found Minatoan man, the 12,000 year old Okinawan fossil.

Excellent place.

From there back to Okinawa Land for their limestone caves, which was a 1km journey through claustrophobia. Also very cool but way more packed than the other place. Actually, Okinawa Land was very busy, rammed with people from Tokyo; and it's true what the Okinawans say, people from Tokyo look different to people from Okinawa. They're more trendy, it seems.

We ate pizza, saw the Power Rangers, spent some time in an Okinawan village and finally visited a micro brewery and tasted a fair bit of habusu amamori. Mmmmm.

From there we headed on out to a Thai restaurant up a cliff a few miles on. Hell of a place, had a dinosaur museum next to it, a herb garden and a little shop. The food was amazing, so fresh and unlike any other curry I've ever had.

Then home for a quick nap and then jujitsu!

Hard day.

Only 3 of us at training, so we had some fun with headlocks and manoeuvre drills. We video taped one another and I saw that my blocks leave me too far out from my opponent, leaving me with too much distance to gain to execute anything. Well, to execute anything that isn't ugly and brutal. So, I'll be working on that over the next few weeks...

Otherwise, fitness is getting better. My stomach is shrinking. Flexibility and balance are up. My shoulder is playing up, but I'm sure that it's a tight right bicep, and regular stretching is keeping it in line, so that's all good. My burpees are still slow, but that's my burpees, I do them at my pace, but I get through them.

I'll add pictures tomorrow. I'm dead tired now and need my sleep. Had a great day of beach and BBQ today! Wiped me out!

Long one

So, Friday turns up and it's up early to the Budokan once more!

We jogged round, maybe a mile, then did chin ups (10), hooked our legs over the bar and did vertical sit ups (10) then explosive lunges, 20 each leg, then 200 squats. Then a jog over to the next set of bars and did 15 deep raised press ups, then 6 chin ups, then vertical jumps. Then fartlek'd back to the car. Hard day on the legs and the next day my bum was tender!

That night it was out with the boys for a booze session. Very, very drunken. Home at 4.30am! Up at 8.30am for beach. Urrrrghghgghh!

However, the beach was good and the air soon cleared my hangover. Got some great pictures.

Once back from that it was dedicated hammock time!

Sunday's training was House of Pain!

8 Hill sprints on the widow maker at about 18 minutes, so hard.

Then the following circuit

1.30 on each -

Heavy bag

Clean + front squat @ 32kg (elbows to knees)

8lb sledgehammer on tyre

6lb sledgehammer round the world

3 sets of that, with the final set having 10-2's instead of round the worlds.

Really feeling the strength in my grip and the looseness in my hips.

In other news, have decided to create a collection of funny Jenglish!