THE WORKOUT CHALLENGE

Something completely different for this post.

There are two reasons for this change of pace:

1. I wanted to show people that I am not an Internet hack sitting in a darkened basement pretending to be something I'm not.  I actually do train karate (no longer with a club though). I do not pretend to be great....or good....or perhaps even mediocre. Criticize me all you want; I could give a crap since I'm almost 60 now and a far, far beyond caring about other people's opinions of my karate.  It's not like I'm going to get young again and suddenly find my inner Chuck Norris.

2. I'm actually finding this adventure with Plasticman to me an arduous task. There is one hell of a lot more to this project than playing with dolls and cameras.  The photography is just a tiny, relatively easy part of the task. The rest of the effort is quite arduous.  I find things I missed or things I should have said all the time.  Besides: my wife is really getting pissed about the light box, the tripod and the spot lights set up in the middle of our living room.

The "work-out challenge" is based on High Intensity Interval Training.  I have a timed work-out circuit of four exercises done sequentially: abdominal/ core , resistance training, kata (aerobic and full body movement) and finally high intensity bag work.  The idea is to elevate my heart rate past a minimum "aerobic" level (120 to 130) and then maximally stress my cardiovascular fitness with spikes of much higher intensity (HR in the 150 to 160 zone.  At 57 years of age, my safe maximum HR is about 160).

I have some basic equipment (and it can be much more basic if a person gets creative) and, the most important point, an interval timer that keeps me on track.  I have worked up to 48 one minute intervals with 15 seconds rest between sessions.  I tried to shorten down the rest interval, but that was actually less efficient because I lost entire intervals often when I got behind the timer while changing equipment over to the next exercise.  Remember that the rest interval is also the time you have for preparing for the next interval (and any equipment changes that you might need.)

It's strenuous for this old man. I try to go at least two hard sessions each week and would like to go for three at least, but I still have to work for a living, so time is a real issue. The other issue is that my aging body really feels these work-outs now and my recovery time sucks these days, so if I go too often I invariably end up hurting myself.

The bag work: concentrate on fast and hard with decent technique. Since this is supposed to be exercise over technique, go for power and speed over pretty technique.  I sure as hell am never going to have pretty technique, but I can really make a hundred pound bag fold when I get things just right.  I'm a lot slower these days, but I can still hit like a mule once in a while.

A) THE EQUIPMENT

B) THE WARM-UP

C) THE WORKOUT

CYCLE 1 OF 12.

CYCLE 2 OF 12

CYCLE 3 OF 12

CYCLE 4 OF 12

DO THIS KATA TWICE TO FILL THE TIME AND KEEP HR ELEVATED

CYCLE 5 OF 12

AND YOU ARE BACK TO WHERE YOU BEGAN

FACE IT: HITTING THAT BAG REALLY HARD AND FAST FEELS GREAT!!!!!

CYCLE 6 OF 12

YES I DID BLUR THE PHOTO TO COVER SOME UNACCEPTABLE CRAP

CYCLE 7 OF 12

CYCLE 8 OF 12

CYCLE 9 OF 12

AND BACK TO PUNCHING BECAUSE IT REALLY FEELS GOOD

CYCLE 10 OF12

CYCLE 11 OF 12

THE SPINNING BACK KICK CAN BE INFINITELY SATISFYING WITH A BIG IMPACT OR JUST FRUSTRATING WITH A GLANCING BLOW OR MISS.  I WAS "OFF" ON THIS DAY AND MOST OF MY KICKS WERE FRUSTRATED.

CYCLE 12 OF 12

  That should add up to one hour: 48 minutes of training with 47 breaks of 15 seconds.  The resistance training is not necessarily done for a full minute. That's not how you properly do resistance training. The resistance is done "to momentary failure" and SHOULD be around 8 to 12 reps.  Less than 8 reps and you are lifting too heavy, more than 12 reps and you need to increase resistance.  Some exercises I don't count reps, I just go to failure; some exercises cannot be done properly with really heavy weights (like bicep curls where a person starts to throw the weight as they get tired)

If you are not tired after this work-out it only means one thing: you did not push yourself hard enough.  Train harder and train more.