Thursday 16 February 2012

Back

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Lots has changed.  Japan is waaaay in my past now and I'm missing it, of course, but there are new adventures to be had and new things to be doing.

Been working hard these last two years or so.  Lot of time spent making money which forced certain decisions within my training: over focused on certain things, focused less on other things.  Did the 5,3,1 programme for a while and made some damn good progress, pushing up my totals in the powerlifts but impacting upon flexibility and other things.  Cardio suffered in some ways but pad work and sparring in the mornings has helped in certain areas: standing up and striking doesn't get me half as gassed anymore, but going down and getting up gets me more gassed.  Weight, clearly.

My hand/eye coordination has improved under Fraser, as has my general sparring ability: I use my weight to great advantage, I wait things out, I plot and execute moves.  My mind game has certainly improved.

But....

But my black belt is coming up and I'm not flexible enough or fit enough in the right way and my body... I came back from Japan with a body that could do anything.  Lift, run, bend... now I have a body that is very strong but that just doesn't satisfy me anymore.

Don't get me wrong, it did satisfy me for a long, long time, but now it's... wrong for me.  I want a body back that is well rounded.

So, with the black belt as a deadline, that is what I am now doing.

Cardio has improved, weights are getting shelved save for deadlift and kettebell stuff.  Far more calisthenics and other stuff.  More grease the groove stuff: "If it's important, do it every day," so says Dan John quoting someone else.  So I am now doing certain things every day: stretching, mobility drills, Paval Push Ups, bridges, pistols.  Volume, volume, volume.

Weight is coming off now, a stone since Christmas, and I feel better, more fluid, my middle is thining out and my mobility has definitely improved.

Goals wise I'm aiming for a one hand hand stand push up by December.

We'll see...