• I broke the golden rule: post every day.

Not much to say here, if you post every day, people come back every day and you get in the habit of writing something every day. Not much to do about that, except starting to post more often.

• Shuri-ryu DVDs

I found a site (TMAcenter.com) where they are selling shuri-ryu instructional dvds. Very cool, since I have always been partial to homestudy whatever the subject. This gives me a chance to get ahead of the curve in my class

• Shuri-ryu – a constructed system

I have come to terms with Shuri and it being a newly constructed system. Originally I was a bit hesitant about it being a “made up” system…and by an american no-less! But what I have seen, looks good and the way it is built up is very pedagogical: Babysteps, parts for training speed, power and coordination.

• Weights

I started lifting weights again. They were my love for 8-9 years, where I lifted 4 times a week. I went from a skinny 75 kg, to a beefy 95 kg, back down to 75, back up to 95, back down to 80, back up to 110 and finally landed back down on 80 with a detour to 73. Yes, that means I lost 37 kgs (77 lbs) in 9 months the last time around. How? I’ll leave the details to another post, but the main ingredients were perseverance and patience

Anyway, iron. I started lifting again in “fitness”-gym. And I realised I missed looking at people. There are a lot of egoes and a lot of tools walking around down. I particularly missed the quarter-squatters: guys who load up the bar, stagger out with it from the rack and bang out 5 reps, where they barely go below vertical. They then rack it and look up triumphantly.

• Practical Wing Chun

Yes, I started doing Wing Chun. In a fitness-gym. Talk about McDojo. But the trainers are good, I know some of them from I trained Wing Tsun at another dojo in town. Originally the Wing Tsun people broke from the Kernspecht Wing Tsun people and made Wing Tsun Alliance. A wise move. And now there are some people who broke out from the alliance and made Practical Wing Chun under Wan Kam Leung.

So far it’s pretty good. They made some changes. The stance is more like a 50/50 stance, like zenkutsu in karate. The punches aren’t vertical, but 45 degrees. This makes the hand align up with the forearm better and you can produce more power.

I did Wing Tsun for a year. Took the first 4 levels, so hopefully I can breeze through these here. First seminary is on 13 december. I got a christmas lunch 12 december…at work. Hopefully carpenters don’t drink much….lol

But how do you make a sandbag? Well, that’s easy

Things you need:

• Sand. This is basically sand, free from rocks. I got some ovendried, graded sand, but beach sand works just as well. I got 25 kilos, since this is the weight I maximally lift at work, so I might as well get used to handling it safely to avoid work injuries down the line.
• Dufflebag. Make sure this is canvas, since you will work your skin pretty hard when using a sandbag.
• Plasticbags. Heavy duty large plastic bags.
• Tape. Gorilla tape, gaffertape or other heavy duty tape

The dufflebag you can get at an armysurplus store and the rest you can get at a DIY store / builder’s market.

Pour 1/3 of the sand in one plastic bag, 2/3 in another. Squeeze out all the air, tie a knot and tape up the knot to make sure the bag is sealed tight. Do this for both bags. Put another bag or two around the two bags, but don’t put them in the same bag yet. This way you can start with the heavy one, get used to it, then add the lighter one to make the sandbag even heavier.

Throw the heavy plastic bag in the dufflebag and tape it up, and you got yourself a sandbag to toss around. Once you have worked up to the weight, add the last bag and start over.

Here is my workout.

100 swings (3×34). This is basically a kettlebell swing to work the posterior chain.

100 pushpulls (3×34). Pushpulling the bag from shoulder to shoulder. This works the upper body and to some degree the lower body.

100 1 handed rows (4×25). This is a bent over (45 degree) row to work the back, bis and grip. I alternate between over and underhand grip.

75-100 (3-4 x 25) upright 2 handed rows. This is your standard up right row to work shoulders, back, traps, bis and grip. A slight bend in the knees and keeping the bag two fists out from the body to recruit more bodyfibres.

125 bodyweight squats (1×125). This works your whole core, but primarily legs. And it builds character The key here is to pace yourself and remember to breathe on every rep. Be very careful with footplacement and knee movement.

1600 kgs in 20 minutes. It’s always fun to add up the weight you move and you should strive improve your kgs/minute ratio. This can either be done by adding weight or cutting time or both. I haven’t paid attention to this ratio yet, since I needed to get accustomed to the exercises, but I will from now on.

Every morning: 10 minutes of intuflow joint mobility and chi gung exercises.

Mon: shuri-ryu
Tu: biking
wed: shuri-ryu
thur: running
fri: sandbag
sat or sun: biking

one day of the weekend is totally off. And since this is flu season, I’ll be taking time off when I feel something creeping up on me. My treatment for onset of cold and flu: Lots of fluids, food/calories, sleep and rest.

I would like to run more, but my ankle can’t take it. So I try and bike as well to get some cardio. My job (carpenter) doesn’t get me any cardio, but it does get me grip strength. Tooling around with 1500 watt powersaws work your hands quite well

I’ll be working on the makiwara as well, when I get that up.

http://books.google.com/books?id=tM4DAAAAMBAJ&dq=black+belt&hl=da&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=2