full body isometric exercise

9-28-11
-200 kb swings
-weighted shiko dachi hold (24 kgs, 1.5 min)

I came up with the weighted shiko dachi a couple of days ago. In the past I had walked around with dumbbells held up by my shoulders in a rack position. It's a great full body isometric exercise, but as I get fatigued, I tended to let the curve of my spine take the weight-not a good thing. Enter the weighted kiba dachi hold. Shiko dachi, for anyone who hasn't taken a karate class, is a wide legged stance where your knees are bent close to parallel, knees and toes are angled outwards. Grab a kettlebell by the horns and draw it up to your chin, hold it close to the body. Assume the shiko dachi position and hold. Don't forget to breathe. After a few seconds, it will be hard to find a muscle group that is not quivering from the effort: pecs, delts, traps, lats rhomboids, abs, erector spinae, glutes, quads. Like Nana's soup, it's all in there.

9-26-11
-weighted pull-ups with off-set negatives (2x5, 3x6, 24 kgs)
-rack hold (2x24 kgs, 2x1 min)
-weighted shiko dachi hold (24 kgs, 1 min)

Clean the db's to your shoulders and walk around for a minute. Rest and repeat. There's your rack hold. I felt like I strained a pec on the weighted off-set negative. Gotta watch that. Maybe more warm-up.

9-24-11
-3hrs of sambo with sambosteve

I have been looking forward to this striking and throwing seminar for weeks. Although the turnout was small, some of the most progressive and influential Kyokushin instructors in the tri-state area were in attendance. My orthopedist would not have been happy to hear what I was doing, but I organized the event. I had to be there. Besides, good buds were signed-up.

For some, throwing and falling were new experiences. I was pretty happy to work on closing-in with a technique Steve called Key 2.

9-23-11
-circular pull-ups (8x10)

Pull-up Project:
660 bw
121 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (26.5 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
44 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)