Gymnastics Strength Cycle 1 -- 25th July '11 to 6th November '11

Weekly Training:
Monday: Karate [2 hours]
Tuesday: Gymnastics [1 hour]
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Karate [2 hours]
Friday: Gymnastics [1 hour], Flexibility [0.5 hours]
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest OR Karate [2-3 hours]

Weekly Calories: 20647 kcal
Daily Average: 2950 kcal


Gymnastic Training:
[Warm Up/Joint Prep]
Shoulder Rotations 2x10
Wrist Push Ups (on knees) 2x10

[FSP and FBE]
[Pull]
Back Lever Tuck 3x10s
Tuesday: Rows XR Ground 3x5
Friday: German Hang Pull 3x5

[Push]
Frog Stand 3x20s (also practice Advanced Frog Stand after each 20s set)
Tuesday: Push Ups 3x5 + 30s Ring Push Up position hold [added 2 weeks in to cycle]
Friday: HeSPU (Wall) Negative 3x5

[Legs]
Front Lever Tuck 5x5s (not quite a horizontal body position; focus on form of retracted shoulder bladers)
Tuesday: SLS 3x5
Friday: Arch Ups - Single Leg 3x5

[Core]
Tuesday: L-Sit 3x15s ; Arch Ups 3x5
Friday: Straddle L Bent 3x10s ; Wind Shield Wipers (supine) 3x5


Flexibility Training:
Bridge - 60s
Closed Pike - 5 mins
Side Splits - 5 mins
Closed Straddle - 5 mins
L/R Front Split - 5 mins each side

Chris, You can't increase maximal strength without external loading. You are increasing relative strength and specific strength.

Monday 25 July '11

Karate training for 2 hours.

Moderate intensity.

Practiced maegeri, kette junzuki, yoko ido, Seishan kata, and tanto-dori.

Thursday 28 July '11

Karate training for 2 hours.

Moderate intensity.

Practiced the technical aspects of Kihon Gata, especially mawatte; taught and practiced with kyu grades the kata Pinan Shodan; and finished with the kata Seishan, testing our body movement in the kata with a partner at the end.

No karate training this week as the annual summer course is on. I didn't have holiday to take for this week so, apart from some light training at home, the focus is on gymnastics this week.

Tuesday 2 August '11

Gymnastic strength training for 1 hour.

[Warm Up/Joint Prep]
Shoulder Rotations 2x10 -- 10, 10
Wrist Push Ups (on knees) 2x10 -- 10, 10

[FSP and FBE]
[Pull]
Back Lever Tuck 3x10s -- 10s, 10s, 10s
Rows XR Ground 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5

[Push]
Frog Stand 3x20s -- 20s, 20s, 20s
(Advanced Frog Stand after each 20s set) -- Bend at elbow is dealt with, good stretch across the bicep when held for a few seconds. Balance, ab contraction, scapula protraction and wrist flexibility are the focuses for this static position.
Push Ups 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5

[Legs]
Front Lever Tuck 5x5s -- 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s
SLS 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5

[Core]
L-Sit 3x15s -- 15s, 15s, 15s
Arch Ups 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5


Notes:
Felt good today!
The focus on form with the Front Lever Tuck has improved my strength in the movement after just a week, I'm a little shocked. I'd tried the FL tuck time and again but struggled to hold it, and there was always a painful strain either in the deltoid muscle and, later on, the strain had gone to my elbow. I had left the position alone for a couple of weeks at this point, researched and now there's no problems at all. I can pass through the horizontal plane with strength now. For now, I'll keep my body above horizontal until the next cycle. By then I should have the scapula retraction and back strength for a true FL tuck
Only other thing to say was I was a little wobbly on my left leg in the SLS. Still improved from last week though, just need the strength of my right leg in my left!

Monday 8th August to Sunday 14th August '11

Different plan of action this week. I'm helping out with the children's karate summer course, which means more training time and less gymnastics. To prevent under-recovery, I'm leaving the gymnastics this week. Week 3 of the cycle will continue next week.

Helping out was great this week A lot of the families were really impressed and our sensei was really pleased to have me and his son helping out.

Every day had a warm up, then kihon training (as a group and then usually splitting off into pairs) and at the end of each day we would have some fun competitive games.

The kihon we went through over the week included junzuki, nagashi junzuki, mawashigeri, gyakuzuki and nagashi gyakuzuki.

On the final day, our sensei did grading exams with one half of the dojo whilst I and my friend took turns showing combinations of techniques we've tried out at competitions or learnt from our training with the England National Squad. Jun-no-nido zuki followed with jodan mawashigeri; nagasu and mawashigeri; akuri-ashi into hami niko-ashi dachi, then maegeri with the front leg. And for a little fun, showed a sweep you can try if the opponent swings their leg instead of using good keri technique. Of course, at high level Wado-ryu competition, NOBODY should be swinging their legs if they've been taught correctly


Finally, Sunday was our monthly Dan grade class.

Karate training for 2 hours.

Moderate intensity.

Practiced Chinto kata, kihon kumite ropponme (#7) and hachonme (#8), and finished with idori (can't recall the number we did :S).

Tuesday 23rd August '11

Gymnastic strength training for 1 hour.

[Warm Up/Joint Prep]
Shoulder Rotations 2x10 -- 10, 10
Wrist Push Ups (on knees) 2x10 -- 10, 10

[FSP and FBE]
[Pull]
Back Lever Tuck 3x10s -- 10s, 10s, 10s
Rows XR Ground 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5

[Push]
Frog Stand 3x20s -- 20s, 20s, 20s
(Advanced Frog Stand after each 20s set) -- Bend at elbow is dealt with, good stretch across the bicep when held for a few seconds. Balance, ab contraction, scapula protraction and wrist flexibility are the focuses for this static position.
Push Ups 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5 (20-30s hold on the rings in push up position added to routine)

[Legs]
Front Lever Tuck 5x5s -- 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s
SLS 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5

[Core]
L-Sit 3x15s -- 15s, 15s, 15s
Arch Ups 3x5 -- 5, 5, 5


Notes:
Starting to notice the strength gains!
Back Lever Tuck and Front Lever Tuck are feeling much better! After the 10 weeks I'm gonna see if I can hold the back lever advanced tuck (similar to the back lever tuck but the back should be perfectly flat and parallel to the floor). Front lever tuck will progress to a longer hold and with a good horizontal position, as after 3 weeks I can pretty much hold it horizontal with good shoulder blade retraction. So happy to finally have the form right!!
Push Ups are a breeze, but were from the start. Decided to just test myself with a ring push up - effectively a push up but your hands are holding on to the rings near the floor.
Oh. My. God.
It was unbelievably unstable just trying to HOLD a push up position, let alone do a push up! Pretty incredible how challenging the rings are, even when applied to something like push ups. I've added in a 20-30 second hold in the push up position just to give time for body to become used to the instability of the rings. After 10 weeks, I will see if I can do some good form ring push ups and, depending on strength, either progress to 3x5 ring push ups or 3x5 ring push ups on knees.
Still a bit wobbly with SLS, but I've noticed the strength improvement in my karate training when we do kihon keri and keri-waza.
Arch Ups also a piece of cake! Gonna have to either move on to the next progression or add some weight to the movement