Karategan's Road to Success "You can achieve anything through hardwork and passion"

[karategan]

First off, I've been training in karate for 4 months so far. I'm not professionally trained by certified instructors, but I'm trained by my dad who was a Shodan (1st degree BB) back in the day. He trains me as if it's kickboxing though like we don't really focus on kata or breaking boards. He said he might enroll me in a dojo sometime this summer. Also, if curious, I'm in my young teenage years.

Friday, 6/12
5:30 AM 30 min jog

8:30-9:50 AM Gym time (dojo section)
-Warm up doing 4x2 min heavy bag
-He taught me a way to parry a reverse punch by grabbing the outside of the arm with your back hand at the same time sidestepping back at the same time putting your left arm under the attacking arm of the opponent and smashing your backfist into their face all in one motion. Sorry if I can't word it well, I'll probably try and get a video up.
-Repeatedly practiced single techniques then combos on the heavy bag (this took up the majority of the training)

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Nap

1:30-3:00 PM Home Training
-30 min Kihon (practicing the basic attacks and blocks in singles)
-30 min Combos
-30 min Kata

4:45-5:45 PM Strength & Endurance Training (bodyweight exercises)
-10 min jumprope
-Circuit of 40 Hindu Pushups followed by 75 crunches x 3 (1 min break inbetween each round). Christ the Hindu Pushups were hard as hell. I would struggle majorly at like 25 but to keep going I tell myself "If I can't make it to 40 without stopping, then 30 extra one arm pushups" (who can guess the reference)
-4,5,6 Pullups then 6,5,4 Chinups
-Circuit of 35 Squats followed by 10 vertical jumps x 3 (1 min inbetween each round). This wasn't too hard but it still put a burn in my legs.
-5 min break
-Circuit of 30 secs hanging from a pullup bar followed by 10 finger pushups x 3 (no break inbetween each round).

This is usually what my training days will be like during the summer

Saturday, 6/13
2:00-2:45 PM Swimming

Sunday, 6/14 REST
Yessss!

Height:5'5
Current Weight: 149.8 lbs

[karategan]

Tuesday, 6/16
I decided to only train 2 hours today to avoid overtraining. That and I wanted to play some more "DeadRising", a videogame I recently got into.

8:30-9:45 PM Dojo Training
-2 min medium high intensity jumprope for warmup
-4x2 min heavy bag as warmup
-I heavily focused on practicing my kicks for this part of my training. I went over the basics: roundhouse, sidekick, front kick. For the sidekick I practiced mostly in slow speed repetitions because my technique can be pretty terrible especially with my left leg. Instead of hitting with the knife part, I end up using the whole sole of my foot.
-Then I worked on some kicking combos, such as sidekick immediately followed by roundhouse, then followed by a roundhouse with the other leg. That one's my favorite.
-At the final minutes of this workout, I worked on frontflipping over one of those exercise balls. I don't know how it helps but my dad makes me as part of the training.
-When I came home I sparred with my brother for only a few minutes. My sparring is still terrible mostly because I'm always focusing on one thing such as I'm just waiting to block and counter instead of also looking for openings. Another thing is that I usually look at a specific part of the body such as the legs and I get caught.

5:00-6:00 PM Home Training
-As a warmup, I practiced my punches for 50 reps
-Most of the time, my dad made me do linework. If you don't know what it is, it's basically practicing a combo back and forth across a room or such like in a line. We focused mainly on the upper block followed by a sidekick because that's what I mainly need to work on.
-We now practiced frontflipping over a basketball. I was terrible because I couldn't push myself up and my back never landed on the ball instead it was mostly up upper back. My dad even laughed most of the time when I failed.
-At the end I did a quick ab workout.

[karategan]

Wednesday, 6/17

8:30-9:30 AM Dojo Training
-2 min jumprope medium-high intensity, 4x2 min heavy bag rounds as warm up
-Went over the basic straight and reverse punch. I focused more on technique so I performed each punch with average speed.
-Did some kettlebell work such as snatches and farmers walks
-Went over roundhouse and sidekicks
-Went over three combos multiple times: sidekick immediately followed by roundhouse with same leg; front punch, reverse punch, back leg roundhouse kick; front leg roundhouse, reverse punch, front punch

5:00-6:00 PM Home Training
-Went over the basic straight punch
-Went over upward block, downward block, inward block, and outward block
-Dad taught me the flying knee kick technique and we went over that for a while
-Focused a lot on linework
-Finished with a ab workout

I was planning to go do some sprints in the morning but I felt drained of energy.

[ryan6966]

what are your goals?

[karategan]

GOALS: To improve my technique on the fundamentals. Not really worried about speed right now.

Thursday, 6/18
8:45-9:45 AM Dojo Training
-Did a lot of stretching and 4x2 min on the heavy bag as a warmup
-Learned a new technique where I parry someone's reverse punch and roundhouse kick them in the stomach. We practiced that a few times and went over the other parry I talked about earlier.
-Once again, focused on technique today especially the sidekick
-Kettlebell work
-Came home and did a little sparring with my brother. Once again, my eyes always look away like I would kick to the abs and move my sight toward there and I get caught

5:00-6:00 PM Home Training
-Did more stretching than usual
-Practiced the backkick for once instead of the usual front, roundhouse, and sidekick.
-For linework, I put focus on combos with blocks in them because I realized that I don't really focus on that
-Ab workout

Ate approximately 3600 cals today... Man I need to lower that

[karategan]

Friday, 6/19

Today I actually trained for my usual 4 hours a day because I felt super pumped up

8:30-9:30 AM Gym Training (Dojo Section)
-Pretty much the same as usual. I realized my sidekicks with my left leg have improved well. I upped the intensity a bit today and shortened my break times. I worked on my speed for once too doing things like kicking the bag three times in a row doing a sidekick, roundhouse, and another roundhouse without dropping my leg.
-I also tried out benching for the third time in my life but it was only a set of 5. I started out with 95 lbs but I bet I could go for at least 115-125. I'm going to try that on Monday.

10:30-11:45 AM Home Training
-More practice of the fundamentals and linework.

2:30-3:15 PM Home Training
-Focused more on practicing the fundamentals

5:00-5:45 PM Hone Training (Strength and Endurance)
-Circuit of Pushups, 50 crunches, and Squats x 10 (no break inbetween except for 30 secs after 5th round). For the first 5 rounds I would do 20 pushups and 10 squats. Then for the last 5 I would do 25 pushups and 15 squats.
-1 min break
-Circuit of 3 pullups/chinups and 10 vertical jumps x 10 (10 sec break inbetween each round)
-Circuit of hanging from a pullup bar and 10 fingertip pushups x 3 (10 sec break inbetween each round). For hanging from a pullup bar, I would first do 35 sec, then 40, then 45.

Wasn't really that hard for me except the circuit of pullups and jumps.

5:45-6:00 PM Cardio
-15 min medium intensity

Then I ended the day with a nice 10 min hot, 10 min cold shower. Christ, I feel drained of energy right now.

Diet
Meal 1 (6:30 AM)- bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats cereal, 2 whole eggs, 1 egg white (490 cals)
Meal Number 2 (7:30 AM)- Peanut Butter Sandwich then a banana after the gym workout (430 cals)
Meal Number 3 (12:00 PM)- Damn, I ran out of ground turkey so instead I ate... 2 chicken patties with toasted bread with mayo and mustard (700 cals)
Meal Number 4 (3:30 PM)- a cookie, peanut butter sandwich, orange juice (700 cals)
Meal Number 5 (6:30 PM)- Goddamn, ran out of roast beef and dad wasn't home to cook. So instead... a serving of ground turkey, 1 chicken pattie, and a serving of pasta (600 cals)
Meal Number 6 (8:00 PM)- A glass of milk and 1 serving cottage cheese) (230 cals)

So 3,150 cals

[karategan]

I decided to take both Saturday and Sunday off. Saturday was a cheat day since I had to go to a potluck with a parents and on Sunday I had 3 cheat meals.

Friday, 6/22

8:30-9:50 AM Gym Training
-Same thing as usual except more focus on practicing techniques individually
-I tried out the bench again and did 5 reps of 110 and 5 reps of 115. I'll raise it up more tomorrow again cause I still think I can go for more

5:00-6:00 PM Home Training
-10 min stretching
-Focused purely on practicing each individual technique. I did a circuit of 10 punches from hips, 10 outward blocks, 10 inward blocks, 10 upward blocks, 10 front kicks (each leg), 10 roundhouse kicks (each leg), and 10 sidekicks (each leg) for the whole 50 minutes with 15 sec break inbetween each round. It takes me about 3-4 minutes to complete each round. My left sidekick was getting really good until the end where it started messing up again. My left roundhouse kick was just ****ed up the whole time

[karategan]

For the past 2 days, I did pretty much the same thing. Except this type I did a mini weight lifting workout

Squat 3x5 95 lbs (I'm certain I can go for much more but I had to first practice form)
Bench 2x5 115 lbs
Deadlift 1x5 95 lbs (Again, had to practice form)

Thursday, 6/25

8:00-9:00 PM Gym/Dojo Training
-Practiced more combos and techniques but for a less amount of times
-Practiced footwork for a bit

5:15-5:30 PM Cardio
I did HIIT today for the first time in several months. Man, it felt good.

-5 min warm up jog
-30 sec sprinting, 30 sec jogging x 5 (5 minutes)
-5 min warm down jog

I plan on going to the dojo I've always been interested in, Tracy's Karate. They teach Kenpo Jiujitsu and Shootfighting. I'm going to watch the Shootfighting grappling class (30 minutes). I was planning on watching the Kickboxing class right before but I didn't feel like taking up another 30 minutes.

PS Watched Transformers 2 today!

[karategan]

Friday, 6/26

8:00-9:00 PM Gym Training
-Did some grappling sparring with my brother for 10 minutes as a warmup
-Weight Routine
Squat 3x5, 95 lbs (again, practicing form)
Bench 3x5, 115 lbs and added in an extra set of 2 reps, 135 lbs
Deadlift 1x5 100 lbs (again, practicing form)
Dips 2x7

On Monday, I'm having my first private lesson in formal training

[karategan]

Monday, 6/29

8:15-9:30 AM Gym Training
-Did some grappling sparring with brother for 10 min
-Weight Routine
Squat 3x5, 100 lbs (still practicing form)
Bench 3x5, 120 lbs
Chin Up 2x8
Deadlift 1x5, 135 lbs
Dips 2x8

Man, I was pumped up today. After the bench, I was planning to deadlift after but this dude used it for 10 min lol so I threw in some chinups.

12:30-1:00 PM My first private lesson!
-Yes! My first lesson in the dojo
-Learned a brief history of martial arts like where the bow came from
-Learned Inward block, straight punch, front kick with shin, how the neck is so soft and karate chopping it
-Breathing
-And some self defense techniques

[karategan]

I've kinda slacked off the past few weeks. Well, I mean I still worked out but not as much as in the beginning of my summer training.

Wednesday, 7/8

8:30-9:30 AM Gym Training (Weights)
Warm up using lightweights for each exercise
3x5
1x3
1x2

Then the real work.

Squats 3x5, 145 lbs
Military Press 3x5, 85 lbs
Power Cleans 3x5, 85 lbs (first time doing them so practicing form)
Chin Ups 3x8

When I did the power cleans, they tired the hell out of me. It took me a while to do each set.

[McBurrito]

just sayin never call it "karate chop" if you get serious lol its called Shuto uchi aka knife hand strike i myself just started training karate a year ago its pretty fun but some times frustrating its so technical

[karategan]

^ Heh, I'll keep that in mind.

New Goal: Bulk up to 157 lbs.

So since last Thursday, I started training harder again.

Wednesday, July 15

8:30-9:30 AM Pumping Iron
-Did my warm up the same
-The Real Workout
--Squat 3x5 (150 lbs)
--Bench Press 3x5 (125 lbs)
--Deadlift 1x5 (160 lbs)
--Weighted Dips 2x6 (25 lbs)
--Weighted Situps on a decline bench at a 45 degree angle 3x5

For the bench, I plan on increasing it to 130 lbs next time cause I was able to complete all sets without struggling hard on at least the last rep. For deadlift, I still think I can go for more but still trying to get form down.

1:20-3:20 PM Technique Practice
-Warm up by practicing the simple jab, cross and front leg roundhouse, back leg front kick a few times
-Practiced jab, cross, front kick, roundhouse kick, and sidekick individually x50 each side
-Time for the combos (will post all)
--Jab, cross, back leg front kick x40 each side
--Jab, front leg front kick, cross x 30 each side
--Jab, cross, back leg roundhouse x40 each side
--Jab, front leg roundhouse, cross x 30 each side
--Outward block, cross, back leg front kick x 40 each side
--Outward block, front leg front kick, cross x 30 each side
--Outward block, cross, back leg roundhouse x40 each side
--Outward block, front leg roundhouse, cross x30 each side
--Upward block, cross, back leg front kick x40 each side
--Upward block, front leg front kick, cross, x30 each side
--Upward block, cross, back leg roundhouse x40 each side
--Upward block, front leg roundhouse, cross x 40 each side
--Sidekick followed by roundhouse kick with same leg without dropping x25 each side.

This is how Technique Practice was since Thursday besides the weekend.

7:20-8:00 PM Kenpo, then Kickboxing
Didn't plan on taking the Kenpo class but arrived early so decided to participate in the last 10 minutes
-Simply went over defense against club attacks.

For kickboxing, it was only me and this other guy who showed up.
-Warmup going over some techniques
-Some easy drills
--30 seconds of jab, cross both sides where we go as fast as we can while maintaining good form and keep a mental note of how much you did at the end
--30 secs of front leg front kick, back leg front kick both sides
--30 secs of front leg front kick, jab, cross, back leg front kick both sides
--And then there was one I forgot
-Worked on focus mitts using the jab, cross with the whole 30 secs thing
-Worked on front kick on pad x 15 each leg

[GoldZeoRanger]

Your dad still remembers his Katas?

Nice to see another Traditional Martial Arts Member in the forums - I have done my fair share of full contanct martial arts but must say I am still in love with TMA's the most. \

To much power rangers as a kid.

[karategan]

^ Sadly, no. I was interested in practicing them but I gotta wait till they teach me some at my school.

Monday, 7/21

8:45-9:45 AM Pumping Iron

-Same warm up as always
-Squat 3x5, 160 lbs (5 lb increase)
-Bench 3x5, 135 lbs (5 lb increase)
-Deadlift 1x5, 170 lbs (10 lb increase but form was off so decreasing back down)
-Dips 2x8 FFFFFUUUUU They took away the belts so couldn't add weight

1:30-2:30 Technique Practice

40 minutes practicing basics
3x5 min rounds of shadowboxing

5:15-5:45 PM Sparring

Found a new partner to spar with. My biggest mistake was leaving openings, openings, and more openings on the abdomen because sometimes I would get to aggressive with my punches. Sometimes, he would just start punching my midsection rapidly catching me off guard not knowing what to do. Kept a mental note to watch for openings and take it.

7:00-8:00 PM Group Class Practice

-Warm up with basic punches and kicks as always
-Defense against surprise attacks
-Kicking the pads

Not everything we did but just worth mentioning

[karategan]

Tuesday, 7/21

I might do less technique training cause I get exhausted after a little bit of an hour and my techniques could've gotten sloppy.

8:30-9:30 PM Dojo Training
-Warm up of
--2 min shadowboxing
--2 min skipping
--2 min jumprope
--1 min jumping on the trampoline
-Pretty much same as always but noticed that I pretty much hardly ever trained backkicks so I added them in and some combos with them such as jab, backkick; jab, cross, front kick, backkick

1:30-2:30 PM Technique Practice
-Kihon (fundamentals) practice for warmup
-Linework with some of the techniques I posted earlier but x25 both sides
Some new ones
--Jab, cross, front kick, roundhouse kick x15
--Front leg front kick, jab, cross, back leg roundhouse x15
--Jab, backkick x15
--Jab, cross, front kick, backkick x15

7:00-7:30 PM Kenpo
-Defense against surprise grabs and shoves

7:30-8:30 PM Shootfighting
-Warm Up with
--Shootfighter Squats x15
--Hindu Pushups x15
--Squat, then front kick x15
--Situps x15
--(Don't know what it's called but it's where you do a pushup favoring one side and while down slide to the other side and come up then repeat and that's one) x10
--Reverse Crunches x15

Went over hook kick, and different combos with it. Then learned how to counter someone catching your kick by scissor kicking them and transitioning into kneebar.

[karategan]

Wednesday, 7/22

8:30-9:30 AM Pumping Iron
-Same warm up as usual
-Squat 3x5, 160 lbs
-Military Press 3x5, 85 lbs
-Power cleans 3x5, 80 lbs
-Chinups 2x8

Wtf my Military press still hasn't gotten stronger and had to decrease power cleans by 5 lbs. I tried military pressing 90 lbs but couldn't make it passed 3 reps. And power cleans, I think I'm just not focusing on exploding much cause I'm so focused on form.

1:30-3:00 PM Technique Practice
-40 minutes basics
-35 minutes linework
-15 minutes Self Defense techniques

7:00-7:30 PM Kenpo
-5 minutes stretching
-Practiced knife hand strike, corkscrew punch (i think it's called), ridge hand to groin. I think we did much more but I can't remember

7:30-8:00 PM Kickboxing
-Review of jab, cross, roundhouse, and snap/thrust kick
-Lots of pad work
-Cool down with a drill where we keep jabbing and he would either call out "Cross!" or "Roundhouse!"

[karategan]

Thursday, 7/23

Well, it's my birthday today brahs (don't ask age), so I decided to skip today's afternoon session to just chill.

Morning Session (8:35-9:45 AM) Dojo Training
-10 minutes stretching
-10 minutes warm up (4 min jumprope, 3 min light shadowboxing, 3 min light bag work)
-3 rounds, 3 minutes, shadowboxing with kickboxing techniques
-3 rounds, 3 minutes, shadowboxing with some kenpo techniques added in
-1 round, 4 minutes on the pads
-3 rounds, 3 minutes, heavy bag

I loved this session.

[karategan]

Evening Session

7:00-7:30 PM Kenpo
-This class sucked. We just went over the different blocks and counters and it wasn't tiring for ****.

7:30-8:30 PM Shootfighting
-Same warm up as before
-Went over thrust kick, and roundhouse and putting combos together. Then we learned how to parry a jab or cross and counter with a headlock choke, and how to take them down from there. Then we learned how to counter a choke with a different takedown and transition into an armbar.

Friday, 7/24


Morning Session, 8:30-9:30 AM Pumping Iron
-Same warm up as always
-Squat 3x5, 160 lbs
-Bench 3x5, 135 lbs
-Deadlift 1x5, 165 lbs
-Weighted bench dips 2x8, 35 lbs

For the deadlift, I think my technique improved greatly.

[karategan]

Saturday, 7/25

1:00-1:45 PM Shootfighting
-Warm up with: Shootfighter squats x10, hindu pushups x10, situps x10, leg lifts x10, regular pushups x10
-Learned shrimping and two other ways to escape a cross-body position.
-Did a drill where one person tries to escape, the other resists.

Heh I farted out loud twice during this session. Didn't stink though =)

2:30-3:30 PM Cardio
-1 hour swimming

[karategan]

Monday, 7/27

Morning Session
Took my weight when I woke up and now weigh 155 lbs.

8:30-9:45 AM Pumping Iron
-Same Warm up as always
-Squats 3x5, 165 lbs (5 lb increase)
-Military Press 3x5, 90 lbs (5 lb increase)
-Power Cleans 3x5, 85 lbs (5 lb increase)
-Weighted Chinups 3x5, 15 lbs

Christ, power cleans are so ****ing complicated. I might stop doing them and replace them with pendlay rows.

[karategan]

Hmm didn't really do anything new on Tuesday except that I did technique practice at home in the morning and did some dojo stuff in the afternoon.

Afternoon Session
6 minute warmup (3 min light shadowboxing, 3 min light heavy bag work)
4 rounds of 3 minute Shadowboxing
5 rounds of 3 minute heavy bag
1 round of 5 minute pads

Oh and had shootfighting from 7:30-8:45 PM. The instructor was going to be late a bit cause he still had a private lesson going on so the we just did a mini Deck of Cards workout. Diamonds is pushups, spades is squats, hearts are situps, and clover is like where we squat then transition into a pushup like a burpee, then roll over and do a situp. It was fun =)

Wednesday, 7/29

Morning Session
Did the same workout: Squats, Bench, Deadlift, Dips. Everything was the same but I increased deadlifts back to 170 cause my form got better.

Afternoon Session
2:00-3:10 PM, Same technique session as always but did a little sparring round with my dad at the end. Oh and I forgot to say that I lost my sparring partner (my friend) the day after I found one. He somehow ended up stabbing his leg with a combat knife and it'll take a while to recover. Anyways, when I was sparring with my dad the thing that messed me up was my thoughts. Like I would just think about doing a certain combo not caring about anything else such as his attacks and when I would throw the first attack, his attack would have started already.

[karategan]

Alright, getting this thing started back up again. School started just today (8th grade, in case you would ask. 13 years old)

Wednesday, August 19th

9:00-10:15 AM Pumping Iron
This is probably my last weightlifting workout until next summer.
-Squat 3x5, 185 lbs
-Military Press 3x5, 85 lbs
-Pendlay Rows 3x5, 110 lbs
-Weighted Chinups 2x5, 20 lbs
-Weighted Situps on a Decline Bench 3x15, 25 lbs

So I started Starting Strength in the beginning of July. At that time my lifts were:
Squat 3x5, 135 lbs
Bench 3x5, 115 lbs
Military Press 3x5, 85 lbs
Deadlift 1x5, 140 lbs

Made some good gains. Feels good, man... Except for the military press LOL
-------------------------------------------------
Thursday, August 20th
School starts and started my new training regimen

5:30-6:20 AM Cardio
-Jogging, however I did a few rounds of shadowboxing at some areas which totaled up to 14 minutes. Didn't do an early morning session for a while. I was motivated like crazy so it felt great

4:30-5:45 PM Cardio&Conditioning
-15 minutes shadowboxing
-15 minutes jump rope
-15 minutes running
-15 minutes conditioning. Pretty much I just did a circuit of 15 pushups, 20 situps the whole time
-Don't know if it was stupid or not, but had my dad slam a basketball on my stomach a few times to know what it feels like and tolerate pain if I get punched here

Did that all with my sweatshirt and sweatpants on so I could sweat more, heh. My shirt was drenched in sweat.

[karategan]

Pretty much did the same thing. Now I know that it's too much for me. I was just drained of energy at the jogging part in the afternoon.

[karategan]

Saturday, August 22nd

3:30-4:20 PM Cardio
-50 minutes of medium-light to medium intensity

[karategan]

Sunday, August 23rd
Rest day. At dinner, me and family went to eat at a Thai Cuisine and I ate A LOT of hot thai fried rice. Yummy. Felt like I had to do some work so did 15 min shadowboxing at 8:30 PM.

Monday, August 24th

5:30-6:15 AM
-2 1/2 jog (just estimating cause I don't have exact distance)
-15 minutes shadowboxing

4:30-5:45 PM
-15 minutes shadowboxing
-15 minutes jump rope
-Did some sprints. Not sure of distance but each sprint took about 20 seconds then I would rest for 30-45 seconds and repeat x8.
-Conditioning doing 15 pushups followed by 25 crunches/situps and repeating x10. I would take a minute break after every 3 rounds and take a 5-10 second break after each round.
I learned my core strength is much weaker than before.

[karategan]

Tuesday, August 25th

5:30-6:15 AM
-30 minutes jogging
-4 rounds, 3 minutes shadowboxing

4:30-5:40 PM
-4 rounds, 3 minutes shadowboxing
-15 minutes jump rope
-15 minutes jogging
-Rounds of x3-5 pullups followed by x15-20 squats for 10 rounds. After every 3 rounds, I take a one minute break.

Went to my local PAL and will register today or tomorrow. Only $10 a year =)