(This is actually Old Man Logan, but I already have a BLOG by that name)
Violence Dynamics Prime is in the books. I've processed what I have learned, and returned to a regular routine. Which, of course includes writing the Budo Blog. Luckily for me this installment is about that new regular routine. (work smarter not harder)
I was discussing that regular routine, the "new" grind with Randy King. He asked me about the Jujitsu changes I have made. Understand, that Randy has pointed out to me that I have a tendency to take the long road to explain things I'm excited about sometimes. Not unlike Black Dynamite...
I was discussing that regular routine, the "new" grind with Randy King. He asked me about the Jujitsu changes I have made. Understand, that Randy has pointed out to me that I have a tendency to take the long road to explain things I'm excited about sometimes. Not unlike Black Dynamite...
So...I told him it is kind of a long story and that I'd type it out. Typing it out became this blog.
Bad news kid, the warranty on your body runs out at 40. I have discussed how I’ve had a hard time with that, looking for work-arounds, bordering on depression. ( Previously on X-Men...you can check that out HERE).
Bad news kid, the warranty on your body runs out at 40. I have discussed how I’ve had a hard time with that, looking for work-arounds, bordering on depression. ( Previously on X-Men...you can check that out HERE).
I have discovered, it is kind of like an ass backward puberty.
When you are a kid one day you are playing football with your buddies at recess and you are a beast. The next day you are tripping over your own feet, because you literally have new feet. Your body changed dramatically, seemingly overnight, and now you have to learn how to operate a new body. It sucked, but it was also kind of cool because you were getting bigger and stronger.
When you are a 39.9 one day you are running and gunning all day with the SWAT team then rolling Jujitsu at night. The next day you can’t get out of bed because everything hurts, and the pain kind of makes you an asshole to everyone in your life. Your body changed dramatically, seemingly overnight, and now you have to learn how to operate a new body. It sucks, you are not getting bigger and stronger. You are just getting closer to death.
When you are a 39.9 one day you are running and gunning all day with the SWAT team then rolling Jujitsu at night. The next day you can’t get out of bed because everything hurts, and the pain kind of makes you an asshole to everyone in your life. Your body changed dramatically, seemingly overnight, and now you have to learn how to operate a new body. It sucks, you are not getting bigger and stronger. You are just getting closer to death.
What are you going to do cry about it? Or, learn how to operate your new body?
Batman by 40 was a sustainable grind for me when I was 39.9. After that it destroyed me. For the last four years I have been looking for a grind sustainable for my new body.
It took longer than I would have liked, and I needed some job stuff to fall into place to make it work but I finally found it. In retrospect it took exactly as long as it needed to take for me to learn the lessons I needed to learn.
Batman by 40 was mostly suspension body weight exercises and running, with the strengths and weaknesses that went along with that program.
After that it was heavy barbell lifts, and experimenting with non running methods of conditioning. A different set pros and cons.
Finally after four years, I found a combination of things I enjoy doing. A Venn diagram of different activities that pros cancel out or over lap the cons of the other activities,
Strength training that focuses on my +40 goals (maintain muscle mass, lose body fat) as opposed to chasing PR’s every week
Conditioning that protects my knees and is directly related to combatives and tactical operations.
(Mostly sand bag and assault bike stuff)
Rest days (plural). Sweet Christ Almighty - REST DAYS!!!! Heal and recover, or else what is the fucking point?
Nutrition - Fueling all of that work with macros, that fit within a caloric budget (can't out run a fork).
Sleep - At least 7 hrs a night minimum (more whenever possible).
Things have been going well. I feel great, a feeling I didn’t recognize for awhile. I look forward to the next training as opposed to dreading it , but doing it because “the grind”
The last step was to take these ideas and apply them to my other love that hurts me - Jujitsu
Thus I started the Old Man (Logan) Jujitsu initiative.
[Note - there are Old Man Judo, and Old Man Jujitsu groups that have existed without any help from me for years. However, they are mostly a way other old men in grappling arts encourage and commiserate with each other through the troubles we share.]
My old man Judo is a way for me to learn how to operate my new body.
What are the arts people turn to when they become too old to “bang” anymore? Tai Chi and Aikido. It's not like I have over 20 years experience with Aikido to draw from or anything. I challenged myself to use the best of Aikido as a framework for training that works for me, in my new body, and allows me to continue to kick ass and have fun
The changes I have made:
In the past, I’ve tried to include the entire panoply of Jujitsu into each class:
I also used to skimp time on warm ups to make more time for technical training because I felt the need to fit all of it into one class.
This body needs to be thoroughly prepared for technical training.
I have been playing with Kihon Dosa / Shumatsu Dosa, using them to ingrain structurally sound movement patterns.
Also spending time on fundamental movement required for the entire panoply of Jujitsu.
Go figure, doing things to prepare the body for greater strain that actually make you better at the technical aspects that create the greater strain.
The direct links to these preparatory movements and increased performance in myself and in the students have been worth the changes.
Additionally I have included plain old timey stretching after we are sweating, before we wrestle.
That leaves about an hour of class. So instead of trying to cram 8 things into 60 minutes, I just choose 2 of those 6 things and spend a solid 30 minutes on each. Allowing for deeper study and time for students to process the information (let it cook).
Students that come to every class will get the entire panoply of Jujitsu within that week.
Students that can only come to one class, won’t notice or care that they didn’t receive the entire panoply of Jujitsu. They will be happy to make increased progress on the topics they were able to spend more quality time training.
This has been the case so far, I've only been playing with the old man format for around 2 weeks
In the past over a 12 week course students would get:
Ironically with the old man format students that can train twice a week get twice as much:
Training the entire panoply of Jujitsu over the course of an entire week (3 different training sessions) has been paying off, and honestly, more importantly, it has just been way more fun.
Because if you are not having fun, what is the fucking point?
I'll tell you what, not limping is way more fun than hiding a limp.
Train hard, Train Smart - Train for the body you have, not the one you remember or the one you wish you had, Be safe.
The Budo Blog will return in "Kicking out crutches"
Batman by 40 was a sustainable grind for me when I was 39.9. After that it destroyed me. For the last four years I have been looking for a grind sustainable for my new body.
It took longer than I would have liked, and I needed some job stuff to fall into place to make it work but I finally found it. In retrospect it took exactly as long as it needed to take for me to learn the lessons I needed to learn.
Batman by 40 was mostly suspension body weight exercises and running, with the strengths and weaknesses that went along with that program.
After that it was heavy barbell lifts, and experimenting with non running methods of conditioning. A different set pros and cons.
Finally after four years, I found a combination of things I enjoy doing. A Venn diagram of different activities that pros cancel out or over lap the cons of the other activities,
Strength training that focuses on my +40 goals (maintain muscle mass, lose body fat) as opposed to chasing PR’s every week
(Not this so much)
(More of this)
(Mostly sand bag and assault bike stuff)
Rest days (plural). Sweet Christ Almighty - REST DAYS!!!! Heal and recover, or else what is the fucking point?
( If you don't have access to a Lazarus pit you really need to take time to recover )
Nutrition - Fueling all of that work with macros, that fit within a caloric budget (can't out run a fork).
Sleep - At least 7 hrs a night minimum (more whenever possible).
Things have been going well. I feel great, a feeling I didn’t recognize for awhile. I look forward to the next training as opposed to dreading it , but doing it because “the grind”
The last step was to take these ideas and apply them to my other love that hurts me - Jujitsu
Thus I started the Old Man (Logan) Jujitsu initiative.
[Note - there are Old Man Judo, and Old Man Jujitsu groups that have existed without any help from me for years. However, they are mostly a way other old men in grappling arts encourage and commiserate with each other through the troubles we share.]
My old man Judo is a way for me to learn how to operate my new body.
What are the arts people turn to when they become too old to “bang” anymore? Tai Chi and Aikido. It's not like I have over 20 years experience with Aikido to draw from or anything. I challenged myself to use the best of Aikido as a framework for training that works for me, in my new body, and allows me to continue to kick ass and have fun
The changes I have made:
In the past, I’ve tried to include the entire panoply of Jujitsu into each class:
- Striking
- Locks
- Strangles
- Throws
- Ground Work
- Practical Application / Personal Protection
- Pressure Testing
- Force on Force / Sparring
I also used to skimp time on warm ups to make more time for technical training because I felt the need to fit all of it into one class.
This body needs to be thoroughly prepared for technical training.
I have been playing with Kihon Dosa / Shumatsu Dosa, using them to ingrain structurally sound movement patterns.
Also spending time on fundamental movement required for the entire panoply of Jujitsu.
Go figure, doing things to prepare the body for greater strain that actually make you better at the technical aspects that create the greater strain.
The direct links to these preparatory movements and increased performance in myself and in the students have been worth the changes.
Additionally I have included plain old timey stretching after we are sweating, before we wrestle.
That leaves about an hour of class. So instead of trying to cram 8 things into 60 minutes, I just choose 2 of those 6 things and spend a solid 30 minutes on each. Allowing for deeper study and time for students to process the information (let it cook).
Students that come to every class will get the entire panoply of Jujitsu within that week.
Students that can only come to one class, won’t notice or care that they didn’t receive the entire panoply of Jujitsu. They will be happy to make increased progress on the topics they were able to spend more quality time training.
This has been the case so far, I've only been playing with the old man format for around 2 weeks
In the past over a 12 week course students would get:
- 4 x Striking
- 4 x Locks
- 4 x Strangles
- 12 x Throws
- 12 x Groundwork
And, if they can only make it once a week they will continue to get all of that. However,...
Ironically with the old man format students that can train twice a week get twice as much:
- 8 x Striking
- 8 x Locks
- 8 x Strangles
- 12 x Throws
- 12 x Groundwork
- Practical Application / Personal Protection
- Pressure Testing
- Force on Force / Sparring
Training the entire panoply of Jujitsu over the course of an entire week (3 different training sessions) has been paying off, and honestly, more importantly, it has just been way more fun.
Because if you are not having fun, what is the fucking point?
I'll tell you what, not limping is way more fun than hiding a limp.
Train hard, Train Smart - Train for the body you have, not the one you remember or the one you wish you had, Be safe.
The Budo Blog will return in "Kicking out crutches"
This is timely for me. At the age of 42 I have just recently bowed off the mat for a term to really let my body heal properly, I have two injuries that refuse to go away and a third beginning. Annoying tendon stuff at that. I was feeling sorry for myself but this blog reminded me we are all just getting older and need to adapt.
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