Forfatter: Arne Sostack

Well, I figured I’d give Squidoo a tryout, and figured I’d create a lens about jiu jitsu. I figure if I ever see a dime from it, I’ll donate it to my local jiu jitsu club, Silkeborg Jiu Jitsu Klub.

Running is great, I’m now at 2 minutes walking, 15 minutes running, 2 minutes walking, then 16 minutes running again, and the distance is something like 5½ km. Not too bad. Also, my weight is back at pre-Christmas levels: 82.2kg. Yay!

This morning, I did 100 pushups without setting my knees on the ground. I did “bridge” – bending at the hip to rest shoulders and abs – three times, at 80, 90 and 95. Well, I’m going to work on getting rid of those breaks, but I do feel that I’ve done enough to put this badge on here:

As for the blue belt, I think I’m doing pretty well. Last night’s training got me leg locks (ashi gatame), pressure points (kyoshu), and striking techniques (ate waza) in place. Great! Working with John is good stuff. Now I just have to update the belt test description.

Pushup status: last test said 90. another ten to go! yay! Also, running is going well, I’m now doing walk 2, run 8, walk 2, run 7, walk 1 minute. Not a problem.

Last night we trained specifically towards graduation. We worked our way through almost all of jigo waza, and I’ve updated the page with all my techniques accordingly. Another session or two and I’ll have a full program. John, my uke in this endeavour, says for his brown belt test (1. kyu, ikkyu), he’ll probably be using the same program, so even after I’m done, it’s not a waste.

The idea is that I’m filling more techniques into the program than I need, since kyoshi often lets candidates go on beyond the minimum number of techniques. This mostly works in favour of the candidate, as he gets a chance to either show off some extra flash, or, if things are not going so well, redeem himself. Of course, running out of techniques to show is probably not a good thing. Heh.

So, I got through week 6, albeit not entirely in keeping with the plan. The test put me in the middle category with 60 consecutive push ups, but it was still too much in the end, I guess – rounding each day off with 50 in one go was more than I could handle, so I did two times 25 instead. Still enough to get me sweating and panting, so good fun. Theoretically, I should be able to do 100 consecutive push ups now, but I think I’m still a bit ways off. This morning, I made my own plan, though: I did 10 x 10 push ups with 10 seconds pause in between. In a couple of days, I’ll do 9 x 10 and 1 x 20, and I’ll just cut off one pause every time. That should get me to 100 in 9 more sessions.

Tuesday night was jiu jitsu night – great training with my buddy John. Main subject was wrist holds and arm locks. We’ve reached the conclusion that I know plenty of arm locks for the graduation, but I still need to practice the formalities.

Oh, and Wednesday morning was a new low on the scales since after my summer vacation – 84.5 kilos. This means that I’m now back to where I was before my vacation, and my new target is 80 kilos. Yay!

Well, week 5 has passed, I’m supposedly only one week away from being able to do 100 pushups. I really don’t feel like that today, but I guess it’s not terribly disheartening yet.

Rune has been struggling with sleeping the last week or so, so I haven’t slept too well either. In spite of that, I managed to do one or two more than the minimum 40 on the last round of day 2 and 3. That’s 151 pushups this morning.

I also started running again, mostly because I had to pick up Rune on foot from the day carer, so I figured I’d combine it with a bit of running. Worked out fine with the knee and all.

Oh, and last week’s training was great – I have a new partner in John, and he has much of the same intensity when training as I have. We did a series of basic techniques and applied them in jigo waza (defense situations). Great fun. Looking forward to training tonight.

Well, week 3 of the hundred pushups was pretty tough, but I’ve managed to push myself a bit, and the effect was obvious on day 3, where I did 129 pushups in total, with 4 x 2 minute breaks. I feel I’m definately getting closer to my goal, also because I managed 35 in the last round.

Besides the pushing up, I celebrated my birthday yesterday by helping at the country festival, taking down tents and packing floors and such. I have a tired back today. So, anyway, I got some presents as well – some nice new clothes, a set of kitchen knives and a new gi! It’s very very comfortable, and I’m really looking forward to breaking it in.

Well, running was a bit of a let-down this sunday. I’d only gotten through half of my program when my knee started hurting. Ouch. No more running until that’s over, I’m afraid.

On the other hand, I’ve completed the first two weeks of the hundred pushups program, and did the test afterwards: I can now do 40 consecutive good-form pushups. So, I’m still in the high section for the next two weeks. Day one of third week was pretty hard, but I’m feeling good about it still.

Jiu jitsu training starts next week, looking forward to that as well.

Still on the program, this morning I did 15, 15, 12, 12, then 37 pushups, 2 minutes pause between each section. Now it’s time for another test, and I’m pretty hyped about it. Looks a lot like I’ll make it in 4 weeks.

On another note, I’ve started running. Even though I’ve always sworn that I couldn’t and wouldn’t run, I’ve been out three times over the last week, following a program kinda like the pushups one. I started in the middle of the entry level, which means walking 2 minutes, running 5, then walking 2, running 5 and finally walking one minute.

This has worked well, and I’ve increased the distance run (if ever so slightly) every time. I don’t get sore, I can actually get myself to do it, and it’s only 15 minutes plus a bit of stretching afterwards. Next week, I’ll go up to running 6 minutes, maybe just the first time, can’t remember. But overall, good stuff. I do believe it shows as well, though not so much on the scales yet. Probably when I go back to work, I’ll be back to more normal eating habits, and lose the couple of kilos I’ve gained.