How is your training going: An open discussion topic since I don't think we have one right now?

MMA and Martial Arts
128

I trained and sparred pretty hard well into my 40s. I was actually offered to take part in a local amateur cage fight event which I of course turned down, having gained some caution after decades of injuries.

I am now contemplating stopping regular training after over 4 decades of martial arts. I need to schedule a hip replacement surgery as soon as possible as I am having great difficulty in going up stairs or even walking.

My current condition is a shambles. Gall bladder surgery a couple months ago and knee surgery a year ago kinda put a stop to the regular training I was trying to sustain. The knee thing was a full game changer for me and kinda made everything go to hell.

I had been having lots of pain for many years. A collapsed ankle, knee meniscus injuries, misaligned backbone, and crushed lumbar disks had limited more and more what I could do but I tried to train at least twice or thrice a week and found that the flexibility drills helped to sustain mobility even with the worsening hip situation.

Then I was soundly defeated by a cat’s water bowl.

I trained at a friend’s karate place, helping with the regular classes. I had done a full workout and was feeling pretty dehydrated but was asked to help with pad drills for the younger students. I stepped around one of those “Bob” manequins with the heavy water-filled bases to go pick up the target pads outside the mat. And I slipped and fell. My friend the owner had left a plastic plate with water for his cat placed off the mat right behind the thing and I did not see it while looking for the pads.

Now, I have done ukemi most of my life and I fell flat without thinking about it. But for an instant I almost did an involuntary split stretch as my foot slipped and when I tried to get up my felt-side upper thigh muscle seized in a violent muscle cramp that made me drop instantly again. I lost conscience for a second or two, I duuno, I cannot really remember much of it. People helped me rubbing my leg to ease the pain and helped me stand but pain continued and I could not lift my leg up. I recognized some worrying symptoms as it was a struggle to get into my car and drive.

Next day after things had not improved I went to the doctor and It was diagnosed that my upper thigh muscles had basically torn away from the knee and were de-attached. I needed surgery to reattach them. My local health insurace did me bad and it took two weeks for surgery to take place. I had to use a full-length leg frame for weeks and basically do every load-bearing work with my right leg which was the side of my bad hip. When I went for rehabilitation they didnt even know what exercises to do with me.
(This is the third world). My left leg had atrophied during the time it took for me to start trying to make the muscles work again and it has taken over a year for me to recover about half its strength or so.

Meanwhile my right side got worse and worse from the proportional overwork and now I need surgery there, too.

I tried to work out somewhat, doing light stretched when I could, aside from the rehabilitation stuff that was really like nothing compared to what I could normally do. I lost most of my strength and flexibility and mobility. I am basically a near-cripple now and must use assistance for walking more than a few meters.

I could kick above my head not that long ago, now I cannot even hold decent stances in training, much less do motion drills. My bag work is awful even in static position because of weak positions.

I was never a great athlete or martial artist. I made the local karate national team in the late 80s more thru thick headness than actual ability. I always had to train endlessly to barely sustain what came easily to others.

I can no longer do randori or even basic standing drills. I have tried to do ground drills and my back seizes up with just doing armbars from the bottom guard.

I wonder if I could just keep doing very basic boxing drills.

I have to get the hip surgery, but a close relative who did the same after similar ailments ended up with complications which led to back surgery and finally to a life in a wheelchair. A shortened life, ended two years ago.

Once I have had the surgery I may ask here for advice on what I could still do depending on what results.

So decades of multiple martial arts and all it took was a cat’s water bowl. Is that not humbling or what?

129

With my son, it is always instagram and tiktok and online games.

Thankfully he has finally caught the training bug and is devoting more and more time to the gym and weight training, or I’d worry he may end up like one of those kimikomori (sp?) recluses.

130

I think we may be nearing a point where something like the Butlerian Jihad from the Dune books will be a necessity.

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131

So how did the 7th dan test go?

132

There isn’t much mention of it in the movies but lots of visual Easter eggs, e.g. analog gauges in vehicles, no interactive computing.

Check out the device Irulan uses to record her personal log in the new movie. They only show it for a few seconds but that is a future form of very real ancient human writing technology.

134
  • I don’t need to muscle my techniques anymore. I sometimes do it for the training value, though
  • Flexibility is holding up well.
  • Small, incremental improvement in technique
  • slower recovery with age
  • inconsistent speed from day to day (age related)
  • natural strength declining with age.

I do some military exercises to try and maintain strength, but my arm strength has gone south with age. My back and hip strength is unaffected by age so far

135

recovery and strength can be worked on with proper resistance and training progression to gain adaptation.

What is a military exercise, if you dont mind me asking? Which military?

Arms will mostly be push and pull complex, hows your neck, shoulder, scapula etc?

136

Neck is way more vulnerable in mid 30s, quite a few setbacks. Shoulders not so much.

Recovery is worse in terms of stiffness in back and sometimes neck. I sometimes have to wait for close to a week to get back. But it depends.

I do chin ups mostly.

I feel like my testosterone levels are easily boosted by training but strength is still lower. I need probably twice the workouts to have the same strength as in my 20s.

Speed is good but inconsistent.

137

Training is going better than ever.

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138

That’s when Max von Sydow attempts to destroy a demon, and fails, over and over until he’s won.

To be fair, his record playing God vs. the Devil is something like 2-3. But he also played a knight in The Seventh Seal.

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139

You have no means of accurately assessing testosterone on feelings alone. Even across a day, fluctuations of levels are very normal without the person in question being able to discern them.

Explain what you mean by you neck being more vulnerable?

Supersets are more a hypertrophic adaption tool than for strength.

Given what you’re saying Im wondering if it’s a fuel in the tank vs fatigue from how you structure your program if anything else.

140

Testosterone levels can be determined by body fat, energy level, etc you can see the fluctuations in someones face. The more defined jaw lines, cheekbone the bigger levels.

Someone who stops training will increase estrogen and get more feminine, softer features in the face.

I’ve seen it in myself when I did no training.

141

I’m going to want a study and not an annecdote for several of those claims, but your jawline and skull shape is influenced massively by genetics, not a single hormone.

And no, those are not exclusive indicators for your testosterone levels.

This is broscience understanding of human physiology and as someone who makes a point of working with endocrinologists for my own health and sport scientists and bodybuilders for work, I would be delighted to see a study showing a lack of exercise increases estrogen if you can provide one instead of ‘it was revealed to me in my assumptions.’

What did you use to calculate your estrogen and test? A blood test? Your body fat and energy levels probably went down because you weren’t doing anything and eating, at best, the same as you did while exercising.

142

My ovaries are aflame right now. So much Kenergy in this thread!

Time to start dancing, before I actually start to grow boobs.

Seriously here’s some training music to get your day going. Try not to die laughing as you work that booty, when the dude shows up and razzamatazzes shit.

0900, my sump well is still at DC3. Mrs Rabbit and I talked about the upcoming AGW-induced “hypercane” season. I need to lose about 30lbs of Winter bear sugar shield, or else society is doomed.

Pure energy. It’s all in the hips.

143

I’m talking about the pronouncation of the jaw and cheekbone, not the bones themselves. Meaning body fat in the face.

Sex drive is a pretty easy marker to unless you’re exausted, sleep deprived, or overworked.

There are several ways to track ones current levels of hormones.

144

cheekbone would mean you are talking about the bone. Bone and fat are not the same. You most likely mean the buccal pad, which is, again, going to store fat if you dont exercise and eat as if you did when training, it’s also mostly influenced by your genetics. In surgery for trans folk, buccal fat alteration procedures are a thing because of little HRT itself can affect it unless genetically you are predisposed to storage there. Again, your claims are based entirely on assumptions and limited understanding.

also, no back up of claims mean I can dismiss your claims

145

So you don’t understand what the word pronouncation means?

146

considering google can’t even find how you spelt that but can find pronunciation, I’d like to see how you rebuke my counterargument first than get into dictionary, especially when you state bone, but make infinitely wilder claims you can’t back up.

if you mean how it is pronounced, then yes, I do, but again, you specified a bone.

Then again, I’ve seen how you misuse words on this site many times, so this isn’t suprising.

147

How good is your Earthbending? This is my speciality.

In before major tectonic event news.

148

I started rewatching this while I recovered from my last surgery. God damn I love Toph.