A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

So we've just boarded the train from Beijing to Xi'An. It's been busy 6 days... Edit: No, we're not. By the time I wrote this, we were in the train. Now, the first day here in Xi'An has already passed. More on that next time, though... Beijing is an impressive city. Not only is it huge, fast and busy (not to forget: hot at this time of the year), it's also a city of contrast. East meets west here, old meets new, socialist meets capitalist... China truly is an emerging country and a unique one to that, I believe. It'll be quite interesting to look back in a couple more years and compare the situation then to what we've experienced during that week. When we landed, we were both pretty jet-lagged. In Vienna, we've boarded the plane at around 12. At 3pm, we stopped in Helsinki. Then, at 6pm (local time) we boarded our flight to Beijing, which landed at around 7:00am (again, local time). Neither of us had any sleep during the flight. Sitting ...

So tomorrow my journey to China begins. I'm really looking forward to this. As I've pointed out in [this post] , I was pretty busy over the last time. Therefore (and because of my shoulder impingement) I focussed strongly on S&C work. Guess I'll be able to equalize a lot of things (when training in China) by bringing strength and power into play... Below you'll find a table roughly summarizing what I've been doing over the last couple weeks. This is basically the continuation of [this halfway report] . Might not seem a lot, but then it was hard work, I can tell you that... Week 4 Session 1 Date 2013-06-10 Warmup / Power Power Snatch from hang 30 x 3 35 x 2 40 x 3 45 x 2 50 x 2 50 x 2 50 x 2 Strength Front Squat 72,5 x 5 82,5 x 5 92,5 x 6 DB Press 22,5 x 5 22,5 x 4 22,5 x 4 Assistance Deadlift 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 ...

On Saturday, June 29th I'll be on my way to China. My girl and I will go there on a 5 week trip, which roughly goes like this: (Vienn) (Helsinki) Beijing Cangzhou Xi'An Luoyang Deng Feng Nanjing Qufu Shanghai Hangzhou Guilin Foshan Hong Kong (Helsinki) (Vienna) Obviously, one major interest of mine is exploring the chinese martial arts, especially Sanda, Bagua and Tai Chi. I have to say, though, that going along with strenous wushu training will put me before quite a challenge... Now since it's the end of the semester,  my academic programm is using up an estimated 36 hours daily. That, in conjunction with my shoulder impingement, kept me from any serious martial arts practice over the course of the last couple weeks. Goes without saying that this didn't help me get in top condition. Still, yesterday I did some sparring and I guess I haven't lost it all yet... Then again, we'll see about that soon enough now, won't we? Of course, I...

My second last day here in Linz is just coming to an end... I arrived here monday morning. Nothing worth mentioning happened, except for the fact maybe that I actually got my training schedule to work. Just did a crisp session during lunch break. On tuesday, I felt those deadlifts, hard... You see, on tuesday, they started by putting us through a battery of tests like standing broad jump, 20m sprints, skipping, etc, etc... all very much leg dominant. Then, for a good finish, we did a [Conconi] test at around 6pm, Needless to say, I was pretty wasted. Now the point is that I'm somewhat in a hurry to complete my [current training program] . On June 29th I'll go to China and obviously, I'll get a bit weaker over the trip. If I can make it to the gym while I'm there, fine. I won't sacrifice any Kung Fu in favor of general S&C, though... Hence, I need to make sure to get as strong as I can before my departure. Therefore, I decided to do another heavy lifting s...

I'm on my train to Linz. Some time ago, I went through the [instructor] course for "general body education" there – simply said, it's a fitness instructor course. The course took four weeks spread over one semester, with exams being held at the beginning of each week. This time, it'll be a total time of three semesters. I'm not totally sure right now, but I believe it's the same thing as before, i.e. four weeks per semester for a total of 12 weeks. The neat thing with this course is that, unlike private certifications, most of the cost is covered by the state. Of course, this also means harsh examinations… Anyhow, as much as I'm looking forward to the course, I'm facing an additional challenge. Since I just had my deload week, I need to find time to schedule three heavy S&C sessions somewhere in between classes. That won't be trivial, considering we start at 08:00am and usually don't end before 08:00pm… Guess I'll have to sacrif...