"BLOG-4-CAUSE...You can help today"

As John Cleese might say: "And now for something completely different" for luckisforrabbits...

Joanna Sutter from http://www.fitnessandspice.com/ and her friend Lance Ekum have done a really terrific thing: they've put together an eBook to help contribute to finding a cure for breast cancer in connection with the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Talk about "making your own luck! Big kudos to Joanna and Lance...and to ALL of those who contributed to the eBook!

I decided to display their banner ad [over on the right above my profile information] which links to the Blogging For A Cause site for anyone who would like to help by donating a few dollars to this very worthwhile cause.

Please don't just "think about it"...go ahead and click on the banner/link, donate what you can afford (a $5 donation will go a long way if lots of us get involved) and then download the eBook, sit back and enjoy some "good stuff"!

Go ahead. It's good karma.

Thanks for your help.

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"Mr. Funner 's Guest Post..."

Cheryl Ragsdale, from That Girl Is Funny, asked if I'd write a post about age and the martial arts. Cheryl is no stranger to being on the mat. She trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the Florian Martial Arts Center in Brookline, MA, run by Kenny Florian and Keith Florian. If you've ever watch a UFC match, you know who Kenny Florian is...(killer elbows)

My "guest post" can be found at her site: http://thatgirlisfunny.com/

Check it out!!!

Enjoy...

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"Old School Friday Night Ironworks"

Last night I decided to stop by the gym after work and work on my grip strength and 'pulling muscles'. Since I've started rolling/sparring in BJJ, I've come to realize that grip and pulling strength is critical if you want to have more success controlling your opponent.

I also remember reading something by former UFC champion, Matt Hughes, about how he trains his back more than his chest, since he felt that you do a lot more pulling than pushing when you're grappling. Since I've switched to BJJ I've noticed my overall strength improving and more definition (less fat?) in my upper body.
So last night I ditched anything "new" and went right back to some old school exercises...nothing fancy...short, sweet and with intensity.

(Ahhh...no, not what this dude is doing...although once MikeZ from http://smoketheblowfish.blogspot.com/ sees this...it'll probably be part of our next "challenge)

Here's what was on "the Friday night fight card" along with some of the tunes:

Warm-up: (2x)

Jump Rope 1 minute

20 Lumberjacks (10lb Medicine Ball)

10 Push-ups

12 Prisoner Squats

3 Pull-ups

Jump Rope 1 minute

tunes:

"Fake It" - Seether

"Made A Mistake" - Sugarcult

"Shaking" - Sugarcult

"Hate Every Beautiful Day" - Sugarcult

Round One:

10 Deadlifts 135lbs, 185lbs, 135lbs

superset with

15 Push-ups on the bar (3x)

tunes:

"Out of Exile" - Audioslave

"Love Like Winter" -AFI

"My Hero" - Foo Fighters

Round Two:

"Up the Rack"

10 DB Rows L/R 35lbs, 45lbs, 55lbs, 65lbs
straight through, as little rest as possible

Jump Rope 1 minute

tunes:

"Skeptic" - Chevelle

"Be Yourself" - Audioslave

"Colors" - Crossfade

Round Three:

Hammer Strength Seated Row* (w/individual "arms")

12 per side 80lbs, 105lbs, 115lbs

straight through, as little rest as possible

[*note: I generally don't use machines, but I love this one]

Jump Rope 1 minute

tunes:

"21st Century Digital Boy" - Bad Religion

"Had Enough" - Breaking Benjamin

"Wasting My Time" - Default

Round Four:

5 Pull-ups

DB Hammer Curls to failure 30lbs, 20lbs, 15lbs

drop to lower weight at failure

Jump Rope 1 minute

tunes:

"Let You Down" - Default

"Voices" - Disturbed

"Shout" - Disturbed

Round Five:

20 Stability Ball Rollouts

10 Med Ball Chops L/R

Side Planks 30 sec L/R

Stationary Bike 10 minutes

tunes:

"Jukebox Hero" - Foreigner (GREAT for rollouts!)

"This Life" - Hourcast

"Savin' Me" - Nickelback

"If Today Was Your Last Day" - Nickelback

"Defy You" - The Offspring

fini.

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"One Tough Woman, Revisited..."

Rachel Demara is one of the BJJ instructors at Evolve Academy. She's the woman in the black and blue rashguard who pulls guard in each of the three matches I posted. If you follow luckisforrabbits you may remember I wrote about her on August 7th and how she was training with some of the tougher guys at Evolve to get ready for an upcoming match.

On October 3rd, 2009, Rachel Demara won Absolute First for women in the Pan Am NOGI competition in New York City. She won nine (I think) matches...and won ALL of them by submission, something unheard of at that level. Rachel is one tough woman.

I'm always amazed at how tenacious she is when grappling with one of the guys at Evolve...you can see it in these clips...she has a plan, she remains calm and relaxed throughout each match...and ultimately works her way to where she wants to be. Nice. [Something to strive for...]



The best part is that Rachel is extremely helpful to us "newbies" in giving advice, showing exactly how to apply a technique or how to get to a better position. As I mentioned once before, I feel VERY fortunate to have her as an instructor and I'm looking forward to learning more from her in the future.

Congratulations, Rachel!

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"Distance Burpees and Over-Unders on the mat..."

We had some fun in today's Teen Aikido class with our warm-ups...I had them running, skipping, lunging, side shuffling, running some more...and then: distance burpees, ala Mr. Smoke D. Blowfish fame (see above) and over-unders (see below).

Then a bit more running followed by a short round of "alligator push-ups" (staggered stance push-ups, then 'walk' your hand forward, do another push-up, walk your other hand forward, do another, etc...like an alligator walking)

I asked Yusef, one of our biggest, strongest students if he liked the warm-ups today. I picked him because he's always asking me to make the warm-ups 'tough' and he'll kid me if he thinks they were too easy. With sweat dripping down his face, he smiled a BIG smile, nodded his head and said, "Oh yeah, that was fun."

On the way home, I asked both of my kids what they thought of the distance burpees and told me they thought it was one of the best warm-ups that we've ever done. (Amazing. I hate burpees with a passion. Looks like it's not genetic...)

Mission accomplished, "Coach".

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"On the path..."

Tonight was promotion night at Evolve Academy. We all sparred for two 5-minute rounds and then there was a short ceremony where senior students (Blue Belt and above) were "striped" by the instructors to indicate their ranking within each belt color.

After that we all rolled for one more 5-minute round and then lined up. Those of us receiving belt promotions were called up to the front to have an instructor put our new belts on us. There were numerous White Belt promotions and a few Blue Belts were handed out. Interesting note: as I received my new belt, Master Mike announced to the class that, "Fred is 46 years old, so I don't want to hear any excuses about not being able to train..." [Made me laugh. I thanked him later for taking 14 years off...funny thing was, a few of the guys couldn't believe I was "that old"...]

Then those of us who were promoted had the "privilege" of walking the gaunlet: the whole class lines up in two rows, removes their belts and you get to walk slowly on your hands and knees from one end to the other while they take a whack at your hind quarters with their belts. (EE-YOWWW!..that stings just a bit )

Special thanks to those few who didn't wail on us as hard as they could.

After that a few group pictures and voila! Home to a much needed hot, hot shower. An awesome night, to say the least.

Life is good.

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.

"Smokers...they're not your father's Tabatas..."

Sunday I did the JFF#5 that my friend MikeZ, aka, "Smoke" http://smoketheblowfish.blogspot.com/ put together for me while in one of his evil moods. Please note that I am officially renaming these as "Smokers" because that's the effect they'll have on you if you try them: you'll feel 'smoked', gassed, wasted, beat-to-[expletive], squadoosh in the tank. (See photo above) Also, since Mr. Smoke D. Blowfish came up with them, I feel he deserves the blame, I mean, credit. The protocol is like a Tabata...but these are "Smokers"...they're not your father's Tabatas.

The "Smoker" I did yesterday looked like this:

Round 1: 20 sec of Pushups /15 sec rest - 8 sets
(After the fourth set of these my arms got real heavy and started to quit, but I keep going, ending with only about 5 (ugly) pushups done during the last set...just "warming up")

Round 2: 20 sec of Squats / 15 sec rest - 8 sets
(Guess my legs are stronger than I thought...these were hard, but not nearly as tiring as the pushups...did okay, although last set was a very audible one)

Round 3: 20 sec of Kettlebell Swings / 15 sec rest - 8 sets
(Probably should have done this round first...started off strong but began gassing out around the fifth set...I was very glad that RKC, Sandy Sommer was not around to see me struggle through this round...above photo from somewhere in the middle of these...)

Round 4: 20 sec of "Distance Burpees" / 15 sec rest - 5 sets
Smoke sez: "On the jump up, jump for distance...like a frog." (Okay...these are just wrong. Whoever thought of these originally was a sick [expletive]. I waited about five minutes after the KB Swings and then did these in the grass on the side of my house. I looked up during last set and saw a deer and her fawn watching me from the neighbor's backyard. Honestly. It was actually pretty cool...made me laugh, wondering what THEY were thinking I was doing!)

Ah...by the way, Mr. Funner will no longer be doing Distance Burpees anytime in the near future. If you find yourself asking, "why not?" then I suggest you try them this weekend to find out. Enough said.

Then I finished with:

Approximately 100 Yard Farmer's Walk (1-arm holding 16kg KB)
Repeated 10 times...

Yup, 1000 yards (approximately) walking up my street and then down my street. The key phrase in that last sentence is " UP my street"...I live on a street that dead ends into some trees and has about a 20 degree incline/grade to it. Doesn't sound very steep, but by the 6th trip up the hill it felt like I was carrying a ton of weight, even though I kept switching hands every lap.

[Editor: This was a variation on the original finisher suggested by "Dr. Evil Z" ...Carried less weight in one position for a longer distance going up and down hill...but trust me, it wasn't easy.]

All in all a high intensity workout that had me gasping for air more times than I'd like to admit. I'm not sure of the total time, since I spent more time resting between rounds than I thought I would, but I think I was outside for about 40 minutes from start to finish.

Want to get "Smoked"? Give it a try this weekend. You won't be disappointed.

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.