Thursday, 13 November 2008
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My 2nd Training Entry: Phase II
I'm happy that despite my recent and temporary move to Fermilab, I do have access to an adequate (though antiquated) weight room and training facility. As such, I am now ready to step up my training to phase 2. (see http://weblog.xanga.com/Roninsabum/669119161/time-for-a-taekwondo-entry.html)
Now that I am satisfied with my strength training progress, I'm switching focus to muscular endurance training. This seems to be one of the most underrated areas of training outside of the highest level athletes, and even then only in particular sports. For everyone else, it's heavy lifting and running (cardiovascular endurance training), and maybe plyometrics for the more serious amateur athletes.
Muscular endurance training, as I am defining it, consists of two major distinctions from heavy strength training.
- The first obvious distinction is that I will be using much lower resistances. Instead of a heavy bench press (I actually use dumbbells for this), I'll do pushups. In lieu of lugging all those 45 lb. plates onto the leg press, I'll be squatting just the 45 lb. olympic barbell. Most weight training sites and books I have read define different levels of weight training based on the number of repetitions executed in a single set. "Strength Training" corresponds to 6-10 reps.; "Power Training" corresponds to 10-15 reps.; and "Endurance Training" corresponds to 15-20 reps. according to a book I used for a UW-Madison weightlifting course I took about four years ago. My muscular endurance training regimen calls for sets going eventually into the hundreds of repetitions per set to compliment the low repetition strength training I've already accomplished.
- The second distinction is that I will be performing the sets in circuit, rather than doing three sets of a single exercise consecutively. The latter is more conducive to the hypertrophy associated with heavy training, while training in circuit will allow the muscles at least 10 minutes to recover from a particular exercise before the next set.
Around the time I took that weightlifting class I dabbled in this kind of lifting. While it doesn't always look as impressive to the people around you at the gym (something I care nothing about), it is definitely more difficult and painful. With heavy lifting, as soon as your muscles start to burn a little bit, you're done--you don't have the strength to finish that last repetition because even a single repetition requires a relatively large energy output. But with endurance lifting, your muscles start burning but you can still push one more, and one more, and one more...so you are pushing your muscles even closer to complete exhaustion. I look forward to the challenge.
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Comments (16)
That sounds like a lot of fun.
@methodElevated - It remains to be seen what I need to do to make steady and strong improvements. I actually learned alot about how my body responds to heavy lifting in the past year that I've been working on it. A stress fracture from preacher curls, pulled tendon under my clavicle from weighted dips, and the necessity of whey protein in my morning smoothie to start with.
@Roninsabum - At least you're learning your own limits. There's something very admirable about that. I enjoying meeting my limits and then working to push past them in long distance running, and I've managed to avoid any serious injuries. I've never been that big into weight lifting, although it can be very satisfying when I do it. I could definitely work on my arm strength, though....
@Roninsabum - I applied your recommendation. It looks a little funny as a really small image, but I agree that it's better than the cartoon.
lots more pain. lots more puking.
@methodElevated - Learning and making a habit of pushing my limits, then pushing my limits back, is one of the central themes I learned growing up as a martial artist. I apply the exact same mentality to my academic and intellectual development. Though they seem outwardly distinct, to me they are two branches of a single endevour.
Girls with toned arms are sexy.
@Roninsabum - How long have you been practicing martial arts?
@methodElevated - I started training in taekwondo when I was nine and my childhood thereafter focused mostly on that. My interest in science didnt' start until later and this January will mark an even decade for my higher education. I did spend the last two years of undergrad teaching/coaching at a taekwondo school in Madison, but I've been mostly disconnected from the active taekwondo world in my adult life. That's why I'm getting excited about retooling and reinterpretting that martial art, which I think has lost its way.
@Roninsabum - Has it become too Americanized or something?
@methodElevated - The answer to that warrents a full entry (possibly a book) of its own, which I've been both intending and procrastinating for months. The short answer is: the traditionalists are cripplingly reactionary and the modernists focus only on the very narrow "sport" version of taekwondo. I want to initiate and drive progress in 1) how we condition (this is the only part I've spoken of in blog-form), 2) how we fight, and 3) the cultural and philosophical side that is being forgotten, or at best, stagnating.
@Roninsabum - I'd like to read that post if you ever get around to writing it.
By the way, what do you think of Christian martial arts? Do you think they have their own merit, or is it a non sequitur? I'm just curious what your thoughts are.
@methodElevated - I actually have no clue what you're talking about. The only martial art I know of that is in any way associated with one of the Abrahamic religions is Krav Maga, of the Israeli Army.
@Roninsabum - Perhaps it's not very common where you're from, but when I lived in Massachusetts, I actually saw Christian martial arts academies quite frequently. From what I understand, they teach the sport aspect of martial arts but not with the traditional Eastern outlook. Since most Christians see traditional martial arts (usually Asian ones) as being a way to sway young people away from their religion and into Buddhism or another religion, Christian parents often discourage their children from becoming martial artists altogether. I think some Christian martial arts studios (I don't know if calling them dojos would be appropriate) even instruct on chi manipulation, but they either don't even bother to explain chi (which seems odd because how can you learn to alter it if you don't know what it is or how it works?), or they explain it away in some other Christian-approved way. There is the Christian Martial Arts Association website if you want to know more about their outlook.
@methodElevated - Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing such Christian Taekwondo groups around regional tournaments when I used to go to them. Most of Wisconsin is pretty conservative and strongly Christian, but seemingly a bit less neurotic about outside influences so I don't think any of the groups I saw were from here (Montana rings a bell though).
Actually, the idea of chi--along with its cousin acupressure--is one of those concepts that I consider obsolete and needs to be let go of. I study particle physics for a living so I understand that virtually all matter/energy that exists on our planet, including our own bodies, is composed of up quarks, down quarks, electrons, and photons. Maybe gluons (the nuclear-strong-force equivalent of a photon) too since they hold atomic nuclei together, but since we're not radioactive, that's it. All other known forms of matter to exist here are produced in particle accelerators like the one I'm currently living at until Jan. 22. When I said that the traditionalists are too reactionary, this is one of the central topics I was refering to.
@Roninsabum - :D My buddy is heading down to Antarctica in January to study neutrinos. He's also a physicist.
You're not much of a spiritual person, are you?
@methodElevated - I was raised in a rural Catholic family, but I have been a declared atheist since the age of 14.
And yes, the AMANDA project. Wisconsin has a big hand in that too. Fermilab doesn't sound so bad by comparison.