Pre-testing went well on Saturday. It wound up being a long process; there were eight of us testing or pre-testing, including four little kids, ages around 6 - 8, going for their very first stripe. Yes, that was as adorable as it sounds. The first stripe test for all students includes a fairly long list of Japanese terms we use all the time in training; they have to count to five in Japanese, know the words for teacher, uniform, training hall, different punches, and different stances, plus the dojo heritage, the dojo kun, and a few other things. Well, when one of the kids was asked what the room we trained in was called (dojo), he replied in a dead serious tone, "The Hall of Fame."
I was happy with the way my stuff went. I know what I have to work on between now and Sunday, and it's really just some polishing up. Things are finally starting to feel right for me again. Woo!
Today was the B workout of NROL/W. I liked the workout, but again, hated the long rests between sets. I cut them short, and even with that, the workout took well over an hour. I don't mind spending time in the gym, but I do mind spending time in the gym, looking at my watch. I wish the book explained the logic behind the rest periods. I know you usually do longer rest periods as you get more into strength workouts due to the neuromuscular effects of training - but generally I thought that applied to when one was using very heavy weights and very, very low reps. How that even remotely correlates to some of these exercises, given the weight/rep scheme of this phase, is a mystery to me.
Oh well. I did the interval cardio on the step mill, and set a new PR for floors climbed in a NR interval workout. LOL. Hey, what can I say, I'm easily amused.
Almost ran this morning. It was just SOOOOO nice out, sunny, getting warmer... feeling like spring is actually threatening to come sometime soon. Decided to keep it to walking for this week - I don't want to add anything new the week before the exam - but after that, all bets are off!
I really enjoyed NROL when I was doing it, too - maybe you'll inspire me to pull that back out. I also didn't get the rep/rest scheme for some of the programming, and in the NROL-W series, I could never figure out why in the goddess's name he would put jack knives on the ball in the first workout. Intimidating much? Sometimes I think they just do stuff for no rhyme or reason.
ReplyDeleteYeah, perhaps I shouldn't complain so much, because on the whole, I like the program. But you're so right about the jackknives. And consider - in Stage 1 you work up to 3 sets of 15, then in stage 3 you do 3 sets of 6? Ditto, the swiss ball crunches, which I'm sorry, you can only make so hard. Tried doing them yesterday with a 25# plate behind my head, and nearly tipped off the ball backwards. It's just too much weight relative to my body mass.
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