Back to the grind - Money, Money, Money

This week has been okay. I say okay and not good because although I have done a lot of work in the gym trying to build some muscle, I haven't done so great on the wrestling I missed Monday's and Wednesday's session much to my dismay.  We did however have a cracking Thanksgiving Roast and we made it to Nicola Todd's 30th for a good catch up with folk in 52 Canoe Tiki Hut, Great bar by the way... So it wasn't all bad!

You may remember a few posts ago I mentioned that there seems to always be something to pay for, well last month it was the soccer mum car I drive (not complaining - but it is) this month, in the words of Champ Kind we have been hit by a Triple "WHAMMY!" - The Boiler packed in which left us £280 lighter than we would normally be, plus I had to stay home hence missing Monday Wrestling, then there was the TV license fee to pay George Entwhistle off. Finally, Cameron starts nursery next week at a cost of £45 a day. I was under the impression that kids didn't cost as much as people say, but i'm going to take this opportunity to make a sharp u-turn and join their bandwagon. They are cheap enough at home but as they get older, they get more expensive. It won't be so bad when I have to buy him a PS3 or an XBOX360.
Its funny how quickly your money goes, every month we budget and try to find ways to cut outgoings but there is never anything to cut and there is no way i'm getting rid of Sky. Anyway, I digress yet again from the point. 

This does relate to me not training... because I literally couldn't afford to spend the cash to get to Glasgow to train on Wednesday. Friday's session two weeks ago was okay as well but think it could have been better from me. Donald came along which as great, he took a bit of a push around and I accidentally injured him. He went for a leg attack and dropped his eye onto my thumb. Hope his vision is back to normal soon but it was at least a week off.

If only I could do this!

We are currently in week 2 of Hypertrophy and wow! The first week almost broke me but especially as I'm still not feeling quite 100% I have got some type of lurgy, its not taken hold yet and i'm trying to break it through my current addiction to Yorkshire tea.
Hypertrophy! let me take you on a scientific journey back to Standard Grade Biology of why this stage of training is so hard and where a lot of people will throw the towel in. A wise man told me that If you aren't in pain during your hypertrophy phase then your training programme isn't working. 

For those of you who have absolutely no clue what i'm talking about allow me to elaborate. I'll put my Sports Science degree to good use:

Hypertrophy is effectively the term used to describe the increase and growth of the muscle cells. Initially when you start training, like I was doing for the first 10 weeks you get an increase in nerve impulses that cause muscle contraction meaning I was getting stronger but perhaps without any noticeable changes to the muscle size. 

I'm not going to go massively scientific because one, most people wont be interested and for some it won't be scientific enough but suffice to say Skeletal muscle adapts to regular increasing loads. Progressing that load means stressing the muscle and forcing an adaptation. It adapts by increasing the size of and amount of the contractile proteins (actin and myosin). These are in each muscle fibre which in turn increase size and strength. Russell et. al. 2000.

Crash course in SES.

Having missed Wrestling sessions earlier in the week I was really looking forward to Friday. We had a bit of banter on facebook as Simmo was back in town with his brother Dave and they were coming to wrestle. Dougie T threatened to come but was making a cake for Nicola and couldn't get there. To be fair to him the cake was pretty damn good.
We went through the basics and I was keen to see the two brothers wrestle, they had a wee dance around the place for the first minute, almost like a ballet. I wrestled Simmo, no video unfortunately and I think I got the better of him this time although to his credit, he managed to get a roll in. I was trying to do anything I would normally do, I couldn't gut wrench, I couldn't leg lace and I certainly couldn't roll the big fella so it was a case of pushing out and stealing a point here and there. Dave was really good, for a complete beginner he got stuck in is pretty strong and quite quick. I have since found out that two hands on the back of the neck is illegal, as is choking, as is palming in the face. Noted for next time! 

Dave Simm - Legend

Nikos, was there as well and we had an awful fight as you'll see. The stance was awful and we both picked up on that. I was having a nightmare with my leg attacks all night, they just weren't working and my gator roll on Dave failed, hence I left myself in a bit of trouble and gave a point away. 

Steven Cote, was coaching, he is a European Silver medallist and an awesome guy to have shouting instructions to you, his knowledge is fantastic and he passes it over really well. I'm going to do a little feature on him in the next few weeks, maybe even get a guest blog out of him. He has some interesting stories!

Now its probably worth noting again that some of the technique in these videos is absolutely shocking, this was after an hour of pretty intense training so we were pretty tired. The one thing I really want to draw your attention to is the end of the video i've posted and the direction my left knee folds - I put it in slow motion, its pretty painful watching back and I have no idea how there is no damage. I can pretty much guarantee that 3 months ago my knee would have blown out if it had been bent like and its testament to the programme that Alex has me on that i'm not currently on the waiting list for another reconstruction and this whole adventure would already be over. So thank you to him for that. 

The other news from the week was that I had an appearance in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Scotsman which was pretty decent, I had a phone interview with Nigel Duncan who wrote up the article and did a great job. I don't think I have ever been quoted so accurately but he was a little generous with the headline in the written paper "Wrestling is whole new ball game for Rugby League Star" - if you didn't see it on-line here it is - ARTICLE

After Friday I wasn't best pleased with how I had wrestled, every time I went for a take down I seemed to be getting caught and I couldn't figure out why. So I looked back at the videos and found that I was diving in like a rugby player to try and tackle and you can't do that in Wrestling. Its way too easy to defend. So on Monday's session Nikos and I wanted to practice keeping our wrestling "power stance" which we did quite effectively, I was much happier with this Monday session and think i've made progress in fact I loved Monday's session. I was working with Mark Ross and Michael Cavanagh gave us some really useful tips and we learnt the cradle pin which I really like, think it could become a stock move. Sport is a funny thing, one week your good and on form, the next you are struggling but i'm back to the good this week and much happier for it. I'm going to beast it in the gym as get to all three sessions - No pressure to actually make the Scottish Wrestling team now that the Scotsman have reported on #mission2014. I will up my game and train harder. That's a promise!

So, what next - well yesterdays session saw Mark Ross appear, again he enjoyed it. I learnt a lot including some new moves and had a great bout against Nikos, we have both been doing this for the same amount of time and are both progressing nicely. Hopefully we will continue to do so and that pretty much rounds up the last two weeks. Mixed fortunes I think, now I just need to win the lottery and Karma will be restored!

Thanks for all the support so far folks, I appreciate there is a long way to go but we are making progress. 

As always, feel free to share the blog and if you want to keep up to date you can follow me on twitter. Also, if you fancy coming along to a wrestling session you don't need any experience. We train on Monday's 12:30pm - 2:00pm and again on Fridays at 6:00pm - 7:30pm both at [EN]GAGE. Hope to see some more faces down soon.

Cheers

@shocksjr