Who knew Brian May was a Wrestler?

Wrestling has had to take a bit of a back seat over the last couple of weeks. It has given me an opportunity for my other persona's to come out... I've been a Pirate through to Brian May from Queen. Keep reading and you'll see.

Alex and I having a cuddle...I mean wrestle

In fact training full stop has been slower and less often than normal. That's not to say I haven't done anything, I have but its been less intense. Following my rib injury I tried to get back into the swing of things with a strength session that included squats, I warmed up and got on with it. Only with 60kg on the bar, the aim was to gradually ease into it but I was still having problems with the rib and couldn't comfortably squat (Do you even lift bro?). That was disappointing but I have developed some new Wrestling specific training with Gerry at work using bands, really good for developing my head snap and neck stabilisation, look like a bit of a knob doing it but its all good! I had an episode with my lower back last week as well, basically the rotational movements and over compensation  because of the rib pain meant that my lumber was killing me, I could barely walk, so called in the big guns and kindly got Laura to do some Kinetic Chain Release, really helped! 

The Gym! I studied Sports and Exercise and It's funny  I've been noticing myself going through the stages of exercise behaviour. If you have ever trained for anything you will know what I mean, you go through the stages of pre contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Action is the Honeymoon period, you grow to want to spend as much time as you can and its maintenance that is the tricky part and sticking with it. I'm currently in a mix, because I haven't trained I'm gagging to get into the gym  to do some weights, I'm in maintenance / contemplation at the moment if that makes sense. I don't think I'm strong enough or powerful enough yet and I know that so I need to be training. Sometimes its a massive chore and other times I'm really up for it, I guess that comes with the territory with these things.

The last month has been really tough with Cameron and Emma both being sick, its been difficult, lots of waking up in the night and lots of early mornings. For example last night, I went to be just before 11:00pm, was woken up by crying Cameron at 12:00pm, he had puked everywhere, curdled milk mixed with baked beans - disgusting! Emma can't deal with sick and was about as useful as tits on a bull. Anyway 2 hours later we were all back to bed, puke was cleaned, Cameron was bathed and there was a massive pile of stuff for the wash in the morning. Now, as a parent this comes with the territory and It wouldn't be a problem but come 4:00pm - 5:00pm and training time I really just want to get home to rest up. Trying to train properly it is a problem but its a psychological problem and i'm past that as well and ready to get back to work! Although I do need to get more rest.

Iain Feenan (Beast) photo courtesy of www. billykinnear.co.uk 

I have kept up my wrestling at [EN]GAGE, I haven't gotten through to Glasgow as often as I would like, whether its meetings or lack of time, exhaustion or money, I think i've hit all of those "excuses" over the last month. I had a good session with the French boys who can through with Steven Cote and I got a good Wrestle with Danny and Steve. I felt pretty comfortable and it was good fun. Steve keeps on going for the big 3 point throw and I keep on ending up on top of him. Think a change of tactics is needed there, I effectively weigh about a pig heading to slaughter more than Steve.Having said that there are just under 500 days till Glasgow 2014 and I still need to up my game. I need to train and get my skill level to where it needs to be. I got schooled by Gav Clark, former British Judo lad two weeks ago, he is smaller, quicker and more experienced (fighting) than me and ended up royally kicking my ass. It was like I had completely switched off and couldn't get anything to stick. It happens... its  probably happen next week when I will have to take on this brute in the picture above fresh off a win in his MMA career and a Silver medal in the English Judo Championships.
Iain Feenan is again a Judo lad at 81kg and studying at Edinburgh Napier, he is making an appearance at Wrestling for the first time with Rory Monks so you'll get an update on that one in a couple of week. It will be an experience training with them and even more so in the live wrestle at the end of the session. I've been friends with a lot of of the Judo guys for a while now, funding is tight in Judo and all the boys worked the doors down at the 3 sisters and faith, that meant a minimum of 4.5 hours of talking crap and I used to enjoy hearing about how the competitions went and where in the world they were off to next. Hopefully the boys will make up a decent proportion of the JudoScotland team at the Commonwealth Games, they definitely deserve to just a case of qualification.

Obviously, with the lack of training you would think that I have nothing really to write about but I like to think of blog as a diary of activities not just wrestling related, so let me fill you in with what's been happening off the mat...briefly

Freddie and Brian rocking out

Fancy Dress parties have been on the weekends! which has been fun, went to titch's 30th as Brian May supporting Callum as Freddie Mercury and Ross's birthday as a pirate. I've always been a big fan of fancy dress having been on many a night out. 

You may have noticed facebook was littered with Mothers day chat on Sunday, people wishing their mothers a happy day, half of them probably aren't even on facebook I still haven't figured out what that chat is about. What's wrong with a card and a phone call? Anyway, I spent a bit of time up in Pittenweem last weekend. Trying to get the parents house more manageable for my mum who has Multiple Sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. My brother Paul and I decided it was time for us to step up and help out our dad and get the house sorted. It's a big place and pretty tough to manoeuvre  We went up to help and mum made us get in the wheelchair and try to negotiate around. Man it was tough and it gave me a different insight into how mum copes. She is a trooper! My old man does a fantastic job looking after her and I don't think i've supported them enough over the last few years, which I do regret and am going to change. 

Another good thing over the last week is that my brother Adam in the USAF is now a major, that's pretty cool and congratulations to him. I'm really proud of him as well for that, he has done really well for himself after 10 years in the air force. Nathan his son calls me "muppet mike" after my brother taught him. Don't think that will ever change but at least he knows who I am and once Cameron is more coherent I'll get my revenge!

Back into the full swing of things next week with the exception that from tonight i'm going off the radar, a spot of annual leave it's my wedding anniversary this weekend so we are off to the highlands. 1 year of married life is the paper anniversary, nice of them to keep it cheap!

Thanks for taking time out to read

@shocksjr

HERE WE GO!

Since my last impromptu update about the competitions, i've really just had my head down and have been trying to get myself into the mind set I need to be in - that is that i'm officially kicking off my wrestling career in just over a weeks time. I've been asked a few times how I feel about that? and am I ready for that? 

The answer to the first question is that i'm a little nervous. Who wouldn't be? I've been doing this for five months and although I know some of the basics, i've still not fought anyone who is a wrestler and in my weight category, which will no doubt be an issue when I go against the big dogs at the English Championships but at the same time as all that i'm of course excited. It's a great feeling knowing that i'm going to actually get on the mat and compete. I'm currently sitting at about 116kg which is fine, I would have liked to been a bit closer to 118kg - 119kg but there is still time for that. In fact there are 544 days!

Training has been great over the last couple of weeks, back into 2013 with a bang and I have a new programme from Alex that is designed to get me to competition in April, but a few tweaks to get ready for the first competition. I'll get into that in a minute. 

The Wrestling side of things has been good too. Friday two weeks ago l I had a fantastic session with Ewan Maddox. He has a lot to teach me and gave me some great pointers. Steve Cote was coaching and again has a lot of knowledge to pass on. In fact Steve is all about fluidity, he wants to see me go from one move to the next without having to think about it too much. That's one thing I found with wrestling at the start. I didn't know where to go or what to do. My repertoire of moves is getting there, I have them in the bank it's just a case of spotting the opportunity when to use them and at the 120kg weight category, the chances of actually being able to use most of them is pretty slim. We worked on a combo move for me to get a guy from standing into a pin, it works quite well but we will need to see. It's not a sexy weight category to be competing at. Its more of a grapple rather than a throwing match but then again sexy has never really been my style! I would give you my combo, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the guys i'm going to be wrestling down at the English next weekend

Last friday night saw mr Andrew Wildgoose attend wrestling at [EN]GAGE for the first time. Andy is a big boy, a rugby player must be pushing 6'6 and is about 130kg. He is a gentle giant but picked up everything that was thrown at him and again another one who enjoyed himself, we had a wrestle at the end which was really good practice for me to be fighting against someone heavier.

I have only made it through to Glasgow a couple of times in the last few weeks. Not through lack of trying but...

The New car??????

One is cost, my car (god rest its soul) loved a bit of petrol and cost a fortune to travel through, second is work, I have just had a bit too much on to get through. The car packed in, decided it had had enough and that was that this morning. AA popped out to save me again and told me that it was probably the timing belt but likely a bit of damage to the cam shaft. Knackered for those who aren't car people. I'm desperate to buy one of these to the right but I will keep dreaming for now!

However, I managed to get through to Glasgow before it died and met Zane, this mysterious heavyweight who i've heard about. He was described to me as an older hells angel type of guy with a massive beard. It was funny when we met because I half recognised him some somewhere, we had a chat then he came out with "Oh No, you play for those "F**king Edinburgh Eagles, just as I was beginning to like you." I had a good chuckle at that, Zane played for Ayrshire Storm in the Rugby League Conference a couple of years back and was affectionately known as the viking to our lads at the Student Rugby League 9's. It's a small world after all. We got on well, Zane taught me a few things and schooled me on a few others. I always feel coming back from Glasgow that I haven't made good progress, I think its because everyone has been wrestling for longer than me but you live and learn. 

Final opponant over the last few weeks was Coach Cavanagh. It was a fairly even contest (I have a good 15kg advantage) but I will concede this time that he beat me almost fair and square by 1 or 2 points. I say that but he beat me with some crazy move that I didn't see coming. Believe you me, he still has some skills up his sleeve! so depending who you talk to its' 1 all or 2 - 0 in that contest.

 

Onto conditioning - conditioning is what I thought would be my least favourite activity but actually the programme i'm on at the moment is keeping me motivated. It's been tough as you would expect but it's keeping me guessing. The weeks sessions are - Strength, Aerobic, Muscular Endurance, Flexibility, Mobility and Power. Combine all that with a couple of wrestling sessions and you have a pretty intense programme. 

[EN]GAGE has been getting some professional photos done for marketing purposes and part of that was getting some sports in there. Wrestling featured and I got the opportunity to wrestle Alex. I've been hoping they would be up by now but we haven't had them yet so I can't show off the singlet that Michael gave me.

I mentioned in my last blog that this was going to cost me a small fortune, luckily my parents bought me the Wrestling shoes for my birthday. They are in the post thanks to Bank of Mum and Dad, I've been a member there for 29 years! good bank!

Start of the Road to 2014

Even Luckier though was that I had a text the evening after I posted the blog from my Michael who told me to hold off buying the singlets as there might be some old but new one's that he has. Now I didn't think I would ever get excited about a lycra onesie but I was wrong! The two I now have are pride of place hanging in the cupboard because they are awesome. Adidas singlets that are branded with the Team Scotland Logo on the front leg and have SCO on the back. They are the official Team Scotland 2002 Commonwealth Games singlets that were never warn. That to me was pretty special. I of course gave the wife a fasion show that evening and I think I pulled it off. It was a weird feeling. If you have pulled on a jersey that meant a lot to you, I got the same feeling when I put on my jersey for Scotland Rugby League 'A'. Granted the singlet is just my competition singlet but I look forward to the day when I can pull on my own deserved Scotland one. That will be a special moment!

Finally - Now i'm officially registered as a British Wrestler which is cool, officially on the record so its real and even better [EN]GAGE is now a registered club as well! Bonus!


As Always, thanks for reading!

@shocksjr

 

It's a Happy New Year - 567 Days to go!

RAAAAR!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Thanks to Andy Grodyński for taking time out to do the last blog update. I know what he is thinking, was his post more popular than Simmo's? the truthful answer at the moment...no... It's a dead heat at the moment. The most popular post is still of me doing my VO2 max, bunch of sadists who enjoyed watching that.

So what has my foray into the wrestling world come up with in the last few weeks. I guess first off to report, i was kindly asked by my employers Edinburgh Napier University to take some time out to do a podcast for them, it was pretty good fun, the interview itself was a good laugh, if a bit alien, not used to having someone ask you questions about what you a doing and why. Its weird to hear back because its only me talking, they cut out all the questions which is why its just me rabbiting on. I think it was alright, but you can decide for yourself. if you didn't catch it on Facebook or twitter you can have a listen here... Edinburgh Napier University Podcast 

The most exciting / scary thing in the last couple of weeks is that I now have my qualification targets for the year. I'm going to enter into 11 competitions over the next year. The first competition will be the British novices in April. It's great to have a target and puts things into perspective a little bit for me and will probably make the blog a little more interesting, knowing that there are actually competitions coming up. Training will have to be increased in the new year dramatically. This just got real!

Why is it a little exciting and scary? Well the reasons because I could potentially know if I'm going to be competing at Glasgow 2014 in June. That's only 6 months away! It's a mind blowing thought. If I'm not quite ready for those competitions though, it's not the end of the world as there are three Commonwealth Games qualification tournaments. The first is the British Open in June, I will be competing at that one, the second is the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in July, I would have to be selected for that by the Scotland squad to compete in that. Whilst its doable, I would have to become a lot more succinct in what I'm doing to compete properly and need a hefty amount of training and bouts under my belt before that would happen, so not pinning my hopes on that one.

The third is in 2014 itself and is the British closed championships, I'm going to be competing in that one too. For the British open and closed championships I need to finish in the top 3 British athletes. That means that I could for example finish 5th overall but if there is only a British athlete in 4th or higher and the rest are Iranian then I would qualify. They are the two events I'm hoping to target and get my qualification in. You can view the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Qualification document here if you re interested.

Wrestling finished up at [EN]GAGE a week before Christmas and it was the same in Glasgow, so I'm tried to do what I could at home whilst there isn't any wrestling training, that included a couple of flexibility sessions and body weight sessions, I could have done more my immune system seems to have taken a pounding and I spent the majority of the last week in bed.

Scottish Wrestling Association

The last wrestling session was great. Ewan Maddox 96kg commonwealth hopeful was my sparring partner, he is similar to Martin, albeit a lot bigger. he is a former rugby lad who has been Wrestling for 3 years or so. He showed me some good stuff, we had a good bout at the end of the session, he beat me (not surprisingly) but it was a closer contest than I thought it would be. It's tough fighting the smaller guys, they are quicker than I am and it's not too realistic for a 120kg contest, so I still haven't got a bench mark.

Truth be told, I can't wait to get back to work so I can't really start hitting the training hard for the next 6 months. The last 4 months have been physically and mentally demanding, there have been times where i've wondered what the hell I'm doing, is there any point? Or i've been so unmotivated that I've just wanted to call it quits and find something a little easier to take up but I find wrestling easier and less frustrating than golf!

That said, I've developed my mental strength, fought through and trained when I really didn't want to train, I guess that's part and parcel or trying to do something like this. No one has ever said it was going to be easy and I wasn't under any illusions. Life for me at the moment is great, despite the financial burdens of everything I've moaned about over the last few posts. I'm in a good place and really happy, wrestling definitely has something to do with that.

I'm well aware that some "friends" may think I'm a little dull or boring because I'm not going out as much or getting pissed as often as I used to, and still think I'm wasting my time with the wrestling: simple facts to ponder: you have to grow up at some point, children are expensive and what's wrong with having a goal? even if I don't make Glasgow, I'll be looking for a spot in 2018. Fact of the matter is I've managed to find a sport I really enjoy, I love the respect that comes with it on and off the mat and the people involved, only regret is that I didn't have the opportunity to take it up earlier.

Leon Rattigan - English and GB wrestler at 96kg and commonwealth bronze medallist, I take a bit of inspiration from him and like him mantra on life.

Leon Rattigan - 96kg Commonwealth Bronze Medallist

I enjoy Leon's words of wisdom on twitter @LeonRwrestler he quoted Eleanor Roosevelt last month and its something that resonated with me.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Nothing could be more apt.

Leon is offering his expertise for coaching in wrestling and MMA clubs, would love to have him up in Edinburgh but if your interested you can find out more and how to contact him here


Anyway, Christmas nights out have come and gone. The importance of any training programme is to have a break every now and again and rest up, people seriously under estimate the importance of rest.  I had a brilliant night out with the guys from the [EN]GAGE wrestling club including our two coaches Steve and Michael. Was great to hear about their experiences and have a bit of banter over a couple of pints. I took advice from Alex and didn't go crazy and I didn't get drunk, so don't worry.

NEENAW

Christmas was spent at home in Tranent with my wife and kid, first one on our own and it was brilliant, very chilled out but great to see the little guy on Christmas Day, having a child brings back the excitement and magic of Christmas. I helped Santa put together Cameron's new "Neenaw". we travelled to my folks on Boxing Day, caught up with the brothers abroad  on skype and at home and I even defeated my old man at trivial pursuit. Somehow lost to my mum in Tripoli... Unbelievable!

We spent a couple of days in Pittenweem before heading up north to visit Emma's folks and sisters, it's always good heading up there, big fire in the front room, well fed and a couple of whisky's. I've even managed not to overindulge myself, by steering clear of the dreaded bowl of chocolates! Cameron cleaned up on the presents as normal and i've spent the majority of my time either in bed or on the sofa trying to get rid of this infection!   

2013 heralds a pretty big year, there is a lot to look forward to and I can't wait to get stuck in there and give this year everything I have. Emma mentioned to me last night that she thinks I could give a little bit more to #mission2014 and she wants me to do it and work my ass off the next year and a half to qualify! So that's that, if that's what the boss says, who am I to say no!

Thanks for taking time out to read the blog and Have a Great 2013! 

Cheers

@shocksjr

Getting used to wrestling and my SPOTY predictions

Its been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, I hit training again hard, had some great sessions in the gym and managed to get in some full weeks of wrestling, there is so much to learn and its all about figuring out and being familiar with what you can do when you're put into different situations. I am getting better every week and learning some new techniques. I was describing wrestling to someone last week and its really all about levers and momentum, learning how people move and how you can make people move. For example, when someone pushes against you, use that momentum to your advantage and drag them or manipulate them into a position where you have an advantage. 

I'm starting to get better with the moves from standing, I wasn't great with that and was more comfortable working on the floor using headlocks or gut wrenches, both perfectly good moves but I wanted to be able to take people down or get behind them to get more points in a match. I'm doing alright considering its only been 3 months.

I've had an interesting couple of weeks, the last Wednesday I was through in Glasgow - to start I got to do some video analysis on Nikos, my wrestling counterpart at [EN]GAGE he has been getting in some extra training! For the session,  I was again working with Sean Keogh, who was teaching me some of the basics and some new trip moves that I hadn't done before. He is ridiculously good at them and they are pretty uncomfortable. The latter part of the session was a circuit for the institute athletes and that meant that Martin and I got to work with Vio (Scotland Assistant Coach) who was showing us some things that we can do from standing, much like a rugby tackle. The feedback Martin and I got from Vio after the sessions was fantastic, Martin - I think is close to institute level, his commitment is outstanding and he is a very good wrestler. For me, the feedback was "You are beginning to move more like a heavyweight but more dynamic, I see a lot of potential." I was pretty happy with that. Vio is from Moldova and Eastern Europeans don't beat about the bush, so that's good feedback

Sean Keogh - headlocking

My heavyweight friends, or just friends in general are lacking a little at training at the moment, I could do with a partner to train against on a Monday and a Friday who is over 100kg. So I will put out a little plea to anyone who is available, if you have a bit of time get along to the sessions and help me out. The session on Monday, Michael Cavanagh (coach) was my training partner, that was an experience, its always a little daunting going against someone who is coaching you but we did all right, we even had a two minute bout at the end, I managed to score which was good but Michael shucked me and he managed to level, so in that fight we finished with a draw. I'm happy with that!  It was nice to see Scott Hislen trying his hand at wrestling as well. This Friday though, I've got Andy Grodynski coming down to Wrestle, He isn't in my category but he has been in Australia for the last year and wants to see what all the malarkey is like! There have been mutings that Mr. Gordon Cox will get down to training to complete his year of sport, but i'm not going to hold my breath, a former uni rugby player at school he moved to shooting, so I think the chances of getting him on the mat are slim to none!

Really want to wrestle Gordon
Friday Coxy?

Steve Cote, has been helping out a lot with the coaching, Steve did collegiate style wrestling in the states and has some beautiful moves that he has been showing us, there is some really good stuff in there that hopefully I'll be able to nail down and use. We also figured out that i'm a bit of an anomaly, my stance is left but I would attack with my right foot making me awkward (story of my life given that I run like a camel). We did the first session with the kids, they loved it and were trying to get back for more this week. It's just something different.

I'm now two weeks behind weight training, which is annoying. I really enjoy the hypertrophy and am beginning to see the results, the guns are slowly coming back but at the same time, it is very difficult. I've had Alex pushing me on which is great but my shoulders from last week are still in tatters. I'm trying to get in as much as possible but there seems to always be something that gets in the way, work is essential but i've always said that Family comes first. Unfortunately the Bambino has had his first real bout of man flu and has been chucking up and his nappies aren't much fun, which has kept me busy, I was hoping to avoid catching it, its not been pleasant to watch but alas as I write my throat feels like its being stabbed in the glands, i've got a fever and generally feel crap! I did manage to present a break out with Iain Stewart from Strathclyde at the Scottish Student Sport Christmas Seminar about community engagement. We did a good amount of work on it, I felt terrible and my head was a little all over the place but got through it. It was at the Glasgow 2014 HQ in merchant city, pretty cool, decent offices, it was buzzing for the short time I was there.

So as we move towards Christmas, I will be watching what I eat. It's always dangerous when you head to your parents and in-laws for some reason people seem to like to make sure I have enough food which can result in overfeeding! i'm staying clear of that trap for Christmas 2012 and trying to protect my waist line, I do need to think of a clever alternative for training though because the centre will be closed for a Christmas!

SPOTY - Got to be Wiggo

2012 has been such a great year for British sport, you would think you would be hard pressed to pick an outright winner for SPOTY. Personally, I think it has to be Bradley Wiggins to win Sports Personality of the year, what he has done is incredible and think that although Andy Murray finally won a Grand Slam and Olympic Gold, Wiggo is still best placed. There is a lot of talk about Jessica Ennis, great athlete of course and again fantastic achievement but is it something that really beats winning the tour de france, not in my view. I think the Olympians did something amazing and wuldn't want to take away from that but I think you need someone who has personality and has done something truly incredible, hence wiggo! My second choice I think should be David Weir (Weirwolf) I really enjoyed watching him do his thing on the track and on the road, pretty impressive stuff. That said, im not sure if it was just the camera but the personality seemed to be lacking a little bit, was a bit boring to listen to but his accomplishments are amazing. Third would be Andy Murray, just to get a Scotsman in there! Its a tough one, but I know who I want to win!


I'm not sure if there will be another blog update before Christmas, so I will take this opportunity to say - Merry Christmas! hope you have a great time with family and friends. All the best for the New Year!

Thanks again for taking time out to catch up with #mission2014

Cheers

@shocksjr

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

Hypertrophy - good and evil!

Sorry for my lack of blogging last week, I'm trying to keep it interesting and last week, wasn't that interesting. Not much to feedback on. However, after my full on Wrestling week two weeks ago, I hit the wall over last weekend and ended up with a nice bout of man flu. I was off work for a couple of days and annoyingly I was supposed to be starting the hypertrophy stage of my training, but as I was away at the end of the week as well we decided to put that on hold until this week. So I did actually manage to get a rest week in...kind of...

My saving grace at the moment - Optumus Massage

The increase in wrestling sessions has taken its toll. I am absolutely loving it, I wish I had been introduced to the sport about 10 years ago but after that week I felt the beginnings of niggles creeping back in. After the Friday wrestling session at
[EN]GAGE with Ash, I thought I may have damaged my knee again. If you have ever had a knee injury you'll know all about the dread you feel when your knee starts twinging. 

Que - Pav (Optumus) to check it out and fix me up. As it turns out, the clicking that I was having around my knee was actually the origin of my calf (gastrocnemius) and that was causing me massive problems around the knee joint. Pav was barely touching my calf for a massage and through gritted teeth I was trying not to scream. Normally... i'm pretty reserved regarding my expression of massage. Meaning I don't let on if i'm in serious amounts of pain. I've seen my mate Giler get a massage from Pav before at rugby and he screams and I've always wondered whether it was low pain threshold or just incredibly tight. I now know! I wasn't far off his reaction last week. Pav sorted out my back and calves last week which have been much better and almost had immediate improvements in my back rotation afterwards.

The tension that had built up in my calves was simply because I had been doing a lot of work on the wrestling stance and been training in positional instances. The good news is its beginning to click and i've finally got a rough idea of what i'm doing. I can tell that i'm getting better each time  I go to training and start to do something, its all about practice, as i've said before practice makes permanent. 



Little Nicky having a snooze



The massage heralded the last of my proper training last week and it was deemed my proper rest week to let the body recover and just chill out. I headed out for my first night out since September and it got pretty messy as expected. It was the Bear's birthday and we hit the Grassmarket, Hanover Street before heading to Shanghai to see Stevie Winton (manager) the bear bought Vodka which was nice and we all got pretty steaming. Bear even posted a video on facebook of my passed out on his sofa. I was snoring like "Little Nicky". 

Luckily I had booked in for some time off on the rest of the week and headed southwards to pay a visit with Emma and Cameron to her grandparents. It did mean a hung over / tired trip to Blackpool way. We had a great time down there but on Saturday, we had a slight issue that resulted in Syd (Emma's Grandad) being taken to Hospital, he is fine and on the mend but it was the event that kicked off a crap week. I should state that it was a crap week but on the wrestling front its been great. The reason its been so crap is that the freezer has packed in at home, probably the thermostat. I can live with that... it would be useful but its not the end of the world. Yesterday our Boiler broke, meaning no hot water, no heating and no washing machine. Rage!!! #risk25 sometimes you just can't catch a break bad things come in threes - and I didn't win the Edinburgh Napier Alumus of the year award last night either, although it was great to be nominate so i'm chuffed with that.

Anyway we headed back up to Scotland, late on Sunday night, I had the best sleep i'm maybe ever had that night and it was all back to normal on Monday. Wrestling on Monday was good fun, I managed to drag in Donald Grant, from the mighty Edinburgh Eagles Rugby League, he was training at [EN]GAGE anyway and he had his introduction to Wrestling. He was another one of the guys who loved the physicality of it and found it to be quite useful and transferable to rugby, think it was probably more physically demanding than he thought. 

I started phase 2 of my gym programme on Monday- Hypertrophy and it was straight in there with Squats, straight leg deadlifts, walking lunges and bench press to name a few all for four sets at varying weights and slowly to get a solid concentric contraction and activate the slow twitch fibres. It was physically exhausting and heavy loads with a decrease in weight but increase in reps. I had instant muscle soreness after day one, there was no delay making it OMS and day two Tuesday had me in pieces, I could barely walk up the stairs at home but the worst thing was the I went to the toilet at about 2:00am and ended up getting pins and needles in my legs which combined with DOMS is perhaps one of the most horrible experiences i've ever had. I was stuck for about 10 minutes before I made it back to bed. The best thing about it though was i've finally been allowed to do some bicep EZ curls and tricep push downs! brilliant! Love Beach Weights!

Sean Keogh (red) in action at 84kg

Wednesday had me back through travelling with Martin to the Palace of Art in Glasgow for some intense wrestling with the institute guys. No traffic this time but it did mean we got there about 45 minutes early. Only one thing for it, massive stretching session! I was happy to stretch and felt a lot better for it. I was in real pain. Vio (Scotland Assistant Coach) arrived and informed us it was a conditioning session for the evening which was fine, I was working with Sean Keogh (Finished 5th - 84kg 2010 Commonwealth Games). Was fantastic to train with him, he is a good guy and taught me a lot. He has come back from a series of injuries which is good, but he is back fit now and will be a medal hope for 2014. We worked on loads of stuff, mainly positional training, defence and attack which was great. This is where I realised that I actually knew more than I thought I did. We finished off the session with a 9 exercise conditioning set which we did twice with 3 sets on each exercise (all wrestling specific). I could have almost been sick and my legs were physically shot. I pinged my calf on the final exercise and I need to get that looked at ASAP but i can't tell if its just a strain or a relapse from last weeks tightness. The KCR from Laura, sorted me out and again there were some abnormal sounds coming from the hip flexors and back. I do rate KCR as a protocol, think it helps to relieve alot of the pressure.

 

In other news though, my friends Paddy and Louise had a beautiful little boy this week, which is fantastic for them, Congratulations to them and I wish them all the best as a new family and hope they enjoy parenthood. They are in for some great fun! Hopefully we'll get to see little Jack soon.

Next week we have Simmo and his brother heading up for a wrestle. I'm exciting about that one. Simmo was a guest blogger for me last month and Dave, his younger brother used to play rugby league with me and went down to Crusaders in Wales. My money is on Dave at the moment but you never know. For those that were asking, my first competitive match will probably be in April, i'm going for the British Novices and hoping to be in ridiculously good shape with some good Wrestling knowledge to do some damage and get a medal.

www.tysonfitnessnutrition.com

 Finally, Thanks to Paul Tyson fitness. I've just ordered my latest batch of supplements and they should be here soon. Thanks for your support. Its much appreciated!

Thanks for taking time to read, feel free to share and if you want to keep up to date you can follow on twitter @shocksjr

Cheers,

The Palace, [EN]GAGE and the Return!

So, despite having a "rest week" this week, I have been pretty busy on the wrestling side of things, which if nothing else makes a nice change, even if it is just mixing things up a little bit. The "rest week" was of course to allow my body to recuperate after the last 10 weeks of preparation before hitting my first 6 week block of hypertrophy (muscle building). The week hasn't really been that, if anything i'm more sore just now than I have been in the last 10 weeks!

The reason for this soreness is in fact the number of wrestling sessions that i've been able to get to this week. As usual we start on the Monday, It was a good session as always with Michael Cavanagh at the helm. The warm up drills were pretty standard, normally I avoid coming last and manage to avoid doing push ups which is a bonus. But there is one exercise that is all about strength and flexibility. It's hard as nails and works better for the more dainty of people. Not the big rigs! 

Its hard to describe but basically one person is on their hands and knees anchored into the mat, the other clasps onto their chest and flips into a bridge position before pulling themselves over into the start position. It is pretty much as hard as it sounds. I did it a couple of times and my back made some noises and cracked in places I never knew existed.

Leg-lace - never get caught!

The session was great, Nikos loves getting stuck into the physical side of things and always gives 100% and he is strong! I managed to get a couple of good takes downs during the sparring at the end but I have got probably 30kg on him which makes it a lot easier for me - if we were the same weight, it would be a proper battle! We did a lot of work on Leg laces. This is a basic tie up of the legs that is brutal and effective to score points, quite good fun to do as well! Best never ever to get caught! Example left - if you get into that, you are in serous trouble. I love it!

Monday's session took its toll on me but as Emma and Cameron had headed up to Aberdeen for a few days I took full advantage and decided to head through to the Palace of Art is Glasgow, its the Scottish Institute of Sport centre of excellence and where Scottish Wrestling base their programme out of. Before going, I had to get my back looked at, I had KCR from Laura to loosen me off, it certainly helped but I was still struggling a bit and decided that a trip to the gym was in order to speak to Alex. Triggerpoint therapy and stretching was the order of the afternoon and Wow, I don't think I have ever been so close to tears in a gym! The x-ball that you use replicates a forearm massage and I had to put that in my back, glutes and also in my hip flexors. That plus some deep stretching had me grimacing, trying not to scream. 

I went to the Palace of Art with Martin King, an Edinburgh lad, studying in Dundee who is also embarking on his own #mission2014 but in the 66kg category. He is a good lad, had been wrestling for a couple of years and is really good to watch whilst he is sparring.

Sighthill - Hermiston Gait = 1 hour!

I don't want to get into a rant on traffic at this time of year. So, I will leave it at this... on Tuesday it took me an hour to do the journey to the right to get to Glasgow and combined my time stuck in traffic jams over 3 days was 6.5 hours! that's almost a full day at work! Those Journeys combined should have taken 1h 40

Anyway, we made it and I was introduced to Viorem (Vio) Etko, former GBR wrestler (originally from Moldova) who is now the Scottish Wrestling Assistant Coach. He was doing some crazy warm up stuff, handstand walks, flips, you name it the man is strong and agile. I obviously don't really know him very well yet, but we got on fairly well and he seems like a dead on guy. I also met Pedram, Iranian Junior Champion, who was my partner for the session. Pedram is still learning English but he gets his point across quite well through demonstration, he is obviously a very natural wrestler and was throwing me around a fair bit. I loved the session, I learnt a lot and it was good to meet some of the people involved. The key thing I learnt was to relax the shoulders and just enjoy it and take my time - technique = slow to ingrain it. They were the key points Pedram wanted to get across. 

Too Much Red =
Miserable night, miserable journey

Wednesday hailed an altogether different story. Martin and I road tripped again, this time with in the Luton van to pick the remainder of the wrestling mat up from the Palace. We got it, left at 4pm and guess what... traffic jam! I hate the M8. We arrived at the Palace at 6:30pm.

The session when we got there was stretching to start with one of the Institute staff, it was fluid and surprisingly tough. Volodymyr (Head Coach) was there for this session and offered some good advice and as it turns out, i'm a little bit unique. I'm right handed but lead with my left, which makes me a bit of a weirdo when it comes to wrestling, so from now on, i'm going Rocky Balboa and fighting South Paw. Vio, took me firmly under his wing on the Wednesday session and I got a good bit of one on one coaching, more about getting in close and how to use my weight and get control. It was great to have that time, a bit of banter and again I found myself learning a lot. Kindly, Vio said and I quote "to look at you I wouldn't think you were strong - but you do have strength." to which I was at first surprised because I think I look and feel quite strong but then as you find out very quickly in this sport - looks can be very deceiving. Volodymyr also complemented me before I hit the M8 again and said I was pretty quick on my feet for a big guy and that the night was a good start! I don't think you can get too much more positive for an hour and a half of getting thrown around. There is a heck of along way to go but I feel good and meeting the coaches encouraged me to work harder. 

My only negative comment on my experience from the palace is that I would like to know where all the Institute Wrestlers were! There are 18 registered on the institute and in total over the two days I think I met and trained with 8 of them. I'll see how many rock up next week!

The Wrestling mat at [EN]GAGE in all its glory!

I mentioned briefly the mat we picked up, well it for lack of a better expression is a beautiful piece of kit that took its place at [EN]GAGE for Friday night, my final session of the week. I had a special guest. Mr Ash Carroll, my former coach at Edinburgh Eagles and Ash was also the assistant coach as I finished my Scotland 'A' career in 2010. Ash is a strong man, he would be classed as a heavyweight and was a good contest for us both I think. Ash did really well with the standing up simulated drills and some of the take downs. I identified that my grip isn't strong enough and that is something I would like to work on. That said, I think my ground work and attacking from the ground is probably the strongest part of my wrestling at the moment. I managed to get a few throws on ash including a gut wrench which was good (maybe not for Ash). I'm covered in bruises and in a massive amount of pain so Ash must have been doing something right and more importantly, I think he enjoyed it.

This is the stage that I probably dislike the most with any sort of training regime, I was the same with rugby league. I'm not sure if its the intensive learning and the frustration of not knowing everything, or whether its that I have the goal of Commonwealth Games and really don't know a massive amount about the sport and haven't had a competitive fight yet. I have to keep on pulling myself back and remember that I am still in training and there is plenty of time. I'm not into my physical best yet. I won't be until about March after I have gone through Hypertrophy and Max Strength and Wrestling skills wont come over night. Like I said, there is a long way to go but I think we are on track at the moment, its just a little frustrating!

Finally, I had a bit of a news flash this week as well! The Titan - Simmo is returning to [EN]GAGE on 22 November for a re-match. His comment "get used to looking at the yellow!"

What he doesn't realise is that if I can see the mat and the yellow, he will be looking at the lights on the ceiling, and in that position - in wrestling - its all over! Bring it big fella.

That's all for this week folks. As always, Thanks for taking some time out to read the blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to share it and a big thank you to all the guys who are taking time out to help and sponsor me for #mission2014 you can find out more about the team and sponsors by clicking the links

Mike
@shocksjr