Why do I do this stuff to myself? Why do you follow this blog? These are the unanswerable questions…
A Real Ball-Breaker of a Boxing WOD
Set timer for 10 x 2:00/1:00. Work your double-end ball ( Shadowbox if you don’t have one) for 2:00, going fast but with good form — full extension, plenty of pops, rolls, bobs, and weaves, etc. For the 1:00, complete as many Sandbag Squat Presses as you can using a bag at least 25% of your body weight (I used #44 which is about 30% of mine). Repeat 9 more times for a total of 10 rounds/30 minutes. Take as few 12 second breaks as possible to finish standing up.
If you try this, please share your thoughts in the comments below!
First your Cabal Fang Workout of the Day, and then a little bout of “Did you know?”
The theme of today’s WOD is is grappling, a.k.a. the clinch, a.k.a. stand-up wrestling, and the workout itself is a puke-inducing two-parter as follows:
Choose a sandbag of appropriate weight (I used at #20) and set timer for 10 mins. Complete as may sets as possible of 8 each: Hop Push-ups (alternating hands on sandbag, on knees if you must), Flutter Kicks (while holding sandbag up with elbows locked), and Split Squats (sandbag on shoulder). Take as few 12-second breaks as you need to finish.
Grappling Conditioner #2. Set timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00 and square up against your heavy bag. For the 3:00, splay, punch x2, splay, punch x4, splay, punch x6, etc. up to splay, punch x10. Start over and repeat as many sets as you can until 3:00 is up. For the 1:00 so-called “break,” grab heavy bag with a palm-to-palm grip and squeeze with all your might, making sure you are applying sword-bone forearm pressure (if you are a visual learner, video below). Repeat twice more for a total of 3 rounds, 12 mins total. Take as few 12-second breaks as you need to avoid throwing up.
Now for a little “Did you know?” Did you know…
That I’ve been maintaining a Productivity Log since January of 2012 that contains all my workouts and various other personal activities, and that it’s a treasure trove of workout ideas and inspiration?
That I designed some one-of-a-kind fitness dice and wrote a whole heap of personal improvement pamphlets that are available over at PTDICE.com — and that I include a free t-shirt with every order?
That in 2009 I founded a really cool martial art called Cabal Fang?
That there’s a Temple of Cabal Fang that contains, among other things, a library of over 100 esoteric books, most of which are cataloged here?
As part of my renewed and continuing effort to beautify the Cabal Fang Temple, yesterday I completed a wooden plaque for the door.
I started by gluing some wood scraps together. I purposely used different types and thicknesses of wood to give the work more dimension and a sense of age. Then I did a freehand sketch of the Cabal Fang Emblem and carved it out.
I then painted the entire board gray, let it dry, sanded it down, painted it black, sanded it down again, and gave it a coat of wood stain and polyurethane. I’m really pleased with the final effect.
Regular auto tires are great for building core strength for grappling and wrestling, and for general fitness. Click the pic to download the booklet at PTDICE.com
Grappling. To avoid confusion, when I say “grappling” I am referring to stand-up wrestling or clinch fighting, not wrestling. The following conditioning drill is meant to improve fitness and hone valuable grappling skills.
10-Minute Grappling Conditioner
Set your timer for 10 minutes.
Grab the medicine ball with palm-to-palm grip and squeeze against your upper chest as hard as you can while completing a deep Rear Lunge. Switch grip and lunge back with other leg. Do 10 Lunge/Squeezes. Note: Left palm should be down and “sword bone” of left forearm should be punishing the ball when you step back with right leg. When you switch, right palm should be down, right forearm bone against ball, left leg lunges back.
Put the ball down, face the heavy bag, and immediately Splay 10 times as fast as you can with good form. Forearms against the bag; legs, from thighs all the way down to shoelaces, flat to the floor with toes back.
10 Diamond Push-ups on the medicine ball.
Repeat until timer beeps, taking as few 12-second breaks as you must to finish. Try to make 6+ sets in 10 minutes, but don’t feel bad if you can only do 5.
Every temple should have a bell, even the Cabal Fang Temple. Whether it is a cathedral or a chapel, a Buddhist temple or a Shinto shrine, there just has to be bell to to summon and unite the faithful, drive away the negative spirits, and gain the attention of the positive ones.
The problem is, bells are hard to find, and even when you do, they’re expensive. And they take up a great deal of space, unless your temple has a bell tower or belfry, which ours does not.
So I decided to make a tubular bell from materials I had around the house (after all, the third Vital Grace of Cabal Fang is Frugality). Here’s the final product:
Before I got started I did a ton of reading at Lee Hite’s Hands-on Engineering website. This guy knows just about everything there is to know about making tubular bells a.k.a. chimes (and about other stuff too)!
I found a piece scrap of chain link fence pipe out behind the shed and sanded off all the rust. Shot out the inside with a hose to remove any dirt. Cut both ends off clean and filed them smooth. Then, per Lee Hite’s recommendation, I drilled two mounting holes 22.42% of the way from the top end. According to Mr. Hite’s math, this results in the longest possible sustained note.
To save space, rather than choosing the classic wire-through-the-middle-wind-chime method, I opted for a single hanging wire. Using a heavy duty paperclip, I made an inverted “V” hanger. As you can see by the pictures, I attached some picture hanging wire to the hanger and installed it with ease. Once it was in place, I bent up the tips and it was hung. Two coats of gold spray paint and voilà — one pretty tubular bell. While the paint dried I made a striker from a scrap of maple and added a leather thong.
Refer to the picture set below for clarification. I love this bell. I can’t believe that, for just pennies and about an hour of work I was able to make something so beautiful.
A scrap of chain link fence pipe about 40″/100 cm in length
Inverted “V” hanger made from HD paperclip, picture-wire attached
Inserting hanger and wire in one side. Wire routes toward the top of the tube, hanger goes out the other side
With both ends of the “V” out the sides, bend up tips into hooks
It’s getting dark early now that we’ve done the whole Daylight-Savings-Time-Fall-Back-thing. Pretty soon the martial arts club will be going to Winter hours, canceling Tuesday nights and meeting Saturday afternoons only.
I shot this video on Tuesday. This is the blessing with which we close all our meetings. Gotta say, my guys are the best.
And now for your two-part WOD. This is only 20 minutes, but trust me, you’ll be pushing some serious carbon dioxide around your workout space.
Sandbag Workout. Choose a bag at least 15% body weight and complete AMSAYC in 10 mins of 10 Prisoner Get-ups and 10 Squat-Curl-Presses.
Ground Fighting Conditioner #1. Set timer for two minutes and take as few 12 second breaks as possible:
Circle the bag: Forearms on bag and toes on floor are only points of contact. Circle the bag using only legs and feet, alternating directions, until the timer beeps.
Mount the bag: Strike 10 times as hard as you can. Body lock the bag, barrel-roll, regain mount, and repeat until the timer beeps.
Roll the bag: Lay on your back with heavy-bag perpendicularly on top of your body. Roll it up and down across torso, pushing and pulling like a rolling pin. From time to time, press up the bag and let it drop on your torso to maintain your tolerance for the stresses of wrestling. Continue for entire round.
Defend the bag: Lay on your back with back on top of you longways. Push up the bag w/ left hand and strike it five times with the right, then switch and strike with the left hand. Repeat for two minutes.
Side Mount the bag: Scissor legs each direction 3 times, then scramble over bag with forearms and toes only. Repeat. When the timer beeps, you’re done.
The sun rises behind The Cabal Fang Temple in the morning fog.
Every since I read the book Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery I’ve had a fascination with North Africa and its flavors. I experimented with Moroccan cooking and spiced coffees for months, and then I kind of got out of it. Then last night, out of the blue, I started craving all those crazy spices. So I made this — my first Tajine.
Brown beef and drain while your peeled and cubed sweet potatoes are boiling and your brown rice is cooking. When done, add all of it the pot. Throw in peas, raisins, tomatoes and spices. Put a lid on it and let it bubble on very low heat until heated through. Like most stews, it’s much better on the second day after the spices settle in and permeate the ingredients. This is two servings for me, which means it’s actually four servings.
And now for your Cabal Fang WOD.
Dumbbells: 6 x 12 of Two-handed Bench Presses, Curl-ups, and Goblet Squats (should take about 20 minutes).
Standing Contemplation: Set timer to beep every minute and change stances when it does. Do Horse stance (thighs parallel to floor), Left Front (left thigh parallel to floor), Right Front (right thigh parallel to floor), Left Back, Right Back, Left Crane, Right Crane, and Horse once more. Total 8 minutes.
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* I know, Tajine is supposed to be ladled over couscous. But I don’t eat white carbs, and very rarely even brown rice or wheat bread. So I subbed brown rice and threw it all together in the same pot.
Inside the Cabal Fang Temple an offering of incense burns in the shrine to Barachiel.
Today’s Cabal Fang WOD is a three-parter, as follows:
Half-pyramid to 12 of: Hop or Clap Push-ups, Flutter Kicks, Prisoner Squats (that’s a total of 78 each).
Two-kick Combos vs. Heavy Bag: Set timer for 1 min. Kick bag with lead leg two-kick combos for 1 min, then rear leg combos, then rest 1 min.*
Meditation: Set a timer for 10 mins. Relax, open your mind, and spend a few minutes meditating on a mental image of Archangel Barachiel, the androgynous guardian angel of Cabal Fang. In the Eastern Orthodoxy he is known as Saint Barachiel, leader of the guardian angels, Prince of Seraphim. Ruler of the planet Jupiter, he/she holds dominion over lighting and is often depicted holding a white rose or a basket of bread. Interestingly enough, In Enoch 8:4 he/she is listed as the 9th Watcher, the fallen angel who taught Astronomy to humanity.
Dumbbells. 5 x 12 of Military Press, Rear Lunges, 2-Handed Tricep Ext., Ripcords. Rest 30 secs between sets (this should take 15 – 20 minutes).
Rest 1 minute.
Deck of Cards Original Combo. Remove Jokers, shuffle deck, and place face down on floor. Flip top card. Black = Push-ups, red = Squats. Hold last position while flipping next card — deep squat or one-handed plank. Aces = 10, face cards = 12. Finish the whole deck and it’s 200 Push-ups and 200 Squats. Finish it faster than 20:50 and you have me beat.
Here’s your 3-Part Cabal Fang WOD (“Workout of the Day”). Intermediate players add a weighted vest to Part 2 (I used a #10):
8-minute Blast. As many sets as you can in 8 minutes of 10 Steam Engines, 10 Zombie Squats, 10 Staggered Push-ups, and 10 Pikes — take as few 12-second breaks as you need to finish, preferably none. I made 5 full sets with zero breaks (PTDICE are great for generating workouts like this).
Ground-fighting Conditioner #4. Put on your MMA gloves and set timer for 10 minutes. Shin or Knee Ride bag, face post, and punch “head” 10 times. Slide leg over into mount and strike 10 times. Body lock back and roll to bottom position. Push up bag with one hand and strike it 10 times with the other. Hip escape and advance back to Shin or Knee Ride and repeat as many times as you can before the timer beeps.
Tarot Meditation. Set timer for 10 minutes and dim the lights. Stand up Tarot Trump XII “The Hanged Man” — lean it against something like a stack of books — and meditate on the image with eyes narrowed until the timer beeps. Fully relax and experience the symbolism.
I teach free of charge through Heritage Arts , a 501(c)(3) educational charity offering free or donation-only classes related to martial arts, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development. Distance learning programs available. Visit the Heritage Arts website to find out more, or click here to join the Heritage Self-Defense group on Facebook.
What is Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble? It’s mind-body-spirit form of American Rough ‘n’ Tumble, which began as a manner of no-holds-barred fighting in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era and has since grown, evolved, and adapted to the realities of modern self-defense. An amalgam of the varying techniques brought to America by colonists from all over the world, blended with the fighting methods of the over 900 distinct indigenous tribes, American Rough ‘n’ Tumble is perhaps the world’s most fearsome martial art.
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Why do I do this stuff to myself? Why do you follow this blog? These are the unanswerable questions…
Robert Mitchell Jr. 