Search for the sun and submissions, 15.2.-22.2.

A much needed update from Malaga, before I forget to record my training sessions. everybody knows at the age of internet that if you don´t proclaim everybody how hard you trained, it propably has less of an effect on your body also!

I left Finland in such a hurry that my cooked with love spelt porridge was left on the table as I ran out. Had a little army recollection sprinting with a rugsack on my back! eventually made the bus and from there on it was easy and nice. In a kinda leaving late because of some threats on airports, arriving so late that the last train is missed and arriving to a hotel that had cancelled our reservations. But all part of the fun I say!

Reptilians might have been the cause of our early hardships. If this doesn´t open up to you, Google reptilian conspiracy and find out that the powers to be are really lizardpeople... Seriously.

Sakke, enthusiastic as always. In front of our cheap hotel.

So anyway here we are training at Pablo Cabos gym, Costa del Sol Fight and Fitness with my companero Sakke, training and also a bit moving around in the city and the nearby areas. We came to Malaga on wednesday night, and started out by having had our hotel reservation cancelled. So nowhere to stay. Of course we fixed another place, a cheap hotel right in the center. And we have stayed there since.



The first day of training was very Spanish. Meaning that the timetables we had were wrong, but even with the mix-ups, everything ended up nicely and with lots of hugging and handshakes!
It was great to be at the Roger Gracie Academy of Malaga again, and to our surprise the teacher was a great Finnish grappler and fighter, Santeri Lilius! I will post more on that later, he has been great to us with his lovely girlfriend Emilia Tuukkanen.

A pic of Santeri and Emilia. Emilia is a brown belt now, i must add that or she´ll choke me!

Friday was full-on training and saturday a lighter day. After the saturdays training we ate and rested for a while, then carbed up and left to Fuengirola.

Carbohydrates

In Fuengirola we did some more carbing up. First watching Mikko Rasilas monologue play and then continuing to Bar Mask, a bar in Fuengirola owned by Mikko and his husband Markus. They also host show nights, spanish classes, dancing classes and theater courses, for Finns and for other nationalities also!

Mikko Rasila. A Finnish actor and a dancer.

From there we ventured to Nogales to show Sakke a bar called Codigo that is owned by a great couple, Ian and Christian. We also met a stuert from our flight there (the chances on meeting a stuert went up considerably when we arrived to gay area) and had a great night out. Woke up the next morning, all cash gone and a jacket lost. It was later found in Codigo Bar. So no harm done. I jsut lost my clothes in th gay district of Torremolinos, that happens to the most hetero of us doesn´t it?

No jacket any more, and didn´t have it until three days later. 

Sakke and our stuert.

Sunday was hugely active. I did a cardio workout going through a sandwich kiosk, local bakery, McDonalds and Taco Bell. I must make an honest statement, not being sponsored by anyone. Taco Bell that I tried for the first time in my life is the biggest piece of crap I´ve ever tasted! And McDonalds lured me with low prices, and managed to go lower than the bar I had set for them. And the bar was already lower than pro bodybuilders testosterone levels after 5 injection-free weeks.

The local shops were good, and I later heard that Taco Bell is regarded as the shittiest chain of fast food. I had no idea, we don´t have them in Finland... So I tasted the big world, and it tasted like something that would make real Latino cook cry. But you live and you learn. And after ingesting that shit they sold as Tacos, I´m happy to be living and learning still...

More on this weeks training when the week is finished, I´ll update here my training until the sundays binging.


15.2.
A combined squat and bench again, because I knew I wont probably get them done whilst training BJJ twice a day.

Felt really strong on squats, but having stood up working with teenagers in a nightclub all night, after the low bar squat I just started fading and rest of the workout was grinding. Alone in the gym and totally powerless, still got done what was on the paper. Nothing really weighed, it was mostly mental fatigue or low blood sugars.

Squat, low bar: 30 min. warm-up
paused, no belt: 2x3x100, 2x130, 2x160
with belt: 5x2x180, light as hell
Front squat for flexibility, oly style, no belt: 5x3x50-130
Paused high bar squat, no belt, 3x5x130
Sumo deadlift, no belt: 3x10x130
Conventional, no belt: 2x12x110
Emmas deadlift: 2x10x90
Straight legged deads 2x10x70

16.2.
With youngsters in Kerava, going through Kalevala poetry and brainstorming a little

17.2.
Benching, with a new secret shirt ;)
Bench, raw: 5x2x150, first awkward, last sets felt like they should, light and fast
Bench, shirted: 4 or 5x3x200-230, no touch. Locked out the arm , shirt too big though. Felt pretty good still the shirt, first training.
Bench with a double pause:3x5x100
Overwide slow descent: 2x20x60
Flyes 1x20x14kg
Pushups 1x20

18.2. 
Flew off to Malaga

19.2.
Night session at RGA Malaga.
In Spanish style, the internet schedule was wrong, and no muay thai. We had to wait awhile for the submission wrestling class to start, so we hit the weights and did some sparring, so no harm done:

Lockouts from near the chest, 5x5x100-140
Tris with a band 2x20
Tris, pushup with handles 2x20
Bis with straight bar 2x20x30kg
Inverted rows on rings 5x10xBW
Chins+iso holds on rings, 3x3xBW
Rear delt raises 2x20x20kg
Side raises 2x20x10kg
Y-raises 2x20x5kg

Some stuff with bands

Little bit of heavy bag, then kickboxing sparring for 3x4min.

Then! Finally some male touching on the ground!
Sub wrestling 1h 40min. 5x8min. sparring. First one was with an incredibly fast and strong no-gi European championship medalist Jailo. He has been a great sparring partner here and we have faced off since in a good spirit.


20.2.
Morning:
BJJ 90 min. by Santeri, again 5-6 sparring matches. Duro!

Evening:
Kickboxing 60min. 5 rounds sparring
After that 45 min. of submission wrestling technique and sparring



21.2.
Morning sesion not very crowded. But had some rolling, good movement stuff done and little bit of sparring and technique.


That is it for now. Already had two more days of training, but I will cover them later on! G´night!

From Mayor´s to Malaga. Training 7.2-13.2.

Now it is the time for the weekly update that I promised. It is rather training oriented, albeit there is still things happening on other areas!

Hoping for sun

I am heading to Malaga in couple of days to train BJJ and kickboxing. 9 days of training, little bit of fun and hopefully sun await me and my friend Sakke. So that is exciting and getting ready to pack is always an inspiring feeling. 

Nice to meet the great people of Costa del Sol Fight and Fitness again!

After Malaga its straight off to London to help with arrangements and work as an announcer for British Powerlifting Unions qualifier for their Nationals. So London calling! After that other parts of the UK to check out possible venues for comps and to bench with a group of merited powerlifters. Not at all bad the two weeks ahead of me I would say.

And that is about it, now for the diary, sorry, training log part!

7.2.

Bodybuilding day of the CUBE-style training. It is the most fun of all of the tormentign training days of the program. And as a change of pace, arm work. Yeiii! With my cousin, Pommi. (hes actually called Ville, but Pommi is better. And cousins Kalle and Ville just sound stupid...)

Lockouts, height 6

9x5x60-160 Arm was snapping straight nicely after warming up.

Arnold press, no back support and really clean and contracting on top 4x12x21kg 

Inverted row 4x10

Triceps 1-arm with a rope 4x10x10kg

Biceps hammer curl 4x10x21kg

Delt raises, three ways 3x10+10+10x12kg

Pulldowns 4x15

Calves on a leg press 3x20-40

Overhead tris supersetted with standing extensions 3x10+10x30kg

Biceps triceps and delts one pump set of 30 reps each

So that was it, really nice dfeeling of working muscles with no wear and tear on joints. And an arm pump...

9.2.

Benching was to be served today, after a exhilarating day with the youth group. Poems from one of them especially. Naivistic but great and good use of wording.Enthusiasm and teenage tantrums, all the stuff that makes it worth it. And a future chance to get to study the poetry of the Finnish national saga, Kalevala with one of the groups boys.

Doesn´t sound like much to a foreigner, but the sagas are some seriously mind blowing stuff. 

Pride, Force-like power of singing and knowledge, situations so dire that black steeds must be summoned of sadness and sorrow, the Swan from the river of Death and many more that would put shame on modern fantasy. All composed of a very unique style of rhyming. 

Don´t take my word for it, Kalevala is the real shit according also to fantasy scenes original innovator Mr. Tolkien and hes R.R. companion George Martin, known for the Song of Fire and Ice.

Väinämöinen, the greatest hero of Kalevala. On occasion also a greedy and self-centered bastard. Here facing off the Louhi, god-witch of the North shaped into a giant bird to carry her army against those who stole her greatest treasure.

But benching, that´s also the stuff of dreams! And I had the opportunity to lift today with the best female bencher ever in her respective category, Emma James. We did an hour long session on the bench and then some assistance.

Greetings to Mayor´s Gym for letting us train there. Needed a place in the center of Helsinki with a no-nonsense attitude and great equipment, and that was Mayor´s! 

Bench, narrow grip speed: 8x3x130

Bench with Catapult: 5x160, 2x5x190 good lockout, hand straightened all the way

Double pause bench: 4x8x90

Incline Dumbell press:10x30

Cable flyes: 1x20

Pullover: 2x12x40

Pec machine: 3x10+one drop set. 

Pecs were fried with real workout on the bench and a good set of assistance, inspired little by Emmas more bodybuilding style approach to assistance that fit my training now.

Quote of Emma: "You have to support the rest of your body with some assistance work. If you don´t, then youre just a fucking idiot." 

That was it, All that was needed to feel like a real bodybuilder was rice and chicken, protein shakes and some cardio. Physique competing might actually be for me after all.

Bikini Fitness 2016

.

10.2.

90 minute kickboxing workout. Consisted of all business. Light sparring for warm-up, 400 bodyweight movements and then an hour of training on basic punches, blocks and meat and potatoes stuff. Topped off with 4 2 minute sparring rounds and a finisher on pads plus some stretching. 

If I´d do this more often, I´d actually be a able to land a decent shot!

Shins were a bit hurting afterwards.

11.2.

Legs stiff as hell, but squats was the warm-up of the day before boxing!

20 minute warm-up

Squats with and without belt, low bar 3x10x130

Front squats, oly style, no belt: 3x8x90

Pause squats, high bar, no belt: 3x12x90

Then boxing 4 rounds of mitts and three rounds of sparring.

12.2.

Whole body stiff as an iron bar, but had to do deadlifts before massage, so no complaining and to the gym!

Sumos did not feel good. Stiff and fucked up so mostly with straight legs. Luckily the weights so small it does not hurt the body. Still making it a priority to dial technique and flexibility in.

Sumo deadlifts, belt: 5x2x180, 

Conventional deads, no belt: 3x5x140

Emmas partials 3x12x80

Straight leg deads: 2x12x60

Pull-ups: 3x5xBW

Inverted row: 3x10-15xBW

Pulldown: behind neck: 4x15-20x60

Rear delts: 4x20x14kg

75 min. massage, back, calves and hamstrings

13.2.

Last session of this weekly cycle, the bodybuilding day again:

This time the triceps took their time, but at the end they did fire properly and lockouts felt good

Lockouts, height 5: 8x5-10x60-160, always hold the weight extended and squeeze tris

Arnold press seated, no back support: 3x10x21-27

Triceps extension, leaning back almost, superstrict: 3x10x40kg

Dumbbell laterals 2x20x14kg

Triceps, 1-hand rope extension, Dr. Abbas style:4x10x10kg

1-hand hammer curls: 4x10x21kg

Triceps overhead+standing extension superset: 2x10+10x30kg

Calves on a leg press: 4x10-20x270kg

Biceps with dumbbells: 2x20x14kg

Me and my cousin shaking hands after the bodybuilding and accessory day of our training week

That was one weeks worth of training, Next week will be cut in half on training here in Finland and training for combat side of things on Spanish soil! Maybe some bar action also on Costa del Sol, who knows.

Adios amigos!

Going global! Introduction of the warrior poet

Global Blogging Committee

Contemplation of an international blog has been on my mind for too long now not to act on it. To have my training written down somewhere, to hone my English and just overall force me to record my doings better and be able to track down and have a laugh at them later on!

Venturing out to the world

So, who am I? That is a question propably relevant to a possible reader of the blog. And also a question hard to squeeze in a nutshell, but I will give it a shot! I will try to avoid most of the existential pondering and interdimensional possibilities of our perception and focus on sports, arts and what most of us perceive as the real world. I do not promise to avoid it altogether, but I will give that a shot also.

My name is Kalle Eemeli Ylitalo, born 31 years ago as a love child of a traveling man and a beauty. I have a tendency to wander about, but most of my time I spend in my home country of Finland. Main focus of my blog will be my training which covers a multitude of areas from martial arts to powerlifting. Main focus shifting a little, but on a whole year scale it is still full gear benching.
I will also be covering other areas that are on my field of interest and occupation.
Namely acting, poetry, youth work and random babbling on all fields from nutrition to the state of mankind.

I have lead a peaceless life filled with professions and positions both pleasant and unpleasant. Currently I go by under the moniker of freelancer, which can in times mean an actor, other times an announcer or an mc, and occasionally just a good-for-nothing poetry writing sky painting unemployed dreamer who dislikes everything but sports and arts.

Sometimes you wake up with a stranger...

As a sportsman I have in recent years accomplished to win some and lose some bouts in martial arts. Ranging from hokutoryu jujutsu to brazilian jujitsu and submission wrestling. Nothing major, but still half a dozen medals from national championships and international tournaments.

My main achievements are in powerlifting area, namely in full gear bench pressing. I have two WPC World championship bronze medals and a GPC gold medal from

Bronze from 2012

2014 Worlds. I also have the whole colour arrangement from our Finnish National championships, the golden one being from 2012. This year was a comeback after torn leg in May at the BJJ Finnish Opens and strarted with silver in Nationals and later a gold medal in the GPC Worlds.
All federations aside, personally I value most the fact of over 300kg competition sanctioned bench press at three different weight classes (-140, -125 and -110).

I am also regarded by many as the best powerlifting announcer in the world. Not a modest statement, but one that I embrace if it is thrown at me. Finns are also known for their modesty, but sadly I am not. From sarcasm I am, and not using smileys in my blog even at gunpoint. So that be said, use your caution while reading.

I work at arranging comps, announcing in different sporting and celebration events, youth projects, theater and random acting and bouncing jobs. As you can figure out from the lines of work, I am not a billionaire. But traveling a lot, meeting incredible people on a constant basis and getting better as human being and as a sportsman. So I would describe that I am living a life thats shaped to fit me.



What future holds? It can not be told. Not that I do not want to, but I just do not know. I have ideas, inspiration and projects enough to share. But what becomes of them, that is of course up to me, but still undeciden and uncertain. Powerlifting will be brought onwards, men will be battered, women will be dazzled and iron and mind will succumb to my will, that is all I can say with some degree of certainty.
Pretty  grandly put, yet still not telling much?Yes it is, but if I could beforehand say all I will and have done, there would not be a point in reading my blog would there now?

My life is filled now with traveling, training, friends, godchildren and my family of parents and two siblings. You will also get to know through anecdotes in this blog a bunch of my cousins (mainly traveling cousin, powerlifting cousin, cousin with kids and a crazy cousin), and a few friends whom I refer with nicknames of fitting multitude, or just in a sense of dull boringness and complete disregard to their personal opinions by their real names.

Last time in Malaga

That being out of the way, I will now delve into whats going on right now!
I am leaving on 19th to train BJJ and kickboxing in Malaga, followed by an announcing and arranging gig in the UK. I am training couple of people in the weight room and currently training for a hokutoryu jujutsu competition myself. Same time I am doing weights with a modified CUBE-inspired training plan, toned down in weights to give time for recovery.

Most of you propably dont know what hokutoryu jujutsu is, so I will give a brief explanation. With the gi on (the dress gown used in martial arts) you do almost MMA-type bout of 2x2min. Everything is allowed except hitting to the head with fists. That is to avoid excess cuts and such, as the hands are bare. Kicking to the head is allowed, but not on the ground. Bodyshots with legs and fists are allowed on the ground, so are all submissions and ninja trickery.



Heres a video of my friend at last years bout. My video is not so spectacular because of the lack of high kicks and the fact I got thrown around and lost by points to a multiple judo heavyweight champion of Finland. So obviously I am not sharing that, fragile ego that I have. (not so hard to find on Youtube if you really want to see me humiliated).


Video of Sakke "Baseball" Vihervirta dishing out damage:

Thats what I am training for now, keeping benching still in mind.

And with all that most of you did not bother to read, heres whats been going on during the last week:

30.1
I left for Savonlinna in eastern Finland with Pommi (the powerlifting cousin) and Petteri Hosio, the multiple World Champion in bench and in powerlifting. Pommi was going to lift at the Savonlinna Record Breakers, Petteri to judge and I went along in the role of an announcer.
It was a nice 5 hour trip and I actually dropped off before Savonlinna to discuss and train with Ano Turtiainen, a man known for all powerlifting people! Did light squatting and light upper body and a minimum of 34 sets of smack talking. Also few sets of serious talk about the future of Finnish powerlifting.
Took a bus to Savonlinna and slept like a baby in Casino Hotel after visiting local health food joint, Viiskulman Grilli.


31.1.
A great day of competing where Andy Cusick won the overall in Record Breakers and Finnish Matti Lehto made a comeback with almost a 1100 total! It was again a privilege to announce and to be part of comps of eastern Finland. Only thing sad is that Savonlinnas superstar Kalle Räsänen bombed out on the bench, but that happens to the best of us.

Also a great day of making a fool out of yourself, which I tried my hardest with starting up the afterparty with vodka. Did not manage to get a black eye or a charge on anything, so we can call it a decent night still.



1.2.
Woke up with my cousin in the Hotel and we had a bit more quiet drive back home. Only thing that could be described as exercise is being scared to death by the driving of hung over Petteri!


2.2.
A morning stretch and a brisk walk again my only exercise. Went over to Kerava, near Finnish capitol. Working on a youth project covering arts and sports there. We had a great day with music and designing a mobile computer game. Very innovative game designing with my groups boys, their imagination and knowledge on history made an impression.


3.2.
Finally back to the land of the living! Moral hangover coupled with Finnish melancholy has been conquered, and now I was on doing all kinds of grown up chores from cleaning to putting things at their places in my new apartment. Sounds boring, but it was refreshing to carry a washing machine in winding and steep stairs, shouting out to the world at the same time.
Liberated some space downstairs and liberated me from couple of demons. Win-win.
Also went benching:
Narrow grip bench 5x9-15x80-120
Bench with benchdaddy, one ply 4x4x130-170, trying to figure out problems with locking my right arm...
Double pause bench 2x12x70
Lockouts with squeeze and hold to straighten the arm 3x5x130-160

Benching sucked and arm didnt work properly, so I decided to punish myself with a BJJ session still
90 min. of BJJ. Turtle and guard positions as a theme, lots of sparring from positions.


4.2.
Morning rolling on the mat and and some heavy bag kicking and mobility work
In the gym to coach a talented just beginning young chap
Own squat session:
Low bar squat, speed: 8x3x140 felt good
Front squat, beltless and slow descent, Oly grip: 5x5x60-100
Pause squats, breathing air out in the hole: 2x8x100
A small stretch and a sauna at night, coupled with lots of chicken!


5.2.
Morning: 45 minutes of exercise for the brain and body. Mobility, bodyweight training and stretching while watching a documentary on British warrior pricess Boudica. That was a vengeance story if I have ever heard one. Get crossed badly, get your daughters raped and land stolen. Avenge with the death of 80 000 Romans, mutilate the captured and degrade their graves and burn temples. Not exactly the nowadays civilized way of interacting, but I for one would rather extract vengeance that way rather than a lawsuit.

Barbaric payback

Boring payback

Noon: Warm-up and 10x2min. Kickboxing sparring, felt a bit better, trying to get the rust out before hitting the training camp in Spain. It will be 9 days, 14 training sessions, BJJ and kickboxing half and half. So I should get the rust out to get something out of it.

Evening: 1 hour massage

Trying to relieve my right shoulder and get it in its rightful place. That is the rehab project now. It will enable steadier bench, better lockout and keep me pain-free. On top of massage that I have all-around, I do stretching and rehab moves for the shoulder, and a specialized triceps training to address problems with my twice-torn tricep.


6.2.
Great fresh morning, the same view as in the picture but top that today with sunlight. That is what I see every morning, not bad, huh?

Topped the morning with tea, abs, stretching and an documentary on frigging huns! Inspiring stuff for todays training to come.

Weights:
Back squat 5x2x170
Front squat 6x3x60-120, no belt
Pause squat, no belt 2x5x120
Sumo pull 3x10x120
Conventional pull 3x12x100
Partial pull for upper back: 3x10-20x60-100
Straight leg deads 2x20x60
Ab wheel 2x12










So theres my first update. I will be trying to update about once a week to keep up with my training and cover other areas as I deem fit!
Keep strong and keep thinking!

-Kalle Eemeli Ylitalo