This would be awesome at a local competition, with a bunch of soccer dads and I walk up to the bullpen with an IV drip. I don’t think I will be in a position to water cut again. I plan on dropping 5-10 more lbs of fat and then growing. Unless there is a good reason to compete sooner, I probably won’t until next summer.
haha I’ll ask the nurse If I can try next time I need an IV.
@redsol1, @burien_top_team , @T3hPwnisher thank you all! Getting the new belt was more meaningful than I expected, and once my leg heals up, I’m eager to see how it changes things… obviously, I don’t magically get better, but the way people roll with me from now on. Especially, those I’ve never rolled wtih.
Thursday - Just a light workout
Pullups and Leg Raises
40
FG Lat Pulldown
4x10
Cable Row
4x15
Incline Camber Bar Bench
3x10x135
FG Tricep Pulldown
3x10
Oly Bar Curls
3x25xbar
Hammy is very very tight. I can walk much easier now, which is good. I’ve been hitting it with massage gun and doing light leg curls without tension. I ordered BPC157 and RAD140 to see if it helps with healing. Also, trying to drink as much water and electrolytes as possible each day. I’ve averaged about 1.5 gallons.
Everybody who shows up (with all respect) gets a white belt. The blue belt is the first one you earn. I’ve always thought it marked a special moment in a person’s jiu-jitsu/grappling journey. #twocents
Growing up I had a lot of friends who went to belt factories. Even my six year old nephew called me recently because he got a belt promo after three months of Taekwondo. This caused me to not care about belts. Now that I got a promotion, I think my view has shifted a bit. I don’t necessarily care about the belts as a whole, but I appreciate what it means to document my personal path through the art. There’s an arm ripping black belt who gave me the first bit of positive acknowledgement. Almost as ifi stuck it through despite how hard he was on me. Also, I really don’t think skill is a consideration in belt promotion and I don’t know if it should be. Again more a reflection of personal improvement and technical understanding. My game is completely different than other recently promoted blue belts. They are traditional single leg take down, toreondo pass, side control, arm lock or move to mount. They essentially, they stayed the path of curriculum at one school for 1-2 years. I’m more of collar ties/foot sweeps or collar drags, then guard play via ashi/DLR and always look for sweeps to knee on belly and back takes. I’m really bad at maintaining side control and back control. I’ve done more open mats than classes and just picked things up from talking to purple/brown belts at various affiliates. More thoughts to come, but I need to spend time focusing on side control attacks.
Saturday
My 12 year old daughter has been begging me to teach her to workout. Gave it a go today.
Seated lad pull down
3x10
Plate raises
3x15x25lb
Seated cable row
3x10
Cable press
3x12
Bar hangs
3x60sec
Also got a 10 minute farmer in walk on my new walking treadmill. Used 20lb db in each hand and got after it. Decided to put DBs and treadmill in office for ease of use during morning and nights without having to go to garage.
It’s been a tough week with work. Putting a major deliverable together that’s requiring all my time. Food wise, I’ve had a protein shake each morning, then not eating until dinner two nights ago was meats and cheeses with friends, yesterday was two 12oz ribeye at 3pm and 4 egg omelette over rice at 7pm.
Haven’t done much of any training. I moved adjustable dumbbells into office and throughout day I’m doing lateral raises above head.
Last night I got a .5 mile walk with 20lb dbs in each hand on treadmill. Just slowly rehabbing hamstring back. I can walk and move without pain, but bottom of crouch (sitting like a catcher), is painful. I also can’t put it in any form of a stretch, eg. bending down to pick something up. My weight is between 231-235 which is pretty cool. Feel like lower ab fat is getting smaller and weight is still in 230s.
Got blood work today. It’s been 6 months since my dose changed. I’ll have results next week, but figured I’d put my self reflection of how I’m feeling here before I see results. That way, I can’t question feelings. I did this back in December and when doc called he asked how I was feeling before he told me. I had written down that it wasn’t great and why, he affirmed that with blood work.
That said, I feel really good. I’ve cut out all energy drinks as of Wednesday and still wake up early today no problem. No issues in gym, joint issues, or mental sides.
Dosage has been 160mg E3D. No ai or hcg. I inject subq into stomach fat. I was doing quads, but got harder as I got leaner.
Also hair is thicker on head and beard and I actually have body hair on arms/legs and back.
Just went light and easy. First workout after hurting my hamstring. I still can’t really apply any stretch to the muscle, which tells me it’s still partially torn. Good news is the squats didn’t hurt at all. I’m going to try and work in some squats more throughout the week just to get blood there. Speaking of which, I’ve never had a quad pump like I did yesterday.
I might try to introduce single leg exercises, but not entirely sure on stability yet. Taking it slooooowww.
Open Mat
First time back in 3 weeks. Felt pretty good. We normally have ~15 on Saturdays. Today was odd, only had 4.
First round was with a tank of a purple belt. About 5’8” 225lbs. We basically just swept each other for 8 minutes. Neither of us had any submission attempts.
I then drilled some half guard sweeps and inversions, crab walks, etc.
Second roll was with another new blue belt. I had 80lbs on him and got deep DLR to crab walk and lapel choke to finish. Then, faked the same move and inverted to a high mount. He rolled away and I took back from a high position and locked in reverse triangle. Finally, did a half guard to waiter guard sweep and passed to quarter guard. I locked in his arm and got the arm bar with my leg partially trapped.
Last roll was with a heavy blue belt. I was messing around with trying to do more single leg x, which is hard for me since I weave my leg around the outside usually for DLR. He eventually passed my guard and did some kind of wizardry to locking a kesa gatame loop immediately. We restarted and he tried again, I shoved his arm and got an undertook. Time expired, but solid roll. Hadn’t seen that move before, won’t happen again.
Lots of yard work today. Planning on getting the 100lb ball out and walking around yard with it OH and finishing with hanging from bar.
Sunday - was feeling really beat down after doing a dry run off all the various blow up jump house, tents, etc. for an adoption party we are having next week. Also knocked out a ton of chores around outside to prepare. By 5pm I was done and decided not to workout, which was kind of a weird feeling. Realized I had done enough and just relaxed.
Monday
The goal today was to push weight after taking nearly a year off push presses and cleans. I cleaned every weight I pressed.
Push Press
10x135
8x155
5x175
3x185
1x205
Between sets I did 45-60 sec bar hangs (with straps due to weak grip from BJJ)
205 flew up, but back was tight and cranky from rows a few days ago. Finally at age 34, I didn’t push myself and get hurt. In the end, I tied my best push press at 205, but it was a breeze.
Speed Belt Squats
10x90
10x180
10x180
3x5x270
Seated Rack Scrapes
3x20x115lbs (10 more than last week)
Really happy with these. Considering early this year 1-3 at 135lbs was a max set.
Good workout. Feeling really strong in movements and mobility. My back is feeling wide, just need to add thickness. Any suggestions @T3hPwnisher, @simo74@throwawayfitness ?
I’m pushing fat loss for rest of month, then slowly build back. I’ll have a week in Maine for Origin camp the third week of August, which should be hard training and solid diet of Molks.
I have to giggle at a sentence that is “a solid diet of liquids”.
For back thickness, be hard pressed to beat picking up heavy stuff. Kegs, sandbags, stones, etc. Heavy pulls and partials are classic too. And there’s always kelso shrugs.
Hahaha! Good catch. I have friends who went last year and they said there are coolers everywhere for free. I love the taste, so might drink 10 a day.
Thanks, I’ll start incorporating these in. Particularly partials. Not sure why I stopped a few years back.
If people are interested, I’ll do a write up. I know a dozen or so people who attend every year and speak very highly. I also train under Formiga, who was a guest last year.
Jocko, Lister, Formiga and others aside, spending a week in the woods training and away from work is enough to sell me on it.
Have to agree with @T3hPwnisher regarding picking heavy things up. For back thickness I think time under tension is a game changer for me. So doing things like heavy sandbag carry (bear hug), long distance farmers carry, high rep rows - (i like dumbbell for high reps more than barbel).
I’m a fan. I bought my first non-Gracie Barra gi last year (wearing a GB gi is required at GB schools) from them: a white Origin Nano Pearl Path. Love it and gets rave reviews when people see it.
Still train at one? I tried to visit the.GB in Irvine, but didn’t want to rent a gi and I was a white belt at time.
I have a a few Origin, an AOJ RVCA and my kids have Gamness and Hyperfly. I prefer Origin over all. Although, I’m not a fan of their comp pants. I much prefer RVCA’s.
No. I’ve been training with the guys at Mako BJJ since relocating to Tucson a year ago. High technical level, good vibe, reminds me a little of my school before it went full GB (not necessarily a bad thing, just saying …)
Never tried RVCA. Have heard great things about Gameness and Hyperfly (my second choice).
Woke up at 530 to go to comp class at main academy… at 6am my notifications turned on (from sleep mode) and saw messages from my brother saying he was about to land. Had no idea he was coming today… skipped class to get him from airport.
Wednesday
Family is in town so spent time at pool. Then got a quick workout in.
Overall good day. More of family came in last night, so my BiL who is same height and weight as me did the workout, while we somewhat were competing. He did 90 yards, I did 100. Ha
