Today was the last workout of this first cycle. All in all, I’m pretty pleased. I kept as constant as possible with all the work travel I’ve had going on, weights felt good even tho they were light, and I learned quite a bit on form.
I’m going to up my bench, squat, and deadlift weights per plan for the next cycle, then deload. I’m going to keep the OH press weights the same as this cycle, as I couldn’t actually get past the “5” week. I’m keeping the accessory work the same, except I’m going to sub in cable hamstring curls with the Spud Hamstinger rather than the band curls. I just don’t like the band curls.
After this next cycle I’m thinking I’ll change up the OH Press day. I need to add more strength to my vertical push/pull, so I’m thinking I’m going to go with the shoulder giant set that Jim recommended in T-Nation Twitter article linked below.
Thanks for the follow and welcome to the BJJ family. Hit me up if you need any advice or want to chat BJJ. Leg locks are new to us, we have a more self defense/hobbyist culture at our gym. I’ll try to put in more BJJ related stuff in my posts.
Finished up another NoGi week. The last week of every month is NoGi. We had a fun little class. Had about 20 on the mat. Coach started out by having everyone pair up with “Someone who’s about your size and level” to flow roll to warm up. After 3 min he had our two purple belts take one from each pairing onto their team. Each team stood on opposite sides of the mat. The “coaches” then went back and forth picking which pair would roll for a 7min round. Everyone started in guard. The coach also got to pick which person started on bottom. We had 10 good rounds. I still can’t roll so I recorded each roll for the team private facebook page.
After that the class continued to roll. I had a new white belt ask about guard retention and what to do after his guard was broken. We covered how to plan for the next position when he knew he was going to lose guard, how to set up the knee shield, and then transition into the scissor sweep from the knee shield. We also talked about the difference between a good and lazy guard and how to use his legs to control the op’s posture rather than pulling with is arms.
Good class. I should be flow rolling after next week, with full release around July 10th.
Had a great open mat today. Worked with my main training partner drilling for his purple belt test. Worked Submissions and escapes from side control. Also worked with a new student moving from a different school. She’s a 4 stripe white belt and is trying to get caught up on how we do things. She’s very skilled (for a white belt) but comes from a comp school, so she’s not up on the details of the classic movements and what our instructor expects. Worked blue belt test side control and mount submissions with her.
Then helped some of the new guys with the basic concepts of sweeping from the bottom. Getting their CG over your CG, taking away their base, ect. Showed details of the scoop and scissor sweep.
I then drilled some bottom side escapes and started making my plans for purple belt testing. A number of items on the PB test are “your choice” so I drilled everything proscribed, then started selecting the personal choice items for side control escapes.
Good Mornings
75X10
75X10
75X10
75X10
75X10
Going up on the next Dead day
Hanging Knee Raises
BW X 10 X 3
Crunches X 2 X 10
just got a little bored with the knee raises. Decided to do 2 sets of crunches to break up the monotony.
Great class tonight. We covered swimming in defensive side control, how your OP may try to counter, and how to counter their re-guard, including transition to Knee-on-belly and baseball slide into scarf hold.
Did a lot of positional sparing, which was very nice as it was something i could do with the new knee.
during rolling I drilled some reverse kimura stuff with another blue belt and tried a rolling bow and arrow choke, which will end up in my arsenal once i start rolling again.
Warmup
5 min treadmill
pull aparts - 3x10x Blue Rogue Tube Band
Disconnects with wrap - 3x10 with Red Rogue Tube Band
Bench with Pullups (per Jim W) during rest period
60X5 - 1 BW PU
70X5 - 7 PU with Green Monster Band
85X3 - 5 PU with Green Monster Band
95X5 - 4 PU with Green Monster Band
105X5 - 3 PU with Green Monster Band
120X7 - 3PU with Green Monster Band
Dumbbell Bench Press
40X10
40X10
40X10
40X10
40X10
Going up next session
Fun night tonight. This is Side Control Month. We stared in side with the OP not resisting, just varying arm positions. The goal was to sweep without using any muscle. Partners then go back and forth.
Next the OP moved to a different position once the guy on bottom went for a sweep, still not resisting, so we had to go to plan B for the sweep. Partners then go back and forth.
Finally, OP resists the sweep at 50% effort. Partners go back and forth.
Good drilling! my main training partner was back and our shenanigans were in full force. Lots of laughing and having a good time.
Then during rolling I helped one of the new white belts work on his sweeps and sweep concepts. Then let another blue belt drill the Demetrius Johnson bow and arrow choke from Turtle. He then let me drill a hip bump sweep variation from an arm drag.
Land Mine Hack Squat
Bar+35X10X5
Going up next session
Cable Ham Stingers
35X10X3
Going up next session
Good workout today. Good workout Wednesday. Accessory work is finally getting to the weights where I feel like I’m making progress, IE I feel it for a couple days after. I don’t regret starting light to get into the groove, but it’s nice to feel like I’m doing something.
Went over to the barn for my wife’s riding lesson today and the barn manager asked if I could unload the 20 50lb bags of feed she had in the back of the truck. LOL
Tonight was more side control. We drilled at “thinking speed”. Tori would get in Uki’s side control and set a goal (advance to mount, get an armbar, arm triangle, ect) and make one move towards that goal, Uki would make one move to counter. Tori would then figure out how to get Uki to give them what they need to reach their goal.
This kind of thinking positional drilling is very valuable, but also very frustrating.
During rolling I helped a 4 stripe white belt work on some details of triangle and armbar from guard he was struggling with.
I switched out the mountain climbers and groiners with hurdler stretches. My hips are still very tight after ACL surgery. The hip impingement is getting better, but I need to work on my flexibility more before adding the MCs and groiners back in.
Deadlift
65X5
75X5
90X3
105X3
120X3
135X10
Good Mornings
85X10
85X10
85X10
85X10
85X10
Going up on the next Dead day
Hanging L Raises
BW X 10
BW X 10
BW X 8
BW X 6
BW X 6
Changed up to hanging L raises. I’m working on getting full Toe to Bar leg raises, and this is the next step in a progression I found on the interwebz.
Tonight was more side control. Tonight we covered the 4 basic arm positions, Crossface, over/under, double overs, and double unders. There was a good mix of upper and white belts so all the upper belts adopted a white belt.
from crossface we covered shoulder pressure and hand placements to make shoulder pressure worse. Also covered how to use the baseball slide into Kesa to defeat the hip frame.
from over/under we covered the standard reverse kesa mount take
From double overs we covered the spiral armbar
from double unders we covered defensive vs offensive 100 kilo. Then transitioning to under/overs for the mount take. For the upper belts we covered the leg wrap butterfly guard pass to 100 Kilo to mount take.
during rolling i paired up with my main training partner and flow rolled. As per our usual arrangement the shenanigans got the better of us and we started going for submissions. He caught me with a heel hook (on my good leg) and a guillotine. I got him with a bow and loop choke. It felt very good to roll with my brother again.
