[Balefire]

I'm a lifting noob with not a lot of free time. Squats and milk is simple, and you can be in and out of the gym in under 45 minutes. Seemed like a good fit. I ditched the pullovers because they didn't seem necessary. Going to failure seems to be frowned upon in these parts, so for the circuit after the squats I go until I have to grind out a really ugly rep rather than to complete failure.

I also do judo. When I have the time I'll write down how class went and make plans for what to work on for next class.

Height: 5'9"
Weight: 165 lb.
Judo: white belt

Format for reporting lifts is weight x reps x sets.

Day 1: 20080111

Squats
115 x 20

CHIN/Dip/Decline Situp Circuit
4/7/20
3/5/10
3/5/10

As you can see, I am super weak. However, today has included OATS, CHINS, and SQUATS. So hopefully I'll be moving from super weak up to regular weak in a few months.

[MatterOverMind]

If possible, get a video of your squats so you/we can check your form.

Good luck!

[Balefire]

Originally Posted by MatterOverMind

If possible, get a video of your squats so you/we can check your form.

Good luck!

Thanks.

My cellphone is on its deathbed, so once I get a new one (that hopefully can take videos) I'll get on that.

[Balefire]

Woops. Double.

[Balefire]

The day after Fridays workout, the DOMS set in hardcore. Well, hardcore for me at least. I was planning on lifting Sunday, but I was also planning to start judo again on Monday after a few months off and was worried that I would be struck by the DOMS again and be pretty nonfunctional at judo.

My original idea was to organize my lifting and judo like this:

Sun: Lift
Mon: Judo
Tue: Lift
Wed: Judo
Thur: Rest
Friday: Lift
Saturday: Rest

To avoid being too sore for judo I thought I'd give lifting right before class a shot. It went pretty well today, so I think I'm going to keep it up. I will organize my workouts like this:

Sun: Rest
Mon: Lift, Judo
Tue: Rest
Wed: Lift, Judo
Thur: Rest
Fri: Lift
Sat: Rest

20080114

Squats and Milk Day 2

Squats
120 x 20

CHIN/Dip/Decline Situp Circuit
Forgot my notebook, so I wasn't able to write these down. An hour and a half of judo later, I don't remember much of anything, let alone how many of these I did. I think I did pretty much the same amount as last time.

Judo

Uchikomi
Pick a throw moving uchikomi: worked on morote seoinage. I suck at forward throws. A lot.

Kouchi Gari while moving backwards: Need to try this in randori more. Combos with seoinage well.

Ouchi Gari while moving backwards: easier if you make it more circular. I like this one a lot.

Tachiwaza Randori
NEED TO ATTACK MORE!
Successes:
Not sure if it was more of a yoko otoshi or a sacrifice sase tsurikomi ashi, but I hit this one twice to pretty good effect. Need to experiment more with this and clean it up since it seems to be working for me. Perhaps try it in combination with osoto gari.

Things to work on:
Tried the ouchi gari while moving backwards a few times, got half way, couldn't finish it.

Need to force myself to try more forward throws. I suck at them and I'll never get better if I don't practice them.

Newaza Randori
Successes:
People seem to like to walk into my sankaku jime (triangle choke). I'm sitting there trying to figure out how to start attacking when they're in my guard, then all of a sudden I've got the beginnings of a triangle.

Things to work on:
Finishing sankaku jime. Only tap I got was from another white belt and I didn't have it at all sunk. He must have just been gassed and didn't want to keep fighting it. He tapped pretty early on a couple other chokes too.

Dealing with getting stacked while trying to finish sankaku jime.

NEED TO WORK HARDER ON FIGHTING PINS WHILE GASSED. Not so much getting out of a "sunk" pin, but jumping on that moment where you have a chance to escape before they have you completely trapped. If I'm gassed I tend to let it slide by and then don't have the energy to escape the full pin.

[Balefire]

I'm a pussy/am trying not to burn myself out right off the bat and decided to just go to judo today and lift another day. I think for these first few weeks, rather than stick to a strict schedule with the lifting, I'm just going to lift as soon as I feel somewhat recovered from the previous lifting session. At least twice a week though. Then I'll bump it up to the full three times a week once I get into the groove with both lifting and judo. Anyways...

20080116

Judo

Newaza Practice
Turnovers: uke starts in turtle, tori has one minute to get as many pins/subs as possible. Uke offers medium resistance. I had the most success taking the back, rolling onto my back, then moving to mount. Need to work on doing this in a more technical fashion as it was pretty dang sloppy.

Juji gatame: breaking uke's grip in order to finish. With arm that is hooked through uke's arm, grab own collar. Pull back and towards uke's head with whole body. Use free hand to put pressure on uke's wrist to weaken uke's grip.

Speed Uchikomi
Get as many entries in 10 seconds as possible. Worked on morote seoinage. Need to work on turning all the way when working with bigger ukes.

Randori
Got a morote seoinage off for the first time!!! I was really excited as I am pretty abysmal at forward throws. It was pretty ugly, but it worked. I entered, didn't get my hips far enough in, but kept pulling and wiggling my hips and all of a sudden, WHAM, over he went. I tried a few more times, but with less success. We'd both just end up on our knees. Gotta start working on actually setting it up now.

Forcing myself to be more aggressive was helping out a lot. Hit a lot of ouchi garis when I would stop being so tentative and just COMMIT. Need to remember to put ukes weight on the leg I am attacking.

Experienced old man strength for the first time. Balding, gray haired, overweight, out of breath orange belt. I thought, okay, he's gonna throw my around cause I'm only a white belt, but at least it'll probably be a lighter round and I can catch my breath a little. WRONG. I'm pretty used to people yanking down on my collar to get a reaction out of me, and normally it doesn't throw me off too much. First time this guy did it I almost faceplanted. It was like wrestling a boulder with guerrilla arms. Very much an eye opener.

[Balefire]

Tested my maxes today so that I could join the Leightweight, baby. (IT's A RACE) competition.

Jan 19, 08

Max Test

Squat
45 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 3
135 x 1
155 x 1
165 x 1
175 x 1
185 x 1

SOHP
45 x 5
65 x 3
85 x 1
95 x 1
105 x 1 (this was super ugly. barely made it)

Deadlift
45 x 5
130 x 2
155 x 1
175 x 1
200 x 1
220 x 1


Nickname.....Bodyweight.....DL......BSQ. ......SOHP......Wilks(increase thus far)
Balefire.......165...............220.... ..185........105........165.15(0)


Gonna get back to squats and milk next week.

On an unrelated note, while I was squatting, I noticed a guy next to me doing deadlifts. He was doing 405 for reps and doing them quite fast too. This wasn't super noteworthy other than the fact that he was pretty strong. What was amusing was that he had positioned himself so that he was completely blocking access to the smith machine. Thought you guys would approve.

[Balefire]

Jan 21, 08

Squats and Milk Day 3

Squats
125 x 20

CHIN/Dip/Decline Situp Circuit
4/7/15
4/7/13
3/5/12

I hate situps. Mainly because I suck at them. Not just these, but during judo we do them and I'm always doing them at like half the pace of whoever is counting, and because I don't like them, I don't putv 100% effort into doing them. Thus creating a self-perpetuating cycleI feel similarly about pushups. Need to try to force myself to put more energy into these during judo warmups.

Judo

Newaza Practice
Worked the basic turnover. Key point: roll to side and toward head for submission from back, roll to side and toward butt to transition to pin.

Sliding collar choke: use free hand to push collar across chin to choking hand.

Newaza Randori
Sweeps felt sloppy. Ask to work on sweeps/passes instead of turnovers sometime.

Uchikomi
Morote Seoinage: this is even harder with a really big uke! (But what isn't).

Harai Goshi: fun throw! First time doing this throw. Things to remember: PULL HARD. Give yourself room to pull them to you rather than pulling yourself to them.

Tachiwaza Randori
NEED TO RELAX!

Attack with full commitment. For learning, try to not pull out of the throw when you get nervous.

Morote Seoinage: next time force self to go whole round attacking with nothing but this.

Harai Goshi: tried a few of these. Either I didn't commit and nothing happened, or forgot what I was doing in my enthusiasm and fell on my butt.

Ouchi Gari: relax arms. I'm stopping my own throw by being stiff.

Osoto Gari/Sase Tsurikomi Ashi Combo: I like the way you can start with either throw then switch to the other.

Note to self: experiment with a combo involving a forward throw—Kouchi Gari/Seoinage or Osoto Gari/Harai Goshi maybe.

Instructor told me I should get ready to take my yellow belt test in the near future.

I'll have to demonstrate

Seoinage
O Goshi
Ouchi Gari
Kouchi Gari
Osoto Gari
1 choke
1 armlock
6 pins

I'm okay on everything but the O Goshi/Seoinage. Need to work on those extra hard.

[Balefire]

Jan 25, 08

Squats and Milk Day 4

Squats
130 x 20

CHIN/Dip/Decline Situp Circuit
4/7/15
4/6/15
4/6/13

[DEVILsSON]

good program...

i would think about including some form of OHP....

Squats, Dips, Chin, OHP is pretty good with perhaps some hypers...

good luck in your race...