[farmboy]

Originally Posted by Frodo

Oldie but goodie: Movies of wrestling drills and moves.

***If anyone checks this out and can give me a suggestion as to when a good time for grip training would be, I would appreciate it. Like, should I do it on one of my lifting days, and if so, which day would be optimal? Thanks in advance!***

I apologize for creating yet another log thread, but I feel that I needed a more complete log, which would include everything, training-wise (weights, cardio or lack thereof, judo) and diet and even sleep, just so I could keep track and look back at how a crappy night's sleep may have affected my workout.

My goals are to increase my strength (not necessarly mass, this time), improve my ground techniques, and improve my GPP, while also attemping to fix my whakced out sleep habits. I have a tendency to drink too much water before bed, therefor I wake up a lot to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Also, I need to stop drinking caffeinated drinks, at least after a certain time in the day.

The ultimate goal is to get to the point that I may be able to get at least one ameteur MMA fight under my belt before I get too old. It's a lofty goal, I know, especially considering the late age that I even got into the martial arts. But, if I didn't have something difficult to achieve, what would be the point?

Monday 2/6/06 5:30 am
Slept ok last night. No worse than usual. I tend to drink too much water before I go to bed. In effect, I'm up several times at night to use the bathroom. Got about 6.5 hours sleep, total.

Deadlift 185X5/190X5/195X5/200X5/205X5
Weighted Chin-ups (25lb) 5/5/4/4/4
Stiff-Legged DL (160lbs) 3 sets X 8 reps
Bent Over Barbell Row (95lbs) 3 sets X 10 reps
Heavy E-Z Curls (70lbs+bar) 3 sets X 6 reps

7:00 am
Protein shake:
1 cup milk
½ cup orange juice
½ banana
3 strawberries
3 slices of peach
1½ scoops of Protein powder (about 34g protein)
5g creatine
5g l-glutamine

2 capsules BCAA 2000
Multi-vitamin

10:00 am
Snack:
1 banana
1 apple
3 hard boiled eggs (1 yoke)

1:00 pm
7oz filet
mixed veggies
mashed potatoes

5:00 pm
Salmon filets
Mixed veggies
Rice Pilaf

I had very reasonable servings. I've had a bad habit of eating what I think to be too much, lately, and not always the best foods, but I'm going to try to stay away from fried, crap foods from now on.

7:00 pm
Small cup of apple sauce

I know this seems goofy, but the reason I'm logging everything is because I want to bet in the habit of keeping tabs of what I eat and cardio exercise, especially, because I have a tendency to overlook them.

8:30 pm
Bowl of cereal

Originally Posted by Iceman5592

Tumbling and gymnastics. Seriously. Work on shoulder rolls, cartwheels, round-offs, walking on your hands, handstand push-ups, ring dips, iron crosses, whatever. I've been doing basic tumbling and I've just started to incorporate some work with those gymnastic rings. (Basic stuff; mainly pull-ups, muscle-ups, and ring dips) Your balance, coordination, kinesthetic awareness, and strength will all improve.

Also shrimping, stand-ups, sidemount escapes, neck bridges, bridges, sprawls, penetration steps, and matador guard passes on the heavy bag will all help. Abdominal work will help with your guard game, and no I don't mean a million crunches. Do variations of leg lifts, flutter kicks, etc.

Try getting your heart rate up real high by doing lots of sprawls and penetration steps. When you feel like you're really sucking wind, get in a sprawl position, but rest all your weight through your chest on a heavy bag, so it compresses your lungs. You can also lie on your back and bring your legs over your head. This will get you used to being tired and out of breath and then stuck in uncomfortable positions. Your ability to relax in situations like this makes a big difference in how well you do.

You can make yourself a grappling dummy for pretty cheap, and just practice moves over and over on it. You can't really do much guard/bottom work, but it's great for leglocks and submissions from the top.

Weight training, of course, will make a big difference. Look in the strength and power discussion for tips. You can use weights either to build strength and raw power, or you can do hardcore circuit-type workouts to increase your lactic acid endurance and anaerobic endurance. I suggest a combination of both.

Studying instructionals and fights works big time. I can't tell you how much it's helped me to either watch an instructional video, or constantly rewind parts of a fight to see how someone set up a submission, sweep, KO combination, or whatever. You don't necessarily need to look for instructionals with lots of crazy new moves. If you're an advanced level grappler, start looking at those moves, but if not, just find good instruction on the basics. An example is the basic knee-in-butt guard break. I never used to get this, and people in the gym struggle with it. After watching instructionals, and reading about the move on the internet, I made a mental note of all little parts of the move. Now, when I use this move in the gym, I can break open the guards of the guys on the fight team.

Put all those together and you shouldn't have much trouble figuring out what to do when you're not on the mat. And hey, everyone wants to just roll when they get in the gym. Don't get me wrong, it will make you improve real fast, but you gotta drill, too. Rolling's much more fun, but drilling moves and different areas of the game will make you better. Try to include both in a training session.

[farmboy]

Tuesday 2/7/06
5:15 am
1 Banana

5:45 am
Bench Press 165X5/170X5/175X5/180X5/185X4
Military Press 85X5/90X5/95X5/100X5/105X5
Rope Push-downs 70 3 sets X 8 reps
Hanging Leg Raises 1X15
Weighted Pull-down Crunches 100 1X30
Weighted Swiss Ball Crunches 25lb 1X30

7:45 am
Protein Shake:
1 cup milk
½ cup Orange Juice
¼ cup mixed berries
3 slices of peach
2 teaspoons of walnuts
1 scoop protein powder
5g creatine
5g l-glutamine

1:00 pm
We ate late today, because we had a long doctor's appointment for our son and I took the day off work. Then we went out to eat: I was so hungry by the time we got there that I ate quite abit.
Sushi and miso soup

3:30 pm
Took about an hour nap. I had to. I was almost falling asleep driving home from Syracuse.

4:45 pm
Glass of milk
PB&J sandwich
Multi-vitamin

6:45 pm
2 pills BCAA

7:00 pm
Judo
We worked on 4 different throws for about the first hour and twenty minutes:
Osoto-gari: I love this throw. I'm probably getting this one down the best so far.
O-goshi: I got this one pretty good, too, once I got the foot-work down.
Ouchi-gari: This one I had a little problem with, for some reason. I lose my balance, mainly, I think, because I'm trying to break uke's fall too much, rather than letting them go. Still, I got the basic idea down.
Harai-goshi: This one was ok, but again, the foot-work was a little tough.
The last 40 minutes was ground-work, my favorite. We worked on a few techniques, including several working with uke starting on their stomach in a guarded position. The last one was a transition into a juji-gatame.
Then we did a little ground randori for about 15 minutes. I did well, but felt I struggled too much and was trying to use too much strength. Once a relaxed more I did much better. I did feel like I strained an elbow while sparring, not from an arm-bar or anything, but from another white belt trying to muscle me using his wrestling. I don't know exactly what happened, just that it's a little sore. Still, I managed to tap him once, and control him most of the rest of the time. All-in-all it was a good night, and I feel much more comfortable than when I was in karate for some reason.

9:30 pm
16oz glass of milk
1 banana

[farmboy]

I haven't been keeping tabs of my water intake that well. I generally drink tween 3-5 liters a day, at least. Moreso when I'm on the road working, because in the morning I'll stop at the gas station to fill up and buy 2 or 3 liter bottles of water. Then, I'll drink some at home and possibly get more throughout the day. I feel like I get enough water, but what I really need to do is cut down on my caffeine intake!

[farmboy]

Wednesday, 2/10/06

Got up early, even though I could have slept in until 6 o'clock. My wife gets up early to go to work, so while she was getting ready I went out a started her van and shoveled the walk. But, I slept pretty well, though, only waking up once at 4. Of course, for some reason I had a little trouble falling to sleep in the first place. Seems like evey time I have judo, I lay awake thinking through everything that happened, working through what I could have done differently.

6:30 am
Jump Rope 3 rounds of 180 reps

7:30 am
3 scrambled eggs cooked in olive oil
1½ cups of lowfat cottage cheese
5 grams creatine
5 grams l-glutamine
Multi-vitamin

10:00 am
Peanuts
1 banana
1 apple

12:00 pm
Bowl of beef & rice soup.
Side salad w/ blue cheese dressing (should've gone for something lighter, but there wasn't a lot of dressing)
Chicken wrap with way too much spinach/artichoke spread
Rice Pilaf

6:00 pm
I had some leftover chicken fried rice that I made the other day. Excellent! I used very little soy sauce, mainly because all I had was the packets from a Chinese restaurant, but used garlic, pepper and Chinese 5 spice to season it. Very good.

[farmboy]

Thursday 2/9/06
Sleep was ok last night. Went to bed a little early, about 9:30 or so, and got up at 5:00 am. Only woke up a few times during the night. I think that all of the caffeine I drink during the day is screwing with my ability to get a good, full night's sleep. I may have to give up coffee, again, for the ump-teenth time!

5:45 am
I decided that I was going to start over with squats. We've had a rocky relationship ever since I started doing them a few months ago. I never really felt comfortable with the weight I was lifting, I didn't really feel that I had the best form/balance/flexibility, and I definitely wasn't going deep enough; my thighs weren't even breaking parallel with the floor. So, I'm going to start over with lighter weight and concentrate on form and with me getting comfortable with the motion of the squat, then work my way up with the weight.

Squat 135X5/145X5/155X5/165X5/175X5
Last set was tough. Really struggled with the 5th rep at 175lb. So, the deepness of the squat makes a huge difference.
Bulgarian Split Squats (25lb DBs) 3 sets X 8 reps each leg
Glute Ham Raise 3 sets X 6 reps
The GHR is tough for me. I don't know if my core just isn't strong enough, yet, or what, but as I lower myself I feel like I'm going to fall forward if I go too far.
Saxon Side Bends 3 sets X 8 reps each side

7:00 am
Protein Shake:
1 cup milk
½ cup orange juice
3 slices of peach
1 tbsp sugar
5g creatine
5g l-glutamine
2 capsules BCAA 2000

12:45 pm
Miso Soup
Lobster Tango Roll
California Roll
7 pieces sushi

3:00 pm
Met-Rx ProteinPlus Bar

7:00 pm
Judo

We worked on a lot of ground techniques Thursday night. Started out just practicing each one before moving on the randori from the knees. We started with several arm-locks, including juji-gatame, ude-gatame, ashi-gatame, and waki-gatame. After that, we did some free-sparring groundwork. I can see why some BJJ practitioners may say that judokas' ground-game isn't as good as those who study BJJ. It seems that most of the black belts have focused more on the throwing side of judo. Not that they are really bad, just that I'm hanging a lot better than I thought I would be able to, even when it seems that thye are really trying.

Of course, it's probably just that they are taking it easy on me because I am new. The one thing that I notice is that as often as they go for the sub, they go for the pin. Now, I know that in judo, after so many seconds you get the pin, but I just ... I don't know, anyway. I think that some BJJ training would benefit my ground a little. Hopefully, I'l be able to get up the Buffalo and check out the school Murdock has been talking about.

After the randori we worked on de-ashi-harai and different variations for the last half hour of class. I did ok, but I'm having a little trouble with the timing sometimes. Oh well, practice makes... better.

9:15 pm
PB&J sandwich
Glass of OJ (We ran out of milk. OJ isn't the best thing to drink right before bed!)

I took a motrine and used some tiger liniment on my left shoulder and elbow. It was really sore during and after class. I guess I hurt it worse than I thought Tuesday night.

[farmboy]

I woke up at about 5 o'clock this morning with the intent of working out, doing the power routine I'd come up with for Friday in the new regimen, but my left arm was still really sore. I was going to tough it out, but I decided against it. With the hang snatch, high pulls, hang cleans...etc. that I had planned for the power day, I figured that it may do more damage than good, as most of them involve some jerking movements. Anyway, I figure I'll see how it feels this afternoon and maybe pick it up, then.

7:30 am
4 scrambled eggs
2 pieces of whole grain toast
8oz glass of skim milk
1/2 of an orange
Multi-vitamin

10:00 am
Roast Beef & Swiss Sandwich on whole grain bread
2 carrots
1 apple

12:15 pm
Honey Bourbon *****en sub on wheat

4:15 pm
Peanut Butter & Honey on Whole Wheat

6:30 pm
Roast Beef & Swiss on Whole Wheat
Raw Carrots
8oz Glass of Milk
1 cup of Low Fat Cottage Cheese
Taboule Salad
4 Pieces of Zorba
Oatmeal Cookie (I am so weak!!!)

[farmboy]

Saturday, 2/12/06

I had to work, today, for my wife. We, well technically she, own a cleaning service. Normally, I don't work, since I have a full-time job as a network technician, but when one of her employees can't make it, I'm sometimes called to duty. This was one of those days.

6:30 am
Bowl of Zoe’s Os
These things are good. Whole grain, lightly sweetened with cinnamon, it has omega 3s, too.
Multi-vitamin
3 pills MSM Glucosamine
1 pill Omega 3 complex

10:30 am
I was starting to get hungry, but had forgotten to bring a snack along, so I was forced to do something I hate to do... get something from a vending machine.
1oz bag of pretzels
Nature Valley Granola Bar
Beef & Cheese sticks...don't know what the heck I was thinking.

1:00 pm
Normally, they go out for pizza for lunch, but after the b&c sticks I'd comsumed earlier, I wanted something lighter, so I whined until she dropped me at Subway.
Footlong turkey sub on honey oat (tomato, spinach, onion, olives, banana peppers, sweet onion sauce)
Small bag of baked Doritos

Today looks unlikely to lift, again. My shoulder and elbow are still sore, and I'd rather it heal faster, and miss a few days, than screw around and have it get worse. It's not horribly painly, so hopefully by Monday it'll be good to go. We're going bowling tonight, but I'm right-handed and it's my left arm that hurts, so I have no excuse not to go, other than the fact that I really don't like going bowling with this league.

4:15 pm
6oz cup of blueberry yogart

5:30 pm
Roast beef and provalone on whole grain bread
3 carrots
12oz glass of milk
3 glucosamine/MSM pills
1 omega 3 complex

8:30 pm
I got hungry at the bowling alley, so I got:
Chicken Fillet sandwich
1 cup of cottage cheese
A handful of potato chips (I hate when you ask for none and they still bring them)

I did pretty good bowling, especially the first 2 games. I don't bowl a lot, so getting 143 in the first and 164 in the second was pretty respectable. We won't talk about the 3rd game. I was ready to go by that time!

[farmboy]

Sunday, 2/12/06
9:20 am
2 scrambled eggs
2 peices of whole grain toast
1 cup of cottage cheese
8oz glass of OJ

1:00 pm
Spaghetti w/turkey meatballs
3 slices of whole wheat bread
12oz glass of milk
Taboule salad

5:10 pm
6oz cup of strawberry yogart

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to lift again. I actaully printed out Keith Wassung's article and read it. God stuff. I think I'm going to give it a try starting Monday. Subtitute it for the 5X5 that I was going to do.

7:00 pm
Roast beef and provalone on whole wheat
1 cup of cottae cheese
4 pieces of Zorba
Taboule salad
small slice of strawberry shortcake (I had to get some fruit in there, damnit!)

[farmboy]

2/13/06, Monday
5:00 am
6oz glass of milk

5:45 am
Going a little light today, partly because I don’t want to put too much stress on my left arm. Also, I’m trying to use the method Keith Wassung had in his great article about increasing your bench. Next week will be medium weight. I’ll figure out the starting weight later this week.

Flat Bench 135X10/125X10/115X10/110X10/105X10 5900lbs

I think I started off too light. I don’t know, though. Shoulder’s a bit sore, but not to the extent of last Thursday.

Military Press 115X10/105X10/95X10/85X10/75X10 4750lbs

Seemed like almost too light of a week, but I’m feeling it.

Dips, Feet Elevated 3X12

I don’t have a parallel grip dip bar at home, so I have to make due with three chairs.

Cable Push-Downs (70lbs) 2X15

7:00 am
Protein Shake:
1 cup of skim milk
1/2 cup of mixed berries
1 heaping scoop of protein powder
1/4 cup of rolled oats
tbsp of cane sugar
2 capsules BCAA 2000
Multi-vitamin
3 pills MSM Glucosamine
1 pill Omega 3 complex

9:45 am
16oz Bottle of 2% milk
6oz Cup of yogart
Handful of peanuts
3 hardboiled eggs

12:45 pm
Miso soup
Chicken breast
Fried rice
Stir fried veggies
California roll

4:00 pm
Ham and cheese sandwich on whole wheat
4 pieces of Zorba
Taboule salad
3/4 cup of cottage cheese
3 pills MSM/Glucosamine
1 pill Omega 3 complex

7:30 pm
I did about half an hour of drills from judo. Not really sure what they are called. Some bridging out a turning over into position for kesa gatame, I believe. Not too hard of a workout, just enough to get the blood flowing.

8:15 pm
6oz cup of strawberry yogart

[judogido]

Friggin lunatic. No way I'M getting up at 5.45am to train. Kudos for the dedication, mate.