AxelB's running, lifting and kicking log

back on track a bit.

In general my week has been:
Monday BJJ (non contact), Tuesday pullups, pushups, stretching, Wednesday, running, bag work, stretching, Thursday pullups, bench, pushups, ab wheel, BJJ (no contact), Friday Turkish getups, stretching.
Saturday, Sunday (ad hoc, allotment stuff, walking)
2 weeks ago I added low bar back squats to Tuesday and Friday sessions

This went off track dealing with family issues, so back to logging this week.

Monday, could get to my planned first BJJ contact lesson, so just worked out from home
Back squat - 20kg x5, 40kgx5, 60kg 3x5
pull ups - 3, 5, 8, 8, 8, 5, 3
curls - 28kg 3x12
pushups 3x10
stretching 20mins

It's very hot in UK, so dog walking is early morning or late evening, usually it would be 1-2miles every day around lunch time, but this week was late.
Also have to water the allotment using 10l watering cans, so 2x 10l cans is about 10kg each, makes for a fun 30mins of farmers walks

Back to BJJ
Freedom Friday, but on a Tuesday! (See lego movie for references)
I took dog for early morning walk
then midday was allotment watering workout(tm)
evening BJJ session 1 hour
drilled open guard, spider sweep to single leg X, then X guard.
option to come up to pass or finish on straight ankle lock.
a few minutes of positional sparring, trying to pass open guard, or trying to sweep/submit the standing partner.
3 rounds of sparring - it's been 18months (or more?) and I didn't feel too lost. A lot of stuff I drilled was ok to start, but when part way through with the pressure of someone trying to stop you then the other half would be lost.
Great to be back and my body is sore, mostly in the neck - in time I will readjust to using technique and not so much strength

Wednesday
both kids finished school (thats the major transmission risk for me at the moment) and we managed to get through the school year without any contact tracing! Towards last week most of the year 7s were isolating, to the point that only 1 classroom of children was left (30 children out of a few hundred).

I did a bit of stretching and drilled on the grappling dummy for 15minutes to try and get a few things into my head.

Thursday
Pullsups 3,5,5,5
curls 28kg 3x10

Bench 20kgx10, 60kgx5, 60kg 4x10, 60kgx12 (amrap) - certainly feeling the strain on my body from BJJ, these sets were all a struggle, where I would normally churn through them.

ab wheel from kneeling 5x5
pushups 5x10

normally would do 2 BJJ sessions a week, but with kids of school, it looks like one evening BJJ for now.

 

Friday morning
Turkish getups
14kg 3 x5 each side

Afternoon
Back squats
20kg x5, 40kgx5, 60kg 3x5

Casual 45min walk

Evening
25mins side splits stretching

 

Saturday and Sunday, didn't do much activity, went to a friend's funeral, feel very drained so kept this low.

Monday not much throughout the day, took the dog out for a little walk.
Evening 1 hour (or more) BJJ
Drilled mount escapes, oh do I need to practise escapes!

Bridge escape followed by hip elbow escape.
Positional sparring either mount or under. Escaped the white belts, everyone else was a challenge.
Then sparring, I feel like I haven't lost too much, but still coming back to be a lot of bits. When we normally would end coach says change did an extra 3 rounds, everyone I sparred with was more experienced than me so there was no break time or "easy" rounds. At the end I was finished.

It was great!

 

Tuesday

Back squats
20kgx5, 40kgx5, 60kg 3x5

Pull-ups
5,8,8,12,5,3
Curls 28kg 14,14,16

Pushups
3x10

Stretching 30 mins

Did a bit of pad work with the kids, working on their kids.

Daughter has all of a sudden expressed interest in looking at doing other clubs, in particular, different martial arts styles, so we'll have a look around and see where it goes.

I think watching the Olympics has triggered some curiousity, particularly tkd and judo.

 

Thursday 29th

Pull-ups
5,5,5,3
Bench
20kgx10, 60kgx5, 60kgx10, 65kgx10, 67.5kg 2x10, 67.5kgx12

Curl 27kg 3x8
Ab wheel 3x3
Pushups 3x10

Friday 30th
Turkish getups
14kg 4 sets of 3 each side
Back squat
20kgx5, 40kgx5, 60kgx5, 60kgx8, 60kgx10


Hadn't planned anything else as we were going on holiday, but my 7 year old asked to go to the gym on Sunday to do pull-ups.
How could I refuse?
Pull-ups
5,8,8,9,7,5,5,3

Curls
28kg 15,15,18


Then off for holiday for the week.
When we returned there was a leak from bathroom into the garage, so I stopped this and damage control in the garage.
Spent the weekend cleaning up and rearranging stuff so the gym will be out of action for a while.

 

BJJ 1 hour

drilled monoplata from top side control and switch to arm bar.
a few rounds of sparring.

I will be reviewing some knee slide passing and butterfly guard some more, was great to try these against higher grades to I come across more problems to troubleshoot.

 

Tuesday evening BJJ 1 hour.

Drilled cross collar choke variations from closed guard, followed by arm bar.
Positional sparring, then free sparring.
Finished the session and got 2 stripes on my blue belt got to say I felt pretty chuffed about it.

Wednesday
Cleared the garage and did some workout, but I am sore and fatigued from 2 days in a row at BJJ.

Pull ups
5,8,10,8,5,3

Bench
20kgx10, 60kg 3x5

Ab wheel 3..... and that was tough, so only did one set.

Pushups. Grinded out 5,5,5.

 

Congrats on the belt progression, that’s some solid work to get to where you have in BJJ. Take care on the fatigue vs injury, rest up well buddy.

 

I didn't feel as fatigued today, but still plenty of aches.
opted for a 2 mile walk, despite the urge to go for a run, I knew it would be better to take it down a notch.

 

Sensible choice, hope your walk was good for some active recovery.

 

Yes it was a nice day, I usually walk the dog around the lake, so went a bit extra and enjoyed the view.

 

Friday

Turkish getups.
Worked more on the technique, so spending about 1 second in each transitional position.
14kg 1 set of 5 each side (grip started to fatigue so changed the subsequent sets. 2 sets of 3 reps each side

back squats
20kg x10, 40kgx5, 60kgx5, 60kgx8, 60kgx10

stretching 10mins

2 mile walk.

 

Saturday and Sunday, no planned workouts, but did a bit of walking with the family.
Sunday had a BBQ and ate a whole lot.

Monday family has cold, I felt a little bit on the tired side. All our LFT came back negative (we do these 2 times a week and another if we are not feeling well).
Based on this I went for the option of no planned activity, apart from the usual dog walk.

Tuesday evening BJJ 1 hour

drilled sliding collar choke from both sides, one with head /underhook on the bottom, and the other side was to adjust and roll over to the other side.

Sparring I could not get the cradle on anyone, they posture up well when in guard, so it's hard even with my orangutan arms to get them.
However I had 2 people try the suicide/baseball bat from bottom position. I used to get caught with this, but a friendly Judo blackbelt who goes to our club showed me how to turn it into an arm bar, and would you know it, this works
Got plenty of opportunity to work on my escapes when rolling with higher belt who has great top pressure. I'm sure I'll escape at some point

Wednesday
feeling achey/sore so a variation from the planned workout.
Pullups 5, 8, 8, 8, 5, 5
Bench 20kgx10, 60kgx5, 60kgx8, 60kg 3x10
curls 28kg 14, 15, 16

2 mile walk.

weight is about 199lbs, 14st 3 / 90.2kg
lightest I've been for a while now. (certainly since March 2020)

homework I've been going through a few different things.
Stringing together a game plan, based on a video posted here recently - working on inner foot positional guard game.
Butterfly is coming along, from start position, so worked on a few ways to escape to this, in particular I like the mount escape which comes to butterfly and have managed to moderately successfully execute this better than the bridge/roll, or elbow/hip escape.

knee slice pass is my predominant pass option which works well coming off a butterfly sweep. Working on knee slice variations also.
I do have to work on defending knee slice pass as the purple belts cut through my guard like butter.

 

Thursday

Went for a walk with the dog. 1 mile ish
Feeling tired, so nothing else.

Friday
Turkish getups lowered the weight as shoulders sore.
9kg 3 sets of 5 each side

Back squat
20kgx10, 40kgx8, 60kgx5, 60kg 2x10, 60kgx5, 20kgx5

Stretching 10 mins
Walking 1 mile

 

Monday -
playing around with a fast, and as family was out tried 24 hour fast (Think it was more like 22)


BJJ 1 hour

Worked on breaking closed guard from knees (without standing) with 2 pass options.
Sao Paulo pressure stack pass - Oh feel that stretch when you're on the bottom
worked with my partner to feel the balance and openings as they pass.
So I used the Sao Paulo and variations when I was white belt, but focus more on knee cut pass. Thought I would give it a go in sparring - got my back taken lots to work on there.
4 rounds of sparring. I found it hard to kick up a gear, probably the end of that fast not helping, was a good excuse to work on my defence and escapes.

Tuesday

1 mile walk
A bit sore from yesterday, twisted a finger, but strapped it up and onto some strength work

pullups 5, 8, 9, 9, 5, 5
bench 20kg x10, 60kgx5, 65kgx5, 67.5kg 2x10, 1x12

 

Wednesday
30mins walk

20mins drill with dummy; half guard sweeps reversal and escapes

 

haven't done a great deal since last workout. School prep and boy's birthday meant spare time were focused on these for the next week.

Sunday, a few hours digging and weeding in the allotment, a bit of a workout.

Tuesday evening 1 hour BJJ

Drills: Knee slice pass on open guard, followed by arm bar from side control.

Class was busy, so sparring was taken in turns so we could fit on the mat - 2 rounds.
Head didn't feel clear, a saw openings way too late, and when I did my body didn't react in time. A good time to work on defence

Wednesday, took the kids out on their scooters, so I put my run shoes on - 1.75miles 20mins 11'49" min/mi pace - 147 HR BPM avg.

kids back to school today, feeling a bit tired, asthma not great - This is expected at this time of year so I am not going to push it.

I plan to resume a steady workout next week, along with 2x BJJ sessions.

 

trying to remember what I actually did as this has been a busy week (not workout related).
Good job I log it all on my watch.

Saturday - family workout - kids on scooter, and me with the dog running again, but longer.
It's been a while since we did this regularly, but the kids are definitely harder to keep up with now.
2.56 miles 28'39" 149HR avg BPM. 11'11" min/mi

Sunday - Various house work, not workout session, but on the whole I burnt 3641 calories, (daily average is usually 3300 calories).

Monday - 1 mile walk, watered the allotment in the evening, usually 20-30mins of carrying 2x10kg watering cans (walking to and from the tap and watering time).

Tuesday - nothing in the day. evening 1 hour BJJ
drill - half guard escape through underhook to the back/turtle, and variation with them overhook into a belly down armbar.

This was one of those nights that the last year drilling butterfly sweep, knee slice, arm bar from mount and triangle paid off.

Wednesday midday - 1 hour BJJ!
yes my schedule said, my body said take it easy
drilled closed guard to cross collar choke variation and then to arm bar.

working mostly from butterfly guard when I can, was great to work against much more experienced grapplers today who were quicker to shut it down

 

Thursday

Pull ups 5,8,10,10,7,5

Curls 28kg 10,10,12

Ab wheel from knees 5,5,5

Pushups 3x10

Went away at the weekend, plenty of walking, especially to and from the car packing.


Monday evening 1 hour BJJ

Drilled omoplata sweep against standing guard break.
Then 10 mins positional sparring, followed by 20mins free sparring.

 

Monday evening.
1 hour BJJ
Escapes from smashed half guard.

3 rounds of sparring.

Tuesday
Usual walk and 10 mins stretching.
Don't feel great, September is usually a bad month for asthma.
Started using hrv monitor again.

Wednesday 1 hour BJJ
Drill: closed guard to shoulder clamp butterfly sweep.

Positional sparring from closed guard followed by 3 rounds of sparring.