2024 Training Log Part 18

Today on the stereo- Primal Scream- Give Out But Don’t Give Up: The Original Memphis Recordings. My mate tuned me in to this, it’s the mix of the album recorded in Muscle Shoals in Alabama. It’s great.

Okay, but what did I do last week aside from listen to obscure mixes of seminal 90s albums? Well I trained.

Monday

Upper Body Gym Session
1) Bench- w/u to 3RM 100kg
2) Max effort pec dec 2xmax
3) Kettlebell Bench row- 3×15
4) Plank 3x60s
5) 45 degree back raise holds- 2x45s
6) Seated Power cleans 3×10

Jiu Jitsu was 6×6 min rounds. I felt like a slug. That reminds me of a joke!

I had a racing snail. It wasn’t winning, so I took its shell off to make it faster. It didn’t work, it made it more sluggish.

Tuesday

Complete rest. Someone was asking me for some nutritional tips. I’ll give you one. Eat according to the day you’re having. Higher carb on training days, higher protein on rest days.

Wednesday

Jiu Jitsu. 8x6min rounds. So in this session I was the lightest person on the mat. Ha! No that’s never true. I was in fact, the heaviest by some margin. So the trick now is, how do you make a session out of it? Well the easy thing to do would be to start on top and smash everyone with your weight. So I did the opposite. I started every round on bottom and focused on my guard play. A good session.

Thursday

Mixed Conditioning

Ooof. I felt every second of this session. I’ve lost my heart rate monitor, but I’ll try to find it this week to record this session on Thursday. I’ll type it out and I think that’ll be enough.

1) Bike 10mins ~140bpm
2) 15 minute work block- A) Floor press x8, B) Pendlay Row x5 C) Goblet Squat x8
3) Bike 5 mins ~140bpm
4) 5 minute block- A) 3 pull ups B) 5 Clapping push ups C) Split jumps
5) Bike 10 mins ~140bpm

Friday

Recovery session

1) Dumbbell Bench 5×10
2) Single arm row 3×12
3) Decline bench 3×10
4) Arnold Press 3×10
5) EZ Curls 3×10
6) Rolling tricep extensions 3×12

Saturday

11 rounds NoGi. 3 of them with pro fighter Nathan, 3 with legit heavyweights, others with a mix of lighter opponents but some very quick ones. A tough slog after the week if I’m honest, but good training and I got some good stuff going that I’ve wanted to work on.

Training Thoughts of the Week

I need to change direction with some of my lifting. I’ve been protecting my low back, even with the upper body lifts, so I’ve been using the bench for a lot of stuff. But now that I’m past the acute stage, I think I’m going to add more bracing like half kneeling and standing lifts. I’ve been doing a small bit of that with cable rows, but I’m definitely missing out.

Non-Training Thoughts of the Week

There’s a kimono company whose slogan is “You can’t teach heart”. You know what, maybe they’re right. I’ve seen some guys over the years who had all the skills, but none of the heart.

But you can definitely teach belief, or rather, you can build belief. A lot of time people quit because they don’t believe they’re good enough, or that others will always succeed ahead of them. But no one has ever not got better using the following formula. This is one I’m going to put in a book. Don’t share it with anyone, it’s our secret:

1. Pick an achievable task (eg. go to 5 sessions in a row)
2. Achieve task.
3. Pick a slightly more difficult task (eg. spar 5 rounds without resting)
4. Achieve task
5. Pick a slightly more difficult task….

Repeat until Black belt.

Now shush. I don’t want people knowing about this formula. It’s going to make me my millions.

See you on the mat,

Barry