2024 Training Log Part 24

On the headphones today- Richard Wagner- Ring Odyssey. You always have to be careful listening to Wagner as I believe it can make you want to invade Poland.

Good training last week. Tudo bom.

Monday

NoGi Sparring. 10 minutes back control positionals. 6×5 minute rounds from standing.

Tuesday

Morning- Upper Body basics session.

1. Incline Press 5×5
2. Pec Deck 2x max effort
3. Seated T-Bar Row 4×8
4. Single arm cable row 3×10
5. A) Plank 60s B) Knee raises x20 x3
6. Pushdowns 5×10
7. Curls 3×10

Evening- Gi Sparring. 10 minutes back control positionals. 6×5 minute rounds from standing

Wednesday

NoGi Sparring. 10 minutes back control positionals. 6×5 minute rounds from standing.

Thursday

Rested and ate like a horse.

Friday

Morning- Light Gi rounds. Hosted the Garda BJJ club for a session. Taught some technique for an hour and then did some light rounds for about 7×5 I think, in and out. Nice to meet some new people.

Evening- Only had 20 minutes so did:

1. Stick Pull Ups- 5×6
2. Band Push Downs- 3×25

Saturday

Rounds! I think I did 11×5. Was putting something new to the test on some of the larger lads. It seemed to be pretty successful so a good session.

Overall, an 8 out of 10 week, and you don’t get many of those, so I am happy. I didn’t get to the gym as much as I’d liked to look after my lower body in particular but that was just normal life getting in the way.

Training Thoughts of the Week

Training relaxed is so much better. Walking into the session with any tension or expectations just leads to frustration. If only there were a way of bringing that level of relaxation to the competition mat on demand. It’s happened for me a few times, but not very often, and rarely when it really mattered! That would be mental mastery.

Non-Training Thoughts of the Week

I did a podcast last week and one of the queries was about “cliques” that develop in training. I thought about it, and looked at every training group I’ve ever been involved in. The conclusion I came to is that there’s no way of stopping like-minded people from grouping together. You can’t stop people from becoming friends, and you can’t stop people from liking some people more than others. The more you try to control that, the worse it gets. All you can do is ask people to be nice. I mean, is it a “clique” or just a group of friends? Or a group of people around the same weight, or skill level, who enjoy training with each other? As long as everyone is friendly, what does it matter if you’re not blood brothers with everyone?

Ultimately, the conclusion in the podcast is the same as I’d say about anything- if you don’t like the atmosphere somewhere, stop training there. If it’s too “cliquey” for you, find somewhere else. But to be honest I think it’s just human nature. If you’re in a job and 3 people enjoy coffee with each other and don’t include you, maybe they just like their chats together? Does everything have to be bullying?

I am off to lift some reasonably decent sized weights.

See you on the mat,

Barry