On the stereo today- A Mellow Playlist I put together. Damon Albarn, Led Zep’s Rain Song, Daysleeper by REM, One Hundred Days by Mark Lanegan. Fits my mood this morning.
Last week, I was in Venice for a few days, so I didn’t update this log. So this is the week prior plus the last few days of last week.
Monday
Lifted in the morning, but forgot to log it. Tell you what, go back to any Monday for the past year and you’ll see what I did, more or less. I’m fairly consistent.
Gi positionals and rounds. I only got 30 minutes of this, whatever way it worked out with coaching, but little and often is the key.
Tuesday
NoGi training I had to skip as I had a chemical burn on my leg and I forgot to bring the dressing for it to keep it clean and safe. Mad one I know. I was using a very strong paint stripper and got a bit on my leg and didn’t notice.
Wednesday
In the morning with Roger D. Good session focusing on passing and retention initially, then some live rounds, and finished with back control finishers. Solid session. Felt good.
Evening Jiu Jitsu- Into the Gi for the evening. I was still definitely recovering from the morning session, but it was good to move around with some of the guys.
Friday
Show and Go session in the weight room.
- Pendlay Row 5×8
- Face Pull 3×15
- Close grip bench 4×8
- Pec Deck 2x failure
- 3 way bridge 3 sets
- Bent over raises 3×12
- Push downs 2×20
- Curls 3×10
Saturday
NoGi Competition training.
Warm up/conditioning. Old school. No school quite like it.
30 minutes of finishing- Back, Mount, Side. 5x5min rounds from standing to finish. Got ratty with people not putting enough in. Not enough focus, not enough work. Regret losing my shit. Don’t regret the sentiment.
Holiday
Bellinis, delicious Italian food. A lot of walking around. About 10,000 steps a day through a really beautiful place.
Friday
Back into the gym to get the body moving.
- Decline bench 5×12
- Ring push ups 3×10
- Dumbbell Row 4×8
- Machine delt row 3×15
- 3 Way Bridge x2
- Reverse grip press 3×15
- Hammer cable curls 2×15
- Single arm pushdown 2×15
I get asked why I do so much arm work when it’s not “functional”. Well first, every bit of work is functional in some way. Second, it’s the fluff on the end of a session. My real work is done earlier, usually in the first 3 exercises of each day. Third is that one of my arms needs constant maintenance or it will weaken quickly and atrophy.
Saturday
Losing my shit last week must have had an effect. Everyone on form. I’d had a holiday week, so I was behind the curve. Enjoyed this a lot.
Hard warm up and conditioning to start.
Front headlock starts. Top must submit. Bottom must get top. 30 minutes. Then 4×6 minute rounds from standing. Observation here is that my wrestling is improving week to week since the switch back to NoGi. Did some good work and caught a nice counter Harai Goshi for the first time in a while.
Training Thoughts of the Week
“If you’re boozing, you’re losing”. I remember a fella telling a bunch of us that years ago. All I could think of was “Who is boozing so much that they’re losing?” Me and my mates would go out at the weekend, but we were 20 somethings, so we recovered the next day and were training at what we thought was 100% by Monday. But then as you climbed the ladder towards the top end of competition, you’d start to see that it wasn’t quite 100%. As you get older, that percentage definitely drops! And the recovery days increase. I did enjoy my holiday, but I felt it on the mat on Saturday.
Non-Training Thoughts of the Week
I’ve got something on the next page of the blog that’s training related, but not suited to the blog. Here it is.
See you on the mat!
Barry
The Black Belt Blog 
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