2025 Training Log Part 34

On the stereo today- Time Out- The Dave Brubeck Quartet

How did these groups come about? Hi, I’m Dave Brubeck, and I’m looking for 3 other guys to play in obscure time signatures. Apply by post.

Monday

Did not train. Went to, and then got caught up in something. Frustrating.

Tuesday

Morning Strength work.

1. Decline Bench Press 5×8
2. Ring Press 3×15
3. Dumbbell Row 4×8
4. Machine row 3×10
5. Weighted sit up 3×20
6. Wobble board plank 2x60s
7. Pushdowns 2×20
8. Close grip bench 2×15

I got asked about the Decline Press and why I’m using it and not the flat or incline. Well first of all, flat is fairly impractical for everything but raw strength and powerlifters. Incline is much better for your tendon and more practical. But after an injury earlier in the year, I discovered that Decline was the only position I could express strength in and get any quality work out of. It’s just stayed in the routine since.

NoGi training. Lots of first score work from the bottom position. Worked on some guard retention, letting my opponent get in close to start attacks. A solid 45 minutes of work along with some drilling.

Wednesday

Evening Jiu Jitsu. This is usually my craic session but I pushed a little harder in it today. I really enjoyed it despite being wiped out beforehand. I love Jiu Jitsu.

Thursday

Home Yoga for 45 minutes. I am as flexible as a surf board.

Friday

Show and Go session in the weight room.

1. Bike 5min
2. A) Incline Single Arm press 4×10, B) Single Arm Cable row 4×10
3. Pec Deck 3xmax
4. Inverted Ring Row 3×10
5. Weighted decline crunch 3×15
6. Seated Power cleans 3×12
7. EZ Curls 2×15
8. Overhead extensions 2×15

Sauna for 20 minutes afterwards. I try to relax in the sauna, but the gym I go to has a pool attached, and there’s a lot of retirees go there. I usually end up talking to someone about their grandkids. It’s nice, actually. Very different from the rest of my life.

Saturday

NoGi Competition training.

1 hour scoring work. The drill goes like this-

White belts need 1 score
Blue Belts need 2 consecutive scores
Purple-Black need 3 consecutive scores (or submission)

The idea is that advanced can’t switch off for a minute and allow anyone back in. To do so means you have to reset and start scoring again. Also makes you push the pace and not relax once you’ve scored.

Training Thoughts of the Week

Hydration. Every time I drink more water during the day, I feel better, train better, and think better. So naturally, I never do it. Instead, I turn to my one vice- Caffeine, and depend upon it to paper over the many cracks in my lifestyle. I need to bring that under control.

Non-Training Thoughts of the Week

Yesterday I woke up to find out that Ricky Hatton had died. It seems, from reading, that he lost his decades long battle with depression and addiction. I’ve read so much ink on the battles that fighters go through after the peaks of their careers, when the lights and cameras are gone and they’re left to fend for themselves, but I’ve never experienced it close up but for him, albeit briefly. First of all, he and I are the same vintage, born 78, so I felt some connection from when I first saw footage of him training in the early days of his career. I remember watching something about him when he was still with Billy Graham, jumping over and back on this bar they had along the middle of their gym. He was some athlete.

I remember the Mayweather fight, when he was outclassed but not outfought in Vegas. Thousands of screaming Mancs booing Floyd in his own country! And the Americans loving him even in defeat. So when I got the chance to meet him, I couldn’t wait to shake his hand and tell him how I admired him. I wasn’t disappointed. We spoke for less than a few minutes, and I’m certain he’d had the same conversation 100 times that evening, but he didn’t let it show. I asked him for something and he made me crack up with his answer as he refused. I stepped away and left him to it.

Later that night, something happened in that I can’t detail here. I still feel sick to my stomach thinking about it now. If you know me, I may have told you the story. I’m sorry to be so vague now.

The next time he was in print it would be for his rehab, or being seen off the wagon. They hounded him. For his drinking. For drugs. His eating habits. But he rose above it, and became a champion for mental health in men. I never lost an ounce of respect for him. He took the piss out of himself on social media. I remember one where he was walking out of his gym to drive home, towards a beautiful looking new car, waving goodbye to the camera. He disappeared behind the beautiful new motor, and emerged a few seconds later from behind it driving a replica of Rodney and Del Boy’s 3 wheeled Reliant Regal! He seemed to be one hell of a trainer too. 46 years old and gone with so much left to teach.

We ask guys like Ricky Hatton to be gladiators. But no one seems to understand they will need help in the aftermath. Perhaps because of the physical trauma to their brains in the ring, or perhaps because the willing participant already carries trauma into the ring, they need support when they’re done. Instead, they get tabloid headlines and the type of treatment I witnessed that evening over a decade ago.

I asked my wife yesterday how culpable I was. She looked at me strangely. How can you be culpable? But I didn’t mean directly. Are we not all to blame? Our culture- combat sports- builds these men up. And we do nothing for when they’re knocked down. In fact, the macho nature of it means we can’t accept them being knocked down. BJ Penn had a public episode and became convinced his family had been replaced by agents of the government. The reaction online? Laughter. Mocking. People in the comments telling him he was right. Frank Bruno’s struggles? Great for headlines. Tony Ferguson’s troubling times? Hilarious to the internet, apparently.

I still love it. I can’t but. And I love the guys who do it, I always have and I probably always will. The least we owe them is to tell them the risks in advance. And to take care of them afterwards. That’s all. It doesn’t seem like much to ask.

See you on the mat.

Barry