My quads are on fire like they haven't been in years.
My biggest gripe about my body right now (other than the collapsible shoulders) is my relatively underdeveloped quads. While this isn't as much a problem as I used to think it was when it came to things like hook sweeps from the sitting/butterfly/Cobra guard, weak quads are going to be a significant impediment to my standing guard pass game: the #1 theme for 2010.
While on my regular winter working holiday in Tucson, I put in a LSD9/Berardi cardio circuit and threw in some machine bench presses, lat pulldowns, rows and presses after-wards. I haven't had any opportunity to see what weight I would use if I had access to a real gym, so I could resist doing some traditional weightlifting stuff to get some sense of where I was.
I used a 90 second rest between sets and about 3-5 minutes between exercises. Most of the machine work was in the 60-110 pound range, three sets of nine (three of 18 on presses with palms facing and palms forward), scaling higher by about 15-20 pounds with each successive set. Didn't do anything with legs. But it is my legs - quads in specific - that are representing the whole of the workout's most productive reaction.
The key, I think, was the lunges in the second half of the Berardi coming about 10 minutes after the LSD9 work, which includes a mile at a descending 9-8-7-6 grade. I can't remember the last time a muscle group felt so activated and on-alert. I have no problem with squats, at all. But when I watch certain guys - particularly Rodrigo and Sauleh - attack the guard with these fencing-like, knee on belly-like lunges, the same sort of angle Kayron Gracie was taking in that guard pass he was using to great effect in this year's Mundial - I see the lunge as the key exercise - and key CBDP (circuit building deep practice) - for passing the guard from standing.
I don't remember feeling this in my quads so much when I last did this aerobic power workout at the beginning of the month. So there's also something to be said for the week and a half long, off the mat layoff (which feels even longer). But the fact that I'm feeling it where I'm feeling it says something given what I'm trying to get done in the coming year.
Thinking about the layoff, I want to remember to be careful coming back to the mat. This is the way cheap injuries happen and I don't want my enthusiasm for getting back on the mat to end up costing me a couple of weeks, especially with the 8 Weeks Out for the Revolution less than three weeks away.
One thing that will be helpful in this regard is matwork (TM) tomorrow instead of the aerobic power workout. That, some 360s (which I need to slow down on) and some hook sweeps, will give me plenty of work to help break me back in. It will also avoid focusing on my quads while I get the conditioning back on track as well.
