Starting in 2018, I'm going to leverage the 5/3/1 protocol from Jim Wendler for my strength training. As I'm nearing "advanced beginner/intermediate" level strength thanks to StrongLifts, I want to dial back the volume a bit. At the same time, since I'll still only do resistance training twice a week, I won't have to spend a week deloading. So rather than a daily progression with StrongLifts or a 4-week/monthly progression with regular 5/3/1 4x/week training, I'll have a three-week cycle before bumping up the weight.
I'll still follow the Duck Season/Rabbit Season template: OHP and deadlift on Monday Wednesday, squat and bench on Wednesday Monday, with Friday reserved as a makeup day. Not going to miss the bent over rows one bit.
I'm doing the FSL 5x10 for the first half of the assistance work - something I really like about 5/3/1. For the second half, I'm doing a metabolic finisher of four 500m row sprints on the ergometer, trying to average less than 2:15 min per sprint (1:1 work/rest ratio). In addition to giving me a little extra conditioning work, it will also help increase the amount of horizontal pulling I do relative to vertical pulling.Update: 1/8: In the interest of keeping the workout to 45 minutes, I'm keeping the FSL but no row sprints, which would add another 15 minutes to the workout.
My goal is to make 5/3/1 my regular year-around program for strength training. I think it strikes a good balance between training modalities - focus on a minimal possible number of movements, a heavy weight/max rep element, and a high-rep muscle endurance component - that I believe will serve me well as someone whose primary interest in being stronger is to support athletic output. It also seems to fold in well with my jiu-jitsu schedule when modified as a 2x/week instead of a 4x/week program.
I've been lifting weights twice a week since the beginning of September - Rabbit Season on Mondays and Duck Season on Wednesdays. And while I've certainly gotten stronger, am getting back to where I was at my strongest this spring, and am on track toward my goal of reaching "good" levels of strength by April 1st, it's worth noting that there has been no beneficial transfer over to my jiu-jitsu that I can identify.
Mostly that's because getting stronger is taking the place of improving conditioning. While it is true that it is preferable to get your conditioning on the mat if your primary activity is jiu-jitsu, it is also true that if you aren't getting to the academy as frequently as you'd prefer (i.e., 3-4 times a week), then relying on training to improve your conditioning is a recipe for frustration and failure.
The wife of one of my teammates - the rare teammate who is older, smaller, and senior in rank to me - once gave me a great piece of advice I've been resisting ever since. She said, essentially, that at our age (meaning my age and her husband's) we need to train for jiu-jitsu, instead of treating jiu-jitsu as training.
This means, without making too much of it, we need to treat everyday training with a mindset - and skillset and bodyset - not too unlike that of a competitor. At least if we're planning on jumping in the "everybody grab a partner" deep water of 30+ minute Live Training or Open Mat. Again, I don't want to overstate it. But I do want to focus on what works for those in a situation that may be similar to mine: a sea turtle swimming with the tiger sharks.
More on what this means later. For now, I'm adding a post-training conditioning routine that's served me well in the past. I'm trying to work up to the equivalent of at least 120 minutes of cardio spread out over three or four days each week in addition to the strength training (live jiu-jitsu will count here BTW). This is what Joel Jamieson of 8 Weeks Out categorizes as the minimum for high-level maintenance conditioning when trying to improve strength. This post-training conditioning routine, plus 90-minutes of LSD/treadmill work at my gym down the street, should do the trick.
So here's the program. Repeat as a circuit three to five times after Live Training/Open Mat.
Sprawl Counter to Front Bear Hug Over the Arms / Leg Block and Takedown Counter to Headlock from Front Bear Hug / Lapel Wrist Wrap Set-Up for Baseball Choke from Side Control / Kimura Trap from Side Control
Escape from front bear hug under the arms / Securing reverse side control after losing underhook during guard pass / Taking the back counter to mount attack
One of my goals with weight training is to reach an estimated combined total of 1,080 pounds in the squat, bench press, overhead press, and deadlift. This is the classic "press one plate, bench two plates, squat three plates, deadlift four plates" mark of "advanced intermediate" distinction that everyone who lifts has heard about. Ideally, I'll accomplish this at a bodyweight between 148-152 lbs.
I spent the first three months of the year focusing on strength gains and learning the basic lifts. It turned out to be more like three and a half months - including two, 20% deloads (!). Going forward, the idea is to spend half the year focusing on max strength (October - March) and the other half on conditioning (April - September).
Truth told, I anticipate peaking in August (the same month as the Seattle Open and the Master Worlds, btw) and using September largely as a transition month given the seasonal pick-up in my life at the Daily Planet. But the general idea holds.
My strategy will be to return to StrongLifts 5x5 training three days a week, which was very effective during my initial strength cycle earlier this year. My goal is to rep 105/145/200/235 for a rep total of 685 by the end of October. This would restore me to near where I was in late April at the end of my last strength phase (105/160/210/245).
From here, I want to switch to Russian Strength-Skill training over the balance of the year as a skill-enhancing/staging phase. Then, in 2018, I'll go back to StrongLifts 5x5 in earnest for the 90-day push to a rep total of 835 (135/175/230/295) by the end of the current strength phase in late March. Based on the Epley 1RM formula, this would give me an estimated combined total of 973 pounds in the Big Four after two strength cycles.
If all this goes as planned, I'll reach my Press One Bench Two Squat Three Pull Four goal sometime during my third strength cycle from October 2018 - March 2019.
Kata Garuma (fireman's carry) drill / Headlock escape with shoulder roll / Headlock escape turn to knees / Side mount to guard recovery / Side mount escape to turtle control
Twelve years ago today, I participated in my first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament. I was 38, with three and a half weeks of training under my white belt.
Maybe you've been thinking about competing in a jiu-jitsu tournament. I competed at local BJJ tournaments at every belt level until I earned my black belt. I was a "win-one, lose-one" competitor until purple belt, and never won a match at brown.
In my first five or six years of training, there was a good sized cohort of us who always competed locally - particularly the Revolution tournaments. There was no pressure to compete. But it was fun to train for the tournaments and the camaraderie among the unofficial GB Seattle competition team (basically anyone from the school who competed at any given event) was real.
I have no idea what it is like these days for the over 35 crowd competing locally - though I note that masters/executive divisions are appearing more frequently than they used to. But I'm a big proponent of participating in BJJ tournaments regardless - at least as a white and blue belt.
Part of what makes jiu-jitsu so appealing is its realness. The fact that we get to actually practice what we preach rather than just waving our arms and legs in the air or, as Bruce Lee famously observed, striking objects that do not strike back, is game-changing for anyone whose has had a lifelong affection for the martial arts. And that makes BJJ competition - again, from this perspective - a must do.
So my recommendation is that you get some. Even if just a little bit. Over time if not immediately, I'm guessing you'll be glad you did.
Standing grip break: two-hand grip / Standing grip break: one-hand punch / Grip break to single leg / Grip break to single leg to X-pass to leg drag / Grip break to single leg to X-pass to leg drag to side control to knee on belly to mount
+
King of the Hill Specific training (guard/pass guard)
Double leg twist takedown / Standing Guillotine / Counter to Standing Guillotine / Keylock from Mount / Armbar from Mount Drill / Lockflow: Standing Guillotine + Pull Guard to Pendulum Sweep to Keylock or Armbar from Mount (T)
updated 8/22 Monday
Noon BJJ
If no Noon BJJ, do Conditioning Training Tuesday
PM BJJ Wednesday
Strength Training Thursday
PM BJJ Friday
Strength Training Saturday
Noon BJJ
If no Noon BJJ, do Conditioning Training Sunday
Off
Today marks the first day of my thirteenth year in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
I've kept pretty immaculate training records at least since 2009. I've got records going back to 2006, but they aren't as complete. Maybe combined with the blog I could build a fairly accurate training record going all the way back to day one. Something for retirement, maybe.
The quantitative nature of the record is great for perspective. Sometimes you feel like you are training at your very best and can't put your finger on why. Then you look at your training log and realize you've been averaging four classes a week with more than two hours a week of Live Training alone. Other times, you feel like nothing is working, your timing is off, your cardio is weaker than it should be given your off mat conditioning program or improved diet or whatever. Then you check your training log and figure out that your four-week training average is under 2.0. No wonder you're struggling. You aren't training enough to feel like you are making progress.
Progress-making. White belt edition.
It's also good for understanding the impact of life changes on your jiu-jitsu career. I look at my peak training years from 2009 to 2013 and it is clear that working from home and not traveling 4-6 times a year was great for my jiu-jitsu development. During those four years, I averaged 3.3 training days a week - something I can't even imagine now.
The four years since have been rougher. My average is down to just below 2.0, even with a pretty strong finish in the third quarter (my training year runs from August to July since I began training in August). But I do have a new, more realistic training goal to shoot for now. I realize that a lot of my frustrations on the mat are tied to not having significant amount of my game "top of mind." I have to "remember" things, which is a poor use of time when you're in the middle of training.
So the first goal for my thirteenth year in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is simply to make sure I show up, on average, at least, eight times a month. The move to Kent hasn't made it easy to slip in a quick nooner here or there. But I don't see myself taking seven business trips out of state in a year again any time soon, either. I've got other tools to help take care of technical issues (see BUG report). And as for the 80%, so to speak, I've just got to keep an eye on the numbers and everything should take as much care of itself as it can.
The second goal is to return to basics. Sometime during the last two years I've become a little disassociated with the jiu-jitsu that got me here. And over the past several weeks, as my training frequency has increased (four-week training average is up to 2.75 and will hit 3.0 on Saturday for the first time in more than 11 months). I've had the opportunity to see - and begin to repair - some of the gaps in my game, especially w/re2 the guard. Most recently, I've gone intergalactic planetary for a little specific study and have not been disappointed. I've got drilling to do, to be sure. But I feel increasingly at a good place from which to make some major improvements to my main squeeze.
Third is strength and conditioning. I've experimented a lot this year and decided to spend half the year focusing on strength training and the other half of the year on conditioning. Every expert I've consulted suggests that you really can't significantly develop both at the same time. So from October through March, the focus will be on getting stronger. From April through September, the focus will be on getting leaner and more agile. I'll be using variations on the Russian Strength-Skill routines in both instances, in all likelihood. More on that to come.
Lastly, w/re2 lifestyle, I'm thrilled to be walking around at a natural IBJJF featherweight level (149 lbs). This was a major goal at the beginning of the year and I'm very happy to have reached it by now. I'm a little undecided about pushing it lower. I'm trying to let a clean diet and regular training take me where it does and right now, that may be lower - potentially as much as 5% lower - than where I am now. There's no competitive advantage. IBJJF light feather is 136, which is what I weighed in high school, and given the muscle mass I've accumulated in the 30+ years since, I don't see myself in the 130s in any way. But I could see an instance where I am around 140-142.5 or so at my most lean in late August/September, before beginning a strength phase that would add 8-10 pounds of muscle over the next six months.
That's the view from here. It's been a helluva ride these twelve years on the mat, and I'm looking forward to at least twelve more. Funny ... I've got Fight to Win Pro 44 on the iPad to my side and I'm remembering back when I started training how much of a rare treat it was to see ADCC every other year at Budo Videos. We've come a long way as a jiu-jitsu community, and it's something all of us should be grateful for and proud of.
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