BJJ, Strength & Air Traffic Control

[TheJewBear]

25May13

BJJ

Drove 2 hours down to south Jerzey this morning to train at my old gym. It was awesome seeing how the place has grown and how many people showed up today. Lots of familiar faces and it was really great to train with the old crew again.

We had pretty much structured open mat for a little over an hour, and had non-timed rounds. It was extremely exhausting and all the guys I went with (3 blues and my brown belt instructor) are very sharp.

I asked my instructor earlier in the week if he could see what things I need to work on in my game. After rolling with him and after he watched me roll w/ the 3 other guys, he mentioned a few things:

- I played a "sport jiu-jitsu" mindset with him right away. Go-go-go instead of "relax, see what I am doing" (meaning my opponent).

-"Keep your chin down" from getting loop-choked from his open guard.

-My base from half guard is either too wide or too narrow. If it's too wide, it can get underhooked or x-guard can get worked on me and if it's too narrow I can get swept easily. Somewhere in between, find the sweet spot.

-When working to pass knee-shield half guard, get the knee-weave grip and GRIP the bottom pants making a fist into the mat. Use your right shoulder pressure as much as possible and bring your outside knee back and OUT so that when you sprawl, it's a "wider" sprawl and he cannot keep a hook in to "follow" you when you pass.


They'll often try to push your head, and you just push this hand away with your free hand. Then re-grab their head when you come around to pass which will spin them into side control for you a little.

-My guard retention from open guard needs a lot of work. He didn't address this today but I brought it up to him and will be one of the things we work on in the future.

Also, keep a strong wide base when you begin this pass and post your left (free) hand on the mat near their head. One of the instances in which you DO want to post on the mat.

I didn't get a chance to get this too polished up because he had to teach a private lesson, but we're going to set up some privates in the next month and work on some things.

As far as the rolling goes, I had even matches with two of the blue belts my size-ish and went with one bigger blue belt. He had me in bad positions 90% of the time, but I was able to escape from knee on belly directly into a nice knee bar, as well as pass to side and get a tight step-over choke with brabo choke grips and finally a triangle from open guard. He tapped me once with a paper cutter choke from side control. Although I got 3 subs on him versus his 1 on me, I felt like he dominated me on top really well.

Again, long training session and very grueling matches. I have a lot of things to work on!

 

[TheJewBear]

I know how you feel recently man. I've been in such a weird place with grappling, I had a couple of competitions and didn't do as well as I'd hoped, people in the gym were tapping me left right and centre and I didn't feel sharp at all. I've started being more aggressive and conservative while rolling as opposed to trying out wacky low% technique which I've been doing for a while, and focusing on fundamentals.

Haven't wrestled properly in age due to niggly injuries, and there are a couple of guys at the gym who are physically so strong you can't get anything on them, they just stiff arm you off then shoot a crappy double and power through. Kinda frustrating to not have anything when you're putting the hours in.

These peaks and valleys are really frustrating. And totally common. All over sherdog and other forums people talk about these same issues man. It's sort of nice to know we aren't the only ones that struggle with this stuff.

Fuck if it were easy, everyone would be a BJJ stud.

 

[TheJewBear]

26May13

LISS
23 minutes incline treadmill walking

?? hours fasted, 10g BCAAs, 5g creatine mono

BJJ

Open mat; one brown belt, four purples and another blue. Rolled with everyone 2-3 times, 3-minute rounds.

Performed pretty well today. Was even with all of the purples, tapping one with a toe hold and coming damn close to a triangle on another. Tapped the big blue belt with a triangle.

Only one who tapped me was the brown belt (multiple times) and offered some tips. He said I need to secure the underhook 100% when doing the knee slide pass to prevent my back from being taken. If they get the underhook, abort the pass and work for something else or fight for the underhook and re-attempt.

Another thing he mentioned was when he threw an omoplata on me I rolled out of it but he grabbed my leg right away as I rolled over him and locked up a knee bar. He said there are so many leg attacks he could have done from there, and that I should never do that escape from the omoplata. Instead, he said I should roll UNDER my opponent (though they may stop you on top in monkey mount he said) or do another escape that I forget. Alternatively you can simply posture up strongly but if the guy is bigger and stronger it won't work.

Good day of training overall. The style of training between rolling with the purples at my gym here and the blues at my old gym yesterday is very different. At the old gym, everyone has a very low, grinding, crushing style with a good base. Here it's more open and "sporty", which I felt like I had more options to work with and things I could do with my opponents. Both gyms have stellar grapplers, just very different. Brown belts still destroy me at will at either place but I can hang or even out perform with *most* purples now. We do have a few extremely competitive high-level purples who decimate me and everyone else.

Conditioning felt good too. No work tomorrow and BJJ is closed.

 

[TheJewBear]

One thing I've been having a hard time with is z-guard or when your opponent puts up a very strong, vertical knee shield. I can't seem to crush or squash it because it's so vertical. The knee weave stuff doesn't work either I don't think. Something to troubleshoot tomorrow in the absence of mat time.

 

[TheJewBear]

Bodyfat update. Think it's around 12% @ 172lbs. So still have some ways to go before back to last summer's condition. It's a lot harder this time around for some reason but slowly getting there.

On the right is a painting someone made for me as a gift. It's a guy being tossed with a Judo throw of some kind

 

[eastNYgoon138]

Looks like you're getting real conditioned again. IF ? If you're ever on FB, message me, I wanna bounce dietary ideas off each other.

And from the looks of it that's a pretty cool painting. The only art anyone made me was when Babyeater drew a portrait of our dog Smokey....

 

[TheJewBear]

Looks like you're getting real conditioned again. IF ? If you're ever on FB, message me, I wanna bounce dietary ideas off each other.

And from the looks of it that's a pretty cool painting. The only art anyone made me was when Babyeater drew a portrait of our dog Smokey....

Wow, Smokey looks deranged. An abstract rendering I assume

Yeah, IF. I'm hardly on FB but message me on here whenever. Dietary ideas make the world go round

 

[TheJewBear]

27May13

Non-fasted, 5g creatine mono

LF Rows
320x10
300x10
300x10

Weighted Hammer Chins
+45x9
+30x9
+20x9
BWx9

Hammer L-Chins
7
5

Notes

-Was about 1 rep short of failure on every chin sit. Really weird that it turned out to be 4 sets of 9 across instead of some kinda pyramid. My programming is all kinds of fucked up lately though.

-Really can't wait to get to the bodyfat level I want to be so I can start training for hypertrophy and strength. Training in the gym has become so boring lately.


LISS
20 minutes incline treadmill walking

To make up for BJJ being closed today going out for a nice long interval run session. Nice an' sunny

 

[TheJewBear]

28May13

LISS
30 minutes treadmill incline

Notes

-Hardly slept last night so skipped no-gi tonight.

 

[TheJewBear]

Recommend these for PWO nutrition

Blue cheese turkey burgers, not bad for rest days. These didn't really come out too tasty though and the pics reflect them accurately I think. Stuffed with blue cheese and topped with some more and onions, seasoned with s&p and on thin sandwich halves. They tasted as bland as they look.

 

[rlazer5000]

Blue cheese turkey burgers, not bad for rest days. These didn't really come out too tasty though and the pics reflect them accurately I think. Stuffed with blue cheese and topped with some more and onions, seasoned with s&p and on thin sandwich halves. They tasted as bland as they look.

I've had a lot of trial and error with turkey burgers. I've found that the best brand of ground turkey is the Butterball from Costco (sold in like 10 lbs slabs) which has a 93/7 fat ratio. What works best for me is throwing in a ton of garlic pepper and Frank's Red Hot (also got this from Costco). Since you obviously have to cook them all the way through, cooking them on the stove/grill tends to dry them out. I pan sear the burgers on the stove for about 3-4 minutes per side (depending on how big you make them) and then throw them in the oven at 425 degrees for another 3-4 minutes per side. The gf strongly approves!

The fat loss is coming along nicely!

 

[Obscure Terror]

I think it would be worth summarising your IF setup for reference, and how it is similar or different to last time.

IE Feeding window times, macros on training vs. off days and how they relate to your lean body weight.

I'm guessing you're doing the carb cycling version of IF where you eat 40-50% of your cals via carbs on training days - junky carbs or is it a mix?

I'm doing carb backloading which is like next stage IF, only eat carbs after lifting though which is 3x per week.

 

[TheJewBear]

I've had a lot of trial and error with turkey burgers. I've found that the best brand of ground turkey is the Butterball from Costco (sold in like 10 lbs slabs) which has a 93/7 fat ratio. What works best for me is throwing in a ton of garlic pepper and Frank's Red Hot (also got this from Costco). Since you obviously have to cook them all the way through, cooking them on the stove/grill tends to dry them out. I pan sear the burgers on the stove for about 3-4 minutes per side (depending on how big you make them) and then throw them in the oven at 425 degrees for another 3-4 minutes per side. The gf strongly approves!

The fat loss is coming along nicely!

I did use some minced garlic but I can see how the red hot would add a lot of flavor.

Dryness wasn't really an issue I don't think. They were stuffed with blue cheese and they turned out pretty juicy. The main problem was just a lack of fucking flavor. Charcoal grill would have helped and just need to get more spices and things in there. I'll try your suggestions as I do love some Costco.

I think it would be worth summarising your IF setup for reference, and how it is similar or different to last time.

IE Feeding window times, macros on training vs. off days and how they relate to your lean body weight.

I'm guessing you're doing the carb cycling version of IF where you eat 40-50% of your cals via carbs on training days - junky carbs or is it a mix?

I'm doing carb backloading which is like next stage IF, only eat carbs after lifting though which is 3x per week.

Yeah, carb cycling and everything like that. Doing IIFYM so whatever fits.

I'm unfamiliar w/ carb backloading. What are you doing exactly?

 

[TheJewBear]

I'll write out what I'm doing for nutrition real quick before I leave for BJJ now since Obscure asked.

My average energy expenditure is ~2700 calories.

M/W/F I do strength training and eat 2600-3000 calories. High carb, low fat. Protein around 200g.

T/Th/S/Su I'll do LISS/HIIT/BJJ and eat 2200-2400 calories. Low carb, high fat and protein around 200g still.

Fasting windows are stretching pretty long lately. Usually break my fast at 4pm and eat from 4pm until 9pm then repeat the next day. It's really easy since I just chew gum and drink water while at work. My work day goes by really fast because we are so busy so I don't get too hungry.

Weekends are really tough because I'm not nearly as busy with work and have a lot of free time. Plus being out, hanging out with people eating bad stuff makes it a lot harder so weekends often turn into cheat days.

I eat whatever I want as long as I stay within the guidelines of calories and hit at least 175g protein. First meal on a training day at 4pm is around 1,100 calories then the remaining amount in a big meal after BJJ. Then sleep like a hibernating bear.

Strength hasn't really been coming along well at all. I'm getting weaker all the time it seems, although fat loss is happening rapidly. I gain/lose fat very quickly.

If you have any questions lemme know. Most of this is the same as this time last summer so check out those dates for more reference.

Intermittent fasting works really well for everyone who GIVES IT A CHANCE. The hardest part is convincing people that no, your muscles won't shrivel away and you won't die if you don't eat every 2 hours.

 

[Obscure Terror]

I'm unfamiliar w/ carb backloading. What are you doing exactly?

Do a 9 day prep phase where you eat less that 30g carbs per day. Eat plenty of fat. After the 9 days is up you only eat carbohydrates after lifting or the night before morning lifting sessions. You skip breakfast. Carb amounts are 1g/lb to 2g/lb on a backload depending on how quickly you want to lose weight. It works but it's fairly slow and you don't lose strengtrh while being in a caloric deficit. The principle is the resistance training makes your body turn on it's GLUT4 receptors, so you eat carbs(glucose) which are sucked into the muscles and can't be stored as fat. The rest of the time you're burning fat on ultra low carb. It's helped me lean out with slow slow weight loss. Getting down to the stubborn fat and it's fairly easy to comply to. Although I think IF is a more manageable "lifestyle".

And weekends are tough - I moved my schedule around so I can lift on weekends and eat carbs after. Easier to go ULC when you're at work Mon-Fri.

 

[TheJewBear]

Forgot to log yesterday. Did a bench workout and a no-gi session--got my ass handed to me by the best purples and browns in our gym. Woof.

Pulled something in my left glute and it's still aching today. Nothin' much else to comment on. I planned on doing a double, gi session also last night but hunger got the best of me so I bailed. Rationalization.

Abs are poppin' tho )))

 

[TheJewBear]

Do a 9 day prep phase where you eat less that 30g carbs per day. Eat plenty of fat. After the 9 days is up you only eat carbohydrates after lifting or the night before morning lifting sessions. You skip breakfast. Carb amounts are 1g/lb to 2g/lb on a backload depending on how quickly you want to lose weight. It works but it's fairly slow and you don't lose strengtrh while being in a caloric deficit. The principle is the resistance training makes your body turn on it's GLUT4 receptors, so you eat carbs(glucose) which are sucked into the muscles and can't be stored as fat. The rest of the time you're burning fat on ultra low carb. It's helped me lean out with slow slow weight loss. Getting down to the stubborn fat and it's fairly easy to comply to. Although I think IF is a more manageable "lifestyle".

And weekends are tough - I moved my schedule around so I can lift on weekends and eat carbs after. Easier to go ULC when you're at work Mon-Fri.

Interesting. I'd struggle with the run up and even on the backload it sounds a lot lower than LG's high carb days. Sounds really efficient though if you have the willpower. I guess you can combine that with IF though if you skip breakfast anyway.

I love the high carb days on LG while still being in a weekly deficit although I'd wager if I switched to your plan the fat loss rate would increase.

 

[Obscure Terror]

The version is a specific template from the book where you're looking for slow strength gain and slow weight loss, called Strength Accumulation.

There is a version called density bulking where you eat carbs the night of every training day, so say you lift 3 days and roll 3 days you only go low carb on your one rest day. You put weight on and get strong but the fat gain from bulking is slowed down. It's good for maintaining weight after you've leaned out I guess.

Other end of the scale is to do Carb Nite - 1 carb refeed every 7 days. You literally aim for 700g carbs. But not recommended for people who train.

If and when I go back to IF I would do 2 meals a day of around 1200 cals a pop, then add postworkout shake on lifting days for extra calories. Clean carbs in meal 1, dirty/dessert carbs in meal 2.

No way you could do backloading with a longer fast, you need to eat fat during the day so that it's available for fuel in the evening.

My only issue is I go straight from work to the gym, so getting in a preworkout meal around 4pm would be tough as I don't get back from training until 10pmish. Could do first meal at 2pm but then you're only getting a 16/8 fast which is the bare minimum for the diet to work. I always found 18/6 to work better. 20/4 was too much, couldn't eat quick enough.

 

[TheJewBear]

30May13

20 hours fasted, 10g BCAAs, 5g creatine mono

HIIT
Sprints, 12 minutes 1:1 work:rest

Notes

-Conditioning is feeling really good lately. Might go to the gym for some extra LISS in a bit to get some reading done.

Air Traffic Control

-The last 5 weeks my class (me and 3 other guys) have been in simulator training at my ATC facility. It has been one of the hardest stretches of learning I've ever been through.

Prior to leaving the simulator and beginning work "on the floor" with live traffic, you need to pass a 35 minute exam on the simulator. If you pass you continue, if you fail you are fired. That's been the gauntlet laid down for us since day one so we have all known this day was coming.

It culminated today, and I went in and knocked out my evaluation. I was feeling calm and relaxed and had been practicing a lot of mental imagery over the weeks for this day. The problem couldn't have gone smoother. Words can't express the amount of relief we all felt after passing the eval today and knowing we won't be out on the streets. It really was a do or die situation and I'm very happy to have passed.

The real learning only begins on Sunday though...Real traffic is a lot more unforgiving than the simulator. You can't pause it or hit "restart". Just don't let the dots touch.

 

[Jebus Korea]

What happened to Caleb? He's not on fb.