Path to the Black Belt

TheJewBear

Green Belt
@Green
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
1,409
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Stats

29/m
193lbs, 5'9" (EDIT: 4/24/19 208lbs)
BJJ brown belt

Goals:

-Add muscle/get stronger
-Prevent injuries
-Train at least 5 hours of BJJ per week, every week
-Maintain this log and not fall off for years

Mores details:

-Four weeks post-divorce and post-ankle injury. Now is the time to throw myself back into my only true love, Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

-Will be training in southern California for the next couple of years. In the IE right now but relocating to San Diego in four weeks where I'll be training under my jiu-jitsu idol, Dean Lister.

-Dealing with lots of little injuries and one major back injury. Not aggravating these or adding to the list of broken body parts is of massive importance.
 
Last edited:
BJJ 1.5 hours

Pull day strength training

Dry skin opened up a big piece in my middle finger the other day. Elbow tendinitis is keeping me from benching/extending triceps. Incline push ups seem OK for now.
 
1.5 hours BJJ
No-gi; my takedowns are slowly getting better the more I work on them and stop pulling guard like a little bitch.

Shoulder training; still no tricep extensions due to elbow pain. Even chest flyes were no-go.
 
1 hr 15 minutes BJJ

Working on ankle picks and getting the underhook and running into knee taps.
 
Lunges w/ 30lb DBs
Leg extensions
Leg curls
Calf raises
Plank
Hip circles
More lunges

Elbow tendinitis is so painful, I can't even squat with a bar on my back. Waiting it out.

No BJJ today or tomorrow due to work schedule. I work the midnight shift since the beginning of the year, 10pm-6am. Actually hasn't interfered with training much at all.
 
Welcome back i think i used to read your old log a bit.

Pretty heavy for 5'9 already no?
 
Welcome back i think i used to read your old log a bit.

Pretty heavy for 5'9 already no?

Thanks man.

You're definitely not wrong, but I don't carry a ton of muscle. There is a lot of room left to grow.
 
Shoulders

Only side raises, ten sets of fifteen. Elbow tendinitis is getting better but I still can't bench or do anything with tricep extension.

BJJ 1.5 hours

Stamina was in the gutter tonight. After one round with a blue belt I was exhausted, and had tough rolls with a large blue belt and a large purple belt after that. Sleep wasn't the best so that could have been a factor.
 
Rest

Fatigued and feeling beat-up, I figured a day off from BJJ was in place.

Then my phone died while I was asleep and I didn't wake until 5pm (I work nights). Rolled out of bed ready to train legs but the gym's parking lot was so overfilled, I turned my car around and did some errands instead. Lower back (spondylolithesis/pars defect) was sore just walking around, elbow tendinitis is still bad and my recovering ankle was sore. So, an entire day off from all things physical was what happened.

Plan is to get quality sleep tonight (tomorrow morning), train BJJ in the evening and hit the gym for leg training in the late evening (9-10pm).

Going out of town in a few days for a while which will give me a chance to let the elbow and everything else heal up a bit. Going for 5 hours of mat time this week.
 
I forgot to mention that I've been running the SARM LGD-4033 (Lingandrol) for almost 3 weeks now.
 
Legs

Leg extensions
Leg curls
Pike pulses
Hip circles

I was up this morning and could barely walk or get out of bed. Here's some back story.

I injured my ankle in October (yes OCTOBER) after a failed hip-bump sweep. The dude landed on my ankle and it cracked loudly. I was on crutches for two days and for months I tried to get back into training only to prolong the recovery. Eventually, February, I took a ton of time off and did rehab for it. In the middle of March I came back, training BJJ and lifting cautiously.

The other day I did some calf raises and lunges and now my ankle feels like I jumped up and down on that one foot for an hour. It throbs and aches so fucking bad. Today was supposed to be legs and BJJ. Obviously I skipped BJJ and did what I could for legs.

The other issue is my lower back. I woke up and felt like I had done 10 sets of 20 max rep DL's the day before.

Elbow tendinitis has been healing because I have not been doing anything to aggravate it. I'm going to take the rest of the week off from BJJ to let the ankle heal some more. In all honesty, I should really be resting completely to let the ankle heal to 100%. I have not been, and it is not getting better at this point.

Never went into the doctor but maybe a visit is in order. I don't really expect to hear much besides "rest and don't do anything for 2 months".

Mentally, this is tough because a) I want to train in Tucson when I go to visit in a couple of weeks and b) I move to fucking SAN DIEGO in 4 weeks. I don't want to be sitting on my ass any more than I have been since October.


Alright, rant over.
 
I forgot to mention that I've been running the SARM LGD-4033 (Lingandrol) for almost 3 weeks now.
giphy.gif
 
Did 110 pull ups over ten sets and some curls, neck training and grip training.

My body is fucking weird. I woke up in zero pain; no back or ankle discomfort at all. I'm walking around cautiously, taking lots of cissus and joint supplements. Going to go back to BJJ tomorrow and see how the ankle feels. Calf raises are off the menu indefinitely.'

After the gym I went to buy a blazer. I caught a look at my back in the wrap-around mirror and it's fucking jacked. Two hundred chins and pull ups per week is obviously working wonders.
 
Incline Bench

SOHP

Side Raises

Rear Delt Raises

French Press

Working on 3 hours of sleep today. No BJJ due to the lack of sleep and ankle soreness. On the plus side, elbow pain is 95% gone. This was a good workout.
 
Squats

Lunges

Leg extensions

Leg curls

Leg raises

Ankle, elbow and back are doing a lot better. Taking superhero-sized doses of cissus and glucosamine. Back to BJJ Monday night.

Traveling to Houston, Tucson and San Diego in the next few weeks so there will be a lot of sporadic training for a while.
 
One hundred and fifteen chin ups

Curls of various kinds

Shrugs

Neck training

Notes

-Was up for almost 24 hours yesterday and will be up for around the same amount of time today. Shift work is overrated.

-I'm up to 230 chin ups per week now, over 20 sets and two days. I should really try for a max set sometime soon.

-Body weight is around 197. Silly as it sounds, I want 16" arms. Once I achieve that goal I'll cut this body fat. Probably around 19% right now.

-No elbow, back or ankle pain.

giphy.gif
 
Legs

Squats (12-rep range)

Lunges

Leg extensions

Leg curls

No issues here

BJJ (no-gi) 30 min tech, 45 min drilling

Showed up late to class and did two rounds and my lungs felt like they were on fire. Amazing how poor my cardio is right now. Tapped a purple belt with a heel hook and toe hold, and he was about to get me with an arm bar as the buzzer rang.

We stayed after to drill and I worked on SLX/XG stuff, over-under passing, takedown sequences and some guillotine from mount stuff.

Schedule is a little fucked up for a while but I want to get on the mat as much as I can to get cardio back.
 
BJJ no-gi

Cardio is still in the gutter, and muscles are cramping up easily. Grips feel weak. This is what you get for taking so much damn time off.

Got positionally dominated by a large, athletic blue belt and had some good back and forth with a brown belt.
 
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