zart's log (strength/mma/bjj)

[zart]

8/3:
Seminar with a black belt. Practiced opening and passing the closed guard and half guard. Also did some techniques from closed guard.

9/3:
BJJ
Repeated the guard passes from the seminar and after that we did some positional sparring from closed and half guard.

11/3:
Switched lifting program, felt bored with my old one.

Wednesday:
Box squats 5x3
Bench press 3x5
OHS 3x6
Pullups 3xF

Friday:
Box squats 6x2 (light and explosive)
OHP 3x5
RDLS 3x5
Pullups 3xF

Sunday:
Deadlifts 3x5
Dips 3xF
Step ups 3x6
BORs 3x5
Reverse lunges 2x6

On to the weights today.
Box squats 5x3 105 kg
Bench press 3x5 62,5 kg
OHS 3x8 20 kg
Pullups 1x6, 1x7, 1x9

Box squats were a little bit under parallel and quite explosive. Lacking flexibility in my shoulders and hip for OHS, hopefully it will come soon.

BJJ
None of the trainers were there so we rolled pretty much all the time. It feels like I've hit a plateau and maybe even lost some of my skills. I'm not able to do anything against anyone, atleast it feels so. The same thing happens in every round. I pull guard, try do to something and eventually get passed. He gets side control and I'm flat on my back and (a) have to turtle. He takes my back but I manage to get back to his guard or (b) he mounts me, I bridge and end up in his guard. I pass him and get to side control and he puts me back in guard and ends up sweeping me.

Haven't got any submissions or sweeps (except from half guard) for a long time now. But today my half guard wouldn't work either.. Last year my guard felt great and I was able to sweep and submit people all the time. Just have to suck it up and keep on training:icon_twis

 

[zart]

13/3:
Box squats 6x2 80 kg
OHP 3x5 40 kg
RDLS 3x5 110 kg
Pullups 1x9, 2x8

15/3:
Deadlifts 1x5 135 kg, 2x5 115 kg
Dips 3x9
High step ups 3x6 40 kg
BORs 3x5 65 kg
Bulgarian split squats 3x6 w. 15 kg dumbbells

During my first set of deadlifts it felt like I rounded my back of the ground. I think my hips raise before I start to lift the weight, so I worked a little bit on the technique. Step ups were hard as hell balance-wise. Next time I do them I'll bring my non-working leg to parallel against the ground when I stand on the box for some extra balance work. The power rack was being used at the end of my workout so I did some split squats instead of lunges.

Some things to work on:
* Not rounding my back in the deadlift
* My right leg isn't as strong as my left, gotta fix it
* My abdominal strength is insufficient (atleast I think so)

 

[zart]

18/3:
Box squats 3x3, 2x2 107,5 kg
Bench press 3x5 65 kg
Overhead squat 3x6 20 kg
Pullups 2x9, 1x8
Bulgarian split squats from a deficit 3x6 32 kg

Box squats didn't feel good at all today. A lot heavier than last time. Guess it's just one of those days. The rest of the workout felt better. Almost flexible enough for OHS now

Won't have time to train BJJ tonight. I have a lot of homework and I'm taking the most important test of my life next week, so I have to study. Hopefully it will grant me access to one of the best schools in the world

 

[zart]

Been training about five times since the last time I updated. I've had a lot of things to do in school but now I'm free for 1,5 week.

3/4:
RDLs 3x5 115 kg
OHP 3x5 45 kg
Pullups 3x9
Walking lunges with dumbbells 3x6 35 kg
Barbell russian twists 3x5 30 kg

 

[zart]

5/4:
Deadlifts 2x5, 1x4, 1x1 135 kg
Dips 12, 11, 10
Reverse lunges with a front squat grip 2x6 45 kg
BORs 3x5 67,5 kg
Finished with three sets of barbell rollouts, plate pinching (two really big 5 kg plates, really hard to hold on to with my small hands) and some rear delt flyes.

Great deadlifting technique (atleast I think so). Unilateral stuff still feels very weird. My left side (read glute) barely gets tired while my right side burns like hell. Also I'm still struggling with balance.

Note to self: do as many exercises as possible without facing a mirror. Technique feels a lot better.

 

[zart]

Started a new 3x5 routine to boost my squat a little bit before dropping back to the latest routine.

9/4:
Squats 3x5 90 kg
Bench press 3x5 67,5 kg

Got a headache and left.

11/4:
Squats 3x5 92,5 kg
OHP 3x5 42,5 kg
Pullups 2x8, 1x7

I felt weak during all exercises and had to drop the weight for OHP.

 

[zart]

15/4:
Squats 3x5 95 kg
Bench press 3x5 70 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 130 kg

Got a headache again. Probably something with my blood pressure since I felt better when I laid down and bent over.

 

[zart]

16/4:
Rolled and taught some basic positioning and movements to a couple of friends who just started BJJ. Trained in board shorts and a t-shirt and felt a lot more mobile and explosive than when training in a GI. If they stick with it we'll buy some mats so we can drill and roll more

Afterwards I ran some short intervals (20-50 seconds) with a lot of rest inbetween.

 

[zart]

17/4:
Squats 3x5 97,5 kg
OHP 3x5 45 kg
Pullups 3x8
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x6, 1x5

Good technique and I felt strong. Got a headache today again..

 

[zart]

19/4:
Squats 3x5 100 kg
Bench press 3x5 72,5 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 132,5 kg
Turkish get ups 2x2 16 kg kettlebell
Rear delt flyes 2x8 8 kg
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x7

Felt some lateral hip shift during some of the squats, probably due to the bar being bent and therefore unevenly loaded. My shoulder stability sucks, I have to struggle hard to keep the kettlebell overhead during the get ups. I'll keep doing them every other workout for stability (and a little bit of core strength), but right now I don't feel like they're working my core at all so I'll do some extra rollouts at the end of every workout.

 

[zart]

20/4:
BJJ
Drilled double leg takedowns and half guard -> taking back and half guard sweeps. Afterwards I did some light rolling with my friend who just started.

22/4:
Squats 3x5 102,5 kg
OHPs 1x5, 1x2 47,5 kg
Pullups 2x9, 1x8
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 2x7

I have to focus more on the concentric phase on the squat. The first two sets were pretty slow and hard, but during the last set when I thought about the concentric phase already during the eccentric I was a lot more explosive. Pulled a muscle in my upper back during OHPs so I couldn't continue.

 

[zart]

23/4:
Rolled and drilled a little bit for 1,5 hour with my friend. I worked a lot on hip movement from closed and open guard. Afterwards I did eight tabata intervals on a stationary bike.

24/4:
Squats 3x5 105 kg
Bench press 3x5 75 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 135 kg
Turkish get ups 2x3 12 kg kettlebell
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x8

25/4:
Drilled the hip bump sweep and rolled for 45 minutes with my friend. Tried to not use my arms while on the bottom and it worked out pretty good.

 

[zart]

26/4:
Squats 3x5 107,5 kg
OHP 2x5, 1x3 + 2 push presses 47,5 kg
Pullups 3x10
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 2x9

Good workout today, especially considering my lifestyle this weekend. Friday evening I got stoned, had some snacks and didn't eat much at all. Yesterday I had some drinks and missed a couple of meals.

Knees buckled in a little bit on some of the squats, dunno if it's because my stance is uneven (atleast it feels like it is) or because I don't focus on pushing my knees out enough.

 

[zart]

27/4:
BJJ
Drilled double leg takedowns, armbar from guard and an escape from turtle. We continued with some positional sparring from closed guard and I won every round (woho!). Felt like I had good hip movement. Afterwards we rolled for one round. I faced the used-to-smell girl (fortunately she had washed her GI this time) and tried to just relax and move around a lot.


28/4:
Just some hip mobility drills and shrimps.

29/4:
Squats 3x5 110 kg
Bench press 3x5 77,5 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 137,5 kg
Turkish get ups 2x3 12 kg kettlebell
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x10

Great workout. My knees only buckled in once (as far as I noticed) this time, which is good. Might have to lower the deadlift weight a little bit the next time I do them since the squat is heavier now.

 

[zart]

1/5:
Gym was closed, no workout.

2/5:
Drilled armbars, kimuras, guillotines and hip bump sweeps from guard. My friend is having trouble moving his hips for the armbar and I've tried to explain how to do it but he doesn't quite get it. Do you guys have any useful pointers for it?

After the drilling we rolled for about 45 mins. I'm still working on my hip movement from closed and open guard. I've been hitting armbars, omoplatas and triangles without using my arms at all (nothing to brag about since my friend is just a newbie, but still).

So far I've taught my friend (or atleast tried to, he's a little bit impatient) shrimps, bridges, how to escape from mount and side control, hip movement from guard, the double under pass, kimura from various positions, proper posture in guard and some closed guard submissions and a sweep. I've been trying to focus on hip movement but he wants to do submissions so I've been mixing them up.

3/5:
Squats 3x5 112,5 kg
OHPs 1x4 50 kg, 2x6 40 kg
Pullups 3x8
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x14, 1x12 <- WTF?!

- Squats were quite bad today and I figured out why right after finishing my last set. I've been raising my chest up before sucking in air into my stomach which makes it really hard to fill it with air. Gotta do it the other way around next time.

- My first set of OHPs was really sloppy and hard so I lowered the weight and focused on technique.

- Pullups sucked, I never increase on them. I'm able to do ten one workout and the next workout I'm back to eight, bah.

- Ab wheel rollouts were a piece of cake today, probably because I didn't use my abdominals enough during the squat.

 

[zart]

4/5:
BJJ
Drilled taking the back from half guard and a sweep if you were blocked by an overhook. Positional sparring from half guard followed, and I did pretty well. I'm happy I used a mouth guard cause I had to eat a pretty hard spinning heel kick right over the mouth and my lip was bruised for a couple of days. I also managed to hurt my foot (which've been hurting on and off since I did frog jumps a couple of months ago) so I skipped BJJ this wednesday.

6/5:
Squats 3x5 115 kg
Bench press 1x5 80 kg, 2x5 75 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 140 kg
Turkish get ups 2x3 12 kg
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x14

- Still not getting much air into my lungs during squats. Feels like a sudden stop when I try to inhale. This causes my squats to be slow. I'm having no problem at all taking big breaths during other exercises.

- Bench press was a little bit too heavy and I had to lower.

- Good deadlift form, but really heavy.

- Increasing the weight for the get ups next time, my shoulders feel a lot more stable now.

8/5:
Squats 3x5 117,5 kg
OHPs 3x5 45 kg
Pullups 2x8, 1x9
Ab wheel rollouts from knees 1x16, 1x14

- Still having problem with inhaling enough air. The reps were pretty explosive anyway.

- Good form on the OHP.

- Pullups still suck...

- I'll try to do standing ab wheel rollouts the next time. Hopefully I won't fall down and hit my nose right into the floor

 

[zart]

Had a bad weekend. My girlfriend told me that she's unsure about her feelings for me and I've felt like shit and been having a hard time eating and sleeping. Worked out yesterday anyway.

Squats 3x5 120 kg
Bench press 3x5 77,5 kg
Deadlifts 1x5 142,5 kg
Turkish get ups 2x3 16 kg kettlebell

Wasn't able to inhale enough air once again.. Otherwise everything felt good.

From this week and on I'll have friday as a light day.

 

[zart]

12/5:
BJJ
Continued drilling half guard sweeps and taking the back. After that we rolled for a while and my arms hurt like hell. I think I've got biceps tendonitis from squatting (again).

14/5:
No gym, had a bad stomach and didn't want any embarassing accidents.

BJJ
Drilled the elbow escape from mount and bridges+shrimp from under side control before class. During class we drilled the hip bump sweep combined with kimuras and gullotines and passing from half guard. Did som light rolling afterwards and elbows felt fine.

The trainers haven't been there for the whole week and it's not the first time this happens either. Sucks pretty bad..

15/5:
Squats 3x5 122,5 kg
OHP 3x5 47,5 kg
Pullups 3x6

Felt like I finally got some pressure building up in my stomach during squats which is great. Pullups sucked, partly because of the bar being really slippery. I'll start doing barbell rows instead of them.

 

[zart]

My girlfriend broke up with me five days ago and since then I've lost 3 kgs of weight and haven't slept well. I dream about her all the time and when I wake up I feel like shit and can't fall back to sleep. Today was the first workout since last thursday, and I felt weak.

Squats 2x1 125 kg, 3x3 105 kg
+ A lot of power clean technique

I was reeeeally weak, but that's not strange considering diet & sleep... Hopefully I will regain my strength pretty fast.

 

[zart]

22/5:
Squats 3x5 110 kg
OHPs 3x5 40 kg

Just a quick workout today since I haven't got my energy back yet. I'll work up to 125 kg in squats again, adding 5 kgs every workout.

Today's D-Day, going to the cinema with my ex and afterwards I'll try to convince her to give our relationship another shot. I've prepared a little speech about how we always did the same things and that we have to mix it up a little bit to find and keep the spark. Wish me good luck!