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training to support bjj

Medium day #3
16kg presses 10' (3, 5, 7)(4)
20kg squats, swings 10' (2 + 10) x 2, (3 + 15) x 3
16kg presses 10' (3, 5, 7)(5)

Still recovering, this was about as hard as the last hard day. Got the sets of 7 though.
 
Starting up a cycle of Reload, doing deadlifts and floor press. Timing is set up so that I can test my DL at the TSC, if one opens up in my area.

Have completed all my tests.

DL: 1RM 310#, 80% 7 reps, 5RM 265#. In the past I've beat the 1RM by 35# and the 5RM by 20#, but I haven't been deadlifting lately so I suppose it should come as no surprise. I did complete a rep at 320# but I don't think it met the standard.

FP: 1RM 175#, 80% 8 reps, 5RM 150#. Again, did a lift at 180# but it was sketchy, so going with the 175# for planning purposes.
 
Reload week 5: Deadlifts

Hasn't been much to report, as I've been just punching the clock on these workouts. Today was the first week 5 workout, heavy day for deadlifts. The first set of 5@265# felt not too heavy, which is a big improvement from a month ago when I tested my then 5RM. Second set wasn't too bad. Third through 5th were real grinds, with 5+ minute rests between.

Floor press day coming up next Monday, 5x5@150#. I expect that will be a challenge, as 145# was tough this week.
 
Reload week 7: floor pess

Still punching the clock. Have now completed all but the final week of the plan, so I'll soon see what this program has done for my 1RMs. Already have new 5x5RMs under my belt. These last couple weeks of the program haven't been much work after all of the 5x5.
 
Get em bru! Those numbers are great. How disgusting does it feel when you are grinding through those heavy sets? Lol. I miss it. I miss the bleeding soul, life tank empty exhaustion afterward. The vague feeling of accomplishment and the stupid smile I get when I whisper to myself “you’re not dead yet son.” Keep after it dammit. Go get it! You can rest when you’re dead. Keep it up. Looking forward to watching your growth... and eventually overtaking it. ;)
 
Reload: done!

Deadlift: 325# felt pretty heavy. Rested and tried 335#, got it an inch or two off the ground and stalled out. 325 is 15# up from my test 8 weeks ago. So, some improvement, but still a little disappointing, as I've successfully lifted 335 & 345 in years past.

Floor press: got 185#, in what I believe was good form. It was enough of a grind that I called it a night there. Up 10# from my highest in-good-form test 8 weeks back, and tied with my best floor press ever. So not a bad result. I had hoped for a little more given that I hit a new 5RM doing the program.

I have a few thoughts on why my 1RMs weren't huge jumps.

First, I was following the most minimal program possible, just lifting twice a week. I don't have a good setup at my home gym to do squats, and I can imagine adding them in would have beneficial effects on overall strength. From that perspective, to make some progress on such a minimal program is nice.

Second, my strength level on these lifts is obviously not that great, and Reload is clearly aimed at the intermediate or beyond lifter. I've made more significant progress in the past on programs like PTTP, Easy Strength, RoP, and Daily Deadlifts, all of which had me training more often.

Time to change it up now. Planning to do a Dan John-style DeLorme with front squats, floor press, row, press, snatch-grip DL, and curls, probably 2x/week for 6 weeks.
 
Like many of the rest of you, I'm intrigued by Q&D.

I've never made it to the Simple standard, despite a few runs at it. Every time I've tried before, I've run into shoulder instability doing the one arm swings with any significant weight, which turns into pain if I push it too hard. I think I know how to pack my shoulders, and I've never had problems with 2 hand swings...

I started back in on S&S last week. As luck would have it, this was after a vacation with a fair amount of boat paddling, something I never do -- and sure enough, it left me with sore shoulders. Not the best condition to start something that has a history of irritating my shoulders, I know.

Have been trying out both H2H and straight sets of 1 arm swings with the 16kg, and even those have been enough to irritate the shoulder.

Now that I'm writing all this out, it seems obvious that I should just stick to 2 hand swings for a few weeks, and then very gradually work in some H2H swings with the light bell. Patience can be a challenge.
 
S&S #6

2 hand 20kg swings: 5x10
16kg TGU: 5

shoulders feeling fine after this. No reason for me to rush to 2 handed swings, or to a heavier bell for the TGUs. In retrospect, I've been impatient every time I've tried to follow S&S in the past. Focusing on owning each step of the process this time around.
 
S&S #7

Helped my brother move the other day. Wouldn't you know, aggravated my shoulder. It felt off on halos warming up, and not great on an unloaded TGU. So, just swings this time. Patience.

2 hand 20kg swings: 5x10
 
S&S #8

2 hand 20kg swings: 5x10
16kg TGU: 5

Shoulder seems to be knitting itself back together. Still a twinge, but much better than the other day. Swings aren't too challenging so I will increase to 7 sets.

I've also been trying out Plans for Building Powerful Pushups | StrongFirst for the last week. Haven't been doing pushups regularly so I'm doing the most conservative option. Hit 8 reps on my test before slowing down, so working sets are 4 reps. Today I flipped heads & did 5 sets.
 
S&S #9

2 hand 20kg swings: 7x10
16kg TGU: 5

Seems like back to back S&S sessions yesterday and today were a bit much for the shoulder, it's sorer after today's session. Will plan to take a week off from TGUs, and then ease back into them.
 
S&S #10

2 hand 20kg swings: 7x10

realized the GTG pushups were also aggravating the sore shoulder. Getting going on the full S&S program is my priority for now, so dropping the pushups for a few weeks at least.
 
S&S #11

2 hand 20kg swings: 7x10
unloaded TGU: 3

back after a few days out of town. Halos feeling better, just a little tightness at one point in the rotation. Went into the session low on energy, and the swings did not feel too snappy. Trying to really ease in on TGUs. 3 unloaded per side seemed fine.
 
S&S 11.5

Was trying to explain to my seven year old today why a person can't sprint all-out for a mile. Ended up pulling out the Quick and the Dead and showing her the graph of energy systems. Halfway through my explanation, she pointed out that the glycolytic pathway was only about half as strong as CP -- she got it. We wrapped up by heading to the park and doing 10 second hill sprints every 3 minutes.

That was enough power training for me today, so just did TGUs: 1 unloaded, 4 with a 20# kb. Felt fine, will try a rep with the 16kg next. Also happy to note that the halos in the warmup felt the best they have in months, so I think the shoulder is coming along.
 
S&S #13 (more or less)

and, the shoulder soreness is back. It's been hard to pin down. I'm starting to think that it's migrated from the back of the shoulder blade more to the trap. Noticed some tightness there on my last set of 2 hand swings, which was a big surprise. I guess it makes some sense that the trap would be involved in stabilizing against the pull of the bell at the top of the swing.

Before getting into swings, I started field stripping my TGU technique. I used to be very confident doing TGUs, and could do a 32kg rep reliably, so it's been vexing to feel like now the 16kg isn't a sure thing. Pulled out my copy of Kalos Sthenos and started in on step one. Right away, realized that I've been neglecting to crush the KB handle. Not even sure now that the TGUs are really what's been preventing my recovery, but if nothing else, I'm glad to have rediscovered that detail.

Have a few days of camping coming up. After that, will keep working through the Kalos Sthenos steps, and probably just do some low-intensity goblet squats, hill sprints, and general mobility for a week or two.
 
Worked step #2 of the Kalos Sthenos TGU today. Realized I've been rushing through this stage and getting sloppy. I'm guessing this step is one of the things that's been continuing to irritate my shoulder. Fried from travel, so called it quits after the TGU work.
 
OK, shoulder was sorer after working the TGU yesterday. Not as bad as it had been, but clearly irritated.
That was after 3 days off upper body training, so I'll take 6 days off until the next session. Looking forward to being able to work the TGU & feel better afterwards.

In the meantime, will work on mobility and lower body. Today, thought it'd be interesting to try some Q&D inspired swings. Ended up doing 4 series of 10/2 two handed swings with the same 20kg bell I've been using for S&S, on a 4 minute cycle. Felt pretty good, and the last rep or two of some series were slowing down a tad, so I think that was the right bell for now.
 
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