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Eureka! My weight training epiphany and an awesome video |
Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:17 am
That old bodybuilding mentality of "make it burn" almost killed me. Training to failure on the last set of every exercise was doing me more harm than good. I've always been intrigued by lifting weights and getting results, I figured whatever I was doing was working. People always noted my strength, even when I tried to hide it. I started trying to train BJJ 5 days a week, I've been making it 4. Then to try and make it to the gym had been slowly grinding me down.
I knew I had to trade something. More BJJ and less lifting? It was tough to decide. Then I decided to revamp my rep scheme. I'd been reading up and watching videos on strength training. Stuff that strength athletes do - not bodybuilders. The day I started doing rep schemes like 5x5's and not going to failure my body gladly rewarded me. Apparently, it was what I've been needing. My energy levels shot through the roof - I'm feeling stronger and more explosive than ever. For some strange reason, my cardio and lactic acid threshold has improved as well. I PR'd on my pullups from a dead hang. Completely counter intuitive, I know. I still kind of do pull/chin-ups to failure (last set, no weight) along with dips, but everything else is heavy and low reps - short rests and never to failure. It's amazing. Another funny thing - I noticed I've gotten leaner too. I'm guessing I was perpetually overtrained.
If you're currently doing lifts to failure - I say try cutting back. Also - try throwing in a week or two of low reps on everything. Cut your gym time in half. Just try it. It's tough to resist that last-few-reps-burning feeling and that pump you get after. But once you start going heavy, I swear, you'll feel fuller outside of the gym; your glycogen stores wont constantly be depleted.
With that extra energy I've been hitting the Concept 2 rower with a new tenacity. I do 5-7 minute (interval/bursts/recover etc) to warm up and I swear that the last time I got on it the resistance level was busted. So I switched rowers, same problem. It felt way too easy.
I think all of this lifting to failure is great for some people, mostly for roiders or certain athletes. But for someone training BJJ - we're constantly reaching our lactic acid threshold (burning out muscles)! It's really easy to overtrain.
embrace your inner underdog!
If anyone has anyone has any questions about what I'm doing, or what I'm eating, feel free to ask. I didn't want to turn this blog into more of a rant that it already is!
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It's not all flower sweeps and flying armbars... |
Thu May 27, 2010 11:30 am
"flow with the go" -Rickson Gracie, Choke
There are two situations in BJJ where you have to hustle and the gentle art gets a little bit scrappy.
The first one is taking the back. Unless you're gonna go X-guard and come out of the back door, taking the back involves hustle. Arm drag, or exploiting a bad/late whizzer involves a little scrambling. When that little window of opportunity comes up you have to go-go-go!
The second one is grip fighting. If someone has your back you have to FIGHT for grips. This is a time where you're not going to have a one size fits all gameplan. Grip fighting is a game within a game.
Is someone sprawled out on top of you grabbing lapels? Grip fight! You can't let them establish solid grips, lest you be submitted! I noticed with all of the blackbelts I've ever rolled with, regardless of how effortless their game seemed - there are certain things they'll NEVER let you do (unless they're working on that specific part of their game) and one of them is establish threatening grips. When you see two high level BB's rolling, pay attention to the emphasis they put on hand placement and the subsequent attempts to remove a grip.
Every so often I'll notice a flaw in someones game that I'll repeatedly exploit - usually a training partner. I always try to find the nicest and tactfull way to tell them how I'm exploiting this flaw, and what they can change - maybe even getting a second opinion from the teacher; I always appreciate it when someone has a helpful critique.
Recently I was rolling with a fellow blue, and he kept letting me get him in a bow and arrow. It wasn't like I was doing a flashy fast bow and arrow, I'd take the back, fake a couple other subs, get grips and bow and arrow choke. It seemed like he was trying too hard to "flow with the go" like maybe he was trying to execute his moves effortlessly and smooth with perfect technique - I matched his pace from the beginning, of course. But even when he stepped it up - I was still doing the same things. I told him about my theory on the pretty Jiu-Jitsu and the times when you have to fight. To this day I haven't been able to get any gi chokes on him, which in turn makes me better - cause now I have to step up my cleverness, which evidently, is near impossible. Kidding 
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