This week was one of the few good training weeks that I have had in 2014. My chest and my back are feeling pretty good and I don’t have any staph.
I finally got back to drilling hard on Sundays. This past Sunday I had one of the best drilling sessions to date. A couple of weeks ago, our school was fortunate enough to have Brazilian jiu jitsu world champion Marcos Torregrosa teach class one night. He made the trip from California to compete at the IBJJF Boston and New York Open and stayed at our school for a couple days. He ran class just like he does for his own competition team. It was very fast-paced and there was not much talking or doing anything that didn’t pertain to BJJ competition.
The experience changed the way that am going about drilling now. Instead of drilling something for five minutes and performing the technique about ten times while focusing on perfection, Marcos had us drilling the technique for two minutes as fast as possible, focusing on muscle memory more than anything else. I started this drilling style last Sunday and am already seeing benefits. Hopefully the next time Professor Terregrosa is on the East Coast he will stop in and visit again. It was great to have him.
This week we focused on preventing the guard pull and passing de la Riva guard. Since I’m predominantly a top player, this was right up my alley. The last thing I want to happen is for someone to pull guard before I have a chance for the takedown.
Thankfully I had no problems with my first week back in the weight room, and my second week back went even better than the first. I’m continuing to work on improving my strength and power.
I’m also cleaning my diet up even more. Over the last couple of years I have begun to get a little lazy with my diet. This is in big part due to having four kids around the house (which is a problem for most competitors, I assume). A couple weeks ago I was sure that I would go down to heavyweight by the New York Summer Open in July, but now I’m going to hold off for a little bit. I want to see where I can get my body composition after readjusting my diet.
After reviewing my diet, I noticed that after several years of not paying close attention, my ratios have gotten all messed up. I was around 45:30:25, carbs:protein:fat, so I got it to more like 60:20:20 now. This has always seemed to be the best ratio for me. I can keep my energy high and my body fat low. In a couple weeks I will reevaluate my diet and body weight and see if I need to make any further adjustments.
Sunday – BJJ
Competition Drilling
Monday (AM)
Weight Lifting:
- BB Cleans- 82.5kg 4×4
- DB Bench Press- 90 lbs 4×5
- Overhead DB Ext.- 65 lbs 3×12
- Core Work
Monday PM – BJJ
Addressing guard pulls and de la Riva
Wednesday – BJJ
Butterfly Guard Counter
Thursday – Weightlifting
- BB Squat- 320 lbs 4×5
- BB Row- 145 lbs 3×12
- Hammer Curls- 3×12
- Core Work
Saturday – Weightlifting
BB Complex (65kg, 67.5kg, 70kg)
- Hang Clean x4
- Push Press x4
- Speed Squat x5
- Romanian Deadlift – 105kg 4×5
- Trap Bar Shrug- 95kg 3×12
- Towel Pull-Up- 13,12,10
- Core Work
James Kearns is an active Brazilian jiu jitsu competitor and also trains and competes in Olympic weightlifting.Follow his journals here every week.
Photo courtesy of D-Kline Design Photography.
