When Training Goes Right (Athlete Journal Entry 18)

Having two injury-free training weeks in a row was not something that was looking likely in 2014, but it finally happened. I started rolling harder, lifting more, and dialing in my diet.

Sunday got my week off to a good start with a hard and fast-paced competition drilling session. I’m planning on adding another drilling day into my Brazilian jiu jitsu training. This will put me at four days a week with BJJ and three days with weightlifting. This is about as many days as I can train without interfering with family time, school, and personal training obligations.

Monday I also got some good news. I learned that our competition team has changed names and we will now be competing under Round Table BJJ. I was hoping that I would be able to compete before the New York Summer Open in July, but that doesn’t look too probable. My weekends are pretty full from now until then. Two of the weekends in June I will be on vacation in the Outer Banks, so if anyone knows a gym where I can do a couple days of weightlifting, please let me know.

My weightlifting went great again. Now I’m on week four of a twelve-week program and this week I will start to go heavier. Heavy cleans, heavy presses, and heavy Romanian deadlifts. I would say heavy squats, but I am easing my way back into them. This falls in the “I know I shouldn’t, but I just have to” category. I’ve had a groin injury for the last two years and back squats have become pretty painful. I switched to front squats, which was an easy transition, especially with Olympic weightlifting, but now my knees are starting to bother me. So now I will slowly work on getting my back squat stronger and hope for the best.

My diet is also looking good. I’m working hard on getting my body composition right and not worrying about how much I actually weigh. Right now I weigh 218lbs and am consuming about 3,700 calories daily with a macronutrient ratio of sixty percent carbs, twenty percent protein and twenty percent fat. I noticed I was consuming too much fat at lunch time, so I cut some out there and I added some more carbs to my post-workout meal. Now my post-workout meal consists of 110g carbs, 50g protein, and 3g fat. This should help with my recovery after workouts. At this stage in my competition career, recovery is the most important thing.

Sunday – BJJ

Competition drilling

Monday (AM) – Weightlifting