my Arte Suave

WOD: strength…then conditioning

warmup

Planks 90 seconds then for 60

weird squats where i have plates underneath my feet and i grab my toes and squat up and down while holding my toes on the plates elevate my feet at my heels. for 10 reps

Plyos/Hurdles to warm up 5 rounds of:

5 hurdle jumps (20 inches)

single leg hurdler jumps ( 8 inches)

5 Rounds of:

Cleans X 3 

planks with arm raises X 5 each way

We did 145 LBS cleans

i am getting stronger! This used to be a bit of a challenge starting out.

3 rounds of:

Split leg squat X 10 each leg

Over head presses X 20

2 rounds of:

glute ham drops x 10

pistol squats X 5 each leg

shoulder band extentions x 10

band press (core) x 10 each side

After all that…SPRINTS!

I rested 3 minutes after I was done with the last circuit before I went into sprints.

400 yards

300 yards

200 yards

100 yards

50 yards x 4 with 15 seconds rest in-between

i feel fantastic. Could hardly open my eyes after the sprints.

I WILL BE A WORLD CHAMPION!

Weights, Periodization..Becoming stronger.

Since beginning I would train, train, train…and when I got tired…I would train some more. Ok Im not sure why I wrote that, because it is still like that ‘til this day. But What im getting at is ‘Periodization’. What is Periodization? Periodization is not so much a method as it is a template into which a method is placed. Periodization is precision pre-planning (The Purposeful Primitive, 133). Initially it takes fighters 8 weeks to get ready for a fight. So typically the conditioning is brought up slow and incrementally. So you can see yourself getting stronger on paper. I am not doing Periodization for the purpose of any particular tournament or event, instead im doing it to get strong overall for the long run. To break it down even more. Essentially I am writing things down and keeping track, I am planning my workouts weeks out. I am doing for 4 week intervals. Right now I want to become stronger, I want to lose fat, and build muscle. I am not really sure what weight I will fight in the future. I know I’ve always wanted to be a heavyweight champion. And i think that heavyweights can a great advantage in being big enough to fight the BIGS of the tournaments but nimble enough to fight the smalls.


What am I Pre-planning with? I am planning to get really strong with compound strength movements so im using a series of olympic lifts with a barbell. I am loving snatches, cleans, power cleans, push presses, a series of deadlifts, and a series rows. I am even doing bench presses. And in my warmups with my bar complexes ( I will explain bar complexes later), I do even tricep extentions, bicep curls. Bar complexes are an excellent warm up with just the 45lb bar and an excellent stand alone workout if weight is added. 


I am also using plyometric stuff, like explosive pushups, other variations of pushups. 


You can also use periodization for a lot more workouts like running to improve times. I am basically going to add 5-10lbs to whatever I was doing each week. Its going to be a good time.


Other things I will be doing is running more frequently. 194lbs bjj division is sounding alright, but I like i like to eat =) and be happy. 207.5 is easy, and I havent felt that anyone was super strong. I have foguth some buff guys and have done well. So I will see how the weight comes off and decided where I will fight for the Nogi pan ams. I will come down incrementally.


There is a lot going on in this post. I will do another blog in the week about Bar Complexes, and workouts, drills and how my BJJ is going. I want to couple that post with a video of some sort. I have so many ideas and would like to help others achieve their goals. It will motivate me to stay on top of things. So be on the look out for mini instructional, workout videos, and vlogs.


Current weight: 204lbs

No Mundials this year…not all is lost.

It hurts to write this. But the things that I thought would happen, whether they be financially or things just not going the way I needed or wanted them to, didn’t go through for me. I waited to see if things would change and they did not, and its cool, I am not too butt hurt over, it just means I will be that much more prepared for next years World Championships. My goals are to become a black belt world champion, to re-enlighten anyone who reads and from now until then I feel i have to fight the toughest guys I can fight, go through more hardships en-route to the top. And right now fighting blue belts in California is not the toughest fights I can fight. And honestly for anyone who thinks I dont want to be great, be a world champion; last year for the worlds and the pan-ams, I essentially went broke twice trying to fight and gain the experience I thought i needed to accomplish my future goals, this year I am not willing to do that. Competitively speaking, a NAGA would be better because I would be allowed to fight up in level, Grappler’s Quest makes more sense because its the best regional tournament and I would be able to possibly fight black belts in the advanced nogi division.
I have few sponsors, and little help, I would still have to make up a majority of the expenses.

Other then the no mundial tid bit, I do have good training news, and future projects.
For one, my guard passing has been getting better and better each week. Guard passing has been my project for about 6-7 months! I havent really prioritized anything else. I have had little side projects or just minor things to work on. Tim has been helping me tremendously with angles and little details that would fit into any guard passing system. I am just amazed everyday.
Some details about passing are:

1. Ignoring some grips when standing up in the closed guard. Because sometimes you break your own posture for the guy on bottom. 
2. You cannot ignore a grip on your collar ever. I just am already been doing that, but some grips are ignorable.
3. Passing to the left is cool, but passing to the right will definitely throw some opponents off guard.
4. My guard passing drills are super important to my being able to be relentless when it comes to the pass. If you are not properly conditioned, you will tire when you want to compete or in the drills at school. I know I can push longer because of them.

In shape…?

Boy did I think I was in shape. WRONG! Today I took my act to Brown Stadium (Brown University), and did some hurdles with some sprints. In there i added some kettlebell work, with some jiujitsu related movements, as well as some isometric holds on the ropes plus pull ups,.. I did 3 rounds. I was going to follow that up with a leg workout involving the bleachers and some body weights and some kettlebell work. But I opted not to this time homies. Go ahead and laugh, I am not sure what it is, but I felt great fighting all those fights in all the tournaments doing the routines I did at my bjj academy. I know that the future holds super tough competition, and with that comes the need to prepare and train like a mad man. Right now I will push my level of cardio to the max, or what I feel that is. Usually that feeling involves seeing stars!

From now on, its on! 3 times a week cardio! With some strength movements involved. I am going to need the help of people for this though. Im talking piggy back rides up the stadium steps, resistance runs, guard pass drills, man I am going crazy!

I will write and let the blogospere know how its coming.

In other news. My finals are almost up and just in time for the Mundials! And with that, I will begin training a few times a week with Abmar Barbosa at his school and with Dan Simmler at his school to get some different feels before the Mundials. Its going to be fun! I hear Renan Borges (BTT Blackbelt) will be training with Abmar prior to the Mundials. So i might get to train with him, and I also hear that there will be other black belts in attendance too! Not to mention Abmar has some good purple belts. I hope I can help them as much as they’re going to help me. Last day of finals is the 12th!

IM PUMPED!

current weight: 203

Time to machine gun the competition!!

“the beatings will continue until moral improves..”and boxing

Funny quote from the military days!
You know how you love jiu jitsu so much and your training day in and day out..twice in my case. And your beat down, like every roll will be a battle of inches no matter who it is…and its only Wednesday!! Its been this way the last few weeks. Nothing but tough guys around my way. People are turning the corner, getting better! Its refreshing and brutal at the same time! When im tired going against some really good blues, and the purple brown and black belts, i really got to focus on where im gripping, “am i tight enough here?”, and your window of opportunity closes faster, so everything is harder, the difficulty increases. Did i mention 3 conditioning sessions per week ?

Who else but Jiu Jitsu people would love this kind of self torture !?

Anyway I believe I focus on bjj 120%..I took 5% and Put it in for some boxing on Sundays. Im just getting used to getting hit and what not. The mentality that full contact fighters have is also something im interested in. Anywho here is a picture from my first day of boxing afterwards, with one of my good training partners Luis. I got a good workout in after getting punched in the face for a few rounds. Ropes, core, and a great sweat followed.

Training..GQ up next..

Its been a while since my major step forward at NAGA in the Purple belt division. I remember my first time competing at blue, it was a big deal for me and i think i treated to much like it was a big deal. With the purple division I didnt feel anything, just competing and sort of felt that as ‘coming of age’ sort of thing. Im learning internally that jiujitsu is jiujitsu everywhere you go. Your either proficient at jitsu or its something else. I think my fight versus Top Black Belt Abmar Barbosa, really prepared me for all things coming my way. I learned so much from that match its amazing!! Im looking forward to more competitions against high level opposition.