2024 - 03 - 18

If you put more pressure through a small sink, you still get a flood. A big sink with no pressure is pond — it sucks at movement and stagnates. If you need a place to start, it’s hard to argue with hips and grips.

Summary:

This week started and ended with a focus on mobility. With one lung-ripping session early in the week. That combination felt more productive than several moderately un/comfortable (Level 2) sessions in a row.

Grappling continued to focus on inside heel hook breaking mechanics and isolation. The specific emphasis for me was pinching the toes, hard, with my bicep and armpit with a heavy side-arch.

Getting to work some power (Olympic lifts) near the end of the week was also fun and productive. Time-limiting the session was also a good way to make sure loads and volume stayed moderate (though I did set a PR) and true to the session’s intention.

Contents:

• Monday: Free Fall Program 006 - Recovery / Mobility
• Tuesday: Free Fall Program 005 - Hard Training (Capacity / O2 Mobilization)
• Wednesday: NoGi BJJ - wrestling sit outs / triangle escapes
• Thursday: NoGi BJJ - inside heel hook breaking mechanics
• Friday: Free Fall Program 007 - Power
• Saturday: NoGi BJJ - inside and outside heel hook breaking mechanics
• Sunday: Free Fall Program 006 - Recovery / Mobility

3/18/24: Strength (Mobility), Level 1

Intention:

Free Fall 005 prescribes “hard training” with the directions to “take a rest day if you’ve already been pushing hard”, so I skipped ahead to “FFP:006 - Recovery.” Here the movements were kept relatively simple, but the range was stretched slightly to discomfort with a light load and moderate volume.

Warm Up:

10 Min Air Bike (easy)

10” Reverse Step Up: 2 x 25
10” Negative Straight-Leg Deadlift: 2 x 10

Work:

Cossack-Lunge Flow: 25x
24” Step Up and Over: 25x
D-Ball Get Up (technical): 25x
Bent Over Scap Row: 25x

Result:

Negative DL: 12 Kg KB
Get Up: 30 lb. Ball
Scap Row: 45 lb. bar (reverse grip)

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
I wasn’t feeling particularly beat up, but I knew that the down payment for hard training is recovery. So, using this session to address some movements in a mild manner (versus CARs or very high range movements), the moderate ranges and volume were a nice active recovery.

What didn’t work and why:
I kind of planned this session on the fly which is not ideal because leaving ourselves subject to our emotions in the moment often leads us astray; it gives us a way way out rather than accountability.

Plan for next time:
Tomorrow is scheduled for hard training. Get after it.

3/19/24: Capacity, Level 3

Intention:

The goal here is to go hard and as with my overall intention of this program I want to steer such “build sessions” towards O2 Mobilization and Endurance. Since “hard” endurance by nature takes time, this was a short lung-ripper with the goal of making respiration the limiting factor rather than acidity build up or fatigue resistance.

Warm Up:

AirBike: 50 sec easy, 10 sec hard

• 30 sec dead hang
  *add 5 sec to dead hang per round and repeat until failure

Work:

For Time:
AirBike x 150 calories
EMOM, get off bike, do 1 x Burpe + Box Jump (24”)

Result:

Warm:
Peak at 93 RPM (858 watts), Grip failure at 4 rounds

Work:
12:50

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
From a planning perspective this was right on target. Initially I had written it accumulating burpees, but this worked out better since I would have hit a dead end (ran out of time to “work” on the bike) with such a volume of a complex movement. Hence, movement would have been the limiting factor rather than oxygen uptake.

What didn’t work and why:
Other than leaving my lungs on the floor, this session went pretty well; except where noted above, a more simple alternate movement might have worked better.

Plan for next time:
As I’ve talked with others, you know you accurately targeted ‘“O2 Mobilization” when you have a smoker’s COPD cough for the rest of the day after the session.

3/20/24: Sport, Level 1

Intention:

Here I wanted to work out some details I’ve been reviewing for tomorrow’s class on inside heel hook breaks. Kyle’s class focused on armbar / triangle escapes and wrestle-ups.

Warm:

~30 minutes drilling 50/50 and saddle heel hook breaking mechanics

Work:

~30 minutes positional sparring from bottom referee’s position and escaping triangles.

Results:

I almost marked this session as Level 2, but the volume wasn’t quite there. There were one or two hard rounds from standing / wrestling position, but the others were all fairly moderate which made this a pretty even training session — hard enough to break a sweat, but easy to recover from.

3/21/24: Sport, Level 1

Intention:

In today’s class I wanted to review to inside (50/50) heel hook breaks we did last week and move on to other inside (saddle) leg entanglements and start applying the same concepts and principles to outside leg entanglements as well. However, most of the class was new, so we repeated the 50/50 class and stuck with inside positions (50/50 and saddle).

Warm:

50/50 foot pummeling

Work:

Review 50/50 breaking details:

• isolation (above and below): using weight distribution and torque
• breaking mechanics using: leverage, rotation, and either compression or extension
• emphasis on toe-trapping and creating rolls

Apply same drills / movements to saddle position (also inside heel hook)

Results:

What worked well and what allowed it:
Magically, we had no injuries. For the 100th time, heel hooks are not more dangerous than any other submission. The difference is in how you teach them. What you fear will almost certainly come back to bite you in the ass. Teach your students to respect their partners and the power of what you’re teaching them.

What didn’t work and why:
I got some feedback from one student that I glossed over the different inside positions too quickly so they were kind of lost when I told them to secure a break and transition their legs to a different pin / entanglement. In that respect (student was also present last week) it was a good idea to repeat the material this week and add another position with more detail and clarity.

Plan for next time:
In addition to passive drilling, I typically incorporate a lot of play (~10% resistance) and have been making use of “an empty barbell” metaphor — e.g. “we’re given enough resistance to know when we mess up, but not punished for the mistake.” This can escalate a bit further to ~40% in sparring which also keeps the focus on learning and applying rather than “winning a practice round.”

3/21/24: Power,

Intention:

“… Search through the training sessions on the app or website and find a session that has a focus on explosive movements, prioritizes rest, and includes movements that you can personally express with a high contraction rate.”

Warm Up:

Run 10 min

5 reps each:
Snatch Grip Press (behind head)
Overhead Squat
Drop Snatch + OHS
Tall Muscle Snatch + OHS
Contact Power Snatch
Hang Power Snatch

Work:

EMOM/20
Power Snatch + OHS
*add weight each round

EMOM/5
Clean & Jerk x2 (final weight from snatches)

EMOM/5
Clean & Jerk x2 (-10 lbs from above)

Run 10 min

Results:

Warm: 102 cal (treadmill)
Snatches: 65 - 130 lbs (ran out of time at 15 reps)
Clean and Jerk 1: 130 lbs
Clean and Jerk 2: 120 lbs
Run 2: 93 cal (treadmill)

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
I was feeling good with the first 10 snatches and nearing a PR, so I kept pressing and took a little more rest than the prescribed 1 minute. As a result I only completed 15 reps, but did hit the PR.

What didn’t work and why:
From a structure standpoint this session was kind of all over the place. In the second clean and jerk EMOM, the initial prescription from the template I used as for 4 reps / min, but I wasn’t technically sound enough to make that efficient.

Plan for next time:
My power snatches were still sloppy — specifically I need to stay more over the bar before my hips make contact (lees upright) and keep the end of the second pull close to my chest (pull back as you pull up). My bottom position, when starting from an overhead squat is good though. I’ll be interested to maybe do this combination in reverse, starting with an OHS to set my feet and then a power / snatch.

3/23/24: Sport, Level 1

Intention:

I needed this to be a lighter day, so that meant focusing on technical efficiency rather than hard rounds. I had gotten some drilling in, but wanted to apply what I’ve been teaching (and learning) in a faster pace (live sparring) environment.

Warm Up:

none

Work:

12 x 6 minute rounds

Results:

Density: 60%
*New calculation: 12 rounds * 6 minutes each = 72 minute of movement; 72 / 120 minutes session total = 60% active.

Focus: 25%

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
Really emphasizing “biting” the toes with my bicep and armpit for heel hooks has made my breaking mechanics much more efficient.

What didn’t work and why:
For better and worse, I’m a pretty good teacher, so my students and observers learn pretty quickly — in this case that meant more difficulty than I should have had on the feet.

Plan for next time:
A rising tide lifts all ships.

3/24/24: Recovery

Intention:

“Use the sessions filter to navigate to a session that is interesting, increases blood flow, and works on some aspects of fitness that you rarely have time for.”

Warm Up:

~1 mile walk

3 rounds (NFT):
Shoulder dislocates (band) x 10
Reverse Grip Seated Row (band) x 10
Front Rack Carry x 100m
Bulgarian Split Squat x 5/5

Work:

AMRAP/40:

Deep Squat x 1 min
Farmer Carry x 120m

Support:

~15 min breathwork, sets of:
6-0-6-0 (in-hold-out-hold)
6-6-6-0
6-6-6-6
7-14-7-0

Walk:
Until you hit 20,000 steps for the day (break this up into sets if you want)

Results:

Warm:
Blue SPR Band
2 x 12 Kg KBs

Work:
2 x 16 Kg KBs
15 rounds

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
This was a nice combination of movement and mobility without letting myself off the hook. Attacking grip strength and hip mobility is useful for just about everyone, and the structure in addition to walking ensured plenty of blood flow without having to add additional stress.

What didn’t work and why:
I was somewhat unmotivated for this session, but really I had a hard time making up my mind. I didn’t particularly feel like I needed a rest day now, but if I crashed hard at the end of the week or 3 weeks into a 9 week program, that’s not doing me much good.

Plan for next time:
Take time to plan some slower / easier days. You budget other things in your life. Recovery should be one of them. Choose your hard, plan your rest. Avoid injury.