29 September 2019

1. Unloaded pushups:

• 2 green bands - 100 reps

2. Unloaded chins:

• 2 green bands - 20 reps

New routine testing. In Q&D there was the mention of a study on wrestlers from an Iranian-American-Estonian collaboration. 

The link to the abstract is here: Physiological and performance changes from the addition of a sprint interval program to wrestling training. Intervention group did six 35 meter sprints at maximum effort with a 10-second interval between each sprint. That constituted a set. During the first week they did 3 sets, resting 3 minutes in between. Each consequent week they added a set with the same 3 minute rest. 

They did this twice a week for four weeks. At the end of the study pretty much every parameter in the intervention group improved: VO2Max, time to exhaustion etc. 

Neither the authors of the study nor Pavel noticed one serious shortcoming of this study: these guys were wrestlers, while everything was tested using lower limb movement, either on a treadmill or stationary bike. Cycling and running are alien to wrestlers, and so in this respect they can be considered untrained individuals. It would be a different result altogether if after the sprinting study their ability on the mat improved to the same degree. Or at least if there were tested on arm ergometers. 

So I am going to try this experiment. I will be "sprinting" with KB jerks and see if there is any change in how I feel on the mat at the end of four weeks. I will follow the same template as in the study. Here we go:

3. 2 x 16 kg jerks. 

• 5 reps/10 seconds rest x 6 
• 2 sets (I think the first one was only 5 "sprints")

This is hard. Did only 2 sets. Well, I have room to progress. 

27 September

2 BJJ sessions (30 min and 1 hour)

26 September 2019

1. Stationary bike ride - 35 minutes

• distance - 12.05
• calories - 180
• average HR - 127/min

 2. Unloaded pushups:

• 2 green bands (3 cm)
• 50 reps

Increased the unloading - managed more reps

23 - 24 September

One hour BJJ sessions. The last one pretty intense - 18 minutes of sparring in total.

23 September 2019

1. 30 minutes stationary bike ride.
Distance - 11 km
Calories - 165

Interesting thing about the calories. According to the Polar app I burned 270 kcal, according to the bike computer - 165. I suppose bike computer may be more accurate as it measures mechanical variables. As opposed to the Polar that extrapolates heart rate to metabolic rate. I don't know.

2. Chins, 4.5 band: 12.

22 September 2019

1. MR pushups 4.5 cm band: 30
2. MR chins 4.5 band: 10 x 1 set

New routine

I am starting new endurance routines. MegaRepeats by Dmitry Solkolov. This guy is a personal coach and has Youtube channel: Дмитрий Соколов тренер по ОФП. Yes, regretfully it is in Russian, but I will explain things along with my training log.

MegaRepeats (MR) are the way to improve endurance. It is the opposite of Escalated Density Training (EDT). I will illustrate these methods with the goal of 100 pushups.

Typical EDT progression would go like this:

• 10 sets of 10 reps (I would probably need to build up to this)
• 8 sets of 12 reps
• 7 sets of 15 reps
• 6 sets of 17 reps and so on, until 1 set of 100 reps.

In EDT you would probably time the rest and tweak combinations of sets and reps, but the idea is to do the same work in less time. 

MegaRepeats use unloaded reps. You do pushups with the help of a rubber band of a given resistance hung from a given height, like in the pictures below. 

You position yourself in such a way that the band is somewhere under the lower part of the sternum - this way it doesn't interfere with pushups too much - and off you go. (I am alone at home and cannot do the photo of me actually doing the exercise; next time). You start with 50 reps and gradually build up to 100. You have to have good reserve, 20 - 30 reps, at the end of the set. Once you can do 100 reps you switch to lighter band and rebuild from 50 reps. I think Dmitry's method calls for one set of a given exercise per workout. 

So today was my first attempt at this method. I have had injured right shoulder for a few months now and haven't done much pushing for quite a while. I also have been sick with bronchitis for more than a week So today I overestimated my abilities. It is a shame, but I could only do 30 reps with the thickest band I own. 

Pullups - same band, 10 reps in good tempo, not too fast, not too slow. Fuckity fuck! Again! Anyway, something to work for. 

The summary of the session. 

1. MR puchups with thick band, zero slack from the bar: 30

2. MR pullups with thick band, zero slack: 10 x 2 sets

3. Q&D, 16 kg - 5/4 x 1 set/arm