Bye Bye In and Out Burger and Chuck Norris

Finally my trip to LA has finished. What on paper was only a short five day trip has seemed to of lasted a lifetime. Looking back I must admit that I've had a blast. I have made new friends and experienced the likes of the Thai Elvis, In and Out Burgers, Hollywood, Mexican breakfasts, getting lost in the Hills, explored Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset, bought new clothes and even managed to get a couple of decent exercise sessions in. I'm happy that I nailed what was a very tricky show to do on EVS and did some things using Timeline mode that I hadn't done before. My two exercise sessions in what was a very spartan 'gym' at the hotel were good. In both sessions I resorted to Ross Enamait's No Excuses workout, it takes ten minutes to acheive and is intense.


I'm hoping that doing the Oscars will become an annual thing. I'm feeling quite comfortable with that particular area of LA and I'd love to get back to the Japanese Sushi joint I found on my last day there. Anyway, now I'm back and I'm fighting the jet lag it's time for me to get back into being a fitness and BJJ freak. I'm going to pick up the ETK Minimum routine at the start of week three and try to lose some of the fat I must of gained eating all that stuff in the States. Bring it on!

Arrived on a Jet Plane.. and it's raining.

Welcome to LA! Bill Hicks used to say that LA was 'Hot and Sunny everyday'.. LIAR! It was pissing it down when I got here. Oddly enough I met some of the Catering crew off the Cricket on the plane who were going to Texas for a few months. We had arranged to meet up in the Kings Head pub in Santa Monica but it was just too much of an effort for little old jet lagged me, I went to see the Thai Elvis instead!

I'm feeling fat already, I'm full of sugar and fat and it's only been half a day. Breakfast beckons and then does the gym..

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well here I am at Heathrow Airport ready to fly to Los Angeles in an effort to cover The Oscars for SKY. I've gotta be honest I'm predicting a total farce of a production! Still I'm in good nick after a reasnoble nights sleep no doubt aided by my lack of internet access boring me to death. The picture is of me post breakfast in one of those swanky looking lounges that provides rather naff food.

For the last couple of weeks I've been taking a ZMA like substance by Reflex Nutrition. Over the last year or so I've taken a large array of supplements of different kinds in an experiment of what works. I'm now of the opinion that overall most of them do so little that I doubt I would notice any difference. As I have mentioned earlier I have been aware of my Testosterone levels for a while, I never realised that there was a problem until reading Mike Mahler's advice about the importance of T and using the simple 'Morning Woody' test to monitor my T levels. So currently all I am taking is Reflex's ZMA-a-like and the occasional Reflex Growth Matrix shake. My mood has been very good and positive since starting ZMA, plus my sleep has been good. I was struggling to sleep well before and I now rarely stir. As for 'Morning Woodies'... it's all good. ;-)

4kg of hurt

Well, I have to say that I have been cruising through the ETK Minimum course so far using my 16kg Powerseeker KB. That was until today. I have a new member of my collection, it's a Kettlebells.co.uk 20kg, it's very shiny since it has been epoxy finished and is deceptively heavy for it's size. Anyway, I thought I'd raise the bar in my ETK routine and give my new toy a spin (or a swing). Phew, it was a lot harder, just at extra 4kg but I felt it. More importantly though, I had to concentrate on my technique more and keep my core locked in. Somewhere I read from Mike Mahler that by lifting heavier KBs you are forced to apply better technique, you don't have much choice. Todays routine was the 12 minute session with 30 reps of swings between one minute of active rest. I'm not looking forward to the 40 rep routine looming after I return from LA next week. That's gonna be tough. Gonna have to nail it though so I can get to the 50 rep week. This pain is good though.

Hotel Room BJJ©

Just thought I'd share a few moments of what happens whilst abroad competing. Never one known to be shy, here's a picture of Luke (blue belt) being hassled by Braulio Estima (European & Pan Am champion) in an inpromptu Hotel Room BJJ© fight overseen by Gracie Barra Director John 'Papa' Gormon. Points are scored in Hotel Room BJJ© just like regular IBJJ competition with the exception of six extra points being awarded for using any item of the room's tea & coffee set for a submission.

I'm a fair guy though so I should include this pic of Luke scoring two points against Braulio. Knowing Luke like I do I'd not be surprised if he has got this picture framed next to his bed. Back to the action in the fight, not to be out done by Luke, Braulio sets up a classic Hotel Room BJJ© finish. How did the fight end though?




Showing all of his Hotel Room BJJ© cunning, Braulio catches Luke between two single beds and finishes him with style. Notice how Braulio uses Luke's own coat to keep his super secret submission under wraps. Congrats to Braulio going on from defeating Luke by smashing Xande Ribero in the Absolute Finals!! War Braulio!

Phew! almost half way through the Snooker at Newport. The Kettlebell workouts are going well, I kinda got bored with the 20 swings/1 minute active rest routine early so I upped it to 5 minutes Get Ups, 30 swings/1 minute active rest over 12 minutes and 3x3 ladders of single Clean, Squat, Press and Pull. I'm confident that by performing the Clean/Squat/Press/Pull combination is covering enough muscle groups. I felt it sensible to add the Squat into it especially after the workout stressed how important adding a Pull was. It was a good work out and I'm a little tired now.. bring on the Snooker!!!!!

Half Guard Ideas

As I am not going to be training BJJ this week I'm just reminding myself of my top Half Guard game flow.

Obtained lapel control ->
Head under armpit then sit back with the knee through to break/bait myself out

Opponent obtained underhook ->
Shift to other side, control own ankle. Work pass.
Or go low and grip behind the bum. Kick leg to break it out and pass.

Note to self: Dare to use the knee through, flip sides.

Warm ups

Well, although I hate Pavel Tsatsouline's cringe worthy advertising plus his more than dubious self claims, I am embarking on his Enter the Kettlebell course. Why? quite simply because www.artofstrength.com have released a workbook to complement the Enter the Kettlebell course that organises and structures it in such a way that I would like to follow.

The course itself mainly contains swings, snatches, get ups, cleans and presses. I appreciate the concentration of the basic Kettlebell exercises as much as I dig doing basic lifts like Bench Press, Squats and Deadlifts. It looks like a good regime to become stronger and better conditioned.

What are my goals? At the age of 33 my body is starting to sag and I don't think I have the time and dedication to acheive a great body through bodybuilding. My goals are to become more conditioned in an althetic way that will directly benefit my BJJ and through such endeavour also inherit a decent but not great body. I need to stay under 82.3kg but become the strongest, most flexible and most conditioned competitor in my BJJ weight and age limit.

Achieve :

Functional Strength
Flexibility
Conditioning

I enjoy Kettlebells and that makes me train more. I'm going to get week one and two out of the way before I go to America and then crack on with week three on my return. Let's do it!

An Introduction

I've messed around with Blogs before but I have never quite managed to stick to one for any period of time. Here we go again though, this time it's gonna be different. I've just got my blue belt in BJJ from Braulio Estima and won a bronze medal at the European Championships in the white belt middleweight category.

I'm planning to blog my progression through my BJJ and various fitness programs. Soon I'll be embarking on the 'Enter the Kettlebell' program that will last approx. 3 months. I'm just waiting for my 20kg Kettlebell to arrive. It'll supplement my 12kg and 2x24kg Newitts 'Bells and my 2x16kg Powerseekers 'Bells. Nutrition wise I'm starting a two month course of ZMA and in two weeks time I'll restart a two month cycle of Bulgarian Tribulus by Relfex. I'm 33 years old now and I'm starting to notice the drop in my testosterone levels, so I'm going to do something about it.

Weight wise I'm about 12st 7lb or 79.3kg. The middleweight limit in IBBJ rules is 82.3kg or about 181lbs, so I'm going to have to stay within that limit. Given that I'm going to cycling Creatine I don't mind going over on cycle.

Let's begin!