This IT band is worrying me. I've had it bad before and I know how much worse it can get. Yes I'm foam rolling and stretching it and doing my lunges (well, sort of, I need to do more). It's not debilitating yet, but I need to get this puppy under control now before it worsens.
Great party at my house Saturday night for the UFC card. I don't have a big place, I have been in our modest house for over 10 years now. So when we get a big group together we're pretty packed in, but it's hella fun. I thought the card was kind of lack luster until the main event. In case no one read the comments in post fight blurb, I thought that they should have kept the title with Frankie Edgar. It was one of those too close to call fights, and in those kind of fights, you always leave the title with the champ. With that said, Bendo won, but Frankie should get an immediate rematch.
Most know I'm a Rampage fan, but I think it's time for Page to think about hangin em up. No one wants to bang with him. So everyone just ties him up, and makes a boring fight of it. Even Jon Jones literally ran across the ring from Page everytime the fighting got close. When everyone knows you hit harder than everyone else at 205, but you have other declining skillsets, you become a 1 dimensional fighter and the losses will start to pile up.
I'd like to see Page get his ass in real good shape and go out with a win. I became a Page fan because of his heart and courage over in Pride. I'd like to see him restore some of that with a couple of great closing fights where he doesn't seem like he's already looking off into the sunset.
It's amazing to me, the fervor that people will defend training methods and diets with. I mean, really. People getting bent out of shape about the fact that some people don't like a training method or "diet", is the very fucking definition of absurd. If you like a diet or training method, and it works bomb-diggity for you, AWESOME. That's fucking more fabulous than Unicorns sprinting through a forrest of trees made from Twizzlers while gummy bears fuck gummy worms. Just don't show up barking like the bitch dog that you are, about how stupid everyone else is for not following your lead. Everyone is going to make their own decisions about how they will train and how they will eat. You don't have the market cornered on training and diets, nor do you have empirical knowledge of diet and training for everyone on the planet. So have a big tall glass of shut the fuck up juice, and stop. Dogma is the preferred weapon of the weak willed and emotionally pillaged. I understand that you need to defend your diet or training strategy like your eternal soul depends on, but.......well nevermind, it doesn't. Just have that glass of shut the fuck up juice about it.
With that said, I still can't believe people still want to talk about weak point training.
Or how a raw guy should do box squats and board presses.
Does anyone think for themselves anymore?
Movies - Watched Killer Elite last night. It was just ok. Nothing super engaging. I never felt like the pace took that notch up. It felt kind of rushed in some ways. Still a decent flick to watch, just not what it could have been.
I'm not even going to write about how bad my diet has been on the weekends. That's the one bad thing about me staying home. I lounge around and I eat and eat and eat. So I really have to show some control from here on out. I was 244 last night. I know how this goes with me. If I don't stop, I'll be 254 in two weeks. Shit is getting under control starting NOW. Boom. I'm up early writing this and will get in cardio this a.m. and bench tonight.
I'm going to be getting an excerpt from the book on here this week. It's one I think will help everyone tremendously. Talks about programming and how you really need to be programming your phases. When I wrote the strong-15 I knew how each phase was supposed to phase, especially based on openers and seconds, and what I needed to hit in the last phase but NOW I have have it down to a science.
Short and sweet on this Monday. I am up early writing like crazy on the book.
jackson was already looking off elsewhere before this last fight paul. he has an offer of a film part that he needs to bulk up a lot for, and was making arrangements for that with trainers, nutritionalists etc in the weeks leading up to the fight instead of dedicating himself to fight prep. no wonder he missed the weight by so much - which btw is really unprofessional!
ReplyDeleteg
Actually Page had a knee injury that sidelined him most of his camp. He was told to turn down the fight but refused. So for a large part of camp he was unable to train properly. I personally think he should have turned down the fight but he wanted to fight in Japan.
ReplyDeleteEither way, Quinton was a beast in his prime and had the attitude of taking on the best and was never scared. Dude has been through some shit. Will always be one of my fave fighters.
This is my first time posting, and just wanted to let you know how well your Big 15 has worked for me. I have gotten much stronger over the past 5.5 weeks. I am just about through week 6 and wanted to know if the 7th week's rest is a must or just a good guideline. I am planning on jumping on your year long challenge, and was going to use week 7 to get a gauge on my 1RM's. Good idea? Bad idea? Doesn't matter either way? Thanks again for all the work you put in here, your programming is legit.
ReplyDeleteJohn
If you want to have a testing week that's fine. Just take a few days off before hand to make sure you feel fresh.
Delete" I have been a legit 6% before and I was 202 pounds (at 5'11") and I was running 40 miles a week, biking, swimming, and lifting."
ReplyDelete-you don't remember the weekly breakdown you did during those 8 months do you? Not really progression, but days you lifted, days you swam, biked, and ran- how you "split" it up I guess. I'm preparing to be a SWCC after school if life takes me there and this just caught my eye.
JR - Some of it yeah.
DeleteEvery morning was 100 push ups and 100 sit ups right out of the bed. I mean literally, roll out of bed and do 100/100.
Lemme see some things I remember.
Monday - I would do my fast run. This started out as just 1/2 a mile. Then over 8 months I worked up to doing 3 miles as hard as I could. My time was almost always around the 21 minute mark or a little less.
Saturdays was my run for time. So I didn't care how far I ran I just ran for a certain period of time. I started at 15 minutes the first few weeks and over those 8 months I worked up to running for 2 hours each Saturday morning.
Wednesdays - I did interval running at the track. I started off with just a couple of 1/4 mile runs. Eventually I was doing 12-16 1/4 mile runs at 90 seconds each (or less) with 2 minutes rest between each one.
I lifted and did calisthenics everyday. The lifts I kept doing were squats, deads, bench, and overhead (duh). I did a shit ton of dips, chins, and push ups and all sorts of various make you throw the fuck up ab work.
I did a lot of circuit training with the dips, chins, push ups, and bodyweight squats.
Eventually I was in such shape that nothing I could do would make me tired. It's pretty awesome to feel that way. I plan on revisiting some of that after this meet. I am going to get shredded and in my best shape since then.
Oh I forgot to add, I swam three days a week and on Sundays I would do a bike ride. Usually just like 20 miles or so. Nothing major. Swimming was usually 500-800 meters.
ReplyDeletePaul, I finished the strength phase of your Ultimate Beastdom program this last weekend. If you want the loooooong low-down, you can see it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://ontheapron.blogspot.com/2012/02/ub-strong-review.html
But the short version is that I set Rep PR's in all 4 lifts. I had my biggest results in the Pull, which is probably my best lift anyway, so no surprise. I also set projected 1RM increases in the Bench and Squat. I missed that in the Press, but I shot for a 10 lb., 5 Rep PR, and I think I should have only gone for 5 lbs. I went back through my log, and found that my press was going up when I was doing OH extensions, and dropped off when I stopped doing those. So even though I didn't reach my goal, I think I learned something valuable there. I also developed a nagging mid-back strain that I think is from deadlifting, and I think that points to the need to do more rowing (this program had no rowing, and I hadn't been doing much beforehand either). Hopefully another valuable lesson. Additionally, I set weight and rep PR's in Chins, Dips, and Front Squats. All in all, I met some good goals, and think I learned a lot either way. Looking forward to starting the Conditioning phase this weekend. As always, thanks for putting all this out there for folks!
Looking forward to the new book, dude. Glad to hear it's coming along - sounds like you're really enjoying the writing process!
ReplyDeleteThe writing process is always the best part for me, no doubt.
DeleteThanks for the extensive write up Nils, and offering up the goods and bads of the program.
ReplyDeleteI think you're spot on about a lack of rowing and that was something I did for a long time (excluded rowing) because I hated barbell rowing so much, and because I felt like at times, too much heavy rowing that wasn't a supported row, overtaxed me.
Paul, sorry I may have missed something, was all that conditioning in preparation for the military?
ReplyDeleteGood shit. I like it. If you google SWCC PTG...that's what im loosely following. Stuff you did is almost spot on to what those guys have written as a guide. Did you ever think you weren't recovering enough? Because of all the calisthenics, lifting, swimming and using your legs so much, etc. There's a ton of overlap training for stuff like this. I'm 21 so I'm not that concerned but just wondering what your experience was with so much shit going on everyday. Thanks for the input man, good to have a contact that's run this type of animal before
ReplyDeleteI know what the SWCC guys are. That's awesome shit.
DeleteI broke myself in slowly. So I never felt like I was overtrained really. Once you get into that kind of shape, it's kinda weird. Nothing will make you tired. I also remember only needing like 4.5 hours of sleep once I was into prime shape.
I do remember hitting 300x30 in the squat and doing shit like behind the neck chins with 100 pounds for a couple of reps, and doing 25-30 reps in the chin pretty easily. It's a weird deal. After the 300x30 in the squat, I was back to 100% in like a minute. Legs were wobbly but my breathing was normal in a minute or so.
After this meet I want to get back to some crazy conditioning stuff for a while like this.
What kind of food did you have to or choose to eat when you were conditioning like that? In order to...how do I put this...not shrivel up and disappear?
ReplyDeleteThis is coming from someone with no military background, so forgive me if I ask dumb questions.
I was pretty limited on the food too. I remember low carbing it for the most part to take the weight off, and then eating like a god damn mad man every Sunday. I mean like until I hurt and couldn't move. LOL
DeleteSo basically like that. I can remember this......
breakfast - 5 whole eggs with turkey sausage
snack - protein shake in water
lunch - tuna salad
snack - protein bar
dinner - meat and veggies
that's it
On the weekends I remember eating whole loaves of peanut butter and jelly sammiches and cookies until I hurt.
Interesting. Thanks Paul.
DeleteHi Paul, what do you think about this?
ReplyDeleteI’m doing your 2012 Challenge program and I’m in the week 8.
I started pressing behind the neck for 3 sets x 5 reps with 55 kg (120 lbs) in week 1, slowly add reps and in week 7 a hit a big PR : 3 sets x 8,8,10 reps with 55 kg (120 lbs).
This week (week 8) something weird happened to me: my strength collapsed and I hardly did only 3 sets x 5 reps with this weight.
Marius
Chalk it up to a bad day man.
DeleteFoam roller on the IT band - surely PVC or a rumble roller would hit the spot better ?
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI could use some guidance with my deadlifts.
Every time I slowy cycle up into the 405-435 range(for about 5 reps or so), I just tank. Then it seems to become one bad deadlift day after another, where my performance will actually regress. At this point I'll drop the weight back a bit and cycle back up to that range, only to hit the same wall again. 400+ for reps is decent for someone my size (im a lightweight @ 175) but of course I want to continue making gains.
Throughout my entire lifting career I've prettymuch only trained Deadlifts with Either 5x5 or 3x3-5 Reverse pyramid style. Do you have any ideas for rep/set schemes to get things moving? Right now im considering shaf's ladder protocol, simply because its much different than anything ive tried before. Also, I own both of your books (ran big-15 with good results, havent tried Strong-15 yet).
Thanks
-Joe
Ya Paul i'm gonna agree with 1369 Phil about the rumble roller, i got one a couple months ago and it's amazing. the first few times using it, it hurts just to put your weight on it but it grinds shit out like none other. A solid investment.
ReplyDeleteWill invest in one this week.
DeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteThe rumble roller is awesome, but here's something else you might want to look into. I've had some IT band issues and I found somatics helpful. Here's a move specifically for the IT band, but a lot of the somatic moves are useful for other things (look around on the site). http://essentialsomatics.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/why-it-band-stretches-dont-work-and-what-will/
RyanH
Thanks man. I'm actually starting to think this is my hip flexor.
DeleteThe TFL which connects to the IT band is a hip flexor.
ReplyDeleteRyanH
I actually did that exercise this morning. No pain at all. When I do hip flexor stretches/movements I have pain. I know pain can be radiated but I am pretty positive this is just the hip flexor.
DeleteTry the second exercise on the video here for the iliopsoas and see if it does anything (it may not the first time you try). Somatics exercises may take a few tries before you notice a difference. After doing a group of these exercises a few times (not the ones in this video), I was amazed at how loose my hips felt, no tension at all.
ReplyDeletehttp://essentialsomatics.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/piriformis-syndrome-pain-relief-part-2/
RyanH
Will give it a shot Ryan. Thanks.
DeleteHi Paul
ReplyDeleteI have hip pain for a year or so - IT band, TFL, piriformis, groin, medial glute. I rate the rumble roller along with LAX Ball rolling but the best thing I've done is look at mobilityWOD.com. Search 'desk bound', 'sitting' etc and you will find loads of videos. I've been picking one or two at a time and keep using those things which are effective for me. I can honestly say I am sitting here as pain-free as I've been for a year. Also, there are videos which show you how to roll more effectively which definitely makes a difference.
Hope that helps
Dan
Another endorsement. I will pick one up then.
Delete