The 4 Hour Body Revisited

          I'm pretty selective about which public figures I endorse, however, Tim Ferriss has long since won me over for a variety of subjects.  Last May, in preparation for my first amateur boxing match I read, and implemented the strategies in Tim's book "The 4-Hour Body."  For a quick rundown of the book you can also check out the "cheat sheets" on this website.  The "Slow Carb" diet prescribed in the fat loss section of the book got me into great shape for my fight.  I have since gone on to experiment with different diets, not because Slow Carb didn't work, but because I'm constantly experimenting and trying new things.  Hence, the "open source" nature of my athletic and nutritional endeavors.
          I recently re-read the book and have spent the last few days ironing out and tailoring the principles and plans prescribed therein to my individual schedule and needs.  In previous posts I've mentioned a "sticky" diet, which is basically a 3x5 notecard on which I write a summary of my current diet and stick it to the microwave, refrigerator, or somewhere in the kitchen where I'll see it frequently and use it for a quick reference.  Below are some of the things I've included on the notecard this time around:

Slow Carbs:  Beans, corn, peas, lintels
Proteins: Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Fish
Vegetables:  frozen and fresh, green and calciferous

Sample Meal Plan:
Breakfast - 1 Whole Egg, 80g Liquid Eggs, 80g Fresh Veggies,
          SUPPLEMENT:  3 tablets Orange Triad, cinnamon w/ coffee
Lunch - Slow Carbs 200-220g, 4oz Protein Source, 80g Fresh Veggies
Mid-Afternoon - Same as Lunch (Frozen Veggies instead of Fresh)
1-2 Hours Pre-Workout - Slow Carbs 200-200g
Post-Workout - Same as Mid-Afternoon Meal
         SUPPLEMENT:  3 tablets Orange Triad, Green Tea
Late Meal - Same as Mid-Afternoon Meal
Anytime Snack - 40g Nuts

Procedures:

• 90 seconds of constant exercise on training day mornings (4x per week)
• 5 min cold shower every morning (brushing your teeth in the shower helps take your mind off the shivering - also, to get the most out of this process I refrain from my morning coffee until my body has warmed itself back up after getting dressed but not with any external heat source [ie drinking hot fluids])
• Evening shower alternates between 1-2 min hot/cold intervals for 10-15 min. for recovery on training days (4x per week).
• Ice pack on back of neck for 30 min before bed (daily)
• Lemon (juice) water with meals
• Keep a log of food cravings throughout the week (see below)

Cheat Day:

• One day per week, indulge in logged cravings, no limit
• 1st meal is clean, preferably spicy
• 2nd meal with 32oz fruit juice
• Plenty of coffee throughout the day
• 90 seconds of exercise before and after each meal

          Now, if you're wondering about eating all those beans and a gas problem, I've noticed that it has not been a problem for me.  However, as a precautionary step I do pick up a bottle of Bean-o on my grocery runs just in case.  As for the nutrient breakdowns, I kept logs over the past couple days and here are some sample breakdowns.

Regular Day:

Calories - 2210

Carbohydrates - 219.8g - 39%

Protein - 206.5g - 38%

Fat - 59.5g - 24%

Cheat Day:

Calories - 7043

Carbohydrates - 1,004.4g - 59%

Protein - 125g - 7%

Fat - 268.5g - 34%

          I'm not specifically training for any competition at the moment, but I would like to get back to "competition shape" for a potential BJJ tournament in late August.  Lastly, I'll show my current training schedule and body stats as of March 15.  I also want to make mention that Tim differentiates between training and exercise.  Training is recreational.  It is something that you do for fun or for sport, or maybe for work; it is part of your lifestyle.  Exercise, on the other hand, is specifically induced to produce or elicit a certain response from your body.  For example, my BJJ practices and rock climbing do not constitute as exercise, I am still partaking in morning exercises to manipulate my insulin levels and metabolism.

Weekly Training Schedule:

Monday - Thursday = BJJ 1-2 hours

Friday = Rest / Cheat Day

Saturday - Sunday = Rock Climbing or Yoga

March 15, 2013 Body Stats:

Weight - 172 lbs

Body Mass Index - 26.1

Percent Body Fat (JP/3) - 6.73

L-Bicep - 12.25"

R-Bicep - 12.36"

Waist - 31.25"

Hip - 31.25"

L-Thigh - 22.5"

R-Thigh - 22.5"

Total Inches - 132.11

Goal Bodyweight - 160 lbs

*I realize that I already have a very low body fat percentage.  That is not the problem.  The problem is that I am caught between weight classes as I often am no matter the sport (BJJ, Boxing, etc...).  That being said, I am not opposed to shedding some muscle mass as longs as I maintain functional strength for my sports of choice (Rock Climbing and BJJ).  Ideally I would only be concerned if there was an indication that my strength to weight ratio was dropping.  However, in my previous experiments; as long as I am partaking in regular training my body adapts to its circumstances and thus I have not had an issue.  Rather, when I loose weight, the ratio tends to go up, not to mention it is easier to maintain for lighter athletes than for heavier ones.  (ie:  a 150 lbs male bench pressing 300lbs vs a 250 lbs male benching 500 lbs).

Tracking Your Jiu Jitsu Life

          In have talked with may training partners of mine, past and present, about the value of record keeping in sports.  I have always kept personal records of mine in regard to wins and loss, later diets and training programs were added to the record list.  While the training camps and diets had a great detail there was nothing linking them together.  Surely I did not just stop training all together when not prepping for a fight or tournament.  Last summer I also began keeping track of my Jiu Jitus promotions and list things I wanted to work on ... doing so via Google Docs spreadsheet.  In my last blog post I talked about "dope sheets" or per belt game plans.  I started incorporating these as well.  But to be honest, the whole thing was kind of haphazard and unorganized.  It was a log, yes, but there wasn't too much productive going on about it.
          Earlier this week I found this spreadsheet posted on a forum.  It gave me some really good ideas to breath some new life into my training logs.  So for now, my "Jiu Jitsu History" spreadsheet has four tabs.  Training Log, Things to Work On, Competition Records, and Promotions (dope sheets found on this page as well).  Here are some screenshots:

Training Log

     I apologize for the tight fit, but you can pretty well see what I've got going on.  The year (2013) is color coded blue and you can see the next year in orange started to the right of it for later use.  The second Row lists the days of the week and the total hours of training that week.  Below there are the dates listed for each day of that month as well as the techniques covered on that day.  I also make note of rest / sick days and other activities (such as rock climbing) just to show that there wasn't an error of omission.  You can also see that there are two running tallies on the right side of the page.  One is the total training hours for the current month, and the other is the running total of training hours this year (cumulative of previous months).  

Things to Work On

        This is pretty simple in its construction.  There is a column for each year.  Under each of the yearly columns there are two sub-columns, one for the date and one for the details.  The dates usually go on a weekly basis.  The detail section is where I pick something from the Checklists below or something I'm curious about to either work in my sparring and free time, or to ask an instructor when asked for "any questions."

Competition Records

          Again, this is pretty cut and dry.  There are columns for the Season (year), Tournament, Matches, Weight (and winning method), Weight Class, Total Career Wins, Career Wins by Points, Career Wins by Submission, Career Losses, Career Losses by Points, and Career Losses by Submission.  So it starts off with the year and the tournament.  Then the matches for each tournament take up their own row so that it is kind of an indent of that tournament's entry.  The "Match" section also includes the winning method (points, rear-naked choke, armbar, etc...).  Next I note the weight class for the tournament.  The rest of the columns are simply running totals where the most recent entry (bottom of page) would tell you how many matches I've won / lost by which methods.  Something I'd like to incorporate later in my career is a pie graph showing the results of these different stats as that is easier for me to read.

Promotions, Goals, and Checklist / Dope Sheets

          These started pretty simple, but the recent aesthetic tune up I gave them really made them a lot more readable and usable.  Starting on the far left there is a list of my promotions and which instructors I received them under.  There is also a goal listing of when I want to earn my next belt by, as well as a distant goal such as (for me) competing as a black belt in the adult division.  Then we have sections color coded per belt requirements via the Alliance checklist.  I talked about this in my last post as well.  Right now I am a Blue Belt, so the blue list is on the right and I am working on filling in and practicing the techniques required for Purple Belt.  Once I am a Purple Belt, the blue and purple sections will shift to the right so that the brown section can bump up and take precedence.

     Now that I've shared my whole "game" and record keeping strategies with the world I suppose I'll have to hit the gym extra hard from now on :-D   Rock Loud and Keep Rollin' !

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Jiu Jitsu Update - Got Game?

What's Your Game?

          Let's get this clear first.  I'm not talking "game" as in "which sport"; but I am talking about "what you're playing."  In other words, what is your jits game(plan)?  When I first came to Georgia I was training under an Alliance school.  On the web you can find a PDF of the Alliance Belt Requirements.  Now, when I first looked at this I hated it.  I hated the rigid structure of having a checklist of things to know.  However, my views have since changed a bit.  While I'm still not a fan of such a rigid ranking structure, I thoroughly enjoy having this reference for training purposes.  What do I mean?  I'll answer with another question, "When you begin a training session, do you have a plan of what you want to work on?  If your instructor asks you if you have any questions, or something you want to learn, do you have an answer?"  What I like about having this resource is that it allows me to have a gameplan for my daily training.  It allows me to make add structure or a checklist of what I want/need to work on rather than just going into training session willy-nilly and training whatever.  This approach seems to be quite productive and much more efficient.

          Secondly, I like the chart for developing a competition gameplan.  That is, what would I do in a given situation.  I have a spreadsheet laid out as a "Dope Sheet" for my competitions.  I did this when I was preparing for my blue belt test and now that I am a blue belt, I have it laid out under the purple belt format.  For example, the Dope Sheet has the same sections as the requirements PDF (Throws/Takedowns, Self-Defense, Guard Passes, Half Guard Sweeps/Passes, Escapes, and Submissions).  I've never been one for memorizing names/dates/lists/etc... so on this sheet I don't list the names of techniques.  Rather, I write/type in language that makes sense to me.  I write down the steps of a certain technique so that I don't have to Youtube that particular technique's name.  It is all right there in front of me on how to do a certain technique.  The naming isn't so important.  The doing is.

          So, what is MY game?  Well, I have a short and stocky frame.  I come from a wrestling background.  With both of these in mind, I usually play a tight, high-pressure, game.  I used to train a lot of butterfly guard, but when I began training with a much bigger and stronger friend of mine, he would frequently smash me to a flattened half guard.  I'm sure that friend will come across this post sooner or later, so I'd like to thank him for being the catalyst of what "my game" is today.  I work a lot from half guard.  I've recently been focusing on my transitions from and around half-guard-type positions.  For example, I want a tight and close half guard, but if my opponent likes applying pressure, I'll move towards a framed butterfly-hooked half guard to give myself room to work.  I've also been working a lot of "what if" situations from my half guard.  These types of transitions include moving from a tight-half, to a shallow-half, back to the tight-half, to deep-half, to tight-half, to x-guard, to tight-half on the other side, to a sort of pseudo-de-la-riva guard.  I've also been working a lot lately on "converting" my closed guard series of submissions to work from the half guard position.  While I was talking to my current instructor about these things one day he said; "You know what you're doing?  You're developing YOUR game."

          I thought about that for a while, enough so that I did this write up.  It is natural for us to develop our grappling / fighting styles to A) the rule which we operate under (MMA, self-defense, competition BJJ) and B) our preferences, strengths, and weaknesses.  What is not so natural and takes quite a bit more effort is to dive deeply into sets of related positions and attempt to fully understand their connections, their offenses, their defenses, and also how to defeat them.  When we start putting together a "dope sheet" that focuses around specific techniques and positions, what we are doing is tailoring a game to our own individual style.  We are doing so in vivid, thirsty, and hungry detail.  We are branching from a half-cocked approach to training, to a precise and dedicated plan.  Game on!

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