I’ve been wondering when I should switch to one minute rest periods between rounds instead of two minute rest periods. There doesn’t seem to be any logical choice so I guess I’ll go with something arbitrary. I hereby decide that when I can get above 1050 pounds per minute I’ll switch to one minute rest periods and then work my way back up to 1050 lbs/minute. At that point, I guess I’ll switch to 53lb Kettle Bells and 3 minute rest periods and start all over. As you can see my conditioning isn’t exactly scientific. I’m basically just torturing myself on the theory that “pain is weakness leaving the body”. Also my conditioning coach wasn’t available today so I had to keep track of my reps by myself which was sort of difficult, but I think my count was accurate.

I thought about it and realized my approach to the conditioning graph on the right was whack. Rather than track the total poundage of my KB workout, I should really be tracking the average pounds per minute. In theory, this will prevent weird spikes and dips when I try to reduce rest time between rounds. Also, since I’m training for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which requires sustained resistance over prolonged periods of time, I think the time element needs to be part of the picture. In other words, I should be tracking the amount of force I can exert per unit time, rather than just a meaningless aggregate.  Maybe I’m just totally dorking out on this…

The cleans were challenging today and my arms got burnt out right away. I was gassed after the first round and struggled to get through it all. It’s pretty depressing to see the trend line going down in the dorky chart to the right. The purpose of the charts was to motivate me but they’re having the opposite effect. Doh!

I added a couple of graphs to the sidebar. The top graph is my daily weigh-in. The bottom graph measures the total poundage from my kettlebell workout. The gigantic dip in poundage is due to the fact that I started taking two minute rests between rounds rather than three minute rests. When I work down to one minute rests, I think there will be another huge dip. I might add another graph to track how many flights of stairs I run during my other conditioning workout supposing I can actually find a flight of runnable stairs in LA.

When I train at MMAA, Greg Nelson uses the following motivational device: Pretend that you’re losing the match by 2 points. So for today’s conditioning workout I asked Laura to egg me on by saying, “you’re two points down!” whenever I started to gas out. Laura is absolutely appalled at my KB workout and I think she’s afraid I’m going to bust a nut so she only cracked the whip a few times, and very gently. I still think I did okay today though. I only put the bells down a couple times, during the rows because my lower back started to cramp.

Round 1

• Alternating Swings (44lb KB x 1) 33 reps
• Shrimps (44lb KB x 2) 18 reps
• Alternating Clean and Press (44lb KB x 1) 10 reps
• Rows (44lb KB x 2) 26 reps
• Squats (44lb KB x 2) 16 reps

Round 2

• Alternating Swings (44lb KB x 1) 30 reps
• Shrimps (44lb KB x 2) 17 reps
• Alternating Clean and Press (44lb KB x 1) 9 reps
• Rows (44lb KB x 2) 21 reps
• Squats (44lb KB x 2) 15 reps

Round 3

• Alternating Swings (44lb KB x 1) 30 reps
• Shrimps (44lb KB x 2) 16 reps
• Alternating Clean and Press (44lb KB x 1) 8 reps
• Rows (44lb KB x 2) 16 reps
• Squats (44lb KB x 2) 14 reps