The Bird Cage 6: The Legend Returns

Thursday, 21st February 2019


TRAINING


AM

Day Two

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Sumo deadlifts : 6 sets of (3 x 130kg)
•Superset 3 sets: sprinter step-ups: 8 steps each leg holding 20 kg dBs, 12 x one handed rows with the purple band
• Superset 3 sets of: pallof press 8 x orange band, with GHRs: 10 x bird (first 5 reps holding a 5kg dB to my chest)

Notes:
I attempted 140kg for the sumo but failed, although I think it was mental. Sleep has been ok, but not as rested as I would of liked to have been. Today my form was not the best, but once I got going the weight moved easily enough. In the last few sets I used the cue of “wedging myself in”, which really had helped. I need to improve my groin mobility… need to work on the “frog stretch” into my mobility routines.

Would of liked to finish off with some TGUs, but was short on time. BJJ later tonight.

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Saturday, 23rd February 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day Three

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Floor press: 4 working sets of (5x 100kg) and then one set of (3 x 100kg), supersetted with 5 pull-ups on the bar.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: landmine T-bar rows (8 x 50kg), with 12 x bodyweight feet elevated push-ups.
-Finished off with 4 sets of hammer curls: 4 x (10 x 15kg).

notes:
Was aiming for 5 x 5 with 100kg, but it was way to heavy. A few final reps were grinders. This m session was done in a hurry as I couldn’t get into the gym because the electronic key was not working and I had to wait for the owner to arrive to let me in.

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Sunday, 17th February 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day Four

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Back squat to a box: 4 sets of (6 x 90kg), supersetted with 5 x pull-ups.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: walking lunges (10 steps each leg holding 20 kg dBs), with single-hand band rows (10 x purple band).
• finished off with 4 x prowler pushes with 75kg.

notes:
My electronic key didn’t work again, so it took me awhile before I actually got into the gym, so once again my session was a little rushed although today I think that benefited me. Squats were heavy but good. Prowler was fun. Haven’t had much time this week for shoulder shocker, rear felt raises etc, but that ok I will try and make up for it next week.

No BJJ today. We are having the weekend off.

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WEEKLY RECAP


Total weight lifted (total weight lifted from my main working sets): 6,800 kgs.

Martial arts: 2 BJJ session and 2 boxing sessions.

Diet: As of usual. Had a few extra sneaky teaspoons of peanut butter this weekend. Fasted 22 hours on Monday.

Recovery & Sleep: No niggles to report. Sleep has been decent. Work is still very busy and probably has taken its toll.

General wellbeing & mood: Average - good.

Notes:
I will be modifying my program by changing some lifts around and modifying some of the set & rep schemes. I do this every 6-8 weeks to prevent overuse injuries etc.

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Tuesday, 12th February 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day One

•Walk to the gym and usual warm-up
•Front squats: 6 sets of (3 x 70kg), supersetted with 3 x pull-ups on rings
-dB incline bench: 3 sets of 10 x 25 kg
•dB row: 3 sets of 10 x 32.5kg.
-finished off 3 sets of walking lungs holding a 15kg plate overhead, and 1 sets of TGUs, 2-a-side holding 12.5kg dB.

Noes:
First week of “new block” Front squats went up easy. Hoping to work up to 90-100kg on my front squat (while maintaining a decent bar speed). Right shoulder still a bit sore, tendonitis maybe? Might have to get my deep tissue practitioner to have a look.

BJJ later tonight.

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great work Bird, keep it going

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@bigpappafrance: Thanks mate. And welcome to “the cage”.

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Thursday, 28th February 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Park Session

  • warmed up with the ball, did some mobility run throughs, and finished off 2 sets of 3 25m sprints at 70%.

notes: Wasn’t feeling it in the am. Got the work done. Had BJJ in the evening where we drilled omoplata and a open guard pass. Feeling a little tired. Resting today (Friday) and hopefully I will be good to go for the weekends training.

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Hey man. How is BJJ going? Just wondering now you have done it for a while, how you have found doing it along side weight training?

@Ironwarrior25:
Hey buddy. BJJ is going ok. Probably not making enough progress as I would like, but I only train 2-3 times a week. I need to spend more time before and after class studying my moves etc.

No problems with combining it with lifting. If anything I think it helps a little as my flexibility has improved heaps. Although there are weeks when I do feel exhausted.

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Saturday, 2nd March 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day Three

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Bench press 5 sets of 5 x 90kg, supersetted with 3 pull-ups on the rings and 5 reps of deFrancos “one leg piriformis mobility squat drill”.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: landmine T-bar rows (10 x 50kg), with 10 x bodyweight feet elevated push-ups.
-Finished off with 4 sets of hammer curls: 4 x (10 x 15kg).

notes:
Back into bench pressing and my shoulders feels good today. Really enjoyed my new mobility move that I got from deFrancos instagram account. I will have to find a video to share with you guys.

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Sunday, 3rd March 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day Four

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Back squat to a box: 5 sets of (5 x 90kg), supersetted with 3 x pull-ups on the bar.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: walking lunges (10 steps each leg holding 20 kg dBs), with single-hand band rows (10 x orange bands).
• finished off with 4 x prowler pushes with 75kg.

notes:
Good session. Should be able to increase the weight on all exercises next week. No BJJ today

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WEEKLY RECAP


Total weight lifted (total weight lifted from my main working sets): 5,760 kgs.

Martial arts: 2 BJJ session and 1 boxing sessions.

Diet: Standard. Fasted 22 hours on Monday. Had a epic cheat meal on Saturday night which was a meat box: box of chips, shredded meat, and bbq sauce.

Recovery & Sleep: Struggled this week. Felt a little flat, especially at BJJ training. Work has still been very unusually busy, although I expect that to quiet down little and hence decrease my “stress” levels.

General wellbeing &mood: Average. Need to decrease my screen time, get more sunlight and do more active recovery work.

Notes:
I will be modifying my program by changing some lifts around and modifying some of the set & rep schemes. I do this every 6-8 weeks to prevent overuse injuries etc.

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Monday, 4th February 2019.


TRAINING


PM

Day One

•Walk to the gym and usual warm-up
•Front squats: 6 sets of (3 x 80kg), supersetted with 3 x pull-ups on rings
-dB incline bench: 3 sets of 10 x 27.5 kg
•dB row: 3 sets of 10 x 32.5kg.
-finished off shoulder shocker, TGUs and a pretty embarrassing attempt at some cartwheels.

notes:
Public holiday here today, so I moved my usual Tuesday morning session to this afternoon. Squats were heavy but ok. Form could of been better.

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Still a good work out and would love to video of the cartwheels lol

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@bigpappafrance: My cartwheels at the moment are very unimpressive. Once I get my Spider-Man mask delivered I will be putting up some videos.

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Thursday, 7th March 2019


TRAINING


AM

Day Two

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up. Also included 3 x broad jumps.
•Trap bar deadlifts: 6 sets of (3 x 120kg)
•Superset 3 sets: sprinter step-ups: 10 steps each leg holding 20 kg dBs, 10 x TRX feet elevated rows
• Superset 4sets of: pallof press 8 x orange band, with GHRs: 10 x bird (first 5 reps holding a 5kg dB to my chest) (last set of GHRs was done with out the additional weight.

notes:
Great session. Need to work on my “broad jumps”, did not feel any hamstring involvement at all.

First time I have trap bar deadlifted for awhile and it felt pretty good. Really concentrated on my form: shoulders back into my back pockets, massive belly breath, tension in the hammies, chest up, “white knuckle grip” and pulling up with straight arms with tension just before the lift. 120 kg went up easy, and will increase next week. I think 180kg, maybe even 200kg is a reasonable goal. Should be able to increase my weight with the sprinter step-ups as well.

BJJ most likely later tonight.

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Saturday, 9th March 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Park Session

•warmed up with the ball, did some mobility run throughs, and finished off 2 sets of 3 x 25m sprints at 60%, and then 3 x hill sprint 20m at 60%.

notes:
Feeling a little sluggish this morning. I was planning on doing some longer sprints (300m), but because I was not feeling the best I thought I better not. Even with the sprints I did do, they were well below maximum effort.

I am thinking I might have to increase the frequency of my “park sessions” if I want to significantly improve my running ability. The purpose of my “park session” is to simply increase my athleticism by maintaining and improving my sprinting ability. At the moment I am doing a park session once every 8-10 days which is probably not frequent enough.

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Sunday, 10th March 2019.


TRAINING


AM

Day Four

•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Back squat to a box: 6 sets of (3 x 100kg), supersetted with 4 x pull-ups on the rings.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: walking lunges (10 steps each leg holding 22.5 kg dBs), with single-hand band rows (12 x orange bands).
• finished off with 4 x prowler pushes with 85kg.

notes:
100 kg squats were heavy. A few reps at the end were a little grinding. I think I will leave it at this weight until it becomes more comfortable and just slowly increase the rep range. An extra 10 kgs on the prowler made all the difference and I needed 1’30 rest between pushes compared to my usual 1’00.

BJJ later this afternoon.

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WEEKLY RECAP


Total weight lifted (total weight lifted from my main working sets): 5,400 kgs.

Martial arts: 3 BJJ session and 1 boxing session.

Diet: Fasted 20 hours on Tuesday. Usual cheat meals on the weekend: toasted grill cheese sammiches on Sat night. I have been a little loose with my eating this week, but feel stronger for it, and also a little heavier.

Recovery & Sleep: Standard.

General wellbeing mood: Pretty happy with my energy levels this week considering all of the training and a busy week with work.

Notes:
Happy with my trap bar deadlifts, really hope to make some massive gains here. Little sluggish with my “park session” this week. As noted before i would like to increase the frequency of these sessions, but Im just not sure where and how…

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