Further experiments in the name of science...

Greetings tribe!

Mark Sisson has been writing some incredible material on doing "personal experiments". Developing testable hypothesis and working the experiments on yourself and figuring out conclusions. My versions of experiments used to be on what kind of diabetes causing dessert I could create (pre-blueprint days of course!!), but today's theme is "experiments."

I have registered for the IBJJF Chicago International Summer Open on August 18. Pre-comp training is all about experimentation and I have most of my game plan mapped out. It will be a very interesting experiment, as it is completely contradictory to the things I have done in the past. Unfortunately, I will not list strategy here as some of my online friends who read my blog are also my competition, so needless to say, it should be interesting. I am also learning some things about how my body responds to training and how I deplete and retain water. It would appear that I retain water following jiujitsu training. Which means in the past, I have put myself behind the eight ball as I have trained right up to the day of a tournament. This time I will have a last training day on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then do light conditioning up until the tournament. I have also decided to drop weightlifting until the tournament. It may be contra-indicated, but I am finding as the older I get, the less I respond to lifting weights. I will however continue to focus on bodyweight- kettlebells - tires - ropes - clubbells - sandbags, etc. That I continue to respond well to.

I am beginning my second month of the Primal Blueprint and so far, so good. I have dropped around 15 lbs. in 30 days. Today was the first day that I got really hungry between meals. My wife and I are doing it together and I can really begin to notice a change in our body compositions.

For Father's day, my wife got me "The Best of Roy Harris" DVD and it is S-O-L-I-D!! It is a 3 disc set that contains "Takedowns from the Knees", "Armbars Vol. 2 (bent armlocks) and "BJJ over 40". He teaches in such a systematic and easy to follow format and I have found some real gems to implement.

I am also going to attempt to minimize my sparring time and emphasize more drilling this preparation cycle. Lets hope that the changes will give me a better chance of success. But if not, the experiment continues....

I have more on my mind to write, but a lot of it is incomplete. Until then, my friends, have an amazing week!!

Oss.