Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Friday, January 25, 2008

Kings Match 08

Here is the match from 1-24-08. I recorded a decision of 5-2

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

MLK Vacation

Between MLK Day and my class schedule combined, became a sweet 4 day vacation. After my class on Friday morning, I wouldn't have class until Wed morning. This was a great opportunity to get more training and light drilling into work on my technique.

Its now Tues night, I weighed out of practice today at 204. Ate a good dinner of chicken and mixed vegetables. Its funny because most people think that I am starving myself to lose all this weight, but my portions are still quite large. The difference between me and other people, who have not achieved their weight loss goals is the foods that I eat. I agree the day before and the night before a match is quite unpleasant, I am hungry and thirsty because I can't eat. But this the life of any athlete in a sport that requires weight classes. The other days I eat healthy and in good portions, but carefully manage my weight.

I've been living like a professional fighter since my last match and pretty much since the semester started. I get to train, eat, sleep, get to watch some TV, and I eventually have to go to class. I don't skip class by any means, but I made sure my past semesters that this one was going to be light. I can't complain other than some sore muscles and a desire for some snacks and to overhydrate myself, life isn't bad.

My next match is on Thursday night against King's College 7:30. I want to look sharp and I know what I have to improve upon to be a better wrestler from last match.

Made it & a tough match

So after all the hardwork, I weighed in on Sat 196.8! We wrestled Gettysburg first and they didn't have a 197lber. Our team got the forfeit, which gave me more time to rehydrate.

I felt good by the time I wrestle Johns Hopkins, it was a good match to see where I stood in the weight class. I wrestled last years conference finalist at 197, and he was previously ranked in the Top 7 in the country. The first period was a good period, we both felt each other styles and I had a couple good scoring opportunities, but the score was 0-0. He chose the bottom position in the 2nd period, eventually escaped and the score was now 1-0 him. In the third period unsure of his skills on top, I decided I would be best to go for the score. I chose neutral to start the third and the third period was just like the first. I missed a couple clutch scoring opportunities, and the match ended in my defeat 1-0.

For my first match back I felt it was a pretty good showing. The lost might have been the best thing for me. After the match I grew even hungrier for a Conference Championship, and now I knew it was in reach with some quality hardwork over the next month.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

203.5 & In the desert

203.5 was my weight today after practice. 6.5 more to go by sat at 11. Right now I'm starting my journey through the desert, which is a reference a lot of wrestlers use to describe the final pounds to be cut. Its hard and takes a bit of sacrifice & discipline to stay away from extra water and food, but it is all worth it when the official raises your hand at the end of the match.

Also we put a whooping on Scranton last night. The mules won 8-10 bouts routing Scranton 42-9. Everyone wrestled amazing, and we got a lot of bonus points from weights were not use to getting them at. * Bonus pts are extra points you get by pin, technical fall- win by 15, or a win by 8.

Sat we have a tri-meet against Gettysburg & Johns Hopkins. This will be my first match of the year and I couldn't be anymore ready or excited. It is also our first chance to wrestle opponents in the conference, and continue on our teams goal of winning a conference championship.

Monday, January 14, 2008

First day of the my Last Semester

Well I can't believe it, but today was the first day of my last semester already. I'm going to enjoy everyday from here on out as much as I can, because before I know it will be over.

Its going to be a great semester though, And I busted my but the past semesters so I only have three classes this semester. This set up is going to be great for training, I have two classes on Mondays, none on Tuesday, Two on Wed, One night class on Thursday, and a class on Fridays.

This class schedule is also going to give me an opportunity to study for the CSCS exam, which is the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists. This is the top notch certification for personal trainers who especially want to train athletes. I will be able to sit for the exam upon receiving my degree, even though my degree will be in Accounting and Finance. I should be ready to take the test in early June.

One thing I can't believe about college is the worthless information professors burden us with. Today in my finance class, the teacher spent an entire hour going over the characteristics of a dollar bill. How its made by Crane paper company, its 6 inches long, but its not really made on paper its on a linen material. My question is who really cares, sometimes I just wonder why are we not learning something that is going to help us in the future. But at least I'll be prepared for future chance on a game show.

Enough about class and more about training, after my class I went to the gym ran the indoor track for 10 mins at a good pace. Next I did 4 sets of Dead lifts and a 2 sets of a back circuit. I need to keep my lifts on days we have practice short and efficient.
Dead lift
225lbs x 5 for 4 sets
Back Circuit 2 sets
Lat Pull Down @ 60lbs for 30s to Low pulley row @ 60lbs for 30 secs.

Post workout meal was a nice egg white omelet with assorted vegetables, and a half cup of oatmeal.

In the afternoon I had one more class & than practice.
Practice went well it was hard, but quick. We finished up with a swimming pool workout to help our bodies recover a little bit.

The best news of the day was my weight at the end of practice an all-time low of 209 ! I couldn't be happier and I can't wait to wrestle in my first match.

Weekend

Sorry for not updating in a while, over the weekend we went to a tournament at Washington & Lee College in Virginia. The team took third we had Two Champs, a Second, and a Third. I didn't get to watch most the wrestling because I worked out for most of the day trying to lose some weight since I wasn't wrestling.

It was great to be able to run outside down in Virginia, the weather was beautiful and the school is right on a historic civil war trail. It was a great run, I ran the entire trail and all around their campus for about an hour and half. After the run I took a nap and worked out for another hour in their cardio center. I left the tournament weighing around 213 which was good.

Sunday I got to enjoy a lot of football, and at the same time I got some interval training done on the bike. After the games, I went get my groceries for the week and picked up some egg whites and a variety of vegetables.

Sunday night after the exciting Cowboys-Giants game, I went to gym to get some strength training done. By the way I can't believe the outcome of any of the games played on sunday. It just goes to show why the games are played on the field and not by past stats and records.

At the gym I hit 4 sets of Bench Press for a max lift and than two upper body circuits that were done for 30 seconds for each exercise.
Bench 225 x 5, 225 x 4, 225 x 4, 250 x 1
Circuit # 1
- Seated Miltary Press 60lb DBs
- Squat to Scare Crows ( like rear delt flies) 15 lbs
- Push up Position Holds,while moving 3 10lbs plates to each side.
Circuit # 2
- 45lb plate Clean to Press
-PlyoPushups on to MedBall, to a push on the Medball
- Band Tricep Push Downs

I finished the day and refueled my body with a great dinner,
Two grilled chicken breasts (54g protein)
Cup of Steamed Spinach and a handful for grape tomatoes & sunflower seeds.
Lightly sprayed with Olive Oil

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Post Match Results

We fell short yesterday dropped two close matches to NYU and E-town. We lost by 3 & 4 pts in each match. As a spectator I felt the team wrestled tough made a few mistakes, but the biggest difference was that our team did not get bonus pts when the other team did. Bonus pts meaning pins, major decisions ( win by 8) , or techinical fall(win by 15).

I'm still being very disciplined with my diet, I am continuing to train hard for my conditioning, strength, and wrestling skills, and I am being very proactive with my recovery ( Icing, stretching, contrast showers). The contrast showers have been very effective in helping me recover from these vigorous workouts. A typical contrast shower will be right after practice, Ill use hot water for a couple of minutes then switch to as cold of water as I can get for 15 to 20 seconds. I complete about 5 cycles like this. The purpose of these types of showers is the quick change in temperature shocks my the circulations system to help speed up the recovery of my body.

Besides the training and eating, the past couple days I have been reading a lot of articles on the psychology of wrestling. I have been working a lot on visualization techiniques as well as relaxation techniques. I feel this area of my training needs the most amount of work. I know its cliche, but the body can only be as strong as your mind.

My conditioning is really starting to come along now, Today I ran the hill course ( Teeq Hill we call it ) much faster than on Tuesday. I feel great in all aspects, I couldn't be happier with my progress. I weighed out at 212 today. As soon as I get down to 197 this year is going to be a special wrestling season for TEAM SWENSEN!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Day before NYU & E- Town

Woke up today at 215.5, I worked out on the bike last night, so I could eat some chicken, and still keep my weight down. I had a solid breakfast this morning which included: a cup of egg whites, a scoop of whey protein mixed with water, a banana, a cup of green tea, and a 1/2 cup of oatmeal. I was really full after this meal and it only added two pounds of weight which is awesome.

Today's practice was lighter because of the match tommorow, but since I'm not wrestling I wanted to get in a solid workout. We got to choose the run of our choice outside today. So I chose a short distance course with a large hill towards the end. The hill is steep and is probably 150 yds long. When I got there I sprinted to the top sending my heart rate around 190. The rest of the run was flat and my heart recovered from about 180 to 130 in about 2 1/2 mins. The rest of practice we drilled for about 30 mins at a high intensity. After practice I did 3 sets of bench press and bent over row. I did as many reps as I could for each set with about 1 min break between sets. I weighed out today at a new all time low of 212.9!

For my post workout meal I modified my new super shake. 2 scoops of whey protien, 1 banana, and 1/2 cup of this granola called bear-naked which tastes awesome. It tastes greats and is great for a post workout meal.

I will probably get another 30 mins on the bike tonight to keep my metabolism going, I think I should be able to make weight by next sat. My arrival at 197 will be just in time for our first conference match with Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins.

Monday, January 7, 2008

1/07/08, Monday

So were off to a brand new week, on the horizon we have a Tri-meet on Wed against Elizabethtown & NYU two pretty good teams. On saturday we will be traveling down to Virgina to wrestle in the Washington & Lee tourney. Unfortunately I still will not be able to wrestle because of my weight. I did weigh out after practice today at 213.5 which is an all-time low since I've been in college. I feel I am going to start dropping a lot of weight soon though, my diet has been very good and my training has been intense. I definitely feel 197 is in reach.

Today's practice was tough, but I am really starting to wrestle well. I'm starting to feel comfortable again with all of my takedowns.

I can't believe how warm it was out today, especially in January. The warm weather made it enjoyable to run outside. It was not as enjoyable to complete a 3 mile run around a park right by school. I did realize from this run that I need to improve my aerobic conditioning. I was running about a 10 min mile pace on a course with some small hills and my heart rate averaged 175 for the run. I would like to get my heart rate down around 155 and increase my per mile pace.

After the run we had 3 drill matches . A drill match is where one guy drills take downs for a min, escapes for a min, and than takedown defense for a min. After three mins the next guy goes. After the drill match we wrestled live for another 15 mins. I was exhausted, but I was wrestling well so I'm happy how practice went. To finish up practice we had 6 sprints up our gym stairs, which our 50 steps high. After the sprints we did a lifting circuit with a 45lb sand bag, hitting the major muscle groups in the body.

I'm happy its over and I'm relaxing for another day of fun tomm.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Williams Tournament

We left friday afternoon for our long bus ride to Williams College in Mass. It was a long 5 1/2 hour bus ride, I watched a very long King Kong and still had 2 hours to go. Our team did very well on Saturday in a very tough tournament, featuring tough teams that our nationally ranked . These teams included Williams, Ithaca, Norwich, Roger Williams, Johnson & Whales University, & good team from Iowa - Simpson College. We took 5th overrall & had three champions @ 141, 149, and HWT. One second place at 184, and a fourth & sixth place. 6 place winners is pretty good out of 10 weight classes, not to mention our 149lber Rob won OW. OW is the outstanding wrestler of the tournament or you can look at it as the MVP. Rob was seeded 5th and upset the Nationally ranked top seed from Ithaca in the semifinals pretty handily. He easily won in the finals. Although it was frustrating to be there all day and not be able to wrestle, it was great to see my team perform so well.

We got home around 12am on Sunday. I got a good night sleep, and now I can enjoy some football. For breakfast, I broke away from the norm and ate some leftover turkey chili and salad. Although it seems weird, however who got to decide what had to be served for each meal. Its much healthier to eat a bowl of turkey chili which is low and fat and high in protien, than to indulge in a typical breakfast of sausage, eggs, and pancakes.
For today's training I will ride a bike that I brought from home to my apartment. I'll do some interval training, where I'll do some high intensity sprints for 30 seconds, take 30 off, and repeat for 7 mins. I'm going for a total of 7 mins to try and simulate a real match. I would like to be able to do 3 matches today, but will see how it goes. In between matches I am going to do a circuit of exercises such as pushups, crunches, body squats, lunges, and some other excercises for some strength work.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

1/3/08

Yesterday's practice was brutal!

We warmed up with a 2 mile run around the campus.
Drilled for 15 mins. Than wrestled live for 40 mins.
To finish practice we ran beep drills, which are timed laps around our indoor track. We ran 4 singles in 30 secs and two doubles( twice around in about 1:30).
Finished Practice with two sets of dead lifts and power cleans, by this time I only had 135 on the bar to focus on my power.
I weighed out at 215.5.

Today I woke up around 10:30. I weighed 217.5 which is great.

I wanted to start the day of with a good breakfast:
1 cup of egg whites
1 Chicken Cutlet
On a whole wheat wrap.
With 1/2 cup of Oatmeal
I washed it all down with 1 scoop of whey protein.

I figure it was a nice meal, protein- 50 g , Carbs 50 g, Fat around 7g
For supplements I took my multivitamin, tbs of Flax, and a Joint repair supplement.

I felt pretty good going into practice today, I was only a little sore from the day before.

To start practice I jogged for 20 mins on the tread at 1% incline at 6.5 mph. It kept my heart rate around 155.
Next I drilled hard for 30 mins, and we wrestled live for 30 mins. We finished practice with a couple sets of suicides in the room. My legs were exhausted, but I wasn't to out of breath and I recovered rather quickly. I ended with a ten min cool down on the exercise bike and a circuit of abs.

I weighed out at 214.4!

I took a nice contrast shower and I was ready to relax. My post workout meal was a new creation for me, 2 scoops of chocolate whey, 1/2 cup of oat meal, and a 1/2 cup of raspberries. I don't know if I quite like it yet I might just eat the rapsberries on the side.

Tonight I will be relaxing, tomm we have a light practice and than a long 5 hr bus ride to Williams College in Mass. for a tournament on sat. Unfortunately I cannot wrestle yet because I am still too heavy and if I wrestle HWT, I lose my certification at 197. I just have to get in a couple good workouts over the weekend to keep my weight down.

About my blog

I created this post as a way to keep what I call Team Swensen informed and updated about my wrestling season. Or for anyone who would be interested in my journey from a 1st team all conference defensive end at 245lbs to 197lb wrestler.

Team Swensen- are all the people that have helped me get to where I am today.
  • My Amazing Parents and my family
  • Trainers- Cornell Key and Jon Kalnas
  • Nutritionist - Tom Bilella
  • My Chef- my mother
  • My HS Coach-Coach Shep
  • Current SJV wrestling coaches- Coach Smith & Coach Marsh
  • My Great HS teachers
I'm currently training for the 2008 wrestling season. After a long successful football season, my time has been significantly shortened to cut down from 235 to 197.

Over holiday break, I trained at TEST Sports Clubs in Tinton Falls, NJ. I knew going back to my trainers, Jon and Cornell that got me ready for a great football season, could put me through some tough workouts for the week and a half I was home.

I weighed 225 the week before Christmas, by the time I came back I was fluctuating between 221 and 219.

I worked out 6 times at the gym over the break and these workouts had my heart rate around 180 bpm for most of the hour. We focused on strength to start the workouts and than moved on to conditioning these all the muscles in my body. These workouts were brutal.

With this transformation, I need to have a great nutrition plan. I have very little time to cut my weight down, but I need to stay as strong as possible. I lost a lot of weight in high school to cut from 225 to 189, but I have a lot more muscle on my body now.

To properly plan my diet, I contacted long time friend and nutrition expert Tom Bilella. Tom helped me in highschool for the first time I cut weight, and he has helped me to gain weight for football as well. I knew I could count on him to help me one last time in my last Collegiate Athletic season. Tom told me that I should reach about 1900 calories a day with a proper ratio of proteins, carbs, and fats that he perscribed to me.

I returned back to school on January 1,2008. We had our first practice of the New Year at 6. Practice went well, I'm in much better shape this year coming back from the break than I've been in the past.

The next post will have an update about my training, diet, and weight.