Union Fight night and a week of training and preparation.

Juho "the Viking" Valamaa taking a breather, and Minna Pajulahti showing all ring girls around the world how it´s done! Photo by Niklas Kapanen

And again a bit late I am writing about what has been going on. 

The last two weeks have been full on. After returning from UK, I commenced training with full intensity and had an overall busy schedule. In that was also fitted a MMA night called the Union Fight Night in Tampere, Finland, couple of meetings and the final trainings leading up to the Finnish Team Nationals in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

First upon arrival I had to go home to a pleasant surprise. During my two weeks and a bit off the country, my friends Maria and Tiia alongside with my mother had cleaned my house a bit, brought in new mats on the floor and on top of that filled my fridge with berries of all sorts from my mother caches! That was a pleasant sight to come home to.

I didn't get to enjoy that peace for long, the following day took me to Tampere to announce. I traveled with Juho Valamaa, a Finnish up and coming future MMA star. Juho had a boxing bout, first of its kind in hes career. Bout was originally scheduled at 85kg, but the promoter had difficulties getting Juho victims, so at the end of the day he actually faced a man that was 103kg! I could have stepped in the ring also if they don`t mind the small weight difference. Actually, to be honest I had my mouthpiece in alongside my suit, just for the slight possibility of somebody cancelling. You have to be flexible you know! I have once stepped from an announcer to a replacement fighter in a small private boxing night, so it is not always that far fetched.

Juho and his opponent that was originally supposed to be under 90kg...

Janne Rantanen winning via armbar

The night was a success, I am happy for my friend Sampo Panttaja for that. He organized this the first time, and it went well. He is a superb coach, the man behind two of Finlands latest male UFC fighters! Also in attendance were the always lovely Bullfarm girls, lead by Minna Pajulahti. Bullfarms flagship lifters also watched keenly, because the main fighter of the night happened to be a MMA fighter of the Rantanen family, very known powerlifting brother trio which he is the fourth brother, excelling in combat sports. 

Night went well, and I did a good job, if none minds me saying that myself. Only after interviewing a fighter and opening the interview by saying: "So you have a strong muay thai background then?" and getting and answer: "No, only wrestling", one might think I hadn`t done my groundwork well enough! I did, but was fooled a bit by the corner after victory being rushed by cheering Muay Thai world champion. Could happen to everyone!

Sampo Pänttäjä the promoter, Minna Pajulahti IFBB Athlete and me striking poses

I showed some integrity and got straight back home, skipping the afterparty this time. On sunday I was training

already and was lucky not to be hung over. The deadlifts were as shitty as they were before, both sumo and conventional, and even cramped my back. Then I had to squat because I was lagging. I climbed up to a set of 10 with 140 with no belt. After that I got some flak from my cousin that he had a stronger squat than me. After getting fired up by a wager of a donut and a cup of coffee I proceeded to claim the victory of the bet by sqautting 20x140kg beltless and deep. Not a heroic effort, but with the lower body training I have been up to, and my issues with lower back, it was a decent set after deadlifting for over 10 working sets with a crappy, cramped up form!

So, I will just post my training up until the weekend, and write later about the Team comp:

8.3.

Weights: all kinds of warm-ups and medicine man tricks, but still deadlifting felt as shitty as it did on the last wednesday when I first tried it. I just gave up on technique and decided to do the numbers dialed in, because they were so moderate you can pull them with arms alone if need be.

Deadlifts:

Sumo: 11x2-5x60-170, 5x2x190

Conventional, no belt: 5x100, 5x130, 3x5x150

Squat, low bar, no belt: 2x10x20, 2x5x60, 2x3x100, 2x140, 10x140, 20x140 

Lunge with barbell, 3x5 per leg

Abs on pullodown machine: 3x10

Power wheel: 3x10

Emmas partials:3x10x100

9.3. Walk, about 4km

10.3.

Morning mobility stuff and stand-up wrestling

Evening weights:

Bench: 

raw, narrow grip 6x2-10x60-135, 5x2x155

Loose shirt on: 5x2-3x200-240

Double pause bench: 3x6x100

Overwide to the throat 20x60

11.3. 

Weights:

Lockouts:8x5x60-170

Bodybuilding for upper body

Evening: Hokutoruy jujutsu ground work training, 1 hour session, really intense, bouts and fast starts ranging from 10 second to 2 min.

12.3. A circuit of5 movements, 4 circuits in a row, 45 min. of mobility work

13.3. Carbing up with warm donuts and ice cream!

On sunday I had the comp, but I will talk that more later on!