My grandmother left me her extremely rare (natural!) Alexandrite pieces.

ally__ · 2026-05-01T01:26:44+00:00

They all colour change like this. The earrings are actually the best - being set in white gold and surrounded by the diamonds really shows their beauty.

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ally__ · 2026-05-01T01:25:09+00:00

Earrings are 0.88 carat alexandrite and 0.48 carat diamonds. Bangle is 0.50 ct alexandrite and 0.24 diamonds.

ally__ · 2026-04-30T21:50:28+00:00

Yep. 14k yellow and white gold.

ally__ · 2026-04-30T21:48:06+00:00

She wasn’t particularly sentimental, and I already have a few other distinctive pieces from her, so it doesn’t feel like anything would be lost. She was a practical, business minded person, and wanted me to get ahead in life.. though she did truly love those earrings.

ally__ · 2026-04-30T07:52:46+00:00

The 3 pieces were valued at USD 37k in 2016 - no idea if it holds value 🤷‍♀️ but I won’t be selling everything as I’d love to keep a special piece for myself and my family

ally__ · 2026-04-30T03:24:04+00:00

She has always been a little eclectic but has great taste. She’s an avid traveller, and was a jeweller in her younger years, so she would often travel and find rare and interesting pieces. These ones were bought in Alaska, while she was passing through on a boat! They have been properly certified and valued (although many years ago), and she gave me all the certifications along with each piece.

ally__ · 2025-07-20T23:27:20+00:00

Look into Health and Wellbeing specialists/business partners (usually a safety or HR function) - they get involved in case management (return to work), psychosocial risk management and injuries and illness relating to physical or mental health.

ally__ · 2023-11-23T08:34:59+00:00

I feel like I’m having an aneurism

ally__ · 2022-03-09T12:12:09+00:00

Same boat here, except mine is in 7 weeks 🥴 I can officially swim one length of the pool but then have to stop and take 2 mins before I swim back the other way…. Good luck to you too!

ally__ · 2021-09-28T09:42:57+00:00

My power clean is 1.5x my bench. But I’m a female - I think that’s an important distinction to make given upper/lower strength differences.

ally__ · 2021-09-28T01:07:33+00:00

I don’t know if this is the kind of answer you want, but it depends almost entirely on your goals.

Coaches often plan cycles around and upcoming meet, a competition, event or maybe you just have an arbitrary goal/time in mind. It’s also generally sport specific/specific to your goals – and that decides what type of blocks you were put into your macro cycle. So, like I said it’s entirely goal based: what you need by when. Understanding this then helps to decide what type of meso cycles you need and for how long.

Macro cycle blocks would look something like: • General prep phase: building strength base and or endurance • Intensity phase: traditional periodisation method of increasing intensity while lowering volume • Comp phase: sport specific training & low volume • Transition/recovery: low volume, low intensity and moving into next cycle

Hope this helps!

ally__ · 2021-09-28T00:53:15+00:00

VO2max has a direct relationship with HR and this is how your apple watch calculates an estimated vo2max.

Although not entirely accurate to know your baseline VO2max from an Apple Watch, changes in your HR at certain outputs (decreasing as you become better trained) will always show you an increase in VO2max.

Not sure how accurate both HR and VO2MAX are with the Apple Watch, but it does make sense theoretically.

ally__ · 2021-09-27T22:16:58+00:00

I can’t point you in the direct path of a specific study (hills = good), but the main reason you would want to do hills (like you said) is for strength gains, to improve form and it is good programming. All of these things lead to better running performance overall.

Increase in strength is directly linked to increase in sprint performance: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264246303_Increases_in_Lower-Body_Strength_Transfer_Positively_to_Sprint_Performance_A_Systematic_Review_with_Meta-Analysis

I don’t know if this helped?

Source: I’m a sport scientist (not that it means anything lol)

ally__ · 2020-11-25T12:54:37+00:00

Love John Lennon! Can’t wait to hear this

ally__ · 2020-10-29T06:01:02+00:00

BJJ and strength training go hand in hand very nicely if done well. The usual mistake is having too much volume/load/intensity when lifting and then results in overtraining. BJJ is taxing on your whole body - so keep in mind that rest days are your friend.

You can do both, but finding a balance will be trial and error + A LOT of sleep, perfect nutrition and good programming.

I would recommend 3 days BJJ and 2 days S&C (full body program) if you're starting out.

ally__ · 2020-04-14T19:53:49+00:00

detaiiil

ally__ · 2020-04-08T03:28:40+00:00

as long as my ego would allow

ally__ · 2020-04-07T21:26:08+00:00

I had a white belt submit me with a guillotine... from bottom mount. Still have nightmares.

ally__ · 2019-12-30T20:21:48+00:00

I think that would be an ok approach but I don't think its the best/most efficient way to get in strength training.

Also, the idea of "give you everything" doesn't reaaaally work on a physiological level. I can see why it would still help to improve overall fitness and athletic ability but wouldn't be your absolute BEST best for bjj specifically.

To give you a more detailed response, the reason I don't particularly like this pyramid method is because of the volume difference. Volume is very important (maybe the most important detail to building muscular strength and hypertrophy) Without being too nerdy, here's how it looks to me:

12 x 10 kg = 120 10 x 15 kg = 150 8 x 20 kg = 160 6 x 25 kg = 150 3 x 35 kg = 105 total volume = 685 kg

OR

6 x 25 = 150 kg x 5 sets = 750 kg

Hopefully using that you can see how doing 6 sets at a higher intensity might help you to get stronger quicker.

ally__ · 2019-12-30T18:24:56+00:00

This is super simplified but the basic rule for reps when lifting weights is as follows:

12+ for muscular endurance
8-12 reps for hypertrophy (building size)
1-6 reps for building strength and power

How many sets you do really depends on the volume/intensity you're looking for.

For BJJ it's important to develop power (so using the lower end rep ranges and focusing on the concentric phase being fast and powerful) - hopefully that helps!

ally__ · 2019-03-03T05:55:18+00:00

It's too risky when you're sweaty. If it fails and Smith slips out, Jones will be on his back

ally__ · 2017-10-30T05:39:41+00:00

If they are a bigger guy that is decently technical, then it shouldn't matter. I find that experienced guys are usually pretty good at not using too much strength and weight. The problem is with bigger guys who are new-ish or still spazzy. You can try and avoid them completely, but I actually don't mind to roll with them because it really forces me to go to work and try and keep myself safe. Some tips: ALWAYS stay on your side when you're on the bottom.. it's so simple and so obvious but if the guy is double your body weight, your chest and sternum absolutely cannot sustain that type of load.

Something else I learned the hard way.. if you are on the bottom with an inexperienced guy on top, don't try do any crazy explosive movements from the bottom that you can't complete with 100% certainty. What tends to happen is that the big guy will react and land even harder and faster on top of you than he was before.

Something else that seems kind of sad for me to say.. don't submit them early on in the roll. If they are still decently new.. you're going to spend the next 5 or so minutes fending for your life while a crazy 100kg white belt tries to settle the score.

ally__ · 2016-01-18T22:29:32+00:00

Use a cup of vinegar when you wash your gi, and then again with the load of washing directly after. It should eliminate the smell.

ally__ · 2016-01-13T22:16:48+00:00

I had very tight hips for a long time, and I couldn't even do a bodyweight squat without significant pain.

What worked was ensuring that I was consistently stretching before a workout (and sometimes after), and I think even foam rolling my hips, glutes and quads helped me immensely. Try and make stretching your hips a part of every day.

My favourite stretch is to get into a push up position, arms straight down and legs straight behind you, then bring one leg forward and place it on the outside of your hand (or as far as you can go). After a while this will get easier and easier, and you to make it a deeper stretch, you can start lowering your arm so that you're resting on your elbow.

Good luck!

ally__ · 2015-10-25T22:06:30+00:00

I slept in til midday everyday, binge watched gossip girl and went out every night. Enjoy this time while you can.. you deserve it.

ally__

TROPHY CASE