Stupid Old Man: A Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu Blog.

[JesterBlaze]

I had a belly recently. It can be lost fairly easily even at old man age with a couple weeks of some type of cardio and proper diet. I'd recommend giving it a shot!

[SteveBsFan]

Yea I thought you were taller than 6'2, but maybe you are shrinking! Pretty soon i'll be taller.

[JesterBlaze]

I might be buying an inversion board to stretch out to 6'2" again.

[tarcone]

Yeah those inversion boards are awesome. I want to get one of those things.

[JesterBlaze]

JesterBlaze Injury: Hamstring
Full Strength: Unknown - Hopefully a couple more days.

Day 8: Hamstring is at about 90% full strength now. If I don't re-injure it, which I've minorly done twice the past week, it should be 100% by week's end. I'm also done the loading phase of creatine so I should be well hydrated by then as well.

Exercise 1: The same take down defense into guillotine technique as Day 3. I got matched up with a guy who "lives at the gym" and one who I've talked with after class a few times and seems to have my "go hard" while still smiling and being friendly disposition so I correctly figured I was in for a good day's work. We're both interested in building up tolerance/resistance to chokes so it was a good time of really having to lock it in to get a tap.

Exercise 2: Defending guillotine and taking opponent down to side control. Though the main point of this was just to escape the choke and gain a dominant position there was a positional choke/irritant thrown in which me and my day's opponent continued to enjoy.

Exercise 3: Rear choke using Gi set up from having someone pinned down in "turtle position" (which I had never heard of until today). The coolest part of this lesson was a "what not to do" which I - and most people - would definitely have done: though you want to cross your feet for leverage when in guard position you can easily get your feet broken if you do the same from someone's back. This choke was cool but moves using Gi's aren't my preferred ones to learn since the chances aren't 100% that my opponent will have a Gi-like outfit on in a fight.

Rolling: I didn't do very well again in what was probably the shortest run since I've been doing this - or it might have just seemed that way. This is probably going to be the case for a while since I seek out those better than me to work with. It's very frustrating but it seems that I can either quit or start cherry picking opponents - neither options more attractive than continued losses for an indefinite time. So as boring as it might be to continue to read about my losing I'm of the mentality that it's better to be 0-20 against quality opponents than to manufacture a 20-0 record. And as one of the Gracie posters states: "The winner is the one who learns the most today."

Silver lining: Though the facts are what they are and as reported here - not a good day "rolling" in memory and the reality that I toke 4-8 blunts per day - I'm somehow getting others' attention. Most complimentary of what I've recently heard was "You're a monster. Once you get the techniques down there won't be many stopping you" so there might be hope for things to come, readers.

[Matt]

haha

how do the blunts impact your cardio?

[JesterBlaze]

Blunts naturally make you tired the next day, which is every day for me. And the smoking itself severely hampers oxygen intake/usage. I'm the only one breathing heavy and supporting my weight on the wall after warm-ups each class.

I hadn't thought of this until now but it's also possible that I'm acclimated to the altitude here only for general walking around purposes but not yet for athletics.

[JesterBlaze]

Update: I've still been going but haven't been typing.

Recently published pic of me getting my 1st White Belt Stripe...

[Chris Rex]

This is all well and good but what does this have to do with me possibly being fucked out of my Bye week?

[Matt]

nice, and congrats.
Glad to see you're sticking with it and still enjoying it. Not an easy thing to do.

[Kobeck]

Congrats

[tarcone]

Great job.

[JesterBlaze]

Thanks guys... all I do is show up though. I wouldn't have promoted myself. In fact after today's class, which I once again left to potentially puke, I'm thinking of demoting myself though I'm not sure if that'd be disrespectful.

Summary: So much for getting up to 212 lb. - I'm now down to 188-194 depending on which scale I'm on. Strength is increasing or maintaining depending on muscle group so obviously the weight lost is fat which is a positive thing despite going against my ultimate goal.

I'm not sure if I'm good while in mount position or if it's just the natural advantage of the position.

I'm horrible on my back since I don't know any submissions yet and can just sweep, reverse, or hold position on my opponent. My lack of potbelly and improving flexibility forces my opponents to finish some moves which often finish themselves due to the "victim's" uncomfortability. On the occasion the position is uncomfortable to me I'm working on accepting and not responding to uncomfortability. I'm now able to hold my bodyweight "crunch style" if someone stands while in my guard; This was a goal of mine but is only the start of an ongoing process of strengthening my grip and abs.

I've been doing well while rolling at the end of class however it's been mostly due to my physical advantage against most opponents. My "technique" is usually sloppy and sometimes downright brutish; 1993 has long since past and technique/knowledge alone won't do it anymore. I've worked out a deal at my weight gym to give us Jiu-Jitsu members a group discount and I hope some people take advantage of it.

Biggest Weakness: My cardio/energy is still absolutely horrible and is embarrassing! Overall I'm starting to "get it" and can do well until I gas. I might give another shot at quitting herbs for October but the reality is it will just be practice at best.

JesterBlaze Non-Effecting Injuries: Right big toe, left big toe, right thumb, left thumb (these 4 have been in effect the whole time and I guess are just a Jiu-Jitsu thing), right middle finger, bruised left knee, bruised right knee. And my forearms feel "week in the bone" for a lack of a real description. When doing curls in the weight gym it feels as though my forearm bones are about to give out and snap arm-wrestling-horrific-accident style.

Flexibility: I can barely touch my toes when both legs are together straight in front. I can almost touch my chin to toes (about 3-4" away) during butterfly stretch. I'm at about a 90 degree angle on a sideways split - pathetically only half way to the full 180.

On A Good Note: I'm 3-1 against bigger, higher ranked opponents recently when rolling. It's easy to get caught up in technical focus when rolling... then these big boys simply lay their weight on you and it's "Back to life... Back to reality" in an internal organ jarring flash of a moment.