Fitness update: Restart, and Some Thoughts

 So, after the 100 Minutes War (which resulted in the most cut, ripped, shredded body I've had in a long time), my two-job schedule and an up-tick in court activity regarding my Old Homestead kept me away from my Insanity workouts for a few months.

I noticed an up-tick in my weight back above 205 lbs, and I simply did not feel as strong as I had before. I had switched my push-up technique to what I thought would a more proper form that would make me stronger, but by rep count went down from 37 to 20 or lower.

So I decided to start slow. I did a one-hour long "Power Yoga" workout from a thrift shop DVD to reawaken my body, then went back to the first workout in the Insanity program.

A sample of the yoga video workout I used:

The yoga went well enough. My flexibility was a smidgen better than it had been the first few times I had tried it before beginning the Insanity workouts, but as for that first Insanity workout? FORGET IT! My strength was lagging behind my cardio, and my cardio was for shit! I dogged the last few exercises, and still felt beat up when I was done. Who knew that so much of the gains I had made would go away after two months of inactivity?

I had thought to do just one week of beginning Insanity and go back to where I had left off (two weeks into the second month) but that was out of the question. If I couldn't even get through the first day? I decided to just start over from scratch.

It wasn't completely from scratch, though.  I did have that slight bit more flexibility. I was able to lift my leg higher in moves like the "Heisman."

I also had learned, discovered, and used a few things that I figured out:

Don't drink orange juice right before a workout.

Don't chug a large amount of any liquid and then jump into the work out. Begin your hydration/pre-workout supplement intake several good minutes before, so the liquid can settle and start to be absorbed.

Take small sips of whatever you drink during the workout. You can chug when you are through.

It is OK to take a few seconds extra rest if you are not ready to continue, if it is important for you to do the reps, rather than to get used to working out when you are exhausted, or to finish in a certain time. I have not been able to really work out when I am exhausted.

There is a difference between stopping because you would have to work harder, and working harder so you don't stop. It's a choice.

And finally, you may not have time to get everything you want to say into one blog post, so when time is short, just post it and move on.

Fitness Update: Return to SCA Armored Combat: 100 Minutes War 2021

That's me in the lower right corner walking away after being "killed" in the skirmish.
Photo by Joshua Gershon Feldman.
 

https://vimeo.com/648215731
You can see me running into battle and raining down blows at 0:31 and 1:34.

While a person should always strive towards fitness as a way of life and part of a complete health regimen (not "regime," as I have seen, surprisingly often, written by folks in the fitness industry). It is, however fun to have an activity goal towards which your fitness regimen is pointed. It helps give you focus, choose what exercises to do and fitness principles to follow, and gives you an objective towards which you can measure your success.

For me, medieval armored combat in the Society for Creative Anachronism is my goal this year, returning to it after some years off due to a shoulder injury and the subsequent surgery, which followed some time of from a knee injury (Well, I did do some fighting at practices and the Pennsic War, but that was, as I said, limited).

I had never done a video workout program until I found a cheap copy of BeachBody's "Insanity"  Workout with Sean T. As regular readers of this blog know, I have started that program a few times, but never got much past the first level. This time I have made it past the first level and am almost finished with the second, and though I am not doing as well in the individual workouts as I have in the past, (whether my muscles or my cardio giving way, set by set, before the end of some of the workouts, so I fail to do all the reps or last out the entire time).

So this spring and summer, when the SCA fighter practice opened up, I served as marshal, not fighting, but rather keeping an eye on the other fighters' safety and instructing where I could. I let other people borrow what armor of mine fit them, because I wasn't using it. 

The reason for this was that I still didn't feel that my shoulder was up to snuff. The strength disparity between my two shoulders is still quite great, and there are some positions towards which my arm just won't get. I can do all the mechanics of sword-swinging that I know, but the right shoulder gets tired before the left one does, and I am still not quite sure if it will hold up to a sudden strain.

So I have been making sure to do extra exercises on my shoulders. I use Indian clubs in the Insanity warmups to give just a little resistance to the arms in things like jumping jacks and the "Heisman" move. This has helped a little. I still feel like there is a ways to go.

So when I finally decided to put the armor on, I fought in the style I had been using before the surgery: Inverted great sword n my right hand, arming sword in my left. It is a style that some people do in the SCA, though I have no idea of its historicity. By holding the great sword by the ricasso (the part just above the cross--guard on the blade), the hilt is high enough to guard my head, while the blade is long enough to protect my leg (if held in the correct location).

I had not worn armor for that long continuously in what felt like years, and certainly had not fought in a melee since Pennsic 2019. But then again, most everyone else had not fought in a melee since the COVID shutdown either. Less than halfway through the battle, my left bicep was sore and tired from holding my greatsword up. I was limited in my hand use because my right-hand gauntlet was locked in a gripped position due to some damage it had taken. I was able to run to and from the resurrection point at the beginning, but towards the end the best I could manage was a brief sprint followed by a quick march.

Being as my greatsword was not as long as a spear nor wide as a shield, my effectiveness in the front line was minimal. Most of what I did, then, was stay behind the lines, direct some traffic (telling spearmen and shieldmen where they were needed based on the calls of the local commander). then, when there was a push from the other side, I would jump in to help out where I could. Sometimes that could mean pounding on someone's head, sometimes pushing against a charging shield wall, sometimes charging against several spearmen to keep them from stabbing other guys.

The battle was on a field longer than it was wide, sloping up from the ends to a crest of a ridge anout one-third of the field away from one end. At that crest there were several picnic tables and a small rock garden that were off limits to fighting. So the top of that ridge, being the narrowest part of the field, was where the battle raged, as the two armies faced each other. They fenced with spears seeking to attrit the other side until an opportunity for a push occurred. But, like the Western Front in WWI, no push made much in the way of territorial gain.

This actually was not much of a strategic problem, as this was a "resurrection" battle, meaning that when a fighter was "killed," they were to go back to their startline, where they would be counted, then "resurrected" and sent back into battle. That is what makes the 100 Minutes War such an endurance test, has a relatively stable front line when in a location like this, and was the perfect sort of battle to break our quarantine from fighting.

There were a few issues with calibration early on, but plenty of expressions of relief and joy at getting back into this mix when it was all done. 

https://vimeo.com/648215731
You can see me in the foreground at 1:45.

Some of the best moments for me:
I saw a small line of enemy shield men one rank in front of their main line. I was to their right, and a left-handed shieldman was anchoring that corner. I had decided, going into that day, that I would find an opportunity to charge across the line, knocking through spears and clonking heads as I went. i figured that this would be that time. Charged across the three spearmen to the right iof this forward line, miraculously not getting stabbed, and crashed into that left-handed shieldman. I pushed that entire group off the line.

I saw a shieldman who had joined a charge and there was no one in front of him. I stepped up and started pounding his shield repeatedly so he could not advance or swing his sword (until I got speared by someone else).

I took a spearpoint to my left arm, so I was now stuck holding my greatsword with my right arm. I found a local commander and said "I have a greatsword and one arm. Where do you need me to die?" He pointed out a mass of fighters that he said were about to charge the line, and told me to stop them when they did.

They charged, and I put my sword, body and face into the first shieldman coming at me. I held my sword horizontally at stomach height, and it wound up holding back three of the enemy. I then proceeded to rotate, using my sword to make the line wheel to their back-left. It actually took a while for the shieldman in contact with me to realize that he could simply bop me on the head!

I woudl love to tell more but this has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for a few months now and I have to move on.

But here is the punchline. When I got home that night and looked at myself in the mirros, my body looked cut! Shhredded,! more definedly muscular than I have ever seen it in my life! I guess the Insanity workouts had been helping, and then three hours in armor just really brought it all out!

Unfortunately, an uptick in my workload and increased court activity regarding my old homestead kicked my ass for the next few months and my strength and fitness level went down and weight went up. So now I am starting Insanity from the beginning all over again :(

FITNESS UPDATE: Pushups

 One of the weakest aspects of my "Insanity" workouts is the pushup. When it comes time to do any kind of pushup in the routine, I am toast. I can't do as many, as fast as Sean T demands, and I wind up having to do them off my knees, or slower, or not as deep. Or I just hit point of failure long before the set is done.

I have a long, on-again, off-again relationship with the pushup. Almost always I have been able to squeeze out at least ten, but doing any more than that has required a period of regular exercise, doing them every day, and complimenting the work with other exercises for the arms, chest, and shoulders.

There are many different ways that people do even the most basic pushup. This is a pretty good video of one very effective method.

Some years ago there was a Facebook mem going around that said "One 'like' = 5 pushups" I posted it, and got  enough likes to do 150 pushups. I turned on my camera and was able to crank out 50 before failure. I promised that I would train up to 150.

Someone sent me a link to a website that had a training regimen (no "regime." Learn your vocabulary, all you fitness gurus) that promised to get you top 100 pushups. It started from whatever number you said you could do now, then gave you a place to start and a progression that would get you there if you trained five days a week.

(I can't find that website any more)

For me this began with doing four set of 16, 20, 20,and 16 (I think) with timed rests between sets. Each day it added more pushups. I got to the point where I could do about 40 reps per set (give or take with each set), but that workout near killed me. I decided to take a rest day, and never got back to it. But 40x4 is 160, so while it wasn't in one set, I did reach my 150 in a single session.

I am nt sure if this is the same website, but it promises the same result: 100 pushups.

In time I learned different kinds of pushups. 

• There are "Hindu pushups" that involve going through a couple of yoga positions. 
• There are pushups that alternate with swinging your arm and body up sideways. 
• There are "moving pushups" where you "walk" sideways in pushup position, doing a pushup between "steps." 
• You can do pushups on your fists, and fingers, and with your hands together, making a "diamond" with your thumbs and forefingers. 
  
• You can do pushups while in a "downward dog" or "pike" position (there is a difference) in a variety of ways, and get a different result from each one.
• There are "man-makers," in which you are holding on to dumbells on your way down and up, then pull one of them up like a "row" when you get to the top. 
  
• You can swing the dumbell up in front of you when you get to the top,  instead of "rowing" it up.
• There are "pushup jacks" Where you spread you legs like doing a jumping jack when you go down, and bring them together again on the way back up.
• There is the "in-out abs" pushup, in which you start in a squat with hands on the floor, kick your feet out and do a pushup, then jump your legs back into a squat.
• There are even pushups that you can do while squatting and by going to to one elbow after another.

Each of these different kinds of pushups hits different muscles and muscle groups. Some give more of a cardio burn than others. but all of them have in common the shoulder, chest, and triceps work that defines "pushing."

So when I can't do these pushups in the routines, I felt that I am cheating myself of the full potential benefit of the program. So I decided to start doing more pushups, more often, on my own time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few videos with a variety of push-ups in each of them:

 

 

 

 

Now, at my night job, I try to do at least three sets of 20, or to failure. I try to mix up the type of pushups. Lately I have been doing the "swinging the arm up" type, the "walking" type, and the "Hindu" style, in addition to the regular ones. I also try to throw in a set at home when I am bored, or distracted or have just completed some small task, like washing the dishes or completing a portion of my day-job work, or didn't get a chance to do them at my night job.

So far my top number of reps without stopping is 29, but if I miss a few days, that number goes down. I guess I just don't have a strong enough "base layer" of fitness to be able to keep up that level fitness without constantly working at it.

So I will continue to fight the card that nature gave me, and may I will get to 50 reps soon. Maybe I will even get to the 150 I promised! Won't that be a sight!

FITNESS UPDATE: Insanity progression

Well, I made it through the first stage of "Insanity," the Beachbody workout program that I have been doing for the past couple of months. It only took me six weeks to get through the four-week stage of the program, being as I could only work out 3-5 times a week instead of the 6 days a week the program has scheduled. I don't know if this negatively impacted my progress. I do know that I did see some progress, because the "Fit Test" showed gains on most of the moves. Also, I was able to do some of the exercises better at the end than the first time around.

During the "recovery week," the program provided a specific workout to do five days in a row. It took me two weeks to get in five workout days, and I decided to alternate the ":recovery" workouts with the "upper body weight training" workouts, because I want more upper body weight training. 

I don't think this is fighting against the intention of the program too much for a couple of reasons:

1. The recovery workouts, both in this period and once a week during the regular program, are low on the cardio, as is the UBWT. 

2. Those recovery workouts focus on building strength, as does UBWT.

The one big difference is that the recovery workouts really focus on building leg strength, while the UBWT, of course, is about the upper body.

Leg strength is really important in building cardio, it seems. Most of the exercises involve variants of running, jumping, hopping, and squatting. I have found that my ability to complete a set is dependent on my cardio and my leg muscle endurance being both better, and at an equal level. I can tell when my lungs and heart are not done but the legs won't move any more, and when the legs can still do more, but I can't breathe and my heart is about to explode.

I am still using the Indian Clubs to augment my shoulder-arm workout. In fact, as I get stronger, I use them more. Although their weight combined is barely equal to my daily weight range, I can feel the resistance and it does add marginally to  my fatigue, but particularly in the shoulders.

I also notice that the way the clubs are held affects the exercize. When held at the bottom of the handle, the clubs can be swung, creating the opportunity to exercise my fingers and sword-gripping muscles (hand and forearm). Also, when at arms length, they feel heavier. If I choke up on them, I am still holding the same weight, but the stress is different. In some moves where I am supposed to pretend I am punching something, I adapt to striking them with the clubs. SCA-style.

More to come...

Fitness Update: Lessons and Realizations

A short history of Indian Clubs and their use in exercise. They are mentioned in the post below.

I started this portion of this Blog in the hopes that I would share discoveries and revelations and realizations and lessons learned and gains made after every single workout. Then it became every week. Then it became...eventually, like today.

I am realizing that my 60-hour work week, with "free time" taken up by helping my mom (who is "at that age," as they say), spending time with my GF (which MUST be prioritized!) and sleeping allows little time to do this at all. The best I can hope for is a slow period at work where I can squeeze this in. that being the case, here are some observations and achievements of the past few weeks...

I finished the first month of Sean T's BeachBody "Insanity" program (from a ten-year-old DVD set). It only took me six weeks because I could seldom get more than three or four days of workouts in per week, while it was designed for five days a week. Sometimes I threw in the "Upper Body Weight Training" workout during the "off" day of the rotations because the regular program does not do much in that regard. That specific workout has left me dizzy and even a slight ringing in my ears the way it mixes lifting weights with cardio in 4-part supersets done at high intensity, often working more than one body part per exercise.

Because I still need to focus on my surgically repaired shoulder, I would occasionally follow up a workout with a half-dozen shoulder-focused exercises from a Wai Lana yoga DVD I found in a thrift shop. There are some things that shoulder will never do again, and I am coming to the realization that I am going to have to work that shoulder out more often to get it to do certain things that it can do to do as well as the other shoulder. 

These and other workout, fitness, and yoga videos are available on Amazon.com. I get a small percentage of any purchase you make if you click on any Amazon link to get there.

 

 Mostly, right now, the trouble is the strength and the endurance. For some movements I must recruit my shoulder blade and my abdominal muscles to get the shoulder to go places it used to by itself. Those muscles are not used to working that hard to do that, and even simply rotating them tires out the new shoulder faster than the old one. 

My fitness gains are sort of a competition between my muscles and my cardio. When I started, I found that my muscles gave out before my cardio did. Maybe this was from the jogging I had done a few times? Or perhaps my base-level of fitness and the way my body has become accustomed to cardio work has stayed with me better than the muscle strength I used to have? But my muscle strength is coming back, slowly. 

 I have incorporated my Indian Clubs into my workout. While their total weight is probably less than the natural variance of my body weight on a busy day, they do add just a touch of weight resistance hen moving my arms in running- and jumping-type exercises. Adjusting how I hold them gives different effects to the act of moving them, lifting them, swinging them. Sometimes they even encourage me to do more shoulder-focused movements, which I need. 

You can shop for Indian clubs and books and videos on how to use them on Amazon.com. If you buy anything after clicking one of the links below, I get a small percentage.

 My abs are weak, but a lot of abdominal exercises in Insanity really are all about the hip flexors, those muscles that lift the legs. Mine are also pretty weak. It turns out that lifting one leg over and over again is a tougher workout than marching, or moving your legs in the same manner alternately. I guess that is because when you walk or march you give the hip flexor time to recover between each rep (or step). 

I have worked my way down from my starting max weight of 205 lbs to a minimum weight of 198, with about a 3-lb variance over the course of a day. My goal is to get comfortably under 200 with some solid muscle and less fat around my middle. I am capable of "sucking it in" with the best of 'em, showing some abdominal definition, but when I relax there is a significant pot that "dun-lopped" over my belt.

My ultimate goal is to have a functionally strong body that looks it, and to return to armored combat, grappling, and stage combat. I am a little concerned that my shoulder won't be ready and that my non-surgically repaired knee, injured last winter in a slip-and-fall, my need surgery before I return.

MORE TO COME...

Fitness Update: Lessons being learned 7/23/2021

 You can support this blog by buying this product through this link. Or click on the link and then buy a different product. Either way, I get a small percentage of the sale :)

 So I have been at the "Insanity" fitness videos for the past month or so (Click on the Amazon product ad above for more into about it). While they are designed to be done 6 out of 7 days, I am lucky to get in as many as five, more often, three or four, but I have tried to make up for some of those missing days with a 30-minute workout I found on YouTube, or a routine with various weights I have at home. This is mostly because my double-work schedule often means that if I am home and not working, I must chose between sleeping and doing anything else in the world, and sleeping is the thing that most needs to be done.

That having been said,  I have discovered a few things:

Initially, my cardio was stronger than my muscles, meaning my legs would give out before my cardio reached its peak. The muscles have been catching up a little bit, though, or else my cardio has gotten a little worse.

I need to do squats and other leg exercises with weights, because on pure body weight I am just not getting the power I need.

About 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through a set, I find my self flagging. I can dig in and do the move great about 3 or 4 times, then I fall out again.

Judging by my push-ups and chest presses, much of my chest size must be fat, not muscle.

My serratus anteriors are starting to show definition, if you look real hard.

There is a layer of fat around the middle of my torso. It juggles on my back when doing things like "floor sprints" and "in-and-out abs. It is still there, but it is "jiggling' just a little bit les, like it is becoming more solid.

My weight can vary as much a 3 lbs a day!

My weight was getting just under 200 lbs, when I went to a wedding. The next day I was at 304lbs. I could not get back under 200 lbs until just yesterday, after a couple of days in which I spent most of the daytime in bed, asleep, after working overnight shifts. Maybe that weight was just bloat from eating?

As the program goes on, I am using a pair of Indian clubs I have by carrying them in my hands through the warm-ups and some of the regular exercises. I started after the first week, and have been gradually increasing the number of sets I do with them in my hands. They combined weight is barely equal to my daily weight fluctuations, but it does add just a bit of resistance to the movement of my arms, particularly if I hold them at the ends of the handles during certain moves. I consider the number of times I pump my biceps and shoulders when jogging in place, doing the "Heisman, or jumping jacks, that little bit of resistance must be accentuating the work out here just a little bit. Eventually I will move up to wearing my steel gauntlets, which I did the last time I went though a hardcore period of these workouts.

But these workouts alone will not get me back to anything near my top physical shape, I don't think. For that I have to get back to serious weight training, fighting in armor, and doing kickboxing, BJJ, or both, five days a week. For that, I will have to quit one of my jobs.

Stay tuned...

Fitness Update: Actual "Worst Shape of My Life." Part 2

 ...but before I tell you exactly what happened, let me describe just a little bit more of my fitness journey. Bear with me, it won't take long and everything else will make more sense.

I had started fitness training (mostly weights) from the influence of a friend of mine whom I would later start dating. I found that it very positively affected my fighting in the Society for Creative Anachronism. I later took up Brazilian jiu jitsu, competing in 50 matches, and then full-contact medieval armored combat, going to world championship competition with the USA team for three years.

Here is possibly the most epic match of my competitive grappling career:

With each of these new challenges I found myself experiencing more means by which to gain strength and endurance and reached new levels of fitness. At my peak I was doing some form of training or fighting five or six days a week. My weight ranged from just under 180 lbs to a bit above 190 lbs depending on what I was training for.

In addition to the SCA armored combat and the BJJ, the training I did included weightlifting, running, Crossfit, kickboxing, Insanity videos. and various bodyweight exercise drills.

Then I tore the ACL in my right knee:

I still trained, but I was unable to fight, and when I got my knee surgically repaired, I was unable to train in certain ways until I was fully healed.

Then I tore my rotator cuff (sadly, no video of this exists). This again limited my training, as there were things I just could not do with my shoulder after that.

Then other "life stuff" got in the way and my weight ballooned to over 200 lbs. I took pictures of myself. I can "suck it in" with the best of 'em, but when I released my belly, I honestly looked like the fat guy with skinny arms.

When I decided to get back to training, I started the Insanity videos again. This time, however, I could actually feel the fat on my torso jiggling up and down when doing any routine that involved having my hands on the floor. It was disconcerting. But progress was being made. I would wear my steel gauntlets  and padded gambeson while doing Insanity videos, getting a little extra resistance and sweat in my workout...and then my room got hit with the "Order to Repair/Vacate Order"....and that brings us up to date.

So, after the yoga, and looking at my bathroom scale not making the number go down below 205, I started up with the Insanity again.

I determined that my muscles were not as strong as my cardio. They would get too sore and tired to continue before I would get too out of breath to continue. I felt the jiggling of the fat in my chest and my stomach when doing running and jumping things, and again I felt the fat around my torso bounce up and down as I did "floor sprints" and other hands-on-floor exercises.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT POST AND FIND OUT!

Fitness Update: Actual "Worst Shape of My Life." Part 1

 So, if you have been hanging on, waiting for the answers to the questions left behind in my last post on this blog, wait no longer. The answers are here:

I was unable to keep up a diet and exercise regimen to maintain my fitness gains from Pennsic 2019. Let me tell you how it went:

I got back from Pennsic and returned to my 80-hours-a-week two job schedule. this left me with little time for any kind of working out, as there were only two days a week that I was able to put together more than two hours at a time in which to sleep. It was all I could do to put on armor for the Tuesday night fighter practice.

Then, in late November, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development put my room under an "Order to Repair/Vacate Order" for lack of a fire escape, which my building manager tried to parlay into a de facto eviction. I had five days to get my stuff out of the room before it would be locked,  I took the week off from work and spent it packing and moving stuff into storage spaces while running around to lawyers and community activist groups and Housing Court to figure out my rights.

I was able to move in with my GF for a while, but by the end of that week and all the carrying of boxes and running up and down stairs, I had gone from about 225 lbs to under 215! My cardio and strength was up, and though I was an emotional, sleep-deprived wreck, I was pretty fit!

Then I had my shoulder surgery. It had been planned for months, and I needed it, because there were things I just could not do with my right arm anymore, like swing a sword or lift a drink to my mouth without sticking my elbow out sideways like John McCain.

That surgery, of course, meant that I could not fully operate my arm until the physical therapy brought it fully back. I was using the stationary bike in my GF's house and doing all the required exercises, but I still had to keep the arm in a sling for several months.

Spring, 2020 came, and with it, the COVID-19 shutdown. This prevented the local SCA from having any more fighter practices, but I kept things active by going outside every Tuesday and  conducting a "virtual" fighter practice on Facebook Live. I posted the videos on YouTube weekly, and you can actually see my arm go from being in a sling to being able to do pushups over the 15 weeks that I did this.

Here are all the videos in a convenient YouTube "playlist" and the first and last in the series:

SCA Virtual Fighter practice YouTube Playlist

 

I did have to  move again in July, and then again in October. The last time I was able to find an apartment of my own in which I could keep almost everything I had placed in storage. This required another massive move of stuff, including up and down stairs. By the time that was all done, I was down to 205 lbs.

For better or worse, during that summer I had been furloughed form one of my jobs, so I was able to do all this moving and even get in a workout once or twice a week (usually either an Insanity workout or some 30-minute, total body workout I would find on YouTube. I should start reviewing those...).

But shortly after moving into my new apartment, I got the call from the job that furloughed me that they needed me back part-time. So from then until now I have been working 60-hour weeks, with occasional weeks in which my "full-time" job would not have work for me for a day or three.

So I was back to not working out. I could not find the time, and even the weights that I used to have did not seem to have made it to my new home. I developed a routine for my shoulders at my night job, but it really was not anything that would give me cardio or visible muscular gains.

So I stumbled on some beginner yoga DVDs at a local thrift shot, bought them up, and, in February, when my "full-rime" job had barely one or two days a week for me to work, used that available time to do one DVD after another (And yes, I do intend to review those).

So that is my first tome doing yoga as a regular Thing. I have had enough experiences with various fitness, dance, martial arts, and movement programs to be able to recognize how each of these disks trained in a different way. They sent my body into positions I had forgotten I could o, and now no longer could! They al got my body out of its stiff, weak place and awakened unused muscles. It was a great way to bring a body that had been simply standing all night, sitting all day and sleeping in between back to the world of Being Active. One particular program even had a series of exercises deliberately hitting the shoulders in a way that my repaired shoulder specifically needs to be hit!

I also went running a few times. My leg muscles needed work, but I felt that my cardio was still good for the distance.

So after a few weeks I figured it was time to get back to something more intense. So I pulled out the old Insanity videos.

Now, I had gone through two or three periods of doing the Insanity program pretty seriously. but I never got far enough along to move to the upper level. Still, I could measure my relative fitness by how good I was at keeping up with the cardio and strength demands. So I did the "fit test" and came  in with numbers that were comparable to what they had been in the past, if a little lower on most of them. Then, the next day, I did the first workout...

TO BE CONTINUED!

Fitness Update: Return from Pennsic

Confession: One reason that I have been hitting the workout trail so hard is to both look good and move well at the Pennsic War this year. For those unfamiliar with Pennsic, here is the trailer for a documentary I made with Simply the Best G.A. West:

So I went to Pennsic. In the year that I was in "the worst shape of my life," I would go out to the battlefield in the morning to marshal the battles (I was recovering from knee injury) and that knocked me out for the day. In successive years I made sure I had some fitness going on so I could marshal or fight and still recover soon enough to do things before the sun went down. This year I can say that such was the case again.

I only fought one battle due to my shoulder injury. It was the bridge battle, and no, I did not hurt myself worse. In the four rounds, I died in two "glory charges" against an advancing enemy and the killed three people in one battle and one in another.

I marshaled other battles, and though I was capable of being active the rest of the day, it actually turned out that I did not go around much. I felt an overall felling of low energy the entire event, and it was not the same kid of out-of-shape fatigue I had before.

I suspect it has to do with diet and energy drinks. Because I am currently working multiple jobs and long hours many days, I frequently don;t get much sleep and use a variety of energy drinks to keep myself going. Depending on the time of day, the task at hand, and what is available I may use 5-hour energy, Arizona Extreme Energy, Red Bull, Monster, or some random alternate-brand energy drink that is low-cost, on sale, or right in front of me. I have learned when it's time to chug and when to sip. I know that one does not have to finish a whole can in one sitting. Sometimes I believe the taste of a 5-hour energy is more Pavlovian or placebo in its effect, and make sure I am not hungry when I use it so I don;t wash the taste from my mouth.

At Pennsic, I made an effort to not use energy drinks as much as possible. I did not quit cold turkey, but for the most part I was able to avoid them. This may have been why I felt low-energy so much. Fortunately, except for marshaling and fighting there was not much need for energy this year (and those activities usually pick me up by themselves, no chemical additives necessary).

I also notice my diet was different at Pennsic than in NYC. On most days I have a big bowl of high-fiber cereal in the morning, a lunch of rice & beans with roast pork or bacolao and a dinner of leftover lunch or (if at my overnight job) a roast beef hero. This diet also includes 2% milk, orange juice, and snacks of nuts and dried fruits, chocolate candies like Snickers Peanut Butter and Reese's Nutrageous, and yogurt. The occasional chicken burrito, lamb gyro, pork shish-kebab, or ice cream cone gets in there as well. And I drink green tea every day.

With this diet I had been maintaining a small gut that has stuck with  me for the past few years. I was just starting to see some results from the Insanity workouts and switching to vegetables instead of extra beans for lunch.

At Pennsic I ate less, and was more careful about what. I had cereal, yogurt, and orange juice at breakfast, but when given the option at lunch or dinner, I would choose a salad over french fries. I would have a double scoop of ice cream after a battle and a moderate turkey-and-ham cold-cut sandwich later for lunch, and not eat again until dinner. There was little rice, no pasta, and again, few energy drinks. There was also less snacking (though I did make sure to have a couple of pickles every day).

When I got back to the city I looked at myself. I was slimmer! I don't know if I lost weight (I don't own a scale) but my serratus anteriors had returned! I did an Insanity workout and I was not feeling that fat roll on my back!

Now the question is: can I adjust my NYC diet and keep up my exercise level to maintain and advance these gains?

And more intensely, what will my forthcoming shoulder surgery mean for my fitness regimen?

Stay tuned!

FITNESS UPDATE 7/23/2019

So, again it has been a while since my last post. I can let the cat out of the bag now. The objective for which I was training was the TV show "Knight Fight." I had been invited to be on the show and, despite my torn rotator cuff (more about that someday) figured I would be the "(my age) comeback kid." I worked out like a fiend to get in shape, even feting back into the full-contact arena at Sword Class NYC. In the end, however, they decided to cut me before my episodic was to be shot, and I would up watching it from Emblem Sports Bar with the members of the NY chapter of the Armored Combat League (including several fighters who were on the show).

But then I got cast in some plays, and was not making it to the gym as often, so my fitness diminished. I made up for it a bit by bicycling to the rehearsals, and the rehearsals did include a strong dance element, which was good. But when spring came back around, those jogs around the lawn were tougher than hey had been at the end of last summer.

So about two months ago I made the decision to get back on the fitness track. I did not feel like I was in the "top 5" of the worst shape of my live (the bicycling and dance were keeping me active) but I was definitely "fatter" than I have ever bee. Those 34-waist pants have not closed around my waist in a few years now. My serratus anteriors had disappeared. I had that fat roll under my arms that connects the back to the chest that football linemen have.

Now, I still have that torn rotator cuff (looking at surgery very soon), so there are certain things I cannot do with my right arm. But I still have those "Insanity" workout DVDs, so I have been using them.

More to come.

FITNESS UPDATE

I have been remiss in updating my fitness, nd there has been lots to talk about, good and bad.

But I only have time for this:

Last night I ran four laps around a particular lawn in McCarren park in Brooklyn with greater ease than I ran three at the beginning of the summer

:)

UNLOCKED!

Next step: add my helmet or run another lap. Or both.

#fightingfit #brooklynfitness #runningforfitness

Return to Training: New Boxing Gym

So, as regular followers of this blog may be aware, I have gotten back  into physical training lately. As part of that, a couple of months ago I visited a boxing gym around the corner from a place where I work. It is called Supreme Team Boxing. They also have MMA, kickboxing, muay thai, and BJJ. I signed up for a “ten-pack” of boxing classes that also allowed me to use the gym for doing my own workouts for a limited time.

For the first few weeks I failed to find the time to work their classes into my schedule. I tried the weight room, but being as this is more of a martial arts school than a fitness center, there was not the variety of benches, chairs, racks, and machines as one would expect. I was able to do some lifts and presses, and was not displeased by my strength level, though I know it is far lower than it has been during my periods of hard training.

The next time I went I decided to hit the mats when they were not being used and do some BJJ warm-ups and other equipment-free exercises. This was the first time I had done this sort of thing since before going to the IMCF world championships in 2014. My ACL injury had kept me from doing much grappling and after my surgery and recovery I had not gone back.

I nearly died. Even the simplest things, like forward and back rolls, were near-impossible. Moves that required push-up strength and grappling endurance beat me like an after-school bully. I pushed through as best as I could, and walked out of there with the realization that I had a way to go before I would be back in the fighting shape I used to be.

My gym membership at Absolute Power in my neighborhood had expired a year and a half ago. I had been going to the SCA fighter practices over the summer at which I would do three laps around the lawn before putting on my armor (down from my usual 5 laps that I had been doing for years). I had even done my combination run/workout at least once a week, either in my neighborhood or that of my GF. I had been noticing gradual improvements in my performance. I was already starting to be able to run further, I was advancing from doing one to two pull-ups at a time, and so forth. I was still well below my “fighting shape” performance metrics, however, so my substandard performance in the gym was not really a surprise.

So I kept on coming back for the next few weeks. I would play superhero movie themes or 1950’s rockabilly to get me energized. Then one day I realized I had time to try the boxing class…

Report on McGregor-Mayweather Fight Night...and its Impact on the Internet

NOTE: Though this blog was originally about the production of a grappling movie, it now encompasses news and thoughts about fight sports and my personal training for fight sports such as submission grappling, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and various types of medieval armored combat and "historical fencing.")

Lat night I found myself at a time and place and financial situation that I felt like watching the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor. So I did..

It was a very interesting night of boxing, more interesting than several UFC nights I have seen. Not only was the boxing technique displayed at a high level,but also the fight science was very sound.

On top of that, the main event did not disappoint. It was billed at the most anticipated fight of all time, between a flamboyant, outspoken, controversial MMA fighter, and a flamboyant, controversial boxing champions. But there were also three other bouts broadcast on the Pay-Per-View program at the bar where I watched it.

Cruiserweight: Andrew Tabiti def. Steve Cunningham. This was the first bout of the night. Tabiti had speed and agility on his side. Cunningham was aggressive early, but lost his effectiveness as the fight went on. At the end of the bout, when Tabiti was awarded the win by the judges, a guy who was practically cosplaying McGregor said that Tabiti did a great job controlling the fight, that he had figured out Cunningham and just picked him apart. I could see that, too,.

Tabiti had fought with a very open guard. His fists were not close together in front of his face, as you might think boxer would do. Cunningham, on the other hand held that pose for most of the fight. Tabiti repeatedly picked this guard apart. He would shot a left jab between those hands, bringing Cunningham's arms higher. Then he would deliver a right hook to the body that would shake up Cunningham. This would bring the arms down again, Then Tabiti would either deliver a blow to the head or body with a left or right that would finish the combination. Cunningham did not have an answer for this.

Light heavyweight: Badou Jack def. Nathan Cleverly
Nathan Cleverly, the champion of this division, entered with a black headband that reminding me of nothing less that Ralph Macchio's adversary in Karate Kid. The fighters looked to be even, matching each other with quick, short, technically excellent combinations. I was distracted by certain other peple at the bar, so I did not watch much else of the fight. I did look up in time for the fifth round, however, where I noticed that Jack was getting the advantage on Cleverly. He was landing blows repeatedly as the champion bobbed and weaved in an attempt to not get hit.

Jack treated Cleverly's head like one of those rubber ball-shaped speed bags that are elastically tethered to the floor and ceiling. He would time the bob, measure the weave, and nail Cleverly's head right when it came to the apex of its move. Eventually the referee saw that Cleverly was not able to compose a counterattack to Jack's offense, and stepped in to stop the fight. This gave Jack the championship of the Light Heavyweight division.

Junior lightweight: Gervonta Davis def. Francisco Fonseca
This was a wild fight! Apparently Davis is a bit of a loose cannon. He entered the ring wearing a blue fuzzy hood, and had the same blue fake fur on the sides of his trunks. He certainly was loose in the match. At one point the Davis got his weight below Fonsceca, his arms around his legs, and lifted him up as if he was going to dump him on the ground. The referee stopped this, of course, but it definitely colored my impression of him, and made me want to see him get beat.

This feeling was increased by Davis' style of holding his hands behind his back and sticking his chin out, daring Fonseca to knock his block off.

I really wanted to see Davis' wildness and unsportsmanlike conduct be defeated by control and skill from Fonseca, but instead of that happening, Fonseca fought hard, but not well enough. After a blow that passed over his head contacting the back of his head and neck with David's arm, Fonseca fell to his knees. He grabbed Davis around the waist until the referee broke up the engagement and started counting Fonseca down.

Though the blow did not seem that hard, Davis could not get up. He stayed on all fours, trying desperately to bring some life back to his legs, for the duration of the count.

I have seen a fighter in the Armored Combat League literally collapse from exhaustion in the middle of the fight. His body just quit on him. It just up and shut down right there in the ring. Sometimes you can push the body too far.That's what it looked like happened to Davis to me. He simply pushed his body to far, and it shut down.

Super welterweight: Floyd Mayweather Jr. def. Conor McGregor
 This was what everyone came to see. Two flamboyant, loud-mouthes fighters with attitude punch each other silly. Could an MMA fighter focus enough on boxing skills to stay in the ring with a boxing champion? Was Mayweather past his prime? These were just a few of the questions going into the fight, but the smart money was on the guy with the 49-0 record.

McGregor came on early, aggressively striking Mayweather with well-targeted punches. His style was...unorthodox, you might say, which is to be expected. His MMA style is unorthodox. He trains to move as his body wills and focuses those movements into strikes and grappling, so a sport like boxing, which limits your toolset to that which enables you to punch the head and torso, will be awkward.

Some of this awkwardness really showed when McGregor would wind up taking Mayweather's back, and pummeling him on the back of the head. Such a move is not exactly allowed in boxing, and the referee had his hands full trying to keep that sort of thing to a minimum.

McGRegor also showboated a little bit, putting his hands behind his back and sticking his chin out like Davis had in the match before. Bu this outcome was not the same.

Mayweather is a professional boxing champion. He has won every professional boxing match he has ever fought. He got this.

A the fight went into the 6th, 7th, and 8th rounds, Mayweather's fists, which had been quiet at the start, began to come to life. McGregor's face started feeling the leather. It began to become obvious that he was goingwhere he wanted to in the ring, that McGregor, despite being taller and appearing to be more aggressive, was not really the one in control of the situation.

Between the 9th ant 10th rounds, I had to go to the bathroom. By that time I ahd been standing on my feet at this bar/club for over three hours, and that was after the better part o the day spent walking through a museum and standing around in armor at a wedding (I got paid to "officiate" a "Game of Thrones"-style wedding in Chicago that day as a knight. It was awesome). I was fighting sleep and shifting my weight back and forth on my feet. So I rushed down to the men's room and did my business as fast as I could.

When I got back up to the club floor, the place was erupting. Mayweather had turned it up a notch. He was pursuing McGregor, and it was apparent that any time he sent his fists in the direction of McGregor, they would land on his face and body. Mayweather had been measuring McGregor the whole fight, figuring out his timing, his style, his beats, his tells, and now he had the formula to defeat the crazy Irishman.

More than that. McGregor was gassed. His moves had lost precision, his hands were hanging low, and he was breathing heavy. With each blow, the bearded, tattooed warrior's coordination declined. His steps evolved into a stagger.

There is a subtle difference between "obvious" and "apparent." I'm not sure which of those terms indicates a greater degree than the other, but when one became the other, the referee (who had spent a little extra time before the bout explaining how he was going to be a stern, but "hands-off" referee) stepped in between them and called the fight, giving the victory to Floyd Mayweather by technical knockout.

It was a brilliant game plan, worthy of a champion, and it worked.

I found this very interesting, fascinating and exciting, particularly because I had been chatting all night with the Connor McGregor cosplay who had bet a thousand dollars on him, and because the crowd was very partisan, between the ones rooting for McGregor and the ones rooting for Mayweather (the Mayweather fans were chanting "USA! USA!" While the McGregor fans were of a diversity that would rival that of the "very fine" people and everyone else who was  allegedly or actually protesting the removal of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville). I found it so fascinating, in fact, that I feslt the urge to post on my Facebook wall:

"For the record : Mayweather did what a champion does."

HOO-BOY! What a ruckus that raised!

Now, I am not a man who watches TMZ religiously. Not do I tend to follow celebrity news much at all. So I completely missed all that business about Floyd Mayweather beating up women. Of course, my Facebook friends did not forget. Below are a smattering of the responses from Facebook:

"fixed"
"Beat women?"
"Get lots and lots of money for achievements of questionable value?" 
 "He earned his money in the ring.....he might not have earned it anywhere else and he is a shit human being....but he won fair and square"
"...Had he not brought so much money into the city of Las Vegas, it seems highly unlikely that he would have received multiple sentences so far below the norm for those crimes.
Had he not been a successful boxer, he would be in jail not in a ring.
Had he not been a successful boxer, he would be the statistic he deserves to be.
You cannot separate the boxer from the criminal misogynist. They're the same guy."
"The term "champion" is so hollow on him as to not apply. He is a very skilled boxer. I hope someone karmas the crap out of him in a dark alley."

HOLY FREAKIN' WOWSHITS! WHAT DID I JUST STEP INTO!?!


I felt a need to explain/defend myself...


" In my defense, in my casual awareness of the event last night and even lesser awareness of boxing since Evander Holyfield lost his ear, i watched the fight last night in a vaccuum. I was paying attention to the techniqes, strategy, and fight science used. I was intrigued by tho possibilities of a very successful mma fighter stepping into a fight in which he was not allowed to use all of his tools. Also, i had never seen Mayweather box before, and was wondering what made him win so much. So i was ignorant of any other considerations when i made my post."

...and the love just kept coming...

"Ok. So the answer is: "Fight an unworthy challenger in a fixed system where he gets his ass kicked for 5 rounds.""
"fixed"

 "Showing poor sportsmanship by fighting people he knows he can beat? Accepts challenges from good fighters after they are no longer in their prime?"

Sometimes you just can't win. Or even enjoy a professional prize fight.

Fitness Update - the Sequel

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Let's just say i am not yet at my physical peak yet.

I went to the gym as often as I could with my life the way it was going, which meant some months I could go a couple or three times a week, and sometimes I would go weeks without getting to it. My membership ultimately expires\d, and my finances were not in a place to re-up. I got new jobs and new income, but that gym had removed the punching bag and timer that they used to have, which are two things I really valued about it.

I got new employment and a new income, and my commute involves a lot of walking and going up and down subway stairs, but my body must already be acclimated to that, because it is really not changing my physique or endurance or strength.

But I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that I have progressed to "skinny fat guy" (well, it may ot be all that bad, but I have a critical eye). I am not as bad as I was when I was in the "worst shape of my life," but I can say this: Last year I was able to do five laps around a certain lawn in a park where we have the weekly fighter practice of the Society for Creative Anachronism. This year I am doing three laps. I used to do three circuits of a "fitness route" in my neighborhood. Now I can barely get to two on a good day. And my gut is still sticking out farther than my chest if I don't suck it in.

I have a picture of me from that "worst shape of my life" period, and I don't looks bad as that, but I am still not really happy. I just got back from the Pennsic War, and definitely noticed a lack of endurance at the end of a long woods/resurrection battle. I was able to get through the whole battle without taking off my helm to rest but once (during a long general "hold"), but in the second half I had definitely lost a spring in my step and was not commuting in and out of resurrection point as quickly as I had in, say, 2006.

I also lack the arm strength I used to have. I cannot do nearly as many pull-ups as used to (though that may also be a result of my increased weight, somewhere between 206 and 211 these days).

I have been, however, doing those "fitness routes" at least twice a week, and doing the SCA fighter practice every Tuesday. However poorly I did at Pennsic, conditioning-wise, I know I would have done worse had I not been doing that.

Oddly, however, I went for a run this morning and found my body unresponsive. I felt fat and stiff, as if I had forgotten how to run.  It may be fatigue from wearing and fighting in armor on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, combined with the stiffness that comes from sitting in a car for 8 hours for the ride home. But I did feel a bit more loosened up by the end of the run.

So I am gong to SCA fighter practice tomorrow, and wil do my three-lap run and drills, and then may put the armor back on. I look forward to getting back to a regular workout schedule so I can look, feel, and perform better soon!

Fitness update. Not there yet

so I started gong to the gym. First it was twice a week, doing 15 minutes on the eliptical and a full-body circuit on the weights. After a few weeks I switched to a 2-day split, pulling exercises and pushing exercises. Then I added a day for legs. I was feeling stronger, my body mass was shifting from fat to muscle, and I was adding weight and resistance to my exercises.

Then one day I found myself having to run three blocks to catch a bus. In combat boots. Pulling a small suitcase.

When I got to the bus there was a great cheer from all the passengers (no there wasn't, but I like to think there was). But I was out of breath, like I had been fighting in armor for a minute or so. In the course of the run my legs got tired lifting up those heavy boots. I realized what it was: I am still out of shape.

I went into the gym his week and decided to do functional movements; the warm-up exercises that we would do in Brazilian jiu jitsu class, for instance. They kicked my ass. These were things that wee never "easy," but in time, I was able to do. Now it's a drag to do more than one or two reps.

All those months of "healing" did my conditioning no favors. We got a lot of work to do.

The good news is that I discovered that yes, I can run again. The knee is no longer the problem. Now I an run every day if I want to. And I think I shall.

Look out world!

Worst shape of my life...

It's official. I am in the worst shape of my life.

For those of you who have been following this blog (wait, that's not you? You're not the guy? Oh well, I know he's out there somewhere...) you may be wonding where I have been. for those who have not see tnis blog of mine before (I expect that woud probably include you. Yeah, and you too.) you are probably wondering what this blog is and why I decided to post here now.

This blog was started when I began producing my first feature the film I now call "Redemption: find Out What You're Worth." It was a Rocky/Karate Kid - type sports-redemption story set in a world of submission grappling. After the film was completed I kept this blog alive chronicling my adventures in the grappling world, mostly training and competing (my competition record: 3 wins, 46 losses, 2 draws).

Since then, my martial arts and filmaking endeavors have migrated to full-contact medieval armored combat in armor with blunt steel weapons. I have been chronicling that in my regular "Captain Zorikh" blog at http://zorikh.blogspot.com/. But now I fel an urge to return to this blog.

The term "redemption," to my mind, means finding the value of yourself. If you find the value is too low, you have the opportunity to do something about it. Through work, effort, and dedication you can increase your worth, thus truly earning a worthwhile redemption.

In late september of 2013 I tore my right ACL at a tournament in Ontario fighting a Ukrainian-Canadian. You can see the action here:

Still I fought in the International Medieval Combat Federation world championships in Belmonte, Spain in the spring of 2014, leading tha All-on-All team in the "Kill the King" scenario. In late October of that year I had the surgery to repair the ACL. since then I have been recovering and therapizing my knee. But I have not been working out, fighting, or training. In short, I have been sitting and eating a lot (and writing and editing videos, but that's for my other blog).

Then I went to the Pennsic War this year (the largest medieval event in the Western Hemisphere). I used to fighti in battles like this...

By recommendation of the doctor and the therapist, I did not fight in the battles this year, but instead marshaled (that's those guys in the black tabbards with the crossed yellow swords. They are there to keep everyone safe and make sure folks are following the rules).

I wasn't ready. I couldn't handle the heat, and after marshaling a battle in the morning, I was exhausted and sleepy the rest of the day. This is not too surprising. I have not seen the underside of 200 lbs since the surgery, my waist is now over 35 inches, and I have not been outside an air-conditioned room for an extended period of time since last summer.

I knew I wasn;t at my best, but I took pictures of myself to post as "before" pictures. They are so disgusting that I am not even ging to post them until I have decent "during" and "after" pictures.

What really disgusts me is that I was doing "Insanity" workouts before the surgery, in addition to all the fighting and training that I had been doing, so I must have been in pretty good shape back then.

So I got myself a gym membership and I am going to sue it. Hopefully I will make enough money soon to re-join a martial arts school, get back on the grappling mats. And I know I will be putting armor on again in about a month.

So hold on tight, it's going to be a wild ride until I look like this 2011 picture again:

I Hate/Love This Sport

I just got back from by first ECU BJJ class in a while (my new work schedule had kept me away) and I have to say one thing:

I hate this sport.

I hate the agony of the physical exertion needed to go through the warm-ups. I hate the feeling of  sheer terror and uncertainty I feel when sailing through the air and not knowing how, where, or when I will land when being the victim of a properly executed throw. I hate the feeling of suffocation when underneath a smothering side mount. I hate the feeling of panic I get when I realize I can't breathe and have to tap or pass out.

But you know, after tapping out, I bounce up and I am ready to do it again. Maybe I enjoy the feeling of relief and rebirth that I get when the other guy gets off of me. Maybe I dig the look that the hard work and exercise gives to my body. Maybe I enjoy the near-post-orgiastic afterglow of a good long hard training session. Maybe I enjoy the testosterone rush that I get from the exertion. Maybe I like the challenge of seeing just how far I can push myself, how much I can learn, how well I can apply what I have learned in a fight. Maybe I enjoy the comraderie and support I get from my teammates. Maybe I just like feeling like a badass fighter when I walk down the street with my hood up, my gear bag in one hand and my Muscle Milk shaker cup in the other.

I love this sport.

Latest training blog

Report for last three weeks' training.

Forgive me, I have boon so busy with work and other things that I have neglected the blog. But I have been continuing my weekly trainings at East Coast United BJJ. I have also been working out in the gym with G.A. West, wearing a 10 lb armored coat of plates.

For the last three weeks I have been discovering in the free rolling that I do have some knowledge of certain basic principles, and have been using them. the idea of keeping your legs in front of you to prevent side mount; the idea that being in someone's guard is better then being under their mount or having your back taken; the concept of knowing when to relax, because you are just wasting energy; I have been finding submission attempts and escapes where before I would not know what to do and tap out or stall.

I have been paired with people who invariably have at least one of the following: more strength, more endurance, more energy, more training, more skill (all things considered, that is not very difficult to find in a BJJ school). I have ben able to avoid submissions and even score a couple submissions, a lot more than I used to. I guess this is what they mean by "progress."

I have been told that I am now pretty strong and have good energy, entrance, and skill. It's just a matter of putting it all together. As one guy said, "Stop being a spaz."

I am looking at competing in The Good Fight next month http://www.thegoodfight.tv/. We will see how much I have progressed and can avid "spa zing out" there!

Training week, RGL coming...

I did not get to the gym this week (phone problems, don't ask, but I did train at home a little bit, doing bodyweight exorcizes and jumping jacks, and I got to ECU BJJ on Thursday.

This week our warm-ups were different. Instead of the usual rolls, sprawls, and other movements across the floor, we did hopscotch and what I call "bridge-and-tunnel." The we studied the arm-bar, a way to block it, and a way to counter the block, then we drilled, drilled, drilled. When we were done drilling, we had three rounds of sparring.

My first round was with another white belt, stronger and heavier than me, but will less experience. Though I was not able to submit him, I was able to try an execute several technical moves, including some interesting angles on which to apply a triangle.

In the next round I went up against a much more skilled and experienced fighter. He was able to deny every attempt at passing the guard and submit me a couple of times. At one point I stopped to examine method of passing guard by getting both arms under the opponent's legs. I had been getting caught in guillotines when I had tried that recently, and I learned a few new principles. It seems that it is trouble to leave your head in the guy's stomach when getting a group there. You have to either be buried between his legs, or sit up fast ti pull his legs up and get his hips close to yours.

The last round was with the strong, aggressive white belt I had trained with my first week back. After he got me in a quick guillotine, when we re-set, I was able to deny his speed and aggression by going to my back and getting him in guard. He was strong enough to keep me from executing any submissions at that point, but he never got past my guard in over 5 minutes.

After class, I asked the experienced grappler about the execution of a certain type of sweep from guard. It involves bringing your chest up, and I kept on getting stiff-armed in the chest. we figured out that what I need to do is get the stiff-arm hand blocked away from my chest for the duration of the move. There is a way to do that which involves using my arm to guide the opponent's arm out of the way as I sit up. We'll see how that works.

One of the instructor's said I was getting better, showing good technical work in the rolling today. That makes me feel good. I still feel I am lacking a lot of skill and some aggression, and I certainly have forgotten a lot over the couple of months I missed training this summer. I just hope I can pick it back up soon.

This weekend I have been invited to compete in the Renegade Grappling League tournament at an event in the Bronx. This is the same organization that gave me those epic, three-round matches that you can see on YouTube. We will see how I do this time.

SO I took a week off from working out, swordfighting, and bjj last week as a result of Thanksgiving schedules, though I did run twice, confirming that I have about 75% of the stamina I had about a year ago, when I started with ECUBJJ. This week, I worked out with G.A. West twice, with a new emphasis on cardio and less on weights. In addition to trying to up my endurance, I am also trying to drop about 5 pound to make 185 lbs since Peter Storm invited me to compete in the 185 lbs division of his Renegade Grappling League tournament on December 11 (will post details as soon as available). So in between sets of bodyweight exercises, I did jumping jacks. Jots of jumping jacks. A total of 1000 for the work out. My right calf, already sore from running, is still feeling it.

So I went to ECU last night. My across-the-floor warm up is beginning to pick up pace. My push-ups are deeper, and my sit-out drill is slowly creeping up in pace.

WE focused on a particular method of gaining the triangle choke from guard., involving swinging the leg like you do in part of standing up in base from a sit-out. This started feeling like the kind of jiu jitsu that is a step above "basic." To me, "basic" involves being pretty much rooted to the ground and doing things that are slow progressions. This particular move feels dynamic and "swoopy." It's actually kind of fun. We drilled the heck out of it, which is very good for me. I noticed that one par of the move, in which the hips are lifted to move the opponent's arm across his face, can flow organically out of the move where the legs are crossed behind his head. By the end of the drills, I felt very confident about the move, and like a more skilled fighter.

Then we rolled. I was first partnered with a fellow who had advanced from white to blue belt some months ago, and whom I had gotten into that "Tarzan" hold two weeks ago. He must have been very fatigues when I fought him then, because he showed be a degree of skill and energy that I had never seen from him before. He was aggressively moving all over and around me, while I felt pretty much rooted to the ground and lacking dynamism in my game. I was able to hold off a few submission attempts and even escape from a few dominant positions he gained on me, bus his techniques and energy were able to deny and escape anything I tried.

Next I fought the skilled, technical guy I had fought the previous class. He was pretty conservative in his game, which didn't matter too much because his strength and skill were greater than mine, but I did manage to escape a pretty tight rear naked choke from him and survive being under full mount and side mount. I tried the side-mount escape in the latest ECUBJJ YouTube video, but he was too strong for me.

Finally I fought a brand new guy, bigger, stronger, and younger than me, but had only started a few months ago. I was able to mount him twice, and he mounted me once, but I failed to gain any submissions.

Jojo is being very encouraging to me, talking to me about what it takes to advance and get better. I will be bringing my camera to some upcoming ECU seminars and new locations soon.

Here's that video of the escape from side mount I referred to...


I have got to figure out a way to get more training into my life.