Tag Archives: bjj

Weight, Training, and Other Misc. Stuff

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I finished my 1st 10 week challenge with Max Fitness.  I lost 7 pounds.  I’m pretty proud. 😀  Hopefully I can keep it up!  I want to fit into an A2 gi by the end of summer.  I’ve been getting to training (karate and bjj) pretty regularly, in addition to my morning max fitness class.

I had a epiphany the other day–I was trying to figure out why I have managed to stick with the fitness class, when in the past I have been very unsuccessful at staying at fitness classes–I stay at karate and bjj because I feel like I am learning a skill (well, gosh, cause I am) and that keeps my interest.  But then I realized–I have known for some time that I needed to increase my workout to get in better shape for both my karate and bjj.  But I did not have the inner motivation to work out in my house.  My new fitness class gives me that motivation.  And this is the actual epiphany--I am sticking with the fitness class because I know it will increase my ability in my karate and bjj classes–and I have definitely seen an improvement in my strength and cardio since I started my fitness class…positive reinforcement, people!

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

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This week felt pretty good training wise, particularly BJJ.  The last couple of weeks I personally have felt a little out of it because I was not at class for so long, and I think everyone was still recovering from the holidays cause attendance was low.  But this week seemed to solve both of these things.  I didn’t feel completely BJJ-lacking, and many of our regular classmates (and some new ones, yay!) were in class.  Next weekend is the end of this “cycle” so we are having a stripe test.  I originally figured I wasn’t going to be ready, but after class on Thursday I feel a little more confident.  I’ll make my final decision after next Thursday’s class…but I’m probably going to go.  I also feel more confident about competing in March…again, I didn’t think I would be up to it, but I now realize I have a whole month to train and get ready..so..why not?

I am happy to report that my scale reports I have lost 4.5 lbs, and I am pretty dang excited about that…I’ve been sticking to my nutrition plan for 4 weeks, and approx a pound a week is a nice average.  yay!  I wish I could stick to my nutrition plan better over the weekend, I probably would see some better results, but I start my Saturdays really early and end them really late, and even when I bring food with me, I end up still being hungry-ish.  Oh well.  I will do the best I can, and make sure to be super on task during the week, and not go crazy over the weekend.

Random Ramblings

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My scale says I lost 3 pounds.  I am maybe excited.  If next Friday when I weigh myself again, I still have lost 3 pounds, I will officially be excited.  I hope this is a sign that the strict food consumption and exercise is paying off.  But, even if not, I oddly enjoy waking up at 4:30 am to go to a 5 am class every morning M-F.  Who knew?  Although, I look forward to summer, when I can get up, go to class, come home, take a shower and GO BACK TO BED.  😀

I am slowly getting back into the swing of my training, last week I made it to karate twice, although I skipped BJJ–mainly cause I fell asleep after work and didn’t have anything prepared for Friday–not clothes, nor food, so…sadly, BJJ lost out.  Hopefully this week I will make karate on Mon. and Thurs. and BJJ on Thurs.  This is my goal.

My hopefully additional goal for the week is to get the pile of clean clothes that is currently living on my bed folded and put away so I can sleep on my bed…hmmm…I don’t know how lucky I will be with that one…I hate folding clothes!!! LOL!

Welcome Back!

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I’m not sure if I am welcoming readers or myself back, but here we are, either way.

The past 6 months or so have been insane in my personal life, and as a result anything (and everything else) ground to a complete halt.  This mainly was due to my finishing my masters degree (in biology, of all things).  My life was consumed with writing a paper and giving a presentation, taking my last grad class, and taking (and passing) my exit exam.  Oh, yea, and I had work, too.  And that insanity finished just in time for the holiday madness.  So, here I am, finally feeling somewhat recovered, and trying to remember what it is like to have extra time.

It finally occurred to me a few days ago that I like to read..I hadn’t read a non-science related paper/article/book in I don’t know when…so now I am devouring books on my Kindle like the written word is going out of style.

I am getting back into the swing of things training wise..since August, I have only been at karate once a week, and BJJ not at all.  The 6 weeks prior to the holiday I started a fitness program being held at our gym, called MAX fitness.  If you are in the NJ area, you can check it out at http://www.10weekfitness.com.  It has both a nutrition and exercise component, and I need both!  I enjoyed it, so I am continuing it into the new year.  And by enjoy, I mean, I am willing to get up at 4:30 am to go to a 5 am class 5 days a week.  One of the best things I like about it is that the exercise program is the format:  MWF cardio; Tues arm strengthening; Thurs leg strengthening.  I need the strengthening desperately, I have little T-rex arms!   

I have been saying for over a year I wanted to do extra workouts beyond my martial arts training, but I just am not motivated to do so on my own.  Exercise/training is definitely a social activity for me, and now that I have learned this, I am more successful then ever in the past.  I hope I will be able to stick with the nutrition program, that is the hardest part for me.  I like food. 😀

Anyway, I hope now that I have time again, that I will be able to devote some more time for blogging, I have missed both writing and reading and commenting on blogs. Well, once I remembered that I used to blog, cause I forgot….LOLS   😀

 

Reblog

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I feel like i haven’t written in so long…mainly cause my dojo recently started an “online dojo” so I’ve been helping getting people talking and discussing stuff on the online forums there…so I figured I’ll just repost the post I just posted there 🙂 (hmm…how many times can you get the word “post” into one sentance?

Osu everyone!

BJJ (or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or Grappling) is often classified as a “male dominated sport”, but there’s lots of females who enjoy it immensely (myself included). I’ve been very excited to see our BJJ class here at Satori grow and see more females join in for the fun!

From talking with other females, one of the biggest turn-offs to BJJ for girls is the close proximity. Can’t blame you! But if you can get past that, BJJ is lots of fun, especially if you are a fan of strategy games *grinz*. Additionally, not enough can be said about being able to defend yourself from the ground.

It is really intimidating to try something new, especially when you are stepping onto a mat filled with males. I was incredibly nervous the first time I went to a BJJ class–and felt dumb about it–I knew the facility, I knew the people–I think it was harder for me to start doing BJJ then it was for me to walk into the dojo for the very first time–explain that one to me!

In any case, after my first class, I was addicted, and promptly went searching online for other females who enjoyed BJJ as much as I did (I wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one!), and what I found was an amazing online community of female BJJ bloggers who had lots of great advice.

My goal for this post is to share some of the BJJ blogs I read on a regular basis–check them out–and I encourage ANYONE to come out and try our BJJ class–you won’t regret it! 🙂

In no particular order:

Fueled by Fear http://devbjj.blogspot.com/

Georgette’s Jiu Jitsu World http://georgetteoden.blogspot.com/

You Want Me To Put My Head Where? http://jiujitsunista.blogspot.com/

BJJ Grrl http://bjjgrrl.wordpress.com/

In addition, I just treated myself to a gift from B&N–Jiu Jitsu University, by Saulo Ribeiro. It was suggested to me by one of blog-friends, and since then I have been distracted from the 100’s of other things I SHOULD be doing! It has step by step pictures, instructions, a brief history of the sport, and is just filled with information. Of course, no book can take the place of class, but it is an amazing reference piece. Of course, it came with a hefty $40.00 price tag, but I think it was worth it.

Ciao! Hope to see everyone on the mat!

Regina

Spazzy BJJ girl and cool seminar by Tom Callos

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One of the new girls at bjj is SPAZZY!!!  Lisa tried to talk to her, but there was no go there…and she got all up in Lisa’s face, which Lisa didn’t take very well (and I think was kinda rude, since Lisa is an adult and the girl is a teenager…)…We were drilling how to start a roll from our knees, and getting into an armbar from there.  Lisa said the girl was throwing her to the ground like they were in a gold metal match…so when it came to sparring, we switched, and I sparred with her…I let her just drain herself of energy pushing and fighting to get out of my guard…lol….she was too strong for me to try to submit, but had absolutely NO technique…so I just let her flail.  I swept her a couple of times, attempted a choke here or there…but it was like trying to choke…well…hmmm…I’ll hafta think about that one…

Lisa and I weren’t going to stay for the seminar (Lisa didn’t want to stay and she drove me, since my car is still at the mechanic…who, after taking it apart and putting it back together again still doesn’t know what’s wrong with it :() but we ended up staying, and it was very cool..mostly self defense, and using stuff around you….we did a cool drill sitting with chairs and how to put the chair between you and your opponent…it was very cool…he’s a super cool guy…for more info on Tom Callos, click here!

anywho, all in all a good night….i miss my car!!! My vice principal lives in the next town over so she’s been giving me a ride to school…although I think if they don’t figure my car out by tommorrow I might give in and rent a car…*sigh* poor car….I miss her….:(

Days off are freaking amazing

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  Today was ikky and rainy.  All day. Most NJ schools (including mine) have off this Thurs. and Fri. for the NJ teachers convention.  So no work for me.  No marching band for me either (ie, job 2).  Today I did no required activities.  No cleaning, no cooking, no sweeping, no laundry, no dishes, no grading. 

I went to my friend Mandi’s house, and we went shopping for a mutual friend who’s baby shower is next week.  Then we picked up her adorable munchkin from her daycare, and played with her and watched tv and ordered in dinner and napped and watched more tv.

I am greatly looking forward to next week where I will spend my evenings at karate and bjj instead of band and exhausted on my couch.

Yup.  I think that’s it for now.  Maybe one day soon I’ll get back to posting about karate and bjj–as well as catching up on the blogs I haven’t read in a month or so.

Yay!

How do you deal with….

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A new woman bjj student who is very competative and doesn’t like to be corrected (even when you weren’t even trying to correct her you were just coaching while she was rolling?)

So first, lets start out that there was an odd # of people, and in particular, the oddness was that there were three women. So for our drills, me and lisa were partners, and new bjj girl went with Sensei Nancy. Fine, all and good. Today we spent time reviewing stuff that is going to be on the exam coming up in two weeks…and then time to roll…Sensei Nancy couldn’t roll because she hurt her knee, so we made a three-some (that sounds so wrong! lol)

Anyway, first she complains that it is annoying when there is an odd number of people that one person has to sit out…well, that’s just kinda the way it works….everyone’s been there…

Anywho, Lisa and I roll first, and when Cabeca (our instructor) says switch, Lisa goes with the new girl. Lisa is starting to learn how to hold her own, so I decided to help the new girl, who was in Lisa’s guard, and totally failing to put her hands on Lisa’s hips…So I’m giving basic advice….put your hands on her hips, posture up…anywho, when the roll was finished, she (new girl) was super defensive, “I was trying to do that the whole time!” I was thinking to myself, no, you weren’t, your hands weren’t even NEAR her hips, never mind ON her hips, NEVER MIND controlling her hips. But I didn’t say any of that I just nodded.

My turn for the insanity. I roll with her. She’s a beast…refused to get caught in guard, which was good (well for her, not for me!), and got to side control. I was bad and let her take my back cause I knew she’d give me enough space to get out….and although she has some wrestling background (apparently the rest of her family wrestles) I was pretty sure she didn’t know how to finish from there. And I was right, got out from there and into her guard….don’t really remember the next couple of moves, but she ended up in mount (she’s fast) but then she just…sat there….like she was riding a horse. Really? You worked really hard to get to mount, and now you are just going to sit there and squeeze all the air out of me? I wanted to show her how to finish, but I kept my mouth shut cause I didn’t want her to get all defensive on me again. Instead I worked on getting out of mount (which for the record, is HARDER when your opponenet is just refusing to do anything cause it’s much harder to get them off balance!) I got almost halfway there when time was called…I was positively exhausted….and I had been trying to slow down–but she was…i dunno…a tornado?

Anywho, I was totally put off by her getting all defensive on me…I guess I’ll just keep my mouth shut? Or just help Lisa next time! 🙂