Tenacity: I Has it.

On Wednesday night I did a bunch of kettlebell snatches (which I’ll provide a video link in just a minute) and accidentally ripped a callus off of my left hand…ew.

So what did I do today? I went back to the gym and did 100 snatches! It was baseline to see if we could do 100 repetitions in 5 minutes. I finished in four.

Take that, stupid raw spot on my hand.

…That is all.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fitness is Not Worth Getting Hit By a Car

Hey there Mr. Workout Guy,

I see you with a small medicine ball in each hand, wearing a backpack that appears to have nothing in it. I see how you’re trying to control your breathing, sweating and marching in place at the corner of a pretty major intersection. What I was not cool with is when you attempted to play chicken with an oncoming car because you needed to get your cardio on.

I am obviously all for health and fitness and all that jazz, but there are just some instances where getting fit just isn’t worth it. One of those instances would be stepping in front of a moving car to keep your heart rate up.

No use doing all those exercises if you’re dead.

Rest vs Recovery

A friend of mine posted this article on facebook, and it’s kind of interesting: it gets a little vague towards the end, but all in all it’s pretty good stuff. The article talks about the importance of not just resting, but recovering from all the training you may be doing.

As I’ve mentioned before, taking the time to listen to your body is one of the hardest, but most essential things to do: the article calls it under recovered, I call it over-trained, but the symptoms are the same. It’s a miserable place to be and will do nothing but frustrate you. I’m also looking up some specific tips on effective recovery methods, other than ice baths, so hopefully I’ll have those up in a day or so.

Check it out!: Rest vs Recovery

Summer Training

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me training in the summer becomes a fun exercise in how goofy I can train while still successfully pulling off a technique. Tonight felt like I was wearing a pair of gloves as I was fumbling to grab collars and sleeves.

Also, everyone is getting extra sweaty in this heat, so it’s like trying to work a technique on a puppy covered in olive oil. And we have air conditioning in our academy. Yeesh.

Fun times, woo!

It’s Hot, Stay Hydrated

Not very poetic or thought provoking, but here on the East Coast it’s been pretty toasty the past couple of days. Even if your gym is air conditioned, don’t tempt fate and please, just keep yourself hydrated….

That is all.

Yikes, Inconsistent Posting is Inconsistent

Sorry for the messed up posting schedule, my work schedule is sort of smoothing out, but I am getting up earlier now to get to work, which means in the sleep/train/write equation, writing has gotten a bit of a cut.

This past weekend some of our guys went and fought in an MMA…tournament? Event? There were supposed to be four guys fighting, but only two were able to get into the ring. The other two’s opponents had issues- one didn’t hand in the necessary paperwork in time and the other just didn’t show up to the weigh-in, which boggles my mind, but whatever. How do you not show up to something like that?

Anyway, my friends and I were talking about if they were for some reason going to do an MMA fight, what their walk out song would be. One mentioned Smashmouth’s “Why Can’t We be Friends” another has mentioned the theme from “The Price is Right” when the contestants are told to “come on down!”(is that a different song or the same theme? I haven’t watched the show in forever). I am torn between the Super Mario Brother’s video game theme and Pink’s “So What” at the moment.

If you were, for some reason, slated to compete in an MMA match, what would your walk out song be?

Late on the Band Wagon

I have known of this particular blogger for quite some time, but actually took the time to sit down and read some posts and decided this is one pretty cool cat: Meerkatsu.

I love all the artwork he’s producing, particularly the Honey Badger series of products, and overall seems like a pretty cool dude. If I am somehow not the last person to read his posts, I would highly suggest anyone to go and check him out.

Meerkatsu

Review: Isopure Zero Carb Protein Drinks

In an effort to consume more protein while not eating pounds upon pounds of meat, a friend of mine suggested I try a protein drink from the brand Isopure: which produces drinks that have 40 grams of protein, a whole ton of BCAAs, no carbohydrates, no sweetened with apartame and a relatively low amount of calories, all of which I am happy to get behind.

I tried two flavors, their Alpine Punch and Pineapple Orange Banana. I tried the Alpine Punch when I was at work, and the Pineapple Orange Banana after working out.

The Alpine Punch tasted a little funny, but I still powered through and drank the entire bottle throughout the afternoon. It wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t really get around the odd aftertaste. Not necessarily bad, but odd considering the sweetener in it is sucralose, aka Splenda, which I totally put into drinks on the regular.

Also, I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this: hell, maybe it was something I ate for lunch…but my arms and legs started to feel tingly. Maybe it was the BCAAs: I don’t know, but it was an interesting experience to be sure.

This was all before a workout. I tried the Pineapple one the next day after practice- and to be honest, I was so thirsty I didn’t quite give a damn whether there was an aftertaste or not. I drank about a little more than half and then gave the rest to Max, but that’s more because I wanted to share and less from funky aftertaste.

This time there was no tingly feeling, but this was also after a workout, only 1/2 of the amount I had previously consumed, and a different flavor. I’ll have to try the alpine punch one after a workout and see if I can notice the aftertaste or not. Essentially, it seems like a pretty good drink, I just need to be more science-y and objective-like about it.

Anyone else try the Isopure drinks? Any thoughts?

Nice alternative while traveling

So I’m still looking into this, but this might be a nice option to have while traveling for tournaments: it’s called uber, a driver service that you exchange money completely over the internet, including the tip.

Check it out: uber.com

And a New Chapter Begins

Sort of.

I am scheduling this post to publish at 5:13am for two reasons. Firstly, because I refuse to get up that early in the morning to post on here, and secondly, according to my birth records I was born precisely on June 12th at 5:13AM.

Even from the start I apparently enjoyed being difficult.

Yes, today is my birthday, hooray! I don’t know what the next year will bring, possibly lots of changes, possibly very little: that’s the biggest mystery of all- what is to come. All I know is that no matter what I have both sets of families, both the biological one and the jiu jitsu family that has especially grown over the past year or so, and I feel lucky to have them all in my life.

Excuse me I think someone, somewhere is cutting onions….sniffle…