You have to admit in order to continue with jiu jitsu it kind of forces you to take care of yourself, sometimes due to some very immediate causes and effects. How many times have you stopped yourself (or wish you stopped yourself) from eating a fast food meal, or something deep fried because you knew it was just going to sit in your stomach and make you nauseous during training? Or on the opposite side of the spectrum, forced yourself to eat something when you could have gone the entire day just snacking on something, maybe drinking a cup of coffee, but you know you need to actually eat something of substance to keep your energy up in class? Stretching or warming up because you know that if you don’t, you’ll feel all out of sorts on the mat and increase the likelihood of injuring yourself? The list goes on and on. I would say a lot of sports an also offer this impetus for change, but as someone who has been pretty active in a handful of sports and other physical activities, I never quite felt the pressing need to change certain aspects of my life as I have when it comes to jiu jitsu.
We get to a point in our training where we decide that we can either remain unhealthy and do things that inhibit our jiu jitsu progress, or we start to make subtle changes in our habits: we eat differently, go to bed earlier (or eat least make an attempt to) stretch, take supplements. If you choose not to do these things and train on a consistent basis, you start to notice it’s almost like you are tying one hand behind your back. You start to notice how don’t like the way you trained because you felt sluggish after those fried chicken wings and nacho supreme plate you had for lunch, you feel tight and lack mobility because you got to class late and weren’t able to stretch and warm up, you feel like your reflexes are almost laughably slow because you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. There is a point where you either have to start taking care of yourself, or face the frustration of feeling like you could do more in class, but for whatever reason you can’t get yourself in gear.
Jiu jitsu can be demanding, and a bit addictive, but on the bright side it can also become that kick in the pants to become healthier person. Are there any recent or major changes you have made to your lifestyle to accommodate your jiu jitsu addiction…er, commitment? Let me know- otherwise, have a great day everyone!
A Skirt on the Mat 