Squatting

Chiyonofuji squat

I just got back from taking my son to Judo. For the 1st hour I went off and trained upstairs on the squat rack. It has been about 6 years since I did squats, maybe longer. I used to squat over 100 kg and got fairly strong at it. Now though my legs are much weaker but not as wimpy as I thought. I started off with a 5 minute run on the treadmill to warm up. I watched out of the corner of my eye, other people running like crazy hamsters for ages and could not figure any other way to bore yourself more. Thank god I found BJJ. I then went to the squat rack and started off easy with 35 kg, 55kg and 70kg. Just taking it slow and trying to find my groove again. It felt good to have a lot of weight on my back again. Hopefully, I can do this more while my son is doing his Judo. This will no doubt help me clamp down more powerfully from the guard.

I also took the aerobic bike test they have. You put on a heart monitor and it gradually increases the load to test your heart. For a 40 years old I was in the top percentile on the graphs. It told me to get my heart rate over 138 to improve endurance and work with a load of 200 watts on the bicycle. I have to say that I am very impressed with how BJJ has allowed me to maintain a good level of fitness. Even though there are times I feel beat during sparring at the dojo and I wish I had more stamina, my heart and lungs are far stronger than they were doing P90X for 3 months then coasting for another 3 in a cycle.

I also had some older lady checking me out so obviously it was kind of creepy but that's another story.