Day 118 On the Mat: Sparring

I went to sparring only again last night so caught the last hour and a half. This is definately working out for me so far. I know when I used to weight train it was good to mix things up. Like cutting a 60 min workout to 30 mins when interest begins to decrease. Only doing sparring lets me focus on all the moves in my head I have learnt in the past year. When I do the first half of the lesson where I am instructed with new moves, I tend to forget my goals for the night or get muddled as to what things I wanted to try during sparring.

It was probably the best night at jiu-jitsu I have had so far. Makoto, who is now a black belt, came from Taiwan with a blue belt student, Justin. I think they came for the Rickson cup and dropped by last night. I sparred with Makoto who constantly switched from deep half to inverted guard. I just couldn't pass his guard unless he let me. I talked to Justin after and he told me that he had trained for 6 years so that made him a very strong blue belt. I could see his base was strong and confirmed this when he said he had done judo for 2 years.

I took a few beatings and also held my own which was cool. Sometimes it feels like wearing a colour belt gives you a kryptonite effect. For instance, some of the guys who used to tool me around when I was white can't anymore. I had one judo guy who is also blue frustrated with full mount, side control and knee on belly. I was also trying for lapel chokes and tie-ups which I am starting to enjoy doing. One thing I have to work on is to stop people passing me on my right side. They tie my right leg down so I cannot move my hips. I need to work on this because the ease of passing my guard is seriously starting to annoy me.

We all took a picture at the end and spirits were really high. I wish all nights were like that, a balance of being the nail and the hammer.
















Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins.

Day 9: Ear Pain and Asthma

Slept a lot today with my daughter in the afternoon then did yoga and gimnastica natural before getting ready for jiu-jitsu.

I got to the Dojo a little later tonight because the wife left me to put petrol into the car. The meter was flashing all the way there and I had bad visions of the car chugging to a halt and me walking the rest of the way. It was all good though in the end.

I was the only one at first and I thought that there would be no one else on Friday night. Luckily a few people turned up so there were 6 of us in total. 3 whites, 1 blue, 1 purple and Koyama (brown) who took the class. We did open guard passes. I wish he would teach us close guard pass because I need to get the basics down.

7 minute rounds for sparring tonight and I took on 5 people in total. The first was a young kid who is a white belt. He felt extremely weak, next time I will take it much easier on him. Even so, his skinny body was like a fish flopping all over the place and it was weird to get a sub on him. The next few fights were with the other guys, blue belt (Kondo) who has been doing Jiu-jitsu for 5 years! I guess he is almost purple belt but I dunno. Maybe his attendance is a bit lax. He choked and armbarred me, seems like a nice talkative guy. The white belt, hes 80 kg, Atsushi is getting better. He tried to choke me but ended up smothering me and I tapped because it was so uncomfortable. I hate tapping like that because it wasn't a proper choke just it was hard to breath (like someone has a pillow over your face). I've had problems breathing lately. It feels like asthma which I had a bit of when I was about 12. I dunno if it came because of the colder weather now or that my muscles ache so much they impair the expansion of my lungs. I need to work on breathing exercises. I sparred with Koyama and got to use the open guard pass then Suzuki who is the tough purple belt guy. He always chokes from above and sometimes uses ude-garami. He seems ok though after speaking to him.

My ears have started to ache. Kondo noticed my left ear has a callus on it now. I noticed this a few days ago but wasn't sure what it was. I think I am going to get bad cauliflower ears the more I do jiu-jitsu. The cartilege in my ears isnt very soft and suseptible to callusing. My left arm aches because a guy put his knee on my bicep. Ow that hurt.

At the end of the class when getting changed. Suzuki mentioned that I look very muscular and strong. It's not the first time one of them have said that. I do have bigger muscles than them but it doesn't help me much when we roll. All I have to do is add technique and stay in top shape and I may some day be badass at Jiu jitsu.


Start of a cauliflower ear callus (circled red) It feels uncomfortable when I lay down on my pillow on this side.

Day 27: Tabata with Recharge

Wow did I have a kick-ass workout after I got home. I did 3 sets of Tabata intervals. The first was the same as last week, squat medicine ball throw, then I did punches and knees for the next. The thing is, I really wanted to try push ups but knew that I'd never get through the entire 8 sets so I did them on my knees like a girl. There I've been brave enough to say it. You are probably laughing and thinking that it's easy, I know I did at the start. In fact, it was really difficult even on my knees and I have total respect for anyone who can do a full push up during a high intensity Tabata workout. I started with 24 push ups and thought "wow, this is gonna be too easy" but I tell you, by the time I got to the last set I was gassing so bad and barely managed to do 10. It was very humbling.

Anyway, since I have finished the first phase of Chalene I decided to take some pics. I'm not much of a photographer and my wife was busy cooking so I apologize for the quality but here is one of them. tada.













I must admit I was pumped after the Tabata workout. Looks like my abs are starting to appear which Im happy about. I seem to be slowly shrinking and my serratus muscles (the ones on the sides under the armpits) are making an appearance. I still have some stubborn fat around my navel which I know will only probably shift during Insanity.












And another with different lighting. Mr Serious face!

After 90 day pictures

I'd just like to thank my wife who went to the trouble of preparing a different set of food for me and my kids. Plus she took the photos and she is a decent hand at it.

Also, thanks to Jimmah! who worked P90X at the same time as me and inspired me to keep going.





























Me on the pull-up bar. This is where the gristle and grunting and groaning is done.




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This is where it all started before I knew Beachbody.

Day 61 - Dog Tired

Dog tired - that's how I feel. This week has been hard to get through. I didn't sleep well last night. The humidity and the bread machine doing it's thing during the night saw to that. I was very lethargic during the weekend, rolling around in bed while watching TV...but I still did the work. Got up this morning at 5.40 am and did Legs and Back despite having slept at the most 6 hours. Yeah, yeah, I need 8! maybe more, I really do! Things went well and I completed the workout, Debbie Sieber thingymajigs which you jump 30 times each leg used to hurt - No more, not with my plyo-bionic legs infused with kangaroo meat proteins. By the way, my legs are looking really thin now. It's weird. I know you can't spot reduce areas where you want to lose fat. For example, the abs. My body just doesn't want to shift fat from the abs. It goes like this for me, shoulder, back, arms, ass, legs, a million other places and lastly abs for fat loss. I remember having a washboard when I was 13 to 15 because I did martial arts. Never once thought about it being cool at the time and took it for granted. Now, it just seems hard to attain. My best results were during the first month I reckon. That's because I didn't eat many carbs. I just shrink when I stop eating them and bloat when I do. Though, doing something like P90X I can't do it for long because my energy just bombs.

Anyway, I took some pictures for my day 60. I'll post my favourite. They were taken after Chest and Back so I was flush with blood running through the muscles. I can't say they are any better than my day 30 but I know I am stronger and fitter and I suppose that's all that matters. The thoughts in my head right now are that I definately need to do another round. Perhaps if I could get my hands on the Insanity videos by Shaun T I would do that. Ve vill see, yes, muhaha ve vill see mein herr.

Protein Shake - good, Barium - bad

It has been a weekend of ups and downs. I'm back into the hard stuff in Power 90X after the first recovery week. Chest, Shoulders and Tri was a workout I like. Push up, presses and more push ups. I was disgusted with myself for not being able to do a 1-handed push up on my non-dominant side (right). My arms were so tired at the end that I just flopped on the floor. After that session I went to a 成体 (seitai) which is like a chiropractor/masseur. It was the first time for me getting a massage here. The guy was shorter than me and was really polite. He asked me where I felt pain and I just explained that I had muscle ache and needed some limbering up. I took the massage for 30 minutes and he worked down my body. My neck was really stiff (surprisingly) and he hit a pressure point behind my left knee and it hurt a bit. He explained that people with lower back problems have pain at that location. All in all it was just what I needed. I will definately go again. Perhaps once a week. After P90X, you need all the recovery you can get to let your central nervous system rest.

Yesterday, I got up at 7 am and without eating Breakfast (the most important meal of the day!) I got in the car and drove to the hospital. I had a medical test. They put me through the usual, chest x-ray, blood sample, abdominal examination. At one point I received an echo of my stomach. I went into a darkened room, slightly perfumed from the medical jelly that the hot young nurse splattered over my stomach. She then put a scope against my stomach to see inside, rather like an ultrasound that pregnant women get. She wore a mask but I could almost see a blush around her cheeks, her first gaijin inspection no doubt! At the end I had the most disgusting, vile examination ever. Barium! I stood on a platform with my back to a large metallic surface. The guy handed me something in a cup and told me to wash it down with another liquid. It was like bicarbonate of soda and frothed in my mouth as it went down. He left the room after handing me another concoction. Through a mike he told me to sip at what I can only describe as a cup of paint thinly disguise with the smell of peach. It went down like limewash treacle and I almost puked it up right there. Then the platform I was on began to fall backwards so that I was lying down. He proceeded to turn me around while no doubt looking inside my guts to see how the liquid was moving around inside me. It was sickening. I asked him later if anyone puked on the table and he said "oh yeah," and laughed. I left the room and wretched twice in the toilet but nothing came out because I hadn't eaten since 9pm the previous night - Urgh.

Did Plyometrics at night. Went well but not as intense as you can imagine with Barium sloshing around in my guts. Back and Biceps today. Two of my favourite muscles.

To end on a good note. I've dropped around 2kg in weight and nearly 2-inches on my waist.
I got some pics as well. Back and front and er..well one for the ladies (ok it's a legs shot).
My fat loss on my stomach crawls along at a snail's pace. I just have to live with it. But my back and legs are looking stronger.













and the before picture. I'd let myself go a bit...I'm ashamed to admit.













Keep pushing play!