Day 4

Day 4

This is a lesson to be learned; no matter how tired I am, I should write in my MMA blog as soon as I can, or else I'll lose a lot of the passion (as well as the memories) in writing it a few days later.

I went again on Wednesday night, my 4th MMA day in a row. I was so very close to not going.. about 90%, because I was tired, and didn't feel 100%, and because I wasn't looking forward to the cardio and such. But I somehow got dressed and ready and just went... without much thinking of it.. because that was the only way I knew I'd go.

So I went, and did the cardio. The start was always brutal with the squats followed by the infamous bunny hop. I did the squats, and I decided to try the bunny hops, even though I knew it would kill me for the rest of the night, as it had the second day of training. They did 2 back and forth's of the bunny hops, and I did the first two. Oh yes, still very hard and painful, and I didn't do all four, but at least afterwards I knew it didn't totally take me out. So I rested for 30 seconds then proceeded with the exercises. Something kind of weird happened, I noticed I was doing a bit more than the last few times, and with shorter rest periods. Last entry I believe I said I did about 70-75% of what they did, and this time I'd say i did about 75-80% so I am improving.

The end, I was hoping we'd do the 10 minute thing again, but we did the ropes instead :( I was not looking forward to it, but I tried anyhow. I did the jumping part well, but the up and under or whatever they are called not so well. I managed to do about 6 of them well, but then I was too winded to do them properly anymore so I stopped. I felt decent about it.. the first time I did the ropes I think I only did about 6 as well, but they were sloppier, plus this time I did more of the cardio.

Then we rested for 10 minutes or so, and it was time for technique. I went with Martin, and we started with being in a muay thai clinch, then breaking it off and high kneeing to the side, then later being in the thai clinch and then doing either takedowns or a pick up slam.. which was freakishily scary.. I've never been that high up before and picked up like that.. being slammed like that would hurt a lot and totally knock the wind out of you.

Then we did heal hooks and achilles locks, and then we learned how to defend against them. Those are kinda neat. Then we sparred. I only managed about 3 little spars with Martin before getting too tired to go again, but I initiated the sparring (asked him) so that's progress at least. He of course made me tap all 3 times effortlessly, but during the second or third sparring, I managed to get a guillitine on him and he said/gurggled something like "man you're strong fuck aren't you?" or something along those lines. I don't think he was being sarcastic.. at least I hope not.. but it's strange since I'm the opposite of strong. Anyhow, I held that for a while and had it in pretty good, but not tight enough, and eventually I was too tired to hold it any longer and I just gave up again haha.

Then I left and said bye to everyone. But a strange thing happened. I was in my car, and I still felt I had a lot of energy. In fact, I was pumped. I could almost continue rolling, at an easy pace, for another 2 hours! I was so pumped in fact that I phoned a couple people and went out right after because I was feeling so good. And my body felt so good too.. I had so much energy, and my body just felt great. Relaxed.. and it wasn't in pain at all... it was so strange, because it really didn't hurt at all.

Then the next day I noticed a bit of pain, nothing major.. just a small bit in my legs, and some bruising on my arms, but very very minor stuff. Then yesterday, Friday, it kind of hit me. Pretty much the amount of sore leg muscles I get the day after training. Hurt to sit up from a chair, sit down, etc. I didn't go to MMA yesterday.. was the first time I missed a class, and I felt a little bit bad about it, but not too bad because I really didn't feel like going at all, plus I was doing stuff with my girlfriend so it was okay.

And now today, I was 65% sure I was going to go, because I missed yesterday and this woudl make up for it since I don't want to train back to back days anyhow, but also because I've never done a Saturday yet and Saturdays are NO cardio and only technique and rolling! My favourite! I could actually STILL go right now if I tried, as it starts in 15 minutes, and I was SO close to going. I showered and started to get dressed and ready for it, but changed my mind, because my legs really aren't ready for it. I dunno, that's kinda an excuse. I mean.. they do hurt, but I could probably manage if I tried hard. But I also decided not to because I need to work on my sites.

So basically now I missed two classes in a row, and I hope this isn't the end for me. I hope I didn't screw up and won't come back.. we'll have to see on Monday (if there is one.. not sure because it's a holiday but I'll go there Monday and see...) I'm also sad I missed Saturday.. the best day of all...

Day 3

Day 3

Okay, so last night was day 3 of MMA. I had got major butterflies and nerves the few hours leading up to going again - this time because 1. I know how hard the cardio is, and 2. I was SO very sore from the previous day it was hard enough walking down the stairs of my apartment (literally) that cardio was totally out of the question. My intentions were to just go show up and show them that I wasn't going to give up even though I was in pain and that I was going to keep going, even if I couldn't participate. I was thinking I MAY do the 'technique' portion if my legs could handle that, but who knew. It was mainly my thighs that absolutely killed me.. the rugburn is annoying as hell but you can fight through that type of pain.. but the thigh muscles were just totally shot..

So I showed up, early as usual and it wasn't open again.. so I waited and then met a new guy who showed up - Adam. He was visiting his girlfriend on the island for Christmas for a couple weeks so he would only be attending 2 classes here then going down to Victoria then back to Surrey. Which sucks.. because he was really nice and I really enjoyed talking to him and rolling with him. Then Martin showed up and we waited for the others to show up. I told Martin about how I was sore and that the bunny hops totally shot up my legs, and he said "Heh, that's funny.. I remember another guy who was new here before and he said the bunny hops did it for him too..." so that's good to know.

So John came and I told him how the cardio the previous day had totally killed me and that I was just going to come to watch, but that I'd tried to do some technique or roll later if I was able to. He said that was fine...

We did some stretching and warming up, and I was trying to message my thighs, and Martin sees me and tells me to do it WAY harder.. like pound it in there and really work them hard and stretch harder.. so I did.. and wow.. that really helped.. I was surprirsed.. I'd thought that'd make it worse but that made them like 80% better..

So they started to do the cardio, starting with the squats and then the bunny hop (they only did one back and forth on the bunny hop this time.. I think we did like 2 or maybe even 3 on Wednesday...) Then after that, Theo - a guy who I saw just drop in and talk to the other guys sometimes, but not participate, was there in gear this time and doing the cardio. He saw me sitting out and called me out asking me why I wasn't doing it.. I told him, confident in my answer because I knew I couldn't do it. And I wasn't gonna let him make me do it because I knew I couldn't.. I was just sitting out there because I was afraid or anything.. but omg.. he kept at it.. he wouldn't let it go lol.. so I finally conceeded and was like "uh... okaaaay...." he said something like "You might as well push yourself.. it's the only way..". So I started, and I was actually doing it. I laughed to myself because I was 110% sure I wasn't going to do the cardio, then there I was doing it.

It was hard like I remembered it.. and the fast crunches I swear they do for longer than 5 minutes.. has to be.. or it sure feels like it.. I actually manged to do fairly well. In fact, maybe abotu 5-10% better than I did on Wednesday. But, I'm thinking that's because I didn't do the squats and bunny hop at the beginning. I did everythign else though. I didn't do as much as the other guys of course.. I only did about 70% of the pushups that they did, and in other things we did I only did about 75% of what they did.. but I was trying as hard as I could.. it was hell but I was giving it my all.

I was NOT looking forward to the ropes, because I knew I couldn't do that... especially since it's a total killer on your legs, but they did something in replace of it. John set the timer for 10 minutes, and we jog to one end and back, then do like 10-12 squats, then jog to the end and back again, then do these 'giant steps' where you do a stomp kick then bend down deep to the other side, then jog to the end and back, then these weird hard things where you sprall/fall down into a pushup position then kind of jump back up, and do like 6-8 of those or so, then jog to the end and back, and repeat all of those until the 10 minutes were up.

Now, something kind of amazed me here. First off, I lasted this far into the cardio, and second, I didn't think I'd be able to last more than 1 minute doing this new thing.. but something strange happened.. I just kept going at it and going and going.. and some guys stopped a few times to go and sit out for a bit and get water and talk.. and at one point, it was just me and 3 other guys left doing it.. now, I'm NOT saying I outlasted those guys because that's definitely not it... they did them faster than me and they just like to chat with each other sometimes, but the point was I kept going at it.. I wasn't giving up. I made it to the VERY end of 10 minutes, and we were done cardio. I was so beat.. but I felt so happy and accomplished I did the cardio. Thanks Theo for pushing me.. I was pissed off at him at first because it was like "wtf.. just respect that I can't do it!" but now I'm happy he made me.

This time, it was my arms that hurt more than my legs unlike last time; probably because I didn't do the bunny hops, but also because those jumping pushups do a number on your arms.
So we had a quick water break, then went to technique. There were 7 people there so when we paired up for it there was an extra man, me, and I just went to where Martin and Adam were and watched them. Now, I learned my lesson from last time, and this time i made the initiative and asked if I could intervene and try a couple times, Martin said sure and sat out and I went against Adam (oh great. Me against the 6'1/6'2 200 lb guy) and we did technique for maybe 30 minutes (cardio was like 45). ONe of the positions we worked on was from side control, moving into another position which I forget what its called, then this interesting leg choke.. it was really interesting. I tried it a few times, and then I heard somebody calling my name.. it was John. He was sitting on the side apparantly with the others.. they were taking a break and talking but he appantly saw me in the action and told me to push his elbow up more into the choke to make it tighter.. but the point was that he saw me.. which made me happy.. so that he knows I'm trying and not just sitting out. Then Adam tried the choke on me.. which was scarey.. he's a big guy lol.. and he had the choke tight, but it wasnt tight enough to make me submit, so I told him (or rather motioned him with my arm because i couldnt speak) to do it tighter, then lol i submitted quickly.

After technique, it was rolling/sparing time. Martin and Adam went for a while, and Martin made him submit about 5 times.. one was with a really nicely executed armbar. Then they rested, then I challenged Martin. I didn't really know what to do because Im' still so new, and when we were up circling each other I said "I don't really know what to do" and he replied "Just kick my ass", so we went at it, and I forget what happened the first two times. I lasted maybe..... 40 seconds the first 2 times, then tapped out to weird submissions he had on me, then the 3rd time there was a lot of hard position fighting, and I got into his guard (he's so fast on the ground, I was happy to be in his guard lol) and he was moving so fast and strong, so I put my arms around his neck in a crank, and whenever he tried to roll or something i just squeezed as hard as i could.. I had no idea what to do.. I was thinking.. whats my next step? but I didn't know what to do.. he put a gutbuster thingy on me.. where you lock one leg around the body and tie it down with the other leg.. u know? so i was in tight.. and couldnt do anything but hang on.. then he managed to squeeze my head somehow and it started to hurt more and more so i tapped. then i was done forthe night. i watched a bit more, then theo came up to me and i talked to him for a bit. we walked around and talked, and i found out that one of my favourite fighters, rickson gracie, is coming to the island! he said him and some others from the gym were probably gonna go to the seminar.. wow that's so cool.. i'd lvoe to go, but I'd be way too afraid.. and it might not benefit me since it'd be soooooo over my head.

Anyhow, then I got dressed and said bye to everyone, which is one of my favourite parts as always.. next class is on Wednesday - because of the holidays, which is welcome to me, so my body can repair itself somewhat. i shoudl be good to go by wednesday. as for injuries.. im hurting more than i did from last time.. got even MORe rugburn to add to my existing ones, and hurt my big toe knuckles somehow, and my stomach really hurts when i bend a scertain way.. from that stomach lock thing Martin did to me.. but its all good pain.. u know?

So I left feeling so happy and accomplished as I always do. MMA is sure an interesting thing. Parts of it really suck ass, but when you leave, you feel awesome...

Day 2

Day 2:

Okay.. where to start... last night was my 2nd day of participating in MMA. They train Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I was again really nervous last night the few hours before leaving for MMA... my muscles were all so stiff and sore still from Monday. I was very concerned that I wouldn't be able to do very much because of all the stiffness and soreness, and I was especially worried because Wednesdays and Fridays are cardio days... and I was not looking forward to that...

Anyhow, there were about 6 people there today.. John, Jerry, Nick, Keagan, Karl, and a chick who stayed for the cardio, Meaghan. So I did my stretches and stuff waiting for the cardio to start.. and then it finally started. It started with us doing these standing squat-type things. We did this for what.. maybe 5 minutes? I think that is what the increment timer is at. At first I was like, ah, this is hard but I can handle this. Then as time went on and on it got much more painful. But I managed to do it. BEEEEP goes the timer.

Next was this bunny-hop thing.. again lined up at the back of the mats facing the mirror we all hoped to one end and back. OMG THIS IS THE HARDEST THING EVER. I managed to do it there and back once.. then I was DEAD. My theighs were absolutely killing me, and something happened to my toes.. they were so messed up lol.. so I rested for a couple minutes then tried it again. OMG still so hard. This bunny-hop killed me for the rest of the night... mostly because of the muscle pain it caused.

Then we did a crawlly thing where you go on hands and feet and crawl to one end and back. I tried this, and thought "Ah, finally.. this isn't bad at all, and it looks like I'm doing it right too.. yay!" I did that twice or thrice straight, then I had to stop.. something hurt.. I can't remember what.. I think it was my forearms or ankles or both. I took a rest then did a couple more.
The 'cardio' went on and on with the buzzer going every 5 minutes and a new exercise being started. We did these fast-crunches which I'm sure were longer than 5 minutes.. I was trying so hard.. every muscle was hurting and I was so gassed but I was trying as hard as I could. It got to the point where I couldn't even lift my HEAD up anymore! Seriously.. so I had to go for water.. which wasn't the first time.. I had basically went to my water after every exercise and drank and drank.. nobody else had. And nobody else had even slowed down in any of the exercises either.

BEEEEEP! The next exercises were included things such as pushups, more situp thingies, bicycle pedaling things on your back, some bridge thing holding yourself up with yoru legs and head but no arms, etc. etc.

BEEEEP! Oh shit. The rope. No, please not the rope! Yes, it was time for the rope.. I'm not sure what these things are called, but I believe they are "up and unders" or something like that. I did NOT want to try these.. they looked hard enough without me being all insanely tired and unwalkable. And even though I was so dead, I tried anyway. My first few jumps were pathetic... I couldn't jump at all.. LITERALLY anymore, so I dropped down and started to do them. I did about 4 or so then I just started dropping straight down.. like.. KA-PLOW because I was so tired and couldn't do them properly lol.. then I gave in and said I couldn't do anymore and Meagan, the girl, asked me if I was sure I couldn't.. she was like "really?" I'm like "yeah there's no way.." and she's like "are you sure?" "definitely.. im so dead" "really?" argh.. it was almost becoming a scene! Anyhow, then she went and did them again.. it's amazing how fit these people are.. or amazing how unfit I am. Maybe both.

After the ropes, we got to rest for about 2 minutes, then it was up to our feet for boxing in the mirror. That was only for about 10 minutes, I went and did that.. but at the end of it, we did this kick thing.. and for some reason, I got SO dizzy.. which makes partial sense since it was like a low kick then you turn around.. but I was overly dizzy.. like that shouldn't really have got me dizzy I don't think.. maybe I was just too messed up from all the cardio.. so I had to really sit down.. and then I was having trouble simply standing/walking.. like I literally couldn't stand anymore..

So I sat down, drank more, and they were finally done the cardio portion, which was nearly an hour long I believe.. maybe 50 minutes. I tried my hardest, but only managed to really do about half of what everyone else did. Then John came up to me and asked how I was doing.. he said they've been doing this for years and are used to it, and it just takes time and stuff.. which did help a bit...

We got to rest for about 5-10 minutes then they went to the mats again and started showing us how to do some bjj.. i believe it was something like converting from a keylock in mount position to an armbar.. something like that. I was watching from just off the corner of the mats, by my bag and water and stuff, then Jerry, one of the trainers, and a guy who never really looked at me or talked to me, yelled at me to come over onto the mats closer. So that was kinda good. So I went up close and watched. John then asked if I could roll, but I said I couldn't..... I was completely wasted after the cardio.

So I watched and rested, and was starting to get a little better, but not a whole lot. They paired up and slowly practiced the new moves.. now this was my mistake for the day. I could have tried this.. I should have asked if I could try it a couple times, but didn't. Anyhow, after that, they sparred/rolled for the rest of the time. Was about 2.5 hours again total. I loved watching the rolling.. my favourite part...

So I was feeling bad becuase I had such a hard time with the cardio, and I'm really wondering how I'll do tomorrow since there is cardio again. Will I last a little bit longer? Will I not last as long because I'm extra sore? Should I show up a bit late so I only do half the cardio and then maybe have a bit of energy to do some rolling?

I really hope my body gets better so I can last the cardio.. Anyhow, so then I talked to Keagan for a little bit while watching others roll. Asked him how long he's been training etc. Then I watched more rolling. Then Jerry walked by and said "Ahh.. rugburn eh?". Which was good.

But the best part was at the end. I was beginning to think the guys were getting sick of me and such.. but at the end agian, as people left one by one, they say bye to everyone one on one, and touch hands or something before they leave. And Jerry went up to me and asked me what my name was again and shook hands and said something like "right on brother" lol, anyhow i love the camaraderie of it all.. and I went off myself after saying bye to everyone.

Soooo.. I didn't get to roll or anything, but I found the hell that is the cardio. Definitely not looking forward to that tomorrow. I'm not sure if I shoudl show up a bit late and just do some of it so I have some energy to roll, or if I should show up at the beginning and try to last longer.
I almost threw up at one point too.. one of those small ones.. u know.. it's strange.. I find it hell.. pure hell and a lot of it sucks like the cardio.. but at the same time, I felt good when I said bye and left the gym.. like a sense of accomplishment or something. It's hell, but I'm gonna try my hardest to keep going and to perservere. From what I'm told, the hardest part is getting used to it and getting your body used to it.. so I'm gonna keep going even though it's really hard right now.

Wish me luck tomorrow during cardio :S

Day 1

The following 3 posts were taken from an MMA forum I visit which I originally posted these on. I've moved them to my blog now. I apologize for the paragraph loss, stupid blogger copy/pasting :( I'll slowly try to fix them slowly.

I'm back everyone!

If I make a typo here or there, it's cause it's hard to type.. hards and trembling :)

I got there, really scared.. was awkward because everyone knew each other and all had stuff to say to each other while we were waiting.. some stretched and skipped rope and did pushups while waiting.. I stretched for a while but I just started to look stupid after a while since I don't know how to stretch really. So I stopped. We waited for like 25 minutes then John the teacher was finished talking to some lady which held him up.

Man, it's all a blur, okay, so a few guys said hi to me and introduced themselves.. I'm SO bad with names though so I kept forgetting them and kept trying to remember them. We started out with the gloves and boxing... remember I'm 100% new to ALL of this so like I had to learn what a '1' and '2' and '3' and '6' etc. was.

It was difficult because the guy teaching me, Brandon (or was it Brendan) was going so fast.. it was information overload, but I thought I did decent trying to catch up. Man. boxing is such a mind game! So we took turns doing that for a while, and after that, my arms were dead! I coudl see my hand shaking if I tried to keep it still.. like it is now still a bit. And when I went to get my water bottle.. I was shaking it lol..

After boxing for 40 minutes or so, the teacher/submission/wrestling teacher today, Gerry, did like a Q and A session.. where students would ask a specific quesiton, and he'd go over it and we'd all pair up and practice it. The first one was one leg take downs.. man.. that was scary when they were taking me down.. I'm really tall and skinny and flexible and my leg was so high up, and they drove me into the ground.. after having that done to me a number of times, I was so tired, and I think I said I needed to get some water for a second.

Anyhow, I'll try to speed things up. So we did that, and we did side control techniques and a good choke submission from side control where you kinda switch to north south, and Brandon and the other guy (fuck whats his name again argh!) were real nice and were teaching me and showing me the ropes. since i was so new, they were teaching me everything.. armbars, RNC's.. which, btw are really scary when you're in them.. and stuff like that.

At about the 1 hour 45 minute mark, I was too pooped to continue and had to sit out for a while. But some of them like to keep rolling.. so the rest of the time we just rolled. I rolled with 2 guys.. Brandon and the i-forget-his-name-guy.. i think his name is martin... man.. rolling was the best part! You just kinda go at it.. instinct kick in and you just kinda fight for your life.. but many times I'd be in positions and just have no idea what to do.. I almost tried a possible armbar attempt at one point, but I don't have armbars good enough where I can just do them.. I have to think about them first lol.. then with Brandon, I had a RNC on him, and I was holding it TIGHT for about 15-20 seconds, and it was deep, but not deep enough, and I was SO tired after that I just let go and gave up lol..

My knees hurt like hell.. rugburn.. and elbows a bit.. and my arms are just dead weight.. hip hurts a bit too. But it's all good pain.

I'm definitely the smallest guy there.. by weight.. I'm like 140 lbs.. Brendan is i dunno.. 180? i-forget-his-name-guy is like maybe 155? but i have no muscles.. and so its good for me to roll with bigger guys.. will make me bigger and have to fight harder..

My goal next time is to last a tiny bit longer before gassing out and having to rest for a bit before continuing. But they went for 3 hours tonight... that's long no? haha long for me :P I know the pros do like 8 hours a day..

So.. to cap it off, it was definitely an experience. Some scary stuff there with the big takedowns and RNC's and stuff, but the guys were cool and I'm going again on Wednesday. I'm tired as hell but I'm gonna try to overcome that, and I'm gonna try to improve hard! I wanna be the skinny guy that worked hard and got decent.

Thanks to all those that encouraged me :)

P.S. After the first 5 minutes, I had forgot all about my jock strap/cup :)