It’s been a hell of a year. Near the end of October last year, I was ready to get back into 10th Planet Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I told a buddy I would be there that Monday, November 1st.

Sunday, I woke up at 0200h with the worst stomach ache I have ever had. It took some Ibuprofen, a long hot shower with me laying on the bottom of the tub, and a few hours before I finally curled into a ball and passed out around 0530h. That fetal position was the least painful position to maintain.

I took Monday off work, thinking I had eaten bad chicken for dinner. Tuesday I worked, but still hurt. That evening, I went to the doctor. He promptly scheduled an MRI for me the next day. By 1230h, the other doctor was telling me to get to the emergency room for my acute appendicitis.

The surgeon removed my appendix. He told my wife he had nicked something, but I’d be okay. A few days later, I was back in the hospital with a 102.7 fever and an infection. It bled more than he expected. I spent almost a week on fluids, antibiotics and morphine. That was fun.

I finally got out and my mama died. We weren’t exactly expecting that, but I was there at her bedside, holding her hand when she passed. Then I spent the next few weeks dealing with blood settling internally, bloat, infection, and pain. I was off work for almost a month.

By February I was back in the gym lifting some and trying to regain some aerobic capacity. By June, I was ready to get back in . . . until I tweaked my darn back again.

While I have been unable to do BJJ, I have been lifting, striking and running. I’ve logged a lot of miles trail running and forging my own paths through the wildlife preserve.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the doctor to check on injuries and try to prep for getting back in class. This getting old thing sucks! But as my dad says, “It beats the alternative.”

It’s been three weeks since I have been able to roll due to my ruptured discs getting aggravated practicing single-leg take downs. There are some exercises I can’t do right now–or won’t–like squat, deadlift and bent over rows. However, I am at least able to work some stuff.

The gym finally got a new speed bag. I haven’t really worked one in a while. I was never great and I am rusty, but I can still keep it going for a while before I knock it off kilter.

This morning, insomnia kicked in. I lay in bed from about 0330 to 0400 trying to get back to sleep. Shortly after that, I decided it was time for an espresso and gym trip.

I managed to work the speed bag then heavy bag for about 25 minutes. Ran a mile after that. A slow mile. Then worked chest.

This getting old thing sucks. I advise people to find a way to stay alive without getting past 32.

Seriously, I am looking forward to getting back to the mats. I haven’t been studying long enough to justify or have a month off. I’ve just about forgotten where 10th Planet is in town. LOL. No, I ain’t that old.

Best wishes to anyone over 30 studying and practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Practice and stretch now if you’re under 40 and don’t stop. Flexibility and stamina fades quickly.

This little guy just cracks me up.

I like that he has found a solution. So many times, we look at the situation or trap before us and we simply walk away or let it snap our necks without ever trying to come up with a way around the problem.

A Coach’s Lesson

I ran high hurdles, low hurdles, triple jump and long jump my freshman year in high school. Almost 40 years later, I still remember a couple of meets. One that always comes to mind was particularly bad for me.

I am right handed and was running in a race next to a left-handed person. We got to the first hurdle at exactrly the same time.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been a problem, because two right-handed people would have a left trailing leg. But as he was on my left and I on his right, our trailing legs/feet collided and I fell flat on my face.

I backed up a little, took 5 quick steps and made it over the 2nd hurdle. In (high or indoor) hurdles, there’s a rule. It’s three steps between hurdles. If you ever have to baby step (take five steps), you never try to go back and triple step. I had too much confidence. I tried to 3-step the third or fourth hurdle, but had to stop because I didn’t have the speed or power. I kicked it over and went to the next hurdle. I hit that one and fell again. By this time, everyone else was crossing the finish line. I got up, ticked off as all hades and walked off the track. As I did, I looked up and saw my caoch sitting in the stands next to his wife. He lowered his eyes a second and shook his head.

When he looked back at me, he gave me the come here finger.

I walked up there and he said, “I’m disappointed in you. (Crush went my heart). I don’t care if you have to kick over every hurdle. You always finish the race.”

And that’s what I learned. Go over, under, through or around every hurdle in your way, but always finish the race.

Galaxy Quest

If you haven’t seen the movie Galaxy Quest, I recommend it. Not that it’s a highly motivational movie, but it’s a good, cheesy Tim Allen flick. There is a line in there that I often repeat.

Never give up. Never surrender.

I have three ruptured discs in my lower back. I did it back in about 2012. For a couple years, I did epidurals and kept running and working out as if nothing was wrong. Eventually, the last epidural didn’t last 24 hours. At that point, my drive to work was about 25 minutes and by the time I got to the office each day, I was almost in tears. I got to where I couldn’t walk, stand, sit or lay down without severe pain.

I had a discectomy in 2015 I think. Since then, I have found several exercises and behaviors that aggravate it and take me out for a while.

I found another one last week–single leg takedowns. LOL.

I’m sure a lot of this inflammation and pain has to do with working through the process slowly multiple times. Between grabbing the leg and standing and then twisting to drive my partner down, I definitely aggravated my back. A good portion is probably poor form on my part as well. If I had film to review, I would probably see my back arched much of the time instead of head up and chest out. Also, it’s difficult to drive through your partner when you’re going slowly and focusing on mechanics and precision.

Adapt

Hopefully, this will stop hurting soon. When it does, hell–possibly even before it does–I’ll try to find someone who is willing to work a little more with me on this technique. If I am doing it absolutely correctly and still having an issue, I will have to find a way to adapt the maneuver just enough to be essentially the same, but effective for my elderly body.

The Key For Me

I am studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts for a couple reasons. One, I’ve always wanted to. It’s a bucket list thing. Two, for self-defense. I don’t believe in being a victim. I’d rather be a victor. I’ve been in enough fights in my youth to know you really don’t want to go to the ground if you don’t have to. Heck, you don’t have to have been in a fight to know that. Watch World Star and you’ll see how many friends start stomping on a single person when the fight goes to the ground. Even still, it’s definitely useful.

So, the key for me is to make sure that when I study and learn, I learn it as a sport but also think about real world application. And that goes back to the “adapt” idea above.

Will I compete? I don’t know. I say, “Probably not.” But when I ran a lot I also said I wouldn’t race, and then I found myself doing 5k races. So, the future is unknown and the path toward it, dimly lit. What is evident, though, is that if I intend to continue on this path, I must decide what is right for me and adjust to make sure I can continue without stumbling.

The instructor for my first job after college told me, after a six-week training period, “Boy, you would argue with a stop sign.”

I said, “Yes, I would if it didn’t belong there.”

Along the road in life, you will have many stop signs. Most of them will come in the form of people. They’ll be telling you things like, “You need to stop.” “Quit.” “Chase another dream.”

Some stop signs will say or do other things to get you to stop. They’ll try to divert your attention away from the task at hand, away from the goal you have set in your mind. Perhaps they will vie for your time or they will convince you to skip the gym for a day, a week, or–like covid–a month or more.

Most of these are external stop signs, competing with your internal stop signs that suggest, “You’ll never get there. This is a waste of time. You should be doing such-and-such instead.” Or it will be body aches, pains, illnesses that attempt to convince you that you are incapable of achieving your goal.

Argue with those stop signs!

When everyone and everything in the world is telling you you shouldn’t or you can’t, it’s up to you to argue with those stop signs and say Yes, you will! No one can overcome the objections and obstacles standing in your way but you. Argue with those stop signs. Refuse to obey them.

But Remember

Only argue with the stop signs that don’t belong where they are. That’s the tricky part. If you were driving on a private road on your property and someone threw up a stop sign without the weight of law behind it, chances are, you’d blow it off. It’s a completely different story when you’re on a busy highway and come up to a stop sign where the police are sitting on the side of the road. Argue with, and object to stop signs that don’t belong in your life.

Too old? Hogwash.

Too weak? Boloney.

No time? Maybe, maybe not. The better question is: Is it a priority? If it is a priority, you will make time for it. If it isn’t, you won’t.

Staying Motivated

Maintaining motivation is often a difficult task, especially when they are long-term goals. For example, my starting to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a very long-term goal. There are so many aspects to learn, especially for a beginner. One way I am trying to maintain my motivation is through the belt system. Even though in our 10th Planet studio, we are NoGi, we still have belts. I purchased a white belt so I have something to look at that will remind me there is a step I am on and another step in front of me.

If your goal is something like sales, try breaking it down into smaller goals and then have a visual reminder of why you want to achieve that goal. Are you wanting extra money for a trip to France? Tape pictures of brasseries and the Eiffel Tower up around the house and in your vehicle. Do you want a new house? Look at magazines often. Find pictures of houses you aspire to buy.

Think of yourself on a float on a river. Motivation is like the river. It has to keep moving and carrying you along. If the river stops, so do you.

Besides my membership at 10th Planet, I have a membership at a gym. Fortunately, they offer some boxing and kickboxing classes there. I don’t take those at the gym, but they have the equipment.

Maybe it’s the guy in me or the testosterone still pumping through my body, but there is something very relaxing and enjoyable about punching things. LOL.

This piece of equipment is great for practicing various combos and for just venting. I like hitting the heavy bag as well, but I have found myself enjoying this even more. No, the targets don’t move, but it is very easy to work up new combos.

I generally start off slow, repeating the same action over and over and then work on getting faster and hitting harder. You can see the springs in the picture. These allow the target to flex or react slightly after it is hit.

As an added bonus, the targets are adjustable. Since I am 6’3″, I practice a lot on targets that have a would-be head height around 5’10” to 6-foot. This one shown was actually a bit taller. If I had to guess, this guy would have been about 6’4″ or 6’5″.

Cardio

If you’ve never worked on a heavy bag or on targets like these, you’d be amazed at what a cardio workout it can be. When you’re throwing all you have into it, using your hips, legs and upper body as you should, you can start to feel the cardio after just a few minutes.

I usually strike for 15-25 minutes. I think I’d like to get to where I can strike non-stop for about an hour. I don’t know. I may be pushing it. I need to watch some more videos and read more about fight training workouts. No, I don’t plan on competing in an MMA matches . . . not unless they create a GUFC… Geriatric UFC. haha. The good thing about a GUFC would be mouth guards wouldn’t be needed. Everyone would just spit out their dentures before the fight.

In all seriousness, if you’re looking for a change in your cardio workout and you haven’t used a heavy bag, try it.

Warning

I would like to add a warning to my suggestion people hit a heavy bag. If you don’t know how to throw proper punches, go light. It’s very easy to mess up your wrists and hands. Even professional fighters get boxer breaks and such. Probably more likely than a boxer break is a sprained or sore wrist.

A boxer break happens usually by leading or striking with your pinky knuckle instead of your first two knuckles.

On a heavy bag or target, when throwing body blows and hooks, it’s very important to keep your hand, wrist, and elbow in a straight line.

If you haven’t watched FightTIPS on youtube, you’re missing out. Shane has some great videos and information. If you are interested in learning MMA or basic fight science, I highly recommend subscribing to his channel. The man is a very deep well of information.

It’s been two weeks since I have trained due to my mat burn refusing to heal. Finally, it is starting to get better and it can’t happen soon enough. I am ready to get back on the mats and get rid of some of this stress.

It’s been one of those days, one of those months and one of those years already. I feel like the Hulk trying to rip myself out of David Banner’s body. Why? I don’t know. The last few years, I have had major bouts with anxiety and depression. I am usually very quiet about it, but I will say that training helps me. It helps me to focus on something; gives me something to look forward to; and gives me something to strive for other than the mundane day-to-day bullshit we all need to deal with and strive for.

Something about getting my butt handed to me by a bunch of guys 10-35 years younger than me is satisfying. Perhaps satisfying is an exaggeration. Grappling, rolling, striking all allow me to work out frustrations and–especially the BJJ aspect–forces me to think and contemplate. It feels like a chess match–at least to me. I’m okay with the game chess. Now, I just need to learn the appropriate pieces and moves to actually present some form of a challenge to those I practice with.

It’ll happen.

I had a couple workout partners, but one abandoned us. I guess that happens when you get married and have a baby. LOL.

Over the past couple years, we have run this routine a couple of times and have always seen good results from it.

6 Day Split Workout: PPP – Persistent Painful Progression

Does your mind repeatedly drift to the gym on your rest days? Have you mastered your current workout program to the point that your progress has slowed?

Do you need to increase your conditioning and endurance in the gym? Would you be willing and able to commit to lifting weights 6 days a week? Does the thought of two leg days a week intrigue you?

If you answered yes to these questions then this program is an excellent way to challenge yourself as you improve your body. This 6-day split provides one rest day per week and you will be thrilled when that day arrives.

Performing this program will challenge your muscles to adapt to a different training approach. This approach will allow you to increase muscle and endurance while conditioning your body for additional progress.

https://www.tigerfitness.com/blogs/workouts/6-day-split-workout

Monday Chest, Shoulders and Abs “A”

This is a sample from Mondays–or whatever day you choose to start. Thursday is the next time you work this same muscle group. Here is the lineup.

Thursday Chest, Shoulders and Abs “B”

If you look, you’ll notice that even though you’re working the same body parts twice in the same week, you’re not working them the same way.

Your body has two types of muscle fibers: fast twitch and slow twitch.

The Twitches

Fast twitch fibers are used for explosive movements and motions like sprinting. When you do low volume, heavy weight training, you are working the fast twitch fibers. They require a quick, strong burst of energy.

Slow twitch fibers are used more for endurance like biking and distance running (5k, 10k, etc.). When you do more reps with a lighter weight, you are working more on the endurance of your muscles for longer periods of time. Naturally, you can do more bench reps with 45 pounds than you can with 145.

I think we’ve run this program 3 or 4 times and have always found ourselves stronger, leaner and better afterward.

If you’re looking for a change in your workout routine, I’d recommend checking this one out. The only downside is that a couple of days seem to take a bit of time.

A couple years ago, a young girl came up to me in the gym and asked how she could lose some of the fat around her waist and hips.

I said, “You’re not going to like the answer.”

“Tell me,” she said.

“It’s 80 percent diet.”

“Diet?! I’m not going on a diet.”

I said, “You’re already on a diet. It’s just a crappy one.”

She laughed.

But this is the truth. Although most people think of diet as something that restricts calories or forbids them from eating certain things, a diet is simply what and how you eat. Every one of us, every living animal on the planet has a diet. As humans, especially in the United States, many of us tend to have poor diets.

We think of diets in terms of

• Paleo
• Mediterranean
• Keto
• Atkins

Etcetera, etcetera. We don’t think of diets in terms of Julie’s or Michael’s or my diet.

Growing Up

I ate tons of food, but couldn’t gain weight. I was that scrawny 145-pound 6-foot-3-inch guy in high school. I shoveled cement from the time I was fourteen, ran at school and for fun (I was at a 5:00 mile and did an 18:17 5k), I skateboarded and biked about 8 miles to work every day. I ate a lot, but most of what my parents kept in the house was healthy. I drank a couple gallons of milk a week. We weren’t allowed cokes, chips or cookies except on weekends and special occasions. Whatever mama fixed, we had to eat . . . except one thing. My sisters and I were all allowed one item we didn’t have to eat if cooked. My one item was asparagus. Mama fixed canned asparagus. That stuff was and still is naaaasty. But I love fresh asparagus sauteed or grilled.

Anyway, when I was out of the house, I ate like garbage. A college student, I went for cheap. A family size can of Mini Ravioli for lunch or dinner, a whole pizza, you get the idea. I still didn’t gain much weight. At 155 pounds when I was 20, I thought I was getting BIG.

It took 20 years, but my diet finally caught up with me.

But here’s the secret

Weight management is nothing but math. Calories in vs. calories out. If you take in more calories than you expend in a day, you will gain weight. If you take in less, you will lose weight. So, technically, you could eat Big Macs all day, every day and lose weight or not gain a pound.

Everybody has a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the number of calories required for you to maintain your current weight if you were laid up motionless in a bed–like in a coma. Everything you do expends more calories. If you think about it like a car, your BMR is like simply starting your engine and leaving it in park. It consumes very little gas. The faster and more you drive, the more gas you consume.

• 1 carb = 4 calories
• 1 gram of protein = 4 calories
• 1 gram of fat = 9 calories

This is partially why cutting fat sometimes helps people lose weight. They are dropping those 9 calories per gram. Sometimes, the fat is a healthier choice because many companies will add sugar or sweeteners to make up for the fat loss. In that case, one often consumes more calories for the same amount of food servings.

Think about it

The point of this post isn’t to tell you to get on this diet or that diet. Instead, the point is to get you thinking about the diet you are currently on. As you think about your current diet, ask yourself a simple question . . . okay, maybe not so simple. Ask yourself, “What do I want?”

Do you want to lose weight? Gain weight? Get leaner? Eat healthier? Feel better? etc.

This will determine what you need to do to achieve these goals. In the future, I’ll post about various diets and goals. For now, though, think about what you are trying or hoping to achieve.

If you have a smart phone (or computer), I highly recommend getting the My Fitness Pal app. I believe there is still a free version of it. It is an incredibly useful tool that has helped me a great deal for more than a decade now.

On Saturday, one of the grapplers, Sam Barbosa, came and taught a special class at 10th Planet in Decatur. He did a great job. I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, my knees can’t say the same.

These pictures were taken a couple days ago before I finally went to a doctor. (What can I say? I’m a guy and figure I’ll just suck it up and rub some dirt on it).

I got a hellacious case of mat burn. After about 10 days, my knees wouldn’t scab up. They had gotten infected or something. The doc gave me some antibiotics and an ointment and after just a couple days, they are doing much better.

What I’ve Learned

This isn’t the first time I have skinned or burnt my knees on the mats. It’s definitely the worst. On the occasion, I wasn’t wearing spats. It is too hot and humid for that. But even sometimes when I wear spats, I end up with abrasions or burns on my knees.

What i’ve learned so far is not how to prevent this from happening, but that in my old, frail age, my skin is getting thinner. LOL. I can’t count how many carpets and other things I’ve crawled over in my younger days without so much as a red mark and now it seems every time I get on my knees, my crispy-paper thin skin cracks.

I did get some advice from a not-so-old buddy. He’s mid-twenties and said he sometimes gets mat burn too, but using a lot of moisturizer has helped him with that. So, as soon as I can get some moisturizer on my knees, I’ll try that out.

Oh! Another thing I learned!

Before anyone says or thinks, what an idiot, I will admit, I often learn things the hard way.

After class that day, I realized how bad my knees had gotten. It was obvious during class. My partner actually asked if I wanted to stop, at least to go get some alcohol wipes to make sure my knees didn’t get infected. By that time, skin was hanging down.

I told him I was okay and we finished the class. Afterward, I had to get one of my critters from the vet. So, while I was waiting, I saw they had a bottle of germy gel…or whatever the heck it is. Hand sanitizer. I thought, I forgot to get the alcohol wipes. This should work.

I pumped a couple squirts into my hands, rubbed my hands to get some on each and them slepped them on my knees to try to keep from catching staph or something else.

WOW! That huuuuuurrrrrrttt!

Lesson learned: Never put germy gel on an open wound.