late night/super early morning in NYC

right now sitting in a super small and cold room the size of a barn stall, unable to sleep so I am here tweaking on the net. Looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning for 2 hours of quality BJJ training at Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro's school under 6x World champion Marcos "Loro" Aurelio Galvao Perreira. The guy is awesome. Feeling itchy to train after 2 days of well rested days on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. More info later. Been very busy the last 3 weeks. Merry Holidays everyone :)

Strange strange.....

Last night, I did not even sleep. I had ZERO hours of sleep due to the waking my lazy ass up at 1:45 pm on Thanksgiving day then downing 40 oz of coffee with my pumpkin pies at about 4:00 pm. Retarded idea as I could not sleep at all. Then I went to the morning BJJ training and I felt great actually. It was easy training, light technique and rolling. Only for about an hour and a half. Ran home and ate a huge acai bowl with a grilled cheese sandwich only to down some more accursed coffee. Went back to the gym again expecting a 2nd session at 4:30 and another at 6:30 pm. But instead, it ended up with a warm up and free rolling lasting from 5:00pm all the way till about 8:00pm. I felt like I was on it today! So strange since I had zero sleep at all the night before. THis phenomenon has happened once when I was in the mainland and didn't sleep then said fuck it the next morning and showed up for the most brutal conditioning and BJJ sessions I have ever endured. I learned quite a bit and probably had a lot of mat time added to my experience but I also was able to get down Braulio Estima's patented Inverted Triangle setup which works like a charm when pulled off properly. Well, I will go catch up on sleep now 

Productivity: TIme Well Spent

Well, if there were a worldwide competition for slacking off, I would be in the rankings. For the past 2 days, I have done no studying even though finals are coming up in 3 weeks. Instead, I show up to my morning Physiology class, wing my presentation on Grave's Disease, then nearly fall asleep during the teacher's lecture. Then, off to BJJ class I went.

THe normal brown belt who teaches the class was out with a rib injury so he brought in his friend who is a black belt from Gracie Humaita association. THis instructor is on good terms with my  head BJJ instructor so he ended up teaching class. We went over good warm up drills but the technique stuck well with me. It consisted of:

Arm bar from guard>guys pulls arm out>omoplata to inside arm (without closing feet)>underhook their near leg with your near arm & grab own collar, (alternative-grab omoplata'd arm with same hand if possible. THis is hard if they have short arms/gi sleeve), secure their arm with free hand>kick the heel/ankles to the ground to buck them forward, then redirect horizontally to bring them over you and on their back>hold and secure trapped arm and pull up to straighten as this stops them from sitting up>keep turning to face him and secure mounted triangle/fall to triangle/triangle armbar. 

After, we free rolled and I thought I held my own decently against a pro MMA fighter who was also a blue belt. Afterwards, I was lucky enough to roll with the guest black belt instructor. He brought his level down to mine I felt and let me work. I was in danger, escaped only to find myself in another bad position but was able to mount offense in the form of a half-guard V-Bar (my instructor's terminology!). THis was my best form of offense and he brushed it off as if he were swatting a fly. A very productive rolling session as I consider rolling with black belts awesome as they can feel so much going on and vary so many things. This black belt gave me constructive advice on what was good and bad, as if he were evaluating me and then letting me know all my flaws. Sadly, I had to leave to work but I came back that might for another BJJ training session. Trying to pull as much 2-a-day practices as I can for now. I just want to improve my BJJ, is that so much to ask?

I notice with black belts, they can lower and bring up their levels to roll with anyone they are going with. From blue to brown up to more skilled blacks, they can lower themselves and still give you a battle without completely annihilating you (if they want to). I hope to achieve this level of proficiency one day.

The night time session was awesome, going over a bicep spicer variation of open to guard to sweeps and taking the back. THe rolling session was more intense with a bigger class and more blue belts who were new to the school. ANyways, I was so spent and after going home to have a HUGE dinner of quinoa, kale, and 1/4 a turkey, I knocked out to go to bed. LEading till today....

Waking up at 9:30 when my Exercise Physiology class started at 9am! I felt like I needed the extra sleep to recover from the training. I slept in, ate breakfast headed to school but since skipping for first class for the day, I am now sitting in a coffee shop munching on an white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (clean ingredients of course!) and sipping on a huge amount of coffee, watching Robson Moura's cross guard instructional. Is it wrong to feel like I am actually making productive use of time right now? Well, after my 1pm class and work (which I totally enjoy), back to the gym for more BJJ training tonight!

BJJ training days

With the increased number of classes by my instructor, I can get more classes in, yay! But the schedule goes a little late so I get home later at night so, nay! Ended school very early today at 8:00am so I am now muncing down on pasta at home then going to take a nap followed to prepare for a consecutive schedule of BJJ>work>BJJ for the next 9 hours. Hopefully I don't drop from exhaustion. good day yall!

random stuff

OMG I am supposed to be studying for my exam in 1 week and it is and exam where 1 week study time=procrastinating. I intended to study all day but instead I lifted weights earlier then made a gigantic pot of the most awesome chicken noodle soup with an organic free-range chicken that was on sale ($1.99 per lb!!) and now that I have filled my belly up I am still not studying but checking out the most awesome song on youtube that was featured on the season 2 finale of NBC's Chuck. This song hypes me up for some reason, especially during weight training and BJJ rolling sessions.....kinda slow....

and here is the chicken noodle soup that took almost 2 hours to brew up

new training schedule..new partners?

So as the new month starts, my instructor is changing the schedule and price fees to a very very affordable rate. Brazilian Jiujitsu as we can agree can be little hurtin' on the wallet at about $100+ a month. For $70 a month he is offering his expert instruction on the art and hopefully, it attracts more people to come and train BJJ and away from the MMA craze where people just want to learn "UFC."

Here comes the part that got me thinking. I am lucky enough as a lowly blue belt to have had the opportunity to have close supervision, instruction, and access to purple, brown, and some black belts since I first tied on my white belt on a super baggy judo gi since I wasn't sure if I would stick with it. There have been other white belts who came and went in the academy and some were ok while most roll like they are battling you in the finals of the Mundials for the gold medal but generally had much close access to higher belts who serve as great training partners and provide helpful advice. This gets me as I am thinking what kind of people will be walking through the door once this new promotion starts. Inevitably, there will be spazzing whitebelts who try to take your head off and I must try to keep alert from getting injured and I understand as I was also a bit of a spaz when I first started. The great thing is those who stick around start to learn more and develop beautifully into good and productive partners who help you learn and advance your skills progressively quicker than if you had a very small pool of training partners. That's the beauty of the art as whereas everyone in life has their own personality, we all have our own unique style that has something that makes it slightly different than so and so over here and there. 

To top this off, the one film I am most looking forward to being released:

back to lifting

So it has been about 3 weeks since I started lifting weights again after a 2 month layoff from the iron pumping due to an excruciating tailbone injury that has not fully gone away. Played it safe for the first 2 weeks and just stuck to very light weights (what my friend refers to as "Sally" weights). Well I slowly started to get more comfortable with my favorite lifts including the power clean, hang clean, an the high pull. Push presses are fine too now although front squatting still feels a bit shaky. So today, here are the highest weights I did for my workout today. 

I am 5'6, 145 lbs.

-complex bar warm up and full contact twists

-high pulls w/89 lbs

-power cleans-2x10 w/89 lbs

hang cleans-4x8 w/ 111 lbs

hang cleans-4x4 w/133 lbs

push press-4x6 w/89 lbs

romanian deadlift-3x8 w/89 lbs

Most of these numbers are very close to what I was doing before my injury but the cleans have all hit the 20 kg plates so I am happy. My goal is to progress to the 25 kg plates and start the front squat again and I will be satisfied. Not lifting after a long layoff makes every weight seem so heavy! It sucks but just dealing with it gives you a nice sense of satisfaction after it's over. Then you go to sleep. Goodbye

p.s. describing something as "Sally"=weak sauce. However, describing something using "Mary Ann" is worse. So "Sally">"Mary Ann". 10 lbs dumbbell>3 lbs dumbbell 

refreshing eats: acai bowls-is there a cooler food in the world than this gem?

 

There not much that can come even remotely near close to what is a refreshing acai bowl after a hard session of training and rolling. The luscious juiciness of cool texture of blended fruits and acai is enough to recharge for hours yet delicious and you can eat it with a piece of mind knowing you are doing something great for your body and the inner foodie soul inside of yourself. Here are surefire steps to an awesome, no let me rephrase-LEGENDARY acai bowl. 
step by step:

1-use a watermelon base for the acai bowl. no soy milk or any of that crap. that stuff dilutes the acai and alters the flavor. seedless watermelon preferred or pick out all the seeds before you use it. blend the watermelon by itself first. this should produce a slighty thicker than liquid texture of watermelon residue. then add the acai.

after blending watermelon alone, you get this

2-you could just add the acai in their and blend it together. this makes an icier texture than the former. 

3-if the blended result is too watery, add a banana or two, maybe three to thicken out the mix to give it a more pasty, smooth texture

4-pour out contents into a large bowl. add strawberries and blueberries

5-scalp out and dice some coconut. this may require some muscle action

6-add other fruits to top if you want. I slice bananas in mine. I like the coconut and add kiwi if I have them. If I do nut have coconut, I use a couple spoons of organic virgin coconut oil. Upon contact, the oil will freeze and make chocolate chip-like textures of layers.

7-Be prepared to share. THis makes a huge serving and can serve about 2-3 people decently

8-Enjoy every spoonful!

This is an excellent recipe. There can be deviations if you do not have certain ingredients. They include:

-replacing the watermelon base with mangos or papaya. The other two fruits create thicker bases and may not need as much bananas blended to create a thicker base.

-If you do not have watermelon, papaya, or mango, use frozen blueberries then add in a bit of cold water to blend as a base. 

-Coconut oil can replace the coconut shredding

Also, the acai brand I use is the Amazon Mania raw acai. Amazon-Mania uses raw unpasteurized acai that is frozen and the quality is noticeable and superior to other brands. Sambazon acai is inferior to this brand as theirs is pasteurized. If you look closely, you will see a slight oil layer on the Amazon-mania after blending. THis makes sense as acai is know to have  a decent amount of mono and polyunsaturated fats. Now go make some!

butterfly guard

Today in class, the work in progress towards the improvement and perfection of the bottom game involved the fluttery, buttery, rolling and flowing butterfly guard. Normally this type of guard is somewhat of a less secure guard in comparison to something like full guard so staying tight is what I always go for with the butterfly. But today, we worked on some things that involved maybe being a bit looser with butterly, say when there is space created by one of the parties when the butterfly flies into position. 

Butterfly Guard positions of the day-(A=bottom man, B=top man)

1) A has a seated butterfly position instead of being flattened on his back. Unable to flatten out A to limit his offense and begin to attack, B perhaps pulls away or creates space  to prevent A from securing grips/underhooks. A reaches into B's collar for a cross collar grip with four fingers in and entering at the same level of B's chin. THe grip does not have to be super deep or else it may impede or break your the grip when trying to complete the submission. As A pulls himself up, he simultaneously sits up while aligning the inner forearm blade with B's throat and placing his own face next to B's head. A & B should now be touching about cheek to cheek. A should already have his free hand ready as he will palm the back of B's head and push it down so B's face is towards to the ground. As this happens, the shoulder of the arm of A's that is inserted into the collar grip goes over the back of B's head and secures this so B cannot posture back up.  A will now roll under B in the direction of the elbow of the collar gripping arm. A will continue the roll until underneath B and grab onto B's near tricep/arm and use the necessary force to assist in finishing the choke. The rolling action itself will make the choke very tight. If B rolls onto his own back to relieve the choke, A should roll on top and finish. 

2) This position here continues off of the previous one. Placing your own head next to B's was critical to success. But now, B's arm/shoulder was in the way and A was unable to place his head next to B's so the choke is not as tight anymore. However, A can persist with the choke and still roll and try to finish staying tight. As B walks with direction A is trying roll and finish, this helps relieve the choke. A must fight to stay in a 69 position and prevent B to become perpendicular to him (this causes a pass). A throws his legs backwards overhead and drives his hips up coming out from under B and landing on B's back with the hooks.

3) Here, the the previous two positions are negated because B now holds A's pant with a solid grip and stiffens his arms to keep A's legs to the ground. Keeping a cross collar grip, A uses the free hand to overhook B right on the elbow joint and pulls it tight to himself. This may cause pain to B as it extends his elbow but submitting with this is not the point here as it is low percentage. THe same side of the overhook will see A place his foot on B's hip. A releases the cross collar grip and secures a deep underhook and grabs the belt if possible. THis side will have the butterfly hook inserted right behind B's knee. With the overhooked arm+foot on hip and underhook+butterfly hook, A rolls onto his own back then pushes with the foot on hip and extending the butterfly hook rolling on to side if the overhooked elbow/arm. A lands in mount with foot possibly trapped. If A's butterfly hook is too deep, the leg may get caught and B may land in a Jeff Glover deep half guard. 

This stuff is cool and worth reviewing as the options to attack present itself when the top man wants to create space for standing passes and escape tight underhooks.

luscious fruit.....exotic? + tasty?+ expensive money making machine? +++

"huo long guo." The chinese name for the dragonfruit. FOr now it is relatively unknown but who knows, this thing could be the next acai, goji berry, noni juice or whatever the hell superfruit that sells for like a fortune with major marketing. But for now it is a tasty, refreshing little gem that is perfect for hot afternoons that pack with it a nutritional powerhouse. I used to see this weird little looking fireball thing at Whole Foods selling for like $8.99 per lb and + and thought I would not waste my money on that. Luckily, the local CHinatown here has this stuff for $2.99 per lb! As long as this thing is in season and reasonable price, go for it!  

TUesday night training

Last night of BJJ training went pretty good. Warmed up with drilling moves like:

hip escape mount to full guard>sit up kimura sweep>mount>partner repeats>switch 

armbar roll escape>hop over omoplata attempt>mount>armbar>partner escapes, etc.

takedown>submission hold (perfect scenario practice)

The drills flow beautifully and continue on without pause to reset as you and your partner switch turns indefinitely till time goes

Then going over half guard passes and repeated drilling and technique repetition. I haven't rolled for a while at near 100% since I hurt my tailbone and it isn't at 100% yet. Earlier in the day me and another friend were talking about CPR courses and carrying unconcious victims. My friend is near 200 lbs and as I tried to hoist him over my shoulders in a fireman carry, pain radiated throughout my sacrum. Anyways, me and my regular training partner start rolling and we didn't set the time to go off. We rolled and things started going back and forth as we struggled for position and submission. With countless attacks, defenses, and counters from both sides, time went by so fast that before we knew, 35 minutes had passed. We ended the session only after we were stalled in the currently infamous "50/50 guard." I still feel limited in terms of movement on some things as my ass still hurts but the free rolling today was ok even though the intensity level is higher than what I am used to since getting injured.  

promotion

so last week, I was finally promoted to the blue belt after about almost 2 years of BJJ training. It felt good knowing that this meant progress was going on after hours of hard work that results in many hours of sweating, fatiguing, and learning. Some pain involved also. ALong with competition jitters and anxieties from awaiting your matches which feels like an eternity of torment until it does take place, it all calms. Then you look back and say that was awesome and you want to do it again.  Rinse, repeat, add more, learn.

It's actually quite simple to get promoted and advance in skill with bjj or anything else in general.

1-understanding what you need to do

2-go out and execute action with tireless effort

3-keep an open mind

The steps are simple in concept but to actually do? Not so easy

cookies and milk

that is like the perfect combination for getting a new 30 pound donut around your waist. Why did they have to make the stuff so good and addicting? Not the cookies that are cheap and overly processed but that stuff with natural and organic ingredients. Add that to some organic milk and then it's time to go overboard. I just had 14 cookies and 6 large glasses of milk. Need more!

honey, please!

High Fructose Corn Syrup-What do I do?

 

The much heated debate for quite a while now is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). While many blame this overused and cheap form of sugar for being responsible for a plethora of health complications, many others argue this and say it is perfectly safe. Let’s take a look at some facts.

 

-HFCS is relatively new. We don’t know the long term health effects of it but, we may very well be witnessing it right now in front of our eyes as our new generations who have had the most exposure to it takes on an incredible obesity epidemic.

 

-Products containing HFCS have tried to advertise their products as “all-natural.” Fortunately, this was disputed in the court of law and found in favor of the opponents of this deceitful advertising scheme. HFCS undergoes heavy processing and requires at least one genetically modified enzyme to be produced.

 

-Supporters of HFCS claim that it is natural and fine when consumed in moderation. Well, there’s a huge problem. Nearly all packaged foods nowadays contain HFCS and it usually more often than not, lies near the top of the ingredients list meaning it is a primary ingredient. With people eating foods containing HFCS everyday, that is hardly considered a practice of “moderation.”

 

-HFCS is mainly found in foods that are already considered junk food. The bigger problem with this is that it has now crept its way into every kind of food imaginable. We find the stuff in whole wheat bread!

 

-Drinks sweetened with HFCS have been found to be quite rich in harmful carbonyl compounds. Diabetics are found to have elevated levels of carbonyl compounds and they have been linked to ailments such as eye and nerve damage.

 

-Supporters of HFCS usually are made up of those who benefit from it. Corn manufacturers and beverage producers back HFCS as it is largely used for them.

 

Other articles

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I don't know about others but for me, pass the raw honey please!

 

 

            

lifting weights.....boring style

With living a healthy lifestyle on a list of things to do for me,  exercise takes its place among one of the most important factors. It helps keep me sane and provides a nice outlet to expand on. With doing BJJ, exercise seems merely like play as the time passes by quick and is enjoyable and I can feel progress by measuring myself against others. Too bad injuries happen though. Walking around for the last week with an injured tailbone, I haven't been able to do much exercise. The only exercise I have been able to do are some very static upper body lifts with lighter weights.

My workout:

Tuesday  

flat bench w/45 lb barbell for 2 sets of 20 reps (warm up)

flat bench at 115 lbs for 3x10

biceps curl w/30 lbs barbell for 3x18

shoulder flexion (front raise) w/12.5 lbs for 3x10

shoulder abduction (lateral raises) w/12.5 lbs for 3x10

Wednesday

rotator cuff exercises-3X10 (L&R) internal, external rotation and horizontal abduction pull

lat pull downs w/70 lbs for 3x15

bent over triceps kickback w/10 lbs dumbbell for 3x20

hammer curls w/12 lbs dumbbell for 3x12

overhead dumbbell press w/10 lbs dumbbell for 3x15 

I know the 2 workouts above looked horrible but there isn't much else I can do for now being injured. Sometimes with the slightest shift of weight while holding heavy weights is gonna hurt even if it doesn't seems like much. I guess the 2 workouts could have been structured better but they both took less than half an hour but yet I though I would have dropped dead in the weight room from boredom. Is that even possible, to die from boredom? I guess the closest thing would be just falling asleep. Since I am not able to do my normal strength training routine which include mostly Olympic lifts and other multi jointed exercises, I would be bored to death as I am experiencing right now. I see many people who only do single jointed exercises all day and their routine revolves around it. I don't know if in that case I would have the fortitude of mind to be interested in exercising anymore. Thinking more, if the only exercising I did was just cardio and static weights, I can see why people lack motivation to even get started or miss a couple days of their program. For an individual like myself and many others, even if there were a strong behavioral change involved, it would be quite a challenge. But then again, thank goodness for Olympics lifts and to BJJ for keeping things interesting.  

Brazilian Jiujitsu.......burnout...pain is bad

Well, after being a white belt for nearly 2 years and the possibility of a promotion to the coveted blue belt for a couple months now with nothing materializing. After some quite hard work, effort, a messed up elbow from an armbar cranked too hard, competing in 4 tournaments, and a major infestation of ringworm on only me, it felt good to finally take my test to be considered for a promotion. I don't know if I passed or not yet as my instructor needs to get back to me because although almost achieved, there is a possibility of failure as nothing is guaranteed. My BJJ instructor does things differently as most instructors feel if you are ready, they hand the blue belt over to the well deserved student. My instructor has you take a test if he thinks you are ready for the next level. 

Testing consists of showing nearly every position you can think of. a short list including takedowns, submissions from mount, guard, side control, and back, escapes from mount, side, and back. sweeps from open, closed, and half guard, and escapes from numerous ways of joint manipulation and air/blood constriction. Sounds fun to know all this?

Me and my longtime training partner took it together and this examination took nearly 4 hours. To make this worse, taking an type of test when you are having a major crash from nearly 5 cups of light roast coffee in the morning  is not the greatest idea in any situation. Being a physical test, having literally pain on my ass that rates 9/10 isn't splendid. After a great day yesterday, my training partner misinterprets a sweep from our instructor and knees me in the ass right on the tailbone. It was like a homing missile meeting it's target. Although unintentional, I was in a world of hurt the entire time safeguarding my bottom like I just dropped the soap in a prison facility. Near the end of the 4 hour test, it was more of a mentally issued challenge as the gray matter in our heads became more and more fried from information overload. 

After my tail heals, it is ready to step it up to the next level.