In 17 days and 8 hours the North American Grappling Association with be having its tournament in New Jersey.
I’m at 158 right now… and ideally, i’d want to compete at 139. 17 days, almost twenty lbs, the problem is obvious. i honestly believe that i could do it, cut that much weight…
if i had the time. life is a busy beast. if it weren’t, than i’d call it empty or boring. grind-ful and drama ridden and crazy my life may be, but never empty or boring. so i can’t cut the weight. i’ve decided that for my own good, i’m not even going to attempt it. on some level, with the sheer amount of work i have coming up, between poetry and shows and school, i probably shouldn’t be competing.
but like everyone else, i need something to look forward to. some goal with which to ground myself in the every day and to work towards. some connection to put my head back in the game of living. so it looks like i am going to try and compete on nov 8th. but because i don’t have as much time for training with my horribly busy school and life schedule, not enough time to get into the gym, but hey. such is life. if i compete and do well with my schedule being like that, than i truly deserve to be where i’m at.
along those lines, this is the workout i’m going to try to do at home in mornings and evenings, in addition to going to yoga and training whenever i can. i’m going to try to sweat and workout a little everyday, so that the eventual 10 lb cut to 149 will be an easy, no stress cut. sitting in a sauna all day is not my idea of a good time.
5 gi pullups
10 front pullups
10 back pullups
10 seconds grip switch pullups
20 bicycle crunches
10 hindu pushups
10 hindu squats
30 second leg raise
three sets of that every morning and every evening should allow me to be in better (not good) shape for when tournament time comes in.
along those lines, i’m going to cut carbs, including alcohol and eat cleaner… no more mamoun’s or sweet sweet whiskey. try and eat healthy in general, cut out anything that’s really bad for me… try to go to sleep much earlier, if i can. it’s awkward isn’t it, that i need the spectre of getting my arse kicked to actually get my life a little bit healthier.
which gets me to the last thing i wanted to talk about in this post… how pain and competitiveness and the chance of getting hurt or getting your arse kicked is such a good motivator. it touches something really and truly primal in yourself that grounds you to the present and the real. it pushes you to do more, to reach for things that you normally couldn’t touch because you didn’t have the motivation necessary.
it’s one of the things that allows humans to be more than themselves.
which is why it’s dope.
Tags: jiu jitsu, naga, pain, philosophy, weight cutting
deep vinh. very very deep. & true.