Post comp fitness fad and Chico time!

After the unsuccessful competition début at the Welsh Open I decided that I was not being clever maintaining my chubby porker status so I took the almighty leap into a proper gym schedule and a somewhat less calorific diet. First step, I spoke to Rane, one of the fitness instructors at Sweat FA where I happened to have membership (if a trifle under used), who showed me a decent interval training routine (not like the shite one I'd made up for myself) on the cross-trainer, bike and running machine. She also recommended I get myself a heart monitor. Now I'm no string bean but when a fitness instructor advised me to get a heart monitor I thought "holy shit, how out of shape am I?!". On voicing this concern Rane explained to me that it was just to measure my heart rate for effort and then recovery rate. I was quite relieved and went out immediately a bought a cheap heart rate monitor from Boots chemist. £10, Bargain.

On to the workout. I started off doing 25 minutes a day (at lunch time during work, thank god for the flexi time job I am fortunate enough to have), 5 mins warm up, 10 minutes taking my heart rate up to 170 for 30 secs then resting it back down to 140, and then a moderate pace for the final 10 minutes keeping my heart rate at 155-ish. I did this five times a week when I could but more often than not it would be reduced to 4 times due to the odd work commitment.

I find it prudent to add at this time that due to my nature and my possible ADHD type personality, I find it difficult to do cardiovascular activity for too long as I get tremendously bored and then my mind started to realise how knackered I was getting. This is where the remarkable Steve Jobs (R.I.P) comes in. I was fortunate enough at the time to be gifted with an IPOD nano from my darling wife, Emma, which I have found to help out no end with the monotony of physical exertion. I just ramp on something heavy (Metallica, Pantera, Machinehead) and zone out. When my mind was focused on listening to music I like I found the minutes just flying by and I was gradually starting to gain some form of stamina. And I was also getting the opportunity to listen to some new music which was a bonus. In short, an IPOD is a must have cardiovascular work out aid.

Another thing I did at this time to aid me in my fitness and weight loss regime was to start eating the shit my wife eats. Gone were the days of me planking back a full Fray Bentos pie with chips or mash while my enduring wife ate some form of dry chicken breast with some salad. I was joining her on the rabbit food. Something that had always repulsed me previously, I had never found salad appealing whatsoever. As a wise old work colleague of mine says "I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to go around eating green shit". But never the less, I was starting to sit down with a healthy fish cake, salad and a small portion of rice or something like that.

This new approach to life that I was going through seemed to work. I stuck at it for about 3 months or so and at the end I'd dropped down to 83.9 Kilos at my best (or 13 stone 3 in real money), which was amazing. I was well chuffed. You could really tell the difference as well, I looked thinner, I had stopped snoring at night which was a bonus for the missus, my Bjj game was better due to having much more stamina and poor long enduring Marcus, my regular training partner, didn't have a fat git laying on him week in week out. I was getting good enough that I was able to roll the full 4 x five minutes sparring sessions up at Trojan in Bristol at top capability. I was also finding this was helping with my technique during rolling as I wasn't getting so exhausted so I could focus my mind more on what I wanted to do. All in all, things were looking up.

And at that time things got a whole lot better. Trojan Freefighters (where I was training in Bristol) had joined up with the mighty Checkmat team, headed by multi time World Champion, Leo Vieira, and introduced their new instructor, the outstanding 2nd Grade Black Belt, Chico Mendes.

Straight away it became apparent that Chico's teaching was on a whole other level to what we'd experienced before. Chico's knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu technique is immense, he makes you better just by being in the class with him. When he shows a pass or a sweep his explanation of the manoeuvre (you wouldn't believe what I just went through to find the correct spelling for that word) is complete down to the most minor detail. He not only tells you where you put your hands (for example), he tells you why you put them there and often tells you where you definitely don't put them and for what reason. And if he sees someone doing the technique wrong he'll call the class to a halt and explain (without indicating who it was as to cause embarrassment) a bit more about what can go wrong and how to avoid the situation. His kind of teaching really makes you feel like he is paying a lot of attention to his students and really helps you to tighten up your game.

And so, with the addition of Chico and Checkmat to the Trojan team and with my fitness level getting better everyday, I was finally feeling that my Bjj game was advancing to next level.


Cheers 'til next time. \m/