Most of you probably already know this, but for the last four years I and my kids have been training out of Hidden Valley MMA.  Recently the Dojo has moved into some new diggs… more space, TONS on mat room, weights, treadmills, windows.  It’s really great.

It’s amazing how different training is from normal workouts.  I have been a member of a lot of “gyms” over the years for lifting weights, etc.  But when you really train with, and learn with a group of people they become like family.

Thanks to Hidden Valley, and all of my family there for all of the years we have spent together thus far.  I love our new place!  Come on over and visit.

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I apologize that I haven’t been posting more recently.  Unfortunately, due to my lack of mat time, there hasn’t really been much to post about.

Yup, that’s right.  Although I have been craving mat time, an unfortunately condition has me pretty well out of the game.  That’s what I wanted to write about today:

Pinched nerves from back injuries due to grappling.

Be it Judo, Jiu Jitsu, or wrestling, as we get older, and as (some of us) get bigger, these types of things are unfortunately, increasingly likely.  Mine has had me out for just over a month now, and although I am improving, I know I am nowhere near ready to be back on the mats yet.

So, I wanted to share a little bit of what I have experienced, and what I have learned:

1- Arm pain can be back pain.  Yup.  Most of my pain is actually in my arm.  It is really bad in the arm pit, should, and between my bicep and tricep, headed down toward my elbow.  The pain near the elbow has been bad enough from time to time, that I was sure I had a recurrence of tendonitis.  But, it didn’t respond to cold like tendonitis does.

2- Ribs can act like spinal injuries.  Ya, weird huh?   I have been to a couple of the best, most highly recommended doctors for this type of thing, and both of them have determined that my “back” pain is actually a rib that keeps popping out of position on the back.  Apparently this is a common form of your “back being out”.

3- NSAIDs can be trouble.  Aleve, IBuprofen, etc.  My chiropractor told me to take 800 mg of ibuprofen ever 4 hours to keep the inflammation under control.  After about a week of this, I had a mouth absolutely full of canker sores.  I did some searching on the internet, and apparently this is a common problem with large amounts of NSAIDs (Non steroid anti inflammatory drugs.)  Watch out for this.

4- It can take a long time to recover from a pinched nerve.  In addition to pain, and weakness in my back and arm, I have tingling in fingers on that hand as well.  In researching this type of condition (ain’t the internet great), I found a good article on what to expect for recovery times on pinched nerves.  The article goes into a lot of detail about which portion of your back is likely to be causing the pain, and what effects you will likely be feeling.  As for recovery times, the author claims that several weeks, and very often months is typical time for a damaged nerve to heal, even once the pressure from the back or rib is fixed.  Truly sucky.

I’ll keep you posted on how my condition progresses.  If you have been through this as well, I’d loe to hear your experiences and insight.

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When you are constantly laying your hands on a person, and twisting their bodies into painful positions you develop an amazing understanding of which way it twists and tweaks, and in what ways.

This is generally thought of in terms of our offensive, and submission capabilities.  But today, Sensei Mike Hermosillo, of Hidden Valley MMA applied his dark forces for the purposes of good.

After a really intense workout last week I have been all but crippled.  I was sure I had a pulled muscle.  I turned to a robust masseuse.  Nothing was working.  I was in intense pain, and my ability to use the rest-room left-handed is severely limited.  Something had to be done.

As a large man (about 260 pounds), I have found that many chiropractors can be just a little bit too “wussy” to give me the severe man-handling that I need.

Enter my mentor and Sensei, “Big Mike.”  After 15 minutes of Mike really putting the hurt on me, I couldn’t feel better.  The power to break, the power to heal.  Thank goodness for my grappling family!

All kidding aside though, it is really neat to be around people who have spent so many years learning about the pains, and the movements of the human body.  Be sure to talk to your instructors when you hurt, rather than just skipping classes.  You will be shocked how much they may be able to help.

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One of the really great Judo tournaments ever spring is put on by the Kaizen Judo Dojo.  The 4th annual Kaizen Judo tournament is this weekend, April 30th 2011.

If you compete in Judo, enjoy watching it, or are just curious, then this even this one not to miss.

For more detailson the Judo Tournament, including forms, maps, and lodging info, you can go here on the Kaizen Judo website.

Can’t wait to see you there.  Happy flying

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A couple of weeks ago we were working on our Tai Otoshi in class, and I just didn’t feel like I was hitting it as well as I used to (an opinion not shared by by Uke… the fact that we’re all perhaps a bit hard on ourselves sometimes is the topic for a whole different post soon though.)  So, I went home and started looking at different videos of this move, just to try to pick up tidbits from other people’s styles.

I stumbled across this video (including the video as well as the link, in case anyone has trouble viewing it)

Link to Video

What struck me about this video is the way that David Loshelder uses him elbow in the chest to get his uke moving.

A week or so later we work working on a bit of a non-traditional Osoto Gari… Not so much of a backward Kuzushi, but more at a 45 degree angle, or even straight off to the side (hope you can envision that.)  Normally, my right hand, holding the collar, would have moved up, almost like I was going to punch into the neck of my uke.  Sensei Hermosillo (at Hidden Valley) showed us how to really slam the elbow into the chest while holding the collar to get the kizushi moving.  I was shocked how well this worked.

I plan on playing a bit more with the use of the elbow in coming weeks, as I found it added a lot of additional power to my osoto gari.

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This article is guest written by Scott Vincent, who teaches a Fit-Jitsu class at Hidden Valley MMA:

I grew up in a military family.  After I turned 18, I went into the Marine Corps.  I ran at the very least, 3 times per week and 3 miles each session for 6 years.  By the end of a 3 month boot camp, my final time for the 3-mile run was 18:09…that’s maintaining a 6:03 pace per mile.  Yea, that’s awesome.

After getting out, I maintained my gym and running habits and understandably, my 3-mile fell in time due to my lack of higher-ranks yelling at me, but I could still hold a solid 23 flat….not the best, but enough to be called “fit”.

Then, on the eve of my 33^rd birthday, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu rolled (PUN ALERT!) into my life.  My very first class was an experience; I was shown an Osoto-Gari takedown and a kata-gatame (arm triangle) pin.  Then it was time to roll, and I was tapped out in 25 seconds, and that’s being pretty generous.  I wasn’t arm barred, triangle choked or pinned.  I quit, and I quit out of complete exhaustion.

What I couldn’t understand was how I got tired so quickly.  It was a different kind of tired.  Sure, my heart was beating but not through my chest.  I was breathing hard, but my body wasn’t tired.  I didn’t understand it. The only thing I understood was that I got my ass handed to me on a giant platter of my own embarrassment.

I started going through the internet and found out what my problem was.  My problem was that I was feeling the strains of anaerobic stress rather than aerobic. More to come after you read this:

Your heart rate when exercising can determine whether you are doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise. The maximum heart rate for men is 220 less your age. For women it is 225 less your age. The goal rate for exercising should be 70% of your maximum rate. When the heartbeat is faster than the 70% you are doing aerobic exercises.

“Zippedy-doo-da, Scott”.  That’s what you’re saying aren’t you, or maybe it’s something more like, “Who gives a sh*t”.  Well, read another passage from  http://www.doctorsexercise.com/journal/aerobic.htm :

How exercise is performed will determine it to be aerobic or anaerobic. Any type of movement your body makes requires the use of energy. You don’t have to do aerobics to lose weight or maintain a desired weight. It has been determined that anaerobic exercise will burn more calories than aerobic exercise, on a ratio of 5 to1 basis, and even as much as a 7 to 1 ratio. The aerobic exercise will burn 25% muscle and 75% fat, while anaerobic exercise will burn 100% fat.

With the above being said, I’m 34 years old, so anytime my heart rate is above 129, I’m doing aerobic exercise…straight cardio!  And THERE’S WHERE MY MISTAKE WAS.  I would run my ass off day-to-day and my BJJ endurance was hardly moving.  Instead of slowing down to fewer than 129 on my pulse when running, I would increase the resistance and put forth just as much effort.  In other words, I did whatever I could to make it feel like I was running through mud.  The result is that after I was done, I had the same tired feeling I had when I first got my butt kicked….I had that “different” tired, and now I knew how to prevent it.

Fit-Jitsu is designed to give you that “different” tired.  For example, the entire program, you will have resistance added to every exercise we do and exercises you’ve never seen.  We incorporate military training with BJJ training to give you the endurance you need. You’ll notice your body becomes tired faster, even if you’re “a great runner”.  Your muscles will last longer without fatigue and of course, we will motivate you to become faster and stronger.  We don’t make you into a machine that can run 10 miles, we make you into a machine that doesn’t stop.

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The following was recently written by Travis Woodward, a student at Hidden Valley Mix Martial Arts, where I train with him, and consider him my friend:

How has Judo and Jiu-Jitsu worked for me?

On Saturday night my brother came down from Logan to party.  He convinced my other brother to buy him alcohol and Zach began to party at Jared’s apartment.  Some time later, after having been cut off from the alcohol and threatening those at the “party” he left in his car.  Unfortunately driving drunk is bad and he crashed his car but thankfully no other cars or persons were involved.

Enter the parents!

Yes my parents went to rescue him to, hopefully, avoid a DUI/DWI.  When they came upon the scene he was in the back seat asleep with the car on.  My father drove his car home and mom drove him home in the van.  About 3 blocks away from the house my mom, scared he was going to do something, told him to get out of the car and he said no and that she couldn’t make him.  So she decided to just get home.

By the time she drove the additional 3 block he had pasted out in the back.  My mom tried to get him out of the car and got knocked in the snow.  My father who had just got out of my brother’s car, turned and say mom in the snow and said “What the hell; did he just push you in the snow?” All of the sudden Zach went into a drunken rage and began to go after our father.  He tackled our father to the concrete and began hitting and choking him while yelling “You think you can fight me?”   Now my father, scared for his life and unable to breath, began to panic.

Thankfully I was inside and couldn’t sleep.  I went outside just in time to see my mother get up out of the snow and asked her “Did he just do that?”  Ignoring me she dialed 9-1-1 and ran towards the commotion I was hearing.  I finished putting on my coat and went to see what was going on and that is when I heard the call.  I heard my dad yell “I can’t breath get Travis, get Travis.”

I turned the corner at full speed and saw my brother on top of our father beating him and choking him.  I took a flying leap and tackled him off of my dad.  Once on the ground I took side control and then I took his arm across his face and rolled him on his side to trap both arms.  Zach began to try and weasel out and began to complain he couldn’t breath.  I told him to calm down, I put him on his side so he could breath and was not applying any pressure.

Next thing I know he is trying to get up and rolled back onto his back so I took side control.  I worked for an Americana and began to make sure he stayed down.  He started to sit up and so I slid into Kesa Gatame.

Kesa Gatame was really fun and as I sat there he began to try and hit me with his other arm.  Because of the position and angle the punches had no force behind them.  He began to try and shuffle around to get out of the pin and couldn’t.  He tried to sit up and couldn’t and couldn’t do anything.  It was pretty fun.  At some point he got his arm out and though I could’ve transited to another pin or something else I went back into side control.

Once in side control the Americana (shoulder lock) was right there again so, tired of this, I went to hurt him.  I put on a tight Americana and began to crank on it.  At this point my dad, recovered from the fight, grabbed the arm I was working the Americana and forced it to the ground so I took control of the other to keep him down.  Zach began to spout fire words and threatened everyone.  Tired of this I figured I would put him to sleep while waiting for the police.  I put him into a tight cross collar choke just as the police walked up and then handed him off to them.

At a few times throughout the fight I saw him trying to tap and just wanted to make this one point.  In real life tapping out doesn’t work so don’t accept it the tap out is reserved for practice and the mat, period.

I am very thankful that I had the knowledge and training in judo and jiu-jitsu because those few minutes of rolling on the ground would’ve gone very differently if I didn’t know what to do.  Because I knew I was able to subdue Zach, in his drunken rage, while the police were on the way.  The unfortunate part of this whole experience is that Zach broke my father’s back when he tackled him and he had to have surgery to fix it.  But if I wasn’t there or didn’t know what to do dad could be dead right now.

Thank you Mike, Steve, Dr. Chen, and everyone else who has taught and trained me at the Hidden Valley Mixed Martial Arts.  Without you the outcome of this unfortunate circumstance would be much worse.

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Okay, so i have to let you know my intentions for today’s post.  This is not a “do I look fat in this dress” post.  I am not looking for hugs or reassurance.

But what I do want to do is touch on something that happens in training.  I have been through this several times, and I have seen many other students struggle with it as well.

There are times when I am on fire.  I feel that I am learning so much.  I feel I am getting so much better.

And then there’s days like today.

My sensei asked me to cover for him and teach a class last night.  Candidly, I didn’t want to.  I didn’t feel up to the task.  I didn’t feel worthy.  I felt like a farce.

I don’t know why.  I look at my technique in class, and even in those areas I was doubting myself as I taught, my technique really was spot on.  It’s not just teaching the class either.  It’s my training in general… I just feel like I suck right now.

I know, it may sound like I’m accepting passengers for the pity train here.  That’s not my intention.  What I really wanted to do was share a little bit.  I have seen others feel this way.  If you ever feel this way, please know you’re not alone.  We all go through it.

Even though I know that’s true, I find it’s not making me feel any better right now   And this may not make you feel any better.  But at least you know you’re not alone.  And I for one, do not intend to give up.

I’ll see you on the mat!

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