good sweat

I’m not the best decision maker. Sometimes I run headlong in to things, and it gets me in to trouble. Sometimes I think about something, know it’s a bad idea, and still do it. Choosing to do some intense physical activity after being sick for a week, not sleeping well, having a headache, and generally feeling achy is my most recent poor decision. And I don’t regret it.


I went to Jiu Jitsu class yesterday. A normal class is manageable, even when tired. You learn a few moves, and run through them with a partner a few times for about an hour. A decent workout, but not too terribly tiring. Rolling, however, is.

Rolling is when you and another Jiu Jitsu-er face each other on the matt, generally with both of you down on your knees, you slap hands, and then start wrestling. I trained for a half-marathon for a while, at which time I was occasionally running 10-12 miles at once. At no point in that time did I sweat near as much as I did while rolling.

It was awesome. The other guy, a blue belt, which is quite a ways above myself, gave me a lot of compliments. The most important being “you have good control.” Often times when a new guy “rolls” for the first time, they are wild and react crazily to anything that happens. They put themselves, and the other guy in danger. Control is a good thing to have in Jiu Jitsu, not just for safety’s sake, but for progression in skill as well. I’m glad he told me that. It’s got me pumped for more sessions.

But I will definitely try to be better rested before I do that again. It was one of the most itense workouts of my life. I ripped off my gi, flew out of my under armor, and flopped on the ground until the guy that runs the place asked me to put a shirt on. I didn’t really want to because both my gi and my under armor were soaked in sweat. However, I got up, went in the bathroom, and sat on a bench until I could move again.

I’m hoping I will continue to progress in this. I’m hoping I will continue to learn and be able to do more and more, with all the control necessary to succeed. I’ll let you know how it goes.