The First Two Months: My Body and Mind

Early on we discovered that we could also attend Judo class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I had taken one Judo course in college ... ooohh ... say 30 years ago....  I enjoyed that, and it develops a lot of balance, so we decided to try that too. I'm all for getting my money's worth!

After the first week in BJJ and Judo, my legs--in particular my hamstrings and quads--as well as various other parts of my body, were really sore. It was a good sore, but sore nonetheless. This wasn't from the BJJ techniques practice per se, but initially mainly from the full-body warm-up exercises we did. Really, it was awesome to begin feeling my body again.

Feeling the "pain," I began researching and learning how I (a "guy over 50") should approach my training; how I should think about my body; how to loose fat, build strength, recover adequately from training, versus overworking and injuring myself. I wanted to be in this for the long haul.

One hesitation I had initially was that my back is not 100%. It has issues mainly if I compress my discs in my middle back. So, I have self-monitored how things were going. Amazingly, my back problems have actually lessened! I attribute this to the strengthening of my core--my abdominal and back muscles. I do regular stretching as well, which seems to help everything.

After a couple weeks of Judo before my BJJ class on Tuesday and Wednesday, I decided I was often too worn out to concentrate well on BJJ, and it was taking me too long to recover, so I decided to forego Judo. I tried it again after feeling better a couple weeks later, but I still was not concentrating as well in BJJ, so I'm just watching for now. Daniel and Stephen both continue with Judo, and I'm happy for them.

About a month in I decided to participate in some sparring. I found that after a couple minutes, especially if someone was on top of me, I was having some trouble breathing. I didn't like that feeling. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe, really, but that I could not get a satisfying full breath, so the longer I put off getting that breath, the more suffocating it felt. I tapped out 2 or 3 times (tapped my partner telling him I was done) just because I felt like I couldn't get a breath. I talked with Coach Ryan and did a fair amount of research online. Clearly my cardiorespiritory system could use some improvement, so I continue to work on that. Some people online reported a kind of claustrophobic feeling, but I didn't feel afraid; I just couldn't breathe!  Sometimes I would just be standing there, not grappling, and could not catch my breath! In additional to improving my cardio, I have concluded that three other things have contributed to this breathing challenge: (1) sometimes if I eat too close to training time, either my belly is too full, or my insides have a lot of gas (perhaps I'm eating the wrong things). It makes sense that all that gas in my belly or midsection is taking up space that my lungs could expand to. Often after belching (politely, haha) as much of that as I can, I can breath more fully. I haven't even seen that as a problem or solution on the web, but it seems to be a real thing for me, so I am trying not to eat very close to any time I might be sparring--I'm not too concerned if we are just drilling.  (2) I found that my BJJ training was challenging muscles and various parts all over my body, including my upper torso and rib cage. This tends to tighten up those muscles and my rib cage. By doing some deep breathing practice with some associated stretching of the muscles around my rib cage, front and back, it seemed to loosen things up a bit for me to take fuller breaths. (3) Finally, another really crucial thing that has helped me so far--and I have seen this on the web a lot--REMEMBER TO BREATH!!!  I realized that I would tense up and take shallow breaths or even hold my breath for certain movements or efforts. Doing that once or twice in a minute might not be too bad, but every held breath gets my oxygenation process more and more behind, and making that standard operating procedure means I'm out of breath soon! So, I've been trying to practice breathing more just during the day, as well as at BJJ training. This breathing training has helped a lot, even with my breathing just during the day.

Finally, my latest physical challenge is my fingers. Jiu-Jitsu in a Gi (traditional uniform worn in some martial arts), involves a lot of gripping and grip-fighting. Early on my fingers were a little sore after some training, but so was everything else, so it was no big deal. Now, most of my body parts are getting used to the training, but my fingers don't seem to be recovering as quickly. The pain and stiffness and lack of mobility is getting worse. You can learn more about this with a web search for "bjj finger pain." Many BJJ practitioners wrap their fingers in a specific way with athletic tape to give their fingers additional support. I have not done this yet--I was hoping to avoid it. But I'm at a point now where I either need to tape my fingers, or play "no-gi" for a while, or just don't grab so hard for a while.


I want to stay healthy, get stronger, and breathe better with a good attitude so I can continue for a long time.