Even though I had to convince myself a few times to scale it back a bit, I’ve been successful the past month. I’ve learned the hard way in the past by pushing myself too hard after an injury that wasn’t fully healed just to re-injure myself. Or push myself too hard that my injury would take twice as long to heal and negatively affect my training. My very minor injuries are almost completely healed. I’ve increased my flexibility in training as well and have seen improvements. The added stretching makes recovery that much better on a daily basis.
Sometimes when my schedule changes and/or I become busier, I can get off track and it’s a good reminder to keep balanced in all aspects of training. If I’m pressed for time, stretching is usually what I eliminate or do less of. It negatively affects my jiu jitsu and my body. Bodybuilding gave me a great foundation not only for strength in my muscles and tendons but for balance in my body. It took a while to adjust and determine what works best, yet I feel much more balanced in my training for my overall health and performance in jiu jitsu.
To say that I’m looking forward to competing before the end of the year is an understatement. I have become used to competing every month since the start of this year that I felt weird not competing these last two months. Although I’m looking to enter a tournament again, I know the break was very helpful and I am glad I had all of those opportunities to compete earlier this year. I have a mini vacation planned for November that was delayed from earlier this year, so I hope there is a local tournament in December available for me to enter.
The break from tournaments does feel like it has been helpful with my jiu jitsu as well. One of my obstacles is overthinking when I’m rolling. When I think too much, I get “stuck” often and don’t flow as well which hinders my progression. Since I’m not training for a tournament at the moment, I feel more mentally relaxed and seem to be flowing better. I often seem to progress after a break from training due to either an injury or vacation.
I also feel very motivated to train lately, since the weather has cooled down a bit. It was the first time in my life that I was looking forward to the fall and winter. Growing up in a cold climate always had me looking forward to the summer and never wanting it to end. Now that I live in a warmer climate and there has been a very long hot, humid summer, I’m awaiting cooler temperatures. The humidity makes me feel like I’m sluggish in training, so the recent slight drop in temperature makes it feel like I have more energy.
I’ll be working on my 5 Fave video for triceps in the next month to add to my other 5 Fave videos. My Favorite Training Day video is now up on the HMB website along with the other Team HMB athletes. I chose hamstrings since they were always a challenge being a lagging body part of mine in the past. Now they also are a part of jiu jitsu since there’s a lot of leg curling and also motions that mimic deadlifting at times. Check out my Favorite Training Day video here and look out for my next 5 Fave! Happy training!