Thanks to Georgette for pointing this guy’s blog out. It’s interesting and really, really funny.
Have you ever wondered how a jitsuka would do a benchpress?
What about craziness you can do with a 25 lb plate, a 10 lbs mini ball, a 14.5 lb kettle ball and, I kid you not, a 25 lb Cement Atlas ball? Add a wheelbarrow and a little dose of insanity.
First thing’s first, congratulations to Charlee on her blue belt. She’s been training off and on for about 3 years, but has really kicked it into high gear lately and it shows.
And check out this video that Matt Hickney put together for Rick. Very cool:
BJJ training is moving right along. I’ve been training regularly again for a while, and that’s been terrific. Being physically able to go to class three or four times in a week is a downright luxury for me. My back is feeling pretty good, in no small part thanks to Dr. Sean’s attention. My cardio is getting better every class. I’m getting my butt kicked all over the place, but that’s okay by me.
I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a period of time after every… episode with my back where I just don’t trust it. Have you guys all read the article that’s floated around periodically about the archetypes found in a gym? If not, take a few minutes to read them. It’s hilarious!
But at the same time, if you’re like me, you read those and think to yourself, "Okay… damn. I did that once. Crap. I’ve done that, too." We all have a blind spot. One of the hardest things to do is see ourselves as we’re seen by others. While BJJ is pretty hard on the ego, I don’t think anyone would like to see any of those negative stereotypes applied to themselves. And yet, they’re funny because we DO know those people. Now, I don’t know about you, but to me this suggests that there are a lot of us who embody, at least in part, these negative stereotypes, but don’t know it… don’t see it in our actions.
While I don’t spend too much time worrying about how I’m viewed, I think we would all like to be respected and well liked in our circles. More importantly, these archetypes highlight more than some common personalities. They highlight a lot of common excuses that we make. So, when I’m sparring, I spend a lot of time assessing my back and how I feel. Every time someone asks me how I am, I consider whether I want to tell them the truth, which is usually that it hurts to some degree or another, or to gloss it over. I’m concerned about developing a reputation for being the perpetually injured guy. I don’t want to be that guy.
Does anyone else struggle with a chronic injury or limitation in your training? I’m not talking about something that heals. I’m talking about nagging, persistent pain or limitation. A bad back? Pinched nerve? Maybe some kind of persistent joint issues or hip problems… the sort of thing that you don’t really ever come back from.
How do you handle it? Or if you know someone or train with someone, does their persistent limitation affect your view of them?
Great jiu jitsu weekend. On Saturday, I got to try my hand at refereeing. It was… well, harder than I thought it would be. With a gimpy back, but a desire to participate in the sport and support the growing BJJ/Sub Grappling community in the Pacific NorthWest, I help Jeff of Liberty Events as much I can with his thrice annual tournaments. I’m beginning to realize that any opportunities to compete are going to be rare and unexpected, but I can contribute in other ways. Jeff is an awesome guy who loves the sport and I honestly believe that it’s the least I can do.
And it’s not like I don’t have a great time doing it. In the past, I’ve managed the mats for him, trying my best to make sure that things are running as well as possible. While that’s fun to do, I’ve always been interested in refereeing. So, thanks to Jeff B. and Rodrigo Lopes, the host of Gracie Barra Seattle’s in school tournament last Saturday, I was able to referee a ton of matches.
Once again, it’s harder than it looks. I have a new found respect for those guys, bad calls and all. By the end of the day, I was drained, in spite of the simplified IBJJF ruleset that Jeff uses (ie, no advantages/no penalty points). Refereeing is a mental workout, as you are focused on what the athletes are doing, tracking who’s doing what, watching not only for the obvious such as passing guard, but for the more subtle calls as well. For example, under Jeff’s rules, if someone pull guard before making physical contact, they’re ceding a takedown and it’s 2 points to the opponent. If they make contact and pull guard, no points. But if they pull guard, and the opponent is controlling the leg of the guy pulling guard, that can be a takedown. Confusing? I know!
Add to this being on the lookout for stalling, illegal grips, illegal techniques (white belts! No wristlocks for you!) and trying to decide whether or when to stop the action when the athletes get too close to the edge, and there’s just a lot going on.
So, needless to say, I had a terrific time. I made more than my share of mistakes, but this was the perfect environment for my first step into refereeing. The tournament was free for the athletes, no medals were being awarded and it was really just a chance for the Gracie Barra and Foster guys to get together and tune up. There were guys tuning up for the Mundials, some white belts were rolling for the first time against people from outside their school, and some were just getting some scored, reffed matches in against people they don’t roll with every day.
Some highlights from the tournament were a terrific fireman’s carry from Albert, a white belt in our school. It was BY FAR the best takedown of the day, executed perfectly. I also got to meet the author of Side Control, a BJJ blog written by a Gracie Barra Seattle purple belt. Also, seeing all of the kids (I think about twice as many as had been registered) and how Cindy Hales handled them was terrific. When she told them (paraphrasing) “Okay guys. Try not to cry. There’s gonna be some tears, I know. And it’s okay if it happens… but try not to.” That was really funny. She is so good with the kids, and it’s great fun to watch them roll.
My staph infection has healed well. I’m off the antibiotics and am largely healed up. I went back to class on Monday for the first time in weeks and felt pretty good. I got a lot of mat time and it felt good to work out again. When I say “largely healed up” I really just mean that the hole is filled up and I have skin where I should. The skin is new and I’m just being very cautious, so I’m keeping it covered at class until it’s totally invisible.
I posted this on Facebook already, so for my Facebook buddies, this is a repeat.
I got bit by a bug or something on my left elbow… noticed it on Monday. By Wednesday, it was clearly becoming a problem, so I went to the doctor and was prescribed an antibiotic. She didn’t seem overly concerned, so even though it hurt like hell, I wasn’t concerned either. I kept it well covered and pressed on.
By Friday, it was clear that it was abscessing and looking really bad. Doctor told me that it’s likely I picked up the infection from leaning on a counter. While I’m diligent about washing my hands, I have to admit that I pretty much only wash my elbows in the shower, so it’s a good bet that she’s right on target.
My wife saw my handiwork and… let’s just say she wasn’t impressed.
So, off we go to the Urgent Care down the street. The doctor wasn’t impressed, either… but I’ll say this. She didn’t end up trying to get any more out. Parting instructions included, “Next time, if it starts to swell up again, don’t do this yourself. Come down here and let us do it.”
I heard, “Good job. You got all the crud out on your own but we can make sure that the tools are sterile.”
My wife heard, “Your husband is an idiot and he’s lucky he didn’t make it worse.”
I like my version better.
Anyway, official diagnosis is staff infection with cellulitis, but I caught it early enough that there’s no hole or any of that. She took a culture and I’ll know tomorrow hopefully whether it’s MRSA.
In the meantime, I’m actually on two antibiotics now, because she’s not sure which is the best until the culture comes back. The swelling and redness isn’t getting better, which is worrisome. But it’s not getting worse either, which I’m taking as a good sign that the antibiotics are doing their job, and the pain is loads better.
Either way, I’m out of class for at least two weeks.
Not THAT kind of swing… sheesh. This blog is strictly PG, for Pete’s sake. I mean East Coast Swing. For Christmas, I signed my wife and I up for dance lessons. I have always wanted to do this, but have never taken the plunge because of my chronic back pain. For years, even at times when I would characterize my back pain as being “mild,” standing was bad. Standing up for long periods of time, walking, running, that sort of thing would make my back ache. So, now that my back is feeling really good, I figured it was time to give it a shot.
It’s terrific. I am really enjoying have regular time to spend with my wife. That’s been great. I’m also have a lot of fun with the dancing itself, and it turns out that I don’t completely suck at it. We’ve been learning lots of moves, and I think that East Coast Swing was the perfect dance for us to start with, although my wife drug me to a Cha Cha seminar and that was pretty fun, too.
I know that some other BJJ addicts out there also dance. I’d be interested in any tips or tricks you have for me. I’m a total dance noob.
On the BJJ front, though, I’ve been training sporadically over the last month or so. It started with ringworm. Yuck. I had it on my arm, took a couple weeks off to defungalize, then went back to training and ended up getting it again, this time on my throat. Double YUCK!
I’m not sure where I got it or from whom, but I definitely don’t want to do unto others as had been done unto me… if that makes sense. I stayed away from the school until I could be damned sure it wasn’t going to come back. Add to this a spouse who’s travelling quite a bit for work, a volatile toddler with strong opinions about things, a 12 year old daughter who wants to bake cakes, cookies, breads or and a son who’s in the midst of daily wrestling practices and it’s been a challenge to get to class more than once or twice per week. I’m really hoping to change that after we get back from DisneyWorld in a few weeks.
Still, on that front, I have been working on recovering guard from turtle, and have also been working on some deep half guard stuff that Coach introduced into class. I’ve been having some success getting to the deep half guard position and overall am liking it for reversal/sweeps. I’ll need to take a look at the Jeff Glover instructionals to pick up some more tips and techniques.
That said, anybody out there like deep half guard? Let me know if you’ve run into any details that helped you with it (or to counter it).
I’ve written about Crusher on my blog in the past. He’s the guy that made me seriously question whether I was right for BJJ. I saw him and thought, “Oh crap. I’m in the wrong place!” As is the case with most BJJ guys, though, Crusher is a very cool guy.
When I began training in 2006, he was a brown belt, Coach Foster’s first student to reach that rank (and until recently, his only student). Crusher is a former power lifter… think world’s strongest man. He was built like that, like an oak tree. He was immune to being choked because his neck was only 2″ long and was as big around as my waist.
In the first month or so of training, I paired up with Crusher in sparring. Coach said to him, “He’s new, so teach him some stuff.” So, he promptly rolled me into mount (yes, he pulled mount on me… how demoralizing!), let me work for a bit, then reversed me and passed my guard. Remembering that he’s supposed to be teaching me “some stuff” he says as an afterthought, “Okay. Right here… you’re losing.” 
Crusher’s real name is Jason McKissack, and until about a year ago, he was a police officer on the Seattle PD. As he tried to break up a fight, he was jumped by the group, including both parties in the fight. Here’s a link to the original article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008009370_webcop20m.html
The brain damage he sustained has left his equilibrium completely out of whack. Well, now, because he’s no longer able to serve on the PD, they’re cutting his medical coverage. Since he is no longer a police officer, the only way his family could continue to get medical coverage is if he were killed.
Here’s the link to a video of the story and to the article itself that ran a few days ago locally.
We’ve had 6 officers killed in the line of duty within the last few months and that’s a tragedy. But I know that the families of these slain officers have received an overwhelming display of support, financial and emotional, from the entire community. They did their jobs and the community came through when needed. What really pisses me off about this situation is that Jason says in the article that his family would be better off if he had died. That just sucks. That he survived should be celebrated, not penalized. His family should be better off that he survived, not worse.
There’s a house bill being proposed that would insure that officers injured in the line of duty and unable to return to duty would keep their medical benefits. HB1679 would protect first responders by ensuring catastrophic medical care. Take a look. If you’re in WA, consider letting your State Rep know that it’s important to you. As things stand right now, I believe we’re morally obliged to take care of our first responders. It’s the right thing to do, and this bill does that.
Now, all of that aside, besides the personal interest I have in this story, this also brings up other topical points I’m curious about. What do you guys think?
Regardless of your stance on health care (although if we had single payer, this wouldn’t be an issue), what do you think about the reality that, as it stands, in the case of a medical emergency it’s often better for the family if the person dies than if they live but suffer from a permanent, disabling condition? How would you handle the loss of employment, loss of income and often the loss of medical insurance coupled with enormous personal debt and medical debt wreaks havoc on a family? Divorce is very common, bankruptcy also commonplace and homelessness for the disabled individual is a real possibility if everyone he or she thought was there… suddenly isn’t. “Sorry, honey. I just can’t handle it any more. You’re not the person I married.” Is this an issue for you? Important? Do you guys believe the chips fall where they may… just bad luck? What would happen to you and your families if you were in a car accident or something, could no longer work, lose your medical coverage and wrack up six digit medical bills? Are you prepared?
Christmas was awesome, but… there were a few snags. For some reason, someone gets sick in our house for Christmas. Every year. Sometimes it’s only one person, and sometimes, such as this year, it makes a run through the entire house.
Christmas morning we awoke to the sounds of my oldest puking loudly in the bathroom. It was 4 am and at the time my wife and I weren’t sure if he was REALLY sick or if it was just nerves and lack of sleep. I know he was excited about the presents and so we largely wrote it off. He looked like he was feeling better, so we took it easy for a few hours. The kids opened their presents and everything seemed okay. But by 8 o’clock, Ken was back in bed, where he stayed pretty much all day long. He came out for dinner, but ate very little and then went back to bed.
Fortunately, he was doing much better the next day because I was the next to fall. I ended up losing about 6 or 7 lbs in 12 hours and was beginning to become concerned about dehydration. On the plus side, I broke 180 lbs by the new year, a goal I had set many months ago. I went to bed on Sunday night at 183 lbs and by Monday morning I weighed under 177 lbs. While, of course, this was just water and within a day or so I was back up over 180, I have managed to legitimately keep whittling away at my weight and am now right around 180 and dropping. I was 179 this morning and hope to stay on track.
Monday my wife and older daughter caught the bug. Ken really picked up the slack for us, taking care of the baby and keeping the house under control.
In other health news, my back feels really, really good. Better, in fact, than in a very long time. I’ve been seeing a chiro pretty regularly and have seen some real benefit from it. I’ll keep it up and hope that in addition to everything else I’m doing, adding an adjustment at least every couple of weeks for a while will improve the strength and stability in my lower back.
On the presents front, I was given a Dollamur Flex-Roll mat for my garage. I have one already, a green tatami style that I was given by my brother last year. It’s terrific, but at 5×10, it’s a little small for anything but static drills. To do any real rolling, I need a little more mat space and wanted to get another one to make a 10×10 area. Well, it’s on the way and I can’t wait. Should be a place where I can throwdown with anyone willing to come by. Maybe if my HOA gives me any trouble I’ll issue a challenge and we can settle it using the old Catch Wrestling rules.
Hold on. My wife is telling me that’s a bad idea.
… my attorney is also telling me that’s a bad idea. Okay. So… maybe no challenges to the HOA, but hopefully I can supplement my class time with some work at home.
My goals for the new year are to really hit another leap forward in technical understanding of Jiu Jitsu. I’m looking forward to being healthy and strong, building my cardio and either coming to terms with or overcoming my chronic back issues. I believe that if I can train regularly, this will be a very good year for me. I intend to compete for good or ill as often as I can in 2010, just to get the experience. I would love to go to the Pan Ams in April. That’s a big goal of mine, and one I hope to meet.
I hope you all have a great 2010 whatever your own personal goals might be.
I came to some conclusions and made some decisions. A few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to work with a chiropractor that I trust. Dr. Sean trains with us at my school and were it not for him, I would likely never consider chiropractic care as a viable option. The only problem is that his office is deep in Tacoma. So, while Dr. Sean would be my first choice, I’ve had to figure out how I can get the attention I need somewhere a little closer to home.
Fortunately, another guy at the school whom I’ve known for years recommended his chiropractor, who has an office much closer to my house, about halfway between where I live and the BJJ school. I went to see him for the first time on Tuesday and my initial reaction was very positive.
There were some definite things he did that I liked. First, he was extremely cautious. The first day, he didn’t do any kind of an adjustment. Instead, he did some tests along the lines of, “Do this. Does that hurt? Any tingling or numbness? Okay. Do this. Pain?” He also took some x-rays and requested my MRI that was done a few years back from the hospital.
Second, he did a lot of explaining. He described my symptoms back to me, a good way to let me know that he’d been listening and understood what I was saying. He then told me some common causes for my issues and explained how he works. And then he sent me home no worse off than when I came in.
All in all, a very good start. I went in the next day, yesterday, to take a look at the x-rays and talk in more detail about what is going on, and he then did an adjustment.
Turns out I’m suffering from disc degeneration in my L5 vertebrae. If you’d like to know more about it, here’s a nifty, interactive video I found. The intarweb is awesome and the narrator even sounds like the guy who did the voiceover for the films we watched in biology class in school. If you’re getting the impression that this isn’t entirely good news, you’re right. It’s not. As the chiropractor said yesterday, once the disc is gone, you can’t get it back. According to the doc, I’m not at phase 2 yet, but I’m also well past phase 1… somewhere between the two.
What I need to do now, according to my new chiropractor, is keep what I have for as long as I can. I am not anxious to find any kind of surgical solution to this problem for many reasons (although if you ask me when I’m suffering from muscle spasms, sciatica and the subsequent sleep deprivation, I’d agree to just about anything if you promised to make the pain stop). A combination of everything I’ve been doing, plus regular chiropractic care, according to this chiropractor, will help maintain what disc I have left, help stabilize everything and keep me functioning as well as possible. He said that this might mean never having surgery or maybe putting it off for 30 years… as opposed to 10 as I progress into phase II degeneration and on toward phase III.
So, not altogether good news. I appreciate that he didn’t blow smoke up my behind. He admitted that I might experience blow outs in my back… it’s just the nature of the beast. Where my disc should be nice and puffy, my L5 disc is about a 1/4 of where it should be.
In spite of all that, I went to class and had a good time. I was a little sore toward the end of class, but after a little ice on the lower back and a good dinner, I felt great by bedtime.
Part of being healthy is eating well. Part of being alive in the world right now is having less time to prepare meals.
As I mentioned in my first installment of Steve Cooks, I’m looking for good, healthy alternatives to store bought protein bars. I started with a reasonably good recipe, but wasn’t happy with the taste. It was too sweet for me, and a little bland. Not bad, by any means, but not great. So, I’m working on other recipes.
This go around, I started with a recipe from the UK. A very nice lady named Lou who trains in Kung Fu and
more recently MMA posted her recipe for flapjacks. Now, here’s the funny part. Brits don’t speak English either. Turns out, if you’ve spent any amount of time corresponding with Brits, they talk funny, and any comments they make about Americans butchering the Queen’s English must be made tongue firmly in cheek. Case in point, flapjack. Any American understands that a flapjack is a big pancake. Seriously. EVERYBODY knows this. Sheesh! Turns out, in the UK, a flapjack is like a big cookie bar or something.
Here’s her original recipe:
125g butter
300g oats
3 tbsps honey
50g raisins/sultanas
140g brown sugar
50g sesame seeds
50g sunflower seeds
flax seeds (I sprinkle them on top)Heat the butter,sugar and honey in a pan. When melted,add the other ingredients and place in a baking tray.Cook at 180C for about 15 minutes.
The first difficulty I ran into was conversion. I don’t speak metric. So, imagine my surprise when I started converting the recipe above into a scale that I understand. Holy moly! We’re talking over a stick of butter. Dayum!
I made a batch of these and I have to say, they’re DELICIOUS. But, they don’t do the job if I’m trying to put together a protein bar. If you look, there’s very little protein in this recipe at all. They tasted awesome, and if the intent is to have something that will stick to the ribs, the oats in this will do that job well.
Here’s what I did. Using Lou’s recipe as a base, I made some substitutions for ingredients that I have on hand, are better suited for a lower carb/higher protein bar or I just like better.
After doing some conversions, and some substitutions for ingredients that I prefer, I ended up with something like this:
Oatmeal Flapjacks a la Steve
1 Cup natural applesauce (substitute for the shortening/butter)
1 Cup applejuice (to add a little more liquid to the mix)
3 Cups rolled oats
1/4 Cup dried cherries
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs flax seeds (ground)
4 scoops chocolate protein mix
3 tbs agave nectarI mixed the dry ingredients up in one bowl and the wet in another, then mixed them all together and baked them in a 9×13 pan at 325F for 40 minutes.
I ended up with 12 bars. According to my math, they have about 211 calories each, 22g carbs and 12g protein per bar. Not too bad, although I’d like to reverse the carbs to protein. I substituted Natural Applesauce for the Butter in the original recipe. I also switched cherries for the raisins, just because I had them on hand.
The other main substitution was to use Agave Nectar in lieu of honey. Agave Nectar is delicious and can be used as a substitute for any kind of sugar, honey or other sweetener. I heard about it from a friend who is a vegan. I guess vegans love it because it’s good and isn’t an animal derivative like honey. All I know is that it’s good in just about anything, including oatmeal.
I added some of the protein mix, as well, to provide some needed protein to the recipe.
The bars are delicious, in my opinion. They’re thin, almost like an oatmeal cookie, crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. They’re also quite sweet, but it’s not the maple syrup sweetness of my last bars. These are, again, more like a cookie. Still, they could be less sweet and just as tasty.
I really like this recipe and plan to tweak it. I want to bump up the protein content in the cookie, and reduce some of the carbs. As I said, if I could get 15 grams of Protein and around 10 or so grams of Carbs per bar, I’d be happy. I’m not too worried about these carbs as they are mostly derived from the Rolled Oats, but it’s the carbs from the brown sugar, agave nectar and other sugars that I’d like to minimize.
So, next time I make this, I’m going to add some protein from whey concentrate, reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1/4 cup, and back off of the agave nectar a little as well. I’m also going to use dried cranberries instead of cherries. This will help reduce the sugar amount, as well, but still provide a little texture.
Finally, the plate shot with the garnish is for Linda. My kids read your comments on my last recipe and gave me all sorts of hell for not considering presentation. My daughter said (I kid you not), “You know, Dad. Presentation is half the meal.”
Ratings (out of 5 stars):
Texture: *****
Flavor: ****
Ease of Prep: ****
Nutrition: ***
Overall: ****
If you give these a try or have any other suggestions, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Welcome to a new feature on my training blog: Steve Cooks. I enjoy cooking. I’m a much better cook than baker, though. I’ve been told that it’s because I tend to make things up as I go. I have no problem adding more of things I like and less of things I don’t. I also watch way too much Food Network for my own good.
My criteria for a good recipe is simple. It must be easy, delicious and relatively good for me (and the family). Right now, I’m working on finding a good protein/breakfast bar recipe. I eat at least one every day, sometimes two. After class if I’m hungry, in the morning between breakfast and lunch… second breakfast or elevensies, if you will. I try to avoid any unnecessary sugars and if you’ve looked at all at the breakfast/protein bar selection, you know that this isn’t so easy to do. Most protein bars are little better than a snickers bar. Both are covered in chocolate and both satisfy.
I kind of like the Organic Food Bars, specifically the Omega and the Active Greens. What I like about these bars is that everything in them is recognizable as food: fruits, nuts and oils. What I don’t like is that they’re about $2.50 per bar.
My first foray into the protein bar world is a simple recipe I found through Google. I said, “Google. How do I make my own protein bar?” Then I pressed the “I feel lucky” button and VOILA!
How to Make Your Own Protein Bar:
I made a few changes from the website instructions.
I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another, then added the wet to the dry and baked them at 325F for about 30 minutes, til they passed the toothpick test.
After letting them cool in the pan and then cutting them up, I ended up with something that looks like this: 
Overall, these weren’t bad, but are actually on the sweet side for me. I don’t have a real sweet tooth, but these were pretty tasty. You can really taste the syrup. If I were to make this again, I’d try a vanilla protein mix, rather than the chocolate.
In this picture, I think you can get a better sense of the texture.
I liked this part of it. It wasn’t gooey or slimy. The texture was firm, not too stic.jpg)
ky and kind of like a very dense biscuit.
Overall, I would call this a successful recipe. I’m not sure if I would make it again, because it’s a little sweet for my taste. I’m going to be on the look out for something less sugary for my next installment.
Ratings (out of 5 stars):
Texture: ****
Flavor: **
Ease of Prep: ****
Overall: *** 1/2
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