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Fit to Fight Diary Pt. 2: Fighting Through Pain, Into More Pain
Fit to Fight Diary Pt. 2: Fighting Through Pain, Into More Pain
(Note: I’m dedicating this week’s diary entry to Casey, who decided not to take the Fit to Fight series with us because – and I’m only speculating here – he is completely terrified of me.)
Coming to Fit and Fearless as I did – sedentary and unaccustomed to the rigors of a constantly strained and pained body – I have very little sense of how much exercise is too much exercise. I’ve read articles about professional MMA fighters training for eight hours a day, six days a week. But those are professional MMA fighters and they are insane. Surely for those of us who love Krav and Fit to Fight but who are too old, too clumsy, too cowardly, too consistently drunk, or simply too reasonable to step into a cage with someone whose performance bonus is based on just how spectacularly he or she beats our brains in, surely for people like us a balance has to be struck between the desire to train all the time and the need to spare our bodies unnecessary suffering.
I bring this up because over the past few weeks there have been a couple of days where I went to three different Fit and Fearless classes in a day -- CrossFit in the early afternoon, followed by Level 2 Krav and Fit to Fight in the evenings – and my body has started rebelling. Now normally I would do no such thing (I often take two classes in a row on Saturdays, but three seems somehow to be exponentially larger than two in this case, a mystery of mathematics my humanities mind doesn’t have the patience for), but circumstances these days are particular.
CrossFit I have to keep up with or bad things will happen: My discipline will go slack, my technique will suffer, my strength will decline, my benchmarks will be missed, and my body will become less fascinating for me to look at in the mirror. All of these results (particularly the last one) are unacceptable.
I also have to make sure I’m going to as many Level 2 classes as I can because next Saturday I’m taking the Level 2 test, an event I’m dreading like a family funeral. The Level 1 test was far and away the most difficult thing I’ve ever put myself though, and the thought of doing it all over again is hanging over my head like a dark cloud. A year after that first test, I can still feel the Charlie horses in my calves and the bruised bones in my wrists. I can still see the hands on the clock spinning meaninglessly as the test dragged on for hours and days and weeks. I can still hear the voice in my head telling me over and over, “You won’t quit. You won’t quit. You won’t quit.” And I can still hear the other voice in my head telling that first voice to stop being a moron. So I shouldn’t be looking forward to the Level 2 test at all, but like I said in my last entry, Fit and Fearless has turned me into something I wasn’t before, someone who enjoys suffering and its transcendence, so my dread of next Saturday is slowly morphing into something resembling excitement. Which is odd.
Lastly, I have to go to the Fit to Fight series. Not just because it’s my absolute favorite thing to do but because I paid extra for it, and I am cheap.
So that’s fine. I have these three classes to go to and I’m a grown man so I go to them. The problem is that these three-class days are leaving my body completely exhausted and beat up, and I don’t have the anatomical or medical knowledge to say with any certainty that the kind of punishment my body is sustaining on those days is the good kind (the kind that results from you pushing yourself beyond your limits) or the bad kind (the kind that results from you pushing yourself beyond your limits and into the hospital).
For example, last week, our CrossFit Workout of the Day included 50 thrusters. Thrusters are essentially squats that end with you pushing a barbell above your head. Thrusters (as many exercises in CrossFit are) are explicit repudiations of reasonable behavior, a bridge too far in the war against slack. As if squats (which are hell in their own special way) were something to be laughed at and shrugged off by anyone who fancies themselves in shape.
50 thrusters are devastating. And after doing them I and my legs were devastated.
Six hours later I’m back at the gym for Fit to Fight class (having made it through Level 2 relatively unscathed, or at the very least not inordinately scathed), and our instructor, Conor (who I had always liked until that moment), decided that the warm-up for the day would be 100 squats. I don’t know why he chose that exercise or that number (I felt like the confused wife in those coffee commercials from the Seventies: “Conor never made us do 100 squats before …”) but here I was, still weak in the knees from that morning’s 50 thrusters, about to throw gasoline onto a fire which was already threatening to ruin my night.
So I howled my way through those squats, and after I was done my legs felt like perfectly cooked spaghetti, limp to the touch, barely able to hold me up. And that was just the warm-up; we went on to practice kicks and boxing footwork and wrestling and any number of other physically taxing techniques. The following week, after another hellish leg day in CrossFit, Conor, like Moloch, demanded an even greater sacrifice: two full minutes of wood choppers, where a participant jumps up and down on one leg and turns over his hip to simulate a roundhouse kick with his other leg, which is being held up the whole time by his/her partner until the person doing the jumping dies. Once again, I found myself on spaghetti legs.
Which is fine: I don’t mind my legs feeling like spaghetti. In fact I enjoy my legs feeling like spaghetti. It means they got a quality workout. The issue, though, is how much is too much. In a training program like Fit to Fight, where every drill and every exercise is predicated to some degree on working through pain and stress, how does one recognize when one has worked one’s body beyond the point of self-improvement to self-sabotage? In other words, How much like spaghetti is too much like spaghetti? Can one really fight on spaghetti legs? Should one fight on spaghetti legs? Is it even reasonable? Is it possible that some night I could find myself in a bar fight -- hands up, chin down, elbows in -- only to discover that my legs had turned to pasta for some inexplicable reason, maybe fear or some previously undiagnosed disease? And at that moment will I be thanking my lucky stars that I was stubborn enough to learn to fight under such conditions? Or am I doing myself no favors by ignoring my body when it’s trying its best to shut down?
The answer is: I have no idea. And I’m guessing there’s no one who can tell me. It’s my decision to make. For example, I made a choice a long time to fight with a fractured finger rather than take the time off from training to let it heal properly (also, I have a freelance writer’s health insurance plan, which is exactly as bad as it sounds). This isn’t because I’m particularly brave or tough or macho (though I am) but because the classes we take – for me, anyway – are as much about getting past our individual psychological roadblocks as they are about developing skills. Krav and Fit to Fight are about the collapsing of the old me under the weight of the new and cultivating a finely honed and willful indifference to pain and fear. Without that I’m just a guy rolling around on sweat-covered floors, grabbing onto sweat-covered people, and taking sweat-covered elbows to my sweat-covered face. And who wants that?
And so, on spaghetti strands I fight.
-Josh
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Military Preparedness Seminar with RON! Oct. 29
Military Preparedness:
Krav Maga Defensive Tactics as used and trained in the Israeli Special Forces
Fit and Fearless' Krav Maga Instructor Ron Grobman has been training in the Israeli military for the last year. He'll be home for a short visit in October and will be holding a very special seminar on current Israeli Krav Maga military techniques and training.
The seminar is open to everyone, but there will be a range of techniques, from beginner to expert level, taught. This seminar will cover offensive gun, knife, and stick training, and include a thorough intro to the mental training and prep that goes into training for fights where your life is at risk!
This seminar will be Oct 29th, from 9am - 1pm.
Cost $39. All proceeds will be donated to Ron's unit for training gear.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE
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Fit to Fight Diary Pt. 1: On Idiots and Madmen
Fit to Fight Diary Pt. 1: On Idiots and Madmen
Guest Blogger-JOSH
There comes a time in a man’s life – particularly a man raised in the relative safety of
a modern American suburb – when he has to ask himself: What would I do if I had to
fight?
Having spent my youth avoiding fights and my adulthood watching them broadcast from
inside cages on pay-per-view television, I finally decided last April that it was my time to
answer than question. Faced with the prospect of getting hit in the face, would I curl into
a ball, run for the hills, laugh like a loon, cry like a baby, go crazy in retaliation? Would I
stand and fight, run and hide, freeze and die inside? I had to know. Because a person can
only spend so many years wondering what he or she is up for.
And so I came to Fit and Fearless. Because it seemed like the best place to find the
answer to that enormous, pressing, lingering question: What would I do?
Eighteen months later and I have the beginnings of an answer. Eighteen months of
punches, knees, elbows, kicks -- both administered and received, both blocked and very
much not blocked -- of chokes from the front and the side and the back, of arm bars and
wrist locks, of bloody noses, sore throats, broken fingers, and lost contact lenses, have
led me to three realizations: 1) I’m made of tougher stuff than I previously believed; 2) I
really, really, really enjoy throwing punches and kicks; and 3) (most surprising of all) I
actually kind of enjoy taking punches and kicks. There’s a thrill that comes from getting
hit in the face and shaking it off that is very different from the thrill of hitting someone
else in the face. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is yet, but I imagine Freud would
say it’s related in some way to the Death Instinct, or at least the Will to Lunacy.
Which is to say that there’s something not entirely right in the head about us Krav
students. Or maybe there’s something very, very right about us and the rest of the world
is off its head. I don’t know. All I know is that the more I do Krav Maga, the less I can
understand why someone wouldn’t.
That said – and with my love of Krav Maga established to the satisfaction, I hope, of all
seven of my readers – Krav Maga is about survival, not fighting. In Krav we learn how to
address a dangerous situation, deal with it as swiftly and brutally as we can, and get away
safely. But these days, 18 months into my unsentimental education, 18 months removed
from the paralyzing and embarrassing fear of physical confrontation, I find myself less
interested in getting away that I am in sticking around and seeing where things go, and in
finding out what I’ll do when they get there.
As if sensing this ridiculous curiosity, Fit and Fearless recently started its first-ever Fit to
Fight series. Fit to Fight, which, until recently, was only available as individual classes
on Saturday mornings (in which I’ve learned that the best cure for a hangover is being
dragged around by your neck by a sweaty stranger schooled earlier that morning in the
mysterious and deadly art of the Thai clinch), is the school’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
class. It’s the class where you can learn the techniques you see in the UFC – from boxing
combinations and footwork to Greco-Roman wrestling to Thai kickboxing to Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu to (joy of my life) sparring. It’s where we learn how to fight against somebody
who knows how to fight back, not for the sake of saving our skins and living to tell the
tale (a noble cause if ever there was one) but for the sake of testing ourselves against
someone else simply because that’s what has to happen sometimes.
Fit to Fight is for people who want to experience the thrill of hand-to-hand combat,
a thrill based largely on staring fear in the face, ignoring our instincts toward self-
preservation, and learning to love pain. It’s a class, in other words, for idiots.
Over the next two months, I’ll be keeping a diary of my experiences in Fit to Fight.
Hopefully I can provide a passable firsthand account of life in the newest class on the Fit
and Fearless curriculum and maybe even illuminate in some small way this strange desire
to square off with another human being for no other reason than to move beyond our own
physical and psychological limitations, to transcend our own fears, and to see just where
we stand in the grand scheme of things.
Stay tuned. I promise to keep things clean.
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Are You FIT to FIGHT?
You are learning great techniques in Krav Maga - but are you ready to try some of them against an opponent who is resisting you and fighting back? We will be launching a closed "Fit to Fight" series.
Are you FIt to FIGHT?
We will be launching a closed "Fit to Fight" series. Here are the details.
Day/Time: Monday/Wednesday 7:30 - 8:30
Dates: 9/12 - 11/7 (no class on halloween)
Price: $149 ($20 discount if you sign up the week the newsletter goes out- Meaning you have until Aug. 15th)
How to sign up: Sign up form at front desk (please create this)
Series requires at least 6 members to register, so get your friends to sign up!
You are learning great techniques in Krav Maga - but are you ready to try some of them against an opponent who is resisting you and fighting back? Take our Fit to Fight series and you will be! Fit to Fight will gradually (and somewhat gently) introduce you to sparring/fighting with safety and fun in mind.
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Omar Garza “10 of Austin’s Fittest”!
Thank you everyone for vote and nominating our very own Omar Garza as one of Austin's 10 fittest! Here is the article straight from Austin Fit Magazine
Omar Garza
31, 6th & 7th grade science teacher
after-school coach, mentor
MMA fighter | Ju Jitsu/strength conditioning coach
Omar Garza is a man of many talents. Splitting his time between teaching middle school science, coaching track, wrestling and UIL science competitions, mentoring an after-school program or training with fellow MMA fighters, he puts busy schedules to shame. Garza accredits his drive to excellent training partners, having a flexible schedule and living up to his father’s example. Having a background in science doesn’t hurt, though.
If you can’t find him at Fit & Fearless, you’ll probably find him at Hays County’s after-school program, “One Cougar at a Time.” It allows responsible members of the community to spend time with lower-income children to set a good example. They prove that goals can be achieved — it just depends on how far you reach.
Q&A
What sparked your interest in combat sports?
I played a lot of sports in high school, but at UT, I wasn’t big enough to play any Division one-caliber sports. That’s when I tried Krav Maga, a cool hand-to-hand combat system. I continued with wrestling, boxing and Ju-Jitsu. The love for mixed martial arts built a fire in me. Contrary to popular belief, Ju-Jitsu isn’t a “meat-head” sport. It’s very tactical. Like chess, you have to go in with a game plan. The more rules and techniques you know, the better.
What inspires you?
My dad is a hard-working guy. As a boy, I saw the definition of what a man should be: having a good job, working hard and never complaining. He didn’t push me, but he always encouraged me. When I’m tired and unmotivated, I remember that my dad never complained and always persevered. I try to take these things that were given to me and use it to help kids reach their goals — whether academic or athletic.
How do you incorporate science in your coaching and training?
It helps a lot when it comes to diet. For a lot of these combat athletes, they need to understand how your body metabolically operates, how enzymes breaks down certain proteins and carbohydrates as well as how to recover faster. I can teach them train smarter so they can be better. Understanding science helps me understand how to get the neuromuscular system to that breaking limit, albeit making you stronger next time.
How do you keep your students and clients motivated?
You’ve got to have pace-changers to keep the kids occupied. It’s the same idea in training, as well as making things it relevant to your clients.
What do you do for workout recovery?
I like going to Barton Springs. The cold water constricts your blood vessels and pushes all that lactic acid out of your muscles and into your blood stream. It’s like an ice bath.
What does the word “fit” mean to you?
Being fit is being 70 or 80 and still being able to touch your toes, or walking a flight of stairs and not losing your breath. You don’t have to have a Greek Adonis body. To be fit, you have to understand how to eat correctly and take care of yourself. The food you eat isn’t sugary or high in cholesterol. You also need to understand that physical exercise, even for 30 or 45 minutes, benefits your body.
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Vote for the Fittest O.G. (Omar Garza!)
Please help us nominate fellow Fit & Fearless member Omar Garza as Austin Fit Magazines Austin’s 10 Fittest. Click on this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/10fittest. The more nominations we can submit the more chances Omar will have to get chosen. Omar Garza, Vote for Austin's Fittest
He is some information on Omar:
Omar Garza started working out at Fit & Fearless Austin nearly six years ago where he started Krav Maga 6 years ago & quickly added Jiu Jitsu/MMA and CrossFit to his training. He not only understands the benefits of fitness; he knows the science behind it. He works as a 6th and 7th grade science school teacher at Chapa Middle School in Hays CISD. When not teaching or working out, he spends his time coaching track and wrestling programs and is also is a mentor in the school's youth program "One Cougar at a Time" which helps low socio-economic class students. He also finds time to help train and coach MMA Fighters.
Height- 5'8"
Weight- 165
hobby- loves to read. favorite book is Blasphemy by Lincoln Child
Athletic Profile:
Purple Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
CrossFit athlete
helps coach and train our MMA Fighters
Omar Garza, Fit and Fearless
Let's All Vote and let the rest of Austin know that Omar is one of Austin's 10 Fittest!
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Michael Margolin Seminar . This seminar should not be missed!
As the official defensive tactics system of Israeli police, military, and elite special operations units, krav maga has proven its effectiveness from front lines and back streets to prisoner transport and “take no prisoners” missions. For the first time in Austin, Michael Margolin teaches the discipline’s most lethal fighting and self-defense moves in this Black Belt Krav Maga seminar. These no-holds-barred street fighting techniques are designed to do one thing and one thing only: end a fight as quickly as possible by completely disabling an opponent. Extensive counterattacks will be taught and trained for the most dangerous situations, including neutralizing attackers armed with guns, knives, and other weapons. This seminar in Black Belt Krav Maga trains participants to function during the stress and shock of a sudden, violent encounter and react with a perfectly coordinated counterattack—quickly, automatically, and with deadly accuracy.
Part 1 - Black Belt Krav Maga
Open to everyone, including the public.
9:00 - 12:30
$59
Part 2 - Advanced Krav Maga Black Belt training techniques and drills
Open to Krav Maga Instructors, Active duty law enforcement and military, and Fit and Fearless Members, Level 2 and up.
2:00 - 5:00
$49
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
About Michael:
He started Krav Maga when he was 11 and has been instructing for 25 years. He was the youngest Black Belt through the system in the United States.
http://www.facebook.com/kravmaga
http://kmwtrainingcenters.com/2010/08/17/an-interview-with-michael-margolin-krav-maga-worldwide-vp-of-operations-and-training-centers/
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Concealed Handgun License Austin Texas CHL Course
Utah CHL course in Austin April 16th
Austin Concealed Handgun License (CHL) Course
In just 4 hours,, you can hold a Concealed Handgun license that is accepted in more than 30 states, including Texas! NO range time is required.
This Concealed Firearm Permit is valid in 30+ states for Five years. Get your CHL, and be grandfathered in now, before the law changes!
$249, includes everything - all state fees, documents, and filing.
This course will be held in Austin TX
Location: 3708 Woodbury Dr. Austin TX 78704
"Troy Dillinger Studios"
Time & Date: Saturday, April 16th 2011
9:00am-1:00pm
What to Bring: Your e-mail registration, 2 Valid forms of ID, snacks and beverage
Space is limited, sign-up today!
For information on the formal reciprocity agreement between Texas and Utah - http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/reciprocity.htm
April 16, 2011
Time: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
To enroll Click Here.
More info call 512-441-KRAV
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Womens Only Class This Saturday 3/5
The Ladies-Only class is ON this Saturday, March 5. This month we'll be learning how to add aggression to our strikes. Bring your gloves if you have them, no problem if you don't. See you there, and feel free to bring a female friend! -Parker
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BJJ Ceremony/ Seminar Feb. 26th
BJJ Promotion Seminar/Ceremony
Team Fit and Fearless
This will be in place of the normally scheduled BJJ class on Saturdays at 12:30.
Date: Saturday, Feb. 26th.
Time: 12:30-3:30pm. (The first 1 1/2 hours will be no-gi and the second half, gi. Gi will be mandatory for second half due to promotions.)
Areas Covered: Take-down to Position to Submission (Beginner to Advanced)
Fee: members $65 and non-members $80 for the 3 hour seminar.
Note: We could possibly shave off $10 for those who can only do half the seminar but those who are looking to get promoted must attend the entire 3 hours.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
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National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Feb. 2nd)
National Girls & Women in Sports Day
Open House the evening of February 2, 2011
Fit & Fearless Austin will take action to honor the 25th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day™ by offering an Open House for all females to try a free Krav Maga class.
Congress has proclaimed National Girls and Women in Sports Day™ since 1987. It recognizes the progress of girls and women in sports and the benefits that sports and fitness activities can bring to the lives of all girls and women.
The Fit & Fearless Austin Open House is scheduled for February 2, 2011 5:00pm - 8:00pm. Classes start at 5:30, 5:45, and 7:30. Fit & Fearless Austin is located at 118 E. Alpine Rd (At Penn Field, just east of S. Congress Ave.).
National Girls and Women in Sports Day™ is jointly organized by the National Girls and Women in Sport Coalition. The Coalition combines the experience and resources of the five premiere girls- and women-serving organizations in the United States: Girl Scouts of the USA, Girls Incorporated, the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, National Women's Law Center, and the Women's Sports Foundation
At Fit and Fearless we would like to encourage you to bring the females in your life to try a free Krav Maga class if they haven’t done so already.
We want to be the gym in Austin for everyone to come and become Fit and Fearless!
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Krav Maga Featured in Men’s Fitness Magazine February 2011 w/ Ashton Kutcher
Krav Maga is featured in the cover story of the February 2011 issue of Men’s Fitness Magazine (on newsstands now)!!!
The article features Ashton Kutcher and his training with Krav Maga Worldwide Instructor, Jarret Waldman.
Jarret trained Ashton for his action movie “Killers.” The name of the article is: “Ashton Kutcher Kicks Ass.” It can also be seen on the Men’s Fitness website at http://www.Mensfitness.com
or by clicking on the link below:
http://www.mensfitness.com/lifestyle/entertainment/381
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Level 1 Belt Test November 13th
Congratulations to our newest Level 2 students! We only had five students that tested November 13th for the level 1 Test: Stephen, Rob, Phil, Francisco and Jason. Congratulations and see you in level 2!
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Belt Test Dates for 2011 Announced!
The end of 2010 is coming up fast! Time to start thinking about test dates for next year, and working off that extra Holiday splurging.
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Level 1 Belt Test This Saturday
We are indeed having a Level 1 Belt Test this SATURDAY, November 13th! Now is the time to get your testing form signed by an instructor after a class evaluation to see if you are ready to test. Please turn in your form to the front desk with payment BEFORE Saturday. Be at the studio ready for the workshop at 9:30am. See you there!
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