Training During the Holidays

Balance Your Body & Mind: An active break approach

I get it.., "I just need a break from Jiu-Jitsu",  is what most of us think when the holiday season comes around. Why wouldn't we think so? Whether you just got done doing NoGi worlds at Anaheim, CA or just have been consistently training for some time, you think you deserve this much-needed break, and odds are, you are probably right; only you know how your body feels. But before you set your mind that you are worthy of this break, reconsider how much time you have trained and most importantly, the quality and intensity of that training time. Ask yourself, "Have I been half-assing my training?". With that said, regardless of the answer, I really believe that changing your routine for these next couple of weeks is extremely beneficial. If you have been training hard, this will be a chill, yet active few weeks. If you have not, then it's time to shock your body and push.

Those of you guys who know me, know that I train very hard. As much as I love hard training, you only have one body and mind, TAKE CARE OF THEM.

Here is what I recommend for this upcoming holiday season, and the cool thing is, what I'm going to mention below are just concepts that everybody can adapt them to what suits them best.

* Shift your focus
* Change your environment
* Set a short-term goal

Shift Your Focus

Whatever stage in your Jiu-Jitsu journey you are at, you are probably focusing on a limited amount things, and if you are not, then you really should start. If you are a white belt, my suggestion is to be focusing on escaping positions like Mount or Back control since you will probably find yourself quite a lot in these scenarios. If you a more seasoned Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, then you probably have developed a particular game and tend to focus your overall training time around that game. For the holidays, I suggest you completely STOP doing what you tend to focus on and momentarily shift your focus to other things; by momentarily I mean during the holiday season and ideally, depending on how focused you are on your training, every 2-3 months.

What do you mean momentarily shift my focus to other things? Wouldn't this mean I'm sidetracking myself? --- No it does not! Your mind, just like your body, needs a break from the monotony of your training. Whether you devote a lot of time drilling, rolling, studying BJJ (taking notes, watching YouTube, reading articles, etc.) or even getting smashed (in which case then you most definitely need a physical break), you deserve a break by momentarily shifting your focus. Again, if you have not been challenging yourself during training, then step it up for this next couple of weeks.

Bare with me on this analogy. When you are visually focusing on something, a ladybug perhaps, then you have a clear picture of what you are focusing on; however, that's not all there is to it, you can also see other things with your peripheral vision. Your peripheral vision is giving you a picture of the surrounding, but this picture is not quite as clear as the ladybug correct? The answer is obviously because you are focusing only on one thing, the ladybug, but in order to get the whole picture, you need to shift your focus to the ladybug's surrounding in order to get the full experience. It's a silly analogy, but I hope it puts it into perspective for you. As a competitor, most of my training time revolves around improving my "A" game, but, I also believe it's highly beneficial to be well rounded in your overall fitness, and the holiday season is a perfect time to fill in those gaps.

I'm going to list a few things that I have personally been doing during my holidays that are beneficial to my Jiu-Jitsu while providing that physical and mental break I talked about earlier:

* Stretching 
      Be honest, you know you can always stretch more
* Aerobic Training 
      Light jog on a treadmill, a lower-intensity brisk wall, elliptical, etc
* Anaerobic Training 
     This might sound counterintuitive to giving yourself a break, however, if you are shifting your
     focus to this kind of activity, it is because you don't regularly train anaerobically. I don't do this
     type of training since I regularly do it
*Train, watch or study other Sports
     Judo, Wrestling & Sambo are sports that will compliment your Jiu-Jitsu
* Bodyweight Training 
     Enough of the dumbbells, barbells, benching, squatting... train with your own bodyweight and
     your joints will appreciate it

Feel free to experiment with these activities, otherwise, come up with your own. Make sure the concept of Shifting your focus is always present when coming up with your own list.

Change Your Environment

This one is easy yet overlooked at times. As human beings, certain environments evoke certain stimulus which then leads to action or inaction. Entering a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, full of people or empty, will most likely stimulate me to start training. This isn't the case for everyone as I have met really good Jiu-Jitsu practitioners who train in their backyard or garage with only a handful of people, or even by themselves. By changing the environment, you will change or enhance the stimulus. For example, if you do your strength and conditioning on the mats, perhaps you ought to go to a park that has some pull up bars and do your workout there. Lately, I have been focusing on outdoors aerobic training. I'll go on a light jog around the park. During my jog, I will stop at random times and knock out a set of push-ups, jumping jacks and squats...andddddd back to jogging! Additionally, since doing pull-ups is my favorite exercise, not really, but still, they are great for you, I'll knock out sets of 10-15 reps until I reach 100. After finishing the workout, I'm good on oxygen, briefly sweaty, relaxed and feeling accomplished.

Below is a picture of my playground:

MADE in Colombia

Set a Short-Term Goal

This is probably my favorite one. Not only it gives me an objective to work towards but also, discipline. About a year ago, I was brought to an interval training center called Orange Theory. My friend, Katie, who is just as competitive as I am, if not more, had been working on her plank and of course, the challenge of that week she brought me in was "The Plank Challenge" - shocker. Within a matter of 2-3 minutes, the 20+ people who were doing the challenge were gone and it was just Katie and me, face-to-face. I looked at the timer and it marked 3:45 and I thought, "this is horrible, but I refuse to lose to this girl". I knew I was done right around 4:40 because my body would not stop shaking, and as my last seconds of the challenge approached, I glanced at Katie one more time to see if she was shaking; sadly, she wasn't, and I dropped to my knees right at 4:50. Here is the worse part, she went on to continue planking and when she finally dropped to her knees, I looked at the time and it marked 11:12.

As I was thinking about a short-term goal for myself during these holidays, I had a flashback to that day and thought, why not increase my plank time to 8 minutes?  I say 8 minutes because I highly doubt I'll beat 11:12 in the short amount of time the holidays last. Setting a precise, reachable goal is key. The last thing you want is your mind to start wondering, "man If I couldn't reach this little physical goal, how I'm supposed to tackle on bigger, long-term ones?" In essence, pick something that's challenging, attainable and ideally, something that will help your Jiu-Jitsu. I chose to focus on increasing my plank time because it's challenging, it would make my core much stronger, which would greatly benefit my overall fitness, and lastly, because I can't wait to wipe the smirk of Katie's face everytime "The Plank Challenge" gets brought up.

Choose wisely, have fun with it and set yourself up for success. And again, get creative with these goals guys. One I also had in mine was to be able to get my knees to touch the floor when I do the butterfly stretch; however, I probably need a few more weeks for that so I postponed it.

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To conclude, STAY ACTIVE!! Don't be a bum. Make your holiday season more enjoyable by tackling on physical activities. I have learned over time that your mental and physical health go hand in hand and should always come first, and that's not an egocentric statement, far from it actually. Think about it for a second, why do you always hear in that super annoying safety video when you board planes, "in the unlikely event of a loss of cabin pressure, panels above your seat will open revealing oxygen masks...secure your own mask first before helping others", because if you can't help yourself, you can't help others, period.

Help yourself by staying active and giving yourself a physical and mental break in the process.

Cheers!