Maybe in Muay Thai, but the bruises, black eyes and occasional minor injuries I’ve gotten from jits collectively weren’t nearly as bad as being on the receiving end of a felony assault 15 years ago or so.
Now the real question is, could today me handle the guy that beat the everloving piss out of 24 year-old me?
Probably. In fact, almost certainly. To find out I’d need to go to prison, because that’s where that dude is at again.
I’ve gotten way more dislocated shoulders and torn labrums from combat sports than I ever did from just keeping my head low and avoiding trouble. Among striking and grappling, it’s even in that regard.
You figure most folks have the same odds of receiving the assault you received? I was sorta banking on that being more an outlier when I made the statement.
I don’t ever plan on fighting and I’m really good at avoiding those crazy situations. I have good situational awareness (don’t even sit with my back to the door at a restaurant), but I think it would be good for me to have some fighting training so I’m not a deer in headlights if the situation ever came up. Today it hit me that I don’t know how to fight. Once I was on the floor only my strength helped me jump back up. If I was weak I would be done lol.
For sure man, and I think that’s what I’m looking for. Just the basic ability to close the gap.
Lol, I’ve heard this from multiple people. My friend that does BJJ told me how he always has weird aches and pains that he never got from lifting. Probably from all the awkward positions your body gets in and getting slammed into the mat.
That’s something you can’t really calculate the odds on. Nothing’s happened to me since then aside from voluntarily fighting as a hired goon. That’s probably going to continue, but you really don’t know when your number will get called. I was concussed and beaten bloody because the other guy got upset over a substitution in a pickup basketball game and then got more upset when I told him to relax. Then boom, a right hook that came out of nowhere and it didn’t stop until he decided to stop. Nobody helped and that was that.
It seems like jits is pretty safe when you train it in a controlled manner with good partners. Shit happens when you move and injuries can be a part of that, but I got way more “beat up” during my basketball days than I did training jiu jitsu. BMX and skateboarding also hurt me way more.
I find this always has the opposite effect of it’s intention, haha.
But yeah, I don’t doubt getting hurt playing basketball or riding on a couple of wheels with minimal safety gear. I’m more comparing training martial arts to NOT training martial arts in terms of getting beat up and injured. Right now I’d say strongman has caused me the most serious injury with my knee, while combat sports caused the most injuries. Despite growing up in SoCal, never got far into the skater scene, which was probably for the best with my coordination.
I think you’d take to it very quickly. After a few months you’ll know a few tricks and probably have gotten them to work in sparring.
Jits and the fighting mindset has actually been more helpful to me at my real job. So has the bouncing experience, for that matter. After getting tasked to train under a woman who I suspect is a psychopath, being able to keep my jiu jitsu/bouncer face on and not give her crazy behavior any reaction has been very, very valuable to me. I don’t think I would have had that composure in the workplace 10 or even 5 years ago.
Yes for most people in most places you are very correct. It’s pretty easy to avoid getting beat up.
Nutty’s Program
Week 2 - Day 2
STRICT OH PRESS (ss: Pull-Ups - 5x12)
205x5
205x5
205x5
205x5
205x5
BB INCLINE BENCH PRESS (ss: Chest Supported Row @ 5x12)
235x12
235x12
235x12
235x12
235x12
BW DIPS (ss: Curls, Face Pulls - 100)
x45
x30
MOBILITY WORK
Lots of post stretching. Love doing this for upper body days.
Heard the funniest discussion at the gym today by some HS kids. They were talking about the classic full body vs split argument. 2 of kids were saying bro splits are better and the other kid said full body is the best because it hits everything. And funny enough the two kids were like “See look at that guy, he’s working his upper body, I don’t think he did full body” but little did they know It wasn’t until the last 4-5 months that I was basically only doing full body for 90% of my training life lol.
As much as I wanted to jump in and say something, I decided that everyone needs to figure this type of shit out on their own. It’s part of the journey!
This is such a step up from what I hear and see kids doing in the gym it’s unreal.
I also refrain from injecting in these types of conversations. I was in last night and a kid was doing incline dumbbell presses and then after each set, he was acting like his shoulder was on fire. I felt like telling him not ignore the pain and that there could be a real issue there (after I’ve had 3 RC surgeries). But he was with his homies and I’m sure I would have been brushed off as a silly old man.
Forgive the noob question but I wish to be less ignorant on things…
What’s the difference between working your way to a topset (for example a heavy single or triple) then afterwards doing 5x5 at lower weight compared to doing flat out 5x5 like you do for your main work? Is one more strength focused or hypertrophy focused over the other?
My unsolicited answer is personal preference. Strength is developed in the 80-87% range. Accumulating volume in that range seems to drive the numbers up over time.
Working up to a top set wakes up the nervous system and gets all of the muscle fibers to fire. Some people think that waking them up and activating them before the volume work ensures that everything is firing during the “down sets”.
Another simple explanation is perception. Working up to a weight that is heavier than your actual volume sets makes the volume work feel lighter. Some call it an over warm-up.
I’m just sharing my opinion; I have no official studies or facts to back me up.
Thanks J! Makes a lot of sense!
LOOOL that’s alright! Your answer makes sense anyway. I know some people here get too bent over “scientific facts and studies” failing to realize that the greats in bodybuilding/powerlifting didn’t wait for studies or papers before doing things lol
Yeah man I think it’s honestly preference. I like doing straight sets because I like working in that 75%-85% range. Nothing wrong in working up to a heavy single or triple and then backing down to do straight sets. But since I put up some heavy weights I’d rather not do more work than I need to lol.
SWIM
60 minutes (all different speeds)
Got it, thanks!
My favorite log!
Thanks man! I try to keep the log full of good lifting and some real and funny commentary lol
You definitely do that and it’s my daily reminder to push it!