Quote Of The Day

“Oh, Fuck, this is hard!” That was my quote of the day.

Out of bed at 6am. It’s still dark out - not my favorite, but it can only make me stronger. Gary Gross says that it’s really not Fight Training without the early mornings. He definitely had his, ‘I’m serious about exercise’ face on this morning. He “doesn’t wake up early just to futz around.”

Regular warm up
2 rounds, 5-minute all out runs (Gary 7 min)
3 sets of 5 Pull-ups each with rope
Grip exercise set – open close open close open close - One Hundred and Fifty Times

By the end of that, fingers don’t function properly - hands feel more like claws. I think my strength for holding on to the other person’s Gi is getting better, though. It’s hard to check progress on something like that, but I do remember how much it strained my hand 2 months ago. I used to wake up with numbness in my forearm. (Also known as WEAKNESS. We may as well name it)

Mr. Gary Gross designed a dynamite piece of workout equipment (read torture device) for $7 out of cotton rope and sports tape. He quadrupled the thickness of the ends so the part you grab would be fat (and difficult) to pull up on. (Still one straight rope) Rope goes over tree branch, and insta-pull-up device. I apologize for any creepy Noose images this may conjure… it’s not similar.

Gary himself also morphs into a useful exercise aid. He holds the soles of my feet on his thighs for my pull-ups, so I have flexibility with how much of my own weight I’m lifting.

Those 5-minute all out runs are really not fun. Besides the physical pain, it’s really a big mental game. This is the time where I am truly in control of doing my very best, and I have become acutely aware of this factor. 5 minutes is a long time to fight the little cheater inside. At every moment, I ask myself, “can you push harder?” My whole life, I never really practiced anything. I pretty much took the natural ability as far as it could go, then quit, like the clarinet in 6th grade, or lived with any chance of mediocre results like nervously fumbling through a presentation that I’d only jotted a few notes for. This time, I want no doubts. I want to know that I’ve prepared as much as I can, no matter what happens.

Giving up is not an option.