What is BJJ?
Here is the original blog I wrote explaining a bit about BJJ. I wrote it back in the day on Myspace.
If you’ve watched any UFC or Pride you no doubt are familiar with the term. For those of you not in the know, it stands for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is the martial art I’m currently taking.
A few months ago after deciding it was time to lose some(a lot) weight I started looking at ways to incorporate some cardio in with weight lifting. Tread mills suck, bikes suck, eliptical machines..well you get the picture. They’re all so boring! Understanding that any sort of cardio involving a stationary machine would in the long run be abondoned by me, I decided to look into sports to get my cardio.
My first choice was some sort of traditional activity as those were the ones I was familiar with the most. Unfortunantly, the VRA(Valley Rats Association) and any other group I could find, lack an adult division. Not really feeling a church softball league(to rough), I started looking at the non traditional types and thats when I came across martial arts. My buddy James told me about his BJJ class but I decided to go with a Karate class as the striking aspect of it intrigued me more. After a month and half of that I didn’t feel as if I had gained any practical knowledge for defending myself and I was going home feeling like I had only started a work out. Which is pretty sad if you take into how out of shape I am.
The entire time I was taking Karate, James was still taking the BJJ classes. He was always telling me about how he went home dead tired and hurting after each and every class. Also he felt as if he could defend himself with the skills he had gained. It still seemed kinda boring to me since there was no striking, but I decided to try a class anyway if only for the workout.
Well here we are a month later and I’m hooked. The workout you get from rolling(sparring) in class is far greater than anything I did in Karate and the cardio….dear lord…I’m not even close to where I need to be for it. I’ve also gained a lot of practical knowledge for defending myself in a real fight, where no one is going to care about how pretty your kata is. We roll every class and really go at it. Check the bruises on my arm. I’ve never had so much fun in my life.
So if you’re looking to lose some weight and the traditional methods don’t appeal to you, come join us for a class. You won’t be sorry.