Lost in Translation April 4, 2008
Posted by leslie in Workouts.Tags: grrls, TKD
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I’ve done Tae Kwon Do for almost 7 years now; I’m a black belt. I’ve been doing NROLFW for several months now and have been throwing around some heavy weights. I’ve been doing HIIT. I’ve still got some work to do, but I’ve been happy with my progress. And I thought I was in pretty decent shape.
And then…
Last night, I started classes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Their warm-up kicked my butt. I nearly passed out. Spent the rest of the night on the sidelines trying not to throw up or pass out (or deciding which to do first). I have some work to do here.
Just because you’re good at one thing (e.g., head-level kicks, calf-machine raises) doesn’t mean you can waltz in to something entirely different and immediately be good at it. I’m so used to being a black belt at TKD. Now I get to start over at white belt. This oughta be fun. 
I’ve heard before that fitness can be specific to an activity (i.e., grappling), so interesting to have a clear-cut example.
What was the warm-up like, if you can remember back to April? Where I train, it tends to be running round the room, with variations like knees up, heels up, sprints, circling the arms etc, followed by breakfalls and shrimping. Depending on instructor, they’ll then throw in a bunch of press-ups/sit-ups etc, and often finish with working takedowns.
I look forward to reading the rest of the blog: always cool seeing how people view their first few months in BJJ.
I’d heard that, too, and now I believe it.
I was/am in shape for TKD, but apparently not so much for starting BJJ. I did better when I started kickboxing, probably because it picks up right from TKD.
I think the warmup was the same as it is now. I really don’t remember much of that night except for the alternating between passing out and throwing up!