Our academy opened back up this week. Oh, how I’ve missed these mats!
I did absolutely nothing BJJ or exercise related while the academy was closed. I tried the first week to at least walk on the treadmill every day, but that quickly fell off. My job sent us home and I’ve been working from there for months. I did a bunch of gardening and painting and other house stuff. But I didn’t even look at all the BJJ resources being offered or read anything or watch anything. I only saw a few reddit posts with titles like “My gym opened today, and I tore my ACL” and “My gym opened today, and I broke my hand”. Well, then.
My cardio is non-existent (just jogging in a little circle before class was enough to get me winded, lol!). My skin is soft, which means bruises and gi/mat burn and little cuts pile up quickly now. I’m not as flexible. My gi pants are a little tight and my belt’s a little short (my hairdresser calls it “the Covid-15”). Also over the break, I turned 40. And I’ve got those reddit posts in mind.
The young guys are trying to pick right back up where they left off. Tim tries to warn them, but they can only slow down for about 3 seconds before they’re off again.
So far I’ve been to 2 classes. Classes have been 10-15 people. I’m going slow. Rolling when I want to and with who I want to. Sitting out some rounds because I know it’s the smart choice. Trying to remember to give myself a lot of grace. Trying to remember how to even do BJJ at times, though so far it hasn’t been too difficult to remember; my body seems to remember quite a bit.
Even just those 2 classes, though, it feels like the joy I had in the first week of training all those years ago. It makes me so happy to move, so happy to roll around on the floor, even so happy to be bruised and sore.
BJJ Grrl 
“…it feels like the joy I had in the first week of training all those years ago.” This is fantastic! I’ve been out of it for even longer than Covid. We had moved at the end of 2019 and I hadn’t found a new gym yet when things shut down. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m looking forward to getting back to bjj and worried that I would be such a beginner again. But the silver lining might be getting to feel that beginner joy too!
I drilled with a white belt said on Wednesday and he mentioned that this was the most excited in class he’s ever seen me. My reply was that I was just so HAPPY to be on the mats again.