Sunday, December 11, 2011

Blue belt is such a relief.

Call it maturity, focus, laziness or whatever you will, I've gotten to a point where I prefer to concentrate on one area of improvement at a time. This whole journey from white to blue, I've totally fallen off morning workouts. Yep...for 2 years. Partially because at first, my body couldn't handle any additional work. The second year though? I just didn't want to be disciplined enough to go to bed on time so I could get up early enough to knock out 20 min or so of exercise.



Don't get me wrong...I tried to...FlowFit was mandatory for me to get me a bit more mobile, but after the turf toe, that fell apart. I had brief stints with morning stretching routines, but nothing has stuck. I had dreams of all kinds of squat thrusts and lunges and pull/pushup challenges, but kept nothing going. And I'm 100% fine with that. I've thoroughly embraced the marathon that is jiu jitsu and fitness and life. I've never been one to cram to prepare. I spent exactly 0 nights in college, burning the midnight oil. I've never dieted for a graduation or prom or reunion or wedding. I either improve as a whole, over the long term, or I don't improve at all. Take me or leave me. I think that's part of the reason competition just hasn't struck too loud a chord with me...I find all the rush and high of preparation off-putting, despite the fact that I understand the benefits. I can see how much concentrated preparation for the belt test has helped me...still...I'd rather not. I'm such a tortoise.



Happy knees!
All that said, I want a morning routine again. I've gotten about half way through the 100 pushup challenge, and I'm starting again, from scratch. This time, I'm doing pushups with half burpees. Why half? Because I've accepted that the damage my knees endure with full burpees just isn't worth the payoff, so I've addapted. You come up like this and I'm omitting the jump.

I just did 12, and the knees are tingly, but good. The PUSHUPS though. I know I haven't done any in a while...but man...my form's totally fallen apart. I am reminded though, that I'm pushing up 200+ lbs, and it's not hard to lose the strength to do that with proper form.

10 comments:

Strive 2 Shine said...

I admire that you're looking at morning workouts! That's one of those 'shoulds' that I just know isn't going to happen anytime soon, for me. ;) 

I haven't thought about competition in regards to rush for preperation.  o_O  Uh oh, I wonder if being on the competition team is gonna get them pushing me to rush ... I won't like that, if so.  Biggest reason I'm going to compete is to learn how to handle the stress of performing in front of people. 

Megan said...

Yeah...that's the thing. I performed all through my childhood and give presentations regularly enough at work and events outside of work, so while that aspect is a nice refresher, I'm kinda getting that same benefit elsewhere. I honestly think I will compete one day, just probably after I feel more personally connected. I bet it'll hit somewhere around purple belt.

We'll see how the morning deal goes. I did day two of my 100 pushup/burpees challenge, so I'm off to a good start! lol

Reese said...

Oh boy, I'm not a morning person in the first place so the idea of working out when I wake up is so unappealing it makes me want to get back in bed. Although I keep trying to push myself to do a certain number of pushups and situps each morning because right now, I hate watching most others in the class do 40 pushups while I'm only able to crank out 10-20 (the number falls as class goes on too lol). I'm attempting to do two more pushups in each set every class, so that I'll eventually catch up as upper body strength improves. Actually sticking to my morning routine would probably help. I'm impressed that you're going that route! Not easy!

D said...

Thanks. This inspires me to set up an morning burpee routine.

Take care!

Megan said...

Reese...I used to have a 1 hour morning routine. No clue what happened...lol.

The app REALLY helps though. I'd like to do more, but I'm going to stick with that and post work IntuFlow and see where we go from there. I hope to one day start every day with 100 burpees.

geraldine said...

The only reason I would get up earlier in the morning to work-out, would be: if I don't I wouldn't get any work-out that day. I just love my bed too much.

Megan said...

Bed is nice. Can't argue with that one.

Strive 2 Shine said...

Lol... Yeah, I'd say that you've got the performing in front of others bit down! :)

How's the morning routine upholding?

Liam H Wandi said...

I change. I have come to make peace with that.

I used to get up early and do yoga. Then I started sleeping a little later. Then I started getting up to do my mediatation. Now I do the meditation 3-4 times per week and the rest I sleep. Yoga is now a lunch time activity.

I don't believe in discipline. I believe in bliss.

Megan said...

Accepting that change is such a huge deal.