Monthly Archives: May 2012

Get Sleep Not Rest

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Michael Arnstein is an ultrarunner (runs ultramarathons and longer distances) and like most ultrarunners is a facinating person to read, listen to, and learn from. Here is a good lecture from him on some details of why he runs, his diet, his motivation, his routine, etc:

There are a lot of things mentioned in this video that I’d like to comment on at a later time, but there is one thing he said that really struck me. Michael said that his main challenge in his running life and the most important part is getting enough sleep. He said that if he gets 10 hours of sleep the night before a run, he can run any distance without a problem.

He drew a distinction between rest and sleep. He said that a lot of runners tend to taper before a race. Tapering is reducing the training mileage as you approach the race, so your body is sufficiently recovered and well rested. He suggests that this is a crappy alternative for simply getting a full night’s sleep night after night, and most importantly the night before a race. You may agree or disagree with that idea, but one thing is for sure, most of us recreational athletes do not get enough sleep, and I would venture to guess that most professional athletes do not get enough sleep either, especially before a big competition.

That served as a reminder that I need to take sleep, not rest, more seriously. And also, if I know that I have to wake up at 6am for a tournament next weekend, I better be waking up at 6am for many consecutive days before then.

Anyway, I’m officially declaring to myself as a goal that I’m going to get at least 6 hours of sleep every night for the month of May, and shoot for 8 hours as often as possible. You should do the same.

My Experience at the 2012 US Grappling Diamond State Games

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I competed at the US Grappling Diamond State Games today. Won gold in both my weight division and the absolute division. Overall, the tournament was run very well, as usual. There was a good amount of white and blue belts, but what was cool is there was a ton of purple and brown belts as well.

Also, the free shirt you get when you pre-register was great this time. It was black with simple white and red text. Simple is best, when it comes to shirts, in my view.

Some Quick Self Analysis

I got tired in my very last match, and was mad at myself for stopping hunting for a submission with 2 minutes left. I was up by 3 points, and was on my opponents back, able to go for a bow and arrow, and literally thought: “Lex, you write many glorious blogs about always working to finish, and here you are, no matches left for the day, only 2 minutes left on the clock, clear opening for a submission, and you’re holding the position just because you want to wind down the clock a bit.” There was no excuse to not go all out for the submission.

When you are winning by 3 points and are on top, it’s actually a great place to be, because you can open up, take risks, and if you get swept, you are still winning. I knew all that, but I was literally too tired. I ended up going for the submission with 30 seconds left, and almost getting it, but I already failed myself at the goal of never quitting.

More and more, I’m starting to see losing and winning as meaningless, and the more important goal of never quitting as the real thing I want to work towards as a competitor.

This is a whole lot of whining, but I wanted to share my inner experience. I really do think that you grow most as a person in overcoming the moments when you want to quit, and don’t. Go to your limit, no matter what that is, and push beyond it.

I’m doing two more tournaments before Worlds, with the goal of pushing the pace, and never quitting the hunt for submission after establishing a dominant position.

Some U.S. Grappling Rules to Remember

As a side note, the refs and organizers did a great job of running the tournament efficiently, but it was clear that some coaches, spectators, and competitors (including myself) did not know the rules as well as they might.  So here are two rules where I saw some mistakes on the part of competitors:

1. For gi division, kneebars, toe holds, and bicep/calf slicers are legal for brown and black belts only. For no-gi division, however, kneebars are okay for everyone.

2. If you do a big judo throw, but end up on bottom, that’s 2 points for the other guy. I’m still not 100% clear on the details of this rule, but it seems that if you want to get 2 points, you better end up on top (and show control for 3 seconds).

As always, I have to thank Andrew Smith, Chrissy Linzy, and many others for running a good tournament. Also, thanks to Eric Silverman and Steve Bowers for coaching me, and Jimmy Cerra for solid ref’ing and a good sense of humor about it.

Gyms with Saunas in Philadelphia

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There are a bunch of methods for cutting water weight for night-before weigh-ins. It seems the golden standard is sweating it out at a sauna. I hate this method, I prefer running (or any kind of exercise) in a sweatsuit instead, even if it kills my legs. I won’t get into why here, but suffice it to say that I like being in discomfort while doing something as opposed to not moving and not doing anything.

That said, the big weight cuts (which I try to avoid for dear life) seem to require at least some sauna. So, I decided to compile a list of gyms in the greater Philadelphia area that I know have saunas.  The list is small now, but I’m hoping to get some more suggestions from people. Please leave a comment if you know of another gym in or around Philadelphia that has a sauna.

I also created a custom Google map of gyms with saunas in Philadelphia. Check it out.

Fitness Works
714 Reed Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-334-8190

City Fitness
200 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia PA 19123
215-923-4114

LA Fitness
2425 South 24th Street, Philadelphia, PA
215-468-6741

Weston Fitness
1835 Market Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-963-2700

The Value of Boring Old School Roadwork

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Circuit training is popular these days in preparing for judo, bjj, mma, etc. You basically pick 3-5 exercises and repeat them in a circuit at high intensity, taking timed short breaks in between. The goal (in terms of time and intensity) is to simulate a competition match. I’m a big proponent of this kind of strength and conditioning, because it’s fun. A lot of programs are effective, but not all are effective and fun. The variety of circuit training makes it fun.

Same goes for simple interval training on the track. It’s quick. It gets the job done. And in a sick kind of way it’s “fun” as well.

Okay, now to the topic of this post…

The term “roadwork” is something I’ve heard boxers (and no one else) use to refer to the old school jogging of 3 to 5 miles done early in the morning by many great and not-so-great boxers of the past. It’s boring as hell, but that’s why it’s good. I feel like in all the craziness of kettlebells, ropes, hammers, tires, etc, people might forget to train patience as well, in the quiet of the road where you are left alone with your thoughts.

From my conversations with people, the reason roadwork has been and still is popular is because so many people did it in the past and in the movies. That might seem like a ridiculous reason to continue doing it, but not to me. To me, I just think of guys like Rocky Marciano that religiously did 7+ miles per day, and dominated many 15 round fights.  Not to mention the wrestling greats such as Dan Gable.

There is something to be said about building not just the kind of toughness that gets you through an intense workout, but the kind of toughness that gets you through a long boring workout day after day after day. This prepares you mentally not just for the years of brutal training, but for the long tournament days where you may wait hours between matches.

Those Who Can’t Do, Write Blogs About It

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The title of this post is a variation on a common adage “Those who can’t do, teach”. I always disliked this statement as it disrespected one of the most valuable (in my view) professions in our society.

I don’t agree with the “those who can’t do, write blogs about it” either, obviously, since I’m a “blogger”. But I have made an observation that athletes, especially at the top of their game, seem to not have much of a presence on the social networks, especially in terms of writing blogs about their training and competition experience. There are a lot of exceptions of course, but in general it seems that these guys and girls are focused on one goal and don’t let much get in the way of that. It’s certainly true that blogging, facebook, twitter, etc can be a time sink.

So… I write this blog post in defense of why I do write blogs. I’m trying to answer the question: “You say you’re so busy. Wouldn’t you get more out of your time if instead of finished up your work and went to bed earlier? Or better yet, go and train on the mat some more?”

After some introspection throughout the day today (limping around on an injured leg), I came to the conclusion that if the devil came to me and said: “I’ll give you double gold at Worlds (at blue belt) this year but you can’t write blogs (or anything else) about judo or jiu jitsu for a year”, I wouldn’t take that. It surprised me to think this, but it’s true. I want to win badly, but what I value even more is the experience of wanting to win and fighting to win. And for me, the experience is greatly heightened through writing about it, even if just in a notebook for myself.

Back to hard training tomorrow, but in the mean time I have many hours of work to do today, and so do you, so stop reading this crap and get to it.