I didn't make it to the academy Thursday night. I would have loved to - I haven't been to one of Cindy's no gi classes since she opened up shop over at the Bellevue location. But the long days and late spring sun - and the bliss of a three-day weekend - were calling to me HARD.
So that's my excuse. The weather was just too damn nice and I was too ready for a three-day weekend.
You'd think I worked at coal mine or something, rather than the occupational heaven-on-Earth that is life at The Daily Planet over the past year and a half. But liberation from the samsara of punching a time clock - however otherwise wondrous that time clock might be - has been a goal of mine for many, many years. And a three-day weekend spent reading, writing, gardening, and working out was - save the absence of jiu jitsu - a mighty incentive to stick to the path.
I've been working on elements of my conditioning routine, simplifying the tabata, trying out the armoplatas (verdict: excellent). I think I've got an HICT (high intensity continuous training) routine to alternate with my LSD cardio work that is based around the tabata, armoplatas and the 360s. It's not HICT in the strictest sense that Joel of 8 Weeks Out. But I suspect that it will serve a similar purpose in increasing muscle endurance.
In fact, what I'm thinking is that what the matwork might lack in intensity (read: resistance, since it is all bodyweight work), it definitely gains in sport-specificity. At root, I can't see any other way for it not to improve my muscle endurance and muscle memory in some of the key movements I need to improve my fundamental jiu jitsu.
