BTG 172 - Looking Back

Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. It's January 4th now. I believe we're in the new year and not a lot going on on in the fight world on grappling. I figured I'd reflect a little bit on the past year as far as goals and things that I've been able to accomplish and just some things I've learned in reflection. For one, fitness wise, I feel I'm in probably some of the best shape I've been in my life, stronger than I've ever been. My stamina has improved a lot this year. Uh, in fact, I was just training open man Saturday and I really pushed myself on one of the rounds with a a guy who's a really good wrestler and got into a lot of it was probably like at least what felt like a three-minute scramble and um even though I didn't win the scramble at the end, I was just happy that I was able to scramble for that long. Uh so and that's also going to what I was telling you guys before which is to push myself to do things that I'm not always comfortable doing because of I might lose or you know it might not work out well doesn't matter. I got to get better at it and the only way I'm going to get better is by actually throwing myself in the fire. So I was happy with that that I did throw myself in the fire and I also came out unscathed. [laughter] Uh so that's always good. I skill-wise I feel in some aspects I've improved and in some aspects I've declined a little bit and but I'm working on rounding out my game a little bit more. I I've been working a lot more with trying to get more comfortable with the wrestling because I know that's where I get very fatigued. And I've noticed that for me there's a little bit of an anxiety to get to the ground. And I think it's because I'm a afraid of getting tired on my feet because I'm used to just pushing a hard wrestling pace, but I don't have the same type of cardio and that explosive burst that I used to. So for me, when I was competing, it was a strategy to try to burn through a lot of fuel because I knew my tank was bigger than anyone else's. I was competing against [laughter] that isn't the case now. So, uh there is uh I I that's what I think at least I'm just going off the top of my head what I feel is the issue because there's a little bit of a nervous pressure to try to get the the the match to to the ground and I catch myself in it while I'm grappling and then I just tell myself relax, right? U because the worst thing that's going to happen is the guy takes me down. I'm on the ground anyways. So, why am I why am I stressed on my feet if even if I score the takedown or if I get taken down, either way, I'm going to end up where I want to be, where I'm very comfortable at. So, I've been making improvements there, but it's something that I've become aware of recently. So, and I've gotten so good on the ground in being in very bad spots. Like now, like my back mount defense is very solid. Uh, very good at defending a lot of tricky spots. Getting mounted now is like a non-issue. No one can really hold a mount on me at this point. So, I feel very comfortable in a lot of bad spots because I've been putting myself in them repeatedly and working escapes. So, I've gotten really good there. Uh, and I want to use that same philosophy. Now, my feet get more comfortable with wrestling again and get a lot more proficient with my wrestling. I want to try to bring it back that type of wrestling pressure and skill that I had before and a lot of that is going to be cardio and I feel like all the cardio I have been doing has helped and also just that mentality will also reduce the exertion. It's a two-front battle there but uh that has been improving. So grappling wise that's good. recovery has been doing pretty well now. Especially when if I look at the beginning of the year to right now, I have made big leaps in being able to recover quicker from workouts and and training. And I think a big part of that is better pacing of my training or scheduling would probably be a better word where I'm only lifting once now. And that helps a lot because I was lifting, you guys seen me, you know, past videos, I was lifting heavy for strength sometimes three times a week. And man, that's really hard. [laughter] That's really hard on the body. So, it was harder to get in more martial arts sessions with that and feel great. Like I I noticed that when I started a heavy weight training schedule that after a couple months I felt like I was just sliding downwards. Uh how I felt physically even though I was still very strong and all that but it was just like man like I'm I feel beat up all the time. So I shifted now to just lifting once a week. I still I I went I I was for a while doing the power oriented just light weights very explosive and I did that probably for a good three months and I just went back now to lifting for strength again. Uh working up to a top set of five reps at what I would estimate is about 80% of my max. So it's not super heavy but heavy enough to to be a good challenge. And uh that is working out well so far for me. It's probably been about a month now doing that and uh doing the cardios on days that I don't train, which I'll be honest, I've kind of let off a little bit. I haven't done as much assault bike as I I feel I should have, but I just feel like at certain days either I'm lazy or it's just like I'm like, nah, not today. So, I I think it's mostly lazy if I'm I'm being perfectly honest, but that's all right. Um, I've been able to get anywhere from two to four martial arts training sessions a week. All those sessions are sparring sessions, however, so they're a bit more strenuous than just class. And when I say sparring sessions, I'm either uh doing situational rounds, which would be anywhere from 8 to 10 5 minute rounds starting from various positions or just live rounds which would be somewhere like again usually about eight rounds of five. And in certain some of them there are like roundroin rounds where there'll be three guys, one guy stays in and those will be 10-minute rounds and just constantly cycling through people for like six or seven of those 10-minute rounds. So, I've been getting a lot more sparring in, getting more action on my feet. I feel like I'm getting better now at exploding because a lot of these are wrestling situationals and if you're trying to do a wrestling situational without explosiveness, it doesn't really work too well. At least from the takedown aspect of the as the aggressor, you're going to have a really hard time. uh you'll need like a really good grip like a front head lock or something like that cuz anything else it's going to be pretty hard to hold someone down or advance your position. So, uh the scheduling of the training feels like I've done better. I've been using more recovery tools, one that I'm considering investing for my home now. I've uh you guys know I've been doing the cold plunges. I have the hot baths, the sauna. We got a steam room put in our house not too long ago, maybe a year ago or so. And actually this week we started using it quite a bit. And what's interesting one, especially with the cold weather, you know, everybody's getting congested or whatnot. If you do a 15inute steam shower, you know, steam room, your sinuses and your throat all get cleared out immediately. So, that was one great benefit. But the second one that I noticed besides the relaxation was sleeping much easier through the night. We, my wife and I will go in there just before bedtime, 15 minutes, come out, and I found that at least that three of the past four nights slept completely through restful sleep. Uh, and what I know, at least what I've read, is that it's beneficial to do something that is high heat right before bed because basically you're introducing a heat peak. And when your body registers a high heat level, it has to dump heat from the body. So, it starts triggering release of heat. And that's going to make you cold at a certain point, which is a signal to fall asleep. I'm sure if you've followed anything about sleep science, they tell you now that you're supposed to sleep in cold and you should have the air colder in your house at night. And I've been doing that for a while. But using heat directly seems to have a much more profound effect. And my wife's been doing this for ages because she always loves using hot baths before bed. Um, but so for me is a little bit newer going into the steam shower before bed. And that's been really useful. So that was another good thing that I'm probably going to start doing. Well, I have been doing it daily now and I'll probably discontinue it. I also learned something else from my wife. There's um a treatment. It's called Indeiba. I N D IBA. And from my understanding, it uses radio frequency. It's kind of like a little scanner that they will like swipe on your arm or your leg, wherever your afflicted body part is. The original idea and how it's marketed is for like cosmetic u beautifification because apparently it tightens your skin and clears out blemishes. So like women like it for aesthetic reasons, but at higher uh power levels apparently it also helps repair muscles. And what got my interest in it because I heard my wife doing it, but she was doing it for muscle because she had read that they were using it for raceh horses. And that's got my interest because I'm like, well, if they're using it on horses to help the reorses recover faster, there has to be an observable improvement because a horse can't just say like, oh, I feel better today, [laughter] right? We don't got Mr. Ed running the Kentucky Derby, you know? So, they must have had some metric that they were able to see the horse improve to pay for these treatments because they're not exactly cheap. They're anywhere from like $150 to $200. But, uh, I gave it a go on my lower back because that typically is what gets me when I train hard. Uh, when I'm doing a good lifting session or mostly from the martial arts and wrestling, my lower back will get pretty yanky. And since I started, I mean, full disclosure, I've only done it twice, but already since those two times, I feel a bit better. I know from the first session to the second session, I went into the second session, and I'm doing them a week apart, and I came in feeling better than I did the week before. So, I'm like, that's a good metric. And I know going out of there, you feel a little bit looser. And I'm sure because it the radio frequency I guess when they use it on you it creates a lot of heat. So it feels like a hot stone massage in a way. I'm sure that helps you feel a little more limber. You're getting some more blood flow into the area. Um but does seem to have a positive effect. I know my wife as you guys probably have heard me say she does contortion. So she does extreme back bends and forward bends and all sorts of stuff that would make you cringe if you saw yourself do [laughter] yourself. And uh she has noticed a big improvement in her ability to recover between her contortion sessions. And I know we also had her one of her contractors use it and he noticed an immediate improvement in his back too. So, I I'll keep reporting into you guys about that because I always like doing things that don't have any surgical or long-term repercussions, right? Like, I don't want to do anything with steroids or pills or, you know, cutting things up. Like, not I I want as far away from that as I can. But if somebody could just swipe a little wand thing on my back for like 15 minutes and make it feel better, I'm all about that. Uh so uh I I'll keep you guys posted on that one, but that's a new tool that has also come in handy. Um that has been very useful. The other thing I still do is a yoga uh before every training session. I I lift without doing it, but if when I'm doing martial arts, I definitely do the yoga and that seems to help a lot. And it's now it's about a 30 minute session passive warm-up. If you look up bed yoga on the website, you'll you'll find it same. I maybe changed it a little bit, but the core of it is the same. And honestly, like what I'm doing for myself probably won't be what you would need. You just got to figure out what parts of your body need to be loosened up and activated and work on those. I know for me it's a lot of the back and the neck and uh hips and legs. So like and a lot of twisting. So that's what I'm working on. But everyone has their own issues with their body or like sticky points. So you need to figure that out and get that mobilized uh before training, especially if you're 30 plus. very especially if you're 40 plus and I'm sure the guys who are 50 plus and more know the lesson better than I do. So, uh that's been useful. Other things I've been doing diet-wise, I've talked about it before, but right now I'm 194.6 pounds. I'm pretty lean now. I I feel I'm at an ideal physical form at this point. I of course I could be more jacked. Like if if I really went hard on the the diet, I could easily get under 190 pounds. I estimate I'm probably somewhere around 50% body fat. I could be as low as 13. Uh, but I think for health purposes, where I'm at is very optimal. If I was fighting, no. Uh, because I would need to cut down because I I I keep getting asked about when I'm competing or when I'm fighting because I'm doing a lot of MMA training as well. Uh, I'm like, well, back in the day I fought 185, but I couldn't, obviously, I couldn't fight that. The standards are very different now. The way people cut weight is very different now. I would have to be at least a 170. I mean, at most a 170 pounder in MMA circles, you know, and even then, I wouldn't be a big 170 pounder. Uh, I would probably be like average. That would be is expected. And I know that because I'm training with people who fight at 180, 170 and they're my weight or more. So, uh, yeah, but I'm not trying to cut weight. I'm just trying to be healthy and enjoy my life. And this is a very easy frame to maintain at this point. Like you said, I'm training, you know, anywhere from two to four times of martial arts a week. Four is a bit more on the extreme side. That's not common. Three is that average most common two and some weeks just because of scheduling or whatnot and then I'm lifting and then I'm doing at least one cardio session in between. So I'm not doing a lot of exercise and I know a lot of people think that to be fit you have to train a lot. I don't see that as necessarily I don't really think that's true. The diet is gonna do a lot more. The lifestyle is important for sure, but the the diet does a lot more. And now doing carnivore, well, more it's animal-based, right? So, it's meat, eggs, dairy, and honey, and fruits as needed. And I don't do fruits personally. I just do honey. And that's that honey is generally coming uh from ice cream. Actually, that's I think the only thing that it's coming from at this point. Oh, and the chocolate cake I make that's used honey. But it's not a lot. Like I said, it's less than 100 grams of carbs a day. Fat around 150 to 180. Protein around 150 to 180. Same range. But the focus more is on fat. And that focus I find is a lot more important than the protein focus. So, and I've talked about this before, so I won't reiterate, but it's interesting because apparently that the Mongols had a very similar diet. Uh, and it's fascinating because I've been reading about, you know, different forms of, uh, drying out meat and proteins. And they had their version of beef turkey, which is interesting because apparently they would air dry meat. And then they would put the meat apparently under their saddle, their horse, and then they would just ride, you know, and when they would ever get to their destination, what happens is all the jostling around tenderizes the meat. So by the time they get to their destination, the meat's already been tenderized, so it's easy to eat. And I guess they also had a lot of uh I'm not sure if it was keier or whatever their version of is, but it was fermented dairy products cuz these were two easy sources of protein that didn't take time to consume and it didn't take preparation. And that's why like the Mongols were known for being able to mobilize very quickly and cover so much ground that a normal force wouldn't be able to because they would have to stop, make camp, and prepare foods and stuff like that. Whereas when they're eating the way they were, they can move very quickly without stopping and still be very powerful. That's a side topic, but anyhow. Yeah. So, I've been doing that more. I've been eating more cheese. uh for the fat content and that's been useful as well. So, diet-wise, I feel I'm pretty dialed in at this point. It's pretty much the same diet that it has been, but just a little more optimized towards fat, and I I feel better with that. And I've gotten leaner as a result. When I look a year past, I was 202 pounds back in January 1st of 2025. I'm now 194.6 few days out. So, lost about 10 lbs and in a better physical shape and better performance. So, I'm pretty pleased from that standpoint. With the website, I feel it's been growing well. You now have over 2500, I think it's like 2,700 or something people on there, which is pretty cool. Glad that I'm able to entertain some of you guys there. And uh we've been staying on the schedule since I've started which is you know six posts a day uh six posts a week rather adding the course every month. I got to get a course in for for this month now. Um again any feedback that you guys have is always appreciated because that's usually how I make the decision to the next course. I get an email and boom. It makes it easy for me. I I want to give what the people want, you know, but otherwise I'll just pick up something of my own, but usually is off people's suggestions is how I make the the course selections and yeah, I I've been happy with the website. I haven't had to do much with it. Like I said, personally, programming wise, it's been pretty solid. Uh I'm impressed how well the tools have come around for developing you know these online platforms. I don't have to be a expert coder to get it going. Now it's pretty easy to do. Um I've also been able to help my wife with her own business making a platform for her and that's been a huge help. So, uh, one of the other things I I realize now, I think I I really like puzzles, and it's probably why I enjoy the martial arts so much because it's a constantly evolving puzzle, and every different person brings their own challenges. I know now like I I've played around with Rubik cubes a bit. I started doing these 3D box puzzles and uh I had a lot of fun with them. It's probably why I like programming as well because programming is its own logic puzzle too. So uh um I've been exercising my mind quite strenuously. It's funny because I'll do it in different conditions as well. I'll be in the sauna and then I'll do you know a puzzle while I'm in there under under high heat just to see how I handle. It's interesting because you'll notice, or at least I noticed, that you definitely have some cognitive impairment when you're physically very stressed, like you just don't think as quickly or you make mistakes. So, I I I like doing that sort of stress test on myself every so often, like playing chess uh when you're like 20 minutes in on a 20 degree Fahrenheit sauna session. It's a it's a it's an interesting challenge to put yourself through. Anyhow, uh that's all I have as far as recapping the the year for this year. I'll probably just keep on the same trajectory, which is just more optimization of my health. I think that I really want to dial in a recovery more. that seems to be one of the bigger barriers. If I was able to recover faster, I would be able to do more and feel better quicker from it. So, uh that's why I've been thanks to my wife for like introducing me to these new things um that I'm grateful for. So, we I'll keep tinkering on pacing sched scheduling and different things that I can do. And as always, anything I learn, I'll share with you guys. Uh, as far as, uh, getting a performance benefit from that. Uh, goalwise, still the same goals. Still looking to try to help as many people as I can, teach and train. uh those remain solid there. I've been now also uh helping my wife with her own business and that's been very fruitful. I'll continue to do that. Of course, I still have the gym in Miami that I I work on and we had one of our best years um on 2025, so I'm very grateful for that. Obviously, my brother deserves all the credit in the world for being on the field there. I I do what I can online and helping the curriculums and the marketing and the CRM management, but uh yeah, that that has been uh great to see evolve. You know, now it's we've been there for 24 years. It's kind of wild now. It's like the majority of my life I've had this gym. It's kind of a weird thing to say. Uh but yeah, the we have some promising talent there. So, it's been fun. Anyhow, that's all I have for you guys. Hopefully this next week we get some more current events I can talk about because I don't think there's a you've seen until January 24th. Uh, I think it's Justin Gachi and Patty Pimpblelet, which it's an interesting matchup. Uh, it's like someone on their way out versus someone who's trying to make their way in. But, uh, we not much else happening. So, I'm looking forward to seeing some events come through so you can start seeing some new trends and and whatnot. But until then, take care.