This Week in BJJ

This happened on Thursday.

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White belt coming along nicely. Oh ya, also stripe 1 on my belt. 😀 #BJJ #bjj4life #brazilianjiujitsu #martialarts #jiujitsuovereverything

A post shared by Anthony Restuccia (@anthony.w.r) on Jan 21, 2016 at 4:10pm PST

Yes that’s the first stripe on my purple belt. I only got the gosh darn thing on September 30. Plus I was out for 2 months with the hip flexor injury. I feel like it came too fast. Oh well. Best just go with the flow I guess. I’ve been teaching a bit. I like it. I’m able to do more of what I want to work on. We have several new white belts, so I’m going to have to start planning 2 small lessons. I know it’s always good to work on basics, but the vets need new things to try/learn as well. It’s just another challenge. 🙂  I think there’s an art to teaching. I seem to be good at it. Probably because of my experience teaching skiing and Muay Thai.

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The Rise Of Keenan Cornelius – The JiuJitsu Phenom

If you haven’t seen this yet, give it a watch.  It gives some interesting insight as to why Keenan is such a good competitor.  Great work Stuart Cooper Films!

 

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Made It Twice This Week

As the title suggests, I made it to two BJJ classes this week. Last night I tested the hip/groin out by rolling a little harder.  To this point, I’d been going very, very light. I’m happy to say that it held up with less pain. I’m still going to physio and I do still have pain, so I’m still being cautious. However, it’s nice to see that faint light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂

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Have To Go Next Year

I need to stop being a pussy and go!  Worst case scenario, I spend the evenings by myself listening to music or reading.  It’s probably going to happen that way only because I dislike most people.  Happy training y’all. 🙂

 

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Injury Update

Well it’s been 4 weeks to the day since I tore my hip flexor.  It’s been a shitty time.  Not as bad as an ACL tear, but a close second.  You don’t realize how often you use these muscles until you injure them.  For example, I’ve kept going to the gym to lift weights throughout the healing process.  I’ve simply modified my workouts.  I found out the first day that I couldn’t lie flat on a bench to press.  This stretched the torn muscles causing my eyes to start glistening and noticeable whimper to those in my vicinity.  So lying flat was out.  Next I found that sitting on a shoulder press bench with my knees bent more than 90 degrees caused sever cramping.  This wasn’t as bad as the stretching, but painful nonetheless.  Finally I thought I could do some bent over dumbell rows.  Unbeknownst to me, as soon as my lower abs contracted to brace, my breath would immediately be taken away and I would want to fall down.  It was a bit of trial and error.  I’ve spent a lot of time on the elliptical machine and doing machine circuits.  I’m happy to say though, that it’s finally starting to feel better.

I started physiotherapy this week.  He puts me through hell, but I feel so good when it’s over.  The way he explained it to me is like this. I partially tore both the Psoas and the Iliacus.  That’s why I have pain sitting up or lifting my legs while in bed.  The thinks that that they are healing well.  However, he also believes that the Iliacus has attached itself to bone during that healing process.  That is what is causing the sever pain when the area is stretched.  basically, the muscle has become too short.  So what he’s doing is breaking the muscle away from the bone; re-tearing it if you will.  Goddamn it hurts!

He’s expecting a full recovery which is what I wanted to hear.  I really am going bat shit crazy being off the mats.  It’s weird.  I think about quitting Jiu Jitsu so much when I’m able to do it, but now that I can’t, all I want to do is get back on the mats.  Yep, I’m fucked…  Anyways, I plan on letting it fully heal before I get back out there.  I have a trip to Whistler planned in January and I want to be able to ski as aggressively as I usually do.

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