167/365 Do You Jiu Jitsu?

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Kelby went with me to check out this Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio near us.

The purpose of jiu jitsu is to teach you how to get yourself into the best position to stop your assailant from fighting you. It's about using leverage, grappling, and striking techniques against your opponent. Most of the work you will do is on the ground since most fights end up on the ground. Jiu jitsu is not meant to teach you how to get into fights, rather, how to avoid them or stop them.

The sensi gave us a brief history and description of the major positions you will find yourself when doing jiu jitsu. We warmed up with the other students and later got to roll around on the mat; our goal was to manipulate our partner to get out of the clutches of their legs, their guard. Today I am feeling sore. You use different muscles in jiu jitsu than you do in other exercises.

This particular studio wasn't a good fit for me for personal reasons. Due to the rising interest in UFC and MMA, this jiu jitsu studio seemed to be geared towards that, the fighting aspect of jiu jitsu. If you are interested in those things, give jiu jitsu a try. If you've done wrestling, karate, tae kwon do, etc. in the past, give jiu jitsu a try to get back in the swing of things. If you've never done martial arts of any kind, I would suggest finding a traditional jiu jitsu, not Brazilian, studio.

In health,

Lauren

PS: The yogadownload.com class I did was great! I thought it was fun, convenient, and informative since there was a PDF of all the poses available for viewing. The only thing is that most of the videos are audio only. If you are unfamiliar with yoga, definitely go to a class with an instructor to learn the proper form for all the poses.