Tomorrow is Thanksgiving which happens to be my favorite holiday. You get all the family and food without the obnoxiousness of Christmas shopping. If we could throttle back the whole shopping insanity, Christmas would be a lock. It also happens to be my birthday. Sure, now you’re questioning whether or not I am the second coming. A logical thought. Time will tell. For now, let us focus on Thanksgiving. A time to be thankful for being on this side of the dirt if nothing else. And since we talked about being thankful in our last visit, I figured we could chat about something else and yet still Thanksgiving-ish. And that is the topic of rest. Kick back. Stuff your face hole with food. Unbuckle your belt. Tell Uncle McDrunky that you are not interested in his political theory. Karate chop any small children in your path. Find a quiet place to retreat. And let the food coma take you over. This is not exactly the kind of rest I am talking about, but if you are lucky enough to find yourself in this situation, may the tryptophan be with you.
The point of the story is that your body needs rest. Master of the obvious am I. (I will end the Stars Wars references now.) Jiu Jitsu has a way of reminding those of us who are not 22 that, well…we are not 22. It simply takes a longer time to recover from the bumps and bruises of the daily grind as you get older. I’m not complaining or saying its something that stops me from showing up to class, but if I’m in it for the long haul, being smart about staying healthy needs to be up there on my list of priorities. Remember this blog is about the ‘Art of White Belt Survival Over 40’. Rest cannot be ignored. I am lucky in that I get forced rest due to required business travel. Rest from the mat, not necessarily more sleep. The muscles and tendons that Jiu Jitsu makes scream bloody murder get some needed relief. (DBAP still applies.) Mentally too though. I was so psyched to come to class on Monday after being absent for a week. It served as awesome affirmation that I am doing something I really enjoy.
One misconception in my opinion is that you will somehow regress if you take a little time off. In fact, I have found the opposite to be true. If you practice Jiu Jitsu, your mind will undoubtedly wander back to the mat. Giving yourself the opportunity to rewind that mental highlight reel is a good thing. The brain is a remarkable wonder. I’m pretty sure connections in the brain are made when we do this kind of mental screening, and these connections enable physical translation. The science is already out there on the cardio. More than a week off and cardio suffers. The skills set though, the mental aspects, I would argue gets sharper when they take center stage. You can’t roll, so you roll in your mind. Sequences of moves can be executed with perfection. That is really where it all starts. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. There is only one place to truly practice with perfection, and that is in your mind. Then, when you’re not thinking about Jiu Jitsu, your brain will do its thing to make sense of it all. I know none of this to be true. I only know my experience points to the possibility that it could be true.
Have a great day tomorrow with friends and family. Stay safe. Don’t drink and drive. Try to stay on this side of the dirt. Karate chop a kid. Enjoy. Until next week.