Feeling good! Got it after a year and 4 months or so which I thought was fast but I've consistently trained 4-6 days a week minimum.
I still struggle with the much younger and/or bigger white belts but that's normal I think and i don't get submitted by them either.
It's been a lot of fun so far. Made a lot of friends and going to class is my favorite part of the day. At almost 36 I'm in good shape at 170 pounds but cardio is definately an issue. Some guys at my gym openly admit they are on TRT (Including a 46 year old former marine who is sculpted like a Greek statue, no kidding), but I'm hesitant to even go down that route
Right now I'm trying to focus more on being more calm and relaxed and regulate breathing whole rolling. I do great until SUDDENLY my cardio gives out and my muscles basically die out and stop working. It's a big issue for me.
I really like pulling guard and sweeping, I'm already known in my gym for using butterfly guard and hooks more than anyone.
Generally speaking though , all other blue belts beat me. Never mind higher belts. Sometimes it bugs me but other times i remind myself I'm older and smaller than 90% of them.
It's only been a little under a year and a half so long way to go. Just wanted to share my progress so far and my thoughts to those starting out. Thanks for everyone on here who encouraged me to join and train and helped offer advice and guidance
Congrats, for cardio, three things.
1. Learn to be more conservative with your energy. Pay attention to how hard you are squeezing or gripping your opponent. Lower belts will use 80-90% of their energy when often, only 20-30% is required. The key is when doing what is required, be cognizant of of your opponent and always be prepared to increase your effort relative to your opponents effort.
Learn when to rest and learn to rest muscle groups that are not required for the particular technique. Often I see lower belts are incredibly tense and squeezing or stiffening muscles that literally have no purpose.
e.g. squeezing their legs together really tightly the entire time I’m in their guard, when their feet locking together would suffice.
2 . Work on flexibility. A lack of flexibility is muscle tension at the end of any particular mechanical movement with your body. You can often feel it start to shake or tighten.
The muscles tighten to protect you from what it perceives as an over extension. This muscle tension requires energy. So even if you aren’t purposely exerting energy, not being flexible is causing you to exert extra energy while you operate in zones near the end of your range of motion. This is especially true for squating, kneeling and sitting on ankles, standing up from knees, etc.
3. Do circuit training. No rest between rounds. A few muscle groups are always working, and a few are always resting, and these groups alternate. You heart and cardiovascular systems are constantly working the entire workout yet your muscles get some recoperation time. This is similar to a live rolling.
I usually do 6 rounds of 12 stations. With a 3-5 min stationary bike as my “rest” between rounds. I do this twice a week. (You might want to build up to that. Maybe 4 rounds of 12 stations at first.)
Anyway, that is just some things that has helped me. Congrats again and good luck.