snowboarding – Serenity Through Sweat

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week, I want to introduce a concept from aviation that I think has great crossover into the health and wellness space.

Things fall apart. Things break. Murphy’s law says, “whatever can go wrong, will”. The correllary, is that murphy was an optimist.

This is something we deal with in aviation all the time. Parts break. It is then up to us as pilots to decide what is an acceptable level of breakage.

Christmas half marathon and roanoke layover run (i know I’m a little behind on the blog schedule)

That might sound scary, but we all make similar decisons everyday. The check engine light or tire pressure light in our cars. A toilet that doesnt quite work right you just have to jiggle the handle.

Things that aren’t operating quite as they should but we find work arounds to complete the task with a not pefectly functioning piece of equipment.

Whenever something is broken on and airplane we consult a Minimum Equipment List or MEL. The MEL, in its simplest form, is a list of all the stuff that can be broken and we will still be safe to fly.

Enjoying the local layover hotel

Again this might sound scary, but think about all of the non-essential functions in your car. Would you drive if the automatic windows didnt work? What about cruise control? The middle seat belt in the back seat?

The answer is probably a yes, but… Or maybe the answer is, it depends on where we were driving, how many people, what the weather was, etc…

Now you are thinking like a pilot. Our MEL gives us the same type of information. Depending on what is broken, the type of operations we are allowed to conduct may be limited, and the type of maintenance that must be performed is prescribed.

You wouldnt want to drive with bad winshield wipers if the forecast called for rain, but maybe thise wipers can be replaced another day if there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

This isnt about ignoring malfunctions, but rather acknowledging them and taking appropriate risk mitigation strategies when considering both the likelihood and severity of the malfunctioning equipment having an adverse effect on the operation that day.

The aviation MEL has M and O procedures. M for maintenance, and O for operational.

The maintenance section lists actions that must be performed on the broken equipment or system prior to the flight commencing. It also specifies when a final long term repair must be completed by for the priginal broken equipment.

The operations section places any limits on the types of operations you can conduct while the equipment is broken and remains unrepaired.

I think that same idea can play really well into the health and welness space, but I have never really heard it explicitly described in that way.

Back to Murphy again, there is no such thing as a perfect training day. There are too many variables and something will always be a little bit off. Sleep, nutrition, training volume, weather, equipment, lack of motivation, something is going to try and throw a wrench in your training plan and your day in general.

But, you definitely don’t need to feel perfect in order to train, or even just to function. And, even if you do have some sort of legitimate issue, (known injury or illness, bad weather, fragmented sleep, missing or broken equipment) you can still use the idea of an MEL to protect your plan.

Maybe you didnt sleep well last night. Consulting the health and wellness MEL might say your operational limits are to reduce volume by 20%. It might also say to avoid high intensity or heavy weights for that session to reduce injury risk.

The maintenance procedure might be to take an extended warm up and stretching prior to getting into your main set.

Trip to port canaveral launch pads and museum

Maybe you’re stressed out from work/family/relationship/etc that day. The operational section of the MEL might say zone 2 cardio or a shorter HIIT session is ok, but make sure it is an activity you enjoy. Stay away from something grueling or unappealing.

The maintenance procedure might have you try to gamify your warmup rather than something monotonous. It might also require you to have a pre workout energy drink or special playlist.

Maybe you are dealing with a knee injury. The MEL might say you have to wear a brace and do specific warmups prior to starting your activity.

Your operations might be limited to low intensity, lower miles, or lower impact activites only.

You might give yourself a week or two under those limits and then reevaluate the MEL for the knee injury to see if it still applies.

I think this type of framework is extremely useful to maintain activity levels as we age and deal with the inevitable hurdles to activity like, stress, illness, and injury.

Having an idea of, I can still do something as long as I take the right precautions, is way better than doing nothing because there is a problem.

Using the MEL framework, recognizes the problem, mitigates the risk, and tries to push forward on the path towards serenity.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

It is somewhat fitting, Equal parts ironic and opportunistic that my last post was outcome. I recently competed in my first bjj tournament at black belt, and in the lead up to that competition, I was constantly reminding myself to focus on output rather than outcome.

The main t ake away from Output, was that outcome is never certain. It can be out of your control, even with the best of preparation. But output, is always in your control.

So that is what I tried to focus on going into this competition. Control the output. Deliver a performance I could be proud of. And, let the chips fall where they may.

View from the sauna and view from tbe chair

That is easier said than done. Especially in something so personal and ego centric as one on one, hand to hand combat.

The day of the competition was my 38th birthday. My matches were scheduled for later in the evening.

Maybe I was feeling my age. Maybe it was harder to get warmed up at a time when I would have otherwise been eating dinner. Maybe I am finally losing my appetite for cutting weight after three decades.

Whatever the reason, I followed my normal warmup routine, but I didn’t feel the same fire. I felt prepared. I felt ready to compete. But just without that extra edge.

In the aftermath of previous competitions, I realized I had relied too much on my wrestling and not gotten a chance to really test my jiu jitsu. I vowed to change that.

I had a game plan going in. A few wrestling setups and takedowns I felt confident with, all attempted within the first 30-40 seconds. If those were unsuccessful, the plan was to get into guard and get into my jui jitsu game.

The first part of the match was a perfect execution of may gameplan. A few takedown attempts, not successful, but enough to make him think. Then straight into a guard I felt comfortable with.

I played my guard game, moving, adjusting, attacking. Everyting going to plan. I wrestled up from my guard attacks finishing a takedown and ending on top.

So far I was executing the game plan, and the game plan was working. I continued to apply pressure from top position, looking for a place to attack.

I found an opening for a knee bar and trasitioned quickly. Another part of my game I was focusing on from previous competition was being decisive and explosive when the window was open, knowing that windows in high level bjj close quickly.

I didn’t finish the knee bar, but I was thrilled with my recognition and quick, decisive action. Again, sticking to the game plan and improving on past performance.

We scrambled up and I ended up wrestling back down to mat, taking his back with one hook in and attacking his lapels for a choke finish.

As time expired, I was delighted with my performance. My game plan was solid, and my execution was everything I could have wanted. Explosive, aggressive, opportunistic. I used my wrestling to set up my jiu jitsu, and my jiu jistu to set up my wrestling.

When the referee had to go have a conference with another referee before coming to announce the decision, I got a sinking feeling.

The scene from Cinderella man started playing in my head. “They take this long to make a decision, they’re gonna decide to screw someone”

The referee talked with my coach before coming back to the center of the mat and raising my opponents hand.

He had been given credit for a sweep when I attacked the knee bar. I only had one hook in on his back and was not awarded points. The final score was 2-2. even though I had a dominant performance, his points coming from my aggression and attacking without any real advantage to him, he scored last, and that was the tie break criteria.

It was a weird feeling. I couldn’t feel happy. I lost, and that win would have put me in the finals. On the other hand, if I could have scripted my ideal performance for my first five minutes competing at black belt, it would have unfolded very much like that match.

The outcome was not what I wanted, but the output, was almost perfect.

I tried to mentally reset and get ready for the consolation match, hoping to win and be able to compete for 3rd place.

If I was in a weird space before my first match, this was even weirder.

I came out a bit flat, and my opponent was aggressive with his take down, taking advantage of my slow start.

No matter, I got right to work in my guard, again using my jiu jitsu to set up my wrestling and wrestling up.

We scrambled and ended up back in my guard, and I found myself attacking an ankle lock that I feel very confident in.

This is a movement I train every day in the gym and have a great deal of success with.

This time however, I felt and heard a crunch in my left rib cage. I knew something wasn’t right but I continued to attack the ankle lock.

My opponent had to defend, and I took the opportunity to again wrestle up. There was no power though, any tension through my core caused my rips to pop back and forth like a snap bracelet.

I tried to establish my guard for another 30 seconds or so before deciding that discretion was the better part of valor and tapping my opponent, signaling he won and would advance.

Two weeks later, I am still struggling with my rib. Two losses, and an injury on my birthday. Not the outcome I was loking for.

But the outcome was never really in my control, never entirely anyway. But the output. In just over 7 minutes, less than a match and a half, I covered almost all of the positions and techniques I wanted to test at this level.

I transitioned seamlessly between my wrestling and jiu jitsu. I was explosive when the window opened. I tested myself rather than trying to rely on an older and more proven skill set.

It is taking some time, and the rib is a constant reminder that the outcome was far from desireable. I am struggling, but, I am finding peace, knowing that the output was something I can be proud of.

SerenityThroughSweat, earned, struggled for, fought for. It isn’t given, and the outcome is never certain. But, you control the output, and you always have a fighting chance to find it.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.