Nothing.

So I you have noticed I haven't updated this blog in a few weeks.
That is because we haven't been doing anything. Pretty much at all.
This week we barely got around working out. I think we worked out once..
And that was for twenty lame minutes.
Don't worry. When/if anything exciting happens I will let you know.

Arm Bars and Triangle Chokes.

Sunday night Nathan and I went to the gym to do some jui-jitsu. I'm proud to say that I learned two new moves!! This is quite an acomplishment because three days later I can still remember them (for the most part). I have some pictures that will show you what exactly each move looks like. I do not take pictures of Nathan and I while we train so these are just pictures I found on the internet.

The first picture is not of a move persay but it is called the Guard. Before I learn a new move this is the position we start in. There are some differences though. The man on top has his butt in the air unlike when we are in this position our butt rests on our heels. We start from this position because I am a small person and need to know how to fiight with my back on the ground.
The first move I learned was the triangle choke:

As you see the person on the bottom has their legs wrapped tight around the person's neck.

The second move I learned was the Arm Bar. When first learning this move I had to ask Nathan "Is this choking you?" and he had to explain to me that this move is not a choke but a move to break the other person's arm. It was really funny, shows how much I really do not know.

In MMA when using these moves the point is to get the other person to tap out, which means that either their arm is about to break and in a lot of pain, or they are about to pass out. When the opponent taps out then you automatically need to let go of them and you win!

Boxing

Yesterday I started boxing again. It wasn't for long, but my arms definately got tired and my hands were sore. I wore boxing gloves while Nathan wore pads on his hands for me to punch.
Nathan would yell out what type of punch he wanted me to do along with other encouraging words usually like "You suck, I am way better" and helpful tips such as " Keep blocking your face" (which I am still not good at).
All in all it was a helpful practice and a good start into doing more MMA stuff.

Centergy.

I haven't been posting regulary like I had originally planned and that is because nothing has really changed. I haven't done any new training at all. We have just been working out.
On Tuesday I started a new class at the Courthouse called Centergy. I was extremely nervous. This is a class that Nathan and I had been planning to go to for weeks but we just never did. But yesterday we finally started. Oh man, I had a tone of fun. Even though I wasn't close to being able to do everything correctly, and I was laughing the whole time...I loved it. After school that day I went and bought a yoga mat at Walmart.
Oh, right. So centergy is a "yoga/pilates" class. It really works your core (so I have been told).
So our plan now is mon, wed, fri work out (weights) and tues & thurs go to centergy.
I seriously love working out. (even if i have to get up at 5:30 to do so.)
Not sure when we will go back to training again, but I will let you know when it happens.

Morning.

The plan is to work out at 6am Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

So far we have only been working out mondays because different things have come up.

Fortunately, this week we have hit a record and have so far worked out twice.

This morning we had an amazing work out where we just did a bunch of random stuff.

First we worked on an elliptical for fifteen minutes, then we did a bunch of weights for pretty much every part of our body, and we finished strong with a 15 minute run where I almost ran a mile and a half (which is good for me).

It was an awesome work out. And I will be very sore in the morning.

Protein Shakes are the Best! (Week four, I think)

So it is monday early afternoon, as some of you know I did not post any new information on my last training session. This is because last thursday we didn't actually do much.
Well actually, that is a lie. We watched Cage Fighting on television. I'm not even sure how many different fights we watched, but we watched a few. Let me tell you, there are a few different channels that air cage fights so we just kept switching channels once one fight was over.
But don't worry, we didn't only watch television. Nathan showed me one move. A very helpful move that gets my head out of my opponents grasp. Plus it wasn't a hard move to learn, which makes me extremely happy, because most of the things Nathan has me do my mind cannot comprehend so this was a good change!

But wait, there is more exciting news!

This morning, roughly around 7am, I got a membership to the Court House athletic club!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anywho, so Nathan and I went to the gym this morning. We woke up at 5:30am, drank some protein shakes, you know, to get our metabolism going. BTW if you didn't know, I do not like protein shakes. They can be so gross. Fortunately, this particular drink wasn't that bad and I was able to choke it down without any troubles. Then we headed to the gym.
And we worked out.
I'm not sure what exactly we did, but it was fun. There was one thing imparticular that we did that was SO hard. I am not sure what exactly it was, but I couldn't do it. :(
It had to do with me holding my legs six inches above the ground for about ten minutes (not actually ten minutes, but probably pretty close, like 30 seconds of something).

The plan is that Nathan will go to some Jui-jitsu class while I am at school and later tonight he will teach me what he learned. That is our plan for the rest of forever pretty much. For three of the days this week we will be working out in the morning. I might go more, but that depends on some other stuff. And then at night coming home to learn what Nathan learned that day.

So, in conclusion, I will be getting good work outs about twice a day. This is a lot.

Third Week.

Homework. I have recieved more homework through training then I have gotten from school. I'm not complaining. When I got to Nathan's house earlier this evening I was given a book: The Fighter's Body. It will teach me about Nutrition, Exercise, and Excellence (that is what the front of the book says). I'm actually looking forward to reading it because if there is one thing I do horrible at in life it is eating healthy.
Anywho tonight was a quick session. I got to Nathan's house and he was cooking dinner, then after dinner I got really lazy and just watched tv. (I couldn't fight right after eating anyways...that wouldn't be good.) Well after a while it was quite clear that we weren't going to do anything that night so as I started getting my shoes on we decide to do a quick little workout.
Again tonight we did some sparring. I like sparring. Because even though I'm not amazing at it I understand how to do it...well....kinda, but I still like it. Again I got punched in the face a lot. But tonight I got hit a lot more and a lot harder. Seriously. My head still hurts...I am thinking about taking some IB Profen..which I usually don't do, but I figure it might be helpful. My face is slightly sore. But I don't have any bruises or black eyes..which is too bad, because that would be kind of cool.
Sparring is all we did this evening. But it was hard, and I got a good work out. I also got to spar with my cousin Joel, he is eight...or nine. It was cool. Then I got to spar with my other cousin Raegan, she just turned two. It was pretty much the CUTEST thing ever. I would put a picture up, but it turned out blurring.
I was also told that I need to pretty much work out twice a day. That is quite frequently. Fortunately I have a pretty easy going school schedule and have mornings off, so I plan (if it works out - as in I train myself to wake up early-) on going to school early and running a little bit.
So even though today wasn't anything new, it was still helpful.

First Two Training Sessions.

I have had two nights of "training" and so far I can tell it is going to be hard. My trainer's name is Nathan Bethell. He is pretty much a beast. He has had me doing a bunch of different things. It is only my second week into this so excuse my "i-have-no-idea-what-anything-is-actually-called" perspective. There is so much that goes into MMA it is ridiculous.
On my first night I had to go a few minutes of non-stop jump roping. Let me be the first to tell you that my jumping roping skills aren't actually existent. I'm not quite sure how someone can be bad at jump roping, all you do is jump and rotate your wrists. Obviously my body doesn't understand that and I'm left hitting my head with the rope and sometimes even forgetting to jump - which then I have to take a break because I can't help but laugh.
After the jump roping we worked on our kicking. When working on kicking one person holds onto this big pad, really firm, pillow looking thing (I am not sure what it is called) while the other person kicks the pad. Nathan kicked first, so I held the pad.

The white, shirtless guy above is Nathan. Now, quickly in your head imagine him kicking me full force. Now you should be picturing me dead, if you aren't then obiously your head is wrong. The pad was probably 4.5 inches thick, and even though he wasn't kicking it full force I almost fell over after every kick, I am still surprised that he didn't crack any of my ribs. It was insane. After the kicking we did some sparring (which is just punching eachother), which is fun. The only problem is that while punching it is also (extremely) important to keep your arms up to protect your face from your opponents punches. My arms are never protecting my face, therefore I get punched in the face a lot. That is definately one of the more important things I need to work on.

On the second night of training we went to a gym (the first night we were just at his house). We started out with a warm up that involved several different little activities and stretches. (I am not a very flexible person...so I looked pretty dumb doing some of them). We did some more punching and stuff like that. We also worked on some new stuff. I got my first lesson of "jiu-jitsu". For those who don't know anything about jiu-jitsu it is pretty much legal rape.

 The picture above is pretty much true. It is a really...physical sport. You have full body contact with the other person the whole time. While working on some jiu-jitsu I couldn't help but think about what the people who might be walking by and watching us were thinking. It must have been slightly awkward for those old people that walked by what looked like a 32 year old taking advantage of a teenage girl. But anyways, jiu-jitsu is pretty cool. It really focuses on moves that could make smaller people have full control of people who are three times their size. Which is pretty hardcore. But is also takes an insane amount of brain power. Pretty much everything that Nathan teaches me has been something that I have had to stop and think about, only to have him explain it to me a few more times. It is ridiculous and goes to show how little I know. I am excited to see where this can take me. There is a new MMA gym opening up that I will hopefully be able to get a membership to, and once school starts I hope to start working out more. It will be filled with hundreds of bruises, hopefully a few black eyes, and a lot of hard work. I'm really excited.

The Beginning

The first post, though this should be found "exciting" because it will explain why I am blogging it probably won't be. There are two main reasons why I have started this blog. The first reason is because I am sick. I have been laying around at home all day being extremely bored. The second reason is that I just watched the movie "Julie and Julia" which is all about a lady that writes a blog. And let me tell you, it looks as if it will be a lot of fun.
Not that I think people will actually find anything about my life to be anything but a depressing mess. I am choosing to have the point of the blog to talk about my adventure to becoming a cage fighter.
Yes, cage fighter. Of course for those who know me you think it is a joke and can't imagine me becoming an actual fighter, but oh well.
We'll see how far this "cage fighting" goes. It will consist of a lot of work including fitness, good nutrition (which I fail at), learning jiu-jitsu, and an extremely large amount of self discipline (which I am also not good with).
If I remember to update my blog week to week and you by chance read it, which don't worry I am not expecting anyone too. Then you will be able to hear about all my failures and accomplishments on my road to be a huge success, or most likely not. Enjoy.