Hello form the UK...

[GoToTheGround]

Hi All,

Really liking the vibe I've seen on the site whilst lurking so thought I'd jump in.

Seemed an appropriate time as I'm kind of at a transitional point in my health/fitness journey. Have been successful losing weight but now need the strength aspect of health & fitness to progress.

My story so far...

About 4.5 years ago I weighed 23st 2 lbs - that's about 322lbs for you guys in the US. How I got like that at the age of 23 I have no idea. I have a pretty decent professional job and a few friends. However my life consisted of going to work, coming home and sitting in front of the TV/Computer all night. Repeat ad nauseum. Heading for a damn boring life and an early heart attack for sure.

This is me 4.5 years ago:

I knew what BJJ & MMA was having seen some early UFCs that had randomly appeared on TV a few years before.

I was bullied very badly all through my childhood so the entire concept of being able to win a fight as a weaker man, if you were smart, appealed to me

If you ask me now what my epiphany moment was I honestly can't tell you, I'm not even sure there was that single moment of realisation I was wasting everything. It might be cooler if there was, but it's irrelevant now.

So weighing 322lbs, no athletic ability and with almost zero enjoyable life experiences, I went to my first BJJ class. It was about as hard for me as anything could ever be.

That person no longer exists.

It's taken me over four years so far (and I'm nowhere near done yet!) but here is what has happened to me since:

- I now weigh around 200lbs.

- I have some of the best friends I could hope for, from all walks of life.

- I have a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

- I get to call professional MMA on live TV from a bunch of different countries.

- I still have my normal everyday job which I love, but I also run my own grappling promotion, referee both gi & no-gi and officiate local MMA shows.

- Earlier in the summer, I cycled 73 miles (starting at midnight!) around central London to raise money for injured troops.

- The way I think about EVERYTHING is different.

Here's a few recent photos for comparison with the lard-ass above:

Working the live TV broadcast at Cage Warriors 44 a few weeks ago:

About two months ago I got this (the old me would NEVER have considered getting a tattoo but it seemed rather pertinent to my life now):

So here is the crossroads I find myself at now:

- Yes, I've managed to lose and keep off a decent amount of weight but I am still about 15-20lbs away from my perceived goal, not to mention my BF% is still at 20%ish.

- I am still physically rather weak for a 90Kg+ grown man....seriously it's pathetic.

- Recently when I have been competing in BJJ, I am at a level now where athleticism and strength do play a significant role, and I am lagging behind other athletes.

So in an effort to move on with the next bit of my journey, I've been changing my schedule up the last couple of months, with less BJJ/MMA training and more pure S&C/lifting sessions (it's now 3x week for each).

Anyhow that's me so far...

Looking forward to being a productive member of the community ;-)

Kind Regards,

Josh.

[ETFnerd]

Congratulations and welcome. How tall are you? Any injuries from competing in MMA/BJJ?

[GoToTheGround]

Thanks.

I'm 5ft 11....with bizarrely long arms for my body type lol.

No major injuries as yet to speak of from BJJ/MMA (touch wood), though it's amazing how you can re-frame in your mind what an 'injury' is!

Couple of really nasty 'whole limb' swellings/bruisings and one bad hyper-extension from getting arm-barred in a competition, some knee bursitis from training at a gym that was 20mm mats on concrete.

Scary thing is I know at some point (with the amount I train) I'm more than likely to pick up a decent injury (break or ACL etc) and honestly I'm scared to death of how I'll deal with. I'm too addicted to training to have to rehab it properly.

[ETFnerd]

I guess it's all part of the game and you deal with it as it comes. At least you have an announcing gig and all your income isn't from fighting in the ring. It'll be tough, but you will survive to fight another day. Other body parts heal, but I am usually most concerned about concussions from blind flush head shots and continuing residual effects thereof. Good luck and be safe out there.

I'm 5'9" at 161lbs with ~15%bf. I had been down to 8% when I was training and competing at sport karate (semi-contact) almost full time. Never did full-contact due to potential for serious injury. Really respect what you guys do and put on the line.

[GoToTheGround]

I guess it's all part of the game and you deal with it as it comes. At least you have an announcing gig and all your income isn't from fighting in the ring. It'll be tough, but you will survive to fight another day. Other body parts heal, but I am usually most concerned about concussions from blind flush head shots and continuing residual effects thereof. Good luck and be safe out there.

I'm 5'9" at 161lbs with ~15%bf. I had been down to 8% when I was training and competing at sport karate (semi-contact) almost full time. Never did full-contact due to potential for serious injury. Really respect what you guys do and put on the line.

I don't compete MMA, just BJJ so training MMA is perfectly safe from my perspective! (I'm an Architect in my day job, I just get to do all the TV stuff for fun and the experience of it all!)

But yes the pros I know are all incredibly dedicated and whilst the injury potential is certainly there, they are rare (statistically safer than American Football or Boxing for example).

Secondary concussions are surprisingly also rare as of course there are far more ways to win a fight than striking someone in the head. The worst injuries for fighters all seem to be joint/bone related rather than brain.

Still a very hard sport to make a living in for sure - hard to balance the risk/reward but the guys who compete don't see it that way, it's just in their blood.

[ETFnerd]

That's awesome. I guess after watching Chris Leben execute a "hit me in the head as many times as you want, I'll outlast you" strategy repeatedly, I wonder what his post-MMA life is going to be like. I like the skill aspect of MMA, but it concerns me that as fighters get better and better over time, so will their ability to inflict damage. Even watching the Silva/Sonnen fight, I was horrified with how much damage Silva took from Sonnen in a winning effort. I'm a fervent MMA fan and not that familiar with BJJ competition.