I worked out with Rob for a couple of hours yesterday. I could write up a summary, but he’s already done a good job of that in his journal.

I really didn’t intend to take it to the ground, I swear, but Rob was throwing nine thousand crazy windmill punches and suddenly he’s behind me and hey there’s his arm and I could totally throw him and why not, right?

This is an armbar.
At this point, you tap.

That was my first experience really grappling and it was a total blast. I only know like three submissions, so most of the time I was just trying not to get controlled too much. I figured that as long as I wasn’t giving him what he needed to get his moves working, I wasn’t losing. I was thrilled to get that first armbar, mainly because it was so methodical. In a standup fight, things happen so fast that you’re really running on auto-pilot a lot. While grappling, you get time to think a little. When we tied up on the ground, I realized that about the only thing I was sure I could pull off was an armbar, so I’d better get to work on that. First I need to control this arm…no, that’s not working, better go for the other arm. Yeah, that’ll work. Now I have to move out here. What’s that? Oh, that’s Rob demonstrating that in a real fight, he’d be busting my kidney. Yeah, that would hurt a lot. Now swing this leg around here, oh crap, is he going for some kind of instep lock? No, he’s just rolling over, okay. Hey, that’s even better. Now for the other leg…no, that’s not it. Push that other arm out of the way. No, you’re not getting out of this that easily, push that other arm…there. This is it, right? Hrm. Something’s not quite right. Wiggle around, straighten out the arm more. Bridge. BRIDGE! Hah! He tapped! Woo!

It’s exhausting to do that sort of thing, though. For the entire time, every single muscle in your body is straining at maximum resistance in every direction. We went at it three times and then all I could manage was stuffing my pads back in the bag and using it as a pillow for twenty minutes or so. Forget aerobics, do some grappling three times a week and you’ll get ripped.