See? Babies are already better at this than I am.
Make a dress out of a pillowcase? Cinderella’s mice ain’t got nothing on me! Entertain a room full of preschoolers for an hour with nothing but shadow puppets and the contents of my purse? Won’t like it but I can sure do it. (True story: I once had to keep my two toddlers and my newborn happy for 30 minutes during a pelvic exam. Rocked the baby in his carseat with one arm dangling over the edge, held son #2 in my other arm and chucked fruit snacks over my head to son #1 every few seconds. All while reading Green Eggs and Ham from memory.) But cage fight with the Gym Buddies, or heaven help me, some random dude at a MMA training facility? I haven’t got a clue, you guys.
There are some Experiments I do having at least a working knowledge of what’s going to happen like how my gymnastics training helped out with the Circus Experiment. But then there are Experiments where I haven’t got the faintest idea what this is all about. Sure a Mixed Martial Arts Experiment sounded awesome. In theory. But then so did watching Dance Moms and I’m already regretting that one.Â
When Scott Aksamit of MMA13.com contacted me a few months ago about trying out his program of workouts based around mixed martial arts principles, I think I surprised him with my enthusiastic “heck yes!” (Yes “heck” qualifies as a superlative around here.) Watching MMA matches, no one can deny it’s an amazing full-body workout and while I don’t seek out opportunities to punch people sometimes it feels good to take out some aggression on some pads.
And yet, my only experience with anything MMA being our, ahem, ill-fated jiu-jitsiu experiment which (as many of you noted in the comments) did not look legit. Long story I can’t really tell on my blog but I wish I could: It wasn’t. It was embarrassing. Bad things happened. Everything’s fine now. Moving on. The point being that until I can find a reputable expert to help teach us, it’s going to be me teaching the Gym Buddies awesome moves like “the monkey boy cross” and “inside low kick with possible sidestep.” You know, just the basics. Upshot: sometimes I get a better workout when I don’t know what I’m doing! (That’s my whole theory behind my hip hop class anyhow.)
If you want to get a taste for what MMA13’s workouts are like, check out his MMA challenge video. We’re doing this challenge in the gym tomorrow and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be brutal. I’ve done those one-minute punching intervals with Sensei Don before and they were the hardest intervals I’ve ever done, including Tabata sprints on the treadmill. So I’m totally excited! I love getting my butt kicked!
Speaking of my hip hop class, here’s our latest vid, taped tonight! It’s part one of a 3-part Lady Gaga flashmob! I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been waiting to be part of a flashmob!! (Really you need to watch it just to see the guy on the back row – how he danced in that I have no idea but he rocked it!)
Have any of you tried MMA – any workout suggestions for me? Any of you going to try one of MMA13’s workouts with us? Have you tried anything lately that is totally out of your field of expertise?
Im so excited about this one.
Ive never tried and am in to join you!!
now
outside my realm of experience? tried lately?
May I simple say LIFE?
That’s been trying and outside my realm these days 🙂
I feel like you qualify as coolest-mom-ever for doing your hip hop class!
Love it! Where are you going to do the mob? The guy in the full body gimp suit is kind of creepy 😮 But it’s Gaga so it’s forgivable.
I’ve been involved with the martial arts for a long time! It is something that has done many positive things for my life. The newer BJJ techniques were a brilliant addition just when most thought there was nothing new in the area. I will always have a problem with the violence aspects, but in theory, a true martial artist walks quietly by the side the road and hopes no one will notice. For me, the martial arts is much more than the physical. It is a great conditioner however!
I want to go to your hip hop class. Please.
Good luck with this month’s experiment!
Gah! Coolest class ever! Seriously! You’ll have to post details about the flash mob after you guys do it! Seriously, what a fun class!!
As for martial arts. . . yeah, the closest I ever got was Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo! hahahaha! You know what would be fun mini-experiments? “Old school” fitness stuff – ie, Tae Bo, jane Fonda, step class!
Oh no! Step class has been relegated to “old school fitness”?? Ack!
There certainly aren’t as many classes around anymore, but we’re out there 🙂 I teach two a week (that’s two out of the three left at my gym).
My gym still has step class, too, and it’s HARD. More power to you for teaching it – I have issues with turning around on the thing, lol!
I wasn’t trying to knock it. . . just saying that it it was super duper popular as *THE* way to exercise 15-20 years ago. Now it seems to be a lot about yoga, kettlebells, piloxing, spinning, etc. Those other forms are still there, just not as up front in the fitness media, kwim? I didn’t mean to offend!
I have not done MMA, but I have done kickboxing where you actually ‘fight’ with a person. I loved kickboxing because it was the best full-body workout I have ever gotten! Not just the 1 minute punching intervals, but the kicking intervals also had me sweating buckets and feeling like throwing up (but in a good way, I was still having fun!)
(Love the video!!!!)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about going back to Krav Maga. It’s out of my comfort zone and I haven’t done it in years, so it might be just the thing!
well, I haven’t tried it yet, but in Novemeber, I’m going to be running my first marathon! so yeah…I may or may not regret that…haha
I’ve always wanted to do some serious kick boxing though, complete with gloves, weight bag, un-discovered anger deep inside, …you know…the normal gear 🙂
Can’t wait to see pics!!!! I tried the kickboxing & boxing at LA Boxing which was way out of my comfort zone but they also have MMA there & did not try that.
I knew Dr. J would like this one!
Oooooh, sounds fun! My “pushing the comfort zone” actions this summer is morning heat training. I’m not comfortable when it’s too hot or too cold, and this is my attempt to harden the frack up. Also, 7am is the middle of the night for me, but now? It’s run time!
Sounds like fun! Can’t wait to hear about it and make sure to get good pictures!
As a huge fan of line dancing, I think any sort of dance-related class would be easy and fun! I’m jealous of your Turbo and Hip Hop classes! I think this winter, I just might give myself a membership to the local Y so I can try some of these awesome classes I hear so much about…
My 11 yr old daughter does MMA at our community center once per week and she LOVES it! (It’s for 10-16 yr olds, and she’s the only girl:)) She get’s to take out her agression on her brother in a positive way, all while I workout the old fashioned way with weights 🙂
Would love to know when/where you are doing the “flash mob”, we’re local and seeing one in person would be so much more fun than on YouTube! I promise I won’t tell anyone else!
Ahh I love martial arts! I do kung fu (and they teach us mixed self defense techniques) and jiu jitsu. My guy does full-on MMA (tae kwon do, muay thai, jiu jitsu, boxing, etc) at another place. He always comes home SOAKED with sweat. All of the stances work your legs, and all of the boxing works — well — everything, it’s SUCH a hard workout! His place also throws in crazy conditioning exercises like burpees and grasshoppers and animal crawls — sometimes in between boxing sets, lol. I find it very empowering. And following a more traditional martial art, in my case, is fun because of the cultural and artistic aspect of it. As well as knowing that you’re conditioning your muscle memory to kick some ass a la “wax on, wax off”.
I also don’t blame you for not trusting random MMA places. Some places are kind of skeevy — just a bunch of aggressive guys out there to be aggressive, rather than a good school with instructors who know how to teach and a community that facilitates learning and respect.
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