There is no "me" in Team… oh wait

“Tonight will not be for men who eat quiche”- Arnold Schwarznegger

I know some people were looking at me funny when I said that last night but it was a quote from The Governator. We did an absolutely animal session last night. Lots of rounds of grappling, lots of sparring, zero technical training. Just pad up and lets go.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this session was that I did it. I’m back in training officially after a few false starts, and with the help of my friend Mr. Ponstan, I’ve trained a few times now without having to stop with any back pain. I was a bit sloppy last night, I fluffed a couple of double legs and ended up in my opponents guard and got stuck a few times in turtle, but overall I feel pretty good. I made a decision after thinking about it for a while last month to put on some weight and as a part of that, I’ve been doing lots and lots of reps. It seems to have done my back the world of good. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been a bit nervous about coming back, to MMA especially since I have to clinch, but last night went well.

The lads who are fighting look pretty sharp. There are seven guys from the gym fighting next week and this was their second last heavy sparring session. What has really impressed me about the lads has been their work ethic and willingness to give up not just their evenings and weekends but their lunchbreaks and the like to get extra training in. It’s nice to not have to keep texting people to tell them to train.

The Bet
So Finlandia aka Arthur Daly and I both got our bodyfats done on Saturday morning. It wasn’t pretty. Basically we’re both about twice as fat as Shayn, and exactly as fat as each other. 119mm or approximately 16%. Naturally, the slagging began and the net result was that we have decided to have a small wager on this matter. Here’s the deal, enshrined in internets for all to see.

The leanest man on December 21st (Monday), as measured by Will, is the winner. Weight does not matter, not one bit. Instead the measurement will be bodyfat as expressed in millimetres.
The loser will, on December 22nd (Tuesday, the last class before Christmas), do 15 rounds of PRO MMA in the ring with whoever fancies doing a round with them.

Now I’m not going to lose, let me state that from the outset, but I have shared my strategy with the fighters in the unlikely event that I do (say, for example, Finlan gets gastroenteritis the week before or something). I am going to go as hard as I possibly can for as many rounds as I can. I mean I am going to dent people if they get in the ring in the early rounds. I will mess them up so that the next guys will be thinking “oh”. I will take lumps off the first man, and as many men as I can until I gas.

All of which is irrelevant of course because I’m not going to lose.