The toughest part of Judo

Coming back after a long, long hiatus.

2 years and 40 pounds later (graduate school mostly involves my sitting on my butt all day long and eating disgusting food), it felt like I was moving in a pool of molasses. I forgot what it was like to wheeze and pant so hard it actually just tires you more. I also forgot what it was like to feel like vomiting one's supper. Now I know : unpleasant.

Surprisingly newaza was not much trouble, on the ground it felt like I never took a break and it was actually somewhat useful to be heavier, but standing up...let's just say I got a bunch of frequent flier miles tonight. Everything I did was super slow, muscle memory would engage but time would seemingly slow down for me, and when I was supposed to make contact the other guy was long gone.

Sensei told me "if you had kept up with your provincial affiliation while you were gone, you'd have enough points to test for shodan this year" but all I can say is that I'm kinda glad I didn't because clearly I don't deserve it

When you start up again after a break, the main thing to do is to avoid getting injured.

It's good to ease into things and not worry about keeping up with everyone else. Particularly good to set a pace you can maintain throughout training, then ramp up the intensity over the next few weeks as things start falling back in place.

Have restarted after few years several times.

Remember that after few sessions your body and your mind yells "Quit". You body is always voting to continue the way you have done the past couple of years. It has adjusted to it and feels comfortable doing similar level of exercise than before. Two months should change that.

Your muscle memory has what it was. So you keep doing wrong things as your body doesn't react the way your muscle memory remembers. It will pass soon.

Change requires determination. Keep do