Investing in Yourself, Physically as Well as Financially
Story collected by Will McGuirk, website: slowcity.ca
Janine Mocaiber and her partner, Igor, of Oshawa Brazilian Jiu jitsu and Fitness, are martial arts practitioners and competitors. It is a lifestyle as well as a sport for them so the pandemic related curbs on their training impacted them deeply. They looked inwards for the strength to cope as athletes always do.
“Resting and listening to your body helps. Being in shape and having the ability to properly recover helps as well. I personally light the candle at both ends but I have always done this and can maintain it to a certain degree, but whenever I feel like I need to let off the gas I take a day. This is what a lot of unhealthy people fail to do and realize.”
“I used to manage Action and Reaction MMA Pickering and North York. They both had to close on the 14th of March 2020 and we had no idea what was going to happen. We all panicked. I had to find a new job because our rent was $2500. It’s not really possible to live off of government money and move forward in life at any pace. Luckily we found work, in security, where we went from being athletes to sitting for 12 hour shifts unfortunately. We were able to create a group of us that trained frequently enough to not lose our skill and continue to advance. We opened a gym at the end of the pandemic because we chose to hustle.”
“We have continued Brazilian Jiu jitsu and fitness. Where many people would call us crazy or selfish for having a small group to train, the amount of people we know who either became sedentary and gained tons of weight, or suffered mental health issues; some even committing suicide or relapsing on past addictions that had been clear for years, that was alarming. We couldn’t stop what we did that made us whole, and our skills would become rusty without practicing.”
“We believe this will become endemic. It’s only a matter of time. This can’t last forever. My life will continue and our students will be able to drive across the border easily again to compete in our martial art.”