Disc Replacement Surgery, Rolling Twice A Day & Returning To Competition

Episode 347: Have you ever bulged a disc in your neck?! A friend of the podcast asks about rolling with a cervical disk replacement- is it possible? Is it advisable. JT references a very famous grappler who had to have one of their discs replaced and still compete only weeks after the surgery, who was it?
Have you tried training 2 sessions per day? If you have limited days to train is it more beneficial than spacing out your training over the week or should you cram 2 x per day for 3 days? There are some pros and cons for both but which should you choose?
Is jumping into comp after a long hiatus a good idea? 8 weeks of intense training with the end goal of getting after it and making the podium. Also it helps you get in shape for your wedding- right? Is this a good idea? Go hard on a competition training camp just before your wedding day, could be a recipe for disaster...

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:07

A good martial artist does not become tense but ready.

Speaker 1: 0:12

Essentially, at this point the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power.

Speaker 1: 0:27

I'm ready.

Speaker 2: 0:30

This episode is brought to you by Parry Athletics, the exclusive apparel sponsor of the Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. We've been working with these guys for quite some time now. We absolutely love the company. We love their gear, both for training and also just looking slick off the mats. They've got excellent no-gi wears shorts, t-shirts, all that cool stuff. If you want to get yourself into some Parry clothes or you want to rock the Bulletproof for BJJ exclusive merch, you've got to go through Parry, go to parryathleticscom and use the code BULLETPROOF20 to get 20% off your order. They ship internationally. Q a for bjj. You got the questions. We have some answers. If you want to leave a message for us, a question for us, go to bulletproof bjjcom. Click on the podcast tab, scroll down big red button, leave us a voice message where you're, from what, what you want to know. Yeah, we're going to feature you, just like these fine individuals. First one coming in.

Speaker 3: 1:29

Hey, what up there, gentlemen? Firstly, thank you very much for putting together such a sick podcast. Out of all the Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA boxing martial arts podcasts in general, you guys put out, hands down down the most informative and definitely entertaining content. So thanks for that. It's been a great help for my bjj journey over here in the garden route, western cape, south africa. My question is do you know of anybody personally, or do you know of any cases, or what is your opinion on rolling hard and perhaps even competing with a cervical disc replacement?

Speaker 3: 2:09

Unfortunately, I herniated my disc, which is my C6 and my C7 vertebrae, pretty badly. A couple of months ago I got a cervical disc replacement put in. I'm feeling great. I'm not rolling yet Information on the internet is lacking on this subject. My surgeon seems to think I can do absolutely anything with it. However, I would like to double check what the professional opinion is like before going in too hard. Do you know of anybody or any people who are still competing and training hard? I'm 35 now, one stripe white belt. I'm new to this journey, but I fucking love it and I do not want this to be the end. You can share your thoughts. I greatly appreciate it. Once again, thank you very much and I'll shot for the epic podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Callum, what a legend, great, what lovely manners on the man. Oh, so so complimentary, so kind a South African accent. Oh, it's just, it's strong, it's distinct, you know it straight away. Well, to your question, callum Braulio Estima has a full cervical disc replaced. He had it replaced just before he had to fight Jacare in a super fight. Really, he won before the ADCC. I think he's four-time super fight champion. People sleep on Braulio. Braulio, to this day, is a menace fight champion. People sleep on bralio. Bralio, to this day, is a menace. He's like whatever six foot three big guy ah, super long.

Speaker 2: 3:30

A phenomenal jujitsu boy can party too good looking man good, handsome man and, um, he's always down for a good time and he it was kind of quite well documented you should search it on youtube because they were. They were doing the kind of like the embedded build-up series of him versus jacare and he got spiked in a takedown drill and they're like, oh, you almost broke your neck and almost died and could be paralyzed. We're gonna have to do the surgery. And so they fully replaced one of his discs and he went out there six weeks later and fucking won. Six weeks later, yeah, it was phenomenal. J weeks later, yeah, phenomenal Jesus, yeah, phenomenal stuff. And yeah, to this day is a total beast.

Speaker 2: 4:10

So that's the only point of reference I have relevant to that. And look, if your surgeon said you'd be good to go, that's pretty cool, that's surprising. Yeah, that's a positive sign. I think we know that surgeons don't always understand jiu-jitsu to the extent that we wish they did, true, um, but I would be, yeah, I would think that you, you definitely could continue on with the journey. I would be seeking the advice of someone who works in that realm. I'm thinking of like dr andrew lock, sure you know. I'm thinking of like dr andrew lark, sure you know. I'm thinking of, like strength oriented practitioners, yes, who understand jujitsu very well and understand strength training and the effects that that has on the body, and are also back specialists yeah you know who are like yeah, look, here's what your limitations are going to be, here's what you need to be doing in the gym.

Speaker 2: 5:05

I would imagine if you just took a general approach to strength training and you kind of weren't doing anything specifically about that region, that probably wouldn't like that's probably not going to work out too well in the long run. No, I mean, look, you could just go the other way. You could just go full Yoramaro, just get your whole cervical spine fused, never invert again, but just have the strongest neck but never be able to turn your head with your torso.

Speaker 4: 5:30

Yeah, and just top game all the time.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Top game and just pile drive people with your head. But yeah, the main thing is probably, more than likely, I imagine that actual disc is going to be fine. It's more like oh, is that placing extra pressure on other structures around it? Do other parts of your spine now bear more weight? I don't know, but that's what a specialist is going to be able to help you with. Yeah, get more information. Yeah, for sure Very good. Thank you, Callum. Next one coming in from Davis.

Speaker 4: 5:58

Hey, fellas Davis, here from Missouri, just want to say I'm loving the podcast. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it on YouTube and I've been binge watching Nice. It's actually a really great resource for us lower level belts and you guys are really funny and entertaining in it. So, in a nutshell, I only have Monday, tuesday and Wednesday free for jiu jitsu. So lately I've been doing two days to try and get more mat time and experience in. My question for you would be am I reaping the same benefits doing two days, monday through Wednesday, as I would doing roughly the same amount of sessions but spread throughout the week? So thanks, guys, for all your insights and, yeah, keep up the amazing effort, davis coming in with the good manners as well.

Speaker 2: 6:44

What a lovely guy, so polite Missouri shout out, shout out to the people of Missouri. Look, all I know is Ozark. That's in Missouri. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 6:52

I don't know, I don't know I mean look, apologies for my naivety on this one, davis, no, but I think it's plenty of good manners out that way. There is benefits to doing two-a-days. The only thing that's the thing you're missing there is you don't give yourself necessarily time to pause and reflect, like have a day, have a think. Have a day, have a think, like five days in a row. I mean you don't have that option, so you're doing what you can Two-a-days.

Speaker 2: 7:21

The difficulty with backing up two-a-days is the toll on the body. If you're going to do two-a-days three days in a row, you've got to have a lighter session and a heavier session, and that's my take on it. If you're not someone who's a full-blown professional jujitsu person it sounds like you're not I would be pacing that if you can. So if you're going to do two a day, try and make sure there's one which is less physically taxing, which allows your brain to work, and then one which is maybe more challenging. Um, I believe that having more time over the week doing jujitsu getting like more exposure when you're less tired will help you learn better. I think don't get me wrong you're going to get good doing two a days, no question. So you're going well there. But if you get an opportunity to space it out, that will have its own benefits. Yeah, I think comparing the two the one session a day over, like six days or whatever is always going to trump two a days for three days of the week. But if that's the only option you have, then go with it. You know, I would say like our general recommendation right is to train three times a week and I think most people like 90 minutes of jiu-jitsu quick warm-up, plenty of time on technique and then plenty of time to roll and positional. Like 90 minutes is enough.

Speaker 2: 8:44

To that point I've seen a lot of people as well who come to heaps of classes two-a-days and stuff and they don't get better because they're just not really paying attention. On the flip side of that, I have seen people come to a couple of classes a week but really focus and pay attention and they do get better. So I'm not saying that that's what's going to happen with you, because we also know that person that's there all the time that just gets better faster than anyone smashes everyone, yeah. So I'm just saying that as a word of warning. Like don't throw any of those sessions away.

Speaker 2: 9:10

You know, if you're just like, I'm just saying that as a word of warning like, don't throw any of those sessions away. You know, if you're just like, oh, I'm just getting in again because it's so much fun, that's great, but you want to be paying attention and you want to be like taking something away from each session that you can then apply in the next session. Yeah, you don't want to. I guess you don't want to come in too fatigued and have that blunt your ability to learn.

Speaker 4: 9:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:35

Cool that blunt your ability to learn. Yeah, cool, keep on it davis, you legend.

Speaker 1: 9:37

Shout out missouri. Hey guys, how you doing this is steve from connecticut, usa. Shout out connecticut purple belt. Hobbyist purple belt, new purple belt. So I, you know, I've been training three times a week pretty consistently sometimes I have two very firmly a hobbyist, I mean. I, I care about being good, I, I take care of, I, I take my training very seriously. But I, you know, I'm not in the gym every day. I have a life, I have, um, no, I'm not saying that people who are in the gym every day don't have a life, but yes, you are I I don't compete, I'm a hobbyist and I'm happy with it being that way.

Speaker 1: 10:10

I don't really have that much of a desire to get on the podium and whatnot. That being said, I'm getting married in July and my wife brought it up to me that maybe a good motivation for me to get in the even better shape would be to prepare for a competition. And I haven't competed since white belt and I never really particularly liked it that much. It was fun, but it was. You know, the whole scene is just not really for me.

Speaker 1: 10:34

I did okay as a white belt, um, and on one hand I'm thinking, yeah, why not do it? It's something I don't do typically. Excuse to get in a better shape. It's tap cancer out too. So it's for a good cause. Um, I can learn more jiu-jitsu, train harder, learn from the experience. On the other hand, I'm literally like nervous just thinking about it now and I'm a very all or nothing person and I know it's going to consume my thoughts for like two months and my wife is going to hate me because it's all I'm going to talk about. So I don't know, guys, what do you think? Should I push myself and do it or not?

Speaker 2: 11:08

cool scenario. Well, she did suggest it. You can always put that back hey if you wanted to get into better shape. I never said anything about it no, no I'm suggesting babe, you did say no, she did. She said well, hey, you want to know, I know, but it's just like it when, when someone brings it. Hey, jt man, if you're looking to lose a bit of weight, here's a strategy for you no, look, it's fair.

Speaker 2: 11:32

You know, no one, no one likes like, no one likes competing, you know like it is stressful we're not like, yeah, jumping into this competition is generally not something we naturally all feel inclined to do and I think, steve, you know that that's where the the growth of it is, from the discomfort of that process. I am not an all or nothing person. I can be partly in many things. So in that way I'm like, yeah, fuck, I'll do a comp and it doesn't have to consume my everyday thing. Jt, maybe you can speak to that.

Speaker 2: 12:00

Okay, so there's two things here, because I'm getting married next year, so I'm getting married next February, and so I understand that there are pressures that go along with organizing weddings, right, I, pressures that go along with organizing weddings, right. I don't know how much of that responsibility is falling on you. So here's the deal if you're all or nothing which I am also it's eight weeks. That's a good block of time. You will get in better shape, it will push you. I think there's all good things associated with that. But will your, will your marriage survive? It's like, hey, boys just want to tune back in. I won the comp, but I didn't get married. Two division champ we split up.

Speaker 2: 12:35

We split up but now I'm going to Worlds. Look, it's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 4: 12:40

I think, if you just-.

Speaker 2: 12:44

I was going to take that joke a step further, but I won, Got my first Brazilian girlfriend. It's cool she's teaching me Portuguese. No, I mean no brilliant girlfriend, it's cool, she's teaching me Portuguese. I think I just don't want to. I would say I don't want to put pressure on your wedding. So if you think that you can sustain the stress of doing a comp, which was your wife's, your fiance's suggestion soon to be wife and still do the wedding, and that's cool, Great. But you know, it sounds like it could be, it could be a lot, Well, yeah, I guess what I would say is like the pressure to get in shape for your wedding is there regardless, right? Sure.

Speaker 2: 13:21

So if you don't do it via the jiu-jitsu comp, you're going to probably do it via some other way, like, okay, I'm going to hire a personal trainer and, you know, go hard on this thing, and I'm guessing that's going to consume you as well. So it sounds to me like you're going to be consumed no matter what. So it's like pick your poison. Yeah, jujitsu sounds like a cool way to do it. Do it, do it, do it. Man, there's like there is no regrets to be taken from doing it, even if you, you know, after the comp you can, you know, you, sit down with your, with your fiance, and say sorry if I was a bit distant in the weeks leading up to this, you know, and she'll be like it's cool, I'm totally happy you did it. Like you know, you will take so much from it. And man, purple belt like you know, it only gets harder to compete, like, as you get further down the track. So let's say you get to brown belt and then you're like, oh, I haven't competed since white belt, it's going to be real hard to jump in at that point. So I'd be like, fuck, yeah, get back in there. Yeah, definitely Get it while you can, because you never know. You never know what happens in the future. You've got the opportunity, take the opportunity.

Speaker 2: 14:24

And, bro, look, if you're looking for a couple of fucking Aussie larrikins to come to the wedding, just fucking send the invite. We'll be there. Send location, we'll be there, connecticut, as long as there's a barbecue, y'all guys. There it is. Those are the questions. If you have some questions, please let us know. But what we love about this time is we get to hear from people all around the world, which is crazy. It's the coolest. It's really cool to think that there's people on the other side of the planet. I actually find like Australians aren't asking us questions anymore. They don't care. I don't fucking need to speak to you guys, as in. That's what they're saying about us, not me saying that about them. No, but then it's interesting. I guess the Australian accent it might still have a degree of novelty somewhere else where people are not hearing it.

Speaker 2: 15:06

But the great thing about that is we do get to connect with more people, which is why we started this thing help more people connect with more people and we need your help to do that. And the best way that you can help us with that other than sharing this stuff on social media but I understand that that can be a pain. Something that's very easy for you to do is to like and subscribe, but then also, if you're just listening to this on audio, just click up and give us a five-star rating. The reason why you do that is it helps us not get buried because there's so many podcasts now. Everyone has a podcast. If you do really like this and you want other jujitsu people to find it, giving us a five-star rating means it will suggest to other really nice jiu-jitsu people like you, and that makes it so much better for us because it helps us help more people and we really appreciate you doing it. Yeah, we do. Thanks, man.