Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
This is the official podcast of the Bulletproof For BJJ movement. Hosted by JT & Joey. Each episode the founders break down problems that Jiu-jitsu people experience, giving guidance and tips to improve your training for BJJ. With the goal of helping every body on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu path reduce their chance of injury, improve their strength and mobility to become more resilient.
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
The Best Way to Recover From Injuries in Jiu Jitsu
Ever wondered how you can keep training despite injuries? Get off your rear and get moving. Many jiu jitsu folks operate under the "I don't lift I just train" mentality and it is to their own detriment. Become the most robust you possible by complementing your jiu jitsu with lifting and movement. Learn how we ward off injuries and take preventative measures in this ep.
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Essentially, at this point, the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast, working around injuries for BJJ.
Speaker 1:So you've gone to Jiu-Jitsu, you copped an injury and it's bad enough that you can't just go back to jujitsu. What are you going to do? Well, you can't do nothing. Here's the problem. Oftentimes, you go to a physio, you go to a therapist. They're like, oh, how'd you get injured? And you're like, yeah, I was just rolling upside down and a man that outweighs me by 40 kilos just jumped on my head and now my neck's kind of not good and I say just stop doing that, just stop, just quit. Right now that's not going to happen. You know it's not going to happen, but you can't do nothing. So if you can't do jujitsu, what are you going to do?
Speaker 1:What we're going to give you today is a bit of an action plan as to what you can do to work around injury, because it's going to get you back on the mats faster, and so the reason why I wanted to bring this up is I was talking to a friend of mine who got toe held, toe holded, so to speak quite bad. And I said oh, now I can't squat, I've blown my ankle out, basically, but everything else working fine, arms good, neck's good, other legs good, what you're going to do. So I just said to him well, surely you could just do some single leg stuff, like whether it be working on a pistol squad or working on a single leg, leg press or a leg extension. He's got access to a gym and he's like, oh yeah, I guess I can just work, probably do leg extensions on a machine on the bad leg too, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to stand on that foot, yeah, and there's always a way around. And so, as a format, as an approach, it's like you've got to work your good side. This is the thing I wanted to highlight. So, even if you've got armbarred and your left elbow is jacked up, you can't use it still working on you, because some people, I think, feel, by working the side that's still functioning well, they're creating an imbalance and that they don't want to reinforce that, which, you know, there's some truth to it, but is that enough of a truth that it outweighs the benefits of doing so? Definitely not. Well, actually, this is an interesting thing.
Speaker 1:I got from a guy I used to work with, lawrence, first gym I ever worked at, amazing trainer and physio. I can't believe you didn't give his surname. How am I supposed to look this guy up after the show? I don't know. I think he's. The funny thing is I actually think he's. He doesn't have a surname. No, he went by one name Lawrence, aka Larry.
Speaker 1:He said to me that there was a study done, I think, on ice hockey players, because ice hockey players get injured. Surprisingly that broken arms is a common thing and basically the ice hockey players who continued to work their non-broken arm after they had the cast taken off, they had only lost 25 of their muscle and only 40 of their strength, whereas the people who did nothing had significantly more muscle reduction and very minimal strength at all. Yeah, but by them working their good side, they'd actually maintained it. Yeah, and he was like that was kind of quite revolutionary when that came out and that study was done like I don't know 25 years ago, but that was one of the first things as an argument towards working your good side. Yeah, well, yeah, and I mean I'm in still still developing an imbalance of sorts, right, but it's like, yeah, that's not really a concern right now. No, like holding on to strength, holding on to muscle mass, staying like in the training habit, keeping your brain right, like that's all the benefits. Yeah, a hundred percent. And that's the other thing too. Like you've you've jumped ahead, joe, sorry bro, in a good way. We can edit that out. No, it's fine. Um, yes, here's. Here's the thing too.
Speaker 1:The other thing, which was like an old school thinking which I think people still stick to, is they tend to not use the injured side at all. Like in the same way, they just, oh, I'll just leave my arm in a sling forever. Well, no, this is the other thing too which you want to consider. You've got to find safe amounts of range of motion or exercise that you can do with the injured side, with clearance. So, um, you know, it used to be the way that if someone had knee surgery or say they had completely torn a muscle and they had the surgery in the old days when I say old days, I don't mean that long ago, I'm saying 20 years ago um, you were told, okay, don't do anything, like just rest, yeah, rest, that that's the best for healing. Whereas now they got you back in action real quick. Yeah, the good ones know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, moving it right away is usually the key. It's like you, because you observe something similar with your knee, right, joe, they had you doing like hamstring and quad stuff like pretty quick, all right, um, yeah, I mean, they get you doing. They actually get you doing stuff the day you wake up, like you wake up from anesthetic and they're like here's your exercise routine, but it's. But it's literally like you're you're lying in a bed with a towel, like a rolled up towel, under your knee, so that your knees and they're like you're doing these tiny little leg extensions, right, just with the weight of your lower leg, and they fucking hurt. But they're like you need to do this every two hours and it's like a 10 minute routine. But you know that's just that's your baby routine.
Speaker 1:But as you get further down the path of rehab, that just expands into you know whatever, a full leg session, yeah, but yeah, so it begins immediately and as soon as possible. They're like let's get you standing up, let's get you on crutches, get you loading it up like there's no, no time is wasted in getting load back onto the, the leg that you're trying to rehab. Yeah, now, obviously that is within the context of joe had knee surgery and all his ligaments are intact. If you, for example, got heel hooked and your ligaments are completely shredded, you jumping around and hopping on your leg is not necessarily a good idea. So don't no, but to that point, like I wasn't jumping or hopping either, no, no, no, like they're like do, like load is the thing, but there's very little. Like we're not stressing the connective tissue, right, right, which I think is, yeah, like the type of exercises matter.
Speaker 1:Definitely, you know, and that was the case for months, but it is interesting that, like you can be doing, like you can be building up quite a bit of load, say through like leg extension and hamstring curl stuff, but rotational shit, they're like, don't fuck with that for a while. Right, you know. So you've got to have a professional to guide you on this, fam, but you know, conceptuallyually you need to be moving immediately. Yeah, and I think here's the other thing too once you know, because this is the thing you can't guess, many people will come to us and go oh, look, I think I, x, y and z. Well, that's really not good enough. I can't give you any advice based on that, because you don't know what's going on, neither do I. So you need to go see a health professional, you need to get a scan, you need to get checked.
Speaker 1:Once we know, okay, ligaments are intact, but maybe there's a strain there or a bit of a tear, or maybe you've got inflammation for different reasons, that's fine. But if the joint is unstable and you could potentially do more damage, then okay, now is not necessarily the time. But once you know, okay, I'm injured, I can't do jujitsu, it's really fucking sore. Not using it isn't necessarily the best answer. Restoring range of motion for me is always the first step. Whether it's a client or myself, I'm always like well, if I was in a battle in feudal samurai Japan and I just got fucking battered by a horse and I don't know, blacked out, passed out, woke up, everyone's been slaughtered, except for me and Miyamasa Musashi who's gone off that way, what are you going to do? You've got to fucking walk, you've got to move, you've got to take the steps to then keep surviving, and it doesn't really matter how much you go. Oh, but it hurts. You're not going to restore function by doing nothing. It's really important that you are actually taking steps on the injured side to gradually restore basic movement. I'm not talking about picking up weights. I'm not talking about doing pushups. I'm just talking about if it weights. I'm not talking about doing pushups. I'm just talking about if it's your elbow, it's your wrist, it's your shoulder. The only way it heals is by getting blood flow. The way you get blood flow, other than, say, massage, is through movement. Yeah, movement is the medicine.
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Speaker 1:Um, yeah the fuck, I had something there and I just totally lost it. I was thinking about musashi being on the battlefield. You're like fuel japan. You've just watched shogun. I'm so inspired by that show right now, bro, just living just two, living out my fucking samurai fantasies Two samurai swords, the battles, god, the haircuts, the falconry, yeah, the cleanliness, the fucking quotes, the philosophical quotes and the time spent just pondering on a clifftop watching the fucking sunset and just thinking so much Japanese like, oh, so much of that, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, it's great. Oh, so much of that. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1:But the knee mobility, the knee mobility is where it's at. Motherfuckers can squat, the samurai walk, yeah, you see, the samurai like, whether, because the samurai's like if they're sitting for a long time, they'll be sitting cross-legged, but often they're in a kneeling position with their like a bent Caesar, yeah, but with the knees, yeah, and then walk on the knees back to their seated position. It's fucking sick. I'm like that's where I want to get to. It's special. It takes work, friends, it takes work came back to me. So I, I think, I think what, what I believe happens to a lot of people in this scenario, is like they probably got best intentions, but you cop an injury and then it just knocks you out of your routine.
Speaker 1:So you're like, yeah, knocked out of jiu-jitsu, knocked out of going to the gym, and it's like, oh, I can't do half my program anyway because I got my bad shoulder now and so I'll just fucking take a week off, yeah, and that turns into two weeks, three, four, and then before you know it it's like right. So and I think every, I think most people understand like, yeah, keeping the habits really important. But. But I think the point you're making here is that, like for the actual recovery of your injury, maintaining your training is important so much. But like sort of foundational to that is like staying in the habit of of going to the gym, goingjitsu, and so I can do that. You've got to maintain the movement habit.
Speaker 1:So something I was actually talking about with a friend of mine who's a physio he's an Olympic weightlifter. He doesn't do jiu-jitsu but his brother does. He's like, oh, my brother won't shut up about jiu-jitsu. And I'm like, yeah, man, it's kind of you should try it, man, you should get into it. And he's like, no, I'm an Olympic lifter, I get injured enough, just fucking not wrestling anyone.
Speaker 1:But it was funny because we were talking about how it is a very common thing with Olympic lifters that they get injured but they're always rehabbing. You always see them. They're at the gym. They're always at the gym, even if they're not doing big Olympic lifts. They're doing all the other little bits that then get them there. So even when they're not doing the Olympic lifts, they come to the gym, they see their gym friends and they do their rehab and it's an accepted part of the culture that. You know, olympic lifting is pretty full on and a lot of those top level guys they carry a lot of injuries as well.
Speaker 1:But what we don't see as so much at BJJj is like a rehab corner or a. You know, people don't think I'll go to jiu-jitsu and do my rehab because like, oh shame, no, I won't do rehab, I'll just tape it up. Jiu-jitsu gyms suffer from injury denial. It's true, right, it's like no, we don't know, we don't acknowledge that at any one time 15% of our membership base is injured. That's going to encourage more injuries. Yeah, don't talk about it. But that's the thing too.
Speaker 1:I feel it is the elephant in the room that if you're going to do jiu-jitsu, you know, a couple times a week you're going to get injured. It's part of the game. So if we're more upfront about that and the gym was like, look, if you do get injured because some people can go a number of years and be totally fine and then the next day, who knows? But we have a rehab corner so you can come in, do your rehab. You can still keep eyes on the lesson, say what's up to the team, keep the positive social aspects of jiu-jitsu and get yourself back on track. Stay connected. You know what would be cool oh, I was just thinking about it Maybe fucking to do like like you know you get stripes right and belts and shit and it like keeps you.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, that's nice, got little stripes, let me know I'm doing a good thing. What if you had like injury stripes when it's like okay, here's your rehab program and now I need you to do X amount of sessions? So I was like, once you hit X amount of sessions, like little injury stripe for you, jt. That's like, oh shit, I'm on the path. Is that like tape on my finger, tape on my elbow? Like it's actually a super lame kind of half joke? No, but I want a fucking medal of valor. I'm coming back from a knee reconstruction. Like this is what jujitsu does right.
Speaker 1:It's like, if you, if you show up and you apply yourself and you get better at this thing, you're going to get rewarded, and that, and it's like like the belt is a is a system of gamification. Right, it's this reward system. So you feel there should be a reward system for rehab. Well, if, if the, if the, the whoever's running the club was like, say, they could put together a rehab program for the student. Sure, say, hey, man, I want you to do this thing. It's going to take eight weeks. Okay, here's the plan to get you back on the mat. It's going to take eight weeks and I need you to do X amount of sessions a week. And here's where you're going to do it, and you're going to show up on these afternoons and do it, and every two weeks. If you hit the sessions, I'm sure you'd be like fuck, go on. Then I'm not going to say no, yeah, versus what's usually said, which is like, oh, go see a physio and then, fucking, we'll see you back here when you're good.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking it could be more like Alcoholics Anonymous, where you get a coin. What do they get? Oh, they get for every. You know, if you've had like a month sober, they, you know, you've got to give the coin back. Yeah, you know. So you have to, and humans are terrible with loss aversion, right. So even if you give someone very something insignificant, you say it's theirs, don't lose that. They don't want to give it back, right. So it's interesting what that does to the psychology.
Speaker 1:So if we could get people to somehow feel rewarded for doing rehab and then own it, I think that could be good. That's very cool, because right now it's kind of out of sight, out of mind. Yeah, you get injured. You're not at the gym, people are just caught up doing jiu-jitsu. They're not like hey, bro, did you? Did you do shoulder rehab? No, no one's saying that, no one gives a shit. But if we could cultivate, I think it's a good idea, joe, I think this could be a thing. Could have legs, fam, could have legs. Hey, if you've got ac.
Speaker 1:I've had that situation a couple of times recently where I've come to training with some water but I haven't had any electrolytes and I've finished training and I've had to go to a convenience shop and buy myself some kind of sports drink. Usually a Gatorade Cost me like seven bucks. It's small and it really doesn't contain that much of the good stuff that I'm looking for, which are the electrolytes. Sodi, on the other hand, is my partner when it comes to hydration and I'd simply just run out of it and it sucks because I got to go buy expensive stuff that doesn't do anywhere near as good a job. I'm super stoked that we've been restocked with the Sodi and now I can be properly hydrated when I train jujitsu. This has always been an underexplored aspect of training and I'm so stoked that we now have these guys in place to support us and also the listeners of the show. So if you want to be hydrated on the mats so that you can perform at your best and have the best mental clarity while training, get yourself some Sodi, go to sodicomau that's S-O-D-I-Icomau. Get yourself some delicious hydration salts and use the code bulletproof 15 for 15 off. Go to sodycomau, get yourself hydrated.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing if you can't roll, you got to lift. You know, because we, we know there's plenty of people out there like oh, I'm not in the gym, I don't do gym, blah, blah, blah guys. We're not saying you have to become a gym bro. Do gym blah, blah, blah Guys. We're not saying you have to become a gym bro, but understand, if you go see a physio, they are going to want you to do some rehab exercises and that's just the white belt moves, and then they want you to progress to stability exercises and then some weighted resistance moves and then some basic balance and plyos and then, before you know it, you're walking up and downstairs and it's basically just progressions on resistance and getting stronger, and if you have access to a gym it is going to speed it up. So, even though you might be like, nah, I just do jujitsu, you do jujitsu, you're going to get injured. We're going to have to factor in getting stronger and that whole piece. So you don't have to have a gym membership year round.
Speaker 1:But if you do think there's a point at which you're going to get potentially injured, maybe it's worthwhile to have access to a gym because you can do preventative stuff, which means you're not off the mats as long, and then when you do come to the bad time, when you do get injured, you're already got this routine of looking after your body. It's easier to get that shit done. It's hard to get injured and then form a new habit. That's what I think is what holds people back. Yeah, I totally agree. If you, if you are in the habit of going to the gym, you have like a like a time dedicated every couple of days to working on your body and it's, it's, it's an amazing habit. For that, you know, I think philosophically for some people I've felt this myself at times we are like, oh fuck, it kind of sucks that I have to go to a place like a gym and like emulate whatever movements and shit under load with this fucking, you know, machines and bars and whatever, to like be my best.
Speaker 1:It's like I can. I can vibe with the philosophy like surely, if I just like swim in the ocean and fucking grapple dudes on the mats and like do a bit of boxing, like surely that's going to build like the perfect body, you know, and it's like I get that. Philosophically I think there's something to it, but I think it's a bit naive. Well, it is and what, what? Like this, there's a lot of facets to it, but what we know is that working in the gym is actually like it is hitting turbo on your physical adaptations. It really is such a beneficial thing to do. It's why all the elite athletes do it in every sport. So these simple movements under load produces such a huge benefit for you. So I think if you, if you have that sort of philosophy. We're like, no, I just do jujitsu and then me and my mate fucking throw kettlebells each other and like, nah, man, like, get on a program, get to the gym, do it, like you will feel the benefits, and then when you get injured, that's like one of the other massive benefits. Right, you've got a place to go and work. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:And and this is similar to what we've said before around like maintaining your car if you know how to change your tire, a flat tire isn't the end of the world. The same thing like if you've, if you've been able to measure the oil in your car. You've looked under the hood and someone's explained a few bits and pieces to you on on a very basic level. It's not as confronting, it's not as scary when the engine light comes on, or it's not. You know the oil light comes on, you know where to look, you know what to do If you don't know fucking anything.
Speaker 1:And suddenly your car's not working. You are stuck. You're stuck on the side of the road and actually you have given the power away to the roadside assistance to the fucking mechanic who might gouge you, who's the closest nearby mechanic, and it's very fucking expensive. The more you know and the more you do, the easier it is for it to just be a little speed hump. It's not going to derail you and that's the thing. The whole thing is. We're not trying to make you a gym bro, we just want you to be on the mats fucking having a great time and feeling good.
Speaker 1:So you get injured. What are you going to do? First things first, get it checked. That's the thing we always say. You know, get it checked, find out what's going on with the injury, make sure that your shit is intact you don't need surgery, etc. Then go to work on your good side. Go to work on your good side because it will actually make your injured side stronger. The next step on that is actually start to move and use the affected side to restore function and, like Joe was saying before, you gotta maintain that movement habit.
Speaker 1:I think this is the thing that we forget. It's that losing that routine of looking after yourself is actually what puts you sideways and can result in the kind of emotional and kind of mental, the FOMO thing of like oh, I'm not a jujitsu. You go on Instagram. Yeah, I was grading on the weekend. Oh, the open, that was so fun. Oh, it's scrolling, yeah. Oh, look at them, they don't even think about me anymore. But that's it's scrolling, yeah, oh, look at them, they don't even think about me anymore. But it's true, like it's super depressing. People get fucking depressed over that shit and I mean you know there's good reason for it not even throwing shade Like it's upsetting, yeah, and so we want to keep you. All you can do is pray that all of your training partners cop a really bad injury while you're not there. Or you can do you're just there with like a, a fucking like voodoo doll of your like training partner, like straight in the knee, um, but it's also the thing that trying to be active, so if you can't lift weights, let's just say like whatever injury you've done mean you can't pick up weights.
Speaker 1:Can you go for a walk? Can you walk? Like what can you do? Could you swim? I am not someone who is like a big fan of swimming. One, because I'm terrible at it, but two, I also believe bathing in a huge bleach bath isn't particularly good for you. Wait, you're talking about swimming in like a commercial pool, yeah, which a lot of people do, right? Not everyone has the liberty to live close to a beach. Yeah, like swimming, you know, in the suburbs or a waterhole, lake, river, maybe, but that's not many people in the world having clean water source to swim in. But yeah, if you can swim at a beach, amazing, that is exceptionally good for you.
Speaker 1:But doing things to get blood circulating is key to healing. So sitting on the couch smashing donuts and looking at your highlight reel from Blue Belt is not the way to get better at jujitsu. You've got to actually get your body moving. So, however you can do that, that's going to speed the healing. That's going to get you back on the mat. Boom, boom. There it is, y'all. Now, if you're like this kind of thing, please share it with the folks. How do you do that? You like, you subscribe and you give us a five star rating. We appreciate it. It allows more people like you to get around it. So do that and we are very grateful. Thanks, folks.
