Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
QNA: Metrics For Coming Back From Injury, Sensitivity To Impact, & Should I Infrared Sauna
You have all the tools and are working on your comeback from injury, but how do you know when to make the leap? You love jiu jitsu but have to leave out part of the game altogether because of an ailment. And, are infrared Saunas BS, or are they something worth investing in? Find out all in today's QNA episode.
Leave us a question for the next QNA episode:
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Speaker 2:Essentially, at this point, the fight is over.
Speaker 3:So you pretty much flow with the goal.
Speaker 1:Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power.
Speaker 3:I'm ready.
Speaker 2:Welcome to a Q&A episode. Today we are ripping in. We've got three questions from you guys excited to answer. If you want to leave us a question for a future Q&A episode, go to bulletproofforbjjcom, hit the podcast tab and record us a voicemail. We love it because you guys usually ask us some really good questions.
Speaker 4:Yes indeed.
Speaker 2:It's a way for us to connect with the voice at least of listeners around the world, which is always sick, and the questions are great and they obviously help to inform the rest of the community when we get to answer here in this forum. So please fire away. What I love about jujitsu is connecting with my mates, having a great role, getting a great workout. But what I hate about jujitsu is cramps and muscle spasms, and the only way to avoid this is through proper hydration, my friends, and Sodi has the answer. Sodi is the perfect mix of sodium, Sodi has the answer. Sodi is the perfect mix of sodium, potassium and magnesium, which keeps the water in the muscles when you're working and rolling. So go to sodicomau, get yourself some delicious hydration salts and use the code BULLETPROOF15 to get 15% off so you can roll smooth with no cramps. Yes, First one coming in from your boy, Aaron Pendleton. All right.
Speaker 4:G'day lads, first of January, here as I'm recording this. I hope you're enjoying the holiday period. Just a quick shout out I had a random encounter in the Blue Mountains about three weeks ago with a very jacked JT. He was really cool, asked me how I'm going, how's my jiu-jitsu, and, as I told him that I'm recovering from a shoulder injury, he showed really good, genuine care and asked about how I'm going and pointed me in the direction of a YouTube video with about six exercises to help improve my recovery. I've been doing those for the best part of three weeks now and I am seeing a lot of benefit, a lot of pain reduction. The strength is there. So I just wanted to shout out and say thank you so much for that.
Speaker 4:Look, I know that the Bulletproof at BJJ program is more proactive rather than reactive and definitely preemptive in regards to getting your body ready so you don't encounter the injuries, but I really appreciate that advice. Just wanted to ask you guys on your own experience recovering from injuries in the past, what are your markers that you're looking for? Is it strength in the joint or area that might have been affected? Is it range of motion or is it a reduction of pain? What's a good idea, a good metric for you to know when's the right time to maybe push the envelope or get back to training. As always, really appreciate your insights. Thank you so much. Hope to catch up with you both soon. Cheers.
Speaker 2:What a legend. Legend, yeah, he popped out on me. It was nice, shout out, aaron. I was with my mom and dad down the street and mom sensed, oh, there's something going on here. So they pulled off to the side and mom's like, oh, did you go to school with him? And I was like, no, that was a podcast connect, which was nice. I was like are you still doing that silly podcast?
Speaker 1:thing. What is that anyway Doing?
Speaker 2:that thing where you and Joey talk a lot of nonsense. Yes, mum, I am, but no, it was really cool to connect and I had said also, because I think for Aaron it was like he's talking about pummeling for underhooks and people putting a lot of weight on the shoulder in that position. And so, to answer your question, Aaron, I always go for range of motion first. Like you know, can I scratch the back of my head or can I lift my arm up, or how easy is it to put on a shirt or put on my shoes, Like just basic life stuff, and like once I've kind of got most of my range back.
Speaker 2:The pain thing is a bit subjective, because even sometimes, when you're fully recovered, like even if you go to the physio, physio's like you're good to go and you're like, yeah, it still hurts, though Pain isn't necessarily the best measure as to whether or not you can start to use things. And strength for me is always like that's kind of the last thing I'm looking for. I'm looking for being able to move and then just gradually build back a bit of proprioception and lower level confidence. So it's like if you this sounds strange, but like, for example, if you were trying to wash a pan. If you can't like, like kind of steering wheel, if you can't go this way and that way with your shoulder, with internal and external rotation, then you shouldn't be doing jujitsu yet, you know, or you shouldn't be the big fucking pans you're washing.
Speaker 3:Fucking, fucking, do it. Hey man doing jujitsu. Yet you know, or you shouldn't be fucking pans, you're washing.
Speaker 2:Fucking, hey man, we got that 16 liter banger for all the polish stew man. No, but I I'm saying like, um, a good gauge, or the thing I do is like basic, like household shit, yeah, taps and shit, yeah, doing. Well, yeah, you got to open the door, like, or you got to open the jar and you're like, yeah, my helper, like you know, if you can't be doing some basic tasks then you're not quite there yet. That's, that's what I'd say. So, range of motion, day-to-day life stuff, then the strengths, then the jujitsu how about you, joe? How do you do it? Yeah, not, not much different. I'm probably not looking at them from a um, I'm probably less systematic in how I look at it, but but yeah, like, am I getting by just fine in day life? If I'm not, that's usually like, oh, I better go, like I better look deeper at this, which is, go see someone who's better qualified than me. Or like, focus on it more in the gym and try to figure out what's happening. Um, but the? I really use the gym as a diagnostic. So it's like, if it's my shoulder, what upper body movements are problematic, right? And if it's like, oh, overhead pressing, you know perpendicular pressing, all the pressings, feel it's when I'm doing upward pulling, let's say, upright rows, or something like that. That's a bit of a problem for me. Okay, that tells me a thing. I'll often take that information to someone I know or to a physio that I know and be like hey, this is the thing, and, um, I will follow that until I feel like that movement pattern feels pretty good. Or I should phrase that differently not feels pretty good, but feels pretty strong. Yes, because you do.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you're like, yeah, I'm feeling pretty strong through all the movements, but there is still a little bit of pain. And that's where, at times, it can really help to have someone who knows who's very qualified in that area of working with the body, who might say and I've had this specifically with the shoulder, where they're like your shoulder's good, I know, you still got a bit of pain, just keep going, go back, yeah, like, go back to what you were doing Right, train it, yep, train through the pain. Like you're good, don't do fucking stupid shit of jiu-jitsu. But like, yes, if it's hurting you a little bit when you're pressing, whatever, that's fine, you know. And you're like oh no, I still shouldn't do that. You might've stopped when you should have continued. Yeah, so I do really feel like the gym's good diagnostic for that. And in the same way you said range of motion, the gym will expose range of motion right. If you are training in a way where range of motion is implicit in the programming ie our program it'll tell you so you go. Oh man, overhead pressing doesn't feel good. Okay, overhead position sucks. You know what's going on there. Let's work on that a bit, yeah, and sometimes that can point to maybe you need to then go do some additional exercises, which aren't obvious, which will help unlock that. Yeah. But thank you for your question. Good man, aaron.
Speaker 2:Bjj has become so competitive man. I really struggle to get to enough classes to stay good, but I still roll. Well, how I use Submeta, submetaio. If I don't have the answer to a technique, you know who does, lachlan Giles. If I don't know how to do a technique, you know who also has the answer. The B-team guys. Where are they? They're on Submetaio. I also has the answer. The B team guys, where are they? They're on submetaio.
Speaker 2:I go there, I suss out the class, whatever technique or position I don't know, it's there, it's available and you can do it too. It doesn't matter if you're a white belt, or you're a black belt, or you're just a hard BJJ nerd trying to improve. Submetaio is the edge Even if you can't get to class, you can still study and you can still improve. It is the most comprehensive online platform for learning jujitsu and the great thing is it's structured in a way that keeps you engaged so you can remember what you're watching. Go to submetaio and use the code bulletproof16 to get $16 off your first month, and this is a limited offer for first-time subscribers. Question number two from Micah. There's only one, micah in Jiu-Jitsu. We'll see. I'm quite honored.
Speaker 3:Morning boys BJJ Purple Belt. I've trained about five and a half six years. I just want to thank you guys for the show and ask a quick question. The general strength thing I've got that going well. Joints are in good shape. I have kind of old recurring back injury from years ago. This led to irregular sciatic pain, stretching and strength conditioning helps a lot. The last thing on the list that still is a problem is impact. So anything that requires jumping or power or especially when you're talking takedowns, hitting the mat hard or doing box jumps, those things still really hurt my low back. Doing box jumps, those things still really hurt my low back, and even things like speed rope. It's just enough impact to cause pain for maybe the rest of the day or just a few hours, but it leads me to not want to do those things. So any tips you guys have on how to combat pain during impacts and moments like that would be awesome. Thanks.
Speaker 2:Okay, a boy's flying a jumbo jet. He is, fuck yeah, he's out there, he's getting it Okay, so this may help. So, dr Aaron Horschig, squat University. He was talking. What's his name?
Speaker 2:Aaron Horschig I'm probably mispronouncing it, something like that I don't know, but I mean he's relatively clever fella, even though he's had different criticisms on he. He likes put out that much content. You're gonna have some critiques. He likes certain movements but then he extrapolates them to help everything. It's just like you're doing this again for that. But I mean he's a smart fella. But he said something which I thought was interesting.
Speaker 2:That relevant to back pain and this I think will relate to you, brother is you can have certain amount of compression tolerance, like flexion tolerance, and then extension tolerance, and if you lack one of those two, it'll either be one or the other that'll cause your back pain. So for some people, when they go into extension, that's where they find their back pain. Another way to test it was like it's not just like, say, doing a deadlift, but you sit in a chair and you grab the bottom of the chair and you kind of pull yourself down in the chair to put the compressive force into your spine and if that causes you pain, then you lack compression, like a certain amount of compression and flexion tolerance, and he's like you have to actually build it. And so if we think about impact as another form of compression in your spine, I mean when you're driving jumbo jets, maybe sitting down a lot. It may be worthwhile, and definitely if you've had bulged discs or any other problems with your lumbar spine and you're getting sciatic pain. Sitting is fucked.
Speaker 1:It's terrible.
Speaker 2:So spending a bit of time doing something which decompresses your spine is also helpful, whether that just be as simple as doing something. That's like doing some hanging and then also doing stuff like not that I'm into swimming, I'm not, but being horizontal like being horizontal in water is also-. Fucking knew it, bro. I knew you were fucking into swimming this whole time.
Speaker 1:It's a secret.
Speaker 2:My life is a lie, but it's just uh, being in water uh helps take the gravity off, which can help decompress your spine. Um, and what you might find then is, if your spine is less compressed, then you're going to potentially not I'm saying potentially, not entirely be less sensitive to the compressive. Yeah, Give you a bit more bandwidth For accepting that, and we just don't do that shit now in day-to-day lives. Reverse hypers.
Speaker 1:Reverse hyperextension could be good, for that Is a really good way to decompress as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's an interesting one. I like your point there, jt, about like using stuff like in a therapeutic way to decompress. I think you know right, he might just be driving a car with the window down. But I do know someone who worked on like farm vehicles for many years no mining vehicles, right, and he's got constant lower back compression issues.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's just from sitting in the vehicles bouncing around yeah the the seats have like springs in them to make it a bit more comfortable. He's like it just fucked my back so it's like any time of long form sitting it fucks me up. Um, you know, kind of adjacent to what you suggested there, because I would suggest the same. But I was thinking like, obviously, uh, micah, you like to train like everything right, box, jump, speed, rope, you know, jujitsu, like you're trying to do all the movement stuff, maybe you could start to dose, uh, uh, some lower intensity bouncy work into your diet and build volume in that first and I'm actually thinking of running- yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, like, because you think about running, it's that, it's that it's. I mean, depending where you're at on the spectrum of fitness and whatnot, it is kind of relatively low impact impact.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so you go out, run five or 10 Ks. You're getting a lot of reps, of bouncing and compressive force. Maybe you can build some tolerance there that can then be dialed up to like plyometric work, sure, right, which could then, because box jumps are kind of high up when it, when you're actually looking at plyo stuff, right yeah stuff.
Speaker 2:Um. So yeah, like like sort of being a bit more gradual about it, you might be able to build tolerance, uh, through activities like that that get you back to shit like training your wrestling, doing speed rope, doing box jumps, whatever, without the issues. Yeah, and, and the thing I was going to say on that, oh, sorry, I did have a thought. A good friend of mine, his dad was a posty, and the he that destroyed his old back because the suspension on the old motorbikes back in the day was not as good, yeah, 20 years not existing in those old posty.
Speaker 2:as good yeah 20 years Not existing in those old postie bikes, isn't it? Yeah, like 20 years, destroyed his lower back, and I actually find a lot of people who always ride motorbikes as their main mode of transport not great for the lower back, right? Yeah, that's what Kawasaki and Harley-Davidson is not telling you about that particular mode of transport but I had seen this and I thought it was quite interesting was jumping and then catching the bar and then stepping down. So as a way to get a plyometric not plyometric, but like a way to increase power in the lower body was jumping up as high as you can and then catching onto a bar and then stepping down via. So there's actually none of the eccentric, you get the landing.
Speaker 2:No, but you get the concentric explosiveness without the impact. Yeah, and I was like, wow, that's fucking, it's quite creative. So there's just another way. If you're still trying to stay fast and keep speed in the legs, that could be something else to consider. Yeah, actually, and another one on that is to do like, if you're trying to train vertical jump using stairs, jumping up stairs Right, because you don't get that same impact you step, you walk back down.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Jump up right. You're not like you get the concentric piece, but you don't get the jump off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah, and also, the consequences are not as great if you fuck up the landing. Yeah, it's not as intense on the shins like similar to box jumping as well when you shin the box. But, mate, I wish you all the best with that. The sciatic piece is tough and I would personally me personally, I would say that you would need some professional advice just to see that you're not, as you say, you're, experiencing pain with certain activities. It would be good to know if you get some professional feedback as you change your training. If you're feeling better, that's a good sign, but having the professional eyes on it also helps.
Speaker 2:Hey, the key to effective strength training is simplicity. I know that this has been the most important thing in my strength journey and jujitsu journey and it's really what's enabled me to be consistent over the years and that's what's allowed me to consistently train and stay strong, build a robust body. And JT and I applied this exact thinking to the Bulletproof for BJJ app. We thought how do we take strength training, demystify it, strip it back, make it as simple as possible so that busy jujitsu folks, athletes and hobbyists who want to maximize their time on the mats and their progress in jujitsu without spending hours in the gym each week. How do we take them and allow them to do that?
Speaker 2:And this is exactly why we built the Bulletproof for BJJ program. There is a program in there to suit wherever you're at, whether you have experience with strength training or not, if you're a total beginner, or if you are advanced, you will find a home there for you, and the best part about it is that JT and I are there, along with the coaching staff, to help you on the journey. The other cool thing is that if you don't like it, for whatever reason, we'll give you your money back, no questions asked. You can get a two-week free trial of the app right now. All you need to do is go to the app store, search bulletproof for bjj, download the app, start your two-week free trial today and we will see you on the inside.
Speaker 3:Last one coming in from james who is this?
Speaker 1:james? Hello, gentlemen, uh, I'm 46 years old, brand new blue belt belt, and my question is I was wondering if you guys have any experience or strong opinions on infrared saunas for muscle recovery and other health benefits. I apologize if this may be a topic you guys have already covered. Just point me to the right episode and I'll definitely check it out. But I'm considering purchasing one for my home. They're obviously fairly expensive, which I don't mind if it's worth it, if it's a good investment, but I also don't want to just fall for the next fad and marketing scheme. So, yeah, curious what you guys think and I appreciate your podcast and keep up the good work, thanks guys.
Speaker 2:Fuck yeah, James, Congrats on the blue belt yeah, that's a that's an epic achievement at 46 too yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2:Um, what do you reckon about infrared saunas? I've used them. I've used them. Um, yeah, I mean, I couldn't. I I don't necessarily know like the science, uh, behind infrared as it being superior to a normal sauna, even though I know that there's plenty of people out there saying it is, for various reasons, right. So I'm speaking only as someone who has been a user, not someone who understands much about them. Plenty of benefits to saunering full stop, whether it's infrared or regular. You know elevating your body temperature. It's a great thing. Is infrared that much better than a regular sauna? I couldn't say for sure, other than it may be more convenient because you don't have to have the stones and you know you don't have to put up with the same different amounts of fuckery, which is maintaining a regular sauna. Yeah, similar setup, but like the digital version.
Speaker 2:There's moisture, seemingly more simplified kind of operation, at least from that perspective. And look, hey, man, it's amazing that you would commit to that because that is quite an investment. I'm sorry I don't have better feedback other than man I've. I've used them. Uh, it had a good effect. It did feel a little bit different. It felt a bit less organic yeah, it doesn't have the smell now I've seen it like. You still get the, the wood smell of the, the, the, um, the timber, but it's definitely a different feeling.
Speaker 2:Sorry, can you, you just go from. You still got the good smell. So the thing I found with the infrared sauna which I've done, I think, about five times now, it doesn't have the same sauna smell. Like you know, when you go on a sauna you're like hmm, sauna, hmm, older European men have been here. Yeah, no, it doesn't have that same feel. So it feels a little bit cleaner in a way. Yeah, yeah, no, it doesn't have that same feel. So it feels a little bit cleaner in a way. Yeah, but yeah, it felt a little bit less organic, still hot as hell.
Speaker 2:They say there's all kinds of other health benefits, but, um, I mean, if you're saunering, I think it's a good thing. How about yourself, joe? Have you fucked with it? I've used them, I liked them. Yeah, it probably wasn't quite as enjoyable as a traditional sauna, but you know, I did the thing, got me hot, got a sweat on all of that. Um, look for such things. I'm not. I don't look particularly deep into things. I tend to just ask people around me and observe what you know. Others who I think are in the know do, and I see a lot of people who are into saunas who have, who regularly use infrared. So that leads me to believe the technology is good and that they they work right, and I do know they're a much more affordable option for, like, a small unit at home. So yeah, look, if I were you, james, I would probably just do a very shallow Google search and be like Use this bunk.
Speaker 2:Yeah like Are they a scam? Yeah, and if I can't find anything that's telling me that they're a scam, then I'd just fucking get one. Actually, what I'd say is like to tell you someone she's kind of annoying now, but I still like and respect her work a lot, dr ronda patrick. Ronda patrick's great. She's obsessed with saunering and, yeah, she's done all this shit. She's done it back to front dude. So if you just google, like ronda patrick, ronda patrick infrared sauna.
Speaker 2:She will have the science on that shit. That's actually a really good suggestion it's a good go to, because like she just can't stop talking about saunering and how good it is. So if anyone would know, she would know. There it is. Leave us a question. Burning question, jiu jitsu, politics, all of that technical shit stuff in the gym something personal about.
Speaker 1:JT in my life. What do you want to know?
Speaker 2:facial cream routine yeah fuck, just ask whatever you need. Go to the website bulletproofforbjjcom, hit the podcast tab and record us a voicemail. We'll get you on the next episode. Appreciate you guys. See you on the next one, thank you.
