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
One Trick To Change Your Hip Mobility Forever
What if sitting on the couch, in chairs, and all the sorts of furniture is killing our hips and mobility all around. There is one small change you can make, if even only for a small portion of everyday, that will completely change your mobility. Tune in to find out how sitting on the floor will change your life for the better.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast the number one hack that is going to improve your mobility. Now Joe and I talk about the key things which are actually making you more stiff and more sore after jujitsu and the number one behavior which is going to help reverse that. We also talk about how your pre-bed routine is really affecting how you wake up in the morning and how this one change is going to help smooth that out. We also talk about how we change our world around us to better suit our immobility and how, until we start changing those actions, we will get a change in our jujitsu and in our bodies and how they feel. Let's get into the episode now. Oh, while you're there, what we would love we love you and we'd love a little bit of love back. I just said love three times is to like and subscribe. It goes a long way into helping people like you get this episode and share the good info.
Speaker 1: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. The one thing that you are not doing that will improve your mobility. Now. We do lots of different things. We have different stretches. There's a whole host of things we do or try to do to improve or reduce our stiffness, soreness, but there's something that I believe a lot of people are not doing, which I do on the reg, and I think it's going to help people a lot. What is that thing, tell us, bro? Well, it's the opposite of what we're doing right now, joe. Right now, you and I, we're sitting on a couch. Now, as comfy as this couch is, the softness and all of that, it's actually not that good for us and for the most part, we spend a lot of our time in our lives sitting down, sitting in chairs, sitting in cars, all this stuff. We've talked a little bit about that. This one thing I'm talking about, my friends, is sitting on the floor. Now, oftentimes it's that time at night we've talked about it before which is when you're kind of just zoning out, switching off, watching a TV, surfing YouTube, whatever I'm going to say, if you sit on the floor, this is a two-part multiplier for improving your mobility.
Speaker 1:One, many people struggle to sit on the ground cross-legged. They just do Like it's not necessarily the most comfortable position, but what this means is you don't stay in the same spot too long. You got to move around a little bit. You might be able to sit like that for a little while, and then you got to change, you got to go somewhere else and because you're on the floor, you need to adopt a few different postures. And this starts to highlight where you're stiff, and this is a really good feedback mechanism for where you're lacking in ankle, knee and hip mobility.
Speaker 1:And then the second thing is, too, is getting up and down off the fucking ground. It is a test If you're not someone who spends a lot of time on the ground, even though you do jujitsu. If your wrists are tight and you put a bit of weight in your hand, you're like, ah, my fucking wrist, that's bad, Doesn't feel good. Same thing like people not being able to sit in, like a bent Caesar or a Caesar position, like, oh, my ankles, that fucking hurts. And then if you're struggling to get up and down off the ground because of back pain and the crutch of the seat is really helping you get away with a lack of mobility you didn't know was creeping up on you. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I've done it for years. I used to sit in the splits machine, crank the splits machine, put my dinner plate on the wheel, eat that, sit in the splits, watch some TV, whatever. But now what I do is I just don't sit on the couch. I sit on the couch occasionally, but if I was going to sit on the wheel, eat that, sit in the splits, watch some TV, whatever. But now what I do is I just don't sit on the couch. I sit on the couch occasionally, but if I was going to sit on the couch, maybe we're going to watch something I'll sit on the floor cross-legged. You know a bit of a pigeon, a bit of whatever, and I don't actively do stretches, but I know that sitting for 10, 20, 30 minutes in a cross-legged position is actually quite uncomfortable, not for lack of mobility, just to sit on your ass and you feel like your fucking leg bones, your ass bones, pushing into the ground or the outside of your ankle pressing into the floor, stuff like this.
Speaker 1:Now you said recently you had some experience crouching being on the ground. Joe, can you speak to that? Yeah, so I just came back from a week camping, nice. So it was, um, you know like. I guess you know we were at a campsite, but it's like. This is just a, this bit of land is yours and so tan, you know there's a, there's like a fire pit in the ground and then you know the rest, you set up your shit, so cooking on the ground. You know we had a table and stuff and chairs, but like any time I was cooking over the fire, you're like it's all dusty all around it.
Speaker 1:So you're sitting in a squat because you don't want to be kneeling on the floor there, yeah, but you're on the floor right, and so, yeah, sitting in a deep squat for ages while you cook, while you move fucking pans around and shit, firewood, it just brings you low and I guess the thing like so you notice instantly. You're like, fuck, I'm sitting in a deep squat for quite a while here and you notice it because it's uncomfortable and I can say that it never used to be like. I used to be able to sit in a deep squat for a very long period of time, but since I've had the knee surgery and some other damage to the other knee, it's not so comfortable anymore. But it's fine, like I can do it. I just I'm tolerating it, you know. You're like oh, I'd rather just sit on my ass here, you know, or sit on a chair. You know, or sit on a chair, um, but yeah, that thing of like working on the ground, is it? I like that point you make about it being a two-part multiplier, because it, it, just it unlocks so many things.
Speaker 1:You have to place your hands on the floor to get up, which is enforcing a level of wrist mobility and hand mobility. Yeah, and like, say, like, say, like people, some people, this you might be like, oh, I don't fucking know what you're talking about, but you see a lot of people getting up using their fists. Yeah, because they can't, they've got no tolerance in the wrist. Yeah, and you might be that kind of person where, when the coach is doing some warmup drills, say, where it involves crawling or hands on the floor, you're on no cunt, it's easier. It's easier unless you're doing it on concrete or stone, like a hardwood floor. That's gangster, but none of us are no.
Speaker 1:But so there was a guy, actually a Shaolin guy in the eastern suburbs that some of the boys used to train with and he would do knuckle drops onto hardwood floor and it would. Basically, you would start from a standing position with your arms out front and you would drop to the floor. Oh, that sounds like a recipe for broken. But then you would build to like hands in tight and then drop to that, oh God. And apparently this dude just had his, his punching knuckles, like middle finger, and it were just fucking huge, callous of course. Yeah, anyway, gangsta shit couldn't sign his own name. Yeah, he could punch the fuck out of a fucking concrete block, but, um, but yeah, working on the floor it's like, uh, it's a more primitive way of living and it's something that I mean.
Speaker 1:But I'm not. I'm not saying you got to live there folks, no, no, no, but, but you, but what you're saying is like, how do you get a bit of it in? Yeah, right, how do you get some of this in your life? We spend so much time sitting and and BJJ has become so competitive man really struggle to get to enough classes to stay good, but I still roll. Well, how I use Submeta, submetaio.
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Speaker 1:I know that this has been the most important thing in my strength journey and jiu-jitsu 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? 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 Even though it might seem the same, sitting cross-legged and just leaning forward and like trying to put your chest on the ground or like leaning side to side.
Speaker 1:It's not just your hips. Like you feel, like your obliques and you, you, you feel oh, my back. Like you, you start to move around and and trying to relax in these positions and just breathe, because you're focused on the tv or you're focused on something other than the thing you're doing. It actually enables you to relax. Yeah, you, because you're focused on the TV or you're focused on something other than the thing you're doing, it actually enables you to relax. Yeah, you know you're not like I must stretch, I must improve. That's just a byproduct of you being in the situation you're in. Yeah, and so I, whatever. I watch a bunch of shit on longevity and one of the major things for longevity is your ability to get up and down off the ground.
Speaker 1:So I, being the over-imposing oldest son in my family, I lull my parents into a false sense of security. I go up there in the morning, make them some breakfast, sit down, I don't know talk some left wing jokes with them. You know they love it. Talk about the good old days and I'm like all right, get on the floor. I'm like what? I'm like, cause it actually is kind of funny. They're a little bit competitive.
Speaker 1:My mom and dad both have step counters and so they roast each other on who's had the least amount of steps Right on. Right now, the thing is my mom gets up at 4 am. They got chickens. She lets the cats out. She's an early riser, early early riser. So she, her step count by 9 am is fucking great, but from there it's not going to be my like. My mom goes to bed really early, whereas my dad stays up really late, so he's always chasing yeah, like he. He will be walking around the living room at fucking 11, 12, you know, like trying to get the steps in before the step counter ends for the day. Yeah, because you can't have mom beat him. It's hilarious anyway, she regularly does, but he'll walk down the shops or do whatever he's got to do. You know, if I walk to the pub, yeah, if I walk to the pub twice in a day, yeah, yeah, exactly. Or the bottle shop, whatever it might be, or the chemist. Step counter doesn't know how fucking blotto I am, exactly. Step counter doesn't know.
Speaker 1:I'm fasted on endocrine medication with my op, rum and coke, shit that's lit. So what's funny is I said, oh, I said which one of you two reckons has got like better mobility? And they're like what I'm like? Who's more flexible out of you two? And my dad, who's never stretched a day in his life. It's like, oh well, yeah, I'm pretty active. I'm like, but it's more flexible out of you two. And my dad, who's never stretched a day in his life, is like, oh well, I'm pretty active.
Speaker 1:I'm like, bro, it's going to be mom because she's a gardener, she's out in the garden, she's with the chickens, she's basically a human carnation of a chicken Incarnation. She's scratching around in the fucking garden, moving shit. She's in a deep squat heaps, kneeling down all of that. Dad, you don't do that shit. You're up on work benches and you never, never do that.
Speaker 1:So I made them get on the ground and my mom got up pretty well, like she was, you know, and they say the time it takes you to get up off the ground and how many limbs you have to post on the ground dictates, like your, your, your potential rate of mortality, wow. Anyway, dad was having a hard time because dad's wrists are super jacked up. Yeah, and that was something we identified that he really struggled to put weight in his hands and yeah, you're saying putting the fist down. He had to do a little bit of that and yeah, it took him almost twice the time to get up. And I'm not saying this to bag my dad, but it was a stark contrast. Yes, it's telling when you look at it in that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and I think most jujitsu folks would experience it when you've cooled down after jujitsu, you've been sitting down like you. You were electric when you rolled, you fucking did all the moves, you inverted, you fucking fucking scissors take there, you go nuts and then you sit and you cool down, you talk shit for 10, 20 minutes and then you go to get up and you're like, oh, the adrenaline's wearing off. Quickly to the car before I seize up. What I'm trying to, what I'm trying to advocate for here, is that if you've had a shower or you've whatever, post jujitsu, not post jujitsu you pushing the coffee table back and sitting on the floor is actually going to force you to move around in positions that will help your body, whereas just sitting comfortably on the couch is actually just going to entrench more of the not goodness of not moving. So for me, what it forces me to do is stretch my glutes and then, once I'm down there, I'm like, ah, I'm down here, I might as well. Maybe I did a bit of hip flexors, a bit of this, and it's not that conscious. It's just the fact that I created the situation which allows me to do it, yeah, whereas sitting on the couch just doesn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's funny when you have kids, it really brings that out of you, because you, because they're doing everything on the floor right, they're crawling, they're playing on the floor and they're constantly like come and come, like like my son does this thing where he um, he's like come down, and you know let's play trucks. And then you're like all right, and then you know you sit down because you know you want to rest right, you sit down and then he's like great, now let's drive the trucks all around the lounge room. And you're like I'm just sitting down, I just got comfortable. You know he's like great, now let's drive the trucks all around the lounge room. And you're like I'm just sitting down, I just got comfortable, you know. And he, like he puts the trucks under one, under each hand, like a roller skate, and then just runs around and he's like come on, dad. And you're like and you feel the lazy cunt in you be like I'll just stay here and you drive it back to me.
Speaker 1:And then you're like don't be a lazy guy, but it's this thing right, and you realize that as we become tireder and lazier and more like attuned to convenience, everything comes up off the floor. To us, it comes easier Tables, chairs, every surface right, yeah, shoehorn, yeah, all of it. You don't lean down and put the shoes on. Yeah, we, we, we manufacture this environment to better suit our inability to move. Yeah, and it's like I mean, you know you're not really the. The wild thing is that you can go your whole life without being exposed to it. If you choose not to, not to, not to have this realization, you can. Yeah, it's a subconscious choice, but, um, you know like, you can live until you're 90 without, and maybe the last 40 years of your life you're immobile as fuck. But because of just the environments we create, you never really realize that. Yeah, and, and it's not enforced, because once you're in charge, you're in charge, so you just do whatever you can to get through your life right.
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Speaker 1:Yes, mate, I had a flat tire the other day and I was tempted to sit on the flat tire while I operated on the new tire, but it was fucking filthy. Who could say no, bro, it was filthy. You need a little fucking towel. I, bro, I couldn't. Like I was like fuck, like I wanted I cause I I was squatting down and I was like hip flexors are burning, kind of like when you play a lot of guard, like I was in that deep squat and I'm just like come on, jack, like you know, like you know when you get the thing where you're trying to. I mean maybe I've seen people with like an electronic. Like I was like wow, that's, I should get one of those. But I never get a flat tire.
Speaker 1:So I'm there doing the classic smash my knuckles on the ground. Take that Like just trying to get the car jack up Like it stays low for ages. Oh, when you're turning it like, if you don't, depending on your setup, you might have a better setup than me where you've got something you can just spin, yeah. But mine is like you put a hook in and you've got the thing and you go like turn it over, turn it over, and it only ever gets like 180 degrees and you meet the ground. You've got a. It's just fucking labor-intensive folks, so spare you the details.
Speaker 1:I was wearing like my nice gym shorts, no, my, my lighter color parry shorts, right, and I was like I don't get car grease all over that shit. So I was like, well, I can't sit on the tire, I guess I gotta sit here in this squat, yeah. And it started comfortable and then it got a bit uncomfortable and then it turned into work and like my soleus, like my lower calf, was burning my hip flexor, my back. I'm like, well, this is a fucking workout here. But I stood up and it was a bit of a relief. But then I was like, oh my god, I am limber as fuck. I'm so like I've changed the tire, I'm ready to fucking, I'm ready for anything. I got back in my car and sat and drove for 20 minutes and did nothing.
Speaker 1:But that's the reason why I like the sitting on the ground in the living room scenario is because it's often pre-bedtime, so it's a good time to you know. However, you can organize it whatever time of the day. It will help kind of get blood flow into parts of the body that wouldn't necessarily get as much, which means tomorrow when you wake up, you're not going to be as sore. That's why I think this fits in really nicely by just swapping couch time for floor time. It's going to enable you to really improve how your body feels. Basically, you know, there's one pivotal thing for this Tell me, do you wear shoes in your house?
Speaker 1:No, I take them off at the door. Yeah, yeah, always. And so I rule in our house. Yeah, likewise. And I think that, um and I'm not judging you if you, I wear shoes in the house because my parents house, it's not saying I never grew up like that, my parents, well, it's not part of our culture, right, right, it's more of an Eastern thing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But when you do that, right, you're making a choice to preserve the floor space, the cleanliness of the surfaces in your house, and so then lying on it or stretching on it makes more sense, whereas when you go out, go to the public toilet, fucking walking through that gutter, and then you're walking through the house. You don't want to lie on that carpet Potentially not. You want to lie on that floor, right? And I think that that's actually that's like maybe a subconscious barrier to like. It's like, oh, the floor is dirty, right, right, it's like that kind of thing. And if you've got pets and kids and you know they spew on the rug or you know, like I mean there's a bit of that, but you know, even, even still, like I mean kids, whatever, they spill their food and shit and oh, yeah, but you know, like we got a couple dogs and a couple kids and and I guess I'll still, if the fucking rug in front of the tv is a mess, I'll give it a quick vacuum, sure, but it still feels to me like a, like a, like a some kind of haven, sure, you know. And if you don't have space on your floor in your house, whether it's a hardwood floor, a carpeted floor, whatever tiles, whatever it might be you need to make some space where you can sit on the floor, yeah, and it may not be the living room, it might be a bedroom, something like that.
Speaker 1:A good one to get inspired, uh, inspired by is to watch shogun. I talked about shogun, but just how? Because they're the samurai and the fucking sorry. They're always on the tatami, right, shogun Rua, like, who are you talking about? Yeah, but you know, and they're always, they're always on their knees, they're always kneeling and it's and it's like, and they fucking kneel for so long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, and that was a real discipline piece, right, yeah, and they're sitting in that sitting in that Caesar fashion, the samurai kind of open pleated skirt pants. It was made so that they could crouch, kneel, fucking. Yeah, like, there was really something to that. So lower incidences of lower back, uh, less incidences of lower back injuries in countries where people spend more time on the floor, but I guess at that time, higher incidences of seppuku, but there's that you know. But they had great squat patterns, just so you know. But there it is, folks. Yeah, definitely, swapping couch time for um floor time, just, even if it's just 10 minutes, it will go a long way to helping improve how your body feels. So fucking, get it, thank you.
