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: How To Schedule Training, Childish Belt Behavior, & Best Strength Training For BJJ
Can the right balance of strength training and BJJ practice elevate your performance on the mats? What do you do when childish behavior seeps into the adult class? What strength training is best for BJJ and why is it Strongman??? Find it all out here on todays 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 2:I'm ready. You guys sending these in. We've got three questions we're going to answer today. If you've got a question for us related to strength training, flexibility, your jiu-jitsu journey or any other fucking thing adjacent to any of that, get at us. Go to our web page bulletproof for bjjcom. Go to the podcast tab and just uh, hit the little voicemail button there. Leave us a question. The beauty of it is is that you probably want to know something that a bunch of other listeners also want to know, so this public forum is a great place to ask. You would hear us reference our program and the users of our programs in the podcast.
Speaker 2:A lot, and something that's super cool coming up this year is some new programs that JT and I have in the works. Now one of these programs is going to be headed up by one of the current elites of jujitsu. We're not going to spill the beans on who, but you're going to find out in due course. I've actually been following a bit more of a bodybuilding style program with the guys here at the gym and we're going to be dropping this at some point this year. So you'll be able to get on like a four-day-a-week upper body strength program focused on mass gain. And then we've also got additions that we're going to make to the standards program and our mobility offerings. So I wanted to get you guys excited about that. We are always adding new stuff to the platform.
Speaker 2:If you want to get involved and start using it, you will have access to all of these programs as they become released. All you got to do is go to the app store, download the Bulletproof for BJJ app and you get a two-week free trial. Don't got to pay nothing. Start training, get coached by us and, uh, get frothy on all the sick programs coming your way. See you there. Let's rip into the first. This is going to be a familiar voice to some of you, a favorite, you might say.
Speaker 1:Hey fellas, it's Ben Hanawill here from the Facebook community. Listen, I asked this question in the Facebook messenger group, but I'll ask it here for the podcast. It's about putting most of my time on the mat toward the end of the week and doing more of my strength and conditioning, but not all of it in the beginning of the week. I was kind of just doing this naturally and I was actually resisting it. But then over the last month I just kind of dug into it and I realized that the reason why I was probably doing is because it gave me some time to heal from some of the, you know, little tiny injuries I might've gotten on the mats, and it's kind of like you know. I'm wondering. My question is does this adhere to the principle of strength and conditioning stacking up the wood that you're going to burn on the mats or am I just kind of kidding myself and I should probably space out my my mat time evenly, more evenly during the week with my strength and conditioning? Anyways, thanks a lot and have a great day.
Speaker 2:Fuck, I love Ben's voice. Great question, great question too. Yeah, look, what do you think? I think the important thing is finding what works for you, and it sounds like if, because ben has been improving a fair bit with his standards, he's getting his, you know, I mean, he's a strong fellow, but he's improving his mobility as well.
Speaker 2:If doing, uh, you know, two or three days earlier in the week lifting and then two or three days of rolling later in the week works for you, then that that's it works for you. You can't speak against that. I believe the model of spacing out the rolling and the lifting is that they are kind of different stimuluses, so the idea is that by spacing them out, they get a break from each other, of sorts. But no, I think, you know, ben's had some experience doing some lifting. If it's working, stick with it up until it doesn't. I think if that works and that enables you to lift and roll, do it. Yeah, I really like it. You know there's nothing sacred about these 24-hour cycles, no, you know, and they're like oh, you've got to get this every day, it's just. But the seven day period is a really good one, and so we kind of use it a week and it's like if you can be getting your jiu-jitsu in and getting your strength training in on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2:So if that's how you partition it, I think that's great yeah and you can even change it to like and you talked about this before, jo that if you're doing our standards program, which is three workouts, that's the requirement. You can do it over 10 days. Yeah, if you choose to do that. So a 10-day cycle is three of those in a month, yeah, If that makes sense, still doing it.
Speaker 2:You're still doing it and for some people, depending on how you recover, giving yourself a bit more room can be better. Yeah, giving yourself a bit more room can be better in terms of you. Just, it allows you to deal with the stress of both and you're improving, and that is the key feedback. Are you getting stronger? Are you rolling better? If you are, then you've probably found your sweet spot. Ben, let us know how you get on with that. After you've done it for a few months. I'd like to hear the results, because I think that also everything has its season, that your body will adapt and then eventually it may have a degree of diminishing return when you need to mix it up Not necessarily the exercises, but just the format of your week.
Speaker 2:Yep, nice, ladies and gentlemen, you may know me as a partial and unbiased objective voice of truth, or maybe you just know me as a very biased, opinionated person, but I can tell you without equivalency that the best online platform for learning BJJ is Submeta. Why do I say this? I was on the internet, I saw people doing KGuard stuff and I was like that looks a lot like some Lachlan Giles action. How do I know? I trained with Lockie and I also use Submeta, and on Submeta, lockie will break down all the ins and outs of the K-Guard. I already know that stuff because I learned it from the source and then I backed it up with my online learning.
Speaker 2:Now there's not just K-Guard on there. Submeta is the most comprehensive online platform for you to learn Jiu-Jitsu. Whether you're just starting out as a white belt or you're an expert competitor at black belt, there's something in there for everyone and it's structured in a way that enables you to remember it. So when you go to submetaio and use the code bulletproof 16 for every first time user, you will get $16 off when you sign up, and I cannot recommend it enough. It's the best.
Speaker 4:Next one coming in from Doug yeah, what's up, joey and jt, my name is doug. I'm reaching out from northern utah here in the united states. My question is so there's a a kid at our gym. She's like 12 or 13 but she's ginormous and she winds up training a lot with my wife when she comes to adult class.
Speaker 4:Well, recently this girl just got promoted to gray belt and now when we line up in class, like at the end of class, she she loves to like seemingly intentionally ensure that she's in front of my wife because she feels like she now outranks her because she got promoted to gray. And I just didn't quite know, like what the etiquette is here If we're just assholes for getting upset that like a child is trying to line up in front of her, but it's, it's just, if she wound up in front of her I don't think she would care, but she'll like purposely go to like the end of the white belt section Cause she seems to believe that she outranks my four stripe white belt wife. So what is the etiquette when it comes to like lining up if kids are in adult class? And I guess that's pretty much it kind of a random one for you. I love this podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys so much oh, man, doug, you're a legend. Thank you, it's an honest question and, um, I mean, look, I'm sure there's plenty of people who could throw shade at asking someone like that, but the reality is, in a, in a, in a standard jujitsu, we do have this lineup system with rankings, and so it kind of matters. It's like we're all agreeing that this matters enough that we do it Well yeah.
Speaker 2:So wanting to keep a standard there makes sense to me, yeah, and if that's what you do, then you know, play it by the house rules. But, yeah, a four-stripe white belt would usually in the line, as long as I'm understanding it clearly, because this is what I've seen stands ahead of the no stripe white belt, right, like you know, in terms of ranking. You know, and it's also time, like you know, I actually don't have any stripes on my black belt, even though I should have like one or two, but it's just what it is. I will never, you know, if someone has a couple of stripes on their belt like you, go ahead of me, I.
Speaker 2:I think it's quite an immature thing. Obviously, it's clear the girl's like 12, 13. She just really wants to show she belongs and whatever, and that's like a that's fucking kids game, right, but we fall into it. You gotta respect that, though. No, no, I mean more that for your wife, I think, in terms of just dealing with this kid, maybe bucking the system, or maybe she's not, I don't know, it might be something to ask your coach. Well, yeah, I mean, let's just, I'm not sure about this.
Speaker 2:I don't think a gray belt if you're a junior, if you're in the junior belt system, I don't think that trumps. Even though she's in the adults class, kids will still stand at the end of the line. Yeah see, I don't know about that because I'm thinking, because a gray belt is your, is the is a promotion, right yeah, like you've gone for it you start at white and then you get a gray, I think it depends on the school.
Speaker 2:Like, no, no, you, you're right in saying that, yeah, that is a promotion, but so is that not like the kids? She's the equivalent of a blue belt? Maybe? I don't know, I actually don't, I don't understand, I don't know the kids belt system well enough to say I think, doug, that you actually maybe need to ask the coach uh, is you know? And and and, at the end of the day, can your wife even though, uh, you know it might be tough because sounds like this, this kid's a bit of a juggernaut can your wife submit that kid? Choke that kid. It doesn't matter where you are in the line if you're submitting them on the mats. Happy days. Yeah, I'm saying here, right, like white, gray, yellow, orange, green and there's like three different. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's. I would think it's a gray area. It's fucking. There you go. I would think that it probably is, is it's? It's a. She probably is further ahead than a than a white belt.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, but. But his wife is a four stripe white belt.
Speaker 4:No no.
Speaker 2:I get. She's almost a blue belt, but do they not have-? A gray belt in kids' class is not higher than almost a blue belt. Do the math? No, no, but it might actually be. It's not comparative, it's confusing because she is a kid training in the adults' class and depending on how you perceive it but the white belt is you still You're a four-stripe white belt. It is not but you've never been given a belt, you've just got the belt the default that you get no, but she's been promoted because within the adult class she would be higher than a gray belt she would be.
Speaker 2:You know, it's not comparative. I would take it this way, clearly, this is this is a big, this is a fucking big one. Fuck, it's going to tear the internet apart. Can we get if I was the coach, if I were somebody or rather to fucking wane on this really cares about belts? Look I'm, I don't care. Look, it was my class and I thought that maybe there was a degree of rudeness or like, because I don't, I don't like there to be tension between students in a class. I would just get the younger to just stand in the line and just be like bro, you're getting ahead of yourself here, but but maybe that's too old school, maybe that's silly, but essentially you have been privileged to train with the adults. You shouldn't kind of get out of pocket. I think that the behavior sounds rude. People might say I'm wrong in that it may not be out of pocket, though it fucking is, it might be her absolute right to stand there.
Speaker 2:In front of a four-stripe white belt Nah. Well we're saying we don't know.
Speaker 3:If it's the case that it's not, joe, let me give an unqualified opinion.
Speaker 2:If it's the case, then it is. Then fucking stand there, yeah, but then also-.
Speaker 3:But that's on the coach to be like oh, hey guys, it's not be clear.
Speaker 2:You're here. Yeah, it's also a bit of a silly game, right. I got this at a graduation ceremony. Wow, you got yours with the starter pack.
Speaker 1:The wife may have received many of her stripes.
Speaker 2:It was a Christmas special.
Speaker 2:This was earned what the four stripes weren't earned. You can't say that it's not as though she's just a white belt. Who knows? I'm sorry, dougie. I mean we don't know how long your wife's trained. Clearly she's dedicated. I wouldn't say that you're a jerk. I think it is worth questioning and at least for my money, you need to get some clarity from your coach. Yeah, I think it's a very valid question and very valid to be concerned. The fact you don't know. Well, we we get asked to, to to value this thing. Yeah, and most of us do, right.
Speaker 2:And so then if we value it, then it matters. It matters who stands where, and that's why. And that's why in an adult class, it's very simple. Most of us understand where to stand. Where to stand, yeah, but um. But yeah, this is a fucking delicate scenario. It is. But look at the early stage, especially when you have a juggernaut child, because I've been in a gym where we had a kid uh, hugh come from the kids class and then, like he'd been in kids class since he was eight and by the time he's 14, he's wrecking shop in the adults class.
Speaker 2:We all know him you know, and so you know, he you know, and so that's the tough thing. I believe that wherever you sit in the hierarchy, as long as you're happy with where you are for your level, where everyone else stands doesn't matter. If your wife feels unacknowledged or unrecognized or not properly respected, then that is something that needs to be raised with the coach, because you know, because of maybe someone else's behavior, you know it should be explicitly stated yeah, so then it can be clear Okay, yep, you can stand there or don't, or whatever. I would just go just beat her up on the mat, just yeah, that solves it for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just respect. That's a great solution. You can stand over there, but I'll choke you out every time. It's fine. That's the truth. That's the truth right there.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, you may know me as a partial and unbiased objective voice of truth, or maybe you just know me as a very biased, opinionated person, but I can tell you without equivalency that the best online platform for learning BJJ is Submeta. Why do I say this? I was on the internet. I saw people doing KGuard stuff and I was like that looks a lot like some Lachlan Giles action. How do I know? I trained with Lachy and I also use Submeta, and on Submeta, lachy will break down all the ins and outs of the KGuard. I already know that stuff because I learned it from the source and then I backed it up with my online learning. Now there's not just K guard on there.
Speaker 2:Submeta is the most comprehensive online platform for you to learn Jiu Jitsu. Whether you're just starting out as a white belt or you're an expert competitor at black belt, there's something in there for everyone and it's structured in a way that enables you to remember it. So when you go to submetaio and use the code bulletproof16 for every first time user, you will get $16 off when you sign up and I cannot recommend it enough. It's the best. Question number three coming in anonymous here, let's see what we got. Sorry, I probably I probably didn't solve anything.
Speaker 3:Sorry, doug. Hey guys, so my question was kind of about this time JT has been spending with Strongman and how he thinks it's translating over to his training. To me I've always kind of felt Strongman probably had the most carryover compared to other types of training, like like you know, like a crossfit or a power lifting. Obviously all those types of training will translate well because they're all going to make you stronger, but to me the the odd object way of training in strongman was probably the most carryover to jujitsu. You know, something like a sandbag seems more human than a barbell to me. It might not be a direct correlation but it seems like it would be much more similar and like the work capacity that you would get from strongman would carry over better than some other things. That's basically my question. I'm also curious to see how much JT's weighing nowadays. I mean, looking like a hell of a unit out there. So yeah, man, thank you guys.
Speaker 2:First thing, I'm not JT, I'm Joey. That's JT. Let's get it clear. All right, guy with a hat and a beard? Tell us, bro. Well, okay, so let me be very clear.
Speaker 2:The reason why I have pursued this strongman thing is it's more fun than, say, just strict power lifting or just, you know, uh, lifting kettlebells infinitely. But I do believe it is the most applicable way to train for bjj if you want to be maximally strong for bjJ and also have a degree of fitness because you have to do carries. I think this is the biggest thing I've learned from Strongman, which is really underestimated and not practiced in many other spheres, even though they do do it in CrossFit. There's elements of that. Picking up a weight and carrying it is way harder than picking a weight up and down multiple, multiple times. Don't get me wrong. Shout out Olympic lifters. They're all very capable. But in terms of work capacity, which was a big thing that was drummed into me from my old Russian coach Efim, you're looking at how much work can you generate in an amount of time, and jujitsu is kind of similar. In that way You've got five minutes. Who can outwork the other person when I was doing strongman training for conditioning, which was like tire flipping clean and pressing with the log stone ladders. You do have to sprint. If you carry a sandbag, you sprint back and then dual wheelbarrow and then the thing about it is it's unpredictable. I think this is the thing that part of the reason why people love powerlifting is it's set, squat, bench, dead, that's it.
Speaker 2:Strongman is not always like that. You know there's going to be some kind of squat or some kind of deadlift, but they might just make you do some weird shit and then you've got to just deal with it. This does require more athleticism, even though you need a base level of strength. At the moment, I would say I am stronger than I am fit, but my basic level of conditioning is okay. What CrossFitters have, above and beyond everything else, is they have an anaerobic conditioning which is incredible, which is pretty unmatched by most sports. You get a top level CrossFitter Gas tank the gas tank's incredible right, similar to MMA athletes. But what I'd say is you can really, if you are that much stronger than your opponent, you can just absolutely stifle them, even if they're really fit. You can wear them down. So it has been helping me.
Speaker 2:I haven't been doing enough jujitsu, in truth, but I'm just exploring the strongman thing and it's great and I would hate to admit it, but right now I am almost 100 kilos. But I had five or six days after my wedding of doing nothing. Before my wedding I was 94. I'm now 99.9. I didn't realize till yesterday. I stepped on scale and I was like, oh fuck, as soon as I got, as soon as the ring went on, just blew out. No, I was like a lot of drinking and eating for days at a time without much exercise. So, yep, a bit heavy. But when I compete in Strongman I will compete under 90 kilos, right, so you cut for that? Yeah, well, I mean I'll get my weight back down under 95 to 90, like 94-ish, and then a little bit more.
Speaker 2:But this is what I wanted to say.
Speaker 2:Part of the reason why I really admire Strongman is stones.
Speaker 2:All yeah, but this is what I wanted to say.
Speaker 2:Part of the reason why I really admire strongman is stones. When you see someone lift a stone, the triple extension involved in stone it looks like someone doing a suplex. Yeah, and a lot of crossover training for stones is sandbags and the grips that you make are far more similar to no-gi grappling and that's why I've always enjoyed it. It's kind of like a dodgeball if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge dodgeball if you can, if you can clean a stone, or if you can triple extension a stone, you can suplex a human far easier. Right? So it's, is it. There's a rawness in the strength I feel. In some ways it's less technical, but I think that's actually a value, because if you have crazy raw brute strength, it will help your grappling.
Speaker 2:So yeah, man, I mean I probably have to do a bit more grappling to know if it's helping me right now, but I'm getting a little bit stronger, thankfully. But yeah, thank you for asking. I would encourage you if you're someone out there. Strongman as a sport for men and women is getting more popular because they've introduced more weight categories similar to jiu-jitsu. So you don't have to be the mountain, you don't have to be Thor Hafthor Bjornsson to be a strongman, a strongwoman. You can be 60 kilos and do it, but the power to weight ratio is crazy on some of these folks, on some of these folks. Yeah, I just saw a gentleman, a couple of gentlemen actually break the world record for stone lifting at under 90 kilos.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 206 kilos stone, something like that. 210 kilos, it's pretty, I could do that in my warm-up. Amazing, you should show, please. Weekends are busy for me these days. You know that Dad life it's tough. Hey, who shows up to me these days? You know that dad life it's tough. Hey, who shows up to the competition? You know?
Speaker 2:hey, not a true reflection of what's really out there yeah born to be the strongest man in the world, relegated to tending lawns. And here we are. Thanks for your questions. That's so good. Yeah, sick ones today. Hey guys, leave us a question for the next episode. Go to bulletproofforbjjcom. Hit the podcast page. Hit the voicemail button, leave us one, we'll answer it on the next one. We appreciate you, guys.
