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
We Are Changing Our Minds About Weight Lifting
How often do you see podcasters walk back opinions they've held onto for years? Today, we admit where we may have been wrong in regard to strength training and elaborate on our newfound opinions. We give personal anecdotes on our recent changes, and provide a new outlook on strength training.
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Hey, today, jt and I are actually going to talk about two things that we have changed our mind on recently. Now you don't see this a lot from creators generally. I guess it's our human nature to kind of dig in on a stance that we have rather than acknowledge that over time, our views can change based on new information, but also new experiences. So today we're bringing you two things both JT and myself from the strength training realm that we've changed our mind on recently. I hope you dig it. Also, if you have a question about it or you have a comment on one of our positions and you want us to dig deeper, fire away in the Spotify or the YouTube comments and we'll talk about that on a future episode. You're here.
Speaker 1:There's a thing that happens whereby you probably listen to our show all the time and you appreciate it, because people tell us often that they appreciate the show, but you might not have subscribed to it and you might not follow it on Spotify and you might not have pushed all those buttons. Do us this big favor go and push all those buttons now. It supports the show and it takes you like five seconds to do it. Do it. Let's get into the episode. It supports the show and it takes you like five seconds to do it. Do it. Let's get into the episode better. Listen very carefully. 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.
Speaker 1:Things that we have changed our mind on two big things. It would seem relatively impossible for me to change my mind on anything Flavagasted. It has happened. It would seem relatively impossible for me to change my mind on anything Flabbergasted. It has happened, discombobulated. Last six months I had a big change, big mental shift and it's benefited me. Wow, imagine. And now it's about to benefit the world, all y'all. Well, you know, you're probably already there. You didn't have to change your mind. I don't know if JT already there. You probably didn't have to change your mind, jt, we've been telling you this for years. You pretty much um. So let's start there, because this has been.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't even say it's a discovery, but it's definitely something that, uh, I accepted it as a change and now I have benefited, whereas before I was kind of, I wouldn't even say I was in denial. I was just like no, I'm not gonna do that. And I was forced to do it. And I was was like God damn it, it works. What am I talking about, folks? I am talking about a weight belt and knee sleeves.
Speaker 1:You see, many people in the world of powerlifting, strongman lifting in general, I have for a long time very much fought against wearing a weight belt and wearing knee sleeves because I felt it was unnecessary. I felt like, ah, it's, it's actually an accessory. I didn't think it was very as useful as people were making out and actually I thought people were almost keeping themselves weak in a way by relying on equipment, because when you do jujitsu you can't be like hang on, bro, I just got to tighten up the belt. Oh, hang on, pull on me. Knee sleeves. Actually there was a judo guy I used to roll with um who had bad knees. He used to roll in like ultra three ply, like knee sleeve, lifting style power lifting knee sleeves. They'd probably be quite good if you got bung knees. Oh, amazing, you couldn't. Better than anaconda. There's the fuckingaconda. There's your marketing slogan. It's better, better, 100%. He could barely bend his knees, they're so strict. Try knee bar, that Can't. Fucking knee bar that no, you can't even squat that.
Speaker 1:But it's a funny thing. It happened to me last year. I wasn't going for like a max, but Dan was pushing me and he's like mate, you've trained here for a couple months and I'd really like you to wear a belt when you squat. I'm like, no, fuck that, I'm not into that. He's like, no, just try it. And he just kept. He's just not overly bossy, but just chipping away, chipping away, chipping away.
Speaker 1:And then one day I was just like, oh, fuck him. And then one day I was just like, oh, fuck him, why not? And he's like, yes, he was so happy. He was like, yeah, and he's like also, knee sleeves, like I was like what I just said yes to the belt, slow down, honey. And he was like go on, chuck them on, chuck them on. I got some, I got some. He rifled around and he pulled out some knee sleeves. Mothers are like you have to use straps to pull them onto your legs. Really, yeah, it's wild. Guys will use the lifting straps and they'll loop them through to pull on the knee sleeves because they're so tight. They're like springs. So, anyway, I popped on the knee sleeves and I popped on the belt.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, the two things that surprised me were the feedback. That's partly what's going on with your knee, like it kind of tells you where your knee is, where you might not know unless you're getting. You know, hamstring to calf type thing, and the belt makes you work harder because you have to actually, when you brace, actively push against the belt and you have to keep that going the whole time, and I fucking bruised my abs and my own blades. I got home and I was like what the fuck? It's like jujitsu? I was like what's this weird bruising? I was like, fuck, it's from the belt. And so what was interesting about that was by bracing that much harder with the belt, you can generate more force. But unless you've got, if you don't have, that feedback, it's hard to generate that, and so this is what made me change my mind about it.
Speaker 1:My squat has gone up a fair bit, and the interesting thing is now, when I don't wear knee sleeves or a belt, my raw squat is higher. Right, I am stronger as a result. It's made you stronger. It's enabled me to touch higher loads so that when I'm not even using it, big loads huh, I'm well Monstrous loads. Tell me more about that. Get all the loads in your face? No, no, it's not. They're not. Compared to most powerlifters, I'm not strong.
Speaker 1:There is plenty of women who lift way more weight than me, yeah, and that's awesome. I'm happy for them. But I guess 13-year-old Chinese, 13-year-old Chinese no, very young, fit women living in Queensland who just love powerlifting Wow. But it's one of those things. Shout out Riley Lifting. She's phenomenal. I think she can squat like 280 kilos Wow, phenomenal. And her body weight is much less than mine. Yeah, the thing that's really hit me is that it will improve your lifting without gear. Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things that wearing the weight belt, wearing the knee sleeves, has unlocked a new level. For me, it's a tool that's cool. I'm not, I'm not relying on it. I don't do my warm-ups with it, but when I hit those top sets, I'll go there. It makes sense, man, yeah, that interesting.
Speaker 1:I, I think. Um, I have. I've probably just come to me as you're saying that I've come around. I've changed my thinking on accessories as well. Right, because I used to have more of a purist mentality, which was like no, you're using that as a crutch because you can't do x. Yes, and there is some truth to that. But it is also true that sometimes making something a little bit easier for yourself or allowing yourself to like go a bit heavier is also really fucking beneficial. Yeah Right, it's not so clear cut. Yeah, it's funny how, as we get older, we come around to this because, yeah, I just I think I used to be a lot more militant in my thinking. Yeah, and look, I have not become any less militant in my thinking, but I Maybe you're softening slowly. No, well, I mean You're married now. I am there. It is, ladies and gentlemen, the ring of power. Shout out to my wife, ola Tomlinson. Oh, big shout out, lady friend. Yeah, but that's the thing I would like to-.
Speaker 1:My goal is always try to help other people and through my experience you know, if you haven't done it, then it's hard for you to comment. But having spent the last six months working on it, it's like, yeah, it made a difference to me. Yeah, and if at this stage in my life you know, I'm 41. If I can be getting incrementally stronger at this later stage in my lifting career, it doesn't matter what age you are, you could too. So if you've kind of getting to that upper end and you haven't had a play around with a white belt or some knee sleeves with some instructional guidance, and that's the kind of key detail I think it can help.
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Speaker 1:My whole, my whole career? Yeah, for folks to hear is that, like, like you want a 20 year old chucking a belt on trying to go heavy? No but this. But that said, if you look at it as a tool, that's not something you necessarily, because there's also a thing called a no-no squat. It was was pioneered by a famous Olympic lifter, which was no belt, no sleeves, no suit, anyway, no shoes, like no weightlifting shoes, and the guy is like, ask the grass, he's like a 67 kilo lifter with like 200 kilos on his back and that was a demonstration of like, look how strong I am. Yeah, but if you look at the Chinese Olympic weightlifters, they wear weight belts, they wear knee sleeves, they do wear lifting shoes. They're all just tools, yeah, and if you can find a way for the tool to help you, it's golden. I like that.
Speaker 1:How about you, joe? Have you? You've come around to a new idea, or new? Yeah, so I think I, I think I might have mentioned last time we did this that like I'd come around to like machines and and isolation training, uh, in recent years, but I've actually come around to a further kind of point on that. Um, so like, I've always kind of hung shit on bodybuilding style training. Sure, sure, right, bro, training, yeah, like, for a bunch of reasons, but, like you know, in summary, like you like and this is based on my years of experience coaching people who have come from the classic gym environment, where that is the prevailing approach for dudes and then they come to a gym like here, like jungle botany, and they just can't fucking move. And there's, there's no, there's no real machines here, like no, there's none. There's a bench, there's a box, yeah, but it's mainly free weights.
Speaker 1:Body weight movement work, yeah and so and so what the the observation has always been is that there are glaring weaknesses in, like, their mobility, of course, but, moreover, their coordination is a mess. Yes, and I would argue that if you don't, if you're following more of like a compound approach free weights, squatting, lunging, pressing, like more of what we, what people, would call functional you actually are developing more coordination, like you are. They are basic movement patterns that do apply better to how you move, to life, yeah, so, um, so I've kind of shunned it, you know, for for a lot of those reasons, in any case, I've been doing a bit of it over the last few months. Yes, had a break, the group broke for christmas and stuff. So I, like um, jumped on some bodybuilding style stuff. I was like I'm just gonna do this fucking program.
Speaker 1:Um was training in a gym near my house and now with the guys I'm like let's just do like bodybuilding phase for the next few months. Nice and um and it's great. But the other benefit, the thing that I've actually come to come to really appreciate about it, is that it's a very there's no intimidation in uh approaching the gym to do a bodybuilding workout. Right. There is intimidation. When you've got five by three zurcher squats today max, or you're doing six by two deadlifts, you're like, fuck, it's gonna be heavy, fuck, I gotta go. I gotta try and go a couple kilos heavier than last week. Pressure, fuck what's? The warm-up's gonna take me 15 minutes, man. You know, back was a bit.
Speaker 1:We felt a bit weird after like there's none of that with the bodybuilding, because you're not pushing heavy weight, you're not doing. I mean, sometimes you might be doing some big compounds, but you're generally not. The reps are like eight to 12 kind of thing, and so it's just like you just go in and you're like I'll just do one like three reps on a fucking light dumbbell and then straight into the working set, yeah, sure, and you're just chasing the pump and it's really simple, it's more, it's more fun, I guess in that way, yeah, yeah, I mean it has its own brutality in the in chasing the kind of that muscular damage where it's like burning and uncomfortable, yeah, but just that like you can go in and rip into your workout and get it done in like 40 minutes, yeah, versus you got a big strength day. It takes longer. You gotta got to rest longer. Yeah, yeah, the rest, all that Right. So I, yeah, I've, I've actually enjoyed just that simplicity and like, oh, this is easy to fucking rip into. Even if I was tired today, trained jits last night, I was like, oh, it's all right. I was just back on biceps out as hard as it got, and it was like just three sets of those giddy up, yeah, exactly. And I, I think you can, you can appreciate that there's just a degree of um, there's no, there's no performance, anxiety, pressure, none of that. It's just do the thing, do it to wherever you're at today and even if you're fatigued, that's still that bit of stimulation, it's going to be enough. Yeah, like that's good enough. Still get a pump, that's it.
Speaker 1:And and really, interestingly enough, over all the years and all the scientific papers, like the idea that you have to go to failure is not, they've shown that that's not necessarily the case. Like even though that there is ways in which you can do that, it's good. But just just getting the muscles to a certain level, that's like a certain level of fatigue and a certain bit of load, like it's shown that, like to work at a bit of a reduced intensity that enables you to work more frequently, is how you grow muscle, that is the best. Yeah, so that's cool. And I think that we often make the mistake of trying to make everything a competition. Everything has got to be intense, where actually you know if the goal is to build muscle and working at about 60, 70%, if that'll get you there, then that's, that's nice. Yeah, and you know where I think, like where I think a benefit in that lies.
Speaker 1:For, say you guys listening, sometimes there's a lot of hurdles for you to get over to get to the gym, and if one of those, if, if, by doing a program like that, like our SWOL program, if choosing that program means that, like it removes one hurdle, then that's increased your success of going to the gym, yeah, you know, and I'm like, fuck, yeah, all for it. Yeah, I think definitely we with many things. We often create a bit of a story in our mind about how hard a given thing might be, but if you just are able to get past that or reduce the resistance there, you do it, you go. Oh, it was fine, it worked out pretty good. Actually, I'm fucking stoked. I did that, and how much different the day would have been if you didn't. Yeah, so that's great.
Speaker 1:And I guess I am more actively looking, not so much to prove myself wrong now, but I am looking for things that maybe I'd written off before and maybe it's like oh, maybe I'll try that, like I haven't done that thing ever, maybe I try that and maybe that thing is helpful, whatever that might be. So I'm looking for that. Those things, not specifically performance enhancing drugs Joe, don't look at me like that, that's all I'm talking about. So I think it's very easy. Give it time, guys. He's coming around, he's got the weight belt, he's got the knee sleeves, it's the waiting game, it's only natural.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as soon as you see me wrapping up my wrists and doing bench press, you're like yeah, mate, you're doing well. Mate, keep it up, chip away, chip away. You guys are there, it is there. It is Something we changed our mind on and, look, it might be something similar for you. You've said to yourself for a long time nah, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. Give it a try, try it out for a little while, and and it can bring surprises which can be beneficial. So, yeah, good things. There it is, folks.
