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
IS Lifting Weights a NATURAL Part of Being Human?
We recently got a comment saying lifting weights was un-natural. There are a lot of reasons why we believe this sentiment to be wrong. If you take it literally, sure, humans did not lift weights... but they also did not sit in front of screens for 10 hours + every single day. Learn here why lifting weight might actually be the MOST natural thing you could do and how it could benefit you starting today.
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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 1:So you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power?
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Lifting weights is unnatural, or so they say. I'm here to tell you folks, this is completely freaking untrue. Lifting weights is actually the most natural thing we can do and we're going to get into it. Joe, Wow, I sparked. It was a comment. I believe it was a comment on a piece of content which was appropriated by a fellow creator and somebody had come in and said hey, man, you're very opinionated about this stuff because we, you know, we can just do jiu-jitsu and that's enough. He said martial arts, right.
Speaker 2:He said martial arts.
Speaker 1:And then he's like locks and strangles and stuff. I'm like, bro, you don't know shit about BJJ. Tell me you've never done jiu-jitsu without telling me You've never done jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 1:It didn't reference anything actually a jiu-jitsu person would talk about. Yes, I am heavily opinionated folks, you know it. Uh, you know he was right about that. He's, he's right. That's fair observation, that's fair. But here is the problem. Here is the problem. There are many of our friends in the martial arts community purists, you might say, people who believe like lifting weights is like not cheating, but it's unnecessary.
Speaker 1:You can be a pure martial artist without it you know, it is salty water yeah, a bit of surfing stretching that's it natural, and actually that's fucking bullshit, and I'm gonna break down for you. Why, my friends, if we look back at human evolution and we look at just the way our lives were, not even a thousand years ago, we just say, a couple of hundred years ago we had to be so physically active, like we had to, and we're very fortunate in a lot of ways now that our lives are so freaking easy for many people. Not not if you have bloody, hauling bricks or concreting, or whatever it might be. We've talked about that. But here's the problem Because we don't have this physical stimulus, we are actually less healthy. Our technology has gotten better, but physically we are worse off because of it. We walk less, we carry less, our bone density is going down. There's all these problems we suffer. Our blood sugars are through the roof, and you know what. It can all be fucking solved through activity and exercise.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing, though, but not just like no, not just just going to your martial arts class doesn't quite tick the box doesn't quite tick the box because it presents problems.
Speaker 1:And this is the thing that they don't tell you when you sign up for jujitsu. Yes, it is a form of activity. Can you get fitter and stronger doing it? Yes, of course you can. But it also puts crazy demand on your body which can result in injuries. If you have not fortified yourself, you are vulnerable to injury which can totally undo the whole thing of being healthier, fitter, stronger, etc. And if you haven't done jujitsu, you don't really know this. And if you've only done it for a short period of time, you may not have copped that big injury. But once you cop that big injury, then you go fuck, now I've got to do some rehab and gym stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the strength thing I can understand where this comes from for some people, where they look at it and think like I can understand where this comes from for some people, where they they look at it and think like no, like why should I have to go to the gym and do this, like, go to this place and do these funny exercises? In this abstract? It's artificial. I just want, I'm just going to like, I'm just going to fight, I'm just going to do combat and that's going to give me everything I need. Now, yeah, I can, I can like there's a romance to that idea, right, and it kind of, you know, you kind of feel like a bit of a kind of I don't know like a-.
Speaker 1:Renaissance man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sub, you know, like I'm going against the grain man and I just keep it fucking natural and flowy and that's why I look like Bruce Lee and shit, and it's like like, yeah, I get that it's a myth, but it doesn't work that way. And the reason is that our life did used to be full of resistance. Yes, like actual physical, like you had to carry things, you had to lift things, you had to shift things around manually constantly, you had to chop wood, carry water, like all this shit comes from somewhere, right. And so the fact that you don't do those things, sure, like jiu-jitsu, gives you like a little taste of resistance. Yeah, but it doesn't replace whatever four, five hours of heavy manual labor performed on a daily basis. And that's what the fucking gym does, right? So you could take the glitzy gym with the mirrors and the rubber dumbbells and all that and fuck it off and chop wood and carry water, yeah, and that would do the job yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2:You're not going to be able to do that at this, like with the same consistency likely and the same intensity and regularity that you can just show up to the fucking gym and do the five by ten squats yeah.
Speaker 1:And I mean, look, they talk about farm boy strength. Right, we're all aware of it. People who grew up physically active are stronger and more athletic. They have more stimulus to be that way. And what we forget is our genetics are only a blueprint. Right, the blueprint doesn't build the building. The stimulus builds the building. That's the builders. If you don't lift the weights, you don't really get the muscles. The stimulus builds the building. That's the builders. If you don't lift the weights, you don't really get the muscles.
Speaker 1:I mean, sure, you might have your height, maybe your father or mother was tall, so you have your bone structure, but it also doesn't give you the skill. There's plenty of like. I met a guy in Scotland, seven foot two, had the worst stoop, like stooped Seven foot two, seven foot two, a giant. Fuck my God. I was like, wow, you're a big bastard. Look at the size of you. Look at the size of you. You want to fight? No, he was like a doopy gothy art student handing out flyers for a comedy show. Wow, he should be playing NBA basketball.
Speaker 1:That guy's not going to do that. You know like, even though he has a genetic predisposition which would be advantageous, he's not interested. He hasn't got the skills, it doesn't matter. Why do I say this? You could have the best genetics in the world, but if you fuck it up by just drinking a ton of beer and not doing any sports, it doesn't matter, it doesn't mean anything. So it's really important for us to understand that. Even though, yes, jujitsu is great, martial arts is great, if we look at athletic development and we look at people who are stronger, faster, all these things they are putting the stimulus in their life and gym, the weight training, the, the different amounts of flexibility training, and everything they're doing is simulating that caveman-esque shit we used to fucking do yeah, I want to, um, I think, like even the term you use, their athletic development.
Speaker 2:I think for the this person, right, that doesn't speak to them because they're like I'm not trying to be an athlete, no right, but so what we're, but I like. So the a better way to frame it for this, for this person right, this guy that commented on the thing, is like just human health, like if you're just trying to be strong, like healthy and live a long life and be in good shape, and that means being able to do jiu-jitsu for as long as you want to, sure you need to fucking do some of that. You don't have to do it to the level of a of an athlete, but you got to do some of it. Now we all know the grappler and I can think, like there's a couple people that come to mind right now who are like that.
Speaker 2:They, they show up to class every now and again. They've been in the scene for years and years and years and they're out of shape as fuck. But they've been doing it for like, like super casually, for like 15 years. Yeah, they got some shit. Yeah, you know, they catch a wrist lock on you they let you pass the guard and they got that one fucking reversal they always do, or whatever and you're always like ah, that can't.
Speaker 2:Often, you know, like, and and for them it's like a video game. Yeah, right. And the guy that I'm thinking it like it's like a video game and like, I totally get that it's great, but it doesn't keep like, it doesn't fulfill all of that human's health requirements. No, and this is, this is the thing. You get so much from grappling so many awesome benefits as a result of doing it, but you don't get all of them, and so you can push back as hard as you want on the idea of being athletic and using athleticism in jujitsu. You don't have to be that way, but you can't push back on training. Some strength is what allows you just to be a healthy human and every like everyone needs that. Hey, you know what the gym is full of? It's full of people who are messing around on machines and lifting weights and stuff with no real plan about what they're trying to get out of it, and this results in people using the gym for like 12, 18, 24 months and not really getting anything as a result of that.
Speaker 2:We have created the Bulletproof for BJJ app so that you do not have to go through this process of no results the Bulletproof for BJJ app equals instant gains when you start training your strength and flexibility specifically for jiu-jitsu. You can take a two-week free trial right now. All you got to do is go to the app store, download the Bulletproof for BJJ app and start training. And the best part is JT and I will be there to coach you along the way. And if you don't love it, we offer a 100% money back guarantee. Go get it, we'll see you on the inside.
Speaker 1:And I think what's underestimated here, the reason I said athletic development. It's probably just a habit, right, but being strong is an athletic skill. Being flexible is an athletic skill, having cardiovascular endurance is an athletic. It falls under the umbrella of what makes athleticism. Now, I'm not saying this because I want everybody to be killer athletes, doing backflips and all this shit. I mean, if you want to get down like that, I encourage you happy days. But what I'm saying is this definitely off what Joe's saying there is.
Speaker 1:What we don't realize is that, yeah, you can act a certain way when you're 16 or you're 21 and you've just got it forever at that time. Because, as far as you know, you got it forever, but you don't. And then, yeah, you can come into it going no, I'm a purist and I don't even do my rehab, man, I just drink my water and I got my Himalayan rock salt. Yeah, okay, great.
Speaker 1:But what we know inevitably is, if you don't look after your body by getting stronger, strengthening your bones, increasing your blood circulation, looking after your hormones, it will all just deteriorate. We're fighting against time and just our own expiry date as humans. So if you do care about jujitsu and you love martial arts, you want to stay in it, you do have to have a method of maintaining yourself, and the problem is we think our healthy default mode is not lifting weights, and what I'm trying to get across here like it or love, it is what maintains your health. Like your base for building any kind of athletic ability on top of or any sport or any martial art is you have to do some resistance training to look after your body. It doesn't matter what age you're at. This is what will sustain you on the martial arts path. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm blown away whenever there's an article in the paper that's like unbelievable new study shows that when older people lift weights, they fucking live healthier, happier lives. Yeah, you're like guys. How many times we need? We've got this article every fucking other week, every every you know, or guys? Unbelievable study shows that people who suffer from depression actually feel an improvement when they do regular exercise and you're like fuck, I'm not trying to throw a shout out at anyone.
Speaker 1:A lot of people go through that, but you're like motherfuckers.
Speaker 2:Our bodies thrive on being used. They thrive on an appropriate dosage of stress and mechanical stress, which is a large thing that comes from jujitsu, right, Like that fucking stress and that squeeze and that feels great afterwards. So, yeah, shit, Like it is quite riling when people kind of refuse. It can be one thing to be like hey, I don't want to do that, but I can see that it's a thing we're like no, no, no, you don't need that.
Speaker 1:All you need to do is just fucking use your body like a martial artist and you'll be sweet. Hey, feel free to get in the comment section and act like a fuckwit, but don't expect me to not come back on you, motherfucker, because my whole career is based on trying to help folks be healthier, fitter, stronger, all these things, because that's what I care about. It changed my life and it's made me happier. It may surprise you, I was less happy than this at one stage, but I do not like it when people advocate for things which, in time, will actually have a negative impact on others. So the fact that you want to be out there advocating for something maybe you don't know better and, based off the way this guy was commenting, he doesn't really understand jujitsu. But regardless, we want to help folks and we love people doing jujitsu.
Speaker 1:You are our people, but ultimately you got to know that to stay healthy, you got to lift some weights, you got to go for walks, you got to really give a stimulus to your body to renew. And jujitsu, even though it is great and it is fun, it's as much breaking you down as it is building you up, and so we've got to spend some time working on this other stuff. And look, I think the thing about this is I've realized that more and more, as soon as I neglect an element of my training whether it be mobility, or maybe it's cardiovascular activity or something to keep me fit, maybe I'm not walking as much or not rolling as much as soon as I do the thing it is like oh, slapping the fuck, I thought I was staying in shape just lifting these weights. No, you got to walk as well, or you've got to make sure you're stretching as well. Just looking after one component of what you're interested in is not enough. You've got to eat the vegetables.
Speaker 2:You just sold them on the weights. You can't tell them no, the weights is fucking fantastic, bro, stop that guy. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying that, like, regardless of whatever you might focus on, we do have to consider ourselves. We're not a machine. We can't just go. I am just a widget and I just do a thing. It is a much more holistic thing.
Speaker 1:So we're talking about health and we're saying that weights is a key piece of the health, whether you like it or don't. So accepting that we also have to accept that going for a walk and being outside and getting some oxygen and spending some time in nature, this is also a key component of human health, even though it's been taken out of our day-to-day. You know, they say it's really good to either get your eyes on blue or get your eyes on green, and that's talking about either being like in a natural situation, like a forest, a mountain, whatever or near the water, because there's something it does for us which brings our stress levels down. It brings our stress hormones down and is actually very good for us, and they can't really pinpoint exactly what it is, other than we are these animals and we're used to being in those environments, not just shut in these artificially lit podcast studios. I'm saying, basically, we have to get a podcast by the beach.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying Joe, yeah, let's do it, bondi, we're coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, believe it, but there it is. Folks Get healthy and it will improve your jiu-jitsu. You broaden that base, that health base. You can build higher, no matter what you want to do, and that's what you need Now. If you want to know more about the health and fitness thing, we do have an app. We recommend you check it out. You can take your 14 day free trial. Jump in app store, play store, download the app, try it out and you can also have a chat to me and Joey. We can help you out. We'll see you in there, shoo.
