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
You Are Warming Up Wrong And Here Are 3 Steps To Fix It
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Traditional warmups like treadmill running are outdated and less effective for strength training (and jiu jitsu). Warmups should follow three steps:
• Step 1: Remove the handbrakes by addressing mobility limitations from daily activities
• Step 2: Activate your nervous system with dynamic movements
• Step 3: Strategically ramp up to your working weights
• A proper warmup only takes 10-15 minutes but dramatically improves performance
The same principles apply to both weight training and BJJ preparation. Focus your warmup on the specific demands of your upcoming training session. Take the extra time and prepare yourself.
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?
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:The three steps to a successful warmup for BJJ or the weight room. Now people tend to skip warmups. Hey, I forgive you this time, but you are leaving gains on the table by not warming up. Right, and we've got to talk about it, joe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think my take on people going to the gym and stuff is that, on the whole, people are getting better at it. We're getting more educated. I think we're exposed to more training content through social media and stuff, and so you know, you see people, more people doing better strength exercises these days. Sure, still see plenty of people doing total bullshit, but I think en masse it's getting better. But I think a lot of folks are still lost about that initial 20 minutes when they get to the gym.
Speaker 1:Look, the classic thing which I find is actually holding people back. People go oh, just go get on the treadmill. You're like dude, why? Why? No, I've got to elevate my body temperature. You're like no, that's not going to make you stronger. That's what a trainer told me to do 15 years ago, when I had a complimentary PT session as part of my $17 a week 24-hour gym membership.
Speaker 1:Don't get me wrong. Yes, you do need to elevate your body temperature, it's true. Yes, I agree. But don't think doing jumping jacks or running on a treadmill or some bullshit is going to make you stronger or better prepared for BJJ. It's just. That is not the right way to come at it. Let's talk about how we can, in a very short period of time, get people primed to get fucking strong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like I guess the other part of it too is and I'm thinking particularly about people using our programs when you are newer in the strength journey, you're not lifting a huge amount of weight, right? You're not doing high intensity strength training yet, so your warmups don't need to be as big as when you're further down the line and have more training under your belt. You're going to be lifting bigger loads. Sure, you're going to need a more considerable warmup. Yeah, but the same principles apply.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and it's more just the habit. I think that's the thing like jujitsu in some ways and we've discussed it before you can kind of get away with coming in, like maybe you come in a bit late, just do the first little. Oh, I missed the warmup. And so, even though we know that this can, over time, lead to injury, it's not necessarily the way straight up. But if you're someone who's trying to get stronger, doing a really good warmup, that ticks these three boxes will set you up for strength, strength, success, as opposed to just kind of wandering in a bit of this and then, yeah, I'll just pick the bar up, you know.
Speaker 1:So, first step, the thing that we've got to acknowledge is that if you've just sat in the car for half an hour, an hour, you've driven to the gym, whatever you got stuck in traffic, you're on the train, you've been sitting down all day. You've driven to the gym, whatever you got stuck in traffic, you're on the train, you've been sitting down all day. We got to limber up, like we have to remove the fucking handbrakes, folks, because you've been in these postures and the positions. That doesn't mean it's conducive to lifting. So the thing that I always try to do for myself, and if I'm working with anybody to help them, it's to remove these things which may limit their ability to be strong. So let me explain.
Speaker 1:My example of this is if someone is squatting or deadlifting and they need strong hip extension, if they've been sitting down all day, typically there'll be this shortened position at the hip, you know, and so spending a bit of time doing some lunging and doing some work which opens up through the front of the hip and gets the glutes switched on actually serves like as a bit of a correction for that. And then after that they're like oh, they stand a bit taller, a bit straighter, and their body is primed to now do the thing. Have you got something that you like to do with folks, joe?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, Like front of the hip, a little bit of like squatting, like just getting into a squat, hanging out there a bit pushing the knees out, opening up the hips, lengthening the spine and some hanging, Hanging's great. You know, I'm thinking of like the three things that I will kind of just habitually do usually while I'm thinking about what I'm actually going to do. Sure, I'll just start doing that.
Speaker 1:My go-to for the upper body is a dislocate Like I love a dislocate whether you've got a piece of timber like a dowel or a band just because it does stretch the pecs. It opens up the chest, but it also gets the upper back, rear delts, rhomboids, it gets all that fired, fired up and it also gets you a bit straighter. Yeah, gets the thoracic spine opened up and and it really ticks a lot of boxes without a lot of effort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that yeah, um, but absolutely like. I think as you become more in tune with what your body's feeling, you do get a sense of what you need that day.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you also start to anticipate what you're going to be doing in the session, right, yeah, like say, if I'm, um, if I'm going into the gym, I've been working standards, the new standards program lately, right. And if I'm going in and I know that it's the upper body day, I don't spend much time warm like loosening up my lower body, right right, I'm, I'm focused, I'm you know hanging.
Speaker 2:I'm doing some tabletop press, some scat push-ups. I'm doing some, you know, some cuban rotations, like it's all shoulder and upper body, focused. Likewise on the lower body day. We're all about the legs, right? So it's. It's, I think, um for the general person. Keep it general. But as your training starts to branch off into areas of more specificity, you can start to take your, your warmup towards those directions too.
Speaker 1:For sure. The next major checkbox you need to look at is nervous system activation. It's getting your body awake and ready for the task at hand. So talk about optimum arousal. I'm not talking about the bedroom, folks.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about getting your muscles fired up, so that can look like a variety of things, whether that be broad jumps, hops, kind of bouncing, some dynamic work through the upper body, whether that be like a dynamic pushup or you're doing some rotational work. Explosive, like fast. Stuff works really well for this, doesn't it? Yeah, it gets the nervous system going, because what this actually does, is it Even just squat jumps on the spot. This demands more of your nervous system than just a normal squat. By pulling all these resources in and being like hey, body, wake up, get these muscles working, by switching on as many muscle fibers as you can. By doing this dynamic work, it is better prepared to take load. Then you will be safer and better set up to produce force.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I famously like when I learned this concept as a young PT and I'm sure there's a fancy name for it, but I was like doing it on everyone. And I remember I used to train my girlfriend. At the time I trained her mom and her little sister and they trained with me for years. They were great and the mom a wonderful woman. She started her training journey with me in her late what was she? Early 50s I guess, and so it was like she'd had three kids and it wasn't?
Speaker 2:we had to be respectful of a lot.
Speaker 2:Anyway we used to train in this park at surry hills and the.
Speaker 2:What I had learned was you know, if you take a big, heavy resistance band and you wrap it around someone's waist, oh yeah, and then you hold on to that, so you're kind of holding them back and you get them to run as hard as they can, yes, and so I was like, hey, I want you to run as hard as you can, for, like, I want you to get from there to there. It's like 25 meters under resistance and I'm just going to be like hanging back on you and making it hard. And so, yeah, you know, she did it right, driving with the legs, driving, driving, you know, got it. And then I was like, great, now we take the band off. And I was like, hey, really cool thing, now what I want you to do is just come back to the start and I want you to sprint it again, but I'm without the band, I just want you to feel how much faster you are. And she's like all right, and she fucking took off so quick that she lost. She basically like she hit the ground.
Speaker 2:She hit the concrete. Because she took off so fast, her balance was all fucked up, couldn't control it, and she was like, oh and like, hit the concrete. And I was like, oh God, like middle-aged woman hitting the concrete in a PT session. I'm like that's terrible. And she was like, what'd you fucking do to me, you know?
Speaker 1:and I was like, see man, see how activated you are powerful you're primed that nervous system, perfect example yeah no, the there there is a term for this and, and you know, some people might know potentiation post activate, post activation, potentiation, right. So typically you know, folks might do like a heavy lift, like three squats, and then do some squat jumps, because your nervous system is so G'd up and it's true Like if you impose a dynamic demand, your body is then prepared to do something where your nervous system is required to do more.
Speaker 2:But my favorite way to go about that too is because I want to shorten the warmup is and I know we'll talk about this next but when I'm doing my warmup sets of whatever exercise in during those warmup sets, in the rest periods, where I don't actually need much rest cause they're warmup sets- yeah. I'll do some of the some of the jumping work or whatever Dynamic work, yeah, and I find I just kind of superset that for maybe three rounds or so and then I'm at my heavy shit.
Speaker 1:For sure, and this is the other thing too and you know, John, I've talked about this before we're doing something dynamic like a hop or a jump, it actually requires more of all the smaller fibers around your knees and ankles, which means, proprioceptively, you are actually better balanced, You're more switched on. So the thing that we started including off the advice of Joe's knee specialist is hopping, Just standing on the spot, or some lateral hops before you start doing jujitsu, just to get everything switched on. Because even though we don't jump necessarily a lot in jujitsu, or we don't think of doing that, even though we hop, if we're defending a single leg or anything like this, it's a really good way to make sure everything is prepared before you load it up with a person or you load it up with a heavy weight. And so this brings us to the third point, which is the idea of a ramp up.
Speaker 1:Now, I actually learned this many years ago from one of the guys from Westside Barbell, and he was so staunch I mean, most guys from that gym are but he was talking about how Louis Simmons got them all to do certain strategic ramp up weights before they hit their max working weight. And I know a lot of people who just don't do that. They don't. They might do one light set but then just like, if they're deadlifting a hundred kilos, they just jump to a hundred and you're like what are you?
Speaker 2:what are you doing? Folks are like no, I don't want to use all my energy, I don't want to waste energy. Yeah, I'll save it for the, for the working sets.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing you have to consider that the ramp up is part of your warmup and you're also checking in with your body because, my friends, I am here to save you time. I do not want you to waste time drinking Gatorade, powerade or any other suboptimal electrolyte drink. You know why? It's just sugar. I have the answer for you, my friends. It is Sodi, the sponsor of today's show. Sodi is the perfect mix of sodium, potassium and magnesium, and those are the salts that make your muscles work, so you can choke a fool. Also, it's delicious, and when you go to sodicomau and use the code BULLETPROOF15, you get 15% off. So what you're waiting for? Get the hydration, get the electrolytes and get choking fools today. Here's the thing Even though last time 100 kilos was normal or easy, today might be different.
Speaker 1:Today it might be easier or it might be a lot harder for various reasons. So doing the ramp up is a way to check in with yourself Progressively. Yeah, because if you, let's say, for you, you know your max deadlift is a hundred kilos and you do the bar and you know 40 kilos and 60, you're ramping up, you get to 18, you're like I'm struggling, like I should be able to do this very easily five times I can. I can barely do it. That's feedback. But hey, maybe today is not the day that we do this, because maybe you do need to back it off. So I feel that like People are like. I don't want to know that.
Speaker 1:I want to just I just want to lift it. Yeah, I just want to bulge my discs. Okay, Stop holding me back. But no, the ramp up is and this is the thing I learned from people way smarter and way stronger than me that the ramp up is an integral part of the warmup. The workout doesn't start until you're at your working weight, so the ramp up is part of the warmup, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you know, yeah, and that thing that some people mention about, like I don't want to use all my energy, that's really silly, because you actually, if you do a good job of ramping up appropriately, you will be able to lift the most yeah, better, whereas if you don't, if you go in we've all done this before where you've kind of shortcutted the workout for whatever reason you've gone straight to some hard shit.
Speaker 2:It's fucking way harder than it should be. You're like man, that that 120 kilos today feels gross and usually you go and do it again the second time and it feels totally different. It's better because your body has felt it and your body has, yeah, right, like you said, it's like that's pulled in the resources to deal with the task at hand. Yeah, and this is we got to understand this about strength training that we're doing a hyper specific movement with a very specific loading. Like your body, uh, it's very isolated in terms of what it is for your movement, and so the more you can be communicating to your body hey, in a moment I'm going to ask you to do this, in a moment I'm going to ask you to do this the better it's going to work with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whereas if you shock that thing it's going to hurt.
Speaker 1:You're going to pay a price for it, and here's just an aside Like I'm pretty boring, pretty methodical in a lot of ways, but it's Pavlovian right. Like it's the idea that I'm gearing myself up psychologically for the task at hand. So having my coffee at a certain time, having some dark chocolate or having some almonds or something like it's, the body is like oh shit, are we doing that thing today, driving in the car, listening to the certain music? It's like I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world and I'm just like yeah fuck heavy deadlifts.
Speaker 1:So then when I get to the gym, my body's like, oh, it's fucking on, like we know. Now. This is what's happening, and the gradual buildup is a positive feedback loop because I am setting my intention that, all right, I'm picking this bar up, and each time I'm noticing how easy or hard is that? Because it's positive. If you go to pick up something which is 80% of your estimated weight and it feels like nothing, you're like, oh, I'm on today, this is good, I'm ready, and so that has a very positive influence on you being ready physically and mentally to do the damn thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess, just to sort of make that clear, like, let's take the standards workout, the current one I'm working through as an example You've got you go and you do your warmup right, where we take care of a lot of this in the warmup, and then you've got your like primary to upper body strength exercises right. You got a pull of some kind and a press of some kind and these are going to be like these are your primary exercises. This is the heavy shit. So you will do the ramp up right. If it's a weight like, if it's a press, you know, if it's a kettlebell press or bottoms up press, something like that, you can just choose the lighter kettlebell, do it that way.
Speaker 2:But if it's a pull-up or something, you might do some bent-over rows or some ring rows or some scap pulls as a way to get primed for that. Once you get those exercises out of the way, you then go to another set of pressing and pulling exercises. Your body's already at peak activation. You don't need to then do ramp-ups for that, no Right, and it's the same as if it's your second hinge exercise and second squat. You did it all in the warmup. Your body's going really well. You can pretty much jump straight into the heavy shit now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it really, when you're looking at accessory work, like once you've done your primaries, obviously you want to get the most out of them. But if you've kind of given your all to the primary lifts, accessories you just you're kind of doing what you can and it doesn't mean you don't You're not trying to change the world. No, it doesn't mean you don't respect them and give them the best you've got. But you also appreciate that like, okay, I'm now not operating at full tank, I am warm and yeah, I can do what I can, but it really depends on the day, you know, and how tough that those primary exercises were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great way to put it. Like the majority of your bandwidth goes to the primary exercises.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah and look, there's a lot to be gained in the accessory work. But when we're talking about these warmups, like when we're talking about getting yourself ready, that does set you up for the rest of the workout. And you know, if you've lifted well with your kind of first two lifts and you're feeling good, that sets the tone. There's nothing worse than you show up to the gym and you're like you're trying to get into it and then you're like you're having a bit of a shit one and then you're like, oh, I suck today, like you can get into a bit of a negative spiral, you know. And then this can, this can kind of, I guess, lower the tone and the quality for the whole session. So by setting the tone well and warming up correctly, this can mean overall it's a better session.
Speaker 2:So, um, you know, if we're talking like we've got three things there, right, like take the handbrakes off, brakes off, um, get your nervous system fired up and then get your ramp upsets in. So the ramp upsets, you're doing your primary exercise there, so that's the same exercise. So you know, in terms of like, how many exercises you'd be putting into a warm-up. You know, if we're talking about the first two steps there, what's, what's that look like for you?
Speaker 1:for me it's generally usually three-ish exercises, so I will usually do something for my upper body, specific to what I'm doing, something for my hips, my core and something for my knees and ankles. That's usually also just seeing, like, oh, how tired am I today, some days better than others. Then I might do one, one, maybe two, depending on time, of like a plyometric or a dynamic exercise. So it probably shakes down to three to five, but it only takes, honestly, 10, 15 minutes. And I think a lot of people like, oh, it seems like so much, but you're trying to keep it moving because you are trying to elevate your body temperature and you're trying to get to the thing. So I think that's the thing that we talk ourselves out of it, like, oh, I don't have time, but actually by missing it, then you kind of you lose the opportunity to be stronger, potentially.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I'm about the same and and you know you're resting during your like. When you get to the heavy stuff you're taking big rest periods generally, so like you have that time there. If you've got 10 minutes to do a warmup, do the warmup Like just fucking bang it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Three exercises for it, Like pick a few things that work well for you, whether switching on to okay, we're going to go do some training now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, and, look, it is the smallest investment you can make to get big returns from your workout. So we do all this other stuff right To try and get stronger and feel better, and I think that this approach is applicable to jujitsu as well. Yeah, and we do tend to miss out on it, but by taking that extra 10 minutes before class and limbering up and and geeing up the nervous system and all these things, the ramp up is kind of built into the class. So, yeah, you, you know, even if your class does a specific warmup or games or whatever they do at your academy, taking a little bit of time to prep the body, it goes a long way for you to be better prepared for jiu-jitsu as well as the gym. There it is folks, buss, buss, be prepared, gestrown.
