Is BJJ Worth The Physical Cost?

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Got some opinions on the matter? Leave us a comment.

Chapters

• 0:00 BJJ: Destroying Bodies, Worth Continuing?
• 1:57 The CrossFit Knee Dilemma
• 6:28 When Is The Juice Worth The Squeeze?
• 9:54 The Power of Belonging
• 12:25 Staying Connected Despite Injuries

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:10

A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Essentially, at this point the fight is over.

Speaker 1: 0:19

So you pretty much flow with the goal who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready. Bjj is destroying your body, but that's why you should keep on training. You got to keep going. We've got to talk about it because a lot of us suffer and we have this little debate in our mind Should I quit? Should I keep going? Is it worth it? And something came up, joe, and you were mentioning this before.

Speaker 2: 0:54

Yeah, so like our viewpoint, right where you know we're a couple of jocks, obviously and generally. I mean at least for myself, can, can't speak for jt, but logic prevails and um they had to don't cuss aspersions.

Speaker 1: 1:10

I mean.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Logic never prevails but so you know. So it's often like we're we're looking at it from a sort of scientific standpoint of like, well, you know, if something's causing you damage, you should probably stop doing the thing right. And so, in that sort of simple algorithm, there's a lot of people out there that probably just shouldn't train jujitsu right, because it really does fuck up like it really does cause a lot of damage for a lot of people. Sure, now, not everyone experiences this, and for some people it's more problematic than others. But, as we know, right, this is a dilemma that any grappler faces, of like, sometimes you get injured, sometimes you're on a run of injuries and you're just like, fuck, I'm actually really frustrated with this thing. Should I keep going, right?

Speaker 1: 1:55

Yeah, mention the story.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Yeah, so I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine. Shout out to Mary she's a CrossFitter Right Now, friend of mine. Shout out to mary uh she's a crossfitter right now don't hold against her, you know, hey, we all know one, they're people too. Yes, you know and and actually they're quite like us, they like doing this thing. That is kind of like self-punishment like they take pleasure in it yeah they go there, they they pay to go to a place where they get to suffer, yeah you know.

Speaker 2: 2:24

And then, and then there's this beautiful shared um sufferance, togetherness, yeah, and everyone's like fuck, how good's this, you know? And so, um, so, mary, she's got fucked up knees right and uh, whatever lifetime of training and lifting heavy weights and doing the whole shit. And um, she, you know, she's historically had bad knees as long as I've known her, and she we're hanging out the other day and she's like joey, what do you?

Speaker 2: 2:49

think she's like my knees they're fucked and I'm like I think you should stop crossfit and she's like fuck, but I but like I love it and I'm like, yeah, but what do you like? You know, like what do you like? Um, talk to me about the knees and she's like they fucking hurt all the time. One of them is is really bad. I can't run, I can't squat below parallel. Um, you know. So everything I'm doing in the gym is like modified, I can't, I can't do back squats, you know so she just does deadlifts and like power snatches and cleans and stuff. Yep, because you don't go deep, obviously, sure. And, um, I'm like, yeah, so you kind of really only doing half, like you can't even really do CrossFit.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2: 3:33

You're doing like a modified and she's like, yeah, you know, and I was like, yeah, look, I mean I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all your friends are CrossFitters. Yeah, I'm probably the only person that's going to look some bodybuilding. Maybe you should just, you know, like walk, do some isolation work. You know, still do your Olympic stuff, but like being in that class environment where, okay, you're modifying the exercises but still you're still getting sucked into it a little bit, You're still probably doing, you know, some high rep shit. You're probably still doing some fucked up stuff in the warmups, like that stuff for you is problematic, right, well, it's it's kind of one size fits all.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Right. A WOD isn't there to be, even though there's the RX component you know scalability. At the end of the day, you have to go and be a part of the thing, yeah, and if you've got a specific injury, that's not really factored in.

Speaker 2: 4:24

So and and much the same as jujitsu, right where you can like, despite your best efforts, when it comes time to roll and you know you shouldn't, and then the coach is like you can roll to it and you're like oh yeah, fuck it, I'll just go easy.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Yeah, just go light.

Speaker 2: 4:38

You can't help but bias in all the time, you know. So, anyway, she's like I had some scans done. I'm going to wait until I get the results of my scans and then let's talk more. Okay, so I saw her this week and she's like got the results of my scans and I'm like what did it show? And she's like torn meniscus and then no meniscus, both. She had the meniscus removed like 15 years, 20 years ago, and she's like arthritis on both. And I'm like, wow, that sounds pretty hectic, you know.

Speaker 2: 5:07

And so, anyway, where the conversation went after that was like what is it about CrossFit, besides the training that matters most to you? And obviously there was a whole bunch of oh, it's the people and it's the fucking community and it's I just fucking love it and I feel so good and I love being coached. I love a coach that like cracks the whip. And you know, and you, you know, what we arrived at was that there's this whole myriad of benefits that she gets from it, that, despite the daily pain and the fucking sore knees and I'm sure there's anti-inflammatories in there and modified workouts and all the shit still outweighs the negatives.

Speaker 2: 5:43

Right, the juice is worth the squeeze, and um, and I, and I thought you know, like, of course, my, my like, and I understood that when I offered her my opinion, I knew she wasn't going to quit, but I'm like you should consider this, um, but I think there's just something interesting in that to be like for a grappler to reflect on, like, yeah, there might be a time when it feels like the juice isn't worth the squeeze and maybe it's not. Maybe it's not, maybe you should quit or maybe you should take a break, but you know, potentially, wait it out for a little bit, let it simmer back, and then maybe the time comes again, it returns where the juice is worth the squeeze. And you're like you know what, even though I can't train jiu-jitsu exactly the way I want to be and be the fucking the Andrew Tackett that I wish to be.

Speaker 2: 6:33

It's okay, I still fucking this thing gives me so much value in my life. Yeah, I, I, I.

Speaker 1: 6:39

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Speaker 1: 7:24

Any great gym it doesn't matter if it's CrossFit or it's powerlifting or it's jiu-jitsu, whatever it might be you do kickboxing. The sense of belonging is so strong If it's a good group of people and they're your friends and you've done tournaments together or you've done the open together or whatever it is. The bonds you've formed and the experiences you've shared are not replicatable in any other way. Really, like sure, you might be close with your workmates or whatever, but it's just not the same. I think you know they say often like the lessons you learn the hard way are the ones that really stick. And so getting injured, suffering a lot, all these things that really hardwires in emotion and in in the body, in the feeling of it, those experiences, and you remember who was around you, uh, whether you loved them or not, like we were together, and you know we've talked about it before.

Speaker 1: 8:16

The togetherness thing is, sometimes it could feel very like, like I don't, I can't, I can't touch that feeling in any other situation and that's why people do stick with the suffering. And yeah, jujitsu, I think, is big enough in its skill scope. You can work around your shit Like. You know, like not that you will necessarily performing jujitsu to its fullest extent, but I think it's big enough that even if you've got like we're seeing, I would say, a lot of folks coming to no gi, like even though we said it might favor a younger athletic person well, if your fingers are all busted up from judo or gripping the gi and you're like, well, I don't have to grip the gi now.

Speaker 1: 9:00

My hands don't hurt so much, I can keep that going. You know there's there's lots of ways. I don't get stuck in worm guard here yeah, I'm not getting, I'm not getting twisted up, you know, like in lasso or whatever it might be. So I think there's more room for reinvention as a grappler within the world of grappling and jujitsu than, say, crossfit. Like if you can't lock out overhead, that takes away a huge part of what CrossFit is right. In the same way, if you can't squat below 90, it takes that away. Whereas in jujitsu we've seen it we see people who are in black belts and brown belts, who don't have their full physical function but still roll quite well based on the game they've built around their limits.

Speaker 2: 9:43

Yeah, I mean in a sense like jiu-jitsu is endless in that regard, I mean, CrossFit is basically five exercises that just get recycled into different formats, and so those cunts they love that shit. Yeah, for sure Today. So those cunts sign up, they love that shit.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 9:55

Wait, today we did the burpees before the kettlebell swings oh what? And then we ran around the block. You're like fuck that's so good. Kipping handstand pushups so creative.

Speaker 1: 10:06

But no for sure, and I think that this is the most confronting thing with anything you do in your life is you're constantly doing this little. Is it worth it? Is it worth it, you know, like a business, a relationship. You're like man. It was so shit today, but then you have these moments of just the best, the best feeling you could feel all day, all year. Whatever you have those moments, you're like this makes it all worth it, whatever that looks like. So you're like this makes it all worth it, whatever that looks like.

Speaker 1: 10:34

And I think what I've seen at least is parents who get their kids into jujitsu. They're now like they're as much in it for their kids as they are for them. Yeah, you know. So seeing their kid get their first stripe or seeing their kid win a tournament, they're so proud and it just fills their cup so much. Don't even really give a fuck about how bad their knees or their shoulders are. They're like I'll just keep going because I want to stay connected to this, this, this feeling of um, yeah, of just a personal expression or whatever it might be, you know.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Yeah, and I mean I think you know like we see those stories a lot, right, I was at tom de blas posted about. Was it him posted about one of his students who, oh no, or was it uh, rafael levato, who basically his fucking legs don't work his knees are knees are buckled. He's on a wheelchair, I think and but he drags himself, he wheels up to the side of the mat one of the students yeah, yeah, and then just fucking grapples real hard.

Speaker 2: 11:31

Yeah, despite these crippling and and and I don't my impression was it was not because he had suffered like. It was not because he had, like you know, he was disabled in some way or incapacitated, but it was more. Just he'd fucked his knees up so much from training that now he couldn't use them.

Speaker 1: 11:50

And so you look at that and you're like Self-inflicted disability, yeah and you're like, oh, because I don't abide that I don't know.

Speaker 2: 11:57

But obviously the dude's like no man juice is worth the squeeze. You're like, all right, fuck, do it. Who am I to say otherwise? But I think our general message is you don't want to end up completely destroying yourself at all costs, right yourself at all costs, right, but, um, but it's, you know. Yeah, I think it's good to reflect on. There is, there is something in that because, well, fuck you, you're going to cop damage, right, you are. Life's going to, life's going to fucking hammer you in many ways.

Speaker 1: 12:26

It is. But I think what we're probably getting to here, which is probably as important as anything, is, even when you do cop an injury, staying connected is key, like that's. That's kind of part of the healing process. It's not just healing the joint itself. It's that people often when they get injured, they feel disassociated, they feel like, oh, I've, I'm not part of my group anymore. And you know, the thing that we know, we know with our own community, is like once you cop your first serious injury and you've joined the family, you've joined the jujitsu family, which is injury town.

Speaker 1: 12:58

But your ability, um, you know and there's a lot of research around this to show that your longevity in terms of mental and physical health has a lot to do with your connections. So to get isolated or to separate yourself, um, is actually not going to help any healing you might achieve. So if there's a way for you to stay connected with your people, it doesn't mean you have to do jiu-jitsu when you're injured. But I believe maintaining the connection, however you do that over time, means you're going to have a healthier life across a broader spectrum. We might say, oh yeah, spectrum jiu-jitsu. So this is the hardest thing, because there's so many days that make you want to quit, even if you're not injured. But staying, the ability to stay connected to people you care about, I think is greater than the pain you can suffer as an individual. Yeah, so you get the right balance on that and then, yeah, staying connected is the key there. It is, yes, stay connected folks. This is the way. This is the way.