QNA: Inversions, Hyper-mobility, & Where to Start

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Chapters

• 0:00 Listener Q&A Setup
• 0:33 Question 1: Inverting Without Wrecking Your Neck
• 3:16 Flexibility vs Compression Strength
• 5:00 Safer Inversion Drills and Tolerance
• 6:03 Question 2: Hypermobility Without Self-Destruct
• 8:03 Build Strength Before Fancy Guards
• 10:10 Old-School Guards for Long-Term Health
• 12:20 When Flexibility Becomes a Liability
• 14:05 Question 3: Starting BJJ After Major Weight Loss
• 15:16 Early Priorities: Defense and Escapes
• 16:01 Learn One Fix Per Class
• 17:20 How to Leave Voicemails and Wrap-Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

You better listen very carefully. A good martial artist does not become tense but ready.

SPEAKER_04: 0:12

Essentially, at this point, the fight is over.

SPEAKER_02: 0:16

So you pretty much flow with the goal.

SPEAKER_04: 0:21

Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready.

SPEAKER_03: 0:32

What's up, fam? Welcome to the QA episode. Today we've got three questions from you guys, and we're going to answer them. If you want to leave us a question, go to bulletproof for bjj.com, hit the podcast page and record us a voicemail. Tell us your name, tell us where you're from. We fucking love hearing where you guys are from. Um, it lets us know that there are people out here on the other end of this shit having a listen. Yes, sir. All right, here we go. First one coming in from Bree, old friend of the show. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

Hey, Joey and JT. This is Bree from the States, uh longtime listener, second time caller. Uh, I wanted to ask a question about getting better at inverting. Uh, I just got my blue belt. I am an active competitor, and as I was competing over this last weekend, I'm watching the expert divisions and just watching these ladies be, you know, on their neck for the majority of the match, like either working for a submission, working for an escape, using their legs to get back into, you know, either guard or mount. And I'm like, wow, I um can't do that yet. So I don't know if it's like primal fear with a combination of immobility of my cervical and thoracic spine. But um, I have a hard time even doing like a static Granby, much to the chagrin of my coaches. Uh so I would love your advice on how to get better at that. Uh hope you guys are both well. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_04: 1:53

Bro, you legend, good to hear from you. Yeah, lovely to hear from you. Congrats on the blue belt. Um look, I I'm gonna say having an inversion game isn't necessarily for everybody, but having the capacity to go there temporarily or momentarily is good and necessary. So the first step I would say is can you kind of how close are you to kind of getting your head on your knees? Can you stand and put your palms on the floor? Like, I think an essential thing that you need to check within yourself is like, how's your forward fold? How's your hamstrings? How's your lower back to be in that very tight flexed position? Then the other flip side on that is when you are on your back and you're lifting your feet up, like how's your compression strength through your abs and your hip flexes? And that's actually like a really important piece of the puzzle that people forget that people go, oh, my hamstrings are tight, but often the other side of that is they're not actually that strong in the abs and in the hip hip flexes to be in such a tight compressed position. So, first step is to be working on that forward fold and just see where you are, um, whether you're doing a J curl or just uh doing different amounts of hamstring work, and then the other side of that is like um can you do a dragon flag or are you doing any like strong compression work, toaster bar, LC? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 3:18

Your take, Joey? Yeah, I think all of that, I think um definitely like the point of like you don't need to be inverting a lot, like as part of your game. I like I've got all the physical capacity for it, but I don't like inverting that much. It just doesn't kind of, I don't know, doesn't feel right to me.

SPEAKER_04: 3:35

It it there is a risk to reward. Like if you spend a lot of time there, even though it can give you benefits from jujitsu, the reason I spend less time there is the chance of injury is higher. Yeah, if someone just stacks on you or just jumps on you and you're in that position, the chance of uh disc and vertebrate injury is high.

SPEAKER_03: 3:53

Um, the other part of it is like the like addressing just the movement of your spine generally. And this is where the JKL is really good, like the top portion of that will sort of give you the core, like teach you how to try to segment each of your vertebrae, starting from the top, working your way down. Um, but I would be looking for other drills that also help with that, right? And just generally trying to build a little bit more what's the word I would use yeah, tolerance, control of the spine. Because most of us don't really know how to articulate our spine because we don't practice doing it. Yeah, right. Uh I'm not trying to recommend you do spinal waves. Oh, I thought you were gonna go there, but spinal waves are really good for this, but but you know, especially for an old for like a mature age person, right? And I say mature, like as in an adult, anyone, if you've lived a life where you haven't been like working on your spine, like let's say you're a gymnast, let's say you're a dancer, um, you do you're doing shit that utilizes your spine a lot. If you are not one of those things, your spine, you're probably a little bit unintelligent when it comes to trying to articulate it. So I would just work on it more and I would invert more in training. Yeah, you know, I hate to fucking say it. JT's gonna blow up about this one, but solo drills. Oh, why you don't need to buy a DVD, you don't need to subscribe, you just need to just do some back rolls and shit, just do some inversions on the wall and that kind of thing. And I think over time you you let your body know, like, hey, I'm actually I'm all right with this, the coordination's good, and who knows? After a bit of time, you might be able to weave it into your roles.

SPEAKER_04: 5:25

You don't have to go to the dark side to learn about the force. That's all I'm saying. You can you can do plenty of mobility drills, which are not solo drills per se. But Brie, I think it's it's it's in you, you can do it. It's as to whether or not you actually want to be one of those people. Because it it it does it does bear a cost.

SPEAKER_03: 5:44

That um that wall one is a real nice one where you just sit facing, you're sitting on your bum facing the wall, you know, you you you you're gonna you're gonna invert to one side and you're gonna walk your feet along the wall. Yeah. And this is a re because you got a bit of feedback from the wall and roll, and you just you can adjust it. Yeah, that's a really great way to start. Uh second question coming in from Jack.

SPEAKER_02: 6:15

Refresh this podcast, I've been listening for a few months now. So I'm a white belt. I've been training for a couple of years, and I'm naturally I'm hypermobile, so I'm naturally quite flexible. And early on I really leaned hard into learning guards like the rubber guard. Now, obviously, I'm doing something wrong because I'm a white belt and I managed to injure myself because I think I ended up pushing my knees too far and ended up paying for it. So I guess my question is is for people who are hypermobile, what guards or positions actually make sense to focus on? And how can I use my flexibility without just wrecking my body in the process? Thanks again for all the awesome content.

SPEAKER_04: 7:11

Jack, that's a very good, responsible question. Good question. All right, so I I have a strong I have a strong take on this. I have plenty of friends in the 10th planet world and and you know, some very flexible people. Here's the thing if you are hypermobile and you your joints move very easily in certain positions because you are relying on this, I wouldn't say it's passive, but this kind of default mode of being able to move your joints further than most people, you are stressing the connective tissues. You are not really using your muscles to their proper, you know, proper limit. And so in that way, you're becoming reliant on something, a trait which is potentially injurious. And you've you've kind of found that out, right? You've fucked around and found out. And I say that with no, I'm not, I I feel bad for you, man. And it's not you didn't know and you just had to try, right? My general advice actually is before we even go to like talking about styles of jujitsu, if you're someone out there who knows they're hyper flexible, you need to start doing strength training. Like if you do not, you are really hanging all the stress on your joints and you and you're doing it in positions where it's not stabilized. So if you haven't done some form of strength training to help reinforce the joints, those connective tissues over time are going to break down because you're not doing work to reinforce them. I would say you finding a game that suits you. Now, I don't know your proportions. Generally, if you are a flexible person, you will be able to find ways to regard and find triangles and do a variety of things, which is great. But before you go to the move of what jujitsu should I be doing, if you've been injured by relying too much on your flexibility, I would encourage you to start to reinforce your joints with some strength training before you go anywhere else with your jujitsu.

SPEAKER_03: 9:01

Yeah, well said. I'd also say, um, yeah, not like what type of guards should I be doing. The type of guards you should not be doing are the ones that rely on your physical superpower, which is hypermobility. Don't do those guards. Like, um, maybe use them as a get out of jail free card, like when you absolutely have to. But if you are building a game that is reliant upon you taking your joints to that end range all the time, you're only going to be causing yourself damage. And you'll see this at the elite level of guys who have like made that deal with the devil, and like, I don't give a fuck. I want to win, and this is my fast, this is my and so that's like fair enough in that realm. But if you're trying to be healthy and live a long life and train jujitsu for a long time, that doesn't work. And you you're early in the journey too. Yeah. I mean, hate to say it, but if you look at old school jujitsu, that's the stuff that is pretty physically safe for everyone. Half guard, closed guard, butterfly guard, yeah, build a bit of Delaheva in the Ghee. Sure. You know, um, like nothing super crazy, right? Sure. Bit of Spider Guard.

SPEAKER_04: 10:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 10:04

Um, but if you look at like if you look at a lot of the a lot of the more modern stuff, it really is reliant on like in particular the 10th planet stuff. Sure. Right? Like um What's that rubber guard? Yeah, like Rubberguard specifically. Yeah, just you don't want to be relying on that shit.

SPEAKER_04: 10:19

Um it's not to say don't save it, don't do it at all.

SPEAKER_03: 10:23

Know it. Yeah, it's but don't make that like like if you're rolling, right? If you're if you're if you're rolling in class, and let's say you're doing 30 minutes of rounds and you're trying three times a week, if you're ending up in rubber guard in every role for like prolonged periods of time versus my go-to guard's gonna be something a little bit more fucking uh meat and potatoes, gonna be some butterfly or some X or whatever. Sure. And then every now and again when I'm getting fucked up, I'm gonna go back to my back to my rubber guard shit. I'm gonna you you're just reducing the amount of time you're in that spot where your knees are getting fucking mashed. I was actually rolling with a guy not long ago who had that style of game. I couldn't pass his guard. His guard was so hard to pass, and then his knee popped. Oh no, he just he fed he fed his he grabbed his foot and he fed it back in, and you know, and I was putting pressure on it and then and he's like, oh, and I was like, uh, and I'm like, uh like once the dust had settled, I'm like, maybe you just look at your game, bro, because it's you know, I I felt like it, I was kind of waiting for something to happen. It's tough, it's so tough.

SPEAKER_04: 11:24

And and the thing is we're all good to or not. We're like, hey, this is working, yeah. And now you can't walk properly. So man, not not not to wish that on you, but uh ultimately for the longevity piece, uh, we need to strengthen up those joints outside of jujitsu. So a little bit of strength training. This is my recommendation.

SPEAKER_03: 11:42

Always, always strength training. Jack, give us an update once you've watched done six or twelve months of that.

SPEAKER_04: 11:48

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SPEAKER_03: 12:30

Last question coming in.

SPEAKER_00: 12:32

Kyoto boys, uh Kippa from Fangrey and Alteru and New Zolon. Uh first off, just wanted to say um you guys uh the reason why I've started uh Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Um I was uh 235 kgs at my max, um now down to uh 155. Oh yeah. Um had um gastric bypass surgery in April this year. Um my son wanted to do a martial art and we put him into BJJ, and somehow I came across your podcast, and yeah, it's been super inspiring. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. Um my question is uh like I'm literally like two weeks in and uh I kind of don't know what I'm doing. Um we've had spas, etc. Um, we've learned uh some techniques uh in in the classes, um, and I have a little bit of knowledge from uh when my mates used to go BJJ and then we used to roll uh in the park. But um what would you say would be the best thing to focus on right now? Uh open guard, closed guard, uh sweeps, etc. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 13:50

Well, amazing. Oh, Kyoto brother. What a Keppel, what a legend!

SPEAKER_03: 13:54

Man, that's fucking cool, bro. Man, shout out to our our our Kiwi brothers and sisters. Fangaday, I think I had one of the most memorable burgers of my life in that town. Oh, wow, they're with Paul years ago when we'll when we were working in New Zealand for a period. Oh, amazing. I had a sick, it was a beef burger with blue cheese in the patty. Wow, it was fucking unbelievable. It sounds special. I hope they're still doing them.

SPEAKER_04: 14:13

Yeah, well, look, this this is this is my advice. Uh any any person that comes to me, it doesn't matter uh if they're early in their first year, like say it's their first year of jujitsu. One of the most important things for you to get a grip on is kind of uh getting back to a position of control. So whether that's escapes or defenses, like you're gonna spend more time getting kind of beat on than having success. And that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn submissions or you shouldn't learn attacks. I'm not saying that, but honestly, you will spend most of your time defending. And if you don't have good defense, even if you've got a really good submission, you're only ever gonna find that a very small percentage of the time. So the sooner you improve your defense and the sooner you get better at just moving and finding a way back to some form of control or neutrality, um, you're you're just gonna keep floundering otherwise. So my advice is if you can learn where you're safe and where you're not, learn how to defend against the major attacks, and then also you know, ask your coach, how do I go from where I am now back to a point where I can try some shit? Because if you don't know that transition, then yeah, you're you're gonna be a bit stuck.

SPEAKER_03: 15:34

Yeah. I agree with JT's take, though I'm gonna offer you an alternative, which is that two weeks in, don't worry about it. Just just keep doing just keep showing up at this stage, really, just because there's there's too much, there's too many. So much. There's so much, and there's so much, like not even technique, but there's so much like new on the mats. You're probably like your body's been through a big transition, right? Like, I don't know how you you're gonna probably gonna be the biggest guy on the mats. Maybe that comes with its own sort of considerations, and like so. I'm like, just just be there and just learn whatever they're teaching. Um, but approach with the view that every lesson I want to walk away with at least one thing, I can improve.

SPEAKER_04: 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:13

So if it is the case that oh fuck, I keep just getting attacked, I keep getting subbed by the same thing, ask the coach, how do I defend that thing? Yeah, right. Or if I keep getting stuck in side control, all right, how do I fucking get out of it? Like, use that as a as a metric. Let's say you get 12 months in, then it would be like, all right, where should I start to direct my focus? That would be my alternative take.

SPEAKER_04: 16:34

Well, no, I on that I would say don't repeat your mistakes. You can always make like making mistakes is what jujitsu is, but try not to keep making the same mistake. Like make a mistake, learn, fix, and then make new mistakes. And this will absolutely ensure your development however you approach the game. Kippa, what a legend. Oh, amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 16:53

I love to hear the accent. Fuck, I I wonder, I would love to be able to hear that from like an American listener's just to be like the first five three seconds of that voice. Like, what the fuck is this? Like, did he know what language is that? We have to get subtitles on this bad boy. Um, guys, appreciate the voicemails. We've got a few more to get through, which we'll be recording over time. If you've left us one recently, we did take a small break because JT was traveling, and so um, don't fret, we will get to it. But please uh go to the Bulletproof webpage and record us a voicemail because we'd love to hear from you guys. Bulletproof for bjj.com. Hit the podcast tab, big red record button, leave it, and we'll catch you on a future episode. Peace. Appreciate you all.