QNA: Training/Lifting Balance, Breathing Techniques, & Child Prodigies

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Chapters

• 0:00 Listener Q&A Kicks Off
• 0:30 Firefighter Training And Recovery Balance
• 4:40 Adapting Volume To Life Stress
• 9:20 Conditioning vs Mat Time Tradeoffs
• 10:50 The Breathing Debate: Mouth vs Nose
• 16:50 Tools, Trends, And What Actually Helps
• 20:20 Practical Breathing Takeaways

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:00

What's up, fam? Welcome to the Bulletproof Show. It's QA time today. So we've got three questions from you guys. And if you want to leave us a question for a future QA episode, head to Bulletproof at BJJ.com and hit the podcast tab, record us a voicemail. Please. Just a note, we actually capped out on our storage of voice messages because we've got a fucking shitload. So if you have encountered an inability to record a voicemail uh in recent weeks, that issue is now fixed. So please go ahead and record your thing. Let's get into the first one today. From Hudson Kalena.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

Hey Joey, hey JT, 25-year-old white belt from Fargo, North Dakota, in the States here. I'm also a career firefighter EMT, working three 24-hour shifts in a 10-day period at the fire station. I lift at least three times a week outside of work. I'm working out every shift, and I'm also training BJJ as much as possible. My workouts on shift will be normally conditioning, either sprint work, plyometrics, and abs. I'm also doing 10 to 15 minutes of mobility and stretching before every workout I do just to try and stay limber, you know? What would you guys say is a better way for me to either schedule my week or pro do my programming to where I can still get better at BJJ while also not absolutely taxing my body to the limit. Because looking long term, I want to be able to play ball with my kids when I have them. I want to be able to enjoy activities that my wife and I enjoy way down the road, you know? Uh yeah, let me know what you guys think. I absolutely love the show. You guys are fantastic. I got you all set on notifications. I'm listening the day of every time. God bless you both. Love you guys. God bless you, sir.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51

Ah, Hudson, what a legend. What a what a shout out, Dakota, man. Hey, I gotta say, that's a um an interesting accent. I've not is I've never I don't think I've ever met anyone from Dakota. And that I I mean, I I'm guessing it sounds more north, right? It just it has a it has its own flavor. I I I apologize for my lack of not uh. I mean, Dakota's like um a lot of fucking open land out there, right? It is. I think I've watched a lot of Renella meat eater episodes where they're out that way, wolves and shit, coyotes.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17

Yeah, possibly. I mean, look, cool. That's amazing. So, man, thank you. You've you've you've painted us a great picture, and I I I appreciate that because sometimes when people call in, they they leave us with a few holes in in what's going on there.

SPEAKER_04: 2:32

Well, what we didn't get from Hudson is he didn't mention any specific problem that he's facing as a result of his training. No, but it does sound like he's got a lot going on. The work is tough.

SPEAKER_03: 2:42

The the 24-hour shift, three 24-hour shifts in in 10 days, is is still it's it's a lot. Yeah. And he's training um every day while he's on the job. I think ultimately the cadence that you can keep when you're 25 will be a different cadence when you're 30, and you could be married or you could have kids. And it's being able to adapt your training volume depending on the stress of your life, whether it's your job or family or whatever's going on. So, what I'd say there is being flexible around how you can do enough jujitsu, enough mobility, and uh, and uh enough lifting, having that at an adaptive level relevant to stress is the key to the longevity piece. So, whatever you're doing now, it sounds like pretty comprehensive. Like, sounds like you've you're following up on what we're talking about, and that's awesome. Respect to that. But what I'd say is when the challenges present, whether it be um, like I say, it could not even family in terms of your family, it could be your parents. Say a parent gets sick, or they want you to work an extra shift at work, or they want you to travel, or there's fucking forest fire, and you've got to save the nation. We expect that that's what you will do.

SPEAKER_04: 4:00

Um, there's a meteor traveling it towards Earth. Alien destruction is imminent, and they need to send you up in a spaceship with your father-in-law to drill a hole in the room and blow up the fucking meteor.

SPEAKER_03: 4:12

Yeah, that happens.

SPEAKER_04: 4:13

I'm you're equipped with it. I watched a documentary on that once. Anyway, I digress.

SPEAKER_03: 4:18

Don't want to climb over my ass because I miss you, baby. And I think that's the thing that you're doing everything right, but life is going to throw you some curveballs. In order for you to stay, stay ready, stay prepared, um, jailhouse ready, you need to just be able to adapt your training, whether that means reducing it a bit, um, to keep it going. That's what I would say.

SPEAKER_04: 4:40

Yeah, look, um, you know, if I was if I were to make some very general observation, you're doing can you said you were doing like a lot of conditioning work when you're on the job, and then you're training as much jujitsu as you can outside of that. You might be over doing it on the conditioning side of things. You might, like if you're going hard at jujitsu, which, you know, if I go back to when I was a 25-year-old white belt, I was always going too hard at jujitsu. You potentially don't need to be doing a lot of conditioning work outside of that right now. Um, or maybe you could just be doing a bit, maybe it's like 10 or 15 minutes on your days off the mats, you know, but you spend a bit more time on mobility or strength. And I think that that that might just help to balance out um the neurological fatigue a little bit, you know, and so that you so that you've got more balance there. Probably also potentially if you've got long periods, like if you're working real hard, three, 24-hour shifts, and then you've got a big chunk of time off, you might be frying yourself with too much jujitsu. Yeah, you know, outside of that. So maybe it's you know, taking a day off here or there, or not rolling every day, something along those lines. But, you know, I guess that the main observation is where you're at in life and in jujitsu, your bias is going to be towards overdoing it. So if you can just pull back a little bit in general, you'll probably establish a more sustainable balance.

SPEAKER_03: 5:55

Yes, sir. Salute.

SPEAKER_04: 5:58

Ben Hannawell, old friend of the show, legend.

SPEAKER_02: 6:02

Hey fellas, it's Ben Hannawell, longtime listener, longtime caller. I want to get your perspective on something related to breath, in particular the book Breath by James Nestor, and how I see a lot of people seeming to interpret it. People seem to come away with it with the idea that mouth breathing is bad, therefore I should do things like tape my mouth shut and force myself to breathe through my nose, and that will make me more healthy and more efficient. But I wonder if that gets things backwards. Perhaps you're breathing from your mouth because you don't breathe efficiently, so you should address the issues that make it so that you're not breathing efficiently. Maybe you don't have good cardiovascular conditioning. Maybe the you should do more myofascial work to make your you know, your tongue and your uh you know other muscles in and around your mouth and your neck stronger so that you're uh so that you're and also your nose stronger so that you um you know so that you can breathe more efficiently. And furthermore, I think like if you're if you're trying to force yourself to breathe through your nose, you might be doing more harm than good because you're you you might not be getting enough oxygen um given your your capacity to to breathe. So I just interested in your perspective on that. Uh as a person who who sees all these people taping their mouths shut and and is super confused and thinks that maybe there's a lot of a BS getting spread here. Thanks.

SPEAKER_04: 7:31

Yeah, look, I've I've just got something to mention. Like I'll I'll respond to Ben's quick point, but the thing that he hasn't told us in all of these QA episodes he's featured on is he's never told us which Simpsons character he played. You don't multiple.

SPEAKER_03: 7:46

That fucking voice, man. Unbelievable. It's it's an amazing voice. Spectacular. It is. And I can we just preframe this by saying a man Ben Hanniwell died, came back from a heart attack, and now has like an implant in his chest. You do it with pacemaker. Uh it's not a pa, it's a it's a regulator of sorts. So we need to put that out there. This man is fucking cannot be stopped. He cannot be stopped. Please. So you've you've read this book, Joe. So please talk to that and I'll I'll add my two senses. So I haven't read Nestor's book. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 8:17

Yeah, I read McEwan's book. Right. Which was um The Power of Breath or something. Um, but yeah, so here's here's what I so here's a couple of thoughts on what you mentioned, Ben. Yes, we've probably simplified our understanding a bit if the main takeaway was mouth breathing is bad. Uh someone who knows a lot about breathing and about physiology once told me in a breath seminar they did, this was John Marsh with Cole Clayton, was that um the ideal way to breathe is appropriate to the task at hand.

SPEAKER_03: 8:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04: 8:48

Right? So if you are sitting down at the computer doing work, you shouldn't be mouth breathing, should breathe through the nose. If you're doing light activity, breathing through the nose. But if you're going all out, balls to the wall, it's the last 30 seconds of a fucking seven-minute round, you're gonna be fucking open mouth, sucking, trying to get as much oxygen oxygen as you can. So that's that part. But the other side of it is that a lot of lifestyle factors have made us, most of us, more chronic mouth breathers. So I think it's also fair to make the observation that most of us tend to breathe through the mouth too much. So it would make sense to me that an approach uh for an individual in order to try to restore some balance to how they breathe would be to sort of practice nasal breathing more often. So even leaning into like, yeah, I'm gonna make it really hard to breathe through my mouth at times, you know, like I'm gonna like whatever, tape my mouth during training or hold a mouthful of water, even though that might not be the absolute best thing in that moment if I'm trying to maximize training, that might be a good way for me to try to be less of a mouth breather generally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 9:58

Well, so I have read neither of the books, and I would say I have been a mouth breather nearly all of my life. Uh, even though I've brought more attention to my breathing probably in the last five or six years, just from a certain amount of awareness and having similar conversations to this with Joe or with other people who are experienced in the realm. Uh, but I want to speak to Ben's point about is there other things you can do which improve your efficiency, which may result in less mouth breathing by being fitter or being more efficient. And we we have talked about this before where people get really tired and they think, oh, I'm gassed because uh I'm just unfit. When actually, biomechanically, they're very inefficient, they're not particularly strong, so they don't have good neural efficiency, and therefore, if they were better movers, moving would be less hard, and therefore, if they want to improve their overall efficiency, they need to learn how to move better and be less restricted, and that would take the pressure off the central kind of circulatory system. So I would agree with Ben in saying that, yeah, there's probably a bunch of stuff people can do in adjacent and in tandem to that, which might mean they have less stress, so they're less inclined to breathe out their mouth. I actually uh am very like it's not really within my domain field to worry about breathing, because I never really do anything more than say three repetitions of uh any exercise. So I'm safe. I I actually do it all in one breath. Um yeah, that's it. But yes, mate, look, I think there is a little bit of if I think about how many brands are out there with like mouth tape, yeah. You know, like I was at the Australian Health and Fitness Expo, and every single brand had like nose tape. Oh yeah. And everyone's like, how good is it? I'm wearing some idiot's brand across my face. I love it. I'm like, you guys are fucking dorks.

SPEAKER_04: 12:00

Like it, you know, the the fact that the the pro the the profiteering one once we catch on to something, the company's, you know, it's like everyone's got a fucking app these days. Yeah, another training program. Jesus. But but it's all gonna come out of the woodwork, there's gonna be a million people doing it.

SPEAKER_03: 12:15

Yeah. I I guess the thing for me, which would be interesting to see, is it it's still kind of stayed pretty niche, right? And so I guess I wonder for you, Joe, what would be your advice to Ben in terms of should he do it, should he not do it? How important is it?

SPEAKER_04: 12:32

Look, I I personally think that we have like in the in the West, I think we have a huge problem with um with breathing generally. Like, and I, you know, without going into it too hardcore, but like um, you know, this goes back, right, many generations to the types of foods we eat and and the environments we live in. And there's a there's a chronic amount of dysfunction in like mouth development, like this way, everyone's got to get their wisdom teeth removed and fucking palate shape and breathing and just and the general mechanics of this whole area. Um, so for me, I'm like anything that someone wants to do to improve it, I'm all for it. So yeah, you know, someone's taping their mouth and shit, fucking great, do it. I think it's I think it's a worthwhile path to go down. Um, some folks don't need it, but many do. And you know, once you read the books and and you look at it, you're like, wow, you can really see the people that need it.

SPEAKER_03: 13:26

Yeah, and I think you, Ben Hannawell, you could help people by doing the smother. You're like, breathe through your nose, mate. Like if you can't like just smother their mouth.

SPEAKER_04: 13:34

I'm doing this for you.

SPEAKER_03: 13:35

And do do your nose breathing. And if they tap out, then they just don't want it that bad.

SPEAKER_04: 13:39

I mean, I did we did the episode with uh Brian Lau, Primal Breath Work, right? Where we spoke all about breath and and facial development and all of that. And it's it really is a big thing. So yeah, I wouldn't begrudge anyone from having a crack, but you know, for sure there's a time and place, and like I know for me, I don't disrupt my breathing at all at jujitsu. Right. Like I'm not taping my mouth at jujitsu. No. But I tape my mouth every night before I go to bed. Oh, there you go. And then I've done that for a few years now, and that has been a huge upgrade for me personally.

SPEAKER_03: 14:06

That's cool. So there you go. The two elements that you need to guarantee your success in the gym are guidance and accountability. The big mistake that we see people making when training for BJJ is doing random workouts. That's why we made the Bulletproof for BJJ app. We have our online community that can give you feedback and help you out. And then we also have our structured programs that will get you fitter, stronger, and more flexible for BJJ. We've got a 14-day free trial. Get in there, try it out. And if you decide that it's not for you, we have a hundred percent money back guarantee. So go to the Play Store, go to the App Store, download the app, and we'll see you on the inside. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_04: 14:50

Last question of the day coming in from Jose Gonzalez. I love his work. He's so good on the guitar. Swedish guitarist.

SPEAKER_01: 14:57

How's it going, guys? Big fan of the show. I watch uh you guys for all the advice that you guys get from BJJ, how not to get burnt out, and stuff like that. Um my question is regarding my son. He recently had a tournament, and his coach wasn't able to make it. He goes to a name academy. I guess a big name academy. And they don't really go to the tournaments that often. And one of the coaches from a mutual friend, another coach from a different academy. Coach my son from the tournament, and after the tournament was over, he said a lot of potential in my son. My son is seven. He has to go against like nine or ten year olds, and he's still it's the best of them for the most part. So I think there was another coach that's taken to a competitive game. There's a lot of potential in him. I brought this up to my son, he won't go. Um I B J J Fongled for I guess my question is I told my son I think his coaches are great, phenomenal, but I think they did everything they could for him. And it might be time to move gyms. He started crying. How do I know when it's time to move my son to another gym that's maybe more competitive? If you guys can help out, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 16:27

Uh no, look, I but look, man, I I think it's tough, right? Um, because obviously he's very young, so there's there's a long way for him to go. And I I I think two things, like anyone changing a gym, it was provided it doesn't kind of get you banned, maybe taking your son along to that other gym and get him to try a class, see if he could make friends or if he enjoys it, right? You don't have to make a snap decision like I'm quitting here, I'm going there. Because keeping kids having fun and interested is what will enable them to stay in the game. I've seen it many, many times where you've had prodigies or people who are they're like, this guy's gonna be the next world champion, and then they flame out by the time they're kind of 16 and they they just quit because for various reasons, right? The other side of that was I used to train at a gym when I was a kid where it was very traditional, and they said, You'll never be a champion, you you know, that's not what we do here, you're not good enough. And they basically just capped out my my what my potential was when I was 12 years old. I'm like, as a 12-year-old, I was like, the fuck are you talking about? I want to be the national champion, I want to be the best. They're like, it's never gonna happen for you, son. And I was like, uh no, it's never gonna happen for me here. But that was a decision I had to make as a 12-year-old kid that I went to my mom and I said, I want to go train somewhere else. And so I think because your son's so young and he probably has friends at the gym, it's worth just giving him a try. Like, if you I I believe that to get better, you do have to go train with better people. And if he's already kind of better than everyone at his gym, then yeah. But also the friendship element and the fun element is important for keeping him in there. So maybe try the other gym. If he likes it, then cool. But then maybe that's not the strategy this early. What do you think, Joe?

SPEAKER_04: 18:23

Yeah, I like that suggestion of just getting him to try a class at the other one, maybe an open mat or something like that. I think ultimately it's like if I'm thinking about my boy who's a lot lot younger, right? He's almost five, but I would kind of put it to him and like, what do you want to do? Do you want to, you know, and and I would probably like at seven years old, I would probably take his guidance on that. If he's like, yeah, you know, I I I do feel it's a little bit easy for me at the current place, I'd like to try something a bit harder, great. But if he's like, no, I love it. Then we're like, well, great, let's just keep loving it, stay where you are. You know, it's about figuring out what jujitsu means to him. And it could be something that he really wants to keep progressing um, you know, day to day at and like eventually compete more and do that whole thing, or he might just like like showing up to the gym that he's at where he's rolling with his mates and he's having a good time. Um, yeah, that's that's kind of the thing, right? There's also no rush. Like, you know, your son might he might do it and then he might decide in a few years' time he doesn't want to do it, and then he might come back to it when he's 21, and that would be great. And everything that you would have done over this time would give him a foundation that he'll still be able to tap back into. So I really don't think it matters that much. I think the main thing is that he's enjoying it. Yeah. And I think that we've kind of observed this, haven't we, with a lot of like elite athletes and stuff that parents drive them to a degree where they don't enjoy it. And some of them, despite that, still manage to become the best in the world, but it often comes at a great cost. Yes. And I would think that that probably forces more people to quit than rise to the elite levels, right? So yeah, I'd really be just be biasing towards him having a good time.

SPEAKER_03: 20:02

Yeah, and I mean it's awesome that you are so invested in your own um kids, jiu-jitsu, and that you're considering these things. So credit to you, Jose. And obviously, a fucking proud dad moment when your your son wins gold at a competition, you're like, damn, my boy, kick your boy's ass. But uh it's amazing, man. And so I I think the fact you're thinking about it and you're asking us speaks to the fact that he's gonna have a bright future either way.

SPEAKER_04: 20:29

Hey, um, awesome questions today. Uh we would love you guys to record us one for the next. I think we had three from the States today. Yeah, we did. Jose sounded uh American, didn't he?

SPEAKER_03: 20:38

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04: 20:39

Um, we'd love hearing from you guys. We love hearing your accents, we love the questions, and it really generates excellent conversation for other listeners. So please go and record us one now. Go to the bulletproof webpage, bulletproof for bjj.com, hit the podcast tab and record us a voicemail so we can feature you on an upcoming episode. Thanks. See you on the next one. Peace.