The Secret To Fixing BJJ Elbow Pain

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Chapters

• 0:00 Listener Q&A Kickoff
• 0:34 James’ Weight Cut Challenge
• 2:41 Track Intake, Output, And Activity
• 6:17 Deficit Strategy And Step Goals
• 8:35 Competing Heavy And Owning It
• 9:56 App Offer: Programs And Community
• 10:35 Long Hair Rolling Etiquette
• 13:25 Practical Hair Management Options
• 15:02 Rob’s Elbow Pain Problem
• 16:35 Hanging, Supination, Shoulder Rotation
• 18:20 Volume Control And Rehab Reps

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Hey, what's up? Welcome to the Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. It's question time. We got three questions from you guys. If you want to leave us a question for a future episode, go do it now. You can ask us anything: jujitsu, politics at your gym, strength training, mobility, whatever the fuck. We're here to help. And even if we can't help, we'll do our best to tell you something. Um, go to bulletproof for bjj.com, hit the podcast tab and record us a voicemail. We love hearing from you guys and tell us where you're from. We we it's a really cool way for us to get a feel for where you're at, where people are at in this world. Indeed. First one coming in from James.

SPEAKER_01: 0:38

How's it going, gentlemen? This is James calling in from Chilliwack, DC, Canada, the Great White North. Chilliwack. Um and I wanted to call in with a question about kind of weight management, um, specifically dieting for BJJ. Um I'm about four years into training, about two years into my blue belt, uh, 28 years old, uh 5'11, about 280 right now. Um I was 340 when I first started jujitsu, so I have made an improvement, but I've been finding that my weight and my weight category have been keeping me from doing things that I want to do. Um turns PJJ, mostly competition. You know, the way I'm sitting right now with my weight, I'm kind of in the everything goes category. So the guy standing across from me could look like DC two years post-retirement, or he could look like Prime Overing. And is intimidating to me. You know, I I don't want to go in and get murdered by these hulks of men. Um, when if I was in the weight category below me, which is around 220 pounds, um, I would feel way more confident. So if you have any suggestions on dieting, weight management for BJJ, um, that would be amazing. I want to get this monkey off my back. I want to keep making those improvements. Um, let's be real. I don't want to be the the fat, dumpy, lazy purple belt whenever that comes, you know. I want to feel legit. So uh any tips you have would be amazing. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02

James, what a legend. Great work. That's uh amazing. You've already you've already made good progress.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07

I bought a uh bought when I was traveling in Canada, I bought a van, a 40 Conaline 1983 model from Chilliwack. Oh, they in British Columbia, and I I called it Chili. And I drove that thing all up and down the west coast of the States. How good that place holds it yeah, special in my heart. Uh that's nice. Um so okay, so he's saying uh got he came down from 360 or 340 to 280. So 280, what in kilos we're talking like 120? Yeah, thereabouts. Like it's 130 kilos.

SPEAKER_04: 2:34

Yeah, yeah. Boy. No, no, no. It's good. I mean, it's a good that is already a good achievement. That's a mad weight loss, yeah, yeah. Respect to that. Um, I actually so I had a similar thing recently, like a a friend of mine has asked me for similar advice, and I had said to them, like this, there's probably key three things from my perspective, and see if you agree with this, Joe. Um, one was do you know how much kind of fuel you're consuming every day? What are your calories in? You know, and he said, didn't know. So I'm like, okay, that's that's just your first step. Not that you want to get obsessed with it, but you've got to know where you're at in terms of your energy input. And then I said, also, do you know how much energy you're expending roughly every day? And it doesn't have to be super duper accurate. And he said, No, I have no idea. I just trained jujitsu and shit, I do my job and whatever. I'm like, cool, get a whoop, get a garmin, get a something. Step one, know your calories in. So if you, you know, not to get obsessed about it, as long as you know like how much energy you're consuming on a daily basis, that is the first step. Uh, the second step was know how much energy you're putting out. So it doesn't even need to be super accurate. Uh I feel like most wearables, whether it be a whoop or a garmin, are gonna give you an idea, which is which is what you need. And so, and then the third thing is like, how active are you? So my mate has a sedentary job, he sits down. Um, and yeah, it's this is a bit of an issue, I think, for the modern society. And I was just saying to him, like, how much do you walk? He's like, I don't know. And I was like, All right, well, first, first step, excuse the pun. I was like, mate, measure how many steps you're taking. And he and he said to me Monday, doing he went away and he came back to me. He said, It's only about two and a half thousand steps a day. And I said, Look, this is just this is as simple as it gets. I said, know how much energy is going in, know how much you're putting out, and then we just want to increase your overall activity in the day, however you do that. And I'm not saying you gotta get on a treadmill, I'm not saying you gotta go do bloody high rocks, I'm not saying you gotta fucking get on the assault bike.

SPEAKER_03: 4:41

But maybe but maybe you do, but maybe you do, yeah, yeah. You just gotta move more.

SPEAKER_04: 4:44

Yeah, yeah. So my general advice is once you know energy in, energy out, up your overall incidental activity. This is absolutely key. They always say 10,000 steps, that's just a good bar. I actually would say you want to do more, but it depends on your lifestyle. So and and the other little tip on the putting yourself into a let's say a calorie deficit, it doesn't have to be every day, but it needs to be more days than not. So if you have five days where you're in a deficit, say it's during the week, and then on the weekend you're not, that that's kind of manageable because across the month, if you've got more days where you're eating, eating a bit less and doing a bit more, as long as you're not doing a fucking rock cheat day, yeah, if you're 5,000 calories.

SPEAKER_03: 5:31

Cheat days are like not ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04: 5:33

I'm not saying cheat days, I'm just saying that like don't crucify yourself if you're yeah, if you're not at a deficit every single day, measure it across like a month. And those would be the three things I'd be looking at.

SPEAKER_03: 5:44

Yeah, yeah, I would, I would, I would agree with that. I think um I wear a whoop and it's really, it's really it really helps me. I'm pretty sanitary these days, and so it helps me to it it it motivates me to be like, fuck, gotta go for a walk today, better go for a walk and I'll whatever, go do phone calls or something or um, you know, take a run or some shit, which I wouldn't do if I wasn't wearing it because I'm like, oh no, I did jujitsu today and I lifted weights yesterday, and like I'm pretty active, but uh the the fact of the matter is I'm not, you know, because most of my work is sitting on this couch or at a computer. Yes. Um, so yeah, I think those measures are super important. Um, you know, guessing, you know, it's hard to know without knowing what Jane, it's hard to know what to say without knowing what James has been doing to make the the weight loss that he's already achieved. Um, and so potentially you're already doing some of that stuff, James. It might just be like dialing it up a little bit. But what I would also say is let's say you, let's say you're giving it a nudge and you, you know, you find that you're not able to to drop down, because I think you said you're at 280. 280, once it gets to 220. 220. And let's say you can't and you stay at 250 or something like that. Um, while, yes, it would be horrible to face up against a fucking prime DC or even a post-retirement DC or a prime uh Uber Ream, um, none of that, like, you know, I love watching the heavyweight division because you see some of the most unsuspecting people fucking dominate. You see a lot of these big, jacked, Chad looking motherfuckers, and then you see some soft dude with a bit of a belly comes in and just ragdolls him. Sure. And it, you know, and and so in a way, like if if it turns out that you are a heavyweight guy and that's the category that you're sort of destined to be in, fucking own it. You know, and even being the slightly smaller guy in that division who can move faster and he's more agile than his larger opponents, there's a huge benefit in that too. So I really think anything can work. Yeah, and I don't think that that means that you would be relegated to becoming a lazy ass purple belt. You could still be the fit, athletic, um, scary purple belt, yeah, even as a heavyweight.

SPEAKER_04: 7:51

For sure. And uh, I mean, there's a very famous, I think he's either Iranian or Turkish wrestler who was a heavyweight who's only about five foot nine. And he just, it's so easy for him to single leg. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, he just didn't even shoot, he just grips. Yeah, and he was like a world and Olympic champion, you know. So I think, yeah, what Joe's saying is is accurate. 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. Next one coming in.

SPEAKER_03: 8:51

No name on this.

SPEAKER_02: 8:52

Hey, what's up, guys? This is Doug reaching out from the United States. What's up, Doug? I asked a question before that I wanted to give you an update on. I I asked about the the gray belt girl that kept like cutting in front of my wife during the lineup. Sure. Um, the update is my wife got her blue belt recently. So now there's balance in the force, and she's back in front the way that the way that it should be. But um now my new question, kind of with my wife in mind etiquette for rolling people with long hair. I feel like, you know, she does her best to keep it up, but sometimes it comes out, you end up kneeling on it, you end up grabbing it when you go to grab a lapel. Shout out to Steve from class. I know he listens to the podcast, and uh he's got long hair too, and I feel like I'm always kneeling on it and and all this. And anyway, I guess part of me thinks, you know, it's on the grappler with the long hair to make sure that their stuff's well managed and out of the way. But on the other hand, at least at class, I don't want to be yanking people's hair and all this by accident. So I just didn't know if you had any suggestions or tips of how to go about that better. Anyway, I love the pod. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_03: 10:04

Doug, thanks for checking back in, brother. Cool, man. Congrats to your wife. That's fucking cool. Yeah, that's great. Oh, and the hair, it's a it's a fair question. I I yeah, I mean, I I know it does. It does get caught. You go for lapel grip or something or passing, you step on it.

SPEAKER_04: 10:18

I I don't I don't know what to tell you. Well, I think it's like many things, like for example, you know, when you might get your foot or your hand like caught in the gear and you're like, hang on, hang on. Yeah. And you pull it out, right? I I think similarly, if you've accidentally gripped someone's hair, you just say to them, hey, I've grabbed your hair a bit, let's just you know, I I think there's within training that's okay. As long as they're not hitting you with the Helena Craver type fucking clay guido putting the hair in your face, bullshit. Um, you know, and and I you know, I've seen ladies even rock craver.

unknown: 10:46

Clay Krav.

SPEAKER_04: 10:49

No, I I I think it's it's cool, it's cool that you're considering it. I mean, I would just wrap their hair around their throat and fucking bow and arrow choke them. Fair game. No, uh, I I've even seen um cornrows, man. They should be doing cornrows I've seen that as a very common way to keep it tight, even though it's a bit of time and energy. But then the kind of um hijab kind of sports um hair restrainment. Yeah, I've seen that a bit, even for for ladies who are not of the Muslim faith. Yep. Just to keep it tight, you know, almost like a swimming cap, but for jujitsu. Yeah, because you know, like that's that's a possible thing. But yeah, keeping hair restrained is is definitely a problem in jujitsu.

SPEAKER_03: 11:30

Yeah, yeah, I would imagine it's as much of a hassle for for the for the woman or the man, sorry, the person with the hair, yeah, um, as it is for you, like, you know, grabbing it and lingering stuff. So yeah, I don't know. I'm fucking yeah, braids are sick, but braids are so good. Everyone wants to look like Michelle Rodriguez girl fight, right?

SPEAKER_04: 11:47

Bro, I want to get that, I want to get the AI cornrows. I was saying to my mum long hair, I want to get I want to get the uh Alan Iverson cornrows, but I got that white guy hair, I can't do it. But uh no, I think it's like you're half black. Not even. I I I uh I wish I had that curly hair, but I think that's the thing that it's jujitsu teaches you to be pretty minimal, like cut your nails, cut your hair, but just because it could it just gets it becomes a hassle for you. So you kind of get you you tend to shape your life to make it easier to do jujitsu. Yeah, and long hair does not make jujitsu easier.

SPEAKER_03: 12:20

I mean, I would imagine even a big fucking plat would be would be more functional training wise than yeah, doesn't I mean no one has it out? Some people are fucking nice.

SPEAKER_04: 12:29

It's uh difficult. Sorry, we don't have particularly good answers for you there.

SPEAKER_03: 12:32

Yeah, carry some hairdressing scissors in about me. Sorry, brother. Question number three from Rob Hey guys, my name's Rob.

SPEAKER_00: 12:42

Brand new purple belt from Sydney. Congrats, just got a question about managing elbow pain, bracky Alice and pronoun the pain. It's been with me for 18 months, going up to two years. And uh I basically cannot do any weather chin-ups anymore and struggling to bicycle because of the pain. Unless I warm up, then I can. I can still train um GG2, that's okay. But after the training session, if I was actually trained too much, like more than three times a week, it would start to hurt pretty bad. So anything you can suggest me to do, I don't really want to take a lot of time off the mat. I am doing soft tissue, dry needling, you know, um rolling with barbells, doing accessory exercise on my fingers to mitigate the imbalances. But yeah, if there's anything else you can suggest, that would be great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 13:44

Right on. Good question, Rob, and a fucking shit injury to have. Oh, the worst.

SPEAKER_04: 13:49

And it's a it is a very jujitsu-centric injury. Um so yeah, brachial brachialis. What was the other one you mentioned? Uh brachialis, and he was saying extensor. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 13:59

The top. The top top side of your elbow here. I'm sure a lot of people have felt it.

SPEAKER_04: 14:03

They have. And look, we just we just did a we just did an app on um, you know, elbow tendinitis and tendinopathy and stuff like that. Um the two things that I I think are are helpful here is hanging is super helpful for creating space at the wrist, lengthening out through there, and specifically supernated hanging. It's the external rotation. Like I have many friends who are very strong, like shout out Mikhail, very strong through the pronated position, bench press type position. Yeah. You ask them to externally rotate and they're like, ah, they're just really lacking this movement here. And it it does, this is the natural position of your skeleton. This is where the bones are uncrossed. So uh a supernated grip hang, not not super long, but spending some time to create some space there is helpful. And also something I learned from um uh uh Teresa Marcello, who is a great myotherapist who I worked with for many years, is that oftentimes people who struggle with that um brachioradialis pain, they lack external rotation in the shoulder. If you improve your external rotation on that side, that will take some pressure off your elbow. So I'm pretty confident if you stretch your peck and and and open up to the shoulder and start to work your external rotators on the affected side, it's not that it's gonna cure your elbow pain, but that should give you uh a bit of relief.

SPEAKER_03: 15:29

Yeah. Yeah, I would say like you're doing all the right things in terms of the dry needling and the soft tissue work and all of that. That stuff's super important. Um, you might need to take a bit of time off because the whole the whole thing with like elbow tendonitis is that like let's say you're making progress with reducing it, and then you have one one training session where you overcook it, you just go back to square one. Yeah, or you do, I'll just try a couple of chin-ups. Yeah, you cook it, you're back at square one. And I know I went through this for a long time when I was working on the one-arm chin-up. And it's really common that people get derailed from the one-arm chin-up by elbow tendonitis. And I did, and you know, it's just that whole thing, right? Anyway, I stopped training the one-arm chin-up and the tendonitis went away. But so what I'm getting at here is the volume of your jujitsu might be a thing. So it might be like um maybe just sticking strictly to like two or three sessions a week for a period of time. Um, in your strength training, not doing anything that aggravates it and not doing any high-intensity pulling work, I found personally that low-intensity high rep stuff is fine and it's actually very good for nourishing the tissues. So, like, you know, instead of my weighted pull-ups and all that sort of rope climbs and shit, I'd go to like uh ring rose and just do like sets of 12 to 20 reps. Um, that coupled with the soft tissue work, coupled with not cooking it at jujitsu and a bit of time, hopefully this fucking deals with it.

SPEAKER_04: 17:02

I have a little caveat on this, um, which I got from Louis Simmons of Westside Barbell Fame, RIP. Um he had a lot of lifters lifting a lot of you know heavy weights, and they would get a similar pain. Uh, and so what one of the major things they did to help counteract this is volume tricep work. They would do banded tricep extensions, like huge sets, like three or four sets of like 20, 30 reps, high volume tricep work to create space there. And it strengthened the backside of the elbow as well. But they found that doing this kind of helped nourish the elbow in terms of getting blood in there. And once they maintained their high volume tricep work, their elbow pain reduced significantly in that brachio radialis spot. So it might just be too much of the same thing. You do weighted chin-ups, and unfortunately, you're restricted at the moment. You're doing jujitsu, lots of pulling. It could be worthwhile for you to work out maybe if you spend a little bit more time in extension, this could help settle it down as well. So just a little add-on there.

SPEAKER_03: 18:05

Yep. And I guess would be remiss not to just kind of recap what we just spoke about in the last step, but doing doing some isometric work, doing some eccentrics, like doing some connective tissue specific stuff. You don't have to do a lot. Three to five sets at the end of your workout. This is going to be a great way to really just, you know, target the connective tissues. Right on. Um, yeah, man. Fuck, hope that helps. It is hard to take a step back. It is. Especially when you're like making progress in the gym and on the mats, and you know, you don't have to stop, but it it is hard just to pull yourself back to it.

SPEAKER_04: 18:35

Well, you've just been suffering it a long time, so you might need something to just put a stop gap, feel better, and then come back to it.

SPEAKER_03: 18:42

Um, great questions today. Appreciate you guys sending them through. If you would like to leave us a question for a future episode, go and do it now. Go to bulletproof for bjj.com, hit the podcast tab, and uh tell us your name, tell us where you're from, record a voicemail, and we'd be stoked to feature you on an upcoming episode. Peace. Peace.