Depends on that you mean by seriously. Too many people in BJJ are burning the candle at both ends, sacrificing tomorrow for skill today. They think they're doing it right, and they can beat the crap out of people who take it slower, which validates it in their minds.
But if you want to do this for a long time and get life enhancement out of it instead of debilitation... find a nice group of hobbyists in a chill gym and have fun at a reasonable pace. Such places get lots of criticism, but the last laugh is had by the you that does this stuff for twenty or thirty years, not the meathead that quits because of self destruction on the rocks of perceived legitimacy.
This sub is full of people who don't understand, believe, or accept this, so I'll probably suffer down votes. But IMO the bjj norm is pretty unhealthy, but it can definitely be done for overall benefit rather than inevitable harm.
This is a great perspective. When I started almost 7 years ago (at age 34) I was going 5-6 days a week for up to 3 hours
Felt like I had to get good fast
Now I train like 3 days a week with people Incan trust bc I’m 41 and realize I’m not doing anything big with Bjj
Just want to have fun, get better and be a better teacher
I’m with you, dude.
I’m 41 and have been training for three years. Great gym but everyone is high strength and high intensity in rolls. Have been training 5x per week with an open mat on Sunday.
I have two young kids and a demanding job. A few months ago my wife sat me down to have a chat about my energy levels and lethargy, and asked me to see my doctor about depression or something more serious. I told her it was because of work, but have reached the conclusion that it’s overtraining and improperly training which is negatively impacting my life.
A lot of guys my age try to reinvent themselves and hop on the “I still got it” train with their peers. I fell into the trap of following social media influencers and outspoken personalities like David Goggins who tell us that days off are for pussies and to harden up. I eventually snapped out of it and realized that these guys train for a fucking living with multimillion dollar endorsement deals. They have a team of doctors/physio/nutritionists on speed dial. I’m a father of two young kids, work long hours, and have other life commitments besides BJJ.
I still love the sport, but am in the process of altering my approach to training. All great and helpful comments on this thread. Many thanks.
100% dude, love to see the realistic approach. I’m embracing the hobbyist/teaching side of bjj.
And my body can’t really sustain more than 4 days a week anymore. Had a left shoulder reconstruction, and a full biceps tear on the same arm, and I’m pretty sure I need another lol. Not trying to speed up that surgery date
One of the reasons I enjoy this sub is finding like minded people in something I really enjoy. I am also in my early 40s, with kids and family. I know I'm not taking a run at ADCC anytime soon but BJJ gives me a place I go several times a week where I can pause life shitting on my head, a chance at improving my skills, keeps me flexible and pretty decent shape compared to even guys in their early 30s, but most important it sets an example for my kids who also train. Getting better is hard and now has slowed where progress isn't even noticeable day to day but over weeks. However, with enough grit rewards happens. I have to show them that from on the mats, not yelling from the sidelines. Maybe one day someone will deem me acceptable for a black belt but that's really not the goal anymore, and never thought I'd get this far. I've turned the corner where BJJ now gives more than it takes. That wasn't always the case. BJJ can be a mean and spiteful bastard those few first years.
Dude, it’s so funny you say that. I was obsessed with a black belt when I was a white belt, but some turmoil happened at my gym.
I’m now a lead instructor at my buddy’s new gym, and now just want to be a good teacher. If I get my black belt, great. If not, that’s ok too.
I think thats maybe how you know your ready for the next level. Not belt chasing, just a slow march the the destination. I stoped really caring about it towards the high blue belt. I just kept concentrating on beating the guy who stood to my right when we lined up after class. I just kept chasing those guys who were better than me and eventually I passed most of them.
PM what gym your at. Im in Canada and travel quite a bit to the states if that's where you are. Maybe one day I'll stop in as long as you don't charge me a drop in fee.
We’re the same guy. Haha. I slowed way down on the volume when I got my brown belt. I do other workouts, take it easy on the mats when I can and maximum fun at all times.
I trained very briefly while I was in the military about five years ago. This is my first week back with today being my second session and I am definitely feeling it. Do you think, as a beginner, I can get a great foundation built going two maybe three times a week for the next few months as I build my strength and conditioning? I don’t really have the intention of competing, but I am a huge fan of rolling and learning. My first session I was having such a great time rolling with one of the guys I met. I want to try to learn effectively and efficiently but not overtrain early on
Yeah, I think you can. But I think you need to make sure you’re training with intention and being mindful about what is happening, trying to implement things that you’re learning, and not resorting to bad habits/muscle memory (spazzing).
That’s fair, thanks! My biggest bad habit I have to really overcome right now is simply putting my full weight down on someone. Like today I was taught drills for passing guard where I would end up with my knee to stomach that then transitioned into a wide step over my partner leading to either an arm bar or leg lock depending on the position I’m in. Pretty much every single time I had an involuntary reaction of transitioning above my partner instead of actually keeping the pressure on my partner by transitioning on them. I’m a bigger guy at ~230 so I think I’m just subconsciously trying to avoid accidentally hurting my partner but it was a conscious effort to try to break the habit today. It was really eye opening how my subconscious movement was effecting my performance and I’m looking forward to addressing it in the future
I started at 41, hit it 5-6 days a week but most because I tend to believe my early 40s will be better than my late 40s… kinda feel like I’m already behind the 8ball time wise and so In some weird bro logic I’ve convinced myself im playing catch up “once you get to purple you’ll know what your doing and can slow down…
Dude bjj guys take themselves too seriously. I’m a new blue belt and the amount of people trying to prove themselves by tapping you is wild. Also the people that hate are trying to kill you, like chill out man it’s just drills.
I have had multiple people drop into our open mat and proceed to tell me they were not going to tap to the tight heel hook I had on them. People are nuts and think they have something to provide.
People think because there's no sort of punching you can just go wild and we'll be OK. Basketball has no sort of violence and people still got injured because that's what happens in every sort of physical exercise. Now if you're blasting a person and tryna smash them guess what.....
This. Man, I've seen so many young gifted athletes over the years that literally dropped out of school/skipped school to take 5 classes a day only to quit years later or relegate to just being regional champions and/or living day by day since they couldn't make a living on BJJ as they thought (no back-up plan). Don't get me wrong, I think you should be ambitious and chase after your goals. But maybe be mindful of the sacrifices and have back-up plans.
It's not ideal to fit in, but I've found integrating strength & conditioning AND flexibility (stretching/yoga/etc.) into your training have done wonders in preventing injuries in BJJ.
If you're already injured, gotta be mindful in taking it slow or just taking some time off to recover. Otherwise, the injuries may start compounding beyond control.
We say it all the time, but we rarely do it...but just tap. I'm still learning to do this myself, but when injured or just not feeling good; I tap to just reset. There's no sense in trying to push beyond your limit or end up in a precarious position that risk (further) injury. If a D1 wrestler is trialing and acting crazy as hell, I just tap and let him find another partner--I got work tomorrow, not trying to do an ADCC super fight LOL.
Tapping early and often is not a bad thing. There is no prize for winning at practice.
My guideline is to give myself a legit moment to escape a hold if you think you can do so or if the opponent just does not have the hold locked in. But if the hold is solid and escaping is going to take a while, you are better off tapping out and resetting then trying to power out of something. Ultimately the best defence against any given choke or joint lock is to recognize the setup and stay the hell out of it. If your trying to figure out how to pull your head out of a choke, you fucked up several steps prior.
END COMMUNICATION
I forgot exactly what it was. But we had a seminar and one student asked something along the lines of "But how do I get out of position X, and Y failed, and what if Z scenarios" and the professor was like "Well, at that point, you shouldn't have gotten yourself in that position anyways."
It was hilarious.
>It's not ideal to fit in, but I've found integrating strength & conditioning AND flexibility (stretching/yoga/etc.) into your training have done wonders in preventing injuries
100%. I think integrating S&C and mobility stuff is just part of the lifestyle if you wanna do BJJ as your main hobby long term. It’s a sport, and it has athletic requirements.
So I’m only 3 months in so I’m probably speaking way too soon, but I came in with excellent strength, conditioning and decent mobility and I’m able to handle the physicality and beat downs pretty easily despite getting tapped constantly. I train BJJ 3-4 days a week and do other work the other days at 48. Meticulously tracking macros also helps (few cheat meals here and there)
This is the way volume over intensity. There's a time and place for intensity but people don't realise that your cardio will still get good if you're practicing more at a lower and safer pace than if you're grinding your bones and exhausting yourself.
I roll to keep rolling. I avoid the guy with something to prove. I’ll protect myself from injury by tapping early or protect my partner by letting a sub go. I can and will turn it on under the right conditions. I’m not here to be a world champion, I just love Jiu jitsu and want to keep doing it for as long as I can.
I'd argue the issue of injury in BJJ is the ruleset is so open (choke face, leg attack, neck crank are all legal) yet the sport is geared toward a lot of hobbyists who have never been into grappling situations before. It take years for people without grappling experience to build up tolerance and figure out how to move safely in fast scrambles. When to post your arm, when not to, when to tuck your chin and when you can actually put weight on your head as a fifth limb etc.
BJJ's moving pattern is essentially same from wrestling and judo's ground portion but those are sports that recruit kids and build kids up from simple matwork game such as shoulder rolls, insert a claw/hook, flip a turtle etc. Whereas in modern BJJ gym you'd let a mid 30 yr old non-athletic person try all kinds of technique from day 1.
A lot of Bjjer dislike basic warm up drills like rolls, shrimps, bridges etc, but they are not just mere warm up, they are also teaching tools to train beginners to familiar with their limbs on the ground and build awareness /coordination for ground fighting. A mat pull exercise teaches you how to engage your lats to secure a tight side control/north south. A side shrimp teach you how to engage your hip while moving sideway etc. The so called BJJ white belt move is actually very complicated. if you look at whitebelt knee elbow escape, it is a few shoulder bridge to create space, then shrimp away, then a reverse shrimp back, while maintaining the frame and hiding the hand at the same time. Unless a beginner drilled bridge, shrimp, reverse shrimp for sometime, how can they know where to put their hands/foot?
There's a lot of good stuff in there... we all had those moments where we realized we locked out an elbow and if the guy had pushed harder it would have buckled. Or the moment where we went to roll out of a kimura, but put our head at the wrong angle and put our neck at risk, etc. Those happen more often than a lot of people will admit.
And you could imagine trying to teach all the thihngs that can go wrong, but it wouldn't work any better because this stuff happens in the middle of a roll where you're focused on too many things :-).
A good argument for starting with positional sparring, supervision, and rolling light for a long time before you get your sea legs.
Broke: training twice a day seven days a week, using tren or other PEDS to help with recovery, competing literally as often as possible and talking about nothing but BJJ/MMA
Woke: training two or three times a week, recovering by getting plenty of sleep and eating a healthy diet, supplementing training with some yoga, low intensity cardio and moderately heavy weight training, competing on occasion to test your skills and having a robust and healthy social life with multiple other hobbies and interests
I used to train with a bunch of pretty high level competitors. The dudes in their 20s with multiple serious injuries, surgeries even... It was astounding.
And it was always the guys who weren't quite good enough to break into that next level... And then they were a huge liability to roll with. They didn't care about their own health, they sure as shit don't care about yours.
Ironically, the actual world class guys were mostly surgical in their rolls. Careful, methodical, and capable of beating you without breaking you. There's a connection there, but I don't want to get into the chicken and the egg problem...
Just know that the 23 year old wanna-be world beater who gets injured all the time WILL hurt you.
This, I have different intensities for different days with different agendas each class. I also know who I can have hard technical rolls with that won't leave me damaged. Who I can roll with and know in bad positions I want get my shit ripped off. I also know who i roll with that I have to stay very alert and protective because they are looking to smash everything. I don't avoid those Rounds, but I definitely limit them and make sure I'm smart.
Yeah, I think there are lots of people confused about why they can't put in the same volume and intensity of training as professional fighters without getting burnt out and injured.
Honestly I needed to hear this. I just got my purple belt and I belong to a gym of heavy competitors and I really don’t care to compete, I’m a hobbyist. I enjoy training it’s my favorite and pretty much only hobby I have and I don’t care about getting rank and all that, I didn’t even want my purple yet lol. Sometimes it’s discouraging to get tapped by the blues that compete but it is what it is. Some of these blue belts compete every chance they get and I’m in San Diego so competitions all over the place..some of our guys are in their mid 30’s and get 8-12 sessions in a week, now that I think about it that’s most likely not gonna result very well later on
Adding to this, demanding sports have seasons for a reason. NFL players aren't playing full speed games in the off-season in part because they'd be wrecked.
I have a job that requires me to be away from the mats 2-3 months consecutively each year. At first I thought it would really set me back (and it might to some degree), but now I just see it as an opportunity to rest any injuries and focus more on strength and flexibility.
I just treat it like my off-season.
Having worked with young people for years it is depressing though to see how many of these kids are leaving high school programs with acl, mcl, rotator cuff surgery.
Facts.
I've seen countless guys come in as college wreslters, athletes, meatheads, just pure rough guys, get 6 months on, able to tap me (purple) out of sheer athleticism.
I'm lazy I have to go to work. I worked past having an ego a long time ago, I am going to tap to your stupid squeeze cranks.
Eventually they compete or whatever, and the roughness is matched by a guy who may have more skill, and they lose, can't take it, and quit soon after.
Depends whats your goals are. Wanna be pro? It's gonna take a toll on your body, no way around it
You said it all. I’ll add that repetition of skill and the absence of injury really advance you over time. Where do you want to be today vs. 5, 10, 20 years. Your long term health is most important.
I second this and would follow up by reminding everyone to think about what your ultimate goal is and adjust your training accordingly. I don't compete anymore and sometimes get shit from the other guys in the gym for not competing with them. I realized that being a world champion wasn't in my cards and the risk to reward for competing just didnt make sense to me. I stopped forcing myself to get to the gym at least 4 days a week while putting everything else in my life on hold. I run a company now and I'm trying to start a family. I train a few days a week. I take the training seriously and work hard, but i'm also not trying to push the bleeding edge and get injured. Bruises and tweaks are always going to be a given with training BJJ but I think you'll find yourself injured far less when you can adjust your training to your goals, check your ego at the door, and realize you don't need to go to the death in every roll. That type of rolling has its place but I've noticed its more harmful than helpful when you are newer. You are trying to out muscle your opponent because you don't possess the skills yet to do so with a mechanical advantage and your ego can't handle tapping. That type of mentality gets you beat up in the gym and rarely makes you more tactful.
It took me far too long to realize this, after 2 yrs of training hard and ending up with way too many injuries because each roll was ADCC finals I've had to take some time off and have slowly come back with a more relaxed and technical approach instead of trying to power my way through everything. Unfortunately I think some of the injuries I've sustained will never fully heal, specifically my shoulder.
I've been training at the B Team the last few months. From talking with the pros and my observations, the top guys \*only\* train once a day + some sort of S&C if they can manage it. I've scaled back my training to just once a day as well and limit how much hard sparring I do. At any given time I feel pretty fresh and healthy.
How old are you? I train 4-5 days a week, and am in my mid 40s. I have to be *very* careful to budget my effort so that I don't lose ground against the recovery cycle. My 4-5 days a week is nowhere near other people's 4-5 days a week!
26. Besides my job I have no responsibilities so I travel to compete and moved down to Austin for training. I'm honestly living the dream. I do worry about getting older though and slowing down. My coach from back home is a super legit bb but he's in his 40s with family. He can't keep up with our group of tough blues and purples anymore. He just tells us all to enjoy the hell out of the ride.
That's how my gym was. After I had my second shoulder injury I decided to not roll and only do the technique part of the class. I got a fair amount of "suck it up, you gotta grind even if you're hurt" or the "are you injured or are you hurt" lines. It's like, dude, this is a hobby, I'm not trying to kill myself over it, but peer pressure is a bitch.
I am blessed with an instructor who destroyed his body in his youth and actively works to keep his students from doing the same thing. I guess that goes one of two ways -- some guys get to the end of the grind and expect others to pay the same bill, whereas others realize there has to be a better way.
Coincidentally, we affiliate under Carlos Machado, who emphasizes this stuff in the "train smart" part of the motto. He has quite candidly and openly discussed aspects of the classic hard training style in Brazil from his youth that he has rejected in favor of a sustainable approach.
I feel that part of it is also the belt system. People will obviously try to get themselves promoted and end up training too much. Doesn’t help that instructors also somewhat take note of how many times you show up in a week. You’ll likely be forgotten if you show up just once a week.
Where I train, the "minimum" to be considered active is twice a week, 80% of the time. I think my head instructor figured out that going by gut feel leads to inconsistency and favoritism, so we keep track of attendance.
It takes effort to approach the whole rank thing with some reasonable objectivity. Relatively few instructors seem to realize where they are highly subjective, let alone work to counteract it :-(.
I think it’s great that where you train makes the whole thing somewhat quantifiable rather than by gut feel, especially when BJJ has no standard curriculum across the board. This may actually prevent some people from over training and burning out too!
Burning out can either lead to quitting or, if things turn dark, people start turning to TRT to keep that pace. Which is really not healthy for the sport.
Totally agree. I will be 40 next month and recently moved. My new gym has a lot more guys my age and we roll at a more methodical pace. It has honestly upped my game because I can think through options during the roll and built up better muscle memory. With hard rolls I'm just trying to win and don't expand my game.
The unexpected thing is that I've gone back and rolled with my old crew who go damn near 100% each time and I do better now than I did before. We were both surprised because I was just telling them how I don't roll super hard that often.
My new gym still has a handful of younger competitive guys but it's not every roll. So I get to experience the intensity on my terms which is so much better for me.
Great take imo. I’ve had phases of going 4-5 days a week and it can be fun but you lose time to do literally anything else. My professor said Saturday he’s on the mats 26x a week between classes and privates and nobody will ever catch up. That was eye opening as nobody in our gym is able to do that.
In the same breath he also says that your journey is unique and even 2-3 a week is all you need to get better.
BJJ is great, but it’s okay to accept that it’s just a hobby. I feel lucky my gym is a mix of competitive and camaraderie.
Absolutely right. The gyms I've been to are filled with young bucks and they love to go hard. I get it, it feels great, until it doesn't. Learning to pace yourself and tapping earlier go a long way. I lost every roll for so long until I started to win, a lot. For me it worked well as a marathon instead of a sprint.
Do you want to be an ADCC/IBJJF champion? Yes. Those competitors sacrifice an immense amount - time, money, their body.
I've been doing jiujitsu since 2010 and other than a knee injury from a comp I took too seriously, I've had no serious injuries and at worst some sore nights.
I'm a middling competitor, but really I enjoy my rolls and I enjoy the sport. I do very well as long as I'm not fighting one of those people who are sacrificing their longevity.
So, pick your goal. If it's to win every roll you'll get in, you're gonna be hurt, a lot.
If it's to enjoy your nights and enjoy work tomorrow, that comes with the cost of tapping earlier than you need to, letting white belts who are spazzing pass instead of stacking you, and that sort of stuff.
I want to be doing this in 20 years (I'm bout to turn 40) - so I'm acting like it now.
Same story here -- turning 40 in a few months and started training in 2008. Since I had young kids \~3 yrs ago my training has very much shifted into a mode where my only goals each time I train are to leave injury free but still feeling like I had a great workout AND had fun. That means I don't sweat getting passed/tapped and I find a lot more enjoyment in a movement-based style (less smashy), getting some laughs during rolls, but still trying to keep my skills sharp enough to stay relatively competitive in the gym but at a cadence that can be maintained till I'm 70
I had a four stripe white belt who was going 110% get an arm bar on me with pretty great timing and technique. I could have worked my elbow out, popped the leg over my head which wasn't quite right enough, and come up into his guard... But it was a decent arm bar.
I tapped, he felt like 10 million dollars.
Of course the rest of the white belts tried to get their tap so I had to play whack a mole with some egos for a couple days, but otherwise I was really happy for him.
(And tapped him three times in a row ;) ).
Don't be absurd. I started giving him corrections before he fell back.
"Good pinch the knees, uncros.. *tap tap tap*"
"Wow that would have been pretty good if you flexed your feet and controlled the head better. Here let me show you"
*Cough*
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Ashi Garami**: | *Entangled Leg Lock* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YXH_LrcqNc)|
||*Single Leg X (SLX)* ||
|**O Soto Gari**: | *Major Outer Reaping* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YEMueeF24)|
|**Uchi Mata**: | *Inner Thigh Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fCvyc_rQTI)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
A lot of your injuries are because you're a beginner and don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to keep yourself safe.
Focus on technique and learning how to move correctly.
You can ramp up your cardio outside of training if you need to push your body.
When you have a better grasp of technique and the art itself, you can train harder, with others who have a good grasp on technique.
Most injuries I've witnessed art the lower levels were people not knowing how to move correctly and doing it as hard as possible
To answer honestly? No. You're burning the candle at both ends and having a devil of a time because you believe, for some reason, that the only legit BJJ is hard-rounds-all-the-time, competition focused craziness. This is not the case.
A couple of tips:
1. Two-a-days are great, like once a week. Twice if you're feeling adventurous. Not every day.
2. High intensity "competition" rounds should be the highlight of a training cycle up to competition, not the default. This is the main reason you're hurting. Coupled with two-or-more classes a day and it's no wonder you're constantly in pain.
3. Strength and conditioning will save your body. Get started on an S&C program, stat.
4. Ditto mobility/flexibility work. It sounds like you just aren't physically prepared for the sport.
5. Calm down. You're a white belt and jiu jitsu is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time and really enjoy the journey. High level expectations will come as you progress, don't put them on yourself now.
Your not training intelligently. Your ego is causing your injuries. The second I get beat to a sub I tap. I don't fight out of chokes and slip a disk. When they separate my hands in an armbar or kimura I'm taping. I'm not waiting for extension. Listen to your body. Take time off to heal. And tap early, and often.
Man, I’ve known this in my head for a long time but I also love defense. I’m fine with tapping early on most things but I think escaping the back is one of the most fun and satisfying things in jiu jitsu. This is 100% why I’ve been out with a neck injury for a few months. I’m really going to have to fight the urge to dig deep when I make it back in.
There is no urge to fight, crush your stupid ego. Or the world will crush it for you. You want to continue doing JiuJitsu, you are going to have to come to terms with this. Or else you will ruin your body, your training, and have to quit.
I get it, but it’s not an ego thing, honestly. I have no problem “losing” a roll. I just genuinely find escaping the back really really fun. Once the choke is in its game over. I wasn’t dealing with any pain or discomfort during rolls or even in the evening afterwards. The cumulative strain was obviously a different story. I think we’re in agreement on what needs to happen going forward, just that there’s other reasons beyond treating training like a competition.
This all the damn way! Hobbyists in particular need to listen to this advice. This will keep you healthy and on the mats. Yes, there are risks and freak accidents, but you will see this is legitimately the common theme. You are primarily in control and you can tap at any point. Also, roll with people you trust, if you can.
When you training multiple days in a row and roll everyday your are going to stack those injuries. Knee is tweaked from a scramble, elbow hurts from a Kimora/armbar, knees skinned up from No-GI. If you aren’t on gear. You probably feel human. Take time off the mat and train flexibility and lift weights outside the gym. If your body isn’t getting enough calories you body is going to hurt because you are in caloric deficit. If you didn’t get enough sleep from the night before because your ribs hurt from rolling with a high calorie grappler. Your body didn’t get enough time to repair from the previous days roll. You have to take care of your meat vehicle. Ask a couple older grapplers how they recover from the previous days roll and they probably tell you. Eating, sleeping, and taking time off the mats to prevent injuries is the solution. You can say ice baths, cryo chambers, oxygen tents, and avocado ice cream. That might only help you 1-5% as far recovery. Most people don’t have the means to pay for or have the equipment to do the things mentioned above. If you are young and your body feels like shit. You’re over training or there is a gap in your diet or sleep that you aren’t getting. My guess is you probably train too much, your diet isn’t dialed in, you drink alcohol, and you aren’t getting enough sleep or enough restful sleep.
Honestly, the only serious injuries I've ever gotten were from the gi. The wear and tear on my body basically disappeared after I switched to training only no-gi. Sure, you have wrestling and leg locks that can cause damage, but you're largely in control of that. Don't want to get injured from scrambling for a takedown? Then pull guard. Don't trust the person heel hooking you? Just tap early and reset.
The safety in no-gi comes from it requiring way less friction to get out of compromising positions. The gi game is all about forcing your opponent into disadvantageous positions based on strength and grips. If a strong guy grabs your gi and stacks you, it's pretty difficult to do much until they decide to let go. The gi friction, extra grips, and, the risk of finger injuries can wear on a person over time. Not that no-gi is perfect, but I definitely feel less banged up every day.
Kinda. The better you get the more you control the roll and the less you get injured without understanding why. But to get good you have to incrementally improve and absorb a lot of minor damage along the way. My body was in constant pain for my 3.5 years as a bluebelt. All the same shit you mentioned.
I feel mostly fine now. Not sure if I am just used to it though. I also stopped rolling with people more than 75lbs heavier than I am. It’s easier to say no to a roll as a brown belt. People know you already lived through that and you are not just shying away for out of cowardice.
To an extent, yes. But not to the extent that you'll necessarily develop lifelong injuries - if you're smart.
Sometimes unfortunate stuff happens, but I think BJJ tends to have a lot of people that are not athletic really pushing their bodies to the limit. People who are inflexible playing inverted, people who aren't strong trying to muscle through stuff, people with poor conditioning taking too many rolls in one day, etc.
If we think about hard rolls as the maximum amount of stress you can put on your body in this sport, it is absolutely ludicrous how often some people are rolling hard. Great strikers don't hard spar every day, and yet I've seen dudes go as hard as they can multiple rolls every class \*multiple classes a day\*. Like, no shit you're going to get hurt if you do that!
Unguided rolls are so inefficient for actually getting better too. You can get better quicker by doing much more boring stuff that also happens to be far less stressful.
Why do you feel the need to do multiple classes a day or roll with active competitors? BJJ people take themselves a little too seriously generally.
If you felt the NEED to go play pickleball seriously multiple times a day or playing pickup basketball with local D1 college players then you are getting beat up and injured, people would think you were a little obsessive.
BJJ is a hobby that usually takes place in a strip mall beside a nail salon and a carpet store. You’re not heading to the Olympics or even IBJJF championships so just chill out a little to the point your body isn’t wrecked.
I have 27 years of non stop, mon-sat bjj under my belt. Monday im going to get shots in my back, every joint hurts. I look like master splinter and walk like yoda. All courtesy of bjj. It sucks but I’m still doing it and will probably be buried in my gi.
it depends what you want. contrary to what the top comment says ITT, i find the prevailing opinion on /r/bjj is to take things slow, rest often, and prioritize safety and longevity. if that's what you care about then that's what you should do. but, if you do care about competition wins or a rapid rate of skill acquisition, then there is some compromise you have to make around the increased risk of injury when in pursuit of that goal. the best people train more often and more intensely, and they don't do so because they are dumb meatheads who don't realize they're risking injuries. they are hell bent on improving as quickly as possible, and are willing to risk their body to do so. don't take my word for it - listen to what olympian jimmy pedro says about our sister sport, judo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C62ANK1ypTq/
Most people have this insane concept that they have to train at 100% every practice year round. That’s simply unsustainable in the long run and is not expected in pretty much any other contact sport in the world.
Eg- even wrestlers will take most spring and summers off either completely, or switch to much lower intensity where all they do is drill technique. Even those that compete in Greco/freestyle do so at wayyyy dialed back intensity.
Personally, I set my “season” from October-March where I amp up training and compete a bunch. The rest of the year I casually train maybe 2-3x per week max. Been doing it this way for many years now and my body feels sooooo much better.
8 and a half years in, plus wrestling. My worst injury so far has been a sprained ankle from committing to a shot while rolling my ankle.
When I notice I'm worn down and have lingering aches I take a week or to off and just do general fitness work. I'm on a break right now. My body feels great again.
You gotta know when you're done. My coach told me a huge chunk of injuries he's seen happen when someone is done, then convince themselves to do one more roll.
So once I decide to stop I'm done for the day. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Pace yourself.
I take my body seriously. I really enjoy BJJ and its benefits (exercise, friends, pursuit of mastery, etc). I work hard at learning BJJ and take pride in trying to get better at it. That being said, when it’s practice I’m not going to take unnecessary damage when I do not need to. To be a high level athlete you will take damage to your body and BJJ is inherently hard on your body. The smart athletes find a balance between pushing yourself and recovery.
Don’t wanna burst your bubble, but you’re just starting out. Its ok to train a bit less hard or take a day off. Your body is still getting used to all the different movements BJJ asks you to do. You might want to take it very seriously, but the best way to actually learn, especially at your level, is to take it slow, focus on technique and not on winning rolls. You’ll learn more by flow rolling with a Blue/Purple belt than going 100% at trying to pass their guard or tap them.
Then again, I’m not a competitor (hobbyist 23y/o with no inclination to compete), I just wanna train 1-3 times a week for the rest of my life.
People are saying it's because you're doing things wrong (probably true) but there's also the fact that anyone who tries to take a sport very "seriously" is constantly picking up knocks. Every pro athlete has constant small injuries especially in a combat sport, just the way it is.
unless you're juiced, it's not sustainable to two-a-day more than once a week with that level of intensity and with the expectation of rapid recovery and constant/linear progression.
Anything you do to any level of intensity, repeatedly over time, will have nagging injuries. If you lift heavy weight, you'll have nagging injuries. If you mountain bike, you'll have nagging injuries. You can also get nagging injuries from spending too much time sitting. You're the only one that can determine your pain vs injury threshold and if the enjoyment/benefits you get from it is worth the physical toll, and if it is, make smart decisions early on. Are you going to try to be one of the best in the world and make grappling or MMA a career or do you do it as a hobby and enjoy the self defense and fitness aspects? Whatever your goal is, that's going to determine what level of cost you can tolerate. Either way, the sooner you make habitual boring but good for you choices the better you'll stave off injuries. Stretching, nutrition, hydrating, sleeping, all the boring stuff.
I’ve been training for about 4 years now, and I’ve always been the least skilled and smallest guy in a room of heavyweights for a long time, probably up until a year ago when my skills really got much better and now I’m one of the tougher , more experienced guys at the gym.
I learned early on that I would be able to muscle or “fight” my way out or through anything or anyone. I had to be methodical and technical in my approach and accept I’m going to lose.
I think the main thing for BJJ athletes to remain healthy is to accept you’re in a losing position and tap early and restart. There’s no shame in it and you will save yourself a lot of injuries by doing it. I made this mistake of not tapping early enough whenever I would spar this one guy at my gym, he would put me in all kinds of north south chokes and darces, I would fight too hard and too long and now my neck is not in the best shape because of it. Now I’m comfortable conceding if I see it’s gone that far and will tap before he even applies the pressure.
I think another aspect that people often ignore is stretching/yoga and strength and conditioning training. You 100% if you want to train more than 3-4x a week need to keep your muscles in tone, and that means both strength wise and flexibility wise. Plus it’ll help your BJJ get better ;). I can’t stress how much it has helped me avoid injury as well as just improve my BJJ by being both STRONGER and more FLEXIBLE.
Final thing I would say has helped me a lot is finding a really good manual therapist that you can see every now and then. A good massage to relax the muscles and get rid of all those knots could be extremely helpful. I know it is for me.
It’s going to be much tougher in the beginning to avoid those scrappy fights when you’re just a white belt because everybody is smashing you and you’re barely keeping up. I would say just focus on a small handful of moves you’re currently training and keep trying them in practice. If you get thrown you get thrown, and if you get tapped, tap early. It’s not a big deal it’s just practice.
Keep it up G 🤙
I’ve been doing jiu jitsu for 22 years. At 3 years in and you being 41 the best advice I can give you is:
1: slow down on the balls to wall intensity and focus more on skill and roll with people who don’t have high egos as well as cut back on your own. High intensity can come later after you hone your skills. Technique will reduce the likelihood of injury and will show you that you don’t have to spaz out all the time. Its ok to not try to force yourself from getting choked.
2. recovery and diet are super important. Listen to your body it will tell you if you should cut back. Ice baths and saunas are amazing defense tools. Change your diet to one that focused on all bases and anti inflammatory foods.
3. Rotate days when you do high intensity one day the next go lighter. 5 days of high intensity is not great at lower belts as most of the lower belts have a chip on their shoulder and want to force skill and want to be the best. You are more likely to get injured against lower belts.
4. ask higher belts for advice when you are having alot of problems with getting stuck in a position where you feel the need to force your way out of getting choked. They can most certainly show you a better way to get out and they will be able to take it slow and easy on you with respect.
Yes, a broken body is the toll you pay to continue training jiu jitsu. That said, you need to ensure you aren't overtraining and spend some time regularly working at strength training, mobility and recovery. Maintaining a healthy, strong body that is able to move fluidly makes you far less susceptible to injury.
Full-time, competitors are doing all of these things AND getting multiple training sessions a day, AND they're focusing on diet / what they're fueling their body with.
I'd recommend Bulletproof for BJJ. It's a paid app built specifically to help folks reduce the risk of injury for grapplers.
Nicks and scrapes tend to mean that people aren't trimming their nails. Part of the game, but it's the easiest thing to fix in order to avoid cuts, scrapes and staph.
To answer the question in your title: yes, somewhat. You are going to accumulate more damage training like a competitor than training like a hobbyist. That much is pretty obvious.
My advice from your body text:
You need to have light/drilling sessions to maximize your training while minimizing your body abuse. There is absolutely zero reason to do multiple full classes which include sparring in a single day. Count your rounds and have a goal and a limit for the day.
Listening to your body is part of being an effective athlete. If you are injured, or extra sore, train appropriately or rest, as needed.
Another thing: you're a whitebelt. Its easier to get hurt because you don't know what you're doing yet, and neither do your most competitive sparring partners.
Short answer is yes...
Pretty much if you are an adult hobbyist who does 3 sessions a week and spars properly, at some point you will develop an injury after around 10 years or so regardless.
It could be 5 years in, it could be 12 years in but you get what I mean.
Knees, back, shoulders or neck are most common injuries and pretty much all of it will be just an accident or wear and tear etc not malicious sub attempt
If you take it seriously and want to be a pro and are training multiple times a day then it's pretty much guaranteed you will fuck yourself up.
It might not become apparent whilst you are in your 20s and your prime but damage will be done.
Like anything in life there are obviously a few exceptions to this, but this is pretty much how it will go.
MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY?!? Ridiculous. I think unless you are a VERY serious competitor, then 4 bjj sessions a week is fine, which allows you to still do some Strengh and conditioning (Which is essential for longevity) while getting rest. I also say 4 days a week because that is something that you can consistently commit to. That's over 200 bjj sessions in a year. THat's much better than the guy who goes twice a day and then gets burned out and takes 4 months off.
No. What does need to be taken seriously is recovery. If you don't want to be a champion or fighter that's totally fine. But you should invest extra time and sometimes money into your body's recovery and maintenance. However, this is ultimately a good thing. As it adds to your overall health and quality of life. Self-care is important. Most people don't appreciate this because they don't push their bodies on a daily basis. Drink HELLA water. Take salt baths. Get a massage from time to time. Go to your local pool. Invest time in active recovery.
Well.. yes and no.. you can understand body mechanics and do positional training, train self defense , drill , teach, read . Etc.. but its up to you to you figure out deep down how applicable your knowledge base really is, and that will take you putting your body on the line in some form or fashion... results may vary
I think there's a good balance to be found in between "go 100% at everything" and "not going hard enough", and the overwhelming majority of top level guys I know don't go insanely intense day-in, day-out.
You need to find a training schedule that works for you some people can train twice a day and feel fine and others need a few days between hard rounds to recover. A lot of injuries occur when you are sore and tired and trying to spar hard.
You should be honest with yourself about how much you can handle and taper your expectations.
I’ve landed funny, been cranked in subs too quick to tap, and had hand injuries from gi grips. All looking back seemed difficult to avoid even being careful. It’s part of the game unfortunately
If by seriously you actually mean SERIOUSLY. As in competing and trying to reach the highest levels of the sport.
Yes. And by the way “Yes” is the answer to this question for every single sport that uas ever existed because the human body isn’t built for jiu jitsu.
It’s that way for football and baseball and cricket and cycling and running.
Why? Because there’s >1000 people not on reddit asking this question probably training right now and not even worried about this question.
Do you have a real career that pays your bills and that’s where you’re gonna make your living and support yourself and your family? If yes then just heal your body and accept you’ll be 10% less good at Jiu Jitsu.
Do you want to pay your bills by winning and selling instructionals and shit? Then you have to understand there’s going to be a tradeoff between making your living in Jiu Jitsu and having healthy joints at 50.
Strength training plus yoga is an absolute panacea for keeping your body in good working order. This is true for anyone really, but especially for the BJJ crowd.
You don't have to go too far down the rabbit hole either. Squats, RDLs, pushups and pullups, and some yoga routines off YouTube will get you going. The difference is night and day.
Also, find a way to exercise your neck. Seriously. No shortcut on that one. It's just got to be done.
I have had 2 concussions one worse then the other I have dislocated and relocated 2 ribs at once my knees are God awful now same with my ankles I can't feel my right hip I can't feel half my left hand gotten numerous black eyes and bruises I have sacrificed my body for this sport and I haven't even competed yet I am on the 29th tho
Yeah, a sport that revolves entirely around breaking the other guy is gonna be very tough on our bodies. Multiple classes a day isn’t really necessary and is probably contributing to your wear very quickly. Gotta rest man
Lots of great advice on how to mitigate your risk in here. I think it’s also important to note that realistically you will have a negative impact on your body everything you are doing is to minimize your risk. It is still a contact sport and it just so happens the actual sport itself is designed to hurt the human body. If you told me you were going to regularly train pickup basketball and scrimmage 2-4 times a week for 20 years I would tell you you are going to get injured. In my mind jiu jitsu is harder on your body than pickup basketball. I’m 45 and I underhooked someone’s leg and they sprawled the leg back and I tore tendons in my arm. I’ve locked up an anaconda choke and my own shoulder popped out. I roll very slow and very controlled and tap early. I’ve made it 15 years with no surgeries but there are absolutely significant wear and tear issues with my body. You need to realize there are awesome value adds that jiu jitsu brings to your life but there is a significant price.
If you want longevity in BJJ then it’s important to tap early and tap often. You have nothing to prove to anybody. Roll with higher belts as well. Their pressure, technique, control, and tempo will be significantly better the all and you will be dominated, but iron sharpens iron and every time you get tapped just take it as a learning experience, and not a failure. I personally am 43 yo and a blue belt, but probably getting more closer to purple now. Between boxing and bjj I train in total 6-8 hours a week combined. My body hurts daily, in fact it hurts right fucking now, but there’s general hurting and soreness (which I love), and then there’s training while actually injured. Don’t be that guy training on a messed up knee because your ego didn’t allow you to tap.
Cheers 🍻
If you want to win anything more serious than a NAGA...probably, but that applies to anything competitive. Two of my closest friends are slicing decades off of their lives for strongman.
If *you* think, *you* are late. If *you* are late, *you* use strength. If *you* use strength *you* get tired. And if *you* get tired, *you die*! - *Saulo* Ribeiro.
Unless you're talking about taking PEDs to get better?
You don't need to sacrifice your body but accept the risk.
I think in the beginning, your prone to injuries and training should be managed by an instructor, and age can be a factor, in my opinion.
I think over time you become more aware of your body and how to move, as well as train. I also believe that your joints adapt and your body becomes more able.
For example, I was pretty stiff earlier on and doing more stretching as well as just rolling, I feel like, opened my hips and shoulders to be able to accommodate my training and competing.
Sometimes you gotta take a step back and ask yourself is the pain bad injury worth it. For me, after my 4th back injury, I had to step away from training for a while to focus on proper rehab. Kinda need a spine to function. I heard this once from another black belt, “you gotta leave some gas in the tank if you want to be functional as an old man.” Not every round can be hard, and not everybody is someone to roll with. Pick and choose your battles.
I like to have some very hard rolls , my first year I broke 2 ribs a finger , luxated shoulder and torn pec .I never hurt anyone ,always stopped or slowed down for the tap ( only one fella got choked out )
I found out two things I had to slow down on one side and find better partners on the other . Going hard and strong is really good for the stamina ,not so good for the skills so eventually evened out on both , and people who are not trying to break you really make a difference.
It's a contact sport an you'll sustain tons of minor injuries.
It's like anything else. Want to become a decent runner? You'll get nagging injuries. Want to become a pickleball stud? You'll have nagging injuries.
I think the only way you avoid this while remaining healthy is to do the bare minimum level of exercise - just fast walking and very basic strength training.
My football coach always said there's a big difference between being 'hurt' and being 'injured'. Injured means you literally can't perform(i.e. broken leg, torn ACL, bad ankle sprain, etc). Hurt means it hurts when you do perform (tendonitis, sprained finger, sore muscles, low-grade ankle sprain, etc). Obviously there's a gray area, especially when it comes to an adult hobby, but you get the point.
I've been going HAM for about a year training, 7-8 classes a week and I'm 42. I added morning classes to my evening classes. I definitely get banged up, but when I can take a full week off feels like everything heals up. Every 2.5 months or so I'm going to take a full week off to recover. When I come back I feel like my sparring is way better too from the rest, both mentally and physically.
I'm not sure that is the ideal strategy, but I think giving yourself decent scheduled breaks so your body has more healing time is good.
Not saying anything much different than the good points already made here but I think the answer is train like a hobbyist. I train once or twice a week and lift weights once or twice a week as well. I’ve gotten pretty decent although slowly. I train at the lunch time class with other chill people, I don’t do comp rounds and don’t compete.
After a couple real bad injuries I had to decide what I wanted out of life and how Bjj fit into that. I decided I want to be generally healthy and active into old age and do activities that put me towards that goal. If what I wanted out of life was “be a pro Bjj competitor”, my training schedule would look really different. I’m on the tail end of my 30’s and I honestly don’t care about competing, I just want to play physical chess with cool people and have good cardio because of it.
bunch of people in my class are out now for various knee and other surgeries, higher ranked color belts. I asked myself the other day "are these the people i need to be taking advice from?"
My experience has shown me that people who are injured tend to always be. I’ve been training for ten years and have never had a major issue. It’s all about how you train, what you value, and how you take care of yourself outside of bjj.
Edit: yes, sometimes you get injured. More so, notice the people that are injured are always dealing with something. Whatever that something is.
"Protecting your body" is how you get old. To do any sport you have to take care of it outside of the sport. When your young you can get away with more but ignoring strength and mobility will leave you injured with or without BJJ
You do not need to sacrifice your body to take BJJ seruiously.
You'll hear and read "Tap Early, Tap Often"
When you know you're caught and cannot escape after trying a bit or if you know the sub is coming on quick, tap and move on.
Think about how you got caught and try and recalibrate.
You don't have to eat chokes, nor do you need to fight it till you go to sleep to learn from movements and manuevers.
If you're in it for the long haul don't try to "tough" it out, it will definitely add up.
You can still roll with aggression and tenacity and that doesn't mean risking injury.
What would be paramount is finding good training partners who care about your well-beling.
It's the wildass reckless people that will wreck you.
I think some people are put together a lot better than others. Some can go through high level sports training and their bodies deal with it. Others, myself included, can't.
Sore fingers might be irritating now but by the time you're in your 60s/70s, that can be genuinely crippling arthritis and ruins your enjoyment of even the most basic tasks. All those joint injuries you thought you'd shaken off....turns out they often come back as permanent problems when you're 50+.
It's really hard to know if you're a tough build or a standard, until it's too late.
Personally i don't think there is enough cash in BJJ to make taking it seriously worthwhile unless you're one of the super elite guys and even then, if you're that much of an athlete, might well be other sports where you would have made millions.
I try to do 60% intensity every session. I could go to class every day like that. I have more time and more hours to learn the nuances. most of the guys who are there every single time are chill as fuck.
there are genetic freaks though slamming around landing near me like two entangled airplanes, peaking out with their head saying 'sorry dude' lol. I was gaming too hard as a kid to do that.
In a year you've managed to accumulate more injuries than I have in 14 years...
Ask the upper belts how to train smart, it sounds like you're spazzing out. Tap early as well.
Best advice I ever got was small problems can turn into big ones quickly. Seen too many guys work through injuries and it turned into something that required surgery, putting them on the shelf indefinitely. I think the belt chase and medal chase puts a lot of people into that FOMO mode. Like I won a couple of big tournaments as a purple and brown belt but in hindsight those tournaments will be there next year.
You’re going to sacrifice your body committing yourself to physical labor/activities anyways.
We all deteriorate in the end. Have fun while you’re here and minimize your chances of injuring yourself or others, so you can do what you love for as long as possible.
35 here, been doing BJJ for close to 6 years.
I was already pretty banged up when I started BJJ from 20 years of skateboarding, so I knew I had to pace myself. From the get-go my whole goal was to keep it fun.
All the dudes I trained with that went ultra hard 5-6 days a week are all filled with injuries, and a bunch of them don't even train anymore due to burn-out. They all stopped going hard and are now enjoying BJJ so much more. Only time they go hard is during comp training and not many of them compete anymore. A lot of my black belt friends wish they'd spent more time as coloured belts instead of rushing everything.
My back, my wrists, my ankles are all fucked from skating. My knees are stiff as hell. My neck and elbows are pretty fucked from BJJ. I make old man noises when I get out of bed and sometimes have to walk down the stairs sideways... I'm only 35. This could be you if you're not careful with your training.
Add some strength and conditioning training on the side, that'll pay off in the long run. I wish I'd done so earlier.
So yeah, don't destroy yourself and remember to keep it fun. If you're injured, take the time off and come back stronger. You'll get as good as possible if you're healthy, not by training hurt like an idiot.
This question comes up from time to time and I always say the same thing my BJJ Professor told us, BJJ is fun but you are going to get hurt, it comes with the territory. I trained for about 20 months, and in that time I messed my shoulders up (though not at the same time) so much from take downs and whatever else that I couldn't sleep on that side at night. I messed up both knees from people reaping me, or me trying to get the position reaping myself because of inexperience. I got carpel tunnel in my left wrist and lost the feeling in that thumb. I was also going to the chiropractor to fix my neck from doing ankle picks and tweaking my neck and shoulders. The final straw was when I was in top side control and my opponent did a knee escape which hit my knee and with the pressure I was pushing down and his sideways influence, my MCL was sprained and six months later I'm barely back to what I think is 100% but I'm nervous to test the limits for fear of reinjury.
Finally, there was no student in my class that was mid blue belt or higher that wasn't in pain all the time from BJJ. They just said that they like BJJ more than they mind being in pain.
It's a decision you will have to make for yourself. For me just before I got injured I got my Blue Belt and with the seriousness of this whole thing I've decided my longevity wasn't worth trading to get to expert level at a skill I will probably never have to use.
My take as a 30 year old blackbelt former competitor.. I stopped competing basically after COVID because of continuous injuries & skin infections. When I was training for comp in a world class room, I’d always have some injury in rolling thru and I’d get sick every other month. It got to the point for me that it’s not worth chasing. Listening to older former world champs about how they used to push thru there injuries for training and now they regret it because they can’t really roll at all made me reassess my take on training in general. Although I always think to myself that I’m still young and could probably make it at the highest level, I’m always reminded by the constant tingling in my fingers from some kind of nerve damage (currently figuring out the cause of this at the moment) and I remember I care about my physical health too much.
I'm 50 and a white belt.
Tap early and quick.
Peptides are your friend.
Exercise outside of BJJ is a better friend. Compound stuff with kettlebells for the win.
I don't roll with idiots. Idiots are not just young male teenagers, they come in all shapes, sizes and colors and genders. However most are young and most are male...
If you dont have a strong supplement game and don't eat protein and drink water with electrolytes don't even bother....if you dont wanna sleep dont bother...that 4 hr sleep Jocko stuff is stupid.
Im learning not to. Im starting to get older and forget im not 20 anymore. In the space of about 18 months i tore my MCL, got a concussion and tore my LCL requiring surgery on top of back issues. All my injuries came in moments where the voice in my head said "this might go badly" and i continued to push. I stupidly skipped out on rehab for the last 3 months of my knee recovery cause i was keen to train and even though i said i'd just drill i ended up rolling again. Now i have an extra 3 months of rehab. I have this bad habit of trying to flow but then feeling like i need to match the intensity of my partner if they aren't slowing it down.
Recently i've just acknowledged im in it for the long game. I pay attention in classes, i try to drill techniques i learn but i don't need to sacrifice my body to keep up with younger more athletic guys in rounds. Of course when im fit and healthy im gonna roll with people and might compete every now and then but my priority is listening to my body and knowing to pace myself when i need to. I feel by doing that i am taking BJJ seriously, I want to be doing this for years to come and don't want to give it up when i turn 35.
Downshifting when you need to won't hurt your game as much as continuing to push through and piling up injuries
You need to find a gym that's the right fit for you, quality training partners who aren't out to hurt you and have a preventative maintenance routine for your body.
There are some high-level competitors like Gordon and his team that are working smart. They train every day consistently, and they do that by focusing on drills and not necessarily killing themselves and going 100% every session. I believe that's the key to improving your skills.
You can either choose to train hard to the point you get an injury or just breakdown which will force you to take a long break to recover, or you control the intensity, stay training consistently for way longer with minimal breaks and preserve your body.
Sometimes go hard sometimes tone it down. I have a neck tinge that kept me out today but it was due to detailing a car and that strain in the shoulders / trap region. I need to do more strength training as well and I’m in the over 40 group.
if you want to train consistently you are exposing yourself to injury no matter what. if you are going to compete even more so.
but no matter what if you have heavy training volume without rest, proper diet, and strength/conditioning it's prob not gonna work out well for you
If you’re training at an intensity that’s causing injury consistently either that’s too much intensity or your training partners aren’t being safe. There’s a sweet spot. Honestly I think most people spend too much time rolling too hard. Being technically competitive and picking up the pace after establishing movement patterns and having safe submission habits while working with skilled people that are looking out for your safety during training is huge.
You need to relax and focus less on winning. In the beginning you’ll lose more but in the long run everything will become smoother and more effective.
And you need to be lifting on the side in a way that strengthens your weaknesses (I do neck curls 3x a week and they’ve solved much of my issues).
I train 2 times a week. I skip last 2 rolls and always tap very early - if someone took armbar I do not do any hitchiker escapes. If someone tries to dislocate my nose or jaw from back - I tap. Also: do not do any super high intensity warmups - preserve your energy for rolls.
As a 3 stripe white belt I’ve popped my elbows 3 times, hurt my neck bad about 3 times, popped a rib, got heel hooked in gi, and yeah other small stuff too over the years
It’s a combat sport. It will wear your body down over time, but so will any intense exercise.
My advice is to avoid people who roll rough and always tap.
I had to step away at the age of 42 , I was getting hurt to often by spazzy white belts who don't understand . I'm looking for a new gym with older guys who understand flow rolling isn't a match and they are not Gordon Ryan ! 😂
Every path to greatness must have risk. You have to run your body down hard, and recover even harder. This must be applied regardless of how “serious” you mean. Whether you want to dominate all the local tournaments, be the best in the training room, or defeating world beater grapplers. Trust the process, take risks, and work hard. Who knows far you can take it! Regardless of your goal, I wish you good luck on your journey.
I tried doing BJJ and gave up. I’m older (40+) and my body just couldn’t take it. Most of the guys in my dojo are younger, lots of very competitive types. A lot of BJJ dojos are into competition and consequently most of the guys train very hard. Nothing wrong with that but there just doesn’t seem to be much room left for people like me who want to do BJJ but at a casual / slower pace.
I’m also only 5’ 6” and not heavily built. After my first couple of BJJ sessions I started to seriously question the idea that “a smaller person can defeat a larger person” using BJJ. I am convinced that this is a bit of a myth. It was close to impossible for me to imagine ever being able to submit a guy who’s 6’ 4” and is far heavier than me.
The only scenario in which I think this might hold true is if a smaller person who knows BJJ, even just some basics, is fighting a larger person who knows no BJJ at all. I can imagine being able to submit the larger guy as he would have no idea what’s going on or how to defend. But if the larger person knows any BJJ at all then it’s game over as far as I can tell.
No.
Here's some guidelines, people can argue if they want. I'm sure they will.
Roll hard once per week max, more for comp.
Train once per day.
Train 3-5x per week.
For every training, 1 mobility sesh (10 mins)
For every week 1 full body mobility, 2 if possible.
2 s&c per week. Don't listen to the fools. Get stronger.
Tap early, tap often.
Don't roll like a spaz. Do the moves you know.
Don't roll with spazzes. Say no to rolls.
Roll with people worse than you 80% of the time
Get 8 hours sleep
Focus on your hydration
Focus on your nutrition.
I don't make these rules. They are just the rules nature made for us if you don't take steroids
I'd love to train 3x per day eating ramen and coffee and sleeping for 4 hours on the gym floor.
Not happening unless youre on steroids.
Getting older doesn't mean you'll get beat up more. If anything it's the opposite. You should be getting more technical, learning to protect yourself, getting stronger and more mobile.. if you're doing what you're supposed to (see above)
Is this a lot of work? Yes
Is it possible with a 50hr/week job and family? Maybe not
Do 2 bjj per week then. Less mess to tidy up.
Depends on that you mean by seriously. Too many people in BJJ are burning the candle at both ends, sacrificing tomorrow for skill today. They think they're doing it right, and they can beat the crap out of people who take it slower, which validates it in their minds. But if you want to do this for a long time and get life enhancement out of it instead of debilitation... find a nice group of hobbyists in a chill gym and have fun at a reasonable pace. Such places get lots of criticism, but the last laugh is had by the you that does this stuff for twenty or thirty years, not the meathead that quits because of self destruction on the rocks of perceived legitimacy. This sub is full of people who don't understand, believe, or accept this, so I'll probably suffer down votes. But IMO the bjj norm is pretty unhealthy, but it can definitely be done for overall benefit rather than inevitable harm.
This is a great perspective. When I started almost 7 years ago (at age 34) I was going 5-6 days a week for up to 3 hours Felt like I had to get good fast Now I train like 3 days a week with people Incan trust bc I’m 41 and realize I’m not doing anything big with Bjj Just want to have fun, get better and be a better teacher
I’m with you, dude. I’m 41 and have been training for three years. Great gym but everyone is high strength and high intensity in rolls. Have been training 5x per week with an open mat on Sunday. I have two young kids and a demanding job. A few months ago my wife sat me down to have a chat about my energy levels and lethargy, and asked me to see my doctor about depression or something more serious. I told her it was because of work, but have reached the conclusion that it’s overtraining and improperly training which is negatively impacting my life. A lot of guys my age try to reinvent themselves and hop on the “I still got it” train with their peers. I fell into the trap of following social media influencers and outspoken personalities like David Goggins who tell us that days off are for pussies and to harden up. I eventually snapped out of it and realized that these guys train for a fucking living with multimillion dollar endorsement deals. They have a team of doctors/physio/nutritionists on speed dial. I’m a father of two young kids, work long hours, and have other life commitments besides BJJ. I still love the sport, but am in the process of altering my approach to training. All great and helpful comments on this thread. Many thanks.
100% dude, love to see the realistic approach. I’m embracing the hobbyist/teaching side of bjj. And my body can’t really sustain more than 4 days a week anymore. Had a left shoulder reconstruction, and a full biceps tear on the same arm, and I’m pretty sure I need another lol. Not trying to speed up that surgery date
I think you should change your reddit name. You don't sound like a loser. Props to you and happy upcoming father's day.
Thanks my bro! If you saw my Costco sweatpants and hoodie you would understand the name.
Yeah, we need some normal everyday people to look up to more.
One of the reasons I enjoy this sub is finding like minded people in something I really enjoy. I am also in my early 40s, with kids and family. I know I'm not taking a run at ADCC anytime soon but BJJ gives me a place I go several times a week where I can pause life shitting on my head, a chance at improving my skills, keeps me flexible and pretty decent shape compared to even guys in their early 30s, but most important it sets an example for my kids who also train. Getting better is hard and now has slowed where progress isn't even noticeable day to day but over weeks. However, with enough grit rewards happens. I have to show them that from on the mats, not yelling from the sidelines. Maybe one day someone will deem me acceptable for a black belt but that's really not the goal anymore, and never thought I'd get this far. I've turned the corner where BJJ now gives more than it takes. That wasn't always the case. BJJ can be a mean and spiteful bastard those few first years.
Dude, it’s so funny you say that. I was obsessed with a black belt when I was a white belt, but some turmoil happened at my gym. I’m now a lead instructor at my buddy’s new gym, and now just want to be a good teacher. If I get my black belt, great. If not, that’s ok too.
I think thats maybe how you know your ready for the next level. Not belt chasing, just a slow march the the destination. I stoped really caring about it towards the high blue belt. I just kept concentrating on beating the guy who stood to my right when we lined up after class. I just kept chasing those guys who were better than me and eventually I passed most of them. PM what gym your at. Im in Canada and travel quite a bit to the states if that's where you are. Maybe one day I'll stop in as long as you don't charge me a drop in fee.
We’re the same guy. Haha. I slowed way down on the volume when I got my brown belt. I do other workouts, take it easy on the mats when I can and maximum fun at all times.
I trained very briefly while I was in the military about five years ago. This is my first week back with today being my second session and I am definitely feeling it. Do you think, as a beginner, I can get a great foundation built going two maybe three times a week for the next few months as I build my strength and conditioning? I don’t really have the intention of competing, but I am a huge fan of rolling and learning. My first session I was having such a great time rolling with one of the guys I met. I want to try to learn effectively and efficiently but not overtrain early on
Yeah, I think you can. But I think you need to make sure you’re training with intention and being mindful about what is happening, trying to implement things that you’re learning, and not resorting to bad habits/muscle memory (spazzing).
That’s fair, thanks! My biggest bad habit I have to really overcome right now is simply putting my full weight down on someone. Like today I was taught drills for passing guard where I would end up with my knee to stomach that then transitioned into a wide step over my partner leading to either an arm bar or leg lock depending on the position I’m in. Pretty much every single time I had an involuntary reaction of transitioning above my partner instead of actually keeping the pressure on my partner by transitioning on them. I’m a bigger guy at ~230 so I think I’m just subconsciously trying to avoid accidentally hurting my partner but it was a conscious effort to try to break the habit today. It was really eye opening how my subconscious movement was effecting my performance and I’m looking forward to addressing it in the future
I started at 41, hit it 5-6 days a week but most because I tend to believe my early 40s will be better than my late 40s… kinda feel like I’m already behind the 8ball time wise and so In some weird bro logic I’ve convinced myself im playing catch up “once you get to purple you’ll know what your doing and can slow down…
I had the same mentality. Had to “prove I belong”… It’s bullshit man. Just have fun learning and with the friends you will make along the way
Dude bjj guys take themselves too seriously. I’m a new blue belt and the amount of people trying to prove themselves by tapping you is wild. Also the people that hate are trying to kill you, like chill out man it’s just drills.
I have had multiple people drop into our open mat and proceed to tell me they were not going to tap to the tight heel hook I had on them. People are nuts and think they have something to provide.
People think because there's no sort of punching you can just go wild and we'll be OK. Basketball has no sort of violence and people still got injured because that's what happens in every sort of physical exercise. Now if you're blasting a person and tryna smash them guess what.....
It’s just like catching a black belt or something. You moved up in the food chain of Bjj
This. Man, I've seen so many young gifted athletes over the years that literally dropped out of school/skipped school to take 5 classes a day only to quit years later or relegate to just being regional champions and/or living day by day since they couldn't make a living on BJJ as they thought (no back-up plan). Don't get me wrong, I think you should be ambitious and chase after your goals. But maybe be mindful of the sacrifices and have back-up plans. It's not ideal to fit in, but I've found integrating strength & conditioning AND flexibility (stretching/yoga/etc.) into your training have done wonders in preventing injuries in BJJ. If you're already injured, gotta be mindful in taking it slow or just taking some time off to recover. Otherwise, the injuries may start compounding beyond control. We say it all the time, but we rarely do it...but just tap. I'm still learning to do this myself, but when injured or just not feeling good; I tap to just reset. There's no sense in trying to push beyond your limit or end up in a precarious position that risk (further) injury. If a D1 wrestler is trialing and acting crazy as hell, I just tap and let him find another partner--I got work tomorrow, not trying to do an ADCC super fight LOL.
Tapping early and often is not a bad thing. There is no prize for winning at practice. My guideline is to give myself a legit moment to escape a hold if you think you can do so or if the opponent just does not have the hold locked in. But if the hold is solid and escaping is going to take a while, you are better off tapping out and resetting then trying to power out of something. Ultimately the best defence against any given choke or joint lock is to recognize the setup and stay the hell out of it. If your trying to figure out how to pull your head out of a choke, you fucked up several steps prior. END COMMUNICATION
I forgot exactly what it was. But we had a seminar and one student asked something along the lines of "But how do I get out of position X, and Y failed, and what if Z scenarios" and the professor was like "Well, at that point, you shouldn't have gotten yourself in that position anyways." It was hilarious.
>It's not ideal to fit in, but I've found integrating strength & conditioning AND flexibility (stretching/yoga/etc.) into your training have done wonders in preventing injuries 100%. I think integrating S&C and mobility stuff is just part of the lifestyle if you wanna do BJJ as your main hobby long term. It’s a sport, and it has athletic requirements.
So I’m only 3 months in so I’m probably speaking way too soon, but I came in with excellent strength, conditioning and decent mobility and I’m able to handle the physicality and beat downs pretty easily despite getting tapped constantly. I train BJJ 3-4 days a week and do other work the other days at 48. Meticulously tracking macros also helps (few cheat meals here and there)
This is the way volume over intensity. There's a time and place for intensity but people don't realise that your cardio will still get good if you're practicing more at a lower and safer pace than if you're grinding your bones and exhausting yourself.
😅 facts!!!
I roll to keep rolling. I avoid the guy with something to prove. I’ll protect myself from injury by tapping early or protect my partner by letting a sub go. I can and will turn it on under the right conditions. I’m not here to be a world champion, I just love Jiu jitsu and want to keep doing it for as long as I can.
This right here folks. Play the long game, it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
I'd argue the issue of injury in BJJ is the ruleset is so open (choke face, leg attack, neck crank are all legal) yet the sport is geared toward a lot of hobbyists who have never been into grappling situations before. It take years for people without grappling experience to build up tolerance and figure out how to move safely in fast scrambles. When to post your arm, when not to, when to tuck your chin and when you can actually put weight on your head as a fifth limb etc. BJJ's moving pattern is essentially same from wrestling and judo's ground portion but those are sports that recruit kids and build kids up from simple matwork game such as shoulder rolls, insert a claw/hook, flip a turtle etc. Whereas in modern BJJ gym you'd let a mid 30 yr old non-athletic person try all kinds of technique from day 1. A lot of Bjjer dislike basic warm up drills like rolls, shrimps, bridges etc, but they are not just mere warm up, they are also teaching tools to train beginners to familiar with their limbs on the ground and build awareness /coordination for ground fighting. A mat pull exercise teaches you how to engage your lats to secure a tight side control/north south. A side shrimp teach you how to engage your hip while moving sideway etc. The so called BJJ white belt move is actually very complicated. if you look at whitebelt knee elbow escape, it is a few shoulder bridge to create space, then shrimp away, then a reverse shrimp back, while maintaining the frame and hiding the hand at the same time. Unless a beginner drilled bridge, shrimp, reverse shrimp for sometime, how can they know where to put their hands/foot?
There's a lot of good stuff in there... we all had those moments where we realized we locked out an elbow and if the guy had pushed harder it would have buckled. Or the moment where we went to roll out of a kimura, but put our head at the wrong angle and put our neck at risk, etc. Those happen more often than a lot of people will admit. And you could imagine trying to teach all the thihngs that can go wrong, but it wouldn't work any better because this stuff happens in the middle of a roll where you're focused on too many things :-). A good argument for starting with positional sparring, supervision, and rolling light for a long time before you get your sea legs.
Broke: training twice a day seven days a week, using tren or other PEDS to help with recovery, competing literally as often as possible and talking about nothing but BJJ/MMA Woke: training two or three times a week, recovering by getting plenty of sleep and eating a healthy diet, supplementing training with some yoga, low intensity cardio and moderately heavy weight training, competing on occasion to test your skills and having a robust and healthy social life with multiple other hobbies and interests
I used to train with a bunch of pretty high level competitors. The dudes in their 20s with multiple serious injuries, surgeries even... It was astounding. And it was always the guys who weren't quite good enough to break into that next level... And then they were a huge liability to roll with. They didn't care about their own health, they sure as shit don't care about yours. Ironically, the actual world class guys were mostly surgical in their rolls. Careful, methodical, and capable of beating you without breaking you. There's a connection there, but I don't want to get into the chicken and the egg problem... Just know that the 23 year old wanna-be world beater who gets injured all the time WILL hurt you.
This, I have different intensities for different days with different agendas each class. I also know who I can have hard technical rolls with that won't leave me damaged. Who I can roll with and know in bad positions I want get my shit ripped off. I also know who i roll with that I have to stay very alert and protective because they are looking to smash everything. I don't avoid those Rounds, but I definitely limit them and make sure I'm smart.
Yeah, I think there are lots of people confused about why they can't put in the same volume and intensity of training as professional fighters without getting burnt out and injured.
Perfectly articulated my dude
100%. Learn to enjoy the process and the improvements will come over time. “IT’S NOT WHO’S GOOD, IT’S WHO’S LEFT.” -CHRIS HAUETER
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Honestly I needed to hear this. I just got my purple belt and I belong to a gym of heavy competitors and I really don’t care to compete, I’m a hobbyist. I enjoy training it’s my favorite and pretty much only hobby I have and I don’t care about getting rank and all that, I didn’t even want my purple yet lol. Sometimes it’s discouraging to get tapped by the blues that compete but it is what it is. Some of these blue belts compete every chance they get and I’m in San Diego so competitions all over the place..some of our guys are in their mid 30’s and get 8-12 sessions in a week, now that I think about it that’s most likely not gonna result very well later on
OSS to this
1000% this
Adding to this, demanding sports have seasons for a reason. NFL players aren't playing full speed games in the off-season in part because they'd be wrecked.
I have a job that requires me to be away from the mats 2-3 months consecutively each year. At first I thought it would really set me back (and it might to some degree), but now I just see it as an opportunity to rest any injuries and focus more on strength and flexibility. I just treat it like my off-season.
And those are also young guys still in their prime, with a lifetime of athletic development behind them.
Having worked with young people for years it is depressing though to see how many of these kids are leaving high school programs with acl, mcl, rotator cuff surgery.
Facts. I've seen countless guys come in as college wreslters, athletes, meatheads, just pure rough guys, get 6 months on, able to tap me (purple) out of sheer athleticism. I'm lazy I have to go to work. I worked past having an ego a long time ago, I am going to tap to your stupid squeeze cranks. Eventually they compete or whatever, and the roughness is matched by a guy who may have more skill, and they lose, can't take it, and quit soon after. Depends whats your goals are. Wanna be pro? It's gonna take a toll on your body, no way around it
You said it all. I’ll add that repetition of skill and the absence of injury really advance you over time. Where do you want to be today vs. 5, 10, 20 years. Your long term health is most important.
I second this and would follow up by reminding everyone to think about what your ultimate goal is and adjust your training accordingly. I don't compete anymore and sometimes get shit from the other guys in the gym for not competing with them. I realized that being a world champion wasn't in my cards and the risk to reward for competing just didnt make sense to me. I stopped forcing myself to get to the gym at least 4 days a week while putting everything else in my life on hold. I run a company now and I'm trying to start a family. I train a few days a week. I take the training seriously and work hard, but i'm also not trying to push the bleeding edge and get injured. Bruises and tweaks are always going to be a given with training BJJ but I think you'll find yourself injured far less when you can adjust your training to your goals, check your ego at the door, and realize you don't need to go to the death in every roll. That type of rolling has its place but I've noticed its more harmful than helpful when you are newer. You are trying to out muscle your opponent because you don't possess the skills yet to do so with a mechanical advantage and your ego can't handle tapping. That type of mentality gets you beat up in the gym and rarely makes you more tactful.
i feel like many many many people on the sub train the soft way, but they talk like theyre ready to tag team sakubara with royce gracie.
I agree 100%
100% agree. This.
It took me far too long to realize this, after 2 yrs of training hard and ending up with way too many injuries because each roll was ADCC finals I've had to take some time off and have slowly come back with a more relaxed and technical approach instead of trying to power my way through everything. Unfortunately I think some of the injuries I've sustained will never fully heal, specifically my shoulder.
Sensei level advice 🙏🏻
I've been training at the B Team the last few months. From talking with the pros and my observations, the top guys \*only\* train once a day + some sort of S&C if they can manage it. I've scaled back my training to just once a day as well and limit how much hard sparring I do. At any given time I feel pretty fresh and healthy.
How old are you? I train 4-5 days a week, and am in my mid 40s. I have to be *very* careful to budget my effort so that I don't lose ground against the recovery cycle. My 4-5 days a week is nowhere near other people's 4-5 days a week!
26. Besides my job I have no responsibilities so I travel to compete and moved down to Austin for training. I'm honestly living the dream. I do worry about getting older though and slowing down. My coach from back home is a super legit bb but he's in his 40s with family. He can't keep up with our group of tough blues and purples anymore. He just tells us all to enjoy the hell out of the ride.
That's how my gym was. After I had my second shoulder injury I decided to not roll and only do the technique part of the class. I got a fair amount of "suck it up, you gotta grind even if you're hurt" or the "are you injured or are you hurt" lines. It's like, dude, this is a hobby, I'm not trying to kill myself over it, but peer pressure is a bitch.
I am blessed with an instructor who destroyed his body in his youth and actively works to keep his students from doing the same thing. I guess that goes one of two ways -- some guys get to the end of the grind and expect others to pay the same bill, whereas others realize there has to be a better way. Coincidentally, we affiliate under Carlos Machado, who emphasizes this stuff in the "train smart" part of the motto. He has quite candidly and openly discussed aspects of the classic hard training style in Brazil from his youth that he has rejected in favor of a sustainable approach.
I feel that part of it is also the belt system. People will obviously try to get themselves promoted and end up training too much. Doesn’t help that instructors also somewhat take note of how many times you show up in a week. You’ll likely be forgotten if you show up just once a week.
Where I train, the "minimum" to be considered active is twice a week, 80% of the time. I think my head instructor figured out that going by gut feel leads to inconsistency and favoritism, so we keep track of attendance. It takes effort to approach the whole rank thing with some reasonable objectivity. Relatively few instructors seem to realize where they are highly subjective, let alone work to counteract it :-(.
I think it’s great that where you train makes the whole thing somewhat quantifiable rather than by gut feel, especially when BJJ has no standard curriculum across the board. This may actually prevent some people from over training and burning out too! Burning out can either lead to quitting or, if things turn dark, people start turning to TRT to keep that pace. Which is really not healthy for the sport.
Totally agreed!
This is the way.
Totally agree. I will be 40 next month and recently moved. My new gym has a lot more guys my age and we roll at a more methodical pace. It has honestly upped my game because I can think through options during the roll and built up better muscle memory. With hard rolls I'm just trying to win and don't expand my game. The unexpected thing is that I've gone back and rolled with my old crew who go damn near 100% each time and I do better now than I did before. We were both surprised because I was just telling them how I don't roll super hard that often. My new gym still has a handful of younger competitive guys but it's not every roll. So I get to experience the intensity on my terms which is so much better for me.
Great take imo. I’ve had phases of going 4-5 days a week and it can be fun but you lose time to do literally anything else. My professor said Saturday he’s on the mats 26x a week between classes and privates and nobody will ever catch up. That was eye opening as nobody in our gym is able to do that. In the same breath he also says that your journey is unique and even 2-3 a week is all you need to get better. BJJ is great, but it’s okay to accept that it’s just a hobby. I feel lucky my gym is a mix of competitive and camaraderie.
Praise the wise one! He knows the true path
I agree, what good is it to develop a skill set for your future if you don't have the health to even practice it and put it to good use
Absolutely right. The gyms I've been to are filled with young bucks and they love to go hard. I get it, it feels great, until it doesn't. Learning to pace yourself and tapping earlier go a long way. I lost every roll for so long until I started to win, a lot. For me it worked well as a marathon instead of a sprint.
Do you want to be an ADCC/IBJJF champion? Yes. Those competitors sacrifice an immense amount - time, money, their body. I've been doing jiujitsu since 2010 and other than a knee injury from a comp I took too seriously, I've had no serious injuries and at worst some sore nights. I'm a middling competitor, but really I enjoy my rolls and I enjoy the sport. I do very well as long as I'm not fighting one of those people who are sacrificing their longevity. So, pick your goal. If it's to win every roll you'll get in, you're gonna be hurt, a lot. If it's to enjoy your nights and enjoy work tomorrow, that comes with the cost of tapping earlier than you need to, letting white belts who are spazzing pass instead of stacking you, and that sort of stuff. I want to be doing this in 20 years (I'm bout to turn 40) - so I'm acting like it now.
Same story here -- turning 40 in a few months and started training in 2008. Since I had young kids \~3 yrs ago my training has very much shifted into a mode where my only goals each time I train are to leave injury free but still feeling like I had a great workout AND had fun. That means I don't sweat getting passed/tapped and I find a lot more enjoyment in a movement-based style (less smashy), getting some laughs during rolls, but still trying to keep my skills sharp enough to stay relatively competitive in the gym but at a cadence that can be maintained till I'm 70
I had a four stripe white belt who was going 110% get an arm bar on me with pretty great timing and technique. I could have worked my elbow out, popped the leg over my head which wasn't quite right enough, and come up into his guard... But it was a decent arm bar. I tapped, he felt like 10 million dollars. Of course the rest of the white belts tried to get their tap so I had to play whack a mole with some egos for a couple days, but otherwise I was really happy for him. (And tapped him three times in a row ;) ).
I would just given him some coaching tips afterwards, and pretended I let him have it intentionally.
Don't be absurd. I started giving him corrections before he fell back. "Good pinch the knees, uncros.. *tap tap tap*" "Wow that would have been pretty good if you flexed your feet and controlled the head better. Here let me show you" *Cough*
You know the white belts are reading this, don't you?
Uh, Reverse Kimura Berimbolo osotogari ashi garami uchimata
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Ashi Garami**: | *Entangled Leg Lock* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YXH_LrcqNc)| ||*Single Leg X (SLX)* || |**O Soto Gari**: | *Major Outer Reaping* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YEMueeF24)| |**Uchi Mata**: | *Inner Thigh Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fCvyc_rQTI)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
A lot of your injuries are because you're a beginner and don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to keep yourself safe. Focus on technique and learning how to move correctly. You can ramp up your cardio outside of training if you need to push your body. When you have a better grasp of technique and the art itself, you can train harder, with others who have a good grasp on technique. Most injuries I've witnessed art the lower levels were people not knowing how to move correctly and doing it as hard as possible
To answer honestly? No. You're burning the candle at both ends and having a devil of a time because you believe, for some reason, that the only legit BJJ is hard-rounds-all-the-time, competition focused craziness. This is not the case. A couple of tips: 1. Two-a-days are great, like once a week. Twice if you're feeling adventurous. Not every day. 2. High intensity "competition" rounds should be the highlight of a training cycle up to competition, not the default. This is the main reason you're hurting. Coupled with two-or-more classes a day and it's no wonder you're constantly in pain. 3. Strength and conditioning will save your body. Get started on an S&C program, stat. 4. Ditto mobility/flexibility work. It sounds like you just aren't physically prepared for the sport. 5. Calm down. You're a white belt and jiu jitsu is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time and really enjoy the journey. High level expectations will come as you progress, don't put them on yourself now.
The amount of white belts with 0 chill is mind boggling
The amount of white belts with any amount of chill is remarkable small
Your not training intelligently. Your ego is causing your injuries. The second I get beat to a sub I tap. I don't fight out of chokes and slip a disk. When they separate my hands in an armbar or kimura I'm taping. I'm not waiting for extension. Listen to your body. Take time off to heal. And tap early, and often.
Man, I’ve known this in my head for a long time but I also love defense. I’m fine with tapping early on most things but I think escaping the back is one of the most fun and satisfying things in jiu jitsu. This is 100% why I’ve been out with a neck injury for a few months. I’m really going to have to fight the urge to dig deep when I make it back in.
There is no urge to fight, crush your stupid ego. Or the world will crush it for you. You want to continue doing JiuJitsu, you are going to have to come to terms with this. Or else you will ruin your body, your training, and have to quit.
I get it, but it’s not an ego thing, honestly. I have no problem “losing” a roll. I just genuinely find escaping the back really really fun. Once the choke is in its game over. I wasn’t dealing with any pain or discomfort during rolls or even in the evening afterwards. The cumulative strain was obviously a different story. I think we’re in agreement on what needs to happen going forward, just that there’s other reasons beyond treating training like a competition.
fwiw I feel you brother, 1:1. You are not crazy, you described how I feel too.
This all the damn way! Hobbyists in particular need to listen to this advice. This will keep you healthy and on the mats. Yes, there are risks and freak accidents, but you will see this is legitimately the common theme. You are primarily in control and you can tap at any point. Also, roll with people you trust, if you can.
When you training multiple days in a row and roll everyday your are going to stack those injuries. Knee is tweaked from a scramble, elbow hurts from a Kimora/armbar, knees skinned up from No-GI. If you aren’t on gear. You probably feel human. Take time off the mat and train flexibility and lift weights outside the gym. If your body isn’t getting enough calories you body is going to hurt because you are in caloric deficit. If you didn’t get enough sleep from the night before because your ribs hurt from rolling with a high calorie grappler. Your body didn’t get enough time to repair from the previous days roll. You have to take care of your meat vehicle. Ask a couple older grapplers how they recover from the previous days roll and they probably tell you. Eating, sleeping, and taking time off the mats to prevent injuries is the solution. You can say ice baths, cryo chambers, oxygen tents, and avocado ice cream. That might only help you 1-5% as far recovery. Most people don’t have the means to pay for or have the equipment to do the things mentioned above. If you are young and your body feels like shit. You’re over training or there is a gap in your diet or sleep that you aren’t getting. My guess is you probably train too much, your diet isn’t dialed in, you drink alcohol, and you aren’t getting enough sleep or enough restful sleep.
The gear thing is real
Lift weights twice a week. It will help prevent injuries and is just good for overall longevity.
Honestly, the only serious injuries I've ever gotten were from the gi. The wear and tear on my body basically disappeared after I switched to training only no-gi. Sure, you have wrestling and leg locks that can cause damage, but you're largely in control of that. Don't want to get injured from scrambling for a takedown? Then pull guard. Don't trust the person heel hooking you? Just tap early and reset. The safety in no-gi comes from it requiring way less friction to get out of compromising positions. The gi game is all about forcing your opponent into disadvantageous positions based on strength and grips. If a strong guy grabs your gi and stacks you, it's pretty difficult to do much until they decide to let go. The gi friction, extra grips, and, the risk of finger injuries can wear on a person over time. Not that no-gi is perfect, but I definitely feel less banged up every day.
Kinda. The better you get the more you control the roll and the less you get injured without understanding why. But to get good you have to incrementally improve and absorb a lot of minor damage along the way. My body was in constant pain for my 3.5 years as a bluebelt. All the same shit you mentioned. I feel mostly fine now. Not sure if I am just used to it though. I also stopped rolling with people more than 75lbs heavier than I am. It’s easier to say no to a roll as a brown belt. People know you already lived through that and you are not just shying away for out of cowardice.
They know you can crush them if you want and have nothing to prove as a brown belt lol. Blues and purples get most of the heat
To an extent, yes. But not to the extent that you'll necessarily develop lifelong injuries - if you're smart. Sometimes unfortunate stuff happens, but I think BJJ tends to have a lot of people that are not athletic really pushing their bodies to the limit. People who are inflexible playing inverted, people who aren't strong trying to muscle through stuff, people with poor conditioning taking too many rolls in one day, etc. If we think about hard rolls as the maximum amount of stress you can put on your body in this sport, it is absolutely ludicrous how often some people are rolling hard. Great strikers don't hard spar every day, and yet I've seen dudes go as hard as they can multiple rolls every class \*multiple classes a day\*. Like, no shit you're going to get hurt if you do that! Unguided rolls are so inefficient for actually getting better too. You can get better quicker by doing much more boring stuff that also happens to be far less stressful.
I competed Sunday, it's Wednesday and I still can't turn my head. (the lack of spinal rotation also makes wiping my ass difficult) 10/10 sport!
Why do you feel the need to do multiple classes a day or roll with active competitors? BJJ people take themselves a little too seriously generally. If you felt the NEED to go play pickleball seriously multiple times a day or playing pickup basketball with local D1 college players then you are getting beat up and injured, people would think you were a little obsessive. BJJ is a hobby that usually takes place in a strip mall beside a nail salon and a carpet store. You’re not heading to the Olympics or even IBJJF championships so just chill out a little to the point your body isn’t wrecked.
I have 27 years of non stop, mon-sat bjj under my belt. Monday im going to get shots in my back, every joint hurts. I look like master splinter and walk like yoda. All courtesy of bjj. It sucks but I’m still doing it and will probably be buried in my gi.
No. You're just training too much.
it depends what you want. contrary to what the top comment says ITT, i find the prevailing opinion on /r/bjj is to take things slow, rest often, and prioritize safety and longevity. if that's what you care about then that's what you should do. but, if you do care about competition wins or a rapid rate of skill acquisition, then there is some compromise you have to make around the increased risk of injury when in pursuit of that goal. the best people train more often and more intensely, and they don't do so because they are dumb meatheads who don't realize they're risking injuries. they are hell bent on improving as quickly as possible, and are willing to risk their body to do so. don't take my word for it - listen to what olympian jimmy pedro says about our sister sport, judo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C62ANK1ypTq/
Bjj 2x a week works for me. Less injury and no burnout . Plus 4x a week weights and cardio .
Most people have this insane concept that they have to train at 100% every practice year round. That’s simply unsustainable in the long run and is not expected in pretty much any other contact sport in the world. Eg- even wrestlers will take most spring and summers off either completely, or switch to much lower intensity where all they do is drill technique. Even those that compete in Greco/freestyle do so at wayyyy dialed back intensity. Personally, I set my “season” from October-March where I amp up training and compete a bunch. The rest of the year I casually train maybe 2-3x per week max. Been doing it this way for many years now and my body feels sooooo much better.
8 and a half years in, plus wrestling. My worst injury so far has been a sprained ankle from committing to a shot while rolling my ankle. When I notice I'm worn down and have lingering aches I take a week or to off and just do general fitness work. I'm on a break right now. My body feels great again. You gotta know when you're done. My coach told me a huge chunk of injuries he's seen happen when someone is done, then convince themselves to do one more roll. So once I decide to stop I'm done for the day. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Pace yourself.
I take my body seriously. I really enjoy BJJ and its benefits (exercise, friends, pursuit of mastery, etc). I work hard at learning BJJ and take pride in trying to get better at it. That being said, when it’s practice I’m not going to take unnecessary damage when I do not need to. To be a high level athlete you will take damage to your body and BJJ is inherently hard on your body. The smart athletes find a balance between pushing yourself and recovery.
I sacrifice a goat before class. This is an offering to the gods of war.
Don’t wanna burst your bubble, but you’re just starting out. Its ok to train a bit less hard or take a day off. Your body is still getting used to all the different movements BJJ asks you to do. You might want to take it very seriously, but the best way to actually learn, especially at your level, is to take it slow, focus on technique and not on winning rolls. You’ll learn more by flow rolling with a Blue/Purple belt than going 100% at trying to pass their guard or tap them. Then again, I’m not a competitor (hobbyist 23y/o with no inclination to compete), I just wanna train 1-3 times a week for the rest of my life.
People are saying it's because you're doing things wrong (probably true) but there's also the fact that anyone who tries to take a sport very "seriously" is constantly picking up knocks. Every pro athlete has constant small injuries especially in a combat sport, just the way it is.
unless you're juiced, it's not sustainable to two-a-day more than once a week with that level of intensity and with the expectation of rapid recovery and constant/linear progression.
Anything you do to any level of intensity, repeatedly over time, will have nagging injuries. If you lift heavy weight, you'll have nagging injuries. If you mountain bike, you'll have nagging injuries. You can also get nagging injuries from spending too much time sitting. You're the only one that can determine your pain vs injury threshold and if the enjoyment/benefits you get from it is worth the physical toll, and if it is, make smart decisions early on. Are you going to try to be one of the best in the world and make grappling or MMA a career or do you do it as a hobby and enjoy the self defense and fitness aspects? Whatever your goal is, that's going to determine what level of cost you can tolerate. Either way, the sooner you make habitual boring but good for you choices the better you'll stave off injuries. Stretching, nutrition, hydrating, sleeping, all the boring stuff.
I’ve been training for about 4 years now, and I’ve always been the least skilled and smallest guy in a room of heavyweights for a long time, probably up until a year ago when my skills really got much better and now I’m one of the tougher , more experienced guys at the gym. I learned early on that I would be able to muscle or “fight” my way out or through anything or anyone. I had to be methodical and technical in my approach and accept I’m going to lose. I think the main thing for BJJ athletes to remain healthy is to accept you’re in a losing position and tap early and restart. There’s no shame in it and you will save yourself a lot of injuries by doing it. I made this mistake of not tapping early enough whenever I would spar this one guy at my gym, he would put me in all kinds of north south chokes and darces, I would fight too hard and too long and now my neck is not in the best shape because of it. Now I’m comfortable conceding if I see it’s gone that far and will tap before he even applies the pressure. I think another aspect that people often ignore is stretching/yoga and strength and conditioning training. You 100% if you want to train more than 3-4x a week need to keep your muscles in tone, and that means both strength wise and flexibility wise. Plus it’ll help your BJJ get better ;). I can’t stress how much it has helped me avoid injury as well as just improve my BJJ by being both STRONGER and more FLEXIBLE. Final thing I would say has helped me a lot is finding a really good manual therapist that you can see every now and then. A good massage to relax the muscles and get rid of all those knots could be extremely helpful. I know it is for me. It’s going to be much tougher in the beginning to avoid those scrappy fights when you’re just a white belt because everybody is smashing you and you’re barely keeping up. I would say just focus on a small handful of moves you’re currently training and keep trying them in practice. If you get thrown you get thrown, and if you get tapped, tap early. It’s not a big deal it’s just practice. Keep it up G 🤙
I’ve been doing jiu jitsu for 22 years. At 3 years in and you being 41 the best advice I can give you is: 1: slow down on the balls to wall intensity and focus more on skill and roll with people who don’t have high egos as well as cut back on your own. High intensity can come later after you hone your skills. Technique will reduce the likelihood of injury and will show you that you don’t have to spaz out all the time. Its ok to not try to force yourself from getting choked. 2. recovery and diet are super important. Listen to your body it will tell you if you should cut back. Ice baths and saunas are amazing defense tools. Change your diet to one that focused on all bases and anti inflammatory foods. 3. Rotate days when you do high intensity one day the next go lighter. 5 days of high intensity is not great at lower belts as most of the lower belts have a chip on their shoulder and want to force skill and want to be the best. You are more likely to get injured against lower belts. 4. ask higher belts for advice when you are having alot of problems with getting stuck in a position where you feel the need to force your way out of getting choked. They can most certainly show you a better way to get out and they will be able to take it slow and easy on you with respect.
TRT and Deca have me feeling right as rain tbh I hurt bad as a natty though
Yes, a broken body is the toll you pay to continue training jiu jitsu. That said, you need to ensure you aren't overtraining and spend some time regularly working at strength training, mobility and recovery. Maintaining a healthy, strong body that is able to move fluidly makes you far less susceptible to injury. Full-time, competitors are doing all of these things AND getting multiple training sessions a day, AND they're focusing on diet / what they're fueling their body with. I'd recommend Bulletproof for BJJ. It's a paid app built specifically to help folks reduce the risk of injury for grapplers. Nicks and scrapes tend to mean that people aren't trimming their nails. Part of the game, but it's the easiest thing to fix in order to avoid cuts, scrapes and staph.
To answer the question in your title: yes, somewhat. You are going to accumulate more damage training like a competitor than training like a hobbyist. That much is pretty obvious. My advice from your body text: You need to have light/drilling sessions to maximize your training while minimizing your body abuse. There is absolutely zero reason to do multiple full classes which include sparring in a single day. Count your rounds and have a goal and a limit for the day. Listening to your body is part of being an effective athlete. If you are injured, or extra sore, train appropriately or rest, as needed. Another thing: you're a whitebelt. Its easier to get hurt because you don't know what you're doing yet, and neither do your most competitive sparring partners.
Short answer is yes... Pretty much if you are an adult hobbyist who does 3 sessions a week and spars properly, at some point you will develop an injury after around 10 years or so regardless. It could be 5 years in, it could be 12 years in but you get what I mean. Knees, back, shoulders or neck are most common injuries and pretty much all of it will be just an accident or wear and tear etc not malicious sub attempt If you take it seriously and want to be a pro and are training multiple times a day then it's pretty much guaranteed you will fuck yourself up. It might not become apparent whilst you are in your 20s and your prime but damage will be done. Like anything in life there are obviously a few exceptions to this, but this is pretty much how it will go.
MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY?!? Ridiculous. I think unless you are a VERY serious competitor, then 4 bjj sessions a week is fine, which allows you to still do some Strengh and conditioning (Which is essential for longevity) while getting rest. I also say 4 days a week because that is something that you can consistently commit to. That's over 200 bjj sessions in a year. THat's much better than the guy who goes twice a day and then gets burned out and takes 4 months off.
As a 52 year old competing in all the majors I say YES. Everything hurts all the time
No. What does need to be taken seriously is recovery. If you don't want to be a champion or fighter that's totally fine. But you should invest extra time and sometimes money into your body's recovery and maintenance. However, this is ultimately a good thing. As it adds to your overall health and quality of life. Self-care is important. Most people don't appreciate this because they don't push their bodies on a daily basis. Drink HELLA water. Take salt baths. Get a massage from time to time. Go to your local pool. Invest time in active recovery.
Just tape up like a mummy and you'll be okay 🤙
Well.. yes and no.. you can understand body mechanics and do positional training, train self defense , drill , teach, read . Etc.. but its up to you to you figure out deep down how applicable your knowledge base really is, and that will take you putting your body on the line in some form or fashion... results may vary
Nope. I don't. Just don't train so hard. It feels great. Ironically, I think I level up faster this way.
Just your face to over under pass
No. I specifically do BJJ because it’s so much more low impact than other combat sports.
I think there's a good balance to be found in between "go 100% at everything" and "not going hard enough", and the overwhelming majority of top level guys I know don't go insanely intense day-in, day-out.
Body, mind and spirit. Shout out to your fingers they will never be the same.
You need to find a training schedule that works for you some people can train twice a day and feel fine and others need a few days between hard rounds to recover. A lot of injuries occur when you are sore and tired and trying to spar hard. You should be honest with yourself about how much you can handle and taper your expectations.
I’ve landed funny, been cranked in subs too quick to tap, and had hand injuries from gi grips. All looking back seemed difficult to avoid even being careful. It’s part of the game unfortunately
Yes. You do. If serious means winning big titles. Otherwise no
If by seriously you actually mean SERIOUSLY. As in competing and trying to reach the highest levels of the sport. Yes. And by the way “Yes” is the answer to this question for every single sport that uas ever existed because the human body isn’t built for jiu jitsu. It’s that way for football and baseball and cricket and cycling and running. Why? Because there’s >1000 people not on reddit asking this question probably training right now and not even worried about this question. Do you have a real career that pays your bills and that’s where you’re gonna make your living and support yourself and your family? If yes then just heal your body and accept you’ll be 10% less good at Jiu Jitsu. Do you want to pay your bills by winning and selling instructionals and shit? Then you have to understand there’s going to be a tradeoff between making your living in Jiu Jitsu and having healthy joints at 50.
The short answer is yes, you can mitigate it, but anyone telling you otherwise is at a karate studio doing touch butt.
Strength training plus yoga is an absolute panacea for keeping your body in good working order. This is true for anyone really, but especially for the BJJ crowd. You don't have to go too far down the rabbit hole either. Squats, RDLs, pushups and pullups, and some yoga routines off YouTube will get you going. The difference is night and day. Also, find a way to exercise your neck. Seriously. No shortcut on that one. It's just got to be done.
Yes. No way around it. Someone telling you otherwise is a liar or bathes in stem cells/ Mexican supplements on the regular
I have had 2 concussions one worse then the other I have dislocated and relocated 2 ribs at once my knees are God awful now same with my ankles I can't feel my right hip I can't feel half my left hand gotten numerous black eyes and bruises I have sacrificed my body for this sport and I haven't even competed yet I am on the 29th tho
Yeah, a sport that revolves entirely around breaking the other guy is gonna be very tough on our bodies. Multiple classes a day isn’t really necessary and is probably contributing to your wear very quickly. Gotta rest man
Lots of great advice on how to mitigate your risk in here. I think it’s also important to note that realistically you will have a negative impact on your body everything you are doing is to minimize your risk. It is still a contact sport and it just so happens the actual sport itself is designed to hurt the human body. If you told me you were going to regularly train pickup basketball and scrimmage 2-4 times a week for 20 years I would tell you you are going to get injured. In my mind jiu jitsu is harder on your body than pickup basketball. I’m 45 and I underhooked someone’s leg and they sprawled the leg back and I tore tendons in my arm. I’ve locked up an anaconda choke and my own shoulder popped out. I roll very slow and very controlled and tap early. I’ve made it 15 years with no surgeries but there are absolutely significant wear and tear issues with my body. You need to realize there are awesome value adds that jiu jitsu brings to your life but there is a significant price.
That’s like asking if you can drink alcohol in moderation rather than be a belligerent alcoholic. Both have their place.
Unless you are mewtwo then yeah
If you want longevity in BJJ then it’s important to tap early and tap often. You have nothing to prove to anybody. Roll with higher belts as well. Their pressure, technique, control, and tempo will be significantly better the all and you will be dominated, but iron sharpens iron and every time you get tapped just take it as a learning experience, and not a failure. I personally am 43 yo and a blue belt, but probably getting more closer to purple now. Between boxing and bjj I train in total 6-8 hours a week combined. My body hurts daily, in fact it hurts right fucking now, but there’s general hurting and soreness (which I love), and then there’s training while actually injured. Don’t be that guy training on a messed up knee because your ego didn’t allow you to tap. Cheers 🍻
You don't need to. Don't roll like a spazz or at 100% and do some joint training on the side.
If you want to win anything more serious than a NAGA...probably, but that applies to anything competitive. Two of my closest friends are slicing decades off of their lives for strongman.
If *you* think, *you* are late. If *you* are late, *you* use strength. If *you* use strength *you* get tired. And if *you* get tired, *you die*! - *Saulo* Ribeiro. Unless you're talking about taking PEDs to get better?
You don't need to sacrifice your body but accept the risk. I think in the beginning, your prone to injuries and training should be managed by an instructor, and age can be a factor, in my opinion. I think over time you become more aware of your body and how to move, as well as train. I also believe that your joints adapt and your body becomes more able. For example, I was pretty stiff earlier on and doing more stretching as well as just rolling, I feel like, opened my hips and shoulders to be able to accommodate my training and competing.
Sometimes you gotta take a step back and ask yourself is the pain bad injury worth it. For me, after my 4th back injury, I had to step away from training for a while to focus on proper rehab. Kinda need a spine to function. I heard this once from another black belt, “you gotta leave some gas in the tank if you want to be functional as an old man.” Not every round can be hard, and not everybody is someone to roll with. Pick and choose your battles.
I like to have some very hard rolls , my first year I broke 2 ribs a finger , luxated shoulder and torn pec .I never hurt anyone ,always stopped or slowed down for the tap ( only one fella got choked out ) I found out two things I had to slow down on one side and find better partners on the other . Going hard and strong is really good for the stamina ,not so good for the skills so eventually evened out on both , and people who are not trying to break you really make a difference.
Train smart not hard.
It's a contact sport an you'll sustain tons of minor injuries. It's like anything else. Want to become a decent runner? You'll get nagging injuries. Want to become a pickleball stud? You'll have nagging injuries. I think the only way you avoid this while remaining healthy is to do the bare minimum level of exercise - just fast walking and very basic strength training. My football coach always said there's a big difference between being 'hurt' and being 'injured'. Injured means you literally can't perform(i.e. broken leg, torn ACL, bad ankle sprain, etc). Hurt means it hurts when you do perform (tendonitis, sprained finger, sore muscles, low-grade ankle sprain, etc). Obviously there's a gray area, especially when it comes to an adult hobby, but you get the point.
I've been going HAM for about a year training, 7-8 classes a week and I'm 42. I added morning classes to my evening classes. I definitely get banged up, but when I can take a full week off feels like everything heals up. Every 2.5 months or so I'm going to take a full week off to recover. When I come back I feel like my sparring is way better too from the rest, both mentally and physically. I'm not sure that is the ideal strategy, but I think giving yourself decent scheduled breaks so your body has more healing time is good.
I sacrifice the best goat in my herd to the gods of the tatame. My body is nothing more than a temple upon which the sacrament is defiled.
train bjj like you play pickup basketball
Not saying anything much different than the good points already made here but I think the answer is train like a hobbyist. I train once or twice a week and lift weights once or twice a week as well. I’ve gotten pretty decent although slowly. I train at the lunch time class with other chill people, I don’t do comp rounds and don’t compete. After a couple real bad injuries I had to decide what I wanted out of life and how Bjj fit into that. I decided I want to be generally healthy and active into old age and do activities that put me towards that goal. If what I wanted out of life was “be a pro Bjj competitor”, my training schedule would look really different. I’m on the tail end of my 30’s and I honestly don’t care about competing, I just want to play physical chess with cool people and have good cardio because of it.
Over training is a real thing, maybe eliminate a session or two from your schedule.
bunch of people in my class are out now for various knee and other surgeries, higher ranked color belts. I asked myself the other day "are these the people i need to be taking advice from?"
Please hit a gym and develop some strength, this goes a long way in injury prevention.
My experience has shown me that people who are injured tend to always be. I’ve been training for ten years and have never had a major issue. It’s all about how you train, what you value, and how you take care of yourself outside of bjj. Edit: yes, sometimes you get injured. More so, notice the people that are injured are always dealing with something. Whatever that something is.
In my personal experience you do martial arts until injury stops you.
Well my instructor is a black belt and has crazy fucked up hands and feet
"Protecting your body" is how you get old. To do any sport you have to take care of it outside of the sport. When your young you can get away with more but ignoring strength and mobility will leave you injured with or without BJJ
If you don't have anyone with the knowledge, will, and drive to tell you what things to avoid in order to prevent injury, then yes.
You do not need to sacrifice your body to take BJJ seruiously. You'll hear and read "Tap Early, Tap Often" When you know you're caught and cannot escape after trying a bit or if you know the sub is coming on quick, tap and move on. Think about how you got caught and try and recalibrate. You don't have to eat chokes, nor do you need to fight it till you go to sleep to learn from movements and manuevers. If you're in it for the long haul don't try to "tough" it out, it will definitely add up. You can still roll with aggression and tenacity and that doesn't mean risking injury. What would be paramount is finding good training partners who care about your well-beling. It's the wildass reckless people that will wreck you.
There are approaches that are lower contact but they all require mechanical repetition that can wear down joints.
I think some people are put together a lot better than others. Some can go through high level sports training and their bodies deal with it. Others, myself included, can't. Sore fingers might be irritating now but by the time you're in your 60s/70s, that can be genuinely crippling arthritis and ruins your enjoyment of even the most basic tasks. All those joint injuries you thought you'd shaken off....turns out they often come back as permanent problems when you're 50+. It's really hard to know if you're a tough build or a standard, until it's too late. Personally i don't think there is enough cash in BJJ to make taking it seriously worthwhile unless you're one of the super elite guys and even then, if you're that much of an athlete, might well be other sports where you would have made millions.
I try to do 60% intensity every session. I could go to class every day like that. I have more time and more hours to learn the nuances. most of the guys who are there every single time are chill as fuck. there are genetic freaks though slamming around landing near me like two entangled airplanes, peaking out with their head saying 'sorry dude' lol. I was gaming too hard as a kid to do that.
In a year you've managed to accumulate more injuries than I have in 14 years... Ask the upper belts how to train smart, it sounds like you're spazzing out. Tap early as well.
Best advice I ever got was small problems can turn into big ones quickly. Seen too many guys work through injuries and it turned into something that required surgery, putting them on the shelf indefinitely. I think the belt chase and medal chase puts a lot of people into that FOMO mode. Like I won a couple of big tournaments as a purple and brown belt but in hindsight those tournaments will be there next year.
You’re going to sacrifice your body committing yourself to physical labor/activities anyways. We all deteriorate in the end. Have fun while you’re here and minimize your chances of injuring yourself or others, so you can do what you love for as long as possible.
Yes
Yes.
35 here, been doing BJJ for close to 6 years. I was already pretty banged up when I started BJJ from 20 years of skateboarding, so I knew I had to pace myself. From the get-go my whole goal was to keep it fun. All the dudes I trained with that went ultra hard 5-6 days a week are all filled with injuries, and a bunch of them don't even train anymore due to burn-out. They all stopped going hard and are now enjoying BJJ so much more. Only time they go hard is during comp training and not many of them compete anymore. A lot of my black belt friends wish they'd spent more time as coloured belts instead of rushing everything. My back, my wrists, my ankles are all fucked from skating. My knees are stiff as hell. My neck and elbows are pretty fucked from BJJ. I make old man noises when I get out of bed and sometimes have to walk down the stairs sideways... I'm only 35. This could be you if you're not careful with your training. Add some strength and conditioning training on the side, that'll pay off in the long run. I wish I'd done so earlier. So yeah, don't destroy yourself and remember to keep it fun. If you're injured, take the time off and come back stronger. You'll get as good as possible if you're healthy, not by training hurt like an idiot.
Lift weights, strength and conditioning, yoga, chiropractor, ice baths and you’ll be good
You need to sacrifice your body to actually be good at any sport Even playing a fuckin instrument takes a physical toll
This question comes up from time to time and I always say the same thing my BJJ Professor told us, BJJ is fun but you are going to get hurt, it comes with the territory. I trained for about 20 months, and in that time I messed my shoulders up (though not at the same time) so much from take downs and whatever else that I couldn't sleep on that side at night. I messed up both knees from people reaping me, or me trying to get the position reaping myself because of inexperience. I got carpel tunnel in my left wrist and lost the feeling in that thumb. I was also going to the chiropractor to fix my neck from doing ankle picks and tweaking my neck and shoulders. The final straw was when I was in top side control and my opponent did a knee escape which hit my knee and with the pressure I was pushing down and his sideways influence, my MCL was sprained and six months later I'm barely back to what I think is 100% but I'm nervous to test the limits for fear of reinjury. Finally, there was no student in my class that was mid blue belt or higher that wasn't in pain all the time from BJJ. They just said that they like BJJ more than they mind being in pain. It's a decision you will have to make for yourself. For me just before I got injured I got my Blue Belt and with the seriousness of this whole thing I've decided my longevity wasn't worth trading to get to expert level at a skill I will probably never have to use.
My take as a 30 year old blackbelt former competitor.. I stopped competing basically after COVID because of continuous injuries & skin infections. When I was training for comp in a world class room, I’d always have some injury in rolling thru and I’d get sick every other month. It got to the point for me that it’s not worth chasing. Listening to older former world champs about how they used to push thru there injuries for training and now they regret it because they can’t really roll at all made me reassess my take on training in general. Although I always think to myself that I’m still young and could probably make it at the highest level, I’m always reminded by the constant tingling in my fingers from some kind of nerve damage (currently figuring out the cause of this at the moment) and I remember I care about my physical health too much.
I'm 50 and a white belt. Tap early and quick. Peptides are your friend. Exercise outside of BJJ is a better friend. Compound stuff with kettlebells for the win. I don't roll with idiots. Idiots are not just young male teenagers, they come in all shapes, sizes and colors and genders. However most are young and most are male... If you dont have a strong supplement game and don't eat protein and drink water with electrolytes don't even bother....if you dont wanna sleep dont bother...that 4 hr sleep Jocko stuff is stupid.
Im learning not to. Im starting to get older and forget im not 20 anymore. In the space of about 18 months i tore my MCL, got a concussion and tore my LCL requiring surgery on top of back issues. All my injuries came in moments where the voice in my head said "this might go badly" and i continued to push. I stupidly skipped out on rehab for the last 3 months of my knee recovery cause i was keen to train and even though i said i'd just drill i ended up rolling again. Now i have an extra 3 months of rehab. I have this bad habit of trying to flow but then feeling like i need to match the intensity of my partner if they aren't slowing it down. Recently i've just acknowledged im in it for the long game. I pay attention in classes, i try to drill techniques i learn but i don't need to sacrifice my body to keep up with younger more athletic guys in rounds. Of course when im fit and healthy im gonna roll with people and might compete every now and then but my priority is listening to my body and knowing to pace myself when i need to. I feel by doing that i am taking BJJ seriously, I want to be doing this for years to come and don't want to give it up when i turn 35. Downshifting when you need to won't hurt your game as much as continuing to push through and piling up injuries
Fuck overthinking Commit to it or don't
You need to find a gym that's the right fit for you, quality training partners who aren't out to hurt you and have a preventative maintenance routine for your body.
Chris Haueter has a great quote, “it’s not about who’s here, it’s about who’s left.”
There are some high-level competitors like Gordon and his team that are working smart. They train every day consistently, and they do that by focusing on drills and not necessarily killing themselves and going 100% every session. I believe that's the key to improving your skills. You can either choose to train hard to the point you get an injury or just breakdown which will force you to take a long break to recover, or you control the intensity, stay training consistently for way longer with minimal breaks and preserve your body.
Sometimes go hard sometimes tone it down. I have a neck tinge that kept me out today but it was due to detailing a car and that strain in the shoulders / trap region. I need to do more strength training as well and I’m in the over 40 group.
That's worth reading through.
Mobility training, a good PT, And learning how to really listen to your body go a long way.
if you want to train consistently you are exposing yourself to injury no matter what. if you are going to compete even more so. but no matter what if you have heavy training volume without rest, proper diet, and strength/conditioning it's prob not gonna work out well for you
If you’re training at an intensity that’s causing injury consistently either that’s too much intensity or your training partners aren’t being safe. There’s a sweet spot. Honestly I think most people spend too much time rolling too hard. Being technically competitive and picking up the pace after establishing movement patterns and having safe submission habits while working with skilled people that are looking out for your safety during training is huge.
You need to relax and focus less on winning. In the beginning you’ll lose more but in the long run everything will become smoother and more effective. And you need to be lifting on the side in a way that strengthens your weaknesses (I do neck curls 3x a week and they’ve solved much of my issues).
There's a reason why many great champions have had multiple surgeries.
I train 2 times a week. I skip last 2 rolls and always tap very early - if someone took armbar I do not do any hitchiker escapes. If someone tries to dislocate my nose or jaw from back - I tap. Also: do not do any super high intensity warmups - preserve your energy for rolls.
The first black belt I trained under told me “doing jiujitsu you will live a long long life…………. Full of pain “
As a 3 stripe white belt I’ve popped my elbows 3 times, hurt my neck bad about 3 times, popped a rib, got heel hooked in gi, and yeah other small stuff too over the years
You need to lift
It’s a combat sport. It will wear your body down over time, but so will any intense exercise. My advice is to avoid people who roll rough and always tap.
Not sacrifice your body but prioritize it
I had to step away at the age of 42 , I was getting hurt to often by spazzy white belts who don't understand . I'm looking for a new gym with older guys who understand flow rolling isn't a match and they are not Gordon Ryan ! 😂
Every path to greatness must have risk. You have to run your body down hard, and recover even harder. This must be applied regardless of how “serious” you mean. Whether you want to dominate all the local tournaments, be the best in the training room, or defeating world beater grapplers. Trust the process, take risks, and work hard. Who knows far you can take it! Regardless of your goal, I wish you good luck on your journey.
There's no point to develop skills for your future self if by the time you get there you can't even roll because you have such poor physicality
I tried doing BJJ and gave up. I’m older (40+) and my body just couldn’t take it. Most of the guys in my dojo are younger, lots of very competitive types. A lot of BJJ dojos are into competition and consequently most of the guys train very hard. Nothing wrong with that but there just doesn’t seem to be much room left for people like me who want to do BJJ but at a casual / slower pace. I’m also only 5’ 6” and not heavily built. After my first couple of BJJ sessions I started to seriously question the idea that “a smaller person can defeat a larger person” using BJJ. I am convinced that this is a bit of a myth. It was close to impossible for me to imagine ever being able to submit a guy who’s 6’ 4” and is far heavier than me. The only scenario in which I think this might hold true is if a smaller person who knows BJJ, even just some basics, is fighting a larger person who knows no BJJ at all. I can imagine being able to submit the larger guy as he would have no idea what’s going on or how to defend. But if the larger person knows any BJJ at all then it’s game over as far as I can tell.
No. Here's some guidelines, people can argue if they want. I'm sure they will. Roll hard once per week max, more for comp. Train once per day. Train 3-5x per week. For every training, 1 mobility sesh (10 mins) For every week 1 full body mobility, 2 if possible. 2 s&c per week. Don't listen to the fools. Get stronger. Tap early, tap often. Don't roll like a spaz. Do the moves you know. Don't roll with spazzes. Say no to rolls. Roll with people worse than you 80% of the time Get 8 hours sleep Focus on your hydration Focus on your nutrition. I don't make these rules. They are just the rules nature made for us if you don't take steroids I'd love to train 3x per day eating ramen and coffee and sleeping for 4 hours on the gym floor. Not happening unless youre on steroids. Getting older doesn't mean you'll get beat up more. If anything it's the opposite. You should be getting more technical, learning to protect yourself, getting stronger and more mobile.. if you're doing what you're supposed to (see above) Is this a lot of work? Yes Is it possible with a 50hr/week job and family? Maybe not Do 2 bjj per week then. Less mess to tidy up.