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Prepare to be enlightened as we dive into the world of Jiu Jitsu, where health and wellness take center stage. We share insights into injury prevention and recovery, vital for beginners and older practitioners. I open up about my personal journey, including a recent successful training week, and the ugly truth that, despite our best efforts, injuries can hit us unaware. Be sure to stay tuned for some exciting upcoming conversations with a renowned doctor and a three-time world champion.
In this episode, we give you a crash course on the importance of strength, conditioning, and tuning into your body's signals during Jiu Jitsu training. Learn how to supercharge your health and wellness with the right nutrition and recovery. We also touch on the much-needed self-care in Jiu Jitsu, discussing topics such as post-training care, nutrition, supplements, and sleep. The episode also highlights the necessity of self-education, a reliable training partner, and the advantages of cross-training and mindfulness exercises. Immerse yourself and gain a wealth of knowledge to enhance your Jiu Jitsu journey.
Contact Us : caffeinatedjiujitsu.@gmail.com
Join Our IG Community: @caffeinated_jiujitsu
Let's Chat!! Send us a Text Message
Prepare to be enlightened as we dive into the world of Jiu Jitsu, where health and wellness take center stage. We share insights into injury prevention and recovery, vital for beginners and older practitioners. I open up about my personal journey, including a recent successful training week, and the ugly truth that, despite our best efforts, injuries can hit us unaware. Be sure to stay tuned for some exciting upcoming conversations with a renowned doctor and a three-time world champion.
In this episode, we give you a crash course on the importance of strength, conditioning, and tuning into your body's signals during Jiu Jitsu training. Learn how to supercharge your health and wellness with the right nutrition and recovery. We also touch on the much-needed self-care in Jiu Jitsu, discussing topics such as post-training care, nutrition, supplements, and sleep. The episode also highlights the necessity of self-education, a reliable training partner, and the advantages of cross-training and mindfulness exercises. Immerse yourself and gain a wealth of knowledge to enhance your Jiu Jitsu journey.
Contact Us : caffeinatedjiujitsu.@gmail.com
Join Our IG Community: @caffeinated_jiujitsu
Welcome to Kaffeine Jiu Jitsu the blend of white belt enthusiasm, black belt wisdom and a dash of caffeine for that extra kick. Dive deep into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as we explore the journey, techniques, challenges and the sheer joy of the sport from a white belt's perspective, from intriguing interviews with renowned coaches and professors to playful fun episodes that'll have you chuckling mid-roll. We've got it all brewed and ready. Now step into the mats and into your ears. Here's your host, joe Motez.
Speaker 2:And welcome back everyone to another freshly brewed episode of Kaffeinated Jiu Jitsu, your podcast for all things Jiu Jitsu from a white belt's perspective. We talk about wide ranges of topics that would be of interest to those who are new to Jiu Jitsu, who are interested in Jiu Jitsu are, who may be within their first few years of their journey. Today we have kind of what it's a solo episode, so you're going to listen to me for a little while. It's really a I'm going to call it a starter episode because this is a start of somewhat of a series that we're going to be putting together here on Kaffeinated Jiu Jitsu, and the series is around health and wellness in Jiu Jitsu, especially as you're first starting out. And today we're going to be diving deep into something that I've been talking a lot about with some of my fellow practitioners, and that's injury prevention and recovery Some of the things I'm going to share that I do as a older practitioner and some things that maybe I've heard from some of my peers.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about that. But what this is going to do is it's going to kind of launch us into our next two episodes that are coming up and I'm super excited about. We're going to have some guests on that are going to be talking. We have a doctor lined up, which is really cool. We're getting pretty fancy. We're going to have a doctor on and then we're also super, super excited about this going to have a three time world champion on I'm not going to put their name out yet, so it's going to be somewhat of a surprise and we're going to have a conversation on, you know, keeping a champion's mindset, or having a champion's mindset, as well as physical fitness and the importance of nutrition. So, just overall, the next few episodes are going to be geared towards that. So, if it's something that you're interested in learning more about in your Jiu Jitsu journey, I know I'm excited about the nutrition portion. I try to stay physically active, but I know there's been several times, like probably most of you I won't say most of you, but some of you, I know has hit the Wendy's drive through right after training. So I'm excited to learn more about that, the nutrition side, and how I can up my game. But for today, if you've been grappling especially with any type of age on you, it's, you know, in the challenges that we find on the mat. I hope that you take some lessons from this episode on how to prevent injuries as well, as you know, recover properly from training or injuries in general.
Speaker 2:But before we start, that I also want to share just had probably one of my best training weeks in a long time and I have to tell you it's actually stems from a conversation I had with my professor on Monday and you know we're lucky at Alliance Roswell we have an amazing professor and coach, rodrigo Marcel, and we have one of those coaches that tells it like it is, sometimes in a gentle way, sometimes not so gentle, right, and he made me aware of me missing critical and key training. He knows that I set a goal and this is something I'll share. I set a goal every week to get at least five hours of training in. For the past three weeks I've probably only gotten in three. You know he called me, called me out on it and you know he he made some pointers on my performance, kind of go in stagnant, and it made me realize that it's really easy to let life get in the way of my training.
Speaker 2:With that in mind, I came in on Tuesday. I did a two a day on Tuesday. I did a two a day on Wednesday and a two a day today, which is Friday, and I'm closing out this week with about seven hours of training. I'm not sore. I don't feel like I need five days of recovery where I used to when I trained a lot, which lets me know some of these practices that I'm doing and I'm going to share is some of it's working right. Obviously, I train very specifically right. I'll go in with you know the mindset of you know today I'm going to work on escapes and that's what I'm going to put a lot of my focus and energy on. I don't go in and throw my body around like I used to when I first started and the other thing.
Speaker 2:So I'm also coming off a pretty bad muscle sprain in my back. It's on the flip side of the coin here and we are lucky that we have a chiropractor within our team walls or access to one, and she is going to be one of our guests and we're lucky to have her and she helped me out, helped me overcome that injury. It wasn't a stop training type injury. It was a maybe take a day or two off of rolling type injury. But my point is is even in you know, your greatest training sessions a week, you can experience injuries without, without ever seeing them come and with you doing everything that you're supposed to do. So even with all the advice you get on this podcast or you read on IG, or you read on you or listen to on YouTube, or even maybe your coach and your professor provide you, there's no way to be fully, 100% prepared for injuries. They're gonna show up, they're gonna happen. It's the nature of what we do. But we should always be thinking about ways to prevent injury, ways to help us recover during non-training periods or after, you know, hard training periods. Maybe we were training for a competition. A lot of us at Alliance Roswell are doing that, so we're in pretty heavy training mode, but we all are gonna take time after to recover our bodies properly. So let's jump into it.
Speaker 2:I think I gave a pretty big opening spiel there. As we all know, jujutsu is for everyone, whether you're 18 or you're 80. And you know I don't know if you've seen the Jujutsu grandma on Instagram or IG or seen any of her matches, but Google her name she had, or Google that name Jujutsu grandma and her name will come up. I can't remember her first and last name specifically, but just amazing that at her age she is just going and winning and competing. So Jujutsu is for everyone. There's a place for you on the mat. But you know, as we age, our bodies, resiliency and recovery rate may not be what it once was. And so today, these you know I'm speaking primarily to those over 40, but the things that we're gonna discuss, I think, would work well for any age group, whether you're 18, ironman, state champion, wrestler, whatever, there's gonna be something in here that you could put into practice, I believe, early on in your Jujutsu journey.
Speaker 2:Let's get into it. I think the best place to start is probably the importance of warming up always. For those of you who may skip warm-up, don't Never skip warm-up. Okay, it's extremely, extremely important. We don't have a lot of people who come in late for training but you know, even when they missed a section of the warm-up, and if we're on the back end of the warm-up, they ensure they go through their warm-up motions or session and make sure that they're always on the mat Properly warmed up, because as we age, our muscles and joints require a little more coaxing, if you will I've used that word in a while.
Speaker 2:I think dynamic stretching is probably your best friend. I arrive to the gym 15 minutes early, which is pretty much when we open, and probably by 7.50 I'm on the mat, stretching, loosening my joints up, rolling around, getting my body used to just really, really moving. Think of things like leg swings and arm circles and general, maybe torso rotations. Remember, the goal of warming up is to increase your blood flow and really just prepare your body for action. If you're a morning trainer, if your primary session is that 6am 7am session, you need warm-up more than anything. It's very difficult just to jump into this and you run a high risk of injury. If you just get out of your car on a cold winter day, you've been in the heat, you've been driving, been sucking down coffee on the way in, and then you go right in to take down drills or you go right into rolling or something like that, the risk factor of getting injured on that is super high.
Speaker 2:A second shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone Strength and conditioning. This is something that I let fail by the wayside. I'll share a little bit more in a moment on that. I know that the mats are kind of where the magic happens, but the gym and strength and conditioning can be equally vital. Engaging in regular strengthening or strengthening conditioning routines helps in a couple ways. A couple ways it comes to mind is it really strengthens muscles and joints and thus that kind of reduces your injuries. Because look, it's all jujitsu. The focus is in putting pressure on people's joints and transitioning through our moves and our systems. We're using a lot of muscle strength and it can also improve your overall jujitsu game by enhancing your strength and flexibility and endurance. And endurance, as we all know, is something that is critical, so we don't gas out and things like that. Muscle strength is. A lot of people think that, or some people may think that going into the gym and just lifting weights doesn't give you any cardio, real cardio help, and it may or may not I'm not a strength coach or anything like that but it absolutely provides some type of stamina and endurance building with it.
Speaker 2:And, as I said, this is kind of a section that I myself had kind of let go for a while. I was training so much jujitsu that I started to lose a lot of my strength. I've mentioned a few times now that I worked with a strength coach before starting jujitsu and just amazing, coach really helped me increase my strength. I was doing powerlifting exercise mostly. I came into jujitsu really strong, had a lot of muscle strength, but as I become kind of obsessed and I just let training take over, I lost, along with the weight, the 30 pounds or so. I lost almost all of my muscle strength and over the past several months, or I would say half a year, I pretty much got all of it back. But it took time, it took focus. It took me dedicating at least two, maybe three hours a week to just focus on strength and conditioning.
Speaker 2:Now I will say a lot of my conditioning, I do feel, comes from my time with the mat and you may feel the same, or you may be a runner, you may be a marathon runner or something like that. That, like a lot of your conditioning comes from that. But conditioning is kind of a broad word. I know I'm grouping it around cardio right now, but do not skip training and conditioning. Make time for it in your training plan. Whatever that is, you're going to need it because if you just trained you jujitsu especially, you know five, six, seven, eight hours a week and even if you're dieting, getting your amount of protein and things like that, you're not going to build the amount. In my opinion, you're not going to build the amount of strength you need without putting weight resistance in there.
Speaker 2:The next thing and this is something that I probably had to learn the hard way, at least for my first couple injuries to do, and that's listen to your body. Okay, can't stress this enough. Any professor worth his weight and gold couldn't stress this enough. If something feels off, or if a certain technique or position feels uncomfortable, it's okay to tap early or maybe talk to your professor if there's a way to modify the move, and if there's not, then that move is just not for you and there's no reason to make your toolkit consist of every single move jujitsu has. It's much better to tap out during training and roll another day than push through a technique that's just not working for you or is causing you unneeded damage.
Speaker 2:For me it's the omoplata, in both sense of what I just went over One. I absolutely suck at initiating proper technique when it comes to omoplata. It's something I've been working on and, yes, I'm getting better. We have a pretty sweet full guard omoplata that we use and it seems to work a little bit better for my lack of flexibility, but the minute I know they have that arm locked in for the omoplata and they've already rotate and I feel that they're controlling my hips and I know I can't jump over. I'm tapping because the omoplata, for whatever reason, maybe it's my flexibility, it's my lack of, you know, joint resistance, whatever it has been the submission that gives me the most, what seems like highest risk of injury during training. So just know that about yourself. We're all gonna have it.
Speaker 2:Take downs. There's some take downs I won't do because of my age and flexibility and I would say, agility. And then there's some take downs that I probably shouldn't do but I feel really comfortable with them and I haven't ever experienced any issues. So listen to your body and if you show up one morning or one afternoon or one lunch or one evening whatever, and you're just like you know, I think I just need to work technique. I'm just not feeling it. That might be your body kind of warning you saying, hey, man, something's not right, listen to me, because what you don't want to do is not listen to your body, injure yourself and you're out for six months simply because you wanted to do a three, five, six, ten minute roll. So the next topic would probably be around and will move Well.
Speaker 2:This will be kind of geared more toward recovery than prevention, and that's sleep and nutrition. So let's first talk about nutrition. As crucial as training is, nutrition is probably king or queen, because that's what our bodies are burning and that's what is fueling our bodies, is what we're putting into it. I find months where I weekly get the amount of protein I'm supposed to get. My muscles are less sore when I'm hydrated, my gas tank feels like it's longer and it's overall, I would say the most are one of the most important factors in self care. Health and wellness in jujitsu but it's also just in life in general, but definitely in jujitsu and recovery is you'll hear it said, recovery is where the real magic happens and our body rebuilds and really repairs itself.
Speaker 2:During sleep Typically I think it said aim for seven to nine hours. But going back really quick to nutrition, also think about some vitamins supplements. I'm excited to have our guest who's going to talk a lot about nutrition, or talk some about nutrition. Foods like Turmik I may be pronouncing that incorrectly Fish, kind of like fatty fish. I take in 1500 or 1500 milligrams of vitamin C daily. I don't miss a beat on that. Anything like omega threes and multivitamins. Those are things that I take and help out.
Speaker 2:And transitioning back to sleep this is another area that I need to improve on. I have five kids, I'm leader in my organization, I work in the office. I have a lot on my plate that sometimes doesn't allow for a lot of self care when it comes to sleeping. I average probably about five to six hours of sleep and I know if I could get into that seven or nine range I would probably experience greater benefit from that. It's something that I'm striving to do in the future. It's just that sometimes life doesn't allow us to lay in bed and sleep for nine hours. If we do, sometimes it's not quality sleep. More on that in maybe a later episode. Let's talk about post training care right After training coal packs for any types of overextended joints or injuries, hot packs for chronic soreness or stiffness.
Speaker 2:My back always gets stiff even after I've stretched properly or what have you. It's just my body. I'll have a heating pad sometimes at my desk or my chair. I'll turn on my heated seats, go into and from work. I just keep some heat on that soreness. If you can get into a routine of a massage. A lot of people are using foam rollers. I have a foam roller at home but I'm not smart enough to use it. I don't know all the moves. It's just kind of sitting there being unused. If you can get biweekly or monthly massages, that helps. As I said, we have a doctor or chiropractor on the team who helps us work out stuff our muscles and aches and pains in our back. If you have access to someone like that in your network or friends or family, always go see them, stay adjusted and just really take care of yourself.
Speaker 2:This is kind of old school. If you haven't tried epsom salt baths, you're kind of missing out. I'm not a big bath guy. I can't remember the last time I took a bath, especially Epsom salt bath, but I remember from my time in the military. After jumps I would sometimes come home and soak in Epsom salt and would immediately feel the positive effects of it. Most of you probably don't know the type of parachuting that we do in the military, or at least in the army in the 82nd Airborne Division. You come down really, really hard. You come down safe, where you're not going to typically break anything, but you hit the ground hard. So if you're jumping a few times a week. Your body is going to be sore, so Epsom salt bath can help with that.
Speaker 2:I think the last couple things are good to mention are staying educated and finding a reliable training partner. Educating yourself Look, there is probably. We are probably overly informed, but there's absolutely no reason you should be not self-educating yourself. There's always something new to learn about our bodies. Maybe it's a new stretching technique, or perhaps some new recovery tool has hit the market. Stay updated. Your body is going to thank you. I know for me.
Speaker 2:When I first started and I still do this to this day I watch on YouTube mobility exercises. I kind of craft a 15 to 20 minute mobility plan. Now, it's something that I haven't been consistent with. If I had, I would probably be a little more flexible. But mobility exercises using technology, using your access to what you have that's out there, and just keep yourself educated. And as far as a reliable training partner, there's an episode that I did. I think it was last. I think we did this last week. It was last week's episode.
Speaker 2:We talked to Derek Loftus, who expressed the importance and the benefits of having a reliable training partner, having someone who understands your strength and limitations and they'll know when to push you and when to offer. You know modified drill or techniques. And you typically see this when you're probably training with higher belts. You know, I would say like purple, brown belts, black belts. I've never rolled with a black belt that I felt wanted to kill me and even in all the pressure and the hell it is sometimes rolling with our professor, you never feel like they're there to destroy you and wreck you, even though they could. They understand that they need to let you drill, get better, go through some of the pain and struggles and kind of know what it's like to be in the thick of it. But having someone who will let you work, who will understand that. You know I'm 22 and I'm rolling with grandpa that I need to kind of take it easy on this because I know he's not going to be able to. You know, been like, been like Gumby, so hope you have that at your gym. I think we all have the, the warrior in there that wants to come in and crush everybody, but hopefully there's somebody there at least on the regular that you're training with that you take care of them, they take care of you. Look, it's training. We're not trying to hurt, main harm. Anyone you know, save that for competition.
Speaker 2:Cross training not saying at all to ever ditch jujitsu for another sport, but occasionally mixing things up can benefit your body. Yoga, for example I know a lot of practitioners, a lot of practitioners who do yoga. That's something that is highly beneficial, so check that out. Mindfulness exercises I know people who go through mindfulness training daily and kind of just take care of their mental health. But yeah, cross training, finding something that works Maybe it's biking, maybe it's swimming something to supplement your jujitsu, not take the place of it.
Speaker 2:Medical checkups are another thing that's good, especially if you're over 40. It's kind of non-negotiable for us. Regular checkups, you know, can catch any potential issues that you can't see or feel. And the last thing and this is the number one thing you can do or that I feel I have done that has helped me more than anything, and that is stay positive and stay committed. Our minds play a significant role in our body's ability to recover. You know I used to not, when I was younger, buy into the hole, think positive thoughts and positive things will happen. Just wasn't my experience growing up and as a young adult, but it's absolutely true when it comes to things like jujitsu training and your journey therein. Celebrate your small victories. I was getting really bummed and kind of depressed on showing up every morning and getting crushed by Alliance Bluebelts. Changing my thinking over the past couple months and celebrating my victories has greatly impacted my motivation, my attitude, my progress okay.
Speaker 2:This week alone. You know, I started the episode off talking about my week and having a great training week and the reason it was such a great training week. No, I didn't go in and all of a sudden magically start submitting everyone. What I did is I realized how many times I escaped a sucky situation. How many times did I survive a whole round without getting submitted? How many times had I been mounted and then escaped into half guard, right?
Speaker 2:So celebrate your victories. Maybe it's hey. I trained three days this week, or I remember to write in my Jiu Jitsu journal every day and I captured all of our techniques, small victories. I stayed hydrated 60% of the week. I woke up when I said I was gonna wake up.
Speaker 2:Whatever those victories are whether on the mat, in your personal life, in your professional life stay positive and celebrate your victories. For us older guys, so what If we can't train as hard as the 20 year olds in the gym? We're still on the mat and that's what counts, and don't compare yourself to those 20 year olds and those 19 year olds. There was a young kid who came into our gym not long ago. He was a high level wrestler in school. He was in college and he and I start rolling and this kid wore me out. He came in there with a mission and that mission was to make my morning suck and he accomplished that. But it would have not benefited me anything if I walked away thinking, wow, gosh, I gotta be like that guy. I will never be like that guy again. I will never have his agility, probably not gonna have his level of stamina. Don't even think the kid was breathing hard after he mauled me and I, you know, to compare myself to someone like that would be non-beneficial, and it's the same. If I try to compare myself to like my professor or someone who's been doing this for 15, 20 years, I wouldn't do that. I shouldn't do the reverse side of it, regardless of their belt level, we're all at different stages in this. So just remember that. Stay positive. Don't compare yourself and realize that you're doing something that not a lot of people do. A lot of people say they want to do this, but not a lot of people actually do it. So keep that in mind, celebrate that. Stay positive. So that is um, yeah, that's it, let's, let's wrap up for today. I remember the age is just a number, um, but regardless of your age.
Speaker 2:Taking care of your body is a lifetime commitment. You may be listening to this and you kind of forgot about that. One of the greatest quotes I've ever heard is is your, your body is your greatest instrument. Right, and treat it as such, because once it's broken, you may not be able to fix it. So take care of yourself. And if you found any value in today's episode, you know, share it with a friend, share it with your, your training buddy, your training partner, um, love to hear from you. We put, or I put, the, the caffeinated jujitsu email Gmail, uh, in every episode. If you're interested in in cool, funny jujitsu memes and just open chat, join the the caffeinated jujitsu IG community. It's growing. I'm excited Having a lot of conversations on there, uh, people talking about the podcast. So, uh, stay healthy, stay focused, stay positive and, as always, stay caffeinated and stay on those mats until next time. Keep rolling.
Speaker 1:Drop a review and spread the jujitsu buzz. For show notes and to contact the host, reach out to the email provided in the podcast description and to join our grappling community, head over to Instagram. Get those geese. Crisp your coffee strong and always be prepared for the next role. Yes,