The Weekly Fix: The Perfect Jiu-jitsu Week

Welcome to the Weekly Fix! The Newsletter from the Bulletproof For BJJ brothers to give you the insights you need to have a better BJJ life. This week we show you how to Perfect your balance of rolling, lifting and stretching. There's also some tidy techniques to help get you through the weekend.

  1.  The Perfect Jiu-jitsu week: Get your Ratios Right
  2. Technique of the week:  Get those Abdominals Super strong. ( Click the image.)
  3. Community Spotlight: A True Champion.
  4. Training Top Tip: The Cramp Killer!

The Perfect Jiu-jitsu week

If you train 3 – 4 times per week how often should you lift weights? How much should you stretch? Should you have days off?

We have the answers! The perfect Jiu-jitsu week has the right ratios of everything you need to maximise your BJJ improvement.

LIFTING: 2 X PER WEEK

In order for you to make your body more resilient and less susceptible to injury we recommend doing strength training twice a week. This is the Minimum Effective Dose. Enough to actually get you stronger but not so much you burn out. If you want to lift more often and have the time we salute you but ensure that you are also increasing your frequency of flexibility training. Strength training is a double edge sword.

“ With great strength, comes great immobility.” –Uncle Ben.

If you are lifting with the right level of intensity and keeping track of your rest times you will get a lot out of the small investment which is 2X 45-60 minutes per week.

THE ROLLING : STRETCHING RATIO

The amount of flexibility and mobility training you do should match how much you are actually training BJJ. (1:1 Ratio) This doesn’t mean you have to spend the same amount of time stretching as you do rolling. Simply for every session you are practicing Jiu-jitsu you need to do a body maintenance session.

This can be a mixture of Dynamic and Static flexibility drills but should only take 15-20 minutes, the best time to do this is immediately after class when your body is at it’s warmest. This is when your tissues are at their most elastic and you get the double benefit greater range of motion plus improved circulation to the stressed tissues speeding up your recovery.

ACTIVE RECOVERY

This is the session to do on your day off. It is a low intensity activity that focuses on improving circulation and counteracting the physical and mental stress of the week. A perfect example of this is “Water walking”. In a pool or the ocean, water depth approximately 1 meter. The deeper the water the greater the Hydrostatic pressure which improves your circulation, reduces you're the weight on your joints and reduces swelling. Getting horizontal will multiply this effect!

Simply put 20 minutes of walking, lunging, paddling and playing around in water that’s waist deep will help those aching, swollen joints and have you feeling revived for a new week of rolling.

JOEL COSTELLO

ACADEMY: Gracie Jiu-jitsu Balmain (NSW)

STARTED BJJ: 2003

RANK: Black Belt

I had always been a fan of wrestling and rumbling growing up however my only outlet was watching WWF and trying to emulate those moves with my friends.. It was a close friend of mine who introduced me to watching early UFC’s and I was fascinated! That same mate then found classes being taught and after my first session I was hooked! It was like wwf but real and I couldn’t get enough.

I did Little Athletics from when I was a kid and then played rugby and basketball through high school. Injuries or BJJ mishap story? I have had my fair share of bumps bruises and strains etc. My biggest issues were a bulging disc in my lower back that I did prior to starting bjj and a then bad hip impingement problem that plagued me for a decent amount of time.

Despite the back injury being healed I would still wake up with it stiff many mornings and my hip issue would come and go. I couldn’t get to the bottom of it despite seeing countless Physio’s etc. Bulletproof for BJJ’s strength and mobility work has been a godsend and has made me realise that a lack of mobility, especially hip mobility, was the root cause of not only the hip issues but the lingering back stiffness. My advice would be work on you mobility before the imbalances get out of hand, get started with some bullet proof programming now, Prevention is better then a cure!

THE CRAMP KILLER: Magnesium Oil

Have you ever suffered an intense cramp while rolling or exercising outside of Jiu-jitsu? This can because by many contributing factors but what can you do once a cramp strikes?

The key to bouncing back from a bad cramp is blood circulation so don't reach for the ice pack! A heat pack or heat cream may help but to really remedy this problem we have to go deeper.

MAGNESIUM OIL

Magnesium Chloride dissolved in water has an oily texture thats why it's called an "oil". You can find it as a topical spray in chemists, health food stores and some supermarkets. Follow the use instructions but be careful not to over do it as too much can irritate skin.

"How does it work?"

Simply put Magnesium is a Calcium blocker, (Calcium is responsible for muscle contractions - CRAMPS!) and by massaging it directly into the affect area it allows over active muscle tissues to relax. It also helps to carry glucose into the muscle and assist in the removal of lactate which will help reduce over all soreness.  Key take away friends, Get into you!

Happy Rolling Bulletproof Fam