#48 Holding Yourself To A Standard: How accountability moves your BJJ forward

Do you show up to class unprepared? Forgot your belt or drink bottle? There is a different between coming to class and really Showing up! JT & Joey explore in detail, exactly how you can make small changes that will have huge positive effects on your lifting and BJJ game.

How preparation is compounding
BJJ is a long game that requires Quality
Small effort = Big Results
Being Lazy is a False Economy
Being Intentional is a Game Changer

If you feel like you aren’t progressing the way you should be, the actionable details the boys outline in this episode will go a long way to helping you make real progress.

Speaker 1: 0:04

Better listen. Very careful.

Speaker 2: 0:08

A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready,

Speaker 3: 0:13

Essentially at this point, the fight is over.

Speaker 1: 0:17

So you pretty much flow with the goal

Speaker 4: 0:22

Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit this power.

Speaker 5: 0:28

I’m ready,

Speaker 6: 0:28

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. I am J T Hey guys, I’m Joey. And today we will be discussing holding yourself to a standard on the mats and also in the gym. And now this might sound strange because you think I’m working hard, I’m doing the right thing. I’m going to class. I work as hard as I can. I’m going to the gym, I’m doing my lifts, but I feel like I’m not improving the way I should. Like other people are getting better. I don’t feel like I’m getting better and I’m working hard. So how can I work harder? And that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about how the small things you do can help you get better at the stuff you’re already doing. And that actually requires you to keep a certain amount of accountability and a standard for those things so that you get more out of your training basically. Well there of related . Yeah . Well , it is . Cause it’s, I think for most folks listening, like, yeah, I’m doing a load of training. I don’t have spare time. Yeah . But progress is not what I want it to be. Yeah. And what we’re saying is, well, it’s probably the little things that you’re not doing or paying attention to. Yes. That are holding you back from progressing at the rate that you wish you were. Yeah. The way I wanted to frame it is I don’t want people to think, oh , these guys listen to them. They live in the gym. How easy is it for them to tell us our standards are not high enough, but I think it’s one of those things. If you don’t have somebody, if you don’t have a trainer or you don’t have a coach, who’s really invested in what you’re doing. It’s hard to know if you are really you’re . I mean, the people show up, right? I got no problem being on the high horse for this . And I’m surprised that you are moderate on it. No , you’re normally the like , oh no, I’m brutal. that. I don’t care. What’s going in your lives . Be here, sort it out. Well, the thing is, I am like that, but I find that it doesn’t always get results depending, depending. Well , I suppose like, like, you know, probably a caveat to every episode we ever make is like, we understand people have, you know, competing obligations, family work, children. Yeah . I think the , the journey’s never perfect. No. However we can , we can only strive for , to make it ideal. Yes. And that is the best we can do. And sometimes you’ll do better at that. Sometimes you’ll do worse. Yep . But you know, if no one I E Joey and JT are telling you what the ideal is. Yeah . Then you probably, you know, then you might think I’m doing it the best as I can. They’re like, well, actually you could be doing it better. You could be doing it better. And this isn’t, this isn’t some Dave Goggin’s business. This is more like, no , actually just put a bit more thought into it. Like if you put that little bit more thought and, and look at something and take it a little bit more seriously, it has really positive knock on effects. Conversely, if you don’t and you kind of botch it a bit and you’re just like, ah , good near enough, good enough. The results can actually be pretty bad. And so, even though you came to class, you get, you know, for various reasons are not gonna get a good experience. Same thing showing up to the gym. You show up, forget your drink bottle di bring your training diary. You know, all these things come a bit late, skip warm up . All these different details can result. Compoundedly in actually negative for you and your progress in jujitsu. So it’s this whole idea of holding yourself to the standard. What is the standard? It’s not that we are, you know , uh , immune to this, cuz obviously we have weeks where we might show up better and other weeks where you’re a little bit suboptimal for various reasons, crying children, Joe lack, sleep. It makes it harder. Sure . Yep . Uh , and then for me I’m very, I guess I’m guilty of trying to do too many things. So sometimes I , I can find myself on the mat feeling quite tired, maybe a little bit dehydrated, whatever it is, I’m still gonna give it everything I’ve got. But I know in my heart of hearts, the results will not be, is good than if I had slept better, drunk, more water and, and shown up with, you know, greater quality. I think that’s what we’re really speaking to here. Something you touched on a moment which the compounding nature of it and maybe for a lot of folks compounding as a concept is not like I didn’t understand it until someone showed me a compound interest calculator. Yeah. Relevant to like superannuation. I’m like, oh my God, God, like there look , look you add more time and it equals more money. And you’re like, oh my God, it’s incredible. So powerful. But it’s this idea that like a consistent effort , uh , a small, consistent effort will help to leverage results that are greater than the sum of all of its parts. Um, was it Einstein that said it’s the eighth one . I was about to say that. Yeah . Yeah . And so what , you know, I guess to put it into a jujitsu framework for people to think about, it’s like, perhaps you up and you miss the warmup every now and again, perhaps you don’t quite sleep enough often. Uh , perhaps your nutrition, isn’t quite on point. Now, if those things happen in isolation every now out again, it’s not so bad. Yeah. It’s no big deal. But if those things are happening, the majority of the time, what, what will happen is that from week to week, month to month, year on year, it will have a very drastic effect on the outcomes of your training versus someone who sleeps well, eats pretty well. Turns up to training on time. Does the warmer up consistently 90% of the time they will notice, you know, compared to your progress, if, if you were the same human , uh , they would be progressing at a much faster rate because what you train three times a week, that’s like , uh , what 12 times a month? That’s, you know, X amount of time . It’s like it equals a big number. Yes. So what we’re getting at is like these small things really do have a large effect when they play out over a longer timeline. And we all know that there is nothing short about the jujitsu timeline. No. So you are , you are it’s in your best interest to master the basic things. Yeah. And let’s, let’s now relate this to practical topics. So let’s talk about it in the context of the gym and doing your lifting, whether you’re training at home, you’ve got some KET Wells, some rings pull up bars , some bands you’re working out in the garage, whatever it might be. Maybe you’ve got some equipment at the gym you train at and you’re getting your lift thing in there. Or you , you train at a , at a bigger box gym or a commercial gym, you know, doing the degree of organization where you pack your bag, you’ve got your, you know, your massage ball or you’ve got your roller , you’ve got your drink bottle. You even might bring your own liquid chalk, you know, whatever it is for your hands, maybe they don’t allow chalk in your gym or whatever it might be. outta gym. Is that, yeah, it’s a weak gym. If your gym doesn’t allow chalk, get that out of there. It’s one of those things guys like if you , if you don’t require chalk , you’re probably not even trying that hard either. But , uh, what I wanted to say relevant to that is that takes some reorganization and it doesn’t take much the , like I was saying to Joe before we started this for most of us, there’s a false economy. We do this thing where we go, ah , but if I don’t bother with that, it’ll save me time. But then when you get there, you end up fasting around and, and , and ah , my grips aren’t as good. And I can’t lift as heavy or, oh , I forgot my drink bottle. Now I’ve gotta go over to fountain, come back . Oh , now that guy took my bit of equipment or whatever it is. Like, there’s this little thing where we cheat ourselves and we , our , our brain plays this trick on us. Like, oh , don’t, don’t exert, you know, however many kilo jewels of energy to pack your bag properly. We’re like, oh , it’s so hard. It takes me an extra two and a half minutes. Watch’s another instructional instead, go to bed. Yeah. I’ve just look at this one more clip of that random technique that I’m never gonna do in rolling. Yeah . So good. But I love it. Like, like leave a fire comment, double fire emoji. That’s the thing, guys, just putting that little bit of extra energy and thinking about it and it also helps your intention. And that was the other thing we were talking about is that by being that little bit better prepared and having that as your standard, that I am prepared and I show up to the gym, this will help you lift better. It’ll help you long term with this idea of having positive compounding effects to your lifting. Yeah. So that was, so the first one there was , was the, a forethought, wasn’t it? Which is you have training tomorrow. So today have a think about training tomorrow and it’s, this is gonna take you all of like three minutes. Sure. Maybe less you go, oh , I’ve got training on tomorrow or it’s in the morning or it’s after work. What I need, I need my bag. I’ll pack my bag now. Yep . And that that’s the first thing is just actually having the physical items you need for it. So you put your gear in your bag, put your belt, put your , you know, put your shaker, you know, whatever, you can put your banana in, depending. Maybe I’m put it in the morning. Um , but you , you know, I , yeah . Massage balls, always there, mouth guards there, yet finger tape . I got the that I need. Yep . But it’s done, you put it by the door. It’s ready. So in the morning you’re not getting up going, oh , if I gotta grab my, where is it? Forget my belt. Uh , you know, grab like mixed gear pants and jacket classic. Yeah . Classic . Look that first bit of forethought is like to get the that you need so that when the time comes for you to get to training, there’s nothing holding you up. You just jump in the car and you go that’s right. But then the second side of that is that in that three and a half minutes is just having some awareness and around I’m training tomorrow. And what might go through your head at that point? Yeah . Like, tell me for , like, for you setting an intention setting , when you’re gonna go to class the next day, JT, what , what , what might you think about? Well, it’s very different for me, relevant to lifting versus , uh , say doing jujitsu . So maybe let’s, let’s talk about the lifting first. Uh , generally I lift by myself, like I don’t necessarily have training partners. And so preparing myself mentally is important and checking in on my goals, cuz I write my sessions down and I write down all my sets of my reps. And usually what I will do is I will zoom back to have many days before, or the last time I did that session. And I’m thinking about what did I do last time? Okay. Sets reps, what am I aiming for? How much is Joe lifting? Okay. He did that much at 10% . I have to add 25% record it and tag him on Instagram. Yeah . Um , by doing that, I hand off the, the law load of what am I doing because I’ve already pre-one it in my mind. Like, that’s my workout. This is what I have to do. It actually frees me up mentally. I feel clearer. So when I come to the gym, I know what the I’m doing. And then I don’t have to waste mental load on, oh, what was that? And what’s this and oh . I didn’t bring my diary and blah, blah, blah , blah . Yeah . It frees me up. So I can just be like, right. I’m gonna be strong as. And I’m doing this and that. That’s all I wanna do. I actually don’t wanna spend much time , uh , making decisions. And we’ve, we’ve touched on this slightly before, but I think maybe this would be a good opportunity to bring it back in that you had meant to me a long time ago , uh , about a client of yours with the decision units. Yeah. Units of decision units of decision. And I, I actually, I would, if you don’t mind, we’d like you to bring that back up. Yeah. So a friend of mine, who’s a , uh , a woman I used to train, she’s extremely busy, real go-getter like entrepreneur type , multiple businesses, always a million things going on pretty to the point doesn’t around. Used to, when she’d come to train with me, she would train sporadically. So we wouldn’t be following a consistent program. She’d come in. I had , she’d been overseas for a month or then , and she’d come back . Oh , I wanna train. You know? And so I’d be like, okay, you know, how are you doing this week? What’s I got no idea what she’s been doing in her training. So I’d always ask her , um , what have you been doing? And is there anything in particular you wanna work on today? And she would always say, and you know , I picked up the point after, but she’d say I’m not wasting any units of decision on this. You make that decision. You , you , and I’m like, do you mean she’s like, and she texted it two months. It was you OD units of decisions. So every little decision she has to make ISNT , uh , an expenditure of energy. She’s like, I choose to spend that energy on other things. When I come to the gym to see my trainer, that’s their energy. Right ? She’s like, I’ll do the training, but you tell me what we’re doing . I don’t wanna think about it. Yep . So I thought that’s interesting. I can see the, you know, the practicality of that. And so really it’s, it’s about preserving energy so that you can direct it to the areas that are most important to you, which, for anyone listening, obviously there’s other areas that are best deserving of your attention, what you’re doing in your training, how you’re hanging out, showing up in your relationships, what you bring into your work, all those things. So if you can save on a unit of decision, I E pack your bag the night before. Yeah. That’s a massive energy saving for sure. And the reason why I wanted you to mention that, Joe , is it , it is a false economy to think, not putting the five minutes into the preparation will save your energy. It doesn’t, it’s gonna cause a lot of problems later. Yeah . And, and have knock on effects. So if we talk about relating to jujitsu , uh , this is something that’s happened more recently. And I, I mean, I always get my, my GE out. Like I might train two GE sessions in a day plus a no GE session, maybe. So then it’s like, it’s a lot of laundry to be honest, two GE , two rash, hus change of underwear for each, you know, towel for shower, you know, I , I, you see me, Joe I’ll have like a , a green bag and that will have one key , one rashy, one pair of underwear in it. Yeah . I’ll have my training bag also other gear , blah, blah, blah, other kit , other kit, you know, backpack, diary all the crap. But if I don’t do these things, I can’t run my day. Yeah . And I need to make sure that my quality’s good. So whether it’s us working on Bulletproof , uh , or I’m going to the post office and doing stuff for Jugo or I’m teaching jujitsu, I wanna be really present and clear for the students to deliver a good session. I need to not be like in , you know, I always bring a spare black belt. Like you never want , you don’t wanna be teaching the class and be like, oh , you I’ve got a spare belt. Like, that’s the last thing you want. And these are just habits, guys. These are just habits that I have. I’ve made it my habits. So I don’t have to think about it so I can save those units of decision for answering my client’s problems for showing up and , and delivering in the right way. And, and for me that is absolutely essential as an underpinning for having good quality sessions, which is what I want. How about yourself, Joe? Is there something that you do , um , before jujitsu or before , um, say lifting , um, with the lifting side of things? I am , I’m much more at the moment I’m in a real kind of cruise mode. Sure. I’ve just been running, I’ve been doing the standards program. Sure. It’s a lot of work, you know, for this. No, but that’s what I’ve been training. Oh . You know , cause I’m doing it. I’m training with my small group guys. And so we’re doing, you know, we’re just following it. And so it’s , it’s really straightforward. I don’t have to think too much about it, but you are here in the gym, right. I’m here in the gym. It’s all here. That’s right. The time is allocated. So I know Monday, Wednesday mornings from 7:00 AM to late 30. That’s what I’m doing. And the sessions are already, you know, written down in my book. And when I get to the , um , I’ve got my, my little training bucket here at the gym, the bucket B that’s cool in that is the training book. Yep . And I open the book and I go, yep . That’s today’s workout. Which I already know coming in. I’m like, oh yeah. Today we’re working on pull ups and our pistol squats say, yep . So I’m already thinking about that on the way in. But when I get in, I open the book and I look at last workout and I go, oh yep . I did. Okay. Yeah. I four sets of eight there, but then the last set was only four reps. Okay, cool. Let’s try and get all sets of eight reps today. Like it just, you know, and I write it down at the , as I’m going through the session, the training bag piece for me. Uh , so I have that training bag. That’s here at the gym, but my, for jujitsu training, I packed my bag the night before I didn’t necessarily used to do this. Yeah . And I think we spoke about it in a previous episode. Cause I didn’t have a bag. Yeah. That I dedicated for that. So I would be the guy, like I had my, I got a huge backpack that I bring to work and it’s got my whole life in it. Yeah. But then I would have my GE rolled up and always roll it up. Real nice wrap my belt around it. Yep . It’s cool. It’s a St it looks, it looks cool . It’s that jujitsu lifestyle. But , um, it’s actually not very practical because I wouldn’t have all those other like smaller items that we discussed, like bandaid massage ball , spare, rash, guards , spare under pants now Clippers like maybe they’re in there. Maybe they’re not. So now that I have my jujitsu bag, it’s there all the time. Yep . So yeah, I packed that stuff the night before. And I actually like the odd night where I don’t do it where I’m just running late, whatever. Maybe it’s, you know , baby thing. Or maybe I just sat up watching TV for too long. And I, I I’ve got time to do it in the morning, but it just adds an element of stress to the morning it does because I’ve already got other , I gotta feed the dogs. I gotta , you know, pack my lunch. Like I would actually, you know, packing your lunch the night before is really excellent. Right? Sure . Like the more you can have prepared before you go to sleep. Yeah . The easier it is to sleep and the easier it is when you get up. So , um, that for me is a real big one. Definitely. And look for all of you out there, if you, you would even think if you have kids, right. It’s and I, I’m not speaking to someone who has kids. I’m trying to relate back to shut your mouth. Sorry. When it comes to children. Sorry to have dare you try and tell people how to parent you , you childless Fe . No. My, my mom had us very well trained from a young age. She would make us do certain things. So she would always run the checklist with us, you know, have you got your clothes out for tomorrow? Okay. Why not? Where are they go get them sort it out. Like she was really not a drill Sergeant, but she, she drilled it into us in the same way sandwich had to be packed the night before she would get it out for us, but we would have to make sure it was like wrapped whatever the sandwich was, you know? Yeah . Um, just different things like that. Have you got your homework? Have you got your letter of permission for the excursion? You know, and she was drilling us from a , a very young age. You gotta have this level of prep because she was trying to delegate two, three children. Like, I don’t know . Amazing. I don’t even know how she freaking managed. I gotta get , I think a checklist actually. And this sounds so anal, but like, I think about it, like with, with , um, with our kids, the , the older of the two , um, I actually, she needs a checklist cuz she just, you know, she’s like, she’s eight and she’s just like big ball energy , go and uh , pack your bag. And then on the way to pack a BA oh my God. Look at that butterfly. Oh, now I’m jumping. Oh look, there’s a balloon in the sky. And you’re like, and what the is I doing? I dunno . You know ? Yeah . So, but having a checklist, so you go see that thing on the fridge go and like tick all those boxes, you know, like I think for someone, if someone’s listening and they’re like, I’m really forgetful with that. And I get distracted, I’m super busy, man. Write it and put it on the fridge or put on your whiteboard in your office. Like however you, you know , realize it . Yeah . You run your. Have it there. I know that every time I travel, I think I gotta write a checklist for packing my bag when I travel. So often you get someone you’re like, I need bring a toothbrush. What am I doing? How did I not bring a toothbrush? How’s that not possible should be a list. That’s right. But um, just on the point where I asked you earlier about like due to training, what you might think about before the session. Yes . Um , something for me that I wouldn’t necessarily have done in the past that I always do now is I make some time to think about my life as jujitsu training. And then , uh , think about what this jujitsu training is gonna be like. And I will do that on my way to class because I have like a 45 minute drive, but I will think about what happened last session, what mistakes did I make? What stupid things did I do? Yes. Uh , what did I do? Well, what am I working on at the moment? And then will think, okay, what then am I gonna do in today’s session? Yeah . And it’s, I mean, this is a very simple thought experiment. Right . But I’d just be like, oh , well I’m gonna control. So and so sleeve and their collar before they pass my guard. Because every time we start, you know, we start on the knees, they get me in that same position. Yeah . Couple, little things like that. But I find that, you know, I don’t necessarily, I’m not writing it down. I’m just making some space to have a think about it. Yeah . And I can look back at most of my time train jujitsu and I never did that. Yeah. I just show up and throw down. Yeah. And look it for most people when they start that’s good enough, right? Like you’re a white and blue belt. You just, you just, you just want to get it amongst it and do the thing. But I guess what we’re talking about here, guys, in terms of holding yourself to a standard, you will improve dramatically. If you actually really show up, we’re not just talking about just getting the class because like I’ll not name the person. They’re very dedicated. They, I was saying to Joe , the other day, they come to every class. They they’re always on the mat , but they only show up 50%. They’re kind of lazy. They’re dedicated, but lazy. Yeah. They’re sluggish they’re and you’re like, they just don’t bring that energy to it. And then you probably know guys yourself, you see somebody who’s there early. They retching they’re like prepped and they they’re just getting after it. They , and , and then you might see ’em afterwards or you always seem doing pullups, you’re like, what’s going on with that person? Like how do they have all this energy for this thing? But it’s possibly, I’m not saying this is definite, but by being organized and having a good set of standards out side of jujitsu, they have better energy and quality for jujitsu . And that is probably the most important thing I wanna get across because I actually have a bit of a visualization routine myself before judo, before wrestling , uh , before jujitsu, if I’m, if this is like, I’ve set it aside. This is my training time. I’m coming in here to get better, not just simply teaching or assisting , uh , in that half an hour before. And I’m kind of sitting in the car , uh , and I’m drinking a coffee or hydrating. I will sit there and think about similar to yourself. Joe . Think about that last time I rolled Adam , uh , you know, he SW me and ended up in side control and I just couldn’t get out. He just gave me that crushing, but he , you know, crossed face and didn’t do anything else. He’s like, I can’t let that happen again. So then I , I , I recall, and I’ve been suggesting to people that they record their roles, but for better or worse, I have a very like grudging mindset. It, I remember every, every sweep, right ? Every point I dropped, every mistake I made like Jonas, nearly triangled me. Yep . And I was like, man, I was fighting. Like, I didn’t respect him enough. And he had me in that triangle for like bloody two and a half minutes. And I was like, I’m not gonna get tapped. Like I have to get outta this. And I said to him afterwards, like I got out, finally you , I , I was like, man, that was the fight of my life. I didn’t wanna let on with my face, but he could tell, like he knew, he’s like, man , I heard I got you bro. And I was fighting so hard. I got out. But in my head I’m like never, ever let Jonas come anywhere near a triangle. Again, he better develop his game to get something else because it’s so important for me that I hold myself to that standard. Other as my jujitsu is kind of gonna backside and, and I can’t have that just for my own peace of mind. And, and for some of you out there, it may be very different if you’ve only been doing jujitsu for six months or 12 months, but know that you lose time or you, you lose the potential of a session by just doing whatever for someone who’s fresher in the journey, that process should still be there. Yep . But you are gonna focus on greater sort of larger ideas and concepts rather than isolated things. So say for U J T it might be like, wow, how the did he catch me in that? Like, what was I doing ? Ah , I didn’t respect his game enough. Like, you know, it’s a silly mistake. Okay, cool. I think maybe for a white belt, it’s like, I got caught in a triangle. It’s like, they don’t have to go to that degree where it’s like, what do I need to do against that individual? But it’s more like, oh , I don’t , I don’t remember the triangle defense class that we did. Yes. I may have only been to 10 classes. Oh, we actually haven’t looked, you know what? I’m gonna ask the coach today. Yeah . What’s your , what’s the best triangle defense. Yeah . You know? Um , or like something along those lines. Yeah . Or like, you know what I got caught because I wasn’t concentrating. I don’t actually know what position I was in. Yeah . Today I’m gonna concentrate today. I’m gonna try be aware of every position that I’m in during the role. Like it is just some kind of intention so that it means you’re coming into the session with a level of kind of deliberateness. Yeah. And I was actually saying this to Fiona the other day, Fiona may , she’s uh , one of our white belts here at jungle brothers and she has quite a good guard . And I said to her, she said she was getting frustrated cuz she felt like she wasn’t getting submissions and she’s kind of sweeping people and yeah. You know, people are struggling to , and I said to her, look, sometimes I win in a role. It’s just to stop someone from passing your guard. They’re coming at you so hard. You just set a determination. Like I’m gonna do whatever it takes to not let them pass. And , and that can be a win. If they outweigh you 20 kilos, maybe they’re higher rank than you, whatever it is. You shouldn’t look at that negatively like, oh, I didn’t win the role. You can, depending on the engagement, you know, the , your , your training partner or your own level of jujitsu, just simply not letting them pass your guard can be a win in the same way. If you are trying to pass guard . And you’re like, right. I just want to be able to be successful at this particular pass . I’m practicing. And you just work on it in a very determined way. And you are successful in that, in each of your roles. Then that was a successful session. I feel that for a lot of people, they feel like if I don’t submit my opponent and submit me, I lose. And I think that this is possibly the , the wrong way to look at it in terms of actually improving your jujitsu . Yeah. It’s too binary. Yeah. Yeah . And so when we bring this back to say flexibility and mobility, because even though a lot of people, they will say, Hey, I feel better when I do it. Thank you boys, for showing us that move. I do it now. It’s great. I , what I have noticed more recently is that people are stuck at a level. They , they kind of, it’s kind of bandaid effect. They will do some mobility, which is great. So it means they’re not getting injured, but they also never really progress. They kind of, I’m doing the same stretch. You see? ’em like, it’s cool. But then you’re not seeing a dramatic improvement in overall flexibility, range of motion, cetera , cetera . And I think part of this is that people are just doing the same old stuff they’re always done. And now they’re just added in a bit of mobility, which is good. It’s better than them not doing it. Cuz maybe that means they’re not gonna suffer a catastrophic injury, but they’re also not improving for yourself. Joe , what do you do in terms of when you notice , uh , a degree of tightness or stiffness in yourself, whether it’s your upper body, lower body, whatever it is, how do you approach that to improve it or to hold it to a , a better standard? I think that people generally just scrape the surface with stretching. Sure. I guess there’s kind of two ways to look at it. One is that you are just trying to maintain a level of suppleness that is kind of fluctuating because if you have a really hard Jitsu set the next day, you’re probably gonna be pretty tight, pretty jacked up. Oh man. It was a big session and my lower back’s a bit tight and hip flexes are all jacked up. So you are below baseline. Yes. You need to do a little bit of stretching, right? Like say it’s like 10 or 15 minutes to loosen back up so that you return to baseline just to even. And I think that that’s where most people play. Yeah . Like, oh man, this is is hurting. And we’re like, try this cuz it’ll change your life. And they’re like, did it feels awesome now I’m not ever gonna do it again. Yeah . You know, just get me back to normal. But it’s kind of like, it’s, it’s very similar to strength training in that way. But because of the nature of stretching, people don’t approach it in the same way that they do strength training, whereas strength. Training’s like, yeah, you have to do these lifts and these movements today. But I’m also gonna need you to do them on this day, every week. Yeah . You know, for the next year to build it out. Yeah. And you’re gonna become stronger and build muscle and connective tissue strength and all those things. So I feel like with stretching the people that approach it, like their strength training. So, you know yeah. I do a little bit to maintain suppleness and you know, keep myself limb. But I do also bring this approach where I’m trying to progressively overload. Yeah . So I’m making the stretches harder. I’m chasing a progression from this exercise. Yeah . They’re the people that make progress with it. That’s what like that’s what our standards program is. Right. It’s like definitely a progressive approach to developing high level mobility. Yes . Um, same thing with our, with our existing mobility program, it has probably less progression than standards does, but it still has progression. So I find like for folks, if someone’s losing , like yeah, I’m not, I’m not getting anywhere with it. You’re probably just not doing it enough and you’re not being intentional enough about it. Mm it’s so funny. Maybe this is just the , the , the cruel side of me as a coach, but it’s, it’s just, it is very self evident when someone is doing the work and when they’re not, people are like , oh man, I love all that mobility say yeah, I’ve been doing it. Oh yeah. Show me like, how are you then? Oh , I’m not warm and oh blah, blah, blah, blah, blah . It’s like, yeah. Well, I mean, so looks like . Yeah. It looks garbage. Right. So if you’ve been practicing it, you haven’t been practicing it effectively. Yeah . Intentionally. Yeah. You haven’t, you haven’t got the improvement you need. Like it doesn’t, it really doesn’t lie. You know that it’s it’s this in the same way, jujitsu is the truth maker . If somebody walks into the gym at whatever belt level and says, I have a good guard, you say, okay, let’s put you against our guy. Who’s good at passing at a parity level. Like someone who’s like, you’re a purple belt. They’re a purple belt. Let’s find out guard’s good. It’ll hold up or it doesn’t. And you , you get your guard PA . Oh actually let’s just put you with a white belt. Oh , you got your guard past . Ah , that’s a pretty clear indication. It’s not as good as you may think it is in the same way. It’s so matter of fact , can you lock your knee out and touch your toes? You know, are you in a lot of pain when you try and stretch your glutes that tells us that really the , the quality there is lacking. So yes, you may be going through the motions and you may be paying a dip of the hat or a nod to the idea of it, but you are not coming with the right intention and hence not getting a better result. Yeah. I’m thinking about how people apply themselves in a jujitsu class. I see a lot of similarity between what we just mentioned, say with the mobility work versus how people drill at training. Yeah . And like, say, you know, at Alliance where it’s like you drill for three minutes and you generally do three rounds of that. Sure . Three different drills. So it’s like, all right , first partner drills the technique for three minutes and then you swap over and the other person goes, lot of people are just waiting for the three minutes to be up . So it’s like just around. Yeah . Doing some reps. Yeah . Versus you see the people who are like really focused on what they’re doing, they’re trying to improve. They are . How did that feel? Was that joke good? Or, you know, like seeking feedback, like that’s someone who’s engaged in the process. That person is progressively overloading. They are the one that will make progress with the techniques and ultimately with their jujitsu . Definitely. Um, I think for anyone, if you, if you can look at your training and go, you know what, I am just ticking the box there. I , yeah , I’m doing a couple of stretch sessions, but I’m just around. I’m not really trying to progress with this. Then I think that that’s, that tells you, okay, that’s why you’re not getting that’s right. And we’ll circle back around and look at this idea of compounding and the knock on effects just within a day, because you know, there’s this the classic thing, which is the , like, make your own bed and how that sets you up mentally for the rest of the day, in terms of just taking responsibility for something small, because ultimately at the end of the day, you will come home. If the bed is made, then that, that has a follow on effect to the next day. It’s nicer to lie down in blah, blah, blah , cetera , cetera . But by doing things of a higher quality and holding yourself to a higher standard that then flows onto other things. But if you’re running a bit late or maybe you didn’t screw the cap on your drink bottle, well enough, cuz you’re in a rush, you put the drink bottle in your bag, it spills through your GE . You deserve all that. Yeah. You smell like chocolate protein shake and you know, like all these things that, I mean, it’s not even about embarrassment, it’s that by skipping steps, you are setting yourself up for failure later. Yeah . And , and that’s not what we want. I , I think ultimately whether we are looking at getting stronger, you know, developing your digiti , improving your flexibility or your life in general time , you think about any time where you’ve like moved house, gone for a big trip overseas, some event that actually requires you to get your together. There were times when you did and it went well and you go , man, how good is it? I’m so organizing. I’m so adult right now, I got this. And then there were definite times where you bloody hidden and it’s like, oh God, where’s my passport. Oh , oh , you know, all these things. And then what, this does disappointing as a cascade. Yeah. You’re also, you know, you’re probably giving yourself a hard time in your head and all these things. We are both. We are the, we are the better version of ourselves and the worst version of ourselves at different times. But if we can make the, the higher standard and the better version of ourselves, our habit, then little deviations won’t hurt. But if you are habitually the, the kind of lesser disorganized, chaotic version of yourself, then ultimately this will lead to sustainable, less gains. And they’re kind of the road to ruin in a way. So absolutely we’re coming into a , uh , I guess like , uh , a point of time, which is the end of the year here. And this episode will come out a bit later. So you might be hearing this at the start of the year, but definitely for , for myself, when I’m looking at setting up a year, I don’t know if you concur with this Joseph that I will sit down and think about what I wanna do with the year. I’m not gonna do years resolutions. That’s not something I do. I usually set intentions and, and goals around my birthday, but I am thinking, right. What is different this year to last year? What did I learn? And what can I do better? And that’s my default , um , mindset, which I’ve cultivated over years. So when you start something off, well, this enables you to continue. It’s way easier to maintain than to obtain if you kinda , if you F around and waste time. And that’s why people go, God, the year’s gone so fast. I can’t believe it’s February. I it’s like, yeah, cuz you around a Christmas. You bloody chucked on a bunch of weight. And then you just spend an all January trying to come back to baseline. Right? Yeah . I mean I was kicking the footy around . I was a bit drunk. I fell twist my ankle. Like it happens. Right. We all do it, but that that’s no , we don’t all do it well so , well, no, no. Let’s just step sideways for a second. Culturally in Australia, the amount of injuries that occur around grand final time. Oh right . Cause people get, get drunk and go, oh I’ve never played football, but I’ll kick the footy in the backyard . Oh no. Yeah . To my ACL, you know, I actually had a friend who, who broke both his legs. Wow. Trying to kick a football drunk. Oh God, two moon boots. Like that’s tragic getting really clear on it. If you can start in a better set up way with better intention and better organization, the flow on is easier, better and, and a , a more enjoyable experience. Yeah. I agree. I do a similar thing around, I do it around this time of year. Um, yeah. Try and be deliberate about what I want to get out of the next year. It’s not, I’m not super, super planned for anyone listening and I’m not hyper anal about it, but I have some ideas of like, oh, where would I like to go with, you know, what I want to get from Bulletproof this year? And where do I want to take? Like, you know, my training and you know, and just , just to have a think about what, about my relationships, that sort of thing. I find it really valuable. And sometimes you find that man, COVID lockdown. I didn’t look at my goals and I didn’t even work towards that at all this year. And it’s totally okay. Yeah . But if you do set some kind of place or places is that you want to get to, it just helps to guide your trajectory a bit. Here’s the thing, we’re all putting energy towards these things. You’re showing up to training multiple times per week. You’re showing up to the gym, you’re doing the work. You might as well get the best return on that time invested that you can make the most of it. Yeah. And if you bring a little bit more organization, hold yourself to a high standard, the whole process it’ll actually cost you less energy and you will get more in the long term . Yeah. Yeah, totally. Now we have a voicemail. We’ve got a voicemail. Come through. Here we go.

Speaker 7: 37:09

Hey guys, my name is Steve from summit jujitsu in Bayswater, Victoria. I’m currently doing the ketlebell cycle two program and mobility, which I love. Thank you very much. My question is around. I get a lot of calf strains or cramps, particularly when I’m doing explosive moves such as jump in or bridge and rolling. I use the forward fold routine in terms of rolling the feet and doing the calf stretches when it occurs, rehabs are quite well. But my question is around. If I do get regular calf injuries, should I start to include , uh , strength based exercises to help strengthen the calf? Or is it just a matter of , uh , continually doing stretching routines and rolling the feet , et cetera , to, to keep them from getting I’m injured. Thanks . Great

Speaker 6: 38:01

Question, Steve, what a legend. Thanks for sending through the voicemail, man. Appreciate you, Steve. So I guess to, to sum that up , uh , you listeners regular cough injury, he said from jumping yes. And from bridging and rolling. Yeah. Dynamic. Yeah. And I think that the first thing we kind of identify with that is that this is explosive. Yeah . It’s dynamic, but it’s also probably high repetition. Yes. Which is a big one because you think about jujitsu, especially if you’re new and your coach is teaching your bridge and roll and stuff and like , uh , hip escapee or shrimping rips and it’s all on the for foot . So it’s very calf heavy . Yeah . And you might do, I don’t know , hundreds of repetitions in a class, which for someone coming from, you know, whatever, some other background, not jujitsu, that’s a shitload of calf raised type repetitions, isn’t it? Yes, it is. So yeah. Your thoughts there, JT. Well, actually Steve full disclosure, I actually hurt my calf only two weeks ago. I was actually doing tuck jumps as part of a conditioning circuit with Ty and you know, Ty , right . Steve. Yeah, of course you do. Everyone knows Ty he’s our handstand coach and also champion break dancer. One of our coaches here and look, I actually hate doing conditioning , uh , but you know, whatever, gotta eat it. And I thought, yeah , tuck jumps, I’ll be fine. And I Wang my calf. And to be honest, I probably haven’t done touch jumps in, in ages. And the interesting thing about this is typically, you know, if you’re getting coffee issues in jujitsu, it can be a hydration piece. If you’re on your back playing guard, your feet are up. Circulation’s not there that can lead to CARF cramps. But if you’re doing something dynamic, the feedback from the body is actually, you don’t have the bandwidth for power. You actually need a baseline level of strength. So what I’ve been doing in the last two weeks to try and rehab my calf , apart from the stretching and the rolling and the , the treatment is starting to do some single leg calf razors , just to get that tolerance back for full range of motion from stretching on a step. So I usually do it on a step or a board. So I’m getting the pre-stretch and then standing all the way up to full flexion . And it’s now back to a decent level, you know, I can kind of bust out a jog, not a sprint. And then I will eventually build up to doing some hopping. So yeah, calves , uh , one of those things we use ’em all day, every day , but we kind of neglect them. You know, they’re like the tires on your car. If you get a flat tire, you gotta really pay attention to it. So in regards to that, definitely what you’re doing is good in terms of doing the stretching, doing the mobility. But that is a bandaid because really before you have permission to be jumping and hopping and doing the explosive work, you’d be doing some baseline level, just some basic Carras . And I would encourage you to do some single leg Carras thoughts on that, Joe . Yeah, I think the strength piece and I would also say probably the , just the strength endurance piece. Yeah. You do on the forward fold mobility, you doing the foot mobility on the ball and the CARF rolling. That stuff is solid gold. I see that as is like one half of the equation you gotta add in a bit more strength. Now, the way I like to go about it would be to build up to like two legged, Cal razors , say off a step, but build up to like three sets of 30 reps or 40 reps. Like a high amount of repetitions is gonna build some endurance and then you could switch to single leg and you could do like three sets of 10 and build that up to, you know, 15 or 20 reps. But throw that in to your training couple times a week. And I think that’ll take care of it. Yeah. He’s obviously doing a lot of great stuff. The combination of mobility program and uh , CBE program. That’s, that’s super dope. Well done. That’s fantastic. Thanks for your message, Steve. We appreciate it. And for any of you out there who just have some kind of problem and you think, oh , it’s just me. There’s probably many people out there in the land of BJJ who are experiencing something similar. You having the , the courage, which it takes a little bit of that to put yourself out there and leave us a voicemail. We appreciate it because it, it helps us better understand what’s going on with you. And then it will also have a really good effect to help other people who might be suffering with the same problem. And then it answers their question. So guys, if you’re hearing this and you have got a bit of an issue, it could be any kind of jujitsu related question training, whatever you like, jump on the website, go to the , uh , podcast area. There is a little red button where you can click and leave us a voicemail. And we will answer that for you. All right , guys. Thank you so much. Uh , keep up the good training much . Love. Choose you guys . Thanks JT .