The other day I almost tore a partner’s ACL off the bone, which would have required him to have surgery and many months of rehabilitation. What happened exactly? I was more experienced and a bit bigger than my training partner that day and we were doing some no gi sparring. Because of the experience discrepancy I was hyper-focusing on a couple of very specific positions, namely Ashi … [Read more...]
How to Safely Practice Dangerous Leglocks
Q: Given that leglocks are dangerous, how do you train them safely and still have confidence that they will work in a 'live' setting. A: Although ANY submission is potentially dangerous, cranking someone with a heel hook or toehold can not only end the match, it can end your opponent's athletic career. Go here if you don't know what a heel hook is. . If you don't know what a toehold is, … [Read more...]
How to Train BJJ with an Injured Neck
Necks are delicate things. Seven small stacked cervical vertebrae protecting all the nerves in your spinal cord and held together with a multitude of flimsy ligaments and muscles. Yet in BJJ we stress the neck continuously. We attack it with chokes, crucifixes, and cranks. We stack our opponents, turn their heads with crossfaces, and scissor his head with our legs. We also use our head … [Read more...]
On Starting a Conditioning Program for BJJ & Submission Grappling
There are lots of reasons to start doing a conditioning program if you're training in BJJ or submission grappling. The most important (yet often overlooked) benefit is to injury proof your body and allow you to train longer, harder, and more often. Other benefits can include increased strength, improved muscular endurance, elevated aerobic and anaerobic capacities, and more explosiveness, all … [Read more...]
Improving Recovery, Rehabbing Injuries, and Training Smart in BJJ
Hey, we've made it to episode 100 of the Strenuous Life Podcast!!! Thanks to everyone for downloading, rating, reviewing and sharing it - I really appreciate it! If you don't already have one then first go and download a podcast app for your iPhone or your android phone. Honestly, listening to podcasts has changed my life because it allows me to stimulate my brain while commuting, doing … [Read more...]
Three Powerful Neck Crank Defenses
Neck cranks are undeniably powerful submissions often used in submission grappling. Rather than constricting the trachea and arteries at the front and sides of the neck like most chokes, a neck crank typically attacks the cervical spine itself. The trouble is, if you're on the receiving end of one of these attacks and don't tap out fast enough then you can sustain a long-lasting or even … [Read more...]
Avoiding Injuries, Training after Age 50, and the Blue Belt Blues…
In this episode of the Strenuous Life Podcast I tried to answer as many questions as possible from my email newsletter readers Whether BJJ gameplans really are for everyone (3:30), How to pace yourself against the young guys when you're 52 years old (8:36), The best stretches for grappling flexibility (13:12), What are the best drills for developing a specific position (15:30), … [Read more...]
How to Safely Strengthen Your Neck for BJJ
As I talked about in a recent article, having a strong neck is super important in jiu-jitsu because it helps prevent injury, makes it harder for you opponent to break your posture and choke you, and allows you to use your head offensively as a fifth limb. Essentially there are three directions that you need to strengthen your neck: Forwards and Backwards Side to Side (ear to shoulder … [Read more...]
Neck Harnesses to Get a Strong Neck for Grappling
Why would you want a stronger neck for grappling? Well, there are a number of different reasons. First, and most importantly a strong neck is more resistant to injury. Unfortunately accidents happen in grappling, and if you get planted on your head, or someone twists your neck unexpectedly, then the stronger your neck is then the less likely it is to get bent in half and injured. A … [Read more...]
Should You Train When You’re Really Tired?
I recently came back from Europe and felt just clobbered by the 9 hour time difference the next day (being wide awake from 2 am onwards didn't help either). But I was really missing jiu-jitsu, so I made sure to get in a training session while stumbling from task to task. Was it an epic workout with 110% intensity? Not so much... It was a very controlled roll, focussing on just a few … [Read more...]
3 Fixes for Sore Fingers in BJJ
So I got a question the other day from someone looking for advice about the pain and inflammation they have in their fingers from training BJJ. I sent them back a super-quick email response with 3 suggestions, but now want to elaborate on my suggestions in hopes that this info will be useful to someone else too. First, here is a video I shot about exactly this … [Read more...]
Tips for Recovering from a BJJ Injury and Getting Back to Training
Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game. Now hopefully they'll be minor injuries and you'll recover from them quickly, but regardless, getting back to training after recuperating from an injury is always a tricky business. In the video below I give some of my best tips about exactly how your return to the mats should be structured. This is advice I've learned the hard way - for the … [Read more...]
Overtraining in the Martial Arts
How to Avoid Bringing Your Martial Arts Training to a Screeching Halt... Overtraining is a major problem for the serious martial artist, and especially for competitors who have to balance technical training sessions with sparring and additional conditioning, often in the course of a single day. All this hard training can result in the body breaking down faster than it can repair itself, which … [Read more...]
‘Twas the Day and the Night Before Christmas…
So about a year ago a semi-annual tradition got started... The way it works is that every 6 months the toughest woman I know and I do a one day, 30 mile hike through the mountains with a TON of elevation gain and loss. It's up and up and up and then down and down and down... We call it the 'Deathmarch' and it's a ton of fun. Here's a video I put together using photos and snapchat videos … [Read more...]
BJJ Rib Injuries and How to Deal With Them
Let's talk about rib injuries in BJJ. This will probably only apply to a small percentage of people, but if you're one of those people then you might be about to get some important information. I'm being pretty general here and not differentiating between all the different ways you can bang up your ribcage: I'm including bruised ribs, broken ribs, damage to the sternum and damage at the … [Read more...]
Neck Harness Trials
A strong neck is essential for BJJ and grappling. Obviously a strong neck is simply harder to choke, but that’s not the end of the matter… A strong neck also helps you maintain good posture when standing and in the guard, and high level grapplers inevitably use the head as a fifth limb. (If you’ve ever had a skilled wrestler in your guard then you probably know what I’m talking about, … [Read more...]
Cauliflower Ear Prevention in BJJ
Let's talk about how NOT to end up with cauliflower ear when you're doing BJJ. (You know what cauliflower ear is, right? It's when you end up with lumpy cancerous potato looking things on either side of your head.) Personally I am less than thrilled by the possibility of acquiring a giant lumps on either side of my head because I've always had large ears. Supposedly when my grandmother … [Read more...]
New Podcast: Impact, Concussions and Brain Damage in Mixed Martial Arts
I've just released a brand new podcast on Grapplearts Radio called 'Does MMA Make You Stupid?' Now that might sound like a deliberately provocative title, but the topic of brain damage in combat sports is so important that I want to make sure this podcast reaches as many people as possible. This podcast grew from an article I wrote a few years ago about the current state of head impact … [Read more...]
BJJ Q&A Podcast with Rob Biernacki
There's a new Grapplearts Radio podcast out!! I recently brought Rob Biernacki - a BJJ black belt and the creator of the highly reviewed BJJ Formula apps - back into the studio for his second appearance on the Grapplearts Radio Podcast... We mostly did a Q&A format in which we answered reader questions about everything from passing the guard to organising your training, but we … [Read more...]
The Pros and Cons of Bridging Onto Your Head
Neck bridging is an exercise that supposedly strengthens the neck that is almost unique to the grappling arts. It is also controversial. Broadly speaking, there are two main ways of bridging: the backwards neck bridge (belly to the sky) or a forwards neck bridge (where you are belly-down to the mat). Most grapplers who bridge do both forward and backward bridging. First the pro of … [Read more...]